On the mastication of bones, and mid-night brainstorming

Jeremy and I decided to go to bed fairly early last night. We had planned to go to a movie but, upon completing a mediocre dinner out, we gave in to our old-fogey-ness and skipped the movie to go home instead (after a quick stop at the bookstore).

He has just returned from a comic convention in North Carolina, and his returning flight was such that he'd been up since the wee hours of the morning (after some late and ruckusy comic-book-geeky nights previously) so he was ready to crash. I was fairly wired for the trip home but as soon as my eyes spotted the nice warm covers I was a slave to sleep. It was nice to get some rest... while it lasted.

Around 3:30AM (which is the time that my brain likes to wake up and be super manic if I so much as stir while sleeping) I heard a loud crash from across the room. I listened quietly to discern which animal had done what terrible act and sure enough, moments later, I heard a very low "Mrrrrrrerrrremrrr..." This is the sound of our tomcat mumbling a growl around carefully mouthed, fuzzy body of a mouse. I'd know that sound anywhere.

Harrison often loses his mice while trying to play with them, so I figured I'd let it play out a minute. Unfortunately I started to drift off to sleep again (all the while my brain going "Hey! You're falling asleep again! That's cool, you can't normally do that this late in the wee morning. In fact, normally you're stuck thinking about what you need to do today, and just think of all those things you need to do today... you need to teach later, three lessons, what are you going to do in each lesson? hmmm..." et cetera...)

Just as I hit that critical moment of sleep that accompanies brain-shut-uppedness, I hear it... "Scrunch, squish, crunch, crunch, squish..." To anyone who has ever done small animal taxidermy, this is the high tambered, gristly sound of a rodent skull being slowly cut into... or masticated, in this case, by Harrison. He doesn't normally eat his mice, so the shock of this was jolting enough that I quickly found myself out of bed and chasing him around the room, mouse body complete with stringy brains hanging from his mouth and dragging all over the floor. Finally I caught him and shook him around a bit until he spit the poor ragged body out onto one of my sweatshirts. Ew.

My cat: The Zombie.

Anyway, after this, attempting to sleep was pretty futile for a while. I lay in bed quietly daydreaming of pastries and sweet, of how I'm going to arrange my market booth and how I'm going to display my baked goods. It wasn't a bad experience, but it definitely would've been more welcome at a time other than four in the morning. I eventually managed to get back to sleep right before the sky began to lighten, and then of course I was greeted by the Bremen town musicians chorusing below my window, complete with ducks, roosters and sheep.

Now that I'm awake I have decided to spend the morning scribbling my own personal recipes onto index cards, denoting whether they are cake base, frosting, cookie, confection or tartlette recipes in the corner for quick and easy recognition.  It's been a while since I've done anything with index cards. I admit that laying them all around me after I've completed them is a satisfying way to quantify how much work I've put into developing recipes so far, since beginning this whole baking endeavor. I refuse to use recipes from other people unless I've done quite a bit of tweaking and altering. Instead, I've been reading up on baking chemistry and taking inspiration and ideas from other recipes to sort of set me in the right direction. The one exception of this is probably the Miette double chocolate cake (Oh god. So good.) but it's not likely to be a cake I actually get around to selling, as I have some excellent alternatives to it that are slightly less labor intensive. It's more of a cake to show off to your friends with... :)

A Year of Learning: 2010

I woke this morning to a new dusting of snow, though it's really only a translucent veil over the grass, it has made the roof tops into pristine geometric shapes again and has made it feel like winter is justified in it's cold.

The year 2010 has finally ended. The champagne has been drunk, the ball has dropped and we have jumped that final hurdle of the holiday season, into the doldrums of winter 2011. I've decided to post highlights from my year in photo form.

January - We found "the kitties" on the side of the road and fostered them, keeping and began raising Harrison (right) into our own little mischief-making-mouser.


February - We had our wonderful engagement photos taken by my brother, in the dead winter of February.


March - This was the month I almost didn't make it through. I hate waiting for the ground to dry up enough to work in! I did however revel in the fact that I had the presence of mind to plant pussy willows the previous season, and I managed to began starting seeds for the 2010 garden


April - I began work on taking out the large box elder tree that happened to be growing where I needed a fence to be. I also planned, prepped and planted an 8 bush blueberry patch and 35 raspberry bushes and put together a few additional random flower beds around the property.


May - Our ducks hatched their first duckling, Neville! He was such a runt, and I'll never forget the phone call I got from Jeremy while I was teaching. He was SO excited to be the first to see the duckling. This was also when I prepped the 2010 "new" veggie garden in the first field and planted peppers and tomatoes out WAY too early!


June - My very close friends over at Roheryn Farm had their first foal, Minya. They had to spend so much time teaching her to suckle, and she was still trying to suckle off of the wall days after birth! lol. June was also the month that I had to pry a baby deer out of Connor's mouth and carry it out of the orchard fencing while it called to it's mum. Weather was weird, and we experienced a plague of intense Michigan thunderstorms and tornadoes and felt the Ontario earthquake shake the arena while teaching!



July - Harvesting began with squash and currants, and I spent a good deal of time lounging around the yard coming up with new tasks and endeavors. Late July brought horned worms, but it also brought tomatoes. This was also the first month I made cheese, and had a blast serving it to my family.



August - We began work on putting in the fences, beginning with the wooden post fence out front. I also got to try my first attempt at splinting a duck's broken wing at a friend's house after a visiting dog used it as a tug-toy. August was the biggest month for tomatoes too, and I discovered the black krim tomato is, so far, my favorite.




September - The garden was in full swing, and we were finally able to do some wedding prep including pumpkin purchasing and mass baking. This was also the month that the house was so humid we had a tree frog try to move into Jeremy's studio!




October - The wedding day came so quickly! We had a wonderful time with friends and family, despite the cruddy weather, and the whole thing was beautiful. Afterward we went camping in the upper peninsula for our honeymoon.




November - The mad dash to prepare for the sheep began in November. I thought I'd been preparing all summer but when it came down to it the biggest job of all was the fencing! We put up all of the posts and woven wire in just a few short days and I cleaned out the barn and bought hay so that I could be prepared to bring them home the first week of December. I also discovered in November that I can fit over a cubic yard of compost in the back of my station wagon, and used it to prep my veggie bed for spring 2011 and built a new raised bed out front!




December - The sheep came to their new home in early December and autumn came to a close with a massive snow storm leaving everything covered by a blanket and leaving me with a blank canvas to think about for next year's farm and garden planning.


Happy 2011! Only 123 days until last frost date in Plymouth, MI. :)

I'm pretty sure Gertrude could care less, as long as she continues to get alfalfa mixed in with her grass hay each morning!

Separation Anxiety

When we think of separation anxiety in pets, the first species to come to mind is definitely the canine... Dogs suffer through our absence in many ways, from chewing, to pacing, to ulcerating their stomachs! I had no idea that cats could have separation anxiety to the degree of a dog. Don't tell Harrison I just compared him to a canine, please... I value my life.

This past week we traveled to New Hampshire to visit my parents in Keene. We were packing and getting ready a few days in advance when I noticed Harrison acting strangely. He wasn't eating well, and he was constantly hiding under chairs and tables. I was mildly concerned, but he seemed okay otherwise so I put it out of my mind. It wasn't until just minutes before we were going to leave, at 7pm (planning to drive over night) that Jeremy began to pack up Basil's dog crate. The metal bars make a terrible scraping and clanking sound every time you collapse it, and within seconds Harrison was tearing around the house, landing finally in the broom cupboard in the kitchen, yowling and shaking. Oh boy. We (I, really) debated a while and finally decided to take him to the emergency vet in Plymouth.

The vet (Named DuFramboise which was awesome... hehe. Raspberry.) was SUPER helpful. I love when vets acknowledge that I know a thing or two about animal diagnostics. She went over some possible things, including a newer developed diagnosis of a nonspecific urinary tract irritation that they're finding more and more in cats (male, altered usually). She did a rectal, a urine check and a bladder check. This was literally two weeks after Harrison's trip to the vet for a colon impaction that we got to release using an enema. I figured it was a recurrance.

The vet couldn't find anything wrong with him, and after mentioning in passing that we were packing to leave, a very knowing look crossed her face. She said that separation anxiety is common in cats, though not commonly diagnosed. She wasn't surprised, based on Harrison's history of being abandoned in the snow as a kitten (living in a groundhog hole, eating a racoon carcus! Poor dear!)

Long story short, we toted our adorable little kitty to New Hampshire with us, and he enjoyed the car ride! He and Basil are very close, and they sat together the whole way. Apparently our cat is more unique than we ever dreamed! Yeesh... This is in addition to the walking-on-hind-legs thing that he does, the comes-when-he's-called-even-if-he's-sleeping thing, and various other non kitty things... We're convinced he's an alien cat and we're part of his bizarre social experiment.

Hazey Crisp Morning

The air was crisp and cool the other morning, and I snapped a quick shot, while I was at the horse farm, of the bizarre post-apocalypticesque sun as it broke through the low laying clouds. We've had the strangest weather this fall and while it's really to my advantage as a late season gardener, it's kind of making me nervous. I have to wonder if this is an indication of what is to come in weather. Global warming seems to be doin' it's thing...
Michigan is known for dropping twenty degrees over night (60's to 40's, or even 30's in 12 hours) to start off the winter season. So far we've had at least one drop like that, but then a week later we were back in the 60's. The forcase for now looks like 60-62 daytime highs for the rest of the week, and sunny. If we had a smidge more rain I'd be a happy (albeit skeptical) camper, but I guess I should just enjoy this while we've got it. I'll be eating my words in a month when we're frozen solid!
I pulled my horses blankets off after the bit of freezing rain we'd had while I was out of town this weekend and they were all happy to lose the bulk so that they could go roll and run around like maniacs. Of course after pulling their blankets on they all refused to be caught for their lessons and caused quite a stir while I ran around with treats trying to calm them down. They really can be a tricky bunch. They're all mares, 5 arabian, 2 half arabian, and their intelligence makes them a real challange when they work together!
The winter is always a financially trying time for us since I am a professional riding instructor and my DH is a professional comic book artist/creator. My income really depends on the weather so if we have a mild winter, everybody gets to eat well. If we have a rough winter it's ramen noodles and straight grass hay! Of course our animals eat better than we do most winters, but that's a fact I've come to embrace.

On a final note, we had a scare this morning when our kitty, Harrison, started hacking like he had fluid in his lungs. He has a grade 3 heart murmur and so fluid is a big deal. After the vet visit however it turns out he has severe hair balls, one of which was stuck in his colon. Yikes! He wasn't fussed at all by the vet visit, as usual. He's the most laid back kitty I know, and this trip we brought Basil with him so that hopefully Harrison's calm could maybe rub off on Basil a bit for a friendly visit to the vet. Ah well... maybe next time

Harrison kept trying to get Basil to play with him, but Basil was far too preoccupied by her nerves.

Geriatric kitty update: the tumor

Things are coming to a close for my little-old-lady-cat, Cleo. After her weight loss I started feeding her anything she'd eat and she gained quite a bit back. It wasn't until a few days later that I found a mass in her belly. A big mass.
It didn't seem to hurt her and in her fragile state I was hesitant to take her to the vet, so I called for a consult and learned it could be a tumor or an abscess. Either way it would either get way better or way worse so I decided to hold off the vet visit.
Five days later an abscess burst and she was suddenly much perkier. I took her in to the vet to have it cleaned (she fit 100ml of solution into the wound! Holy crap!) and was very saddened to learn that the abscess occurred because of s large mammory tumor on Cleo's lower teats. Because of her age (nearly 20) there is no hope in surgery. She is in mild renal failure and the vet said realistically she probably has a month, two at the most, left of life.
My poor kitty. 70-80% of feline mammory tumors are adenosarcoma (I think that's it...? I assume that's sarcoma growth of an adenoid...? No clue.) Basically it will next spread to her lungs and that will be when I have to make the final decision.
Anyway she is now home and on antibiotics for her abscess. She is comfortable, perky and very much herself. I give her subcutaneous fluids every couple of days and she seems to have clear lungs for now.
I have had Cleo since I was 6... She has been a constant in my life for as long as I remember. I'll miss her when she goes, but she has had an incredibly long and happy life.

Geriatric kitty woes.

The hard thing about have a seriously geriatric cat is that some times they have such severe ups and downs that you end up with whiplash.
My nineteen year old kitty, Cleo, lost at least a third of her body weight this past week. She's such an independent cat I didn't notice at first. When I did notice, I gave her subcutaneous fluids and as much high end cat food as she'd eat. Then, yesterday morning, I noticed as she lay flat out on the floor that there was a lump on her abdomen. At first I thought it might be a distended bowel or something but now I'm pretty sure it's a tumor. I obviously can't tell of it's cancerous or not, though it sprang into being very quickly. The dilemma I'm having is that she has some really seriously issues with going to the vet. She gets very stressed (hyperventilating, gagging, drooling, etc) and she gets super vicious. She's never been to the vet without inflicting wounds on at least one person; the last time it was me, and two serious bites. Because of her taste for human flesh she must be muzzled and "bagged" and sometimes sedated in order to be handled for anything more than a palpation.
I made the decision yesterday to hold off the visit to the vet as she was in a sort of limbo. If she gets better I'll take her for tests, and if she gets worse I'll take her for euthanasia.
This morning she seems better. She is sleeping in a normal upright position, eating and drinking and she even meowed at the door of her room to come out, albeit only once.





For now I think it's the waiting game. She's always been a peculiar cat when it came to health issues. Why should this be any different?

Update: Cleo passed away September 24th, 2010 on her 20th birthday. She was so willing and resigned at the vet that I can't help but feel like she was definitely ready. She was my kitty for twenty years and she'll always have a special place in my heart. As she slipped from this world she reminded me of one thing... she's always been a little wench. Just before dying she launched herself up off the table and tried to bite me - something she has been trying to do her whole life. I couldn't help but laugh to know that even to the end she was ornery and mean.

Blank Slate

Well, I've had to swap blog servers. We've only got access to the internet via iPhone out here so we're restricted to whatever apps there are available. Seeing as the WordPress app goes all glitchy when I use it, I've decided to come over to this here pasture to graze a bit.

This'll have to be a short one, for now. I'd love to do a massive post on the last year of my life in the next few days. If you're unfamiliar with the recent ongoings in my life, here's an adorable photograph of my cat, Harrison, to tide you over.