In case you missed it, I posted an entry about Coltrane yesterday.
Thank you all for your kind words, here and on Facebook and Twitter. Even though Coltrane hadn’t been spending much time inside with us since the weather turned warm (he was briefly banned from the house after we realized he was spraying all over the place every time we let him in, but he looked so sad at not being allowed inside, that we relented because we are suckers. The boy had a bladder the size of Texas.), his absence is definitely felt. He was always so very happy to see us in the afternoon, when it was time to feed the pigs, and he’d follow us around and talk to us until we picked him up or at least petted him.
This is my favorite picture of him, from last September, though I didn’t post it yesterday because I was afraid he looked a little, um, not completely alive in it. (He was, though, he was just delirious with joy. He LOVED being held.)
So, the garden is coming along. Today I’ll be driving the sweeper all over the back forty to pick up as much as I can of the grass clippings out there. Then I’m going to dump them in the back of the trailer, and go a-sweepin’ some more. I hope I don’t pick up anything too gross (as that’s where the dogs poop and all), but you better believe I’ll be wearing my gloves when I handle those clippings, just in case.
Saturday I weeded around the watermelon and cantaloupes in the big garden (as opposed to my watermelon that are growing in the straw bale in the small garden), and then I put down feed bags around the first row of pepper plants to stop weeds from coming up. I used landscape anchor pins in each bag, to hold it down. I used plenty of those things, and I suspect that come this Fall when it’s time to pull them all up, I will be HATING myself. But at least the damn bags won’t blow all over the place.
Sunday, Fred and I put landscape fabric down around the watermelons and cantaloupes. Weeds will likely still be able to come up right around the plants, but unlike a couple of years ago – when the weeds around the plants were waist-high after a little bit of neglect, causing us to give up on them – the plants will have fabric to spread out on, and won’t have to compete with weeds for sun.
Fred went off to do other things around the property, and I finished putting feed bags down around the rest of the row of peppers I’d started the day before, and did the same on the second row of peppers. Then I started pruning tomato plants (just cutting off the lowest branches) and was about a third of the way down the first row when Fred came to see what I was doing. I asked him what time it was, found out it was 9:00, and that was all she wrote. I think I’ve mentioned that I don’t work outside after 9:00 in the summer.
So today I’ll spend as much time as I need to (EVEN if it means I have to work outside past 9:00! Gasp!) gathering clippings from the back forty. Then Tuesday I guess I’ll start dumping clippings on the garden. Perhaps I’ll take Wednesday off from this “gardening” nonsense. We’ll see.
About those baby robins in the nest in the front yard. I told Fred what Doodle Bean said – that baby birds get all the water they need from the worms and bugs their parents feed them – so he stopped giving them water. However, it took a couple of days before he accepted that they were probably getting enough worms and bugs from their parents to keep them alive, so he fed them some more worms.
This time, I followed him with the camera.
It was hard to make a video, because the nest is higher than I am, so I wasn’t quite sure if I was getting anything with the camera. I swear, I always thought that mama birds would eat the worms/ bugs and then vomit them back up into their babies’ mouths (or something gross like that) and I even told Fred that if he truly loved those birds he’d do the same (hee), but these babies sucked down the worms like they’d been doing it all their lives.
(I did make Fred stop feeding them. They seem perfectly healthy and active, and it’s better to let their REAL parents take care of them.)
“OH MY STARS! Doesn’t ANYONE ever vacuum this room? Look at this mess!”
“::sigh:: And the MIRRORS!” Look, I clean them all the time! If these kittens would just stop sticking their noses on them!
Clove takes notes on this “cleaning” business in case there are any tips she can pass on to me.
Maggie wonders how she ended up in this room again, this time with three babies instead of six. Why, it’s like a vacation!
I love Cilantro’s crazy little face.
Maggie continues to clean whilst waiting to be let out.
Hmm. I wonder if I could train her to sit up like this for a snack?
Cilantro and the teaser.
Ciara in the sun. She knows she’s a pretty girl.
Fergus Simon’s serious little face always cracks me up.
Newt’s keeping an eye on the kittens from the Newt Cave. The kittens aren’t sure whether it’s safe to approach or not.
Finnegan wonders if perhaps it might be time for the snuggle?
Sleepy Declan.
Ciara really likes the cedar scratching post.
Macushla gets a little time to himself.
The McMaos are still nursing – TRYING to nurse, I should say – and Maggie puts up with it for a bit, then decides they’ve had enough. Yesterday, Maggie was following me around in hopes that I might be overwhelmed with the desire to give her food, and she was in turn being followed around by Finnegan and Fergus Simon, and every time she stopped, they tried to nurse with her standing there. It was too funny.
One day last week she let them nurse briefly, and I happened to have the camera at hand. So I made a video, of course! (Please note: all that stuff was on the floor because Maggie knocked it down and I hadn’t had a chance to pick it up.)
Tommy in the back yard. I love it when they lay like this!
Previously
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: This weekend I’ll probably give vacuuming a try and give the Roomba a break.
2007: And since it’s still muddy in the garden, no weeding for me again today. Darn!
2006: “Save your breath,” I said, gasping for air. “I don’t believe a word you say, you lying liar.”
2005: “Spot caught a copperhead!”
2004: No entry.
2003: Poor Gram.
2002: Oh, quit with the gasps of horror.
2001: Lynn is very very nice, but as I’ve mentioned, she doesn’t appreciate the beauty of silence.
2000: I was giving out dirty looks left and right, let me tell you.
I was so sorry to read about Coltrane. I lost one cat (Barney) to a road accident and Meg that we have now was knocked by a car about six years ago and it has left her with a weepy eye and she can’t jump up onto things. Although she had x-rays at the time and they found nothing we assume she has a damaged tear duct and maybe arthritis has set in after the knock.
But some cats are happier with a shorter life spent outside in the big wide world than being shut indoors where they are safer. Doesn’t make it any easier for us though.
Oh, whiskery Ciara. So pretty.
Cilantro has sort of a monkey-face, doesn’t she? Cute!
LOL Shame on Fred, using Foul Language™ in front of those impressionable young birdchildren! I have to go take a shower now because the sight of the worms has made me feel creepy all over. GAH.
(Also, about the picture of the Newt Cave and the kittens? Will you come clean my house? I’ll pay you…)
I don’t recall any of my cats laying in that double jointed back legs pose that Tommy is doing. My dogs do it all the time and I love it too. I can’t decide if it’s cuter on Ruby’s curly black furred cocker spaniel body or Ollie’s huge red and white basset one.
I do believe Ciara has her “come hither” look going on!!!
Can Robyn or anyone tell me what date the cat fabric with the cat words was posted? For some reason I can’t think of a better way to describe it than this. Please and thank you!!
Melissa, it was the 9th – you can see a picture of the fabric over at Flickr, here, too.
Still sad about Coltrane 🙁
Anyway, I want a cat just so I can have one of those awesome cat bed/house basket things. I really want a brown tabby.
Also, my dog is chewing away on a hickory flavored rawhide, and it smells like ASS. Just thought you should know.
p.s. I cannot have a cat because my husband and my DOG are allergic.
Sorry about Coltrane. Didn’t he actually live with some neighbors? If so, it must be hard for them to have him “go missing.” Harder not knowing than knowing, I think – remembering how Fancypants did that to you …
The parent robins did an amazing job of weaving in that nest – I think baby birds do just fine without extra water; their parents supply them with all they need until it’s time to fledge – then they’re on their own.