Somebody Doesn't Care About the Weather

 Take me outside.

I want to prowl.

Prowling

More prowling.

The last gasp of the garden.

No Sooner Than

 the picture was taken and I checked the weather forecast for the rest of last week, the pumpkins needed picking.  Tuesday was nice, but Wed. & Thurs. had rain followed by frost advisories.  The frost wasn't as severe as expected, but better safe than sorry.

The color is much lighter green than usual.  Maybe last year they cross-pollinated with the Jaradale pumpkins.  That or they cross-pollinated with the cucumbers this year.  Guess we'll find out when they finish ripening and get cut open.

On another front, that same day the fridge died.  We did find a new one, and only one available.  Delivery however was three weeks out, so I had to go get it.  Many thanks to friends who helped haul the new one into the house.  I still have to haul the old one away and pay the disposal fee at the landfill, but first a new emergency has appeared.

Future posting may be light due to an emergency with extended family.

As Promised

 The progression of the volunteer pumpkin plant

Now it is just a matter of keeping an eye on the forecasted overnight lows to make sure the pumpkins don't get frozen.  There is no way that this variety will ever fully mature on the vine, because our summer isn't long enough.  Starting them indoors around Feb. or March could help with that, but only if they manage to not get eaten by a cat.  I don't even try.

Strategy, Backfiring?

 Today was the day scheduled for Duke's second deworming dose.  So how do you get a cat to eat all his worm medicine?  Well, I started with putting him outside in the yard on his leash for most of the afternoon to get him good an hungry.  That almost backfired, because he caught two voles while he was out there.  Thankfully, I got them away from him and disposed of them in the trash.  At least I hope it was only two.  Before taking him back in the house, all the cat and dog food was put away.  Then he was brought back in and I crushed his pills and mixed them into soft food.  Somehow it wasn't interesting enough just sitting in the bowl; that or the ground pill texture was too obvious.  Lacking a syringe with a fat nozzle, I tried again with a piping bag and star frosting tip.  Maybe because he is still fairly young, he started licking it off the end and ate all of what could be squeezed out.  He then bathed, napped, and started prowling the basement.  With it being fall, it is no big surprise that he found something trying to sneak in for a warm winter home.  He brought a small field mouse upstairs, and we had to get him to give that one up as well.  He's not overly happy with me, because I keep stealing his prey.  Hopefully the second dose of worm medicine works, and he doesn't reinfect himself by eating things he catches in the basement.

New Houseguest

 So a few weeks ago, I was walking Ember and came upon some neighbors from up the block gathered around this cat.

It was very friendly and appeared to be lost or more likely dumped.

Since I had a cat carrier, I volunteered to take it to the local animal shelter to get it checked for a microchip.  The microchip readers they had did not register a chip.  Note that pet microchips are not standardized, so animal shelters have to have a variety of readers to cover all the possible chip manufacturers.  So put a collar on your pet if it goes outside at all.  With it being the holiday weekend, I took the cat back home and quarantined it in the garage.  It knew how to use a litter box, so had obviously been someone's pet.

Last week, I was finally able to get the fuzzy brat in to the vet, where they determined it is an unaltered male, and that he did indeed have a microchip.  After much calling on their part they were able to contact the chip's manufacturer, which led them to another local humane society.  Apparently someone there or his then new owner named him Hot Dog.  The humane society was going to check their records and get the contact information for the people who adopted him, and hopefully get some vaccination records and the story on why he was found wandering loose in our neighborhood for at least the two weeks prior to the Labor Day weekend.  As of today, there is still no news on whether we'll get to keep him or if his previous owners want him back &/or will be allowed to have him back.

We have started calling him Duke, because he walks like John Wayne.  Other less glamorous nicknames include the Duke of Flatulence and Mr. Stinky But.  When he puts an effort into it, he can clear a room.  His tests at the vet came back negative for feline leukemia and feline aids.  He doesn't have fleas.  His stool sample didn't show any cast off worms, but my husband noticed something amiss on his backside so Duke is being treated for tapeworm, and he also has an ear infection.  He eats like he has a tapeworm, and he seems to prefer eating Ember's dog food rather than cat food.  He really doesn't need the carbs.  A hyper kitten with a carb. buzz is a little terror.  Ember finds him entertaining.  Tigger is pushing approx. 20 years old now.  She is not the least bit amused, but there hasn't been any bloodshed, just noise - lots of noise at all hours of the day and night.  We should record it and put it on a motion sensor burglar deterrant recording; it could scare the crap out of a home invader.  Duke saunters up with his chirps and cute meow seeming to say "Well, hello little lady."

Tigger's reply is to hiss and growl, basically cat speak for "Get away from me you brutish cad; get out of my house and don't come back."

The kitchen throw rug must die!

Why can't I touch the fish?

No Tomato Shortage Here

 

This is after making a big batch of salsa and some pasta with seafood and tomatoes.

The garden continues to grow, and grow.

It is time to enjoy it while it lasts,

because sunset keeps arriving earlier and earlier.

Winter will be back all too soon.

Perhaps the next post will be time lapse photos of the attack of the killer pumpkin plant from the compost bin.

I guess that I didn't bury the seeds deep enough.

Why is it

that when I use my salad spinner, I think it would be really cool if someone made a motorized centrifuge for kitchen use?  Then I wonder what liability lawyers would do.  That is probably why we don't have motorized centrifuges for kitchen use.