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

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

Video

Video: listen to lots of hungry hummingbirds

Sound up! After refilling the hummingbird feeders, I stood nearby outside and recorded several of them arriving, with the lightsaber-like wing noises and twittering arguments.

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

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

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

Chickens

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

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

Plus decorating shrubby trees:

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

Video

A time-lapse video of several days in the feral cat house

The temperatures has been below freezing over the past few days, so our feral cats have been hanging around home more, enjoying their heated shelters. This is a time-lapse from the last few days of inside their main cat house.

Cat update for week ending October 24

As mentioned in yesterday’s Flock Friday, it has been below freezing the last few days, which of course means the feral cats have been hanging around home more, snuggling in their heated shelters.

For today’s Caturday, a few pictures of snuggles, and several GIFs. I really restrained myself from uploading too many snuggle pics; at the end I have a summary GIF with 78 pictures, and I think at least half of them are of cute snuggling.

So let’s get a couple of those out of the way to start:

Cat snuggles

Here’s a GIF of Porcini and Poppy snuggling, that I posted earlier in the week on my personal blog:

Cat snuggles GIF

As usual, Pommie has been spending most of her time at the cabins:

Pommie at the cabins

Three cats inside the cat house:

Three cats inside the cat house

Another snuggle GIF:

Cat snuggles GIF

Porcini and Pommie outside:

Porcini and Pommie

I flushed out Porcini and Poppy when visiting the cat house to reset the cameras; they watched me from a safe distance:

Porcini and Poppy

Three cats; they look like they’re telling secrets, but are actually going after some bonus food I tossed there when refilling their dispenser:

Three cats

Four cats at breakfast time:

Four cats

Three cats in the feeder:

Three cats

Four cats again:

Four cats

And four cats inside the house, which is rather unusual:

Four cats

A little more snuggling… because three cats:

Three cats

Porcini and Poppy:

Porcini and Poppy

Cats playing on the awning and jumping down from a tree:

Cats on awning and tree

A GIF of that playtime:

Cats GIF

A screenshot of my cams app showing 3 cats (deck, feeder, and house):

Cams screenshot with 3 cats

Later, four cats (cabin, feeder, two in the house):

Cams screenshot with 4 cats

And five cats (deck, cabin, feeder, two in the house):

Cams screenshot with 5 cats

A time-lapse GIF of several days inside the cat house:

Timelapse GIF

And finally, the aforementioned summary GIF of 78 photos from this week, if you haven’t already overdosed on snuggles… plus glimpses of Poppa, Paladout by the pond, and more that I didn’t include above:

Summary GIF

Flock Friday for October 23

Fabulously freezing Flock Friday, friends! (The temperature was below freezing overnight.)

28 degrees F overnight

A shot from the new coop cam of three chickens on their favorite roost by the window:

Chickens

A GIF of a fourth flying from the other roosts, and knocking the camera off:

Chickens GIF

A freeze-frame of landing on top of another chicken, causing that chaos:

Chickens

The camera is magnetically attached to a metal plate wedged under the window screen; here it’s just hanging by its wire:

Camera

The ducks on the back lawn, rooting for bugs:

Ducks on lawn

A time-lapse GIF of a chicken flying up to the roost and back down again:

Chickens GIF

Chickens hanging out on top of logs etc:

Chickens

A bunch more pics of the chickens:

Chickens

Kiwi is still looking quite scruffy, but you can see the new feathers coming in:

Chickens

Ditto with Buffy:

Chickens

I had a cunning idea, to make it easier to see if the pop doors are open or closed in the dark: I added reflective tape on the pop door:

Reflective tape on pop door

And on the outside:

Reflective tape on pop door

The old coop too (the horizontal one acts as an extra indicator, only being visible when the door is closed):

Reflective tape on pop door

Here are roosting chickens again, with the light on:

Roosting chickens

A little spooky after the light goes off (it’s on a timer):

Roosting chickens

As it gets darker, the night-vision of the cam turns on:

Roosting chickens

The pop door closed; now clearly visible via the reflective strips:

Roosting chickens

I can see the state of the door outside too, via the reflective strips:

Coop outside

In the old coop, door open:

Roosting chickens

Door closed:

Roosting chickens

The ducks have recently been hanging out on the bank to the left of the pond deck:

Ducks

It started raining, so the ducks came up to the lawn to hunt for worms that come to the surface during precipitation:

Ducks on lawn

A GIF of a Rouen running up the bank, using her wings to assist:

Ducks GIF

Sassa doing the same:

Ducks on lawn

She kept on going:

Ducks GIF

Exploring more of the lawn:

Ducks on lawn

Summary: building the duck house

I just added a project summary of designing and building the duck house. It is permanently available in my project pages, but here is a copy as a blog post too.

———

A project to build a house and feeder for ducklings and ducks on our pond. For weekly posts on the ducks themselves, check out the ducks category of the blog, and/or the weekly Flock Friday blog posts, that cover the ducks, chickens, and wild birds.

This is a summary of the plans, design, construction, and installation of the duck house, with links to the individual blog posts about it.

January 2019

We have a nice large pond at the homestead, and enjoyed the occasional visit by migrating wild ducks. In January 2019 we decided we wanted permanent residents, and ordered four ducklings for delivery in May. So, it was time to get started designing a house for them. Here’s where it would be situated:

February 2019

My custom design for a duck house:

Starting construction, one of the first steps was to cut the floor and wall panels:

Lots of progress on assembling the walls and roof:

March 2019

A bunch of tweaks and trim work:

Building the doors, including the innovative four-part maintenance door:

Adding battens:

April 2019

Starting to paint the duck house:

Adding door hardware:

Roofing:

The house includes LED and heat lamp lighting and other electrical features, including Wi-Fi:

I added vinyl tiles to help waterproof it:

May 2019

With the construction complete, I next hand-excavated the location next to the pond:

Installing the floor joists:

Installation:

Some preparation for ducklings (and chicks):

Introduction of the first ducklings to the duck house:

June 2019

I also introduced a new weekly series on the blog, Flock Friday (that’s a baby Bert on the left):

(Check out the ducks category, or in ascending order, or the weekly Flock Friday blog posts, for more pictures of ducklings.)

July 2019

An addition to the duck house was covered in one of the Flock Friday posts: adding the feeder tube:

When the first ducklings were getting old enough to go in the pond, I made and installed a ramp for them:

That’s it for now. This page will be updated with any future enhancements to the duck house.

Aerial photos in October

I flew my drone today; the first time since the end of August. Previous flights this year included June, April, and March. This time, some nice fall foliage.

A view of the shop, veggie garden, chicken runs, back lawn, pond, flowerbeds, etc:

Veggie garden, back lawn, pond, flowerbeds, etc

Closer to the pond:

Pond

One reason for this flight was to get an aerial shot of the path to the duck house; I have a hose used to fill the duck’s waterer, which is also arranged as a possible edge of the path. Hard to see in this picture, though:

Pond path area