So… Magda escaped the isolation shelter again.
As did Kohl.
Once again, I found a top corner of the sliding window by the food bowl out of its track again. That corner can be reached if a cat is on the shelf above the food bowl. That Kohl fit through there too was a bit of a surprise, though!
I spotted her while I was feeding the cats and got her back into the isolation shelter, where she promptly discovered the wet cat food I’d put in for her and The Grink. That gave me time to grab some wood lathe and nails to reinforce that corner.
So this window now has a piece of wood lathe on both sides of the opening, to keep the window in its track. For now, I’ve added a strip of clear duct tape to one side of the panel for something to pull it with, since there is no longer an exposed edge to use to slide it.
Problem solved.
Almost.
Advance polls opened today and my younger daughter and I headed out to vote. On my way to the truck, I checked the isolation shelter and found The Grink, all alone again! Both sliding windows were still in place. That left only one way she could have gotten out.
Through the roof.
After we got back, I found Magda and put her back into the isolation shelter. I then took the bricks that the box we put over the entrance to shelter from the wind were sitting on top of, and put them on the roof to weight it down. You can see that in the next image in the above slide show. These bricks are salvaged from the chimney to the wood burning furnace that was removed when the new roof was installed.
Hopefully, that will keep Magda Houdini in the shelter! (You can just see her in the last picture; those windows need to be cleaned, inside and out!) It is not good for her at all to be squeezing through things and jumping down from such a height, when she is so fresh from surgery. Plus, we still need to dose her ears until we’re out of that medication.
Once we are able to move the shelter away from the house and give it a thorough cleaning, I hope to do a few minor modifications to it. One of them is to figure out a way to latch the roof so it can’t be pushed open from the inside. I also want to find some strong handles to attach to it – the ones I have on hand are not heavy duty enough for the job – to make is easier to maneuver. Eventually, I want to replace the wheels with larger ones, as well. We got the best that we could afford, and they’re good, but the shelter is heavy enough that the wheels want to sink into the ground when it’s being wheeled across the lawn. All in all, though, there is very little that needs to be modified. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.
Today has been a surprisingly cold day. When we were out and about earlier, it was around -2C/28F, but the wind chill put it at -9C/16F We’re supposed to reach a high of 2C/36F today, but it will still be very windy.
A good day to stay indoors and get ready for Easter.
We’ve got a turkey thawing out for Sunday, and the sourdough loaf for our basket is also thawing out. After a bit of organizing and cleaning up, we’re going to select a basket from our collection and start assembling it to be blessed tomorrow, and then we will enjoy the contents on Easter morning. Today being Good Friday, it is also a day of quiet and contemplation.
On that, note, my daughter has been working on things while I write this, and it’s time for me to go help her out!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
Cold and windy here too…..snow ‘showers’ but the snow is melting as soon as it hits the ground.
My mother-in-law’s cat figured out how to unlock and open a bedroom door…keep swatting at the center of the knob, then swat at the handle type knob…repeat until the door opened. He would then climb into bed with us while we were asleep.
Unfortunately my wife was allergic to him. Our daughter was thrilled to take him into her home…she is not allergic to cats. :-)
My sourdough starter is getting ready to perform its “magic”.
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We got whisps of snow today, too. I’ve already been spoiled by the warmer days. 😄
Cats can be really smart in all the wrong ways. 😄
Wonderful about the sourdough! I’m afraid I’ve given up on keeping one these days. The very first one me made was fantastic, and we kept it going for 3 years until my mother killed it, not knowing what it was. We haven’t been able to keep one going more than a year, since.
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I made sourdough starter with an unwashed grape dropped into a half and half flour-water mixture. I would guess any sort of blueberry, blackberry, or similar, would work as well.
The ground is now turning white from the snow, and it’s now more than a “snow shower”.
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The one that did so well for us was an Alaskan sourdough, using “potato water” (a whole potato boiled until soft and then mashed into its own cooking water to use as the liquid for the starter). I’ve heard about the unwashed grape method. Something that seems to go back to when people used grape must as yeast, back in the day. Some historical cooking channels I follow use it. The “sourdough” from the time period was very different that what we think of now!
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To get a nice sour taste, I let the first “rise”develop overnight in the refrigerator.
If I’m in a hurry, I let it “work” on the counter. The latter goes from start to finish in about 6 hours.
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