A year with Auggie

Today is the one year anniversary of the Auggie-boy’s adoption into the family Summers!

What a year!

Losing the Bob-a-lu cat was horrendous. All of my pet losses have been heartbreaking. I’ve not had human losses that have affected me as much as losing beloved pets.

But.

As long as I am physically and financially able to care for a dog and a cat, I WILL have a dog and cat in my life! Every single dog and cat I’ve had has added so very much to my life. I cannot imagine life without them.

Auggie did not replace Bob as Bear did not replace Karl as Karl did not replace Zack and as neither Bob nor Auggie replaced Gus. They are all their unique and much loved selves.

Today, though, I very much celebrate the day that dear Auggie came into the lives of Bear and me. Auggie helped mitigate the sadness of the loss of Mr. Bob and Auggie’s youth and exuberance have enhanced Bear and my days.

Happy Day, Auggie-Boy!! Bear and I are so happy that you came into our lives!

…Below…Redux of Auggie’s first day with us:

Hey guys, I’m Auggie!!!

What a day…I think I need a nap.

Yep…naptime.

Bear, if it is any consolation, Bob felt the same way when we brought you home…

KittyMom’s Rescue, the organization to which I donated some of Bob’s elder cat items, had an adoption day today.

Bear and I went.

We came home with Auggie.

Auggie is 3 1/2 months old by his first vet’s reckoning. He and his brother wandered to a home east of East Glacier, MT. The kindly folks who fostered them for several weeks were at the event this morning. So kind and wonderful and they were able to tell me that the 2 brother kittens were standing outside their fence while their dogs were barking. Somehow these kittens knew safe haven. Having met the couple, I completely understand – they exude compassion and love.

They were also able to tell me a bit about their personalities and at one point the Mr. said …and they travel well. WOW.

One brother was all orange and one was orange with white markings.

I hated the thought of separating the brothers.

I arrived at the event about 30 seconds before it was to start and the parking lot was full. The adoption area was packed! But most were around the 8 week old kittens.

I decided I would take both brothers vs leaving one by himself. I really wanted the one with white markings as the couple had told me he was the most confident.

BUT.

In walked a couple who knew the people who brought the 2 and lived near them. WHAT are the odds – these folks are from about 100 miles away!

This couple wanted 1 of these kittens – they thought they were related to a cat they had that just died.

They wanted the solid colored kitten.

Is the hair on the back of your neck standing up?

The 2 couples and I all chatted as we waited for all paperwork, etc. I was so pleased. I loved these 4 people and how they loved animals.

I never heard how the 4 happened to be in Kalispell, MT.

Augustus after my first ever cat: Gus
Robert for Mr. Bob

Augustus Robert – to be known as Auggie.

Thursday and Friday

Weather-wise, Thursday was not as hot as advertised and overnight the wind blew, some rain fell and Friday dawned gray and cool.

But by midday, it was sunny, clear and a perfect Fall-like 65F!

Back to Thursday…

Neighbor, Mike…kind of sort of visible beyond the glare…came over with chainsaw and dispatched the little tree that Auggie was using to get to the garage roof.

I had a talk with the tree beforehand. I was so sorry to cut its life short.

Mike also brought his splitter and split the remainder of the dry wood which I did NOT procrastinate about stacking…

…mainly because Wild Thing’s part came in and she was ready to come home and it was a much easier thing to get the split wood onto the stack BEFORE parking WT in her spot.

I am SO happy she is home. I think she is happy also. We had a hug and I had a bit of wine with her also…it is “our thing”.

As neighbor Mike left, he wondered if Auggie would be upset about the tree…and Auggie KNOWS where Mike lives!!!

Not to fear, Mike. Auggie is LOVING his new “jungle gym”.

Hide and play…it is new and fun.

A brief wonderment about the garage roof…

Thursday and Friday.

Friday!!!

Srsly??

So this is the valley floor … at the airport. It is always the hottest or coldest spot. Still!

The highest on my home gauges.

Still kind of HOT for September 24!

Appealing to a higher power???

Hot enough to bring the Auggie Boy in for the afternoon.

And the Bear boy also.

Sheesh! The geese and the RVs have been heading south for the last 2 weeks.

It is the 2nd full day of Fall…in MONTANA!!

And it is hot.

First day of Fall

Although we often have beautiful warm days in late September and early October, it is not that often that we have hot days this late, but it feels hot. I was in town late morning for a hair appointment and the salon had doors and windows open and everyone, including me, was overdressed and too warm.

But, it is sunny and beautiful and we will enjoy it…

…outside as much as possible.

This is part of a new trick that Auggie taught me. He gets on the garage roof via a little tree, looks around until he’s ready to come down and then meows for me to come and get him with the ladder.

I am apparently easily trained.

I do need as much exercise as I can get…

I think I will get some cutting that darn tree down!

Rescue complete and all inside for supper.

First day of Fall.

Summer’s End

Here, in Northwest Montana and in all of the U.S. Mountain Daylight Time area…Summer ends at 8:29 p.m. this evening – or more accurately, it is the time of the Autumnal Equinox in my time zone:

The September equinox occurs the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator – from north to south. This happens either on September 22, 23, or 24 every year. source: www.timeanddate.com

Ironically, we are to have a week with temperatures in the low 80’s, i.e. Summer temperatures. But we are down to 12 hours of daylight and the sun’s path is lower to the south than during summer, so it takes all day to hit the high briefly before it cools quickly.

This weekend was to be in the mid-70’s with lots of sun and it was. Bear and I started the weekend with a dash to town for a few supplies and the farmer’s market. Our market stops the third weekend in October so there are only 4 more left :( !

We were at the organic grocery I like at 7:50 a.m. and I was 1 of 2 shoppers when I started. I noticed the SNAP sticker on the window. It has probably been there always but I had no idea what SNAP was until several weeks ago. As I shopped, I took a better look at prices. The bins and produce area have prices I think doable on a tight budget. An advantage of the bins – and I often use them this way also – is the opportunity to buy/try small bits of things. I did notice that flour per pound in the bins is higher than buying a 5 pound bag – but not too much and if I was starting from no supply and small budget, I could buy what I needed to make bread items for a week. Rice and grain varieties as well as all of the beans are more reasonable. And while nuts are expensive, again…from the bins you can buy a very small quantity and maybe add some nuts. I will have to try a real shop to really know how low I could go.

I’m not sure why, but this store always seems to have the best organic produce. I picked up some items that would work for a week, weighed and calced the price – doable, I think.

When I checked out, there were no other customers so I asked the checker if the SNAP option was used much. She said yes. The SNAP benefit is loaded on an EBT card in our area. The store computers know which items are eligible so a customer hands over the EBT card and then gets a total that must be paid for in cash which would be non food items. Seems a much better procedure than the old food stamp books and the buyer having to separate things and then maybe the checker having to negate something…all making it VERY obvious to others.

At any rate, more learning on my part.

On to the farmer’s market. Some commenters on Beth Moncel’s SNAP Challenge which she is writing about on her blog Budget Bytes , noted that many Farmer’s Markets are working with SNAP. I was at the market at the starting time. here were lots of vendors, lots of people and the Market Organizers were very busy so I did not have opportunity to ask.

I did have opportunity to get some nice vegetables! That huge bag of spinach – I’m going to freeze most of it and this year in addition to puree for sauces and soups, I’m going to try freezing some chopped to use in different ways through the winter. Most of the spaghetti squash, I will freeze as well, although Lasagna stuffed spaghetti squash is on my supper list this week. I’ll eat as many of the tomatoes as I can this week, then chop and freeze the rest. The cabbage I use in my salads: I’m stuck on a mix of cabbage, cashews, pecorino with a honey mustard vinaigrette ( Rachel Ray’s honey-mustard vinaigrette). I also like to put a chili-beef sauce over the cabbage and sprinkle some cheddar. It will be a good eating week and the summer/winter squash as well as pumpkins are coming on strong. I also noticed some local apples, but he was jammed with people …next week.

There is always a branch or 2 of the larch that get a jump on Fall color. The larch typically peak in another 3 weeks: October 12-14.

Auggie suggested that I was dragging my feet on cleaning up the wood cutting venue. The wood cutting happened 2 weeks ago, so he had a point.

Sunday, I put on my work clothes and just got ‘er done! On the advice of my neighbors, I saved some of the larger pieces of bark to put on the ground between the new wood that has to dry for future years and the damp ground. I also sorted and restacked what we didn’t cut.

The burn pile is not too bad and maybe I will wait until Spring to burn. Although if I got with the program and gathered up some downfall, I could have a Fall burn. We’ll see.

Wild Thing is still at Billy Bob’s RV and Truck Service waiting on a back-ordered part. Maybe this week she will come home!

Meanwhile, rest and relaxation…

…catching the last Summer rays.

I did “last weekend of Summer” R & R my way!