Cat update for week ending November 23

It’s a day for cat pictures. On a Saturday. A Caturday, if you will.

Poppy & Bella:

Poppy & Bella

Pumpkin and a twin chilling on the deck:

Pumpkin and a twin

Two cats at the cabin:

Two cats at the cabin

Bella in the house:

Bella in the house

A twin at the cabin (with wide eyes like that, I’d guess Spud):

A twin at the cabin

Pumpkin is not welcome at the cabin:

Pumpkin is not welcome at the cabin

Cabin snuggles:

Cabin snuggles

Droopy flowers above the camera, heavy from the rain:

Droopy flowers

Breakfast queue:

Breakfast queue

Two cats spot me in the garden, while I was doing my morning rounds:

Two cats spot me in the garden

I just love the cabin snuggles:

Cabin snuggles

Porcini is early for breakfast:

Porcini is early for breakfast

Pumpkin is right on time, having been waiting in the house:

Pumpkin is right on time

Porcini watching me as I walk past on rounds:

Porcini watching me as I walk past

Cabin snuggles, yes again (I have literally hundreds like this):

Cabin snuggles

Pumpkin looking very symmetrical in the house:

Pumpkin in the house

Peeking at me from the feeder:

Peeking at me from the feeder

A screenshot of my iPad cam viewer app, with cats on all cams: a twin in the cabin, Pumpkin and the other twin on the cat house deck, Poppy in the house, and the back of the twin from the feeder:

Screenshot with cats on all cams

Poppy and Pumpkin in the house:

Poppy and Pumpkin in the house

Porcini looking contented in the cabin:

Porcini in the cabin

Flock Friday for November 22

It’s that time again. Let’s start with the chickens.

Martha in a pot in the veggie garden:

Martha in pot

The chickens running to see me when I went into the veggie garden:

Chickens

All four new chickens are laying; here are their eggs in a nesting box:

Eggs

Recently collected eggs — including a blue/green one from the old girls, the first of that color for many weeks:

Eggs

New chickens in their coop:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Laying an egg on the floor, instead of in a nesting box:

Chickens

Lola, the introverted chicken; she often hangs out by herself:

Lola

Merida, the extrovert, friendliest chicken; not looking quite so scruffy as before, though still not fully feathered:

Merida

I needed to change the batteries in the old coop pop door opener:

Old coop pop door opener

A peek of the ducks on the ramp, through their house, while I was refilling their food:

Ducks through house

An assortment of pictures of the ducks on the pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Cat update for week ending November 16

26 Caturday pictures today, from 111 captured this week.  (Does saying the number of the pictures in the post put you off reading it? Too long, didn’t read? Though not much reading required; easier to skim through a bunch of cute pictures than paragraphs of text. You can ignore my comments if not interested; I just like to add a bit of context.)

Pumpkin has definitely made his home in the cat house, spending most nights and much of the day there. But sometimes our ferals go inside, too:

Cats in house

Here’s Pumpkin with one of the twins in the feeder:

Two cats

And Pumpkin by the cabin:

Pumpkin by cabin

Three cats:

Three cats

Bella by the cabin (with another inside, not visible here):

Bella

Pumpkin on our deck; it looks like he may have been sheltering from the rain under our tarp-covered furniture in the gazebo:

Pumpkin on deck

(I don’t show our house very often; you can see why we call it the Yellow Cottage. The three hummingbird feeders are visible, if you look closely.)

Pumpkin looking very chill, and a twin again:

Pumpkin and twin

About to jump on the camera housing:

About to jump on camera housing

Cabin snuggles:

Cabin snuggles

Pumpkin and Porcini; she wasn’t pleased to see him:

Pumpkin and Porcini

Pumpkin looking cute:

Pumpkin

Another shot of our deck, this time with Porcini emerging from the gazebo:

Porcini on our deck

She then jumped down off our deck next to the cat cabin:

Porcini jumping off our deck

Porcini jumping off our deck

Doing my morning rounds, I saw Pumpkin under the cedar tree. He sat there as I walked past and took his picture, then he ran off:

Pumpkin

Next time I see him up-close like that, I should try to interact with him in a cat-approved manner (crouch down, slowly blink, flick fingers, talk softly, etc), to see if he reacts more like a pet cat or a feral cat.

Pumpkin and a twin (probably Pommie) at the cabin:

Pumpkin and a twin at the cabin

Pumpkin and a twin at the cabin

Stretch:

Stretch

A young deer sniffing the heated water dish:

A young deer sniffing the water dish

Porcini and Bella:

Porcini and Bella

Pumpkin and a twin just hanging out together on the cat deck:

Pumpkin and a twin

Both twins:

Both twins

Porcini peeking at me from the cabin on my morning rounds:

Porcini peeking at me

Two cats at the cabin:

Two cats at the cabin

Pumpkin in the house:

Pumpkin in the house

Pumpkin squirming unconcernedly on the deck while Paladout watches:

Pumpkin squirming while Paladout watches

(Too many Pumpkin pics? Let me know.)

Flock Friday for November 15

For this week’s Flock Friday update, we have some chicken egg news… but first, the ducks (who still aren’t laying, at least as far as I can see).

That’s a rather dirty bill you have there, Bert:

Ducks

That’s better. And a funny expression on Gert’s face:

Ducks

Got a drooling problem, Bert?

Ducks

Going after mealworms:

Ducks going after mealworms

Ducks going after mealworms

Beads of water glowing in the sun:

Ducks

On to the chickens; here’s looking at the new ones through the remaining weed stalks:

Chickens

The older chickens in veggie garden, wanting me to open the gate into the new run (which I will do in about a week, probably):

Older chickens in veggie garden

The new chickens again:

Chickens

Lavender in a nesting box; yep, she’s laying now:

Chicken in nesting box

The older chickens are still on their winter vacation, with only one egg every few days, but the new girls are picking up the slack. When chickens first start laying, they often have smaller eggs, like this one:

Eggs

Lavender accidentally laid an egg on the ramp:

Laying egg on ramp

Egg on ramp

But now all four of the new girls are laying; check out that dark brown one!

Eggs

(The ramp egg and these three in the nesting box were the same day.)

Cat update for week ending November 9

Welcome to a Caturday uploaded from the road. A bit more difficult than on my Mac, but a good way to occupy myself as a passenger, and avoid missing a day or being late.

A couple of cats on the deck:

Poppy:

In the cabin:

Pumpkin peeking:

On the front garden:

Happy in the cabin:

Jumping off the camera housing:

Comfy Pumpkin in the house:

He’s such a pretty cat:

Three cats:

Pumpkin arriving at the feeder:

Snuggles:

Arrival at the cabin:

Pumpkin peeking at a possum in the feeder:

Big yawn:

Stretch:

Poppy:

Night Pumpkin:

Arrival at the cabin:

Three cats:

Flock Friday for November 8

It was an exciting week for the older chickens: once Jenn removed the potatoes and onions from the veggie garden, I was able to let the chickens in to help us clear out the remaining plants.

The newer chickens don’t get to participate yet, as I’m waiting for them all to start laying (so far only one is). But they have a large run for the four of them, and get daily treat deliveries, so I don’t feel too bad.

Here’s me opening the hole in fence:

David opening hole in fence

Here’s the hole, and chickens heading into the veggie garden:

Chickens heading into veggie garden

Chickens heading into veggie garden

Molting Merida — she is looking rather scruffy at present, as are several others. But don’t worry, it’s a normal part of their yearly cycle, discarding old feathers and growing new ones. The worst part is they stop laying while going through that; we’re only getting zero or one egg per day from all of the old chickens at present:

Molting Merida

Looking from the veggie garden back to the chicken run, and chickens heading into the garden:

Chickens heading into veggie garden

The chickens headed straight for the salad bar:

Chickens at the salad bar

Chickens at the salad bar

Chickens at the salad bar

A wide angle view of the veggie garden:

Wide angle of veggie garden

An empty chicken run; everyone’s in the veggie garden:

Empty chicken run

Every day when I do my morning rounds, the chickens come to the corner of the veggie garden to greet me:

Chickens coming to see me on morning rounds

Let’s take a look at the ducks:

Ducks

Gert shaking her head:

Ducks

The ducks again:

Ducks

On the bank by the duck house:

Ducks

I mentioned in my previous post that I waded in the pond to clean and start the fountain pump. Here are a few more pictures of the ducks from inside the pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Duck butts!

Ducks

Ducks

This picture was in that previous post, but I thought I’d include it here too:

Duck house

This morning, a heron landed on the duck house:

Heron landing on duck house

(I happened to be looking at that camera at the time, and headed out to the pond to get a better picture, but it saw me coming and flew off.)

Wading in the pond to clean the fountain pump

Yesterday I received replacement chest waders (my old ones had a hole), and used them to clean and start the fountain pump in our pond.

I had previously had the waterfall running, but it tends to lose water, dropping the level of the pond. Normally I offset that with a hose topping up the pond, but the garden water is off for the winter, so I can’t do that.

So we also have a fountain pump in the pond. We typically use the fountain when the waterfall is off, to provide some aeration, and help prevent the pond from freezing in winter.

Here’s me wearing the waders by the edge of the pond (with the chicken coop in the background):

David wearing waders

Me in the pond, cleaning the pump:

Cleaning pump

The pump, lifted partially out of the pots it normally sits within (to prevent it from falling over):

The pump

The pump started, and repositioned a bit closer to the duck house:

Pump started

The pump operating; someday I may add a nozzle for a more decorative fountain, but for now it is just a bubbler for aeration:

The pump operating

Looking at the duck house from inside the pond. You can see that the water level has dropped so much that the end of the ramp is out of the water. I wish I had made it a bit longer, though the ducks don’t have too much difficulty in climbing onto it:

Duck house

Just for fun, I waded out to the deeper end of the pond. It’s hard to tell from this camera angle, but here I’m about 20 feet from the far edge:

David near the deep end

This shows the depth at that point, about 2.5 feet. The bottom is fairly steep; it gets deeper further back. It was very cold, too!

David near the deep end

Walking in the pond; the ducks were rather confused by my strange behavior:

David walking in the pond

The pump and ducks:

The pump and ducks

Stay tuned for more pictures of the ducks taken from the pond on Flock Friday!

Cat update for week ending November 2

Some interesting developments in this week’s Caturday summary.  

Once again, it was tough narrowing down the 162 photos to just 27 in this post. I’ve omitted a lot of pics similar to ones seen many times before, but here’s an entertaining example, of a cat in the cat house, another in the feeder, and a third stretching on the tree:

Three cats

Porcini in the middle of the mostly empty fountain:

Porcini on the fountain

A couple of cats on the bench by the field:

Cats on bench

The twins by the small pond:

Cats by small pond

Cats by the bench again:

Cats by bench

Pumpkin inside the cat house, and two others by the feeder:

Three cats

Since Pumpkin has been hogging the cat house most nights, I felt bad for our ferals, with the temperatures below freezing overnight. So I decided to put the old shelter back in the garden below our deck. Similar to the cat house, it includes a heating pad to keep it toasty:

Old shelter

Here’s a closer view; I also moved the Mobile cam from the pond to watch this shelter; you can see it in the bottom-left corner:

Old shelter

While I spent all that time and money building the cat house, with room for all of the cats, they are ferals; the great outdoors is their home. And especially with Pumpkin moving in, having a second heated shelter available is a good thing.

This old shelter is a “multi-kitty A-frame”, which I think of as the cat cabin, to distinguish it from the cat house — a smaller second home for them.  Check out my old post from when I first got it, or for more of the history, see the summary of the cat house project.

It didn’t take them long to investicat it. Here’s a cat approaching the back of the cabin:

Cat approaching back of shelter

Pommie inside the cabin shelter, Porcini outside:

Two cats

Another two:

Two cats

Two cats snuggling in the cabin:

Two cats in the shelter

Two cats in the cabin, one outside:

Two cats in the shelter, one outside

Screenshot of cat cams, showing two cats in the cabin, and Pumpkin in the house:

Screenshot of cat cams

As mentioned on the Dejus blog, since it’s below freezing at night, I added heated water dishes for the cats and other animals, to provide non-frozen water. The dish only comes on when the temperature is in the freezing range, and only warms it enough to keep it liquid:

Heated water dish

Spud on the front steps:

Spud on front steps

Porcini in the cat cabin:

Porcini in cabin

Two snuggled in the cabin:

Two snuggled in cabin

Pumpkin investigating the cabin with Pommie inside:

Pumpkin investigating cabin

He was not welcome:

Pumpkin investigating cabin

And quickly departed:

Pumpkin investigating cabin

Pumpkin and Paladout had an encounter in the feeder; Pumpkin just wanted to eat, but Paladout didn’t want to share. So it went the same as usual: Pumpkin eventually gave up and went into the house, Paladout was able to finish and leave, then Pumpkin came back to eat:

Pumpkin and Paladout in feeder

An alien invader! No, just Pumpkin; he’s practically family at this point:

Alien!

Fuzzy paws:

Fuzzy paws

Porcini having a good stretch on the way out of the cabin:

Porcini stretching

One of the twins drinking from the heated bowl, when Pumpkin arrived; he waited for the twin to depart. They’re slowly getting used to each other:

Twin and Pumpkin

Finally, Pansy eating from the food dispenser in the front of shop. She lives in the back, and rarely visits the front, but has figured out that she can get more food there:

Pansy in front of shop

Flock Friday for November 1

For this Flock Friday, I’m going to include the photos in chronological order, rather than grouping by ducks, new chickens, old chickens, and birds, like I usually do.

But as it happens, we start with the ducks anyway, exploring the northwest bank of the pond and the grass beyond:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Next is a sequence of shots from inside the old chicken coop, as the pop door opens. No, it isn’t snowing inside, that’s just the bedding dust getting stirred up by their wings:

Chicken pop door opening

Chicken pop door opening

Chicken pop door opening

Chicken pop door opening

Chicken pop door opening

One of the new chickens has started laying! Here’s the first new egg, laid outside (as I expected; there are only a few places private enough to lay, and this is one of them):

First new chicken egg

So that was what I was waiting for to open up the nesting boxes, previously covered with plywood to prevent them sleeping in there:

Nesting boxes open for business

The new chickens investigating the nesting boxes:

Investigating nesting boxes

The second egg, laid in a box:

Second egg

A chicken coming out of a nesting box; now we know who is laying:

Chcken coming out of nesting box

Since we had a chicken escape through the hole in the run roof, I decided to repair it, with welded wire instead of netting as before. Eventually I want to replace all of the roof netting with welded wire, though no point in doing that just before snow is likely:

Run roof repair

Back to the ducks, on the edge of pond next to the overflow channel:

Ducks on edge of pond

The ducks with their heads together:

Ducks

As mentioned on my Dejus blog, it’s below freezing at night now, so I put out water heaters, including a heating pad under the hummingbird feeder to keep it from freezing. It hangs off paperclips to prevent the heating pad from touching the plastic base of the feeder, to avoid it melting:

Hummingbird feeder with heater

A chicken in a nesting box, working on laying an egg (as seen from the outside access door):

Chicken in nesting box

The older chickens are still molting; there are feathers everywhere in their run:

Chicken feathers

Chicken feathers

I’m looking forward to them finishing that process, since they’ve pretty much stopped laying eggs at present. But having a rest is good for them.

The temperature is cold enough to partially freeze the pond overnight, though it is thawing during the day (for now):

Ducks in partially frozen pond

Ducks in partially frozen pond

That’s it for this week!