Kitten antics video

When Eppie and Ollie were small, we got them a "kitten condo": cat house, play toy, perch and scratching post all in one. We would have rather had them climb on that than on our furniture, that's for sure! I got this video of them playing on it. Watch for when they start playing with each others' tails; it's near the end (no pun intended!) of the video. :-)

 

Waiting... but not for long!

Today was just too beautiful for words, so here are some photos!

(pardon the black spot in the upper right-hand corner of these photos... our poor little camera has suffered a lot of abuse! I suppose you could consider it a watermark... :-)

Here's the garden, waiting to be tilled and planted planted. Kale, Swiss chard, broccoli, bell peppers, onions, green beans, snap peas, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, zucchini and squash are some of the things we want to plant, in addition to the garlic, which took up residence last October. We already have peppers, onions and tomatoes started in little pots.

Here's the bonfire, waiting to be lit! Most of this brush came from the woods where Dad wants to put in another garden plot. The spot we have our current garden gets a bit wet, since it's in a lower elevation. We'll still use it this year, but we're hoping to have the other garden up and running next year.

Speaking of which, here is the site of garden 2.0.12! It doesn't look like much yet, but with a little (lot) of work, hopefully it will work out well for another garden spot.

Here's part of our lawn, waiting to be mowed! It's so refreshing looking out of the window and seeing GREEN instead of WHITE on the ground. Though I'm sure when summer comes I'll wish we had a little of that white stuff. :-)

Here's the recently-pruned lilac bush, waiting for flowers!

Here's the trusty weather station that never needs to wait for weather!

You can actually view the data from it here!

Here's one of the first few flowers in our flowerbeds, waiting for company.

They do say that two is company...

Speaking of which, Tucker kept me company on my photo expedition around the yard.

But he really doesn't like the sound the camera makes when you click the "shudder" button! :-)

So, there you have it! Spring at Green Gambrels.

Snow 2010

Here are some photos at last! As you can see, we got some snow recently. I'd say it's about 6-10 inches deep (it's a little hard to tell with the drifts!). It's quite possible that we won't see the ground again until April... :-)

It's like a clear canvas...

The riding ring (just wait till the snow is up to the top of the fence! :-)

The barn

Snow clouds!

The driveway (and some snowy trees, too)

A self-portrait of what kinda looks like a snowman...

Eppie and Ollie followed me around outside as I got all of these photos. They love romping in the snow!

Eppie, right before she pounced on the camera. :-)

Tucker had his romp, but he was more interested in staying warm and cozy in the barn loft.

I hope you enjoyed these photos. It was really chilly and windy outside when I took them. In fact, it snowed again a little bit shortly after I went inside. 

Weatherbug isn't predicting any more snow (or rain) until Saturday, so I guess we'll get to enjoy the snow for a few days. :-)

Fowl, flowers and flying furry felines

Yes, that's right! Fowl, flowers and flying furry felines. We'll start with the fowl first. :-)

Our chickens are getting bigger (if you can say that bantam chickens really get "bigger". Depends on what you are comparing them too, I suppose. :-)!

 Sometimes diamonds are not a chicken's best friend...

 

Dad nicknamed her the "godzilla bird"

Cat "meats" bird

                                                   I think Eppie won that staring contest...

It's almost like being at the zoo...

But we can't mention Eppie without mentioning Ollie, of course!

And Eppie again...

...and that was the two flying felines. :-)

Now how about ferocious felines?

Yes, that would be Tucker! He is quite the terror sometimes...

...granted he looks quite tranquil in this photo. He's cute, too. :-)

Here's a glimpse of his wild side... I couldn't even get it in focus. ;-)

Here are some photos of the greenery/purplery/redery/yellowery that can be found around our yard.

Lots of tiny wild strawberries grow in our lawn.

The playhouse at sunset

I hope you enjoyed the photos! :-)

Unnamed

Here's the latest addition to our "family". :-)

He doesn't have a name yet...

:-)

More Chickies!

Today I received three tiny bantam chicks from a friend! Here are some photos of them. They're still little enough to keep in a small cardboard box.

I don't have any names for them yet... I'll have to think about some! Suggestions would be welcome. :-) 

Concert, kitties and construction

Concert: I had the opportunity to play in another concert! This event was mainly organized by my violin teacher (Susan Ramsey). It went very well! I'm glad my Dad got most of it on video! :-)You can actually watch a short clip from the dress rehearsal here. The video takes a while to load. You can actually see me for about 1 1/2 seconds! :-) You can also read a little about the concert here
http://www.svweekly.com/joom1511/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1885:-foxcroft-academy-string-program-concert&catid=33:campus&Itemid=215
and here
http://dailyme.com/story/2010032000001922/bangor-daily-news-maine-joni-averill.html

Kitties: Today the kitties had a a big adventure. Well, maybe it was really a small one, but for them it was a big one. It actually started Saturday.
Ollie had the bright idea of climbing up one of the pine trees near the house. Perhaps he was chasing birds. But anyway, he climbed a little too high for his own comfort and got "stuck" about 20 to 24 feet high in the tree. We left him for a little while to see if he would come down by himself (he could have if he tried; there were lots of branched to latch onto). However, he kept on meowing and meowing and sounding quite pitiful, so we decided to attempt a rescue. Mind, this was about 30 minutes before I had to leave for the concert dress rehearsal. Dad got out our tallest ladder and I climbed up to retrieve our miserable cat. Well, he was up too high for me to reach, even from the top of the ladder, and I didn't feel comfortable climbing up the branches to grab him. So, down I went and up Dad went. Much maneuvering and a piece of cooked chicken afterwards, Dad and Ollie both made it to the ground.
I also made it to the dress rehearsal on time. :-)

                                             Eppie on the ground, perhaps contemplating how
                                                        much smarter she is than her brother :-)

Me in the tree  

 

  Ollie in our apartment in one of his favorite places and poses

                                                                    Eppie again
              
Some good friends of ours from CT have been here for the last couple of weeks helping us with construction on our house. Today a plumber came to help with, yes, you guessed it, plumbing. They needed to access some pipes from the outside of the house. They were up on the roof, so, out came our tallest ladder again. Both of the kitties were outside and they decided to explore the ladder. Mom found this out later when she found Eppie clinging to the screen one on of the skylights. She managed to get her inside through the skylight. Now Ollie had gone all the way to the tippy-top of the roof. Here's a photo of the spot where they climbed up (there wasn't any snow on the roof when they climbed up today, though!).

Sooo,I climbed up the ladder and rescued Ollie. I wonder if he'll ever learn his lesson? Or maybe he just has Spring fever. :-)

Chickie (2009-2010) and Poquito

Today Chickie got got by a hawk. :-( 

She was a good chicken. She even gave us a few eggs! But the good news is... we have a couple eggs which we think are fertile, so we're going to try to incubate them and perhaps get more chickies! :-)

And... Poquito got got too. :-(