I just have to share this photo of Creamsicle first!

What a silly kitty!

I had a whole bunch of them, all wanting attention, following me when I went back to the trail cam to change the batteries. Unfortunately, as the batteries get low, the camera has a harder time with night recordings. The infrared flash takes a lot of juice, and I can see the difference, from day to day as I check the files. Last night the motion sensor was triggered after dark, and I could just barely make out the glowing eyes of a deer at the end of the driveway.

The deer are definitely getting more comfortable around the house. We’re seeing more of them as things warm up, and I’ve been finding fresh tracks going around the front of the house, following the cat paths to and from the sun room. This morning, I found fresh tracks in front of the garage, right at the doors! Usually, the tracks just go down the driveway.

I did see our vandal in the trail cam, going by again yesterday. This time, he was taking his walk while it was still daylight, and just stopped on the road a couple of times, staring into the property. I’m not even sure what he was looking at, the second time he stopped. The old hay yard? The barn?

I didn’t get to calling the RCMP yesterday (he’s been told to stay away, so while walking on the road and staring might be creepy, it’s walking up to the gate and grabbing hold of it that goes against police instructions), so after dropping my daughter off at work, I figured I’d swing by the RCMP station in town and talk to someone. I don’t know if this would be a new file or not, since the vandalism file was closed after he completed whatever program he was on, back in August. Unfortunately, they’re closed on the weekends. If I want to talk to someone in person and ask questions, I’ll have to try again on Monday.

I had to swing by the vet as well. My daughter spotted a worm on Susan last night. *sigh* That means all the cats need to be de-wormed. Seven cats, 7 pills, $125! These are a lot more expensive than I remember. 😦

I had a couple of things to pick up at the grocery store, too. I forgot to bring the 5 gallon water bottle for refilling, but their no-name bottled water is so cheap right now, I’ll pick up some of those when I come back to pick up my daughter, instead. This store is still pretty well stocked in most things – a friend of mine in the city we moved away from tried going shopping yesterday, and they were out of toilet paper, paper towels, bread, flour, meat, and more. The only thing this store was mostly out of was toilet paper, and they were already bringing more out to restock the shelves. They are also limiting people to 2 packs per person. My daughter messaged us while on break, and the pharmacy is completely out of things like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, masks and thermometers. Chatting with a customer in line, he said that all the schools are going to be shut down later this month, people are being told not to go to work, and businesses are being told to not bother opening. He said he’d heard that the waiting period for Employment Insurance has been waived, so if people lose their jobs because businesses are closing, they’ll at least have that. But what are all these businesses going to do? Especially the small local businesses? They don’t qualify for things like employment insurance, but they still have to pay out for things like sick leave – something else they don’t qualify for, for themselves.

And we still don’t even have a confirmed case in our province!

The weird thing is, people are busily stocking up on things like toilet paper and fresh foods, like meat, but if they did catch the corona virus, the treatment is the same as for a bad cold. So what they’ll be needing is things like tea, soup, and cold medications to treat fevers. Once this thing blows over and the panic subsides, a lot of people who stocked up on perishable foods are probably going to end up just throwing it all away.

Ah, well.

Another reason to be thankful we’re living in the boonies.

This weekend, in our little hamlet, there is an antiques and collectible sale going on. I’ve been meaning to check it out for the past couple of years, and this time I was able to swing by on the way home.

It’s always fascinating to go to things like this and find stuff I grew up using – or as is the case now, finding laying about the farm – being sold as antiques or collectibles. They tend to be in better shape than what I’m finding, though. Still, a box full of rusty old hammers or piles of hand saws that have been cleaned and oiled are still just rusty old hammers and saws like what we’ve got kicking about!

Maybe one of these years, we’ll have our own table set up. 😀

Well, I’ve got a few hours before I need to head out again, so I think I will get back to working on the basement while I can. I wasn’t able to set up the dehumidifier as I’d intended. The water basin is gone! My daughters had used it on the second floor, our first winter out here when they were painting (it was so humid up there, the first coat of pain just sloughed off!), and it definitely had it’s basin when it was returned to the basement, as far as anyone can remember. It hasn’t been used, since, and it’s tucked away in the corner, next to the well pump this whole time.

There was a second dehumidifier that I moved when cleaning out the other side of the basement, so I took the basin from there, hoping that would work, but its dimensions are completely different. The float is missing from this one, so there’s no point in even testing to see if it works. From the state of it, I don’t think so.

Still, I left the blower running all night, so the floor and shelves should be dry.

Time to get back to work.

The Re-Farmer