It’s been a while, but I managed to get a bit of progress on cleaning up the old wood pile.
This is almost how it looked when I left off last time.
I didn’t realize I’d neglected taking a picture after we shifted the doghouse aside and I took away the pallet it was on.
Today, I started digging and pulling up what I could of the rotted out pallets.
Continue readingWhile doing my rounds last night, I found Junk Pile Kitten at the stack of maple wood behind the house, playing with other kittens.
He let me play with him!
At a distance, of course.
This photo was taken yesterday morning.
I had let the kittens out early, since my husband and I were heading out to get our lab work done as early as we could, so I could put an end to my 12 hour fast. As I went to bring the van over to the house, I found kittens watching over me. Literally! LOL
These kittens bring such joy to our lives.
The Re-Farmer
My daughter and I headed out last night to close the cats up in the sun room (the 6 remaining kittens, Beep Beep and, lately, Doom Guy).
The first thing we saw was a skunk running off towards to storage house.
Which meant there could be…
… yup…
A second one was inside the sun room, eating cat kibble.
It took a while to convince this one to come out.
They both ended up under the storage house. I find myself wondering if they’ve got a “nest” under there or something.
I’m just sort of assuming that these are the same pair we saw before.
Gosh, they’re cute.
The Re-Farmer
When doing my morning rounds, I used to get followed by at least Beep Beep and Butterscotch. Sometimes, other cats would come along, but it was usually those two in particular. That changed after they had their kittens. Butterscotch no longer even likes to be picked up anymore (I think it has become uncomfortable for her) and she’s become a lot more stand-offish. Lately, I’ve been seeing her as infrequently as the male cats.
Beep Beep is a lot more homey and, while she doesn’t like being picked up as much as she used to either, it doesn’t seem to be out of any sort of discomfort. She has started to follow me again in the mornings, and the kittens are beginning to expand their territory.
Even Big Jim came out to see what was going on.
How much is that kitty in the window?
The one with the fluffy tail?
How much is that kitty in the window?
Please make him stop using his nails!
The little bean is finally as tall as my stuffed kitty, if still quite a bit smaller!
He is now very adept at getting to the window ledge. It’s a miracle the screen is still intact, as he goes after moths on the other side.
Nothing like waking up to the sound of claws on a screen.
These are from this morning, when I brought kibble to the bowls I brought back to the pump shack.
Rosencrantz had already come out and looked to be heading for the house, but hung around when she saw me, then came to eat after I put food in the bowls. She comes to the house for food but, for some reason, Beep Beep and Butterscotch (especially Beep Beep) have been very mean to her and chasing her away. So even though I was mere feet away, I think she was glad to get food here!
Digital zoom, here. My apologies for the poor quality of the image.
She has the strangest dark patches on her cheeks, below each eye!
I had to walk past her to go back to the house, which made her nervous, but not enough to leave the food.
Where those noises I could hear in the pump shack?
Why, yes! Look who’s getting brave!
Since discovering them back in the pump shack, I propped the door open a few inches in such a way that it can neither blow open more, nor close, so it’ll be easier for them to come in and out. I think they like that.
Pump shack baby is also hungry!
I want to snuggle. That. Face!!!!
This critter is a mystery in a couple of ways.
The first: I don’t know exactly what it is, other than “caterpillar”.
I’ve been doing searches, and the closest I can guess is that it’s some variety of tussock moth. It’s quite tiny – smaller than my fingernail. I’ve never seen anything like it around here before.
The other mystery is, where did it come from?
I was at my computer, typing away, when it dropped onto my keyboard.
From…
…somewhere.
I’ve been trying our trail cam out in different locations, with varying success. Of the trees in the area, some are too large for the elastic cords used to hold it in place, but I had smaller ones, so I tried different fence posts. Finally, I tried other tree that were smaller but were also growing at quite a bit of an angle.
I’ve since moved it back to where it’s been for almost a year, though the files I went through this morning are from being on one of those leaning trees. It had a bole I could use to level the cam out a bit. Unfortunately, I found it was a bit too close to get a full view of both the gate and the outside of the driveway. Plus, one of the fence posts was right in the view. It’s one of the posts that’s rotten at the bottom, so the only thing holding it upright is the barbed wire. The wind would shift it, causing it to trigger the camera.
I did get a very pleasant surprise, though!!
An excellent video of a bird that landed on the post! There’s a second one on the wagon wheel in the background.
The bird was digging into the rotten top of the post.
Where it found something to eat!
I look forward to when we can set the trail cam up at the feeding station by the house. I just love shots like this!!!
The Re-Farmer
Today was a statutory holiday, and the pharmacy my daughter works at is closed for those, so my daughter had the day off. We still made a quick trip into town, as there was a festival going on. It was the market we wanted to check out, after I mentioned some of the vendors I saw. Unfortunately, half the market wasn’t set up today, so it was a bit of a wasted trip.
Except we got churros. Which makes up for that. These are a once a year thing, so it’s a really special treat. :-D
Another treat we had was when we got home and found the little furry bean, lying in a sun spot.
Is this little guy gorgeous, or what?
While things are starting to cool down, it still wasn’t until evening that I headed out into the yard to water a few things. I was pleasantly surprised to see Guildenstern coming into the yard with her baby.
After watching them for a bit, Junk Pile Kitten ran into the lilac bushes, so I settled myself on the steps at the door on that side and watched.
I was not disappointed.
What a beauty! Just look at those eyes!
He came pretty close to me, playing with a couple of the sun room kittens that came by. Including his brother, Keith. :-)
I was able to get a bit of pruning done in the yard. Some of it was getting rid of low hanging branches that were starting to hang too low. Some of it was in the lilac near where I’ve planted the haskap berry bushes. Some of the branches were hanging low enough to be all stabby at me when I try to mow around the bed, but most of what I cut away was dead branches, twisted among and around the live ones. That opened the bush up quite a bit.
The kittens immediately took advantage of that.
There was 4 of them in there, at one point! :-D
As I was hauling the branches off to the wood pile, my husband went around to get some photos of the sun going down through the trees. We could see a cat off by the pump shack. After putting the wheelbarrow away, I decided to see which cat was out there, because Beep Beep has been pretty vicious about chasing Rosencrantz off in that direction.
It was, indeed, Rosencrantz, but I had another pleasant surprise, too.
She and her baby are using the pump shack again! It looks like the little guy can squeeze himself through that hole in the bottom of the door.
The hole was not that big before.
He is such a dark grey little kitty!
The other kittens came around, and he did play with one of them that came over, a little bit, but for the most part they stayed away from each other.
I’m really glad they have stayed nice and close. I hope Pump Shack Baby will make friends with the sun room kittens and start coming to the house for food.
I may not have gotten a lot of work done outside, but seeing the two other kittens is enough to make up for that. :-D
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 