Good morning, Taylor.

The last week of our shared vacation has been a busy one.

The vacation was set up so that I always had one half of the day, and Ragdoll had the other. Sometimes the mornings, sometimes the afternoons. And we adjusted it if we slept in. But the middle weekend we were each going to have a full day to ourselves. Ragdoll had her full day, but when mine happened, it went sideways. I wanted to go into town, or hike, but it was really rainy windy and cold. I probably should have gone into town anyways and made an indoor day of it, but I stayed home and cleaned house. I’m the housekeeper after all.

The house got de-cluttered and the laundry got all done and folded and put away (after a month!), even the dishes got done. But most importantly all the random boxes around the house that had been in the rooms since December got organized and put away. We had room in the house again and it was looking like a normal apartment, instead of a tornado disaster area.

Ragdoll decided to give me all day Tuesday to make up for the Sunday spent indoors, and I was really looking forward to it. But that night, she had medical issues that kept her up all night again. We ended up sleeping way in, and by the time we were up and moving, it wouldn’t have made sense to go out for anything, so that was another day I lost. And after seeing that the weather was just going to get worse and worse I changed my mindset.

This vacation is about catching up and so I cleaned! After the big de-cluttering, I began working on some projects. I have kind of taken over the budgeting in the house because I’m better at numbers than Ragdoll is and I sat down and re-worked our finances. We took a hit from an unexpected medical bill that was really big. It looked like we weren’t going to be able to buy groceries.

So I took an inventory of everything we had in the kitchen. Everything. Every last ingredient and spice and frozen food. This way, we had a list of what we had on hand to make food with, and it was a LOT. After seeing the list, Ragdoll came up with ideas for noodle dishes and pasta salads we could make. On top of leftover hamburgers and barbecue sandwiches. We were in good shape there.

But I also looked at our finances again. And I’m better with numbers than Ragdoll is. And I really sat down and looked at our budgeting and expenses over the last year. Thankfully Ragdoll kept a nice ledger of stuff for herself, and I was able to figure out reports. After some doing, I made a nice budget for ourselves that made sure all the bills got paid, the variable bills could be estimated, and we had a little spending money at the end as well as grocery money!

We went from “We may need to scrounge for groceries” to “How does grilled salmon every night sound?”

Saturday was a big day for me. I spent some time with The Artist and The Wise Woman at their house. It was nice to spend time with them, but I ran out of things to say because…I don’t do a lot. I also learned a few things that worried me. I’ll have to deal with that later, but sometimes I wonder if Didi was right. We’re all secrets.

I decided to open the Corvid Cafe bird feeder a day early, so I could spend time with the crows. That would be Sunday. But I planned out a menu we would have, and something very special. I wanted the crows to have a wonderful feast after being gone for so long. And so there was the big plan:

Regular Birdseed (I’m trying to get through the bag)
Spicy Birdseed (To teach those squirrels a lesson)
Spicy Suet (No squirrels!)

In the morning, we’d serve them a “Maple Breakfast Scramble!” Made of eggs, watermelon, peanuts, rolled oats and just a tiny touch of maple.

For lunch it would be Tuna Surprise, made of eggs, tuna and crushed peanuts.

And the feast? A Never-ending Cup of Peanuts. Refilled every hour on the hour or until the neighbors complained.

And then we waited for Sunday.

It was bout 8 AM when we opened the door to the deck, where the bird feeder stands. Almost immediately, I head the “SHE’S HERE!” caw of crows. They saw I had the tray and got excited. Four flew up to the fence even before I put food down on it! I put down the food, for them, and it was a lot, and none of them went for it! They wanted hand feeding. 🙂 So I passed out congratulatory grand reopening peanuts, hand picked by the Bird Girl of Corvid Cafe herself.

And then I turned on the camera and went inside. And the crows completely demolished the breakfast scramble. We’ll be making that again. 🙂

I spent most of the day just watching that camera, and watching the birds finally back, and enjoying the feast I’d made for them. You can’t imagine how much those crows mean to me. They’re really all I have, and I didn’t have them for so long.

“Welcome back. Welcome Home.”

–Andrea