Kia Rio - First Critter Award

The first critter, dead or alive, to be known to be brought in by the TumbleFur Gang, was proudly deposited by none other than,

drum roll please...

Snuggie!!!!!!!!

The critter, a mole pup, (http://flickr.com/photos/24163310@N00/429212920/) was just a tiny bit larger than this one.

Snuggie began his “victory and notification dance” in the living room. I followed him to the kitchen where he proudly went to the food dishes, and looked up at me for approval.

I looked down, and found the mole pup hunkered up between the wall and the ceramic food bowls. It appeared to be relatively unharmed. These moles have no vision, and it is thought they “might” have a perception of light and dark.

Well, since we try to be “catch and release” here at the ranch, I gathered some napkins and attempted to pick the pup up. It was a squirmy little one, and I was worried I would have to grab it too tight to hang on. So, I went in search of an animal collection container and ended up emptying a little container and pushing the mole into it.

I deposited the pup at the edge of the Impenetrable Forest, and luckily, none of the TumbleFur Gang followed.

Hopefully little mole pup made it.

Well, the weekend was a good one. The neighborhood garage sale was not as chock full of garage sale items as I had hoped. I told myself this was a good sign, and that perhaps we were moving away from the culture of conspicuous consumption. Ok, when you stop laughing, you'll note the conflict in that whole thought process.

Anyway... we shopped. Mom did most of the buying, and among other things, bought a nice leather chair and ottoman (I helped to spur her on - her cat, Xena, the one that nearly died around the time dad was ill, has a bit of a leather fetish and lays on my leather bag every time I go over there) so, I thought she would love that chair. It was only $35! It is exactly like this one, but black. http://www.uptownleather.com/product/1730. Mom said I had barely left the house before Xena jumped up on the new chair to take a nap. BTW, she is looking good! Her health has recovered, she has a full butt of hair and her tail is filled out, she is steadily gaining weight and she is playful. Yeaaaaaaa!

After shopping, we went to the Oregon District and I got my hairs cut, well, it was a bit of a sheep shearing, but at least the near mullet is gone. Wayyyyyy too short, but it looks like the cut is a good one as far as quality of work goes. She was nice and quick. We'll work on the length thing on the next two visits and if she does not have it down by then, I'll need to move on.

Mandy and I went to the Beaver search, I told her I expected we would be the only adults there without a 5 year old in tow. I was wrong. Lots of adults and some kids. We saw 2 or 3 beavers and it was generally a good time. We also heard a distant pair of screech owls - (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Eastern_Screech-Owl_dtl.html#sound - you can see them and listen to them on this site...) they were verbally battling for the territory, that is, according to our nature guide, Joshua. The "sturgeon moon" was beautiful as it rose over the ponds. To learn about Native American moon names...http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names

Well, on Sunday mom and I went on the historic barn tour at Carriage Hill park and we saw 5 barns from the 1800's. A couple had to be restored or rebuilt. We saw piglets and chickens along with the barns. In one of the barns, I felt like I could hear the hoedowns of days gone by. A hoedown for those of you who may not know, is essentially a party (after the hoes are put down) that generally included some form of square or folk dancing and live music. They were often held in barns.

We got the Mountain Days festival too late to help with passing out campaign literature, so we just went out and bought some canning jars and lids so mom could "put up" the tomatoes we are unable to eat up before they spoil. We went home and just hung out for a bit before I headed home. All in all, it was a real nice weekend.

I am really glad I moved back. I am having such a good time hanging out with mom. I know winter will be real hard, but we’ll make it through and spring will bring renewed outlook on life.