"Chip by chip, day by day...

I enjoy this place from which I can watch and record bird activity.  It's hard to imagine that the first hummingbirds may be here in just over a month.   

 

Look at this weather acting all cute and springy like it didn't try to kill us last week.  ~From Facebook, of course. Fortunately we did survive the near record-breaking Arctic blast of last week, and now, it's as though spring has arrived in all her glory.  How great it is!  I am sure we must all have the worst case of spring fever ever.  I know I do!

We weren't far up the trail this morning before I realized I was way overdressed, so off came this old jacket, which is in reality just a liner from an old army surplus coat. (I am currently working on a new trail jacket that I can't wait to leave hanging on a cedar peg.) These old cedar branch stubs must surely have a purpose, wouldn't you think?    Over the years, there has only been one time that I forgot to go back to retrieve my coat left hanging there, and only realized it when the following morning I couldn't find my coat.  I was thankful a burly ole bear didn't find it before I did.     

"Do not curse the mountain for its height.  Climb it breath by breath, and let patience be your guide.  Endure not as one burdened, but as one sculpting a legacy, chip by chip, day by day."  -Stoic Wisdom

Today was walk # 1,055.  "chip by chip, day by day..."

Thoreau & More...

 

"I find it good to be out this still, dark, mizzling afternoon; my walk or voyage is more suggestive and profitable than in bright weather.  The view is contracted by the misty rain, the water is perfectly smooth, and the stillness is favorable to reflection...The solitude is real too, for it keeps other men at home...My power of observation and contemplation is much increased.  My attention does not wander.  The world and my life are much simplified."  

& MORE...Particularly about cats.

 

"Gather kittens while ye may

for time brings only sorrow

and the kittens of today

will be old cats tomorrow."

~Unknown 

The kittens had their appointments at the vet clinic.  It sounds like such an ordinary and common thing, doesn't it?  But, NOT!  These feral babies are anything but "ordinary and common."  

The plan from day one was simple enough -  Feed kittens in wire cage.  On the appointed day, close door.  Load cage, kittens and all, into Jeep and take to vet.  

But, it didn't happen that way.  When that big, tall scary man went into the crib to help carry the cage things got pretty wild.  As our granddaughter said, "They were like bouncing off the walls."  It was probably a good thing that the door came open and three of them escaped.  Well...  One was better than none!

 And, that's the way it was done.  One cat at a time.  By the time, this ordeal was over, we had made a total of eight trips to the animal clinic.  The kittens began to get very suspicious of my every move, so that by the time I got to Kitty #4, she was quite a challenge.  But, now they are all back home and doing well.  And, I am no longer having nightmares about catching cats!  

   

Winter 2025

 

The Pond Jan. 10, 2025

We got snow!  Lots of it... A walloping  total of ten-inches.  Millie and I made our daily walk, despite the fact that I had only 7-inch boots.  Thanks to Dan who made tracks in the snow for us to follow.  How beautiful everything looked!  I have no words to describe it.  Just Wow!  Walk #1,008 was certainly not one to be missed!  

I know this post is long on pictures and short on words, but, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

I will add that the kitties holed up somewhere during this entire event for 2 1/2 days, but are all safely back in the fold. 

 

  

The Next Day - January 11, 2025 ( I love those oh-so-blue skies!)

One thousand walks and the Kittens make a move...

Well, Millie and I did it.  We made our long anticipated 1000th walk over the hill.  The world didn't seem to notice, but to us, it was something to celebrate.  Lots of memories are locked into those 1000 days, some of which I photographed, but most of them are like "a river, glimpsed once and already carried past us, and another follows and is gone."  (Marcus Aurelius)  I will post a few pictures taken from those 1000 days at the end of this post.

In other news, the kitties moved themselves to another barn. When I went to the old barn on New Year's morning, I found nothing but an old empty crib.  All of my sweet kitties had gone missing.  One can imagine the thoughts that raced through my mind.  It wasn't until we were doing the evening chores that we spotted one of them in the tractor barn.  What to do?  Has anyone ever had success at herding a bunch of cats?  

They were all quite anxious and very wary, having reverted back to some of their wild ways.  Their mother was, after all, a feral cat, so their DNA was not to be denied.  There would be no catching them that day to return them to the safety of the old crib as Dan suggested we do.  Besides, I couldn't help but think, that maybe they were wiser than we were.  Was there some danger lurking around the old barn that made them seek a new safer place?

I was relieved that they were all safe and still together.  In hopes that they would return on their own, we left them in their new place, which was a bit more than a quarter of a mile away from their old place.  I did not feed them that day.  

Early morning of the next day, we found them just as we had left them the evening before.  They were hungry.  I fed them.  They had found a tub of bale-wrap mixed with hay in which they had obviously slept.  So, there you go....  Cats will be cats.  I moved their feed and water dishes to their new abode and made their bed better.  I stroked all their backs this morning.  

I'll never forget the late night walk Millie and I made in which we were harassed  by the coyotes.  

Or, of when we went walking after midnight, and caught up with a family of raccoons in a hackberry tree.

And, walking in a snowstorm should be on everyone's must do list.  Right?

I hope everyone's new year is off to a great start, and that you are doing better with your resolutions than I am.  I am not giving up.  Just blaming it on the kitties!  Ha Ha!

Until next time,

Mary