Poor Sick Kitty

I would like to introduce Callie to you. She's our 10 yr. old Calico. Our daughter J found her in the middle of the road where she had been hit by a car and left. She was bleeding from a head wound and the vet didn't expect her to live through the night. J called me after taking Callie to the vet and begged me to allow her to keep her if she lived. I made her promise that she would pay all the vet bills. Much to the suprise of all Callied lived. J paid all her bills. The vet told us that she wasn't certain Callie was out of the woods just yet and that we should quarantine her for the first month. That was 9 yrs. ago. Callie still doesn't like to have her head touched, in fact she doesn't let anyone but family touch her and then only for a few moments. She is not a lap sitter and she doesn't allow people to pick her up, not ever. She will allow me to pick her up to put her on the table where she eats but only because of the food. Otherwise it's hands off.

Both our cats are indoor/outdoor, in fact somedays I feel as though my only purpose in life is to open and close the door for the cats. For the most part we don't have any problems with injuries or fighting but sometimes things do happen. Callie came home the last week with a very bad limp.

We quarantined her to the house and thought it was getting better but then over the weekend we noticed that she was once again in a lot of pain. Sunday night she curled up next to me (and you have to understand Callie does not touch anyone on purpose and would never think of actually curling up next someone) and acted as though she was seeking comfort. I gently prodded her leg and discovered that the knee joint was particularly painful to her. She actually put her paw on my hand as though to say; "stop! that hurts!" I decided a trip to the vet was in order so G and I took her in on Monday morning.

Turns out that she had injured her knee joint and very badly. I was helping to hold Callie down as the vet examined the leg and was able to see that Callie has a lot of play in the knee, in fact if I didn't know better I would have thought she didn't have a knee. The vet said she probably injured it as a result of jumping from a high place. That makes sense because both Callie and Nigel like to go up on the roof. Swifts nest in our chimney and raise young each spring and summer, both cats would love nothing more than to dine on a nice, young, tender baby bird but the swifts are smart and nest too far down the chimney for the cats to reach.

The vet has confined Callie to bed rest. She is not to jump at all for at least 3 weeks. Callie is not pleased one little bit about any of this. First her knee hurts and now she is forced to stay in a lowly dog crate of all places. But as you can see we are doing out best to keep her comfortable. G bought her a large supply of tuna as a get-well present. Honestly the tuna is a foil for the meds the vet prescribed but Callie doesn't seem to mind that part. I made her a nice thick bed from two new foam cushion inserts, I covered it with an old towel and then put the fleece blanket on top, hopefully it will keep the leg more comfortable than sleep on the hard cage bottom.

So for the next 3-4 weeks she has to be confined to the crate. After that I thinking she'll be staying inside for several more months. I realize this could have happened t inside the house just as easily as it happend outside but I can observe in the house much better and make sure she get her rest when need be.

Callie stoned on Tramadol.

The vet was very nice and gave Callie some pain killers called Tramadol. If you are familiar with this drug you'll know that it also has the added side effect of mood elevation. In other words it acts like a pain-killer slash anti-depressant. It did make Callie a bit excitable so I am spreading the doses out so as not to cause her undue anxiety, she's already neurotic. But she's also very sweet in her own way and we love her. Hopefully this will heal on it on and we won't have to put her through a surgery to stabilize the joint.

Little Things

I know it's small and insignificant to most but I think details like this matter. I don't like things to look messy so I'm always trying to improve on things. Unfortunately I'm afraid that most people would never guess by the state of my house that I am this persnickety.

Most people know that the cords to blinds can be very dangerous to children and pets. We have a friend who had a kitten hang it's self on a mini-blind cord. For that reason I've always kept the cords tied well out of the way of curious hands and itchy paws.

But I've always thought this looked messy. And in some places like our big picture window I don't have anywhere to put one of those hook things you wind the cord around and honestly I'm not real found of the way they look either.

So I came up with this solution recently. I let the blinds down at far as I wanted them to go when closed, then I took the remaining cord starting at the top and using a very large hook I crocheted it into a chain and pulled the little ends through to finish it off. Now it doesn't look so messy but is still out of the way of small children and my kitties.

You can do this without using a crochet hook by simply making a loop at the top and then pulling a loop of cord through it over and over to create a chain.

Go here to see how it's done. Or search on crochet chain to find lots more examples.

Hot Peppers

For the past couple of summers G and I have been selling produce grown in our garden at the local farmers market. We usually only sell for a couple of months when the tomatoes are producing at their peak. Once they start to slow down I don't have so much excess so we call it quits until the next summer rolls around.

Last year I also did very good business with hot peppers. Most of the vendors don't offer hot peppers because for some reason this area hasn't caught onto the love of hot foods, ( I mean the truly tongue blistering hot that some crave). And I will have to clarify this by saying hot is not my favorite flavor either but G loves it, so we grow them. I figure to each their own and with the turn over I was doing in peppers last year I decided to look into other ways to use and sell hot peppers.

Since the vendors at the market where we sell don't offer a lot of hot peppers I don't have a lot of competition. It's a niche market that I plan to explore more this year.

Once the tomatoes were finished producing the peppers where still going strong but I didn't really have enough of them or do enough business on peppers alone that I could justify booth rent, not to mention getting up at 4am to make it to the market on time for opening. But I couldn't allow my peppers to go to waste either. so I made 'pepper sauce' with some, pepper jelly with others and dried the rest. I plan to add these things to my booth and see how they do this year.

G identified the variety of Cayenne that were the hottest, I sorted them out from the rest and dried them. Once they were dried I cleaned the seeds from the inside and dried them a bit longer, until they were as crisp as old parchment. Then I ran them through a small coffee grinder I use just for herbs and made a powder for seasoning chili from them.

I can't tell you how pleased and impressed I was with myself. I planted those peppers and took them form garden to spice rack all on my own. But I'll admit I did "re-learn" some things the hard way. First of all, always and I do mean always, wear gloves when handling hot peppers. I got the oils from the peppers under my nails and in my cuticles and it stayed their for almost 10 days. Needless to say I also got it in my eyes and mouth.

Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days,

and warm your heart and home.

May good and faithful friends be yours,

wherever you may roam.

May peace and plenty bless your world

with joy that long endures.

May all life's passing seasons

bring the best to you and yours!

I thought you might enjoy this slide show as well.

I've been fascinated with the Ireland and the Irish since childhood and have always fancied myself to be at least part Irish, even if it is a very distant part. I certainly have the pale skin, blue eyes and temper to suggest that it may be so.

Legacies

Like most, my family wasn’t wealthy. There was no money, jewelry or land to pass down to the children or grandchildren. Our family considered themselves to be fortunate if there was money for a funeral. Nonetheless my family passed along legacies to it’s children. One that was passed on to me by my mother and grandmother (all the grandchildren called her Mam’Maw) was the legacy of needlework.

Mam’Maw was an awesome seamstress and was skilled in many other forms of needlework as well. She could reproduce a dress simply by looking at photos. Many of my school dress where made by her. The dresses fit perfectly and looked as though they came from the Sears catalog because that was most often her inspiration. I'll try to add a couple of pictures later but first I have to get the scanner figured out.

Since Mam’Maw raised me I was always there when she was sewing. I would watch her every move, totally mesmerized by the processes of cutting, pinning, stitching and so on. Like all small children I wanted to do what I saw the adults doing, I would beg her to give me a needle and let me try. Finally one night when I was about 4 she gave in and handed me a real needle, thread and swatch of fabric. She showed me how to do a running stitch and then let me play. I think she may have even given me a button or two.

There were no toy needles back then, she gave me the real deal but admonished me very sternly that I was only allowed to use it while she was with me and that I was to put it back in pin cushion so no one would get hurt. She told me that if I didn’t follow the rules I wouldn’t be allowed to use her things again. I enjoyed sewing so much that I carefully followed those rules.

Needle work just seemed to come second nature to me. By the time I was in my early teens I was making my own clothing. Remember how carefully we picked out the outfit we would wear that first day of school. It had to be just right so as to favorably impress the other students and teachers. The first day of sixth grade my outfit was one I sewed myself. I still remember it. It was a Madras plaid, hip length tunic over a pair elastic waist bellbottoms. I didn’t like the elastic but I wasn’t skilled enough for flies yet and since no one could see the waist I felt I could live with it. My results weren't seamstress quality by any measure but they were pretty impressive for a 12yr old if I say so myself.

However teaching someone to sew, crochet, knit, quilt, embroidery, does not come easy to me. I just don't have the same aptitude for teaching the skill that I have for doing it. Part of the problem is my own patience, I would rather being doing my project than teaching someone else. And that, I am sure, is the reason my skills didn’t get passed down to my children the way I had hope. They each can do a few things but none of them are truly skilled.

I'm not sure what it is but there something about being a grandmother that makes teaching come much easier. I not sure if it’s more maturity on my part or if I am not so pressed for time the way I was while raise 3 of my own.

So I’ve decided to try and teach M a little of what I know so that maybe she won’t be so inept with needle and thread. I started out trying to teach her to crochet but that didn’t go so well. Recently I’ve been letting her sew a bit on my machine. She seems to truly enjoy it, it’s the only thing I’ve found that will get her to put down the game system willingly and without demands on my part. All I have to say is, “do you want to sew” and she’s ready.

We’ve been doing small projects like and old school bean bag and an apron from a panel. But I think she’s ready to move up to patterns and learn to pin and cut properly. I think we’ll try a pair of pajama bottoms next.

Honestly I don’t know why I didn’t think of sewing panels and such with my kids but no need in crying over spilled pins now just move forward with what’s in front of us.

Saving the planet one paper towel at a time

Not really but maybe I can save few trees and a little change a long the way.

Today I did it. I sat down and sewed. It was nothing fabulous but it made me happy to sit at my machine and create something useful to me.

I want to stop using so many paper towels to dry my hands but I don't want cotton towels laying on the counter top. I've actually had a couple catch fire because I didn't realize how close they were to the burner. So I would hang them on the oven handle only to have them do this...

I don't want to dry my hands on a towel that has been on the floor and I was tired of going through 2 or 3 towels a day trying to keep a clean one on there. And I don't want to continue to use rolls of these each week just to dry my hands.

So when I saw this on the Martha Stewart site I thought what a wonderful answer. Well I tried doing it that way but I didn't really like it because it wasn't all that easy to use. So I made it hang the above way instead. All I did was sew the stripes of velcro about 4 inches apart on one end of the towel but you'll want to check your oven handle for the perfect fit.

BNOTP Give Away

Between Naps On the Porch is having a giveaway of the most adorable tassels ever. I'm sure that whatever your decorating style you could find the perfect spot for one of these amazing creations.

You can view even more tassels by the maker of the two in the giveaway here at The Tassel House.

Brambleberry Cottage ~ 14 Days of Love

This is about a week late but still worth mentioning. Liz at Brambleberry Cottage is having a

"14 Days of Love Party".

The instructions and requirements can be found here.

Best Friends

Love can be found in the most unusual places.

Check out the paws.

This really gave me a chuckle. Not too many cats willingly

go into crates but Nigel seems to like sleeping with Toby.

Ultimate Gift for the Gadget Junky

It’s our family conundrum. What do you buy the family gadget junky. You know he already has every gadget on the market.

G has every gadget known to man. He started collecting gadgets in his youth and still has most of them. We have gadgets from every decade. We have gadgets in every drawer, cupboard, cabinet and closet of the house. We have techie gadgets. We have mechanical gadgets. We have gadgets for every need, both real and imagined. We have gadgets for our gadgets.

But even knowing this proclivity of his it’s still hard to know what to get him because the market is always being flooded with gadgets and of course we always want to get him a gadget that he’ll truly enjoy.

But this past Christmas K truly excelled and came up with the ultimate gadget. This gadget is not only the latest and greatest but it’s awesome to look at as well.

I sure you’re wondering what makes this gadget so wonderful

, just exactly what does it do and why anyone would need such a contraption.

Well friends the answer is; Nothing.

That’s right, this gadget does absolutely nothing. And that’s exactly what makes it the ultimate gadget.

But you have to admit it’s pretty awesome to look at ;o) Makes him look a bit like Mad Eye Moody, don’t you think?

We've lived in NC for the last 14 yrs. and in that time we've never had 3 snows in one season. This year we've had 3 snows in less than 30 days and 2 of them have been 8 inches or more.

They are so beautiful to watch. Especially if you can be inside with a warm fire and a good book or a favorite old movie. And they leave behind some charming sights.

But eventually provisions will run low and you will have to leave the house or start eating berries.

That's when the charm of it all wears off and you're faced with reality and day to day living. And as the locals will tell you, there is nothing charming about black ice.

But in all honestly, we love the snow so much that we're willing to tolerate that down side of it all.

CraftyPod - A blog and podcast about making stuff

One of the most awesome craft blogs I've found in a long time. There's new stuff and loads of vintage stuff as well. This is one of those blogs you could spend all day just following link after link looking with amazement and wonder at all the crafty goodness and wishing you were a cat so you'd have an extra 8 lives to make all of it. I'm not even sure 8 extra lives would be enough time to do half of the stuff that looks interesting but wouldn't it be fun to try.

www.craftypod.com/

There's a flickr group as well, so you can spend another day just looking at stuff other people have made.

www.flickr.com/groups/1300628@N20/pool/

Have fun :o)

Strangely Lovable; Lovably Strange

For some reason Nigel prefers the old gutter drain as his entrance and exit to the back door rather than using the steps to the deck. Although it's rather strange it is amusing all the same.

Be it ever changing there's no place like home.

First of all I need to tell you I am not a sports fan. I simply can not sit in the same room where ‘the game’ is on the tube without grinding the enamel off my teeth. But I bear it in silence because G likes it and he never says a word when I watch Martha Stewart.

With that said I must share with you that I am very sad today. Today Bobby Bowden coached his last game as head coach for Florida State University. I grew up in Tallahassee and although I’ve never been a fan of sports and I’ve certainly done my share of cussing when the students would return each fall with the cars daddy bought them to clog our streets and act as though they owned the place it was still home.

G also grew up in Tallahassee and although he and I have lived in several other cities since becoming adults Tally Town has always been home. It’s the place we return to were people know us and greet us in the mall and parking lots and ask about our kids and parents by name. It’s the place where we know all the street names, which directions they run and what roads to take at certain times of day to avoid the traffic. It’s the place where we can get from point A to B without a map or a GPS.

We know where to go to get local cuisine and are not surprised at what the locals consider a delicacy. What I wouldn’t give for some smoked mullet right about now.

It’s the place where we know if your local by the way you pronounce Wakulla. And we know you’re a certified native if you can pronounce Kissimmee, Wewahitchka, Withlachoochee, Choctawhatchee, and all those other double ee words our home state is famous for.

It’s where people from the North think we’re from Alabama and people from the South think we’re from “up North” based on our accent.

It’s the place where no matter how long we are away we can return and fall right back into the rhythm of the city without any effort.

But today something very fundamental about our home has changed forever and I have to say I’m more than a little sad about it. Home is just not the same without “The Coach”.

But it’s a new year and we must go forward.

In this New Year my wish for the entire Bowden family is peace and prosperity and may Coach Bowden see many more New Years to come.

2009 - The Year of New Beginnings.

2009 has been a year of changes, uncertainty, close calls and near misses. There has been financial uncertainty, near fatal illnesses, and mind numbing catastrophes, but God is good and He has seen us to the other side of each of those events and inspite of all of the drama we’ve also had some awesome rewards and priceless gifts.

I am a glass half full sort of person so instead of focusing on all the bad I’ve decided to see 2009 as the year of new beginnings. J has a new husband, G has a new diploma, T has a new son, K is home and starting a new life as a civilian. And me, well I’ve got a better grasp on what means the most to me, who I am, who I hope to be and what I hope to accomplish in the coming year.

Below are a few pictures of the highlights of 2009.

1/2/09 J & J got married.

March - Toby came to live with us and we are very glad he did.

May - G graduated from High Point University with honors.

Little J was born. Grandchildren are the reward

that makes coping with your own children worth the strife.

K finished his tour of duty and came home.

The quintessential totem of new beginnings

and it hatched right in my own kitchen.

I wonder if just maybe God was trying to tell me something.

The Power of Words

The Power of Words

A careless word may kindle strife;

A cruel word may wreck a life.

A bitter word may hate instill;

A brutal word my smite and kill.

A gracious word may smooth the way;

A joyous word may light the day.

A timely word may lessen stress;

A loving word may heal and bless.

Author Unknown

Cute Holiday Package Ideas

I love to surf the containier store. I fantasize about getting things in my home organized and easy to find. Mind you I do ok but it's never as good as I would like it to be - I confess, I'm a frustrated prefectionist.

I'm also always looking for cute and crafty ideas that are easy to do but look great.


Today while surfing The Container Store today I found this list of packaging ideas and thought you might want to have a look. The way they put all the parts together on one page so that you could do one click shopping.


BTW I tried it and it figures out just what you need to make all your packages. Such as, I told it I needed 20 Christmas tree jars (thankfully I don't really) and it add 20 jars, 2 packs of labels and 2 reels of ribbons to the cart, not 20 of each. High 5 to the programmer who wrote the code and to the company for realizing they needed to do it that way.

My apologies, I just realized I forgot to add the link. The Container Store Christmas package ideas.

More Sickness

Four O'clock in bloom by our deck. They are night bloomers

and like most of that family they smell devine.

T, our oldest daughter is in the hospital with pneumonia as well as other medical problems. She had to have a bone marrow biopsy today. We won't have the results for several days. So until she is much better and they know exactly what's going on she will be in the hospital, that's exactly where she needs to be so she can get some much needed rest.

So it may be several weeks before I can come back but, I will be back soon as things are better around here.

Houseplants - Brown Tips and Salt Burn

Why do the tips of my houseplants turn brown? The answer is there can be several reasons but, I thought I would share with you about one particular reason that I discovered a few years back.

Certain houseplants are very prone to brown leaf tips more so than others. Two that come to readily to mind are Spider Plant (no they don’t have spiders in them) and Lucky Bamboo (and I can't say it's ever brought me any luck). For years I’ve had the same problem with my plants and I’ve asked every “plant person” I’ve come in contact with the same questions; What am I doing wrong? How do I make the brown tips go away? The answer I received most often was “I don’t know”.

To me (and most folks) the obvious answers are water and fertilizer more. Turns out that both are the very worst things I could have done. More water will only cause the leaves to turn yellow and/or mushy making the plant look all the worse and eventually die. More fertilizer caused more and larger brown tips.

After asking every plant person I met (both professional and hobbyist) I finally stumbled on an answer that made sense and turns out the prescribed answer really does work.


Brown tips on plants such as Lucky Bamboo and Spider Plant are most often caused by a thing called ‘salt burn’. Salt burn happens when the roots of the plant come in contact with more salt in the soil then they can cope with. This causes small, often totally unnoticeable burns on the roots that in turn keep the roots from doing their job - taking up water and nutrients. Although it's rarely fatal it is very unsightly.

Most all commercial fertilizers are made up of salts such as potassium and nitrogen (the chemical used to green up your lawn grass). Water from City supplies are treated with chlorine; another salt. For the most part the first two are good for your plants, the third not so much. These chemicals are also good because without them we would be a very hungry nation and without chlorine in our water we would be a very sick nation. But there are certain plants (Bamboo and Spider plants are only two) that are negatively affected by these chemicals and with a little knowledge and training we can lean to recognize the problem and treat it properly.

The best treatment for salt sensitive plants is to avoid it by feeding with natural fertilizers only when necessary (which is much less often than you might think) and by using aged water.

The truth is that Lucky Bamboo and Spider plant only need to be fertilized once a year at the beginning of the growing season, and again about mid-July if you must. Use only naturally occurring fertilizers such as fish emulsion at ½ to ¼ strength, you can also water with compost tea but again I would make it weak and keep it down to 2 times a year at the very most. Or you can top dress (sprinkle the top of the soil) with worm castings, also called vermicompost.

Ageing your water by filling the watering can and allowing it to sit open for at least 24 hours will allow the chlorine to evaporate off. When you water be sure to allow the water to soak the soil completely and run through the pot for several seconds each time you water. This will help to wash away any salt build up.

Another way to recognize salt build up is by looking at soil in the top of your pots. If, when dry, it appears yellow and/or white and crusty then you have salt build up. This often happens in African violets that are fertilized with commercial fertilizers. The best way to deal with this is to scrape the bad soil from the surface being sure to get all the yellow/white crystals, replace it with fresh soil and water thoroughly with aged water.

The brown tips on the houseplants in the pictures are the result of a long vaction under the trees being watered with the hose. Even us plant folks take the shortcut sometimes.

Do you have a houseplant related question? Email me at sojourn1960@hotmail and I’ll try to help you find the answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicomposthttp://web1.msue.msu.edu/imp/mods1/00000089.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/publications/houseplant/houseplant.html

Swine Flu

Our family has been having a round of swine flu. It started with the g-daughter, then passed to me, then to G and then to T all inside of about 10 days. None of us are over it and I think I'm having a small relapse. I know it will pass one day but right now that day seems a long, long, long way off.

My prayer is that no one else gets it and if anyone does that they will have a very mild case of it. Please keep your hand sanitizers close to you (buy one for your purse and also one for the car ) and make everyone around you use them as well.

I will be back... one day.