Monday, November 03, 2008, 04:45
Trick-Or-Treat and Other Pictures
We had Trick-Or-Treaters on Friday night for Halloween. For about the first 10 years we lived here, we never had any kids come for Halloween. But the past few years, it has been my great-nephew, Eli, and one of my Sunday school students, Emilie. This year, Eli came with his brother Sam.
Sam was born on September 18 of this year. He slept the whole while they were here. And as I found out, he slept through everything for Halloween. Sam came dressed as a chili pepper. It was just the cutest thing. The little green hat just slayed me.
Last year, Eli came dressed as Tigger. I wasn't home at the time. I was covering a meeting for the newspaper and didn't get to see him. But I saw him this year. He was dressed as brown cow with spots. He wanted very much to pet my Sheltie, Pixie, but she wasn't too sure about being approached by a little boy in a cow costome. I think Pixie thinks it is bad enough that my little gray kitty, Katerina, likes to chase her around the house. Katerina is one of the kittens from last fall that were like little cold stones when I rescued them at less than a day old and brought them in the house.
Emilie's costume was wonderful. Her dad made the costume for her for less than $15. He found the dress at Goodwill and made the staff and her "lamb" trick or treat bucket and decorated the hat. I told him he should teach classes on making costumes. She came as a fairie princess last year.
A week ago Friday, a little field mouse was perched on the windowsill outside my office. He stayed put while Randy took pictures of him. When I moved around inside the house, I could see his ear swiveling in my direction. I suppose he was looking for someplace to come inside and spend the winter. Now, listen here little Mr. Mouse. You do NOT want to be in the house. I have cats!
My little tabby BobbyCat loves to walk back and forth on the piano when I am trying to play (emphasis on the word "trying"). Either that or she just sits on the keys. She seems very pleased with herself when she walks on the keys or sits on them.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, October 31, 2008, 06:39
Indian Summer
We finally got Indian Summer here at Rural Route 2 on Thursday. I guess, technically, Wednesday was Indian Summer, too.
Thursday the high temperature was nearly 70 degrees. On Wednesday, the temperature was up in the 60s. It seems funny for it to be so warm when the trees have lost their leaves. Since we had snow on the ground on Monday, it can now officially be called Indian Summer.
I started a project on Thursday. When I had finished feeding the horses, I thought, "Oh, I should go for a walk around the hayfield." Pixie was already out in the hayfield snooping around. She likes to do that in the spring and in the fall -- go way out in the field on her own to follow her nose. The other night after we had finished feeding the horses, it was almost dark, and we didn't know where Pixie was. We eventually discovered she was way out in the field by herself. I don't really like to have her go out in the field at dusk seeing as the neighbor saw wolves at the end of his field this summer.
Anyway, as I was contemplating walking around the field, I thought, why spend time walking around the field when I could spend time walking *to* the field, pushing a wheelbarrow piled with horse manure. All summer I have been piling manure in Kajun's pasture, and it has to get hauled to the field sometime. So that's what I did.
I ended up hauling 12 wheelbarrows nearly halfway down the field to the shaley knoll. I figured if I was going to haul manure, I might as well take it where the ground is more shale than dirt. I kept an eye on Pixie all the while, although if she was attacked by wolves, I knew I wouldn't be able to get to her fast enough. She didn't stay down at the end of the field for long, though, and soon began to work her way back toward the barn.
All together, the pile in Kajun's pasture probably contains 100 to 150 wheelbarrows. If we don't get snow too soon, I might be able to get it hauled out this fall yet if I keep working at it.
I took a header in the shower Thursday morning. I was just thinking that the bottom of the tub felt awfully slippery -- and down I went. I fell in the best possible way, though, and only ended up banging my thigh on the side of the tub.
As I started to go down, I heard a tremendous crash in the bathroom. I thought, "What was that? There wasn't anything on the side of the tub I could knock off." But by then, I was down. Then the problem was, because the tub was so slippery, how could I get up? I sat there for a while and let the water rinse the soap out of the bottom of the tub and then I was able to stand up again safely.
When I pulled the shower curtain back, I found out what had gone "crash." Snowflake must have been sitting on the counter. She usually does sit on the counter when Randy or I take a shower. There were things scattered everywhere on the counter and on the floor. As I started to fall, she must have exited the bathroom in one leap. That's one thing about kitty cats. When they hear a noise, they leap first and look later. They have a healthy sense of self preservation.
As I was getting dressed, Henry, Katerina and Dora came in the bathroom, too, all weasel-necked and looking wary. They must have been wondering *what* was going on in the bathroom.
After my dad died (that was 16 years ago on Tuesday), we rented out the house for a while. When we moved in, the people who had rented had put those sticky rubber things on the bottom of the tub. Now I know why. I'll have to look for some of those myself, I think.
LeAnn R. Ralph
