Signs of Spring

Pretty flowers

Hairy cats hightailing it out of there.

Happy New Year!!

No wild parties tonight, but we did spend a lot of time playing around with this.  It belongs to David, and he said he's got to obstacle 72.  Meredith has made it 44, and I've made it about 24.  There are 125. It is MUCH harder than it looks.  Larry tried it for the first time tonight, and was shockingly successful.  Not that he made it too far, but he got past some of the very early difficult obstacles on the first attempt.

And here's a few photos from the least photographed Christmas ever.  We were trying to set up a family photo.  I wanted everyone to sit, because I wanted the tree to stand out, so I was demonstrating how much better it looked if people sat:)  

And yes, we did have a white Christmas.  It started snowing in the early afternoon and turned everything white for the rest of the day.

And tonight we had one last chance to torment Smudge with a Christmas jester collar, before the decorations are all packed away.

Here's wishing for the very best for everyone in 2013!

Wordless Wednesday

Breakfast

The first thing the hens do when you let them out in the morning, is to put their heads down and start pecking at grass.  Since they peck at the first grass they see, the grass near the coop is always quite short.

Then a whole bunch headed over to the water bucket to wash that grass down.  We keep the hose dripping so the bucket is always full.

After opening up both coops, I took my morning wander through the garden, and had some breakfast appetizers.

I could stuff myself with these peas, pods and all.

And then Larry comes out and gives Pride his breakfast - 'senior horse pellets'.

Hey lady, since you aren't sharing those peas and raspberries, how about getting us our breakfast?

No food, no toy throwing.....boring!

Some dogs take matters into their own mouths, and help themselves to what Pride drops.  

Finally!

Even Smudge gets in on the 'raw act'.  Somehow she seems to magically appear when it's dog feeding time, and requests her share too.

Mad Dogs

Mad dogs and English men women were out in the noon day sun. 

We were out at the garden in the north field, picking raspberries this morning, and came back to the house just before lunch.

The mad dogs didn't care that it was hot.

The sensible dogs (and cats) found shady, cool spots to lay

And the mad dogs just got madder.

How Are Those Spuds Doing?

I had wanted to get some more potatoes planted, so of course when I found a big bag of seed potatoes with a clearance price on it, I grabbed it.  To make it even better it was a variety I've planted before, but hadn't yet planted this year, and had people tell me that they really liked.  They were nice big potatoes with lots of healthy shoots, but none too long that you had to worry about breaking them off.  I could divide each potato into two to four pieces, and so some 100+ pieces later, here they are all laid out in their not very straight rows.  The whole plot has a curve to it, so I just followed the the outside edge as I raked a trench.  The potatoes don't care that the row isn't straight, and neither do I.  These are Norland potatoes. 

To the right of them is a hillock with small blueberry bushes, and the tall grass is some Fall Rye that I didn't rototill in, because I am letting it produce seed heads that I'll add to the flower bouquets. To the right of that is another bed full of Kennebec potatoes.  I grew them last year, and ended up with a ton of little ones, most of which had a green bit on them from where they had seemed to push through to the top of the soil and were sun damaged.  Instead of throwing them out, I just kept them as seed potatoes, and I'm interested to see how they do.

To the left is a mass of buttercups growing around the Fall raspberries.  The raspberries will eventually be higher than the buttercups.  It's been a good Spring for growing buttercups:(  This is a good place to grow potatoes, because there is more likely to be wildlife damage out at this garden, and the rabbits and deer don't seem to bother the potatoes.  We just have to remember to keep the gate closed though, as Pride has tromped through here a few times.

And here's the first potatoes I planted, a couple of months ago, down at the other garden.  These are Warbas.  Hopefully in a few more weeks I'll be able to start sneaking some potatoes out of the hills.

And out behind, the hens are merrily scratching away.

Columbine blooming.

And the great white hunter.

Well maybe not so much anymore.  She sniffed around down here, chewed some grass, and tried to stick her nose into the camera lens.

I wish I could teach her to weed.

The Flippin' Fur Factory

Nelson has adapted well to living with us.  He'd love to have some nose to nose conversations with Smudge, but she doesn't want to oblige.  Sometimes he can get within inches of her without her hissing, or occasionally  swatting at him, but she has no interest in getting close and cuddly.  He is entertaining, some of the things he does, what with being a younger cat, and the whole thing has worked out much better than I had thought.  He does spend some time outside, usually early morning and in the evening, and quite often brings a selection of vegetation back in with him.  It's that hair.

And speaking of hair, it's everywhere.  Probably it's worse now because it's Spring and officially shedding season, but since he actually spends 80-90% of his time inside, I'm not sure that he actually needed to grow a winter coat.

My mother used to complain about the hair he left around.  In fact she used to get very worked up about it.  I used to think 'really, is it that big of a deal?'.  

I eventually convinced her to switch to a higher quality food, having heard that it could help reduce shedding.  She went from Friskies to Orijen.

Didn't make a difference.

Now I'm feeling her pain.  Nelson doesn't just shed, he drops hair in clumps.  So instead of of random hairs joining the light airy dusty bunnies that accumulate in those dead air zones, we have these smoky grey clumps, not hidden in the corners, but out in the open.

Doesn't matter if you've just groomed him, or groomed him several times that day (yesterday).  You can vacuum, and you are guaranteed a few hours later to find clumps just sitting in the middle of the floor.

He has this very soft undercoat that mats easily and just seems to fall out in clumps. everywhere. all the time. endlessly.

Last Fall when he first arrived, I started saving his hair.  Not sure why, I guess just to see how much I was actually getting.  There was enough to clothe a few more cats.

You can't brush him, because all that does is glide over the outer hairs.  You have to comb him to get to the root of the problem, and he is generally good about being groomed, thank goodness.

If there is a next cat, and we have any control over the matter (sometimes they just show up) it won't be white, and it won't be long haired with a soft undercoat.

I think it will be a dog.

Trying For Some Feline Christmas Spirit

Smudge and Nelson weren't particularly thrilled by my visit to the dollar store this afternoon.  They didn't really want to look like festive court jesters.  I was trying to get them not looking right at the flash, but no luck with that.

I've had this niggling thought lately that maybe things aren't quite right with Smudge, so I'm going to take her for a check up next week.  We know she's getting old, she's about 16 or 17.  The thought that is now eating away at me is the congestive heart failure that  took one of our previous cats.  She showed up one day with massive amounts of fluid in her abdomen.  She was a barn cat, so we didn't always see her on a regular basis.  Smudge isn't presenting like that cat did, but I've got the thought stuck in my head.  Hopefully I'm wrong.  There's just something about the way she sprawls out on the floor in front of the gas fireplace that's got me wondering.

Another Cold One.

A little chilly this morning.

Yep, I really need to wash the window now.

There was the promise of sunshine, but it didn't last long, and it has turned into another of those cold, grey, windy, wintery days

Some creatures are spending 95% of their time doing this.  And when she does get up, and you put her outside the door at the front of the house, hoping she will do her thing out there, well by the time you are back upstairs she is already clawing at the back door, 

Let me in, let me in, don't you remember what that thermometer said....

There were a few accidents, which Luna was happy to inform me of.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.....kitty roca, mmm good.

Most dog owners can relate.

Not exactly what I want to hear as I'm sitting here at the computer

So that means we had to resurrect the dreaded litter box

.  The litter box is in an awkward spot, but that's were Smudge has chosen, so to make sure she uses it, that's where the box has to go.  You gotta do what you gotta do. 

My apologies to all the really responsible cat owners out there who keep their cats safe inside all the time, and deal with a litter box 365 days of the year.  It's just not my thing.  Maybe it's just that there never seems to be a good place to put the litter box.

Here's Jake and Luna keeping themselves warm yesterday, which wasn't as cold as today.  After watching it a few times, I noticed a difference between Jake and Luna's tails.  Jake's tail is in a 'softer' position more often than Luna's, and it is Luna that is making all the noise.  She is playing, but she's taking it pretty seriously.  It's interesting though, if she gets a bit too rough, Jake will get after her and she'll go down and he'll grip her muzzle a few times.

And yet, I've seen Luna move Jake off a bone from 10 feet away with just a look. 

The relationship between two dogs can be a convoluted thing.