Goodbye Tink and thoughts

We had to say goodbye to little Tink today, the little black kitten that wasn't even quite six months old.  We really don't know what happened to him - but suspect he ate something bad, or something that had eaten something bad (like a mouse or bird)... he was fine at nine o'clock last night, and dead before seven o'clock this morning... with no apparent injuries other than throwing up on the floor.  So very sad.. Esme had to see him as well before we took him out to bury him.  She was shocked, but maybe felt better for knowing... his eyes were still open - and that bothered her a lot.

Sorry to be so frank on all that.. it bothered me quite a bit, as well.

I had just woken up from a jumbled type of dream before I went down to find him - sort of lost in time in my own mind not sure if my mom would walk down the hallway in her cotton nightgown or not - realizing that hallway was far away, in time and space, but really just around the corner in my head - sorting out that I was no longer a child, .. that my mom had died, and would not be walking in at all - that I was asleep and dreaming, that I was the mother, and Esme was downstairs in her room in symbolic contrast to what my sleeping self had remembered at the beginning of the dream.. that if she did walk in it would be as a ghost - and wondering why my brain was even in 'that place' right now.  I backtracked to my dream self was thinking about she should be writing to my mom about Esme's school supplies and the end of summer/beginning of school -- it would be what I would do, as the 'change of season', to keep her updated, and send pictures etc.. an echo of things that I know would be happening, if things were different than they were right now.  My dream self didn't want to write that letter, or make that call.. the procrastination of the past six months or so with Mom that I had such a hard time communicating with her I would put it off until I had the mental energy..... I didn't even remember at first with that that the real reason to not write was that she was gone - and then feeling that I could still tell her in the dream - that she was nearby, but I would have to locate her - but not wanting to go and 'find' her... and ending up in the time jumble of she is nearby, just down the hallway, in her room, any moment she will come down the hall and check on me... and forcing myself to right my thinking and wake up...  I was about to pour a cup of coffee and come upstairs to write in my own dream journal about that dream.... when I saw the poor kitten laying oddly and not moving on the floor by the bathroom door.

Esme wrote a note and drew a picture of him in her Kindergarten notebook.. which she dug in her room and found after Mark took him away - saying she had to get her dream journal and write in it.

So oddly circular... strange day.
Tomorrow we give away the last of the puppies, we hope... and I have the weekend off.  Trying to fight a cold, myself.. tea and ginger.

harvest, and bits

 Tink sitting on one of our six week old puppies who are ready to be given away.  He had been asleep there not long before that... but woke up when he heard a camera!

Harvest tonight, squash, a single ear of corn, cucumbers, radishes, green beans and sweet peas.  That one squash really surprised me!  And there are more coming...I think the corn should be ready by the fourth of July, maybe a bit after.

There just doesn't seem to be much time lately... with work every day this week and taking Esme out to the library on Thursday.  They had a Spanish lesson that day that we did not expect - and Esme did VERY well at it.. surprised me quite a bit!  She had been quite good this week, as well - but has gotten very muddy and picking up lots of scratches learning to climb trees.  I guess that is what summer is for?  We convinced her into a bath tonight before we sat down together to watch the first half of 'Prisoner of Azkaban.'  It was very sweet all three of us cuddled up watching the movie.   I'm reading that one now on my Kindle...

I still haven't gotten the two pairs of pants even started that I wanted to... just no time, or no 'loose' time.  I should be doing more out in the garden than I am, as well.. it will soon kick into a production that will swamp us... I think.

Yellow pants, red zinnia, purple beans

Cosmos are finally blooming prettily.

Almost purple Minion cat (and baby) 

The kitten looks so much like her she is hard to see!

A harvest from the garden today. I haven't been out there in over a week 

but the rain really helped everything perk back up.  There was twice this 

amount of nearly everything when I got done...

A proud hopper that was sitting on a bean plant.

Pretty red zinnia. 

Esme clowning around on the tires. 

She looks so tall and leggy...

The Tennessee Greasy Bean, planted back in May? It is finally coming into it's own and producing like mad. These are huge green and purple variegated beans that turn green when cooked. 

These are the yellow 'stardust' pants she picked the fabric for. They are 26.5 inches long from waistband to bottom cuff and a size 5 sewing pattern.  They take a yard and a half to make - which costs about 4 to 6 dollars and an hours worth of time to sew.  Pretty good budgetwise... just have to kick myself over there to the machine to make them once I've bought the fabric, as such a 'quick and easy' project doesn't always have the allure that a dress pattern would, even though replacements are so necessary when she runs through the woods, plays chase with the dogs or sits in mud for three hours and the stains don't come out!

Another shot.. she was being 'rockstar' and also 'careful not to step plants in the tires'. That is one of the few storebought T-shirts she has and it is already too small (a size 4) and showing her belly when she puts her arms up.  The long sleeved shirt is a gift from her grandparents for last birthday and is a size 5 - still fits and she likes it.

We have the parent teacher conference today...

Corn devestation and other garden pictures

The storm the other night took out two rows of our corn. I went out there in the mud this morning and cleared out the stalks. We are going to plant pole beans in the place on a fence.


There was corn in all of these rows... and now there isn't :(


pulling the stalks out to mulch in another part of the garden


The older corn did not fall down
and has tassels and silked ears


The Shackamaxon beans were not an entire loss, these ones survived and there is still half the package in the freezer.


pinto beans out climbing their fence!

I was happily surprised to see a hummingbird drinking from the pinto bean flowers while I was out working in the garden. I did not know they liked them.


One of the first pinto beans maturing

I opened about ten pods to try to see what the differences were. Some of the pods were yellow, but were not spotted inside. This one was spotted inside, but green on the outside. The difference on this one was that when I began to squeeze the pod the beans moved around inside easily - they were no longer firmly attached to the skin inside.


This is Pollywog
she is Pogo's new mouser in training.


She enjoys hanging out in the garden with me and chasing frogs.


crookneck squash


peppers


tomatoes, all still green

We have strung the new fence for the pole beans and were letting the dirt dry out a little in the sunshine. It's time to go see what we can do with it. Esme is having terrible cabin fever but is afraid to go get dirty in the mud because she knows that means Mom will wash her hair. It feels odd to have her tell me 'no play outside, there is mud, I'll get dirty.' so matter-of-factly. I feel like I've been given a changeling!

LATER : It really does feel like we've gone over another horizon with Esme this week.... It seems like she has finally connected thought process on a whole range of things. I was given a 'like a Cinderelly bath' with a loofah full of water over my head today. She is saying 'follow me' and 'carry me' even though those words are VERY hard to understand (follow sounds like 'throw me' and 'carry' sounds like 'call' or 'kill'.. very hard to get unless you also pay attention to her hand sign and try to correct the word). She is also trying so hard to do everything 'help mom' and to copy us. After we went to town today she took some plastic keys out to the truck saying 'I go back to work' today and then came back in a few minutes later, stole Daddy's keys off of his desk saying she needed the 'right key.' She was in the driver's seat of the truck trying out keys to the ignition before he realized she had actually taken them outside.

We were both outside in skirts walking to the mailbox the other day and she said we were 'two girls mom, we got skirts'. When there was no mail we were 'sad' it was empty and going home. Today going to the mailbox she was rattling off about how we would be sad again so we shouldn't go we should send Daddy on the motorcycle to see if it was empty so we didn't cry. It was just a light-year ahead of even last week, even though there were a few little 'gaps' I could put two and two together to know she meant an idea bigger than she has expressed before.

I was being asked to play 'mama and baby' with my bare foot and her toes just a little while ago.. she was trying to feed them both invisible tea and plastic food on a table. It feels very odd to have your foot invited to sit at it's own place setting at a table!

Mostly what I am seeing is a better ability to say what she is thinking or describe what she has just seen/did has truly improved. She no longer has as much of the frustration or ambiguity of meaning that she used to have (I want a purple etc...). There are still a few times she uses a color or a simple word instead of the real word like 'oh the poor pink yellow it fall' instead of saying 'kite'.. but she had said 'kite' earlier, so it is just a matter of habit...

She was bitten by a horsefly outside today and was able to tell me exactly what happened, show me the bite and say it was a bug that was flying. 'Something bit me right here arm a bug.' I watched it for a while but her arm swelled a little and it was gone by bathtime. There was a while back when she would have answered 'yes' to any question - but when I asked her if it was a snake that bit her (hadn't seen it yet) she said 'no, a bug. a bug bite and go fly.' Also all afternoon we have been having tea parties with 'bugs bunny baby rabbit' toy and a dragon and she was pouring 'apple juice' out of teacups and baby bottles and telling everyone to drink their own cup and not drink out of other cups...

Esme and Suki

Suki is Esme's kitten. She is nearly all grown up now. Here is a little photo essay of what happened today after breakfast. It does not need much captioning. Esme loves Suki, and Suki is quite fond of her, as well. I swear they have their own language together.





'Kitty, you drink a all, right here!'




'You drink a all?'

And then she carried the bowl and her fork (yes, a fork) and put them in the sink.

Cat in a Box or A Toddler's Shroedinger Experiment

These are mail crates from our local post office used for carrying large amounts of mail for our small business. They are 'used properly' 95% of the time - but since they are also stored in our living space they became part of a toddler's shroedinger experiment tonight. She was testing the cat-in-a-box theory and PeanutNinja, our not quite six month old kitten, was being very tolerant of lots of rough play. In the first picture you can see the kitten's mother, Mitzi, looking on and supervising the entire process.

Esme also looks like a little ragamuffin in these pictures. It was just after her breakfast and before her bath yesterday. Then we went to town and did mail and groceries, and she had part of a BBQ sandwich from Trolingers. She was a happy camper. This morning her nose is running a little and after she finishes her cereal bar a warm steamy bathroom is waiting for us downstairs.



And, although it's no thing of beauty in its construction, I have finished the first of the wool woven slippers. It is positively warm to wear. I don't care if it looks primitive and funky. I want another one, now... but that will take a few more days to actually do. A bit of a woven band with a button around the ankle would make them look a lot better.

Esme's Crew

Esme and her crew
hanging out, thinking up what trouble to get into next.

WorkShop Day

It's been raining two days straight here - and we couldn't take the puppies to the flea market again. It seems like a good day to sit back and clean up loose creatures from the workshop areas.


Breaking up sock LOLrus fights

Pogo and Mouse agree it's a day to kick back

Have a Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Hope you're having a great long weekend!

Sleepyheads hang out together on the couch...

Assorted Stitches

I made a second, better changing pad this weekend, along with some experiments that didn't work out. I did a lot of sleeping at the beginning of the weekend, but have straightened out a little bit since then.

Instructions for Changing Pad (linked for searchers)

Pogo approves of this one and it's long 'tail.'


Folded up and tied.

I used some of the fancier stitches on the machine to get some practice. This blue fabric had some 'stretch' to it too, just a tiny bit, and it was challenging to work with.

I really should iron the flannel before sewing it up - it would make it look a lot better.

The dogs found this tiny copperhead (poisonous) snake in the house this weekend.
Mark was the brave one who both took the picture and caught it in a jar to dispose of it with. It wasn't too small to strike, and it did try. To get an idea of how tiny this snake is, the black hairs in the bottom right of the picture are dog hairs, and those white spots are spots in the floor pattern!

Bunny Quilt

I made this small 'quilt' yesterday. It is 24 by 32 inches. It's definitely not a 'professional' job, I made it on the fly out of my fabric stash. I'm really liking the quickness of the sewing machine, but will have to work on my accuracy with it more when things really need to be 'exact.'


'Bunny' quilt for Bazooka
Her crib, which we will probably order at the end of the month (since it takes two weeks to get in to the store) will be 34 by 20 inches. This small quilt can also be useful for covering up her car seat carrier or as a playmat. It isn't extremely heavy - just a layer of flannel in betweeen the top and the bottom. I can always make a bit bigger and/or thicker ones as well.


We picked up this nearly new car seat at the flea market.It looks a lot like the one on the shelf at WalMart. We found the instruction sheet for it online at the manufacturer's site and I ordered a new locking-clip for the seat belt on Ebay. If it gets a little cooler tonight maybe I'll take it out to the truck and see how it fits in there.


Pogo shows off her furry tummy and cute black-bottomed paws

Puck and Pogo : Round 10

Mark took these pictures of our 'ferocious animals' at play ;)

Pogo-ing at 50%, check back later for full recharge...

Baby Update: I could swear she has my thermostat on call in there -- in the morning I am freezing cold and sweating, and by the afternoon I am hot enough to strip. She is also MUCH more active the last few days - in frequency and strength. I can see her send the side of my stomach out about an inch when she gets a well-placed kick. I'll probably regret saying this later - but her kicks don't hurt yet, just feel like a hiccup going the wrong way.

My friend from high school suggested this is a good time to start reading to her, so for the past few days I've waited for her to be active and then read a chapter or so out of Little Bear. I've also been walking more than a mile every morning, weather allowing. It's a nice evenly paced walk - no pushing, and I'm not even tired when I get back, just warm, no matter what the temp is. I got an ankle brace for walking with today, hope it works - I have that one ankle I broke as a kid that has went out on me three times so far. No serious falls, and the ankle doesn't even hurt after it bends back the right way, but I end up with a bloody knee and a bit of worrying until I feel Bazooka kick again. Soon enough here, I'm going to have so much scar tissue on that other knee it just won't bleed!

Thanks for all the comments on the little shoes! I have plans for a few more small pairs (with alterations to the pattern) for back-ups :) They are so easy and fun to make!