Today is relatively mild, as far as the temperature goes. It’s only -8C/-18F as I write this. The windchill, however is at -24C/-11F and honestly, I think around our house, it’s actually feeling colder than that!

The historical records for today are pretty wild! Our record high was 23C/73F set in 2012, but the record low for today is -26C/-15F, set in 1974.

I well remember my childhood winters here in the 70’s. There’s a reason the “experts” were saying we were heading into a new ice age back then! It was brutal! Of course, as a child, I didn’t know any different and thought it was normal. It wasn’t.

Our earlier long range forecasts that said we were going to have highs above freezing through the rest of March and into April have been completely reversed. Now they say we’re going to have highs below freezing for at least another 10 days. Which wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for that bloody wind!!!

One thing about the cold and wind; we’ve got more yard cats!

I got a different number, every time I tried to do a head count, but the range was still between 31 and 33 cats! And at least one – Sad Face – was “missing”. I haven’t seen more than 30 cats here in weeks.

I was happy to note that the matt of burrs in Adam’s fur seems to be almost all gone. At least the ones on her hip and side. The burrs on the tip of her tail are still there. I’m also still keeping an eye out of a printer baby with an injured back leg, but have seen no sign of a limping cat, so that’s good.

Which reminds me; I reached out to the Cat Lady about the Wolfman and his eye, sending her a picture. It was a long shot, but I was hoping donations to her rescue might be available, as we have zero vet budget right now. I wasn’t surprised when she said there was none left; she’s taking care of the rescues out of pocket again. However, she was able to give me advice, as she’s dealt with this before. She agrees with my husband, that it’s most likely a scratch from another cat. She asked if we still had some Metacam left, which we do, so we’ll be dosing him for three days. It’ll get the swelling down and reduce pain, and help it heal faster. We had to weigh him, first, to calculate the dosage.

He did not like that. 😄

Along with the Metacam, we’ll continue using eyedrops and carefully dabbing around the eye. She described the treatment regimen they did with their cat that had an eye like this. With their cat, it took about a month to heal completely – but it also turned out to have a piece of claw stuck under a lid that finally came out on its own! I don’t think we’ve got anything like that, but it’s hard to see. They ended up self treating because, when she called the vet about it, treatment would have cost at least $600. As it is right now, she’s making weekly payments to cover their bill with her usual clinic, because they still owe them thousands! They have a good working relationship with this clinic. This is the one that wouldn’t give up on Cabbages (which is now saving the lives of other cats), and a couple of other sick kittens from our place the Cat Lady took. I’ve actually lost track of how many cats they now have permanently that came from us! There’s at least four or five.

Which reminds me; they have an area prepared for Ginger. He’ll stay with them and get the standard vet care before being officially put up for adoption. He’s going to be sharing space with a very chill cat with no eyes (also up for adoption), so bullying will not be a problem! Right now, it’s just a matter of scheduling a day to connect.

I did get out today, and I am so very happy about it! I was able to get the truck into the yard, so we could load it up and make a dump run. There was just one drifted area I wasn’t sure about, but the snow is hard packed enough that the truck just climbed right over! We could never have done that with the van. It would have broken something! The truck made it through, easily.

Once the truck was by the house, the girls took care of loading it while I opened the gate, penguin walking the whole way. I had just asked them to bring the bags out, expecting to load the box myself, but by the time I shuffled my way back to non-ice covered paths, the girls were just closing up the tailgate!

I did have to laugh when I opened it up to unload it at the dump. Getting back out of the yard had sent almost all the bags flying to the cab end of the box.

There’s a reason we keep a long handled garden cultivator tool in the cab all the time! Very handy, to pull things closer.

I had considered continuing on to the town North of us after going to the dump, after my husband had confirmed they have the bio drain maintenance stuff that finally got our toilet going again, in stock. After unloading the garbage, though, I decided against the trip. The winds were even worse than at home! At least it was blowing in the right direction, so the bags I was tossing into the pit were being blown further in, rather than back at me! On the way home, I did make a stop at the post office, though, and picked up a few grocery items while I was there. There are a few other things we need to get, along with refilling the big water jugs, but that will wait until I meet with the Cat Lady in the smaller city. Next week, we’ll be doing our stock up shopping for April, so I don’t want to be making any special trips if I can avoid it.

I’m just glad we were finally able to made that dump run. We were way overdue! I am SO appreciating this truck!!! It’s such a good beast.

We should name it. Our previous van was named Sleipner. This truck needs a good, muscular name. 😂

The Re-Farmer

ps: Oh, my goodness! I just noticed the date and realized – today is the first day of spring! Winter is officially over!

Well. On the calendar, at least!