R.I.P. Aurora

 

Aurora was named after the colors of her coat.  She was so pretty.  She was a great hunter.  She was so friendly.  We will miss her so much.  She came with the house when we moved here 13 years ago.  The last people who lived here left her here.  We fed her daily, but she hunted mouse and rabbits.  She loved my husband, and spent many hours in his arms.

Grounded ~ Barn Cat ~ Craft Show Prep and more

I 've been grounded.  Our November adventure has been postponed until next year.  We simply have too much to get done, and my husband hasn't had a day off in literally weeks.  He's exhausted, and more exhausted knowing what we need to get done.  I'll just have something to look forward to next year.

Sadly, we have not seen our barn cat Aurora in 4 days now.  I'll do another attempt to call for her, and look around, but there is not a day she does not come to the door to eat.  I know she is old, but she still had spunk.  We are all worried.

I dug out all my handiwork, and am making sure items are packaged and priced.  My bedroom looks like a hurricane went through it, ha ha!  I told my husband, it'll all disappear soon, and hopefully in the way of a lot of sales.

Made another apple crisp.  My daughter ate the last of the last one for breakfast, and I heard about it for days from my husband.  He's happy.

Rory ~ Hummingbird and other tidbits

 

I planted 4 mums in one of my flower beds and found our barn cat sleeping in my flowers.  She loves my flower beds.

The hummingbird came to give me a visit.  It loves the purple flowers every fall.  It is so hard to get a good photo or even a video.

Recipe I use is online with Eating Well - Slow Cooker Vegetarian Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili (using fire roasted tomatoes).

Meals this week have been switched around from my original plan.  I have little energy at the end of the day.  I recently made us a crock pot full of sweet potato/black bean chili with a side of homemade confetti muffins (contains carrots and green bell pepper). Recipe for the muffins is online (Taste of Home), but I used buttermilk vs. milk.

Instead of breakfast for dinner (which is a lot of work), I put it in the freezer and used turkey sausage to make a crock pot of Four beans and sausage.  I use my home canned ketchup in the recipe and it is so good, as well a garden grown green bell peppers.  Sorry, forgot to take a photo last night.

My ladies were not happy yesterday.  I couldn't let them out in the fenced area due to this out looking for it's next meal.  I heard it several times while in the garden, but watched over the ladies and then put them in when I came in.  It hasn't left the area yet.

1:30am Moom ~ Small Day Adventures ~ Barn Cat ~ Crochet/knit Socks of Another Kind

The things I do when I cannot sleep.  Take photos of the moon.  This was, I think, from last Thursday early in the morning.

I am being very bad at eating breakfast at all.  I have a light lunch and come dinner, I don't want to eat either.  The stress has been over the moon bad.  Just lots of things going on.

The chance for rain on Saturday (60%) went off the radar as fast as it went on.  However, we thankfully got a nice pour down last night.  

My 21 year-old and I went on a small day adventure and visited an antique store in the Big City.  

I've been wanting one of these for a long time.  First, I thought I might paint it red, but I may leave it yellow.  I kind of like it.

We also went to a thrift store, which I sort of thought was not stocked by much (oddly).  I snatched up this green pepper dish for $1.00 and it now holds my vegetable scrubber.

Picked up this wine bottle stand for a few bucks as well.

I picked up a few books as well, and a beat up metal strainer the antique guy gave me free.  I wanted it for a table center piece for the fall holidays.  I have battery operated lights (rechargeable batteries), and will top with some holiday colored something or other to pretty it up.

More tomatoes are turning red, but as you can see the drought has not helped with the size of most of them.

Looks like a raccoon right?  It's our barn cat.  I brought the pool out to clean for the grandkids, and it filled with rain water the last time it rained and it still has some oddly.  Anyway, she loves to go in the water and give herself a bath and get a drink, even though her water bowl is filled.  Silly cat.

My socks finally arrived in the mail.  I thought I deserved to buy myself something special.

Rain ~ Strawberries ~ Green Onions

I tried to enjoy the pretty sunrise just before it clouded over Wed. morning, but it wasn't clouds that sent me inside.  Darn barn cat Aurora, gifted me another rabbit.  Directly under my feet.  Had to leave the area until said animal disappeared.

(homemade flourless brownie, ice cream, homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce)

I didn't have to cook Wed. night due to leftovers, and they were delicious.  I have to stock up on chicken when I locate it again (true organic, locally raised).  I still want to visit a farm about 1 hour from home, but I'm waiting for Hubby's looooong work days to end first so we can go together.

Bad photo, but I got out to buy another flat of strawberries - 8 qts.  I figured the rain will delay their picking, and when that happens, they don't offer a deal on them, and they are limited or out.  

Before I tackled freezing some strawberries, I headed to the herb garden and unburied the green onions.  This was before.  Lots of rain, lots of weeds.  I was tickled to plant 7 starts though.  I got it 90% weeded out until I ran into more ants.  Had to stop anyway, it was getting very hot out.

Rain fell all night long and it's still raining today.  I hope to have a handiwork post for you soon.

Random Tidbits

Wed. night Hubby, tired as he was tilled a small bit of the garden for me (for potatoes).  I yanked out one section of last year's plastic we had down for peppers, but left the rest in.  It's too wet to work in.

(That's puddle of water, and it's way too wet to till)

It's saturated in most parts yet.  We were to get rain all night, and did not thankfully.  Rain was 80% at 6am Thursday morning, but quickly changed to 50% at 7am.  Then it stopped early. 

Although it was a muddy mess, I planted 17# of red and white potatoes (90 starts).   Took a break, and headed back out to plant 53 sweet potato slips but only had room for 26.  I managed to plant a row of radishes too.  

We are really hurting in our area, farmers included.  Not one farmer has been in their fields this year other than to do soil tests.  Organic farmers may be having the same issue.

Our plan is to take it one day at a time, and then decide what's to be planted.  We will attempt fall planting of radishes, kale etc.  If I can manage it by myself, I plan to pull the pea fence and roll it up until fall.  It'd make tilling a bit easier since we can't plant any pea type at all now.

The weather changes by the hour, so it's hit or miss this year.

Allergies are at their worst ever this year.  I've relied on nettle for years, but I'm now mixing it up with mullien.   I'm also using oregano oil this year.   The diffuser is going at night, but that means turning off my dehumidifier and it's still raining here.

Goldenrod is not in season yet, and I don't have horehound.  If you have a tea remedy that works better, please share.

To relieve sinus pressure I did some essential oil steams the other day too.  I also decided to take my worries away with a long hot soak in the tub with essential oils.

I'll be looking through my herbal recipe books to see if I can find another tea alternative.  If there is nothing new in my own books, I'll be ordering some from the library.

Aurora gifted me an early morning treat on the porch.  Then proceeded to play with it, to the point I had to switch rockers for her to have more room.  Good kitty, but on the porch?  Really?

I was chilling on the front porch with a wine slushy, when I saw something move out in the field across from us.

I then remembered my chickens were out in their run, and ran out there to check.  Whew.  All accounted for, but not the barn cat. Found her later.

Just before that, our biker friend arrived to mow.  No mower.  Grr.  He has plans on Friday, and it's the only dry day for a while.  

Sick Cat ~ Wood Cuttin' Day ~ Snow Rolling In

Tiger is sick again, so that was on the list of to-do's.  We got him to the vet in the morning Saturday.  Thankfully, the family get together was cancelled.  That freed up our morning to cut more, much needed wood.

I'll admit we laughed our way through it.  Layered in 5 layers of clothes, wind blowing and almost getting the truck stuck....we laughed and laughed.  What idiots we were for not cutting more wood over summer (again, he does this year after year).  Then again, he was a pretty depressed man after losing two nephews.  I gave him a pass.  Next summer we'll hit it hard.  By the way, I much rather prefer dry sawdust than sogging sawdust that sticks to everything.  It was everywhere.

After we cut wood we pretty much hunkered in.  We parked the car at the front of the drive, and thankfully we did.  Hubby has to work this morning and the drifts behind the car are 3-5 feet high.  The snow plow has buried the end of the drive and most likely the mailbox.

I was up at 3:42am precisely.  I had to check water pipes and the fire.  I got both going and opened cupboard doors.  I also heard our barn cat Aurora crying on the front porch and brought her inside.  It's gonna be way below 0° and there is no way she'll find a warm place.  I just hope the chickens do well with their heat lamp.  So far, the power is on and the hot water flows.  We are just waiting for family to plow us out.  Behind the car anyway.  The truck is buried.

Winter Prep Continues ~ Random Tidibits

Good morning world!

Starting the day a little slower today.  Good Morning Coffee!


These past few days have been exciting around here.  The colder weather is getting me inspired to write a list of projects to do this winter.  Fun ones.  Like read a book.

Photo Moments...

The start of my scrap blanket.  I'm using all the yarn I have leftover from other projects.  It's my "five minutes for me" handiwork when I need a change of pace from the other current handiwork.

Big fluffy clouds.

A butterfly that often visits the front porch flowers, and....

Spring Rain ~ Random Tidbits

I have much to weed and plant yet.

I have hostas to split, and plant in new locations.  Timmy was taking an afternoon siesta, so I let him sleep and worked in another bed.

Happy Goats ~ Blisters and Backaches

Staking the goats has been successful.  I think they look forward to seeing me approach the gate to bring them out now.  They get a belly full of goodness, and we get a gas free mower (and cleared land).

Speaking of land.  Hubby went guns-blazing with the garden expansion yesterday.  He literally wore me out.  I put 11,000 steps on my fitbit in garden work alone (by 3pm).   I had gone to the garden to plant the onions, but they are still not planted.