I’ve aced so many accomplishments today, on my so-called “exercise-free” day off, that I put in 11,600+ Fitbit steps indoors and out doing chores.

DEN MAKEOVER

 

First thing this morning, before the sun rose, I worked in my den to remove a filing cabinet and bookcase that fit better in my large bedroom than they do in here.

 

After moving them, I got out my carpet cleaner and thoroughly cleaned where they had been sitting for years, because it was impossible to move them frequently to vacuum or clean the rugs behind and beside them. So, I did that and then put the blower on the rug to dry it thoroughly before I did more work in that corner.

GOAT SHED MAKEOVER

 

While the rug was drying, I went out and finished dunging out the goat shed.  I bought a pitch fork a few days ago.  I’ve had goats for ten years but not a pitch fork, so I decided it was time.  What a difference it makes!  It’s so much easier to work with a pitchfork than the way I have been working. (Before, I used an axe to break up the detritus into heavy-but lift-able chunks, but the flat fork I was using wasn’t right for the job. It was really hard to do the work that way.)

 

After I got the detritus out (cedar/pine chips and straw combined with goat manure), I loaded ten wheelbarrows (ten flat shovel scoops per trip)  with the ugly gravel I  bought several months ago and added about three inches to the gravel that was already in the shed. Then I threw in some straw. The goats approve!

 

 

Mr. Tumnus, Work Supervisor and “Helper,”  Approves! 

PAINT MAKEOVER

 

When that chore was done, I painted the front edges of the bookcase (which had been moved to my bedroom) gray because I ordered gray adhesive shelf paper to attach to the top and sides of it. The top was seriously water-damaged, so I decided to get some gray faux-gray panel shelf paper to resurrect it and help it look reputable. The shelf paper will be here Tuesday.

 

RAT HABITAT MAKEOVER

 

After that, I decided it was time to scrub the rat/ferret habitat to within in inch of its life after taking off the mesh netting that I had attached to it to try to keep the rats confined to it when I first got them. It was impossible to confine them in that way, but I discovered, much to my delight, that they had no interest in descending to the floor (too many cats around!) and that they were happy playing in the habitat, terrarium, and any rat maze “condos” I could put together for them out of cardboard boxes. So, for nearly a year already, I have had eight very happy female rats living in my den day and night and behaving as if they’d graduated from etiquette school. They are wonderful critters.

 

Getting the mesh off was time consuming, but I got it done without cussing. (In fact, I haven’t cussed once today! I’ve enjoyed every minute of my spring cleaning “workout.”) Then I pulled away from the wall the habitat, aquarium and rat maze boxes the rats were residing in (they sleep during the day, most of the time) and vacuumed and cleaned the carpets thoroughly where they usually sit. I also washed the window sill that they run along and the walls behind their digs, because I wanted them to look pristine and new again.

 

 

Then it was time to bring in the new rat maze condo and encourage the ratties to migrate to it.  I pulled apart the older condo complex as they scurried for two smaller boxes at its base, then I placed the smaller boxes on the ferret/rat habitat so they could take their own sweet time checking out the new digs. Half of them did so readily; the other half had to be coaxed and one had to be evicted. (I gently lifted her out and set her before a condo rat hole, into which she disappeared pretty fast.)

 

Right now I hear them giggling (rats giggle and laugh!) and traipsing around in their new condo complex, checking things out…

 

It’s time to turn out the den light now so they can have their time in the dark doing the ratty things that rats do when no one is around to make them wary. (The cats go out of the room at night, but I never see any rat poop on the floor, ever. They stay right where they are supposed to.)

 

Rat giggles are precious!