Here is a @YellowCottageHomestead TikTok video of Caturday photos from early February, as an experiment of using photos:
Cat update for week ending February 27
It’s Caturday.
Let’s start with a GIF of a cat climbing a tree:
Pommie and Bella:
Porcini and Poppy watching me from a safe distance:
They were a little concerned when I walked past, on the way back inside:
(This little patio area is quite nice, though we don’t use it. It used to have a fire pit, before we bought the place, but we’ve never used it for that, as there is too much foliage around it now.)
Two possums in the feeder; unlike with raccoons, it’s unusual to see more than one at a time:
Poppy, Porcini, and Spud at the cabins:
(I really need to clean the cabin cam, but there’s pretty much always someone there, so I don’t want to disturb them.)
Three cats outside their house:
Cat prints in the snow:
Poppy watching me walking past from the comfort of a cabin; you can also see the cabin cam in its little shelter (the cam is waterproof; the cover is to stop cats rubbing on the cam and making it askew):
Two cats with some snow:
Spud by the cabins:
Porcini and Poppy:
A couple of cats in the feeder:
Porcini looking concerned as I approach the cat house to attend to the food dispenser, with Poppy below:
Porcini stayed inside, but Poppy left; she can be seen near the center of this picture, with Bella nearby in the grass:
That picture also gives some context around the cat house — a peek of the cat cabins in the upper-left, the aforementioned old fire pit patio, the bird feeders, the small pond, and the cat house.
Bella in the grass on the edge of the field:
Poppy watching me from the path by the bird feeders:
Finally, a random shot of the high shop ceiling, from the cam there; it is an old pan-tilt model, that rotates when it resets, but is getting stuck at weird angles:
Flock Friday for February 26
This week was an exciting milestone: the ducks started laying eggs.
Firstly, a random picture of the chicken and duck feed:
Some ducks relaxing on the floating pond island:
And near the edge of the pond:
Several ducks coming to under the pond deck to get their mealworm treats, while a couple hang out on the island:
Bert and Rémy on the island:
A couple of latecomers zooming over from the far side of the pond:
Ducks on the back lawn:
They continued over the lawn to the old chicken coop, so I got some pictures with both chickens and ducks:
Heading back over the lawn to the pond:
A cam shot with Bert spreading his wings on the island, and my first glimpse of eggs; more on that later:
A bunch of pictures of the chickens:
The ducks on the pond:
Four eggs on the island:
I was hoping they would lay eggs on the island, as a safer place from predators like raccoons.
These probably aren’t fertilized, but now that at least one of the them is laying, we may get baby ducklings before long:
A bit of snow on the island:
The chickens are continuing to ramp up production, increasing the number of eggs laid each day:
TikTok: Our ducks again
Here is another TikTok video of our ducks:
If you use TikTok, you can follow the homestead @YellowCottageHomestead.
February snow and aerial photos
This morning we woke up to some surprise snow. It wasn’t in the forecast (other than for a much higher elevation), but we got about an inch of snow overnight. Which is melting quickly on a sunny day.
So, of course I felt an urge to fly my drone to capture the winter wonderland in the early morning.
Here are the pond, snowy trees, back lawn, chicken runs, and veggie garden:
Looking down a bit to see the whole veggie garden:
From above the veggie garden, looking towards the pond:
Looking straight down to the chicken runs, veggie garden, and berry cage:
A bit lower down:
Snowy covered chicken run:
Above the back lawn, looking back to the grove, and chicken coop:
Some pics of the pond:
Part of the field, flowerbeds, back lawn, and pond:
Higher up to include veggie garden etc:
From the opposite direction:
Looking up a bit at the trees:
Lots of snowy trees:
This one might make a nice background:
Mount Hood and snowy trees:
Lower down, with the fountain garden in the foreground:
Back on the ground (via my iPhone), the path to the chicken coop:
Inside the chicken run; the new(ish) roof netting is holding up well:
The back lawn:
The pond and ducks:
Pond island and ducks:
Sunrise through the grove, with the brown gazebo and the chicken coop:
Finally, the cat house:
TikTok: Our chickens
Here is my second very short TikTok video, featuring our chickens:
If you use TikTok, you can follow the homestead @YellowCottageHomestead.
TikTok: Our ducks
As an experiment, earlier this month I started posting 15 second videos of our homestead on TikTok. Very simple videos, just looking at the ducks, chickens, etc; occasionally with some titles or music, but mostly just plain “original sound”.
Since I like to own all of my own content, I also save the videos to my photo library, and I thought I’d cross-post them onto this blog.
(This is also my first time embedding video on my site, without going through YouTube; please let me know if you have difficulty viewing it.)
If you use TikTok, you can follow the homestead @YellowCottageHomestead.
Here is the first video I posted; I will post the subsequent ones over the next several days:
Cat update for week ending February 20
For Caturday this week: cat food, cabin cats, a raccoon, a possum, a GIF, a Paladout, and more.
As mentioned on my personal blog, the feral cat food dispenser was running on batteries during our big power outage, and reacted badly to low battery capacity by continuously dumping all of the food from its hopper:
In that picture you can see the empty hopper and the top of the feeder tube, full of food (the dispenser is on a drawer I can pull out to make it easier to refill). Below, you can see the rest of that tube, and the big pile of food it has dumped:
I scooped the excess back into the hopper after I replaced the batteries. It’s nice that it has a battery backup when not receiving power, but running continuously might not have been the best way to preserve battery capacity.
Here are Porcini and Poppy watching me approach on a rainy morning:
Poppy didn’t bother retreating; she knows I’m not a threat, so long as I keep my distance:
A raccoon briefly visited Porcini in the cat house. She informed the raccoon that it wasn’t welcome there:
The raccoon was just waiting for a possum to get out of the way:
Bella in front of the feeder. I do wonder where she sleeps; she doesn’t avail herself of any of the heated shelters, unlike the rest of her family:
A cat in each doorway:
Poppy arriving, with Porcini and Spud in cabins:
A GIF of Poppy going into a cabin with Porcini, Spud in the other cabin, and Bella walking behind the cabins:
Do you see three cats?
Hint:
Poppy and Porcini inside the cat house:
Doing my morning rounds, having visited the ducks, I noticed Paladout on the hidden path by the pond:
Closer:
Three cats inside the house this morning:
Finally, Poppy watching me from under our main deck:
Video: ducks on the new floating wooden island
I recently built a floating island for the ducks, to give them somewhere safer to rest. They seem to enjoy it.
Flock Friday for February 19
It’s been an interesting week, with an ice storm, snow, and days of power cuts. The ice and snow is all gone now, and we have power again (albeit with an hour outage yesterday evening). But things still feel unstable, and I know other parts of the country aren’t faring so well.
If you missed them, check out the previous two posts on the ice storm, including pictures of the chickens and ducks.
Here’s an aerial drone shot of the pond and snowy environs; you can see the new island in the center, and the ducks nearby:
Duck prints in the snow:
Despite the days of freezing weather, the pond didn’t fully freeze at all; the closest it came was a slushy crust:
The hummingbirds were very hungry with no other food sources:
Ducks on pond bank, with melting snow:
Ducks on the island:
A cam shot of sleepy ducks on the edge of the pond, and on the island. It’s got a bit of a tilt due to water pooling on it, but the edge is still above the water line, so that’s okay:
Hungry hummingbirds again:
Ducks on the lawn:
Let’s finish with a couple of token chicken pictures: