A Feather In My Cat

A Feather in my Cat

My wife was given a Red Tail Hawk feather and she brought it home. She put it on her bed side table in the bedroom. I had seen it there but did not think much about it. One of our Arkansas cats also saw it.

She needs to gets up and gets moving before I do. I was awakened by a scream and meowing and growling and the sound of moving and scouring around. What I heard was: “Drop it, Drop it, Ahh…get a way…Ahh…no…no…Stop it!” or similar remarks. I got up to see Grayson, one of the Arkansas cats being chased by 4 other cats and a wife. He was carrying something in his mouth, the other cats wanted it, and Wife was trying to keep the other cats from Grayson and trying and wanting to get what he had from him.

I asked: What was going on? Wife said Grayson has a snake. I now was awake! The cat ran into the bedroom and under a foot stool/seat. Wife followed. Cat growling viciously, Grayson makes a dash, Wife screams and jumps back. Cat retreats back under the stool, and looks out with the hawk feather in his teeth. 8-)

My wife identifies what he has is a feather. Fear changes to being upset. The other cats still want the feather and start to move in toward Grayson. Wife growls and the cats retreat, Grayson looks concerned but still has the feather. Wife grabs the feather from Grayson. The cat runs…

“He chewed up my feather, the little Git!”  I was afraid to move and was trying not to smile. Who needs to have coffee when the morning starts off like this? 8-)

I think I need to get some feathers for the cats to play with.

Schooner Lines

Schooner Lines...they need to be different colors!

When we built our schooner I had no idea it would require as many yards of rope or line as it did to get her rigged. I made a guess estimations, added 20% and choked. Then when I got to the Chandlery I choked when I found that the cost of line had gone up about 20% since I had last bought line.

My original Idea was to color code each major line, so it would be easy to know what line was what. When I did a quick calculation I found that it was not cost effective to do that. The price per foot of the line was higher than if I bought a full spool of line. The spool had more line than I thought I would need, but I figured I would use it. I did use it, plus more when it was all said and done.

In hind sight I should have bought 2 spools, each of a different color. The original idea of different color lines was a good one. Rigging the boat with all the same line made it more difficult to sail. We quickly learned that we had to tie the same line to the same cleat each time. The cleat became the key to knowing what line you had. We also learned that we needed to coil and store each line in the same place once under way for the same reason. If the lines got mixed and messed getting the sails down became a big problem.

The main has two halyards, a topping lift, and a sheet line, and it is the same for the fore sail. The jib has a halyard, two sheet lines, and a line that goes to the front of the boom on the bottom of the jib to the tip of the bow. 

In addition to those lines you have a painter, port and starboard dock lines and an anchor line. We leave the spring lines at the dock. Oh, there are lines for the bumpers and a few extra lines that are for unexpected events. 8-)

Each line needs the ends of the line whipped. That is a day’s work in itself but it is time well spent. It also looks sharp and prevents the line from unraveling. It also makes threading the lines through blocks much easier. Splicing a loop in the end of a line also can make life easier. It is well worth learning how to do basic line splicing. I have not mastered splicing a loop on the end of a line yet. I think 1 out of 6 looks nice and you have to be lenient on what you think looks nice. 8-)  A whipped end works better for me. 

For a 28’ boat there are 22 cleats, and each have a use. At times I wish there were a few more cleats; you always need one where there is none.

I have to replace some lines on another boat this year. I will get a different color line for it and see if I can mix and match lines between the boats. It is nice to set things up so I do not have to think as hard when line handling. I learned the hard way that spending the extra money on different color lines would have been a great saving in frustration.

Rainy Afternoon

Wine and cheese on a rainy afternoon.

The weather was overcast and one could feel it was going to rain at any time. We were going to take the Livingston Dinghy out just for a ride and have our lunch on the river. Thunder coming from the south west changed our minds so we set up our lunch basket on the screen room that looks out where we have the boats tied.

I set up our portable DVD player; Wendy selected a DVD, Wine and Cheese and came out to have our lunch. Wendy poured the wine in to a pair of German etched crystal wine glasses.  (Even a $5.00 wine tastes better in nice glasses.) 

We got talking about things we had wanted to have when we grew up. We decided we had done OK for the most part. We both have only a few things on our bucket lists that we would like to do. 

I had a big reality check after my sister died. Over the last year I have had to admit to myself I am getting older and cannot do some of the things like I used to. I am less enthusiastic on starting big projects, and I find I count on my wife more and more when doing things. Counting on her is a good thing though.

Sitting, talking and having cheese and wine as it rains outside was a nice way to pass the afternoon away.

My Dog and Hats

My dog and hats:

Our dog Bosco is a couch potato and would not be much protection if it came down to it. But he is very lovable and is smart. Since I have lost most of the hair on my head I try not to go out in the Florida sun without a hat.

I noticed the other day that he responds differently by which hat I pick when I go out. I have a nice, clean, presentable hat I use when I have to go to town, two or three “trash” hats I use for yard work and the like, and two “Boating” hats. 

If I put on the nice hat Bosco just sits there or goes to one of the places he curls up and sulks. He knows that hat means he will not get to go.

With the trash hats, he is attentive, and follows me around. If I go out the back door he knows he can come, if I go out the side door he may get to come, and the other door means he can watch me through the front window and I will be coming in and out and might get to go out.

The boat hats get him excited…he knows he gets to go! He will not let you out of his sight as he does dog things and we get ready to go. By the time we are ready we seldom have to call him to get on the boat. He is a boater dog to the max, but he is like many girls. He will not get in the water. 8-)

The other day I confused him. I went boating wearing a trash hat. I had the boat loaded and ready to cast off before he noticed. He would have swamped the dinghy getting in if it had been a smaller boat.

We had a nice boat ride on the river and he had great fun when we passed 3 cows waist deep on the river bank.  He would growl and bark at them, and then turn and look at me as if to say “am I doing good” and then growl and bark again. When one cow looked at him in the eyes and Mooed, Bosco retreated to the back of the boat behind me. 

It will be interesting to see if he will want to go boating again if I have a trash hat on. 8-) He might remember the big mean Moo Moo Cow and me having that hat on.

Cat Dung Smell

Cat dung smell.

My sister would complain to our Mom that my brother and I would stink up the bathroom so bad it could not be used for an hour. I have to say both my brother would use the bathroom next to her bedroom just to mess with her.

My sister must be enjoying  and getting some revenge now that we have her Cat’s. I did not want to dump her cats at an animal shelter so we took the 3 cats in. I call them the Arkansas Cats. They are not like our Florida Cats. All three are even more strange than cats usually are. This is from a Dog Persons View. 

Newman is a big yellow and white Main Coon Cat. He is almost too big for a standard litter box and he only wants to use a freshly scooped box. I think he saves up going to use the box till after it is scooped.

When he uses the litter box, he does his business and then races out of the box like a rocket to get away from it. He will not cover it! His cat dung smell will gag you. The smell flows out from the box and makes the room air UN-breathable. You almost need a gas mask to go in and cover the thing. Even with the vent fan, it takes almost an hour for the smell to clear. 

My sister must be smiling when this happens…revenge at last! 8-).

We have two liter boxes, but Neman will only use the one that is in the unused shower stall in the bathroom off our bedroom. Thank goodness it has a vent fan. It is a bad layout for a bathroom. The toilet is right in front of the shower stall and it blocks using the shower easily. Thus it was a great place for a litter box.

The other two Arkansas cats also have weird quirks but that is for another blog.