A quiet day… not really in a good way

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Things were all right in the morning. After taking my morning painkillers, I went out to join my daughter during the cat feeding.

We did not get any kittens. They are still very skittish, and the older cats kept pushing their way in for the cat soup, even though they got some in the other food bowls. I tried distracting Sweetie with the cat toy but she was too hungry to be distracted, and insists on eating at the shrine feeding station, where the kittens come through the chain link fence. As today was supposed to be another day or rain and potential storms, we put the carrier and bait bowl back into the catio, with the regular food bowl set to keep the door from closing by accident, and let the kittens be for now.

I had brought my walker out so, after my daughter went inside, I went around the yard and checked on the garden beds. I found both winter and summer squash that I could hand pollinate. We should have some yellow zucchini large enough to harvest soon, and some of the green scallop squash. We might get more of the Early Prolific Straightneck squash, but there are still no yellow pattypans or lemon squash. Interestingly, I think one of the squash that were thinned by transplanting might be a lemon squash. The tiniest of round, yellow female flower buds are showing up and I don’t think they are pattypans.

In the main garden area, I just had to get a picture of a monster.

The first image above is of a carrot from the Rainbow Mix that has gone to seed. It is remarkably huge and sturdy! Normally, carrots don’t go into seed until their second year, but I don’t mind having one that I can save seed from.

The second image of the slide show above shows what’s left of the Daikon radish. The flea beetles not only denuded the stems of leaves, but they even ate a lot of the pods, too! There are still pods left, but nowhere near as many as before. Enough to collect seeds from, though, if they were not too badly damaged.

Once back inside, I was feeling well enough to have breakfast before trying to lie down for a bit. When I got up again, I was able to make a lunch using some leftover brisket, with potatoes and bush beans from the garden, to make a stew.

While I was cooking, I heard some noises outside the kitchen window. My brother was leveling the ground where the tree and patio blocks had been. He had to dig up some remarkable thick roots that were buried under where some patio blocks where. He also had to remove some of the soil along the edge of where the blocks would be so that it was lower than the blocks, instead of higher. He levels a block in the corner between the house and the concrete steps so it wasn’t draining towards the house as well, and the blocks along the outside edge were sloped slightly to drain away from the house. He ended up filling our wheelbarrow completely with dirt and detritus he’d removed. Probably the heaviest load it’s ever had. Which would have been fine, except the tire turned out to be flat! I had come out to talk to him and, as he pushed the wheelbarrow from the grass onto the sidewalk, I was able to see the flat. All he could tell is that it wasn’t rolling right. He’s checked the tire before and couldn’t see a valve, so he thought it was a solid rubber tire. He did find the valve, but it had been partially pushed in from lack of air. He assured me he’s take care of it and told me to go back inside. Later on, I saw that he had also loaded all the old hot water tanks and pumps into his little trailer. They’ll be taken to the scrap yard another time.

By the time I finished cooking, the painkillers had definitely worn off. After lunch, I took them when the 6 hour alarm went off and tried to stay up longer, but eventually had to lie down again. Frustrating when it becomes difficult just sitting upright in a chair. *sigh*

I did manage to get a basement check in. I had to turn on a couple of the fans. One, aimed at the well pump and pressure tank because there was so much condensation dripping, it was creating a puddle. The other more in the new basement, more for air circulation and humidity levels. The recent rain, which is still sort of happening now, hasn’t been enough to cause problems in the basements.

I was also able to head outside and do the evening cat feeding. Some of the skunks are getting quite brazen! As I was setting up some bowls with cat milk in the kibble, specifically for the kittens (with extra to draw the adult cats away), I heard a commotion. I’d put some kibble at the back of the shrine base. A skunk was there, but one of the little tabbies was wanting that food (even though there was more) and hissing and spitting at the skunk. Which was about 5x its size!!! I scooted the skunk away, going down a path behind a willow where there’s an opening under the chain link fence they can fit through. I knew it would be coming back, so I tossed some kibble into the grass of the path, so it would have no reason to go closer and scare the kittens.

I also move the shrine feeding station bowls next to the catio, on either side of the door, with the bait bowl inside the carrier again. The bigger cats will eat the closest food, which should leave the bait bowl inside the carrier for the kittens, when they go looking for food later.

If the skunks don’t eat it first.

*sigh*

Then it was back inside, and not doing much. The painkiller either didn’t kick in, or the pain was worse and the painkiller has managed to just take the edge off. At least I can tell myself that, with how wet it is outside, I wouldn’t be getting much done out there, anyhow. It’s supposed to continue raining, off and on, until about 2am. It does look like some onions are ready to harvest, though. Something I should be able to do tomorrow, if all goes well.

Tomorrow afternoon – if we’re not delivering kittens to the rescue – my daughter and I will work on breaking down that fallen tree. I can handle a chain saw, and my daughter will be able to clear away the branches and smaller logs. Normally, the two of us together will drag the bigger logs out, but we’re both pretty broken, so I just want to cut things to size. I’m hoping to be able to get an 18′ length for the next garden bed out of this tree. The base of its trunk looks like it will match the size of the one that’s currently in place for the garden bed fairly well.

That’s pretty much it for the day.

I am looking forward to seeing the doctor, a little over a week from now, and getting those test results. If things go as expected, she’ll get me in for a hysterectomy fairly soon. If not, then I’ll be referred to specialists in the city. Who knows how long that will take.

I feel like I’ve lost most of the year over this.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: winter squash and a harvest

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After a draining morning, I lay down after taking my pain killers to wait for it to pass.

It didn’t, but it at least got less severe.

Somewhere past 3:00, I headed back outside with my walker. I fed the outside cats, then say with the fishing rod toy to keep Sweetie busy so the littles had a chance to eat. We have storm warnings for tonight (as I started this, I could hear thunder in the distance!), so I took the bigger carrier we had set up for the kittens to explore and put it inside the catio, setting the door mostly closed. Then I headed to the garden.

One thing I noticed over the past while is that some of the winter squash on the chain link fence are producing more female flowers! I was even able to hand pollinate a few this morning.

Most of them are these Butterneck squash. There’s at least one that looks like it’s going to wither away, but the ones I got pictures of all look pretty darn good. I also spotted a new Black Futsu female flower that was open and hand pollinated it. Why I bother, I don’t know. It’s Sept. 6 today. There is basically no season left for them to mature! Still, I want to give them all the chance they can. It should be interesting to see how big they get before it gets too cold.

We will, however, have one winter squash this year, at least.

The outer shell of the Arikara squash is getting pretty hard. I should be able to cut it and set it to cure fairly soon. All the other squash that started on this plant have died off, almost as if it pruned itself.

The yellow bush beans around the Arikara squash are producing quite nicely, and I had plenty to pick from a relatively few number of plants. I also found a single red Manitoba tomato, hiding under some leaves that I picked. Then I went to the high raised bed and picked the bush beans there…

… after I picked the two Chocolate Stripes tomatoes that were ready.

In the above photo, all the beans to the left of the tomatoes are from the later planted beans by the Arikara squash. Everything to the right of the tomatoes are from the high raised bed. The yellow beans in that bed seem to have had a second life and are suddenly producing quite a lot, again. There’s only a couple of green bean plants, and they are not at all productive.

I didn’t keep this. I got a bowl for it all, then wheeled over to my brother and SIL’s caravan and offered it to them. They were quite happy to accept. After my SIL transferred them to their own container and brought back my bowl, we were able to stay outside and chat – I just sat on my walker rather than try to climb up into the caravan. They have stairs with a hand rail now, but they came outside rather than have me hobble my way in.

Unlike my mother, with her snarky comments about the little tomatoes I brought her, it was nice when my brother and SIL quite appreciated the beans and tomatoes I brought for them! They have been growing some things on their balcony, but no beans. My SIL is thinking that, next year, she’ll try to grow enough tomatoes to do some canning. This year, they have cucumbers and cucamelons that have done quite well!

We got all caught up with the birthday visit with my mother this morning. My brother hadn’t had a chance to go into detail with my SIL yet. My mother was so all over the place, it took both of us to describe things and figure out what she was saying. Part of the challenge is that her sense of time is completely gone. There was something she’d said that my brother thought had happened recently, but I’d caught her mentioned the town she used to live in, which means it could have happened several years ago. In some things, we had to mash together things, my sister had told me my mother had said to her, compared to what my mother had told me, compared to what my mother had told my brother, and work out what was actually intended. It’s like putting together a puzzle, but half the pieces are still missing, while pieces from another puzzle show up randomly, too.

Still, we do the best we can.

I can hear that the rain has started. My SIL was very happy to have gotten the mowing done!

It would be really awesome if the weather holds long enough for us to actually get more winter squash.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens and a birthday visit

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This morning, I headed out with my daughter while she did the morning feeding. We were hoping to catch some more kittens for the rescue.

The kittens are definitely more comfortable around my daughter, and were willing to come over for cat soup while she was right there, and she was able to pet them. When she tried picking them up to put in the waiting carrier, though, that was too much. These kittens are a lot more skittish than the ones we took in yesterday.

Sweetie, of course, didn’t help much!

After a while, my daughter and I talked about it and decided it would be better to wait. We made sure to leave the big cat carrier out, door open, so they could go in and out as they pleased and not find it scary. The white and grey singleton also came out, but it’s even more nervous that the littles.

We will try again tomorrow – if the weather holds. We’re supposed to get heavy rain in our area overnight and all day tomorrow. It’s supposed to be worse to the south of us, and the city is getting flash flood warnings, so we shall see.

Once inside and having breakfast, I remembered to tell my brother about the chainsaw mill. He would have seen it by now, but I wanted him to know that he was welcome to use it at any time, since it’ll be a while before I am able to. While we were chatting, I mentioned my plans to go into town to buy a birthday card and visit out mother, since I wasn’t able to do it yesterday.

He was planning to visit our mother today, too, so he offered to drive me in his car, which was very sweet of him. I had enough time to head outside again to move some hoses, as my SIL said she wanted to mow the inner yard for me, then I picked some Orange Currant tomatoes and even a few Blueberry tomatoes for my mother. I figured she make snarky comments about them being so small, but thought she would still enjoy them.

We dove out in their recently acquired electric car, and there’s a charging station almost across the street from the nursing home, so we went there to top the charge up, then walked over to the dollar store, half a block away. I found a card but decided against looking for the other stuff I had been thinking of on this trip. My brother had already brought a card last weekend, but found an actual 95th Birthday card and got it for her, too. Then we walked over to his car to fill the cards out inside.

We had brought my walker along and, by then, I felt that I was going to need it, so he got it out for me and we headed in. It was coming up on lunch time, but my mother was asleep in bed when we got there. Once she was awake enough to realize we were there for a visit, she got up and moved to her corner chair.

The visit was… draining.

My mother almost immediately went at my brother, going on about how she wanted a “good” radio – she simply will not accept that the station she wants to listen to cannot be picked up in her room, and insists the problem is the “junk” radio. My brother had not intended to tell her yet, but he ended up explaining that he did get her an internet radio, like she asked for, and had spent the last week setting it up. She can’t understand any of it, but when she gets it, she’ll only need to push a button to get a Polish radio station. It was not easy, since the one station she wants doesn’t broadcast online like most others. It took him 4 days to figure out how to get their website stream connected to the radio. It was just that one station that was an issue, but none of it was easy. The next step is to activate the new internet that was installed in her room. He tried to explain all this, but she kept interrupting him and complaining.

The rest of the visit did not get any better.

She mostly dismissed the cards we got her. She mocked the tiny tomatoes, then was wondering where her garlic was. She had asked for a bulb of garlic, which my sister had brought, but apparently it wasn’t good garlic (small?). Then she asked me if I had garlic in the garden. I told her no, it’s harvested. She glared at me, asking why. I told her, it’s September. It’s all harvested. She then went to talking about how my sister and her husband eat garlic every day, and that’s why they are so healthy, so she wants garlic.

My sister and her husband are not that healthy.

Then she went on about how she’s gained weight (she hasn’t; she has water retention and bloating) because they feed her too much and keep “pushing” snacks, and “they” put chemicals in food and that’s why she’s gaining weight and why people are getting cancer. She’s cutting our beef and pork, convinced it’s the cause of her “stomach problems”. Then she started talking about something she saw on the news (she doesn’t have a TV, so I’m guessing in one of the common rooms?), except she was clearly combing two completely different things into one, but that’s why everyone is dying of cancer. ??? Then she started on how, after she’s gone, she wants my brother, sister and I to all get along and not fight and push each other away – clearly she had imagined some sort of scenario and believes it happening or will happen, or… I don’t know, but she was making a big deal of it. Not the first time, though the first time she assumed we were behaving a particular way. Then my brother mentioned she’s used our sister for something (he didn’t even try to cover how badly she had stabbed him in the back and broke his heart in the process) and I mentioned she has specifically told our sister to keep it a secret from us, pointing out that she is the only one doing things like that.

It went over her head.

On and on it went, until someone came in with her lunch. We helped her set up with her table and tray to eat, then my brother said he and I would be going out for lunch now, leaving her to eat.

I think we were there for maybe half an hour.

My brother is a saint. I would have left much earlier. Mind you, by then the pain killers were wearing off and I had very little patience in me.

We did not go out for lunch. Neither of us had the energy for it.

Once at home, I had to pretty much lie down right away and my brother, being my brother, had many projects to work on. Later, he said that with all the manual labour he did over the next few hours, none left him as tired as that half hour or so with my mother! I’m glad we were able to go in together. If it had been just him, she would have been much worse. *sigh*

I eventually made it outside again, too, and get into the garden, but that will be in my next post.

See you there…

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: muskmelons, eggplant and tomatoes

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Late, but they are showing up!

After dropping kittens off with the rescue late this afternoon, my daughter and I drove to town so she could order a prescription refill. While that was being filled, we made a quick run to the grocery store for a few small things (taking advantage of being in town), then back to the pharmacy to pick up the medications. Then it was home for supper.

After supper, I headed outside. I got the soaking tub drained, then cleaned out the cat carriers we used for the kittens. They are ready to use again, if we want to use the two biggest ones.

The soaking tub got refilled with detergent again. Next time I drain it, it’ll be to wash the individual cat beds, blankets, etc. in the wheelbarrow, then they’ll go back into the tub for rinsing with vinegar.

Once the tub was refilled, I went to water the garden. This time, I remembered to take some pictures. Slide show below…

I knew we had one little musk melon forming but as I looked around the vines, I found three more surprisingly large ones!

The chances of them fully maturing before first frost are very low at this point. The long range forecast has changed, of course, but it still shows potential overnight lows of 3C/37F in a few weeks, then it’s supposed to warm up again.

Goooooo Super El Nińo!!! Keep that frost away! 😄😄

If we can cover things, they might still make it. I might even cover them with plastic to create greenhouse tunnels.

In the other photos of the slide show, you can see our one Caspar eggplant. You can also see a flower on the ground. There were two flowers on two different plants. I was trying to carefully cross pollinate them, but one of them broke off. Ah, well.

Last of all are the Chocolate Stripe tomatoes. They have cracks at the top like the Manitoba tomatoes are getting. That type of cracking can be caused by a few things. One is inconsistent watering, which is possible. The other is extreme temperature fluctuations. Which is far more likely!

Today’s high was 25C/77F. Our highs are supposed to stay in the 20’s over the next week, then stay in the high teens. It’s the overnight lows we need to watch out for!

Who knows. We might actually get a melon or two this year, after all!

The Re-Farmer

We got three!

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Finally!

When my daughter came in after feeding the outside cats, she told me she was able to pet ALL SIX of the little kittens. They were too interested in cat soup to run away.

We ended up going outside together to see if we could get any. My daughter was able to use the “fishing lure” toy to get the braver kittens closer to me, next to a cat carrier. It took some doing, because Sweetie kept very enthusiastically going for the lure, bowling right over kittens in the process.

The two braver ones – the ones I’ve been able to touch before – came out to play. The tuxedo, first. Once it was close enough, I was able to scoop it up and into the largest carrier that can open from the top. A while longer, and we were able to get the tabby in as well. They were not happy, but they didn’t freak out, which was encouraging!

The other kittens were more interested in playing with each other on the junk pile side of the fence, so my daughter had me sit on the old tractor tire with a carrier next to me, staying still, while she tried to lure a kitten over. Sweetie was a real problem. Even when I got another fishing lure toy to use as a distraction, she wanted that fuzzy orange lure! A kitten started to go into the opening of the carrier, following the lure, and I was able to get it the rest of the way in and close the door.

We actually ended up releasing it. It was so panicked, we were afraid it would hurt itself and break off some teeth on the door.

I let the rescue chat group know right away. I knew people had been available earlier in the week, but nothing about the weekend – forgetting that it’s a long weekend until yesterday! One person was out of town completely, others were working or had stuff scheduled.

Eventually, one of them asked if I could drop them off at her place in a beach town to the south east of us. I’ve done that before, so I said yes. They were still looking for someone to meet up with me earlier, but I let them know the kittens were all right. I had brought the carrier into the house and onto my bed. Inside cats started sniffing around immediately, which seemed to calm the kittens down.

We had already put a small container with cat soup in with them. I added a folded up puppy pad at the door and was able to add a shallow water bowl with the food bowl at the back. After a while, I salvaged a crochet project I was unable to finish because the cats kept digging it and the yarn out, no matter how well I tucked it away. It was just a flat rectangle at this stage. The last row I was working on had been undone completely, so I cut the yarn, sewed in the ends, then folded it so it fit across the middle of the carrier, between the pee pad and the food and water bowls.

Each time I reached into the carrier, I moved to pet them, and they let me. They didn’t like it, but they let me! Later, when I stuck my finger through the door, the tabby started to lick and gently chomp on it!

As time went on and we were still waiting on when we could get them to the rescue, my painkillers were starting to wear off and I had to lie down. I moved the carrier so that I could see the kittens through the carrier door. Then I found a YouTube video on my phone of kittens purring and set that up near the carrier door.

It wasn’t long after that was set up that I got a notification. The sounds stopped while I checked the message, but I could still hear purring.

That was when I let them know that the kittens were doing very well, so there was no urgency in finding someone to meet me for them earlier. We settled on dropping them off at 3:45. By the time we got that settled, I was able to take my next painkiller dose and lay down again with the purring noises going again.

I fell asleep to the sound of both recorded kittens and carrier kittens purring!

My daughter and I decided on leaving at 3, for a 3:45 drop off. At about 2:30, my daughter went out to try and get more kittens.

She got one!

She put one of the kibble soup bowls into the carrier for it to have something to eat. It crawled into the bowl and stayed in it, the whole time!

She did try to get more, but we had to head out, so we settled on the three. I made sure to let the rescue group know, and that we were on the way. We took the “longer” route to the address to avoid highway construction and gravel roads. We got there early, but not by much.

The rescue lady had a cat kennel ready for them. She has several of them around her house, with one of them holding a newly trapped feral who was staring at us with frightened eyes – but did allow her to reach in and scritch it’s neck and cheek! Mostly, it was too scared to move, to be honest.

The transfer of kittens went very well. She asked some questions about their temperament. They are feral, but “friendly” feral. Not terrified feral, or angry feral. If they are calm enough, they will go to a foster in another town for socialization, vetting and eventual spays/neuters before going for adoption. If they are too feral, they will stay with her. There are no fosters available that can/will handle feral cats. She’s the only one.

We need our own Furball Farm Cat Sanctuary so badly!!!

Meanwhile, we will keep trying for the others. Sweetie is turning out to be our biggest hurdle in this! Once we get the remaining three little kittens, we’re pretty sure we’ll have an easier time of getting the white and grey singleton, and they will take that one, too. It wants to play and have company so much! The older cats would chase it away but when the little kittens started going to the junk pile, they happily played together. It will be incredibly lonely with all the littles gone. As we were driving out, my daughter said she was considering laying a blanket on the grass, with a carrier nearby, a book and some cat toys. She’s sure the white kitten will come over to check her out if she does.

Unfortunately, the skunks probably will, too!

So that is done! We are down three kittens. Chatting with the group, one of them said we need to get the mother spayed and I had to remind them that the mother has disappeared. Right now, the only females we have left that I know of are Sprout and Sprig, the two calicos. I saw Sprig today, but haven’t seen Sprout in a while. There is a long haired grey tabby the girls call Munchkin that I thought was female, but I’m not sure. There was a mostly feral long haired grey confirmed female, but it might be among the cats that have gone missing this summer. The only reason why I think Munchkin isn’t female is because it didn’t get pregnant this summer – but then, neither did Sprig. The rest are all fixed, except a couple of males that still need to be neutered. Two or three for sure, depending on whether Munchkin is male or female.

It’s been a long, hard road, over many years, and we needed so much help, but the numbers are finally down. That some are gone most likely because of coyotes is not good, but there really isn’t anything we can do about that, unless we build a big catio and shed for all the outside cats. That would keep the raccoons and skunks out of their food and water, too, but it would mean no more rodent control. Just this morning, as I was taking the carrier with the two kittens to the house, I saw Pinky crossing the yard with a big mouse in her mouth! Such a good kitty!!

I miss Adam. And Havarti. And Judgement. And Slick. And Domino…

*sigh*

Thankfully, these kittens have won the lottery, though they don’t know it yet. At this age, they will be much easier to adopt out.

We just need to get the rest of them, hopefully over the next few days! I’ll be going outside with my daughter in the mornings for the next while, as that seems to be the time when they are all hungry enough to come close to my daughter.

She has become quite the cat whisperer!!

The Re-Farmer

Cautious

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Well, I am not sure just how things are going, right now!

Last night, as I was going to be, I started feeling very ill.  Nausea is s potential side effect with the new painkillers, so that might have been it. 

Or it could have been the piece of birthday cake I’d had not long before.  I may have been sighted out.

Or it could gave been both.

Either way, I had to message my daughter to help me just to get to the bathroom, which waz an extremely slow and careful walk.  She got dome Pepto into me first, which seemed to work.

After I was finally stable enough to lie down, I took only 1 tablet instead of 2, for the next two doses.  That didn’t quite cut the pain, but there was only mild dizziness.  By the afternoon dose, I was back to 2 tablets, they kay riwn right away. 

That seemed to work, because I felt well enough to get things done outside.  I changed out the water in the tub all the cat beds, etc. were soaking in.  That was really gross.  I expect to be changing the water out at least one more time before I start using the wheelbarrow as a tub to wash individual pieces.

The kittens were looking for food around the shrine bowls, so while the tub was draining, I decided it was time to move the catio back to the inner yard.  It topped up all the other kibble bowls to distract the adult cats away, then cleared and emptied the catio, including the weights on the roof to keep it from blowing over, into the wagon.  The catio itself could then be walked over and got set uo where it was before.

Once everything was put back, eith fresh food and water, I went back to working at the tub nearby.

I then had to keep chasing away adult cats and skunks that were stealing the kittens’ food. 

Which scared away the kittens.

*sigh*

While I was doing that, my younger daughter was doing some pruning of the lilacs by the house.  We had talked about propagating the Korean Dwarf Lilac, so she went ahead and planted sone near where the sea buckthorn is, to fill gaps in the hedge.  They may not take, but lilacs are much like willow or birch.  You can just stick a branch in the ground, and it can grow.   It’s really sun baked and dry out there, though, so they will need frequent watering for them to have any chance at all.

My daughter is dealing with a lot of her own pain, and walking with a cane again, so dhe headed in once the pruning and planting was done.  After I finished refilling the soaking tub – and chasing off more skunks – I was feeling well enough to stay out and water the garden beds.

I didn’t get any pictures, but I’m seeing some Chocolate Stripe tomatoes starting to ripen.  There is a single white Caspar eggplant developing.  I even spotted some tiny melons developing, and one of the winter squash climbing the chain link fence is showing several female flowers, and even a few squash developing.  With no season left to mature, unless that Super El Nino keeps things mild for a long time.l.

The pain killers were starting to wear off by then, so I headed back inside for a while.  Just as I was sitting down with supper, my mother phoned.  It was actually a pretty good call.  She mostly just wanted to chat. 

While we were talking about her health, my mother suddenly declared that she has a round belly, too, so maybe she has what I have.

…

I tried to explain how this could not be true.  I don’t think she believed me.

*sigh*

I ended up having to cut the call short so I could have my supper, and my evening meds time was coming up.  While I was eating, I updated my brother and SIL on the call … then they showed up!  I wasn’t sure if they woukd make it out this weekend.

When I finished eating, I headed out to give the kittens a top up, since the cats and skunks steal their food donations quickly.  I found the two bravest ones on a shelf in the catio.  They ran off as I added some cat milk to the remains of kibble in the bowl, but they were soon back.

I still had to chase away Sweetie and two other adult cats, so the kittens could eat.

My brother passed by on the way to the garage, so we got to say a quick hello.  He wanted to get their zero turn mower out and cutting the grass in the outer yard whike it was still light out.

I headed back inside just in time for my alarm to go off gir my evening meds.  Including a full dose of the new painkillers.

I’m now in bed, in an over abundance of caution.  I don’t want a repeat of last night!  I’d forgotten my daily post, though, so I am doing this on my phone.

I much prefer my desktop!! 😁

I hope the night goes well. 

Tomorrow, the main goals are a dump run, then a trip into town to get a birthday card and a visit with my mother.  She’s turning 95 this weekend.

She is doing amazing for her age!  Even with all her aches and pains, and declarations that she is dying. 😁

I did not tell her I was planning to visit while on phone with her, just in case I’m not physically up to it.

We shall see how things go, when the time comes.

The Re-Farmer

Productive – finally!

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Okay, still limited, but productive!

Morning was quiet overall. My poor daughter has been caning it today; the last while of taking on a lot of what I normally do during the day has not been easy on her.

Still, she was well enough to do the morning routine and, when our prescription delivery came in, to meet the driver.

I got my new meds. Just in time for my afternoon painkiller dose. I got to take new new generic Percocet instead of the T3s. I have enough to take them at the same schedule, every 6 hours, for 7 days.

So far, it seems to be working! I’m not holding my breath as other painkillers I’ve tried did work for the first while, then gradually stopped working. However, it meant I did not get that gradual pain building up and lasting for several hours.

I took advantage of that, while trying to still maintain light activity levels.

I decided it was a good time to start the very, very last “spring cleaning” of the sun room!

I moved things around to make space under the canopy tent, then brought out the cat carriers. They got dismantled and scrubbed down. Some of them have bolts with wing nuts on them that were getting rusted, so I set them in a bowl with some CLR.

Then my daughter and I went to the general store to pick up a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble, which my daughter was able to carry for me (I felt perfectly able to do it, but I’m banned) and the mail. Which included an unexpected, long thin parcel for my husband.

After we got home and unloaded, my husband presented my daughter with a new cane he’d got for her! She has a fantastic “tactical” cane that she doesn’t use because it’s too top heavy.

Hmmm… I wonder why… 😄

Also in the mail, finally, was our ambulance bill. Since they only came and treated my husband, but did not transport him anywhere, the bill was only $100, and we’ll be able to submit the receipt to my husband’s insurance for partial reimbursement. Not too shabby!

After a very late lunch, I headed back outside.

The carriers could be reassembled by then, and I brought over an old toothbrush to scrub the bolts that had been sitting in CLR. Once those were rinsed and dried off, I treated them with WD40 before using them on their respective carriers again. We now have five clean carriers ready. There’s another in the sun room but the cats knocked it off the shelf so many times, it can no longer be closed. Then there’s the huge donated one that is in the catio, with a cat bed in it, as a trap for the kittens. You can see the before and after for the cat carriers in the first to images of the slide show above.

Once the carriers were done, I got the flat sink stopper I’d picked up not long ago and started filling the old bathtub I dragged out of the junk pile. It still needs more coats of enamel paint sprayed on, but there is enough that it can be used. While I had the hose going in the tub, with some laundry detergent added, I started bringing over various cat beds, blanket and caves from the sun room. Not everything would fit, though.

You can see in the last image of the slide show above, how it is now. I added water until it reached the overflow opening, poking at everything with an old broom handle to get it submerged and soaking, then tried to “stir” it a bit.

The handle broke.

I’ll be using a garden hoe to continue, later on. For now, it’s all left to soak overnight. It’s all pretty disgusting, to be honest. I expected to change out the water and soak it in detergent a couple of times before I start to actually wash the individual pieces. I’ll most likely transfer them into the wheelbarrow individually for the final cleaning. Then I plan to give them a final soak/rinse with the 10% cleaning vinegar.

That old tub is going to be very handy.

While doing all this, I kept an eye on the kittens. They all got their evening cat feeding. The kittens their their kibble softened with cat milk. I also brought out some of the donated cat treats. Some I used by the house to distract the adult cats, while kitten treats went into the catio “trap”.

I am getting quite frustrated. I’m leaving bait for the kittens, but keep having to chase away adult cats and skunks. Which startled the kittens, so they stay away instead of coming for their treats.

They have been enjoying their new “home” in the remains of the junk pile, though. Lots to run and jump and play around.

They even found a bed.

There’re some sort of old chair cushions in there; a matching seat and back. The seat cushion was leaning at a steep angle, but several kittens still found it made a cozy bed.

Once the tub was set up and soaking, I tried sitting by the catio to “fish” for kittens. Four of them had zero interest, and they all seemed to be easily startled.

When I was ready to move on, I took the cushions from the junk pile and lay them on the ground inside the catio, opposite the big cat carrier. Hopefully, this will encourage them to sleep in the catio instead of in the junk pile.

Then I got a container and did a garden harvest.

There was a surprising amount of bush beans available to harvest! The ones planted later, around the Arikara Squash, are absolutely prolific right now.

The two red tomatoes in the photo are supposed to be Blueberry tomatoes. The other three plants of that variety all have tomatoes so dark, they’re almost black, but one plant is producing red tomatoes instead, which are ripening faster. The plants are otherwise identical looking.

There were quite a few orange currant tomatoes ready for picking, too. The most I’ve picked at one time, so far!

While in the area, I checked on the one Arikara squash that’s maturing. It’s gotten as big as I think it’s going to get, and the shell is starting to harden. I had set it on top of a brick to get it off the ground, and I picked up the squash to check that the brick wasn’t causing any damage.

It wasn’t, but I found several huge snails!

Thankfully, the squash is big enough and hard enough that they’re not interested in trying to eat it. I still flicked them away. Then I went into my stash of lumber cast offs in the garage and brought back a board to set under the squash, on top of the brick, to give it smoother support – and hopefully, the snails won’t want to climb around it!!

After that, I checked on the grapes (second photo in the slide show above). It’s really hard to find them under all the foliage, but there are a LOT of grape clusters hidden in there. They look quite ready for picking. Not this evening, though. Hopefully, they’ll still be there tomorrow and we can start picking them and maybe make some jelly or something. It’s been a while since we’ve made grape jelly. The last few years, the raccoons got to them before we did.

By then, I could tell I was reaching my limit and didn’t want to push things. Once inside, my older daughter suggested we make up some individual charcuterie platters for ourselves for supper, which was quite enjoyed.

By then, the painkillers were definitely wearing off – just in time for my evening 6 hour alarm to go off and it was time to take some more.

As I write this, it’s still a bit achy, but it does not seem to be getting worse. I’m about ready for bed, though, and it’s not even 8:30 yet!

It looks like we’re going to have some absolutely beautiful weather over the next while, including days with more rain. Daytime highs are expected to mostly be in the low to mid 20’s C/68F, with overnight temperatures staying in the teens. Our average last frost date was September 10. As of right now, the forecast for the 10th is a high of 19C/66F, and the overnight low at 13C/55F. Absolutely no danger of frost at all.

Thank you, El Nińo!

At this point, the long range forecast suggests we’ll see our first frost around the 20th or so. I’m hoping for a repeat of one of our first winters out here, were we didn’t get our first frost until November and almost had a brown Christmas!

I’d rather like to see that again – and just a mild winter, overall.

I’m getting too old for winter, and we have too many things that break down – including ourselves! – when it gets colder. 🤣😂

Now, if I could just get a few cats off my bed, I might be able to call it a night.

I’m so glad I was able to be productive today! Even if it was just a little bit.

The Re-Farmer

Birthday treat and playing with bebbies

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Today was quiet, for the most part. We’re all pretty drained, exhausted and fighting different kinds of pain.

I’m incredibly frustrated. The weather and temperatures are absolutely ideal for working outside, and I can do next to none of it.

I never took the hydromorphone my husband gave me, last night. I waited until I was more confident that I had no T3s left in my system and, by then, the pain had subsided on its own. I wasn’t about to take such a high dose without genuine need. When my 6 hour alarm went off during the night, when I would normally have taken more T3s, I wasn’t even dealing with a lot of pain in my hip, so I skipped it. In the morning, there was just a dull ache. This time, I took a tramadol instead.

It made no difference.

Aside from my daughter doing the morning routine outside for me, we mostly just took it easy. We did have a planned outing, though. My husband has a birthday this month and my older daughter treated us to his dinner of choice. Normally, that would be pizza, but he can no longer tolerate dairy, even with Lactase, so he chose Chinese food, instead. With this, we typically order just a lot of meat and seafood, with my husband also getting some chicken fried rice. We order enough to last us a couple of days, at least, which got us some free rice and deep fried wontons, and we prefer to do our own vegetables at home. This time, my older daughter baked the last of the bush beans and summer squash we had in the fridge, which was quite delicious.

My younger daughter and I headed out shortly before 1, to miss the lunch rush and to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble on the way out. We both were thinking today was Tuesday, though. It’s Wednesday, which means the general store closed at noon. We’ll have to go tomorrow, instead. Which is fine.

When we got to the area around the restaurant, we had to drive around the block a couple of times trying to find parking. There was nothing nearby at all, and we ended up parking closer to the marina. I wasn’t even sure it that area was public parking, or parking for boat owners.

By this point, I was having trouble walking, but still well enough that I turned down a cane when my daughter offered to get one out of our collection in the back of the truck for me. We placed the order and paid for it, then set a pick up time long enough for us to make a side trip to the grocery store. We wanted to pick up drinks for everyone, but ended up getting a Boston Creme cake that was on sale, even though there is still a bit of the Costco slab cake left. I noticed some good sales on grapes and a few other things, so my daughter and I also picked what we needed to have a small charcuterie later on, to go with the new cheeses we got in the city. By the time the groceries were paid for, I was relying on the cart to use as a walker.

When we got back to the restaurant, there still wasn’t any parking nearby, so I dropped my daughter off by the door then pulled over in the lane around the corner. After she got back with the food, I had to ask her to do the driving. My alarm had gone off for my afternoon T3 dose just as we returned to the truck after ordering the food, but it made no difference. The pain just kept getting worse.

It has since subsided again, and I’m down to a dull ache. Tomorrow, my Percocet gets delivered. I’m really hoping that works better than the T3s. If it doesn’t, then I’ll probably end up with my own prescription for hydromorphone – just not as high a dose as what my husband is getting!

After we enjoyed our first day of birthday take out, I felt well enough to go outside and do the cat feeding. I even watered the south garden beds, though I wasn’t up to doing the main garden area, too. After a couple of hours, I went out again to top up the kittens’ bowl of kibble softened with cat milk in the catio, since other critters have been stealing their food. Then I set up the camp chair and started fishing for kittens.

The little black one with the white stripe up the side of its nose is more enthusiastic about it. One of the tabbies got curious and started coming over, but not close. The other kittens were much more interested in playing among the white lilacs.

The Grink wasn’t interested this time, but Sweetie sure was! At one point, she was stalking the lure at the same time as the kitten, but she does not like the kittens at all. Without the distraction of the lure, she growls and spits at them, and I’ve even seen her bat at them.

I did manage to get the little black one close enough that I could reach down and touch its back, but it did not like that, so I didn’t push my luck with it.

Then my alarm went off for my evening meds, so I headed back inside.

Tomorrow and the day after, there are people from the rescue available to meet up with us, so I’ve talked to my daughter about working on getting kittens closed up into the carrier. That will mean heading out fairly often to see if they’ve gone in, and maybe setting some treats out as bait. Hard to do that and keep the other cats away, though. Thankfully, the rescue have us quite a lot of donated treats, including some just for kittens, so we could probably set out some for the bigger cats as a distraction, then put the kitten treats out for the little ones.

I pray for quick success on this! With their mother gone, there’s only so much we can do to protect them. We really need to get them in to the rescue for fostering and adoption! Otherwise, their chances of survival are very low. At this point, it even looks like Sprout and Sprig, the two calicos, are gone! Sprout had Sprig last year, along with two others that disappeared. The older white and grey that we are also trying to catch is Sprout’s from this year, and I am sure she actually had more than one kitten.

We have had so many adult cats disappear this year. We would expect that with some of the males disappearing for the summer, then coming back for the winter, but these are mostly females that have disappeared. At least a couple that I’m sure had a litter somewhere. Among the others, both fixed and intact cats have disappeared. The person at the rescue whose daughter had been fostering Domino is pretty devastated that they brought her back, and now she’s gone.

Such is the reality of yard cats.

I say as I hear the sounds of cats fighting outside my window!!!

Excuse me while I go check on that.

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day at home

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My daughter and I didn’t have to go anywhere today, which turned out to be a good thing. We were both pretty wasted.

My daughter had done out to do the morning cat feeding, but was feeling quite terrible, so she ended up going back to bed to try and get some sleep. She told me she’d had nightmares for some reason, and got little sleep. !!!

While my doctor has not officially put me on bed rest, I did try to take it easy.

It didn’t make a difference.

As the day wore on, the pain returned even though I’d done nothing that might trigger it. I tried lying down again and it just kept getting worse.

I did eventually give and and went outside to do the evening cat feeding and switch out the memory cards. I do that every week or two instead of daily, now. As I went by the crab apples to get to the sign came, I made a discovery.

We lost another tree to yesterday’s high winds. Another dead spruce. This one looks like we can actually salvage it to use in raised beds. The last one that fell in this area – falling right on a crab apple tree – the trunk split down its length, so not something I want to use longer lengths of. This one seems pretty intact.

By the time I was done switching out the memory cards and walking through the garden beds, I was at my limit. I ended up setting a camp chair near the catio with the cat toy fishing rod. All the kittens were in the junk pile. I messaged my daughters and let them know the status of things, and they later came out to water the garden for me and take care of a few other things.

I had significant success with one kitten in particular.

The Grink and Sweetie made things difficult, as they were very interested in catching the worm, even if it meant going right through a kitten. After a while, though, they tired out enough that the kittens had a chance. The black one with the white line on the side of its nose came close enough that I was able to pet it and almost picked it up.

The tabby in the last picture of the above slide show is another braver one. My younger daughter sat in the chair to play with them before they came in and that one went under the chair – and she was able to pick it up and put it on her lap!!

None of them were going into the catio, though. The kittens that weren’t interested in the toy were busy playing in the junk pile, along with the older white and grey singleton.

So, no chance of catching them today, but progress on the socialization front.

Meanwhile, my pain levels are still increasing. I think today, I’m gong to skip the evening T3s, wait a couple of hours and try the hydromorphone. I forgot to call the pharmacy to see if the fax with my new Percocet prescription came in. I’ll have to do that tomorrow.

It I weren’t planning to wait to get the T3s completely out of my system first, I’d be going to bed right now, and it’s not even 7pm yet. I’m having difficulty sitting upright in my chair.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Bebbies, doctor’s visit and deer scarer failure

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Today was my follow up with the doctor after my last ER visit. The appointment was in the afternoon, but my daughter and I left early, with plans to have lunch before heading to the clinic.

I am quite glad we left as early as we did!

On the way to the truck, though, I checked on the catio in its new location. My daughter had seen the kittens at the branch pile again when doing the morning feeding, but they soon joined the singleton kitten at the shrine feeding station, so I wanted to see if they were still around.

I found a furry little slug in the carrier.

It moved before I had a chance to get my phone out to take a picture.

It had been completely flattened along the curve of the carrier, snoozing. After looking around a bit, it finally saw me and got nervous, so I left it be.

In wandering through the garden beds, I discovered something.

Every single Yellow Swiss Chard that had been growing between the garlic is now gone. All of it. There’s nothing but weeds left.

The deer scarer did not go off while I was there, even though I set it to 24 hours instead of night only. Yesterday I was hearing it go off constantly, but never saw any critters. I think tree branches in the wind might have been setting it off. I thought maybe the solar charge was dead because of this but when I tested it, it still worked. So I have no clue why it stopped working! Not that it matters anymore. There’s nothing that the deer like to eat left.

*sigh*

Meanwhile, I had been feeling quite good when I got up this morning but, by the time I finished walking around the yard, the pain was starting to come back, and it kept getting worse throughout the day.

*doublesigh*

With all the construction on the highway we would normally have taken, we took the highway towards the town south of us before cutting across. It was a very disheartening drive. There were SO many squished garter snakes on the road! There were some live ones we managed to avoid hitting, one I never saw that my daughter thinks I might have hit and one that I know I missed, only to look in my rear view mirror and see the vehicle behind me run over it. 😭

I wish the “snake fences” that are on the highway nearest the snake dens extended further south. These are fences in the ditches that guide the snakes through tunnels under the highway. These were built in an area so close to the dens that had so many snakes crossing it, it was impossible not to hit them and the highway actually became dangerously slippery from them all. We don’t get THAT many snakes this far from the dens, but it is still a tragic number of snakes never making it to their winter dens. Garter snakes are not at all dangerous and are excellent pest control. We need more of them!

Taking the alternate route did allow us to avoid most of the construction, but there was still a section of it we needed to get through before our turn off. Then we got stuck behind slower traffic. We still got to the area early enough to grab a quick lunch, then continue to the clinic. We left almost 2 hours early, with the drive normally taking about 45-50 minutes. We got to the clinic only 15 minutes early for my appointment.

I was most definitely relying on the walker at this point, and my daughter came in with me. We must have been quite a sight. Me with my walker, her with her cane!

We spoke for a while about how things went after the surgery, leading to the ER visit, and how I’ve been doing since then. I told her I’ve been taking the T3s every 6 hours as instructed, but I really don’t feel it’s making a difference. I had taken my afternoon dose just before going into the clinic, and the pain just kept getting worse as I sat there. We talked about taking tramadol and I told her I did still have some tramadol left, though not a lot. I’d had the tramadol injection at the ER, which did seem to work. I brought up that the ER doctor had suggested hydromorphone and that I might want to try my husband’s, just to see if it worked and if I had any reaction to it. I explained that she had said to take 1mg, and to split the pill if my husband was on 2mg, but that my husband’s dose is 12mg. The doctor was rather startled by that and asked what was wrong that he was on such a high dose, and I explained his back injury – and that the hydromorphone basically just takes the edge off the pain for him.

In the end, she did say that, if I felt the need, to go ahead and try my husband’s dose of hydromorphone! She could not prescribe it to me, though, as she did not have the hand written, triplicate prescription pad needed for it, as a “controlled substance”.

I never got to mention that I already had tried it, some time ago, and it worked quite well. I haven’t tried it again since then because it cannot be taken with the same class of painkillers as T3s. I’d have to wait until any acetaminophen type medication is out of my system completely. That includes the tramadol I still have left.

Meanwhile, we talked about it a bit more and she said she would prescribe some Percocet for me to try. At this point, we’re just on pain management until she gets the results of the biopsy. She did check before coming in to see me, and there was nothing back yet. I already have the 4 week follow up appointment booked, so I’ll be seeing her again in the middle of September and she will have the results by then.

She did start to tell me that she didn’t think she would have good news for me, but with that she meant she expects I will need a hysterectomy. To which I responded YES PLEASE!!! She laughed, because I’d already told her I was just fine with having one. If, however, the tests show cancer, I’m going to have to see a specialist in the city, because the hospital she does surgeries in does not have the resources for that. If she didn’t have to wait for the test results, she told me she could do the hysterectomy at any time, based on what she saw on the camera during the fibroidectomy. She said it’s actually pretty common as women get older.

Even as I was sitting there with the doctor, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the pain. I was till okay to drive to the nearby Walmart, while the doctor said she would fax the new prescriptions to our pharmacy. With my daughter helping out, we picked up a few things we hadn’t gotten during the city trip yesterday. I even finally found a package of assorted grades of sand paper that I had been looking for but couldn’t find while in the city.

There wasn’t much else we needed to get there, and we were soon heading to town to pick up my new meds, with my daughter driving. When we got to the pharmacy, I stayed in the truck while she ran in. She was soon back to let me know they had not received the fax yet. Meanwhile, I had just received a message from my husband. The pharmacy had called him to remind him that he’d be getting a delivery on Thursday. So I asked her to let them know that, once the fax comes in, my prescriptions can be added to the delivery.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, I will phone to see if the faxed prescriptions came in. If they did not, someone will need to call the clinic about it.

That done, we only needed to stop to get more gas in the truck – once again, I stayed in the truck while my daughter took care of it – before heading home.

It took a while, but the pain did finally start to recede and I felt able to go outside and walk around a bit. I tried fishing for kittens after topping up the food bowl in the catio (my older daughter took care of their evening feeding while her sister and I were gone). Theirs gets cat milk added to soften the kibble which, unfortunately, means I spent more time chasing other cats – and a very determined skunk! – away from their food. I was able to stay out until my alarm went off for my next dose of T3s. Which seems pointless. Taking it regularly should be acting as a preventative, which isn’t happening.

Hopefully, the Percocet will work better.

I have to say, I’m feeling increasingly frustrated. My daughter joked with the doctor about how I’m not allowed to do yard work right now. Fair enough, but I need to be doing SOMETHING! There is so much that I want to be doing. The doctor had brought up putting me on bed rest but decided against it. She could see I was already doing that as needed but one of the meds I’ll be getting is the one to stop bleeding, and I can’t be on bed rest if I’m taking that. I would have to mover around or risk blood clots. So I have not been put on bed rest, but I have to NOT be doing anything that that involves physical exertion.

At least I can use the riding mower.

On the way home, I talked to my daughter about some of the things I can physically do, with just a bit of help to set up. Like work on the round cutting boards I want to make out of slices of that elm tree. I want to get those cut, cleaned, sanded and conditioned before the green wood starts to dry out and crack. We’ll see about getting the chain saw out to cut the slices to the thickness I’m after, and she’ll take care of actually lifting and moving the pieces to where I can work on cleaning and sanding them before they can be oiled.

Cutting the slices might be a challenge. My electric chain saw has a 14″ bar. I’m pretty sure the pieces I’m looking to cut into thinner slices are more than 14″ across! The pile of elm pieces is right near an outdoor outlet, so that helps.

We had a solid rainfall last night, and rain off and on today, which was much needed. No rain is expected over the next few days, though, so we should be able to plug in the chain saw and do some cutting, if my daughter is up to moving very heavy pieces of wood for me.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer