I went to the sticks

This is a mixed up post. So you are seeing the pictures first that make no sense but close to the end it will all make sense, Sorry still have not mastered blogger.


The kittens at 10 hours old. Momma was away eating at the time. I wish I had a picture of momma but I do not, sorry. She was all grey with dusty red spots on her. She had two grey and white kittens, one that looks like she may be a orange tabby and one all black. Are they not the cutest?

Below: My nephew in the back of the tractor, literally being driven by a proud 7 year old.

Above: My nephew with one of the three week old kittens at the dairy farm that crawled up his jeans wanting to be held.

Literally... the sticks of Virginia. My cousin bought 100 acres of sticks in Nathalie, VA. We went to visit her yesterday and today. This land they just bought they are trying to change to farm land. Believe me they have a long way to go. In a few weeks , they will have chickens. In a few months , they will have goats. The goats will eat all the stems and sticks on part of the land and then the manure will make it all grow back as pasture. teh land used to be all woods and forest but the previous owners sold the trees to a lumber company, so it is all sticks. More power to her because I am a city girl, purebred. We left at about 8 PM and went back to our hotel with a pool while they went to bed in their small camper-trailer and I mean small. Four of us were standing in it and no one could move it was so small. Oh, and I wont get started on the bathroom. I did a post a few months ago about bathrooms and wow , this is the most compact toilet area ever created.

We walked the sticks of the land on a hike, not so fun. We looked at two of the old houses . I know one was from prairie times. The most recent house on the land is extremely old. I did not go into that one. The last known resident was from a renter 5 years ago. He was living with a outhouse and no electricity. That should give away the age of the building. One problem though, he killed someone in that house in what could have been self defense. He has two years left of his term . My cousin is going to have to tear the house down before then or he may come back thinking he still lives there.

The fact that there was a murder on that property does not phase my cousin and her husband. WHY? He is a retired police detective. No big deal to him.

Overall , it was a good trip. Today she drove us to an operating organic (alternative) dairy farm. The family are baptists with 8 children. They were so hospitable too. My nephew was driven on a small tractor by their 7 year old son, yes their 7 year old.

The highlight of my trip was about a cat. My cousin has adopted a farm cat from the dairy farmers. She is about 6 pounds and only 6-8 months old. Well she was pregnant. I noticed last night that she was spending a lot of time digging a hole and trying to go potty but after a long while she came and laid by me. I petted her for a moments. I felt one of the babies right after her ribs, it was so neat. I watched her for a few moments and noticed her tummy contract a little but I did not say anything because I have not been around an expecting kitty since I was about 6. I mentally took note. Well around 9:30 , I received a phone call that she was in labor. At midnight she had the last of the four kittens. Today she let us hold them for a few moments. When she heard them whimper, she would come up to whoever was holding the whimpering one and smell us and then try to carry her baby back to her birthing area. We would carry the kitten back and momma would be perfectly content. I did not agree with messing with her babies so soon but it was not my decision. But oh did I fall in love with momma and all her babies . I wanted to bring them all home. It was so neat at her young age to see her natural instincts take place in the birthing of her babies. My cousin also has a Tomcat, not the daddy though, he knew something was up. He walked up to the barn area when momma was getting TLC from me. He looked at her and she looked at him. It is as if they had their own ESP. Patches, the Tomcat sniffed the air a little, momma cat looked at him , then they stared at each other and Patches walked away content.

Oh the sister of this cat has already had a litter of kittens at the dairy farm. They are three weeks old. Once again I was able to see them, hold them, cuddle them and love them. If they were already weaned, I probably would have had to take one home. So my cat is very happy these were not ready yet.