Month: November 2018

Checking out the new digs

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Played around with a set up for the outside cats, in the sun room.  This is what I’ve come up with.

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I had another crocheted blanket that we used as a car blanket hanging around.  I decided to try draping it from the back of the swing bench to the back of the transfer bench.  It’s incredibly heavy, so I knew it would need support.

I have some sheets of foam insulation among my craft supplies that I thought would work.  Unfortunately, a sheet is just barely long enough to reach the backs of both benches – which means a stiff sneeze would have knocked it down, never mind rambunctious cats that are sure to jump on top of it.

After going through what was available in the room, I ended up putting one of the unused, home made plant stands on the transfer bench.  That would support one end of the sheet of foam insulation.

After draping the blanket over, I folded up one corner for access, and it immediately drooped into where the cats like to sit.  So I found another plant stand to hold that up.

As you can see by the photo, Doom Guy and The Outsider were quite ready to check out the new digs!  In fact, Doom Guy surprised me by already being in there when I first picked up the corner to open it up.  I never even saw him jump under while I was laying it out!

My husband was checking it out through the bathroom window just a little while ago, and he tells me Doom Guy was on top of the whole thing.  The foam insulation is rather bendy, but it has enough support that it should hold.  I’ll have to check it out, later, to adjust things, if needed.  I can just see a cat trying to walk across a part that doesn’t have support and pulling things down. :-D

I don’t think there is going to be much hesitation for the cats to use it.  Especially today.  Though the temperatures have warmed up, there is a nasty, bitter wind out there.  I think everyone, human and animal alike, will be staying indoors as much as possible today!

The Re-Farmer

The Things we Find: an early version?

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Since moving here, we haven’t really gone into the basements much.  In fact, it’s something I try to avoid.  I don’t even want to think about trying to clean things up there!  Especially the New Part basement.  You’d think it would be the other way around, since the stairs to the Old Part basement are so steep, with such narrow treads, it’s actually safer to go down them backwards, like onboard a ship, and the ceiling – the floors of the original log part of the house – is so much lower.  It is, however, much… emptier.  And cleaner.  We can actually get to where we need to – the well pump, the sump pump, the septic pump, the hot water tank, the furnaces.  These are all things we actually need to go down and check, too.

The New Part basement… not so much.

Continue reading →

Meet Slick and the Post Cats

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First off, a great big thank you to 53old for identifying our little squeaker.  It is neither vole nor mole, but a pygmy shrew!  No wonder I didn’t find it in my searches.  I was looking up moles, voles and rodents.  It’s not a rodent, either, so nothing like it came up.  In fact, seeing what it eats, this is a critter we want to keep around!  Which means, if we ever had the chance to rescue others, we certainly will.

While feeding the cats this morning, one of the dad cats was around.  He seems to be getting more comfortable with us – and the other cats with him (though, to be honest, for all I know, he’s really a she).  As I was going in and out of the sun room to get deer and bird feed, I found him eating with our own cats, and he didn’t try to run away.  Which is more than even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will do.

Meet Slick. Continue reading →

Little Squeak!

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Cats, being cats, will hunt things.

The outside cats do a great job of keeping the rodent population down.  Every now and then, we’ll see signs of their successes.  All part of that whole “circle of life” thing.

On the way out this afternoon, I took the time to get another pitcher of warm water for the cats before we left.  I saw The Outsider by the entryway steps.

He looked at me, paused to bat something around, then ignored it for a bit, then batted it around some more.

A quick glance and I could see a tiny little fur ball and realized he had caught a vole.  Something I’ve seen quite a few times.

Then he batted it again until it was upside down…

… and I saw the little legs wiggle.

Then I heard the tiniest of squeaks.

The vole righted itself, only to have The Outsider bat at it again, and pounce a bit.  No claws.  No actual biting.

Yeah.  He was playing with it.

The poor thing would get tossed a bit, would right itself and sit there, but as soon as it moved, it would get batted or pounced on again.

While squeaking the tiniest of squeaks.

Normally, I wouldn’t do anything about this.  Rodent population control is one of the reasons farm cats are so good to have around.  But I could also see that this little guy was completely uninjured.  Plus, The Outsider was interested only in keeping it from running away.  He was much more interested in the pitcher I was holding.

Then he batted it again, the vole righted itself and just sat there.

I couldn’t help it.

I picked it up.

It made no effort to run away.

The Outsider seemed to be wondering what I was doing, until I put the pitcher of water down, when he immediately lost interest in the vole and went for the water, along with three other cats.

The vole stayed in my hand, no longer squeaking, but trembling mightily.

My daughter came out, and I handed it to her, so I could distract the cats away with the warm water – the bowls of water outside were already frozen.

It made no effort to run from her, either.

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Of course, I got a picture, first.

He was so velvety soft!

Looking at that long snoot, I find myself thinking it might be a mole, not a vole, but when I try to look it up, I’m not any clearer on this.  It’s like it has a vole body with a mole snoot.

I’m still thinking it’s a vole.

While the cats were distracted, my daughter went to where there were leaves piled up as a mulch in the flower garden on the south side of the house.  She made a little nest in the leaves and dropped it in.  It snuffled around in a circle for a bit, then she loosely covered it with more leaves, so the cats wouldn’t see it.

We are such sucks. :-D

The Re-Farmer

A year ago today; looking back

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It’s still hard to believe it’s been … only?  … already? a year since we moved out here.

After finally being reunited, we didn’t have much time to rest.  There were some unexpected runs into the city to get things like a small tank for our fish.  Too late for them, unfortunately.  Continue reading →

Multipurpose

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This morning, my husband told me to look out the bathroom window – and to make sure I had the camera on my phone ready!

Too funny!

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So once the water is gone, our set up does double duty as a butt warmer!

Big Jim was prowling around Doom Guy, trying to stick his face into the bowl.

That was my cue to head out!

Yeah.  They were pretty thirsty.

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I’m going to have to make sure to top that up again earlier than usual, considering how much was gone by the time I was heading back into the house.  The water outside isn’t going to stay liquid for long.

As usual, I had escorts while doing my rounds this morning.  By about half way through, I had Butterscotch in my arms, licking my fingers.  Beep Beep climbed up my back again, and was perched on my shoulder.  Both were purring up a storm.  Rolando Moon was following along, Doom Guy was trying to climb the back of my leg, and even Big Jim came by to see what was going on!

They make my morning chores outside both fun and difficult.  :-D

The Re-Farmer