Author: Re-Farmer

Light snow, huh?

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Ah, ya gotta love the weather forecasts.

Today’s forecast for our area was 1C/34F with less than 1cm/0.4in of snow.

The plan was to head into the city with one of my daughters for their own separate grocery shopping trip. We weren’t planning to leave until noon, so I had plenty of time to do the morning rounds and check the trail cam files.

The outside cats were almost completely out of water in their heated water bowl again – and that thing holds a lot of water!

Also, they have a definite preference for Costco’s Kirkland brand of kibble. :-D

The deer have really dug up our compost heap! Not sure what they’re after under there, that they haven’t already eaten.

Nosencrantz and Butterscotch are absolutely luxuriating in their convalescence. We could bring Nosencrantz indoors right now, but Butterscotch has another few days, at least, before we can let her outside.

She hasn’t shown any interest in going outside since the surgery! What a complete reversal!

Beep Beep and Fenrir, meanwhile, spent the night isolated with me and seem to be doing very well, so they are no longer being kept apart from the other cats.

Beep Beep, unlike Butterscotch, did no go through a “catonality” change, and is still a bully towards the other cats. :-D Nothing bad enough to be a concern, but she does keep herself right up there on the pecking order!

By the time I was done my rounds and heading in, it had started to snow. After a while, it got heavy enough that we were reconsidering our trip to the city.

I’ve gotten to be a wuss in my old age. If I can avoid driving in inclement conditions, I usually will. Back in the day, I had no issues driving through blizzards severe enough that highways were closed, while we were on them. Not anymore!

Meanwhile, as I watched the visibility drop on the security camera’s live feed, the weather app was telling me, “rain will continue for 104 minutes.”

Rain??

Not where we were!

We did decide to head out, and the conditions were much better than I feared. About half way to the town my mother lives in, where we stopped for gas, it switched from snow and snow covered highway, to rain and mostly clear.

The rain continued all the way to the city, and we didn’t hit snow again until we passed back though my mother’s town, though by then the snow had moved further south and was a lot heavier than when we were heading out.

The wet road conditions made for some very messy driving; especially when crossing paths with oncoming semi’s. Thankfully, it’s been warm enough that the windshield washer fluid in my mother’s car was thawed! It had frozen before I had a chance to put winter fluid in. I had still topped it up with winter fluid, so that would have helped, too.

Once home and unloading the car, I paused to top up the windshield fluid again (rated to -35C/-31F!), which is when my husband popped out to ask me to unlock the gate again. We’d just received a call that a delivery was on its way, but the driver couldn’t find our physical address. Neither the name nor the numerical designation for our road comes up on GPS. So I took care of the gate, then topped up the washer fluid before putting my mom’s car in the garage (it barely fits in the addition it’s parked in) when the delivery van pulled in. The driver was very cheerful and we chatted a bit about our issue with road names. Then he had to back his way out of the driveway, because with my mother’s car out, he didn’t have room to turn around in the snow.

Which was fine, right up until he had to stop at the end of the driveway to make sure the road was clear.

With how warm it was today, the rear tires sank right into the plow ridge and he got stuck!

Of course, we had snow shovels handy, but I ended up having to dig out the steel garden shovel again. The plastic snow shovel just couldn’t do the job there! Thankfully, he got out very quickly, though he joked about how common this actually is, with rural deliveries!

The delivery was the 14’x200′ (4.3mx30.5m) netting we ordered, to use as temporary critter fencing around our garden areas this year. We will be ordering a second one, probably next month, since we have so much area to cover. Plus, we’ll be cutting pieces to size to create covers for individual beds, too.

I’m quite happy to have our first roll in. Even if, for some reason, we can’t order a second one right away, it’s enough for us to put a perimeter around most areas we will be planting in. The only real concern is that, being just plastic netting, if the raccoons decide they want in, they can tear right through it.

I look forward to when we can build permanent protection for our garden beds!

I’m glad we did make the trip today, instead of putting it off again. Tomorrow, I’ll be dropping the van off to get the brakes tested, and to see what needs to be done next. With the rain today, it’s going to make roads slippery, but our area got snow (no matter what the weather apps said!), so the road to town should not be too bad. The day after tomorrow, we’re supposed to get even warmer, and get 10-15cm/4-6in of snow – or 5-10cm/2-4in, depending on which app I look at! Either way, it’s not a day I’d want to be driving to the city again. The less such trips, the happier I will be!

I’m quite content in my hermitage.

The Re-Farmer

When you’re in a hole, stop digging (convoy talk)

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I’ve been wondering how our political overlords would handle the peaceful, legal convoy protestors in Ottawa (and other parts of the country).

It seems like they are digging in their heels.

The federal government and their media lackeys continue to repeat their lies about the convoy, though there is some shift to try and say the mandates and restrictions are a provincial matter. Which is only partially true. When the federal government offers the provinces billions of dollars in covid aid – but only on the condition that the provinces lock down – you can’t turn around and say it’s not the federal government’s responsibility. Plus, of course, the federal government has brought in its own restrictions in areas of their jurisdictions. This is an intertwined situation.

Well, last night, the city of Ottawa declared a “state of emergency”. Then send in the police to steal fuel, as well as threatening to ticket and arrest anyone who brings food or fuel to the protesters.

This was actually very clearly a staged event, intending to intimidate. They came in, they took fuel, they left.

Which, as some are pointing out, is illegal.

We don’t even need to look at the Geneva convention. In Canada, if someone doesn’t pay their heat or electric bills, it’s illegal to shut the utilities off in winter. It’s even illegal to evict people in winter. The reason is simple: doing so can (and has; that’s why the laws were brought in), kill people. Such is life in the Great White North.

A lot of the truckers are living in there trucks with their families, including children. They need to keep the rigs doing, to keep warm. No fuel, no heat. No heat, and people die. Such is life in the Great White North.

Organizers quickly put out their own press release about it.

Police were also going to start arresting anyone carrying jerry cans of fuel to the truckers, and were even arresting farmers with empty slip tanks in their pick up trucks.

The result?

People started showing up, carrying jerry cans. Full, empty, whatever. They were everywhere.

I thought this one was hilarious.

May be an image of text that says "WATER BOTT TLE DRINK BOX SORT OF THING"

If you want to know why that’s hilarious, this is why…

The police have also started handing out tickets and arresting people for minor infractions that they had to hunt for. Sometimes, just for driving by and honking a horn in support.

If you watch the video, the old guy was arrested for not showing his ID – except you saw him earlier, taking his ID out of his wallet and holding it out to the officer, who didn’t take it.

Ah, but now, it’s illegal to honk your horns in Ottawa!

Now, I’ve been in a situation where the place we lived in was invaded – occupied, you might say – by noisy protestors. They literally used noise as a weapon. This was a residential community, and we spent most of a year, constantly being harassed and abused. They went after the elderly, the disabled and even children. They held a huge, illegal block party, with non-stop drumming that left people with brain injuries and PTSD in the hospital, and even dogs were throwing up from the noise.

The police did nothing. Politicians did nothing. In fact, we had federal politicians come in from Ottawa, taking part in one of those illegal parties (there were several of them), and promoted our tormentors as heroes, while we were the villains. Constant calls and complaints accomplished nothing. Video evidence ignored. The media twisted the narrative against us. We even had police liaison officers who, when I asked directly, admitted that yes, there were two laws; one for regular people like us, and one for the people who spent most of a year tormenting us. Why? Because it was a public employee union doing the harm, and we…, well, it was just our personal, private homes, so we didn’t matter. In the long term, they lost their war against us, but the damage they caused was permanent.

So I have little tolerance for the police or politicians when they suddenly decide that a peaceful, legal protest, held in a legal location, are being given a hard time for doing things in a controlled manner. The honking, for example, is at certain times, and there is no honking at night, so anyone claiming they haven’t been able to sleep because of the honking at night is flat out lying.

Speaking of lying…

There is no evidence that any of the protestors stole food from the homeless. The incident at a soup kitchen still has nothing to show that it was actual protesters or their supporters that did it. There is so much donated food, there is more than enough for everyone, including the homeless.

In fact, the only violence has been against the convoy of protesters – but that certainly isn’t fitting the narrative!

Yeah; the guy that deliberately ran into 4 people on the side of the road was a far left extremist. And the police are classifying it as merely a “hit and run”. The protesters are slandered as racist, homophobe, nazi, Putin operatives for having a party, keeping everything clean, and making sure everyone is fed, but a guy that deliberately runs over them is just a hit and run accident.

Right.

Our Prime Dictator is still in hiding, leaving his lackeys to continue lying on his behalf. They are actually getting some push back about it all, now that the opposition Conservative party has an interim leader with balls bigger than the guy she replaced.

The Liberal mouthpiece just keeps repeating the same old lies that justify keeping the restrictions, even though we’ve known for a long time, that the evidence does not back any of it up.

The thing is, while we can – and should – argue the efficacy of things like mask mandates and specific vaccines, that’s not what the protest is about. The convoy is there so that people can have a real choice, and not be punished for making the “wrong” choice. A coerced choice is no choice at all.

Our political overlords tried to get the trucks towed away, but the tow companies have refused. Now, it’s even being said towing couldn’t possibly be done. The only way for those trucks to move, is if they are driven away – and that would take days.

Our political overlords have tried to stop the flow of money from supporters. If failed. GoFundMe allowed themselves to be bullied into taking the money, and now they have several states opening investigations into them, and facing massive losses from all the people filing to get their money back through their banks, every one of which results in a bill of about US$15, and it’s devastating them. Meanwhile, the GiveSendGo account is, as of this writing, almost US$5.5 million. This amount has been raised even though the site keeps having issues from the sheer volume of traffic, on top of DDoS attacks.

Our political overlords have tried to make the police have their “surge” and threaten to ticket and arrest everyone. At some point, people were even told they had 5 minutes to leave, or they would all be arrested. As if it were even possible for anyone to leave in only 5 minutes. Well, that failed, too, if only because they couldn’t possibly have enough manpower. They are still threatening arrests, but they the sheer number of people they would be arresting would overwhelm any facilities they have.

They’ve tried intimidation. Threats. Lies. Slander. The legacy media reports only on the counter protesters, trying to sow even more division and hate.

But in the end, the protesters and their supporters remain united, and the more our political overlords dig in their heals, the more support THEY are losing, while the convoy protestors being even more united. United in joy, love and enthusiasm.

All of this could be over very quickly. Our political overlords need only call an end to the mandates and restrictions. Let people decide for themselves.

Instead, they seem to be digging in their heels, ramping up the threats. Word is leaking out that they will be staging an all out assault.

Will this actually happen?

Pray it does not. The reality is, our political overlords are just power hungry enough to do something like this. Especially our Prime Dictator, who openly voiced his admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship”.

The problem is, they are just arrogant and narcissistic enough to think they can do that, and get away with it.

But will they truly go that far?

The Re-Farmer

The ladies are home!

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I’m happy to say that Beep Beep and Fenrir are now at home, recovering nicely. They did very well at the vet today.

Once I lifted Fenrir onto the bed to remove the bandage on her “wrist”, she settled right in, and is still sitting there as I write this.

Beep Beep, on the other hand, has been constantly in motion! I was told she had a bit of a panic when the IV was removed, and she was pretty vocal for the ride home. They are now isolated in the room with me, and she’s only just now settled down on the bed, though she is sitting and staring at the door with great intensity!

It took a while to get that bandage off of her!

We’ve got different instructions than with the outside cats. Water only for now, then a bit of food to see if they can handle solids yet, this evening. Starting tomorrow morning, we have a pain killer to give them. The dose is based on weight, which they highlighted on the package in different colours. Beep Beep is over 3kg, or about 7 pounds, while Fenrir is just barely over 2kg, or about 5 pounds. I did ask about her small size, and if it should be a concern, and was told no. She is just a small cat. As for the pain killer, we have a syringe to administer it – a much smaller one than was we used to feed Cabbages!

If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.

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We can put the medication on their food, but only if we’re sure they won’t eat each other’s food, which… ha! Not going to happen. So we will dose them directly into their mouths.

Beep Beep is not going to like that!

It should be interesting to see if she has a “catonality” change, like Butterscotch did, after this surgery.

Once I got the call telling me when to pick them up, I left early to run some errands first. One of them was to pick up the soft sided carrier used to transport Cabbages to the cat lady for medical car. This time, it did make it to the donation bin at the shelter – and I was happy to see actual donations in there, too. Last time, it was empty.

I was also able to connect with our mechanic and talk to him about our brakes on the van. I told him about what the garage in the city told me, and then the warning light turning on the next day. He thought there might be some water in the fluid, and asked me to drop it off so he can check it with his tester. Once he does that, he’ll be able to tell me more, and give me an estimate. The estimate will determine if we can get it fixed right away, or if it has to wait until the end of the month. February, at least, is a short month! :-)

I’ll also be able to give him the printout and we can talk about the other things they listed as needing to be checked out, and make any future appointments needed, as the budget allows.

I’ll be dropping the van off the day after tomorrow. He did suggest tomorrow, but the girls have their own shopping list for a city trip, so I’ll be driving in with one of them, using my mother’s car. It’s due for a highway run, anyhow.

Tomorrow, we still have a forecast of 1C/34F. Today, we warmed up to at least -8C/17C. The thermometer in the sun room reached 8C/46F, so that was quite nice for the kitties in there! And now, even my other weather apps are showing a high of 3C/37F, a few days from now. If we do get that warm, it’s going to feel downright tropical out there! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Two more down

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This morning, a daughter and I took Beep Beep and Fenrir to the vet, which meant doing the morning rounds a bit earlier.

At least it’s light out, now.

The heated water bowl was empty again.

Because Beep Beep and Fenrir needed to fast, I had them closed up with me, overnight. Which meant I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I had cats trying to claw the door open from both sides! When I made the mistake of going to the bathroom before going to bed, I had Beep Beep escape, dashing down to the basement. I caught her before she ate anything, though. Then I tried to get her back into the bedroom, only to have Fenrir escape. I caught her, only to have Beep Beep escape again, and she was NOT going to let me catch her! I finally had to snag a daughter to catch her, then hang on to her while I dashed into the bedroom, grabbed Fenrir and held on while my daughter quickly tossed Beep Beep onto the bed before any other cats got in.

I had only one carrier in the room with me, but that was enough for me to be able to get out of the room long enough to grab the second one, this morning. I had both carriers on the bed, with Beep Beep in the hard sided one (where she was trying to claw her way out!) before doing the inside cat morning routine and warming water up for the outside cats. Before heading outside, I went to move the carriers closer to the old kitchen door for later.

When I walked into my room, I found Beep Beep and the carrier gone from the bed.

!!!

I found it on the side of the bed, sitting as if it had been placed there. :-D She had managed to roll the carrier completely off the bed, and it landed right side up!

The plan was to do the critter part of my morning rounds first, then get my mother’s car started and warming up, so I made sure to hang my purse inside the sun room, so I could just grab and go.

It’s a good thing I did.

The old kitchen door into the house hadn’t latched properly behind me. Looking in from the sun room, I found it crawling with exploring cats!

Thankfully, my daughter was able to take care of that, while I went to my mother’s car – after scraping away more ice and snow, just to be able to open one of the doors wide enough – and getting everything ready so we just needed to grab the cats and go.

The drop off went well, with my daughter taking the time to warn them about some of their quirks. We just happen to be bringing two of our “meanest” cats this time. :-D

I still haven’t been able to connect with our mechanic, so we swung by the garage to see if I could talk to him about our van. Unfortunately, though it was supposed to be open, he wasn’t there. He’s on his own, so if he has to get anything, there’s no one to do it for him and he has to lock up. :-/ Hopefully, we’ll get another chance, later.

Once we got home, I was able to spend more time with our recovering kitties.

Nosencrantz doesn’t like to leave her favourite spot under the light bulb. It burnt out last night, but I found one last full spectrum bulb in our stash of incandescent bulbs – this light is meant for seedlings, not cats! :-D – but it’s brighter than the old one, so I wasn’t sure if she’s still like it. She clearly has no issues!

Butterscotch, meanwhile, has switched favourite beds! Usually, we find her in an enclosed box bed on the bottom shelf, but now she’s gone up a left and has been hanging out in the open bed. We’ve also been finding her loafed under the ceramic heat bulb more often, too.

She accepted pets, but had no interest in leaving her bed! :-D

Meanwhile, we have already heard back from the vet. They were checking details about our arrangement with the organization that’s helping us with all this, in regards to the shots and deworming and the like, as was arranged when we brought in Butterscotch and Nosencrantz.

Beep Beep had already been done and they were about to start on Fenrir. Since I had her on the phone, I brought up what they had found with Butterscotch, and how far gone her uterus was, and if there was anything similar with Beep Beep. It was quite a bit larger, and looking a bit worn out, just from having to many litters, but it was not so badly damaged as Butterscotch’s was. We don’t know how old either of them are, but I think we can now safely assume that Beep Beep is the younger one. For all we know, Butterscotch is her mother.

So we will get a call back later, to let us know when they can be picked up.

Meanwhile, the cat lady messaged me last night, with a reminder to have Beep Beep and Fenrir start their fast. While I had her, I asked about Cabbages.

Yesterday was her last day on antibiotics. Yay!! She’s eating quite a lot now, and today, she be moved out of the cage, to their “cat room.” In a few days, she will have a buddy joining her. That would be the more recent frozen cat they picked up, that lost its ears.

I’m just amazed by how quickly she’s bouncing back from being at death’s door the way she was!

If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.

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So now we are just waiting for the call from the vet, for when we can bring Beep Beep and Fenrir home. Since they are both inside cats, we won’t have to do any isolating, but we’ll be keeping a litter box, food and water in my office/bedroom for a while, so they don’t have to go far.

The next trip to the vet, in a couple of weeks, we’ll be taking cats in, and they won’t be coming back. The cat lady will be taking them to fosters for recovery, and then they will be adopted into forever homes. As she’s able to book dates with the vet, we’ll keep doing that for the rest of the adoptable cats (the males are already fixed, as is one female) through March and April. By then, we should be able to start snagging outside cats, starting with the ones we can catch easily (which all happen to be male). Then, once it’s warm enough to do so safely, she will lend us traps for the outside cats that we haven’t been able to socialize at all.

It’s going to be weird, to not have so many cats around!

The Re-Farmer

Morning critters

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Butterscotch and Nosencrantz were doing very well, this morning. They both seem to be enjoying their recovery period in the sun room! Nosencrantz wants more attention than Butterscotch, but not enough that I can get a good look to see how the ear mite status is. Butterscotch is still so much calmer now. She’ll come over for pets and I was even able to pick her up this morning, but she will not let me check the surgical site. I’m not about to risk injuring it by forcing her; so as long as there aren’t any concerning warning signs, I figure she’s doing fine. Amazingly, she still has shown no interest in trying to escape the sun room, which is so totally different from the past. Granted, when we were trying to keep her in the sun room for lengths of time before, it was because she was about to have kittens. Once she had them, she was more than content to let Beep Beep parent both litters while she tore her way through the screen on the old door.

If this behavioural change keeps up, Butterscotch may actually be willing to become an indoor cat!

We shall see. After all those years outdoors, it would be nice for her final years to be in comfort and safety.

By the time I’m done taking care of the sun room kitties, there’s usually a crowd outside the door, waiting for their kibble! Chadiccus, however, was much more polite about it and wanting attention before food. :-)

The water in the heated bowl was almost completely gone again, and it had been very full. It does make me wonder what other critters are coming around at night, to drink. The snow around the kibble house and water bowls is too hard packed for tracks. One of these days, it would be nice to have a spare camera set up on the area, just to see what’s going on! :-)

I’ve not been seeing quite as many cats, all at once, of late. I haven’t seen Potato Beetle in a while. Since he came back, he had been more aggressive about being the Alpha male – though he was tackling the females as much as the males. That seemed to end after I found him with that injury above one eye. It was pretty minor and healing up nicely, the last I saw, but it seems that battle lost him his status. I think I might have seen him this morning, but he slunk away before I could get a good look and be sure.

While putting the food and water out, I heard a loud yowling from the outer yard. I’ve heard it before, but when I when to check, I couldn’t see where it was coming from. This time, I saw Creamsicle Baby out by the pump shack. I’m still not sure it was him, as he’s developed a very squeaky little meow. I went to check closer and decided the pump shack door needed to be shoveled out.

This is where the cats usually get in and out of the pump shack. When the driveway was cleared, a pile of snow was made near the pump shack. While it does not block the door, there’s a ridge of snow in front that’s pretty high. With the winds we’ve been having, more snow has drifted in front of the door. The cats are still squeezing their way through, as you can see in the photo above, but I wanted to make it easier for them. It took breaking up a lot of snow with the ice chipper before I could dig a path, but I got it clear.

The door opens inward, so I didn’t have to worry about digging it out too much. Once I got it clear enough, I went in and cleared away some snow that had blown through the hole.

I had a bit of a surprise when I opened the door, though. One of the lights was on! I forgot to shut it off, the last time I was in there. It’s a CFL bulb, not very bright, and not near a window facing the house, so we never saw that it was on. :-D Ah, well. No harm done.

When repairing the south facing window of the pump shack a couple of summers ago, I deliberately left an opening that used to have the chimney from a wood burning stove running through it. The stove is long gone, but with a pile of tires on the outside, and various junk on the inside, it’s a way for the cats to get in and out. The shack itself is just a frame with cladding on the outside, and I noticed a new hole in the wall, where some cladding has broken. It’s not visible from the outside, as there are sheets of aluminum against the bottom of the wall on that side.

On our list of things to work on is to fix up the pump shack. The concrete floor is badly cracked up, and the old cladding – which would be quite a bit older than I am – is looking water damaged and has gaps. It would be awesome to turn this building into a little workshop and, of course, we want to get the old well repaired. There is a lot of stuff in there I just don’t know what to do with, including bags of ancient clothing and rolled up awnings stuffed into the rafters, broken furniture, an old fridge that I remember my parents using for cream cans, and even an old, tiny, two burner electric stove sitting in the corner where the wood burning cookstove used to be. That old cookstove was what we used to heat water for baths, before my dad had the well dug next to the house and got running water and an indoor bathroom. If we can fix the well and fix up the pump shack, we could turn it into a summer kitchen for canning.

That would be very handy.

After clearing a cat path to the door, I put feed out for the deer and birds – interrupting two deer that were at the feeding station! I had to interrupt them again, to go switch out the memory cards on the trail cam by the sign.

That location is a real pain to get to in the winter!!! At least I don’t have to switch the cards as often, there. Between the snow and the plow ridges, I’m not at all concerned that our vandal will fight his way over to the sign and try to steal it, like the old one, or damage it.

Not even the deer will go through the area in front of the sign! A nicely plowed road is so much easier. :-D

Coming back to the house, I found these two babies, bellies full and watching the world go by in warmth and comfort!

These cats may be semi-feral, but they do get pampered as much as we can! :-D

Rolando Moon had claimed the prime real estate! She’s such a meany to the other cats, they don’t even try to fight her for this favourite spot.

Gosh, that expression! :-D

While still a bit chilly today, we’re supposed to warm up quite a bit tomorrow – perfect for taking Beep Beep and Fenrir in to the vet. My Weather Network app on my desktop has suddenly gone haywire, so I used the app that came with my computer.

Of course, all the apps are showing something different, since they all seem to be connected to different weather stations, even though they’re all supposed to be for our specific area. This is the only one that is showing us going above freezing, in the long range forecast. Above freezing in the middle of February? Yeah, I’ll take that, thanks. It’ll make things messy, but I’d rather have a nice, slow melt of all this snow, then for things to warm up all at once, later on. With the amount of snow we have this winter, as much as it’s needed, if it melts before the municipalities get a chance to clear the ditches, we’ll get flooding. Where we are doesn’t get too bad anymore. When I was a kid, there were a couple of sections of road that would get washed out every spring. Since then, a network of municipal drainage ditches have been dug through farmers’ fields that have been doing a good job of preventing that, as has taking trees out along the sides of the roads in strategic locations. There are still a couple of spots that are at risk of being washed out, if there is enough snowmelt all at once, but we are able to use alternative routes to avoid them.

If we have a wet enough spring, we might even be able to do a controlled burn in some sections of the outer yard this year. Wouldn’t that be nice!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Seeing those warmer temperatures in the forecast has me looking way too far ahead right now! :-D

The Re-Farmer

If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.

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Speedy

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Since we switched to Starlink, not all that long ago, I’ve been quite happy with the improvement of my internet speed and connectivity. Especially the connectivity. That was the biggest issue with our old satellite provider. We were paying an awful lot for limited data, and the connectivity just kept getting worse and worse.

Now, my “office” is in the corner of my bedroom, where the external walls are log. Even with a wi-fi booster, just being set up where I am is probably the worst part of the house to get wi-fi. Plus, my desktop is rather old and having a harder time keeping up with the newer technology. Still, with a little booster set up, and the improved connectivity with Starlink, I was quite content with my desktop’s internet speeds.

My husband was not.

He also wasn’t satisfied with the bare bones router that came with the Starlink system. They actually upgraded while we were in line for it, so it’s not what people are getting now. One issue was that the router had only one port in it. My husband likes to have his computer wired directly, but we also need to connect our security camera.

So he ended up getting a NETGEAR Orbi Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System (RBK852) – Router with 1 Satellite Extender (not an affiliate link). The extender is set up in the living room; another wi-fi semi-dead zone.

Also, you can set up a payment plan. There was no way we could have afforded it, otherwise!

He got that set up, and was seeing huge increases in speed on his desktop. Plus, he could be directly wired in with his computer, and the security camera could be, too, though still with the original Starlink router. It won’t work with wi-fi 6. Too old. So we’ve got both running at the same time.

Me?

Meh.

In fact, when I first tried to log onto the new network, I lost all ability to do anything online. It turns out that I just needed to give it more time to set up in the background. Whatever. I wasn’t unhappy with my wi-fi, so I honestly didn’t care. I was good with what I had.

My husband was not.

The other thing he picked up was for my desktop. A new wi-fi card to enable me to get wi-fi 6. (also, not an affiliate link).

He just finished setting it up for m. I now have antennae sticking out the back of my tower. :-D He also set me up with the new network.

So, of course, I did a speed test once I settled at my computer.

The results always fluctuate, of course, but right now, not only am I able to use the new router’s signal, but my speed is dramatically improved.

This is the history of speed tests I did today. Can you tell when the new card was installed? :-D

It turns out my computer is so old, it couldn’t read the installation mini-disk that came with the card. My husband had to read it on his own computer, download it onto a thumb drive, then use that to install the wi-fi card on my desktop.

What would I do without my awesome, techy husband? :-D

My phone consistently got better speeds than my desktop. While my desktop saw an improvement because of the new wi-fi card, this is what my phone got, just with the new router.

The download speed is about 50-60% improved from what I would typically get using my phone.

Yes, I was quite content with what I had, but I’m going to quite appreciate this upgrade!

The Re-Farmer

Back to our regular programming – Cats!

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We had another storm sweep through the area, but that climate bubble sitting over us resulted in our having a bit of snow and wind, but nothing that could possibly be called a storm.

The outside cats are quite good with that!

Especially since it’s also warming up a bit.

I even got to pet the Distinguished Guest this morning.

Their heated water bowl was almost completely empty this morning. That actually made it easier to clean. I could scrub the bottom with snow, then just scoop out the dirty snow.

The metal water bowls were, of course, filled with ice. These are all old stainless steel frying pans with their handles broken off. I’ve found they make the best water bowls, as they can handle a lot of abuse. Like being kicked and stomped until the break loose from the ice and snow.

I wasn’t able to get a photo, but after getting one of them loose, there was something strange and mirror-like under it.

The pan had split!

This pan had one of those multi-layer bases for even heat distribution. Between getting filled with warm water, then frozen to the ground, then kicked loose, repeatedly, the base layer finally just popped right off! I look forward to getting a better look at it, once the ground thaws. I’m not going to bother trying to dig it out, now. :-D

Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are doing very well in the sun room. After moving the sheets of rigid insulation I had to reduce drafts from the window, Butterscotch now likes to sit there, under the ceramic heater bulb. Nosnecrantz, meanwhile, prefers sitting on the fixture! We’ve got the full spectrum light bulb hanging from the top of the mini-greenhouse frame we’re using to hold all this, with the board the ceramic heater bulb supported by the top shelf. I had some concerns about leaving the light on constantly, since I thought the cats might actually want full darkness at time, but Nosencrantz loves it. Though there are several soft beds in boxes she can choose from, she’s preferring to sleep on a board, under the light! I’m guessing the board itself is a bit warm, just from rising heat from the ceramic bulb.

Speaking of warm, check this out.

Not only are we still expected to reach 1C/34F in a couple of days, but now we’re supposed to reach 3C/37F a couple of days later!

With more snow.

Whatever. I’m loving this milder February we’re having this year!

The Re-Farmer

Crumbling down (convoy talk)

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There’s stuff going on so quickly right now, it’s hard to keep up, but I’ll just start with this video, to give you a taste of what’s going on with the Freedom Convoy. If, for some reason, a video below doesn’t load for you, try clicking here. (original TikTok source) This is from the lawyer representing the Freedom Convoy.

Right from this morning, I was hearing some of the most infuriating things regarding the Freedom Convoy. One of the radio stations aired questions messaged to them. In part of it, while “graciously” acknowledging the right to peaceful protest, they went on to ask, what gives people the right to use vehicles?

Seriously? Suddenly, the right to protest is limited to… what? People on foot? There have been many protests that included cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs and even horses. But now, it’s suddenly in question?

Then there was the question of, what gives protestors rights over the general public?

Has this person never seen a protest before? Especially all the “mostly peaceful” protests during Trump’s presidency that included riots, vandalism, theft, arson, assault and murder?

More than that, the protestors are protesting legally, and have the exact same rights as the general public. But this person seems to believe that, because they don’t like this particular protest, they should be denied rights all Canadians are supposed to have?

It’s right up there with people demanding that the protestors have to be quiet and super polite, and must never show strong emotions – which always get interpreted as “angry” (as if there’s something wrong with being angry over what our governments have done to us over the past two years). Also, see the statement above out protests we’ve seen in the past few years.

The person who shared this had sent in their own response, which did not get aired. The narrative must be upheld!

Speaking of narrative, our government overlords and the media are doubling down on the hateful rhetoric, slander and outright lies.

But before I touch on that more, that $10million that was raised to support the truckers through GoFundMe? Money the government has been salivating over? Or at least Ottawa’s mayor. Well, they succeed in having the account frozen, and now it’s shut down. GoFundMe is claiming they have police reports of violence, and that the protest has become an “occupation”. Which is utter BS. The police have suddenly started issuing a slough of tickets, mostly for traffic violations. I’m curious how they ticketed someone for speeding, when the trucks are all just sitting there. And the only violence has been against the truckers, not by them.

Basically, GoFundMe has stolen $9million ($1 had already been released, to help pay for things like fuel). The statement at the site said something about working with the organizers to have the money donated to the charity of their choosing. People, however, donated to help the truckers, and all over the various social media groups I’m following, they are demanding refunds.

Also, a new Bitcoin fundraiser has already been started. People want to support the truckers, and GoFundMe is hardly the only way to do it. Frankly, I am not surprised they did this, given their history of double standards. Lord knows, they’ve allowed fundraisers for things that absolutely went against their terms of service, but they looked the other way.

This press conference below was done yesterday, before GoFundMe stabbed them in the back, and they were still thinking things would work out.

This move is going to be a whole lot of mud on GoFundMe’s face.

As usual, The Rubin Report covered the story well.

I tried to embed a video from Facebook but it’s not working, so here is a link. This was a live stream from someone that’s been an online friend of mine for years, and a real standup guy. He was at the Coutts border protest, and makes reference to Jason Kenney, the Alberta Premier, who has proven to be completely untrustworthy. The RCMP have also proven to be untrustworthy. Definitely worth clicking through and giving him a listen.

Viva Frei has been covering the whole thing a lot, including many live streams. Here, he talks about the GoFundMe fiasco.

He interviews people taking part in the protest in this video.

Gosh. All those crazy, “white nationalists”.

Here’s from another guy who’s in the middle of it all.

True North is among the independent media that are reporting accurately. This next video is a “fake news Friday” show and covers the media issue rather well.

The independent Rebel News also asks a very good question.

Why are the truckers being treated differently than past protestors?

Also, the truckers are making sure there are lanes open, so that people can get to work and emergency vehicles can get by. People complaining about not being able to get through are lying. Likewise, claims that they are hurting small businesses (as the government hasn’t been destroying small businesses for the past two years), when the protestors are actually giving places more business than they’ve had in years – when they’re not being jerks to the protestors, that is.

Check this out… people came for a protest, and a dance party broke out.

While this has been going on in Ottawa, other convoys of people who couldn’t go to Ottawa and converging on their own provincial legislatures, and even smaller towns are organizing their own protests in support of the Freedom Convoy. Some started today, while others will be held tomorrow. Oh, and there are still more trucks on their way to Ottawa. In some cities, the police have created blockades to stop the protestors which, ironically enough, is creating more disruption than the protestors would have, in the first place.

If you were to listen to the media and our government overlords, you would be told that these people are violent, rage filled racists, misogynists and homophobes. One of the stories I caught this morning mentioned a business in the area (at least I assume it is in the area) that found their front window broken – a business that just happened to have a pride flag displayed. The implication was that this was done by the truckers, because they’re homophobes, but there was absolutely nothing to support that. It’s just the narrative they want to frame. Oh, and the business went ahead and opened, anyway, with the broken window boarded up. Just more media manipulation.

So why would the media be lying like this? Well, our own Prime Dictator bragged about that, back in 2019.

Yes, he was leading into a joke on this, and went on to read some of the few critical headlines about him. The reality is, all our government approved media is dependent on the government. Aside from the $600million of our tax dollars he’s joking about, they are being kept afloat with all the Covid ads, also paid for with tax dollars. Governments don’t have their own money. It all comes from us. And right now, they are doubling down in slandering the Freedom Convoy, and whipping up anger and hatred. Since the protestors themselves have been doing things like dancing, singing, shoveling snow, feeding people and being an incredibly loving, passionate, positive and peaceful group, that has managed to not rise to the bait while being goaded, these media have no other option than to just lie through their teeth.

It’s the government rhetoric that is most troubling. The language they are using to describe the protest, now calling it an “occupation” in a militarized sense (not like when the Occupy movement actually did engage in occupations, apparently), and doubling down, is very troubling.

Someone had brought up an interesting point. In India, they gained their independence through peaceful protest. Non-violence was their method. What was pointed out is that this only worked because they were up against the British who, for all the things they may have done, did still have a sense of objective morality. They may not have lived up to that morality very well, but it was there. It would not have worked if they had tried such non-violent protests in, say, the USSR. Their morality was completely different, and they had no problem just slaughtering people. Which they did, at times, to the tune of millions dead over the years. I have family who were involved in Poland’s fight for freedom from Communist rule. Some of them permanently damaged by the beatings they got as they fought for freedoms we have been taking for granted. The Polish people did eventually win, but it was not “peaceful” or non-violent. It couldn’t be, because of what they were up against.

What I fear is that our government overlords are a lot more like Soviet Russia. Listening to them, I feel they are priming us for something drastic, so that when it happens, people will blame the truckers instead of the government.

Canada has been living under medical tyranny, and the powers that be are not willing to give up that power, just because people they view with contempt are finally standing up to it.

How far are they willing to go to keep that power?

It feels like everything is crumbling, but I can’t tell which way the pieces are falling.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2022 garden: first seeds started

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Though it is very early in the year, we have our first seeds started indoors today. A lot of people in our zone have already got seedlings, while still others are saying, it’s way too early.

So which is it?

I happened on a video today, talking about planting peppers and eggplants, which we are doing for the first time this year. Both are plants we never grew when I was a kid, so I have zero familiarity with them.

This particular video mentioned something I’ve never heard before, yet had wondered about.

When reading the seed packets, they say things like “start indoors 4-6 weeks before last frost date”.

Last year, we had a lot of issues with some things not germinating. Some took forever to germinate. Others never did at all. This was particularly true of various squash, plus all the Hope Black Dye sunflowers – with did finally all germinate, when I started taking the trays outside, while hardening off other seedlings.

What got mentioned in this video, is that when they say “4-6 weeks before last frost,” it’s actually from germination, not from planting the seeds. So if you have something that needs to be started, say, 6 weeks before last frost, but the packet says the seeds take 7-10 days to terminated, then the time to start them indoors is 6 weeks, plus 7-10 days.

That actually makes so much more sense to me.

I’d already made a list of which seeds needed to be started when, and these were the ones that needed at least 8 weeks.

The gourds were started first, as they needed extra steps. Among the things recommended that I wanted to try was scarification and pre-soaking.

So that’s what I started this morning.

Of the gourds we will be trying to grow this year, I chose the Canteen gourd to start early, as the gourds are supposed to get quite large. The other gourds I want to grow are smaller at full maturity.

Which lead me to another thing. With the luffa, we’re not after “days to maturity”, which is 110 days, if I remember correctly. We’re after the sponges, so we need for those mature gourds to dry out. That puts them at 200 days. Even starting now, we might not have that long for them. It will depend on whether or not we get another really long summer again. Of course, in the end, everything depends on the weather.

I chose 6 of the plumpest, healthiest looking seeds from each, then carefully snipped their outer shells with a nail clipper, before putting them inside the folds of a paper towel.

Then they went into sandwich baggies, and the insides were sprayed with water, before being sealed and left to sit. Most places recommended leaving them overnight, but I left them “overday” instead. ;-)

Then they went into planting pots filled with pre-moistened seed starting soil. My daughter used a chopstick to push them the inch into the soil they needed to go. Once covered, the tops of the soil got sprayed with water.

Then it was time to take a look at the rest of the seeds and see what we had to work with. None of the packets have a lot of seeds in them, but we are not after a lot of individual plants.

The Sophie’s Choice tomato was a conundrum for me. Everything I read about them said they needed to be started very early; a couple of weeks earlier than other tomatoes. Yet they are an early tomato, with only 55 days to maturity. At only 55 days, we could start them outdoors and they’d have plenty of time to mature. Odd.

For all but the Wonderberry, we decided to plant about 5 seeds per pot, and three pots each. With the gourds, that filled an entire tray.

The Wonderberry got planted using the double cup method. I reused some of the Red Solo cups we used last year, with the inner cups having drainage holes in the bottom, so they can be watered from below, using the outer cup.

We still had seeds left over, even with how little was in each packet, so that’s nice.

We used more boxes to bring the tray and cups closer to the lights, inside the big aquarium greenhouse. The heat mat fits under the tray. I’m hoping that just being near the mat as well as close to the light fixtures, one of which does warm up, will be good enough to adequately warm the Wonderberry in their cups.

The double cups got water in their bottoms before they were put in place, and water was added to the tray once it was settled on the heat mat. We do still have a little fan blowing into the tank, though it’s over the orchids and aloe in the other corner. We won’t be able to cover these with a plastic dome, as typically recommended, so I’ll be making sure to use a spray bottle to keep the tops moistened, since the smaller seeds are so much closer to the surface. There’s quite a bit of water in the tray so, with the heat mat, that should help increase the humidity levels, with the fan hopefully keeping things from starting to mold.

The heat mat doesn’t have a thermometer, nor do we have a soil thermometer, so we’ll have to monitor these fairly closely. Everything is plugged into a power bar, which gets shut off every night, so there will at least be that break. If it seems to be getting too warm – unlikely, for what we’ve got planted in there – we can put something under the tray to elevate it. Once the seeds germinate, we can probably take the mat out entirely.

The next things we’ll be starting are the onions, which won’t need the heat mat, but when it comes time to start the rest of the tomatoes, and all the squash, we’ll need both the heat mat and space – and space is going to be harder to come by! We do have a mini greenhouse, the frame of which we are currently using in the sun room to hold the heater bulb for Butterscotch and Nosencratnz, as they recover. We did try to use it in the living room last year, as it does have a zippered cover, but the cats still managed to get into it. If we could find some way to keep the cats out of it, it would go a long way to helping with our space issues!

We’ll figure something out.

The main thing is, we’ve got stuff started that need that extra time indoors.

Yay!!

The Re-Farmer

Being watched!

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Before heading outside to do my morning rounds, I could see we had a deer at the feeding station outside our living room window, digging around in the snow, looking for seeds. I could also see another deer through our kitchen window, just outside the chain link fence into the inner yard, nuzzling around the snow, looking for something.

I’m not sure what. It was standing were we unload the van, now that we can’t drive into the yard, but we didn’t drop anything there.

I expected to spook it away when I came out to feed the critters. Which I did – but not as much as usual!

The deer ran into the yard through the vehicle gate, then followed the shovelled path the back of the garage, then up to the compost pile.

It was a very casual sort of run.

I did find it amusing, how dedicated it was in following the shoveled paths, instead of running straight through the yard!

The shoveled path turns towards the house from the compost pile, but the deer just stopped and stayed there.

Watching me, as I took care of the cats’ food and water. Even when I walked across to the kibble tray under the shrine, it stayed, watching me!

It wasn’t until I came towards it, carrying the container of feed, that it and the other deer ran into the bushes.

Well. More like a fast walk than a run.

Then they watched from from the trees for a while, as I went around the house. They did take off before I reached the feeding station and scattered the feed, but I didn’t see them actually leave the yard. Usually, they take off running, jump the fence, then cross to my younger brother’s property, across the road.

These two are definitely getting used to my moving around the yard a lot more!

The cats were happy for a kibble top up. :-)

Butterscotch and Nozencrantz continue their recovery in the sun room. They got treated with a can of wet cat food for breakfast. They definitely like shredded better than pate! :-D

Both are more active, and Beep Beep even made like she was interested in going back outside which, of course, I discouraged! They seem to still be okay with staying in the sun room by themselves as they recover.

When I heard from the cat lady today, one of the things she mentioned was dropping off our cat carrier, that was used for Cabbages, at the shelter in town. When my husband also let me know that a package he was expecting was in, we took advantage of the situation and made the Chinese food order we meant to do a few days ago! You know. Since I was going to be in town, anyway… ;-)

As I started heading out with the van, just turning onto the road from our driveway, a warning light turned on that I’d never seen before. Then the onboard computer started showing a message to check our brakes system.

!!!

When I took the van to get the oil changes yesterday, they checked some other stuff and gave me a list of things to get looked at. One of them was the brake fluid. Apparently, it’s dirty.

Now, suddenly, I’m getting warning lights?

Hmm.

Thankfully, we have my mother’s car as a back up! I parked the van and used my mothers car to go into town.

We’ll be using my mother’s car until we can get the van looked at. Brakes is one thing I don’t want to mess with!

I was very happy not to have to cancel the food order we’d just made! It’s been probably a year since we’ve ordered take out, and my goodness we were craving food we haven’t cooked ourselves!

When I finally got there, the owner even commented, “long time no see!” :-D We have never ordered often, but when we do, it’s a large order. Enough to feed us for a few days, and almost all meat items. We can do rice, noodles or vegetables ourselves, but we can’t recreate their protein dishes at home! It’s enough for them to remember me, even after such a long time!

The nice thing about having to use my mother’s car is, it has butt warmers in the front seats. I was able to use it to help keep the food warm while I went hunting for the animal shelter. It’s in an industrial park, next to a small airport, that I haven’t driven around in for more than 20 years and, even then, I hadn’t gone to that particular area since I was an Air Cadet while in high school! I drove past it three times before I finally saw it. Mostly because the snow around the building was undisturbed. Clearly, no activity is happening around it. Around the back was a cleared parking area, next to the back door and a donation box, which is where the carrier was supposed to be left. The building itself was closed; a sign on the door said it was open by appointment only.

!!

The carrier wasn’t there, though, and there was no signs in the snow showing that anyone else had been there. It turned out the cat lady hadn’t made it yet, having had to make an unplanned trip to another town to pick up another frozen cat.

No complaints from me, that’s for sure!

It’ll be waiting for us at the vet clinic, when we bring Beep Beep and Fenrir in to get spayed.

So we didn’t get the carrier, but we did get Chinese food!

I’m happy with that. :-)

Thankfully, we don’t need to go anywhere else again, until we bring the cats in to the vet. It’s supposed to start snowing tonight, and keep snowing all through tomorrow, for a total of 6-10cm/2-4in. Then we’re supposed to warm right up, with a high of -4C/25F on Monday, when we bring the cats to the vet, then +1C/34F the day after!

With more snow.

Because, of course. :-D

The Re-Farmer