It didn’t take long for things to warm up enough that the snow on the ground melted away, but it was a bit longer before the snow turned into a light rain. Yes, we need the moisture, but we also need warmer temperatures! Especially overnight.
We were able to message with our older daughter, who is still in the Women’s Hospital in the city. There was a possibility that she might come home today. They were asking her how far away she lived, so they knew she needed some advance notice before the discharged her. They were waiting on some test results, first, though.
They didn’t get the results until about mid afternoon.
She didn’t come home today.
They’re changing her meds a bit, and are saying she might come home tomorrow.
She is just itching to get out of there!
It wasn’t until late afternoon that things warmed up enough to make working outside more pleasant. As a bonus, my brother and SIL came out to work on their set up. My younger daughter and I went over to their caravan to say hello and visit for a bit, and I got to show off my new wheels.
Before my daughter went inside, I got her to help me with a couple of things. One was to take off the vinyl covered garden bed cover in the old kitchen garden, and move it completely aside. I’ll do a separate post on garden progress, next. Then I showed her a location I thought would work out for the chicken coop that looked the most level. It’s where I’ve been trying to get wildflower mixes growing, but the cats keep using the loose soil as a litter box, or to roll in, killing off anything that might have germinated. She agreed that it looked like a good spot, so I gave it a through raking while she set the ramp up in the coop, so it wouldn’t drag sideways on the ground while we moved it.
Moving the coop was a real pain. Aside from both of us being rather broken, we can only pick it up by our fingertips. Once we’re more settled with it, I’m going to find some way to modify it, so we can move it around more easily.
We set it almost where I wanted it to be, and I worked on the rest. I wanted to set the coop on top of the bricks that used to line one side of the low raised bed I’ve been slowly redoing, but I wasn’t sure if I had enough. I loaded the wheelbarrow and started by laying them out along the back of the coop, just to see how many were needed for the length of it.
It turned out to be 10, with the last brick turned at a right angle.
Once I worked that out, I set the bricks out as straight and even and tight against each other as I could, before very carefully lifting the coop, one end at a time, on top. Then I immediately set bricks under the front corners, just to level it.
It turned out I had another 10 bricks in the wheelbarrow, so a prepped those before getting another load for the sides. I don’t know where these bricks were re-purposed from, but I made sure to use the ones with no, or almost no, mortar still stuck to them. There was more raking and leveling and careful placement, but I finally got it done – and had extra bricks.
The first image above was taken after the coop was moved. I didn’t open the door to let the ramp down until all the bricks were in place.
The next pictures show how the bricks were laid out, including the extras I set along the back and sides. I wanted it on bricks so the wooden frame wasn’t touching the ground. Yes, it’s painted, but it would still end up damaged by moisture and rotting faster.
What I’m not sure of is if anything would burrow under it to get at the chickens. Raccoons and skunks are both known to kill chickens. Ideally, we would set wire mesh around the outside edges by about 2 feet. Which is something that would have been done before setting the coop on bricks. We still need to figure out about securing it. With the wind storm we just had over the past couple of days, it was fine, and that location was more exposed than this one. It might be fine as it is.
Something to consider, still.
I’m glad we finally got it moved and set up on bricks, though. We can figure out the rest later.
Meanwhile, here is a beautiful Lady Adam, and I am rather perplexed by her.
I know Adam has had kittens, but she has been staying around the house a LOT for a mama that just gave birth. She has allowed me to feel her belly, while she’s on the cat house roof, eating. At first, it seemed I was feeling at least three active nips. Maybe more. Then, I was able to feel two, full and swollen with milk. The last time she allowed me to feel her belly, they weren’t swollen anymore. That could mean that she’d nursed her babies before coming to the house for food, but she is always around the house. Even more than usual. Does this mean she lost her litter? Or has she abandoned them? We have no way to know, without knowing where her “nest” is.
I don’t know what to make of it.
As for the cats in the isolation shelter, we are having zero success in socializing them. When we open the windows to give them their cat soup and fresh water, Bug is the only one that tolerates contact. Furriosa glares at me before moving out of reach. The other two just run away, as soon as I open a window. They aren’t even tempted by squeeze treats!
I did change out their litter box today – since I have to open the ramp door to do it, it has to be done quickly, so none of them escape, so I quickly remove the dirty litter pan and immediately replace it with a freshly prepared on, then quickly close up the ramp door. I’ve been able to add more toys for them as well, though I’ve yet to see them actively playing with any of them.
When it comes time to get them to the clinic – Furriosa is to be done first – I honestly don’t know how we’re going to manage it. We might be able to get Bug into a carrier, but the others will not allow us to touch them. How are we supposed to get them into a carrier, if we can’t reach them? Especially if they go into the lower level.
*sigh*
And these are among the friendliest, most gettable females.
We have got to figure something out.
Anyhow.
After I was done with the chicken coop, I worked in the garden for several hours and got good progress done.
My younger daughter took care of the morning routine for me again. She told me that, while giving the isolation cats their cat soup and fresh water, Bug allowed pets, but was absolutely indifferent to them. She was more focused on that open window.
Today has turned out to be a hot one. We’re at 18C/64F, with a “real feel” of 21C/70F Which is a problem for the isolation cats. I’ve removed the sheets of insulation under the roof, so heat can escape through the edges, but it still gets really hot, and we can’t open the windows while they are in there, awaiting spays.
So this afternoon, after I got home again, I did the outside feeding and brought frozen water bottles for the isolation shelter. One for the water bowl, one for the cat bed and one in a corner they like to lie in. Most of the cats were on the bottom level, though. The floor is mesh over the pallet, so there would be cooler there. Then I got a screwdriver and removed the wood strips holding the vinyl wrapped around the bottom of the shelter, where the walls are all wire mesh. I couldn’t remove the back, because it’s up against the house, but I got three sides uncovered.
I don’t know why Furriosa’s eye is closed like that. I still can’t touch her. Flospy finally came out this morning, so it’s just the 4 awaiting their spay appointments.
The next picture in the slideshow, is Adam.
When I saw her on the cat house roof, awaiting food, she looked different – and her back end looked like it was recently damp.
She allowed me to feel her belly.
She has had babies. Somewhere. I could feel at least 3 active nips, one of which can be clearly seen in the photo. With her history, I’d guess she’s had 4 kittens. Somewhere. I wish I knew where her nest is!
Anyhow, hopefully, the isolation cats will be feeling much better, now that the bottom walls are uncovered and there is more air circulation.
Now to the irregular stuff.
My older daughter has not been feeling well for some time. As in, for years. Recently, though, she’d gotten worse. It took a few times telling her I was willing to drive her to the ER and, this morning, she finally agreed. The nearest ER that would be open is in the town closest to us, where my mother spent several months before going into TCU, and where my husband spent 3 weeks, several years ago. One of the nurses there even recognized me, and the doctor that saw my daughter was the same one that treated my mother. My daughter wouldn’t want me to share her health issues here, but it was bad enough that she got admitted and into triage within 15 minutes. That I borrowed a wheelchair to bring her in, and she looked pale as death probably “helped”. She has now she has been transferred to the city for treatment. By the time they did as much as they could for her here, then the paramedics came to transport her, several hours had gone by. There was no use for me to follow to the city, though, so I came home. They will phone us when they have something they can tell us, and we’ll go from there. We have no idea how long she will be in the hospital for.
Hopefully, they will be able to find a root cause and she will finally get the treatment she needs.
Until then, we just do what we can with what we know.
Which isn’t as much as we would like, with her being in the city now. It’s not like we can casually drive out there. Just getting to where it is a pain. The route is pretty straightforward, but it’s downtown, in a city with way too many one way streets in the area, too little parking, and almost non existent road maintenance.
Ah, well. We’ll figure it out, and do what we can.
Oh, my goodness, am I so happy with it! It handles going over the bumpy lawn and the driveway so smoothly, it’s amazing. The front wheels rotate effortlessly – with my husband’s walker, they tend to jam in turns – making smooth turns. I thought I might need to adjust the height of the handles, but they were already in the ideal height. Even though I wasn’t having any issues at the time, I could feel a difference in my back as I tested it out around the yard.
What an awesome Mother’s Day gift from my husband!
This morning, my younger daughter took care of the morning routine for me before going to bed. She had stayed up all night with her sister to help out as much as she could. My older daughter is having severe PCOS issues, to the point that I’ve offered to take her to the ER, but for now, she has said no.
While doing the outside cat feeding, my younger daughter spotted Sprout; the more feral calico. She had the opportunity and reached out to pet Sprout while she was eating. It took a moment for her to notice, she got startled and started to run away, but she was too hungry and came back to eat again, allowing my daughter to pet her some more.
This is the first time Sprout has been touched by human hands!!!
She was also able to pet Bug a bit.
When I headed out this afternoon to get some work done, I got distracted.
Bug, Furriosa, the mostly black cat and the black and white, were all in the isolation shelter.
I immediately treated them to a can of wet cat food.
Flopsy (neutered male) was in there as well and, as I was taking a short video to sent to the rescue, The Grink (spayed female) jumped in through the window. All six of them were at the food bowl at once. You’d think they hadn’t eaten, or that there was still food in the kibble house and sun room!
Later on, The Grink was willing to leave through a window, but Flopsy was not at all interested. So there are now 5 in there.
I contacted the rescue and over the next several hours of back and forthing, they were able to arrange two dates for us. Furriosa on the 22nd, and the other three on the 28th.
The challenge will be getting them into carriers without them escaping. I’ve checked the camera and so far, only Flopsy seems to be trying to find a way out. I removed the insulation sheets from under the roof, because it was getting too hot in there, even with the heat lamp off. I’ve put the toys I picked up in with them, though they don’t seem interested. They are small enough that we can keep them in there until their spays, and for the recovery period afterwards.
Being in there has perks. When I did the evening cat feeding, I made them their own “cat soup”. A mixture of canned cat food, some kibble, pumpkin seed powder, a dash of lysine, and enough hot water to soften the kibble. I’ve since them given them some squeeze treats, though I ended up having to squeeze most of it into the food bowl, and one on the silver insulating material on the shelf above. Hopefully, between their special food and treats, we’ll be able to get them more comfortable with us. Otherwise, we’re going to have a lot of trouble getting them into carriers! I did get a chance to pet Bug a bit, but that was because I had the window open to reach in, and she was looking to get past me and out of the shelter!
If all goes well, we’ll have four more spays (we’re almost positive the mostly black one is female). There are others that need to be done, but they will be harder to get hold of.
Here’s hoping it all works out, between now and their appointments!
Two things were supposed to happen today, and one was a “hopefully will happen”, and one shopping request, taking advantage of my being in the city..
The “hopefully will happen” thing was for my walker to come in. I kept checking the tracking and it just said it had arrived in the city on Friday. No “in delivery” or anything like that. I hoped to go to the mail before they closed over the lunch hours to pick it up, but started to think it might not happen.
The other thing I was waiting for was for the septic guy to arrive. He had said he would be here around 10, but couldn’t say for sure. We were prepared in case I had to leave before he got here, with one of my daughters set to do the cat watch while the tank was open, to make sure none came to close. Having a cat fall in would be disastrous.
The main thing that was scheduled for today was my appointment at the sports injury clinic in the city, in the afternoon.
The last minute request was for a stop at Walmart. I had forgotten a couple of things the last time I was there, so my older daughter requested I pick up a few things for her. She has not been well at all lately, and needed some health related items. When my husband found out I was hitting the Walmart, he let me know he was on his last bottle of distilled water for his CPAP humidifier. So I had a short list to take advantage of the trip.
I made one last check on the tracking and found, lo and behold, the walker was in and ready to pick up! Yay! So I left shortly after 11 to get it, before heading to the city. The septic guy had not arrived yet, but everything was ready for him.
When I got to the post office, I had two parcels to pick up. One was the walker, and the other was my seed order from MI Gardener! More on that, later.
Once everything was loaded in the truck, it was off to the city.
The first thing I noticed when I drove in was a gas station on the outskirts with a price of $1.489/L Local prices rare $1.889/L Driving through the city, I saw $1.889, $1.629 and $1.559, so the prices were just all over the place! I was definitely going to get gas before coming home.
Then I drove right past the clinic.
I did that last time!
I found a place I could turn off and park to double check the address, then headed back again. I was too busy looking at gas prices and completely missed it, even though it is right net to a gas station!
One of the higher prices ones, though.
I’m glad I left early, because that gave me plenty of time for doing things like this. 😁
I was still almost an hour early when I checked in, but that was okay. They had one comfortable armchair in the waiting room. One that was far less painful to sit on than a regular chair! I didn’t get much sleep last night, partly because of the pain in my hips, so I took advantage of the situation and drifted off for a bit.
When the doctor called me in, we talked a bit about the last time I was there, when I got the cortisol injection to my left hip. This time, I mentioned that my right hip was also starting to bother me, so it was decided to do both.
As for the rest…
My Xrays were not in yet. There was nothing we could talk about or do, without them. He marked the file so that they will call me when they come in, and we discussed whether I should go ahead and make an appointment for next week. In the end, I suggested they call me, and perhaps even have just a telephone appointment, depending on what the Xrays show.
As I was telling him about my fall before Christmas, explaining my injuries, I brought up the walker and asked if I could get a note or something, to submit to the insurance company. When my husband got his walker, it was in another province and done through home care, which also covered the cost of the walker, the bath chair and arm bars in the tub/shower of where we were living at the time. It turns out that here, they write a prescription. Which he did for me, after asking questions about the style and type of walker (4 wheels with a seat), and included in the notes why it was needed. Which is pretty much just for when I’m working around the yard, for the most part.
When we were done, I didn’t need to make another appointment, so I just headed out, saying good bye to the receptionists as I went by. Once in the truck, I paused to message the family, when there was suddenly someone at the window.
It turns out there’s a fee for the cortisol injections – and they only take cash. It was only $20. I asked her where the nearest bank machines were, and she mentioned one that was near the Domo gas station I was planning to go to, next. So I told her I would go to the gas station, then the ATM and be back.
When I got to the Domo, the line was quite backed up. Today is Monday. Monday and Thursdays is when they have a 4¢ off/L deal, and a lot of people were taking advantage of it! So I filled that tank at $1.449 It still cost almost $85 to fill, as I dropped below half a tank by the time I reached the city.
That done, I parked and got the cash, then headed back to the clinic. I asked, just in case, and they don’t do direct billing with any insurance companies, but they always give out receipts. So I got that to include with the prescription for my husband to send out, after getting the invoice for the walker from online.
Every little bit helps.
Finally, I headed to the Walmart, where I had to stop to eat. It was about 2pm by then. I hadn’t had lunch and was starting to get dizzy. It was a quick McRaunchies meal, and then I did the shopping. One of the things I’d forgotten before we nowhere to be found, but I got everything else on my three short lists lists.
That done, it was time to head home. By then, it was starting to rain a bit, but not much – until I got closer to home. At which point, we were getting real, solid rain! An absolute downpour of much needed rain! I was so happy to see it!
By the time I got home, it was around 5pm, and the downpour had stopped, though it was still raining a bit. I drove up to the house to unload, then fed the cats so I cold safely drive the truck out of the yard to park in the garage.
We have a bit of a conundrum with the yard cats right now.
Furriosa and Bug have gone into heat.
Both are ridiculously tiny, and they didn’t want the attention, but the boys have been after them. The boys are twice their size and many times heavier! I contacted the rescue about it, and we’ve sort of worked out a plan. Bug, Furriosa and a little black and white female like to hang out in the isolation shelter. We can’t approach them, but we can close the ramp door and keep them there. That would also keep the boys away! From there, we can make arrangements for spays. We’ve been trying to focus on getting Slick who we barely see these days, but the larger adult ferals are not the same sort of concern. If the littles get pregnant, they are so small, they won’t survive.
So the goal right now is to catch them when all three are in the isolation shelter and close it up, even if they are with other cats. Unless those other cats are intact males, of course, but we can remove them once the ramp door is closed.
Anyhow. I digress.
Once the purchases were put away, I assembled the walker. I love it! I didn’t get a picture, though, as I had to hide it in the old kitchen right away. Otherwise, the indoor cats will crawl all over it and piss on it, or use it as a scratching post. I expect to be able to work outside tomorrow, and will be able to get a picture then.
Starting from the top left, yes, I got more coffee seeds. These are for my daughters, and any successful tree would be a house plant, with some time outside in the heat of summer.
Below the coffee seeds is another packet of Blue Berries. The packet we got before had only 8 instead of 10 seeds. It looks like they all germinated, but I wanted to have extra of this variety, just in case.
The Marsh Mallow is something I’ve been interested in trying pretty much since I discovered I could get seeds for it. It’s a plant I’ve read about in my herbals, long ago, but didn’t know could be grown here. All of the plant is edible, except the seeds/pods, as a vegetable. Sap from the root was used to make the first mashmallow confections. The leaves and flowers can be used as an herbal tea, and has medicinal uses both when ingested internally, or used externally. They do require more marshy and damp conditions to grow, so that part will be a challenge. It’s worth a try!
Below that is a fresh Purple Savoy cabbage packet. I probably still have some left, considering there’s 150 seeds in the packet, but I’m pretty sure the ones I winter sowed did not make it. I might try starting some indoors, just in case. Either way, I now have extra seeds.
The Tom Thumb Dwarf peas are because I haven’t seen any sign of them germinating in the old kitchen garden’s wattle weave bed. There are only 25 seeds in a packet, so I don’t mind planted extra, even if the winter sown ones do end up germinating.
I got more Spring Blush peas because I was sure the winter sown ones had been killed off by those cold nights we got after I removed the mulch. Now that it looks like most of them have survived and are sprouting, I will happily use these for a second sowing.
Then there are the sunflowers! Both varieties, Black Russian and Mammoth are supposed to be good for eating. When we grew sunflowers before, it was partially to create a privacy screen, what with our vandal going around and doing things like shouting at us or giving us the finger from the road as he drove by. We didn’t get a lot of fully mature seed heads. I want to try them again, this time in hopes of being able to have seed to feed the chickens we’re getting, as they should be adult size by the time the sunflowers are mature.
Today, my daughters took care of the morning routine, so I could sleep in, though “sleeping in” is rather different as the days get brighter so early now, and breakfast waiting for me.
I headed outside to take care of something and ended up staying out to get a few things done. One of those was to clean up under the green house frame, move it out and tiny up.
I think the cats are okay with losing their winter shelter.
The first image above is Fluffy (spayed), sleeping in the straw under the mock orange, which has become a favourite napping spot for her. We have huge progress with her. Yesterday, while I was coming around the north side of the old kitchen garden, she actually came running towards me, coming to a stop on a retaining wall block and waited for me to come over and pet her. After I got the picture above, I was able to walk up to her and pet her, and she stayed all curled up. Until recently, while she would sometimes allow pets while eating, she would otherwise not allow us to approach her. I would sometimes manage to sneak pets, but that was about it. Now, I can just walk up to her to pet her.
The second image is Sprig, in what seems to be a favourite napping spot for her. I have a giant crocheted blanket I left on the kibble house roof over the winter as extra insulation. I’ve left it there because it’s heavy enough to not be blown away by the wind, and the cats enjoy sleeping on it.
Sprig is more feral, though not as feral as her mother. Sprig hangs out close to the house and in the sun room, whereas her mother goes elsewhere until it’s feeding time, and runs off if we come to close.
While I was watering late this morning, I heard a cat fight that was a real surprise for me. Judgement, who is neutered, was violently attacking Sprig, who is intact and has not gone into her first heat. (We really need to trap her!!!) He is about twice her size and probably more than twice her weight. Why he would attack her like that, I just can’t understand!
The third picture shows where the portable greenhouse frame was, and you can just see part of Sprig, on the kibble house roof, in the photo. I had to wrestle part of the frame loose from the tall grass draped over one end before I could move it. For now, it’s set up next to the shrine, against the chain link fence. It barely fits between the shrine and the white lilacs there, and blocks one end of the path, but it will not stay there permanently. I just had to get it out of the way. Once the frame was clear, I raked up the straw and dead grass that was under it, into the wheelbarrow. It’s been pooped in by cats, so it can’t be reused as mulch or go into the regular compost, so it went to the cat litter compost pile. The pots I’d tried growing luffa in were also thoroughly pooped in, so I emptied the soil into the wheelbarrow, too, and it went into the litter compost, too.
One of the pots somehow ended up with a hole cracked into the side, with a chunk missed. I’ve no idea how that could have happened, in that location!
The rotting wooden bench that I’d had against the back of the tarp to reduce billowing in the wind is now set up against the back of the kibble house. The wire mesh frame, now leans against it, resting on broken pieces of brick so it doesn’t have contact with the ground. That was made to be a summer “door” for the old basement, so we can keep it open for air circulation in the summer, and no cats can get down. Once things get warm enough, we might do that again. For now, it’s nowhere near warm enough.
Last of all, I move the folding table up to the kibble house, and all the pots and bins, and even the black garbage can I was using as a heat sink, fit under the table.
That scrap yarn crocheted blanket on the table is even heavier than the one on the kibble house roof!
Today’s watering has finally included the main garden beds, as I now have enough hoses set up to reach them all. I found a lovely surprise. High winds had blown the leaf mulch over the onions and the row I’d planted peas, so I gently removed it as I watered, and made the discovery.
They had already sprouted when I first removed the mulch, looking rather blanched from being buried by mulch. Then we got those ridiculously cold days and it seems that they had all been killed off. I even ordered more seeds, since there weren’t a lot in the packet of this variety, so I had no extra seeds to try again. Now, it looks like the peas have recovered and sent up new shoots!
Still no sign of the rainbow mix carrots, though. Under the boards was still damp, but the only sprouts I’m seeing are a few tentative weeds. With those, I do have more seeds, I believe, so it can be resown, if it turns out they didn’t survive the spring.
Their tips were blanched when I removed the mulch, and those tips did get damaged by frost, but now you can’t even tell where the damage it. A couple of them needed a bit of help, though. Their leaves were suck in a membrane that would normally have been the cover of the stem at the base, just above ground. It was already starting to split, just from the size of the leaves, but they were getting all twisted out of shape, so I carefully got them free. They’ll be standing straight in no time.
There’s no sign of the spinach or yellow chard, but it may be too soon to tell. It’s been too dry. Now that I’m able to, I’ll be watering them daily, so if anything survive the temperature lurches we’ve been having all spring, we should see something soon. There’s no sign of poppies yet, either, but I don’t expect to, yet. The plot does show evidence of cats walking all over it, though, so that might be a problem. I was also able to water the Albion everbearing strawberries that have survived the winter.
I’ll need to hook up more hoses, so I can fill the water barrel out by the plum, gooseberry and haskap. the gooseberry’s leaf buds are starting to unfurl already, but I can barely see the haskap at all. I’d be concerned they got eaten by deer during the winter, but I never saw any tracks around there. The snow was too deep. Hopefully, if I can start watering them, they’ll perk up and start budding leaves. The plum seems to be okay and is starting to show leaf buds. The plum still has chicken wire around the tall dollar store tomato supports I set up around it, after the deer got to it a couple of times last year.
I intend to get more of those supports. They are really handy. I might even use them for tomatoes at some point. 😄
According to the forecast, we might get some rain in a couple of hours, but only a 35% chance of it, so I’m glad I did the watering. What rain we got yesterday really wasn’t much at all.
After moving the portable greenhouse frame, I noticed that the white lilacs are starting to spread into the path, toward the chimney block planters, quite a lot. Normally, I’d prune them back, but I remembered that the renter’s wife had said she would like to have white lilacs, so I messaged her today, telling her she can gab as many suckers as she wants. She accepted the offer. Once she has an area prepped, she will come over and dig them up. I just asked her to let me know when she’s going to come, so I can water the area the day before, to make it easier to dig them up and transplant them. This is the perfect time of year to transplant them, since their leaf buds are just starting to form. Once she has taken as many as she wants, I’ll prune away any other suckers remaining.
Yesterday, I’d been hearing heavy equipment and the sound of cattle and thought they might have been moved to this quarter. I asked about it, since our basket will are going to be shipped at the end of May, and I’ll be transplanting them beyond the outer yard. I’ll have to make sure they are protected from the cows for the first few years. It’ll be about 5 years of coppice training before they produce useable switches, but I can use any sprigs cut away and plant them. Which means that, every year, there should be at least a few more new basket willows started. There are two more varieties I want to try, with differently coloured bark. I’d hoped to order them for this year, too, but the budget did not allow for it. Too many truck and plumbing repairs!
I got through to the septic guy today and he will be coming out tomorrow morning. I should still be here, but will probably be leaving early to go to the post office before it closes for 2 hours over the lunch period, so I might end up leaving before he’s done. Which is okay; the payment is already ready and waiting for him. Tracking information shows my new walker is now in the city, which means is should get to the post office tomorrow morning, even though it still says Wednesday for delivery. A friend suggested I could get a note from a doctor about it, which would allow us to claim it on my medical insurance. I should be able to get that done by the doctor at the sports injury clinic during my appointment.
Things are looking very calm outside right now. I think, after I feed the outside cats for the night, I might get a fire going in the pit and char those stakes for the chain link fence raised bed. I probably won’t have a chance to get more done on it tomorrow, but at least they’ll be ready for when I can.
This morning, I woke to find a message from my older daughter. She had been up all night, not feeling well at all. Her sister stayed up with her to be available to help out.
Not being in a position to cook for herself, she sent me some funds and a request. After talking to her about it, I added a Walmart trip to my list of places to go today.
The first order of business, was to load up the truck with garbage and recycling for the dump. My younger daughter helped me, but she had been up for more than 24 hours, so she was pretty dead on her feet! She headed to bed shortly after the truck was loaded.
Silly me, I headed out right away, forgetting that the dump is not on summer hours. They open at 10am now, not 9am. Thankfully, I remember that before I was a mile away, so I turned around and headed home. It worked out for the better, since I had time to have a real breakfast before going.
The dump was surprisingly busy today. Driving up to the pit, I found a row of four trucks, two with trailers, unloading. I rarely see more than two vehicles at once.
When I checked in with the attendant and told him I had household garbage and recycling, he said I hoped I had only glass! They have one recycling bin for glass, and the rest for general recycling. Six big bins, and they were all full. The recycling gets taken to the city for processing, and it hadn’t been done yet. After I was done unloading into the pit, I found the least over filled bin. Normally, as per instructions on signs, recycling would be removed from any bags; there’s even a separate blue bin, the size of a large trash bin, just for the bags. I didn’t do that today, and just set all the bags on top. When I saw the attendant going by, I made sure to tell him I was leaving them in the bags, so things wouldn’t get blown away. He appreciated that!
Once done, I headed home long enough to change out of my grubbies, then headed out.
On the way to the truck, I spotted this adorableness.
I’ve turned off the heat lamps in the sun room again, since it stays warmer overnight, but for the next couple of days, I’m leaving the heat lamp on in here. When things warm up again, I’ll shut it off during the day and turn it back on at night.
The cats were really appreciating the heat lamp!
It’s been a while since I’ve been to anywhere I could pick up a card, so I stopped at a small department store to get a Mother’s Day card and signed it before going to the TCU to visit my mother. I stopped at the nursing station first, to ask how she’s been.
The woman that had spoke to us before to talk about my mother wanting to see a doctor, and about her medications, was there. She told me that, after our little meeting, my mother had gone to the nursing station to watch her prepare my mom’s supper time medications – and was already telling her, they were the wrong medications.
They aren’t.
In the end, it comes down to my mother simply refusing to believe the nurses know what they are doing, and believing that they are deliberately messing up her medications, because she’s old and they want old people to die.
*sigh*
The staff tell her what the different pills are, every time they give them to her, explaining which is which and what they are for. She apparently just looks at them and nods her head, most times, and that’s about it. Yet I know she’s been writing notes on a pad she keeps in the drawer under her bedside table, of what she’s getting and when, writing down the descriptions of each pill and making little doodles of them, later on.
As we were talking, another nurse came behind the counter and settled in. Hearing us, she said, “Oh, we’re talking about [my mother].”
“Yes.”
“Ah…”
All I could do was shake my head. It’s not the first time I’ve had that response about my mother! She did clarify that this was a good “ah”. She was my mother’s nurse, this morning.
As we were talking, I brought up about my mother calling me, demanding I take her over to the clinic down the hall, so she could make an appointment with a doctor there. I had told her, I already asked them about it. They won’t do it. Which the nurses both confirmed with me. I told them, I had repeated this several times, until my mother hung up on me – and that’s the last time I have talked to her!
They wished me well on the visit. 😄
After getting updated on things, I went to my mother’s room to see if she was there. She wasn’t, so I headed to the common room. There were other people visiting with another resident in some armchairs by the door. My mother was in her favourite spot; an armchair right in a corner, between two large windows. Snoozing!
She woke right away, though, as I grabbed a chair and settled in beside her. I gave her the card, which she asked me to take out and read to her.
There wasn’t much to talk about, really. My brother had called her yesterday, as he and his wife were going to spend Mother’s Day weekend with their grandsons, in another province. The TCO recreation person had gotten permission from us to take her out for a Mother’s Day meal at a nearby restaurant, which is fully accessible. There were enough ladies to do this with, so they were splitting it between two days. I didn’t know which day my mother was going to be going, and I asked her about it. She said she didn’t go, because she hadn’t been feeling well. In the end, it worked out, because my sister visited that day.
She then asked me what I was planning for Mother’s Day and I ended up telling her about the all-terrain walker my husband got for me, which should arrive soon. Something that can handle being used around our yard as I work, and to keep hand in case I have another fall, like I did last year, where my daughter brought my husband’s walker for me to use to get back to the house. I even mentioned to her that I have my appointment at the sports injury clinic in the city on Monday. That got my mother talking about how my brother and I should really get my sister to be more involved in taking care of my mother, because I have so much to deal with, even though my sister doesn’t understand my mother’s medications like we do. I told her, it makes more sense for me to be the one, because I am the most available, and live the closest.
After a while, my mother brought up about wanting to see a “real” doctor at the clinic down the hall. There are three doctors that some in from the city, she says. Women doctors. She should see them. I tried to explain, again, that the clinic won’t do that. She is under a doctor’s supervision where she is, and there are nurses to take care of her. Nurses that play doctor, she told me. With some of them, she doesn’t believe they are nurses at all. One, because he’s male, and men can’t be nurses, in her mind. She had the same attitude about the male home care workers.
Before she could go off on another tangent, she then told me about the nurses messing up with her medications and not giving her what she’s supposed to, at the right times. She described an incident she says happened more than once that made absolutely no sense to me. Partly because she said she was supposed to have her blood pressure medication at that time, which I knew she didn’t. She got that one earlier in the day. She insisted, and then told me about how this person had given her her Tylenol, but not her other medications. When my mother brought it up, she claimed the person said she got was she was supposed to, but then took a pill out of a blister pack and gave it to her. My mother said she took it.
None of this made sense to me.
In the end, it was a short visit. My mother got her lunch while I was there. A chicken burger, with lettuce and tomato, cut in half, potato salad, canned peaches, tomato juice, milk and the hot water she requests in place of tea. She ate only half her burger, the potato salad, her peaches, had a few sips of tomato juice, but mostly drank the warm water. She offered me the other half of her burger, because she didn’t want it to go to waste. She said she doesn’t have as much appetite anymore. Overall, she seemed pretty down, tired and depressed. She did add that she looks forward to when it’s warmer, so maybe one of her children will take her out to that restaurant for dinner. Considering it was cloudy and trying to rain, I can understand that. Overcast and rainy weather always leaves me feeling drained and tired, too. The only time she showed any sort of energy was when the group of people across the room suddenly started to laugh. My mother glared at them, her eyes filled with absolute rage. That is something she complains about constantly, every time she’s been in the hospital over the years, and now that she’s in the TCU. Other people laughing. She has even berated people in restaurants for laughing. She complains about the noise and how disruptive it is, but I’ve come to realize, it’s not really the noise. She just hates other people showing happiness. Often times, she also believes that they are laughing at her, specifically. I think part of the problem is that she can’t conceive of other people being happy, because she, herself, never is. When – if – she laughs, it’s never out of happiness. It’s usually to mock people, or to try and manipulate them. I honestly can’t remember my mother ever laughing out of happiness, in all my life. I’m sure she had at some point, but I was probably too young to remember it.
My mother’s mind must be a terrible place to be in.
There was very little to talk about, so I helped her put aside the bedside table with the food tray so she could get up, and walked her to her room before heading out.
From there, I drove to the nearer city to do my Walmart run. Since it shares the parking lot, I swung by the Dollarama first, to see if there was anything to pick up. The gardening supplies are being stocked, and they have some really good stakes and plant supports and much better prices. They didn’t have much for those, this time, but I did end up getting a sprinkler hose. Something I can set up under a covered garden bed, so I can water without having to take the cover off completely. I do have a couple of soaker hoses, but they release water so slowly, it takes forever to water a bed. It’s just a cheap one, dollar store hose, so I don’t expect it to last very long, but it’ll last long enough that I can decide on whether it’s worth getting more. At some point, when the budget allows, we’ll probably get a drip irrigation system. Not until we trench a hose from the house and set up a replacement garden tap.
That done, I headed to the Walmart. I had a small list of my own, as well as stuff my daughter requested, and it didn’t take very long. I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, but had no idea what. It didn’t help that this location is still in the process of being renovated, and everything has been moved. It was also really busy, not just with customers, but with pallets, trollies, pallet jacks and more, blocking the aisles.
I remembered what I was forgetting, just now. I don’t even know where the section is, anymore. I was going to pick up water soluble fertilizer to add to the water for the earliest transplants. They’re getting big enough to need it. It’s will probably be at least 4 more weeks before any of them can be transplanted outside, unless I’m able to cover the beds with plastic.
That done, I headed home, though I did have to stop for gas along the way. Gas prices are still $1.889/L
After everything was unloaded and put away, I updated my siblings, then called the TCU. The woman I spoke to before visiting my mother answer the phone, which made things easier. I explained, as best I could, what my mother had told me. It didn’t make sense to her, either.
What I now know, however, is that the Tylenol they get comes sealed in blister packs. The medication my mother gets before bed, which is a blood thinner, not a blood pressure pill, comes in a paper packet that is torn open. My mother had said the nurse had waited and watched her take the Tylenol, but it had to have been her blood thinner – yet she’s never said anything about a pill being taken out of a paper packet.
I was assured that, when my mother is given her medications, each one is shown to her and explained. When talking to me about it later, it’s clear my mother doesn’t believe them. She’s had it explained to her, many times, that even though the pills might look a little different – or a lot different, as is the case with her eye vitamin – they still have the same medication and dose in them. My mother keeps saying, they are the wrong pills. Especially with that eye vitamin. Before, she had been getting the gel version, which is large and almost black in colour. Now, it’s a round white tablet.
I explained that this has been an issue in the past, when the pharmacy changed suppliers for one of her meds. It looked every so slightly different in size and tint. My mother decided that the pharmacist had changed her prescription and was giving her something else. My siblings and I explained it to her. The pharmacist explained it to her. The doctor explained it to her. She never accepted that. I told her about my mother having to have a lock box for her meds, and that I’d found a pill organizer with probably 50 pills in it that she’d taken out of her bubble packs, long before she got the lock box.
I don’t think the problem is that my mother isn’t able understand that the same medication can come indifferent forms. I think it’s more that she refuses to accept that as a possibility. She would rather believe people are incompetent, or deliberately messing with her medications.
*sigh*
Still, the nurse said she would look into what my mother described. She asked if I knew what the nurse looked like, or when it happened, but my mother’s sense of time has gotten very bad, and she only gave a description of things that bothered her for some reason. The hat the nurse was wearing, the fact that she had curls of hair hanging out from under it, behind her head, and that she was wearing a cross body “purse” (with how my mother described it, I don’t think it was a purse) that she never took off. It wasn’t much for her to go on. All I could be relatively sure of is that what my mother described would have happened after the nurse had her meeting with us, so within the past week. In the end, though, I can’t even be 100% sure of that. My mother made it sound like it was recent, but she’s done that about things that have happen days, weeks, even years ago. So who really knows.
Meanwhile, I’m getting messages, photos and video from my brother and SIL, hanging out with their grand kids. Oh, and their son and daughter in law, too. 😁 They’re having a blast! I’m glad they could make the trip out.
All in all, even with the short but rather odd visit with my mother, it’s been a good and relatively productive day. Tomorrow is expected to be cooler again, so I will use that as my excuse to get a real, honest to goodness, day of rest. I hadn’t pushed myself hard yesterday, but I still needed to get my husband to slather on the diclofenac last night. Even between that and the painkillers I took before bed, I was awakened this morning by sharp pain in my hips. Both of them. Which, strangely, lessened as soon as I was up and moving around.
I’m really looking forward to my appointment at the sports injury clinic on Monday!
Hopefully, I won’t have to deal with it again, tomorrow morning!
Not in the photo is Adam, who very enthusiastically took pets. No sign of Slick today, anywhere.
My goal for today was to start the 4-6 weeks before last frost date seeds. After going through them, I decided on some herbs, caraway, chicory and chamomile, some French Double Dwarf marigolds, some Early White Vienna kohlrabi I picked up, just in case the winter down bed doesn’t make it, and Bi-Colour Pear gourds.
I pre-moistened a bag of seed starting mix with hot water and had the heater going. That basement is way too cold for this, but it’s our only option this year. The six new seed snails got their own metal tray. The Bi-colour Pear gourds have fairly small seeds, so I went ahead and did a snail roll; for the squash, etc. with larger seeds, I will go back to using the planting trays.
All the rolls got topped with vermiculite after the seeds were sown and covered with soil, except the chamomile. Those seeds are so tiny, they got covered with vermiculate only.
Speaking of which…
My brother and SIL came out today to take care of some things and I was able to see them shortly before they left. They were out by the barn as we were talking and the pile with trees growing out of it came up. The trees are self seeded and need to go, as does the pile. I’d been told it was some sort of insulation under there.
My brother informed me that no, it is vermiculite.
We’re talking a truck load, and it’s been sitting there for at least 20 years. It used to be covered in taps and plastic, and I can still see some shreds of that, but over the years a thick layer of moss has grown over it, dead branches had been tossed on top and, along with the self seeded maples, there are a bunch of self seeded raspberry bushes growing on one side.
When my brother gets his old tractor with the front end loader going, he will help me move that pile out. It’s in the way, and I don’t want trees growing in this location; they would eventually block access to the barn. Now that I know it’s vermiculite in that pile, I might actually be able to use it in the garden!
If it’s still good. It’s not exactly “clean” anymore. Some patches got exposed and they’re looking pretty… moldy? We’ll see when the time comes.
Anyhow…
Once the new seeds were planted, the tray was set aside, and I removed the tray with the celery snail rolls in it so I could reach it. I got another metal tray out for the next rolls.
I got rid of the dead luffa entirely. Poor thing.
I decided to “pot up” the Russian Tarragon and Summer Savory seedlings into one snail roll. The tarragon looks pretty good, but I don’t think the summer savory is going to make it. We’ll see.
For this is part, I used what I had left in my bucket of sifted potting soil, which was still damp from when we used it last. The bucket had been sitting on the concrete floor, and the damp potting soil was COLD. I’m really hoping that doesn’t cause too much shock for the seedlings. I used it to “pot up” the four varieties of tomatoes by unrolling them, adding the potting soil, then rolling them back up again. I also potted up… I think it was the Crackerjack marigolds, but I’m suddenly drawing a blank on that.
The rest did not get potted up, partly because I was almost out of potting soil. The potted up rolls are thicker now, so everything is now on three trays, with the two big rolls of celery in a tray to themselves now. The celery is really big! They are a short season variety, and I probably started them too early for this specific variety.
Once the three trays were set back up on the shelf under the shop light, I returned the plant lights on one side, then set up the heat mat on the work table, in front of the shelf, where the second plant lights can reach. At least the new seed rolls will be a bit warm on the mat.
So that is finally done.
I didn’t try to get much done outside today; I’m very tired and hurting. It was a warmer day – our high is 18C/64F – though we also had high winds. We even got a smattering of rain.
Unfortunately, we’re dropping down to a low of 2C/36F overnight, and that’s our high for tomorrow. Over the next few days, the highs and lows were be just over or just under freezing. Even when we start warming up by next weekend, those overnight lows are going to stay around the freezing mark. We aren’t expected to get warmer until the third week of May, and the long range forecast shows us still expecting lows below freezing at the beginning of June.
Right around our old last frost day, which is what I’m going by, rather than the updated average.
Tomorrow, I finally have my doctor’s appointment – the one I had to cancel twice because of the truck issues. I won’t be losing much by being out, though, as it’s supposed to be not only cold, but very windy, too. Over the next while, I’ll need to focus on cleaning up and preparing a few more garden beds, including the one at the chain link fence that is going to be redone completely again.
I have a strong suspicion our winter sown beds aren’t going to make it this year. There were a few things where seedlings had already emerged when I removed the mulch, but I can’t see them anymore. Not even in the bed I was able to cover with the 6mm plastic. I hope I’m wrong, but these are all things I can direct sow before the last frost date. I’ve even reordered a few things, so I can replant the same varieties in the same places, if they don’t work out. The soil surface is all so dry – and yes, I’ve been watering what I could. I’ve now got hoses set up at both the front and back taps, though I need to make sure the water is shut off at the house and the hoses are empty, so there’s nothing to freeze in them overnight.
Hopefully, even though it’s going to be pretty chilly for the next few days, I’ll be able to get some progress on the garden beds that need preparing.
Meanwhile, we’ll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow about the issues I’ve been having.
It didn’t last long, of course, but still… not sure if the winter sown beds I removed the mulch from will survive the cold nights we’ve been having. I had to take the mulch off, to keep the seeds from being smothered, but weather is weather, and this is Canada, so yeah. We get snow pretty much any time of the year.
This little furball is on the roof of the isolation shelter, right above where the heat lamp is. I do have sheets of rigid insulation under the roof for the winter, but the cats have torn holes in it. This cat is pretty much on top of one of them, so it’s a warm spot.
I headed into the city on my own today, as my younger daughter who sometimes comes with me was still not feeling very well today. Today’s shopping was a triple shopping stop, though I did stop at a gas station on the way out to get a drink and a sandwich for breakfast, then at a Domo in the city to put in $30 in gas (fuel is from a separate budget line).
The price of gas. Oh, my goodness.
The gas station just outside of town I stopped at to get breakfast (their sandwiches are made fresh by a local bakery, and the single restaurant in our little hamlet, and are very good), the price of gas was $1.689/L
As I drove into the city, the first gas station I passed was $1.449/L ! As I continued on, I saw a Shell station at $1.889, but two other stations were at $1.449. After I was finished at Canadian Tire, I stopped at a Domo along the way and put in $30 before continuing my shopping. As I was leaving the city, that first gas station I saw had changed its price to $1.889!!! A 44¢ per litre jump happened while I was shopping!
I’m afraid to find out what the local prices will be. I took a different route home, so I never saw, one way or the other.
My first stop of the day was Canadian Tire, since there are no food items to get while there. This time, I actually got a picture, since I got a few extras.
This is what $92.02 looks like.
Yeah. Not much.
The main thing on the list was the litter pellets. I also found the small wood screws I needed, then picked up some flat right angle corner plates to further secure the extra roosts I made for the chicken coop. The angle brackets I used to assemble them are not very strong, and I don’t want to risk the weight of roosting chickens to break them loose.
I found some clear repair tape, and a hose repair kit I needed, plus another bag of seed starter mix; I haven’t been able to start the 4-6 weeks before frost seeds, yet, and will soon need to start the 3-4 week seeds.
I ended up getting a package of LED bulbs. We just used our last spare, and these were 53% off. On the way to the checkout, I spotted some nitrile garden gloves on sale. After making sure the size large would actually fit my hand, I picked up a pair. Most of the garden gloves I have now are wearing out.
Just that, for almost $100. *sigh*
From there, my next stop was the Walmart.
This is what $413.84 looks like.
That cart isn’t even full. It’s a lot of non-food items, though.
Going through the receipt from the top, there’s a package of paper towels that was marked down in price. Then there are four bags of dry kibble. Two for the inside cats, two for the outside cats. Feed store kibble is cheaper per kg, but this way they get variety, which is better for the cats.
The price of strawberries was very good, so I got 4 clamshells. There’s a couple of loaves of rye bread – I’ll get more bread at Costco – and a bag of 5 avocados for a very good price. I got some heat and eats – fish sticks and chicken nuggets – for those days when none of us is up to cooking. Those have gone down in prices. There’s a 2L of 3% milk and a 2L of oat milk, plus a large block of Old Cheddar cheese. For my husband, I got some pretzels, plus I got a small bag of popcorn. Normally we get the big container of popcorn at Costco, but we couldn’t find any, last time.
I found the brand of soy sauce my husband likes and picked up a bottle. I’m glad I did, because the international grocery store didn’t seem to have any again. For my husband, I got four boxes of Crystal Lite, in two different flavours.
Next is a large bottle of hair conditioner. Yes, just conditioner. We use twice as much of that as we do shampoo. Then there is the Lactaid, except I got the wrong kind. I thought I was getting chewable, which my husband asked for, but when I went for the extra strength, they turned out to not be chewable. There is a box of antihistamines for me, some *ahem* personal hygiene products for the girls and I.
The budget for this part of the shop was supposed to be under $400, but the taxes put it over.
Ouch.
After this, I had one last stop to make. I did consider going to the Dollarama next door, afterwards, but I was just too tired and just did the International grocery store.
By this time, it was coming up on 1pm, so I got lunch, first. Some Chinese food and a drink, that came out to $17.70 after taxes.
As for the rest of the shopping, this is what $188.24 looks like.
There’s … not much there at all.
You know what we didn’t get?
Beef. We did not get beef. I was looking at a “value pack” with a whole two grilling steaks in it that cost $56.65. The price per kg was $79.34. Those two steaks weighed only 0.714kg
I don’t expect the prices to be any better at Costco.
There is some instant milk tea for the pantry. Last time, we couldn’t find any, and now it’s a new brand to try. That and the instant Matcha Latte I got for the girls were on sale. I got a large bunch of banana, some Pink Lady apples, and a tiny Camembert cheese round that has a $1 off sticker on it.
The two Chef Samplers are sushi and nigiri platters I got for the girls – there was no way any of us would be up to cooking by the time I got home. For my husband, I got a Lumber Jack sandwich, and a Teriyaki Bento box for myself.
I had planned to pick up ground cinnamon at Costco, but when I saw the price here, I picked up a bag. Why pay more for a shaker container when we can just reuse the old one?
The frying chicken was a very good price. I got two whole chickens for about half the usual price.
The 10 pound bag of Russet potatoes was a good price, so I grabbed on. The sushi right for the girls was the most expensive thing on the list, but that will last time a long time (my husband and I prefer the Costco Basmati). I got two different types of smoked bacon, unsliced, that was on sale. There are two types of tea that I got on sale; tea is getting insanely expensive, but these are house brand teas, so they’re a bit less expensive even when not on sale.
Last on the list, I got two different types of fish fillets for the girls.
That’s it. That’s all of it.
The grand total for all this is $694.10 Add in my lunch and the gas, and we’re at $721.80
This isn’t even much of a stock up.
After what we got today, we’re working out the list of what we will be getting at Costco. I’m already dreading what it’s going to cost, but my older daughter has already told me she’ll be sending funds for some things. That will certainly help. Along with the usual budget times for May, we need to cover things like the annual WordPress subscription, and the bi-annual emptying of the septic tank. Which cost about the same. 😄
Well, that’s one stock up shop done, at least. Such as it is.
Normally, I would have gone into the city today for our first stock up shop. I’d forgotten what day it was when I arranged for someone from the hospital the TCU my mother is in to call me.
No one called.
*sigh*
I headed out to work on the chicken coop in the early afternoon. I had decided last night on how I would modify the coop to include roosts in front of the nesting boxes, if I could find the materials for it.
I did.
After taking some measurements (it was very awkward to reach where I needed to measure!), I dug around the scrap but useable lumber bits in the garage my brother gave me and found a 2×4 that was long enough. I cut it to the length I needed for the roosts with my miter saw, but was stuck trying to figure out how to cut it in half length wise. A hand saw would just take too long, and the old table saw we have stored in the sun room would have been too much of a pain to get out and use for just one cut. In the end, I got my jig saw out of winter storage and used that.
The down side is that I got a wonky cut out of it. When it came near the end, I flipped the board and restarted at the uncut end. Of course, it went wonky and I ended up with a jaggy bit where the cuts met. I ended up taking the pieces to the vice in the other side of the garage and smoothed the roughest parts with my draw knife. Then they got a sanding, just with some course sand paper, so the pieces were smooth on all sides, and the edges were slightly rounded. Should be much nicer on chicken feet!
While getting the jigsaw out of storage in the basement, I looked through the scrap we had there and found a leftover piece of wood that was the right width to use as uprights to support the roosts. I measured off and cut two 12″ pieces, then took everything to the coop to see how they fit. I found I needed to trim a bit on the cross pieces, then remembered that I needed two more upright supports. The remaining piece of wood was just shy of 2′ long, so I ended up cutting it in half and getting two pieces just barely over 11 inches long.
I also had a package of right angle brackets and used those to attach the uprights to the cross piece, though I did have to trim just a touch off the cross pieces for them to fit. Unfortunately, the angle brackets I had are dollar store cheepies, and the screws just did not want to bite! It almost took longer to screw on the angle brackets than it did to cut the wood to size!
I got them done, though, and have set them up inside the coop, in front of the nesting boxes.
I had to use a little household step ladder to be able to reach in and set one end in place, from above. Ideally, these should have been installed when before the end walls were attached, but I hadn’t figured out how to add the roosts inside, yet.
You can see the new roosts in the second and third photos of the slideshow above. At this point, I had to stop. The uprights need to be secured to the walls. Otherwise, they’ll just fall loose while the coop is being worked on and moved around. I’ll have to screw them in place from the outside.
After going through my collection of screws, I realized I didn’t have anything the right size. I will be going into the city tomorrow for the stock up trip I normally would have done today, and one of my stops is Canadian Tire for litter pellets, so I can pick up the right screws while I am there.
Which means there will be no progress at all on the coop tomorrow, nor probably the day after, as that is when I would be going into the city again for the Costco shopping. My daughter will probably be coming with me, so she won’t be working on it for me, either.
Thankfully, we don’t actually need it for quite some time, and by the time we can get back at it, the weather should be warming up again.
As I was putting everything away, I spotted these adorable ones.
They really love that pile of straw mulch I’d moved under the mock orange bush!
When doing the evening cat feed, I saw Slick. She didn’t show up this morning, so I was glad to see her. As I put food on the cat house roof, her favourite place to eat, she actually came over, purring, and wanting pets! Which I stopped to do, and made a point of trying to feel under her belly. I was hoping to feel and active nips she had, to get an idea of how many kittens she has.
I felt none at all.
Which is very strange. I’m sure I would have felt something if she were nursing kittens. Either she just has one and the active nip was somewhere I wasn’t able to touch her, or … did she lose her litter? It’s really hard to know at this point. After she ate, she suddenly got strange on me again and moved away as I came close, even if it was to pet a different cat. As she moved around, I tried to see her belly fur, and still, nothing.
I don’t know what to make of it.
As I continued my evening rounds, I checked on the fruit and berry bushes. It’s too early to see if they all survived the winter at this stage. One exception is the silver buffaloberry.
The branches are absolutely covered with these tiny little leaf buds!
I may have made a mistake in not covering the trellis bed, with the peas and carrots. Peas are cold tolerant, but newly uncovered sprouts may not have been strong enough to handle the overnight temperatures we’re having right now. Some of the other beds, the rows got re-covered in leaves by the wind, which I’ve left, as it may be protecting any seedlings from the overnight cold. It’s too early to tell, even with the beds that are under plastic.
The colder temperatures are good for the poppy seeds I sowed, though. This is nature doing the cold stratification for me.
Hopefully, the winter sown beds will make it. If not, I’ll have a lot of free space to plant into, when things finally warm up!
I might just pick up more packages of certain new seed varieties I was trying, just in case…
Well, we did get a lot done, but it isn’t complete.
I didn’t even head out until the afternoon. I wanted to wait until it got at least a bit warmed. I’m glad I did, because I got a phone calls from my mother and brother. They are back from their pilgrimage and he even visited my mother on Saturday, not longer after I’d left! We must have just missed each other that day!
The first call was from my mother, giving me the name of a doctor at the clinic in the same hospital building the TCU is in. Someone else there gave her the name of his wife’s doctor, and I got all sorts of details that were absolutely irrelevant. I eventually found out that her hearing has gotten worse, especially in her right ear, and so on.
Now, that last time I talked to someone at the nursing station about this, I was told that because the doctor in charge of the ICU does his rounds only once a week and can’t stay with any one person for too long, I would have to make an appointment at the clinic, instead. I had passed this on to my mother, but that was as far as it went.
I managed to get my mother to let me off the phone so I could call the clinic. I looked up the clinic’s website for the phone number, and also looked up the names of the staff.
The name she gave me was not for a doctor, but a Registered Nurse. There is no permanent doctor at this clinic; all the doctors come in from the city on some sort of rotation, so most of the appointments are doing by RNs. I knew my mother wasn’t going to like that.
Still, I called up the clinic and talked to the receptionist, explaining that my mother was right in the building in the TCU and wanted to make an appointment.
They can’t do that. It doesn’t work that way.
???
I told her what I’d been told by the nurse, some time ago, and it was not the correct information. In short, we have to book a family meeting with the doctor, an administrator, my mother and any family members that can be there (which would probably just be me) to talk about my mother’s needs. Which would need to be arranged through the administrator. Who wasn’t in today. She’d be in tomorrow, though.
So I called the nursing station at the TCU and talk to the nurse there. Not the same one I spoke to about this before. I explained the situation about not being able to book and appointment and my instructions, and she was all, yeah, that’s how it’s done.
*sigh*
She got my name and phone number and the administrator should be calling me tomorrow.
That done, I called my mother back to let her know. She was eating her lunch at the time, so I kept it short. She still tried to keep me on the phone longer, as she was eating and talking to me at the same time.
It took me a while to recover from the noises. I don’t think she had her teeth in.
Then, just before I was going to head outside, my brother called. He had just talked to my mother, having to do a three way call, because he needs to do her taxes and there is stuff missing. As her PoA, he could take care of it, but it would have taken 90 days, but if my mother talked to them in person and gave permission, they could do it right away. My brother wanted to make sure I knew about it all in case I got a call from my mother and she was sounding flustered or something.
I’m so glad he did that.
Finally, I could head outside and get started. I had been trying to figure out how to move the two big boxes from the garage to the yard, where we’re thinking to set it up, and never quite came to a conclusion. In the end, once I dragged a box out of the garage, I found I could simply walk it, rocking from one corner to the other, all the way across. It was surprisingly fast that way. The boxes where not the same size and shape, and one of them was more awkward than they other, but I got it done.
The next thing to do was unpack them both and sort everything on the lawn.
Then I brought my tool bag and a chair, then sat down to start going through the instructions.
They are pictographic instructions.
They’re not very clear.
Still, I got a fair bit of progress on the first section before I had to message a daughter for help. It needed to be stood up, but it wasn’t very stable yet and I didn’t want to risk breaking anything. My younger daughter came out to help – then stayed! In fact, she pretty much took over for me.
Which I really appreciated when I realized I hadn’t eaten lunch yet. She kept working on it, trying to decipher the instructions for the next stage. We’d already had to take some things off and reverse them, because the images in the instructions looked the opposite of what it was supposed to be.
As I was eating, the phone rang again.
It was my mother.
She told me my brother had called, and it was about insurance. She doesn’t have insurance.
Did I mention how glad I am my brother filled me in already?
I explained to her that he called about her taxes. One of the things he had to get for her claim is her prescription information. Our province has insurance coverage for that, connected with our provincial health care.
She still doesn’t understand it. She knows she sometimes has to pay for her medications, and sometimes gets them for “free”, but doesn’t understand the concept of a deductible, or that the “free” is when the insurance covers the cost.
Then she started complaining about how my brother never phones or visits.
I pointed out, he’s been back from Spain for maybe 2 days, he just visited her recently, and phoned her today. “Oh, in general”. Then she complained my sister doesn’t phone or visit, and passed on stuff she wanted me to tell them for her. It seems she’s lost track of their phone numbers, and can’t figure out how to use the contacts list on her phone. The number here at the farm hasn’t changed since they had a telephone installed some time in the 60s, it’s the only number she remembers.
I had mentioned to her that I was eating and that I had to get back outside to help build a chicken coop, but still had a hard time getting her to let me off the phone. I messaged my brother right away, before I could forget anything, inhaled the rest of my “lunch” (it was well past 5 by then), then went back to help my daughter.
When I’d done in, we’d done as much as we could on one side of the coop at this stage, and the second side needed to be assembled. She had gotten some good progress on that by the time I got there again, but she was stumped at the next part.
It turned out she had attached the floor in reverse. There was nothing in the pictographs to show there was a difference. On the side that’s supposed to face the end of the nesting boxes go, there were pre-drilled holes for pegs. The walls for the nesting boxes are set in place with the pegs, first, then screwed into place through pre-drilled holes under the floor.
We had to take almost the whole thing apart again to fix it. The side walls also had wooden pegs, and a couple of them broke in the process. They were placeholders, though, so with two of us there, it got reassembled just fine.
We finally got to the point where the two sides are attached to each other at the back, then brackets added for the floor runs from one side to the other.
Before the section of floor was added, though, the roosts were supposed to be attached below.
The pictographs were particularly confusing.
By then, it was starting to get really cold. We were both in t-shirts, since it was nice out early. When I got inside and checked, I discovered we were at 5C/41F, but the windchill was -2C/28F
The pile of packing foam sheets in the second picture got put back into a box to get it out of the way before I started assembling things. Even then, the wind was high enough to try and tear it out of my hands and snapped a couple of pieces!
While reading the instructions, I unbagged and sorted out the parts and pieces, which are in the second picture.
The third picture is when I had to get assistance to flip the whole thing upright. The mesh sections just didn’t have anything to support them, yet.
Also, I screwed up. I put two back panels on. My daughter fixed that while I’d gone in to eat. The front panel has a door that opens for air circulation.
I was too late when I got the fourth picture of Judgement. He had been napping on the roof panels for much of the time, but then he started rolling around luxuriously on them. Of course, once I got my phone out to take some video of his adorableness, he stopped. At least he pretty posed for a picture! 😄
The fifth and last photo is where we stopped. My poor daughter’s back was killing her by then, so I took care of stacking the remaining pieces close to what we’ve got assembled so far.
What I should probably figure out before we put the ramp, door and roof on, is where I will be adding roosts on the inside, in front of the nesting boxes. There are two roosting bars, under the floors on each side. Which, to me, seems completely exposed. the bottom is wire mesh on all sides. We get a lot of wind. Unless we make covers for the mesh bottoms, the chickens aren’t going to enjoy roosting there!
This is most definitely a “summer” only coop. We’ll have to prioritize protecting it in the winter. That’s one of the reasons I want to build a polytunnel in the main garden area. We can stick the whole coop inside for the winter. The entire structure is relatively light, so moving it would not be that difficult.
It’s going to be another month before we get chicks, and another 4-6 weeks before they go into the coop, so we will have plenty of time to figure it out!
The next several days will be chillier, and then we’re supposed to warm up again. If all goes well, the coop will be finished tomorrow. I don’t want it to be sitting outside, partially finished, for too long. At this point, if we get high winds, it could be blown over quite easily.
One other thing that has made the built more difficult than it should be is the fact that we have no level ground, anywhere. We’re working on one of the most level places, and it should be okay once it’s completely assembled, but it made two people a necessity to attach some parts – one to pick the corner of the coop being worked on and hold the pieces aligned with each other, while the other drove the screws in.
In other news, I’ve heard from the foster that’s taking care of Frank. Her two babies that she rejected are in another home with experienced kitten bottle feeders. Frank is absolutely traumatized, though for a cat that just had major surgery, she sure is active! She growls and hisses at humans, but is curious about the cats that show up at the special screen door they have. Looking at some video I was sent, I think she actually is liking the amenities of indoor life. As much as a traumatized cat can! Considering all they had to do to get her to the vet for her C section, then get her back again, it’s going to be difficult to calm her down. Still, it will be easier than when she was outside. After she escaped when we tried to get her spayed, it took months to regain her trust, but we didn’t have constant access to her to work on it, either. We just saw her at feeding time, mostly.
Hopefully, it will all work out in the end. Frank really is a sweetie, once her trust is gained!
The Re-Farmer 