I’m feeling very fortunate right now! For ourselves and for the critters.

When I checked the weather first thing this morning, my app’s weather radar was showing us well under an area of snowfall, and yet when I looked out my window, there was none coming down! We did have some during the night, and it started up again later.

The extra water bowls were completely covered. 😀

Funny how the cats all like to crowd into one side like that; even the ones that don’t get along well with others! 😀

They were quite happy to have warm water! The heated water bowl keeps it from freezing, but what we bring out is warm to the touch, and they really like that, this time of year!

We’re having a warmer than predicted day today. We’ve been hovering about -11C/12F for most of the way. As I write this, the wind chill is only -17C/1F Not only does that make life easier for the critters, but the lovely snowfall we’ve been getting is much needed, to help the water table recover in the spring, from last summer’s drought. Hopefully, this will keep up, throughout the winter. Especially the mild part. The city we moved way from was at -35C/-31F this morning! While we are expected to get colder over the next couple of weeks, we’re not supposed to drop below -30C/-22F during the day. After being hit with polar vortexes through January and February, the last couple of winters, this is a welcome relief for us – and our electricity bill! Even so, this house is so inefficient, the furnace is on a lot. Not that it makes much difference upstairs, but the little ceramic heaters my husband got for them is making a huge difference.

Oh, before I forget!

Keith got his last anti-biotic dose last night, so his treatment is complete, and he is the picture of health! This is such a relief. The vet was pretty sure she’d seen a heartworm in the ultrasound, but not completely sure. The fact that he’s doing so well now, on just anti-biotics, confirms that it was “just” an upper respiratory tract infection that had him coughing up blood. His breathing is completely clear now, but he is quite upset with us and his nightly doses! It never did get any easier, and by the end of it, he was getting very hard to find when it was time for his medication!

All the cats, inside and out, seem to be recovered. There are just a couple of indoor cats we sometimes hear having a coughing or sneezing fit, but I don’t usually see which one it is when I hear it. No more crusty noses, either. On the down side, they’re all really active again, and Fenrir has discovered that she can jump straight up into the tree hanging against the wall! I don’t know who did it, but last night I heard a noise and when I came to check, the bottom of the tree was on the ground. I didn’t even know it came apart there! The tree doesn’t come down until after Three King’s Day, so we’re going to have to keep monitoring it.

Anyhow.

We are still getting snowfall warnings, and my desktop apps keep flashing red alert symbols at me. From the weather radar, though, it’s already well past us, and there is no more visible. The road crews will be out, which means I should be able to run some quick errands for my mother, and pick up some more deer feed. I don’t leave much out, and the birds eat quite a lot of it, but we still get regular visitors. There’s a doe and her almost adult sized baby that comes by every morning, and yesterday I saw a buck going past my bedroom window. He antlers are just growing in again, so he had these 6 or 8 inch long spikes sticking out of his head. 😀

We are in a nice, quiet and boring time of the year right now, and I’m quite appreciating it! We’re making use of it to plan what we’ll be ordering with our “seed” budget, next. I’m done ordering actual seeds right now, and the girls and I have been talking trees and bushes. A lot of the nurseries don’t start taking orders until January, though, so their websites are still filled with “out of stock” listings, so it’s hard to make decisions right now. It’s only a little bit longer to wait, though. Until then, we can still plan!

The Re-Farmer