Looking Back at 2022

Happy New Year, Everyone! 

I checked to see last year's first post... not until January 25th, a month out from Christmas. 

This beautiful boy was still here: 

Rusty was the first feral who lived here.  I took him in with three of his siblings and raised them in the little red hen house until they were old enough to let loose.  Two disappeared early on... but Rusty and his sister Harley were here together for a year... then Harley disappeared. 

When Jack Flash came last year, Rusty moved on, across the road to my neighbor's house.  Now they have stopped seeing him.  Life is so very hard for feral cats. 

There was a second male here, Yeller, when Jack Flash came last year... he has disappeared, too. 

I only posted once during February... this picture of the stubby tailed raccoon that has now disappeared was part of that post. 

I also posted this picture of the eggs I got one day: 

Let me tell you, friends, those days are OVER.  

I have seven hens that will be two in about two months, I am getting TWO eggs a day. 

I still have one old brown leghorn... she is six... who lays about three huge white eggs a week. 

My days of giving away six or seven dozen a week are gone, I'm afraid. 

In March, I was sick for almost two weeks... with flu like symptoms.  I tested negative for Covid and then tested for flu and was negative, but the doctor agreed I had probably had it.  I managed to do chores and almost nothing else. I found out afterwards that it was a reaction to a new medication I had begun taking.  What a relief to know that. 

I was still planning to do quite a bit of gardening... and had grandson Jax load me up with planting soil. 

I started pepper and tomato seeds that I had gotten from Baker Creek.  I was very disappointed in the tomato seeds, the pictures in the catalog did not coincide with what I got. 

I did enjoy growing the peppers, Gorbaci, for ornamental value. 

This year I will not be starting any vegetables.  

In April, the two silkie roosters, Brutus and Doug, managed to kill the last two silkie hens that were running with them.  I had separated two out earlier to use for education at the Ag Hall. 

Beasts. 

I still have Doug, on the far right, and Brutus is with Mary in a separate pen.  Martha, the other silkie hen, was killed by a predator in her pen in broad daylight. 

I am trying to rehome these guys... Doug is a beautiful rooster, but a pain to get in at night. 

I have to carry Brutus and Mary up and down the steps in and out of their pen daily, and 

I am no longer doing chicken presentations at the museum, so it's time to lighten the load. 

In May, this guy appeared. 

Jack Flash, aka The Jackal... caused all kinds of ruckus here. 

He hated Coco, the black porch cat.  He hated Cleo, the beautiful. 

He tried to breed Teenie, my sweet little girl who was neutered and is still here. 

He chased Rusty and Yeller off and tried to chase Bullseye off.  

He was the King of the Place. 

He caused me all kinds of problems.  I had to go way out in the yard to feed Cleo twice a day, and Coco had to eat on the back porch for three months or be killed. 

(I realized there is a Baltimore Oriole on the feeder behind him in the picture) 

In April, these guys came back. 

They were not here too long, this time, and left again a few months later to give the pasture time to recover.  They returned again, and then were taken out in late August when the pasture was pretty much depleted after drought. 

I am not sure if they will be back this year... they were very hard on the pasture, and I am having increasing trouble taking care of the big water tank because of course, I have exacting water expectations. 

In May, these appeared at the foot of the deck... I am praying they will all be back this year, too. 

I had quite the stand of Batchelor's Buttons. 

I did not post in June, I have no idea why.  I get busy... but that's no explanation. I used to post daily! 

In July, I posted a picture of our newest family arrival... 

Our newest little doll, Wyatt, with his big sister, Maci.  These are children of Granddaughter Madison, 

who live at Tanglewood Lakes in LaCygne, Kansas, far from me. 

I love seeing pictures of them, though we rarely meet in person. 

He is now a six month old... sitting up well and has blond hair and looks like his daddy Dorval's mini-me. 

Maci will be starting kindergarten as an almost-six-year old this fall.  It seems like she was just born, where does time go! 

In July, Jack Flash broke my heart.  I had had him neutered and got all his shots. 

I did not have them test for FIV.  

Within a week or so of the neuter... he fell sick. 

I watched him waste for a week and took him down to the vet for a booster which was scheduled. 

The King was dying. 

I held him and sung to him  as he was euthanized for FIV.  The neuter had thrown him into an episode.  I will never get another feral neutered without testing for this devastating disease. 

It took a while for the cats to relax and stop watching for his ambushes.  Coco came back to the front porch and deck, Cleo moved into the shop.  Everyone was safe again. 

The sad thing was, I had really learned to love him and the neutering was my way of making sure he could stay here with everyone.  We figured the testosterone would die down in a few months and things would settle. 

It was not to be. 

Jack fathered a litter of kittens with a cat who was little more than a kitten herself... Mama.  

There were four kittens in my shop for over two months. 

They were successfully trapped by Kitty Cat Connection and went on to barn homes of their own.  Mama was ear tipped and neutered and returned to me, and lives here happily in the shop. 

Jax and I were able to finally clean the shop up again.  (We need to do it again!) 

Doug, the Killer Cotton Ball, styling by the morning glories on my henyard fence in August. 

August 28th, the sheep were pulled as the pasture grass was worn out from the drought. 

They had stayed until early October the two years before. 

In September, I went to Garnett to see my other little great grand, 

Aurora Jane Rose. 

She will be two in May. 

September was also the month that this guy came here... Buddy, whom I also call Big Dog, or Moose.  He was found astray in our county and turned over to Animal Control, thank heavens, because he was starved and road-beaten.  He has stayed here, and has gained forty pounds.  He is the German Shepherd who does not bark!  

He was estimated at over ten years old, which is old for a GSD. 

In October, Wanda started living in the big hen house full time. 

I lock her up every night with the birds, and she does fine in there.  In fact, I was so grateful to know she was warm and dry during the cold spells. 

She has her meals in there, too, and there is a heated water bowl for her. 

She actually sleeps in a kennel at night in a deep bed of straw.  Since there are hardly any eggs being laid now, she has her run of the nest boxes.  She has also gone from wanting to kill me to being a regular purr machine and talking as soon as she sees me in the morning. 

In November, I started seeing these guys regularly...

Notice it is still daylight...

The feeder is no longer in the pasture, and I'll explain why in a minute. 

It was originally put there because I began seeing another cat. I believe now that that cat, whom I call Alien... has a home nearby, because he disappeared during our recent brutal cold snap, and reappeared after. 

I still have chicken carcasses from Sam's to dispose of... and they are going in the north fence line. 

I saw skunks come to the feeder, which I had not seen for years here.  I also saw possums and raccoons and frankly, I don't need to draw any more of them. 

There was still a bit of color in November, but we did not have a glowing fall because of the lack of moisture, I think. 

I had made a decision to have my cataracts removed, and those operations were (foolishly) scheduled for December 7 and 14.  Friends, I did not go into this with enough information. 

I listened to friends who had had it done and loved the results. 

The surgeon explained to me twice that I could have one eye "long" and the other eye "short" and I told him I could wear eyeglasses for close up.  

I did not realize that I would have to actually wear glasses in bed as I read at night (which I have always done) or to even look at my phone during the night if awakened. They hurt my nose... that is all I am going to say. (laying on them in bed).   I have readers all over the small house now so I can reach for them.  

I hate what I did to my eyes. They feel gritty all the time, and you cannot rub them.  I am using the eye drops, which will end in another week... and my eye doctor told me to use eye drops regularly... but I notice last night on the Visine bottle there are warnings against this. 

I see my own eye doctor again on Wednesday, I had a truncated appointment last week but found out that I can wear contacts that provide that "near" and "far" sensation.  The other alternative is to wear glasses full time and have one eye near and one eye far.  

I really screwed myself up.  

As far as "far" vision, I can see clear over to the hen houses and see what is going on on the porch of the big hen house. 

I urge anyone trying to make this decision to get all of the information before doing it.  

On the camera in the shop, I have been getting pictures of a few animals that are going in there at night. 

Oddly enough, there are not hordes of animals going in there.  This big raccoon is one, a large possum is one, 

and this skunk. 

There it is, caught on camera on the 17th. 

Friday morning, the 30th... I found it here... 

It is between the big and little hen houses, and there is a burrow right behind it. 

I believed, when I found it, that it could be diseased and I was immediately afraid of rabies or distemper.  I called the largest local wildlife rehabbers and got no help from them, not even a name to call.  I tried the sheriff's dept, and to be fair, a deputy did return the call... and then mumbled he would try to get the ACO to call me.  

I prevailed upon two friends, who did not want to shoot it. 

It suffered all day long, I checked on it many times.  

In the above picture, it was still able to raise its tail a little. 

As the day wore on, I realized it was not diseased, but was the same skunk as on camera in the shop. 

By late afternoon, it was barely alive, and I lacked the courage to take a shovel and put it out of its misery, I am such a coward.  I could hardly sleep that night.  

I sent some pictures to a friend who is an ACO in Texas and he said it did not look diseased. 

We think now... I think... that it was hit by a car on the road just out of sight behind it... and dragged itself up the bank to the closest burrow, which was under the little hen house. 

Four of those hens and Doug did not come out that day... and their house still smells of skunk, but I have the windows open. 

Thank God, yesterday morning I found it dead.  I picked it up and put it into a bag and carried it down to the woods and put it down there. 

I am going to get a burn barrel where I can burn anything suspect in it, but this skunk was clearly in good health ... and as confirmation, there have been no skunks on the shop camera in the last three nights. 

It broke my heart. 

I forgot to check if it was male or female, and skunks breed in May and June, so I was not worried about babies.  However....skunks also have very short lives in the wild, usually two to three years, like opossums.  

On the way down to the bottom of the pasture, I stopped to look at the possum that died four weeks ago in the dog house in my garage. 

Almost untouched.  Incredible. 

You can sure tell the vultures are gone for the winter, and the coyotes are spoiled. 

And so, another year has passed. 

I am the last of my nuclear family, though I have first cousins who gathered around our family table, but it is at the holidays that I miss them the most, when I think of those happy times of past years. One of my cousins sent me a card that read "I miss those happy days at 240" (our family address).  I do, too. 

We had a quiet Christmas this year with members of the family being affected by RSV and flu... and I am trying to stay away from anyone sickly.  

I enjoy being at home, I am one of those "weird" people... who is happy in my own patch.  I am going to spend this afternoon looking at seed catalogs... just because I am not starting anything does not mean I am not planting.  I had one big planter devoted to herbs the last two years, and that is being dug out and flowers going in.  I am going to sit myself down with the Burpee catalog this afternoon and dream of summer. 

I am looking forward to another year volunteering at the National Agicultural Center  and I am grateful to all of my friends there.... Wayne, Judy, Marsha and all of you who have helped me this past year.  

I cannot emphasize enough that volunteering is needed and so good for the soul! 

I did not hear many concerts this year... pandemic times stopped so many tours and my favorite groups did not come here.  There were a few I regretted not seeing. YES was back, but not close enough for me to get to.  Leaving this place is hard for me now. 

Jester, Zoey, Buddy, and all the kitties of Calamity Acres join me in wishing you the best of Happy New Years! 

Thank you for continuing to read this blog.