Cats and coop doors

It’s a busy time on the farm, but those pictures will have to wait until next week while I catch up on last week.

After keeping Gracie and JJ in isolation in the kitchen for a week, I opened the door on Thursday after the cleaning ladies left. Banjo, not surprisingly, made the first attempt to make friends while Bingo backed off down the hallway. Banjo crawled into the bookshelf. Gracie gave him a nose kiss and then hissed just to remind him that she was boss. In this photo, JJ is next to Gracie under the chair, not sure what he should do. He soon discovered the store room and has pretty much stayed there the rest of the week.

Banjo and Gracie stand off

It is interesting to note that our cats now seem to prefer the company of our guest cats to us. Whether or not they are BFFs, Bingo and Banjo are spending more time downstairs with Gracie and JJ than upstairs. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that Terry and I are spending most of the day outside.

When our cats are upstairs (where Gracie and JJ have not yet ventured), they are endearing. Banjo has changed his alliance and sits on my lap a lot these days, forsaking Terry. He rolls right over for belly pets. I know I’m biased, but he is the cutest cat in North America.

My new lap buddy

Bingo also is turning into a good lap cat. Although he took his time about, he now understands that when I pat my lap, he is supposed to jump up. He likes to snuggle in the crook of my arm. He is the second cutest cat in North America.

Bingo snuggle buddy

When Jane is not in Florida, she has too much time to spend cruising the Internet. She is not selfish about it, though, and, bless her heart, found a good deal on a solar coop door for Coop 2. Before we moved the chickens to summer pasture, Terry installed it.

Step 1: Measure the outline and drill holes in the corners.

Outline with drill holes

Step 2: Cut the horizontal lines.

Cutting horizontally

Step 3: Cut the vertical lines.

Cutting vertically (harder)

Voila! The hole for the door.

All done!

Step 4: Screw the door in place.

Door installed. The door rolls up when it opens

I charged the battery by plugging it in for 24 hours. We positioned the tiny solar panel on the roof and checked to see that it opened at dawn and shut at dusk for two days until we were convinced that it was really going to work. So far, so good. The best part is that I don’t have to run out at the crack of dawn to open the door or remember to go out before bed to shut it. The second-best part is that the opening is a lot smaller than the other door, which has to be large enough for me to get inside to clean and get the eggs. The coop stays A LOT drier when it rains.

The weather continues to be chilly with frequent frost warnings. Nevertheless, spring progresses. Some goldfinches have finished molting to their sexy summer yellow with their dashing black berets.

Hey, baby! Check out this plumage!

Others lag behind, although they are probably not aware that they still have a patch of green-gray on their necks.

Not quite there yet.

Wild ginger is up and blooming.

Wild ginger blossom

The mayapples are beginning to unfurl.

Mayapples

You probably know how much I admire plants. Their will to live is so strong. The box elders than came down in the ice storm on February 22 have not yet gotten the message that they are dead. The twigs attached to the cut-up logs have broken bud and flowered for one last chance to get in the gene pool. Plants are amazing.

I'm not dead yet! It's just a flesh wound!

Snow on the Rhubarb

 It was a beautiful week. It began like spring and progressed to summer. Today, it reverted to winter. So it goes.

We burned the wetland on Monday. Due to two consecutive wet springs, reed canary grass had taken over the whole thing. On the plus side, the reed canary grass left lots of fuel behind, and with a good breeze, the area burned completely in a short time.

The whole wetland burned in about 20 minutes

We then went back to the creek to burn the stack of dead branches that fell off the trees in the ice storm. It was still a little wet from recent rains and took two tries to get it started.

The fire finally catches

But once it got enough heat going to dry the wood, it took off.

And off it goes!

Terry joked that the remains of a box elder that came down in the storm could be made  into a giant slingshot. I thought that would be a fun thing to use with our extra pumpkins.

The box elder stump (right) could be a giant slingshot

A small pile of twigs that Terry raked up ignited from the extreme heat of the fire and burned completely. The heat plus a west wind started the stacked logs on fire. “In 20 minutes or so when it burns down,” Terry said, “we can put the logs out.”

Extreme heat plus wind starts a small pile of twigs (right front) and some of the logs in the pile on fire

I walked around to the other side of the log pile and noted that it was burning all the way through. I was pretty sure we weren’t putting that out any time soon.

No way we're putting out that fire

Indeed, on Tuesday morning, the log pile had a big hole in the middle of it.

Yep, burned clean through

The spring ephemerals are coming up. I probably say this every year, but it bears repeating. “Ephemeral” means “short lived.” A spring ephemeral is a plant the exploits a brief period of time when there is nearly full sun on the forest floor because the trees have not leafed out. As soon as the ground thaws and the first few pollinators start flying, the plant sprouts, blooms, sets seed, stores energy in a bulb or corm for next spring, and dies back before the canopy closes.

In the ephemerals I've planted, scilla is the first to bloom.

Scilla--not native, but pretty

I recently learned that it takes ramps 10 years to mature to flowering stage. Indeed, they have been slow to take off. I was excited to see a few more plants this year. We’ve only ever had one or two, and every year Hilda would be disappointed that there were not enough to harvest yet. I wonder if I will harvest in my lifetime.

Ramps slowly propagating

The Virginia bluebells are more promising. This is their third year, I think, and they are proliferating nicely.

The large, round, green or purply leaves are Virginia bluebells--four plants where last year there was one.

Those three pictures were taken Tuesday. By Friday, the Dutchman’s breeches were up and starting to flower.

Dutchman's Breeches

Also, the mayapples were sticking their little umbrellas up.

Mayapple emerging

The creek is running clear since there hasn't been any runoff lately.

Clear water in the creek

It sparkled under the warm sun as it curved around the bend.

Sparkling in the sun

A raccoon explored along the banks Thursday night.

Racoon prints in the mud at the edge of the creek

The peaches in the high tunnel are blooming. If all goes well, we will have fruit this year.

Peach blossoms in the high tunnel

Jane left for Florida this week. This is our first time cat sitting since she got Gracie and JJ and we got Banjo and Bingo. We had Jane’s cats in a large cage for the first night. It did not go well. We went to Plan B, which was to put them in the downstairs kitchen, where they could run around completely separated from our cats. That went a little better, but I put their carriers in the kitchen so they could have a safe place to hide. Mostly, they each sleep in one of them, but once I saw them together. I wonder if they think that if they stay in the carrier long enough, someone will take them home. It’s like the kids at camp used to say, “If you just call my mom, I know she’ll come and get me.”

If you just call my mom...

We worked as hard as our bodies would let us to get the outside prep work done for gardening while the weather was warm and sunny. We welcome the rain day we are having today. It is a chance to rest, and the ground needs the moisture. That said, I could live without more snow. Snow on the rhubarb—that seems like a metaphor for spring in Illinois. Just when you think it's safe to leaf out--wham! Winter comes back.

Snow on the rhubarb

Last night, Terry and I ate dinner on the deck while wearing T-shirts. Less than 24 hours later, the deck looked like this. No al fresco dining this evening.

No outside dining today

Now we face the challenge of keeping the greenhouse warm enough to keep the seedlings from freezing over the next three days. Every year is a gamble on the farm!

Spring, for now

Spring is suddenly upon us, for the next week, anyway. Or so we hope. The beginning of the week was not so promising. I managed to get a walk in Tuesday before the next round of storms hit. Terry had been out doing chainsaw work back by the creek. He got the box elder by the fire ring cut through, but it still refused to fall.

The box elder that refused to fall

That afternoon, we had a hail storm. We were lucky that the hail did not exceed pea-sized, not big enough to cause damage.

Hail

We cowered in the basement briefly Wednesday morning as another tornado warning came and went in about 20 minutes. At least they’ve been moving quickly. We also had one the previous Friday evening.

I went down to visit Jane and go shopping on Thursday. Farm and Fleet had cat trees on sale again, and I caved one more time. Now each cat can sit by the living room window and watch the birds. This brings the household total number of cat trees to five. For two cats.

Matching cat perches to watch the birds on the deck

Jane bought a cat jungle gym (two cubes and a connecting tunnel) that her cats didn’t use much, so I brought those home on Thursday also. Bingo has always shown an affinity for small spaces, which has gotten increasingly comical as he has grown ever larger. I put one of the cubes on the floor while I started putting the groceries away. It didn’t take long until he staked a claim.

Bingo claims the new cube moments after I put it on the floor

The next day, I assembled the whole thing with the tunnel. Bingo sat in one end.

Bingo in one end

Then the other end.

And the other end

Then he camped out in the tunnel for a while. He liked the netted area from which he can look out and feel like he can’t be seen.

Hiding in the tunnel

Banjo got in on the act as well. They have been having the best time chasing each other around and through.

Banjo investigates

Yesterday was flat out gorgeous. Terry had gotten the box elder by the creek on the ground and cut up. We went back to pick up the branches. I worked up a sweat in a short time. After we were done, I put on a much lighter coat and went out to check things in the greenhouse and garden. The onions are doing well.

The onions

I had to repot the cucumbers and tomatoes that will go in the high tunnel, even though the tomatoes did not have four true leaves. The seeds were two years old, and I seriously underestimated their germination rate. I thought it was going to be 50% if I was lucky. No, it was still 100%! They were way too crowded. Now I have 13 cucumbers (I originally planned to plant four)

Lots of cucumbers

And 24 tomatoes (I was going to plant three or four).

So many tomatoes!

As usual, I didn’t notice the garlic was up until it was getting all crumpled underneath the row cover. I uncovered it and hope that it will straighten itself out soon.

Wrinkly garlic

The strawberries survived the winter in the raised bed. I pulled off the straw for now to let the leaves green up and get big. I will tuck straw underneath the leaves before the berries ripen. Strawberries on the soil get moldy in an instant.

Strawberry sprouts

The chickens are very excited to be able to dust bathe in the real dirt. I didn’t get a picture at the height of the activity, when they were rolling around and fighting for spots, but you get the idea.

Natural dust baths

They have eaten every green thing in the run by now and spend a lot of time trying to get at the greener grass. One more week, and they’ll be down in the summer pasture with all the grass their hearts desire. Then it’s time to clean Coop 1 and get ready for chicks!

The grass is always greener...

 

 

The heartbreak of molting

This time of year must be embarrassing for the male goldfinches. The molt makes them look awful, like an acne outbreak right before the prom. The females probably giggle and whisper every time the males fly by. It won’t be long, however, before the males are singing, “I’m too sexy for my feathers.”

That awkward molting stage

I keep expecting the box elder to stop dripping sap. Water flow through a plant depends on an unbroken column of water. Once an air bubble, a.k.a., embolism forms, movement stops. On my walk a week ago, the center of the cut branch looked dry, so I was sure the end was near.

The center of the branch was dry a week ago

On Tuesday, however, the whole surface was wet and dripping again.

But on Tuesday, it was all wet again

It is a puzzlement. Here is where the branch is broken. Obviously, there cannot be intact xylem (wood) vessels all the way across the diameter of the broken branch.

Even though it is obvious that the wood is broken most of the way across the limb

It got cold overnight Thursday, and another long sapcicle formed. It should be noted that the drops were not nearly as sweet as they were last time I tried them. The tree has probably mobilized the majority of its sugars to the buds by now.

Another long sapcicle

The last of the snow lingered until Tuesday. The only snow by the creek was in the shadow of a fallen tree. The tree broke in the ice storm but is hung up on another tree so that it has not yet hit the ground.

The last snow by the creek in the shad of a broken tree

From this angle, you can see the stripe of snow in the shadow of the tree better. All the snow is gone now.

A better picture of the shadow on the snow

On my walk this morning, I noticed that the pussy willows are fuzzy. Spring must be coming, in spite of the cold wind.

Pussy willows!

With the periodically warm weather and rain, the grass has started to green up. The hens are no longer content in their run. They stick their heads through the netting to get at the new grass and occasionally escape. I caught Dottie on the coop roof in a dilemma—jump down outside the fence or walk to the other side of the roof and hop down in the run? What to do? She made the right decision and returned to her sisters. Good girl, Dottie!

Dottie contemplates freedom vs. imprisonment: should I stay, or should I go?

My culinary adventure this week was pierogies. It was a new recipe from a TV show, and it had not been adequately tested. I followed the directions, but as soon as I cut out the 3” circles of dough, they began shrinking. Also, I did not have the counter adequately floured, and the circles were not circles by the time I got them unstuck. I rolled the next portion of dough out before I filled the circles from the first to give it time to rest. I used more flour. The next batch didn’t shrink as much or stick, but the extra flour made it hard to pinch the dough together to seal in the filling. Bah.

The directions said to use a heaping tablespoon of filling. I measured exactly with an ice cream scoop that was a little larger than a tablespoon. When I got halfway through the pierogies, I was way more than halfway through the filling. The tray shows the size difference in the second half. This was the first time I’d made dumplings since I discovered that Trader Joe’s sells perfectly fine gyoza potstickers. I am out of practice. When all was said and done, I had made pieruglies. Furthermore, one of them burst an aneurysm when I boiled them. Contrary to my hope that the mashed potato, cheese, onions, and bacon bits would hold together, everything dissolved except the bacon bits, and I ended up with one empty pierugly. And I have a whole bag of pieruglies in the freezer to get through yet. Lucky me. What’s that you say? Throw them out? After I spent all afternoon making them? Not a chance.

Pieruglies of various sizes