A quick update

Belle is still with us. He is still dehydrated and not wanting to eat. He got more fluid via IV this morning, and we'll be going again tomorrow for more.

We are forcing him to eat every two hours throughout the daytime. Chicken baby food diluted with enough water to allow us to use a syringe to get it in his mouth. He doesn't really enjoy the process but is a sweetie about it all. It seems like he must be in some pain but he is not agressive in the least.

The vet says we'll know by Monday whether or not all this is going to work.

I am so thankful we found him. Every time we stroke his fur is especially sweet today. Every drink of water he takes is something to be thankful for. We are counting blessings for sure.

Swiss Chard to the rescue!

We planted "neon" chard in our front yard garden this summer. I chose it for the pretty colors, since it would be right out front. We like regular chard but never seem to harvest it before the bugs start eating holes in it. I figured this would at least be somewhat ornamental and help add color since we were growing veggies out there.

Surprisingly, (to me-Clarence wasn't surprised at all) Swiss Chard is quite cold tolerant. Even though we've had some nights in the 20s, the chard looks good.

I decided to use some of it for dinner tonight and asked the girls to go pick some for me. From inside, I heard their raised voices. It sounded like the beginning of an argument so I opened a window, not knowing where I was hearing them and asked what was going on.

They excitedly, tearfully, told me that Belle was out by our fish pond. When they went to pick the chard, they heard one little meow and went to investigate.

He looked bad. Weak, matted, tired. Allison thought his paw and tail were wounded but when I got a look, it looked wet and matted but I couldn't distinguish any injury.

Clarence was almost home so the girls stroked him and talked to him. He was calm but lethargic. When Clarence got here, he carefully looked for wounds and couldn't find any. We brought him inside in a box and called the vet. Thankfully, Clarence could take him in right away.

The vet said his UT was blocked. No more el-cheapo cat food. They gave him IV fluids and worked on the blockage. Hopefully, he will improve but we have to take him back in the morning to be checked. He isn't interested in eating. Clarence is at the store now to pick up wet food and chicken baby food. The vet thinks that might tempt him. Tuna isn't working.

So, our girls' weekend away is going to be cancelled. Someone has to cat-sit. The girls and I decided we will gladly give up our trip to have our Belle back again.

Missing :-(

This is our beloved Belle. He was named before we had determined for sure what his gender actually was.

He started out as a house cat 15 years ago, but when I was pregnant with Julianne, he and his litter box moved. We put the litter box in the garage but Belle didn't like being in the garage. Once he tasted freedom, being allowed to be outside, he didn't want the confinement of the house or garage.

In the last couple of years, now that he's getting old, he has chosen more regularly to stay in the garage and even comes into the house eagerly once in a while.

We heard noises a couple nights ago outside. Cat fight type noises. Belle was fixed but would still do battle sometimes when a neighborhood cat showed up in our yard. Clarence went out to investigate but didn't find any cats around. Belle wasn't in the garage, but he wasn't around outside, either. Since he's fixed, that just doesn't happen. He's always around somewhere.

Now it has been a couple days since we've seen him and we would really like to know what happened to him. Clarence fears coyote.

Our other cat, Chip, simply disappeared one day two years ago. It's so hard-you keep hoping they'll show up again, but with every day that goes by, the hope dissipates a little more.

Cobblestone Farm

Our homeschool group read Caddie Woodlawn this month so today, for our day together, we went on a pioneer-themed field trip to Cobblestone Farm in Ann Arbor. This month was super easy for the moms!

Our "class" was held in a log cabin built in 1837, the same year Michigan became a state. The kids had to do chores after the history/geography lesson was done. You can see the mortar/pestle made out of a tree trunk on the right. The box with the black mechanism mounted on it is used for removing the corn from the cob so it can be ground.

They had to churn cream into butter (which ended up not working-does ultra-pasturized cream not separate for some reason? Or was it because the room was so cold as the docent suggested?). Although there was a fire in the woodstove, it wasn't giving off much heat so Allison and one other girl were the only ones who took off their coats.

They were able to remove the corn from the cobs, grind the corn, then sift it for cornmeal.

They also got to tighten the ropes on a rope bed, comb wool and hand spin it if they wanted to do so. They went outside and fed goats, sheep, chickens, geese and the old pony. A couple of the boys even took the rug outside to beat it.

The docent talked about Michigan's early settlers, how they traveled here, why Michigan was settled later than some states further west, the Erie Canal, and types of boats used on the canal and the Great Lakes. She was very interesting to listen to and interacted really well with the kids.

We all learned some new things today and had fun doing it. Now the challenge is to get our fingers and toes warm again. Clarence built a fire in our woodstove so I think I'll go huddle near it.

Another treasure

Not much to say today but wanted to make sure I posted.

This is a dish that Clarence's mom gave me a few days ago. She has given me so many pretty things. I don't remember its history so I'll have to ask her to tell me again.

Please tell me I'm too young to be getting senile.

A little Sunday baking

Our church is having a fundraiser for missions next weekend. They had a dinner/auction for missions in September and one item brought in so much money, the missions director found a way to capitalize on it.

Our girls' "adopted" grandma is famous in our church for her homemade cinnamon rolls. One pan of them raised $200 at the missions auction. Someone approached the missions director and suggested that Grandma teach people how to make them for a donation to missions. Grandma agreed and now has to figure out how to help 17 people learn to make cinnamon rolls, who probably have never attempted to make any sort of bread in their lives.

The "students" are supposed to bring a 9x13-inch pan, which they will take home filled with their morning's work. The problem is that Grandma makes a huge batch every time she bakes them. And she's one of those natural cooks who knows how it's supposed to look and adds the ingredients until it's right, rather than being a slave to a recipe. That makes scaling the recipe down a challenge.

We were discussing it all this morning and, since she gave me her recipe several years ago, I told her if I got time, I'd try making a half batch of dough and see how many rolls it made. It made this 9x13 pan, plus an 8x11 pan.

My family was delighted.

Next time, I decided, I'll try one-third of the recipe and see if that works out right for filling one pan.

My family was ecstatic. Until I suggested I might send them with Daddy when he goes hunting. Then there was less rejoicing by 2/3.

Mine don't taste like Grandma's (isn't that always the way of things?) but my family is still willing to choke them down, inferior though they are. I probably should have signed up for the class so I could get her secrets for the filling and glaze to go with the dough recipe. I didn't remember the cinnamon rolls when we started planning our girls weekend, though.

So, we are doomed to having inferior cinnamon rolls. For some reason, they aren't complaining.

November Quiz Results

It's that time again.

Time for me to bore you with the results of our day spent Bible quizzing.



In individual competition, the girls are in different divisions, based on their ages/experience. Allison made it through prelims to finals, then came in 5th place overall in the Young Teen Rookie division.

Julianne got the first place medal in the Young Teen Veteran division.

They had a three person team today, too! That makes it more fun, as well as being a strategic advantage.

Their team brought home a first place trophy for the combined divisions of Young Teen Veteran/Senior Teen Rookie.

This month's quiz was small. In November, the teams have an option of going to Indiana for a regional quiz or attending this in-state one. This means fewer teams for them to compete against. The girls knew when we registered this morning that they were bringing home a trophy because there were only three teams in the combined division. But they still worked hard to be sure they got first place.

As always, we are so proud of both of them!