The last of our Rhode Island Red chickens, hatched in April 2015, died last night. Rest in peace, Red.
Here are some pictures of the RIRs from 2015:
Info from the feed store:
Ironically, Apple killed the Chicken GIFs iMessage sticker pack today, too, which featured animated GIFs of the RIRs and Leghorns. It’s like they could tell.
This week, one GIF, some pictures with Pumpkin, a glimpse of my drone, etc.
Porcini and Pommie in the cabins:
Pumpkin arriving in the breezeway:
The two cats in the cabin were not pleased to see him:
“And stay away!”
Pumpkin:
A GIF of cats (and briefly a raccoon) in the cabins and house. Pumpkin just wants to hang out with them:
A cat arriving at the feeder while Pumpkin was eating:
Porcini:
Two cats inside their house:
Pansy on a chair in the back of the shop:
Pumpkin looking very relaxed:
Pumpkin and Poppy both arrive for breakfast at the same time:
Pumpkin went to drink some water, and Poppy was able to go in to eat:
Pumpkin peeking:
Two cats in the feeder:
Pommie arrived at the cabins while Pumpkin was there:
A glimpse of my drone on the left of the picture, practicing low flying, when a couple of cats were eating:
Poppy asleep in the house:
Another cat joined her:
Three cats:
Just got my zero-turn riding mower and walk-behind mower back from their annual servicing. The brief time when they’re clean.
A couple of times this week, the ducks walked across the back lawn to visit me by the chicken coop.
Firstly, you probably saw a couple of posts with aerial shots from my new drone; here’s one more of the pond and ducks:
On Monday morning, while I was doing my usual rounds to give the chickens and ducks treats, and refill the bird feeders, the ducks crossed the back lawn to come see me by the chicken coop:
The ducks by the chicken run:
After I left, they followed me onto the driveway, which is the furthest I’ve seen them from the pond:
I encouraged them to go back to the pond:
A couple of days later, they joined me on the back lawn again:
Did you see the YouTube video of them? Make sure you turn on the sound; fun to hear them quacking at me.
Once again, I encouraged them back to the pond, for their safety:
A view from the hidden path:
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):
(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:
From another angle:
Looking straight down:
The pond, from lower down (with a duck in the middle):
The main deck, with Rory sprawled out:
The chicken runs, veggie garden, and greenhouse:
Miles of trees:
Trees and a glimpse of Mount Hood in the distance:
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):
And inside the 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:
A couple times this week, the ducks have left the pond to come see me on my morning rounds.
I have just updated the project summary of the greenhouse to include the recent shelving project:
And also added a new project page summarizing the veggie garden berry cage from a year ago:
Useful resources to see all posts about those topics in one place.
As mentioned on my personal blog, I recently bought a new drone: a DJI Mavic Mini. It’s a huge improvement over the old Parrot one I’ve had for years, and a couple of smaller toy ones I’ve tried. I haven’t really wanted to use those, as they lack a GPS to help navigation, so tend to drift away without actively managing the positioning, and the cameras are low resolution and fixed in place, so photos and video are poor quality.
While this new drone is very lightweight and lacks more pro features like course plotting, following, object avoidance, etc, the Mavic Mini does have a GPS to anchor it in the sky and let it return to the takeoff location, a gimbal for the camera to keep it straight and steady, and a camera resolution (4000×2250) comparable to modern iPhones (4032×3024).
See that Dejus post for pictures of the drone while setting it up. Here are a couple of pictures of it in the sky:
I probably won’t keep the blade guards on long-term, but thought that they’d be helpful “training wheels” while I practice flying it.
Anyway, the drone will be fun when we go on trips, where drone flight is allowed (which is quite restricted). But I expect I’ll mostly use it to take aerial photos of our homestead.
So you can expect more posts like this one over time. Let’s take off, starting with a top-down view of our fenced veggie garden and berry cage:
From a lower angle:
The old chicken run (you can see some chickens by the hole in the fence between the veggie garden and their run; I don’t think they were fans of the strange noisy bird hovering above; it sounds like an angry swarm of bees):
Turning a little to the right, the new chicken run and coop:
Top-down to both chicken runs:
The pond:
Another shot of the pond, with the pond deck in the foreground, and duck house on the right:
Another angle of the pond:
Flowerbeds on the left, back lawn on the right, pond in the background:
Flowerbeds, with the white and brown gazebos visible:
Flowerbeds and white gazebo:
Closer to the gazebo:
A top-down view of the flowerbeds (could be useful for planning planting):
I hope you enjoyed seeing this unusual perspective on some of the homestead. I’m sure I’ll show other angles and changing seasons in future posts. Let me know if you liked this!
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:
Poppy and Porcini having breakfast:
Pommie in front of the cabins:
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:
Three cats again, this time by their house:
A raccoon visited Porcini in a cabin:
She swiped at it and retreated out the back door; it jumped back then left. She came back later.
Pommie in the breezeway:
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:
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:
A rare color picture of Pansy in the back of the shop, using the heating pad:
Poppy enjoyed the cat house a few times this week:
Sun setting behind Porcini:
A cat climbing up the pole behind the cat house:
The cat on top of the pole from the other camera:
Jumping down from the pole; probably not as comfortable as climbing down backwards, but faster:
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):
Porcini and Pommie checking out the cabin with the pillowcase:
Porcini in an odd place, on top of a deck joist:
Pommie approved of the addition of the pillowcase:
Pommie and Porcini in the cabins:
At the same time as that last picture, Poppy in the breezeway cabin:
Pommie and Porcini in the cabins this morning:
Poppy checking out Pommie and Porcini in the cabins:
They’re still there as I write this, a couple of hours later. Makes me happy to see cozy cats.
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:
A couple token pictures of some chickens:
The chicken feeder jug in the new coop, freshly filled:
There are still about seven chickens roosting above the nesting boxes, but recently a couple more have joined Lola on the main roosts:
Colorful boiled eggs in the fridge:
A bunch of pictures of the ducks:
Closeups of Bert:
And Gert:
The ducks roosting on the pot supporting the fountain (which is currently off) at midnight:
A couple aerial pictures of our pond and surrounds:
