A Cat-egory Five

Right now I am experiencing a Cat-egory Five Purricane.  And that's just counting the kittens.  Eventually I intend to down grade to a Cat-egory Three.  Joe has agreed to let me keep one.  I either want Mama cat Styx, who has the best personality, or Babe, the cutest kitten of them all.  She is going to be a beauty.











For the moment, I am just a crazy cat lady with, yes, eight feline.

Saturday 10/5 - The guys were up and on the road while I was down back watering grass seed.  Then I met them at the Hit The Trails Festival.  Joe and I picked up our T-shirts for completing the half marathon.  I felt I should have tried harder to do the whole thing.








With the leaves starting to fall, I had to remove some from the dirt so I could get all the ground good and wet.



The guys then went to Spikes to catch the first half of the Iowa game and have an early lunch.  I came home to do more chores around the house.  Then I met them at the Brae Golf Course.







Mike and Joe played a legitimate game, with some kind of bet going on.  I hit four shots on each hole (a drive, a fairway shot, a chip, and a putt) and Steve came along for the ride.








Joe watching Mike hit off the tee.  It was a beautiful day, clear skies, and in the low 80's, almost too hot.




From the golf course we went straight to Dartmoor Marina to go pontooning.








The guys enjoyed looking at the houses, golf course, and drinking beer.  Steve did an awesome job picking out tunes to play through our new Blue Tooth speaker.













We had 90 minutes at home for showers, naps or a rest, and I to do cat duty.  Then we were off to Reds for Karaoke, and more beer and food.

Sunday 10/6 - The guys were up and on the road by 7:30.  After church I went down back to water.  The day had started out overcast and much cooler, but it soon warmed up, especially when the sun came out from behind the clouds.








Since the rain didn't come and was to hold off for another day, I decided to widen and deepen the creek (what used to be pond) at the second curve seen well from our house.  I was still determined to get our 'water front' back, once it rains and the creek and pond rise.

I hit lots of rocks making the going tough.  And there were two 'boulders' that took all I had to remove.  And the ginormous ones I just dug around.

















This is how it looked once I quit at the end of the day.



And here is another before and after photo looking from the other direction.








The creek bed was now a little over a foot deeper, and quite a bit wider.






Again, breaks from digging included kitten time.  I also continue to introduce the dog to the garage kitties.  She is very interested, but has been hissed at a few times when she got too close.  Styx is very tolerant of Maggie, but protects her kittens when she feels they are threatened.  She herself can go from a cat-egory one to a cat-egory six.








Joe was spending the night in Kentucky with the guys, to play in a poker tournament the following day, so it was a quiet (and short) evening at home for me.

Monday 10/6 - The rain came overnight, and boy did the temperature ever drop.  I went from a tank top to a turtle neck and jacket.

The kittens are getting bigger every day.  They go from sleep mode, to play mode, to eat mode, and then back to sleep.
















The kittens are starting to interact more with their littermates, even to the point of forming alliances or snuggle buddies.  There is definitely more jockeying for feeding stations on mama as it is getting more crowded.  In this (video) Arigato is fighting bath time with his mama.  I love how she grabbed his back leg at one point.

It rained (sprinkled really) all day and I was quite glad to not have to water grass seed.  I went to town shopping, spending over $300.00 at Wal-Mart.  Yikes.

Here is a look at the creek, in the early evening fog.








The flash on this photo shows virtually no water in the creek yet, and gives you a better look at the big rocks I had dug around.



Napping on a rainy afternoon.
I did two loads of laundry, including cat bedding and guest sheets and towels.  I decided the kittens were out growing their little box bed, so in the process of washing their bedding, I moved them up to a larger bed box.  The smaller one is seen in this first photo.









The kittens did not like the new box bed at first, I guess it didn't smell right.  They were also now in play mode, so didn't want to be 'in bed.'



Patty came by to visit the kittens.

Joe got knocked out of the tournament early so came home a day early, arriving after 8pm.


I was already in bed reading, with my two inside cats keeping me company and distracting me.

Tuesday 10/8 - I had woken in the night, when Joe added a blanket to our bed, and I couldn't get back to sleep because I was worried about the kittens being too cold.  So up I got, at 3am.  I turned the drier (that had cat bedding) back on, and once it was good and toasty warm, I put together a warm, extra padded cushion and stuck it in their old box, and moved them all to it.  They seemed to enjoy the warmth and went right back to sleep.

I took a 6 to 8am nap after posting last week's blog finally, and then got this blog started.  A herd of deer came through in back, and tore up the seeded ground, running, spinning, jumping and chasing around.  It is fun to watch them play, but I was not happy about the damage.

This was to be a day of reckoning - I finally got back to the gym.  I used less weights and did less reps, but I was there.  The stretching afterwards felt great.  I have been working some of my muscles hard, digging out back, but never stretch them.

I had to water all the seeded area because we had not gotten anymore rain and with the breeze and sun, it had dried out.









I took Maggie on a long walk after our dinners.  There was also kitten time, but no photos.  I was in bed asleep before Poker Joe got home.

Wednesday 10/9 - The night before, I had read an e-mail about Mom falling again, and we kids had been brain-storming how we could get her better watched and cared for.  So I woke at 4am with this concern on my mind.  I just couldn't see how I could get down there to help, I had too many responsibilities here at home.  I really wanted to get Mom here.


The kittens have become more of a handful for me (video) and their mama (video).  They are really growing and developing fast, and boy are they cute.

The grass seed has started to germinate so it is greening up on the oasis.  The dew was heavy enough that I didn't need to water in the morning.

I went to the gym for the Line Dance class, but first did 25 minutes each on the rowing machine and elliptical (twice the time as the day before).  It is so easy to get out of shape and takes so much longer to build back up.  Ugh.

I spent the afternoon digging up more Yucca at Ken and Linnea's.  Because of the very rocky and root bound hillside, I couldn't get all the Yucca I had tried for, and I damaged some that I did get.  I planted them on the other side of the big rock down back.  Digging holes for them was also a challenge.







I also had dug up a burning bush to replace the store bought one the deer had eaten.  It is in one of the front beds with the others.

Brian had brought me a few loads of used potting soil that he had emptied out of one of his large planters.  I had spread it on the hill above the creek.  I then seeded it and covered it with some additional soil.




Everything, including the germinating seed, then got a good watering.








I was more tired than usual so only spent a little time with the kittens before bed.  The first 'accident' occurred, so I replaced the floor blanket and tried to encourage use of the litter box.

Thursday 10/10 - I woke too early and couldn't get back to sleep again, so my day started at 4am.  One can get a lot done getting up so early, but I usually poop out before the day is over.  I finished emails, Facebook, and blogging, just after daylight broke.


After the usual kitten/cat chores, I took the tarp out of the box and put down a plastic drop cloth because the kittens were using the tarp to try to climb out.  I was not sure how long this would contain them.  I did, then catch a short catnap in the box with them.  Unbeknownst to me, Joe took this photo of me napping with them.  Notice Styx is sitting in the chair keeping an eye out on the box.



I noticed these two orange blooms on my red Hibiscus.  Maybe I have two varieties braided into one, or is it just a difference in fertilizer?




I took the two house cats (Stevie and Monita) for their rabies shot.  They were both howling on the way there.  While waiting our turn I put the two carriers together so they could see each other, and it got quiet.


I got an antibiotic eye ointment for Monita, in hopes I could clear up her runny eyes so she would not be contagious to the new kittens or Mom when I bring them inside.






I applied the first dose of eye medicine once home and Monita then scurried up to her hammock where she feels safe from me. Ha ha ha.

The curious little kittens, so fun and cute and hard to resist.  They are a real time killer, but will be grown up before you know it.


They prefer playing with each other, instead of the new toys I bought them.


This is Lady, who has a very sweet personality, likes belly rubs, and to suck on her feet.

I spent the whole afternoon moving sand and dried muck from the creek.  Since we didn't get much rain and it was still very dried up down back, I decided to clear more of the debris out of the creek bed, what used to be pond area.  Rain was predicted for the weekend, so I had two more days to work down there.  Photos of before, during, and after will come later.


I had to water the new grass and seed, three times, because the sun got hot and dried it up.  I also had a sprinkler going out front in the beds because everything was looking so dried up and stressed.

I worked out back until 6:30 dark, and after a long hot shower, enjoyed more kitten time.  My legs make for good climbing practice.  The curiosity, fun, and romping around continued.






Joe and I watched Survivor before bed.  So far this season, the show hasn't really pulled me in.  It takes a while to get to know the cast of players and have a favorite or two to root for.




Friday 10/11 - The pain sleep aid gave me an eight hours rest with very little interruptions.  I enjoyed an early morning ride, going through the winter pasture that had recently been plowed and disked.








I caught the long trail from the back ridge and then rode it down along Daddy's Creek, which was very dried up.




Later, I took a diversion and rode into the large bean field which was also newly prepared for planting of winter wheat.  Then while riding back to the barn along the gelding pasture, Amiga and I could hear Patty calling Zorro.  We rode over to the back gate and took a peak.  Zorro was trotting towards Patty, but slowed to a walk before I could get my camera recording this (video).



Sister in law Mary was here visiting Patty, and watching her lunge Zorro out in the round pen as I was turning Amiga back out to pasture.

As soon as I got home, I watered the new seed and grass.  Look how green it has gotten down on the oasis.














This second photo is looking at it from our drainage ditch towards the pond.


Then I started back to moving debris from the dried up pond, that has been washed there by the creek.  Here is the series of photos over the last four days, looking from both directions.

And these views looking down stream towards the pond.




























The rock I had un-earthed I put on the inside bend where the water tends to wash out the ground as it flows around the curve.  I have, as of Saturday, finished dredging the pond and creek for this year!

I had to quit work before completely finishing, so the last, ending photos in both series, were in fact taken on Saturday, before I actually posted this blog.  I showered and cooked green beans with sautéed onions and headed to Sherri's Birthday party.  I forgot to take any photos.  It was a potluck with tons of yummy food.










Once home I did more kitten care.  They are now four weeks old.  Arigato has figured out how to escape from the box.  I took this (video) of one of his attempts.  Notice Renegade is not in these photos.  He was off doing his own thing.