Happy Thanksgiving!!

To all who visit our blog, I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving, had a good meal, enjoyed football games and are feeling great (not too stuffed). The above still-life is from my late garden! They're the first pumpkins I've ever grown! I didn't get a ton, but I did get 6 pumpkins, a few watermelons and the bounty previously pictured! The last time I tried to make a pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin was a disaster. It wasn't very good. This time I researched on the web before I started - I cut it up in small pieces, peeled the outer skin off, cooked till tender, mashed it and set it in a seive for a few hours to drain. NOW I have some nice firm pulp. I made a pumpkin roll and yesterday I made a pumpkin pie. I have dried pumpkin seeds that are pretty tasty too.

Every morning the man of the house goes out with his faithful dog, Sam to feed the steeds and open the gate for them to go out to pasture for the day!! This morning however, Mike heard a coyote nearby and grabbed his rifle for a Thanksgiving morning hunt while I assumed the steed feed duty! He did spot the coyote across the street from our pasture stalking 2 deer. I heard a 'BLAM' which got ALL the animals attention and I waited to see the fine pelt - but the varmint got away!! You see I have no love for the coyotes, as they lurk waiting for my kittens to amble away from the safety of the yard! ALAS! The kittens have names at last! Timmie of course is the little runt - the little guy! The other orange one (F) is SIENNA. Then there are the triplets (above) that are VERY hard to tell apart. For the most part they look alike. I'm going to have to mark their ears or something until I can find some way to tell them apart. I THINK the front one is POWDER, the back one is BLONDIE, and the one to the leftish is KIBBEE (she's the one who just eats kibble).

While trying to take the above picture, Powder yawned, but it looks like it's screaming for some kind of a caption! It looks like she has something to say! What do you think??

More UPs and DOWNs

Who can believe November is here?? And today is All Saints Day AND it's CHEYENNE'S BIRTHDAY (we won't mention how many because it will date me too!!!) : ) (Needless to say, this is an UP!!) My GOOD memories SOOOO outweigh any difficulties along the way. I love the person she's become, and I KNOW she's going to be a WONDERFUL mother to Riley and any other children that God gifts her with. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER!

My 'grandkittens' will soon be checking out their new homes. As you see, they have their UPs and DOWNs learning to climb higher in trees now. They have such fluffy coats and such cute faces that they steal my heart with just a look with those sweet innocent blue eyes! This week Mama Kitty has had 3 very enthusiastic kittens that share her moist food.

Finally this morning as I decided to catch this Kodak moment, for the first time, the 4th kitten who is eating dry food in the first shot (above left), decided to see what was so good while the 5th came up (above right) and took her place eating the dry. When all was done, the new addition to the moist breakfast stayed to clean UP crumbs (below left). Guess who's waiting at the fence waiting for his breakfast (as he looks on with great envy). This particular dog currently smells like 'skunk'!

Tiny still depends on Mama Kitty for sustainance, but he IS growing. Mid morning the plumber came to fix the kitchen sink (wouldn't drain) and scared all the kittens who hid in the cat carrier. When gone, I looked out, and noted they were segregated - the girls in the cat carrier, and Tiny and his brother sleeping in the grass. (below) This is like Mutt (biggest) and Jeff (smallest). The kittens are actually pretty gentle with their 'little' brother. They play MUCH harder with each other than they do with Tiny.

Monday night we had a freeze warning. Check out my tomato plants:

That meant I had to pick as much as I could from the garden. Well, it didn't freeze (36 degrees), but the DOWNer is that I picked LOTS of green, yellow, orange, and red tomatoes that could have grown more and ripened on the vine!!! The UP is that tomorrow I think I'll can some tomato sauce and salsa.