Good Luck for the New Year

Grab that grocery cart and let’s head down those aisles! It’s time to get some groceries to ensure a lucky 2012. Considering the year 2011, you may want to eat more than the usual black-eyed peas!

Greens are an excellent choice if you want more money than last year. Greens resemble folding cash, so grab some collard greens or cabbage for a bountiful New Year. Sauerkraut counts, but my husband won’t eat it no matter how much money it may bring. I guess I’ll have to eat his share.

Rolling on, don’t forget some fish. The scales represent coins, and schools of fish indicate abundance. Swimming forward, fish, indicate progress. Some folks with German backgrounds eat herring, the questionable highlight of my childhood New Years Eve. Pickled creamed herring had to be one of the luckiest foods; I felt lucky I could eat just one piece and hold it down. Instead, pass the shrimp, they’re just as lucky and easier to consume.

Fruit is on the list, too. Twelve grapes, one for each stroke of the clock, are eaten in Spain. Each grape represents a month. If you munch down on “February” and it’s bitter, watch out for that month in the coming year. Pomegranates symbolize fertility and abundance in the Mediterranean countries. You are totally responsible for the results if you take the pomegranate home with you!

Want long life? Eat some noodles, but slurp each noodle completely into your mouth before chewing. For the most luck, eat grains like quinoa, barley or rice! Chinese dumplings must be eaten without counting or you’ll face scarcity in the coming year.

Pork is high on our New Year’s list. Pigs are round (for prosperity) and root forward. Avoid chicken or turkey. They scratch backward, and your luck will fly away with their feathers. Besides, who wants to scratch for a living? Bring on the ham and pork roast instead.

Ring shaped cakes represent wholeness and completion of a full year’s cycle. I’m sure doughnuts count for this one. Buy a large assortment to please every member of your family. Whether you serve donuts or a full size bundt cake, you’ll ensure a sweet new year.

Lentils represent coins, as do black-eyed peas. I’ve always thought lentils were more coin-ish in shape than the peas. In Italy, you’ll find lentils in a soup or stew sometimes with sausage for good fortune in the coming year.

Cart full, proceed to the checkout, dish out some folding green, and haul your lucky groceries home. Prepare them with love and hope. Share them with those you love. Good luck and prosperity to you and yours for 2012.

Cleavage wrinkles? Frightening New Aging Problem

Wrinkles on your face? Saggy skin under your chin? Now there’s another area of concern: cleavage wrinkles. Thanks to the Doctor Oz Show we can know the truth, and seek the cure.

When the segment was announced, I immediately did a quick survey under my T-shirt. Wow! No wrinkles evident, but I waited breathlessly for more information. Just because I have no cleavage wrinkles now, doesn’t mean I might not get some later on. I must know more!
 
Cleavage marring wrinkles can occur as early as age 40, and are the bane of the average to highly endowed woman. What causes them? Sleeping on your back or sides is the culprit. I sneaked another peek down my shirt to double-check. My penchant for sleeping face down must have paid off!

Before you tuck pillows under your arms and risk possible suffocation sleeping face down, know there’s a simple cure. Wish I could remember what the thing was called; I must be having a senior moment. Let’s call it the “Freedom Organizer”! Dr. Oz picked a volunteer from the audience to model the device.

Violet Volunteer strapped on a bra-like item—without the cups—over her sweater. Snuggled between her “girls”, a small pillow filled the space prone to stretching from sleeping on one’s sides. I imagine the parts encircling her mammaries would discourage slippage when sleeping on the back in most cases. The generously blessed might suffer some slippage, but the extremely endowed could experience a breast-slide sleeping in this lingerie/harness.

Want to save $56.00, fight cleavage wrinkles, and not frighten your bed-mate?  Try a sleep bra or jogging bra if you worry over this problem. Frankly I’m a bit old fashioned; after a certain age sporting the cleavage is a dicey proposition at best.

Seriously, I must thank Dr. Oz for his work in the area of women’s health. His entertaining show also offers life-saving information for people of all ages and genders.

The “cleavage” segment of the September 29, 2011, program certainly improved my health. One look at the anti-wrinkle device Violet sported caused a fit of giggles releasing a flood of endorphins into my system. Thank you, Doctor!

Drought Update

I've stopped counting the days without rain. I think I remember some in early May, but it might have been April.


Oaks are drying, dying and falling. Major fires are burning thousands of Texas acres, and thousands of homes. Happily none of the fires have threatened us so far (knocking on wood).


I'm glad we don't have horses or cows. It's hard enough to keep the gardens alive and take care of the chickens, duck and rabbits. We've lost 8 rabbits since July due to heat. The chickens walk around holding their wings away from their bodies and gaping their beaks to try to cool off. One day they looked so desperate, I sprayed them down with the water hose.


Art and Matthew processed 7 rabbits this week. Trying to get the feed bill down. The cheapest rabbit food is over $10 for 50 pounds, which maybe feeds them a week. There's precious little weeds and fresh grass to harvest and feed. Chicken feed has doubled in price. They get so excited when I give them a few chard leaves from the garden, then look accusingly at me when it's gone. Hay prices have doubled, too. We'll need some for winter and nest boxes in the fall.


The weather has cooled to stretches of days in the mere 90's. It feels almost cool to me. There's been thunder, but only a breif spit of rain, not enough to register in the rain gauge. Not enough to dampen anything.


Please, send us rain.

You’ve got to admire a 71 year old man who traveled alone across all 254 counties in Texas riding a Harley Road King. More amazing, he completed this ride between stints of contract work. He began his feat in 2009 and finished with Milam County on August 17, 2011, this past Wednesday. My son met J.D. Massingill taking a break on the roadside, and brought him to our farm in Falls County for a cool drink and a little AC while he talked about his journey.



Mr. Massingill has been to Marlin and Falls County before. From 1970 to 1980 he worked for Tom’s Snacks in Waco, and Marlin was a regular part of his route. The day we met him, he was traveling through Falls County headed to his home in Farmer’s Branch, Texas.

He was traveling to a motorcycle rally in Daytona, when the rain on his route changed his mind. He decided to see places he’d never seen before, and make his ride across Texas. He used a1997 Road King Police bike to begin his Texas ride, and finished with a gleaming 2006 Harley of the same model.

A road map was his constant companion, but not always his friend. A few times when he referred to the map, found he’d missed a county and had to backtrack. Once in the panhandle he had to ride back 150 miles to catch a county he missed. After he returned from a stint on the road, he’d color in the counties he’d completed on a map posted on his wall. One of his best days was 400 miles and 28 counties, a lot to shade in!

J.D. mentioned riding through all of the United States in 2007, spending the nights in a sleeping bag at campsites along the way. On this Texas trip he used motel rooms for the night for their amenities. He especially enjoyed the air conditioning after a day of riding in heavy clothes and helmet in our record breaking heat. He liked riding alone because he’s a slow starter in the mornings and needed his coffee. A quick tidy-up of his room competed, he’d be off on his bike again.

Before he left, I asked him what was next; he thought he might travel all the counties of New Mexico or maybe Oklahoma. When I wished him “Happy Trails!” his face split into a wide grin. Obviously he’s a man who enjoys cruising the road on his Harley.

The Summer of Jars -- Emergency Prepardness

Found some old Mason jars in storage along with some attractive antique food jars. Back in the day the manufacturers went the extra mile to decorate the glass jars containing food. Today's jars, not so much.

As  matter of fact, there seems to be another problem with today's canning jars -- they seem to be a bit smaller than the old ones. The canning recipes don't quite fit the jars. The jar dinner recipes have required a bit of tamping down to fit.

Recipes from the "jar" cookie book have not fit in all cases. Especially the chocolate chocolate chip one. Layering in the ingredients, by the time I got to the chips, there was no room at all left in the jar. Good recipe, but problematical. I'll need to find some slightly-larger-than-a-quart jars.
                            ***               ***                 ***
Ordered more freeze dried veggies from Honeyville Farms. Friend Maggie has gone in on the order, too. This time I'm trying the potato slices, she's trying the mixed vege, and we're splitting mushrooms and dried onions. These products are so good I use them as additions to everyday cooking out here in the boonies, when I run out of something. Next month I plan on getting the peas and carrots, and maybe the tomato powder.
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Drought continues unabated; the weeds even crunch under my feet. 58 days of 100+ weather, 36 days in a row. Did manage to pick a watermelon the deer didn't get to first. It was slightly underripe, but good. Leaving out water for wild birds, thinking about leaving some out for deer, too.

Please, let it rain.

If You're Having Trouble Commenting Here...

Several people have complained they can't comment here. If you're having trouble, would you please e-mail me? I need to get a picture of what might be wrong.

Thanks,
Helene

More Emergency Prepapedeness Info

 A quick critique of my Honeyville Farms freeze dried vegetables order:
The mushrooms are excellent. I'll definitely get more. I use them in everyday cooking, too.
Potato dices are the best value for your money in terms of the weight of the #10 can. The dices are very small, like hash browns. Good for soups, breakfast, or casserole toppings. I'll try the slices next time to put in casseroles instead.
Celery and chopped green onions are great in jar dinners and everyday cooking. Lots and lots of onions in a quantity that will probably last forever!
                       ***                    ***                     ***
Sweating over a hot stove canning for the EP Pantry:

Pickled jalapenos, both red and green  2 pts.
Large sliced hamburger dill pickles      3 pts.
Mixed veggies-- okra, zucchini, and a few cucumbers  1 pt.

Okra-- tasty and pretty, too

Fighting the grasshoppers for veggies during this drought has affected the yield in the garden, so I'm doing small batches. The okra is still too slow producing to do full jars, so I did a  mix just to get some okra pickled.

I've learned to keep extra veggies nearby when pickling. I ran short of cucumbers and had to go back to the garden in the middle of packing the jars to get more. Good thing the pickling process is more forgiving than making jam or jellies. The whole house smelled like pickles for six hours. Good thing I like pickles. Sadly, Hubby doesn't like them.

Emergency Prep. Recipes--cont'd

Whether your emergency is a collapsing economy, your spouse's boss coming to dinner, or an overfilled day of errands , it pays to be prepared!

We've eaten some of the prepared emergency dinners on our shelf this summer, and I'm working on modifications of some of the recipes. Some were just too salty! I've branched out to modifying regular recipes for on-the-shelf storage. Here's my latest venture into Mexican cuisine in a jar:

Quick Chi-Rab Mole
(if you're new here, this means recipe works with chicken or rabbit)



My recope looks redder due to tomato sauce

 Combine in a small baggie:

2 TBL. dried onion flakes
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. cocoa powder
2 tsp. garlic powder

Layer in Jar:
1 cup uncooked rice
1-8oz. can tomato sauce
1-4 1/2 oz can diced green chilis
spice bag above
Close and label jar with name and directions

Additional ingredients needed: 2 TBL peanut butter
                                           2 c. water
Directions:

Combine spices with tomato sauce, peanut butter and green chilis.
Stir in 1 # shredded cooked chicken or rabbit. Simmer on stove top 20-30 minutes. Prepare rice with 2 cups water.

Serve mole over rice.

Optional:
* add 1can black beans to mole mixture before simmering
                            or
* serve in tortillas instead of over rice
                  
                         ***             ***               ***
I ordered dried bulk food from Honeyville Farms this month and am very pleased. Their shipping and handling fee is only $4.99, no matter how much you buy, and the order arrived in four days!

"So long, Ready Store!"

Post Garage Sale

I think I've finally recovered from last weekend's garage sale. All that beautiful folding green certainly helped. Made a few good trades, too! Got an air popper for a rice steamer, and a 6' tall shelf for a handmade quilted Christmas wreath.

Mornings were tolerable, but afternoons of 102 to 104F were a bit much. Drank so much water I thought my eyes would swim. Art went on a lunch run every day to Subway, so lunch was easy.




Not our hoard, just an example!

 

You'd all be so proud of Art and I. We sent most of the remaining "stuff" to a hospice resale shop. Thanks to our new friend Maggie D for taking that load there for us.

No more sorting through shipping containers until October when we prepare for the next garage sale. For now afternoons will find me inside under the zephyr breezes of the AC!

Scuttling Across the Desk...

Minding my own business, pricing things online for the upcoming garage sale, I threw myself violently away from the keyboard this morning.

 I found myself facing a bark scorpion heading for the mouse pad. I've been stung before and didn't want a repeat. Burning pain for hours, and nothing seems to help.

Yesterday I'd been congratulating myself at the lack of scorpions finding their way into the house. See if I do that again!

Art jumped up and dispatched it with the butt end of the 9 volt flashlight. "Crunch-Squish" and it was done!

I think the senior indoor cat was miffed; he loves those hot and spicy snacks. Usually he finds them, eats them, and spends a day or two with a swollen muzzle. I never understood his fascination with the nasty creatures. Maybe it's the challenge?

As for me? Crush-Kill-Destroy! Better yet, leave the scene and have someone else take care of it.

New Cultural Experience

It's a wonder I've made it to 61 and never participated in a garage sale. I'll fix that this coming weekend. Maggie is holding one and Art and I are helping.

Today we spent two hours sorting through barely half of the 20' shipping container near the driveway. Amazing how many treasures we've accumulated since 1990 together, and on our own before we met. Finally able to let some of that stuff go. Making room to store things actually on the shelves! The extra cash will be welcome.
                                   ***                    ***              ***

I am pleasantly surprised how quickly the Texas Dept. of Transportation sent me a replacement title for my old Ford Festiva. I sent off all the required papers less than a week ago!

 A good servant, that car. I drove it until it died,  we graffiti'ed it, then shot it up at the "Cops and Robbers" shooting workshop we held more than a year ago. It taught writers not to hide their characters behind a car and hope they'll be safe. We'll take it across the scales at the recycling plant for cash. I hope its next incarnation is a happy one.

Still trying to get rid of the remains of the Buick Skylark. It's door-less, hoodless and trunkless. those parts have already gone across the scale. Impossible to get the title on it straightened out; I'm sure it was headed to Mexico before we bought it. "Title, Senor? We don't need a title!"

Never buy a car when you're desperate, is my advice. Too bad I can't follow it. Skylark gave up the ghost 18 months after we bought it. It's been sitting in the woods, awaiting the final recycling. How to get it in smaller pieces is the question. Hmmmmm....

What's Good About a Drought?/ Updates

I asked myself this question as I slathered on sunblock, preparing to do chores outside. I looked at the can of "Off" and it flashed into my mind. What's good? Fewer MOSQUITOES! I don't have to spray myself with bug-spray!

Mosquitoes adore my taste, and flock to me. Some bug sprays are simply a condiment to improve my taste! They ignore my hubby, Art, and circle me singing their keening song.

They used to lurk in the shade under the oaks, in clumps of grass, and laid eggs in any available water to propagate. Easy to keep water dumped out of potential nurseries this year.

 
The bites itched, the possibility of encephalitis or West Nile disease was unnerving. I do my chores faster without crazy-woman mosquito swatting breaks. A definite plus in this blistering heat.

                      ***               ***              ***
Updates:

Rabbit herd down to 37-- meat in freezer

Pears ripened two months early, only the size of ping pong balls or a few like tennis balls.

Grasshoppers eating everything in sight -- even the jalapenos!

I'm writing a column for a local paper. Have done three so far.

Saw "Green Lantern" and enjoyed it. Waiting for sequel; you know it's coming!

Enjoying Janet Evanovich's "Smokin' Seventeen" on audio book. I always enjoy a giggle at the antics of Stephanie, Lula, and my favorite: Grandma Mazur! My sister finished the print version in one day.

Feeling cheerful. More than enough to do to keep busy. Life's good.

                                                      

Deeply Sad -- Poor Bunny

Lost another rabbit to the heat today. Now a total of four have died, even though they get their water checked twice a day and ice bottles in the afternoon to cosy up to.

This purebred doe was one I'd hoped to keep to breed the next season. Stupid early hot weather gave us 100F again today. This should be July weather, not June.

The rabbit I found down a few days ago nearly broke my heart. Its siblings were licking it and nudging it to get it to get up. He was cold and stiff, but they kept trying.

So many terrible things happening in the world, and I'm depressed over rabbits dying.  I handled the first two fairly well, but these last two have shaken me up more than I expected. Maybe I need a reality check.

Why Couldn't I Post?

Today I'll share a rant with you. Two weeks I've spent trying to get signed in to my blog or comment on other folks' blogs.

When I abandoned aol, and tried to sign in using Internet Explorer, it was mere seconds until I was signed in and blogging. To my readers, apologies.

Does anyone know what's been going on? The Blogger help section is full of complaints starting in May about not being able to access blogs.

Afternoon at the Tractor Pull -- May 14, 2011 Bremond, TX



Tractor "track" in -- digital display for length of the pull



Kudos to the Brazos Valley Antique Tractor and Engine Club; I had a most entertaining afternoon at their first event. This is the first tractor pull I've ever attended. 

The track was finished early this morning and was regularly maintained throughout the day. 

 



Hitch up to the sled, and make your run!

  We have a 1945 Farm-All H, so I'm partial to Farm-Alls. Many different sizes and shapes, but all International Red.

When the front wheels go up, life gets interesting



Best to keep wheels on the ground

.

I remember seeing Minneapolis-Molines when I lived in Wisconsin. Usually they smoke a lot more when running hard.



Tractors and drivers vary in size, tractors organised by weight class




Art admires Hot Rod tractor which uses dragster fuel



 The Hot Rods are amazing tractors -- loud as their namesakes, powerful pullers, and fast, too. Top speed today was 19 mph, which looks a lot faster in person.

6000 class tractor and another Hot Rod Tractor



Santa drives a Hot Rod in May



Suddenly "Here Comes Santa Claus" blasted out over the speakers. Santa hitched 
up to the sled, shook his hands out at arms length and settled into his seat to the roars of the crowd. What a great a great run! He fairly flew!



Deafening! Poor kiddo! I was holding my ears, too!





Nothing like the smell of diesel fuel in the afternoon!

Activities for the kids, booths with souveniers, loads of booths with barbecue and other Texas treats, a silent auction, some great emcees, and beautiful weather made the day a pleasure.

By the way, did you know there are Country Western songs about tractors?





Progress in Preparedness

Apologies for the time lapse, but sometimes life just happens, you know?

Gardens now blooming and setting veggies. I watch them grow daily, chanting " I will not pick yet. I will not pick yet." Those baby squash are looking mighty tasty!

The little green peppers are whispering my name. I must not pick yet!



Scarlet Emperor runner beans are Italian type green beans



Pretty blossoms, but no beans yet.

The drought has seriously affected the dewberries that survived the herbicide applied by the electric company. We'll probably get a handful of berries this year compared to the bounty last year. Have to start watering the pear trees before the fruit drops off.



Last year's dewberry jam burbling away



 I have canning jars waiting to fill with jams and preserves for those emergency shelves. Bought 32 pounds of strawberries to take up some of the slack left by the dewberries. Hubby and I are starting jam production tomorrow.



Things are so dry I'm finding it hard find wild green feed to cut for the rabbits. Have to plant more swiss chard to make up the diffference. Fifty rabbits can eat a LOT of rabbit food-- more than a pound an animal per week with small amounts of greens and handsfulls of hay to supplement. Today two disappointing does will go to the freezer, but none of the younger ones are big enough to process yet. The next group needs another month of growth to qualify as fryers.

Art's been feeding bunny poo to the wild grape vines we're culturing. They've taken off hugely with the extra food and water. We'll actually get some grapes this year.

 He visits the fig trees with buckets of poo and water,too. If he isnt tired enough after that, he hauls compost, and scoops it out into the new raised beds.After that, strewing rabbit poo around established plants gives them a boost in growth and productivity. Bunny poo is nature's time release fertilizer, but he also mixes it into buckets of water for bunny poo tea to water with. 50 bunnies make a lot of poo! Therefore Art makes lots of compost, too.

Hangman and brother-in-Law, Dan,brought another load of dirt. I kid him that it'll take forever if he is going to move his family up here one cubic yard at a time. He'd offered me a choice of dirt or another dead fridgie -- so hard to choose! Two of the fridgies at the shooting range moved up to the garden line-up, so the load of dirt won. A pair of young breeding rabbits left with Dan to form the foundation of his rabbit empire. Two less for us to feed, and cash to buy more rabbit chow.

Matthew and Hangman installed a water meter (found by Mr. H.) for the spigot leading to the gardens and the animal area. Now we have an accurate measure of the water --for farm use only-- to take off on our taxes.

Self sufficiency on the increase,gardens going, canning season beginning, good friends got our back, family pitching in: life is good. Hate to be greedy, but how about some more rain? Please?

WWII Motto / Raised Bed Gardening Through Recycling

"Eat it up and wear it out. Make it do or do without."

I make things do in other ways when I can.  Recycling in the garden works for me!  It also helps with my "the ground has gotten really far away" problems. I cant "do without" raised beds. I just can't garden at ground level very effectively on crutches (can't get down there, or especially back up!), but I've learned there's a way around just about every problem.

Raised Garden Beds a la Recycle

Take an old refrigerator or freezer, remove the door, puncture or shoot holes in the back, remove any spare parts and drag by truck or tractor next to a fence or the area of your choosing. Add rocks or fill to the bottom 1/3 and top off with the best soil and compost you can get.

Add some transplants or seed with veggies you 'll eat. The squash transplants in the fridge behind this one looked great last year, and produced well. Everything is a little less waist  height and easy to plant and care for.

 Seeds finally germinate; waiting patiently is tough. Plants can be trained up a nearby fence when they're ready.

I realize you can sell some fridges/ freezers at scrap yards, but this is just too handy.

Folks have started bringing me their old "coolerators", so the garden expands.




Three more gardens are down at the shooting range being aerated for drainage. I need to paint the outsides with Rust-O-Leum this year, but I'd like to enclose the lines with fence pickets for a rustic look, eventually.

If someone gives you an old truck tire, that works also. A saws-all rids the tire of some of the sidewall for more planting space. This puppy's so big I can lean my backside against it for a rest.  I cant treally reach across it, either. Follow the same directions for filling a fridgie-planter.

I'm thinking of covering the tire this summer with some white cloth to bounce the sun back and keep the tire cooler.  During the winter, the black color soaks in sunlight and warms the plants within.

I love it when recycling makes my life easier. I love gardening and don't want to give it up.

Reclaiming Old Gardens and Other Projects

Years ago they were poultry pens, then changed to gardens, then ignored for two years. Everything beige and twig-like are the skeletons of Roosevelt weeds. AKA poverty weed. They grow where ground is disturbed and left to its own devices. The pile is the first one we cleared out of gardens B and C. More have been pulled and stacked as we reclaim these spaces.



One view of garden C

 Matthew had built raised beds a long time ago, since the ground and I are not on speaking terms. Pulled the Roosevelt out, and will do grass and small weeds next.
Seedlings of squash need clear space soon to spread out and produce.





Opposite end of garden C

Paper shreds from Hangman's family and Maggie's old papers collection form a clean space to walk while choking out most weeds. Barely visible is my "settin' stool" at the upper left edge of the garden. More grass to pull, but rabbits enjoy it.




View of south fence of garden B

 Not all bad news, though. This wild grapevine trained itself on the fence, and is sporting tiny grapes already. Art rewarded it with a few shovels of "bunny poo", our favorite time release fertilizer.
There's another started on the north wall of garden C, too!



Garden B nearly cleaned out and ready to go.

 With our all purpose vehicle, the M-37 (Dodge), Art hauls buckets of compost from the rabbit and poultry area near the house to these back gardens to enrich the soil. Once dumped he smooths the rich blackness in place or fills holes he's dug previously.

Once done, he boards the M-37 and rumbles back to the critter area to plant fig trees (thanks, Hangman) near the old goat pasture. Meanwhile I'm planting okra , watermelon, and cucumber seedlings in another garden area, across from the tractor shed. It contains some lovely recycled raised beds, a topic for the next blog.

I've re-discovered my favorite quotation from WWII in an issue of Reminiscence Magazine that applies to these raised beds. It's a thought very much on my mind as I watch our economy. Preparedness is a garden, no matter how odd. 

Cheap Cologne Saves Bunny

Under the bathroom sink, an old bottle of men's cologne lurked for more than ten years. I meant to throw it out but never did. It finally got some use Thursday morning.

One of the does delivered a litter of 6, but they were dead when I found them except for one little runty bunny. Scaredy Kat had chewed on one (yes, gross, but sometimes happens). I didn't want to leave the live one, considering the mood Scaredy was in,but I didn't want to bottle feed a newborn bunny. Or collect rabbit night dung, dilute and feed with milk, to ensure the baby got the correct enzymes. GACK! Don't forget stimulating elimination, too!



Specs and her combined litter

  I remembered something about fostering babies with another doe. Specs had delivered the day before, and had room for another. I needed some Mentholatum, Vicks, or something smelly to block her sense of smell until the fosterling picked up the smells of her nest and kits. Couldn't find anything smelly until I thought of that awful cologne. I snatched it up and went back out.

Usually Specs is glad to see me. After the first short burst of spray on her back she flinched, and her nose twitched. Thinking she  might need more smell, I gave her another three bursts: between her ears, on her forehead, and on the area just above the nose. Whew! She began wildly scrubbing her face with her paws. I added another spritz or the top of her nest box. If she smelled the other doe on the foster baby it was a goner.

It's possible I might have used a bit too much cologne. I was feeling a little queasy from the smell, and I wasn't even wearing it. Poor Specs! She scrubbed her face  intermittently for hours.

White fosterling with new litter-3days old

It worked, though. She's been nursing the foster kit, who is fat and squirmy along with the rest of Spec's litter. Going to get some Mentholatum for the vet box next time we go to town. I'll put the cologne back under the sink. You never know ....

                     
                     *                            *                                *
Sorry for the lapse in posts. Stayed with Maggie during the first round of the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) so I could administer small group testing at the school without driving back and forth most of the week. Thanks for the hospitality, Maggie! The truck engine is being rebuilt. Why do we need to have the engine boiled? It's always something, isn't it?