Jane, why have you stopped blogging?!

I get this question a lot. The answer is that I really don't have enough time for blogging right now... between my full time job at the Okefenokee Humane Society, and Brierpatch Cats, the non-profit cat rescue that my mom and I are starting... not to mention a boyfriend, the impending start of classes, and the fact that I don't have internet access at my house... well, there hasn't been much opportunity for blogging recently. Doesn't mean I'm not online though. You can find me online on Facebook every day - my profile is here!

Kids from two families playing in the sandbox :-)

And by "sandbox" I mean litter-box. The cream-colored kitten is from one litter; the others are from the other litter. Both litters were born around March 1st, and they will be moving out to The Land as soon as we have a facility for them.

We desperately need another building.

Friday. I leave work at 5pm. Drive to mom's house. Eat dinner. Mom's out of town. Feed her 9 cats and 7 dogs. Bottle-feed the kittens in the bathroom. Put Brin in the van and drive out to the land. Feed horses and cats. Take Brin home. Go to Wal-Mart. Buy cat food, kitten food and litter. Go to the house on Jones Street. Feed indoor kitties and put out food for the uncertain number of ferals that dine on my porch. Drive to Margaret Street. Feed cats and kittens. Return to home: 9:30pm. Collapse into bed.

We DESPERATELY need a building out on the land big enough to house all these kitties!

Kittens in the bathroom

There are currently 5 orphaned kittens in the bathroom at my mom's house. They showed up (thrown out, no doubt) about a block north of the house we own in town where we're "storing" a handful of cats until we get our final shelter built. They are almost at the age where they can eat and drink by themselves... but not quite. As such, my mom and I have to bottle feed them numerous times a day. Additionally, having no mother cat to clean them, they had been QUITE filthy... until my mom's feist dog, Bitsy, started cleaning them up herself. Bitsy is rather camera shy, but I still managed to get a few clips of her "mothering" the kittens. Enjoy!

911 in the Woods - and - Watching the Van

On Saturday, mom and I were taking the van out to the land when we came upon a pile of stuff that had been dumped. Now, unfortunately, a lot of assholes who are two lazy to take their trash to the dump have a habit of dumping it out in the woods. Usually they dump furniture and tires - stuff you have to pay to take to the dump - but this pile of stuff looked completely different. CDs, school supplies, new looking things. I stopped and got out. To be honest, I did so to see if there was anything I might be interested in snagging. One item was a notebook with two kids' names and the label "fourth grade." Other items included house keys, cds, dolls, a small mirror, a nail care kit, etc. All of it was in excellent condition, and not the sort of stuff a fourth grader would want to chuck. Now, it could just be that someone stole a fourth grader's backpack and took it out to the woods to rifle through... but in case someone had nabbed a kid, we figured we should call 911. So, I called 911 and my mom drove off to go feed the horses and kitties. A sheriff's deputy arrived about 15 minutes later (he was actually a guy who lives out near our land and just happened to be headed home for lunch). He thought it was more likely stuff that had been stolen from a kid, rather than a kidnapping, but he said he'd look into it and try and return the stuff to its owner.

By the time the deputy had left, I figured mom would be nearly done with the horses and cats, so I decided to sit and wait for her - and the van - to come back, rather than wading through. Got a pretty decent video of the van splashing through on her way back (below). We can now drive in and out - but I won't be sleeping in the Spartan again until the kittens at my mom's house are old enough to eat and drink on their own.

A stuck van and a kayak

Mom called me yesterday while I was at work. Her first words were, "I've gone and done it." Gone and done what? Gotten married? Purchased something expensive? No. She'd gotten the van stuck, attempting to drive it through the lake that is our road. Now, I had been picturing the van stranded in the center of the water, but it turned out that wasn't the case at all. She had made it both in AND out to the land with no problem, and had then gotten the van stuck in the mud trying to avoid a rather small puddle. Ooops. We went out this morning with the people who live across the street from my mom (they own trucks...) and they hauled the van (which had sunk up to its frame in mud) out, while I took the kayak out of the van and boated across. Enjoy the photos and video!

I should point out that in this video I'm sitting strangely in the kayak
because the front part of it (where your legs are supposed to go)
is filled with hay for the horses. (We store their hay in the van.)

So much to blog, so little time.

I've mentioned before how my job has cut down on my blogging time... I guess you've noticed, huh? I can't believe I haven't posted anything over here since March 11th! I'm going to try to get into gear and back into regular blogging again. In the past few weeks, I've moved out to the Spartan full-time, let the cats go in and out as they please, got more cats which have yet to be moved out there, watched my peas grow, put down half my living room floor only to discover that Lowes no longer carries that color tile, and had the "road" flooded out so that I can't drive in and out (again), but this time with my car trapped on the wrong side of the flood. And now for all that, once more, with photos:

Kitties exploring the yard


Krosp, stalking something.


Heelix embraces the wildcat within


She's having a great time out there!


Half of my living room floor is down, and apparently this brand and color of tile are no longer produced. My choices were a lighter and cheap-looking green faux-marble tile from Fred's, or the same brand as the above tile but in black. I bought black, and am just going to have a weird-ass living room floor.


Monday morning, as I was headed to work, I had to get out and snap this.


This is the latest batch to join what will (eventually) become Brierpatch Cats.


There are two ways to the Spartan. One is longer, but you can (usually) drive closer before reaching the flooded area. The long route is navigable in the car 85% of the time. Today, this was the road one usually must drive down when going the long route. We opted against it.


This is my mom, standing at the beginning of the "short" route in.
It's navigable by car about 10% of the time, so we rarely go this way, but if we were going to have to slog in from the highway on foot, we figured the short route was the way to go.


Yeah.


We brought Brin, but not my puppy, Koala (she refuses to swim)


Pants rolled up over the knees still got soaked.


The land (and Honey, standing in the rain instead of the barn)


The Spartan and the cat-shack are on the highish and dryish part of the land. It's hard to tell from this distance, but there are several moronic cats hanging out in the yard getting wet.


Meanwhile, Bagira was being wise and staying inside.


As was my poorly named feral, Tabby 1.


And, of course, numerous kitties such as Krosp and Heelix were cozied up inside the Spartan.

My peas are doing well (the spinach never amounted to anything),
and the garden area is in the high spot. At least for now.