We see these two the most often. The little guy on the left in the photo is the one that tends to come into the feeding station at a run! Brightens my day, every time!
Critter of the Day: Deer Duo
Month: December 2018
Awesome friends!
I just have to share something I got in the mail today, from a dear friend. She is so hilarious!!!! Check these out!
First, there’s the festive packing tape covering the box itself. Then there was the “snowfall” when it was opened, then there was the array of tiny little gifts for everyone – including treats and a skunk toy for the cats!
What a hoot!
I’ve got the best friends. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Critter of the Day: Black Capped Chickadee
I’ve uploaded another batch of photos from the camera in the living room. I’m so happy! There were so many good shots, it was hard to choose which ones to post. I’ll be putting them up, little by littler, over the next few days.
First up, we’ve got this adorable little puff ball.
I’m not usually able to catch the birds while they’re in the lilac bushes. The camera on its tripod is set up facing the feeding station. By the time I’ve spotted a bird in a spot I can see with the camera (sometimes, that means quickly tilting over the tripod!) and turn the camera, they’re usually gone. They do not stay anywhere for long!
:-D
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Critter of the day: DahBoy
It occurred to me that I post lots of pictures of the outside cats, but almost none of the inside cats!
Then I tried to take pictures of them and realized why. They keep sticking their faces into the lens.
But I got a good one!
I remember when we first saw him, after his mom dragged him from who-knows-where, up to our balcony. He was the tiniest ball of fluff with a bright pink nose that had an itty bitty dark splotch on it. The spot got darker and bigger as he grew, and new ones appeared. I still love his splotchy little snoot!
The Re-Farmer
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Ready
The tree and decorations are up. The gifts are wrapped. Aside from those few last things that have to wait for the last minute, we are ready for Christmas.
I am glad we were able to put our tree up this year. We missed out on a lot of that last year, with everything still being in chaos from the movers bringing our stuff over. Most of our ornaments are hand made. One of the things I still need to get back into is the making of new decorations every year. Now that we’re near family again, I want to get back into gifting them again.
Our tree has ornaments we made ourselves over the years, and others that were gifted to us. When the girls were young, as part of home schooling, we took part in something called Flat Travelers, which involved sending a paper doll to visit other families around the world, while hosting some ourselves. They would be returned with mementos of the place they were at, and sometimes that included Christmas ornaments. Almost every ornament on our tree has some sort of connection or story with it, and I love every one!
The Re-Farmer
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Critter of the day: handsome
Tiny Things
While putting up a few more Christmas decorations, I took the time to change out the batteries for some lights in our nativity scene.
It is the teeniest of nativity scenes. The tallest figures are maybe three inches high.
I used to put the trees on the dash of our old van for Christmas. I spent a lot of time in that van, so I decorated the dash with all sorts of bling and tiny creatures. Sometimes, while stopped at a red light, I would look over and see people in the vehicle next to us, taking pictures of it. :-D I figured, if I was going to be in the van so much, I may as well make it my happy place! :-D One year, I got a mini Christmas tree with a tiny string of lights for the dash. I couldn’t find it the next year, so I got a different tree, this one with its own decorations, and another set of tiny lights. The year after that, I found both sets, and had two trees on my dash! While parked, waiting for whomever I was picking up at the time, I would turn the lights on for a little ambiance. :-D
I started decorating the dash of the van we have now, but the surface is different, and the temporary adhesives don’t stick as well. I only managed a bit of bling, my Happy Face (a rockfish), a toad, some turtles, tortoises, frogs and lady bugs.
Also, the toad is holding a tiny Groot.
I don’t spend anywhere near as much time in the van anymore, so I don’t plan to add too much more. And no Christmas trees this year, so they get to join the nativity scene. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Flavored Salts: gift jars
Today, I finished up the sets of gift jars filled with the flavored salts we’d made earlier. I found the most adorable mini mason jar mugs to use.
Using 2 cups of Kosher salt to make these, I was able to fill three mini jars in each flavor, and have some left over for our own use. :-)
Recipes:
Rosemary Lemon
Scarborough Fair Garlic
Mushroom
Raspberry Wine
Bacon
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Critter of the day: Rolando Moon
I think this is the first time we’ve seen Rolando Moon on the platform feeder.
She seemed to be there just to keep her paws warm! :-D
Correction: I do believe I am in error – this is not Rolando Moon, but Big Jim! Rolando Moon is missing the tip of one ear.
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You’re not Slick!
One of my daughters let me know that the water bowl in the sun room was no longer on its heater, so when I had a moment, I went out with a pitcher of fresh warm water, heading through the Old Kitchen to fix it.
On opening the inner door, I noticed the food bowl in the sun room was empty, so I paused to grab some kibble to top it up.
Of course, as soon as I opened the door, there was a flurry of cats running out of the sun room, while others were running towards the Old Kitchen door. I saw Ferdinand run out, and then Slick headed for the door.
Except…
Wait a minute.
Is that Slick?
Thanks to Ferdinand staying in the doorway, preventing the other cat from getting out, I was able to grab a few quick pictures. I had to show it to my daughters to confirm.
This is not Slick.
What I did not see until my daughter pointed it out to me, not only is Ferdinand in the doorway, but Nicky the Nose is outside, looking through the window.
The new cat finally ran past Ferdinand when I opened the door. I never saw Nicky the Nose at all, but Ferdinand did not run off like he usually does. He actually hung around, watching me from just a few feet away, as I knocked the ice out of the outside water bowl and refilled it, as well as topping up one of the outside food bowls.
The water bowl was indeed knocked off the concrete block, but there was no spill. It was completely dry! With the outside bowl frozen over, they were very happy to have fresh water.
He has the saddest expression on his face!
My older daughter had been seeing a strange cat that was more grey than Slick, off and on, but this is the first time I’ve finally seen him. So he’s actually been around for a little while.
This brings us to 14 outside cats in total. The 6 kittens. Beep Beep, Butterscotch, Rolando Moon and The Hand are all cats we were feeding when we first moved out here. Slick, Nicky the Nose, Ferdinand, and now this guy. That’s basically twice as many as we were regularly feeding last winter.
No wonder we’re going through the cat kibble so fast! ;-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 