Author: vagabondtabby

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cats: back home edition

The boys really enjoyed the trip, but they’re glad to be home. (To be fair, so am I. Remember what I said about potties? It’s nice when there’s one within easy walking distance; when you don’t have to go outside to get to it, that’s EVEN BETTER.)

There’s been a lot of napping. A LOT.

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[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is curled up on his side on a purple sheet, forepaws tucked up in front of himself.  The view is from the front, with the paws dominating the image. ]

(They’re not the only ones who’ve been napping.) Continue reading cats: back home edition

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land trip: lots of rocks

Camping in the ‘woods’ was fun, but sometimes what one really wants is a place to poop.

… look, no, you know it’s true.

Anyway I found a TRULY awesome campground. Which happened to also include a potty.

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[ A small camping area, with a picnic table and a fire pit; massive boulders rise all around the clearing. ]

oh HELL yeah, I was RIGHT up those rocks, have you MET me. Continue reading land trip: lots of rocks

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land trip: breaktime at the disc golf course

Sometimes when you’re on the road, especially with cats, you need to find a place to spend the afternoon, cos it’s gonna be too hot in the van to just hang out there until the sun goes down.

Fortunately, Alamosa has a disc golf course. Slightly to my surprise, the disc golf course has deer.

Extremely brave deer. Continue reading land trip: breaktime at the disc golf course

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land trip: unloadifying

Part of the purpose of this trip north was to haul a bunch of my stuff up, so there’d be less to move later & possibly under a tight time limit. So Tyrava was pretty loaded, & I needed a storage unit.

After a bunch of calling around (I hate using the phone, but sometimes you’re stuck with it) I found a place that wasn’t TOO expensive, & repaired there forthwith with both the boys & a bunch of Stuff.

Some stuff:

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[ A corner of a storage unit. Two sets of shelves have been placed along the back wall, and each holds a couple boxes. ]

Loiosh helped!

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[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness, stands with his hindpaws on a suitcase and his forepaws up on a shelf. He is stretched out VERY tall and looks like he’s thinking about trying an Unfortunate Jump. ]

It was REALLY windy, so the boys wandered around for a bit but then decided to occupy Tyrava for shelter purposes.

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[ A bunch of boxes and lumber in the back of Tyrava. Loiosh is laying at his ease on a stack of flat cardboard boxes. Major Tom’s ears are just visible above a box to the right. ]

I’d been taking regular breaks ANYWAY, I had all afternoon to unpack, but I had to take a good long one at one point because I couldn’t move anything else without disturbing the boys.

Eventually I had it all in, if not neatly.

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[ An 8×10 storage unit. It’s probably about half full, and also fairly untidy. There’s lots more room in there. ]

It’s all gonna need to get rearranged, but I’m waiting until there’s help.

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land trip: door repairs edition

Not long after setting out — in fact, before I’d actually left the driveway — I realized that Tyrava was having a problem, which was that her back door wasn’t staying shut.

Since she was carrying approximately half of what I own at the time, this was KIND OF A PROBLEM.

The immediate solution was obvious …

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[ Tyrava’s back doorknob, a fancy black lever, is fastened to a heavy-duty handle next to the door by a bungee cord. ]

… but the actual fix was gonna hafta wait til I’d had a chance to stop at a hardware store.

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[ A close view of one of the heavy-duty hinges holding Tyrava’s back door on. The screws that should hold it in place are visibly pulling out of the door. ]

Given that the screws were only an inch long & set into the particle-board interior of the original door, yeah, they were gonna pull out eventually. Fortunately it was an easy fix. Unfortunately I hadn’t brought any clamps big enough, so I hadda buy another one.

… oh well, not like you can have too many clamps.

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[ A quick-release clamp that’s a good eighteen inches long sits on the seat of my comfy folding chair, along with a package of more heavy-duty door hinges and a baggie of LONG screws. ]

I’m glad I thought to GET the clamp, otherwise I’d’ve been trying to hold the door in place with one hand & probably my knee while trying to get screws in with the other, & that never goes well. But this made it easy.

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[ The door’s all the way open, and clamped into place; one of the screws formerly holding the hinge to the door is partway out, the rest waiting their turn. ]

The new screws are four inches long. THAT oughta last a while.

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[ Four new screws holding the hinge in place. Everything looks properly lined up and sturdy. ]

& then I added a third hinge, on the theory that overkill is rarely a BAD idea.

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[ There’s now a third heavy-duty hinge between the two that were holding Tyrava’s back door in place. It’s closer to the top one than to the bottom, because I just slapped it on there. ]

Success! The door is held firmly in place! It still closes & opens correctly! It’s not going anywhere!

… it still flaps open if I drive Tyrava over anything bumpy, I DO NOT KNOW WHY & IT IS VERY FRUSTRATING, but at least the door is staying on the hinges now.

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process: ocean

Not really a process post, cos I didn’t take the pics until after I was done, but close enough.

This is another custom faery home decor piece, made for a Patreon patron; the prompt was ‘ocean’.

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[ A piece of white seaglass, shaped like the point of a spear & wrapped in thick copper wire, dangles from the center of a shallow arc of more wire; on either side of it are dangles with silvery-grey beads, with cowrie shells hanging from the bottoms. ]

I had something else in my head for this, but decided it wasn’t quite the right place for it; I’ll save it for another time, & instead dug out the cowrie shells & silvery-grey beads. The grey wire — I think it’s florist’s wire? — was an easy choice, & finding the already-wrapped seaglass in the bottom of my work bag was PERFECT.

Also perfect was the other half of the piece the seaglass originally came from; I needed something to hang the obligatory spiral from, & that lil piece of driftwood was JUST the right size.

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[ A small piece of flattish driftwood, perhaps an inch long, hangs from another arc of flattened copper wire; below it is a hammered copper spiral. ]

Et voila, the whole piece!

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[ A slightly-curved driftwood stick, perhaps ten inches long, forms the center of this piece. Above and below are curved lengths of hammered copper wire, from which hang an assortment of objects: a hammered copper spiral, a piece of white seaglass wrapped in yet more copper wire, silvery-grey beads, and cowrie shells. ]

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land trip: Wolf Creek Pass edition

Couple weeks back I packed Tyrava full of Stuff, shoved the boys in the van, & drove north to Colorado to look for land! I decided to go over Wolf Creek Pass because I love it & also am, occasionally, pretty foolish.

Tyrava, loaded as she was, made it over the pass fine, & even refrained from overheating as long as I didn’t try to go over 25 mph or so. & at the top, snow.

Tom was extremely skeptical.

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[ Major Tom, a big grey tabby wearing a purple harness, stands in the doorway of the van, looking off to the side. ]

… Loiosh didn’t even bother to get up. Well, not until a couple people came by to say hi, but that was later.

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[ Loiosh, an orange tabby, is flopped on the van bed, both forepaws kind of hanging over the edge. He looks extremely underwhelmed. ]

I saw a friend while taking pics of the snow!

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[ A broad, snow-covered meadow, with tall conifers rising behind and around it. The sky is deep blue. A black bird can be seen flying across the meadow, stark against the snow. ]

Friend!

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[ A raven stands perched on the peak of the ‘Wolf Creek Pass’ sign. ]

& then we went back down the other side, & I even didn’t overheat my brakes!

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WE GOT THE LAND

okay it’s a SLIGHTLY BELATED update, everything’s been higgledy-piggledy but

LAND

… okay it’s still a couple weeks til closing, but it’s all but ours

it looks like this:

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[ A nondescript, completely flat stretch of land, featuring sandy soil and low, spiny-looking plants. ]

… I think, anyway. Might be one of the other two parcels I looked at. They all kinda looked the same, & it was just the location that made us choose this one.

Well, also the cool bottle I found, felt kind of like a good omen.

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[ A small, clear glass bottle, perhaps three inches tall, held in the hand of a white person. ]

… look, I take my good news where I find it.

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cats: too much wind edition

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[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness, is flopped on a sleeping bag. Sun shines through the van windows behind him, lighting up his fur. He’s leaning on a box that once held laserjet toner. ]

I took another walk last Sunday, close to the end of the day, as I usually do, but this time the boys declined to come with me. This is where I left them … Continue reading cats: too much wind edition