Whitey Has Moved Out
Mar. 8th, 2021 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thagirionThings have been so crazy busy since the whole thing with the roof started at the end of last year. The ceilings were done on March 3rd, three days later. I had a doctor's appointment during that mess so they took lunch while we went to do that. I was not happy they were smokers and though they didn't smoke in my house, I'd never allow that, they stunk and the smell got everywhere. I'd rather deal with paint fumes. They were surprised I told them this. I hate that addiction so much and they could have been done sooner if they didn't take so many smoke breaks too. We had lunch on the patio because our kitchen was separated from the rest of the house. So that was an adventure but kinda nice to eat in the greenhouse with all my birds. I'm glad it's finally over now. I think today I can start working on the video. And so began the clean up work on the 4th as there was dust and debris EVERYWHERE. I started by cleaning the two hanging lamps in the livingroom and kitchen that they didn't cover and got covered in ceiling mud. But yeah wow all the rooms look WAY better now. The only rooms left that still have popcorn are the entrance way which is tiny and Chris's room. After seeing how they did it I think we can do it ourselves and take our time with it. It would be an undertaking of itself because we would have to box up our huge collection there. But it may be good too as we majorly need to dust in there.
So my poor birds. Physically they are fine. They had no ill effects that way other than Whitey got a bit of dieria. She might have nibbled on a plant out there. She's better now. BUT Minion took it hard and was not happy to be separated from me. It was very clear he was mad at me. He stopped talking to me and went into a corner and would not step on. He was always so happy to jump on my finger. Or if I walked in he'd jump on the walls of the cage and follow me around. He LOOOOVES me. The second day on the patio he started talking again but only to his swing and still didn't want to come to me or come out. Emma and Nitro on the other hand reacted favorably wanting to be with me and would jump on me and were both kissing my face. Emma and Nitro fight a lot and Whitey has become very stressed because she gets picked on. This was going on before we moved them to the patio. So once I cleaned the budgie apartment and brought them back inside I added a new cage. Here's what it looks like.
Nautica is not in the top cage. She was visiting Minion. Second cage down is a blue one that belongs now exclusively to Whitey. Minion is still in his pink cage on the second floor. And now Emma and Nitro have been demoted to the first floor. That's what I meant by Whitey has moved out. She got better almost instantly. I have started working with her because despite being a hand fed baby she's almost wild. She's afraid of everything. I guess mean sisters can do that. But fast progress was made and she now has learned to step up and stay on my hand almost 80% of the time. We're working on touching her which she lets me with the question of "Can I touch your ______________ ?" Fill in the blank with whatever body part: foot, wing, back, tail or beak. This works incredibly well. I call it "asking permission" and my birds that learn this won't let you touch them first unless you ask first. I first started this with Minion as he used to be a scardy bird. It's a discovery and never seen anyone use this training method. I didn't set out to use a training method I just treat my birds like people. I act as though they already understand me. Also with Minion I have learned that he is learning a language. English and they do understand things. I've always known this but never had a bird of any kind with such a huge vocabulary. I know a lot of people learn languages and can't speak but understand. Seems budgies are this way too. Anyway, Minion is not quite normal still after being "banished" to the patio. He's talking like normal but he's hesitant to step up, doesn't seem to have the enthusiasm he used to have at seeing me. One thing he used to do all the time that I loved was when I entered the room if he was on his swing was, he'd jump off making the swing hit the wall loudy and he'd scream. I don't know if he was saying YAY or if he was trying to scare me each time I came in the room. Whitey began to do this too so it was quite the greeting having two budgies scream and jump out at me just for walking in the door. Minion doesn't do this anymore. I miss it. I used to say, "What the, budgie? Are you trying to scare me?" So now I come in the room and make a big deal about Minion. I hope I can get my out going budgie back.
It has dawned on me too that I can slowly start to bring stuff out of storage. Yesterday we finished fixing up the garage and were finally able to put the jeep back inside. The garage is loads better than when I started cleaning it back in 2016. But I feel like all I do is clean and fix the stupid garage. Luckily this time it only took four days to fix and not years. All the work we did since getting my mom's junk did help us a lot for this. We're still getting rid of stuff but wow do things look better than ever. Will we ever be done? I think so. It took my mom 50 years to "collect" everything she owned. Stands to reason I would not be able to be rid of it in a day. A year per decade I guess makes sense. We've been focusing on the stuff we've accumulated and I think once we get rid of that stuff, nowhere near what mom's things were, I think we will finally be done. This is the smallest storage unit we've rented so that's a good sign. As for the work we still have to dusk and mop everything. Our shoes are white underneath from the powder mess that was left behind. But we were so sick of everything, remember we're both 100% introverted, that we sent off the workers and told them not to bother with final clean up. We just wanted to be left alone after 3 non stop days of "company".
.
So my poor birds. Physically they are fine. They had no ill effects that way other than Whitey got a bit of dieria. She might have nibbled on a plant out there. She's better now. BUT Minion took it hard and was not happy to be separated from me. It was very clear he was mad at me. He stopped talking to me and went into a corner and would not step on. He was always so happy to jump on my finger. Or if I walked in he'd jump on the walls of the cage and follow me around. He LOOOOVES me. The second day on the patio he started talking again but only to his swing and still didn't want to come to me or come out. Emma and Nitro on the other hand reacted favorably wanting to be with me and would jump on me and were both kissing my face. Emma and Nitro fight a lot and Whitey has become very stressed because she gets picked on. This was going on before we moved them to the patio. So once I cleaned the budgie apartment and brought them back inside I added a new cage. Here's what it looks like.
Nautica is not in the top cage. She was visiting Minion. Second cage down is a blue one that belongs now exclusively to Whitey. Minion is still in his pink cage on the second floor. And now Emma and Nitro have been demoted to the first floor. That's what I meant by Whitey has moved out. She got better almost instantly. I have started working with her because despite being a hand fed baby she's almost wild. She's afraid of everything. I guess mean sisters can do that. But fast progress was made and she now has learned to step up and stay on my hand almost 80% of the time. We're working on touching her which she lets me with the question of "Can I touch your ______________ ?" Fill in the blank with whatever body part: foot, wing, back, tail or beak. This works incredibly well. I call it "asking permission" and my birds that learn this won't let you touch them first unless you ask first. I first started this with Minion as he used to be a scardy bird. It's a discovery and never seen anyone use this training method. I didn't set out to use a training method I just treat my birds like people. I act as though they already understand me. Also with Minion I have learned that he is learning a language. English and they do understand things. I've always known this but never had a bird of any kind with such a huge vocabulary. I know a lot of people learn languages and can't speak but understand. Seems budgies are this way too. Anyway, Minion is not quite normal still after being "banished" to the patio. He's talking like normal but he's hesitant to step up, doesn't seem to have the enthusiasm he used to have at seeing me. One thing he used to do all the time that I loved was when I entered the room if he was on his swing was, he'd jump off making the swing hit the wall loudy and he'd scream. I don't know if he was saying YAY or if he was trying to scare me each time I came in the room. Whitey began to do this too so it was quite the greeting having two budgies scream and jump out at me just for walking in the door. Minion doesn't do this anymore. I miss it. I used to say, "What the, budgie? Are you trying to scare me?" So now I come in the room and make a big deal about Minion. I hope I can get my out going budgie back.
It has dawned on me too that I can slowly start to bring stuff out of storage. Yesterday we finished fixing up the garage and were finally able to put the jeep back inside. The garage is loads better than when I started cleaning it back in 2016. But I feel like all I do is clean and fix the stupid garage. Luckily this time it only took four days to fix and not years. All the work we did since getting my mom's junk did help us a lot for this. We're still getting rid of stuff but wow do things look better than ever. Will we ever be done? I think so. It took my mom 50 years to "collect" everything she owned. Stands to reason I would not be able to be rid of it in a day. A year per decade I guess makes sense. We've been focusing on the stuff we've accumulated and I think once we get rid of that stuff, nowhere near what mom's things were, I think we will finally be done. This is the smallest storage unit we've rented so that's a good sign. As for the work we still have to dusk and mop everything. Our shoes are white underneath from the powder mess that was left behind. But we were so sick of everything, remember we're both 100% introverted, that we sent off the workers and told them not to bother with final clean up. We just wanted to be left alone after 3 non stop days of "company".
.