I think this is going to end up being a two post day LOL

This post is going to be a  farm update post and then I had better do a recipe or garden or something else post later today 🙂

So first off, I wanted to say thank you for the outreach of support and comment in regards to my Friday post. It was great to hear from you and I am so glad that lots of folks really liked reading it. I would have most likely felt the need to write more about the subject matter anyway. However this gives me some positive feedback and I am so glad to see that others are thinking about it and working their own farms/homesteads/pantry’s and idea’s on how to help in their own lives.

This pretty girl had a passing run in with the skunk at 5 am this morning.. and the yard smells, in a eye watering way and nothing like bathing, scrubbing and then washing a load of cloths/towels etc before 6 am..  Thankfully it was not a full on hit, and after checking both of them.. no one had a scratch or bite on them.  While they are up to date on their rabies, wild animal bites are always something to watch for carefully.  Hopefully the skunk will move on, and the hounds will have learned a lesson.  (haha.. maybe)

A bit of a “sadder note” we have not seen our oldest farm cat Smegal for over a week.. he was around ten and was very much a yard/small barn cat.. He is altered and older, one of those that sits in the sun and is just always about.. he was our last shadow farm cat.. one of those lovely barn cats that you can get close by (can get his meds on him while eating wet food for worming etc if you use the shoulder kind) our fleas and ticks were bad this year.. so all cats and dogs were treated this year more then normal. Now he could show up, we have not found anything to say that something happened..  its that we have not seen him. I have a feeling we will never know for sure what happened.

However after ten years of being a very successful farm purrpot here on the farm.. he has never not been seen daily before.. seven days is just to long for me not to think something has happened.

On a more positive note, Henry is settling in on the farm, he is very shy on the farm, but very sweet with us..  he has taken on the further big barn as his main building/hunting zone. He gets along very well with the two other cats that like to hang out there and hunt as well.  I rarely see him, he just appears, gives total love, purrs, head butts and then gone again.  He looks good, putting the little bit of weight he lost in the first week or two after he arrived.  He has been seen interacting in a friendly way with the Big barn cats and being within a few feet of the other cats with no issues. I have heard no cat fights and he gets along with my hounds and does not run from them when they come up to say hi. He has also made friends with the horse’s.

We also had agreed to add Leeloo  (Leeloo Dallas Multipass) to the farm when she was born approx 4 weeks ago but I did not want to introduce her till she was a few weeks old. She is still a wee thing but she is doing great, friendly and so fluffy! She will be fixed as a young female before her first heat and she comes from a hunting farm cat momma and a unknown fly by night dad..   Because of the timing, she will be mostly a indoor kitten for the winter and will slowly learn the ropes of the farm in the spring.  I am looking forward to having her grow up to be a sweet, loving, indoor visiting/outdoor mostly hunting farm cat who I hope likes to give us a hand in the yard, gardens and buildings 🙂  While no new kitty or puppy ever replaces one you have lost, we were very sad to have lost Marble and we had room on the farm for a new kitty.

Moving on to getting my Monday started in a more productive way..  So glad I got that painting done yesterday as its to be a rain day today.. I am going to be having a mostly work in the house day, Its Monday so bread and baking day for the work week, I did get cookies made for hubby last night but need to make breakfast muffins