The Weekend

It occurred to me that the new moon last week looked 

like the Star of Bethlehem.  

I pray we have peace in this coming holiday season, after the terrible events of 

October and last Sunday in Texas. 

To my classmates of  Bishop Ward '68.... I skipped the reunion to 

see the Fifty Summers of Love tour last Friday... yes, I'm still fangirling. 

(Is that a word?) 

And... I see that my friend took my picture with my sweater "hanger" hanging out on my collar.  :-( 

That's Doug Couture of The Fab Four portraying George Harrison.  

TFF did a set before the "main" show, which featured Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, and 

Mark Lindsey of Paul Revere and the Raiders.  The Fab Four changed into Raider's coats and 

played backup. 

I was in the front row, but the stage was the highest one I had ever seen in my life... I had to look straight up almost all evening. 

Must be nice to still be doing what you want to do at the age of 

74. 

Grandson Chris and I buried Sister under our pony 

Beau's favorite tree in the pasture. 

With him is Nickie (cat), Gwen (cat), and Addie Mae and Hannah Jean, both pugs and all 

dearly beloved and missed.   I am so glad we chose to bring him home. 

I started the hole, but thank heavens for Chris's help, because he had to finish it. 

We did this to be on the safe side, I am hearing coyotes every night now, close. 

We are going to trim the lower branches on this tree, if Beau were alive now, he would not be able to stand under it because the lower branches have grown so. 

At least two of the four feral kittens are eating regularly in the 

henhouse. 

I am thinking I saw both black and white kittens on the 

camera last night. 

I also see Spooky, who has a very fluffy tail.  

The kittens are now 6 or 7 months old. 

There is Harlequin, I see her daily. 

But, these guys are still coming, too... though there was some food 

left this morning.  My plan is to make a cat door in the side wall, 

and put rabbit wire or maybe even a full wall between the feed room and the coop, 

so that I can keep chickens in there again. 

Right now, there is sagging poultry wire, and the raccoons and cats run up and down it, and 

over the top into the "coop side".  It might be easier just to build a wall and seal off the holes into the back of the henhouse, the coop side. 

Look whom popped up on the deck on the second camera...

That is the gray and white feral cat who eats at the gate. 

No wonder Sister used to catterwaul at night. 

and this guy....

and of course, another raccoon, though this looks like the big one that was in the henhouse. 

Twinkle has now graduated to a grown up litter box, and I am going to fill a hole with the used litter in her little old one. 

I also have to lift that heavy bag of dirt off the cat food in the mornings... Ugh... I'm getting a locking can this week.  I am using the other can for cardboard and plastic recyclables.

It looks bleak out, but I am liking the cooler November weather. 

Making a big pot of beef vegetable soup today for the volunteer's luncheon at the Ag Hall 

tomorrow... the house smells heavenly! 

A Long and Worrying Week

I am finding footprints everywhere these days, this place is pretty lively at night. 

We have had spectacular sunrises. 

And the moon in the middle of the night on All Souls Day was downright ghostly. 

I woke up to this on the first, too.  It is the food for the feral kittens in the old henhouse, and also, the feral that eats at the gate every day.  He was one of the three that ate on the deck this summer. 

He waits at the road for me to come feed him. 

I put food out early today, because the darn raccoons are eating so much. 

Notice there is now a heavy bag of soil on the can?  I am actually switching it 

to a metal can this weekend. 

This is Sister on the deck on Monday, notice his belly hanging. 

For the first few weeks Twinkle was here, they were kept apart, because we did not 

know about Twinkle.  Sunday afternoon, they finally played for the first time. 

Note the tail action. 

By yesterday at 11:30, we were facing this.  Sister began vomiting Monday evening, 

on Tuesday when I got back from the Ag, he was much, much worse, lethargic and could 

not stop vomiting.  He was running a high fever.  I rushed him to my vet, who kept him. 

By Wednesday night, he was worse, and we made an appointment for me to hold him as he was euthanized on Thursday, but... when I got there, he was stable, hooked up to the IV, had some 

morphine, was on a cooling pad, and the fever was down.  I had searched high and low here for poison he could have gotten into... could find nothing.  

The vet asked to give him one more day. 

I left. 

At four thirty, the vet called to say that he had a high fever again, and that he was making agonal howls.  I did not even have time to drive back over there. 

They asked for permission to euthanize, and I agreed. 

At 1:30, after I had left the office, the vet had checked for FIV and FeLV.  

Sis was positive for FIV, feline AIDS.  Remember, I found him as a stray last year at the hospital where Keith was on his last illness. 

We had not checked him in January when he got his shots. 

He also had a large tumor in his abdomen that was pushing his 

organs to the right.  That would have been the next thing to deal with 

if he had pulled through. (Go look again at that first picture of him on Sunday). 

So, God's will, I think.  He made sure Twink was here before Sister left me. 

Twinkle, where Sister used to lay in my lap. 

She is negative for FIV. 

How I'll miss my beautiful boy. 

Frost on the Pumpkin

Guess what?

There was frost on the pumpkin this morning. 

I'm bringing this one... 

And the green one up on the deck today. 

The dogs went out, did their things, and came back in where it was warm. 

I don't blame them. 

Because today was the first day the outdoor water froze, too. 

I need to poke around in the shop tomorrow and find my 

heated water bowls that I keep on the deck for the wild birds all winter. 

Sister is venturing out several times a day, mostly when he gets tired 

of being abused by Twinkle. 

He sits at the door and meows when he is ready to come back in. 

Last night he leapt off my lap to go lay on the couch when Twinkle joined us. 

Twinkle looks as if she were going to the bathroom here, but she is not.  

She was balancing where she landed on the edge of the couch, on her way to bothering Sister again. 

It's the last hurrah for the mums, too!

Here I need to make a statement about posting. 

I'm back out in the country and off cable, i.e., back 

on a satellite operation... at least, I think they are satellite driven, but 

am not sure.  Notice how cagey I am being about the carrier?  I have had a few outages... but they are usually resolved shortly... it's just that uploading pictures is SLOW.  I usually get up and go do things in the house while they are loading.   BUT... I am pretty patient, so I am going to stay with this service. 

One good thing about the frost, my grass cutting days are ending.  I ran into the young man 

who cuts the big house (no, it has not sold) yard... and he told me they will skip this week, and check it next week to see if it needs to be cut again.  I was there after church last night to turn the 

furnace on, and noticed it is looking beautiful.  

I will be so happy when it sells, rather than feeling sentimental about it, 

I recall it as the place where Keith was so very sick, and I do not like 

going over there unless I have to. 

The young man who cuts the yard here was out this week, and realizes the mowing is ending... he is going to start cutting saplings from my fenceline, hallelujah!  I told him I could not support him all winter, but there was plenty he could do here to keep him busy as I pay as I go.  I will be glad to get 

things cleared up.  

Do you all realize Halloween is upon us, and Thanksgiving just around the corner? 

We Are Getting Closer

Your blogger is down for the count with a summer cold. 

As in, skipping church, in bed all day down for the count.  I made it out to open the henhouse and give the little kittens their daily bowl of food, but other than that, I have been in bed all day.  As I type this, the sun is breaking out of leaden skies, and the heavy rains we had last night seem to have gone away, though my phone tells me we may still see some tonight. 

There have been many changes this past week. 

We have had two horses come to stay with us for a while in the pasture.  They were on a dry lot, and the owners were feeding hay all summer.  The horses were glad to get on some green pasture.  I will go in tomorrow or Tuesday to cut down some weeds, but for now, they are going to do the trimming.  

The mare, Nelly, who is taking a good look at Jester there, is unbroken, the gelding, Ranger, has been ridden.  I would say neither are safe to ride.  They should be here only about to the end of September.  For some reason, Jester and the mare have taken to each other, but she is so big I will not let him in the pasture anywhere near her.  

That's Ranger, and his owner mistakenly cut out part of the tail he needs for fly-swatting, because it was so tangled.  I feel sorry for him.  They seem happy in the pasture, though.  

The humidity was terrible earlier in the week.  Our girl Lil knows how to get cool, though. 

I have a water line leaking.  

Tuesday, a local man showed up to fix the leak. 

Unfortunately, when I got there Wednesday, 

the leak was just as bad.  He is going to have to run a new

line from the wellhouse to the pump by the old henhouse. 

I need that pump to run water for the horse tank. 

So now I have a mud mound AND a leak. 

My contractor said "You need to call that guy"  and I said "I did" and he said "When will he be back?" 

I said 

"when he's good and ready".  And folks, that's the truth.  They do not listen to women, I wish I could say it is different, but it isn't.  I dealt with this for 32 years before I married Keith. 

It's frustrating. 

Did you notice the color of the house in the picture with the skid steer? 

The yellow is the color our tenant painted the house when he moved in, he picked it. 

Here is the color today.  

The new gutters and downspouts are up, and we are progressing right along. 

On Thursday, my awesome contractor told me he thought it would be 3 weeks. 

The cabinets are being made, and one day this week I will stop by the cabinet shop and pick out the bin pulls I want.  I am looking at lights, but honestly, I have felt so awful since Wednesday that I am not getting around much. 

I did get two days of moving things with my grandson Jacob this week, who really came through for me.  In fact, we are renting a cargo van on Wednesday and Thursday and trying to get even more out of here and into the storage shed at the farm.  I have given up sorting for the time being, I just want to get things moved and then each box will be gone through before it is brought into the house.  I suspect the Salvation Army will be getting a second large donation. 

My plan now is to put this big house on the market when I am out of it.  It is just not practical with two dogs and a skittish cat to have strangers plodding through it.  

Speaking of cats: 

I honestly have never seen Sister playing with a ball before! 

He will play with Jester, but not toys.  

And out in the henhouse, at least 3 of the four feral kittens 

are still with me... and I have figured out where the raccoons are getting in 

at night.  I will be working on it in the next few weeks. 

I take the kitten's food up when I go out to put the hens up every night, 

(I leave a big handful) but they have all day to eat. 

As far as I can see, they rarely sleep!  They are up at all hours of the night on the game camera. 

Day camp is now over at the Ag Hall, and Nugent, the little bunny I took care of all summer, has gone home to her bunny herd.  I will miss her, she was a lovely little bunny (whom the kids called "Oreo", of course). 

These are some dirty eggs that have been under a hen who wants to go broody. 

They are infertile, of course.  

I have been careful to fish them out from under her since this day, she does not need to be setting forever.  I am getting plenty of eggs, but the fact that I am letting the girls run all day long in the yard means that there are some eggs I am  never going to find. 

We have all been enjoying the odd root beer float, too!

Did I mention I have poison ivy on about half of me? 

Where Does the Time Go?

My last post was December 19, and I don't know where the time 

went. 

My apologies. 

I still have this: 

I am a little over 3 weeks in, and will go until the 

15th, when it will be exrayed and the 

cast (I pray) removed. 

It is a pain in the TUSH.  I have trouble 

opening things, and holding things, but oddly enough, 

I can type. 

We did have this: 

Don't look at that gold Santa on the mantle, he was replaced by a white one.  

That's son Jim, daughter in law Amy, and then, from left... 

Chris, Nathan, Jacob, Madison, and in front, Paiton and Jax. 

So good to be with them at a time that was very hard for me. 

Our Yoder family Christmas party the previous day was 

snowed out by a slow-moving ice and snow storm, making driving 

dangerous.  I was so grateful Andrea called to cancel.  The pile 

of gifts on the wall by the door was collected by Amber and Jesse, 

and distributed to the family the following weekend. 

Here's the adjusted mantle, and I have to say, I liked it a lot better.  I was about the 

only one that enjoyed it, too. 

The reason for the season, early Christmas morning at church. 

Except for one year when we were literally snowed in at the old place, 

I have managed to go to church every single Christmas morning. 

Here was our family Christmas present. 

I went to see my dear Keith at the cemetery, and we 

got his beautiful stone for Christmas. 

As I laid the cross on his grave, a big flock of geese came out of the 

fog overhead, and went over his grave.  Keith loved to watch geese, 

this would have pleased him so much. 

I am still feeding on the deck, but am having to vacuum regularly. 

Not an ideal situation. 

Someone watches bird tv every morning. 

The three little Sheets boys came with their parents Amber and Jesse, to pick up all the presents. 

I could NOT get a good shot, they were moving so fast! 

Keith adored these little boys! 

(Hayden, Jace, Carson) 

I am seeing small ducks and geese all of the sudden, on all of the local small and large ponds. 

Geese are everywhere.  Tomorrow I am going to try to get to Wyandotte County Lake, where I understand there is a huge flock of snow geese right now. 

Could global warming be driving the birds south already?  

We are actually going to have some prolonged cold weather this week, starting tomorrow. 

I did see some snow geese way out in a field off the levee on Tonganoxie Road. 

On my way to church Saturday afternoon, I saw two crows in 

a field.  As I went by, they went up, but I caught another movement. 

Here is what they were watching: 

Then, Sunday, I came home to this: 

That's the Coopers Hawk that has been hanging around.  

First time I have seen it on the deck!

My new year's resolution is to blog more often!