Ah, what a day!
Before I get into it, however, I will share some adorableness! :-D
I was outside and decided to check the sun room, to see if it was safe to close up the doors for the night.
It wasn’t quite there yet…
Month: September 2018
Just for a moment
I got a serious of photos while the birds were flitting on and off the feeder, including several of a couple of nuthatches. This one came and went quickly, so it wasn’t until I uploaded it to the computer that I found myself wondering.
Is this really a nuthatch? In all the other photos, the nuthatches are completely white around the eye, but this one is different. It was there for just a moment, and it looks just like any other nuthatch, except for how the black is on its head.
Now I’m curious.
The Re-Farmer
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Pizza night
After all our running around in town today, we decided a pizza night was in order.
This one’s mine.
Alfredo Pizza. One of the best I’ve ever had, with broccoli, chicken and alfredo sauce.
Sooooo good!
Normally, today would have been our day to go into the city for our monthly shop, but that will likely happen the day after tomorrow. I will be out much of tomorrow, as I’ve booked an oil change, and I’m asking them to check the wheel bearings and take it for a spin, to see if the mystery noise will start. We’ll see what they say after their inspection, before we make any trips to the city!
I should be able to visit my mother, as well, since she lives just a couple of blocks from the garage I’m going to. I will have to try to explain to her – again – that when the home care workers come in for a meal assist, they can only heat up prepared food. They don’t have the time to cook food from scratch, which it turns out she’s still expecting them to do. Plus, apparently, she was being very rude to them about it, too. My older brother, who is their contact person, got a phone call about her not having prepared food for them to heat up. Which we all had made sure there was lots of. He was able to get through to our mom (he’s not even in this province right now!) and was able to establish that yes, there is still lots of food in the fridge, and even more in the freezer. It basically just needs to be assembled into meals and heated – and my jars of chili are still there, too, which need nothing extra done. She was just being a pain, demanding of them more than they are supposed to do. :-(
Years ago, my mother worked as a home care worker, but things have changed a great deal since then. She refuses to accept that. Still, you’d think she would at least treat them better! :-(
Well, she is slated for a total of 14 days of home care. She should be recovered enough to be able to do a lot more herself, by the time the two weeks are up. Which should be early next week. She surgical area is healing well, and her mobility is quite good (especially for someone who is 87 and is in need of a knee replacement!). She gets tired easily, which I would expect to continue for some weeks, yet, but she’s getting her 4 daily walks in, as the doctor ordered. It’s basically just down the hall to the lobby area and back, but that’s enough for now. She’s really doing very well, even if she complains about what a difficult time she’s had! :-) She just has nothing in her personal experience to compare it to. She was totally convinced she was going to die, though that was partly due to her racism. She had the best hernia surgeon in the province, but he’s from Nigeria, so… Sadly, it turns out he’s had problems with his own mother, back in Nigeria, who thinks him being a doctor in Canada is wasting his life! Poor guy! At least my brother has made a point of telling him how much he is appreciated, for taking such good care of our mother.
Ah, well. We shall see how it goes, tomorrow!
The Re-Farmer
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Kitties, kitties, pile o’ kitties!
This is what greeted me out the window, when I headed into the kitchen this morning.
The girls and I headed into town today, and as we came out to go to the van, we found Jim up there, watching. :-D
We had visitors this morning, too. The girls saw Dad Cat, a grey and white, at the food bowls. Out my office window, I spotted another, almost completely grey, adult cat running off. As we were leaving, we startled The Outsider – which is what the girls call the all grey ball of fluff kitten that has been coming around – away from the food.
While we were out, my husband opened up the sun room for the cats and later found this.
That’s just a whole pile o’ fluff!
We’re living in cat heaven. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Whatcha doin’ in there?
This jay seemed curious about what I was doing behind the camera.
He kept tilting his head back and forth as I took photos, looking at me, like he was trying to figure me out. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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So many kits!
It seems my husband has made pretty decent progress in socializing the kittens!
He spent some time in the sun room, with the outer doors open, this morning, and got all sorts of visits. Doom Guy is quite happy with attention now, and even Corvo isn’t immediately running away.
Before I started working on cleaning up the old dog house for the cats, I made a point of sitting in the sun room for a while, so they could get used to me, as well.
Someone else was very interested.
DahBoy likes to sit at the bathroom window to watch whoever is in the sun room. Including the outside cats!
I went in and out to top up the bird seed, and found Doom Guy lolling on the ground in front of the sun room. He even played with my fingers.
I put a bit of cat food on the floor to tempt the kitties, then sat on my late father’s favorite chair to see who would show up.
The answer is. all but one of them! Only one of the calico torties came over.
Corvo is now willing to at least come close to me while going by, even if he won’t let me touch him. He was having fun chasing the flies on the window.
Doom Guy even joined me on the chair. <3 Such a cutie!
Even the moms came out while I was working on the dog house.
When I finished with the dog house, I went back inside through the sun room, and found this.
Doom Guy has claimed my butt spot! He was snoozing when I came in and startled him, but he didn’t leave his spot. :-D
This one, at least, has gone from “semi-feral” to “semi-domesticated.” :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Prep for winter: dog house for cats
Today has turned out to be beautifully sunny and warm; the last warm day we’re supposed to get for at least a week. Time to take advantage of it!
One of my goals for the day was to get the old dog house by the sun room cleaned out, re-oriented and winterized for the cats to use.
Here is how it looked, starting out.
Here, I have already removed the sheets of aluminum and metal roofing from the top, and the board that covered the top of the opening.
The first thing to do was to clean out the old straw.
It smelled like pee. :-(
In the process, I discovered it was really easy to move, so I was able to tip it over to get the last of the old straw and dirt out.
Which is when I discovered this.
A board, the head of a metal snow shovel, a toilet tank lid, and a rock.
This was all placed under it to level the doghouse. As you can see, though, the back end had started to sink into the ground. The wood was beginning to rot where it touched the ground.
I wanted to change the direction the opening face, as the south facing opening meant the wind was blowing right in. I considered having it face north, towards the sun room, for maximum shelter from the wind, but after seeing how the ground was uneven, I decided to just turn it 90 degrees. Not quite as sheltered, but still better. Plus, we have some ideas on how to provide even more insulation and shelter, later. We shall see.
I also didn’t want to lay it directly on the ground. There has been a large piece of thick plastic leaning against the house since before we moved here. No one has said anything about why it’s there or if it’s for anything in particular. I think it used to be the cover for the basement window in the past, but the one that’s there now is larger.
So, I claimed it.
The cut outs are a bit of a problem, as it is just shy of the width of the dog house. Which means the corner “legs” slide off, one way or the other, easily. To help with that, I used the two glazed bricks that had been in front of the opening before, and put one on either side, to prevent slippage. Then, for extra measure, I found a rod that I could insert into the ground against one corner. The doghouse can still be easily moved, but not on its own.
Next, fresh straw was put inside for bedding and insulation, and more was added around the sides and back, for insulation.
Coming back with another load of straw to add inside, I found Doom Guy in it, checking it out! :-D
Finally, the metal sheets were put back on the roof, and the board back over the opening.
It’ll do for another winter – probably several winters – but I certainly hope we can replace this with something better, next year.
Who knows how many cats we’ll have by then!
Speaking of cats, they were all over the place, but that will be for another post!
The Re-Farmer
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Thanks for the seeds
This blue jay seems to be enjoying his snack. :-)
I think they have made the connection between us humans and food magically appearing on the feeder. They used to fly off when we came near to top it up, and not come back for hours. Now they come back right away.
The Re-Farmer
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Big Tree ‘shroom!
While taking my walk around the yard, I noticed a new tree mushroom by the collapsing log shed in the yard.
Unlike the others I’ve found, this one was quite low down, so this photo was me holding my phone under it and hoping for the best!
I’m happy with how it turned out.
It amazes me just how fast these things can grow! One day, there’s nothing but tree trunk. A few days later, there’s a huge mushroom.
I have no idea what kind they are. Something to research in the future, I think. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Prep for winter: the old kitchen garden
Well, today was certainly a productive day outside!
I decided to see how much I could get done on the old kitchen garden today, and ended up finishing the job! So I’m happy. :-)
When I came out of the house, I startled cats in all directions, including that new grey ball of fluff. A few of them even hung around while I moved things around the garden to prepare.
The Re-Farmer 