7/17/17

Winners and other Stuff

Well, y'all have given me quite a swelled head with such sweet comments on my Blogiversary Celebration post. Thank you so much. Thank you for being such good bloggy friends, and thank you for all the fun we've had over the past seven years. Quite a few wished me seven more, and I'm hoping for the same.


So, let's see what Mr. Random has to say about the winner. We gave 'er the proverbial spin and came up with:

#23--CJSmith!

Congratulations, CJSmith! I've sent you an email, so check your inbox.

The green stuff is finished. Yesterday I spent the morning cooking up and canning salsa verde, and that's probably all of that I'll do for the season. Even giving a jar to each of the kids, this will still last us well into next year.


That's not the only thing I did though. In between stirring and ladling, I was able to get some more hand-quilting done on Mumm's the word.


All that remains is to stitch around the borders, and I've come to the third corner now.


I'm moving right to left, and I've put an arrow in the image below to show you where the finish line is. I'm really hoping to finish this off during the month of July.


So we tried another little driveway adventure with the kitties yesterday. Our plan was to put them in the camper, close the slides, and take them for a little ride to a nearby park. We were going to set up the catio, eat our dinner, and then drive home. Our purpose was to see if we could actually close the slides, go for a ride, and make it home without any escapees.

To explain, the camper is a little different from the fifth wheel. In the fifth wheel, it's still possible to move around inside when the slides are closed. The camper closes up more like a jigsaw puzzle, and there is only just a narrow space between the kitchen area and its opposing wall. Here's a picture of the floor plan with the slides open. You can see that there are slides on each side and at the rear.


Try to imagine them sliding in to make for straight walls, and you can see that it's a narrow space, but still large enough for a kitty to jump over the counter and escape out the door. Our hope was that we could herd them into the bedroom where they could ride on the bed while we went down the road. This was the last hurdle we worried over when it comes to taking the kitties with us in the camper. We have a camping trip planned for next week (more on that later), and so it's time to give it all a try.

Well...making a long story short, we weren't able to even get out of the driveway without smarty-pants Smitty escaping to the great outdoors. So much for Plan A. Today we're instituting Plan B, which is to get some good kennels for them (ours are old and kind of junkie, only used for trips to the vet). Since camper trips will be short trips, they're going to have to ride in their kennels. We'll put them in kennels and they can ride on the bed that way. I know they'll hate it, but it won't be for long, and they'll be safe. As our vet likes to say, "It's all part of being a cat." We aren't so much worried about escapes once we're settled at our final destination and the slides are opened. They don't try to escape when we're in strange places. Containing them for going down the road is going to pose a problem, however. With them actually "contained," we will worry a lot less.

So do you want to know what was on the menu for this excursion? It isn't technically on our diet, but low calorie enough for a kitty-goes-to-the-city excursion. Our last couple of CSA shares have included tons of cucumbers. I've made relish, but there were still more to use. I made this Cucumber and Avocado Soup with Tomato and Basil Salad. It has some little strips of fried prosciutto on top. On the side, I used up the last of the kohlrabi in these Kohlrabi Fritters with Lemon Dill Yogurt Sauce. So yummy.


This morning we're going on the hunt for the kennels, and we'll take a short walk in the historic downtown section of nearby Sherwood, Oregon.

As I'm writing this, Smitty is enjoying his morning sunbath. He's almost too big for that scratching post.


Sadie, a black cat, doesn't care too much for sunbaths. She takes quilt baths instead.


It's been a busy weekend, and I've done no sewing (other than hand stitching) since last Thursday. Definitely I'll be getting back to my quilting today.

9 comments:

Sandra W said...

I can't imagine where the door is that the cats use to escape. I get that everything slides in to make the van a rectangle while travelling, but I can't see how the darlings would get out. Does rain get in too? I'm really confused when i comes to this sort of thing. I just don't think in moveable blocks. I'll go back and try again.

WoolenSails said...

Kitties are too smart, mine will escape if they can, so I always have to make sure they are not near the doors when I open them. Now Bean is getting too smart, has figured out how to open the child gate on the porch, so I found him running around the yard, playing by himself, at least he doesn't leave the yard, lol.

Debbie

quiltzyx said...

I'm with Sandra W - I can't picture how the cats would escape thru' a door when the camper is moving. Or did he just escape before you had closed the door after retracting the slider parts? Oh well, the carriers sound like an excellent idea. Your menu items do look good. I just should not read this blog when I'm hungry though!

The finish line is near on Mum's the word! Hooray!

Oh yes, the salsa verde - I can practically smell & taste it from here!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I love that you are being deligent in the hand stitching - I have one not even started for months. Kennels sound like the way to go for safety sake.

Brown Family said...

I know they will hate the kennels, but your piece of mind and their safety is more important!

Congratulations to the winner!

piecefulwendy said...

Congratulations to the winner! i'm sure the kitties will adapt to their kennels in time; there may be some yowling at first, but soon it will become part of the camping routine, right? And at least you (hopefully) won't be able to hear the yowling. You are doing well with your big stitch quilting on the Mum quilt. You'll need a good reward once it's finished!

Kate said...

Congrats to the winner. Sorry the kitties are going to have to deal with the kennels, hopefully they won't get to mad at you about those accomdations. I've heard that kitties can carry quite the grudge. Congrats on all the progress with the hand stitching!

Dawn said...

At one time we considered puttung our five cats in our 5th wheel but pryor to doing that I wanted to know what it was like to ride back there. Of course it is illegal for a person to ride in a towed vehicle so we hooked up at our house and went down our driveway and the country road for about a mile.
At which point I phoned my husband and told him to pull over and let me out. I had never in my life riden in anything that was as noisy and totally scary as that 5th wheel traveling 35 mph! I could not even imagine how awful and scary it would be traveling at 55 mph down the freeway! It was a horrid experience! We decided that if we put the cats back there they would be frightened and traumatized before we had traveled five miles. So our cats travel in the cab of our truck. I purchased three 6' x 5" pieces of foam and we wedged them in the back seat (on the back seat) so that when the cats are back there, whether in kennels or not, they are high enough up that they can see out. The foam covers the backseat as well as the space between the seat and the back of the front seat. Which keeps them from going under the front seat and getting under the feet of which ever of us is driving the rig if they are not in their kennels. After having ridden in that 5th wheel there was absolutely no way I could ever make them ride back there. I was soooo glad we did that little experiment because I would never forgive myself for tramatizing them that way.

gpc said...

LOVE that quilt! I really need to try making something beautiful one of these days. Smitty is just too clever for his own good, and it is clear that being clever is exhausting work for him. Congrats to CJ!