Gated community

I caught one of the dogs "snacking" from a litter box, plus one of the cats can no longer jump onto the cabinet where their food towers are. So I purchased and installed another gate to make the laundry room (a.k.a. kitty litter room) off limits to the dogs while providing a place where one of the catfood towers can be on the floor. My bedroom is also gated, after one too many incidents of puke on the bed, to keep the cats out. The gates are a necessary evil in this household.

The final version of the landscape design arrived. The layout of the beds in the backyard is better, but there seems to be an awful lot of big shrubs crammed into the area along the back fence. Also, no hickory tree. I haven't had a chance to look at it in detail yet, so have yet to form an opinion about the differences between the first draft and this one. That's on my to-do list.

I continue to chase the starlings away from the mealworm feeder; yesterday my granddaughter helped. Even blue jays help themselves to the mealworms, while the bluebirds occasionally snack on the bark butter.

The weather continues to confound. The ground is frozen, but then it rained, so there are puddles on top of the frozen turf. It's a mess.