And on the 6th day they climbed.
Foster kitten Gilly managed to climb up to the bathroom sink this morning. I'll have to revamp my "I'll just put this high up so the kittens can't reach it" plan, haha
#CatsOfMastodon #cats
Remote
AO Smith
@aosmith16@hachyderm.io
mastodon 4.7.3Statistician using #rstats, gardening in zone 8b in PNW, USA, bloomscrolling all year round, cats
436 Followers
258 Following
47 Posts
Joined April 25, 2025
Always take the high ground
#FensterFreitag #CatsOfMastodon
Like others, my sunflowers are finally starting to bloom. I tried to get all pollen-full varieties this year.
This one called "Red Sun", with the smaller flower in the background from a "Soluna" mix
#BloomScrolling #flowers
The landscaped area close in to the house always seems to peak around mid-July. This was primarily a laurel hedge when we moved here, but after a lot of work I think this is much nicer. The pollinators seems to agree.
#gardening #flowers #summer #oregon
This little bumblebee was really packing away the bright golden pollen from a St. John's wort shrub into her pollen baskets
#BloomScrolling #bees #bumblebee
The garlic spent around a week drying out in the greenhouse. After a little more cleaning it braided up nicely enough and is now in the pantry. Even the variety that was left in the ground too long went up OK.
#GrowYourOwn #gardening
I took a bunch of extra Mochi photos last week when my partner was out of town and wanted to see what she was up to.
In the shade by the garden, watching the world go by.
#CatsOfMastodon #cats
We've done several iterations of chicken coops and runs over the years. The current coop and small run are permanently placed (not mobile) but we have 3 larger runs that we rotate the flock through. Their favorite day is the first one after changing runs, like today. This particular run is the favorite of the 3 as it is closer to the direction the humans come from to give treats.
First of the corn poppies are blooming. Seeds sowed last summer/fall
I successfully moved a few sections of what was originally Papaver orientale "Patty's Plum" from a spot that has become much too shady. This one is happily blooming and clearly some sort of cross with another variety. Pretty color
One of the areas I'm cultivating with wildflower-type seed mixes is in its second spring. I'm enjoying the early pop of color from these scarlet flax mixed with the bright orange-yellow and nicely fragrant Siberian wallflowers. I tried to pull all the Chinese forget-me-nots before seeding last year but I now see I have more work to do 😅
For folks in the central Willamette Valley of #oregon and surrounding areas, I saw on a birding group that an initial plan for a data center in south Salem has been announced. The company, Verrus, is making a lot of claims that their data center won't have any of the issues all the others do...
Here's how the city summarizes things (who have known about this since March 2025 but signed a confidentiality agreement so they didn't have to tell the public):
https://www.cityofsalem.net/Home/Components/News/News/2169/15
#datacenter
We're in the crabapple bloom now!
These double daffodils are plainer than others, in all yellow instead of multiple colors, but I like the shaggy look of the many petals
I planted some new tulip varieties last fall that are just starting to bloom. Now if only I could remember which varieties I selected... 😅
There was a patch of soil near the palm tree when we moved there that had clearly been placed there for something. We ended up putting in bulbs and corms and such over time and then can limit summer irrigation. The daffodils come in first, very pretty
Tulips coming on fast. Darwin tulip hybrid "Cash"
Replying to
@colinpurrington@flipping.rocks
Huh, I have never heard of butterfly houses and can't imagine what life stage "slits in wood" would support.
Replying to
@yvanspijk@toot.community
Sometime these days I just drop the b's all together and end up with "prolly", haha
Replying to
@stefano
This is one of my big concerns with a battery we just had installed to go with our existing solar panels. The app for the panels was so we could check on efficiency but the battery is entirely app driven. Not that we had many options for our particular panels due to some foibles (and a bankrupt company), but very not ideal.
Replying to
@jennifer@partychickens.net
We generally only have 1-2 roosters and they stay with the flock. A good rooster keeps an eye out for predators, calls hens for treats, etc. When we've gotten more roosters from hatching eggs we tend to sell them before they get to an age where they start jockeying for position or otherwise being a nuisance.
Classically, our 2nd rooster right now was supposed to be a hen we purchased with a batch of pullets. We've been hanging onto him because the head roo can be aggressive to humans and we've discussed replacing him. Plus it doesn't seem like he's ever worked out mating, but the new roo definitely has, haha
@ZebKing
My husband is starting to get into it! So exactly 1, and that took awhile :)
Replying to
@shoshin @ShaulaEvans @ahimsa_pdx @beandreams
Bringing up kids books made me remember 2 YA authors I enjoyed reading very much last year:
Darcie Little Badger and Angeline Boulley
Replying to
@T2R@infosec.exchange
Oh, man, sorry to hear about your dog.
We went with a tall fence with no easy launch points and we don't get any going over. A couple have been sneaking out somewhere underneath recently, though, which is a good way for a chicken to get stuck out of the coop overnight and eaten so we'll need to harden that up
Replying to
@siftinsand@aus.social
Good thinking on the bins! We have a series of lower covers for seedlings to protect from birds and a few taller ones for deer but the bins really add flexibility
Replying to
@colinpurrington
Unbeknownst to me, "arm chaps" are a thing in the forestry world. I saw others with the same idea but arm chaps look to be thicker/leather. I'm picturing you could wear a pair of gloves that allow more finger mobility for picking plus this wrist/forearm protection
Replying to
@berndchen@dresden.network
I had never realized that this was a popular landscape plant. It is native from where I live. And, in fact, is our "state flower" here. I didn't know it had made it around the world!
Replying to
@Devijand@mastodon.social
Ugh, I'm with you. The previous owners put this everywhere and then covered it with soil. Impossible to remove. In some cases I had to dig down and poke holes in the barrier so the trees they planted on top had more root space and would stop wilting on hot days
Replying to
@slop
I minored in geology at university and it is by far one of the funnier sciences. Cummingtonite was a great favorite, haha
Replying to
@gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz
Ugh. I guess it follows, but is not good news. I've been (maybe naively) continuously surprised how folks will allow things like spelling and grammar type checkers (I'm looking at you, Word) decide on wording or spelling choices that are, imo, really stylistic or voice decisions
Replying to
@D72cat
Beautiful! I periodically think it'd be fun to grow orchids but then always doubt I'd be able to care for them properly
Replying to
@jon@henshaw.social
Oh, wow. Last time we had ice like that I remember as the temp rose and the ice softened hearing trees breaking all around us. The ice had added some structure as well as weight and when the structure released the trees couldn't hold the ice up. It was pretty craxy
Replying to
@hootalex
😍 As a kid looking through bird guides, this was the bird I most wished to see.