Taco Pizza, Chicken Breakfast, Toasty Cat and more

Remember, yesterday I mentioned my black cat Thomas who was injured but we weren't exactly sure how it happened.  Well, he is still moving slowly but has been up and down the stairs at least once today.  He loves his heater...we call it his fireplace.  He would lay with his feet underneath it and we would go move him and tell him he will spontaneously combust if he isn't careful. 

I have figured out a way to keep him from being so close to it, although we joked about putting a fence around it.....jars work just fine too.

I sure hope he has 8 lives left in him....he is a good kitty.

Supper last night.  We had not had homemade pizza for a few weeks and with our schedules I thought a cheese pizza would be good to have and enjoy the leftovers for our lunches today.  The more I thought about it, I remembered that I had some homemade salsa and chicken taco meat left over from nachos so I created our own taco pizza.  It was so good.  I used just the salsa as the base and added chopped onions, banana and jalapeno peppers with the chicken taco meat and both shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese.  It was a very tasty treat for a late supper.

And of course, old man winter is still hanging around but at least it wasn't as cold today as it was yesterday.  It was a real heatwave when I went out to feed the chickens this morning, a whopping 14 degrees.  When it is this cold outside, I try to make the girls a hot breakfast.  Today they got oatmeal with yogurt, stale buns and roasted sunflower seeds.  They love a good special treat such as this.

I have been trying to whittle down my fiber stash, listing lots of it in my Etsy Store...but so much fiber still.  Yesterday I washed almost 8 ounces of brown fiber from our girl Boots...it is now all dry and ready to card and blend into some beautiful spinning fiber. 

And this morning, I started cleaning some beautiful Light Fawn(looks white to me) fiber from our boy Fusion.  It has been a busy day today with phone calls, company and laundry so it won't get washed today but maybe it will get to soak overnight.  

That is it for today.

Hope it has been as good for you as it was here on the farm.

-2 Degrees.....brrrr!

Yes, we got our snow.  It is pretty but dang it is cold.  -2 this morning when I went out to take the chickens some HOT oatmeal laced with sunflower seeds, scratch, and some regular feed.  I then took the dogs out to do their business and they sure didn't want to stay long enough to get that finished either...hopefully, it will warm up a little bit today and then we will go try it again.  I am quite sure they will let me know when it is time...usually about the time I warm up again. 

So, what will I do today since it is too cold to be outside?  I started off my day in the fiber room skirting some alpaca fiber, 7.8 ounces.  Next, it will get soaked/washed and then I'll set it out to dry and that will also get some needed humidity back in the house.  And while that is drying, I will find a knitting project to work on while sitting with my dogs and one of our house cats, Thomas who hasn't been feeling very well...not exactly sure why.  He loves to lay with his feet under the heater and as close as he can be to it.  One night over the weekend I observed him acting weird but then realized that his claw was stuck in the carpet.  He always comes to bed with me and snuggles as close as he can get to me, with covers on.  He has quit doing that, although one night he struggled to get onto the bed, I am a light sleeper so I could hear the struggle but when he arrived by my side I loved on him and kept him warm.  He is a little furnace.  Anyway, we feel that maybe the dog got a little bit too rambunctious with him and has hurt him somehow...or maybe he plowed into something in his rampage thru the house one time.  So, I will sit with him and help him to feel better.  He is still in the basement in the same spot on the couch as I left him last night.  He has been coming upstairs on his own but not today. 

Morning Frost on the gate.

Poor Thomas.......

Morning sun poking thru the woods...

Today the pond is all white, yesterday the water was not frozen yet.

Smokey, sleeping in the cat basket that I fixed for Thomas yesterday. Smokey and Thomas are siblings and are about 3 1/2 years old.  Smokey was our barn cat but once we sold our alpacas, she was all alone except for the parties she would throw each night when stray cats, skunks, and raccoons came to visit her.  About November, we decided that she needed to come inside and she has adjusted very well to her new warm environment.

This is 7.8 ounces of alpaca, ready for the sink for its wash and soak.  Perhaps tomorrow it will be dry enough to card into something beautiful to spin.