Cats, No Summer and the Lake

That's right. We're not experiencing summer yet here in Oregon.

When its warm, we get the mid 70's.  And now we are bracing for a weekend of more rain.  Just what we need here.  More rain.  After a winter of deluge after deluge.

So, knowing more rain is coming and today may not reach 70, yesterday I took my raft up to the lake.  Late in the day, no less. Didn't even arrive til 4:00 p.m.

But I had fun, rowed it all over again, swam and enjoyed the two hours I was on the lake.

I name lake locations.  Like the photo below, is of Jumper Bridge.  I call it Jumper Bridge because people sometimes jump off it into the lake.  Including me.  Why not do it once?  I did.  But that was enough.

Rocks in Rock Haven Cove

This shoreline I call Stump Boulevard.  Large stumps protrude from the water, more seen when levels are lower.  Behind the stumps, the shore is strewn in drift rubble and behind that, dense berry vines.

Looking north and around a bit of a point, from Stump Blvd, is what I call Dirty Diaper Beach.  I've often pulled into that popular picnic and swimming beach to find loads of trash including often dirty diapers.  Hence the name.

Looking south along Stump Boulevard, one comes to Stump Point, although you can barely discern depth in photos taken on the camera I used.  Beyond Stump point is the area I call Trash Collection Cove.   That's where I look for lake debris.  I've found inflatables, paddles, diving masks, and even a boat ladder there.  I dove down about six feet to pluck the boat ladder off the bottom.  So I often check to see if I can find anything I might want.

I was barely home when I got a phone call from the apartment complex in Albany.  It's the one I crawled under to retrieve five two week old kittens and the one where I trapped 8 other cats to be fixed, including some massive males.  Also, its where I  trapped Majestic who badly needed medical care.  Majestic is now at Cat Alliance Team Sanctuary and he did get bad teeth pulled and all kinds of medical help including neuter.

They'd found more kittens.  They belonged to Faded, one of the girls I took to be fixed several weeks ago, and was lactating at time of spay.  They said she'd had four left, had seen her with them out under some bushes two days ago, but one died a day ago.  So worried about them, they'd grabbed the other three.  A neighbor was adopting one of the three, but they asked me to come for the other two.  I did.  They were so proud to have gotten them as they don't want more kittens born to live wild there.  I was happy to help, but the little girl was extremely ill with a cold, dehydrated and skinny.  I didn't think she'd survive the night.  I gave her fluids, got a heating pad out, gave her nutrical, flea treatment.  This morning she looks a bit better but its still not a sure thing she will make it.

The little girl is on the right.

I'd also loaned traps to a lady helping find somewhere for two cats whose owner had to go to assisted living.  She got one of them, Ernie, who is a delightful older male.  He's going to Heartland today.  Turns out a Heartland employee lives right next door to where the cats were, and even knows the cats so said for sure they would help the cats out.

This is Ernie.  He is so wonderful!!!

We haven't caught Alice, the girl yet.  I hope she's ok.

So I was up half the night with the kittens, hoping to save the girl.  A wee bit worn out today.

I've been busy trying to do what I can for my aging car too.   Youtube is my best friend, in that regard.  I can't tell you how many diagnostic and repair videos I've watched since returning from the coast trip.

I've replaced my spark plugs.  Well, 3 of the 4 anyhow.  The fourth was stuck, possibly cross threaded and I didn't want to go there!  So I just screwed it back in.  After the plug change, I watched videos on how to "read" spark plugs.  I had no clue you could do such a thing.  My plugs base ring was uniformly dark.  The porcelain was tan in some places but ashen white in others, from detonation, as was the strap.  But nothing too bad.  The gaps had grown, and I read that is normal with plugs and one reason to change them.  I must say changing even three of the plugs drastically improved the idle at least.

I then got gunk cleaner for the gas tank.  You add it in just before or just after you fill the tank.  I read about dirty gas, how common it is, or to have less than optimal octane in gas and often the station is at the mercy of the supplier who is at the mercy of the refiner.

The advice was if you got a bad tank that caused severe knocking to change stations, just like I no longer frequent the store who sold the cheese that made me ill.

The next thing I felt I needed to do was to check the radiator fan, to be sure it was working.  Via youtube, I discovered you just get alligator clips on small gauge wires and jump the connections from the fan electrical clip negative and positive to the battery of your car, to see if the fan is working.  If it is, you then check the fan switch, that plugs into the engine by jumping it in the circuit with the fan.  If everything works still, you also have to check the fan relay and fuse for the fan.  Everything worked fine.

I've had radiator coolant leaking from the plastic overflow tank at the seam for awhile now.  I don't know why.  Seems odd.  I bought a kit and was going to repair it but the kit was expensive, so I returned it, feeling guilty for reckless spending.  I'd gone into the store simply for a tube of liquid gasket, which works well, according to youtube, to repair plastic tank leaks, and got talked into that kit that includes a two part epoxy resin with fiberglass to cover leaking spots.

Next step is to flush the coolant system, which I'll do today, after taking Ernie over to Heartland.  I've watched two quite good youtube videos on the process, looks simple enough, but I tend to find simple projects can go south.  So I'd rather take Ernie first, then do it, just in case.

It's about all I can do for the car since I'm not a mechanic.  I keep studying up, and trying to keep the car running and happy as long as possible because I have no idea what I would do without transportation.  Life would certainly get quite difficult and complicated, to accomplish even simple things.

I'm so glad I spent a couple hours at the lake yesterday.  It's currently raining.