Well, I’m certainly glad we made the preparations we did, yesterday. We did, indeed, hit 1C/34F by this morning, and got frost.
The roof of the cat house still had quite a bit of frost on it, when I came out to feed the babies. Clearly, it isn’t stopping them from enjoying kibble in what seems to be a favourite place for quite a few cats!
As expected, the frost killed off all the squash. We did leave the ozark nest egg and dancing gourds. From what I’ve read, they can handle a light frost, in that it triggers them to start drying. I’m not completely sure that was the right decisions, but I’ll know better as I check them later in the day.
The apple gourds got covered, but they still seemed to get hit with frost. It’s hard to see in the photo, but this largest of the developing gourds does seem to have some frost damage, as did a lot of the leaves, though not as much as those that were exposed in places.
The eggplant, however, looks just fine!
We’ve got one more night with colder temperatures, and then the lows will increase for a while, so we will repeat the process again tonight, and will hopefully be able to at least keep the eggplant going for a bit longer.
There’s lots of work to do over the next while, to get things ready for next year.
Last night, I discovered that the new water bowl house, which is awaiting a paint job before we start using it for its designed purpose, works well for something else entirely. The floor is high enough for me to sit on without hurting my knees to much, and have a roof to keep me out of the bit of rain we started to get!
Which meant, I got to play with kitties.
Some sisal cord tied to a stick made an excellent lure, and I was actually able to pet this brown tabby! I’ve been able to touch him before, but usually he’d run off as soon as he realized what I was doing. This time, I was able to start skritching his ears. Between the toy and the ear skritching, he was torn between obviously wanting to run away, and loving the attention! 😄
Today, I was able to confirm he is male.
This little guy much prefers to just be on a human and go for naps. He is very insistent about it, too!
While I was playing with the kitten, Caramel came by, followed by one of her babies. One with the very distinctive Beep Beep orange splotch on its forehead! You can tell who Grandma is, that’s for sure! It would come any closer, but it was good to see she is bringing her babies to the kibble house.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Rosencrantz’s litter today, nor did I see Junk Pile’s babies come out of the pump shack after I left food there, even though she came over to eat. I read they both moved their babies further from the house. Right when they need access to more solid food, now they are going to be getting only whatever the mamas manage to hunt for them. 😟 The further from the house the kittens are, the more in danger they are from predators, too. Wherever the mamas took them, I hope they will be okay. I do realize having fewer yard cats is actually a good thing, but I can’t help rooting for them to make it!
Three of the four bebbies in the pump shack, running out to greet Mom.
This would be Junk Pile’s second litter. The oldest cattens in the yard are hers, and she pays no attention to them at all anymore!
Unfortunately, while I was watching them this morning, she looked like she was trying to lead them away from the pump shack. I really hope she doesn’t move them somewhere further away.
On that note, I did see two of Rosencrantz’s kittens on the junk pile this morning. I don’t know of they are back, or if they were just there waiting their turn for the kibble bowl. There is an older grey and white catten that shows up every now and then. It seems to be on its own, and I don’t know which mama it belongs to. For all I can tell, it showed up from someplace else entirely and discovered reliable food.
Last night, I also saw two dark kittens playing in the old kitchen garden. I believe they are Caramel’s babies. As far as I can figure out, those should be the last of them, but when it comes to yard cats, who knows?
I have been avoiding going into the pump shack for the past while, because I was pretty sure there was a litter in there, and didn’t want to disturb the mama. They tend to move their litters further away when that happens.
Last night, I figured it was long enough to check things out.
Look what I found!
I only saw one, but could hear others. This one looks a lot like most of Rosencrantz’s babies, except smaller. Which makes it pretty clear who the daddy is! I’ve been calling him Sad Face, because he has this permanent tragic expression. I found out recently the girls have another name for him.
Shop Towel.
Because he is the daddy of Tissue…
*face palm*
Given the size of the kittens, I decided to bring one of the kibble trays over. I was going to leave it in front of the hole at the bottom of the pump shack door, but it was still raining and the roof overhang isn’t enough to keep it dry. So I tucked it inside for now.
I still think there is at least one more litter we haven’t seen yet, either in the collapsing log building or the threshing machine, near the fire pit. All I heard was maternal “mama is here” type noises, though, not kitten noises.
Being born so late in the year, these babies are going to be at much higher risk over the winter, no matter how many shelters we provide for them. Hopefully, we will be in the area expected to have a mild winter this year, rather than the area expected to have exceptionally cold temperatures. We’re in a sort of ambiguous border between the two areas, and the lake effect can change things dramatically.
On another note, my brother is taking the roofing estimates to my mother today. I pray my mother will actually follow through with her promise to pay for a new roof, and not choke once she sees the numbers and back off, as she has in the past. She still thinks things should cost what they did, 50 years ago. I well remember how, as part of our deal to move out here, she agreed to pay for the movers, only to try to back off when it came time to actually fork over the cash. Even when she finally did, she refused to pay the full amount, and my brother was kind enough to cover the balance. My mother can be very cruel and manipulative. My brother has already told her that if she starts doing that sort of thing again, he will not put up with it, and will stop the process completely. The last thing we need is to hire a company to do the roof, only to have her refuse to pay after it’s done. Neither my brother nor I can afford to cover the cost if she does that sort of thing again.
If she does follow through, we are looking to have the roof done in November. Which would be so amazing. I am afraid to hope it will get done, though. I’ve got too many knives stuck in my back as it is.
After doing my evening rounds yesterday, I spent some time in the sun room, being violently cuddled by two kittens.
Other kittens were not so aggressive in their cuddles.
Of the three in the box, only one of them is socialized, though the calico does sometimes let us pet it.
I’ve found at many of six kittens shmushed together on the pillow in that box, including some of the oldest, biggest kittens squished in with the smaller ones!
My younger daughter starting working on a shelter for the water bowls, and we got some more progress on it last night. This is being built with whatever scraps we can find in the barn.
Construction is almost complete. A couple of floor boards are not nailed down yet. It got too dark to see. The scrap boards used for the floor and walls are pretty old, and there was a fair amount of rot on the ends. For the walls, I laid the boards so that the strongest wood could be nailed in place, then the rotted ends were sawed off. The same boards were used for the floor. Since this is to hold water bowls, there are spaces left in between, so that if any water spills, it’ll run through the gaps and not accumulate inside.
I might be able to cover those triangle shaped gaps at the sides. I was originally going to just leave them, but they are pretty big. Big enough that I think too much snow might blow in during the winter.
Once the construction is complete, it’ll get a scrub down and a paint job.
It’s big enough to hold the four water bowls we have, though it won’t fit as many cats at the same time as the kibble house can. That won’t be a problem, as they don’t crowd around the water bowls the way they do for the kibble.
Once painted, this should actually last a few years, in spite of how bad some of the boards are. The frame is made with sturdier wood, so it’s actually pretty strong.
It will be good to not have to dig the water bowls out of the snow this winter!
Then there were the ones eating the kibble I left on the roof of the cats’ house, and the ones eating at the tray under the spirea by the storage house – including the one that was hiding in the background, waiting it’s turn.
Twenty five.
I counted twenty five cats and kittens this morning.
And that doesn’t count Rolando Moon and Potato Beetle, who have not been around for the past little while, or the two toms that show up. Plus, I’m pretty sure there are other, younger, kittens hidden away somewhere.
