Doggos had to go see the vet and get all their shots, so we stopped to get them a treat after. My Grandmother taught our first dog to lick ice cream cones (lick, not bite), and we have continued the tradition. They had to share one vanilla cone, but they don’t care (and I did make sure to switch between so neither endured a cold headache).
Walking through the meadow I found quite a large hole.
I set up our trail cam to see if this was a water made hole, or a critter made hole.
The trail cam mostly had shots of waving dry grasses (so many pics), but there were a few cat photo bombs, and this one above, with the cat wide-eyed and running, and the slight glint of the eyes of a toad on the left side of the picture. Is this the toad’s home? Was it defending it? Or was the cat running from something else? Hm.
The toad is looking at the cat, and is quite menacing, for a toad.
We’ve had Pilot Frixion pens in our house for a few years because they were recommended for my youngest as something that makes an easy dark mark, but is erasable. (We keep a stock of #1 pencils as well.) I recently found out that it is the friction heat from the eraser that “erases” the ink, and microwaves can make the ink disappear as well. Time for an experiment!
The regular pen ink behaved as expected, with no change after exposure to heat or cold. The Frixion ink does disappear when “erased” with the attached eraser, but also when subjected to 1 minute on high in the microwave. We found 1 minute to be the minimum time required. The best part is that when the paper is placed in the freezer, all the ink reappears! There is some fading, but it is all quite readable. I have cycled the paper four times through the heat/cold process, and the writing is still visible after a couple hours in the freezer.
I have been using these pens to write on greeting cards because I can erase. Hm. If mailed a card to the north during the winter, I guess those mistakes come back. Good to know.
The annual pumpkin carve and hen feeding was another success. Rather than carve our pumpkins early and risk rot, we carve them on Halloween then take them out to the chickens the next day.
The chickens appreciate the gesture.
Mr Tom, my neighbor’s cat that likes to hang out in my meadow, also like to stand on the fountain bowls to get a drink. The trail cam caught the image when he tipped over the bowl.
The trail cam even caught the droplets of water suspended in the air.
I do need to rework the fountain, make it more purposeful and less ramshackle. I’m not sure if that means gluing the bowls to the stands, or doing something completely different. Hm.
Critters and Craft 