Things warmed up a bit today, and we got a bit of snow. It won’t last long; tomorrow, the temperatures are supposed to dip again.
After some consideration of what materials I had available, today I finally built an insulated shelter for the outside cats, as an extra layer of protection in the sun room, for when things start to get really cold.
Continue readingI discovered the cats were not the only ones enjoying the warmer, insulated sun room, this evening!
Continue readingIt warmed up a little bit today, so we got to work on winterizing the sun room. When that was done, I was even able to modify the shelf we have outside the sun room into a cat shelter.
What a job it was, too!!
Continue readingIt’s been quite interesting, as I work around the yard, in areas I worked on last year, and seeing the differences.
One of the differences is, I am seeing all sorts of things popping up, in areas that used to be choked with years of dead grass, fallen branches and garbage, or hidden away by low hanging branches.
While mowing past the north side of the spruce grove, where I am now able to mow right up to the tree line, I was observing some of the wild roses I’d pruned down, but didn’t pull their roots, coming back up. For the most part, I will be leaving those. I also passed what looked for all the world like carrots, growing in the moss!
This is the largest of several I could see. I came back later and poked around the base, just to be sure.
No, they are not carrots.
Continue readingOne of my daughters let me know that the water bowl in the sun room was no longer on its heater, so when I had a moment, I went out with a pitcher of fresh warm water, heading through the Old Kitchen to fix it.
On opening the inner door, I noticed the food bowl in the sun room was empty, so I paused to grab some kibble to top it up.
Of course, as soon as I opened the door, there was a flurry of cats running out of the sun room, while others were running towards the Old Kitchen door. I saw Ferdinand run out, and then Slick headed for the door.
Except…
Wait a minute.
Is that Slick?
Thanks to Ferdinand staying in the doorway, preventing the other cat from getting out, I was able to grab a few quick pictures. I had to show it to my daughters to confirm.
This is not Slick.
What I did not see until my daughter pointed it out to me, not only is Ferdinand in the doorway, but Nicky the Nose is outside, looking through the window.
The new cat finally ran past Ferdinand when I opened the door. I never saw Nicky the Nose at all, but Ferdinand did not run off like he usually does. He actually hung around, watching me from just a few feet away, as I knocked the ice out of the outside water bowl and refilled it, as well as topping up one of the outside food bowls.
The water bowl was indeed knocked off the concrete block, but there was no spill. It was completely dry! With the outside bowl frozen over, they were very happy to have fresh water.
He has the saddest expression on his face!
My older daughter had been seeing a strange cat that was more grey than Slick, off and on, but this is the first time I’ve finally seen him. So he’s actually been around for a little while.
This brings us to 14 outside cats in total. The 6 kittens. Beep Beep, Butterscotch, Rolando Moon and The Hand are all cats we were feeding when we first moved out here. Slick, Nicky the Nose, Ferdinand, and now this guy. That’s basically twice as many as we were regularly feeding last winter.
No wonder we’re going through the cat kibble so fast! ;-)
The Re-Farmer
Yesterday, I started on making a last minute Christmas gift – a wheelchair capelet for my aunt – and ended up finishing it at about 3:30 in the morning. So I slept in a bit.
The cats did not appreciate my bringing their food out, later than usual! :-D
When I came outside, there were cats running, jumping and scrambling from all directions. Then they got confused, because I had to do something else first. Not only did I come out of a different door, but I didn’t go straight to the food! How dare I!
There is a cat missing in the above photo; Rosencrantz or Guildenstern ran in as I came over, then hid when I got to the door.
I’m glad that floor is concrete. We’re going to have to empty the room out in the spring and scrub it down again. Cat puke is a little more challenging to clean up when it’s frozen. :-D
The Re-Farmer
So, this is what the cats left for me, this morning.
Glancing out the bathroom window, earlier, there were 3 or 4 of them – including Big Jim sitting over the light bulb – looking at me with innocent faces.
Or, more like, “where’s our food and warm water, human?”
It’s all fixed up now, but I wonder how it happened. From the looks of the top of that box, I’m guessing a cat slid off, taking the blanket with it. But how did the piece of Styrofoam insulation get knocked off? The one that was between the box and the arm bar on the transfer bench?
The one that was at me feet, as I took this picture!
I look forward to building something better for the cats, next summer. I have a few ideas, but I haven’t built anything of substance since I helped my dad build the desk I’m using right now. One of the downsides of being the youngest of 5, and having 3 older brothers. My dad didn’t have much need to show me how to do stuff like that, and my mom was determined to keep me in the house, for my “duties as a woman”.
Well, I can learn, and I’ve got two strapping young women to help me out. :-D
The Re-Farmer
My daughter called me over and told me I needed to look out the bathroom window.
Were the kittens all being cute again?
Nope.
Ferdinand was.
He had been asleep when she saw him, but woke up when I used my phone’s camera to be able to see (ah, the joys of being short…).
He’s made himself right at home on there! The kittens don’t mind him at all, either. From what I saw earlier today, there may well be a kitten or three on the other side of the blanket over the box. They keep pulling the side down and covering the opening completely.
Strange. I just noticed. His nose isn’t the bright pink it usually is!
The Re-Farmer
Since re-arranging the set up for the outside cats, we’ve been checking out the bathroom window, to see how they’ll take to it.
In my case, that involves holding my phone up to take pictures, because I’m too short to actually see that area through the window. :-D
Looks like they have a new favourite cuddle spot! Continue reading
So, the outside cats have been using the cat cave put together to help conserve their body heat. Overall, they seemed to adapt to it rather quickly.
Of course, they also explored it quite a bit, and every now and then, we’d look out the bathroom window and see a cat sitting on top of it. Especially Ferdinand.
The problem is, the only thing supporting the blanket was a sheet of Styrofoam insulation, which would bounce under their weight.
Not anymore! Continue reading
The Re-Farmer 