The first stones...

[Noofies]

OK, I know, it took me forever to get around to doing this and they're not mosaics. But I decided to just do some plain ones (with sand-textured tops) for the patio area and the small area on the yard side of the gate (to keep the dogs from wearing a muddy path through there). I did two plain stones, and one boot-brush stone. They're curing now, I'll probably add another fine layer of sand in another hour or so, when the cement is firm enough for me to press the sand into it.

Here's the first effort:

[Emma]

OK, I'll bite. What is that?

The litterbox on the left looks like a device to train a cat to pee anywhere other than in a litterbox ....

[Noofies]

Stepping stones, right after pouring into the "molds". The one with the wire brushes in it was supposed to be a boot-scraper but..... patience not being my strong suit, I took it out of the mold too early (there's a reason the instructions say 48 hours instead of 24!) and it broke in half. I now have half a stepping stone, with one brush at the very edge of it. That's OK, I can still use it in the least-traveled area of the 3 I intended to make boot-scrapers for, somewhere only I will see it. (I'm working on a pretty mosaic one with a stiff-bristled rectangular broom head for the scraper; the broom head will perfectly fit in the "mold" vertically.)

I'm making plain stepping stones for now - but adding a bit of play sand right after the pour so the surface of the stone will have a little texture - so I can put them in a 3 X 3 tile square just outside the patio gate into the yard, so the dogs don't wear a muddy rut there. And I'll make more for the area of the patio just off the covered cement slab that's already there, so I can have a level, uncovered area for a table and chairs. I *think* I'm going to do plain stone (not mosaic) with a surface pattern in it - leaves, or ferns - but I might just go with a little sand texture instead. Might help keep the dogs pedicured if I do that; if I don't texture it with something it'll be very smooth and slick - treacherous in the rain.

So, the two plain stones (there was a third stone, a plain one, to the left of the aborted boot-scraper) are fully cured now, I took one outside earlier and will get the other out there by sometime tomorrow morning, and I'll take a pic of the finished product. I think I need to reduce the water by a 1/4 cup or so, the boot-scraper was a little less watery than the other two batches and I know it had a little less water in it because some splashed out of the bowl when I was mixing it, and it has a better finished texture to it. The other two stones are very smooth because they were watery around the edges, and there's no gravel/sand in that watery stuff so some of the edges flaked off in places. Not the boot-scraper half-stone, though, it's good and solid.

Next big project: fencing in a garden area. Should cost LOTS less, I can probably do what I want to do for less than $50. (Just chicken wire and wooden fence stakes. ) By the time I get that in and the soil prepared, it'll be time to transplant the seedlings that are growing on my dining room table (safely protected from curious 4-leggers by a big wire dog crate). Next "small" project - making hanging baskets. Two (or maybe 3) for lettuces, two floral for me (a small, bush-type morning glory, butterfly impatiens, trailing lobelia, cosmos, and maybe a lavender or two), two for my mom, one (or two) for Chris, and one of those plastic hanging bags (have one laying around that I bought but never planted) for impatiens (for me).

Eubie died on Tuesday night. Don't know what happened, he was fine just a couple of hours earlier. I spent yesterday afternoon burying him, and planting a rosebush over the spot.

Back to cleaning. I've got some friends coming up (and mom and her furries coming down) tomorrow to help me install 300' of 5' tall welded-wire fencing, about 1/3 of the back yard. I'll do the rest either later this year or next spring, but in the meantime the dogs will finally have some room to stretch their legs. (Poor kids have been stuck on the 12 X 30 patio for 3 months.)

[Emma]

Oh, geez, I'm sorry about Eubie. He was such a handsome guy. Wasn't he one of the cats who made the trek westward w you, or am I confused (again)?

[Noofies]

No, I got him here, about 3.5 years ago. (He was deaf, an older kitten (6-8 months) when I got him.) He was just a youngster and, as far as I knew, in excellent health. I always thought he could be Maine Coon, he was certainly big enough, and had the personality traits associated with Maine Coons. And I know that sometimes Maine Coons can drop dead out of the blue, from heart failure; that happened with lisaviolet's Maggie when she was only three (I think), and I think that's what probably happened here. I'll never know for sure, because I didn't have a necropsy done, but I assume that's what happened. He was fine just 4 hours earlier, no physical or behavioral signs there was anything wrong.

The foofy tuxie who came west with me was Tootsieroll, my little nuclear kitty. (She was an orphan I found on the grounds of the nuclear plant in NJ where I was working at the time.) She was 14 when she passed away, in her sleep, last May.

Of the other cats that came "west" with me, Calliope (LH grey tabby), Spencer (tuxedo kitten, died of FIP), The Mushroom (little grey kitty that survived a severe head injury as a kitten), Tinkerbelle (the snowshoe, the last remaining "California Cat"), Mesh-Mesh (the ex-feral torbie), Punch and TC (two of the Terrible Trio ferals), Miss Lucy Maud (tortie, my sweet little "Baby Bat"), and Bubba (red tabby) are all gone.