Cats and Kitten working hard

Cleaning of the Fireplace. You can see here how they all let DS know how to do this job correctly, as giant kittens don't always listen.
Here Mia is pointing out what he is not doing right and is showing him the proper way.

Just ironed shirts smell good and are way too clean, little cat hair is needed!

A Long Thanksgiving Day~

We weren't sure what we were going to do for the day at first but I did find out the Zoo was having a special and folks could get in for free. Free's good!

Christopher and I made the pumpkin pies the night before,, he made the crust which turned out very well and I made the filling. So that was taken care of. We had a Organic Turkey breast for dinner but that will not take long to cook.

Thanksgiving morning was pretty cold about 34*, however we decided to bundle up and go to the Zoo early in the morning anyway.Was fairly crowded but not bad being how cold it was. DH rented me a scooter so I could also enjoy the zoo and off we went. Captured a few photos but think my Evolt 510 is going down hill. My old Nikon cp4300 can now take better photos than the 510. Guess back to the shop it will have to go.
We did enjoy the Zoo outing.

Back home DH and DS started with the main part of our dinner,,, then Sadie our orange cat was not feeling well. She was not fed any kind of human food, was nothing for her to get into.
We had our dinner and Sadie was getting worse. Figures.. on a Holiday when finding a Vet is extremely hard. I called up a local Vet hospital and get directions. It was about 1am at the time and DH & DS take Sadie to the hospital. Only.. they can't find it and they call the hospital again and there was no answer so they just come home.
8am the next morning we were on the road to our normal Vet and checked Sadie in. She stayed there all day and the Vets found out she had some kind of blockage, most likely a hair ball but the Vets managed to get it moved out without surgery, for which I was very glad. For a free kitten...she is sure getting very spendy but we love her any way.
So that is how our day went in a nut shell.

DS feeding the Lorikeets

New baby Elephant at the Zoo. Boy was it a jungle to get close enough to take pictures with my camera over my head!

Seems to be saying, "Go on~ Make my Day!".

Tiger, seems to be thinking humans would make tasty snacks.

Wood duck.

This Zoo mostly has warm clime animals, so the majority were inside because of the weather.

The Day in the Life of 3 Kittens ~

Mia and Nari telling DS not to hog the Fireplace!

Who says animals don't train people?

Let me tell you a little story about how a day goes, in the life of a Cat in this house.

I wake up, normally too early to let the Cats out of their room but they hear me. Let me know on no uncertain terms.. If I am out of my Room, so should they be! How do they let me know, they know... by scratching at their door or should say drumming at their door. Opening their door is not a simple thing, Oh No. Sadie the orange cat and Mia the 6 month old salt and pepper stripped kitten with mittens, have to have a contest to see who can get out of the room the fastest...doesn't matter if they run over the human or not...it shouldn't be standing in the way if the human was smart.

I normally sit down with my laptop and work on my Online stores after that race. But Sadie has to remind me, that she wants to be fed and fed now, doesn't matter if it isn't time for her breakfast. She's starving and that's the end of it, as far as she is concerned. If I don't pay attention fast enough she is not beyond jumping on my lap or chest, meowing and bouncing off, as I let out a OOOffff.
I let out a big "sigh" and go get a can of cat food, then the china bowls.. yes.. my good china dessert dishes get used for their morning breakfast..no they are not spoiled..........really. I make sure everyone stays at their bowl until they are finished.
And one would think this would be the end of the story but no.

They take their after breakfast bath, Sadie will sometimes comes over and give me a "Thank you Meow". Mia will usually trill at me. Nari just ignores me.

Now it is Nari's turn.... she will slowly strut over to the fireplace and give me that look,, you know "that look" that cats give when they want you to do something. Sometimes I think they are using Cat ESP on us unsuspecting not so smart humans. She wants me to start a fire in the fireplace, for you see, she likes basking in its warmth. She is just lucky I happen to like having a fire going during a rainy day too. So I get the fire started and Nari has that smug happy look on her face.

So you say to yourself.. the story must now end here.....welll.. ah no. I leave Nari happily basking by the warmth of the Fire and then Mia wants to play fetch. Sigh ~~ OK fine.. will never get any work done in this house at this rate. So I play fetch with Mia for about 10 minutes, I throw her mouse head or paper airplane as far as I can in a house,, and she happily brings it back.. most of the time. Some times she wants to play tug a war... OK.. what cat likes to play,, tug a war?? She finally needs a break.
Now I can get a load of laundry in the machine, which I do and I come back out the door to the laundry room and there are 3 cats saying.. what are you doing can we help? Nari is the first to wonder off, like ok if you don't want my help...I will go back to my fire.

So, am I safe after this...no. I bring out my Bread machine and sit it on my new Kitchen hutch... then turn to the kitchen to get the things I need, turn back and I am standing there, looking dumbly and thinking to myself ..no..she wouldn't be that stupid, she knows the rules and staring out behind my bread machine, in one of my mixing bowls is Nari. OK.. what part of.. I thought she would be happy with the fire.. did "I" not understand? DS,, I say,, please get your Nari, off my Kitchen hutch,, out of my mixing bowl,,, that now needs to be washed.

Of course the minute I turn around,, Nari was again where she wasn't supposed to be.. and got it on picture, for all to see.


Big Sigh ~~

They finally settle down for their morning nap and I can sneak off to work on a painting. At least for awhile that is and until the 2nd stage starts, which is no less humorous.

Well, I have to say.. it is never boring having Cats in the house.

Click on DH picture to go to the Photo Album

Air and Now Space museum

The TomCat~ the fighter jet DH worked on when he was in the Navy.

Spruce Goose Tail, thing is so big you can't get it all in one shot.

My Favorite fighter!

Piece of the Berlin Wall

DH wonders at the Braveness of the Astronauts getting into something this small. Boggles the mind.

This is just a small sampling of the photos I took that day. And I do need a better flash...at least. Anyway.. I am going to get some kind of photo album going and will post the link as soon as I am done.

We ended up going to the Newly expanded "Air and Space museum" for our 22nd Anniversary, after my Mother called us up to wish us a Happy one. Because you see... we both forgot.

Just have been so busy with the farm and such it slipped our minds. LOL First time for everything!

Autumn in the Northwet

A story of an late afternoon, doing the animal chores and the adventure there within.

Man its wet... more than wet but I wouldn't know what to call it.

So we go out to do the animal chores..Jacket on..big ugly brown hat..yup. I go out with my clogs on..and come back in to get my Welly boots and put those on instead,,, then go back out to get the Alpaca's hay.
Look at the floor of the garage..think the next time we have a dry day I need to caulk the floor as the Garage door seal isn't working so well. Sigh ~~

So I trodge on to feed the alpaca's,,, drip goes between my eyes... my thoughts go rather like this.. DRIP... I didn't... DRIP.... remember to....DRIP ... re oil my.... Drip... fuee..fiff off the latest drop of water off my nose... my hat.. DRIP..... I sigh... again.. this time a bigger one.

Now the poor Alpaca's look like drown rats,,, do not think they liked me giggling at the way they looked but they got over it fast enough when I brought their hay and pellets out. Their shed.. thank goodness with the improvements I did over the summer, seems to be holding up. Get them put to bed and desided to take a look at the big main ditch.
(During this time,, DS is bringing in the horses from the main field.. even wet, they look less bedraggled than the Alpaca's do.)
and the big ditches are doing their job... So I slop back up the hill...I stop and stand there dumbly looking at the ground, while the water is rushing past my Wellies...... there is wayy..wayy.. too much water coming over the path. Have some french Drains around the house you see. Well anyway.. the Mole has been more than a bit of bother and blocked the last long run of the pipe up. Grumble.... grumble.. now to find something to unblock the rather impressive clay works this annoying little beastie has done. Well.. Da.. I think to myself.. I have a handy dandy cane... fast forward 10 minutes later, gone from just dripping to bloomin wet... I hear a satisfying.. slurp... and there goes that nasty little beasties clay works in a rush of rushing water...sounding a bit like a flushing toilet... LOL Hope the blighter drowns... as it sure isn't doing my leach field any favors either.

So I troudge onto the house Dripping all the way. Welcome to Autumn in the Northwet.. (Yes,, I know I miss placed the "S" ,, I think it floated down the hill) ..where the puddles have puddles and if you forget to oil your hat your head will get wet. :RollEyes

Makes me really wish for a nice big Barn, designed with a gimp in mind, with water and power, would make it so much easier and pleasant to do the chores.

Sorry no photos.. more like than not..the camera would of floated away.

Kitchen Hutch, Book and This and That

We were in bad need of more storage, for kitchen gadgets. Do not have a big house and the storage here is 1/2 what it was at the old place, even though the houses are the same size. Looked into possibly redoing the kitchen but decided that would cost way too much, even if we could do it ourselves. Have been eyeing this "Amish dry kitchen hutch" for awhile now and decided this would work just as well as a new kitchen, cost a whole lot less and it was on sale. Is nicely made American made Amish furniture and works just like I need it too. Now I have a place for my bread machine, food saver, handmade mixing bowls and my baking items. It also has a pull out butcher board, which will come in handy when I am cooking or putting up Veggies from the garden,as I normally do not have enough counter space to lay out the veggies to dry. Will also double as a writing desk when I do the bills.
For the first time since the accident I felt like I would be able to re arrange the living room...with a bit of help from the Men of the house of course. A good cleaning was an added bonus. I decided to move the TV hutch to the corner near the fireplace, moved DH old chair and so on. Can't tell you how nice it is to be able to finally, get at least part of our house, in order again.

DH hasn't had the time to add some short stories lately. He has been working long hours and little enough time for chores. Maybe as winter progresses...we can get him to write a story or two. But other than him being busy, he is doing well.

Everyone in the family loves to read.

Lately I decided to expand out to authors who's' I have never read before. My latest, is this really big Sci-Fi book from Peter Hamilton. Am about half way through and I have to say, this is really well written. Would recommend this one to anyone interested in Sci-Fi/Space sagas.