Raising the roof!

HOME SWEET HOME with a new roof!

It doesn't rain often here, but when it does, we get some pretty wicked winds with impressive thunder and lightening! We've had roofers out 3 or 4 times to repair the roof when the wind blew off shingles and leaked through to the ceiling. So we knew we'd have to have it replaced!

The roofers started almost as soon as the sun came up! Here you can see the old roof (the ORIGINAL roof) and they applied the new shingles on top of the original roof after they inspected and repaired any problem areas.

The installation took about 3 days with the whole crew working till mid afternoon in 100 degree heat.

Then the boss man would come back and work till dinner time (about 7 pm) before he'd give up and go home.

Here's the back view of the new roof, and the color goes quite nicely with the brick!

There's also progress on the hen house. Mike worked quite a few mornings before the temperature outside reached into the 90's and low 100's - making and installing his trusses!

Then it came time to do the roof! As you can see, it has a metal roof and interior walls. It too should last for a long time without leaking and without giving the chickens a chill! Now for the siding - dependant of funding for the lumber purchase!

It's a CAT-tastrophe!!

This has been a terrible week in kittendom! Last Sunday morning I had a full complement of kitties, short 2 with new homes. By Friday morning, I was minus 4 kitties! (Three 14 week old kittens and Mama Kitty!!!) Now I have these eight little orphans - just 4 weeks old. Last Sunday, we saw 5 or 6 buzzards fly off as we approached about 1000 feet down the road on our way to church. We tried to spot what they had from the car but saw nothing. It wasn't till I went to feed my brood, that 2 kittens (little white spotted male and 'Bibs' pictured below) failed to report when called. They ALWAYS come for meals. They weren't there the next day either! Then we wondered about those guilty-looking birds. My 2 boys loved chasing bugs in the living room window in the evening when we were watching TV!

On Tuesday I went to do my Pink Lady duty and when I came home, there was a buzzard eating something at the intersection of our road! When I got home, I took a kitten count and couldn't find my beautiful, most loving, Red. The fur on the road has confirmed his demise!

Then Friday, Mama Kitty was NOT waiting for breakfast and she wasn't under the porch with her kittens! By noon I knew something was really wrong because she's the BEST mom and would NEVER leave her kittens for hours! I can only guess that she came to the same end as the others. I thought she was safe because she was bigger, street-wise and feisty. When attacked from above, I suspect one is helpless with nowhere to instantly run for shelter! Here's Kitty just after she adopted us (Feb 2008) - I think she was pretty young there. To the right is Little Kitty, fulfilling her role as an awesome mom!!

It breaks my heart to say goodbye to my babies! I'd so much rather have found them homes. The little white one had a new home for a day, but it didn't work out for him.

For now, I'll be Mama to the babies, but I can't do near the good job that Little Kitty did!!!

Visitors!

We were SO blessed this week with family! No one lives nearby, so we don't get to see one another often. Monday afternoon Travis (son), Pam and Brenden (left side) arrived from Savannah, GA, along with their greyhounds, Merlin & Morgan (foreground) and a persian cat, Avalon (not pictured). At the same time, Mike's sister, Debbie (center back) and niece, Chrys (center left) arrived from California. Then on Tuesday, Cheyenne (daughter), John and Riley (right side) arrived at DFW from Arizona. And of course you can pick out Mike and me and our dog, Sam - we're all that's left!! This is the best close-up to show the grandsons with their moms. The timing of the visits is to get the families together on middle ground. And it was a bonus to have Debbie and Chrys arrive when they were all here. We had a great time catching up.

While they were all here, we had another visitor one night - a skunk! He made himself known by what he left behind - his familiar aroma! The only problem is that I couldn't find any kittens at breakfast time! Nary a one! I called and called. Nothing. So I started hunting around, and alas, there they were - safely hiding in a tree! Six of the eleven were all snuggied in the notch of the tree. I strongly prefer our family visitors!!!

The LAST kittens for Kitty

Kitty apparently got pregnant when her former litter of 3 were 8 weeks old! So this is her LAST litter. Her two daughters (Powder and Sienna) who had 12 kittens between them, already have an appointment with the kitty gynecologist, and Kitty won't be far behind them! NO MORE KITTENS!! Hopefully the ones we keep will hang around and not meet with any coyotes or birds of prey in the nearby area. All three have had very pretty litters since the tuxedo cat has been roaming these parts! He's going to be so disappointed when he next comes a'calling!

Kitty got HUGE!!! She had her kittens the afternoon/evening of July 8th. She'd had 4 by the time I got home from shopping in Graham. Every half hour of so, she'd have another well into the evening!! By 9pm, I think she was done, but there was one little one that didn't make it. The next morning when I went out to count, there were eight! So she birthed NINE!!! I really didn't need so many more!!! All the dark ones are girls and the orange/beige ones are boys - so I have 5 calico girls and 3 boys!
In this picture you can see them all better:
She had them during the heat of the day (105) and panted all the way through labor. The next morning she moved them to the floor of the porch where they sometimes squiggled off in their blind state. So, I moved the box down there to contain them, but she moved them back onto the concrete. I tried to let her be in the garage where it was a little cooler, but she wouldn't leave them in the box and insisted on taking them behind the shelves. As fast as I could return them to the box, she'd move them back to the spot behind the shelves. So I had to ban her from the garage! That meant Mike couldn't open the garage door to work because she'd quickly take advantage of the moment! So we moved to the back porch where Kitty stayed her first winter with us. Still she'd take them out of the box but was otherwise happy with the location. Ultimately she moved them to the only corner I hadn't swept - under the kitchen vent and hemmed in with bags of potting soil and alfalfa pellets, BUT she's happy there, so there they will stay for now!

Enjoy them Little Kitty 'cause there won't be any more!!!

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How does your garden grow?

It's been pretty warm here on the ranch, 100 + or - for the past couple of weeks. The fields and lawn are taking a hit and turning tan out in the open - under the trees it's still green. The garden has it's ups and downs. I water at least once a day and sometimes twice. I come in as soaked as the garden but without benefit of the well water! In spite of the heat and Eeyore in the garden - TWICE, most things are doing pretty good. This is the garden overall: The corn at least produced decent ears, but they're cooked twice by the time they reach our plate. The blackeyed peas (center upper picture, left below) are growing like crazy right now. They're supposed to be 'bush' plants, but have sent out streamers so far, I had to provide something to prop them up!!

This is my best tomato plant at this time (left, below). If I can keep them moist enough, they may produce better when it cools off! Cucumbers (below right) are doing well and we've already had more cucumbers that the whole season last year.

Then over to the vine plants - the Straightneck Yellow Squash is getting ready to start putting out some yummy tender squashes (left) and the Okra is sporting it's first flower (right) about to open and provide us okra for gumbo.

The pumpkin is getting it's first fruit (I had to make it big so you could see it in the upper left corner:

We should be getting canteloupe in the next couple of weeks (left) - the one below is about 5". Watermellon (right) is coming along, some itty-bitty ones just starting, but the one shown is about 4-5 inches :

My salad row is still making lettuce - mostly green leaf lettuce, but a few reds. I planted some 'mesclun mix', but the leaves were so bitter, I won't plant that next year, just variety lettuces and spinach. There are also some carrots mixed in with the lettuce.

Mike's project is coming along well considering he's a one-man construction crew!! He's put down the foundation, the flooring and the framing so far. This structure will store garden items, feed for the chickens and the larger part will be the chicken coup. Most of the work is done between 7:30 and 10 a.m. before the sun is most intense and the heat oppressive.
By 10:00 a.m. you see narry a kitten around because they're all under the porch and they don't come out till late afternoon, early evening!

So goes life on the ranch these days!!!

Who's in the hen house???

Yesterday, shortly after sunrise (you can tell by the lighting), I awakened to this tapping, scraping noise, and I laid there and thought -- What is that noise???? Sometimes Racey or Eeyore wake me scraping her(his) front hoof on the chain link fence, but this sound was different. So I got up to peep out and see what it was and this is what I found!!!

To the south of my garden, Mike is building a storage area (for garden supplies) and hen house for our future chickens. I've been meaning to go out when he's working on it for a progress picture, but this was too good of an opportunity. Racey AND Eeyore were walking around on the floor of the hen house and 'pawing' or should i say 'hoofing' at the floor. So now we know that the flooring can support over 1000 pounds!!!

When they realized they were caught in the act, they quickly exited:

Within 30 seconds the two were innocently standing by the fence trying to convince me -- "we weren't in the hen house!!! We're not chickens!!"

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

After getting caught up in stopped traffic for about an hour and a half d/t a BAD accident where the whole of I-10 was closed down for CSI activities (collecting materials & measuring distances), my first day of travel was shorter than planned. I overnighted in Lordsburg, NM and knew I was in for a L-O-N-G day of driving for my second day. So rather than take the 'fastest' route according to TomTom, I chose the 'shortest' route and hoped I didn't make a big mistake. Except for one tour through a little mountain town, it did a good job! I made it home for dinner, saw some nice scenery, and drove about 200 fewer miles!! TomTom took me through White Sands National Monument:
and through some beautiful mountain/canyon vistas:

The purpose of my trip to Arizona was to take care of my little grandson, Riley while his mom and dad went white water rafting. We had SUCH A GOOD TIME!!! He's a wonderful and inquisitive little boy, about to crossover from the baby stage to the toddler stage!! He's good natured and tons of fun to be with. We had so much fun getting to know one another. He LOVES water!!! That includes the doggie's water dish or ANY source of water anywhere. Bath time is a favorite time!! Note the tidal wave in the tub from splashing!! And the look of glee!!!

Mobility is another full time activity during waking hours... On the carpet he crawls, but on the tile floor, he does a bear crawl (hands and FEET):
While Mom and Dad were gone, we worked on stair climbing, and it didn't take long to improve his technique. Stair climbing and assisted walking were his favorite things to do -

When Cheyenne and John got home, we went to a neighbors to practice swimming with Mommy:
Cana (black lab) usually comes along to visit his friend, Bailey for water sports - they NEVER tire of retrieving - the big splash is Cana:

And when I got home, we moved the new kittens to the side porch which serves as the training grounds. When napping, they tend to sleep together and all over each other. Ten of the twelve are pictured here!