The inside orange babies watching an outside orange baby!
This little buggers snuck into the sun room behind my back and got closed up in it! It wasn’t until I came out to give the cats some treats that I heard her plaintive meowing. She had jumped into a tall box we use to hold long-handled tools. She wasn’t too happy with my trying to help her out and went into an absolute panic. She did let me give her treats, and later on, I was even able to pet her while she was eating, so I think I am forgiven. :-D
I don’t know what’s more remarkable. The fascinatingly symmetrical pattern of holes on this leaf – or the fact that, of the thousands of leaves surrounding me at the time, I spotted this one immediately!
It’s the time of year for tree ‘shrooms!
Aside from having to cut the part that was around the one cable, I was able to remove this abandoned wasp nest completely intact. It’s now sealed in a bucket in the sun room. There is no sign of any wasps in it. Where the cable went through, I could see empty egg cases. Even the dead wasp I’d seen in the opening seems to be gone; likely fallen in between layers of paper below the opening. In fact, the only living thing I saw while taking it down was the big !#%$! spider the crawled out the top when I cut it loose from the box!
I’m not bothered by spiders, but I admit, that did make me jump a bit! :-D
Oh, what a day this turned out to be. I’m looking at the time and wondering why it’s not several hours later, because this day has felt much longer than normal!
But first, I share the pleasantly unexpected thing.
As I finished up my outdoor morning routine and headed for the house, I noticed something white in the window of the cat house.
Plus, something moving in the shadows behind!
Unfortunately, my coming closer startled the cats. You can just see a hind leg of mystery kitten, who dashed out as I got closer. Little Braveheart was still in the window, and I was pretty sure it was Tabby that I saw in the shadows.
Then, the Creamsicle emerged!
Creamsicle was the first cat I saw checking out the new shelter, and I’ve seen Tabby lounging in the window. I’ve seen other kittens coming out from under it, but this is the first time I’ve seen Mystery or Braveheart inside, and the first time I’ve seen more than one cat in there. This is very encouraging. I know, in past winters, even cats that didn’t get along would still join the pile on the swing bench to keep warm, but it’s still great to see some confirmation that they can use the new space peacefully together.
What I am really hoping to see if Butterscotch’s babies going in there! They are so much smaller and younger, they are the most as risk from the coming cold. Weather Canada is forecasting a long fall and late starting winter, though. I hope they are right, because I’ve also seen forecasts for an early, long and bitterly cold winter coming up.
Meanwhile, the predicted rains last night turned out to be a brief but wicked thunderstorm, complete with driving rain, thunder, lightning, high winds and – no surprise – losing our internet. Thankfully, we did not lose power. As I write this, in the early evening, we’re still at a very warm 25C/77F!
Among the things I needed to do today was head into town and pick up my husband’s prescription refills. Even with a box of insulin, thanks to his excellent private insurance plan, the grand total is rarely more than $100. Last month, his refills happened to include both his injections and needles, and for the first time since things got messed up with his restricted painkillers, his bubble packs had all of his medications in them. So it was quite a shock, but not too unexpected, for the cost to be closer to $300. This time, it should have been less.
It was more. The total was almost $400.
At this time of the month, I simply didn’t have that. The cashier started checking the slips for me and noted that not all of them had the 3rd party payment (what the insurance company pays) on them. With 16 medications, it added up fast.
So I got her to suspend the sale while I stepped aside to look through the slips and then, if necessary, transfer funds from our emergency account. I was perplexed, though. What changed?
I went back to the pharmacists and asked if anything new had been added. The pain clinic doctor was supposed to call our regular doctor and talk medications. Our doctor said that he would fax any new prescriptions directly to the pharmacy. Could that be what happened?
Nope. Nothing was changed. However, according to what was showing up on the computer, we had reached our limit with the insurance company for medications.
Our what???
This has never happened before.
In the end, the pharmacist took back the printed out slips and told me to just take the medications, and come back after we cleared it up with the insurance company. They would rebill the amount then.
Yes. The pharmacy let me walk away with hundreds of dollars of medications without paying for them! Her comment was “we know you’ll come back.” Which is true. There’s no risk to them, since we are regulars, but still… that’s a lot of money walking out the door!
The next several hours was spent alternating between my husband and myself on the phone, with him calling the insurance company first.
In a nutshell, because we now live in a province that has Pharmacare – a provincially run government insurance program – the insurance company covers the cost of the deductible, then stops paying out because the system then covers the rest – but the system didn’t kick in.
As far as I knew, when we sent in an application for Pharmacare, shortly after moving here, we didn’t get accepted. I remember getting a letter asking for my tax information from 2015, when no such information was asked for on the form (my husband and I were both on the one form). I remember getting another letter since then that was basically a giant word salad and, as far as I could make out, we didn’t qualify. So I assumed we did not have it.
The insurance company’s limit on the deductible was only $1500. I called the pharmacy and talked to someone there who looked up my husband’s file, and they’d actually paid out almost $2000, so we were well past the limit. Most confusing of all, according to what she was seeing, is that we were approved for Pharmacare. We had it. But it didn’t kick in when it should have.
She gave me the number to call and find out why.
It turned out our Pharmacare deductible was actually over $3000. Which meant we were on the hook for the rest. The guy I spoke to said we should have gotten a letter back in the spring with the deductible amount. That would have been the letter that I understood as telling us we didn’t actually qualify. He said he would mail us a new one, which our insurance company would probably want to see.
Also, two of my husband’s medications (one of which is the pain killer that comes in slow and quick release forms) are not covered by Pharmacare at all.
My husband then called the insurance company back. Sure enough, once they have the proof in hand, they will adjust the limit to match what our deductible.
I called the pharmacy back and explained it to them, and they are fine with our coming back after all this was done, so they could re-bill the insurance company, and we would be paying only whatever was left. How long that takes depends on how quickly the letter gets to us in the mail (after that, my husband can just email a copy to the insurance company), which could take more than a week.
Our pharmacy is awesome!
If we were living in a province without Pharamacare, this would never have happened. What I don’t understand is why this didn’t happen last year! I guess the new medications my husband was put on after his stay in the hospital was enough to kick it over this year, but he was put on them late enough in the year last year, that it wasn’t an issue.
By the time this was all figured out, my husband and I were both completely drained.
Creamsicle decided to come and play this morning. I think it’s pretty clear he’s a daddy! :-D
I suppose it also explains why Butterscotch lets him hang around, but will chase Potato Beetle away. I don’t know where she found the other daddies, but none of them were tabbies! :-D
While going through the trail cam files this morning, I was reminded of something I found hooked onto the chain of our gate when I got home, yesterday. A little card like would normally have been slipped over a door knob by a delivery person. The trail cam recorded the guy that left it. I’m pretty sure I saw the same car leaving my brother’s place as I was coming up the road. :-)
It was a notice, with contact information and a file number, that an aerial photo was taken of the property, if we were interested in buying it.
I intend to check it out!
We currently have an aerial photo of farm, framed and hanging in our entry for as long as I can remember. Some guy had flown around, taking pictures, then visited the farms and offering to sell them. This guy basically did the same thing.
The photo we currently have may well be older than me. Things have change quite a lot over the decades!
As you can imagine, I am very interested in getting a photo that was taken almost 2 generations later!
I needed to head into town today, and when I got back, the girls were just finishing planting the last of the bulbs we had. Bulls Eye Tulips.
These have more finicky requirements. They are larger bulbs that need lots of sun, good drainage, and if we want them coming back year after year, deep planting; about 12 inches.
The area selected is in the West yard, among some crab apples and plum trees. This area was cleaned and cleared out of debris two summer ago. With all the dead trees and branches cut away, the ground does get good sunlight, while the remaining branches and surrounding trees protects it from hard rains.
While digging the holes, they found plenty of rocks – so they used them to mark out where the bulbs were planted!
The package came with 8 bulbs in total. When the back ordered items come in, there will be more tulips, which will also be planted in this area. I contacted Veseys, and we can expect our back order in the first or second week of October. Weather Canada has said to expect a long and mild fall and, from the looks of the long range forecast, we should still be good when they come in.
The girls got these in just in time. Shortly after, the winds started to pick up, and it’s blowing pretty good right now. We might be getting another rainfall tonight.
Drainage will definitely not be an issue in this location. In digging the holes for planting, they found the topsoil was only about 6 – 8 inches deep. Then they hit sand and gravel. As far as I know, this whole region is like that. I can remember when the will was dug by the house, after the well in the pump shack failed, and we finally got running water. A trench was dug towards the barn, and pipes laid to provide water to the barn and a couple of drinking fountains for the cows, plus the pipes that got diverted to the septic field. I was pretty young, but the top soil did look quite shallow, and I remember the trench being all through gravel and clay.
Another reason we want to build our soil up. Literally!
Keith and “grandma” – the mama cat that moved out here with us – cuddling together for a nap.
Keith, again, dropping back to sleep, even as he reached out to grab my phone while I took the picture!
Our old mama cat is turning out to be an unexpected problem with the kittens.
When it was time to wean them, Beep Beep was pretty blunt about it. They’d come hunting for nip, and she’d bat them upside the head. They got discouraged pretty quickly.
When Two Face was first introduced to the kittens, she was aggressively affectionate, hunting them down to groom then, and would allow them to try to nurse. We chalked this up to our discovery that she was pregnant at the time she was taken in to get fixed. She somehow understood that she should have had a bunch of her own furry little worms. That did eventually stop, thankfully. It was rather heartbreaking to watch her.
Then there’s our old mama cat. She and her boy moved out here with us. She has largely been pretty good about the new cats being introduced. When Cheddar came in after having surgery to remove the stick he’d somehow impaled himself with, she flat out adopted him. With the kittens, she was motherly, but not like she was with Cheddar.
Except now.
Once Beep Beep weaned her babies, “grandma” decided she would take over. Not only does she allow the kittens to try and nurse on her, she actively encourages it. Mostly, it’s Turmeric, but Saffron and Leyendecker also give it ago. We discourage it as much as possible, but she’s got two nips that no longer have fur around them, and one of them is looking very red – I can’t imagine how it doesn’t hurt her! Yet she still encourages it. Today, much to my surprise, not only did I find both Turmeric and Saffron trying to nurse on her, but even Cheddar – Cheddar!!! – was snuffling about, hunting for nip.
I’ve tried making a belly band for her, but she gets out of it easily. We’d need to make something that is more like a sweater, but I really would prefer not to force her to wear clothes. I’d rather the whole thing stop! We could rub something on her to make it taste bad, but with how raw one of them is looking, I don’t want to cause more irritation.
Has anyone ever encountered something like this before? Any suggestions?
My mother’s “living fence” has a row of hawthorns (you can see some of their berries) on one side, and a mix of caragana and oak on the other. I got a picture of a larger oak at the far end of the row of trees, with elms above it. The crab apple tree is one of the ones in the West yard. The apples do not taste very good, but the deer and birds will enjoy them. There is also the linden tree, all yellow, while the currant leaves (which I thought were gooseberry at first) are lovely shades of red.
Yesterday, we hit 27C/80F. An unexpected result of that is, all number of house flies and other flying insects emerged from wherever they were slumbering in the previous cool, and got into the house.
Which meant a night of cats making a ruckus while chasing bugs all over the house.
I got very little sleep.
Today was much cooler, but rather than being outside, taking advantage of it, I ended up passed out for a couple of hours.
Cuddled by a couple of cats, of course. The buggers! It’s a good thing they’re so cute.
Anyhow.
While puttering about the house, trying to get at least some productivity in, I was in the old kitchen and checked on the apple cider vinegar. It’s been a couple of weeks since I started – or should I say, restarted – them, so I figured it was time for a progress report.
For my new followers (welcome! Happy to see you here. :-) ), you can visit our first making of apple cider vinegar with our crab apples here. This year, we decided to make a larger quantity, with some experimentation. You can read about our first attempt here, and after discovering I made a really silly mistake, the reboot is written about here. (All links will open new tabs, so you won’t miss your place. :-) )
Here is how the jars look now.
The old kitchen is a very dark room. The south facing window has the sun room in front of it, so it doesn’t get any direct sunlight. The west window, which would normally provide a lot of light at the end of the day, is covered with aluminum foil (which predates our moving here), so there is zero light coming through there. The north facing window is what’s providing what light you can see in the above photo. Without turning the light on in the room, it was too dark to get a photo without moving to the window side of the jars.
This is a good thing. The instructions said to put the jars in a cupboard, and we just don’t have any with the space for these jars, so a room that never gets bright works just fine. The concern I had was how cold this room is. Fermentation requires warmth.
As you can see, there is no activity in the airlock at all. If there had been, the plastic cap on the inside would have been pushed to the top as it filled with CO2.
However, this is not the same as fermenting alcohol, so not seeing activity in the airlock does not necessarily mean nothing is happening.
And things are most definitely happening in there!
Both jars look the same. At this point, I see no difference between the one with the airlock and the one with the cheese cloth. Both have this layer of bubbles at the top, and when turning the jars to check them, more bubbles enthusiastically make their way up the jar. There most definitely is active fermentation going on.
One good thing about doing this in the larger jars like this: it’s nowhere near as messy as our first attempt! The fermenting vinegar had bubbled up enough to reach the coffee filter covering it and leaked a bit, inviting all sorts of fruit flies to check things out. This year, had I not had to throw away the first batch, with the its very full jars, it may well have bubbled up, and the one with the cheese cloth, at least, would likely have had a mess. There may be more headspace than needed in these jars now, but it seems to be better that way.
There also doesn’t seem to be any sign of mold or rot or anything of concern. The glass canning jar lids being used as fermentation weights are doing the job of keeping the floating apple pieces submerged.
So far, everything is looking good!
Next week we’ll hit the 3 week mark and, according to the instructions I’m following, that’s the time to strain out the apple pieces, return the vinegar to the jars, and let them sit for at least another 3 weeks.
I’m very curious to see if there will be a noticeable difference between the two jars.
Last night, I came out of the house to find I had an audience, watching me. :-)
Very attentively!
When I came out this morning to refill their food containers, Braveheart came running right up to me – but not enough to let me pet her! :-D
Her brother, on the other hand, actually let me pet him!
His fur is soooo soft. :-D
Now, it would be because I had the scoop of food in my hands, and had just added some to the container – he was far more interested in the food than in me! When he did finally seem to notice I was petting him, he sort of moved away, but then went right back and let me pet him some more.
I honestly expected this level of progress with Braveheart, not Tabby!
I needed to make a run into town today, and by the time I came back, my daughter had selected a place to start planting, and gotten started.
She had selected Eye of the Tiger Iris, and I must say – Vesey’s really missed an opportunity for a punny name! :-D Eye-ris of the Tiger? Eye of the Tigris? :-D
But I digress!
These needed to be planted in a location with plenty of sun and good drainage. She decided they would make a good border on the south edge of the old kitchen garden. She had been digging holes with a trowel for each of the 15 bulbs in the bag. She had forgotten that I found a good spade, buried in the garden shed! Things went much faster when I could just dig a trench for her, instead.
She just had to contend with a few rocks, instead!
We should now have a border of irises extending from the laundry platform, to the chives at the edge of the retaining wall corner.
The only thing left to plant now (until the back ordered items come in) are the Bulls Eye Tulips. These are a little more complicated. They need hard winters (we’ve got that), hot summers (we usually have that) and full sun (we can find that) but they also need to be in a dry location and NOT watered or fertilized in the summer. So we can’t plant them around anything we will be watering or fertilizing. One of the areas we were talking about planting in was by the stone cross, but that’s an area that collects water when the snow melts, so that’s out.
Pretty much the entire West yard is quite dry, though. We might plant them in where the crab apple and plum trees are, south of a row of lilacs. One end of that area does get full sunlight.
We have to decide soon, though. Those bulbs need to get into the ground!
The Re-Farmer 