Blah Blah

 The weather is inspiring blah in me.

Rain, rain, wet, yuck.  Endless it seems.

Tonight we may get a small wind event, with wind gusts to 45 or so.  We had one of these last week and I slept through it.

We are finally getting Cascade range snow, which makes the skiers and snow boarders quite happy.   Oregon should have many feet by the weekend, in the mountains.

I've been attempting to refurbish a cat house I got a few years back.   They're cute but poorly built to withstand outside events like rain, for one.  The roof long ago collapsed on this one, if it orginally even had one.  I've had to redo roofs on the other three I have of this type also.  They're not as elaborate as this one once was with two doors, a balcony and staircase too narrow and useless for any cat with hind legs.  

I don't like to throw things away however.  So I cleaned this one thoroughly first.   It was layered in winter green algae growth, like almost everything else around here now.   Then I repainted it and now am putting a roof on it.

Just a note to anyone who might consider buying these lightweight little "outside" cat houses.  Don't!   Not if you live in a rainy locale at least.  They're more decorative than useful.

One of their big design flaws is the entry hole is level with the floor at the bottom, which means any bedding you put inside it will come right back out.  Like straw.  Or whatever. This one's design at least gives an inch or so for bedding.  If they come with a roof, the cat will want to jump on it, and that, my friends, will collapse it rather quickly.   

I only bother repairing them due to lack of garbage space to rid myself of them once and for all.

Upside down algae covered dirty old cat house.

Dirty old cat house partially cleaned out

Gigi, the neighbors cat (ha, like she'll ever go back there) supervises my efforts in the garage.

Roof on yesterday and I painted it also last night.  Roof is removable.  Roof has to be strong enough to support the cats who will inevitably jump on it.

I went to Waterloo last week, to feed a cat and maybe a kitten hiding in berry vines near the upper boat ramp, and saw the river water is incredibly low.  There is usually no beach down here between the bridge and boat ramp, which is high and dry.   The river is still muddy but now has a slate gray blue color to it, which I hope means maybe it is begining to clear some.

The low river has nothing to do with rain, too much or too little since its level is controlled by the dams up above Sweet Home, that have been subject to extreme controversy with the big draw down last fall that resulted in turning the entire river to mud and affecting city water systems.  

This area is usually completely underwater.  Now there are trucks, maybe cars deciding to offroad it there by driving down the boat ramp and off down the exposed flat bank area.

Sprite, Skippy's sister, is going to be a big cat and besides wrestling days with Cougie, from Waterloo, she has perfected stereotypical cat attitude expressions like outrage.

I'm trying again to get Gigi out of the garage into the house.  It's an issue, since I can't leave the garage door open, to even dash out to take something to the trash can.  She'll take off outside.  When it gets hot, I won't be able to keep the garage door shut either.  So, getting her to live inside the house now is going to make it easier this summer.   The good thing is, she loves to play inside.  The other cats now completely ignore her.