Author: Re-Farmer

Yard cats and how much does that cost???

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Today was my day to go to my mother’s to do her grocery shopping, but first, I headed out for my morning rounds and yard cat feeding.

I counted 26 or 27 this morning. In this picture, a well fed group is under the higher wattage heat bulb. When I did the evening feeding, I noticed none where hanging out under the lower wattage heat bulb, which is closer to the floor. I checked it and there was no heat coming off of it. It was plugged in, the switch was on but, nothing.

No. It wasn’t burned out.

Somehow, it was unscrewed, just enough to cut power to the bulb! The heat cover was also loose from its threads. I’m not sure how the cats manage to do this!

I headed to my mother’s earlier than usual, as I wanted to get her grocery shopping done before the home care aid arrived for her lunch assist. When I got there, she had actually started some vegetables cooking on her own. She does things in stages, so she can sit down frequently.

After double checking and modifying her list that we put together when I was there on Saturday, I headed out. There wasn’t much on it, so I was done quickly. Fast enough that I took the time to stop at a little department store along the way. I know my mother won’t be able to do a Christmas tree, and very little decorating, if any, so I wanted to get her something festive. I ended up finding a little tree set, complete with a string of lights, small enough to sit on her dining table. Then, spur of the moment, I got her a Hickory Farms set with a sausage, crackers, cheese and mustard.

When I got them out and showed them to her, making sure she knew that these were gifts from me, not something I got with her grocery money (because that would have been her first thought), she got all angry with me for getting her gifts. Especially the Hickory Farms pack. With that one, I opened the box and showed her what was in it, and saying it was something to go with her tea, if she wants, or to bring out if she has company. She was still angry with me.

Which is what I expected, really. My mother has never known how to accept gifts graciously, that I can remember. I know that she will eventually enjoy them, but will likely never admit it. At least not to me!

As I was putting her groceries away, the home care lunch assist worker arrived. Since I was there anyhow, she didn’t stay and I took care of making my mother’s lunch for her, and finishing off what she had started cooking, doing all her dishes, etc. At one point, she asked me to look for something in her cupboards (we never found it), but she has a bunch of stuff that she would like to take. These are things she brought from here at the farm – glasses, bowls, etc. – but had never used. They are, however, vintage things that we would actually keep and use. Especially my younger daughter, who really appreciates such things. They are fragile and just out of my reach, though, and we decided today was not a day to drag out the stool and start taking them down. Mostly, she’s just happy to know that they are claimed and won’t end up disposed of in some way.

I wasn’t in any hurry to leave today, as my husband messaged me to let me know there was a parcel to pick up. The post office was almost closed for 2 1/2 hours over the lunch period. Which meant I had time to do all my mother’s dishes, make room in her fridge, and prep containers of food to cool down before they would go into the fridge.

I did remember to go through my mother’s lock box. I knew there would be one bubble pack with her Sunday bedtime meds still in it. Those turned out to be the only ones in the pack. Another pack had only a Monday morning bubble with meds in it. I took both out and set them into a pill organizer she has, so the packs could be thrown away, and left a note in the lock box for the next med assist person. My mother will be getting her refills soon (which the pharmacy will no longer deliver to her, at my request; I will pick them up), so the lock box was going to need the space.

For some reason, the home care aids keep locking more and more of my mother’s pens into the lock box. They have a form to fill out, with each med assist. There should be one pen with their folder. Instead, it seems they use a pen from her table, then lock it up into the box. I’m guessing the pens fall to the bottom while the next care aid moves it to unlock it, so they don’t see it and grab another one… which gets locked into the lock box. There was one time I wanted to make my mother’s shopping list, but couldn’t find any of my mother’s pens in the container she has for them on her table. On a hunch, I went into the lock box. I found six pens in there!

While doing my mother’s shopping, I noticed some very good sales at the grocery store, so after I was finished at my mother’s, I went back to do a bit of shopping of my own. I actually bought beef today! They had a sale on tri tip that was at $6.99 a pound. That’s lower than ground beef is right now. I got a few other things, as well.

I did NOT get chocolate chips, though.

*gasp*

Good grief!!!

I was at Costco, yesterday, and their Kirkland brand chocolate chips were over $30 for a 2kg/4.4lbs bag. What gets me is not only how much more expensive the Kirkland branch chocolate chips are here, but that they are more expensive than the name brand chocolate chips – both are semi-sweet – in a 2.4kg/5.3lb bag.

I recall, two or three years ago, that there were predictions of the price of chocolate going up, due to things like weather damage, pests and disease. Add in everything else involved in production and processing going up and adding to the price, it’s really gotten insane. It takes a few years for the increase in prices of cocoa beans (they tripled) to affect retail prices, but now I’m seeing that there is a recovery and supply is increasing. Prices might start to ease a few months from now, though probably not by much. The beans may not be as expensive, but all the other costs are still going up.

That done, I still had time before the post office reopened, even with how long the drive it, so I ended up going to the local Chinese restaurant for a late lunch.

The store the post office is in is an old style general store that includes a liquor section, right next to the post office window. As I was waiting for my parcel, I started looking at the nearest display and spotted a new wine, with the label stating it was from our province. The postal clerk saw me looking and told me that the wine is actually produced locally. As in, just off the highway that runs through our little hamlet! There was a semi-sweet and a ginger and lemon, both sparkling white wines.

I ended up getting a bottle of ginger and lemon. It only cost $20. Technically, my mother bought it, since she gave me $20 in cash for gas. 😂😂 (It costs almost $30 a trip to go to her place, with the current local prices.)

I’m now debating: do we taste test it now, or save it for Christmas? 😁

With the extra stuff, I sent a message home and my younger daughter was sweet enough to come out and open the gate for me, then help bring the bags to the house. It was a bit early but, once everything was in and I still had my boots on, I took care of feeding and watering the outside cats, and doing my evening rounds, while my daughter put stuff away.

Then, opened up our parcel and go it set up, but I will write a review on that in my next post!

See you there…

The Re-Farmer

Books and trees

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I took advantage of some Cyber Monday deals on Amazon and ordered a couple of books on my wish list, last night. Just now, I placed an order for some trees that will arrive in the spring. (None of the links below are affiliate links. Links will open in new tabs.)

First up, the books.

One is Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills. Fourth Edition. I actually have a 1981 Reader’s Digest edition, Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Our Traditional Skills. I don’t know that these are connected, as the one I’m ordering has an Abigail Gehring listed as the editor. No Reader’s Digest listed anywhere. Looking at the preview of the one I ordered, it does seem to be an updated version of what I have. Which is an excellent book.

The other is 40 Projects for Building Your Backyard Homestead: A Hands-on, Step-by-Step Sustainable-Living Guide This one has even been shipped already, even though I ordered it just last night.

Both of these are supposed to arrive before Christmas but Canada Post hasn’t exactly been reliable of late. I believe they are technically still on a rolling strike. We shall see. I look forward to going through both of them over the winter!

Next are the trees.

One is a bundle of five Bleu Basket Willow. I’ve been considering for some time, where the best place to plant them would be. Willow propagates easily, so the plan it to expand them. The source, Prairie Hardy Nursery, also has two other varieties of basket willow in different colours that I plan to get, when the budget allows. The plan is to coppice them so that they can be used for things like wattle weave fences and, yes, weaving baskets. Thinking long term, these will be planted beyond the outer yard, and will need to include protection to keep the renter’s cows from crushing them by accident, until they get bigger.

The other is a single bare root seedling, as part of our food forest; a Manchurian Walnut. While we have black walnut planted, they may or may not have a long enough growing season here for fully mature nuts to form. Normally, they wouldn’t, but the ones I got were from a nursery in our province, so they are probably acclimated already. The Manchurian Walnut is hardy to zone 2b. It’ll be 10-12 years before they start producing. As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The second best time is now! They are also described as fast growing, so we should be able to enjoy the tree for its beauty before it starts producing. As with the black walnuts, these will be planted in the outer yard. They are self fertile, though it is recommended they be planted in pairs for better production. Which we might do, when the budget allows.

The nursery opened for the sales season in November, and the dormant seedlings will be shipped in the spring. I’ll get an email in April to work out the best shipping date based on our last frost date. If I am able to order more trees between now and then, they actually have a code to include to combine orders, so as not to increase the shipping fees, and everything gets shipped together. The shipping costs are relatively high, but they include insurance. Most places don’t.

It’s slow going, but little by little, we’re getting it things done!

The Re-Farmer

New Costco shop: this is what $563 looks like

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Today, my daughter and I made it into the city for our Costco shop, where we checked out a new location.

First bonus about this location is that we don’t need to drive through the city to get to it. It’s actually outside the bypass highway around the city. No city traffic, no frequent stops at lights, etc.

First down side: it’s near some pretty major event infrastructure, as well as some new apartments that weren’t there the last time we drove by here, years ago, so it shares entry lanes. Which includes two roundabouts.

I really dislike roundabouts. Yes, I understand efficiency of the design. I just have no faith at all in other drivers. The city we lived in before moving here had several roundabouts we had to go through regularly, much larger than the ones we had to use today, and they sucked when traffic was high.

Thankfully, traffic was not high.

When we first drove in, the parking lot looked really full. Our first stop was the gas station, which had more pumps than the other locations we’ve gone to. That went really fast.

Also, gas there was $1.139/L, instead of the $1.299 everywhere else. It cost me “only” $46.47 to fill my tank from a little over half.

As for the crowded parking lot, that turned out to be just the area closest to the entry. Once we got past a certain point and could see the rest, we found there was plenty of space to park.

The location is somewhat bigger than the others we’ve been to and, while they matched the layout of other locations pretty well, a few things were changed up. One of them was where the cat supplies were set up! We finally found it, pretty much opposite of where they are typically kept.

The shop itself was… well… okay, I have to admit. I hate shopping and I hate crowds, not that it was particularly crowded today.

I really hate it when people with half empty carts expect me, with my flat cart, to stop on a time to avoid hitting them as they wander and weave, not paying any attention to what’s around them.

Having said that, I was ready to abandon my flat cart only twice this trip.

My daughter is a sanity saver.

One of the things they have that’s different is their sushi bar, which was added on to where they have their in store made heat and eats, like Shepard’s Pie and chicken pie. I wasn’t able to check it out too thoroughly, though, because there was a lot of cart traffic and looky-loos. When pushing a flat cart, I’m just not flexible enough to get around everyone, though I still couldn’t see much even when I left the cart with my daughter and tried looking again.

Their food court menu was also different. They had sushi on the menu, but they also had their Montreal Smokes Meat sandwiches, too. The other locations dropped those from their menu, years ago. I was really looking forward to doing lunch after we finished our shopping.

It didn’t happen.

This is what $563.72 looks like.

That really isn’t much on there at all.

So, this is what we got today, starting with the non-food (at least, not for humans) items. There’s two 9kg bags of kibble – we have a good supply, but this should ensure we don’t run short at the end of the month – one case of wet cat food, a case of puppy pads, toilet paper and a dish detergent refill jug.

For drinks, there’s a case of Monster – yay! Finally in stock again! – a case of Coke Zero and a 3 pack of Oat Milk.

For meats, I got two rotisserie chickens, because it was cheaper than buying any of the uncooked chicken options. The fresh made sausage section was bigger and had new varieties, so we picked up a pack of Greek sausage, and one of Gouda and Cranberry. I also got two panini packs for sandwiches. That was it for meat. Beef prices were heart stopping. I should know better than to even look!

For dairy, we got a 4 pack of cream cheese, sour cream, 5 pounds of butter and a 2 pack of goat cheese. My daughter also grabbed some grated Parmesan, which I’ll be paid back for. We normally get blocks of cooking cheeses, but we still have plenty. I was sorely tempted to try new cheeses, though, as their cheese selection in much larger and more varied! Not in today’s budget.

In the frozen stuff, we got a box of perogies and a bag of mixed vegetables.

In breads, we got two 2 packs of rye bread and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps.

In the odds and sots, we got two large containers of mayo, a box of mixed instant oatmeal, a double flat of eggs (60 eggs) and a sushi platter to be supper for the girls. I meant to get something for my husband and I as a quick, heat and eat supper but I couldn’t find anything that both my husband and I can eat. More and more foods make him feel sick after eating, as if he were having a lactose intolerance reaction, even if there’s no dairy in the food. So I ended up not getting anything. It’s getting much harder to get food for him.

I was still thinking of going to the food court but by the time we were heading for the check out line, not only did I not want to have refrigerator/freezer items sitting out so long while we ate, I had basically lost all patience with being around people. In fact, we didn’t even finish going through all the food aisles. Aside from the usual cart traffic issues, I kept getting stuck behind one older couple that kept weaving back and forth in the middle of the aisles, stop suddenly, or split up and be doing the same thing in two aisles at the same time. We even ended up blocked by them again, while trying to get the the checkouts. At least I was able to get past them, though someone else was blocking the aisle from the other direction that I had to get around. We weren’t any any hurry, but I get really tired of trying so hard to not be in the way with my big flat cart, only to have to deal with people who are oblivious about being in the way. Even as lightly loaded as ours was today, flat carts are not easy to maneuver!

So… yeah. That’s all we got today. A whole 35 items.

Once we were loaded up and heading out, things went smoothly. The only down side was my not eating yet. On the way out, we’d stopped to pick up some energy drinks and I got a bag of beef jerky. That was all I’d eaten all day, and it was about 1pm as we were leaving the city. On the way home, my daughter insisted we stop for food. I was thinking a quick stop at the gas station in my mother’s town that we had to pass through; the one that has the best fried chicken, but she was thinking an actual sit down restaurant. There’s a restaurant right on the highway that is under new ownership and completely redone that she hasn’t been to yet, so we ended up stopping there and she treated me to breakfa… lunc… an early supper?

By the time we were done, it was late enough for the post office to have reopened for the afternoon, so we made a quick stop there (my expected items have not arrived, including something that got mailed more than a month ago. Thanks, striking Canada Post.) before finally getting home. Just in time to feed the outside cats after unloading the truck!

No more softening the kibble. It’s just too cold. Some of the trays still had frozen kibble from yesterday stuck to them!

Today, we reached a high of -12C/10F. Which isn’t too bad, except even the slightest breeze made it feel much colder. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly warmer, which is good, because I’m going to my mother’s do to her grocery shopping. Overnight lows over the next while are expected to drop below -20C/-4F Looking at the long range forecast for December is just an exercise in crazy. This morning, I was seeing some pretty nasty drops in temperature over the next couple of weeks – but then seeing expected highs of up to 5C/41F before Christmas! Looking at it again now, those days are now forecast as being below freezing, but warmer than -10C/14F Around and just after Christmas, they’re now saying we’re suppose to reach highs of -1C/30F

I highly doubt that will happen.

Anyhow. That is our Costco stock up shop for today!

Now it’s time to go through and look at what got missed, because we never finished going through the store, and what we’ll need to get locally.

For now, though, I just want to stay home and not be around people.

I’m people’d out.

The Re-Farmer

I get to stay home

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Last night’s trip to my mother’s for her bed time med and personal assist went well. I got there earlier, which she was happy with. She also was less tired looking and less confused than the night before, which was a relief. While getting various things done, I noted that she was almost out of milk, so we started a shopping list for her. I won’t be able to do her shopping until Tuesday, though, so the plan was for me to pick up some milk for her on the way over tonight. It was the only thing she was completely running out of.

The girls, sweethearts that they are, took over the outside routine this morning, so that I could sleep in.

Well.

Try to sleep in.

Once activity starts, even if it’s just going to the bathroom at 2 a.m. or whatever, the cats decide it’s time to go nuts, so I didn’t actually get much sleep at all. *sigh*

I did do the evening routine, as usual, though, which is when I found myself being observed from on high.

Kohl is such a beauty! Someone needs to adopt that cat! Someone who can take care of that glorious fur. She’s starting to get matted again, and we can’t do anything about it until things warm up in the spring, and we can shave them off.

As for tonight, it looks like I’m getting a break. I got a call from my mother, before her supper assist arrived, telling me I didn’t need to come out. She had a “spare” set of her bed time pills in one of her old pill organizers. I’d put them there myself, some time ago. One of her night visits got missed, so they ended up the only bubble left in a week’s bubble pack. These lone bubbles drive my mother bonkers, because she thinks the home care workers should just use them, when they are not allowed to touch anything outside the days marked. What ends up happening is that there’s an extra bubble pack floating around in the lock box that no one seems to get around to finishing off when the correct day comes along. Setting these aside calmed my mother down and cleared space in the lock box. I have a little notebook I keep in the lock box where I leave notes for the home care workers, and I made sure to mention that I was the one who took them out.

When my mother suggested I not come out tonight, I brought up the other things I was going to be doing, like bringing her some milk, helping with her personal care, and basically anything else she needed that home care might not be able to do. My mother insisted she would be fine. She sounded so happy to be able to tell me I didn’t need to drive out at night again, too.

So… I get to stay home tonight! I might even be able to go to bed early and get actual sleep, too.

Tomorrow is our Costco shop. I’m planning to check out a newly opened location. It’s been open for a few weeks now, so that initial rush should be done. In confirming the location, I found an article that talked about how, on opening day, there were people who had lined up all night to get in first. Which I just don’t understand. It’s not like they had any different sales or prices.

Still, it should be interesting. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to that end of the city. Now that I think about it, I don’t think we’ve gone through that area since my older daughter and I drove through it during our move, 8 years ago!

The Re-Farmer

Got it done

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With needing to go to my mother’s for her bed time med/personal care assists for three nights in a row, I’ve asked the girls to take over doing the morning routine, so I could sleep in.

Too bad the inside cats didn’t get the memo. I had a really rough night last night, mostly due to cast deciding it was play time.

I had some concerns about my mother after seeing her, and have passed those on to the home care coordinator. There was some definite increased confusion. It might have been because she was really tired. She was actually surprised to see me because she said the guy that did her supper assist (no personal care on that visit, so she’s okay with a guy doing it) was supposed to come back for her bed time assist. She told me some conflicting things, so I had to include those in my email with the home care coordinator, because they just didn’t make sense. I need to confirm what’s actually happening.

As for today, we warmed up to a whole -6C/21F this afternoon, so I headed out to do a last few things before the temperatures start dropping.

One of those was to use the straw I’d collected in the wheelbarrow last night, before things started to get too dark.

The water bowl shelter now has straw on the floor in the back, on top of the rigid insulation that was already there. The giant crocheted blanket that was under there is now covering the roof of the kibble house as an extra layer of insulation.

After setting up the back of the water bowl house with straw, I had plenty left over, so I added some to the floor of the kibble house, too, which you can see in the second picture of the slide show above. There is a sheet of insulation under the floor boards, plus another sheet on the ground below, so any cats small enough to go under there are pretty well sheltered, too.

That done, it was time to put the straw bale away for the winter, so to speak. I dragged over the insulated tarp to cover it with. Unfortunately, that tarp got some holes worn into it in places, and water got inside the layers. I tried to set it up so it could dry, but then we started getting more rain. Which mean a section of it was frozen flat an inflexible.

Still, it’ll do the job.

I raked up loose straw around the bale first, then covered it with the tarp and tied it in place. Hopefully, the wind won’t catch on it too much. The wrapped bale is in the last photo of the slide show above

We are now officially done with winterizing things now.

Once the bale was covered, I stayed out to do a bunch of little things around the yard before it was time to do the evening food and water for the outside cats.

In the first picture above, you can see the cats are quite happy with the straw in their kibble shelter! In the next picture, you can see the usual crowd in the top of the isolation shelter. The last picture, however, made me happy to see. That’s Pinky, enjoying the straw bed in the bottom of the shelter. She used to enjoy the cat bed that had been under there until they started using it as a litter box. Now there’s no bed down there, but two litter boxes, and now straw.

It’s getting cold enough now that we will probably have to stop softening their kibble. It’s not an issue in the sun room or isolation shelter, but in all the other shelter kibble bowls, it’s getting to the point that it will freeze before they can finish eating it.

I am not looking forward to winter. I’m getting too old for the cold!

The Re-Farmer

Much progress made – and now she does it?

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I’m happy to say that I pretty much finished all the stuff I needed to get done before the hard freeze hit, but I just had to share this first.

One of the adult females we’ve been trying to get is Adam. She sometimes allows us to pet her, but we just haven’t been able to get her into a carrier.

As I was going through the sun room this evening, I spotted her.

That’s her, peeking at me from one of the carriers, back in its spot on the shelf.

Well, at least she associates carriers as a cozy spot to hang out. If only she would do this when we can get her to a vet for a spay!

*sigh*

The first thing I needed to do when I headed outside this afternoon was set up the emergency diverter for the septic, now that the tank area is covered in straw. In the basement, I grabbed a length of foam pipe insulation to put around the pipe first, then pushed it as far as it could go against the wall. When the ejector froze last winter, every time the pump turned on and greywater was pumped out the emergency bypass, I would hear vibrating noises of pipe against concrete that always got me nervous. I’ve become rather paranoid about our septic system! The pipe insulation I used is one of several lengths I found in the old basement that is meant to go over water pipes, not the larger pipe from the septic, but it’s split lengthwise, so I could get it around the half that was against the wall. That’s all I need.

Once outside, I had to remove the insert plug my brother had put on the outside end, which was secured with a steel ring hose clamp. The plug he got has the ridges that help keep it from being pushed out by pressure, plus the tightened the ring enough to squeeze the end of the pipe tightly. Basically, it would have been a great permanent plug. Unfortunately, it’s not meant to be permanent. It’s meant to be taken out as needed. An ordinary, temporary, end cap would have sufficed, but my brother is very thorough! It took considerable effort, and an adjustable wrench, to finally get it out. Plus a flat head screwdriver to create space between the pipe and the plug, just to be able to move it at all!

Once the end was open, I could set it into the PVC pipe I had ready. Then I used the collection of boards, bricks and scrap pieces of Styrofoam insulation to create a gradual slope from the rigid pipe and along the flexible hose so that grey water could be diverted far from the house, into the maple grove.

Hopefully, we will never need to use this again, but it’s good to have it set up and ready, just in case!

The down side of having that set up is that it blocks access around that corner of the house from where the bale is. Once the emergency diverter was set up, I got the wagon and the wheelbarrow to get straw to the various areas I wanted to mulch. When it came time to do the old kitchen garden, I had to go the long way around with the wagon and wheelbarrow loads of straw. Not a problem. Just a bit inconvenient.

The first area I worked on was in the main garden. The above picture is a little preview. By the time I was done, light was starting to fade fast. I decided to do a quick, impromptu garden tour video. I’ll be working on editing that tonight, and will likely have it ready to post tomorrow. I have a few hours to kill before I have to go to my mother’s for her bed time med and personal care assist.

Before I finished for the night, I grabbed one more wheelbarrow load of straw and set it by the covered greenhouse. Tomorrow, I plan to clear out the water bowl house and set straw on the floor, removing the huge crocheted blanket entirely. We’ll set that over the kibble house roof as extra insulation. I expect to have leftover straw, and will find other places to leave it for the cats. The cats really, really like the straw! The last thing to do will be to rake up around the bale to clean things up, then cover it with a tarp for the winter.

I am so glad we were able to get another straw bale this year – and that the renters had one to spare! Next year, when it’s time to use straw as mulch on the garden beds, I plan to run it through the shredder chute on the wood chipper, first. In the past, I tried using the push mower to shred the straw, but it clogged up the air filter so quickly. We only have my brother’s push mower now, so I’m not going to be doing that with his equipment!

Getting this last bit of progress done before things got too cold feels so good! 😊

The Re-Farmer

Too small!

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Well, things didn’t quite work out as planned.

My daughters and I were able to get the three female kittens that were in the isolation shelter for their overnight fast, into carriers. We were even able to double check that they really were female. Two of them were quite small, but they just needed to be over 2 pounds.

We had a later drop off time, too, so it was actually fairly light out by the time we were on the road. Along the way, we even came up with names. Sweetie for the little grey tabby, Bug for the tuxedo with eyes too big for her head, and Domino for the bigger tuxedo that is mostly black.

As we finished checking them in, someone came out to take them to the pre-surgery kennels they have (they don’t stay in the little carriers the whole time). We were heading to the truck when I decided to hit the washroom first. As my daughter headed out, she held the door for a woman bringing in a larger carrier with a calico in it. My daughter complimented the calico and the woman responded with, yes… ferals.

Ferals?

Plural?

My daughter stayed at the doors so she could hold when the woman headed out to get another carrier. I got there just in time to see the absolutely gorgeous chocolate point Siamese inside. She said it was a feral, too, then commented that she had 27.

Ah! One of my people!

We paused to chat. Which ended up being about people dumping their cats, which happens so often. She finds a lot of dumped pregnant cats.

We were just parting ways and my daughter and I were about to leave the clinic when one of the ladies at the desk, talking on the phone, called out, don’t leave yet! She was on the phone with someone at the back, and they were asking about the cats we brought. Where these “owned” cats? I explained that these were colony cats. We care for them, but they are outdoor cats and not pets.

The techs thought they might be too small, but wanted the vet to examine them, first. So we were sent to one of the rooms to wait until she was done.

When she came in, we were told their weights. Bug was the lightest at .97kg (2.1lbs). Sweetie, who we thought would be lighter, weighed in at 1kg (2.2lbs). Domino weighed in at 1.5kg (3.3lbs). She felt she could do Domino, but felt it was just too risky to put the smaller ones under anesthetic.

We talked about their ages and I mentioned they were all around 6 months old. She looked stunned and said she would examine them again and look at their teeth.

When she came back, she told me that they still had baby teeth. There was no way they were over 6 months.

Thinking of the litters we’ve had, I felt they would have been born in July, at the very latest, which still would have put them at over 5 months. I was sure Sweetie, at least, was one of Slick’s five, which would have made it older, though much smaller than her siblings. If they’re under 6 months old, though…

Suddenly, we don’t know where these kittens came from! We had two really late litters. Frank’s kittens, none of which survived the weaning stage, and the tiny ones I found in the collapsed shed that we are sure were Brussel’s second litter, except Brussel disappeared. That last litter was born so late in the season, there were no lactating creche mothers around to nurse them, except Frank, and Frank was already weaning hers.

So it’s possible we had younger kittens show up and didn’t really notice them as new among the crowd – some of them look so very much alike. I just have a hard time seeing that. Bug has a very distinctive look, too. I’ll have to go back over my older photos and see if I can at least spot Bug. Sweetie would be harder to identify.

Anyhow.

Once it was decided it was not safe for them to be spayed, my daughter and I packed them up and headed home.

In the first picture above, there’s Sweetie on the left, Bug in the middle and Domino on the right.

Along the way, we talked about what steps to take next. Do we keep them in the isolation shelter and “fatten them up”? With warmth and regular food, they would hopefully get bigger faster, but who knows how long that would take. In the end, we decided to set them in the isolation shelter again, give them a cat soup treat, and then open the shelter up again later in the day. You can see them in the next picture of the slide show above, after finally breaking their fast!

I ended up treating the rest of the outside cats, too. I mixed up a very thin cat soup using several cans of wet cat food, then poured it over the trays that still had dry kibble in them.

We didn’t see Frank this morning, but she’s in there, between the short haired calico (Sprig) and the long haired tabby. I even saw Sprout today! It’s been a while since I’ve seen her, but it looks like she’s just being shy.

Of course, I made sure to keep the rescue group chat up to date. They were surprised about the kittens not being done, since they were all over 2 pounds, but it’s understandable. They already brought up making other appointments. For the next ones, we’ll just have to take in any adult sized cat we can grab. Which will be the males, first. If nothing else, it means they won’t be getting any of the ladies pregnant. I’d hope it would also reduce any fighting between the cats, but we’re still seeing some of that, among both male and female cats that have been fixed. Very strange.

Speaking of fixed…

Pinky has been hanging around close to the house. She’s been wanting into the closed up isolation shelter, too. I’ve been able to pet her and, aside from Colin (who is neutered) being a jacka$$ and going after her, she’s been socializing with the other cats more. That makes me happy, because she basically lived in the garage by herself last winter, and only came to the house to eat and drink.

Well, there is one plus side to coming home so much ealrier.

I can work on getting straw over the winter sown beds today, instead of tomorrow. We’re supposed to reach a high of only -7C/19F today and tomorrow. After that, temperatures are expected to drop. So the sooner I can get extra insulation on those beds, the better. Given how things turned out this past year, and the likelihood of another drought next year, winter sowing may once again be the only crops we get!

The Re-Farmer

Getting things done!

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Aside from a morning occupied with wandering around the yard, trying to get a signal on my cell phone, so I could listen to the voicemails from home care, with all the phone calls, emails and messages that get done because of it, it was a decently productive day!

The main goal was accomplished, and that was breaking open that straw bale and covering the septic tank.

I love how round bales just peel away in layers.

The outside was so densely packed, and partially frozen, that it formed a shell. I took advantage of that. After removing the insulated tarp and spreading out loose straw, I’d drop chunks of the outer shell on top, strategically, to keep the straw from blowing away before it could settle in place. There were still some chunks left over when I finished covering the septic tank area, and I put those on top of the bale to form a sort of roof. Once we’re done covering things with straw, I plan to “store” the insulated tarp by setting it over the bale. That way, moisture won’t get into the open end and cause rot.

Once the area was covered, I got the emergency bypass for the septic partially set up. The pipe in the basement needs to be pushed through, and the end can be set into the PVC pipe – after taking the cap off, of course! I’ve got the flexible hose running into the maple grove this time – something we couldn’t do last winter, because of the snow. Once it’s set up properly at the house, we’ll set various supports under everything, to create a gradual decline and try to make up for uneven ground. Last year, there was one time when the flexible hose froze closed because there was a slight dip in the ground.

Hopefully, we will not need to use it at all. However, should the ejector freeze again, all will be ready, and we’ll just need to open the ball valve. The heat tape is still set up around the parts of the ejector that is above ground, but that won’t help anything at the venturi valve on the bottom.

We were planning a dump run today, so I didn’t have time to start covering the winter sown garden beds with straw on top of the leaf mulch, but I did have time to winterize things more for the yard cats.

I especially wanted to the get catio strawed up. I took everything out and put a decent layer on the ground, focusing on filling the gaps under the elevated frame. Then I added some onto the hammocks, just because. I put the pieces of rigid insulation back under the self heating cat shelter again, but the other pieces were no longer needed under the box nests. Since the self heating cat shelter had been collapsed a couple of times, it was a bit floppy in one area, so I trimmed one of the scrap pieces of insulation to fit tightly between the floor and the roof, against the wall next to the entry. Hopefully, it will stay in place, but if it falls in, that’s fine. The cats love that insulation!

As you can see in the picture, the cats are indeed using the new shelter!

The straw will also help insulate the water bowl, at least a bit, so it won’t freeze quite so quickly. I still had to take a hatchet to the ice to be able to drain the water inside, and replace it with hot water. The hot water would melt at some of the remaining ice and soon be cool enough for the cats to drink.

When it was feeding time, I noticed the straw on the hammocks were compacted in circles. Cats are definitely appreciating the straw up there, too!

The catio winterized a bit more, I switched to the isolation shelter – which has seen a whole lot of activity of cats enjoying it being open again!

I removed the litter pans from the bottom level and swept things out as best I could. I’ve got an old telescoping snow brush with a broken scraper that’s perfect for the job. Once that was cleaned up, a fairly thin layer of straw was added – I didn’t want to add to much, since there is a heat bulb and power cords in the upper level – and then the refreshed litter pans were returned.

Which, as you can see in the second picture of the slide show above, Pinky promptly jumped into, before joining the crowd above, which you can see in the last picture of the slide show!

I had a bit of straw left in the wheelbarrow when the catio and isolation shelter we done, so I added it in the covered greenhouse, on the ground under the food tray and water bowl. Even with that, I had a bit I could set on the concrete patio block between the isolation shelter and the steps, just to give another insulated place for the cats to sit on.

While I was doing that, my daughter brought the truck into the yard and loaded up the garbage and recycling. Once the dump was open for the afternoon, we headed out. After unloading at the dump, we continued on to the town north of us – right into blowing snow. Not a significant amount, but definitely the most we’ve seen this year. The system passed our place entirely, but went right over the town to the north of us.

Our destination there wasn’t actually in town, but the feed store. I picked up four 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats while my daughter went shopping in there clothing and boots section. For that many bags, I paid for them, then backed the truck up to their shipping/receiving door to get the kibble, then parked again and rejoined my daughter.

She had been looking for something specific, which she found, but she got distracted by their display of bib overalls. She told me later that she’s been pining for bib overalls since she outgrew some she grew out of when she was 7! She’d looked at them at places like Mark’s Warehouse before, but wasn’t happy with what they had.

This place carried a brand called Tough Duck, which were exactly what she wanted. They had another, more expensive, brand as well, but she didn’t like them as much. She had a budget for only one thing, though, and the overalls won! She got these. (not an affiliate link) Given her rather generous feminine assets, plus these are meant to be worn over clothing, she went with a 3X. She didn’t try them on until we got home and she is very happy with them. These are men’s overalls and ludicrously long on her, but they can be hemmed. The website does have a women’s version but there are no hourglass figured in this household! My daughters and I take after my Eastern European side of the family. If it weren’t for boobs, we’d be straight, rectangular brick houses. 😄 So when it comes to pants, men’s clothing tends to fit better.

When I had a chance later on, I tried them on, too. I might actually want to go a size bigger, only because they tend to pull when I bend over to touch my feet. The fabric has no real stretch to it, though it would soften and loosen up a bit after a few washings. I do a LOT of bending from the waist when I work, since my knees aren’t stable enough to bend at the knees, so it’s something to keep in mind. Not that I’d be getting myself a set anytime soon, but they would be really handy to have come spring time!

After getting the legs hemmed. 😄

Once home and unloaded, the first thing I did was start feeding the outside cats, so my daughter could park the truck, then do my evening rounds. When I was done, I spotted this bit of adorableness.

That would be Sprig, who is only slightly less feral than her mother, Sprout!

I haven’t seen Sprout for a few days. I hope she’s okay.

Sprig has been coming into the sun room more often, and joining the cuddle puddles. So far, I’ve only managed to sneak a touch as she runs past. I’m happy to see her using the new cat cave. I zoomed in to get the picture, as I knew she would run away if I came to close, and I didn’t want to chase her out of a warm spot.

It would be really awesome if we could get her to the vet tomorrow! In a couple of hours, my daughter and I will head out to see who we can set up overnight in the isolation shelter for an overnight fast. Not that they’ll be fed again until after we leave in the morning, so any of the cats could be brought in – if we can get them into carriers. I really want to get Frank. She’s a bundle of nerves, but is still the most approachable of the intact females. Adam and Slick have been coming around, but Slick hasn’t been allowing contact, and Adam only allows it while she’s eating. The white one with grey tabby spots is even more feral. Trapping will likely be the only option. I just don’t see us being able to socialize them over the winter, and I really want to get them spayed before they go into heat in the late winter/spring.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, that’s for sure. The goal is to be on the road with the 3 cats by 7:30, as the drop off time is 8:50am this time. We’ll be staying in the city until the clinic calls us to pick up the cats – trying to avoid the Black Friday crowds. (Weird that Canada does Black Friday, when our Thanksgiving was last month.) Then, I’ll be doing my mother’s bed time med/personal care assist at around 9pm. If it were summer, I’d be napping in the truck while waiting for a call from the clinic, but it’s getting too cold to do that now.

Ah, well. It is what it is!

Happy Thanksgiving to my US visitors!

The Re-Farmer

There’s a down side…

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… to living in the boonies.

A technological one. Specifically, communications technology!

First up, the cuteness.

I’m happy to say that, so far at least, the motion detection alerts have only been triggered by cats. Not other critters!

The isolation shelter will be open for today then, if we can manage it, will have two or three cats closed up to fast overnight to get spayed/neutered tomorrow.

I got this picture the second time I was outside. The first time was to feed that outside cats and my shorter “winter” rounds.

The second time was after I was wandering around the yard, trying to get enough signal to listen to a voicemail on my cell phone.

I got a text alert that there was a message. Which means my WiFi calling has been dropped again, and a call went straight to voicemail. I don’t have enough signal to link it up again, either. At least, not indoors. Texts need far less signal, but it can still be hours before I get one, so I had to check right away. Very few people have my cell phone number, and it was most likely a call from Home Care.

It was a call from Home Care.

For the next three nights, they have only a male worker available for the bedtime visits over the weekend. For all her issues with people who are not white (and all the male workers she’s seen are apparently from India), she gets personal care on these visits, so she wouldn’t want a male worker tending to her physical needs either way.

So we’re going to have to cover for her visits on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. All are 9pm visits.

That’s a lot of driving, at night, in deer season.

It’s going to be much harder – and more dangerous – to cover for her visits in the winter. Daytime visits are one thing, if the weather is good, but night time visits are an issue for many additional reasons. One night? Sure. Three nights in a row? That’s going to be a problem, even if my siblings are able to cover some of them. I’m the closest. It’s even more dangerous for them to make the drive than for me.

Which wouldn’t be a problem if they would just approve her for a nursing home, like she wants!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer