I have finally been able to go through photos from our living room camera, and process the last batch from April.
This was taken later in the month, and is among the last deer sightings we’ve had this season. Now that things are getting all green, the deer don’t need to come by here as often.
Things have been rather hectic the past couple of days, to the point that I even missed yesterday’s critter of the day photo – I ended up driving my mother to the emergency and staying with her until she got the all clear to go home. She is fine, but she was scared about some chest pains. They never found what caused the pains, but once again, her heart is checking out just fine. They couldn’t identify what was causing the pains, so she had to go a regular doctor to start that process. :-/
In the middle of this, the girls took down a branch from the Chinese Elm in front of the kitchen window. The outside cats are going to miss their last easy access to the roof!
Getting it down took some doing. While one person used the extended pruning saw, the other pulled on a rope that was slung around the branch. This way, when the branch finally fell, it wouldn’t land on the roof, but get pulled away.
It worked. It landed right on my mother’s fancy lilac bush, but when I checked it later, there wasn’t a single broken branch on it! Very flexible branches!
Continue readingYesterday, the girls needed to pick up stuff not available locally, so we made a trip into the city.
While we were out, a wonderful, long rain came through our region.
We could actually see the difference in the trees between when we drove into the city, and when we drove back!
The only down side is that we had also been getting strong winds. Enough to blow over the bird feeder stand in its summer location. The hanging feeder fell apart, but thankfully, it just pops back together easily. I was needing to refill it, anyhow.
I also finally saw birds using the bird bath, in its now location. So I’m happy. :-)
I had nothing I needed to get in the city myself, but of course I was checking things out. Especially the garden centres. One of our goals is to plant food trees, so I’ve been checking out the varieties of apples – I’d like something other than crab apples! – that can grow in our region, as well as anything else that produces fruit, nut or berry.
I ended up buying our first food trees.
Also known as haskap, these berries were on my list. I’ve never actually had one before, but they can be used like blueberries, raspberries or strawberries. Part of why I included them on my list was due to their extreme hardiness. These babies can withstand -45C temperatures! They are also an early producer, with ripe berries (after the second year) by mid-June.
This is a variety that needs male and female plants to pollinate, and when I saw there was only one of each left, I grabbed them. We won’t expect berries in their first year, but we should have plenty, next year.
What we now have to do is figure out where to plant them. They require sun and shade, can grow 5-10 ft high, and should be planted about 4 feet apart. We thought of taking out more of that spirea by the storage house, and planting them near the grapes, but with the size and spacing needed, I’m moving away from that idea. They could be planted in one of my newly mulched beds in the south yard. They will also be easy to water, there.
Something to figure out over the next couple of days. :-)
I’m really looking forward to seeing how these grow!
The Re-Farmer
I still haven’t gotten around to processing photos from the DSLR for my critter of the day pictures – partly because, until I can pay to upgrade my WordPress account, and have almost filled my flickr account, I don’t really have anyplace to upload them all. :-/
So once again, I have kitten pictures for you. I hope you don’t mind. ;-)
Check out Beep Beep’s babies!
Yes! All their eyes are open now! Well. Mostly open. :-D
Butterscotch, I am happy to say, has been joining her kittens in the box nest that I made more room in, and so far, she hasn’t tried moving them again.
My heart melts every time I see that little skunk-stripe nose!
Not a photo of the day, today, but a video.
Yesterday, after moving Butterscotch’s babies out of her most recent hiding place and putting them with Beep Beep’s babies, I check on them several times throughout the day.
I also got some adorable videos.
The babies were clearly quite content with the set up. Beep Beep was also quite good with all the babies.
Butterscotch, on the other hand, was not happy.
She and Beep Beep don’t get along at times, but I hoped her own kittens would be enough for her to make the effort. There’s lots of room in that cat cave.
At my last visit with them, however, I changed my mind. I was able to pick Butterscotch up briefly, but she was very nervous and jumped down. Not before I could feel that her teats were engorged. The kittens were fine, which means Beep Beep must have been nursing them, too, because Butterscotch sure hadn’t been.
The last thing I want is for her to end up with mastitis, or lose her milk. So I put her babies back into the box nest, so she could nurse them in peace.
Ah, well. The kittens are getting more active as they get bigger, and will be able to cuddle and play together soon enough.
The Re-Farmer
We had a nice day, and my wonderful daughter was able to get up onto the roof to take care of the damaged shingles we’d noticed a few days back.
This is what one section looked like before.
While up there, she noticed quite a few were loose, and took care of them, too. It definitely looked like they were damaged when that patch above them was done.
Here is how it looks now.
She also sealed the exposed roofing nails that were part of the higher patch.
Then she moved on to the other section of roof to fix this shingle…
This is how it looks now.
When this was done, she went to the other side, were we can’t see the shingles from the ground, to check for any others that needed fixing. She also checked the area above their window, where water has been leaking in the winter. She did some more patching, but also noticed the area above the window did not feel as solid as it should.
She noticed many patch jobs.
We so need a new roof. :-(
The Re-Farmer
The trees are starting to put out their leaves, which means the pollinators will be out soon.
Time to put up the mason bee hive we picked up a while back.
We decided to place it near the crab apple trees, since that’s where the most flowers are soon going to be. That meant attaching it to one of the spruce trees.
Which… the box isn’t really set up for.
Under the disc that covers an opening into the butterfly space, there is just this to hang it with. Which might work in some areas, but I can see this falling in the wind, so easily.
I figured I’d try bungee cords, instead.
I had to find a tree small enough that my pair of cords could reach around both the width of the tree, and the depth of the hive.
I also turned it away from the apple trees, so it won’t have the north winds blowing right into the openings. This tree is also surrounded by other trees, providing shade and shelter as well. The next thing I want to do is provide a water source; just a shallow dish with some smooth rocks for the bees and butterflies to land on. I already have appropriate rocks. I just need to find an appropriate container and the right place to set it. Between watering the bird bath and the bee dish, there should also be enough mud available for the bees to use in the hive.
We’ve never had anything like this before, so we shall see how it works out. In the future, we plan to plant bee and butterfly gardens – well away from the house, since my husband is allergic to stings. (Most of the local bee species don’t sting, so it’s more honey bees, wasps and hornets that are of concern.) One of my brothers even has milkweed on his property, so I hope to get some growing here, too. If it does work out, I plan to get more of these, in different styles.
Also in future plans are setting up bat houses and maybe even purple martin houses – both do a great job of eating mosquitoes!
The Re-Farmer
This is a story that began yesterday, when I found Beep Beep like this.
Yup. The family has finally outgrown the nest I’d made inside the “cat cave” box. Time to open things up again!
Aaahhhh!!! Much better! Lots of room to spread out.
This morning, I discovered Butterscotch had moved her kittens again. With the blanket she’d put them on before now gone, she just used a shelf.
Poor little things!
I had to move the cat cave set up – with Beep Beep and babies inside! – to get to them.
So I took advantage of the situation.
I put them all on top, then after pushing the whole set up back again, I checked out the babies.
It looks like all 4 of them are male.
I had also opened up the box nest that Butterscotch’s babies were in, taking the smaller box out and putting the pillow and little cat bed back inside the bigger box, but should I even bother putting the kittens back in there?
Where would be a good place to put them, instead?
In with the other kittens sounded like a good idea.
Beep Beep came over to sniff them and immediately started to groom them, so she’s fine with it. As you can see, Butterscotch’s babies are real chill about it, too.
Checking them after doing my rounds, I see the kittens seem fine with it, too – one of Beep Beep’s kittens is cuddled right in with its cousins!
Butterscotch, on the other hand, wouldn’t even let me show her where I’d put her kittens. She and Beep Beep aren’t exactly best buddies, so I’ll be checking frequently to see how things are.
The Re-Farmer
Today, I continued my spring clean up around the yard. Now that we have yard equipment in the side of the garage we’d stored the foam insulation from around the house last summer, this year I’ve put them into the barn for storage.
I’d love to empty that barn so we can actually use it.
All in good time!
For now, I went back to the jasmine bed, mulched it with straw and began saturating the mulch with water. Though we did get rain recently, it wasn’t enough and everything is still bone dry.
While the hose was running there, I decided to move the unused bird bath from beside the storage house to the flower bed by the bird feeder. I found a block to use as a foundation and used a hoe to dig down and level a spot for it, first. Once the bird bath was in place, I moved the bird feeder stand to its summer location. Over the next month or so, the flowers should hide at least part of the bases.
That bird bath needs a thorough scrubbing and re-painting. We shall see if that becomes a job for this year, or next. Or maybe we’ll get a new one.
I’m hoping the water is far enough away from the platform feeder that falling seeds will not become a problem. When the lilac beside it is in full leaf, it should provide some shade. This should slowly become a nice little bird garden, I hope. :-)
The birds were quick to come back to the feeding station, but I haven’t seen them checking out the water, yet.
I also cleared out the bricks that I took out when rebuilding the jasmine bed. I have decided what I will be using them for.
This is the window to the old part basement, where we used to throw logs in for the wood burning furnace. The roof that keeps precipitation from leaking into the basement is on a hinge, but I haven’t decided on how I will get it to stay all the way up while I work. If I really need to, I can also remove it until the job is done. The cat kibble is under there to keep it out of the weather. There are chunks of brick and blown in leaves, but otherwise I think it’s just dirt. The “retaining walls” built up on the sides are slowly getting unstable.
The plan is to clear all that out and redo it with a brick “floor” under the window. Which will also be a good time to get the foam insulation out of the opening and put the metal mesh window over it for the summer. The wood frame for that is rotting, though, so I hope to scrounge up the materials to redo that as well.
For now, I’ve just brought over the bricks and filled the wheel barrow with water. Partly to get rid of any dirt and whatnot stuck to them, but also to wash away any ants or other leggy critters that might get transferred over with the bricks. I’d seen some tiny red ants when I dug the bricks out, and some were still there when I moved them to the wheel barrow, so I want to make sure to get rid of those or any eggs that might be attached. I might not get back to this until tomorrow, though. It’s already gotten very hot out there – we are at 23C right now – and this area is in full sun.
That reminds me. Time to check on the kitties in the sun room again!
The Re-Farmer
When starting my rounds this morning, I had both mamas looking at the door, waiting for me in the sun room! As soon as I opened the second door from the old kitchen, Beep Beep ran right in, then looked at me… waiting…
For what, I have no idea, but it gave me a chance to peek at her babies.
Just look at them! They’re like an adorable row of furry sausages. <3
Then I looked into the box nest for Butterscotch’s babies.
It was empty.
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The Re-Farmer 