So far, so good..

So far, so good with the new inmate...

She and Alex hung out on the screened front porch for awhile this afternoon.

She has met all the other pets now and is doing quite well. She hisses at everyone a bit, but then she ignores them. The cats all seem interested in her but they aren't hissing or being aggressive. Naomi tried to give her a bath but Louise wasn't very impressed.

Alex is totally nonchalant. He had a bath while Louise caught ladybugs.

Of course right now, Louise is growling at Naomi, who is essentially ignoring her. We'll see how it goes! :) Louise is still spending most of her time in the spare bedroom but today we started letting her get to know the others.

Louise is home!

Here she is, at the start of our drive home!

She is all tucked up in the guest bedroom for now. I took some pics using my laptop and Photobooth. We'll work on some better ones this weekend!

Her spay went well yesterday. She purrs. A lot. I'm in looooove.

THe new (non-furry) baby!

Look what arrived today!

Kubota L4600! 

After years of thinking about it, we took the plunge. We decided against used because neither of us is capable of tinkering with any kind of engine. It'll be enough if we can actually look after the oil and filters on this!

Tiller, bucket, and forklift thingy attachment (which has some technical name I've forgotten!)

Our friend Jake came by this afternoon to see the tractor and give me some lessons. The dogs LOVE Jake, as you can see!

He also helped clear a space in the barn for the tractor (we had the beams and posts checked to make sure they can still support the weight of a tractor.) The former owner parked his tractor here too!

For the record, we did NOT steal that stop sign, and I don't condone stealing of signs! It was there when we arrived. Since the former owner was at one time the local fire chief, I'm pretty sure he didn't steal it either. :)

Okay, this is more fun than I ever imagined!! I even managed to use the bucket a bit. It will be hard to tear me away from this thing.

Don't worry, we still want horses. The tractor is sitting on the future horse paddock, which is being planted for us with horse-friendly vegetation this fall. We have to put in a lot of fencing too, and a shelter.

More pictures to come, I'm sure. Louise the kitty comes home tomorrow!

Creatures in my life

I have been trying to get this post up- for two days. Argh! Finishing up the last of my honey extraction, treating my bees for varroa mite, doing my other chores, doing some writing, blah blah blah list goes on. 

Got a new honey customer today who bought an entire case from me (12 x 1 kg jars.) I was very pleased. She goes through a lot of honey and said she would be back for more. I showed her some of my hives. She talks to bees too, so I'm not the only nutcase around these parts!

AND last weekend we bought a TRACTOR that arrives tomorrow! a Kubota 4600L or something like that. Photos to follow upon its arrival.  Gordon is incapable of tinkering with machinery, so after much debate and years of study, we bought new.

Meanwhile, I have gone back to my naturally curly hair state...

...and Sophie HATES having her photo taken! It's a miracle she looked at the camera for this.

The hair... I never ever straightened my hair until about two years ago, then decided to do it for fun. But now I am tired of Mr. Flat Iron and I miss my natural curls/waves, so there you go.  My hairdresser has some grand plan for my hair, apparently. :)

Meanwhile, darling Louise is being spayed tomorrow...

We get to bring her home FRIDAY!! I cannot wait. I have an array of new cat toys and treats to keep everyone busy and distracted. I am so longing to spring her from the joint.

And I took some bug macros last week..,

Stink bug (I think) on a pumpkin!

And another bug  on pumpkin...

SO cute! Look at those itty-bitty bug eyes! Feel free to identify it for me. I haven't had a chance to look it up yet.

And here is a bumblebee on a sunflower, thoroughly dusted in pollen.

All the pollinators are going crazy on the sunflowers right now, as they are one of the few things still blooming. There are some asters, sedum and coneflowers still out, but the goldenrod is done!

Still some borage, too! I planted white and blue. This is Ms. Honey Bee with her little green friend!

And hello, crab spider! Love her bright yellow colour against the blue borage.

And a long-horned bee doing a headstand. I watched her get covered in pollen, then dive out head first. She was wiping her back legs as she did this, but it looks like she's drunk on gold dust!

I think these long-horned bees are terribly cute. But then, I think all bees are terribly cute. 

Look at that! Three bees and a caterpillar, all enjoying the sunflower.

And hello there, assassin AMBUSH bug!

(Sorry, I had a brain fart yesterday and typed "assassin" instead of "ambush"!)

These little guys look like total space aliens!

Have yourselves a fantabulous Wednesday evening.

xoxo

Visiting our fluffy baby!

Gordon met Louise today...

As I think you can tell...

They got along swimmingly!

She seems to love being held.

She was really relaxed, and purred the whole time we were with her.

She is super sweet and I can't wait until she can come home next week!

Laser beam eyes!

She reminds me a lot of my friend Deb's cat Audrey, from Just Cats.

We were sad to have to leave her, but she can come home to us next week after she's had her spay.

Louise is super-sweet and I told all the other cats they had better be nice to her! :)

I wish I could take them all home. Sigh....

Way too easy!

So every week, I write the copy for the OSPCA Pet of the Week ad in our local paper, The Glengarry News. Recently, the paper started finding sponsors for the weekly feature. This week, Gordon sponsored the ad...

...and it featured a grey kitten. Now, I don't pick the pet. A worker at the shelter named Sophie does. Each week, she tells me everything she knows about the pet to be featured, and I do a write-up from that. She just happened to pick little Louise this week.

And here's the thing: Gordon LOVES grey cats. Our first cat together was a beauty named Mashka. We adopted her in 1995 when she was three years old, then sadly lost her in 2006 to kidney failure. She was a lovely girl...

So what do you think happened when Mr. Softie saw that his sponsored ad featured a grey kitten that had been stuck in a cage at the shelter since arrived almost three months earlier?

What do you think happened when he was wife said, "We should adopt her! You need another grey cat!"

Yup. Louise is coming home to us next week after her spay. Because if you have four cats, why not five?

Bwahahahahaha. It was way too easy this time. Gordon cracked in 30 seconds.

I visited Louise at the shelter yesterday. I would have taken photos but my iPhone battery died. She is bigger than in the ad photo now, bigger than Naomi already and about as big as Emily, so I think she'll be a large cat. I held her for almost half an hour while I chatted with Sophie, and Louise purred the whole time. She is just so sweet.

We are going to visit her again this Saturday. I'll take photos!

Cock-a-doodle doo, baby!

Last Sunday, we once again participated in the Rooster Crowing Contest at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum Harvest Festival. Last year we cleaned up, with Errol Flynn and Lord Gaga taking first and second place, and me winning the human rooster crowing contest.

 

This year, not so much! We were totally shut out. Beaker crowed once in the five-minute contest. Errol managed five crows but it just wasn't enough. And me, I did my best but was beating by a grey-haired lady with one mean crow!

But a good time was had by all, and there were more roosters this year than last year!

That's my Errol Flynn up top! Next year I'm taking some younger, more testosterone-laden roos.

The even is held in the Williams Pavilion at the Museum...

Beaker's fans were there to support him, just like last year!

THere were some great prizes, including a chainsaw-carved rooster by Gerdine Van Woudenberg.

It was a great event for young and old alike!

I clapped for all the participants!

And apparently was not impressed by something! Hahahaha! I cannot for the life of me remember what this was about, but Gordon caught it on film.

And here's my big moment! I gave it the good old college try.

The ladies were WAY braver about crowing than the men. This year they had categories for men, women and kids. Men are apparently total wimps and mostly had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the microphone.

There's Team Beaker again! 

To get the contest started, a piper serenaded the roosters, which really got them going!

Errol had his special sign with him!

Okay, a tad rude. But I noticed several people taking photos of it! :) 

And there were lots of other things to do at the festival...

There's my friend Ronna, sitting pretty while she volunteers at the admission desk.

Cute Tamworth piglets...

Zzzzzz....

And the Twistle Guild of Glengarry was there, demonstrating spinning and weaving techniques. I brought a drop-spindle kit to try out!

Beautiful handmade slippers..

And the Quigley Highlanders did a great job, as per usual.

Next up, photos from the horse parade!