Critters

We got invaded

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I go this photo this evening, of three deer showing up at the feeding station.  It was getting a bit too dark for photos (we’re fully dark by 5:30, these days), but I did manage a couple.

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None of them are the ones we’ve been seeing for the past while.

Less than 10 minutes after I took this, more showed up.  By the time I got back to the window, there was 4 at the feeding station, a 5th one had been chased off, and two more were under the crab apple tree!

So we’ve gone from having 1 or 2 show up at a time, to an entire herd!

Maybe time to start leaving more than just an ice cream bucket full of deer feed. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Little Squeak!

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Cats, being cats, will hunt things.

The outside cats do a great job of keeping the rodent population down.  Every now and then, we’ll see signs of their successes.  All part of that whole “circle of life” thing.

On the way out this afternoon, I took the time to get another pitcher of warm water for the cats before we left.  I saw The Outsider by the entryway steps.

He looked at me, paused to bat something around, then ignored it for a bit, then batted it around some more.

A quick glance and I could see a tiny little fur ball and realized he had caught a vole.  Something I’ve seen quite a few times.

Then he batted it again until it was upside down…

… and I saw the little legs wiggle.

Then I heard the tiniest of squeaks.

The vole righted itself, only to have The Outsider bat at it again, and pounce a bit.  No claws.  No actual biting.

Yeah.  He was playing with it.

The poor thing would get tossed a bit, would right itself and sit there, but as soon as it moved, it would get batted or pounced on again.

While squeaking the tiniest of squeaks.

Normally, I wouldn’t do anything about this.  Rodent population control is one of the reasons farm cats are so good to have around.  But I could also see that this little guy was completely uninjured.  Plus, The Outsider was interested only in keeping it from running away.  He was much more interested in the pitcher I was holding.

Then he batted it again, the vole righted itself and just sat there.

I couldn’t help it.

I picked it up.

It made no effort to run away.

The Outsider seemed to be wondering what I was doing, until I put the pitcher of water down, when he immediately lost interest in the vole and went for the water, along with three other cats.

The vole stayed in my hand, no longer squeaking, but trembling mightily.

My daughter came out, and I handed it to her, so I could distract the cats away with the warm water – the bowls of water outside were already frozen.

It made no effort to run from her, either.

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Of course, I got a picture, first.

He was so velvety soft!

Looking at that long snoot, I find myself thinking it might be a mole, not a vole, but when I try to look it up, I’m not any clearer on this.  It’s like it has a vole body with a mole snoot.

I’m still thinking it’s a vole.

While the cats were distracted, my daughter went to where there were leaves piled up as a mulch in the flower garden on the south side of the house.  She made a little nest in the leaves and dropped it in.  It snuffled around in a circle for a bit, then she loosely covered it with more leaves, so the cats wouldn’t see it.

We are such sucks. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Cat water heater – follow up

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Okay, so this is where we left off last night.

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When I checked on it last night, however, I found that the aluminum foil did not prevent water from dripping down.  After looking around for something that might work, I decided to commandeer one of the containers we have been using for the cat kibble.  A heavy bottomed frying pan that the handle had broken off, long ago.

Some time during the night, however, it got knocked over.  We could see the light glowing through the drainage holes in the terracotta pot through the bathroom window.  When I went out to do their food and water in the morning, I found a small ice patch where the water had spilled.

I am guessing that, when it got to hardly any water left, the cats knocked it over while trying to reach it.

I decided to go with the concrete block.

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I am hoping the weight of the block will make up for it resting on the edges of the light fixture.  It seemed high, though, so I moved it closer to the kneeler, and put the pot and tin upside down near it, so the cats could sit on them, if the wished.

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Which promptly got ignored. :-D

At least with the block, though, he can put his paws on the corners to stabilize himself.

When we checked it again, hours later, it had been knocked off again, but it was also completely dry.  There was no new ice. Again, it seems that they knocked it over only when the water was almost gone.

So I’ve put it back, and filled it with more water than I had before.

As for the heat; it is clearly working, in that the water is kept from freezing, but neither the pot nor the block seemed to warm up at all on the sides.  There is no radiant heat coming off.  The heat of the bulb is enough to keep the water from freezing directly above, but not enough to fight off the cold on the sides.  I had hoped it would provide at least a little bit of warmth that way, but it I’d probably have to go up to a 100 watt bulb to accomplish that, at which point I think it would be too hot at the base of the pan.  That cats, at least, know how to use their own body heat to keep them warm! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Well, hello, young one!

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We got ourselves a deer visitor this morning!  A lovely young buck that has been visiting off and on.

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When I got to the window to take pictures, he was right under the bird feeder and looked like he was going to jump up to try and get at the seed!  I didn’t get the camera ready before he started to walk away, but he was so close, it would have been hard to get a photo of him with the telephoto lens, anyhow.

Just look at that icicle beard!

Unfortunately, we are out of deer feed right now, and getting low on bird seed, too.  I won’t be able to get more until tomorrow, at the earliest. :-(

The buck was clearly looking for food, and even settled for some spruce needles!

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Interesting that he has no interest in grassing on the “hay” in the main garden area.  I’ve seen them go for elm and maple leaves before, but this is the firs time I’ve seen them go for spruce.

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He was really yanking on that branch, too!  He even pawed at the ground under there, too, looking for something to nibble on, before heading towards the crab apples.

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There are still frozen apples on this tree, but they aren’t falling down, even when I try and shake the tree.  Ah, well.  Perhaps they will fall over the winter and become a nice deer treat.

I had to wait before I could take photos as he was walking away.  He was walking with his tail up, and I really didn’t want to take photos of a big butt hole and dangly bits. :-D

After this, he slowly wandered away.

It was good to see him again.  :-)

The Re-Farmer

Something fishy going on!

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Today was very much a kitchen day for me.  We roasted three chickens yesterday, ate most of one for supper, then I de-boned all three, saving the bones and skin to make a stock.

Since I was tending the stock for so many hours (which will be a separate post), I took advantage of the time and started working on cleaning the kitchen.  You know, the pull out the microwave, clear everything off the counters, wash the knife blocks, kind of cleaning.

Our 20 gallon fish tank is in the kitchen, and I decided to do a complete water change on that.  Which meant taking the plants, and our three lonely fish, out completely.

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That is the last neon tetra of the 10 I bought, last year. :-(  The algae eaters were sold to me as Siamese algae eaters, but that’s not what they are at all.  I believe these ones are Chinese algae eaters.  We had a pair or Siamese algae eaters when we moved, but when we found we couldn’t set up our 90 gallon tank right away, I quickly picked up the 20 gallon tank we are using now, and transferred our plants and fish.  Sadly, the Siamese algae eaters did not survive.  They survived the drive over, but in the time it took to get the small tank, I think their water just got too cold.  I do want to pick up more; they eat a different kind of algae than the other types of algae eaters.  Plus, I want to get more neon tetras again.

My goal had been to set up the 90 gallon tank with enough plants to not need to use an aerator at all.  With the number of plants I have now, we are able to do that with the 20 gallon tank.  I do have the portable aerator, just in case, but haven’t needed it in months.

Unfortunately, a piece broke when I was disassembling the filter for our 90 gallon tank in preparation for the move.  It’s a connector for a hose.  I figured I could just pick up a new part after the move, but no one carries the brand out here.  It’s not even available on their website.  I can do without an aerator (though we do have one), but not without a filter.  A filtration system for that size of tank is not cheap, so it’s not like we’ll be able to replace it anytime soon.

So the big tank, on its stand, sits in the corner of the living room, taking up space. :-(  My older daughter and I were talking about what to do with it.  We might just put a board across the top, then cover it with a cloth, so it looks better. :-/  I’m sure there’s a piece of plywood we could use, somewhere around here! :-D

Meanwhile, our little fishies are now back in their home, with fresh water and re-arranged decor. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Furry visitors

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I got called over to check out the skunk, from the living room window.

2018-10-20.skunk When I got to the camera, I could tell something had his attention.

Oh, that’s what it was…

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Checking each other out!

Then I saw the other one…

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And my husband kindly shut off the TV so the camera could focus beyond the reflection. :-D

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The skunk continued around the back of the house, closely watched by the deer.  The deer hung out under the crab apple tree until something else startled them.

So beautiful.

The Re-Farmer

This could be a problem

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Today, the plan was to open the outer doors to the sun room during the day to let the kittens use it, then close it up for the night.

At one point, I was outside and decided to sit on the swing seat they like to cuddle on and play with Doom Guy, and get other kittens used to me.

One of the things I did when cleaning up the turd bombs and transferring the cat kibble from its chewed up bag into a 5 gallon bucket, was to put the bucket itself into a box on its side.  It just fits into a size medium moving box, with barely enough space above to be able to use the bowl we use to measure out the kibble without taking the bucket out.  The box and bucket are sitting on the plastic couch that is also in the sun room, to further make it hard to get at.

Well, that didn’t stop them completely, of course.  While I was there, Doom Guy jumped into the box, squeezed in behind the bucket, then stood up to look in.  He was able to reach into the bucket and just reach a piece of kibble, take it out, and proceed to crunch away, out of view, behind the bucket.  He only did it a few times before coming back for cuddles.  It was cute, but I’m thinking we need to find a lid for the bucket!

Just a little while ago, I went through the Old Kitchen to close up the sun room’s outer doors.  There was a whole pile of kittens, some scattering out the door, some behind the swing bench they were on, and Doom Guy made a dash for the old kitchen.

One of the other things I’d put on the plastic couch was the bag of deer feed.  It normally sits somewhere else, but I moved it there while the floor was being mopped, and hadn’t put it back.  It had been knocked onto the floor, with most of the feed spilling out.

*sigh*

I was able to sweep the majority of it back into the bag.  As I did that, kittens were dashing around me in all directions, and it sounded like one was stuck behind the dresser I use as a tool chest.  I swept up the last dregs of the seed into a dustpan to throw out into the garbage can just outside the doors.  I took the opportunity to see which kitten was stuck back there.

Whoops.

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So I guess, when I went into the sun room, the skunk was under the plastic couch where I couldn’t see it and, when I disturbed it, it hid in the corner.

I’d seen it earlier in the day, coming through the front gate and up the sidewalk to the house, like any other visitor, before coming around to the cat food under my office window.  There was a fair bit of ruckus under there, as not only is the skunk pretty loud under there, but the blue jays were having a field day, going after the kibble.

So I went to check the bowls and, sure enough, they were empty.  The skunk had gone in to look for more food, most likely.

I refilled the bowls, hoping to tempt it out.

I waited a while to see if the skunk would come out, then came out of the house through the main doors with a flashlight.  No sign of the skunk, but I certainly tempted the kittens out!

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All seven of them were very happy to have the bowls refilled!

At first, I couldn’t see the skunk and hoped it had at least come out of the corner and would be making its way out to the food bowls.

I was wrong.

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It wasn’t hiding in the corner, after all.  It was settled in, quite comfortably!  Not the least bit disturbed by my flashlight, nor the flash, when I’d taken photos, earlier.

As I started writing this post, my daughter came by to let me know that all 7 kittens are in a pile on the swing bench.  I don’t hear any crunching under my window, which means the skunk hasn’t come out to eat.

This could be a problem.

Hmm.  I hear skunks make good pets…

:-D

The Re-Farmer