Sights from around Crooked Acres.
(From last week, when we had ice and snow. This week, it’s been in the 60s!)
Ice on a Spirea bush off the front porch.
The back yard in the snow.
It’s hard to tell from this picture, but there was a male Cardinal in the bush, pretty much dead center of the picture.
The morning after.
I’m guessing a plow came through at some point during the night. This is the good thing about living on the road that leads directly to an important area business: not only is our road plowed when there’s, like, three plows in the entire state, but we only lost power for about three hours that night. That’s about the longest we’ve ever had to go without power except when the tornado came through in 2011 (and even then, it was only five or six hours).
While it looks like Larry the rooster is staring in open-mouthed shock at the snow, he was actually crowing. There was another rooster in the coop, also crowing. They were taking turns.
See the speckled rooster crowing? When a rooster crows in a confined space like a coop, it is REALLY FREAKIN’ LOUD. The hens were none too impressed.
Frozen pool (the ducks occasionally use that pool in the summer.)
Pig shelter.
Ducks on the pond. You can see, behind them, how low the fence was hanging due to the ice and snow on it.
George and Gracie thought the snow was AWESOME.
The water in the ditch between the front part of the property and the back forty. That building over there is the church next door. (When I’m giving directions to our house, I always say “If you pass the church, you’ve gone too far.”)
Stefan’s all “Really not impressed, lady.”
Back yard cat houses. Empty, of course – none of the inside cats had ANY desire to hang out in the snow.
I don’t even remember what the story was, here. I think Fred took this guy away from Newt.
Female Cardinal on a fence post.
A kerfuffle at the bird feeder.
Female Cardinal in the back yard. I love this picture.
There’s a small bowl of cat food on the side stoop, and sometimes the birds get all brave and hop up and steal cat food. Drives the cats nuts.
A Starling, I think.
Hanging directly over the bowl of cat food is this Finch feeder. The Finches drive the cats a little nuts, too – Jake has been known to jump up to try to catch them.
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Dennis and Mariette. And to answer the question, yes – Dennis and Mariette have become buddies. Dennis can usually be found snuggled up to Mariette or Angelo, though he’ll pretty much play with any of them.
In fact, here he is cleaning Orlando’s chin.
Wait for it…
Grooming always leads to fighting.
::thlurrp::
::thlurrp::
They certainly just love that doll bed. It’s pretty much always occupied.
Mariette and Dennis in the wall basket.
Mariette with no tail, Ferdinand with a bit of a tail, and Maria with ALL the tail.
Angelo in front of the heater, keepin’ warm.
The face, it is killin’ me.
Grumpyface.
The Players came through their surgeries just fine. Ferdinand had an extra incision because, as it turned out, he was cryptorchid (had one undescended testicle), so they had to go through his lower abdomen to get to it. Angelo also had the same issue (must run in the family!), but they were able to, y’know, dig around and get it without having to make another incision.
(And all the men reading just twitched.)
Once I got them home, they ran around and played and ate and napped and acted like they had no idea anything was different. Dennis was a little freaked out by their smell, and spent a lot – A LOT – of time sniffing their behinds, but he got over it and by mid-afternoon he and Mariette were snuggled up together sleeping.
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Blue is certainly a good color for Stinkerbelle, isn’t it?
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Previously
2013: They look like they’re gargling.
2012: “I not love you, lady.”
2011: No entry.
2010: Do you remember Hoyt?
2009: No entry.
2008: More glaring.
2007: Maxi through the front door.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.