Got out of the shower and saw a big buck in the back yard, about 20′ outside the window.  We watched him walk around and chew on pine needles for a while, before running off into the North woods.

We gave away 3 kittens (all the long-haired ones) to a couple who lives on a farm near Ely, and we gave away the last one last night to a student from Ely.  She took the white and gray tabby, who I was sad to give away.

So now we have three: Chubby the orange tabby (Delia’s cat, she reminds us frequently), Tot (looks like a mini-Tater), and Trixie the calico, who is going to Florida in a few weeks to live with Delia’s cousin Natalie.

They spent the whole night out in the house last night, and now they’re sleeping in a little pile on top of a box next to me in the office.  Chubby is very cuddly and he hangs out on the couch with us.  He’s the only one we’ve heard purr so far.  He’s also kind of bitey, but we’re working on it.  Tot is more shy, and Trixie is somewhere in between.  Tot and Trixie love to play together.  Chubby is also VERY food-obsessed, hence his belly and the reason for his name.  Last night when I opened the dog’s food container, Chubby jumped in and immediately began eating.  He even goes up and eats out of the dogs’ dishes while they’re eating.  I try to stop him from doing that so he doesn’t get bitten, but so far he’s held his own – even chasing Foley away from his food once!

Not much else is new here.  It’s very cold.  I finally put the new heated water bowl out in the coop, so the chickens will always have water now.  Their little space heater keeps it nice and warm in there.  I cut more firewood yesterday, but I need to do a lot more.  We’re getting to the end of the big pile, so we need to get more delivered soon.  We made a fire in the fireplace last night and again this morning.

We got about 12″ of snow yesterday!  Luckily it was warm today, so I figured it would be a good time to try to get my tractor going.  It dawned on me that maybe I had some ice in the gas line.  I put a little isopropyl in the tank and hit the fuel line with my heat gun and then tried to start it.  I only had to try for a minute or so before it fired up.  Perhaps there was some ice in the line, or maybe it was just that it was warmer today.  At any rate, I took off into the snow.  I had the bucket attached, so I played with that for a bit – picking up snow and dumping it.  Next I tried the front blade.  It was nearly worthless in the snow.  I still haven’t fixed my rear hydraulics, but I hooked up the back blade anyway, since I figured that was the best tool for moving snow.  I’m only able to pick it up about 2″ off the ground, so I can get it into plowing position, but with it always a maximum of 2″ off the ground, I’m almost always moving snow, even when I don’t want to be.  I got stuck a few times because the blade got buried and there was no way to get it out, short of shoveling.  Another problem is that my back blade is a bit slopped out, so rotating it and putting the pin back in is impossible in some positions.  After a while, I turned the blade around so that I had to drive in reverse, and that worked MUCH better.  I was able to shove quite a bit of snow off the driveway.  Once I get my hydraulics working, I think it’ll work really well.  I also need to install my stabilizer bars, because right now the plow gets pushed back and forth and I end up dropping a lot of snow before I want to.  It was overall a pretty frustrating experience, but once I find some time to fix what needs fixing, it should work out.

The chickens seem to like their new heater.  It’s noticeably warmer in there.  This morning I dumped some food scraps on the ground outside their coop.  They all stood at the edge of the door, sticking one of their feet down in the deep snow, shaking it off, and then retreating back into the coop for a minute before trying it again.  I cleared some of the snow out and then stomped it down, and then they were able to walk out to get their food.  I think we have spoiled chickens.

Delia played outside in the snow, and had a great time jumping into deep piles and getting stuck.  She rode her Kitty Cat for a while too.  She wore me out chasing her down the road.