While doing my morning rounds, I checked on the netting over the winter sown beds.

The first thing I saw was tracks in the soil of the summer squash bed. Something had gotten in! Looking around, I found that the netting at one end of the bed had been pulled up and even torn in one spot that I could see. Whatever got in must have panicked in trying to get out, because the excess netting on the sides were disturbed, and I found another area where the ground staples had been pulled up.

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I’ve got the netting pulled fairly tight along the sides, but it is rather hard to see, so I used old bricks to weigh it down more along the sides and ends. Hopefully, that will make it a bit more visible.

The other bed seemed fine, but some of the twine was looking rather loose. I think something jumped on top of the netting, pulling the supports inward a bit.

My daughter and I made an unexpected trip to the nearest Walmart area today. While we were there, we also hit the Dollarama, and I bought a bunch more ground staples. Those things are very handy.

On another note…

Magda got out of the isolation shelter again. She came over when I was going the feeding, letting me put her back in to get her share of the wet cat food. I got Kohl in there and she seems to be staying this time. I added more weight to the roof, which I still think is the only place they could have gotten out through. That may have been enough to keep Kohl in, but I would have expected it to have been more likely to keep Magda in, since she’s so much lighter. Magda was out even before my daughter and I started to head out! We let her be, at the time.

After my daughter and I got home, it was late enough to do the evening feeding, plus we wanted to dose their ears. I think tonight might be the last dose, as the bottle seems pretty empty. Once her ears were done, we put Magda back into the isolation shelter with Kohl while we did The Grink’s ears, and then gave them the wet cat food right away, to distract them from trying to get out. I’m still holding out hope that we can shave those mats off of Kohl!

Meanwhile, Brussel’s babies are increasingly active. The black and white has been climbing out of the cat cave and calling to us, regularly, and now the calico is starting to as well.

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We try to handle them as much as possible, without freaking Brussel out too much. As for Caramel’s babies in the cat house, I haven’t been able to see them. Any time I’ve tried looking through the window I am either seeing Caramel in the cat bed, or there’s too much reflection to see inside.

From what I can see from the other cats, Slick and Sprout have both had their babies somewhere in the outer yard. I’m pretty sure the dead kitten I found was Adam’s. She doesn’t seem to be pregnant, there’s no sign that she’s nursing, and she’s hanging around the house a lot more than she would, if she had a litter somewhere in the outer yard. There’s a talkative white and grey that no longer looks round. That’s pretty much it for cats I could say for sure were pregnant. After Easter, we’ll set the trap up for reals and see if we can start bringing in more ladies, before they start showing. We’ll have to pace things, though. With three small cats in the isolation shelter right now, we could put in one larger cat without too much issue, but we wouldn’t want to put in another until after Magda and The Grink are done their isolation period. The Cat Lady was talking about getting us in for more spays in May, so that will work out.

Meanwhile, we will continue working on Brussel, Caramel and Slick for socialization, so we can hopefully get them in when their milk has dried up without having to trap.

On the plus side, things have warmed up again, though it’s still pretty windy. We’re even expected to hit 18C/64F tomorrow. It’s supposed to cool down again after that. We might even get rain in a few days! That would be good. Things are pretty dry out there, and a fire ban for open fires and grass burning is already in effect for our municipality. Which isn’t unusual for April, really. Contained fires and burn barrels are still okay.

Overall, it’s looking to be a nice weekend for Easter.

The Re-Farmer