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. 

Meet Rattle, Fearless Protector of the Tack

Granary Guardian

It didn't seem right that a cat with such an important job would continue just being "Cat 1".  Not that he minded - cats very seldom have any doubt that they're No. 1.  I'd been putting off calling him anything but "cat" or occasionally goofy cat!  But with a clean bill of health from the vet, recuperated from his snipping, and in charge of keeping the meeces out of my tack, he really needed a name.

He has this he does with his tail.  He'll be perfectly still, but right at the end his tail will be puffy and flickering kind of like a rattlesnake, at least that's what it reminds me of.  Thus, Rattle. 

He assisted me in clearing out the trailer and cleaning and organizing the tack room today.  By getting under foot as much as a feline unconcerned about getting flattened possibly could.

I'm not done, but if I need to haul the horses I can now do so, I can get to the saddles I use, and I have the first aid stuff where I can get to it more quickly.

The help needed a break

Don't get me started on the 3-wheelers.  They belong to T's brother.  They run... sort of.  And they're taking up MY space.  Sigh. 

The Granary had power at one time, but the boxes are full of mud dauber deposits, and as best we can figure out the line runs back through the old stone chicken house but may have been cut when they repaired the water line to the house a couple years ago.  In any case, it's shut off there at the breaker in the chicken house (not that turning it on at the breaker does anything).  So I have to figure out lighting yet.  It's not too bad during the day, at least.

Checking out the new furniture

Rattle had a fine time racing back and forth from the trailer to the tack room, hopping up on top of everything, and alternately chasing and hiding from the broom.  By the time I decided I needed some lunch - and to get started on those cookies for the vet clinic - he was pooped.

Nap time

What a week

It's Thursday. Amazing.

So today we spent cleaning my new apartment and taking care of all the lease signing details. Such fun. They agreed that I could move things in before the first of the month as long as we were willing to do the cleaning. It wasn't (thank goodness) really icky dirty, just normal, sitting empty, moved out of dirt to be scrubbed off.

On to horse things - we rode for about 2 1/2 hours last night, covering 7 1/2-8 miles. Hot, but worth it. Sunny pointed out a skunk, several pheasants and a couple of deer. We were trotting along quite nicely when he slammed on the brakes and snorted at a large rock. It wasn't until the grass next to the rock started wiggling that I realized he was alerting at a critter and not worried at all about the rock. Hooray! Skunks in the bushes are valid objects of interest. Rocks? Not so much.

We gave Mr. Stripey some room, and he obligingly waddled off along the fenceline without raising his tail in our direction.

Other than that? He'll pick up a right lead straight line, but doesn't like the left. Not a surprise. But I did ask for and get some nice pace changes within the trot, and we lead, followed, and rode middle, left & right without any problem. All in all, a good ride, and we'll go again to tomorrow evening, hopefully.