Vyxxan's Virtual Venture

Archive for the ‘Everyday stuff’ Category

The gal who lived across the pavement road from me moved. She has 6 kids, 2 dogs, and a bunch of chickens. Used to have a pony, goats, and rabbits, but I haven’t seen any of those for a while. She also has a cat, but probably doesn’t call him hers.

Anyhow, they all moved a bit over 2 weeks ago. Her oldest daughter came to ask if I would feed their dogs, but that they would be coming back in 2 weeks to take them.

So, I fed the dogs for 2 weeks. I had to take lots of food over, because the chickens are hungry, too. The chickens can fight the little dogs away from the food.

One little dog disappeared the first week. He was CUTE, and still a puppy. If I didn’t already have 4 dogs… but no. So I fed the other little dog, and the chickens with some dog food just to keep them from beating up the little dog.

Those people were home over the weekend. I went over to make sure they would take their dog. I was assured that they would.

They didn’t. I didn’t feed anyone yesterday, tonight the little dog comes over. I’m like dammit… that little dog doesn’t even like me. But I take some food and water over anyhow. The cat showed up too, and as usual wouldn’t let me walk away… that poor kitty showed up after one of our major thunderstorms last year, and all our YOUNG cats led him up to our porch… but the adults ran him off. He’s such a sweetie. Wants petting business more than he wants food most of the time. He’s always very grateful for foods and petting. Not one of my cats, just one that turned up and I’d be happy to keep him here if he’d stay.

I am so aggravated. I sent an email to the local city animal control guy, but we are outside city limits. The dog is adoptable, it’s small, cute and fairly young. The chickens, well… chickens should be able to find bugs and stuff to eat. Maybe the next people that live there will want some chickens. The cat probably won’t turn up if some strangers do… he’s surely adoptable though. Just not by me. I am so mad right now that if that gal turned up I’d go SMACK her. Grrr!

I know, I have unrestricted breeding of barn cats at my house… but all my cats live here and I feed them. I take care of my pets, I don’t just get a pet and then move and hope the neighbors feed it. What kind of person does that, anyhow? ARGH! Although that gal across the road DID accidently leave one of her kids one time, it wasn’t actually her, but a friend picking the kids up from school. Kids worst nightmare… the whole family is gone and you are locked out of your house.

It has been a crappy day. Work was a big mean grizzley bear and then I got home to find out that my sweet cat Tyler got run over. I’ve never seen him near the road his whole life, but I guess between me leaving for work and Ron getting home he decided to go out there. I’m gonna miss him. Sweet Tyler boy, big giant siamese colored cat, about 10 lbs of him. Lap kitty, even to the point of being a pest. I hate living near a road like this, when it endangers my pets. :(

Had to vent. Sorry if it’s all depressing stuff.

Hugs,
Vyx

It’s after midnight, and I have to be awake at 4 to get ready for work. I have a feeling, a strong one, that I’m not going in to work on time.

I went to bed a bit later than normal, with normal me going to bed around 8:30 or 9 pm. I’ve been going to sleep a bit later lately, I’ve found that I will wake up at 3 am if I actually fall asleep at 9. I don’t WANT to get up an hour earlier than I need to be. Sheesh.

Anyhow. Tonight I’d just fallen asleep when little dog Rita woke me up barking. I get up, look out windows, don’t see anything. Front porch light didn’t come on, so it wasn’t a people. Went out in robe and barefoot to check yard and Rita went out with me to chase a feral cat that she could see.

I was sorry I was barefoot. The doormat reeked of cat spray and poop… some cat voided himself right on it, and probably one of my not quite grown up male cats. The wild cats have been giving us hell the last few days, just like we have a bunch of females in heat. We don’t… all our grown up girls are either pregnant or just gave birth and nursing. A Momma cat with kittens only 2 weeks old shouldn’t be in heat again, should she? That’s not the way it usually works… nursing shuts down the other stuff pretty well. But Libby, who has been the most excellent Momma before is now out luring strange boyfriends up to the house. She has the youngest kittens but spent all day today out in the woods.

Her kittens were HUNGRY. We talked about locking her up with her babies but decided against it since once I woke them up and put her in she laid down to feed them. What the heck is she thinking running around with the boys so soon? AND luring them back up here?

Well, when I went out and smelled the evidence of my younger cats being terrorized I decided to get the .22 out. I even walked around down below the barn in the dark and behind the house… where are those cats? Didn’t see anyone but one boy hiding in the tomato plants. Tyler is our biggest cat ever, still a kitten… and a wuss so far. I think he’s already been beaten up by a feral cat.

So I sat on the porch for a while, not even trying to be stealthy. Soon enough, here came Libby with a gigantic orange cat behind her. I came back in the house and got the gun, that’s the same cat Rita chased a little while ago. I don’t miss. Ron is going to be mad, because I’ve left a dead cat in the yard, but I don’t miss. One less feral cat attacking my cats and I’m not at all upset. At least I didn’t shoot it with his truck tire behind it… I made sure to get a clean shot and I did, it fell over dead right there.

Of course I would rather not kill ANY animal, but you have to protect what is yours. If it was coyotes I’d shoot them, too. Last year I took the gun out to shoot an armadillo that was digging up all my flower beds. I didn’t shoot him… just poked him until he ran away. I may be becoming more intolerant as I get older.

A lot of people just kill any wild animal they see… I’ve never been that way. Possums and coons and skunks and such all have their place in this world and as long as they aren’t robbing me… they can go on doing what they do. I feel very strongly that way about snakes especially.. because here in AR people will kill any snake they see, good or bad. Don’t care, all snakes are better dead. Bah. MOST snakes are harmless to people and will avoid people if they can. I’m rather fond of snakes and I hate it when even a poisonous snake has to be killed.

So, I have 13 kittens on the porch, I can’t let some feral male cats just come invading. Male cats will kill baby kittens. Protecting my family. Don’t know what is up with Libby, but Lucy never left the porch while all that was going on… she is going to defend her kittens no matter what. Good momma!

And speaking of kittens, I owe some more recent photos. Hard to do, because if I try to get them out to sunlight, Lucy will run up and holler at me… and take em back into her box.

In the meantime…. I’ve gotta be at work at 6. Leave here at 5. Not a lot of sleep, but I’m gonna try to do it.

Hugs,
Vyx

Actually I was hoping to get to 100 posts on this blog by today. 99 is going to have to do it.

Today is my birthday, I’m 50! Egads, where did the years go? Maybe I’m just eleventy thirty nine. Or this is the 21st anniversary of my 29th birthday, lol! Certainly I am far too young to be FIFTY! :) I don’t feel a day over 35 or so most of the time. LOL!

I’m having a great day even if it didn’t start out so great. I didn’t go to bed on time last night, because I had to watch a dvd that my sister Valerie sent me. It’s a photo and video montage of me from baby to now. Really really wonderful, and I’m sure it was a lot of work! So awesome that it made me cry!

Woke up with a headache, did my usual routine getting ready for work. On the drive there a truck that usually tail gates me and won’t pass was in front of me. Huh. He pulled over and let me pass him, I was in shock. It was a trifle foggy, but not as bad as it can get. Guess he wasn’t in his usual hurry and I was in my normal hurry. :)

Work was a bear, but since everyone knew it was my birthday I got wished happy birthday by nearly everyone. Took my dvd case to work to show off how professional it looks. (It should, my sister Val =is= a pro!)

Came home, brought what was left of the cake with me. Walked dogs, remembered to take camera to get a photo of the super pretty wild flower I noticed last night. Get on computer, read all my messages from Facebook, plus emails from my sisters. Opened my snail mail cards, got 6 from online friends.

And… LOL! One of my friends sent me back the confetti I’d put into her birthday card! Well played, Jan!

I have a steak to cook and want potatoes to have with it… and I think Ron is going to deal with it all for me. He got up early tonight. With our schedules like they are, going out to eat would just be too much trouble, so we’ll eat in.

Of course I still have chores to do… so I guess I’d best get to doing them before I run out of steam. Been a really nice day, even with having to work and I’m very happy on my birthday!

hugs,
Vyx

I don’t like cake. Seriously. I especially hate bakery cakes with yucky frosting. Bakery frosting is gross. (butter cream with white margarine, loved it as a kid)

But I’ve been wanting to make an applesauce cake for a while. I had a jar of applesauce no one wanted to eat. Big jar. Don’t want to throw it out, so I looked online for a cake to bake with it.

Found a recipe that looked pretty good. No fat at all in the cake, no milk, no eggs. Some odd ingredients, but I just left some of those out. I added some ingredients I thought would help, too, like a couple eggs.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I’m not real popular or anything but I still don’t want anyone bringing a cake for me, so last night I baked one and took it to work today. The preemptive cake, lol!

The recipe I used I found on RecipeSource.com. I used Splenda instead of sugar, since I had some on hand.. I’m sure that cut down even more on the calories. I was surprised that most of the diabetic recipes I found used Splenda…. but didn’t cut down on the fat at all. I understand why… fat adds flavor, especially if it’s butter or margarine that you are using. If it’s just cooking oil, though… yuck, leave it out if you can! More applesauce! (Low fat or no fat products add extra sugar, you really have to watch that!)

The problem with applesauce as a cake additive is… it’s very hard to mix in and the batter will be REALLY stiff… but after cooking the cake will weep. And weep. Powdered sugar for a topping? Turned into a glaze.

The original recipe link: http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/desserts/cakes/31/rec3100.html

I don’t think I should post the recipe here, just the link. I changed the heck out of it anyhow. For one thing, I made it half again in size to fit a 13×9 pan. Yeah, the recipe says you can use a bigger pan, but I know that the volume would NOT be nice. It would be a very THIN cake.

My new recipe:

Preemptive Applesauce Cake

9×13 inch pan, greased and floured (I used canola spray and cake flour) Heat oven to 350 F.

3 cups flour (I used cake flour, just because I had some)
1 1/2 cups Splenda
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder (not called for, but didn’t seem right to me)
1 teaspoon salt
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa, unsweetened (far as I can tell this is just for color? can’t taste chocolate in the cake and original recipe says you can leave it out, next time I will add a lot more)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I left out the rest of the spices, apples and chocolate both go well with cinnamon)
24 oz jar of unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
water to make the batter be able to pour (sorry, didn’t measure this)

Mix dry ingredients, add applesauce and eggs and water as needed to make a very thick batter. Pour into prepared pan and spread it out, bake for 45 min or until toothpick comes out clean. (this was right at 45 min for my version of recipe)

I DO recommend sifting some of the dry ingredients together… the things that like to clump, like baking soda. My finished cake came out with lumps of baking soda floating on top. I didn’t use a mixer, just a wire whisk. Mixer would probably be better, get more air into the cake, too.

I won’t try powdered sugar on this cake again if I cover it, it wept too much and turned the powedered sugar into a fine glaze. Not a problem, really, but to be really sugar free you’d want to leave it off anyhow. (I did find a recipe to turn Splenda into powdered sugar, but way too much trouble)

It tasted fine, mostly of applesauce and cinnamon. Not too dense, not too light. No yucky fluffy frosting.

Great cake for a gal turning 50 who is trying to watch what she eats and watch her weight a bit. Even if I don’t normally eat sweets or desserts.

(the cake is a lie!)

Hugs,
Vyx

The lilac bush went crazy this year. Butterflies are loving it, I am too.

Macro actually worked on the camera. There is a button, but when set on Auto the camera should actually switch when you are close up. Doesn’t always work, however. I am not in the habit of walking around the yard with glasses handy, so I never can tell if it’s going to work, lol!

The clematis I bought on sale last year. Seems to be doing okay after being eaten by the neighbors’ goat and/or pony last fall. Sort of a natural pruning, which it did NOT need. I am going to need a better trellis for it to climb, the one it has came with it and isn’t nearly large enough.

Kittens are out playing and starting to eat food.

They don’t always hold still long enough to take a photo.

The calico is the biggest kitten… and also the wildest one. She’s a week older than the other two.

Libby’s boys. Libby is in the upper left corner, and that is Tyler and Fluffy posing. They are almost all grown up now. Libby seems to have the most exotic looking children of all the cats.

I had a lot more photos but the light was horrible and some didn’t focus properly so I skipped the uploading.

Well, I have lots to do today, indoor stuff. Gotta get the new blinds hung so I can quit using a tablecloth for a curtain…. the usual cleaning and laundry stuff… some drawing and carving of a new stamp… and then bake a cake to take to work for my birthday. Sort of a preemptive cake, so that no one else brings one. I don’t particularly like cake.

hugs,
Vyx