A Pocket Full of Minnie Mao

Minnie Mao is our little sweetie. She is still thriving and has become our source of sweet little kitty kisses! She has also done a great job of entertaining us (and sometimes annoying us! She regularly wakes me up in the middle of the night by pouncing on my face and biting my chin and cheeks! OW-- tiny little kitty teeth are SHARP!)

We were not planning on having another kitty any time soon. I guess we got one anyway, didn't we?

Mom sent lilies....

It happened a few days ago.
DH brought the mail in, "You have a box."
"I do?", surprized, because I wasn't expecting anything.
Michigan Bulb Company. Yes! Now I remember Mom mentioning something about it maybe a month or so ago. She was sending lilies to brother and I. They were shipped out at the appropriate time for planting here, of course.

I have the perfect place. Recently we had to fell an old maple tree near the house that finally gave up the ghost. It had been on its way out for a couple of years. We've still had to mow around that ugly stump and the chickens have taken to scratching basins around its base for their dust baths. Not that I would want to deprive the chickies of a good spot, but I decided that this would be an ideal place for a new flower bed. Right now I am working on making the yard as easy to mow as possible. Circles and curves are nice to zip around in the mower. Any trouble spot for mowing gets a flower bed around it. This seems the most logical way to proceed as I MUST have more flower beds anyway! We can work on removing the entire lawn in the future...
So on a cool autumn morning week before last, I dropped a nail in the center ring of that old tree stump. With a string and my handy can of neon orange marker paint I drew a perfect circle; large enough to be comfortable for the mower to go around. The new Bad Boy mower is a breeze with its zero turn radius alright, but that doesn't mean zero turn radius without the tires tearing up the lawn!

The bulbs that I had on hand are white daffodils that came from the dear lady in Paris. These have been sitting in a nursery pot in the shade since we dug them in June. There were a few blue hyacinth bulbs as well. Also, a few of the single tone yellow daffodils from the potager that were beyond the boundaries of the wood edging that we are working on.



These had to be moved along with some small unknown narcissus (or would that be narcissi?)
maybe N. poeticus 'pheasant's eye' that were in there as well.
All of these will go in the tree stump bed with Mom's lilies.

She sent Corina Lily


Rising Star Tree Lily


and the Sterling Star Lily
was exausted, so Michigan Bulbs substituted

Snow Princess Stargazer Lilies. .

Looking forward to Spring. I can't wait to see the new lilies! I don't expect much out of the daffodils the first spring, but the following year should be fantastic. The finishing touch will be a fine carpet of Johnny-Jump-Ups...the happy little guys!

Mama Kitty and Minnie Mao

Teeny Tiny Minnie Mao has survived and thrived up to this point on formula.

Lately Mama Kitty has noticed Minnie Mao mewing when we open the back door. She is still uncomfortable, since she has never really been indoors, but we finally managed to get her inside. After nervously darting around for awhile she finally settled down under the dining room table. Minnie Mao quickly went to Mama and found comfort at her mother's teat. As you can see, both are looking very contended at this point. Soon after though, Mama Kitty decided that it was time to bring the little runt back out to the barn with her brothers and sisters. She is still way too tiny to compete with the others for food! As much as I would like to see her back with her mother, we know she would not survive. The mother would likely hide them all again and there is no way that we could get supplemental formula to her.

So sadly, after a little battle of the wills, we managed to get the mama back outside sans baby. Hopefully, she will become a regular visitor and more comfortable with the idea of leaving the baby here.

Teeny Tiny Minnie Mao

Teeny Tiny Minnie Mao

This little bit stole her way into our hearts just yesterday. One of the feral cats "Precious" had decided to stick around earlier in the year along with her sweetheart, Rocky. The two have been practically inseparable, coming around to the back porch to share their dinner bowl each evening. After some months of this we noticed that she was getting awfully wide around the middle!

They faithfully returned every day, hardly missing a beat. We were even able to gain their trust enough to allow an occasional petting. Sometimes Precious would show up first, however; and she would never permit us to touch her until Rocky came. He is the more assertive and I think she just felt safer with him there.

Finally, Mama Kitty (as we sometimes now call her) disappeared for three days. She was gone from the 21st of August and we did not see her again until the 24th. I knew that she must be off having her babies!

Sure enough, Mama Kitty showed up on the 24th minus the bulging belly. Wonder where those babies are? Three days later she led me right to them. They were up in the hay loft. She had found a little "cave" between some bales of hay and there they were.

I eventually found out that there were seven in all... everyone one of them so tiny and sweet. Eyes not open yet, but full of spunk and personality. Mama Kitty was so very protective of them, certainly--not even allowing her beloved Rocky anywhere near.

Over the next few weeks, she moved them around to various places. I guess to keep the predators (and peoples) guessing. Well, we didn't see them for about a week in the end of September and we wondered sadly if they had become some coyote's dinner...

One day DH went to pull the mower out of the barn and "Lo and behold", they were back in the barn again, this time downstairs by the barn door. The kitties were now about four and half weeks old and becoming very brave as they romped and played around all the junk in there...

...all except one. We found this little runt sitting quietly next to a bag of sawdust. Not playing. Not really moving at all. Just sitting there. I picked her up and she was just lethargic...not much more than a furry bag of bones. It was no exageration to say I could almost feel her spine where her belly should be. Husband said, "We've got to bring her in". I nodded in agreement. Poor thing could not compete with her six hardier brothers and sisters at the milk bar!

All we had was cow's milk to give her. I knew this wasn't the best, but I would make a trip to town the next day. Her tiny body just fits in our hands. I had a little dropper and I filled it with warm milk. She couldn't even really take it. I just gave it to her a little drop at a time.

By her second feeding, she was already beginning to perk up. I sure hope the little one makes it...

New Roof on the Chicken Coop

The coop is at least 80 years old. FIL says he remembers that it was used as a brood house when he was a kid. Indeed, I found penciled notes on one of the interior walls stating that in 1925 so many red leghorns and so many white leghorns (pronounced LEG'GURNZ, or so I hear) were purchased from Murray McMurray Hatchery...

I would guess that the roof had not been replaced in those many years. When we bought our chicks three or four years ago, we had to do some work to get it ready. One entire wall was missing. The door between the coop and the feed room was down. Roosts needed replaced, nest boxes hung...and a wire enclosed run needed to be added on. The roof was intact at that time, but some of the joists were cracked. The corrugated metal on top was pretty rusty and had some holes.

It lasted us for the first two years, but then with some heavy winds one winter, the metal roof was peeled back and that was the beginning of the end! Things soon began to rapidly rot and deteriorate and last winter was a messy mush inside. I have been using composted peat moss as litter. I have about a four inch layer...peat moss and chicken doody mixed with rain makes for a sloopy, sloppy mess! I had buckets everywhere! Nothing could be done about it until summer though. The chickies and I just had to deal with it! The floor of the coop was one place where freezing temps were welcome!

With many chores and things to do on the list, we finally got around to getting it done. We were not going through one more winter in that mess!


DH getting it done for me!

A nice shot of the interior with the new roof.

I also gave the nest box a new crazy paint job and painted one of the walls white. I did paint over the 1925 penciled notes.

An outside corner.

There is still work to be done. Not on the roof, but walls will need to be replaced as they continue to deteriorate. By the way, two years ago I used Behr's soy based water sealer on the two walls with new siding. It already needs to be redone! Guess it's back to Thompson's Water Seal, unless I can find something better.

Visit to Mom's: a Photo Essay

What's in Bloom?

This was a great day for pics in my own garden. I will have some posted soon...