When cats attack

Back when I was studying my real estate courses, there was a section about things that can actually be part of a property transfer that are not considered "real property". When you purchase a home, you are actually purchasing the LAND and everything attached to it. Like the house (and items attached to that), trees etc. What you don't automatically get are things like the furniture, potted plants, yard implements and such. Back in the metropolis of woodinville, that sometimes led to interesting conversations when sellers wanted to remove officially "attached" items (light fixtures, shower heads, flowers) and I actually had a deal flip when the seller refused to leave a dining room light and the buyer insisted that she would not accept payment and installation of an exact replica as sufficient. But I digress.

At the time of the study, It was hard to imagine why you'd buy all of somebodies old stuff anyway. This little taste we've had of farm life has changed my mind completely. Someone who has lived and worked on the property ends up with all kinds of useful tools and sets things up to work efficiently for the property. Going in and setting up all new systems (like irrigation parts) would be considerable expense, and if the seller took the pieces they had bought for your particular property, they likely would not work right at THEIR new property. So in addition to an impressive array of sprinklers and pipes and hoses, we have a ton of great tools and yard equipment that were part of our deal here.

One of the necessary tools here is a "barn cat" (or several) to control the rodent population. We don't have a barn, but to balance the deficit, we have 16 barn cats. Or 19, depends on who is counting. These cats don't live in the house and they subsist on the scraps that get thrown to them as well as a hearty supply of field mice and birds. The queen kitty is raising her second batch of kittens for the summer, and the first batch has yet to find homes. It was rumored that the natural enemies of the cats would 'thin the herd', but unfortunately these kitties have several new protectors that look suspiciously like the kids.

Nearly from the beginning, the kids began naming the cats and kittens, much to the chagrin of Hugh and I who have a hard enough time naming pets we wants to keep. One kid or the other will rush in bright eyed and ask "Do you know what penelope just did?" or "Goliath's eyes are open!". All such reports are met with a stern "We are not keeping any cats!" We were told we should have at least 3, so with our resident transplant kitty (who actually was barn cat from here once upon a time) Shadrach, we can keep two more. It's been a constant rotation of nominees from the kids as to which lucky cats we will keep. I prefer the natural selection method; in which the kittens will be given away until only the most hideous specimens are left to patrol the premises. This is how Hugh and I once ended up with a kitten named "Little Ugly".

It is my hope the the two homely cats will be so grotesque they will cause other felines to vehemently reject them as mating candidates. In fact, I hope the cat community begins to believe that there is toxic waste here and they flee from the sight of the property as if their future generations depended on it.

Until then, the far-tamer-than-usual barn cats are gracing me with lovely displays like the one above. I believe this is the one they call Tumbleweed.

I think she likes it here

This is why I wanted to do this. For these moments when I am blessed to actually be here for a happy moment with the kids. So many years of late nights, distracted dinners and interrupted vacations. I quality of my time with the kids has increased exponentially the last 30 days. We have so much talking to do, and I love hearing them develop opinions based on experience.

Today we were at a local nursery, Kings Garden. They have bedding plants and we actually bought the majority of our tomato plants from them. We were there for a few flowers to liven up the front entry (Paula's idea, of course) and the kids all came with and had an appreciation for the surroundings that I knwo they would not have had a month ago. In fact, when we were done, Jesse asked Annie (the owner) if he could walk through the garden to see the plants. I am sure that is a request he never would have made before. When they were done walking, he admired her patty pan squash and she gave him one!

We also had a visit from the local agriculture manager. I guess most of our apple trees are pretty infested with coddling moths so we have to destroy the fruit and wait till next year. We have a few trees that are minimally infected, and we have to start spraying those every week with alternating types of organic pesticide. He had a really great suggestion about starting a small, high density orchard with a variety of fruits for next year and the years to follow. It will be up on the discussion block, I think.

Done with the drive!

Hugh and I made the drive back to Woodinville again yesterday, and we drove back to Tonasket today. We took the North Cascades Highway home, which is BEAUTIFUL, but I am soooo burned out on the drive that it was hard to appreciate it.
We were reading the new John Grisham paperpack, Playing For Pizza . Its about a 3rd string quarterback for the NFL who ends up playing for a season with and Italian team playing American Football. John Grishams writing is, as always, exceptional. The story was not as captivating to me as his other tales. I enjoyed his previous forays into different genres than the one he is famous for (like Painted House and Innocent Man)but this one I did not find quite as captivating. However, it did make my mouth water the way Andrew Zimmern usually does as he detailed the the 4 hour meal at an Italian trattoria.

What we NEED

When I was packing up the Woodinville house, I felt like I was pretty brutal in my decisions as to what we "absolutely, definitely would not have room for in Tonasket". I labeled several dozed boxes with the instructions such as "books we need but not right away-STORE" or "to sell in Tonasket". The latter means we did not need the item, but that I had failed to dispose of it intelligently prior to packing.

I am embarrassed to admit, we also brought a contingent of boxes labeled "misc. crap" These boxes contain the last things that were left in the home, many of which remained until last because they are necessities, but some of which were so so hideously useless they defied categorization. One of these MC boxes contained the following: 6 expensive cooking knives, a bottle of dish washing liquid, a stack of current bills, cat food, two bottles of Belikin beer from Belize, 5 dirty socks, a model of Galileo's thermometer that had been a family day gift several years ago, a screwdriver, 3 unidentified computer cords, an order from for Levi's graduation photo, a pillow that had lost it's shape and has been floating around the house for weeks being used as a weapon of assault by the kids, and a half empty jar of facial moisturizer...oh, and a dremel-like tool from the time I decided to try and do my own acrylic nails. These boxes defy categorization even now. Do we store them? Sort them? Burn them? Do they have priority of the dozens of boxes marked NEED, which were supposed to indicate the plethora of items that no Rainey could be without.
The front and back yard of the house are still piled with boxes, many of which are marked "NEED", and they silently mock me as I live longer and longer without the items inside them. A few boxes have been cannibalized as we sought one specific item that WAS truly needed. Mostly, though they sit silently waiting their placement in our museum of STUFF.

It gives me pause for thought at our pursuit of things and our attachment to them. Why are we driven to posses more items than we can actually use? Why do we need 45 shirts when 3 would give us a nice rotation without taking up the space? Why do I keep books, hundreds of books, most of which will never be read a second time? How could I have chosen to BUY the books rather than checking them out from the library where someone else could continue to store them for me and I could have spent the ten bucks on a nice shirt? Now I am faced with paying for space to store these hundreds (ok thousands) of books for Lord-knows-how-long, until we have home again that will contain them.

Jesse's Booty

Jesse would like the "booty" pic to be something less appropriate than what follows:-)

Today's stroll through the garden yielded our first ripe green beans. We also found out the cukes I planted 3 days ago are already up! Also pictured are 3 pickling cukes, a zuccini, a summer squash and Jesse's rarely seen smile for the camera. Gotcha!

Paula is Here!

Paula and Raine arrived last night and are staying with us for 3 weeks. They had the finest guest tent reserved, the one with the extra cushy air mattress. Paula and Hugh have been working since breakfast outside, and (as I am still nursing a nasty patch of sunburn) have busied myself indoors. The kids got up at 5:00, went JOGGING, had breakfast, went swimming and now after that exhausting morning, they are holding down the living room sofa with all their might.

A few pics

The view

Yesterday I spent the entire day in the garden. There are so many projects here that need attention, yet for me the garden addicting at a level I could have never predicted. I find a lot of pleasure in just sitting on ther damp ground, plucking the invading weeds until what remains is just the chocolately rich earth offering it's prize up; the single plant that has been given that spot as it's own.

The garden is large for a bunch of beginners, but I am anxious to expand it's borders. I envision the entire back hill covered in full beds of prolificly producing varieties of vegetables.