Sights from around Crooked Acres.
Squirrel outside my window. Whatcha doin’, Mister Squirrel?
“Oh, nothing.”
“Just gonna climb down this branch…”
“And get me…”
“A little snack!”
“Which I will sit right here in front of your window and nom! Ha ha!”
I sent this picture to Fred and said “Look, a hawk eyeballing the chickens!”
Fred said “I’m pretty sure that’s a turkey buzzard, not a hawk.”
I said, “Look, a turkey buzzard eyeballing the chickens!” He said “I see that.”
(The dogs eventually roused themselves from their slumber and chased said turkey buzzard off to greener pastures.)
Playing with my long lens (it’s a 4.5-5.6/ 75-300. I don’t know what those numbers mean, but I do know that I can be a long, long way from whatever I’m taking a picture of and have it come out looking like I was RIGHT THERE with amazing detail.). This is a rooster.
This is the other rooster.
This is the Rock Star (she’s a Golden Polish). I’ve probably never told you that I think she’s the prettiest chicken we have, have I?
So so pretty.
She needs a haircut, though. We trim her head feathers away from her eyes so she can see better.
She doesn’t like it when we mess with her ‘do, though.
She prefers to stay fabulous.
Angry Muppet (white Silkie) is angry.
We chased the ducks out to the pond again last weekend. When we finally got them out there, they got into the water…
…paddled around…
…paddled around some more…
…drank a little water…
… said “Hey, that was yummy!”…
…said “Okay, we swam. Can we go HOME now?!”
And out they ran.
One of the males gave an indignant flap of his wings.
And back home they waddled.
“OH LOOK, WATER! WE WERE SO THIRSTY!”
But of course, words do not do the waddle justice. You’ve got to see it for yourself (sorry about the part halfway through when I start giggling and the camera shakes all over the place. But you’ll see why I giggled. They’re so funny when they waddle!).
On another topic, those of you who were horrified by these bugs I posted last week:
In case you missed it in the comments, those are ladybug larvae. I saw them again this week, and they’re clearly in the process of changing. This is to give you a better idea of their size.
They just looked so big last week because I was super zoomed in on them to get details so someone would be able to tell me what they were! I can’t believe I’ve never seen/ noticed them before.
Here’s a closer shot to how they look now. You can see they’re changing; they’re not quite to where they’ll be (and actually, as cold as it’s been the last couple of days, I wonder if they froze up and died instead of changing all the way), but they definitely look different than they did in the other picture.
Now that it’s gotten cold and the bugs aren’t as plentiful, the birds are hanging around the bird feeders a lot more. We get a LOT of Blue Jays and Cardinals.
Male Cardinals are brighter.
But I think the females are prettier.
We have a ton of Chickadees flitting around, but they flit so fast that I haven’t gotten a single decent picture of a single Chickadee, awesomely long lens or no. Maybe next week!
Patty hanging out on top of the bookcase in the front room, refusing to look at me.
Chuckles…
…giving me the bratty attitude.
“I really want to make some feral shelters to put out by the old coop so that any ferals who wander along will have a place to stay warm,” I told Fred. There’s the cat house on the front porch with the heated bed in it where Maxi can usually be found, and the little house on the other side of the front porch with the self-heating bed in it where Newt can often be found (though he more often comes inside -and if he looks particularly pathetic, Maxi will share her heated bed with him. He’s the only cat she can stand.), but both Newt and Maxi tend to be somewhat territorial, so if a poor lost/ dropped off cat needed some warmth, I feel that Maxi would probably chase them off.
Fred had a better idea. “What about the littlest coop?” he said. The littlest coop is the very first coop he built, way back when we had our original flock of 12 hens.
So he bought some straw and put it in the littlest coop, and he left the door to the coop open in case someone came along who needed some warmth.
And someone did. Joe Bob, to be exact.
“What? Am just making myself comfy. Isn’t that what this thing is HERE for?”
Silly Joe.
Smilin’ Joe.
Head scratch AND a chin scratch. Score!
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Previously
2010: Buster, to be exact.
2009: Those Wonka girls have some LUNGS on them.
2008: Something has disturbed the Delmar.
2007: Miss Stinky Stakes Her Claim.
2006: Want to meet the new babies? You know you do!
2005: No entry.
Aw, handsome Joe with the cute little pink nose.
May we have a regular Smilin’ Joe Bob spot every Thursday? That boy could give prescription beta blockers a run for their money. No doubt my health-care “provider” would disagree, but when does it not?
Let me see what I can do for you. 🙂
Thanks, Robyn! I also loved Kara’s special segment the other day. Then again, I adore everything in and about your blog, so that’s hardly a revelation. . .
Seeing all your lovely animals and visiting wildlife is great, we have several squirrels come to our garden ,their antics are such fun to watch, I especially love the way they bury things so cute!
Our German Shepherd Dog chases them down the lawn when he is allowed to. It’s so funny watching him skid to a halt as they run up the trees , but it doesn’t do the lawn any good!
Until there’s something for them to do in the big pond, the ducks will probably not want to go out there since it’s so far away from their flock (the chickens). You need some duckweed in the pond. That’ll make those chicken ducks stay for awhile. Frozen smelts work well, too.
When we raised ducks, we kids would steal smelts out of the freezer and give ’em to the ducks. The ducks loved them and gobbled them up so we kids wouldn’t have to be forced to eat them. So, it worked out well… especially since my Dad only went smelting once, iirc.
For those who don’t know about smelting, here is an instructional video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1UYMJ2FiDE
Why go smelting? I don’t know. Smelts are mostly bone and nastiness. Maybe it’s because they’re easy to catch (although not as abundant as they were in the 70’s due to pollution and overfishing — like everything else).
Anyway, ducks love them!! And duckweed!
I am pretty sure that when I was a kid and we were stationed in Michigan (my father was in the Air Force) he and some of his buddies went smelting. They’re tiny fish, right? Because then the mothers got to spend all day frying them up and we ate them heads and all (I don’t know for sure they were smelt, though.)
They were smelts all right!
Joe is such a handsome big cat! I bet he liked having both head and chin scratches – Never met a cat who didnt!
OH MY GOODNESS! I was giggling so hard watching those duckies waddle. 🙂
If it’s not to bold – could I ask if you’d be willing to send some of rock star chicken’s feathers to me (I’ll PAY for them!!!)? I use feathers in ornaments on our Christmas tree, and those would look BEAUTIFUL! Just askin’.
Joe Bob is so cute & looks so FLUFFY that I COULD DIE! (Name that movie quote! LOL).
Let me see if I can find some of her feathers for you, Angie, and I’ll get back to you. 🙂
You are awesome! Thanks a ton!!! 🙂
PS: You wouldn’t believe how many times I tell my husband about something I saw on Love & Hisses. 🙂 I adore all of your cats and your sense of humor! 🙂
Such a contented kitty, Joe Bob is!
I too giggled with the duck waddles. And the way they lined up – boy/girl/boy/girl. What a hoot!
And yes, I remember smelts. Nearly every Friday in the 60s. Fried, heads and all…but we bought them at the supermarket: no dad went smelting in the feeding of this family, LOL!
I’m pretty sure going smelting was just an excuse to do some drinkin’ with the boys!
I <3 Joe.
Those ducks are so cute! When we went to Cuba for a week four years ago, there were four ducks just like yours, two males, two females, and they hung around the pool all day, swimming in their little pond near the big pool. One of the males was always picking on one of the females, so we called him “Monsieur Picosse” (it literally means Mr. Plucking in French).
I have to say thank you. I adopted my cat as a 4 or 5 year old, and so I never got to see her as a kitten. Now I have, because she looks EXACTLY like miss patty! Although in personality she’s more of a Miz Poo. She has no truck for other cats.
Awwww I love Joe Bob’s happy face!
That duck waddling is TOO FUNNY… I love it!!!
As for Mr. Joe Bob… what a handsome and lovely boy he is!! (Love the paw s-t-r-e-t-c-h in the second in-coop photo, ha!)
Awwww, Joe Bob. He was described as a tuxedo somewhere or other, I melted, and now I can’t help imagining one *adorable* tuxedo kitty every time there’s a Joe Bob picture on the blog. Just from their descriptions to me, I get the idea that tuxedo cats are beeea-u-tiful! Add to that the fact that Joe Bob seems like one super happy contented kitty, and… melted Chanter! *pets and scritchies for him*
Love the cat coop! And that branch is there just for him to stretch to isn’t it?
That rock star chicken is awesome! I keep trying to show them to my mother, (she had the same breed, different color) but so far she hasn’t been able to see, no idea why.
That Joe Bob is really an opportunistic boy!!!!!!
Why is it that most of the other cats don’t get along with Joe Bob again? He seems like a very nice kitty!
Those ducks are hysterical! And miss waddle sure has it down! Hey robyn, you know your pool – is that just left now to maintain itself or do you have to top it up with water or? so I could just dig a hole in my backyard and have a pond? I’d bet the cats would be mighty surprised :)and I was thinking you could call your chicken ducks ‘chucks’ or ‘dickens’ what? DB started it! And I think that squirrel was out to tease your cats – cheeky little bugger! we don’t have squirrels, they’re pretty cute. We don’t have smelt either…
And Jo Bob is a roosting cat? Wow, they’re rare…
Ducks waddle through my back yard on their way to and from the little pond. From the side they’re cute, but from the back, they’re hilarious!
And I love Joe Bob!
Bahaha! That’s totally directed at me: “This is the thing I do every year to get in the holiday spirit, and it is so NOT a bother!” 😉
Also…
1) Duck waddle = Hilarious
2) Bugs = Yuck
3) Joe Bob = Lovely … I vote for an all Joe Bob Thursday, too!
Your pics of Joe Bob made me miss my loving gray and white, pink nosed, big loving baby, Mr. Kitten J. Sanchez.. He was an In-and-Out cat, mostly out, and one day he just wasn’t around… I figure he was probably trapped by some neighbors (we’ve had a feral cat problem, thanks to our neighborhood hoarder who doesn’t fix, nor take care of her cats) and taken to a shelter, but I never found him, so I imagine he’s with a nice old lady who has all the time in the world to just cuddle with him. He was a big cuddler, and loved to nuzzle in my neck…