Sights from around Crooked Acres.
Every now and then, when a young hen starts laying, we get one of these teeny eggs (next to a regular-sized egg for reference). Also every now and then, sometimes I clean the counter before I take pictures of things sitting on it. Not this time, though! (Because I know you’re wondering, when the tiny egg is cracked open, it’s usually mostly egg white, with a tiny splotch of egg yolk in there.)
Why on earth would I grab a rag and wipe that counter down? I’ve got things to do, pictures to take! Someone wanted to see what a dehydrated cherry tomato looks like. That dehydrated tomato is only a half, though, so I probably should have cut that un-dehydrated cherry tomato in half for a better reference. Wouldn’t that have been organized of me?
This is one pound of cherry (mostly Sungold) tomatoes.
And this is one pound of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half and put on the dehydrator tray.
One pound of cherry tomatoes, dehydrated!
These are one-gallon sized jars with (left to right) dehydrated, shredded zucchini, sliced yellow squash and zucchini, and the cherry tomatoes I’ve dehydrated thus far. I ended up with a total of 1 & 3/4 jars of the sliced yellow squash and zucchini, and what you see in the picture is what I have of the dehydrated zucchini and tomatoes, or what I had of the tomatoes when I snapped that picture. Below is an updated picture once I added the five pounds that were in the dehydrator to the jar.
Fifteen pounds of dehydrated cherry tomatoes. How much does 15 pounds of cherry tomatoes weigh when they’re dehydrated? 15 1/2 ounces!
The Rose of Sharon bush in the back yard is blooming. I think they have just about the prettiest flowers ever.
Look at all those Ghost peppers! They’re loving the heat this summer.
Tabasco peppers!
This year we’re growing Butternut and Acorn squash. That empty space to the left is where the corn was growing, until Fred harvested it all last week.
Gracie, staying cool under the coop (but keeping an eye on her flock!)
They are just unbearably cute at this gawky stage.
Little roosters, both with feathered legs.
Big Daddy.
“You can’t see me.”
Startled pig, skipping to safety.
This wallow is 100% pig-dug. There’s a perfectly good wallow on the other side of the yard, in shade, but the last set of pigs dug a small wallow here (I think because it’s where the water tends to run when we’re emptying waterers), and these girls have at least doubled the size of it in the last couple of weeks. The girls do love their mud.
Despite her grumpy looks, it turns out that Ciara is a snuggler.
Ciara and Clove.
Clove loves that catnip carrot like nothing else on earth.
Ciara, Clove, and Elwood, hanging out in the hall outside the guest bedroom door, wondering why they’re not allowed in the guest bedroom. Ever met a cat that DIDN’T want to be on the other side of a closed door? Me neither.
Ciara and Cilantro. Cilantro’s smile is cracking me UP.
Ciara and Cilantro, again.
Poor Ciara, so annoyed. (For the record, Spanky was there first!)
Stinkerbelle, on the stairs. Now that the Spice Girls and Ciara are out in the house for most of the day, Stinkerbelle likes to go up and hang out on the cat tree in the foster room. I imagine she thinks of that room as home base.
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Previously
2010: I KNOW, I DON’T GET IT EITHER.
2009: No entry.
2008: It’s quite fun, as you can imagine.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: Meet Jodie and Rambo.
Stinkerbelle has the most unusual coloring. Is there a name for it? Would she be considered a calico??? Diluted???
She looks to me to be a standard calitabby, black and orange with white, but she also has the pointed gene (to give the blue eyes). This will make the colors fade on the body, especially in hotter weather. On a standard siamese, the face tail and legs pale a little on the extremities to give the seal-brown, while the body fades to a light or dark cream color. On Stinkerbelle, the calico spots fade in a like manner – a bit on the head, and more on the body.
So I guess the official term would be tortie-point with white.
Could you call her a torbie-point? Stinkerbelle the Torbie-point has kind of a ring to it…
What a beautiful kitty , she should have a nicer name than Stinkerbelle though! 🙂
Stinkerbelle is a perfectly hilari… um… fine name for a cat! I call my two ‘Pooper’ all the time. That’s another perfectly… er… fine name for a cat!
I always forget how beautiful Stinkerbelle is. How do you not just stare at her all day?
Ditto what Brandy said. She is so pretty.
It looks as though Ciara and Cilantro should be adopted together. Then again, Ciara could clearly happily coexist with anyone — and I don’t think she looks grumpy — just deliciously expressive! Everyone’s right to concentrate on lovely Stinkerbelle so far; her beauty eclipses even the enigma of what dehydrated zucchini goes into. Please advise! As always, thanks for the many vignettes.
Clove blends into the hallway carpet – Camo Kitty! Better to hide and then leap out and bite your face!
Stinkerbelle is stealing the show of this post. Sorry, piggies and roosters…
I have to agree. Those scrawny, gawky rooster chicks never stood a chance!
Yep, Stinkerbelle is a beautiful kitty!
I have to agree with most of the posters here — Stinkerbelle is one lovely kitty — I don’t recall seeing any other photos of her lovely fur!
And to second the above poster — what do you do with dehydrated zucchini & such? Add it to soups? Make sauce?
What makes Stinkerbell so striking is that most of her colors are “dilute” meaning faded from the more common brighter colors. But her face is not dilute at all, when you mix that with the Siamese blue eyes you have a totally stunning cat. Thanks to Old Cat, I can see how you could get that combination of dilute (at least in Summer) with bright at the same time. I had never heard of this, but it makes perfect sense since Siamese are usually a blend of strong points and softer colors elsewhere.
We have a boy we called “The Shadow Point” Siamese, he’s a rescue kitty and looks black until the sunlight hits him. Then you see not only his darker points on feet, tail and face; but also the tiger stripes on his body! He looks just like an old fashioned apple headed Siamese, complete with Meow and personality except in Black with “shadow” points..
Wow! I’ve never seen a dehydrator tray! I must google it!! I love your jars of amazing dried veg – wonderful – I can imagine making sun dried tomatoes with your dried tomatoes! Yay!!!
Awwww great to see the piggies and baby chickens, big Daddy and Gracie all looking fabulous!!
Yay for the Spice Girls, Ciara, Elwood, Spanky and Stinkerbelle! Take care
x
Stinkerbelle is a beautiful girl!!
Wow – that’s one of the BEST photos I’ve ever seen of Stinkerbelle! She sure is gorgeous! Post stealer extordannaire – or however you spell it!