Cats and Chickens

 We have had a couple of rainy days, the first in a long time, but the smoke is gone and we have so enjoyed those kittens.  I guess they are still kittens, as they are about 5 months old.  Bogey is so much bigger than Birdie and is growing fast.  They have voracious appetites.  I miss my little Coalette, but Bogey has such a similar personality and except for the little bit of white that she had, he looks so much like her.  Both are short haired though.  Birdie does not like to cuddle and she shows so many hunting qualities in addition to wanting to be outside.  She cannot ever be out though as that is the agreement we made and I don't want anything to happen to her.  We see lots of cats here and know that everyone protects them, but still?

They will sleep together and she is grooming him above, and below, she is helping me to paint these small birdhouses which I about ready to post in my next blog.  

I walked this morning with my neighbor, Vida and she had pictures of the "Chicken Gathering Aprons".  She has made a few, working on one also for her 3 year old grand daughter. 

This is a picture I took a few days ago when she brought one over for me to see.  They are turning out so cute. How I remember trying to gather eggs with my sister, Joan.  Those darn chickens loved to peck you when you tried to move them and get the eggs.  Joan would always keep the chickens away while I gathered the eggs, but how much fun would it have been to have one of these aprons with the individual pockets for each egg.  

"The chicken may cross the road, but nobody crosses the chicken." ~ ?

Guess what?

 Do you know what this is?  I had never heard of it either. I grew up with a lot of different farm animals.  Dad bought me a small inflatable pool for a birthday when I was small and some baby ducks.  Of course, I thought the pool was for wading, and I probably did do that, but I think he really thought it would be used more for the ducks.  It was I suspect, although I don't remember for sure.  We had a nanny goat who had a pair of twins and he built harnesses and put leashes of sorts on them which we paraded up and down the road.  I remember that.  Our dad was always doing something fun.  But this item, not a mask which we are all wearing now, is a chicken jacket or saddle as they are sometimes called.  I walk most mornings with my neighbor, Vida, and she asked me if I would be interested in making some chicken jackets.

I had to ask what they were and when she explained that they are to protect the chickens when they are pecked by other chickens.  I do remember that does happen.  Sometimes they will just pick on one chicken and bully them.  Anyway, her mom who lived in Louisiana has chickens and she is making them for her.  She bought the fabric above and I had some quilted fabric for the lining and the rope elastic.  I pulled a pattern from Pinterest and we have made a few.  The other thing she bought fabric for was "egg gathering aprons".  Now that is a brilliant idea.  The UTUBE video we watched has 12 pockets, one each for an egg. The fabric she bought was so cute--several different prints with chickens and even here, lots of people have chickens.  I am anxious to see her aprons. 

The air quality is back to normal now and we have had a few sprinkling rains at night so things are fresh and green.  

"If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens." ~ Grandma Moses

Walk About

 My neighbor and I walk nearly every morning.  She has lived here quite a while although she is from New Orleans.  Most days we take a different route and we are so lucky to be able to do that.  Yesterday we walked near Long Lake and the smoke from all of the forest fires left a pretty picture with the sunrise over the lake.  However, our state as well as the nation is suffering with these fires and so many evacuations are in order.  We have lost entire small towns almost.  

I feel like a kindergartener as I find so many things unfamiliar to me.  In the small island across the drive from me stands a very large conifer.  It is a Norwegian tree of sorts and this is a green cone.  They grow upright and with the sap glistening in the sunlight, remind me of ornaments on a tree.  I am told that when it matures the individual petal-like pieces come off the cone and are about 2" wide.  I will get some dried ones to post later.  I am fascinated by this tree.  We had a breeze yesterday and the yard, driveway, deck and streets are covered with fir cones.  As soon as the smoke diminishes, I will be raking.  The Mr. did get the blower and used it on the back deck and driveway.

This is a front yard snap of one we passed on our walk yesterday.  I want it!!! I have always wanted to do something like this.  I think it is adorable. For my girlfriends who spent years crafting with me for days at a time, I did not have any glass totems or yard art to bring with me, but my master gardener friend here knew I wanted to do a piece or two and brought me 6 cardboard boxes.  Yes...6 boxes.  Girls, remember when we scrounged the Goodwill, the flea markets and the yard sales?  It is overwhelming to say the least and I will have to get busy and use some if it.  I miss you guys.  While some of you are experiencing the cold weather snap, it is currently 90 degrees here.  Still we have had no rain.  I was told by some that I would have moss growing on my back.  I am just slathering sun screen and sitting in front of the fan.  We are expected to have a cool down though I think soon.

New Family members

Look at these babies!  We have been without fur babies since we lost our two little dogs, Spencer and Roger earlier this year.  Really, we have sheltered at home mostly like everyone else and have great neighbors with whom we get some socialization, but missed the critters. As long as we have been married, we usually have given homes to some sort of animal, but when the humans moved out as offspring do, canine and feline animal continued to fill our hearts.  At last, we decided it was time to shelter with a cat.  The animal shelters are really low on critters but there are lots of rescues in this area.  At the shop where I meet with a few others gals for a couple of hours on Fridays, my mentor gave me names of a couple with which I could check. I called last week and left my number. A call was returned on Saturday morning and after speaking with a woman named Jo, we were invited to come that afternoon.  Intending to come home possibly with one cat, we were introduced to several adult cats and waited for some kittens to arrive from a foster home. Soooooo----above you see the male black kitten Bogey, and his sister, Birdie who are 4 months old.  We fell in love with them and they came home with us.  A bag and cans of food, dishes, and litter were also included and they have been chipped, neutered, and vaccinated.  Immediately they have made themselves at home and they have been socialized as lap kitties already.  Playing with each other, napping, eating and spending human time with us after just a few hours leads us to believe that this is a perfect match for all of us.  

"There are two means of refuge from the misery of life--music and cats."~ Albert Schweitzer 

Yard update

I am still trying to figure out all of these new formats...Leave things alone.  I have said that I am not a fan of Facebook but have had to log back on after many years of absence in order to stay in touch with the events here during this pandemic.  I do not post normally and only check in about once a week with my journal group.  I will call some friends when I find time, but we stay really, really busy and are very content with our current situation.  I walk every morning with my neighbor and we are in a safe little bubble with our routines and friends and daughter-in-law here.  The weather has been wonderful!  I love it!  Yesterday our new refrigerator arrived!  Our old huge thing was a monster in this small kitchen and limped along for the week until the new one arrived.  Thank goodness for our freezer in the garage.  If I had gotten what I wanted exactly, I would have had to wait for 6 months as the factories are also affected by the virus.  I have been playing in the dirt.  For as long as I can remember, I have loved working in the yard and I especially like to terrace and work with stones and bricks.  Each yard has usually had a pond, but I am over that and with all of the trees, the upkeep would be too much.

The top picture shows the latest redo of the first idea below.  As I accumulate more plants, the design changes and I really like paths.

 We had our first rain in weeks two days ago.  It was getting dry here.  And our sprinkler system developed a mind of its' own.  The last time we watered, our street got a drenching as the sprinklers were going around in a circle.  Watering late evening, we did not notice it until dark.  The Mr. is spending the day on that. He had begun to tear out shelving in the storage shed in order to make it function better for us and he installed an outside water faucet for our daughter so needless to say, there were several trips to the home repair stores and some projects are in pause mode.  I had a crown to have done at the dentist and a Dr. visit and again, we stay really busy and safe!  I always intend to get back to this blog more often, but life gets in the way!  We are blessed!  

Yard evolving

 Above is the beautiful Hydrangea, a gift from my wonderful daughter.  We could not easily grow them in the high and cold climate of Wyoming, and I have always thought they were just beautiful.  Well, my yards are blank canvases and she now has joined a Master Gardener group and as such was eligible to shop at their sale.  She purchased a great many plants during the two sales so far and she picked this beauty as well as another limey hosta for me.  I pray that I can keep them alive!

These two pictures merged together and since I am and always will be a little tech challenged, bear with me.  In the first above, you can see where the Mr. installed a piece of lattice to the two remaining posts previously holding up the clubhouse.  It provides a little bit of privacy from the neighbor's yard.  They are wonderful people and although we are in an HOA, it is very liberal and 40 years of accumulated "stuff" in their yard was somewhat hidden by the elevated clubhouse.  The remaining lumber was taken to our daughter's home and she has begun building a potting bench with it.  She also has room which we lack to store it and there was a lot of valuable lumber there.  Then in the lower picture, my first "Hobbit" home has begun to take shape.  I am not sure what I will do with this in the future, but we have lots of trees and moss and rocks.  My buddies in Wyo and I spent time in our gardens and we did make some fairy gardens so this is the perfect yard for that too.  Other than working in the yard, we shelter at home, visit with our neighbors and I walk with another neighbor who happens to share a quilting interest with me.  It has been a blessing to have such a great neighborhood.  Everyone is so friendly and really our life has not been affected all that much from all that has been happening around us. 

"Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own." ~ Chuck Yeager

 

Clubhouse update

Gee Whiz Blogger has updated it's site and this ol' lady struggled to figure out how to post again.  We have spent the better part of the last few days on the yard.  I say "we", but it has been mostly the Mr. with my bit of comment.  The roof of the clubhouse came off and as the disassembly began, the structure became a bit shaky.  There is a great deal of wood in this house of sorts and there was a little bit of remnants of what it has been to the neighbor children who are grown up now.  A piece of artwork on cardboard and an old planter in the shape of an owl and a few other pieces of a prior life were up there.  

Below, all that is left are the four posts, two in our yard and two in the neighbor's as the fence ran under the house.  Those will come down this week and the deck just to the lower right in this picture has half of the new paint on the base, so that also needs to get finished.  The structure above was nailed and screwed together, so the nails were more time consuming to remove than the screws, but it still has been labor intensive.

My neighbors, whose home you can see, own an accounting business.  With the delayed tax date and the virus and the economic stimulus issues, they have worked tirelessly until the first of this month.  So, they are taking a much needed vacation, camping at a lake with family.  The four furkids, two dogs and two cats are staying home.  One of their employees will come to feed and walk the dogs, but one dog needs meds at night and I am going to see to that.  I did go over last night to see how that was done and the critters are so friendly.  I have been around one of the dogs, who is overweight and loves to play, but the border collie has issues and is pretty aloof.  She is the one who needs a pill and eye drops.  She did let me do that last evening and I will do it again tonight and let them out before they retire for the night.  Frankly, I am glad to get a critter fix and still miss my fur babies and happy that I have been trusted to do this.

"Teach us delight in SIMPLE things."~Rudyard Kipling