Kitten update, garden update, and an unexpected outing.

/ Re-Farmer

It’s a hot and muggy day today! As I write this, past 3:30 pm, we are at 26C/79F, with the humidex at 31C/89F We are not expecting any rain, but with the heat and humidity, I wouldn’t be surprised if a thunderstorm suddenly appeared.

No storms, but we did have a power outage this morning! The power went out in the area for more then an hour. After it came back, I learned that the outage, which included several towns in the area, was due to a fire on a power pole. !!

I did get my morning rounds done before we lost power, checking on the babies and the garden beds.

I found a new female winter squash blossom forming! Hopefully, when it opens, there will be some male flowers open to pollinate it. I’m rather happy with how the winter squash is recovering from being transplanted.

The kittens are doing all right. As I was coming back to the sun room, I actually found Broccoli’s two babies had come around to eat. They ran off as soon as they saw me, though, and are really skittish.

I’m not sure what to make of some of the adults, though. Sprout, one of Broccoli’s calico babies from a couple years ago and sibling to Brussel, comes over for food, but she is not just skittish of me. She frequently growls and snarls at the other cats. I don’t remember her doing that before, but then, this is the first year she’s really been coming this close to the house for food, too. She’s not the only one, though. There’s a grey and white cat that I think it is a mama that is also snarly. This morning, a male that is all black except for a white blaze on his chest showed up, and he was growling and snarling at other cats, too, though with him, I got the impression he has not had food for awhile.

That was this morning. Yesterday evening, things seemed to be okay.

We had some power flickers due to storms, and I had to go back and forth between the house and the garage to reset the device we have for our garage security camera. WiFi isn’t reliable at the garage, so it’s plugged into a device that uses our power lines to send the signal, which gets converted to WiFi inside the house.

Some of the kittens are getting quite used to my coming and going, and don’t bother moving, never mind running away (unless I approach them).

Kittens sleep in some of the strangest positions.

While I was going to the garage, though, I saw Brussel and her four.

Two of them ran off into the tall grass, while two of them just loafed on the driveway!

I left, then came back, and found just a black and white fluff ball still loafed on the driveway. I also saw a tiny black and white face peaking at me from the hole under the doors to the side of the garage we store the lawnmowers in.

I decided to see how close I could get to the one loafed in the driveway. As I got closer, it ran to the edge of the tall grass, then leaned against the grass to hiss at me. I came closer, and it rolled onto its back and hissed at me.

I picked it up and it lay on its back in my hand, and hissed at me!

Also, it’s a boy. 😂

A carried him over to the garage and put him down next to the hole under the door, where I could just see the legs of his sibling. Once on the grown, under the door he went!

So I guess that’s where Brussel has her babies now. Which she might have issues with, when we need to get at the lawn mowers.

I do hope she brings her babies to the house, soon!

Today, however, I saw no sign of them when I headed out.

I did not have plans to head out.

I got a call from my mother this morning. She started telling me about how she has stuff that she’s packing up and setting aside to go to my sister. Then she mentioned adding more things to her bag for the hospital – long story behind that I won’t get into here. Then she said she had stuff she wanted me to take to the farm. It took a bit of questioning, since she talks as if I already know the background of what she’s saying, but I eventually figured out that she is starting to go through her stuff, basically to give to people she things they should go to, after she dies or something. The stuff she wanted me to take was things like fabric (???) that she thought we could use, and if we don’t, then we can donate it to a second hand store. She started talking about she has so little room (true) and needs to get rid of stuff, so they can go to the farm…

I told her, we have too much stuff here already!

That’s when she suggested we could donate things to the second hand store. I wasn’t sure these would be things suitable for donation, okay.

I asked when she wanted me to come over.

Can I come over today?

…

So, that was my unplanned trip out!

I did stop at the post office first, though. Our reordered 4lb bucket of lysine is supposed to arrive today – but when I look at the tracking information, it says it’s still at a carrier facility in the US, and hasn’t moved since June 27.

It wasn’t there, but I just checked the tracking information again. It still says it’s in a carrier facility in the US, but also it’s supposed to arrive locally by 8pm today. ???

Anyhow.

Once at my mother’s, she at first basically ignored why I was there, as she kept going through her “important” papers. Which are basically all old newspaper clippings, printouts of photos of dead relatives, and various other papers that she considered of great historical value.

My poor sister is going to be getting all this stuff.

Eventually, I got her to tell me what she was wanting me to take to the farm.

Which turned out to be a storage bin she wanted me to dig out of her closet.

So we went through that together, and most of it we might actually be able to use. I did put my foot down when it came to taking an old bra. She said it could go to the second hand store. I told her to just throw it away!!

Then there was another storage bin to go through.

It was quite a mix of things. Pieces of fabric that she used to use as a cover for an old couch here at the farm – a couch our vandal stole while the house was empty. Old curtains that had been using in the living room window. Why would she even take those with her? The living room window is huge, and there’s nothing in her apartment they could have been used on! There were some table cloths that look like they were among those my late brother salvaged from a restaurant he demolished, years ago (a lot of the cutlery we still use now was from that one job!). One thing I was very happy to take was a lacy crochet table cloth. My mother crocheted it. I remember it being used when I was a child! That, to me, is a treasure! There were a few things from Poland, and some strangely old sewing kits material, crochet hooks and knitting needles. Apparently, my mother bought the sewing kit – woven box – for me. I have no memory of that, though I do remember the woven box. What I was really excited to see what the darning mushroom inside! I remember using it to darn socks when I was a kid. I’ve been wanting one for years, but they are rather hard to find, and the few I have found over the years are strangely expensive.

After going through the bins, she got me to grab a bucket that was full of yarn and other odds and ends.

Including the Bamboo Silk yarn I’d used to make a wheelchair shawl for my aunt. A shawl my cousin gave to my mother after her sister passed away. Which my mother undid.

I talked to her about that, trying to get her to understand how I had made this for her sister, and it was something she could have used herself, that would have reminded her of her sister, but she undid it.

I washed it first, she assured me.

???

Also, her sister is dead now, so it doesn’t matter.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just…

…

no words.

I just have no words.

What makes it extra bizarre is that, here she was, spending all this time and effort to divide up her possessions to the family members she thinks they should go to, because she thinks she’s going to die any day now. She actually asked me what I thought about how much longer she’ll last. I told her I thought she had many years ahead of her, yet, and I truly believe that. Barring her doing something weird to herself again, like messing with her medications, she’ll probably outlive us all, even as her mobility and cognition decreases. She’s got the most amazing constitution.

But, she thinks she’s about to go any time now, yet still refuses to call an ambulance when she’s having the breathing problems she complains about. She did call my sister yesterday, knowing my sister works on Sundays, then hung up when, after complaining about burping so much (my mother has got it in her head that if she forces herself to burp, it makes her feel better, but she talks about burping a lot as if it’s something happening to her, rather that something she’s doing to herself), and my sister said people don’t go to the hospital for burping. My sister was so confused after being hung up on, she called me. I told her, my mother wouldn’t call me or my brother, because we’re both telling her that if she feels that bad, call an ambulance. This time, she tried my sister. But she won’t call an ambulance, and prefers talk about how she’s going to die any minute now.

*sigh*

So…

She was given stuff that belonged to her sister, including things that were hand made by me for my aunt, and she had no problem destroying them, but we’re all supposed to be falling over ourselves for the stuff she is “leaving” to us, most of which is important only to her, and a lot of which is literally just garbage, and expects us to keep them and value them long after she’s gone. As my mother set aside a stack of papers for my sister, most of which were printouts my sister made for her, at my mother’s request, I suggested that maybe she doesn’t need the empty, used envelop.

It’s not empty, I was told.

Well, I just saw her removing the contents and adding it to the pile of papers, but.. okay.

So the bucket of yarn and other items were combined with the other stuff in the storage bins.

Then my mother started talking about calling the lab to see if they were open, before I took her there.

I was taking her to the lab?

She had told me she was going to take the Handi Van to get her blood work done. She hadn’t done it yet, and since I was there…

Okay, fine. I put the bins in the truck, moved it to where she could wheel right up with her walker, prepped the foot stool for her, came back and…

She was still going through papers for my sister, and kept offering me juice or whatever… “sit down… have a rest…”

I told her, this was not a planned trip. I do have stuff to do at home. Oh, but you have helpers. I don’t have any helpers.

*sigh*

I did finally get her to set the papers aside, and focus on having her blood work requisition form ready, as well as her health card, so she wouldn’t have to dig for it once at the lab.

She really would have done better taking the Handi Van.

I had the foot stool out for her, but still had to physically help her get up into the truck. It’s much easier for her to get out – no foot stool needed – but getting in is so diffuclt.

That fact that she can get in at all is pretty amazing, to be honest.

The hospital the lab is in is just a few blocks away from her place. She was the only person there, so she got in very quickly. She only needed to give one vial of blood for the 5 things she’s being tested for. She asked about what she was being tested for, and the technician explained it – whether my mother didn’t remember me already explaining it to her after dropping off the form, or didn’t believe me when I did, I don’t know. When she mentioned one of the things being tested for was urea, my mother immediately launched into how this was a problem, and how she has just a few drops…

For the sake of the technician, I mentioned that, while that may be a problem, this blood test isn’t about that at all. Once the technician understood my mother was conflating different things, she made a point of saying that this was correct; the test results from this are about kidney function only.

I don’t think my mother got it, but that’s okay.

As we were leaving, I asked my mother if there was anything she wanted me to get for her while we were out, but the only thing she’s going to need to do is go to the bank, and I can’t do that for her. This trip already exhausted her, so it will wait for another day. Perhaps my sister will be able to visit during the week and can take her, using her car. That would be much easier for my mother to get in an out of.

Speaking of cars…

When I went in to reset the garage cam device, I noticed my mother’s car now has two flat tires on the driver’s side!

It hasn’t been used since the day I tried driving it and it started making a banging noise from the back.

I’ll have to use a hand pump on them. After discovering the leaking valves on our truck, it now makes sense to me why my mother’s car got flats so often. I suspect she has leaking valves, too. The other two tires look just fine. Which is good, because that side of the car is parked closer to the wall, so that the driver can get in and out without hitting a shelf against the opposite wall.

So that’s one of the things I was wanting to do today.

I think I’ll wait for things to cool down a bit more, though – and use lots of bug spray! We’ve been storing our bags of aluminum in the garage, in front of my mother’s car. Most of the cans are from cat food, so critters have been getting into them. Before I can pump up her tires, I will need to pick up and bag a lot of cans, first!

The cats have also been using the dirt floor as a litter all winter. With how much rain we’ve been having, we haven’t been able to clean it up.

They turn a remarkably bright green under those conditions.

So that’s going to need to be raked up, too. It’s still a bit damp for it, but it needs to get done!

The problem is, it won’t even start to cool down for another 3 hours or so, and the front of the garage faces south. Full sun and full heat!

*sigh*

It would have been good to get started before it got hot, but that’s when my mother called, wanting me to come over.

Well, I’m hoping the heat will be good for the garden. I was trying to remember how it was last year at this time, so I went looking at some of my garden tour videos for June and July of last year.

This was recorded on June 1, 2023

This is the one I recorded on June 16, this year.

Then there is the one I recorded on July 4, 2023.

We were much further ahead, as for as growth, at the start of July last year, than we are this year. We actually had peppers forming at the start of July last year! This year, only the hot peppers, which were started much earlier, are starting to bloom. The luffa are a lot smaller this year, too, even though they were transplanted at about the same time, and had a stronger, healthier start indoors this year. We also already had tomatoes forming by the start of July last year. Right now, we just have some of them blooming.

All that rain this spring has really set a lot of things back!

I did my June garden tour video in the middle of the month, so I will wait until the middle of the month before doing a July garden tour. Hopefully, things will have picked up at least a bit by then!

This has been a very different gardening year. Not only because of the weather, but just everything we ended up planting this year. I had so many things planned for that just didn’t happen. The balance between things that can be harvested earlier and throughout the summer, and things that get harvested all at once, is way off.

Next year will be different, again. Hopefully, we’ll have more progress on the trellis beds, and the area that was a squash patch last year will have new beds built into them, and we’ll have much more growing space.

Ah, well.

Little by little, it’ll get done!

The Re-Farmer

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