I finally was able to get a photo of Ginger today.
Turmeric has been cuddling up with him fairly regularly, these days, which I am so happy to see!
It still throws me, how much bigger he is than Turmeric.
Then this happened.
Cheddar is about the size of both Ginger and Turmeric together, and definitely heavier than both together! :-D
He has been mostly ignoring Ginger, so this is awesome!
That is just so much orange. :-D
The Re-Farmer
Ginger let me take his picture this morning! :-)
Then he promptly tried to catch and eat my phone. :-D
I’m happy to say that, for a past couple of night, we have not been closing the other cats out, and have found Ginger curled up and snoozing with other cats. He’s always been more laid back about accepting other cats, and now it looks like the other cats have gotten used to their new family member. :-)
Unfortunately, other critters are getting used to things.
When the girls went outside to drop the bags of litter into a bin we have for them, they found THREE skunks in the kibble house! If things were warm enough to have a hose out, we would spray them with water from a distance, but that is not yet an option. My daughter tried to shoo them away with a stick, but they just ignored her. They didn’t even threaten to spray. The little one even ignored her when she actually poked at him with the stick!
We’re going to have to leave less kibble out for the outside cats, since they’re not finishing it all during the day, and the skunks are starting to rely on it as a source of food.
Oh, my goodness!!! I just got interrupted while writing this, and I am so excited!!!
I called about the garden soil this morning. I was expecting a call back, to arrange for one of the guys to come by and figure out where to drop the soil off. Before then, I’d called to have our septic tank emptied, and the drive wanted to do that right away, while the ground it still hard, so I had gone ahead to open the gate for him. Instead of the septic guy, we had someone else come knocking on the door about the garden soil.
We walked around and I showed him the easy one, first; in the outer yard, near where we will be building the permanent raised beds in the future. For this year’s garden, however, I was right. They won’t be able to get their truck under the tree branches to where I had hoped the soil could go. I showed him an alternate area I was thinking of, and that one works out perfectly. There is a gate to the garden in the fence there, and they can use our secondary driveway to come right in to it.
Then he said they could deliver it today.
!!!
The ground is still frozen, which makes it better for the trucks.
When I mentioned I didn’t have cash on hand to pay for it, he brushed it off and told me I could swing by and pay for it later.
!!!
So we now have both gates open and waiting for very large trucks to come through! :-)
I am just thrilled!
Okay, back to topic. Where was I?
Ah, the skunks. LOL
When I headed out to do my rounds this morning, I saw the skunks had been after more than kibble.
This is near the kibble house and cat shelter. I’m not sure what they were digging for, this early in the spring, but I guess they found something!
I’m a bit disheartened by how dry the soil is, though, even with most of yesterday’s snow melted away.
Heading into the outer yard, I was watching the large numbers of birds in the pile of branches when I noticed a patch of ground that looked different.
Here, at least, the ground is a bit moister. There used to be a large pile of snow, pushed up by a tractor when our driveway was kindly cleared for us. That snow finally melted away only recently.
Well, that area now has a pile of soil beside it! The first load was just delivered!
The next load should be here in about 20 minutes, so I’d better get my butt off the computer. :-)
The Re-Farmer
This morning, we woke to more snow on the ground.
We were supposed to get rain, first, but if we did, it wasn’t much. Not a lot of snow, either, but we’re supposed to get more, later in the week. These are our “April showers” that will hopefully lead to May flowers. :-)
I managed to snag a photo of Ginger this morning!
He has been very active, so it’s been hard to get photos! :-D
As squirmy as he was while I tried to get that photo, it was no comparison to Beep Beep.
I hadn’t even tried to pet her. As soon as she saw me taking pictures of Ginger, she started rolling around like mad, beeping for attention!
When I came outside, I saw Ginger’s brothers and Junk Pile coming out of the cat’s house, while his mom emerged from the shelf shelter by the sun room door. I’m not sure where Rosencrantz emerged from! :-D
You can see the chickadee on the bird feeder platform, and if you look carefully, you’ll see another one in the lilac bush, just under the thicker branches.
The snow almost made even the ugly fence look pretty!
I so look forward to when we can take that fence out!
The little garlics peeking through the mulch are visibly bigger than when we first spotted them! Thankfully, they should be able to handle this weather just fine. Likewise, the onion starts in the sun room are doing quite well. The temperatures in there don’t go below freezing (and the trays also have heat from below), but it gets chilly enough that if we had the tomatoes or squash in there, we’d have to bring them into the house for the night. The sun room still manages to stay warmer overnight than the old kitchen!
I spotted the shy calico disappearing under the fence on the far end of my mother’s “living fence” of hawthorn, carigana and oaks.
One of these months, I’ll get to cleaning up around the collapsing log cabin, and that corner of the fence. The chain link just sort of got dropped to the ground after the last fence post, so the junk there, and on the other side of the cabin, act as a sort of fence on their own. Once it’s cleaned out, if the renter’s cows get into the outer yard again, there will be nothing that can stop them from getting into the inner yard. Another reason to fill in any gaps, should the electric fence fail again.
I do love seeing the cows, and the few times they have gotten through, they did a great job of eating the overgrown areas in the outer yard, which in turn reduces the fire hazard in those areas. :-)
By the time I was done my rounds, the cats were making their way back into their shelter. I think it’s even dark enough for the light sensor on the timer to turn on the ceramic heater bulb.
Those things have been so handy, I think we will pick up more!
As I write this, we are at -3C/27F with a wind chill of -11C/12F. It’s the wind that’s more of an issue than the snow or the temperatures. Meanwhile, short range forecasts have us at 1C/34F over the next couple of days, with a sudden leap to 15C/59F on Thursday – only to drop to -3C over night, with more snow into Friday. Which is supposed to reach a high of 2C/35F, so it’s all going to melt away very quickly. Long range forecasts show rain and snow in the first days of May.
Somewhere in there, we have to get our septic tank emptied, and get those loads of garden soil delivered. There are things we need to be able to direct sow two weeks before last frost, and everything we are planting this year depends on having that soil available.
It feels like we’re starting to cut it close. Even with the snow, though, we’ve had enough warm temperatures that they should be able to load the soil into their trucks by now. I need to remember to make some calls tomorrow and find out.
It seems the more we get these little snowfalls, the more antsy I am to get gardening! :-D
The Re-Farmer
Last night, I introduced Ginger to a new toy.
I’d crocheted an amigurumi squid, years ago, trying out a new pattern. When I realized we’d closed the other cats out for the night and Ginger had no toys in the room, I decided to see if he would like it.
He did.
Squidly is now Ginger’s favourite toy! The other cats like it, too. :-D
Speaking of other cats…
His sister, Cabbages, and Keith were pretty adorable, cuddling together! :-)
This morning, as I put kibble out for the outside cats, most of them eventually made their way over.
I did not see Butterscotch.
I have my suspicions that she’s tucked away with somewhere, with new babies.
If my suspicions are correct, I hope her nest is nice and cozy, because they’re now predicting another 7 inches (almost 18cm!!) of snow on Sunday! We’ll have more snow in April than we’ve had the entire winter.
The slow melt we’re having now is perfect, except with the overnight temperatures going below zero, the freeze-thaw cycle is destroying the roads! I had to run some errands today, picking up our newly sharpened and tested electric chain saw while dropping off a lawn mower for servicing, then going to another town to drop some stuff off, and the gravel roads in particular are just awful. The paved roads and highways are going to be crumbling even worse than usual in the next while.
I don’t mind the snow while we’ve got these milder temperatures. I think most people on the farms out here will happily put up with rough roads, if it means they will have enough moisture when planting their crops.
I must admit, though, it’s rather disjointing to read other people’s blogs where they talk about all the stuff growing in their gardens, or their latest transplants. :-D
Speaking of which, we did decide to start one of the squashes we’ve got now, rather than later. The Crespo squash is the only one of them that grows large fruit. In trying to find the “days to maturity”, all I can find is “harvest the the skin is very hard”. Which doesn’t tell me much at all! I’ll just assume large fruit means longer time needed to grow them, and will give them a bigger head start. I set the seeds to soak last night, and will plant them later today.
I’m not finding a lot of information about this specific variety at all, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens with these.
And now I have to de-cat myself (hello, Susan) and get some work done! :-D
The Re-Farmer
Yesterday, Ginger discovered the joys of bedding being changed!
The cats tend to react two ways when the sheets get changed. About half the cats see what’s happening, and are all “YAY!!! IT’s party time!” and promptly make it very, very difficult to make the bed.
The others go into a panic and run away like the world is coming to an end.
Ginger, it turns out, is the party type.
There turned out to be three cats in this picture. :-D
Time to cover the freshly washed blanket in fur again!
Time to defend territory!
No worries about Beep Beep. Every now and then, she gets in a bad mood and goes after whatever cat happens to be nearby. Ginger handles himself just fine!
I should put the freshly washed blanket into the shelf, but I’ve discovered the cats love a folded up blanket on the corner of the bed, as a bed of their own. Ginger is no exception!
We’ve been closing the other cats out of this room at night, just so Ginger can get a break from the crowd and get some sleep on the good spots. ;-) The other cats are not happy with this. As I write this, there are currently 7 cats sprawled all over my bed! :-D As soon as I open the door in the morning, they all rush right in. Next thing I know, my bed is covered, they’re circling Ginger’s food and water bowls as if they didn’t have oodles of them elsewhere in the house, and take their turns using his litter box – also as if there weren’t several others on different floors available for them! LOL
As promised, here is a picture of David for Leenda. :-)
David is just as hefty as is brother, Keith, but looks like he should be all light and fluffy.
Well. He is fluffy… ;-)
Also, he has pants. Thick, fluffy pants. When he walks by, his tail is like a huge banner with wiggling pants below.
Which is a much better view than what all the short haired cats insist on giving us, every chance they get! :-D
Well now! I was hearing the sounds of a cat playing behind me as I wrote this, so I took a look. It’s Ginger, running around and batting a cat toy around! Yes, he’s found a way to run and bat at a toy with his one front leg, at the same time!
He has adapted so well, so quickly. :-)
The Re-Farmer
Ginger finally got cooperative enough for me to get some photos of him. :-)
He was very squirmy.
He’s like a weird, twisty rubber band!!! How the heck did he get his front leg like that?? :-D
Nicco wasn’t too sure what to make of him. :-D
Can you believe she’s about 2 months older than he is? She looks so tiny in comparison!
:-D
The Re-Farmer
Oh, we had a snuggly boy this morning!
The snuggles were after he aggressively attacked both my feet through the covers! :-D
But how could anyone be upset about potentially bleeding toes, when THIS face is looking at you?
Aaawwww….
*melt*
The Re-Farmer
I missed my morning ginger cuddles, but that’s okay. He got other cuddles!
That’s Keith on the left, and Cheddar at the top. Cheddar is the one that came indoors after we found him walking strangely, and could feel what we at first thought was a dislocated rib. It turned out he had somehow impaled himself with a stick, at about his armpit. It was surgically removed, and he never went back outside.
I still have the “cheese stick” in its vacuum sealed tube. And yes, the vet actually labelled it “cheese stick”. :-D
Keith came indoors some months after Cheddar, so all three of these guys are “rescued” yard cats.
Ginger is very close to Keith in size and shape, though Ginger isn’t even a year old yet – and Keith is not a small cat! You can see in this photo, a bit of why we would sometimes look at Ginger and think we’re seeing Keith!
There’s no mistaking Cheddar, though. He’s a big, hulking block of cheese, that boy!
I have a shelf against the wall next to me, when I am sitting in my office chair. The chair has a high back and rotates/tilts freely. Parts of the shelf are kept clear for the cats to use, including the very top, so they can take naps next to the ceiling. They’ll sometimes use my chair to get to the top of the shelf but mostly they get down from the top by jumping into the padded headrest of my office chair, then down to the floor.
I gotta say, when Cheddar is the one jumping down, and I’m sitting in the chair, I practically get whiplash! It’s amazing how much force that boy has when he lands, and the chair slams back as far as it can tilt!
Beep Beep even hopped up to check out the new boy.
She doesn’t like him very much, and ended up driving both Ginger and Cheddar away, so she could snuggle up to Keith and start grooming him. :-D
Also, this is why my bed is so hairy all the time. It’s constantly covered in cats!
Having brought Beep Beep indoors to have her babies last spring, this will be her first year of NOT getting pregnant. She seems quite content with that! She also seems quite content with her new life as an indoor cat. Even when she went into heat, she showed no desire to go outside to visit the (intact) boys in the yard. We don’t know how old she is, but I have pictures of her from when we made the drive out and stayed here with my dad, back in 2015, and she was definitely an adult cat at the time. That makes her a minimum of 7 years old. I would guess she’s closer to 10, and she would have had a litter of kittens every year of her adult life, until now. She is a wonderful mama, but I’m sure she’s more than done with the babies by now! :-D
Meanwhile…
Ginger’s surgical site is looking really good and healing well. He displays no sign of pain or discomfort, and it’s not slowing him down at all. Which is starting to be a problem, as he is exploring more and trying to get into things he shouldn’t be! We’ve been able to train most of the cats to stay away from/off of certain areas and, of course, he hasn’t learned that yet. :-D
There is some tension between him and some of the other cats, but not in any out of the ordinary way. Some of our cats are just more ornery than others, so it’s not just him.
He’s such a sweet boy!
The Re-Farmer
It is pure joy when the baby boy comes over for morning cuddles.
He doesn’t want to be picked up, and he doesn’t want to be held, but my goodness, he wants pets and scritches and snuggles, and he loves to roll and stretch and squirm on the soft, soft bed. :-)
If only we could get the outside cats even half that friendly!
This was the crowd that greeted me this morning. After I took the picture, I looked up and saw the sort-of-calico cat come running under the fence into the yard.
The Re-Farmer
Last night, we decided to close the other cats out for the night. Not because there were any issues with cats not getting along, the night before, though. The other cats are really liking access to Ginger’s food and water bowls (as well as his litter box). With the other cats around, he spent most of the night in his bed at the bottom of the closet, and by the time he came out in the morning, all the food and water was gone. He does the stairs to the basement really well, but I’d rather he didn’t have to do that because the other cats were too lazy to! :-D
The bonus was, morning cuddles with Ginger!
As soon as he realized all the other cats were out of the room and the door was closed, he jumped upon the bed and started roll and stretch and squirm, while demanding face skritches. :-D He did eventually go back to his “cave” in the closet for the rest of the night, but by morning, he was back for more cuddles.
After a leisurely breakfast from his still-full food and water bowls. :-D
I think he enjoyed the break from the other cats! He is certainly enjoying people time, too.
I was talking to my daughter about one of the things I noticed about him. He and his sister, Cabbages, are the youngest cats in the house. Yet he is bigger and burlier than her, and even his older sister (half-sister, I suppose), Nicco. The spice girls are both downright tiny compared to him, and even Tissue, who is about the same age as the older kittens, is smaller than he is. Our Ginger is a beefy boy! He’s about as big as his Aunt Beep Beep, who has been filling out since coming indoors. He hasn’t caught up to Big Rig, but then, Big Rig got her name because she was so much bigger than the other kittens. I don’t think he’ll get as big as Cheddar or Leyendecker, but I’m sure he’ll be at least as big as David and Keith, soon.
He was always a bit bigger than his brother, Nutmeg, but Nutmeg is definitely filling out, too.
So is their mother, Butterscotch (on the left).
Who is looking decidedly round in the belly.
*sigh*
Rosencrantz is another beefy one. If she’s pregnant, we might not even be able to tell until we start seeing kittens running around again.
Thankyou to Wolfsong for passing on the name of a vet that does a barn-cat spay day. It’s a long drive for the cats, but we’d be able to do 4 females for about the same price as the local vet doing only one, so it would be worth it. We will definitely be contacting them to find out when their next spay-day is. The only challenge will be to catch yard cats like Junk Pile (I haven’t actually seen her in a little while), and I’m sort of assuming Rosencrantz’s baby, the sort-of calico, is female. It’s not like we’ve been able to see her well enough to confirm, either way. Just like Junk Pile; we didn’t know for sure that she was female until she showed up with kittens following behind. In fact, because she never looked pregnant, I had thought she was a he!
At least we’ve been able to get the indoor males snipped for now, including Ginger. Can you imagine the poor boy being intact, recovering from an amputation, and surrounded by a house full of female cats in heat? LOL
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 