I am so glad I did the drive to find cat carriers yesterday! The predicted rain and snow arrived overnight. As I was doing my morning rounds, we were getting ice pellet type snow and high winds.
The winds were enough that most of the cats ate in the kibble house, instead of the cat house roof! I counted 33 this morning, which did not include Sad Face, though my husband saw him in the sun room, later.
That fluffy black cat in the photo is Driver. He was favouring his right front paw this morning, so we need to keep an eye on him. I could see no obvious injury. As I was finishing my rounds and coming inside, I spotted him in the sun room, on the cat bed inside the cage, so that was good.
This morning was the second time I came out to find that not only was the heated water bowl in the sun room empty, but the big one outside was knocked out of the water bowl shelter and hanging by its cord (the cord is reinforced and protected with steel wire). There is a piece of wood across the front specifically to prevent that happening, so it takes a lot to knock that bowl out! I had thought it might be a deer, but last night I chased two giant, fluffy racoons out of the sun room, so it might have been a racoon that did it.
The metal water bowls (old stainless steel frying pans with no handles) were solid ice, of course. The cats seem to prefer those over plastic bowls. Usually I just top them up with a bit of water, but they needed to have the ice knocked out this time, before I could add more. With the big heated water bowl alone holding 1 1/2 gallons, I had to go back for more water to refill them all!
I also made sure to give the cats a little extra food to tide them over. I try not to give extra at the end of the day, as I don’t want to be feeding the racoons! At least, not much… But with the cold and wind, the cats will definitely need the extra calories. Happily, they are mostly staying close to the house, and really enjoying that warm corner in the cat house, under the heat bulb! It’s funny to walk by and see half a dozen faces or more, all mashed against each other, looking at me through the window.
All in all, it’s looking like an unpleasant day today. Looking at the weather radar in the wee hours of the night was funny. As I zoomed in closer to our area, I could actually see where the weather system split up to form an open space as it passed over us. We were catching just the edges of that open space. My mother’s town was looking completely clear. Our climate bubble, in action! 😄
After today, however, it’s going to switch up. Things are supposed to start warming – and keep getting warmer! Check out the most recent forecast I captured this morning.
They’re now saying we’ll be getting as high at 8C/46F!
The nice thing is, we’re in the middle of planning a trip to the city with my husband, to visit family. By the time we’re doing that, all the snow should be gone and the roads should be completely clear. Even after that, for pretty much the rest of November, we’re looking at highs above freezing on most days.
Of course, the forecast will probably be different in a few days. Hopefully, though, it’ll still be warm. The last couple of times we tried to go into the city to visit family, we ended up turning around to come home because a weather system hit and the roads were too dangerous. Then my husband’s back got worse, and it’s now been 4 or 5 years since he’s seen his dad. Thankfully, the truck’s front seats have so many micro adjustments that can make the trip less painful for him.
Now we just have to pray those weather predictions are correct!
After doing my searches for cat carriers at our local Walmarts, Canadian Tires, and even Peavey Mart and Princess Auto – both places I have never been to, and would be very dangerous for me to go to with money! – I finally decided it was worth ordering a couple of those clearance soft sided carriers.
We are supposed to get a mix of rain and snow today, but not until later on. While doing my morning rounds, it was so nice out, I decided I should place the order and arrange a pick up, since I needed to go to the city, anyhow.
I’ve never ordered anything online from Walmart before, so I set up an account and selected two black soft sided carriers. The two together came out to just under $22, so quite a good price. I made sure to arrange pick up at the nearer Walmart in the smaller, closer city, instead of delivery. All throughout, I was reading that delivery would be November 24 – assuming they even delivered to our area in the first place. Pick up, however, was to be done before November 24. Since we needed them for November 11, delivery wasn’t an option, anyhow. Also, I figured picking it up meant no shipping costs.
Then I went through the checkout.
With shipping, handling and taxes, the total came out to just over $53.
Oh, and it wouldn’t be ready for pick up until November 24.
Seriously???
Okay, considering the clearance price, even with the insane extra costs, it would still be cheaper to get the carriers this way. I would have been okay with that. However, it wasn’t until the order was completed that I saw it made no difference in when they would be ready for pick up. Turns out this isn’t something you’d find in the physical stores at all, I guess – which is what I understood I was looking at. As near as I could tell, they’d be shipped from China!
I cancelled the order immediately.
I still needed to go to town, however, so I figured I’d give it a go. I did find a small, hard sided carrier for about $30 at Canadian Tire – and there was one listed as still in stock at my location.
I found it.
They did have some others, but they either had fancy features (the top slides off to uncover the animal, rather than trying to pull a nervous animal out the door) or were sizes more appropriate for a medium sized dog. Interestingly, the hard sided carriers were all quite a bit cheaper than comparable sizes of soft sided carriers.
At least I was able to get the one carrier, along with a couple of bags of litter pellets.
Then it was across the street to the Walmart – however, there is an actual pet store in that area, so I decided to stop there, first.
They did have a good selection of carriers, including basic, hard sided, cat sized ones. The price was a bit much, though. I decided I would try the Walmart first, and if I couldn’t find one there, I’d come back for it.
I didn’t need to do that.
According to the website, this location did not have this carrier in stock at all. Nor any of the others I saw! They even had the slide out carrier, just like I saw at Canadian Tire, for quite a bit cheaper.
This one, however, was basically $30 – and the last one in stock. The only other one in this size was the slide out version. All the others were much bigger.
So now, we have two new carriers. With the hard and soft sides ones we have at home, including the one donated by the cat lady, we have the 6 carriers we need to bring the cats to the clinic for their cheap spay and neuter day. Yay!!!
Of course, I also got other things we needed, and a few extra. I’ve decided on what I will do for this year’s hand made Christmas decorations, and picked up a couple of skeins of yarn. A bright red with a sparkling metallic silver strand, and white. I would have gotten other colours, but there weren’t a lot of option. I remember when Walmart would get all sorts of cool Christmassy yarns and other craft material every year, but that pretty much stopped. Even the sparkly yarn I got wasn’t a Christmas yarn, but regular inventory. I’m not about to drive to a Michaels in the city, just for that, though. When it comes to craft stores, Michaels is pretty much all we’ve got, here in Canada. I have no problem with them. In fact, I used to teach crochet at one of them, years before moving out here. I just wish there was some competition! The closest to it would be from the various dollar-type stores, and they’re not much competition at all.
I’ll have to go through my stash of yarn and see if I’ve got something I can use as a contrasting yarn, that isn’t too fancy. I’ve got some gorgeous yarns that would do, but my hands are so rough from yard work, I can’t do anything with them. They stick to my fingers and I keep yanking the loops right off my hook. So I stick to very plain, medium weight acrylic yarns for now.
Anyhow.
I just realized I’ll probably need to get more fibre fill, too. No hurry on that part, though. I still have some left.
After I loaded the truck, I took the time to message the Cat Lady and let her know we had the carriers, so she no longer needed to try and find any to loan to us. She told me that she would be able to meet me at the vet that day, as she had donations of wet cat food for us. !! So sweet!
Then she told me, she just had to call 911.
She had been driving with her daughter when she saw some men “slamming down” a dog. She pulled over and was basically told it was not her concern. So she drove around a corner to a safe place to pull over and call the police. She then went to message her husband, who was at a job site and would not hear a phone call. That was they only reason she happened to be on her phone and saw my message come in.
What on earth is wrong with people? Someone who would do that to a dog would very likely have no issues doing the same to a person, either. I’m glad she was able to find someplace safe to call the police from. Her poor daughter must have been so incredibly upset to see that.
On top of that, they’re having problems with selling their house, so they can move into the one they bought. People are having trouble getting financing, and deals are falling through. With all that stress in her life, I so appreciate that she still manages to think of us and help us with the cats. Getting burned by so many others that she’s tried to help makes me even more appreciative. I wouldn’t blame her at all if she just threw in the towel and dropped the rescue entirely. She is just so amazing! I’m so glad we connected with her.
While on the subject of cats, I’m glad our new lysine order finally came in. I discovered one potential problem with it, though. This lysine is more granular. What we were getting before was a super fine powder. I dose the cats by tossing the kibble with a scoop of lysine to coat. There’s only so much that will stick to the kibble, but I am watching to see if we’re loosing too much of it into the container, rather than onto the kibble. So far, it doesn’t seem to be any more than what I saw with the fine powder.
Some of the kittens are starting to get gooey eyes, so the lysine will be very helpful for that. One little black fluff ball, with a tiny white bib – slightly bigger and fluffier than its sibling, Soot Sprite – has had one eye getting gummed shut. This was one I’d been able to pet every now and then, so it was easier to catch and bring in for an eye wash. I did that again this morning, and this kitten now allows me to walk up to it, and even starts purring when I pick it up. It does NOT like the eye washing, but it’s discovering it likes cuddles and pets.
After unloading the truck at home, I made sure to feed the outside cats, so I could safely drive the truck away from the house. On returning to the house, the little puff ball let me pick it up again, so I tried to check.
I’m about 99% sure it’s male. It’s really hard to tell with the fluffy black fur!
There is another black puff ball from another litter. Slightly larger, slightly fluffier and with a larger white bib on its chest. It has had both eyes get gooey, and I was able to bring it in once to wash its eyes while my husband held it. It is definitely less friendly, though it will allow me to pet it, if it’s in the right mood. I can pick it up, but not for long. I tried, though, and took a look.
I’m about 90% sure this one is male, too, but it’s even harder to see with this one!
Why is it that only the males are letting us come close? I even got to pet Shop Towel (aka: Sad Face) again, today!
There is one very fluffy little tortie that I’ve managed to pet once in a while, but it is not friendly and more likely to run off. That one, we can be pretty sure is female, just because it’s a tortie, so I’m trying to focus on that one as much as I can.
She is not cooperative.
I also spotted a little grey tabby – another sibling to Soot Sprite and Tiny – with one stuck eye. Today, I managed to get hold of it and pick it up, but it did not like that at all, and broke free. I didn’t even get to apply the magic of ear skritches.
I did see the one calico we got this year, eating kibble next to Shop Towel. I managed to pet her back a couple of times before she ran away from the food. A first!
Now, if only we could get closer to the adult females. The only reason I know some of them are females is because they are either calicos, or they had litters this year and I saw them with their babies. One of them – a white female with black markings – is downright mean to all the cats, cattens and kittens. I don’t even remember which kittens were hers. She hates them all! I’d love to get hold of her and get her to a vet. I have strong suspicions about her behaviour. She may be in pain and lashing out. Given what has been found with some of the other females we’ve been able to get fixed, she may be another one with a twisted or otherwise damaged uterus.
Well, first we need to get the indoor kittens and Toni fixed, and hopefully adopted out soon. Then we can focus on the outside cats. That will be up to the Cat Lady and her rescue to arrange, and hopefully that vet will do another cheap spay and neuter days over the winter. I’d really love to get Shop Towel done! The males will be easy to catch and that will help, but for population control, we’ve really got to get those ladies done! If we can adopt out some of those really friendly males, I’m hoping we will have better luck socializing the females, without having one of the males barge their way in between, demanding pets.
One thing’s for sure. If we ever do manage to get Shop Towel, we’d have to use the big carrier. He wouldn’t fit in any of the other hard sided carriers, and would easily tear his way out of the soft sided carriers!
Speaking of carriers, time to go assemble the new ones and let the cats get used to them. They really enjoy going in them and having a nap!
Here we were, happy to have one last “warm” day to do the winter mulching, because it was likely to be the last day above freezing this year.
The forecast has changed.
They’re now saying we’re supposed to hit 6C/43F … in the middle of November!
While I was out, helping my mother run errands, it was just below freezing, and that was enough to set things melting in some areas. Over the next few days, we’re supposed to get snow, or a mix of snow and rain, because we’re expected to go just above freezing again. To have basically a week of temperatures between 4-6C/39-43F, that is enough to melt away all the snow we currently have.
I’m not complaining.
The mulch we put on the garden works both ways; it’ll keep the ground from freezing too much, but will also keep it from warming up too much. Otherwise, the garlic might start sprouting, only to get killed off when the deep freeze hits.
Also, we’re supposed to hit 4C/39F on the day I’m taking 6 cats in to be spayed and neutered!
I was messaging with the Cat Lady about that. She’s really stressing that we need to make sure and use all those slots she’s booking, and stay on the good side of this vet. It seems the last time the vet had one of these steeply discounted spay days, half the people who booked never showed up. Which I find absolutely astonishing. After that happened, the vet basically banned the no-shows from rebooking. Understandable! As for the Cat Lady, she’s been trying to help someone else slightly north of us that has a yard cat colony even larger than ours. That person was one of the no shows. Apparently, the drop off time of 8am was too early for her. Which blows me away. Yeah, it’s early, when you have to drive quite a ways to get there, but the vet has even said that if someone is in that situation and has to stay in town until it’s time to pick up their cats, let them know and they’ll try to do those cats first. For me, I’ll leave earlier than necessary, just in case I get stuck behind slow traffic, or have a breakdown or… who knows. Things happen. I just can’t imagine giving up such a deal on getting spays and neuters, and I especially can’t imagine just not showing up after booking an appointment! It’s happened so often, however, that the Cat Lady says we’re basically the only ones she’s still willing to help out with spays and neuters through her rescue.
We actually show up.
The only stickler right now is, each cat has to be in its own carrier. We’ve got 4 carriers, and need to bring in 6 cats. She’s put the word out to people who have borrowed carriers from her to bring them back, trying to come up with two more we can use.
I got curious and went looking online. If we really need to, there are soft sided carriers available through our nearest Walmart that are on clearance – but only if we order online, it seems. But we’re talking about only $10 or so for a carrier. Heck, I might just order a couple for pick up, since I have to go there soon, anyhow. I’d rather have hard sided carriers, but any carrier is better than no carrier! We’d just have to be careful what cats go in them, because some would tear their way right out of a soft sided carrier!
Well, if I’m going to be doing some running around, at least I’ll have good weather for it!
Just not tomorrow, because that’s when we’re supposed to get both snow and rain.
It’s supposed to start snowing later, so it’s a bit of a now or never day to get those beds mulched before the ground freezes! I’m so glad my mother decided to have me come over to her place tomorrow instead of today.
If you scroll through the Instagram slide show above, you’ll first see the carrots that we are overwintering in the soil, harvesting them as we need to, rather than harvesting them all at once and having to process them for the winter. Quite a few people swear by this, and say the carrots taste so much better when stored this way. There was the remains of a pile of grass clippings next to that bed, so it was the fastest to get done. I used up pretty much the entire pile – I didn’t bother digging too far into the snow around the edges – and piled it right on top of the snow layer. The snow will also act as an insulator, as well as add needed moisture, come spring time. I put the cover back on, partly as a way to store it, but also to keep the grass clippings from being blown away. This is the only bed where that would be an issue.
Next is the old kitchen garden. All the garlic now has a thick layer of mulch, plus the chamomile, thyme and strawberries grown from seed are covered.
I also finally picked that last big luffa gourd. I’d forgotten about it! It’s now sitting in the living room to dry out.
I also remembered to put a deeper mulch on top of the saffron crocuses, plus a nice, thick “donut” of mulch around the Liberty apple tree. Both are zone 4 plants, so they need extra protection in our zone 3 temperatures. Some time ago, I added the tree protector. It’s wrapped around the stem and the bamboo stake together until it reached the bottom branches, and then got wrapped around the bamboo stake. As the sapling gets taller, the wrap can be adjusted accordingly. This area also has the fencing wire around it, so it should be safe from deer, but this will also protect from rabbits and other critters. Mind you, the yard cats do a great job of keeping the small critters under control, so we don’t have any rabbit or mouse problems, but there are other creatures that might try to eat a nice, juicy young sapling!
All of this pretty much finished off the huge pile of grass clippings that was next to the high raised bed! There’s just the dregs along the edges, buried under snow. Those are really full of crab grass rhizomes, anyhow. I was pulling quite a few of those out of even the deepest parts of the grass pile!
Last of all, we covered the asparagus and strawberry bed, and the sunchokes. We ended up not harvesting any. I decided to leave them to propagate, and we’ll have more plants to harvest from, next year. In theory. Instead, I decided to use the loppers to cut the stems and lay them down while my daughter raided the straw pile for more mulch.
The surprise was discovering half the sunchoke plants had lost their tops! Some time between when I did my morning rounds, and when we came over to tend to the bed, a deer had come around and eaten them!
The straw we used is what had been moved off the area the trellis beds are going on. It had been used for our Ruth Stout method of growing potatoes and melons that instead got flooded out, in our 2022 garden. So it’s had some time to break down, and the pile was quite damp! We used most of it to make a nice, deep mulch over the asparagus/strawberry, and sunchoke beds.
In the spring, these mulches will be removed (the carrot bed should be empty before then) to allow for the plants underneath to get sunlight and warmth and start growing. In the wattle weave bed, the chamomile should have reseeded itself by now. The thyme in there might actually survive the winter. It’s hard to say, as they are close to the wall of the bed, which means they’ll get cold from the side. Even with the mulch, they might freeze too much. This is why I made sure to plant the garlic well away from the walls of the raised beds they are in.
If all goes well, we’ll have a nice head start to our 2024 garden!
Oh!!! I just found out our lysine order is in already!
Well, I won’t be going to help my mother today – we’ll be doing that tomorrow – which means I can get work done outside while it’s “warm” today. Yay!
But first, the adorable:
David is so good with the kittens! He’s also a great ball of fluff, and the kittens love to snuggle up to him. At one point, Shadow, here, was completely engulfed in David’s fur, but moved before I could get a picture.
Now, the funny:
As the day warmed up yesterday, the snow on the metal roof of the water bowl house started to slight off – until an icicle stopped it! Yes, that overhanging piece of snow is being held in place by the tiny tip of the shorter icicle.
And now the ugly.
Tumblr.
Fair warning, I guess, that some people might have issues with what I’m about to say next. That’s okay. I’m not offended by people disagreeing with me. Also, a warning for later on, for those who don’t want to hear about war crimes.
I got a Tumblr account, quite a few years ago. Mostly because my daughters got accounts, and it was a way of sharing things and so on. Just another social media account. I’ve got quite a few of them, most of which I rarely go to. My older daughter uses it for her online business, and it’s the source of many of her commissions. Frankly, with her skill and talent, I think she could do much better if she marketed herself elsewhere, but it’s her business – literally – not mine. When I started this blog, I set it so that my posts will automatically share to a Facebook account I created for it, and to the Tumblr account I created under the same name.
At the time we started our account, Tumblr was still a pretty sane. It was a lot of younger people, who wanted something other than Facebook. The joke was that Facebook was all about middle ages wine drinking women. It isn’t, but I know enough of them that I found the joke funny.
In its early years. Tumblr went through the same struggles FB did, with the usual p0rn bots and explicit material inundating people’s feeds. They did eventually solve that one, and things settled for a while.
Social media, in general, is a cesspool. The anonymity of the internet tends to bring out the worst in people. People throw out threats of death, rape and violence at the drop of a hat, as well as vile insults, instead of having actual… you know… discussions about things we disagree with. Limitations on how long comments can be make it harder to hold those discussions, but people don’t even try. Instead of “I disagree with you, here’s why”, it’s “You are a terrible, evil person and deserve to die” or whatever. Twitter in particular used to be really bad for that. It’s why I never started a Twitter account. I probably still won’t, now that it’s X, but since Musk took over, he’s actually done a pretty good job of cleaning it up.
Which brings me back to Tumblr.
Over the past few years, the content on Tumblr has gotten increasingly worse. We’ve got an entire generation of people who have been indoctrinated into far left extremism from kindergarten through university. They can barely read, can’t spell, can barely formulate a coherent sentence, know nothing of history except for revisionist history, can barely do simple arithmetic, and couldn’t logic their way out of a paper bag (there are exceptions, of course, but they are the minority), but my goodness, they sure do think Capitalism is Eeeevil, all white people are racists, and of course, riddled with gender ideology.
Then Musk started cleaning up Twitter, and all the p0rn bots, child s3x traffickers and g00mers moved to Tumblr and TikTok. They were already there, of course. There was just suddenly more of them. Right after the takeover, a lot of leftwing extremists, who think “freedom of speech” is a bad thing, left the platform for Tumblr and TikTok (the garbage took itself out!). For a while there, my Tumblr account was being inundated with new “followers” that were bots and/or p0rn, which I would block and report – hopefully before I saw some animated gif … activity, shall we say.. Eventually, Tumblr seems to have gotten control of that, but not quite. They have this think in the dashboard with recommended Tumblrs to visit, including “live” streams. From the thumbnails, every single one of them I see looks like it’s p0rn. I could report them, as p0rn and sexually explicit material is not allowed, but in order to do that, I have to click on them, first, and I’m not about to do that.
Things have really exploded since Oct. 7. No, not because a terrorist group with the explicitly stated, charter written goal of genocide against Jews attacked Israeli civilians – a war crime in itself. Not because these creatures (I wouldn’t even call them “animals”, because animals would never stoop to this level of degeneracy) murdered, tortured, raped and abducted civilians, degrading women in public and desecrating bodies. Not because they murdered entire families, from infants in their cradles to the elderly. No.
They support the bad guys.
As with so many other things, they’ve redefined things. Evil becomes good. Lies become truth. Wrong becomes right. Even words are redefined. For a group that hates “capitalism”, they don’t even know what it is. Likewise, words like “colonizer”. They only know the meanings they’ve been indoctrinated into. Then, because they live in a very loud bubble, they have come to believe they are the majority, and that anyone who disagrees with them is evil. Not just wrong.
A kicker was when I saw some “art” being shared, purportedly done by an artist in Gaza that was killed by an Israeli air strike. If this were true (and there was no reason to believe it is), this would have been suicide by Israel, and I said as much. There was plenty of warning. Civilians could have left. Or at least, they could have, if Hamas hadn’t blocked their routes out of Gaza, but that’s another issue. Anyhow, I was accused of having “no empathy”.
So now we have Tumblr awash with Palestinian propaganda, with absolutely nothing about what was done to Israel. As far as these people know, Israel just up and decided to commit genocide against Palestinians for no reason. They either have no clue, or justify, the fact that Palestinians supported with Hamas did, and were celebrating and dancing in the streets, not just in Gaza, but around the world.
Which makes being accused of having “no empathy” truly ironic, since these people clearly have no empathy for things like a baby being put in an oven and roasted alive, while the mother was repeatedly raped, and after the father was murdered. Or about how families in their safe rooms (imagine living in a place where you need to have a safe room in your home!) had their houses burned around them. Some survived. Some roasted to death in their safe rooms. Those that tried to escape their burning homes ran out, only to be shot to death by the waiting Hamas. Or the people who got tortured or raped in front of their loved ones, before being executed. There was even a Hamas terrorist that phoned his mother from the home of one of his victims, bragged about the atrocities he had just committed, and was praised by his family for it.
But nooo…. these are not the bad guys. The “zionists” are the bad guys, and the Palestinians that were so happy about what was done to Israeli civilians are the victims.
Tumblr is just oozing with anti-Jew hatred right now – and the people engaging in it actually try to say that “the Jews” agree with them.
Yeah. Logic is not their strong point.
Anyhow.
So I started going something I haven’t been doing for years.
I’m starting to use my Tumblr account.
More specifically, I’m sharing accurate information to Tumblr. Historically accurate, evidentially accurate and truthful information. Yes, I vetted this stuff first, and if something is a mix of both (the best lies have at least some truth in them), I won’t share it.
One of my sources is someone who grew up with the ideology of the region. He knows it because he lived it and believed it. Today, he made a video about a statement made today by the Palestinian Authority – not Hamas – that explicitly stated their intention of exterminating the Jews, complete with koranic verses about it, that was being preached in mosques in sermons. It even showed how these “leaders” are lying to their own people. I shared it, and lo and behold, I actually got a comment (“notes”) on it (I don’t promote my Tumblr account, so I don’t typically get any reactions from there).
I also shared an unrelated video talking about Canada’s insane and bizarre gun “buy back” scheme that got delayed. This is what I got under the gun control video.
As you can see, I don’t have any patience with idiocy.
Note that the person did not say anything to counter the actual claims in the post. They just went straight into an attack on me – and my crops. I doubt they even watched the video to see what it was about. Also “say it to my face” is hilarious, considering they’re the ones that started off attacking me.
As for the video about the PA declaring their intend to commit genocide on Jews?
That’s right. Under a video about how the PA – not Hamas – has made a statement explicitly saying they intend to wipe out all Jews in all the world, I was attacked for not having “real empathy” for people.
Again, I doubt this person even bothered to watch the video. Especially considering how quickly after I shared it, that they commented. Also, for this person to then claim to speak for “Jewish people” would be funny, if it weren’t for the fact that Jewish people were so horrifically slaughtered.
This is pretty typical. They don’t even try to argue their position. They just go straight into the personal attacks. What you WON’T see is any sort of proper argumentation or rational debate. It’s all pure emotionalism and pure, unadulterated hate. These comments are pretty mild. I’ve seen much worse, elsewhere.
I didn’t bother screen capping the rest of my response, which was a bit of a history lesson. Which is probably talking to a wall, but I don’t expect people like this to have the cognitive ability to process the information. Someone reading it might, though.
So Tumblr is a cesspool, and it’s gotten much, much worse of late. The things my daughters are being exposed to is bad enough that it’s affecting our relationship. I’ve even seen one daughter sharing “art” that was essentially p0rn featuring surgically mutilated bodies, under the guise of a particular s3xual identity. Recently, I was telling a daughter about a Mary Pickford movie I’d just watched, that had a particularly well done and moving scene involving the death of a child. I mentioned the name “Jesus” and my daughter had a visceral reaction of disgust. Keep in mind, that my daughters were strong Christians, based on research, evidence and logic. But reason, evidence and logic holds little sway against emotionalism. One of the first things the “gr00mers” and indoctrinators do is divide their targets away from their loved ones, and that means viewing them as the “enemy” and shunning them. We used to be able to talk about anything, even when we disagreed. Now, they just walk away or make snarky, gaslighting comments. I’ve considered deleting my Tumblr account, but that wouldn’t actually solve anything. It’s gotten to a point where my husband and I are seriously considering blocking certain sites, using parental controls (ironic that we never needed to consider this when our daughters were younger!), but that won’t solve the problem. Just cause new ones. We’d have to cut of the internet completely, and that would end my daughter’s online business, end this blog, and end a primary means of communication (we’d have to cut off the data plan on our cell phones, too. Though we do live in a cell phone dead zone, some signal does still occasionally make it through and, of course, would be an issue anywhere we go).
So what, realistically, can we do about it? Not a whole heck of a lot that will actually be useful.
Well, hopefully, things will improve. Right now, am about to go outside with my daughters to get some physical labour done. We all need to spend more time outside, and less time on our computers.
I took the truck in to get things checked out; along with the “service tire monitoring system” warning on the computer display, I started to get a “left rr tire low, add air” warning. Plus, the check engine light was still on. The battery needed to be looked at, too.
I dropped the truck off, then headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things and wait until I got a text to come back for the truck. This was just a look-see appointment, not an appointment to get any work done.
When I got back, he explained about the sensor issues. And it is sensors that are the problem, not actual mechanical problems. The tire module probably has a low battery, so that will need to be replaced. The part is a somewhat over $60, from what he could remember. As for the battery, he checked, and no, HE did not replace it. The previous owner had replaced it. He looked it up and it’s a 2019 battery, so past warranty. He recently changed suppliers, so he couldn’t give me an idea of the cost.
Overall, though, we should have no problem waiting until December to get this done, if we have to. The priority would be getting a new battery. The sensors are just turning on lights.
That was when I commented about the computer display, and how the manual said there was a control panel for it in a location that is not included in this model, and there’s no button.
Yes, there is!
Of course, I had to get him to show me exactly where it is, because we’ve looked and looked. There HAD to be something, but we just couldn’t find it.
He showed it to me, and I STILL had to stick my head right in to see it.
I took this picture of the dash after I parked at home. Can you see it?
If you spotted it in that V between the top gauge on the right, and the speedometer, you’ve got good eyes! We LOOKED in that area! We looked all over the console. We missed it completley.
He got a laugh about that.
Once I had the truck back and the groceries loaded, I parked long enough to message my family, then cycled through the computer display. I’ll have to spend some time going through the different displays to see what some of them are for, and how to use the trip function, but the main thing is, I was no longer seeing that “service tire monitoring system” thing anymore. I was finally seeing the odometer reading!
Also, the temperature in Celcius.
It took me a moment to figure out why there was a W above the temperature when I realised I was driving West. It has a compass display, too! Woo Hoo!!!
Yeah, it doesn’t take much for me to get all excited. 😄
He asked me to text him tomorrow and remind him to look up the prices of things and send me an estimate. He’s been very busy lately, mostly with tires! Even as I dropped the truck off, he was taking delivery of a cargo van load. People are getting their winter tires, so it’s a good busy!
I will probably not be home for much of tomorrow, though. Thankfully, it was warm enough today, and the ice is all melted off the roads. I will be calling my mother later to confirm, and am expecting to help her with some errands tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow is also supposed to be our last “warm” day. I’ll have to get the girls to take care of the winter mulching for me. I’d rather be working outside and taking advantage of the last warm day. My mother seems to have developed a strange gift for disrupting our ability to get things done that are weather dependant!! It’s not like she pays attention to the weather forecasts and plans this, either. Ah, well. It is what it is!
First, though, I need to have myself a late supper. I was in town for far longer than I expected, and didn’t think I’d need to get food while I was out!
It’s been difficult to get close to some of the outside kittens. Especially the smallest ones. There’s one little black one that I’ve been able to pick up now and then, and a couple others I’ve been able to pet while they are eating – sometimes. Mostly, they run off before I even come close.
Today, I was able to pick up the two black kittens with white bibs.
That’s because their eyes were messed up! (click through the Instagram slideshow above, to see both)
The one that lets me pick him up every now and then (I think it’s a male, but I’m not sure) had one eye stuck shut. He let me bring him into the bathroom and my husband held him while I washed the eye and got it open.
No sooner did I deposit him into the cat bed in the sun room (I’m concerned the wet fur will freeze!) that I saw his slightly bigger and fluffier sibling.
That one had an eye that was mostly stuck shut, but both eyes were very messy. Normally, I would not have been able to walk up to it and pet it, never mind pick it up, but he did let me pick him up. He wasn’t as happy about being held, but I got him inside and my husband was able to hold him long enough for me to clean both eyes.
The second picture above was the first kitten I caught, that needed only one eye washed. In the picture, it looks like the eye is still shut, but that it actually isn’t stuck.
We ran out of lysine about a month ago. Our subscription never arrived. I checked on Amazon and it seemed they were out of stock but, over time, it started to say that they (Amazon? The supplier? it didn’t specify) were trying to find an alternate source.
I started searching for other suppliers, but was not having much success. Lysine powder marketed specifically for cats was typically twice the price for 1/3 the quantity. I’d been able to get it in 300g tubs. In looking for lysine marketed for humans (it’s the same thing), they tended to be either as capsules, loose powder in much smaller tubs, or mixed with vitamins.
Thankfully, a friend did some looking as well, and she did find some marketed for horses in 1 pound bags! The price was good, but they didn’t ship out of province. I was planning to check out some of the local livestock supply places, when I had the chance, but I have no idea when I’ll have that chance.
Meanwhile, my friend was able to do some searches on Amazon and find some that did not come up for me, for some reason. I now have a larger container – over 400g – of lysine powder ordered. If it works out to be a suitable replacement, I’ll see if I can set it up as a subscription in place of the other brand. It will be particularly important to make sure the yard cats are getting lysine over the winter, as that’s when their respiratory issues can get really bad!
Hopefully, through the winter, we’ll get more of the inside kittens adopted out, and can bring the smaller outside kittens in for treatment and adoption, before the real cold hits!
The Re-Farmer 