NEWS FROM THE ISLAND

IF A JOB IS WORTH DOING IT IS WORTH DOING PROPERLY

is how the saying goes, but in my case lately, it is more like " If the Job is Worth Doing," then it is Worth Doing - (even badly).

The glasshouse for one reason or another just had the new tomato seedling plonked in, the vegetable garden was left to lie fallow as I anticipated the early drought and planted some salad veges into tubs on the deck instead - and yet it is amazing what did grow and produced.

The cat had her kittens and the new kitten had arrived without me having separate housing for them, like I did years ago when I bred fancy cats -

  and then there is the possum problem out here on the Island and I decided no longer were they and the rats going to strip my pear trees of fruit. When small farming I had quite a superior mains electric fence system in place - this time? See the pic - I got in a small portable solar electric fence unit and rigged it up with what I had  ( I'll get some more standards and decent wire when I go to the Mainland next) and at the same time the rat bait station was loaded up. Why didn't I do it years ago? 100% success within 2 days and I am going to get lots of pears this year.

The point I am making is that if I had waited until the conditions, equipment, preparation, money had been done properly first then I would have lost the fun of getting on and doing it now - even if the results are not perfect.. and as we get older there is the thought of running out of time to achieve something you really want to do on that shiny bucket list.

Somehow we coped and those little time-waster kittens,  Siamese mum  x  Ragdoll dad
are going to be 6 weeks old in a matter of hours: they are using their litter box most of the time now and are eating their special kitten food as they are being slowly weaned. I think it is at 8 weeks they get their first immunisation shot and by then they'll be fully weaned and ready to go into new arms to be cuddled.  Pictures below: again a case of let's grab a photo if we can with the phone - not so clear yet because they move so fast and when I get my friend around to hold them still for me then I'll use the proper camera. Un, deux trois  in order of being born - I can't give any of them a real name because then I'll be tempted to keep it.

Un

Deux

Trois

NEWS FROM THE ISLAND

Tara is being an excellent Mum.

THE KITTENS ARE GROWING. I thought you may like to see them as they seem to be taking up a  lot of my day at the moment, and probably for a while to come. Meg, the older kitten is now 4    months old and her half brothers and sister (same dad ) are four weeks old tomorrow -  and as you'll see below in the video, they were thinking about climbing out of their bed  - so this week it was time to transfer them over to their holding cage. Brie, the dog, and Meg spend a lot of time rough-housing.  Taking photographs of kittens is like taking photographs of fish swimming - nearly impossible  not having a second person to hold them.

Meg - Chocolate Burmese Mum and Bengal Dad

Brie copes with Meg