Happy Holidays

New kids and a once in a Lifetime thing

http://kathymom27.blogspot.com/2014/10/once-in-lifetime.html

ignore the floor - that's what we found when we pulled up the rug.

Sukkah Coming Down

I'm now damp. We're expecting a major storm coming through in the next two days so I brought down my sukkah. It's a good thing I didn't sleep in it last night, woke up to rain so the tarps, the ropes, the string = all wet. When it got humid last night I changed my plans and took down the decorations and brought in my laptop and cot with bedding. Good thing!

Every year we improve on the comfort of the sukkah and getting it up and down.

You can see in the pictures that the limbs and leaves were drying out and were no longer a nice, lush green. The ropes also were sagging, bringing my lovely "roof" of tree limbs lower into the sukkah. The tarps are a huge mess right now because they're wet. We'll bring the totes in and fold up the tarps in a couple of hours. Next clear day we'll spread them out on the lawn and let them dry.

I hated to bring it down but it was time, especially with the weather. 

wet rope, dried out limbs and leaves wet from the rain and dripping

tarps coming down

getting the limbs off the webbing of rope ensured that I got wet! Then taking down said rope off the frame really cemented the fact I was going to be damp.

we'll fold up the tarps in an hour or so, pull in the step ladder and tubs and we're back to normal with the brush/limbs pulled to the side.

 

Fun Stuff - Vincent Price Trivia

https://p.antavo.com/BWO/+527/

Love the site, his daughter is great and there is so much info!

Sukkot

It's that time of year again.  After Yom Kippur we put together temporary "booths", shacks, shelters, etc.  This was done in ancient times when the workers would build temporary booths next to fields, orchards, etc so they were right there to continue the work the next day during the harvest.

We celebrate what G-d has given us and we open our "tents" and strive to do good in the community for those less fortunate.

In progress, hanging the tarps with my sister Jackie (pictured here)

Tarps are hung, then I string rope all across the top to hold branches.  The roof must be of something that is natural and that grows and sparse enough to see the stars at night

Some of the brush, Jackie did the cutting of those.  In the brush is our supervisor, the mighty Deacon!

 sides are done, rope support is woven - time for branches

next step - furniture.  There's a cot for me to sit and/or sleep on, the tubs will serve as tables (with coverings to make them look nice).

 stylish pumpkin centerpiece, some autumn flowers, cut out leaves - nice decorations

 more autumn flowers with a lovely pumpkin sign

my nightstand and cot before I put the sheet on it.  I also have a light for reading - I'm set!

I will contribute to a charity tonight and study Torah

If anyone has questions about the holiday or my sukkah, comment here.

"You LIKE this?" Alice Cooper - Sick Things (TheSnoop Sisters) (1974) (HQ)

Do you remember the Snoop Sisters, Mom?  I bet you'd remember THIS episode!


I've been searching for a good quality clip of this for forever! We
were watching this when I was 13 because I was a Roddy McDowall, Vincent Price and all around horror and mystery fan. I knew of Alice and liked the music but couldn't
afford magazines and records. Alice's part came on and my Mom turned and
looked at me and said; "You LIKE this?"

<cringe>

Then in
highschool my German language teacher named me "Alice" because of my
last name and Mom found that humorous and let me begin buying albums
when I could.

That was in the 1970s.  In the 2000's she rode with me from Fresno, CA to San Diego so I could attend the concert alone while she read in the car. She knew I'd fall asleep on the way back if I didn't have company.  The car broke down on the way back.  Losing oil from 100 ft from where we'd fill it.  We parked at a convenience store and spent the night.  We didn't even know where we were. Just that it would be morning before my sister and her husband would answer their phone.

I raised my head off the steering wheel and saw the Matterhorn.  We were outside Disneyland.  WTH?



This year we saw Alice Cooper with Motley Crue and we're going to see Alice on his solo tour in October - with a BIG SURPRISE coming up!

DaysEye (Never Ending Story) (my cousins' band)

Progress

The family/library room

this is looking at the library/family room from the living room.  The long object is a quilt in the frames

moving counter clockwise - the continuation of our wall of books

French doors to our screened in porch (note the hammock on the porch - helps the back!)

more bookshelves

looking back into the living room/towards the front door

Cat pictures and update!

We've been working inside the house since it's rained almost every day.  My garden needs weeding but the flowers and indoor plants are doing wonderfully.  It feels good to have growing things around us.  We decided to start at one end of the house and work our way to the other.  We started in the library.  I put bracers on each shelf (ones that I hadn't done before) 30 of them.  Pull the books down, drill hole in bracer and shelf, screw down, drill 2nd and 3rd hole, repeating, put shelf back, restock books. We're taking advantage of the work to rearrange the books in an order more conducive to our reading and research.  While Jackie rearranged books I went through all the stacks of papers, bills, odds-n-ends on desk shelves and cleared off the LONG quilt top that had become a catch-all over the last year and a half. Maybe I'll start learning how to quilt.  More accomplishments: I reached my goal for words written in the National November Writing Month summer camp - first time!  I managed 15,000 words in 20 days.  In November we'll see if I can reach 50,000 in 30 days.  Eeeek!  I also completed a college course online on English grammar.  Ugh.

 

Next is scrubbing the floors and the family room will be done.  Jackie has started on the screened in porch which is a task with the carpet out there and we finished that today. We have two tubs to go through out there but the carpet was swept and powdered (for fleas getting in from the yard).  We’ll vacuum tomorrow and then in a few days to break their cycle.  Eventually we'll work our way to the craft/guest room and then downward to the basement and garage and the stuff in boxes and tubs.

I did the running all over town routine trying to find affordable non-gluten flours and baking goods.  Try and get healthy and your wallet becomes very unhealthy! 

 

On the 3^rd I was petting a feral cat that we’ve been working to tame.  We’ve gotten to the point where I could pet him and he’d do “cute kitty” – rolling, twisting, presenting his belly, etc.  He routinely hisses and has scratched me but I could usually avoid damage.  Not that day, something startled him as I was squatting near him and he leapt for my hand and sank his fangs in.  Ow to the ow!

 

Jackie and I cleaned the wounds as best we could: antibacterial soap, peroxide, rubbing alcohol and Neosporin.  I had a bad bite four years ago and the red streaks got past the middle of my arm before the antibiotics (FOUR days of IVs) worked.  I did not want to repeat that!  I kept the wounds open and marked my hand to the point where the redness extended.  That night the veins were more pronounced, darker and the redness was spreading.  We went to the emergency room and I got some antibiotics.  We had the SPCA on the phone before I was even seen in the ER.  They brought a trap cage and we got Henry late that afternoon.  Yeah, we named him and made a commitment to claim him after his quarantine.  Henry went into 10 days of quarantine.  We got Henry back from the SPCA on the 14^th and got him into the vet the next day to have his life changed.  No more being a papa!  LOL

 

3 days after I got bit I found a turtle in the weeds as I was weed whacking one handed.  Jackie picked him up to move him to a safer place and he bit her!  He didn’t break the skin but it pinched.  He had the most p*ssed off expression!

 

Today (the 24^th) Henry ventured outside for the first time since he bit me and went into quarantine. He didn't dash out quickly like we thought he might. He sauntered out, came back in, spent time getting stoned on catnip and checking out the house before going outside some more. We've gone from hissing and growling if I pet him for more than 30 seconds to headbutting me, snuggling under my chin and begging to be petted. He still has his Edward Hyde moments but doesn’t bite or attempt to scratch me.

Another cat falls to the cat whisper's charms!!!

Henry, Part 3

Henry made it through his surgery just fine. He's very tired and a little sore today and growled at me once. That's overshadowed by his loud purr and snuggling up to be loved. I wouldn't say he's totally tame yet, I have no idea if Jackie could pet him or not. We'll continue to work on it. I'm going to keep him inside for another day or two.

The pictures are of Henry day before the surgery and today. The night we got him home out of quarantine he slept snuggled up or stretched out next to my leg. Boy wants to be a pet.

 Before the surgery

 After the surgery

Henry, part 2

We got Henry home from quarantine today. He's almost a totally different boy. Once we let him out of the cage he's loving and calm. We'll see how he is when we get him back into the cage in the morning.


He has an appt with the vet - life changing event, Henry! No more being a papa!

The people at the SPCA were so thankful that we're claiming Henry and getting him fixed. They said most of the time no one will take a feral on and they can't be adopted out so the only alternative isn't a pretty one (they gave us a break on his quarantine fee).

So, in the morning, Henry will have his sex life altered and get his rabies shot and we're going to work at taming him some more.

More of the garden

 Celosia

 crape myrtle

 Persian Shield

red salvia

Garden Time

On a day we plan to rest - totally rest. The only work is tending to the pets, making a loaf of bread and dinner.

Well.....I got waylaid by weeds.  Checking out the garden and beaming at how well I did this year, I had to pull some weeds, of course!

That's me looking somewhat scruffy. 

Deacon - the mighty coyote hunter orange tabby cat supervising

Sunflowers, crape myrtle, and more