Baby Hand

I drove home from CA lasterday so I would be home in time to stay with Fiona today. A Grammie's got to have priorities!

Usually I only have her for a couple of hours in the afternoon, but this day I had her a little longer. I picked her up from her sick Daddy (let him get some rest) about an hour before Mama's lunch time. We went and got gas at Costco, fooled around for a little and then went to have lunch with Mama.

Like most schools it is a policy that all visitors sign in. What do you think?

When I wheeled her out to the hallway to head down the hall I saw this! She's fallen asleep between the parking lot and the front office! Silly baby. She had her hand poked out of one of the small side hole and was holding her carseat canopy.

After lunch we drove on down to Grammie's house... more sleeping. Hungry again and a bottle. I came and sat down in my Happy Room. Little Fiona was so happy she went to sleep again after lots of nice snuggles. Poor little Fiona has been sick too. I'm so grateful that I'm able to be with her and comfort her. (Fiona and her pink snuggle)

And all of the carseating reminded me that I needed to get photos of her carseat canopy. The *spotty-dottie-polka-dottie* fleece is on the inside.

And this fun print is on the outside. I was so pleased to find these happy fabrics last fall when I knew little Fi would need protection from the cold Utah winter

So, do you see Simon-the-cat photo-bombing this?

I'm glad to be back home after my 2-week visit with my CA grandchildren. (I was going to write grandbabies but my Flynn-boys are all *growed up*)

Cat Curiosity

Spencer and Deborah have two kitties: Checkers and Amadala. They are tabbicos. I love the way the tabby stripes run through their colored spots.

Earlier today I was holding little Annabelle and when I got up I laid her down in my warm spot (yup, it's an old Grammie trick). When I got back after one minute this is what I found...

Amadala was going to check out this new little person in her domain.

She finally sneaked up close enough to get a sniff...

but she gave Annabelle a kitty-tickle-whisker-kiss.

And that frightened Miss Amadala away.

Big Brother (of the Riley-kind)

Riley got to come to meet his new little sister tonight. What a wonderful occasion... you don't get a little sister every day, you know!

I feel so happy when I see the love that they have one for another. You can never have too many people who love you.

We are so funny... we take turns soaking up the baby-Annabelle love. I'd been holding her for about an hour when I asked Deb if she wanted her baby back. Spencer asked so sweetly, "Can I have a turn first?"

And speaking of love-

I've never been big on using the term *step*-mom/child; it's just always meant more people to love. I'm grateful for that great capacity to love.

And since we are on the subject of love... it makes me happy to see these two funny-feline-sisters. I can hardly tell where one ends and the other begins!

Teeny Burros

Along 4th South, by the Harward Farms building, is the cutest family of burros!



I've been watching them for several weeks now and finally just stopped to take some photos with my MPC. These are miniature burros so the babies are truly teeny...



This-day they were gamboling and nipping at each other, naughty children!



The little dark one seemed to be the instigator! Look at his mischeivious little face! He wants to give his friend a *yip*!

Finding a Memory

About 2 weeks ago I wrote about a photo of my Mom taken in 1961. I was reminiscing about her, how she loved to read AND read to me. I mentioned one of my favorite stories, about a boy who turned into a cat, that I only heard once since we'd borrowed the book. Over the years I've looked for that book, but never with any success. My brother-in-law, Wayne, did a quick Google search *boy who turned into a cat* and came up with some information that others remembered this book and were also looking for it. He emailed me and suggested that I do the same.

SO I DID! (Thank you Wayne) I anxiously scanned what others had to say about this book... hoping beyond hope that this might finally be that elusive book I remembered from so long ago. I ordered the book which arrived this week.

AND guess what! Yes!

THE BOOK!

I wanted to read far enough into the book to be sure this was THE ONE! My most distinct memory of Peter, a boy who turns into a cat, was of his killing a rat (dreaded-poisoned-fanged-creatures!). As a totally-cat-crazy little girl this book really caught my imagination... it is so nice to find this old *memory* again.

It was originally published as Abandoned but later published as Jenny (it is written by Paul Gallico, author of Thomasina)

Drive-Thru Zoo

Kristi suggested a wonderful activity for us... the Drive-Thru Zoo located in Gentry, AR. It was a fun outing. She asked the older kids if they wanted to come along and Makenzie said no... she was afraid of the emus.

Peek-a-boo emu staring into the van... who is watching whom?   Tap... tap... tap... is anyone in there?

Their larger cousins, the ostriches were right there at the entrance too... hoping for a hand out. Umm... not today!

We had a beautiful sunny day and most of the animals were out and active. We saw a whole pack of little deer creatures but they were all pretty shy about coming up to the van. Our next visitor was this gazelle. What a beautiful creature...

I love the texture of its horns.

Living in the same drive-thru enclosure was a herd of zebra. I LOVE zebra. As a little girl I always wanted one. It is just recently that I've realized that some zebras are white with black stripes and others are black with white stripes... and some have big bums and the stripes do nothing to minimize that fact! (bwahahahaha)

We saw the white bison from the highway driving in so I was excited to see them up close... mama and baby...

WELL! perhaps not this close!

We were supposed to *STAY IN THE CAR (which we did) WITH THE WINDOWS UP (hey! do you know how awkward it is to shoot through car windows?)*

What the heck is this? Cross-breeding?  A long-horned beefalo?

And this??? DEFINITELY INBREEDING! Poor little freak of nature!

The next noteworthy beast was this pack-o-piglets! Explain to me how such cute little babies turn into ugly razorbacks! (Oops! Did I really say that in Arkansas?)

Further in our journey we got to a sign saying "Horses, donkeys and deer are mowers, not dinner!" This was outside the big cat area. But you notice the guy is hoarking giant hunks of meat into the carnivores... so who is the sign for? The cats? The visitors? Or just to make the horses, donkeys and deer feel better about themselves?

This snow tiger was waiting patiently... in its watering trough with the hose running on it... for it's dinner.

By now Maddie was asking when we would get to the *by-yarn* (and the rest of us were wondering how far to the potty, no stopping in the bushes here!)... we arrived just in time to save us all... Jackson immediately made friends with the resident *Wildcat*- such a pretty calico girl.

I love how the shadow looks like Jackson is giving Wildcat a kiss.

We also say this precocious little fellow...

What a cute baby... I talked to him and he meowed and chortled right back... Can I take him home?

Not far from this sweet baby is, well, an obnoxious chimpanzee... is that redundant? Larry disappeared as soon as we walked up to his cage while Lula sat in the corner. He did a little boogy dance on his raised platform... then he started swinging back and forth displaying his manliness on each forward swing... we should have known that something was coming when Lula grabbed her blanket and crawled up to her platform and hid under said blanket. (Lula says- Look out of the way!) After a particularly violent forward thrust Larry spewed water out of his mouth at us. (I suppose we can be glad he wasn't like the chimps in Madagascar, "If you have any poo, fling it now!"

I asked everyone to gather so I could get a photo... Jackson decided he was a monkey...

And here are Kristi, Maddie and Grampy...

A good time was had by all... especially Larry!

Rodent Conga-line

I was catching up on Facebook a few minutes ago when a friend posted how she should set up mousetraps! It is that time of year, you know?  Ahhh... I had that same thought in the middle of the night (that's when I get all of my great thoughts!) but had forgotten it.  So without letting anything else get in my way, to make me forget, again, I went right out to the garage, gathered up all the un-baited traps the pest-guys set (HA!), grabbed my peanut butter and set those puppies up!



Now you may think me a heartless middle-aged woman... but if you'd seen the rodent conga-line we had here last fall you would understand! Those little bounders must have sent out tweets to all of their little rodent friends that there was a par-TAY! in Joanie's dungeon. They moved in by the herd! (Is that what you call a bunch of mice? Inquiring minds want to know!  So I inquired... it is a colony of mice!  How appropriate!!) Those little furry-free-loaders would lay low all day, snacking on anything their little teeth could gnaw through but as soon as I went to bed they would bring in the dancing girls and entertain Gordon; who is a night-owls, skittering from the dungeon -- furnace room -- bedroom -- under the TV -- bathroom -- under *Stuart's* couch and back again. And would you like to guess what they left me as presents all along their conga-line... yeah, that's what I thought...

In the past I've only had to trap and release the mousey friends that Simba left alive after a fun play time. I soon realize now that Simba is in the *great litter-box-in-the-sky* that he probably wasn't bringing in all of his little friends BUT I AM SURE he brought in the birds... what a naught-kitty-boy!

But I digress... I've used the sticky traps, but they really upset me. What do I do now that I've caught the little furry-fiends? Leave them in their sticky plight? No! That is heartless! But how do I get the squeaking, squirming creature off the glue? My last experience with sticky trap release ended badly with me in tears and a *burial at sea* for the mouse. So... yes, I'm a mouse executioner with the old fashion snap-trap... fast and clean. All I have to do is pick it up, with gloved hands, and drop it in the wheelie-bin, trap and all! I've found I have to embed the peanut butter in the little snap-trap hole...

Oh, this whole subject upsets me... isn't there a way to put out an NO VACANCY sign and have them respect that? Hmmm, I guess not!

A Boy and His Cat

Can I just start by saying that I am very partial to BIG ORANGE CATS?  Literally for half of my life I have owned one!  So it makes me very happy to see a new generation who loves BIG ORANGE CATS!

I think this is Muffin, but it may be Twitch, aka Kevin, with my sweetie Brock.  What a wonderful blessing to be able to visit with my CA grandsons!  Yeah, and this cutie boy is nine and a half!  What's up with that??



This will give you an idea why I have trouble telling these identical kitty-twins apart.



The boys tell me that Muffin is darker and Kevin is lighter... this photo makes it look easy.

302- Oreo Cows

Have you ever seen an Oreo Cow? What clever beasts! This big boy lives across the road from the herd.



And here are the girls...

297- Shayna's Farm

Holly gave us the Samaria tour while we were there. One of my favorite stops was at Shayna's farm! (Coincidentally, Shayna is also Holly's new daughter-in-law's name.  What are the chance? Both spelled the same!)

Shayna is one of those amazing 21st century women: she is a stay-at-home mom with 5 children (between about 3 and 11), she has her Masters degree, and she runs her little farm, with the help of her kids and husband, to supplement the family's income. What a gal!

Holly told us that Shayna had a new calf to show off so we were anxious to see that little sweetie! This is Bambi. Isn't he cute? Sadly, HE won't be on the farm long... only SHE cows get that privilege.   The rest end up in someone's freezer.



This is Bambi's mama, Amy. What a pretty little jersey cow. She just looked so sweet tempered.



What I didn't realize before we got to the farmyard was that there wasn't just one calf on Shayna's farm! No! There are 6 tiny calves all in these holding pens. (Plus another bunch from teenage to almost-ready-for-slaughter cattle.)



They will suck on anything that holds still long enough for them to latch on. Shayna's been bottle feeding them until last week when Amy had her calf.



Now Amy is feeding ALL SIX BABIES! Look at that udder! It makes me hurt just to think of it, but I guess cows don't suffer with engorgement like humans. Shayna will either milk Amy and bottle feed the calves or let the them nurse, two at a time, for a determined length of time based on their size. I didn't know that if a calf is allowed to nurse as much as it wants it will get scours (calf-diarrhea). Of  these tiny calves only one is another little female jersey, Daffodil, Daffy for short, who will stay on at the farm and help Amy with future babies.



Shayna's been taking care of cattle since she was old enough to hold the bottle on top of her little head to have it tall enough to bottle feed a calf.

She let Bambi out so we could see him better but it ended up being a romp with the kids chasing after him with Bambi kicking up his heels and trying to figure out how to get to his mama. All the while mama was calling him in her sweet, mellow, bovine-voice. Shayna had to intervene and carry him back to his pen.



No farm is complete without chickens. I've never seen so many different breeds of chickens in the same coop! This spotty-dottie hen was one of my favorites, but there were little Bantams and some ginormous I-don't-know-whats. There were a few with fluffy faces and one even had her feathers on upside-down (looked very similar to what I call Utah-Hair!)



There are also pigeons. Several made a get-away this last summer and have roosted just above the patio... so you can imagine what that corner of the patio looks like. All efforts to capture them have been unsuccessful.



Nanny is a sweet little miniature horse. I'll need to do some research and figure out the difference between a miniature horse and a pony. Anybody out there know the difference?



The older children are all very involved with the animals as part of their 4-H projects, what a great program... makes me miss the rural life... well, just a little bit. 

It is safe to say that a good time was had by all.