Fun photos

July 18, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

A couple of fun photos to share with you today.

This one is from yesterday, after picking my daughter up from work. She rescued a snowberry clearwing moth, aka hummingbird moth, while at the pharmacy.

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Then it just sort of chilled on her hand and didn’t want to leave! :-D

I got this one just a few minutes ago. I noticed the water in the cat bowls outside was completely gone (it was another hot one, today, and the bowls are right in the sun), when I came out to see why Beep Beep was being so talkative.

After filling the bowls, I looked around for her and found her…

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I guess she didn’t want to wait! :-D

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any birds use that thing. Maybe now I know why! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Getting closer!

July 15, 2018July 15, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While doing one last walk around the yard at the end of the day, while there was still enough light, I got to say hello to Butterscotch by the food bowls. I was even able to give her some cat treats. Then Rolando Moon showed up – it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen her! – and even she got a few treats.

I decided to see what would happen if I went around the house and just sat in the grass, near where Butterscotch’s kittens are.

When Butterscotch noticed me there, she came running over for pets, mrrr’ing and meowing away.

At the sound of their mother, one of the orange kittens came running out of the bushes, almost right up to me, suddenly seemed to notice me, then ran back to the edge of the bushes! Three other little kitty faces also began peaking at me.

I stayed for perhaps half an hour. I had Butterscotch enthusiastically rubbing against my arms, demanding pets, while the kittens watched. After a while, they became comfortable enough to play with each other, eventually all coming down near the edge of the bushes. Rolando Moon came by, but she clearly does not like the kittens! She hissed when she saw them. One of the orange kittens really wanted to go to Rolando Moon, though, and at one point, got really close. When Rolando Moon started hissing and growling, I got up to shoo her away. Rolando Moon has attacked the other cats, and I didn’t want to take a chance she would hurt one of the kittens, even if it meant I scared the kittens into their wood pile in the process.

Thankfully, they did come back out again, and I even got to touch a couple! Butterscotch was on the wood pile and I went over to pet her. The kittens kept popping their heads out to watch, in between playing with each other. One even went for my fingers. :-D

They were so adorable!!

The Re-Farmer

The Call of the wild… mama

July 15, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Our mama cat has been very vocal for the past while.

That, in itself, is not unusual. Her boy is a very quiet cat, but she has always been more talkative.

What was unusual is that as I moved around the house, she would run ahead to whatever window she could reach in the area. I go to the entry, she’s at the outer door, meowing out the window. I go to the kitchen, she’s up by the aquarium, yowling out the screen (where we still have that frog; it’s been leaving every night, then comes back by morning!). I go to the living room, she follows me there…

Which was when I noticed Butterscotch’s kittens were out and running around. They were brave enough to come up to the steps of the house. I even got a few pictures, though I only saw three of the four kittens.

Then I moved to the front door to see them better.

When we open the inner door, we put our little step ladder in front of it, so the cats can sit at it and look out the window. Because we’re sucks that way.

As soon as I got to the door, our mama cat was on her ladder, front paws on the screen, yeowling away.

Which is when I realized, she wanted the kittens! In the past, when I’ve been looking at YouTube videos of kittens that were meowing, she would come running into the room, looking for the kittens. She seemed so upset not to find any that I stopped watching these videos unless they were muted!

Our mama wants to be a mama to the kittens outside!

The kittens have a very good mama already taking care of them, though.

This is from yesterday.

As for today, when the kittens heard us at the door, they stopped to watch us for a while, then ran off to their nest in the wood pile.

Our mama is still calling for them every now and then!

Oh, how I wish we could get close to the kittens to socialize them! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Three Little Kittens…

July 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

… have come out to play.

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Three of Butterscotch’s 4 kittens came out to play this evening.

I haven’t seen Beep Beep’s kittens in a couple of days. I hope she didn’t move them. They’re a bit big for that, and she’s a tiny cat!

The Re-Farmer

More Kittens!

July 10, 2018July 10, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This morning, we finally saw Butterscotch’s kittens!

All four of them.

Looks like she found a nest for them in the pallet pile. Which means we can see the area from our living room window.

Mama was being very watchful!

Click on the pictures to see bigger versions.

Two orange tabbies and two are…

Is that called calico or tortoise shell?

It does make me wonder about Beep Beep’s kittens. She has a tuxedo. We have not seen any tuxedo cats outside. Not even at my brother’s.

Anyhow…

My apologies for the poor quality pictures. I was taking them through reflections on the glass. I tried to take out the glare as much as I could when I cropped and resized the photos.

They are SO adorable! I can’t wait until the two sets of kittens connect.

Our outdoor cat population has gone up by at least 6. Maybe 7.

What are we going to do with them?

The Re-Farmer

More Kitten

July 9, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I had a chance to sit outside on the steps the kittens are hidden inside. I was able to give Beep Beep some cat treats, and her little ones came out to see what was going on.

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The tuxedo came out first. It seems to be the more adventurous one!

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It even went for my fingers! :-D

You can see a ball of ice at the bottom of the picture. This is from my water balloon experiment. I still don’t know if it’s working! I’m not around to see if Beep Beep does anything with is (if nothing else, it’s watering the bush a bit), and I haven’t been around to see if the cats are checking out the larger one I left in one of their water bowls.

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The tuxedo even went farther afield while I was there.

The grey tabby did eventually come out and stay out, but by then it was too dark for photos.

The Re-Farmer

Kittens!

July 6, 2018July 6, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I did a walk around the yard, picking up the larger twigs and branches that have come down in the wind. I was about to head into the house when Beep Beep came over. Normally, she comes right over for pets, but this time, she wouldn’t let me touch her, and went along the front of the house, which has the door we don’t use. Thinking she might be more comfortable and come over if I didn’t move too much, I sat on the concrete steps while she lounged behind a bush next to them.

Then she disappeared.

I couldn’t figure out where she went, until I heard a little mmmrrr? behind me. Getting up I looked around, then saw her peeking at me from between the concrete steps and the basement wall under the door.

I had no idea there was space back there! Certainly not enough for her to come through on the side I was looking in. I walked around and sure enough, there’s a larger gap on the other side.

She came out again, but wouldn’t come near me. Instead, she lay down on the ground behind the bush again, so I sat down.

Then, suddenly, there were kittens with her!

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I dangled my fingers over the edge of the concrete for a bit, and the tabby went for them, then disappeared behind the stairs. The tuxedo wouldn’t come close, but was curious.

I think there is a fairly large opening under the stairs. Not hollow, but not completely solid, either.

I saw two kittens, but when Beep Beep was rolling around, giving herself a dust bath, later on, I could see that she had three lactating teats. So there is probably a third kitten under there!

Now we just need to figure out where Butterscotch took her babies. I am still thinking they might be in the threshing machine.

We will then have the “onerous” task of socializing them. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Beep Beep and views

July 3, 2018July 3, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

As the girls and I headed out to the city, Beep Beep came out to see us off.

Beep Beep is pretty much the only one of the outside cats we are seeing regularly. Every time I see her, I am amazed by how little she is! Just fur and bones!

During the drive to and from the city, we saw many beautiful fields of canola in full bloom.

Gorgeous!

We even saw some cranes just half a mile from our place this morning, some pelicans flying over as we were leaving the city on a different route, and a herd of bison, with their little ones, on the final leg home.

Pretty awesome. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Dead Wood Down, and cat models

June 16, 2018June 16, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

With yesterday’s heat, I did not head out until the evening, to clean up the piles of wood I’d cleared out the day before. We had caught just the edge of the storm that night, with some rain and high winds, but nothing near as bad as the areas to the south of us. Some places got tennis ball sized hail, and there were power outages in places.

When I got to where I’d left the cut wood, I noticed a branch, just off by itself, but still near the pile of deadwood. Had I missed it, somehow how?

Then I looked up.

The big maple tree reaches out over this area, and it has a lot of dead branches. One of them was broken in the high winds we got, and the bigger part of it got hung up on other dead branches.

Lovely.

After I clearer away the piles of wood, I added another length to the extended pruning saw. I was able to pull down the dangling branch, then with the extra length, was able to cut down two dead branches.

The first one was the one at the bottom of the dangling branch you can see in the picture above. The other was a larger one, that you can see part of, above the big, thick main branch. That one was being partly held up by the main branch.

You can see all three branches, here. The big one, as it got hung up on the main branch on the way down, basically exploded, sending side branches and twigs all over the place! (That would be Rolando Moon, in the background. :-D )

After taking out the big branches, I filled two wheelbarrows with small branches and twigs, just from here!

We had a wiener roast shortly after, and when we were done eating, I stayed longer to clear both wheelbarrows. :-)

While we were having our cook out, we got visited by Nasty Crime Boy, who decided that one of the folding chairs we brought out would be a great place to hang out.

When my daughter came closer with her phone to take pictures, he was very curious about the whole thing, sticking his face up to the phone, then reaching out to grab her with his paws!

Too adorable. :-D

I ended up staying out several hours, tending the fire and watching the sun setting behind the trees while listening to the renter’s cows mooing, with frogs and cranes, croaking in the distance. By the time the girls came out to check on me, it was fully dark except for the glowing coals in the fire pit.

Life is good.

The Re-Farmer