And you wonder...

...why we have professional wildlife control businesses.

From Thankfulness to Thank You

It just occurred to me how perfect is the timing between Thanksgiving and Christmas. At Thanksgiving, you reflect on what (and who!) you are thankful for. At Christmas, you express your thanks and love with gifts, whether the gifts be physical, in word, or in thought.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I know we all do, as hardship has hit many of us. When I start to feel self-sympathetic, I think of my mom, who has been enduring challenges that are far greater than mine, but has done so with a grace that astounds me.

I'm wrestling with the holidays. Normally I have a party before Christmas for all of our friends and adopters to say "Thanks!", but time is growing short, and a lot of parties have already been scheduled during the next four weekends. So I'm thinking I'll have a Coffee and Kittens on 12/13 (Saturday) and have a big blowout the weekend after New Years, called "Whiskers in Winter," on Sunday, January 4. I'm hoping people won't be partied out by then, but given that Mark won't be here, and his absence will be notable, I think a change is in order.

And hey, if it's small, it's small.

I did go out on Black Friday, primarily to feed the Fast Food Ferals and pick up cat litter. I need to cut down some branches off the overgrown evergreens, so was thinking of making Christmas swags this year to sell off my front fence, and stopped into the Dollar Tree to check out ribbon. There I found these stockings--which seem made for the gold room--and nabbed six for family and friends. Does anyone ever buy what they intend when they go into a dollar store? At any rate, they are my first Christmas decorations this year.

I'm going to keep it mild, I think.

I will get a live tree this year, but have decided to adorn it entirely in handmade items (popcorn and cranberry strings, glittered pine cones, painted blown eggs, etc.).

Simplicity is in order, this year. I'm going to make what I can, and bring it things from nature. I want to be thankful for the farm, and perhaps resurrect some of my old skills, rather than open up more boxes and ghosts in the attic.

The first order of business is breaking out the thank-you and Christmas cards. I have been poor on thanking side of things this year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

So a presidential turkey gets pardoned

Does this mean the President won't be eating meat on Thanksgiving?

No offense to the office of the President, as pardoning a turkey has been a tradition since Truman's time. Nonetheless, what does it mean to pardon one turkey and eat another?

I'll be eating a turkey on Thanksgiving as well.

However, I won't be claiming to pardon the animal for my meat eating.

This year's turkeys will go for a plane ride, head a parade at Disney, and spend their lives in a petting zoo. And somehow we think this is kind?

What an odd, throughly speciesist, and--dare I say, American--tradition. Think about it. This is an event on some coordinator's calendar. Find the turkey. Arrange the event. Arrange the flight. Send out the press releases. Someone, somewhere, throws a file in a drawer when it's all over, and marks their 2009 calendar for when it's time to work on the same project next year.

If you are going to pardon a turkey, eat vegetarian lasagna instead.

Otherwise, thank the memory of the animal for its sacrifice, and accept you are a meat-eater. We are the ones needing the pardon...not the animal we are ingesting.

Something to make you smile....

If you haven't already seen it on LOL cats:

Snow beats me to it

I was afraid this would happen. I got 2/3 of the wood stacked before the snow fell. Oh well. There's no reason I can't stack it surrounded by white fluffy stuff.

New bed claimed by Ditzy

Even though I haven't offloaded the couch, I set up the new bed to get it out of the snow on the porch. Ditzy thinks it's pretty cool.



Perhaps because she fancies that it is camouflage.

Give Jane a raise, please

As someone whose job includes email customer service, I think Jane deserves a raise and an office party. And that spider should go on a button as a symbol for patience in the email customer service world. Oh, no, better not do that or David will request royalties. :)

Adios, tractor

Mark's dad found a buyer for the Kubota, and they came and picked it up today. Buying her myself really wasn't an option for me. The tractor really was far too large for what I need a machine to do, and I'll never be brave enough to mow my hills...I'll need to hire that done each year, I'm afraid, or maybe get a smaller tractor down the line.

This winter I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for a nice, practical used ATV that can pull a wood cart, and a trailmower. This is a bit more my speed.

Nonetheless, a farm without a tractor doesn't feel like much of a farm. It was a bit sad to see her go. But a tractor sitting idle is no tractor at all.

Snow! Wait. Where did this stuff come from?

I looked out the window, and....what? There was grass out there a few minutes ago!

Tackling the den

I received a call that my Very Cheap Twin Bed had arrived, so I reluctantly tackled the den today. I attempted to ban marital ghosts by turning it into a kitten foster room for a few weeks (complete with screen door). But kittens and wine didn't quite take care of the pangs when I found (and discarded) the map of California from our honeymoon, and small belongings of his which I tossed into the Great Big Box that I keep for stuff of his I find. I've hired a father/son business to come move the desk and a dresser out to the barn tomorrow, and haul away metal, and I've posted the couch on Craigslist.

I've already taken down his art, wrapped it in plastic, and stored it for him. But even mine makes me antsy. Mostly wildlife prints. So I went shopping for posters on Art.com, looking for COLOR, COLOR, COLOR!





I really, really did not aim to have cats on the wall. In fact, I typed "nature" into the search box. But you know how cats kind of creep in when you least expect them...

I think anyone who knows that room will agree that is going to--ummm---really change the tenor of the place.

I believe my sister Linda will like the top print. I don't know why. For some reason it will make me think of her. The second one is a bit symbolic, I think.

And then there's this one:



That one made me laugh out loud.

There are no prints of cats in the great room (now painted deep gold). Barn landscapes and birds rule there. So I think I can get away with one room of cat prints.

Ordering seed catalogs

I distinctly recall the first year I decided I was going to plant a "real" garden. The challenge was then to get on the mailing list of seed catalogs, to inspire me through the winter. Anywhere I could find discarded magazines, there I lurked, looking for those little paper postcards for Park, Johnny's Seeds, White Flower Farm, etc.

I have fallen off those mailing lists over the years, as I buy most of my seeds from local retail markets. But scavenging the mail of others is no longer necessary in order to get back on. Google "seed catalogs", fill out a few online forms, and catalogs will magically appear in my mailbox.

While I appreciate the time savings, somehow the satisfaction level just isn't quite the same.

What we can no longer sweep under the carpet

The Associated Press reports that President-elect Obama has received more threats than any previous presidents-elect.

It occurs to me that having an African-American president will mean that threats that we previously swept under the carpet will now be taken seriously if the target of such threats is our President. Joking about a lynching--instead of resulting in a mere frown from a coworker--may result in a visit by the Secret Service.

After four years of this, with the obligatory media coverage, might it finally be driven home that such threats are simply not acceptable?

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into "The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool," saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. "Let's hope we have a winner," said the sign, since taken down.

Not. Acceptable.

And here's an ethical issue that drives me right up the wall. Staffers who leak information on "secret meetings" anonymously. Just yesterday I--lowly "specialist" that I am--took a mandatory training on workplace ethics that included more than one section emphasizing that blabbing my head off is grounds for possible dismissal.Yet people hired in positions close to our President and President-elect are yapping away:

President-elect Barack Obama has interviewed primary election rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Richardson for secretary of state, according to Democratic officials who revealed his secret meetings...(and, the the same article)...But where she stands in contention for the post came into question as other Democrats, also speaking on condition of anonymity about the private discussions,

Here's the link to the article.

"Secret" meetings? "Private" discussions? And the editor printed that without choking on his cold coffee? Sadly, we no longer even blink at that all-American phrase "...who spoke only on the guarantee of anonymity..."

Examining Frugality

MSNBC has an interesting article on pet owners skipping well-pet visits due to the economy.

Are you buying less?

I have altered my buying habits somewhat, more out of concern that things may get worse in the future, rather than costs at the moment. The high price of gas was strangling me for awhile. I've set quite a few food products back on the shelves when I've seen how prices on them have risen. I'm back to making homemade soup, as well.

I am serious about putting in a good solid garden next spring, and investing in my chimneys and fireplace inserts so the house stays warm. I plan to do my taxes early this year, so as not to get walloped by an unexpected tax bill in spring when things are tight. I am not buying a new truck. However, I haven't yet decided which of the old trucks to keep: My Fixacat truck (10 years old, 160K), or buy out Mark's Ebu truck (11 years old, 130K).

I have two cats who simply must have dentals: Espie and Fluffy. Those aren't optional. I need a dental myself. I'll bet there are blog readers who have holes in their own teeth they are ignoring, as well.

I am closing off the upstairs, once the kittens and Espie are placed in homes. I don't see the point in heating all that space. I picked up a cheap twin bed for the den and it will become my bedroom. I'll have to convince Norma to move down with the rest of the cats. I'm wondering how well that will go over with her?

We'll see!

Bored, bored, bored!

The housecat clan is bored stiff. They have submitted a formal petition demanding I address the lack of excitement in the household. It also articulates their perturbation over the addition of foster cats and kittens to the House, when there is a perfectly good Cat Facility only 150' feet away meant to act as shelter for feline strangers-in-need.



Bored, bored, bored! They would like the paperwork stacked in the great room to be dealt with so they can have their ottoman back. They would like me to have Company so perhaps there might once again be attractive niblets they might beg for from unsuspecting visitors. They included a collective sneer over the pasta and Hot Pockets I have been ingesting lately.

They would like to know why I don't at least pick up the laser-pointer once a night so they can pretend to kill the little techno-intruder and get a bit of exercise. And what's up with that bird feeder I promised I would move to the great-room-side-of-the-house so they would have something to watch when I am traveling?

I noticed Norma the little upstairs feral was no longer sleeping in her bed by the window. I dismissed this for a day, and finally, suspicious, went over to check her bed. Sure enough, someone had peed on it.

Ignore our petition, lady, and we'll find a louder way to send a message!

All right, I'm listening. Step one is to create a blog just for personal stuff, separate from the Wildrun blog, so the people who are interested in cat rescue can read Wildrun, and my family and friends who don't mind being subjected to the day-to-day mundaneness that is my life can read Feral By Nature. It's time to be fair to both my lives.

Step two is to deal with the paperwork on the Ottoman, so Cricket can have her favorite spot back.

And, yes, I bought bird seed and will move the bird feeder tomorrow, or even today if I get home when there is still daylight.

Funny how everything that would make the cats happy would make me happy as well.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

This, my friends, is what is called a test post.