Cats, banana bread, and Facebook

Sometimes having pets is as worrisome as having children.  They're always getting into something dangerous or running off, and we always think the worst, don't we?  Yesterday Blue followed me to the chicken house.  He loves to be there when I turn the chickens loose for a couple of reasons:  He likes to chase them, scaring them half to death; and then he likes to lick up the leavings in their slop pan.

I turn all leftovers... stale bread, unfinished oatmeal, mashed potatoes that have been in the refrigerator too long, sour milk, moldy cream cheese or sour cream, etc. into their favorite treat, which I call slop.  They can't eat hard, raw vegetables, but they do love fresh tomatoes, even half-rotten ones.  Yesterday I received three gallons of milk that was two weeks past the use-by date.  I kept one gallon out on the cold back porch to mix in with the chickens' slop, and put the other two jugs of milk in the freezer to use after the first gallon is gone, pouring a little of the jug of milk out to give it room to expand when it freezes.

Of course, since the slop is a thick liquid, chickens daily leave a layer of nasty-looking, dried slop in the bowl because they can't peck up the very last traces with their pointy beaks.  Blue feels that's his portion.  Yesterday as usual he followed me to the chicken house, chased the chickens when they came out, and went in the coop for his nasty treat.  

I feed Blue and Mama Kitty their wet food at 4:30 PM.  Mama Kitty was waiting at the front door; I called Blue, who never fails to come running from wherever he is because he knows it's time to eat at 4:30.  This time, he didn't come.  I knew better than to worry:  He's a quite intelligent cat, he's lived outside most of the time since I got him as a kitten.  But someone might steal a cat of his style and intelligence.  Or maybe he walked to a neighbor's house who took him for a feral cat and they let him in because he's so gorgeous; if that happened, they'd be sure to keep him.  What if the horses next door stepped on him?  I had that happen to one of Mama Kitty's grown daughters.  I called for him at least every 20 minutes until bedtime, praying for God to watch over him.

I was up at 3 AM this morning, but I waited until I saw the grandson leave for work at five to look for Blue.  I went to the barn calling him, and he came out of the same spot he always appears from in the morning, as though nothing had happened.  I have no idea where he was at his favorite meal-time yesterday, but I'd bet money that he was somewhere he couldn't hear me calling, because he sure likes to eat.  Cliff is on the exercise bike; he just looked out the window and saw Blue coming through the cat with a mouse in his mouth.  All is well.

I am back on Facebook, but with a difference.  First of all, I un-followed everyone.  That keeps me from going down rabbit holes caused by a funny joke or story.  Second, I made a resolution not to post anything on Facebook.  If someone asks a question of me on my timeline, or just wants to talk, I will respond to them.  I think that's going to work for me, but if I go back to my old ways, I'll leave again.  I don't intend for Facebook to distract me from real life again.

I acquired a lot of over-ripe bananas yesterday as well as the sour milk for the chickens.  They are perfect for making banana bread; I decided to make two loaves, one for now and one for the freezer.  I decided to find a different recipe on allrecipes.com and came up with a winner, so I'm going to share it with you.  There's one very odd thing in the recipe:  The lady who submitted the recipe said to slice the bananas instead of mashing them.  Something told me that just wouldn't be right, because who wants to take a bite of banana bread and bite into a soft, slick chunk of cooked banana?  Reading the reviews, most cooks said they went ahead and mashed the bananas.  One woman who did slice them said it was awful that way.  So if you try the recipe, be sure to mash the bananas so that you have one cupful.  Other than that, the recipe makes absolutely the best banana bread I've ever tasted, although it may be a trifle sweet for some folks.  To Cliff and me, it's perfect.  Click HERE for the recipe.  

And the only other thing I have is something I happened to see on Facebook that I wanted to share, but of course I'm not sharing things there any more; that's the reason I am blogging more often.  I save my stories for the blog.  So here's what made me smile this morning.