I spent almost no time at all at the desktop, so I only managed to upload the one video from my phone, yesterday.  Alas, I was only able to get a couple of cat pictures at our feeding station with the Nikon before it died again, but I did get some other photos on my phone.  I wasn’t able to process any until today, though.  So I’ll just catch up now. :-)

The big news is that the moving company paid up!  We are now DONE with them!  I’ve sent off an email to the electrician we got the quote from to start arrangements.  I don’t know how often he checks his email, though, so I’ll follow up with a phone call today.  Even if it can’t be done until the spring, we have the money for it now, which is SUCH a relief.

It was another thoroughly entertaining day at the feeding station again.  It started out with Hungry Girl and Barbecue enthusiastically running over, Hungry Girl in the lead.

It makes me happy to see her increased energy.  I like to think that the food that we are leaving out, in a safe location, is helping her get healthier.  I still wonder about the relationship between her and Barbecue, and why they are pretty much always together, even when Barbecue keeps striking at her with his hooves to drive her off.  At least now, she mostly just moves to another pile of feed.  Another thing I’m glad we started to do – put the feed out in many small piles, instead of one big pile.  Hungry Girl seems to be more comfortable going to the ones closer to the house than Barbecue.

The next time I saw major activity out there was when there where 5 cats in the feed!  Then I saw 3 of them were after a mouse and was able to get the video I posted yesterday.  There have been a few times when I’ve seen one of the cats bringing a tiny vole with it when I put their food out, or the remains of one by the food bowls outside, but this is the first time I’ve seen them go after something as big as that mouse.

Eventually, only The Hand kept after the mouse.  As I worked in my crochet corner, I could see her sitting there, then start batting at something in the snow.  Then I would see the mouse moving around a bit.  It seemed to figure out that if it didn’t move, The Hand would leave it alone longer.  At one point, I thought she was sitting right on it.  At another, I saw her suddenly leap into the air, clearly having been bit by the mouse.

Then Mama and the twins came by.

As you can see in the photo with the cats, there wasn’t much food left for them by then.  It took them quite a long time to get to it at all, though.

It was a standoff!

(I look forward to when it’s warm enough to properly clean the windows on the outside!)

The Hand is the cat closest to the trees on the right.  I can’t tell if that’s Butterscotch or Beep Beep beside her.

The deer were all nervous about the cats, stamping their hooves into the ground and throwing their heads.

The cats?

Not the least bit intimidated.

Eventually, only The Hand was there, playing around with the poor mouse, completely ignoring the deer.  Mama and the twins eventually worked their way around to the feed, but it took them quite a long time.  They didn’t stay long.  After a while, The Hand got tired of the mouse and left, then Trüllbus took over, eventually finally eating the poor mouse.

It was quite the thing to watch while I worked.  I FINALLY finished off a double ended crochet potholder I was making.  The stitch I was using makes for a very thick fabric, but it also, unfortunately, stresses the hand and causes pain in the palm under the thumb.  I found I had to set it aside for days at a time.  I regularly do the recommended stretches and exercises to prevent injury (yes!  There is such a thing as crochet injuries!), but sometimes, the only thing that can be done is to put it away.

Among the other things that got accomplished yesterday was to drop our van off at my cousin’s, so he can work on it today.   I look forward to hearing from him soon!  It felt SO good to be driving my own van again, even with the noise the engine was making.

Then I found out my daughters were planning on going into the next town to see The Last Jedi.  The nearest town has a 1 screen theatre, and only 1 showing a night.  Most smaller towns that have movie theatres are basically second run, but this town is considered a resort town, so the owner (someone my husband and I graduated high school with) is able to pick first run movies.

I had wanted to see the new Star Wars movie, too, so I invited myself along.  Unfortunately, my husband’s pain levels were too high for him to join us, too. :-(

We left early, so we could take advantage of the trip into town and run some errands.  My younger daughter and I ran into the grocery store, where I ran into an old friend.  It was funny to hear her describe it to her sister.

“We were walking along when this guy reached out and touched Mom on the shoulder.  I thought it was weird, but then Mom hugged him, so I figured it was okay.” :-D

It was really good to see him again, and I finally got to meet his girlfriend in person, too.  Funny how you can be friends with someone on Facebook for years, without ever meeting them face to face.  Then, when you finally do, it doesn’t feel like meeting a stranger at all.

It turned out to be a really good thing I’d come along for the movie, though.  For all our searched online, we couldn’t find out what the admission cost was (turned out to be $10), but when we got to the ticket booth (with my old Math and Law teacher behind the glass!), we discovered they didn’t take debit.  Cash only!  Which, thankfully, I had, since I’d gotten cash to pay my cousin for the new water pump he’s going to install for me.

Somehow, I thought they wouldn’t have at least gotten a debit machine after all these years!

The movie was quite enjoyable.  It’s our first moving outing since well before the move.

A nice end to the day.

As for today, I’m mostly waiting on word from my cousin to pick up our van.  I should probably move my phone to someplace where I can get some signal, in case he chooses to text me again.

Meanwhile, we’ve already had a very enthusiastic visit from Hungry Girl and Barbecue again.  We also got a visit from a woodpecker!  A “hairy woodpecker”, I believe the variety is called. No chance of a photo, though.  They’re not attracted to seeds, so it was quite a surprise to see one at one of the piles, even if it was for just a few seconds.

Hmm.  I wonder if Mama and the twins will be back again today?

The Re-Farmer