Cat update for week ending July 31

Counting down the Caturdays too….

Here’s Porcini waiting for food in the feeder:

Porcini

Porcini and Bella:

Porcini and Bella

Porcini closeup:

Porcini

Waiting for breakfast in the comfort of the cat house:

Cat inside

Another Porcini closeup:

Porcini

Our dog Rory sitting on the driveway, oblivious of a cat laying on the path:

Rory with cat on path

Cat on path

Two cats at breakfast time:

Two cats

Aerial photos in October

I flew my drone today; the first time since the end of August. Previous flights this year included JuneApril, 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

Over to the flowerbeds; you can see a fallen tree from the big storm that contributed to the wildfires earlier (we’ll cut it up and remove it soon):

Flowerbeds

Closer:

Flowerbeds and downed tree

Part of the field and flowerbeds. The long grass in the field looks like nice soft velvet:

Field and flowerbeds

From higher up:

Field and flowerbeds

I landed the drone to change the battery, then took off again; Rory wasn’t thrilled about that:

Rory

Finally, a few shots of trees, to capture the fall foliage:

Tree

Tree

Trees

Pond and trees

Cat update for week ending September 12 (plus evacuation update)

The latest news from our evacuation from the wildfires (or more accurately climate fires): last night the power was restored to our homestead, having been off since Tuesday afternoon. Since it was without electricity for over three days, it’s safe to assume the contents of our three freezers and two fridges will have to be thrown out. But having power means that the well is working again, and the waterers in the chicken runs will refill, which will help them survive. The stream to the small pond will also be running again, providing water for the outdoor cats and wild birds.

We remain safe at Mom’s place, though the smoke from the fires is affecting the air quality up and down the west coast, as can be seen in this map (or check the current conditions):

Air quality

The fire boundary and evacuation map hasn’t really changed since yesterday (website):

Fire and evacuation map

The Clackamas county map (website):

Fire and evacuation map

I talked about the chickens and ducks yesterday; today is Caturday, so I’ll talk about the cats.

We care for nine cats: two indoor-only pet cats (Pippin and Paladin), two indoor-only feral shop cats (Pepper and Pansy), and five outdoor-only feral cats (Poppy and her offspring Porcini, Portabella aka Bella, Pomegranate aka Pommie, and Potato aka Spud).

Pippin and Paladin are safe with us. Pepper and Pansy are still in the workshop, and should have enough food and water to last them about a week. Poppy and the others can feed themselves on rodents etc, but now that the power is back, they will get some meals from the cat house. That food should last about a week too. And they can drink from the stream and small pond, plus a waterer near the cat house.

So I’m not as concerned about the cats as I am about the chickens, though the shop cats would be my next concern after the chickens. I do worry that the outdoor ferals might have abandoned us when they weren’t getting food while the power was off. The feeder has a battery backup, but according to the feeder log, apparently it didn’t work while there was no power, so the batteries must be flat. D’oh! They’ll probably stick around, though.

Unfortunately although the power and internet are back on, my Camect camera server is connected to a UPS that is off, so I can’t view the cameras remotely. I won’t know what’s happening until we go home.

Enough text, let’s have some photos. Here are Paladin and Rory snuggling in our room at Mom’s place:

Paladin and Rory

Some pictures of the feral cats from before we evacuated. Here’s Poppy:

Poppy

Porcini having a bath on the kitchen lawn:

Porcini

And relaxing in the kitchen garden:

Porcini

Poppy emerging from the feeder:

Poppy

Porcini:

Porcini

Porcini again:

Porcini

Poppy again:

Poppy

Poppy and Porcini:

Poppy and Porcini

A tail:

Tail

Finally, Pansy in the back of the shop:

Pansy

I hope the cats will be okay!

Cat update for week ending July 4

For this week’s Caturday, a number of pictures of spotting cats in person, plus the usual cat cabin and house pictures.

While doing afternoon rounds, Rory spotted Paladout in the distance:

Rory and Paladout

Rory and Paladout

Spud emerging from the breezeway cabin:

Spud

Two cats in the cabins:

Cabin cats

Having a drink:

Cat outside

Feet:

Feet

I spotted Porcini on the path near the stream:

Cat on path

Cabin twins:

Cabin cats

Two cats on their deck:

Two cats

Three cats at the cabins:

Three cats

Porcini:

Porcini

Three cats inside:

Three cats inside

Three cats inside

I spotted a cat on the edge of the field:

Cat in field

Make that two cats; looks like they’re watching something:

Cats in field

Then they both headed towards the front yard (Porcini and Poppy):

Cats in field

Poppy and Porcini again:

Two cats

And again; those two like hanging out together:

Cat snuggles

Three cats:

Three cats

Cat update for week ending May 30

On this week’s Caturday, camera replacement, Poppa, Rory cameo, and sunshine.

The camera inside the cat house stopped recording, so I slid open the rarely-opened maintenance door to investigate it:

Opened cat house

I couldn’t get it to work, so I swapped the cat house camera for the spare one that was previously in the old chicken coop. Here’s a closer look at the camera enclosure:

Cat house camera

The cat house cam is mounted upside down on the ceiling, so here’s the view just after replacing it:

Cat house cam upside down

I then told the camera to rotate the view 180°. Here’s a cat looking at the cam:

Cat looking at cam

It’s hard to tell, since the inside is symmetrical, but that picture is actually horizontally mirrored; I forgot that I also needed to un-mirror it to get the correct orientation.

Here’s Porcini and Pommie in the cabins, visited by Poppa:

Porcini, Pommie, Poppa

After a while, Pommie left to go eat or something, and Poppa went into her cabin. Here’s Pommie returning to find it occupied:

Porcini, Pommie, Poppa

A few minutes later, Poppa emerged; he’s such a big boy:

Poppa

On evening rounds, Rory spotted Paladout on the path to the duck house:

Rory watching Paladout

Hard to see in that picture; here’s a closer look at Paladout:

Paladout

Two cats under our car:

Two cats under car

The sun shining down the breezeway, with a cat silhouette:

Breezeway

Pepper on her nest in the shop:

Pepper

An animated GIF of Poppy, Bella, and Porcini playing:

GIF of Poppy, Bella, Porcini

Poppy, Bella, Porcini:

Poppy, Bella, Porcini

Pommie oozing out of a cabin on a hot day:

Pommie

Poppy inside:

Poppy

Porcini relaxing in the shade under the bird feeders on a sunny day:

Porcini

Closer:

Porcini

Poppy and Porcini:

Poppy and Porcini

Too hot to be inside last night; Spud and Poppy in front of the cat house:

Spud and Poppy

Flock Friday for April 3

This week, Rory with the ducks, broody chickens, and a new camera view.

I posted a similar (but different) picture to this one, of the ducks and Rory, on my personal blog:

Ducks and Rory

The ducks on the back lawn, with their heads in the grass, looking for tasty bugs:

Ducks with heads in grass

By the chicken run:

Ducks by chicken run

Ducks and chickens

Two broody chickens in a nesting box:

Chickens in nesting box

Gert on the “island” pot in the pond at night:

On island

You probably saw these two pictures of the ducks and Rory on my personal blog:

Ducks and Rory

Ducks and Rory

I moved the mobile cam from by the cat house to the (currently off) waterfall area of the pond:

Camera

A view of the pond and ducks from that camera:

Ducks

Gert with her head in the ground:

Duck with head in ground

Gert was curious about the camera:

Duck

Duck

Duck

And knocked it over:

Duck foot

So I moved the camera to a better location, closer to the pond deck:

Camera

A view from there; you can see the ducks hanging out below the pond deck, where they’ve been spending a fair bit of time:

Ducks below pond deck

I suspect Gert may be considering that location for laying eggs, though haven’t found any more yet.

Swimming past the camera:

Ducks

Ducks eating treats:

Ducks eating treats

Gert:

Duck

Bert:

Duck

Gert below the pond deck again, and Bert walking past the camera:

Ducks

Both ducks below the pond deck, and Paladout walking by:

Ducks and cat

The chickens in the old coop:

Chickens

Broody chickens again (still):

Broody chickens

A wider view of the broody chickens and others:

Chickens

The ducks walking by:

Ducks

Chickens roosting on potato planters:

Chickens roosting on potato planters

The ducks below the pond deck again:

Ducks

Ducks and a bird:

Ducks and bird

Flying high and low

As was foretold, some more photos of and from my new drone, as I practice flying it. Gotta put in that flight time to become proficient!

Firstly, a shot of the drone on the (rather mossy) driveway, with a bee on the nose (I didn’t take off until she left):

Drone with bee

(I probably shouldn’t attempt beekeeper humor by saying it’s not that kind of drone.)

A shot from higher up of the pond and landscaping; beehives in the upper-left, greenhouse, hoop house, veggie garden, chicken runs, etc:

Pond and landscaping

From another angle:

Pond and landscaping

Looking straight down:

Pond and landscaping

The pond, from lower down (with a duck in the middle):

Pond

The main deck, with Rory sprawled out:

Deck with Rory

The chicken runs, veggie garden, and greenhouse:

Veggie garden and chicken runs

Miles of trees:

Trees

Trees and a glimpse of Mount Hood in the distance:

Trees and Mount Hood

I then flew around at a lower level, practicing my flying precision. Here’s the drone flying through the breezeway, as seen by the cat cam there (I did check that there weren’t any cats present before flying though):

Breezeway

And inside the brown gazebo:

Brown gazebo

Those pictures were from yesterday. I did a little practice today, but it was too windy to go very high, so I just did more low-level flying. Here’s a shot of the flag from flagpole height, showing the breeze:

Flag

Flock Friday for January 24

This week, chickens in the veggie garden and coops, and ducks in the pond. You know, the usual. Except a bonus Rory sighting.

A couple of the oldest girls perched on the potato planters in the veggie garden:

Chickens in veggie garden

The ducks during some rain showers:

Ducks

Mealworm treats:

Ducks with treats

Water trailing off the bill:

Ducks

Bert:

Bert

Gert:

Gert

Rory out for her walk on afternoon rounds, watched by the chickens in the veggie garden:

Rory and chickens in veggie garden

Chickens in the new coop:

Chickens in new coop

And in the old coop:

Chickens in old coop

A couple freshly laid eggs in a nesting box:

Eggs in nesting box

Cat update for week ending August 10

Firstly, while the Caturday posts are typically about our feral cats, I wanted to start by wishing a happy 12th birthday to one of our pet cats, Pippin:

Pippin

Not-a-cat: a dog checks out the cat house during our summer party:

Dog

Three cats waiting for breakfast:

Three cats waiting for breakfast

Four cats at breakfast:

Four cats at breakfast

Pansy reaching for food:

Pansy reaching for food

Scratching a tree:

Stretching on tree

A GIF variation:

GIF of scratching tree

Three cats:

Three cats

Four cats:

Four cats

Contentedly waiting:

Three cats

Sleepy cat:

Sleepy cat

Four cats:

Four cats

A couple of cats playing by the tree, while a couple more wait for food:

Four cats

Another snow day, and no power

We got a few more inches of snow overnight. This morning we lost power… still off a couple of hours later as I write this, though predicted to be back on soon. Hopefully. We have UPSes powering our internet, but no water, since we’re on a well. One day we want to get a whole-house generator, or Tesla Powerwall, but those are expensive. We do have a portable generator, but that doesn’t help with the water, and isn’t needed unless the power stays off for a long time.

Anyway, this morning Jenn and Rory joined me on the rounds, and I took a few more snowy pics.

This is the tree by the chicken run. The branches are usually high enough to walk under, not touching the ground:

The pond is frozen today; unsurprising with the temperature below freezing:

The brown gazebo and chicken coop:

Jenn taking a picture of the snow by the pond arbor:

Rory:

A view of the frozen pond from the pond deck:

Rory enjoyed some off-leash scampering in the field; she loves to run in the snow:

The apple orchard in the field, with the white gazebo in the background:

Rory sniffing deer tracks by the bird feeders: