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cimoreneWe urgently needed to make screen inserts for the openable windows last summer, but we never got around to it because the renovations were still going on over here and we were still camping miserably in the other side of the house. Now summer is here and we want to open more of the windows, with increasing urgency, but we haven't made any (there are no handy premade options).
The cheap and rickety solution in Finland usually involves a sort of polyester netting glued into the openings with stick-on velcro tape around the edges. This mostly keeps bugs out, but it can't keep determined cats in. So we've reinforced the one next to the kitties' kitchen hangout cushions by sticking a big square that's one side of a yard compost cage in front of the netting, which is sufficient to keep Tristana from breaking out;
Tristana snuggling Snookums's butt, taken yesterday from outside the kitchen window and showing the edges of the compost cage
and Wax wedged a square of hardware cloth over the netting in the small window next to our bed but it's not actually fastened in.
The one that was already in the house is netting stapled to a frame of 1x1s with a single center brace and fits exactly in the opening of the livingroom or diningroom windows (not all the windows are the same size however), so we have to buy a new staplegun and a bunch more 1x1s and make more of these once we have extra money for lumber. Not this weekend, however. So in the meanwhile just those three windows are open; we can't use the balcony because it's not catproofed, and we need a new staplegun for that too.
Our house is situated so that one quarter of the downstairs has a single north window and remains cool all day in the summer (this was the room that was too cold to hang out in during winter because the single radiator isn't working), and we can affect the temperature of the adjoining two rooms just by opening the doors to it. The livingroom has north and west windows, and it's lighter and a tad warmer but also doesn't get direct summer sunshine, though if it gets hot later in the year we may have to put a bunny play oasis in the diningroom instead.
Tristana has become a GIANT pain to go outside with. Snookums moseys around and munches on grass, and occasionally lies down if he finds a nice spot. Tristana doesn't disdain his superior knowledge and she does TRY to learn how to eat grass after his example, but she's just so amazed by all the majesty of nature and the big green playground that she spends MOST of the time running around:
I say running, but she doesn't run; she hops. It's like she's a tiny miniature gazelle, pronking or - gamboling?. She either takes these jumps at a nice jaunty Bambi-in-springtime rhythm, or like a bat out of hell. Here's a video of her leaping around the yard at the slower speed. (There are more still images of the little mischief vs. the great outdoors here.)
The cheap and rickety solution in Finland usually involves a sort of polyester netting glued into the openings with stick-on velcro tape around the edges. This mostly keeps bugs out, but it can't keep determined cats in. So we've reinforced the one next to the kitties' kitchen hangout cushions by sticking a big square that's one side of a yard compost cage in front of the netting, which is sufficient to keep Tristana from breaking out;
Tristana snuggling Snookums's butt, taken yesterday from outside the kitchen window and showing the edges of the compost cage
and Wax wedged a square of hardware cloth over the netting in the small window next to our bed but it's not actually fastened in.
The one that was already in the house is netting stapled to a frame of 1x1s with a single center brace and fits exactly in the opening of the livingroom or diningroom windows (not all the windows are the same size however), so we have to buy a new staplegun and a bunch more 1x1s and make more of these once we have extra money for lumber. Not this weekend, however. So in the meanwhile just those three windows are open; we can't use the balcony because it's not catproofed, and we need a new staplegun for that too.
Our house is situated so that one quarter of the downstairs has a single north window and remains cool all day in the summer (this was the room that was too cold to hang out in during winter because the single radiator isn't working), and we can affect the temperature of the adjoining two rooms just by opening the doors to it. The livingroom has north and west windows, and it's lighter and a tad warmer but also doesn't get direct summer sunshine, though if it gets hot later in the year we may have to put a bunny play oasis in the diningroom instead.
Tristana has become a GIANT pain to go outside with. Snookums moseys around and munches on grass, and occasionally lies down if he finds a nice spot. Tristana doesn't disdain his superior knowledge and she does TRY to learn how to eat grass after his example, but she's just so amazed by all the majesty of nature and the big green playground that she spends MOST of the time running around:
I say running, but she doesn't run; she hops. It's like she's a tiny miniature gazelle, pronking or - gamboling?. She either takes these jumps at a nice jaunty Bambi-in-springtime rhythm, or like a bat out of hell. Here's a video of her leaping around the yard at the slower speed. (There are more still images of the little mischief vs. the great outdoors here.)
