Vacation

The alarm panel is to the left of the front door, directly in front of the stairs when you enter and should look as follows:

In the event unlocking the door does not disarm the system, you will hear the door tone going off to remind you that the system is armed. To disarm the system, tap the “Armed Away” tile on the panel to bring up the system options:

Next tap “Disarm” in the system options to bring up the keypad and enter the same code you use for the door.

To arm the system change the mode to away. You’ll have 60 seconds to leave and must leave through the front door only.

To arm the system for away, tap the mode tile, select “Away”, and enter the same code you use to unlock the door and disarm the system. You’ll hear the chime going off to let you know the system is arming, and the HSM status tile will change to “Arming Away”.

To check for open contacts, see the alert tree on the right side of the dashboard. Tiles are interactive and will take you to the correct menu when tapped. To return to the main dashboard from the submenu, tap “The Mays” tile.

Lucy (golden retriever), Liam (black Aussie), and Leo (blue merle Aussie).

Water is in the master bathroom and in a fountain in the laundry room. They get fed twice daily. Food is in the bins under the kitchen bar; Liam and Leo get food from the container marked “Puppies” and Lucy’s food is in the other container.

• Liam and Leo each get 1 red cup of food morning and evening
• Lucy gets 1 full green cup morning and evening. In the morning she also gets 1 pack of the Purina calming care sprinkled over her food.

You will have to watch them while they eat to make sure they do not switch bowls. Liam and Leo both prefer the puppy food that Lucy gets, and it will sometimes cause a disagreement. If Lucy walks away and does not show any interest, just put her bowl up on the counter.

They are allowed to have treats sparingly; they are in the bully box on the counter.

They can go out into the back yard; we just make sure that the gate to the chicken coop is closed and latched as Lucy can jump through the fence and get in the front yard. While you are at work or away, they get closed in the master bedroom.

Lucy can get a little possessive and dominant, especially towards Liam. Trips also tend to stress them out a little. They do not typically make a mess in the house, but the last couple of trips we have taken they have not been particularly good about that. We will leave plenty of towels and cleaning supplies out just in case.

They also, for some reason, do not like the bedroom rug. If they tear it up that’s fine; it was a $5 rug.

Einstein (large brown fluffy one), Snowflake (Siamese)

They have a water bowl outside on the front porch, and food and water in the garage. They only get fed in the garage nightly. Their food is in the garage with the food and water bowls, and we just make sure the food bowl is filled up and has food each evening when they come in.

Both cats need to come inside at night; they will usually come once it gets dark or if you shake the food bowl. There is a gray stray that has been fighting with them overnight, so we only feed them inside. If for some reason Einstein does not come in when you first call or shake the food bowl, give it a bit and try again. If, for some reason, neither cat shows up it is okay if they stay outside overnight, we just try to get them in, so they don’t get beat up.

They have a litter box in the garage; you do not have to scoop it. If you notice the indicator lights are flashing alternating colors, just hit the “Reset” button, then the “Cycle” button to do a manual cycle once a day.

Food goes in the silver container on the floor of the chicken run and water is in the hanging bucket (it is heated to keep from freezing). The food is in the metal trash can on the back porch. They get 4 cups of food once daily, and we use the 5-gallon bucket to fill the water container as needed.

Eggs are free for the taking. If they are laying you can usually find them in the nesting boxes on the side of the coop. If you have not had farm eggs before, they are good for up to 60 days on the counter if unwashed; if washed they are good in the fridge for 14 days.

If the temperature outside gets below 25℃, they will need to have their coop door closed overnight to prevent frostbite. Close it using the string on the front of the coop; you may have to go into the run and pull it down to get it to close. It may not close all the way, but as long as it is closed mostly it will be fine. You will also need to unhook the front vent on the coop door and close it; it will not close flush, but the main thing is to help reduce the drafts. They can go out again in the morning.

They get fed ~1 tablespoon of fish food once a day; lights are automatic.

The Christmas tree in the living room will need watered as needed; most likely once a day and tap water is fine. All other plants should be fine for the week.

The upstairs TV remote is plugged in and sitting on the console below the TV. To watch TV, pick up the remote to wake the remote screen and tap “Watch Roku”. This will turn on the TV and the receiver and bring you to the Roku screen. If the Roku screensaver is on, hit the “Home” button on the touchscreen to wake the Roku. Most of our movies are on Plex or Vudu, but we also have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount Plus, and a few others. To turn all the equipment off, tap the “Off” button at the top of the remote.

The bedroom TV remote is on the nightstand; to turn it on hit the “back” button on the Roku remote.

If you choose to watch a movie in the theater, use the white Xbox remote. Press and hold the Xbox home button in the center of the remote to turn on the Xbox and projector, lower the screen, and turn on the receiver. To turn everything off, repeat that and when the power off menu appears select “Turn console off”; the receiver and console will turn off and the screen and projector will power down.

Feel free to use one of the computers if needed (you’ll need a Microsoft account to sign in).

Most of the lights on the main level can be voice-activated by waking Alexa:

• Kitchen: “Alexa, turn on/off kitchen lights”
• Living room: “Alexa, turn on/off main living room lights”
• Bedroom: “Alexa, turn on/off bedroom light” or “Alexa, turn on/off living room lamp” (lamp has been rehomed while the Christmas tree is in the living room

Some are run by automations, and if lights are turned on automatically (some of the motion lighting), they will turn off after a set time or a time determined by the routine. All will turn off (except for low-level lighting and the outside low voltage lighting) at 10:00 each night. Ambient lighting (counter lightstrips and backlighting) are handled by motion sensors and weather automations only.