Stay-at-Home Mom, P.I.

Today I had a mission: to find where the chickens were laying their eggs. We'd been having a low egg count lately so I knew they were hiding them somewhere. I waited until later than usual to let the chickens out of the pen for their daily outing. Two of the Rhode Island Reds immediately took off towards the pens. I followed them, but couldn't find a nest.

The dew was so heavy that the chickens and I left footprints in the wet weeds.

I finally found the nest in a pile of tumble weeds. The hen was sitting on 6 eggs. Since I didn't know how old they were--either 3 or 6 days, depending on if both chickens had been laying, I had to get rid of them.

I went back out later to check the nest in the pens. To my surprise, the Reds had come back to their house to lay. I did get the chance to stalk Wild Momma Cat this time. She is the mother to the three cats we bottle fed. I knew she had babies, but hadn't been able to track her. When I went outside, she was eating the cat food. (One drawback to bottle-feeding cats, if you don't teach them to hunt, they are dependent on you.) I was able to follow her to the old chicken house--now a storage room for lots of junk--that is on the back end of the shop. I looked in the window and saw three kittens. At the time, I thought I only saw two, but much to my surprise, the first picture I took caught a second kitten in the lower right corner.

I'm not brave enough to go in and investigate further--there is a good story about my sister and looking for cats in there that I'll have to share sometime.

T.S. can't get over how much they look like our cats. I've tried to explain that they all have the same mother, but he doesn't seem to get it.

Who knew that a morning of chicken stalking could turn into so much fun discovery?

Lost/Found: Talley Cat

Tonight, panic was in the air. Talley Cat was no where to be found. He'd been missing most of the afternoon. I figured he'd had enough of T.S. and would return when it was time to go to the garage for the night.

We returned home from basketball practice and I began the task of putting up the chickens and cats for the night. We've been closing the cats in the garage. We had been leaving the door cracked--until Robby came face-to-face with the skunk. The cats are pampered. We haven't made them take the leap to being totally outside yet (remember, they were bottlefed--for more info on that, search this blog and the family blog for cats and kittens). Anyway, Talley was no where around. The kids kept asking me where he was, when I had seen him last and if he would come back.

I told my teary eyed daughter that that was the trouble with cats in the country, especially boy cats, they sometimes disappear and never return. As I lay in bed, I couldn't help trying to remember the last time I had seen the cat and it hit me. I had gone out to Robby's school pickup to look for some keys. I remembered tripping over Talley as I walked out to the pickup. I also remembered that Talley has this annoying habit of jumping into cars when the door is open.

So, I bundled up (it is cold tonight), grabbed a flashlight and headed out to the pickup. Sure enough, there was Talley, curled up on the seat waiting for me. I didn't check for damages (it was dark after all). I guess I should see if he made a mess in the morning.

I do know one thing, I am definitely up for Mother of the Year. Wait until I tell Sadie this story in the morning.

Signs of Spring

The weather here has been unseasonably warm. Although we have enjoyed it, it also means that the trees, elm in particular, are budding. This explains my allergies lately. This is the time of year when you start itching to plant in the garden. A week of warm weather like this makes you want to go ahead and do it. Unfortunately, we've still got lots of opportunities for cold weather. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic. In the next few months we'll have to trek down in the pasture to check the mesquite tree. We won't be clear of frost until it buds.

Here's Talley under the trampoline while the kids were jumping. The cats and chickens have enjoyed roaming in this weather. The cats don't realize they aren't really supposed to hang out with the chickens. I'm working on getting a picture of that.

Picture(s) of the Day

For some more great pictures, check out the ones Sadie took today. She posted them on our family blog.
Our gate--Robby had to chip ice off of the handle to open it this morning.

I finally bit the bullet and went out to water the chickens and cats. Here are some pictures I took while outside. I'm experiencing camera-envy right now. I've seen some great photos on other blogs. If I had a camera with an interchangeable lens I could have gotten some neat close-ups of ice and ice crystals and some pictures of the seven (Yes, seven!) coyotes I saw running through the pasture. I tried to take some pictures of them, but my zoom is just not that powerful. I thought about coming in and getting the gun but wasn't sure which gun to use and figured I'd probably hit a cow or something instead of a coyote. I am keeping an eye on them to be sure they don't mess with the cows and calves in the pasture across the road.

The chicken pen--I thought the ice on the chicken wire was cool. The chickens really gave me a talking to this morning.

Another One of Those Days

I could tell this morning that Biscuit, the cat that won't eat, was not doing well. I told the kids that he was very sick and probably would die. T.S. and Tryce colored pictures for him. Every time they'd go through the kitchen they'd announce that his "fur was still moving." At lunch we had a wonderful conversation about Biscuit going to live with Cowboy (Tryce's Dad's dog) and that Cowboy and Biscuit would have lots of fun playing. T.S. said, "Maybe he will come back to life and play with us." To which I replied, "No, we have to let him go live with God."

I hate days like this because they are days of my own making. I'm the one that agrees to feeding cottontail bunnies. I'm the one that started feeding the 4 orphan kittens. Biscuit has never been interested in eating the solid food. He politely refused to drink from the saucer. He would spit out the softened cat food when I put it in his mouth. He was content to stay on the bottle. I was determined it was time to be weaned. So now, I feel a little guilty--I could have bought more kitten milk and kept bottle feeding him. But would that have benefited him in the long run?

I realized we are all sometimes like Biscuit. Sometimes we want to be bottle-fed. We don't want to switch over to the solid food. There are several references in the New Testament that use the analogy of switching from milk to solid food and growing in our spiritual life. We don't do ourselves any favors by taking the easy way. As parents we sometimes have to watch our kids struggle as they grow and mature. No one said life or parenting was easy, even if you're a mama cat.

Sometimes I just don't like life lessons...wouldn't it be nice if they were all sunshine and roses?

An Up and Down Day

Today has definitely been a day of ups and downs:

• Biscuit (kitten) will still not eat solid food.
• T.S. had fun playing with the kittens.
• Tiger (kitten) had an accident and now seems to have some head trauma. He has improved tremendously since the incident, but I don't think we are out of the woods yet
• T.S. cried and cried about Tiger and is now elated that he is "better." I have a bad feeling about what still may happen.
• T.S. and I built a cool train track today (one of our best)
• Flu shots: T.S. cried and threw a fit before hand; his arm doesn't hurt at all now. Sadie and I were "big girls" and our arms are terribly sore.
• Some of the craft stuff I ordered is here--can hardly wait to get busy.

Overall it was a pretty good day--I think.

Mama Cat

Being a mama cat is hard--who knew you had to do all of this other stuff besides just feed them. I have a whole new admiration for mama cats now. Hopefully we are doing a good enough job and our new kitties will eventually thrive. If we could only get them all to poop.

Busy day here today--nap for me all day while Robby and the kids prepped pig pens and helped mom keep the drills going. First pig sale of the year is tomorrow--Sadie is hoping to find a winner. I'm sure T.S. will be put out when he doesn't get to go with them.

The cats are crying, I guess it is time to eat again.