Author: Re-Farmer

Baby bed, drainage and feeling frustrated

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Would you look at this tiny worm?

I found a cardboard carton large enough for the mama to fit comfortably in and lined it with one of the blankets the Cat Lady donated to us for the kitties. Unfortunately, I really spooked the mom when I opened the door; enough that she ran out the hole in the back of the shed she’d been using to get in and out. I suppose that made it easier, since I didn’t have to worry about her reactions. I quickly put the baby in the bed box outside the shed, cleared the netting and other odds and sots where the baby had been lying, fit the bed box in, and left. The whole thing probably took less than a minute to do.

Picking up that tiny baby, though. Wow! It must have been maybe hours old, the first time I spotted them a few days ago.

The mother is Baby Beep Beep, which means she is NOT the mother of any of the sun room kittens.

In other things, we got quite a lot of rain last night. I’d used the rain barrel to water the front garden beds, as it was full to the top, and got it down to maybe a quarter or a bit less. This morning, it was full to the top. Not overflowing, but close, so I put the diverter on for now. We’re expecting more little thunderstorms passing through tomorrow. This morning, I was hearing thunder around us, and even got rained on a bit.

The potted herbs on the front step seem to be doing well. The lemongrass is getting taller. The spearmint in one pot by itself, and the thyme and oregano in the other, seem to be recovering from being transplanted well. Those two post have drainage holes and are sitting on trays, but the pot the lemon grass is in does not have any drainage holes. As I was weeding, I could see it was way too wet, so I just got a hammer and a nail and made one drainage hole.

I got this picture after it had been draining for more than half a minute, and there was still lots of pressure!

The bottom and sides of the pot are lined with grass clippings, and I don’t really mind there being some water accumulated in the clippings. Having a drainage hole higher up will work well, I think. It’s not like I could tip the pot and put holes in the bottom!

The down side is that, after weeding the Chinese elms that were sprouting in that pot, my hands smell like stagnant water. Yes, I’ve washed them. Several times. The smell still lingers. Ick.

I moved the last of the Jiffy Pellet trays to the steps near these pots. There is still that one Lemon Cucumber that sprouted, nothing else. It’s probably too late in the season, but when it gets its true leaves, I’ll find somewhere to transplant it. One cucumber plant is better than none.

This has been a very frustrating gardening year. The intension had been to expand the garden again, or at least use as much as what we did last year. With the weather and the heat, we weren’t able to build those trellis beds in time, which means two large sections, where we’d planted potatoes and melons last year, aren’t being used at all. We got transplants in, but didn’t have room for all of them, which means we have far fewer paste tomatoes than I intended. That was the one type I wanted to have a lot more of, since making our own tomato paste last year went over so well. Along with the weather and heat issues, I’ve lost more than a few days that would have been good days to work outside, because I had to help my mother out, and she demands I take a “holiday” when I’m with her, and not be “in a hurry” to leave. When I point out I have work to do, she just says, “what work? You don’t have cows!”

*sigh*

We didn’t do anywhere near as much direct sowing as intended, because there weren’t enough prepared beds to sow into. As it is, we had to use the old kitchen garden differently then intended, just to get things in the ground. That’s okay. Normally, I’m quite flexible about such things, but after a while, it just gets frustrating. In the end, instead of expanding the garden this year, we’ve got a smaller garden then last year. One positive thing, at least, is that we aren’t having the no good, terrible growing year we had last year!

I was feeling good about the garden in many ways. We have tomatoes growing and starting to produce fruit. The Gold Ball turnips, which disappeared last year, are growing well. Yes, something is eating the leaves, but not enough to hinder their growth. We’ve got two types of carrots, and both are doing well. The bush beans are struggling a bit, but they’re growing. Even the tiniest of onion transplants – the ones so small, they probably shouldn’t have been transplanted at all – are picking up. I’m happy to see so many pea pods forming, even though the plants themselves seem a lot shorter than I expected them to get. I think it’s the squash patch that is most encouraging. They failed so badly last year, and now I’m seeing the winter squash getting big and strong. It even looks like we’ve won the battle against the slugs! I’ll just have to keep up with sprinkling that corn meal. We might actually have fully mature winter squash to harvest this year

The melons germinated so late, they probably won’t get a chance to produce fully mature fruit, but they are recovering from being transplanted nicely and, you never know; we might get a long, mild fall and the frosts will hold off until late in the year again.

Then I see people sharing pictures on the local and Zone 3 gardening groups I’m on, showing their huge plants and talking about the vegetables they’re already harvesting. How can they be harvesting beans already? How is their corn so tall? One person was even eating fresh tomatoes! In June!

I try to remind myself that Zone 3 is about winter temperatures, and covers a large, geographically diverse area, so a lot of these people have a last frost date in the middle of May. Even with local groups, most of the members live well south of us. With this year’s very early and warm spring, even people with later frost dates took a chance and planted earlier. We’ve also had a decent amount of rain, though some people did lose or partially lose their gardens to driving rain, winds or hail.

Still, seeing all those photos of huge, lush garden growth and harvests, suddenly my garden seems really pathetic, and way behind, without even taking into account the things we didn’t get built in time to use this year.

I know better than to compare our situation to others, because it’s so different, but when I’m already feeling so far behind, it’s easy to start feeling down about the whole thing.

Things are supposed to cool down over the next few days, and the storms are supposed to stop for a while. Which means we should finally be able to chop our way through the undergrowth and get those trees my brother cut down for me! This should have been done weeks ago.

Well, it is what it is.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Still there, and baby care

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I had to pop into the garden shed briefly, and much to my surprise, the kitty was still there!

The mom was startled away when I opened the door, so I got to take a quick picture of her one baby, before taking what I needed and leaving them alone.

Later on, though, I’m going to snag a daughter. We’ll bring a box with something soft on the bottom, and quickly transfer the kitten into the box, and move out that mass of garden netting, so it won’t get tangled in it. Then put the kitten back in the same spot, in the box. Hopefully, the mom will accept the nest and keep using it.

When I first headed out this morning, there were no kittens visible in the sun room, but I spotted the almost white kitten in the middle of the yard. It was just bobbing around, mewing, with the moms circling around. Sure enough, both eyes were stuck shut. I ended up bringing it inside and held it, while one of my daughters carefully washed its eyes until they could open again. Then I put it in the sun room, near some food and water. Popping into the sun room later one, there were other kittens in there with it. So it seems like the mamas move the kittens out for the night, but bring them back for the day. I did not see the second kitten with the gooby eyes; it may have been in the sun room, but they have plenty of hiding spaces in that corner.

I’m going to prepare a bed in a box, now, then snag a daughter to help set up in the garden shed! Thankfully, that kitten isn’t very mobile yet, so it won’t get tangled, but that’s not going to be true for very long!

The Re-Farmer

Stuck

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As things cooled down, I was able to get some stuff done outside, which had me in and out of the sun room quite a bit.

I had to be careful not to step on any kittens!

Yes, most of them were running away and hiding, but a couple of them were not.

This is why.

Now I understand why I kept seeing this kitten doing things like napping in the middle of the floor, or just moving around slowly. It can’t see.

One eye was completely stuck closed, and the other was open, but not wide open.

I was able to pick it up and gently dampen the eye until the gunk finally started to come off. The kitten was not happy with the rubbing on the eye, of course, even though I was more about getting it wet then actually rubbing. After a while, though, I got the big stuff off and the eye started to open, so I left it at that. I didn’t want to push things too far.

There was another kitten with gummy eyes, but it was just around the eye lids, not gluing them shut, so it would still see. We will have to make cleaning those eyes a regular thing. That’s one way to socialize them, I guess. Handle them while their eyes are stuck shut!

The good thing is, the kittens are starting to eat kibble, which means they’re going to get the lysine it’s coated in. That will help them fight off the herpes that’s causing this. If things start getting worse instead of better, we’ll see about getting eye drops for them.

While I was tending to the kitten, Baby Beep Beep came in, with a mouse. She growled constantly as she ate it, but didn’t leave! I think she might be the mom of the littlest kittens. Later on, I saw Adam skulking around the door – with another mouse hanging out of her mouth! Towards the end of the day, when I was ready to come in, I found her lying just inside the doorway, nursing. She’s the mom of the bigger kittens – the black and white ones that look so much like her! That means the grey and white cat I’ve been seeing in the sun room (I believe the girls call that one Pistachio), would be the mother of the in between sized kittens, including the ones with the gooby eyes.

I’m still not sure who the mother of the tuxedo is. I’ve seen him try to nurse on a grey and white, but she wouldn’t let him, so either it was his mother enforcing weaning, or another mother, refusing to nurse a kitten that isn’t hers.

As things started to cool down, I was able to empty most of the rain barrel to water the front garden beds. Then I went around to use a hose in the main garden area. While doing the squash patch, I hoped to see some frogs using the little houses we made for them, but so far, nothing. I also wasn’t seeing any slugs, so that’s encouraging. The second sowing of summer squash still hasn’t germinated. Looks like we’re going to be very short of summer squash this year!

For the tomato beds, I hooked up the sprinkler hoses, and remembered to get some ground staples to hold them in place, facing slightly inwards, so the inside of the beds are being watered, not the paths. The soaker hose takes a lot longer to deeply water the bed, and that gave me time to remove the old straw and what’s left of the cardboard underlay in the area the trellis beds will be built. Once the beds are built, and the vertical posts for the trellis are in, the old straw will be layered back into the beds.

I’d watered the Crespo squash, in the bed far from the house, with the watering can earlier in the day, so the rain barrel out there was due for a refilling, too. After using the watering can, I always leave it full of water, so it doesn’t blow away. When I used that first can of water, it sure was warm from the day’s heat! Not hot enough to harm the squash, thankfully.

When I was done and heading back to the house, I startled some creatures at the kibble house. Racoons. A whole family of them! One big one ran off – I think the same one I’ve been seeing fairly regularly, by itself – but then I saw about four of five little ones and an adult run off. Some of them ran under the laundry platform, which is accessible only though the spaces between the steps. From the noise, I think there was a bit of a panic when they realized they couldn’t get out any other way. I made sure to stay back and to the side, so they couldn’t see me, and could get back out.

Gosh, racoons are cute. Especially when they are little!

The Re-Farmer

Kittens ‘n things. Also, Happy Canada Day!

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Well, for a while there, I thought the kittens that were moved into the sun room had been moved out again! We did not see them when doing the evening feeding, nor did I see them when checking during the night. Handily, we’ve left the shop lights that were hanging over the transplants where they are, which means we can use the remote control in the bathroom to turn them on and check the sun room. 😄

There’s a reason we didn’t see kittens.

My daughter happened to be in the bathroom when she heard a ruckus. She looked out the window, just in time to see one of the mamas chasing a skunk out of the sun room, batting at its butt.

Yeah. It still stinks in there.

When we didn’t see the kittens after that, we thought the mothers might have taken them away again, but nope! They were there this morning!

From what I can see by their sizes, I think the three kittens in this photo are from two different litters. Then there are the smaller kittens whose eyes are still blue, and finally there’s the tuxedo that’s been here a while, still running around outside. Which means we might have a total of 4 litters combined right now!

While they were eating, I was able to reach down and pet some of them. I was even able to pick up and cuddle three of them! Two from the above picture, and a third that wandered over to the kibble container I was standing next to. One of them hissed a bit while I picked it up, but the power of ear scritches is a magical thing, and they settled in a fair bit.

The cats have knocked so much stuff off the shelves and onto the floor. Even after picking up most of the stuck knocked over during the winter, the cats climb into the shelves and knock it all down again. Which is now giving the kittens lots of places to hide, so I guess it’s okay we haven’t been able to get it all cleaned up, after all!

In other things…

Before heading to the city yesterday, I texted the garage about our van. I mentioned that it seemed to be the power steering that was making the noise, and asked if I should drive or tow it in tomorrow (meaning, today) for him to check when he could. When I got to the city, there was a response, and he said it should be okay to drive it in; he just suggested I add power steering fluid. He also gave the okay to leave the van and gave instructions on where to park it.

Today being Canada Day, I knew he would be closed. He’s closed Sundays and, with Canada Day falling on the weekend, a lot of places close on the Monday, too. So he might not be able to look at it until Tuesday, which is fine by us. Since we were at Walmart, I picked up some power steering fluid, too.

So today, I topped up the power steering fluid. We haven’t driven the van in a few months. Even the doors are stiff to open and close! Then I drove it to town, with my daughter following in my mother’s car, to drop it off.

The fluid seems to have made a difference. The steering wasn’t making noise anymore, though when I was outside the van while the engine was running, I could still hear the noise from the engine area. From inside the van, the engine sounded quiet.

Gosh, it felt so good to be driving the van, instead of my mother’s little car! Except for the lack of working air conditioning. 😂

There was something else, though, that wasn’t there before. When I hit the breaks to decelerate, there was a repetitive whumping coming from the rear. !!!

So after parking the van, I sent a message to tell the garage where the keys were hidden, mentioned topping up the fluid, then told about what was happening when applying the brakes.

The 2016 Caravan we’d tried to get financing for is still there, and the price has dropped considerably! At the time we applied for financing, it was selling for $15,400 – though he knocked $400 off for us from the start. Later, I saw it go down to $14,600, then down to $13,900. It is now down to $10,400 ! We weren’t able to get financing for it, because it was just over their mileage cut off. The loan we were approved for was a newer vehicle with lower mileage, but with no credit cards, loans or mortgage to improve our credit rating, the interest rates and requirements were insane. I got a low limit credit card to use to improve my credit rating, which takes about 6 months to really make a difference. We’re at only a couple of months, so it’s still too early to apply again, and get a decent interest rate. But if that van is still there by fall, I’ll be applying for it again. We’ll even be able to make a down payment, though it we can get it with only the van as a trade in, that would be preferable. There are a lot of things that money would be useful for. Life finally getting a plumber to work on our bathroom taps! One vet bill used up the money we had for that, but hopefully, we won’t have any emergencies to require us to dip into it again.

Of course, as I walked by, I took a look at the van. Looking through the tinted back windows, I could see some bags in the back. Looking through another window, I could finally see that they were bagged tires. The van has a set of winter tires, too!

Gosh, it would be so nice to have that van! We loved it when we had a 2007 Grand Caravan, and while the 2005 Uplander we have now has little things that I really like about it, a newer Caravan probably has some version of them, too. I would just really love to have a vehicle that doesn’t have me saying an extra prayer for protection, every time I have to drive somewhere! If the van needs repairs that cost more than it’s worth, though, we might end up applying for it again, sooner, rather than later!

One nice thing about having the van waiting at the garage until it can be looked at: once at home, we didn’t have to squeeze my mother’s car into the side room of the garage, and could park where the van usually sits. Not only is there room to open the driver’s side door all the way, but someone can get in and out of the passenger side, too! 😂

Ugh. It’s past 4pm as I write this, and we’ve hit 30C/86F That matches the 30 year record high from 2012. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.

It could be worse. We could be matching the record low of 5C/42F set in 2001, instead!

Though we had some excellent rain recently, I need to check the garden beds and see if they need to be watered in this heat! It won’t start cooling down for 3 or 4 more hours, though.

Plus, of course, check to make sure the water bowls outside are full, and maybe add some frozen reused water bottles in them, as well!

The Re-Farmer

So. Many. Babies!!!

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I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. First, I was awakened by Turmeric going after Nosencrantz. Then I had Fenrir climb on top of my stomach, demanding pets. Then Butterscotch came over for attention which, for some reason, requires that she get her claws caught in my sheets, repeatedly, before Potato Beetle came over and wanted pets, too. It’s rather hard to pet three cats at the same time!

After a few more aggressive incidents with Turmeric, I finally gave up and headed outside to do my morning rounds, early.

I spotted a couple of kittens in the sun room as I went through from the kitchen, but they quickly hid. Later, while checking on the garden beds, I spotted a very wet Adam crossing the garden from the road. The morning dew was really excessive, and I was getting soaked half way to my knees, and I wasn’t even walking in the tall grass!

Adam appreciated breakfast, but would not let me come any closer.

Nor could I get close to Not-Junkpile. It might be a while before we can giver her that ear mite medication! But we have to do it quickly, considering how madly she’s injuring herself with scratching.

Decimus and her babies are doing quite well. My daughter and I headed to the city and stopped at the clinic to drop off the extra medication we got by mistake. They were very happy I did that! 😄 While there, I mentioned being able to grab a yard cat right after she had her babies and bring her in, and that she likely has ear mites, too. She agreed. Since I was there anyhow, I bought a second dose for Decimus. She, at least, will be easier to get ahold of!

We did our errands in the city, then picked up gas at Costco, for both the car and the lawn mowers. While in town yesterday, I was shocked to find that gas prices had dropped from 158.9 cents/litre to 149.9/litre. We usually see prices jump by that much, but never drop by that much. Costco was still at 145.9/L, and the gas station was insanely busy. We saw other people filling their jerry cans, too. For the lawnmowers, we only use Premium, which was 165.9/L

Before we left, my daughter and I looked into the sun room from outside, and saw at least 5 kittens playing in a group, with several others ducking in and out of view.

After we got home, I looked again from the inside of the house, and spotted Adam with a white and grey. They are both mamas, but it seems to me there are actually three litters combined.

One of Adam’s kittens looks almost exactly like her! It looks like there is a second tuxedo, or something very close to a tuxedo pattern, among her brood as well. The younger ones seem to belong to the white and grey mama. The tuxedo that has been handing around for a while seems very happy to have other kittens to keep him company, now! I get the impression he is older than all the other kittens.

While running our errands today, we were able to pick up more bell collars. They are a lot cheaper in the city! The two boys that spray are now belled. Next, we wanted to bell the more aggressive females. We got a black one with white skulls and crossbones for Turmeric, as it suits her catonality! Tissue got a pink one, to stand out on her white fur. The third went to Fenrir, as she tends to harass Nosencrantz, too. That one is pale green and glows in the dark.

Turmeric didn’t like the colour, but seemed to get used to it quickly. My daughter got Tissue upstairs, and I think she slept through ti! Fenrir, on the other hand, was not a happy camper!

The main thing is, we should be able to hear them before they get into trouble!

The Re-Farmer

Three!

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I popped into the old kitchen for something and glanced through the door into the sunroom.

I saw the most amazing looking kitten!

Poor photo quality, due to taking pictures through a window screen.

It’s almost, but not quite, a white kitten!

Then I spotted two more.

The one that’s fully visible is the one I’d spotted earlier in the day. The second one seems to have more grey, but it kept hiding behind the bin, so I never quite got a good look at it.

From her behaviour, I think Adam, the black and white, is the mother. The other cat is Baby Beep Beep, and I’m pretty sure she has kittens somewhere, too.

The coat on that kitten, though… Wow!

The Re-Farmer

Look what I found!

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I found a few surprises, today.

The first was the ear mite medication I bought. When I finally opened the bag to get it out, I realized that there was a sealed box inside.

I bought one dose.

A box has 6 doses!

After going over the receipt and making sure I was seeing what I wasn’t supposed to be seeing, I called up the vet clinic and told them what I found, and that I’d like to return the extras. The receptionist went to talk to a tech and confirmed that, as long as the individual dose packages were still sealed, they could take them back.

I plan to go to the city for our second stock up trip, so I’ll make sure to go to town first and drop the extras off and go to the city by a different route. Somebody made what could have been an expensive mistake!

I also found a surprise in the sun room.

Usually, when doing the evening feeding, I go through the old kitchen, where the kibble is stored. This time, I happened to go out the main entry to take something to the compost bin, then went back in through the sun room to put away the rinsed out bin I’d used. We have had rain on and off all day today, and there were a number of startled cats sheltering in the sun room when I came in. As I saw them dashing around, I noticed a tiny tail disappearing between two bins.

A grey tail.

I was actually able to reach in and give it head scritches, though it did not like that. When I got the kibble ready, I left a handful in front of where it was hiding – it could only back up so far. We still coat the kibble with lysine and, from the looks of it, this kitten could use some!

I thought, at first, that this was the tuxedo’s sibling, but now that I look at the pictures, I can see its eyes are still blue, so it is younger. For now, we are leaving it in the sun room, though I did set out a container of water for it to find, too. I have no clue which cat this one belongs to.

In between the rain, I checked out a few things. The last of the Jiffy pellets that have seeds that didn’t germinate are still on the picnic table under the old market tent. The picnic table is not completely under the tent, so some of the trays are being rained on. I checked them and drained the excess water, and found a single lemon cucumber has germinated! Which makes me wonder how many other things will decide to germinate, too. Hopefully, I’ll be able to transplant anything that does. If we get both types of cucumbers, there’s enough time to have harvests before fall, at least.

I grabbed some broken plant pots we’d been hanging on to and set a bunch of them up in the squash patch, buried in the mulch, for the frogs to hide in. Yesterday evening, I used grass clippings to mulch the spaces between squash mounds in rows; the paths in between will be mulched with wood chips. I am still finding some slugs, so I think I will shake out more corn meal, after I get back from the city tomorrow. We’re still expecting rain off and on all night.

When there were just the too-small pieces left, I went to put them in the old garden shed. When I opened the door, I startled Caramel. There’s a rotted out hole in the back of the shed that cats can get in and out of. She seemed strangely hesitant about running away from me, so I took a closer look at where she had been. Sure enough, there was a wriggly little worm! Looks like she’s moving her kittens again! I quickly put the broken pieces of pots away near the door and closed the shed up again, so she could tend to her baby.

As for the one in the sun room, I suspect this baby is not quite weaned yet, so we will have to leave it alone for now. I’ll still make sure to check on it and, if it hasn’t been moved, leave food for it and perhaps its mother.

Oh! Good grief.

One of the things I picked up in town today was a couple of cat collars with bells. Leyendecker and Finnegan (one of our original tuxedos that moved out with us) have been spraying, so we’re hoping the bells will alert us to them being where they shouldn’t be.

I just heard a bell tinkling behind me, so I looked over to see Leyendecker walk over, then jump onto my bed.

For all that I see him every day, it blows me away, just how BIG he is! I don’t mean how chonky he is, either. He is just a massive cat. He’s taller and longer than just about every other cat, and very, very burly. Hard to believe he was the smallest kitten of the litter!

He also doesn’t seem to mind his new necklace.

The Re-Farmer

Weighing our options

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Happily, I was able to arrange to get ear mite medication for Not-Junkpile! One tube of the kind to spread onto the skin between the shoulder blades. Now, we just have to get ahold of her in a calm way to apply it.

On the way home, I stopped at the post office. Happily, the last of the tomato transplants that had been left outside as give-aways were gone! I hope the people that took the transplants get to enjoy them all.

It was what we got in the mail, however, that leaves us in a bit of a conundrum, and I am more than open to people’s thoughts on this.

Not long after we moved here, my husband got an offer from his insurance company, to buy out his disability. The letter stated that this would be a one time offer. It was about $250,000. We decided against it, and figured that was that.

Well, he got another offer. It’s been a few years, so of course the offer is less – about $220,000.

The question is, should we take it?

Photo by Dids on Pexels.com

The pros and cons haven’t really changed over the years.

For the pros, it means being able to put the majority of the buyout into a TFSA, where it can earn compound interest. We could give ourselves the same monthly “income” out of that, and be okay. He would also still be getting his CPP Disability.

Not being on disability payments means that I would no longer be penalized for earning an income. With the current set up, we are allowed to have a maximum amount of outside income, and the rest gets deducted from his private insurance payments. When he started to get CPP Disability, it meant getting an extra $400 a month at the time, which was about a third of what his CPP Disability payments were at the time. In other words, his private insurance was reduced by about $800. Since the amount we are “allowed” to earn – and any income I make would be counted as household income – is maxed out, anything I earned would be deducted from his private insurance payments. We’d have to report my income, otherwise we’d risk losing it all.

This would no longer be an issue, so if I wanted to get a job, or start a home based business, etc., I would be free to do that.

Basically, we would have a lot more flexibility if we took the buyout package.

One thing that is both a pro and a con is that we would lose his medical insurance, too. Blue Cross pays 90% of most of his medications. Without insurance, we’d be paying about $2000 a month on his medications. Then there are the occasional costs, like CPAP supplies and, once every 5 years, a new CPAP. The province we live in has Pharmacare, and once the equivalent of the deductible is paid off by the 10% we pay ourselves, some of his meds switch to being covered completely by Pharmacare. He has one medication that his insurance has limited coverage for, so the doctor filed for a special exemption, and it is now covered 100% by Pharmacare. So while my husband would still get prescription coverage, but he might have several of his medications completely switched out to versions that the Pharmacare system covers. His CPAP, however, is not covered by Pharmacare, though I believe they will cover the costs of a BiPAP.

As for the cons…

Right now, we have a regular income that is unaffected by external factors. Something we really appreciated when the world went crazy. Had my husband still been able to work, he would have lost his job 3 years ago. We’d go from a regular income to living off a lump sum.

Now, arranging it so that we have a monthly income equivalent to what we’re getting now, plus adjustments to compensate for changes in prescription coverage, is great in theory. The problem is, we both know just how easy it would be to dip into the funds for things we need. For example, we need to replace the van. We’d be able to buy used one outright and not have car payments, but that would remove a large chunk out of the buyout. There are a lot of things we need that we do without, because the funds just aren’t there. It would be just too easy to use the buyout funds. Then, of course, if we end up with emergency vet bills, emergency vehicle expense, etc. … well, the money would be there.

But not for long.

Yes, I could go and get a job, but I’m turning 55 this month, and there is no job out there that I could get that would replace the lost income. I’d only be going for part time work, anyhow, because my “job” right now it taking care of the farm. Even if the girls both got jobs outside the home, the three of us together wouldn’t be able to replace the income. There are exceedingly few higher income jobs out here and, with the cost of gas, commuting to the city just isn’t feasible, even if we did replace the van with a newer vehicle that gets better mileage. If we did have to commute, we’d have to replace my mother’s car, too.

Of course, working outside the home isn’t ideal, anyhow. Especially in winter, where even if the plows manage to clear the roads quickly, we might not be able to get out of our driveway until a kind neighbour comes by – which means we’d have to go into the buyout to buy a new snow blower or some other snow clearing equipment. There are small utility tractors that come with all sorts of attachments, like plows, mowers, soil augers, front end loaders and back hoes. One of those would save us all kinds of effort here on the farm, but the cost would take a huge chunk out of the buyout package.

I admit, the thing I’m chaffing over is not being able to bring in my own income, but that would come at the cost of giving up a fixed, but liveable, reliable income.

On top of that, he’s only got 10 years left, anyhow. At age 65, his insurance plan ends. Even his CPP Disability would be converted to just CPP. In theory, in 10 years, I could also start getting a pittance for CPP (the consequence of being a stay at home mom and homeschooling the girls) and Old Age Security, which is also a pittance. Assuming both even exist 10 years from now. Both together would not make up the loss of his private insurance.

So do we accept the buyout and live off of it while working to build up incomes?

Or do we keep a fix income that pays the bills, but has very little wiggle room, and I would actually be penalized for earning extra money to make up for it?

What do you think?

The Re-Farmer

Not what we planted, and self injury?

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I’ve been watching the self seeded poppies in the old kitchen garden, where one plant in particular has been growing faster than the others, with flower buds looking ready to open.

Today, it bloomed.

I did not plant this poppy.

I had figured the poppies that were showing up were from the Giant Rattle bread seed poppy we planted in the area previously. Which are supposed to look a lot like these Hungarian Blue poppies…

The tiny raised bed we have shallots in do have poppies coming up in it, too, and those are likely the Giant Rattle poppies we planted there 2 years ago, then again using our own seed last year. This is what they looked like.

Looking back at my photos, I found we did get one of these red poppies last year.

This, however, showed up after we cleared away some of the undergrowth along the spruce grove, on the other side of the house.

From what I can find, these are Double Scarlet Papasver somniferum – an opium poppy! These predate us living here, but they are not the poppies I remember my mother growing here, when I was a child.

Meanwhile, the bed where we did deliberately plant bread seed poppies that seemed to be overtaken by weeds, does have poppies growing in it. The flower pods that are starting to develop on some are more elongated than I’ve seen before. These are the Hungarian Blue that we are trying this year. At least I hope that’s what they are! The Baker Creek website has photos of the pods and flowers, but not the plants or flower buds.

Now I’m very curious about what the poppies in the shallot bed will be!

In other things, I saw Non-Junkpile today, and she has a new injury, on the other side of her head!

It’s very much like the first one, that is healed.

We are now thinking this is a self injury. She probably has a very bad infestation of ear mites, and is injuring herself by scratching.

The problem is, this is not one of the friendlies. I’ve been able to get fairly close, while there is food, but even as I tried to get a picture of the injury, she kept moving away. There is no chance of getting her to a vet. Especially since she has a litter of kittens somewhere.

There is the type of ear mite medication that can be applied to the skin between the shoulders. If we could get some of that, there is a better possibility that we could snag her long enough to apply it, than to get drops into her ears. But the clinic can’t usually give out prescriptions for cats they’ve never seen. I’ll have to see what we can figure out about that

Oh! Well, would you look at that. I’m getting messages from the Cat Lady. Maybe she has some suggestions!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: progress, damage and… damage control?

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While doing my morning rounds today, I was thrilled to see SO many pea pods!

It’s like they all exploded into existence, overnight. I’ve read that peas don’t like to be over watered, but they sure seemed to like the downpour we had!

Then, I found this.

The remaining three strawberry plants in the asparagus bed were eaten. One not as bad as the others, but a lot of leaf loss, for sure. I have to find some way to protect this bed, so the plants can recover.

What I really wanted to check – with some dread, I admit! – was the squash patch. Did the cornmeal work, or did my squash plants get decimated by the hundreds of slugs I saw last night?

Well… the good news is, there was no new damage to any of the plants, though a couple of seedlings will certainly not recover from the state I found them in last night.

There wasn’t a single slug, in any of the traps.

I could still see corn meal dusted on the mulch around each mound.

I didn’t see a single slug, live or dead.

Now, a live slug, I would not have expected to see. Not in the sun and heat we already had by then. But I did think I might see less cornmeal around the plants, and dead slugs.

It could be, they ate their fill, then crawled away before they died, but if that were so, I would not have expected to see so much cornmeal still visible.

So I’m not sure what to make of this. I mean, I’m glad there is no new damage to the plants, but for all I know, they’ll be back tonight.

Which means, when I head out to do my evening rounds, I’ll be looking closely at the squash patch!

The Re-Farmer