Bluebird of Happiness

Behold the shy female Bluebird. I wanted to get a good picture of both of them as they had spent the morning close enough to get a good view but when I got my camera out, he flew off--too far away to get a good pic. She on the other hand, flew to this tree and sat there for about 15 minutes! The funny thing was, I finally went into the house and waited at the garden window in the kitchen for like forever and he kept flying by and never stopping. This guy who ad been happily hopping around under that Dawn Redwood tree for about a hlaf an hour before I got my camera, now can't stop flying! Oh well, there is always tomorrow. They don't live too far away so I know I'll see them again. Maybe tomorrow I'll post the picture of there house, it's rather large for the two of them but they seem to think they need mulitple 'rooms'. When they fledge their first of the season, they will move to another 'room' for the next brood.

The Crazy Cat Lady

This is Butters and Baby. Baby left one day and never came back. As you know if you are a regular reader of my blog, Butters just returned this week after being gone for exactly three weeks. They were about four months old when this pic was taken.

Baby was a boy. Which is why you should give their name a lot of thought before giving it. When he was born he was so cute hence the name Baby. However once we figured out he was a boy the name Baby just didn't seem right but too late!

Butters has been sticking very close to us this week. He wants water, a lap and food--in that order. I really thought he would be most interested in food as he has lost so much weight but he seems to be at the water dish more than the food dish. He is such a sweet cat.

Tomorrow I will have to get some other pictures so I can blog about something other than cats!

It's Springtime! Time to plan the festival!

Yes that's correct. Yes Spring has not officially arrived but last nite I got a call to go to a meeting for our town festival. Would have been nice to get more than ten minutes notice! Last year was the first year for our new committee. The people that did it in the past quit and they spent every last penny of the money raised in previous years. They didn't want the festival to continue without them I guess. Add in the fact that the festival is in September and we had a severe flood in June/July so most people thought there was no way to make it happen especially since most of the money raised comes from the sale of raffle tickets and we have to start selling them in June! But miracles happen when people want them to so we not only had the festival, we raised more money then the previous committee ever did and we had more items in our raffle than ever before!

We got donations out the wazoo and a matching grant so we smoked em! Felt good too I must say. This year we've had more time to get it together so we plan to do even better than last year even without the matching grant.

So this year we plan to have many more games and entertainment from 11am til 6pm-usually its all over by 4pm. We have a lot more vendors coming too.

I think people really like to come to the festival because the river is close, the food is good, we have a ski show, a boat show and lots of crafts. See the fog rising from the river in this picture? I can't tell you how great it is to see all the beauty the river has to offer even if it does sometime flood.

Butters is Back!!!!!

I have no idea where the boy has been, he doesn't say a word, but he is skin and bones and very happy to be back!

It's a good thing he was such a big healthy boy or I don't think he would have made it. He is a lap baby today!

The weird thing is, his mother doesn't seem to know him! She growls and hisses at him. Go figure!

I guess we will never know where he was for 3 weeks. That is a long time for a cat I'll bet! I for sure thought the fox got him. I suppose he is a lot smarter than I thought he was.

Cats and Birds

Hi. I'm Tipper. I don't pose for pictures man, I'm just here for the food. If I did pose though you wouldn't believe just how beautiful I really am. Maybe I'll be in a better mood soon and the lady will get a better picture of me so you can see. The tip of my tail is black so they named me Tipper.

I live in a shed across the street. If you look close you can see my sibling behind me. Shaggy is what they calls her.

I would love to have a forever home. I don't really know what that is but the lady who feeds me says I want one. She is nice to me. When its real cold she puts me and Shag in her garage and makes the other cats go somewhere else. I likes it in the garage, theys boxes you can potty in and the dirt in the boxes never freezes and the water doesn't either. It was scary the first time we stayed in there, we didn't like being trapped. We pulled down a lot of insulation for sure! The lady says soon we will have to take a ride and get fixed but I don't think I'm broken. She says then we'll know whos what but we already know that. The silly lady! Oh, here's da food, lady take over here, I gotta eat.

We are starting to see some really nice weather. And more junk birds. Starlings are trying to take over the feeders. Maybe I should lower them so the cats can reach them. Yes I know that is just a story I tell myself. None of the cats will eat a junk bird. Well, not a Starling but they will eat a House Finch for sure. I think they call those 'red delicious' and I would not consider lowering the feeders but I will for sure not fill them for awhile so the Starlings move on.

Flood Time

Well lots of people may see the flood as a problem but this bird sees the opportunity. Isn't that just the way life is? Some see the spot on the window and some see the beautiful view out that same window. This is a Blue Heron. Egrets and Herons are common here in the warmer months-this is the first I have seen for the season.

I saw a lot of White Pelicans today too but I don't have a good enough camera to get a decent pic. If you have ever been to the beach in Florida especially on the east coast you have likely seen Brown Pelicans flying all in a row, undulating and barely flapping their wings. White Pelicans do that but they also fly in formation sometimes and when they want to gain altitude they fly in circles gradually moving higher and higher. When they want to come closer to the ground they do the same thing in reverse. It is awesome to watch as they seem to disappear and then reappear as they complete that circle. I guess it's the way the light hits them. You have to see it to believe it. You might think Pelicans are ugly but they are beautiful when they are flying. And we are in their migratory route so we see them sometimes by the tens of thousands. An incredible sight that I wish I could share with all of you.

Stuff

Oh such interesting times we live in! Isn't one of those old time curses 'may you live in interesting times'? The ground around here is so saturated with all of the rain we had last Spring, Summer and Fall and that is true for several states north of us. And its been snowing up north all Winter. Lately we have all been getting rain that can't soak into the ground because its so saturated already so guess what? Yes, we are at flood stage and it's March.

I point out that it is March because the runoff from snow melt hasn't even started. When it starts flooding this early it is a really bad sign of whats to come. But at least when the Tornado came on Sunday it mostly stayed out on the river. I have to say it slung an enormous quantity of water on all of us though!

The water is rising several feet a day now. It's supposed to crest on Saturday so that's a good thing. My friend Carl has a renovated church near the water. He got flooded last June and just got everything refurbished so he is very worried. Four feet higher and he will take water again. When it was a church they got water about every ten years or so. It would be really hard to raise the church so they just sold it.

I took this picture on a day that the sky was looking particularly wicked, it just so happened that Carls church was in the photo. Or in other words, I was too lazy to walk down to the river to take the picture. In my own defense I was worried that it would start raining on me and I was already a good 300 feet from my house. Anyway, you can see the street in front of the church in this picture. Right now that road is underwater. Poor Carl. He should have bought my house instead.

My Neighbors Cat

Say hi to Jinx. He is the neighbors cat. His owner moved here from Florida about two years ago. Jinx hates dogs and there are two that live in the house so he won't go inside. Can't say that I blame him, they are Jack Russell's so they never get tired of chasing him around. They apparently bought Jinx some food he didn't like so he ate the dog chow. For the neighbors that meant they never had to buy cat chow again. A little over a year ago Jinx ran out of mice so he started getting brave. He crossed the road and made raids on the garage cats chow. He was starving to death by that time with his ribs very prominant. Once he saw that he could get chow over here, he made himself at home as you can see. He likes to play but he misses his owner. She moved out of her grandmothers house a long time ago and left him behind. It's really very sad. He is afraid of a lot of things, I guess that is why the fox hasn't gotten him yet but it is just a matter of time. Outside cats don't have a long life expectancy now do they. I wish I could find him a home. He is fixed and tolerates any female cat if they tolerate him. And he loves to play. He spends as much time as he can in our shop, I think it's the only time he dares to really sleep.

I want my MTV! or at least my internet!

Ye gads! Woke up this morning to find out that the cable connecting the county to the real world had broken and fallen into the river! Yikes, no internet, no long distance, no wait it gets worse! How can it get worse you say? No 911, no ability to call for an ambulance or a cop or a fireman! Yes, I know I've never called for any of those in all the years I've been living here but still. What if I had WANTED to?

I think it was the universes way of saying to everybody-get out and enjoy the beautiful day! Its 73 degrees for goodness sakes! Get up off your butt and do some yard work.

Which is what I would have loved to do but, the ground is simply too squishy. And its is still March so I am not waking up my gardens. Two years ago it got very nice (like its been lately) and all the trees and such budded out. Then one night came a killing frost. Not one piece of fruit, not one nut, not one leaf of any tree survived( tho the leaves regrew the flower buds were doen for that year). And the next winter many a squirrel, bird, deer etc all died for the lack of acorns and other nuts they normally eat all winter.

And speaking of fauna, many many birds were flying north this morning but the funny thing was; I'd hear them coming. I'd get the camera and go outside. Wait for them and voila-they'd be flying just far enough east or west of here for me to see but too far to get any decent pics of. They must be camera shy.

Saw two Bluebirds checking out St. Martins-a Purple Martin house in my side yard. I have two martin houses and they took over the cedar lodge years ago but not St. Martins. Firecely territorial, the martins will not stand a chance against the Bluebirds if they want the house. They barely allow the Swallows and Martins to dine in the yard let alone nest!

And lastly, I posted a picture of my Parlor. My Dining room was lonely being the only room I've posted.

Wacky Wednsday

Yeah, don't worry. Wacky Wednesday is a one time thing-I think. There are strange things going on in town today. One of my neighbors is apparently having problems and has called in her son to take care of things. The thing is; he doesn't know where to look. You see, I live in the land that time forgot. And these people have old fashioned ways. Now see, wasn't that polite of me? For some reason they all tied their septic system together and so there are often problems. It's like a time bomb just waiting to go off. If just one neighbor doesn't take care of their system, everyone suffers. Guess what? Some of the neighbors aren't necessarily good neighbors.
And long over due if you were to ask me. It might not be so bad but they tied these systems together in an area where the river water covers it during floods. Like the flood we had last June. Compounding the problem is that sandbags got wedged into the hole where all the systems meet. Where is that Dirty Jobs guy when you need him? So now individual systems are starting to back up.
So I see this guy out there today, digging random holes in his mothers yard. Oh yeah and in her neighbors yard too-the neighbor to his north. That is the wacky part. The system meets south of his mothers and we already know from the guy at the very end of this thing-that is where the problem is because his system is backing up too. And the guy at the end is very unhappy because he has everyones crap in his yard. Can't say I blame him.
So very glad we are NOT a part of that system.
But the birds are singing and happy. Robins are checking out the holes being dug. For them, there are no problems-only solutions!

Monday Cat Rant

This is a picture of Little Mama. I know she looks like she has evil eyes but she rarely visits during the day so I got her picture when I could. IRL she confused like she can't understand how her life turned out this way.

She is very feral. And scared of everything which is why she is old for a stray around here. I figure her to be about 2 years old. It took me over a year to get her to even stick around to get some chow. She used to run far away as soon as she heard the door opening. Now she will visit some days but not on a set schedule so I never know when I will see her. She still won't let me get closer than 6 feet but that is good progress I guess. I am hoping to capture her soon and get her fixed but I don't own a trap. She has 2 babies, Shaggy and Tipper. They are half wild. They will let me pet them while they are eating but will not allow me to pick them up. I want to get them fixed too. Tipper is especially beautiful, I would love to adopt it. I say it because I don't know if Tipper is a boy or a girl but I suspect a girl. Tipper is an orange tabby with grey tabby showing (more in its winter coat) at the tips of some of its fur, the tip of its tail and the pads of its feet. And a beautiful face. Shaggy that poor sweet thing, is a long haired grey tabby. I plan to post a pic of them next Monday.

Since I already have 2 cats inside, one a 19 year old Siamese and one a 7 year old reclaimed tabby who has only two friends in the world (Jim & I) it would be tough to introduce Tipper.

I wish I could help more of these cats. There is only one person in town who also feels for these abandoned cats. She lives on the other end of town and her neighbors don't like that she feeds too much because she doesn't get any of hers fixed. Last summer someone poisoned most of the cats she was feeding because they didn't like them using everything as a personal litter box. But this is the country and people dump pets in the country so it didn't take her long to get more to feed.

Where oh where did the Butters go?

Sadly, this is the only picture I could find of Butters without any other cats. Now that he has disappeared I wish I had more. He has been missing for 4 days. Maybe the fox got him maybe someone picked him up and took him to a forever home. Unfortunately, the fox scenerio is the more likely around here. We tried for over a year to find him, his sister and mother homes. He disappered in the middle of the day, not a usual time for the fox to be out but not unheard of either.

Butters was a very sweet guy. He was big though and not many of the other cats around here could handle him. He was always in the mood for play or love and didn't care with it was.