This is our sweet tom cat. His name is The Tom Cat. His mother raised him on her own in our Quonset. As a child he was always curious about the family of tame cats that lived on our porch. Every day he and would sneak up to see what they ate and how the other kittens jumped into our laps and purred as we stroked them. He saw them happy and carefree and he smelled the cat food that he never had the courage to come and eat.
Well, he fell in love with a sweet calico porch cat. They are best friends. Eventually they had kittens. He is so nurturing to them. He's unlike any male cat I've ever seen. In this picture hes a little rough because he has had to defend his family from a prowling competitor.
This is interesting thing about him to me. He only eats a certain brand of cat food and only in a tin can. He gets really offended if he is offered raw meat. And he won't eat anything that has spilled, or our leftovers. The other cats love raw meat over cat food and even if they are not hungry they will eat whatever we put out because our food tastes good. I think there is an association in his mind with raw meat and his childhood, which he wants to put behind him. I think he idealized what he didn't have as a child and is living the dream. He is a Tin Can Eating Cat and the father of a loving close-knit family.
And this is my Mom in her happy place. She had a rough day teaching grade three and needed to dig in the soil for a couple of hours.
In the winter when she can't garden she will put in a Jane Austen movie that she knows by heart and sew me or my sisters beautiful clothes. She also bakes pies and cookies and other treats. Last night she dreamed she opened up her own store called Judy's Beautiful Pies in Taber. Why not? then she wouldn't ever have to deal with those little grade three-ers.
This is the vegetable garden which feeds us all year round. Behind that is the pond where we get all our water.
These are our hunting dogs.
This is Chief. One day my Mom wanted a horse and she met up with a guy who wanted his old Morgan horse to go to a good home. So he gave Chief to us and got an apple pie in return.
So that's life at the farm. Come over anytime. We can sit on the trampoline and eat a piece of Mom's homemade pie!
6 comments:
Don't tempt me, Julie...
I was hoping you would say that! You did say that you wanted to settle in Southern Alberta. All I'm saying is you are welcome to spend a fortnight here. Like they do in all the good novels.I do it. I spend a week here and a week there. Life's a party especially in the summer. More of my sisters are coming to stay a week at our parents. You feel like family anyway, and thats how we do it here. Last night we played Rook till late. Do youlike Rook?
lol. Actually, I don't know. I don't remember playing Rook ever. I tend not to be much of a game-playing person. I like to watch. :) There are a couple of games - Phase 10 and another one I've gone blank on right now - that I enjoy playing with people who play by my rules (we don't keep score at all, so the element of competitiveness is taken out. This is very good for me.), but by and large, I watch and enjoy other people playing!
Okay, I would like to play cards with you. I like all the fun without the competition as well. I usually win and I always feel bad for the people who wanted to win, bur they get mad if I let them win as well. I love this poem "I will not play at tug-o-war, I'll only play at hug-a-war. Where everyone hugs instead of tugs and everyone giggles and rolls on the rug and everyone tickles and everyone grins and everyone's happy and everyone WINS!" Shel Silverstein wrote that. I love his poetry even, do you?
I've enjoyed that which I've read, but it hasn't been that much, really, to be fair. I kinda have a lot of other poetry on my plate these days... lol
Oh Julie You have made me home sick for your parents house. How I want to go back again. Maybe at the end of June? Great pictures by the way. Beautiful!
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