It's Cold Outside

Through the good weather, even our "indoor" kitties prefer to spend most of their time outside, coming in only to eat. Only Archie likes to take his morning nap in the house. Once the weather turned cold for the first time a couple of weeks ago, all three decided they would rather be in the house. Suddenly, Buck and I had a hard time finding a place to sit.

Bootsie decided she needed to nap in my favorite place on the couch (the nerve of her!) Then, because she liked that spot, later Archie, then Precious decided they would try to beat her to it. More than once I have been faced with the choice of pushing a sleeping kitty off my spot, clearing my computer, books and other junk from the other half of the loveseat in order to sit, or dragging my sewing chair out into the living room. I usually mutter a few empty threats and then leave sleeping kitties lie.

Archie still prefers Buck's side of the bed, although he also likes my spot on the loveseat and Buck's chair, too.

Precious started out in what I call "four corners." It is the one place in the hallway where, without moving her body, she can see the front window, the back sliding glass door, Buck's desk in the side bedroom, and, if she cranks her head around a little, she can see what's going on in the kitchen. Although, like I said, once she realized the other kitties thought Mom's seat was the best, she snuck up on the pillow on the loveseat as often as she could.

This last rainstorm, no one has wanted to go out. The cat box has seen a lot of action. Even our Archie who much prefers to go outside to do his business resorted to his favorite indoor emergency place. His former owners tub-trained him, so last night Buck found a little "kitty-kiss" in our new hall bathtub.

It has been cold. But with Buck busy doing all his firewood thing, he has not had time to clean the chimney flu or bring in the firewood box. So, no fires in the woodstove yet. This morning at 8:00a.m. it was 62 degrees in the house. I'm okay with 68, even 66 degrees, but that was too cold. I felt motivated to do a load of wash and bake something just to heat the house a little. No way, though, am I turning on the furnace and running up the utility bill--not yet!

Then I try to keep things in perspective. I think about those millions of people back in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut who have been through Hurricane Sandy and two major winter storms. They have been without power for two weeks. This is nothing. My thoughts and prayers have been with them and the utility workers who have been struggling to restore power to everyone back there. I am so grateful right now that I live where the weather is mild in comparison.

Changing the subject, Buck and I harvested some sweet potatoes from a field a block away (we are in the country. Our blocks are big.) The farmer had already harvested the field for commercial purposes and is waiting for the vines to dry before he disks what's left under. There are still a lot of culls remaining and the farmers don't mind people coming to get them for personal use.

Look at those sweet potatoes! There is nothing wrong with them except they are a little small. I have been handing them out like crazy to friends.