creative solutions

Foiled?

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Every year, before we are ready to decorate our artificial Christmas tree, we dig it out of storage and set it up. The idea is to get the cats used to it being there, and we get a chance to remind the older cats, and train the newer cats, that this is NOT a thing they are allowed to go into.

It usually works fairly well, but it’s hard to train the cats to stay out, when there’s no one in the room to catch them in the act.

We have several Christmas trees. One 6 ft “family” tree, and the girls have their own smaller trees for their rooms. Now that they have the second floor as their own “apartment”, they’ve been setting both up in the same room.

With so many rambunctious “teen aged” kittens in the house, my older daughter suggested we use her 4 ft Ikea tree. If we could find a way to raise it up, perhaps we could keep the cats out of it?

Well, we’ve had that tree up in the dining room for a few days now. I went into the storage shed and dug out a couple of tall plant stands to see if one of them would work as a stand.

On the first attempt, the girls set it on one of the stands and used Bungee cords to hold the tree stand in place.

That got knocked over pretty quickly, even though it was on the more stable of the two stands.

We set the tree directly on the floor, and hoped the cats would just investigate it and leave it alone.

Which is generally what they did, when we were around.

Then we could come into the room and find it knocked over.

I even tried putting it on the dining table, which they are not allowed on. Of course, tiny paw prints on the table in the morning shows they still go on it while we are asleep.

Today, I think I found a solution.

I flipped a plant stand upside down.

This might actually work.

We might still have to find a way to attach it to the wall to keep it from being knocked over, but so far, so good!

After a while, we’ll put the lights on and leave it for a day or two. If all goes well, we’ll get it decorated, then hide the stand with something pretty.

Big Rig, at least, appears to have been foiled by the stand! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Mystery solved

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A few days back, I showed my mother this grabber that I’d found in the garden shed.

We were trying to figure out…

Why soup spoons?

Well, it took a few days, but my mother called me up because she remembered why.

My dad had used this to pick crabapples.

It was such and “of course!” moment. Those spoons are the perfect size for our crabapples.

My mother then asked if we could take the spoons off and bring it to her to use, but the ends of this are damaged.

We’ll be keeping it as it is. Now that I know, I will probably use it for the same purpose!

Meanwhile, I’ll look into picking up a new grabber for my mother, some time soon! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Well, that was faster than I expected

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I had sent photos of the clean up I had done yesterday, to my family.  When my brother was out here, working on the tractor, he went into the barn to look around, and found something to use to replace the plastic jug I’d put over the outlet on the fence post.

It worked.

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I’ll just have to find something to affix it in a way that will keep it from falling off in inclement weather, but will also allow me to move it easily, to access the plugs.

It never occurred to me to look in the barn; with our focus being on the inner yard, we just don’t go into the barn or out buildings very often.

The Re-Farmer