Of all the outside cats, Beep Beep is notably the smallest, in every way. Yet, now that she’s got kittens to feed, she is proving to be a Mighty and Prolific Huntress.
Case in point.
Earlier today, I was hearing an odd meowing outside my office window. A very unusual sort of meow. So I went outside to look at see what was up.
It was Beep Beep. Doing this.
The odd sound I was hearing was her meowing with a mouth full of dead chipmunk. Usually, I see her with a vole, sometimes with a bird. This is a first I’ve seen any of the cats with a chipmunk.
Then, this afternoon, my older daughter noticed some odd meowing and went out to see.
Yes, it was Beep Beep again. This time, with a bird.
Both bird and chipmunk remain beside the bowls of cat kibble.
As the kittens have starting coming around the house to the food bowls, I am no longer going to be putting food out for them by the garden shed. Which means, kitties have a meaty lunch waiting for them when they come around.
Butterscotch seems to have moved her kittens again, and from seeing her yesterday evening while I was clearing the bush, I am afraid she may have moved them off our property entirely, and to the neighbour’s across the road (no one lives there, as far as I can tell).
This evening, I brought food and refilled the water for Beep Beep and her kittens, by the garden shed. There was no sign of them, and I went on my way around the yard. As I made my way back, I found Butterscotch and all her kittens!
I had to zoom in with my phone camera quite a bit, as they did not seem comfortable with me coming closer.
Eventually, I came around again and saw Beep Beep at the food.
Except it wasn’t Beep Beep! It was her grey tabby!
I sat at the picnic table and, before I knew it, I had all 6 kittens around! Butterscotch was still around, some of the time, too.
Here is some video I got while I was there.
Just before I was ready to leave, I did finally see Beep Beep. She was carrying a bird in her mouth that was almost as big as her head! She didn’t come close, though. Her tuxedo saw her and ran after her, wanting that bird, but she continued carrying it through the garden.
It looks like she may have moved her kittens across the road, too. :-( This concerns me. While we are pretty isolated, that road is a main artery West from the highway, and is quite busy for a gravel road.
At least they know to come back here for assured food and water!
It’s been a much cooler day today, so I took advantage of it and continued working along our west fence line.
In all, the before and after photos below represent about 2 1/2 hours work. This includes pausing to take some video, and also pausing to drag away the branches and tree trunks I took down.
What a job!
Let’s start at that group of three maples, where I left off last time. Continue reading →
Yesterday evening, I went out to rake out the leaves and twigs where I had cleared away earlier. There are too many twigs and pieces of wood to use to layer onto the garden by the house, so I got the fire pit going.
I also discovered the Butterscotch has moved her babies to the log shed by the fire pit.
I was watched, but none came near!
Later on, I did a walk around the yard and noticed the setting sun was an incredible red colour. I wasn’t able to capture it adequately in this photo.
Imagine the deepest red you can see was the entire ball of the sun.
The redness was because of the smoke of fires burning. There are none burning near us. The smoke may well be from another province!
That pile of wood in the foreground is part of what I’d cleared away earlier.
As I headed back into the yard, I discovered one of Butterscotch’s kittens in the area I had raked, dancing around.
I don’t think it ever did catch the moth. :-D
I raked up 3 wheelbarrows full out of that area. I’m going to have to clear the ashes out of the fire pit again!
I’ve started a routine of putting cat kibble out for the kittens in the evening, when we tend to see them out more often.
When I came out through the sunroom, where we keep the cat food and bird seed, I startled Butterscotch and the one kitten that followed her to the food bowls by the house, so I made a point of putting kibble out near where her kittens are, first. Then I went around to the garden shed, where Beep Beep has her kittens, and put more there.
I never saw Beep Beep’s kittens, but in the time it took me to move from one area to the next, Butterscotch and her babies were hungrily eating together!
The bigger orange tabby couldn’t squeeze her way in, so she went around the other side.
Too cute!
If it weren’t for the size difference, we probably couldn’t tell the orange tabbies apart!
I also got video. :-D
That was about as close as they would let me come, though Teeny Tabby did let me touch her (his?) back while eating, a couple of times. I’m not sure if Teeny was being braver than the other kittens, or hungrier! :-D
Some video from the storm we had a little while ago.
Though we had quite the light show at midnight, we were very fortunate. Across a lake to the west of us, a tornado touched ground, causing quite a bit of damage, and resulting in one death. The Reeve of that municipality declared a state of emergency to deal with the damage.
Today turned out to be a nice and productive day, despite the rain this morning.
After driving my younger daughter to work, my older daughter and I went to the city to do the rest of our monthly shopping. An unplanned stop at Walmart, where I got some canning supplies I hope to use to preserve chokecherries, though I have yet to decide what I will be doing with them; a quick trip to Costco – or at least as quick as any trip to Costco can be! – and then to the grocery store we discovered after our last trip. We had lunch before we started that last bit of shopping, going through their kitchen area, for some Chinese food. To be completely honest, it was hardly the best Chinese food we’d ever had, but it’s been so long, it was absolutely amazing! Talk about hitting the spot!
Of all the things to miss about city living. The dizzying variety of ethnic fast food! :-D
We took advantage of the incredible international sections of the store to get a few things we normally wouldn’t – including a couple of ingredients for something I want to try that I will save for its own post. We haven’t been doing a lot of cooking in the heat we’ve been having, and pretty much no baking at all. Our sourdough starters, sadly, did not survive. The Rye of SourOn was the first to go, and even though my daughters were using Sir Sour Alot almost every morning to make hotcakes, in double batches, it basically went black over one hot and muggy night.
When things start to cool down later in the year, and we’re not doing so much yard work, we’ll get another Alaskan sourdough going and start baking again. Until then, we stock up on bread at Costco and freeze most of it. We’ve been going through bread rather quickly, since no one wants to cook in the heat, so we’ve been having lots of sandwiches! :-D
For now, the less time in the kitchen, the better, which means our grocery shopping trips are filled with more things that can be eaten cold, or with minimal cooking.
We finished early enough that we went straight home to unload before heading back into town to pick up my daughter from work. We were able to make a stop at the beach in the process.
It was much windier at the lake, and the water was so choppy!
Some people even braved the waves!
I’m not sure I would have been willing to do that, but then, I’m not a very strong swimmer.
The water gets so murky when it’s like this! Not that it’s ever clear, given how shallow it is, but on days like this, it’s pretty opaque!
The weather had cleared up around our area by then, so after we got home, I went straight to mowing the outer yard. I’m still mowing a drive-able path to the second gate. We have yet to fix the barbed wire gate. I’ve decided not to make another barbed wire gate, and will instead pick up some fencing wire to use instead.
Now that we have power to the barn, and my brother fixed the melted plug end of the line to the storage shed, I should make a point of going around the areas I mow with the weed trimmer. Though I will not be focusing on the outer yard for clean up, other than what’s essential, I also don’t want to give things a chance to get overgrown where we need to access them. Tall grass is one thing. Nettles, burdock, thistles and self-sown trees are something else entirely!
After I finished with the mowing and was coming back to the house, I noticed Butterscotch’s kittens were out. I got some cat kibble for the kittens and refilled the water bowl by where Beep Beep has her babies. Beep Beep’s kittens were out, too, but only the tuxedo stayed out while I was around, and did not like me being there. So I went back to Butterscotch and her babies as they ate. I actually got to pet the teeny tabby! That itty bitty kitty is turning out to be the braver of the lot. Unfortunately, none of my attempts to get photos turned out. Ah, well.
The fridge and cupboards are stocked up, the freezer is full, the outer lawn is mowed, and I got to pet a kitten.
The Re-Farmer 