Catch up

The look of innocence.
Charlie says: What? Whaddya yelling for? I parfumed myself with Ode Raccoon Poo!

 Oh such is life on the farm and in the woods.

   

Charlie and I took some time Wednesday afternoon to just walk slowly through the forest and look for interesting things. He did the smelling and the rolling in icky stuff. I enjoyed the colors and the light.

That was before the killing frost and the 2.5 inches of rain. Those things kept me indoors which is fine because it was time to sort out the old mittens, gloves, and hats. Time to wash things up and change things out in the tiny little coat closet under the stairs.

I'm working on more projects that include sorting through stuff that hasn't been used in a while. There is a lot of it. There are tons of hunting clothes that are no longer used since hubby doesn't hunt any more. His blaze orange is rather old and torn up. It really needs to go in the trash pile.

But...he sort of wants to hang on to it. Oh the conundrum.

Pet sitting has gone well. See? Hissy Kitty lets me pet him. He even rubs up against my leg when I come into the house now.

It's been a bit of a juggling act to do everything [my chores & pet sitting chores] twice a day as the pet chores are about the same time as my regular chores. 

Plus I want to give the pets enough time and attention so they aren't feeling alone.

I took this on my morning walk with Tijo and Rupert. I must say, they have really do have great recall! [A baggy of tiny treats in my pocket insures they come when called]

We all got soaking wet the past few days when the rains poured down.

Though the rain was quite welcome after the long dry year we've had.

Saturday was a work around the flower garden day. I pulled out all the frost bitten flowers and carted them off to pile them in the woods. I had 5 little cartloads full! The wildflower garden in the side yard will not get pulled out. I'm leaving that for the birds to rummage through for the winter.

The coming week will be busy again. I have three days of appointments in a row and then I am taking my MIL's cousin out to lunch on Thursday. She's up there in age and we always try and to a lunch together to catch up a few times a year.

Looks like I need to use today to rest up for my busy week!

Taking care of the neighbor's pets.

 This is Cat. I don't know Cat's name but he/she was not pleased to see me on Sunday night. Cat just hissed at me. 
But apparently I was in better graces with Cat this evening...when Cat figured out that I provided the food.

I've never seen a reddish brown cat with black highlights. It is the most beautiful cat I've ever seen.

15 seconds. I really just wanted the first 5 second of hissing. 

This is Tiyo. He came home with my neighbors from Africa. I guess they adopted him while they were in Africa with the Peace Corps.

He is the most interesting dog I've ever met.

He is aloof and not aloof at the same time. He likes to be petted, but seems very cautious about it. I had to put eye drops in his eyes and he was a champ about it.
When I took him for a walk Sunday night, he tip toed through the snow as if it were almost distasteful for him to walk in.
Everything he does seems methodical.

I think I'm in love with him!

Rupert is their other dog. A larger mixed black dog with lots of hair that reminds me of a setter. His attitude is LOVE ME! He shouts without words and seems to be the epitome of joy. He prances around in the snow and dashes about willy nilly. 

Yeah, I love Rupert too. He apparently loves Everyone even Hissy the Cat.

I had to give Rupert his Lyme Disease medications. I opened his mouth and stuck the pills on the back of his tongue. He swallowed the pills and still was pleased with me being there.

These dogs were so well behaved! They came when I called them. I carried a leash with me the other times I took them out, but they stayed close and didn't wander off. Off course it was pouring rain and nasty out so we didn't spend much time outside.

Tiyo was not impressed by the icy driveway and tried to avoid it while Rupert ran across and slid like a cartoon character.

The dogs let me give them their meds without any fuss what so ever. Just call me floored at how good these two were. 

Meanwhile....the ice Monday morning was terrible. Olive texted me to tell me how bad the gravel roads were. Rain on cold frozen gravel roads = instant ice.

The driveway from the bottom of the hill:

The hill doesn't look steep from here. I set my little camera on the ice and shot this. YakTraks were the theme for the day. My camera slid down the incline. Good thing it is a waterproof pocket camera.

The temperatures rose all day long up to 40 degrees with heavy rain. I spread grit, sand, and hay chaff on the driveway Saturday and Justin had township sand/salt mix that he spread on the hill also.

By chore time the salt and grit with the warm rain had done a pretty good job on the hill. 

By evening, our area was socked in by thick fog and 39 degrees. Plus more heavy rain. The township finally came through and dumped a lot of gravel our little backroad. Sure, I could get out by late afternoon, but who wants to drive when you can't see more than 50 feet?

I need to get out on Tuesday and get milk, groceries, take the other half to his doctor appointment. Wednesday we are to get 4 to 8 inches of snow. Hmmm.

I like snow, especially if I don't have to drive about in it!

I hope I get to look after Tiyo, Rupert, and Hissy Cat again in the future. I enjoyed time with them and they loved the attention.