Snake....in my kitchen

It's a really good thing I don't have issues with snakes.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into my kitchen yesterday afternoon and this caught my eye...:

Coming out from between my kitchen cupboard and baseboard:

At first, being the mom of two boys, I thought someone was playing a joke on me:

But I was home alone. Yet here was a snake slithering across my kitchen floor:

He had no problem with me taking my fill of pictures - he just lay there, occasionally flicking his tongue at me. Here he is giving me a slight smile:

But then it was time to go outside. Seriously. My kitchen ain't big enough for the two of us:

He was quite heavy but very docile:

I definitely would not have been so calm doing all this all by myself had I not already researched this guy when we found him last week curled up in the ivy outside...:

Er, uh, well, what I *thought* was him last week. Do you see two snakes in this picture?:

Wow, last year we didn't see any of these and now we've got two. My google queries tells me they are rubber boas, common to Oregon and Washington, and are completely harmless. They are commonly used to help people who have a fear of snakes to overcome that fear, because under no circumstances will this snake bite a human. They eat small rodents which makes me very happy, given the damage those little buggers have been causing around here. Supposedly rubber boas are nocturnal, but this has clearly not been my experience:

The one we found last week is still here, hanging out in the ivy. He looks even bigger than the guy I found today:

Anyway, as much fun as kitchen snake and I were having together, it was time for us to part ways:

He didn't even look back:

Hopefully, he'll prefer it here to my kitchen.

The cough

So, maybe you are wondering how Pete the baby goat's cough is doing?

About a week and a half ago, both goat boys received a 3 day course of antibiotics during which time Pete's cough lessened somewhat. Unfortunately, it returned with a vengeance this last weekend. Another call to my small town vet was in order and, this time, we decided that a worming medicine appropriate for the treatment of lung worm would be in order. Goats naturally get worms, a number of different kinds, and need to be regularly de-wormed to keep them healthy:

While my property is neither low-lying, nor does it have the standing water that frequently accompanies this particular diagnosis, the nagging cough that is brought on by activities such as jumping, running, etc., makes it a strong possibility.

You can imagine how happy I was that the treatment didn't include a needle this time. It's a squirt-in-the-mouth type of application:

My son, Aidan, vet assistant for the day, promised the boys each a cookie if they took their medicine without fuss:

Reggie, appreciating anything that goes into his mouth, had no problem going first:

Pete took his medicine like a big boy, too, and even asked me for a bit more:

Pete then climbed onto Aidan's lap and promptly had a coughing fit. Since his mouth was already open from the coughing, he also took the opportunity to yawn. You can tell here that Aidan wasn't quite sure what was coming next:

Reggie thought the whole display was just ridiculous:

Ultimately, both boys were unanimously unimpressed by the whole thing. Pete quickly went to his bench to take a rest:

And after a minute, Reggie climbed on, too. It was nap time:

We'll worm them again today and tomorrow and hope this finally addresses Pete's cough.

Cakes of Love

Cool title, huh?

Are you wondering what this post will be about?
Well, it's about cakes. Made with love.

I don't profess to be a baker - and I'm most certainly not an artist. However, I like to make creative birthday cakes. They don't always turn out like the images I have envisioned in my mind, but I've learned to live with this and, instead, try to enjoy the creative outlet it provides for me.

For many years, every time one of my kids had a birthday, I would order a themed birthday cake from the specialty bakery in town. They were always very lovely cakes, quite yummy tasting, but also very formulaic. No style, really. Too perfect.

Then Aidan, my youngest son, told me that his biggest wish for his birthday one year (I think he was five) was for a homemade birthday cake. Guilt feelings from the working mom ensued and I immediately agreed that this was what he would have.

"What kind of birthday cake would you like me to make you, Aidan?" I asked. "A wedding-cake birthday cake, momma", he replied. Wow. Really? I wish I could find the picture of what I wound up making for him, but since I can't, let me just say that my memory tells me it turned out quite well. It was a two-tiered wedding cake that had the second tier resting on pillars. The lower level had a dirt bike scene recreated on it and the top tier was a skiing scene. I used props. PlayMobil was my best friend.

And so, with this one request, a new family tradition was born. Each birthday thereafter, both my boys would try to outdo the other with their request for their homemade birthday cake. They would try to think of the kookiest thing imaginable and thought it was hilarious to try to stump their mom. Here are a few examples from the years:

It's hard to tell in this photo, but this is Piglet and some lizard and snake pals playing soccer on top of this cake for Aidan:

Teagan asked for the "dinosaurs playing football on a volcano with a river running down the side" cake for his 15th birthday:

Here is the life-size electric guitar cake I made for my oldest son, Teagan's, 16th birthday (I was so tired by the end of this one, that the white guitar strings are more than a bit crooked):

This was the "purple monster with wings and sharp teeth cake" Aidan requested for his 14th birthday:

Aidan requested a "half rhinoceros, half alligator cake" for when he turned 15 and this is what he got. If I recall correctly, he was rather unimpressed but I thought I pulled his request off quite nicely:

I can't remember what the specific request was here, but obviously it had something to do with aliens fighting each other. Teagan has always liked aliens. I made the cupcakes individual spaceships:

I really have no excuse for this next one. I must've been really tired and did not receive my "instructions" in time:

My apologies for this next one. This was the "severed zombie head" cake:

It was, afterall, Teagan's 18th birthday. I pulled out all the stops:

He was surprised that I actually pulled it off:

So, when my sister asked me about three weeks ago to make a cake for her son, my nephew Andrew's, 10th birthday, how could I say no? Andrew wants a snake cake.

My creative juices began to flow.
First, I baked three chocolate bundt cakes. Andrew loves chocolate:

I covered a long piece of plywood with foil so my finished product would have something big to lie on for transport. Then, I looked up pictures of snakes online. I'm ready:

This is always the nerve wracking part: making the cuts and piecing things together:

Aidan assisted by preparing the frosting. We were trying to get a portion of the frosting red, like blood, for the inside of the snake:

Sadly, we got mauve instead. This will just have to do:

Aidan's next assignment was to grind cookies into "dirt" for around the base of the cake. He's such a great assistant:

The crucial moment: attaching the head:

Once I was finished, we moved him downstairs to my basement pantry where it's only 61 degrees. This will help his frosting harden a bit until tomorrow:

If I were to straighten him out, he would measure almost 54"...that's 4' 4" long:

I used those candies called "runts" for the teeth. Mmmm...banana flavored! Aidan cut a tongue out of "fruit by the foot". Everything's edible on this guy:

The tradition continues. I hope Andrew's as pleased with his snake cake as I was to make it for him!

A trip to the vet

My Nigerian Dwarf goat, Pete, has a cough. It's not debilitating, but it's a nagging one. It's concerning because he's had the cough for almost as long as I've had him, which is six weeks now. That's a long time to have a cough.

After consulting with my local vet on the phone a few weeks ago and giving an antibiotic shot of Tetradure to both Pete and Reggie, Pete's cough still has not gone away.

Activity seems to aggravate it. When he jumps down from things, runs down a hill or I give him a good pat on the side of his chest, he makes this croupy sounding, hacking cough. Definitely time for a vet visit. Chronic pneumonia can be a slow killer. It creates abscesses in the lungs and is very resistant to antibiotic treatment. I decided to take my other goat, Reggie, along, to the vet, too, for comparison purposes. Reggie is four days younger than Pete, but is significantly larger (fatter) and more robust than Pete.

Knowing how much I hate going to the doctor, my friend Marcee, a.k.a. frugalmom, flew in from Illinois to help me:

Not really. I mean, she did help, but she was already here and I was glad. Getting two teenage goats into a carrier, out of a carrier and into an unfamiliar place is quite a task:

Once inside, though, Pete was quick to investigate his surroundings. The reading material immediately caught his eye:

Reggie was a bit shyer. But, after a quick kiss from Marcee for luck:

Reggie set off to explore, too:

Everything needed a sniffing:

Then Reggie decided to piddle on the waiting room floor:

No problem. The barefoot vet assistant cheerfully cleaned it right up:

The vet listened to Pete's heart and lungs. He (Pete) was such a good boy:

The diagnosis: not chronic pneumonia. This is a very good thing. Pete does, however, have some lung congestion. Reggie, who also received a "once over" from the vet sounds a bit "nasally":

The vet felt that a course of a different antibiotic was in order. The treatment: 1 cc of Baytril every other day for the next three days:

When we got back outside, the sun was shining:

It was a successful first trip to the vet. Pete and Reggie made some new friends and I feel better knowing that Pete doesn't have anything chronic:

I wonder if these boys will learn to love the car as much as Roxy:

Roxy doesn't think so: