Groomed Mikey, Now I can't get Emma back into room.

I let Little "T", the little six-toed kitten I rescued, out of his big dog carrier onto the screen porch for the morning. I thought of some names for him:

Teetonka = Talks Too Much, in Sioux.

Takoda = Friend of All, Native American.

Toe-Toe, even though he doesn't come from KS.

Trey-Trey = three-three, for his six toes.

But it won't be up to me to name him now.

This is Mikey, white poodle, after his bath, and before grooming. He is always dark gray when he first gets here, as he loves to roll in the dirt. His "Dad" had a stroke and people can't understand him, so I try to help him out with Mikey. I didn't know how I was going to groom Mikey with Emma in that big cage in the grooming room. Mikey has two cats, so I knew that he wouldn't bother her, but I didn't want her to get scared and upset. So I measured the cage, 42" long x 28" wide x 32" high, and found out that if I dragged it into the middle room, which is really a hallway, I could still open that bathroom door, which is right of the picture, to bathe Mikey. It meant that I couldn't get into the grooming room through the glass door behind her, but I could lead Mikey around the other way.

I left the dutch doors open, while I groomed him, so that Emma could see that I had done this for her own good. She watched very intently from the top of the kitty condo. The two kittens are in a cage that stays there on the left, and they are used to being locked up when I am grooming. That all went well, except that I can't drag the big cage back onto the cream linoleum pad that is behind Mikey in the picture, as the bottom rails keep on getting caught on the pad. I keep it under that cage in case water gets spilled, I don't want rust marks on my Old Rose linoleum. Now it is stuck in the middle of the dutch doors, until I can get someone to help me. I don't think that there is a button that I can hang around my neck and say " I got my cage stuck, and I can't get (it) up"

I spent some time gathering things together for tomorrow. I will be driving to Houston, well Cypress, tomorrow to my granddaughter, Kim's House Warming Party. There are things that I had forgotten to take to my daughter's when I visited her, and then gifts for the new house. It will be great to see my daughter, SIL, grandson and granddaughter, but unfortunately my three great grandsons will not be there. And of course, my other granddaughter, Susan, Kim's sister, can only be there in spirit since she got killed by a DDD (dam drunk driver) in Feb. 2006. I know that we will all be thinking of her, and missing her.

As I have to go through the next town, I also have to get errands done there as I go through, so I will be leaving earlier. So I have to get everything in the truck. I will have a cold bag with me to carry a side dish/dessert for the party, that I will buy when I am through with my errands and on the road to Houston. I am a stickler about keeping food at the right temperatures or I would bring something homemade. Bacteria doubles every ten minutes when it is not at the right temperature.

I went to an RV rally last year, and someone had not kept, or reheated their pot luck contribution to the right temperature, and I got very sick for a couple of days. If a dish is not kept at 40 degrees, or reheated to an internal temperature of 165 degrees, it is suspect. Chicken should be heated even more thoroughly, even to 180 degrees, as it carries salmonella. I stick a food thermometer in everything I cook or reheat, before I will eat it or serve it. But then I had to go through Food Management for the USAF, (when I ran their Rod and Gun Club Restaurant), Conroe High School Cafeteria, and when I had my Mini-Golf, as we served food.

Ray came from next door to help me move the cage, and saved the day.

Emma. Little "P" will be a "T". Blinds and Battery

This is Emma, the cat boarder. She was named that, as she has a big "M" on her forehead. Golly, getting her to hold still is something else. All the rest of the pictures I took turned into a blurr. I found out last night that she will be staying with me for an extra four days. The first time I boarded her she was worried that the grooming room would be her permanent home, but she knows that her Mama will be back for her this time.

Little "P" the little six-toed kitten will be going to a different SPCA foster mom, Terry, on Monday, so he will be a "T" then. ( Toesie, maybe) Trying to keep all the cats apart is something else, so I will be glad when he leaves. Then I can bleach clean the screen porch, and the box out there, and let my cats back out there in the mornings, if I don't do that before then. But if I do, Little "T" cannot go out there again, and he would have to stay locked up in the dog carrier, and that wouldn't be very nice for him. Mine do get to run around the grooming room and the house for some "house time", so they can do without the screen porch for a few days more. Except Emma, she has to stay in the grooming room, but she gets the run of that several times a day, when I lock the other two up. Like I said, keeping them all apart is keeping me busy.

Ray and I put the last few finishing touches on the bathroom in the Class C. We had to take the mirror down to spray the lighthouse pictures, and I had to take more photos for the ad that is coming out. Then we were going to mount the table in it's storing place, but decided on some different type of fasteners which I will have to buy, when I can get into town.

I had an inquiry about my vintage 1968 HiLo Travel Trailer, so we got one of the new cellular blinds installed in the back window. Now, I can add that picture to the album of the HiLo, to send out to prospective buyers. The AC isn't installed in it yet, and even though we had a fan in there, it was just too hot to do anymore. The other blind for the front window, and the drapes are all stored in my attic, and we didn't want to be up there, either. I'll post pictures when we get the other one installed. They match the like-new avocado/beige upholstery perfectly. Exactly the same color as the Dometic fridge, which is still in great shape and working after all these years.

After having it on the charger, we took the negative side of the Class B front battery off, and touched it to the post to see if it had a phantom draw. It doesn't, and it won't hold a charge. So I have that old battery in the truck to get a new one next time I am in town. With gas the way it is, I am consolidating trips like everyone else. Cheapest I saw gas when I was in the next town was $3.73. It is always higher in our town.

Another hot and humid day.

Got Sidetracked Weeding Hedge. Cat fight !

Another nice day....for a while., then it got hot and humid again. I let the 6-toed kitten on the screen porch for a while, even though he is in a BIG dog carrier, I thought it would be change for him.

I was waiting for Mindi's husband to bring the two poodles to be groomed. I just puttered around doing odd jobs, and he never showed up. But Ray did, his pressure washing job down the road got cancelled for today. Good thing I didn't go get another poodle down the street that is waiting to be groomed. I don't mind doing Mindi's dogs while Emma, the cat boarder, is here, as they know each other, but I don't know what would happen if I brought a strange poodle in here, even though I would have locked her up in the big cage. I'll wait to do Mikey until after Emma has gone home. Emma still hisses at Minkie and Boots, and I know there would be fur flying if they met without bars between them. I just let them take turns being loose in the room.

Ray and I installed the new faucet on the plant sink on the porch. We found out why we couldn't stop the old one from leaking, the place where the seat screws in, was cracked.

Yesterday when I was at Big Lots, I bought an electric hedge trimmer. I know, you RV fulltimers don't have to worry about mowing and hedge trimming, but I do. Jay used to bring his up here to do it, but I needed my own. Why not, I have every other tool imaginable ! Ray trimmed the 100' long Privet hedge along my fence. I planted it to keep the north wind off the back yard and the back of the house. In England, Privet doesn't lose it leaves in the winter, but this does, so it isn't much of a wind break. Maybe when it gets more established it won't shed, I hope.

When May was working here it was one of her jobs to keep it, and the long Aloe Vera bed in that trough in front of it, weeded and raked. It gets pine needles stuck in the Aloe, and under the hedge. She hasn't been here for a while so it was a mess. Jay, Ray and I had been working on more important things, like RVs. It is all watered by an underground soaker hose which I manually turn on when needed, and it shuts off by itself, or I would forget about it. The other light green foliage in the background is across the street. There are cattle grazing there, and sometimes deer.

The new hedge trimmer worked great, I didn't know if a cheapie would do the job, but it did. Ray and I armed ourselves with gloves, snippers, and pliers to try to pull the vine's roots out, so they wouldn't grow back. Some had nasty stickers on them. We got carried away and worked on it for several hours, and it still isn't all done. There was even some poison ivy, oak or sumac climbing up one of the pine trees. Ray attacked that with Round-Up, he isn't allergic to Poison Ivy, so I let him do it. It climbed up another tree a couple of years ago, and I sprayed the leaves with Round-Up, and it has never come back.

The other picture is of two cats fighting through the door to the grooming room. Needless to say, I couldn't catch the real action shot. "Boots" was in the kitchen, and the boarder, "Emma" was in the grooming room. That thing on the door is a shade that I turned upside down and inside out, so that I can pull it up from the bottom and hook it on hooks on the door at various levels. I put that there so that dogs in the grooming room can't see Bobcat walking by, and start barking, but I can still check on them. The cats have pulled the lace trim loose, so I have to stick it back on again.

A weeding day.