Sewing Project

Several months ago my friend Cathy made a couple of skirts for her granddaughter and posted about them. They were really cute and she told me they were easy. So I asked her to send me the pattern. And, she did - six months later ( I might be exaggerating a bit). Since I had the day off work today, I decided to make a couple of skirts. One for Hannah and one for Gracie. I had a hard time picking out fabric because I wanted them to be able to wear them this fall and into early winter too. When I saw this fabric, it reminded me of western - cowboy - horses, and Hannah loves horses, so I decided to try it for the skirts.

Gracie and Hannah's skirts.

Hannah's Skirt

Gracie's Skirt

Thanks Cathy for sending the pattern. These were a lot of fun to make. I wish I knew where to buy them a cowboy hat (cheap). I'll take them over to them this Thursday evening after work.

Now I need to get busy and make some bibs for baby Bella. Lori tells me she is starting her on "real baby food" - homemade!

All is well . . .

I made it through the night without any mishaps - although there were a lot of strange noises I wasn't sure about. It's a beautiful fall day and I am loving being home - I think I could get use to this. I planned to sleep in this morning, but I was wide awake at 5:30 a.m. So I got up and started my day. By 7:00 a.m. all the bathrooms were scrubbed, laundry was going, I took the trash out to the street for pick-up, and fed, watered, and played with all the animals. I do need to fill the bird feeders later this morning.

This little kitty is solid black. Isn't it cute? The last litter produced a solid gray kitty.

Group picture. I couldn't get a picture with them all looking at me. There are two black kitties and four striped. Four boys and two girls. And, they are all up for adoption. Hope some of you can help me out here. As soon as Bootsie weens these kittens, she is going to see Dr. Putman. Although it is fun having kittens.

Here are our three cats enjoying their breakfast. Bootsie and two of her babies from the last litter, Big Foot and Tiger. We found homes for two of the kittens, but these two didn't have a home. Bob, became attached to them, but decided that he should find a home, so he put them in a cage and went to Walmart hoping to find someone in the parking lot that wanted a nice kitten. Well, he changed his mind when he got to Walmart. So he went in to the store and bought more cat food and brought both of the boys home with him. So, now we have three cats and that's our limit. They have visited Dr. Putman, so all is well there. They love living in the barn and they play in the chicken yard with the chickens. Maybe that's why Bootsie moved her kittens to one of the chicken's nesting boxes in the hen house. Could it be the cats think they are chickens?

Hide 'n Seek

I've been out of town for a few days, so when I returned home today, I wanted to check on all our pets, gather the eggs, and work in the flower beds. The dogs were easy to check on because all three of them were wagging their tails and wanting attention. They are such sweet dogs. And, so good! They stay on the property and appear to stay out of trouble while we are gone. At least they haven't been caught being naughty. No call from the dog catcher, and no injured dogs from playing in the busy road in front of our house.

Last week, Bob told me that Bootsie (our adopted barn cat who now has six kittens) had moved her kittens again. She just isn't happy with people disturbing her and the kittens so she keeps moving them all over in the barn. Bob was down in the basement of the barn where the chickens roost and nesting boxes are located. He kept hearing meows, so he started investigating. He found two of the kittens on the floor of the chicken house. They had fallen from the main floor of the barn through a whole in the floor. They were fine because they had landed on a pile of hay (lucky for them). Bob took them upstairs and found the old cat carrier and put hay in it and put all six kittens in it and put it over in a secluded corner and then placed a board over the whole in the floor, so if the kittens ventured out, they wouldn't fall through to the basement. Today when I went to the barn to check on the kittens (I really wanted to just play with them) I checked the entire first floor of the barn looking everywhere, but no kittens. I was afraid that maybe something had gotten into the barn and something might have happened to those little kitties. But I kept looking, but no luck.

Then I went downstairs to the basement of the barn to check on the chickens and gather the eggs, and when I checked inside one of the nesting boxes, there were four little eyes looking back at me. Two of the little kittens were in the nesting box. Bootsie must have moved the kittens to the basement, but there were only two. I checked all the nesting boxes and gathered the eggs and then went over to check inside of a wooden box that was hanging from the wall in the chicken house and there were the other four little kittens. I went and gathered the two little adventurous kittens and put them in with the other four kittens. They are the cutest little kittens and so sweet. They love to be held. Bootsie, Big Foot, and Tiger all went out into the chicken yard with me to check on the chickens. The chickens seemed to be fine with no casualties since the raccoon was taken care of by Punkin a couple weeks ago.

We thought we had lost our banty chicken to the raccoon, but Bob found her nesting over in the small barn. We should have ten banty eggs hatching any day now - but I won't be checking to see when they hatch, because that little banty is mean.

As I walked out of the basement barn door, my faithful dogs were sitting there waiting for me.

I wish I knew the dogs were out on the front porch right now, because there are noises out there and I'm not sure what it might be. The dogs are in the back room sleeping. Maybe I'll go let them outside to do some investigation.

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

I guess the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure" is a true statement. At least it worked at our garage and barn sale this past weekend. Bob spent quit a bit of time cleaning out the barn and gluing chairs and tables back together and I spent just as much time going through every room in the house and the back unfinished "catch-all" room. We cleaned and organized everything, borrowed six tables from the church, priced every item. We had a great time visiting with all the neighbors that came by. And when it was all said and done we totaled up the money and made $1,050. I'd say that was worth all the work we put into it. We're going to have another one next spring and hopefully get rid of all the extra stuff we don't need or use that I couldn't bare to part with this time.