Oh the weather outside is frightening.......

Winter has arrived! So far not as fiercely as some of the weather people had predicted. But its still pretty nasty---just brings home to me how hard it would be to take care of the livestock if the weather got truly awful.

Early predictions were for inches of ice followed by 6-8 inches of snow. Instead we got inches of rain, a little ice and now its snowing like crazy.

This picture was taken this morning looking out the front yard. As you can see we thankfully only got a light coating of ice.




All the gate latches and some of the gates were frozen, so that adds to the challange. For some lovely reason they decided at work that we wouldn't have to come in to work today and tommorrow if there is no school in that town. This hasn't happened before, so I'm really enjoying the sensation! It was nice to do chores in the daylight, since everything was so frozen. I spent about an hour working on finishing up winterizing a couple more of the livestock pens.








Here are Boone and Ariel testing out the new dusting of snow. Boone seemed terribly impressed by it all, but to Ariel its old hat....she did show some livliness when I turned Boone into the yard (after making sure all the cats were tucked up somewhere). I couldn't resist taking this picture of Boone's huge pawprint!


Yesterday the weather continued unseasonably warm---close to 70, but dire predictions were upon us that it would all drastically change by nightfall. By the time I got home from work, it was starting to rain and was thundering and lightning. We had our monthly fellowship meal at church, so I hurried over there. While we were decorating for Christmas we listened to intermittant rain, thunder and hail. After I got home, I went out in the dark and rain and enlarged a gate opening in the fence with the bolt cutters, to let the rams into the pen that has their shed. (I was afraid with all the ram attitude right now that having the smaller opening would cause someone to get hung up). The boys seemed very grateful to be out of the worst of the weather this morning. Being sheep they can tolerate alot of cold and snow, but I worrried about the ice building up on them, so wanted to make sure they could get into shelter. I didn't have to worry about the girls--they hate rain, and all 23 sheep were stashed into the shed....at least it had to be warm with that many woolly bodies occupying that space.

At daylight this morning I was woken up by something pecking at the window--I groggily looked over towards the window and saw a bright male cardinal, stomping up and down the ledge, peering inside and pecking the glass. Now its been at least two years since I fed the birds in this location, but evidently this guy's little bird brain remembered where the eats were! I had to quit feeding the birds because one of my cats (Echo) was causing such a bloodbath each day, that I couldn't handle the trauma of it. The birds seemed oblivious to their fallen comrades and lined up to be next, it seemed. So when the weather is really nasty, I usually take some seed and scatter them outside the yard, where there are no places for bloodthirsty cats to lurk!

I carried a bunch of wood inside and now am sitting near the fire, soaking up the heat and playing on the computer. Later on I hope to use this unexpected time off and finish painting the closet and maybe put up the shelves! I'll end this post with a picture of the best place to be on a day like this--Meshach curled up in front of the fire. Wishing everyone safety during this patch of weather.

A few of my favorite sheep

The weather continues to be wonderful here, and I've had a really nice break. I think this has been an even better time than vacation was! :-) I still have a long list of 'to-do' stuff before winter hits, but I'm getting there. I'm also in the midst of re-doing my closet (much more on that later, when I get the after photos! What a mess---it took my very helpful neice pitching in to help me, to get me even motivated to start!), so I'm working on that some too.

Anyway, I was able to get some photos of some of the girls yesterday, and even spend some really nice time with them, giving them scratches and attention. Now some of them will pester you to death for a good scratching session, some will just lean against you and sigh, others will check and see if you have cookies--if no cookies they don't bother to hang around. Then you have Gracie....Gracie loves cookies, she loves to be scratched, and she loves to lean... in fact her world would be pretty complete if I just hung out with the sheep all day long! She gave a plaintive baa when I finally left them.....'aw...come on...stay out here with us!".

And now for some of the girls.....




Gracie says please, just one more cracker? A scratch? Just hang out for awhile?
Gracie is one of my very first sheep and my favorite--she is a demanding, spoiled, but very sweet Dorset Ewe.





Hope--this is Gracie's daughter from this year--born with much difficulty and near loss of her and her mom's life. Hope has a problem----she can't SEE anything with all that wool around her eyes! I plan to get the scissors after her and trim some of it away. In this picture she is trying her best to position her head 'just so' so she can see what I'm up to! Hope's dad is a big Merino ram, and she has the wooliest face of any of the offspring produced around here!





This is Tabitha--she is a moorit shetland ewe, and loves crackers and scratches under the chin. She is a peaceful little soul, and one of the smallest ewes I have.




Duckie on the move! She loves crackers, but she loves attention and scratches more. Duckie is a black 2005 ewe and will hopefully have her first lambs this Spring. She is a kind and gentle girl, the only ewe I have from Callum before he was wethered.




Willow and Luna her ewe lamb from this year. Its funny how, even after six weeks or more, as soon as the girls were all reunited the babies stuck themselves back to mom. I even caught Luna checking out the milk bar! Willow quickly squelched that. Willow is a grey ewe who had wild flecket markings as a lamb and Luna is a musket flecket. Lovely girls with lovely fleeces. Willow is the first Shetland ewe I picked out and bought, she isn't very trusting of me, but loves a cracker and will come up for those.



This is Rouen a very smart and sassy Black iset shetland ewe. She has a lovely fleece even though it is shot through with iset. Once it was figured out that she has a long primitive double coat, it was easier to sell her fleece--usually one of the first to go! Rouen is very sentimental, and loves scratches and is quite bossy about getting them all!


This is Rocky--he isn't a girl, but he is a wether that lives with the ewe flock. Rocky was born crippled--his front shoulder wasn't formed properly, so he has a permenant front leg deformity. His mom didn't want him, so I raised him on a bottle. Rocky works harder than most sheep, and I give him special eats to help him out, but he is a gutsy guy and doesn't let anything slow him down. Its amazing how fast he can run, if he takes a notion. He is 'Uncle' to all the newborn lambs and will join in the lamb's races--he can't run alot, so he positions himself strategically in the middle of the lamb race path, so he can join them on part of the loop! He is a funny and stubborn little guy--and he has beautiful eyes! :-)

These are just a few of my favorite sheep---hope you enjoy them too!

Chaos with an R

I was very fortunate this year to get the day before Thanksgiving off, as well as Thanksgiving and the day after---so a wonderful five day break from the real job. The weather has been totally awesome and unbelievable. I have even let the fire go out in the stove today and have the doors open. Its been in the 70s the last couple of days. Thats all suppose to change next week, but its been a wonderful week of Indian Summer.

I decided that it was a perfect time to get all the ewes back together and put Redford the ram back in with the other boys. My target day was Wednesday. As usual I had formulated a plan...sort of. I didn't really bargain on getting a bit of a stomach virus though, which made everything seem to take longer than it should.

Bright and early Wednesday I went out and without feeding any of the sheep, I started moving panels and setting up a triangular catch pen in the two rams and wether's pen (Jeff, Drake and Callum). My idea was to lure them in with hay, then squeeze them in tight with two 8 ft panels in a V-shape. I wanted to put ram shields on both Drake and Jeff since they would be the attack force against Red (who would not have a shield on). I also wanted to worm them all for the fall. Jeff was in high excitement the minute I started working out there, picking fights with Drake. Jeff is the head ram and is around 4 yrs old, Drake and Redford are the same age at a year and half. Callum is Jeff's brother and looks exactly like him, but is now a wether (a long, painful story in itself!). Things went remarkably smooth luring the boys in to the pen and getting them shut up. Even crafty Cal slipped right in. Since Jeff was the 'loose cannon' I decided to grab him and haul him out first. He is heavy and he put up some resistance, but I got him out and finally flipped him on the ground. I got the mask on relatively easy, and wormed him, then released him, confident in the fact that he was now somewhat 'disarmed'. Imagine my shock, when he immediately jumped up, ran around the pen and started ramming at Drake through the panel...hard...the full, back up and ram full force ram. I'm thinking, he can't be doing that..... The purpose of the ram shield is to block the front vision of the ram to keep him, from, ah, ramming things. He can still see out sideways---its almost like a reverse blinder. Looking closely at the now totally nuts Jeff (and the equally nuts Drake), I could see that Jeff's eyes were clearly showing beyond the edge of the ram shield! Evidently he had outgrown it just from last summer! Argh! So there wasn't much I could do for a few minutes but watch Drake and Jeff try and kill each other and destroy the cattle panel. I tried several things but they were to 'into' it. Finally I got Jeff distracted with a little grain and was able to slip in there and nab him again. I haltered him and tied him to a fence post and proceeded to try and extend the 'blinder' out a little further with duct tape (note--duct tape doesn't stick well to sweaty leather!). I was finally able to make little corner patches that helped with the front vision problem. Leaving Jeff tied, I wormed and released Callum, then tackled Drake. Not much problem there. He is still small enough so the shield covers his eyes well. Then I left him penned up, un-haltered Jeff, opened Drake's pen and slipped out. Then I went and got Red, wormed him, and led the perfect little gentleman down to the wolves. Well, the shields have helped some, but Drake seems quite able to bash even if he can't see, and Jeff had his mostly worked off in a day. I've now restrapped and adjusted them numerous times and its impossible to keep the nose straps on (they rub them off), so that they flap about. Jeff's is skewed sideways so one currently evil eye is fully exposed (and he isn't letting me anywhere near him now), Drake's flaps about, but I think they have slowed them down a bit. Having very warm temperatures helped a some too, as the rams got hot and tired alot quicker than if the weather had been icy cold. Currently they are making Red's life pretty miserable, but mostly its just butting him around, bullying type stuff. Red isn't a fighter but he isn't a chicken either, so while he opts to move away from all out confrontation, if he is pushed he will retaliate(only with Drake--they both know that Jeff is head honcho ram). I just hope they all get settled in and the masks can come off soon.

I really struggle with having the rams--often they are too much trouble to really enjoy. I like individual rams, but for a small place like this, rams, as a whole are generally alot of trouble. Since I have a very small acreage its hard to keep the rams out of seeing or smelling distance of the ewes, which often causes extra problems. They are hard on fences, they take extra care in handling, and with their lovely horns they have to be fed differently than the ewes so they don't get caught up. The more rams you have, the less problems you have it seems, but it is very difficult to run a ram flock on a little over two acres! Rams love to fight, so if you don't like fighting, then it can wear on your nerves. Its also a bit distressing for the neighbors to hear--crack....crack....crack.... as a couple of the boys take issue with each other and have it out. I haven't figured out anyway to raise lambs without the rams though! :-)

I'm very glad to have the girls (and two wether boys) back together though. I put out some nice lespedeza hay in the pasture, opened the gate for the bred ewes and let them in with the open ewes, then walked to the pasture gate and let them all out together--minimum fuss. There were a few squabbles, but not any major fights. Now that is how I like it!

Thankful AND Blessed

Like alot of things in this big old fast paced world, the reason and meaning of Thanksgiving has gotten lost in commercialization and glitz. There isn't honestly a whole lot the retail world can do with Thanksgiving (except in the food department), barring a few decorations here and there. So instead they've managed to capitalize on the the day AFTER.....and boy have they ever. But shopping isn't what this blog is about. Its about being Thankful, and appreciating what you got and who you've got and where you are. Its about feeling blessed, even with the little things that dot your day.

I've forgotten much of my history lessons, but I know that the people that came before us and pounded out a life and living in this rugged country, fought hard and often died to keep what they had and to make that one step forward to a 'better life' for their children. They knew when to be Thankful and they knew when they were blessed and alot of them understood just Who to thank as well. They didn't worry about being politically correct, or saying the wrong thing or going to a big fancy 'house of worship'. They got down on their knees where they were, in their grimey clothes and with their grimey hands folded they bowed their heads and simply thanked God. When they had a big feast of food, plain as it may be, they thanked God. When they lived another day, they thanked God. When their children lived and thrived, they thanked God. When their sons came home from war safe, they thanked God. They understood.

Then each hard fought step brought us further along, closer to the 'good life'. In the last 100 years the steps became giant, the last 20 years the steps blurred they were so fast, and the easy life was upon us. So here we are---with so many gadgets and wonders to make our lives easier. Most of us have the basics, some have much more, but on the whole we have life easy, compared to our ancestors. So what happened? Why is it so hard to be thankful? To appreciate the blessings of family and friends and good food? To fellowship and be happy with those we love? Even though we have so much more, and so many gadgets to 'simplify' life, we suddenly have no time. We are stressed out, burnt out and always want to do more. Hmmmm......kinda a strange path isn't it?

All this 'musing' to say, really,really think about what you are thankful for today, and thank the One who has blessed you. Appreciate the family you spend time with today, quirks and all, put aside petty differences. Understand that time with family and friends is precious and not forever. Slow down today and enjoy. Eat lots of good food and be thankful for that too. Thats what I plan to do today, celebrate a day of Thanksgiving with my family, and I hope you do to. Now, I'm off to pull my yummy smelling crescent rolls from the oven!

No Happy Campers

Saturday morning was 'interesting' around here. Usually on Saturday mornings, I sleep in a little bit later. Sleeping in would have been nice, as there was some vandalism/theft that occured around midnight, so I was up trying to watch my end of 'town' (very small town!). We have several empty houses/old businesses around and there is a certain element that think this is their own personal playground. Anyway, I digress....lets just say I didn't get a good nights sleep. Then, somewhere in the wee early hours of Saturday the house was flooded with the odor of skunk. Enough to wake me up. I didn't hear any yips or yaps, so I didn't investigate outside. We have alot of skunks about, so them randomly spraying isn't an unusual event at night. So back to Saturday morning, 7:30 a.m. I'm laying there trying to sleep in (despite being a trampoline for a certain kitten), and I hear rasp...squeak...screech..... Unfortunately I know that sound pretty well--it's Redford, the ram pushing and testing the cattle panels trying to get out. So I jump out of bed, throw on a coat and shoes and go outside. Redford has already escaped the girls pen and is in the 'no ram's land' pen, working on getting out of it so he can get in with the ewes and ewe lambs I don't want bred. This time he had hit the panel enough to curve it and get some leverage to use his horns to lift it up high enough to scoot under. I turned the extra girls out to pasture so they would not even be within his sight and then fixed the pen, rewired everything tightly and went back into the house to get the dogs feed ready so I could do chores properly. Oh, and I'll just mention that as I came out of the house and started towards Boone's pen the smell of skunk became very overwhelming.......Further investigation revealed that he had been sprayed---luckily it seemed to have hit him 'broadside' instead of head on, as his eyes and face seemed to be smell free. He was hysterically wound up though. Evidently too much excitement for the big guy!

I was in the house for maybe 15 minutes before I came back out to finish chores. Redford was again out where he shouldn't be, so again, I moved him to another area, again fixed the fence, but this time I had a third plan of attack....a ram shield. These are handy little things that I don't normally need to use, but they are great to use when re-introducing rams or when you are trying to save your fences! They are basically a piece of leather that covers the eyes, with nylon straps that fasten like a halter. The ram can still see out the sides but not straight on, so in theory he can't do the aggressive head ramming they are famous for. Of course they don't like it, but they seem to adjust after a bit of trying to rub it off. Redford is very small so I ended up having to take it off and tighten the straps. He is such a sucker for a scratch under the chin or a cookie that he is easy to catch, which helps alot.

I also had a sick chicken which I had to medicate and isolate, which took some extra time (the whole time Boone is still hysterically leaping and barking in his pen--he gets out to run after I get chores done).

Much later I finally got back to the house for some coffee and breakfast, but even there things were not quiet and peaceful. Sage had had a 'litterbox problem' where amounts of gooey 'stuff' were still attached to his posterior. He managed to make quite a mess on the floors before I realized there was a problem. Then into the bathroom sink he went for a scrub---which he didn't take calmly. (I later realized that it probably HURT, since I was scrubbing in the area of his surgery--he has recouperated so quickly that I forgot it was only a few days before!).

Saturday evening was one of our Volunteer Fire Department's Fund raiser suppers (I'm secretary), so I planned to work quite a bit out in the yard in the morning and early afternoon, before heading over there. I had plans to mow the yard, and a couple little paddocks for the last time, weedeat the iris down as well as some general yard work like cleaning up the flower beds. I uncovered the rider mower, checked the gas level (empty), added the last of the gas, hopped on and attempted to start it. It just turned over and over and didn't catch....then the battery started going down. I jumped off the mower in frustration and that is when I noticed the gas line was fast leaking out the last of the gas. So, I think, I'll just use the weedeater to clean things up. It acted like it would start, so I added more gas mixture, fired her up and actually got it to running. It ran long enough for me to walk to the yard and then died and refused to start. Last chance...pushmower (which I had struggled to get started all summer). I drag it out into the yard, and of course it wouldn't start. I took all three machines, piled them all up together and covered them with a tarp.......its lucky I didn't have matches with me!

I ended up doing quite a bit of yardwork, I cleaned out the birdbath and turned it upside down for the winter, cut a huge 'crop' of volunteer millet plants---I 'shocked' them along the fence for the birds to self feed themselves for awhile, cleaned flower gardens, trimmed some lilacs and other trees, and burnt a small pile of leaves. Stinky Boone was running around playing all this time, unaware that he was next on my list. I gathered up shampoo, warm water, two big cans of tomato juice and his leash. He didn't much like the whole process of soap, soak, rinse, and then the tomato juice staying on for 15 minutes (although he kinda liked the taste of it!). He still smells skunky in the areas of the direct hit, but he is bearable to be around.

That evening I sprinkled cayennne pepper around the gates hoping the skunk would smell that and not linger......

All in all it turned out to be a good day, but there for awhile, I really wondered if I shouldn't just go back to bed and cover my head up!

This and that

Our beautiful fall colors are pretty much gone now, as far as the leaves go anyway. The grass is especially green now after the rains, so its still quite lovely, with the green grass glittering through the orange and red leaves. We got several inches of much needed rain. The above picture was taken after most of the trees had started to lose their leaves, but this mighty oak was just starting its show of color.

Sage's surgery went off without a hitch yesterday. It was pretty hard getting ready for work, as he couldn't have any food or water, and cats are so expectant of their routine. Meshach thrives on routine and I waited until the last minute to feed and water him. So this meant he missed out on his drinking from the bathroom faucet, the shower faucet, AND getting his two little bits of canned cat food--all in a structured routine way. Sage has a routine too, but he is still learning the ropes, so is a bit flexible. He sure didn't understand it though. Brushing my teeth was an ordeal, as both cats love to get a drink of running water from the faucet--which I normally let run first and they drink and go away so I can then brush my teeth. Two very large cats in a small sink doesn't help at all.

Sage rode in the carrier part of the way to the vet and part of the way he was loose in the truck. He was a really good little fella. I was a bit surprised that the vet's office was still closed when I go there. The vet doesn't normally get there until 8:30 but the girls are usually there at 8:00. Finally at 8:10 one of the gals got there. I took Sage in and proudly told her he now had a name. About that time the vet came in, and was talking to Sage and I told Doc that I had told Sage he was going to have a very bad day...... Doc agreed, but said he would be gentle with him.... Luckily Sage ended up being the first one on the chopping block, er, surgery table, and that is always good. He was waking up and had his tongue sticking out before 11 a.m. I always warn the girls that I will be calling a few times to check on him. I really appreciate C. as when I call she always takes the phone and walks back to give me a blow by blow account of what the animal is doing. This makes me feel better. :-0

After work I went and picked him up. He was quite alert, but seemed very sore. The surgery cost $30.00, which seemed very reasonable. On the way home, he stood with his front feet on me and just looked and looked at my face. He was very happy to get home. Meshach was a mess. Poor little sensitive guy. He didn't come out of hiding for 5 minutes or so after I got home (he is always waiting at the door), and when he saw Sage he walked over and licked him on the head, then Sage turned his nether regions towards him and Meshach started hissing and hissed around most of the night. I guess it smelled real bad.... Meshach wouldn't eat his little canned cat food bits, so the supposedly sick and wounded Sage, gobbled both his and Mesh's and then started on some dry food, and a then a big long drink of water (this was after the big relief of using the litter pan.) Sage was a bit quieter than normal and took several naps on the bed. He also got in the washer (no water or clothes in it) but couldn't get out, as his hinder parts were sore, so I had to lift him out and put the lid down. At five a.m. this morning, he attacked my feet and anything else that moved under the covers, and seems no worse for wear. He jumped Meshach a few times, and I told Mesh to kick him in the ex-private parts, but he wouldn't do it.

By the way, I've found a 30 cc syringe filled with water is a good deterrent to ornery kitty attacks on big cats! ;-)

I am very relieved that it is over. I know I sound paranoid, but I have a rather difficult track record with my animals. (I lost both my Collie and Himalayan house kitty this year). So its always a big sigh of gratitude when they get thru these necessary surgeries.

On the sheep front, it seems breeding season is winding down. I'm going to start moving some of the girls back out to the main group as they've passed the date when they would have their second heat if they weren't bred. I'll leave the ewes in until they each pass that second date. I have three that I suspect were bred early on, and I missed the signs, but for the other six I have confirmed dates. This is so helpful at lambing time--its easy to know when to start increasing feed, and when to keep an extra watchful eye on the ones that are due. Hopefully if all goes well, this will be a busy, but short lambing season. Redford has made one almost sucessful escape attempt to join the ewes he isn't suppose to be with. So I ended up moving the panels back and creating an even larger 'no rams land'. He seems bored with his girls, so I'm pretty sure his 'job is done' there. Soon, I'll be moving him back to the rams pen.

Feeding Hay

As those of you who have sheep know, feeding hay and keeping fleeces as clean as possible is an ongoing challange. There is also the factor of keeping wasted hay to a minimum---difficult to do as the sheep seem to enjoy stomping and romping on hay about as much as they enjoy eating it! I would love to have a better hay feeding system, but practicality usually wins out over cleanliness. Most of the winter I feed big round bales with a 16 foot cattle panel wrapped around it and wired in place. The bale is turned on its end and a tarp is wired over the top to keep out the rain. I've cut several 8 inch holes in the middle of the panel to accomodate the larger dorset heads. This works quite well and keeps wastage down--the biggest drawback is as the sheep eat the outer part of the bale, eventually they aren't able to reach the core. Then I have to pull out bits of hay from the core and spread it around where they can reach it thru the panel. When the bale is over 3/4 gone, then I will remove the wire panel and let them clean up the rest of it. However they do manage to heavily contaminate the neck and part of the back area of the fleece with this arrangement--its amazing how far they can stick their necks in there and fill it full of hay! Since I work full time away from the home, this system works well for me.

Now, what these pictures show is another 'part-time' system I use. This system uses small square bales. Its actually called a "Grate Bale Box Feeder", and I bought the kit several years ago. You can (or could) buy the plans, plus the metal parts. I built the frame out of old 2 x 4's and some new 2 x 6's and it cost under $45 for the lumber. I attached a (very flimsy) old piece of plywood on top to shelter it somewhat. There are two long metal rods that you screw into the bottom of the feeder and leave pointing straight up. When you 'load' the square bale into the feeder you throw it onto the rods and they pierce the bale. Then you lay the 'grate' over the top of the bale with the metal holes aligned over the rods. There are clips to keep the grate in place. (The clips come with small chains attached. I found out why last year when I used it in one of the breeding pens. "Someone" had very adroit lips and kept pulling the latch pins off and dropping them on the ground. I ended up nailing the chain to the side of the feeder to keep from losing the pins..) The idea is--as the sheep eat the hay, the grate sinks down--there is very little waste, and the sheepies can't get in, play on top or otherwise soil the bale. This works really great if you have 5 or less sheep. A bale of good quality hay will last them almost a week. However if you have more than that, (say ten) you'll find yourself loading it every other day. Which is a pain. I had the brillant idea to set it up for the girls and Redford in the breeding pen---they were totally thrilled and I was totally dismayed when a day later they had eaten every scrap of hay. Also you have to be careful using this feeder for the horned rams. It would be easy for one to catch a horn in it and be at the mercy of the other rams. I kept a very close eye on Redford while I had it in the pen, and he didn't have any problems, except when the bale got almost ate up, then he couldn't reach it.

Plan B with the breeding pen was a big round bale w/out the cattle panel around it (fearing Redford would get caught up in it), with a long canvas strap tie down, cinched around the top and a tarp over that. This worked great for about 4 days, until they ate so much around the edges, the bale toppled over (this was a rather small bale, I wouldn't have let a bigger bale get to this point). Once the bale went over, I removed the tarp and it was trompled and destroyed in about a day. (Can you tell they are bored?) They are now reluctantly working on cleaning up some of this hay.

I would love to have some ideas on feeding the ram flock. Right now, I toss over several flakes of hay per day, being careful not to throw over their backs. They waste alot of it. Somewhere I saw a solid plywood type feeder that had little slots at the bottom for the hay to come out. I need something where getting a horn caught up is not a danger. I have seen several other good ideas for feeders on a couple of other blogs this week, and appreciate all ideas and seeing what works for others.

Bad Weed has a name....

SAGE
"Little" Bad Weed, isn't so little anymore. I can't believe how fast this kitten has grown. He moved into the house the last of August, and I think he has tripled in size! He is almost as big as Meshach (although maybe not as 'bulky':-), and I think he will outgrow him before its over. Mesh is not a little cat either--he weighs in at about 11-12 lbs.

After much, much thought and looking through books and other sources, I've settled on a name... I think. Names are very difficult here. Sometimes I have a name picked out years in advance, just waiting for the right individual to match it. More often then not, its a long drawn out struggle, leaving the new critter nameless for awhile. I finally had to decide on a name for Boone, because I was ashamed to keep taking him back to the vet as 'stray dog'...... Anyway, with any luck I'll be saying this name for years to come, so I always want the name to be a good fit. Okay, okay.....here it is----Bad Weed is officially named-----SAGE. Yep, Sage. Not because he is wise (he is smart, but definately not wise at this point), not because he is an herb, but because I like the short sound of it, and his colors remind me of a common native grass in this area....SAGE grass. It really would be considered a 'bad weed' by some, but I think its quite lovely--at maturity it is a golden, orangy color and is most beautiful when there is an uncut field of it and the day is grey and dreary. I'm not sure why, but it heightens the colors and makes a common 'weed' breathtaking. Now to Sage the cat.... he is a kinda sandy orange, but has lovely little swirls of different orange shades through his coat. Actually he also reminds me of a creamsicle...so I think he is lucky to get the name Sage....:-)

Sage is scheduled to have his nueter surgery Tuesday, so it was imperative that I have name by then, so as not to have to face the vet staff, with 'nameless'. I think at least they will be able to spell AND pronounce this one! I really dread taking him in. I will worry all day and pray things go okay. I know that it is a 'simple' nueter, but I also know that sometimes there are adverse reactions to the anthesia.....so I fret. I think he is just under six months old, but it could be a few weeks off either way. I know that many kittens are nuetered and spayed much younger than that anymore, but I like to hold off til six months if possible.

After Sage had been here a few weeks, he went through a terribly ornery stage, which I call his 'terrible twos', where he was into everything and quite mean to me and Meshach. Then he calmed down a bit (not his frenetic activity, but his mean output) and it had been somewhat peaceful for the last few weeks. This of course over looks the constant spilling of water (deliberate), knocking pictures off the wall (no I don't know how he does this), getting on the table and the bar, falling into the washer, the toliet, and a bucket of mop water, mauling and maiming rolls of toliet paper......you get the idea.... Anyway, it was nice, that his attitude was nicer. Now I think he has hit puberty and his rebellious teenage stage. The pure meaness is back in force, and the frenetic activity has actually been notched up. Actually I'm a pretty patient person, so most of this I know he will outgrow, so I try not to scream no at him all the time... ya know--pick your battles, but I do get quite upset when he tries to pick fights with Mesh. Mesh is a very gentle soul who refuses to fight (I did see him actually bite Sage's head one night and cheered him on! :-), but Sage is quite bratty and is spoiling for a fight. I'm hoping this too will simmer down once he is nuetered and gets a little older....I hope....

Lest you think Sage is a total brat (okay he is), he does have some very sweet moments---generally at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. In fact he is so regular with this 3 a.m. bid for attention, that I found myself getting up at 3:00 a.m. this morning--looking for him, because he wasn't aggravating me. Sheesh. (he was fine, sacked out in the clothes hamper) Okay, so at 3:00 a.m. he starts walking up and down on me, purring loudly, flopping over, sticking his feet into my mouth, while I try and pretend I'm fast asleep. If this fails to get a movement out of me, things will get quiet and then I feel 'someone' staring at me. He usually is laying on his side next to my pillow, head held up, staring at me intently with a big goofy grin on his face (I swear its a grin--its bizarre). Since I sure don't want to encourage this nocturnal activity, I ignore him, but sometimes I can't help silently laughing.

Berries, berries, berries everywhere!

Fall is so beautiful and so fleeting. I love the contrast of colors and textures, whether its sunny or rainy. The other evening on one of my walks, it seemed there were berries everywhere I looked. Some would say this is a foretelling of a hard winter---but I think I'll just enjoy their beauty and not think about the winter!

I'm not sure what these orange berries are--any ideas? I hadn't noticed any like them before.
















A little further on the walk I noticed the 'berries' on the cedar trees. Some were tiny rusty yellow and others were the large bright blue ones. I've heard that this denotes the male and female cedar trees, but I'm not sure on that either..... I've always thought the blue berries on the cedars were so beautiful! I think it would be neat to have a 'natural' Christmas tree---a dark green cedar loaded with these blue berries and maybe some red bead garland....



























Then there were these very unique and impatient berries---Ariey-berry on the right and Boone-berry on the left. Lets go already was the look in their eyes as I tried to take berry pictures!