Like mother, like daughter

I noticed this scene on our deck a few days ago. Oh, so CUTE!!

So ALIKE!

Well, except for the noses...

... and that's a good thing, so I'll be able to tell them apart when Scoot's baby Fluffy grows up.

Okay... end of cat/kitten photos for a while. I promise. I think.

Usefulness

So... we're back to kittens again. Sorry if I'm boring you to tears. (Don't give up on me... later in the week I'll have some totally different subject matter!)

I just want to show you that cats do serve a purpose on the farm! They help get rid of rodents. Below is proud mama Rainbow after successfully catching a mouse for her son, Pete the Cat.

Does Pete even know what to do with a mouse?

Oh, yes! He certainly does!

You should've heard the growling that went on when any of the other kittens approached! And he munched it right down.

Gazanias

So bright and cheerful... just can't help lovin' 'em!

I thought I'd give you a break from kittens today. :)

Kittens and more kittens, Part 2

Courtney has picked out a favorite kitten. This one might even go to live in Courtney's house when she's old enough! She has the cutest little half-orange face and big adorable eyes, which I haven't managed to get a nice photo of yet. You'll be seeing more of her later, I'm sure. :)

She's still pretty tiny, and only about 4 weeks old when these pics were taken.

Courtney gives her plenty of loving and can't wait for her to get old enough! :)  As yet, the 'perfect' name hasn't been found.

When we made another trip out that day to give her even MORE loving, what should we find but a tiny newcomer, whose mama had just given birth to, right out in the open!

The mama was not too happy with our being there, so she chose to ignore the tiny one for a bit. She growled and hissed at us instead. Here's a bit of size comparison for you... the two bigger kittens are from the same litter as Courtney's favorite above.

The poor little thing did manage to make it over to its mama...

... and so did this huge-in-comparison little stinker.

The mama... no, it's not Rainbow but her almost-twin sister, Dash... finally got down to business and had at least 3 more babies, hid them away and is taking good care of them (unlike her first time around earlier this spring when she abandoned her litter). Occasionally I get to see one of them, because she'll bring one along when she comes to eat. Crazy mama! But she's quite possessive and protective of them, which is good!

Are you tired of kitten pics yet? I have more. ;)  They seem to be the main subject making it into my camera these days.

Kittens and more kittens, Part 1

Courtney loves kittens... have you noticed? She's certainly getting her fill of loving them here this summer. We seem to have kittens all over the place.

This one is Fluffy:

Fluffy again, closer:

Good thing she likes snuggling. :)

Pete the Cat:

Tony the Tiger:

And Tony again... seemingly finding that hole fascinating!

Come back for even MORE kittens tomorrow! :)

Just pretty

The day lilies are in full bloom right now.

What happens when Annie Dee dances

Annie Dee apparently has some power in her rain dances! We did get a little shower this morning, although I think she quit too soon, because it was only enough to settle the dust for a bit.

It also made the cement in front of the garage quite wet, and after it had started to dry off, I happened to look out the window and saw this cute little scene:

I guess Spotty didn't like being wet, and on top of his mama was the best dry spot he could find.

Too sweet. :)

Corn progress

I've been asked how the corn is doing. It's growing fast! Here's my little assistant, who won't show up much longer from within the rows:

The corn is beginning to look pretty thirsty, though. Rain dances are in order, Annie Dee. :)

(Incidentally, we have better cornfields than this one. This one just happens to be closest and handiest for photo-taking.)

I have it on good authority that the corn is growing well in Wisconsin, too! :)

What would you make...

... if someone gave you a whole bag full of little 4-inch-or-so squarish fleece scraps? Here is about half of what I got: 

There were a bunch of prettier ones, but Courtney and I picked all of those out last week, with a plan to make something out of them. Hopefully I'll be able to show it to you next week. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it. The tutorial is poorly written and I'm having my regrets for even starting it. But maybe I can figure it out and make it work. If not, I'll show you the FAIL - ha!

The gerbera daisies

As I mentioned yesterday, the gerbera daisies are blooming nicely, too. Here they are:

And then there was poor Josie, wanting sooo badly to come out and help take photos!

Color!

The north side of our house has some splashes of color these days. My hibiscus is finally starting to bloom again. It's in desperate need of repotting, but I don't want to do that because then it's too hard to handle. I've cut slips from both plants, but they're not rooting right away like the last time I tried that. I might have to try some newer growth later. But here's a photo of the coral bloom (with a bud from the red plant in the background). It gets such a deep, bright color when it gets a lot of sun. I do move it far enough from the house that it gets sunshine most of the day. The wind has been mostly in the south so far this summer, so it's more protected on the north. If/when we get north winds, I move it to the other side of the house. So now you know why I don't like it in a huge pot... plus I bring it into the garage every night to protect it from raccoons, skunks, and/or whatever likes to dig in pots (kittens? never!).

Below are my colorful impatiens with some non-stop begonias in the upper right corner:

These are my favorite impatiens:

I also love my non-stops!

Oh, and the gerbera daisies are back there, too, in the sun with the hibiscus. They're just beginning to bloom nicely, too. I forgot to take pics of them, though. Later.....

What we don't go through...

... when it comes to searching out kittens! One of the cats had her babies back in a very hard-to-reach spot, so it was a challenge to get them out for snuggling. Courtney's showing how it's done:

You have to reach as far as you can!

Ahhh... success! She got one!

So worth the effort!

Quite a tiny little thing it was.

Actually, these pics are a couple of weeks old. (I'm scraping the bottom of the blog fodder barrel, so if I don't show up for a day or two, it means I'm out trying to find something to take pictures of!) The babies come out on their own now when they hear our voices. So cute!

New at the birdbath

Yep, these itty bitty black and white "birdies" are new to the birdbath. They managed to climb up to the deck railing a couple days ago, and they've been having a blast.

Tasting...

Teetering...

"Tightrope" walking...

Tottering...

And then there were two...

Once they figured out how to get down, which took a long time and lots of pacing back and forth and looking over the edge, pacing some more, trying new spots and looking over the edge some more... then a leap and a tumble... they thought it was great fun, and they did it all over again!

Such great entertainment they are!

One pretty bird...

... who was not camera shy...

... and one little squirrel...

... who did not know the camera was aimed at him.