With needing to go to my mother’s for her bed time med/personal care assists for three nights in a row, I’ve asked the girls to take over doing the morning routine, so I could sleep in.
Too bad the inside cats didn’t get the memo. I had a really rough night last night, mostly due to cast deciding it was play time.
I had some concerns about my mother after seeing her, and have passed those on to the home care coordinator. There was some definite increased confusion. It might have been because she was really tired. She was actually surprised to see me because she said the guy that did her supper assist (no personal care on that visit, so she’s okay with a guy doing it) was supposed to come back for her bed time assist. She told me some conflicting things, so I had to include those in my email with the home care coordinator, because they just didn’t make sense. I need to confirm what’s actually happening.
As for today, we warmed up to a whole -6C/21F this afternoon, so I headed out to do a last few things before the temperatures start dropping.
One of those was to use the straw I’d collected in the wheelbarrow last night, before things started to get too dark.
The water bowl shelter now has straw on the floor in the back, on top of the rigid insulation that was already there. The giant crocheted blanket that was under there is now covering the roof of the kibble house as an extra layer of insulation.
After setting up the back of the water bowl house with straw, I had plenty left over, so I added some to the floor of the kibble house, too, which you can see in the second picture of the slide show above. There is a sheet of insulation under the floor boards, plus another sheet on the ground below, so any cats small enough to go under there are pretty well sheltered, too.
That done, it was time to put the straw bale away for the winter, so to speak. I dragged over the insulated tarp to cover it with. Unfortunately, that tarp got some holes worn into it in places, and water got inside the layers. I tried to set it up so it could dry, but then we started getting more rain. Which mean a section of it was frozen flat an inflexible.
Still, it’ll do the job.
I raked up loose straw around the bale first, then covered it with the tarp and tied it in place. Hopefully, the wind won’t catch on it too much. The wrapped bale is in the last photo of the slide show above
We are now officially done with winterizing things now.
Once the bale was covered, I stayed out to do a bunch of little things around the yard before it was time to do the evening food and water for the outside cats.
In the first picture above, you can see the cats are quite happy with the straw in their kibble shelter! In the next picture, you can see the usual crowd in the top of the isolation shelter. The last picture, however, made me happy to see. That’s Pinky, enjoying the straw bed in the bottom of the shelter. She used to enjoy the cat bed that had been under there until they started using it as a litter box. Now there’s no bed down there, but two litter boxes, and now straw.
It’s getting cold enough now that we will probably have to stop softening their kibble. It’s not an issue in the sun room or isolation shelter, but in all the other shelter kibble bowls, it’s getting to the point that it will freeze before they can finish eating it.
I am not looking forward to winter. I’m getting too old for the cold!
I’m happy to say that I pretty much finished all the stuff I needed to get done before the hard freeze hit, but I just had to share this first.
One of the adult females we’ve been trying to get is Adam. She sometimes allows us to pet her, but we just haven’t been able to get her into a carrier.
As I was going through the sun room this evening, I spotted her.
That’s her, peeking at me from one of the carriers, back in its spot on the shelf.
Well, at least she associates carriers as a cozy spot to hang out. If only she would do this when we can get her to a vet for a spay!
*sigh*
The first thing I needed to do when I headed outside this afternoon was set up the emergency diverter for the septic, now that the tank area is covered in straw. In the basement, I grabbed a length of foam pipe insulation to put around the pipe first, then pushed it as far as it could go against the wall. When the ejector froze last winter, every time the pump turned on and greywater was pumped out the emergency bypass, I would hear vibrating noises of pipe against concrete that always got me nervous. I’ve become rather paranoid about our septic system! The pipe insulation I used is one of several lengths I found in the old basement that is meant to go over water pipes, not the larger pipe from the septic, but it’s split lengthwise, so I could get it around the half that was against the wall. That’s all I need.
Once outside, I had to remove the insert plug my brother had put on the outside end, which was secured with a steel ring hose clamp. The plug he got has the ridges that help keep it from being pushed out by pressure, plus the tightened the ring enough to squeeze the end of the pipe tightly. Basically, it would have been a great permanent plug. Unfortunately, it’s not meant to be permanent. It’s meant to be taken out as needed. An ordinary, temporary, end cap would have sufficed, but my brother is very thorough! It took considerable effort, and an adjustable wrench, to finally get it out. Plus a flat head screwdriver to create space between the pipe and the plug, just to be able to move it at all!
Once the end was open, I could set it into the PVC pipe I had ready. Then I used the collection of boards, bricks and scrap pieces of Styrofoam insulation to create a gradual slope from the rigid pipe and along the flexible hose so that grey water could be diverted far from the house, into the maple grove.
Hopefully, we will never need to use this again, but it’s good to have it set up and ready, just in case!
The down side of having that set up is that it blocks access around that corner of the house from where the bale is. Once the emergency diverter was set up, I got the wagon and the wheelbarrow to get straw to the various areas I wanted to mulch. When it came time to do the old kitchen garden, I had to go the long way around with the wagon and wheelbarrow loads of straw. Not a problem. Just a bit inconvenient.
The first area I worked on was in the main garden. The above picture is a little preview. By the time I was done, light was starting to fade fast. I decided to do a quick, impromptu garden tour video. I’ll be working on editing that tonight, and will likely have it ready to post tomorrow. I have a few hours to kill before I have to go to my mother’s for her bed time med and personal care assist.
Before I finished for the night, I grabbed one more wheelbarrow load of straw and set it by the covered greenhouse. Tomorrow, I plan to clear out the water bowl house and set straw on the floor, removing the huge crocheted blanket entirely. We’ll set that over the kibble house roof as extra insulation. I expect to have leftover straw, and will find other places to leave it for the cats. The cats really, really like the straw! The last thing to do will be to rake up around the bale to clean things up, then cover it with a tarp for the winter.
I am so glad we were able to get another straw bale this year – and that the renters had one to spare! Next year, when it’s time to use straw as mulch on the garden beds, I plan to run it through the shredder chute on the wood chipper, first. In the past, I tried using the push mower to shred the straw, but it clogged up the air filter so quickly. We only have my brother’s push mower now, so I’m not going to be doing that with his equipment!
Getting this last bit of progress done before things got too cold feels so good! 😊
My daughters and I were able to get the three female kittens that were in the isolation shelter for their overnight fast, into carriers. We were even able to double check that they really were female. Two of them were quite small, but they just needed to be over 2 pounds.
We had a later drop off time, too, so it was actually fairly light out by the time we were on the road. Along the way, we even came up with names. Sweetie for the little grey tabby, Bug for the tuxedo with eyes too big for her head, and Domino for the bigger tuxedo that is mostly black.
As we finished checking them in, someone came out to take them to the pre-surgery kennels they have (they don’t stay in the little carriers the whole time). We were heading to the truck when I decided to hit the washroom first. As my daughter headed out, she held the door for a woman bringing in a larger carrier with a calico in it. My daughter complimented the calico and the woman responded with, yes… ferals.
Ferals?
Plural?
My daughter stayed at the doors so she could hold when the woman headed out to get another carrier. I got there just in time to see the absolutely gorgeous chocolate point Siamese inside. She said it was a feral, too, then commented that she had 27.
Ah! One of my people!
We paused to chat. Which ended up being about people dumping their cats, which happens so often. She finds a lot of dumped pregnant cats.
We were just parting ways and my daughter and I were about to leave the clinic when one of the ladies at the desk, talking on the phone, called out, don’t leave yet! She was on the phone with someone at the back, and they were asking about the cats we brought. Where these “owned” cats? I explained that these were colony cats. We care for them, but they are outdoor cats and not pets.
The techs thought they might be too small, but wanted the vet to examine them, first. So we were sent to one of the rooms to wait until she was done.
When she came in, we were told their weights. Bug was the lightest at .97kg (2.1lbs). Sweetie, who we thought would be lighter, weighed in at 1kg (2.2lbs). Domino weighed in at 1.5kg (3.3lbs). She felt she could do Domino, but felt it was just too risky to put the smaller ones under anesthetic.
We talked about their ages and I mentioned they were all around 6 months old. She looked stunned and said she would examine them again and look at their teeth.
When she came back, she told me that they still had baby teeth. There was no way they were over 6 months.
Thinking of the litters we’ve had, I felt they would have been born in July, at the very latest, which still would have put them at over 5 months. I was sure Sweetie, at least, was one of Slick’s five, which would have made it older, though much smaller than her siblings. If they’re under 6 months old, though…
Suddenly, we don’t know where these kittens came from! We had two really late litters. Frank’s kittens, none of which survived the weaning stage, and the tiny ones I found in the collapsed shed that we are sure were Brussel’s second litter, except Brussel disappeared. That last litter was born so late in the season, there were no lactating creche mothers around to nurse them, except Frank, and Frank was already weaning hers.
So it’s possible we had younger kittens show up and didn’t really notice them as new among the crowd – some of them look so very much alike. I just have a hard time seeing that. Bug has a very distinctive look, too. I’ll have to go back over my older photos and see if I can at least spot Bug. Sweetie would be harder to identify.
Anyhow.
Once it was decided it was not safe for them to be spayed, my daughter and I packed them up and headed home.
In the first picture above, there’s Sweetie on the left, Bug in the middle and Domino on the right.
Along the way, we talked about what steps to take next. Do we keep them in the isolation shelter and “fatten them up”? With warmth and regular food, they would hopefully get bigger faster, but who knows how long that would take. In the end, we decided to set them in the isolation shelter again, give them a cat soup treat, and then open the shelter up again later in the day. You can see them in the next picture of the slide show above, after finally breaking their fast!
I ended up treating the rest of the outside cats, too. I mixed up a very thin cat soup using several cans of wet cat food, then poured it over the trays that still had dry kibble in them.
We didn’t see Frank this morning, but she’s in there, between the short haired calico (Sprig) and the long haired tabby. I even saw Sprout today! It’s been a while since I’ve seen her, but it looks like she’s just being shy.
Of course, I made sure to keep the rescue group chat up to date. They were surprised about the kittens not being done, since they were all over 2 pounds, but it’s understandable. They already brought up making other appointments. For the next ones, we’ll just have to take in any adult sized cat we can grab. Which will be the males, first. If nothing else, it means they won’t be getting any of the ladies pregnant. I’d hope it would also reduce any fighting between the cats, but we’re still seeing some of that, among both male and female cats that have been fixed. Very strange.
Speaking of fixed…
Pinky has been hanging around close to the house. She’s been wanting into the closed up isolation shelter, too. I’ve been able to pet her and, aside from Colin (who is neutered) being a jacka$$ and going after her, she’s been socializing with the other cats more. That makes me happy, because she basically lived in the garage by herself last winter, and only came to the house to eat and drink.
Well, there is one plus side to coming home so much ealrier.
I can work on getting straw over the winter sown beds today, instead of tomorrow. We’re supposed to reach a high of only -7C/19F today and tomorrow. After that, temperatures are expected to drop. So the sooner I can get extra insulation on those beds, the better. Given how things turned out this past year, and the likelihood of another drought next year, winter sowing may once again be the only crops we get!
Aside from a morning occupied with wandering around the yard, trying to get a signal on my cell phone, so I could listen to the voicemails from home care, with all the phone calls, emails and messages that get done because of it, it was a decently productive day!
The main goal was accomplished, and that was breaking open that straw bale and covering the septic tank.
The outside was so densely packed, and partially frozen, that it formed a shell. I took advantage of that. After removing the insulated tarp and spreading out loose straw, I’d drop chunks of the outer shell on top, strategically, to keep the straw from blowing away before it could settle in place. There were still some chunks left over when I finished covering the septic tank area, and I put those on top of the bale to form a sort of roof. Once we’re done covering things with straw, I plan to “store” the insulated tarp by setting it over the bale. That way, moisture won’t get into the open end and cause rot.
Once the area was covered, I got the emergency bypass for the septic partially set up. The pipe in the basement needs to be pushed through, and the end can be set into the PVC pipe – after taking the cap off, of course! I’ve got the flexible hose running into the maple grove this time – something we couldn’t do last winter, because of the snow. Once it’s set up properly at the house, we’ll set various supports under everything, to create a gradual decline and try to make up for uneven ground. Last year, there was one time when the flexible hose froze closed because there was a slight dip in the ground.
Hopefully, we will not need to use it at all. However, should the ejector freeze again, all will be ready, and we’ll just need to open the ball valve. The heat tape is still set up around the parts of the ejector that is above ground, but that won’t help anything at the venturi valve on the bottom.
We were planning a dump run today, so I didn’t have time to start covering the winter sown garden beds with straw on top of the leaf mulch, but I did have time to winterize things more for the yard cats.
I especially wanted to the get catio strawed up. I took everything out and put a decent layer on the ground, focusing on filling the gaps under the elevated frame. Then I added some onto the hammocks, just because. I put the pieces of rigid insulation back under the self heating cat shelter again, but the other pieces were no longer needed under the box nests. Since the self heating cat shelter had been collapsed a couple of times, it was a bit floppy in one area, so I trimmed one of the scrap pieces of insulation to fit tightly between the floor and the roof, against the wall next to the entry. Hopefully, it will stay in place, but if it falls in, that’s fine. The cats love that insulation!
As you can see in the picture, the cats are indeed using the new shelter!
The straw will also help insulate the water bowl, at least a bit, so it won’t freeze quite so quickly. I still had to take a hatchet to the ice to be able to drain the water inside, and replace it with hot water. The hot water would melt at some of the remaining ice and soon be cool enough for the cats to drink.
When it was feeding time, I noticed the straw on the hammocks were compacted in circles. Cats are definitely appreciating the straw up there, too!
The catio winterized a bit more, I switched to the isolation shelter – which has seen a whole lot of activity of cats enjoying it being open again!
I removed the litter pans from the bottom level and swept things out as best I could. I’ve got an old telescoping snow brush with a broken scraper that’s perfect for the job. Once that was cleaned up, a fairly thin layer of straw was added – I didn’t want to add to much, since there is a heat bulb and power cords in the upper level – and then the refreshed litter pans were returned.
Which, as you can see in the second picture of the slide show above, Pinky promptly jumped into, before joining the crowd above, which you can see in the last picture of the slide show!
I had a bit of straw left in the wheelbarrow when the catio and isolation shelter we done, so I added it in the covered greenhouse, on the ground under the food tray and water bowl. Even with that, I had a bit I could set on the concrete patio block between the isolation shelter and the steps, just to give another insulated place for the cats to sit on.
While I was doing that, my daughter brought the truck into the yard and loaded up the garbage and recycling. Once the dump was open for the afternoon, we headed out. After unloading at the dump, we continued on to the town north of us – right into blowing snow. Not a significant amount, but definitely the most we’ve seen this year. The system passed our place entirely, but went right over the town to the north of us.
Our destination there wasn’t actually in town, but the feed store. I picked up four 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats while my daughter went shopping in there clothing and boots section. For that many bags, I paid for them, then backed the truck up to their shipping/receiving door to get the kibble, then parked again and rejoined my daughter.
She had been looking for something specific, which she found, but she got distracted by their display of bib overalls. She told me later that she’s been pining for bib overalls since she outgrew some she grew out of when she was 7! She’d looked at them at places like Mark’s Warehouse before, but wasn’t happy with what they had.
This place carried a brand called Tough Duck, which were exactly what she wanted. They had another, more expensive, brand as well, but she didn’t like them as much. She had a budget for only one thing, though, and the overalls won! She got these. (not an affiliate link) Given her rather generous feminine assets, plus these are meant to be worn over clothing, she went with a 3X. She didn’t try them on until we got home and she is very happy with them. These are men’s overalls and ludicrously long on her, but they can be hemmed. The website does have a women’s version but there are no hourglass figured in this household! My daughters and I take after my Eastern European side of the family. If it weren’t for boobs, we’d be straight, rectangular brick houses. 😄 So when it comes to pants, men’s clothing tends to fit better.
When I had a chance later on, I tried them on, too. I might actually want to go a size bigger, only because they tend to pull when I bend over to touch my feet. The fabric has no real stretch to it, though it would soften and loosen up a bit after a few washings. I do a LOT of bending from the waist when I work, since my knees aren’t stable enough to bend at the knees, so it’s something to keep in mind. Not that I’d be getting myself a set anytime soon, but they would be really handy to have come spring time!
After getting the legs hemmed. 😄
Once home and unloaded, the first thing I did was start feeding the outside cats, so my daughter could park the truck, then do my evening rounds. When I was done, I spotted this bit of adorableness.
That would be Sprig, who is only slightly less feral than her mother, Sprout!
I haven’t seen Sprout for a few days. I hope she’s okay.
Sprig has been coming into the sun room more often, and joining the cuddle puddles. So far, I’ve only managed to sneak a touch as she runs past. I’m happy to see her using the new cat cave. I zoomed in to get the picture, as I knew she would run away if I came to close, and I didn’t want to chase her out of a warm spot.
It would be really awesome if we could get her to the vet tomorrow! In a couple of hours, my daughter and I will head out to see who we can set up overnight in the isolation shelter for an overnight fast. Not that they’ll be fed again until after we leave in the morning, so any of the cats could be brought in – if we can get them into carriers. I really want to get Frank. She’s a bundle of nerves, but is still the most approachable of the intact females. Adam and Slick have been coming around, but Slick hasn’t been allowing contact, and Adam only allows it while she’s eating. The white one with grey tabby spots is even more feral. Trapping will likely be the only option. I just don’t see us being able to socialize them over the winter, and I really want to get them spayed before they go into heat in the late winter/spring.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day, that’s for sure. The goal is to be on the road with the 3 cats by 7:30, as the drop off time is 8:50am this time. We’ll be staying in the city until the clinic calls us to pick up the cats – trying to avoid the Black Friday crowds. (Weird that Canada does Black Friday, when our Thanksgiving was last month.) Then, I’ll be doing my mother’s bed time med/personal care assist at around 9pm. If it were summer, I’d be napping in the truck while waiting for a call from the clinic, but it’s getting too cold to do that now.
I’m happy to say that, so far at least, the motion detection alerts have only been triggered by cats. Not other critters!
The isolation shelter will be open for today then, if we can manage it, will have two or three cats closed up to fast overnight to get spayed/neutered tomorrow.
I got this picture the second time I was outside. The first time was to feed that outside cats and my shorter “winter” rounds.
The second time was after I was wandering around the yard, trying to get enough signal to listen to a voicemail on my cell phone.
I got a text alert that there was a message. Which means my WiFi calling has been dropped again, and a call went straight to voicemail. I don’t have enough signal to link it up again, either. At least, not indoors. Texts need far less signal, but it can still be hours before I get one, so I had to check right away. Very few people have my cell phone number, and it was most likely a call from Home Care.
It was a call from Home Care.
For the next three nights, they have only a male worker available for the bedtime visits over the weekend. For all her issues with people who are not white (and all the male workers she’s seen are apparently from India), she gets personal care on these visits, so she wouldn’t want a male worker tending to her physical needs either way.
So we’re going to have to cover for her visits on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. All are 9pm visits.
That’s a lot of driving, at night, in deer season.
It’s going to be much harder – and more dangerous – to cover for her visits in the winter. Daytime visits are one thing, if the weather is good, but night time visits are an issue for many additional reasons. One night? Sure. Three nights in a row? That’s going to be a problem, even if my siblings are able to cover some of them. I’m the closest. It’s even more dangerous for them to make the drive than for me.
Which wouldn’t be a problem if they would just approve her for a nursing home, like she wants!
Before I start, I just want to say (an early) Happy Thanksgiving to all my visitors from the US. I hope you have a wonderful day of family, friends and lots of food!
Today’s stock up shop was intended to be a run on several stores conveniently down one major street in the city. Usually, it’s Walmart, Canadian Tire, the international grocery store or maybe a Superstore.
My first stop at Canadian Tire, I didn’t bother taking pictures of. I got our usual bags of stove pellets for the litter boxes, but today I was also looking for a kettle. Our glass kettle had started to leak. Knowing that kettle wasn’t going to last much longer (it actually lasted far longer than I expected), I took advantage of a clearance sale and picked up a spare glass kettle. The girls dug that out and set it up, but we immediately had issues.
It kept shutting itself off.
At first, they thought it was a wattage issue. We’d gone from a 1200w kettle to a 1500w kettle. With our old wiring, we already couldn’t, say, have the AC running in the summer, and boil a kettle of water, without tripping the breaker. Even the range hood, if it was on, would slow down while the kettle was on, then go back to normal speed when it shut itself off.
After a few days of this, though, I concluded it was not the wattage. It was the switch. The kettle itself had a temperamental switch. Once it got going and stayed going, it was fine. It was just that initial start that was a problem. Last night, my daughter tried to make herself some tea while she was working, and just couldn’t get the kettle to say on.
We do have a stove top kettle, but that’s a whistling kettle. Not something to use in the wee hours of the night, when everyone else is asleep!
While looking at the kettles available at Canadian Tire, I was blown away by some of the prices. Particularly for one kettle. A retro style Smeg brand kettle, for $280. !!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, it was a 2400w kettle, but that’s not worth paying almost $300 for! Crazier still was that it was sold out; there was only a display model on the shelf. Who is buying these things??
I’ll stick with my glass kettles, thanks.
It came down to two brands for what we wanted, and we ended up going with the exact same make and model as the one with the malfunctioning switch. At $45, it was the more expensive brand, but the design and the filter in the lid are easier to clean.
Since it’s not on clearance, we’re hanging on to the receipt, just in case it needs to be returned!
That done, my next stop was Walmart, with a brief side trip to a Domo gas station. Today is Thursday, which is when they have discounted prices. Prices had done down a bit, from $1.339/L to $1.279/L. With today’s discount, gas was $1.239/L, so my $40 almost filled the tank. I’ll do a fill at Costco and reset my trip meter for the month, later on.
I had been thinking of just getting some cat supplies at Walmart, then going to Superstore. I didn’t have any specific reason to go to the international grocery store on this trip. My Costco trip would normally be this Friday, but we’re taking cats to the vet on Friday, and I’ll be hanging around the area until they call me for pick up. I’m thinking of checking out a newly opened Costco location, but not on a weekend. So I figured I’d get more than usual at the Superstore.
I never made it.
I ended up doing a much larger shop at the Walmart, instead.
Though, really, it wasn’t that large.
It was almost noon when I got there, though, so I did stop for lunch before shopping. That cost about $15 or so.
This is what $382.00 (with a small donation rounding it up to the nearest dollar) looks like.
Yes, stuff is hidden underneath, but still… that’s not even a full cart.
The bulk of it was cat supplies.
I got two 32 packs of canned cat food; one for the inside cats, one for the outside cats. I’ll be more for the inside cats at Costco. I also got a package of XXL puppy pads and two larger bags of dry cat food. The item labelled “brown cat” is actually a Christmas stocking of cat toys – much cheaper than buying them individually! – plus I got a couple of $2 cat toys, one of them for the isolation shelter.
There’s a bottle of Murphy’s wood cleaning spray. We have the oil that needs to be diluted, but my daughter requested the pre-diluted spray for spot clean ups. I picked up a 2 pack of lavender scented spray, as we’re running low, and lavender is supposed to be calming, even for cats.
I found a 4 pack of Monster energy drinks that was on sale, but only one flavour, so I just got one box. I hope that Costco has the flats in stock again.
Next, there’s 4 loaves of rye bread. I’ll get more of that at Costco, too.
There’s a box of 3 cheese Pizza Pops in there. I had a request for heat and eats, so there’s also 4 bags of frozen chicken nuggets and fingers.
I picked up some toilet paper on sale, even though I’ll be getting more at Costco. Not something to run out of! There’s a 2L carton of Homo (3%) milk, and some dark coffee that was on sale, for my daughters. I can’t believe how expensive coffee has become! It’s cheap turkey season, though, so I picked up a medium frozen turkey. There’s also some Havarti cheese. I recently picked up some lactose free cheese for the family, so that’s mostly for me.
My husband requested turkey breast sandwich meat, but I was aghast at the price for that. I got a larger package of it, but for almost $12, it’s good for maybe 4 sandwiches, in total, and that’s if we skimp on the meat a bit. The Pepitas are pumpkin seeds, to powder as a supplement for the cats. Good for the digestive system.
I did splurge on a mug for myself. Sadly, one of my favourite mugs cracked in the sink. The kitchen isn’t heated and the stainless steel sink gets cold enough that glasses, jars and mugs sometimes crack when, say, a spoon gets dropped into the container. At least it was just a crack and not a shatter, this time. So now I have another larger mug, and this one has line drawings of cats all over it.
Because I really am a crazy cat lady, these days!
I also found some Aurora brand bouillon cubes. I like that brand – plus, it’s a better price! I do miss all the interesting flavours they used to have. There was a European grocery store in the city we last lived in that carried them all, but now they’re not even available from their website.
Last of all, I got an energy drink for the road.
By the time I got everything, my back and hips were giving out, so there was no way I was going to another store after this. Especially not for another largish shop. I was more than happy to go straight home after loading up the truck!
So there we have it. Just a Walmart trip this time. A whole 34 items. It was $356.80 before taxes. $166 of that was for cats, including the pumpkin seeds.
Counting the stuff at Canadian Tire, gas and lunch, today cost about $475 altogether.
Oh! I just heard from my daughter. The new kettle is working flawlessly!
At least there’s that!
Next trip will be the Costco run. We’ve got Christmas dinner to think about with this month’s stock up shopping. We will be having our own dinner on Christmas Eve, and I expect to be going to my mother’s with turkey dinners already made up, on Christmas Day, weather willing. December is an odd month for when my husband’s disability pay comes in. CPP Disability, which normally comes in on the third last business day of the month, always comes in before Christmas and, with all the holidays at the end of the month, his private insurance (the one that actually pays the bills), might come in before Christmas, too. That one normally comes in on the last business day of the month. New Year’s falls on a Wednesday, so it might show up the day before. Either way, it messes up my stock up shopping schedule! 😄
It’s going to be another quiet Christmas. No gift giving. At least nothing purchased. Who can afford that anymore, when on a fixed income? Just a special dinner, and time together. Which is the most important thing, in the end.
November sure is blowing by fast. I expect December is going to fly by, too!
The family renting most of this property had a straw bale they could spare, but they’ve been really busy. This morning, however, she was able to deliver it this morning.
I never did get a price for it. I told her I had $50 set aside for it, but when I gave it to her, I told her, I knew prices for them have gone up, and that I hoped it was enough. She said it was, but I strongly suspect they sold it to me at a loss! I tried looking up what the going price is right now, but they varied significantly depending on type of straw, quality, etc. I did say I was okay with an older bale, since it was going to be used over the septic tank and in the garden, but I don’t think they had any older bales left.
As we were talking, I asked them if they did beef shares, since the family I’d been buying from before is no longer doing direct sales. She said no, not really. The problem is that they have to go through a provincially approved butcher to process the meat, and that costs so much, they can’t sell at a reasonable price. She said, they’ve had people saying that, with beef prices as high as they are right now, they must be making lots of money, but no. They aren’t. The overhead is so high, the profit margin is extremely slim.
That got us to talking about managing things. They are pretty diversified, with beef cattle and several different types of crops, all of which requires significant equipment. Plus, they are being nickel and dimed to death by government regulations, fees, taxes, etc. She told me how, in several recent years, they’ve managed to cover the costs only because they’ve got trucks and could do some shipping to make ends meet.
It is so very hard to be a family farm these days.
I’m very thankful that they were willing to sell me a bale, and take the time to deliver it!
The next few days are going to be relatively mild, with temperatures just a few degrees below freezing. Tomorrow, I’m going to unwrap the bale and start breaking it apart. It’s closed to the septic tank, which will need the most straw. I’ll be glad to have straw instead of the insulated tarp. The tarp does the job, but it freezes to the ground, making it hard to access the tank if we need to empty it for some reason, in the winter. Plus, if I need to walk around the area, it is shockingly slippery. There’s been more than a few times where I’ve almost fallen, and that’s even without snow to make it ever more slippery!
Since it’s starting to look like we won’t be getting a lot of snow this year, I’ll be adding straw to the leaf mulched, winter sown beds for more insulation. The saffron crocuses will get some, too.
Just as important, I plan to put straw inside the catio. The box nests and self warming shelter in there will do better with a layer of straw under them. It’ll help with the food and water bowl, too. Plus, when things start melting in the spring, any snowmelt that might puddle in the catio will be under the straw, so the cats, bowls and shelters will all stay warm and dry above it. I’m even thinking of redoing the space under the shelf I put in back of the water bowl house and using straw on the floor there, too. There are pieces of rigid insulation on the floor now, which could be set up against the walls, instead.
Oh, I am so looking forward to working on all that!
After the bale was delivered, I went ahead and opened up the isolation shelter. Pinky is doing just fine, with no signs of infection at the surgical site, and has been trying to tear her way out. Which means the bottom of the isolation shelter needs more of a clean up. Even the litter boxes, from bits and chunks of insulation! That will help get things ready for the next isolation cats.
If there are any.
More on that in a bit.
Today was my day to head to the city for our first stock up shop. On the way out, I spotted these two…
Also, you can see some of the insulation mess on the bottom that needs clean up.
After I got back from the shopping (which will get its own post) and unloaded the truck by the house, the outside cats got an early feeding so I could drive out and park in the garage. I then started my evening rounds.
Which is when my cell phone rang.
That always startles me. I’m so not used to it ringing, still. Chances are I only got the call because I was outside, too. I’ve got it set to use Wi-Fi calling, but that keeps shutting itself off, and getting it set up again requires access to both our Wi-Fi and a data signal at the same time. That usually means wandering around the yard until I get enough data signal to do it.
The call turned out to be someone connected with the rescue, about Friday.
They had booked three slots, with two of them for us. Did we want the third slot, to?
We ended up talking for quite a bit before the call suddenly got dropped. In a nut shell, we’re going to try for three. If we can grab Frank and any other female, that would be ideal. Otherwise, we just grab any three cats. Which would most likely be the most socialized ones that need to be done, all of which are male.
If we do end up with three males, they won’t need to be isolated, though it wouldn’t hurt to keep them in there for a few days, just in case. I wouldn’t want to have three adult cats isolated in there for two weeks. Two would be okay. Three would be too crowded. Three kittens or cattens, however, would be fine. If we do manage to get Frank and she ends up the only spay, we’d be putting the smallest kittens in there with her, just like with Pinky, so they can get the cat food and not have other, bigger cats pushing them away.
However it turns out, the isolation shelter will be cleaned up and ready.
Today was a pretty quiet day, overall. We did have a surprise at our gate around midnight. I started getting motion detection alerts and discovered a horse.
It was our vandal’s horse. Before my father passed away, our vandal used to bring his horses here at times, so when it got out, it probably remembered the way and being able to go through our driveway. I ended up sending an email to our vandal’s wife to let them know. She didn’t see it until morning, and it turned out the horse was back home, safe and sound, by then. I’m glad to hear it. A dark horse on the road at night is pretty risky!
We had plenty of cuteness this morning, of course.
If you click through the slide show, you’ll see a crowded cat cave – there are at least four kittens jammed into there! My daughter had been able to pet the Colby, the fluffy orange and white kitten, yesterday but no such luck today. The big tom visited us today, and discovered roof top dining on the cat house roof. With the heat lamp inside, it would be slightly warmer overall.
The isolation kitties are doing very well. That insulation is getting torn to shreds. I actually caught Pinky tearing at it as I was doing my evening rounds. She’ll be let out soon enough. Thursday night, I hope we can get a couple of cats in there for fasting and a trip to the vet on Friday. I’m really, hoping to get Frank. She sometimes lets us pet her and purrs when we do, but she is a bundle of nerves and still doesn’t really trust us. It’s going to be hard to get her into a carrier.
I’ve been in contact with the rescue and they asked if I decided who we’d be bringing in. I told them about Frank, but said it’ll be whoever we can catch! I let them know that we’ve had to do this before, where they knew the cats were from a colony. This clinic is good with doing whatever cats we bring in, even if we don’t know in advance which ones they’ll be. Getting strays and colony cats fixed is a big thing for them, so they are willing to accommodate.
With that in mind, when it was relatively warmer in the afternoon, my daughter and I set up the new critter cam. This is what I unboxed, yesterday.
I set it up with the app and got it charging overnight. It was set aside on my desk and, in the morning, I found it had caught one of the cats, being where it wasn’t supposed to be! Impressive, considering the camera was pointing at the ceiling all night!
The first thing to do was decide where the base plate needed to go on the little house I made for the camera, then screw that in place. The camera itself has a latch and can be easily removed, as needed.
Once my daughter and I figured out where we want to attach it to the elm tree in front of the kitchen window, we used the draw knife to shave away at the bark, and even using a chisel in one area, to make it level enough to attack to. We need to get rid of this tree entirely, so we’re not worried about damaging it.
After we got the camera arrangement attached, we had to figure out where to put the solar panel. The cord it came with is nice and long, so it can be placed quite a distance, if necessary. Our main concern was putting it somewhere the critters wouldn’t be getting at it, while still being able to face south, unobstructed. It ended up going under one of the main branch, where my daughter was able to create a flat spot to attach it to – the screws it came with aren’t long enough to go through such thick bark to the wood below. Then, between the two of us, we got the holder on and screwed the solar panel in place, which you can see in the second picture of the above slide show.
In attaching the base plate for the camera to the tree, we started hitting something that was too hard for a couple of the screws to go through. These are 3 inch screws, though, so it’s still very secure – and one of the screws that was sticking out quite a bit came in handy, to hang the excess solar panel wire off of. You can see the final set up in the second last picture of the slide show.
The last picture is of one of the stills it took while being set up. It saves stills into a cloud, but it also takes video, which gets saved to the micro SD card.
By the time we were done, there were at LOT of files to delete!
That done, and while my daughter got the evening cat feeding ready, I grabbed a litter box from the cat cage in the sun room. When there were tiny kittens in there, it was being used, but not that they’re all bigger, they ignore it. I was going to just replace the dirty litter box in the isolation shelter with the clean one. As I took the old litter box out, though, I also grabbed the cat bed that was down there. The cats were no longer using it as a bed.
They were using it as a litter box.
Ew.
I scrapped it off as best I could. Normally, I’d have set it in a bucket with some water and detergent to soak for a while, but it’s too cold for that, and I wasn’t about to bring it inside! What I ended up doing is cleaning out the old litter box, refilling it and setting it back in the isolation shelter, so they now have two litter boxes on the bottom, and no extra cat bed.
I’m glad I designed the bottom with clean up in mind. The mesh will make it a lot easier. It’s a real mess down there! Come spring, we can brush it out as much as possible, then hose it down. For now, the cats will just have to put up with the scattered sawdust mess they made on the floor, but at least they’ll have two litter boxes now.
With the camera in place and the litters done, I moved the doorway box shelter back in front of the isolation shelter, with one side wall against the front panel, to keep critters from trying to claw their way through the vinyl covering the wire mesh. Last year, that happened pretty quickly when we had cats in isolation, and cats outside were wanting in. This year, they don’t seem to have tried, but I still want to keep things as covered as possible.
One of my concerns about having the camera is that I might get too many alerts due to cat activity. I wasn’t sure how busy things would get. I know cats like to jump onto the doorway box shelter, onto the bin on one side, the chair on the other, and onto the roof. Plus, I know raccoons have been all over it, trying to get in – they are the main reason I wanted the camera, really. I have been getting motion detection notifications, but nowhere near as much as I thought I might get. Things are pretty quite in there. The only add thing is checking the notification and finding that the camera’s position has been altered slightly. Which means something moved it, somehow. I’m not sure how that would happen.
What I have discovered is that I can use the camera to check a lot more than just the isolation shelter! I can check the main door, of course, as it’s close by, but I can also check the cat shelters by the sun room, and even the catio and shrine feeding station. In the other direction, I can see quite a bit of the East yard before the tree itself blocks the view.
So far, I’m quite happy with how this camera is doing. I don’t even have the motion sensor sensitivity changed from the default (from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most sensitive, it was on 6), and it’s picking things up fine. The one issue I have with other security cameras is that they don’t pick up vehicles. Just people (or people sized critters). Which is fine if you’re using it in the city or something, but where we are, it’s vehicles that I need to monitor more than anything else. We don’t have pedestrian traffic. With this camera, we have no way to test that right now, since it’s not being used for that, so I can’t say whether it works better or not.
Depending on how things work out, what we might do is make a stand similar to what I have right now for the gate trail cam, which would allow us to set the camera up in locations where we don’t have handy trees to attach it to.
Now I’m thinking ahead to how and where we can set up the big trap and try to get some of the more feral mamas, with the camera to monitor the trap, during the winter. We would want to get the feral ladies done before they go into heat in the last winter. If we have the mild winter it looks like we will be getting, they might go into heat really early, like happened this year with several cats.
We’re supposed to get 2 cats done on Friday and, since Frank got away from us last time, we still have donated funds for one more to do, if the rescue can arrange another date for us. It’s through someone else that is able to get these super low rates for spays, and they have only a certain number of slots available, so we’ll see how that works out. After that, the cost will probably go back up. It’s still a lot cheaper than anywhere else. When I’m there on Friday, I should ask them about the possibility of last minute appointments for trapped spays of more feral cats. We have plenty of friendly males we could bring in for neuters at any time. We just really need to get those ladies done!
Well, we’ll see how it works out as time goes by. Until then, we just do the best we can for the critters.
The isolation cats seem to be enjoying their cozy shelter, though there is evidence that Pinky has been trying to get out. She’s somehow pushing one of the ceiling insulation sheets out one side, as she digs at the other. I know it’s her, because the kittens are too small to reach.
From the muddy hand prints outside the front window, raccoons have been interested in getting in, while Pinky is wanting out! She’s doing so well, we probably could let her out and she’d be fine, though that shaved belly would sure get cold!
Once the morning stuff was done, I had just enough time to grab a breakfast before heading to my mother’s. I got there just after 9am, and her scheduled med/etc. assist is 9:15, so that worked out.
I put together a breakfast while she took her meds and, once she was all settled, I took care of other stuff, like emptying the commode and so on. Once everything was done, I took advantage of her empty sink to try and use the little sink plunger I got for her, to try and fix the slow drain.
I made a mistake with the plunger I chose. It would work with something like a bathroom sink, but not the kitchen sink. The plunger is a sort of accordion style, with a separate seal around the edge. The seal fit around the drain, but the plunger was just small enough that it would go into the drain, flipping the seal and eventually knocking it right off. I kept trying, as all sorts of material was being pulled up into the water.
But the slow drain was now no drain at all. Whatever I moved around down there, it resulted in a total blockage.
Well, my mother had drain cleaner on her list anyhow! So I left it for the moment, hoping the water would slowly drain while I was running her errands.
My first stop was at the pharmacy, and that’s where she wanted me to pick up some Drano. Except they didn’t have any. I eventually found a house brand and got that. Then I did her grocery shopping before heading back.
The was no change in the water level at all.
After everything was put away, I tried adding the drain cleaner. The instructions said to pour down half a bottle. Normally, the heavier gel would sink through the water and into the drain.
It didn’t.
I could actually see, with the debris, as the gel swooped outwards from where I was pouring it directly over the drain.
My mother, meanwhile, was a continuous stream of instructions on what I should be doing, what she would be doing, and I needed to do things the way she would be doing it – even though she couldn’t see what was actually going on. I had mentioned the debris coming up and she starting telling me to use a paper towel to wipe it up, even though I also told her the water as not draining. Not sure what a paper towel was going to do!
I left it for a while. That little plunger wasn’t going to do anything, and I had my doubts about the no-name drain cleaner. I decided I’d leave it to sit and went to the hardware store.
That confused my mother, and she kept asking about being able to use the sink, while I kept telling her, don’t use the sink!
At the hardware store, I found an employee, hoping they would have a better sink plunger. All the had were full sized ones, so I did end up picking a very basic one designed to clear floor drains and tubs. Then I asked about drain cleaner and he took me right to a Drano produce specifically designed for kitchen sinks. It was a granular product, rather than a gel. I’d never actually seen a granular version before. Good to know about.
Products acquired, I headed back to my mother’s
None of the water had drained at all.
So I tried the new plunger, which did actually work better, in that it didn’t fall apart and seem to be pulling more debris out of the drain.
Nothing was getting through, though.
Except, now there was water on the floor.
I checked under the sink, and there was water. I started emptying all the stuff my mother’s been shoving under there so I could clean mop everything up.
My mother had been in the bathroom, and it was about this time that she came out. I told her the clog was far worth than we originally though, and that there was now a leak. I had read the instructions on the new drain cleaner, which included removing any water in the sink. I’d found and filled a couple of small buckets and was trying to get as much out of the drain, explaining to my mother what was going on as I did. Normally, she would settle herself at her table, but I asked her if she could sit in the living room, so I could get through to the bathroom with the buckets.
So began the litany of all the things I should be doing, rather than what I was doing right then, while standing and blocking my way out of the kitchen! Including demanding I call the maintenance number. She did finally move so I could dump out the buckets into the toilet. Then I started taking things out from under her sink, so that I could clean up the water, but no, she wanted me to call the maintenance number right then. I told her I would do it after cleaning up the water, and she finally stopped demanding I drop everything and do what she was ordering me to do.
Once things were cleaned up and as out of the way as possible, I called the maintenance number. My mother has three fridge magnets with the direct number, so at least that was easy to find!
Of course, it went right to hold. I ended up putting it on speaker, so I could monitor it while updating my family and my siblings on my cell phone.
Then Meals on Wheels arrived, so we traded places, and I waited in the living room while she had her lunch. The woman delivering it normally would have stopped to chat a bit, but between my with the hold music going and the open cupboard doors and a bucket under the kitchen sink, she very quickly disappeared! 😄
The hold music would stop every now and then as an automated message gave the “we are experiencing more calls than usual…” spiel. My mother started asking what the lady had said, not realizing it was a recorded message. Then, when it came on again some minutes later, she started making disparaging remarks. When her food arrived, she ordered me to hang up and make myself lunch. I refused. That happened several times over. After a while, it was clear the hold music was somehow bothering her in a way that seemed out of place. I offered to take it off speaker, but I would then have to hold the phone to my ear constantly, and she finally stopped.
When someone picked up the call, I took it off speaker phone and and spent some time explaining the situation. Once he had all the info, he said someone would be sent over to fix it. I asked how long it would be, since my mother could no longer use her kitchen sink.
They would try to get in within three days. If not, it could be a week.
!!!!!!!
That’s when I brought up the product I bought and asked if it was okay to go ahead and try that. I didn’t want to use something stronger like that, without checking first. If nothing else, it would at least let the plumber know it was there and take precautions. I was told they were okay with such self maintenance and to go ahead and use it.
So it was back to going over the instructions again (with plenty of commentary from my mother, who has never used any product like this in her life). I’d had to use a paper towel to sop up as much water out of the drain as possible, since my mother didn’t have any sponges. The instructions were to add 3 tbsp down the drain, being careful not to add more than that, followed immediately with 2 cups of hot, but not boiling, water.
The clog is so bad, those two cups couldn’t go down the drain at all.
The instructions said to wait 15 minutes and, if it was still blocked, to try again. I set a timer and made myself sit down, so I wouldn’t be hovering. My mother, meanwhile, was set up at her dining table again, which meant I had to squeeze between her and the wall behind her, over and over again. She wouldn’t move. Not even to slide her chair forward a couple of inches! When I checked again after 15 minutes, there was no change in the water level. I still did a second treatment, but that just added more water to the bottom of the sink! At least the granules sank through the water and into the drain, though.
My mother, meanwhile, was getting herself quite worked up and kept on with how she would have done things. She would have called the main office number, not the maintenance number – as if that wouldn’t have gone on hold (I’ve called that number a few times. It either goes straight to hold, or to voice mail. A live person almost never answers). They would then transfer her…
… to the maintenance number I’d called directly.
As for being on hold, she would hang up and call back. Or she would start pressing buttons. It took me a moment to realize she meant she would start button mashing on her phone, because she was on hold.
I tried to explain to her that, at the other end, they can’t hear the old music, nor would they hear any button pushing.
She then accused me of “always taking “their” side.”
It turns out that my mother believes that, at the other end, there are people listening to the same hold music and simply not answering because they don’t feel like it. She based this on a story she told me, in a very circular way, of how she actually saw someone doing that at a clinic while she was in the waiting room. Except I thought she was at first describing that a radio was playing, but it was the “same” music as the old music. I tried to tell her, that’s just not possible. When you’re on hold, the people on the other end can’t hear the same things.
It wasn’t until much later that I realized that the person she was describing as ignoring a call on hold may actually have been the one on hold, with the phone on speaker so she could monitor it and keep working at the same time. If that really was hold music my mother was hearing in the first place.
At one point, I’d left with my mother’s Meals on Wheels tray to set it in the common room, and noticed a sign up sheet for a potluck and game night on the table. I assumed it was some sort of sport ball event on TV. I mentioned it when I got back and my mother and she told me it was being organized by someone who fairly recently moved into the building. She’s taken to organizing things and is very bossy…
…
Somehow, this got mixed in with being put on hold for so long.
Then my mother started talking about all these things going missing from the common room – an ancient computer that no one was using, a piano that was donated that is now gone, and there’s another piano there now, and the TV that was mounted to the wall in the common room that no one watched, so of course, this potluck was going to be table games, not a game on TV.
I never even noticed it was gone.
I eventually realized that my mother believed that all these things have been stolen by this one person. She has zero proof of such a thing. That’s just what she believes. I suggested that maintenance probably took them. It’s not like someone can just walk away with a large screen tv that’s mounted to a wall.
The piano, though… she thinks someone stole the piano and replaced it with a different one.
Which is exactly the sort of thing my mother used to accuse my father of doing. I even brought up a few instances, reminding her of how she had me look at a sewing machine my sister had given me, but that I’d left here at the farm when I moved out of province (it’s still here), because she thought it was different. My dad had “traded” it. She’d done the same thing when we got a new TV, and even with a cow. All of these things were the same, but to her, they were different, and it was because my dad was “trading” things. Those were just examples that involved me directly, but she’d done the same with vehicles and entire herds of cows. She even called the RCMP once, claiming my dad and “traded” a bunch of cattle – and managed to do it without leaving any tracks in the snow of any kind.
That just set her off on how – for 50 years! – my dad had been doing all this stuff, and I just didn’t understand…
Then it went back to being on hold for so long, and how I should say it was urgent, and they listen to the tone of the voice to see how serious it is… I guess I was too calm on the phone? and everyone takes advantage of old people.
I told her, yes, it happens, but not everyone does that.
Yes. Everyone. Even you.
How am I taking advantage?
Because of how I talk to her (not agreeing with her wild accusations).
…
Then, as “icing” on the sh** cake, she basically said I was just like our vandal.
You know. The guy that’s been verbally abusing her and sponging money off of her for years. The guy that was stealing stuff from this property to the point that she asked us to move in, partially just to stop him from doing that. The guy that we had to get a restraining order on, and blames us for causing his cancer. The guy that shows up at her place randomly and yells at her. That guy.
Gee. Thanks, Mom.
By this time, I’d been at my mother’s for almost 3 and a half hours, the second treatment of the sink showed no signs of doing anything, and I was well past the time I should have left. My mother, meanwhile, was making herself upset because I bought the different drain cleaner and the plunger, and I should take those home, because she has so much stuff and doesn’t need them. I told her I would do that, but after her sink was fixed. However, from experience, I could see that it was because she didn’t want to pay me back for them, even though I had no intention of asking her to. She just assumes that’s what I expect, because that’s what she would expect if she were in my position. It’s also what our vandal would have done.
She’s much less subtle about it, as she gets older!
I had hoped to get the sink unplugged before I left. There were a lot of things I would have tried, if I were at home, but this is a government owned and run building, so I wasn’t going to do it there. I got the okay to try the specialty drain cleaner, and that was as far as I was going to go on that.
I did tell my mother I would call back later to ask, which I did shortly after her 5pm meal and med assist. No change in the water level in the sink.
After leaving my mother’s, I swung by the home care office. Which turned out to be empty at the reception area, and all the other doors were closed. Thankfully, one of the staff came in while I was reading various signs to figure out what I was supposed to do to get through to someone directly. She asked if I was there for an appointment, and I told her I wanted to pass on information to the home care workers about my mother. She recognized my mother’s name when I gave it, and I explained about the sink. The staff was going to have to use the bathroom sink until the kitchen sink was fixed, and I told her how long that might take. She just rolled her eyes in frustration when she heard how long it might be. This is not a new problem with provincial public housing buildings like my mother’s, apparently!
She assured me she would let the home care workers know, and I was soon on my way again. I needed to run some errands in the town nearer to us first. By the time I finished there and was heading home, it was late enough that the post office would be open again and I could pick up three parcels I was expecting.
There turned out to be four.
I ended up driving up to the house and my daughter helped me unload – and kept cats away from the truck, so I could park!
I had lost so much time that, once everything was taken care of and put away, I quickly changed and headed back outside to get as much done as I could while it was still light out.
One of the first jobs was to finish mulching the herb bed with leaves for the winter. Remarkably, the sage, thyme, oregano and lemon balm all survived that freezing rain we had, and we could probably still harvest from them, if we wanted! Time for them to go to sleep for the winter, though, and hopefully start growing again in the spring.
Another job was to finish trimming the materials I’d harvested for what will become deadwood walls for the chain link fence garden bed. I even remembered to take pictures before it got too dark.
The first picture is the pile of saplings and suckers, so far. The longest ones will be used for the front of the bed. The shorter ones will mostly be fitted between the fence posts, on top of the boards that are already there. With the boards, that side only needs to be a few inches taller. The longest pieces will be reserved to do the front wall, just inside where the bricks are now.
I’m going to need a lot more material.
In the second picture, you can see the log my daughter helped me drag out of the spruce grove. This will be part of a bed that will be two logs tall. It’s pretty small, so it will most likely be a top log. I’ll see what I’m able to harvest out of the spruce grove later, but bigger logs will be used on the bottom of the walls.
After the trimming, I worked on something for one of the parcels I got in the mail today.
I was a bit taken aback by the packaging. It just says “battery powered” and nothing on the outside of the box suggests that there is a solar panel. For a moment, I thought maybe it was supposed to be ordered separately, but when I opened it, it was there. The second picture is of the contents.
This camera will be set up to monitor the isolation shelter, which means it will be attached to the big elm tree outside the kitchen window.
The cats love climbing that tree, which means the camera will need protecting.
I also want to be able to easily move the camera to other locations, as needed, such as when we can set up a trap to catch cats for spays.
Inspired by what my brother set up for the gate cam, I went looking through the scrap wood pile and built something to attach the camera to, which is what you can see in the last picture. I started off making the shelter, with a back to attach the camera to, and a roof.
I love my cheap garage sale miter saw!
The roof isn’t so much to keep the elements off the camera; it’s designed to be outdoors and doesn’t need a roof at all. Mostly, it’s to keep the cats off of it!
The camera cover is attached to a slightly longer board, and there are screws already in it, ready to attach it to the tree. I wish I’d found that board earlier, as it would have been much better wood to build the shelter part with!
When it’s time to move the camera, it’s just a matter of unscrewing the back piece from the tree. The solar panel will be attached to the other side of the tree somewhere, facing the sun. That, I am not sure how to set up and protect from the cats (or raccoons!), since it obviously can’t have a roof over it, and still get enough sunlight to power the camera.
After I took the picture, I brought it inside and added wood glue to where the roof comes in contact with other pieces, and the joins of the roof itself.
By the time that was finished, the light was fading fast and getting cold, so I quickly did the evening rounds and cat feeding, and headed in.
I managed to get a decent amount accomplished, given how little daylight I had left when I got home!
Today is most likely that last day of temperatures above freezing for the year, though the long range forecast has several odd days in December that are forecast to be just above freezing. That’s in between temperatures were we are supposed to have highs below -20C/-4C and lows dropping to -35C/-31F, so I really don’t think we’ll get that warm. We’re not even expecting snow until the 7th and 8th of December at this point, and even then it’s only 30% and 60% chance of snow.
Looking at the monthly forecast, apparently, we’ll be getting next to no snow at all this winter! That would actually not be good, as we really need the precipitation. Otherwise, we’re looking at another drought year, next year. Long range forecasts are not particularly reliable, though, so who knows.
For now, though, once the temperatures start dipping below freezing, there really isn’t a lot I’ll be able to keep doing outside.
It’s going to be hibernation time, soon!
Meanwhile, I’ll be going through the manual for the new camera, getting it charged up and hopefully it’ll be set up and working tomorrow.
I’m quite looking forward to testing it out tonight – before it gets attached to the little shelter I made for it!
The Re-Farmer 