Hiking the ROW Part 3

Buddy and Oscar will follow John to the end of the earth.

An unidentified fungus.

Porcupine quills at the bottom of the cliffs.
John thinks the porkie may have fallen off of the cliff (and survived)
because of the number of quills that were there.

The very bottom of the cliffs.

Oscar poses for the camera.

Scarlet Waxy Cap Mushroom (Hygrophorous coccineus)

Another unidentified fungus.

Up the tree!

Insulators

The transformer is nearly eye level because the slope of the
mountainside is so steep under the cliffs.

Well, that's all there is about this great hike. To view the other photos:
Introduction: Strangers on the mountain
Hiking the ROW: Part 1
Hiking the ROW: Part 2
Hiking the ROW: Part 3

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Hiking the ROW Part 1

Fairpoint Communications telephone pole ID

On our property there is a right of way (ROW) up to the ridegeline of Barton Mountain for electricity and cables to the cell towers up top. This past September, Fairpoint put in fiber optic cables on those poles. I wrote about this invasion in an earlier post. Because of our concern about the Fairpoint activity we saw from the house, we decided to climb up the ROW to see what damage had been done to the land. We saw plenty. Unfortunately, I didn't take photographs of the damage, but it is still visible and will be visible for years. I will return after mud season to document the damage better. The photos here in this multipart photographic essay are of our activity on the hike — of John, me and the cats Buddy and Oscar. Despite our anger at the invasion, we had a wonderful afternoon. I took only my 70-250mm lens, which was inadequate for most of the macro photos here. Next time I'll take the whole kit and caboodle.

Looking down the ROW.
Our home is through the woods to the left.

Looking up the ROW.
All trails end at the bottom of those cliffs, which is where bear and bobcat live.

Buddy wanted to rest here.
He actually wanted to turn back and go home, but continued on with us.

A couple of chickadees kept a close eye on us the entire hike.

We found even more apple trees from the orchard a century ago!

White Worm Coral Fungus (Clavaria fragilis)

Bear scat full of chokecherry pits.

To be continued . . . .

To view the other photos:
Introduction: Strangers on the mountain
Hiking the ROW: Part 1
Hiking the ROW: Part 2
Hiking the ROW: Part 3

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Grumpy Buddy, Stomping Oscar

Buddy wants to go thataway . . . 

. . . but grumpily follows Oscar. . .

. . . as Oscar shows off his two-legged Godzilla stomp.

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Happy Thanksgiving (Buddy)!

Buddy eats his Catster stickers

Catster, one of the favorite cat bloggers’ sites, recently offered free Catster stickers. They want you to e-mail photos of how you creatively used these stickers and will post the most creative uses on their site. My stickers came in the mail this week, so I excitedly looked over my house and stuff for a spot for my stickers so that I could photograph them for Catster. I didn’t want them on my camera, camera bag, computer, Kindle or walls. Not on my school bag, either. Finally I spied Buddy sleeping and stuck them on him. Buddy woke up very quickly and very grumpy until he spied the stickers. Then he immediately started eating them.

On this Thanksgiving Day, Buddy is thankful for anything that is edible. Even if it’s not. I am grateful for my new, rich life with John (and the cats). We have so much. Life is wonderful! Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

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Oscar’s Toes

Oscar has seven toes on each front paw,
six toes on one back paw and five toes on the other.
Oscar has a total of twenty-five toes.

In New England polydactyl cats are called double-pawed cats. Normally cats have 18 toes — five on each of the front paws and four on each of the rear. Most double-pawed cats have extra front toes. Extra toes on the rear are rare and extra toes on all four feet are even more rare.

A twig is caught between Oscar's extra toes.

Oscar is a very rare cat because of all of these toes. Usually the number of extra toes is the same on both front paws and both rear paws. But Oscar has five on one rear paw and six on the other. He has seven toes on each front paw for a total of 25 toes. Mooch, from Maine, held the record for the most toes of any cat with 28 toes. Oscar, according to legend, is a very lucky cat for us.

Everyone is resting after a grueling morning walk.

You can read more about double-pawed cats here at Wikipedia and at The Straight Dope. It's fascinating stuff!

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Buddy Disapproves

Buddy looks . . .

. . . and doesn’t like what he sees.

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Team Hunting

Pansy spends all her days outside from 6 AM to 7 PM, rain or shine. I don't know what she does because she doesn't like me one little bit and avoids me. Bu I did manage to capture her hunting with the love of her life, Buddy. Until this day (July 6, 2011), Pansy had only caught one mouse, and that was in New Hampshire two summers ago. But since this photo, she has caught and brought home three mice. She's improving her technique and the pickings here are good. Pansy’s mice are always dead and she always brings them home to the kitchen. She does not eat her kills and lets the other cats enjoy them.

If looks could kill, I would have been dead in my tracks with Pansy's evil eye.

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Tree Climbers

Buddy in the ancient apple tree.

Oscar raced up, and now down, the elm tree.

Oscar sticks his tongue out in the ancient apple tree.

>

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Buddy & Oscar Go on a Hike

Oscar follows Buddy into the woods.

Buddy is Oscar's role model.

And as his doting mother, I have more Oscar photos and offer you these:

Oscar rests on a log with John.

On our daily morning walk, Oscar runs to catch up to me on the back road.
This is his serious expression.

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Ambush!

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Buddy in the Nip

Occasionally I go out and weed the flower gardens and Buddy, as always, comes with me. He loves to work in the garden with me because there are three catnip plants that he especially cares for. He can lie in the middle of all three plants and enjoy himself until he passes out and sleeps for hours. Buddy's addiction is so bad that when he gets up and goes out in the morning, he often runs directly to the nip for a morning jolt.

Because the 'nip is at the far end of the garden, the other cats haven't found it yet. My feeling is that Buddy isn't into sharing the location with them, either.

I think I will have to cut, dry, and process the catnip for Buddy’s wintertime pleasure!

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