Catching Up

Well, I’m home again. For the next eight months. Then back to Marshall for yet another tax season. It’s good to be home. I missed my Hubby, my dogs and cats, my plants. And I missed the peace and quiet. Marshall is a great town with wonderful people, a great grocery store and some very nice restaurants. I’ll be happy to go back for some “people” time, but I also enjoy “alone” time. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones with the best of both worlds available.

A lot of things have changed since I last wrote. The snow is gone. The trees are leafing out. The flowers are coming up. All of my peonies, even the rescued ones, are up. Many of them have buds this year. Keep your fingers crossed. I might get blooms. All of the bushes are back, even if some are very short (thanks to the deer and rabbit population). We lost a few big trees this winter in the grove, but many are growing to take their place. The wild yellow, white and purple violets are blooming in great abundance. I think spring is here.

Mother, this is one of your peonies. Look at those buds.


Black cherry or chokecherry? It’s about 10 ft tall right now.

We still have 3 dogs, but not the same three. Noah, my beautiful Aussie/border collie cross is in a new home, happily chasing Frisbees. He was just too unhappy here, living with two sedate retired people and fighting for dominance with our old Ren. So the Border Collie Rescue of Minnesota took him and found him the perfect home. My new boy is a better suited to our lifestyle. Obie is a 6 month old Papillion. He gets along with the other two and is very happy to curl up on the floor at my feet or in my lap for long periods.

Obie (short for Oberon).

The three cats are still here. Poor Bob is looking a little strange, but happy and healthy. The hair on his bobbed tail has not grown back yet. I am a little concerned that it might never grow. But at least he can run and climb with the best of them. And he and Pickles are no longer fighting, so peace has come to our little homestead.

Funny looking but happy Bob.

I have had some wool fun since I lasted blogged. I went to Little Red Oak Farm to help with the shearing of Gail’s Shetlands and Finns. I purchased two fleeces from her (one was Maple’s of course) and got a free Jacob sheep fleece from the shearer. I had a great time and met a lot of nice people. Then this last weekend sister Connie and I went to Aberdeen to the Weaving Weekend put on by Marie and Kelly, to spend a glorious 24 hours spinning, talking wool, knitting and watching others weave. I also took my 2010 free Shalom Hills corriedale cross fleece (washed and dyed) to Kelly to card into a spinners web. I can’t wait to see the results.

Now back to reality; house to clean, bills to pay, clothes to wash, yard to mow, gardens to weed and wool to process. It’s a lot of work, but worth every bit of it. I'm glad I'm home.

Working and Ice

Let’s see. What have I been doing lately?
Working….snow…..hummmm…..knitting….oh yeah….working, snow, knitting, frogging, casting on, frogging. Working, snow, knitting, frogging, casting on….freezing rain, slipping on the ice….not working, laying on my sore back, watching TV, knitting, frogging, casting on. Working, snow, working, freezing rain, slipping on the ice, putting ice on my bunged up arm, knitting, frogging, casting on. Working, rain, walking gingerly, finally knitting more than two rows. No Olympic medal for me from Yarn Harlot.

I guess I have been busy, doing little of nothing but working. I have however, made some major decisions in my life. I will come back next year and work the tax season again. It’s nice to be appreciated enough to be asked back. And I will not step out of the house unless it is to go to work until the snow is melted. I refuse to take a chance on falling on the ice AGAIN, and getting more award winning bruises.

So that’s been my life the last couple of weeks. I did get home once (and fell there). The Hubby, dogs and cats were all happy to see me. And I was happy to see what I could of the place. Still snow up to my …. But Hubby says it’s melting slowly, which is a blessing. That’s a lot of moisture to find someplace to go. And I did get a couple of photos before I fell there and spent the rest of the weekend on heating pads. They’re just what you wanted to see. More snow.

Gee Look! Another snow picture.


Bob surveying his kingdom.

Heading Home

Finally, there is a weekend without snow predicted. And hopefully the winds will stay down. So I am heading home tomorrow for a couple of days. I haven't gotten home since the 23rd of January. And I only live 45 miles from here. It's hard to believe, but the weather has been so bad that I would not try driving it in my little VW Bug.

So home to some good meals cooked by Hubby, a lot of dog kisses and maybe some cat purrs.
I'll have pictures to share when I get back.

When is it Enough?

Some would guess by the title that I am going to talk about the weather…the snow, ice, cold, more snow, and now again, more cold that we have been getting in the upper Midwest. How the weather has given me some hair-raising drives home on the weekends; and how it kept me from going home at all this weekend. That I will be talking about how Hubby has been spending all hours of all the days trying to keep the driveway open, the buildings from collapsing, and the animals warm and fed in the heavy deep snow, the fog, the freezing rain and the knock down winds.

Another drift to move.

Nope…I’ll let others talk about the weather. Today I’m going to talk about Bob again.

Hubby posed a question to me the other day. “When is it enough? How much are you going to spend on this cat?” So I have been trying to decide…when will I give up trying to keep Bob healthy? I guess my answer would be…when nothing else will work.

You probably all remember Bob…the drop-off cat that came to our place, starving, worm-ridden, broken tail and weak back legs. We have never been able to figure out where he came from, or what caused his injuries. A person can guess all day, make up scenarios, even ask the neighbors. But the fact remains, the poor unwanted cats (and dogs) out there can never tell their story. We just have to take it on faith that they need our help, and not stew about the why.

Anyway, I told you about the fight with Pickles that left Bob with a huge abscess and the trip to the vet. That wound has healed. Then Bob got into a fight with something…we aren’t sure what (we suspect a raccoon) and he had bites on his head that needed major cleaning. That time we still had antibiotics left over…So no trip to the vet for him, just a trip for me for additional medicine to supplement what I already had. Then Pickles and Bob started fighting again. It is now the season for the female cats to come into heat, and Bob was not fixed. Pickles is, but I guess when a big male cat jumps on you, you defend yourself. And Pickles is also big, in excellent health. Bob may have started the fights, but Pickles always finished them.

Gracie and Bob snowshoeing with Hubby. Notice his tail hanging crooked.

It became apparent that it was time to fork out more money and get Bob fixed or send him down the road. Because Bob is special to me, big, scarred and disabled as he is, I decided to get him fixed. And to get his tail taken care of. Bob’s broken tail seems to have been part of his back leg problem…in fact; it seems to have been most of his problem. While trying to find information online about the structure of a cat’s tail…I discovered information on the problems broken tails can cause. I won’t give you all the details. You can check them out on this link . But I did find out that Bob’s problem with fecal incontinence, and the problem with his back legs all stem from the pain of his broken tail.


This was as high as Bob could get his tail.

So it was decided to have them bob his tail and see if it would help him. Since I am up here in Marshall, Hubby took him into the vet (in the freezing fog) and then picked him up the next day. Hubby says he looks funny but is doing great. Poor Bob. First his back was shaved, now his butt and tail (what’s left of it) are shaved too. It’s going to be a long cold winter for the poor guy. Good thing he has a heated bed. (Sorry. No photos until I can get home).

The good news is that Bob IS doing great. He is climbing trees and Hubby says he is even RUNNING. So the broken tail was debilitating to him. It will take a while to see if his incontinence has gone away (Hubby is leery of picking him up due to too many prior incidents). But I am in hopes that it too will be fixed. Maybe when I get home, I will be able to pick him up and let him sit on my lap without a towel.

All this is wonderful news to me. However, doesn’t good news always come with a price? And this time the price was $250. Not too bad considering the results, but still…. Is it feasible to spend so much money on a stray cat (let’s see... medicine + vet + medicine + vet and medicine = BIG BUCKS)? The life expectancy on outdoor cats is not much longer that that of a feral cat (by the way Boots is still alive somewhere in our grove). And if the neutering doesn’t work and the two boys continue to fight, was it worth the money when I have to send him somewhere else? If somewhere else would take him.

This is where Hubby and I have agreed to disagree. Being on a fixed income leaves little room for extras, and he doesn’t want to spend any more money on the animals. Not that he doesn’t love them. He feels we should quit “collecting” more pets and not replace the ones we have. And that we have spent too much money on a cat that may not stay. I feel…and since it’s my blog I get the final say… I feel that if there is a way, no price is too great. Granted, a couple of thousand dollars might be asking too much…since there is no way we could come up with that. But I am working for a few months and I can afford to help Bob. And as long I can come up with the money and not take away from… say, the electric bill, I will continue to help Bob. He and I will, however, have to have a little talk so that hopefully, he will stay out of trouble and live a long life with us.

So when is it enough? Not yet. But the next time something happens, I may have to start panhandling. Is that legal in Minnesota?