Nine Lives

Back in 2010, a friend gave us 2 kittens, who came to be known as Bert and Ernie.

Bert disappeared long ago, but Ernie has been with us for the past 13 years until yesterday when the last of his 9 lives came to an end.

He was such a funny cat!  He loved lying on the woodpile in the sunshine.

He preferred to drink out of buckets, or with both front paws IN the water bowl.

He had a foot fettish, and if you let him near your bare pigs, he would be sure to bite them.

He was a good hunter, and frequently left "gifts" on our doorstep.  After he arrived, we did not have to worry about mice in the house any longer, even though he lived outside on the veranda.

His first buddy was Bert, but his longest friendship was with Lizzie.

Towards the end, he became very ill, but he would still purr, rub fur all over us, and drool.

I prefer to remember him like this:

A Titanic Feat

 Well, I had another birthday.  Huzzah.  Turning another year older does not hold the same element of awe as it once did.  I did get some nice presents, and got 2 birthday cakes!

I have been working on a couple of projects of late.  I decided to recycle all of those dozens of masks that I made early in the pandemic.  Look at all of the fabric I ended up with!

Then I turned some of them into a new tea cozy!  (I know, I know, the back side isn't straight...it just adds to the charm, right?)

L and I finished building the Titanic today.  It was a big project - over 9000 pieces!  It is a 1:200 replica and ended up right around 4 1/2 feet long.

I decided that the ship needed some passengers, so I dug up my tiny figures from the Lego Hogwarts that I built a couple of years ago.

Ron Weasley is King of the World!

The ship has many moving parts, some of which cannot be seen without taking apart the model:

So, that's what I've been up to so far this year.  How about you?

Out with the Old...

You know how the symbolism for the New Year is an old guy leaving, and a baby in diapers coming in?  Out with the old, in with the new?  Well, I've been thinking about it lately, and realizing that all the animals on our farm are elderly, and JP and I are definitely feeling our age recently as well.

Our 5 surviving hens are laying 1 or 2 eggs daily, some of which are so thin shelled, that I have not always been able to get them into the house whole.  They are almost 2 years old, which is middle-to-late aged for hens, and they definitely do not produce as well during the shorter daylight hours in the wintertime.  We will likely get new peeps in the spring.

One is wearing an apron to protect her from picking
 by the other chickens

Stella turns 11 in a week or two, and she has been acting like her energy is waning as well.

Ernie cat is almost 13, and has recurrent eye infections that we are unable to effectively treat, so he looks terrible and is basically blind.  Lizzie kitty is a mere 10-ish and doesn't appear to be affected much by age yet.

L's bunny, Chaz, is about 9.  We were told that the average lifespan for a mini Rex is 7-8 years, but he's still kicking (literally), although he does seem to enjoy the old towel that we put in his cage, and we find him curled up under the heat lamp most mornings.

J also has a goldfish, Copernicus, who is now over 2 years old and shown no signs of slowing down.  Unfortunately, J has chosen NOT to take him to her dorm for the 2nd year in a row, so Mom is taking care of him again.  JP discovered that he enjoys eating fruit flies, so he's been chowing down on organic food lately and getting bigger and bigger.

We're all aging up here, and it isn't always pretty.  Except in L's case - she had another birthday on Dec. 27th...number 17.  Last week we finally went to the DMV and she got her Driver's Permit!

Before that birthday went down, we enjoyed our Christmas!  L got her Elvish cape, so both girls can now dress up!

JP's sister, brother-in-law, and niece came on Christmas evening for dinner and stayed for a couple of days.  They helped us make tamales, as did J's friend.  I cooked the pork up a couple of days before - 6 lbs of pork roasts, 6 onions, 4 complete garlic bulbs, plus a bunch of jalepenos and spices turned into this:

I also made a bunch of other new things:

Santa Hat Brownies

Loaded Potato Waffles

And last, but not least, my Christmas present:

That's right, I'm building the Titanic!

JP and J drove back to school this AM, and L starts back tomorrow (along with the 7th and 8th graders who will be having their first day at the newly created Jr/Sr High School) - should be totally NOT chaotic tomorrow!  JP heads back to work tomorrow, and I'll be back on Tues.  (We did work last week as well.)  So...in with the new!

Tis the Season

Wow!  I knew that I had a few pictures that I wanted to post, but I didn't realize that it has been a month since I last posted anything!

We have stayed very busy, that's for sure!  JP has been baking a lot.  

He also started his own sour dough starter, so we have been using that for pancakes, bread, biscuits, and crumpets:

I've been baking too - pies and tarts for Thanksgiving, an angelfood cake (to use up the egg whites after making Keto Egg Nog for JP) and birthday cakes for JP and J (who is now no longer a teenager!)

L helped me bake soft pretzels.

On a rainy Saturday evening, L and her friends attended the Cinderella Ball, and were transported in a Hummer/Limo.

On the next weekend, which was COLD and ICY, the library held its annual Turkey Trot 5K fundraiser.  L ran this year, and won a silver medal in her age category.  Stella walked in the pet walk and won "Best in Show."

Right after Thanksgiving, we had a big hail storm.  Nothing was damaged, although a couple of dead trees and limbs came down.

Now we are quickly approaching the granddaddy of them all, as far as holidays go.  Christmas is just around the corner.  The girls and I got the tree up last weekend.  I got most everything wrapped yesterday (still waiting for a couple of things to straggle in and I have to finish sewing a project as well.)  We have supplies to make Christmas cookies, so we'll start on that any time.  J came home on Dec 6th, and will be here through the first week of January.  L has a half day on Thursday this week, and will be off for the same time.  Hooray!  Christmas here we come!!

Priceless Autumn Feast Part 2

Tonight for dinner we prepared the rest of our Priceless Autumn Feast.  We had the Steak, Creamed Spinach and Potato course

It was delicious, and we still have leftovers!

Priceless Autumn Feast Part I

JP and I were invited through our LLBean membership to partake in a special "Priceless Autumn Feast."  This consisted of a curated box of fresh ingredients to make a several course meal with instructions to prepare such feast.

This is the box we received:

And this is the bounty I found inside:

When we started to prepare the meal this evening, we realized that it was way too much food for one meal.

Instead of preparing the entire menu, we just made the drink, the appetizer, and the dessert.