Sunshineboy, that is an adorable picture! 4 adult cats napping so close together like that is quite the sight. WG, that is very exciting. I don't have much advice to add, and I hope your cats adjust well to their new home (once they get there). Three outdoor males - those voles aren't going to stand a chance! :) I am a cat lover and owner for 20-odd years, and have 2 spayed, vaccinated females, both rescued as kittens. One is strictly indoors, the other has limited outdoor privileges. SHe usually goes outside for a few hours a day in nice weather, but is a "fair-weather" cat so she rarely goes out in the winter. She is a good huntress and eats most of what she catches, so I worm her every fall when her hunting activities wind down. Not sure if I should be doing it more frequently?? Somewhere I read that male cats wander in much larger territories than female cats, which tend to stay closer to home. This would hold true in my experience. My little female rarely wanders beyond the boundaries of the property, but I had a male for 19 years who was obsessed with prowling the neighborhood, even on the coldest winter nights (and managed to beat the odds and live a long life despite his outdoor activities). I must confess I worried SICK about that cat for over 18 years, but he died of old age on the kitchen floor. Cars and dogs/coyotes are amongst their greatest outdoor hazards. Hopefully your cats will have some street smarts! Are your new cats going to live in the barn? They will probably need an adjustment period in the barn to get used to their new home. How will they get in and out of the barn? My sister has 3 large Coon brothers who are indoor/outdoor and she has a cat door in her garage and they go in and out of the house at their choosing.

so, lead. it is toxic and we all know it is toxic and has long-term effects. there is no arguing about that. the most typical pathway is ingestion. generally, i am relatively unconcerned about adults living in a house with lead paint. adults don't eat off the floor or chew windowsills. they do, perhaps, pick up some object off the floor and then eat without washing their hands first. also, if there is a garden close to your house, where chips would fall in it. but, adults are big and developed and this amount of exposure typically isn't such a big deal. Science has shown us that low-levels of lead exposure in pregnant women that wouldn't be a big deal otherwise can cause some neurological defects. Nothing obvious like a third arm, but something less obvious like a learning problem later in life. Or maybe the IQ is 125 instead of 130. But, as adults, if we are aware of a potential risk we can avoid that risk. A pregnant woman living in a house with lead paint chips or lead paint on contact surfaces (door jambs, etc) should wash her hands frequently, particularly before eating. Vacuum more frequently than usual and frequently vacuum around window sills and doors. If you exercise some caution, I don't see any reason to replace the windows and trim because you have a pregnant person in the house. But by the time that baby becomes mobile, you do want to make sure that the lead issue has been taken care of. How you do this is up to you. You can have the windows replaced by a reputable contractor that follows lead-safe practices (this basically means they use a bunch of plastic sheeting) or you can start with the worst offenders and fix them yourself. If you do this, you want to make sure your work area is isolated and that you aren't making things worse by tracking paint chips and lead dust around. I'm really not going to get into how to do the work yourself, but focus on the doors and windows you use the most.

We do have full custody she has vistation but "her boss says" she has to work so she can't pick them up today betwen her boss and the judge she can't be a mom Yes this is what the kids say. They will get ready for her to pick them up and she'll call "stuck at work" can't pick them up we have a court order as to visitation and support she completely ignores it and does what she wants when she wants. Blames the boss and judge its the judges fault she has to have a boss and its daddys fault the judge made her get another job. See the cycle... everyone else's fault but hers. Each time we go back to court it costs us over $1000 and we still don't get any help. He tells her you are going to end up in jail... her response "I'll go to jail before I pay you anything" and "will you bring the kids to visit me in jail?" yes she has told the kids daddy and the judge are going to put me in jail. They don't get to visit with mom they take a guilt trip and we have to deal with the meltdowns. We cannot say mommy is hurt or angry the 11 yr old says we "pick on mommy" and "talk about her" when we say anything about mom that so we can't. He feels he has to defend mommy because she is the victim because its 2 against 1. Dad told her until you pay your support and bills you are going to equally provide meals for them if its your day you feed them. She makes twice the money he does. She wanted the 5:30 pick up time. Mcdonalds is open 24 hours a day she can feed them anytime she wants. They stuff themselves and their backpacks with food/snacks when going to moms she doesn't have anything in her house they only have fast food with her. The 7 yr old had a meltdown over not having dessert ( I usually bake something or we have fruit but I didn't bake anything that day) ... Do you have dessert at mommy's? (this would be a comment the 11yr old thinks we are picking on mommy about) No it costs too much at mcdonalds... then don't expect it here she now knows dessert is a treat not an everyday event ... even though we have something just about everyday.

ugh. sounds like somebody in management needs to exert a little control over this junior-high-level "socializing" & greed-monster gift-grab. I do feel like the mothers sometimes are left out; many years ago, before it ceased to raise eyebrows, my dear cousin *got pregnant*!!!!! She & her boyfriend had both just graduated from high school, so neither one of them had a job, or benefits, or money. or anything. but they were happy about the baby, & they got married & are still married today. He joined the military & got shipped off to...somewhere...& she stayed with her parents. At that time, I had a whole bunch of aunts, & they all got together & threw a baby shower for their niece, & it was loads of fun. I was a little younger than my cousin, but I did have an income (I had a paper route!), so I was excited to get to choose & buy a baby gift & attend the shower like any other mature grown-up. My mother & all the aunts couldn't make me understand how very much *stuff* a new baby needs, & I was flabbergasted at the piles of merchandise that were accumulating for this little thing that had an estimated size at arrival of maybe 7 or 8 pounds. I figured he (turned out to be she) had enough loot, & my cousin wasn't getting one single thing! so I bought her a very pretty pale yellow nightgown, & it was a hit.