Halloween

Not my favorite holiday, but part of the Fall and lots of fun. We always have some kind of potluck and costume day at work in celebrating Halloween. Some of the costumes are amazing. This year we had to split the potluck and costume day due to scheduling issues with some of the main players. Thursday we had a ghoulish treat potluck and people brought in all sorts of interesting things. One that I liked was the 'Veggie' Candy corn. Strips of yellow bell peppers formed the top, followed by small carrots and the point was cauliflower! This was paired with hot pepper humus which was excellent. There was also a jello heart and brain that looked really disgusting, especially when you jiggled the plate. My contribution was an orange flavored graveyard cake. Everything was edible; I made the tree's, ghosts, bats, eyes, spider's and skeleton's out of candy melts. The head stones were sugar cookies. The pumpkins were purchased......See picture's below.

Monday we are having our 'Halloween Costume' day, I am still in the process of making mine...Will add picture's later.

This is Cricket's first Halloween and she is very interested in the pumpkin that Dave is going to carve either today or tomorrow (will add pic's later). Was thinking about trying to get Cricket to wear a little witches hat, but somehow, I don't think she will!

What's this?

We love Halloween here, the kids (no matter what age) are always escorted by their parents. The tiny one's are so cute! And they all say Thank You! Hoping you have a safe and fun Halloween So will leave you now with a 'Happy Halloween' Wish and another pic of Cricket and 'her' pumpkin!

Mine!

Cricket, Part 5: The Vet

Today was Cricket's first trip to her new Veterinarian for an initial checkup and vaccinations. We weren't exactly sure what her reaction would be; but she was fantastic! She was quiet on her ride to the Vet's, which wasn't totally surprising since she hadn't been in the cat carrier or the car since her first trip to come live with us. She was a bit reluctant to leave the carrier once we were in the examining room, but we got her on the table with no difficulties.

Our Vet was happy with how shiny her coat is and her teeth are in really good shape. She is 5 lbs, had her temperature taken, heart and lungs listened to, and her first shots. We go back in three weeks for her boosters and to schedule her for spaying and micro-chipping. We are constantly amazed at how resilient and fearless she is. Our Vet said, it looks like we got a great cat. We think so.

It was a little hard for Dave and I to visit the Vet today, as our first visit was 8 weeks ago to put Gato to sleep. From where we were sitting in the waiting room, we were looking almost directly into the room that we said good-bye to Gato in.

We opened the cat carrier on the way home to see if Cricket would come out and sit on my lap, but she seemed to prefer staying the carrier; that is until we got home. We gave her some treats and praised her for being so good. She has been talking at us, we can just imagine what she is saying, but she doesn't seem the worse for the trip.

She has her dinner, so she is happy again. Until next time!

Layed Back Cat

Autumn.....Fall......Canning

Crisp, cool days, high of 62. Leaves are turning and apples are on sale! I have done a bit of canning over the years, always using a hot water bath. A couple of weeks ago Dave bought me a pressure canner. Have never been really comfortable around pressure anything, because was in a kitchen when a pressure cooker blew up, many years ago. But there are a lot of things I would like to try canning and a water bath just doesn't always work.

My friend Sine told me about a great way to make slow cooker applesauce so last weekend I made a batch and refrigerated it. It was not only easy but tasted great! So today I decided to make some more and can it! My day today was very busy in the canning department. I not only canned applesauce in the pressure canner, but also made and canned salsa and spiced apple rings in a hot water bath. Right now we used the last of the apples to start cooking apple butter. We used Gala, Golden Delicious, 1 Red delicious, and 2 Granny Smith. The apples need to cook on high (in the slow cooker) for 4 hours until soft, then I will use the new immersion blender that Dave got me to blend it smoothe and add some sugar (if needed) and cinnamon. The apples will continue to cook all night on low to reduce. Tomorrow, I will then pressure can pint jars of apple butter!

This year is just practice, am hoping to do a ton of canning next summer and fall. We want to take advantage of our local farmers market to keep us in lovely fruits and veggies through the winter. Will add some pictures tomorrow.

Happy Autumn!

The Story of Cricket, Part 4

It's been 6 weeks and it is hard to believe that Cricket was a feral kitten! She is a very loveable and helpful kitty. As an example, Cricket is helping me type this blog right now, she loves the tv and the computer. She is watching the cursor at the moment as I type the words across the screen. (uuuuuuurknr m8 ,mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm) This is her contribution to the bful7log! She is also very helpful with mopping floors, shredding paper, inspecting her kitty litter box,  and cooking.

Helping shred paper

Cricket has grown so much it is hard to believe she was small enough to fit in your hands just a month ago. We have been introducing her to our friends to help socialize her, and she has been doing great! She doesn't want to be held by them, but she will walk up to them and sometimes let them pet her.

We cut her front claws the other day, and she did really well. She is still very 'kitten' and none of my baskets or anything else in the house is safe from her. She challenges Dave over his basket of stuff on a daily basis. If she is quick and he doesn't notice her right away, she sometimes can grab things (pens, chapstick, paper, etc) and run away real quick. The other game she loves to play with us is hide and seek. She hides behind doors, under baskets and wants us to find her. She is an absolute doll and we love her to death.

Though we still miss Gato, Cricket is a joy and look forward to a lot of years with her. Will close this segment out with some pictures of our little sweetheart.

None of my baskets are safe!