Author: Re-Farmer

Feeling better and catching up

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Just a quick catch-up for now. I’m hoping to get outside and get some mowing down.

Yesterday turned out to be a good day to be sick. It rained off and on all day. I think it’s finally dry enough to mow. I want to get the area I allowed to get overgrown with alfalfa and whatnot, so the pollinators would have something. I’m not seeing a lot of pollinators of late, though. I think all the smoke has caused problems. The area is done blooming, though, so time to get it under control!

I still don’t know what happened to me, in getting so sick so suddenly. I had a chance to chat with my SIL and mentioned what I was feeling. She told me that she suddenly got sick like that, too, while they were out camping with the grandkids. The dizziness got so bad, she thought she might be having a stroke or something. Then my brother got sick, too. That was a few weeks ago, and neither have fully recovered. Hearing I was sick actually was a bit of a relief for her, as she now things they caught some sort of virus, though she felt back if they passed that on to me.

Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s it. By late afternoon yesterday, I was feeling good enough to go outside, do the evening cat feeding and my evening rounds. By the end of the day, I was feeling normal again and went back outside, just to enjoy the fresh air.

While checking on the garden beds, I found that a few of the Turkish Orange eggplants had damaged leaves. Just on one side of the plants, and among the ones that were more forward in the bed. I suspect it is cold damage when the overnight low dropped to about 6C/43F.

The drooping leaves, however, exposed something else.

There’s a ripening eggplant under there! It’s small, but from the photos of the ripe eggplant, it looks like it’s very close to being fully ripe. I think it’s supposed to get a darker orange, still.

The second photo has my hand in the photo, so you can get a perspective of the size.

This eggplant is so low on the plant, it’s resting on the ground, so after I got the picture, I took one of the dead leaves off the plant and put it under the eggplant in such a way that any water would drain away from the fruit.

We are all very curious as to what this variety will taste like!

The Sweetie Snack Mix peppers around the corner of the wattle weave bed have more fruit on them now, but they are all still very green. They should ripen into red, yellow and orange. At this point, there isn’t even a blush of colour on even the oldest peppers I have been keeping an eye on.

While doing my rounds, I noticed Pinky and her babies on the old tire that’s holding a door on one side of the garage open – I keep that door, plus the back door, open all summer for air circulation. The tire is still on a rim, so it’s heavy enough to keep the wind from blowing the door around. Pinky and her kittens were milling around on the tire, leaning into the rim.

They were thirsty and drinking the accumulated rain water!

There is food and fresh water by the house, but the kittens just won’t come over. I’ve seen the white and grey sneaking over to the shrine food bowls, and I think I’ve even seen him go into the isolation shelter or catio. The smoky kitten, however, will not go more than a few feet away from the garage. I only have a food bowl for them in garage, not a water bowl. I want them to come to the house! Pinky does, but she hates other cats and any kittens not her own. She will attack any that come too close. If they come near the garage, she will drive them away. Even the littles.

The white and grey, however, is starting to get used to me. The smoky kitten ran away, but the white and grey stayed while I pet his mother. After a while, I was not only able to pet him, but I was able to pick him up and snuggle him!

And confirm he is male.

I put him back on the tire and got some pictures while the smoky kitten started to come back. She (I think) does let me pet her while she is eating, sometimes, and I think it starting to learn that the giant, hairless food giver is not something to be scared of. She came closer while was there, but not all the way, so I left so she could finish drinking.

Later on, while walking behind the cat shelters near the sun room, I spotted Adam in the middle of them all, covered in kittens.

At least two ran off when they saw me in the gap between the shelters. She was nursing the whole lot of them. I don’t think any of the kittens in the picture are actually hers.

Of course, when doing the cat feeding this morning, I saw all sorts of kittens, including the “new” ones under the cat house creeping out. Some of them are even brave enough to go into the sun room already! I am 99% sure the kittens from the collapsing log building are Ink’s babies. I’d seen her climbing up into there a few times over the summer.

I don’t think I’ve seen Ink around for several days.

She was always one of the more feral cats and would run off faster, so that’s not too unusual, but after what happened to Poirot, it makes me wonder.

As I was finishing up my rounds, I spotted this baby under the shrine.

I don’t recognize it. It’s hard to know for sure, as the “new” kittens run and hide so quickly, but I think I would have noticed one that had all white around one eye, and black around the other like that.

Today, I had to go into town and my daughter and I headed out in the late morning. She wanted to come along, just in case I wasn’t feeling as well as I thought I was! I went ahead to the truck with the big water jugs that needed to be refilled when I spotted Slick in the grass, under the canopy tent.

She was nursing two babies!

One ran off, and it’s possible that one was the kitten in the photo above, but I didn’t see its face well enough to be sure. The other looked more like Mom. I gave them a lot of distance, so as not to scare it away. My daughter spotted the two of them still there as she came out a few minutes later. She tried for an indirect photo, trying not to startle them, but isn’t sure if it turned out yet.

We left early enough to stop at the post office where a parcel for my husband was waiting. It turned out to have a custom’s duty on it, so I had to pay $30 to pick it up. The postmaster told me she was processing a lot more customs duties of late, and thinks it might have something to do with the new tariff wars. Customs duties are a different category of taxes, though, not tariffs. If it is, that means it’s our own government charging us for stuff they didn’t before. Anything that gets shipped into Canada can potentially be charged duties. Usually, it’s the equivalent of what the sales tax would have been if the product was purchased in Canada. We have very rarely been charged duties on anything we’ve had come in from the US, whether by mail or courier. This was some stuff from a leatherworking supply company he’s purchased from before, without being charged duties.

Now I’m wondering if our government is going to tax me on all those seeds I ordered from MI Gardener that are making their way through the USPS right now. I’ll find out, soon enough, I guess.

Once in town, our first stop was at the pharmacy, where my daughter was able to get her own refills as well. Then we popped across the street to check out the Red Apple; one of the things my husband asked me to pick up is slightly cheaper there. Then it was off to the grocery store to refill the water jugs and get a few little things as well.

Seeing the prices change in just the last few weeks can sometimes be mind blowing. For example, I sometimes like to buy shelled pistachios as a truck snack. There is a brand that has them with various seasonings. About a year ago, they were still under $7. That price has been creeping up until even at Walmart, they went from just under $8 to almost $9 per bag within a couple of months. Locally, they were already just under $9 for some time. That’s what I saw them as, about a week ago.

Today, they were just under $12 a bag. 🤯

Needless to say, I haven’t been buying shelled pistachios.

We didn’t need to pick up much, though, and were soon on my way home. Now I want to get out and mow around the kibble shelters first, before the outside cats get their evening feeding. This is going to spook the heck out of the littles, so I want to get that done as quickly as possible!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get quite a bit done, but we’ll see. That left hip of mine is causing more problems, so the point that I have to do things like sit down to put my pants on, because it’s too unstable for me to stand on my left leg.

Something to talk to my doctor about when I see her at the end of the month. Looks like I’m due for another round of Xrays!

Ah, well. It is what it is. I’ll deal with it when the time comes!

The Re-Farmer

Sick day

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I have no idea what happened.

I was winding down for bed last night, listening to some videos on my computer before shutting it down, when I was suddenly hit with waves of dizziness. Then nausea. Then the shakes. Not just my limbs shaking, but even the insides of my torso felt shaky. I wasn’t even able to finish getting changed for bed before having to lie down.

I was able to message my daughters, and they helped as best they could. My younger daughter brought over our blood pressure monitor (BP was fine) and even tested my blood sugars (right were expected for how long it was since I ate anything). Of course, that’s when bunch of cats decided they needed attention!

The girls even brought me a bowl to keep nearby, in case I needed to throw up, as there was no way I’d make it to the bathroom in time if I did. When I did need to go, I had to walk super slow and careful and a daughter hovered nearby, in case I fell.

At one point, shortly after 1am, I opened the step counter app on my phone, which has a heart health monitor. You put your finger over the phone’s flash and it gets readings through that. According to the reading, my heart rate was in the “perfect zone”. My stress levels were low. My HRV (heart rate variability) was excellent, and even my energy level was good. In fact, I got one of the best readings since I downloaded the app.

Uh huh.

For a while, I seriously considered getting my daughter to drive me to the ER. In the end, I decided there was no point. Driving all that way to just sit in ER for hours, and probably just get sent home with a “we couldn’t find anything wrong with you” seemed like it would be less conducive to feeling better than simply staying in bed and trying to get some sleep.

I am feeling better now. I’m still feel shaky, though, and I don’t mean my limbs. In fact, my hands are rock steady, which is actually unusual. My hands always shake, normally.

All I can think of as to a cause is that it might be a reaction to medication. I’d taken my anti-inflammatories with my evening supplements, as usual – I only take the anti-inflammatories before bed, even though I can take them up to three times a day, if need be. I had them with a snack, rather than with a meal, since I didn’t want to eat too much right before bed. Could that have been it? Unlikely. I’ve done that before, too. As my left hip has been keeping me awake at night, I took some T3s this time. I’ve never reacted to them before, though, and they are safe to take while also taking the anti-inflammatories.

I don’t get it.

This morning, my daughters took care of all my usual morning routine, so I could stay in bed. They stayed up all night to be available for me, so they are both crashed right now. I felt well enough this morning to make myself some breakfast, but all I could handle was some soup. Eating did make me feel better, though.

I’m going to go back to bed after this. Hopefully, a few more hours of sleep will get me over whatever it was that did me in!

This is what WP’s AI image generator thinks this post describes. Apparently, AI can fine no reference images of a blood pressure cuff.

The Re-Farmer

Short notice shopping, too funny, and kittens, kittens, kittens!

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I got a call from my mother last night.

Her fridge was empty.

I asked if she wanted me to come over today (Sunday) and she said, I could come over to go to church.

So we arranged that I could come over earlier than usual so that I could help her walk over to church (across the street), then do her grocery shopping afterwards.

When I got there this morning, though, my mother said she wasn’t going anywhere. She wasn’t feeling well enough. So we went over her shopping list, instead, and I did that, instead. She was feeling bad enough to take her T3s after I left – something she flat out refused to do, the first time she got them prescribed to her. She was feeling a bit better when I got back. It was a larger than usual shopping trip for her, as she wanted to take advantage of some sales she saw in the flier, too. Extra is always good!

After the shopping was done and everything was put away, I was showing my mother pictures of her great grandsons at the large animal rescue when there was a knock at the door. It was someone from church coming over to give my mother communion, since they saw she wasn’t in church today. My mother was surprised, as she usually calls when she knows she can’t make it. Today was a very last minute change, so she never called. He assured her that if they see she isn’t there, they will make sure he comes over. He mentioned he had two more people to visit after, with one being in the hospital, so she’s not the only person he goes to do communion for. Clearly, he visits her first, since she is so close to the church itself.

I left soon after he did.

This morning, when going my rounds, switching trail cam memory cards and checking on the garden, I picked a small handful of bush beans. Small enough to tuck into my pocket with my memory cards.

When I got to my computer, however, there was only one memory card in my pocket.

Before going to my mother’s, I went out again to pick an ice cream bucket full of crab apples. The big tree with the smaller apples has lots of ripe apples right now. Once I realized the memory card was missing, I back tracked everywhere I went, after I’d switched out the memory card that was now missing. In some areas, like around the crab apple tree, the grass is really tall, but a memory card in its case is light enough and flat enough that I would expect it to just “float” on top of the grass. I even got a daughter to look in the kitchen, in case it fell out of my pocket

Nothing.

After back tracking a couple of times, I left my daughters know it was missing and were it was most likely to be, so they could check while I was gone, then headed out.

Nothing.

After I came back and had a quick lunch, I went to look again.

Nothing.

I was going around the crab apple tree again when I thought of one other possible place it could be.

I had those beans I’d put in my pocket. Could I have accidentally put it in the fridge with the beans? I messaged my daughters to check.

Yup.

I’d accidentally refrigerated the memory card!

Well, at least I was able to pick some crab apples to bring inside. 😄😄

Will all that walking around, I got to see lots of kitties.

First, we have the sun room kittens.

After breakfast, these four in the first picture were soon snuggling together in the bed in the cat cage. The black and white in the second picture seems to prefer under the counter shelf, though I’ve sometimes seen it in the cat cage cuddle puddle, too.

Then there were the garage kittens.

The first picture and the video were taken during the morning feeding. Yes, I was able to pet them all! The only reason the smokey kitten didn’t run off was because it was more hungry than scared.

The last photo was taken just after I got back from my mother’s. As I drove into the garage, the mama jumped down from the riding mower and ran off. I thought I saw some ear tips, though, so after I parked, I went to take a look, and found both kittens sitting on the comfy seat, watching me.

They wouldn’t let me come close, though. I had to take stuff out the passenger side of the truck, which meant going past them, and they both ran off.

Ah, well. At least some progress was made at feeding time!

Then there were the “missing” kittens, which have started to creep out from under the cat house. I don’t know why they won’t go inside the cat house; there are three big comfy beds in there!

A couple of faces were familiar. The tuxedo and the mostly black kitten.

The tuxedo was peaking out at me this morning, and then that tabby in the second photo came out to eat at the tray under the water bowl shelter. I did see other faces peaking out, but not long enough to get photos.

The other pictures were taken after I got back from my mother’s.

That mostly black kitten is pretty much confirmed to be Adam’s baby. But how many does she have? Two? Four?

Six???

There was a mostly white kitten that came out, plus a white and grey, and I knew there was a tabby with white under there somewhere.

Eyelet came over and tried to play with the mostly black kitten. The black kitten did not like that at all!

I also got some short video clips of them, as they got braver and started to come out, even with me standing about 10 feet away.

Once I was at my desktop, I kept looking at that mostly white kitten. I hadn’t seen it by the house before.

Yet, it looked familiar.

So I went looking through my photos from a few days ago. It is confirmed.

That log I put up against the collapsing log building by the fire pit has done its job.

The four kittens that were in there have now moved under the cat house.

From what I can see, it looks like there are six littles under the cat house in total, from two litters. There’s five from two litters in the sun room. That makes eleven littles that have shown up recently.

Then there are the older kittens; the two in the garage, Eyelet, Grommet, Havarti and Sir Robin in the sun room, plus Sprout’s four in the outer yard, making ten older kittens.

The only other litter that I know is still out there is Frank’s babies, born just a few days ago. If they survived. I’m seeing Frank around quite a bit and, so far, I’m not sure if she’s nursing or not. She has been letting me pet her more often lately, but she’s still more semi-feral than socialized. I thought I might have seen some active nips, but she just wouldn’t stay still long enough for me to be sure.

I’m really hoping the large animal rescue can take more kittens, but cats are not their focus. Poirot’s babies are thriving there, but they were already fully socialized, and have no problem with lots of different people, including children, handling them. Feral and semi-feral kittens are not something they are set up for. A horse or a llama or a bunch of beat up chickens, sure, but not unsocialized kittens.

Well, we will do what we can to socialize the newbies, so they at least have a chance to get adopted out. Currently, the most socialized ones are the older sunroom kittens. Sir Robin has his wonky eye and sounds like he has respiratory issues, Eyelet is deaf and Grommet has leaky eyes. Only Havarti has no such issues, and he doesn’t like to be picked up and carried, though he loves pets. Sir Robin would be ideal; he can’t get enough attention from humans! But the chances of a rescue with even minor health problems being adopted are pretty much nil.

It is what it is, and we do the best we can for them. It’s going to be harder once the Cat Lady officially shuts down her rescue.

We’ll figure it out.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens, reunited, and I got to touch a dinosaur

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Some morning cuteness to share with you today!

The first image is of Sprout with three of her four (Colby, the fluffy orange and white, likes to go to the house or the isolation shelter on his own). Her calico is starting to get big enough that I’m starting to get her confused with Mom at times!

The white and grey garage kitten is getting to the point that I can sometimes not only pet him (her), but pick him up and hold him for a sort time.

But not this morning!

His smokey sibling in the next photo, on the other hand, won’t let me come close. I got to pick it up and hold it that one time, weeks ago, and that’s it. Haven’t been able to get close, since.

My goodness, that is one gorgeous kitten!

We had ourselves a lovely little reunion. My brother and SIL booked a tour for their grandsons at the large animal rescue that took in Poirot’s orphans, and included me and my younger daughter as well. We got to visit Miss Lemon, Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp today!

They have gotten so big! They’re practically twice the size they were when my daughter and I brought them over. They are still small for their age, but it’s good to see how much they’ve grown.

They are also incredibly chill, and the centre of attention. They have different names now, though none that have been settled on. Talking to one of the staff, after telling her they came from our colony, and some of their background, she told me they are a real hit. At the end of tours, they often ask the kids which was their favourite animal, and the answer is almost always, the kittens! Which is amazing, considering the variety of animals they have. Rabbits, pigs, goats, ducks, chickens, donkeys – lots of donkeys! – horses, miniature horses and…

These guys.

My favourites.

I got to pet two of the three emus, but this one really seemed to want my attention! We were warned in advance that they like to go for shiny, sparkly things. I’m amazed they didn’t go for my hat! This one kept coming back to me for more pets, though.

What a face!

What’s amazing is some of the noises they make. Totally what you would expect to hear from a dinosaur!

After we left their area, this one came up to the fence to check me out again, so I got a bit of video.

Yeah, that chomp was totally self inflicted.

I regret nothing.

We also saw some guineas wandering around, several of which were white. I’ve never seen white guineas before!

After the outside tour was over, we were all led back to the main shelter, where the kittens, rabbits, smaller goats and a piglet are kept, along with a gift shop and a few other things. One of my great nephews got a ride on a miniature horse (the other wouldn’t even go into the area with the horses and donkeys). The bunnies and the goats got some attention, but the kids all eventually converged on the kittens! The kittens have their own pen that they can get in and out of through the gaps in the walls, any time they want, but the gate is kept closed to keep the family’s dogs from going in and eating their kibble. 😁

Those kittens get SO much love and attention, and they are just lapping it up.

While looking at some of their displays, I read a sign at a table of pet rocks, talking about where the rocks came from, and that they were painted and made available for “sale” by donation, to help fund the rescue.

Them and the plants.

Which is when I realized that several jade trees from our place were on the ground near the display table! Not very many of them were left, and there were no aloe left at all. I was really hoping they’d be able to use them to raise money for the rescue!

I also bought a couple of dozen of their eggs. We still have quite a bit, but we can always use more!

While getting them, I joked about how we don’t have our own chickens yet. The staff member, who I’d been chatting with a fair bit, sharing about Poirot’s babies, suggested I look into getting ducks, instead. Apparently, they are better layers, and the eggs taste pretty much the same.

I certainly wouldn’t be against that idea!

It was really nice of my brother and SIL to include us today. We drive by the place regularly, and have been to the house part of the property, but that’s it. Plus, we got to visit with Poirot’s babies, too! I feel much better after seeing them. There’s always that worry in the back of your head, when they get adopted out and, in this case, they’re not even adopted out, but will be adopted out when they are a bit older.

As we were leaving, one of my great nephews was saying he wants to go back, tomorrow! 😁

I’d want to go back, too!

I want my own dinosaur. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: some firsts in the harvest, and weird corn

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Just a quick garden post to start with today.

While doing my rounds and checking in the garden, I found this strange thing in the corn.

I’ve never seen anything like it before. I was looking at it with my daughter later on and we were wondering about those yellow things near the tassels. As I was handling it, that widened yellow section snapped right off. The inside was like a sponge. Very odd!

I wasn’t expecting to harvest anything this morning, but I did end up gathering a few things.

There was one ripe Sub Arctic Plenty tomato, plus I saw some Chocolate Cherry tomatoes through the greenery that I went ahead and grabbed. Turned out only one of them was really ripe, but the others will ripen indoors. I could only find a couple of yellow bush beans to harvest.

I went ahead and harvested the largest of the kohlrabi, which all turned out to be purple Vienna. I was smart this time and used the loppers to cut them free, rather than a knife. One of them looks like a giant pine cone or something! I suspect that one will be more woody in texture.

After harvesting the kohlrabi, I decided to weed out the invading mint by harvesting it, too. I’m not sure what I want to do with it yet. I might just make a big pot of fresh mint tea.

Good for the digestion.

We had another rather cold night last night, with the low dropping below 10C/50F. Today’s high is expected to reach only 18C/64F – which is the perfect temperature, to me! It would be good for the garden, too, if it weren’t for the lows.

Over the next few days, things will get warmer, and possibly even reaching above 30C/86F, with lows above 20C/68F. Which will hopefully give the garden a chance to make up for the occasional cold night.

Looking at the long range forecast into September, the lows in the first couple of weeks look like we might be getting frost around the expected average of September 10. If not frost, then some things will at least need to be covered for the night.

I am beginning to suspect we will not only not have the long, mild fall this year I was hoping for, but possibly an early winter. For the past week or so, I’ve started to see more garter snakes on the roads.

They would normally start returning to their dens in September, not August.

Well, if things done get a chance to fully mature this year, I hope to at least be able to do the planned winter sowing, just before the ground freezes, so we can get a head start on next year. If how things worked out this year is any example, this may be the best way to ensure reliable harvests from year to year. We’ll also need to really focus on the raised bed covers, as they get built, so that we can use them to extend our growing season as much as possible.

It’s definitely been a mixed bag with how things are in the garden this year! I’m rather looking forward to after it’s all done, and I start doing my annual garden analysis posts.

The Re-Farmer

Critter fence

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Well, we’ll see how this works.

I went back to the corn/squash bed to get the formerly trellis fence set up. I set the posts as best I could. They had to go right at the corners for the wire to fit all the way around, so I didn’t have the option of moving them if I hit a root or a rock. So they aren’t quite as deep as they should be.

Once the posts were in, I set the wire back on the built in hooks in the posts, tightening things up as much as possible.

In the first image above, you can see my “door”. I wove a couple of 6′ support stakes through the wire, near the ends. The ends themselves just barely overlap, and I can hook them together a bit. The support stakes are long enough that I can drive them into the soil.

Well. Almost. One of them was hitting something and wouldn’t go any further. Probably a root.

In the second image, I tried to get a view of the top, which is wide open, of course. Ideally, it would be covered.

Ideally, I wouldn’t have to do this at all. Those squash should be sprawling all over, not barely meandering between the corn. I don’t know how big this variety of squash vine normally gets, but the Crespo squash we had last year in this spot spread out far enough to start climbing the cherry trees.

I’m hoping this will work. It should at least keep the cats out. A determined raccoon would get through fairly easily, but I’m hoping they’ll just be too lazy to get through the wire to get at the corn.

We shall see soon enough, I guess. The corn in this bed is developing faster than in the other bed, and there are some really nice looking cobs starting to form!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: a nice harvest, and breakfast!

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This morning I collected our largest harvest yet, for this year!

I had some help, too.

When I prepared to transplant the melons, I set up a trellis for them using Dollarama steel fence posts and welded wire mesh salvaged from the old squash tunnel from years ago. When the Spoon tomatoes were planted in the other half of the bed, I use bamboo stakes to make them their own trellis.

Well, with the melons barely growing at all, they’re not going to need the trellis. So, with my daughter’s help, we pulled the posts, with the wire still on them, and moved them over to the corn and Arikara squash bed. It’s loosely set up for now, but the 4′ square bed will get a wire fence around it – the mesh is just long enough! – to hopefully keep the raccoons from getting into the corn, when the cobs are ready. I’ll probably have to put some sort of cover over it, too, or they’ll just climb up and over.

The corn bed has plastic netting around it. Hopefully, they will be dissuaded from the corn rather than tearing their way through.

After moving the melon trellis away, the Spoon tomatoes can now be reached from both sides, so my daughter helped me pick tomatoes on one side, while I did the other.

There were lots of Spoon tomatoes to pick!

I’m glad I remembered to bring a separate container for the Spoon tomatoes!

There was also a whole two Royal Burgundy beans to pick, from the three surviving plants. I did pick a small handful of yellow bush beans last night, though, so there was enough to actually use. While checking last night, I noticed some ripening Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes and this morning, one was ready to grab.

After that, I dug up some potatoes, then winter sown carrots from the high raised bed.

In the next image in the slide show above, you can see a very wonky potato!

That was from roots.

These potatoes were picked from about the middle of the bed, so at least twenty feet away from the trees. My garden fork was digging up more roots than potatoes.

Those trees have got to go.

Then I remembered we have herbs and stuff, so I went to the old kitchen garden, where I gathers some lemon thyme, lemon balm and oregano. In the winter sown bed, I grabbed a few Swiss Chard leaves. I even grabbed some bulbils from the walking onions, since we don’t want them to spread any further.

Once inside, the longest time was spent getting all those little green bits of stem off all those Spoon tomatoes! I also set aside some of the ripest looking ones to collect seeds from, later. Their seeds are so tiny, I’ll have to consider how best to do that!

In the last photo – which looked much better and in focus on my phone, I swear! – it what I made with it. There’s still potatoes and Spoon tomatoes left, plus the one Sub Arctic Plenty tomato, but I used up all the carrots, julienned, a handful of bush beans cut small, the onion bulbils and a whole head of garlic. We still have fresh garlic left of the ones that were too far along for curing and winter storage. Then there was the chard and herbs.

When I went into town to get kibble yesterday, I also picked up some chicken legs and thighs that were on sale, which my older daughter prepared last night, so breakfast (brunch?) was the vegetables gathered this morning, plus oven roasted chicken legs.

It was very good!

The Re-Farmer

More kitties and, it’s official

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We must, of course, start with the cuteness!

The cat cave I hoped that Frank would use has been discovered by the littles.

Some of them, at least.

I honestly expected to see it being used more but, hey… if it gives the littles a place to chill without scary strange adult cats to bug them, that’s just fine! They seem to be discovering the cat cage is good for that, too.

I didn’t see any in there this morning, but things get pretty chaotic when I come out with the food. More of the littles are actually staying and eating, rather than running and hiding. I really need to watch where I put my feet!

After feeding the cats and doing my rounds, I was about to go back into the house through the sun room, when I heard little squeaky noises and paused.

I’m glad I did.

Lady Hypotenose was being absolutely tackled by her littles. Where she is in the photo is right next to the door to the old kitchen. I stayed out of the sun room and just zoomed in with my phone’s camera to get some photos, then left them be! I could use the other door to go inside!

On a completely different note. While checking my email this morning, I found a notification from Canada Revenue that there was a message awaiting me at the website.

Well, there it was.

I am now officially classified as disabled by the government. Until 2030. I suppose in 2030, I’ll have to reapply? I dunno. I’ll get a letter in the mail about it. The website doesn’t give any other informaiton.

What this means is that, at tax time, I can get the disability tax credit instead of the caregiver tax credit I’ve been getting. As my younger daughter has also applied for disability and most likely has also been accepted, this means my older daughter can apply for the caregiver credit for one of us.

It also means I can apply for various supports available, and get my own disabled parking placard. My husband has one which, in this province, we have to pay a doctor to fill out a form, then send it in with a check for the placard itself, which then gets mailed to us. In the province where we were living when my husband went on short term disability, he got a prescription that we took where we had our van insured, and we were issued one without charge, immediately. It was a red, temporary one. After six months, when he went on long term disability, we did it again and he got the blue, long term one.

Other than that… I don’t know. I’ve been looking at the various supports out there, both provincial and federal, but it seems I don’t qualify for most of them. Most are aimed at people who are in supportive living or long term care, neither of which I need.

So… really, it doesn’t change anything for me other than being something the federal government recognizes at tax time.

I somehow thought there was more to it than that. I’m used to dealing with my husband’s private disability insurance. Not government stuff.

Thank God for private insurance. We’d be so hooped without it!

The Re-Farmer

Not the kittens I expected!

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So I headed outside to do a quick walk around. The storm hit while I was in the sun room, checking on the littles.

There were these ones.

The tabby leaning back blissfully is the kitten I found in the garage (still no side of the second one I saw briefly). The other two are from the litter of four Lady Hypotenose brought into the sun room.

There are quite a lot of “missing” kittens. I am pretty sure at least a couple were taken somewhere else by their mothers, but I haven’t seen Lady Hypotenose’s black and white today, and there is another white and grey/black that I couldn’t see.

There was one place they could be that I can’t look in. At least, not normally. I tried to “look” by using my phone’s camera. It took several failures before I finally got this photo.

Oh, my goodness. I just went looking at photos I took, the first time we saw Lady Hypotenose’s babies. The black and white I posted a picture of earlier is NOT Lady Hypotenose’s. That one had a black noce and chin, which I can see in the above photo.

So the two on the right are both from Lady Hypotenose’s litter.

That black one, though?

I don’t think I’ve seen it before. Or, maybe it’s the one I saw briefly on the critter cam that one night? It’s impossible to know for sure.

There is a whole lot of mixing and matching going on with these new kittens! It’s really hard to keep track. That’s why I try to take photos as much as possible, but it can be really hard to get a decent shot of them, as they run around and hide so quickly.

With all the moving around of kittens, we still have no idea what the kitten count is this year. Of course, it’s still possible there will be losses, some we will know about, some we won’t. The ones we saw that the moms have moved are the ones the least likely to make it.

I hoped to see Frank while I was checking things out before the storm hit (it has already passed, but we are still under a severe thunderstorm watch), but there was no sign of her. I hope she is somewhere safe and warm with her new babies – and that she’ll find the new cat cave and bring them to the sun room!

Unlikely, but still possible.

The Re-Farmer

Kitten status

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Yesterday evening, I headed outside a few times, just to try and get over my funk. Plus, I just couldn’t be inside and not do anything productive, even though I did rather waste the day.

The first time I headed out, I was checking on the kittens, but only saw two.

That little tabby looks so angry all the time! 😄 That’s the one I found in the garage.

I have not seen that blue eyed black and white kitten all day today. Not sure what’s going on. That is one of Lady Hypotenose’s litter.

I also haven’t seen the other two foundlings I wrote about here. I don’t know who the mother is, but it seems they’ve been moved.

I started to check on the old kitchen garden when I heard the tiniest of meows from… somewhere. It took a while of listening before I could pinpoint a direction, and it was most definitely a distressed meow.

I found Ink’s litter. They’re in the collapsed log building by the fire pit.

One of the kittens had fallen down!

There’s an old tire leaning against the wall on the outside. The kitten was on it, crying out to its three siblings, above. The adult cats can get in and out of this old building fine, but small kittens like this… well, they can fall out, but they can’t get back in!

I was able to quickly grab it and lift it up to the top of the wall, where its siblings were. It did NOT like it, but it took only a fraction of a second, and it was free of the scary human. After they all scattered, I lifted my phone as high as I could and took a picture in the general direction they ran to. That’s the last picture in the slide show above, cropped down to just the two kittens that were visible.

I was happy to see that white one’s eyes were open, because in the other pictures, they looked glued shut! What I can’t tell is if the kittens are just starting to get into their leaky eye phase, or if they are getting out of it.

Later on, I took the log I’d removed the the old kitchen garden bed, where it’s being replaced with wattle weave, and brought it over. I was able to lean it in that low spot in the top log and settle it in place firmly. The kittens can now get in and out of the building on their own, rather than Mom having to try and carry while jumping down from the top, herself!

That was yesterday evening.

This morning, as I was in the old kitchen, about to prepare food for the outside cats, I saw this through the window.

Note that cat in the carrier. That turned out to be Frank. In the next picture, you can see she slammed herself into the cuddle puddle in the cat bed! The Grink is in that bed, along with Eyelet, Grommet and Sir Robin. The Grink isn’t much bigger than the kittens!

Frank didn’t stay, though.

As I was going around to all the food bowls and trays, I was watching Frank. She was in the water bowl shelter, checking out the cat beds and box in there. She was in the sun room, checking out the cat carriers. She was going from place to place, poking around and moving on.

I realized she had to be looking for a place to give birth.

I messaged my daughters and asked them to put fresh puppy pads in the cat carriers in the sun room, in hopes she would use one of those.

The sun room littles have discovered the cat cage. They are really skittish and quick to run away, but I’ve been seeing four of them consistently.

Three of Lady Hypotenose’s babies were snuggled in one of the beds in the cat cage – I put a small bowl of food in there for them, too. They started to use the cat bed in the other cube as a littler, though, which was something I needed to deal with later.

Angry kitten, meanwhile, was snuggling with Grommet in the shelf at the window.

I could not see the black and white anywhere. Hopefully, it’s just under the counter shelf. Even Lady Hypotenose seemed to be looking for it!

I pretty much finished off the kibble with the morning feeding, though, so I headed out after breakfast. I decided to go to the feed store in the town north of us, instead of my mother’s town. I got two 40 pound bags, which should last us two weeks. After picking that up, I went into town and checked out their Red Apple store. I found a cat cave of a particular design I’ve been looking for for a while – one that doesn’t collapse easily. I was actually thinking to pick up a clear storage bin and finding a way to turn that into a secure cat cave a mother might like to give birth in, but the only ones they had that were the right dimensions was insanely expensive. The fabric cat cave I found was expensive, too, but I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else, so I snagged it, anyhow.

After a brief stop at the grocery store across the street, I headed home.

I was too late.

I saw Frank moving around the yard, and the first thing I could see was the blood on her back end. She had clearly just given birth – and yet, there she was. Not only was she going around the yard, but she was roughhousing with Sir Robin and Havarti, too!

That is not the behaviour of a cat that’s just given birth so recently, I found drops of blood on the floor of the sun room.

I still set up the new cat cave, in hopes she will find it and move her babies there. Given her state, I thought they had to be close by and checked all the usual places. Nothing. I was even bracing myself to find remains. None of that, either.

Given her behaviour, I strongly suspect she lost her litter.

One of the sun room kittens and Lady Hypotenose, however, have discovered the new cat cave and checked it out. I might find other littles in there, instead!

Meanwhile, I took out the cat bed the littles had started using as a litter box and put in an actual litter box. I used a garden hose to wash out the cat bed as best I could, and it’s now hanging on the line. I don’t expect it to dry anytime soon, though. We’re under a severe thunderstorm watch right now, so it’ll probably get rained on.

In fact, I think I’ll check on the outside cats and see if they need a kibble top up now. It’s early, but if the weather apps and warnings are right, a thunderstorm will be hitting us around the time I would normally be heading outside to do it. I did top up the kibble after refilling the bin, though, so they should be fine.

Time to see what I find!

The Re-Farmer