Hunkering down...

Maggie "hunkering down" last February

I've seen the satellite images of the storm that's supposed to hit us tonight and was very much convinced that we needed to prepare. So, we've spent most of the afternoon making sure all the critters have a roof over their heads and shelter from the cold rain we've had all day...which is supposed to turn into sleet and snow during the night.

We started first at the barn. Got a temporary fix on a stall door and repaired one of the handles on the big barn door so we could latch it and keep the horses from getting in the hall of the barn. There's five stables now open for four horses and I'm betting three of them won't be used! Rose and Angel will bunk together and I wouldn't be surprised if Jasper and Shiloh also share a stall.

Don is headed over right now to check on Rose. She's our oldest horse at 26 years and we're concerned about her getting a chill (if she hasn't already). This could prove to be a very difficult winter for Rose.

After the horses were happily munching hay in the barn lot we headed back to the house and prepared a warm place on the front porch for the three dogs (Angus, Teagan and Caoilainn) that sleep in the front yard at night. We fixed an enclosure on a protected corner of the wrap around porch and filled it with hay. Aislainn and Tadhg immediately jumped in the hay and made themselves cozy little nests and curled up. I was happy to see them do it as it reassured me that Angus, Teagan and Caoilainn would be okay tonight.

Next it was time to tend to the chickens, ducks and Elvis. This mainly consisted of making sure their houses were draft proof and giving them dry hay. The hens, Aunt Bernice and Aunt Bertha, were very happily exploring the hay in their house when I came inside.

Now we've got a fire going in the fireplace and I'm going to make some venison spaghetti to warm our bellies!

A rose by any other name...

...is still our Rose. Don snapped this photo of Rose the other day. He put her in the barn lot separated from the other horses to paste (worm) her. Rose hates to be pasted so we now put it in her feed and she'll eventually eat it.

Rose was Don's first horse and she's beginning to show her age (late 20s). I can see a more pronounced sway to her back and her face is turning white. She's a good horse and I dread the day we lose her. Don will take it very hard.

She's been put out to pasture now (literally...back in the pasture with the rest of the horses) and we will do our best to spoil Rose in her old age. She gets Senior feed and her own stall in the barn when it rains or turns cold. Her old bones don't tolerate the rain and cold like they used to and it is a pitiful sight to see a horse shivering.

Sure do love our Rosie girl.

Hello Harley...

Almost every evening when I go to the pond our barn cat, Harley, is there to greet me. Some days he's lounging on the old picnic table, sometimes he's in one of the chairs. He always wants some petting and his motor is always running. In fact, that loud motor Harley has is part of the inspiration behind his name.

I got Harley from a local feral cat rescue when he was just a kitten. One of his ears had been clipped when he was neutered. They do this so they can identify feral cats that have already been caught, fixed and released. The rescue folks were afraid no one would adopt a scrawny scruffy black kitten. When I picked him up at his foster home I figured he was about the ugliest kitten I'd ever laid eyes on. Harley's ears were to big for his head and his fur stuck straight out in all directions. Don came up with his name because he had a big motor (purr), was dressed in black and very scruffy...just like a biker dude on a motorcycle!

Anyway, Harley proceeded to grow into a huge gorgeous fluffy lazy love bug. He was about a year old when we moved to the farm and couldn't run more than a few feet without huffing and puffing. He rarely went outside, preferring to stay in the comfortable house where he didn't have to travel far to get a bite to eat!

Seven years later it's hard to imagine that Harley is now an outdoor cat that hates to be inside. One day he decided to move to the barn and there he's stayed ever since. He ambles down to the pond to say hello and he comes to the house at night to have a can of wet cat food in the garage when Don comes home from work. Most of the time Harley is at the barn earning his keep by napping on a bale of hay or surveying his kingdom from the barn loft door.

If it's true that cats have nine lives, then Harley has a lot more living to do. Best I can figure he's only used three of those lives so far...one as a feral kitten in foster care, one as a spoiled house cat and one as a barn cat. That's a comforting thought because I hope mellow old Harley will be around for a long time to come!

The story of the masked bandit twins...

It's been a rather boring Saturday so I thought I'd share a story from earlier in the summer. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when it happened!

Don keeps the horse feed in trash cans out at the barn. A few months back he kept finding the lid off one can every day when he went to feed the horses. It was the can that he kept the cat food in and the food was disappearing rapidly. One night he decided to take the live trap (pictured above with a prior inmate) to the barn to see if he could catch anything.

It was around midnight when he headed over there with his flashlight and the live trap. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a dark barn at night, but they can be a bit creepy. Don got the live trap set up and went to get some cat food from the garbage can for bait.

When he opened the lid he discovered two juvenile raccoons. They were as surprised as he was and immediately shot out of the can causing Don to scream like a little girl! One shot between his legs and straight into the live trap. The other dashed into some empty feed bags stacked up in the feed room.

A little shaken by the unexpected guests and their rapid departure Don decided to leave the trapped coon alone for the night. As he was leaving he noticed it was calmly feeling around the inside of the cage as if trying to figure out how to get out. He left it there with plans to release it at the creek the next morning.

Imagine Don's surprise when he found the live trap empty the next morning! He feels sure the other coon had to have released the latch to let his twin out because it can't be opened from the inside. Since the two masked bandits were sure to come back Don decided to move the cat food to a different location.

Sure enough, they came back. How do we know this? When they discovered the cat food was not in the garbage can the two rascals left Don a present to show him what they thought about him moving their feast.

Yep...they pooped on top of the garbage can and we haven't seen them since!