Critters

Morning kitties, eye tests, and oops! I missed one!

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Gotta start out with the cuteness!

When I came out this morning, I found all four of the feral kittens in the grass around the catio area, like they were coming towards the house. The little orange one does come to the kibble tray under the water bowl shelter, and I’ve even seen it a bit closer to the sun room, but the others are much shier, so it’s great to see them inching closer.

The garage kittens, I notice, have been spending more of their time hanging out outside. Still right up against the garage, where there are things they can hide behind, but they seem to prefer being outside of the garage rather than inside it, now.

While doing my morning rounds I did my usual check of the garden beds. When I got to the potato bed, I spotted something strange. I guess a cat or something had been digging in the loose soil, and uncovered something I missed!

A single potato! A pretty big one, too! I don’t know how I missed that! 😄

Today I had my eye appointment booked. I was going to be getting the dilation drops, so my daughter came along to do the driving afterwards. Plans for after my appointment included possibly going to my brother’s to pick up her computer, that was supposed to be delivered today.

It wasn’t.

As I write this, and the tracking information still says it’s “in transit” and expected to be delivered between 9:30am and 1:30pm today.

It’s just past 10pm right now.

My daughter and I left early as I wanted to stop at a gas station before my appointment. I was going to go to one in the town my eye doctor is in, but when we got close to the gas station I saw it was mostly blocked off by the truck refilling their tanks.

So we kept on going and got to the eye clinic almost an hour early.

As we drove into the parking lot, though, we noticed a new ice cream store had opened in the same building. When I checked in, and was told that not only was I very early, but the doctor as behind and hadn’t even had her lunch yet, we decided to go for ice cream.

The place was so new, they weren’t finished setting up yet. The menu boards were dark and there was no seating inside, though they did have picnic tables outside. They did, however, have many varieties of ice cream for us to check out, and we got a couple of waffle cones. The tables outside were occupies, so we cross the street to a tiny park where we could sit on some large rocks in the shade. It was very pleasent.

By the time we got back, they took me in very quickly, for the initial photographs of my eyes they needed to take, first. I have the tiniest of hemorrhages in my eyes that the doctor is monitoring. I didn’t have to wait long before the doctor called me in. We started out by looking at the images, comparing back to when I first started seeing her, in 2023. There are slightly more of these tiny hemorrhages, but nothing has gotten worse, so we are still in “monitoring” mode.

Then she tested my vision. Much to my surprise, there is almost no change in my prescription. The tiny big of change in my left eye is so minor, there’s no reason to get new glasses.

Then it was time to dilate my eyes.

Those drops really burn!

After the drops were done, I was sent to the waiting room for a while to give my eyes time to dilate before being called back in. Then I got to get that bright light flashed into my eyes while she examined inside them. Of all the tests, that’s the one that bothers me the most. Not even the puff test bothers me much. I mentioned that and she told me that with some people, it’s the field of vision test that bothers them the most, while others have issues with the puff test. I told her about my mother and her macular degeneration, and how she got the eye injection. I told her, my mother handled them like a champ, but I honestly don’t think I could get that done! She asked me who the doctor at the special eye clinic in the city was that saw my mother. I told her, and she said she had heard very good things about him. She’s read some of his papers, and was quite impressed by them. I told her, he’s really excellent – and has a great “bedside manner”. He was always very sweet with my mother. I was happy to have a chance to share how good he was; if she ever found herself with a patient with newly developed eye issues beyond what she can do in her clinic, it’s that clinic in the city she’d be referring people to, and she would know that this particular doctor is highly recommended for more than his very impressive credentials.

Those tests done, the doctor wanted me to get one of the sets of pictures taken earlier done again, while my eyes were still dilated, since they’d be able to get more detail. After that, she wanted me to book another appointment for 6 months from not. That would put us in January, though. After talking about it, and our issues with travel in winter, which I try to avoid if I can, we decided that I will come back in October for a field of vision test – but no eye dilation! – and then come back for the dilation test again in 6 months after that. This way, my appointments will be spring and fall instead of summer and winter.

While at the counter, settling my bill (a whole $5.50, after the insurance coverage was deducted), there was a guy trying to book an appointment during a certain week. The other receptionist kept telling him they were going to be up north. Somehow, he understood that to mean they were fully booked, which they are – but the staff will all literally be up north. The receptionist I was with told me, she was the one who got them doing this. She mentioned having a lot of First Nations friends up north, and I completely understood. They just don’t have these sorts of clinics up there. They’d have to go south to the city. She said, that’s exactly it. It’s easier for a few staff at the eye clinic to be flown up north and see 200 patients, then to fly 200 patients to the city! And that’s just from one place. They now go up to visit 9 different northern communities throughout the year. It’s fantastic that they can do that!

By the time I was done, we’d heard from my brother that my daughter’s computer was not delivered. She and her sister had their own shopping list, though, which meant a Walmart trip. It would have been on the way home from my brother’s, but we went straight there, instead – after getting some gas, since the station was no longer blocked by a giant tanker truck! Since we were at the Walmart anyhow, I picked up a few little things as well, to tide us over until we do our first stock up shop, next week.

By the time we got home, it was past 5pm, and we were greeted by some very hungry kitties! My daughter took care of putting everything away, then making a heat-and-eat supper, while I quickly took care of the kitties.

The next two days are supposed to get really hot, so when things started cooling down this evening, I went out to give the garden a thorough watering. I plan to water twice a day, when it gets really hope. I am still holding out home that at last some things will start growing again, instead of just stagnating. It’s starting to look like all the red noodle beans are not only stagnating, but starting to die. I did spot one new sprout – a late germinating bean – and it’s all nice and green, like all the others were when they first sprouted. Now, they seem to be getting yellower, every day.

I wish I knew why. Even the extra seeds I had that got planted in the gaps among the peas that didn’t germinate, they’re looking yellow, so it’s not something specific to the beds. I’m at a total loss about it.

The winter squash, at least, seem to be recovering, though it’s unlikely there’s enough season left for them to develop fruit, even if they had an explosive growth spurt. The melons are just… not happening.

So furstrating!

I’m still tending them, just in case they recover. Who knows what will happen in the next couple of months.

Aside from all this, I have something good to share, and that’s how good I’ve been feeling. It’s only been a couple of days on the anti-inflammatories, and I can’t believe how pain free I’ve been. I haven’t even been taking the max dose I can “take as needed”. In fact, I even reduced how many capsules I cat at a time; I can take 2 capsules up to 3 times a day. I’ve taken 2 capsules, twice a day. This evening, I took just one. We’ll see how I feel overnight before I decide if I’ll take 1 or 2 in the morning.

I still have various pains, but the last couple of days have been the closest to being completely pain free as I can remember being in a very long time. Particularly when it comes to how much my body stiffens up if I’ve been sitting for a while, such as while driving, or sitting at my computer. I’m just blown away by how much difference I’m feeling, in such a short time!

Things are now winding down and I’ll be heading to bed soon. It should be interesting to see if half the dose will still be enough for me to be able to sleep without various joints keeping me awake with pain during the night.

I am so happy I thought to ask about trying the anti-inflammatories! What a difference they are making!

The Re-Farmer

Afternoon in the garden, and there’s our vandal again

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Today, I was out giving the garden and the food forest trees and bushes a deep watering. Yes, we did have good rain not long ago, but everything is bone dry again.

I had company, of the adorable kind.

I caught him, mid yawn! 😄

Sadly, in the video in the next file above, it did not pick up the purring. Eyelet started purring loudly as soon as I started moving closer with my phone. So adorable! Someone needs to adopt this baby!!!

Party way through, my younger daughter came out to let me know her sister had to jump into the shower, asking me to pause on the watering for a bit. While I was waiting for her to be done, I decided to see what we had for potatoes. With them dying back like they are, without ever having bloomed, I wasn’t sure if we could have any at all. I chose a spot where the plants were the deadest, and this is what I found.

This was from two or three plants, so not a lot, but gosh, those are lovely potatoes! Whatever is going on with our potatoes, we will at least have enough for a few meals, from the looks of it.

One of the things I noticed is that we are finally having some flower buds on bush beans.

Two of the three surviving Royal Burgundy bush beans – the two that did not get topped off by a deer – are blooming. Some of the yellow bush beans in between the tomatoes are also starting to bloom. The plants are still absolutely tiny, so I don’t expect much. They just don’t have the foliage to provide a lot of energy towards growing beans. We’ll see how that works out.

Then there was the weird thing that happened.

While I was watering, I could hear a quad start up and head out way, which meant it was our vandal. I saw him driving by through the trees, but he didn’t keep going. I could hear that he’s stopped at our driveway. So I went over to take a look, cutting through our garage, since we keep the main door wide open for most of the summer.

Sure enough, he had stopped at the end of the driveway, and was off his quad. I missed whatever he’d been doing since I first could hear that he had stopped. He was doing something to the back of his quad when he saw me looking at him from the garage. So he lifted his hands up to either side of his head, and seemed to be wiggling his fingers at me?

Then he pointed straight at me, before pointing down to the ground.

It was clearly intended to be a threatening gesture.

Then he got on his quad and drove away.

*sigh*

I really hope the cameras got that, and it didn’t get missed in the gap between capturing files and the motion sensor being triggered again. I’ll know, tomorrow.

Our vandal is clearly getting more unhinged, and his anger and hatred is aimed directly at me. He claims even his doctor said that I caused his cancer, which I assume is due to stress. Which is his own problem. I’d happily forget he existed, except he’s starting to show up and do weird stuff again.

I really don’t want to go through the process of applying for a restraining order again. It is such a pain.

Bah.

Anyhow. Once he was gone, I just went back to watering the garden and that was that. I never heard him driving back again, so who knows where he headed off to.

I really wish I understood why he got like this. I can come up with all sorts of contributing factors, but lots of people have been through the same or worse, without becoming like he has. It is the one major point against living here. Even my brother has said, if this farm ever does get sold, it will be because of our vandal, and my parents’ wishes have always been very clear about keeping the property in the family name. The irony of that is, our vandal is hating on me and doing all this because we live here when he expected to be able to convince my mother to change her will and leave it to him, instead of my brother. He’s causing all his own problems.

Well, there isn’t much we can do about it. We just focus on the thinks we can do something about!

Side note; while I was writing this, I got a message from the rescue that took in Poirot’s babies. She was asking what other kittens we have! I told her, but made sure to mention things like Eyelet being deaf, and Sir Robin’s infected eye that isn’t quite recovered. I told her about the feral kittens, too. Who knows. They might be able to help out with them! One can hope!

Oh, on a completely different note.

I got a call back from the autobody company. The arrangements we made for them to pick up the truck tomorrow have fallen through. Partly because the guys that would be doing the repair and painting on the damaged part of the box says they will need to use a primer, and it will need to sit overnight, at least. They know we don’t have any other transportation, so until the can arrange a courtesy vehicle, our insurance work is on hold. Otherwise, the earliest they can book us for is in September. Thankfully, the damage being worked on is not essential, and the truck can be driven.

Which worked out, in the end. My daughter was able to order her new computer, using my brother’s address for it to be delivered to. It’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. Which means that, after my eye appointment, we should be able to drive to my brother’s and pick it up, since where my eye appointment is is already about half way to their place.

I also just realized something else.

I’ve been doing various things, inside and out. I’ve taken no pain killers since yesterday morning. I’ve only had two dozes of the new anti-inflammatories, though I can take them up to three times a day, if I felt the need.

I am virtually pain free right now. Even my shoulder isn’t bothering me as much. Normally, while typing, my finger joints would be stiff and sore, making it hard to type. Not only that but, after sitting for a while, when I got up to walk around, I could actually do so normally. Usually, my knees and feet would have stiffened up so much that I have to hobble for a while, before I “grease my joints” and they can bend normally again. Yes, there is still some pain and stiffness, but much, much milder.

How utterly amazing. Such a huge difference, in so short a time!!!

Wow.

I wish I, or one of my doctors over the years, had thought of this earlier.

The Re-Farmer

Morning Trashpandas

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Well, today went not at all as planned. I’m actually going to be able to stay home today!

I was expecting to be picked up by a friend at 8am this morning, and was starting my morning routine a bit early. Before making the kitten soup, I popped into the sun room to grab the one bowl for it that I knew was still there.

Opening the doors created a massive scramble, with all sorts of crashing and bashing.

A BIG raccoon ran out the sun room door, but her four babies all squeezed themselves into the space between the counter shelf and the window.

These are not small babies.

Well, the mom was beside herself. She wanted to run away, but her babies were stuck inside!

The growling noise she makes is so… unique. It’s almost like a deep, throaty barking noise, but it’s a growl. Once of these days, I need to try and record the sound!

Meanwhile, I could hear the babies scrambling. I tried to give them time to leave by mixing up the kitten soup and getting all the bowls and dry kibble ready.

Eventually, two did run out, but two others ran back into hiding. I decided to go ahead and start setting out the dry kibble.

Gosh, they are so frikkin’ cute!

Once the dry kibble was distributed, I same back through the sun room, and heard massive crunching.

They were so, so hungry!

I let them eat for a bit, then tried to get a broom behind their butts to push them out to the door.

They pushed back, wanting to get back behind the shelf, instead. Which was blocked by the broom.

So they just sort of stood up, squeezed between the broom and the table saw the food tray is under.

Looking at me.

With those eyes.

I gave up.

There was so much commotion, I had to let the for socialized kittens into the old kitchen so they could eat their cat soup, while I started setting the other bowls out. The little feral orange kitten has been brave enough to come to the house! Which was great, except he ended up missing out on the kitten soup, as he was eating dry kibble by the laundry platform, instead. Hopefully, he got some later.

Going back and forth, the two raccoons went back to eating. One of them moved out from under the table saw and was eating at another tray. They didn’t stop eating as I went by.

I admit it.

I couldn’t resist.

I pet the raccoon.

Just a little!

They have very course fur.

The raccoon was so focused on food, it just looked up at me, then kept eating.

After that, I did my morning rounds. While coming back from the driveway, I spotted them on the steps in front of the house. They were clearly looking for Mom!

Mom, however, had done the opposite direction.

When they spotted me, they ran up the tree in front of the kitchen window. The one that cats really like, and use to get onto the roof. Yes, there were a couple of cats in the tree, and they weren’t sure what to make of the new additions!

I continued my rounds and when I came back, I found them like this.

At some point, this tree was cut short (it should have been cut down!). Over the years, branches had grown up and around the top, but there is still a flat spot that the cats love to hang out on. I found the raccoons, snuggling each other, huddled up on the flat spot.

Checking later on, they were gone, so I’m guessing they are reunited with their mother.

The morning stuff done, I headed out to meet my friend at the gate for 8am.

She never showed up.

I didn’t want to message her, in case she was driving, but after a while I finally did.

Long story short, she thought her car drop off was on the 28th, not the 23rd. That’s what she had written in her schedule. I’d put it into my own phone calendar. So I looked up the number for her and she called the garage.

It was supposed to be today.

She ended up rescheduling to the 28th.

Okay, that meant I could stay home?

Not really. My mother needs a grocery shopping trip. My sister, however, was planning to visit today, too.

I called my mother and got her up to date on getting the blood work requisition for her, and the doctor’s appointment I made for her. As for her shopping, she will get my sister to do it.

I get to stay home!

Then I got a call from the autobody shop.

I’ve got my eye appointment tomorrow (Thursday), then I’m supposed to drop the truck off for the insurance claim on Friday. They had arranged for a courtesy car for me to use until it could be picked up on Tuesday.

The courtesy car is broken down and won’t be ready on time.

They wondered if I could bring it in on Thursday night, they’d do the repairs/painting on Friday morning, then I could take the truck back until they are ready to install the cover, and I would bring the truck back for that.

I told her about my eye appointment, and that I won’t even be able to drive myself home, because my eyes will be dilated.

As we were talking, and she asked where I lived, she even offered to drive me home after dropping off the truck! In the end, what they will do is have someone come get the truck from here, on Thursday, just before they close. They’ll do the repair work and painting on Friday morning, and will figure out how to get the truck home for me after that. Likely, a drop off. Then, I’ll get a call to bring it back to install the cover. For that, I can just stay and wait until it’s done.

They are really bending over backwards to help me out here!!! Wow!!

So that’s been my morning.

I get to stay home for day.

I’d love to be productive and all, but so much has been going on, I feel totally drained – and I’m still not completely recovered from yesterday’s… reaction… to the lunch I got from the grocery store before our doctor’s appointment. Even my arm is still giving me grief.

Oh, crap. I forgot to take my anti-inflammatories while eating my lunch. Maybe it’s not too late! I’m still full…

Done.

I did take some yesterday, then went to bed early. I did NOT take any painkillers before bed. I did have some pain during the night, but nothing like I normally do, even with painkillers. It’s too early to draw any conclusions, but for a first dose and first night, that’s very encouraging!

I didn’t take any painkillers this morning, either.

So far so good!

I think I’ll actually try lying down for a bit, then see how I feel before trying to get some work done outside. I really need to let that arm heal.

We’ll see how it goes.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: I was wrong!

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I’m so happy I was wrong!

While taking video of the peppers for the garden tour yesterday, I spotted what I thought was a tiny pepper beginning to form. It turned out to be the remains of a blossom. From what I could see, if it did develop into a pepper, it would be our first one.

Today, I went to take another look. After moving the dried remains of petals off, I did indeed find a teeny, tiny beginnings of a pepper.

It will not, however, be our first!

Hidden in the leave below, I found a pepper forming! Looking at the other plants, I found a second one.

Just two. That’s it. But that’s two more than I thought we had!

Bonus picture for you, from checking the grapes this afternoon.

An absolutely adorable little tree from, no bigger than the tip of my thumb.

I am so happy we have so many frogs this year. I wish they could make a bigger end on the mosquito population, though! Lots of frogs, but no dragonflies.

Gotta set up some bat houses at some point. Walking around this afternoon, the air was filled with the whining of mosquitoes. It’s absolutely insane, how many there are this year!!

Thankfully, I wasn’t needing to be out there for long. My daughter and I had our back to back medical appointments, after doing my mother’s med assist this morning, followed by a trip to the pharmacy, so we were away most of the day. Plus, it’s been raining off and on all day. Very happy for the rain, too! Not much to do in the garden right now, anyhow. Just see how much more the deer have eat, and stare perplexedly as all the things that just aren’t growing this year.

*sigh*

As my SIL once said about their own garden; if they had to live off of what they grew, they’d starve! They weren’t trying for any sort of self sufficiency. Just to supplement. We, on the other hand, are planning our garden out specifically to have a combination of fresh eating, freezing, canning and winter storage. Last year, we at least were able to freeze a few things. This year, I don’t think we’ll even have anything more than for fresh eating.

We do still have just under 50 days before first frost – a bit longer, if we go by the adjusted average, though I certainly won’t count on it. Who knows what might happen in that time! Maybe, things will actually start suddenly growing and producing and we’ll have a long and mild fall, with plenty to harvest at the end of the season.

Not going to count on that. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, plum recovery, and we have rain!

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My plan had been to take some recordings for my July garden tour video. It was raining a little bit while I was feeding the yard cats and doing my rounds, so that got postponed. I’m happy to say that the rain became heavier, and it’s still raining, several hours later. It’s supposed to continue to rain for at least two, maybe three, more hours.

This is such a good thing!

So my recordings will wait until later today – as will my trip to the post office to pick up my package of seeds from MI Gardener. I’m really looking forward to seeing those!

For now, here are some adorable kitties.

Sprout is there with three of the four feral kittens. I did see the tortie, but it was hiding when I took the images.

The white and black cat nearby is Ink. I can tell she’s nursing, and it seems that she is keeping her babies in the unoccupied farm across the road from us. I do wish they wouldn’t go there. Crossing that road can be quite dangerous for adult cats, like the late Poirot, never mind for kittens!

The next picture is of Pinky and her two, in the garage. I had to zoom in from well outside the garage to be able to get that shot. If I come any closer, the kittens run off.

As I was finishing up and about to head back inside, I spotted the adorable trio in the last photo, all snuggled together. That cat bed is supposed to be a cat cave, but it always collapses. I finally just rolled down the side, and the sides still collapsed! The kittens seem to like it, though, so that’s good.

Havarti was hanging out in the sun room doorway, and I wasn’t able to get a picture of him. When the weather is good, I have the outer door secured open, so it doesn’t blow around in the wind. With the rain, I secured it mostly closed (there’s a brick to make sure it can’t close all the way) to keep the weather out, but the cats and kittens can still get in and out as will.

So we currently have four socialized kittens, six feral kittens, and several cats that I can see are nursing, but no sign of kittens. From what I can see, they have small litters. Maybe two or three active nips, though it’s really hard to tell at times. Adam will jump up on the cat house to eat kibble and will let me pet her. She might have one active nip, but I really can’t tell. I get the sense the Brussel has had a second litter, but that’s based strictly on behaviour. She doesn’t seem to have any active nips, though with her long fur, I could easily be wrong. Then there’s Slick. I am sure Slick had an early litter that she lost, then got pregnant again. She isn’t pregnant now, but I can’t see if she has any active nips. Does that mean she lost another litter? Or maybe has just one kitten, and I can’t see the active nip? She has been letting me pet her while she is eating, but only when there are other cats I can pet at the same time, so there’s lots of movement. If it’s just her, she won’t let me close enough to touch her.

While doing my rounds, I was very happy to see how quickly the Opal plum is starting to recover so many leaves being eaten by deer.

At the base of every leaf that was eaten, a new leaf is emerging. Pairs of leaves, actually.

I really need to figure out some sort of fencing around the garden. The remaining beet greens, more radish plants, and even some carrot greens, were gone this morning. I do have a cover – two, actually – that will fit this raised bed, but not with the radish plants being so big.

Not that they’re going to stay big for long, at this rate.

The peas also look like more of them have been eaten. I did add the pinwheels, but those are a deterrent only if there is a wind to move them. Same with the wind chimes. The new lights I added are working – I can see them from my bedroom window at night – but they don’t seem to be much of a deterrent either.

One of the suggestions I’ve read is to have a radio set to a talk radio station playing all night. I think we even have some old “ghetto blasters” that we could use (anyone else remember those? They were so popular in the 80’s), but I’d have to set up some sort of shelter to put one in and protect it from the elements. I don’t think I’d want to do that, though. Hearing talk radio from outside during the night would not go over well. Usually, when we hear voices in the night, it’s something to be concerned about and check on, not ignore.

With the garlic bed empty and waiting to be cleaned up, I’m considering. Should I bother trying to plant something in it? In theory, we still have enough growing season to plant something like bush beans. Perhaps a late planting for a fall harvest will actually work. The beans we planted earlier all seem to have stalled and stagnated.

We could also try planting anything that either needs about 40 days to harvest, or handles frost well. So we could try growing peas, beets, chard or spinach, too. I could even try zucchini. Anything we plant now would have to have a cover over it, though, since these are all things the deer like to eat.

With how things I direct sowed this year have been stagnating, though, is it even worth planting something? Either things will stagnate again, or it will give us at least something to harvest. We should be harvesting all sorts of things right now, and there’s just nothing.

I’ll look through my seeds again and decide. I might just leave the bed and save it for winter sowing, so we will have something next year.

What do you think?

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, and afternoon jacka$$es

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Okay, let’s start with the cute stuff!

Kittens!

This is what I saw out the bathroom window this morning.

I’m not sure which of the adult cats is in there, snuggling with Eyelet, Sir Robin and Havarti. It’s not Colin. Maybe it’s Mochrie? Well, whoever he is, he does enough a nap with the littles!

When it was feeding time, I got to see Sprout and her four ferals.

When I come back with the kitten soup, after putting out the dry kibble, Sprout always hisses at me. It’s been years, and we’re no closer to socializing Sprout in any way. I hope we have better luck with her babies, but the tortie and the calico in particular are a lot like their Mom!

Today was setting out to be a slightly cooler day with the possibility of rain this afternoon. All we got was some light cloud spit. The smoke is really bad today. I’m hoping the rain missed us and hit the wildfires, instead!

My husband had called in a prescription refill yesterday, that couldn’t wait until a Thursday delivery. One of his “controlled substance” meds that he can only refill when he’s down to 3 days of being out. So a trip to town was in order.

The pharmacy opens at noon on Sundays and I got there about 15 minutes early, so I popped across the street to a small department store that was open. I ended up getting a different type of sticky tape to trap insects that I’m used to. The old kitchen is so full of mosquitoes that when I go to get the cat stuff ready in the mornings, I can actually hear the whining of them, and I get surrounded by clouds of them. Thankfully, we have insect repellant now, so it wasn’t too bad this morning! We needed something to get rid of them, and I’m hoping this thing works.

I came out of the store just before the pharmacy opened, and there was a whole crowd of people waiting for the doors to open! Weird.

It didn’t take me long to get what I needed, and I was soon off to my next stop, which was the grocery store to refill a couple 18.9L/5 gallon jugs of water.

The grocery store parking lot was looking pretty busy, so I made a point of parking well away from the store, with no vehicles around me. With the large jugs to get in and out of the vehicle, I like to be able to bring the cart right up to the door to unload it into the space behind the front passenger seat. The space behind the driver’s seat is where we keep our hard sided and hard sided, insulated, reusable grocery bags. In the middle is where we keep the emergency kit and other supplies.

Yes, this is relevant. The main thing is, the only space for the jugs is behind the passenger seat.

I went through the store to see if there was anything else we needed, but only picked up a small package of stew meat and an energy drink for the drive home. So it wasn’t long before I was heading back to the truck with the full water bottles.

There was, of course, a large truck parked right next to me. One the passenger side.

The truck was facing the opposite direction, which means it drove through an empty parking spot to pull into the spot beside me. There was an empty spot on the other side they could have gone into, but nope. the biga$$ Silverado just HAD to park next to me.

I get to the back of the truck and assess the space for a moment. Then I grabbed the stew meat and went to put it in the bag with my other stuff, on the front passenger seat. There is a woman in the Silverado passenger seat, so she could basically just look down at me – the Silverado is quite a big taller than my Sierra! I put the meat and my energy drink in, then went to the back door on the passenger side. Did I have enough room to load the water jugs?

I opened the door and checked. If it opened all the way, it would be against the Silverado. If I left it half way open, I figured there was just enough space to fit a water jug through. I got the first one in fine.

While I was doing this, a guy came over and got into the driver’s seat of the Silverado. So I now had two people in the truck that could see what I was doing, and how little space I had between the vehicles. I figured they would move.

Instead, the guy started unwrapping his half a Dagwood sandwich and started eating.

Needless to say, I’m pretty irritated by this point, but whatever. I just and the second jug to put in, and then I could leave.

As I was settling the water jug into place, I heard a “tick” behind me.

Putting the jug in shook the truck enough that my door opened the rest of the way, and was now touching the truck.

I didn’t see if the woman even looked down to see if there was contact. I moved my door and checked them, but could see no damage. So I closed my door, then went to return the cart to the cart corral.

When I got back to my vehicle, the guy was standing between them, still carrying his sandwich, looking at his door. As I came around to see what he was up to, he looked at me and said that there was some damage.

My response was, so?

I mean really. The guy parked is biga$$ truck next to me, with tonnes of space he could have parked in, instead, didn’t move when he could see I was trying to load large, heavy jugs of water through the narrow space, and now he’s worried about a ding?

Then he said that he was going to have to file an insurance claim.

Really? For that?

My first thought, of course, was “scammer”. If he meant to intimidate me, it didn’t work. I just got more pissed off.

I told him, I deliberately parked far from the store so that there would be no one around me. He’s the one who decided to park right next to me. He made a gesture to the space, as if to suggest it was enough. Which it would have been, if it was just a person getting in and out. Not so much for carrying large water jugs and trying to squeeze them through the half open door. Particularly since, with the weight and awkwardness of them, I should have brought the cart right up to the door, not carry them from behind my truck, squeezing myself and the jug through that little space.

He then started going on about, what else can he do? He has to file a claim. This is an $80,000 truck. It’s a brand new truck. What else can he do? As he was talking, all I could think of was how smarmy he sounded. Smarmy and condescending.

And yes, I did flat out tell him at one point that he was being an a-hole.

At some point, I told him, you’ve got a working truck, and you’re worried about a little bit of paint? He got all huffy, asking me if I could see any tags or stickers showing that this is a “working truck”. WTF was he even talking about? My truck is a working truck, and it’s got no tags or stickers.

Then he went on again about how he’s going to file a claim, no matter what, and went to take a picture of my license plate, saying he was going to be giving me his information, etc. After all, what else could he do? It’s a $100,000 truck.

…

So we were going to exchange our information. Fine. He was going to get his registration papers. Okay. We’re at the back of my truck and I looked at my passenger side door.

Do you really want me to go get mine, and risk hitting your truck again?

Nope. He told me I needed to get them through the driver’s side door.

Right. He wanted this short, fat, middle aged woman to crawl over the console to reach the glove compartment from the driver’s side.

I scoffed and just went and got the papers.

No, I didn’t hit his truck with my door again.

So we took pictures of each other’s registration papers and driver’s licenses, using my tail gate as a table. I’d already taken a picture of the paint from my truck on his door – and of him, walking around with his phone and his big sandwich, taking pictures. Before leaving, I made sure to get a couple more pictures showing the space between and around our vehicles.

Then I got into my truck and started updating my family, before heading home. They left while I was still doing that.

Guess he didn’t need to sit in his truck to eat his sandwich, after all.

The family updated, I headed home and unloaded the truck by the house. Which is when I remembered to get a better look at my own door.

Sure enough, after a bit of searching, I could find a bit of grey paint from the Silverado on my door.

Which I don’t care about, of course.

Once everything was settled inside, I made sure to settle down and write an incident report while everything was still fresh in my memory.

Sadly, I’ve got a lot of experience when it comes to writing incident reports. Usually, it was for the police or the courts, though, not insurance companies.

I made sure to include my photos with the report. The photos of his driver’s license and registration papers as well.

Oh, my.

I really hope this guy doesn’t try to file a claim – for his sake.

First up, after looking at what his vehicle was, I did a quick search. The value, in Canada, maxed out at under $83,000. If he’s stuck to $80K, that would have worked, but he then upped it to $100K

Then I noticed who the owner was.

The truck was owned by, and registered to, a drywall company.

It really was a “working truck”. It’s not even his truck. The company itself is in the city, so he was probably an employee using a company truck… on a Sunday. In a resort town and hour away. With a woman.

The company doesn’t have a website. No email address. Just an FB page. Nothing has been posted on is since 2020.

Then I noticed his license. He’s from a town bordering the city, but what was that X under “restrictions”? Mine has a 1, since I wear glasses. Restrictions also includes things like “maximum speed of 70km/h”, “daytime only”, “hand controls”, “commercial class”, etc. I’ve never seen an X before.

So I looked it up.

It turns out to be a driver’s restriction “addendum”.

It’s used when someone has more restrictions than there is room for on the license.

A list and description of those restrictions must be carried by the person, by law, at all times.

Interesting…

Eventually, I took a look at the photo I took of the ding on the door.

The door of that precious, new, “$100,000” truck…

The first thing I noticed was the pair of scratches in the paint, above the ding I caused.

Then I had to zoom in because… were those… so many…

Chips in the paint?

Yup.

The first photo above is the one I took, untouched. The blue paint from my truck is in the “clean” spot, where he’d dragged his thumb across.

In the second picture, I used red to mark the scratches, and put a dot beside every spot that was clearly a chip in the paint. There were others that I didn’t mark because I couldn’t be sure if it was a chip, or road dust.

As someone who lives off a gravel road, I recognize stone chips in paint. Except the chips were really high up the door. I’m short. That’s a tall truck. Some of those dings at the top of the photo were almost chest height on me. Normal driving on a gravel road shouldn’t result in paint chips, that high up.

According to the registration papers, this truck has only been driving since the end of May of this year. Not even two months, yet. It’s also set to expire at the end of August, so it’s only registered for 3 months, plus a couple of days in May.

That’s a LOT of dings for just a couple of months driving – and that’s just in the area in my photo, on the passenger side door.

There’s also a smear that I am not sure if it’s a smear of dust, or if it’s a smear of paint or something.

Now, I did ding this guy’s car. I tried hard to keep my door from opening all the way, but couldn’t stop it while I was settling the water jug in place.

With the guy’s behaviour and attitude about it, any possibility of apologizing disappeared. Plus, I was already ticked that he’d parked so close to me, when there were so many other places he could have parked and not had anyone next to him, then didn’t move when he saw that I was struggling to get the water jugs into my own truck.

Of course, a polite, able bodied young gentleman would have offered to assist the fat old lady lugging 5 gallon jugs of water and trying to get them into a vehicle. Not that I needed it, but it would have been polite. I’ve certainly done as much for others, when the opportunity rose. At the very least, if he was so worried about the truck, he would have moved it before I started hauling over that second water just.

I somehow doubt that the company that owns the truck is going to think it’s worth paying the deductible to file a claim for negligible damage, while it was being driven by, presumably, an employee (not the owner, since the company name is a surname that isn’t his) using it for personal reasons during off hours.

Well, as my husband put it, if they do file, we’ll let the insurance company sort it out.

What a way to end my time in town today!

Thankfully, the rest of the day has been far less… interesting.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, and a mid month shop

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Well, I won’t be working on the wattle weave bed today, as we ended up making a trip into the city for are mid month shopping.

The day started, of course, with feeding the outside cats and doing my morning rounds.

That orange and white one, Colby, will come SO close when I’m putting the food out, but won’t quite let me touch him! The little tortie is the shiest of the bunch. Still can’t get near the mama, though she will sometimes come to the house for food.

Pinky, the garage kitten mama, always come to the house at feeding time, leaving her kittens in the garage. She does NOT like any of the other cats, and is quite aggressive towards them. If they come to the garage, she will chase them off. I did move their food tray closer to the the door between the middle and the side where the back door is, and have been seeing both kittens. I saw the white and grey one outside the garage, near the back door, this morning. Hopefully, that means they will soon make the trek across the yard and discover the wonders of regular food, water, shelter, toys and other kittens to play with.

The dump opened at 10 today, so I didn’t want to do anything that needed more time. I watered the garden beds last night, so they were okay for the morning. I’ll need to water them again, this evening.

My younger daughter’s desktop – currently the oldest in the household – has been dying, and she’s been looking online for a new one. She settled on one at Best By, but they would not accept any version of our mailing address. Not the physical address, no postal boxes, not even the physical address of the store the post office is in. No shipping company alternative that services our area. Nothing.

Oh, and they won’t ship to one of their own physical stores, either.

Their methods of contacting someone through the website were useless, so my daughter hoped to be able to talk to someone at an actual store about it.

That meant a trip to the city. There was a brick and mortar location near a Walmart we go to during are monthly stock up trips, so that worked out.

After loading up the truck with a couple of weeks of garbage, we headed out. When we got to the entry to the pit, my daughter got out and walked ahead of me. The area in front of the pit hasn’t been cleared since the last time I was there, 2 weeks ago, and it was bad, then! My daughter made sure there was nothing that could puncture our tires so I could drive in, stopping me when she reached and area of shattered glass. I did have room to back up towards the pit, at least. Well. To the pile of garbage and what looked like the remains of a small, busted up shed, in front of the pit.

I don’t understand why no one has gotten the front end loader to push all this into the pit. The custodian can’t do it; she’s a senior with mobility issues, so that’s not part of her job, but arranging it to be done should be part of her job! Unless council, for some reason, is refusing to get someone to do it? I don’t know, but it’s getting really bad in there.

That done, our next stop was the post office. The post office itself is closed today (Saturday), but my MI Gardener order of seeds is in, and I thought it might be in the mail box.

It wasn’t.

In fact, there were three parcel slips in there. I was only expecting one package. I’ll have to come back on Monday, when the post office opens again, and see what’s there!

That’s what I get for not going to the post office, after getting our truck back.

After picking up what mail we were able to, it was off to the city.

The first stop was in a mall with a tiny Best Buy shop in it.

My daughter explained her situation to the guy there, and it was clear she was not the first person he’s talked about this. He knew the answer right away.

Basically, there is no way to get something as large as a desktop computer purchased from their website delivered to a PO box, nor with they deliver to a physical address as far out as we live. Including the store the post office is in.

We’re just too far from the city. He did acknowledge that they lose a lot of sales because of this.

Apparently, it comes down to security and theft. They can’t assure that a large package delivered to a rural area won’t get stolen, so they just don’t do it anymore.

It makes me wonder just how often things had been disappearing for them to go that far!

Their own stores, however, will cannot accept personal orders for pick up, either.

The only alternative, other than buying a computer somewhere else, is to find someone in the city that was can get it mailed to, then pick it up ourselves later.

We have a few options on that, with the best one being my brother and his wife.

By the time we were done talking to the guy, it was about 1, and the only food we’d had were a couple of cheese buns I picked up at a gas station, along with a couple of energy drinks, for the drive in.

The cheese buns were from a bakery in the town north of us, and they were awesome.

So we went to the food court for lunch. As we were eating, I messaged my brother, asking if we could have something shipped to their place. It turns out they have a lock box for deliveries, so they don’t get left on the front step. The problem is, delivery companies and Canada Post mostly ignore the delivery instructions and just leave things at their door, in full view. However, with Canada Post, they might also just leave a card for pick up at the nearest post office. If necessary, my brother also has the option to work from home on the day something is supposed to be delivered.

They were good with it, though, so that was a relief for my daughter!

After lunch (I packed more than half of mine up to finish at home, the portions were so large!), I popped into the Dollarama to look some stuff for the garden – that will be in a separate post – before we finally headed to the Walmart.

I am not bothering posting a picture this time. We had a lot of bulky stuff, so the cart was full, even though we didn’t actually get a lot.

We got more cat food; a couple of 32 packs of canned cat food – we made a very large dent in our supply when we ran out of dry kibble and the inside cats were getting wet cat food only, until I was able to use my brother’s car to pick some kibble up. Then never drive it again, because of the brakes issue. I’d run out of canned cat food for the kitten soup outside, and have been taking from the inside cat supply, too.

We still have feed store kibble for the outside cats, but I got two more 9kg bags of kibble. One for the inside cats, one as a spare.

The cat food alone was about $120.

Then we got toilet paper and paper towels, which we’ve also been going through faster than usual this month.

Then it was three loaves of rye bread, two 18 packs of eggs, a small jar of mayo, three cheeses (gouda, Havarti and Old Cheddar), and a package of hoagie-type sausages. At my husband’s request, we also got some Crystal Light water flavours and a couple of large bags of pretzels. Oh, and we got 6 cans of Monster; two each for me and my daughters, and a jug of orange juice for my daughters. I did remember to get insect repellant, so we got a 2 pack of that. For the drive home, we got a couple of cold drinks.

All of that, plus $5 to the Red Cross, came out to $322.83 after taxes.

*sigh*

That done, we headed home, stopping to put in $40 in gas before leaving the city, as the prices were a bit cheaper there.

Once home and unloaded, I had to feed the outside cats to get all the kittens away from the truck, so we could move it away from the house again! By that time, it was late enough that they were being fed only a little bit early.

It was also supper time, so I have me leftover lunch, then headed outside to make use of my Dollarama purchases. I’ll be doing the watering, once things have cooled down a bit more.

Next up: finding ways to deter the deer!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties and tiny harvest

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Okay, I definitely over did it yesterday. Which happens a lot faster these days, then it used to!

I was preemptive on things, though. Before going to bed, along with my usual painkillers, I made sure to treat all the usual muscle groups that I’ve had Charlie horse issues with, with Tei Fu lotion. Just in case.

Once outside this morning, I did my usual rounds, starting with feeding the kitties. Including these hungry little wildlings.

The forth one did show up, eventually.

As I was finishing up, I spotted these two full belly babies, being adorable.

I didn’t see the garage kittens until much later, and not both at the same time, but they are there, and getting their own bowl of kitten food. I should start moving the bowl closer to the back door, to encourage them to go into the yard and discover all the amenities, awaiting them!

I should have watered the garden this morning, but my body was giving me a great big FU on the subject. I did manage to get a tiny little harvest, though.

Just a few Spoon tomatoes. In the next photo, there’s a few sugar snap peas, the Spoon tomatoes, a few tiny little strawberries from the old kitchen garden and some raspberries. I was able to leave a bowl full of berries and tiny bowl with the Spoon tomatoes for my husband, as a morning treat when he woke up.

Once back inside, I pain killered up and went back to bed for a few hours.

Being old and broken really sucks sometimes – and I’m still almost the most able bodied person in the household! Both girls are feeling better, though, hence the “almost”. My younger daughter still has to watch herself with the wrist, and has been doing mild recovery exercises. I heard her talking with her sister today, marveling at how much better her wrist feels, even with the remaining pain and discomfort from the surgery, without Squidly wrapped around the bones. She’s so happy to have been able to get that done!

On a completely different note, thanks to some assistance from my older daughter, I was able to pay the deposit for getting the main door and frame replaced. We had 30 days to accept the estimate. After that, we’d have to get a new estimate and, with the way prices are going up, the cost would likely increase if that happened. I’m okay with them taking a while to get the job done, though. That’ll give us time to raised the balance without having to use more debt. *sigh* It needs to be done, though. It’s not like we can go a winter with nothing but a storm door there!

Ah, well. It is what it is. We’ll manage. We always do!

The Re-Farmer

Getting things done

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It’s been a long day! I didn’t have to go anywhere, and the weather was good, so I finally got some progress outside.

First, the cuteness!

The mama and her secret babies seem to be good with my coming into the garage and leaving food for them. No attempt to move them again. I guess actually picking up the smokey kitten was just too much for the mom.

Still, seeing both kittens at the same time – and eating with Mom – is pretty rare!

In the next photo of the slideshow above, we have full belly babies, enjoying the morning sun on my late fathers old car. I’m pretty sure this is two litters, but they behave like one.

I’ve been checking on the garlic while doing my rounds and they will be ready to harvest soon. With that in mind, I finally opened up the canopy tent I bought on clearance last fall and set it up.

I have to admit; for a cheap canopy tent, it came with the highest quality pegs I’ve ever seen with any kit we’ve bought before!

Usually, they’re skimpy pegs that easily bend. I’m quite glad for the high quality ones, because with a couple of the legs, I had quite a time finding a spot where I could actually put the peg through without hitting something.

The tent was packed in a cardboard box inside the case. After I got everything out and starting working on the tent, the cats discovered it.

They were having so much fun with it, I left it there for them when it was time to clean up.

That done, my next project was to finally start on the new wattle weave bed in the old kitchen garden.

Which took all day, and is nowhere near finished, but I’ll get into that in my next post!

See you there… 😊

The Re-Farmer

More kittens, and an update

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Yes! We have transportation again!!!!

Before my friend arrived, I did have to play interference with an Eyelet, who wanted to follow me along. Which meant cuddle time!

It’s so hard to get pictures of those eyes, but I think I managed to capture their colour pretty well. They are SO white!

Eyelet kept trying to follow me down the driveway, which is not good, since I’m 99% sure he’s stone deaf. You can’t tell to watch him running around and playing, but I’ve gone past him with a lawn mower while we was sleeping and he didn’t wake up, so that’s a pretty sure sign!

I also spotted the secret kitties.

Can you spot the mama in the first picture?

These two kittens are the bravest of the four secret kitties – and the location of their “nest” in the outer yard is still very much a secret. Sprout is a good mama, but I do wish she would learn to accept us humans. When I got closer, she hissed at me and hid deeper in the tall grass. The white and grey ran off and hid. The orange on, however, started to run off, then came back. He’s getting curious enough that I think we might be able to touch him, fairly soon.

Sprout, meanwhile, just glared at me through the grass! 😄

As soon as I could hear a car coming down the road, I tucked Eyelet into the isolation shelter (which is open) and dashed to the gate before any cats or kittens could follow me! I did see Pinky’s two kittens in the garage, but they ran off before I could do more than confirm I was seeing both of them.

The drive to my mother’s town was a good time for catching up. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.

I did, however, have to interrupt the conversation to ask her about the noise her car was making. She thought it might have something to do with a recall on her vehicle model, but she didn’t know for sure. She needed to get it checked but didn’t want to go to the dealership in the city she bought it from, because it turned out, they suck.

When we got to the garage, I paid my bill – $56 and change, after taxes, including 12¢ for the C clip he used to fix the break in the linkage. I asked about the part he’d ordered, and he confirmed that they had sent him the wrong one for some reason. Frustrating, but their mistake saved me about $300, and the truck is working fine.

Then, since we were there, my friend asked about her car. He asked some specific questions about the noise, then asked if she was okay to go for a drive. So while I got set up in the truck and put back a few things I’d made sure to take out before leaving it for the tow truck, they went for a run. The mechanic did the driving. Later on, my friend laughed while saying it was a good thing there were no police around at the time! He was wanting to see if it was the wheel bearings, as the sound should change while swerving.

The sound didn’t change.

She was really happy with him, though, and booked an appointment with him for next week. I happen to not have anything scheduled on that day, so she’ll be coming over to here, first, to pick me up. We’ll go for breakfast somewhere nearby, then visit with my mother.

Which is what we did after we were done at the garage. Well; breakfast for her, lunch for me. We had a great time catching up before heading over to my mother’s.

I didn’t call ahead to my mother that we were coming by. Normally, my mother doesn’t like surprise visits like that, but I knew she would be happy with this one. She has always liked my friend, back from when we first got to know each other in junior high. Even back then, she called my mother “mom”, just like I called her mother, “mom”. When my mother nearly killed herself causing an accident, years ago, my friend happened to be there to witness it, and took care of my mother afterwards. If it weren’t for that, we would have never found out what happened that day, since my mother basically lied about some of the details, and left lots of information out.

My mother was thrilled with the surprise visit. She was also just as tickled to be called “Mom” by my friend, still, after all these years.

I had showed the pictures I took of Eyelet this morning to both my friend and my mother. My friend has a one cat right now. She was telling me I needed to come visit her and meet her cat, and I joked about bringing Eyelet along.

Long story short, after her car is done at the garage next week and she drives me home, I will grab Eyelet and follow her to her place in the truck for a visit. We will see how Eyelet and her cat get along. If they get along, she might adopt Eyelet! She does know he is probably deaf. I do want to make sure she knows he’s probably got ear mites and worms, and has never had vet care. At least I’ve seen him use a litter box in the sun room, though, so he’ll figure that out rather fast.

Once done at my mother, we parted ways.

I’m now rather glad my sister wasn’t available to drive me today. It was so good to catch up with my friend, while getting the truck back. She has a very eclectic work schedule, so even for her to have today available at all was serendipitous. It worked out for her, too, since she is now going to get her own vehicle looked at with a mechanic/garage owner she really likes – unlike the dealership garage in the city she’s been having issues with!

It’s late enough now that I won’t be starting any projects outside, and will just do my evening rounds after feeding the outside cats. Right now, other than a potential grocery shopping trip for my mother, I have 4 days of pleasant weather to get work done outside. Finally! I have two large projects I’ve had to set aside for now, partly due to being pulled away for other things, and partly because I had to give my left arm time to heal from my fall. It is still bothering me, but at least I can do more with it. If it’s still a problem when I see my doctor at our rescheduled time next week, I’ll request X-rays. It’s been quite some time, and it really shouldn’t still be hurting like it does.

Oh, speaking of medical stuff, my daughter just came by to show me her wrist. The surgical bandage could finally come off today and, my goodness, the incision is healing quite nicely! Oddly, it looked so small while the bandage was on, but now that the bandage is off, it seems larger, somehow. They definitely needed space to evict Squidly.

So that is where we are at now. The truck is back and working, we might have Eyelet adopted out, and plans to spend time with my old friend again next week.

It’s been a very good day.

The Re-Farmer