This and that.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.

We finally got our dressers moved down. 

I bought this bedroom outfit when I was stationed at Ft Belvoir, VA, in 1985, for $750 from an antique dealer. I was very brave. There was a vanity that went with it. I knew it would not fit in the new bedroom. I gave it away to someone who loved it. It was the right thing to do. 

Something that makes me laugh everytime I drive past it. A local business man who is quite an odious fellow put a message up on the sign in front of one of his businesses. "God Bless MAGA". 

Some hero snuck up there and swiped two letters: an M and a G. The sign now reads 'God bless AA'.

I laugh every time I drive past it. Mr businessman has not seemed to notice it so far.

Possum is the next cat to be neutered. She has begun to come in the house to eat, which got her lavishly fed as a reward. She will be much easier to catch.

I needed to pick up a bag of potatoes yesterday. Much to my surprise, they had a 5 lb bag of russet potatoes for $8.49! I could not believe it. 

Did I buy those potatoes?

No.

I will pay that kind of money when pigs fly.

Still here

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-vigilante-portal?fbclid=IwdGRjcAMhI3djbGNrAyEjbGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeuz3p1VkkoSqhXIN_4fPz27dl097LysOzhGwP_mm9BJlmOwyc3nbJsKBEh-o_aem_6fuu1912wmx8bm1AHvJaKQ

I read a news report that questions whether trump is actually trying to take control of all 3 branches of the government. 

I guess I don't understand why that is even a question. It is not 'if'. 

The news has been awful. We did not bring our television to the new house. I honestly don't even know if I want it here. 

We have been working on siding the house. Andrew had questions. The siding is steel. It comes in strips about a foot wide, 8 feet long, and is installed vertically. The 'batten' which is the long raised strip is actually designed to lock into the edge of the previously installed piece of siding. It is then nailed into place via a half dozen prepunched holes which are covered when the next piece of siding is installed.

In other breaking news, Tiger was neutered. I have been working with all the cats, but with her specially because I knew that she was next. I decided that using a trap was not the way to do it, that it would frighten the rest of my clowder and make them harder to catch when their turn rolls around.

To that end, I spent gobs of time in the garage petting Tiger, giving her special treats, extra rations, etc.

On the day before the trip to town, I set the carrier up on its end and when Tiger scooted in close, I picked her up by the nape of the neck and put her in the carrier. That was that.

She spent an unhappy night without food or water. The car ride made her very unhappy. Waiting in line with all the other unhappy cats made her unhappier still.

The cool thing is that I met others who have their own feral cat colonies, who were all bringing in cats that were not (technically) their cats, ponying up their own money to ease the misery of these poor creatures. We shared stories and tips and I told them about the big cat food sale at Happs. I don't imagine that there will be any left the next time I get there.

I also volunteered my time to the organization. The Fix'n Wag'n is a mobile OR that travels. It comes to our town once a month and in the first three months, they have neutered nearly 300 animals in those 3 days. On this occasion, three vets worked side by side, neutering cats one right after another. That is huge and we should start seeing the difference in our community soon. I surely will give my time and money to that.

Tiger was released when we got home and I did not see her for three days. I was very worried. Last night, at supper time, she came to eat. She allowed herself to be petted and fussed over. In return, she got extra rations. Her two kittens ate with her, their bowl between my feet as I sat there talking to them all. 

I am keeping myself busy with garden stuff. I am headed east to spend 4 days with my grand kids. I have 3 blueberry bushes to get in the ground. It has gotten much cooler here (42 last night!). Tim is lighting the furnace tonight and there is a new urgency to get a list of things done before winter.

What we watch instead of television.

After all this time, I still can

This cold was a bad one, and unfortunately it seems to have settled in my sinuses. Joy of joys. I do seem to be on the downhill side of it. But Saturday was a lost day.

We are making steady progress on the siding, doing a bit of it at a time. Tim put in the two last attic ventilation windows. We ordered the siding for the other half of the house. 

I made tomato sauce on Sunday.  I dehydrated the skins. I also dehydrated summer squash and zucchini. Something new, and the more I read about it, I think I will be experimenting with that quite a bit more. The oven makes that easy. I can do large batches. I also want to try drying tomatoes to store in olive oil.

I made pickles this afternoon. Something I haven't done in years. I forgot the satisfaction of hearing jars pinging.

Just another day.

 Stupid feral cat killed a chick. I am pretty upset by this. I let my guard down after a week. She ripped down the screening. 

So. I feel pretty dumb.

We are siding the house. 

I managed to catch a cold.  In the middle of all this heat. Speaking of heat, it is affecting a lot of people in a lot of places.

As always, gratuitous kitten pictures:

Tiger is the mother, who gets the big snip next week.

He reminds me of someone.

Interesting

 Last week, when we went to the auction, Tim said in a shocked voice, "He has a cell phone!" An Amish man paced back and forth at the entrance of the auction house talking on a cell phone.

Now admittedly, there is a great deal that I don't quite understand about the Amish. I know the bishop in our area seems to be very conservative and strict. Houses are white clap board. No hanging plants on the porch. No bicycles. 

However, in other areas, the Amish have tin sided houses and they use different colors. Some of them can be quite modern looking, actually. 

Up near the building supply store we use, you see that a lot. We always wondered whether it was because so many of their men work at the store. They use phones and computers in the business, electric lights too. They zip around on fork lifts. They have an easy relationship with technology. I guess it makes sense that they use the products they sell to build their homes.

Just down the road from the massive building supply store, another business has gone in, a huge hunting and fishing store. Tim wanted to have a look. 

It has a huge selection of permanent hunting blinds out front. An indoor archery range. A huge display of the most amazing taxidermy work I have ever seen. I asked about that right away. We want to have Bob the buffalo freshened up, but we want it done by a professional. Turns out the fellow who does the work lives in our corner of the world. 

While I was getting that information from the young Amish man, Tim walked up with a trail camera, one of the ones that sends pictures to your cell phone. Without missing a beat, the fellow said enthusiastically 'That is the one I use. I am happy with it." 

Honestly, I do not ask questions about matters that are not my business, but I found that amazing that they would use a trail cam at all, let alone have a cell phone to view the pictures on.

There were several barefoot and happy children playimg quietly inside the store while their fathers worked. It explained the long row of kick scooters in front of the store. Two of them were hot pink. 

But as usual, they had an outhouse...a portapotty stood outside.

This is what you call a kitten caboodle. Well...3/5s of one, any way.

Anyone looking for a kitten?

Cats

 A couple weeks ago, I stopped at Happ's as I was passing by and saw this. They had boxes and boxes of this catfood. It was outdated and selling at the unbelievable price of $1 for a box of 12 pouches. I cautiously bought 4 boxes for the ferals. I was not sure they would like it.

And lo, they liked it so much that they began to come to the house and ask to be fed.

All three of them have had kittens. Sigh is neutered, but she had two. Tiger has two. She is going to be neutered next week. Possum has just had 5 kittens. I have been able to handle all of them and she allows it. I make a point of being therea couple times a day. Sigh has two kittens. Although she is distinctly Siamese in appearance, neither of her kittens share those traits. Tiger is just as her name says. However, both her kittens are blue eyed with the Siamese characteristics. Possum, the latest mother looks Siamese. She has two tigers, one 'cow cat' and two Siamese looking ones.

Back to the cat food. $1 a box, and yes, it is outdated, but they gobbled it down. 

 The next day Tim sent me down to buy 20 more boxes. Today, we were in the area, so we stopped in again and bought 30 more boxes. 

So, for the foreseeable future, we will be saving big bucks on catfood. We will need those big bucks because  also for the foreseeable future we will be neutering cats. 4 out of 13...I am hopeful that we can get these cats socialized and begin finding homes for them.

Fingers crossed.

One of Possum's. 

Dandy. I call it that because he puts me in mind of those 19th century photographs of young men with greased hair and severe center parts. Dandy is Sigh's. The one on the right is one of Tiger's.

And this is Tiger's second kitten.

I am glad that we are here now. We can make sure that they are well fed. That $1 catfood is $15 a box on Amazon.

Who wants a cat?

Late edit: I'm sorry that cat food picture ended up in the wrong place. I can't move it.

The $3 Wardrobe

 

Divested of 3400 (give or take) 'Merry Mushrooms', carefully designed to match with your appliances, whether they be harvest gold, avocado, or coppertone brown, scrubbed down, with two coats of polyurethane, this is what my $3 wardrobe looks like. Nothing fancy, but perfectly functional. 

PS: please ignore clutter. Not everything has found its rightful place in the basement.

Tim helped me carry it from the garage to the basement. Once it was set in place, he did voluntarily admit that it was a good buy.