Beep Beep has discovered she can climb the bird feeder, too!
At one point, a bird landed on the top of the hanging feeder.
She went for it.
She barely managed to catch herself and get back up on the platform instead of falling to the ground. :-D
The Re-Farmer
Doom Guy entertained us on the bird feeder again, not long ago.
He was trying to watch all of the birds, all at once! :-D
They all seem to try for the hanging feeder. Like they refuse to accept that it will move, every time. :-D
The Re-Farmer
After our deer visitor left this morning, I went out to feed the cats. Once again, I saw the black and white dad-cat on the dresser in the sun room – and once again, he ran off as soon as he saw me. The rest of the cats were milling about as if they were starving. The girls had put food out for them last night, but the bowls were completely empty by morning. The braver of the cats were eating the food before I even finished filling the bowls!
Then I stepped back to let the shier ones get to the bowls, and watched them for a bit. There’s Rosencrantz (or Guildenstern) at the top; Butterscotch and The Outsider on either side. Big Jim and Bob next to Beep Beep and Doom Guy, then Rosencrantz and Guilden… wait…
What?
Three of them? Continue reading
Heading into the sun room this morning, on the way to putting food out for the cats, I discovered not one, but two of the dad cats, running out of the room with the kittens! The black and white one was back on the dresser. I just caught a flash of the grey and white one, as he ran out the door.
They quickly took off out of sight, but that still left 8 cats to crowd around the food bowls!
Guildenstern (or Rosencrantz) had to push her way in – which she clearly didn’t want to do. Neither of the calico-torties are very assertive, at all.
Jim is now called Big Jim! He’s gotten so burly, I’ve been mistaking him for Rolando Moon more often!
Beep Beep was my escort this morning, though I was joined by Rolando Moon, later on, too. :-)
We had some blustery weather overnight, judging from the branches I was picking up this morning.
When finishing up my rounds, I got a chuckle at the many tiny paw prints in the fresh snow on the sidewalk to the main entry.
From the size of some of them, I could see we got visited by my brother’s dog again, too! :-D
As I came around back to the feeding area, I saw the third dad cat, slink away. I’d seen him earlier, going through the maple grove and then through the tall grass in the main garden area. It was my presence that had him moving away from the house, so I was glad to see he’d come back, while I was doing my rounds.
He let me get within about 8 feet of him, as I made my way back to the sun room doors to go inside, before finally slinking away.
Of the three dad cats, this one looks the most like a house cat. He’s in good shape and, while certainly not willing to go near us, doesn’t demonstrate actual fear or anxiety in the process. I wonder if he belongs to one of the neighbouring farms, and is just coming to visit?
Inside the sun room, I found Bob, already back on the swing bench.
Just look at that beauty! No longer the skinny, scrawny little kitten with a head too big for his body!
He even let me touch him, though he wasn’t too happy with me coming close. Even Doom Guy was more jumpy around me than usual. I think it was because of the heavier coat I was wearing today. The fabric of the outer shell makes a lot more noise. *L*
Bob, however, not only let me sidle up to him and touch him, he let me scritch his ears and cheeks! Not only that, but even as tense as he was, he started to purr and relax a bit. Until Doom Guy came over and disturbed him. :-D
Then I saw a bit of movement out the window, so I snuck over to the door to take a peek.
Look who peeked back!
He moved away after I took the photo, but I went inside the house after this, so I hope he came back for food soon after.
I like my cat-filled morning routine. :-D
The Re-Farmer
We are now up to three, regularly visiting, adult cats that we collectively refer to as the “dad cats.”
Not sure that’s what they actually are, but it works. :-D
It has been a chilly, blustery day today – as I write this, the temperature is at a not-to-bad -3C, but the windchill puts it at -12C! – so it was a good day to stay indoors as much as possible.
No surprise, of course, that when I went through the Old Kitchen to feed the outside cats this morning, the kittens were in a big pile on the swing bench they love so much. They started to scatter as soon as I opened the second door, which is when I noticed an extra cat, sitting on the dresser I use as a tool chest! He ran off as soon as he saw me, as he usually does. It was the black and white “dad cat.”
I’m glad we found a way to prop the doors into the sun room, just enough for the cats to get in and use it. There’s no insulation or heat in there, but it’s still better than outside!
After putting out the food and fresh water, I started heading towards the garage and noticed another cat, sitting in an area where I’d cleared a path to some Saskatoon bushes over the summer, watching me. It was the grey tabby with a bit of white we’ve started to see more often these days.
As I went by the feeding area later, I saw him again at a food bowl. He ran off, but just around the corner of the house.
I couldn’t get close enough for a decent picture. The kittens and their moms don’t seem to mind him at all – even Rolando Moon went by without hissing at him at all!
Then later this evening, after it was full dark, I glanced out my office window to see the grey and white cat peeking in at me!
He took off before I could try for a picture of him. When I looked out, I saw the food bowls were empty. I was thinking the grey and white cat might not have had any food at all, yet. I had some leftovers set aside for the outside cats and, since it’s so chilly out there, I decided to warm it up and bring it out for them.
I didn’t see him around when I got outside, but Doom Guy and The Outsider immediately came over, then both went at the warm food as soon as I put some into the first container. The Outsider even let me pet him! Though it may be he was just too interested in food to notice that I’d touched him. :-D
There was snow in their food bowls, so after I put some food into the second one, I moved it under the little shelter over the basement window (which is what the dad cat climbs on, to be able to look into my office). Then I took the bowl the kittens were eating from and moved it under, too – after prying it loose from the ground it had frozen to. Doom Guy moved over to sniff at the bowl I’d used to carry the food out, but The Outsider just stayed there, staring at the circle of snow-free grass that was under the food bowl. Like he was trying to figure out where the bowl went! :-D
So I reached over, picked him up, and moved him to where I’d put the bowl of food.
And he let me!!! Didn’t flinch or try to get away or anything. He just started eating, right away. Yay!!
Then I picked up Doom Guy and moved him over, because he was still snuffling around.
With Corvo still gone who-knows-where, we currently have 5 kittens, plus The Outsider, the two moms and Rolando Moon, here pretty much all the time. Add in the three dad cats that now visit regularly, we are up to a dozen outside cats.
It should get very interesting, if more of the cats we were feeding all last winter start showing up again!
The Re-Farmer
Such a lovely morning! Doing the morning check around the yard does have its benefits. :-D
With the chillier conditions, I’ll be taking on the feeding of the cats again. The temperature change between indoors and out is not good on my husband’s back. So I get to add putting out food and warm water to the morning routine.
I’m just not going to be doing it at first light. The cats are going to have to put up with that! :-D
The nice thing is that, while I’m putting the food out, I’m actually able to pet almost all of them. Even Rosencrantz or Guildenstern (but not both) will let me touch, for a brief moment, before moving away. I don’t want to keep the shy ones from food, though, so I leave them alone and move on to the water. Which now includes knocking the ice out, first! It was while I was doing that, when all the cats suddenly exploded in all directions!
We got another visitor this morning.
The Thanksgiving family dinner we had planned last month got rescheduled to today. Since moving here, we did have one large family dinner, before Christmas or so, so it’s been almost a year.
I think it turned out rather well.
I think Doom Guy agrees. Continue reading
I recently picked up some more mixed bird seed and added it to our feeder.
I find it interesting, which seeds get eaten right away, and which get left behind.
And the lengths some birds will go to, to get their preferred seed, while ignoring other seeds that are easier to get to.
Like this nuthatch.
All the birds seem to prefer the same seeds. Which is weird, as the seed blend is designed to appeal to a variety of birds. Our visiting birds don’t seem to want variety in their food!
The above photo was taken yesterday, before the snow fell. (I got some others, I will post over the next few days.) Today, they were digging through the snow to get at the seeds.
They were being watched, as they did so!
The Outsider was very interesting in what they were doing up there!
Gosh, he’s an adorable cat.
When it gets dark out, we can still see the white of the hanging bird feeder, but the rest of the platform and stand is barely visible.
Last night, while sitting in my crochet corner, I noticed the hanging feeder swinging away and thought it was getting quite windy! Then I saw some movement, as the stand itself seemed to move. We’ve had wind gusts strong enough to knock it over, so that got my attention.
Which is when I saw the black shadow, moving around on the platform feeder. A splash of white came into view, and I found Doom Guy, looking back at me though the window!
Too funny!
That makes three of the kittens that we’ve seen up on the platform feeder! Makes me wonder how often it happens, when we’re not there to see it. :-)
The Re-Farmer
Well, I’m certainly glad I finished the outside stuff, yesterday! Especially wrapping up the post pounder. Continue reading
So this has been a productive day! Most of my to-do list for outside is now complete. The last thing is to do a dump run, which will be taken care of soon.
Beep Beep made things a little more difficult. :-D As I was getting my supplies out of the sun room, I paused to respond to a message on my phone.
Beep Beep climbed me like a tree!
She did it again, while I was working in the garage, too.
What a girl! LOL
The first thing on my list was to use some metal rods I found while cleaning up at the garage recently, to set up markers at our driveway.
I don’t know how well they will hold out over the winter. We shall see. The main thing is, once the ditches are filled with snow, we’ll be able to see the outer extremes of the driveway. One of them has some reflective tape on it. I’ll have to remember to pick up more. There are a few places where we want to add reflective tape.
Once that was done, I reclaimed our wheelbarrow from the junk pile; an old, cracked rain barrel is now being used to hold things like broke glass and other small things that we didn’t want to just throw on the pile. Then I took the plastic I’d used to put water in an old bathtub for the cows to cover the whole thing (and added the bathtub to the pile, too). I tossed some stuff to weigh down the plastic, but I rather doubt it will stay. We shall see.
The next thing I wanted to do was cover the post pounder. First, however, I wanted to try pumping up the tires, to see if I could move it. In order to access the compressor, however, I had to finish cleaning up and putting away stuff we had to clear so we could rescue Doom Guy.
Beep Beep “helped” by jumping up onto the counter, then onto me!
I found a little hand broom and swept off the counter, then had to figure out how to put the shelves, back, without a second person. In the end, I took the drawers out of the top one, to lighten it.
This is why it was so heavy.
The one drawer with the long bolts probably weighed about 15 pounds, all on its own… and it got stuck. I managed to get it out, though, which made moving that shelf easy enough.
Then I went to clean off the second shelf before trying to remove the drawers.
I don’t know how I failed to notice this, when we first took it off. Probably because we were too distracted by the need to free Doom Guy from behind the counter.
Yeah. That’s shedded snake skin.
With this shelf, I wasn’t able to take any of the drawers out, but it was light enough I could just pick it up and put it on top of the other one.
Then I set up the compressor which, thankfully, has a hose long enough to reach both tires on the post pounder.
The first one, much to my surprise, pumped up rather well, and seems to be holding air.
Cool! Now, if the other one would hold air, it might be possible to move the post pounder into a shed or something.
What a hoot.
It pumped up, all right, but as soon as I turned the air off, it quickly deflated. I could even feel a breeze on my hand!
From this.
A big ole crack in the tire!
Ah, well. It was worth a shot.
I had noticed a tarp in the side of the garage my mother’s car is stored in and was happy to confirm it was big enough to cover the whole thing.
I don’t know what was used to fasten the old tarp – if anything – but I’m hoping that this one will stay. Between the bale twin at the top (which is what had been tied around the folded up tarp, and the zip ties, it’s pretty secure. I just wish I didn’t have to poke little holes into the tarp to thread the zip ties through.
It should hold for a while, though. It would take some pretty major winds to tear it off, at this point.
That done, I moved the toilet “art”. I decided to leave it near the outhouse for now. I think I really will put dirt in it and plant flowers next year. Just for a joke!
Then I took the oil drum that was along the garage and set it up as a temporary burn barrel.
Here it is, next to the remains of the old one. It’s not in very good shape, but until we can chisel off the top of the other barrel we found by a collapsing log building, it will do. I didn’t have to make drainage holes in the bottom. It already had holes.
And now it’s time to move on to the other things on the to-do list. :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 