Well - here we are - week one and Ruby has put on 10 ounces. She's sleek and sassy and doing fine.

Of course- didn't this little Halloween kitten fall right into the right hands. I was lamenting a few weeks ago about Amanda's decision not to have any more kids right now - selfish snothead anyway!! How dare she not give me another grandchild just because she's single, raising a 3-year old without benefit of a full-time dad....hmmmmpphhhffff.

So - I got a baby. She's a bit less work. Up to every 6 hours on the need to eat. She plays a lot harder. Crashes just as hard though - which is very funny. She'll be tearing it up - and suddenly - poof, she's out. She's not had one accident - she knows where all the cat boxes are and uses them all.

Autumn depresses me. I'm sad to see cold weather coming, icy roads, my home 10 miles from work and town, economic pressures galore. So for something to keep my spirits up- I'm awarded a lifetime servant's contract for another cat. Ok - I'm not happy about that, but I'm thankful for the kitten and the fun disruption to life this little baby has brought. This strange lady at the bank has acquired cat #7. I'm contemplating if I want to kindle a friendship with her. I wonder if there's a conflict of interest in having a friend that works at the bank you do business with. I'll think about it.

Meanwhile - Chris is over his mad with Ruby being here. I have seen him play with her, he tells me about feeding her during the day when I'm working. He thought he lost her a couple of times and was all worried about looking for her. So - he's hooked on the baby too. I knew it wouldn't take long because he's a sensitive guy and she's a raging beauty that no man could resist!!!

Life with baby Ruby

Gosh I'm feeling really old!!! This baby needs 4-5 hour feedings, then a couple hours of playtime, then nap, then starts again.
We've had no calls from any of our friends, relatives, or responses to any notes we've left looking for her family or for a new family... I'm beginning to think our house-guest is going to be a resident.
Unless - of course- Benjamin gets a hold of Ruby. He's rushed at her several times, looking like he was about to dive into a salmon casserole or something! I'm scared for him to be alone with her till she's big enough that Ben knows she's NOT food!!! I have seen documentaries where male lions will kill cubs to put a female back into heat so he can get her pregnant with his cubs, but there are no females in our pride that aren't fixed, and he's fixed too. So far we've done well keeping Ben away from Ruby. The girls are gudgingly accepting. Shadow is still staying in her room. Sassy is not as fast to hiss and smack as she was a few days ago.

Christopher is becoming quite the daddy. He takes Ruby outside with him so she can play in the grass and learn the smells of her home from the outside too. He weighed Ruby yesterday, she's gone from 8 ounces to 1 pound 3 ounces just since Friday, so the food is sticking to her little ribs.
More pictures soon, unfortunately, it's hard to take a picture of a black kitten. I'm happy to see that Chris is taking to having the kitten in the house.

I'm picking Fay up tomorrow after work and bringing her out to the house to meet Ruby and take a carrot to the horse - she hasn't been out here in quite a while... she's been busy with cousins and friends and I've been taking care of this foster baby. Ahhh motherhood... yawn...

Welcome Ruby!!

Say hello to the newest member of the family: Ruby.

To say the least, we're not happy to have found this 4-week old screaming baby in the middle of my neighbor's yard on Friday afternoon. The neighbor kids had found it - and took it around to houses - including mine- and Chris said the kitten didn't belong to us. The kids decided to put it down and maybe it'd go home. Good plan - till I showed up. Turned off the engine, got out - heard that piercing terrified baby kitten scream, dropped my stuff in the driveway and went to find it. Well - there she is, and now she's living with us.

Oh she's so darling. Nothing is as sweet in the world as a baby. And Chris named her by the way. Her first name was Rosebud (guess why?). Anyway - none of the cats will have a thing to do with her. Benjamin has pretty much moved out. Sassy will allow contact with Ruby, but only till the old woman realizes she's being disrespected by a child, then she hisses and smacks. Shadow won't leave her room except to eat, and she's lonely. All three of them have hissed and growled at this 10 ounce baby, and I don't allow any alone time just in case one of them tries to drop Ruby out the pet door.

I don't want another 15 year attachment, darn it. I was starting to look forward to catless years. But now, Ruby adds at least 10 years to my sentence. Chris is not amused. He was mad most of the weekend about the lost hiking trip. Me too, but darn it, what's my options here? Leave a baby in the cold - can't happen, sorry. No woman on the Blog that reads this will likely disagree with my decision to pick the kitten up and bring her into my house. He asked if I'm totally committed to ridding our lives of this kitten, would I give her to the humane society? No way, she'll just be put to sleep, they won't try to adopt a black kitten. I called the rescue shelter, she already has TWO DOZEN black cats. I asked all my friends, and Chris has a note on the board at work. If we can find her a very good home, she can go with my blessing and thanks a LOT!!

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with her when I go to work tomorrow. I'm hoping to figure out a way to lock her in the kitchen so she's safely away from the other cats and not disturbing Chris while he sleeps. Officially, Ruby is a foster child. I'll keep this so I can remember that I said 10 years ago that she wasn't a member, just a guest... Hahahahahaaaa.

Finally, excitingly, amazingly, wow!!!

Hey isn't that a nice way to start a blog? Could be ALMOST ANYTHING huh?
Did I get married?
Hit a lottery ticket?
Find out I'm going to be a grandmother again?
Discover an-unknown relative has died and left me a VERY LARGE check?

A wedding would trap Christopher into a place he would find no escape from. As long as he's free to come and go, he's going to be a decent man, a good husband, and the best friend I've ever had. If we say I Do - then he's going to become that selfish little bastard of a man that I knew not long ago who is concerned first and foremost with his own needs,wants and desires. We've been together 7 years, living together 5. When Chris is obligated to do something - he whines, bitches, picks fights, pouts, and sleeps. When he is BOUND to me with strings attached, and not only that, that I LEGALLY have a right to HALF of all his musical equipment, income, vehicle, and everything else.... he's going to become an unlivable bastard, and we'll be divorced within a year - NOPE, that's not it.
Lottery - no way, I don't play any gambling games.
Grandmother - sadly.... sadly.....no.
Wealthy Relative - psssshhhhh --- not in this freaking family.

So - what is it?
Well back in August of 2007 Chris bought this stupid weight scale for the bathroom. And I started an Excel spreadsheet for both of us - daily weight, fat%, bone density, water% and muscle mass. Yeah fine, so?
Well, every day since that day I have weighed within 5 pounds of the same exact number. I even joked that I had named those 5 pounds because I saw them so often coming and going. haha.
About that same time I stared having trouble with a molar - it got infected, I did antibiotics, it calmed down and then would start up again. That one was pulled this past April. Then another one broke and was pulled in August, it'd been cracked for a long time, also infected.
For about a year and a half I've had a running infection.
Feeling kinda crummy and unable to lose any weight in spite of a LOT of changes in diet and exercise and lifestyle. It's been kinda disheartening in fact!
That infection is GONE GONE GONE BABY!!! And I started losing weight. Steady and today
TWO people asked me today if I've lost weight. Yep, almost 20 pounds, and thanks for asking.

Ask NOT what these lying politicians can't do for you

Ask what you can do for yourselves to avoid starvation and homelessness. Nobody can get credit right now, so it's either do without or pay cash. Is your money in the bank or under the mattress? Lots of older people are pulling out their IRA's and hiding the cash in the yard.

Am I the only person who has noticed that even though Wall Street flattened out completely...nobody died? - no buildings fell? - Where did that $700Bazillion go then?

In the event that all this information on the news is real and the market crash has started a world-wide collision of the type of proportions only a mathematical genius could fathom...

Here's my plan.

1) We have our own garden. We can feed ourselves and our animals if we can grow food. This first year's garden did pretty well. I learned a lot and have begun plans for the bigger improved version of the garden for next year. With chickens, soy beans, vegetables and a small wheat patch we could survive as long as the air and water are clean enough to grow food in. We both want a greenhouse, and his idea is one with electricity and water and air conditioners and heat, assuming we still have power.

2) I'm crochetting afghans again. I enjoy the peaceful rhythm of the yarn and the needle. Plus they are warm and useful for lots of jobs and covering sleeping babies. They're a barterable item too. I'd trade a ripple lap blanket for a case of canned fruit. Also I can make baskets and Chris can repair guitars - soon he'll be set up to make quitars by hand and then he'll have a barterable skill too. Right now he can play music and sing, and that's a way to make a living.

3) What about gas prices? The barrell prices have gone back down to 1970 levels, yet the pump prices are still the 2008 level. Hmmmm.... do you suppose the corporations took a wage increase just about the time gas went to $4 a gallon? Now they can't lower the pump price because that money is already in someone's pocket.... sorry. OH- and sorry to those of you in Europe that are paying over $10 a gallon, I truly feel for you dudes. However, you do have major public transportation that we fat lazy American's just can't abide. We must be free to drive wherever we went to go, long as there's gas to get our fat asses there. After that, well, there's always walking, or staying home, or getting a horse, or just bitching about it.

4) I'm starting a worm-composting farm. Back in the olden days (early 1900's) I understand that a woman in the upper Entiat Valley had a worm farm and she made good money selling worms to fisherman. Nowadays it's illegal to fish with worms, but heck, if I can feed the worms my household garbage and they can poop out the composting ingredients that I can put in my garden and grow really quality vegetables, I'm hep to that. Anybody wants to buy worms, thats going to be a bonus.

5) We're talking about remodeling the house. We have faced the fact that the house is too small for us and all Chris's guitars. So, we need a bigger music studio. So, he's talking about building a studio out in the back of the lot. Yep - I agree completely. A self contained soundproofed studio, yep - thanks. Plus once the studio is OUT of the house, I can have a bedroom for Fay (aka guest room). I also want to build onto our room - put a door in the back wall, and build a new closet and change the current closet into a small bathroom. The only current bathroom in the house would be totally remodelled. Once, of course, the mortgage is paid off - somewhere in the next 10 years.

Will it be like the days before credit cards and ATM's, I wonder? Will a person have to make a direct application for credit to the supplier, like Grocer Sam? "Let me have this ham today and I'll pay you .25 a week for a month till I pay you in full." Sam would put that in his ledger book and keep track of your payments. How about buying a house? A potential homeowner in the days of my parents new marriage and home-buying had to have a minimum of half the cost of the home as a down payment!!! But that was only about $20,000 in 1960., when wages were $2.50 an hour...start saving baby.

The other part of my plan is to keep my mortgage and credit card payments in good standing. I don't want any newley absorbed bank's new owner to be looking for loans to call in and seeing MY name on any list of potential foreclosures. My advise to my daughter and all interested parties is the same. Pay cash, pay off your credit cards, pay off your mortgage. Find things to do to avoid boredom once the computers crash and the power goes off.

I think humans are really all just dometic pets. Well? Aren't we? We don't take care of ourselves in any serious way. In the event that the power went off tomorrow, most of us would starve or freeze to death in our own homes. Could I survive if the grocery stores all went out of business? Could I barter for what I needed? What would I do with all the time I wouldn't be on the computer or watching TV? Gladly I can't have babies anymore.

There's an upside to the complete loss of power and civilization - more babies!!!

Wow - is it October already

I just realized Ihaven't been around to talk to anyone on this blog in about a month... so I'm sorry! I'm busy, I'm trying to spend more time with my grandchild. I'm having to work on advertising for my business since I had two clients die and open up two holes in my schedule and in my income!!
Life goes on however. Chris was sick for a week, and he's working too many hours. I'm working a lot and taking time to winterize the garden beds. We had a good crop for as small as our garden was this year. Next year we'll do better growing-wise and will have lots more crop from that.
The animals are OK. I keep hoping dear 15 year old Sassy will some day soon lie down in the warm sunny favorite spot, got to sleep, and stay that way. She's healthy and doing OK, sadly alzheimer' is setting in. She forgets where she is, gets lost in the house, forgets when she ate last. I appreciate that she can still hunt and kick the butts of the other cats in the house - but every morning at 5:30 she's outside my bedroom window announcing that its time for her to be fed!! Benjamin is still ripping his belly hair. I made another appointment with the vet for next week. I need the chance to get Ben in and then lock up the pet door. If he gets outside after breakfast he's gone for the day and won't be home again till after dark. Shadow of course is fine. She loves that it's cooler weather again so there's more blankets laying around on the couch and the barcolounger - more spots for her to snuggle into and be warm. Even wild-man-Ben was up in my lap the other night when it was cold outside. His family would laugh at him to see what a domestic-kitty he's become.
Healthy wise, we're doing OK too. Gosh this is boring me to sleep! Need to go read Pistol's Blog and wake up!! Bye for now - Jana