Last night, we apparently dropped to 2C/36F. There were no frost warnings. Yet, when I headed out to do the morning cat feeding and rounds, there was frost everywhere, not just in the shady areas.
Which meant we had to wait until it warmed up a bit before we could start on the garlic. I had limited time, as I needed to go to my mother’s today and would be there for a while, so my younger daughter came out to give me a hand.
The bed that was ready for the garlic has been covered in plastic for some time, so the first thing we had to do was unroll it. Then, while my daughter broke up garlic bulbs, selecting the biggest cloves and setting the smaller ones aside for the kitchen, I marked off three rows for the garlic.
The twine and stakes will stay in place until after I winter sow something in between the rows.
In the second photo, we laid out the cloves where they would be planted, more or less. We ran out before filling the bed, so I went in to get more of the biggest bulbs from our stock.
Sir Robin was helping.
Breaking the bulbs apart was surprising difficult. Hard neck garlic and be that way sometimes. We also found that there were very few small cloves! We were more selective than usual – in the past, I would plant every single clove unless they were super tiny. We are now at a point where we can be fussy about it, so the kitchen got quite a few decent sized cloves!
I forgot to take a photo of the all the cloves in place, so the next photo is after we started burying them.
Grommet and Havarti “helped”.
We were pushing off the cats so constantly, it was clear we would need to give the bed extra protection. Normally, I would mulch it heavily with leaves right away, but I will do that after the winter sowing is done, some time in the next week or so. Until then, that’s a lot of soft, fluffy soil that cats would just love to dig in!
Well, we did just take off that plastic cover, so we decided to use it again.
I got some hoops from the pile of stuff being set aside and organizes for winter storage while my daughter gave the bed a heavy watering. The soil was still damp, but more water is good at this point. We do want the garlic to actually start growing a bit, before the ground freezes.
Once the watering was done and the hoops were in place, pushed down far enough that the 5′ width of the plastic could cover it with enough slack on the sides to be secured, a length of twine was run across the tops and pinned snug at each end. The hoops and the pinned end of the twine was kept on the inside of the stakes marking the rows, so the plastic could be pulled down in front of them. Then we unrolled the plastic in the path next to the bed and simply lifted it over.
So glad my daughter was able to help with that!
The excess plastic at each end was twisted to close up the opening under the hoop at one end, then weighted down with bricks. Once one end was secured, I pulled the sheet as snug as I could, then did the same thing at the opposite end. Once that was done, I could send my daughter in. She was caning it again today, and her back was really killing her by the end of it. I used the boards that had kept the plastic from blowing way earlier to secure the sides and added bricks and rocks as weights to hold them in place, which you can see in the last photo of the above slide show.
There was quite a bit of soil and debris stuck to the damp plastic, so I hosed it off before calling it done. I got inside with a whole half hour left to clean up, change and head to my mother’s!
I hope the garlic will be protected enough, but also that it won’t get too warm under there. We’re dropping to 5C/41F tonight, but tomorrow is supposed to have a high of 17C/63F, with a low of 11C/52F, then Sunday is supposed to have a high of 19C/66F. It can get pretty hot in those plastic covered rows even at those temperatures! The temperatures are supposed to drop right down again after that, including overnight lows below freezing.
When the time comes to mulch the bed for the winter, I will be focusing on a thick mulch along the sides of the bed as well as the top. Even though the bed is raised only a few inches, the outer rows could potentially get hit with winter freezing quite a bit more than the middle. In one of our first few years growing garlic, I planted in the low raised beds in the east year. One bed didn’t survive the winter, except for a handful of cloves, because it froze through the side walls. The other had mostly bulbs in the inner rows, while the other garlic planted closest to the walls didn’t make it.
Live and learn!
I’m quite happy that we finally got the garlic for next year planted. There has been so many last minute delays!
I won’t be able to get much, if anything, done in the garden tomorrow, though. I’ll be doing a dump run, then I need to go to town to pick up some prescription refills and do a bit of shopping before Thanksgiving. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to cleaning up that bed so full of tree roots, then get started on the other beds that need to be prepped for winter sowing.
I wonder how full of tree roots the other beds will turn out to be!
I woke up late this morning which, unfortunately, meant we had a lot of very hungry cats outside! I asked one of my daughters to simply pour a scoop of kibble onto the sun room floor to tide them over before I could do a proper feeding. Which helped, I suppose, but they were really eager for their morning food. That is when I mix up a small bowl of “cat soup” with just one can of wet cat food, and use that to soften the bowl if kibble, first. I also prep a smaller bowl of kitten soup that I leave on top of the freezer until later. I could hear so much commotion at the door, I ended up taking the bowl of softened kibble and going out the main doors, instead. Even if I had someone ready to herd cats out the door as I went through, I just didn’t want to risk stepping on a kitten!
Which means I filled their food trays and bowls in reverse, doing the furthest ones first and making my way to the sun room. I didn’t take long for them to hear me and come running. Which worked out so well, I’m thinking I might start doing this regularly!
After I finished putting the last of the softened kibble in the sun room trays, I grabbed Frank’s two remaining littles and brought them into the old kitchen to have their own kitten soup without having to fight off other cats. That also gave me time to wash their eyes open again. That done, I quickly popped into the sun room and back again. Frank wanted into the old kitchen and I let her, so she could have the special food along with her kittens.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
She was too nervous and went hiding and exploring around the old kitchen. I let her be and went to get the squeeze treats I bought a while back but never got to using, yet. I gave some to the kittens in their food bowl, then just squeezed the last of it onto the freezer near them, hoping Frank would be tempted. At one point, I was able to reach her and pick her up, but as I moved towards the freezer, she got more and more nervous. Before I could put her down beside her kittens, she panicked, scrambled when her feet touched the top of the freezer, sending food – and kittens! – flying. One of the kittens ended up falling behind the freezer, while Frank ran and hid under a couch.
The other kitten was still on the freezer and done eating, so I let it out through the screenless storm door window. Then I tried to get the kitten that was behind the freezer. It was sitting on the floor, just out of reach. I thought I could use something to push it from behind and get it to move out from behind the freezer.
Instead, it disappeared. It took me a moment to realize it had gone into the opening where the freezer’s guts are! After several attempts, to reach it, it finally came close enough that I could grab it and lift it out without getting tangled in things I could feel, but not see, in there!
The kitten got to enjoy a bit more food and squeeze treat, but Frank wouldn’t come out. I finally went out with the kitten, hoping that Frank would go onto the freezer and eat, while I wasn’t in there.
The kitten joined the cuddle puddle – and was nuzzling Sir Robin, trying to nurse!
I spent some time refilling water bowls, then opened the doors to the old kitchen, where I found Frank just inside, waiting. She never ate what was on top of the freezer, and was very eager to just leave the old kitchen! That gave me a chance to take the bowl of kitten soup and leave it out for other kittens to finish. There was still the glob of squeeze treat on the freezer, though. I ended up picking it up with my fingers, trying to hold it in my hand. It was messy, but I got most of it. I then went to the cats and kittens at the kitten soup bowl.
Two kittens I’ve never been able to get close to before where there. Both of them happily licked the squeeze treat off my fingers instead of running away!
Then they ran away. 😄
Meanwhile, I started getting messages from people with the rescue. This continued throughout the morning, and while I was in the city. Long story short, we might be bringing as many kittens over on Sunday as we can get into carriers! I’ll have to get some clarification, first, though. There seemed to be some communication issues. Tomorrow is Saturday, so I need to get that cleared up fairly quickly!
When I was done my morning rounds, it wasn’t much longer before my daughter and I started for the city. We left insanely early, to give ourselves time to get lost. 😄 I did look the place up on the map last night, plus I had Google Maps up on my phone to give directions. The route looked pretty straightforward, though what it was showing in the app did not match was I saw on my desktop last night. The address was the address, though, and I did remember the area fairly well, from my days when I used to work around there, and lived just across the river. I was not looking forward to trying to find the address, then finding parking. The area is mostly narrow, one way streets.
We did make a stop at my mother’s down along the way, though, to pick up a couple of energy drinks and some chicken and wedges for breakfast. From there, I got the app going to give me directions while I drove. My daughter was a sweetheart and passed potato wedges to me while I drove. I couldn’t eat my chicken while driving, but my daughter could eat hers, and I was more concerns that she got some food in her. She has a terrible habit of not eating, because eating most foods makes her sick. We have not been able to track down exactly why.
As we got into the city, I had the app up on the dashboard holder, but for some reason, it wasn’t giving voice directions. So my daughter took the phone so she could see the map and gave me the directions as we went along. I did remember the route from checking the map last night, but it’s been so long, I preferred having a navigation officer!
When we got to where the area, one of the first problems I noticed was not being able to find street numbers, anywhere. We got to where the app said the address was at, but couldn’t see anything to show where the clinic was. Specifically, a building tall enough, as the endocrinologist clinic was on the 9th floor.
With the one way streets, we drove around the block a couple of times, made slower because of construction, before finally spotting a parkade that didn’t have a “lot full” sign and headed in. We figured we could find the place more easily on foot. It couldn’t be far.
We then had the fun time of trying to find a place to park with enough room for our truck. The first four levels were all reserved parking. We finally got to a level that wasn’t all reserved, but the first side of that level was half roped off, apparently reserved for “game day”. We finally got to where it no longer was all reserved, and nothing was roped off, but the only open spots we saw were “small car only”.
Then I spotted two accessible parking spots.
My daughter and I don’t have our own accessible parking placards, but we do have my husband’s. We used it and finally parked.
My daughter actually forgot her cane at home, but we had three spares in the truck. After she grabbed one for herself, I decided to grab another for myself, just in case.
I am so glad I did. My left hip may be better after the steroid injection, but that lasts for only so long, when pounding concrete!
We had to back track to the street the clinic was on (with a gorgeous, castle-like cathedral as a landmark; I once had the opportunity to go there for mass, when I lived in the area, and can attest it’s as beautiful on the inside as the outside), then tried to find someplace with a street number. We found one, but didn’t know which direction we needed to go for the clinic. We were in the 300’s, and the address was in the 200’s.
We were about to wing it when I spotted a guy in a suit about to cross a street, so I quickly asked him if he knew where the clinic was, and which direction we’d need to go. He was an absolute sweetheart, quickly found the place on his phone (his app got it right, where ours clearly didn’t!) and pointed us in the first direction. We had about 3 blocks to walk, though part way along, the sidewalk was blocked off for construction (which was happening all over the place), so we’d have to cross the street, then cross back again, along the way.
The guy was so wonderful and happy about giving directions, he really made our day!
So, off we went, picking our way through construction at an intersection across from the area blocked off for construction (!!!) before finally making it to the final stretch. That’s when we could see a big billboard sign for a clinic. We couldn’t actually read all of it, because there was a tree growing right in front of it, but we could make out enough that it looked right. The entrance wasn’t on the street the address was on, though, and as we walked past the corner and could see the other side of the billboard, which wasn’t blocked by a tree, we realized it wasn’t the right clinic. We still popped in to ask for directions.
The lady pointed out the window to another high rise building across a parking lot.
A building with a huge painted on sign on the side.
With the name of the clinic at the bottom, in white paint on a pale blue background, barely readable.
We were very appreciative for the help.
Thank God we left as early as we did! My daughter’s appointment was at 1pm. We reached the front doors at about 12:40!
When we got to the 9th floor, the elevators opened up to a reception desk.
With things roped off in front, as if under construction. I think it was actually just to keep people from waking up to the counter, though.
There was no one at the counter.
We tried reading the sign, all it really had was arrows for endocrinology in both directions, and some doctor’s names. My daughter didn’t have a name for the doctor she was booked at, so we didn’t know which way we had to go. I spotted a cleaning lady, so I asked her which way to the endocrinologists. She asked which doctor we needed to say, and I told her we didn’t know. She said the staff (meaning the receptionists) were on lunch and would be back soon, so they’d be able to tell us.
We thanked her and went to a nearby waiting room. We couldn’t see the reception desk from where we were but, thankfully, could hear when someone was at the counter. My daughter and I – and several more people in the waiting room – promptly headed over to check in!
… and ask where a bathroom was. It was a long drive!
Of course, it was while my daughter was still in the bathroom that someone came out and called her name! I let them know. 😄
Even with all that, my daughter ended up at her appointment almost 10 minutes early!
She was out much faster than I expected for a first time appointment. She had requisitions for blood work, one to be done right away, the other to be done later. She had been told there was a lab on the ground floor, and she could get her first blook work done there, so that was her first stop.
When we got there and she was checked in, I asked about how long it would be, since the waiting room was quite full.
About 40 minutes was the answer.
!!!
It turned out they were short staffed today, and falling behind.
With time ticking on our parking spot, we decided it would be faster if we head out and stopped at a lab on the way home.
So, off we went to get the truck and head home, this time taking a route I was much more familiar with. It wasn’t until we got home that I had a chance to check why we were sent to a completely wrong area.
It turned out the address in my calendar for the clinic had two numbers reversed. The bizarre thing is, when I was looking at the address and directions on the website last night, I saw the address that was in my phone. Yet, when I looked up the clinic last night, I used the street address that was on my phone, and found it.
So weird!
As we were leaving the clinic, my daughter made a comment about how much she appreciated our new doctor, but she was going to wait until we were out of the city, and I didn’t have to focus on traffic so much (dancing around more construction) before telling me how it went.
We did make one stop along the way. Gas prices in my mother’s down had dropped to $1.269/L, but I planned to get gas in the city. I’d seen a station on the way in that had gas at $1.239/L and was planning to go there – until we passed a station with gas at $1.199/L !! I was just over a half tank and put $40 in, which filled my tank! I can’t remember the last time I was able to fill my tank from half for only $40!
Once we were out of the city, I remembered to ask my daughter how the appointment went.
Not well.
It was a very short appointment and I won’t go into detail, but the doctor was very rude and “just an old b***”, as my daughter described her. Long story short, though, by the time she told me some of the things the doctor did, my jaw was dropping. She needs to make a formal complaint. The doctor apparently made it clear she was disgusted by my daughter’s body. My daughter has hirsutism. She was there because of her PCOS. How does an endocrinologist not encounter a PCOS patient with hirsutism before? Or maybe she has, and just treats all her hairy female patients with hormonal disorders with disgust?
As if that weren’t bad enough, my daughter was manhandled, without explanation nor consent, in a way that is considered sexual assault. Sure it was a physical exam, but NO doctor is supposed to touch a patient like that without first explaining what they were examining for, and getting consent.
She also tried to test my daughter’s reflexes, but kept missing the tendon, then getting ticked off because there was no reaction to her hammering on my daughter’s ankle.
I really hope my daughter files a formal complaint, because… damn!
Along the way, we stopped in the town our doctor’s clinic is in, to do her first blood tests at the lab in the hospital. My daughter went in to get her tests done, while I stayed in the truck to finally eat the rest of my breakfast!
I’m glad we chose to go to a lab on the way home. My daughter was out so quickly – with two people called in ahead of her – that I was just finishing eating when she came back to the truck! Had we stayed at the lab in the city, we would have been just getting out and heading to the truck, unless they fell behind even more.
Her second set of blood tests can be done whenever she is able, but for this one, she is supposed to take a medication at 11pm, then get her blood tested at 8am.
I don’t even know if the local labs are open at 8am. I think they open at 9am. We’ll have to figure that out. Either way, she has a prescription to pick up before she can do the second test.
After the results are in, she hopes to get a telephone appointment only, or pay extra to get the results emailed to her. She does NOT want to go back to this doctor. I told her that she needs to let her regular doctor know about what happened so that, if necessary, she can get referred to another endocrinologist. Apparently, there’s a new clinic being built and there’s already a long waiting list for it, but she’s more than willing to wait, rather than go back!
For the most part, my daughter is just angry, but she realizes that a patient with, for example, a history of sexual abuse, a visit like this would have been very traumatic.
So glad that appointment is over with!
By the time we got home, it was late enough that the first thing I did was get the outside cats fed. No crowd trying to break through the old kitchen door during the evening feedings! Then I got changed and head outside, focusing on getting all the now-dry stuff from the sun room packed up and put away in bins with lids.
As seems to be the usual around here, it took longer than I expected, but I finally got it done!
The storage area is now organized and packed. Before winter, more things will be added for storage but, over all, it is done. On the cat side of the room (second picture) I still need to figure out where to set the second heat lamp, which has a lower wattage heat bulb, but that’s pretty much it. That cats really, really like the new set up! More and more of them seem to have figured out the litter boxes, too.
Finishing the sun room meant I could finally move the cat isolation shelter under the canopy tent.
That took some doing. The wheels kept sinking into the soil! That thing is heavy. What I would like to do, once I have the spare funds for it, is replace the wheels with something larger. For now, I put scraps of cardboard under the wheels to keep them from sinking into the dirt. I also have some handles I want to add to the front and the back, so it’ll be easier to move around.
Meanwhile, the cats can still use it where it is now.
Or that one skunk I have been finding, napping in the cat bed!
The box to go over the ramp door during the winter needs a bit of work. The overlapping plastic cracked when I set it on its side to attach the legs. I did try to set it where it could overhang the edge of the well cap, but it kept moving while I tried to work on it. Nothing some duct tape can’t fix. 😜 The panel in front, with a smaller opening for the cats to get through, was broken by cats panicking and hitting the edges while running out, so that needs to be trimmed. I also want to add a couple of pieces of the same material used for the legs to the sides, as handles to make moving it around easier. Right now, it’s hard to get a grip on it without damaging that roof panel even more.
It might be a couple of days before I can do the painting. Saturday would be perfect for it – a warmer day and, more importantly, a warmer night in the forecast. I might be able to get just one coat on before it starts getting too cold for wet paint to cure, but even that is better than nothing.
I’m going to be out and about a lot over the next while. Tomorrow, I’ll be at my mother’s for longer than usual. Along with her grocery shopping, I will be cooking up some of the chicken she was so angry at me for buying for her. I even remembered to ask her to take it out of the freezer tonight, so it’ll be thawed out before I get there. She’s also asked me to trim her toenails for her. I want to take a good look at her feet, as she apparently is getting an ingrown toenail, and that might need to be checked by a doctor. Of course, I’ll be doing some housework for her, changing her bedding, probably doing her laundry. Some of this stuff, my sister would normally come out on Fridays (my mother’s scheduled laundry time with the shared machines) and do for her. Since my mother gets her Meals on Wheels at noon on Fridays, I don’t plan to be there until about 1pm, so she has a chance to eat, first, and I can take the tray out to the common room for pick up, later in the week.
Saturday, I’ll be out again for a dump run, but that shouldn’t take long.
Sunday afternoon, I will be meeting to drop off cats near a Walmart, so if there’s any last things we need before Thanksgiving on Monday, that would be my time to get it.
Then I get to stay home for a while! The only appointment I have next week is a telephone follow up about the injection to my hip. I’ve got lots to do to prepare beds for winter sowing, as both day time highs and overnight lows will soon be cool enough to sow seeds but not have them germinate until spring.
I’m happy to day I did actually get some progress done outside.
Last night, however, I was up late doing some research on well pumps and pressure tanks.
I’ve been angsting about our well pump since we moved out here. I’ve never been able to ascertain what “normal” sounds like. Thanks go my brother, we do have a new pump ready and waiting to be installed, but no plumber has dared do it. I explain about it in this post from 2020. Basically, there was a possibility the foot valve was leaking, because the pump would start running, even when no one was using water, and they were concerned that if they switched out the pump, the foot valve could break apart. If that happened, we would have no water at all and could potentially need a new well dug.
Eventually, though, we figured out that we have phantom flush. I just happened to be on the toilet in the wee hours of the morning when I heard the water start going in the tank, to refill it. We replaced all the parts in pieces in the tank, but it was still happening. Finally, I just took the refill out of the overflow, so it filled directly into the tank instead, and the phantom flush stopped. Why it worked, I have no idea, but it did.
So with that problem “solved” (we actually want to replace the toilet, for a number of reasons), we figured it should be safe to replace the tank. We just don’t have a budget for it.
Well, in the last while, the pump sounding more and more grindy,. It runs for a normal length of time and the pressure is good. Most likely, it’s the bearings.
Which is bad enough on its own, but lately it’s been going off way too often. Every time the toilet is flushed, even if it’s been on person right after the other, using it. When someone is in the shower or the washing machine is going, it starts running so often, it may as well not have stopped in between (as I hear the pump starting up again, while my daughter is in the shower). We’re also losing pressure faster, which is always most noticeable in the kitchen, which is the farthest sink from the pump and tanks.
After looking things up, it looks like the pressure tank is starting to lose pressure. There can be a number of reasons for this, but the end result is the same. The tank can’t keep up the pressure, so the pump keeps having to turn on to refill it. Depending on the size, a new pressure tank can cost anywhere from about $200 to over $500. For the amount of water we use, we would need a somewhat larger tank (I think this one is a 7 gallon tank), I’d love to get a 20 gallon tank. That way, if we ever get those water fountains by the barn serviced, we could turn the tap on in the basement, and there would be continuous water available for any animals we might get, or even for the renter’s cows. These fountains are insulated and keep the water warm enough to never freeze, too.
But that’s not an option now, and to meet our needs, we’d want at least the same size as what we have no, no smaller.
This morning, I messaged my brother about it. The tanks I looked at all say “compatible with most deep well pumps”, but he’s the one that knows the system better than anyone living.
He doesn’t think it’s the pressure tank.
He thinks it’s the foot valve. He says it was last replaced 20 years ago.
Well, I don’t know how it can get replaced. The bottom of the well access is a concrete floor, with pipes running to the house through the side near the bottom. I don’t know how the well pipe itself can be accessed. The plumber seemed to think that the concrete on the bottom would have to be broken up. Which doesn’t make sense, if the foot valve was replaced 20 years ago. We should be able to pull it up somehow.
I’ll have to consult my brother about that.
Whether it’s the pressure tank or the foot valve that needs replacing, either way it would be a good time to install the new pump!
All these pumps and tanks are the greatest source of stress for me. Water related or septic related!
So that’s something I really would rather not have to worry about. There’s absolutely nothing we can do about it right now, either.
What I did instead was my morning rounds, after feeding the outside cats. While coming back from checking the gate, I realized I was seeing an amazing full moon, and just had to try for some pictures. I even found someplace to steady my phone against, so I could zoom in.
Now that I see the picture on my desktop, it looks so detailed, I’m wondering if the camera automatically “fixed” the photo. That was a bit of a “scandal” some years ago, and that “feature” was supposed to have been dropped.
As I was going through the garden, I checked out the sunflowers. This past frost has killed them off, so any remaining seed heads will never reach maturity. I did, however, find this one…
It is possible that this one has viable seeds in it! I’ve tucked it into the portable greenhouse for now, to dry out some more. It would be nice to try again from our own seeds. Every generation of seeds collected will be better adapted to our local climate.
While the frost killed up most of the things that were exposed (I still haven’t tried peaking under the cover for the winter squash), one thing is doing just fine.
Once the morning rounds were done, I waited until things warmed up a bit in the afternoon before continuing with the stuff from the sun room that I had soaking over night. Most of it could be spread out, hung up or set up to dry. Except for the garden mesh. Today turned out to be ridiculously windy, so unraveling those will have to wait. For now, they’re set aside with their bin upside down over them, so they hopefully will not blow away.
That old sheet I found that was repurposed to cover garden beds sure had it’s moments when I tried to hang it on the line. Lots of clothes pins needed! Sure dried fast, though. 😄
I’m so glad I though to put that old roof panel onto the shelf shelter! This little feral kitten could enjoy a warm sun spot while completely protected from the wind.
Eventually, I got things done as much as I could until things dried. After my daughter and I get back from her appointment in the city, I’m hoping to finally put everything in bins with lids, and get them out of the yard again! I need that space to paint the isolation shelter.
The next thing to work on was that garden bed I’d started on a couple days ago.
*sigh*
With all the years of amending the soil, prepping these beds for the winter should only have taken about 15 minutes each. Half an hour, if the rocks and weeds were really bad.
Where I’d stopped, last time, had a bit root sticking up and I had to use the loppers to cut that. Then I just kept working my way down that side of the bed. In the first picture, you can see some of the roots I was exposing as I worked my way down. By this point, the soil was so dense with roots, I actually had a hard time pushing the garden fork through it!
The second picture was taken when I finally got that side done. I’d emptied the rocks bucket before I started, so these just rocks I’d picked today. When I stopped last time, I had worked past the half way point, so this was from about a third of one side of the bed. That pile I raked up at the end, near the bucket, is almost all tree roots. Very few normal weeds.
That last photo was taken from the unworked side of the bed. There were a could of bigger roots that I pulled up, but I won’t be able to get the rest out until I’ve worked the other side of the bed.
None of this was there when I planted the peas and carrots in it in the spring. All those roots are just one summer’s growth.
My mother keeps giving me a hard time for being such a bad gardener. Meanwhile, it’s the self seeded trees she deliberately left, after transplanting the raspberries they’d been growing through, that is causing me more problems that all the rocks! The roots are growing into where the soil is easiest to grow in – the soil I’ve been amending to grow vegetables in. So they’re filling the beds and taking up all the water and nutrients, and I’m not even finding it until the end of the season, after the damage is done. This, on top of dealing with drought conditions and smoke this year.
Trees are not always good thing.
One of these days, I’ve got to snag a daughter and our cutting equipment, and take down the entire row of elms and maples. Then we’ll have to find a way to make sure they don’t grow back! Otherwise, even as we build these up into high raised beds, the roots will still find their way up and into the growing zone.
It’s taking a lot longer than it should, but at least I did get some progress in today. Whether I manage to get any done tomorrow, after we get back from the city, will depend on how much daylight we have left.
It looks like we dropped to about -3C/27F last night. There was still frost on the ground when I headed out to do my morning rounds. I think the covered winter squash survived, but I didn’t want to uncover them to check, as it was still quite chilly at the time. Hopefully, they got a nice greenhouse effect during the day, as our high was only 9C/48F. We’re looking at a low of 2C/35F tonight, and they will need all the warmth trapped under the plastic that they can get!
There was obvious cold damage on other things as I checked in the morning, but it was when I did my evening rounds that the damage could really be seen. In the second picture of the slide show above, the Cosmos got hit quite hard. I don’t expect them to recover enough to continue blooming, and we certainly won’t have any seeds to collect.
The memorial asters, however, seemed to fair better. I suspect they were protected by the much taller Cosmos. Looking at the long range forecast, getting seeds from the asters might still happen.
I didn’t bother getting a picture, but the summer squash got hit the hardest.
I had picked the larger peppers (this mix is all smaller “snack size” peppers) before the frost hit, but once the leaves started to droop, I found one I missed. While the leaves obviously had cold damage, the pepper itself seemed okay.
In the herb bed, everything but the basil seemed to handle the frost just fine! I’m hoping that, if I mulch the bed deeply enough, the rest will survive the winter, as some of them are supposed to be perennials in warmer climates.
I had a few things I wanted to work on today but decided the sun room stuff was more of a priority. I had all sorts of buckets and bins to go thorough and sort.
The problem is, these were in a room full of cats, and no lids. Quite a lot of stuff had to be thrown out due to cat damage.
Other things were fine, but their containers had to be replaced. I found a few things I’d been looking for, including that last sheet repurposed as a cover for a garden bed! That’s now soaking in a bucket of water. I ended up setting a couple more bins with small plant pots and Red Solo cups to use for starting seeds or potting up, to soak overnight. One bin had some of the black garden netting on the bottom. Not only did it need to get a soaking, but I’m going to have to snag a daughter to help untangle it so it can be rolled up and stored properly.
Some of the stuff I was going through predated our moving here. I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them. They’re not garbage, but some of the things, I don’t even know what they’re for, exactly. I also found a whole bunch of keys of all kinds, with no real clue as to what they belong with! The odds and sots are now in clear plastic jars with lids, so we can see exactly what’s in there.
I was able to sort some of the stuff out for storage in the garage, rather than the sun room. Other items are garden related in some way and I’m hoping to still store them in the sun room. The old garden shed doesn’t really have any space. Once the bins are no longer being used to soak things, and get a chance to dry out, I can finish organizing them. It turns out I have a whole lot of ground staples, still in their packaging, that simply got buried in other stuff!
Yesterday, I’d taken a bunch of garden gloves that had needed soaking and washing, and hung them up on the line to dry. Today, I found a whole bunch more that got soaked and washed, and hung on the line. There was at least six pairs, and maybe some strays as well. 😄 I’d been wondering where all my gloves were disappearing!
In the end, I was out there for several hours. It took a bit longer partly because I got cat pictures and started messaging with people from the new rescue.
Originally, she volunteered to take Smokey, but when I sent the above photo of Smokey with her brother, she decided not to separate them, and will take both. !!! I’m really happy with this, as Smokey is getting big enough and old enough that she could potentially go into heat. Not that I would expect that, this late in the year, but it’s possible.
They do know that Smokey isn’t socialized, but isn’t quite feral, either. Well, I have more good news about that.
She let me pet her today!
Several times!
Granted, I wasn’t able to pet her for long, but it’s better than I’ve been able to do before.
The current plan is to meet the foster in the nearer city’s Walmart parking lot to transfer them over on Sunday afternoon. So I am thinking to simply close the catio door while they are in there, earlier in the day. Then my daughters and I can more easily catch them to put them into carriers.
That gives us four days to try and get Smokey more used to human contact.
Once I had done as much as I was able to with the sun room stuff, it was time to do my evening rounds. I had a bit of a surprise when I got to the isolation shelter, which is right next to where I had been working all afternoon.
The stinky kitty sure moved in fast! He had been all curled up in the cat bed until he heard me coming closer and started getting nervous. I stayed well away until I was doing the evening cat feeding. There’s a food bowl next to the cat bed. When I got there, he was sprawled over the bed like you can see in the second picture, with his chin on the edge of the water bowl, like it was a pillow!
Cheeky bugger!
He’s going to be most upset when I move the isolation shelter under the canopy tent for painting – and when it’s set up by the house for the winter! Once that heat lamp is set up, there will be a lot of cats using the isolation shelter. 😄
So that’s progress for today. Tomorrow is supposed to be a fair bit warmer so, once I’ve got the soaking things set to dry, I should finally get that garlic in, then get to preparing more beds for winter sowing.
Thankfully, it looks like the weather will hold for a little while longer. Lots of work to get done in the next few weeks!
The ground it still too wet to work in the garden, but that’s okay. I really needed to sort through the stuff we took out of the sun room and either get it back in there, or stored elsewhere.
I did not get much progress on it.
I got pulled away by other things. One, I remembered to finally bring the house plants in the portable greenhouse indoors. We’re now expected to drop to -2C/28F tonight, and the portable greenhouse isn’t enough to keep things from getting killed off by the cold.
I started going through the bins from the sun room and promptly had to empty several and hose them down. Everything was under the canopy tent, but it has no walls, so the winds blew quite a bit of rain onto everything, with some bins having quite a bit of water in them. So far, nothing seems to be water damaged, though. Still, it means having to let the bins dry out before they can be used again for sorting. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get things organized into bins that still have their lids, to keep the cats out.
Speaking of cats…
Another sidetrack was trying to figure out how to set up one of the heat lamps. I wanted to set the one with the 250 watt ceramic bulb over an area that is now open and has food trays in it. It took some doing, and a fair bit of twine for extra securing, but it’s now set up and turned on. I’m hoping it’s not too high, though. I still haven’t decided on where I want to hang the 150 watt heat lamp.
While I was working on various things, I started messaging with the new rescue. They were asking if the smokey kitten is still around, which it is. As we were messaging and I was figuring out the heat lamp set up, I spotted something poking out from under the cube shelf that is up on bricks.
A pair of hind feet.
It was a passed away kitten. The white with tabby grey markings that Frank adopted with her own littles. He had one eye that would get stuck shut, and I’d washed it for him, just this morning. As with the others I found, he showed signs of diarrhea.
I took the time to bury him right away, then decided to give the cats an early feeding, as they were doing a lot of begging. After all the kibble was set out, I brought a bowl of kitten soup for Frank’s littles and set that up in a shelf for just them.
I was on the look out for one of her three, because I hadn’t seen him this morning. This is another one that would have one eye getting stuck shut. There was still no sign of him. The one that would get both eyes stuck shut was there (and he got another eye wash with dinner), and the third one that has no issues at all was there, but no sign of the third tiny. I even used my phone’s camera to try and look under shelves, just in case. Nothing.
I updated the rescue while I was doing all this. They were asking about which cats/kittens were the priority for when the found an available foster. Frank and her littles, for sure. They are so young and tiny, their chances of surviving the winter are very low. There are a few others that are quite young and small, too, but Frank’s are the youngest and tiniest. Aside from them, any of the confirmed females that aren’t fixed yet are priority. There are kittens that are too feral to spot their genders, and would have to be trapped.
Today was a pretty chilly day – we actually exceeded our expected high and reached 11C/51F – and windy. Just windy enough that working outside started leaving me with ear aches, so I had to cut things short.
I’m rather disappointed with how little progress I got done today. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder than today, but the overnight low is supposed to be warmer, and then we’re supposed to warm up again for a few more days. Hopefully, the wind will have died down. I’m hoping to get lots done over the next couple of days, because on Thursday, my daughter and I are headed into the city. She is seeing an endocrinologist, finally. Thanksgiving weekend is supposed to get downright nice, except for Thanksgiving Day on Monday.
Hmmm. I will need to head outside to switch out the trail cam memory cards before it gets dark. I might just be able to get the garlic in, too, since that bed is ready, already. I haven’t prepped the garlic, though. Might not have time before it gets dark.
The third one in the group looks like something stepped on it, and the fourth I found off to the side doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger. I wonder what kind they are?
We are expected to drop to 3C/37F tonight. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 0C/32F, then 2C/36F the night after, before things are supposed to warm up a little bit overnight. The winter squash are covered and should be okay, but I decided not to bother trying to cover the rest. Instead, I did a harvest.
There is our single White Scallop squash that I’ve been allowing to get bigger. No chance it would get big enough and mature enough for viable seeds, but it is at an edible stage right now.
The peppers and Turkish Orange eggplant, on the other hand, are now set up in the living room to ripen. We’ve had a red pepper and an orange one so far. There are also supposed to be yellow ones in there. The one that’s darkening if from a plant we got a red pepper from. I’m curious to see if the lighter green ones will turn yellow, or if they’re just really immature.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a mix of sun and cloud, with a high of 11C/51F. The day after is supposed to reach a high of 8C/46F. After that, we’re supposed to have highs above 15C/59F. The lows are supposed to be all over the place, but still below 10C/50F. It’s also supposed to be sunny until Sunday, when we’re currently expecting to get rain. Of course, the forecast will be changing from day to day, but it does look like we’ll be able to get more progress in the garden, getting the garlic in, and preparing beds for winter sowing. Normally, I’d say we have a good window of pleasant weather to get that done but, considering how many huge roots I’m finding in the main garden beds I’m prepping, it’s likely to take quite a bit longer than it should!
The predicted rain actually reached us for a change. Our weird climate bubble didn’t push it away. It’s been raining all night and, at past 2pm as I write this, is still sort of raining.
We really could have used rain like this, over the summer!
Unfortunately, I’m finding my window leaks.
It’s the only original window left in the house. Before we moved out here, my brother convinced my mother to have the windows replaced, since sheets of Lexan on the inside just wasn’t cutting it. New windows probably reduced the winter heat bill in this place by a couple hundred dollars a month! She balked, however, at doing the north facing window in what used to be her own bedroom. Too expensive, she said, and refused to pay for it (the living room window, meanwhile, probably cost at least twice as much, just on its own!).
This is actually a pair of windows, side by side, creating a long, wide rectangle together. One half has a screen and we used to be able to open it. At some point, Lexan sheets were installed on this inside. While the turning handle to open the window is still clear, the window itself can no longer be opened – and there’s no point to opening it, since there’s a sheet of Lexan on the inside.
During a driving rain some time ago, I discovered there was a drip between the Lexan and the window on the side that didn’t open. I was supposed to seal it on the outside, but completely forgot. It seems it leaks only if there’s a driving rain in just the right direction, and it didn’t leak again after that one rainfall.
Until today.
The first thing I noticed is that the window on that side is fogged up on the inside. Eventually, I could see the drip.
Some hours later, I sat at my computer, when I realized I was seeing wet all over the top of my printer and the various other things on there. The printer is directly under the window that we used to be able to open.
My first thought is that a cat had gone into the cat bed on top of my drinks fridge, then sprayed over the printer. Because we have cats that are dicks and would do that. Then I saw the drip! I don’t know exactly where the water is getting in, but it seems to be flooding on top of the molding framing the window (this window is in a log wall, so it’s quite deep) enough to travel across and drip on the inside side of the Lexan panel, rather than in between the glass window and the Lexan panel.
*sigh*
Unless we can fine some way to remove the Lexan panels, it’s going to take days for things to dry out once the rain stops. Then I have to get out and put sealant around the window on the outside.
I’m not sure how the Lexan was installed. A frame for the Lexan is screwed directly to the wood framing the two windows. The Lexan sheets, however, are on the inside, against the window frames themselves. Basically, it’s a spacer between the Lexan and the window frames, which means the panels were add after that inner frame was screwed in place. The only alternative would have been removing the windows and putting them back again which, of course, didn’t happen. The panels themselves have their own plastic frames around the edges, and I can’t tell what’s holding them in place against the screwed in spacer frame.
If these can actually just be popped out somehow, that would be helpful. We could then set a fan facing the window to dry things out, and we wouldn’t have to wait for days before sealing up the outside.
We’ll figure it out.
For now, I’ve had to set a towel up on the edge of the window that’s dripping on the inside. It does seem to have finally stopped raining, more or less. It’s supposed to continue until past 4pm, but still potentially have sporadic rain off and on until midnight or so.
We’re actually under two weather advisories right now. One for heavy rain, the other for high winds.
Which is what we definitely had while I was doing my morning rounds!
The cats really appreciated having shelters to go into to eat. The ones that normally like to eat on the cat house roof were willing to use the kibble house, for a change! 😄
Once the bellies were full, the tiniest kittens were back in their new favourite cat bed.
Except for the one that came over to me and was snuggling against my boot!
The tinies might be more than eager for human attention. Blot is now a constant presence in the sun room and the tinies love to cuddle him (her?), but so far I’ve only managed to sneak the odd pet.
The white and grey adult cat on the right of the photo is one of the trio we used to have; Magda, Frank and this one that never got named. Madga, who got spayed, and this one both disappeared, while Frank stayed to have her babies. Then this one came back, looking more grown up and burly, but still quite small. At first, we thought he had an injury beside one ear but, over time, I’m starting to think he’s got really severe ear mites in that ear.
This morning I dug out an umbrella to do my rounds, but I probably should have just worn a hoodie. The winds were so high, they almost yanked it out of my hands. It’s a good thing it’s one of those big golfer’s umbrellas. Anything smaller or of lesser quality would have been flipped inside out.
The weather meant an indoor day, which I suppose worked out. Today is Sunday and is supposed to be my day of rest. If it weren’t for the rain, I would have been back out, digging in the garden, or under the canopy tent, sorting through bins that need to go back into the sun room, or stored somewhere else.
I’m glad I set that taller shelf in front of the bathroom window. The cats are using it to look in, including some of the smaller kittens. It’s just a joy to see my husband coming out of the bathroom, all excited to tell me about which face he saw peeking in the window while he was in there! He’s in so much pain all the time, seeing him happy because of what was really such a little thing to do, is pure gold. If that means converting the entire sunroom over to the cats and storing my tools and supplies elsewhere, it’s more than worth it.
Rainy, cloudy weather like this always makes me sleepy, so once the morning rounds were done, I did end up crashing for a couple of hours.
As I write this, there are twelve cats scattered all over my bed.
This afternoon, I did get one “extra” thing done. I brought out the little bins of green tomatoes we harvested before a frost in early September. Almost all the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes ripened beautifully.
In the second picture, you can see the ones that are still green or under ripe. I’m really impressed with how these turned out! Chocolate Cherry tomatoes seem to do quite well in our area, even if they get harvested really early and really green.
The other bin had the Black Beauty and Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes in it. The larger Black Beauties had ripened, but the smaller ones just sort of started to dry out, instead. The Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes did ripen… sort of. The larger ones ripened but started going bad at the same time. Some of the smaller ones got to orange before they started drying out. Others didn’t change at all. They just got wizened. So there weren’t many of those to set aside for eating or cooking, and the rest went into the compost bucket.
Well, it does look like the rain has actually stopped for now. I should take advantage of that and head outside for my evening rounds, feed the ferals and see if we lost any more trees or branches.
The first picture was of a group of three very round mushrooms – I thought they were puffballs at first, until I saw the stems. The next three pictures are with my hand for perspective – then I found a fourth one, off to the side!
I have no idea if they are edible, and have no intention of finding out.
As I was heading inside, I found this adorable cuddle puddle.
Two of them! The smallest kittens really like to pile together.
Once the morning round were done, I was able to get a few things done before heading to my mother’s. My brother came out today, but he had to focus on replacing the radiator on one of his tractors that got damaged last fall, then try to get it going. Days are short, so I just popped over to say hello before I headed out.
When I got to my mother’s, she was all “prepared” for me. I barely got through the door! She had ice cream buckets of tomatoes she wanted me to take home. One of her neighbours in her building has had a great tomato year in their little garden plot and has been leaving boxes of them in the common room for people to help themselves. My mother keeps taking more than she needs for herself, because apparently no one else is taking any, and she doesn’t want them to go to waste.
So… she gives them to me.
While I was getting the two ice cream buckets of tomatoes out from under her table for her, I saw her collection of jugs for her drinking and cooking water, so I refilled those right away.
There were other errands she wanted me to do, but I told her I’d do them after I’ve put away her groceries.
She didn’t have a list, so I sat down to start that with her. It took a while, because she kept wanting to go on about other things. There’s one home care worker she has issues with in particular. For a basic med assist, they are supposed to be there for 5 minutes, making sure she takes her medication before they leave. The morning assist is for 10 minutes, as they are supposed to help with emptying the commode or helping apply her Voltaren to her back. This one rushes to put the meds in the little bowl she has for them, to make sure they’re all there (sometimes, they can get caught in the packaging), locked the box up and leaves without making sure my mother takes her meds. Apparently, she’s been so rough with the lock box, she ended up knocking my mom’s phone off its charger and just left it where it fell.
My mother was also angry about her new schedule. She has five evenings, which is two med assists done by the same person, plus four mornings, done by someone else (out of a 2 week schedule) listed as “unfilled”. I tried to explain to her that they have to have the schedules out by a certain time, so if they don’t have someone for a specific date or time, they have to list it as “unfilled”. That doesn’t mean they won’t find someone. Just that they hadn’t, before the deadline. My mother thinks it means people are going to show up because they’ve… called in sick, in advance? She doesn’t understand how scheduling works.
It did give me a chance to try and talk to my mother about things she can do to try and get herself into a nursing home faster. I tried to explain that, because she’s only getting med assists, they basically view her as being able to care for herself. But if she takes advantage of the other assists they have available – meal assists, bathing assists, dressing assisted, etc. – that would go a long way to helping her get in faster.
She just got angry at me. She doesn’t trust the home care workers (there’s one that she says is really good at her job, and that’s the one that helped care for my father, before he went into the nursing home) and doesn’t want them touching her or preparing her meals. I tried to explain why she needed to get it anyhow and, besides, if she were in a nursing home, she’d be having that all done for her, anyhow. To which she said, in a nursing home, she would have “professionals”. I told her, the home care workers are “professionals”. They may or may not be good at their jobs, but they get training, first.
At one point she told me she had been talking to a woman that used to live in our little hamlet, that I went to school with. Her mother lived in the same building as my mother, having moved in a few years ago. It turns out her mother is in a nursing home now! She was visiting a friend and stopped to chat with my mother. As my mother told her how much she wants to be in a nursing home, she was told to try falling down! Which is pretty much what I was thinking, but hadn’t mentioned. My mother is constantly afraid of falling down, so she is super careful not to. If, however, she did have a fall, she’d have to use her Lifeline to get help, because she certainly couldn’t get up again on her own. They could call her an ambulance (and would call me to inform me of any issues). Chances are if that happened, my mother would end up going straight to a nursing home or supportive living, somewhere.
She did mention about the last time she used her Lifeline to talk to someone about her she was feeling. At the end of it, she was asked if there was anything else they could do for her. She said, help me get into a nursing home! The person on the Lifeline said they would talk to someone higher up about it.
I don’t know what they can do, but if there’s something, it would help! Lord knows, my mother isn’t willing to do anything herself that would get her in faster. We keep telling her things that would help (like getting other home care assistance that they have available), but she just refuses. I can understand why, but she doesn’t understand that she is sabotaging herself. She much prefers to complain and expect other people to do things for her, not do them herself. This is not a new thing. She’s been like this for as long as I can remember.
After much circular conversation, I did manage to get a shopping list written down for her. Some of it was “see how it looks” or “depends on the price” type stuff. She needed more of her Voltaren, too, so a trip to the pharmacy was also in order.
I was able to find everything she wanted, and even got her a pumpkin pie as a treat I was pretty sure she would be happy with. Either she’d be happy, or she’d be angry. Thankfully, she was in a good mood, and was very happy to see the pie!
Once everything was put away, she insisted I sit with a cup of tea for a while before I finished doing things like sweeping her floor, taking care of her garbage, etc. Then she foisted a bag of aluminum foil she saved from her Meals on Wheels packaging onto me, together with the tomatoes! She’s been carefully washing and setting aside the foil each part of her meal is wrapped in. From the amount in the bag, it’s been probably a year’s worth of foil! She thought I might be able to use them in the garden (??) or something. I told her, I could add them to our aluminum recycling. We save up our aluminum until it’s worth the trip to the salvage yard. She was quite happy with that idea.
All in all, the visit with my mom was pretty good. Just one racist rant I had to distract away from, and during the times she did get angry because she didn’t like what she was being told, it wasn’t quite the personal attacks on me such things often become. It was actually a pretty good visit, as far as that goes with my mother!
That done, I had a request from my husband, so I went to the town we usually go to for our local shopping. The difference in prices between grocery stores was worth the extra driving.
Thankfully, fruit cake was not part of his shopping list.
I could not believe how expensive these fruitcakes have become! Not that long ago, seeing them at prices above $7 was considered expensive!
After I got the few things on my husband’s list and made a stop at the gas station, it was time for home.
My brother was still working on his tractor, so I headed over for a quick hello and to update him a bit about how it went with Mom. Then I went in to change into my grubbies to do some work in the garden, instead of in the sun room, while there was still light enough.
I made sure to water the winter squash and cover them for the night, first. We’re supposed to get rain, but it’s also supposed to get cold enough that I’m not sure the winter squash would survive it. They might be kept covered for several days, if the 7 day forecast is at all accurate. The next three nights in particular will probably put an end to the eggplant, peppers and summer squash, so if there’s anything to bring in an ripen indoors, tomorrow will be the day to do it.
I need to get more garden beds ready for winter sowing, though, and today I started working on the bed the carrots and peas were grown in.
I got a little more than a quarter of it done. As I was working my way down one side, I kept getting tangled up in tree roots. It was a while before I found root they were all coming from and got that pulled out. Then I found more from another root!
It was starting to get dark, so I didn’t want to start fighting with roots I couldn’t quite find yet, so I decided to call it a night. For all the work done in these beds, particularly when they got shifted to their permanent locations, getting them ready for the winter should be easy. All of these roots I’m hitting were not there in the spring. I’m blown away by how far they are extending from the trees, and how big they are.
According to the weather apps, we’re supposed to get rain all night and all through tomorrow, with heavy rain warning. So it might be a couple of days before I can continue. The overnight lows that had been forecast to drop below freezing have changed to just at freezing. Hopefully, the cover will be enough for the winter squash. After that one cold night, we’re actually supposed to get decent, if cool, weather again. That would be a good time to get the garlic in.
Well, we’ll see what actually happens! I’ll take the mild weather for as long as possible!
One of my goals for today was to get more done in the sun room. Which did happen, though quite a bit later than I originally intended. My daughters had their own grocery shopping to do that was worth a trip into the city, which we ended up doing today.
Last night, for some reason, was a sleepless night. It was one of those nights where, the more I wanted to sleep, the more wide awake I became. Not because of pain, or busy brain, or cat shenanigans. Just… awake. I finally fell asleep somewhere around 5am. I woke up a couple of hours later, as it was starting to get light out, and ended up asking my daughters to do the morning routine outside, so I could get some more sleep. The only thing they didn’t do was switch out the trail cam memory cards. Which was okay. I was considering changing from switching them in the morning to switching them in the evening.
Which turned out to be a good thing.
My younger daughter and I started heading for the city in the late morning. I was in the truck at the end of the driveway while my daughter closed the gate behind us. By the time she was in the truck and buckled in, I saw that a tractor on the road was close enough that I waited for it to go by.
I didn’t recognize him at first, but it turned out to be our vandal, sporting a new beard. Instead of driving past us, he stopped his tractor on the road, directly in front of us.
When it looked like he was going to get off the tractor, I drove around him and down the road. It’s just a short distance to a stop sign, and I could see in my mirror that he was still sitting on his tractor, in front of our driveway.
Creepy Creeper was creeping again.
As we continued on our way, my daughter texted the family to keep an eye out on things. Then she checked the security camera’s live feed and he seemed to be gone. She updated the family again as we continued on our way.
When I switched out the memory cards this evening and checked the files, I could see from the time stamps that he sat there for a full two minutes after we drove away, before finally leaving.
Creepy.
The rest of our trip to the city was uneventful, thankfully. My daughters’ shopping list was for the international grocery store I’d skipped when I did our stock up shopping last week. It happens to be near a Dollarama, so I went there first while my daughter started her shopping. I’ve been getting a particular pattern of dishes from there, but the cats knocked a couple of bowls off the counter and broke them, and I wanted to get replacements. Of course, I found a few other small items that would be useful, then met up with my daughter at the grocery store. I took advantage of the trip to pick up a few other things – bread, milk, eggs, mayo and a box of large slide-lock freezer bags (generic brand). Those five items cost over $50!
My daughter had a much larger shopping list that ended up being over $200. It looks like they’re going to be doing a lot of Asian themed cooking over the next while!
That done, we headed home, backing into the yard to unload. It was getting around 4pm by then, so I fed the outside cats to distract them so we could unload. It almost worked! My daughter unloaded the truck to the door, where I grabbed the stuff to bring in the rest of the way. She kept having to use her cane to push kittens away from the door! Even so, Sir Robin and one of Frank’s tinies still managed to get through the door once. They are so fast! Sir Robin would happily be an indoor cat. So would all three of Frank’s grublings!
Once the truck was parked and everything was put away, I headed outside. I didn’t get too much done inside the sun room. There were two plastic storage shelves, one large, one small, that could be brought in the corner I want to keep covered so the critters won’t do their business in it. I might still change things, but I put the larger shelf in front of where the bathroom window is, and the smaller shelf in the corner. The cats like to climb up to the window to say hello, but the cube shelf that was there before is a lot shorter. Cats would scramble to reach the window to look in. Now, if we decide to leave the shelf there, cats could potentially go on the top two shelves to look in.
Yes, I’m a suck for the cats!
It also means they won’t be scrabbling up the wall to reach the window sill, scratching things up, and they’re less likely to fall and potentially hurt themselves.
I moved a couple of other things in – parts of the platform we’d had on the other side, previously, a metal garbage can we used to store things like hoes and spades, plus the actual garbage can. Those were moved mostly because we might get rain tonight, and I didn’t want water getting in them.
Another part of the platform was our “summer door” to the old basement. It allowed us to keep the door open for air circulation on hot days, while keeping the cats out. It didn’t get used that way this year, because it was part of the platform and had the clamp lamps hanging off of it still.
That will get stored in the sun room, too, but first it needed a good hose down and scrubbing of the wooden frame. I’ve got it set under the canopy tent to dry. Now that we have a gallon of paint to cover the exposed wood on the isolation shelter and the box that will go in front of the ramp door to block wind and snow, I will paint the frame of this summer door, too. One of the plant stands that the cats used to get up onto the platform was also in need of a scrub. I’ve decided I will paint that, too.
With the shelves in place in the sun room, I spread the kibble trays out a bit, so they’re not all crowded on one side. I’ve been watching the live feed on the critter cam and the cats and kittens seem to be really happy with the set up. They’ve been running around and playing all over the nice, clean floor!
I could probably bring the floor mats back in, too. I forgot that they’re still hanging on the chain link fence, after getting pressure washed with the hose. These are indoor/outdoor water proof mats with a carpet-like surface. One more thing to protect tiny toe beans from a cold concrete floor, in the winter.
I still don’t know how I’m going to set up the heat lamps. One is a 250 watt ceramic heat bulb and has a protective cage so nothing can accidentally touch the bulb. I would like to have that one over the open space between the cat cage the the shelf at the window. I can’t clamp it to the shelf itself, which would be the easy thing to do, as that shelf is all cat beds, and it might get knocked about as they move around the different levels. The only other thing above the area I want to set the heat lamp is the hanging pair of shop lights. Nothing stable enough to hold a heat lamp, there.
Must think about this some more.
The second lamp should probably go closer to the cat cage, more or less where the heated water bowl will be set up, once it’s plugged in. There’s an arm bar on the wall there, but I don’t think the clamp lamp would hold onto the chrome surface very well. I could set it up on the other side of the door, but I’d rather encourage the cats to use the west facing half of the sun room.
All things to figure out over the next while. I’ll need to sort through the bins that will go into the shelves I set up today and reorganize them, which will include storing things somewhere else entirely. Once the space under the canopy tent is clear, I want to roll the isolation shelter under it, so it can be painted and protected from any rain (or snow!) we might get over the next few days. The weather apps said we might get rain storms this evening. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to get rain all day but, again, I think it’ll mostly be south of us.
I will be heading to my mother’s do to her grocery shopping tomorrow, anyhow.
*sigh*
I’ll be honest; I’m not looking forward to spending time with my mother. I never know, from one day to the next, if she’ll be having one of her good days or, more frequently, be on one of her nasty days. Ah, well. It is what it is.
Tomorrow is looking like our last warm-ish day for a while. From the long range forecast, I’ve got maybe two weeks to prepare more garden beds and get the garlic in. I might be able to hold off until the the second half of October before I do the winter sowing. Once the isolation shelter is painted, we need to set it set up by the house for the winter, where we can plug in the heat lamp and heated water bowl.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on that new pre-hung door that needs to be installed! They have to move a hand rail against the wall to do it, which means the isolation shelter can’t be set up against that wall until the door is installed.
Lots to do, and not a lot of time to get it done.
On a completely different note, while I was doing my evening rounds, I was happy to see more flowers blooming.
The Re-Farmer 