… have come out to play.
Three of Butterscotch’s 4 kittens came out to play this evening.
I haven’t seen Beep Beep’s kittens in a couple of days. I hope she didn’t move them. They’re a bit big for that, and she’s a tiny cat!
The Re-Farmer
Month: July 2018
Caged
In the heat of summer, the old farmhouse does tend to stay cooler, even without air conditioning. On really hot days, we would open up the basement doors to allow the cool air to circulate as a sort of geothermal air conditioning.
Since we haven’t started clearing and cleaning the basement, and there is too much breakable stuff to risk the cats, we have been keeping the basement doors closed.
While my brother was here today, he wanted to check out the basement in hopes of finding the fan that used to be there. He had already taken out the glass window to the old part basement out and popped on the metal mesh window that is meant to be there for the summer. Once inside, he removed the foam insulation that was there, so we now have some natural light and a bit of air circulation.
He then showed me where the fan was supposed to be, and described it more to me as he indicated how it fit on the ledge he’d built for it. We even went into the new part basement to look around, but there’s no sign of it. (For now, we’re leaving the foam insulation in the new part basement windows; there’s really no need to take it out.)
While there, he dragged out an industrial blower. He had shown it to me before, but I somehow never thought it was something that could be used like a regular fan. With the basement being dry right now, I wasn’t concerned. It’s there to make sure the concrete stays dry, so the base of the furnace doesn’t start rusting, even though it’s slightly elevated from the floor. He plugged it in and it’s working fine, so we at least have that aimed at the base of the furnace, and it’s powerful enough that it’s going to move a whole lot of air at the same time.
It’s been another warm day, and my husband is having a harder time of it; he’s always been someone who prefers cooler to warmer temperatures, but now his tolerance for heat is much lower. We’ve been trying to think of ways we could open the basement door without letting the cats in. We’ve thought of getting a screen door, or of one of those stick on mesh curtains. Now that I think of it, we might not need to buy a screen door. There might be one in a shed somewhere, though what sort of condition it might be in is something else to consider!
My husband, however, had a brilliant idea.
We have grid wall.
Or, more specifically, we have our daughter’s grid wall from her art festival displays.
They are 4×6 ft, and we have special clips to attach them to each other. Since they were last used, they’ve been left attached in pairs. The clips allow the grids to fold against each other, and made it easier to carry them.
Would it work to put grid wall in the doorway?
Well, we found a way.
The grid wall is stable enough that it won’t fall over, one way or the other, and the edges are braced so that the cats won’t be able to push past. The basement door can close more than enough to access the bedroom door, which is right next to it.
Plus, the light switch can still be accessed.
So far, so good! We have cooler air circulating, and the doorway is caged to keep the cats from doing down.
Just for a lark, I should have some paintings on the grid wall. :-D
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Window Frogs and awesome brothers
My older brother unexpectedly came by today, and while I was outside with him, my daughter popped out to warn me that we cannot close the kitchen window right now.
We have a guest.
It’s been sitting there for several hours, now!
It is so CUTE! I love my little green friend. :-D
A nice little surprise to add to a day with a much larger, amazing surprise.
One of the things that has been put on hold until the power is restored to the garage and barn is some work my older brother and his wife want to do in the barn so they can paint it. So when my brother started talking about bringing over a compressor, I just assumed it was so they could use it in the barn somehow. There used to be a compressor in one of the side sheds of our garage, and another in the barn, but both are gone – along with many other things, large and small. Things have been disappearing for years, so even while my dad was still living here, my brother got into the habit of bringing everything he needed to fix things out here, because he couldn’t assume the tools and equipment he would need would still be around.
My brother ended up coming out to help our mom with something and, since he was so close and the compressor was already loaded in the truck, he came by to drop it off.
To my surprise, he didn’t want to unload it in the barn, but in the side shed of the garage. This meant we had to move out the riding mower and a bunch of other things to clear the corner where the old compressor used to be, then he managed to back his truck in part way. The space is just barely wide enough for the truck box, and my brother to still squeeze in. I had intended to help at least somewhat, but I couldn’t fit. I’m a fair bit wider than my marathon running brother! LOL Which turned out to be handy, because I ended up being able to grab things for him from my side and pass it through.
Getting that thing unloaded was a huge job. This thing is incredibly heavy! But he got it in the corner and set it up. Once he was able to, he moved the truck so I could come in, and he showed me various things about it, hooked up the hose and the new nozzle, with he had tested to ensure they worked (since we can’t test it here, until the power is hooked up). He even drilled a hole through the wall so the plug could be passed through and plugged in in the main garage area, because it uses more power than is wired to the outlets in the shed.
At one point, we had to move things from the garage side of the wall, for access. I have not done anything when it comes to cleaning and sorting the garage right now; we will probably work on that next spring. So there is a lot there that I’ve never seen.
Including this strange thing with a hand grip, a long nozzle, and a hose. I had to ask my brother, as I moved it out of the way; what is it? Looking at it briefly, he said it was likely a torch. Of the sort that was used to singe the hair off pig carcasses during butchering, though it could also be used for other things. Very dangerous. (At least it would be, if it were attached to a gas canister.)
So… It’s a flame thrower.
We have a flame thrower in our garage. !!
Too funny!
As this was all getting done and he was showing me all these things about the compressor, I finally commented that I was surprised it wasn’t taken to the barn, since I though they were going to use it somehow when they cleaned and painted.
Oh, no, he tells me. This is for me, in case we ever need to pump our tires.
!!!
I was totally stunned. All that work to fix up the compressor, much of which was done after it was loaded into the back of the truck (it’s so heavy, it was easier that way), getting it out here, unloading it and setting it up, just so we could have a compressor, if we ever needed one!
I have the most awesome brother.
As we were talking about compressor, and how pleased he was with how little it ended up costing him to fix, I had to ask what a new one would cost. One like this, he estimated about $1100, but the one that used to be there, he figured was worth about $2500.
!!!
On the one hand, I am so grateful for his generosity and amazed that he did this for us.
On the other, I am dismayed once again over the things that have grown legs and walked away over the years.
But now we have a heavy duty, industrial compressor, with working hose and nozzle (there are still hoses hanging on the wall, but some are missing their tips, and we’d have to test others to see if they were any good anymore; the good one that was being used, of course, is gone with the old compressor).
And I have the most awesome brother!
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Views
While driving my daughter to work this morning, we saw some pretty incredible views.
Right now, a couple of flax fields we pass are in bloom.
My daughter was able to get some photos of this one out her window for me. The canola fields are in full bloom right now, too. So we are seeing this amazing purpley-blue in the flax field, framed by brilliant yellow. There’s a wheat field that’s starting to turn from green to gold, and other crops in differing shades of green that we pass along the way, broken up by groups of trees sheltering farm yards or planted as shelter belts. So gorgeous!
After dropping my daughter off, I parked by the lake for a bit, got a bit of Pokemon Go in while also enjoying the view.
It’s tourist season right now, so later in the day and on weekends, things get very crowded on this beach. This early in the morning on a weekday, there were very few people out, so it was quiet and peaceful.
Where we lived before moving here, we had some pretty impressive views over a river valley, even though we were downtown. But for me, growing up in the prairies, nothing beats the wild open expanses out here!!
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
First Fruits
While doing a check around the yard for downed branches, I went past the remains of the raspberry patch along the big garden. There I found the first ripe raspberries of the year!
There are so few surviving raspberries left that I don’t expect much more, but now that they have started to ripen, it will be good to check them every day until the season for them is done.
Next year, I hope we will be able to start up a new raspberry patch in a better location, and with other varieties as well. :-)
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Not the kind of windfall I was wanting…
We’ve been getting storm warnings for the day, but in our area that has translated to high winds, some rain, and hot, humid air!
I have made it a practice to walk around the yard after we’ve had high winds to check out what damage there might be. Most of the time, I find some downed branches that I can just pick up and take to one of the wood piles we’ve got around. Sometimes, I’ll have to make a couple of trips.
Not today.
This time, I grabbed a wheelbarrow.
My younger daughter and I headed out to town and were gone for perhaps 2 hours. When we left, there were maybe a few small branches on the ground.
This is what I picked up after we got back.
Most of this is willow from only two trees. Willows are pretty indestructible, but notorious for dropping smaller branches in a stiff breeze. There are more than small branches! Plus, most of this is from the willow that’s overhanging the power lines.
As I continued around the yard, I found these.
Charred bits of wood, near the area I’d found the burned branch a while ago. Yes, it’s directly under the main power lines, though went I looked up, all I could see was some lower maple branches, and could not tell where these burned bits had fallen from.
Yikes.
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Cat puddle
More Kittens!
This morning, we finally saw Butterscotch’s kittens!
All four of them.
Looks like she found a nest for them in the pallet pile. Which means we can see the area from our living room window.
Mama was being very watchful!
Click on the pictures to see bigger versions.
Two orange tabbies and two are…
Is that called calico or tortoise shell?
It does make me wonder about Beep Beep’s kittens. She has a tuxedo. We have not seen any tuxedo cats outside. Not even at my brother’s.
Anyhow…
My apologies for the poor quality pictures. I was taking them through reflections on the glass. I tried to take out the glare as much as I could when I cropped and resized the photos.
They are SO adorable! I can’t wait until the two sets of kittens connect.
Our outdoor cat population has gone up by at least 6. Maybe 7.
What are we going to do with them?
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
More Kitten
I had a chance to sit outside on the steps the kittens are hidden inside. I was able to give Beep Beep some cat treats, and her little ones came out to see what was going on.
The tuxedo came out first. It seems to be the more adventurous one!
It even went for my fingers! :-D
You can see a ball of ice at the bottom of the picture. This is from my water balloon experiment. I still don’t know if it’s working! I’m not around to see if Beep Beep does anything with is (if nothing else, it’s watering the bush a bit), and I haven’t been around to see if the cats are checking out the larger one I left in one of their water bowls.
The tuxedo even went farther afield while I was there.
The grey tabby did eventually come out and stay out, but by then it was too dark for photos.
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Ah, family
One of the benefits of moving out here is that we are close to family again. Both sides. Which, of course, makes it much easier to get together and visit and spend time together.
Being close to family is a good thing.
Unfortunately, family is why we left in the first place. Specifically, my mother. That’s a long story that doesn’t belong on this blog, but after 14 years away, things have changed and the biggest reason behind our leaving doesn’t exist anymore. Still, when my mother asked us to move to the empty farm and take care of it for her, we did have to consider certain relationship issues along with everything else. My mother is an amazing woman in many respects; intelligent, brave, strong, and a real survivor. There are just… other issues.
Today, I ended up having an unplanned visit with my mother, so we could lend her our scale. She is going for surgery in a couple of months (yay! Finally – though not for her knee replacement, yet), and the surgeon wants her to lose some weight. She remembered that there was a scale here, under a dresser that was in the hallway near the old kitchen. I told her that yes, there was a scale here, but we packed all that up. She was surprised that the stuff was not in that corner anymore and asked what was there now. The cat litter box, I told her. Oh, no! she lamented. She doesn’t like that we have cats, because then we have a litter box, and then there’s the smell and…
I had to remind her what I’d already told her about before; that when we moved that dresser, we found old cat litter (and more). Oh, but that wasn’t while she was at the farm… *sigh*
Okay. Moving on.
Once it was agreed that I would just lend her our scale, so she didn’t have to buy herself a new one, we worked out that I would come over today and finally get a visit in.
It was actually a good visit, overall, which is always appreciated. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to show her pictures on my phone. So she got to see the kittens, and some of her flowers. I showed her the progress in the old kitchen and some of the things I found. I also showed her pictures of different areas in the yard that I’ve been cleaning up.
It was so strange.
I get some very mixed messages from my mother.
We are here to take care of the place for her. Which we have been. However, we have noticed things that are a priority that she had never had to concern herself over, because my dad or my brothers always took her of them. In her mind, the priorities are the things she worked on. Like the garden. Which we’ve not touched this year and is overgrown. At one point, she told me that I was lazy, and that I was unintelligent. But when I would tell her about the work I’ve been doing around the yard, she would start telling me that I shouldn’t be doing it, I should get my oldest brother to do it. The one that lives 1 1/2 hours away. Because I, being female, shouldn’t be doing this stuff.
Today, I started showing her pictures of different areas among the trees I’d cleared out. Not even all of them; just the most recent. This included before and after pictures, of course. As I showed her a few… then a few more… then a bunch more… she suddenly sat back, looked at me and said; “you need a man around!”
*facepalm*
So, if I don’t do the work, I’m lazy, but if I DO do the work, I shouldn’t be doing it, because it’s men’s work (and let’s not even start on what she must think about my husband being disabled, in constant pain and unable to do this stuff). I don’t think she even realized how insulting she was being, even when I told her flat out, that’s insulting.
There was no sense that she felt anything positive about what I’ve been doing. I’d show her where I’d trimmed away from the storage house stairs and cleared her grapes a bit, and she demanded to know if I was watering them. Was I doing this? No, I’m focusing on that. Well, what about this other thing? No, I’m doing this, this and that, because they’re more of a priority. What am I doing about those things over there? Well, this is what I have planned. Oh, she’d never do it that way, she did it this way and it was never a problem. Gee, thanks, Mom.
It’s an odd position to be in. I’m am glad that we moved out there, even with all the problems that came with the move. I’m enjoying the work of getting things cleaned up, fixed up and cleared out, that hadn’t been done for so many years. Every area we’ve worked on looks and feels so much better, even if there is still much work to do. As I walk through different areas that I’ve cleared in the yard, it feels so much more open and airy and welcoming, and I can hardly wait to keep going. Right now, I’m holding back until my birthday gift gets here. Which was supposed to be delivered on Friday, but now when I check the tracking, there’s no date and it’s back to “in transit” at the city. Turns out that we are “in a remote area where delivery does not happen every day”. No kidding. I should be receiving notifications now, though, if not a call, about delivery. I might have to pick it up from a depot in the town my mother lives in, but we’ll see. Until then, the clearing of the trees will wait.
The main thing is, while we are taking care of the place for my mom, it is becoming more and more our home. My mother somehow thought that we could just leave everything behind and move into the house as it was, because everything was already perfect, and she’s still not understanding that no, it wasn’t perfect. Not even close to perfect. And we are finding things she knew nothing about that need to be dealt with.
I think, in a way, she never will. And certainly I know that I will never be good enough, or do right, in her eyes. But I do wish she would, if not appreciate the work that’s being done, stop telling me that I shouldn’t be doing it, because I’m female.
Ah, family.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 