skunk

More plans gone awry

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

I should be used to this, by now.

With my computer dying before Christmas, we never did our traditional family photo that I email to family and friends every year. With the lilacs in full bloom, we were doing to do it now, posting under the lilac hedge.

The weather did not cooperate.

Then I got an early morning phone call from my mother’s doctor. My mother’s last lab work included a kidney test. The last time she had this done would have been around February, and the results were fine. This time, there was a significant decline. The doctor explained the test results and gave me instructions for my mother; she needs to stop taking her water pills, and work on hydration.

I’ve been trying to get her to increase her hydration for quite a while, now!

Then she needs to be tested again, in a month.

That call done, I knew it was too early to call my mother, so I sent an email update to my siblings, did a short version of my morning rounds and had breakfast.

I did make sure to leave food for Broccoli in the old garden shed. Her kittens were not in the cat bed, but I could hear her growling in the back somewhere, so I left the food and closed the door. As I was leaving, I saw her pop out where the hole in the back of the shed is. Later on, I saw her standing guard near the shed. So I’m guessing her kittens are still in there, but that she’s tucked them somewhere in the back, under a bunch of stuff that’s been in the shed since before we moved here.

After a couple of hours, I tried calling my mother – and she was still in bed! Ah, well. I told her about the call from her doctor, and explained the instructions for her. The problem is, she’s not sure which of her pills is the water pills. I have a photograph of her prescriptions in her bubble packs, but that’s somewhere in the external drive of data saved from my dead computer. I sort my pictures by date, and I have no idea when I would have take the picture. My brother has the list, but won’t be able to get to it until he gets home from work.

After talking to my mother, I called her doctor’s clinic and asked about her requisition. I wanted to know if they could send it to the lab in the hospital that’s just a few blocks from my mother (the clinic there has even more trouble keeping doctors than other towns we’ve tried). It turns out they can’t fax it to that lab. They’d be willing to, but it goes against the rules of the other lab. However, if I were in the area, I could swing by and get it printed out for my mother. Once she has a physical copy, she can go to any lab she wants. So I’ll see if I’ll be able to do that within the next few weeks. Otherwise, I’ll have to drive her to the town her doctor is in, and that’s very tiring for my mother.

I did make arrangements with my mother to help her with grocery shopping tomorrow, so I can go through her prescriptions and verify. She’s on the same water pills my husband is, but when he showed me his, they didn’t look like any of hers, so they must be from a different supplier. The pharmacy we go to is a different franchise.

Speaking of pharmacies…

I was getting ready to head outside, when I found out I was going to need to go to the pharmacy. I was planning to do a dump run when it opened in the evening, then a run into town anyhow, but that would have cut things close to the pharmacy’s closing time, so I left for town right away, instead. By then, the post office was closed over the lunch period and a couple of packages had come in early, so I went to a couple of other places after getting the medications, then did the grocery store last. Once of the things I wanted to do was pick up a new water jug, along with getting a refill. With one of the jugs springing a leak, we were down to three, and that was just not working out. I was rather shocked to discover getting a new 18.9L jug cost just over $26!!! The fill is free when you buy a new jug, but I did have to buy a new cap, since I had to take off the cap it came with, in order to fill it.

All the running around took several hours.

I must have over did myself yesterday, more than I thought, because by the time I got home, I was pretty much wasted. I still feel wasted, and it’s all I can do not to just go to bed right now. It’s not even 6pm yet.

It also rained again. We weren’t supposed to get rain today. Not much. Just smatters of rain, but there’s no chance of anything really drying out right now.

I did make myself go outside, though. I gave the outside cats a light afternoon feeding (the little skunk was back for food, too!). I wanted to at least check all the transplants. The plastic on the box cover around the eggplant and hot peppers was starting to tear loose on one side, so I stapled that back on. The twine I tied around it yesterday did help, but the winds have been just insane for the past while.

All the transplants look just fine, though. None of them look stressed at all in their new locations. I’ve no doubt their protective plastic rings has helped with that, considering the winds we’ve been having. I checked the mulberry, too, but they didn’t look all that healthy when I planted them, so all I can say is, they don’t look any worse!

The largest chokecherry tree, out by the main garden area, has started to bloom. It actually starts blooming later than the ones along the edge of the spruce grove that I haven’t removed. Those ones actually get more sunlight than the one by the garden. The double lilac in the old kitchen garden is starting to pass its peak blooming period, but the honeysuckle are just starting to open. The white lilacs are also well into their blooming period now, while more Cherokee roses, by the sun room door, are starting to open. The pink rose inside the old kitchen garden has buds, but even with the pruning we’ve done, it still doesn’t get as much sunlight because of the ornamental crab apple tree in the corner of the garden bed. Those have bloomed, but not as much as in the past few years, and all of the crab apple trees seem to already be done blooming. They did not stay in flower for very long at all!

All the common lilacs are blooming now and, as you can imagine, the yard smells amazing! At least for a few moments before the wind blows the scent away. The dwarf Korean lilac by the house is still just budding, and then there’s the one I can’t remember the name of, over the be vehicle gate into the yard. That one blooms last of all.

I wonder if it would bloom earlier if we got rid of that big elm tree by the people gate? It does seem to be struggling a bit more this year. That could be because it’s so close to the “moat” that’s formed around the garage, with all the rain we’ve had.

Checking on things and repairing the box cover over the eggplant was about as much as I could manage. Even my ears are burning, from being out in the wind, yesterday and today. That left elbow is still giving me grief. I forget about it, until I try to pick something up, and my arm just fails on me. At least I can still turn doorknobs. 🫤 I took more pain killers and they should have kicked in by now, but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Ah, well.

I just want to hang on a bit longer before going to bed. Hopefully, I’ll get an early start tomorrow – and well finally get that family photo that keeps getting delayed, along with everything else!

The Re-Farmer

Stinky kitty!

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I had another rough morning today. Along with pain and stiff joints, I had almost no balance, bouncing off the walls going to and from the bathroom, so I asked my daughters to feed the outside cats for me again.

Since Easter, when I was no longer on my Lenten fast from sugar and starchy foods, I have still not been eating a lot of either. I might include a potato with my breakfast, or some rice with my supper, and even had a couple of cookies my daughter recently bakes. That’s about it. I think, however, I am going to have to go back. I was mostly pain free during my fast, and certain other… bodily functions, shall we say… had improved. I even had days where I didn’t take any painkillers at all. Granted, some of the pain issues I’m having now may be related to how the temperature fluctuations affect my osteoarthritis, but that can only explain so much. Fatigue is another issue.

A lot of this stuff was so constant, I didn’t even really notice them until they came back after I ended my fast. So it looks like I’m going to need to cut out the sugar and starches, if I want to accomplish the things I need to get done this year. When I finally headed outside, it was because I made myself go. I sure as heck didn’t feel up to it. But, today is working out to be another gorgeous and sunny day, and I had things I wanted to check on.

The first thing I heard when I got outside was a very familiar crunching noise, so I checked the kibble house.

No wonder I was seeing cats cautiously circling around their shelters! Stinky Kitty was moved right in!

This little bugger did not want to leave, either. It’s still too cold to set up the hoses, so I tried to convince it to leave with a long stick. The little bugger just sniffed the end of the stick and kept on eating. He (she?) finally left after I went around the kibble house, banging on the roof and kicking at the back wall.

After that, I did the rest of my rounds. Once more of the snow is gone and the ground it less muddy, we’re going to have to take the wagon or wheel barrow around to pick up all the little branches and garbage that have been blown around. There are a few more garden beds that can be worked on, but I’m physically just not up to it. I kept seeing stuff that I want to get working on, some of which I can start now, but the old bod just can’t handle it today. Which is really, really frustrating. This is stuff that needs to get done, whether I feel like it or not. Especially since the weather forecasts – but just on one of my weather apps – is saying we might get 2-3 cm (about an inch) of snow starting tomorrow, and continuing over the next couple of days. Other apps say it’ll be rain. Either way, not good conditions for the outside work I want to do.

Which I will get into more in a video tour I made yesterday. Unfortunately, every time I try to save the file in a format I can upload, the video gets corrupted. I’m sure the problem is my computer, though, not the software. I’m going to try again today and, if it finally works, I’ll upload and post it.

Then, I’m going to take a nap before I plan to go into town to meet the egg lady for a couple more flats of farm fresh eggs!

The Re-Farmer

Morning finds

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Actually, this first photo is an evening find. While doing my evening rounds, I walked past the feeding station, and found a family of skunks at the bird seed!

I left them be, since I’d rather they were eating the sunflower seeds than the kibble. On the way back, I startled a couple of little ones. This one went up against the house and just froze, watching as I went by.

Such a cute little baby!

On uploading the photo, I saw the strange dot on its head. Now that I’ve “upgraded” by trading phones with my husband, I have a camera with much better zoom quality, so I was able to get a closer look.

It’s a wood tick. A big, blood filled tick.

😥

Poor baby! Mind you, it probably doesn’t even notice it’s there.

All the kittens have most definitely been moved out of the branch pile. I found one of the mamas on the wood pile (formerly a junk pile), so I brought a tray over and put it at the top for some kibble. In the past, we’ve got kibble trays on the ground near the pile, but with the skunks eating the kibble, and a ground hog still living under the pile, I figured it would be better for the kittens at the top. Not long after, I came by and saw three kittens at the tray. Two ran off immediately, but I managed to zoom in and get a picture of the little calico.

Oh, and that shredded orange tarp on there? It used to cover the entire top of this wood pile. It has been torn to shreds by the groundhogs, who have been taking the strands back to their dens to line their nests.

I suspect we’ll start seeing baby grogs in the not so distant future!

I’ve got some heavy duty tarps I found at Costco. They’re only 8′ x 10′, but that should be enough to cover the top of this pile. The layers of wood at the top had all rotted from years of exposure, but I’ve finally reached wood that looks useable, and I want to protect it. Hopefully, the grogs will leave non-torn tarps alone! If I do that now, though, I suspect the mama will move the kittens again. :-/

The fourth kitten – the little tabby trying to get under Mom to nurse – was already at the laundry platform when I first came out with the morning kibble. The other two are the ones I saw running away from the kibble tray on the wood pile.

Unfortunately, there is no sign of the 6 bitty kitties. I don’t know where the mom took them.

This is another surprise find. The Wonderberries are starting to bloom again! The berries they had when they were transplanted have all ripened and fallen away (those that we didn’t eat), but there are new green berries forming, and new flower buds, too!

Next is a surprise find that shows just how wet the ground still is in places.

As our spring kept dragging on, we had a melt followed by a large snowfall. When our angel with the front end loader cleared our driveway for us, the snow was so deep, he couldn’t see where the driveway ended and the grass on the sides began. There was water under the snow, and when he went off the gravel with one side of the front end loader, the tires sank, leaving a trench several inches deep. I’ve yet to be able to mow that area as much as we normally would, because that side is still so much wetter. As I headed out this morning, I spotted these, growing in the sunken tire track.

Do you see those sprays of broad, flat leaves coming out of a central point in the mud? They are coming up along the entire length of the muddy tire track. Nowhere else along the driveway.

Those are bullrushes. AKA cattails. These normally grow in ponds. I’ve never seen bullrushes growing here before. The nearest bullrushes in the area are in a series of small ponds in the ditch along the road, a couple hundred yards away. Even the low area in the old hay yard, which actually became a bit of a pond this spring, does not have bullrushes in it.

I’m going to leave these be. Bullrushes are something I want to encourage, even if it is in an odd place. We’re not in a position to make use of them now, but we have plans to in the future. The more of them that starts growing now, the more they will spread and increase. That way, by the time we are ready to use them, there should be enough to harvest, without over harvesting. When we finally get to turning that low spot in the old hay yard into a pond that should hold water all year, I want to make sure bullrushes start growing in there, too.

Every year since we’ve moved here has been very dry. With this year actually having adequate amounts of rain, it’s been interesting to see what things are now growing where we didn’t expect.

The Re-Farmer

So wee!

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While doing my evening rounds and tending the garden (something has started to nibbled on our carrot greens, so that bed now has a net around it), I topped up the kibble trays. Along with going to the pump shack and leaving some kibble there, I also left a bit of kibble in front of the branch pile, where the bitty kitties are.

While walking around the outer yard, I heard the distinctive crunching noises of a skunk eating kibble – coming from the pump shack.

So of course, I went to chase the skunk away from the kitten’s food.

Oh. My. Goodness!

Would you look at how TINY it is!!!! The litter of kittens in the pump shack are bigger than this guy!

No, I did not chase it away. It’s just a baby! A very hungry baby that let me come quite close. Far more interested in food.

So… we have both kittens and baby skunks in the pump shack now!

I heard a noise and took a quick peek, finding one of the big kittens skirting around the pump shack. Later on, I came back and found no food and no babies, so I went inside. I found the bike I got at the garage sale had been knocked to the floor. While picking it up again I could see, behind some junk, a tuxedo face was watching me. I heard movement in other places, so I left.

The branch pile, meanwhile, was just crawling with kittens!

The four kittens that have been coming to the house were playing with the six little kittens in the branch pile.

That kitten in the foreground?

I was able to catch it and hold it for a while. Some time later, I came over and picked it up again, only to realize it was a different little kitten. I was able to pick this one up again when I came back one last time, topping up the kibble at the branch pile, and the pump shack, again.

Hopefully, this is the start of being able to socialize at least some of the kittens!

So many bitty babies!!!

The Re-Farmer

Morning finds

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As I write this, we are still getting weather alerts for another Colorado Low that might sweep up our way. Maybe. For now, we’re at 4C/39F, with an expected high of 6C/43F, and a small amount of rain.

We’re checking the old basement regularly, sweeping the water collecting on the north side into the drain. The big blower fan makes a difference in keeping that under control, too. The south side of the basement is seeing more damps spots, as moisture is seeping through the concrete in patches. I noticed the water level in the sump pump reservoir had gone down quite a bit, so it looks like it got triggered during the night and actually worked this time. No blockages! We’ll have to keep that in mind next fall, and insulate the pipe where it comes out of the house for the winter. Meanwhile, I’ve set up a pedestal fan in the south side of the basement to help dry things out. Normally, we’d take the block of foam insulation out of the window, then switch from the winter window to the summer screen window we built, to help with air circulation, but it’s still too cold for that.

This sort of dampness in the old basement is normal; the dryness that we’ve had since moving out here is what was unusual. My brother had all sorts of things set up to help keep it under control, including having a box fan on a platform he built under the window. That fan is one of the things that disappeared before we moved in, but there is still an old dehumidifier. The reservoir for it disappeared, which is odd, because the girls had to use it upstairs when they painted. High humidity was causing the fresh paint to slough off. Somehow, when it got put back into the basement, the reservoir disappeared and we simply cannot find it. Thankfully, I discovered that the drip valve has standard threading on it. I could hook up a short hose and have it drain directly into the sump pump reservoir. Which is much more convenient than having to remember to empty the reservoir regularly! Now that it seems the sump pump is working fine, we know we can turn the dehumidifier on to help keep the basement drier, if we need to.

For now, the fans are still enough.

Then it was time to head outside and feed the critters.

There are the 11 in the photo, plus Rolando Moon was circling around for some breakfast. :-)

While Junk Pile was busily eating, I refreshed the water bowls with warm water, then quickly shoved my phone right up against the window to try and get a photo of her babies.

There are at least 4 kittens, though I wouldn’t be surprised of there was actually 6. I’ve noticed that she moves them away from the window when she’s with them, and worried that she might move them somewhere else. However, I see that the timer is knocked down, which means the light sensor is always in shadow. The heat bulb, which you can partially see at the top, would be on all the time.

She left her babies in the warm spot while she went to get food!

For those who may be wondering, you can see part of the protective aluminum heat shield on the side. It continues up and above the ceramic heat bulb. There is also a smoke detector installed inside.

I’ve been seeing Rosencrantz around a lot, lately. She is no longer meowing at me while trying to pull me places. I suspect she has lost her litter. Even if she had moved them somewhere else, I would expect her to quickly eat and go, like Junk Pile and Ghost Baby are doing. She just hangs around, and even followed me a bit, while I was doing my rounds. There is still no way we can get into the old freezer where I think she had her litter. It’ll take a few more days of thawing out, at least, before we can move some of the stuff out of the way.

The box nest set up I’d made showed no signs of use, so I moved it out. It probably won’t be used, but I set it up against the house by the sun room window, barricaded on one side with a garbage can to ensure it can’t be moved, and pieces of rigid insulation strategically placed around and over it, so ensure no water or wind can get in. If nothing else, some cats might use it as a safe and cozy spot to sleep.

I made sure to check the old kitchen garden.

Good to see at least some of the snow is melting away. The hose end if from the sump pump, and it does indeed look like water had been pumped here. I’ve got it aimed at the straw, so the water won’t erode the soil away or get too muddy.

It’s going to be a while before we plant in here. :-/

It looks like the honeysuckle got chewed on by the deer! Just the one big stem. We’ll see if that one survives, since it wasn’t chewed all the way around.

I was able to access the old garden shed and took a peek inside. Critters can get into it, and things look rather knocked about. The old scythe is no longer hanging where I’d put it. There’s too much in the way to bother trying to reach it. The blade looks quite rusted, but we might be able to restore it.

Once things melt away in the main garden area some more, I want to dig out the black plastic tarps/landscape fabric (not sure what it started out as, originally) that we salvaged when cleaning up the old wood pile. The plan is to lay it out on the ground where we will be making new, temporary garden beds for the potatoes. Those should arrive around the end of May. The black plastic will help warm the soil up faster, while also killing most of the grass and weeds. We’ll be using straw to grow potatoes using the Ruth Stout, heavy mulching method. This time, we have the wood chipper and can put the straw through the shredder chute, first. I think that will work better than using the straw as is.

While heading up the driveway to switch out the trail cam memory card, I saw something unexpected.

A sunk disappearing under a garage door.

Not the main roll up door, which we don’t close all the way because the latches on the sides get stuck. Not the doors to where my mother’s car is parked, which has a larger gap under one of them, created by critters continually squeezing their way in and out. No. It went under one of the doors to the side where the lawn mowers and chipper are kept.

Critters have never been able to get into that side with the door closed before.

That hole in the ground wasn’t there, yesterday.

I opened the door to look, but saw no sign of the skunk. The back of the room has a lot of stuff just shoved into it to make room for the equipment we use, so it was likely somewhere in that area.

I suspect there is a nest with baby skunks in there now! I certainly wasn’t going to dig around and find out, though. ;-)

I was going to just change the memory card on the driveway cam, since access to the sign cam has too much snow and water to get to it right now. Then I remembered that I could access it from the road side of the fence. Having the camera right at the fence like that is a bit of a risk, since it would be easy for anyone to reach it and steal it, however it does mean I can still get to it. With trees all along the fence line, the snow didn’t get as deep, so there is a corridor all along the fence line that can be walked on, right next to the drifted snow, and the piles left by the snow plow in the ditch. This area doesn’t accumulate any water, like on the garden side of the fence.

I look forward to seeing if the wildflower seeds I broadcast there in the fall will grow. :-)

Speaking of growing things, I got to spend some time tending the seedlings in the sun room, too; rotating trays, watering where needed, etc. They are handling being in there pretty well. I’m a bit concerned about the kulli corn we planted. The sun room can get very warm during the day – it was about 25C/77F in there, when I got back from the city! – but drops to just above freezing at night, even with finding a way to set up a bit of heat in that corner overnight. I’m able to have the warming lamp directly under where the larger bin of seeds are, but the smaller bin is on the highest shelf, which may not be getting much warmth.

One of the first things I do in the morning is turn on the lights for the seedlings in the living room. Last night, I could just see a Yellow Pear tomato trying to sprout. :-) Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of those today.

We need to start more seeds today. It looks like we’ll have to start using the small aquarium greenhouse for those. There’s an open shelf in the mini-greenhouse, but there aren’t any seedlings in the big aquarium greenhouse ready to be moved into it yet. We’ll be having to move the larger tomato plants currently in the mini-greenhouse to the sun room before then.

We’ll figure it out.

We kind of have to! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Our 2022 garden: moving into the sun room

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You know how it gets, when you start one thing, then end up doing more, or go to check on something only to find yourself doing a bunch of other things, just because you’re there, anyway?

Yeah. That was most of my day. :-D

One of those things happened while preparing to write my previous post, and I noticed some deer on the security camera, running up the driveway. I went to check on where they were going and, sure enough, one headed for the kibble house.

The sun was blinding me while trying to take the photo, so it wasn’t until I went out to chase off the deer from eating the kibble, that I finally saw the skunk!

The skunk quickly ran off and, within moments, the cats were back in the kibble house, eating.

Then Potato Beetle politely asked for cuddles, so I stayed in the sun room holding him, which is why I was there to see the deer try and return, several times!

This deer was going for the kibble house because it had been chased away from the feeding station by the three deer I’d seen running up the driveway!

Then, since I was in the sun room anyhow, I started working on the shelf we’ll be moving seedlings onto. With Potato Beetle still being kept in there, I moved the warming lamp to the bottom shelf, which we will leave clear for him, then emptied and set up a higher shelf. That shelf doesn’t get as much light, so the little bins with the tulip tree and paw paw seeds in them got moved up (still no idea if those will ever germinate).

Once that was ready, it was time to go through the big aquarium greenhouse and the mini-greenhouse to collect the largest seedlings and transfer them to the sun room, using some of the bins I picked up.

The two Wonderberries turned out to be too tall for the shelf!! so they got put into buckets and joined the first one on the shelf. They are in biodegradable pots, and I didn’t feel like fussing with aluminum foil, like we did for the first one.

I also had to prune flower buds off the little Wonderberry plants!

It’s not in the photo, but while clearing the extra shelf, I brought down the pot that my daughter buried the cucamelon tubers in. I set it up in the window with the Wonderberry and watered it. Who knows. We might have some cucamelons this year, after all!

Here, the Canteen gourds, two of the Crespo squash, and three of the Cup of Moldova tomatoes got set up next to the trays with the onion seedlings.

A bin with all Cup of Moldova tomatoes got set up on the next shelf down. If they look all bent over, that’s because they were starting to get crowded in their shelves in the mini-greenhouse! A piece of rigid insulation that had been laying on the shelf next to where the bin was placed, got set up to create a wall.

Just in case Potato Beetle manages to get onto the other half of the shelf and decides to do a Susan on the seedlings, and try to eat them.

Hopefully, Potato Beetle won’t be in the sun room for much longer, and we’ll be able to use that bottom shelf, too.

This afternoon, however, he was quite content to watch the activity from the comfort of my husband’s walker!

Once everything was set up, the bins and trays got watered, the reflector was put back in position, and I turned on the shop light that’s hanging on the inside of the shelf, where things are in shadow. It was 20C/68F in there, so I left the warming lamp off. It’ll get turned on again when things start cooling down.

Hopefully, the seedlings will do well in the sun room. I’m still concerned about those overnight temperatures. There’s only so much that little light we’re using for its warmth (as is Potato Beetle!) can do, and there’s no safe way to set up the ceramic heat bulb without some sort of metal frame, since the frame of the mini-greenhouse we used before is being actively used as… you know… a greenhouse.

The mini-greenhouse now has two completely empty shelves and, after re-arranging things, there’s even room in one of the trays for more pots. There will be room for the next seeds we will be starting this week, though I think the Kulli corn, which will be in bins, will be going straight into the sun room. We’ll see how whether the bins can fit in the big aquarium greenhouse or not. There is also still the small aquarium greenhouse. Seedlings don’t thrive in it, but it should still be suitable to keep pots until their seeds germinate and, hopefully, we’ll be able to move any seedlings out to a better spot soon after.

It feels like we’re juggling pots and seedlings! Which I guess we are.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

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For the past while, pain has been driving my husband out of bed quite early in the mornings, so he has been sweet enough to feed the outside cats as soon as it gets light. Which is great for the kitties, and for me, though it meant I didn’t get to see the morning crowd at all! :-D

Yesterday, I headed outside to see if I could work on the high raised bed garden. It was a no go, as it started to rain while I was out there. I did, however, get company…

The ever nomadic Rolando Moon had been away for a few days, but yesterday she came back. She was still with us this morning, too. :-)

There are nine kittens and three adults in this photo! Including Junk Pile and Junk Pile Jr. I can tell them apart because Jr. has more white on her back legs.

I had come out to top up their food in the kibble house last night, after it got dark. As the noise of dry kibble hitting metal pans started, there was a sudden scrambling from the cat’s house beside me, and kittens began flailing out of the doorway. It turned out to be full of cats, and I had scared them!

I then went to top up the tray under the shrine. As I came back to the sun room, I went wide around the kibble house, trying to be quiet. It was completely full of cats, eating! :-D

It’s good to know that, as the nights get cooler, they are using the cat house. I’m even seeing a kitten or two through the window during the day, too.

Nosencrantz has started to regularly come right up to me! Sometimes she lets me pet her, sometimes she just wants to be close by and watch. This morning, I got to give her skritches. :-)

Toesencrantz got to share breakfast with Grandma Butterscotch – but not for long!

When I had come out this morning, I found Stinky in the kibble house. He ended up going around and under the cat’s house, before finally running off. As you can see, he came back, and the cats know well enough to give him space! You can even see Ghost Baby disappearing off on the left. She had been under the shrine, eating with Butterscotch and Toesencrantz.

I was not happy that Ghost Baby was driven away, so I got out the hose to spray the skunk away.

He wouldn’t leave!

Yes, I was hitting him directly with water, but he just shook it off and kept coming back for the food! I finally gave up. I figure he must be really, really hungry to put up with being soaked like that.

Ghost Baby did come back later. Gosh, I want to snuggle that poor baby so much! The other cats tend to drive her off, and she’s so shy of us, we’ve had no opportunity to socialize her. I’m assuming that Mystery Kitten Eleven is hers, which means her own kitten is more socialized that she is, just because it’ll come up to the house, and eat while we are around. Hopefully, over time, she will get more used to us, and the current crop of kittens will be more welcoming of her than some of the adults have been!

The Re-Farmer

New fur babies!

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

When things started cooling down, I headed outside and checked on the old kitchen garden. I started to pull out some weeds I missed this morning, when I heard a noise.

I had startled Junk Pile cat, who was lying on the beets by the retaining wall.

She wasn’t alone!

What a cutie!!

I saw another one dash around the tree, so I started carefully moving around to the side of the garden…

Only to startle more critters.

I certainly wasn’t going to begrudge the skunks a drink of water, so I let them be (the water bottles had been frozen, earlier) and kept moving slowly though the side of the garden.

This confused the skunks, as usually we never go between them and the storage house. We usually go to the other side and use the hose to chase them that way, instead.

This baby was so confused, it started to follow me! :-D

On the far side of the retaining wall, I found the kitten.

It just froze there, watching me.

The other one came bounding over, playing in the mosquito netting, until it realized I was there, then it ran off into the maple grove. The first one stayed frozen for a while longer before it ran off.

I am so glad Junk Pile finally brought her kittens over! From how many teats I could see were in use, I had thought she had more. I don’t know if these are the only ones that were brave enough to follow her, or if they are the only survivors left.

As I headed around the kibble house – which got its second coat of paint yesterday – I spotted Rosencrantz’s babies.

This little one was hiding behind the pedestal, watching me, before coming out for a drink.

It’s sibling was watching me, too, while lounging on some scrap carpet in the junk pile.

I had been wondering how the kittens were getting through the fence. The ground rises slightly here and, between that and the junk, there is no gap at the bottom. This morning, I saw how. They are still small enough to fit through the chain link… but just barely! Pretty soon, they’ll have to go around to another part of the fence, where there is a gap underneath, to get through.

So that’s three litters of kittens we’ve seen now. Butterscotch and her four, and Rosencrantz and Junk Pile’s, with two each. That leaves Ghost Baby, assuming Ghost Baby is actually female and has a litter. We still don’t know, but are kind of assuming.

Hopefully, we will be able to socialize some of them, but if they just become comfortable enough to come to the house for food and water, I will be happy.

The Re-Farmer

Some critter surprises

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

I got to see the kittens again this evening, but this morning, I had quite the critter surprise!

To top up our potato grow bags, I headed to the outer hard with the wheelbarrow, with the tools needed to rake up some grass clippings for much, and get a load of garden soil from the pile.

As I headed passed the big branch pile, I saw movement at the garden soil. Two furry creatures, right where I needed to go to shovel soil!

When they saw me, one of them dashed under the branches, but the other froze in place.

Watching me.

Even as I came closer, it didn’t move.

Which means I finally got a good picture of our mystery critter!

It didn’t move away until I picked up the shovel and started walking right up to it! Then it dashed under the branch pile, too.

I have no idea what they were doing on the dirt pile. They weren’t digging or anything. They seemed to be just looking around. Maybe playing?

As I came back several times to get more soil or rake up more clippings, I had to pass the branch pile each time. A couple of times, the branch pile screamed at me! Of all the names these guys have – woodchuck, groundhog, marmot, etc. – whistle pig seems the most appropriate to the noise they make!

Gosh, it’s so cuty.

Speaking of cute…

As I finished the evening watering and came around to the front of the house to put things away, I saw a skunk running out of the kibbled house and towards the storage house. As I went to the sun room, I saw the mama skunk peek out at me, her babies tucked close against her. When she saw me staying by the house, she decided it was safe to head towards the kibble house.

With her THREE babies!

Three! I hadn’t seen the third one before!

Though they went for the kibble house, when I came around the other side to look at them, they all ran off again, this time leaving the yard completely.

While going back and forth to put things away, I paused for a while to say hello to the kittens, who were with Butterscotch at their food and water bowls.

I was never able to get a picture with the calico, though.

I left a camp chair near the food bowl, so we can sit comfortably while letting the kittens get used to us. This kitten was very fascinated by the wiggling toe of my shoe!

I just managed to get a picture of her when she decided to stand up on her hind legs and bat at her mother. :-D

Gosh, they are cute.

We got cute critters all over the place, today!

The Re-Farmer

I can’t do it anymore

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Nope. I can’t.

Because I’m a suck.

When we find the skunks in the kibble house, we have been chasing them away with the hose. Today, I went out to do the watering and saw a couple of skunks. One immediately ran off and I saw it head under the storage house. The bigger one kept on eating. When I sprayed it with the hose, it disappeared behind the cat shelter, so I went around the kibble house to spray it away.

Instead, I saw her run off, but something looked very different. She had something in her mouth, and… a second tail?

It was her babies. She ran off, carrying one in her mouth, while a second one stayed close beside her.

I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t chase off hungry babies!

They’re not hurting the cats, nor being aggressive. They’re digging up the yard for grubs, but that doesn’t bother me. The only real issue is that kibble is bad for them, but not nutritionally. It’s about how their jaws are hinged. But we have hungry mamas that feel safe enough to bring their hungry babies to the kibble house! How can I possible keep chasing them away?

I am such a suck.

The Re-Farmer