Our big rain was over a week ago. After a summer of 100 degrees everyday and no rain, the fields and most yards were yellow. One big gusher and a few days and almost everything is green again. We did have some losses, and I think the accounting is not finished, but I was surprised by rain lilies and school house lilies this week.
My mint and strawberry patch fell to a field of grass. It was watered regularly, but maybe it was the heat, or that the trees over grew the area and there is more shade than I thought. Either way, I finally decided to pull the grass in the “cool” of the morning (if you can call 80 degrees at 7am cool). The water bowls I put out in the sprinkler area were doing well providing wildlife and cats with water, so I put another bowl with rocks out (so the frogs and bees have landing areas), and turned over a few terra cotta pots to provide moist frog cover. It isn’t any kind of work of art (yet), but it is functional and has potential.
Mr Tom, my neighbor’s favorite cat that likes to hang out in our meadow and charm treats, has many friends. Lately he has brought round a short haired black cat. I was able to get a picture of the graceful feline, with one white whisker, and unclipped ears. Darn it. It is still to hot for trapping, but if I can befriend it, it may be easier to get it in to be neutered.
I’m pretty sure this is not a new denizen of the woods, but one that has been teasing me for a year.
Here is further evidence that Missy has feline genes amongst the canine DNA.
One of the commercial cat hammocks I had in the catio broke (it really wasn’t designed for outdoor use and degraded in the sunlight). I had what I thought was a brilliant idea to make a triangular hammock to fit a corner.
The old hammock was square and needed support for all four corners. A triangular hammock would only need three supports. I used a large washer and screw to attach the hammock to the wood, and originally had it flat. Here is where the physics part comes in. The fabric sags when weight is applied. The hypotenuse of the triangle sagged too much and made a slide rather than a hammock when the corners were all at the same height. It took some experimentation to get the corners at the right heights so a pouch formed to hold a cat comfortably. My cat was remarkably patient with me putting her in and out of the hammock.
In the end, the right angle corner needed to be much lower than the hypotenuse corners to keep the cat from falling out. We got there, but it wasn’t pretty.
Critters and Craft 