kittens

Follow up: ground wasps

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While doing my rounds this morning, I made sure to check where I’d found wasps while trying to clean up yesterday.

I was surprised by what I saw.

First, there was the hole in the ground. I didn’t expect to see an actual hole like that.

Also, do you see the light brown stuff scattered around? Particularly in the grass to the left?

Those are pieces of nest cells.

When I was spraying the area with the hose, I couldn’t see any of this. I’m not sure if it was because I was so focused on the wasps, themselves, or if some critter came through during the night and dug things up even more.

I also zoomed in to the root or stick across the hole in the ground.

The wasps on the stick/root itself were quite still and just sitting there. Like they were sleeping or something. The other wasps were more active.

I don’t know what kind of wasps these are. They are smaller than the yellow jackets I’m used to seeing, and have more black to yellow on their bodies.

Well, whatever they are, we have to get rid of them.

I used the hose again, filling the hole. I saw a lot fewer wasps flying around than before, so I hope that means they are moving on to somewhere else. Until they do, we’re going to have to be careful. Especially when trying to interact with Butterscotch’s babies.

Which one of my daughters was able to do, last night!

I saw through the window that all 4 of them were out and playing, so my younger daughter went out, sat on the ground and wiggled a stalk of wheat (self-sown from the straw we’ve been using as mulch this year) at them.

Two of them even came close enough to sniff her sandal, and when one of them turned away to start eating, she was able to pet its back – until it noticed that she was touching it! *L*

Progress!!! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Come a little bit closer…

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It was worth getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Little Braveheart was willing to come closer for a wiggling flag, than a wiggling stick. :-D

The bit of fur visible at the bottom of the picture is Potato Beetle, who really, really wanted cuddles!

I didn’t stay too long, though. Tabby was hanging around, and I spotted their even more elusive sibling making several attempts to get to the freshly refilled food container. I didn’t want to keep any cats from being able to eat!

The Re-Farmer

Yard bebbies

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While doing this morning’s rounds, I got to see all of Butterscotch’s babies!

My apologies for the terrible picture. :-(

I was zoomed in from the far side of the lilacs in the flower garden to get this. Thankfully, after clearing out the spreading cherry saplings, I had a perfectly positioned window to watch them through. As soon as I moved, however, they were gone!

I was just finishing up and starting to go into the house when I saw Little Braveheart was out, so I sat on the steps and tried to lure her closer.

This was as close as she would get. She was curious enough to come out, but content enough to just sit there!

After I while, I did see a little Tabby face peering at me through the spirea, too. :-) Not quite as brave as Little Braveheart!

I really hope we can get these bebbies socialized, at a little bit!

The Re-Farmer

Get a little bit closer, and a follow up

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I headed out to water things this evening, but got distracted.

Junk Pile and two of her babies were out!

I ended up lying right on the ground, in hopes that would make them less intimidated by the tall(ish) human.

Creamsicle took full advantage of the situation.

What a silly boy!

Tabby didn’t come any closer than this, but did spend some time rolling around under the grapes, in between watching me.

Little Braveheart did come a bit closer to the stick I was wiggling, but not close enough to actually touch it.

It was funny to watch Little Braveheart and her mother. They share many of the same mannerisms, and often mimicked each other’s movements.

They also have the same eyes! Even though the markings in their fur are different, they have the same facial structure and many other similarities.

The grapes, meanwhile, did eventually get watered, and are looking really good.

The more shaded ones at the back of the trellis are noticeably darker than the ones that are more exposed.

While tending the rest of the garden, I found this.

The tallest of our sunflowers is starting to open up its seed head! So far, it’s the only one at this stage.

Awesome!!! I can’t wait to see how big the seed head gets.

Meanwhile…

My husband and I had our medical appointments today. Heading out two days in a row was really hard on him. Thankfully, we got in quickly, and didn’t have long to wait.

I learned one thing today that my husband forgot to mention after yesterday’s appointment at the pain clinic. The doctor there was going to phone our doctor here to discuss recommended pain medications.

Another reason I’m unhappy I wasn’t allowed to go in with him yesterday. He forgets things more often, these days. At least he remembered this while with our doctor!

The doctor had a couple of concerns. For one, he will be referring my husband to an endocrinologist, so we’ll be getting a phone call about that. He also wants to adjust my husband’s prescriptions, but will wait until he talks to the pain clinic doctor, go through his current medications, and think about it. Once he’s done that, he will fax any new/changed prescriptions directly to the pharmacy.

As for the rest of my husband’s bloodwork, it was all fine.

Then it was my turn. My bloodwork was fine, across the board. During the physical, we did get a laugh. After testing my reflexes, he did the usual putting his hand on my knee while flexing the joint, as he started to ask if I had any issues with pain, etc. When he lifted my lower leg, he cut himself off in mid sentence with a startled “Oh!!”

To which I responded to his half-finished question, “yes. Arthritis. You felt that, did you?” :-D

Yeah, both my knees do some interesting things when they’re flexed!!

One thing with both my husband and I was, what we thought were heat rashes turned out to be fungal infections. !! So we both got prescriptions for creams to treat that. When we were done, I dropped my husband off at home, picked up a daughter, then headed into town to get the prescriptions filled before the pharmacy closed. A stop at the mail on the way out found a letter from the heart clinic, with my husband’s rescheduled appointment, early next month.

I’ll have to remind him to phone them about it right away, to arrange some sort of accommodations, like having a stretcher available for him, for an appointment they say might take up to 2 hours.

So while nothing much changed at today’s appointment, steps were taken and others are being put in place, for the near future.

We shall see what comes of it.

The Re-Farmer

Brave babies

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It was a lovely evening to do my evening rounds last night, so I found myself sitting in the sunroom, Potato Beetle curled up on the swing bench beside me, fiddling with my phone and enjoying the quiet.

When I suddenly realized there was a tiny tabby in front of me!

One of Junk Pile’s kittens was exploring through the open door, saw me, saw Potato Beetle and ran off, before I could get a photo.

Alas!

With where the bench is set up, the open inner door blocks my view of where the cat food is set up, but I could hear some crunching – and an almost non-stop, low growl.

That would be Junk Pile. Even as she sometimes comes a bit closer to give us a sniff, she keeps up that growl.

I ended up moving to the steps of the storage house to see if I could lure some kitties closer – or at least get them more used to me.

The food bowl I’ve put there for them was empty, but the ones by the house still had kibble in them, so I didn’t add more. I wanted to encourage them to go to the house.

Little Braveheart and her tabby sibling were willing to come out and play nearby. More Braveheart than Tabby, who often ran back into the spirea.

Unfortunately, Rosencrantz was in there, too, and she does not like Junk Pile’s babies. Any time one of the kittens went in there, I could hear her growling at them.

In the end, I think they felt my presence was safer!

Little Braveheart was even almost-kinda-justabout-willing to play with the stick I was wiggling around.

After a while, the kittens took to ignoring me and just running around and playing – which, in itself, is progress – before going to the house to eat.

Junk Pile, however, has three kittens.

Eventually, I spotted the shy one, peeking at me from the spirea. It never came all the way out, so I left, so as not to stress it too much.

Instead, I went into the sun room and dug up a baggie with a few cat toys in it, tossing some outside for the babies. Potato Beetle was with me again, and he went running after the toys, too. I was pleased to see that he and the kittens would sometimes play with the same toy together, with no animosity between them!

As I was walking back and forth around the front of the house, the kittens stopped running away immediately, and would either just ignore me, or pause to watch.

More progress!

Meanwhile, I went over to the junk pile, and was happy to see and hear some of Butterscotch’s kittens. She came out for pets, too. Earlier in the day, though the living room window, I saw one of her orange babies playing in the collapsed wine barrel that I’d cleared beside. I had hoped they would find it a good place to play, and they have! Now, when they do, we can see them from the house. :-)

It will take time, but I am hoping we can socialize these babies better than we were able to with Junk Pile and Rosencrantz. The biggest problem with working on that, however, is mosquitoes. I was being eaten alive while out there! I didn’t want to put on bug spray, as I’m sure the smell would be unpleasant for the kittens. Unfortunately, the times when the kittens seem to come out the most are also the times when the mosquitoes come out, too!

We’re working on it, though! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Junk pile babies!

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I had a much more pleasant surprise this morning, besides finding myself face to face with a wasps nest.

While walking past the junk pile, I suddenly saw a white, orange and black face looking at me!

I quickly grabbed my phone to take a picture, but by the time I looked back…

There was an orange face staring at me.

A playful little orange baby that did not run and hide from me.

Then Butterscotch came over and let me pet her before jumping up on the junk pile herself. I got to pet her some more before she moved further away.

There is the little calico beauty!

So adorable!

Oh? Is that orange movement behind the calico?

Why, yes it is! Hello, orange baby!

The babies ignored me and started going for Butterscotch and climbing to the top of the pile.

I just switched to video when another orange baby showed up?

They are so big and fluffy!!! They would be quite a bit younger than the other kittens, and yet they’re not that much smaller!

Oh? Did I hear something scrabbling around in the junk pile?

Number four!

They just hung around at the top and played while I stood just a few feet away. I got closer to these guys than with any of the other kittens, except Little Braveheart.

Just look at the smug expression on Butterscotch’s face! She’s all like “see… I don’t kill ALL my babies. I’m a good mama… when I’m outside!”

Going past the junk pile later, I saw the calico and an orange baby playing at the top. With Mom not there, they ran off when they saw me.

That makes 3 litters of yard cats. I’ve only seen one of Rosencrantz’s 3 babies lately, so that makes a total of 8, for sure. Possibly 10.

It’s a good thing Beep Beep is content to stay indoors. Otherwise, there would probably be another litter on the way!

The Re-Farmer

So many kitties!

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While I was outside this evening, I found Junk Pile and all three of her kittens, playing in front of the storage house.

When I had the chance, I tried to see if I could get one of them to come close.

It almost worked.

Almost, but not quite! This was as close as little Braveheart would get!

It’s hard to see, but there’s a kitten behind the grapevines in the background. :-)

They love playing on those stairs!

I’ve been keeping that insulator on the steps filled with water lately. Junk Pile and her kittens seem to prefer drinking out of that, over the wider, shallower container by the food dish.

I would love to have stayed longer to try and play with them, but I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes!

Meanwhile, I had this on my bed…

At first, it was David, Cheddar and Big Rig, but then Keith pushed his way in between and settled in, too!

Gosh, they’re funny.

The Re-Farmer

Fur baby progress!

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It had been a while since I’d seen the outside kittens, so I was happy when they showed up this evening. Little Braveheart had follow Junk Pile to the food bowls by the house, but ran off when I came out. They hung out by the steps into the storage house, before hiding in the grape vines, so I decided to sit on the steps and see if I could tempt them to play.

Braveheart was immediately curious!

Just look at that intense gaze! :-)

And who’s that back there?

Another baby, chewing on a grape vine! :-D

Junk Pile, meanwhile, came over and lay on the mulch, growling at me the whole time! That seems to be her default attitude these days. :-D

I broke off the spent flowers of a spirea growing under the stairs to wiggle around on the step. It worked a bit!

Braveheart pounced at it! :-)

Her sibling even came a bit closer.

I saw no sign of the third kitten, though. I hope it’s all right.

After this, they ran off with Junk Pile into the spirea, so I let them be.

Once indoors, I got entertained by more kittens.

The cats love the base of the washing machine packaging so much, we don’t have the heart to get rid of it, yet! :-D

Layendecker had been napping on it when Turmeric crawled on and woke him up. :-D

They are so sweet. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Sleepy kitties

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I woke up this morning, surrounded by cats, including one curled up on my belly.

It was this one.

Can I go back to sleep now?

She barely woke up as I got her off, and was more than content to join a sleeping Susan, who’s paws you can see on the side of the photo. :-D

Another kitty had a harder time of it.

Yaaaaawwwwnnn!!!!

Turmeric had been peacefully sleeping on a box in my shelf, when Two Face jump up and tackled her. :-D

Turmeric is not pleased.

The Re-Farmer