I was going to do a detailed post but I realized that I had to many small updates that it just made more sense to do a this and that post.
So lets get the sad news out the way first.. Its been a very hard summer on my farm cats, we have lost a number of them over the past weeks. I don’t know what got them to be honest, they are just gone. These two were regular house-yard-croft cats, stick close to the house up to date on vaccines and altered females.. (no chance of a walk-about looking mates or off hiding for kittens etc)
Both my hubby and myself were sad when blue passed away from the longer term after effects of having been stepped on by the horse as a kitten, but at least we knew what happened. We find it very hard that we have lost our little Meow-Meow, she was a true sweetheart of a cat and I still find myself calling for her and checking roads and asking folks around me to keep a eye out for her.
The other one that is now on the missing, gone list is our much loved Freckles, I know that folks would have loved to have taken her home, she was a middle aged and knew the farm very well, she never let strangers touch her or pet her or pick her up, she was very much a “us” love bug. We have also had two more of our “farm” barn cats going missing. Five farm cats in one summer, we have never had a year like this and I want it to stop.
We have been calling all the outside farm cats into the croft in the evening with a shake of a kibble in the bowl and then locking them up at night and calling in the house-farm cats in the house at night as well. Since we have started the new locked up routine so far we have not had any more missing purrpots.
So my mom who is moving here later in the fall, will be here by oct at the latest took a fall and ended up breaking her elbow, cracking her wrist and also giving herself a hair line crack on her knee (of course the one that is the replaced knee) and is doing well all things considered but it certainly has set her back in a lot of ways. She had a cast on her elbow and arm for two weeks and then got it off, the knee is so swollen that its in a brace an with the walker etc The doctor says that the arm is healing well but that the knee will take a full year to properly heal.
Hubby’s mom has been having a rough go as well, she has been in an out of the hospital over the past months and is currently in at the moment.. I hope that we hear news soon.
We have had enough rain this year that the pasture keeps on growing and we will get a second cut of hay which is great, not sure on the volume for that second cut but at least its going to happen.
I have been able to get my hay booked for the coming year, its gone up in price (no real surprise there) and this year its going for .10 cent a pound so a 650 pound round bale of hay will cost 65 dollars and a big 850 pound square bale.. yup 85
That’s a pretty good size jump over normal but close to being in line with prices from last year and the truth is that there is a lot of very poor quality hay out there at the moment so even if I need to pay more as long as I have enough, I will take it.
The garden is very hit and miss.. some things have produced very well, all the soft fruits and some hard fruits are having amazing year, but the main gardens.. somethings are at least 4 to 6 weeks behind and only time will tell if the frost’s come early, on time or late this year. I am having really nice pepper crops but poor tomato crops, I have a outstanding potato crop but no corn. I have a few types of squash doing well and I have more doing poorly..
My best crop of the year is my bean.. pounds and pounds an more pounds of green beans to put up. I still am having more then many of the others across the valley, I have gotten lucky, I have not had mid to later summer floods like others have, nor have I had my gardens flattened in the last few bigger storms with hall. so for that, I have been blessed so far.
We are hitting fall temps, low 20c in the day and single digits in the evenings already, which will tell the plants to start switching gears from growing to putting that fall push on.
Well, I had better get back to work this morning.. For my friends in Texas, and area, I am sending you a heartfelt.. stay safe and I hope that you and yours will be safe!
Just another Day on the Farm 
D > Oh but you’ve had some knocks and blows this year! But if anyone can pick themselves up and keep going surely it’s you? The loss of the cats must add to your sense of being beleagured. They don’t like disruption, so it could be that the renovation has made them move out. Thats less likely, we think, if they get expect to come in at nightfall and go out when you get up. During our renovation, we were more careful about maintaining a safe peaceful space for the cats than for ourselves – even if that place had to be moved from time to time (in which case continuity of feed bowls, bedding and son, is crucial). But then do treat our cats as part of the family, rather than croft livestock, as it were : the cats enjoy a social evening with us, and indeed if we are busy in the evening, Pickle will make sometimes a fuss until we sit down in the sitting room, her on the sofa, and us in our places. They like the familiar, they need routine. Maybe some of yours are in a safe place, keeping out of sight, but watching out for the time when it peace is restored and then they’ll come back. For now, keep calling at dusk, and let them know they’ll be welcome back. Make sure you’re neighbours are aware that, should they spot them, you’d be glad to have the cats back.
Hi, Its had its up and downs this year for sure but each day has lots of small wonderful things in it and I see them. Amazing hubby, awesome friends, blessed with the love of my hounds and purrpots, my big horse boy’s and more. The farm is as always its own special place to me. The river and rod has its own pace.
The farm cats are well cared for and given a couch and over head heater in winter with heated water bowl and so forth, but the house-farm cats are the lap cats, the shoulder cats, the follow you all around the farm, think they are dog cats and they are very special to both of us.
Its been very hard to hear that its not just us, some of the farms around me have told me that they have lost three to five plus of their barn cats. They are reporting that its the fox that is doing it.
I have been successful at keeping my birds alive as I am taking the green to them, but other farms down the way are reporting total flock loss if they are even thinking of free ranging and in one case, she lost all of her hens to a coon attack at night.. Its bad when you lose one but when they come in a do the mad kill half a dozen in one good.. I really felt for her
I have for sure talked to everyone around me and put the word out that if my kitties show up at their place, I will come collect them and very much want them back.
Hmm… Now it’s cat-thievery like the attempts on the horses & dogs?? Totally SUCKS at any rate; SO sorry to hear about your missing PurrPots, FG!!
Sure hoping your mom’s recovery is easy and complete: )
On your gardens? Awesome news (and wishing continued good luck)!
And hay being sold at 10cents/lb? Who’d a thunk it, hey?
O I have had a number of people stop and try and coo some of the ragdoll kitties over to them.. so many folks tried to steal Midnight Sun over the years as he loved to lay at five feet in the end of the driveway LOL
Hope my mom is too and yes good news on the gardens all things considered. As for the hay.. pretty much the going price within three hours of the farm from what I can tell
People): Midnight: ) Mom: ) Gardens: )
Hay:/
Sorry to hear about your missing cats. One year, three of our white fluffy cats when missing……. I blame it on a fisher.
While I have not seen it myself, my fellow farm friends swear it’s a huge fox with pups
It’s tough to lose so many fur-friends so quickly. I hope you’re all doing OK.
Thanks Widdershins, Its been hard and we notice their not with us that’s for sure. However I am focused on keeping the rest safe and they have all stepped up, I find when you have a purr pride when you lose one that was more this or that.. very often the other cats will move in to fill that void, example Meow-Meow loved her cuddles and she always slept on the bed and most of the time on my side by feet or on legs, it was very empty for a night or two an the Marble came up for a pat an then settled in the foot spot and now sleep’s there each night.
That’s lovely. They do make sure their persons are properly cared for. 🙂
I’m new at having a barn cat, and now that she has worked her way into my heart it would be so sad to lose her. I’m going to put in a little cat door in the wall to see if I can keep her safer from predators.
For 12 years we have had cat doors in the big barn, little barn and the croft and that has always worked, its just big enough for the cats to get though, this year because of the fine weather of summer I assume, the cats have been spending more time outside and so after our loss’s, we have taken to having a wooden board that can be slide over the cat doors so we call them in just before dark, give a feed treat and then slide the little cat doors in the big doors closed and then open then in the morning. So far that is working for us at the moment, I hope that it will continue to do so..