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You Otter Slow Down

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Way back at the end of April, I was up on the roof patching a leak when our resident river otter waddled through the side yard and across the road to Hood Canal. Not sure what it does in our backyard, but it's pretty boggy back there so it's not too surprising and we saw them come through at least three times this spring. The posted speed limit at this bend in North Shore Road is 20 mph but I see people routinely doing double that, so I vowed to make an OTTER XING sign to hopefully improve their chances of reaching the other side. I thought it would be quick and easy, but the scrap plywood I used was pretty rough, so I used a whole container of wood filler to smooth it out. It took a couple of passes--fill, sand, repeat. I was hoping to find reflective paint, but this off-the-shelf oil-based yellow enamel seemed close enough. I bought gloss sunburst yellow and flat black to enhance the contrast. Enamel is sticky and it took a while to get even coverage, applied with a foam b...
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Catio Build Day One: Peeling It Back

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Sunny and Patchouli are littermates, born in a Minnesota barn, adopted by us at about 5 months. For kitties who've tasted the freedom to roam, they seem content being indoor only. They have to be, because cats are not the top predators they think they are. There's plenty that could get them here: eagles, coyotes, maybe even a mountain lion--though a tough raccoon would be bad enough. All the neighbors have warned us to keep them inside. They know first-hand the feline body count is high. But we still want them to have some form of outdoor access, so we're converting the back upper deck into a catio by building up and screening it in.    Note the gray (formerly white) fascia board where railing posts are attached. (Foreshadowing!) The balustrade segments were attached with six or so nails each.  Easiest way to remove was to cut them out with recip saw. They'll be reinstalled later between taller posts. I don't expect anyone to watch the whole thing, but too many vide...
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"Functions fine."

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I got this manual push mower off a free list. It was described as "functions fine" but it didn't. When I looked to youtube for how-to repair answers, I didn't find any so I figured it out and thought it might be worth sharing what I learned. I'm not claiming to be an expert and these are probably not best practices for safety, so don't follow my example too closely. If you have advice for how this could be done better or with more accurate vocabulary, please comment below. Thanks and watch your fingers!
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Blue Tape Life Hack (The Cat Hurdlers)

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All Aboard!

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Twenty-five years before The Housegleaners blog--and well before blogs even existed--I started photo journaling online with Picture of the Day , which continues to grow and creep forward like a glacier with the weight of half a lifetime behind it. Things were on hold here for a week or so as I laid in bed getting over My First Covid ™️ . Right before that happened, I closed the book on this trilogy, an epic saga of discovery, disappointment, and ultimate triumph. Soon to be a major motion picture!   (((Click images to visit original pages with extra photo links; best viewed on laptop.)))  
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Trim Test

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After spending most of the past two weeks replacing inefficient aluminum windows and doing a lot of shuffling and reorganizing of materials to make space, today I shifted focus indoors to start getting a sense of what things might look like when we finally get around to finishes. Because so much of what we're doing at this stage is basic structural improvement, we've been resigned to living with the shoddy unfinished drywall look of a remodel that was abandoned midstream. But because we have guests coming, we thought it would be nice to tidy up the west-facing sitting room that's adjacent to the kitchen. The dangling cutout to the left of the heater was particularly irksome both as eyesore and source of drafts, so I started the day by taping and mudding it as well as the seams and corners of that wall (but not along the ceiling as that will be vaulted later). I also finally got around to cleaning up the rough edge from when I tore up the waterdamaged linoleum floor. I used ...
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What's It Tahuya?

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Things happened fast here last Fall. So fast I forgot I even made this video of a late November weekend trip to move some stuff out and hang a couple of interior doors scored via craigslist/free . It wasn't the most productive visit as I spent a good amount of time by the water, watching a seal circle in on a bunch of languid salmon that were so close to shore I could have grabbed 'em. This video is kind of long and slow. Shots linger in silence. Not much happens. That's sort of the point. I'd been juggling so many things on a tight schedule, racing back and forth from Seattle, that I needed a breather. And a big part of why we moved here is to tune in to nature and settle into its rhythms. And, outside of being on a Washington State Ferry, where else are you going to hear the safety announcement in its entirety? To those who sit through patiently to the end, I salute you!  Doesn't it feel nice to slow down?
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