*insertchildishgiggle*
I just love getting shots like this! :-D
Critters
Foxy Neighbour
I wanted to share some images from a few days ago, when a fog rolled in, covering much of the prairies.
It resulted in some incredibly beautiful frost.
On the way home from town, my daughter tried to get some photos out the window. At one point, I was able to come to a near stop for a while, as she took photos of an old church. Which is when we spotted this guy. He was right in front of us, then dashed off towards the church, where my daughter managed to take a few pictures.
What a big, bushy fellow he was!
Now I can’t go near that intersection, without looking for foxes! :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Critter of the day: Mmm. Tasty!
Majestic
We have no idea where this cat came from, but I am so glad he (she?) found us, and chose to stay.
Just look at that face! So majestic! So…
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Critter of the day: got a snoot full!
Critter of the day: good catch!
Frozen Food
The smaller of the pair of deer that come by regularly now, trying to eat a frozen apple.
I’ve knocked down as many of the frozen apples as I can reach with the pole I found. From the branches I’ve been finding on the ground, I think they’ve been trying to reach up to them, and pulling twigs down in the process.
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We got invaded
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.
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
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Little Squeak!
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.
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
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Cat water heater – follow up
Okay, so this is where we left off last night.
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.
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.
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
The Re-Farmer 