Trees!

We've been thinning out some trees at the farm and pruning and trying to help them be healthier. So I thought, especially when Farmmom told me we'd be pruning the fruit trees, why not try a few cuttings?

Because I'm still liking the bonsai (Tiny Tim is doing well, he got a little dry and lost all his leaves but they came back and he's already blooming again) I decided to see if I could get some bonsai fruit trees going.

Especially the mulberry. Because tiny mulberry tree!

Anyway, mom was for it since we might be able to jump-start some more trees that way and save having to buy them. I've got several cuttings in pots outside now and they're looking pretty sad but they're still alive, so fingers crossed that they root out.

I've been reading a bonsai blog or two though and one is definitely my favorite, not just for the author's way of explaining things that makes odd concepts simple but for the massive amounts of pictures and his willingness to answer questions.

He posted some photos today and had one in there that perfectly sums up what Farmmom and Farmdad feel about my bonsai stuff, and I just had to share:

All credit to Adam, click the link to go to his blog if you're interested. 

Forgiveness

Is a wonderful thing.

Like I said earlier, though I am the most horrible person alive once a day, they forgive me pretty quickly. And Fluffernutter is one of the first, and most generous with his forgiveness, because lap and belly rubs. He's out cold.

You can see some of the bald from the ringworm under his chin... the thin coat on his underside is NOT representative of the rest of him, not any more anyway, it just hasn't caught up to the furball that the rest of him is swiftly becoming. Pot-bellied furball. 

On a Lighter Note

So, kittens are quarantined to the living room away from the dogs, because ringworm. We tried topical cream for a while but it just wasn't kicking it in the butt so we've switched to a medicated wash, which means daily baths, which means I am the most awful person in the world once a day. (On the really bright side today is day two and I'm already seeing a difference, thankfully, because poor Grey is just covered)

But, being kittens, by the time they dry off they've forgiven me. Or maybe it's just because I'm their only interaction outside each other, now. Either way, they want to play.

And they've discovered the joys of the laser pointer.

Now, I haven't been able to get all three of them going on it at once, or even two. They seem to figure that one at a time is enough.

But, they will lay in ambush for the one playing with the pointer.

Just a minute ago I was playing with Fluffernutter and Grey was paying no attention whatsoever, and I ran him by her, because kittens and laser pointers.

She startled, then sat up with both front feet of the ground and whacked him once, then put a foot on his head like she was holding him down.

First thought that came into my head?

"Calm down, Beavis, you're never going to catch it anyway."

Mail Order Jesus

Ok, let me preface this by saying that my belief system is my business, and yours is your own, and I really don't care what you believe as long as you don't try to force me to believe it as well or otherwise intrude your beliefs on my life.

The folks I'm about to talk about have (just barely, to be fair) crossed over that line.

In the mail came an envelope pretty well covered in print, clearly from a religious organization, clearly soliciting new believers. I'm not going to name the church involved, if you recognize it from mailings you've gotten I'd appreciate your keeping it to yourself because what I'm talking about here is mistreatment of a position of respect (church, Church, clergy, etc) and exploitation of beliefs in general. I'm reasonably certain that somewhere in this organization are people who honestly believe in the things that they're doing, who are good people and truly want to help others. Since I expect people to respect the fact that I have my own belief system, I cannot, under my own morals, impugn theirs. Specific acts? Sure. Disagree with their system? Absolutely. But out of respect for those who aren't using the system for their own ends, I'm not going to paint a big sign saying "THIS CHURCH IS ENTIRELY FRAUDULENT."

Got it? Good.

Moving on. In this mailing, it's pretty well a packet, there were several things. One of them is a printed "prayer rug." On the back it tells you how if you kneel on this rug (or have it touching both of your knees) and pray upon your needs, while looking into the closed eyes of the image of Jesus printed upon the paper, you will know that Jesus has heard your prayers, because his eyes will open.

Time out, take a step back, examine this paper "prayer rug" (I'm sorry if it is made out of paper it is not a rug, that's why the quotes) and see what they're talking about.

Well, it's pretty vague around the eyes. they certainly look sort of closed but not definitively closed, and there's quite a bit of shading on the eyelids in the image... and if you unfocus your eyes just a bit, sort of like when you're looking for the 3-d squirrel riding a lawnmower to jump off the page... yep, there it is. Subtle, but there, just an impression of iris on the eyelids that, given time, would make the brain see open eyes. Optical illusion.

From this point on, I gotta tell you, I was looking for the "Send money!" To be fair, there isn't any request for donation or anything like that in this letter. They just want you to pray on the rug, tuck it into a Bible at a specific passage, or if you don't have a Bible, under your side of the bed, if you can, if you can't it's ok, overnight then send the rug and the sheet on which you mark your prayer needs back.

There's some indication that once they receive your prayer sheet and rug (which they'll send out to another family because they need it! This bugs me because it strikes me as an attempt to convince people that you're giving them access to a genuine holy article rather than a mass produced image on paper. If you've prayed over it and your beliefs make it holy, fine, but I'm far from convinced that getting more is any more than a matter of placing an order at the printer and possibly having a priest or a group of laymen say a prayer over a pallet) they'll send you a blessed-by-prayer cross which will bring you good fortune.

So far, slightly distasteful to me but nothing really crossing the line. To me what crosses the line between probably honest religion slinging and scamming on the part of those in charge is the "Prophesy" that is also in the envelope. That you're only supposed to unseal (it's got a sticky-dot on it holding it closed) after you send the prayer rug and the needs-sheet back in.

In other words after you've concentrated on your own personal problems so that they're at the forefront of your mind.

This "Prophesy" goes on for a full page in appropriately vague terms about how God will guide you to proper decisions for the benefit of your future through prayer. "Even now, you are facing a decision that must be made." Well that certainly covers everyone in the world.

At the front is a little blurb about how the prophesy is given through inspiration from the Holy Spirit, but the whole is written in the first person. Not "God says" but "I say." A bit about how the power to speak blessings into your own life is in you, and how you must learn to use this power.

Well, that could go a couple of ways. Either the wish-fulfillment version of prayer, or it could be interpreted as a push to stop looking outside yourself for solutions and do everything you can for your own self to improve your life.

My problem here is that this all seems to be aimed towards planting a seed in the mind, that can be fertilized later (when they send out the cross?) to cause a person to interpret any good thing that happens to them in the interim as stemming from the prayer rug, or the actions surrounding it. Like I said, no request for money in this batch, but my cynical mind sees it on the horizon.

To me, this is all very reminiscent of fortune tellers that perform in front of a group. They grope blindly with vague allusions until someone, wanting to believe, sees something of themselves in what is being said. Then they proceed to work on that person, to the ultimate goal of making them believe that the fortune teller is really what they say they are, and then getting money.

Like I said, for all I know there are people in this process that truly believe they are helping others by sending out these letters. But I would bet my own money that somewhere in the process, someone is living quite nicely off of this process who doesn't believe a word of it.

That's what I mean about misuse. Someone in charge there is using their position to make themselves richer, or more powerful. They're deliberately preying on people who, in these days, may not see a recourse other than prayer to help them out of a bad situation. I'm reasonably certain that if I were to send the prayer rug and the needs page back, and go through the process, I would get to the "give us money" portion of the process, but I'm not going to do that.

Because by my lights, exploiting the process for my own entertainment, if there's even a chance that there are people who honestly believe, is wrong.

If someone believes in Bubbah, god of beer and plenty, the fact that I don't doesn't make me any more right than they are. It doesn't mean that I get to tell them what they should believe. And if someone doesn't have any religious beliefs, but does have a belief in say, string theory, the same goes. The belief itself is not any less valid because another person shares it, or doesn't. Neither can be proven at this point, so to me, they stand on equal footing.

I just detest people who manipulate for their own gain, along with people who intrude upon my life without my consent (I've had a few very nice religious discussions that I was quite willing to participate in) to attempt to change my beliefs.

Those people, I really want to beat.

You Cannot Legislate Morality

Saw on Twitter this morning, thanks to Larry, that there's some hullabaloo about someone's Kickstarter campaign. CNN article here.

Ok, caught up? Good.

Stop trying to wish offensive shit out of existence. 

It doesn't work and it just makes everyone more miserable.

Yes, it certainly sounds like this guy is a douchenozzle. Yes, I would pretty much like to kick him in the jimmy. But my desire does not mean that the book should be banned. Sure, there's possibly some bad advice in there. I'm not taking the quotes as all the information though, because out of context is a major factor.

But, ya know? He's got the right to give bad advice. And people have the right to take bad advice. Maybe he's advocating being more aggressive than is polite, which some men might take to an extreme.

However, in my opinion, a far more effective way to discourage such behavior is for women to stop acting like startled sheep when something they don't like happens and take steps to learn to defend themselves.

Society cannot protect you from being offended. The most effective defense against assault of any kind is self defense. Because, face it folks, you don't have a cop in your pocket. Your ability to defend yourself is always with you.

I don't give a rat's ass if you carry a gun, learn jujitsu, get a protection dog that is with you every second of every day, or invent a damn force field. Just take a pro active interest in your own bodily safety.

The fact that you're offended by something some jackass says in a book does not give you the right to silence them. The fact that he's advocating aggressive tactics with women would not be an issue if every single woman stepped down off the pedestal long enough to figure out that they have the power to defend themselves.

Because you know what? The guys who might take that advice a little too far because someone told them women like that kind of thing will stop if it is made absolutely clear to them that it is not acceptable right then when it happens.

The guys who wouldn't stop are called rapists and aren't raping because of a book, they're doing it because they're rapists. And it's even more important with them that as a woman you know how to defend yourself.

The facts of life are that you may not stop him. You might still get raped or otherwise assaulted. But you're going to make it very expensive for him. It might make him change his mind, if you can manage to rip off his ear or gouge out his eye, but at absolute rock bottom worst you're marking him to make him easy to identify after the fact.

That is the answer to guys like this dick. The world cannot be made perfectly safe, that's not how life works. Anyone who tells you differently is probably looking for votes. So quit crying, and do something about it with the only thing in this world that you can actually control: yourself.

Kittehs

The kittens are doing well, gradually getting more liking for people (even if only as a combination of Mount Everest and the worlds greatest jungle gym) and eating well.

They're starting to play a bit with each other and will chase things, but have absolutely no idea what to do with them once they catch up. They just sort of look at whatever it was like "well, now what?" and then wander off in a different direction.

I figure these guys are at about three weeks, more or less. They're a little stunted, size wise. For one, feral cats don't get the loving care and nutrition that pets do, and that can make a huge difference when momma is nursing. So they don't grow as fast, but they're more likely to have a bigger growth spurt around the time they start being able to hunt for themselves, instead of a fairly steady upward trend. 

These babies had been on their own a day or two, and they were pretty dehydrated. We're getting them brought back from that but it's a slow building rather than an immediate fix. They're not in any danger, just building back up from where they were will take some time.

And lots of patience. For now, they're mostly living in a small kennel, where they can feel like it's a den, it's easier to clean up after them, and we don't have to play "oh shit where's the kitten" for most of the day. Also, it helps keep the interactions with the dogs to supervised levels. None of the dogs are too likely at this stage to just kill them out of hand, though that was a concern for a bit since most of them are terrier types and the kittens look more like big skinny rats right now than anything. But, a couple of controlled introductions have been made, me holding a kitten on my lap and letting everyone check it out where it was clear that it was ours. The kittens seem to be taking most of the new stuff with the attitude of if I don't like it I can't change it, but I don't have to be happy about it, so they did ok other than looking for a way down to the floor so they could find a place to hide.

Jezebelle seems to go into this weird super-mom on speed mode around them. She knows they're babies, and wants to mother them, but isn't sure why her licking them doesn't make them stop crying, so her solution is to lick faster damnit. Which, many of you might guess, does not exactly make the kittens stop crying.

Caring for three week old kittens isn't as difficult as it is with younger babies. At this age they can manage to eat from a dish, though they're not very good at it, but will eventually fill their bellies without having to resort to a bottle. They can also manage soft food, especially if you mix it with a little milk to soften it further. It's not a matter of their teeth at this stage really, most of them have a decent enough set, but they're still tender and they really don't know what to do with them yet. They're in that weird half stage between nursing and eating grown up kitty food, which momma generally handles by kicking them the hell off the teat when they bite too hard, and making sure to bring them some grown up stuff to gnaw on instead of her. Unfortunately it's not that easy when momma isn't about, though it's not hard either, just time consuming and messy. 

For now they're getting soft food mixed to mush with milk. Couple reasons, one, it doesn't hurt their teefies so they can eat more quickly and two, they need as much nutrition as fast as we can manage right now. They wouldn't die if I started easing them towards more solid foods by a long shot, but I will feel much better when they get some decent weight on themselves and start muscling up some more. I'll probably start alternating plain soft food and the milk mush in the next couple of days.

Partly because of this:

At this stage, and especially since they went hungry for a while, they're really territorial about food, and still pretty well equating all food to momma's teat, in terms of how to get it or get more of it. So, they push, and shove, and wallow in the food dish. And get absolutely covered in it. Don't worry, I gave that one (which happens to be the one named after Stingray) a wipedown right after I took the picture. They're starting to try to clean themselves, they'll lick at their paws and make an attempt at cleaning their faces, but they just haven't gotten it down yet. Which is why every couple days we absolutely have to do this:

First bath ever yesterday, they were not impressed. But they smelled better afterwards. 

Not so incidentally, these pictures are being shown in reverse chronological order. Baths yesterday, the ridiculous level of mess above at breakfast today. Patience, which, though I seem to lack it in a lot of other areas in my life somehow I manage to have just enough of when it comes to animals, is a very important part of hand raising any young critter, but seemingly especially cats. Kittens will make more fuss than puppies, sleep lighter, make bigger messes for their numbers and can cause way more inadvertent minor injuries with those claws than puppies manage with their teeth. And it's really easy to forget that they have to learn to be neat and clean and not wallow in their food dish, when they're covering themselves in a sticky glop at least three times a day.

But, mostly they nap, with the aid of a youtube video I found where someone looped up nine hours of cat purr. And that's ok, at this age, that's what they should be doing. Eat, play, sleep, repeat. The purr helps them sleep better, with it going they don't startle awake crying at every single sound. Though, it isn't quite so beneficial to me since it makes me sleepy as hell too. Small price to pay, though, for well rested, non-crying kittens.

More updates as events warrant, or when I manage to get decent pictures of them looking cute. So far, that hasn't really happened, lol.

More Orphans

Last night Farmmom came in when she got home from Eldest Nephew's baseball game and said "Come help me find these crying kittens."

Turns out, momma cat had apparently moved them into the shed and then headed out on her own, and promptly got squished on the highway in front of the house.

So we now have four kittens just old enough to start getting teeth. They're not super feral, though they're not all that sure they like people, they have already made the association that we have food.

As I type this they're in one of the smaller kennels next to my chair, telling me that they would like to be somewhere else now thank you very much. However, I have no intention of searching every tiny nook in the house for kittens every ten minutes for fear they've gotten stuck somewhere. They get out and get attention and play time (supervised) but until they're a little more used to us and a little bigger (which won't take long) so that they can't fit somewhere I couldn't get my hand to get em out, they'll spend most of their downtime in the kennel.

So far, their personalities are only showing in noise level and appreciation of petting. The runt is a tiny little black thing with an itty bitty mew and has been one of the first to rub back against a petting hand. Two more black ones about the same size, one quieter who isn't sure about this whole petting thing and one that seems to think that every sound out of it's mouth is a dreadful curse word that must be said at the top of his lungs (I think I'll name that one after Stingray. )

And last, a little dove grey fluffball that is most likely to stay in the kennel when the door is opened (meanwhile it's siblings are hanging on the kennel door and ride it open, after which I have to peel them off to set them on the floor or they'll try to climb over the top) and not really sure about this petting thing but the warm of a lap is pretty ok.

No photos, yet. They're dirty and covered in milk and soft food, and haven't quite mastered the art of cleaning themselves well enough yet, and I want them to get settled in and let their stress levels go down quite a bit before I subject them to a bath, so the most they've gotten is a quick wipe with a wet washcloth. So they're pretty raggedy looking, at the moment. More pathetic than cute. Rest assured though, photos will follow.

This time, at least, it's not my fault that we have orphans. I'm sort of enjoying that part.