Cat update for week ending June 26

It’s Caturday. How many left before we leave the homestead? To be determined! The house is a “hot” property, with lots of viewings.

For those asking, we hope the new owners will want to continue feeding the feral cats, but if not, they will be free to leave. We will request or require that they keep the shelters, as long as the cats continue to use them. The outdoors is their home.

This week is all about Porcini; she’s the only one hanging around in this hot weather. Here she’s about to jump onto the camera housing:

Cat about to jump onto camera housing

Her tail hanging from the camera housing:

Cat tail hanging from camera housing

Porcini looking out the back door of the cat house:

Porcini looking out the back door

Several pics of Porcini in the cat house:

Porcini in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

I was adjusting the filler valve for the small pond by the cat house (and got stung by a bumblebee in the process), and noticed Porcini watching me; she’s barely visible through the left window:

Cat house with Porcini barely visible through the left window

Cat house with Porcini barely visible through the left window

Flock Friday for June 25

It’s Flock Friday. Did you see the announcement about us selling our homestead? These updates will be continuing for a little while longer, so enjoy them while they last!

An aerial view of the pond:

Aerial view of the pond

Sonja and her ducklings on an upturned pot island:

Sonja and her ducklings

Sonja and her ducklings

Chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Sonja and her ducklings, with other ducks in the background:

Sonja and her ducklings

Betty and her ducklings wading in the waterfall stream:

Betty and her ducklings

Finally, a GIF of some of Sonja’s ducklings eating from the duckling feeder:

Ducklings

Our next adventure

Jenn and I like to make big changes every 7-10 years. Jenn sold most of her stuff and moved from the US to NZ to be with me. Seven years later we sold most of our stuff and moved to the US. After a little while in an apartment, we bought a townhouse. Then a decade later we made the big jump from that small townhouse to our current homestead on over five acres. Changing countries, changing from a suburban lifestyle to a rural one, etc.

Now it’s time for our next big adventure. We have put our homestead on the market, and will be selling almost everything yet again, and will be buying a large RV and touring the US for a number of years!

Shocking, I know. We’ve enjoyed the homestead lifestyle, but are feeling the itch for a change yet again. As much as we enjoy the ducks, chickens, feral cats, landscaping, etc of our homestead, we’re feeling the call of the road. We’ve long dreamed of getting a motorhome and exploring the country, perhaps as a retirement plan, but why wait? Better to do it now when we’re still somewhat healthy.

Our house went on the market today, via our friend Jenny Turner of Lovejoy Real Estate — highly recommended if you’re selling or buying in the Portland region:

Lovejoy Real Estate sign

We’ve always been private about our house — this blog has shown lots of pictures of the landscaping and animals, but I’ve avoided showing the house itself, or identifying where it is. But that changes now: here is the real estate listing page. You can see lots of pictures of the house and grounds, and even walk around it in a virtual walkthrough. Check it out!

The real estate market is really hot right now, so we expect it to sell within days. If you’ve enjoyed our homestead and want to live the life yourself, get in quick! After the sale finalizes (“closes”) we’ll buy a suitable RV, move into it, store a few things, hold a professionally-managed estate sale to get rid of our remaining possessions, then hit the road.

We are planning to buy a 35-40 foot (10-12 m) motorhome. Since we’ll be living in it full-time while traveling around the country, we want a fair bit of space, and mod-cons like washer and dryer, and preferably dishwasher; yes larger units do have such things. Something like this:

RV

We plan to stay in one place for a couple of weeks at a time, since we’ll continue to work remotely, sightseeing on weekends. I can, of course, work from anywhere. Jenn has been successfully working remotely for the past year, and has received permission from her manager to continue working remotely as we travel. As long as we have an internet connection, we’ll be fine. (Space for two desks is one of the criteria for a RV.)

We’ll probably initially mostly stay in campgrounds, but over time I expect we’ll do more “boondocking”, i.e. staying in wilderness on public land, without any electrical, water, or sewer hookups. So we’ll want an RV with a generator, solar, and big water and waste tanks.

Our dog Rory and cat Paladin will be coming along with us. It’ll be a bit of an adjustment for all of us!

We’re excited about our next adventure, though are nervous and second-guessing ourselves too. We’ve done a bunch of research, and our trial trip, but actually doing it full-time will be different.

We don’t have an end time for this next phase of our lives; as with the previous ones, we’ll continue doing it until we’re ready for our next change. Which may be settling down in Hawaii or southern Oregon or somewhere else we find in our travels, or perhaps even moving back to NZ. Who knows. One thing at a time.

In the meantime, this blog will continue with cute pictures of ducks, chickens, cats, etc. And I plan to start a new blog for our new adventures, with lots of photos of places we visit. Still brainstorming on the name, though.

Again, check out our house if you’re curious, and stay tuned for updates.

Sonja’s ducklings on June 19 and 20

So, remember when I said that most of Sonja’s eggs wouldn’t hatch, like with Betty’s? Yeah, about that… I was wrong; it looks like pretty much all of them did. She currently has 16 ducklings!

I say “currently” as it is likely that some won’t survive their first few days, and others may die for various reasons over time, but it’s still more than expected.

Here’s a GIF of Sonja popping out of her nest, with a squirming mass of ducklings:

Ducklings

Another GIF; so many ducklings:

Ducklings

Last GIF of overflowing ducklings:

Ducklings

This morning Sonja led her babies into the pond. Definitely a benefit of mother-raised ducklings, able to swim a day or two after hatching:

Sonja and ducklings

Here they are with some of Betty’s ducklings in the background; the latter are only three weeks older, but so much bigger!

Betty's ducklings; Sonja and ducklings

Quite the flotilla:

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings

Sonja’s ducklings on June 18 and 19

I mentioned in Flock Friday yesterday that Sonja’s ducklings were due to hatch that day, based on when she started full-time nesting. Well, right on schedule, they did indeed; I saw the first duckling yesterday afternoon, and this morning there are several; a little too dark to count them, but I’m pretty sure I saw at least six.

Here are some GIFs of them, starting with the first one I saw:

Sonja's ducklings

Another GIF:

Sonja's ducklings

GIF of a duckling tumbling out of the nest, and climbing back in:

Sonja's ducklings

After dark GIF with several visible:

Sonja's ducklings

This morning, one of the boys was being too nosy, so Sonja led him away from the nest. The oldest duckling followed to the door, then returned to the nest (GIF):

Sonja's ducklings

While she was away, we get a better look at the squirming mass of ducklings in this GIF; see how many you can count:

Sonja's ducklings

For comparison, here is a picture of Betty’s ducklings; already much bigger:

Sonja and Betty's ducklings

Finally, several ducklings emerging from under Sonja:

Sonja's ducklings

Stay tuned for another baby duckling update tomorrow.

Cat update for week ending June 19

Welcome to Caturday. With, as you might guess, some pictures of our feral cats. including two GIFs.

Here’s Porcini chillaxing in the cat house:

Porcini

Pommie oozing out of a cabin:

Pommie

Spud and Pommie:

Spud and Pommie

Spud on the driveway by the shop:

Spud on the driveway by the shop

Porcini inside again:

Porcini

A timelapse GIF of a day of Porcini in the cat house:

Porcini

Cat tail:

Cabin cat

A captured moment of Porcini licking her face while looking at the camera:

Porcini yawning

Just a quick lick, here in GIF form:

Porcini yawning

An amusing expression on Spud’s face in the breezeway:

Spud in the breezeway

Jumping up:

Spud in the breezeway

Two cats by the feeder:

Two cats

Flock Friday for June 18

Happy Flock Friday! We’re still waiting for Sonja’s eggs to hatch; based on when she started full-time nesting, they’re due around today, though could be a few days away.

Here is Sonja on her nest last weekend:

Sonja nesting

A peek at her eggs; I see 15 there, but there could be more hidden under the straw. As with Betty, probably only a few of those will hatch:

Sonja's eggs

Our pond, with Betty flapping her wings on the island, and her ducklings barely visible:

Pond

A closer look at Betty and her ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Did you see my blog post about adding more dirt to the island?

Ducklings and ducks on the far side of the pond:

Ducks

A snake taking a swim; don’t see them often:

Snake

Ducks on the lawn by the brown gazebo and grove of trees:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Sonja taking a break on an upturned pot island, along with Betty and her ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Betty and ducklings

They’re getting so big already!

Oh, I suppose I should include some token pictures of chickens too; the chickens are characters in their own way, but for some reason I take way more pictures of the ducks:

Chickens

Chickens:

Chickens

Chickens:

Chickens

Duck island: more dirt

On Saturday I added some more dirt to the floating island in our pond. It was floating a bit too high out of the water, and not looking as nice as it could be with a fairly hollow bowl inside, which also made it more difficult for the ducklings to navigate, as shown in the most recent Flock Friday post. So more dirt solved those issues.

Here’s a wheelbarrow of dirt; I added about two of these to the island:

Wheelbarrow of dirt

Rather than detaching the island from its anchor, I used a mucky bucket to transport several loads of dirt from the wheelbarrow to the island:

Bucket of dirt

I waded in the pond with the bucket (here it’s empty, floating on the surface):

David in pond with bucket

Some new dirt on the island:

New dirt on island

Me wading in the pond again, this time with a full bucket of dirt; it still floated, so easy enough to move, though the top of the bucket was just above the water level, so I was careful to avoid getting water inside:

David in pond with bucket of dirt

A picture Jenn took of me in the pond:

David in pond

That’ll do:

New dirt on island

The island with new dirt, floating at a better level:

New dirt on island

That evening, the ducks enjoyed re-exploring the island:

Ducks on island

It rained overnight, resulting in puddles on the island, settling of the dirt, and floating a bit lower from the weight of the water, but it’s still floating:

Puddles on island

Puddles on island

It’ll dry out again once the rain stops.