Back Again

As I sit here this morning, I did not realize I had not blogged since January. 

Oh, for the days when I blogged every single night after supper! 

I just can't seem to do it anymore. 

We have left the frigid conditions of January and February, and we are now at the end of April, when things are looking decidedly springlike. 

There have been some surprises along the way, these last few months. 

Bob's life hung in the balance for ten days. 

On this day, I had actually taken him to be euthanized, as we had medicated and 

given ivs all week to no avail.  The doctor left the room... and the tech was kind enough to take what I thought were last pictures. 

Within a few minutes, the doctor was back with the news that part of his bloodwork had come back early, and the culprit was revealed... feline micoplasmosis.  As it happened, I already had a med at home that Coco had been on... I began it that day and within five days he was back to his normal self. 

Whew. 

All I can say is Bob, Bullseye and Wanda are expensive cats. 

A year ago in March, my son borrowed a 20 foot trailer from his brother in law and hauled some fencing panels for me.  The trailer sat at my house for a year, I mowed around it.  It was pulled out on Thursday of last week.  I am going to spread thickly.... pollinator flower seed in this space and water them in good! 

I have had to start mowing, but NE Kansas is far behind in rain.  We need some, and we may get some later today.  I would love for it to come as steady rain and not tornados, please. 

I thought this two year old Cochin hen was a goner, I kept finding her in odd places. 

What has actually happened is that she has gone broody. 

Oh, yes, I need to rake that hen house out and re-bed it. 

This Wyandotte DID go broody... she is barely a year old... and hatched out two tiny 

little chicks.  I suspect they are the product of Rocky, my tiny mille fleur rooster, but we shall see. 

We have had beautiful nights. 

And beautiful, beautiful days.  

I had to put the mother and babies in the brooder house with the four week old chicks (out of sight to the right).  See how she has pushed straw into the water fountain?  I have to go out there six times a day to make sure she has water, and .... woe betide the older chick who DARES to come near her babies.  My plan was to raise those 17 new chicks in the brooder house, and she has wrecked my plans.  I can't let her out... the chicks will be lost, I have never had luck with mamas raising their own. 

I had a very bad fall on Friday.  Nothing is broken, but I am very sore from it, and Chico and I have been spending time in the recliner under the heated blanket.  It is getting too warm for that, let me tell you. 

Guess what?  The mama eagle must be on her nest somewhere, because the male is the only one visiting! 

It's so hard to get a decent picture on a cloudy day. 

You know I love wildlife but man... I feel like I am feeding all of Leavenworth County sometimes. 

I pour a small pile out on the floor as I pick up the bowls in the evening. 

I actually had to move the big bin holding the cat food into the big hen house... it's a pain to carry it back and forth... because I could NOT for the life of me keep the raccoons out of it. 

That's Teeny the Meany, one of the three barn cats. 

The warming lights are all off now, it's 77 out there today (April 22). 

This beautiful dilute calico is Diamond Lil, named by Kitty Cat Connection, not me. 

She came here six years ago, I have never touched her.  

She came with Coco, who was called Coal at the time. 

Lil lives in Troy's barn next door... but... she eats in the garage on my property.  She has been greeting me every morning for a month or so now, so I take a two piece feeder and I give her wet food on one side, dry on the other, and then the big bowl of dry goes in there, too, you can see a pile from it, here. 

A bowl of water is always in there.  I start talking as I get close to the garage in the morning (I feed her first) and I hear her meowing to me as I get there. 

Twenty years ago here, I planted tulips.  There are a few that still come up.  Every fall I tell myself to plant more... and every fall I forget or put it off.  I enjoy the ones that lived! 

I hope everyone is well and I am sorry it was so long in between posts... life should be getting easier for me but it is getting a little harder to get everything done here.  I am hoping to stay here for a few more years. 

Thanks for reading! 

What the Heck? Another New Post!

Second post of the year and it is only the fourth! 

Man, does this tell you how the days have been going?  I have already done chores but will go back out in a few minutes to move some chickens around.  When the cold is bitter, I do not let them out at all.... today they can be out with the frozen sleet/snow on the ground.  It is being stubborn and only slowly melting, and unfortunately, we go back into the freezer tomorrow for two days. 

I have a good friend in Canada (Hi, Leanne) and she tells me it is MINUS 40 Fahrenheit there right now... UGH... she says her three dogs run out, potty, run back in, and that is the extent of it. 

I would be worried sick about all the wild animals. 

Speaking of wild animals, I poured this pile of cat food out of the bowl 

two nights ago, and left it for any animal that happened by in the bitter cold. 
It was still there yesterday morning, and I set the bowl of new food by it (you can just see it). These are in the old garage, where I keep my tractor and gardening things. 

This morning, it was all gone. 

It was these guys, I am sure.  Here they are in the shop, my cement-floored barn... where the 

feral kitties are fed.  They are cleaning up spilled food in there.

There is also a heated basin of water in there for them and the mice... I have three of these basins in different areas.  

My boy Bullseye is outside right now, and cried to go out even in the bitter cold. 

He kills songbirds, though, so it is hard for me to let him out.  This morning I found a vole 

dead on the side of the house, it must have been very hungry to come out in this weather. 

(one of the cats got it) 

I put all of Christmas away by yesterday afternoon... it's a good way to start the new year with a clean house. 

So, over the course of the weekend, we had very bitter cold and a sleet/snow episode.  The ground is still partly covered with this icy mixture, which thawed a little yesterday and then re-froze. 

Please know I am taking extra care when walking ... breaking a leg or hip would be a disaster for me. 

I worried about the feral cats.  In the shop, there are two large cages that are bedded with hay. 

It is clear cats are sleeping in them, but yesterday I found the largest was also full of poop, which I hope to clean out this afternoon and re-bed. 

There is a Kuranda dog bed in there with a blanket.. someone has slept there. 

There is a dog house on blocks in the old garage (the shop and garage are on the original property line, far from the house) and Wanda sleeps in there regularly.  But I had not seen Yeller daily, or Cleo, the beautiful calico. 

For the last three days, I have left a full bowl of cat food on my porch, and last night, I looked out and Yeller was eating.  I opened a can of food for him and took it out, and he ran back up and ate it all. 

So, I relaxed a little.  I had not seen Cleo since Saturday morning, and was worried.  I saw cat foot prints coming through the gate as I worked it loose from the ice... but no cat anywhere. 

I could have relaxed. 

For the very first time, when I sat down to review the cam from the shop... there she was. 

Sigh. 

Now that I know she is aware of how to get into the shop, I will rest easy. 

She clearly knows how to come in through the hole in the wall.

Oh, Hi!

But this also relieved me... it's Diamond Lil, whom I call Lil, eating yesterday.  I had not seen her for four days, she is very secretive... I was glad she had made it through the bitter cold.

There goes Yeller across the deck yesterday, and there he is in the shop eating on the first, so I can relax about him, too.  I had not seen him in the shop since Diamond Lil (Lil) and Coal (Coco) were put in there.  

 

Here are my two buddies, Wanda (Wawa) and Coal (Coco) eating on the first. 

These two girls greet me when I go out to do chores, and run alongside me after running to me. 

As of this morning, Coco has let me stroke her back twice as she eats.  Wawa wants to be 

my buddy so badly, she will run to me and roll on her back, batting her paws... but she is still just a little too scared of human interaction.  

Coco and Lil came from a large feral colony on the Missouri side of our state lines... and were truly, truly feral.  For Coco to let me touch her was a big deal. 

These girls are also frequently in the hen houses hunting mice when I go to close up at night. 

Wanda did not look great the morning of the coldest night... but she soon warmed up.  I am 

too afraid to put an electric heater in the shop without a human being in there. 

I did have a heated cat house ... but no one ever went into it, it was pristine and I finally unplugged it two days ago.  I believe, because it had a flap on the front, they were too afraid to try it.  The two 

cages full of straw have been helping them with the cold. 

The sheep barn also has a deep bed of straw in it, but no one appears to be using it. 

I have seen NO raccoons on camera since the end of last week. 

Right now it is 40 degrees... I am going to go work on that cage (re-bedding it) and 

move some chickens.  The little silkies who go out to a pen every day cannot use their pen right now, it is full of snow-sleet.  I am putting them in the "feed room" side of the big hen house where they can move around more than their brooder pen they sleep in.  Not ideal, but it works, and they will all have to be in for the next two days. 

Stay warm and safe, friends!