- Sunday, 12/22: I made waffles for breakfast. Mary baked cookies. Katie reviewed presents she ordered that got sent to us, then wrapped Christmas presents. I drove to Quincy and bought an air bed from Menards and fresh veggies from Aldi. The air bed took some time, because they had only 1 and it was on the bottom of a shrink-wrapped pallet in the back. Katie wants to do cross stitch, so Mary gave her a pattern book. Katie poured over it and picked out a pattern of a moose. Mary got Katie materials and helped her get started. We watched the Love Actually movie. Katie inflated the new air bed. It's a queen size and 22" high, so it's the height of an actual bed with a frame.
- Monday, 12/23: Our new kitten didn't eat for a couple days, so we decided to take it to a vet. Called the General Veterinary Clinic in Hannibal when they opened at 8 and they said to bring it in immediately. Katie grabbed it after chasing it around the north bedroom a bit. Turns out it's a female, so her name is Mocha. Loaded her into a pet carrier and into the car. Got to the vet clinic at 9:30. The vet was excellent. Mocha weighs 1.8 pounds, so estimated to be 2-3 months old. She got some dewormer. Had flea excrement in her fur, so she also got flea medication. Got an appointment for 2 weeks, to give Mocha another batch of dewormer and initial vaccination shots, if she's eating better by then. I held her for the first time in the vet office. She's very affectionate and purrs like a freight train. Bought gas and Katie a coffee at Hannibal. Back home at noon for our first meal of the day. Mary made blackberry bars, pumpkin pies, and speculaas cookies. Katie worked on her moose cross stitch design. I spent time with Mocha.
- Tuesday, 12/24: Mary made a pistachio torte and put the bed down in the upstairs north bedroom. Mocha immediately decided that was her bed, thank you very much. Bill arrived at about 1 pm. He quietly sneaked into the house and Amber barked at him, then Plato and Amber wiggy-wammed him all around the kitchen. Mary and Katie cleaned up the veggies. Mary and I saw a V of cackling geese. Bill, while laying down on the bed, got to where he could pet Mocha. She really likes him. We all got to petting her. She's very thin, but eating some dry cat food...won't touch the wet food. We played Triopoly and drank a bottle of wine. Katie won the game. We watched A Christmas Carol and got to bed around midnight.
- Wednesday, 12/25: Unwrapped presents after breakfast. Some very thoughtful presents from Katie and Bill. I called Mom after unwrapping presents and Katie and Bill got to talk with her for quite a few minutes. We did a wienie roast outside. Perfect day, with sun and temperatures in the 60s. We saw a couple Vs of snow geese heading west. We watched the movie Tolkien, a very good movie. Mocha is very affectionate (see photo of Bill & Mocha below).
- Thursday, 12/26: I changed the chain on the chainsaw and Mary, Bill and I drove the tractor/trailer to the edge of the woods SW of the house. I cut down a dead red oak tree, but down really isn't the correct word. This tree was thick with branches to the ground, so it stayed upright the entire time I sawed it up into firewood chunks. Had to continually cut off lower branches and drag them out to the field, then cut off chunks of firewood. Katie showed up and helped with loading firewood. Then, Mary and I unloaded firewood into appropriate locations. Had nachos and watched the Katie & Leopold movie. Mary used a syringe to try to get chicken broth into Mocha. She's too thin and not getting nourishment and liquids.
- Friday, 12/27: Called the General Veterinary Clinic in Hannibal to get Mocha in with a 1:45 pm appointment. Mary came this time. We saw Dr. Robert Carson, the principle vet who bought this clinic in 1976. He's very good. Gave Mocha an xray and showed it to us. She's got a lot of blockage in her colon and 1 item that he couldn't identify in her belly. He is keeping her and giving her an enema. Said he'd call with information as he knew more. After getting home, I washed and scraped labels off 12 wine bottles. We watched the first 4 episodes of Long Way Around, a series about Ewan McGregor and his friend taking motorbikes from the UK to New York, via Russia, several other countries, flying to Anchorage, then driving through Canada and across the U.S. It's very interesting.
- Saturday, 12/28: Since I didn't hear from the vet, I called when they opened at 8 am. Dr. Carson answered the phone. He had already given Mocha her 3rd enema since we dropped her off and took an X-ray. She still has 1 blockage left to remove and the unidentifiable item looks like another ball of poop, so he's going to continue to try to get that to pass. Bill & I washed/delabeled 23 wine bottles to give me a total of 35. Then, Bill made pizzas. After eating, Bill & I sanitized bottles and equipment. We racked the pear wine to the brew bucket and added 1 crushed Campden tablet and 2.5 teaspoons of potassium sorbate (stops any remaining yeast from working). Then, we bottled, with Bill filling bottles, Mary holding full bottles upright and me installing corks. Decided that the bottle-filling device I have isn't as good as what Bill has...a bottling bucket with a on/off tap at the bottom of the bucket. Also found it best to have 3 corks soaking in order to better slip them into the bottles. Bottled 27 bottles holding 750 ml, each (see photos below). Was about 5.25 gallons. Now we wait a year for the pear wine to age. We tasted what didn't get bottled. It tastes better than the last time we tried it. Age will probably make it even better. Dr. Carson called around 3 pm. Mocha still was bound up. He was going to continue to do enemas to get Mocha to pass the final material out of her bowels, naturally, but if that doesn't work, he'll have to do surgery. She will be home by Monday, at the earliest, if this all goes naturally. If surgery is involved, it will be several days later before she'll be coming home. We cleaned up the wine bottling stuff and watched the last 3 episodes and extras of Long Way Around.
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| 27 Bottles of Pear Wine |
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| A Bottle of my 2019 Pear Wine |
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