"Blankets, coffee, and rain — nature’s lullaby." 🍵☔

Okay, who stole March? 
Dang, this month has zoomed on by.
March went out grey and wet. 
It thundered off and on, and rained all day, sometimes very heavily.
It was a stay‑inside kind of day.

Cowboy napped until it was time for dinner and work.
He had to have gone out to feed the chickens, but I don’t know when.
He sneaked out on me.

Badger rarely leaves her room. 
She comes out to cook for us, and sometimes watches a little TV with me. 
Mostly, she stays in her room.
Heron is at his girlfriend’s until tomorrow.

Raven got home late.
He’d been at the other parent’s house all day.

I’ve stayed fairly busy. 
I got the birdfeeders filled up again.
Cowboy keeps muttering I spoiled the birds and got lazy, and stopped feeding them. 
He could feed them, but he usually doesn’t.
I have two window feeders and three pole feeders spread over the yard. 
You get your exercise, filling them up.
I had a lull in the rain when I went out. 
If I had known it was going to stay rainy, I might have just waited.
The seed turns into concrete when it gets wet. 
Then you have to wash the feeders.

I let Heron’s cats out to exercise, and then the thunder started rumbling, so I had to go back down to put them back in the RV.
I folded laundry and got that put away.
 I absolutely hate that job. 
I like washing, but hate putting away.
Of course, dishes have to be washed and put up multiple times.

Today was camera charge day.
 I did have to drag a reluctant Badger out of her den to help.
We have five outside cameras and four inside cameras, so it’s a bit of a job collecting them all.
Yeah, I know, it sounds excessive, maybe a little paranoid.
We don’t know a soul in this neighborhood anymore. 
The old ones have either died or moved away.
The ones moving in now might be perfectly fine, but we don’t know them, and complaints about things being stolen are on the rise.
Even with Raven and Heron moving back in, most of the time, from 2:30 pm until 1 am, it’s just Badger and me.
The camera gives me a sense of security.

The indoor ones we use as a nanny cam. 
We also have them to give us the security of knowing that if something happens, we can go through the footage and show the truth if need be.
Just to be absolutely clear: the only areas covered by the indoor cameras are the living room, the hall, and the kitchen. 
There are no cameras in the bedrooms, the bathroom, or the laundry/storage room. 
None, ever.
The only problem is that Ring only stores footage for a certain length of time, but you can download them.

One afternoon I walked into the living room and saw one of the littles crouched in a small corner beneath the TV.
The space is just wide enough for him to fit, as though he believed he was hidden.
I asked what he was doing.
He startled and stood quickly, clearly in the middle of something.

Badger’s been saying the living room smells like a bathroom when she cleans.
We’ve even found human feces hidden behind the couch and inside the cushions. 
It was unmistakably intentional. 
Very much human.
And when one of the littles gets upset, he sometimes forces himself to vomit.
This is not something I’m equipped to handle.

This is the kind of situation we’ve had to manage, which explains my lack of enthusiasm for weekend grandparenting.
The cameras provide some support, but they are not foolproof. 
They are motion‑triggered, have limited range, and there is a delay between movement and recording.

I know people think I’m awful when I say I don’t enjoy having Raven’s littles here on the weekends.
But they don’t see what we actually live with.
It just wears a body out.

In between jobs, I’ve been on the computer and reading.
I found another Gamache book I haven’t read, although it feels oddly familiar.
It says it was released in October ’24, so I’m pretty sure I haven’t read it.
Maybe she follows a certain formula, and they all start to blend together.

Cowboy has called, so I can head to bed.
To get any privacy in this house, I either go outside or hide in the laundry room when Cowboy calls. Especially if one wishes to gossip.
One of the littles urinating on the floor was something Cowboy needed to hear.
He can stop blaming the cats for the smell. 
I suspect it may be the grandlittles causing the smell instead.

Also, I let him know Raven’s changed his mind, he’s bringing the littles to Gealach’s birthday party Saturday.

He’s still taking me and Badger to Mel’s afterward. 
No kids.

My first grandbaby is turning 11 on the 11th. 
Peacock’s throwing her a party at Magic Quest Saturday.
Alright, if I can prise my fanny off this chair, I’m heading to bed