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! 

Already Into July

How could it be almost a month since I last posted? 

I actually composed posts in my head, and never sat down to do them. 

We have had some hellish temps here in Northeast Kansas, friends. 

Clear back on June 13, Ben and Isaiah came to get the sheep.  They literally had eaten the pasture down to dirt.   I went out there last night and took a good look, and with the little rain we have had... it has not come back.  I seriously do not think I will see my sheep friends again this summer.  Yes, I miss them. 

The pen they are standing in grew up, I had to mow it yesterday, but when I went around the back of the barn, it was still eaten to the ground.   I do miss hearing them and watching them. 

A week ago today, I went out at 4 PM to find my propane tank blowing off gas, the smell of sulphur filling the air, and a sound like a freight train coming at me.  

Two trucks from Stranger Creek responded... that is Sam, the third brother of the sheep owners, who is a volunteer with them.  They stayed two hours... the feels like temp was over 100. 

Here is Tristan behind my house, directing water... 

 They put 500 gallons of water on the tank.  The head of the safety valve was five feet from the tank. 

The first fireman to respond got my hose and began cooling it, but I turned the tank off myself. 

Yes, my hand was shaking. 

My propane provider was called, because the tank, which had been filled on March 22, was still reading 80% full, and we don't fill past 80%.  The gauge is broken. 

No one came or called from Ferrelgas.  The next morning I called and talked to the "emergency line" and my call from the day before had not even been logged.  That was alarming.  

A technician returned my call and was 70 miles away.  He walked me through turning everything back on, and told me he would enter an order to replace the gauge.  I called yesterday to see when they were coming, and there was no order... so... I went through the whole thing again and it is now scheduled for Monday. 

My next door neighbor, Troy, is a captain on the volunteer fire department, and he stayed an additional hour on Friday to make sure everything was okay, and then came over Saturday and relit the water heater. 

Never in a million years did I expect Bob the Porch Cat and Bullseye to share a chair. 

The next day they had a knock down drag out. 

No one is laying here currently.  

The next day I removed her from the little hen house where no one is laying.  She keeps striking out. 

I did lose one in the heat.  She had been in front of the fan for two days, and had good, cold water right next to her.  I believe there was an underlying cause. 

I have never had raccoons come in the middle of the day like Mama does. 

She must just be starving. 

Here she comes up the back porch... eschewing the steps for some reason. 

I had a camera out there that caught her. 

My poor Mama cat was laying where the fan could blow on her.  I keep the door open now during the day to the shop.  (This was the now-neutered mother of last year's kittens). 

And the shop cam caught a raccoon laying in front of it a few days later. 

Coco was beaten up one too many times by Bob, and started hanging on the back porch. 

She is now... 

Coco the House Cat. 

When Bob comes in to sit on my lap in the morning, Coco has to be locked up in my bedroom for safety's sake, and yes, it gets harrowing in here. 

She is spending very little time outside now.  

Look!  There are still flowers here! 

I planted so many wildflower mixes and butterfly mixes this year, and my gosh, except for the fact that I have to water EVERY DAY, I have loved the beautiful, beautiful flowers blooming. 

I planted one cherry tomato plant, and I am going to go out and pick some right now, and make myself some nachos for dinner. 

Everyone have a great weekend, I will be at the Ag Hall of Fame tomorrow. 

 

Watching

Bullseye watching a raccoon in the yard. 

Raccoon watching Bullseye 

Bob watching Bruce Wayne 

Bruce Wayne watching me watch both of them. 

Wanda watching me from her cool bed under the honeysuckle bush. 

(She just looks mad, she loves me)

Coyote watching the cats in the driveway two nights ago, and yes, friends, she was that close.  Not sure what is happening here.  She has been in and out of the pasture for three days, the sheep have been ignoring her. 

I say her, it may be a he. 

She wants my cats. 

Bob the Porch Cat watching me do chores. 

Molly watching me from the planter on the front deck.  I gave up and took the forks out so she could lay there. 

Bullseye watching me from HIS planter. 

Me watching Jester watching me. 

Have a good Memorial Day, peeps!  

 

What About Them Chiefs!!!!

Here is a reminder that raccoons are scary little critters if you keep chickens... or cats.  I notice the cats give them a wide berth. 

There's another Disney creature that will kill your chickens in a flash if it has a chance. 

That being said, I try to live in harmony with all of the creatures here, including the skunks. 

It finally happened.  

I went out on Sunday morning, the 12th, and found Susie gone.  My gosh, she was a beautiful hen, a Speckled Sussex.  She was very old though, and I had a suspicion that even though she kept going through the bitter cold nights we had had, it was weakening the older birds.  My oldest rooster, Ferdie, father of Singleton and Buddy, is not going to make it much longer, I fear, and has quit trying to go out. 

However, on Friday, a good day, I went out to the hen house about 2 PM, and could not find Susie inside and really got scared, because my fear is that she would weaken and hide outside. 

Lo and behold, she was out with the other girls in the sunlight, pecking around. 

She had the most beautiful coloring and musical trill, and I miss her "talking" to me whenever I was around her.  

There was still some icy snow in between the hen houses yesterday, and you can clearly see the footprints of the possums and raccoons that passed through.  There is a heated bowl of water there. 

This came up in my memories today, nine years ago.  Let me just say that this was among the best memories Keith and I could have had here.  These four little goats brought us so much pleasure.  That's Delilah by the door, Winny and Windy in the middle, and Kelly at the back.  It broke my heart to give them up when we moved into the big house, when Keith got sick. Delilah bonked the front door until I came to it to see what they wanted. 

I wish... I wish I were stronger and younger, and I would have goats again! 

We had three inches of miserable wet snow on Thursday.  It had already started to melt by the time I got Bullseye, who had jumped up on the big walnut stump. 

It is 58 right now, and we are supposed to get rain and wind tomorrow.  I can take the rain, it's the doggone wind that gets me. 

This is Alien.  He is the newest.... he has been lurking around the corners for the last three months.  I honestly think he belongs to someone because he disappeared during the bitterest of the cold. 

He hangs around in the late afternoons and evenings. 

This is my girl Teenie.  Imagine trying to tell them apart across the yard.  Luckily, Teenie sleeps mostly on the porch now. 

Teenie and all the other cats here are neutered. 

I walked out the front door to see this weird scene last night.  

That's Mama, and Bullseye, on one corner, and Alien across the door opening facing them.  They are at the big hen house.  I have no clue what was going on, I think they were all trying to intimidate each other.  Mama and Bully are allies, though. 

For six weeks, there have been no coyotes in my pasture, though I have heard a great pack of them twice, and last night there was another chorus.  

I literally have not seen one on my property. 

Imagine my surprise when I went outside at dusk last night to do something, and caught movement. 

I grabbed the big camera. 

It quickly turned and trotted away. 

The rotisserie carcasses and any dead birds (and there have been several lately) are being put elsewhere for the scavengers to get.  

My big foster boy, Buddy, laps over so I got another bed for him.  He has really stopped eating as much as he was, and is sleeping a LOT.  I think age is catching up with him and it will be months. 

He has just been the best old boy ever. 

That's my other foster fail, adopted... Zoey. She has appointed herself guardian of the farm,  and she does a good job.  She does chores with me almost every night. 

My road, February 12th, 2023.  

That's my henhouse on the left, the big one and the little, and my shop/barn left of them. 

Won't be long before we start greening up. 

Chiefs gear modeled by my great grandson, Wyatt. 

He's a big fan! 

It was a good game, and a nail biter to the end.  This city has gone crazy! 

  Thursday