Month: July 2023

First city shop; the not-Costco trip: this is about $418, +

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So yesterday was an interesting one… thankfully, not too interesting!

We hit 30C/86F and the rain that was forecast for our area was suddenly not being forecasted anymore. It was still insanely humid, though. The garden was wilting from the heat, so I set up the sprinklers to water the beds.

Which is when my phone started screaming at me.

Several times.

We were getting tornado warnings. However, the alerts were for the “mobile coverage area”. Which is pretty darn big. Looking at the weather radar after the first alert, the system was right on top of the smaller, nearer city we sometimes go to. My sister lives near there. The system continued to move northward, passing to the east of us.

As far as I know, there were no funnel clouds sighted, but some of the downs got walloped by massive rain, winds and, in some places, softball sized hail! I later saw photos people were posting on some local weather watching groups I’m on, and the damage in places from the wind and hail was pretty bad in places.

We had some pretty clouds blow over our area, and the odd gust of wind.

I’m okay with that.

There was no respite from the heat and humidity, though. My poor daughters, upstairs! My older daughter was working, but my younger daughter tried, and failed, to get any sleep.

I fared somewhat better, at least. Aside from being tackled by kittens, repeatedly, my room was much cooler, and I’ve started to partly sleep through the kitten attacks. I do have to be increasingly careful moving around, though. Question has decided I am her human, so I often have her climbing my leg while I’m on the computer and either sitting on my knee, or forcing her way up into my arms so she can sleep on my chest. During the night, at one point, I woke to find her snuggled over one of my arms.

She wasn’t alone.

One of the grey tabbies was also draped over my bicep.

Something still seemed odd, though. Thankfully, I could reach my phone and use the camera and flash to try and see. Which is how I found Ghosty stretched out in front of my leg and belly. Which is imressive, for such a tiny kitten!

When I had to roll over, I carefully scooped up Question and moved with her. The other kittens took off, but Question just settled in wherever I happened to stop moving, which means she spent most of the night sleeping in the palm of my hand! Another time, I woke to find her draped across my neck, and another kitten curled up around my head.

When my older daughter came in to help do Leyendecker’s meds (letting her sister, who usually does it, to finally get some sleep!), Question had moved to my pillow, curled up next to my face, and slowly slid down until she was on my shoulder, instead. I’m told it was an adorable sight!

After doing Leyendecker’s medications, I did my morning rounds (I’m pretty sure I’m seeing new kittens, but at this point, it’s getting hard to tell!), then grabbed an insulated bag with ice packs in it and headed to the city.

I ended up stopping at a gas station in the town my mother lives in, after discovering I was out of washer fluid. For some reason, the light that’s supposed to turn on and tell me it’s empty, doesn’t. I had some in the car, but after filling the reservoir, I went in to replace the jug. As I was leaving, a woman outside started chatting with me, asking if we’d gotten the storm. I told her it passed us by, but I’d heard about other places that got hit really hard.

She was in one of those places!

They were in a trailer, attending the Treaty Days events when the storm hit. Thankfully, they did not get any damage, though the ground was white with hail after it passed. A nearby town, closer to the lake, got the softball sized hail. She said some of the trucks she saw looked like someone had gone at them with a sledgehammer! Absolutely wild!

I’m really thankful it missed us. There are people in my local gardening groups that already had their gardens smashed to bits from hail in the last set of storms. I’ve since seen other photos posted online from the aftermath, and there were thing like large trucks blown over, pieces of sheds in the middle of fields, downed trees, pieces of roof torn off, and sheds blown apart.

I’ve not been home long, so I haven’t had a chance to see what sort of response there has been. So far, I have not heard of any people injured.

I’m glad I ran into the lady at the gas station. She was really nice.

Once in the city, my first stop was at a Walmart. This shop was mostly stuff we don’t normally buy.

This is what $203.24, after taxes, looks like.

The main thing I was looking for was puppy pads. There are a couple of places the kitten keep making messes in, once of which we will have to do some serious rearranging to access. The other is under my desk, where I was able to put some old disposable diapers we’d hung onto over the years. That, at least, will be easier to clean up this time, but I didn’t have anything to replace the diapers with. I was quite happy to see the Walmart was well stocked in the puppy pads!

The facial tissue was on my list; I didn’t want to get a Costco sized package of those, so I got them at Walmart. The tinned cat food was also on the list. I got a replacement package pectin, which was not officially on the list, but I do try to pick some up as I’m able. I would have also picked up replacement wide mouth canning lids, but they only had regular mouth size. There’s some toothpaste and deodorant, which are also things that I try to pick up extras of, when I can.

Not at all on the list was the broom. It’s just a cheap one, but it has stiffer bristles. The carpet in my room is a strange, felted-looking surface. It attracts cat hair, dust and everything else like nobody’s business! With the kittens, I’m not able to vacuum as often as I should, but I try to at least sweep it. All the brooms we have are soft bristled, so they don’t work very well. I’ve already tried this one out, and it’s exactly what I wanted. It pulls up so much cat hair! That’s make life easier for the vacuum cleaner!

I also got a cheap little toy for the kittens. It’s meant for dogs, but it’s a little fox that crinkles when squeezed, and the kittens will have a blast with it.

Also not on the list, but I did remember we needed, are a couple of pairs of kitchen sheers. They were both quite affordable, but one was less than $3. We’ll see how long they last, compared to the one that cost just over $10. I also grabbed a wooden spatula. We’ve got lots or plastic ones for the non-stick pans, and most have heat damage. The one that doesn’t has a crack in it. I’ve looked at wooden ones before, but they were all oddly thick. This one seemed properly thin enough to actually get under things, rather than just push them around the pan. 😄 It was less than $5, so that was nice, too.

The one big purchase this time, though, was a new pair of shoes! I finally remembered to look for some.

A nice pair of steel toes work shoes! I love the boots I have now, but I’ve been wearing them so much, one of the heels is giving out, and the zipper and Velcro closure are starting to wear out. All the work shoes had security cables on them, so I had to find an employee to unlock a couple of pairs to try on. It was funny when the first thing she did was point out that they were men’s shoes, not women’s. I told her I knew – I can’t fit women’s shoes! What made it funnier is that there was another lady looking at shoes to try on, and she was only looking at men’s shoes, too!

The ones I ended up getting were slightly more expensive, but at $69.97, that’s still a good price for steel toed shoes.

I put them on as soon as I finished loading everything else in the car!

The one last thing not on the list that I got was an actual food item. There was a really good sale on large package of blueberries, so I got two. They were only $3.84 each!

That put me at a before-tax total of $182.68.

My next stop was at the international grocery store, where I was also able to pick up some dim sum for lunch. That really hit the spot!

This is wat $215.21, after taxes, looks like.

This time, it was the strawberries that were at a great price! The bananas weren’t on sale, but still pretty cheap. The Coke Zero wasn’t on sale, but still cheaper than the local prices. The raspberry drink was a cold one for the ride home.

This store is one of the few places I can get the Beaver Buzz brand of energy drinks, so I try to pick up quite a few for my older daughter and I. It’s also where we can find the Philippine soy sauce my husband likes, and a 4L size of soy milk my lactose intolerant daughters drink. There is an uncut piece of locally produced Applewood smoked bacon in there; they didn’t have the big chunks, or I would have gotten a much larger one! There’s regular 3% cows milk in there, and I found the wide mouth canning lids I wanted. There’s some truffle infused olive oil; a real treat that is often not in stock. I picked up some sweet potatoes, because I’m getting a hankering for a sweet potato and peanut soup from a recipe my SIL gave us.

The girls and I had recently been talking about liverwurst. We used to get it all the time. When my oldest daughter was a baby, I’d picked one up and, while continuing to shop, gave it to her to hold and play with. She was very happy with it. It took a while to realize why she was so quiet and content. She had bitten a hole in the package and was happily sucking the liverwurst out! After that, for a long time, we would start our grocery shopping by buying a small tube of liverwurst for her to enjoy while we shopped, then did the same thing again with her sister. The girls were remembering that we used to get it all the time, but we just… stopped. So when I saw large tubes of it in the grocery store, I grabbed one. The thing cost over $11, though!

I also picked up some cheeses from the “fancy cheese” counter. I got an Alexis de Portneuf and a Ceddar with Caramelized onion. I was also looking for some parmesan that was not grated, because I would really like to make …

… the original Fettuccine Alfredo.

The price of parmesan is insane! In the end, I only got a little chunk, and it still cost almost $8 – on sale! Hopefully it will be enough for one recipe of Fettuccine Alfredo.

Other things were better priced. I picked up a 2 pack of whole chicken that was only $13.35 These days, I’d be hard pressed to find a single whole chicken for that price.

The big indulgence, however, was a beef brisket. I’ve never bought a brisket before. I’m going to have to look up how to cook it properly. It cost $55.40, and I normally would never buy a single piece of meat at that price, but it was really a good deal. It was on sale for about $9.90/kg ($4.49/lb was on the signs, if I remember correctly). Looking at the other cuts of beef, they were generally $20+/kg. Even the ground beef wasn’t much cheaper! So that was my major splurge.

What I did not get today was any dry cat food. Normally, I would have picked some up at Walmart., but they didn’t have the large sized bags, and the smaller sized bags were more expensive than what I find at Costco for bigger bags. Plus, I no longer had room in my mother’s car.

I so look forward to getting a replacement van!!!

So after this, I headed towards home. My husband’s bubble packs were in and I was supposed to pick them up tomorrow, but I decided to take a different route and get those, too.

Since I remembered to bring the ice packs, I could do that! 😁

His bubble packs, plus a container of diabetic candies (the last one!!) and a gallon of distilled water for his CPAP, because I forgot to get it at Walmart, came out to $89 and change.

Ouch.

Thank God for his private insurance prescription coverage!

My last stop was to fill the gas tank. The last time I filled it, the prices were still at 149.9 ¢/L, but the next day, the prices went up. Now it’s the same price as in the city; 157.9/L

I did, however, make one more unexpected purchase.

This gas station was newly renovated. It closed down as a Husky and reopened as a Shell. Aside from the fancy new pumps and new signs, not a lot has changed, but there was a new display of books that caught my eye. I was torn between several that would be very useful but, in the end, decided that this one would be the most immediately useful. For all that I grew up in the prairies, I don’t actually know a lot about what native species we have that are edible.

Or maybe I know more than I think. Flipping through it in the store, I did recognise a lot of the photos. I think mostly it’s that there are some that I don’t know if they are safe to eat or not.

I’m going to enjoy going through it more thoroughly!

Filling the tank cost $32.26, and the book was another $24.95, though I did get a slight discount for using my CAA card. According to my receipt, I was also discounted 0.03/L on my fuel. I’ll take what I can get!

So that is our first city shopping trip for the month. There will at least be one Costco trip – maybe two, if the price of cat food is crazy enough to warrant a second trip.

I really miss having a van. I don’t like making so many trips to the city like this!

The Re-Farmer

Well, it would have worked! (video)

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Yesterday, I headed out to fix the water pipe to the garden tap. It was hot and muggy, and I had sweat pouring off my face, so if you hear me sounding out of breath in the video below, that is why!

The couplings did work. I had to use both of them.

But then… well… here’s the video.

So… that’s a write off.

In theory, I could just dig out the section between where the couplings are, and my unexpected find, figure out where the third leak is and repair that. However, the pipe is so old, and clearly splitting apart easily, it’s not worth it. It needs to be replaced completely.

So now my plan is to take advantage of end of season sales to pick up a heavy duty garden hose long enough to reach from the house to the garden tap, with slack. I am also thinking of picking up some pipe wide enough to run the hose through it. This way, the hose would be protected by the pipe after it’s buried, but if it does need repair, it can be easily pulled out, then put back in again, without having to dig another trench. It would be even easier to attach a line to one end before pulling it out the other way, do any repaires, then use the line to pull it back through the pipe.

I won’t dig up the water pipe until we have what we need to install a replacement, but I am now very curious as to just why there is that wider diameter section of pipe, and how far it extends. I’m also curious as to just how far the hose section coming out of the ground to attach to the house extends, and how it’s joined to the pipe.

Whatever was done obviously made sense at the time, and it did work for about 50 years, which is pretty darn good!

The Re-Farmer

Power is back, couplings are in

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While the power was out, my husband was able to get a weak data signal from the living room on his tablet, so he was able to report our outage to the electric company and check the status of things. The power went out at about 8:30am, and we were expected to get it back around 11:30am.

With no electricity for that length of time, we considered firing up the BBQ or getting the fire pit going to make breakfast. After checking the budget, however, we decided to be lazy. We had a couple of water jugs that needed refilling (we have 4 of these 18.9L jugs, and try to make sure they get refilled when 2 are empty and dry), which meant a trip into town. If they had power, of course. We decided we could afford to get some take out, rather than opening the fridge with no power and losing the cold.

One of my daughters came along with me, with their own shopping list. I knew we had lost power during the night, which must have been a problem for my older daughter! She would have been working on commissions on her computer. The power only flickered, however. Enough to have the garage cam reset itself and be resting in its default position – which is how I knew the power had gone out during the night – but not enough to shut down her computer. My husband didn’t mention having problems with his CPAP, either, so that was good.

As we were leaving and stopped on the driveway while my daughter closed the gate behind us, one of our neighbours was driving by and stopped to talk. He told us the power outage was quite extensive, ranging from the town my mother lives in, to the next large town to the north of us. He had heard the power was expected to return by 11am, though, which was a bit sooner than what my husband had found.

While driving to town, my daughter and I considered our options, should they be without power, too. Happily, they were completely unaffected. Which makes sense. The transformer system runs north and south along the main highways, not east and west, so what affected us would be a different branch of the system than any towns to the east of us.

We hit the grocery store first and I did our refills while my daughter did her shopping. Since we were there, I picked up a couple other things, too – like more paper towels! Leyendecker may not be eating, but clearly he’s drinking, and still doesn’t seem to have much bladder control. We’re going through a lot of paper towels cleaning up, then sanitizing, after him. Yes, we should be using rags, but somehow, they’ve all disappeared! We didn’t have a lot, anyhow.

We then decided to go to a Greek place for take out. My husband and I went there once, shortly after we moved here and he was still more mobile. They have gyros, which none of us have had in years. Personally, I’d love to have a good Donair, but the best place we’ve ever had them was in Victoria, BC, before we had children, and I don’t even know if the place exists anymore. Still, the gyros here are quite good.

Since we had stuff for the refrigerator in the car, my daughter stayed in it with the engine running and the AC going, as it was so hot and muggy already. While waiting for the gyros to be made, I realized they also had deep fried pickles – something else we haven’t had in years! So I got an order of those, too. 😊

While I was there, my daughter got a message from my husband that the power was back. It was out for only 2 hours! That’s the longest we’ve been without power since moving out here, but I’m not complaining at all. That was a very fast return.

So we had a treat for the day. Except my older daughter, who’s in bed for the day. It’ll be “breakfast” for her, when she gets up for the night.

One the way home, I remembered to stop to get the mail, and picked up these.

The couplings are in! We can finally try and fix that water pipe to the garden tap. I really hope this works, because I’d hate to have to dig up the entire line.

It’s going to be a challenge just to dig around where the crack is, there are so many roots around the pipe. From what I can tell, the roots are small enough I should be able to cut through them with a spade or loppers.

My other thought is, what to use to cut the pipe itself. All our cutting tools are designed to cut wood, not PVC pipe. I’m sure I’ve got something I can use, though. The main thing is digging enough space around it to have room for a cutting tool to work without biting into the soil. We do have a pipe cutter, but it’s for cutting much smaller copper pipe, not something like this.

Yesterday, my daughter juiced the cherries we picked, and the pulp has been hanging to drain in the cat free zone overnight. We’ve got a total of 5 cups of juice. A basic jelly recipe is for 3 1/2 cups. The remaining juice isn’t worth doing a second batch, so I’ll make a syrup with that. We plan to actually water bath can the jelly, so it will be shelf stable. With cooking the jelly, preparing the jars, then using the water bath canner, plus making the syrup, we’re looking at a lot of time over a hot stove, on a hot and muggy day. My daughter and I decided to wait until things start to cool down.

All the more reason to have an outdoor kitchen!

Hot and muggy though it may be, I think I’ll go out and see if I can fix the water pipe! I’m really eager to see if it’ll work. I’m already thinking ahead to fixing the support post the tap it attached to, which is rotting at its base, and bringing over the double laundry sink we found in the shed, to set up a vegetable washing station.

I never thought I’d ever get so excited about fixing a pipe. 😄

I will, however, have to pry Question off my shoulder. She’s been napping on me since I sat down at the computer!

The Re-Farmer

No power

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I am standing in our driveway right now, where I can get a decent data signal. At least enough to do text.

As I write this, we have been without power for about half an hour or more. We had storms blow past us, and a lot of rain last night. I could tell we lost power, at least briefly, while I was asleep. Right now, things are pleasant, but from the weather radar, the city is being hit with a severe storm at this very moment. Which likely explains our power outage.

Let’s see how long this lasts!

The Re-Farmer

Kitten status and garden gathering

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We’ve reached our predicted high of 26C/79F today, with 54% humidity. Tomorrow, we are supposed to hit 30C/86F.

The first thing I want to share with you is this adorableness.

I even got a bit of video.

This was the first time she nursed the babies in the comfort of my bed. She is so tiny!

And filthy. Especially her belly. Those kittens get her very dirty! She has gotten to the point where she actually enjoys being held and cuddled, so chances are pretty good we should at least be able to take a damp washcloth to her.

These next photos are from yesterday evening.

I spotted the two kittens in the junk pile, without mom around, playing. When it saw me, the black one went and hid, but the other one stayed and watched me while I took photos. The black one has a single small patch of white on its chest that I could see.

The third photo is of a kitten I’ve never seen before. I saw it again this morning, with two other kittens of similar size that I didn’t recognize. I have no idea which mother they came with. There are several of the more feral mamas that had kittens quite early in the spring, and I was wondering when their babies would start showing up.

Beside the main garden, there is an area we’ve allowed to grow wild that is now tall with what I thought was a type of alfalfa but, when I tried to look it up, I couldn’t find any images with white flowers like them.

Whatever it is, it was just buzzing with bees last night, and I managed to get a decent picture.

I also got a picture of our first fresh garlic – after cleaning it off with the hose!

The squash is our first Honeyboat Delicata. The one I hand pollinated from a different type of squash, as there were no Delicata male flowers blooming. There still aren’t. So far, it looks like the cross pollination took. Hopefully, we’ll have at least one Delicata to try and see if we like them, and if the Honeyboat variety really does store well. If so, we will plant them again – with purchased seeds, though, since the seeds from any we grow this year will likely all be cross pollinated.

And finally, a handful of Royalty raspberries I picked this morning! Most of those were from one plant, with a few from a second. The third is the smallest, and its berries are still unripe.

I’m still amazed we got any at all in their transplant year!

I forgot to get a picture, but one of the African Drum gourd female flowers was blooming this morning, so I made sure to pollinate it with one of the male flowers from another African Drum gourd. If it works out, it should be interesting to see just how fast the gourds develop, and if we have a mild enough fall for them to reach full maturity.

In other things, we’re concerned about Leyendecker. He’s getting his medications, but he’s still refusing to eat. We even mixed the new food with the food he’s used to, and he won’t eat either! He also spends most of his days just lying around, but that could be from the medications. This morning, while staying with him in the bathroom, trying to convince him to eat, he just sprawled tragically at the closed door. I took the opportunity to palpate his abdomen. He not only tolerated it, but shifted so I could reach better as I was pushing around where his bladder is. He had just gotten his medications, so it would have been too soon for the pain killers to kick in. If he were having blocking issues, my poking around would have been very uncomfortable for him, and I would have been able to feel an over full bladder. Neither was an issue. So we’re not sure what’s going on with him right now. 😟 We will continue to monitor him.

For now, I’m going to go help my daughter with juicing those cherries we picked. By request, we will be making jelly with them!

The Re-Farmer

Morning… er… afternoon finds

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Well, I did get some sleep last night! The kittens did tackle me, but I almost slept through it. I really, really have to watch myself, though. I leaned forward in bed this morning, and something moved. Turned out I had a kitten curled up right against my belly!

My daughter, unfortunately, did not get any sleep at all last night. Big Rig would not leave her alone! So she was up and about early to find Leyendecker for his morning medications. As I was getting up to help her, I realized I was hearing pouring rain over the sound of my fan! We were not supposed to get rain today. That’s why I watered the garden yesterday!

My daughter went on to feed the outside cats while I supervised Leyendecker, trying to get him to eat his new food. The first time my daughter gave it to him, he ate it hungrily. Now, he won’t eat it at all. We’re not sure what’s going on. Even when he’s around the main food bowls, which we now keep empty between feedings, he hasn’t even really been looking for more food. It’s likely the medications are causing him to loose his appetite, but I don’t remember it happening when he was on them before.

Since it was pouring so hard out, I went back to bed. My sense of time is now completely messed up! I went out to do my “morning” rounds a little while ago, but it was about 3pm. It still feels like morning.

Anyhow, here are some of my finds of the day!

When I saw Octomom heading for the kibble house, I checked on her babies. Usually, they’re asleep when she leaves, but not today!

It took me watching this a couple of times, counting and recounting, before I finally spotted the eighth kitten, under the two black ones! 😄

While finishing my rounds, I spotted the kittens in the junk pile with their mama.

Looks like it’s just the 2 of them, and they’re starting to go further afield! I expect we’ll soon be seeing them eating in the bowl under the shrine. 😊

I managed to get a picture of the tuxedo with the messed up eye. This photo is cropped closer, to see it better.

I’m really surprised. That eye is clearing up really well! The inner eyelid is swollen like crazy, but I was sure he was going to lose that eye completely. I am happy to say, it looks like I was wrong!

Meanwhile, I had a first in the (very well watered!) garden today!

Our very first ripe Roma tomato! It picked itself. This was the first tomato to show up, so no surprise it ripened first. I reached out to touch it and it fell off the vine into my hand!

The next picture is of ripening Indigo Blue Chocolate tomatoes. Now I can see where the “chocolate” part of the name came from!

I didn’t get a picture, but I saw a female Crespo squash in full flower, and I made sure to hand pollinate it. In the photos above, you can see the female African Drum gourd flowers are getting larger. The male flowers have been blooming consistently, so I expect to be able to pollinate those by hand when they finally open.

The last picture is of the G-Star patty pans, and we’ve got a switch on that one! The female flowers are blooming, but the male flowers just buds right now. Which means those lovely looking squash are not going to develop fully. There aren’t even any other summer squash blossoms I could use to pollinate with. I suppose I could try using a winter squash blossom, but I don’t know if they are similar enough for that to work. The G-Star plants are doing very well, though, so I expect we’ll have both male and female flowers blossoming at the same time, fairly soon.

I’m thinking it might be time to harvest the garlic. I want to give the bulbs time to get nice and big – we have so few of them this year – but the stems are drying out, which means they probably won’t get much bigger than they are now. That will free up an entire bed for something else, if we harvest those soon.

In the wattle weave bed, I transplanted 4 different early peppers, just in case we didn’t get a chance to transplant more in the grow bags. When watering last night, it looked like one of them has suddenly died. I could not find a reason why, but it’s wilting away. Nothing else around it is affected. There is no insect damage that I can find. It even looks strong around the stem and roots. I hope it perks up, but I don’t think it will. Everything else in that bed is doing well. Even the chamomile is starting to bloom. That first luffa we planted in there is getting so big, it has started to climb the lilac above it, and clusters of flower buds are starting to appear.

My sense of time is not just messed up about today, where I feel like it’s so much earlier in the day. I also get that sense, in reverse, when tending the garden. “Spring” arrived so early this year, it feels like we’re heading into fall, when we’ve still got half the summer to go. I keep thinking I should be harvesting things from the garden regularly by now. I’ve looked back at photos I took in July over the last two years to get some comparison, and we weren’t harvesting much at all at this time. When we grew melons successfully, 2 years ago, we had baseball sized fruits developing at this time. This year’s melons germinated so late, they’re just starting to bloom right now, and just male flowers so far. Some of the corn was behind what we have now, while others ahead. No surprise the summer squash was ahead compared to this year, since this year we have barely any and did direct sowing instead of transplants. I’m glad I took so many photos. It helps me get a sense of what to expect now, more or less, based on how things did in past years. Taking into account that 2 years ago was a drought year with heat waves (which the melons loved!) and last year a lot of things were lost to flooding in the spring.

I guess I feel better after looking at the photos from previous years. Some things, I can’t quite figure out why there is a significant different between them and this year. Others, it’s pretty obvious!

At least we’re not having to deal with groundhogs eating everything again! They seem to have moved on and are staying away, and I’m quite happy with that!

Now we just have to worry about racoons! Especially when it comes to the corn.

The Re-Farmer

Things that got done today

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It was hot, muggy and gross out there, but stuff still needed to be done!

My daughter and I finally got to picking the sour cherries from the tree next to the house.

We picked as many as we could reach using the little household stepladder. The ground is too uneven to safely use the bigger A frame ladder, even with a spotter. Which is okay. We can leave the rest for the birds! We almost filled the colander we were using to gather them. Then my daughter used one of the window screens we found in a shed that have been so handy to lay them out. She gave them a good washing and picked over them to get rid of any damaged or bird eaten ones that got missed. I think we still had about 5 pounds of cherries when she was done. I’m thinking we might make a syrup out of them, but will look up different ideas to try, first.

We’ll have other fruit to harvest, too.

There are SO many grape clusters! I’m still amazed. The most we’ve ever since since moving here. It will be some time before they’re ripe, though. The chokecherry tree by the compost ring and low raised beds will be ready to harvest soon. Actually, there are two of them, very close together. There’s a larger, healthier looking chokecherry tree by the main garden area, but with the tall trees beside it, it doesn’t get anywhere near as much sun as the one by the low raised beds. The berries on there are still mostly green, and there are far fewer of them. These trees are still pretty spindly, as they were quite choked out until we cleaned up around them, but they are just covered with berry clusters, weighing down the branches.

While checking the grape vines, I was on the lookout for more of those caterpillars, but accidentally knocked a big brown one onto the ground!

I tried to pick it up to put it back, but it kept flipping, uncurling and curling. It was remarkably strong! In my attempts to use leaves and twigs to move it, it flipped itself onto the step, which made it very convenient to take photos! I did finally get it on a grape leaf and back onto the vine.

Then I went to get one of the vines out of the spirea, where I found the green spotted caterpillar. So pretty! I was able to untangle the vine without disturbing it.

While I had the timer going for the sprinklers in the garden, I finally finished attaching the fence wire to the raised bed cover frame.

What a pain in the butt that was!

While setting up to work on it, I noticed that a screw in one corner – top right in the first photo – had snapped, allowing the pieces to rotate slightly. Not good!

Propping the frame up with boards helped steady it, but it was a real pain to attach that fence wire. Plus, Gooby decided that rolling around on the ground and sticking his head or feet right were I was hammering was a good idea.

It was not a good idea.

He was very determined, though!

I did finally get the fence wire attached. Between the snapped screw in one corner, and the likelihood of the U nails simply popping out while the frame is being moved, I decided adding extra boards to sandwich the fence wire was a necessity. I cut spare pieces to length, but by then I had worked my way through the sprinkler and soaker hoses, and needed to do the rest of the watering directly. My daughter was a sweetheart and attached the new lengths to the frame for me. That definitely made the whole thing stronger.

The lengths of fence wire for this was 5′, which made for a rather tall arc. This would be perfect for things like the bush beans on the high raised bed. For the next one, though, I’ll use 4′ lengths.

What I will not use, though, is that fence wire again! The twisted wire at every join is just too thick, making attaching it to the wood less secure. I still want to have something structurally sturdy, though, as it has to support any mesh, plastic or netting that is laid over it. Either that or I will need to add hoops to support the material. Hardware cloth or chicken wire would not be enough on their own.

With this one, I plan to cover it with the black netting we have, closing up the ends in the process. That will make sure no cats will get into the beds and lay down on our vegetables!

The buggers.

Meanwhile, the garden got a good watering. We hit 28C/82F today, as we did yesterday, but did not get any of the scattered rain showers that were predicted. Tomorrow, at least, will be a slightly more pleasant 23C/73F but it’s supposed to reach that temperature by noon and stay there until 7pm. To top it all off, we’ve got air quality advisories from all the wildfires. It was definitely on the hazy side, today! Just moderate air quality advisories for our area. Others are listed as extreme, so we don’t have much to complain about, that’s for sure.

I gave up trying to go to bed early today – at least not as early as the last couple of nights. Still debating whether I should try sleeping on the couch to reduce the interruptions by kittens.

Speaking of kittens, Question has absolutely glommed onto me today! She’s constantly climbing up me, whether I’m standing or sitting. While bending over to pick up the adult cat food bowls, I suddenly had a kitten hanging off my butt. Question had been on the bed behind me and went for it. When I stood up, she climbed her way up to my shoulders and stayed there! After feeding them, I sat down to work on the computer with my own supper. Even though she ate her own food enthusiastically, she was determined to eat mine, too! She was not happy that I would not let her! When we were done giving Leyendecker his medications, I settled at the computer again, only to have her climb up me again, to nap on my chest. As I write this, I’m leaning way back in my chair as she sits on my belly. I think she’s nodding off! None of the other kittens behave like this. Mind you, while her sister has been improving in health, Question is still really gooby, and doesn’t have as much energy as the other kittens.

What a handful the litter bugger is, though. Literally. She’s just a tiny little handful. They all are! Not for long, though. They sure are growing fast!

Well, I need to make up my mind on where I plan to sleep tonight.

If I sleep tonight.

The Re-Farmer

It’s not working

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I am so

so

tired.

This whole, “go to bed early to wake up early” thing seems to be backfiring. I didn’t finally fall asleep until past 6am, which was when I was intending to be outside and working! Then my daughter came in for Leyendecker’s 8am medicine and all round cat feeding. After he got his meds, she stayed with him in the bathroom to make sure he ate his new UTI food. I fed the rest of the cats inside, then went to feed the other cats, but skipped my morning rounds, going back to bed to try for another hour or two of sleep. So here is a picture from yesterday!

The mystery squash in our compost pile are doing amazing! There are at least two varieties in there; one can be distinguished by the whitish patterning on the leaves.

I did manage to get about an hour of sleep when my daughter came in at the time I asked her to, because we needed to go to the dump. Thankfully, today the dump is open long hours, so I got another hour or so of sleep, if sleep it could be called, before finally giving up and getting up.

Mind you, only part of it can be blamed on simply not being able to fall asleep. I can’t actually say how much of it is because of that. Last night in particular, it had more to do with being turned into a jungle gym! A couple of times during the night, the kittens got very playful, and decided my legs were the perfect place to play. It was a hot night, so I wasn’t under the covers, which made my toes fair game for nibbling and nuzzling. I had at least three kittens wrestling on my left leg and my ankle ended up completely covered with the tiniest of scratches from the tiniest of feet. Just enough to start itching!

The kittens did sleep most of the night, though, so they can’t be entirely to blame, either.

Then there was Decimus, who wanted in and out a couple of times. She’ll come in long enough to nurse the babies, then leaves. At least she is very polite when she asks to be let out. Especially at night. She knows that when the motion sensor light turns on, I will check to see why it turned on and let her out. Only if I’m asleep does she actually scratch at the door.

Then, once the kittens quiet down, Nosencrantz creeps over to try and have her nightly snuggles and face rubs.

Marlee is quite unhappy with the kittens, so I often hear her snarling and growling, night and day, even if she just sees them and they’re ignoring her. Kittens being kittens, however, they are starting to want to go over and play with her, and she’s not having that! Her solace has been to go to the door and scratch at it as if she wants out. But she doesn’t want out. She wants attention. So when I sit up to see who is scratching at the door, she jumps up on the bed for attention. Given her abandonment by previous owners, and 2 years surviving harsh conditions, I’m not about to turn her away. She’s gotten comfortable enough with me that she will actually curl up on the backs of my top leg, using my bottom leg as a bed and go to sleep!

The only one that’s not keeping me up at night is Butterscotch. Retired Grandma has no interest in such things. She has, however, gotten to the point that if a kitten comes near her, she not longer hisses in alarm, but will actually give them kisses, and let them share a food bowl with her.

Almost the entire time I’ve been trying to write the above, I’ve also been fighting off Question, who would climb up my leg, then try to climb onto the keyboard!

Or do this.

Believe it or not, we do wash her face often!

I am finally get a break from her, as she tries to nurse on Decimus while she is at the food bowls. Oh! She managed to twist around and get nip! 😄

When my older daughter finished her work for the night, she came down and we chatted for a while. She suggested I try sleeping in the cat-free living room. That couch is quite comfortable to sleep on. I might just try that.

Anyhow.

After a few disjointed hours of sleep, my younger daughter and I loaded up the car and did a dump run, then continued on to town. We picked up some cranberry juice to try Leyendecker with. I’m still not sure how to give it to him. There were no supplements that we could mix into his food, instead. We also swung by the vet clinic to see if they had puppy pads. I need to put some under my desk, because at least a couple of kittens have decided right up against the wall is THE place to make a mess. They actually seem to wait until I’m out of the room to do it. I’ve caught them going for the spot and repeatedly put them in the litter box, and they still managed to sneak in and make a mess. Cleaning it up requires lying down on the floor and reaching, which is incredibly painful. My daughters both have damaged knees and joints, so it’s not like it’ll be any easier for them to clean it up. I want to lay puppy pads down. The clinic turns out to not sell them. Which means a trip to the nearest Walmart, I guess. Not something I’m up to, today. I did have some disposable diapers, though. We got them to have on hand for a friend with a baby and a less than ideal home situation, who would sometimes need them. Her children are much older now, but we just left them, and even brought them along when we moved. I had intended to open them up to collect the liquid absorbent crystals they contain, to try mixing them into potting soil, but never got around to it. So, I just cut off the elastic parts so the absorbent part could lay flat, and spread them out under my desk where the kittens go. It did make clean up MUCH easier, but I didn’t have that many to begin with. They will do for now, I hope (as I look under my desk and dread using a flashlight to check if there’s a mess on one of them or not).

Oh, my goodness. Everything has been quiet behind me, so I turned around to look. Decimus is lying on the floor with all 6 kittens contentedly nursing. What a good little mama she is!

Well, it’s time to do the afternoon feeding of the cats, with Leyendecker being fed separately in the bathroom. At least this time, we don’t have to try and shove meds down his throat! It’s too early for them to be making a difference, yet, which means we’re still finding and cleaning up big puddles.

*sigh*

It’s a good thing we’re such sucks for the cats!

I still need to go outside and check the garden beds. I was intending to set up the sprinklers and soaker hoses, but when I fed the cats outside, it did seem like we got rain at some point. I don’t think it was enough, though. Still, after yesterday’s heat, and today being just as hot, the garden could use a good watering! At least we’re only slightly above average temperature for this time of year. The 30 year record high was 32C/88F in 2007, while the record low was 10C/50F in 2004. I’m okay with what we have now! I just can’t tolerate the heat as much, as I get older.

Okay, Re-Farmer. Time to stop procrastinating and get something useful done!

What I really want to do is go for a nap, though!

The Re-Farmer

Leyendecker update

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My daughter and I loaded Leyendecker up and took him to the vet, today. I wasn’t able to get a picture, so here’s one from last year.

This is from when we were taking him to the vet and found out he was blocked.

He is too big for that carrier! The carrier can be opened from the top, where the handle it. Seeing my daughter carry him to the car, I could see the top door bending from his weight! Once we got to the clinic, I carried the box with both arms, rather than the handle.

Once he was in the carrier, he started howling and yelling and wailing! I heard sounds coming from that cat I’ve never heard before! We even popped up the back seats (I’ve had them flat, so I can put my mother’s walker in the back without having to fold it) so that the carrier could be in one seat, and my daughter in the other, trying to comfort him. He yelled the entire way. Even as I was carrying him into the clinic, he was wailing.

That’s one way to get right into an examination room, even though we were half an hour early!

So it’s not good news, but not really bad news.

Also, that boy did NOT want to give a urine sample, and he’s so big – just under 22 pounds! – they couldn’t take a sample from him via a needle directly into his bladder. We could see in the ultrasound that things were cloudy. He even conveniently tried to pee while lying in the V shaped pillow on his back, and we could see the muscled contract, cloudiness going through his urethra – then going back into his bladder!

They were able to collect barely enough urine from him to get it tested. There were the expected high readings due to stress – and he was massively stressed out! – and some bacteria. Not that it was a clean sample, since she literally collected it as he leaked. When he was blocked before, one thing they did NOT find were crystals. This time, he did have crystals in his urine.

Crap.

But, he is still able to urinate, if uncomfortably and all over the house, so we caught it in time.

He’s now on the same medical regime he came home with last time, after he’d had his hospital stay. Onsior for cats, an anti-inflammatory, Clavaseptin, an antibiotic, and Prazosin, a smooth muscle relaxant. He’ll be taking half pills twice a day for 10 days, then once a day for another 10 days, with just one of the medications. We got extra of the Prazosin, just in case he needs it for longer.

We also picked up some anti UTI cat food. A 2.72kg (about 6 pounds) bag cost over $50. It actually cost more than 20 doses of Prazosin. We’d had some before, but he didn’t like it, and the cost was prohibitive. We tried a different brand that we hope he’ll like better.

The problem is going to be the food. We normally just have food available for the cats to eat at their leisure. For most of the cats, this is not a problem. Leyendecker, however, is going to have to be fed separately, which means we can’t have other cat food around all the time.

So from now one, we’re going to be feeding the cats – and giving Leyendecker his meds – at 8am and 8pm, with a third feeding (no meds for Leyendecker this time) at 2pm. With his special dry cat food, he’s supposed to get 1 1/2 cups a day, so half a cup each feeding. We’ll give him some of the wet cat food, which we do every evening, as well, but it’s never a large amount.

It was also recommended to try giving him cranberry juice, to increase the acidity of his urine. How, we’re not sure. The vet only knew of one person who gave it to their dog to successfully treat a UTI. It won’t harm the cats, so we could try adding it to their water fountain, but more likely we will get some cranberry supplements and add the powder to his food.

We’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, we are now $345 and change poorer. It meant going into the money we were setting aside for a downpayment on a new van.

*sigh*

It could have been worse.

Ah, I hear the girls coming down the stairs. Time for the evening medications and feeding!

The Re-Farmer

Morning activities, and a change in plans

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We’re supposed to get quite hot for the next while, so I tried going to be very early. Usually, I don’t go to bed until 2 am or so. Especially this time of year, when it’s still light out for so long. So “early” usually means “before midnight” for me. Instead, I tried to be in bed by about 8, hoping to be up and about outside by 5.

It didn’t work.

Some people can fall asleep soon after lying down. My husband has always been able to do that. I’ve never been one of these! I think I did finally fall asleep before midnight, but didn’t wake up any earlier.

Also, I need to start being very careful rolling over at night, because I’m starting to wake up with kittens chewing on my toes!

Anyhow.

The first order of business outside was to feed the cats. One of the first cats to show up was Octomom! I think the girls had called her Slick, but she’s around so infrequently, the name didn’t stick.

She is such a beauty! She didn’t like me being around, though, and kept moving away as I set kibble out in different places.

Last of all, I put kibble in the bowl in the garage for her. It was not only empty, but I could see in the box nest, that she had been digging around for any remaining kibble that might have been left behind in there.

Since the mama was at the kibble house, I took advantage of it. I grabbed one of the blankets, then went over to the barrel the kittens are in. After removing the “cover” (a sheet of aluminum weighed down with a brick), I took out the rotted pieces of the barrel top that had fallen inside, then lay down the blanket on one half of the bottom – which, I could not see, is just dirt. The barrel is upside down. The pieces I had taken out used to be the “floor” of the barrel. Now, it’s open at both ends.

After moving all the kittens onto the blanket, I went and got the other one and tucked it into the other half. Then I found some clean pieces of wood in the garage. They used to be part of the packaging for the wood chipper, if I remember correctly. They are longer, and I put them at angles above the kittens. This gives the mama something to land on when she jumps in, and an area to perch on above her kittens, when she needs a baby break.

By the time I was putting the cover back on, the mama was returning, and she was not happy to see me! She hovered around, growling at me, until I moved away. I watched as she climbed up to the rim of the barrel and looked down, but she did not go in yet. Instead, she perched on the edge and glared at me! The last I saw, she had moved onto the other barrel and continued to watch as I continued my morning rounds. I’ve been out that way a couple of times, since, and once I saw her in the grass. Later on, I’ll have to check again, when I’m sure the mama isn’t around.

As I headed back to the sun room, I spotted this.

It’s SuperAdam!

I don’t think any of those kittens are her own, and there are kittens from at least 3, possibly 4, litters that she is nursing!

One of the things I checked this morning was the raspberries, of course.

Those purple raspberries we transplanted this spring are doing amazing! The one in the photo is the largest of the three. We have been able to pick a whole 5 ripe raspberries from the three bushes.

The other image is of the raspberries I picked from the ones in the main garden area. My mother had transplanted them in the area long before we moved out here. Now that the crab apple tree that was there has died and was cut down, the raspberry bushes at that end, and around the old compost pile, are doing much better! The ones at the other end, closer to the chokecherry tree, are not doing as well.

Also, I don’t know if you’re seeing the bowl of raspberries okay, but after I uploaded the images to Instagram, that picture now looks like it’s got a semitransparent black overlay on it. Instagram seems to have issues with multiple images uploaded at once.

One of the other things I worked on this morning was an experiment.

I took the remains of some chicken wire and added it to the box frame. It’s just held in place with wire twists. I had a lot less chicken wire than I thought; not even enough to cover one side.

We do have enough of the black netting we got last year to cover it completely, which we might use as a temporary cover. I definitely want to use hardware cloth attached semi-permanently to the sides. I will probably put some on the top, too, but not permanently. The thing it, once the sides are covered, the only way to tend the bed would be to remove the box cover completely. That would be a 2 person job, to avoid damaging the corn.

Hmm… I was just thinking, as I look at that picture. Right now, I’ve got the excess wire over the top. The hardware cloth also comes in 4′ widths. I could have excess mesh on the bottom, covering the sides of the raised bed. That would ensure critters won’t be able to slip under the bottom of the box cover. It would also serve to keep the whole thing from getting knocked off the bed by a determined critter.

Something to think about.

By the time this was done, it was getting too hot and humid to stay outside, and it wasn’t even 10am yet!

We have a change in plans for today, anyhow.

We got a call from the vet clinic about Leyendecker’s appointment tomorrow. Looks like they got a cancellation or something, because they were asking if we could come in today, instead! So he now has a 4:30 appointment today.

Hopefully, it will not be something serious, but after his last vet visits, I have my doubts. 😟

Ah, well. It will be what it will be.

The Re-Farmer