bramble

  I've had them visiting my bird feeder all winter. There seems to be a colony of them here. They love the sunflower seeds. 

Lovely voice and lovely dogs.  Long daily walks with the dogs is keeping me sane. But I'm pretty good anyway with being on my own. 

  It's been posted many times that you may use it in self-defence, though it has to be proven. I think just showing the thing would hopefully act as a deterrent. 

I always carry pepper spray and one of these alarm things with me.  

  Incomprehensible! Having your hair cut, dyed, styled or whatever is not essential. All the aerosols whirling around in a hair salon is the reason I've avoided the hairdressers for a year now. My hair is so long now - I wear a pony tail with grace. 

I also have a file with all the important stuff with a list of contents and instructions, which my daughter knows about. We go through it together every two years or so. 

  I had a cat 18 years old who had kidney failure, but he was eating normally until the day I had to put him down. He was eating but losing weight and had scruffy fur. It was the loss of weight that made me suspect kidney failure with Maja. But she has now gained weight and her fur is sleek and shiny. She also doesn't feel nausia as she doesn't vomit. She's her old self again, fit and agile and doesn't appear to be sick at all.  I'll continue keeping an eye on her. If her condition worsens and if she stops eating altogether I'll get another opinion.   

  Yes, that makes sense. I feel sorry for my cat. When she was losing weight, she was hungry but couldn't eat because she couldn't smell the food that was in her bowl. It is dawning on me how very important for survival sense of smell is. 

  I've tried cat food with catnip (normally a strong stmulant with cats) but no success. I have also noticed she has started refusing a couple of brands she was eating with relish a couple of weeks ago. This is why I'm getting a bit worried. She's still eating a couple of other brands and I'm continuing trying other brands too. The dog is benifiting - he gets the stuff she refuses, so at least it doesn't land in the bin. She used to love cheese and yoghurt, but now she turns away - she can't smell it. 

That's awful, John. I fear the worst. Though keeping my fingers crossed they will turn up again. I always wonder why cats (and dogs) refuse anything with pills in it (you have to trick them), but their sense of smell fails them with food with poison in it.    I have recently realised how vital for survival a cats sense of smell really is. One of my two elderly cats is losing her sense of smell. I feared she had developed kidney failure because she was rapidly losing weight (quite common with senior cats), but her blood test revealed she was perfectly healthy. Then I discovered she was eating less and less and in desparation I opened a can with tuna fish, which she gobbled up. It was then I suspected her loss of appetite had something to do with her sense of smell deteriorating, which the vet confirmed can happen with an old cat. It seems she can only smell food with fish in it now, so that's what she's been getting the past few weeks and she has gained weight again. I'm worried that she might not be able to smell anything at all sooner or later and when that happens she will starve to death if I don't put her down despite being otherwise healthy. At 17 she's still fit and agile. The thought is pulling me down.  Force-feeding an old cat indefinitely is no option. Pure trauma. 

  Never heard of it in my region, but seems to be common in the Bremen area. Here's the background:    There are no uniform rules for sweeping, but it is done in different ways in different regions. Originally, the tradition comes from Bremen, where the cathedral stairs used to have to be swept by unmarried men. Women had to clean the handle of the cathedral door. Both customs recall a punishment given, according to an ancient belief, to people who did not procreate: It was believed that they would later have to perform meaningless tasks in the afterlife. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)   More here: https://www.t-online.de/leben/familie/id_71301688/30-geburtstag-fegen-und-andere-traditionen.html    

Sounds a bit like the deluded Reichsbürger movement in Germany, who reject the legitimacy of the modern German state, the Federal Republic of Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsb%C3%BCrger_movement

    Same here. 

Some ideas found via google with plenty of photos: https://homebnc.com/best-reusing-old-wine-barrel-ideas/

Going back to the beginning of this thread, this has been dragging on for nearly 3 years. John is beratungsresistent. Not happy.