kittens

He’s back!

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One of the dad cats showed up again this morning, cooperatively posing for me outside our living room window, so I could get some photos! :-)

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Dad cat is looking a little rough around the edges!

While he seems to be coming around more regularly, yesterday I saw – and heard! – him being driven away by Rolando Moon.  Who can be just as mean to the other cats, too, we’ve noticed!

I think we are slowly but surely getting The Outsider used to us, faster than the other kittens!  Yesterday, my younger daughter was using a stick to play with him (her?), and even managed to pet him briefly.

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I played with her a bit, too, and she was willing to come close to my feet, but then seemed to realize how close she was and would run off a bit.  Then come back again, to play with the end of the stick.

While all the kittens and their moms seem to have accepted him as one of their own, he and Doom Guy are getting to be quite the pair!  I wasn’t able to get any good photos, but they snuggle up in the sun room, regularly.  Earlier today, while taking something out of the freezer, I looked out the window to the swing bench.  Much to my surprise, there were no kittens on it.  Then I found the two of them.  They were on the old dresser I use to hold the tools, snuggled up and looking out the window.  That space is normally covered with bags of cat food, but we’re on the last bag right now, so it’s available.

I think, from now through the winter, we’re going to have to start buying 4 big bags of cat food a month, instead of the 3 we did last year.  We could get away with 2 in the summer, so I would have an extra bag left over from month to month, but this month we’ve already gone through 3 and are into the 4th – though some of that was due to the cats dumping the bucket onto the floor and eating it all night!

Cat kibble in bulk.  Bird seed.  Deer feed.

Not quite what we were expecting to be doing, when we first moved out here!

Hard to believe, in just a few days, it’ll be a year since my husband and younger daughter flew out.

It’s been quite a year!

The Re-farmer

 

 

Double-sided

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Most of the kittens are pretty easy to describe.  We’ve got the tuxedo, Doom Guy.  The grey tabby, Corvo.  Two orange tabbies, Jim and Bob.

Then there are the calicos.  Or are they torties?  Or something else entirely?

It doesn’t help that one of them is double-sided.

Here is Rosencrantz (or Guildenstern), side A.

20181021.kitten,sideA This is side B.  20181021.kitten,sideB

It’s like two different cats!  When I see her (him?) from this side, I sometimes mistake her for Corvo, until I see the bits of orange.

Today has turned out to be remarkably warm – 13C!  Well above the predicted high.

Time to go outside and enjoy it. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Gotta be careful!

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Seeing our furry visitors, it reminded me that, when I was out in the yard earlier in the day, I had noticed the cat kibble was almost gone.  So I decided to top it up for the night.

We keep the kibble in the Old Kitchen now, so those were the doors I went through.  The kittens were on the swing bench – 6 of them!  They seemed to know I had food with me, which made their responses to me rather funny.  There’s Doom Guy, who comes right up to me.  The cautious ones, like Jim and Bob, sortof hang around, but are still not comfortable with me coming close, even with a bowl of food.  Then there are the super shy ones, who are clearly torn between wanting the food they can see I have, and wanting to run away from me, at the same time!

As I went for the outer doors, however, they all dashed ahead of me and started for the bowls outside.

Just to be cautious, I looked around, and sure enough, there was our Pepe Le Pew, hanging out by the steps of the clothes line platform.  Making himself look big at me!

So I put the food out for the cats, then got some video.

Just so you know, I am NOT really that close to him.  This is zoomed in a bit.

Getting back through the sun room took a little more time than usual. ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Warm

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While checking around the yard, to see if any other branches came down during the gusts of high winds we had yesterday, I came to the remains of our straw bale.

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Beep Beep and her boy, taking advantage of something warmer than the ground! :-D

Smart kitties.

The Re-Farmer

Not sure how to fix this…

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While out and about this morning, the kittens were out in full force.  Including Doom Guy, who can’t seem to figure out that, if he wants me to pick him up, he has to be in FRONT of me, not behind…

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I’m going to have little puncture marks, all up the back of my legs, thanks to him. :-D

Yesterday, I was able to clean up the platform to the clothes line.  The line itself needs a bit of maintenance before we can use it.  A bit more, if we want to set up three lines again, instead of the one that’s left now.

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Whoever rebuilt this platform did a good job of it.

The original platform doubled as a dog house.  On the side, where the mock orange is growing now, there was an opening, and we kept it filled with straw for the dogs.  I even remember being able to crawl into it, myself, for some canine snuggles!

The cats can squeeze under the stairs.  At least, the smaller ones, can.  I don’t think Rolando Moon could fit through there.  Nor the skunk.

Of the stuff that was on the platform, I’ve only kept the bin, as a potential shelter for the cats in the winter, and a piece of eaves trough that I am wanting to re-purpose, but doens’t fit anywhere else right now.

I noticed, however, that there is stuff underneath, so I used my phone’s camera to see what it is.

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???

Why is any of that, there?

Who thought it was a good idea to shove it under there?

The only way for any of this to be there is by pushing it through the opening under the step.

How am I supposed to clean that up?

The Re-Farmer

Birdwatching…

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Heading over to my crochet corner, I noticed something odd on the bird feeder.

At first, I thought it was Butterscotch.

Then it looked at me.

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Why, hello, Rosencrantz…

or Guildenstern.

All the birds were on the ground while she was up there, and she was VERY interested in watching them.

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Guildenstern (or Rosencrantz) wasn’t quite sure what to make of me.  Normally, she runs off as soon as any of us comes near.  Which means this is probably the best look at her I’ve ever gotten!

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Of course, as soon as she was on the ground, all the birds were on the feeder. :-D

Such a pretty kitty!

The Re-Farmer

They are watching me

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After coming back from checking the new Christmas lights I’d added to our fence line yesterday, I noticed the outside cat food bowls were empty.  I went through the Old Kitchen to take care of that, and disturbed the pile of kittens, sleeping on the swing bench.

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This is what I saw when I opened the door to the sun room, plus The Outsider, who jumped down when I opened the other door to get the photo.

It occurs to me that I have not seen Corvo for some time.  Also, it’s been quite a while since I’ve both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the same time.

It’s getting cold enough that, along with the food, we’ve started to put warm water out for them, too.  They seem to be liking that!

We’re going from highs of barely above freezing, to 16C tomorrow, then right back down again.  One last day to get that last of things finished up and put way outside.  I don’t expect we’ll get another warm day like that again until next year.

I wonder how many of the cats we had over last winter will come back this winter?

The Re-Farmer

How did that happen?

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Just look at these guys.

20181016.innocent.kitties So cute.

So innocent.

Such sneaks!

20181016.spill

The bucket was just refilled a couple of days ago.  A new bag filled it just a couple of inches from the top.

It’s now at about the half way mark.

Taking into account what was used since it was refilled, about a quarter of a big bag of cat food got eaten overnight.

The bucket is now kept in the Old Kitchen.

The Re-Farmer

A Day of Rest

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We try to keep Sundays as our day of rest.  It has been made easier by colder temperatures and a continuous, if light, snowfall.

Last night, I found a way to prop the doors into the sun room so we could let the kittens in overnight, but the skunk should not be able to squeeze in and leave a mess for us in the morning.

It seems to have worked, though I suppose we can’t really be sure that the skunk didn’t come in and out without us seeing.  All I can say for sure is, no “presents” on the floor for me to clean up!

20181014.feeding.time My husband wasn’t up to doing the cats this morning, so I took care of it.  Here are the moms, three of Butterscotch’s kittens, and one of Beep Beep’s, plus The Outsider.

I’m fascinated by the markings on Rosencrantz or Guildenstern.

Bob has filled out so much, he’s almost as big as Jim, now!

It seems the kittens have decided today is a day of rest, too!

20181014.pile.o.kittens

I’m not sure if this is 6 or 7 kittens.  There’s that ear behind Doom Guy’s back.  I can’t tell if it’s attached to The Outsider or not. :-D

I am appreciating being able to rest today, as tomorrow is going to be a long one for me.  I will be taking my mother to a follow up appointment for her surgery at the smaller, slightly closer, city.  Then I plan to go to the RCMP and file a report about the vandalism on our lock.  Whoever is doing it may think it’s just a nasty trick to play on us, but this is a potential safety issue, if we ever had to evacuate suddenly.  There’s nothing the police can do at this point, but as long as there’s a file, there will be a past record, for when it happens again.

What a pain.

The Re-Farmer