I THOUGHT I was back

But I guess I wasn't....
After returning from training I expected to get back to posting fairly regularly but obviously that was not the case. Some small minority of you may have even noticed.

But you see we've had a baby in the house and I've forgotten how much time they can take up. This one we found in the yard behind ours, a bold explorer who managed to wander from its mom and litter mates. We found it when it was about three weeks old, stumbling shaky legged through the underbrush after a neighbor brought it to our attention. Since it was in danger of being carried off by mosquitoes (any one of which was as big as she was) or worse yet to be a fine feast for the owl that lives in the tall trees behind us, we thought it best to bring her in. After a crash course in what 3 week old kittens eat (there is kitten formula BTW) and a visit from our mobile vet who pronounced her a) healthy b) about 3 weeks old and c) a she we settled in to finding her a home and taking care of her. This included feeding from a tiny bottle about 6 times a day for a while and teaching her sanitary habits with a litter box before which we were required to do mama cats job of "stimulating" her to do the job via wet paper towel. It was a grand day when she started using the pie pan that is her sand box.

We were also told by the vet that orphaned kitties need lots of "socializing" with many different people, otherwise they have an unfortunate habit of turning into "demon cats" (the vet's words) meaning they are really mean and hateful to all but those they bond with initially making adoption all but impossible. So we took her to work a few times and passed her about and for the most part she took to folks rather quickly her few pathetic, though heartfelt, hisses and spits notwithstanding. Now she is everywhere and in everything and must be crated whenever there is no one to watch her carefully. She has a home as soon as she is weaned and that day is almost here but for now still prefers a bottle to her gruel of kitten formula and some minced meat of the feline variety not easily recognizable by looks or smell to any human and that is "buried" by the kitten and our cat whenever possible.

So for now its us and the cat and the kitten and the three feral outdoor cats that we are feeding so that we can eventually trap and "fix" so that we have no more kittens. A task that we were apparently a bit tardy in accomplishing.

So its us and the cat and the kitten which are indoors and which I'm allergic to, and the three outdoor cats and the two outdoor kittens belonging to the queen which we didn't fix in time. We've seen them a couple a times though not lately, so they are either owl meat or being taken care of by mama cat till the time that they can be brought to the morning feeding that the other three get. They too will be eventually be trapped and fixed.

So its us and the cat and the kitten and my asthma, and the three outdoor cats and the two outdoor kittens and a sheep. Yup, a sheep. Our oldest son is raising a sheep for show through the FFA (Future Farmers of America). He goes to the barn (which is at the school) two times a day and feeds and cleans and walks and runs his sheep. Or rather I take him to the barn twice a day to feed and water and clean and walk and run his sheep.

But he has finished the play he was in so now gets home in the evening before 9:00 which is better for everyone since he's up at the barn by 0645.

And then there is the pumpkin patch. A little outreach project at the church that I am in charge of. We unloaded 800 pumpkins earlier in the month and expect another load about that size this week. I have to find folks to help unload and man the patch for selling purposes and this year it has been a challenge. I've spent quite a bit of time in the patch.

This last week-end I took my last Physical Training test of my Air Force career. 47 push ups in a minute, 37 sit ups in a minute (no I'm not proud of that) and a mile and a half run without requiring EMT intervention. At least I passed.

So now I'm back- sorta.