Izzy the cat’s favorite litter box is the one outside in her catio. When it rains, the litter gets wet (yuck), so awhile ago I put an old cookie sheet over the entrance and secured with with duck tape. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked, until the duct tape failed. Hm. I don’t know why I didn’t think of the scraps of metal roofing by the chicken coop then, but I did remember this time. A couple screws to attach the corrugated metal to the frame, tin snips to round the corners to reduce risk of injury, and tada, a outdoor resistant rain roof for the litter box. Faster and easier than duct tape. Please forgive the dirt, it will wash away with the next rain and it has been a very busy week.
Metal roof scrap repurposed into a litter rain shield
I decided to rearrange the office/music room, which was a good thing because I’d been tucking things in there for five years and had forgotten I’d stashed most of it. Some was worth keeping, much was not. In the purge, I found a shower curtain that I bought as a background screen in the COVID years to hide the clutter from Zoom calls (oh yeah, I’ll admit to it). Well, this curtain also fits great on my wire shelving unit. Same height, nice bit of wrap around. Yes, I’m still hiding things behind a curtain, but it is a pretty curtain.
Shower curtain on wire shelvesShower curtain pulled backSplit rings used as curtain hangers
I was taught young to always shake out my shoes before putting them on, especially if they have been sitting outside. The caterpillar trying to climb in my sneaker when I was checking on chickens was a subtle reminder why.
Caterpillar shoe invasion
Oh, that and snakes, which are now coming out from their winter rest.
Blurry picture of a rat snake, probably wouldn’t fit in my shoe, despite how skinny it isRough earth snake, ten of these would fit in my shoe, non venomous, but very wiggly
Here is a short of the rough earth snake, which is so wiggly because it was having trouble getting traction on the sidewalk.
Oh, and the scorpions, which would be an ouchie shoe find. And rocks, which also hurt, but don’t defensively pinch or sting. But spiders bite. Basically, always check your shoes before putting them on.
I was cleaning the kitchen faucet when I noticed flakes of rust around the top of the wand (where the sprayer attaches to the neck). I cleaned it up, and kept cleaning, until the rust and chunks where gone. Then I went to put the wand back and it wouldn’t snap back into the neck. Hm. Apparently the part that was the second half of the magnetic clasp rusted completely and I had just wiped it all away. The wand was still magnetized, but the neck wasn’t. Well that’s frustrating. My husband did some research, and we couldn’t get the part that rusted, and couldn’t buy the neck separately, and a new comparable faucet would be around $500. (I’m sure that is not what we paid over four years ago.) I decided to do some experiments.
I tried to put a neodymium magnet in the handle, which was not the right shape. I tried using bits from a roll of magnetic tape, but it was too thick and wedged it in. I tried some bare floral wire, which is steel, and had some luck, but couldn’t secure it inside the neck. Then I realized that the recessed indent in the faucet neck was about an inch in diameter. Keychain rings, the split rings made of stainless steel, come in about that size. I raided the junk drawer and found one. I was able to slip it around the wand hose (yay for split rings), and the steel hoop fit perfectly in the recess of the neck. I mixed up some five-minute, two part epoxy and glued the ring in place. Some tape held the ring while the epoxy cured, and kept the hose from gluing in as well.
Split ring taped into the faucet handleSplit ring glued in place
When mixing two part epoxy, I always keep the waste mixture out until it is cured. If the stuff in the cup is cured, then the stuff holding the part is cured. I removed the temporary tape and tested the wand against the neck. Snick. Oh what a wonderful sound! It works! The faucet wand pulls easily away from the neck, but when replacing it, the magnet sticks to the steel keyring and keeps it in place. Neat.
Critters and Craft 