Weather station

As part of the greenhouse project, we wanted to add moisture sensors to seedling trays, to know when we need to tweak their watering.

To enable that, we got an Ecowitt weather station that supports optional moisture sensors. The weather station will also be useful for hyper-local weather information, since weather conditions for nearby towns aren’t necessarily representative of what it’s like here, being on the top of a hill.

Here are the wind and rain sensors, mounted on top of the berry cage. They ideally should be higher for the most accurate readings, but that’d make changing their batteries much harder:

Wind and rain sensors

A closer look at the anemometer, with sensors for wind speed, wind direction, light level, and UV:

Wind sensors

The rain gauge sensor:

Rain sensor

Outdoor temperature and humidity sensor, hanging in the shade of the greenhouse:

Outdoor temperature and humidity sensor

Indoor temperature and humidity sensors and Wi-Fi gateway, next to the Eero Beacon Wi-Fi router in the greenhouse:

Indoor sensors and Wi-Fi

Cat update for week ending March 21

This week, a new alien cat, a jay landing, and assorted cute cats.

I mentioned this yesterday, but for anyone who didn’t see that: because everyone could use a bit more joy at present, I’m posting a moment of cuteness every day on my personal blog. Which will include additional feral cat pictures not posted here, plus our pet cats, our dog Rory, ducks and chickens, and other cute things from around the homestead. So you might enjoy following the Dejus blog, or its RSS feed, or cross-posts on Micro.blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Also, a plug for one of my Dejal apps: to help people new to working from home, I am giving away the fully unlocked features of my Time Out break reminder app for macOS.  It’s important to take regular breaks.  Learn more on the Dejal blog.

On with the pics. Here’s Porcini peeking:

Porcini

Pommie and Porcini in the cabins:

Pommie and Porcini

Pommie and Porcini

In the breezeway during the day:

Breezeway

I encountered Pepper in the front of the shop; she is used to me, so doesn’t run away unless I get within a few feet of her. The feral cats have been practicing social distancing before it was cool:

Pepper

Porcini on the driveway:

Porcini

Bella in the cat house:

Bella

And by the cabins:

Bella

Bella and Porcini:

Bella and Porcini

A new alien cat turned up this week; similar to Pumpkin, but a lighter color:

New alien cat

I haven’t seen Pumpkin for a while; I had to significantly reduce the food dispenser quantity, to avoid leaving food overnight.

A good stretch:

Stretch

Bella, Poppy, and a twin by the cat house:

Three cats

Three cats

A twin on the front steps (sorry about the reflections in the window):

Twin

A fight between two cats; I assume one of our twins and the new alien, but could be two aliens; I can’t see them clear enough to be sure:

Face off

Cat fight

Cat fight

The new alien cat again; an un-neutered male:

New alien cat

New alien cat

A Steller’s Jay coming in for a landing; such a pretty bird:

Steller's Jay

Steller's Jay

A twin with their tongue out in the cat house:

Twin

I hope you enjoyed this cat update. Be like feral cats, and practice good social distancing!

Flock Friday for March 20

This week, the ducks walked across the back lawn to meet me a few times, the chickens got their favorite treat, the heron visited again, and more.

Oh, and for anyone who doesn’t follow my personal blog, Dejus: because everyone could use a bit more joy at present, I’m posting a moment of cuteness every day. Which will include additional duck and chicken pictures not posted here, plus feral and pet cats, our dog Rory, and other cute things from around the homestead. So you might enjoy following the Dejus blog, or its RSS feed, or cross-posts on Micro.blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Anyway, on with today’s Flock Friday. Here are the ducks in their house:

Duck in duck house

Duck in duck house

The ducks on a frosty back lawn:

Ducks

Eating mealworms next to the duck house:

Ducks by duck house

Ducks by duck house

Chickens having a dust bath in the veggie garden:

Chickens having a dust bath

The ducks on the back lawn again:

Ducks

Quacking and walking back to their house:

Ducks

Ducks on path

A couple animated GIFs of the ducks on the path to the duck house (different than the one posted on my personal blog):

GIF of ducks on path

GIF of ducks on path

Chickens staring at me, waiting for treats:

Chickens waiting for treats

Chickens waiting for treats

It was worth the wait; rice is their all-time favorite treat, after mealworms:

Chickens enjoying rice

Chickens enjoying rice

Chickens enjoying rice

Chickens enjoying rice

Another frosty morning, and again the ducks running over the lawn to see me:

Ducks running over the lawn to see me

Ducks on back lawn

Quacking at me by the chicken runs:

Ducks by chicken runs

Ducks by chicken runs

Did you see the YouTube video of them following me to the duck house and getting treats?

A heron coming in for a landing:

Heron landing

Heron landing

Heron in the pond, watched by the ducks:

Heron in pond

Finally, since Jenn hasn’t been going to work due to COVID-19, and the chickens are laying about a dozen eggs per day at present, we’re accumulating lots of eggs. Here are four dozen, washed and ready to make into a heap of breakfast burritos this morning:

Four dozen eggs

We’ll work on thinking of other meals to eat up the eggs. Let me know if you have any recommendations.

Stay safe, stay home, everyone!

Aerial snow

We recently had a couple days of light snow… a bit unusual for March, but not unheard of.

I always enjoy taking pictures of snow, but now that I have a nice drone, I was able to take some aerial photos of it, too.  The only downside was I needed to wait for the snow to stop falling, since the drone isn’t waterproof.

I’m looking forward to next winter if we get several inches of snow, for even better pics, but this is a nice start.

Let’s begin with an angled view of the snow on the flowerbeds, pond, back lawn, and chicken runs:

Back lawn etc

A top-down view of the field, flowerbeds, and pond:

Field and flowerbeds

A bunch of snowy trees in the mist:

Snowy trees

Just below the cloud layer:

Cloud layer

More snow-tipped trees:

Snowy trees

Snowy trees

Our tallest tree with the double trunk (as featured in a recent post):

Snowy trees

From lower down:

Snowy trees

Not from the drone, the gazebo and grove (I love that you can’t tell a difference in quality between the drone and iPhone cameras):

Gazebo

The next day, it snowed a bit more, about an inch, so I flew again to capture that:

Snowy aerial

Snowy aerial

Snowy trees:

Snowy trees

Snowy trees

Snowy trees

Snowy trees

Back on the ground, walking to the duck house:

Snowy bridge

Snowy trees

Snow

Ducks in the pond

The daffodils weren’t enjoying the snow:

Snowy daffodils

Snowy daffodils

I hope you enjoyed those snowy pics as much as I did.

Cat update for week ending March 14

While you could all use cute pictures of ducks and chickens this week, everyone knows that cats rule the internet for cuteness. On to Caturday!

Three cats in front of the cat house:

Three cats

Poppy face:

Poppy

Three cats in the breezeway:

Three cats

Porcini and Pumpkin in the cabins:

Porcini and Pumpkin

An animated GIF of a bird landing:

GIF of bird landing

A new alien cat visited a few times, and menaced Pumpkin (giving him a taste of his own medicine):

Alien cat and Pumpkin

Alien cat and Pumpkin

He looks like one of our ferals, though larger, but doesn’t have the ear tip:

Alien cat and Pumpkin

Alien cat and Pumpkin

He went after Pumpkin in the shelter; Pumpkin stood his ground:

Alien cat and Pumpkin

Pumpkin was none the worse from that encounter:

Pumpkin

Porcini:

Porcini

A GIF of Pumpkin arriving, and pausing while another cat departed:

GIF of Pumpkin and another cat

GIF of Poppy slowly walking towards the feeder, only to be overtaken by two of her kits:

GIF of Poppy with two other cats

GIF of cats playing:

GIF of cats playing

Four cats outside; two in front of the bench, one only visible as a shadow behind the bench, and one by a rock:

Four cats

At the same instant as that photo, another cat in the feeder. I always enjoy seeing all five cats at the same time; a rather rare occurrence:

Cat in feeder

Pepper on her perch in the shop, watching me collapsing cardboard boxes:

Pepper in the shop

Porcini:

Porcini

Porcini under the deck, looking startled when I was refilling the bird feeders:

Porcini

Snow on a cat in the feeder:

Snow on cat

Two cats inside their house, taking advantage of the heating pads:

Two cats inside

Flock Friday for March 13

This week, I bet you could use pictures of cute chickens and ducks, eh?

The chickens going after treats; notice Camilla on top of Merida:

Chickens

Chickens

The ducks coming over the lawn to greet me:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Following me down the path to the duck house:

Ducks

Ducks

Eating mealworm treats on the bank by the duck house:

Ducks

Two chickens in a nesting box:

Two chickens in a nesting box

I feel like she’s giving me a disapproving look:

Chicken in nesting box

A bunch of chickens in the old coop:

Chickens

I’ve got a couple months of chicken feed stacked up:

Chicken feed

The ducks again:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

A stroll through the woods

The east side of our property is a slope down to a valley, mostly covered in trees, about an acre in size. Yesterday I hiked down the hill, and took a bunch of pictures of the trees. I typically only go down there around this time of year, as it gets a bit overgrown in the summer, plus there are a lot of blackberry brambles, which aren’t much fun when wearing shorts in the warm weather.

This first picture gives a pretty good indication of the slope; not super-steep, but fairly significant:

Trees

A bunch more pictures of trees, with occasional comments; won’t you join me for a stroll?  You’ll just have to imagine the birdsong:

Trees

Trees

Looking across the valley at the bottom of the property:

Valley

Trees

Trees

Looking up towards the potting shelter near the beehives:

Trees

Trees

Trees

Trees

Trees

Trees

Trees

Private property sign:

Private property sign

Trees

Base of the tallest tree on our property:

Tree

Looking up at that tree, which forks to two trunks. I haven’t measured how tall it is, but I’d estimate somewhere around 100 feet — certainly not the tallest tree near us, but the tallest on our property:

Tallest tree

Trees

Blackberry brambles, which cover a sizable portion of the hill; quite the menace:

Blackberries

Trees

Trees

Trees

Trees

A moss-covered fallen tree branch:

Fallen tree

There are lots of ferns enjoying the shade, too:

Trees

Trees

A somewhat recently fallen tree:

Fallen tree

It landed on the boundary fence:

Fallen tree

Looking along the length of the fallen tree:

Fallen tree

Trees

Trees

Trees

Part of the slope is covered with grass, which we used to mow, but in recent years have left wild. Looking up the hill to seedlings I transplanted a few years ago; the pond is beyond the top of the hill:

Transplanted trees

On the edge of the trees is a nursery of seedlings:

Tree nursery

Tree nursery

Which is slowly spreading up the hill, including a pine tree seedling:

Pine tree seedling

And a bunch of fir tree seedlings:

Fir tree seedlings

I hope you enjoyed joining me on this small hike.