It is all in Black and White

There was a black and white challenge in Facebook last month. I was challenged by my missionary friend, Tamara. So I dove into it. My daily coffee grind.

My garlic passion

current project

ongoing projects

rest spot

future project

our farm footwear

My ammo

Queen Pumpkin

Finally the harvest of the last of the winter squashes in my living room. All are cured and ready for a long winter.

This is Puff A.K.A. Cotton Ball. She is ignoring me and trying to catch a bird or mouse. She is only outside during the day as she trees herself at night. Plus owls and coyote would love to eat her. The two boy cats are fine outside. While Puff was a farm foster kitten delivered by a person with a van full of her litter mates, she is no toughie. She is super soft, fat and round and is no farm cat. But she thinks she is and tries to be. She is spotless and super clean and stays that way even after rolling in the dust and chasing a chicken. She wants to grab a chicken badly. But our two shepherd will have none of that and chase her under the firewood pile for doing so. She does not like our dogs but tolerates them to a certain point. Then she comes inside to be adored like the queen she is.

November Frost

My constant companion these cooler days has been little Frosty. While we have other cats, this foster kitten has found our home to be his. Not a single call did I get for him. So after 2 months of postings and posters Frosty be ours.

As I work from home Frosty is always with me.

Under my desk, sewing table, sewing machine, bathroom and bed. He is at my side all the time. When I am away from the house he goes with the adult cats. He plays and runs with them and even naps with them.

His coat is very short and he is always seeking warmth. He is not old enough to go outside yet as the the other cats do.

Huge ears and pink nose and short silver hair.

Mmmm, good to be in a home.

Here be Frosty

We have had no takers for my foster kitten. Yesterday at the vet's office needed his rabies shot and a name. The vet tech asked"how about Frost?" So I am calling him Frosty since he is a silver tabby. He has a spotted silver belly as well. His spots look like the cat paws on our then frozen pond. So for now he will be called Frosty.  On a side note last night got down to 50 degrees here in the Ozarks. Open windows and cold, just perfect for us.

My Cooking Class

I have been trying to find good veggie recipe that do not fry everything. We have a lot of veggies this year. Especially for egg plant. I am happy to find a series of cookbooks with steps and most important, PHOTOS! I am a visual person and photos help a ton. The series My Cooking Class has step by step real photos (not 80's sketches) on how to go about cooking Indian foods, sauces, cakes etc. And they are great! If you are a beginner or advanced this will help round out your eating options. Here is a book review of the series:

Better Than Store Bought Cookbook

One great cookbook I like to use is called Better than Store Bought by Helen Witty. It is from the 80's but is quite good at filling in the holes of cooking from scratch 3 meals a day. You can make your own sauces, condiments, sides all popular in restaurants today from scratch. Not many photos but still a good go to book. Witty also wrote the Good Stuff Cookbook which also is in the same category of 1980's type recipe cookbook, more prose than photos.

Pioneer Days

Every October the nearby town has Pioneer Day. People can bring their crafts, art and goodies to town and show off. People dress in the pioneer garb of the time. Horses and carts along with music and dance.

We helped a friend with her booth of handmade quilts, dolls and rugs this year.

Here she is showing the bank people how to make rope the pioneer way.

Our last guest of the day asked for crochet lessons. Our friend had nothing to eat all day and was eating and teaching at the same time. She just likes to help people no matter what.

No Name

Here is our foster kitten now 10 weeks of age. He is a male silver tabby and is ready to get a new home. We have adult cats and try not to keep foster kittens. I am usually able to get them re-homed in short order. That is until this guy. Seems this fall in the Ozarks means a lot of kittens needing homes.

He is adapting well and growing into a great cat. We give our foster kittens horrible names so we do not come attached to them. I called him dirty nutsack as he never cleaned himself. But now he is older and cleaner and worth naming. I am still hoping someone wants him but so far no nibbles.

Here he is fighting/playing with Cotton. We have not a single idea what to call him.

His favorite green piece of fluff.

Looking outside.

More playing

If no one wants him he will be added to our herd after neutering. We really like cats and they are great. But we prefer to raise them and send them on their way. After he is fixed we will have invested more money and time and will keep him.

No Phony Me

I watched a funny video about cell phones. Just love Ginger Billy and his Facebook postings. He says what I am thinking. https://www.facebook.com/ComedianGingerBilly/videos/485103208518757/

Cell phones are one of my major pet peeves. People use them constantly like my husband does for everything. Calendar, alarm clock, map, phone, TV, music and constant news and chat feeds. I have a very old flip phone the size of 2 clothes pins. It does not surf the web, it can't take photos, it can only be used like a phone, if I remember to turn it on or charge it. Has it even come in handy? No. Not once, not ever. I carry maps with me, I am good at directions. I can drive without any distractions. I can carry on a conversation with a real person in front of me for the entire event without looking at my phone, because it is not on. Do I get calls? Yes, from telemarketers texting me and calling me. I do not give out my cell number to anyone only my husband has it. Why? Because if I want to talk to my friends I will call them or use Facebook when I get home. I do not need 10,000 distractions for what I am doing, living.

I miss seeing peoples faces and only see their scalps. I feel like a hairdresser sometimes. Cell phone users are too busy looking down. Cell phones give people a false sense of knowledge and connection. In reality it makes them dependent on a device and they are not connected with people. And they pay a lot of money for this.

I only see this as getting worse and not better and a lot more expensive to USA users. In other countries they have it so much better. Even the poorest have state of the art phone and great reception and connection. They take care of their phone and use it when needed like for war, fires, floods, work and also -life. The rest of the world gets along great with phone technology. But our nation is so far behind in culture, tech and manners. I prefer to just let it go.

Cotton Tree

Yesterday, we let our female cat, Cotton, outside at night to get out her aggression. She is fixed and a bit dominant to the other cats in the house. I go out at night to check on her and she has treed herself. I called and coaxed with cat food and our 2 males helped, no go; she was not moving from that 15ft limb. I decided to go back to bed and deal with her in the morning. At about 3:30am my husband wakes me up with that cat successfully rescued from the tree. He climbed up the ladder in the dark and got her out the tree. She had gone down to a lower branch. Cotton then stayed with Alan all night long, in bed and at his feet in the office. He is her hero, me, not so much.

Blue Me Away

I made this quilt 2 years ago for a young woman going to college. She is now about a year away from graduating and getting her Ag degree. This quilt is still vibrant and doing well. So worth buying high quality fabrics, washing to test for fugitive dyes and then using them in a quilt.

Re-Chaired

Over the weekend we stopped at a huge yard sale of a friend. They go to auctions and buy up what is not sold. So a lot of chairs, file cabinets, desks and electronics. I tried many of the office chairs they had outside. I have my husbands old one and it was not floating my boat. This one came with tools under the seat and was easy to take apart. The wheels and stuffing were good and it had no weird smells from storage.

There was a large one with red peeling vinyl that was in good shape but needed re-upholstering. I have a huge stash of car upholstery scraps I picked up for free years ago. I had been using the scraps for wrapping antique furniture we ship.

This time I culled the tan and brown scraps and sewed them up for a new seat and back for the chair. I had to use corn starch to slip the new fabric over the old vinyl. I them used teddy bear faux fur for the arm rests- luxurious! So now I have a nice new to me comfy office chair that matches my used rug. I love the color and the textures of the fabrics. It is like sitting on a giant teddy bear. Every office chair should be this fun to sit in.

Foster Kitten at 7 weeks

Our tiny orphan silver tabby male is growing fast. 

He gets his first kitten shots next week. Soon I will find him a new home.

He is off the bottles and now eating solid foods.

We do not name our foster kittens so we do not get too attached. Or if we do we call them awful nicknames- this one is Nutsack. It makes it easier to give them new homes.