Yard Sales and more adoptions

Friday nite, I helped set up for a huge yard sale - we worked by the light of the street lamps to get everything set up - and we had tons of stuff to put out.....then early Saturday morning, off we go to do some adopting and run the yard sale. Altho we didn't do well with the adoptions, both of my little foster kitties were adopted so I guess that was a good thing.....but T talked me into taking two more home until next Saturday. So as far as the cat population, I'm still standing at too many cats! The yard sale tho did really really well. We made almost $500 for the future spaying and neutering of the dogs and cats we rescue - which will actually only pay for one load of cats and dogs. It's terribly expensive even tho we take them to a special vet who does a reduced fee for us.

Anyways, since we did so well on Saturday, we decided to run it Sunday too - and altho we didn't do quite as well, we still did almost $250. With that success, we decided to leave it all up and run it half a day today. So we did - or I should say I did as I did the entire thing today and we only made about $100 but again, it was $$ we wouldn't have had if we hadn't done this!! I think half of the success we had was we put out several tables of misc clothes and knick knacks, and books, which were sold for a $1 per WalMart bag....an interesting idea which I had not ran into before. Almost everything we had that was child related was purchased. Amazingly, we only had two people who abused the idea. One gal stuffed 2 bags full into one and then argued about the price of a 25 cent basket.....and of course, she was driving a big ole black SUV and was dressed nicely....obviously wasn't hurting or cash. Okay, that might be a tad of a observation that wasn't exactly a nice one but it did kind of bother me. After all, this was for a good cause - many other customers dropped extra cash into our donation jar.....and trust me, the stuff on the table - most of it was quite nice.....oh well.

One thing that I was amazed with was that we left EVERYTHING we had to sell without any protection each nite - covered things up of course - but nothing was stolen or vandalized!! If this had been set up in my old county in WA state, some tweeker would have taken everything or at least messed it up!! This little Ar town is such a safe place to be - amazes me.

So what does this all have to do with getting back to my roots? Well, obviously not too much LOL But it did remind me of the little town in WA that I grew up in - we never locked our doors, keys were left in ignitions, bicycles were safe and if someone needed help there were usually a whole bunch of people who would offer that help. Oh for the good ole days. Evidently they still live on in some areas.

Was checking into a friend's blog and had to comment on something - I realized that this comment kind of grew into a huge - well, post, so thought it was worthwhile to post here in case anyone would need the info.

If you have kittens/cats, this is for you, especially if you are a foster for them - works for pups too btw!

I've had very good luck with feeding kittens with what is commonly known as kitty glop. I add vitamins and L-Lysine crushed and mixed into it and rarely have an upper respiratory or bad eye problem when the kittens are fed this. Even if they have it,the L-lysine will usually clear it up within 3-5 days. Altho a lot of the recipes on line say to use canned in it, I use the canned goats milk or fresh if I can find it. The goat milk is easier on tiny tummies and easier to digest. and don't forget to use pedialyte (plain variety) for a little added oomph either dribbled down throats or in the kitty glop! Here's my recipe for the kitty glop:

Kitty Glop

1 env. plain knox gelatin
1 c. water
bring to boil, add gelatin, mix and cool

meanwhile mix up the following:
2 egg yolks
2 T. plain yogurt (make sure it is live culture)
1 T mayonnaise
1 t. karo syrup.
Whip that up til smooth. My own opinion is that a blender makes it too frothy but whatever works for you is fine.

Now here is where I add vitamins and the L-Lysine to the egg yolk mixture. I grind the L-Lysine tablets up with my mortar/pestle until really smooth and fine, then add to the mixture. Then I add in the can of goat milk (or 2 c. of fresh goat milk) and the water/gelatin mixture. Stir well. Cover and set in fridge - it will jell up. To feed, heat up the amount needed to feed the kitty (or kitties) and feed either with eye dropper or bottle. Be sure and keep refrigerated. You can even freeze it in an ice cube tray if you need to keep it longer than 5-7 days that it will normally stay fresh. Just take out the amount of ice cubes needed and warm and serve.

I've never had a kitten refuse this. The yogurt helps keep the proper level of bacteria in gut,similar to probiotics and the glop provides full nutritional 'value' for kittens. Used this for 1 week old kittens on up to geriatric cats who need a boost because of their age. Excellent for nursing mothers or cats who are ill too.

Not only is this better than any but the most expensive kitten replacement milk but it is cheaper too.

Zombies and bees

Okay, I know this sounds off topic and I suppose it is, but you might as well know I’m a movie lover, and enjoy horror flicks plus I read almost anything I can get my hands on so you may get some book and movie reviews in this blog at times. I found a website which gave a ‘favorite’ list of zombie movies and some of them I hadn’t heard of so I got my hands on several of them and started watching them. One – Dead Alive – a New Zealand film from the 80′s, I had seen but it was very campy and funny so I watched it again.

Now the rest of them were a very big disappointment. Obviously the website owner didn’t have a lot of ‘taste’ in his Zombie movies! I watched 4 of them so far and one was so bad, I just gave up and went on to the next one. Had a catchy title but sure didn’t live up to its promise – Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things. Then I watched Zombie Flesh Eaters. Hmmm, weird title – aren’t all zombies supposed to be flesh eaters? It wasn’t great but it was watchable. Just a quick note – my standards might not be as high as yours so don’t take that as a recommendation. I don’t get regular tv so I watch dvds instead for my entertainment and so I tend to watch anything that is even remotely watchable. The best scene was early on in the movie where a zombie was under water ( they don’t have to breathe right, so they can be underwater forever?) and the zombie fought and bit a shark! The shark lost the fight – sorry, don’t think even a zombie is going to be a match for a shark! And then, altho the shark was definitely bitten, they ignored it and went on to show plenty of the human zombies eating guts and their victims spurting fountains of blood. So….what happened with the shark? Did it turn into a zombie? Are there now thousands of zombie sharks and fish swimming around in the ocean? Who knows….there was a chance to explore new and unusual zombie creations and they ignored it – shame on them. LOL

The last one I watched Dead Meat….I got to watch zombie cows! It’s set in Ireland so the scenery was pretty tho. Yes,it’s true, zombie cows! Totally hilarious altho I don’t think that was their intentions. Supposedly the cows contracted Mad Cow disease and turned into zombie cows and passed it to the humans. Talk about silly! Unless you want to watch it for the zombie cows, I’d give it a pass – JMHO!!

I guess nothing can surpass Romero’s zombie movies – they are still classic and top drawer in my book! And if you like zombie films – well I’m sure you already know about Romero’s films but I might recommend a British series called Dead Set? Interesting one and altho in a way, the Resident Evil series isn’t exactly a zombie movie – they are great in my book – the 4th in the series will be out in September and I’m looking forward to its debut! Dead Snow isn’t bad altho it’s quite slow in the beginning. In case you don’t know, I like sarcastic or humorous zombie movies the best – assuming it’s a decent quality. How about Zombieland? Wasn’t it great? And let’s not forget the whole 28 days series…pretty good! And for funny – try Fido – guaranteed to give you a smile. The absolute best tho for funny is Shawn of the Dead – primo zombie film! Okay – gonna shut up for now on Zombie flicks One of these days we’ll have to discuss vampire flicks too!

Now for the bees – evidently there was a swarm near the house as I haven’t had a bee problem at all this year – I’m allergic to their stings as I nearly died from hundreds of bee stings as a very young girl. So bees and I are not on the best of terms but over the years I’ve managed to learn to live with them – as long as they don’t buzz me and move along somewhere else. Unfortunately there was about a dozen in the house (they came in thru the cat door I think?) and I could not convince them to go out the front door at all – so me and my trusty flyswatter took care of the matter. I have no idea why they wanted to keep buzzing all over me – I do not have on any perfume and I doubt that it’s because I’m so ‘sweet’ – but just can’t take a chance on getting stung so they had to go. Shut the house up – including the cat door – and waited them out – now three hours later, they appear to have moved on and the cat door is opened again – which definitely pleased the cats. And hopefully there will be no more bees for a while — or at least there won’t be any more that think they want to buzz and land on me!!

bees?

Okay, first off, I will say that bees and I do NOT get along - I stepped in a yellowjacket's nest at 7 y/o and nearly died from the stings so consequently I'm allergic to most bee stings....so altho over the years I've learned to be a little less freaked out by bees, I still do not like them buzzing around me! And evidently there was a swarm somewhere near by and I ended up with a dozen or so swarming me in the house! Well, I seriously would have preferred to send them thru the door rather than kill them but I couldn't get them to leave the house nor leave me alone so measures had to be taken....they're dead now. Me and my trusty flyswatter took care of them and I shut up the cat door which was where they were coming in. Now, about 3 hours later, I don't see any more so am beginning to relax and hope the whole thing is over. The cats are happy that I've opened the cat door up again so back to normal. And I'm happy that I didn't end up getting stung!

zombie movies and kittens

I believe I mentioned I help out with a local shelter/rescue right? Well, out of the 3 sets of kittens that I have helped raise, I still have a couple out of the last litter left, one is a tiny little cream colored girl who thinks she's my 'parrot'! She loves to sit on my shoulder as I type or watch tv (or as in this case, do both) and purr in my ear.

Not sure why, but tonite is a 'zombie' movie nite. Am watching 3 old ones - one was called "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" - the acting and 'special effects' were so bad I didn't finish it. No positive recommendations for that one! Next up was Zombie flesh Eaters. Hmmm, weird title - aren't all zombies flesh eaters? It wasn't great but it was watchable. Just a quick note - my standards might not be as high as yours so don't take that as a recommendation. I don't get regular tv so I watch dvds instead. the best scene was early on in the movie where a zombie was under water ( they don't have to breathe right?) and the zombie fought and bit a shark! The shark lost the fight - sorry, don't think even a zombie is going to be a match for a shark! And then, altho the shark was definitely bitten, they ignored it and went on to show plenty of zombies eating guts and their victims spurting fountains of blood. So....what happened with the shark? Did it turn into a zombie? Are there now thousands of zombie sharks and fish swimming around in the ocean? Who knows....there was a now a chance to explore new and unusual zombies and they ignored it - shame on them. LOL

Now I'm watching Dead Meat....and I believe I will get to watch zombie cows! It's set in Ireland so the scenery is pretty tho so far. Can't wait - more later! (later) Yes, zombie cows! Totally hilarious altho I don't think that was their intentions. Supposedly the cows contracted Mad Co disease and turned into zombie cows and passed it to the humans. Talk about silly~!

back to my roots?

First, a little explanation - I grew up quite poor, altho I didn't really know it or think about it much when I was young. I do remember a few things that were funny now, but maybe not so funny then to my parents. Like my mom putting fluffo shortening (which is a yellow color in case you didn't know) on our toast and trying to make us think it was butter. After a bite tho we did not believe her. Her credibility as a cook went down sharply after that (just kidding). We never went hungry but lots of meals were beans and fried potatoes and that was it. I was 'lucky' as far as clothes because my aunt - who was only 5 yrs older than I was - handed down her clothes to me. But I can still remember the thrill of going school clothes shopping and being excited over having something new to wear. I was thrilled to have 3-4 dresses and my new pair of shoes that I got right before school started had to last the entire school year.

But I digress....basically when I was about 10, things changed. Not that the $$ situation got that much better but we moved onto our own place - almost 10A with an old two story house built in the early 1900's, with 4 bedrooms, an old barn, and outbuildings. The place had been empty for years so it needed a whole lot of cleaning and repair but all I really remember about that first summer up there was the fun of having all that room to play and explore. We were the last house on the road and there was nothing but some cattle in pastures around us - the rest was all forest land with wild critters everywhere.

But after the house became liveable, mom and dad started in 'growing' our own food - putting in a huge garden, we had a milk cow, raised pigs and chickens....it was wonderful! I really didn't like weeding the garden but feeding the critters was fun. I learned early that if you want to eat well during the winter, then you worked hard during the summer, put up everything you could get your hands on and tada! Food for most of the winter. With the cow came fresh milk and cream and homemade butter. She was bred to a hereford bull each time and so each spring she provided us with a young calf that would grow up to be our meat for the next year. We bought piglets and raised them til of a size to butcher and of course the chickens provided us with some meat but mostly eggs. The entire family would plan for a buying trip to Eastern WA to the orchards in late summer/early fall to pick and bring home fruit to put up for the winter. I loved those trips and the resulting boxes of fresh fruit.....yum, apples, pears, peaches etc. We had our own cherry trees and actually some apple trees but the poor trees had been neglected for so long they needed a lot of pruning and cleaning up before they would return to producing. Actually they were so very old that they never did do much good - just the cherry trees did.

One of the best things about having those acres was I could have a horse! It was always a 'hand me down' horse from my aunt who, with several other gals her age, had a team that went around the area competing in play days. I ended up with a pretty bay called Ricky T, half arab, half quarterhorse, who didn't like to be caught but once caught, was fine and was the best ride in the world. He would let me stand on his back and pick cherries as long as I gave him one every so often. Solid as a rock, that horse was - I miss him to this day.

The point of all this is that I was raised to grow and preserve my own food - a way of life that only a small percentage of people still embrace. Even after I was married and had kids - I still canned and preserved stuff, made my own bread etc. I can remember my son telling friends that he didn't even know about store bought bread until he was 7 and in school LOL

After the kids were grown and gone, I fell into the trap that so many do - 'instant' type food and very little that didn't come from the grocery store. Shame on me. With all the information out there regarding the dangers of pesticides, and additives to our food, it's not a healthy way of life - so hence the desire to return to my roots and grow/raise whatever foods I can. One other reason is that I am over 60, disabled and on SSD - which sure as heck does not leave a lot of $$ to buy foodstuffs if you want to keep a roof over your head. So time to rethink my priorities and get back to basics.

Right now I'm living in Arkansas, but planning to return to WA state before the end of the year and hopefully will be able to find a place where I can put in a decent sized garden and hopefully keep some chickens. Western WA is a pretty good place to live - except for the constant rain - and it's got a great attitude toward 'green' living too. Really looking forward to returning to my roots both in where I was raised and how I was raised!!