I live near Cedar Rapids, Iowa and am married to a wonderful guy who puts up with all my crazy ideas. He’s also an amazing pianist. Put together a little Christmas album a while back if you need anything new to listen to. We have 3 wonderful kids, two are in college, one in high school. As they’ve gotten older, it’s allowed me to spend more time with my hobbies and volunteering. We’ve owned cats throughout the years and also taken care of other animals that show up at our place.
Volunteering
As you can tell from all my pet pictures, we love animals. Which is why I not only spend time volunteering with Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids, but usually some part of my cast iron sales goes to this organization.
Helping give animals a new life by giving new life to cast iron.
Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids exists to provide and guide lifesaving advanced medical care for homeless, sick, and injured pets in Iowa. We offer this service to shelters and rescues to reduce euthanasia numbers and restore broken lives.
Just a few of the animals we’ve assisted over the last 17 years…
One of the most tranforming cases I’ve seen since I’ve been apart of Critters is this beautiful cat, Naezy. She could not eat or breath due to the abnormal tumor on her nose and upper lip. After surgeries and radiation to kill the remaining cancer, she is enjoying life to the fullest.
Besides helping at bake sales and other fundraising events, I help each week at a place we call Canland. People drop off their cans and plastic bottles to us (since in Iowa we have a 5 cent fee on alcohol and soda) or we pick up from businesses, and then we sort everything by size into plastic bags to take to the local redemption place. We sort anywhere from 10,000 to 18,000 containers on a given week. Every nickel adds up and goes back towards saving the animals.
If you want to learn more about Critter Crusaders visit https://www.crittercrusaderscr.org/
Our current cat family
Meet KitKat, Atlas, Jinx, and Jasper. Sorry, they’re a little preoccupied to say hi.
Jasper-
been with us since 2013,
loves snuggles,
mealtimes,
and birds to chatter at.
Atlas-
rescued at 3 months old in 2022,
has used up several lives due to his curiousity,
meows when he’s “lost” at the bottom of the stairs,
keeps me company while I do puzzles,
always has to try out the latest cast iron “catsserole” piece,
loves my homegrown catnip.
Jinx-
rescued the same week as Atlas, same age,
allergic to fish,
half the size as Jasper,
always trying to escape the house to eat the grass,
loud motor for a little guy,
bat-boy,
a shadow.
KitKat-
rescued in 2014,
tortie through and through,
lovable yet moody (forever a teenager apparently),
has a slight shoe fetish,
alternates between being Catzilla and the stable barn cat each Christmas.
Best of friends, usually. Both are rescues, gotten when they were 8 weeks old; Jasper was 1 1/2 yrs old when we got KitKat.
Other critters in the neighborhood…
This is Hop-A-Long. He came to us towards the end of 2020. He either fell out of a tree or was in one when it fell during the derecho because he had some damage to his head and always walked around as if his balance was out of whack. He loved coming for his treats and eventually would run up to me when he saw me coming outside. He was around for about 5 months and was a happy distraction after all we had been through in 2020.
Meet Sally, a TNR (trap-n-release) cat, who showed up at our place last winter to hunker down since we had straw under a jut out area on our house. She was skittish but eventually we won her over. She obviously used to be someone’s house cat because she is so lovable and would love to come into our house if we didn’t already have a full house. This winter she’s living it up in her own house with a heated bed.
Hobbies
I love restoring anything especially if I get to spend time outside.
In the project below, our neighbors originally had a deck off the house many years ago. Now it was just a weedy rock area that made it pain to get the mower from the front to the back of the yard. So I dug up 4-6″ of pea gravel/reg rocks, sifted it through my makeshift sifter to save the dirt, hauled in more dirt, rolled it smooth, and applied a grass blanket. I’ve never used the blankets that are like heavy newspaper that deteriorates over time. It worked great in this instance due to being late Fall, partial shade, and constant watering to keep moist.
Bonus info: The cutoff stump in picture with the saw mark halfway through? That was a 125 yr old oak that was damaged during the derecho. Apparently 60 years ago, the tree was gauged by machinery during a house renovation. They didn’t want to lose the tree so concrete was poured into the tree in hopes of giving it stability. It worked and the tree grew around the concrete. Fortunately we knew this and gave the tree cutter notice to watch out. He made the lower cut, found the concrete, and had to go to the current height to cut down the tree. Ironically the tree also grew around the end of the post for the fence that used to separate our yards.
Dug up all the grass and put in a walkway and garden…
What do you do when someone is getting rid of a limestone patio and you can get 3 ton of pavers for so cheap? Find new projects, of course! The project above used a couple of them up but barely dented the pile. With the yard totally changed from lack of trees after the derecho, and needing some new landscape, I decided to make this pathway. Layed out my puzzle pieces, used old bricks to line the area, and then removed it all and dug out all the grass and put in nice dirt. Put in a couple dozen bulbs just as the frost set in. And the next Spring discovered the squirrels had dug up most of the bulbs. Ugh. So added more plants and ground cover to grow between the pavers. The far picture is from the next year. I keep forgetting to take an updated picture.
New image
coming soon
Most of the year we have a puzzle going. About the only time the table comes down is during Christmas since that’s the spot for the tree. There’s always a box on the table so the cat’s have their spot.
We’ve done over 200 puzzles but you tell what our favorite theme is.
Puzzle vs. real life…
Some of my hobbies even overlap, like this stamp puzzle, since I’ve also collected stamps on and off since I was kid.
I also dry catnip to raise money for Critters and have dabbled with quilling.
Christmas Album