Cat of The Day

I was on deviantART  posting the pictures of the cats that I take, and someone there commented that I should nominate Crookie for Cat of the Day.  Well I did that and Crookie got picked for TODAY!

Check him out!

http://catoftheday.com/


I thought it was so cool when I got the email yesterday about him being on it today!

Chilly, but a nice morning

Such a nice morning out there even though it's still a tad chilly outside.  We have one more day before the house guest/farmhand moves on to their new home.  They just didn't work out here, I do hope their new place does work out well for them.
 Any who.. I finally got the pictures from the first snowfall from this year onto the computer.  These are a couple weeks old so please remember this.
  Doesn't it look soooooooo.... pretty?  I always like watching snow fall and these were the big fluffy ones.  The funniest thing through was the two pups, neither of them wanted to go out into it.  Like they were afraid to touch the strange "white stuff" on the ground. We have not had anything measurable since this  snowfall, though Arkansas did get some a day or so ago.  I wish we had gotten it, we could really use the precip.  Though we are ahead on the precip for this new year ... so far, things can change and I do know it.
   Now for a really cute snowfall picture:
  That is Merlin enjoying his first snowfall, mind you when we saw him there he was jumping each step trying to not get his paws wet.  His sister handled the snowfall much better than him... or at least she didn't do anything silly in front of us.  
 Well so far I can tell you that putting the chickens onto wild bird food does have a downturn in egg production.  It seems by at least half what we were getting before.  Live and learn is my opinion on it, and while I was hoping they would do good on it; I need the eggs.  I think we're going to have to really 'fiddle' with the feed portions when I start making my own.
 Wood stove update:
 It is still working very well, the only thing that I have seen as a problem so far has been one... we needed to do some better sealing around the chimney with the cement.  We are also having an issue with the handle for the door not wanting to move, but I think that's just a simple mechanical issue with the nuts.  It is still putting out a very good amount of heat, and we can simmer food on the surface, which next time I make my stew I may try putting it on the wood burner after the initial cooking.  The beef stew, my lentil stew already simmers on it.
 I have also discovered a side benefit for me anyway.  We have all those cinder blocks around the outside of the burner.  It makes a lovely spot to proof and rise bread dough.  Since having it here my breads have risen beautifully.

 Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

HAPPY YULE!!!!

Sometimes life can be very interesting in a week and sometimes nothing happens at all..
or rather nothing of note happens. …
this week isn't one of those quiet ones...
 Last Saturday when I posted I was doing so while we were out grocery shopping, on a very nice warm day, but the day after was even warmer. So warm that me and Silver were able to eat breakfast outside at our outdoor table without coats on. Halfway through December in our climate that's just weird... We did enjoyed it immensely however. Later that day we spent watching a stump burn out in a fire ring we borrowed from Queen Sized Tink and her family. We haven't had a camp fire in a while and it was nice to have.

 I have a couple cute pictures of the last batch of kittens we had that I finally got around to tinkering with. Merlin and Lady have had their moments of oddity just like our other cats. The first is of Lady on the food dehydrator:
 
 Then little Merlin in the pot from making my spaghetti, I thought it looked like he was searching for food.
 I also have a picture I took in October of the pond we're digging out full of water. I have tried out a new recipe, it is for sourdough pretzels; they were very good so try it out:
 Sponge:
 1C sourdough starter
 1 ½ C white flour
 1C warm water
 Remove the starter from your refrigerator and stir it well. Take out one cup and place it in a warm bowl of 2 quart or larger capacity. Return your starter to the refrigerator. Add the warm water and stir until well mixed. Slowly add the white flour stirring continuously to blend the flour in well. You want the mixture to be smooth, you may use an egg beater or an electric mixer. Cover and set in a warm place to proof, this can be 8-12 hours. I let mine go overnight.

 Pretzels:
 1 ½ C sponge
 1 C HOT water
 2 T butter
 3 T sugar
 2 t salt
 5 ½ C flour
 1 egg yolk
 2 T thick cream or evaporated milk
 The first thing you wish to do is stir up your sponge and return 1 cup of it to your starter, replenishing it. Then with the rest of your ingredients at room temperature, you can start your prep. Add the 2 T butter, 3 T sugar, and 2 t salt to the 1 C of hot water stir and cool till lukewarm. Put the sponge in a warm bowl (btw I just use the bowl I proofed in), add the water mix to it and stir in. Add 4 cups of the flour, ½ a cup at a time stirring after each addition. This will get very stiff! Turn out onto a floured board and knead in approximately 1 ½ cups more of the flour. The dough will be very stiff. Place in a greased bowl, turn over and cover. Let set for 2 hours to proof (please note it DOES NOT SAY until doubled). On a board that has been scraped clean of flour break off pieces of dough about the size of a large egg. Roll each piece out with your palms of your hands until it is about 18 inches long and ½ inch in diameter. Twist into the shape of a pretzel. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush them with a mixture of the egg yolk and the cream. Cover and place in a warm 85 degree spot for 30 minutes for proofing. Then brush with the yolk/cream mixture again and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
 I can tell you it was a very good batch of pretzels, Silver commented that they were better than any we have bought in any store.
 Last night was Yule for those of you who celebrate it, and Silver and I attempted to stay up all night with a fire lit in the same fire ring from Tink. We set up piles of wood for the night and even a kitchen for some foods were were going to cook over the fire.
  The only problem we encountered was that we were too tired to keep it going come midnight. So what we did do was bring the wood that was burning into the house and put it into the wood stove and set it up to keep burning all night. This morning it was still burning and all that was needed was to set a couple extra pieces on the fire to get a good flame going.

 I would like to take a moment to mention something that has been in the news for well over a week now.

(*steps on soapbox*) The shooting disaster at the Connecticut school, personally I think it was a horrible tragedy. I also believe in gun rights, HOWEVER... I do have an issue with people who buy assault rifles or large magazines and say they have them for hunting. If you need that many bullets to shoot a food animal then there is a problem with you.

Also that being said … if guns are taken away the only ones who will have them are cops and crooks... BECAUSE crooks don't care how they get the weapons in the first place so removing the legal way of getting them doesn't stop crimes. The crooks will still get the weapons if they want them.

 I hate to say it but in this day and age, if someone wants to commit a violent crime they -WILL-, if they don't care what happens to them after the fact legality won't prevent it. This is something that those who are in power either don't care about or forget “conveniently”.

 I do hope that person who killed those kids who never had a chance to live burns in what ever version of HELL they believe in. I also hope people don't forget that some of those kids killed might have siblings that need hearts and hands reaching out to help them. The other kids that -survived- this tragedy will have a horrible emotional scar that they will carry for a very long time just due to the fact of how old they are.

 Now here is something else to think on about this crime. In many countries around the world this happens daily... and no one notices or seems to care. It happens in an American school and the world stares at it. We need to stop this WORLDWIDE... not just here.(*steps off soapbox*)

 http://youtu.be/fDTKypXUwoI

I hope everyone had a good Yule and that all have a Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you have.

 Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be... .

Weird Weather for all!

So here I am with another update for everyone, with a minor bit of good(?) news. Due to the fact that we do receive food stamps, the state requires me look for work that will get us off food stamps. While I don't have an issue with this I must actively 3X's a week put in applications. I have to be able to prove it. So I will be online about once a week now, and I should be able to update this every week. I will also be able to update my pintrest photo's too.

 As for our wood stove, how many of you remember this picture of our cat Stormy from last year?  
 Well after we put the wood stove in the house and during the time it's been too warm to use it, (60's in December...yuck) Stormy -AND- Merlin have both tried sleeping on the wood stove. This lead to a minor problem for both cats the night we lit it back up again. Both boys wound up lightly burning their paws when they landed on the stove. Funny how they jump right back off.

 We have been clearing the ground down to bare dirt for the house on these warm days. The dome is going to be 40ft in diameter, and we have set out some strings so that I could see the future room sizes. It does look like we may have to remove our largest dogwood tree as we are working on the house.  

 We have also cleared out a few other spaces. One is for an eventual pig “pen”; in that case we cleared out trash, downed trees, and branches. We also cleared out for a new compost pile by the current chicken coop. We have started it with some sticks and leaf litter from where the house is going. The third place we have cleared is where we are hoping to plant sun chokes next year, it's in a low spot so I hope it works well.   We have gotten a trailer hitch for the van, and Silver has put it on; it looks really good on the van.

 Well, that's it for now folks!

 Catch you in about a week.  

 Be Well Be Safe and Blessed Be...

Good Bye Bandit

Well we made an unfortunate discovery this morning when we went out to water the garden.  We discovered Bandit, Silver's favorite cat out by the well house dead.  We think she was on her way back to the house and to her kittens when she just fell over dead.  As it looks like she was in mid run when she died.

She's been here with us since before we moved here, she made the trek from New York with us.  She will be missed, especially since she was one of our best hunters.  Also the best momma cat we had.  A few days ago I was trying to keep her out of the house, as she was trying to bring in a full sized garter snake for her kittens.

She has been one of our most photogenic cats, as she always wound up in positions where we just had to take a picture and comment on it.

Oh, and here is Silver with Bandit back in New York sharing a nap:

As for her position in our home, I'd say if our cats were a pride of lions; Bandit was the head female.  She was the best momma cat i have ever seen, and that is considering that her mother was a wonderful cat mom.   I hope Bandit is with her sister Paige and they are chasing down some huge rodent somewhere.

We will miss you Bandit,

Good Journey...

I hate Fleas!

Good thing flea is a four-letter word because I about to start using it like one. Our little kittens are covered in them and so of course now our house is infested. We spent the morning pulling every ounce of bedding out of our house and hung ti on the clothes lines. Then we went and totally swept out the house (the kids were amazed at how fast we got the floor clean). We booted every cat outside and set their food out there then we hosed the interior of the building down with a flea and tick spray. I hate using such stuff but right now we have not much choice in the matter.

In about an hour I'm going to attempt to wash 8 kittens and hope just some Ivory bar soap will get the fleas. Then I'm going to see if I can get the mommas into the bath water too, hopefully with almost no lacerations.

On another kitten note, for some reason the second mom has not taught her kittens to use the litter box. I do not know why not, does anyone know the best way to teach one that has no idea? The first mom cat taught her babies to use it, and it was interesting to watch.

She stood in the litter box and called the three over, then she called one into it and stepped out. I'm guessing she told them what to do, as they them "went" crying as I think it was their first times. They buried it and are now very good about using it. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Meet our kitties!

This handsome man is Stormy he is the patriarch of our kitties, he is a Siberian mix.

Here is where it get complicated the one on the left is Pagie my son's cat, the daughter of Stormy and our at present momma cat. The little one next to her is Tuffy a cat Mr. Ruby ridge gave my kids. the orange long haired tabby is, of course Crookshanks or "Crookie" for short; son of Stormy. He as my stroke kitty I wrote about before. The next one is Pagie's sister Bandit, the two girls' mom looked like Pagie except that the "black eye" Pagie has was on their mom's other eye. The final one is Smokey Crookie's sister, she is one of my daughter's cats, Tuffy belongs to my other daughter. This picture I took one day when they lined up in our outdoor kitchen waiting for us to feed them. I have one more picture of Tuffy so you can see him better.