Again?

There are days when it seems all I do is feed open mouths and deal with the end product of that process.  It starts with the chickens.  I've got to throw down extra scratch with the turkeys now lined up or there wouldn't be enough for the hens.  I can't keep up with the stuff in the coops.  With the turkey parade on the drive and walkways, there are inevitable droppings to watch for.  Innumerable wild birds are in the trees waiting for their seed.  Down in the barn, it's goats, mice, birds, ground squirrels, and now the gopher that is tunneling up to stuff his face.  He literally packs his cheeks to overflowing before ducking back down.  I rake and shovel a two-gallon bucket of goat poop every day.  It seems I'm continually scraping ledges under bird perches and brushing mouse pellets off of shelves.  Hummers are gathering in large numbers.  Even with three feeders, every time I turn around one or all are empty and I must make more juice, two quarts at a time.  Even teeny tiny droppings accumulate.  Bessie's bowl gets filled while I make coffee.  Fortunately, she has a lot of space outside and chooses not to do her business close to the house.  Curious, I weighed Celeste yesterday.  She's a hefty ten pounds, not surprising as the cats eat a huge bowl of food daily.  Equally unsurprising is the number of times a day I clean the litter box.  It's a case of what goes in must come out.

The bed has become treaty territory.  Bess moved down to the foot and relinquished her place on the pillow to the two cats last night; all night.  A queen-size bed and I cling to the edge in the narrow space I'm allotted.  Obviously, I'm not the queen.  Ralph is pretty brave as long as I'm near, but heads for the bat cave when Bessie is on the move.  Celeste starts purring as soon as she sees me and will stay on my lap in the chair, but heads down the hall if I have to get up.  Neither cat will come out of the bedroom on their own.  We're working on that.

Tree Guy finally finished the water line to the mulberries yesterday.  I restrained from shouting, "Wahoo!," and politely thanked him.  The project was started nearly two years ago.  In this unseasonably warm weather, I'd been putting out gentle reminders, worried about the trees without water.  They wintered well and are putting out new leaves and I didn't want a setback.

I hear scratching in the litter box.  Again?