Saturday, April 28, 2007, 16:59
Hang Onto Your Hat!
I would like to get some outside work done today. Uncover my rose bush. Maybe plant some lettuce. Dig around in some of my flower tubs and add a bit of dirt. A few things like that.
After I finished feeding the horses, I had to come into the house for a while though. I was practically blind. I don't know what's blowing around on the wind today, probably some mold spores and some tree pollen, but it sure did get to my eyes right away. I am right now waiting for the eyes drops to really do their jobs -- or rather, to pick up from where the antihistamines left off doing *their* jobs.
I don't know why we have to be under gale-force winds so much of the time, but so far this spring, it has seemed to be very windy.
The other day when I was on my way into the newspaper office, a truck was spreading lime on one of the big farm fields on the prairie. The "prairie" is one of the flat areas of the county. Actually, I think it's an old out-wash plain from one of the glaciers that moved through here -- that is to say, it's a flat area where the water ran when it was melting from the glacier.
Anyway, the truck was spreading lime and the wind was picking up the lime. I think that must have been a little bit what it looked like during the sand storms of the Great Depression. It was so bad that as the wind picked up the powdered limestone and blew it across the highway, you could hardly see more than a little ways down the road, making it difficult to tell if there was any traffic coming.
Last weekend I wanted to plant some lettuce, too. Same thing. So windy that it bothered my eyes and made my throat and ears itch. Plus I was afraid my lettuce seed would blow away while I was trying to get it in the ground.
The windy spring weather will probably delay the hummingbirds on their return. That's happened other years, too. Usually the hummingbirds show up the first part of May. One year it was almost Memorial Day before I saw a hummingbird. I heard on the news that the hummingbirds were delayed getting up north that year because they had a hard time flying with all of the strong winds.
Once the eyedrops really soak in, it will be much better for me outside. Then my rosebush (the one by the basement door) will be able see the light of day once again. And so will the garden mum that's planted next to the rosebush.
I'm going to be making coleslaw this afternoon too. We have another fund-raising dinner at church tomorrow. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, April 27, 2007, 21:38
Bundles of Joy
With a heavy heart and a sense of dread, I lay on my stomach Friday morning on the hay in the barn and shined the flashlight into the nest that Little Sister had made.
The bales are parallel to each other with maybe a foot between them. There are other bales over the top. And that's all we have left for hay, except for the bottom layer of old hay that we leave there as a base.
I could just barely see the old mother cat. She was curled up in the same position I had seen her Thursday afternoon. Thursday night she didn't come out for kitty food, and Friday morning, she hadn't come out for kitty food. Little Sister had come for kitty food. But not the old mother cat.
In back of the motionless cat I could see Little Sister watching me with her green eyes.
"Is everybody okay in there?" I asked. "Kitty, kitty! Hey! Is everybody all right?"
But still the old mother cat didn't move.
I got up and found the walking stick Randy uses when we go out snowshoeing. I went back to the nest, stretched out on the hay, shined the flashlight into the nest and gently prodded the old mother cat.
Nothing. Not a flinch. Not a growl. No movement of any kind.
"I've got to get some water for the horses," I said to Little Sister. "Then I'll be back."
I went up to the faucet outside the house to draw water. I was certain that the old mother cat had died trying to have her kittens -- or else she was critically ill.
Ever since she came here 7 years ago as a small kitten herself, the old mother cat has been wary. I've never been able to pet her, really. She's growled at me I don't know how many times. Just talking to her is enough to make her growl at me.
Her daughter, Little Sister, is a different story. She's friendly and purrs and will stop eating kitty food to get some pets and a neck rub or a scratch between her ears. But not the old momma kitty. If she didn't move when I shined the flashlight into the nest and gently prodded her with a stick, then surely she must be dead. And if the poor cat was dead, I would have to bury her. I couldn't just leave her in the nest with Little Sister and the kittens. If she was sick, I would have to get her to the vet clinic. I couldn't just let her suffer. She is Rocky and Juliette and Snowflake's grandmother, after all.
After I had filled the horse buckets, I went back into the barn.
"Little Sister," I said. "I'm going to pull this top bale back. But don't panic. I only want to see if everyone is all right."
I knew Little Sister had given birth to her kittens on Wednesday. When I went down to the barn Wednesday night, they had meowed when Little Sister left the nest to get some kitty food. It had bothered her so much to know that her babies were crying that she didn't even eat, but instead, went back to make sure her kittens were all right.
I grabbed hold of the bale and slowly began shifting it to one side. I didn't want to cause a general panic inside of the nest, if I could help it.
When the bale had moved a couple of inches, that's when I heard it. A low, menacing growl. The more I shifted the bale, the more the growling intensified. My heart began to beat faster.
After the bale had shifted about a foot, I looked down into the nest.
"GRRRRRRR!" said the old mother cat. She had jumped to her feet and was glaring up at me with murder in her eyes.
"You're alive!" I said.
"GRRRRRRR! Hsssssss!" said the old mother cat.
"You're alive! You're alive!"
"GRRRRRRR! Hsssssss!" said the old mother cat.
She stepped back a few inches -- and then I saw them.
Four, tiny newborn tabby kittens!
"And you've got kittens!" I said.
"GRRRRRRR! Hsssssss!" said the old mother cat.
In the meantime, Little Sister stayed in her part of the nest toward the back. I could see her eyes but not much else, so I don't know how many kittens she has.
"GRRRRRRR! Hsssssss!" said the old mother cat.
"All right. All right. I can take a hint," I said.
I carefully pushed the bale back where it had been.
With a spring in my step and joy in my heart, I went back to the house to finish a newspaper story.
The old mother cat was live! And we've got kittens in the barn!
LeAnn R. Ralph