I love that my mom flew in
to visit just for Ben’s birthday. While
Ben and I were picking her up from the Austin
When we arrived home we
gave Ben his early birthday gift in a Happy Birthday gift bag. Ben was so surprised. He grinned so big, for so long. Ben asked repeatedly why we put kitty in a
gift bag. That detail was very
disconcerting to Ben. Kitty was pretty
nervous the first day, but started settling down quickly. He slept and snuggled for the whole first
week. Then he started getting bigger and
more adventurous. Ben named him Billy
Fuzzy Hartshorn and he's completely in love!
Kitty will be an outside
kitty, but he has to stay inside until the cold he caught at the shelter is
better and he gets fixed. Kitty lives in
our bathroom for now, unless we're snuggling him. Caleb and Jon are both allergic to cats. Caleb has to take allergy medicine anyway, so
he's doing okay. Jon is doing mostly
okay. I think kittens aren't as bad on
the allergies as adult cats. Jon and I
are counting down the days until the kitty can stop living in our house. He quickly learned to jump the barrier we
made between our bathroom and bedroom.
Kitty thinks it’s totally fine to hang out in my bedroom. He also meows non-stop at us if we walk by,
go to bed, or go to the bathroom without spending every second petting
him. His baby kitty meows are pretty
cute, but after enough of them, they become tiresome.
I'm loving our little
kitty as much as the kids. He's uber
snuggly. I'm kind of shocked at how much
Jon and Caleb are enjoying kitty. I’m really
surprised! I thought Jon would totally
shun kitty and I thought Caleb would be indifferent. I sure hope
kitty lives a long happy life because we're all getting attached. Outdoor kitties in a rural area often don't
make it into adulthood. Getting him
fixed will help a lot with him not running away at least. Jon and Ben made Billy an outdoor shelter and
we’re trying to teach him that shelter is his home. We even put a covered porch on it so we can
put his food and water up there, out of reach to the neighborhood dogs that
always wander into our yard. It has an
entrance and an exit so kitty can’t get cornered in there by wild animals.
After two weeks of
medicine from the vet for his cold, we took Billy back to the vet. The vet said he looks really healthy
now. He got neutered and got his rabies
shot. After a week of recovery, we
started the transition to Billy living outside.
He seems to like it so far. We
found that we couldn’t put his food or water outside because it drew hordes of
ants, so we decided to just call Billy inside for meal times. He found an access hole under our back porch
to open space under our house. He spends
his hot summer afternoons there. When he
wants back in the house, he sits on the ledge outside our living room window
meowing at us. We sometimes take pity,
let him in, and snuggle him. He’s
learning to come running when we call him for breakfast and dinner. Xena and Billy are really enjoying playing
with each other now too. It’s very cute
and entertaining to watch. Billy bats at
Xena’s fluffy ears and tail and Xena tries to play bite Billy’s ears and
legs. It’s adorable to watch Billy sneak
around a corner to pounce on Xena. Both
animals love having a playmate. It’s so
sweet to see Xena’s happy dog smile after a good tussle. All in all, he’s turning out to be an awesome
addition to our family!
Ben had a super fun 7th
birthday party! We're very thankful for
our Texas
On Ben’s actual birthday, we
went swimming! It was the first swim of
the summer. The boys had been counting
down until the city pools were open.
They had a super fun day swimming and Ben especially loved swimming with
his new birthday flippers, goggles, and snorkel he bought with birthday money
from Auntie Dar & Uncle Darrel. Thanks!!! We topped the day off with breakfast for
dinner with homemade cinnamon rolls and presents.
I love that my mom has
gotten to be here with us when big changes have happened in our family. This time it was getting a kitty! Both boys love special time with Grandma Cheryl. They did a lot of crafts and puzzles
together. Ben knows she’ll almost always
say yes to reading a book to him. She
even came swimming with us one time. Caleb
loves solving Grandma’s puzzle books.
That’s something special they do together. Jon and I loved getting a night off for a double
date when Grandma blessed us with watching our kiddos and our friend’s four
kiddos. We all love Grandma so much! Thanks for everything!
Ben finally got his first
loose tooth! It was a bit unsettling to
him and he mentioned quite a few times that it hurt. He had the shortest turnaround from loose to
lost that I’ve ever seen. His first
tooth got loose on the 6th and he lost it on the 11th. We were checking out a fabric store in Austin
We had a great day
celebrating Jon for Father’s Day. He's an amazing father to our boys! We took the day off from working on our
projects and relaxed. He caught up some
on his favorite show, The Deadliest Catch, we went out to see the movie Epic,
and we ate out at our favorite local burger and ice cream restaurant. Oh, and he spent the morning with Ben
building the cat house for Billy’s outdoor shelter. Even on his day off, he still got something
we needed done. He’s amazing!
I'm excited about the
fabric I bought in Austin Texas Texas
It’s been really nice not
having to water my garden now that I’ve got the automatic watering system. There is lots of good growth, but I have
encountered quite a few new problems that I’ve never dealt with. It’s a big learning curve and I’m definitely
learning! So far I’ve learned how
awesome diatomaceous earth is. It saved
my squash, green beans, and cucumbers from the destruction of hundreds of pill
bugs/rolly pollies. They had reduced the
plants to almost nothing. Now that I’ve
dealt with the pests, the plants are finally getting a chance to grow and
they’re looking good so far.
I was getting blossom end
rot (BER) on some of my tomatoes, so I sprayed a lime/water mix and we’ll see
if that helps. BER is caused by a
calcium deficiency. It was probably due
to too much rain. My green beans are
turning yellow and I thought it was from too much water also, but more recently
I noticed a whole bunch of brown bean bugs.
I saw ants on the plant and thought they were harmless. I’ve since learned that the brown bean bug
nymphs look like ants, which have now matured.
Some other pest destroyed one of my blueberry plants. Powdery mildew appeared and quickly took over
my zucchini. I’m using a homemade insecticide/fungicide
to solve these problems. The main
ingredient is neem oil and it seems to be doing the trick. I love that it is a safe and organic
solution. Hopefully the plants can
recover from the destruction. On a different
tomato plant I found and hand picked off some potato beetle nymphs. That seems to have fixed that problem. One pepper plant got infested with leaf
footed bugs. I hand picked those off
over a couple weeks and haven’t seen any for a few days. It’s so gross having to identify and solve
these pest problems. Hopefully my hard
work will pay off and we’ll get lots of delicious produce.
The month ended with a
visit from my cousin Kara and her little guy, Jude. We love having them here and are so thankful they
drove out for a visit all the way from Missouri Texas
Blessings on you and
yours!
Love,
The Hartshorns