The Dogs And Cats

All seems well with the dogs and cats, with the possible exception of a war going on between the cats Daisy and Georgette. But most of the time there is peace, like when Clover and Rocky shared a floor pillow:

Bramble mostly keeps to himself and seems to enjoy posing for photos:

Seamus and Fergus were at the foot of the stairs, trying to figure out what I was going to do next:

The cats never go outdoors but the dogs have a fenced yard which they enjoy:

Daphne, with her soulful eyes, in the living room:

Georgette doesn't like any other cat, so she spends her time in her bed on the kitchen table, which doubles as my desk:

To help avoid trouble in the Daisy/Georgette feud, I put another litter box downstairs and added food and water dishes on top of a hutch in the living room. Bugsy likes to lounge there, so I pick him up and carry him into the kitchen when I see him there. That helps avoid trouble with Georgette and gives Bugsy more handling so he'll get used to it. He now purrs when I pick him up, a marked improvement from when he was a feral kitten:

Daphne and Clover, sharing a fleecy dog bed:

Fergus, Jack and Clover:

All five dogs in their snowy outdoor yard:

Fergus and Clover. You can see the old, hay filled feed bag in the background, winter protection for the new hardy Magnolia:

  Clover and Rocky, with an amorphous blob in the foreground which is really little Bugsy, all stretched out. It's difficult to get good pictures of black animals:

The Red Poll Cattle

I tend to the cattle early each morning, just as the sun is rising in the eastern sky. It is often a beautiful time of day:

I try to keep the hay bale feeder on the east side of the barn to give the cattle shelter from the westerly winds. If we have a stretch of milder weather, I move it away from the barn to help prevent too much buildup of waste hay:

Early mornings are my time to spend with cattle and horses, observe them and evaluate how they are doing:

Little Tabitha often comes up to me to check me out. She now realizes that I am the source of her morning grain:

We had two days of freezing rain, followed by a hard freeze and light snowfall. It left extremely hazardous walking conditions. I spread salty sand (from the town highway garage) on as much as I could and also some bedding hay from cleaning the barn. This is where some animal slipped:


One morning the cows wouldn't come in the barn for grain and I later realized it was because they were afraid to walk on the ice. Worse, two of them were limping, apparently from slipping. They recovered in a couple of days, but I learned to be quicker to spread sand and bedding hay to help with traction:

Tabitha and Maggie came to the stock tank for a drink of water after they'd been playing:

A picturesque scene, one of the reasons I love farm life:

The herd with a new hay bale:

It occurs to me that I have too many pictures of the cattle standing around their "salad bar." Alas, that's about all they do in the wintertime, alternating with cud chewing:

This is Maggie. I've gotten quite attached to these two calves and will miss them when they're gone. I'll also want to be sure they go to a good home:

Tabitha, looking at me as if to ask why the bale feeder is empty: