Critters

Snoozing

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After our vehicle troubles yesterday, I’d intended to stay close to him today.  I had to go to the post office before noon, and that was the only thing on my list that required driving.

I ended up out three times today, first to pick up the mail, next to pick up prescriptions, and finally to get a few more groceries.  I tried a different town this time; one I haven’t been to in probably 2 decades.  It’s a half hour drive away, and I was hoping it would be more of a stocking up sort of place.  I was wrong.  Ah, well.  Live and learn.  It did give me a chance to test the vehicle out – and be totally paranoid, constantly checking the gauges and the heat, and listening for any unusual noises.

No signs of any leaks.  I checked under the van in the garage, to see if there was a sign of puddling that I’d missed before, but the ground (the garage is just over packed dirt) has had so many spills over the years, I couldn’t tell if what I did see was old or new.  Since I was in and out so many times, though, I could compare from within the day, and there is no sign of any leaks.

Of course, I’m still going to be paranoid!

For now, I get to share adorable photos with you.  I give you…

Sleepy kitties!

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Nasty Crime Boy was back in what seems to be a favourite spot, causing us to spontaneously melt into puddles of awwwwwww….

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Then Trülbus the Crime Eater joined him, for double awwwwww….

I even got some bird pictures today; here is one of them.

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They seem to like the new feed, too. :-)

They also were completely ignored by the sunning cats. :-D

We haven’t been seeing the grosbeaks for a while now.  They seem to disappear for a while, then come back in droves.

When getting the mail, I picked up some more of the previous deer feed, that’s mostly sunflower seeds.  I plan to mix them about half and half for the next while.  That way, there will be a wider variety of seeds for the critters.

There are deer pictures for today, too.  So many have me laughing out loud!  I will share some of those in a separate post, once I’m done resizing them.

The Re-Farmer

Animal Activity

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Today, things got quite cold; we hit -20C, with a wind chill of -26C in the morning, though our high of the day was around -5C.  It was also bright and sunny, with little wind, which meant that some of the ice and snow still managed to melt a bit, and the animals came out to enjoy the sun.

Not that I was there to see most of that; our adventures of the day will be for another post.  Here, I give you cute animal pictures!

This morning, my younger daughter got some pictures in – it was the first time she’d used this camera!  Mama and the twins had come by.  She managed to get a few good shots, in spite of the massive reflections on the glass.

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Here, Mama and one of her twins are very intently watching something.

What where they watching?

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I think that’s Squishum.  It could be Rolando Moon, but looks too small.

I was home for a while and got a few shots of Hungry Girl and Barbecue.  Hungry Girl is the one that comes closer to the house, so I can get really good shots of her face.  Barbecue hangs back, so I don’t get the good shots like this one…

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I got a few really good ones; it was hard to choose which to post.

Then Hungry Girl obliged me with a funny one…

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Mmmm…. nummers…

While my younger daughter and I were out in the afternoon, my older daughter got some photos for us, too.

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It was Hungry Girl and Barbecue again … and cats!  Can you see Beep Beep, hiding in the grass?

The Hand also came out to enjoy the sun.

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Awwww… look at that face!

Others came by, as well.

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Nasty Crime Boy came over to luxuriate in the sun, where he was joined by Butterscotch…

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… who looks most displeased! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Deer visitors – and a surprise guest!

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This morning, we had a WHOLE lot of activity out our living room window!  Detail and her boy were back, as were Mama and the twins.  Sometimes, they’d be eating peacefully together, other times, Mama would chase them off.

Then we saw more activity in the spruce grove and realize that Hungry Girl and Barbecue had tried to come over, but they were getting chased off by Detail’s boy!

Getting photos was rather difficult, though, as the sun was shining into our living room, and there was a lot of reflection of us in the way.  I did manage to crop most of that out of this image I got with my phone.

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You can actually still see my husband, and part of the book he’s reading, in the reflections. :-D

Later on, something big went flying by, and I had to check it out.  That’s when I saw a huge raven, over by our compost pile.  It didn’t stay anywhere for long, so the best I was able to get was this photo of it in one of the maples. while leaning up against the window as far as I could!

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I remember, in my younger days, reading about ravens and descriptions of them.  We never had them around, so that’s all I had to go by.  It seemed to me that they were kinda like big crows.

Then I moved to Victoria, BC, and saw a raven for the first time.  I couldn’t believe how massive these things get!  And that noise they’d make.  Yikes!

Usually, the biggest birds we see are blue jays, crows, magpies and grouse, with the grouse being the biggest.  Red tail hawks are not much bigger than crows.  Once in a rare while, I’ve seen owls and eagles.

This raven?  The only birds I’ve seen locally that are bigger than this was a great horned owl and a bald eagle, many years ago.  This thing was massive, even compared to the ravens I saw on the West Coast!  They are not at all common around here.

Early this evening, we got visited again by Hungry Girl and Barbecue, for a little while.  I’m glad they came back, because they sure didn’t get a chance at the feed this morning!

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Barbecue looks like he’s giving me the stink eye!

Or should I say “she.”  No sign of antler nubs!

The Re-Farmer

Today’s deer visitors

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I was rather late getting the deer feed out today.  We ran out yesterday, so the plan was to pick up some more after getting our Easter basket blessed in town.  That was scheduled for noon.

My younger daughter came along, so we took advantage of being out together and played Pokemon Go while we were out.  There was a major update, and all kinds of new things in the game, so we had a lot of fun – and saw a lot of other vehicles driving around and parking in certain areas, just like we were!  :-D

Which meant we didn’t actually get home until past 2pm or so.

Rather than get the same feed at the local store we usually do, I decided to try one of the places in town that carried feed.  It’s quite a bit more expensive, though we caught a good sale, so it wasn’t too bad.  We still got only one bag.  The reason for the extra cost became clear, when we saw the list of what was in it.  Our usual feed is mostly sunflower seeds with some grain.  This stuff is mostly grain, plus corn and a couple of other things.

We’ll see how it goes over.  It wouldn’t be worth paying extra, if it turns out the deer don’t like it.

As the feed was being rung up, I noticed the display had it under “pet food.”  I chuckled and commented on it.  The cashier told me, they may was well be pets, considering how much money people are spending to buy feed for them.

Interesting.

On the way out, we saw quite a few deer in that first mile on the made road from our place, and more on the way back.  Deer did come to our place while we were gone, even without fresh feed, and my older daughter got a few photos.  Once my younger daughter and I got home and unloaded the van, I put the new deer feed out.  Some came by when I wasn’t around to take photos, but the mama with no tail and her boy came by again later on, so I was able to get more photos.

I have had a name suggested for the deer with no tail.

Detail.

*groan*

Yeah.  I’m going to run with it.

So here is Detail and her boy!

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Check out those antler nubs!

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They are noticeably bigger than the last time I saw him.  I’m thinking we should be seeing antler tips very soon.

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Detail has such a long face, and a distinctive dark spot above her right eye.  For a while, I wasn’t sure if it was her fur, or something caught in her fur, but it’s definitely a dark patch of fur.

She also obliged me with a tongue shot.

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As did her boy. :-)

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:-D

The Re-Farmer

Hello, Critters

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Ah, a much more pleasant day today!  Just the winds dying down makes a huge difference.  There are blizzard warnings for later on, but not in our area.  We’re just supposed to get a mix or rain and snow some time.

I’m still waiting for that last big blow-out before real spring (as opposed to calendar spring) arrives.

Interestingly, the better weather conditions did not translate into increased critter activity outside our window.

Nasty Crime Boy came to check out the birds.

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Later, we saw Beep Beep climbing one of the trees.  Rolando Moon came out to say hi when I brought the food out, and that was it for the outside cats.

As for the deer, we only saw Hungry Girl and Barbecue.  My being in the window taking pictures seemed to make Hungry Girl very nervous, so I didn’t stay for long.  I did get a couple of cute photos, though.  Including my obligatory tongue shots! :-D  I got both Hungry Girl…

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… and Barbecue…

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… just a peak of a tongue. :-D

It was a quiet day overall, which I’m quite enjoying.  Visits with my mother tend to require a few days of recovery time.  Seeing her every day for 5 days in a row?  I’m going to need at least a week to de-stress!  I did get a call from her today, and I was happy to learn she had booked an appointment with her local doctor for tomorrow – that was fast!  She didn’t get her brace on, though tomorrow she is hoping to talk to some staff about getting the assistance.  I don’t know how the process works in this province yet, but I’m hoping she will be able to get daily visits to put the brace on her, quickly.

I did get a quick trip into town to pick up some things for Easter that will need advance prep time, plus I got my van booked to get the safety done in a couple of days.  I really don’t know what to expect with that.  I’m hoping it’ll be inexpensive, but my paranoid side is thinking they’re going to find new, expensive problems in the process.  Because it just always seems to happen that way!  If all goes well, though, I’ll have the safety done in the morning, and by afternoon, I can get our registration and insurance transferred over.  Then I’ll finally be driving with this province’s license plates!  It’ll only be a month and a half past when it was supposed to get done. :-/

I just know it’s not going to be that simple.  There’s going to be something to complicate things, right?  :-D

I am so looking forward to this hassle being over and done with!

The Re-Farmer

If you wait long enough…

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… the deer come back.

Hungry Girl and Barbecue came back, while there was still light enough to get photos. :-)

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Eunice the Sad and Tired Snowman has lost her head.  Mostly.

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Interesting that Hungry Girl – the one that’s shier and gets bullied by Barbecue so much – is the one that’s brave enough to come closer to the house, while Barbecue stays farther away.

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He keeps tabs on us in the window, too!

My day is complete now. :-)

The Re-Farmer

 

Critters, and ID Update. Yay!

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Okay, so let’s end the day with things that don’t involve messy mystery clean up jobs!

Nothing like our critters to make me smile again. :-)

All of them seemed unusually active today.  Maybe spring is in the air?

While walking away from the door to feed the cats, several of the usual friendlier ones already in the area, I caught sight of the Mothman out by the other house, running away hard, in great leaps and bounds though the snow!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Mothman move at anything faster than a barely quick walk before!

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At best, a few of these guys let me pet their backs while they ate, and they didn’t seem to like it that much.  Squishum wouldn’t even allow that.  Even Rolando Moon, who came in later and will usually come right up to me, stayed away.  Only Butterscotch let me touch her, though she was moving around too much to properly pet her.  As I walked out of the yard to go read the electricity meter, she kept running ahead of me a few steps, stopping, running ahead a few more steps, then stopping again.  There was something odd about how she was moving, as if she didn’t like her paws touching the ground.  Then she would stop and chew on the bottom of a paw.  I think she might have had ice and/or snow stuck to her paws or something.  The only other time I’ve seen a cat walk like that was when it accidentally stepped on a piece of tape, and it got stuck. :-D

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Even the blue jays were so active, I could hardly get a photo of them.

Then the deer showed up.

All 5 of them.

Barbecue came first, then Mama and one of the twins, which was very unusual.  The other twin made its way through the spruce grove, instead.  Then they chased Barbecue away from where he was eating.  Hungry Girl made her way in through the trees, too.  Then, for the next while, they kept chasing each other off.  Mama and the twins took over the feeding station for a while, as Hungry Girl and Barbecue hung out in the spruce grove.  Eventually, they would make their way over, and more chasing would happen.  Not the usual short little chases, either, but big leaping chases, out into the garden.

It’s always something else to see a deer at full speed.  They can really move!!

With all that, I did get quite a few pictures.  This one has got to be my favourite!

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What a sassy Mama!

Who know deer could wink? :-D

I also love this one of Hungry Girl.

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Meanwhile, the squirrel is just sitting there, watching all the crazy stuff going on.

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In between all this, I made my trip to the post office and got my marriage certificate (yay!) so after lunch, my younger daughter and I went into town to FINALLY get my driver’s license transferred over, as well as mail off the forms to finally get our health care cards for this province.

I think it still ended up taking an hour to process the driver’s license transfer!  Thankfully, between all the paperwork I had, she was able to get it done.  Because I was able to get my old file number from the last time I had a driver’s license in this province, she was able to look it up – and my old photo came up for her!  She commented on how different I looked.  Especially the glasses. :-D

She did a whole bunch of form filling, taking extra care to make sure all the names and dates were right, I got my photo taken, then she got on the phone to get an override of my old license done.

They put her on hold.

Twice.

That done, she started to input the new information, but had to start over part of it, which meant I had to get my picture taken again.

I commented on how much more difficult all this was from how it used to be. She got a slightly wild look in her eyes as she nodded in agreement.  I added that seemed to get more difficult only recently.  The wild look came back to her eyes as she nodded and said that yes, yes it has!

I feel for the staff that needs to do all this.

Finally, everything was filled out.  My old driver’s license was photocopied, then she blacked out the bar codes.  I got the photocopies along with my original paperwork, after those got copied, too.  I paid for it, which turned out to be $50 ($20 for the license, $30 for a fee!). After that I had to sign something like 5 different forms.  Then, miracle of miracles, I got to sign my new temporary driver’s license!  My permanent one should arrive in the mail within a few weeks.

It’s done!  Finally done!

Then next time I’m back there, it will be after our van is saftied, and I can transfer the insurance and registration.  Which hopefully will be ready to do before the end of this month, so I don’t have to pay cancellation fees.

I’m just to glad it’s all finished now!  The rest of the family still needs to do their IDs, but I’m the primary driver, so it was more of a priority.

What an ordeal!  So glad it’s over!

The Re-Farmer

Animal Happenings

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I wanted to start by sharing this photo of the cats this morning.

When I go out to feed them, there are several cats that are now used to me enough that they have become a tripping hazard.

Then there are the others…

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If you look way in the back, you can see Squishum, sitting and waiting for me to leave.

That dark patch in the snow beside him?

That’s The Hand.  Sitting in a boot print, peering above the snow.

I swear, The Hand is getting more nervous around people, instead of less!  It used to be that I could at least walk past the feeding area, and he’d just stop eating to watch me, or back off into the dog house.  Now, I can’t even do that.  I come anywhere near the feeding area, he just takes off.

Sadness.  Woe.

Hopefully, in the summer when we can spend more time outside, we will be able to get him comfortable with us.

When putting out the deer feed, I made sure to put some under Eunice, the scary snowman, again.

Eunice has almost completely lost her face in the warmer temperatures.

It wasn’t long after I’d come back in that I saw Mama and the twins at the feed – with Mama going straight to Eunice!  Not bad, considering she wouldn’t go near it, yesterday.

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After taking some photos, I sat down with my morning tea in my crochet corner, next to the tripod.  After a few minutes, I looked up to see a big, white furry deer butt!

Now, with white tail deer, when they become alarmed, they flash their tails.  The white fur under their tails bristles.  Think of a cat’s tail when it tries to look threatening.

This deer was facing the spruces, with its tail up and the white fur bristling like it was hit with electricity.  Something was there that was really spooking them.  Not enough to leave, but enough to run off towards the garden.

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Next was several minutes of them looking over to that spot in the spruces, stomping their hooves, looking around, staring hard at that spot in the spruces, edging closer, backing off, looking hard at… something.

What was that something?

I had a hunch, and it turned out to be right.

Creeping through the spruces was…

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The Mothman, making another rare appearance!

The deer kept stomping and edging closer, and stomping some more.

The Mothman?

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Mothman gives no f###s.  Not the least bit intimidated by flashing hooves and stomping feet.  She just sauntered through the piles of feed, even as Mama got brave enough to come over and start eating again.

Eventually, the twins joined her.

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They continued to look over at where the Mothman had gone as they ate, and eventually left completely.

A few minutes later – presumably after having visited that cats’ feeding area – the Mothman returned.

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After gracing me with a pose for the camera, she slunk away into the spruces again.

Vanished, until her next appearance.

What a gorgeous cat.

The Re-Farmer