Wednesday, June 21, 2006, 20:16
Thumps and Bumps
"What is that noise?" I said to Charlie.
It was Tuesday morning, and I had gone outside to give Charlie his breakfast. Charlie was tied up by the house. We've been keeping him tied up so he doesn't rip out his sutures.
Charlie's breakfast is somewhat complicated -- antibiotic because he still has the sutures, glucosamine because in spite of Lyme vaccinations ever year of his life, he has had Lyme disease four times and has some arthritis as a result, aspirin to help with any pain related to the arthritis -- plus dog food, of course, and maybe a little treat of some kind, which on Tuesday, happened to be a bit of leftover macaroni and cheese.
I set the bowl down for Charlie. And while I set the bowl down, I heard the strange noise again -- thumps and bumps that sounded like they were coming from just on the other side of the wall in the kitchen. I listened for a few seconds and then concluded that perhaps Sophie had found something to play with and was having a good time in the kitchen. Sophie loves to chase ants if she can find them in the house, and lately, a fair number of ants have been migrating inside. I think it's because it's so dry and they are looking for moisture.
Ants, as far as Sophie is concerned, are a BIG DEAL. The little gray kitty cat, who will be a year old in a few weeks (!), loves to pounce on the ants, and then with her feet skittering on the floor while she tries to get some traction, takes off and runs around the house and comes back to see if the ant is still there yet.
As I went back in the house, I heard more thumps and bumps. The noise did not exactly sound like Sophie going bananas over an ant, but then again, with Sophie, you just never know.
I went into the kitchen to make Pixie's breakfast, but Sophie was no where to be seen. Not surprising. Sophie does not stay ANYWHERE for very long -- unless she is sound asleep.
After the dogs had eaten their breakfast, I got the grain ready for the horses, picked up my container of kitten chow and canned kitty food I had mixed up earlier for the kittens in the barn, and then I went outside to do the rest of the chores.
A while later, I came back up to check on Charlie and to get his bucket so I could fill it with fresh water for him.
"Well, Charlie," I said, "there's those thumps and bumps again. What IS that?"
Charlie, of course, could not offer an insight.
I filled Charlie's bucket and went back to the barn to finish my chores. I cleaned up Kajun's wet spot in the barn and Isabelle's wet spot in her shelter. I took the picker around the pasture and picked up Kajun's piles and dumped them on the pile of horse manure by the pumpkins. I put some flyspray on both horses. And after that, I took Charlie for a walk, and when I tied him up by the house, I heard it again. The strange thumps and bumps.
"What IS that noise, Pixie?" I said when I came back in the house. Pixie is usually waiting for me by the door or somewhere closely where she can see the door when I am outside. Usually I let her go outside with me, but when it's hot and humid, I figure she's better off staying inside. Much easier for a long-haired dog to stay comfortable inside on a hot and humid summer day.
I stood there and listened to the thumps and bumps. And then another question occurred to me.
"Where's Sophie?" I said.
Sophie often comes to see me when I come back inside. Sometimes she is lying on the rug, waiting, sometimes sitting back a ways, watching the door.
"Soooophie!" I called.
But Sophie did not appear.
Just then, a thought began niggling at the back of my brain. Something to do with Sophie. What was it? What was it about Sophie?
"Sophie!" I said, rushing into the kitchen.
I opened the cupboard door beneath the counter where I keep the kitten chow and dog biscuits.
"Sophie?" I said.
"Chirrrrp!" said Sophie, hopping out of the cupboard.
"Sophie!" I said. "I'm so sorry."
"Chirrrp!" said Sophie.
As it turned out, Sophie had been shut in the kitchen cupboard for three hours. That's where all the thumps and bumps were coming from. And that's why the thumps and bumps sounded like they were coming from just on the other side of the wall when I was outside. The thumps and bumps WERE coming from just on the other side of the wall in the cupboard. Sophie had hopped into the cupboard when I got out the bag of kitten chow. She did not come back out when I put the kitten chow back in the cupboard.
I suppose I can't be too hard on myself for forgetting that Sophie was in the cupboard. Sophie hardly ever jumps into the cupboard for any reason. Some of the other kitties love to jump in the cupboard, particularly the bathroom cupboard when there is going to be a weather change, or when there's a storm coming, but Sophie does not do that. (Randy says the kitties prefer the bathroom cupboard when there's a storm coming because, you know, you're supposed to take refuge in a small interior room of the house without any windows.)
"Why didn't you say something?" I said to Sophie as she paraded around on the floor by my feet. The other kitties will yell at the top of their lungs if they want to get out of the cupboard.
I don't know why I expected Sophie to say anything, though. She is the quietest kitty cat I have ever seen. She "chirps" once in a while -- but she hardly ever meows. Some cats are talkative and are chirping and meowing all the time. But not Sophie.
I have no idea what Sophie did to occupy herself while she was in cupboard -- beyond making thumps and bumps. But I know what she did not do. She did not get into the bag of kitten chow. Thank goodness. Because if she had, I'd probably still be picking up pieces of kitten chow. It's a big bag. After all, there *are* nine kittens in the barn.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Tuesday, June 20, 2006, 19:20
Great Expectations
This business of the sky clouding over is getting old fast.
I mean, really.
It's the same story again and again -- the sky turns dark to the west, clouds build, the clouds start to look ominous, the entire sky clouds over, it sprinkles for 10 minutes. And that's the end of the rain.
It happened again today. First thing this morning, the sky was rather dark to the west. And it looked like it could be a bit ominous. The clouds kept building and building. And then -- it rained about 6 drops and quit. This afternoon the sky is still cloudy -- but it's not raining.
It is especially frustrating because west of here in certain areas of Minnesota, they are getting more rain than they need or want. They are getting so much rain that they are having flash floods, and the television stations are issuing flash flood warnings.
The weather forecaster on television last night said we are down 2 inches of rain in this area for June.
He did not say anything about May, April, March -- or the fact that we got so little snow during the winter and that it was dry last year and dry last fall.
And so we go through the cycle over and over of the sky clouding up, a few sprinkles and then that's it and nothing more.
I don't know why it bothers me so much that it is not raining. It's not like our livelihood depends on crops that need the rain. The problem is, though, that the earth needs the rain -- the trees need the rain, the grass needs the rain -- and the water table needs the rain. Not to mention that the wild black raspberries and blackberries and wild cherries need the rain. And it *would* be nice to get some vegetables out of the garden later on. (The wild grapes don't really need the rain. Grapes like it dry. But that's a different story.)
And speaking of the garden, I am having a hard time getting seeds to germinate this year. I planted a whole hill of cucumbers -- and got one plant. I planted a whole hill of sugar baby watermelon -- and got no plants. And I planted an entire hill of muskmelon -- and got one plant. Every few days I pour a little water over the seeds to make sure the dirt doesn't dry out because I know if the dirt dries out and the seeds dry out, they will never germinate. It's like the seeds know that it is too dry for them to grow.
The only things that are doing really well in the garden are the volunteer Roma tomatoes. (I think one of the volunteers is a cherry tomato, but I guess I won't know for sure until later on.)
The volunteers are growing by leaps and bounds. They have even surpassed, I think, the tomato plants I bought at the Farmers' Union. And when I bought the tomato plants, the volunteers weren't even up out of the ground -- otherwise I wouldn't have bought tomato plants.
Maybe it has to do with the survival of the fittest. The strongest seeds are the ones that germinate and so they end up being the biggest, healthiest plants. And if it stays dry -- maybe with volunteer Romas -- we'll get some tomatoes, after all. Then I can make salsa. And spaghetti sauce. And tomato preserves.
Computer --- I spent three hours yesterday afternoon trying to figure out where a formatting problem was in the computer file for "Where the Green Grass Grows." I am wondering if something got "off kilter" when the computer crashed and Randy had to reinstall Microsoft Word. I looked and looked for the problem. And Randy looked and looked for the problem when he got home from work. Finally he suggested copying everything, putting it in a Macintosh program, saving it, deleting the text from the other file, and cutting and pasting from the Macintosh program. This did the trick! The Macintosh program removed whatever hidden formatting tags were there that we couldn't find. It was frustrating, too, because the problem was literally in one line, from one page to the next.
Charlie --- I have an appointment for Charlie on Thursday to get his sutures out. I *hope* he can get his sutures out, anyway. His shoulder is looking puffy, and I'm not sure if it's more fluid build-up, or if it's just because of the trauma to the area. At least his shoulder isn't as ballooned out as it was before the drain tube was put in.
LeAnn R. Ralph