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Post by stepper on Jan 7, 2016 18:34:29 GMT -6
You are right – that’d be one for America’s funniest videos.
It's great LX and BP had a nearby hill - ours was a little more than a quarter mile away, and wasn't the safest place to sled. It dead ended into a cross road at the bottom, and of course the hill had the stop sign. It was a bit too far for my liking though, and I had a paper route to take care of first. By the time I was done delivering papers it was getting dark - too dark as far as mom was concerned.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 8, 2016 7:52:38 GMT -6
We have a hill like that in town - Coastguard Hill. It's THE place to sled. It's in the side-yard of the old historic lighthouse keeper's residence, which was used by the Coastguard when they took over operating the lighthouse. Perpendicular to the bottom of the hill is the road that runs along the channel and leads down to the beach. I don't know if it's the historical association, city, or neighbors, but the bottom of the hill is always lined with a double row of hay bales in winter.
Looks like I need a new bird feeder. I filled them both this past weekend, and noticed the tube feeder's plastic tube was brittle and starting to crack. Yesterday the ground beneath the feeder had a lot more birds feeding than usual. Usually, the house finches will spill seeds while eating because they are like little sloppy pigs, but the amount of seed on the ground didn't quite account for even their messy eating habits. This morning, there's a huge pile of seeds. I wish I could just replace the tube - the feeder itself is metal, and is quite pretty. Shame to just have to pitch it.
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Post by stepper on Jan 8, 2016 21:03:04 GMT -6
I had to do that earlier this year. I had one of the home made variety and one I bought at a store (an overly cheap one obviously) that wore out or just broke. Right now I'm using another one from the store - but a little more sturdy than the last one.
I'm sure you aren't going to pitch it. So, perhaps an inexpensive piece of PVC would do? Or a piece of plumbing pipe from your local hardware store? I'm sure there are options that will keep the pretty metal thing in the trees.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 10, 2016 9:46:16 GMT -6
Yep, feeders do wear out - and both feeders that I have are at least five years old. Although they're sturdy and mostly made of metal, the plastic "windows" on both have become so brittle from the weather it won't be long before the other one gives out also. The second feeder though is a hopper, and finding a clear piece of plastic replacement wouldn't be too difficult I'd think. Luckily (because I haven't been to the store yet), it's only the plastic above the highest ports on the tube feeder that is cracked and leaking seed, so it'll do until I have a chance to get a new one. Maybe Hubs can fashion some type of replacement tube (I'd want something clear, so I can see the seed level), but it's just really the metal oak leaves wound around the cage that I like so much - maybe I can take them off and make a wind chime or something out of them? Most likely I can take them off and never get around to doing anything with them and they'll sit in a drawer until I throw them away during a cleaning spree.
There was an unexpected bonus to the broken feeder though - the cardinals gave in droves to eat the seed on the ground underneath the feeder! I usually only get them at the hopper feeder because the perches on the tube feeder are too short to accommodate larger birds. Maybe a handful of cardinals will be at the other feeder during one time. Friday though, I counted 18 cardinals in my yard between the two feeders!
In fact, there were more birds in my yard on Friday than I've ever seen. The feeders and two suet logs are about 30 feet from each other, with lots of shrubbery and a few trees in-between. I'm not exaggerating when I say there were at least 50-60 birds out there. Along with the cardinals there were flocks of little cute juncos, chickadees, nuthatches, and house finches going back and forth between the feeders, the ground, and in and out of the shrubs. Watching them was fascinating. I wondered if because there were so many of them, they might be preparing for the storm that was forecast to start yesterday evening - like some kind of instinctual weather predicting.
We didn't get nearly the bad weather that was expected (yet), but earlier this morning it was scary-windy. Even the dog wanted back inside almost as soon as she was let out. Surprisingly, the tough little chickadees were at the feeders though.
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Post by stepper on Jan 10, 2016 15:40:17 GMT -6
I did my best to protect the bottom of the feeder, but eventually the weather won out. The first replacement feeder...well, it had a heavy coated hanger string that threaded up through a plastic clip and then ended in a knot at the top. The idea was that the string went over a limb, then you adjusted the height to suit you, and then it was held in place by the plastic clip pinching the string just above the knot. What happened was that once, the clip slipped and the whole thing dropped to the ground. It survived that drop. The next time the wind had the feeder swinging around and the string itself gave out. The feeder didn't survive that one - it was still loaded with seeds and weighed too much to survive the crash landing.
They add a lot of color huh! I only have a couple cardinals, but I also have half a dozen blue jays. They make their presence known by telling me (and the rest of the neighbors) that they're out of peanuts.
I noticed the weather channel was predicting lake effect snow and wondered if it would affect your area.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 12, 2016 7:49:21 GMT -6
BP flushed two ice-cubes down the toilet last night before going to bed. Just one of the many snow day rituals kids perform to ensure school will be cancelled. In LX's grade school days, the ritual was a longer, more involved process - flush ice cubes, wear your pajamas backward and inside-out, run around the house a few times before going to bed, and put a spoon underneath your pillow. That process probably still exists for the younger crowd, but since BP is a teenager, flushing the ice cubes was as far as she was willing to take it.
It was good enough. No school today.
This is lake effect snow now; it started on Sunday and is supposed to continue through tomorrow. The snow they were predicting for Saturday wasn't lake effect; it was a system snow that was supposed to start in the evening and dump 8-12 inches overnight. The system stalled over the lake though, and fizzled out. I don't ever remember being so relieved. LX headed down to Indiana on Friday to spend her last weekend of winter break with her boyfriend; when she left it was supposed to rain all weekend, changing over to snow Sunday evening. The forecast kept changing though - by 2pm on Saturday a full winter weather warning was in effect starting at 7pm Saturday and lasting through to Monday morning for northern Indiana and all of West Michigan; the temperatures were supposed to plummet into the teens causing wet pavement to turn to ice, then the rain would change over to snow with winds up to 40mph. MDOT issued a warning for people to stay off the roads. She left her boyfriend's at 3pm which put her back at college just after this was all supposed to hit. It never did though - we got a bit of snow, but the temperatures never got below freezing. She, of course, was irked she cut her weekend short for nothing, but better safe than sorry.
They certainly do. BP likes watching the birds as much as I do - yesterday, she was calling the cardinals "flying tomatoes" because they are round now, winterized with all that fat and fluff. We don't get a whole lot of blue-jays in the yard; for a few years there was a pair who'd build a nest in one of the maples every spring, but they didn't come last year. I'll see blue jays here and there in the yard, but it's not often they come to the feeders - I'm sure, it's because even on the hopper feeder, the perch isn't big enough. I did see one just about a half an hour ago though sitting in a bush by the hopper feeder - unbelievable he was out in all the snow and wind. He flew away without going to the feeder though. I think in spring I'm going to put up a platform feeder for the larger birds.
Speaking of larger birds, I got kind of excited yesterday when I saw a bright red head bobbing up and down at one of the suet logs - I thought it was a pileated woodpecker, once an endangered species, and still not very common around here. Once it moved enough for its body to be in full view, I saw it was just a red-bellied woodpecker, who also has a red head. Fun to watch though. I get them confused with northern flickers sometimes, but red-bellied woodpeckers will come to the feeders year-around; flickers eat ants from the ground, and I usually only see them in the yard during spring.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 12, 2016 8:06:01 GMT -6
I guess that second ice-cube BP flushed was for me. Xena Sis just called - the community dinner I help her cook for once a month has been cancelled tonight.
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Post by stepper on Jan 12, 2016 22:28:26 GMT -6
You guys are flushing ice cubes, and I had too scalp the front yard. Given the choice, even though I prefer cool, I'd pick today's weather here. And my congratulations to BP even if she failed to properly execute the ritual. You going to let her do it again for next month's community dinner?
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Post by Phalon on Jan 13, 2016 7:30:08 GMT -6
Apparently the Snow Day gods were willing to let her slide once, but not twice. Although she flushed ice-cubes last night, school wasn't cancelled today. I'm pretty sure it's because she also uses the Snow Day Calculator (yes, there is such a thing). Although the calculator said there was only a 94% chance of a snow day today, I'm betting the percentage was lowered even more because the gods are angered that modern technology is replacing ancient ritual.
We didn't have Snow Day Calculators when I was a kid, or Snow Day rituals either, but I was curious, drilled, and surprised to find these same rituals - with a little variation, or added steps, are performed all over the country in areas that get snow. When LX did them - as did her friends - I always thought it was something the teachers at school here invented just to get a secret laugh imagining their students acting stranger than typical.
Interesting how stuff travels.
Still snowing.
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Post by stepper on Jan 13, 2016 23:31:45 GMT -6
Long story short - the ice cubes flushed all the way to here where they froze the unsuspecting pipes - and messed up my pipe going to the street. They backed us up all the way to both bathrooms, and the tubs. We did. We measured boot deep, knee deep, waste deep, and "Mom! You gotta come see this!"
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Post by Phalon on Jan 14, 2016 6:58:29 GMT -6
Eeew - was it the sewage line? Bluck. Even if it was just a water line, sounds like a nightmare! How'd the pipes freeze? I'd think the temperature would have to get much lower than I've been seeing on the Weather Channel for pipes to burst.
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Post by stepper on Jan 14, 2016 21:08:54 GMT -6
Yes, it was the sewage line. Yes, there's an immediate bluck factor - especially when what has happened is that things have backed up so badly our bathtubs are also backing up from the overflow. The short version of a long, twisty turny confusing story, is that the pro ran an auger through the line five times and made no progress. He didn't have his camera with him so he couldn't confirm what the problem was, but he's convinced it's going to have to be dug up to be fixed. Steppet insisted I stop on the way home and rent the heavy duty 100' coiled sewer auger which I'm convinced is useless but for the sake of peace in the household, I did it. The darned thing weighs over 160 lbs and it took two of us to load it up. Well, I found the spot where progress stopped, but I'd put a round saw blade looking thing on the end, and having nothing better to do for the next 12 hours, I decided to just let it grind away for a while and hope for the best. Darned if it didn't work! It took quite a while, all total it was about an hour as I needed a break or two, but the line is open again. Since a cutter blade did it, that means I'm probably dealing with tree roots. Still, there's a yuck factor to clean up. However, Steppet's 60th is Saturday and I REALLY didn't want to be getting dirty fussing with sewer lines, and no functional toilets, as part of her celebration. That would have been a bit of a downer. Oh yes, BP is off the hook as it wasn't ice cubes.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 14, 2016 22:32:56 GMT -6
Gee Whiz, Stepper. I'm so sorry that happened. I can't imagine how awful that is. And I really hope I don't ever have to find out personally.
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Post by stepper on Jan 15, 2016 18:54:51 GMT -6
Thanks Joxcee - and I hope you never have to find out what it's like too. It's no fun and has the potential of being quite expensive. What I really have is a temporary reprieve. I'm sure it was roots which means there's a breach in the line that is still there. Roots will intrude again no matter what I do so this will require a permanent solution. This way, I get to do this on my schedule instead of as an emergency.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 15, 2016 22:27:13 GMT -6
Do your pipes have drain holes in the 'bottom' of them? Here they do. They have found that if you have drain holes in the pipes, the roots won't clog the pipes. IIRC, they put gravel on the bottom of the trench, then lay the pipe with the drain holes down, and this give enough seepage that the tree roots don't feel the need to go into the pipe.
Maybe it depends on the trees near the drain line. We have Maple trees close to the drain line at Mom's house. Now that I think of it, I think Mom also pours something down the toilet once in a while for tree roots. Not just the septic stuff. Plus, she also had some guy come out and empty the tank. Good thing she did because it was getting tight in there. I've been here since '99. I probably should think of having the guy come empty mine.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 16, 2016 8:50:59 GMT -6
I can certainly commiserate. The same thing happened to us probably within the first two years after moving into the house. What came up from the bathtub drains was like black tar - it reminded me exactly of the opening scenes of "The Beverly Hillbillies" when the oil bubbles up from the ground. And the smell - OMG, I've never smelled anything so noxious in my life! They ended up digging a huge trench in the front yard from the house to the street and laid new pipe - meaning part of the sidewalk and street were torn up also. We were extremely lucky though - the maple roots that grew into the pipe was one of the parkway trees (essentially the city's property), and since it's city sewer (they own the pipe too), we didn't end up with a huge bill. I hope if you eventually have to replace the line, things so as well for you.
Though I've never had to take care of the septic system (all the houses Hubs and I have owned were on city sewers), I had a recent crash-course when we sold Mom's house. The county requires a septic system inspection be done within 30 days of selling the house, and before going to closing; if it fails, you can't sell the house until it's fixed, which can be quite pricey. It was a pins-and-needles thing for me, and a source of stress for a couple of weeks. Mom had her septic cleaned religiously every 3 years (which is probably more often than needed with just one person, but it was also probably a hold-over task from when our family of five were all using water). Septic systems typically last about 20 years; this I learned from the inspection - the system on Mom's house was over 50 years old! The inspector failed it - ACK, ACK, ACK!!! I was imagining thousands of dollars to replace the aging system, and the buyers backing out of the deal (which they could have). After the inspector fails it, the inspection report goes to the county environmental guy, who looks over the report, and says what has to be done to get it up to standards. OMG, I was jumping for joy!!! All we had to do was replace the concrete lid, which was cracked - less than a $200 repair. My sigh of relief was probably loud enough to be heard where the house is on the other side of the state!
Stepper, I hope Steppette has a wonderful day. Happy birthday to her!
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Post by stepper on Jan 16, 2016 21:57:43 GMT -6
I'm so sorry - it really is a mess to deal with. We're on city service too instead of a ceptic system, Here though, the city is responsible only for 'their' side meaning the pipe from the house to the sewer line in the street is your problem. And if the roots are getting to the pipe under the street, replacing the sidewalk, gutter, and pavement is also your problem.
There are several kinds of root killer and it makes sense to drop that down your lines when you have a septic system. A friend had to have a lot of work done because a big root got into her pipe and then went down the pipe - and it got thicker. I'll be dropping root killer in mind until I'm sure I've got a better line.
I'll tell her - thanks.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 16, 2016 22:07:52 GMT -6
Tell Steppette I also said, "Happy Birthday." It didn't even register. Sorry.
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Post by stepper on Jan 16, 2016 22:35:07 GMT -6
Nothing to apologize for Joxcee - you've got a bit of a distraction.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 16, 2016 22:53:06 GMT -6
Thanks.
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Post by stepper on Jan 17, 2016 17:51:11 GMT -6
Oh horrors of horrors! 60s and 70s for at least a week, but tomorrow mornings' low will be only 37! How will I survive that?? (Maybe by staying in bed and sleeping my way through it.) So Phalon, how's your weather?
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Post by Phalon on Jan 18, 2016 8:38:07 GMT -6
That sounds as if you are bragging.
You are definitely bragging.
Yesterday's high was 11 degrees. Maybe it got up to twelve; I dunno. It snowed all day, and the wind didn't quit. It's supposed to be the same for today if the forecast is correct - and so far it's right on the money.
The tandem plows have already been by this morning, only they couldn't barrel down the street one right after the other as they typically do - they got stuck behind the recycling truck, stopping at every house. Nice results - because they couldn't drive fast, the snow didn't get thrown nearly as far up the driveway as it normally does! And the sidewalk plow came by too!!! That's a rarity - although it came by last week too (of course, it was after I'd shoveled). I'm not quite sure what's up with that because we're not on their typical route. Not complaining though.
Despite the wind, cold, and snow, the birds are at the feeders. There are tiny, little footprints all over the front porch too - I'm not sure, but I think it's the chickadees. For the past week, the berries in the greenery arrangements out there are being eaten, but I don't know by who. They're just too fast - I open the door, and all I hear is the fluttering of wings. I can hear the chickadees though - probably scolding me for interrupting their meal.
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Post by stepper on Jan 18, 2016 16:57:59 GMT -6
Well, I could be.
Maybe a little. They're saying next week will be cold here, and might even freeze, but still it's nothing like what you're getting.
Wait. You've got all kinds of freezy cold snowy lousy weather, and the recycling trucks were out? And they weren't following the plows? Weird.
Okay, I've never lived someplace where you didn't have to do your own sidewalks. It makes sense - I get it - and hope to never live someplace where that's necessary.
There's very little that'll stop that for any length of time. They need the calories to fight the cold.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 19, 2016 12:27:45 GMT -6
Not weird at all. They've both got jobs that need to be done, and a schedule and route to follow. Recycling and trash are picked up by separate companies at the same time each week. The fleet of city plows have certain stretches of highway assigned, have to keep the main roads in town clear, and then the school bus routes in residential neighborhoods....none of which our road is, so it's not a first priority to be plowed. People just can't sit around and wait for the plows before going to work; the recycling and trash pick-up, the mail carriers, UPS, or whatever aren't any different - they can't wait to do their job until a road is plowed.
It's the same with the tandem plows - the sidewalk plows have an assigned route with downtown being their first priority, followed by some residential streets (I'm assuming school and senior citizen bus routes?) Our street has never been on their route, so it's weird it was plowed; it came by today also. Not something I'm counting on each time it snows though; a resident has 24 hours to clear their sidewalks or they can be fined. I really don't mind shoveling the sidewalk; it's the longest stretch of shoveling, but is also the easiest.
Snow, yeah. Cold, for sure. There are a mess of them out there right now. I've never though, in all the 15 years we've been feeding the birds here had birds at the feeders with the kind of wind we've had the last week, which is a typical winter wind. Most winters there will be days on end when I don't see a single bird, which is why it's very noticeable these past couple of weeks there have been so many birds at the feeders no matter the weather. Hubs and I both wondered aloud, how they keep their little hairless, featherless, furless, sockless feet from getting frostbite.
Kind of a cool-kind of a not so cool thing yesterday. A hawk - I think maybe a Cooper's hawk or red-tailed hawk - flew by the front porch while I was out there. Cool because it was low enough and close enough that if I had been leaning over the porch rail, I could have touched it. Not-so-cool because the direction in which it came was a straight bee-line from the feeder.
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Post by stepper on Jan 19, 2016 21:13:26 GMT -6
So, you have to dig a clear spot for the recycling bin and trash bin on the right days, and clear the sidewalk, and clear out the ice from where they plowed the street into the opening at the end of the driveway, and clear out the driveway, and do it all in time to meet someone else’s schedule - with the possible exception of the driveway?
At my age, snow blowers, preferably with hot dog and hot chocolate warmers, are much more important than shovels. Or a couple bucks for neighborhood kids - worth every penny!
Now, that is something I find surprising. We've had some fairly substantial storms, but I can't say as I've ever had a day when the birds failed to show up at least for a little while.
Hmm. Good question!
If it had snagged anything it would have still be carrying it, wouldn't it?
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Post by Phalon on Jan 20, 2016 8:09:50 GMT -6
Yep. Pick any city or town in any state that has snowy winters, and there's going to be a snow ordinance.
An enterprising kid can have quite the year 'round business, mowing lawns in the summer, and clearing snow in winter. The neighbor twins (a teenage girl and boy) have done that for years at the weekend resident's house across the street.
You've seen the photos of the ice-covered lighthouse, yes? We're a few blocks from the lake, but imagine the kind of wind that can pick up that much water, add blowing snow, temperatures in the teens or single digits, factor in a wind chill, and then imagine it doing all that for days without a break. Poor little birds wouldn't even have to flap a wing - they'd be blown halfway across the state without lifting a feather if they didn't hole up somewhere.
I'm pretty certain it would have, but I wasn't looking toward the feeder and it flew by the porch so fast, I didn't get a good look at it - all I really saw was clearly its size and its wing bands. I think maybe if it had a cardinal, I might have seen the red, but there were lots of house finches and chickadees out there too.
For years, I have wondered what kind of hawk it is - it lives at the top of a Norway spruce across the ravine, two houses down. I mostly just see it circling the top of the spruce, or gliding high in the sky; there's been only one time I've seen it still and up close - it was sitting on the top rail of the neighbor's fence when I pulled in the driveway, and stayed there for a few seconds before flying away. I did a bit of drilling and I'm leaning toward a Cooper's hawk rather than a red-tailed hawk. Cooper's hawks are frequent visitors at bird feeders and "not for the bird-seed"; songbirds are a mainstay of their diet. Just part of nature, and I can't say this bothers me any except that maybe the songbirds are like sitting ducks because I feed them. The cats on the other hand - more specifically it's the cat owners that let their well-fed cats roam outside to prowl my feeders, that I mind. The cats are just doing what cats do, but because they get fed at home, I always shoo them away when I see them.
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Post by stepper on Jan 20, 2016 21:16:37 GMT -6
Sadly, once in a while (not at all frequently) I'll find a pile of dove feathers someplace in the yard. They'd starve if I wasn't making their life easy. Surprising to me - the Egyptian geese wouldn't go under the tree to get their cracked corn because there were two cats in the tree. The geese are much larger than the cats, and they made nasty noises at them, but the cats ignored the geese. And the birds avoided the tree - as if they were going to land and wait for the cats to leave or something.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 21, 2016 7:08:29 GMT -6
Just guessing, but I'd think a goose would come out the winner in an encounter with a cat...at least Canadian geese, which is the species I'm most familiar with; they can be very aggressive. But why pick a fight when avoidance is easier?
Could be a scent thing too. A sure-fire way to get rid of the ever-so-destructive groundhogs (woodchucks) if they're in your yard is to put used kitty-litter down their holes. Though groundhogs are much bigger than house cats, cats are predatory and most animals/birds will avoid them.
Speaking of cats, I took Ranger to the vet yesterday. He's been losing weight, which you'd think might be a good thing for a 17 pound cat that looks like a basketball with a head. In a way, it is good - he is more active and playful than he's been in years, actually, probably since he's been a kitten. But even though he's losing weight, he eats more than ever - most noticeably hovering in the kitchen, wanting table scraps although he has always, always turned up his nose at anything other than cat food. Was enough to make us think there might be something medical going on with him. Although he's only lost two pounds, the vet ran a blood test, and it was unmistakably clear he has hyperthyroidism. Opted for a transdermal treatment, which is an ongoing ear-swipe type medication applied twice daily - out of all the options available, seems like the best right now.
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Post by stepper on Jan 21, 2016 19:28:27 GMT -6
I agree completely - that's why it surprised me so much. But like you said, why risk a scratch?
I haven't heard that one. Is it the ammonia from the urine?
Sorry to hear there's a problem with Ranger; will that treatment work well enough when you go back to work? Just to ask, didn't they have a once a day solution that would work just as well? I’m not trying to deprive you of an opportunity to love on Ranger – just curious.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 22, 2016 7:42:47 GMT -6
I can't say for sure, Stepper - anyone who has ever owned a cat knows that cat urine reeks of ammonia, and used kitty litter is very effective at keeping away smaller animals. I don't think though, that it's the scent of ammonia, but more specifically that the scent is coming from a predator. You can buy, for example, predator urine to use as an animal repellent for your yard and garden - these aren't manufactured, they are "100% pure" urine. Bobcat, cougar, fox, wolf, coyote urine are very popular, and there are always people coming into the store asking for them. We don't sell it though, because the methods used to harvest it are inhumane. You can't follow a house-cat around and expect it to pee in a cup, much less a wild animal like a cougar.
Though we haven't started treatment yet, (the vet didn't have any samples, and had to order it; should be in Monday) the ear-swipe sounds easy and quick enough to do within a couple of minutes. It's just a matter of cleaning his ear with an alcohol swab first, then swiping it with the medication which is dispensed from a tube with a ball-roller type tip similar to lip gloss. Only drawback to applying it is that you have to wear medical gloves so that if you come into contact with the medication, it's not absorbed through your own skin.
There were two other options the vet gave me - surgery, which is risky even without considering his age, the fairly long recovery (7 to 14 days in the hospital), expensive, and we'd have to have it done either in Grand Rapids, Lansing, or Ann Arbor; other choice is a pill administered twice daily that is the same medication as the ear-swipe. Getting him to swallow a pill has always been a battle, and somehow he usually manages to spit it back out.
Back to earlier this week - it's a coincidence but as I type there's a huge tractor across the street digging up the new neighbors' front yard. I feel bad for them - they've had nothing but problems with the sewer system in that house since they first moved it; I was talking with the guy yesterday, and apparently the old owners knew there was an issue when they sold the house, but didn't disclose it...and apparently this county doesn't require an inspection like the county Mom's house is in does.
Made another batch of suet yesterday, and filled the suet logs. I hung one, and no sooner turned my back to hang the other that a downy woodpecker was already at the first log. Or maybe it was a hairy woodpecker - I can never tell the difference unless I see both together, and even then I'm not sure who is who because I can never remember which species is the larger bird.
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