America the Beautiful

Besides being the BEST place to live despite hard times, it's amazing to me how the landscape can change in 10 minutes of driving! You can sometimes see forever with soft velvety hills (below left), then be in the midst of treed hills and just 15 minutes later (below right).








The landscape can take your breath away at times! The southwest has wonderful rock formations that hold archaelogical truths and rich history of our past (recent compared to other continents). Just imagine moving west 100 years ago through some of this rugged country, without the superhighways!! I remember family trips to visit relatives, and we went through every town and berg along the way!! My kids will never know, and their kids probably won't believe how 'primitive' travel was as recent as the 50's!!

The CATtle Ranch

It was suggested by Travis that we drop the TLE off of catTLE Ranch and just have a CAT RANCH!! We're well on our way! Had to hire a few hands to help manage our growing cat population on our little ranch! Check out the video link!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8

Seriously, we only have 19 cats right now .. :) But the concept is interesting and well expressed in the video!!!

PLUS FIVE = an even DOZEN

Powder had her babies yesterday morning! She was a little freaked, but she did use the box provided and nursed her new little brood. This is her most unique one, though I must say it's an interesting mix... she had a calico too.
The first family picture was a little messy, so I decided to get a better 'family' picture so as not to gross you out!! However if you count, you'll notice SIX kittens in the picture (she only had FIVE). She now thinks they're ALL hers!! So she borrows from her sister at every opportunity.It's not hard to catch her in action:

So, Sienna had to check out Powder's box when she noticed her kitten count was a little short! While checking, Powder returned with yet another and settled in to nurse.

By the time I finished feeding all the animals this morning, Sienna's box was EMPTY!! I had to figure out a solution. Returning them just invites her to retrieve them again, so I scouted around for a bigger box. If they're all going to end up in one box, then there needs to be room for two moms to feed them all! So, here's my solution since it's very apparent to me that they intend to share in the responsibilities!!! And Powder's being pretty pushy, keeping all the babies in her box!!

SEVEN!!!!!

Her first (and last) litter -- SEVEN! I always thought first litters were small!! I knew she was pretty big... I expected 6! Now with Powder, I'm expecting around 5 more within the next 24-48 hours!!
One little addendum: Last night, EVERY time I checked on them, Sienna was ALWAYS purring big time!! It was a permanent purr - even the door vibrated against the water dish!!

Here are the kaleidescope kittens:

Little Kitty is a Grandma!!

Actually I have another blog almost ready to publish, but this mini-event needed a quick blog!! I took some pictures of my 'kittens' (8 1/2 months old) on Saturday to show how big they were, knowing that the births would be very soon. So, here's Sienna on Saturday:

At dinnertime tonight, there was a commotion with Sam out on the porch, and Mike went out to check out what was going on. Maybe because of the new kitten noises coming from the box, Sam was responding with worrisome sounds. Sienna had already had a few kittens and was in the process of having another. My next few trips out found her 'pushing' to deliver another and another! I don't yet know how many are out there, but for a first litter, she has a pretty full house!! There are at least 6 or 7, and they're all different colors - I see an orange tabby, a blonde one (like Powder), a couple of calicos, black and white, and grey-orange-black combo. It's like a rainbow out there!!! Maybe I can get better pics tomorrow.

Then, Mama Kitty (now Grandma Kitty) came out to investigate:

Powder's next, and I think she has at least 5 - we'll see in the next couple of days!!!

TIMBER!!!!!

A few months ago, a great wind storm came through Ohio and we were notified we had a tree blow down in the yard. I know there's a dead tree in the back yard, and I hoped it was THAT tree!! What a silly thought!!!! (picture on left)

So, when I visited my mom last month, I took a day trip to Ohio to have lunch with my friend, Loretta, who I worked with at the Kettering School of Medical Arts. I also visited my friends, Melissa and Bob, who I knew from the condo community we lived in for a few years. I stopped by our yet-unsold house to check out the yard for the fallen tree, and peek in the windows. Except that the yard could use some TLC, it looked pretty good.

When I got back, we too had some terribly windy days and don't ya know, we needed the roof repaired (for the 3rd time) because of missing shingles and one of the cedar trees blew down in our side yard.

At least here, Mike could go out with his handy saw and haul it off the the burn pile to await the calling off of the burn ban currently in force. Though we've had a few inches of rain, it's still pretty dry. I'm praying for more rain before the hot summer comes!!

In the meantime, the newest litter (2 boys and a girl) are getting really cute - they like sleeping in sunshine on reasonably comfortable days. Yesterday (and today) it's hot and humid and they're happy in the shade of the house.