Creamsicle decided to come and play this morning. I think it’s pretty clear he’s a daddy! :-D
I suppose it also explains why Butterscotch lets him hang around, but will chase Potato Beetle away. I don’t know where she found the other daddies, but none of them were tabbies! :-D
While going through the trail cam files this morning, I was reminded of something I found hooked onto the chain of our gate when I got home, yesterday. A little card like would normally have been slipped over a door knob by a delivery person. The trail cam recorded the guy that left it. I’m pretty sure I saw the same car leaving my brother’s place as I was coming up the road. :-)
It was a notice, with contact information and a file number, that an aerial photo was taken of the property, if we were interested in buying it.
I intend to check it out!
We currently have an aerial photo of farm, framed and hanging in our entry for as long as I can remember. Some guy had flown around, taking pictures, then visited the farms and offering to sell them. This guy basically did the same thing.
The photo we currently have may well be older than me. Things have change quite a lot over the decades!
As you can imagine, I am very interested in getting a photo that was taken almost 2 generations later!
When I headed out to do my morning routine, I had a rush of outside cats come running as soon as I opened the door! And who was in the lead?
Little Braveheart!
She ran right up to me. She still won’t let me pet her, but she’s coming the closest.
While in the sun room, filling a container of kibble at the storage bin, there was a crowd of cats going in and out, including Butterscotch, Potato Beetle, Junk Pile cat and her 2 kittens. When I felt a cat rubbing against my legs, I looked down, expecting to see Potato Beetle, who has been begging for attention these days.
Nope.
It was Little Braveheart! Weaving around my feet.
*melt*
The mystery kitten came out from under the cathouse again. That seems to be a favorite place now. I’m glad she’s willing to hang out so close.
Once he’d eaten his fill, Potato Beetle accompanied me for the rest of my rounds.
He did not want me to put him down, either! :-D
The biggest seed head on the mutant sunflower, with its 20 or so seed heads, is opening up quite nicely!
Once back inside and chatting with my daughters, I noticed a kitten on a side table. They are allowed on this table, but it’s also where the hard crab apple cider is sitting, and the kittens have been going after the airlocks. So I went to move her away and…
… noticed both airlocks were gone.
!!!!
I had checked the temperatures before heading outside, and didn’t notice they were gone. I guess it’s a good thing it’s been relatively chilly; they both read at 17C/62F this morning, while the ambient temperature is 16C/60F. They are both wrapped in a towel to keep the warmth of their own fermentation in, but at these temperatures, there’s not a lot of activity in the airlocks.
I found the airlocks, upside down, between the towel and the wall. The bungs were quickly covered with plastic wrap. The main concern is that we have a fruit fly problem right now, and we just can’t seem to get rid of them all. Another reason to be glad the cooler temperatures mean slow fermentation, I guess. They weren’t attracted to the open holes in the bungs! There were no fruit flies in the jugs. *phew*
They can’t have been without airlocks for long, but even so, could this be a problem? Will they be okay?
I have no idea.
We need to find a way to warm them up. For the mead, we used an electric heating pad, but there is no electrical outlet anywhere near where we have them now. We were thinking of wrapping something warm around them, like those microwavable neck warmers, but we don’t have any.
Hhmm… I could warm up a towel and wrap them in it.
*sigh*
Well, we will just have to keep a close eye on them and see how they turn out!
Yesterday evening, while doing my rounds and walking around the back of the house, I startled some babies!
Butterscotch seems to have moved her kittens from the junk pile to under the garden shed.
Her kittens are getting so much bigger and more adventurous, wandering further afield in the yard.
I suspect this has something to do with why Butterscotch as moved them. Wherever they are inside the junk pile, it must be getting a bit tight for her and the 4 of them to fit!
Which means that, with the wasp nest gone and the kittens elsewhere (though they do go back to the junk pile to play), I can continue cleaning up in that area.
Now, if only Butterscotch had been willing to move them to the other side of the house, where the food bowls and the old dog house are!
When topping up the kibble, I put one of the containers in the entrance to the doghouse. Recently, I was noticing a definite skunk smell in there, so yesterday, I lifted the roof, fluffed up the straw and left it open to air out for a while. I am trying to think of other ways to encourage the cats to go in there for shelter, but I think it’s going to take winter temperatures to finally convince them!
As for bigger things, look what I found this morning.
It’s the only one that got big like this!
It seems we had a light frost last night (there were no frost warnings), and some of the little squashes actually look a bit frozen. At this point, I don’t think they’re going to get much bigger. I will check them later today, and might just pick what’s left, then start cleaning up the beds in preparation for winter.
This morning, I got a shipping confirmation for part of the fall plantings we ordered. Unfortunately, the garlic was among the things that are back ordered, so they will be shipped later. Still, we will be able to get started on the varieties of flowers we will be naturalizing in the maple grove. I can also leave the beets and carrots in the ground a bit longer, while we wait for the garlic that will be planted there once they are harvested.
It looks like I’ll be able to accomplish more in a few weeks in the fall, than I’d been able to over the past few months, with this summer’s heat! :-)
The girls and I made our trip into the city. While I didn’t need anything myself, I did take advantage of the trip – and summer clearance prices.
While we had cleaned and painted the old wooden bird feeder and replaced it on its metal post, not a lot of birds are using it. I believe it’s just too crowded by the novelty lilac, next to it. I’ve seen some of the smaller birds around it, but the larger birds, such as the mourning doves, are still trying to find seed on the ground by the old platform feeder (where we stopped adding bird seed, since our supply filled the newly painted one).
If I could get that metal post out of the ground without having to dig, I’d transfer it to the other end, where the platform feeder and bird bath are. It seems the better location for it, plus we can see them from the living room. We can’t see the metal post set up from inside the house.
The platform on the platform feeder, however, is in really bad shape. So today, when I spotted supports for bird feeders or hanging baskets on clearance, I grabbed one.
I’ll… go back and straighten that out, later. :-D
It’s a lot shorter than the platform feeder. Perfect for short little me to reach!
The old one was constantly being blown over in the wind, until we stopped actually hanging a bird feeder on its hook. One of the hanging feeders hit the ground so often, it no longer holds together very well. The base wasn’t very stable and, as you can see, where it was touching the ground is rotting.
The platform is also a complete loss, but the hook itself, and the pressure treated 2×4, are just fine.
I am thinking of removing the rotted platform, the pieces on the bottom, and cutting off the rotten end. If I can figure out a way to make it more stable, it might be worth making a new platform and setting it up again. Having hanging feeders is good, but some types of birds prefer the platform to feed from. Plus, with two hangers, we can have the suet feeder out again, too.
We shall see.
Meanwhile I wanted to share a really terrible, zoomed in photo I took this morning, before we headed to the city… :-D
The kittens were playing on the steps at the other door! I had started to move their food bowl further from the junk pile, to encourage them to come closer to the house, but Butterscotch beat me to it. :-D
Ultimately, I’d like the kittens to start coming around to the south side of the house. I’ve started to place food bowls near the entrance to the old doghouse my brother brought for them to use in the winter. It would be great if the whole little family would just move into there. As this litter is so much younger than the other kittens, they are more at risk when the cold weather hits. There is enough room in there that all of the yard cats can fit in there and be nice and warm, just like they used to all pile up together on the swing bench in the sun room. Petty differences between the cats seemed to disappear when it came to staying warm!
It was very encouraging to see the kittens playing by the house. What an adventurous bunch they are! They were just loving those stairs. :-D
For a few times now, when going about the yard, I would see a cat among the trees. First glance, and I would think it was Junk Pile cat, only to realize that this cat looked slightly different. More white in the fur, and more the size of her own kittens – though they are almost as big as she is, now!
Last night, all possible doubt about whether or not this cat was really Junk Pile cat were cast away. While walking around the house, I startled a cat away from the food bowls by the sun room. It dashed off towards the storage house and disappeared under the lilacs at one corner – just as Junk Pile and two of her kittens came out from under the spirea at the other corner.
This morning, I finally got photographic proof of our cryptic cat’s existence. :-)
I stayed well back and zoomed in as much as I could, so this was the best my phone’s camera could do.
The kitten on the steps is Junk Pile cat’s tabby kitten, and they are very much the same size. Another kitten – possibly Junk Pile’s third kitten that is so very shy – had already run off.
This mystery kitten is most likely one of Rosencrantz’ kittens, but I honestly don’t know where it is from.
I’m glad that the shy ones are at least getting some food.
I just got back from doing my evening rounds. Our yard is littered with fallen branches. Especially willow branches in the South yard. I only picked up the biggest ones tonight. When the weather next allows for it, we’ll need to go around with the wagon to pick up all the smaller branches.
Two of Junk Pile cat’s kittens were running around while I was out. Little Braveheart was following Creamsicle around. He seems to get along with them very well! I topped up the kibble bowls, and while he was eating, Little Braveheart came over and booped her head against his before starting to eat, herself. :-) So cute!
I didn’t see Butterscotch’s kittens, which is no surprise in this weather. I did, however, get to spend some time with them yesterday, and they were co-operative enough to let me get some good photos of each of them!
Their eyes are starting to settle into their adult colours now. Which means the calico no longer looks terrifying up close! :-D Now she’s just all adorable!
We’re going to have a hard time telling these two apart!
Creamsicle Junior? He seems to be fuzzier than Creamsicle was at this age.
I think I have spotted another older kitten around. I’ve seen it at least twice, and had mistaken it for Junk Pile cat, but it has more white, and looks to be about the same age as her kittens. I have no idea where it is coming from, or which mama cat it is with! Perhaps one of Rosencrantz’s kittens? I thought she had three, but I just went back through my old photos, and I only ever captured two in the pictures; an orange one that we haven’t seen since, and the white one with grey and orange spots that I sometimes see.
While doing this morning’s rounds, I got to see all of Butterscotch’s babies!
My apologies for the terrible picture. :-(
I was zoomed in from the far side of the lilacs in the flower garden to get this. Thankfully, after clearing out the spreading cherry saplings, I had a perfectly positioned window to watch them through. As soon as I moved, however, they were gone!
I was just finishing up and starting to go into the house when I saw Little Braveheart was out, so I sat on the steps and tried to lure her closer.
This was as close as she would get. She was curious enough to come out, but content enough to just sit there!
After I while, I did see a little Tabby face peering at me through the spirea, too. :-) Not quite as brave as Little Braveheart!
I really hope we can get these bebbies socialized, at a little bit!
The Re-Farmer 