©Lisa
I’ve been terribly remiss in announcing this. Remember Newman from way back at the end of March? You might not, because I only mentioned him the once – at that time, we were waiting for Maggie to drop those babies, and Rufus out running around the house. So once Newman was tested and neutered, he went to the shelter to be treated for parasites. Everyone who got to meet him invariably said that he was an awesome cat. A few weeks ago, he went to Petsmart.
Well, last week Lisa sent me the picture above, with the subject “Guess who got adopted!” Then a few days later, the lady who adopted Newman sent an update email to the shelter:
I adopted Newman from Petsmart on Tuesday, and I just wanted to send a short update email. He is doing great! We haven’t yet introduced him to the other cats in the household, but he is doing fine in my room / the adjoining game room. He’s using the litterbox fine, eating well and drinking. He does a good job of entertaining himself when we are gone. He seems to really like the scratching post and his various mice/feather toys. He’s very cuddly and sleeps at my feet, and he loves to lick while being petted. When we leave during the day, if it isn’t going to be too hot I leave the window open (there is a mesh protective layer so that he can’t get through) and he likes to sit on the windowsill and smell the scents and hear the birds. The only “problem” we had was that after eating, he tried to “bury” his food and water bowls with the towel upon which they were sitting, resulting in the towel repeatedly soaking up all his water. This was less of a problem and more of an adorable behavior, so we just removed the towel and he has learned that the carpet won’t budge. Haha! 
Anyways, we are loving Newman, and he has never shown any sign of being afraid or unhappy or disturbed by the move. Quite the contrary, he seems very happy and rambunctious!
Don’t you love a happy ending? I sure do!
Sights from around Crooked Acres
The former compost heap, current tomato heap. I harvested the first tomato from those plants yesterday – just a cherry tomato – and ate it last night with dinner!
One of the Mums I tossed last Fall when (I thought) it was mostly dead. It THRIVED on the compost heap. You can’t tell how big it is, but it’s HUGE. If I can keep the tomato plants from smothering it, I’ll dig it up this Fall and put it on the front porch.
Baby pecans. Hopefully they’ll keep doing well, and we’ll be able to harvest them this Fall. It’s been three years since our last harvest, and we’re running low on them!
This is what I love the most about vining plants – the little, fragile-looking (but tenacious) vines that reach out and grab hold. This one was from one of the muscadine vines.
We are going to have approximately one bazillion muscadines this year. Last year I used the pulp from our small batch of muscadines to make muscadine jam. This year, we may have enough so that I can make jelly. (If we were wine drinkers, I might try my hand at muscadine wine! But alas we are not.)
We might get at least ONE apple this year!
The corn’s getting tall – a couple of them are taller than I am (I’m 5 feet, 5 inches tall, for the record).
Cucumber vine.
Busy busy bees fertilizing those squash blossoms.
Jalapenos!
Eggplant. We’ve only got three or four eggplants planted this year. I’m not a huge fan of the eggplant.
The cherry tomatoes in the garden have finally started to ripen!
Volunteer tomato plant, among the carrots. It’s already got a couple of cherry tomatoes coming along, and it’s only about four inches tall!
Cauliflower, eaten alive. I finally yanked them up.
Part of the harvest from one day last week – cucumber, zucchini, pattypan squash.
More cucumbers.
And green beans, of course.
We’ve been eating a LOT of oven-fried zucchini, squash, and green tomatoes. I used to use this recipe, but now I just mix equal amounts of cornmeal, flour, and parmesan cheese, and keep a container of it in the fridge at all times. We don’t keep buttermilk on hand, so I just use skim milk instead.
Maxi likes to help in the garden.
We had three broody hens, sitting on 18 eggs between the three of them. TWO eggs hatched, and both chicks decided this hen was their mother. (The second chick, a little yellow one, was under the hen’s wing when I snapped this picture.)
Last year we had a similarly miserable hatching experience and swore we’d never let broody hens sit on eggs when it gets this hot. But did we remember that this year? Of course not. Grrrr.
Three little girly pigs, standing next to one of their wallows. I HATE that it’s got that gross green stuff growing in it, and whenever I go out there, I stir up the water with a long stick, but once the water settles, the green stuff is right on top again. It doesn’t bother the pigs, but I hate how evil and fluorescent it looks.
“You has a cookie for me?”
“COOKIES PLEASE.”
I made a movie of the pigs at cookie time. You’ll see that rather than shying away from Fred when he hands out the cookies, two of the girls would CUT each other to get their cookie first. As it turns out, the biggest pig is also the most gentle and patiently waits her turn. Good piggeh.
George loves his rawhide bone.
Happy pup.
::chomp::
Declan loves his Mama.
Macushla.
The Spice Girls love them some Macushla.
Also some Declan.
Please note that none of Finnegan’s paws is actually ON the floor.
Hovercat.
Your weekly reminder: Corbie is beautiful. That is all.
Previously
2010: “He was skeery.”
2009: The shit that is PISSING ME OFF these days.
2008: I’ve warned Nance that the house is a pig sty, but I don’t think she believes me.
2007: No entry.
2006: Must be ’cause I’m so approachable.
2005: Hobbies.
2004: Fred calls Miz Poo “Musty.”
2003: He sighed. “Because everybody knows that 256 (the total number of pages in the book) is 2 to the 8th, which is 2 to the 6th times two squared, which is 64 times 4, so you should print four blocks of 64 pages.”
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: Folks, it’s Dumbass Day.
Hi Robyn. I too have a cat that tries to bury his food bowl. He is a messy eater so I have his bowl on a placemat, but he will try to cover the bowl with the placemat-sometimes for 5 minutes straight. I looked it up online and it said that cats in the wild may try to bury their food so they can come back later to eat it. I have tried everything to stop him from doing it-it drives me crazy and he ignores everything around him when he does it. Have any of yours had this problem?
Our cat does the same thing! I didn’t take the time to research it as you did, but I like your explanation better. We surmised that he was burying it because, well, have you *smelled* some of the cat food on the market? I would try to bury it too!
I have to admit when I heard how late in the year you were planting the cauliflower I knew they wouldn’t do well. Of course you were incapacitated from the surgery, so you have an excuse! I’m in zone 6b and I transplant my cole crops in mid-March, and grow them under row covers to protect them from cold March winds and, as they mature, keep the cabbage moths and their caterpillars out. My cabbage and broccoli are usually ripe around June 1 (I don’t grow cauliflower because it’s more finicky). I imagine in the south you could transplant them as early as February. I just started seedlings for my fall broccoli and cabbage; they will get transplanted in August and hopefully ripen in early October.
I must also admit that I was surprised to hear you are growing onions now. In the south short-day onions are usually grown fall to spring.
Hope this comment comes across as helpful and not obnoxious!
I actually didn’t realize I could transplant them that early – that gives me something to shoot for next year when the long, long days of February are getting to me and it feels like all we’re doing is waiting for spring to get here! I also didn’t know that onions usually grow here over the winter – the old guy down the road planted onions in the spring, which gave me the idea to give it a try. HOWEVER, if they can grow fall – spring, then I think that gives me a good reason to harass Fred into helping me build a big raised bed for them. We love some onions around here.
I found this comment very helpful. I Facebook “like” it!
We once picked up a 50-pound bag of Vidalia onions on our way out of Georgia, driving to El Paso. I don’t remember what month it was, but it was warm already, and hotter the further west we got. I sold that car three years later, and on warm days you could STILL smell the onions when you opened the trunk.
(Completely off topic, but the talk of growing onions in the South reminded me.)
Thank goodness it was good news about Newman…I thought it was going to be a sad ending when I first started reading. Yippee for Newman and his family!
Hovercat! Love!
Corbett has that “Yes, I KNOW I’m gorgeous. Can we PUH-LEEEEEZE move on?” look about him. Of course, if you stopped telling him how beautiful he is he’d be quite displeased, I’m sure.
Declan the mama’s boy is so cute.
Gorgeous pics, Robyn, as per the usual.
You might try putting cornmeal in that pig wallow. That will help with the algae.
Dear Tomato Queen, a.k.a. Robyn:
I planted an heirloom tomato plant. Ripe, they’re green with yellow stripes. I have no idea how to tell when they’re ripe because they develop the stripes very early. Any tricks?
I also planted ancho chili peppers and cilantro, I’m awaiting some heirloom tomato salsa later this summer
glad to see more kitten pix! And we need advice…Just rescued a 6 week kitten, female. She’s in a dogpen separated from our other cat (who needs his shots up to date). She appears to use the litter box but DOES NOT cover her poo! any advice? Kitten v. healthy, we adopted thru our friend the AC officer, so everything has checked out otherwise, except a superyoung kitty livin’ on the mean streets….
I love levitating cats. Hovercat could be v.2.0 of ceiling cat!
I’m still amazed at your picture taking abilities. Too funny!!!!!
Late 60s, I joined a friend and her family for visit at her relative’s house in rural Georgia outside of Atlanta. Said friend asked me to help pick muscadines. I asked, “What are muscadines?” I’m originally from Philadelphia, lived in the CITY and was muscadine-clueless. So, I helped her pick them for a while on a hot afternoon. Thus far, my only muscadine experience, 40+ years ago.
I am totally going to throw my old mums into the compost heap and see how they like it there – after blooming for 2 years fairly steadily, they have given up the ghost – just like everything else in my garden. My neighbor put out plastic flowers, and instead of continuing to laugh at her, I am instead thinking she had the right idea – unless they melt, then that would be gross.
I love all the cat pictures as usual. I especially liked the little piggy video. It was so cute how they all came running so fast to get their cookies. They look happy. I imagine any animal would be happy to be living on Crooked Acres! Your fruit and veggies look really good too! I imagine it’s a ton of work to take care of the property, gardens, and animals, but you and Fred make it look easy! I admire your lifestyle.