Torturing the Toms
If we could bottle that level of resigned hatred, we could rule the WORLD. Or blow it up.
The best part of this experience was the part I didn’t catch on film. Fred put Tommy down on the table with the purple braids still on his head, and Tommy tossed his head back and forth like a headbanger at a concert. I thought I was going to pass out, I was laughing so hard.
Death of a Watermelon
Watermelon, about to go off to be sacrificed to the chickens.
“WHERE OUR FOOD?!”
“WE CAIN’T EAT NO WALLAMELLA LIKE THAT!”
10:07 AM: Let the nomming begin.
11:07 AM: The nomming continues.
1:07 PM: Not much left to eat, but they’re giving it the ol’ chicken try!
3:30 PM: Nothing left but the rind. They’ll continue to pick at the rind until there’s nothing left but the skin. And then they’ll continue to pick at the skin ’til it’s either eaten or someone (ie, Fred) comes along and picks it up and tosses it on the compost heap.
Pics from around Crooked Acres
Hummingbird in the mimosa tree.
“Hey! You has food for us?!”
The little bitty newborn chickens are cute, but it’s when they get a little bigger that I have a hard time not picking them up and squeezing them with the fangers. (It’s not that hard to resist, since the little bastards run from me.)
Mother and children.
The babies are getting brave, venturing into the back yard.
It makes the Mommas nervous when the babies go through the fence into the back yard. Can’t say as I blame them.
Teeny web in the fence, covered in dew.
Big-ass web, built between the end of the house and the fence. I never did see the spider responsible.
I’m confused – are these crocuses? And do crocuses (crocii?) normally bloom in the late summer/ early fall? I thought they were a spring flower!
Fred put the baby chickens out in a “playpen”, because they like being outside. Maxi was watching them. She watches the chickens all the time and we’ve never had a problem. Five minutes later, Fred found her with a dead baby Rhode Island Red chick. Grrr.
Can’t really blame her, since she was just doing what cats do, but I’m not really thrilled with her right now. (We’ll be keeping a closer eye on her from here on out, and probably putting the “playpen” in the chicken yard from here on out.)
“I would never kill and eat a baby chicken. I am a good girl.”
Previously
2007: Google is THE SHIT.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: “Fuck it!” I said.
2002: “Stinky?” I said.
2001: I stole this survey from Noreen, but I’ve seen it all over the place recently, and god knows how much I love to be one of the cool kids!
2000: Look! It’s nay-chuh!
There are fall Crocus, and I beleive the fall ones have the spice in them that is so expensive. I can’t remember the name (saffron?), but you could have another job if you wanted to harvest the spice!
We always get upset with our kitties when they do something gross that they were born to do don’t we? I know everytime I see my cat with a mole in her mouth I always say the same stupid thing to her…”What are you some kind of wild animal?!”
The spider responsible for the web most likely can be seen at night. I get theose big webs and at night the spider is there. Come morning the spider is gone. It is usually a HUGE spider.
Maxi is ‘THE GREAT BLACK HUNTER’ you know. Really sorry about the baby chick. Thanks for all the really great photos.
those spider web photos are so awesome. and seriously, who knew you could grow mimosa’s on a tree?! not me!
Miz Poo would never mess with the chickens because it’s beneath her. Hee!
Oh, man, poor baby chick. I love the righteous Miz Poo, and she looks so pretty sitting there.
Your caption with the chickens and the whole watermelon made me laugh. “WE CAIN’T EAT NO WALLAMELLA LIKE THAT!” I’m probably going to say that forever now (well, whenever presented with an unsliced wallamella).
I LOVE the pictures with Tommy and his headpieces! And Robyn? See that look o’het in the second picture? Be afraid. Be very afraid….
I hope Tommy got Snackin’ AND Yummin’ after that!
Oh that poor Tom cat! Oh the indignity! Hmmm…wonder how pissed my cats would look with silly hats…..ooooh…c’mere Chip. Be a good boy and come to mama 🙂
And as for your chicken eating kitty – bad kitty – or, not I suppose but I know how you feel. My two ate a baby lizard that somehow got into the house. I would have been plenty fine with catching it and putting it back out in the yard, but NO! they had to use their hunting instincts and make a snack out of it. I called them lizard killers for a week after that.
Most likely the flowers are a resurrection lilly also called a naked lady. In the spring you probably have tulip like foliage which dies down and in August or September the flowers pop up. I have to remember to check and see if mine have flowered yet!
oh how I love the way you torture your cats! hehehe
Your pictures always tell such good stories 🙂
We call them winter crocuses up here. They always surprise me as they seem like such an early spring occurance.
Great shots Robyn. Always a pleasure to visit every morning 🙂
Since there are no leaves, those might be colchicums instead of fall crocus.
http://www.odysseybulbs.com/colchicum.html
Some people call them “autumn crocus” but they aren’t a crocus at all. The way to know is by their leaves. Most fall crocuses get their leaves around the same time as their blooms. Colchicum get them in late winter and they are big broad things not at all like crocus leaves.
I love fall crocuses as well as colchicums. I really love the saffron crocuses.
http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/910891-product.html
These definitely aren’t resurrection lilies — altho some people do also call colchicum “naked ladies” too.
http://www.oakhillgarden.com/reli1.html
Okay, enough.
I think it’s pretty obvious why the huge web-making spider is gone. It was trying to write out “SOME PIG” to save the last two but was too late, so it ran off to the next farm. Oh well, better like next time spidey!
Mmm, bacon. Nom nom nom.
And, obviously, I meant “better LUCK next time.” Speel cheek iz mah freend.
No messages written in the spider webs? Harrrumph!
Poor poor Tommy. You are mean – he might have gotten whip-lash trying to get that damn wig off! Too funny! Living alone – there would be no way that I could put a silly hat on my cat and get a picture of it. They would rip and tear around the house like there butts are on fire if I tried something like that.
Mis Poo would definitely get a chick if she wasn’t such a brown nose! My Gus caught the mouse that dared come into my house (I had the patio screen door open just a tad). He was nice enough to (1) catch it and (2) play with it enough to tire it out so I could simply scoop it into a box and get him out the door. I actually felt sorry for the mouse – he had the look of resignation in his biddy lil eyes.
I have a suggestion for Mr.Boogers.com, I just re-read your entry from August 13 of 2007, in which you are “thisclose to jettisoning cats left and right” (a feeling I shared with you this morning at 3:15 a.m. when someone was throwing up on my bed) but anyway, it is quite obvious that Mr. Boogers hets cinnamon pickle syrup. Or he hets stepping in it, that is for sure. Regardless, it was enjoyable to re-read.
We use the expression “hets” all the time in our household now, to describe how our 8 year old calico feels about the rambunctious 1 year old kitten.