Kittens in the snow and annual winter happenings

Miss Oribel keeps telling us that she wants to go out in the snow again. So we decided to indulge her a bit yesterday . I don't think the girls or I ever expected that she would want to stay out there as long as she did. She can out last three of us on keeping track of her outside as well as fetch.


It would seem that Oribel really thought the Luminaries needed a very close personal inspection.

 

I think she might have been checking to see if anything had gone under the bench while she was up on it. She spent a fair amount of time under this bench in the corner watching the birds and hoping to catch one. She almost made it when one little bird hopped pretty close before noticing that there was a cat on the deck.
It might have looked like she had come over to come back in the house, but she hadn't. As near as I could figure she was just checking in at home-base. Whenever we thought she wanted in and would open the door, off she would go again to explore more stuff and see if there were any more birds to be had.



Apparently Oribel likes the view from the rocking chair as much as I do.

 

Still checking out everything she can. She obviously really didn't care about all the snow that kept falling and covering her all over.

 

We finally had to make her come back in because she kept shivering. I think she decided to take her frustration of being inside out on the bear that lives on the stairs.

 

This the crazy girl trying to get back out outside into the snow. She kept going nuts trying to scratch her way through the door.

 

Yesterday was determined to be the first night of the "Annual Winter Camp Out." The tent was set up and DTY slept out last night. It wasn't very cold, only around 17 above zero: some years this has been done when it is around zero or below when this happens. Normally both DTY and Hubband do the "Winter Camp Out," but Hubband seems to be coming down with a cold. Since he is headed overseas the first week of January, he decided to stay in and is hoping he will be better tonight to participate in this craziness activity.

A little of this, a little of that, and just a little knitting

Friday afternoon Hubband decided that since it was going to be a wonderfully cool night, it would be a great time to set up the tent in out own private campground so Mr. A could camp out (not something he gets to do often in the wilds of Redondo Beach). As it happened, Mr. A was not too sure about this idea as, "I am not much of an outdoors kind of guy." Hubband told him that he would be sleeping out for certain, and that DTY might be as well. When we told him she would be, he said he would think about it. He thought about it for about a minute to a minute and a half, and said, "OK, I'm in!" Later as he was settling into is sleeping bag, I heard him say to DTY, "Isn't this the best? Sleeping out in the wild outdoors!" We might live in the country and have turkeys every day, but the coyotes have been kind of quite for a month or so, but does this count as "the wilds?" Saturday it rained most of the day and we had to bring the sleeping bags in because the tent was leaking a bit. (An aside about the tent-- we haven't used it in several years and DTY put it up a while back prior to going camping with some friends. She said, "It's Gianormous!" I pointed out to her that we bought it when I was seven months pregnant with her and it could fit four people in sleeping bags AND a port-a-crib for a several years. It might have a right to leak, especially since we didn't use a ground cloth the other night.) We were going to sleep outside again Saturday night, as per Mr. A's request, but it kept raining whenever we were going to haul the stuff back out (two and a half inches, I'm not complaining and I don't think the cows or the corn down the street are either). One of the first things he asked about today was weather or not sleeping in the tent was happening tonight.
Earlier in the week DTY had gone for a walk one night and Mr. A had told Hubband and me that he wasn't sure about that walking after dark thing. It seemed pretty scary in the dark since you can't see what is out there or where you are walking. I took him out on the deck and showed him all the stars and he thought that was pretty cool. "At home we only have artificial stars. You know, satellites." Tonight he told me, on his way out into the garage, "I am going with Uncle H to walk the dog," (this is pretty much only done after dark). When he got home he told me, "The walk was interesting. I talked to Uncle H and it wasn't too scary." I asked him if having the scary dog to protect him helped and he said it did. Right, this would be the dog that is afraid of his little sister dog. We do not own scary dogs, but Mr. A did have his Uncle H to protect him (from what none of us are really sure).
So far we have done a little cooking, harvesting in the garden, some reading (he started HP#7 after he got here and finished it the other day), computer and PS2 games. All that AND walking after dark as well as sleeping out in the wilds in a tent!

I have finished the knitting part of the Tornado Scarf and just need to add the flowers to finish it off. There will be a full explanation forthcoming once the flowers are on. I hope it all makes sense then (if not, I will obviously have gone too far out on a limb as it breaks off under me). I am leaving you with a picture of my willing model wearing the partly finished scarf.