Crazy Cat Days

Hello and happy Tuesday. Wow what a heat wave we are having here in the south. Temps will be in the triple digits this week with the heat index being hotter than satan’s arm pits. We know the heat will be this way, we expect it this time of the year, we prepare by planning all indoor activities, but dang it is so miserable when it happens. And of course we all have to whine and talk about it like it’s never happened before. This too shall pass in a few months. Often we have summer weather well into October. Gulp!!!! You’ve heard of the Dog Days of Summer. Well I think we are in the Cat Days of Summer.

I’m not sure if it is the heat or the moon or because Mercury is in retrograde or what, but my kitty cats have been wild. We have three feral cats that we have had for over three years. We originally had five including mama cat and her four kittens. We took all of them in. About eight months after we took them in two of the kittens were gotten by coyotes. Because of that we now bring all of the feral cats into the garage at night. Well, let me say we lure them into the garage. Believe me when they say you can’t herd cats, you really can’t. Sometimes the cats come in easily enough. They are usually hungry and come in and get on their beds. It looks like kitty nirvana in our garage. We have numerous beds, toys and even an air conditioner for the summer time. They also have a heated kitty house for winter. But still there have been times that I have been up at all hours of the night trying everything I know to coax those babies into the garage.

Last week we could not corral them and get them in. After two sleepless nights I told my husband that we could not continue to lose sleep over the cats. It was getting ridiculous. We would give them until a certain time at night and then the garage door would go down. They are cats and yes we would worry sick about them but they are still a bit feral. We have never even been able to pet them. But does that stop us from loving them more than anything in the world? NO.

As soon as we pulled this kitty operation, Izzy disappeared. She is the smallest of all the cats and a bit on the goofy side. She is not smart enough to be scared like Allie, the mama cat, or her sister Sadie. She disappeared Friday morning or sometime late Thursday. We were sure a coyote had gotten her too. We have security cameras and we have not seen a coyote in a long time but still they are very sneaky.

I cried and blamed myself and thought there surely was something I could have done. Hubs assured me that there was not. It was not our fault. We wandered through the woods all weekend trying to find Izzy or a trace of her. Mama cat mourned her baby and was so sad I couldn’t stand it. We mourned our Izzy girl and told stories about her. Mama cat dutifully came into the garage every night but her other daughter, the vixen black cat Sadie, stayed outside near the neighbors house. I took her some food and water. Sadie is very smart and will run up a tree or something tall as soon as the first sign of danger. I don’t worry quite as much about her being out all night.

The really strange thing to all of this is that my friend Sherry’s cat, Grey, went missing at almost the same time Izzy did. We live miles apart, maybe thirty minutes or so from each other. They disappeared at almost the same time.

On Monday morning I went outside to check on Sadie and see if I could find her. I let Mama cat out of the garage. We were walking along the driveway and all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw a gray streak. At first I thought it was mama cat but then to my surprise I saw it was Izzy!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I think I screamed and I started yelling to Sadie and mama cat that Izzy was home!!!! I ran into the house and told my husband. We were so excited and relieved.

Another funny thing is that my friend Sherry’s cat Grey also returned that same day. Maybe they were out living it up together.

Please don’t think we haven’t tried to tame these babies. We have. Once a year we capture them and take them to the vet for their annual check ups. It is not easy. We want to love on them so bad. Mama cat is a little better and will allow some loving, but not much.

I am so hoping for a break in the weather and maybe the cats will calm down a bit. Mercury will soon be out of retrograde, fall is on the way. We are a little worried that the cats are out of sync because of Bunnie, our new girl. She is a very large but sweet dog. She’s loud and boisterous and loves the kitties and just wants to be friends with them. I did a post about Bunnie and if you missed it you can read it here.

Hello my name is Lisa and yes, I am the crazy cat lady.

I hope your week is going well.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

A Busy Week And An Earthquake

Hello and happy Monday. It is not often that we have earthquakes in our neck of the woods but we had one Saturday morning. Yep you heard that right. I was cleaning house upstairs and hubby was cleaning downstairs. He had his headphones on as he usually does when he vacuums. I was in the bedroom and suddenly everything started shaking. We have a large armoire with mirrors on the front. It started shaking like crazy. The windows were rattling. I yelled downstairs and by this time hubby noticed it too. He yelled for me to come downstairs. It seemed like it lasted forever. My sister who lives thirty minutes from me called and they had also experienced it.

Turns out it was a 4.1 earthquake centered just about 10 miles from us near Greenback Tennessee. It was felt from Atlanta Georgia to parts of North Carolina. Wow!! I am hoping for no aftershocks.

I spent most of last week in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia with the attractions group that my work is a part of. I will give you a more in depth post on that visit tomorrow. Bristol is about a four hour drive for me. I left early last Monday because my first meeting didn’t start until noon. It was a full couple of days. I got back to my house Wednesday evening and I was so tired I collapsed on the couch and didn’t move.

Because I was gone most of last week for my attractions group meeting I was only at work on Thursday. I came in and caught up on a few things. On Friday I went with my sister for her appointment with her oncologist. We had to wait almost three hours but it was okay because she is in full remission. That news was well worth waiting for.

We did a little shopping after the doctor visit. I bought two planters at T.J. Maxx.

***I added a couple of succulents to this kitty planter.***

***And I put one of my smaller orchids in this sheep? ram?***

I spent most of the weekend at home. I made a yellow Bundt cake. It stuck really bad. Note to self, please use parchment paper, I just put it back together and slapped some chocolate icing on it and it was fine. And of course I knitted and crocheted the day away. AHHH a good weekend.

***This is a picture of the side of the cake that didn’t stick to the pan.***

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day. My mama has been gone for many years. And we lost my little mother in law last July. It’s always a bit sad when we think of them no longer being with us.

My orchids are still doing very well even my miniature orchid, Ingrid, is blooming. I just love this color.

That was my week last week. I barely had time to do anything at home or on the blog. I did post a Wordless Wednesday. It was made up of sunrises and sunsets over the years. If you missed it you can check it out here.

Have a wonderful week and join me back here tomorrow for a new post on my time in Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee. I will give you a teaser. I got to ride on the Bristol Motor Speedway!!!! What????

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Dogwood Winter, Orchids and Sourdough Bread

Hello friends, How was your weekend? Easter is always a special family time for us. We went to my sister’s house for a cook-out. I made baked beans and some cookie bars. How did you spend your Easter Sunday?

***My cookie bars just before baking them.***

I have been sitting in the early mornings listening to the whippoorwills while I drink my coffee. Whippoorwill winter will be here soon. All last week we were experiencing Dogwood winter. The Dogwood trees are now fully bloomed out and the temps have turned quite warm again. Dogwood winter was very nice while it lasted. Cool mornings and warm afternoons.

***I think the Dogwood is one of the most beautiful trees.***

I mentioned last week that I had visited Harmony Lane Farms in Smithville Tennessee. If you missed that post check it out Here. I took a sample of their sour doughbread starter. I didn’t have time to make the sourdough bread when I brought the starter home. I kept the starter in the refrigerator and took it out last Friday to feed it and get it to room temperature to get it ready to make bread. Just like my yeast bread it is a two day process. If you are unsure of making sourdough bread check out some of the YouTube or Instagram videos out there. There’s so many good ones. I think I’ve watched about a million trying to get different ideas of how people do theirs.

I fed the bread on Friday morning around 5:00 AM and marked my jar to be able to see if the starter was active and rising. I came home Friday night and ran to the kitchen to check the starter and it was rising. It had almost doubled in size. I fed it again that night and the next morning I started the bread.

There is a lot of stretching and folding when you are dealing with sourdough bread. It took most of the day, off and on. I finished it in the afternoon and decided to let the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight. I had read that this makes for a more flavorful bread. On a side note I made more bread a couple of days later and didn’t do all of the stretching and folding and I didn’t leave it in the fridge as long. I couldn’t tell a bit of difference. I did stretch and fold a few times and let it rest and rise for a few hours.

***This is the proofing basket. I used to put the dough in after I had folded it and seamed the bottom.***

I baked the bread on Sunday morning. I was very happy with the way it turned out. It is very different from my yeast bread and the artisan bread that I make.

***I love the color and the texture of this bread.***

I celebrated my birthday this week and my 35th wedding anniversary. I don’t know if I told you but I got married on my Birthday. So we have a double celebration. I asked for an ice cream maker for my Birthday. The electric kind not the one you churn by hand. No thank you on the hand crank job I remember those from my childhood. Hubs and I took the day and did a little shopping and went out to eat. Very low key.

***My morning view a couple of times last week.***

I had read that if your cat has a box to play and sleep in it makes them more sociably comfortable and happy. I fixed a box for the kitties. They were very interested. Gus was the first one in it.

And then Kitty Kitty got in after Gus had finished inspecting it.

As soon as Gus saw Kitty Kitty in “his” box he ran straight into it and pushed Kitty Kitty out. The fight was on. I went down to the basement and got a second box and fixed it up for them. And wouldn’t you know it, neither one would have anything to do with the second box. Now they have lost interest in both boxes. Oh well it was an experiment.

***Several of my orchids are blooming and I am just loving all the different colors.***

That is what has been going on around here how is your week going?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

A Trip To Harmony Lane Farms In Smithville Tennessee

Happy Monday. How was your weekend? Last week was a long week. I started last Monday taking my sister for outpatient surgery in Knoxville. Then I had to stay late at work three different days. A long week. But the weekend was great!!! And I was so ready for it.

On Saturday my sister, niece and I went to nearby Smithville to visit my nephew. He works in Smithville and has lived there for more than a year. He discovered a goat farm near his house. Harmony Lane Farms, it is a working farm and they sell goat milk, ice cream and even fudge all made from Goat’s milk.

I went online to check it out and saw that they even had a farm tour and baby goat cuddling. We were all in.

We met my nephew in Sparta Tennessee which is about thirty minutes from his house. He had a pizza place he wanted us to try. We got into Sparta almost an hour before we were scheduled to meet him so we drove around the town.

My sister and I chose something different than pizza. Although the pizza looked great too.

Just outside of town we saw a little farm store that was very crowded. We still had some time to kill so we pulled in. The Farmers’ Storehouse. It was the neatest shop.

They make a lot of sour dough and even gave me a sour dough starter. It turns out that my sour dough bread is actually more of a yeast bread than an actual sour dough bread. But that’s okay I can do both. I have already fed the new starter a few times but haven’t actually made bread yet.

The farm tour was so much fun. We rode on a wagon and fed chickens, goats, cattle and watched the hogs being fed. I even got to milk a goat. Then we were able to cuddle the baby goats and even feed them with a bottle. They were just adorable.