Mute Monday

A Hard-To-Shoot Cat

I know a few of you are interested in updates on our cat Bob (aka Bag O' Bones), who was a starving stray that showed up at our house last July.  When we decided to keep him, we moved him into our back yard, where he made himself right at home.  Last December, just before our first snowfall of the season, we decided to move him into our basement. 

He's a pet -- he has been declawed on his front paws and has been neutered -- so he really prefers to be indoors.  Although we'd like to let him stay in our main living area, our other cats won't tolerate a newbie, so the basement it must be.

We haven't weighed him, but you can see he's much more plump and healthy than he was when he first showed up.  We've been trying to brush him and have been cutting out matted fur, but his fur is just a mess no matter what we do. (I'm looking pretty messy myself in these shots, but enough about me).  He needs a bath, or at least to have his face and eyes wiped with a wash cloth, but we're waiting until it warms up a little before we get him wet.

He's definitely a lover boy and will let you hold him indefinitely.  Never -- not a single time -- has putting him down been his idea.

Bob doesn't make eye contact very often, so it's really hard to get a good shot of him.  Since he loves to be held, I decided a self-portrait shot might be the easiest way to capture a decent picture or two.

Friday Foto Fest with Random Ramblings

I caught Siesta drinking water from Shane's glass and trampling his blueprints.

Up On The Rooftop.

Shirt-sleeve weather on Dec. 1 and 2 was perfect weather
for hanging Christmas lights...

and waving to me while hanging on for dear life.

Blurry, but I like it!

End result.  The white blobs in front and center are deer.

New, thinner tree fits our room much better. 
Blob in front and center is Siesta.

Purple and gold.  We unintentionally picked our school colors.

  

Some days, all you can do is sleep...

or scowl.

Today's Post Brought To You By The Letter B: Bob, Backyard, Butterfly

It's been quite a while since I posted an update on skinny ol' Bob, the stray cat who adopted us in July.  It's hard to get a good picture of him because he doesn't look up when you talk to him and doesn't like to make eye contact.  But he's as sweet a cat as ever and is finally starting to look more like a cat than a bag of bones.  Still, I'd like to see him put on a little more weight before winter gets here.

And since we're outside, lets take a look at what's still growing in the backyard.

We have lots of big, bushy tomato plants left, but because of the heat and drought, they just didn't do as well this year as they have in the past.  We're still getting 3-4 small tomatoes a day, though.

This bunch of collard greens was strictly volunteer.  It didn't do much of anything until we started getting rain again, then it took off.  I'm just going to leave it there for a while, since they are said to be sweeter after a frost.

We planted and harvested (dry) pinto beans earlier in the summer and then replanted with green beans.  They are just now starting to set beans on, so hopefully we'll get a few jars' worth.  The ones we planted with the corn (in a Three Sisters planting) didn't do anything.

Kat still has two large Moon and Stars watermelons in her garden.  We already picked three.
You can see the stars on the rinds and the leaves, but none have had spots big enough to call moons.

The squashes we planted as part of the Three Sisters planting fared better.  We were late getting them in, but I think they will ripen before we get frost.  I can see several butternuts like the one above and several acorn squashes.  The zucchini plants gave us a few, but we weren't overrun with zukes like we usually are.

These last pics are of a butterfly (or is it a moth of some sort?) that Bob was chasing and that Kat rescued from him.  It seemed stunned, but unhurt.She and Shane were able to hold it for a while until it finally walked up Kat's arm and flew away. 

Boney Bob is a Good Garden Companion

We're doing what we can to keep things alive around here, and that includes both cats and plants.  We water our gardens every other day.  They could probably benefit from a daily watering, but because it takes me more than an hour to water it all, that just isn't happening.  Every couple of days will have to do.

Our tomatoes seem to be doing well.  We have a total of 30 plants in various areas of the garden; all but 12 of those were volunteer plants.

We're still getting a few of our ever-bearing strawberries; we pick about a cup every 2-3 days.  I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but our raspberries have flourished in the heat and have set on quite a few new berries.  We picked just four berries in the spring and thought that would be all, so this is a pleasant surprise.  Our ground cherries (aka, cape gooseberries, aka husk tomatoes) are done for the year, but yielded a few pints.

We don't have a lot of luck growing bell peppers, so we only planted four plants, but they have done a little better than usual this year.

Our cucumbers are struggling.  They didn't germinate well, so we only have about 1/3 of the plants we expected.  There will be plenty of cucumbers for salads, but probably not enough for pickles.

Our pinto beans look sad, but they aren't.  We're drying them on the vine on purpose.

The Swiss chard just keeps going and growing.

Kat's garden still has three small melons in it, all of which seem to be growing well.

Back behind the shed, we have a Three Sisters planting.  The corn is tall and I think the ears are just about ready to pick.  This is a late season variety, so it feels like we're running behind a lot of other area gardeners.  Under the corn is green beans.  The plants are green and pretty, but there are no beans.  I think we're running out of time.  Between the corn/bean clusters are squash plants -- zucchini, butternut and acorn.  They look pretty good, but so far,  no blossoms.  A couple of tomatoes volunteered among the sisters, so we left them and I noticed they have blooms now.

The Jersalem Artichokes are thriving, and we haven't watered them at all!  We're giving our asparagus, rhubarb and blackberries a little water, just to keep them alive.  They're done for the year, though.

I think that's about all we have going on in the garden right now, but very soon it will be time to think of late summer and early fall plantings.

And before I forget, here is Bones again.  We have also started calling him BOB, which stands for Bag O' Bones.  He's gained a few ounces, I think, and it appears some of his fur is growing back in.  We moved him to our back yard and he seems to like it there.  He's quite the garden companion.  He loves to follow along and keep us company while we're watering and harvesting.  He's even started pouncing on the garden hose and chasing butterflies, so I'd say he's starting to recover.

Livable Living Room

There's nothing like coming home from vacation to make me realize just how dirty and messy our house is.  It seems like time away makes it easier to see all those things I've been overlooking and ignoring.  One thing I wish I hadn't overlooked was the breakfast burrito and bowl of strawberries I made for Shane on the morning we left for vacation -- last Wednesday.  I stuck it in the microwave for safekeeping while he took care of a few last minute chores.  We were 30 miles down the road by the time we remembered it was still in the microwave. 

Ew.  Just, Ew.

But enough about my past.  Back to the present.  After catching up on a few things that had to be done today, like watering the garden, bringing in a small harvest, and starting some laundry, I decided to tackle a room of the house.  I let Kat choose for me, since choosing seemed beyond my capabilities today.  She picked the living room, and I tacked on our one hallway as well. 

It's not spotless, but I gave it a pretty good top-to-bottom cleaning:

• Cleared out any items that don't belong in this room
• Organized the hall (coat) closet
• Dusted the ceiling fan and attached light fixture
• Cleaned cobwebs from the ceiling and corners
• Dusted the blinds
• Cleaned the windows
• Removed cat hair from upholstered furniture
• Dusted the furniture, wall decor, etc.
• Cleaned all glass surfaces
• Swept and cleaned the laminate entryway
• Vacuumed
• Spot-treated the carpeting

Here's what I can think of that I didn't do:

• Clean the glass in the front storm door
• Wash the curtains (they'll surely fall apart if I do)
• Organize the photos in the cedar chest that we use as a side table.

That last one has been an item on my to do list since my mother-in-law gave me this chest in 2001.  The only time I open it is to quickly shove another photo inside.  Nope, it's not likely I'll be checking this off my list today.

So, at least one room is livable again.  I'm going to do my best to ignore the rest, at least until tomorrow.

An Early Birthday for Kat

Kat's birthday is the Fourth of July, which is also the day we will be leaving for our camping trip. My daughter wanted to celebrate before we leave, so with the help (and home) of her mother-in-law, the two of them hosted a great party for Kat yesterday. It was a Lego-themed party with Lego cupcakes, Lego candy, and Lego free-play, as well as a few rousing games of bingo, a coloring session, and some free time to visit. It was a fun afternoon!

The birthday girl, and her doll, who is currently named Sage.

Our friend Chris with his son Jude.  My daughter T doing the classic rabbit ears photo bomb.

Kat and cousins, coloring in the kitchen. (I love a little alliteration...LOL).

Yummy cupcakes with little candy Lego figures on top.

Lego construction site.

My daughter T., son-in-law M., Kat, and me.

Lego construction challenge.  Build your favorite food with Legos!
I'm not sure anyone met that particular challenge.

Kat with M and her Grandma K.

Jude contemplates what will come next.

Kat and her step-dad.

Kat and her mom.
Can you believe T. photo-bombed again??  This time it worked well.

A fashion statement.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Grandma K. with colorful balloons.  Did you know there is a helium shortage??

Lego figures climbing the balloon strings.

Kat and Great-Grandma D. playing bingo.  The card markers were -- you guessed it -- Lego pieces.

M. and me, drinking coffee and playing bingo.

Of course, there were plenty of gifts.  Here's a Lego set.  Are you surprised?

An artist/illustrator friend drew or painted many posters for Kat, including these Star Wars cupcakes...

...and this portrait of Darth Vader.

Last but not least, Sage received a whole new hiking outfit for her and her dog.  Just in time for vacation!