Pockets a Pet Story

 

Yesterday, Manly took me out to eat breakfast at the Cotton Gin. As the name would imply, the eatery is in an old cotton gin. We were driving on the service road of 175 and a tiny kitten was cowering right in the middle of the road. There are no houses anywhere near this spot. Someone, who has earned some seriously bad karma, had dumped this little black calico kitten. She was bound to get run over or die of thirst. When I say tiny, I mean about the size of a tennis ball tiny.

Without even looking at me, my man pulled over. I jumped out and scooped the poor little thing up. She did not run away, that's right, this kitten is not wild (how bad should that karma be?).

When I tried to feed she choked because she was trying to wolf it down too fast. We got her a little wet food, which I usually don't feed, but she is just too little for the hard stuff. I put a tiny litter box made from the lid of a Tupperware container. She immediately used it. That's right people, this kitten is litter trained(evil dark karma?). Did I mention, she is about as big as a tennis ball.

I posted our situation on Facebook, and had a home for her within an hour. She will be living with my best friend. Sometime this weekend, she will go to her new home. We are just trying not to get too attached to the little thing. The picture above is her hanging out in the pocket of Teenage Monkey's hoodie. We are calling her pockets now, but I am sure Meme will come up with a better name.

This Time Somebody Has Gone Too Far

I have to share a bathroom with the Monkeys. I do have my own vanity and sink, but it is only sacred ground to me. To them, it is a science experiment. My makeup, perfume and moisturizers are the chemicals. One time, they put my makeup and perfume on the dog. That’s right, eye shadow, blush and Chanel #5 on a German shepherd.

Last week one of them Baby Monkey who will remain unnamed put the baby powder in the bathtub while he was taking a bath. He also used all of my fancy spa bath gel. He smelled really good, but he looked a little ashy.

There has been tooth paste on the toilet lid. The shower curtain and a towel were once caught on fire. There is always a layer of water, dirty clothes and the smelliest sneakers I have ever smelled in my life on the floor in there.

Once a week I have a fit and fall in it. Then, and only then, they clean it up.

They have gone to far this time. Baby Monkey Someone is messing with my hair stuff. The reason this is important is because you should not mess with a woman’s hair stuff just on principle. However, when a woman has curly hair, the hair stuff takes on a whole new level of importance. Curly haired women need products, lots of products. On a mildly humid day just a little mousse might work just fine. On a rainy windy day gel, smoothing serum and a cream detangler may be necessary. Every once in a while a ponytail and pomade will make for the perfect hair day. This happens about three times a year. Those are very special days. Most days, I am just trying to keep it from looking like a bushy tailed squirrel is living on my head.

I am considering running away to an all female convent where all the nuns have curly hair and take a vow of leaving each others stuff alone.

Mole Sauce

The peppers, they were labeled wrong. I was supposed to get Serrano, habanero, and jalapeno. I got habanero, jalapeno, and cayenne. So my After Burner sauce will be missing the Serranos this year. I also had to figure out what to do with the cayenne peppers. I concocted a hot season salt with them that has yet to get a decent name. Trish suggested George. Silly.

I am finally harvesting the jalapeno peppers. I usually just preserve them in a little white vinegar, but there is always way too much left over every year. I hate wasting them. So I did a little searching and found Mole (Mo Lay) sauce. This sounded good. For my version I roasted five jalapenos on our grill and then dehydrated them. Then I placed them in our food dehydrator over night. I was planning on storing them or I would have skipped that step.

This morning I decided to try a mole sauce. I put the peppers in our mini crock pot and added about a cup of water and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar. After a couple of hours I added 1/3 cup of brown sugar, fresh ground black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon each nutmeg, paprika, cinnamon, and, for lack of a better name, George salt. I let this simmer for another couple of hours and then used my wand blender to blend in the peppers. Then I added about 1/2 a cup of ketchup. That's right ketchup. I baked some chicken with this sauce and it was lovely.

Don't be hatin on the ketchup. My mama makes the best barbaque sauce ever with ketchup as the base.

Beautiful Storm

A beautiful storm blew in this evening. First the wind brought the black and gray clouds, which layered over a pink and gold sunset. As it turned dark, the full moon floated over the high clouds. Lightening reflected green off of the black clouds and white off of the gray clouds. This is the most beautiful storm I have ever seen.

Turf War

The yard, it is out of control. Have I mentioned that? Everyday, I pick an area and cleaning it up. The side yard was yesterday. There are three antique rose bushes, Sweet Autumn clematis and artemisia along the fence next to our town's lovely ditches.

One of the rose bushes is Dr. Van Fleet, a grandparent of New Dawn. This plant is a killer. It puts out eight foot long canes and roots wherever it touches soil. It has thorns as big as thumb tacks - Not just the poky part of the thumbtack, the whole thumbtack. The artemisia was given to me as Sweet Annie artemisia, WRONG. It is the invasive Artemisia vulgaris now taking over growing in my yard. So I have two killer plants growing right next to each other.

Here is the problem, the Dr. Van Fleet rose bush and the artemisia decided to have a turf war. Literally a turf war, they grew out into the tiny little bit of grass that is left on that side of the house. The rose attacked with its fierce thorns and the artemisia used a smothering tactic. What a mess. Something had to be done to break up this fight.

I waded into the fray and started cleaning up the neglected, shameful mess. The artemisia pulls up very easily and it smells good. The problem is it was covering up the very thorny rose canes. I am wounded, but they are only flesh wounds and the side yard is actually a yard again. The artemisia smells good and will make lovely fall wreathes.

Hopefully, the rest of the clean up will be less dangerous.

Blotanical Awards - You Made Me Feel Special

Okay, I am going to have to start paying better attention. Yesterday the lovely Becca congratulated me on the nomination. Did I mention we were tweeting on twitter? I was all, "What?" She went on to tweet that I had been nominated for a Blotanical award. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather because my feeds don't even work over there right now. THANKS BLOTANICAL, I love you.

The nomination is for the Best Texas Blog category. I fully expect to by completely trounced by all of the other nominees. Those gals can write and take pictures. The others are Digging, Zanthan Gardens, The Bicycle Garden , and Great Stems. They are all fine blogs and bloggers.

I am not here to ask for a vote. I am pretty sure I have a snowballs chance in Texas in August to win this thing. But do go check them out and do a little voting if you are registered on Blotanical.

I have already voted so don't try to bribe me;)

Weeds, Mosquitoes and Hummingbirds

We have had a lot of rain. Now we also have a lot of mosquitoes. The other outcome of all of this rain is an overgrowth of weeds. My yard is out of control. Manly and the Monkeys took care of our tiny front lawn, which is a lovely St. Augustine. The side yards, flower beds, and back yard look like jungles. I worked on the side yard this evening until the mosquitoes ran me off. Pulled about half of the knee high weeds. Did I mention those mosquitoes are as big around as quarters. They hoover right near my face.

Along with all the weeds and mosquitoes, the hummingbirds have arrived. They are floating around the salvia and Turks cap blooms and just make me happy. I wish they would eat the mosquitoes.

As soon as I get this yard back under control I will post some pictures. Right now, it is just to embarrassing.

Happy Fall Y'all.