Pampered Pets in Peril!

In this week's news, it rained more than it does in 6 months in Seattle, thunderstormed in great, rolling boomingness, Ann mowed more grass than exists in Seattle and can be heard muttering about slopes and ditches, and Caitlin installed two air conditioners that look like shit but work great.
Plus cordless blinds. Oh how I heart cordless blinds! Who knew?!

In addition, the pets proved that they are city-born and raised and are going to have to do a little learnin' to survive around here. (I'm well aware that I will regret that flippancy if anything happens to them.)

So we heard a caterwauling that roused us all from our various spots to find that a local brute whose balls are so big he waddles, had pinned Sailor to the ground without even touching him. Most cat owners know that if you just approach another cat it runs but this one looked at me, like, hey, whaddya doin in my space, I'm beatin up a cat here! (in my account he's from New Jersey).
I got closer and closer and still he just looked at me and I picked up a stick and then all of a sudden thought, geezuz if you're such a communicator, why don't you try that before whacking the shit out of a fellow animal?
So I started talking in my head and out loud saying something to the effect of, go ahead, walk away, nobody will come after you, not even my silly barking dog, and I saw his eyes flinch a little and look away, like cats do when searching for a way out, and I squatted down lower and blinked my eyes slowly and dropped the stick and kept crooning. Then I made the mistake of looking over at Sailor:  his claws were completely gripped into the earth and he was actually shaking. Which prompted, I'm ashamed to say, the impulse to annihilate BigNuts as Ann dubbed him, with my sheer ferocity and will.

But I kept talking and he took a step away and I moved in closer to Sailor in case he got any ideas about chasing and finally BN strolled away, one stiff-legged step at a time, so beautiful and dignified, if waddling. Sailor, unlike any other cat I've know, came right to me and let me pick him up and then curled into my neck as I carried him away from the scene. While I'm glad he's not torn to pieces he's got to learn to at least spray all around the property...
Because I have no pictures of this here is one where Sailor has just eaten most of a squirrel he caught earlier in the week: Note the bulging belly.

Waterline on hair

In a far more serious incident, Bodie the stubborn Chow, who used to be afraid of water, almost drowned in his enthusiasm to get into a deep creek. (I know there are many of you who don't find it fun to hear suspenseful stories that involve animals so I'm telling you up front all is fine.) He has learned that if hot he can get his feet wet, then goes into joyful dancing at the relief. But now that he has a long coat he wants more water so he keeps jumping into shallow creeks, complete with mud, and probably giardia and leeches and slimy things best not discovered. So Ann was walking him, heard the familiar plop of him going in, and then, that tone that every mother fears, a sharp yip of fear. Bodie never expresses anything like that so she rushed to the scene and found him in over his head and trapped behind a kind of under-cut part of the bank and a big root mass. He stared at her with huge eyes and was shaking. She jumped in and turns out the water was up to her neck and she grabbed him but he chose to climb UP her body to the bank.

Which was not the final bank at all so she had to then pick his 53-pound self and lift him up to another bank, then scramble out herself through poison ivy and mucky ickiness and then yes, praise the baby J,  lift him one more time to the final bank. He walked for about five minutes glued to her side but then commenced with pulling on the leash all like, look! A creek! I can jump into it! isn't that cool?

Bodie's launch pad

Ann's electronic keys and wallet took only a few days to dry out...
We have also attended a goat gallop fundraiser,

 
found someone to hay our vast field (even trade), bought more shit at stores than we have in a lifetime, and are loving loving loving life on our little farm that is only a farm cuz it has a barn.

Also, to brag a little about how much unpacking there was and where we are now:

Thanks so much for the cards and phone calls, we are slowly making some acquaintances but miss our friends friends friends!

Love,