The snows are melting, but more is coming. This morning a Red Hawk 
buzzed the barn. He was much smaller than the Bald Eagle of a couple of days 
ago, and had a crow in hot pursuit. In the distance a squadron of six crows 
was following and trying to close in. Seems like the cats now have an 
effective anti-raptor defence system.
 
    Today was Aerial's big day for adventure. I went into the barn and was 
greeted by her. She was outside the tack room, the first kitten to escape 
under it's own steam. They can get outdoors via a sort of high open window, 
but are only just getting big enough to do so. So Aerial seems to have spent 
the night outside!
    Not satisfied with this amazing feat, she then decided to explore the 
regions between the roof and the tack room ceiling. I thought she was stuck 
up there becuase I heard her pathetic mewing. I got a chair and peered in the 
dimly lit space, and there she was, happily engaged in a game of Roller 
Poopies. Hmph. I could not reach her, nor could she get down and soon the 
mewing started again.
     Having finished the barn chores, I fed the cats (my usual tactic for 
getting them all inside the tack room at once) and the sounds of munching 
snarfing kitties drifted upwards to Aerial, who responded with brave efforts 
to get into the tackroom. The geometry is hard to explain, but suffice it to 
say she appeared on top of an eight foot standard wall in a gap between the 
wall and the roof. She could not get down, was not about to accept help or 
persuasion, and paced up and down watching her littermates pig out below.
     Eventually I gave up on her and went to empty some water buckets I had 
forgotten to do. I was at the far end of the barn when I heard a sound I have 
not heard for many years.
     When a football player scores a touchdown, it is not uncommon for him to 
spike the ball. And the sound I heard was exactly the sound of a football 
being thrown forcefully to the ground. Sure enough it was Aerial. I peeked 
into the tack and there she was eating unconcernedly.
   I guess she found the obvious way down fromher perch. 
 
For the bird watchers in the crowd, we have had some interesting woodpeckers 
around the place. The are small with bright red heads and are not big enoough 
to be Flickers. Rufous Sided Towhees are here ion some numbers, and we have 
the usual sparrows and wrens, chickadees and juncos. A cock pheasant has 
taken up residence in the bushes beside the northeast pasture and Gawd, you 
thought roosters made a lot of noise! I also passed a peacock on the road to 
work the other day, an escapee from someone's hobby pen.
   And speaking of pens, Pendragon continues to flesh out after his hard 
autumn, Joey is fat and frisky and Bailey remains calmly in charge of her 
herd. Joey loves snow. As food. Yesterday I turned him out and he first ate 
all the snow off the fences, then travelled the length of the paddock pushing 
his nose through the snow like some kind of equine plough. That horse does 
something weird every day, so I'm used to his experiments now. Otherwise I'd 
be tempted to have him committed....
--- Maximus 3.01
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