My husband is a talented artist.  Most people know him as a wedding and event photographer, few realize he graduated with an art degree from The University at Albany and has some crazy drawing skills.  He likes to doodle mostly in his spare time, especially when he travels for work.  Click here if you want to see his latest post featuring illustrations from the last couple years!

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Turkeyless Day 2016

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love the smells, the decor, the family and friends, and the weather.  Yesterday's forecast suited my taste well.  It rained pretty much all day long.  Nothing like watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while drinking coffee, snuggling with the "kids" and listening to the rain come down.

This is our second Thanksgiving cooking completely vegan, and we are getting pretty great at it!  We made homemade cranberry sauce, cauliflower stuffing, cauliflower mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, brussel sprouts, pumpkin pie, and a turkeyless turkey!  My love for animals extends past cats and dogs, and I just didn't want to be responsible for a turkey's life. 

I love making things from scratch so my favorite thing to prepare was the pumpkin pie!  Who knew that homemade pie crust was just flour, water, and salt!?  Not me!  We had a leftover pumpkin from Halloween so I even made my own pumpkin puree.  It's the simple things that really make me happy!  The "turkey" was fun to make as well, especially since we made the loaf into the shape of a turkey.  GOBBLE GOBBLE!

There are so many things to be thankful for.  I'm thankful for my "Partner in Farm", my family, my job, all of my furry and feathery kids, and lots of vegan websites that helped us prepare this cruelty free feast!  Happy Holidays!!

   

Pearl the Pocket Persian

What the...!?

I work with cats.  Lots of cats.  I have worked with cats 5 days a week for the past 4 years...but I love coming home to MY cats!  They are the best.  They truly are.


Every day when I come home from work and open the front door, Pearl is right there.  Cam says that around 4:30pm she gets up from her nap and waits for me.  You would think I would be sick of cats, but when I walk in and see her I can't help but squeal "She's so cute!"!




I'm glad we gave Pearl a "second chance".  It's hard to say what her life was like before us, but when we first got her she would eat like there was no tomorrow and pretty much just do her own thing.  Even though it blows my mind, I think she was living on the streets hustling for food.  She liked us, but she preferred her independence.  At bedtime Slim and Stan would snuggle under the covers, and Blue would assume his spot on the pillow by my head, but Pearl would be nowhere to be found.  We wanted to make a mock video of Kurt Cobain's song "Where did you sleep last night" because we could never find her.  Now she enjoys being a part of the family and even started sleeping with us at the foot of the bed. Occasionally she'll cozy up under the covers!

Pearl's a great cat!  She's a typical persian who's easy going and aloof, but she's so much fun!  She tolerates her weekly tubby time, is a trooper about being dressed up in clothes, and even takes bike rides with us to grab a pint at the bar.  Pearl don't care! She needs help eating, needs help grooming (thanks Blue!), and doesn't cover her poop but we love her.  She's the perfect addition to our weird little clan and I'm impressed with how well they all get along.   It was hard at first (see earlier ringworm post), but she was worth it.  She is worth  it.  All creatures deserve the chance to be pampered and loved, and in return they make us SMILE and realize that even though we weren't the ones rescued, we are the lucky ones.

P.S.  Pearl has an instagram account.  You should follow her at pearl_the_pocket_persian  She's not a professional photographer but her dad is...so sometimes you get a decent picture!

pretty girl

Size Comparison!!!

Pearl don't care.

cleaned up and purrrty

Chillin' at the bar

Tubby Time

Where to next?

Dirty Girl Pearl

Gained a pound since we adopted her!

Soldier in her pocket!

Trimming down!

TBT to when we first brought her home.  Ringworm and all..

Timehop...what's next!>

All packed up and ready to head north!

There's an app that I have on my iPhone called "Timehop" that pulls up things you've posted  for each day from past years.  It's great!  When November 1st came around a few days ago, the app started pulling pictures from 2011 when we left our home in Vegas and moved to Portland...FIVE years ago!  

So many wonderful things came from our move to the Pacific Northwest and it got me thinking..

                "Where will we be 5 years from now?"

              "Where will we be next year, next month?"

Portland is awesome.  We love the people, the lifestyle, the weather!  It's taught us a lot and has made us excited to take Smith Farm to the next level!  

              

             

    But now what do we do?  

                                                     

Co-Pilots

Arrival in PDX

Where to next.....?

Stay tuned!      Things are a brewin'!

Spring Ahead!

If you know me then you know that I'm a fan of the rainy weather.  I mean, who doesn't love a cloudy day?!

Portland makes me happy because just when I'm starting to get in that winter funk (which takes a while!) spring starts hinting that it's just around the corner!

Days are getting longer, flowers are blossoming, the chickens are laying eggs again, and the sun starts peeking out from behind the clouds.  I tend to get started on garden stuff a little too soon because I just can't wait to get things growing!  

Bring on the garden!

The Fungus Amongus

Last Saturday when I got home from work and took off my clothes, I found a perfectly circular scaly red patch on my arm and thought "Oh no, RINGWORM"!  It's not unusual in my line of work to find it ever so often but it's never fun.  Since we were fostering Pearl I was especially worrisome because persian cats are more prone to the fungus.  The next day I did a butt load of laundry, deep cleaned the house, took the dogs for a walk and sat down on the couch and saw the back of Pearls head...and her two patches of circular hairloss on her ears.  It must of literally fell out while we were on our walk!

The following day I brought Pearl in to be looked at by a vet, and after they gowned up they turned off the lights and checked her with a woodslamp.  Pretty much her whole body fluoresced which equals ringworm.  Luckily we have a really nice Rinworm quarantine at my job where we successfully treat it.  I cried a little, gave her a sulfur lyme dip bath then went home to enjoy the rest of my day off (and by that I mean deep cleaning and doing loads of laundry again!).

The very next day was great!  We went and saw a Blazers game with my pops, and they won!  Got home to crawl into bed for my 6am shift the following day and when I went to give Stan a belly rub there it was.  Yup, you guessed it...ringworm :(  I freaked out, I cried, then I brought Stan to bed. 

I took a personal day off on Thursday to go to the vet  for antifungal meds and my own Lime Sulfer dip and the vet counted 9 ringworm lesions on Stan.  Poor Stan the Man looked so itchy and uncomfortable.  When I got home all 3 of the kids got a medicated bath leaving the house smelling like rotten eggs.  I put anything made of fabric (blankets, beds, rugs, curtains, dog toys) into a garbage bag and brought 8 loads to the laundromat to make certain everything got washed in hot water.  I deep cleaned the house (again) but this time had a lint roller, swiffers, and bleach to try and get every single ringworm spore either gone or killed!  Lots of work!.  Since I can't quarantine Stan (we tried), he's basically quarantined in the tiled floor living room.  He gets meds every day for 2 weeks, and Blue and Slim get bathes twice a week at the same time Stan gets them.  Every blanket that they touch is washed every day, and the Swiffer has become our daily friend. 

Tomorrow will be 1 week full week of treatment, and we're already starting to see improvement in Stan.  His lesions appear to be drying up, and even though it's a lot of work the daily cleaning rituals are becoming routine!  I come in contact with ringworm a LOT, but this strain that Pearl has is something else!  Not only do me, Pearl and Stan have it but my coworker got it at the same time as I did, and brought it home to her dog! 

Pearl the Persian should be renamed Pearl the Ringworm Spore!

Wish us a speedy recovery and a ringworm free home!!