Sometimes cuteness is completely overwhelming. I scooped this little buddy up and flipped him over on his back, expecting him to protest. Instead, he fell asleep! This is the little guy who would roll over on his back at two weeks old, so he could have his belly scratched. 
Adorable.
This little darling is Coal, Ember’s big brother. He is as rambunctious as she is, but he has a cuddly side, which is awfully endearing.
He isn’t a particularly vocal cat, and at the age of about 2 weeks old, he would roll over on his back to have his fat little belly rubbed. He is still just as roly-poly as can be, his little tummy taut as a drum, and his little round face as perfectly kitten as I’ve ever seen. His crazy uncle, Luna, is what we consider to be “the perfect specimen of a cat.” I would wager you’ve never seen as handsome a cat as Luna. But Coal is going to take after his uncle, we think.
This is Ember, the Kashka-cat’s little girl kitten. She has gotten so big!
Little Ember has a rather spazzy personality. She very passionately dislikes being held and will protest loudly until put down, and she loves to stalk shadows. She and her brother are quite the pair, pitter-pattering all over the Miner’s Cabin, climbing the furniture, wrestling, and tormenting their mother.
Too much cuteness.
Our crazy puppy, Ditsy Trixie, is becoming quite the favorite in our house. After a couple months of on and off disaster, Trixie has settled in and is learning the ropes around here! As a puppy, she has the attention span of a flea and the spazzy energy of a chipmunk, and no matter how worn out she is after an outing she always makes a beeline for the garbage to wreck havoc. But she has actually been learning, and is becoming quite the hiking buddy. I’m so excited. 
This morning while Dad was down in the crawlspace working on our plumbing, Trixie sneaked in and pulled a few stuffed animals out of storage – Stuffed animals that were supposed to be “keepsakes.” Being the generous person that I am, I thought I could pick up a stuffed animal for her from Goodwill when I went in this afternoon. She’d chewed the faces off her couple of stuffed animals, and disemboweled her favorite one, so it seemed right that a new one was in order. 
So I found this hideous blue and yellow stuffed fish – It had plastic eyes, which I thought she might like (she loves to go straight for the face), and lots of appendages to chew on. 
The long and short of it: she loved it. For all five minutes that it survived. Sure enough, she went straight for the face, after whipping it around to break its neck. Within two minutes, she had popped off the little plastic eyes, and about three minute later, we looked out the window and she was surrounded by white stuffing, and meticulously pulling out the rest. She completely gutted the fish. 
It didn’t last long, but it was a nice idea.
Another favorite destination for Black Hills locals is Big Falls, also known as Hippie Hole. We’ve hiked it a number of times from the Foster Gulch trailhead off of Rockerville Road, but Sarah, William, and I decided to try it from the Highway 40 trailhead, and it was well worth it! The trailhead is about halfway between Rockerville Road and Hayward, on the north side of the highway. I would say that it is a more strenuous hike, but given that there is no easy way down to Big Falls, that is somewhat hard to estimate.
The views were beautiful – Sunlight sifted through the pines in the higher elevations of the trail, then through an emerald canopy of deciduous trees as the trail dropped into the canyon. Birch trees and huge granite boulders lined the trail. Splashes of wildflower color sparkled here and there, and there must have been roses earlier this year, since there were rosehips! Little gems of the wildflower world.
We saw a mama and baby mountain goat pair down closer to the creek, and seeing them so close was quite the surprise! We’ve seen them near Big Falls at a distance that nearly required binoculars, but this darling pair was no more than 20 yards away! God has designed His creatures so beautifully. It was amazing to see the little baby scrambling around like a pro with his mama.
It was rather quiet at Big Falls when we went, which was a nice change from the usual. Weekends are not recommended for Big Falls, since that is when the younger, rowdy, bikini-clad, beer-drinking, smoking crowd tends to show up. But there were only a family or two and a young couple there, and it was fun to watch them deliberate and try to get up the courage to jump off the Falls into the pool below. Sarah and William climbed up to a good vantage point for watching the deliberations.
Once again, Trixie came with us for the hike and she loved it – When she is better trained and we can trust her to come when called, we’ll be able to let her swim and run around by the creek. She was great on the trail, though, where the distractions were fewer. She is becoming quite the hiking buddy!
Keep an eye out for garnets along the trail – I read in a book on gemstone hunting that the Big Falls/ Battle Creek canyon area is a great place for garnet hunting, and this proved true. The girls and I are seasoned garnet hunters, and the best garnets we have found have been in the vicinity of Big Falls! Yesterday did not disappoint!
One warning: there is a lot of poison ivy on this trail. Wear protective clothing and wash afterwards! Trixie was very much into the poison ivy, so even she got a bath – She hated it.
In case you were revolted by my previous Motherhood post, maybe you’ll appreciate this one more. Unless, of course, you’re a cat-hater. Then I’m afraid the case is hopeless. But we have new kitties on our little homestead! The Kashka-Cat finally had her kittens, one week ago today, and they are little charmers.
Little Kashka would have had six babies, but this is her first litter and her motherhood awareness is underdeveloped. If my mom hadn’t been there to clean off a couple of kittens’ faces, all six would have suffocated. As it was, only two survived. But they are beautiful.
Other than the first day or so when Kashka was a bit nervous and protective of her precious babies, Kashka has allowed us to handle them a little bit and pet them and marvel at them. They sleep and nurse and squeak like crazy when we stroke their fur or when their mama sits on them. And their skinny little newborn kitten bodies are becoming chubby little kitten bodies – They eat well, just the two of them!
The little calico-looking one is more of a cuddler, always cuddling up against Kashka’s belly. The little black one, though, seems to like to cuddle against Kashka’s back. He’s very active, and one of his little eyes started to open today. They’ll be a handful when they’re no longer blind and helpless!
I could watch them forever.
Song Dog Journal 