Up a tree and underwater

 

Poor Rattle.  He's been spending quite a bit of his time in trees the last few days, no thanks to Squeak.

Inside the Granary when Squeak braces him, Rattle hides under the lawn tractor where Squeak is too big to fit.  Outside, he scoots for either of the two big trees that are close by.  Squeak chases him up as high as he'll go, then descends to one of the first big limbs and lounges there daring him to come back down.

Rattle's cat clock imitation

He was up there last night most of yesterday afternoon until I brought the horses back.  Finally came down once I walked over and Squeak retreated to the barn.  Squeak had him treed again this morning when I went down to feed them all  their breakfast.

The ponies, meanwhile, are very pleased with life.  

They've apparently decided that they can spare time during the day to nap instead of eating constantly.

When I went up to fill the water buckets they were hipshot in a semi-circle enjoying the breeze, but woke up long enough to investigate the possibility of lunch being delivered.

One of yesterday's projects was the barn stock tank - between the hay that's been dripped into it and the tank heater, it's developed some green scum.  I'd heard some good things about this non-chemical stock tank cleaner so I ordered some and let the horses drink the tank down for a few days.  The cleaner arrived yesterday, so I emptied the rest of the water out and rinsed the tank.  The directions said no scrubbing required, so once I had it pretty well sprayed out I refilled it and added the cleaner.

It takes a one capful per 50 gallons, added once a week or so depending on usage.  Pretty economical, considering a bottle is 32 oz.   More info at Aspire Premium Equine Products....

Got the tank full, only to discover that it had sprung a leak... right at the bottom, of course.  After some fiddling around with various ideas that didn't work, I finally got a latex glove out of the first-aid stuff, plastered it over the hole on the inside of the tank and then screwed a nail through it until the leak stopped.  It's temporary, but it'll work until the horses drink the tank down and I can JB weld it or I can locate a rubber washer & bolt combo that will work to seal it.

On the plus side, my make-shift patch held water overnight and the tank's clean.  We'll see if the remaining algae disappears and how quickly, and if it actually works long-term.

Small things

Sat here earlier this morning watching Mabel zip from one end of the living room to the other with her tail all puffy and her ears plastered back.  Cats, go figure. Drinking coffee and waiting for it to get light enough to go feed the outside critters.

The snow event turned out to be not much - drifted a few spots in, more than anything.  Most of it's already melted, but it brought back cold temps and wind. It was 10' this morning, although they're promising it's going to get into the 40's today.  The horses are very ready to go back up on grass.

The little birds, juncos, sparrows, nuthatches and whatnot were out swooping, hopping and pecking, trying to find anything at all they could eat.  I'd feed them, but don't want to provide that cats with a bird buffet. (I'd much rather they eat mice.)


I've been trying and trying to get a good picture of the woodpecker.  He's very audible, but so quick that I usually end up taking very clear pictures of branches.  Finally caught him, but not as close as I wanted.

Speaking of mousers...

Silence and Squeak

These two haven't forgotten or forgiven me yet.  I snapped these thru the kitchen window. (You can see, the snow is pretty much gone.)  They were out yesterday sunning in front of one of the outbuildings I've been cleaning out, but as soon as I opened the house door they both disappeared.  I'm supposed to take all three of them back in next month for booster shots.  Hopefully they'll be a bit less leery by then!



Talked to one of T's sisters over the weekend, and she's located a niece who wants her old upright piano which is currently tarped in the workshop.  No idea when they'll actually appear to haul it away, but hopefully soon.  And I don't envy them trying to get it tuned!  I've been plugging away at cleaning out there again for the last couple of days - it's a project out of the wind and best done while it's cold enough that layers are a blessing.  I peel all my outer layers off at the door and then dump them into the washer when I'm done.  Blech.
 

Workshop

Mice.  Generations of them.  I won't use poison because of the cats, so T picked up some of those ultrasonic vermin deterers.  Which appear to be working on the pack rats, but I pulled open a drawer Sunday and a very fat, very surprised field mouse was staring back at me.  Eeep!  Pushed the drawer back in, banged on it, gave it a minute, pulled it back out.... Mouse was still there.

Pulled the drawer out, set it on the floor and gave it a tap with my foot.  Presto!  Disappearing mouse.  I've added "MOUSE TRAPS!" to my shopping list.  I really don't mind them outside, and I can't blame them for wanting to live somewhere people haven't been using for years, but we're back and they can move out or die.

But I hauled another load to the dump this morning - I ask you, who saves their old, broken toilet seats? - and I think I'm making progress.