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! 

 

Home at Last

Four years ago, I moved home. 

Home to Calamity Acres. 

It was a real move home for me, from the big, nice house where Keith died. 

I had told him I would not do it, but when faced with selling one of the two properties, 

I knew the large house/nice yard would sell faster than this old house. 

Today, it would be different, both would sell fast. 

I had been in the big house for so short a time there was only a tiny, tiny profit, but it 

did not matter.  I came home. 

Today is the fourth anniversary. 

On the tenth, I stepped out on the deck to start chores and was greeted with 

an eerie bright red sun rising through smoky haze.  Smoke from the western fires. 

I ran in and got the Canon camera. 

That is the sun I saw.  

Many others did, too, because my FB feed filled with pictures. 

Incredible. 

The tenth was also Keith's 62nd birthday.... and my step-son Brandon's 29th. 

I wish they were both still here to celebrate. 

We have a new ice house at the Ag Hall.... courtesy of a board member who 

had it moved and transported from a local farm.  It took out the chicken yard, so 

I don't know what that means for the future.  Because of the pandemic, we have had 

no chickens there the last two years. 

Warning.... graphic photo next: 

Wednesday night, I had noticed one of the three black cochins walking slowly in front of me. 

Her comb and face were pale blueish purple.  I thought to myself "Not enough oxygen", but she seemed to be walking okay. 

When I went to lock up the big henhouse, she was on the floor UNDER the roosts, but seemed alert.  It's just that I knew then she could not make it the foot or two to roost.  I shook my head and said goodnight to her, and I always thank the hens, even though so few are laying now. 

The next morning, I found her like this.  She had managed to move forward about eight feet, but died right next to the water fountain.  

It was her time, she was almost six years old. 

I carried her down to the pasture, where she laid for two days. 

This is all that is left... some animal was able to make a meal of her, as it should be. 

Here are ferals Wanda (by the bowl) and Yeller on the deck this morning.  I haul myself out of bed in the dark every day and put a bowl of cat food out by the water basin. 

Almost every morning, they come up to eat.  

They also have bowls and get wet cat food in the shop in the morning and evening... and then I collect ALL cat food 

and bring it in because of the raccoons.  

You can barely see it in the shadow, but there is a food bowl and a water fortex in the shade there by the 

walk gate to the pasture.   I know Cleo and Rusty eat from it, I have them on camera. 

I bring it in, too. 

There is food in the original feral cat feeder, too, but I think Rusty is the only one 

who knows to jump up in it.  

And the raccoons, of course. 

There is little Wanda having a siesta in the sun the other day in my garage. 

She won't ever be tame enough to pet... but she does let me get fairly close. 

Yeller is an intact male, he did not come from Kitty Cat Connection. 

He is going to have to be trapped, at some point. 

He has a large wound on  his neck, you can just see it in this picture, but I saw him today and it appears to have closed up and is healing. 

Here goes the beautiful Cleo across the deck to eat. 

Cleo and I play a game.  Cleo pops her head up while I am out doing chores, and stares until I stop what I am doing and go get her a saucer of canned food.  It works every time. 

Here go two of the younger six pullets across the yard.  Every morning, I let them 

out of the little hen house and  they immediately run to the back of the pen and fly up over the fence. 

I cannot let their Silkie roommates run free, the big roosters would kill the little hens by breeding them, 

and even though Doug, the Killer Cotton Ball, is brave, he is no match for the big roosters. 

(Doug, the Killer Cotton Ball, on the left, with part of his harem) 

The pullets let themselves out, though, and run around all day long with the other birds. 

There goes Buddy at the gallop, trying to ride herd on them.  There were two more behind him. 

There is another eating from the worn out squirrel feeder. 

Two of these birds are laying now... remember, there is one new pullet about three weeks older than they, and she is definitely laying and is a beautiful bird. 

This is a sweet potato vine on the deck. 

And there is a sweet potato growing under it... there are actually two of them. 

I really enjoyed growing coleus this year, after not growing it for many years. 

I'm planning on something for next year with it. 

Since the sheep left a month ago today, I have been mowing the pasture. 

This tree has already turned in the northeast corner.  It was beautiful. 

And in the bottom tier, which I leave tall for the wild things, is a beautiful kind of graceful miscanthus-type grass, that shines so pink in the sun morning and evening.

Stella d'Oro re-blooming. 

There is one more to go. 

The VA had flags flying for the 11th when I went to visit Keith on 

his birthday (the tenth).  It was a beautiful sight. 

I hope we never experience anything like that again in our dear country. 

Let's all hope fall comes soon!  I'm ready for it!