Wildlife out our window

Being watched!

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Before heading outside to do my morning rounds, I could see we had a deer at the feeding station outside our living room window, digging around in the snow, looking for seeds. I could also see another deer through our kitchen window, just outside the chain link fence into the inner yard, nuzzling around the snow, looking for something.

I’m not sure what. It was standing were we unload the van, now that we can’t drive into the yard, but we didn’t drop anything there.

I expected to spook it away when I came out to feed the critters. Which I did – but not as much as usual!

The deer ran into the yard through the vehicle gate, then followed the shovelled path the back of the garage, then up to the compost pile.

It was a very casual sort of run.

I did find it amusing, how dedicated it was in following the shoveled paths, instead of running straight through the yard!

The shoveled path turns towards the house from the compost pile, but the deer just stopped and stayed there.

Watching me, as I took care of the cats’ food and water. Even when I walked across to the kibble tray under the shrine, it stayed, watching me!

It wasn’t until I came towards it, carrying the container of feed, that it and the other deer ran into the bushes.

Well. More like a fast walk than a run.

Then they watched from from the trees for a while, as I went around the house. They did take off before I reached the feeding station and scattered the feed, but I didn’t see them actually leave the yard. Usually, they take off running, jump the fence, then cross to my younger brother’s property, across the road.

These two are definitely getting used to my moving around the yard a lot more!

The cats were happy for a kibble top up. :-)

Butterscotch and Nozencrantz continue their recovery in the sun room. They got treated with a can of wet cat food for breakfast. They definitely like shredded better than pate! :-D

Both are more active, and Beep Beep even made like she was interested in going back outside which, of course, I discouraged! They seem to still be okay with staying in the sun room by themselves as they recover.

When I heard from the cat lady today, one of the things she mentioned was dropping off our cat carrier, that was used for Cabbages, at the shelter in town. When my husband also let me know that a package he was expecting was in, we took advantage of the situation and made the Chinese food order we meant to do a few days ago! You know. Since I was going to be in town, anyway… ;-)

As I started heading out with the van, just turning onto the road from our driveway, a warning light turned on that I’d never seen before. Then the onboard computer started showing a message to check our brakes system.

!!!

When I took the van to get the oil changes yesterday, they checked some other stuff and gave me a list of things to get looked at. One of them was the brake fluid. Apparently, it’s dirty.

Now, suddenly, I’m getting warning lights?

Hmm.

Thankfully, we have my mother’s car as a back up! I parked the van and used my mothers car to go into town.

We’ll be using my mother’s car until we can get the van looked at. Brakes is one thing I don’t want to mess with!

I was very happy not to have to cancel the food order we’d just made! It’s been probably a year since we’ve ordered take out, and my goodness we were craving food we haven’t cooked ourselves!

When I finally got there, the owner even commented, “long time no see!” :-D We have never ordered often, but when we do, it’s a large order. Enough to feed us for a few days, and almost all meat items. We can do rice, noodles or vegetables ourselves, but we can’t recreate their protein dishes at home! It’s enough for them to remember me, even after such a long time!

The nice thing about having to use my mother’s car is, it has butt warmers in the front seats. I was able to use it to help keep the food warm while I went hunting for the animal shelter. It’s in an industrial park, next to a small airport, that I haven’t driven around in for more than 20 years and, even then, I hadn’t gone to that particular area since I was an Air Cadet while in high school! I drove past it three times before I finally saw it. Mostly because the snow around the building was undisturbed. Clearly, no activity is happening around it. Around the back was a cleared parking area, next to the back door and a donation box, which is where the carrier was supposed to be left. The building itself was closed; a sign on the door said it was open by appointment only.

!!

The carrier wasn’t there, though, and there was no signs in the snow showing that anyone else had been there. It turned out the cat lady hadn’t made it yet, having had to make an unplanned trip to another town to pick up another frozen cat.

No complaints from me, that’s for sure!

It’ll be waiting for us at the vet clinic, when we bring Beep Beep and Fenrir in to get spayed.

So we didn’t get the carrier, but we did get Chinese food!

I’m happy with that. :-)

Thankfully, we don’t need to go anywhere else again, until we bring the cats in to the vet. It’s supposed to start snowing tonight, and keep snowing all through tomorrow, for a total of 6-10cm/2-4in. Then we’re supposed to warm right up, with a high of -4C/25F on Monday, when we bring the cats to the vet, then +1C/34F the day after!

With more snow.

Because, of course. :-D

The Re-Farmer

The derpiest derp, and call update

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Well, I’m happy to say that at least my court conference call was over with quickly!

I already knew it was just to be rescheduled, but the last time I had to do one of these, I was on the phone for nearly 2 hours before they got to my file. That was with criminal court, which is provincial, and they are incredibly busy. This was for civil court, which is federal, and there was only maybe 2 other files being addressed at the same time. I never heard how many exactly, because our vandal’s file was the first one called. We got a new date – in April – and that was it. We were done.

This suddenly freed up my morning, so I decided to do the Walmart part of our monthly shopping. We were running low in cat kibble again – I don’t think we’ve ever gone through so much in one month, since we’ve lived here! Mostly with the outside cats. Yes, we’re feeding 20 cats out there, but we’ve had about that many in previous winters, too, and they were much harsher. Interestingly, while we have never had so many cats inside before, they aren’t going through anywhere near as much food. At least with the dry kibble. The inside cats get wet cat food once a day, too, and there’s definitely more of that! :-D

As I was getting ready to head out, I spotted our regular pair of deer outside the window, digging an ever deeper hole in the snow, where the seeds are scattered. I quickly took a couple of pictures with my phone, but it wasn’t until I uploaded them that I realized I hit the jackpot.

I love catching the deer in the middle of making funny faces, but this one is easily the derpiest of derpy faces, I have ever caught!

Isn’t that just priceless? :-D Even with the poor quality (my phone is terrible for zoom), I love it!

The Re-Farmer

Morning critters

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First up, I’m happy to say that Cabbages is seeming better this morning. She got more hydration last night, and we even got some solid food into her – also through the syringe. She didn’t like it, but she ate it!

We are still keeping Turmeric closed up with me. I’ve been letting other cats in and out, and while she did growl at the tuxedos, once they were inside, she seemed okay with them. As soon as she’s out of my office/bedroom, however, she still turns into a snarling beast for some reason.

Beep Beep has pretty much moved in and taken Cabbages under her wing, so I had the three of them with me last night. I was awakened by the sound of a cat scratching under the door to get out, and it was Cabbages! That’s the first time she’s made the effort since we brought her into the room.

It turned out their food and water bowls were empty. When I refilled them, Cabbages parked herself at the water bowl and stayed there. I did see her drinking, but mostly, she was just a loaf. I was in and out a few times, and she stayed like that for at least an hour. Right now, she’s back on my bed, next to Beep Beep.

We will keep up with the hydration and the semi-liquid food, even though she is a bit more active.

The other cats still seem very confused by my closed door. I usually have the majority of them splattered all over my bed, finding myself trapped by several when I wake up in the morning. They’ve had to find other places to sleep. A couple of them already preferred my husband’s hospital bed, but now he’s finding his bed covered with 4 or 5 at times. That bed is pretty narrow, so they basically take up the whole thing when that happens! Mostly, though, they have been converging on my daughters, upstairs.

They have not been getting much sleep, lately!

I do wish I knew what was going on with Turmeric, and why she still hasn’t settled down, yet!

Anyhow.

When I head into the sun room to get kibble for the outside cats, it’s not unusual for me to see a cat on the hand rail outside. It’s usually Nosencrantz or Potato Beetle. Sometimes it’s Agnoos or Tuxedo Mask. Not this morning!

The Distinguished Guest had her butt parked there this time! I managed to get a picture before opening the doors, at which point she took off. Not far, though. She knows it’s breakfast time!

She is really looking to be a permanent “guest”.

I counted only 13 this morning, though I did see Ghost Baby show up soon after. We were short two orange tabbies. I didn’t see Butterscotch or Nosencrantz this morning, either. It’s not unusual for Butterscotch to be missing, but I usually see Nosencrantz.

Chadiccus came over for pets, and I was happy to see he’s all cleaned up. No sign of the blood that was all over his front, yesterday. Since no cats look injured, I’m hoping it was just from some rodent he caught and ate.

I can see that the cats checked out our winter sowing experiment! The jugs themselves were undisturbed, though, so that’s good.

Once I was done my rounds and back inside, the two deer that come by regularly were soon at the feeding station. Then I spotted one of them in the south yard!

There is a short path along the chimney block planters that has been shoveled, and that’s where she is standing.

Then she made her way around the white lilacs, to the shrine! From the tracks in the snow, they have been checking out the kibble tray fairly regularly. Which is interesting, since there is nothing there they can eat. There are birds that like to steal the kibble, though, and of course the cats are often there, just like at the feeding station, so maybe the deer is associating the presence of birds and cats with food!

Or she’s just curious. :-D

I like how the cat is so chill about the deer coming at it.

Doing my rounds this morning was a bit of a bother. Those high winds from yesterday drifted over many of our paths with hard packed snow. A couple of days from now, we’re supposed to get hit by a storm, with 10-15 cm of snow (4-6 inches).

*sigh* I suppose we should clear out the end of the driveway again, before the plows have to go through.

The Re-Farmer

Awesome!

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Happy Christmas to those who follow the orthodox calendar. :-) Happy Three Kings day. Today is our last day of of the Christmas season, and what a lovely day it turned out to be.

It was another cold one, but there was almost no wind chill, so it was quite bearable.

This morning, we had one deer at the feeding station, while this one just hung out at the gate for a while. I was able to get this picture through the kitchen window.

The deer and the cats are quite used to each other.

I even caught a flash of deer tail going past while I was setting out kibble and warm water for the cats. The deer didn’t run off until I came around with more feed.

Potato Beetle was quite content to enjoy the sunshine in his insulated corner, while the other cats ate. :-D

I found this interesting! One of the selling features of the Starlink system for more northern areas like ours, is that the dish keeps itself warm. You can see the icicles that show it’s working!

I hope the dish won’t need to adjust itself, because it’s quite attached to the roof at the moment. :-D

The roads were plowed yesterday evening, so before taking my mom’s little car out to help her with errands, I opened the gate and began to shovel away the plow ridge at the end of the driveway. While I was shovelling, a familiar looking front end loader came around the corner and headed my way. The driver stopped on the road and motioned to me, but my glasses were frosted over and I couldn’t see more than an arm waving around, so I came over as he opened the door – and offered to clear the driveway for me!

Of course, I said yes!!

This shot was taken after he was done and was backing out to the road again.

Now, I’m pretty sure that’s the renter’s front end loader. I don’t know of any others like it around. However, I did not recognize the driver. It could be they have a new hired hand? I don’t know. Whoever he was, I made sure to thank him enthusiastically, and I was soon off to my mother’s.

My mother had a few errands to run this morning, including a stop at the credit union. With all the restrictions still going on, and so many places that don’t recognize medical mask exemptions, even when I wear the Mingle Mask, I would just open the door for her and wait outside. Today, I used the wait to pop over to the mail box – I finally was able to print out the photo I needed, and have sent off my forms to get my PAL (Possession and Acquisition License), after passing my Firearms Safety course at the end of November. My mother was faster than I expected, and came out while I was about to top up her washer fluid. One of the staff came out with her, to help with the doors. As I helped her back into her car, she told me that the lady helping her saw me outside, and asked my mother to tell me that I was welcome to come in with her. I used to come in with her all the time, but as the restrictions got more draconian, and more warning signs popped up on doorways, I stopped. It’s good to know that they are reasonable.

Unlike our next stop at the pharmacy, which doesn’t recognise medical exemptions, so I can’t go to help my mother at all. You’d think, of all places, a pharmacy would get that some people just can’t wear masks; especially since the (illegal) mandates specifically mention exemptions, but some places really seem to enjoy our medical apartheid. At least they don’t harass my mother about covering her nose. She shouldn’t be wearing a mask at all, and can’t breathe if both her nose and mouth are covered.

The grocery store was our last stop and they are always good, there. My mother was able to stock up quite a bit, and will be set for a while. Between the beef I gave her, and the venison my sister gave her, she didn’t need to buy any meat at all. Which is good, because food prices are getting insane.

Aside from that, I was able to visit with my mother, and we had lunch before heading out for errands. Which is when I was able to show her pictures of her new great-grandson, who was born this morning! My SIL also sent birth pictures of his big brother from a couple years ago, and my goodness, they look so much alike! So far, their mother seems to be doing okay. She has some medical issues that they are keeping an eye on, but she should be home after 48 hours. Meanwhile, my brother and his wife are still there, helping out.

A new baby in the family was definitely the highlight of a very good day!

The Re-Farmer

Enjoying a “warm” day

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As I write this we are at an almost balmy -26C/-15F with a wind chill of -34C/-29F, and we’re supposed to continue to get warmer over the next couple of days.

Remarkable how our ideas of “warm” and “cold” change, when living somewhere that has such temperature extremes throughout the year!

Yesterday evening, I’d treated the outside cats with a warm, meaty broth over their kibble top up, but this morning I found quite a bit of the kibble in frozen broth! It froze before the cats could eat it all, and the crowd of them was eating fast when I went back inside.

While the outside cats clearly don’t like the cold, they are doing quite all right, and spend a lot of time outdoors, instead of in one of the many shelters they have available for them. Seeing Chadicous exuberantly rolling on the snow sort of hits home how different the outside and inside cats are. It’s also a reminder of how important it is to let the outside cats develop their natural defenses against the cold. These are from generations of outdoor cats. They have the genetics to develop that insulating fur and body fat they need. Yes, they can still freeze, and having the heated cat shelter is a good thing, but it is equally important that it not be too warm in there, as that would seriously mess them up and potentially harm or kill them.

If our inside cats ever got outside in the temperatures we have now, most of them wouldn’t last more than an hour, even though most of them either started out as outdoor cats, or are from the same gene pool. Then there’s Fenrir. She has her long fur, but no undercoat, and that’s why we brought her indoors during her first winter. I don’t know where she came from or what breed she is, but it certainly wasn’t from any local cold-hardy genetics! A cat like David, with his long fur and deep, thick undercoat, would last longer, but having been in a warm house all the time, not even he would last long if he suddenly ended up outdoors. This is where going out through the sun room has its benefits, as it gives us two buffer zones, should the cats try to dash outside. Oddly, only Fenrir seems to actually be trying to do that. While other cats make a run for it, they’re more interested in exploring the old kitchen. Fenrir has managed to get as far as the sun room before we’ve caught her. In fact, going for the sun room door is the one sure way to get her out from under the couch in the old kitchen, or from behind the old wood cookstove, where we can’t reach her. I try to watch out for her before opening the door into the old kitchen, but it’s like she’s waiting for me. Many times, the moment that door opens, she appears out of nowhere and is in the old kitchen before I have a chance to react in any way. Knowing we’ll try to get her out, she immediately hides in places we can’t reach her. Sometimes, the only way I can catch her is to go into the sun room and leave the door open behind me. She always goes for it, and I can usually manage to catch her rather quickly after that.

When we win the lottery ;-) and can finally renovate this place, one thing I would want to keep and repair is all the doors between sections of the house, and add even more in places. None of this “open concept” stuff. :-D We once lived in a house that had doors between every room, including at the bottom of the stairs to the second level. I ended up really appreciating being able to so easily close off portions of the house, partly because it was even worse to heat than this one, and closing up rooms helped keep things warmer. We stopped using the second level completely in the winter, closed off the door at the stairs and added a draft blocker at the bottom to stop the waves of cold coming down. It was an awesome house, but yikes!

Ah, memories… :-D

Before I headed outside this morning, I saw deer at the feeding station. The usual doe and her little one, looking for any seeds the birds hadn’t finished off yet. I wasn’t at all quiet while setting food and water out for the cats, so it was a surprise when I came around the corner with feed and scared off two deer! I think they’ve gotten used to the routine, though. After putting feed out, I went back inside, and already could see the doe through the living room window. I quickly hung my coat, then went to watch when I saw the little one come bounding joyfully along the edge of the spruce grove to join Mom.

These two come back several times a day, now. Every once in a while we’ll see a buck but, so far, that’s about it. Later in the season, I expect we’ll start to see more deer coming by and will probably start to leave out more feed again.

I’ve left the remains of a sunflower there, because the birds like to perch on it. :-)

The 14 day forecast is interesting. Of course, it changes pretty much every time I check it, but the middle of the month is looking like it’s going to be quite mild! For all the cold we’ve been having in the last little while, this winter is shaping up to me so much nicer than the last couple of years, and a lot more like our 30 year average than the unusual cold we had during those polar vortexes.

We have been working towards being set up and ready, should we be stuck at home for weeks again, but this winter is looking like we’ll actually be able to get out and about like normal. No frozen vehicles! Hopefully, this will run through February, too. The way things are going, I’m hoping to pick up some (not-frozen) soil and maybe even a warming mat, to get some seeds started in our aquarium greenhouse. People in my cold climate gardening groups have already started things like peppers and tomatoes, but I’m mostly looking to start onions and shallots, first.

Plus, we still have to decide what seedlings or root stock we’ll be ordering this month for planting in the spring. :-)

The Refarmer

Morning surprise

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I waited until things got warmer than -30C/-22F before starting my morning rounds. I guess the deer got tired of waiting for me, because I found them exploring!

I managed to get a picture through the windows of the front doors. They seem very interested in the kibble tray under the shrine! :-D

When I did get outside, my weather app said it was -27C/-17F, with a wind chill of -32C/-26F, and we’re still getting extreme cold warnings, but we were sheltered from wherever the wind was coming from, and it felt much warmer. Warm enough that I got the burn barrel going, then did some shoveling to widen paths enough for my husband’s walker.

The outside cats seemed to be enjoying the sunshine while I worked.

Nosencrantz is such a cutie!!! They were running around so much, I didn’t even try to count how many were at the kibble trays. I cleared their path from the kibble house to under the storage house again, too, and they really seemed to appreciate that! :-D The snow is deep enough to form sheltering walls for them.

It’s much more pleasant today than yesterday. My husband’s prescriptions were delivered yesterday. With all the bundling up needed to get outside after the driver called to let us know he was nearby, he actually reaches our gate before I can! My husband was exchanging his sharps containers this time, and I was going to give the driver the full ones, but he didn’t know anything about them. He normally isn’t allowed to take medications back, but he tried phoning the pharmacy to find out if that applied to sharps containers. He popped into his car to make the call, while I waited at the gate. Which, in retrospect, was not a good idea! Once at the gate, I was right in the wind. He didn’t take long, though, because he couldn’t get a signal.

And that’s why we get him to call us before he reaches our locked gate! :-D

We’ll just have to give the old sharps containers back to the pharmacy another time. The driver did try again once he had a signal and called me back. It turns out my husband hadn’t mentioned the returns when he called for his refills, so they weren’t expecting it. Normally, that means we’d be charged for the new containers, but it looks like they skipped that this time. Interesting. We still have to bring them over for proper disposal, but at least he has fancy new containers to use. They completely changed the design for them since we last had to get new ones.

Today, I only had to make a quick run to the post office to pick up some packages and some distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. Happily, the van handled the cold fairly well, and all the roads are well plowed.

I’m glad to be inside again, though, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer

Puffy

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We have a new visitor to the feeding station, today!

I haven’t seen grouse in the yard in quite a while, and whenever we did, they tended to be under some bushes or trees. This is the first time we’ve seen one at the feeding station!

Such a pretty bird, all puffed up to stay warm.

I think there was too much movement in the window, as it started to move away, but it did come back, and actually stayed at the feeding station for quite a long time.

I hope it comes back again! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Blehp!

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I haven’t done my Critter of the Day pictures in ages. Usually, once we’re spending more time indoors, I start them up again, but they take quite a bit of time. I do very little post processing – maybe some cropping, or fixing the lighting, but that’s it. The main thing is to resize them so they don’t take up so much storage space on my WordPress account. Even after upgrading our account, I post so many photos, it adds up.

So I don’t think I’ll be doing daily critters, but I will post some every now and then. I recently uploaded the files from the DSLR in the living room, and this one made me smile. I just had to share!

I can’t help it. I just love it when we catch tongue blehps!!! They always make me smile. :-)

In the last little while, the deer have started to show up at the feeding station during daylight hours almost every day, and the yards a crisscrossed with their tracks. Though we’re just seeing a few at a time, there are definitely a LOT more that we’re not seeing!

So pretty. :-)

At least they are, now, when there is no garden for them to get into! :-D

The Re-Farmer

What a crowd!

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This morning, I walked into the living room and found seven deer outside our window!

That is the most we’ve seen, all at once, since our first spring here. :-)

Then I spotted them on the trail cams!

I never saw all seven on the trail cams at once. They kept streaming across the road from my brother’s place. :-)

I love the action shots! :-D

The Re-Farmer