Wood Stove Cooking & Spoiled Kitties

Wood Stove Cooking:














Back in October we had early snow, 2 weeks of snow storms. During that time we also had a short (4 hrs) power outage. It occurred to me that it would be a good idea to try cooking on the wood stove that keeps us warm. So I found my dutch oven and put it on the stove with water to see if it would get hot.....it boiled nicely.

So the next day, out came the onions, carrots, celery, chicken, noodles and broth. The soup simmered nicely on the stove all day. It turned our really well and once the cold weather returns I will try cooking on the wood stove again.














The kitties in our house have become very spoiled. It used to be that they were not even allowed in the house, now they have taken over the sofa. Here is Missy Mew taking her afternoon nap in my chair (I cover it with a sheet to keep the hair off). She looked so cute I just had to share. Me Moew, has his spot as well, so when you come to my house and see sheets all over my sofa it is because of the kitties. LOL.

Cats

Cats..........you have the caddy cats and then the cats, cat. We have one of each.

Our older cat, who is 7 years old now, is a cats, cat. He loves to prowl about at night, and wants to come home for a nap all day, food and a little attention. Sometimes he gets himself into situations where he needs a little extra TLC, and on those occasions he will stay home for several days as he heals up. Sigh. He hears us as we come home and waits by the door to escape, and he is lighting fast. LOL. He gets along with the 2 dogs as best as a cat can, Rocky our lab puppy loves to wrestle him down and give him a Rocky do, you know a new hair style held together with dog spit. He came home tonight for his dinner, and normally he "gets" to say in all night cause "mom" won't let him back out....but "dad" forgot to cover the door on the new addition and Me Moew knew it was open and went out again.

Then there is the kitten, Miss Mew (or however you spell it), who is about 3 months old now, she is a caddy cat. What a hoot she is, too. While Me Moew would not even consider getting up on funiture, Miss Mew thinks all things belong to her.......so because of her insistence on using the sofa as a run way, she now gets banished to the garage during her crazy times. She loves to play with whatever and it appears her favorite things are, the empty tube from paper towels, a plastic grocery bag (which she jumps on, sliding across the floor and gets one handle in her mouth and runs with it behind her), an empty spool from thread, dried mud that falls from DH boots, lids from whatever, oh and she loves the cabinet doors...jumping up against them.

She races from room to room, and attacks everything including the back of ones legs, no claws, just jumping on you. She is into just about everything when she is in her crazy moods, thus the garage. She has taken to a new sleeping place, see attached pictures..............


This is my desk, where I am sitting right now typing up this post. You will notice how I have the drawer pulled out to hold a board for my keyboard, well.................................















She has figured out that there is a place for her to sleep in the space left by the open drawer, I was able to catch her in the act. She won't beable to fit in there much longer, but what a hoot. Again I say................CATS!!!!!!!!!

Building Update

I know...it is about time I posted an update. We spent 2 days getting the roof finished. We got the second load of boards, Paul and Kirk got the grooves put into the boards. Kirk and I finished putting the remaining boards down. The next day we installed the electrical, put
4' x 8' x 2" insulation sheets down, then topped that with tar paper, then 1" x 2" furring strips ( pieces of wood that are 8' long), which we then secured the tin roofing to. I did not get pictures of this process unfortunately. So now the roof is weather tight. Ya!!!



















With 3 days of snow forecasted (and realized), we moved indoors. Yes we have gotten our first snow of the year and it last for 3 days. Our next project is the staircase. This is the beginning, the first landing and the walls for the stairs. This is exciting. Our first piece of drywall is up, see that board on the right wall....that will be the door leading to the livingroom, well it will be bigger, but that is the place. LOL.















I had to share with you some fur baby stuff. Lady came in the house because if she hears shooting she freeks and it is hunting season, so anyway, she met the kitten and they decided to take a nap together. To cute.















Back to the building, Kirk is securing the floor around the new stairwell, with his helper Rocky.















Here is the new stairwell, taken from the second floor, it was very exciting to assend the stairs into the new studio area.















It took a while to get Rocky to go down the stairs, but once he did there was no stopping him. We are very happy to have this opening, now as the weather turns colder and colder we don't have to go outside, not to mention all the nasty mud that is on the north side of the building from the snow we had. Rain is forcast so this will be a really blessing.















I was just upstairs, planning where things will go. LOL.

She Sleeps in a Thong.

I just had to share this with you all. We got a new kitten, not sure of her name yet, probably
Miss Meu. She is 8 weeks old and has pretty markings and blue eyes.

I was standing talking with my friend Susan Nixon of CQ4fun, who came for a 4 day visit with hubby Paul, and took my foot out of my flip flop, ya know how ya do and put my foot on my leg. Well when I wanted to put my foot back in my sandal guess who was asleep in it. I do not know what possessed her to do this but she did. She slept there for about 30 minutes.















We laughed and laughed over this. She does like shoes and we find her playing in them often. She is full of vim and vinegar. She loves to climb our pant legs (which can be a problem when we are in shorts), I now have a cat swatter instead of a fly swatter, LOL, thankfully it doesn't take much to detour her, she is persistent though. She has already taken over the house, the big cat is not to pleased with her and avoids her, I hope they will become fast friends. We have not let her be around the dogs to much, just because they are labs and she could get hurt, though I have a feeling she will make it known, that she is a tough cookie.















Susan and Paul just pulled out, we had such a good time together, it is already to quite/lonely.

More on our visit later.