Our Chinese Elm are just buzzing with these guys. Typically, they are high up and, if we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone.
One got into the sun room and was busily giving itself a concussion on one of the windows when my daughter first saw it, as the girls were putting the kittens into the sun room for the night.
Unfortunately, the kittens immediately started going for it.
Since she didn’t want a stung kitten, she got it out using a glass and a piece of paper. After very carefully putting the glass on the step near one of the Chinese Elm and removing the paper, she figured it would leave.
Apparently, it was thoroughly stunned from bashing itself against the window for so long, and took its time exploring the inside and outside of the glass. Which allowed me to get this photo.
Thankfully, it soon disappeared.
They seem to be attracted only to the Chinese Elm, not the other types of elm that are around.
Another reason to eventually take those trees down. Along with everything else he has to deal with, my husband is allergic to stings.
While 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
I headed outside to start rounding the kittens up and close them in the sun room for the night.
The kittens were all over the place, including in and out of the sun room.
Something, however, seemed odd.
It was getting dark, but the shadows seemed… darker, somehow.
Plus, something had the kittens’ attention.
Then they moved.
Not one, but 2!! skunks were in the sun room, eating cat kibble.
These two are smaller than the one that would visit us last year, and they have less white on them.
When I was first trying to figure out what I was seeing in the dark (I was able to lighten the photo up, so the skunks are more visible in the photo than they were in real life), there were a couple of kittens sharing the kibble with them.
All of the cats that were around showed only a mild curiousity about our visitors, and had no problem being near them. Likewise, the skunks had no real issue with the cats. They mostly ignored the cats, and only seemed to have a problem when there were too many kitties in the doorway.
We waited a while before putting the kittens away for the night! 😀
Both of the skunks went into the old kitchen. I kept watch from the side windows and saw one as it left, but where was the other? I saw it come to the window near me, go under the couch on the other side of the sun room, wander back into the old kitchen and out again, disappearing several times in the process.
After a while, I went to the old kitchen from the inside, making sure to rattle the door knob a bit and turning the light on, before opening the door. I saw no critters, so I went in and turned the light on in the sun room and started looking under things from the doorway before coming in.
Then I heard some noises on the other side of the freezer I was standing next too.
Sure enough, the skunk had gone behind the freezer, and I could just see its tail as it came out the other end and made it’s away through things to the other side of the room.
By the time we did get everything shut down for the night, I was still only about 95% sure the skunk was no longer in the old kitchen! (yes, it turned out to be gone)
They are such adorable critters. They are likely what is digging the holes I’m finding all over the yard lately. Dozens of tiny holes in groups around the yard, so I’m thinking there’s a fair few more than just these two! With the state of the lawn, I’m not too concerned about any damage they are doing, which is minimal to begin with. I rather like that they are eating grubs, which are probably worse for the lawn than their leaving little turf balls all over the place. 🙂
Taken recently while in town, at a park near the lake.
This is in a park I sometimes go to to play Pokemon Go. 😀
I don’t know what type of lily that is in the top picture, but the bottom picture is yarrow. They have some in bright pink as well, and you can tell they are starting to cross pollinate.
Yarrow is one of those things that grows wild where we are. Growing wild in hard soil, watered only by the rain, they don’t get big like these ones. Some consider them a weed, but I like them. I’ve read that adding their leaves to a compost pile will speed the composting, but I haven’t really had the chance to confirm that.
On my way home from town this morning, I saw the bison were usually close to the road, so I just had to stop and get pictures!
To the left of the above photo, you can just see one of this year’s babies, lying in the grass. The larger bison lying near it would be one of last year’s babies.
One of this year’s babies is visible in the middle, to the left of the fence post, in this photo.
For such big babies, it’s hard to get pictures of them! 😀 There are about 5 bison babies that we can see, this year.
These shaggy lumpens must be so hot, with the weather we’ve been having!
It got really windy yesterday evening, so I decided to see if anything was being affected.
Yes, I know – I’m supposed to stay off my feet. After a while, though, certain areas of the anatomy start going numb, and I just needed to move around!
Aside from one of the garage doors being blown open, and the usual stuff in the pile of junk near the barn making noise in the wind, things were looking pretty good.
Including this adorable surprise.
I found a napping Nicky the Nose!
With the wind making so much noise in the trees, he couldn’t hear me coming closer.
I got within about 6 ft of him – probably the closest any of us has ever gotten to him! – before he heard me.
He was not impressed, and ran off moments after this photo was taken. 😀
Of all the visiting toms, Nicky is becoming the most dominant and aggressive. Only towards the other toms, though. He seems to be leaving the kittens and the males that actually live here, alone.
He’s also really, really loud, while asserting that dominance!! 😀
