Sunday, September 08, 2019

Rain

Been raining here last two days.  Not heavy rain, the usual stuff, light, misty, depressing.

Some people who love the rain here would call it refreshing.

The long gray begins.

Early.




It's harder to catch cats in the rain, unless there's a barn or outbuilding where they take cover.  Rained in cats are very bored and easy then to catch in such a situation, with a barn or the like where they retreat to stay dry.

That was not the case last night, over in Lebanon, rain at times, at an apartment complex.  Lady feeds them on her back porch, strays, but mixed in with free roaming owned cats.  That makes it hard.  Manager had declared all owned free roamers had to have collars, to be easily identified as owned, since she was in on the trapping of strays to be fixed.

We caught only one.  An enthusiastic young boy was my helper.  He got so excited when we caught one.  Infectious!    That first one caught would be the only keeper and he's got a bad cold.

Poor guy, but seems like a nice enough cat.
We did catch a black male, that seemed tame but very shy.  Very large cat.  Just had him in the car when a guy comes over to where I was setting another trap.  He was hot and bothered and thought I'd trapped his outside unfixed black male.  I wanted no trouble and said, well let's go see, he's in the car.  So the guy looks at the cat in the trap and says its his but that he'd put a collar on his, as was required, but he must have slipped it.  He tries to take the cat out of the trap.  The cat freaks and climbs him, up to his shoulder, jumps down, his girlfriend dodges the cats frantic run.  "Hmmm," the guy says, "That might not have been my cat."  Ya think, I wanted to say, but held my tongue.  He apologized profusely and then asked if I could get his cat, who lives outside, fixed, and I said "anytime".

Later I saw a black cat with a collar on.

The lady who feeds goes to bed at 9:30 so it was a short night for me.  I brought the one cat home, left a trap with the feeder and the little boy, who instantly learned how to set it, and came home.

I'll probably go back up to the Sweet Home colony to catch my quota for tomorrow's clinic.  I had written down I have 7 reservations, but the reminder call said 6 so I am not sure how many to take.  I tried to get some extra reservations at Heartland, thought I would get some, but have not heard anything back definitive.  I can't trap without knowing if I can get them fixed.  Here are some photos of the Sweet Home colony cats waiting to be fixed.  Only George has been fixed recently from there.  And the poor little black female died at the vets.  But I did get 8 fixed there almost three years ago.  I've seen four of those cats so far.






They're a healthy looking bunch, that's for sure.

I fixed my raft.  At least I think I have all problems solved.

I had to roll it up yesterday, to make space if I caught cats.


I blew it up in the garage.  I knew I had ruined the valve on the right side when trying to inflate it at the lake last time.  I connect the air pump that plugs into the cigarette outlet with the hose that came with the original hand pump for it.  I twist the connector end of that hose into the raft valve.  That hose has sprung some leaks.  I've taped them and I have to hold the hose end onto the pump to inflate.   Since the cord for the pump is short, I have to have the raft valves close to the front of the car.  Well I opened the car door too far and the very bottom metal corner hit the raft valve.   It did something so the washer underneath inside the valve, so then it wouldn't close to shut off air leakage unless I screwed the top of the valve on tight after really quickly removing the air pump hose.  But it slow leaked too after that.

I found a raft valve in the grass at Waterloo Park a couple months ago.  I picked it up, thinking it looked a lot like my raft valves and maybe I'd need it.  Well, its exactly like my raft valves and now I needed it.

First I looked it up and down and worked it so I knew exactly how they work.  I hoped to fix the bad one, once I got it out.   I used the valve wrench to remove the bad valve from the raft. It came with the raft long time ago when I got it.   It was kind of stuck but finally came free.  Then I replace it with the one I'd found.  It works just fine.
That's the old valve in the middle there and the valve wrench on the right

Newly installed valve
It was the other side the lost air though, so I filled a spray bottle with water and dish soap and sprayed it down.  I thought it would be a slow leak around the valve on that side too, but its good there.  I found a leak in the seam however.   The short video just shows soap bubbles bubbling at the leaking seam as air leaks through the soapy water I sprayed on the raft.


I consulted Youtube for seam repair tips then followed them.  I cleaned the area with acetone.  I applied raft glue along the seam, worked it under the seam, left for 20 minutes, repeated twice more. I hope it holds.  I didn't have time to search for any other leaks.  I will later though.  I felt good to get the valve fixed and the one leak taken care of.

It's never been real easy to pump up the raft.  At first I did it only using the hand pump that came with the raft.  Sometimes in 90 degree heat.  That wasn't easy but I got it done and I guess it was good exercise.   Then I got a Coleman rechargable hand pump that could pump out air at high rate for about 13 minutes before losing its charge.  That was enough to mostly inflate both sides and the floor.  I'd add on 10 minutes of hand pumping, to fill it tight.  Finally that little powerful pump would no longer hold a charge and I got one, when I got this new old car, that plugged into the lighter outlet.  The old car's lighter outlet never worked.  This one doesn't work as well but does ok.

The hand pump, now a decade old, has broken.  The handle broke off the shaft, then half the handle broke too.  Plastic.  I tape and use it anyhow best I can because no DC pump will completely fill the raft tight.  Then I lucked out and found a pump along the N. Santiam River, on a rock.  It does not have foot hold downs, so its not as effective but it works.  Without the foot rests to be able to exert pressure straight down nothing will be that effective.  So mostly I still use the broken pump, carefully though, because its taped together.

Broken high volume pump. It broke off at the shaft and also half the handle broke.  So yeah, get out the electrical tape to try to keep it going.  I've been using it taped together for three years.


I love that raft and being out on the water.   Trying out a plastic kayak a few weeks ago let me realize how much I love the raft.  I can't get down in those plastic kayaks with my bad knees.  I take naps out on the water in my raft too and I love that.  Can't do that in a kayak.   I take stuff along I can easily access.  Again, you can't do that in a kayak.  So I love my raft and I hope to find out just how long it will last.  It's already old.  I try to take good care of it so it will last longer.


4 comments:

  1. Most people would have said that it was time for the raft to go, but not you. If it can be fixed, you will do it. I hope you get one more outing with the raft before the cold weather sets in.

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  2. I am super impressed that you were able to fix it - and am sure that it has already lasted longer than the manufacturer's expectation. Fingers crossed it lasts a lot longer.
    I like that you have found a helper - willing to learn too.

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  3. Anonymous4:14 PM

    A leaking seam sounds particularly difficult to fix so it was interesting to hear how you went about it.

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  4. Congratulations on fixing your raft! You're amazing. I'm so sorry about the black female cat that didn't make it. ~hugs~ These kitties are all so uniquely attractive. I appreciate all the photos you share. Be well!

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