Run Away Comes Home

While we were celebrating the holidays with family in Michigan and Oklahoma, we left the care of our beloved dogs, cats, and chickens in the very capable hands of our friends that have taken care of them many times over the past few years.

Bootsie, our female barn cat must not have appreciated our leaving her to be cared for by someone else, because she ran away from home. Bob and I were so upset that Bootsie was missing. However, Matthew was the most upset. Bootsie was Matthew's cat and had come to live in our barn while the family lived with us during their new home renovations. Then when they moved, Bootsie enjoyed the barn so much that Matthew left her with us since their new home didn't come with a barn.

Bootsie was gone for two weeks and we didn't think we would ever see her again. It was sad for me to think about what might have happened to her. I tried to convince myself that she had gone out looking for mice and she couldn't make it back to the barn because of all the snow.

When we arrived home from our trip we had at least three to four feet of snow on the ground. If fact our town made the national news - because of the amount of snow we received (60 inches in nine days and counting).

This morning when Bob went out to the barn to feed our other two cats (Tiger and Big Foot - Bootsie's two boys that we kept) and the chickens, he was so surprised to see Bootsie waiting to be fed. Of course when he came into the house to tell me, I immediately called Matthew to let him know - Bootsie had come home!!! We are all so happy that she made it back home safely. Now I just hope she isn't expecting kittens. We didn't want to get her fixed before we left and now it may be too late.

Bootsie

Homemade Bagels

Today I decided to make bagels. I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks. I added rosemary (my favorite herb) to the raw dough. After mixing the dough it had to rest for 15 minutes. Then to form the bagels, you just roll a piece of the dough into a ball and then poke your finger throught the center and shape it. Not too difficult. Then you have to cover them and let them rise for about 30 minutes. Then you place the bagels under the broiler for a minute on both sides and then place in a pot of hot water (that is simmering on the stove) for seven minutes turning once. After removing from the hot water, drain on paper towels and then place on a cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes. They turned out really nice and I love the rosemary I added. Fresh homemade bagels are the best! I'll certainly be making these again.

Visiting Oklahoma City

It's been much too long since I last blogged. Several reasons . . . one I thought I was too busy . . . two my computer was tooooooo slow and temperamental. Now, I have a new computer that's much faster! I still am quite busy, but I miss reading all the comments and I hope I haven't lost any of my readers. I could never catch up on all the events that have taken place since my last blog in September. But, I'm going to try and blog more regularly.

Bob and I took a quick trip to Oklahoma City right after Christmas to visit my mom. After her car accident last May she has been living with my brother but her health continues to deteriorate and he is no longer able to care for her. She is now living in a nursing home. When I spoke with one of the nurses prior to our visit, she told me that my mom was quite frail.

Madeline was with us when we went to Oklahoma and it was the first time she had met her great grandma Annie. Of course, grandma Annie was thrilled to meet her and quite surprised to see Bob and me too! Being in Michigan for Christmas made our trip to Oklahoma City only a long days drive. We stayed with my cousin, Francie and her husband Pat. We had a great time visiting with them. Francie's sister, Carla, and I were very close as little girls and both played the accordion. Carla died several years ago of brain cancer. Francie had been given Carla's accordion and she dug it out of the closet and I played several polkas, waltzes, and other favorites which brought back memories of all the fun we had doing programs for the patients at the mental hospital in Norman, Oklahoma. It was so much fun. Carla's accordion was blue and my was white. After I entertained Francie and Pat playing the accordion, Francie told me she wanted me to have Carla's accordion because she knew it meant a lot to me. So she took a picture of me playing the accordion and said she would remember the times Carla and I drove the whole family crazy with our practicing.

We spent two days in Oklahoma City most of each day we spent at the nursing home with mom. She is so frail. It's hard to believe that she has gone down so much. She was so happy to see us and meet Madeline. I played the accordion for her and I could she her tapping her toes on the floor - she even knew the title of several of the songs I played. The first day I played the accordion in her room with the door shut, but the second day I played in the main social hall and many of the residents gathered to listen.

We also were allowed to take mom out for a little drive which she thoroughly enjoyed! I'm so thankful that I took the time to visit mom. She's in a really nice nursing home and the nurses are very attentive and nice to her.

Here is mom showing her two new sweaters from Rachael, Derrick, and the kids.

Mom may be frail, but she can still "dish it out"! And, Bob didn't mind "dishing it right back"!

Mom and Madeline sharing cookies (from Lori and Todd) with the residents and nurses. She loved the icing covered sugar cookies so she saved those for herself.

Here I am playing the accordion that my cousin, Francie gave me. (that's Francie in the picture with me).

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.