They are still removing trees in our village today so the ferrets are upset again because of the noises. They hate the chipper, and dislike the bobcats, backhoes and plows being used to get this done -- but what they really, really, really can not stand are the saws. I really thought they finished with that work close enough for the ferrets to hear yesterday, but I was wrong so Pivot especially is upset again. I will go play with her so hard that she crashes and then can ignore it then get back to this. (hiatus) Orville and Kessy have mostly adjusted as long as the saws are not going. Those two get a little nervous for the chipper still if it is close, though, but not at all like before. Still with 156 trees down from Superstorm Sandy in our condo village (with shy of 200 homes so that projects to perhaps 750 trees down in the entire 1,000 home condo complex) it is obvious why the work is going on so long. (The estimate I read for the number of trees down in yards in our township itself is at least 10,000, and whole swaths of the woods are down with us being able to clearly see a ridge to our south for the first time in the 27 years we have been here.) The other trick we are trying with nervous Pivot and the rest is that we are taking the ferrets periodically to the basement in carry cages when we are there, too. They stay in the cages, but are not alone. The ferrets also need to get used to being in the basement due to noise because roofs are going to have to be replaced here, and HOPEFULLY after 27 years we will finally get rid of this old builders grade carpeting (which was supposed to last 6 years) and finally go to the tiles we picked out. We gave up on the idea of an apron of tile with wood in the center for the LR and will go with all marble look tile and also bullnose tiles along the walls at the base because they are the most affordable and attractive solution for the money as well as being easy to clean and not having the outgassing problems of current carpets and fake tiles so also the healthiest. Contractors are making higher money now because with all the construction need after Sandy there is extra demand for them which means the flooring now may not be able to be done till next year. We'll see what happens on that score. I really, really, really want to finally not be embarrassed by the flooring any longer so we plan to go ahead and use some of what I inherited from Dad for that; I want to once again have guests over who are not used to things being used to threadbare. The roofs here are having to be replaced much sooner than budgeted and saved for by the association because it was discovered that when the original and now defunct builder which put in the replacement roofs -- after putting in the wrong plywood originally -- failed to provide sufficient ventilation and the current roofs now have to be redone properly and early with approved modifications for ventilation, so that will be another $4,000 or $5,000 next year. Thank goodness the ferrets are healthy and young enough that we are unlikely to have major bills for them this coming year. Anyway, we are working on getting the ferrets BOTH used to the sounds of all the work going on and having them realize that the noises do not spell disaster AND we are getting them used to being in the basement in a large carry cage as an option during some of the work and to prep them for later work, so the ferrets are learning some things they would rather not have learned but need to learn and both are for their benefit. Hugs to Alexandra's family members who are among the rescue workers volunteering at the hardest hit portions of the coast in both NJ and NY. If people missed these resources below they are well done and be reassured that our local area was not as badly hit as the ones in the show which had the flooding as well as the unrelenting winds so we just mostly had long term power loss and trees down (though sadly the storm did much worse to some people locally), whereas some places at the coast were leveled, some other places at the coast burned, at least one area had to be evacuated and might need to be condemned due to a flooded sewage processing plant burying those neighborhoods in raw sewage, a number of places still standing in NJ and NY still lack potable water and power three weeks after the storm, some whole towns are still closed to all but emergency workers except for short term trips for people to check what remains and get out what they can carry, and more with some of that far worse: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/inside-the-megastorm.html (airing on PBS Wed, the 21st, which should be the day of this digest) https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/opinion/8243/hybridization-sandy Thank goodness for the members of the military, the national guard, and the volunteers who are helping people in horrid straits get through all this. FEMA has also been helping but the sum in the hundreds of millions allocated by Congress is much less than the billions of dollars in damage and FEMA needs some upgrades in how operations are administered, and hopefully insurance bought by people will make up enough of the difference to at least deal with economic losses since nothing works for the other losses. Yes, I am still feeling this a lot so thanks for letting me vent. People here have all been helping each other but many of us are still wound rather tightly. I think that some now think of Steve as much in relation to him bringing around food to neighbors and workers as anything else... Sukie (not a vet) Ferrets make the world a game. Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.miamiferret.org/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) A nation is as free as the least within it. [Posted in FML 7617]