*Splut*

Yesterday, I mowed the grass for the first time this year. It really should’ve been done a couple of weeks ago, but the weather at the weekends has been so wet that it just wasn’t feasible to do it.

Which, of course, meant that the grass was high enough it was almost obscuring the dog. It certainly obscured a lot of her toys – and some other “presents” she’d been leaving in the garden. You can see where this is going, can’t you?

At least the mower started up first time (well OK, on about the third or fourth pull of the starter) which I really wasn’t expecting – I know my technical abilities all too well.

But it worked, and once I knew it was working, I went round the garden on poo-patrol (or shit-shovelling, as it’s also known) so that I didn’t hit anything too sludgy. I even picked up most of the dog toys that were visible – they have a nasty habit of buggering mower blades, among other things. (They also cause the dog to get all stressy – she’s not a fan of losing toys) Fairly successfully, I thought – a full bag of poo, for one thing.

And yet still, while doing the grass there was that *thunk* noise of a dog toy (this time a rubber ball) as well as the far-too-familiar *splut* sound, as freshly-laid dog-egg hit the spinning mower blades.

Snoring Cat

I know I’ve said before that Psycho Cat snores like a trooper – enough to wake me up, in fact. However, I think that most people don’t really believe that. Currenty I’m sitting in the living room, and can hear him snoring away in the bedroom.

So I recorded him. I have to emphasise, this has not been amplified, or tweaked in any way – all I did was cut off the “start of recording” beep at (funnily enough) the start of the recording.

If you click this link, you’ll download the file to hear the little git in all his glory.

Enjoy.

Broody (Again)

Gladys, one of our hens, has gone broody again. She did this back in January as well so it’s no big shocker to see her doing it again.

It’s just one of the things with owning chickens, they will go broody on occasion and sit in the nestbox. What’s amusing is that this time round Gladys is being remarkably grumpy, and doesn’t want to be shifted off the nestbox at all. I don’t mind – again, it’s part of just being chickens, and having chickens, but she’s extremely grouchy and really doesn’t want to be moved at all. I’ve been pecked a couple of times

We do have to move her, of course – partly to get the eggs from under her, but also to make sure that she’s getting food and water.

Still, it all just adds to the fun of owning animals – and particularly owning chickens.

Malevolent Moggy

Since the cat had his run-in with the shaver last week, he’s been even madder than usual.

So far, he’s decided that he now doesn’t care whether Hound likes something or not – if he wants to sit on me in the living room, then that’s what he’s damn well going to do. We haven’t yet worked out if this is just because he’s cold and wants to warm up by sitting on me, or if he’s just in a “Fuck you, and fuck the rest of the world too” mood. Honestly, it could even be a combination of the two.

The ultimate (so far) Feline “Fuck You” though, has been one morning this week, where he decided he was going to sleep in the dog’s basket during the day. Hound wasn’t there to see it – she’d gone to sleep somewhere else in the house – so he got in to the basket, curled up, and went to sleep.

Hound, when she found out, was beside herself – she just didn’t know what to do. She would bark at the cat, then run back away. It was hysterical to watch. Eventually, Psycho Cat just got up, glared at the dog, and stalked out of the basket, coming over to sit on me on the sofa instead.

I don’t know if his mood is going to stay once his fur has grown back – but I almost hope it does, because it does mean the dynamic is changing (again) in the house, and this time it’s changing in Psycho Cat’s favour…