Excursion

Kitties!

Intrepid Whitey here.

Today when I was out inspecting the gardens with Mommy I had a Splendid Idea.

Immediately implementing my plan, I sidled down the catio...

...inspected the blue bench...

...quickly trotted off along the side of the house...

...and ended up in the front yard, where I am not "supposed" to go!

It was awesome.  

Mommy even let me eat some weeds* before she once again herded me into the back yard.

Happy Tuesday!

XX  Bad Whitey  XX

*which stayed down, drat and blast

Begetables

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

I know some of you are enduring an absolutely crap winter, so I thought I'd post some hopeful photos of our spring veggie garden to cheer you up!

The kale we put in last fall is almost ready.  Scott had to cover it up a few times this winter and it did beautifully.  (Thank you Mom for the frost cloth!)  We put it in a shadier spot this year so I hope to keep it going throughout the summer heat.  I love kale!

The Brussels sprouts are coming along well, too.  I've never grown these before so I really don't know what to expect; but oven-roasted sprouts are so delicious...I hope we get 'em in like gangbusters.

And look--I didn't know it but Scott sowed radishes for me!  What a guy.  They'll be ready in another month.  I'll pickle some, make kim chee, and we'll chow down the rest raw with salt.

The tomato patch!

The blue stakes are for the shade cloth which we're already using--the plants are still pretty tender and it's been in the 80's during the day--they got a little crisp the day Scott transplanted them.  We still have a half-gallon of cherry tomatoes in the freezer from last year, just enough to keep us in pizza sauce and marinara until these are ready to be picked.

I killed another dehydrator last week so I ordered a commercial-grade one this time with a 10-year warranty to dry tomatoes, fruit, and (of course) make chikkun titz jerky for the cats.  We ate dehydrated cherry tomato "raisins" last year on everything; salads and sandwiches and for snacks.  They were phenomenal and I plan to make twice as many this year!

The wildflowers are starting to pop up in the beds and the bees were busy in the arborvitae today harvesting sap.  More photos to come...

Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Shambling With Sheeb

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

I bought some new kicks!

Naturally I took 'em out on the road.

Those of you coming to BlogPaws in May, this is what you'll see going into the resort.

I hiked up the hill so I could cross the bridge (for golf cart use only--not that I ducked under the "Private Use Only" sign or anything) to get some photos for ya'll.*

See the waterfall?  That's my next goal, to get to the top and take pictures looking down!  I've been over to the opposite side of the mountain and I spotted a trail going up.

From the other side of the bridge, looking through the tower. 

The view was spectacular--if you biggafy you can see between the palm trees the water tank I hiked up to a while back, and in the far distance is the Strip.

It appears that our two weeks of winter are done.  We'll get a month or two of chilly windy weather but the freezing temperatures have moved on and the sun is back to shining every day.  This is the best time of year!  Not too hot to hike or bike, but warm enough to sit and read a book on the Catio (in the afternoon sun, mind you it's cold in the shade) with a cup of coffee in hand and a cat on my lap.  The garden made it through the freeze with the help of a tarp at night and the kale is ridiculous...I'm eating kale chips every day and barely keeping up.  We put the cherry tomato plant back outdoors and it has at least fifty fruits on it which is way more than we get in the spring!  We harvested over a hundred lemons this year and four dozen oranges, all of which have been sliced and dehydrated for using in tea, smoothies, and sauces.  It's not much, but it's so satisfying to be able to grow a few edibles.

So, that's the report for this week...

Happy Sunday!

XX  Sheebie  XX

*Forcing me to break the law, just to keep you entertained...you should be ashamed.

Sheebcation!

Friends and Kitties!

Sheebie here.

Quite unexpectedly I had a mini-vacation last week, on the spur of the moment I took two days off along with my weekend for a four day extravaganza of busyness and sloth!  Many small errands and chores were accomplished, as well as a couple of naps (with cats, of course) and daily read-a-thons;* I plowed through three books.

We're back to sticky monsoon weather but this go-round hasn't been quite so hot.  I was outdoors today at work doing the 100-meter mosey out to the filters and I was sort of chilly in the wind--it was only 85 F and I had goosebumps!  I've decided that anything below body temperature is too cold.  We've gotten only a quarter inch of rain this summer for our corner of the valley, and so far this monsoon has been a bust.  I'm not complaining though, some areas got such severe wind, rain, and hail that giant trees got uprooted!  It's amazing, all the various microclimates around the valley.  One of the fun things to do at work (besides actual labor--anything but that!) is comparing weather notes with co-workers--even two miles away there's completely different weather during the "rainy" season.

At least I have something to do indoors for the next week while I'm avoiding the sticky weather; the Yearly Harvest at Almosta Farm has begun!  Scott got his plants in early this year and they are ready to be trimmed and dried.  Like tobacco, marijuana improves in taste and potency with curing, properly done it can take up to three months to completely cure an entire plant's yield.  There's skill involved in trimming buds too, and patience to remove all the chaff (keif) without over-handling the flowers.  Nevada finally passed legislation to allow dispensaries for medical marijuana to operate and it will be nice to not have to worry all summer if Scott will have a good harvest or not, that there will be a back-up available.  Especially since his appointment with the pain management doctor quack was a total bust.  Frankly, the man was an arrogant asshole...but that's a story for another day.

Anyhoo, I expect to be pretty occupied after work for the next week or so, so please don't panic if you don't see a Katnip post every day...hopefully I won't be too busy at work to get around a do a bit of visiting, *wink wink*!

Happy Sunday, and have a Wonderful Week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

*Thank you Quill and Greyson's Mommy, for Lindsey's Story, I enjoyed it lots!  Also Thanks to Pricilla's Publicist for the TBR pile to dive into...two more winners!

Sunday with Sheebie!

Friends and Kitties!

It's been quiet yet busy around here, and due to a) a lack of any cohesive story line, b) snappy segues, and c) laziness, I'm gonna post a list.

1.  I started yoga classes to help stretch out my back and I think it's helping.  The class is very low key, all adults, and lots of fun.  What's nice is we all get a printed sheet (homework!) of what to practice during the week which helps jog my memory--I find it hard to remember poses when I'm busy clearing my mind.

d.  I did two nice bike rides last week.  I had a wee tad of trouble on one hill but pulling over and puking took care of it.  Next time I'll gear down sooner and chug less water all at once!  Spring has sprung here in Las Vegas with highs in the 80's and lows in the upper 50's at night.  It's just glorious outdoors, except for my allergies.  I'm allergic to pine and olive tree pollen and they're blooming like gangbusters right now.  Thank goodness all I get are itchy red eyes and not the sneezy chesty type reaction; a few eye drops and I'm good to go.

Z.  Both my immediate supervisor and manager got promotions, so I'll be getting a new boss.  I have a couple of candidates in mind and have been prodding encouraging them to apply.  I qualify for the job, and I'd be good at it except for the fact that I'm so non-politically correct that I'd be down in Human Resources within the first 25 minutes of acceptance.  I have a hard time with stupidity and there's a couple of dead weights around here that--well--let's just say I've volunteered to dispose of the bodies.  

There's one individual in particular I'd be more than happy to work for so I wish them the best of luck.

7.  Our tomato plants have blossoms!  Scott put in several varieties of cherry tomatoes for us to try this year.  It gets too hot too soon to do the big ones, they split.  He has to spray some sort of magical sexy blossom elixir on the flowers in order for them to bear fruit as there aren't any natural tomato plant pollinators out this early.  There are plenty of bees but apparently tomato blossoms are stinky and they don't like 'em; instead they're all in the arborvitae partying drinking the sap off the stems.

@.  The kale is doing well, too.  As is the catnip!

14.  Sparkle's Human and Quill's Mom came over for an afternoon last weekend, and we had a wonderful confab together, talking cat-talk and a thousand other subjects.  The Horde (sans Scouty and CC) was very gracious and welcoming, with Tarty Salem whaling about for a good hour on the dining room table much to everybody's enjoyment.  Especially hers--what a ham.  

A large ham.

5.  The Park Across the Street is coming along nicely.  Joining the Horned Toads is a new giant animal (shrouded by a tarp, dammit) which is some sort of lizard, the bocce ball court is about done, and the curb for the horse corral was poured last week.  Nothing that photos would do justice to, but the whole complex is really starting to take shape.

q.  I've been making bread at home in my new Kitchen Aid Mixer, and I swear I'll never buy bread again.  Home-baked is just so freakin' good!  I bake on Wednesdays and Scott and I have bread-n-butter, fruit, and cheese for dinner.  Delicious.  I've used my mixer for several batches of quick breads and to shred cabbage for cole slaw and smush up apples for applesauce and boy was that ever easy--I have decent knife skillz but nothing near as fast as those slicer blades.

elebenty.  Scott has a new hobby, he's taken up tie dying and so far his shirts are Far Out, Man!  As soon as he gets confident enough to make shirts to order he will be setting up a store, he enjoys it that much.  I think it's great--he is so creative with color.  It just goes to show that being red-green color blind doesn't prevent you from using the full palette.  I often wonder just how he visually perceives things.  Photos of his work to come...

So, that about wraps it up...have you done anything new and interesting lately?

Tell me in the comments!

Happy Sunday and Have a FUN Week!

XX  Sheebie  XX

Friday Wrap-Up

Kitties!

This is kinda a mishmash post...hang on!

It's been unCodly busy around here with Mommy offa work.  She's been cleaning like a madwoman, getting rid of our furs inside and out.

Between hiding from the Evil Vacuum and re-furring everything up we're exhausted.

Not to mention our breakfast has been TWO HOURS LATE every day.

Daddy has been running errands...we had a BIG pickup truck for a rental while our Explorer was in the shop getting fixed, and Daddy took advantage of the bed and suspension:

 One hundred cement blocks, bags of sand, dirt, et cetera.

Daddy is gonna build another sitting area in the Northwest corner of the yard.

The Baby can hardly wait to snoopervise!

Mommy has decided to start doing a Gardening Thursday...she thinks that Daddy works so hard in our yard that we should show it off.   Hurrah!  Now we can tell all y'all about desert landscaping.

 We got our car back! 

(Mommy calls her new car the SS Tuna, any ideas what we should call Daddy's car?)

Many yummy snax are being doled out at odd times.

 nommy!

How can kibble get our whiskers so filthy?

 ::lick lick lick::

Gotta get that sixth toe clean!

 Cat Spit, the universal solvent.

Maui watched the show "Survivor"

 He sits in front of the infrared controls for the remotes.

It drives Daddy Crazypants!

Hmmm, looks like Mommy needs to dust.

 I'm outta here!

They voted Coach Jimmy Johnson off.  GRRRRRR.

Daddy started us two lawns!

He bought some sod at the hardware store.

 He brought the smaller one in for us to try out.

We LOVE it! 

It's still early days, if we don't nibble it to death it should come in nice and lush real soon.

I'm never moving.

*

*

*

So, last night when our cable went out from 6:15 PM to 7:50 PM.   

 We're telling you, when Humans don't have something to occupy themselves they get crazypants!

They weighed this Big Boy...

...who is HUGE!

All 22.8 pounds of him!

Yup, you read it right:

22.8 POUNDS!

So kitties, that's what going on at our house.

Mommy is planning on doing NOTHING Saturday & Sunday except watch football and blog, so we'll be around visiting soon! 

XX  Lounge Kats