The power went out again, today. I was in the middle of doing a blog post, too! Ah, well.
It’s been more than an hour, as I write this. Not sure if I have enough signal to post this. I might have to go outside again.
I did that earlier to try and log into the power company’s app. There are outages reported all over our municipality.
Then I heard the noise.
Long story short, we found four kittens, just a few weeks old, under a junk lawnmower under parts of a collapsed roof. They are in the cat cage in the sun room, with some wet cat food. They are too young for it, but the mama’s all come to the sun room, eventually, so it will be a treat for her!
Hopefully, the mother will accept the soft and comfortable nest they are in, too.
While doing my morning rounds, three kittens were playing on the hand rail in front of the sun room – but did not what me anywhere near them! They know that rose bush will protect them. 😄
The third image of the garage kittens was from this evening. I went to tie off the catio door for the night, so it won’t blow around. I didn’t even seen them in the cat bed at first! I wasn’t able to get closer, though. I was able to pet them both when I fed them this morning, while they were eating, but that smokey one will not let me touch her, any other time.
Yet.
The littles are all over the place in and around the sun room, and I was able to get a couple of decent shots. That white and black kitten in the last two images has such surprisingly blue eyes!
Sadly, though, we lost another kitten last night. Once again, I found it in the new cat cave in the sun room, like the last one. About the only thing I can say is, at least they passed away in the warmth of a cuddle puddle, and not cold and alone.
Once the morning routing was done, I had time for a quick breakfast before heading out early to my appointment. I wasn’t sure how long things would be, so I made sure to go to the post office before it closed from 11:30am to 2pm. They close for the day at 5pm.
Then, just to be on the safe side, I made sure the packages of seeds were put into an insulated bag, in case the cab of the truck got too hot. I’m glad I did, because yes, it certainly did!
I got to the shopping commons the clinic is at early enough to grab a proper meal for lunch. I’m glad I did because I ended up getting into my 1:30 appointment about 45 minutes late.
The first thing the doctor did was ask how the new prescription was working out. I told what a huge difference it made, and that I’ve hardly had to take any painkillers since I started taking it. She was really happy to hear how well it went. Especially when I told her I have only been taking it once a day, before bed. She commented that I’m already on a low dose (I can take it up to three times a day), so it was really amazing that it’s made such a difference. She commented on how this particular anti-inflammatory is really good, and she thinks it should be prescribed more often. I did mention the one time I took with with just a snack rather than a meal and how that really did a number on my stomach. She was just nodding her head and saying, yup… it does need to be taken with a full meal, because it can be so hard on the stomach, otherwise, and mused that that’s perhaps why it isn’t use more often. All I can say it, it has helped me so much, I’m willing to make the effort to take it properly so that doesn’t happen!
I then told her about my hip issues and asked for X-rays to find out what’s going on. She looked in my file and it’s been more than 5 years since my hips have been X-rayed, so it was time. We already know that I have OA and bone spurs, but something is going on with that left hip that’s making it worse. She wrote me up for a complete pelvic X-ray, so both hips would be checked out.
Then we got to why I was there in the first place. My arm.
I was able to read the report on her monitor with her. They found no anomalies in my shoulder or elbow. Which surprised me, because they do still hurt at times. Especially the shoulder. Which suggests to me that the issue is now soft tissue damage – though the anti-inflammatories are helping with the arm pain, too!
Then there was the hand/wrist. There was a potential anomaly, so they recommended to get it X-rayed again in 1-2 weeks. We were already past that, so she printed out another requisition to get my wrist done again, along with my hips.
As for the follow up, normally they would call me to book a follow up appointment, but I mentioned that my daughter already has an appointment coming up on the 9th, so she said to go ahead and book my follow up then. Which I took care of while picking up my printouts.
Next stop was the hospital, where the lab and X-ray is. Once I gave them the forms, I had time to message the family with an update, and was soon called in for the X-rays. The tech took X-rays of my hand in some very different positions from the last time it was done. At this point, all they can do is confirm whether or not something actually broke in there. After all this time since my fall, it’s not like they’re going to put my wrist in a cast or anything.
Once the hand was done, I got the hips done, and that was it. It was very fast.
That done, it was back to the shopping commons where my doctor’s clinic is, this time to make a quick stop at the grocery store. I hadn’t realized we were out of bread until last night. While I was there, I picked up some sandwich meats that were on sale, and a few other little things.
From there, it was a stop at the gas station and the home.
When I was about 10 minutes from home, I could see the highway ahead of me, disappearing in a cloud of white. It turned out to be an absolute wall of rain! It was coming down hard enough, with so much water on the road, I had to slow down and was about ready to pull over and wait it out. It did lift a bit, though, and I was able to continue. By the time I got home, it had blown over – something I was very happy about, since I needed to get out to open the gate. Particularly since, with the inside handle on the driver’s side door broken off, I need to open the window so I can open the door from the outside.
No complaints about the rain, though. We needed it.
Anyhow.
So all went well with the doctor, though I am surprised nothing showed up in the X-rays for my shoulder and elbow. The shoulder injury it still sometimes an issue, and I was expecting some sort of damage to my rotator cuff. My left elbow has been a problem for a long time, since well before my fall, but that is due to nerve damage, so I guess that wouldn’t show up in an X-ray.
In a couple of weeks or so, I will be back to find out what they find in my hips.
That should be… interesting! I hope I get to actually see the X-rays this time, and not just a report. I’m very curious as to what shows up!
Meanwhile, it is now past time for me to have the supper my daughter made – a nice, substantial meal to take my anti-inflammatories with!
Some of the littles have discovered the inside of the cat house. Much better than hiding under it!
I’m happy to say, I’ve been able to pet and even pick up more of the littles today. Ar least, among the ones near the house. The ones that use the shrine feeding station are still totally feral. Alas.
One of my goals for today was to get some mowing done. I wasn’t up to doing the overgrown area with the push mower, so I broke out the riding mower my brother went use. I was able to get lots done with it.
I was working on a section of the outer yard in front of the garage when I ran out of gas again. I was close to done for the day, but wanted to finish that one last bit. I refilled the tank and got the mower started again…
… it wouldn’t move.
Now, with our old mower, we had that happen when the drive chain would fall off. This mower is a very different, more modern, design. Also, it was moving just fine until it ran out of gas.
After trying several times, I finally just pushed it back into the garage. I used my phone’s camera to try and get some pictures of the underside and sent them to my brother, telling him what happened.
Then I finished with the push mower.
My brother won’t be coming out this weekend, so it’s going to be a while before he can check it out.
This place murders lawnmowers. It’s bizarre!
Nothing we can do about it for now. Tomorrow, I’m off to the city for our first stock up shopping trip, so I really wanted to get the mowing done. The rest of the outer yard will just have to wait!
Well, I called it last night. I just didn’t think it would happen quite so quickly.
While in the sun room, just starting to put food out for the yard cats, I could just see a kitten that wasn’t moving. In the new cat cave, of all places!
I had to finish getting all the food out before I could do anything about it. By the time I came back, some of the littles were done eating and actually back in the cat cave. They didn’t even run away when I reached in to get the one I’d spotted. It turned out to be a white and grey, and one that I’d noticed was having runny poops. I hadn’t thought it was that sick, though! It is now buried near one of the rhubarb patches.
While topping up the water bowls, I had to chase a skunk away from the shrine feeding station. The kittens that were there had run up one of the willows when the skunk came over. After I chased the skunk away, I had this little guy starting down at me!
Colby is such a handsome one! He’s the bravest of the litter and the one I think most likely to get socialized, but today, he was having none of it. I did try to come closer after taking the picture, and he wouldn’t allow it.
When bringing food to the bowl in the isolation shelter, I have been regularly finding the cat bed in there full of kittens. Unfortunately, they all run off when I open the window to reach the food bowl. They seem to all be from a litter (or two?) that showed up in the junk pile on the other side of the fence, behind the shrine feeding station. I’m glad they’re moving into the isolation shelter, though I do wish they wouldn’t panic and run away when I bring food!
I did manage to get this picture, after doing the evening feeding, zooming in from quite a distance.
As you can see, they were still watching me closely! Well, except that little black and white one. I think that one is from another litter. I think it also does come into the sun room, but there are two or three mostly black kittens, so it’s hard to tell at times!
Hopefully, these ones will start coming to the house soon, too.
As for the ones I regularly see in the sun room, we’ve been able to pet and even pick up a few of the mostly white ones. The one with the sticky eyes had stuck eyes again this morning, so I was able to bring it into the bathroom for an eye wash. There’s a tabby with white that also has messy eyes, though not stuck shut. I can’t get anywhere near it.
I did pick up some squeeze treats to hopefully use to lure in the shier kittens, but I’m not sure how to do that, without the socialized adult cats pushing their way to the treats, instead. Some have no issues with bullying the littles!
I still don’t know how many kittens there are, and I still get the sense that some are “missing”. I just have no way to tell if they’re gone, gone, or just happen to not be around when I’m looking. Some of the kittens that have settled into the sun room, or under the cat house, have figured out those noises they hear from the old kitchen means that food is on its way, so I do see quite a few as soon as I open the door!
The morning started out as usual, with the feeding of the yard cats and my morning rounds.
Oddly, I seem to be seeing fewer kittens? I think? Meaning the littles that have been showing up in the past couple of weeks. They tend to hide so quickly, I’m not sure, but it just feels like there are fewer of them. The older kittens are still around, but I just can’t get a handle on how many littles there are.
Even though I’d picked up another 9kg back of kibble for the outside cats recently, we were already running out. I was already scheduled to pick up my mother’s bubble packs and do her grocery shopping today, so I decided I would keep going from her place and hit the Walmart. Plus, my husband is having issues with his cracked tooth that won’t be worked on until the middle of next month. So I wanted to pick up foods that were safer for him to eat.
My younger daughter was able to come along with me, which was nice.
My brother, SIL and their older grandson were staying in their trailer this weekend and were going to be heading back to the city soon after I needed to head out, so we made a quick hello and goodbye visit. My great-nephew will be heading home next weekend, before school starts, so I wanted to make sure we got our hugs in!
My daughter and I got to my mother’s town early enough that the pharmacy wasn’t open yet – but the gas station with the best fried chicken and wedges in town had their chicken ready – so we picked up a meal for my mother boxed up separately, then got some for ourselves to eat in the truck. The truck’s seats are more comfortable than the chairs and tables they have in the station. 😄
We still got to the pharmacy just minutes after it opened. My mother’s bubble packs were ready, and most of it was covered this time, so I had very little to pay for it this time. I’m glad I made sure to pick them up today. When I put them in my mother’s lock box, I checked what was there. She had only enough for this evening, plus tomorrow morning. The pharmacy’s records show she should have had enough to last until Wednesday. However, with so many messed up times with her meds, and her abusive behaviour towards the home care aids for not using the partial packs of meds because they were the wrong days, etc., I have taken a few old partial packs back to the pharmacy. They were required to dispose of the meds, which I haven’t mentioned to my mother, or she’d blow a gasket, but it was that or have her constantly harassing the care aids about them. I’ll have to call the pharmacy tomorrow and talk to them about that. They do the bubble packs on the weekends, and that’s cutting it really close for my mother at this point. Better to have her meds prepared earlier. Normally, she would have had them delivered, but that leaves her medications outside the lock box, and she’s already tried hiding a week’s worth of meds away because she doesn’t trust the home care aids.
When we got to my mother’s, it was still not much past noon. Mass was still going on in the church across the street, but I was able to find parking. I wasn’t sure if my mother would have had the energy to make it to church or not, but thought it was unlikely.
I was right. My mother was home and praying the rosary, with her table all set up in preparation for when someone from the church would come by with communion for her. The interruption of us coming when we did messed her up a bit. Which I totally get. When I’m right into something and get interrupted, the mental shift can actually be physically painful.
My brother had given me a new drip pan specifically for my mother’s model of stove, to replace one she has that is completely rusted out for some reason, so I popped that in for her while she got out her shopping list. It was really short this time! We went over it and I asked a few questions, but she said she was well supplied with everything I remembered to ask about.
She was happy to see my daughter, though, and didn’t make any of her usual rude comments, which was nice.
She told us to take our time because she didn’t want to be interrupted when the guy came with communion, but her list was so short, we were back just as church was letting out. My mother was once again thrown by us coming in when we did. I told her that people were just starting to leave church, so we were quick about putting everything away, and making sure her mild carton was opened for her (the local grocery store no longer has 2L milk in plastic jugs, just cartons, and with my mother’s hands, it’s a real struggle to open a carton). My mother was a bit upset about the rush. She had been expecting me to come later, and had been looking forward to being able to “talk for hours and hours”… ??? Especially since my daughter was with me. So she said, no more Sundays for grocery shopping! Which is fine, but I was there today, on a Sunday, so that she could get her medications before running out!
We were in and out quickly, though, and soon on the road to the Walmart. I didn’t take a photo, but it totaled almost $200. Ouch! We got two 9kg bags of kibble, and a package of XXL (30″x30″) puppy pads, plus some on sale TP. Peanut butter, bananas and bread for my husband at times when no one is available to cook for him, and hot dog wieners/hoagies for times when there is someone to cook for him. He can’t chew “real” meat right now, no matter how tender! We got some water flavour packages for him as well. We remembered to grab a couple of containers of popcorn seasoning, and found a charging cable for my daughter’s older phone with a micro-USB port. After that, it was some cheese mini-croissants to snack on for the ride home, and some $1 chocolate bars for each of us as a treat.
I keep thinking I’m forgetting something, but nope. That list is all it took, to cost almost $200.
Once we got home, it was late enough that, while my daughter put away everything else, I refilled the kibble bin and did the evening cat feeding.
Which brings me to the cuteness!
I’ll actually start with a couple of pictures I got, yesterday.
Can you spot the Little in there? One of them has figured out how to climb up to the platform and discovered the cat beds up there. Here, it’s being snuggled by Eyelet on the left, and The Grink on the right.
Can you believe The Grink is about 2 years old? He’s barely bigger than Eyelet!
That black kitten was absolutely snuzzling its face into the tabby. This cat bed is in the back of the water bowl shelter.
When opening the door into the sun room to do this morning’s feeding, I found a while pile of kittens – large and small! – waiting right under the threshold, making it very difficult to step through! I need to be careful, as Sir Robin in particular REALLY wants to be inside. He managed to sneak into the house while my older daughter and I were bringing the cured garlic in, after covering the eggplant for the night, and my daughter found him in the kitchen!
Most of the kittens scatter as I step through, but one kitten didn’t. It stayed loafed and moved its head around, as if confused.
It turned out its eyes were stuck shut, so it had no idea what was going on around it!
I finished putting the food out but, when I got back to the sun room, I couldn’t see the stuck eyed kitten. I finished my rounds and tried looking again before heading inside. That’s when I spotted a little white kitten bum through the opening of the new cat cave.
It’s a bit difficult to get close, since it’s in a shelf, and I need to step around food trays and the little plant stand that’s there for the cats to use to get to the platform. I was able to reach in and felt a couple of kittens in there, but managed to get the white butted kitten. Once I got it out, I could confirm it was the one with the stuck eyes. It wasn’t happy, but I was able to get it to the bathroom and into the bathtub to chill a bit, while I ran the hot water in the sink while getting something to wipe its eyes with.
The kitten wasn’t happy about being picked up again, but stopped fighting me once I started washing its eyes. Once both eyes were cleared, it just started up at me for a while. This kitten is mostly white with grey “eyebrows”, like Button, Eyelet and Grommet – but where Button and Eyelet have blue eyes, and Grommet has yellowish eyes, this one has really dark eyes!
Once done, I took it back to the sun room and tucked it back into the cat cave. Then I used my phone’s camera to take a picture and see who else was in there.
There were AT LEAST six kittens in there! Including another one that could have used an eye wash. It’s amazing I was able to grab the right kitten right from the start!
That little tabby with white in the foreground… he always looks so furious! 😄
As we were getting ready to head out, I went to open the gate first and spotted this adorableness, under the truck.
This is the garage kitten that will sometimes let me pet him and pick him up.
Still no such progress with his sibling (I’m about 98% sure the smokey one is a female).
Yes, we ALWAYS check the truck before starting it and driving.
After we got back from errands and the evening feeding was done, I did my evening rounds. As I was heading in, I spotted Lady Hypotenose on top of the cat cage… and what was that not far from her?
We already have a cat we call Ink, because she looks like she got into a pot of ink with her mouth and paws. This one also looks like it got into some ink.
We’re debating whether to call it Spot or Blot.
What do you think?
I did try to do a head count of the littles this morning, and I think I counted twelve but, as I mentioned earlier, I’m pretty sure some are “missing”. Especially the ones that showed up in the junk pile by the chain link fence, instead of the sun room or cat shelters by the house. It could be that they’ve been moved on by their mothers, or they simply didn’t happen to be out while I was putting the food out.
The next few weeks will be ones to keep an eye on them. This is the stage where, if they are going to get hit with the local variant of herpes, now will be it. That’s the ones with the leaky eyes, and that’s what did in Kale and, I’m sure, Zipper. This year, though, not all the kittens got it. Poirot’s babies have had zero issues, nor have the outer yard kittens that started out coming to the shrine feeding station (they are now willing to go right into the sun room!). The garage kittens have shown no sign if it, either. It looks like some of the littles are resistant.
From what the Cat Lady told me, that would be because of the lysine we’ve been adding to their food for the past year or two. For the cats that are already struggling with the virus, I’m told it’s “lysine for life”, and if they stop getting the lysine, they can get really sick again. BUT, it benefits the next generation, and they can not need it at all. That’s what I seem to be seeing now, with the littles. In fact, at this point, it seems like more of them are resistant than not.
Still, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen over the next few weeks. Which means we might start finding losses.
Well, it is what it is, and there’s not much we can do about it, that we aren’t already doing.
The Re-Farmer
[addendum: I was curious as to what WP’s AI image generator would come up with based on the contents of this post.
While heading out to the garden again after breakfast, I noticed that the catio was unoccupied.
The perfect time to set my “trap”!
The plan is to set it up behind the garage to lure the garage kittens out. They run around the garage, but they won’t come to the house. Even if I catch the white and grey and take him to the sun room, he’s soon back in the garage.
What I’m hoping is that they will accept the catio as a place to eat and sleep. Then, over time, we’ll move it closer and closer to the house. If it really comes down to it, we could potentially close the door with them inside. That would be only once we get them socialized enough to get spayed/neutered.
Of course, it took more work than expected.
First up, I got the big food bowl off the ground inside and set it on one of the shelves to come along. It was still wrapped around with plastic that I put on for the winter and ended up leaving. I think later on, we’ll put clear plastic around the upper half of the catio to protect from the elements, but leave the bottom half open for air circulation. It’s very much a greenhouse as it is now!
Anyhow.
I had put rope handles at each corner to use to move the catio, and those were under the plastic, so I raised the plastic on one end so I could access them. There were a couple of bricks used to make sure the door didn’t accidentally close them in, and those got set on the roof to come for the ride (there are other bricks on the roof as weights against high winds). Last of all, I had a 2×2 piece of lumber under the frame at the door, so that water would drain off the roof to the other side. That got set in one of the cat shelves inside to come for a ride, too.
Then I started to try and drag it along.
The problem is, I put the rope handles too high. Because of how far apart they are, it can’t just be lifted and dragged. It would need to be “walked” across the yard. That risked breaking the frame. So I grabbed some twine and made new rope handles, lower down, threaded through short lengths cut from an old garden hose that can’t be used anymore. That would keep the twine from cutting into the hands.
That worked better, in that I could lift the end and drag it evenly, instead of “walking” it across. Unfortunately, they were still pretty far apart, making it difficult for short little me with my short little arms to pull it.
I was going to message my daughters to see if one of them could come and help me when I saw one of them had already messaged me. My mother’s pharmacy had called and wanted to talk to me about her bubble pack refills.
So I went in to take care of that and asked my daughters if they could finish moving the catio while I was on the phone. I didn’t realized that my older daughter had messaged me only because she had gotten up to use the washroom and happened to hear the phone ring. By the time I saw the message and came in, she was back in bed for the day.
Which meant my younger daughter moved it on her own!
That would not have been easy. She’s even shorter than I am! Not my much, but still…
Meanwhile, I made the call, then called my mother, then updated my siblings in our group chat. I’ll be going to pick up my mother’s bubble packs on Sunday, and will do her grocery shopping as well.
When I was done, I headed out to see where my daughter set up the catio – I’d only said it was going behind the garage.
Just by Pinky. I didn’t see any of her kittens until some time later, and even then, it was just the smokey one.
Pinky was so settled on that cat bed that when I lifted the front to put the 2×2 under it, she didn’t move! I dropped the plastic back down and set the bricks up in the door so make sure it wouldn’t close all the way, then tied it off so it wouldn’t blow around in the wind, either.
I also spent quite a bit of time petting Pinky on that cat bed. She was very, very content in there!
I set the food bowl – an old heated water bowl that burned out – just inside the doorway. Later on, I’ll find something to use as a water bowl for in there, too.
So, starting this evening, I will no longer be leaving food in the garage for the kittens. It will be in the catio, only.
I think it might be a good idea to add wheels to this. Not directly under, as that would leave a gap a cat could get out through. I’m thinking more like a pair of wheels on one side, and handles on the other, so it can be moved around like a wheelbarrow. Or a chicken tractor. We can certainly grag it around as it is now, but that puts a lot of strain on the frame and it’s more likely to break.
That done, I went back towards the house and noticed Slick under the canopy tent again. I had to use the zoom on my phone’s camera to see whether she was nursing or not. Once I was sure there were no kittens for me to scare away, I continued on my way.
Which is when I saw some ears in the window of the isolation shelter.
I see other littles in the isolation shelter, but these ones have practically moved right in.
The inside of the front window really needs a cleaning. 😄
I didn’t get any pictures while doing the morning feeding, though I did try to get a head count of the adults. I think I counted 22. I didn’t even try to count the kittens. They move too fast!
Except one.
I’ve got a little bowl set under the ramp to the water bowl shelter, which is in front of the chimney flue they use to hide in. As soon as I come near, they start dashing into the flu to get under the cat house.
One of the, however, didn’t run away.
So I pet it.
It still didn’t run away.
So I picked it up.
Which is when I saw that its eyes were stuck shut!
Thankfully, it didn’t try to hiss or spit or bite, and I was able to wash its eyes until they could open again. Then it just looked up at me, seeming rather stunned!
Hopefully, this will be the start of socialization.
We’ve got our work cut out for us, to get these guys at least friendly enough to get them to a vet, once they’re big enough! The vet wants them to weigh at least two pounds for spays.
[obligatory addendum: if you wish to donate towards spays and neuters, there is a ko-fi donation button at the top right of the page. Every little bit helps, and is much appreciated.]
Enjoying kittens was just a bonus for the morning. I got lots done, and will be writing about that in other posts. This evening, I plan to take some footage for my monthly garden tour video, too. There will be quite a few changes on there, since last month!
After my last post and how little seemed to have been done after all that mowing, when I headed out again this evening, I just had to get pictures from the other side.
In the first photo, you can actually see how little there is left to clear.
It’s also the densest section, so it’s going to take probably just as long to clear that section as it did to clear everything around it.
The fruit trees and bushes by the leaky rain barrel look so much better, now that it’s been weed trimmed and mowed around. Not that you can even see them in the photo! Over time, they will get a wood chip mulch around them, too.
The next picture is taken from the other end of the silver buffaloberry rows, and near the end of the crab apple tree row. That section by the crab apple trees was part of the super dense area, but it is also some of the roughest and uneven soil. When this section was plowed – badly – before we moved out here, there seemed to be some issue with turning the tractor in that corner. This was done by our vandal to “help” my parents. My sister is sure he was drunk when he did it. From the state of things, even after all these years, I think she’s right.
At this end, we will be planting more fruit trees on the north side, around where the newest ones are planted now. Along the east side we will probably be planting raspberry varieties that mature at different rates, so we can have raspberries for many months, along with other berry bushes and some varieties of nuts that grow on bushes, rather than trees. There are few nut trees that can grow where we are, and they can get very large, so those will get planted in the outer yard, as we acquire them.
Aside from feeling better about things after seeing just how little is left to clear in that corner, I got to enjoy some adorableness. My daughters took care feeding the yard cats while I was mowing, so they were all pretty calm.
While walking past the isolation shelter, I spotted a kitten looking back at me. Then another from the hammock.
Altogether, I saw three in the hammock, plus two by the water bowl.
I was considering moving the catio closer to the garage for the garage babies, but it was occupied, so I left it for now.
In the next image in the slideshow above, I managed to get a picture of the absolutely gorgeous little black and white kitten I’d been wondering about earlier, and whether it was a newcomer. I have concluded that is it not a new one; just one that I’m finally able to see well enough to identify it.
Must socialize the babies – and find them forever homes!!!
While I was outside, I could hear some thunder. Some areas of our province was getting tornado warnings, but where we are. Instead, the rain that was supposed to arrive in the wee hours of the morning was expected to hit this evening, instead. Then that changed again, and now we’re supposed to get rain closer to midnight, and it is supposed to keep raining for about four hours.
The littles are happily discovering the perks of being close to the house. They’ve been sleeping on various cat beds all over the place, enjoying reliable access to food and water, and the creche mothers are taking good care of them. Some are still super shy, but even they are getting brave enough to go into the sun room.
I was on the late side getting out this morning. I had a rough night. What little lawn mowing a managed with the push more did more than remind me I hadn’t fully recovered from suddenly getting sick.
It reinjured me.
My left arm, that I injured in a fall more than a month ago, had been feeling fine for awhile. Well enough that I wondered just what we’d be talking about when I see my doctor at the end of the month, to go over the X-rays.
Last night, all the joints were hurting enough that I got my older daughter to come over and rub them down with Voltaren. Only after that could I finally get some sleep. By then it was around 3am.
My left hip has also increasingly an issue. Not so much with pain, but stability. The lack of it! It’s gotten so that I have to sit down to put on my pants, because I can’t stand on my left leg. When taking the two steps from the original part of the house to the addition, I can only step up on my right leg. If I try to step up using my left leg, my hip just gives out.
Something else to talk about when I see my doctor!
With that in mind, I got one of my daughters to help me in the garden at the end of my morning rounds.
When I first got into the old kitchen to start preparing the wet and dry cat food mixture I feed them in the mornings, I spotted one of the white and grey littles, right at the window! This window used to be an exterior window, before the sun room was added on, so the sill on the outside is angled down for any moisture to drain away from the window. It makes it a challenge, but the smaller cats and kittens are still able to get onto it and not slide right off. To see the littles up there – I think the one I saw traded off with a second one while I was filling the kibble bowl – is good progress. They have figured out where the food comes from, and are comfortable with that.
Now if only the garage kittens would come out! They are SO hungry by the time I arrive to feed them, because they don’t come to the house where there is more food, after their bowl is empty. I’m seriously considering moving the isolation shelter closer to the garage, and use it to slowly get them closer to the house. The problem with that it, the littles and the outside yard kittens are already using it regularly.
Maybe the catio would work, instead.
After the cats were fed, I continued my rounds and checking on the garden.
I’m quite happy with what’s happening in the trellis bed. The noodle beans are still stunted, but the sunflowers and pumpkins are looking great!
One pumpkin plant – the one with the pumpkin in a sling – is the biggest of the five, and opened up a couple of massive flowers this morning. There’s just male flowers, though. I’ve been seeing tiny female flowers start to form but, so far, they’ve all shriveled up and fallen off, long before they opened up. So it looks like we’ll get a single pumpkin this year.
In the second image of the slideshow above, you can see the tallest of the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers. it has almost reached the height of the top horizontal support for the temporary trellis netting, which is at least 6 1/2 feet from the ground, so about 6 feet from the inside of the bed.
I’m surprised by all those little tomatoes I found when doing a major weeding, some time ago, and transplanted. I’ve since found three more that got missed, but I won’t bother moving those. Some of the transplants are getting surprisingly bed. The largest one is hidden under the leaves of the biggest pumpkin plant! One even has blossoms on it. I suspect that some of them, at least, might be Spoon tomatoes.
Speaking of Spoon tomatoes…
My younger daughter came out to help me pick them. With the instability of my hip, I can only pick from one side, where I can lean against the log wall. My daughter can actually get right into the bed, standing on the mulch in between the melons (which are not really growing, even if some are blooming) and pick the tomatoes on that side of the plants.
Yes, those are grapes! My daughter found the ripest looking clusters. There are lots more, but they are still more on the green side. If my guess is correct, these are Valiant grapes and they should get much bigger, not be the same size as the Spoon tomatoes. Once we figure out a place to transplant them, hopefully they will do better. The vines themselves are doing great where they are, but the fruit is not what it should be.
This is the first time in a couple of years we’ve been able to harvest some grapes before the raccoons ate them all.
Under the colander is a selection of fresh herbs; two types of oregano, two types of thyme, sage, basil, lemon balm and even some dill weed from the self seeded dill that came up among the herbs. I also gathers some walking onion bulbils; we don’t want them to spread beyond where they are now, so the bulbils are for eating, not growing! There’s a small amount of bush beans, some Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes and some Chocolate Cherry tomatoes.
At the bottom are some nasturtium seeds. My daughter was admiring the flower bed (the Cosmos are getting so tall!) and asked about the nasturtiums, which are winding down right now. While checking them out, we noticed some of the seeds had started to dry up and fall off the plants. Rather than leave them there to likely rot, we gathered them up. They are now in the cat free zone (the living room) where we are keeping gathered seeds and seed pods to stay cool and dry before they get stored away.
As for the rest of today, I’m not sure what I’ll manage to get done outside. I’ll give myself a chance to rest, but I most likely will just pain killer up and head out later and do as much as I can. We shall see.
My first priority was to mow around the chat shelters. Get that over with and give them time to calm down before it was time for the evening feeding.
Eyelet is SO deaf. He was sitting with his back to me on the sidewalk as I was mowing alongside it. Other cats ran off, but it wasn’t until he turned his head and actually saw me, having just stopped because he wasn’t moving, that he finally ran away from the mower.
For all the rain we had, only parts of that section of yard needed to be mowed, so I was done quickly and could move on to where I really wanted to get into.
My ultimate goal is to get all that overgrown area mowed, but not quite yet. First I had to move those logs that are meant to be vertical supports for future trellis beds. Then I cleared away where the plastic has been solarizing where the next trellis bed will be. Most of that was plastic I found while cleaning up after we moved in, and I think it was meant to be used under shingles. It’s seen a few years use already, so it was disintegrating. As a result, the area isn’t very solarized, but it’s a start. That cardboard on the side will be laid over it, eventually.
The solarized area got cleared out, but I left the cardboard for now. I started off mowing in between the existing beds, as I plan to add wood chips in a couple of paths soon. I’ll be going over that with a weed trimmer next.
From the paths, I started mowing the open area I’d cleared before, but only got a little more than half of it done. It wasn’t just because I was still feeling weak from being sick, though. That area gets the full brunt of the sun for many hours. We were expected to reach a high of 24C/75F today, but we hit 25C/77F while I was out there. I don’t know what the humidex was but as I write this, a couple of hours later, it has dropped to 23C/73F and the humidex is at 28C/82F. Which means the humidex probably broke 30C/86F while I was out there.
Not the sort of temperatures to be moving logs, cleaning things up and using a push mower while in full sun at the best of times, never mind while still recovering from illness.
In the end, I had to stop, get inside, cool off and hydrate. Later on, I did go out to feed the outside cats while my daughter put away the lawn mower and gas can, and then made a quick… I was going to say supper, but I guess it was really lunch.
Yeah, I probably should have eaten before I went outside, too. I just wasn’t feeling hungry!
After putting the mower away, my daughter came over to help with the cat feeding, and I showed her what I found in the isolation shelter.
Most of the time, when I come by and there are kittens in there, they run off in a panic. This one hunkered down and tried to make itself small, instead. Which a prefer, since that meant it could get to the food I’d just put in faster, and was already next to a full water bowl, with a lovely, soft cat bed in between. Later on, I saw it in the lower level, peaking out from between the two box nests that are down there.
As we made our way back to the house, my daughter spotted Adam, covered in kittens. I snuck around and managed to get some pictures.
A couple of kittens had run off by then, so the first couple of pictures have “only” three kittens nursing. I wasn’t able to catch them all, but there were kittens going in and out of that chimney flu in front of the cat house entrance – they use that to get under the “porch” side of the cat house. There were so many of them under there! No way to count, though. For all we could tell, with how much they were moving around, we were seeing the same ones over and over again.
Oh, and that handsome boy in the middle of the second last photo of the slide show is “Cat #1”. I was able to spot the tattoo in his ear, which makes him the kitten that we had neutered at the same time Kohl was spayed, all grown up now! He stays nearby and I’ve managed to sneak a pet every now and then, but he is not socialized.
He is such a beauty, though!
Anyhow.
I’m not done for the day, as far as outside stuff goes. I’ll try to rest up some more, and will try mowing again tomorrow, BEFORE it gets hot out! Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 26C/79F. Mind you, even our overnight low is supposed to be 20C/68F, so it’s not like we’re really cooling down much. We’re also supposed to get about an hour of rain in the wee hours of the night. I’m not complaining, but it will make mowing that overgrown area more challenging, as well as cutting away all the poplars that are trying to take over.
Just a quick catch-up for now. I’m hoping to get outside and get some mowing down.
Yesterday turned out to be a good day to be sick. It rained off and on all day. I think it’s finally dry enough to mow. I want to get the area I allowed to get overgrown with alfalfa and whatnot, so the pollinators would have something. I’m not seeing a lot of pollinators of late, though. I think all the smoke has caused problems. The area is done blooming, though, so time to get it under control!
I still don’t know what happened to me, in getting so sick so suddenly. I had a chance to chat with my SIL and mentioned what I was feeling. She told me that she suddenly got sick like that, too, while they were out camping with the grandkids. The dizziness got so bad, she thought she might be having a stroke or something. Then my brother got sick, too. That was a few weeks ago, and neither have fully recovered. Hearing I was sick actually was a bit of a relief for her, as she now things they caught some sort of virus, though she felt back if they passed that on to me.
Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s it. By late afternoon yesterday, I was feeling good enough to go outside, do the evening cat feeding and my evening rounds. By the end of the day, I was feeling normal again and went back outside, just to enjoy the fresh air.
While checking on the garden beds, I found that a few of the Turkish Orange eggplants had damaged leaves. Just on one side of the plants, and among the ones that were more forward in the bed. I suspect it is cold damage when the overnight low dropped to about 6C/43F.
The drooping leaves, however, exposed something else.
There’s a ripening eggplant under there! It’s small, but from the photos of the ripe eggplant, it looks like it’s very close to being fully ripe. I think it’s supposed to get a darker orange, still.
The second photo has my hand in the photo, so you can get a perspective of the size.
This eggplant is so low on the plant, it’s resting on the ground, so after I got the picture, I took one of the dead leaves off the plant and put it under the eggplant in such a way that any water would drain away from the fruit.
We are all very curious as to what this variety will taste like!
The Sweetie Snack Mix peppers around the corner of the wattle weave bed have more fruit on them now, but they are all still very green. They should ripen into red, yellow and orange. At this point, there isn’t even a blush of colour on even the oldest peppers I have been keeping an eye on.
While doing my rounds, I noticed Pinky and her babies on the old tire that’s holding a door on one side of the garage open – I keep that door, plus the back door, open all summer for air circulation. The tire is still on a rim, so it’s heavy enough to keep the wind from blowing the door around. Pinky and her kittens were milling around on the tire, leaning into the rim.
They were thirsty and drinking the accumulated rain water!
There is food and fresh water by the house, but the kittens just won’t come over. I’ve seen the white and grey sneaking over to the shrine food bowls, and I think I’ve even seen him go into the isolation shelter or catio. The smoky kitten, however, will not go more than a few feet away from the garage. I only have a food bowl for them in garage, not a water bowl. I want them to come to the house! Pinky does, but she hates other cats and any kittens not her own. She will attack any that come too close. If they come near the garage, she will drive them away. Even the littles.
The white and grey, however, is starting to get used to me. The smoky kitten ran away, but the white and grey stayed while I pet his mother. After a while, I was not only able to pet him, but I was able to pick him up and snuggle him!
And confirm he is male.
I put him back on the tire and got some pictures while the smoky kitten started to come back. She (I think) does let me pet her while she is eating, sometimes, and I think it starting to learn that the giant, hairless food giver is not something to be scared of. She came closer while was there, but not all the way, so I left so she could finish drinking.
Later on, while walking behind the cat shelters near the sun room, I spotted Adam in the middle of them all, covered in kittens.
At least two ran off when they saw me in the gap between the shelters. She was nursing the whole lot of them. I don’t think any of the kittens in the picture are actually hers.
Of course, when doing the cat feeding this morning, I saw all sorts of kittens, including the “new” ones under the cat house creeping out. Some of them are even brave enough to go into the sun room already! I am 99% sure the kittens from the collapsing log building are Ink’s babies. I’d seen her climbing up into there a few times over the summer.
I don’t think I’ve seen Ink around for several days.
She was always one of the more feral cats and would run off faster, so that’s not too unusual, but after what happened to Poirot, it makes me wonder.
As I was finishing up my rounds, I spotted this baby under the shrine.
I don’t recognize it. It’s hard to know for sure, as the “new” kittens run and hide so quickly, but I think I would have noticed one that had all white around one eye, and black around the other like that.
Today, I had to go into town and my daughter and I headed out in the late morning. She wanted to come along, just in case I wasn’t feeling as well as I thought I was! I went ahead to the truck with the big water jugs that needed to be refilled when I spotted Slick in the grass, under the canopy tent.
She was nursing two babies!
One ran off, and it’s possible that one was the kitten in the photo above, but I didn’t see its face well enough to be sure. The other looked more like Mom. I gave them a lot of distance, so as not to scare it away. My daughter spotted the two of them still there as she came out a few minutes later. She tried for an indirect photo, trying not to startle them, but isn’t sure if it turned out yet.
We left early enough to stop at the post office where a parcel for my husband was waiting. It turned out to have a custom’s duty on it, so I had to pay $30 to pick it up. The postmaster told me she was processing a lot more customs duties of late, and thinks it might have something to do with the new tariff wars. Customs duties are a different category of taxes, though, not tariffs. If it is, that means it’s our own government charging us for stuff they didn’t before. Anything that gets shipped into Canada can potentially be charged duties. Usually, it’s the equivalent of what the sales tax would have been if the product was purchased in Canada. We have very rarely been charged duties on anything we’ve had come in from the US, whether by mail or courier. This was some stuff from a leatherworking supply company he’s purchased from before, without being charged duties.
Now I’m wondering if our government is going to tax me on all those seeds I ordered from MI Gardener that are making their way through the USPS right now. I’ll find out, soon enough, I guess.
Once in town, our first stop was at the pharmacy, where my daughter was able to get her own refills as well. Then we popped across the street to check out the Red Apple; one of the things my husband asked me to pick up is slightly cheaper there. Then it was off to the grocery store to refill the water jugs and get a few little things as well.
Seeing the prices change in just the last few weeks can sometimes be mind blowing. For example, I sometimes like to buy shelled pistachios as a truck snack. There is a brand that has them with various seasonings. About a year ago, they were still under $7. That price has been creeping up until even at Walmart, they went from just under $8 to almost $9 per bag within a couple of months. Locally, they were already just under $9 for some time. That’s what I saw them as, about a week ago.
Today, they were just under $12 a bag. 🤯
Needless to say, I haven’t been buying shelled pistachios.
We didn’t need to pick up much, though, and were soon on my way home. Now I want to get out and mow around the kibble shelters first, before the outside cats get their evening feeding. This is going to spook the heck out of the littles, so I want to get that done as quickly as possible!
Hopefully, I’ll be able to get quite a bit done, but we’ll see. That left hip of mine is causing more problems, so the point that I have to do things like sit down to put my pants on, because it’s too unstable for me to stand on my left leg.
Something to talk to my doctor about when I see her at the end of the month. Looks like I’m due for another round of Xrays!
Ah, well. It is what it is. I’ll deal with it when the time comes!
The Re-Farmer 