Author: Re-Farmer

The Call of the wild… mama

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Our mama cat has been very vocal for the past while.

That, in itself, is not unusual.  Her boy is a very quiet cat, but she has always been more talkative.

What was unusual is that as I moved around the house, she would run ahead to whatever window she could reach in the area.  I go to the entry, she’s at the outer door, meowing out the window.  I go to the kitchen, she’s up by the aquarium, yowling out the screen (where we still have that frog; it’s been leaving every night, then comes back by morning!).  I go to the living room, she follows me there…

Which was when I noticed Butterscotch’s kittens were out and running around.  They were brave enough to come up to the steps of the house.  I even got a few pictures, though I only saw three of the four kittens.

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Then I moved to the front door to see them better.

When we open the inner door, we put our little step ladder in front of it, so the cats can sit at it and look out the window.  Because we’re sucks that way.

As soon as I got to the door, our mama cat was on her ladder, front paws on the screen, yeowling away.

Which is when I realized, she wanted the kittens!  In the past, when I’ve been looking at YouTube videos of kittens that were meowing, she would come running into the room, looking for the kittens.  She seemed so upset not to find any that I stopped watching these videos unless they were muted!

Our mama wants to be a mama to the kittens outside!

The kittens have a very good mama already taking care of them, though.

This is from yesterday.

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As for today, when the kittens heard us at the door, they stopped to watch us for a while, then ran off to their nest in the wood pile.

Our mama is still calling for them every now and then!

Oh, how I wish we could get close to the kittens to socialize them! :-)

The Re-Farmer

 

Dramatic skies, and apple tree down

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Yesterday, after picking my daughter up from work, the girls and I went straight to visit my awesome, amazing older brother and his wife for the evening.

The storm warnings had returned, but the skies were clear at the time, if incredibly windy all day.  The winds died down enough that we were able to eat outside, then have a fire going to toast marshmallows.  It was so wonderful to just sit outside together, talking and enjoying each others’ company.  I just wish my husband had been able to come out, too, but if he had, he would never have been able to handle the length of the visit.

Chronic pain really sucks.

While we were outside, we did see some pretty dramatic skies!

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The clouds were moving fast, so we saw all sorts of interesting shapes passing by.  When it first started to rain, though, the sky above us was clear! :-D  After a while, though, it started to come down a bit harder, so we packed up and went in.  By then it was late enough to start heading home, which was about an hour and a half’s drive.

While we were away, my husband sent us some updates to let us know it was coming down pretty hard at home.  It was all done by the time we made the drive, but as soon as we turned off the highway onto the gravel road, we drove through a bit patch where the road was covered with twigs and branches from someone’s willow.  Some smaller trees along the road were downed.  (Interestingly, I later found out the my husband’s dead CPAP machine, which he has left plugged in, actually flickered to life during the storm.  Just a flicker.  Odd.)

When we got home, we decided to park in the yard by the house, instead of the garage.  As I drove in, the first thing I saw in my headlights was a branch on the ground.  So while the girls brought things into the house, I grabbed a flashlight and did a circuit around the house.  Nothing major, but it was clear it was going to be another day needing a wheelbarrow to clear up everything that came down.

Then this morning, as I glance out the north facing bedroom window, I see this.

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One of the apple trees had come down, too.

I don’t think this one was doing very well this year.   It never really bloomed, and I couldn’t see any apples on it when I checked it out.  Most of it had already been pruned away, before we moved out here.  I’m not surprised that this one came down.  I’m more surprised it was the only one.

Thanks to my brother, though, I have chain oil for my birthday gift – summer and winter oil, even, and enough to last a very long time! – so later today I will break it down and haul away the pieces.  When making plans to visit, I’d asked about what stores were near their place, after entertaining them about why I needed more oil so quickly (see link above), and my brother was sweet enough to pick some up before we got out there. :-)  That meant we didn’t have to rush to any stores before they closed, and could go straight to visiting.

I have awesome family!

Since it’s an apple tree, I will keep the pieces separate, so I can use the wood for crafting purposes. :-)

I will be sticking to just the necessary clean up for today, though, since I do try to keep Sunday as a day of rest, even if we haven’t found a church yet out here.  There will be more than enough to catch up on, later!  Things are supposed to cool down for the next week, so I’m hoping to be able to continue clearing out the rest of the maple grove and not risk heat stroke! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Beach Views and Power

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After dropping my daughter off at work this morning, I went by the beach and took a bit of a walk.

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I was able to catch a whole lot of seagulls, just as they were taking off!

This morning, our power was hooked up to the garage and barn.  Yay!

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In order to detach the existing line from the old pole, the old pole had to be pushed down.

Despite being broken already, it was not easy to do!  That core was still hanging on pretty hard.

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That platform that broke off the top of the pole once held a bird house.  My late brother built the birdhouse, then scrambled up the pole to install it, many years ago.  We didn’t have a ladder tall enough to reach all the way, so he climbed the pole itself for the top few feet – somehow bringing the bird house and the tools he needed at the same time!

The new pole is even taller, so no normal vehicle going under there will ever get caught!  And there’s almost no sag in the middle at all, either.

Then the power got hooked up to the barn, which meant new line from the main pole to a secondary pole, then to the barn.

So happy it’s finally done!

Unfortunately, there seems to have been an unexpected victim of the power being shut off twice while the work was done.

My husband’s CPAP no longer works.

It wasn’t on while the work was being done, but there is still power going to it.  Perhaps a fuse got blown?  No matter.  It’s dead.  And he just got replacement hose, nose piece and filters for it!

Thankfully, now that my husband is sleeping on a hospital bed, he can adjust it to sleep in an upright position; he should be able to breath that way until we can replace the CPAP.  We do have insurance that covers most of the cost, but we’d have to buy it first, then send in a receipt.  So that will have to wait a couple of weeks!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

More Kittens, and hot stuff!

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Butterscotch’s kittens came out to play again this morning.   Which, unfortunately, happened to also be at prime reflections-on-the-window time, so getting any decent photos as all was a challenge!

But, I did get a few. :-D

No sign of any cats at all right now, in the early evening.  I suspect they have all found ways to hide away to beat the heat!

2018-07-13.heat.warning

37C = 98.6F
39C = 102.2F

Much to my surprise, we are no longer getting thunderstorm warnings.  Though, from what I hear, the city we moved away from got hit with a massive one this morning.  The weather system was moving in from that direction, so perhaps that’s why we are no longer predicted to get any.

After picking my younger daughter up from work, the girls and I swung by the grocery store and they picked up birthday cake and ice cream for me.  The ice cream is going to help beat the heat, too!

I will now go finish my bowl of ice cream before it turns into a bowl of creamy soup. :-D

The Re-Farmer

For Real? LOL

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My older daughter came with me when it was time to pick up her sister from work.  Since UPS hadn’t delivered my birthday present yet, I asked my husband, who had had to lie down again, to be up in case they came while we were gone.  We also made sure the gate wasn’t locked when we left; it was just closed and not even latched.

Along the way, we saw our shaggy friends again.

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I wish you could see the babies better!  They are so adorable.

When we got home, we found this.

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Yeah.  They just slid? tossed? pushed? it past the gate.

Seriously?  Could they not figure out how to open it?  Or did they just decide not to come in?  I mean, I know UPS will leave packages at doors when no one was home, but this isn’t even anywhere near the house!

But you know what?  I don’t care.  IT’S FINALLY HERE!!

*doing the happy dance*

20180712.delivery

There she is!  My new toy!

Yes, I made sure to read the instructions first.

Then I went and took down part of that big branch that was hanging off a tree behind the storage house.  I couldn’t get all of it; the pole isn’t anywhere near long enough for that, but at least I won’t be having to push past the hanging branches when I mow through there.

Then I went around different areas, taking down some branches with the extended pole, then converting back to chain saw mode and starting on some trees and stumps.  I got a couple of larger dead tree trunks down, which required some careful maneuvering with a blade that’s only 8 inches long.  Then I started cutting some of the tall stumps I’d left behind to ground level.  Turned on its side, it can cut quite close to the ground, which I really appreciate!

I even got the smaller of the two dead spruce trees that had been covered with vines down.  Not to ground level, as it is too wide at the base, and the second tree will have to wait for a full size chain saw.

Unfortunately, I’m already out of bar and chain oil.

I expected it to be used up quickly after the first fill, since it’s a first use and the whole thing would have been bone dry.  However, I also did a dumb.  I refilled it once, noticing it was already completely empty (there is a window on the side where you can see the oil level).  Shortly after, I noticed it was getting low again, so I added more.  After topping up the oil, I put the bottle away, came back, used the saw once to cut a skinny tree stump to ground level, and suddenly realized I hadn’t put the oil cap back on.

I just just poured all the out out by accident.

I used the last of my oil to refill it, but it was only a small bottle (which you can see in the photo), so there wasn’t enough left to completely fill it.  I was able to finish cutting flat as many stumps as I could for now.  There are some older ones from trees cut down before we moved here that are higher, but also too thick for my little blade.

I am so happy with this thing!  I can hardly wait to get into the last section of the spruce grove.  I already went through it yesterday evening, taking out the dead branches that were already on the ground.

I just have to pick some more bar and chain oil, first!

:-D

The Re-Farmer

Three Little Kittens…

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… have come out to play.

DSC.three.kittens.png

Three of Butterscotch’s 4 kittens came out to play this evening.

I haven’t seen Beep Beep’s kittens in a couple of days.  I hope she didn’t move them.  They’re a bit big for that, and she’s a tiny cat!

The Re-Farmer

Caged

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In the heat of summer, the old farmhouse does tend to stay cooler, even without air conditioning.  On really hot days, we would open up the basement doors to allow the cool air to circulate as a sort of geothermal air conditioning.

Since we haven’t started clearing and cleaning the basement, and there is too much breakable stuff to risk the cats, we have been keeping the basement doors closed.

While my brother was here today, he wanted to check out the basement in hopes of finding the fan that used to be there.  He had already taken out the glass window to the old part basement out and popped on the metal mesh window that is meant to be there for the summer.  Once inside, he removed the foam insulation that was there, so we now have some natural light and a bit of air circulation.

He then showed me where the fan was supposed to be, and described it more to me as he indicated how it fit on the ledge he’d built for it.  We even went into the new part basement to look around, but there’s no sign of it.  (For now, we’re leaving the foam insulation in the new part basement windows; there’s really no need to take it out.)

While there, he dragged out an industrial blower.  He had shown it to me before, but I somehow never thought it was something that could be used like a regular fan.  With the basement being dry right now, I wasn’t concerned.  It’s there to make sure the concrete stays dry, so the base of the furnace doesn’t start rusting, even though it’s slightly elevated from the floor.  He plugged it in and it’s working fine, so we at least have that aimed at the base of the furnace, and it’s powerful enough that it’s going to move a whole lot of air at the same time.

It’s been another warm day, and my husband is having a harder time of it; he’s always been someone who prefers cooler to warmer temperatures, but now his tolerance for heat is much lower.  We’ve been trying to think of ways we could open the basement door without letting the cats in.  We’ve thought of getting a screen door, or of one of those stick on mesh curtains.  Now that I think of it, we might not need to buy a screen door.  There might be one in a shed somewhere, though what sort of condition it might be in is something else to consider!

My husband, however, had a brilliant idea.

We have grid wall.

Or, more specifically, we have our daughter’s grid wall from her art festival displays.

They are 4×6 ft, and we have special clips to attach them to each other.  Since they were last used, they’ve been left attached in pairs.  The clips allow the grids to fold against each other, and made it easier to carry them.

Would it work to put grid wall in the doorway?

Well, we found a way.

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The grid wall is stable enough that it won’t fall over, one way or the other, and the edges are braced so that the cats won’t be able to push past.  The basement door can close more than enough to access the bedroom door, which is right next to it.

Plus, the light switch can still be accessed.

So far, so good!  We have cooler air circulating, and the doorway is caged to keep the cats from doing down.

Just for a lark, I should have some paintings on the grid wall. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Window Frogs and awesome brothers

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My older brother unexpectedly came by today, and while I was outside with him, my daughter popped out to warn me that we cannot close the kitchen window right now.

We have a guest.

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It’s been sitting there for several hours, now!

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It is so CUTE!  I love my little green friend. :-D

A nice little surprise to add to a day with a much larger, amazing surprise.

One of the things that has been put on hold until the power is restored to the garage and barn is some work my older brother and his wife want to do in the barn so they can paint it.  So when my brother started talking about bringing over a compressor, I just assumed it was so they could use it in the barn somehow.  There used to be a compressor in one of the side sheds of our garage, and another in the barn, but both are gone – along with many other things, large and small.  Things have been disappearing for years, so even while my dad was still living here, my brother got into the habit of bringing everything he needed to fix things out here, because he couldn’t assume the tools and equipment he would need would still be around.

My brother ended up coming out to help our mom with something and, since he was so close and the compressor was already loaded in the truck, he came by to drop it off.

To my surprise, he didn’t want to unload it in the barn, but in the side shed of the garage.  This meant we had to move out the riding mower and a bunch of other things to clear the corner where the old compressor used to be, then he managed to back his truck in part way.  The space is just barely wide enough for the truck box, and my brother to still squeeze in.  I had intended to help at least somewhat, but I couldn’t fit.  I’m a fair bit wider than my marathon running brother! LOL  Which turned out to be handy, because I ended up being able to grab things for him from my side and pass it through.

Getting that thing unloaded was a huge job.  This thing is incredibly heavy!  But he got it in the corner and set it up.  Once he was able to, he moved the truck so I could come in, and he showed me various things about it, hooked up the hose and the new nozzle, with he had tested to ensure they worked (since we can’t test it here, until the power is hooked up).  He even drilled a hole through the wall so the plug could be passed through and plugged in in the main garage area, because it uses more power than is wired to the outlets in the shed.

At one point, we had to move things from the garage side of the wall, for access.  I have not done anything when it comes to cleaning and sorting the garage right now; we will probably work on that next spring.  So there is a lot there that I’ve never seen.

Including this strange thing with a hand grip, a long nozzle, and a hose.  I had to ask my brother, as I moved it out of the way; what is it?  Looking at it briefly, he said it was likely a torch.  Of the sort that was used to singe the hair off pig carcasses during butchering, though it could also be used for other things.  Very dangerous.  (At least it would be, if it were attached to a gas canister.)

So… It’s a flame thrower.

We have a flame thrower in our garage.  !!

Too funny!

As this was all getting done and he was showing me all these things about the compressor, I finally commented that I was surprised it wasn’t taken to the barn, since I though they were going to use it somehow when they cleaned and painted.

Oh, no, he tells me.  This is for me, in case we ever need to pump our tires.

!!!

I was totally stunned.  All that work to fix up the compressor, much of which was done after it was loaded into the back of the truck (it’s so heavy, it was easier that way), getting it out here, unloading it and setting it up, just so we could have a compressor, if we ever needed one!

I have the most awesome brother.

As we were talking about compressor, and how pleased he was with how little it ended up costing him to fix, I had to ask what a new one would cost.  One like this, he estimated about $1100, but the one that used to be there, he figured was worth about $2500.

!!!

On the one hand, I am so grateful for his generosity and amazed that he did this for us.

On the other, I am dismayed once again over the things that have grown legs and walked away over the years.

But now we have a heavy duty, industrial compressor, with working hose and nozzle (there are still hoses hanging on the wall, but some are missing their tips, and we’d have to test others to see if they were any good anymore; the good one that was being used, of course, is gone with the old compressor).

And I have the most awesome brother!

The Re-Farmer

Views

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While driving my daughter to work this morning, we saw some pretty incredible views.

Right now, a couple of flax fields we pass are in bloom.

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My daughter was able to get some photos of this one out her window for me.  The canola fields are in full bloom right now, too.  So we are seeing this amazing purpley-blue in the flax field, framed by brilliant yellow.  There’s a wheat field that’s starting to turn from green to gold, and other crops in differing shades of green that we pass along the way, broken up by groups of trees sheltering farm yards or planted as shelter belts.  So gorgeous!

After dropping my daughter off, I parked by the lake for a bit, got a bit of Pokemon Go in while also enjoying the view.

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It’s tourist season right now, so later in the day and on weekends, things get very crowded on this beach. This early in the morning on a weekday, there were very few people out, so it was quiet and peaceful.

Where we lived before moving here, we had some pretty impressive views over a river valley, even though we were downtown.  But for me, growing up in the prairies, nothing beats the wild open expanses out here!!

The Re-Farmer

First Fruits

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raspberries

While doing a check around the yard for downed branches, I went past the remains of the raspberry patch along the big garden.  There I found the first ripe raspberries of the year!

There are so few surviving raspberries left that I don’t expect much more, but now that they have started to ripen, it will be good to check them every day until the season for them is done.

Next year, I hope we will be able to start up a new raspberry patch in a better location, and with other varieties as well. :-)

The Re-Farmer