Kitten pictures! Two Days Old!

Buster (Ahsoka)








Sissy (Sheila) and babies

Oops....Cat Explosion!!!

You would think with over forty years of loving and having cats that I could tell the difference between male and female. Well, I was not the only one to do so. Last May or June, we took in two kittens to live in our barn. They were brother and sister, Buster and Sissy (also called Sheila). I guess they were about 6-8 weeks old. We were told that the "boy" was a boy, and the other a girl. The kittens were very shy so they didn't let us handle them for quite a while, and to "check" them out was almost impossible. When I did, it looked like they were the same in back, and yes it looked like they had the telltale male parts. So, I started thinking Sissy was a male. Now, I know you're thinking she's got to be nuts, she's had cats for years. But, in self defense, the last girl cat that I had was Chloe who died in 2000. Since then, being a staunch supporter of spaying and neutering, we've only had neutered male cats.

On August 8th, the barn cats came to live in the house because hubby bought 100 new chicks! Yikes! Around the middle of September, I started thinking that Buster must have worms because he was getting fat and hard around his middle. Never in my wildest dreams, would I have thought we'd have the surprise that Mr. Boo and I found 3 Sunday nights ago. We heard a kitten cry. Looking around, we found a very cold kitten in our kitchen cabinet (no dishes in this one). I took him out and tried to show him to Sissy and she wouldn't have anything to do with it. Buster, was apparently its mama. So, Buster is actually a girl.! The kitten didn't make it through the night. I'm still in denial, and still can't stop thinking of "him" as "her". He was so young to have gone through this.

I started looking at Sissy again, and she was also pregnant. She got fatter and fatter. Last Thursday night about 10:20 she had her first kitten. By 11:30, she had four little bundles of warm fur, crawling and eating. They're doing great and she is a very proud mama. I'll try to get some photos of them and upload them. The kittens are all very dark, as the mother is a silver/black tabby. One has a tiny streak of orange on its head. We're not sure who the father is, but the only cats we've seen are about a mile down the road and they are all black and white. We're thinking of asking our neighbor for child support, he he he.

We were so clueless, thinking that both of them were too young. They only left the barn on a few occasions, but apparently they were at the right time. So, the story of they're never too young to spay or neuter them is definitely true in our case.

Suze

Ode to Otto

This week we said goodbye to my parent's cat Elliott. He was a beautiful brown/black tabby who had the most unusual turquoise eyes when he was born. He was over 20, his exact age is not sure, but he was one of 5 kittens that my sister rescued from a kitchen cabinet at the home improvement store she worked for. One of the kittens didn't make it and another was given to a coworker of my father. They kept three of them Elliott, Marvin and Daphne (Daffy). They were much loved. We lost Daffy several years ago, but Marvin and Elliott had long fulfilled lives. Marvin was also known as "Lump Kitty" because he slept under the bed covers. I had a special name for Elliott. To me he was not Elliott, he was Otto. So sleep well dear Otto and say hello to Shelby, Cincie, Chloe, Frisco, Jausenclaus, Marvin, Daffy, Lance, Ferrarri, Cymbah, Tiger, Poodah, Dax, Tuffy and to the many other animals our family have loved over the years. We loved you.

P.S. To see a photo of Otto, click on Ensign Eddie's blog under Rojo's (rooster) photo

Photos of the last year!

Awana Closing Ceremony and Grand Prix. He won 4th in race, 2nd in Design.

First time playing soccer.
On the Homecoming Float

Mr. Boo loved the Statue of Liberty so he wanted his
6th Birthday Party to have that theme.
We settled for a New York City theme.

Mr. Boo on Digi our mobile office rv
Mr. Boo loved the globe and learning about the world and landmarks.





Kite Day. The kids made their own kites and flew them at the same time.

In Class after kite flying


Showing how smart he is!

What a great year and a great school!

Where did the (almost) year go?

It's been forever since I've posted. Mr. Boo graduated from Kindergarten last week. It was such a wonderful program and experience. He has had a great year at his school. Some of the highlights of his year were: taking a train ride in Fort Worth; going on several field trips to museums, and local businesses; playing soccer for the first time; learning about the Statue of Liberty and other national monuments. I will post some photos soon.

The farm is doing pretty well. We're selling every egg we can get and have to turn away others. It looks like we will actually have a garden this year to sell. There is lettuce, cucumbers, pumpkins, okra, squash, sweet corn, etc. We've lost all of our oldest ducks, either to predators, or just not coming home. Big Daddy (white pekin) lost both of his girls one night. They had taken to walking down the road and spending most of the day there. He came home one night without them, and spent several days walking down the road looking for them. It was so sad seeing him. We have 8 female goslings, 7 female pekin ducks that will turn 3 weeks old tomorrow. They're pretty cute. The goslings are starting to arch their necks the way geese do. We also lost Napoleon, the little general, and our favorite sheep. He passed away in February, shortly before Josephine had twin lambs, Lizzy and Beau. Their daughter, Flo (Florence) had a baby boy (we haven't settled on a name, although Mr. Boo wants to call him Mount Rushmore, maybe Rush?) that is about 5 week old now.

Button (duck, see former posts and book below) fell off the front porch just before Thanksgiving. Mr. Boo wanted to see if she could fly. After surgery and several months, she can walk some. Because she is so special to us, we opted to have surgery to repair the leg that was broken right at the hip joint. Had we known that when the pin was taken out she wouldn't be able to walk right again, we might have made other decisions about her. Her leg fused in the hip joint and works independently of the hip. She is happy, can stand and gets where she wants to go, but she will never have the freedom of walking comfortably again. She had a great doctor in Southlake, and I would recommend him for any avian or other pet related injuries.

I'm still hanging in there with Heritage Makers. They've come up with some new products that are exciting, also a Scan Party (clients come together to scan their photos). Click on the link at the side to see all that we have to offer. You can sign up for a free account without obligation to buy anything. It just gives you a chance to play with the system. Here are some of the projects I've done.

Class Book for Auction
Cute as a Button
Snow Dogs (Click Rotate and Fold to see these functions)
Moving Day
My Girls
Birthday Party


I'm looking into Alternative Certification Programs to start teaching. I've been to two job interviews for traditional year round employment (both library research positions). I was concerned about Mr. Boo and what he would do while I was working, so I thought I would try for School Library Certification. Back when I got my MLS you could get a Learning Resource Endorsement. I didn't do this at the time, because I'd just had Mr. Boo. Now you have to have two years of teaching experience to be a certified School Librarian. So, I'm really considering the program so that I can hopefully teach in the fall.

Well, I guess that's us in a nutshell.

TTFN

Recent Photos

Dancing to "Carwash" at Joe's Crab Shack on Mom's Birthday.

First day of school in chapel uniform, minus school vest.

I can see clearly now!

I forgot to add this in the last post, but it deserves its own topic, I guess. After almost 40 years of wearing glasses, I can see clearly now. Hubby gave me Custom Vue Lasik surgery for our anniversary and Mother's Day. The operation was on July 6th (I think), and I'm doing pretty well. I had what is called Monovision surgery. My right eye is seeing 20/15 and my left eye allows me to read teeny tiny print. I'm still leary of night time driving though. I haven't done much of it, but what I have done is stll a little difficult. I may end up needing glasses just for driving at night. But, its pretty neat. I can see things and recognize what they are from incredible distances.

Mr. Boo Starts Kindergarten and a lot of catching up

Well, the day came and went. Not too much historical to think on, but my son is now officially a student. Of course, we were almost late getting him to school, they were lining up for chapel as we walked in the door. So, it wasn't as difficult as it could have been. It was actually a little bit of deja vu. He's at the same school, same teacher, but going 5 days instead of 2 and was wearing his chapel uniform instead of his everyday uniform. We kept him in the private school so that he can get a good foundation. I don't know if we'll keep him there after this. There are 2 boys and 5-7 girls in his class. They'll have reading, spelling, math, history, science, spanish, art, music and PE. Quite a lot for the little fellows. But, I think he'll enjoy it.

I just had the most wonderful news. One of my oldest and dearest friends just had twin daughters in June. How wonderful is that? I would love for Mr. Boo to have a brother or sister, but its looking dimmer everyday.

We've been very busy this summer. Mr. Boo spent a lot of time with my parents while I was dealing with packing up and renovating the old house. The past week we did some fun things together.

Hubby was deployed to the gulf to wait on Hurricane Dean. He left on Saturday and came back the next Wednesday when it was evident that Dean wanted to go to Mexico instead of Texas.

Farm life has been hottttttt. Those poor birds are just making it through the heat. We are selling more eggs than they can produce, so hubby wants more. I'm not so sure of that. Currently, we have 15 adolescent chicks that will lay blue/green eggs/10 baby guineas/5 young ducklings, 14 older ducks, 4 geese, 2 quail (heat got to some), 48 adult chickens, 2 adult sheep and 2 young lambs. Definitely not boring around here. We finally had the sheep sheared yesterday. We'd been having trouble finding someone, and a nice young girl from the high school helped us out.

I'm hoping that my business with Heritage Makers will increase now that I can devote more time to it. I worked at a trade show this past weekend and have a couple coming up this fall.

Well, guess that's it for now. I'll post a photo of Mr. Boo soon. The camera's in the car and I'm too lazy to get up and get it right now.

Suze

Finished my first book!

I just finished my first Heritage Makers book. Its a brag book about our famous little house duck, Button. I haven't received my printed copy yet, its in production, but if you'd like to see it, I have placed it in the Project Gallery.

To see Cute as a Button, click here.

I also am going to my first venue in the morning, so I'm working at getting everything set. Hopefully, we will do well.

Update on the house: The old house is almost empty, garage is getting there and our friends move in next week. They have started the repairs/renovations, so it should look much different soon.

We will be hearing peeping again at our house on or around Father's Day. I purchased some Spitzhauben eggs at the Texas Chickenstock and most of them look like they are developing well. We have a few of our mixed brown eggs in there too, but it is hard to see whether they are progressing yet.

Hubby has signed up for the Texas Guard, and is like a little boy with a new toy. He's getting his uniform together and is getting ready for further training. He will be a radio man and will work when natural or manmade disasters happen here at home.

Guess that's all for now.

Suze

A little surprise I found at the old house.

Its hard to say that clearing out an old house is fun, but I've had some fun going through boxes and finding photographs, family papers, etc. that were long forgotten. There's still a lot to do, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I wanted to share a little surprise I found the other day. This is me and my handsome brother, Ensign Eddie, on the day of his Senior prom in 1982. I have no idea what we're laughing at, but I think its a great photo. Oh, and here's how I look now. Oh, too be that tiny again, probably about as possible as John having a full brother or sister. Enjoy! Oh and Ensign, I found something you might want!

What am I doing in the recent photo? Hubby gave me a loom for my birthday last October. I've wanted one for as long as I can remember. I made a window seat cover for John's bedroom. Here's a closeup.

Updates

Well, where to begin....

Doc is getting big, he's turning into a great dog. We just completed our basic obedience training, and we are seeing some great results from him.

John turned 5 on February 1st. Wow, the time has flown. He's getting so big and learning so much. We are very proud of him.

Button, the only hatchling has captured all our hearts and has turned into a beautiful duck. She's still living in the shower, loves to follow us around and is putty in John's hands.

March 30th, we were surprised to come home to our two sheep and two babies! Josephine is a very good mama to Moses and Florence (Mo & Flo), and Napoleon is a very protective papa. We did lose Louis, the third sheep in early March. We're not quite sure what happened. We miss him alot.

Tara, the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, turned 14 on March 23rd. It hard to believe so much time has gone by.

My home of 12 years will soon become the home of one of my favorite friends. We are trying to get it cleared out and fixed up for her and her family.

I've actually purchase 3 domain names and have gone "live" with my own personal website promoting my services to help families organize, scan, and celebrate their family stories and memories through powerpoint presentations and self-published storybooks.

Farm Update: Planting has been done and undone by weather and chickens, but hopefully this time we will have a good showing. Hubby planted 90 apple trees of 10 varieties to startup his pick-your-own farm venture. We're selling alot of farm fresh eggs. The poultry are doing well. We have a few hens trying to go broody and a duck who shows up occasionally to eat. She's got a nest in the middle of a hay bale. We have apples and plums showing up on the trees.

In a couple of weeks, May 9th, we will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary.

Well, that's what we've been up to lately.

Suze

Catch up, sort of....

Life has been pretty hectic the past few months, but I plan to add some things in the next few days. Just wanted to check in and tell you about a new venture I'm going into. I've been wanting to open a business/service helping people preserve, collect, and store their images, including an end product sort of like an e-book scrapbook or powerpoint presentation. I've found a company that does just that, offers publishing of projects, as well as assistance preparing them. So today, I signed up to be a consultant for Heritage Makers. It looks like a really exciting prospect. Let me know if you might be interested in taking the journey with me.

Suze

Introducing .....Doc!

We've lost two more chickens, a Buff Orpington and Gobble our bustled Rhode Island Red. We decided to look at a livestock guardian dog, and were considering a rescued Pyr/Anatolian Shepherd, but we decided the size might be too much for us. So, we looked at the English Shepherd. They look like they have the qualities of what we need in a dog, herding, guarding and hunting. We went to Shreveport on Saturday and brought home Doc Hudson, Doc for short. You can see more photos at http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/jausenclaus/Doc%20Hudson
Here is one of him and John.

Introducing Button

In my last post, I posted photos of the chickens that we had lost. Since that time, we lost 2 of our oldest ducks to a early morning raccoon attack. This happened on October 6. The next day we hatched a lone duckling. He/she is doing great and is cute as a button, hence the name. Here is Button the day after hatching.

Here are photos of Button at 2 weeks

and almost 4 weeks, as well as his first bath.

Note, the pan he is in for his bath is the pan he was in right after he hatched.

Other bird updates

All of our original hens are of laying age now. This week we had one day of 12 eggs. Chickens need about 14 hours of daylight to lay eggs, and each egg takes about 24-26 hours to process. So, with the days getting shorter, our egg production will be getting less. Hubby is looking for sources to sell the extra eggs to, so if anyone's is interested, we do periodically have eggs available. Right now all are brown eggs, except for two hens that lay light green eggs.

Our latest batch of chicks, 44 total, are living in cages in the garage. With the cooler weather, we haven't decided the best time to integrate them with the flock. The cages are too big for the hen house, but we could have enough room if we were to add more roosts. The outdoor pens will be too cool for the the chicks. So, for now they're in the garage. We've only lost one chick out of the group, but we do have one that is having problems, not sure what, possibly neurological.

One last comment. We have some really goofy geese. They have learned to fly and have made it out of our fence. But, they are too "dumb" or "stupid" to figure out how to get back in. They are alot of fun to watch and seeing them fly is wonderful, but we may have to be clipping some wings sometime in the future.

Guess that's all for now.

Updates

Wow, its been a while since I posted last. So, I'm going to be posting updates and photos today.

AWANA

John started Awana with a friend of his this past September. He seems to really be enjoying it, and was so proud on the first night when he got his vest. To get the vest, the children have to memorize the core scriptures and lessons that Awana teaches. Here is a photo of him in his new vest.

Halloween

Halloween was pretty eventful for John this year. His school had a party and a fall festival, and on Halloween night we attended the festival we've gone to every Halloween since he was two. This year, my mom went with us. Here's a photo of her and "Spiderman".


Five more years.....until AARP!

Yes, that's right, five more years to the big 5-0. It doesn't seem possible. I don't feel this old, but its here. My body does seem to be feeling it though, just ask the family. I guess that's all for today.

Photo Tribute

Our chickens that we lost this past week.

When it rains.....it pours

That's how life has been at our house this past week. It started out good, on Tuesday I went with John to his first PTO meeting. When we got home, I realized when I got home that the reluctance I was feeling might have a different reason. Hubby was putting the birds to bed when we got home, but he couldn't find one of our first and oldest hens, Thomasina. He was furious with some of the roosters because they had her so frightened aand harassed that she was hiding from them. So, since he could not find her, he left the three of them out of the pen for the night. The next morning one of the roosters could not be found and Thomasina was also still missing.

Hubby's 56th birthday was on Friday. On Wednesday, we drove to Cameron, Texas to pick up an order of Delaware chicks. They joined our week old "Rainbow Pullet" group from Meyer Hatchery. Because we had so many roosters, the plan was to buy more girls to keep the boys happy and also to sell farm fresh eggs. They are all adorable. That night, Hubby found evidence of the demise of Thomasina and Salvador Dali (formerly Dahlia, until he underwent a sex change).

Saturday, we celebrated Hubby's birthday and had a really good time. When it came time to put the chickens to bed, we couldn't find Willie (a gold laced Wyandotte, aka Rockstar). Hubby found him a few minutes later. He'd been killed and it was still light outside. It made us rethink what had happened with Thomasina. Maybe she was actually attacked instead of hiding from the boys.

This morning, we patrolled the area to see if there was any evidence of problems from the night before. As I was rounding the corner, I found Mr. French (Buff Orpington). It was a terrible sight. I won't go into what it looked like. I let the birds out, then couldn't find one of the ducks. So I looked for her, and finally found her. But, about 30 minutes later, Hubby found the body of one of my favorite girls, Lacy (gold laced wyandotte). Lacy was low girl on the totem pole. She was just starting to finish feathering out, it had taken a long time. She also like to ride the backs of the sheep and spent a lot of time in and around our garage. She will be sorely missed.

Well, the day just got worse and worse. John woke up feeling bad, so it was an at home day for him. I still don't know what was really bothering him. Around 12:00 noon, it started raining and rained off and on for hours. The ducks have a new pond behind the barn that they can actually swim in, pools of water everywhere and mud like quicksand. To top it off, the pen that we've been keeping the chickens in (a large dog kennel with tarp) is collapsing under the weight of the water on the tarp. If we have any more rain tonight, it might be totally collapsed tomorrow. Because of this, we spent over an hour running around in the rain, through the pools and quicksand rounding up chickens to put them in the barn overnight. Most of that time was with just about 3 or 4 chickens. Have you ever tried to run or walk with mud over the top of your shoes chasing a wet chicken. We're lucky that neither of us fell in the mud.

So, this was our week and our day. I sure hope it drys out some tomorrow.

Have a good week!

Labor Day...a year ago

Wow, its hard to believe that last year on Labor Day John picked out a beautiful little kitten at Petsmart. If you go in my archives and look at September 6th, you will see a photo of him on the day we got him. He has turned into a beautiful loving cat with two major flaws. He puts Count von Jausenclaus to shame in the jaws and claws department. He ambushes us on the stairs, attacks us when we go to pick him up, and poor Tiger gets jumped every time he sees him. But, we all love him to death. And I think Tiger even likes him when he isn't jumping on him. I am posting a photo of him and Tiger from one of the rare times they actually slept close to each other.

Other updates:

John's first day of PreKindergarten

August 17th was the first day of John's K4 class at a local private school. He goes on twice a week, and they are providing a Kindergarten curriculum. He has to wear uniforms, so I'm posting a photo of him in his daily uniform. They also have a dress or chapel uniform which consists of a white shirt, tie, red knit vest and blue pants. I'll post a photo of it when he wears it for the first time, which is on Tuesday.

Swim lessons

We also had our first round of swim lessons. John did well, even went down the slide twice on the last day into 12 feet water. But, he needs to work on some things, including his concentration and paying attention. Here are a couple of photos of him at swim class and with the slide. We also bought one of those Easy Set pools at a discount and put it up after his swim lessons. He was delayed in being able to use it because he developed Scarlet Fever right after the swim lessons ended.



Coop is under construction

Well, we finally are going to have a more permanent home for the chickens. Hubby has been working hard at it, but with the heat we've had the past month, it has taken longer than expected. But, the door and ramp went on today. We just need to finish the interior wallboards, paint and trim. We also have to figure out the best way to treat the floor. I took a number of photos of the chickens, ducks and geese today and will post them in photobucket, hopefully tomorrow.

Here's the link for now. http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/jausenclaus/.