Yesterday, my calendar told me that it was our cat Elliot’s “Adoptaday.” When I checked, I was very surprised to learn that we adopted him in 2004. Wow, we’ve had this cat for six years! That time has flown by, and happily so.

Elliot was born with a hole in his heart. He has no “lub-dub” sound from his chest, but only a “swish-swish-swish-swish” that you can hear with the naked ear and feel with your hand. (It’s a category six murmur.) When we adopted him, our vet warned us that he might only live a year or two before the onset of congestive heart failure. Yet here he is, six years later, perfectly healthy!

 

To celebrate, I shared some of my lunch with him. It was liverwurst. He was pleased.

Our other cat, Oliver, had his adoptaday on January 26th. He’s been with us since 2002, so he’s about nine years old now. (I’m going to have to get a new kitty soon! That’ll have to wait until I get Conrad his buddy.) Here’s a recent shot of Oliver:

While I’m posting pictures… we had a massive snowstorm that dumped about a foot of snow on Tuesday night. Here’s our house the next morning:

Happily, I was able to get some good shots of Conrad in the snow. My best dog pictures are always in high snow, but Conrad does have trouble standing still when there’s so much fun to be had from running around like a madman!

Oh, how I do love my beasts!

Last week, I finally took some pictures of the barn that Dave Brown built for us over the summer and fall. It’s huge, beautiful, well-built, and awesome in all possible ways. (As always, click on the photo for a larger version.)

First, here’s the overall layout of the barn.

Here’s the view of the north and east sides, as seen walking from the house. The stalls faced west on the old barn. That was bass-ackwards: the horses were chilled in the morning, then broiled in the afternoon. Now the stalls face east. That was somewhat difficult to build with the hill; we had to add the retaining wall. It was worth the trouble, however. The horses enjoy warm morning sun in the winter and good afternoon shade in the summer. They’re also well-sheltered from our unbearable winds. Plus, I can see the horses from the house, if they’re in that east area. That’s reassuring, particularly in nasty weather.

Here are the south and west sides. As you can see, Dave still has some grading work to do. The ground froze this winter before he could finish that.

Here’s the north side, including the main human entrance.

Here’s the east side looking toward the house. You can see the tack room door, then the four stall doors.

Here’s one double sized stall, with Conrad. I can divide the stalls if needed with gates to make four 12 x 12 stalls. But for now, I’d rather give the horses the extra freedom of movement.

Here’s the other double-sized stall.

Here is the house storage area, then the soon-to-be chicken coop, as seen from the aisle. We have very little storage space in the house and the garage, so I really wanted to put a good storage room in the barn. Now that I have that, I have to organize and transfer the various crap valuable possessions I have crammed stacked in the house closets and garage.

Here’s the inside of the soon-to-be chicken coop. I’m going to build a secure outside run, as well as make the whole dry lot reasonably secure from foxes and coyotes for them. I need to get that done so that I can get chickens and guinea hens in the spring. (I might get other livestock too, but I’m starting with the fowl.)

Here’s a portion of my tack and feed room. It’s something of a disaster right now, with most everything still packed in tubs on the left, outside the picture. At least I have the blankets hung properly! You can only see a few, but they take up about 3/4 of a 12 foot wall.

Here is this year’s hay. Each pallet contains one ton of compressed hay. I’m used to hay taking up far more space, but the compressed hay is about half the space. It was super-easy to load into the barn, and the horses love it. Win!

Here’s a view of the aisle from the north side looking south. The wide aisle can be used for more hay storage, if needed. It also means that the farrier can pull into the barn in the winter. That makes the whole experience far more comfortable for everyone, particularly the humans.

Also, notice that the tack room on the left is not full height. The ceiling is load-bearing, so we can use the space above for storage… or better yet, I might use it as a greenhouse to start seeds in the spring. The temperatures in the barn are pretty stable, and the clear plastic above the overhang lets in tons of good morning sun. That clear plastic is wonderful: the barn is light and airy, even with the two large doors closed.

The barn was a huge project for me, but I’m so glad that it’s (mostly) done!

My new camera — a Panasonic Luminex DMC-FZ35 — arrived today. Of course, I had to take some pictures of doggie Conrad. I love the new camera already, and I’m looking forward to playing around with it. Yup, Miranda Barzey has inspired me to try to learn a bit about the art of photography! (As usual, click to enlarge.)