I have noticed that Beep Beep is more willing – or able! – to leave the babies while they sleep. This is encouraging, as it means she is getting food and water, and using the litter, more often. She’s also getting a chance to wander around, say hello, and jump up to one of the windows to look outside.
At least for a little while.
This gave me an opportunity to get pictures of the babies. :-)
I also took advantage of the opportunity to switch out the bedding – and get individual pictures.
Three of the five now have their eyes open! :-)
Beep Beep seemed to appreciate the fresh bedding, too.
Playing with kittens. What a great way to start the day!
Our windy day continues! While we have a few millimeters of rain predicted for this evening, as I type this, I am hearing thunder rolling, and just saw a flash of lightning out my window!
Here’s hoping we don’t loose power while I’m working on this post! :-D
I have continued working on the section of lilac wood I’d experimented on earlier. I decided to try using the cutting tool on my Dremel to make the job go faster – if the Dremel was quiet enough not to disturb Beep Beep and her babies too much.
It was quiet enough, but… there were other issues.
The Dremel I have is not a particularly powerful one. Just a Walmart cheepie, really. Lilac is a surprisingly hard wood, and it was just too much for it!
I ended up stopping part way through my attempt to cut through the wood and finished with a hand saw.
You can see where the friction actually “burned” the wood as the blade ground to a halt!
So I did the rest using a carpenter’s saw, cutting the piece into slices. It took a while, but I eventually got into the rhythm of it, and things went fairly quickly. I cut slices off until I had exactly 3 1/2 inches left – the width of my miter box – to try something different.
It fit just right, and I was able to cut the piece into 4 lengthwise sections. Not as evenly as I would have liked, since it kept trying to roll on me, but that just adds to the interest!
Here are all the pieces I got out of the section of lilac wood.
I really like how the length wise cuts look.
Also… do you notice something about the pieces?
The next step was to take a wire brush to the edges to remove loose bits of bark and clean off any debris. As I worked, I kept noticing a soft spot in the middle of the slices. I finally stopped to take a closer look, and it turned out every round piece had it, as did the centre lengthwise cut.
I used a non-metal brush on them, and eventually decided to just poke at it with a very small screwdriver.
It was basically just wood dust and came right out.
So I cleaned out every disk. Some were small enough that I had to use a wire to clear them out, but every single disk now has a hole in the centre!
I was even able to use the wire to push through the centre cut piece, then use a brush to clean up the open section.
Oh! That was a quick little storm, and I noticed some crazy orange light outside. I just dashed out to see a gorgeous double rainbow!
Also, I got rained on. *shiver*
Now, where was I?
Oh, yes.
Tomorrow, I hope to be able to get back to these and start sanding them smooth and giving them a light coat of oil.
I’m still not sure what I’ll be doing with them, but they’re going to look very pretty when they’re done.
Since all of these had the holes in them, I double checked the first two I’d done, so see if they had that soft spot, too. They did. Barely big enough to use a sewing needle to clean them out. So those two pieces now have tiny holes through them, too. The colourful rings in one of them looks very much like an eye, and now the “pupil” has a tiny hole you can see though. It’s kinda like those “fairy stones” you find at the beach, with natural holes in them. :-)
I like it!
For the size if these, I’m thinking they might make nice pendants. The rings of colour are so dramatic, I feel doing anything more than sanding and oiling them is unnecessary. A possible exception would be to perhaps put a glass bead or something like that into the ones with the larger holes.
My daughter and I went into the shed to get the door I was thinking of using to replace the broken door on the sun room.
The replacement door is in pretty good shape, and even has complete hinges attached, so we took the old door off, hinges and all.
We did not, however, replace it quite yet.
The replacement door is about 2 inches wider.
It is, however, a wooden door, and we do have a circular saw. It was given to us last year, and we’ve yet to use it. Once the weather is calmer, I want to get the old saw horses out of the garage that are matching heights, and we’ll cut the hinge side of the replacement door to the correct width. It’s a temporary measure. Cutting the door will mean that side will be weaker, but we’re not in a position to buy a replacement door. The inside door will do to keep the weather out, for the most part, but it doesn’t close well, either.
Speaking of weather, it’s gotten wild and windy out there since this morning! My daughter and I walked around the yard (I found new deer damage, this time to one of the tamaracks. The bark was torn away all around the trunk, so it’s dead), and I noticed a fair few things blown around since I went through the same areas this morning. We noticed one of the spruce trees is starting to come up at the roots, making it another to keep an eye on. We also looked at where we were thinking to build the cordwood outdoor bathroom we are planning on. The ground is uneven there, but we’ll be removing the sod and leveling it with gravel, sand and some sort of base (possibly paving stones or concrete) before we build. There are a number of old tree stumps around the area, so we might be clearing out dead roots in the process.
We also talked about when we can get the tree guys back to take down three dead spruce trees that are of most concern; two nearer the house, and one near the garage. We were quoted at $750 to get all three done. Depending on what other expenses come up in the next while, we might be able to do that by the end of May. It’d be nice if we could get the wood piles chipped, too, but that was another $650. The live tree in front of the kitchen window that keeps overgrowing the roof and dropping branches was also quoted at $650, all on its own. That tree can probably wait a few years, but the dead tree removal and the chipping is something we really should do sooner rather than later.
Which gets me to thinking about our need to replace the roof. With all these things that need to be done, that’s money that isn’t getting set aside to replace the roof.
So many things, pulling at the budget, and so many of them are urgent or essential.
Hhhmmm… Thinking of removing trees to protect buildings, I sit here watching the wind blowing the branches of one of the maples outside my window. Among my goals, as we are able, is to take down some of the lower, heavy branches. The main trunk of this maple leans heavily, and I’m hoping that by removing the weight, it will prevent the tree from breaking in these winds and extend its life. Maples like a good pruning!
So much to do, and I’m really looking forward to the work! :-)
Beep Beep came half out of her baby nest to have a bit of food while I was there, with the babies peacefully snoozing in a pile. I was even able to get a picture, despite her best efforts to use her butt to block my attempts. :-D
She was more co-operative later.
That is one happy, contented bunch of wormies!
Beep Beep looks ticked off at the flash. :-D
While I was outside, doing my rounds, Butterscotch and her boys followed me around.
Creamsicle really, really wanted up – and not just with me!
He does love climbing things!
Including my leg. :-D
Potato Beetle was more polite about it.
Just look at that face!
He has a terrible habit of running in front of us as we are walking, then flopping down on the ground, right in front of our feet. It can be very hard not to step on or trip over him! :-D
He likes to go up on the roof and watch the girls through the upstairs window. I’m told he even falls asleep with his forehead against the glass! :-D He is such an affectionate boy. :-)
Butterscotch not only let me pet her this morning, but even let me pick her up, if only briefly. This let me get a quick feel of her belly. The one teat that was very swollen yesterday is still swollen, but already getting softer. This is good, since her not suckling could potentially lead to mastitis.
Before heading outside this morning, I checked on the seeds I’d started earlier, and found there are some seedlings sprouted among the fennel, so I took the dome off the tray. They are already really leggy. I need to get them set up in the sun room soon. The main concern I have for there is how much the temperatures drop during the night. We can’t get a good sense of that with the doors propped open all the time, so I was going to close the outer door, leaving the inner door with its much smaller window, open. We could then keep an eye on the temperature through the bathroom window, throughout the day.
Unfortunately, the door can’t close.
Even when we first moved here, this door was difficult to close. I had to lift it and basically force it shut. Now, not even that works.
Not that it matters anymore. We need to replace the door.
A part of the door’s edge appears to have changed shape and just hits the frame. That’s the part that prevents the door from closing. If this had been the only issue, I could just use one of the planes we found in the basement and shave it down. However, as you can see in the photo, the door itself is coming apart at the bottom, and the window is no longer attached along one side. The caulking is old, brittle and has been breaking off all long that side.
Theoretically, I could take the door off its hinges and repair all of this, but it’s really not worth the effort. I’m pretty sure this is a standard sized door, and we should be able to switch it out with one of the doors we’ve found in a shed.
It’ll be worth a try, at least.
If that doesn’t work… we’ll have to figure something out, or I won’t be able to use the sun room as a greenhouse. I need to be able to protect the trays from the cats.
So that’s something I hope to get done this afternoon.
Beep Beep came out for some pets while my daughter and I checked on her and her babies. While my daughter kept mama distracted, I was able to sneak a quick shot of the babies. :-)
We saw Butterscotch on the way back from the van, and she let me pet her. I tried to feel around her belly, and could feel one swollen teat. Just one. I don’t know if she moved away because it was painful, or because she just didn’t want that much attention, but I couldn’t get more than a quick brush of her belly. She still has no interest in coming inside to suckle her baby, which is just as well, I suppose.
Beep Beep, on the other hand, is quite loving the extra attention she has been getting. :-)
A storm last year damaged a lot of trees and bushes around the yard, including breaking off a large piece of a double lilac my mother planted in the little garden by the old kitchen. Noticing the beautiful pattern in the wood, I set the pieces aside for later.
Today was “later.” :-D
I brought one of the branches into the basement to work on it (I am really enjoying having this work space!!!) and started by cutting various sections off, then working on the thickest “trunk” part of it.
What striking colours!
The photo on the left is the base, where it had broken off in the storm, and I had cut off the split part. The one on the right is where I’d cut a pair of branches off.
That’s the end I decided to cut a couple of slices off.
With Beep Beep and the kittens nearby, I didn’t want to use any power tools, even though I now have a Dremel with steel cutting blades that would be perfect for the job. It’s way too loud.
Lilac wood, I am discovering, is a surprisingly hard wood! It may have been quieter, but it was a lot longer to do it by hand.
Since I’m just experimenting right now, I only cut two slices, then used a brush on the edges to take off any dirt or loose bits of bark.
Then I sanded them smooth. Here’s how they looked, after I finished with the finest grit of sandpaper I have.
Then I applied a light coat of mineral oil.
I am really happy with how these look! Those purple rings are really something.
I am happy to say that Butterscotch’s remaining kitten is doing very well with her adoptive mom.
I wasn’t able to get a photo today (I didn’t want to bug Beep Beep too much), so this is one I got last night. Butterscotch’s baby is the second from the left, happily nursing.
On the one hand, this is very encouraging. They are lively little squirmy worms. I even had quite a surprise when checking on them this morning. That kitten on the far left? I could see its face peeking out from under Beep Beep’s arm, when suddenly it blinked at me. It’s eyes are starting to open already!! Just barely – if it hadn’t blinked, I wouldn’t have noticed.
On the other hand, it’s kinda depressing, as it likely means Butterscotch really did smother her own kitten yesterday. :-(
As for Butterscotch, when I headed out to feed the critters and do my rounds, she was already meowing outside the sun room door (there are no longer any food and water bowls in the sun room. She also joined me and her boys while I continued my rounds.
While she was willing to rub against my legs, she didn’t really want me to pet her, and certainly didn’t want to be picked up. She has shown zero interest in going back into the house.
I think putting her baby with Beep Beep, and putting Butterscotch back outside, was the right call. :-(
Today turned out to be a day of driving. After dropping my daughter off at work, I headed home just to load the van up with stuff for the dump. We finally included the containers of mystery liquid we found while cleaning the basement. Unfortunately, I think one of them leaked. I ended up having to do the drive with the window open, because of the smell, which persisted, even after I unloaded.
When I dropped my daughter off, I offered to come back for her lunch break. With their lunch room closed off because of the physical distancing requirements, she had her lunch outside again. Yesterday was a lovely day, though, right?
In town, it rained.
My daughter had deferred, since I would be making and extra trip, but I decided to go, anyhow. The problem was, I didn’t know when she was going for lunch. After heating up some leftovers for my own lunch, I asked my other daughter if she knew, and the best she could figure was 11:30. So I figured I would leave at 11 and just meet her.
Then I checked the time and realized it was 10:59. LOL
So I packed my lunch up and headed into town.
Driving with the windows partly open, because of the smell from whatever leaked in the back. :-(
Once in town, I just parked near the pharmacy and had my lunch while I waited. I couldn’t see through the reflective glass, but it turned out my daughter had door duty again (apparently, she has a calming affect on people who might otherwise be upset over having to wait to be let in), so she could see me. While in the van, I realized I should have taken some antihistamines before I left. I have no idea what I’ve developed an allergy to, but it seems to be something that’s only around outside in the early mornings. So I went in to pick some up and got to talk to my daughter. She didn’t know when she was going to be getting her lunch.
It ended up at 1.
I didn’t mind the wait. It meant I could play some Pokemon Go during Community Day. I was also able to pick up some lunch for my daughter, so she just needed to join me in the van. We were able to head over to a park and play Pokemon Go together while she ate. :-D
Normally, I would have just staying in town after she went back to work, rather than drive all the way home and back again. Unfortunately, with so many places closed, there is a lack of open public washrooms, nor places to just sit and enjoy a beverage out of the weather.
Which means I’ll be heading back into town again, fairly soon, to pick up my daughter.
This did allow me to start on a project I had in mind, as an excuse to be in the basement with Beep Beep. It turned out rather well, and I will be sharing about that in another post.
While I was working, Beep Beep came out a couple of times to eat and drink, but otherwise stayed in her nest with the babies.
I checked on them this morning. Beep Beep’s kittens were sleeping in a pile, and she had even come to the stairs to greet me when I came down, before dashing back into her nest.
Butterscotch was in her nest, sitting like a loaf. I couldn’t see her kittens, so I felt around and found them. They complained a bit at being disturbed, and I was a bit concerned that they seemed to be under Butterscotch. Once they started complaining, she lay back and nursed them, and all seemed well.
One of my daughters had a shift today (one extra day this month, then nothing but Saturdays on the new schedule), and while I was in town, my other daughter checked on the kittens. They were all looking fine. She did have to dig the orange one out from under Butterscotch, so she continued to check throughout the afternoon, and again when I went back to town to pick up her sister.
Which is when she found the orange one, unresponsive.
At that point, she took the grey and white one and put it with Beep Beep, who had no problem nursing an extra baby.
I checked again when I got home, and there was no question. The kitten was gone.
We’re now left with a couple of possibilities.
Either these babies all had some sort of birth defect, and we’ll have to watch the last one carefully. Or Butterscotch smothered her own kitten.
The box we’d made a nest in that Beep Beep was using was starting to get kinda damp, so I ended up moving her and the babies into the crate that Butterscotch was using, and made up a new bed in an old laundry basket. It is too open for the moms’ preferences, though, and Butterscotch ended up trying to climb into the crate with Beep Beep and the babies.
She is now outside.
I noticed as I picked her up, she did not seem to be full of milk, either. When I had picked up Beep Beep, I could feel she was quite full of milk. This could be another part of the problem.
We will have to make a point of checking on Beep Beep and the babies often. The last I saw, all five kittens were nursing and wriggling around.
My goals for the day changed significantly, with our sad dealings with kittens, but I did manage to accomplish one main thing on my to-do list.
I got the second round of seeds started, with the hopeful expectation of transplanting 3 weeks from now. Weather willing.
I was surprised by how many gourd seeds there were in the packet. I figured I wouldn’t plant all of them, though. Even just 5 plants would be enough for starting out the things I have in mind for them.
It… almost worked out that way.
The bent straws show there the different seed types are. The squash packet with the most seeds were the sunburst squash, which are planted on the left. In the centre are the summer surprise mix. I had somehow expected more of those, but that will still be lots for our needs.
Then I just finished off the tray with the birdhouse gourd seeds. I ended up with only 2 seeds left unplanted!
This is a LOT of squash to be planting. We’ll see how many germinate, and how many survive transplanting. Conditions are not exactly ideal here, and I just sort of assume we’ll have losses. If not…
I’m going to have to find lots of ways to preserve summer squash! :-D
As for the birdhouse gourds, this is something that we can’t even use for a year. The gourds need that time to dry out before they can be scrubbed, sanitized (everything I’ve read mentions having to clean mold off the gourds first) and be ready for various projects.
Between the gourds and the giant sunflower heads we’re planting for bird seed, we’re going to have to find a lot of space to store these over the winter!
With the mama cats indoors, I am thinking that, over the next few days, I should move the cat bowls out of the sun room, then move the mini-greenhouse and the planting trays into there. With the doors fully closed, it will be much warmer in there, plus they will get more like 8 or 9 hours of direct sunlight, compared to the 4 hours in the morning they get in the living room. Plus, it’ll be easier to harden them off from there.
This is all new stuff for me so, at this point, I’ll be happy with a 50% success rate! :-D
My daughters and I went into the basement maternity ward to set up a new “nest” for Butterscotch and her babies, and block off the old radio so she wouldn’t go in there again.
As we took her babies out, however, we found another of her orange babies was struggling.
We spend the next while tending to it, and it did seem to be getting stronger again. Butterscotch is not particularly maternal, so we even tried to put it with Beep Beep. Eventually, it seemed strong enough to possible latch on and nurse, and I put it back with Butterscotch, as close to a nip as I could get it.
Even in this photo, you can see that it’s smaller than its siblings.
Sadly, after about an hour or more, the little guy passed away.
It’s hard to know what happened, since we were unable to monitor Butterscotch’s kittens as well as Beep Beep’s. Both kittens that passed were noticeably smaller than the remaining two, both of whom are strong, active, vocal and nursing enthusiastically. Both of the ones that passed also had irritated and messy rear ends. Given that they are only a few days old, I would guess that they had not been strong from the start.
If we had not been able to bring the mamas indoors to have their babies, we would never have known how many they’d had to start with. A sad downside to bringing them indoors is being there when there are losses.
The old radio is now stuffed with packing material and blocked off, so Butterscotch can’t move her babies into there again. We tried to make her new nest as cave-like as we could, so I hope she won’t feel the need to try.
Thankfully, the other kittens all look healthy, are nursing well, and becoming more active already.
With Butterscotch and her babies now right next to Beep Beep, Beep Beep has been showing an interest in her babies, too!
The Re-Farmer 