the farm

Photographer unknown

Rain is usually a good thing, but if it keeps up this afternoon I won't be able to plant anything out at my parent's farm. I've had plans all week to dig a long flower bed beneath my brother's window (wild flower mix, some perennials) a couple smaller beds beside the gazebo (vines, one is beans the other an annual purplish flower) and a few small beds around the out-buildings for Lupines, which I started in April.

Yesterday I planted my own seedlings! There are Bachelor's Buttons, Blanket Flowers, Malva, Purple Bells and Hosta (that came as five seedlings in a plastic bag for $10! Usually I pay a minimum of $6 for one.)

I hope that most of them survive.

I'm also getting nervous about the farm because this year, I am calling Animal Control for help. Longtime readers might remember that since my parents' health has declined, they have not been able to handle the cats that are reproducing at an alarming rate - at last count, there were over fifty coming in & out of the house and another fifty outside. This is up by 100% from last year! My brother works away and has been providing food but cannot keep up with medical intervention. In the past he has taken various animals to be spade or neutered; he also gives them shots of penicillin at home but there are outbreaks of worms, mites, fleas and disease.

I've informed my sister but not my brother because he will be the one to fight me on it. I think he's trying to avoid a kitten massacre but at this point it is more humane to euthanise. I just hope that the govt. body understands that my parents have had no control over it - we do NOT want them to be shamed publicly, either on the news or in the local papers. My mum is 84 and very fragile.

If I do go out there today, I might bring it up again just so that they know we're serious about it. We need to make sure that they can stay in that house until they die, which is their wish. It's the only way it's going to happen - even now, the air quality is questionable due to all the dander and waste. BUT we can do a big clean once all the animals are removed (with the exception of Lucy, the border collie that was Dale and Jamie's and two other cats that are fixed.)

*sigh*

Enough of that!

This is May long weekend, so I have tomorrow off as well. If I can't plant today, there is always tomorrow. Have a good one!

monday

I'm not sure where I found the painting, so I apologize in advance for not knowing the artist. It's so pretty, I must have used it as a wallpaper at one time or another.

Anyway, things have been going very well these last few days. I got hooked on a Showtime show called The United States of Tara. I watched both seasons online and can't wait until the show returns in 2011. I love the quirky, intense characters and unusal storylines.

My parents gifted us with a 1/4 of beef!
For those who may not know, that is 250 lbs of ground beef, roasts, ribs, steaks (including the tenderloin) and stew meat. It almost completely filled our 7 cubic foot freezer. What an awesome gift, I just couldn't thank them enough.

Rogue is adapting well. She's eight weeks old but still only two pounds! She's been treated for all the fleas and other nasty disorders (including an eye problem and intestinal problem) and totally accepts us as her clan, poor kitty.

admitting defeat

Now that our family cat, Tokyo, has been gone for over seven weeks, we're finally admitting that something may have happened to her. We're afraid that she went into the hay field to the east of us and that means eagles and coyotes would have had a chance to get her.

If that happened, I hope and pray it was fast. I miss her.

On Sunday, we brought back a little grey tabby kitten from the farm. She's about five or six weeks old and very cute! After having her in the house for a few hours, we've decided to call her Rogue. She might be little, but she's tough!

Pics to follow. Now it's time for me to get back to work!

computer kitty

I was going through old photos on Facebook when I came across this picture of Tokyo, our (now) five year old female kitty. Isn't she cute?

When we first got her, she used to sleep on top of the old modem that sat on top of my desk. When I was blogging (which was a LOT - three posts a day!) she was always sleeping beside me. On this particular day, she'd been trying to get up there on her own so I lifted her up and she was happy to stay for awhile.

toes

I just loved having Dexter, the polydactyl boy kitty in the pic. He has seven toes on his front paws (they look like oven mitts!) He was just a baby when Jamie's friend abandoned him, and if we could have handled two cats, we would have kept him.

Thank goodness, my mom took him in for us. She's had him for a few years now and he's huge! They call him Toes now.

introducing!

This is Wezley, Emily's new guinea pig.

We think that he's about three months old. He's still fairly shy, but he will come up to you if you offer some red leaf lettuce, or a baby carrot.

We brought him home last Friday and so far Tokyo doesn't know what to make of him. For the first few days, we kept the door closed and Wezley stayed in his cage. Kitty's ears were working overtime, trying to figure out what those noises were coming from Em's room.

lola

I haven't posted a pic of Lola lately. Here she is in my truck this afternoon, on the way home from visiting with Dale's Sensei.

She loves car trips.

bandito

This is one of my Mom's kittens, Bandit. We have all fallen in love with him! Unfortunately, we can't have two cats in the house. We already expend a lot of energy keeping Tokyo in the house (she's looking for a way out every hour of every day) and getting the cat hair off us (we shouldn't wear so much black I suppose) and Jamie does not clean the litter box when she should.

Still. Isn't he cute? He's such a boy kitty.

It's -20°C or -4°F, and snowing, but it's also Canada's favourite time of year. You never know - I could win one of the cash prizes!
Happy Humpday.

Lola's "after" shots

Lola looks fabulous! She was a little lonely while she was there, but overall it was a very positive experience. She even got a Valentine's Day bandanna. Tamale - it's too bad she can't visit Trinidad for the weekend :)

For $38, she was bathed, trimmed and her paws were cleaned, but the groomer wasn't able to figure out what that swelling is near her behind. She also had her ears cleaned, but we think she has an ear infection and now she requires a shot. Thank goodness my brother can do that, saving us on veteranarian bills.

I hope this is something we'll be able to keep up.

good grooming

Lola is being groomed today, for the first time! Well, by a professional groomer. For the last three years Bill has been shaving her, but the time has come for her to have it done properly. I know this is way TMI, but she's got these glands back there and they're so swollen they look like testicles, lol.

First, I'll be dropping Jamie off at work (she got a part time childcare gig) then I'll be taking Lola out to the groomer's place, which is about 20 minutes outside the city.

I just know that after spending $35 on that, the first thing shes going to do is roll in shit. *sigh*

Happy Friday!

righteous indignation

One thing that I've noticed since the age of thirty - you can be so broke that you cut your own hair and hand wash and press all your work clothes, but you will not give up on a face cream that promises to give you newer, younger looking skin. I bought this the other day and so far, I love it.

quick note: I don't do pay-per-posts, I just write about things I like.

Anyway, I ran out of my usual stuff and since it was $20 and this stuff was $11, I got the Olay. It really does make my skin look awesome - I use it under my foundation and my pores all but disappear. No wonder my mom used it when she was younger!

Do you have a cat? Jamie's kitty, Tokyo, is always "talking" to us, and even though we've all had many cats, none of us has had one that talks to this extent. She says hello, begs to go outside, asks for attention (a lot!) and gets pissy. Actually, I think this article calls it "righteous indignation" LOL. It's so true. I came across a few articles on how to teach your cat to say actual words, so maybe I can get everyone else in on that. It would be worth it just to see kitty say "hello" and freak out any future housegusts.

minus 20 feels like spring

Here's Lola, yesterday while I was cleaning. Even though she has a doggy bed in my room and the living room, she'd rather lay on a blanket, or a pair of discarded jeans. I think she looks nervous here. She knows I'm going to make her move any minute now, lol.