Critters

Getting stuff done, and birthday take out

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The cats had me up ridiculously early this morning. I ended up just doing the outside cat feeding and going back to bed, instead of doing my full morning rounds. Thankfully, I did actually get some real sleep the second time around, even if it meant having Butterscotch basically lying on my head. She seems to associate my being in bed as “it’s safe now”, and she’ll come out of hiding from under the armchair and start demanding attention before curling up and sleeping right against my head and neck.

My daughter’s appointment at the hospital wasn’t until 4:40, and we were planning to be on the road by 3:30, so I did have some time in the afternoon to get the weed trimmer out and start clearing around the house. We were way behind on that in some areas, particularly around the portable greenhouse. I had just a bit left to do around the north side when the weed trimmer simply stopped. Usually, when that happens, it means the plug in the handle had come loose, but that was fine. I checked all down the extension cords (I need three 300′ cords to be able to reach everything), but everything was fine. So I messaged my daughters asking if one of them could check the breakers, but none were tripped.

We might be down a weed trimmer.

I’m hoping it was just over worked and will start again when I test it tomorrow. By the time we confirmed it was not the breakers, I had to put everything away, so I could clean up and change before we had to leave.

I did remember to prepare the cat soup variation for the kittens, and had it all ready for my older daughter to take care of while we were gone. The kibble mixed in with the canned cat food and warm water would have had plenty of time to get nice and soft by then.

One of the things I started before the weed trimming was replace the hose end with the pin prick hole in it with one of the new couplings I picked up. It was definitely the quickest and easiest fix I’ve ever had! No screw clamps on these things. It took me a while to understand how the rest worked, though. It just didn’t make sense to me, but the shut off valve is basically just pulling the female coupling part right off. That can be screwed into the end of another hose, or into a nozzle, then popped back in place for the water to start flowing. Which works well enough, except that I was attaching this to a soaker hose. Then, after about an hour, to a different soaker hose in another bed. The hoses are different brands and their mail couplings are designed slightly differently. One is a lot deeper than the other, and both were difficult to screw onto the new coupling’s end properly. It’s really designed to work with the same brand’s matching male couplings, not regular hose ends. I haven’t tried it with a sprayer nozzle, yet. One of the sprinkler hose connections leaked a fair bit, but I just move it so it would lean into the mulch near one of the plant collars in the bed that was being waters.

It might actually be worth replacing the other hose ends with this new type I got. A lot of the ones with screw clamps on them either still leak, or they are hard to attach and detach, because the screw clamps are in the way.

Anyhow. Just the two beds got watered, so I’m going to have to make sure to do a full watering of everything else, tomorrow morning. We’re expected to reach a high of 23C/73F tomorrow, then a high of 26C/79F the day after, so everything is going to need it!

My daughter had a questionnaire they’d sent to her all filled out to bring along for her appointment. It was close enough to her appointment time that I dropped her off at the doors before finding a parking spot. When I caught up with her, there was absolutely no one else in the waiting room, so she got called in right on time.

The first person (a nurse?) took her sheet with the questions, but the only reason they went through them at all was because my daughter hadn’t quite understood some of their questions, and hadn’t answered them. After a little while, she was taken to see the surgeon that will be operating on her wrist.

Most of what they asked was, in a nutshell, are you really sure you want to do this? Is it really so bad you’re willing to go under anesthetic and have someone digging around in your wrist? The surgeon was, at first, careful with how he phrased things but, after hearing how my daughter answered, realized he could go right into gruesome detail without any issue. So my daughter got a very intense description of what the surgery will entail, and was she really sure it was bad enough to go through this?

It makes me wonder just what sort of things they had to deal with in the past, to make them have to asked some of these questions!

My daughter, meanwhile, was more than happy to accept the surgery. Her ganglion happens to be on the small side right now, but when it gets bad, it gets really bad. The pain gets extreme and renders her arm pretty much useless.

She left with a printout with pre-op instructions. We have a date for the surgery, but she’ll get a call in about a week for the exact time she needs to come in. It’s just day surgery, so I’ll be driving her in, then hanging around to take her home.

We’re pretty impressed that she’s getting her surgery so relatively quickly. The referral was sent in April. To get such a quick surgery date for what is classified as elective surgery so quickly is very rare. She’s still waiting on other referrals her doctor had sent out for her.

Once she was done, I asked if there was anything we needed to do, while we were in town. After messaging with her sister for a bit, it was decided that we would go to a Pizza Hut – her choice for her special birthday take out (it’s not her birthday yet, but we split things like this up throughout the birth month, instead) – courtesy of her sister. We ended up getting four large stuffed crust pizzas, plus two 22 count boneless wings with different sauces.

That cost my daughter over $200 – and that was before the tip was added!

It’ll feed us for several days, though!

The ride home sure smelled good, though – and we were both quite hungry by then!

I may not have done my full morning rounds, but I did do my evening rounds. I’m concerned about a lot of my transplants. All of the transplants in the main garden area, and even in the east garden beds, are looking strangely yellow and floppy. The eggplant, peppers and herbs transplanted into the old kitchen garden seem fine, but all the other transplants are looking like they are dying. This doesn’t look like transplant shock, either. I don’t know what to make of it, but at this point, I’m not sure any of the melons or winter squash will survive! I’ve tried looking up the possible causes, and the only thing that seems likely is lack of nitrogen.

I did get some water soluble fertilizer while in town recently, so I think I’ll be making use of that when I do the watering tomorrow!

Other things are looking just fine. Like the raspberries that have spread into the old compost pile.

Turn your volume up for these videos.

You can’t see very many, but the raspberry bushes were absolutely buzzing with mostly bumblebees. There is one huge bumble in the second video. You can even hear the much deeper tone of that one’s buzzing!

These raspberries have had zero tending to, other than my pulling some of the weeds around the edges. No watering or anything. They’re doing fantastic, though!

On a completely note, here is some adorableness for you.

I’m actually not 100% sure which cats these are, but I think it’s Mitsy and Toni all snuggled together. The cats just love this box! It’s a compromise with the cats, to allow them on the dining table; we used to allow only Ginger and Toni up there, as a safe space to get away from the other cats. When we started to find them snuggling with other cats, it just didn’t make sent to chase the 4 legged cats away from the 3 legged ones! Now, we’ll go past the box and sometimes find three large cats mashed into the box, literally hugging each other to fit. They keep moving when we stop to try and get a picture, though.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll be able to make a dump run, and my daughter plans to break out the riding mower. I do hope I can get that weed trimmer going again, as there are still areas that need to be done. Particularly around garden beds I need to work on. If not, I might be able to borrow my brother’s gas powered weed trimmer. I’m hoping they’ll be able to come out this weekend. The last couple of times they came out, I missed them entirely, and I’d love to do some catching up with them, too.

We shall see!

For now, I’m happy with what I managed to get done outside today, in the short time I had available for it, and that we got my daughter’s surgery consultation appointment done. It seems strange to be excited about getting surgery, but that ganglion has been causing her so much pain, it’s going to make a huge difference for her, once it’s gone!

I’m so glad we found this doctor and my daughter is finally getting this stuff done!

The Re-Farmer

The good the bad and the ugly!

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Or should I say sickly?

I was able to get a bunch of photos of the kittens this evening. As we have discovered is typical, the older kittens start to get eye infections once they start eating mostly solid food and aren’t nursing as often. It’s a strain of herpes that we’ve since learned is particularly difficult in our area.

So… just fair warning that some of the kittens in the slideshow below look a hot mess, after getting their eyes washed.

I started with Poirot’s cuties first, though.

A rare image of some of Inspector Japp’s white belly and chest spots!

It looks like Captain Hastings (next photo) is related to Ghosty. She has those shadows of colour on her head. When Ghosty was that size, she had those hints of pattern in her fur, but was otherwise almost completely a cream colour. Those shadows kept getting darker as she got older, and now they are very brown. Which is why we think she might be an albino tabby. That and her eyes that glow red when the light hits them. Hastings has a dark tail and dark ear tips, and such pale eyes!

Miss Lemon is the biggest of the three and very assertive! 😄

I’ve contacted a local large animal rescue that had reached out to me last year about possibly taking a more feral pregnant cat to socialize and integrate into plans for opening their rescue to the public for events and tours, but we didn’t have one at the time. They ended up not being able to open last year, largely due to weather. They’ll be having a grand opening later this month, though. If they could take in Poirot and her babies, that would be amazing.

The next image is Sir Robin the Brave. He was all curled up in the grass, napping, and did not appreciate being interrupted! His eye is actually looking much better right now. I didn’t see his sister, Kale, this evening. She was looking pretty sick. We’ve been bringing her into the house for eye washing in the mornings lately. I do hope she’s okay, and was just napping somewhere.

The next image is of Havarti and Little Rig, both of whom are looking much, much better now! I’ve been able to catch Havarti every now and then, but he really doesn’t like it and keeps his distance.

Then Grommet came by. His eyes are looking better, too, but he still got an eye wash after I got that picture. He’s slightly more socialized than his brother, Zipper. Zipper looks just terrible after his eye wash! The only reason I was able to catch him to wash his eyes is because they were both stuck completely shut! Normally, he would fight me off, but he’s so sick, he actually let me wash his eyes, while I had him on the roof of the cat house. Then he just stayed up on the roof, in the warm sunshine, making snorking noises.

The next image is Eyelet and Wormy snuggled for a nap. Wormy has one slightly sticky eye, but nothing of concern anymore. Eyelet’s eyes are… well… check out that last photo!

That blue is so pale, his eyes look almost white!

I also suspect he’s deaf.

~~~back from a quick run outside to switch soaker hoses in the garden~~~

Well, I found Kale! She’s sleeping in a kitten pile in the cat house. 😁

Adorable kittens aside…

Today, my younger daughter and I headed out for some errands. One of the things I needed was to get myself a pair of non-work shoes. Finding shoes for my messed up feet is never easy, so my daughter suggested we go into the bigger city, rather than the nearest Walmart in the smaller, nearer city. We had just started driving when my cell phone started ringing.

It was home care.

They weren’t going to have anyone for my mother’s morning med assist.

Which is supposed to happen between 7 and 9am.

It was about 9:20 or so when we got the call.

*sigh*

On the plus side, my mother’s place is along the way, so we were already part way there. I called my mom to let her know about home care, and that I was on my way. The hands free unit my brother gave me sure came in handy!

My mother wasn’t happy. When I got there, she started talking about hiring someone, though the home care office, to do med assists for her. Just one person doing her assists, all the time, and always at the same time (she says they keep coming later and later). I had to explain to her, they can’t do that – and she can’t just hire some random local person to do her med assists, either. There are laws about that.

She doesn’t accept that.

I couldn’t stay long, though, and was soon on my way. My sister was going to be showing up after lunch and taking her to the cemetery to visit our family gravesites. While it will be easier for my mother to get in and out of my sister’s car, I knew it would still take a lot out of her!

That done, my daughter and I continued on our way. Neither of us had had breakfast yet, so lunch was the first order of business.

Then my daughter, sweetheart that she is, busted her butt, trying to find me shoes. She knows me too well! I’m terrible when it comes to buying things for myself. Especially things I need. Add in how difficult it is to find shoes that fit, I would have given up after the first couple of pairs where I couldn’t even get my foot in. I used to be able to wear men’s size 9’s, triple wide. That’s the size of my work boots. That’s the size of my inside shoes I was wearing at the time, that are wearing out and falling apart. In the end, the only shoes I could get my feet into where men’s size 11’s, wide, and even then, some styles still didn’t work.

In the end, we found a pair that fit, but were absolutely tacky. The grey was okay, but the bright neon yellowish green accents were a bit much. Being the only ones I could find that fit the bill, I was willing to get them, until my daughter spotted another display shelf.

I got the same shoe, in bright red. It matches my new dress. 😄 They look like runners, but the “laces” are fake and stretchy, so they’re actually slip ons, not lace ups. I think they’ll work out just fine and, thanks to my daughter, I wasn’t going insane by the time we found them!

From there, we had our shopping lists to get. We were both pretty tired – my daughter actually fell asleep during the drive in! – so we took our time about it. Which worked out, since my husband remembered a few things he messaged us about, too.

We didn’t refill our water jugs in the city, though. We were going to do that locally, so I could get my “buy 10, get one free” freebie. During the drive from the city, though, I did end up pulling over so my daughter could take over driving while I tried closing my eyes for a bit. The energy drink I got for the ride accomplished nothing!

By the time we got to town, though, I was feeling much better, and was able to drive home after we finished in town.

I’d better get to bed early tonight and, hopefully, get some real sleep, because my daughter and I have an early start tomorrow! My brother and his wife got her a blacksmithing beginners workshop for her birthday this month, and we have to be there before 9am tomorrow. The drive will be almost an hour, as the forge is just past the smaller city. The workshop is all day, with a 1 hour break for lunch. I’ll probably pick something up in the city nearby, so we can have a picnic on the grounds (something they say is available) during break. It’s going to be a long day!

With that in mind, I’d better start winding down for the day, kick most of the cats out of my room, and try and get some sleep!

The Re-Farmer

We have cows

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Not our cows, but they’re here!

I’ve been hearing them for at least a week, probably two, but the renter’s cows didn’t come close to the barn area until yesterday evening. I got this shot, this morning.

I do love hearing the cows in the morning!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

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Just have to share the cuteness, first!

And the gorgeousness.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think that stunning cat in the first image might be Kohl’s brother, Rabi. He seems to want to be around me when I’m out and about in the yard, and even follows me while I’m doing my rounds at times, but will not let me come close. The problem is, once Kohl and Rabi got bigger and more mobile, we simply couldn’t get close to them. Kohl’s calico pattern made her easy to identify, but Rabi was one of several fluffy tabbies with white we had that year. I’ll have to go through my old photos from when they were little, and maybe I can tell.

The next photos are of Poirot’s kittens, and Poirot, enjoying breakfast.

It was pretty wet when I headed out – not actively raining, but still wet enough that the older kittens were all hunkered down in the warm and cozy cat beds inside the cat house. Which means it wasn’t until much later in the day that I saw Kale and Sir Robin. Oh, my goodness, they each have one really badly infected eye. We were able to get their eyes washed, but the antibiotics we had left in the fridge had gone fuzzy, so we don’t have any medication for them. Havarti, the orange tabby, has one messed up eye, too, but he seems to be getting better. Other kittens have leaky eyes, too – it seems to always happen when they get big enough to be weaned – but from what I could see today, these two have it the worst. 😢 I was thinking of contacting the Cat Lady about getting some more antibiotics through her, but she is slowly stepping away from rescue and may not even be in the country, with all the stuff going on with her kids.

I’m not sure how we’re going to manage once her rescue is done in a few months. The one other that I contacted, based on the Cat Lady’s recommendation, basically blew me off. They’re too full, anyhow. They all are. It’s no wonder the Cat Lady is burning out! I keep hearing people say to contact the humane society in the city, who are also full up, but when I looked into them before, they wouldn’t have anything to do with anyone outside the city. There’s a local branch, and they stopped doing intakes long ago, yet are still always full. It’s pretty ridiculous.

Well, we do the best we can for the kitties. What other choice is there? Besides calling the municipality to send someone out with a rifle, that is. That’s the only “help” they offer for rural colonies. We certainly aren’t the only ones will a yard full of cats! Not by a long shot.

Ah, well. It is what is it, and we play the hand we’ve been dealt.

The Re-Farmer

The things I see, and the day’s progress

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It’s coming up on 5:30pm as I start this, but my day is pretty much done – at least for the outside stuff.

It was a very lovely morning, as I was doing my rounds.

The dwarf Korean lilac is kicking into full bloom, and making the yard smell heavenly.

I had company for part of my rounds as Syndol and Stinky followed me around. They do love the high raised bed, when it comes to demanding pets, which you can see in the second photo above. You can also see the partial clearing of the path around the trellis bed in progress that had been just packed with dandelions gone to see. I still need to go over that with the weed trimmer, which will be a lot easier, after going through with the push mower, first!

While walking through the yard, I also spotted a clearwing hummingbird, flitting from dandelion to dandelion. They are remarkably large!

Today we were going to try for a trip to the dump. I’d brought out a heavier duty tarp to put over the load so it wouldn’t blow off while on the highway. It had been set over one of the old, broken tillers that have been sitting by the garden shed since before we moved here. There was some debris stuck in the folds, so I spread it out on the lawn to hose it down. It was so windy, I had to get tent pegs to tack it down!

Too windy.

I decided not to try and use the open truck box at all. Instead, we fit as much as we could of garbage and recycling in the back of the cab. We’ll just have to make another trip, later in the week, to get the rest.

My younger daughter came along to help out. The dump was an absolute disaster. The previous municipal council had fired the custodian that was managing it before, and things have gone downhill, ever since, even though we have a new council now. There was a brief period where I think some outside company was hired, and things were well taken care of, but now, the custodian(s) seem to just be seniors with mobility problems. As an almost senior with mobility problems, I take issue with that! It would be fine if all they had to do was sit in the shack and make sure people coming in just flashed their cards showing they are from the municipality and authorized to use this landfill site. The custodian is responsible for taking care of the entire site, though, and it doesn’t look like they’re contracting out to anyone to do the stuff the custodians can’t.

Like use the front end loader to push the build up piles of garbage at the edge of the pit, into the pit itself. Or to clear the area in front of the bit, so people won’t get flat tires, driving in to unload.

The garbage piled along the edge of the pit was so big, it was taking up space needed for vehicles to be able to turn around and back in. With three other vehicles already there, I was more than happy that one of them left, or I would have had a real problem getting to the pit.

Thankfully, we were unloading from the side door, not the box, so we could squeeze in that way. I couldn’t help but check around the tires after we unloaded. We got a flat tire after visiting the dump once, and I’m paranoid it’ll happen again!

After the garbage was done, we stopped at the recycling drop off, then headed out. We were running low on kibble for the outside cats, so we took advantage of this to go to the nearest Walmart and get a bit of stock up shopping.

Which I did not get a picture of. I’m happy to say that the big bags of kibble (9.1kg is the largest size the Walmart carries) have gone down in price by almost $5 a bag! We also got a 32 pack of canned cat food for the outside kittens.

They are getting totally spoiled, but it is pretty much the only way to make sure they get at least some lysine in them. I’ve been mixing a cat soup by hand for them; just a couple of cans of wet cat food mixed with lysine/pumpkin seed powder, then thinned down with water. As the kittens are getting bigger, I’ve increased the water and have started mixing in kibble to soften up, too. Some of the adult cats get pretty aggressive in trying to get some, too, so I’ve been splitting it up among quite a few bowls, and setting them in the usual kitten spots. Poirot’s babies hang out in the sun room most of the time, though they do venture out the door now, so I try to make sure they get some in the cat cage, where only a few of the adult cats will go in, these days. They are so tiny – and so fast! We really need to watch our step these days!

Along with cat food, we got some grocery items, stuff to keep in the truck (wet wipes, snacks, etc.) I did get one splurge. Since I’m getting more calls to my cell phone, I picked up a dashboard holder that will work with my wallet style phone case. Now I have to go into my phone’s settings to set up hands free. Samsung used to have a really good set up for hands free driving mode, but they got rid of that, many models ago. Now it’s all with Bixby, and I really dislike using things like Bixby. Ah, well.

Once the shopping was done, we set the heavy stuff in the box. I’d picked up a 24 case of canned soup for the pantry that was on sale, so that went in the box, with a cat food bag sitting right on top of it. The case of wet cat food went back there, too, with a dry cat food bag up against it, so it wouldn’t slide around in the box as we drove. The rest went into the back of the cab.

The problem is, it was threatening to rain.

We took the route home that would have us going near town, first, so we stopped at a gas station there on the way home. My daughter was a sweetheart and checked the tire pressure for me, just in case, before we picked up some gas.

The drive out was straight into the wind, and brutal. I had been fighting the wind trying to push me off the road the whole time, and could practically see the gas gauge dropping. On the way home, the wind was at our backs, and the gas gauge barely moved!

During the final leg home, the “threatening to rain” became a downpour.

Thankfully, the larger bags of kibble in the box of the truck are in plastic bags, so they not only kept the kibble dry, but protected the stuff under them.

My daughter and I got completely soaked, unloading the truck! It was late enough that I did the outside cat feeding right away, while my daughter parked the truck. We didn’t have any concerns about cats going under the truck, though. They were staying well out of the rain until I was actively putting food out, and even then, it was just to dash from shelter to shelter. The bigger kittens were sleeping in big piles, one in the water bowl shelter, and others in the cat house. Poirot’s babies just had each other, and Mom, in the sun room.

The rain has since stopped, but I won’t be trying to get out to work in that garden bed I was planning on. We are expecting more rain off and on, all through tomorrow and into Monday morning. Hopefully, I’ll get some done in between rainfalls, tomorrow. No using the electric weed trimmer, though. 😁

Hopefully, there is lots of rain reaching the wild fire zones! The rain we’ve been getting is now over the fires to the east of us, but it doesn’t look like any rain is hitting the ones up north.

Now that we’re done with the running around, the rest of the day will be indoor stuff. I do wish I’d been able to get to that bed yesterday. I can’t help but feel a bit resentful that my mother’s behaviour towards the home care worker meant I had to come in and cover for her med assist. That’s very different from having to come in because the home care worker was home sick or something. Ah, well. It is what it is!

I don’t have much left to do in the garden for planting. I’ve decided to plant the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers and red noodle beans in what will be a permanent trellis bed, then transplant surviving strawberries from last year. While getting groceries for my mother in her town, I couldn’t resist picking up some free pumpkin seeds that they give out to promote their pumpkin fest in September. There were 5 seeds in the packet, this year! They have a number of contest categories going on. The main one is for the largest pumpkin, of course. Another category is pumpkins and gourds, with prizes for the “most perfect pumpkin” of various sizes, the most unusual pumpkin or gourd of any size (maybe I should try growing Crespo squash again!), and prizes for carved and decorated pumpkins. Then there are contest categories for fruits and vegetables, baking, canning, handicrafts, floral arrangements, and “junior artwork”, all with sub categories. There’s even a colouring contest for preschoolers. I’ve never actually gone to this festival. We really should. It sounds awesome!

All that to say, I got pumpkin seeds, and will be planting them in this bed, too, once I’ve finished prepping it. That will give me incentive to finish setting up the permanent trellis structure, that will eventually be part of a trellis tunnel with a matching garden bed. Those noodle beans will need something to climb!

For now, though, I’m going to stay inside and appreciate the rain we’re finally getting. We really, really need it!

The Re-Farmer

Morning pretties, and a longer day than expected

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My daughter had a doctor’s appointment today, so I headed out to do my morning rounds early, then stayed out to work in the garden for a couple of hours. I’ll write about that in a separate garden post.

Before we headed out, I couldn’t resist getting a picture of Ginger.

Since Butterscotch has gone into another stressed out and hiding all day phase, I’ve been kicking the other cats out of my room for the night, so she can come out to eat, drink, use the litter box, and not be hiding under an armchair all night. Ginger is the one cat I’ve been allowing in the room at night, since he’s a bundle of nerves, too. He is taking full advantage of the perk, and luxuriating in comfortable cat beds and oodles of pets. Thankfully, he and Butterscotch get along!

This time of year, we’ve got quite a few things blooming, or starting to get into bloom. This year, a couple of bushes that normally don’t, are blooming prolifically for the first time since we’ve moved out here!

The white flowers are on a small bush near the house. It has been bashed and battered, and at one point, I was sure it was dead. Whatever it is, it’s incredibly hardy! This year, not only is it the largest I’ve seen it since our first year here – a major recovery – but it is covered in these clusters of white flowers.

The lilacs are on a bush that is at the fence on one side of the gate at our driveway. This area gets baked in the sun, though it at least gets some shade from a giant spruce tree in the evenings. It also doesn’t get a lot of moisture. This year, however, we have enough moisture that the “pond” not far away in the old hay yard still has some moisture in it. Since moving here, I’ve seen it bloom a couple of times, when we had very wet springs, but nothing like its blooming this year!

There is another lilac planted at the fence line on the other side of the gate. That area gets baked out from sunrise to sunset, and I’m amazes it’s surviving. No flowers this year, though.

When we finally get around to making the people gate near that sad lilac, I’m hoping to improve conditions around it and find a way to get water to it.

As my daughter and I were heading out, she got the truck out of the garage while I opened the gate, so I picked a few clusters of lilacs for her. She set them on the dash. When we came back to the truck after her appointment, they were completely flat and shriveled from the heat! I hope she remembered to take them out when she parked the truck in the garage.

Thankfully, she and I left really early for her appointment. My plan was to have lunch before her appointment. About twenty minutes from home, she suddenly remembered the prescription, an injection, she was supposed to bring with her today. It was still in the fridge at home! So we turned around and headed back while I messaged her sister to meet us at the gate with it in an insulated bag and some ice packs.

Even with the return trip, we got there early enough that we could have had lunch at the Subway next door – until we saw the line up. So we skipped that and headed for the clinic. She got into the examination room a bit early, but the doctor was running late and even had to leave part way through the visit and come back later. It was just a follow up visit, though, and there were no changes to my daughter’s mediations. She did get a chance to show and ask the doctor about some skin issues she’s been having. She’s had issues that she traced to an allergy to something in her deodorant, but with the recent heat, that’s gotten painfully worse, plus she’s got all sorts of skin issues. The doctor said it looks fungal, and recommended…

Head and Shoulders, used as a body wash.

She could have prescribed an anti-fungal cream but it turns out Head and Shoulders contains anti-fungal ingredients that work just as well, and it’s a lot cheaper!

She also recommended doing her laundry in hot water, and hanging her clothes on the line instead of using the drier. My daughter had already switched to using hot water and we’ve started to use the clothes line more often, too. Often enough that we’re looking to hook up two more lines. When I was growing up here, there were three laundry lines set up, so the hooks for pullies are already on the posts. I have no idea what happened to the pullies that used to be there. I spotted some kits that include 150′ (which is how much we would need) of medium strength, plastic coated metal laundry line, and all the parts and pieces, for about $50. The pullies and tightener, however are plastic, so I think we’d be better off paying a bit extra and getting metal pullies and tightener.

Anyhow, sunlight is also anti-fungal, so we’ll be using the clothes line more often. We’ll need to get more clothes pins, though. The kittens have discovered them and think they are toys!

After my daughter’s appointment was done, we finally had lunch. We were both pretty famished by then! We’d both had only very light breakfasts.

We also had a shopping trip planned. I was prepared to have to go to town to pick up new prescriptions, if necessary, but it wasn’t, so that made the day a bit shorter! The nearest Walmart to us is just 15 minutes away from the town our doctor is in, so that worked out well, too.

Since we were planning to get things that needed to stay cold, we popped over to the Dollarama, first. I got the rest of the tomato cages I wanted, which will be used over the eggplant and pepper transplants. I also got more plant clips, as my bucket with them seems to have disappeared!

The Walmart shopping was both stuff for my husband, and my daughters’ list. Nothing came out of my regular grocery budget, so I didn’t do my usual “this is what $X looks like” photo. The important thing is that I remembered to get more distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier.

This year, I’ve been using his empty water bottles to make collars for transplants, much more than usual, since we’re expecting a dry year. I’ve used up all the old collars I’d used last year, plus made more with all the bottles I’ve been saving all winter. There’s only a few empty water bottles left and, if I want one for each of the remaining tomato plants, I’m going to have to find more.

Oh! I just remembered! I have a bunch of them on posts at the chimney block garden bet at the chain link fence! Which means I’ll only be short about 5 or 6 for the tomatoes I have left to do. I’m sure I can find enough other containers I’ve been saving to reuse somehow.

By the time we got home, it was about 5pm. As we pulled into the yard to unload, the yard cats were absolutely everywhere, waiting for their feeding time! As soon as my daughters and I got most of it in, I headed over to feed them and distract them away from the truck, so my daughter could safely leave the yard and park it.

One of Poirot’s babies made an achievement today. Japp got out of the cat cage! I’m not sure if s/he climbed out the “door”, or if s/he found the opening at the bottom (it was blocked with a stuffy). We’re really going to have to watch our step, now!

The days are long enough and warm enough that I seriously considered going back out to at least work on the garden bed I’ll be planting in tomorrow, but I need to keep my limits in mind. I’m already pushing them on a daily basis right now. Plus, we’re getting weather alerts for possible thunderstorms. Looking at the weather radar, I don’t think we’ll be hit with any, but it’s possible I certainly won’t complain about getting more rain!

I’ve got a couple of days with no outings or appointments planned. If all goes well, I should have everything transplanted or direct sown by then. After that, it’s more construction type stuff, like making the wattle weave walls on the bed in the old kitchen garden, and working on the permanent trellis supports.

The main focus right now is just to get plants and seeds in the ground!

Tomorrow.

I’m done for today.

😄

The Re-Farmer

The little buggers!

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The outside cats do like to get into – or onto – things they aren’t supposed to!

In the first image, Fluffy has parked her fluffy self on the newly transplanted and covered Arikara squash. Thankfully, she’s not actually squishing a plant – the collars would prevent that! – but there’s hardly any slack on that netting. Still, she managed to make a bed of it!

Then there’s the second image in the above slideshow. Little Grommet in our clothes pin bucket! There’s half a brick inside, so it doesn’t blow away or get knocked over by the kitties. The little bugger is looking all sweet and innocent, but there’s supposed to be more clothes pins around the edge of that bucket.

It’s a good thing they’re so cute!

The Re-Farmer

A slightly different morning!

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We’re expected to reach around 30C/86F today, with the next couple of days potentially getting even hotter. So I’ve been heading out early in the mornings to water the garden and the saplings. This morning, I snagged my older daughter to give me a hand, since it was already 16C/61F by 6am.

While I went to the old kitchen to start getting food ready for the outside cats, my daughter shoed up and went out through the main door. It makes things easier to pass things from the old kitchen to someone in the sun room through the old kitchen door with the missing screen.

I had quite a surprise when I opened the inner door, though!

Miss Lemon, Hastings and Japp were tucked in, between the doors again!

The old kitchen is quite a bit cooler, so I’m guessing Poirot moved her babies to get them out of the heat again.

With that in mind, we left them there for a while, and worked on the cat cage. My daughter set one of the larger ice packs right under their cat bed. As thick as the cat bed it, it should still feel cooler, and it won’t melt as quickly. We set a couple of frozen water bottles around, too, before I started passing the kittens over for my daughter to tuck them back into the cat cage. By then, Poirot had come in and was very interesting in what we were doing to her babies!

After that, I headed out with the kibble and some leftover cat soup to distract the adult cats, while my daughter started preparing the wet cat food for the bigger kittens, mixing in some lysine/pumpkin seed powder and splitting it up between all the little bowls we have for them. We switched out a frozen water bottle in one of the cat beds in the water bowl shelter, too.

My daughter then grabbed the wagon, which already had containers of water waiting, to the outer yard and watered the walnut and Korean pine trees while I did the rest of my rounds. By the time I was switching out the memory card at the sign cam, my daughter was done refilling containers to finish watering the trees in the outer yard, while I got the hose going into the leaky rain barrel, and used a bucket to water the trees out there.

I was very happy to spot this.

The very first leaf bud on the Opal plum has emerged! It was rather strange to water a stick in the ground, not knowing if it survived its time in the mail, and being transplanted. Today, we have proof of life!

Once the food forest saplings were watered, I worked on the main garden area. There are quite a few potato leaves pushing their way through the mulch!

I think I’ll grab a small bucket of stove pellets, though, and head back to the garden before my younger daughter and I head back to the city today. The bed the flowers were replanted has no mulch at all, and it’s just baking in the sun. The high raised bed, and the newly planted strawberries, also need protection. On being watered, the pellets will break up into sawdust, so they won’t disturb the more delicate seedlings, will hold water longer, and should help keep the soil at least a bit cooler.

Some things are enjoying the heat, though.

These lilacs are at almost full bloom in most places! The double lilacs in the old kitchen garden are also opening up. I’m not seeing white lilacs yet. The dwarf Korean lilacs by the house will bloom later on, and the variety I can’t remember the name of right now, closer to the chain link fence, will bloom last of all.

I like having such an extended lilac season.

We’re already creeping up to 20C/68F, just in the time it took me to write this. I’d better get out there with those pellets before things get to hot!

The Re-Farmer

Silly kitties, and under warning

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Just a little while ago, all our phones started going off with alert warnings. Our province has declared a state of emergency due to wildfires. We are fortunate in that there are no fires near us, but several towns and a small city to the north have been, or are in the process, of evacuating. The closest fire is actually to the south of us, and much closer to my sister’s farm, but it is listed as “under control”.

As you can see from the live fire map, there sweeping line of fires runs across the prairies. That area is pretty much all boreal forest. The red ones are all wildfires. The orange ones are prescribed fires.

While we are in no danger where we are at the moment, we always closely monitor the wildfire situation, every spring. ’tis the season, unfortunately.

One a more “normal” note, here is something to smile about.

Sir Robin the Brave, it turns out, can squeeze through a gap between the raised bed cover and a corner of the raised bed walls!

The bigger kittens are all doing rather well outside, taking advantage of shade. The littles in the sun room are getting extra help with ice packs and frozen water bottles, frequently changed out, because they thaw out so quickly.

The littles are getting big, and much more active! It won’t be long before they’re making their way out of the cat cage and exploring. 😊

The Re-Farmer

Beat the heat

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Today, we reached our expected high of 25C/77F. The morning, at least, was more pleasant, at about 16C/61F while I was doing my rounds at about 6:30am. By the end of the afternoon, however, it was getting rather unpleasant out there. The sunroom, of course, was hotter, in the 30C/86F.

I am so glad Poirot moved her babies down to floor level!

In the morning, I put the flexible ice pack along one end of their cat bed, and it wasn’t long before they graduated towards to. I set a frozen water bottle next their mother, in the other cube. Later in the day, I took the partially thawed water bottle and put it into the cat bed with them. The next time I looked, they had moved over to it. I took the flexible ice pack out, and it was actually warm!

The other cats and kittens were sprawled out in the shade, all over the place. Over time, we’ll set out more frozen water bottles, in their water bowls or in various cat beds. We’re supposed to keep getting hotter over the next few days.

The picture of the mostly white cat nursing Sir Robin… Sir Robin is Brussel’s baby, not hers! She is a good creche mama. I’ve seen her nursing Caramel’s babies, too. I don’t see Brussel around as often. I think she’s getting to the “I’m done, you’re being weaned” stage. 😄

At this time of year, I’m on the lookout for more kittens. End of May, June and July is typically when the most feral cats, who had their litters somewhere in the outer yard, start bringing them to the house for solid food and water. Hopefully, there won’t be very many. Last year, we had so many kittens – and so many losses. The four litters we’ve had by the house have all been smaller litters, compared to previous years. More of the adults seem to have disappeared, too, as is typical of the summer months. I haven’t seen Judgement in ages. If they survive the summer months, the wanderers usually return in the fall, as things start getting chilly.

We’re better able to beat the heat indoors as well. The downstairs is much improved, thanks to the portable AC unit my brother set up for us in the living room, installing a vent for it through the wall. My daughters bought themselves a much needed portable AC in their “apartment” upstairs. They had to board up the rest of the window to install it. The upstairs has only 4 outlets in total, and only two of them are grounded outlets, so they had to sacrifice their little fridge to be able to plug it in.

I now have a fridge in my bedroom. 😄

I was trying to figure out how to keep the cats off of it, as they would use it to get to areas they are not supposed to go on, when I realized it was the perfect surface for my oscillating fan.

The house is going to be so much more bearable this summer! My older daughter has even started to shift her working hours more into the day, since it’s no longer so hot up there, it was overheating her computer and drawing tablet. That, and her new computer has a much better cooling system. We’ll actually be able to see her more than a few minutes a day again! 😄😄

After the work I did in the garden yesterday did a real number on my body, today was more of a day of rest. My younger daughter and I made a trip into town to refill our big water jugs and fuel for the lawnmowers. Tomorrow we’re going into the city for our first stock up shop. It’s also supposed to be hotter than today, so I decided I was up to doing at least a bit of work in the garden.

Which will be the topic of my next post.

I am so glad to be able to work in the garden again! Even if it’s ridiculously hot.

The Re-Farmer