I figured I’d get this out as quickly as I could, because I know people are interested!
While checking on him yesterday, the sun room was actually getting too warm! So we turned on the ceiling fan and opened the inner door to the old kitchen, so cooler air could circulate through screen window of the outer door. My daughters have taken on giving him his evening pill. It’s supposed to taste like cat treats, so they give it to him with a couple of treats, and have had no problem with him eating it.
This morning, he was eager for attention – and very curious about my phone when I tried to take pictures!
He is eating and drinking well, though he ignores the wet cat food. It was chilly by morning, so I made sure he got some nice warm water. When I brought warm water for the cats outside throughout the winter, Ginger would be the one coming over and drinking out of the jug while I knocked the ice out of the water bowls and cleaned out the heated water bowl. He’s a big fan of warm water! :-D
I was somewhat concerned about the litter pan still looking mostly undisturbed. This morning, however, I found that he’s been using the spilled dirt I’d swept into a pile, after Potato Beetle knocked a plant pot over,during his own convalescence in the sun room. The sun room has concrete floors, so I’m not too worried. Once things are warm enough and the yard is dry enough, we basically empty the sun room every spring to clean the floor and get things re-organized. This is where we keep our frequently used yard tools, as well as the critter food, while also keeping my late father’s swing bench open so we can just sit in there and enjoy the warmth and sunshine. The cats love that swing bench! We will also be it as a green house for our seedlings, too, once I pick up a shelf to hold them all, and the overnight temperatures are warmer.
Since we are also using it to isolate injured kitties, we’ve got leftover pieces of rigid insulation on the floor in front of the box bed, and under the food and water, so little paws don’t get too cold on the concrete!
Yeah. We’re sucks, when it comes to the cats! :-D
Did I mention he wanted attention?
Poor baby is lonely! He’s used to at least having his brothers, Nutmeg and Creamsicle Jr, to play with. And he does want to play! It’s hard to visit with him because he gets so excited, and starts moving around too much. Of course, we can’t not visit him, because we need to check on him and give him some loving.
While the temperatures were warm this morning – it was 1C/34F when I headed out – there was a very cold wind! I’m so glad we have been able to keep Ginger in the sun room. We weren’t able to, when his mom ended up with stitches. Yes, he was a regular user of the heated cat shelter, but clambering in and out of there would not have been good. That and Nicky the Nose has been showing up again, and he’s been starting fights with the males. Not so much with Ginger and his litter mates. They were born so late in the season last year, they aren’t sexually mature yet, and not a threat to him. We think he might be responsible for Potato Beetle’s injury, though, and with things warming up, the baby boys are going to start being interested in the girls soon, and Nicky is not going to like that. We chase Nicky off when we see him but, just this morning, I saw him out my window, slinking away through the trees towards the empty farm across the road.
Anyhow.
Ginger is doing remarkably well. As he moves around, he does keep trying to put weight on that leg. !!! Thank goodness I’m not squeamish, because every time he does, things move in ways they just aren’t meant to! Of course, when he sits or lies down, he has no way to move the leg out of the way, so… yeah. Not pleasant. At least he doesn’t seem to be in pain.
He will be having a much easier time after the surgery, that’s for sure!!
Which leads me to our fundraising promo. Ginger’s surgery is scheduled for 2 days from now. If you would like to help support him, you can buy him a Ko-fi (donations can be as little as $1 Canadian), share and/or reblog this post, or share the Ko-fi page.
First up, I want to say how much we all appreciate the wonderful comments, feedback, support and reblogs we about poor little Ginger!
If you click on the button on the top of the right hand column, or click here, you can see the current fundraising status. At the time of this writing, 20% of the goal has already been reached, just overnight! We are so thankful. <3
I had checked on Ginger last night, just through the door from the old kitchen, so as not to disturb him too much. It took me a while to spot him! Then I realized there was this little nose peeking out from under the flap of the “nest” we made in a box, back when Potato Beetle was convalescing in the sun room. He had a nice, soft pillow for a bed in a nice warm nest.
When I checked through the bathroom window this morning, I found him sitting in front of the door to the old kitchen, oddly curled up with his forehead on the floor. ??? A few moments later, he started to tip over, then jarred himself awake. :-D It was like one of those videos you see, where a kitten is so tired, it falls asleep while sitting up and starts to fall over.
When I checked on Ginger this morning, he was still by the door and didn’t want to move, even as I had to open the door over him! He just squished down, then became very interested in the old kitchen! Which we are not going to let him into, right now.
I’m happy to say that Ginger was looking really good this morning. He was moving around, wanting attention and pets (!!) and meowing at me. I actually wish he wasn’t moving around quite so much. Seeing that leg flopping around the way it does is rather horrific. It isn’t stopping him, though!
He also seems to have a very good appetite. The dry kibble bowl was empty. He didn’t seem to have eaten any of the wet cat food we’d also left for him. I thought maybe he didn’t like the pate, so I brought a can of shredded cat food for him. He still preferred the dry kibble.
While the sun room is warmer than outside, I had considered turning on the terrarium heater bulb we had set up for Potato Beetle, when it was still much colder. Unfortunately, we have no way to set it higher. I didn’t want to risk him stumbling and falling against it, so for now, there’s no heat source for him. Thankfully, the weather is getting warmer every day for the next while, so he should be just fine.
The sun room is where the cat, bird and deer food is stored, and normally I’d be going in and out through the outside doors. We don’t want other cats running in with Ginger right now, so the plan was to do things the long way around; go into the sun room through the old kitchen, collect the containers of feed, take them through the house to the main entry, then head outside with the warm water.
That’s a lot of containers to get through the door, while trying to make sure none of the inside cats make a run for it!
I did the short version of my morning rounds, because I wanted to call the vet clinic when they opened.
I had company.
Ginger’s brothers, Nutmeg (camouflaged in the grass) and Creamsicle Jr. followed along. Butterscotch did, too, but she stayed well back in the trees.
Potato Beetle emerged as well, and paused to say hello to Nutmeg. :-)
I had a chance to check his back leg. The wound is still quite visible, but all closed up and the fur the vet shaved away is starting to grow back. There is no sign of a limp, and he doesn’t seem to be favoring the leg in any way, so all seems very well.
For those new to this blog, Butterscotch and Potato Beetle both had trips to the vet this winter. We found a gash inside one of Butterscotch’s back legs. While she is one of the friendlier yard cats, she does not like to be indoors, and doesn’t even like to be in the sun room. We’d converted the sun room into a maternity ward a couple of years back, in hopes of socializing and adopting out kittens, but once those babies were born, she kept breaking out. She tore right through the screen at the top of the door that was there at the time. So while we were eventually able to get her into a cat carrier and get her to the vet for some stitches, we were not able to keep her isolated as she healed. Her wound was a clean cut, so it is likely she had fallen over something sharp. Sadly, there are lots of sharp things all over the farm! It may not have even happened here, as she does visit the neighbouring farms.
Potato Beetle then showed up with blood on his fur one day, but it took us a couple of days before we could find where it was from. He had clearly been in a fight. By the time we could get him to the vet, the wound had already started to heal. He did not need stitches, but he did get cleaned up and was given some antibiotics. We set him up in the sun room for a few days to heal, with a nice warm nest to sleep in, and the terrarium heater bulb nearby. Which also kept his water from freezing! Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that now. The outside water bowls still freeze over, but in the sun room, Ginger’s water bowl was just fine.
When I got back to the house, I found Rosencrantz (on the right, drinking water) had come out. She’s been hanging around more often lately, which is good. Junk Pile cat (with Potato Beetle, in the kibble house) doesn’t seem to wander off like Rosencrantz, her mother, but she still won’t let us anywhere near her. Her mystery baby is even shier, but at least we see her? him? in the cat house, snuggling with Nostrildamus (aka: Nosey).
I haven’t seen Nosey for several days. I am concerned. Hopefully, he’s just out visiting the neighbouring farms and discovering some lady cats.
For those who are new, you can read up about how we got our current cat house here and here. It now has a ceramic terrarium heater bulb to keep the kitties warm in winter. You can also read about the kibble house we built, here and here. (All links should open in new tabs, so you don’t lose your place. :-) )
I just got a call from the vet while I was writing this!
I’d called after I finished my rounds and talked about booking the surgery and payment options. They just called back and the surgery is going to happen on Sunday, three days from now.
Gosh, that’s a long time for Ginger, but it’s the earliest they can do. We’ll be dropping him off at 8:15 in the morning.
Ginger will be staying in the sun room, of course, which will make it much easier to have him fasting for the required 8 hours before surgery.
As for payments, they don’t do it themselves, but contract out to another company. It’s all on a pre-approved basis, so they would have paperwork for us to fill out, they do the surgery, and then we’d make arrangements with this company.
:-/
With that in mind, if you wish to help with Ginger’s vet bills, you can do so by going to the Ko-fi page, or even just reblogging and sharing this post or sharing the Ko-fi page.
Meanwhile, Ginger is going to be pampered as much as possible!
Poor baby!
The Re-Farmer
ps: my husband is hilarious. He just came over and suggested a name change for Ginger.
This morning, while doing my morning rounds, the kitties all came out to say hello.
Then I saw Ginger.
Walking on three legs.
His right front leg was dangling and swinging in a most unfortunate way.
I tried to go to him, but he “ran” away. I didn’t want to risk losing track of him or hurting him more, so I went inside. My younger daughter was handy, so I told her about it, and she went outside with the cat carrier to try and catch him, while I called the vet clinic.
The doctor was in surgery at the time, so we were told to bring him in for 3pm. My daughter had caught Ginger, and we had a few hours, so we set him up in the sun room, where he would be safe and we could check on him through the bathroom window.
It was encouraging to see that he had jumped up onto the swing bench to nap in a sun spot. Also, his injured leg is not visible in the photo. He’s lying on that shoulder.
I had hopes that it might not be too bad. After all, he wouldn’t be lying on the injury if it was really bad, right?
So we brought him to the vet and my daughter went in, because she can wear a mask. She texted me updates whenever she was able. At first, the doctor thought there might be a dislocation, but they had to sedate him to take x-rays. He is the friendlier of the litter, but he’s not fully socialized, by any means, so it took a bit longer for them to examine him.
What the x-rays revealed was a badly broken elbow. What the doctor thought was a dislocation was a broken bone, sitting on top of another bone.
Not only was it a very bad break, but in a very bad spot.
We were presented with two options. One was a surgical repair. The last time the doctor had gone that route, it ended up costing $2200. The other option was amputation. My daughter texted me while they looked up the cost of that, but my immediate reaction was that an amputation would be far less traumatic.
For the amputation, we got two estimates. Which it would be depends on if it takes 2 or 3 hours to amputate, and how difficult things turn out to be. The price range was just over $1300, to just over $2000.
Ouch.
At that point, they woke him up to give him more pain killers so we could take him home and talk about it. Once in the vehicle, my daughter was able to give me more information. The surgical repair is something they couldn’t even be sure would work, largely due to the placement of the break and how bad it is.
Oh, and we did ask what they thought might have caused the injury. He clearly had not been in any sort of fight. They think it was most likely a really bad fall. :-(
The problem isn’t deciding what action to take, but how to pay for it. Even the money set aside for the garden soil and the emergency fund together would cover the lower amount, but that would screw us over for all our gardening, repair and maintenance plans over the summer. I don’t think I’ll even tell my family about it. Their response would be to have him put down – and not necessarily having the vet do it, for the gun owners.
We’re not going to do that.
In fact, what we’re likely going to do is have him fixed and, after the surgery, turn him into an indoor cat.
Hopefully, the vet will let us make monthly payments. However, I have also done something I have had quite a few people recommend I do over the past several years. I’m loath to do it, but for the kitties, I will.
You may have noticed a new button at the top of the column on the right. We now have a donation page set up with Ko-fi. Anyone who would like to support taking care of the kitties can click and donate any amount they wish.
Currently, I’ve got a fundraising goal of $1300. If it costs more, we should be able to cover it. If we raise more than the goal, it will go towards getting Ginger fixed so we can bring him inside. My older daughter tells me she’s planning to open up to more commissions to raise funds, too. There are only so many she can take at the same time, though.
Tomorrow, we call the vet back and talk about setting up the amputation and payment options. Until then, we’ve set up the sun room for Ginger’s convalescence, and he is there now. In fact, my daughter just have him the first of the treat flavoured painkillers we brought home with him, which he is to get every 24 hours.
Because the swing bench is a favourite place for the cats to nap, we moved it around and set up “stairs” for him to use, so he doesn’t have to jump up onto it, as he had in the earlier photo I took.
The poor broken baby! He’s being remarkably calm and stoic about the whole thing.
Pretty soon, we might have to consider changing his name from Ginger to Tripod! ;-)
With the temperatures staying warmer, and the days getting longer, I’ve been starting to bring back my evening rounds. I was all ready to head out the door yesterday evening, when I saw three deer, running and jumping through the outer yard, from the direction of the barn!
Then they stopped and seemed hesitant.
I had a suspicion as to why.
I was right.
There were other deer!
These two were already hanging out at the feeding station.
I was able to open the inner door without startling them, so I could see them better. I could tell they saw me and were watching me, but they didn’t run off. So awesome!
The three made their way into the inner yard, but eventually left rather than joining the two at the feeding station.
There they go, all in a row! :-D
I was losing light fast, so I took the chance and went outside. They actually watched me for a bit, before running off.
As I was checking things out in the outer yard, and making my way to the back gate, I had to pause to take these photos.
I was in the path I mow to the back gate, half way between the fences for the inner and outer yards. The line of snow is what was hard packed from so many hooves, it left their mark in snow that’s taking longer to melt away.
Last winter, they seemed to prefer to jump the gate by the old garden area, where it is more open, but this winter, they definitely seemed to prefer going through the maple grove, then jumping the fence near the massive old willow.
Every time I see them making their way through the trees, or along the spruce grove, it makes me glad we were able to clear the trees out so much. It’s not only much easier and more pleasant for us to be able to go through the trees, but the deer prefer it, too!
While doing my rounds this morning, my daughter joined me as I took a closer look into the spruce grove, where we have SO much clearing to do. I had earlier identified 6 dead spruce trees that we’d like to cut down, on top of the 3 that are closer to buildings that we plan to hire someone to take down. We were able to go further into the grove and look more closely.
It’s not 9 dead trees. It’s a full dozen.
And that doesn’t include any others further into the grove, but just along the Western edge, where we need to work on cleaning things out first. It also doesn’t count the dead trees that have already fallen, and are either on the ground, or leaning on other trees, that need to be cleared away.
Looking in the area behind the garlic beds, it’s almost all little poplars, and those cherry trees that aren’t right for our climate. They bloom beautifully, but produce almost no cherries. They’re all relatively small, so I will be taking them right out. The little bendy poplars will be used to build trellises and arches, among other things. The cherries… they don’t look all that good. They have been killed off by late frosts, then regrowing, so often, none of them are particularly big, and are growing in clumps around whatever parent plant had died off in the middle. They might just end up being really nice wood to cook over.
The size of this area that has no large trees in it is pretty significant. Any spruces that used to be there have died off long ago – I expect to uncover more stumps as we clear back there. It also gets quite a bit of sunlight, so this will be a good area to plant some of the food trees and bushes we are planning on.
Once it’s all cleaned up and cleared away, I expect to see a lot more deer cutting through the spruce grove, rather than skirting around it!
As for the additional trees we identified as being dead and in need of removal, I noticed a couple of groups of three. Depending on the condition of the stumps, they might work well to use as the supports, to make a table with a bend on each side. We are wanting to create pleasant little seating areas throughout, where we can sit and enjoy the wild roses and red barked dogwood that we plan to leave as undergrowth, along with the Saskatoons we are finding (we’ll be taking out the chokecherries, though), and the other trees and bushes we intend to slowly plant in the area.
Like the mulberry tree that will be shipped late in the spring, so we’re going to need to get those dead trees out sooner, rather than later!
Plus, in other areas of the grove, we intend to transplant more spruce trees, into the spruce grove!
This whole area is going to be completely transformed over the next few years.
If all goes well, it will be a haven for both humans and deer. :-)
Today has been one of those days of getting things done that were also enjoyable. Like a morning spent converting feed bags into grow bags while watching/listening to videos about crossbow safety. More listening than watching, since I was, after all, hand stitching the bag bottoms into shape. :-D
I also got to enjoy watching deer through my window, making their way to the feeding station.
I saw a couple, earlier, but that early in the day, our East facing living room window is so full of reflections, I can’t get any good shots, but I could get some shots with my phone through the North window. At one point, I was seeing 4 deer, and I think there was a fifth hidden away in the maple grove.
I made a quick trip into town to refill a couple of our 18.9L water bottles, then pick up prescription refills. I timed it so that I could hit the post office on the way home. My husband had been expecting a parcel all week, and today we found out why it hadn’t come in earlier. The padded envelope it came in was sealed in a plastic bag with “apologies from Canada Post” on it. I had no idea what my husband had ordered, so seeing oil stains on the package was a bit alarming.
It turned out he’d ordered honing oil, and the bottle leaked! No harm done, thankfully. :-)
I was excited to see a catalogue I’d ordered had arrived. This is from a company I had included in my list of cold climate seeds sources, which also included nurseries. Whiffletree Farm and Nursery. They specialize in “Cold hardy, disease resistant, fruit trees, shrubs, vines and canes.”. I love how the back page includes phone numbers, a physical address (in Ontario), a map, plus their latitude and longitude!
How very… rural Canadian. :-D
I actually went through the Irrigation Instructions insert, first. They’ve got add on kits designed for new plantings, mature plantings and tree plantings. I found it a lot more informative, both textually and visually, that most of the kit sources I’ve been looking at. Though we don’t plan to plant our fruit and nut trees for a while, yet, where we are extending the garden to this year is well away from the house, and an irrigation system would be well worth the investment, even if we have to McGyver something cheap for the first couple of years.
As for the catalogue itself, I was very impressed.
First off, it’s just plain beautiful. It is printed on the heaviest paper of any catalogue I’ve seen. More than sturdy enough to withstand cats clambering all over it, demanding my undivided attention! Even how the photographs are lined up with the write ups is the best I’ve seen. There is a also LOT of extra information included.
The range of products they have available is amazing. After just a few pages, I started over again with a highlight marker, marking off everything that was Zone 2, Zone 3 or Zones 2/3. I didn’t bother marking Zones 3/4 or higher, because there were SO MANY Zone 2 and 3 choices, it wasn’t necessary. The only exception I made was for a mulberry tree that was Zone 3/4.
Did I mention how informative it is?
I learned something new that really caught my attention. There is a section on Buffaloberries, Peashrubs and Autumn Olives.
I was curious about what Peashrubs were, but it turns out that we already have some! They are caraganas! In our clean up, I’ve had to cut away and cut back a lot of caraganas that were either dying or overtaking other trees and shrubs. It’s been a balancing act between clearing them away and keeping them.
Though I am familiar with the shrub, I discovered that the seed pods are actually edible! At least the Siberian Peashrub (caragana arborescens) are. They have two other varieties. The Siberian variety is “A multi-stemmed upright growing shrub covered with delicate yellow flowers in spring, followed by small edible seedpods which can be eaten as a vegetable. By late summer the dried seedpods snap open, dropping the seeds which are 36% protein and make good chicken feed. So it is sometimes planted in poultry yards.”
Who knew?
I also learned that they are good nitrogen fixers, and wind breaks. We should see if we can figure out what variety we have here!
The catalogue also displays an excellent sense of humour. As an example, in the section on edible lilies and high bush cranberries, there is this write up for the Common Snowball.
“Okay, we admit it – this plant is neither edible nor medicinal to the best of our knowledge. In fact, it produces no fruit at all, not even for the birds. Our only excuse for offering it is for the nostalgic memories is evokes for many folks. Every year in early summer, these old-fashioned, carefree bushes become covered with fleecy, white pompoms. The ‘snowball’ name is visually very fitting, but that’s not all. Perhaps we should market it as a weather prognostic – according to a local, time-honoured adage, there is always a brief, unseasonably cool spell when the snowball bush begins to bloom. Like many weather maxims, you can count on it, it always holds true – except when it doesn’t!”
Ya gotta love it! :-D
While we are not in a position to start ordering food trees for this year, we are shooting to do so as soon as possible, given how long it can take for trees to mature enough to start producing fruit. And let’s face it; at my age, pretty much any fruit or nut tree we plant is for our daughters and future generations, because my husband and I will probably be long gone by the time some of them reach maturity!
There is so much information in this catalogue, we can use it for planning purposes. Especially when it comes to their orchard growing equipment and supplies.
With that in mind, these are some of the things that interest us, that also grow in Zones 2 or 3.
Apples: there are many varieties suitable for our zone, including larger eating apples, edible crab apples and cider apples. They have columnar varieties, dwarf varieties and varieties that are good for espalier training. When it comes to apples, they are not something we tend to eat a lot of, on their own, but we would be using them for things like apple cider vinegar, hard apple cider, or freezing them to use for baking later on. We will have to take into consideration that we need to cut down a lot of our crab apple trees due to fungal disease. It may be worthwhile to get rid of the diseased trees, then wait several years before planting new varieties, or planting new varieties in locations well away from where the diseased trees are.
Plums: This is one of those things that we almost never eat, but if we had them, we would eat them. We do have plum trees, but they are not an edible variety – more stone than fruit – that my late father used to make wine, but having larger, fleshier plums that can be eaten fresh would be really nice.
Pears: I remember we had a pear tree when I was a child. It was a variety that produced small, hard fruit that needed to be exposed to frost before they could be eaten. They are another type of fruit we rarely buy, mostly for budgetary reasons, but would eat more of if we had our own trees, so having cold hardy varieties that can be eaten fresh would be enjoyed, and this catalogue has several such varieties that can grow in our zone.
Cherries: the variety of cherry are from a tree from Poland, which has a warmer climate than we do. They bloom wonderfully, but in the time we’ve been here, produce almost no fruit. Their bloom time doesn’t match when the pollinators come out. So getting a variety or two that is good for our zone is something I would like. They do tend to spread through their roots, though, and can become invasive, so we would have to carefully plan where they would go. Some varieties make good hedge trees, wind breaks and privacy screens, so that’s an option, too.
Nuts: there are only two types of nuts suitable for our zone; several varieties of hazelnuts, and butternuts. We are still looking into planting other varieties. They may not have a long enough season to produce edible nuts, but the trees themselves are an investment.
Rugosa Roses: we already have wild roses growing in the spruce grove that we will be encouraging, as other types of underbrush will be cleared away, but these varieties are specially noted for their large hips, and high nutrient contents. These are for the “apothacary” plants we will also be adding, over time.
Kiwis, grapes, gooseberries and currants, saskatoons, haskaps, raspberries and blueberries: we already have some of these, but will be adding more over time. Some are poorly situation and need to either be taken out, starting over with new, or transplanted.
Companion plants and wildlife packages: they’ve got a number of different plants that are beneficial to plant near trees, for various reasons. Some because they attract pollinators, or attract predator insects that will eat nuisance insects. Others because they are good to plant in paths instead of grass, can handle foot traffic, but don’t need to be mowed. There are even seed mixes to provide grazing for deer and other wildlife, and even have wildlife tree packages, made up of a mix of excess trees, or trees that didn’t make the grade for orchard/yard use, which may not even be labelled. They would be useful for a food forest or permaculture set up to feed both humans and wildlife. These are all things that fit in with our long term goals.
All in all, I am very excited by this catalogue, and look forward to being able to order from this truly unique company as soon as possible!
I did some unexpected running around yesterday and didn’t have a chance to post. Now that I am, I’m seeing that the title font in my editor has changed. I did not change the default font. I’m not even sure how I would do that!
Well, we’ll see if anything is different after I hit “publish”. So far, it looks the same as always when I hit “preview”.
WordPress gets weird at times!
Anyhow.
For the last couple of mornings, I have been happy to see that the outside cats are using the cat house again. When I head out, I’ve been seeing a big mass of orange in the window and, as I come closer, three heads will pop out to look at me! Unfortunately, when I try to get closer to get a picture, Creamsicle Jr. gets spooked and runs off.
I’m still heating up water for them, which they really seem to appreciate!
Yesterday, the plan was to drive my husband to the clinic to get some blood work done. Unfortunately, he had another really bad pain day, and could not handle the trip. I should see if they will fax the requisition to the lab in the town closer to us. I think he would better handle a 15-20 minute drive, over a 40-45 minute drive!
I still wanted to take the van out on the highway, though, and see about blowing more carbon out of the lines at highway speeds. So I headed out to the Walmart in the small, nearer city to finally pick up the rest of the month’s supply of cat litter and dry kibble.
You can tell that spring is in the air, though, when you start seeing birds in the Walmart!
This little guy was checking out the bird seed aisle, and finding stray seeds to eat! :-D
While there, I hoped to pick up more 750ml canning jars, but there weren’t any. I’d picked up the last one, previously, and it doesn’t look like they got more. So I got more wide mouth 500ml jars (2 cups/half a quart). I think these are the two sizes that will be the most useful for us. The plan is to pick up a case or two every month over the summer, so that we’ll have a good stock available by the time we are harvesting from the garden. Assuming everything goes well and we actually have enough to preserve. I usually go with “hope for the best, plan for the worst” but in this case, we’re also planning for the best!
The van, I’m happy to say, ran well. I even loaded the heavy stuff in the back, rather than the middle, and didn’t feel any of the issues I’d noticed before, that had us splitting our trips and loading the heaviest things in the middle of the van.
Later on, I made sure to call my mother to arrange a grocery shopping trip for her. That was set for this afternoon.
If all had gone to plan, I’d be on the road to her place right now.
Does anything go to plan? :-D
It was quite late when I got a call from my mother. She had suddenly developed pain in her bones. Especially her already damaged knees.
My mother had received the vaccine for Schrodinger’s virus a couple of days before.
She was obviously quite concerned, but as we talked I suggested it might also be because of the fluctuating temperatures. That calmed her down, and she decided she would take some Tylenol, bundle up for the night, and keep the cordless phone by her bedside, just in case.
I’m happy to say she was feeling better today. When she got the shot, she had the usual adverse reactions everyone seems to be getting; her arm was sore, redness and swelling. Fatigue, as well. No allergic reactions, but I wouldn’t expect any from her. She has an iron constitution. Muscle and joint pain, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, vomiting are all on the list of adverse reactions that are being reported. We will have to keep an eye on her after the second shot, as reactions are reportedly worse after that one.
Though she was feeling better, she wasn’t up to actually going out, so I was going to do her shopping for her. We had a bit of a snow storm happening this morning; not unusually cold, but colder, with blowing snow, low visibility, etc. It was supposed to get worse in the afternoon, so I headed out in the morning. I popped in to go over her list with her and be really clear on what she wanted. I noticed things that were not on the list and asked her about them. It’s always hard to shop for someone else. Especially when shopping is often a “see what’s good” or “whatever’s on sale” situation.
There were a few things on her list she would have picked up at the pharmacy, but the pharmacy kicked me out because they don’t honour medical mask exemptions, so she said she would get those items, later. She’s not willing to pay the grocery store prices for the same things. :-D
Just me and her list did make for a very quick trip! I was even able to stay for a short visit, which I haven’t been able to do for a while.
So she is doing all right, but is very tired and will be getting lots of rest for the next while. My siblings and I are going to have to watch not to pester her with phone calls to check up on her! :-D
Thankfully, the local weather has actually improved; whatever was being forecast for this afternoon seems to be missing up.
First, I wanted to share with you a photo of some visitors out our living room window last night.
There were actually five in total, but they were chasing each other around. The mama of the two in front chased the one you can see behind the cross, who chased another deer out of that spot before I got the picture. The fifth one that I saw making its way long the edge of the spruce grove disappeared before reaching the feeding station, and I missed what happened with that one.
The deer are definitely getting feistier as the weather warms!
It’s not quite warm enough, though!
I hadn’t received a call about the garden soil over the weekend, so I called them back this morning. The woman who answered seemed at a bit of a loss with how to help me, and ended up giving me the cell phone number for a particular person (since I want someone to come here in advance to see where the loads will be dumped), but there was no point in trying to call them until after 7pm, because they were in a cell phone dead zone. It ended up not being necessary. She called me back not long after.
Their pile of garden soil is too frozen.
She suggested I call back in about a month. Hopefully, it’ll be thawed enough for the equipment to be able load the truck! It would have been nice to get the soil well before we actually need it, but as long as we get it before we need to actually start planting, it should be fine.
I also called the garage to follow up on the van, and we’re now booked to bring it back tomorrow morning, so he can clean out that new EGR valve.
My husband got a requisition for blood work some time ago, but between the polar vortex, van issues (my mother’s little car is far too painful for him to ride in, and his walker wouldn’t fit in it, even folded up, anyhow) and pain levels, we just never made it in. I called the clinic to make sure the form was still at the reception, and that was confirmed. We had planned to go in today to get that done, but my husband’s pain levels were too high. We’ll try again on Wednesday.
On the positive side, my husband’s tax return came in. We had plans for part of it that I tried to take care of last night, only to discover we couldn’t use our debit Visa.
With no trip to the clinic today, I was open for making a trip to the city.
This is what we picked up.
Yup. We got a crossbow kit.
More specifically, we got a Killer Instinct Boss 405.
It’s an early 33rd anniversary gift. :-D
Now, what we really wanted to get was a rifle, but we have not been able to get our PALs yet, and with certain political activities going on right now, we were seeing our window of opportunity closing fast. However, having a gun on the farm is needed, if only to ward off the coyotes and other predators. Plus, I want to be able to hunt.
My husband and I both know guns (me from growing up on the farm, him from his time in the military), and bows. I used to shoot recurve, and my husband shot compound. We were both rather good at both guns and bows, too. However, with age and injuries, anything with a draw weight suitable for hunting is getting beyond our levels of mobility.
We decided that a crossbow would best meet our needs, while still being something we can actually get. Plus, the archery hunting season is much longer than rifle hunting season. As a bonus, a crossbow is quiet. I like quiet!
With that in mind, we did our research and decided on a crossbow at Cabela’s. It’s not high end, by any means, but it’s hardly bottom of the barrel, either. It will meet our needs.
Then, since I had to drive well over an hour to get to the store, I took advantage of the situation, asked questions, and picked up a few other things. (Happily, they accept medical mask exemptions, too!)
One of the things I’d tried to buy on the website was a crossbow rated target. I called ahead, and the crossbow and target were both waiting for me when I got there. After seeing it in person, I decided to get a larger target. I didn’t take pictures, but I ended up getting a Morrell Yellow Jacket YJ-425.
I also got these.
The crossbow kit comes with 3 bolts with field points. Bolts will get lost or damaged, so I picked up a 6 pack of extras. The spares do not come with points, so I picked up a 12 pack of field points. They are slightly heavier than the ones in the kit, so we won’t be using the kit points at all. I also picked up hunting points that need to be assembled, but they are the same weight as the field points. I also got a de-cocking bolt, which can be safely shot into the ground.
After taking this picture, I had to hide everything in a closet, because the cats were ALL OVER everything.
Susan tried to chew on the fletching of the de-cocking bolt.
Tomorrow, the bow will be assembled, but I don’t know when we’ll be able to test it out and start practicing. Not only is it very wet and messy right now, but we’ve got rain in the forecast tomorrow, and snow in the forecast a couple of days later!
And for those who are wondering, no, we don’t plan to hunt the deer that come to our yard.
Over the next while, I’ll be searching out local crossbow groups and hopefully be able to find a hunting mentor. I will still need to take the hunter’s safety course to get a hunting license, and while it would be nice to have a freezer full of venison next winter, I don’t expect to be ready to hunt this year. While all of us can practice shooting with this, it is likely that I will be the only one that will take the course and get a license to hunt.
At least, that’s the plan for now. Plans have a terrible habit of changing at the last minute, but it’s a goal we are shooting for.
In my last post, I wrote about the destruction wrought by our indoor cats. To counter that, here is a photo of an adorable little outside cat.
Meet Ginger, of the rubber spine!
He followed me around while I was doing my rounds, and kept flinging himself onto the ground in front of me, rolling about like some sort of Polychaete worm. Adorable!
Inside cat destruction is not, however, what fried my brain.
I call a call from my brother this morning, to talk about upcoming court dates. I’ve got my application for a restraining order against our vandal coming up this month, and the court date for his vexatious litigation against me in July. It took him a while, but my brother had managed to finally upload a file of phone messages our vandal had left with our mother. I already had the most recent ones. These ones were basically from the past year.
I just spent that last few hours transcribing them.
The transcription itself is it’s own challenge, with having to go back and listen to things repeatedly, trying to figure out what was being said. I’m pretty sure he was drunk for some of these calls, but in others… well, he just doesn’t sound all there, words and phrases are messed up, and there is some stuttering as he was clearly trying to find the words to say.
The other thing was, of course, the subject matter. Though my mother has no part in my applying for a restraining order against him, he keeps accusing her of trying to put him in jail. In fact, it’s a vast conspiracy of my mother, me and my siblings, and the RCMP, all trying to put him in jail. Because we’re evil. And my late father and brother are watching this from heaven in disapproval. Also, apparently, my mother has given the farm to me. All of it. Never mind that my younger brother has already inherited a third of it. And we only love my mother for her money (that apparently she had loads of. Somewhere). And did you know that there are people being killed and raped around the world, but here she is, trying to put him in jail?
This dude needs psychiatric help. I realize my mother got these calls over the span of a more than a year, counting the most recent ones, but I was listening to all of them, one after the other. And he is absolutely obsessed with me, and me being here on the farm, not allowing him on the property or access to all the stuff he thinks belongs to him. The fact that he was caught in the act of breaking the gate, then trying to break it again, on top of his pilfering over the years before we moved out here, never came up. Instead, he would say things like “why are you doing this to me?”
Yeah. Brain. Fried.
I need to go distract myself with something more sane.
Last night, while checking on the onion seedlings, I decided it was time to lower the shallot and bulb union seedlings in the big tank. The seedling tips were looking a little dried out, likely because they were getting too close to the warmth of the light fixture.
Doing that required removing the trays and the “floor” they were resting on, then shifting the boxes holding them all from standing on end, their tallest position, to standing on their narrow sides, which is their second tallest position. Later on, if it seems necessary, we can turn the boxes onto their broad sides to lower the plants even more.
So that worked out rather well. For the trays, anyhow. Unfortunately, being the suck that I am, I tried to do it without removing a kitten that was staying warm on the light fixture. Saffron is a tiny thing that gets cold easily, and she’s taken to using the light fixture to stay warm. So I just slid the whole thing to the back of the tank. It wasn’t enough to get the “floor” out, so I pushed one end a bit further. And a bit further…
The next thing I knew, the whole thing fell behind the tank as a Saffron launched herself across the living room in a panic.
And the lights went out.
At first, I feared I had broken a bulb, but no. The light in the small tank had gone out, too. As the fixture fell, it swiped the power bar’s plug into the wall.
This house does not have many power outlets. In the living room, there is an outlet behind the big tank, though only one plug in it works. We can access the outlet through the cabinet tank’s cabinet, as it is completely open in the back.
Which requires getting down on my knees and crawling half into the cabinet to reach.
My knees did not appreciate this at all.
After straightening out the prong on the plug that got bent when the fixture landed on it, I managed to get it back in and everything was working fine. Nothing broken.
Phew!
Then I put everything back in place.
Almost.
I had been keeping a small plant pot in the tank with the trays. We’ve had to put various types of barriers on, over or around all our house plants that can’t be hung from the ceiling, to keep cats from digging in the dirt. One small succulent was completely covered with a clear plastic dome, like a mini greenhouse, but the cats kept managing to knock the cover off. The last time that happened, I found the poor little succulent on the carpet, along with a pile of soil that had been dug out of the pot. I replanted it and stuck the pot in the aquarium, so it could get the light and the protection the seedlings were getting and, hopefully, recover.
When I lowered the trays, I forgot to put the plant pot back.
This morning, I discovered my error.
I also discovered a half empty pot, and a pile of soil on the shelf and scattered all over the carpet.
What I didn’t find was the plant. There is no sign of it. It’s likely under another shelf, but it could just as easily have been dragged down to the basement.
I had to do my outside rounds, though, so I rescued as much of the soil as I could – it’s a soil mix specifically for succulents – then moved the pot to the dining table. The table is covered in stuff. Partly because all flat surfaces just seem to invite things to be piled onto them, partly on purpose, to keep the cats off when we’re not around. I tucked the pot against some other stuff, then dashed outside to do my rounds.
I came back to another pile of soil on the dining table, and on the floor.
*sigh*
So, that’s another plant lost to the cats. I am pretty sure the culprit is Cabbages, as she’ has been caught many times, trying to get into other plants, but others have been caught, too, so I can’t say for sure.
I really hope the temperatures warm up overnight and stay warm, soon. When we start having to get larger numbers of seeds started, they’re not all going to fit in the two tanks. We’re going to have to use the sun room as a green house. Right now, I’ve seen it reaching as warm as 20C/68F during the day, but it does go below freezing overnight. We’ll be able to fit some things in the big tank with the onion trays (like the tomatoes we will be starting very soon), but when it comes time to start the corn and squash seeds, those onion trays are going to need to be moved to the sun room. This won’t happen for probably another month, at the earliest, so we should hopefully be okay by then.
Well. Maybe Big Rig, in this case. I am sure David and Keith are not responsible for the latest damage.
I had issues with the small tank being used as a greenhouse for the bunching onions. With cats trying to get at the seed trays through the back, we’ve been diligent about catching them coming even close to that tank and chasing them off.
Unfortunately, with this tank having its hard lid with just a couple of openings I’ve had to block off, it’s been too moist in there. Yesterday, I spotted mold starting to grow on the egg carton trays and onto the peat; one patch on each tray, closest to the front, where there is the least air circulation.
So I took the mini fan out of the big tank and set it over the opening in the back of the small tank. The seedlings are getting big enough to need a fan on them, anyhow.
Several hours later, I came back to find the fan on the floor, the lid askew, and one of the trays half on top of the other.
*sigh*
This is what I’ve done.
I took out the box that raised the trays closer to the light. They’re now just a few inches from the bottom, on top of 18 count egg cartons. That puts them lower from the light than I would want them to be, but they are now also out of reach. I also turned the trays, so the areas with the mold were to the back instead of the front.
I had already replanted some of the plugs with more bunching onions, from the last time a cat messed them up. I still have some seeds left, so I could replant more, but some of the cells in the trays are so badly damaged, they’ll no longer hold the peat. I’ll see how it looks over the next few days, then decide if it’s worth replanting more. These poor seedlings have taken quite a beating!
Apparently, we only managed to train the cats to stay off the tank while we are not around to see them. :-/ I’m pretty sure it’s just one cat. I’m just not sure which one!
After doing as much damage control as I could, I was happy to find everything still intact by morning. One of my daughters accompanied me to the city to do the second half of our monthly shopping (though we only went to one place, so I’ll still need to get more cat litter and kibble, but I will go to the smaller city for that). When we got back, everything was still intact. Also, putting the fan on seems to be solving the mold problem. It’s barely visible now.
Oh, you might notice a single tall blade of green growing out of one of the trays. We have one growing in one of the trays in the big tank, too. They are oats! The peat bale was stored near the deer feed in the sun room, so a few seeds managed to fill into the packaging. When I used the peat, I did take out the ones I could find, but clearly missed a couple!
As an aside, the van’s check engine light is still on, but it’s behaving beautifully. While I thought the mileage was getting worse, based on watching the fuel gauge wile I was driving. Yesterday, it seemed to be dropping way faster, but during today’s drive, we burned about as much gas as I would have expected. When I checked the onboard computer, the average mileage has actually improved since before the EGR valve was replaced. Which I would expect, but it was still a bit of a surprise. If the valve were stuck, fuel efficiency would be expected to drop. So far, so good. I’ll have to talk to the garage about giving it a quick check, and manually resetting the codes.
But that will wait. We got back from the city early enough that I’ll have time to hit the post office while picking up more deer feed and bird seed.
Oh, that reminds me. Potato Beetle came over while I was doing the cat stuff this morning. When I first saw him, I was rather alarmed by how dirty the wound area was; just plastered with plant matter and …
… then I realized it wasn’t the wound area. Just near it. Potato got himself into a patch of burrs! He wouldn’t let me pull them out, but I did get to check the wound, which is looking noticeably better. And so is he!
