Author: Re-Farmer

Another outing

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My big shopping trips to the city may be done, but that doesn’t mean I get to stay home!

I was going to start roasting tomatoes today, but got a call from my mother last night.

She said she called because we (my sister and I) hadn’t called her, and she was bored.

Gee. Thanks, Mom.

Well, it turned out to be not just that. She has a birthday coming up soon and I asked about taking her out to dinner for that, which got her to talking about needing groceries. After much waffling back and forth, it was arranged that I would come over today. We’d do lunch, then run errands.

I will say, it was a “good” outing with my mother, as far as such things go. There were a few things she tried, ranging from assuming my SIL, who is absolute gold and someone who has always been so incredibly kind and patient with my mother, was just a terrible person that would make my brother do things my mother doesn’t want him to do. Which is crazy enough in the first place (starting with the fact that my mother is still trying to control my brother, who is in his 60’s), but it also was about her trying to control us, after her death.

She’s most definitely worried about the wrong people, to begin with.

Part of the problem is that my mother thinks she understands thing she can’t even begin to grasp, they are so outside of her experience. But, because she’s turning 92 and lived through so much, that means she knows everything. Including people’s thoughts and motivations.

It was very difficult to reign in the conversation. I even tried to show photos of my brother and his wife that they sent me, but she didn’t even care to look at them. Even just ordering food was an ordeal. She was going to order nothing but a bowl of soup, because she has to “watch what she eats”. She wasn’t even going to order something to drink with it. Well, I certainly wasn’t going to eat a meal while she watched me, hungry, so I was just going to have my pop. She started telling me to order whatever I wanted, then suddenly remembered this restaurant has pizza and said that if I ordered a pizza, she’d share with me, got all excited, then told me to order a medium pizza.

I would not have ordered a pizza for myself, but if it meant she would actually eat, I went ahead and ordered one. I didn’t even try to ask her what kind she wanted.

She must’ve been famished, because she just inhaled that incredibly hot soup and was very happy to see the pizza when it arrived. Then suddenly she decided she needed coffee to go with it. She was all excited about having pizza to take home and not have to cook tomorrow, so I ended up having just a couple of pieces with her, and half the pizza was boxed up.

So… now that I’m home, I think I’ll have lunch. 😄

Oh, and as we were eating, she started commenting on how her small lunch was suddenly a big lunch, because of me. She said it like it was a joke, but she wasn’t actually joking, but trying to make it my “fault” that she *gasp* had an actual meal.

I’m not really complaining. This was supposed to be her birthday lunch, so I’m just happy that she actually ate something instead of starving herself for no reason. She doesn’t understand nutrition, either, but thinks she does, because she watched daytime talk shows in the past, and some guy somewhere said that if you eat soup, you’ll lose weight. Which is probably not what was actually said, but that’s what she remembers. She keeps cutting out the most nutritionally dense food and replacing it with empty carbs, then wonders why she’s hungry all the time.

Which reminds me. I didn’t see any meat left in her freezer, and she only bought some deli turkey that was on sale. I’ll have to grab some of the smaller packages of meat from our freezer and sneak them into hers.

Ultimately, though, I think I will just take her out to a birthday dinner, without her insisting she’s going to pay for it, and have a proper meal.

But then again, maybe not. If I do that, I’ll just get a constant barrage about what a terrible thing I’m doing, and constant complaining.

I was just thinking that she is having a harder time moving around, so maybe I could bring take out, instead, but that would just result in different insults and complaints.

*sigh*

I want to do nice things for my mother. I really do. It just gets so hard, sometimes. I’m not after any sort of grandiose thanks for it, but I’d at least like to not be treated like crap for it.

Ah, well. If she hasn’t figured it out by her 90’s, I don’t expect her to figure it out now.

In other things…

Today has been a really bad day for smoke from the fires up north. There are no fires near us at all, but we’ve got high winds blowing. Yesterday, we got such wonderful rain – real downpours! – but apparently none of it hit the areas with the fires. Most of them are just being monitored; they’re smaller and not threatening any populations, because no one lives where they are. A few others are listed as under control. That’s it. But there is one fire to the north of us, listed as under control, that is a bigger, and I guess that’s the one that we’re getting all the smoke from.

Kitty status: Pom Pom is getting more comfortable with us. I’ve been able to snag him and hold him for a while, and while he does try to run away if I get too close, once I’ve got him, he’s okay with sitting in my hands (he’s that small!) and getting pets. He hasn’t figured out the litter yet, but he did figure out the puppy pads, until just now. He actually went under my desk, while I was sitting here, writing this post, and started digging in the puppy pads. I put him in the litter box he was right next to and blocked him from coming out again, so he used it. It’s a start!

There is still no sign of Nosencrantz, Butterscotch or Marlee. Not even sightings in the distance. I’ve posted their photos on a local group online, asking people to keep an eye out for them. No responses.

I did get a message from someone interested in adopting Ghosty, asking if she were still available. I said yes, and asked if she would be an indoor cat. I was told no; they were looking for a mouser.

Ghosty is not going to be an outside cat again! I did mention we had some older outdoor kittens, but they wanted a female, and all the most socialized ones are male.

Oh, my goodness! Looking out my window, there was such a huge gust of wind blowing the big maple round!

Now that we have the small scaffolding, I wonder if we can use it to get that one huge branch down, piece by piece, before the tree finally breaks off at that weak spot on the trunk.

Well, there isn’t going to be much we can get done outside in this wind.

Mind you, after visiting with my mother, even on one of her good days, I am going to need a few hours to decompress, anyhow.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: the end of the Roma VF

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I noticed the leaves on the Roma VF were looking like they got a fungus. I don’t know if it’s tomato blight or something else, but they needed to be pulled.

I started by picking the ripe and almost ripe tomatoes first, then my daughter and I picked the green and mostly green tomatoes and pulled up the bamboo stakes. Then she pulled the diseased plants, while I picked ripe Black Beauty and Indigo Blue tomatoes.

The green and almost green Roma are currently on the screens under the old market tent, while the ripe and almost ripe went into a box for indoors. These corrugated plastic boxes are very handy, but they have air circulation holes on the bottom and sides that are a bit big for some of the tomatoes, so I lined the bottom with carboard egg trays to keep them from falling out.

The Roma tomato plants will be allowed to dry out and will get burned with our paper garbage. That might be a while, since we are actually getting rain today! I’m even hearing a bit of thunder.

We now have a whole lot of very ripe tomatoes ready for processing. I’ll be doing more tomato sauce, first. I’m thinking of dehydrating some in the oven, late, and preserving some of the dried tomato in olive oil.

I’m still looking at recipes for making tomato sauce using roasted tomatoes and figuring out how I want to do them. I want to use as few cooking vessels as I can get away with, so there’s less to wash up! 😄

The Re-Farmer

It’s a Puff Ball (Updated: oops…)

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We’ve settled on a name for the new little guy.

He’s such a puff ball, we decided to call him Puff Ball.

Or was it Fluff Ball? Suddenly, I’m not sure what my daughter suggested! 😄

I’m really tired.

Edit: Man, I must have been more tired than I thought!
It wasn’t either of them.
It was Pom Pom.
Hello, Pom Pom.

Also, I’m about 95% sure he’s male. I was able to pick him up and cuddle him, but he’s so fluffy, it’s really hard to tell at this age.

I just got a message from the Cat Lady. She’s on her way. Time to put Turmeric in the cat carrier!

The Re-Farmer

This crab apple bites back!

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While doing my rounds this time of year, I like to grab some crab apples from the one tree that has tasty apples to nibble on as I walk. High winds have knocked down a lot of the apples, so I don’t know that we’re going to bother harvesting them this year, but there are enough in reach that I can snack on them.

I grabbed a couple this morning, buffed the dust off one of them on my shirt, and was about to take a bite, when I saw something move!

This wasp had been asleep in the apple! It was still very groggy in the cool of the morning, and eventually squeezed itself out and promptly fell to the ground. 😄

Gotta be more careful when I pick things!

The Re-Farmer

Tiny harvest, kitten update, and a mystery

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I will start with the kitten update!

The kitten seems to be completely normal right now! No favouring the leg that was dislocated. No limp that I can see. The kitten stays away on its own, for the most part, but doesn’t run away when the other kittens come over to say hi. I’ve even seen TTT grooming in on the way by.

I’m also not finding any messes. Not even on the puppy pads under my desk. It looks like TTT has finally starting using a litter box. Not while I’m in the room, though, so I’m hoping she’s using the covered box in my closet – the only one I can’t see into – and not in some secret corner somewhere. I’m not seeing any tiny messes, either, so it looks like the kitten figured out litter boxes right away.

The main thing is, the kitten appears completely uninjured! I was able to sneak a pet this morning, but otherwise it stays away. Now that it’s indoors, socializing it will be much easier, so I am not concerned.

Today is supposed to be “cooler”, with a high of 27C/81F. We currently have weather advisories for smoke. I can see it on the security camera live fee, hanging in the old hay yard like a fog. It is worse now, than when I was doing my morning rounds.

Our squash flowers are very popular.

They are pretty much the only things blooming right now, other than some wild yarrow, so the bees are happy!

I wasn’t expecting to harvest anything this morning, but I found these!

I was surprised to find such large patty pans. They got missed yesterday, hidden under leaves, but this morning I could actually see them. I normally like to pick them a bit smaller, but these will still be tender, without a seed cavity yet.

I was not intending to pick the pepper, though. I had moved it to look at the back and see how much green there still was, and the stem broke off!

Some of the beans growing in the compost ring are completely dried on the vines, so I picked one of the pods. Once inside, I opened it up and found…

A mystery.

When I first opened the pod, I thought they were black, but once I uploaded the photos to the computer, I could see they are actually a deep, dark blue.

I have no idea where they came from.

I have never bought seed beans like this, nor do I remember buying dry beans like this. If we did buy some that I can’t remember, they would have been cooked; no viable, uncooked seeds would have ended up in the compost heap.

I’ve tried looking them up, but have had no luck. These had pale purple flowers, green pods, and now deep blue, almost black, seeds. I’ve found seeds similar to this, but they all come from yellow or purple pods, none green.

Well, whatever they are, we’ve got more of them with pods drying out on the vines. I’ll keep the seeds and maybe try growing them in the garden next year, and seeing if they are actually a tasty bean.

I’m considering a couple of things in the garden beds right now.

One is going to have to be done; it’s just a matter of doing it when it’s cooler in the day. The Roma VF look like they’ve picked up a fungus. I don’t know if it’s tomato blight or something else. Either way, all the remaining tomatoes need to be picked and the plants pulled. They will be burned, not composted.

I’m debating the bed along the chain link fence. The peas are pulled, but there are still some of those Czech lettuces in there that I’m allowing to go to seed. Plus the volunteer tomatoes.

The tomato plants are really small, but if the long range weather forecast is at all accurate, they still have more than a month of growing season. So I am thinking of transplanting them into the empty bed in the old kitchen garden, where the Irish Cobbler potatoes had been. I would need to protect them from the kittens that like to play or nap in there.

Once that bed by the chain link fence is clear and ready to be prepped for the winter, I’m going to make it a bit narrower. It’s too painful to reach near the chain link fence to weed. Plus, some of those pieces of concrete patio blocks I found run under one corner of the bed, and I want to dig those out.

I have those tillage radish seeds still. I am thinking, once some beds are emptied and cleaned up, I can plant some of those as a cover crop. They won’t reach full size before winter, but they should drill far enough to make a difference. These are meant to be left in the ground, where they will freeze in the winter, decompose, and add organic matter to the soil in the spring.

Amending this soil into something healthy again is definitely a years-long process.

The Re-Farmer

Kitten scare, but it’s okay now!

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Oh, my goodness. What a rush!

I headed out this evening to do my rounds, starting with feeding the outside cats, as usual.

One of the kittens from the youngest litter saw me and tried to run away, but something was very wrong.

It’s left front leg was backwards.

It was completely dislocated. I’ve never seen anything like it! It couldn’t move very fast, so I was able to pick it up and bring it inside, being very careful to avoid the injured shoulder – and teeth. It was not a happy camper!

After bringing the hard sided carriers in, we like to leave them out and open for the cats to go in and out of at will, so I quickly went and put the kitten in our carrier and closed the door. Then I went to phone the vet clinic.

They were closed, and the message said, for emergencies, to call a clinic in the city.

The other side of the city, it turns out.

I looked up other clinics, but it’s a holiday weekend here in Canada. Not only were there no clinics open, but none of them had emergency vets on call.

I did get through to the one in the city, and found out that there would be only 2 clinics in the entire province open right now.

I was messaging the Cat Lady at the same time, and she told me the same thing – adding that they are very expensive.

Getting the kitten to one of them would have been a 2 hour drive. Even for the closer one, because it’s in a very high traffic area.

Failing to find a clinic, I figured the least I could do was give the kitten some food. I went to get the carrier to bring it into the isolation ward, tried to pick it up and…

It was really, unexpectedly, heavy.

Our hard sided carrier as a door at the top – handiest thing ever!!! – so I took a look.

David and a kitten looked back at me!

Turns out David had been napping at the back of the carrier when I put the kitten in! I’m glad it was David, because he’s always been great with the kittens. I still had to take him out, though. 😄

Once the carrier was moved, I made sure to do the evening wet cat food for all the kittens, and Toni, to distract them away for the little one’s food bowl. I then opened the top of the carrier again, put in the food bowl and..

… the kitten practically crawled bodily into the container and began devouring its first taste of canned cat food.

Using both front legs.

I kept watch on the kitten for the next while, and sure enough; it’s shoulder was relocated again! It was moving its leg normally, and even putting weight on it.

After awhile, other kittens started jumping into the carrier from the top to check out the new addition. The kitten completely ignored them and kept eating.

I went and got a small water bowl for it, watched for a while longer, then headed back outside to finish my evening rounds – after updating the Cat Lady, of course!

While I was out, my husband checked on it, then messaged me to let me know that the kitten had gotten out of the cat carrier, through the top, and was busily hunting for more wet cat food! That it could climb out of the carrier through its top door told me more than anything else that the leg somehow managed to set itself and all is fine. The kitten might have some residual weakness and pain, so we’ll have to keep an eye on it.

Well… It looks like we have a new kitten in the house.

We were wanting to bring in the long haired kittens, anyhow, so they wouldn’t end up badly matted, like Decimus got.

The first picture in the above group is the other long haired kitten in this litter. The second photo is one of its black siblings that is slightly larger. The little tabby in the third photo is quite tiny, but there is a brown tabby among the litter that is even smaller. I didn’t see it to get a picture.

In the fourth photo, Octomom (aka: Slick) is nursing the other black kitten – and a couple of teenagers!

We reached 34C/93F today, and while it did cool down to 26C/79F when I first came in for the night, it is now almost 9:30pm, and the temperature has actually gone UP, to 27C/81F! So I made sure to water the garden while I was out. When I was done, I spotted the tiny black kitten in the last photo, in the water bowl shelter. Other kittens ran off, but this one just looked at me and hissed. I slowly reached in, and it actually let me pet it and scritch its ears! Once I straightened up again, it slunk out of the water bowl shelter, and I was able to get that last picture. This is the black kitten I’ve been able to catch and hold before, so it seems to not be as frightened by me anymore. Progress!

As for the little one indoors, we are leaving it to do its thing for now. It has access to food, water, litter boxes, and a whole pile of other kittens to cuddle. Who knows. Toni might even let it “nurse” on her along with the others, too!

Normally, I would not want to bring a kitten in that isn’t weaned unless we had a wet nurse, like we did with Ghosty and Question with Decimus, or if we could bottle feed it. As tiny as this kitten is, however, it seems to be really happy with solid food! The kittens in this litter are all quite different sizes.

I just went looking back to see when we first discovered them in the barrel, and that was in the middle of July. Which means the kittens are at least 6 weeks old right now!

So we now have another kitten in the house – one that is far more feral than any others we’ve brought in before – but thankfully, it doesn’t look like we’ll have a vet bill! At least nothing beyond a wellness check, if we feel it’s needed.

I am so thankful that shoulder was not broken. I have no idea what happened to pop it back in place, but I so glad it did!

The Re-Farmer

Last “big” shopping trip, and…wow

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Today, the plan was to drive out to the smaller, nearer city and hit the Canadian Tire and Walmart.

Of course, plans changed, but I at least got those done!

We’ve been keeping in touch with my daughter that is house sitting, and last night she asked me a bit favour.

Could I come over today?

With antihistimines?

There aren’t any in the house, and she normally doesn’t have allergic reactions, but it seems she is allergic to the pillow she’s using! Or, at least, something on it. The house is a fair distance from town, and she wasn’t about to go hunting for a pharmacy on the mobility scooter! 😄

Well, I just happened to pick up some antihistamines while at Costco, so I wouldn’t even have to stop anywhere to get more. Plus, I got to visit her and get hugs.

Of course, none of us wanted to tell my brother and his wife about this, since they would feel bad.

After I left, though, I got a message from my brother.

I forgot about all his security cameras. His door bell cam picked me up, so he saw that I was at the house, and he was wondering if everything was okay! I told him that I was doing another shopping trip and swung by. He’d contacted my daughter as well, and she just said I dropped something off.

Very hard to sneak one past my brother! 😄😄

Meanwhile, I was also in contact with the Cat Lady and we arranged to meet up. I did my Canadian Tire shopping first, getting three 40lb bags of hardwood pellets for the litter boxes, and another 4 fire bricks for our stockpile. I considered more pellets, but I think three of those bags is about as much as my mother’s car can handle well.

Have I mentioned how much I look forward to a getting another van?

It turned out for the better. The Cat Lady and I arranged to meet behind a dollar type store, where the parking lot tends to be empty. She returned our 1 hard sided carrier and 2 soft sided carriers, then added one of their own hard sided carriers for when she comes to pick up Turmeric. We had a chance to chat as well, and, my goodness. This woman just blows me away. They’ve got so much going on, and yet she’s still so dedicated to rescuing, getting care for and adopting out cats and kittens.

I got there a bit early, so I had time to go into the dollar store and picked up a few things. One of them was a cheap hallway mat to go under my desk and chair. Another layer of protection for the carpet, beyond the puppy pads and litter box under my desk.

Then it was off to the Walmart, for the largest shop of the day.

This is $112 and change, though not all of it was mine. My daughter sent me some funds and a request for the energy drinks and ice cream. The wet cat food is shredded only; no paté. I find the kittens prefer the shredded, and it’s much easier to split up between 6 bowls! There are two 2lb containers of grapes, red and green seedless, that were at an excellent price. Though we have the bread machine now, we don’t use it to make rye bread, which I really like. A 2L of milk to replace the expired one on our fridge. 🙄 We don’t actually use a lot of milk in general. The cream of tarter is an unusual thing for our cupboard. We pretty much never use it, but there are some things I’d like to make, and I’d rather have it on hand now, than have to run out and get some when I finally get around to making the things that need it.

I also got 2 more t-shirts for myself, since, in a smaller size than I got last time. I like my shirts big, but not so big they become a safety risk when working outside! I also got a third one for my husband, which I just realized is completely hidden in the photo.

Aside from this, I ended up having to gas up the tank on my mother’s car twice. That was about $55 in total.

*sigh*

My mother’s car is not very fuel efficient and seems to be getting worse. There’s only so much I can attribute to using the AC.

Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to a replacement van?

It’s been almost 6 months since I’ve been using a credit card to rebuild my credit rating. Which means that next month, I should be able to actively start looking for a suitable vehicle, apply for financing and not get dinged with insane interest rates or monthly payments.

Anyhow.

The running around shopping is done. For the rest of the month, we will be able to get what we need locally.

Once at home and everything was put away, I tested out something else I picked up at the dollar store. a long, microfibre duster with telescoping handle, to try and get all the cat hair off the walls in the dining room. The cats tend to hang out by the window the most, but also by the door in the summer, as we open the inner door so they can look out the window of the outer door. All along that wall, a thick layer of cat fur has accumulated. The wall itself, near the ceiling, the curtain rod we don’t use, and all the framed photos hanging on the wall between the window and the door.

Well, that new duster works like a charm! Some things it couldn’t get, like all the sliders that hooks on a curtain would be handing on, or the pull cords to open and close the drapes, but I was able to clear the hair off just about everything else. It looks so much better!

There is another area that’s really bad; in the hallway, I’ve got a decorative garland of flowers running up the hand rail of the stairs and along the ceiling, with fairy lights wound around it. Those flowers have become completely coated with a thick layer of cat fur! Considering that the garland if all flexible fake flowers and leaves, I was surprised to get off as much as I did. What we really need to do is take it down and carefully wash it in hot, soapy water, but at least it doesn’t have a thick coat of fur on it anymore!

While I was doing that, my husband asked me to do the shade on the hallway light. That was not a job for the duster, though. Since he’s so much taller than I am, he was able to go up the stairs and reach the screw to remove the shade for me to wash.

Not until after I got rid of this.

What an insane cloud of cat hair in there! It was about an inch thick!

At least it came off easily.

It may not have been useful for the light shade, but I’m really glad I got the fancy duster.

In other things, we’ve reached our high of 33C/91F today, though at one point, I was seeing the forecast change to a high of 35C/95F/ They hit that in the city. For our area, the 30 year record high was 30C/86F, so we’ve gone past that. We’re getting conflicting predictions for rain over the next while. I’ll probably end up watering the garden tomorrow. At least today looks like it’ll be the last really hot day of the year.

Oh, I just made a liar out of myself. I double checked the monthly forecast, and it’s now saying we’ll have a 30C/86F day on the very last day of September!

The first day of October is supposed to be less than half that, so I expect the predictions to change a lot between now and then.

Either way, the garden is going to lover the warmer temperatures!

The Re-Farmer

Monthly stock up: this is what $314 looks like

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Today, I headed back to Costco, pretty much just for cat food. That way, I could fit more bags into my mother’s car and not have to worry about the weight or space.

I am so looking forward to when we can finally get another van!!!

I did end up getting a couple more things, of course.

That is eight 9kg size bags of kibble on there. With what I got on my last trip, it makes for a total of 12 of these bags. Hopefully, that means we will finally not have to pick up more near the end of the month, and maybe even have enough to last beyond our next shopping trip! Especially with being able to adopt out 2 adult cats and a kitten, with one more adult to go, too.

Oh! There has been a change in plans with those.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a message from the Cat Lady, asking if it was okay if they hung on to the kitten. It’s so sweet and tiny, she wanted to try and adopt it out to an indoor only home. For the lady that wanted the cats, she is okay with taking Turmeric, instead.

I told her I would trust her judgement. The kitten had been indoors for only about a week, so it wouldn’t be bothered with being outside again, but… well, it is such a little thing, and very, very sweet!

So probably on Monday (3 days from now), the Cat Lady will come for Turmeric.

I think Turmeric is going to be much happier somewhere with fewer cats. She’s been a real beeeatch to some of the cats here. Sweet as honey with others, though!

Anyhow.

This was today’s shopping.

Kibble, 8 bags at $26.99 each: $215.92
5 dozen eggs: $18.89 (the price went up again)
Coke Zero: $14.69 plus 32¢ enviro fee
Socks, 12 pk: regular $17.99 with $4 off at the till. I broke down and got those for me. I prefer ankle socks, but I’m down to one pair, and just discovered a hole in one of them. LOL
Hoodie: regular $24.99 with $6 off at the till. At that price, I figured it was worth it. I got an XXL, so it’ll work for both myself and the girls as something any of us can just grab if we need to go outside on a chilly night. Which we aren’t having right now, but fall is coming.

Sub total, $282.80
Taxes: $31.62
Total: $314.47

*sigh*

Then, of course, I had to get gas. At least I could fill up at Costco, where the price was 154.9/L A couple of days ago, it was 155.9 Everywhere else in the city was 165.9

Between the difference in gas prices and the cat food prices, it is well worth the drive to the city to get this stuff. Locally, they have 7kg bags, not 9kg, but they cost $10 more. I could get the “economy” Walmart brand at a lower price, but they’re still only 7kg bags and… well, there’s a reason they are so cheap. The quality of kibble is poorer, and even the outside cats don’t like it as much. They’ll at least eat it, though. The Superstore no-name brand is so bad, the cats won’t eat it unless they’re super hungry. Costco does carry a brand in 11kg bags, but the price per kg is still higher than the 9kg bags.

So on cat food alone, driving to the city to stock up at Costco saves us at least $100. Then there’s the difference in gas prices. That leaves us with room in the budget to buy the fresh things we need to get more often, locally.

I will still need to make one more city trip, though it can be the smaller, nearer city this time. I will need to go to a Canadian Tire and get more litter pellets. We still have, but we need to stock up.

The last time I was at Walmart, just a couple of days ago, I noticed they had the softwood pellets in stock – but they are now the same price as Canadian Tire, which is $7.98. Previously, the Walmart price had been $5 a bag! The hardwood pellets, which Canadian Tire carries, but I’ve never seen in Walmart, is 50¢ less than the softwood. It used to be that the softwood pellets were the cheaper ones, though they rarely had them in stock.

Once I get the litter pellets, that should be it for city shopping trips. Anything we need after this can be done locally until the end of the month!

With the prices going up, it’s getting a lot harder to stock up extra for the winter, when we will inevitably find ourselves unable to get out. Usually for January and/or February. At least we’ll have the quarter beef for the freezer in November or December. I’ve been making monthly payments towards that, but once we have car payments again, we probably won’t be able to do that again. Maybe just a freezer pack, once in a while.

What’s really frustrating is that all these price increases are artificial, and the direct result of our idiotic government spending like a drunken sailor on everything but what they’re responsible for, while adding more and more taxes and destroying small businesses. Then they vote themselves pay increases. Meanwhile, I was just hearing today, the number of people – especially in the under 35 age category – living paycheck to paycheck has increased to something like 35%, with more than 50% of them afraid they will lose their jobs within the year. I never thought I’d be so thankful for my husband being disabled. It’s a fixed income, but he has excellent private insurance, putting us in a much better position than so many others. I can’t imagine how people living on just CPP Disability are managing. The highest amount for that doesn’t even cover rent in most places, even with subsidies. Ten years from now, that’s all my husband and I will be living on, as that’s when he ages out of his private insurance.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and die first.

The Re-Farmer

First things first. Good news, and an adopted mom

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Look who showed up this morning!

While feeding the outside cats, I could hear a quiet meowing from the storage house and went to check. There she was, peeking around the corner!

She did eventually come over for pets. I was even able to pick her up. As soon as I turned towards the house, though, that was it. She was done!

So I continued what I was doing, and soon saw her at what had been her favorite spot to eat; at the food bowl under the shrine.

Unfortunately, while I was way out by the sign cam, I started hearing a cat fight. I ran over and when I got there, I saw Butterscotch being chased up a tree by Shop Towel (aka: Sad Face), the visiting tom!

I was not impressed.

I did manage to chase him off, but Butterscotch wouldn’t come down from the tree while I was around. She was still up there when I left for the city, but she was gone when I got back.

At least she did come back, and I hope we can eventually persuade her to come back indoors!

This next photo is from last night, and it’s just hilarious.

Yup. Two Toes Toni is “nursing” all of the babies!

A couple of them had tried to nurse on her before and she let them. I was on my way out of my room when I saw Tin Whistle trying to latch on, and she seemed okay with it. I came back to my room a couple of minutes later and found all of them latched on, and TTT looking so very content.

No, she is not lactating. They’re getting nothing from her right now but the comfort of nursing, and not getting hissed at, hit or bit by their mother. In fact, TTT was right into grooming as many of them as she could reach.

Looks like they have claimed each other. 😄

If they keep nursing on her, she may start lactating again, but it would depend on how often and how consistently they do it.

Maybe they can teach her how to use a litter box.

Before leaving for the room for any length of time, I scatter stuff all over my bed to keep her from peeing on it. So far, it seems to be working. No more wet spots. However, she is dedicated to using the space under my desk. If I’m in my room, I’m working at my desk, so she won’t even try to go under there (though it certainly doesn’t stop the kittens!). She waits until I’m either asleep or out of the room. I caught her trying to dig around on my bed yesterday evening, so I shooed her away, spread stuff over where she had been digging, then left the room, in hopes my being gone would let her feel relaxed enough to use a litter box, or even the puppy pads, while I was out. She didn’t. In fact, even this morning, the puppy pads were still laid out flat. I couldn’t tell if she used any of the litter boxes, though. So I wasn’t surprised when I got back from the city and found one of puppy pads dug up and used.

I don’t get it. The litter box is RIGHT THERE. Why won’t she use it??

She’s healed up enough we can let her out of the room, though she’s still pretty hesitant about going out the door. The kittens have no such hesitation and I end up having to close the door before she has a chance to leave, just to keep the kittens in. They are too small to let out. Mostly because they can get into things in the basement that larger cats can’t. When they do escape, they usually right straight down the hall and either into my husband’s room, or the bathroom. Tin Whistle likes to run around the basement door and sit there between the door and the 1″ hardware cloth “door” we made to keep the cats out of the old basement, but still allow for air circulation. So far, they have not tried to go upstairs, nor up the steps to the dining room.

Some of the other cats are intensely curious about them when they do escape!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to juggle 3 kittens on one arm, while trying to open a door with the other and not letting the remaining two kittens out?

I really hope we can adopt these babies out soon.

The Re-Farmer

Kitty status and morning in the garden

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First, I have heard about how the adopted ladies are doing. They are recovering well at the Cat Lady’s home for now. The Phantom is being an absolute, loving joy. The kitten is also being really sweet.

Decimus is hissing and spitting and not a happy camper, but doing well, health wise! They have several catios, though, so they were able to let her go “outside” to get some fresh air.

My daughter and I went outside with the flashlight last night. Still no sign of Marlee or Butterscotch. We did spot a cat in the driveway that turned out to be Nosencrantz. Once my daughter started walking towards her, though, she ran off into the old hay yard.

If we’ve seen her, chances are pretty good the other two are okay, too.

Right?

As for the remaining cats in the isolation ward, the kittens are doing just fine, though getting very active and destructive! TTT spends most of her time in her napping cave in my closet, but she sure knows when the food is coming out!

She has also continued to make a mess on the puppy pads next to the litter box under my desk.

*sigh*

At least it’s on a puppy pad, and not my bed or the carpet.

She is also remarkably regular. She always goes in the same place, and even goes at almost the same time! I was awakened by the rustling of the puppy pad being dug into this morning. I found it was very wet and changed it, then went back to bed. Maybe an hour later, I was again awakened by that familiar rustling sound, and she’d dropped a load this time. Again, thankfully, on the puppy pad and an easy clean up, but I find it interesting that she has such a consistent habit of time and location!

Now, if she would just use that litter box, instead. The kittens are sure liking it. 😕

This morning, as I started getting the kibble ready for the outside cats, I spotted the stranger cat, inside the sun room!

For a stranger cat, it’s acting right at home.

S/He was even sharing a food bowl with Beep Boop and the friendly black and white kitten.

I feel I should know this cat. The face looks familiar. In fact, the face makes me think of Potato Beetle. The markings on the sides, though, are not at all familiar.

Could this be a yard kitten from last year that took off before we became familiar with it, only to come back now? It’s possible, but I don’t remember seeing a kitten with markings like that last year. Mind you, it might also be a slightly older cat, too. I still can’t come close to it, though.

After finishing my rounds, I noticed the bitty kitties around with Octomom (whose name is actually Slick, but I kept forgetting that). They were watching me, so I got out the lure – just some jute twine tied to a stake.

This adorable ball of fluff took the bait and started trying to catch the end of the twine. I was actually able to get hold of it and pick it up. It did not like that, though! I pet it for a bit, but as I was trying to put it back down again, it chomped on my fingers and left me bleeding.

It was worth it.

I didn’t intend to harvest anything this morning, though I did end up picking some Red Swan beans and a couple of yellow patty pans. Mostly, I was making sure everything was doing well.

While checking the Crespo squash, I spotted a female flower! There have been so few of those this year. Wild that one should show up so late.

Also, that’s 2 bees in there, one on top of the other!

I decided to hand pollinated anyway, just in case, so I went looking for one of the many male flowers that was open and found this.

So nice to see!

I picked a different one to hand pollinate the single female flower. One of the bees flew off, but the other stayed, even as I moved around the male flower stamen, then broke it off and left it in the flower, so the bee could do the rest.

This next slide show is the first time I’ve been able to upload a slide show and have every single photo work! After this, I had to do one photo at a time, because every group upload was thoroughly corrupted.

I really, really hope we have a long mild fall, because we suddenly have SO many new melons forming, along with the two big ones. The vines are so mixed up, there’s no way to tell which variety is which right now. There are many more female flowers and tiny melons that forming. If the weather holds, we might have a bumper crop!

Even the winter squash is seeing an increase. For example…

This is one of two Boston Marrow vines. Both had a single squash starting to form, but the one on this plant suddenly started to rot away. You can even see it in the photo. I broke it off but left it to break down where it was.

Now there are three female flowers blooming – and not a single male flower to be seen! At least not another Boston Marrow male flower. I ended up hand pollinating them with a nearby North Georgia Candy Roaster. With that combination, if we actually get something to harvest, I’d want to save the seeds. That sounds like it would make an interesting hybrid!

Speaking of which…

The candy roasters are doing really, really well. Check out this big beast of a squash!

I noticed a few small squash that were being eaten by slugs, but they seem to be leaving the big ones alone. Likely because the skins are harder.

When I saw an open flower with what I thought might be another bee in it, I found several slugs, isntead.

I picked he flower and stepped on it. Slugs have been such a problem this year!

The pink bananas are also doing very well. Not only are there a lot of huge squash like this, but lots of smaller ones, plus they are still blooming and producing both male and female flowers!

I noticed that one of the Honeyboat Delicata squash that hadn’t even bloomed all year, suddenly has both male and female flowers budding. Even the Winter Sweet plant that had nothing going on – the other one has a single developing squash – suddenly had a female flower blooming! I had to use another type of winter squash to hand pollinate it, though.

We’re at the end of August, though. Average first frost date is September 10. Long range forecast says we should have a high of 23C/73F that day, with a low of 13C/55F. In fact, if the monthly long range forecast is right, we won’t see frost until near the end of October. If that holds true (thanks to El Nino!), that will another 50 days or so to our growing season! That would make a huge, positive difference for the garden.

As for today, there’s a limited amount of work I can do outside right now. We’ve got high winds today. We’ve had predictions for everything from a thunderstorm this afternoon, to rain this morning (we didn’t get any), so rain overnight, to no rain at all.

This morning, when I saw the predictions for a storm, I checked the radar. I would see the system coming our way but, sure enough, by the time it reached our area it dissipated and split up around our weird “climate bubble”.

Which works out. We’ve decided to do my husband’s birthday dinner today, and he asked for take out pizza from a specific restaurant in town. He didn’t get his prescriptions delivered yesterday, as they were missing something, but it’ll be ready today, so I’ll be picking those up first, plus hitting the grocery store for a few things, before picking up the pizzas – which my daughter is kindly paying for as her birthday gift! My husband’s main disability payment came in today and normally I’d be going into the city for another stock up shopping trip, but I’ll do that tomorrow, I think.

Meanwhile, I’m going to be watching the trees outside our windows closely, in case another one comes down in the wind!

The Re-Farmer