Two New Friends

Spook, our cat, is getting on in years. At the age of 16, he has started to show a significant slow-down. Having a barn and animals, means having mice. Spook is no longer, shall we say, enthusiastic, about catching the mice. We put the word out that we were looking for some barn cats.

Now you would think there would be barn cats available everywhere. You would be wrong. The humane society has lots of cats available, but they won't let you have one if you aren't going to keep it indoors. Other pet places want you to pay $75 adoption fees for animals that will still need to be "fixed" and many of those places also won't adopt out to barns either.

While at the Ledyard fair, one of the sheep people had a sign up advertising kittens. We got to talking and these kittens are barn kittens, 7 weeks old and eating solid food. We agreed to take two males. Sam brought them home after work at Tractor Supply. He had already named one "Herbie" and Rachel and Samantha named the other one "Shadow".

Of course, not an hour after we brought these kittens home, a friend put me in contact with a woman who is fostering 2 cats; one male, one female. They are 5 months old, have all their shots, and are already fixed. They are standoff-ish and so have been deemed "un-adoptable". They come for food and will put up with the occasional pat, but are not cuddly. This organization has decided to bend the rules and let us adopt the kittens as otherwise they would have to be put down. So next week, those two will come to live with us also.

I think we have enough barn cats now.

Deep breathing

Okay, deep breath! Today we need to drop Hannah off at her girl scout leader's house so she can do her Cookie Booth thing, while we go to Tractor Supply for our 4-H Hot Dog Sale thing.

My bee hive equipment arrived yesterday while we were out buying the supplies for the Hot Dog Sale. So Sam put them together after he finished popping together 6 cremation containers for a customer. Today I will paint them so that tomorrow afternoon I can put bees in them.

Yesterday I cleaned out the hive that died and found a nasty little mouse, which explains why the bees died. The cat literally watched it run into the stonewall and didn't even move a whisker. Sheesh! The rotten mouse ate through TWO of my wooden frames. Thankfully I do have some extras hanging around.

Tomorrow I have to drive to Hampton to pick up the bees. Tomorrow is Billa's (Abby's goat) due date. Monday our chicks should arrive. Given my schedule, I am certain the goat will decide that tomorrow is the perfect time to kidd! The other goat (Bertie) is due April 2nd. Knowing my schedule, she'll decide that Monday will be the best day to kidd!

Sam finished the ceiling in the mudroom. Next the window and door trim, which I stained yesterday, will be put up. In theory the floor will start going down on Tuesday. Sam hung two of the coat racks so at least now some of the mess is dealt with. I can't wait until we can put the heavy coats away!