You can tell it’s starting to get chilly, when the chickadees start to puff out their feathers more!
Picture of the day: chickadee
Critters
Picture of the Day: was there something?
Picture of the Day: hidden
Picture of the Day: not so common
We got a brief visit from an adult male Common Grackle.
Their faces look so angry! :-D
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Mystery critter: what are you?
It’s been another very wet day today (I’ve read that, last month, we got triple the average amount of rain for our region; it doesn’t seem to be letting up this month, yet). We did manage to get a dump run in. Because of when it closes on Saturdays, and when my younger daughter gets off work, we left it to near closing time, then just continued on to town. After running some errands, we had time enough to hit the beach and look for interesting things.
Along with fascinating bones and interesting rocks, we found a tiny surprise.
What follows are pictures of a dead creature, so for those who don’t like seeing that, I’ll post it after the jump.
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Newcomer
We just got visited by a new cat today, outside our living room window, so of course we went a little overboard with the pictures! :-D
My daughter spotted him and got the first few photos through the lilac bushes.
He was lurking where we leave food for Junk Pile kitten still, even though he now regularly goes to the house, and even into the sun room, for food. Because I usually have 3 or 4 cats following me as I put food out, I spread it out, including on this log I brought over for a seat. I don’t know how much food was left around there, but it looks like our visitor found at least a little to eat!
The number of cats lurking around the house has dropped quite a bit over the last while. Of the visiting toms, only Nicky the Nose has been showing up once in a while, and he quickly leaves. I haven’t seen Slick or Not-Slick in a month or two. Even of our own adult cats, most seem to have moved on; I haven’t seen Guildenstern, Jim, Bob or Rolando Moon in a long time. Rosencrantz comes by, but not often; Beep Beep and Butterscotch both tend to chase her off! Doom Guy is the only adult male still hanging around, and he hasn’t been well. We did get medication for him and he has gotten better, but he still prefers to spend most of his time in the sun room or near the house.
We shall see who starts showing up again in the winter, when food and shelter will be more reliable.
We will be keeping an eye out for our newcomer, too!
The Re-Farmer
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More winterizing
We got one more area done for the winter today.
The old basement window.
We take advantage of the shelter over this window as a place to put the outside cat food containers, out of the rain. It isn’t much shelter, but it at least keeps their food mostly dry.
One of my plans for this summer was to dig up the dirt under the overhang and line it with bricks.
I noticed, however, there was thick plastic at the window, so I took advantage of having a daughter to hold the “roof” up and dug out the dirt to see just how far the plastic extended.
It turns out, there is no need to brick the area.
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Critter of the day, plus apples for my mother
Yesterday I was finally able to grab the step ladder and pick some of the last apples that are pick-able for my mother.
The cats were VERY interesting in the bag! Especially Cheddar! :-D
I was able to pick all the crabapples from the one tree, where the apples were the biggest and they had finally gotten sweet. Previously, they had almost no taste at all; not even the usual sour taste of crabapples, but now they have that delightful sweet/sour taste crabapples are the best for. There weren’t very many, so I picked some from the tree next to it. You can really tell which apples came from which tree! This tree had quite a lot of little apples that are more sour, but still quite edible.
Since I was there, anyhow, I took advantage of the ladder and cut away dead branches. The one tree with the bigger apples has a main trunk that is basically dead, but I did see some leaves on some of the branches at the top, so I just cut away the ones I knew for sure were dead. I pruned dead branches off a couple other trees, too, but I will save a major pruning for the spring.
I was able to bring the crabapples to my mother pretty much right away, and even get a little visit in. She was very happy to see them. Usually, there is someone who leaves their extra apples in the lobby where she lives, free to whomever wants them, but there were none this year. So now she will be able to make herself some apple sauce and compote that she likes. I also brought one each of the different flavoured jellies I’d made. I even remembered to bring an extra knife sharpener we has, as she was looking for one while we were out before. She was looking for a file, actually, so I brought her what I thought would be much easier for her to use.
I didn’t realize she wanted it for the hoes provided for the little community gardens where she lives. LOL I have, however, discovered that she has a knife sharpener with an antler handle, that matches the meat fork we found here. She tells me there used to be a knife as part of the set, but it’s one of the things that disappeared over the years.
I’m glad I was able to bring the sharpener I have, though. In the process, I discovered my mother has no good knives. At all!
Something to take care of for her, soon!
The cold, meanwhile, is already starting to show.
For the past while, I’ve been doing my rounds in grass sopping wet from dew, but this morning, it was all frost! The furnace has even been turning on regularly during the night.
We still have lots to do before winter!
The Re-Farmer
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Critter(s) of the day: wrestling
Critter(s) of the Day: on the beach
Insects count as critters, right?
While walking the beach not long ago, there were a surprising number of lady beetles all over.
So many, in fact, in some places, it was impossible not to step on any.
I also saw a couple of these guys…
At first, I thought this one was dead. Especially when a wave reached its wings and it didn’t move. It wasn’t dead, though, and I was able to move it a short distance, where the waves could no longer reach it.
The Re-Farmer 