Week 35 Chickens and Cats

Well, it's been over a week since Briscoe crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  I am still listening for his drunken gait to tell me he needs to go outside....Mom said she heard his bark to wake her up this morning.  He was definitely a part of this household, in more ways than we thought.  

I had told John that his sister mentioned they had a lot of cats at the Humane Society available for adoption....I said jokingly that maybe Gilligan needed a friend since he'd never lived in the house without another animal.  John jumped on that and said, "Well, you remember, I lived in a house with 11 inside cats growing up."  No, I did not recall that....so on Sunday, Mom and I made a trip to the Southwest Humane Society adoption center and played with a few kittens.  I didn't want a full grown cat since Gilligan is full grown and I didn't want issues....I figured a kitten might be better.  And I always wanted a black cat - no clue why this is so, but it's true - so I kind of gravitated to the black ones, or the mostly black ones.  Came across a small black and white kitten, Saturn was his name.  He was sound asleep in his enclosure and meowed at me when I went to pick him up.  So sweet and very small.  He was 4 months old and had been made a gentleman already so no issues male superiority or spraying.  I was kinda enthralled by his 'tuxedo' markings.  He came home with us and there the adventure began.  I wasn't really enthused with the name 'Saturn' - it doesn't connect to him at all....we toyed with a couple of names like Socks, or Spats, or Patches, or even Buddy.  I post a picture on Facebook and one of our friends from California mentioned he could be The Skipper, the Professor, or Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island, in keeping with the theme.  John jumped at The Skipper. So, I give you, The Skipper - I can't get a decent picture cause he is a super busy kitten right now...maybe once he settles in I can get a better one.

As i said....busy!  

More later, I'm sure.

On another note, mom and I were getting ready to set the table the other night and I heard a strange noise...it sounded as though there was someone or something along the side of the house, or near the back.  I couldn't tell if I heard talking or maybe muttering....finally I looked out the back window, near the staircase that goes down into the dog run...and saw this:

Yep, those are the newest chickens, led by the lone rooster!  It had rained and John had left the gate to the dog run open and the chickens run around on the property pretty much wherever they want...and they wanted to go up the stairs and find out what's up there.

We are getting a tiny bit of rain these days.  I came home from work the other day and it was sprinkling...a nice, gentle sprinkle that was enough to make me use my window wipers but not enough to leave puddle yet.  I looked over into the north field, saw the cows grazing, and then, to the right, I saw this! 

Yes, there were 4 deer lazing in the field under the trees, just getting sprinkled on and so content.  They must have stayed there for an hour...very unusual but I stopped trying to explain nature a long time ago.

Hey, thanks for stopping by.  More next time.

Week 33 & 34 - Catching Up

It's been 2 weeks since my last posting. Let me catch you up.

One, we got rain!  Not a lot, but enough to make us breathe a sigh of relief for a while.  

The deer usually come out right at dusk and right at dawn to eat.  They don't usually come out during the day.  But the drought has made it necessary for them to forage at all times of the day.  

Here is part of the herd that lives in our woods.

(Click to embiggen)

Sadly, we lost a member of our family this past week.  Briscoe crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on Friday.  He was a Golden Retriver that we adopted at 5 months old in 2004.  Now, most Goldens live around 10 years, but Briscoe defied the odds and lived just short of 15 years.  He had some physical challenges that never seemed to stop him or even slow him down.  He had the most amazing smile.  The last few years, he's been declining - don't we all as we get older?  It finally came time to bid him farewell.  When I went to find pictures of him, I realized I'd not taken an recent ones....that makes me sad.  Here are ones taken really early in his life with us.

At 6 months old.

With his favorite human - John was his 'lobster' (reference from the TV show "Friends") 

Farewell, Furry Friend.  We gave you the best life we could and you gave us all your love.  

The young chickens have definitely learned to come out of the barn and forage...it's so fun to look out the window on the barn side of the house and see the entire group of them skittering around.  

We think one of the Black Asutralorps is a rooster.  He is learning to crow. He sounds like a teenage boy with his voice changing...makes us chuckle to hear him.  

I hear thunder beginning and John says the rain has started.  Time for me to turn off and unplug the computer so if we get hit with lightning, we don't lose electronics. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 32 - A Visitor

I haven't seen my youngest brother since 2012 and Mom hasn't seen him since 2016 when she moved from Arizona to live with us.  He was able to fly out here for a few days to see mom and us this past week.  We picked him up at the airport on Tuesday afternoon and the days flew past till we had to take him back to the airport yesterday so he could go home.  He and Mom spent all day, each day, just talking and catching up, then I got to spend time with him once I got home from work, and in the evenings, he and John talked Guy Stuff...Bill, my brother, seemed to enjoy his time here on the farm, helping John feed the cows and the chickens and unloading 1000 pounds of grain into the barn. The weather cooperated, only getting really hot the last full day he was here.  The humidity also stayed low.  

I remembered to get a couple of pictures...

It was wonderful getting to spend time with Bill after all this time.  I'm hoping it won't be too long before he comes back. He will be retiring from the police force this coming February so he and his wife might be taking some road trips after that.   And maybe our other brother might come visit....mom sure has missed them.  

We tried a new restaurant while Bill was here.  Wildseed is a newer establishment about 20 miles from here.  It's clean, welcoming, and the food was so tasty.  It's a mixture of American with a bit of Indian/Thai flair.  Really good food.  And the desserts were To Die For!  We had tried to go there for our anniversary and they had changed their Sunday hours without changing them on the website so they were closed when we got there.  I'd made a comment on their Facebook page about our disappointment and the owner replied with her apologies and asked us to let her know if we visited again and she would help us celebrate with free desserts.  And what absolutely wonderful desserts they were.  John had strawberry shortcake, mom had a chocolate lava cake, Bill had cheesecake with fresh strawberries and I had carrot cake with a really rich cream cheese frosting.  There was not a single dessert that disappointed!  

Thanks for stopping by.