Kitties, Tractor Rides and Lots of Rain and Mud!

Saturday was a beautiful day!

Blue skies and warm weather.

Louis Dean was up early working on his gate and fence.

Sherry came down and helped him while Dean was teaching a Karate event down here at the ranch in the meadow. That's Dean's favorite place to train!

**Note**

This entire meadow is now under water from the rains of Sunday afternoon, night and Monday until late afternoon when the sun came out!

I spent several hours painting on Saturday and it wasn't on my art projects.

I noticed the door frames that have only been here for two years had peeling paint!

I am having to repaint nearly everything!

I could not figure out why until I realized Louis Dean had been thinning the paint down with water!!

What good does it do to buy high quality paint and then THIN it down??

He and I had a little visit about that!

I decided to pick one area and repaint it instead of trying to do the whole cabin.

Step by step and area by area.

When I finished the day's work and still had paint on my brush - I looked down at the old worn door mats and thought - what do I have to lose??

So I dry brush painted them!

This top one was a dark gray and black.

This was a lighter gray with some designs on it that had faded.

The paint covered them perfectly!

Later on Saturday afternoon, Sherry and I toured their gardens and then we settled down on her deck to count kittens.

It took well over an hour to count all nine kitties and determine their sex.

This collage shows 8 of them and there's one other Tabby - making four Tabby cats.

5 Male and 4 female in all.

The Calico cats are always female so there's two of those.

The orange colored cats are also female.....of them being the tabby on the lower in the collage.

Amber had expressed some interest as has a couple of other friends so we posted pics on Facebook and sent them on texts to help her decide which one she wanted.

In the end, Mike suggested they drive down after church on Sunday and meet them all in person.

Sherry and I made a real good salad for our Saturday night supper!

It had a little bit of everything in it including a cucumber from our garden at home, tomatoes, avocado, ham, cheese, and fresh corn cut straight off the cob.

That corn was a good addition giving it a little bit of crunch and sweetness.

It had been a good day and we were all happy with what we had accomplished!

AND I went to bed looking forward to seeing Amber and Mike and the grands the next afternoon.

I have been sleeping so well every night we have been here.

I'm talking deep, sound and long sleep!

It's easier to feel more energetic if you get enough quality sleep!

It was cloudy with rain in the forecast but the weather said not everyone would get rain and it would not necessarily last long.  We looked at the radar and it was little spots of it all over the place.

Dean and Sherry went to work putting up a shelter for the goats.

Not only for rainy weather but for some shade.

Texas summers are extremely hot!

They also use igloos to shelter the animals.

So this is what they accomplished before the rains hit!

They came in heavy and hard!

We kept thinking it would blow over but it came to stay for several hours!

When I called Amber to tell her we were having a rain and mud event - they were already in Waco!

She shopped HEB - our favorite store! - and then they stopped at Sonic for a quick bite to eat before heading on out to the ranch.

They weren't afraid of the mud!

Thank goodness it had stopped raining an hour or so before they arrived.

Here they are!

If you look closely, you can see where the road splits.

You can barely see where the gravel road goes to the left to the bees and winds down between the duck pond and the big tank.

There's gravel coming down to our place on the right and the old dirt road veers to the left.

We don't really use that one anymore.

SO! They drove straight from church wearing cute clothes and sandals or tennis shoes!

Mike parked up on the gravel and I had hiked up there in my mud boots to meet them.

Then we all walked down past the bees and towards Dean and Sherry's place to see the kittens who are all housed up on Sherry's deck.

I do so wish I had snapped a picture of Dean out in the kayak on the big tank aka Lake Toguchi!

Such a serene scene and I regret I didn't get my phone out and snap it.

I asked the kids, "Can you see Uncle Dean?"

No one saw him except for the adults.

They had their minds set on those kitty cats!

And oh, my!

 They all had so much fun holding and playing with all nine kitties plus the two mamas.

I forget the mama's names but they had their litters within two days of each other.

Amber noticed that they were 'young mothers.'

Another reason to get these babies into homes and get them fixed!

We spent a couple of hours up there on the deck.

Amber picked up every single one and could not get enough of the kitty loving.

Mike took a pic of one of the mamas and most of the nine kitties all in the box together.

Sweetest pic ever!

The kids would take off one or two at a time to go with Auncle Dean and/or Mike to see the silky chickens, peacocks and horses.

Amber gave all her attention to the kitties!

She narrowed it down to two......the black eyed Calico......

or this one.

THIS one was THE one!

The kids didn't know they were going to get to take a kitty HOME!

They were just excited to meet the new critters at the ranch.

They got SO excited!!

But just between you and me - this was all about Amber.

She had July and Snowball - both gone now but she had them for 19-21 years.

This was a memorable occasion.....Amber chose her first kitten as an adult.

I think she chose wisely.

We left her kitty there and Dean and Sherry brought her down later that evening.

I hiked back to the camper along with Kailey and started their showers.

All the kids had thoroughly enjoyed romping around in the mud!

Our shower is all set up albeit with only cold water.

So we know how to take basins of hot water and shower anyway.

Kailey was intrigued.

One by one, as the kids came in, they each showered and got into clean dry clothes.

Amber always thinks ahead and brought extra clothing.

She had also brought lots of hot dogs, buns, fixings, chips, drinks, a sock-it-to-cake, watermelon and more. We added cantaloupe, hamburgers, buns, veggies and corn on the cob to the mix and had ourselves a glorious cook out!

I didn't take pics of much of anything!

 But it was all good!

Mike did the grilling but I started the charcoal.

I have a container that you fill up with the charcoal briquettes and then stuff paper in the bottom section. I whipped out my propane weed burner and started the fire!

Mike took it from there.

It was such a good time!!

I was thrilled to get to see them all and Logan gave me a collection of notes she has been writing the past week or so. Kind of like a collection of letters.

I had cleaned off the fridge but the side is now filled with notes and drawings and I just love it!

Showers and clean clothes followed by good food and fellowship.

Aunt Sherry and Uncle Dean had bought four  individual bags of fireworks for the kids back in the winter. You can only buy fireworks in Texas a few times in the year.

Our grand finale was shooting off them off.

The kids had a blast and so did I!

I heard the other adults talking about me getting so excited about things and I guess I do.

I don't want to be a 'Grumpy Granny.'

But I guess at the core of my being - I enjoy Life.

Getting lost in the back acres of the ranch will always be a good memory for me.

Mostly because Dean came and found me.

He said there was a limited area I could be in!

Still, it was an adventure.

I hope to grow old gracefully and since I am already on that road of old age - I intend to enjoy it as much as possible.

Our Sunday night ended with Amber and Mike hiking back up to their vehicle loaded down like pack mules. That's parents for you!

The kids, on the other hand, enjoyed individual tractor rides with Aunt Sherry back up to the gravel road.

Memories made!

This morning we woke up to more rain and it rained until well into the afternoon.

This is the kitty I chose!

Louis Dean said, "I thought we had an agreement - no critters!"

I changed my mind.

Ginger has made herself right at home with the Bells.

She is one blessed kitty!

Amber sent these pics today.....Ginger had already found the big dog water bowl.

Look how sweet!

I think it was a win WIN all around for Amber, the kids and Ginger!!

LOVE that name!

It's late on Monday night as I finish up this journal entry.

I have decided it might be best to adopt two kitties.

We have a quiet household and I'm thinking two litter mates would be better off together than just having the one. They could play and entertain each other and not be as needy as just having one cat.

This was the only female tabby.....and I am partial to a tabby cat.

But then there's this sweet other calico.......

I'm thinking......

I'll close with Dean's photos of Lake Toguchi.....

this is the spillway and it is flowing!!!

Lake Toguchi is OVER flowing!!

More rain is in the forecast for 3:00 - 5:00 in the morning.

I hope to put on my mud boots and go for a walk about tomorrow.

Sherry and Dean drove the Durango up to the gravel road this afternoon.

Sherry and I plan to get out and meet Rosey at a Mexican restaurant in Marlin tomorrow.

Plus they have a Walmart there and I am in need of kitty supplies.....

beds, litter box, litter, food, collars, litter scoop, treats, a scratch tower.......

It's been a long time since I have loved an animal......

but that's about to end.

I see new adventures with a couple of kitties in my future.

They will be beloved house cats and will most likely live a long time.

It's rather sobering to think that the two kittens I choose will possibly be with me the rest of my life.