HERE A BUCK, THERE A BUCK, EVEN LITTLE BUTTON BUCKS!

Hey Pals,

See this tree that's on our land???



Well Papa set up the outdoor camera by it to see what critters go bump in the night!

Hmmmm, he didn't bring in the photo chip for 5 days and guess how many pictures it had on it??? A bit over 3000 !!!!!
Mama about died. Do you know how long it takes to go through that many pictures, delete the ones you don't want???? HOURS & HOURS & HOURS


So, we picked out a few to show you.

It's that time of year that the bucks rub the velvet off of their antlers and onto the tree trunks! Errrr, ummmm, and of course Papa didn't have wire around this tree, duh!

So now Mama has the guilty parties on film:

There are many different bucks in these photos. Some are 12 pointers, 10 pointers, 8 pointers, 6 pointers, spike bucks and a button buck.

( you should be able to click on each photo to biggify )






Caught in the act of rubbing the tree bark:





















This is a little button buck with his twinnie fawn doe sissie:


Can you see the little button nubs on his head???









Check out Mr. Raccoon:





Doesn't this doe have lovely eyelashes???






















Can you see the Opossum???









Obviously this buck thinks we can't see him behind the tree, hehehehe!



So what scary things are in your yard at night???

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!


Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby & Hootie

KATIE DOES HAVE EARS!

Hey Pals,

Check this out, Katie has ears after all under all of that puppy fur:



She's looking so grown up now!





Now check out MY lovely ears:




Of course after Mama got done grooming Katie I had to clean her ears for her:





Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby & Hootie

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY SYLVESTER!!

Hey Pals,

It's Sylvester's 2nd GOTCHA DAY today!

Two years ago we decided to adopt him from the wild woods.  He would nap in our wood pile during the day and sneak into our sheds at night to keep warm.  Now he has us dogs and cats to keep him warm.

Here he is napping with Hootie:

He really likes to help Mama when she is working on restoring stuffies.  He lays on her work table.

Last night he was snuggled up with Katie on the couch and kept licking her face, hehehehe!

We love you SYLVESTER!!!

Please adopt a cat if you can, they deserve it!!


Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Scuby & Hootie

BABY KOI AND POND CLEANING

Hey Pals,

Well this weekend Mama started to drain down our smaller pond so that it can be cleaned. She also needed to catch all of the baby koi that were born in this pond. Their eggs floated from the large pond, through the pump systems, up through the waterfall into the smaller pond and hatched!

Here is the pond with most of the water drained out:




The pots that you see have waterlily plants in most of them.

After Mama caught the koi, they were placed in a holding tank for inspection. They needed to be checked for sores, injuries, etc. They were all healthy. So all of them could go into the large pond for winter.

Here are pictures of some of the koi in the tank. The largest were about 7-8 inches long already. Some were only 4 inches long. We had a hard time getting photos, the sun was reflecting everything so you can see sky and trees in the photos, hehehe.










Next Spring the largest pond will be drained down for cleaning and small koi will be netted out for selling or giving away. It's a hooooooge job.

BTW, Papa already named one of the baby koi Festus!

Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby & Hootie

WHAT HAPPENED TO FALL COLORS?

Hey Pals,

It's me Butchy, standing at the end of our driveway with the bare corn field behind me.


It's Fall here in Iowa, but it seems like the pretty colors skipped us in our area. Field crops were so dry that most of them have been harvested. So many of the fields are bare like this one across from our land.

At least half of our trees are now bald. The leaves didn't even get a chance to turn pretty colors. Trees that do have leaves left, have brown leaves. We do have a few things with color around here. Especially around our ponds.

Here are some photos of the ponds and our pampas grasses. Many leaves and hickory nuts are falling into the ponds.








Katie likes to pick up the seed pods from the locust trees. So about every 5 seconds we have to hear Mama say 'DROP'. Sure enough, Katie drops like a good girl.


Normally the maple trees behind the house are orange and yellow for Fall, but not this year.


We're betting it's going to be an early Winter. And we're ready too! We had a new furnace and air conditioning system put in this week. (Mama says we're officially broke now, whatever that means.) Now all that's left to prepare for Winter is to work on the ponds.

This weekend Mama will be wading around in the smaller pond, draining it down for cleaning. She must also catch all of the baby koi in that pond so that they can be placed into the large pond for Winter. We hope to get pictures of the babies in batches while she has them in the holding tank. There are at least 200 small koi in that pond. We bet there are more since they can hide so easily in there. Some are already 6 inches long.

Sylvester and I Butchy went to the vet this morning. I finally got my PURPLE stitches out from my lumpy removals. Sylvester just had his yearly shots. He is such a cry baby when you put him into a crate, wah, wah, wah. And it's official, Katie now weighs more than Sylvester, hahaha! Sylvester weighs 11 lbs. 11 oz., Katie is a little over 12 lbs. now, just about 8 months old.

Well, it's time to go outside and chase some more chipmunks and jack squirrelies. Those things are everywhere!

Don't forget, tomorrow is National Feral Cat Day and it's their 10th anniversary.


Wirey Hugs, Purrz & Licks,
Butchy, Katie, Ruby, Sylvester, Scuby & Hootie