Well, look what the cat dragged in...

These two boys, Fringe and Jet, are the two cats that we adopted from the Animal Shelter last October. After our last farm cat, Sweet Pea, went missing last summer we needed to get some farm cats to keep our rodent population in check. If you have any size farm that has livestock you are going to have livestock feed. Livestock feed gets spilled and attracts rodents. Cats are the answer.

These two spoiled "barn cats" can come and go from the house at will through a kitty door off the back of the house. This works well... most of the time. I like that they come into the house to eat (it keeps me from feeding the stray cats around), sleep (usually in my bed) and I like being able to see them everyday to make sure they are ok. What is not so great is the trophies that they bring back after a hunt.

I have removed dead mice, voles, squirrels, alive and dead birds, live wild rabbit kits, and recently, numerous lizards. So, it was no shock to me this afternoon when the kids yelled from the bedroom that there was yet another lizard in the house. I yelled back, "is it dead?" and I got a resounding "No!" from the kids. By the time I made it to the bedroom McKayla was holding the lizard and both her and Evan wanted to know if we could keep it as a pet.

My first reaction was to let it loose outside but after enduring the pleading of the kids I relented to keep it for "awhile" before letting it loose again. It just so happens that we have an unoccupied reptile cage setup complete with heat rock so that became its new temporary home.

Meet Izzie:
Izzie is about 7 inches long from nose to tip of tail. A quick search on the Internet told us that Izzie was an Eastern Fence Lizard. Their main diet is spiders (I like this lizard already) and other insects. So, Izzie is going to hang out with us for a bit so the kids can observe its behavior. We will then return it to the woods where hopefully it will avoid the cats in future!

Odd jobs done.

As warm as yesterday was... today was cold. Even with the chilly temps Neil got a few odds and ends done around the farm today.

One of the many things I wanted to make easier for this coming winter was watering the livestock. In the heat of the summer I don't mind walking around with the garden hose filling watering troughs but when the temps are below freezing it is no fun any more. So, on Friday when I was at Southern States picking up the weeks livestock feed I also purchased a 70 gallon stock tank for the cows water. This morning Neil put it behind the barn where I wanted it to go. We got the automatic watering device hooked up to it and instantly the curious cows came over to see what it was all about. I was a little nervous that the tank might be too tall for them to comfortably drink out of... being miniature cows and all... but they demonstrated right away that it was no problem at all. One step closer to water independence!

The other odd thing Neil got done today was to install the cat door in the house. I have been leaving the door from our bedroom to the deck open most days the past few weeks so the cats could come and go. With temps often below 50 degrees during the day it is now too cold to be doing that. Neil got the kitty door in and I showed Jet how it worked. I figure he will be the first to figure it all out and Fringe will have to learn from him. Meanwhile, no more cold breezes in the bedroom!

Pictures from today...

View of the pastures from the deck.

Evan and McKayla with new goat kids (3 days old).

Alpacas Finley and Sidney grazing.

Evan and McKayla during a hike in the woods up on the old pig shelter.

Nigerian Dwarf goat: Gabby. Isn't she pretty?

McKayla relaxes on the deck with one of our new cats, Jet.

After our cold weather spell last week the temps are back in the mid 70's again. I have a hard time staying inside when it is so nice out. So, I spent some time cleaning up the yard. We had a few over sized boxes that needed to get broken down and put in the Suburban to take to recycling on our trip into town tomorrow. There were some broken toys and the small wading pool had cracks in it so it had to go. Some of the pool items needed to be gathered up and put away for the season (we drained the pool the beginning of October). Other items needed to be moved off the deck and down to the work shed. Not a lot of effort made a big difference in the yard.

Took a break for a light lunch which the kids and I ate out on the deck it was so nice. The kids and I then took the tractor into our woods and brought out three tractor bucket fulls of cut fire wood. Neil had cut to length a bunch of down trees to burn but ended up leaving them where they fell do to lack of time. We gathered some up, brought it up to the house and got it all split and stacked under the deck. It will be enough for a few weeks at least. I will keep working on the fire wood project on the nice days and try to stay ahead of what I burn.

Oh, and since the weather was so nice I had the door off the deck open all day so the cats could come out and explore if they wanted too. Jet, the large and braver of the two, came out for quite a while and wandered about. He was quick to dart back inside if anything startled him though. Fringe I never saw outside but he might have come out when we were down in the woods.

Just a nice day to be outside working today.

Chicken Little

I was doing my normal chores in the barn this morning when I heard the muffled sound of a baby chick. I knew I had two ducks setting on eggs by the hay bales in the barn so I went over to investigate. I lifted the first duck and there tucked in beside 6 duck eggs was a single chicken chick. Muscovy duck eggs incubate for 35 days while chicken eggs only take 21 days so I knew that mother duck was going to be stuck on her remaining eggs for another 14 days. The little chicken chick could not stay under mother duck all that time.

I removed the chick and with a lack of a better place to put it (it is getting too cool in the chicken coop at night for a single chick with no mother) I set up a box in the house for it. It will have to stay here in the house until it is old enough to regulate it's own temperature and can move out to the barn. A put the box in the bathroom to keep it safe from our new cats. I don't want them to get a taste for young chickens!

Just a little snip...

We took our two new cats, Fringe and Jet, to the vets today to get their neutering done. The surgeries were included in the adoption fee we just needed to get them scheduled and done. All went well and they are home again this evening sleeping off the remainder of the anesthesia.

I will continue to keep them inside the house for the remainder of the week to heal up completely. This weekend I will give them some time outside to explore. I plan to have them as indoor/outdoor cats and hopefully that will keep them safer.

New Cats

Every since we lost our little grey cat Sweet Pea in July I have been missing having a cat around the farm. They are wonderful entertainment plus they have the very important job of keeping the rodent population under control. With Sweet Pea gone and cooler weather set upon us I have noticed more signs of mice in the barns and even on our front porch. It was time to repopulate with some new felines!

The kids and I drove over to the Animal Protection Society of Caswell County in Yanceyville, NC. It is about on hour's drive but it was the closest animal shelter I could find to us. I had previewed the cats they had available online the night before so I had an idea of the ones I was interested in. On the drive over I told the kids that we were NOT going to be getting a young kitten and that we were only getting two cats.

If you have never been to a shelter and seen the rows and rows of pets waiting to be adopted it is a heartbreaking sight. I looked over the cats and quickly passed by cages of kittens (kittens get adopted fairly quickly and I needed mousers). I found the individual cats I had seen online and dismissed a few as not being a good fit for us. McKayla fell in love with two black cats housed together and Evan wanted to bring home a red tabby kitten but I kept being drawn to two young brown tabby males. There was nothing particularly special about them in appearance but they both continued to reach out for me pulling me to them.

I did a few more passes around the rooms and had a hard time leaving a few others behind but I finally settled on the two tabby boys, Fringe (6 months old) and Jet (8 months old). They were not siblings but to the untrained eye could have been twins.

When I was filling out the paperwork for adoption the coordinator told me that she was so happy that I was taking these two boys. They both had been at the shelter for over two months and with room running short they may not have been available for much longer (this is not a no-kill shelter). I am so pleased that Fringe and Jet asked me to take them home. Now just to figure out how to tell them apart. :)

Jet

and Fringe

Growing Challenge Update

Wow, its Monday already and time for another Garden Challenge update.

The thing I wanted most to get done this week was to start a vermiculture bin. I was on the ball and ordered my red wiggler worms last Monday and hoped to get them on Thursday or Friday. But here it is the following Monday and still no worms in the mail. I did get the bin made on Friday so everything is all set for their arrival. I guess I will be calling tomorrow to see where my worms are.

I did get a flat of lettuce seeded early in the week as well. I sowed Rocky Top Lettuce from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. These were actually seeds from lettuce I grew last season and saved. They have already sprouted and the tiny leaves are emerging from the soil. I have never grown lettuce inside before. I do hope it does well as I am looking forward to fresh salads again.

I had hoped to get more seedlings going but I didn't manage to find the time this week. I still have plenty of time though. Here in NC it is typical to set out tomatoes on April 15th so I still have 8-10 weeks before that. I shouldn't try jumping the gun too much or I will have leggy plants to deal with.

Outside of the Growing Challenge, the kids and I took our barn cat Sweet Pea to the vet's this afternoon so she could be spayed tomorrow. I missed her when out doing chores tonight as she always follows me around as I am working in the barn. She has even started coming into the chicken coop as I collect eggs so she can rub against my legs. It will be nice having her home again on Wednesday.

The chickens gave 16 eggs today.

Sweat Pea goes to the vets.

The little grey kitten, Sweet Pea, that I picked up this past summer from Southern States has been showing signs of coming into heat. We do not want to add to the feline population so it is time to get her neutered. So, while Neil was home to stay with the kids I took little Sweet Pea into the vets office for her general exam and first vaccines. She is scheduled to go in to be spayed in two weeks when she will get her booster vaccines.

She was a perfect little cat in the vet's office but I expected no less of her. She is the best natured cat I have ever had.

Kitty Update...

Today the kids and I headed into town to run some errands and go to the grocery store. Other then that is was just a day to relax.


I realized that I haven't given un update on our new little grey kitten. Who I have started calling Sweet Pea. She is still with us and if our dog Tate is not outside near us she will come over to get some loving. Evan has really taken a liking to her and has been very good about sitting still and letting her come over to be pet.



The chickens did give us two eggs this morning. Tonight for dinner we made spagetti and meatballs and when McKayla cracked one of the eggs from this morning into the meatball mix it was a double yolker! Something three year old McKayla had never seen before... she was thrilled!

First time in all my years!

The kids and I were at the feed store this morning stocking up on a bunch of feed; alpaca, dairy cow, chicken crumbles, and some waterfowl. The stock guys always pull the orders from out back in their storage area and bring it up your vehicle and load it for you. Something I greatly appreciate when getting several hundred pounds of feed at once. Normally there is no problem and I am in and out in five minutes. Not today though! They couldn't find the alpaca feed I normally get or the waterfowl feed. The computer system said it was there so several guys and about twenty minutes later they finally found what I needed.

Meanwhile, McKayla had fallen asleep in the Suburban and Evan had climbed out the back onto the loading dock to see what he could see. He spotted something and called over to me to come see... it was a cat. Actually, a kitten probably about 4-5 months old. A little female. She was very friendly and came right up to Evan and I and rubbed all over us.

Now, in my whole adult life, twelve years of which I worked as a veterinary technician (eight of which was in an all feline practice), have I ever seen a cat or kitten out and about and felt the need to take it home with me. I like cats and respect them highly but I would never classify myself as a cat person. So why then did I find myself asking the folks inside the store who owned the little cat out on the loading dock? It simply was an issue of color. This little friendly cat was solid steel grey, my favorite cat color. And there was something about this little kitten that spoke to me.

Two of the most special cats in my life have been that same solid grey color, Gris and Billy. Neither of these two wonderful boys is still in my life. Gris, the more recent of the two, left a huge hole in my life when he was gone about a year ago.

The clerks in the store said the kitten was from a litter this spring out of a stray cat. This kitten was the last of the litter to still be around. It was a nice little kitten they said but that if I wanted it to please take it home with me. And just like that she ended up coming home with us.
The kids fell in love with her instantly. McKayla hoisted her up and carried her around for quite a while. We showed her where the food bowl was up on the deck and she ate until her little belly was full. After about 45 minutes of handling from the kids she had enough (who can blame her) and she ran off into the woods behind the house. I know if she is truly meant to be ours that she will stick around... I hope anyway!