Cats on Tuesday: Talkative Zorro

We moved back to Vermont! That's why I have skipped COT the past couple weeks — I've just been too busy. But I'm back! Here is Zorro back out in his old stomping grounds in northern Vermont near some things we unpacked. He's a pretty talkative cat. Here Zorro is complaining about the lack of chipmunks for him to hunt — they were his favorites in New Hampshire. He is trying to catch birds but thankfully is not at all talented at hunting them. He enjoys stalking the chickens in the barn but never attacks.

I hope you all have a wonderful week with beautiful weather. Now that it is spring in northern Vermont we are going to get a heavy snow tomorrow. Normal weather! You've got to love it because you can't fight it!

Thank you for stopping by!

To visit other participants, visit Gattina

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The Before Photos

This is the "before" photo of the back of our home from the newly cleared field. The 100+ year old house needs more work than I ever knew because of one hundred years of additions. When the renovation is over, there will be dormers (front and back), an bedroom on the left side of the first floor of the house, a new kitchen, and renovation of all the rooms and bathrooms. John has already found evidence of a 100 year old attached woodshed and barn on the house.

The raised earth in front of the front porch was once a walkout basement.

The septic system design engineer pointed out that there originally was a walkout basement. Walkouts were used for wood delivery. There was a road that went under the house so that a wagon with horses could back into the cellar to deliver wood. Our walkout was under the front porch. Walkouts usually were lined on both sides with stone walls. When they were abandoned, the walkout would have simply been filled with earth, leaving the stone walls behind. I am considering excavating this walkout, but that would be a lot of work.

The fields have pretty much been cleared now. The barn will be torn down and rebuilt. I have many photographs of the work inside the house that has been done so far and you will see them regularly now.

So things are a mess here but we are busy (especially John who is doing all the work!), exhausted, full of plans and having dust induced asthma!

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Two New Meeyauws

My daughter Amelia loves Nate. Nate has two children. Catgirl, above, is 6. Ironman, below, is 4. John and I have a lot of fun with them. We go to the library, do chores, read bedtime stories, go shopping and cook together. I gave them the Olympus camera the other day, taught them how to use it, and let them go at it. These are all of their photos!
Below, Ironman took a photo of Nate as he came home with Catgirl from school.

Below: Buddy napping in the sun.

Below: Willow on the left, Scout in the far background. And Sophie on the right.
And below is my favorite photograph! Ironman took a photo of John as he was brush hogging. John played monster for the camera, which caused Ironman to scream with delight. The kids love John — talking to him constantly and climbing on him whenever he sits.
In the future, you'll be hearing out our adventures with Catgirl and Ironman!

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The Day Lilies

Using the telephone poles that were in the woods, John made a border for the high side of the driveway to prevent erosion (which is why the driveway is much narrower than when I bought the house). We then planted some of our day lilies behind the telephone poles and created a nice border. You can tell that we still have work to do on the far end of the drive.

It then rained and snowed for five days after we planted the lilies. They did just fine.

But then the chickens found the lily garden. They scratch in the soil, as I suspected they would. But they also take their little, no longer cute, dust baths there. And when the bath is done, they finish with nibbles of the lilies. Above you can see a large chicken dust bowl in the lily garden. Below you can see a chicken hiding behind a black tub while she makes a dust bowl. She knows she isn't supposed to be there. We run them off every time we catch them messing with the lilies.

Now I know why chickens do not usually have free range on a farm but are confined to a pen. I wish these chickens were confined.

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LOL Cat Bible: Lectionary Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 25, 2010

Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 25, 2010

Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30

Acts 9:36-43

36 In Joppa, tehre waz a laydee. Hir name Tabitha. She waz a good ppl! She helpd poor ppl.
37 'Cept she getted sick and dide! Oh noes! Hur corpz waz plaecd in a room in the uppur flor.
38 Lyyda, o'courz iz neer Joppa, so it waz not long 'till wurd got aroun to Peter.
39 So Peter wented to Joppa an went to teh houws whaer Tabitha was ded. Tehr waz widowz. tehy all crowdud 'roun Peter, and craid. Tehy also shoewd Peter closthez n' stuf tat Tabitha maded wen she wuz not ded.
40 Peter told teh widows to scram. So tehy did. Tehn Peter neelded down an praed. He lookd at teh corpz an waz liek, "Hay, Ceiling Cat makez u unpwned. u getz up kkthx!" Tabitha stopd beein ded and Peter help'd hir get up. Tehn he sed to teh beleevirz and widowz to come inz and see wut Ceiling Cat had helpd him do.
41 Noos of Tabitha's rezurrecktshun spred throo Joppa. Lotz of ppl starded beeleeving in Ceiling Cat.
42 Peter tehn lived in Joppa wit soem gui naemd Simon. He wuz a tanner.

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Psalm 23 1 Ceiling Cat iz mai sheprd (which is funni if u knowz teh joek about herdin catz LOL.) He givz me evrithin I need. 2 He letz me sleeps in teh sunni spot an haz liek nice waterz r ovar thar. 3 He makez mai soul happi an maeks sure I go teh riet wai for him. Liek thru teh cat flap insted of out teh opin windo LOL. 4 I iz in teh valli of dogz, fearin no pooch, bcz Ceiling Cat iz besied me rubbin' mah ears, an it maek me so kumfy. 5 He letz me sit at teh taebl evn when peepl who duzint liek me iz watchn. He givz me a flea baff an so much gooshy fud it runz out of mai bowl LOL. 6 Niec things an luck wil chase me evrydai an I wil liv in teh Ceiling Cats houz forevr.

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Revelation 7:9-17

9 Ai was laik, "O Hai, bazillion pplz!" Dey lookn at teh frone an teh Lamb, all white kittehs, wlv palms in their paws, and they had a flavor;
10 Pplz was shoutin laik "keep dat Ceiling Cat on teh frone!!" an "yah ok ai likz teh Lamb 2"
11 All dem Birdcatz round teh frone an teh old catz an teh 4 beasts, dem falled dwn rite on dem kitteh nosez! OWCH it hurty but not too bad. Dey worshipin Ceiling Cat.12 Sayed, Ramen: "cheezburgrs, an powr an all good stuffs. You can has Ceiling Cat 24 7 forevers, plz?. kthxbye."
13 One of teh elderz kittehs is laik, "What white kittehs? Were dey at?"
14 So I's sayed, dun u know lol. He was liek, "Dese workin hard, an have licked demselfs clean, maid dem white in teh icky Lamb blood. It taste bad!"
15 U see, dey'z befoar teh frone of Ceiling Cat, dey bring him catnip an treats in his catbox: an he dat get petted on teh couch is allowed to lie on couch forever and not get teh sqwirt gun.
16 Dun be hungwy and firsty no moar; noar shall teh sun be warm on dey bellies.
17 For teh Lamb shall refill teh food bowl, an shall lead them unto teh awe-toe-matic water fountains: an Ceiling Cat promises to wipe gunk from all ur eyes.

John 10:22-30

teh unbeleif of teh jewz

22 THeRe wuz a parteh in teh big city Juhrusailm, an evryone wuz NOM NOM NOM! It was cold krissmussy time.
23 Jebus wuz wlking in Solomuns Colo... Calon... he took a walk in teh tempel.
24 Teh jooz wah liek, "OMG JEBUS STOP TEEZIN US!!! If U teh messiah kitty jus SAIZ SO!!!"
25 Jebus iz all liek "I alrdy tellz you dat!! I duz amzing stufs w/ teh Ceiling Cat so u noes!!
26 But you no heerz, cause you no iz mai shep!
27 Mai shepz heerz me; i knoz dem, and they comez wit me
28 Cause of me, they no haz death; and noonez can taekz them! I holdz onto teh shepz RLY TITE!!
29 Ceiling Cat gavez them to mez, and he pwnz you all!! No one can takez them from Ceiling Cat. NOT WUNCE!!
30 Me and Ceiling Cat are teh same!! SRSLY!"

Get ready now cuz the wild weekend is coming!
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Brush Hogging with Chickens

This is what it's like to brush hog when you have chickens. They quickly learn that you are digging up worms. Just for them. And then they follow the noisy, smelly tractor for more. They follow you everywhere. You can't even run them over because they are quick footed but you constantly worry that you might. The photo above is a normal shot from the back door. (Someday I may just persuade somebody to restore my cedar post clothesline so I don't have to use that awful plastic and metal whirligig one.) Below, is a zoomed in shot of John and chickens brush hogging the upper field.

By the way, just past John in these photos, he found a huge colony of trout lilies that I had never seen before! It's an exciting find and I can't wait until the thousands of lilies there bloom in a couple of weeks!

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A Jumping Moose

This young bull moose was gallivanting all over Barton Village last week. Then he decided to come up here. He crossed the road from our land on the mountain side of the road and went through the beaver bog to the woods on the other side. He is probably now around May Pond or Willoughby Lake. These photos were taken on a sunny morning through the glass of the sun porch windows.

I am most proud of the photo below showing the moose jumping a stream in the bog. There was no skill involved in this, just pure luck. I'm glad the moose came by during John's first week here because no "outside people" believe me about the number of moose in the area (the NEK is over-populated with moose).

Click on either photo to see it full size in a new window.

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Dust Baths

As the mud from the water saturated land dries after brush hogging, the chickens, who now follow John as he rides the tractor, enjoy long dust baths. I found that chickens will roll in the dirt like dogs do! The chicken on the right with her leg in the air was rolling over and over for quite awhile.

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Brush Hogging

John's been pretty busy. He has drained the water from around the barn as you can see above. I always thought that the water was from underground springs. It is, sort of. The brooks off of the mountain go underground before they reach the barn and then go underground because of the willows and alders that have grown wildly around the barn and the edge of the small field. John brush hogged the brush and the water began draining through his newly excavated ditches. He is recreating the natural flow of the brooks.

The brush in the photo above obscured the end of the shed at the end of the barn. John has brush hogged the entire barn and about a quarter mile of the right of way that goes up the mountain.

Technically, brush hogging means that you use a brush hog. But the tractor is best for this job because of the size of the brush. John hauls it to the far edge of the property. He got a burning permit from the fire warden and it took a whole day to burn the brush that he pulled in only two days. There is no snow pack now, so unfortunately John had to wait for a snowy, rainy day to burn. He had to stay with the fire the whole time in order to prevent a forest fire. It was a miserable day for him!

Below, John is clearing brush from the upper field. Our views of the field and the wildlife that visit it have been blocked by the willows. John left all of the beautiful tamarack trees, which we both love.

Below is a view from the bottom of the upper field to the barn.

And finally, the end of the barn is nearly entirely cleared. This part of the barn will be detached and rebuilt for a chicken coop that is weasel-proof.

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Two Less Chickens

Tuesday was not a good chicken day here. The weather was unusually beautiful. John and I were on the sun porch on the computers most of the morning. The chickens were enjoying the sun and the bugs and worms in the fields and lawn. But by noon we noticed that feathers were in the yard where there were none before. Nate went out to follow the feather trail. They went from the barn and all the way around the house and then up into the back field.

John went out later to brush hog the back field and found the hapless chicken body that you see in the photograph above. A fox had gotten her in broad daylight and ran with her in his mouth right past the windows in which we sat.

The chickens have also been nervous of the noisy tractor as it brush hogs. And Willow, one of the three beagles, got loose and ran right to the barn so that she could chase chickens — her favorite activity after eating.

On the next day, Wednesday, I myself discovered another dead chicken in the barn! This one was eaten by a weasel. Amy and Nate have made the barn more secure and we have not lost anymore birds.

What I find very strange is that without these two chickens, the remaining hens are laying more eggs! One of the killed chickens was low on the pecking order. Did the other hens dislike the dead chicken so much that they did not lay as well as they do now?


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Peeper Eggs (The Next to Last Photo)

These are the eggs of a spring peeper frog (Pseudacris crucifer) in New Hampshire in our former home. John sold his properties in New Hampshire and for the past two weeks we have been moving back to the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont. We have gone full circle now by returning to the place that I love. This was the next to the last photo that I took in New Hampshire at our former home (the last photos can be seen here on my other blog).

It's exciting to be back and my old friends are very happy for us and are welcoming us every day. John has been busy beginning renovations to the barn, house and land. I have never seen any person work as hard as he does. He's discovered things about this 100+ year old farm house that I never knew. Besides unpacking and organizing us, I have been to a movie at the library, with Amy, and I made the brownies. I was given a special spot in the book discussion group that is overly full. I have been asked to return to the Shakespeare Reading Group. The people at the stores are all smiles and say they are glad we have returned. My hair stylist had gotten me up to date on all the local news. There is no place like the Kingdom!

The peeper eggs have special meaning for us. The beaver bog across the road has so many peepers that you can't talk on the phone with the windows open. Well, you can't have the windows open this week because, despite it being mid-April, it has been snowing every day (gotta love this Vermont weather!). At the end of every winter here I wait and wait for the peepers to sing me to sleep. And now I can share all of the riches of nature here — and the peepers! — with John. We sit together at our computers on the sun porch every morning and watch the beavers, loons, geese and ducks. The otters were here yesterday and a moose strolled by two mornings ago.

We both miss central New Hampshire. It was an exciting experience for me. There were stores, great bike paths, all the roads were paved, and the church and it's members became very important to me. Zorro will miss the chipmunks, which we don't have here. But there was poison ivy (which we also don't have) and congestion in central New Hampshire. New Hampshire is very developed and urban. I'm afraid I prefer to be in this remote area.

Stay tuned for my new adventures in my new life in the Kingdom. There are many changes that will be coming!

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Ladybug Cannibalism

The dead ladybug seems to have it's wings open while the other ladybug feasts on its innards. I had never seen this behavior before so it surprised me. These are Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles. They are invasive bugs. You can read about them here on my blog. They infest homes in the spring here.

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle Set

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