Herbs, gourds, kittens and such

I have been outside messing around all day today. Amoy came last night and spent the night and went home this morning to be ready for work tonight. She took lil Abby with her. Dang I miss having the puppy here. After we saw her off this morning I went out and cut some of the herbs to dry. I got the tarragon cut and the sage as well as the rosemary.. I also cut and dried some stinging nettle for a medicinal tea. The tea of stinging nettle is considered a blood purifier and is good for the liver. The others were culinary herbs that we use.
Then I got started cleaning up some of the gourds that we managed to save last year. Some I made dippers out of to use to dip water from the rain barrels for the chickens.

I also had some apple gourds that I cut the tops off of to use for holders for potted plants. Some I cut with a dremel tool and some Jason cut with a hack saw.

They kinda look like they have wood grain. I think I will paint the one little apple gourd red just for kicks.

Our cat, Slinky had her babies today. I was surprised that she had them on the porch in the rubbermaid tote that the cats used to sleep in last winter. She has 5 lil babies 3 are black and 1 is light gray and 1 is striped. It is hard to see in the dark box with the kittens all waded up together.

Just what I need, some other little critter to take care of. But at least she had them here so we can tame them. The white cat that is here has had babies too but we havent seen them and likely wont for a while. She has been here for over a year and still will not let us pet her.

I had some make shift gates up on the porch and deck to keep Luna from tracking mud all over. Rodger got started on the gates today. One is up, and another is in the glue clamps. Two more to go. They work nice and are spring loaded so they will close behind us. So we have all been busy today.
Tomorrow is mowing day if it dont rain tonight. Gosh our yard is getting big. And I will probably have to rake most of it. May try to get my peppers set in the garden tomorrow too. They need it and then I can clean out the greenhouse and get that ready to start fall seedlings. It just never ends. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella