The Depths of Winter

We made it through the big chill here. All chickens, guineas, dogs, cats, and humans are doing well. The chickens had the best deal out of all the outdoor animals. Even though their roost is ugly, it's very sturdy and does a great job protecting them from the elements. As long as they didn't have cold wind blowing on them or snow falling on them, I knew they would be just fine. They cuddle up together and fluff up their feathers to trap all that body heat between them. The biggest problem with the chickens was their water kept freezing. I'd have to go up and replace their water a few times a day because it kept freezing. Wanda, who doesn't roost with the riff-raff, had her own cozy suite in the barn right next to the cats. She often has kitty visitors stop by, so even when I had to keep her indoors during the day, she wasn't too lonely. And when I did let her out, she spent her time sitting outside my front door (which is all glass, if you recall) watching me and pooping all over the place.

The cats did just fine. Most didn't go out much, but the bolder ones kept to their hunting and territory checking routines. I made sure that their area of the barn stayed dry and free of draft as much as possible.

I honestly wasn't sure if the guineas would all survive. I gave them wild bird seed to help keep their energy levels up. I figured foraging for bugs and seeds would be tougher in the deep freeze. But, as it turns out, I underestimated them and they are all alive and doing well.

Wiley on my porch during the first night of snow.

Overall it's been a quiet beginning to the new year, but here are a few updates:

Wanda One-Eye, or as some have started calling her, Wanda the Wonder Chicken; continues her attempts at getting into my studio. I am part of her flock and so she wants to follow me wherever I go. It's so funny how she casually tries to just stroll right in. As opposed to the cats who are crafty and sneaky and dart in when I'm not looking. Wanda is just clueless- she has no idea that if she actually gets inside, her friend Wiley will cease to be her friend the second her big ol' claw passes the threshold. She and Wiley actually do fine outside. When one of the other chickens tries to bully her or if the guineas are chasing her, she'll often run to me. But sometimes if Wiley is closer she'll run to him. He, of course, couldn't care less and only takes cursory notice of her. But it keeps the other chickens and definitely the guineas at bay. As Aaron says, she's only got a couple of neurons firing away up in her little head, but I like to think she's got one more than the rest of the fowl on the farm. The other day I watched her playing with one of the shed guinea feathers. She seemed to be having great fun!

Carl is almost 100% recovered from his mouth ulcers. He looks like a brand new cat! His fur is softer, his eyes are brighter, and he's much more active. I see him out roaming the yard often. I've even found him playing with Chairman Meow and some of the cat toys I left out on Christmas. He and The Chairman have become quite good friends and it's a great thing for them both. The Chairman is now getting along with all the cats except for Hilda. She hates them all and bullies them when she can. She's a sweetheart to humans and tolerates Wiley annoying her, so she's not a bad cat or anything. She is who she is. 

I did have a totally chaotic event with her and Wiley a few days ago. She had snuck into my studio while I wasn't looking, but Wiley saw her and the chase was on… right into my bedroom. Yay. He attacked, she retaliated… hissing, snarling, claws, teeth and blood. I should not have gotten involved with my bare hands. I should have grabbed the broom and started swatting at them. But I wasn't thinking and my experience with cats vs. dogs is limited. Anyway, I grabbed her thinking, "Hilda loves me and is gentle with me. She won't hurt me if I just pick her up and take her outside." Silly me. As I learned the hard way, a panicking cat tends to stay panicking even when it's favorite human picks it up in the middle of the panic. So now, of course, my hands and arms are covered in scratches and I even have a few scratches and one bruise on my legs. Because as I'm holding the wiggling panic cat, the jumping panic dog is using my legs as a partial ladder to get at the panic cat and nip at it's hindquarters which only makes the panic cat ramp up it's panic to a full-on frenzy.

The other event, that only sort of involves animals, is that my pipes up at the studio froze. First I lost my hot water and then I lost all the water. Luckily the water was still working just fine in the main house where Aaron lives. I had to shower there and use he bathroom there. When we were about to go out and find some equipment for the Aquaponics system, Aaron noticed quite a lot of water pouring down the hill from the corner of the studio where it meets with the cat barn. It was a full on pipe burst and we couldn't find the off switch for the studio's water supply. So Aaron had to run down to the other side of the main house along the fence and turn all the water off for the whole property. The cat barn was partially soaked but Wanda's suite was just mud. We finally found the shut-off valve for the studio and got a plumber out to look at it the next day. 

Because the studio wasn't built by professional builders, it's very slap-dash in it's construction. Much of it doesn't make sense. So when the plumber tried to find the pipes that needed to be replaced, they were not where they should have logically been. They turned out to be in my closet. It also turned out that there was more than just one section of the pipe that needed to be fixed. We had to rip holes in the wall to get at the pipes and we discovered the insulation was sopping wet and the pipe looked like it had exploded. One section was cracked and one broke into 5 different pieces or so. A dead mouse was also discovered… what was left of it: the spine and tail. We also discovered mouse droppings which infuriated me. 

With Aaron's help, I put down some snap traps after the plumber had fixed the leaks. Then next morning I had my first kill! The mouse was killed very quickly. It was a very pretty mouse actually. White belly, light brown stripe along the sides and a dark gray/brown on it's back. I showed Carl the mouse and he was very interested, but I didn't let him eat it. We had found some mouse poison left out by the previous owners the day before and there's no way to know if this mouse had eaten any of it or not. I'll assume not, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Especially when it comes to Carl. 

Lastly, here are some pretty pictures Aaron has taken over the past two months. All were taken with his iPhone and most he used the panoramic feature when shooting the photo:

A view from Post Oak Bridge Rd. This is looking north from the southeast part of the property.

This is an early morning view looking South along Post Oak Bridge Rd.

This is the back barn (you can see Atticus sitting in the field) and the fence along the right side of the photo is where our property ends. So everything to the left of that fence is our property. It goes all the way down to the tree line in the distance and if you turned left at that tree line, you would be facing Post Oak Bridge Rd. 

Aaron's new jeep with Hilda sleeping on it and Wiley on the lookout.

Aaron likes to walk Atticus along the road and he got an up-close meeting with the mules that live nearby.

Hilda hiding out in an old sink vanity on my porch. We are going to try converting this sink vanity to a regular one. I think that's what it was originally. My parents gave it to me. It's from the guest bathroom in their house.

Aaron took this from the southwest corner of the south field. The gray barn is the structure you see on the left. Behind Aaron is the creek.

Aaron took this photo from almost the same south field as the photo above. He was a bit closer and more to the middle of the field when he took this photo. This is the older photo. The one above is more recent.