In Memory - Neelix, Sinda, Bella & George

 I have wanted to do a post in memory of the furry friends we've lost here over the past years. 

I'll start with Neelix - we got this sweet boy from the Humane Society and he was very tiny and very sick - in fact our vet said they shouldn't have released him to us - but we were so in love with him - we "fixed him up" and he was the best farm cat ever. And he grew and he grew - at one point he weighed 17 pounds!   He used to find The Shepherd when he got home from work, demand a piggy back ride on his shoulders and help him do the chores every evening.

He loved lambing time and could always be found checking out what was happening in the barn. 

 He was also very laid back and could often be found sleeping on his back in the middle of the living room - so secure in his position. 

He went to the rainbow bridge in August 2008 -
He's still at the top in number of posts - only "from the garden"  and "Shetland Sheep" out do him. 

This is my Sinda - affectionately known as Sissy -   I got her from some friends when she was 8 or 10 weeks old in the Spring of 1990

A little bit quirky and a lot-a-bit fun - 

On February 5, 2011, at the age of 21, she succumbed to kidney failure, leaving me "catless" for the first time since 1975.  

 This Handsome Boy is George - We got him and his little sister Gracie in July 2011.

They were just the sweetest pair -  you can read more about them if you click on the label - "The Mrreows"

 
 And then came Bella - who I laughing have called our "transgender" cat - Bella "migrated" here from a neighboring farm - well we fed her, and they didn't... "Her" I say - she seemed so feminine - but when I took "Her" to the vet for something, She was pronounced to be a "He" - so what can I say - we left the name Bella - as he was quite a beautiful cat, and you know, Bela Lugosi -

Bella disappeared the spring of 2015 - I kind of think he might have gotten trapped in The Shepherd's work trailer and then jumped out along the way, as we heard that a cat looking very similar appeared at the Water District office a couple miles away.  Didn't go check though - he had already made a new home there.

George disappeared last August - not a good month for us and kitties - 8 years almost to the day that we lost Neelix to the Bridge.

I keep hoping that George just got waylaid and will come home some day, but he was pretty much a momma's boy and never stayed out more than a day.  Gracie and I miss him a lot - she's pretty lonely since both of us are gone all day long and she's here by herself.  Thinking about adopting someone new, but we'll see. 

You can read more about our furry friends by clicking on their names in the "Labels" on the sidebar.  Thanks for indulging me on my memories. 

Missing...

George is missing.

This is a boy who never misses a meal - he's missed two breakfasts and two dinners. 

I'm hoping he carelessly got locked into someone's garage.  Tomorrow I'll check with the Humane Society. 

Many of us who do not have human children, have feline children.  I am just short of brokenhearted.  Please come home. 

It's CATURDAAAY!

Come Caturday morning

I'm goin' away with my friend

We'll Caturday-spend till the end of the day

Just I and my friend








 We'll travel for miles in our Caturday smiles










And then we'll move on

But we will remember long after Caturday's gone









Come Caturday morning,

Come Caturday mo - or - ning.....


(With apologies to Ms. Liza Minnelli)
  




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It's Caturday!

 Hi Effurrybody!

George here, just lubbin the spring sun on ma belleh.

And the gravel on my back - sort of like a massage...

Sort of, but sometimes it puts my furs out of order, and we wouldn't want that to happen.  

Mummy says to tell you that The Shepherd is getting a little bit better every day.  He's out working in the greenhouse this afternoon, planting seeds to transplant into the gardens.

We hope YOU are having a good Caturday and a great weekend. 



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Easy like Sunday .....

 Hey - you - yeah, I mean you - whatch doin? 

George here - out snoopervising Mummy on one of her recent forays outside the house...we have to follow her around and make sure she doesn't get into trouble with bees or falling over hoses... (Mummy here - "and you do a very good job, George - I appreciate your help")

Anyhow, it's Sunday, and during the summer, that means things are pretty laid back around here.  Breakfast is brunch and lunch is ... well, whenever you can wrangle some...

This morning Mummy made cream scones for The Shepherd for his brunch.  He fills them with strawberry jam and happily munches away.

And there are extras for snacks later in the day. 

 Mummy had seen a recipe for Raspberry Scones on Pinterest last week and wanted to try them this morning.  The Shepherd said he wanted his scones plain, so, she made two separate batches - plain ones for him and raspberry ones for her.  She had picked the raspberries at a friends house a couple of weeks ago and put them in the freezer - she initially froze them on a cookie sheet so they were little individual "nuggets of frozen goodness" and then put them in a freezer container.  They are luscious to snack on when you just want "something a little sweet"

The recipe called for a whole cup of raspberries, but she wasn't willing to part with that much of her stash, so she just used a half a cup - she added them while they were still frozen, so she could break them up a little bit  -  as you can see, 1/2 cup was plenty. 

You can find the recipe from Pinterest here

She left out the almonds because she didn't have any, and thinks that the recipe called for way too much glaze/frosting - she only used a tiny bit on each scone.  And, they were delicious! 

On a whole 'nother note, Mummy got this African violet from a friend, two years ago when she celebrated her 20th anniversary at The Salt Mine.  (Happened to be on July 26!)

Some of you may know that she left that job on June 12.  "Early Retirement"   was fun at first, but she was applying for jobs that looked interesting and last week was offered a part time position at a NEW Salt Mine.  She starts on Tues 28th - 22 years and 2 days from the time she started the job at the "OLD Salt Mine".   Anyhow, this African violet never had bloomed again since she got it, but it is blooming again for the first time - she figures it must be to celebrate her new job. 

So, that's pretty much the news for today.  I have to go clean my handsome furs now, so you can go away. 

We hope you guys all have a great week ahead.  I'll keep you posted on how Mummy's new job goes! 

XOX   George

Life is going on

This was Bella's favorite perch when we were out in the barn/greenhouse area.  Surveying his kingdom.  

Thank you to everyone of you for your kind thoughts and prayers about Bella.  He still has not returned and as I do not have a sense of his "spirit" anyplace close, I don't know what else to do but think of him in the arms of his angels. 





Meanwhile the kids have stopped sitting on the back porch and staring into space, and they are eating again - not that I was worried that they would starve to death, I think Gracie must weigh about 20 pounds!  But for the first 10 days or so, they just didn't seem that interested in food.

But they definitely are interested in snuggles - big time - ask my how easy it is to type with a cat on your lap.  And he doesn't "perch" - he kind of spreads out to be as comfortable as he can get - laying on my keyboard tray - silly cat...

Both The Shepherd & I have had bad head colds/cough/laryngitis/sneezy type stuff.  I even took a day off work last week - I think George was the only one who got any sleep that night.... I probably should have taken two days off especially since one of my jobs is to answer the phone, and that is pretty hard to do when you sound like a squeaky toy

We sheared a couple of weeks ago, and I have lots of pictures of pretty fleeces - I'll try to post them this next week.




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We gather together in joyful thanksgiving...

Howdy effurry body and effurry kitty!

Well, Mummy has been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs - ha ha ha ha

No, honestly, she has been -

She and the Shepherd went to see a singer lady called Joan Baez a couple of weeks ago.  Some of the peeps that she works with had never heard of Ms. Joanie before - I heard Mummy say they were cretins, what ever that means...

Anyhow, I heard her telling the Shepherd that this was one of the best concerts she had been to in a while.  Joan Baez is 71 years old (in People years!) and still touring over 50 dates a year.  She plays amazing guitar and still sings like an angel.  If you get a chance to see her in concert, Mummy says you should definitely go!

Well, we hate to complain, but it's been darn cold here - only in the 20's and I know we shouldn't complain, because we didn't get any snow and those poor people in Buffalo got 6 feet of the darn stuff.  But HEY, 20 degrees is just darn cold!  (ha ha, Mummy here - I walked into the bathroom and George was stretched out completely over the furnace vent!)  And yesterday it was so windy that when Mummy stopped at the gas station to put fuel in her car, the wind was blowing soooooo hard that she actually had to hold on to the car because she was afraid she was going to get blown over! But, it is clear and sunny (or in this case, would you say, clear and moony?) 

We hope you had a good Thanksgiving - Mummy and The Shepherd went over to their friend Nancy's house - Mummy made pies - pumpkin and apple and a pumpkin ice cream torte that she made up the recipe for!  It was semi-homemade pumpkin ice cream over pumpkin cake & everyone said it was very good (and she apologizes for not being able to get the picture right side up.  Her friend took the picture with her cell phone and even though Mummy edited the picture & saved it right side up, it still posted sideways.  Computers - bah)  She said that she will post the recipe, but she has to write it down first! 

Mummy also cooked a turkey here yesterday (Saturday) so she and The Shepherd would have "left overs" - and a turkey body to make soup with.  She gave me and Bella some little pieces of turkey meat tonight - it was very tasty.

Who ME?  I don't know nuthin about no glasses of water...

Speaking of Bella, she has been very naughty lately. The Shepherd runs a glass of water and leaves it on the counter before he goes to bed so he'll have something to drink if he gets up in the night.  Well, Bella thinks she should be able to drink out of that glass, and of course can't get her fat head in the glass and proceeds to knock it over, and gets water all over the place!  Mummy can't convince The Shepherd if he'd just leave a little bowl of water in the sink Bella wouldn't bother his glass, oh well...

Mummy promises that she'll be better at getting the news to you on a more consistent basis.  She has lots to tell you about the sheepies and other stuff. 

Have a great week!  XOX  Your roving reporter, George

The "fruit's of his labors - - -

Most of the time you think of "harvest" on the farm as being in the fall.  Not so with sheep - your harvest is the fleece, that comes in the spring with the shearing.  The "crop" you have worked on all year - keeping good nutrition, TRYING to keep them clean, etc.

Elliott's fleece is fluffy and soft, and comparatively clean, in regards to what he's been up to lately -










 As you can see, he's taken a little dislike to the "ramada" on his little barn.  None of the other rams we have ever had have bothered it - they seemed to realize it kept the rain and the heat of the day off  of them - but this little  stinker banged on the 4" support post until he broke it, then proceeded to run and jump up at the roof - further deteriorating the particle board that was under the shingles - covering his fleece with it.  Luckily, while The Shepherd was waiting for the shearer to arrive  a few weeks ago, he had some one on one time with Elliott and was able to pick a lot of that crap out of his fleece prior to shearing. 





This is a sample of Vanessa's fleece - it will  wash up a real pretty honey color, I'm sure.

Another sample of Elliott on the left, with Donna on the right - Donna's fleece has really lightened up this year.  It has nice crimp to it though.











This is the sample that really made me swoon - which I was already doing from the lovely smell of the fresh fleece and the grease from the lanolin on my hands - This is Sandy's fleece - look at those crimpy locks.

The ends are kind of sticky with the dirt/lanolin "gunk" that gets out at the tips of her fleece and The Shepherd was going to take a pair of scissors to it and cut off those ends.

"Wait a minute!" I said - "let me try washing out a bit of it!"

Here is part of her fleece after a little soak in a "hot tub" of hot hot water and wool wash.

Oh, yeah -baby - look at that - and you should feel it.  I think any spinner would love to get his or her hands on this fleece, don't you? 

Here's a close up of the washed locks -

Very nice. 

And of course, an obligatory Kitteh picture of George, that I managed to nab while he was out tearing up the nursery the other day. 

Speaking of Cats - A "sweet 16" side note - The Shepherd was beside himself this evening - do you root for your "home team" - in this case the Arizona Wildcats - from his home town of Tucson, or for the "home team" - the Gonzaga Zags - the local team from Spokane.  I think he ended up rooting for his Wildercats - they won pretty handily.   Go Wildcats! 

SNOW DAY!!

Well, we finally got some snow today!

There were about 4 or 5 inches when we left for church at about 10:00 this a.m.  We needed to go a little bit early as we had a special guest from Oklahoma in the pulpit this a.m. and we wanted to make sure we were there . 

These first two pictures are of our church.  It almost looks black and white, then you notice the green band below the siding. 




I love how the snowflakes look like little balls of light falling out of the sky! 

Church went well - our visitor was a wonderful speaker.

We had to stop in Ferndale at the store because we forgot to get potatoes Friday night - How can you make stew without potatoes??

The freeway was fine, but the back roads to our house were a little bit sketchy - sloppy and slippery!  







And this is what greeted us when we got to our drive way... that's about 10 inches of snow in front of that gate. 












So, luckily The Shepherd had brought a shovel with us - he had to dig out the driveway so we could get in to the house! 











After getting more snow this afternoon & evening there is about a foot of snow on our dumpster now. 











Bella was very interested in something that was happening outside the window.  S/he got way up on the window sill, tail twitching -












This is all she could see - I don't know if there was maybe a "burdie" in the tree, of if it was just the falling snow flakes that were getting her attention.















Out the front door -















and "plink" down over the edge of the deck.  That's George who just went over  the edge (tip of his tail, center of the picture)  - We couldn't get Gracie off of the big bed for love nor money. 

The forecast from my little "weather machine"  - although Weather.com says it will be 48 degrees by Tuesday! 

The Shepherd took this picture out in the pasture when he did chores this evening - the little wires that the snow is perched on are only 1/4 inch in diameter - how's that work? 

We hope you are all in a nice cozy place this evening! 








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