Sights from around Crooked Acres.
We have new pigs. The guy we’ve always gotten pigs from, Egg the pig man, had a stroke last Fall. He’s doing okay, but he’s out of the pig-breeding business. Luckily, Fred found someone about half an hour from us who had small pigs for sale, so we went and got a couple. They’re both boys.
They did NOT want to come out of that carrier. “Nope, we’re good.”
Fred had to dump them out. “No, SERIOUSLY, this carrier is just fine!”
“Hmm, okay. This place has possibilities. There’s grass here!”
“Grass, you say?”
“This is… ALL ours?!”
The pink pig is Rascal, the black one is Oreo. Not that we’ll ever call them anything other than “The pink pig” and “The black pig”, but at least they have names this time around.
Seeing the chickens through the fence made them a bit nervous.
George and Gracie were like “Great. More obnoxious little animals.” (The way the back forty is fenced, the dogs can’t get into the pig yard and the pigs can’t get into the back forty. The presence of the dogs scares off any predators who might be interested in the little pigs.)
Still stained with red clay from where they were living before.
“You think she’s got snacks for us? I think she does.”
“Give us cookies, lady.”
It took them about 24 hours to realize that when people are around, chances are good that there’s going to be some sort of treat coming their way. So now they’ve taken to tracking us and then standing there and looking sad and starving.
“We starve.”
“Let’s go stand by the trough and see if food appears!”
And here they are in video form. You can hear ’em grunting at me and at each other.
“YOU HAZ SNACK FOR US?!”
“WE KNOW YOU HAZ SNACK FOR US, HAND IT OVER!”
A little pond water to wash down the snack with…
Gracie’s the queen of Dirt Mountain.
We were walking around the pond yesterday morning, and a frog squawked indignantly and jumped into the pond. Gracie went after it, but it was too fast for her, and she gave me this look as though somehow it was MY fault.
Ducks on the pond! DUCKS ON THE POND! And I didn’t even have to chase them out there!
Fred went out to the pond last night to see if he could see any catfish flitting around. It was just getting dark, and as he reported back to me, he found that the ducks were living THEIR SECRET SECOND LIFE. They were paddling around in the pond like crazy, happy as could be. I wonder if they’ve been spending their evenings out there all along!
Blue Jay, giving me the attitude.
Fred spotted this spider web when he was out mowing.
Don’t know where the spider was, though.
This flower (looks like a Pansy/ Johnny Jump Up to me) is growing in our front step, same place where one grew last year. I’m going to leave it alone again this year and we’ll see how long it sticks around.
I think I’ve mentioned that I put a game camera on the front porch last month. We have a big plastic bin out there, with a lid that latches closed on top where we keep cat food. Almost every night, something was pulling it over and opening it after the food bowl had been emptied (or mostly emptied). I figured it had to be a raccoon, because cats and possums weren’t going to be able to get the latch open. I was right – as you’ll see – but we saw a few other surprises, too.
First, the surprise guests of a feline nature (well, Maxi wasn’t a surprise, but I thought I’d stick that on the end because it made me laugh):
Then, the raccoons (I expected there to be one – I didn’t expect two!) :
And last, this raccoon was eating at the food bowl, and something went hopping by. I do not have a clue what it was. It hopped like a frog, but I think it was some sort of bug. It’s impossible to tell in the video, though.
There are no Noms videos today, but that’s just because I need to edit them down. I’ve got one for tomorrow that will knock your socks off with the cute. Also, I’ll probably post more over the weekend because I took a LOT of video of them. It’s hard not to, they’re so cute!
The Noms appear to all be using the litterbox fairly regularly (of course, I’m not in there all the time, but I’ve seen each of them use the litter box at least once), and finally yesterday I found a little kitten-sized perfectly formed poo in one of the litter boxes, so yay!
They’re still not interested in food (except for the times when they gather around the litter box and chow down on litter like it’s the best stuff EVER, which just drives me nuts, but is completely normal), though it’s possible that they’ve tried the kibble I leave out and I don’t know about it. I have yet to see them show any interest in the kibble or in the plate of canned food I bring Emmy four times a day, but I suspect that their time is coming.
Newbery, waiting for my hand to get close enough to his mouth so he can bite me. Brat.
I’m not positive, but I think she was washing her face.
Logie shows off her stripes.
Emmy likes to make sure the babies stay clean.
Logie’s face, in the center-left of the picture cracks me up.
“Wah! I’m da bebbe!”
“Wah! You woke me up!”
The sleeping family.
“Hey, guys! Wake up! It’s bath time!”
“Oh, I forgot! I’m supposed to be pretending to be asleep.”
::Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz::
This picture cracks me up because she looks like a toothless old lady.
Such a pretty girl.
Joe Bob shows off his scratcher. Perhaps you’ve seen it?
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Previously
2011: UNDER ATTACK FROM THE KITTEH LUVAHS maybe.
2010: Maura and the Bookworms.
2009: The Seven.
2008: No entry.
2007: “Behind you! A serialkillerstalker!”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
My vote is that it was a grasshopper/cricket thingie. Or a monster.
The raccoons remind me of when I was a child, and we discovered that a family of possums had been eating my cat’s food. When we’d see one, we’d crowd around the back door, staring at these giant, unafraid creatures. My dad, who’s very much from the city (we lived in the country at that point), used my brother’s target practice bow & arrow to shoot one of the possums. He popped a couple into the largest one, and instead of running away it lumbered into the crawl space (toward us! ack), presumably to die (I think dad expected one shot to knock it dead LOL). It was exactly like one of those RUS’s from Princess Bride. My poor parents. Us kids weren’t scared, but they were freaked out.
The video of skittens from yesterday was watched many, many times in my household! Loved it!
I love Thursdays at Love and Hisses! So much farmy goodness plus kittens too! And Joe Bob, my love, my love! Welcome piggies. Have fun until freezer camp. Happily, because you get daily cookies, you’ll really enjoy Crooked Acres! Hello, chickens, ducks, dogs, racoons, kittens, cats and visting animals!! And, um… Elwood? Get back inside!!
The ‘hopping thing obviously has wings, so might be a grasshopper, a mantis or a huge moth such as a Hawk Moth or a Polyphemus. To me, it looks most like a Polyphemus. Hawk Moths are that large, but tend to be darker.
All the big moths are completely harmless, although I did once have a Hawk Moth latch onto my back because of the way I smelled or something. It was so large, its flapping wings made it feel like a vibrator had somehow become suddenly attached to my shirt!! It was a weird feeling, let me tell you!!
Anyway, thanks for another fun and lovely post. I’ll now go about my day with a smile on my face!
Do we now know the source of Elwood’s extra girth? He’s hanging out with the raccoons on the front porch, raiding the cat food bin! It’s good to have friends with thumbs!
We have actually blocked Elwood from getting over the fence – at least for the time being, until he realizes that he can climb the fence in other areas and then we have to block THAT part of the fence, too – and he’s really only gone over the fence a few times. Which is to say that Elwood seems to have gotten sizable via the high-quality grain-free food that he gets inside the house. It’s his metabolism, I tell ya!
Although I know that moths won’t hurt you, I have to say that if a gigantic moth landed on my back, I would probably have an immediate fatal heart attack.
Flying palmetto bugs are my worst fear, but that thing on your porch, if it is a giant moth, would have to be a close second!
I would take a moth any day over a palmetto! [mini-puke]
Robyn, you are so tricky! No Noms videos today, indeed. After watching the pigs (love their little snorts!), I scrolled down to the raccoon masterpiece. While watching a raccoon chow down, I heard your voice say “What’s the matter?” So, I’m looking all throughout the frame trying to figure out what on earth you’re talking about… and why you’re talking to the raccoon on Rac Cam (but that’s a totally different problem, I suppose). I realize there’s nothing at all wrong with the raccoon, so I scroll up to the pigs… where the Noms videos are playing back-to-back-to-back. Yep, I watched them again until it went back to the beginning of the pig video.
“Papa Peppers”? You realize that once you name them, you’re adding them to the family? Sure, he’s a distant relative that prefers camping under the stars, but family none-the-less. Thank you for feeding him and making his life a bit better.
Oh, and I just walked out front to get the mail and was greeted by half a dozen ducks. One of them followed me to the mailbox, quacking all the way. I’m not sure where they came from, being that I live in a subdivision in Northeast Metro Detroit. It was AWESOME!! My husband will be so surprised when I have the contractors dig a big hole in the back forty feet to keep them in 😉
Which they will then refuse to have anything to do with, making you ask “WHY did we pay to have this stupid pond dug if the stupid ducks aren’t going to go in it?!” (all the while not knowing that they apparently sneak out there under the cover of dark!) 🙂
ooh crittercam! was it a grasshopper??
love the way the sweet itty bitty babies cwtch up between Mummy and the wall, perhaps its like swaddling??
Looked like one of those big grasshoppers in that first hop. Does Emmy let you pet her yet?
She does let us pet her, but she has a limited tolerance for it!
I’ve figured Logie out! She’s a reverse gray tabby. She’s like a negative image of the other kittens. I’ve never seen a cat marked quite like her before, so of course she’s special. 🙂
I think she will end up looking rether like Coy and Joy from this site:
http://www.purebredsplus.org/available/shorthair_foldppcr.shtml
…and you can adopt these two if you are near Central California.
I bet you’re right, I bet that IS how she’ll turn out!
By the way, I have a friend who lives on a farm and has lots of critters, too. She rescued a kitty last year who’d been hit by a car (but not seriously hurt), and this kitty, not even a year old and very small, just gave birth to SIX healthy kittens. Mama kitty is gray, and I believe there are four gray kittens and two blacks. Anyway, I’ve already given my friend a stern lecture on the virtues of spaying, but am giving in to the Squee! on the new kittens, and I posted the first Skittens video to her Facebook page last night and said, “This is what you’ve got to look forward to in about four weeks.” 🙂
Oh, they are SO fun at this age, I’m telling you!
It seems to my like a hopping sheet of toast. I wonder why your bread runs away??
Maybe it doesn’t like my jam! 🙂
Not bird, nor plane, nor even frog! Just little ol’ me, Underdog.
Are your dogs great pyrenees? or part polar bear/moose/Yeti, perhaps? they are so enormous!! I love them. they always look happy. Except when giving you the stinkeye for interrupting their frog huntin’.
They’re both Great Pyrenees – when they play-fight, they are totally like two polar bears crashing into each other! And they are very very happy pups!
I know what you mean: when our Great Pyr mix gets to playing with our Husky–in the living room–it’s like the Clash of the Titans.
You’re going to have to keep Logie, otherwise we won’t know what she looks like when she gets her permanent colors. That’s as good a reason as any, right? Seriously, I’m quite smitten with her & if I didn’t live so far away (Kansas), I’d come get her for sure. Hope the folks that adopt her will keep us updated with pics.
The hopper in the video looks like a grasshopper coming in, and a piece of toast going out…. so I don’t know. Ya all sure have strange bugs down there (no offense).
We do have strange bugs down here! After living here for 15 years, I’m still taken by surprise. The down side to having such mild weather is all the BUGS.
Silly Elwood, those treats are for racoons!
That kitten is clearly NOT washing her face.. she’s trying to keep her head from exploding from all the cute, including her own!
That whole big room and those kittens squeeze and squish behind momma into the corner… They do have marshmallow fluff for brains!
Joe Bob!!! Scratchy? You have a scratchy? It’s lovely, but not as lovely as you! Joe Bob, Joe Bob, Joe Bob, Joe Boooob, Don’t squish that scratchy just because you can!
PIGGIES!
We have raccoons and I am a terrible person in that I “allow” the raccoons to feast out of our garbage. In fact, I watch them. It’s very cute. However, now they have taken to picnicking on the hood of my car. They leave cute footprints but I think I have to draw the line somewhere.
Also I think your mysterious hopping thing is some kind of manta ray, small and able to live outside of water. WHAT? It could happen!
I know, right? They are SO cute! I know I shouldn’t leave food out for them to get into, but I’m helpless. The chattering! The human-like hands! Kill me!
(is the first video not actually the pigs, but the front porch cam? or is it some wonkiness in my stupid browser, which isn’t loading pages fully?)
Kathy, try again – the coding was off or something, I’m not sure what was going on, but it should work now. If it doesn’t, please let me know!
I see cute piggies now, thanks! (Cookies would work on me, too.)
I saw this and just had to share it with you!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i_zRPWyATZw
I love that the ducks sneak out to the pond at night!
that photo of Newberry(?) right after you say he’s (or is supposed to be ‘she’?)waiting for your hand to get close enough to bite, where he’s lying on his back, kills me. like Newberry is begging to be spared the torture of the tickle monster…pleeez!!! and the whole ‘supposed to be asleep’ narrative, hilarious! love them!