Cat update for week ending February 29

This Caturday, some wildlife visitors and increased use of cozy accommodations.

The tripawd coyote visited again last Saturday night, but hasn’t been back since:

Coyote

Poppy and Porcini having breakfast:

Poppy and Porcini

Pommie in front of the cabins:

Pommie

An animated GIF of three cats going in and out of the breezeway cabin (crowded in there!), with another cat watching from the log pile in the background:

Breezeway GIF

Three cats again, this time by their house:

Three cats

A raccoon visited Porcini in a cabin:

Raccoon and Porcini

She swiped at it and retreated out the back door; it jumped back then left. She came back later.

Raccoon and Porcini

Pommie in the breezeway:

Pommie

Two cats in their house:

Two cats in their house

Two possums in the feeder (with no food). Unusual to see two; they usually travel singly. These look young, though:

Two possums

Cat closeup:

Cat closeup

Pumpkin and Porcini; he just sniffed and left. Perhaps disappointed that she has taken the cabin he had preferred. He hasn’t been hanging around very often this week:

Pumpkin and Porcini

A rare color picture of Pansy in the back of the shop, using the heating pad:

Pansy

Poppy enjoyed the cat house a few times this week:

Poppy

Sun setting behind Porcini:

Sun setting behind Porcini

A cat climbing up the pole behind the cat house:

Cat climbing pole

Cat on top of pole

The cat on top of the pole from the other camera:

Cat on top of pole

Jumping down from the pole; probably not as comfortable as climbing down backwards, but faster:

Cat jumping down from pole

The left cabin is the original one I got before building the cat house, and the cover had torn off the heating pad, making it less comfortable to sit on, so the cats haven’t been using it. So I added an old spare flannel pillowcase to it, leaving the old cover bunched up at the back (it’s still partially attached):

Added pillowcase to heating pad in old cabin

Porcini and Pommie checking out the cabin with the pillowcase:

Porcini and Pommie checking out cabin

Porcini in an odd place, on top of a deck joist:

Porcini on deck joist

Pommie approved of the addition of the pillowcase:

Pommie in cabin

Pommie and Porcini in the cabins:

Pommie and Porcini in cabins

At the same time as that last picture, Poppy in the breezeway cabin:

Poppy in cabin

Pommie and Porcini in the cabins this morning:

Pommie and Porcini in cabins

Poppy checking out Pommie and Porcini in the cabins:

Poppy checking out Pommie and Porcini in cabins

They’re still there as I write this, a couple of hours later. Makes me happy to see cozy cats.

Flock Friday for February 28

On this Flock Friday, closeups of ducks, aerial pictures of the pond, and more.

Firstly, the ducks in the grasses next to the pond. I’m not sure if they’re rooting for bugs, or looking for places to nest. Probably both:

Ducks in grasses

A couple token pictures of some chickens:

Chickens

The chicken feeder jug in the new coop, freshly filled:

Chicken feeder

There are still about seven chickens roosting above the nesting boxes, but recently a couple more have joined Lola on the main roosts:

Chickens roosting

Colorful boiled eggs in the fridge:

Eggs

A bunch of pictures of the ducks:

Ducks

Ducks with treats

Closeups of Bert:

Bert

And Gert:

Gert

The ducks roosting on the pot supporting the fountain (which is currently off) at midnight:

Midnight ducks

A couple aerial pictures of our pond and surrounds:

Aerial picture of pond

Cat update for week ending February 22

This week, my first sighting of a coyote, plus some raccoons, and less Pumpkin than usual.

Pumpkin standing by the water dish:

Pumpkin standing

That was the last time I saw him for several days; but he did return. Made us wonder if he does have another home, and was kept inside to heal from his fight last week?

Double-decker breezeway cabin cats:

Breezeway cats

Breezeway cats:

Breezeway cats

A GIF of a cat carrying a prize; doing their job catching rodents:

GIF of cat with prize

Two cats near their house:

Two cats

A coyote visited the cat house. Although I’ve seen signs of them many times, this was the first time I’ve seen one on my cameras. This one is wounded; their front-left paw seems to be missing or mangled, so it was hopping around like Rory does. While I certainly don’t want to encourage coyotes, I do have some sympathy for this one:

Coyote

Porcini:

Porcini

Bella:

Bella

Two cats on the empty fountain pool:

Two cats on fountain

Three cats in the breezeway:

Three cats in breezeway

Two cats in their house, taking advantage of it with Pumpkin away:

Two cats in house

Chasing a flying insect in the house:

Cat chasing fly

A few days later, the tripawd coyote returned, and this time ventured inside the feeder, though there wasn’t any food there:

Coyote

Our local feed store has a couple of roaming cats (useful to protect the supplies from rodents); this one has an ear-tip to mark it as a neutered feral cat, but is friendly:

Feed store cat

One of the twins:

Twin

With Pumpkin away, and some other cats not visiting, there has been an excess of food dispensed, leaving a bunch at night. A lucky raccoon had a feast:

Lucky raccoon

It was too much food even for the raccoon… though it (or another one) did come back later to finish it off:

Too much food even for the raccoon

I subsequently significantly cut back the amount of food being dispensed. I’d rather have to manually dispense food than leave some overnight, encouraging unauthorized wildlife visitors. (I can remotely manually dispense via the feeder’s app.)

A cropped screenshot of the two shop cats; Pansy using the heating pad, and Pepper eating:

Shop cats

Porcini:

Porcini

Porcini and Poppy playing:

Porcini and Poppy

Pausing while scratching the tree, with another cat drinking in the background:

Scratching tree

Poppy:

Poppy

I heard some quiet cat conversation on our front steps next to my desk, and turned on the light to see one of the twins on the steps, and another cat below the door (not visible here). Not fighting, just meowing at each other, which is a bit unusual for ferals. They didn’t run away when they saw me, either, though I’m sure would have if I had opened the door:

Cat on front steps

Three cats in the breezeway again:

Three cats in breezeway

After most of the week away, Pumpkin returned yesterday. I didn’t see any sign of treatment, but I didn’t get a very good look. He may have just been roaming. Though I haven’t seen him yet today, so if he does have a human home, maybe he slipped out:

Pumpkin returns

A Steller’s Jay:

Steller's Jay

Robin:

Robin

The robin having a bath in the water dispenser; I’m sure the cats enjoyed the bird flavor in their water:

Bird bath

A cute trash panda face, I mean raccoon, with no food this time:

Raccoon

Flock Friday for February 21

This week, the heron returns, a super-exciting stack of food bags and fun egg math, and assorted duck and chicken pics.

The heron landing:

Heron

The ducks swam over to investigate:

Heron

A while later, taking off again:

Heron

The ducks by their frosty-roofed house:

Ducks

Ducks from below the pond deck, while I was wiping off the pond cam:

Ducks

A peek of some chickens through the fence:

Chickens

The aforementioned exciting pile of bags of chicken food, and a flock block:

Chicken food

Let’s do some fun math. The chickens go through about a bag per week between the two coops — I typically get about six bags of feed every six weeks or so. (The ducks eat it too, but there are only a couple of them, so negligible difference.) Each bag costs $29.95.

We’re currently averaging about 6 eggs per day, ramping up as the weather warms up. At their peak production it’s more like 10. So that’s 42 to 70 eggs per week, or 3.5 to 5.8 dozen per week.

So in terms of food, each egg costs $0.71 to $0.43, or $8.52 to $5.16 per dozen (they eat at a fairly constant rate, so the more eggs they lay, the cheaper each is). And we give away the majority of those. Certainly not a cheap way to get eggs, but we enjoy the chickens, and you can’t beat the taste of farm-fresh eggs!

Sometimes it’s best not to look too closely at the numbers.

Anyway, back to the pics. The chickens in the new coop, waiting for their mealworm treats (let’s not factor those into the math too!):

Chickens

They are still mostly roosting above the nesting boxes in the new coop:

Chickens roosting

For completeness, the old coop too:

Chickens roosting

Finally, some pictures in the old coop just after I gave them the new flock block:

Chickens

Last chance to get Chicken GIFs iMessage sticker pack

On the Dejal blog: Chicken GIFs is heading for the chopping block. Apple is cleaning out apps and other content that haven’t been updated in three years, and Chicken GIFs is one. I have made it completely free until it vanishes; if you want it, get it now! See the blog post for more info.

Cat update for week ending February 15

On this week’s cat update, lots of cuteness, and a bit of drama. But only one GIF.

Porcini stretching against a tree:

Porcini stretch

Breezeway licks:

Breezeway licks

And snuggles:

Breezeway snuggles

Watching the sunrise from the breezeway:

Sitting in the breezeway

It may be a little hard to see, but look in the background on the right: a cat climbing a pole:

Cat climbing pole

Even harder to see, sitting on top of the pole:

Cat on top of pole

And down again; the ferals are very good at climbing, and know to turn around and back downwards, so their claws have traction:

Cat climbing down pole

Poppy in the breezeway during daylight hours:

Poppy in breezeway

Porcini and Poppy next to the cat house:

Two cats

Pumpkin watching me from the cabin while I refill the bird feeders:

Pumpkin

A rare color picture of Pepper, watching me in the shop (shortly after walking right by me):

Pepper

Bella:

Bella

Bella and Poppy:

Bella and Poppy

Paladout and Pumpkin:

Paladout and Pumpkin

Pumpkin:

Pumpkin

Pumpkin again:

Pumpkin

Porcini:

Porcini

Porcini on the parcel box on our front steps, with one of the twins below:

Porcini and twin

A couple more of Porcini; she either didn’t notice me watching her from the window a few feet away, or ignored me:

Porcini

Bella inside the cat house:

Bella

Going up:

Going up

Going down:

Going down

Pumpkin:

Pumpkin

An animated GIF of a flight between Pumpkin and a twin (probably Spud):

Cat fight GIF

Spud (or Pommie) was just sitting next to Pumpkin’s favorite shelter, and Pumpkin ran up and attacked. Spud seemed to fare better, though; Pumpkin lost some tufts of fur (you can see it drifting in the GIF), and suffered a bite or scratch on his tail:

Pumpkin wound

Hopefully he’ll be a bit more respectful of Spud in the future.

Anyway, back to cuteness. Breezeway cats:

Breezeway cats

Breezeway

Breezeway snuggles

The two “mushroom girls”, Portabella (aka Bella) and Porcini:

Mushroom girls

Bella:

Bella

Three cats:

Three cats

A couple action shots of running cats:

Running cats

Porcini and Poppy:

Porcini and Poppy

Meerkat:

Meerkat

Poppy face:

Poppy face

Pumpkin closeup:

Pumpkin closeup

I put a heating pad on an old cat bed in the back of the shop, but I hadn’t seen Pansy using it until now:

Pansy on heating pad

Flock Friday for February 14

On this week’s flock update, some ducks and some chickens. I know, huge surprise.

Ducks amongst the pond grasses:

Ducks amongst pond grasses

Chickens in the veggie garden coming to see me:

Chickens in the veggie garden coming to see me

I went into the veggie garden and took some pictures of the chickens for your enjoyment:

Chickens in the veggie garden

Finally, a couple more pictures of the ducks:

Ducks

Building greenhouse shelving: finished

Yesterday I did the finishing touches on the greenhouse shelving: installing the sink and a second coat of stain. (See the first, second, and third posts, if you missed them.)

But first, I screwed a couple of small blocks to secure the potting bench to the foundation, both so it can’t tip, and because it’ll eventually have water pipes mounted to it:

Block to secure potting bench

Then I installed the sink:

Sink

It is supported by boards underneath:

Under sink

I also added a hose reel to the side of the potting bench; later I’ll add a tap under the sink for it (and others above). This hose will be for ad-hoc watering of anything in the greenhouse:

Hose reel

The potting bench had hooks on the side, which I removed when mounting the sink, so I put them on the right of the right-hand shelves; perhaps useful for tools:

Hooks

A view of the back of the sink, above the louver vent, from outside:

Outside by sink

Another shot from outside, showing the back of the shelves:

Back

The completed shelves with a second coat of stain:

Shelves with second coat of stain

A wide-angle shot of the shelves:

Shelves

Another view of the shelves and sink:

Shelves and sink

This morning I went out there and put some trays on the shelves, as a demo of usage:

Trays on shelves

Potting bench and sink

Trays on shelves

Right shelves

A wide-angle of the inside of the whole greenhouse:

Whole greenhouse

This concludes this construction project. Hopefully Jenn will get good use out of these shelves, significantly increasing the growing capacity within the greenhouse.

A separate but related project will be to install plumbing: connecting a pipe from the nearby underground pipe, routing it to a tap under the hose reel, another tap for the sink, and a third tap on the back shelves for irrigation. Hooked onto that I’ll have a water timer and splitter, with irrigation tubing going to each shelf, and mister emitters as needed to irrigate the seedling trays. That’ll be a project for another day.

Cat update for week ending February 8

This week, more snow and more GIFs, though half as many as last time.

Here are Bella and Poppy sitting by the breezeway cabin, from two angles:

Bella and Poppy

You may recall that Pumpkin dislodged the decorative barrel on the cat house deck a couple of weeks ago; I re-glued it back in place:

Replaced barrel

Here’s a shot from a bit further back, including the door to the cat house:

Replaced barrel

Poppy hiding under the stacked furniture on our deck gazebo:

Poppy

Porcini and Poppy:

Porcini and Poppy

Paladout:

Paladout

Porcini pole dancing:

Porcini pole dancing

Derpy Porciini:

Derpy Porciini

Porcini looking at a bird:

Porcini

GIF of Porcini playing, watched by another couple of cats:

GIF of Porcini playing

Three cats:

Three cats

Pumpkin (looking rather evil, but really just sleepy) watching the snow come down:

Pumpkin watching snow

Pumpkin walking in the snow:

Pumpkin in snow

Another cat in the snow:

Cat in snow

Cat prints in the snow on our driveway:

Cat prints in snow

The cat house in the snow:

Cat house in snow

Cats in snow:

Cats in snow

Pumpkin:

Pumpkin in snow

Watch a GIF of cats with melting snow:

GIF of cats with melting snow

Bella in the breezeway at dusk:

Bella in breezeway

GIF of Pumpkin arriving and startling Porcini; I think he was just as startled:

GIF of Porcini and Pumpkin

Breezeway snuggles:

Breezeway snuggles

GIF of a raccoon grabbing a few crumbs of food:

GIF of a raccoon grabbing food

Daytime in the breezeway; quite a contrast between the bright light outside and the dark of the shelves:

Daytime breezeway

Pansy reaching for food:

Pansy reaching for food

Bella:

Bella

GIF of licks in the breezeway cabin:

GIF of licks in breezeway cabin

GIF of Bella rolling around in the cat house:

GIF of Bella in cat house

A twin on the kitchen lawn (I think Spud):

Twin on kitchen lawn

Porcini by the cabins:

Porcini

One of the twins; I think this is Pommie:

Pommie?

This is definitely Spud (I saw his rear end, the only definitive way to tell them apart). I can’t tell any difference in markings between the two twins, but Spud is a little skinnier:

Spud

Pumpkin hadn’t been hanging around for the last two days, so we were starting to worry something had happened to him, but he turned up again this morning:

Pumpkin