So, anyone know the best way to shave a cat? A large, angry manx that spent her summer outside and got too matted to be groomed?
On to new business I guess. The house-sitting is going really well. I really like being able to watch what I want and be able to clean without someone running the tv volume all the way up to drown me out. Hopefully I can get my hands on a Rainbow vacuum and really get things done.
We have snow that stuck. I don't know that it'll continue to stick but for the moment it's here. It makes walking around the place a tad treacherous because of the mud underneath the snow but I haven't fallen down yet. Don't worry folks, it'll happen.
Bonnie is doing great. She is a year old and really short. I was a little worried that the Shorthorn blood would maker her taller than the average Highland but I guess there's not enough of it to make a difference. She's about three inches taller than when I got her and about a hundred pounds heavier. Very beautiful still. Her horns are starting to curve down though. I'm not sure what can be done about that cause the only things they would be good for that way is scratching her cheeks with. I'll have to do a little research. I know they can be made to change direction but I'm not sure if they can get them up rather that pulling them down and out. We'll see.
Dad had a sleep study done on the 7th and he does indeed have rather severe sleep apnea. Pastor Ron kept telling him but he didn't want to believe it. They shared a hotel room in Anchorage a few months ago and Pastor was freaked out when Dad quit breathing a few times. According to the specialist, he quit breathing 76 or 79 times an hour. It's not the most she'd ever seen but 50 times an hour is considered high. He slept with the CPAP for the first time last night and he got almost a full night's sleep. His shoulders still hurt and that disturbs his rest but nothing else happens anymore. He said it was great. Hopefully his blood pressure will come down and the anxiety will ease up and he can ditch the medications.
Charlie is coming to help us tear down a building and put up the barn next week. Yay!!!!!!
The turkeys are on their cleansing diet now. The grower is really high in soy so they are on corn and wheat now until slaughter time to rid their body's of that horrifying travesty of a pseudo-food. I don't understand the reasoning behind making people eat soy, other than the health problems that it's causing makes money for the pharmaceutical industry. The dollar is the god of the twenty and twenty-first century. Oh who am I kidding, greed has run the world from the beginning.
Okay, a friend of mine has tagged me and for some odd reason, thinks she wants to know more about me. So, here are six random things about me.

1: Link to the person who tagged you.

2: Post the rules on your blog.

3: Write six random things about yourself.

4: Tag six people at the end of your post.

5: Let each person know he or she has been tagged.

6: Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I am addicted to t.v.-on-dvd. I can't get over how I can watch all of my favorite shows over and over and over and over and ... you get the picture. It drives my dad nuts but I love it!

2. Along those same lines, my favorite show is M*A*S*H. I have all eleven seasons and can tell you what all the episodes are called, what season it's from, what it's about and meaningless bits of trivia about it too.

3. I like washing dishes but hate washing silverware. I don't know why cause it goes the fastest but I absolutely hate it. I do them first just to get them done and out of the way.

4.My favorite sport is mixed martial arts. Specifically UFC. I don't especially care to watch team sports and golf is boring. The sheer determination and guts that those men have is amazing. And thankfully, most of them watch their mouths on television.

5. I can't seem to stop collecting animals. I know that most of my family will realize that this is not random but was inevitable. Granted, I do a lot of research and get an animal only after I have reviewed time constraints, money required, work involved and current situation. I fully realize what I am getting myself into when the critter comes home and there are some that I would love to have but can't. A uromastyx for example. A heat loving lizard that comes from the Middle East and Africa. These guys need a basking spot well over a hundred degrees and since the electricity goes out here quite often I think the only sane thing to do is not get one. But oh how I yearn for one.

6.I'm learning Arabic. I'm not learning it that fast, or that well for that matter, but in my own defense I'm separated from my computer most of the time. I've wanted to learn another language for quite a few years and I figured it would be easier if I learned a hard one first, that way any others will seem easy. I'd like to learn all the languages of my heritage some day. The fact that they're mostly European just makes it better.

Well, there you go Tori. Hope it was worth it.

~Pam

P.S. Really, if anyone knows the best way to shave a cat I can really use some pointers!

Okay I was wrong. Raisa rolled over on the sixth and hasn't quit since. She forgot how a couple of times and got mad but then remembered and flipped over.

PFD's tomorrow!!!! Know what you are going to buy? That's right boys and girls, it's time to buy HAY!!!!!!!!

~Pam

Uncle Dave and Bonnie Bonnie aka Moodini

Whew! It's been just crazy here this last month. My uncle came to visit, Kathy left for three months, Tony quit working and I have a cow who would make Houdini proud.

First, Uncle Dave came up to visit for almost two weeks. He'd never been up here and I had last seen him when I went Outside in 2000. A lot has happened in our lives since then, good and bad, and it was really great to see him again. For those of you who don't know, Uncle Dave is my mom's brother and the only blood uncle I have. They had a brother but he's been gone for quite some time. Mom and I were just discussing that today too! For the size of family that I have, it's weird to only have two uncles.

Kathy is in Colorado, visiting her daughter for three months and I'm house sitting for her. Dozer(her dog) and Jasher(my dog) really get along well. The only problem happens when Dozer forgets that Jasher is also a boy and attempts to do inappropriate things to him. Jasher manages to fight him off and they go back to playing. Dozer is a Boston Terrier and he makes the weirdest noises when he gets excited.

Tony quit working at the dock so I don't have the girls when he has them unless he has a gig, then I get them overnight on Saturdays. Not often, but sometimes. I miss them, but it's nice to have some days when I can get stuff done. Raisa turned 4 months on the 26th of August. She is trying so hard to roll over. She has the strength to do it, just not the coordination and it really makes her furious when she can't do it. Kiki is practicing sitting with her and she has that down for the most part. She still has a round bottom so she tips, but she can get to her stomach from there and she's all good. She's looking more and more like Phaedra every day. Neither one of them look more like one parent or the other, whereas India is Kiki's mini-me. Funny stuff ya know!

Okay, on to the bovine breakout. The back gate of Bonnie's corral is a section of welded wire, 4"x2", staples to two poles. One pole is nailed to the post of the corral and the other is held up by two loops of wire, one at the top and one at the bottom. She has learned to bump the gate so that it comes up out of the bottom loop and then falls down out of the top loop, hence falling to the ground and letting her out. Two nights ago, she did it but nobody caught her out roaming. We think she went out for a couple hours and came back into the pasture to sleep where she was discovered the next morning. Unfortunately for her, the lack of thumbs prevented her from setting the gate back up and she was busted. Yesterday, Mom and I were sitting at Kathy's kitchen table after she got home from work and I looked up in time to see a blonde rump disappear behind the bushes at the top of her driveway. I guess my eyes almost popped out of my head cause it scared Mom to death but she couldn't see what I saw. I ran out the door and up the driveway to find Mrs. Moodini standing in the middle of our driveway, drinking from a puddle. I walked up to her and grabbed her halter to lead her up to the house and she decided she didn't want to go that way after all. I'm not heavier and I'm definitely not stronger but I was scareder and I drug her up the driveway until I could get to her lead rope. I figured she was probably headed for the water trough but I wasn't taking any chances. Mom went ahead and closed the back gate for me and fastened the top loop to the wire of the gate so that the gate can't fall if she bumps it out of the bottom loop. When PFDs show up I'm going to buy a metal panel gate... One with a latch... That I can lock. The wire makes me nervous anyway cause it wouldn't be anything if a bear wanted in or she really wanted out We still haven't discovered all the damage she's done I'm sure. She ate the apples off the tree and most of the leaves, she trampled my flowerbed in the front and she ate about thirty pounds of turkey grower that was in the can beside the turkey coop. The apples were the bummer but the turkey grower was aggravating. $20 for 50# makes thirty pounds gone, sting a little. Oh well, what can you do except get a better gate.

Dad almost has a barn built! Well, on paper anyway. He has the building panels for the whole thing and is going to get a slab poured with his PFD, for half of the floor. Not the cow half. I want a place that we can keep turkeys inside so they don't get eaten and the poults will grow faster with room to roam and a place to run, outside. Our turkeys are half grown and are looking mighty tasty already. I heard them gobbling last week and it made me think of Thanksgiving already. The leaves are turning and, while it's been cold all summer, it's starting to get that nip that only Autumn has. I have a ton and a half of hay, which isn't nearly enough, but I'm not quite so anxious about it. It's a little bit of a buffer in case snow comes early. The search never ends though. Dad is parceling out the joint for pasture and hay fields next year. Carl Hatten will let us use his baler if we can get it to his place and the neighbor of Carl's said we can mow his place for hay next year. The plan is to have a few tons to cut down on the cost of winter feed, especially since she'll be pregnant next winter... hopefully. And everybody knows how pregnant ladies eat!!!! Just kidding, just kidding calm down.

Well, I got some more pictures to post cause my super-cool uncle bought me a new camera for an early birthday present.

Later,
~Pam
McKayla Nicole Hull and India Lynette Bates at the Ninilchik Fair August 16th, 2008



Raisa Alexandria Rea August 9 or 10, 2008

Like the new template? I tried to do a cow one but that one didn't work out so well so y'all get my number two favorite thing... Scotland! I'm not sure which Isle it is but it really doesn't matter to me.
Nothing much new to report other than the turkey poults are now outside. They were in the laundry room for three weeks and now they are not. We put wire around the greenhouse since it's not being used this year and moved them in there. It's pretty cool. They seemed so big in their brooder box and now, not so much. Nanook wants to get in there so bad but she keeps getting threatened with the wrist rocket. She is such a chicken.
Missions conference is going on in our mother church this week. I couldn't go up this year but I've been listening to it on the internet every night. There's some pretty powerful preaching going on up there. You can check it out at prbcak.org. Awesome stuff.
Well, that's everything that's new on this end. What about y'all?

~Pam

Broken Promises

If y'all will recall, (wow that's a lot of els), when I started this blog I promised an update a week. I overestimated the excitement of our lives I guess. So, an update every month or so ought to do it I think.

Bonnie is doing great. She went into heat for the first time this week and has decided that I am not welcome in her barn when Dad is in there. She probably smells the testosterone. She should come out by the weekend cause today was her standing day. I would have had her bred today if she was old enough but it'll be quite some time before that happens.

We got some turkey chicks last Saturday, six of them. They are Bronze turkeys. If they are broad breasted ones then all six are going in the freezer around November. If they are the unimproved variety, a heritage breed, then I'll probably keep two of them to be a breeding pair since the prices for chicks will not go down for next year. Dad is worried about them being siblings so I'll probably look into the hatchery that's in Sterling and see what they have in the way of turkeys. We're getting a pig later on in the summer to finish raising and then put in the freezer. I guess Dad's fears of being married to the farm are coming true. It's not like we ever go anywhere anyway. I can't wait to cut into some home-grown turkey and to be able to have pork all year long will be awesome. Pork is really expensive up here so we don't have it very often.

Charlie is still living in Wasilla.

Dad is digging a cellar behind the house. With the prices of food set to skyrocket it makes a lot of sense to be able to store some when it's cheap. He wants to can some more fish and moose. I have to admit that I was not that excited about eating canned moose but it makes a great base for a quick stew. The juices are sealed in, have been getting nothing but better since it was canned and it tasted so much better than store-bought canned beef stew. Mom isn't thrilled about more canned fish cause she would rather eat tuna than salmon but it's hard to catch tuna up here. You'd have to have a really long net.

Mom took a second job at the Kasilof Mercantile for the summer. She goes to work for the School District from 6:00 am to 2:30 pm, if she take a half an hour for lunch, then works at the Merc from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm. She usually stops at Kathy's to give her the mail and wind down and then comes home, eats supper and goes to bed around 10:00 pm. I'm exhausted just typing it! Thankfully it's just for the summer.

The weather up here has been cold...colder than usual anyway for those of you in subtropical climates. We haven't had as much rain as we would normally get and that, combined with the temperatures, has made things really slow to grow. My lilac hasn't bloomed yet and may not until August. Dad's apple trees are blooming, the two Norlands anyway. the Parkland that he got to cross with them isn't blooming so Mom and I went the the nursery today and bought a Freedom apple tree that has set some fruit and has some unopened flowers. Hopefully it will be able to pollinate the Norlands before it croaks over the winter. We've got the Arndt Family Farm and Orchard developing up here. Y'all should come check us out!

Okay, that's all my news for this month. If you have any questions or concerns then write your congressman. No really, you should write. That way they won't be so out of touch with the people that they supposedly represent. By the way, y'all should check out Bob Bird. He's running for the Alaska Senate and I really like his take on things. Let's hope he can beat Stevens this year!

~Pam

She's heeeeerrrrrreeeee!

Well, my May 12th plan didn't work so I got my cow on the 19th. It was a fiasco to say the least. We borrowed a gas guzzler to haul a borrowed stock trailer. $5.15 gas will really suck down the available cash. That's what it is in Cooper Landing where it's the last gas station for a couple hours and if you need to fuel they're it and they can charge whatever they want cause you'll either fuel there or walk back to fill a gas can! Okay, enough ranting.
I named her Bonnie, as in "wee bonnie lass". It means pretty or charming. I like it because it sounds like a cow's name, not a human name that got tacked onto an animal. She's now eight months old and the pictures that the Benjamin's sent me of her don't do her justice. She is a creamy yellow with faint red spots. Dad says she looks like a strawberry roan. Since I have no idea what that looks like I can't agree or disagree. I just know that she is beautiful and very laid-back. Her first halter was put on her in the trailer but we led her from the trailer to the corral with only one twitch that might have turned into a kick if she wanted. She is only waist high on me and if any of you have seen me standing up you'll know that she isn't very tall. Because of the shorthorn blood she'll probably be a round 1100 pounds, full grown. I'm already shopping around for baby-daddies. I'm pretty sure I want to breed back to Highland, especially for her first calf. Decisions, decisions...
For those of you who care, I have been watching Raisa fairly regularly. She'll be a month old on the 26th and I've had her for a couple overnights and one, "only for a couple hours". She almost has the new worn off and is looking more and more like India. I got a pictures of all three of them and they turned out great. So...Enjoy.
~Pam

Hold up a minute!!!!

In that last post I made the comment that I don't really know what I'm doing in regards to a cow. I would like to clarify what I meant. I don't really know what I'm doing in that I have never done it before. I've never been in on the day to day care of a cow. I do have a plan that has been in the works for many years. I do have many years of cow experience living on the place (Dad and Kathy) and I have spent many hours researching, talking and discussing what will and won't work. My earlier comment sparked caring concern in certain family members who emailed me said concerns. Hopefully I have put some of their fears to rest and any others that just weren't said. Should anyone have something to say about this endeavor, I welcome advice and opinions be they negative or positive.

~Pam

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!

Kiki and Tony have a new baby girl! She was born Saturday morning at 6:26. She weighed 6 pounds 6.2 ounces. I forget how long she was but I know she's long and skinny like her sisters. Her name is Raisa (Ray-zha) Alexandria. It has Hebrew origins, meaning "rose" but the English and Slavic version has Greek origins and that means "carefree". Me thinks they are using the Greek version because they both have a weakness for all things Greek. Phaedra is Greek as well. They are bringing her home today because Kiki had to stay two nights due to a tubal after the birth. I plan on taking lots of pictures so stay tuned. I still might watch the older ones occasionally and really, all I have to do is ask if I want them to come over. Kiki is nursing while she is taking time off so the chances of me glomming on to Raisa are slim. For some reason parents are really protective and stingy with their new babies. Kiki will have to go back to work eventually and since they are switching the girls every three days, I'll get her eventually.
Dad's shoulders are not getting any better. Erin (his doctor) said she was not comfortable giving him the cortisone shots so she referred him to a shoulder doctor in Soldotna somewhere. He just has to make the effort to call and make an appointment. It looks like it's not going to happen any time soon. He is going to work this summer though. The preacher down the road wants him to work on his boat this summer. Doing what, I have no idea, but at least he'll be out of the house doing something productive.
Mom's eyes have healed up and she is still getting used to having to wear glasses all the time. She can't focus on things close up anymore so she needs glasses for reading, looking at splinters, popping pimples and whatnot.
It looks like my dreams of owning my own cow are finally coming to fruition. On May 12th I might be bringing home a seven month old heifer. She's 5/8ths Scottish Highland and 3/8ths Shorthorn. She is really pretty. She's blonde and shaggy and cute. I advertised on Craigslist. I've been looking all over the internet for relatively inexpensive cows but couldn't figure out how to get one up here without mortgaging my firstborn. On a whim I advertised for a female bovine, less than a thousand dollars please and wouldn't you know! The very next day this girl popped up. Mom is less than thrilled that she is so young but I think of it as giving me time. First off, I don't really know what I'm doing. Plus, I don't have unlimited funds to get her and a calf out of the weather if need be. This way I have the time to build things right for a breeding operation. It'll be a year and a half before she can breed and then nine months before she calves so I've got lots of time to work the kinks out before a major kink puts two live in jeopardy. I'm really excited to say the least. If this is the one I get then I'll be posting lots and lots of pictures. If I get a different one then I'll be posting lots and lots of pictures.

Later,
~Pam

Update on Dad

The month of Celebrex is over and he is hugely disappointed because it didn't do anything for him. Mom found a nifty cream called Topricin that is working wonders on Kathy's back. Dad is trialing it on his shoulders as well so he might not have to go in and get shots in his shoulders. He's really hoping this stuff will heal on it's own so he'll never have to look at another needle in his life. We'll see how it goes.
~Pam

No Poo!!!!!!

I know that sounds really bad. Can you understand now why I haven't posted? Actually, that stands for no shampoo. I have boycotted shampoo, of all brands, types and formulations. About ten years ago Mom broached the subject with me and to be honest, it sounded horrible!! How can you not wash your hair? You HAVE to wash your hair... Don't you? Well, ten years of maturation, access to the internet and a whole online community dedicated to the eradication of chemicals in our lives has convinced me that this is the way to go. My hair had become limp, greasy at the crown, straw at the ends and no amount of product or conditioners could fix it. I cannot afford to go to a salon every week for treatments. I can't afford to go even once for a consultation. No poo is the answer for me. I wash my hair with baking soda, rinse it with lemon juice and leave honey in it as an humectant. I can't believe how much better it it, condition-wise in even two weeks. I haven't used shampoo since February 27th. Instead, I dissolve 4 tablespoons of baking soda in a half gallon of water and pour it through my wet hair. I let it sit for a minute and rinse it out thoroughly. I mix 1/4 cup lemon juice in a gallon of water and pour that through my hair. It gets rinsed out after 5 minutes. I mix 1 tablespoon of honey in 4 cups of water and use it as a leave-in conditioner. I only have to do this twice a week and my hair does not become a greasy, nasty mess anymore. At first I was doing this every day but have cut back cause my scalp is adjusting. The baking soda cuts the grease without stripping all the natural oils out of your hair. When your scalp realizes that you don't have to have so much oil then it cuts back on how much it makes. Really, it's a supply and demand system.
Baking soda is also a natural deodorizer and cleaner so my hair doesn't smell bad and I rinse with rosemary tea sometimes so it isn't itchy. This is soooo amazing. I absolutely love it. Y'all have got to try this!!!!
~Pam