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:

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 your door code.

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 each get ~1/3 cup of food morning and evening
• Lucy gets 1 full cup morning and evening.

They are allowed to have treats sparingly; they are in the bark 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. Lately they have not made any messes in the house and actually refuse to do so; trips may be a different story. 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 fountain outside on the front porch by the cart and a food bowl. Food is inside by the front door; they get fed in the morning; I do not feed them later in the evening since we’ve got a raccoon that has taken up residence and will steal their food if given the chance.

They both stay outside and tend to wander; you may or may not see Einstein daily.

Food goes in the silver container in the chicken run and water is in the blue bucket on the side of the coop. Food is in the trash can in the garden area; they get ~4 cups daily.

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.

They’ve kicked out the straw we just put in; they’ll be fine until we get back but will probably squash an egg or two.

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

If it does not rain during the week water the planters on the patio every 2-3 days and the vegetable garden around mid-week. Hanging baskets on the front porch need a good watering daily in the morning. The cactus on the front porch and back deck and orchids need water mid-week.

The upstairs TV remote is on the TV console. To watch TV, use the scroll wheel to wake the screen and select “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. 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.

The Xbox Series X is the black remote with the keypad. Same apps are available in addition to the Harry Potter and Elden Ring games. You’ll have to manually turn on the projector and receiver, and change the receiver input.

The office computer has a guest account if needed.

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 master bedroom outlet”

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.

The pool pump is on a timer and will turn off ~9pm and on ~9am. The filter basket must be cleaned daily, especially if Lucy gets in the pool. Just pull it out and empty it in the yard. You will not have to adjust chemicals or shock; it’s salt water and will handle itself.

If you use the pool just make sure to roll the solar blanket back out; the cooler temps at night are making it a challenge to keep it warm.