Other Stuff « LostWoods Blog

23 December, 2008

Elves!

Filed under: NFCs, Other Stuff — lisa @ 12:00 pm

More than likely you’ve seen or heard about the Office Max “Elf Yourself” site where you can take pictures of yourself, your family, and/or your pets and create Elf Dances. They are quite entertaining and I’ve received several Elf Yourself Christmas greetings from kitten owners. I’m not going to post links to all of them here, but I will post a link (good through 1/15/2009) to the one of all five Melons dancing, created by Cren’s mom, Susanne. Enjoy!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/fwEAxJZHAecAsEAu70Dz

Speaking of Christmas greetings… My Christmas cards have not been sent. For the first time since 2002 when I started breeding NFCs, I did not get cards mailed to all my kitten owners. I think I’ll probably send everyone an email greeting — I just ran out of time to get everything done this year. I do not know where December went, but it’s nearly gone. I will be attempting to finish getting out all the photo cd’s to those whom I owe them, as well as the registration papers to a few people. I really need to get my new office organized at home so I can find things.

Don’t know if I wrote about it here, but Ken has been working on his “man cave” — the room formerly known as the office at home. As a result, I’ve been exiled to the hippo room (one of our guest rooms, decorated with all my hippo stuff) and all the stuff I had downstairs in the office is now in boxes and baskets on the floor up there. I don’t have much for storage up there — only four small drawers and a two drawer file cabinet. The drawers are already occupied with hippo things, so I’m trying to figure out where to put everything. And with everything else that’s been on my plate, organizing has not been high on the list. Maybe I’ll have more time in January…

Still snowing here. About 4 degrees, with a possible high in the low teens. Whoo! Warming trend! Jeremy is on his way to Seattle via Salt Lake City today. He was supposed to go on Sunday, but the flight was cancelled. (You’ve probably seen news reports about all the weather delays and cancellations in the NW.) I’m just hoping he won’t get to SLC and be stuck. That would be no way to spend Christmas!

And lastly, to answer Rangrashrii, no, Galia’s new Connie-mom is not the same as Kheldar’s (Magic) Connie-mom. Galia will be living in Colorado. Magic lives in Oregon.

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22 December, 2008

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Filed under: NFCs, Other Stuff — lisa @ 6:15 pm

It’s been snowing off and on for over a week now and with our cold temperatures, I’m certain we’ll be having a white Christmas this year. Whoo Hoo! There’s even a chance it will snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since we aren’t going anywhere for the holidays, I’m gleefully saying let it snow!

Here are a couple pictures I took yesterday afternoon from my front porch, looking across the road to the south.

The mountain you see to the left side of the photos is our very own Mt Helena — one of the City of Helena’s parks.

However, despite the snow, we are warming up. It’s about 10 degrees today. Of course, as I said before, it’s all relative. We’ve been making jokes about how when it gets above 10 we can give up our coats and above 20 we’ll break out the shorts!

Besides taking pictures of the snow, I finally took pictures of the three Christmas trees. First is the angel tree in the dining room – so named because all the ornaments on it are angels. Nobody has climbed it yet (to my knowledge), but Peanut especially likes sleeping under it.

Next is the living room tree. It’s a popular climbing spot for Rand, Charlie, Basia, and Galia. They all like sleeping under it as well. And Basia likes standing on the few gifts we have under it so she can easily reach ornaments and bat them.

The third tree is on the balcony overlooking our front entry. Two pictures — one from the hall upstairs so you can see the whole tree and one from the bottom of the stairs looking up at it.

The upstairs tree is Dawnflower’s favorite place and I pull her out of it at least daily. Lira Bug loves sleeping under it and so does Rand, when he’s not under the living room tree.

We’ve broken more ornaments this year than all the previous years combined. Could be because there are more cats in the house this year, more trees than in the past, or just naughtier cats. I don’t know. Ken called me at lunch time from home to tell me about “great carnage” in the nativity scene in the dining room. Baby Jesus and Mary survived, as did the cow and the camel. Sadly, Joseph, the shepherd, and two of the three kings met with their demise. Ken said maybe we’d just have to pretend that the surviving king was Joseph… I will be shopping later for a unbreakable nativity set…

One other happening of note… Galia has a home! A wonderful home! Her new mom is the owner of three other NFCs, plus a longhaired shelter kitty. I’d met Connie several years ago as she would often come to cat shows and stop to chat. She referred a friend to me about the kittens, then went to my website herself to catch up with the happenings at LostWoods and fell in love with Galia. I think she’s going to fly up to pick Galia up in person so my Gali-baby will be leaving before terribly long. I’m thrilled for Galia, but you know me… Sad to be losing our sweet little cuddle bug.

It was sorta funny… for the longest time Galia rarely if ever purred, even when we petted her. But then one morning she started purring while we were lying in bed. She’s hardly stopped since then. She starts purring even before we touch her. She comes up to the head of the bed each morning as soon as I stir so she can get cuddles and before she even gets close to my hand, she is purring like mad. Connie, you’re going to love this little girl!

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17 December, 2008

The Deep Freeze

Filed under: Cats, Other Stuff — lisa @ 3:19 pm

It’s COLD here!!! We haven’t seen an above zero temp since the wee hours of Saturday morning until today. Right now it’s 3 above — and feels pretty darn nice! Tomorrow we may be around 15, but with wind and snow, so it will likely feel colder than today’s calm and sunshine. Then back to the deep freeze on Friday.

For those who are astounded by this kind of cold and wonder how we cope, it’s all relative… I’m a cold weather person. I LIKE snow. It has to be either windy or below 20 before I’ll put on a real coat — I prefer to just wear a fleece hoodie or jacket most of the time. My “real” coat is a Columbia hip-length ski jacket. It has a liner that zips out, leaving just the shell for warmer days. (Again, warmer being a relative term.) Even with the below zero temps, I have not put the liner back in my coat, content to wear just the shell. I generally wear gloves, but only because holding on to the steering wheel in a vehicle that has been parked outside in below zero temps makes my hands really, really cold. I don’t wear long underwear, just jeans and usually a sweater. Sometimes I wear a t-shirt under the sweater… if it’s wool and itchy. I don’t wear a hat. However, if I had to be outside for an extended period, I would put on more winter wear.

Me, I can’t imagine living somewhere that 90s and 100s are the temps for weeks on end. And humidity!!! I’m miserable in Kansas City and St Louis, and they don’t have the humidity that the East Coast and Gulf Coast have. But plenty of people enjoy living in hot and/or humid locations. It’s all in what you are used to and like. Me, I like cold and dry, with snow thrown in for fun. LOL! Of course, I do like beautiful 75 degree summer days. And sun… Sunshine is VERY important, whether it’s 5 below or 70. I think I’d be truly unhappy somewhere that we didn’t get a lot of sunshine. Sorry, Heather, I won’t be moving to Oregon any time soon!

Our garage (not the stud room) has been down to almost zero as well for the past few days. Shira and Rand love to run out in the garage when the door opens to the cat room, but even they aren’t interested in staying out there. Last night I got home from the store and Shira dashed out the door to the garage as I was carrying in my bags. But she was more than happy to come right back in when I went back out to get the crock pot of chili (leftover from a potluck earlier in the day at work) from the car. Thank goodness we finally got doors between the garage and stud room as it’s been pretty easy to keep the stud room at a normal 55 or so.

Other than that, the cats don’t really seem to notice the cold much. After all, they live in the warm house with us. Colter, on the other hand, has been spending a lot more time in the house and loves it. However, Jeremy was going to let Colter sleep in the bedroom with him and Colter didn’t want to. He went outside one last time before bedtime and when Jeremy went to let him back in the house, Colter ran to the shop door so he could go inside his kennel (next to the stud area) in the shop. Colter’s only problem with being in the house so much is the cats are always checking out his toys and pig ears (dog snacks, commonly called “ear pigs” at our house after Jeremy accidently called them that one day and made me laugh) and Colter does NOT want to share his ear pigs with the cats. And several of the cats would rather like to have an ear pig of their own. Colter doesn’t snap or bite at them, but he does growl if he thinks they might be plotting to take his ear pigs.

The Christmas trees still fascinate Dawnflower, especially. Kefira hasn’t been spending much time in the trees — compared to last year — but Dawn is more than making up for it. We’re having Ken’s cousins and their families over on Saturday afternoon and evening. I will be redecorating the upstairs and the living room trees on Saturday morning again to put back all the ornaments that cats have knocked down as well as putting back the bead garland that always seems to be a casualty of wild tree climbs.

Other than getting ready for Christmas, things have been pretty slow. Kali is still killing my socks — although not at quite the rate she was last week. Most days I only have to pick up three or four pairs. Rand is doing fine, with us having plans to take him to the surgeon the middle of next month. Galia and Charlie are still looking for homes, but I’ve gotten several inquiries lately that I’m following up on. Nobody is demanding a man come visit to make babies — good thing, because I’d be telling them no. We do have plans to have McCoy come up in late January to visit with Basia and probably Kefira.

That’s it for now. I think my brain must be frozen, too, as I’m very low on thoughts!

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2 December, 2008

Lunch For Life

Filed under: Other Stuff — lisa @ 11:24 am

I hope nobody will be upset with me posting this blatant appeal for donations to one of my own favorite, non-cat related causes. Some years ago (in a previous life, I usually say) friends of ours lost a child to neuroblastoma. Fast forward twenty years or so, and the nephew of a very close friend of mine is now fighting the disease. In the course of learning more about it, I came across Mark Dungan’s blog (Mark’s daughter Sydney was diagnosed with neuroblastoma five years ago) and the Lunch for Life site. I read the blog nearly every day.

Today’s post:

“It has been five years since the beginning of Lunch for Life. It started out very simply. It was a desperate act. At that point we were 3 months into Sydney’s treatment of stage IV neuroblastoma. I was scared, I was mad and I was frustrated.

I was frustrated because childhood cancer was the leading cause of death by disease in children. I was frustrated because neuroblastoma was the most common cancer found in infants. I was also frustrated because neuroblastoma was one of the deadliest of all childhood cancers.

Insult was added to injury when I realized that the NCI spent over $550 million on breast cancer, over $320 million on prostate cancer and less than $140 million on all 12 major classes of childhood cancer. Yes, that is only $140 million that had to be shared among almost 90 different childhood cancers.

Look at those numbers again.

That is how we fund this nation’s number 1 killer of children by disease.

The disparity is not only in cancer. Did you know that cancer is a more common killer of children than aids, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and asthma – combined? This is in direct contrast to the fact that we spend almost $600,000.00 research dollars for each child affected with aids and less than $20,000 for each child affected with cancer.

It is these huge discrepancies that beg me to want to make a difference. I want to scream it from the roof tops. I want everyone in the world to know these facts.

I want to level the playing field.

I want it to be OUR time.

For once,

instead of sending trillions of dollars overseas for war
instead of sending billions of dollars over to Africa to fight aids
instead of sending billions of dollars half way around the world to aid tsunami victims

I want it to be our time. I want it to be the time when Americans stood up for the number 1 cause of death by disease in Americas children. For once, I want our children to be the priority.

Today the economy is crashing. Banks are being bailed out for hundreds of billions of dollars and other industries are lining up to get their checks as well.

Once again, it won’t be our time.

Worse yet, with the change in the economy, corporate giving and support are drying up. The big dollars from corporate America that we count on so much to help fund research are going, going – gone.

That leaves us. That leaves you and I and our lunch money. That is the last hope for these children and the last hope for a cure.

We need your help. We need you to write email. We need you to tell your friends. We need you to post on your blogs.

We need people to donate their lunches and we need them to do it with more fervor than ever before. If you gave a lunch last year I ask you to do the same and if you can afford it I beg you to do more. Do a lunch a month. Make a difference. It is only lunch. Yet, it means life for these children.

Promising research is sitting on the shelves. It will remain there unless we raise enough money to get it into these children.

There will be less trials and less options available to our children than there were last year if we don’t stand up and make a difference.

Less children will receive life saving therapies unless we make a difference right now.

We need your help.

Please go to http://www.LunchforLife.org and donate your lunch.

Then, please ask all of your friends to do the same.

Your lunches and your words will save lives.

Today, everyone has a purpose.

Posted by Mark Dungan at 5:57 AM”

How much will you spend on lunch today? If you skipped it today and sent the money to Lunch for Life, would you even notice the money gone from your pocket? And if you told all your friends, co-workers, relatives and they did the same think of the difference we’d make in the lives of children. Let’s not do lunch today!

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14 August, 2008

Mostly Not Cats

Filed under: Other Stuff — lisa @ 11:13 pm

I was uploading some pictures from my camera and decided this would be a good thing to share tonight – a brief slice of life at LostWoods. We live just outside the Helena city limits on an acre lot just a few blocks from the base of Mt Helena. We have wonderful views of the valley and the mountain as you may have noticed in some of the other pictures I’ve shared. We also have our share of wildlife around.

The most prevalent of the wild critters are the deer. When we first moved to Helena — actually, when I came up here househunting before we moved — we saw the deer roaming the yards and streets of Helena and it was so cool to see. But now that we’ve been here a few summers (this is our third) the novelty has mostly worn off. I still have a moment or two of thinking, “how wonderful!” when I see deer, quickly followed by a strong desire to throw things at them and yell bad words. You see, the deer eat our roses, our pansies, our cucumbers, our trees… you get the picture. Darn deer!

The other night when I was talking on the phone I noticed a deer at the edge of the lawn. So I quickly grabbed my small camera and stepped out onto the deck to take a few shots. Here are a couple.

Now to make this deer story a little bit about cats, I’ll tell you about Spaz and the fawns when we still lived in the rental house across town.

We had a tiny front yard with a small hedge along the edge of the lawn at the rental. Spazzy was still a youngster — under a year old. Our front door didn’t always completely close and every now and then he’d escape out the front door if we weren’t paying attention.

One evening I walked past the front hall and noticed the door was partially open. Panic! I rushed to the door and just before I went barreling out, I saw Kefira sitting just outside the door and Spaz sitting at the very edge of the sidewalk, intent on something. I looked on the other side of the hedge and there was a doe and her two fawns.

The fawns were small — still had their spots. Every move they made, Spaz mirrored as he crept closer to them. I could tell from his body language that he was convinced he could take them. Silly cat! I watched him for a minute and then decided that it would be best if he didn’t get any closer, just in case mama deer didn’t like him stalking her children. I stepped out onto the front porch, making enough noise to startle the deer. All three took off and I grabbed Spaz before he could follow them. And that was the end of his deer hunting adventure. Although… one evening after we moved to this house, he and Bug were outside when a big buck came strolling across the driveway. Both he and Bug went slinking across the cement to get closer and keep on eye on the deer until he walked on down the road. Maybe they thought if they worked together they could take a buck? I don’t think so…

And to close… a picture of a sunset I took from the deck last month.

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8 July, 2008

“The Shack” — Absolutely No Cat Content

Filed under: Other Stuff — lisa @ 10:03 pm

As I said a year ago when I started this blog, from time to time I’ll write about things that don’t have anything to do with cats. This is one of those times.

I am a Christian — some of you may know that already, or have guessed it. No secret, but I don’t go around beating people over the head with “religion” either. I’d much rather live what I believe and bear witness that way than become a street corner preacher.

I have a necklace with three “charms” on it that I wear almost all the time. Each is a reminder of the “things” that are most important to me in life. One is an amber heart — the first gift my husband ever gave me and a symbol to me of my friends and family – the people I love. The next charm is a gold coin from the Isle of Man with a Norwegian Forest Cat on it encircled by a gold, heart-shaped coin holder – obviously a symbol of my furry loves. And the third and most important charm is a gold cross — a symbol of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So… the other day I was in WalMart getting some groceries and stuff when I stopped by the book section to look for a new book or two to read. Why, I have no idea, as I have several sitting here at home begging to be read. But one can never have too many books! I picked up a book to read the back cover and as I put it back, another book fell on the floor at my feet. I glanced at the cover as I picked it up — not nice to leave things lying in the aisles! — and thought, “you ought to see what it’s about — broaden your horizons.” (Yeah, I get in a reading rut sometimes. Romances, Sci-fi, the occasional mystery…) It sounded pretty good and I brought it home. I started reading it Sunday morning and could not put it down.

The book is “The Shack” by William P Young. It is fiction — a story of a man whose youngest daughter is kidnapped and murdered. Yeah, that sounds uplifting, doesn’t it? But more than being a story of tragedy and loss, it is a story of hope and forgiveness. It is a story about faith and trust. And most of all, it’s a story about love and relationship. It is probably the most sensible and LOVING description of God’s desire for a relationship with each of us that I have ever read. I cried again and again, and ended up hoping that some of the lessons were sinking in so I could live my life more in communion with “Papa” (the name Mack’s wife calls God) and with much less worry about the stresses of the world around me.

I will be buying a few extra copies of “The Shack” to give away. I can’t give away my own - I know I’ll be rereading it. It wasn’t very expensive — only about $10 at WalMart — and one of the best uses of $10 I’ve made.

Anyway, if this sounds like something you might like to know more about, you can get more information at www.theshackbook.com

Tomorrow I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled cat programming. God bless!

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Daily Trivia 07/08

Filed under: Other Stuff — lisa @ 8:30 am

http://www.funtrivia.com/email/play.cfm?egroup=323149&tmp=1215475508

More later — but it will be non-cat related.

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23 May, 2008

They May Not Live With Me…

Filed under: NFCs, Other Stuff — lisa @ 8:30 pm

… but Sondra is keeping her promise to take pictures every week for us. One week pictures of the Warrior Cats are up on my website. (Ask and you shall receive, Michelle!) I’ll update Sondra’s a little later with the same pictures. As you’ll see, the babies are starting to open their eyes. They are all gaining weight well. Danica — silly mom cat — has decided that the bigger of the two nursery boxes is the proper home for them after all. This after she insisted they must be in the little, cramped box for the first several days. I guess she came to her senses and realized they would all be more comfortable if they had a little more room.

I’ve been busy this week doing some work on the NFCFA Constitution. I think I mentioned that I’d been appointed By-Laws Committee chair, so along with learning my duties as Breeder Division Secretary, I’m also deep into the workings of NFCFA in general. I think our Constitution proposals are nearly ready to be shared with the membership as a whole. I hope that we’ve listened to what has been said by members over the past five months or so and have written something that they will approve of. Oh, I’m not naive enough to think that 100% of the members will be happy — although I’d love that! — but I do think we are proposing changes that the majority will like.

After our HOT weather last weekend we’ve been having cool and rainy weather for days. I think it’s supposed to be somewhat nicer in the next few days, though. We’d hoped to go camping, but with the possibility of rain or snow in the mountains, we’ll be staying home to work on the gardens and relax around the house. I hope you all have a pleasant long weekend!

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19 May, 2008

Sandals

Filed under: NFCs, Other Stuff — lisa @ 1:24 pm

Greetings from summery Montana where we enjoyed temps in the 90s over the weekend. I planted a bed of wildflower sod while Ken and Jeremy put down a stone border for our garden this weekend. It was nice to get to work outside and start planting. Can’t get too carried away because winter could still return for a quick visit, but more and more plants are popping up. And summer may soon revert back to spring, as today is supposed to be a little cooler (low 80s) with Wednesday back in the 50s and rainy. For new readers of the blog, go back to about this time last year to see the beginnings of the flower gardens here at LostWoods. This year we’re adding a semi-formal garden for some herbs and other edibles. That is, if the deer don’t decide that everything we plant is a buffet for them. Much as I enjoy watching the deer, they are darn annoying when they chew on the trees, the roses, and assorted other plants in the yard. Sooner or later we’re going to have to give in and fence the whole place to keep them out.

Today is my first sandal and cropped pants day of the year. I’m lucky to work at a place with a very relaxed dress code. Actually, on my first day of work my supervisor’s comment about the dress code was “we prefer you to be dressed.” LOL! And so, we dress pretty casual around here. I never wear shorts to work and I rarely (maybe twice in the two years I’ve been here) wear anything with sayings or logos on it. But jeans, cropped pants, tank tops, and tee shirts are a staple of my wardrobe.

Keona went to Colorado to live with Brenda on Saturday and Brenda reports she’s settling in well. She and McCoy (her future boyfriend) are becoming friends and playing wildly. She’s met her Beau-dad and he is acting more like a father figure to her than a playmate. Brenda says it’s funny to see them adopting the father-daughter roles considering they just met and, of course, had no idea that is their blood relationship.

Isadora headed off to Virginia Saturday where her plane was met by her new mom and dad. They called after she arrived and are delighted with her. Upon arriving in her new home, she set out to explore the brand new cat tree and the rest of the house. I’m sure she’s going to be very spoiled and loved there.

In other LostWoods kitten news… I heard from Magic’s (the kitten formerly known as Kheldar) mom on Saturday evening — a quick email to say I should call her Sunday morning so she could tell me about what happened at the show on Saturday. So I did. Connie was thrilled with our little guy’s day — especially considering he hadn’t been in a show ring for six months. We talked again last night and Magic ended up the weekend with finals in 11 of the 12 rings at the show, including two Bests! Whoo-hoo! I guess this would be a good time to also announce a season brag for Magic — he was the 17th Best Kitten in TICA’s Mid-Pacific region for 2007-2008. Way to go, Connie and Magic! I’ll be seeing them in Chehalis in mid-June and can hardly wait. Yes, I’ll try to take pictures to share with all of you.

Speaking of pictures… Beth sent me some of Brasen and Keiran (aka the Master of Disaster) a week or so ago that I’ve been meaning to share. Here are the boys sitting in the window. Aren’t they handsome?

And here’s a picture of Bannack (now known as Tikki) that his owner sent me recently.

Kyrith’s Kaye-mom sent me a picture of him recently, too, but I don’t have it on this computer, so I’ll post it another day. It’s so fun to see how my fur babies are growing up!

Sondra reports that all the Warrior Cats are thriving and Danica is a wonderful mom. Danica does insist that the kittens be in the little (about 12″ x 12″) box instead of the bigger (about 12″ x 24″) box where Sondra thought they should be. She kept moving them. Sondra compromised with her and put some blankets in the small box. Now Danica leaves the kittens there — although she does takes breaks from them and lounges in the bigger box! We’ve decided the dark boy is a brown tabby and white, not a black and white.

Thanks, Michelle, for catching my mistakes on the Warrior Cats page on the site. I think I have everything fixed. That’s what happens when I work on two sites (mine and Sondra’s) at the same time. I forget what I’ve done where. That and I just can’t type… Off to lunch now before I make too many more typos in here.

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6 May, 2008

Hi From Oregon

Filed under: Other Stuff — lisa @ 12:11 am

Yes, I made it out here safe and sound and have been hanging out with Heather, Patrick, Braysen, and baby Merrick. We’ve been blessed with a couple days of sunny weather, so we’ve had a chance to spend some time outside and also go to the park. Braysen thinks that plants need to be fed with rocks, so he has spent a lot of time dropping rocks onto the shrubs in Heather and Patrick’s front yard. I’m not sure why rocks are the food of choice, but he spends long (for a two year old) periods of time “feeding” them.

Also in the plant front… this morning Braysen got in trouble for playing in the dirt in the potted plant in the family room. I got out the vacuum and cleaned up his mess. Not ten minutes later he did it again. And I cleaned it up again. Then we went to the park for a little bit. After we got home, while we were all getting and eating lunch, Braysen once again visited the plant. He took a handful of dirt and neatly piled it up on the floor beside the pot. Then he got the toy vacuum out and proceeded to take it to clean up the dirt. I had to go into the kitchen so he wouldn’t hear me laughing at him, leaving H & P to deal with their little mess maker. Kids!

I’ve taken pictures of Braysen, Merrick, and Xaria so far. The sweetest one I got of the boys has Braysen sitting on the floor holding Merrick’s hand.

It’s not the best shot I’ve taken in the past couple days, but it is certainly the one with the most “Awww!” potential. Braysen is much too busy to pose for pictures, so I just hold the camera and wait for a worthy shot. Neither he nor Merrick respond to a teaser worth a darn! LOL!

Xaria is beautiful and funny. I see a lot of her mother, the Queen of Everything, in her. She also has the most gorgeous green eyes. I’m still trying to get a shot that shows them off well. I have one, but her face was a little dirty, so I’m trying for a better one.

BTW, the runoff election for Breeder Division Secretary in NFCFA finally is over and I will be spending the next two years doing that, along with serving as By-Laws committee chairman. Going to be a busy time.

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