They are in Cohoots!

That's right.

Dogs and Cats living together. Mass Hysteria.

Or at least, an assault on my diminishing bowl of fancy nuts on the kitchen table.

A new game is afoot in the household. The game begins with Roamer or Acadian climbing onto the kitchen table- a "no no" for sure, but a house rule they ignore with zeal. Head down, tail twitching, one or both stealthily stalk up to the wooden bowl of nuts sitting uneaten. A quick bat-bat-bat of a front claw and a nut is freed from the confines of the bowl.

The nut lands either on the table which makes for
an impromptu practice session of pouncing. Or, it skitters to the floor where Buster or Molly impatiently await to steal it away.

Two dogs. One nut. You do the math.

The kittens certainly have. They peer over the edge of the table laying bets on who will come out on top. The faster pooch snaps up their prize and runs to a quiet spot to crack it open with their teeth in order to eat it. The loser circles the table, ready to snatch the next flying treat.

Extra points are awarded for leaving sharp nut shell pieces laying strategically on the floor in the path of the vulnerable soles of my feet. Scattering drying sunflower seeds all over the table does not yield additional points, but that doesn't stop it from happening.

Another day. Another mess to tidy. 

If One is Good, Two Must be Better...

Kristen kitten, Roamer.

As Sean likes to state, "If one is good, more must be better!" Usually this is employed in response to something ludicris. It was uttered this evening and yet did not change his decision. It brings me great comfort to know that though we each carry a different brand of crazy around in our heads, we both embrace and accept that crazy and move along to the action that it often dictates. Such was the case tonight.

We decided it would save us time tonight to pick up some hay for the goats instead of moving them to the back for grazing. We have tomatoes ripening faster that I can preserve them. Tonight is salsa making time or as we have been referring to it all week: Date Night.

Meg's kitten, Acadian.

So, when we pulled into the driveway and 10 cute little fluff balls escorted us to the hay barn, what else could we do, but bring another one home with us? Honestly, I want to have a good reason for it, but I can't even convince myself; what hope have I to convince you? The sad, but realistic truth is that we are looking at probably losing perhaps three of our working cats within the next few months to a year to old age. And, Kristen has done such a thorough job of taming Roamer that I can barely get anything accomplished without her scaling my leg to settle into my lap for some petting and love. Perhaps a sister kitty would distract her attention from my paints (which she has strewn off my desk and all over the floor), my hair (a favorite chew toy to attack without provocation or adequate notice), or my laptop (her preferred napping spot). Maybe Roamer will lose interest in scaling everything from product laden book cases and drying racks to my precarious stack of receipts and business expenses. I have no basis to believe this, but perhaps kitties are like goats and they do better in pairs.

In line with naming Roamer after one of Grandpa's boats, Meg has named her kitten Acadian, after another of them. The girls are smitten. And, that matters a great deal to us. So, this is how we have come to have two sweet and highly active, purring balls of fur tearing up the house.  It has been a week and I confess, here may have been a flaw in our logic, though for the life of me, I cannot pin down where it was we went wrong. ;)

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to rescue everything on my desk from their attention... and my curtains... and the dove... and remove them from the table... and...

Sonja ♥

Izzy Joins the Farm

Much of farming is about looking ahead to the next season and planning for its needs. Whether it is which crops we'll plant, which animals we'll breed, or what building needs construction next, planning, planning, planning. Seriously, we have plans for many projects well into 2016. And, though these may need amending to fit our lives and current needs, the bones need to be sketched and ready. I have been suggesting to Sean for a couple of weeks that we are going to need to look into getting a kitten sooner rather than later. This is a strange need for a homestead. Many farms have their barn cats in place and never need worry about their loss. But, since we spay and neuter ours, they do not reproduce on their own.

The thing is we have six cats. We also NEED six cats. They hunt spring, summer, and fall, living in the barn and eating mainly what they catch in the way of mice, moles, rats, and the occasional weasel supplemented with a limited diet of dry cat food. Come winter, our cat door gets unlocked and they move inside to the luxury of the warmth of the wood stove and full meals. They grow fat and lazy in their winter retirement.

Boogie's latest kill of a foot-long barn rat brought this need to mind for me. (If there is one rat, you know, there are more.) A quick calculation brought me this conclusion: Zoe and Spot are our oldest cats, being between 12-14 years old. Boogie, Machias and Vego turned 6 this year. Tasmanian is our youngest at 5. Looking beyond age, Zoe is definitely showing her years. It saddens me, but in truth, I am dubious that she'll see many more winters. And, since Machias's car accident last summer, he has never fully regained his former health. A broken palate will do that to you. Surgery was not an option- there was just nothing to suture together. Antibiotics were prescribed and pain medicine while his body healed as it would. And, it did- mostly. He is not in pain and remains relatively active for now, but I am afraid that time is not on his side, poor sweet boy. I hope these special cats have many, many more years with us. We also need to prepare for the future. As with everything else around the homestead, balance is wanted. We need some young blood to be ready to take on hunting.

We found Izzy needing a home tonight from a neighbor's farm. She is lovely and will make a fine addition to our farm. Mom is famed to be a great mouser and a hardy barn cat. Izzy will live inside from now until Spring comes, learning to use a litter box and becoming more tamed. By the time our outside crew is ready to repopulate the inside, she'll have been spayed, bonded nicely to us and will find her place within the pride. Then, in the spring, Izzy will join the other cats outdoors protecting our homestead from vermin and predators.

Until the real work begins, there is plenty of time to be coddled. Kristen is more than happy to take on this job and has claimed Izzy as her own. All the humans are pretty smitten with Izzy Kitty. Molly is disappointed that new kitty is not a new chew toy for her pleasure. Introductions were made, but Miss Izzy made it clear with hissing and the deployment of several well aimed smacks to Molly's nose that she was NOT to be chewed on, in any way. Molly is not completely convinced so we watch them closely while they are together.

With summer almost at an end, we are working steadily to prepare for winter around the homestead and for upcoming shows and craft fairs. We've been talking about hosting another fall Open Farm Day. What do you think? Anyone interested in coming for a visit?

Thanks for stopping by today, friends. We're so glad you are here.
~Sonja ♥