Ask Jo: Odds and Ends

Every so often, questions and comments come from readers, and I think others would like to hear my response.  That’s when I feature them on the blog.  This is one of those days.

I recently showed you pictures of the Catio my daughter, Kalissa, bought for the cats she is fostering.

I had several blog readers ask about this. They wanted a catio like Kalissa’s. You can find the one Kalissa bought HERE on Amazon.

Craig said it wasn’t too bad to put together.

I have since been to Kalissa’s house again. The kittens are a little bigger now and are much more active in the catio. Kalissa said it’s great for a nursing Momma who doesn’t feel like nursing. She can jump up and get away from the kittens. As of now, the kittens can get to the first shelf as Kalissa put an old baby mattress in the bottom. The cat family really seems to like it.

Linda wrote: I cannot understand why your book was a bust. I bought it on Amazon recently after you mentioned it in a blog post and I love it!

The simple answer is that our book was sent to us in January of 2015. While it was en route to us, we got a note from our publishing company, Kansas City Star. They were closing. They would not be promoting our book. We were told that some people might be picked up by another publishing company. Seven months later, C&T Publishing contacted us and said they wanted to pick us up. We were excited about that. We were told they would promote our book. They never did. So, the bottom line is that our book slipped through the cracks. Neither company ever promoted it. We were both bummed to have worked that hard to design the quilt, make the quilts, and write all the patterns, with little given back to us for the hard work. We didn’t know if we wanted to risk that again. We were finally permitted to sell the rights to the quilts to magazine companies or to print the patterns and sell them ourselves. By then, we were just sick of the whole experience. So the reason our book was a bust our publishers let us down, and we slipped through the cracks.

Next, I had several people ask who Rick is? I am guessing they missed THIS blog post.

If you read the whole blog post, you would know that I am dating Rick.

So far, Rick is a real gem. We aren’t really far along…but so far, no yellow flags and no red flags either. He is 100% kind…very considerate…helpful…great with the grandkids. Here he is showing Anders something on his phone.

I can honestly say, I don’t think anyone in my entire 60 years has made me laugh as much or feel as appreciated and valued as much as Rick does. He is a foodie like me, and we have tons of fun cooking together.

On Saturday, Rick was here and made burgers on the grill. They were wonderful!!

He commented that every weekend this summer, he wants to grill or smoke something. Well, that’s alright with me!!

Rick is a Mr. Fix-It Man. I almost feel bad mentioning that anything needs an update or fix. Over the weekend, we went down to the basement freezer to see what was there that we might smoke the next weekend. It had just rained two nights in a row. There was a little dampness in the old part of the basement. He asked about the dehumidifiers. Neither one was working. In no time at all, Rick had a flashlight and was getting them to work. For him, he had them working in five minutes.

So I think that answers that round of questions…Feel free to ask any questions, anytime. You can just leave a comment (I see them more quickly) or you can email me at joscountryjunction@gmail.com.