Lovely Day...

We were a little surprised this morning by the new occupant of our pond...



Just fooling! We took a trip today to the Columbia Zoo and Botanical Gardens, where this fine fellow lives. We amused ourselves imagining the animals' reactions to finding him sunning himself on the banks of the pond, though. Okay, I guess we would have been a little surprised too.

It's a very nice zoo, but the botanical gardens are really special. It's inspirational to see the way they put plants together, and I get ideas for plants I'd like to have.

Here's one I plan to have a lot of at some point. It's called Muhly grass or sweet grass. Most of the year it's a little nondescript, and then for a relatively short period in the fall, it takes on this pink hue that makes it spectacular.



There is a much smaller version growing wild along the roadways in our area. I want masses of it someday.

This was a beautiful little water feature. The palms make it look more southwest than southeast to me, but it was still lovely.



The park runs beside the Saluda river. You can see here what a pretty day it was. It was only in the 50's by mid-day but warm in the sun and so bright and clear. It was one of the days when you're just happy to be alive to see it.

Foggy Morning...

Looks like it's going to be a pretty day here in South Carolina, but the early morning fog over the pond was beautiful. See the beginnings of fall color...

Irving Update II

It's a lazy Sunday here. Clear and bright, but quite cold for us (43 degrees this morning).

Most of the animals are taking it easy this morning. Halley has taken up her normal morning nap position in front of my husband's computer monitor. She appears to be relaxed. The goats are asleep in the pasture, and Gus the horse is just hanging out.



On the other end of the scale, we have new-cat Irving, who is recovering from a cold, and starting to feel like himself again. He's been shut up in my sewing room for a week, where he's been content mostly to sleep. It's warm and safe, but now that he's on the mend, it's small and boooooring. He's played with everything that can be played with (and everything that shouldn't be played with is shut up in a cabinet).

It's starting to get scary to go in there. He jumps up and searches you for anything that can be played with.

The blurry thing in front of his face is a piece of string. String is huge on Irving's list of 'things that need to be killed.' String is very serious business.



Isn't it nice to see him starting to feel better?



But how are we going to keep him entertained?

Note to self: Put cat toys -- lots of cat toys -- on the shopping list...

Goats Like To Be Towel-Dried

It poured here in South Carolina today. Poured. We probably got three inches of rain before it finally let up around 5:00 p.m.

Gus the horse and the two goats stayed in the shelter all day. The goats hate rain. Gus doesn't mind a shower, but he doesn't like to get poured on. We took them hay throughout the day while they sulked.

When it finally stopped, Gus came out for some more hay. First he kindly stopped and rolled in the mud for me. He looked so funny with his mane all wet, covered in mud, and a deeply disgruntled look on his face.



Actually, they were all disgruntled. And the towel-drying? I did towel-dry them. Goats aren't supposed to be wet for long, and they were soaked. How did I get them to stand still, you ask? It turns out that goats ADORE being towel-dried. Who knew? I could have done it all day, and they would have just stood there. Their coats fluff right up too. It was oddly satisfying. I'm not sure what that says about me, but at least I do get to add the coveted 'have towel-dried a goat' to my resume.



There was another disgruntled animal out there too.



For the record, Halley ("the cat who did not pee on a bed") can come in anytime she pleases. I personally think the whole 'look how wet I got in the rain' thing is just a ploy for sympathy. And food. It's all about food. Always.

Irving Update

Last time we checked in with Irving, the young cat someone dumped on our property a couple of weeks ago, he was living in the garage in disgrace after having peed on a guest bed.

Well, the mattress is still out in the garage, but Irving isn't. It turned colder and rainy here recently, and he still hasn't gotten over his cold, so now he's living in my sewing room, where he's warm and resting. He went back to the vet today because the cold isn't getting better, and he has a new antibiotic we're supposed to give him twice a day.



I've posted before about wondering what the animals think of the things we do for them. Irving the stray gets his own room, food brought to him, and his poop scooped. We go in and love him up regularly, and have spent more than a bit on vet bills. This is for a cat we didn't even know a little over two weeks ago.

Funny how it doesn't take long for an animal to steal your heart, isn't it?

Teeming With Ducks

My last post was about the three new young ducks we bought today. When last we saw them, they were hiding in the brush. A little while later, my husband went out and threw them a handful of grain...and all of a sudden, they're out in the open. They've teamed up with the other three ducks, who are wary and disgruntled, but not entirely unwelcoming.



They're staying in a tight group, and every so often one of the older ducks reminds them who was here first. Miss Penny, our older female duck, attacked them by pushing at them with her breast, rather than pecking at them the way the others did.



We have a bowl of corn for the ducks just outside the fence to the pasture, reached by crawling under the gate. (That's so the goats can't get to it. They luuuuve corn.). The older three ducks went to it like usual, but were met by our cat Boot. A brief face-off, and then Boot continued on his way to dinner. (In case anyone is worrying, Boot is 18 years old, and has few teeth left. Most days he's lucky to know where he is, much less hurt ducks.)



The new ducks followed the older ones under the gate, and fed excitedly for a while, then apparently got disoriented, and started squawking loudly. My husband had to come down from the porch to help, and we herded them back into the pasture.



The goats have serious doubts about our sanity. They had concerns before, but they're pretty sure there's an issue now. We're just happy they have no way of contacting the authorities...

Duck Crazy

We bought three more ducks today. My husband found out that a flea market about an hour away often has ducks for sale, so we went and bought these little guys from Miss Joan the Chicken Lady, as she calls herself.



It's surprising hard to find ducks that are mature enough to release in a pond. If you buy them too small, the hawks and other predators will just eat them. We've been looking for a while for more ducks to add to the three we have already, so we were really happy to find these two males and a female. We hope they'll eventually get along with the others but right now they're huddled together as if we just brought them to Leavenworth Prison. I feel like I should be ordering them to line up for their mug shots.

This doesn't look like such a bad spot for a duck to live, does it? Unfortunately, they ran directly from the cage into the bushes around the pond, and I don't think they even know there's water out there!



Gus the horse was really interested in them. We had to lead him away to make sure he didn't accidentally step on them when they finally decide to leave the brush. The goats came to look at them too. I guess if you're a goat or a horse, life can be a little on the slow side, and any amusement is welcome.



I'm sure a good photographer would probably not have her own silhouette in the picture. Sigh.