Three of the four siblings, cuddling (The Beast was napping somewhere else).
Pom Pom is getting so big!! You can really see the difference between him and little Snorri. Even Soot Sprite is getting pretty big, finally, but it’s sometimes hard to tell Pom Pom apart from the older tabbies, as they run around.
I’m happy to say I was feeling better by the end of yesterday, and back to my normal routine this morning. I counted “only” 33 cats outside this morning.
Having the critter cam in the sun room is… interesting! I turned the motion sensor on in the evening. I didn’t realize just how often those racoons have been going in there! Mind you, if I hadn’t been chasing them off, over and over, they probably would have just gone in once, eaten all the cat kibble, and gone.
Part of the problem is, I forgot to feed the outside cats while it was still light out. It gets dark so early right now! Racoons are diurnal, but they tend to be out more at night than during the day. I don’t know where they have a den, but it’s clearly within earshot of kibble hitting metal containers!
It was mostly one or two that kept coming in. At first, I could use the two way talk function to shoo them out but, after a while, they started to ignore that, so I had to get up and chase them out. Eventually, I need to move on to other tasks and couldn’t be watching the live feed constantly. By the time I could check again, there were a whole bunch of little videos showing three or four of the buggers, coming into the sun room and eating all the kibble.
At least they weren’t destructive about it. It was the cats that knocked over the garbage can, not the racoons!
With so many racoons, though, we will have to do something about them.
My husband is starting to talk about learning how to tan fur, and use his leatherworking supplies to make winter hats.
Not that we’re in a position to do anything that permanent. Too many cats in the way.
The sun room is really busy at night, that’s for sure. The cats are constantly going in and out. During the day, it seems to be almost always empty! That will change as the weather gets colder, I’m sure.
While we hit 8C/46F yesterday, today’s high is supposed to be only -1C/30F. Still very mild, and I’m quite appreciating it. Especially the bright sunshine. A good day to finally make a run to the dump, once it opens this afternoon!
Yesterday, we were able to test and set up a critter cam in the sun room!
This is the camera that was given to us.
It is a Blink Mini, and it’s really basic! You’ve got the camera and its mount, a USB cable, and an adapter. There are also mounting screws.
I tested it out in the house. I had to download an app, first, and start a new account. Once the app was connected to wifi, there were some blue and green lights, with one of them blinking. The instructions said to press and hold the reset button until a red light started blinking. The reset button was hard to see, and very tiny. I ended up using the tip of a pair of sewing scissors I had handy to press the button. After that, the red light started flashing, then it reset to the blue and green lights, and that was it. I could then use the live feed on my phone and see what the camera could see.
The camera ended up on a shelf in the sun room, next to some stored mouse traps we don’t need, thanks to having so many yard cats. I used some Alien Tape to secure it, since the mounting screws could not be used here. That cable is supposed to go through an opening in the mounting plate, instead of sticking out like that, but I didn’t bother. The cable is secured to the shelf in such a way that there are no dangling bits to tempt the cats, and plugged into the same extension cord the heated water bowl is plugged into. I could then use my phone to see, and adjust the angle of the camera until I was satisfied.
On starting a new account, the app immediately activates a 30 day free trial for unlimited cloud storage. Currently, it seems there is no other storage option. I’ll get to that, later on.
There is a motion detector, and there is the option to have it start recording if it detects motion. The shortest length of time for a clip is 10 seconds. I tested that out, but quickly turned it off. There is just too much cat activity, and I was getting notifications of recordings even as I was in the process of setting things up. I might decide to turn it on for the night, then off during the day, but that’s about it.
After setting it up and testing it out, I left the sun room and started looking up different things about the camera. It seems there is no desktop version of the app, which is frustrating for me. While I was doing that, I opened the app to see the live feed, and discovered racoons in the sun room! Though I’d shut off the motion sensor recording, for some reason it did record several clips, including one of them running off as I entered the old kitchen and started opening the door to the sun room. I saw four big fluffy racoons running off! What I don’t know is why it was recording, why it continued to record a couple more times, and then stopped. I’m sure there’s some setting somewhere that I’m not finding. Whatever it is, it’s not automatically recording anymore, though it does allow for manual recording. Or, more specifically, is has a “save to cloud” button. I haven’t quite gotten to seeing what it saves when you tap that button.
Among the things I like about it:
It has a good, wide angle view of 110°. Even though the camera is set up near the door in the middle of the room, it can cover the entire half of the sun room we’ve set up for the cats. I adjusted it so that it covers the doors to outside and more of the floor. I might lower it a touch more so that the heated water bowl is in view.
It also has really good infrared. I’ve got the shop lights set up to turn on after dusk, if the motion sensors are activated, so the room does get lit up frequently at night. I have them set as dim as they go, but at night, it still feels really bright. Once the lights shut off, though, I can still see the entire room clearly. In fact, it’s slightly better without the glare of the shop lights.
It picks up sound very well. It even picks up sounds from the old kitchen!
It has a two way talk option. I can tap and hold a button and use my phone’s microphone to talk to someone in the room.
Or maybe talk to the cats.
Or use it to shoo away racoons?
It should be interesting to test how that works on them.
Things I don’t like about it:
There’s no option to save or download a clip to device. I ended up having to watch the clip with the racoons on my phone and use screen record to capture the video. Perhaps if I had a subscription, there’d be a way to access the cloud storage for download, but that leads me to my other issue with it.
I don’t like cloud storage. I certainly don’t want to pay for a subscription. I’d rather have the option to store on my own device. In what I read while setting it up, there was mention of non-cloud storage that can be used, but that would require buying a local storage module, and I’m not quite sure there is one available for this specific model of the Mini.
Now, without a subscription, there is still cloud storage, but with a 7,200 second limit. If you exceed that limit, older clips get deleted and new ones saved. You can also set it to delete all clips after a certain length of time, with 3 days being the shortest. With how many cats – and racoons – we have going in and out of the, plus our own daily activities, we’d exceed that 7,200 second limit very quickly.
Now, we would mostly be using it for the live feed, anyhow, which leads me to my next frustration.
“Blink” is well named.
While working on this blog post, for example, I had the live feed set up and running. The sound would blink out, the screen would freeze and restart and eventually it would simply stop sending a live feed and I’d have to start it again.
I thought maybe it was our Wi-Fi signal flickering. Different parts of the house have issues with Wi-Fi, even with the booster my husband got. Nope. It turns out that you need a subscription for the Extended Live Feed. Otherwise, it wants you to touch the screen every 60 seconds, and the live feed stops after 5 minutes.
So what is involved in getting a subscription?
Enter one more frustration.
The app wants me to link to my Amazon account. That’s where one would go to buy a subscription. The problem is, it takes me to Amazon.com I opened an Amazon account many years ago, mistakenly using .com instead of .ca and it’s a pain in the butt. Particularly since I opened the account to create a shop for my sadly neglected craft blog. I was eventually able to add .ca to my account, but the default is .com. The default region is also US, and it does not like me switching it to Canada. My husband has a Prime account on Amazon.ca, so we just use that. I don’t like to use Amazon if I don’t have to, but it’s his account that I go to when I log on.
The app logs me into my old .com account. Once there, it does not let me switch to Canada, or use .ca
I’m not about to go through all this with the US dollar and my account insisting I’m in the US, even though everything else says I’m in Canada. It won’t let me switch to my husband’s account, either.
In the end, none of that matters much. We only have it there so we can check in on the sun room.
As for that one video clip I got that I actually wanted to keep, I got the screen recording from my phone and uploaded it to my desktop. The image quality suffers, of course, but it did let me see what was going on in the sun room before I got into the old kitchen.
It also allowed me to see that there was not only 4 racoons in there.
On first reviewing the clip on my phone, I spotted a 5th one that was out of my field of vision, dashing into the shelf by the window.
After watching the clip on my desktop, over and over, I realized there were actually 8 racoons. Possibly 9. There was one that never actually entered the sun room, but I just saw its face peeking in through the opening of the door.
Another reason I want to lower the camera’s angle a little bit. Part of the reason I’m not sure if it was 8 or 9 is because at least one, maybe two, disappeared out of view below the camera.
[Note: I just watched it again with my daughter and confirmed it was 8]
Final thoughts:
In the end, all we want out of a critter cam is to be able to check the live feed and see what’s going on. Being able to talk through the camera or make limited video recordings is just bonus. While I’d much prefer to be able to download individual files to my device, or have a desktop version of the app, it’s adequate to our needs. Plus, other members of the family can download the app, log in as me, and they can check on the sun room, too.
The real test for this will be through the winter, and seeing how it does when temperatures drop!
Assuming some critter doesn’t discover it and tear it apart or something! 😄😄😄
It’s been a gorgeous day today! We’ve hit 8C/46F today; warmer than forecast. I took advantage of it, and made our first “winter” harvest from the carrot bed. This bed has a deep mulch of grass clippings on it, plus one of the covers we made for the raised beds is being stored on it for extra protection.
I found Rolando Moon curled up on the mulch, under the cover, enjoying a nap in the sun!
I harvested from the far end of the bed, where it gets more shade and the carrots are smaller. There were some icy shards in the soil and under the mulch, but the ground was not at all frozen. It’s been so mild, though, it probably wouldn’t have been, even without the mulch!
This is today’s harvest of naval carrots, after washing the big dirt off. They just need to be scrubbed individually before eating.
I did, of course, have to try one out. It was incredibly fresh and crisp, and quite tasty.
It’s too early in the season to make conclusions, but so far, storing them in ground looks like it’s going to work out just fine. I don’t know how it’ll do if we start hitting -20C/-4F or colder, but with this being a strong El Niño year, we may only hit those temperatures as overnight lows.
Harvesting these reminded me; I want to do a series of 2023 garden analysis posts, like I did last year. This year’s garden was very different from what was planned or expected! We will have much to think about, for next year’s garden!
Well, it took a few days, but I’m starting to feel the effects of my fall from a couple of days ago. I woke up this morning to pain in pretty much all my joints, plus soft tissue pain along my left side. My knee that I landed on still has minimal swelling, and only hurts if I press on the area. I made the mistake of putting weight on it while getting into bed. Even though it was on a soft mattress, it hurt like blazes.
So the most I got done this morning was cat feeding.
I was able to do a head count again, and kept getting 37, so it looks like that’s going to be our number for the winter. Our usual wanderers, like Rolando Moon and Judgement, are sticking close to home. Sad Face is now a permanent fixture and seems to have stopped being aggressive to the other cats completely.
Once the cat feeding and watering was done, I skipped the rest of my morning rounds, took some pain killers and tried going back to bed. Sleep was a lost cause. The bigger kittens are now allowed out of the room which, unfortunately, means I’m dealing with scratching at my door much more often, as they keep wanting in and out. The littles are a different story. Soot Sprite keeps managing to dash out, and he’s still too small to be let out; at least at night. Snorri has also started to make runs for it, and he’s the tiniest of the bunch! The Beast (who is still Tiny, but not quite as tiny anymore) isn’t as interested in leaving the room. She and Soot Sprite, however, are balls of energy and frequently wrestling rambunctiously. Snorri is has not recovered enough to join them, and is often content to curl up on my leg or hip, or the back of my neck, and nap. He’s such a featherweight, I have to be incredibly careful before rolling over, because I can’t always tell he’s there!
I’ve given up on trying to lie down, and will work on a couple other blog posts instead.
We were supposed to reach a high of 4C/39F today. We’re at 7C/45F right now! It turns out we hit 7C/45F yesterday, too. The snow is melting away, and it feels like spring!
Before I go on, though, we must first have the cuteness.
Snorri is just enveloped by David! The Beast (aka: Tiny) is bigger than Snorri! He’s all fur, so he looks bigger than he really is. I have to be so careful at night. He has a thing for curling up behind my neck, or on my legs. He’s so light, sometimes I can’t feel him there at all, and I have to check if he’s on or behind me before I try to roll over.
He does have a thing for necks! If he can get at one, he’ll climb right up any convenient human and settle into a neck, purring.
Snorri’s eyes are still really leaky, but he’s most definitely getting better. I hope he’ll start getting some meat on those bones soon! He certainly has a good appetite.
When feeding the outside cats this morning, I did repeated head counts. I kept getting 37, though I did get 38 once. I think I double counted someone. All the usuals that sometimes show up later were there – Rolando Moon, Brussel and Sprout, Broccoli, the orange and white, both Adam and Driver, Judgement – plus the ones that are almost always here; the printer babies – all the white and greys – the orange tabby, Hypotenose, Syndod, this year’s lone calico and tortie kittens, etc. Then there are the black cats and the grey tabbies. We have so many gorgeous cats this year!
One of the places I put a bit of kibble is in the space the smaller cats use to get under the cat house. While trying to count, I spotted a little white face, eating at the opening. I could only see a bit more than the nose and mouth, so I couldn’t say for sure if it was one of our usuals. There is one white and grey among this year’s kittens that I thought it might have been, but when I went to count the cats in the sun room, he was there. I can’t think of any other small, white faced cat that it might have been. I also spotted a couple of tabbies that I wasn’t sure of. It’s entirely possible they’re from this year’s kittens that are just bigger, and we were bound to have kittens from litters the shier mamas kept further away, finally starting to show up on their own. These ones are adult sized cats, though.
Well, no matter. They are welcome to food, water and shelter! Even Sad Face has become a permanent fixture. The next time there’s a cheap spay and neuter day, I hope we can snag him!
How bizarre that the visiting tom we kept having to chase away because he was so aggressive to the other cats, is now more approachable than all the female yard cats. !!
With so many cats to feed, it’s no surprise that we were running low on kibble, so today I made a trip to Walmart. When I got there, I found that Black Friday sales have already started. Another bizarre notion. This is a US thing, since we have our Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. Meanwhile, Black Friday doesn’t even happen in the US until the end of this week, but Canada has Black Friday, too, and the sales have started already.
I was able to juggle the budget a bit and take advantage of some of the sales. Along with the cat food I was there to get, I was able to get things like a case of 24 cans of tomato soup at 77¢ each – easily the best deal among the things I got, since those cans now cost closer to $2 each. One of the things on my list, however, was not on sale. Butter. Even their house brand butter is almost $7 a pound! It would be cheaper to buy whipping cream and make it.
I didn’t buy whipping cream, and got only 1 pound of butter. We’ll just have to use the ghee more often, until our next big city shopping trip. The next time we’re at Costco, I’ll have to stock up on more butter than usual. Another of their big buckets of ghee wouldn’t go amiss, either!
Once I got home and we unloaded the truck, I had to feed the outside cats early. I was just going back to park it in the garage when I saw a couple of cats under it; one jumping up into the undercarriage somewhere, and another jumping up onto a front tire!
Yes, I make it a practise to bang on the truck before starting it.
The sound of kibble was enough to get them away from the truck, though.
In other things…
I called my mother last night, and it was like talking to a completely different person. She went from yelling and raging at me the day before, to cheerful and pleasant. I asked how she was doing, and she went into her usual complaints about her breathing; this time, she tried to blame it on the macaroni she ate. *sigh* After she went on for a while, I more specifically asked about her mood. She was all ready to act like it never happened, and she was never angry or said all those horrible things to me. We talked about it for a bit, and I tried to stress with her that if our vandal starts calling her about me, it’s because he’s trying to cause problems between us. She did try to defend him again, saying he was just telling her what’s going on, and I had to tell her, he has NO idea what’s going on. She quickly changed the subject. She didn’t quite apologize, but she did seem to try and make amends, in her own way.
I told her about our plans to get the hand pump on the original well serviced, so that we can then change the well pump and have back up water if something goes wrong. It took some time to explain to her why the well pump in the house needed to be changed at all. It has been changed in the past, but that was more than 20 years ago. The foot valve in the well, however, is original and some 45 or so years old – I think it was dug in 1974, but it might have been the year before. She couldn’t remember the exact year.
So she’s happy with the plans. Her only thing was to tell me to talk to my brother about it first, and I told her, I talk to him about everything. No living person knows this place better than he does. He was old enough to actually do a lot of this stuff alongside my dad. My other brothers were still too young for much of it, and some of it was done before I was even born. My sister is older, but she wouldn’t have been allowed to be part of this stuff, even if she were interested, because she is female. My mother then started going on about how great my brother is, and what a good job he’s doing with the farm.
Just the day before, she’d yelled and hung up on him when he called her out for how she allowed our vandal to manipulate her and treat me like crap.
She was like a totally different person.
Meanwhile…
In checking the trail cam files, I could see our vandal trying to figure out what was going on. The day the guys where here to pick up the vehicles, I saw him pull into our driveway while the gate was open – but not far enough to be trespassing! – to turn around, then slowly back down the road, so he could better see through the trees to where we were. I even remember seeing a vehicle backing up on the road, while the guys were jacking the truck out of the dirt and putting tires on it. On the trail cam files, I saw our vandal go by again, later on. Then, after the guys were gone and the gate closed, I saw a different vehicle pull into our driveway and turn around. From another camera, I could see that the driver of this vehicle was a mutual friend he’d clearly gotten to check things out.
On today’s file check, I saw our vandal in the morning, slowly driving past our driveway, then slow down even more as he drove past the bushes, trying to see through them to the other scrap vehicles.
Needless to say, we are no longer fake locking the gate.
It amazes me how furious and possessive he is about the junk. Yeah, some of it was his, but he abandoned it years ago, and neither vehicle that was taken had ever been his to begin with. The ones he’d left are in such bad shape, they aren’t even good for parts. Just the scrap dealer. Which is why he dumped them here, instead of keeping them on his own property. He was using this place as a garbage dump.
So we’re going to have to keep an extra eye on things for the next while.
Something else we might be able to keep an extra eye on is the sun room critters. My SIL gave us a camera. It was a Superstore freebie for purchases over X amount of dollars, and they had no use for it. It’s one of those little security cameras you can link to your phone to keep an eye on things through a live feed. It is not an outdoor camera, but if we can set it up in the sun room, we should be able to confirm what critters (most likely racoons) are knocking things over in there during the night. If it could handle outdoor conditions, I’d want to set it up facing the cat, kibble and water shelters, so we can see what, besides cats, is eating all the kibble, and sometimes knocking the heated water bowl right out of the shelter! Having a critter cam in the sun room, however, would be a good thing! It mostly comes down to how the device is powered. If it’s USB, we’ve got nothing to plug it into in there. We just haven’t had a chance to even take it out of the box, yet!
Who knows. I might be posting critter cam pictures on here, soon!
I’m pretty sure we exceeded our predicted high for the day, though we were in the city at the time, which is typically a couple of degrees warmer, just from the Urban Heat Island effect.
When I fed the outside cats this morning, I was able to do a head count and got 33, several times. Then I saw two more come running, while I was setting up for our departure. When we got back, we pulled up to the house to make it easier for my husband. I fed the outside cats early so that I could safely get the truck out of the yard and into the garage. I did another head count, and got 37! Repeatedly!
I have no idea where these extra cats are coming from, or which ones they are!
Anyhow…
My older daughter was not feeling well, so she stayed home. Having someone at home was probably for the best, anyhow, with our vandal’s freak out over the scrap cars being hauled away. I got a call from my brother this morning, to check on us – no, my mother did not call to apologize, nor did I get a response from my email to my sister. He, however, checked his home answering machine and found a couple of messages from our vandal, with his usual ranting and raving. I’ll be getting copies of those, when he gets the chance to send them to me, for our records.
The drive into the city went well. Highway conditions were great. Road conditions in the city were not as good, but not because of the weather. I was told that apparently the city has fixed all the streets over the past while, but you sure can’t tell from how badly the residential roads in particular are falling apart. My husband, unfortunately, feels every crack and pothole. I try to drive gently, but there’s only so much you can avoid!
The visit itself was really excellent. My BIL, his wife and adult children have been to our place, but this was the first time in about 5 years since we’ve seen my FIL, and the first time we’ve seen my SIL since she moved back out here a couple of years ago. My FIL is having a lot more mobility issues, which but he’s looking great.
There was only one unfortunate thing that happened, and it was me. *sigh*
Their dining room is a step lower. A step my FIL has difficulty with, so they have a sort of platform that’s half a step high, making it easier for him to get down into the dining room.
I was going to help clear the table, grabbed a dish of mashed potatoes and the gravy, turned to take it to the kitchen and…
Caught my toe on the edge of the platform.
I went flying.
Mashed potatoes went flying.
Gravy went flying.
I landed hard on my left knee.
In the mashed potatoes.
Of course, everyone was concerned that I wasn’t hurt. I was more upset over the waste of food and making such a mess!
Oddly, while there is some minor swelling and I’ll likely get a bruise, it doesn’t hurt much at all. It seems I’ve landed on that knee so many times over the years – I actually don’t fall often, but when I do, it’s always been onto my left knee! – it seems to have just stopped hurting. Mind you, with the OA and bone spurs, I might just have such a high pain tolerance by now, something like this just doesn’t phase me anymore.
So that was unfortunate. 😕
That was the only down side of the visit.
My husband, meanwhile, held out as long as he could, but could only push himself so far. He hides it well, though. My daughter and I could see the signs that he was struggling to remain upright, so we called it before dessert. Which also meant we got home while it was still light out, which is always a good thing.
As soon as we got home, my husband hooked himself up to his TENS, took his evening meds and his “take as needed” painkillers, and went to right to bed. He’s going to pay for this trip for a while, but to see his father again was, for him, worth it.
Another reason to be so glad we got this truck. He could not have managed this trip at all, even if we still had the van. The seats on this truck are so much better for his back, he can handle the drive much better.
With my daughter coming along, we had to put one of the back seats down, so the walker had to go into the back of the truck. We were able to secure it so it wouldn’t slight around. Before we left, I grabbed a crate and started returning some of the stuff we used to keep regularly in the van. Booster cables. Tire iron. Stuff like that. We’ll need to look for some sort of storage box to install on the back for this stuff. The typical truck box I see that is mounted behind the cab is too tall; we’d have to remove the cover, and we like the cover! There are storage boxes that fit over the wheel wells that would be more ideal, and easier for short people like me to access! 😁 We were also talking about getting things like straps and tie downs and other things that we would find useful with a truck that weren’t needed with a van. Little by little, we’ll get the tools and supplies we will need!
Another thing we talked about was our next fix. My brother has told me to keep the money from the sale of the cars, so that’s going to go back into the property. For the amount we have, there are a few things we could do, but there’s what feels “urgent” vs what needs to be prioritized first.
Among the things we need to do is get the well pump replaced. My brother has already bought a pump and all the fittings he could think of that would be needed to install it. The problem is, shortly after we moved here, we noticed issues that might mean the foot valve is starting to be a problem. One plumber came out and actually went into the area above our well – the concrete well cap is about 12 feet down – to look at the pipes to pump in the basement. This well was dug in the mid 70’s. Since then, the standard size for well pipes has changed. If there were any issues, we couldn’t simply replace the pipes. We’d have to find and special order that size, or have a new well dug. At that point, we’re looking at many thousands of dollars.
So no plumber dares replace the pump. The risk is low, but if that foot valve goes, we have no water until we can afford to get that fixed.
Water is our one weak spot. If we lose power for an extended period, we are okay with everything else. We can cook, stay warm, use the outhouse… the only thing we have no back up for is water.
But we do have that original well with the hand pump.
So that will be our priority fix.
I just talked to my brother about it, and he’s quite on board with the idea.
Over the next while, I will look for a company that can service a hand pump. I’ve been able to pump water, but it took a long time for it to start flowing, and if I slowed down pumping, the water would stop. So it does seem to just be a matter of replacing the leathers and getting a proper seal again. I’ve watched videos on how to do this but none of them involve a pump like what we have. I’ve looked up suppliers for the leather gaskets, and they’re pretty cheap, but I have no idea what size or type we need. Once we get someone to do it, we will probably be able to do it ourselves after that, though new leathers should last for years.
Once that is done and we have back up water, we can look at getting that new well pump installed. It should be just fine but, if things go wrong and we lose water, we will have that back up. We might end up hauling water for an awfully long time, but that’s preferable to not having any water at all!
It will probably be a while before I find someone, but that will be what the funds will be set aside for.
*sigh*
I suppose I should phone my mother and see how things are with her. She and I talked about the old well, and she was quite thrilled when I said I wanted to get it going again. So she should be happy to hear that this is what we’ve decided to do next, but she also wanted me to get rid of those old cars, only to become furious when I actually did get rid of a couple, thanks to our vandal.
*sigh*
We’ll see how that goes. Hopefully, she’ll have calmed down, and the day will end as well as it began.
The cats just love this upper level set up! Here we have Hypotenose, Syndod and the unnamed tortie. When I fed them this morning, I think I counted 35. Or it could have been 32. I never got the same number twice, and it’s way too easy to double count!
The day started out well. It was lovely out, and I think we exceeded our predicted high of 3C/37F.
Today was the day the guy, and his son, who wanted to buy some scrap cars from us was to come over and pick them up. They arrived with a couple of trailers and four trucks altogether, as his son’s friends came along again, as did the guy’s neighbour, to help out.
It’s a good thing they had three big strapping young men along! What a job it was!
Their first goal was to get the pick up truck. They had to cut trees away first, then jack it up out of the ground it had sunk into, replace the two front tires, and put tires on the back, which had no tires at all. They were then able to use one of the trucks to pull it out of where it was parked, so they could load it onto a trailer.
That’s when things got considerably more difficult!
All four tires were seized up.
They dragged it far enough out, though, then brought the longer trailer around. Unfortunately, the ramps on the trailer turned out to be too narrow.
As all this was starting, we could hear cows. We’d had to go through the “gate” by the barn (it’s just an open part of the fence with a chain and the electric fence across it; I eventually found the barbed wire gate, mostly fallen apart and buried in tall grass). This meant taking down the electric fence, which ends at this gate, so that was easy enough to do. When the renter’s cows are here, that fence is live, of course, so when I heard cows that sounded awfully close, I went to the gravel pit, where there is water, in case a neighbour’s cows got in or something.
I found 3 cows.
But I heard more.
So I kept walking and could soon see the rest of the herd.
The renter’s cows are still here! I haven’t seen them – or even their tracks – in a while! He leaves feed for them out by the gate he brings them in by, so I guess they had no reason to go any further than the water in the gravel pit.
As I walked back, I took a closer look at where the renter sets up the battery and solar panel for the electric fence. I’d looked on the way out, but didn’t see anything.
It turned out the solar panel had been flipped upside down, on top of the battery, and was covered in snow. I’d say, high winds caught it. I’ve no idea how long it’s been out of order, since I didn’t even know the cows were still here!
Well, I guess it worked out, since we had to go through there, anyhow.
Yes, I have since let them know. At least I hope so. I sent direct message, but I might have to find their phone number and call them, if those haven’t been seen.
Anyhow.
On finding the truck could not be loaded onto that trailer, they took it across to the car graveyard. That car was also deeply sunk into the ground, but it did have all four tires and – amazingly – they were able to pump them up and they held air! Long enough to move it, at least.
The guys were so excited by this little car. I think it’s going to end up restored and driven again, rather than just used for parts! Its interior was largely gutted, but it still had its engine.
Mostly.
So that got loaded up rather quickly.
Next, they went to look at a third vehicle over by the storage shed. After cutting their way through the forest of burrs, they were able to open the doors and look inside.
Unfortunately, it turns out things are badly rotted out in there. After talking about it, it was decided they would not take that one. It was good only for scrap.
The other two next to it caught their attention, but they instead went looking at the tractor. The son still wants to buy that, but that won’t happen until spring. He did pay half as a down payment, though.
Then it was back to the truck. It took both the winch on the trailer, plus another truck with a tow strap, to drag that thing up the ramps and onto the trailer. The truck is so long, it barely fit! But, they got it.
So that was done, and the guy was saying he might be interested in some of the other vehicles, too. We shall see.
Now, with all this noise and commotion, I knew our vandal would be wondering what’s going on, since he tried to sue me for this stuff, among other things. The only reason I could even consider selling anything is because the judge threw it out. I know that wouldn’t change his mind that he is somehow entitled to all this junk, even though he had plenty of time to remove things if he wanted them, while the place was empty for two years. He certainly removed all sorts of stuff that wasn’t junk, long ago, so it’s not like he wasn’t able to. I wasn’t sure if he would suddenly show up and start screaming or something, but I didn’t see him. He’d still have heard things from our place and gone looking, though, so I knew I’d have something to deal with something, eventually.
Once everything was squared up and I was settled back inside, I started messaging my brother to let him know, and ask him how he wanted me to get the money to him. The vehicles are paid for, but the guy is going to look up the VINs and make up proper bills of sales for them, which my brother will have to sign, since he’s the owner. The truck actually had its old registration papers in the glove compartment!
While I was messaging my brother, which would take a while, since I knew he and his wife were on the road at the time, my phone rang.
It was my mother.
I knew it was going to happen, but I wasn’t expecting it that quickly!
I barely said hello, when my mother was yelling, what’s going on? What’s going on?
Yup. Our vandal had phoned her already. I don’t know what he actually told her – he would have been making things up, anyhow, since he wouldn’t know anything – but boy, did he have her wired up! It took some doing to calm her down but, as short as I can make it, my mother seems to have thought that this was some instant thing. As if some guys showed up, out of the blue, with trailers today, and I just let them haul stuff out. When I told her this was over a week in the making, she was incensed that I hadn’t told her earlier. I said, there was nothing to tell until it was done, and I was planning to phone her after I finished talking to my brother. Well, she just kept on yelling, going on about how we’re only after her money, she paid for the roof, and she is never going to pay for anything anymore… ???
As near as I can figure, going back to when she called a scrap guy to come out and look at the stuff, our first summer here, she is thinking that the money from selling the scrap would have paid for the roof, but she paid for the roof, so… we’re after her money? The thing is, when I told her the roof was leaking, she kept arguing with me, saying that they already replaced the roof (25 years ago), so it was fine. Perfect. Just like she thought everything here was perfect, as she tried to talk us into moving out here. It took years just to convince her it really did need replacing.
I eventually calmed her down and told her I needed to finish talking to my brother, and then I would call her back.
So I finished messaging him, telling as much as I could, but I knew they were probably driving and wouldn’t be able to see it right away. I even sent some pictures. I also told them about the call from my mother and the terrible things she was saying. Then I called my mother back.
*sigh*
It took some doing, but I was able to get it through that I had already talked to my brother about all this, because I can’t do anything here without him. We don’t own anything here, other than things we bought or brought ourselves. I would never do anything like that without talking to him about it first, anyhow. She made a big deal about how I wouldn’t know the value of things (because I’m female), and I had to explain to her that, by selling individual vehicles for parts, we’d get more money than selling them to a scrap dealer. I also reminded her that she’s been after us for years to get rid of all those vehicles. So that’s what I’m starting to do.
She went into some real mental gymnastics in both calls, constantly going back to how we’re just after her money (clearly, our vandal said that to her), how she was entitled to know what’s going on (she no longer owns own the property so no, she isn’t; we keep her in the loop out of respect), and demanding that the money goes towards fixing the place, because she paid for the roof, and she gives us more money than other parents do, and… on and on it went. She even tried to guilt me about how letting us live here was a kindness. I had to remind her that she begged us to move out here for years before we finally agreed, so our being here was helping both ways. She did, at least, agree to that!
I then told her I needed to let the renter know their electric fence isn’t working and got off the phone. Once I was done messaging them, I updated my brother.
His wife answered, telling me he was furious at her behaviour and was going to call her.
I ended up getting a call. He’d tried calling her several times and her line was busy, so he wanted to check if I was talking to her. I think she was probably talking to our sister.
Some time later, I got a call from my brother again. They’d actually pulled over on the side of the road to try calling our mother again. He got through to her and tried telling her she’d done the wrong thing by yelling at me and letting our vandal manipulate her, that she needed to apologize to me, call me and make it right. She, however, just kept yelling at him, then when he said she needed to make it right, she hung up on him.
Our vandal really made a mess of things with her, and she’s doing exactly what he wanted her to go; he’s trying to turn her against me and my brother (maybe my sister as well, but she’s not involved with the farm), and she’s letting him.
What chokes me is how she goes on about how badly we’re treating her, or how we’re just after her money, but is completely oblivious to her own part in all this. Like our vandal, she takes no responsibility for her behaviour, and if people actually stand up to her and call her out on her behaviour, they’re the ones that are treating her badly, and she’s the victim. She has also tried to control me, and our finances (including my husband in this) for as long as I can remember. The one person who actually does want all her money is our vandal.
You’d think my mother was rich or something, with all this going on. She’s got next to nothing, and the only reason she has what she has is because my brother has been taking care of things for her. She also goes on about how she just wants us all to get along, but plays us against each other, every chance she gets.
Which reminds me. I need to email my sister and tell her what’s happened, thanks to our vandal.
The arrival of some expected snow kept being pushed earlier and earlier. It hit us last night, so we woke to a winter wonderland of soft, fluffy snow. We were at 0C/32F while I was outside, so it could just as easily have been rain. That was supposed to be the high of the day, but by the time I was settled back inside, we’d warmed up to 1C/34F and the system had passed us by. As I write this, the system is still hitting the southern part of our province, and crossing into the next, as well as hitting the Canada/US border. From what I’m hearing, the city is getting more snow than we got, and some of the highways are getting packed snow. Enough that I’ve decided to not bother with a dump run today. It can wait until next week.
We’re supposed to hit 3C/37F over the next couple of days, and then warm up a bit more, before we’re supposed to start getting highs below freezing next week. All I care is that the roads and weather are good for Saturday, when we’re heading to the city so my husband can finally visit his family!
The deep snow did make it a bit harder for the cats to eat on the roof of the cat house – but they insist on eating there!
It wasn’t until I uploaded this photo to my desktop that I realized I’d caught, not one, but two tongue blehps!
I didn’t even try to do an overall head count, but…
… at one point, I could see eight cats crowded together in the big cat bed at this window! Then the tabby in front came by – there was no room in the cat bed for him! – plus I saw some other movement in the background.
They do love the cat house, this time of year!
While I was out, I took advantage of the snow still being light and fluffy and shoveled around the cat shelters, paths around the yard, including to the compost ring, the back of the garage and our emergency bathroom – the outhouse! 😄 I also made sure there was a path from the house to the front of the garage, wide enough for my husband’s walker, and cleared enough snow that we can open the doors on the sides, to access my mother’s car, of where the little snow blower is stored. No point in using the snow blower at all, though. The snow may have been light and fluffy, but it was also very sticky. Nothing like trying to toss a shovel full of snow and nothing happens, because the entire load is stuck!
We’re supposed to fluctuate around the freezing mark all day today, but as we reach our high tomorrow, all those paths should melt away first and make things easier, later on.
It’s a good day to say inside and work on the Christmas decorations I am crocheting for this year’s ornament.
We have a cat free zone in the living room now. We can actually put up a proper tree, rather than hang one against the door in the dining room. The problem with that is, we’ve been using the room as a catch-all for everything we need to keep safe from the cats, so it’s just jammed full of stuff!
Wanting to set up the Christmas tree is a good excuse to finally go through everything and reorganize.
Six years ago today, the four of us were finally altogether, here at the farm. After over 24 hours on the road, and a near-deer experience (I’d forgotten about that!) my older daughter and I arrived in the wee hours of the morning.
After our first sleep, all under the same roof, it quickly became clear that the state of things here at the farm were quite a bit worse than I expected – and I already knew things were not anywhere near “perfect”, like my mother claimed it was!
And that was before we found out how bad things would get with the movers!
She took a break from squirming and worming around and actually posed for me!
Like the kittens, she is recovering just fine from surgery. I managed to get a look at the incision site, and all is clean and clear.
Our new addition, however, is comically difficult to photograph.
This is the best of many attempts.
Our phone cameras simply do not want to focus on that fuzzy black fur! Especially when we try to get a photo of the face.
We’ve settled on a name. Almost.
We have a tendency to stick to a theme with names, if we can. Like the calicos: Cabbages… Broccoli… Brussel and Sprout. Then there was Rosencrantz, Nosencrantz, and Toesencrantz. That sort of thing.
With an all black kitten named Soot Sprite, someone suggested another sprite name; Brownie. I loved the sprite theme idea, but … well … this is a black kitten.
Then I heard a wet, snorking noise behind me, and I was inspired.
Snorri.
Snorri is one of the Huldufólk – Icelandic sprites – living in Gimli, Manitoba. My daughters and I have been in their attic home, and even got to meet Leo Kristjanson some years before he passed away. We even already have a cat named Freya (aka: Grandma), which is the name of another of the Gimli Huldufólk.
The girls have also been talking about names, and they have been thinking of using Hunter. A friend of theirs has an almost identical cat named Fisher, so they thought that would be funny. But they like Snorri, too.
When the girls were tending to Snorri/Hunter yesterday, they took a look and determined we had a female on our hands. Considering how difficult it’s been to socialize the females outside, this was good news. One less pregnant cat, next year!
Except…
Well, I took a good look this morning, and I’m 99% sure we’ve got a male.
The problem is he, or she, is so tiny, so fluffy and so black, it’s really hard to see!
As for his first night indoors…
I woke up during the night to find him sleeping on my hip.
This kitten has settled in like he’s always been indoors. Even when another cat gets nervous and hisses or growls, he either ignores it, or responds by head booping them.
On being introduced to David, David immediately started to groom the new baby.
As I write this, Snorri/Hunter is curled up and sleeping near Cheddar. Cheddar is sleeping in the little cat bed I got from the dollar store.
He’s bigger than the cat bed, so it’s quite amusing to see.
I have yet to see Snorri using a litter box, but my daughter noticed sawdust under his feet when she came to see him this morning, which suggests he’s at least been in one. I’ve not found any messes anywhere, either.
As for settling in, that has been pretty much instant. He’s been spending most of his time on one corner of my bed. For a kitten that was still a bit stand offish while outside, he’s done a complete turnaround. If you so much as walk close to him, he’ll start purring. While walking past him one time, I reached down to pet him, and he immediately rolled over to let me pet his belly, and started grabbing and playing with my fingers.
Which is how I now know that, along with a white patch on his chest, he has a white patch on his belly, near his hind legs, and one white armpit. 😄 Most of the time, though, he’s loafed, and we can’t even see the white patch on his chest. He also has a pair tiny white stripes at the base of his tail, right over his … brown eye, shall we say.
He’s also much tinier than we thought. It’s all that fluffy fur. He is mostly undercoat, and is more of a long or medium haired cat, unlike his siblings, Soot Sprite and Tiny, The Beast. Those two are short haired cats. He’s more like his brother Pom Pom, who is practically all undercoat with long hairs sticking out.
Snorri is actually smaller than Tiny. !!!
He’s so fluffy, he looks bigger, but he is most definitely smaller, and all skin and bone!
Now that he’s inside, he’ll be getting wet cat food regularly. When I did their morning feeding, he was right in there with all the others, milling around the food bowls laid out on a towel on my bed, along with the other kittens and Toni, as if he’d always been there. A full belly and an eye wash later, he was more than content to go for a nap. Hopefully, we’ll get him healthy, and some meat on those bones, in short order.
By the time the Cat Lady and her family have moved and settled in, he should be ready for adoption. I think he will be snapped up rather quickly, too!
