I'll admit, she's not looking any better today. She seems more lethargic, but I continue to give her the eye medicine every two hours as directed. She has a follow-up appointment on Thursday, and another appointment on the 4th. We're going to get her feeling better, no matter how long it takes.
After the vet appointment with Sage, I worked on getting the mulch down in the black raspberry patch to try to keep the grass at bay.
Next step was watering all of the cardboard down. You want it thoroughly soaked so your roots can still get water. I'm without a garden hose this far from the house, so I used a bucket of water and a little hand-scoop and just manually soaked the cardboard down.
Then I covered all of the cardboard with eight bags of mulch.
Today Tony helped me put up the guide wires. Last year we put up laundry rope, but the resident squirrel spared little time in chewing both lines off. So this time we used a plastic coated wire line with crimps on either end. Hopefully this lasts longer.
While out shopping, I realized Menards finally has live plants (yay)! I picked up two containers of snapdragons, a 6-pack of Lady Bell peppers, a 6-pack of yellow tomatoes (I forget the name of), and three different strawberry plants.
When we got home we unpacked the car, picked kids up, and ran some errands. In the time we were gone one of the birds decided the red snapdragons were something to be destroyed. I figured they might, but in the rush to get the car unloaded, I left the snapdragons out in the yard. I took the three severed flower heads and planted them in a hanging basket with one of the strawberry varieties.
The little cat carrier to the left in the photo was originally put out there to put the cat food in so the birds wouldn't steal it. We had to stop feeding them in the crate because Henrietta (Barred Rock hen) claimed it as her nest box. No bedding, nothing to make it real comfortable, but she lays all of her eggs in there. Silly bird.
I filled the new wooden box with some fresh pulled dead grass from the edge of the yard. It's naturally sun dried and completely organic. Mother Nature for the win! I set it right next to the preferred nesting space, and will wait to see where she lays her next egg. I also cleaned out an old rabbit nest box the chickens have been roosting on. I added straw and put that on the shelf too. If I can get her to lay in an open topped nest space, I will take the carrier and put it away in the garage for the next time we have to take a cat to the vet. Seems like that would be a much easier way to transport a cat than stuffing it in my jacket so I can hold #5's hand for the walk...
And, in final news, Tony got a hold of the gentleman selling the puppies, and confirmed our interest in the one specific pup. He will hold it until we can come see it in person on Friday and put down a deposit. Pup won't be ready to go until June 7th. Tony joked he might name her "Anna May" since our oldest daughter is currently obsessed with Japanese anime. I hope it's a joke anyway...