Cat Butt Cake

Because "Cat with Less than Nine Lives Cake" is too much of a mouthful.

I guess when you are being "The Cat Who Walked By Himself", all places really are alike to you--including the middle of  my toasty warm apple spice cake.

Hoppy Holidays

Bunnies are such good sports. This is Poppy. She and her sister, Pansy, are our two new Orange babies. I had to share.

 Vinca, a Blue Otter doe, has stolen our hearts with her kissing. Maybe we should name her Mistletoe instead.

We have 8 tiny reindeer, but no sleigh. Maybe next year. I have several people trying to talk me into doing a calendar. Hmmm....sounds like a lot of work to me.

If you didn't squeal when you saw the pictures, there is something wrong with you.

A New You

I have to confess that I am a little jealous of our snake.
What? That's not exactly what you were expecting to read when you came over here?
It's true. I envy our snake.
Not because he gets to stuff himself till he's fit to burst with no apparent consequences; or because he gets to sleep 99.999% of the time in a climate controlled, safe, quiet spot.
No, I'm jealous because of this:

Every month of so, Kernel sheds his skin in one complete piece, essentially emerging as a brand new snake. His colors become brighter and more iridescent, and he fairly glows.

Humans exfoliate, or shed dead skin in flakes. We even pay good money for products and services to aid us in the process in an vain attempt at maintaining our youthful appearances. Not snakes. They tie themselves in knots and turn inside out in a process called ecdysis; making a fresh start in one glorious motion every time.

Think there's a metaphor in there somewhere?
Wish you could try it?
Yeah, me too.

I Corinthians 15:53-54

Just a Tad

NitroZoo

How many animals do you need before you can say that you have a petting zoo? I think we're there now. Dog, cats, fish, caterpillars (for the time being), snake, and now...bunnies.

Charlock, or Charlie, is a Chestnut buck and about a year old. Violet is an 8 month old Black Otter doe. They are both Netherland Dwarf  rabbits, the smallest of the recognized rabbit breeds (only 2 pounds as adults). They are a breeding pair, matched to balance out the other's weaknesses. Be sure to stay tuned to see how all that works out. = :) 
I'm not even sure which direction I want to go with this venture at this point, but it will likely involve baby bunnies. It is my intention to go to the ARBA show in Bloomington this weekend and come home with at least two more rabbits. I do not have the funds (or the justification) to purchase expensive pedigreed stock. However, you can start your own line. Sounds like a great educational project to me. The girls will learn about genetics without even realizing it.

In spite of bringing them home last night in a horrific thunderstorm and trying to get them settled in the middle of the flashing and crashing, they both fared well through the night. Charlie is a sweetheart, and Violet seems calm, but curious and outgoing.

Many of the breeders name their rabbits (at least the ones they keep) according to a theme. We've decided to use Wildflowers to name  our bunnies. Violets need no explanation, but this is Charlock. It is in the Mustard family. The funniest name we've seen is a 2# buck named Terminator. Somebody has been watching too much Monty Python.

Oh, and for those of you who are connecting the fact that we also own a snake--your fears are unwarrented.

Ssssssssupper!

Gross-out potential ahead. Proceed at your own stomach's risk. You've been warned.
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The first time we fed Kernel, our corn snake, I couldn't  help but laugh. He's still only as thick as my little finger, and his supper was bigger than his head. It wasn't a problem. Did you know that snakes can dislocate their jaw in order to swallow something really big? And still breathe while they are doing it? Yep.

I'll never forget our 11 year old daughter giving a long, drawn out "Thaaat's sooo groooossss!", all while her face kept moving closer and closer to the glass in order to see better.

Wanna see? Yeah, I knew it.

How to eat something bigger than your head:

Open Wide....

aaand....Gulp!

Now spend the next three days sleeping it off.

New Addition

Our long awaited new addition to the family has finally arrived. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Kernel, the Corn Snake (elaphe guttata guttata):

Last fall, M wrote a story for NaNoWriMo, and one of the characters in her story was a corn snake named Kernel. It seemed like a perfect name, so we gave it to our new little fellow.

Kernel is now about two weeks old and was given the green light to come home with us yesterday. How funny it seemed bringing him home in a plastic deli cup, like so much macaroni salad!

As you can see, he isn't much thicker than a pencil, and about twice as long.

Right now, his color is darker, but as he grows he will become a beautiful orange.

He just ate last night (don't ask, unless you really want to know), so we have to let him work at digesting for a couple of days, but later when we can pick him up, I'll try to post more pictures.

Right now, he's settling in and exploring his new home. We're working on getting temps regulated just right and making plans for a baby book. So far, the cats haven't seemed to notice.

Birthday Boy

My letterboxing buddy turns three today. In honor of this auspicious occasion, we dressed him up (hence the menacing glower) and took silly pictures. Isn't that what dogs are for?

Cowboy Kirby

If you can't herd them, join them in a nap.

It's Raining Trading Cards!

Until I started posting all of these cards, I hadn't realized that I had made that many! It's not wonder the laundry never gets folded!

This is Kirby's (our crazy border collie) card. It's called Are You Ready? All we have to do is say the word ready, even whisper it in another room of the house, and Kirby is on the alert. This card was available to trade with people who sent me the story of the the worst thing their dog ever rolled in. Boy, did I ever get some great stories!
Kitty Love was my valentine card. My 9 yo saw the picture of this cat with the heart shaped kink in her tail and she made me carve it.
The Koi card was my contribution to the Zoo Animals ring. This photo doesn't do the card justice. I stamped the Koi (an Escher design, I might add) in a random pattern all over light blue paper and then cut it to size. Then I took ink jet transparency film and did a blue wash on the "rough" side to give the look of water. I used spray adhesive to attach the transparency to the koi paper and then stamped the lily pads on top. When you look at the card, it really does seem like you are looking down through the water to see the fish.
The Lady Slipper Orchid above was carved for my SiL, and the Pansy Orchid below was carved for my Mom. Can I help it if some trading cards got made along the way?
More showers in the forecast for later!

Bordering on Insanity

*contains images of a yucky boo-boo.

This is a dog who doesn't know when to quit. He works so hard at herding his tennis balls that he won't pant. We have to make him stop and set him in front of the fan before he passes out.

He plays so hard that he gets grass stained fur. Wouldn't I love to rub him with some Fels Naptha and throw him in the Maytag!
In fact, he plays so hard that he doesn't pay attention to rusty fence posts sticking out of the ground in the farm yard. Did you know that dogs don't get Tetanus? How ironic.
This is a close up picture of me losing my trip to Ohio to see my brothers and their families.
On the lighter side, a very funny discussion came out of this. While driving to the ER Vet, our oldest was very upset and concerned and wanted to know what they were going to do with Kirby. Hubby explained that they would probably give him some medicine and stitch him up. J asked how they would do that and DH told her with a needle and thread. She instantly got extremely worried and shouted "What if it's not the right color!"

She has been around her sewing Grammy enough to know that when you stitch something together, the thread needs to match the surrounding fabric.

I nearly drove off the road laughing.

Look for a Kirby Quilt stamp sometime in the future.

Happy St. Pat's from the pets

*This post is not for the faint of heart...or stomach.

I woke this morning to the sound of retching coming from the dog's crate. That didn't surprise me given that he had scarfed a pile of old Italian Beef that my BiL dumped behind the barn on Saturday and who knows what he's eaten since then. But if I had been wise, I would have stayed in bed. For that was only the beginning.

I cleaned up the mess and continued with the rest of my day, which was supposed to include menu planning and grocery shopping, school work and St. Patrick's day fun with the girls.

But while we were watching Darby O'Gill and the Little People, one of the cats had an accident in the laundry room and then proceeded to wander around the house, upstairs and down, with a huge, goopy, green glob hanging from her tail. Do you remember the Family Circus comics where they would show the path that one of the kids had taken while doing something? That's what I found when the movie was done. Only it wasn't a neat little dashed line that showed Moppett's progress through the laundry, bathroom, kitchen, foyer, stairs, hallway, upstairs bath...

The rest of my afternoon has been a sequence of recovery. After locking the still offensive party in the upstairs bathroom (the one with the tub with the showerhead!), I cleaned up the smears so that we could get through lunch without gagging. Then I sent the girls up to their rooms with some fun assignments while I bathed the cat (have you ever tried giving a cat a bath? I think it would be easier to put nylons on a chicken!), hosed out the dog crate, wiped up the floor and sinks, vacuumed the entire downstairs and then mopped every inch of the hardwood.

In the process of washing the floor before lunch, I also reinjured my knee, which is now throbbing and on fire. Not to mention the claw marks on both arms. I would dearly love to go get in the hot tub, but I still have to clean it out after the cat's bath.

It was not my intention to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with green cat poop.

If anyone needs me, I'll be under the covers.

NitroClean

As promised, here follows my philosophy of cleaning. Stop snickering.

• Spring is Not for Cleaning!--whoever invented spring cleaning was definately selling something. Here in northern Illinois (and on a farm to boot!) we have two phenomenon in the Spring that make cleaning a more pointless exercise than usual--Mud and Wind. The dog with the paintbrush attached to his rump and the hubby with the boots bring the mud and the 30+ mile an hour winds bring the dirt and dust off the surrounding fields. Go plant something instead. This applies to Autumn as well.


• If you can get the kids to do it, it's good enough. They might not vacuum and wash windows as good as I can, but then again, it's one less thing I have to do, right?


• "Give a portion to your maidens" (Prov. 31:15) Quick Bible lesson--the virtuous woman in Proverbs rose early in the morning, fed her household and gave a portion to her maidens. This is quite often mistaken as meaning that she gave food to her servants. In reality, it likely means that she delegated tasks to her servants for the day so that she could concentrate on her own work. I don't happen to have servants (I also am not equating myself with the virtuous woman here!), but I do have machines that take the place of hired hands. One of the first things that I do early in the morning is get them started--washer, dryer, dishwasher, bread machine....


• The List and the Mantra--I live by lists. My to do list always starts "laundry, dishes, garbage, fridge, fixtures, floors". That covers most of the cleaning that needs to be done. With that mantra in my head, I don't really need a list for much of the day. Laundry is regularly sorted, washed and ignored. The dishes and gargage are dealt with. The fridge is regularly attended to, not only because unintentional science experiments trigger the gag reflex, but it helps me keep track of meal planning and groceries much more efficiently. "Fixtures" includes sink, showers, etc. Vacuuming and mopping falls under Floors, but so does finding the floor when it disappears. I don't do all of these things everyday by any means though!


• What is the point of making the bed? I'm just getting back in it later tonight anyway! I only make the bed when I'm going to fold laundry and need a flat surface. So you know how often that happens!


• I'm organized because I'm lazy. It's less work. When the snow clothes are in the right place, it takes alot less effort to leave the house than when they are scattered all over the place and you spend 27 minutes looking for the other boot and end up being late for the dentist appointment and get a speeding ticket on the way because you are late.....


• Don't look where the lights aren't on.

That about does it. Just remember that a philosophy is system of thinking, a set of values, or a discipline. All of which are intangibles and require a bit of work to actually implement.

Next post, I'm going to save you some money!!

My Mews

Very seldom do I ever work alone. I have a 9 and a 5 year old that can't seem to go more than 2 1/2 minutes without an urgent need to know why rats don't have hair on their tails or requiring someone to fix the pencil sharpener again. But that comes with the territory and in order to save your sanity, you quickly learn to ignore it until it reaches a certain decibel level or there is blood involved. You also learn to allow the creativity to flow in spite of being surrounded by plastic sharks from the bathtub, broken strings of Mardi Gras beads that need your magic fixing, and the stickers from the bank and doctor's office that now adorn your work chair.

On the rare, blessed occasions when the littles are both absent at the same time, I can enjoy a quiet, uninteruppted carving session. I don't have to answer the same question six times in a row or tell anyone to stop shaking the table. There are no Goldfish on the craft table either.

Through all of this, the quiet and the not-so-quiet, I have two other constant companions. My children think that Caper and Moppett are their cats, but they haven't noticed yet that both cats follow Mom all over the house-however nonchalantly, and settle wherever I happen to be at. Both of them take turns holding down my important papers and sunning themselves under my lamp. Moppett sits so close as to get pieces of PZ Kut on her fur. If I have lap space available, even for a minute, one of them is there.
They are calming and inspiring at the same time. And that is pretty much the definition of a Muse.