living with cats

These two are funny ... Millie is his baby - and the only female of 4 cats. 

We have two black and whites and two gingers.  check out the building of their outdoor facility where they go each day, if the weather is not foul.  the playlist of videos for the cat run are here.  

some of my favourites :

Archie escaping the pen which caused us to put up electric wiring - needless to say he tried to escape again, only once.  

Millie was the first to come down the ramp leading out of the house and to go into the big tunnel (under the road) to get to the pen - her first time.

our youtube channel is regularly updated with experiences in the studio,#countryliving, #tasmania, artworks including artist books and more including #Snowcone - a dariy cow in retirement that lives with us.

she has her own playlist that she shares with our turbo chooks

and #George - the old cat

i would love to hear about the animals you may live with

looking back - Archie & Kimba (cute ginger alert)

THEN & NOW. Archie on the left and Kimba on the right (in both images)

They came to us as a pair after we lost Harry - a beautiful boy that was with us for a short time (2 years) - a bold, cheeky, independent ginger that was cross eyed, pigeon toed, highly talkative and much loved.   THIS IS HARRY (below)

and so the twins arrived ... Archie and Kimba - such beautiful little souls that have been with us for 4 years now having come to us as very tiny little beings. 

check out the cat run that was built for them - including the early days and planning - the full playlist here - my list of must haves was room to move outside, in the sun, with shelter and trees.   #livingwithcats #countryliving

Looking back at looking back (cute overload spoiler)

On this same day last year these two posts went up heralding our coming into our 3rd year in this place, #countryliving #Tasmania.  And here we are again. So, we are on our 3rd anniversay here (going into our 4th year) and also the anniversary (April) of these little guys coming into our lives - 4. years ago. 

Kimba and Archie .... and George just fell in love too ... 

the garden is growing exponentially with a few intros over summer 

and i walk to the creek every day a few times a day in the hope of catching sight of the platypus, the eel or what fish are around (trout or blackfish)

the trumpet flower came out first time in 3 years and it is established the tree is 

a radermachera sinica (China Doll) 

and again this year with the rains, the little brown tree frog visited - sticking to our patio glass door in the middle of the night

looking back over art activities in the studio this past summer here

ONE YEAR anniversary of our move to #countrytasmania

 

this one got away from me ... our 1 year anniversary - musing at the bridge ... in the moment

we did make the date  ... our anniversary dinner.

and this is what it makes us feel like !

images from our first year here #countryliving #tasmania

D.I.Y. CAT RUN to RIVAL THE HILTON

 

THEN ... (at 6 weeks old) Archie on the left, Kimba on the right in both photos. and NOW ... (at 2 years old)

Having moved out to the country 10 months ago, we determined the cats would not run free on the property for a lot of reasons with protecting the wildlife on the top of the list.

The wildlife here consists of a myriad of birds (redbreast robin, swallows, crows, fairy wrens, european goldfinch, parrots, eagles, kookaburras, spotted pardolot and more for us to still discover and name), small brown frog, blackfish, protected species turbo chooks, a platypus, a resident tiger snake, wallabies, blue tongue lizard and again, so much more to discover. my you-tube channel is a hold-all place for the many videos i am taking rather than posting 3 times a day here. 

you can see the platypus video here - wait for it at the 1.09, 221 and 3.03-3.15 minute mark. 

and the gorgeous little echidna is here.

So, the cat run - due to a variety of reasons it took 9 months before we got started and during that time we walked around the house discussing where and how large it may be and how the cats access it to and from the house. We were cognisant of the aesthetics of the structure and how it may affect the look of the house and the yard. Once time had opened itself up it got put up quite quickly - for us it was about 3 weeks but certainly could have gone up in a weekend - say 30 hours.

The cat run was videoed (a lot) mainly with the cats using it and their early forays into the outdoors plus the escape run Archie made. He is our resident Houdini and has always escaped his confinement areas. We finally had to resort to electricity .... poor thing got a zap on the nose and all is well now - he is not trying to get out any longer. I accidentally 'tested' the electric fencing as i backed into it whilst planting a plant - it zapped my bum and although it was unpleasant and i moved quickly ! it was not as bad as i imagined it could be. 

here you can find the Video playlist of the outdoor cat run being used.

THE Gallery of images below shows as follows :

image 1 - the run to go down the side of the house/garage across the gravel drive to the trees on the other side.

image 2 - shows where the run has to come out of the bedroom window to reach the section of the run down the side of the house/garage.

image 3 - trials in setting up the panels and how they may be attached to each other.

image 4, 5 & 6 - the putting together of panels with V making a big statement on how they may work.

Materials used were:

• 16 sheets of Rapid Mesh

• 6 sheets of silver wire mesh panel something like this with around 4cm square holes

• 6 x long planks

• a large diameter poly pipe and the hiring of a mini digger (similar to this one) to create the underground tunnel

• heavy duty rubber matting

• heaps of cable ties

• lots of cups of tea or coffee

Our you-tube channel has a Video playlist of the outdoor cat run being used. Lots of short movies by this amateur trying to capture #lifestyle in country #Tasmania whilst working fulltime as an #artist. Millie got the use of the outdoor pen for 2 weeks on her own as Archie kept escaping and on the fourth time we could see how he did it. the ratbag. we did solve it and they are all out in the outdoor cat pen these days.

A few milestone videos include :

1. earliest days - a walk through showing the run created out the window, down the side of the garage and the polypipe laid down under the gravel road going into the outdoor cat run.

2. Millie coming out the bedroom window into the run for the first time.

3. V&I in conversation in the evening discussing the outdoor cat run and its building still in progress.

4. A wallaby feeding on cabbage leaves in front of Millie in her outdoor pen.

5. the final cat run good to go March 2023

6. V explaining the top section as a barrier to keep the cats in (did not work for Archie)

7. 2 gingers coming out take2

8. the day we saw Archie get out for the fourth time.

As i say, the whole thing can be put together in a weekend and without too much trouble (apart from digging up the drive and getting a huge poly pipe in place) ... overall the building of it came together very nicely and quite quickly without too much hassle. The fiddly bits were the actual run out of the window to create it out of the silver mesh, cut to size and holes drilled in the planks to fit the mesh. Most of the whole structure and run through to the polypipe is held together with cable ties.

And now we head into winter so we begin the whole thing of getting the cats out into the pen in Spring. Each beautiful day we get we send them out into the pen - getting them out the window all together and into the pen is a whole other story! frustrating fun.

The CAT RUN - early Days

 when we moved in 9 months ago the cat run was a priority ! As it happens other things take over priority so now we are heading down that pathway of 'getting there' and a cat run is now underway. woohoo.

a few videos here but more on my youtube channel and if you find the playlist titled 'the outdoor cat run'

a day or two before getting down to building the cat run - or part thereof

an inspection of what has been built a day or two later since our conversation (above)

the next couple of days later an inspection of the partial build of the cat run ... the run, tunnel and out into the pen - a smaller version of the pen just to get a cat out ... as it happens that was Millie - she did the test run of the facility. The gingers are not yet going to go out ... one of them Kimba would be just fine but Archie is a surefire Houdini and looks for every opportunity to escape ... he doesnt go anywhere he just loves the 'chase'... so here is the inspection of the partial build as it happened.

this is the playlist on our youtube channel to see the progress of the catpen.

A Pocket of Paradise

 We are still in awe of discovering this 25 acres of mixed paddocks and native bush surrounded by gum trees and wattle trees. A rivulet (Claytons Rivulet) runs through the whole property with endangered species of bird, fish and small crayfish.

Exploring and discovering new (to us) species of flora and fauna while watching fledgling swallows learning to fly and feed as we hit summer and glorious hot days.

The grass is starting to turn brown in the heat and 6 months in we are yet to complete an outdoor area for the cats who are currently interned in the house. Second image on the right shows a peek at my new studio. A huge shed that looks like it could house an aeroplane is now filled with spaces that are my office, a painting area for acrylic, oils and pastels, a 'clean' area for book making and paper based artworks, an assemblage area and a space where textiles are laid out in readiness for stitching at night (back up at the house)

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Bottom image : that beautiful coloured hydrangea is a huge bush outside the bedroom window that is a range of purples right down to a near black - all on the same bush as it ages in its flowering.

I hope you will stay with me on this journey and let me know what you think.

Gina