'migo

when we bought the place across the street we inherited about nine feral/semi-feral cats that lupe, the previous owner, had been feeding.  i told lupe i'd feed the cats after she moved.  most of the cats have moved on in one way or another.  now there is only one.

'migo

 he used to be called fluff/floof but after a dream i had, in which he appeared as a benevolent figure offering me help, i started calling him 'migo (short for amigo because in the dream he said he was my friend).  i walk over to bring 'migo some breakfast everyday.  usually he is waiting for me on a pine round behind the woodshed.  when i don't see him in his usual place i call him and he comes running out of the blackberries down by the creek and up the slope to me, yowling all the way.
today, like always, i gave him his breakfast and petted him a little until he got interested in eating and then i wished him a good day and went to check some trees and do a little watering.
when i was on my way out the gate to go back home i heard 'migo yowling me and i stopped to ask him what was up.  he kept yowling and walking toward me, pausing a little uncertainly a few times before he made it to the gate.  i bent down to pet him but he was skittish, he seemed to want petting but was not comfortable being so out in the open.  he kept yowling me and leading me back over by the woodshed.  when we got close to the woodshed i bent down again and he allowed me to pet him.  it was more than an allowance.  he seemed to really want and need to be petted.  i stroked his head and back and rubbed his ears and neck and he purred and rubbed his head and body against my leg.  we did this for 5-10 minutes and he probably would have liked more but i had to get back home to some other furry critters who need things from me too.  i thought about how difficult it must be for him to live in the loneliness of not quite being a wild cat and not quite being domesticated.  i told him it was alright as i stroked his soft coat and looked into his friendly yellow eyes.  i told him he could be wild or he could be tame and i'd be his friend either way.

staal's happy birthday feast

beef and veggie spring rolls, long beans and purple pole beans (from the garden), and rehydrated oyster mushrooms from our winter crop

i cooked the beans and mushrooms together with some garlic but didn't get any pictures because we (nick came over and helped) were too busy eating it.

the first few i roll are always a little clumsy but i usually get pretty good at it by the end

porch swing

a year or two ago staal and i found a really great little porch swing at a yard sale.  the paint was peeling but structurally it was sound.  it's been sitting around our place since then waiting its turn to come up on one of our lists of millions of things.  staal hung it up outside the front door a couple of weeks ago to get it off the ground and seeing it hanging there with peeling paint got me inspired to do something with it.  staal helped me chip and sand off the worst of the old paint and after experimenting with mixing some paint colors for it i gave it a fresh coat of paint.

before:

after:

it's now a cheery place to enjoy some morning coffee and by late afternoon it's a great spot to sit in the shade and cooling breeze as the heat of the day starts to break.

wings: a demonstration

follow the rice

ferguson fire update

very smoky here this morning.  yesterday was mostly clear air and blue skies (conditions can change hourly).  lots of air tanker activity yesterday...laying down retardant along the tops of the ridges to the northeast and north/northwest of our place.  on the map (credit dave toussaint) below, the red lines running along the tops of footman ridge and buckhingham ridge are the areas the planes have been laying down retardant lines to reinforce dozer and hand lines. triangle rd is the very light yellowish squiggly line that runs somewhat horizontally directly below buckingham ridge (better view in cropped map below).

 
on the cropped map below, if you draw a line from the little green mountain symbol on top of buckingham to the little suitcase symbol to the south, our house is somewhere near where that line intersects with the curvy yellowish line (triangle rd).

below is our house with a smoky buckingham mt. behind it.

looking dusky at about 11am

it's not always like the picture above.  yesterday it was quite clear and we got to see a nice blue sky...and lots of air tankers.

an air tanker outfitted to drop retardant

also had a pretty good view of a pyrocumulus cloud (huge billowing clouds that form above fires due to the intense heating of the air and its subsequent convection and contact with cooler moister air above) forming above the fire to the northeast of us.

we are doing alright.  trying to stay out of the smoke as much as possible and keeping an eye on what the fire is doing.  recent reports from fire officials have been optimistic for our area so unless there is a major change we likely will not have to evacuate.  it will most likely just be a matter of watching and waiting it out.

just add ducks

i spent the spring getting the emergency escape trailer for the ducks built and outfitted.  my goal was to get it to the point where it would be able to transport them safely if we have to evacuate due to fire or other emergency and then act as sort of a fully equipped shed that would provide them shelter, feed, and water wherever we may have to camp. 
after i got the trailer gutted and rebuilt the fold down step door i was sort of at a loss as to how to proceed.  i didn't have a clear vision of what would be the most functional use of the space inside and the odd dimensions of the trailer were a little bit of a challenge to me in thinking out the best use of materials etc.  finally, as with most of my projects, i just had to start and let the thing evolve, dealing with each element as it became necessary.
here it is, start to finish...


i started by bolting some 2x6" to the trailer body so i would have sort of a foundation to build onto.

i then did some basic framing of what felt like would provide adequate ventilation and usable space.

i roofed it with some thin plywood.  because i didn't want the trailer sticking up very high when i'm towing it there isn't enough space to stand up inside so i built a hinged roof hatch for added ventilation and that when opened will provide me head room when i need to go inside to manage things.

from trailer roof looking down through hinged roof hatch

i built the upper door and then used the pneumatic stapler to attach 1/2'' hardware cloth to all of the framing.

with the main structure finished i started work on making the space inside more usable.  to make the wasted space of the wheel wells functional i built storage racks onto them for holding square buckets full of various feed supplements.

since the new ducks we got last fall were never fully accepted by the existing flock we still have to keep them separated as far as housing (they forage together without giving each other too much trouble) so i built a division inside the trailer to keep the two groups separated during transport and to give them separate sleeping areas if we have to camp somewhere overnight.

hard to tell from the photo but the stall on the right is larger than the one on the left...small stall for the small flock, large stall for the large flock

each stall has a lidded, 4-gallon bucket full of water mounted at the back.  at the bottom of the buckets are nipple waterers that dribble water when a thirsty duck nibbles at them.  the ducks have this type of drinking water system in their sheds for overnight water so they are already accustomed to using them.

the wiring for the tail lights was in terrible shape and basically nonfunctional.  staal donated his time and expertise installing new led tail and marker lights and completely rewiring everything.  he also surprised me with fixing the spare tire and getting a hazard triangle to mount on the back of the trailer to make it more visible and recognizable as more of an agricultural type, and likely slow moving, conveyance.

the mount on the front of the trailer takes a 1 7/8" ball and since a 2" ball is more common these days that is what i have had on my truck hitch.  rather than having to unbolt and change balls on my truck depending on what it may need to tow at any given time i decided to get a multiball and new drop so that changing the ball just means pulling the hitch pin and rotating the multiball as needed.  there were no safety tow chains on the trailer so i bought some and installed them at the same time i installed the new drop and ball on my truck.

the ducks have had a little time to get acquainted with the trailer during some foraging outings and it seems like it will be fairly comfortable for them.  at this point it's road ready.  it's loaded with feed and water, portable fencing and other goodies.  should the need arise all we'll have to do is just add ducks.

may we never need to use it.