Sleepy cats

The lower parts of the cat tree have not been used much, cause the cats were big when I got the tree. But now with the kittens it has changed.

Is that a spider leg?

Oreo likes to hang out from the window of the little room at the bottom of the tree.

Welcome to my shop. Can I help you?

When they are not in there, I rest my feet on the tree and they come and sleep in my lap.

Beautiful Minion. Dreamy eyes

Deep sleep...

...I can get real close to Leo without waking him up

Don't forget the garden

Of course I have been super busy talking about the cats and stuff but I haven't been ignoring the garden. I keep fighting the weeds, and now all the seedlings have been planted out. Now I just look forward to the first real harvest. Lets see how much the bugs destroy.
The lady owner of the "orchard" next to my garden, the one that rarely gets maintained was there cutting weeds with a gas driven grass cutter. At least once or twice a year this is done, which means absolutely nothing towards destroying the weeds.
Anyway, I went and talked a bit with her, still not asking if she wants to sell. Instead I gave her four eggs which were laid that morning. She was very impressed and gave me a big bag of ume in return. And said I could go into her garden and pick fruits any time because otherwise they will be wasted.   

So much ume. I boiled them in syrup. Yummy

The snap beans are getting big now. Every time I walk by it I crush a couple of hundred aphids with my hands. It's fun.

Even if it all fails, the soil will have been improved for the next season

Out of the 10 salads I planted only 2 or 3 survived. They are so fragile so I think just a heavy rain might have ripped them apart.

But the mini leafs are doing fine, except for a few bug bite marks

And here are a couple of pictures from the whole garden. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, corn, etc. etc.

tomatoes are hidden behind the snap beans

with the pond and tomatoes visible  

And here is the backyard. Kabocha and melons...

Nice and sunny for things to grow in. But the soil is still very much clay

Love cats

Tora is gradually getting used to having the kittens around. He doesn't hiss at them as soon as he sees them. Only when Oreo stalks him and bites his tail (which is pretty much all the time when Tora is around). Once yesterday Tora got mad and cat-punched towards Leo but missed. Leo is really looking for trouble.
Minion is a different story. Tora knows it too. With Mini, Tora is calm, and the other day even tried to lick him. Maybe because Mini is not constantly chasing Tora like a toy.
Yesterday when Tora was downstairs and actually spending time for the first time in a while, and seemed relaxed, I dared to bring Mini closer to him for a photo shoot.
First off, for size comparison.

Here Mini actually walked up to Tora by himself, no help from me

Next, a size comparison but with added charm in shape of a tiny tongue.

Nya!

Next, an hour later when Tora was chilling on the sofa I brought Mini present to him.

Sniff at the angel

We are both real cute.

And then for some serious kissing

No comments

I took like a thousand pictures but just couldn't decide which one to put up so I put up as few as possible.

No, this picture is not identical to the other one

OK, no more. I promise.

Even Tora got bored and walked away.

At least they are friends now

Frog development

The rain has now filled the pond to the brim. The pond is not only full with water but also contains lots of life (and death. So many bugs fall in there and can't get out)
As for the frogs, they are developing slowly but surely. I saw a shadow of a thing with not only legs but also arms...

Can you spot it? Near the rim in the center.

The picture I took was a bit unclear though so I looked around to find a better specimen. And lo, I found one. This one was fully changed.

And it found the perfect place to rest near the frog logo.

It was so tiny and so cute. In the following days I spotted more and more of these, but so far only one fully developed frog. And that frog is either hiding very well in one of the hiding places I prepared, or is eaten or trampled on.

This one looks a bit like an alien

Almost a frog

Except for frogs and various larvae (mosquitoes mostly unfortunately), I spotted some water snails.

Wonder how they got there...

And the usual couple of shrimp looking things running around.

shrimp or larvae? Not sure...

And here is one last zoom with various living things in it. My little pond is a miniature ecosystem.

It is hot in the sun but the water is cool

Sunbathing on 2nd floor

The kittens run around and chase each other all the time, so when it gets quite and they are not sleeping on the sofa I get nervous and wonder what is wrong.
So this time when it got silent I got up and looked around the house for them. Turns out they were sunbathing in the bedroom. I brought them a cup of water so they don't dehydrate. And of course took a couple of pictures.

A couple of cute kittens

A couple of cute kittens and an even cuter tongue

Prototype

Last weekend I paid a visit to my forest plot again. The plot next to it which was clean and grassy apparently hasn't gotten rid of the bamboo roots. A couple of bamboos have started shooting up in that plot. The family owning it comes by several times a year and all family members help and maintain it. I don't think I can achieve a bamboo-free plot on my own.

Left edge: my plot. The rest: neighbor grass field. See the lone bamboos?

I have started to think about what can be made from all the bamboo I have... Things that I can make and get better at making, and maybe end up selling.
So far I came up with these that can be more or less realistic: Cup, wind chime, bird feeder, planter, flute, towel hanger etc.
I decided to make a prototype flute just to see. So I picked a couple of bamboos with me home from the forest plot. My plan is to make both a normal flute and a japanese shakuhachi.

bunch of young bamboos

Hopefully by making these I will learn a couple of things. I start with the shakuhachi. The bamboos are not cured cause I figured it would be easier to work with. But maybe I am proven wrong along the way.

Cleaning the bamboo with Tora-chan helping me

Shakuhachi needs to be made from root end of bamboo for some reason. And it needs to be a certain diameter so it is really not easy finding a proper piece. I was super lucky to even find this one in my whole forest plot. Will have to be careful not to break it. I cleaned up the root and cut it a bit to size, and this is what I ended up with. I have to add that I have no idea how to play the instrument, so I probably will not notice if I mess it up.

Looks a bit like a leek

I made a hole through the nodes as well. This is as far as I got in the weekend cause I kept taking breaks to play with the kittens.
To be continued. 

Mini & Leo

 They do everything together. Eventually Leo might wander off chasing a toy or something but as soon as they get separated Mini starts calling his brother and they get reunited. That is of course if Leo is not too busy harassing Tora and ignores his brother. Sometimes Mini hides somewhere and Leo calls out when he cannot find his brother. Either way, both kittens have such sad and heart breaking call that I can't take it more than a few seconds, and have to rush and get them together.
I have to stop babying them but they are babies.

They even go to toilet together

They are both so cute but for some reason they keep biting each other's faces (I mean really bite down with their tiny razor sharp teeth that easily put holes in my fingers) I know cats got tough skin but right now their faces is 70% wide open eyes, and especially Mini has still slow reflexes, sometimes I catch them with half their brother's face inside their mouth, and the brother being eaten still has its eyes open... Scary.

Oreo. This is what a normal kitten looks like.

Minion. This is what a batman kitten looks like.

After his last escape attempt, Tora started limping with his right leg. I have completely sealed off the escape area now. I thought he would understand to avoid the area with sharp thorns and sticks but apparently not. So now that area is all netted in and no chance of him to get in and hurt himself. The doctor looked at his paws and said there are a coupe of wounds but those are normal and don't cause limping, and should cure soon. Just to be sure she gave Tora an anti-infection shot. For the limping she took X-rays of Tora's legs and said that he has arthritis... God damn it, he is only 11 but I guess it must be his poor diet. He is not given raw food, only special dry food for his age from Royal Canin in lack of better alternatives. I know dry food is pretty much more or less same shit, no matter how many doctors in lab coats they put on the box, but what else am I to give the cats?
Anyway, I was told to start giving supplements to him daily, and if he is in pain (which he seems to be all the time judging from his limping) to give him a painkiller. I should only give pain killer 3 days in a row maximum, so I try to avoid it.

I hate the uncomfortable position they put him in for the X-ray

When taking the X-rays I did not get to go with him so he was suddenly separated from me, in an unknown place and full of stress, and suddenly they bend and put him in all sorts of positions and hold him still. Poor guy must have been terrified. I could hear him call me and scream from the X-ray room but couldn't do anything. After 10 minutes I got angry and asked them what the heck they were doing back there, and if it is so difficult to keep him still I could do it easily. They said he was moving about a lot so the X-rays were getting blurry. Thanks doctor for the torture.

His joints are supposed to be round but they are pointy, hence arthritis

He spends most of his time sleeping in his new comfortable house, I have put his food and water near him so he doesn't have to climb the stairs too much. The kittens are too busy downstairs so they don't bother him much. If they do he hisses and drives them away. For toilet he still has to come down so he gets a little exercise. Of course all this doesn't matter if I let him out into the garden. Limp or not, pain or not, he gets up and walks out and explores the garden. He loves it that much. If he has too much pain, he just sits and checks the surroundings. If not much pain he walks around a lot.
The other day he actually sniffed the kittens without hissing, so I guess he was in a good mood. Plus he spent 15 minutes watching them from above the sofa as they ran around chasing each other on the floor. Good entertainment, huh?