Flock Friday for November 6

I can’t believe it’s Friday already; it’s been quite a week, eh? What is time, anyway?

Since I’ve been posting hourly photos on my personal blog over the last few days, to help distract me and others from election coverage, you may have seen some of these pictures… but there are some new ones, too.

On Halloween I gave the chickens a pumpkin:

Chickens with pumpkin

Chickens with pumpkin

This is what a pumpkin looks like after they’re through with it; just the barest of shells:

Pumpkin

Some pictures of the ducks on the pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

This week I let the chickens into the veggie garden (video):

Chickens in veggie garden

Lots of tomatoes:

Chickens in veggie garden

Those recently planted lettuces never had a chance:

Chickens in veggie garden

Digging in the potato planters is fun:

Chickens in veggie garden

Tasty kale:

Chickens in veggie garden

A wide shot of the whole veggie garden:

Chickens in veggie garden

I went to the feed store, as I was out of duck food. The new coop storage area is rather full at present:

Coop storage

More pictures of ducks:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Chickens in the veggie garden again, a few days later; not much left of the green pumpkins:

Chickens in veggie garden

Chickens in veggie garden

Buffy jumping for high kale leaves:

Chickens in veggie garden

Chickens in veggie garden

Chickens in veggie garden

Ducks:

Ducks

The old chicken coop:

Old chicken coop

And new chicken coop:

New chicken coop

The chickens waiting for me:

Chickens

I discovered a soft egg, just the inner membrane, without a hard shell. Unusual, but happens occasionally:

Soft egg

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks

Ducks

Finally, a GIF edition of the time-lapse video I posted yesterday:

Ducks GIF

Finished the project summaries project

Today I added the last project summary page, Deck, to the Project Summaries pages. The Deck one links to two deck-related projects (surprise surprise) from last year.

Firstly, a project to assemble an aluminum gazebo on our deck:

And another project to build a pool deck extension off our main deck, enabling easier access to our seasonal above-ground swimming pool:

So now my Projects pages are complete, summarizing all of the building projects I’ve done around the homestead, at least since I started this blog.

Over time, I will update those pages for any modifications as needed, and add new ones for new projects. These pages serve as useful references, more easy to find than searching through blog posts.

Adding an upper back door to the cat house

As mentioned on recent Caturday posts, we’ve had a few incursions by raccoons and even skunks inside the feral cat house. While there haven’t been any cats home at the time, with them hanging out more in cold weather, I worry it’s only a matter of time.

My concern was that the front and back doors of the cat house were on the lower level, so if a cat was on the upper level when a raccoon came in, they’d be trapped, and would have to get past it to escape. Not ideal.

To solve this concern, I purchased another cat door like the existing ones to install on the upper level. I did that installation yesterday.

Here’s a photo of inside the cat house beforehand, after sliding open the front wall, that serves as maintenance access:

Inside the cat house

(If I were to build the cat house again, I would do a simpler design, with a swinging door on the side, instead of sliding the whole front wall, awning and all.)

Here is the back of the cat house; the new door will be above the existing one:

Back of cat house

I started installation by cutting a small hole through the wall with my jigsaw, to check the positioning. The wall has five layers: batten boards, plywood, insulation, more plywood, and carpeting:

Back of cat house

The small hole from inside:

Inside the cat house

I then incrementally enlarged the hole to the right size. Here’s a cam shot of me peeking through the larger hole:

Inside the cat house

Me mounting the inner frame of the door:

Inside the cat house

The completed inside frame (I planned to trim the loose flap of carpet on the ceiling, but forgot; no biggie):

Inside the cat house

(Another thing I’d skip if redesigning the cat house is the vents, which I keep permanently covered; I had thought I’d open them in summer, but the cats prefer a cozy house even in the heat of summer.)

The back view of the inner frame, before adding the outer one. The battens were removed with a hammer and chisel, and the hole cut with a jigsaw:

Back of cat house

The outer frame and flap installed. I could touch up the paint to make it tidier, but probably won’t bother, since it’s sheltered under the eaves, and hidden behind shrubs:

Back of cat house

A view from further back, of both back doors:

Back of cat house

The new door is intended only as an emergency exit, so there isn’t a platform to jump onto; they can easily jump from that height to the ground.

To let them know that it’s a door, I temporarily propped it open with a bit of wood; I’ll remove that after a couple of days:

Back of cat house

Porcini was of course the first one to check out the new door:

Inside the cat house

Peeking out:

Inside the cat house

It didn’t faze them; the feral cats are cautious, but quickly adapt to changes:

Inside the cat house

Cat update for week ending October 31

Spooooky Halloween Caturday to one and all! This week, we were visited by scary raccoon monsters, and the scariest of all creatures, a skunk.

But fear not, much cuteness was also observed.

Such as three cats in the cat house, two in a pile:

Three cats

A short GIF of a sun dappled Porcini:

Porcini GIF

And you thought a pile of two cats was cute… see if you can handle three:

Cat pile GIF

Four cats

Three cats on the edge of the field:

Three cats

I took this picture of an old iPad stand to see if it’d work for modern ones (it won’t; designed for the original only), and incidentally got a picture of Pepper in the shop, looking rather concerned at my approaching so close:

Pepper in the shop

Here’s Pansy in the back of the shop, in the center of the picture, waiting for her food to dispense:

Pansy in the shop

Since it was below freezing earlier this week, I hooked up the cats’ heated water dish. When the temperature is below freezing, it gets just warm enough to keep the water liquid (I then discontinued the other waterer, filled with leaves here):

Heated water dish

Three cats outside… or maybe four; I think one is behind the shrub:

Three cats

A family of raccoons visited the cat house, including going inside; fortunately no cats home at the time:

Raccoon GIF

An app screenshot showing raccoons on the awning and inside the feeder:

Raccoons

Close-up of a raccoon inside:

Raccoon

Later that night, a skunk also explored inside:

Skunk

The scent of those visitors didn’t scare off the cats, fortunately (must be a bug on the ceiling):

Three cats

More snuggles:

Three cats

Spud and Pommie in the cabins (Spud on the left):

Spud and Pommie

Spud and Pommie

A screenshot of Spud and Pommie in the cabins, Poppy in the house, and a very damp Paladout in the feeder:

Four cats

Three cats in the house this morning:

Three cats

Finally, the usual summary GIF of 74 photos this week:

Summary GIF

Flock Friday for October 30

Welcome to Flock Friday. This week, I am highlighting 20 chicken-related pictures plus 12 duck pictures, along with a summary GIF of 59 candidates.

What’s a more fun way to start the week than mucking out the chicken coop:

Mucking out chicken coop

Fresh bedding in the nesting boxes:

Mucking out chicken coop

And a pile on the floor for the chickens to scratch and spread:

Mucking out chicken coop

A duck interlude — Betty in the grasses:

Betty in the grasses

It’s a little warmer now, but earlier in the week it was freezing overnight, resulting in a frozen waterer:

Frozen waterer

The hose wand is actually dripping water to top up the waterer, which is what caused the big icicles (and helps stop the hose from freezing):

Frozen waterer

Frozen waterer

Frozen waterer

GIF of dripping icicles (as you may have previously seen on my personal blog):

Frozen waterer GIF

On afternoon rounds, the chickens waiting for me:

Chickens waiting for me

They then all rush into the new coop to wait for treats:

Chickens waiting for treats

Thusly:

Chickens with treats

Ducks in a leafy pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Also previously posted to my personal blog, photos and GIFs of ducks flapping wings:

Ducks flapping wings

Ducks flapping wings GIF

Ducks flapping wings

Ducks flapping wings GIF

Ducks on the lawn, hunting for worms and such (I like the peek of the white gazebo in the background):

Ducks on lawn

A bunch of pictures of chickens; they’re all pretty much done with their molting and feather regrowth now:

Chickens

Chicken

Chicken

Chickens

Chicken

Chicken

Chicken

Chickens

Pecking at my boot:

Chickens

More pictures of ducks on the lawn (the grass is a bit long, but I’m probably not going to mow again till next spring):

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Ducks on lawn

Finally, the aforementioned summary GIF, with the above and lots more photos from this week:

Summary GIF

Maple fall foliage

Fall is a colorful time of year, especially from the various maple trees we have around the homestead.

Here is a coral bark maple by the front of the shop, that turns all sorts of interesting colors; right now a sampler as some leaves are still green, some yellowing, and a few red:

Tree

A big maple near the fountain garden is well on its way to losing leaves:

Tree

Its leaves cover the ground all around it:

Leaves

Leaves

Plus decorating shrubby trees:

Shrubby tree

Shrubby tree

An October Glory red maple near the pool area; not a great picture, it can really glow in certain light:

Tree

As a bonus, some non-maple leaves covering the pond for the ducks to swim through:

Leafy pond and ducks

Leafy pond and ducks