The Golden Gate Bridge is 75 Years Old

I heard on the news today, (Sunday) that The Golden Gate Bridge is 75 years old today. 

That's the same age as my mother, but she will be 76 in a week.  Mom and I made a great trip to San Francisco 5 years ago.  


















While we were there, we rented a convertible Mustang and drove Hwy 1 to Monterrey. It was one of those trips I will always remember. 
 
http://life.time.com/culture/golden-gate-bridge-75-years/#1
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2012/05/25/75-year-old-golden-gate-bridge-a-berkeley-perspective/

Along Came A Spider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia

First my camera is more on the hobbyist level, so not a perfect picture that a perfect spider with a perfect web truly deserves.  But my garden needed a garden spider, so thanks Spidee for coming.

Play Like A Kid

Who would play headbutting with a goat?  My son-in-law, Trinity would.  Actually, Billy Shakespeare was having a great time with this.

And Now there Are 4!

It's been 9 days since I found the little black kitten on my door step.  I had a school board meeting at 4:30 that afternoon and asked the other board members if anyone wanted a bottle fed kitten. 




One board member, Steve, spoke up quickly and said he did. 


 So all I have to do is take care of it for a few weeks and he has a new home!  I call him Panther.


I remained on the lookout for the rest of the litter.  I've never known a cat to have just one kitten.  I was worried that maybe something had happened to the others, so that was why Panther was on my step.

Thursday, I was in the garage-barn when I saw the feral momma cat run out.  I started looking around in the area where she came from and there in a tall box were 3 more kittens.

Cirus, Shameka, Tiffany Lynn Mittens

See what looks like I just left trash in the garage-barn turned out to be a kitten cradle.  You have to know how I irritate my dear husband by not promptly throwing things away; even empty boxes.

 One little female, with the white paws and a white wishbone mark across her nose, didn't have either of her eyes opened yet.  So I believe they are 8-12 days old.  The others, each,  had one eye open.

Daddy Gus and Momma Blackie

 Another mystery was solve too.  Who's the daddy?  Well I researched and read that a litter of kittens can have more than one sire, but we have good evidence that my husband's outside cat, Gus was not "fixed" before he reproduced at least one offspring.

See the grey one with the white nose--Gus Jr.  Chase named him Cirus

There's a neighborhood cat that has markings like this one.  Could he be a daddy?

Anyway, I now have 3 more kittens to find homes for.  The grandkids are trying to keep Cirus, the grey kitten.  Their mom wants Mittens, the black and white one.  I named her Tiffany Lynn Mittens, but my daughter doesn't like that name.  She wants it to just be named Mittens.

My house cat, Cloud, is not happy about the kittens.

Well, we are having fun with them.  But I've found that bottle feeding 4 little kittens leaves very little time for anything else.

Surprise On My Doorstep

Tuesday was a hectic day or is that just everyday?  Anyway I had an 11:30 budget meeting and was going to have to take my 20 month old granddaughter with me.  But I was going to be smart this time and take plenty of snacks for her.  This meant I had to go to the grocery store before the meeting.  So Grampa agreed to keep Kennedy while I made a quick trip for snacks. 

I took this picture afterwards.  I think my foot actually got closer to it.

 As I rushed out the door I almost stepped on a black kitten that had just one eye opened.

Blackie, Gus's new friend.

It wasn't a total shock that we had kittens, just that one was on the steps.  Way back in October, when we came back home from vacation Don's cat, Gus, had found a girlfriend to keep him company.

He taught us a lesson to go away and leave him for 10 days.
She was actually a kitten, but one could tell by their relationship that the kitten was a girl.  It took several months for Don to decide to catch Gus and Blackie and take them to the vet to be "fixed."  Well, Don was successful catching Gus.  Gus too had been feral when he arrived, but Don very patiently worked to tamed him. But we have never been able to get near Blackie.  In fact my son-in-law, who is too quick for his own good, did grab her one day and she took a big bite out of his hand.  Anyway Gus got "fixed."  But about 3 weeks ago I notice how big Blackie was.  So I started leaving the garage door cracked just in case she was pregnant, she could have the kittens in a safe place.  Then about 2 weeks ago, I noticed how slender she was.  So I knew it was only a matter of time before kittens showed up.

I quickly tossed the kitten to it's grampa and told him not to give it back to them mom. I don't want it to grow up wild, because then we will have to trap it and take it to the animal shelter. 

Of course the grandkids help.

So now I am bottle feeding Panther and know that where there is one kitten, there are another 3 or 4.  


The other question is who's the daddy?

Maurice Sendak Died Today

I was watching the Colbert Report and Steven said that children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak died today at 83 from complications after a stroke.  I have given several children a copy of Where the Wild Things Are.  The last one was my nephew, Max.  I first bought it for my son in 1990.  I've always loved it.


Colbert showed an interview he had with Sendak and the author said he thought his best 2 books were Outside Over There and Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life.  I have never read either of these.

The first one reminded me of my granddaughter, Kennedy.  She is always grabbing my hand and "pulling" me outside. 

 

 

 

He said the book Higglety Pigglety Pop!: Or There Must Be More to Life was written about his dog just after it died.

So I went to good ole amazon.com and bought hardback copies of both. And while I was there, I bought a box set of 3 other ones that Amazon recommended.  Oh well, reading books to grandkids is a great use of time and buying them really can add up.  But I love books and I don't see myself buying a Kindle or such.

 

 

OMG

Oh Mister Goat can now jump on the hood of my truck.  I know he has been thinking about it for about a week.  But today he did it before I could stop him.  He may have just limited his freedom.  Billy Shakespeare is almost 8 months old and is truly the best pet I have.  Whenever I'm outside he is out roaming around.  Usually he likes to stay down by the girls' pen, but he also wants to follow me around.

I bought 4 bales of alfalfa Friday, so I was unloading them. 









 Billy Shakespeare made some of the bales lighter.


By the way, I can't believe I'm having to pay $17.50 a bale for alfalfa.  The fellow at the feed store told me they are compressing them into very tight bales and shipping them to China.  So if they have found the Chinese market, will the price ever go down here?


Anyway, when I wasn't looking, B.S. decided today was the day for him to jump on the hood of my truck.  He may have just lost his "Best Pet" status.

Grandparents Day With Connor

I've been such a bad blogger.  So much is going on which gives me a lot of material to blog about, but no time to actually write a post.  Anyway, I'm going to catch up on my writing and reading other blogs.


Last Friday was Grandparents Day for the Kindergarten classes.  I wasn't quite aware of all the expectations.  I understood there was a performance by the Kindergarteners, but then the Grandparent was suppose to check out the grandchild and spend the day with him.  Well, Connor was a guy with a plan with included lunch of his choice and a movie.

2 grandmothers, great grandmother and grandfather

My Mom was in town, so she went to the program.












Connor's other set of grandparents came also.  So he had quite a group of fans. 

 The program had a Cowboy theme; which was just up Connor's alley.  He is always trying to ride my little goats when I'm not watching.

Don't know what the pout is about.

Afterward the program, it was off to the Frozen Frog.  Yes, we had yogurt with a large array of toppings for lunch.  I have to admit that's my favorite lunch too.




Then just Connor and I went to see the movie Chimpanzee. On the way to the theater Connor expressed his excitement about going to see Chimpanzee.  He said, "My heart has been hurting to see this movie ever since they said it was coming to the theater."  Like a good grandmother, I did not laugh.  I just said, "I know.  I've wanted to see it too.

He might have had candy, popcorn and coke for dinner.