Gardening

Yesterday a friend and I sat together to paint our wooden garden projects... we used to have happy Thursdays together where we would get together and paint weekly... but then came another season. Maybe this is the beginning of more happy days for another summer. I hope so because we have a good time and get lots of projects done, or at least started. I still need to finish the project we did today, which was painting signs to mark what things are growing in the garden.

Back at home....
I am shifting some things around a little in the beds and adding fresh dirt for topsoil. Nate helped me weed and transfer the dirt, so I was able to get a lot done. I planted some of the things that have been waiting for a place to grow roots. Peas and beans, (seeds that were soaking in water) and transplanted petunias with the beans. I also transplanted marigolds and planted nasturtiums seeds around the area I will plant tomatoes and basil. I am planning also to plant onions and leeks in with the tomatoes.

Most of the tomatoes I grew from seed. My favorite are Sweet 100's. I also bought some of the bigger varieties because my tomato growing needs some perfection.

Today, I also moved the kittens out from the porches. We had one set on the front porch and one set on the back. I was beginning to feel catrophobic. I really do not want cats on the deck or the porch, it's just where they kinda ended up. I have never really thought too much about having cats as a pet, like chickens or sheep, but as I moved them out away from the house and into the chicken pen, I thought, "why not?"

Of course, maybe I was a little inspired by pictures of cat houses on the web.

Mostly I was realizing that it's about time that the one set of kittens get out and explore. (I will perhaps sometime tell the story of being a mom to cats twice now in my life. Tans and Kenya (the mother cats) are bottle fed kittens.

Besides one of the dogs spent a whole summer carting the those two off and licking them for hours until they were plum tuckered out\, or someone caught her and took them away. Maybe she wanted a baby of her own? Maybe she liked cat lollipops, I do not know, but of late she has been eyeballing them. I could see that she was tscheming how to get a hold of a kitten as they were climbing up the fenced in area they were in. Using things I found around the farm I made them a cat area inside the animal pen with a plan to move them all where they would be in their own space and out of the immediate reach of the wanna-be-a-mother-cat dog. (Maddy)

It was pretty funny to see all the animals take turns coming over to see what I was doing and check out the new set up. I kinda think it has their approval, especially the cats.

The chickens were the first to check it out, then Kenya the cat (one of the moms) then Tanzania the other mother cat, then the dogs. everyone liked it, but Buddy the dog was a little suspicious that it might have been for him.

I used some old apple bins that we once used for the goats by cutting a doorway and turning them upside down, one bin for each cat. I folded three sides of an old broken wood box into a triangle and placed it his on top to shelter the cat food and water and make a lounging area for them too. I put their beds and playthings inside the boxes and used some old picket fence parts to encircle the whole thing. Made up of things around here, it will do until someone makes a better cat house

The other kittens have just opened thier eyes and have not come out of thier nest yet, but I am sure it won't be long. This was another good reason to move them. Now they will have grass and things to climb and be semi safe inside the fenced yard, as long as the hawks or other birds leave them alone. You just never know about nature. One year we watched as ravens stole baby ducklings and carried them away.

That was a sad day.

The cats are all out there now. They are being a little territorial with each other, which I expected, because Kenya is disagreeable most of the time with her sister cat (Tans) Their new living cat quarters is the next best thing to a barn.

Now I can perhaps finish my painting project and planting... tomorrow.