Chickens in the veggie garden: a week later

The last couple of posts have been about the chickens, but here’s one more! (Back to cats tomorrow, of course.)

Our chickens are really enjoying being in the veggie garden. It’s funny how they come running when I walk past each day, during my morning rounds:

Compare the veggie garden now with how it was just five days ago, to see what a flock of chickens can do to vegetation. That’s why we don’t free-range them around the property!

Merida coming to say hi:

Camilla:

Kiwi:

Domino:

Three chickens on the potato planters:

A bunch by the new berry cage fence:

Merida:

Flo:

Mo:

Chickens in the veggie garden

As mentioned in my recent berry cage post, I let our chickens into the veggie garden after replacing the front gate.

Here are an assortment of photos of them roaming the garden, digging for insects, etc.

I also moved the mobile cam from watching the beehives into the veggie garden. Here you can see me while I was taking these photos:

Another cam shot with me:

Cat update: hello 2019

Welcome to the first #Caturday of 2019! Your weekly check-in with our family of feral cats.

…And some not-cats, like this lucky raccoon.

The cat house has an internet-connected food dispenser, which has a schedule of set food amounts, plus I can use an app to tell it to dispense additional portions. To avoid attracting wildlife like this raccoon, I normally have the scheduled feedings set to a bit less than what the cats actually eat, and I watch the feeder area via the IP camera there and dispense more if they run out. The goal being to have no food left after dark, when the raccoons and possums are about.

However, while we went away for a late Christmas, I increased the scheduled dispenser amounts, since I wouldn’t be able to watch the camera (it’s only available on our local network, for bandwidth reasons). Apparently the cats weren’t that hungry on this evening, leaving a lot of food for the raccoon, unfortunately:

That naturally encourages the raccoon to come back again, which it did each night. Though the cats seem to be getting used to it, not running away:

Poppy is modeling a high fashion accessory; a cobweb or similar:

All five cats inside:

Another raccoon encounter (and an eye upstairs):

All five again:

An encounter of a different sort; a cat watches as a deer walks by:

A sequence of four photos; two cats on the awnings:

One of the twins (Spud?) hassling Porcini as she drinks:

Porcini leaves (and you may notice Poppy looking out the door):

Rubbing on the edge of the awning, and a shadow of Porcini on top of the camera housing:

Three inside:

Stretch:

Another not-cat: a disappointed possum. I adjusted the food dispenser again to reduce the food after we returned from our trip:

Another raccoon visit, disappointed this time:

The alien gray cat:

Soaking up the warmth from a heating pad:

A couple outside:

That’s it for this week!

Berry cage: more gates

Over the last couple of days, I took advantage of some fine weather to build another couple of gates for the berry cage project.

Firstly, the middle gate, in the new fence that divides the veggie garden:

Close-up of the bottom hinge:

The gate latch and handle:

After adding the wire:

The finished middle gate:

Then the same again for the front gate, to replace the old disintegrating one:

I also moved the dirt from the potato planters, so the chickens wouldn’t spread it all over the garden:

Surprise! I found a soil scoop buried in the dirt; I’d wondered where that had gotten to:

I dumped the dirt into the new bed; we’ll add more on top later:

I stacked some boards to make a roosting bar, so the chickens can safely get to the top of the potato planters if they want to roost there:

This morning, I opened up the small holes in the fence to let the chickens into the veggie garden. These holes had been closed with zip ties since last spring. Here’s the hole into the new run:

And the old run:

The chickens will enjoy eating the remaining vegetation, and rooting around for bugs and such. Fun for the them, and helpful for us to clean out the beds for spring planting:

I took a bunch of photos of them in the veggie garden, which I’ll post another day (probably Sunday, since tomorrow is Caturday). Stay tuned!

Next up: one last gate between the chicken run and veggie garden, that will replace those small holes, and let me get between the two more easily.

Cat update: goodbye 2018

As another year comes to a close, one last #Caturday update for 2018. But fear not, the updates will continue in the new year!

A visit by the alien gray cat:

Stretch!

Four cats snuggling (can you see all of them?):

Three not too concerned up top, one below, facing off a raccoon:

The raccoon backed off and left, and the cats fell back asleep:

Porcini looking at Rory on the deck in the distance:

Three cats enjoying the warmth of the heating pads:

Porcini by the heated water dish:

A meeting by the feeder entrance:

One of the twins inside:

A queue waiting for breakfast, sheltered from the rain:

Porcini upstairs, Poppy enjoying the warmth downstairs:

See you in 2019!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to my NZ family and friends, and happy Christmas eve to others in the US etc, or whatever holiday tradition you celebrate. We will be doing something a little different this year: our annual Hobbitfest tomorrow, and family Christmas next weekend. 

Berry cage: back gate

Another few hours on the berry cage project yesterday.

Despite what I said at the end of the last post on this project, I decided to make the gates before finishing off the wire, since I suspect I might need more materials. Okay, I know I do, unless I decide to sacrifice my spare 10′ or 12′ 2x4s. I don’t need that long for the gates, and like to preserve them, since those lengths are too long to bring home in my truck, whereas I can always pick up more 8′ lumber.

Yesterday, I built the new back gate.

Here’s the assembled lumber portion, using much the same design as I used for the chicken run (though a little different):

Here’s the gate mounted, with the hinges, latch, and handle (despite what it might look like, the gate is level; the angle at the top is because the top rail and roof slopes gently):

A close-up of a hinge:

And the latch and handle:

I then added the fencing wire to it, including the chicken wire layer at the bottom (that helps keep smaller animals out):

To make it easier to open from inside, I added a wire pull cord to the latch:

The finished latch etc:

The old front door of the veggie garden is slowly disintegrating; it will be replaced with a new one like the above:

Next up: another gate!

Cat update: let’s go to the shop

I usually post photos of the outdoor feral cats (and will this time, too), but let’s start off in the shop. We have a 2,400 square foot workshop building, that is divided into two halves. The front half has storage shelving, workbenches, garden equipment, lots of junk, and where we park the car in winter. The back half at one time was a bit more finished, and includes a bathroom, but is somewhat torn apart now; it’s where we store outdoor furniture in winter.

We have two feral cats that live in the shop: Pepper and Pansy (sticking with our “P” name theme). They are both female. Pepper is a long-haired black cat, who sleeps in the front of the shop, and Pansy is a short-haired stripy cat, who sleeps in the back. Unlike the outdoor ferals, they don’t snuggle, and actively avoid each other.

We got these two a few years ago via a shop cat program at a nearby county, where they place feral or otherwise unsocial cats in barns and shops like ours, where they can be safe, fed, and comfortable, and earn their keep by providing rodent control services.

Here is Pansy:

You can see a bit more of the back of the shop in this picture, including their food dispenser on the right, with the water dispenser behind it, bee supplies beyond that, and furniture storage on the left:

And Pepper; hard to find a good picture of her, since she’s so dark, and only visits the back to eat:

This is where Pepper sleeps, on top of shelving in the front. She has a foam nest on the left for summer, and a large padded bed with a heating pad on the right for winter (Pansy also has a heating pad):

Pepper is somewhat used to me; she often supervises from her high perch when I’m building things at the workbench. I pretty much never see Pansy, other than via the camera.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled cuteness; the outdoor ferals.

Too bright:

Snuggles:

Cute head tilt:

All five cats… though you can only see a tiny bit of the back of the one eating:

Lick:

Poppy didn’t appreciate being sat on:

Did you see the YouTube video of that?

More snuggles; I like how Porcini has her paw on Poppy’s leg:

Queue for water:

Poppy expresses her displeasure at an empty food dish (an hour before breakfast time):

Up close and personal (you can see the ring of infrared lights around the camera in her eye):

Poppy again. She always looks mildly annoyed:

The twins:

One of the twins by the heated water dish:

That’s it for the penultimate cat post of 2018!