Our Camper's Maiden Voyage

We bought a camper last year and it sat in our back yard, sad and lonely.  I'd been wanting to go camping for a months, so this fall when things slowed down a bit, we reserved a site at a local state park.  It was going to be November, but it couldn't be that cold, right?

Kylee made some fire starters for us to use on our trip.  They're just toilet paper rolls stuffed with dyer lint.

Friday afternoon we packed up and headed out.  We got there just in time to set up before it got dark. Luckily the park sold firewood, so we only had to find a bit of kindling before we were able to start a fire.  The fire starters were so-so, but I think plain old twisted up newspaper works best.

We had a simple dinner of roasted hot dogs and s'mores for dessert.

Christmas lights were dual purpose...for decoration and to add more light outside!

Our camper is a hybrid, so it's part travel trailer and part pop-up (the beds fold out like a pop up).

Our first night was very cold.  We had heat, but didn't turn it up high enough. I forgot how little insulation campers have!  Between the cold and the dogs barking at every sound, we didn't get much sleep.

The next morning, David and Devin went hunting.  Devin recently passed the hunter safety test, so he and David were ready to try their hand at squirrel hunting.

I cant believe how big Devin is getting.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't see a single squirrel in the woods that morning. Kylee and I spent most of our day napping, trying to catch up on missed sleep!  Then we had a great fire ready by the time the guys got back.

We had pizza mountain pies (hot sandwiches made with a sandwich iron). They were delicious!

I made a make-shift tie out for the dogs so I wouldn't have to hold their leashes all of the time.

Then we played games until bedtime, and cranked the heat way up before bed. We all slept better that night, but we were glad to get home!  Next time we'll save camping for the summer and early fall, before it drops below freezing at night!

Our New Girl

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I'm going to try to catch up on a few things that have been going on around here.

Way back in mid-September, a stray kitten showed up at our house.  I noticed her one morning when I was out doing chores, in the morning before work.  It was dark, and I saw a pair of eyes catch in the beam of my head lamp.  I followed it, and thought it either had to be a cat or a skunk.  Luckily for me, when I stooped down by the car and looked under, a little kitten peeked out at me (no skunk, thank goodness).  She was scared though, and ran away when I tried to reach out to her.

The next couple days I worked on trying to tame her.  I could hear her meowing when I was outside, so I'd sit on the front porch with a bowl of catfood, shaking it and meowing back.  She was very talkative, and we'd have "conversations" meowing back and forth at each other.  Finally she'd jump on the porch, but would run away if I'd move.

 Eventually I was able to hover my hand over her head as she ate, and when I thought I had a chance of actually catching her, I lowered my hand down to hold onto her.  She calmed down almost immediately, and started purring.

She was so friendly right from the moment I touched her, so I think she was probably dropped off here.  A feral cat would not have been nearly as friendly.

I took her to our local spay/neuter clinic to have her tested for FeLV/FIV, because if she was positive she couldn't stay here and risk infecting our other cats.   She was negative for both, and they estimated her age at 3 months (that was end of September).  She weighed about 3 lbs.  They also dewormed her for me.

I brought her in the house a few times so she'd get used to the kids and dogs.

The dogs LOVE her, and they try to cover her with kisses whenever they can.

She's not going to be an inside cat, though I guess she can come in from time to time.  We've already got 1 inside cat, and I really don't care to keep cleaning out litter boxes.  We do have a mouse problem in the barn, so she'll be a mostly outdoor cat and mouser.

It has been very cold the past few days, so she and Tucker (our other outside cat) came inside for a bit to visit and warm up.  (They also have a heat lamp in the barn, so they stay plenty warm.

I named her Kiki.  I started to name her Henrietta, but it didn't really fit her.  I was calling "kitty kitty" all the time, so Kiki just sort of evolved.   Miss Kiki has an appointment on December 1 to be spayed.  We don't need any more kitties showing up around here.  :-)

Halloweenies!

Revolutionary War Reenactment Festival

Last weekend there was a Revolutionary War reenactment festival not too far from here, so we decided to go see it.  There were British soldiers and Continental soldiers with their camps set up, an area with vendors (selling revolutionary era stuff, mostly), and activities during the day.  It was really neat to see, and we had a good time walking around and looking at everything.  Here are a few (ha) of the pictures I took that day.

The man behind Kylee had a blanket set out with all sorts of things they would have carried back then.  He showed the kids one of the toys they had back then, and the kids got to try it.  

One of David's friends is a reenactor!

 I spotted this little nest when we walked by.