November Hill farm journal, 1

I'm reading a wonderful book right now, Henry Beston's Northern Farm: A Chronicle of Maine. Beston follows the seasons on his Chimney Farm in the 1930s and also offers thoughts on farm life versus urban life. His words ring true today and I'm finding myself wanting to share many of his passages as I read.

At the end of the first chapter he writes:

In a world so convenient and artificial that there is scarcely day or night, and one is bulwarked against the seasons and the year, time, so to speak, having no natural landmarks, tends to stand still. The consequence is that life and time and history become unnaturally a part of some endless and unnatural present, and violence becomes for some the only remedy. Here in the country, it all moves ahead again. Spring is not only a landmark, but it looks ahead to autumn, and winter forever looks forward to the spring.

Beston keeps a farm diary and after reading the first few chapters I'm going to do the same for November Hill. Many of the blog posts I've written over the years have been entries in an unofficial farm journal, but now I'm going to name them as such. Living on a patch of land and watching what happens as the days pass and months, and then seasons and years, is a gift. I feel it here every day and I'm happy to have Beston's book as a model to follow.

November Hill farm journal, 1:

It's the season of greening and growing things and what I'm watching this week is the grass grow. The back yard is a sea of knee-high grass that we let go because the cats so love hiding in it, and then the mower blade broke while mowing the way-back part of the farm, so we waited even longer for the new blade to be ordered and collected. We'll get to mowing this weekend but for now it's tall and lush and cats disappear completely in certain areas.

In years past I've let horses in to graze it down but this year we have the cat haven set up and until we change the gates to open inward, the wire is something one has to duck under to go in and out. Not an option for the horses, though if I opened the gate they'd try their best to come in.

I'm even more impressed by the overseeding I did of the bare area outside the barn doors. I spread stall waste in a fairly thick layer and let it compost for several weeks and then overseeded. Suddenly there is grass there again. Every day another bit fills in, all the more remarkable because it gets walked on every day by humans and horses. What was horse manure and fine pine shavings is now breaking down to earth. 

The parts of the paddock and fields that get muddy during rainy spells in the winter are the most miraculous of all. Every year I walk the mud and think, this is it, no grass will ever grow in this mess again, and every spring I marvel that suddenly those mud patches are green and beautiful. I don't know how it happens that earth so well-churned by hooves can turn to grass.

I alternate between focusing on the ground beneath my feet and the sky above - mainly the leafing out of the trees on the farm, oaks and tulip poplar, hickory and sweet gum. This week the wind blew soft, not the staccato sound of wind through dry brown leaves hanging on tight to otherwise bare branches, but the softness of air through new green leaves. I felt myself soften as I listened, the shift toward spring.

The water troughs take up time now. Pollen, now the oak tassels, shedding horse hair - these seem to collect on the water in the troughs and I spend more time cleaning and refilling than is ever needed in the winter months.

Tick count on horses is still under 10, which is a number I can live with. April is usually our worst tick month so I hope that holds true as we move toward May.

The vegetable garden is mostly in now and I'm harvesting all kinds of greens every day. The indoor plants are moving to the porch yesterday and today. I'm having to fit watering the garden into the routine. Thankfully the days are longer and there's more time in daylight to do these extra chores.

I've lost control of the flower beds yet again, though the work I did last year digging out the invasives has made a difference. The honeysuckle has become its own entity over the holly bushes in front of the porch. A project for next winter. For now I'm waiting for blossoms and the sweet perfume they offer.

One thing I know from years on November Hill - what I miss doing isn't much reason to fret. Another chance to take it on will come around again. Thank goodness.

November Hill cat haven - part 2

We've been happy with the back yard project and how much it positively impacted the cats to be able to go in and out into a safe place that also has interesting things to do. In the first few weeks we had the back yard open to them again they managed to catch a snake, a bird, and a squirrel. Now what they catch are mostly insects. 

They have trees to climb and dirt to dig in. They enjoy the deck and the umbrella that shades it during the summer heat.

The overseeding I did has paid off and the grass is growing fast back there. We've let the grass get really tall and they're hunting through it like lions on a savannah. Our vegetable garden is in our back yard so they enjoy spending time gardening with us too. It's a nice space for cats and Corgis and their people.

I knew we would eventually want to do something with the front porch so we could use it with the cats without worrying about them escaping into the larger farm again.

The porch has been a favorite space for them for years:

I spent several weeks poring through photos on Pinterest and elsewhere online trying to find ideas to enclose the front porch in an effective, yet aesthetically pleasing, way.

It didn't take me long to formulate a plan. I knew what I wanted to do, but I felt sure we weren't capable of doing this ourselves so I contacted a local carpenter, Kendrick Harvey, and he came by to look at the porch and help me think through the options.

I had three criteria: 

cat-proof

aesthetically pleasing and fitting with the existing ambiance of the house

able to be dismantled easily if we ever wanted to open the porch up again

Kendrick took my ideas, looked at the photos I showed him, and made it happen in an even more beautiful way than I expected.

Three weeks later he and his crew arrived and started work. This is what it looked like when they finished:

The bottom part of the porch railing is secured by plain chicken wire. You can't really even see it in this photo - it makes it absolutely secure for our adult cats and would also be safe for kittens. 

The upper areas are now fitted with portable, removable screens. They are stable and secure but very easy to remove if we want to open up the porch again, or for cleaning.

The beam that now goes from house to porch in the above photo is permanent. The triangular screen above that beam comes out like the others do. The other end looks the same way.

As you can see, we opted to do the painting ourselves. Once we get the wood painted to match the existing white of the front porch I think the final effect will be even better.

We have a wide front entrance which was somewhat tricky to figure out. Obviously we wanted something that could be used as the entrance to the front door - but it had to be cat-safe and it needed to integrate with the look of our house.

I found photos of a screen porch that had sliding "barn doors" - and that gave me the idea for what Kendrick did so perfectly:

He got a barn door track from the local feed store and made the sliding chicken wire screen doors to fit. They slide open so that the entrance is fully usable but when closed secure the entry way so that cats and Corgis are safe inside. 

I absolutely love it. Once painted I will install some artsy barn door style handles, a latch, and even a little hand pulled bell on the outside so visitors can ring upon arrival. 

It's been a pleasure to have the front door open again this spring. The cats have loved being able to lounge in the front porch chairs and watch the birds in the dogwood tree feeders. And we enjoy sitting close to the horses and donkeys as they graze right outside. 

The sunsets on November Hill are often spectacular - and now we can watch them again with the entire family around us!

Stay tuned for the part 3 - the cat tunnel - on Friday. 

A little plug for my novel claire-obscure, with a link to a DigitalBook Today interview

I haven't plugged my books in a long while here, as I've been focusing almost entirely on writing and editing and not marketing.

Recently I decided to enter claire-obscure in a first novel contest and that has me thinking about it again. I know many regular readers were early supporters and I thank you for that!

If you're a newer reader or first-time visitor you might enjoy checking it out:

http://smile.amazon.com/claire-obscure-Claire-Quartet-Billie-Hinton-ebook/dp/B004CFASCY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1461082801&sr=1-1&keywords=Claire-obscure

For everyone, I may not have linked to this interview I did for Digital Book Today about writing claire-obscure:

http://digitalbooktoday.blogspot.com/2012/09/author-interview-113-claire-obscure-by.html

If you do read the novel and enjoy it, I hope you'll leave reviews on GoodReads and Amazon or the venue of your choice. Reviews help so much!

Thanks and I'll be back to part 2 of the cat haven construction tomorrow.

November Hill cat haven - part 1

When we moved to our little horse farm we named November Hill, our cats were allowed to live a somewhat idyllic lifestyle: they had 24/7 access to our entire farm through a cat/dog door that feeds into our fenced back yard.

They lived happily for years that way, spending time outside but for the most part coming inside during the night to sleep (with us, of course).

Two years ago 3 of our 6 cats developed cytauxzoonosis. It's an awful tick-borne disease (ticks feed on bobcats who host the Protozoa, then carry it to domestic cats, who have little immunity). Our county happens to be one of the few "hot spots" in the US for this disease. Domestic cats get very sick very quickly. Early diagnosis and proper treatment give about 65% chance for cure. There are huge risks even during the treatment phase for fatal blood clots. After many thousands of dollars and very intense medical treatment, two cats lived and one sadly did not make it.

A year ago big development moved close to our rural property and clear-cut thousands of pristine forest nearby. Suddenly we started hearing and seeing coyotes in our neighborhood. Our most savvy cat, Dickens, disappeared one Saturday last fall and we fear he may have been killed by coyotes.

We decided we couldn't allow the 4 cats remaining to continue living their indoor/outdoor lifestyle. In one weekend's time we closed the cat door and determined that we had to figure out a way to secure the fenced in back yard so they would at least be able to continue going in and out to that area. It was a huge limitation to impose on their usual routines, but we felt we needed to do it to ensure their safety.

If they hadn't ever had total freedom it would have been easier to make this change! Overall they have accepted it far better than I anticipated. 

That first weekend we knew we had to secure the back yard to make this plan work. I spent hours online researching cat-proofing products, most of which cost a small fortune and would have to be ordered. We then took what I'd found and determined to make our own quick and inexpensive version - at least for the time being.

Here's what we did:

We bought a roll of chicken wire at the local feed store. We bought wood dowels from the local home-improvement store. We bought a staple gun.

My husband drilled holes for the dowels in each fence post at an inward angle. He wove the dowels through the chicken wire and then used wood glue to secure the dowels into the holes. Once he had that done, he stapled the bottom edge of the chicken wire to the horizontal wood strip that goes across the "pickets" of the fence. He left the chicken wire somewhat floppy - we read that this was essential as you want the cat to feel the sense of instability as they climb up the fence to the chicken wire. 

When he was done we let the four cats out and waited to see what would happen. 

They tested this for most of that day and some of the next. They went around the fence and tested every inch of the wire. They basically ran up the fence, got to the chicken wire, and then turned and jumped to the ground. The angle and the instability work together to deter them. 

Both our gates open out and this is the only thing we need to do to make this set-up perfect. If we change the gates to open inward, we can secure the wire so that it opens WITH the gate. That task is on our list, but for now we simply duck under the wire as we go in and out. 

We are on month 3 of this set-up and no cat has escaped. They gave up testing it after the first couple of days.

I was worried this would be a huge eyesore and that I would hate looking out the windows but as you can see it blends in to the degree that it's almost invisible when you glance out at it:

The only thing I miss is my horses being able to hang their heads over the fence to say hello! But it's worth losing that to know our cats are safe and still happy.

Having the back yard secure for the cats has made this transition so much better. They can go in and out, climb the hickory trees, play in the grass, dig, and lounge on the back deck. 

BUT - we also have a wonderful front porch that they loved hanging out on, as did we - and this month we decided it was time to tackle that project. Stay tuned for part 2 of the ongoing November Hill cat haven construction. 

Busy busy busy - stay tuned for cat haven photos

Today got away from me. Mystic had a follow-up appointment with his cardiologist and it took much longer than I thought it would. He's actually doing great and his doctor is very happy with his progress. However, now that he's home and clear of all the meds that were being used to stabilize him after the heart failure last week, it's clear that he will need to be on the full set of medications to maintain his progress.

Since he's been taking his meds in food there's not been any stress involved so I hope we can manage with these new pills the same way. He's gained a full pound since coming home and they're thrilled with that. We're going to keep rolling with 3 meals a day.

I also had a deadline for a submission that snuck up on me and when we got home I went to the barn, hung out with the herd for awhile, gave some hay, and then dashed back in to get to work.

Just hit submit on that and now the light isn't good for cat haven photos.

So - hope to get that series of posts rolling on Monday.

On with April and the long string of birthdays we celebrate this month!