How does your cat demand entrance to your castle? Most indoor-outdoor cats have their own way of letting their owners know when they want to come inside for a meal, a warm nap, and possibly a hug. The Mud Cat’s method isn’t unusual—not like the cats in YouTube videos that ring doorbells to get in.
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Category Archives: Home
Cats and Doors
Pi’s Room
Did you just get home?
Until yesterday I have been ashamed of the condition of the upstairs guest room. But after receiving an email from my San Diego cousin with photos showing the destruction some pets do while their owners are away, I decided my cat’s efforts (see photo) are worth a blog post. They represent months of work and, in my view, surpass many of the messes attributed in the photos to a series of guilty-looking dogs and one pair of large tri-colored cats.
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A Handy-Looking Snow Plow
Do I need one of these?
The big thaw started this morning. Aided by a steady rain, warmer temperatures are slowly converting the snow on my steep driveway into a river of slush. I will probably be able to drive up it tomorrow, the third day after Wednesday’s storm. But if I had a wheeled snow shovel like the one shown in the photo, I would be out sooner.
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Posted in Home, Mud Bay & Rocky Point
Mud Bay Lighthouse
A tiny beacon
Just catching up on posts I missed this summer when I was away from my computer. While Mud Bay, or Dyes Inlet for that matter, doesn’t need a lighthouse, it has one now (see photo). I got it at the Allyn Days festival in July. I had some birthday money to spend and bought it on a whim. The lighthouse was made by a woodworker named Mike who runs a small business called Laughing Dolphin Keepsakes. The little light at the top is solar powered. The lighthouse doesn’t emit enough light to warn any kayakers who might get too close, but it does lend a nautical look to my deck.
Posted in Home, Mud Bay & Rocky Point
The Little Pour
Where did the dirt go?
Last September I posted an entry about patching my driveway called The Big Pour. By the amount of cement used, yesterday’s pour was nowhere near as big a job. But the patch covers a far more serious problem (see photo)—one that I hope went away as mysteriously as it appeared.
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Share Your Victories
Snake at home plate
Like many outdoor cats the Mud Cat catches an assortment of birds and rodents. But his specialty is snakes (see photo). On a warm May afternoon this one—a small garter snake—was probably catching a few rays on the blacktop driveway when the Mud Cat spotted it. He carried it proudly to the concrete sidewalk at the corner of the garage, where he waited for me to share in his accomplishment. When the photo session was over, he soon lost interest. The snake toughed it out and got away a few minutes later.
Buoy Collection Envy
Which collection do you prefer?
If you live near the water, I trust your answer to the question posed in the photo caption isn’t “none of the above.” Of course that assumes you, at some point, have seen and admired someone’s collection of weathered fishing buoys and possibly considered starting one. Sadly the group of floats and buoys I have salvaged from Puget Sound beaches, drab and lacking variety, is the one at the bottom. It’s a long way from matching the color and character of the upper collection, displayed on the shed of an unidentified Cape Cod beachcomber (and featured in Araks Sharing Beauty blog).
Posted in Home
No Wonder Mine Taste Different
Every so often I make tacos at home. No matter what preparation techniques I try, I cannot duplicate the taste of the ground beef used by Taco Belle in its crunchy tacos and taco salads. (Whether that’s a worthy goal is not the issue here.) A lawsuit filed recently against the fast food chain may explain why.
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Posted in Business Beat, Home
How Strong Were the Winds?
What's wrong with this picture?
Coverage of yesterday’s arctic blast on the Kitsap Sun web site has attracted hundreds of reader comments. Most describe problems encountered while commuting over the county’s icy roads or how people coped when the power went out last night. No one mentioned the hardship I will remember longest about the storm: more than 12 hours of frigid almost-continuous gale-force winds from the north. The photo shows one casualty of the gale.
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Posted in Home, Mud Bay & Rocky Point, Weather
Snowed In Again
The steepest part isn't shown
Winter is apparently here, roughly a month early if you go by the calendar. It has been snowing lightly off and on all day, and the forecast calls for below-freezing temperatures tonight and tomorrow. Plus high winds. I’m already snowed in (see photo). The conditions aren’t as bad as they were two years ago, but are notable enough for a blog entry.
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