I had a strange night’s sleep but was awake enough to crawl out of bed around 8:30 am. The first thing was to raise all the blinds to let the new day in and then the usual morning ablutions. It did not include a shower as we are still without hot water, and I forgot to turn on the water heater which takes around 15 minutes. That is OK as the dogs smell worse than I do so they are not going to complain. 

I harnessed up the dogs and brought them outside so they could “help” with the bird feeders which I proceeded to bring out and hang. I had already decided that I was not going to refill the two big ones and in fact, put them in the storage unit. I am tired of the Grackles stealing the feed. I counted nearly 60 of them at one time around the feeders and on the ground yesterday. I do not mind feeding them, but they are so wasteful, and half of the seed ends up on the ground. At least it gives the deer something to eat when they come visiting during the night, so it does not look like I have much of a clean-up job. The deer are like big vacuum cleaners just sucking up the seed. 

With the two big feeders gone, the word must have gotten out as so far, there have only been a couple of Grackles. They have problems trying to perch on the small pipe feeders, which is why they do not like them. 

We went out for the first walk of the day and walked up Henly Loop towards Hwy 290. I was looking for the cows and heifers and managed to find the adults but no sign of the heifers, so I guess they have gone to the slaughterhouse. I know this is the way of the world, but I do not have to like it. One reason is I eat very little meat and what I do eat is usually chicken. 

We met a couple of other campers walking their dogs or on their own and exchanged the usual morning greeting. 

Back in the RV, I changed the bed covers to a clean set as between us, me, and the dogs, we make the sheets and the pillows quite dingy. 

I decided to put in a load of laundry, and it was doing its wash thing for the next couple of hours. When it had stopped, I switched it to the dry cycle which as about 1.5 hours. I just love having my own washer/dryer. So darn convenient plus I do not have to worry about adding in quarters. 

I worked on the blog as the machine did its thing as there was nothing, I could do except change it to dry after the wash cycle was finished. I like to use the timed cycle system so that I can add Gain to make it smell nice on the drying cycle. 

We went out for another walk and left the washing machine hoping that when we got back, it would be finished and ready to go into the drier. Altogether for the day, we covered 1.7 miles. Incidentally, I found the missing cows, but the baby calves which actually are already the size of the cows, are no longer with them, so I am assuming they have been rounded up and are in calf heaven. I know it is business and that meat is in demand, but it still makes me sad. 

We sat on the deck for a while after our walk just watching the world go by, not that there is much of that in this park.  

The RV repair man, James was on site working on another rig down in the bottom section of the park, He texted me to say that he was held up on the project he was working on and may not get to me today and was not sure when he would. I texted back “that was OK” as I can live without repairing the problem for a few days. A cold-water shower would really wake me up… 

The rest of the evening was spent in the usual way with food for the dogs and then for me and watching a soccer game on the TV. 

 Written Tuesday, April 23, 2024, read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com