I had intended to put this box in the shelf shelter, as the cats have broken and torn off most of the insulation “walls” I put across of fronts. It’s too big, so I stuck it in the water bowl house. It didn’t take long for Judgement to discover it!
It’s becoming quite warm out there. Yesterday, we reached 0C. Reports to the road conditions group I’m on described icy roads and even rain!
Today, we’re supposed to reach a high of -1C. We are already at -3C, with a “RealFeel” of +1C. In a few days, we are expected to reach highs several degrees above freezing for almost a week. I’ve even seen a forecast of +6C, but only from The Weather Network app on the TV, that we get through our Roku device. That’s the only one that’s connected to the Government of Canada data.
Speaking of the Government of Canada, the past few days has seen news that even filtered its way through the social media censors. It took this long for a federal court to rule that our Prime Dictator’s use of the Emergency Act against the trucker protests 2 years ago was, in fact, unconstitutional. Of course, everyone who read the Act knew that already, just like we all know all the mandates and restrictions were unconstitutional and illegal. There are still four political prisoners rotting in jail, once again denied bail.
Of course, our Supreme Leaders admit no wrong and plan to appeal. Why not? They don’t have to pay the course costs. We do. Listening to various Liberal and NDP politicians lying through their teeth in their responses is as disgusting as ever. Their paid media is having difficulty covering for them, but they do it, anyhow. Without all that government money flowing, they would have collapsed years ago. Only the independent media is reporting on it fully. At least, in beteen getting arrested or assaulted for asking questions.
I’m thankful to be out here in the boonies, and not in the cities right now. Aside from the increased costs, we are largely untouched by their shenanigans.
It’s getting really hard to afford to feed the kitties, though.
The Re-Farmer
(Dangit. I wrote this post this morning, and I was sure I published it. It’s now late evening, and I just found it in my drafts.
Yesterday evening, we finally got a good look at the cat stuck in the old kitchen!
I put the big cat carrier on the freezer, with food and water. We had a small packet of a wet catfood treat left from a donation a whole back. Just enough for one cat, so that got squeezed into a small dish and stuck into the back of the carrier. I even put some cat nip in there.
It took a while, but eventually, the cat came out. I spotted it in the carrier, digging around the blanket inside, the food dish empty, and almost pushed out the door! As soon as the cat saw me, though, it ran off.
It didn’t quite run away, though. When I saw a pair of ears, just barely visible behind the kibble bin, I waited. Of course, one of the teenage cats inside wanted attention, and I ended up with Ghosty in my arms.
Well, that got his attention! The pair of ears became a pair of eyes, then a whole head, as the cat stretched its neck to see Ghosty through the window. Which got Ghosty’s attention, too!
For the next whole, I would stand at the window in the door, holding a different cat. The cat in the old kitchen seemed to be more comfortable seeing cats instead of just a human. I could see it was wanting to get back to the food and water on the freezer, so I didn’t interrupt too much. The way the door is oriented to the stairs, my daughters could monitor things from the top of the stairs. We did not try to go into the old kitchen to let it out, though, since we knew it would just disappear again.
This morning, while feeding the outside cats, I made sure to leave both doors between the old kitchen and sun room wide open. A daughter was stationed at the window to see if the cat left.
Of course, there was a major rush of other cats going into the old kitchen, and this time, we just left them. I finished my morning rounds, then checked with my daughter.
She did not see the cat leave, though all the others had left.
In the end, we decided to leave the doors between the old kitchen and the sun room wide open for a few hours. We did have to make extra sure the door into the rest of the house was securely closed. That one has been known to pop open, if we’re not careful!
Well, I just got back from checking the old kitchen. It seemed empty, so I went in.
I moved cat carrier to the sun room for the cats to get used to, since we plan to “trap” a cat in it for cheap spay/neuter day. I had to pull the inner old kitchen door – the one with no window – closed behind me, to keep cats from going into the old kitchen again.
I couldn’t see the cat that had been stuck overnight anywhere, but I didn’t go outside. I did stay to pet the crowd of cats swirling around my legs, vying for attention.
But not this one.
This is the one female we can be pretty sure to be able to catch for the cheap spay day, but she was not allowing contact, today!
She and her two siblings from the last litter are still so tiny! Hard to believe they are 7 months old! I did get to cuddle her fuzzy black and white brother, but her fluffball tabby sibling it the shiest of them all.
While petting the cats, I heard a commotion from the old kitchen. Thinking it could be the stuck cat, I checked. No sign of a cat – until I looked at the inside door.
Mitzy looked back at me!
She had scrambled her way up the door and was hanging off the window! What a monkey!
So it does look like the stuck cat has finally gotten out. We will keep monitoring, just in case.
Come spring time, we will have to empty out the old kitchen as best we can, fpr clean up. There was no litter box in there while the cat was stuck!
At least for now, the room should stay more or less freezing, so we shouldn’t need to worry about smell. We are at only -2C . By the end of the month, we are expecting several days at +3C. Things will be melt7ng outside!
What concerns me about the warm weather is, the ladies might go into heat early… and there’s nothing we can do about it, since we can’t catch them to get them spayed.
*sigh*
For now, though, it at least looks like the trapped cat is no longer trapped.
Brussel is such a gorgeous cat! I want to snuggle her!!! Alas, she still won’t allow us to get close.
This afternoon, I was planning to head into town to cancel the insurance on my mother’s car, until we can get it taken in. My husband was going to come with me, to finally get his photo ID. Unfortunately, the change in his medication is still causing intense intestinal distress. He was up almost all night, dealing with it.
Also on the to-do list was a stop at the grocery store for more toilet paper. !!!
Needless to say, he wasn’t up to the outing today.
So I headed out shortly after doing my morning rounds.
We have a problem right now, though.
When I go into the sun room with the kibble, I often get a rush of cats coming through the door. Sometimes, I can close the inner door behind me as I go through and stop it, but other times, they’re just too fast for me.
So I leave the doors open.
Usually, by the time I finish putting out the kibble and warm water, they’ve come out on their own. Sometimes, they need a bit of encouragement. Every once in a while, a cat hides somewhere. We check through the window of the inside door until we see it, and usually, it will run out after we go in and open the door to the sunroom.
Yesterday, when I did the evening feeding, I was stampeded by cats who were more interested in exploring the old kitchen than food. In the end, I left the sun room doors open so they could go out on their own, because they were too excited for me to get them out.
When I opened the door to go into the house, though, several made a run for it!
A couple of hours later, my daughter came up to me, asking if I knew there was a herd of cats in the old kitchen. I’d forgotten to tell her about it! I explained what happened, and she went and got them all out.
Except she wasn’t positive it was all of them. She left the light on, so we could check through the window.
Some time later, my husband opened the door and scared the heck out of a cat.
It hid somewhere, on the opposite side of the room from the doors.
My daughters caught glimpses of it throughout the night, but I never saw it. It was one of the “printer babies” – a white and grey.
When I did the cat stuff this morning, I left the old kitchen door on the sunroom side just a little bit open, hoping it would come out, but others would not go in. I did see a white and grey slink out, but this was a friendly one that loves pets, not the scaredy cat that ran away. The friendly one had snuck through into the sun room after I left the door partly open.
I even set out cat treats and catnip in the sunroom, in hopes of luring it out.
No luck. I did, however, finally catch a quick sighting of it as it disappeared under the plastic couch we have in there.
The other cats, however, were sure happy with the treats and nip
I’ve since gone to town and back, and it’s still in there. I finally put a cat carrier on the freezer, with some food in it. If nothing else, it’ll have a warmer place to curl up in. The door into the old kitchen is so loud, though, there is no way we could sneak up on it if it were asleep in there.
Meanwhile…
My first stop in town was to the auto insurance place. Not the one we usually go to, but the one I went to to insure the truck. It’s just easier to park at.
While going in, I made sure to check and, while they don’t have the automated doors, the place is barrier free, so my husband will be able to get in and out with his walker, with no trouble.
After canceling the insurance (we’ll just redirect the money to savings, to go towards potential repairs), we were chatting and I mentioned that my husband was supposed to come in for his photo ID, and we talked a bit about accessibility. It reminded me to ask what he needed to bring to get his ID.
I’m so glad I did.
I told her about when he tried before, and how since his name on his old file, and his (at the time, still valid) driver’s license did not match the name on his birth certificate, they wouldnt allow a transfer. Never mind that he’d never used any other name, even while in the military. The provincial insurance provider would not accept it and would not allow him to transfer his driver’s license. We were actually told that he would need to legally change his name… to his legal name.
It was surreal.
Unfortunately, all the hassle and waiting to fund this out left him in massive amounts of pain. We later made some calls to an ombudsman, and were told he just needed to bring some mail with his full name and current address on it, and they could work with that. He just never made it back to do it. So that had been what he intended to do, today.
The woman that was helping me was not impressed that this happened to us. I had told her how I’d had to get my marriage license from vital statistics to get mine, and it was months before I could finally get my driver’s license transferred. She told me she had a similar issue. She had a 93 yr old widow who, with changes in the ID laws, had to get a photo ID for the first time in her life. The provider wanted her to get her marriage certificate – many years after the death of her husband – to prove her name change, so she could access her pension money. !!! The woman telling me this said she fought it and got it done, but it took three months!
Bureaucracy is insane.
She gave me a printout of what my husband could bring to prove his ID, and a form for third party identification. That one can be signed by a doctor or pharmacist, or a post master. When I tried to use that form, years ago, the insurance provider would not accept our local post master, saying she wasn’t really a post master. I guess that certificate on the wall at the post office that says she is, is just for decoration? A pharmacist would be better for my husband, anyhow. They know him very well, by now.
That form allows for a physical address only, so he will need his health card as well, as that has the postal address on it. Then, he just needs his birth certificate. All they will need to do is change the name on file to match it to what’s on his birth certificate.
That’s it. One thing to change on his old file. No other hoop jumping.
This is how it should have been, 6 years ago!
Getting the card is only $20, too, since it’s not a drivers license. My husband talks about getting his license again. He shouldn’t drive, with all the meds he’s on, but he would be another emergency back up driver. He’ll have to start from scratch, though, and do the tests all over again. Which he’s willing to do.
Maybe after he gets his new glasses, though!
So it was good news, and I’m glad I remembered to ask about it. It’s just a matter of when he will be physically up for the trip.
So that’s all done.
Now I’m going to go see if there’s a kitty in a carrier!
Okay, this is early, but I’ll take it as a good sign.
The mulberry bushes we got last spring were so tiny, we ended up just potting them up and keeping them indoors.
They grew quite a bit, then dropped their leaves in the fall. So for the past few months, we’ve been looking at bare branches, hoping they were still just dormant and not dead.
Well…
They are definitely not dead! There are tiny leaf buds all over both trees!
It’s early for them to be coming out of dormancy, but for now, I think they will be okay. We will start hardening them off in the week or two before our last frost date, and hopefully, this will mean nice, big, strong saplings to transplant in June. This variety is supposed to be hardy to our zone 3, So as long as they get a good start, and nothing eats them, they should be able to handle our winters all right.
I’m looking forward to seeing how they do. They are supposed to get quite tall, so they will be planted near the lilac hedge, along the north fence. While they are small, the lilac hedge will shelter them, and when the get bigger, they will fill in gaps in the hedge the deer are getting through.
We still have not been able to start seeds indoors. I need access to the aquarium greenhouse, but we’ve got too much shoved in front of it that we don’t know where else to put. Like an armchair that needs repair. It will probably have to get moved to the storage house, but there’s too much snow in the way to carry something like that.
We really need to get those onions started soon, though!
I woke this morning to find a message from my early riser brother, asking me if I could meet him at my mother’s to help with the phone again.
Of course, I said yes. I don’t mind changing my plans for him!
So while my mother was in church, we went in and fiddled with her phone. While the call blocking device is set up and working, this was call blocking through the phone system, which was intended to block thousands of known scammer numbers, plus any numbers manually entered.
Last time, while going through the process to activate it at my mother’s phone, then adding numbers, we kept getting a busy signal, instead. After many calls and an urgent call to tell them – again! – to NOT call my mother (they did, anyhow, which really got her going) nor send over a tech (they had someone booked!), because our mother would not understand any of this, my brother finally got through to someone who knew what they are talking about.
After the new guy went over the file, my brother got many apologies. It should NOT have been so much trouble.
In the end, it turned out the blocking service was something that needed to be turned on at the junction in my mother’s town. However, the system is so antiquated that they weren’t sure it could even BE turned on.
Well, it turns out it could, so now my brother needed to activate it at my mother’s phone.
Which he did, then tested it by blocking his work cell phone number, then trying to use that phone to call our mother.
It worked, but when he went to add our vandal’s numbers, he got a message saying the service was turned off.
So he went through the process again, turning it back on and adding in two other numbers our vandal is known to use.
They couldn’t be blocked.
They are cell phone numbers from a different company. Only the land line, which is with the same company as my mother’s, could be blocked.
In the end, my brother erased the one number that worked and shut the system off. He was willing to pay a monthly fee for this service, but there’s no point if it can’t block numbers from other service providers. He’s going to simply cancel the service.
We are very glad the physical device is set up, so there is at least that! Our vandal still can’t call our mother and leave abusive messages anymore.
That done, we went through a few other things and did minor repairs. Then we started talking about the peep hole in my mother’s door.
Since things are being left at our mother’s door, and we have no confirmation on who it is, even though it can only be one person, my brother has been looking up peep hole cameras, with motion sensors triggering them to take images. It would have to be completely stand-alone, since our mother has zero ability to understand technology.
That led us to looking at and measuring the peep hole on her door.
Which was covered with packing tape she used to stick a plastic picture on the door.
I think it’s a place mat with a scenic image on it, but I’m not sure.
It got moved, but not until after my brother tried looking through it, and found he couldn’t see anything.
After it was moved, he still couldn’t see much.
Oh, you could see light, and the contrast between the wall across the hall and the hall carpet, but my brother remembers being able to see more of the hallway. I even stepped outside so he could look at me through the peep hole, and he couldn’t see me!
Looking at the outside of the peep hole, we discovered it had something on it.
After trying to scrape it clean, we’re pretty sure it’s Krazy Glue.
How long it’s been like this, we have no idea. My mother doesn’t use the peep hole (I think it’s low enough for her to look through). My brother thinks it’s been at least a year since he’s looked through it. I can’t remember if I ever fid, but if I did, it would have been shortly after we moved to the farm.
So… yeah. At some unknown point, it seems that someone put glue on the outside of the peep hole, rendering it useless.
Of course, we can think of only one person who would do that, and that would be the same person who glued the locks on our gate a few times.
Just suspicion, on our part, of course.
So my brother is now thinking if it’s worth spending the money on the peep hole he was thinking of getting, if it’s likely to get vandalized like that.
No decision has been made.
When our mother got back from church, we had tea and lunch waiting for her. She was expecting my brother, but he didn’t know if I could come, so he didn’t say anything about whether I would be there.
We had a nice lunch, then talked about a few things that needed to be discussed, from letting her know what we fixed, to addressing letters she received but didn’t understand.
When it was time to go, my mother started giving us a hard time about leaving so soon, even though we’d been there with her for quite a while. After parting ways, I made a quick stop at the grocery store to get more cat kibble. *sigh*
It was an awesome day to be out and about!
No surprise that -10C feels really warm right now, but check this long range forecast out!
They’re actually expecting us to go above freezing at the end of the month!
Of course, this will change several times before we get to the end of the month, but it’s been pretty consistently saying we should at least be just a couple of degrees below freezing.
Since I will be driving to the city around that time, I’m quite happy to see this.
I’m also going to be very happy to pick 6 my computer, too! I’m quite looking forward to making these posts on my ergonomic keyboard again, instead of tapping on my phone!!
Interestingly, as I check the weather app this evening, we have actually warmed up a bit from this afternoon. We are at -14C right now. We are at -16C when I headed out shortly after noon to run errands.
But then, there is the windchill.
It feels like -27C out there!
To be honest, when I went out to feed the cats outside somewhere between 4 and 5 pm, it felt colder. The wind is from the south, which means we are getting the full force of it.
We really need a windbreak on our south side!
I’m so glad that heat lamp for the outside cats came in when it did!
When I came out to feed the yard cats this morning, I found quite a few things knocked about! It wasn’t too bad, this time. Unfortunately, they’ve knocked everything off the counter shelf a few times. Even the sheer of insulation I added, so they wouldn’t be sott8ng on the metal surface, as well as to block the gap in the back, at the window. Come springtime, it’s going to be quite a job to clean it all up. Especially the various containers of screws and other small stuff like that. I have no idea how they managed to knock some of this stuff off
This morning, I counted only 23 cats, including this beast.
He even let me pet him, though he ran off when one of the socialized males came over, demanding pets. Looking through the bathroom window a little while ago, I could see him in the upside down box that is supporting one end of the platform. I’m amazed he could squeeze into there, he’s such a big boy!
I really hope we will be able to snag him for the cheap spay/neuter day next month. We have kept the large carrier in the sun room many times, but I have never seen him check it out. He’s so big, though, he wouldn’t have a lot of room in there! It’s one thing to have Leyendecker in there, as he’s pretty calm about the whole thing, and quite another to have a big cat that’s still pretty feral!
Of course, it’s a moot point if he’s not around that morning. We shall see.
In other things, little Spewie got quite a workout yesterday.
I’ve driven through the snow to reach the house a couple of times, so I used the tire tracks to decide how much to clear. The truck might be good for getting through, but we still need to be able to walk around it.
We now have enough space to drive in, turn around, and get close to the house. I even cleared more towards the sun room, so that it’ll be easier to unload the kibble bags straight to the old kitchen.
Or, to load the truck from the old kitchen. We are overdue for a dump run. At least it’s not as much of a problem to store the garbage bags in the old kitchen until we make the trip, this time of year. The garbage bags all freeze. Summer is a whole different story but, barring the vehicle troubles like we had last summer, we can make the dump run more often in the summer.
The dump is open for longer hours today, so I plan to head out this afternoon. First to the dump, then to the pharmacy. My husband told me he needed more insulin by Saturday (today). What he neglected to tell me is that he’d already called it in. If I’d known that, I would have picked it up before getting Soot Sprite from the vet!
Communication? What’s that? 😆
Anyhow.
Now that the vehicle lane in the inner yard is cleared, I’m hoping the much warmer weather we’re supposed to start getting next week will have some actual melt and clear even more. When we do our big shopping at the end of the month, I want to be able to get as close to the house as possible to unload! Using the wagon to drag load after load from the garage through snow covered paths, as we’ve done the past few winters, is not fun at all!
The Re-Farmer 