April 22, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Let's see...Dagan dropped off some groceries on Tuesday...Keanna had to switch to Wednesday...Thursday Leah left for Sioux Falls for work and came home Friday.  Ian was home from school Thursday...and by the weekend McFamily were all sick again with that cold/cough!  Me--wasn't a good week, but I was not sick-sick.  Have been very tired (even taking naps again), not feeling great, and have had a headache for several days.  So, the week flew by.  I never touched the clothes bins full of summer clothes or got near the art table.  Earlier in the week I did get some cooking and baking done and a couple loads of laundry done Saturday.  Wrote some letters and made plans to alter Miss Allie's life some more--lol!  Explanation will follow.  :)

The grackles are here every day.  As soon as I put out any seed they descend and devour every last sunflower seed--lol!

We had some rain...enough to briefly splatter the screen on the patio door where I tried to get a picture of some red-winged blackbirds who came to nibble.

We could have used a good downpour, but only had occasional drizzle.

Was enough to bring a cottontail out during the day to grab a bite.

Most of the week looked like this, though.  Very pretty--blue skies and white clouds.

Allie entertains me every day...

...with her water antics!

You may notice how the drizzle did green up the lawn!!

How do I plan to alter Allie's life?  Well, Blink uses pine pellets in her litter box.  I have been sprinkling some pine pellets in Allie's for quite a while now.  I made the decision to just take the plunge and order a wood pellet type litter box for Miss Allie.  So, instead of merely sprinkling the pellets over her usual littler...

...I dumped some all over the top of it!  She'll have had about half and half for a couple of days.  The new box is supposed to come tomorrow.  So I will set it up and switch her over this coming week.  Fingers crossed!  When I tried to switch Miss Annie over she would have nothing to do with it...period.  Pooped outside the box and wouldn't set foot on those pellets--lol!  But with Allie, I have been adding them to her usual litter for a good while and she has been okay with it.  I was figuring it will be easier to switch her over before the big move than trying to do it afterwards.  The time has come.

You can get a huge bag of pellets from Fleet Farm for like $7.00.  (40 lbs?)  You only have to scoop the poop out.  The pee goes down thru the bottom and ends up on a tray with a kitty pee pad.  Dagan hasn't even been using the pee pads--says it is just kind of like sawdust.  Kind of like a compost toilet for cats--lol!  No more kitty litter all over the place...or litter dust.  Apparently no more smell--well, except for actual poo smell--lol!  I am really hoping this works with Allie, too.  After all, I am going to be the official litter box scooper and cleaner once I move in.  Dagan will haul it out, but I will scoop and empty the bottom drawer with the pee pad.  I do think I will start with the pee pads that come with it and see how that goes.

Anyways, you may recall the cut up hunks of old memory foam pad from my bed (from when I used to be able to sleep in a bed) that I put under the cat beds all these years.  I had always thought I would sew covers for them or something.  I have wrapped them in towels sometimes.  But then it hit me!  I ordered some cheap orange throw pillow covers!  And they fit!

I think Allie even likes them--lol!  And they look SOOOO much better!!

Meanwhile, I am still battling ants.  But they are not really a problem.  They come directly out from under the baseboard and into the ink bottle boxes and back out and under...all day and night.  Especially where they first showed up in the bathroom.  (Next door apartment?)  Every time I hardly see any ants I put a little fresh peanut butter/borax in the box and there is suddenly a conga line of ants again.  They do love their peanut butter.  I wondered why they weren't dead and gone by now.  Googled and it said to use one part peanut butter and two parts borax.  I asked Leah what she had used  and she said she probably used half and half or maybe a little more borax.  That should be good, but she said she'd drop off some more borax this week.  

I have the feeling there may possibly even be more than one ant nest in the walls.  It's fine with me if it takes a long time to get them all because it's a less toxic way.  So many people have cats and small dogs in these buildings.  The ants are so happy being fed they don't even send out scouts like they were doing--(when they couldn't find anything but dry cat food in my apartment)--and Allie has no interest in the boxes.  There are just a few ants coming under the baseboard in the pantry anymore.  I haven't seen them anywhere else.  So, patience, I guess.  

I did get an assortment of pictures from Leah...hundreds actually--lol!  I'm not even sure where all of them are from, but they are Easter and up to the trip to Ohio for the eclipse.  I want to include some for posterity.  Probably more for Gramma...so feel free to scroll down if you would like to. ;)  I love seeing what they have been up to.

Pretty soon they won't fit into these matching sweaters they wear every Easter...

...and they will feel too old to wear bunny ears--ROFL  

Have to appreciate it while it is still fun times to hunt for Easter eggs.  :)

Easter dinner with Leah's brother, Aaron.

Easter egg cake!

Car packed on the way to Ohio.

Dogs love Dagan, too!

I remember when Dagan and I petted rays swimming by in Florida long ago.

Looks like a lorikeet came over to visit Liam at an aviary somewhere.

When you see dinosaur skeletons...another science museum, I assume.

A surprise from housekeeping!  A towel folded to look like a pair of swans on the bed at a hotel.

Ian--his towel creation--and a note for the housekeeping staff.

The note says..."Thanks for the swans.  Do you like my cute little elephant?  Ian"...in cursive!!  That makes Gramma so very happy!

Anyways, that's a smattering of what they've been up to.  They're all sick again now.  I am still in very low gear, but not sick-sick.  Allie is parked in the chair next to me at the table.  Grackles are squawking on the patio.  Have the door open because it's 65 degrees right now...supposed to be close to 70 tomorrow.  

The main project this week is that I need to pull all the dead flowers out of the planters.  This coming weekend we are tentatively planning on Leah bringing over a hose so we can really clean down the patio and the planter boxes...so that we can put them up for sale.  Once the patio is all cleaned off, no more seed for the critters until the planter boxes are sold and gone. 

Other than that, it will all depend on how I am feeling.  Hopefully will have more energy and be less achy.  Regardless, I know Allie and I will have an adventure with her potty changes that are coming--lol!   I hope McFamily will all be feeling better.  Hope you all are doing well, too.  

Until next time... :) :)