Fall is here

It was misty the other morning, and I caught the sun rising over the soybean fields next door...

Ye olde homestead.

And look who came up to say good morning:

Hello Redford! We have made the barn escape-proof so that we can shut the barn cats in at night and hopefully keep them safe from predators. Redford and Missy don't seem to mind at all.

Missy seems to be doing okay without Lionel, although she surely misses him. She's met Redford a couple of times, but they aren't fully integrated yet. I think they'll be good buddies! The vet wants us to have Missy tested for toxoplasmosis next week. Lionel's blood test results came back, and that is indeed what killed him. It's unusual for a cat to become so severely ill from it without some other underlying condition. I wondered if Lionel's immune system was poor due to his hard start in life. Although Missy seems fine, I will take her in next week and get her tested and checked out. I'd like to get her microchipped as well.

I take some solace from knowing we got Lionel to the vet just as soon as he started showing symptoms, and they were in fact treating him for the correct disease. They did everything they could to save him, but it just was not to be. Poor little man.

Meanwhile. work is going on. Here's where the future box stalls will be. We are just waiting for some hemlock to be delivered so that things can start up again. Should happen next week!

Yesterday I finally finished extracting honey. Now I just have to bottle it all!

Sigh...

Here's a shot of the duck pairing pond we had put in last winter.

I love the "panorama" setting on my iPhone! I used it for this picture and also the shot of the box stalls, above.

Redford follows me absolutely everywhere...

He likes to help me when I'm beekeeping, too.

Here he is, sharpening his claws on one of the new fenceposts.

This is the field we had planted for the ponies. 

And here are some of my hives...

The temps are falling to freezing tonight. Fall is definitely here. This summer went by far too fast but I do like this time of year. Next month I'll be wrapping the beehives up for winter.

It's Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday. I hope all my fellow Canucks have a great long weekend! And everyone else, have a great normal weekend. :)