Solving the Mysteries!

The last several blogs have been a jumble of make-up posts that are out of chronological order. The past month has been a mixture of happy and sad emotions, including wedding showers, birthdays, upcoming births, and a funeral. When we left the motor home, we packed to be gone for five days; but we were gone for two and a half weeks instead. We thought we were just going to our son's wedding shower, and ended up doing all nighters at the hospital and going to Mark's Father's funeral too. 

So we were happy to make that last turn in the road after the six-hour trip from the panhandle of Oklahoma. We had left the motor home parked safely on Mark's brother's land. Tucked away down a long driveway, and behind a locked gate, there's also a care-taker that checks on things here on a daily basis.

We even have a cement slab with electric and sewer hook-ups here. Only the refrigerator has been running for these past two weeks that we have been gone. As we drove closer we were totally confused by the noise coming from the motor home. Why was our generator running?

We ran to unlock the door and turn off the generator, concerned about the amount of diesel it had used during those two weeks. We had just filled the 100 gallon tank, and this could be a very expensive stop. According to our records, we estimated that the generator had been running for about 60 hours. Now we were faced with a mystery: how and why was that generator started?

While Mark was trying to figure out the answer to that question, Denisa was working on another mystery. She knew that the playhouse was now home to some baby kittens.

Sure enough, inside were six kittens. They were all wrapped around each other into one tight bundle of kitten cuteness.

Denisa was squeezing through the playhouse window, extracting one kitten after another. It was her job to help socialize these kittens while we are staying here at the barn.

She takes her job seriously, spending time with each of the six kittens. In the meantime, she was also working on the second mystery. Of the three female cats on the farm, which kittens belong to which mother cat? At different times, she saw each one of the three females feeding and caring for all of the kittens. She even found all three mothers squeezed into the bed with all six kittens at the same time.

While mulling all the mysteries, we went for a walk around the acreage. All five of the adult cats insisted on giving us a guided tour.

The cattle are almost as tame as the cats--grazing their way toward us as we walked the trails around the pasture.

Well, we never figured out the mystery of the kittens and their mothers. We don't know if two mothers had kittens at about the same time, or if they all belong to one. But the three females seem to be equally taking responsibility for them. 

But we did find an important piece of evidence about the generator. We have always started the generator with the switch inside, on the dash of the motor home. With the motor home locked, we assumed that wasn't the way it was started this time. Mark knew that there was a switch on the outside, directly on the generator itself. We also found this print, in the dust on the top.

It looks like we were visited by a raccoon during our absence. While Mr. Raccoon was investigating under the hood, he must have accidentally stood on the generator switch. We're guessing he was quite startled when that diesel engine roared to life right beneath him. We also found these curious prints on the side of the generator, probably made from a surprised raccoon trying to make a speedy exit.

There's no mystery to knowing that it feels good to be home once again. After a long and difficult trip to the panhandle of Oklahoma, we're happy to be on the road again!