Vengeful Cat and Forgiving Husband

I was rather dismayed when I took my cat, Cloud, to the vet 3 weeks ago and realized he is 8 years old.  I was guessing 5.  I got him as a very small kitten, and could not believe so much time has passed.  Half of his life is almost over. Cloud may have understood those remarks, because he suddenly started going crazy wanting to go outside. Some kind of mid-life crisis, I guess. He has been the most laid-back cat, but now he acts like a demon.  I have been adamant that he can't go outside, because I had his front claws removed.  So we are in a battle.  Every time the door opens, Cloud is right there and bolts out.  I don't think I will ever have another cat declawed.

Of course he likes to lie on the sidewalk right by the driveway and street.

He particularly scoots outside in the morning, when Don is coming home from a long night's work.  So one day after having a particularly hard time finding him the night before, I asked Don not to let him out when he gets home. So Don was very careful and Cloud spent most of the day inside, before finally making his breakout.

All seemed to go well, until Don called me from the hospital about 9:30 saying he had a big favor to ask me.  One night out of a thousand that I'm actually in bed before 1 a.m.  "What is it?' I asked.  Don said, "My clothes smell like the cat peed on them.  Please bring me a change of clothes."  Well he didn't have to say that twice.  I couldn't get there with fresh clothes fast enough.  Cloud has never gotten up on the settee at the end of the bed where Don lays his clothes.  I guess Cloud actually understands the term pissed-off.  Okay, Cloud gets to go outside now.  

Digging Potatoes With Grampa

Our garden has been amazing this year.  With 100 degree temperatures and much less rain, it's slowing down now.  But it  was a great spring.

 

 

See I can stand with my shovel like Grampa.

 

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/501

 We also planted purple string beans, Royal Burgundy beans, that I ordered from Territorial Seeds.  Purple ones are suppose to be more nutritious. The strange thing was, they turned green when I cooked them.  First picking was small, but I roasted them with potatoes and other vegetables. It was a great dish.

BIlly Shakespeare's New Pen

As usual, Don was not a willing participate in my farming project. All through Lowes Friday he was saying, "This is the last project I'm helping you with."  I replied, "Yes, this is the last project this weekend." (He does not find me funny; but at least he ignores my comments, so that works.)

So Saturday morning we gathered up the items and headed to the spot for B. S.'s new pen.  Don started digging the holes with the post hole digger and said, "I don't want to do this."  But of course it has to be done, because my dear sweet neighbor is not happy with stinky Billy.  And because I tend to be a very lucky person; not just because my husband is not a violent person, but just 2 days before, a former employee in our construction company had called looking for work.  He's kind of a handyman, jack of all trades, and his name is Jack.  So I told Don, that if he just couldn't make himself do the fence; he could hire Jack to do the work for him. I had just spent almost $200 on materials and am still in debt for the Chateau de Poulet, so all I could afford was the free labor that Don was hopefully going to do. My husband ran a very high end remodeling business for 30 years, but for most of that time he was the pencil pusher, not a hammer swinger.  He loved designing and was very gifted at it.  Anyway, I had been far-sighted enough to write down Jack's phone number.  Don disappeared into the house for a few minutes and came back out and said, "Jack will be here in about an hour." 

B.S. now stands on his igloo looks at the does.

So Don mostly got to supervise and advise and Jack worked his butt off.  It took about 4 hours Saturday and 2 hours Sunday afternoon. Late Sunday B.S., along with the new buck kid, Minimus moved into their new yard.  I called Linda and told her to go to her computer room and take a deep breath. 

Father and son now live together.

Sorry But Billy Shakespeare Stinks

I have 3 does and 1 buck, not counting the 2 kids that were born April 1st.  The does and kids live in the back, behind the garage apartment.  But we didn't make a special yard for B.S.; I just put him in the dog yard that fits rather snugly between my house and my neighbor's. He loves to stand on the air conditioning unit and yell at everyone going by.  It's funny to see people stop, point and laugh at the unexpected site of a  goat. 

B.S. is my friendliest goat.  He was only about 2 weeks old when we picked him up in Loganville, just outside of Atlanta, GA. at the Double Durango Farm.  I had to bottle feed him.  That night we checked in a hotel to watch the LSU football game.  So B.S. is one of a few goats to sleep in a hotel and watch a football game.

He and my granddaughter, Kennedy, have been wonderful playmates since the day they met.

Kennedy and Shakespeare last year.

We'll be outside and I'll look up and B. S. is wandering around free in the yard.  I'll look at Kennedy and she will say, "I let him out.  He's my friend."  And he is.  She has great control of him.  I think she will be great showing him at the State Fair. 

 My Neighbor is the best neighbor about my having a mini urban farm.  She is always bringing friends over and even recommended that a family who is home-schooling their daughter come and visit the farm. She saves vegetable peelings for the critters and I give her eggs. But one day she called and said, "I have to ask you to move Billy away from my computer room.  I can smell him in that room and at my front door."

So in the spirit of being a good neighbor; last weekend we built a new pen for Shakespeare.  Don, very reluctantly, and I went Friday to Lowe's to get the needed hardware.  We had a lot of chain link left over from the girls' yard, so that came in handy.  I'll write a post tomorrow about B.S.'s new pen.

Super Moon Over the Chateau de Poulet

The biggest job I have been involved with this spring is the building of the new chicken coop.  I'll do a full blog on just the coop.  But I have been rather mesmerized by the super moon for the last couple of nights and trying to take a picture of it with the coop's cupola and rooster weather vane.  I also noticed that a dragonfly spent all day on top of the rooster's head. 

At 2:37 the dragonfly was there.

At 6:47 it's hovering, but it sits right back down.

I don't have a really fancy camera, but the moon was cool.

A picture without my camera flash.

Tomato Basil Soup Time!

This has been a wonderful spring.  Just about every time I thought I will water the garden and yard tomorrow; it rained.  So I haven't been too busy watering to blog. But so much is happening; that about dark I just sit on the sofa and watch TV like a zombie.  Well, my cable went out last night and they can't repair it until Wednesday.  Hopefully, my blog will not read like a zombie brain wrote it.  I am exhausted, but I don't go to sleep early; well maybe early in the morning I will.

I did not use all of these in the soup.

Back to the garden post...  The first couple of years that I gardened, I had great success with my tomatoes.  I remember giving tomatoes away in 2003. Wow, I just realized how long ago that was.  But the last 2 or 3 or maybe 10 years have made me come close to giving it up. If you really know me, you know I would die before I gave up anything.  I just try a different approach.  First, we went to Gilliam Cotton Gin and got the cotton hull compost.  And with a long, slightly cooler and much wetter spring; we are being greatly rewarded for our hard work.  I go back and forth between I and we, because most of this is my project, but there are times when Don is inspired; never required to lend a hand.

Back on May 21st Kennedy was watching for the tomatoes to turn red.

 Tonight I made tomato basil soup.  A few years ago I read and tried a lot of recipes, but lately I just add stuff until it tastes great.
Here's sort of what I did:
Chopped in food processor 3 or 4 stalks of celery, lots of petite carrots (I've never planted carrots), lots of basil leaves and half a large onion.

I sauteed them in half a stick of butter.  Then I added the diced tomatoes and chick broth.  I poured all of that in the food processor and pureed it.  I pour it back in the pot and add spices like thyme. oregano, salt and black pepper, 2 tbs of sour cream and about 6 ounces of cream.  

I add croutons to my cup of soup.  Don doesn't.  It was the best ever tonight.  Probably because I know how hard we worked to get those tomatoes and it's been years since they have been this good.

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