Critters

Dead Wood Down, and cat models

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With yesterday’s heat, I did not head out until the evening, to clean up the piles of wood I’d cleared out the day before.  We had caught just the edge of the storm that night, with some rain and high winds, but nothing near as bad as the areas to the south of us.  Some places got tennis ball sized hail, and there were power outages in places.

When I got to where I’d left the cut wood, I noticed a branch, just off by itself, but still near the pile of deadwood.  Had I missed it, somehow how?

Then I looked up.

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The big maple tree reaches out over this area, and it has a lot of dead branches.  One of them was broken in the high winds we got, and the bigger part of it got hung up on other dead branches.

Lovely.

After I clearer away the piles of wood, I added another length to the extended pruning saw.  I was able to pull down the dangling branch, then with the extra length, was able to cut down two dead branches.

The first one was the one at the bottom of the dangling branch you can see in the picture above.  The other was a larger one, that you can see part of, above the big, thick main branch.  That one was being partly held up by the main branch.

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You can see all three branches, here.  The big one, as it got hung up on the main branch on the way down, basically exploded, sending side branches and twigs all over the place! (That would be Rolando Moon, in the background. :-D )

After taking out the big branches, I filled two wheelbarrows with small branches and twigs, just from here!

We had a wiener roast shortly after, and when we were done eating, I stayed longer to clear both wheelbarrows. :-)

While we were having our cook out, we got visited by Nasty Crime Boy, who decided that one of the folding chairs we brought out would be a great place to hang out.

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When my daughter came closer with her phone to take pictures, he was very curious about the whole thing, sticking his face up to the phone, then reaching out to grab her with his paws!

Too adorable. :-D

I ended up staying out several hours, tending the fire and watching the sun setting behind the trees while listening to the renter’s cows mooing, with frogs and cranes, croaking in the distance.  By the time the girls came out to check on me, it was fully dark except for the glowing coals in the fire pit.

Life is good.

The Re-Farmer

I’ve Been Rolando Mooned!

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We’ve noticed that, when we get the fire pit going, Rolando Moon likes to hang around.

Last night, she decided she really wanted my hot dog.

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When she couldn’t get it, she demanded neck skritshes, instead.

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It was either that, or she’d fall right off me!

(photos taken by my daughters)

The Re-Farmer

 

There be Cows Here!

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We had a nice rain today and, when it was down to a drizzle, the girls decided this was a good, safe time to get the fire pit going and burn down the pile of wood we had in it.

Then we had a cook out.  Because, why not?

While we were out, I could hear the sounds of cows mooing.  Not unusual, except that the sounds were much closer.

Like, really close.

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This is taken from the gate beside the fire bit.

My mom rents most of the land out to someone, including the other quarter section.  He’s had his cows grazing there for a while, and now they are here.

While we had the fire going, even though it was still kind of raining, I couldn’t help but work on the area near the fire pit, cleaning up the area next to the log cabin that’s got a collapsed roof.  There were a lot of dead branches to clean up, plus saplings to trim away, etc.  More stuff for the fire pit! :-)

The roof of the cabin is decidedly interesting.

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That is a lot of nails.

This would be the remains of one of the trusses.

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This board would have had shingles nailed to it.  They were all wooden shingles, most of which seem to be gone, now, leaving their nails behind.  !!

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We also had a squirrel go onto the roof, where it seemed to find something to eat among the pieces of fallen roof!

My head just clears that truss piece, as I walked back and forth under it, making my daughters very nervous! :-D

As I was cleaning up along here, grabbing dead branches and dragging them out, the toe of my shoe caught on something under the decaying leaves along the wall, and I almost tripped.  Going back to pick up what I got caught on, I found it was a piece of board.

With nails in it.

Pointing down, thankfully.

I pulled more boards up out of the decayed leaves, also with nails in them, until the girls insisted I stop working in there.

Cleaning up under there is going to have to be a very careful job!

After we had our cook out, I stayed outside to burn more of the wood pile.  While there, I started to hear strange metal noises coming from the barn.

I knew exactly what it was.

I got my younger daughter to tend the fire for me, while I went to check on the cows.

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Who, for some reason, decided they needed to graze around this collapsed shed, with all the sheets of metal lying about.  They were walking over the metal, and that’s the sound I was hearing.

They didn’t like me coming over and were already moving away when I took this picture.

The wire in the foreground is an electrified gate.  There are two of them the renter puts up before he brings the cows over, so they don’t go into the house area; this one by the barn, and another closer to where the cows were in top photo.

With the electrified wire there, I went through the barn to get to where the cows where.

I moved things around as best I could but I’d really rather fence this area off until we can get this stuff hauled away and cleaned up.  There’s little I can do about it.  Some of the metal bits and pieces could not be picked up and moved, so I used sheets of tin to cover them as much as I could, then adding whatever I could on top, to prevent the wind from blowing them away.

On the far side, I stepped on something that felt like a potential problem.  It turned out to be part of fence wire that was likely rolled up and left there.  Except it was there for so long, it was now covered in ground and I could not pull it up.  It was completely hidden in the grass, and a definite risk to hooves!  So I covered it with sheets of metal, then dragged a metal headboard out of the pile (I have no clue why anything like that would be there!) and tossed that on top, both to weight it down, and to make it more visible.

I really look forward to when we can start getting rid of piles like this.  It might be a few years before we get to the stuff on this side of the fence, though.

The Re-Farmer

Little Critter Friends

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I thought I got some pictures of how the area near the firepit looks, after my daughters raked, but apparently, I didn’t.

So, instead, I stole a couple of pictures my older daughter took. :-D

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While they were raking, they got visited by two wood frogs.  This one, and one that jumped right into a downspout.  I neglected to steal her pictures of a blurry frog butt in a tunnel. ;-)

She also managed to get a good picture of one of these guys…

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They have a distinctively shrimp-like body, and are really big!  They are also hard to get pictures of, they move so much.  They just LOVE this lilac bush by the house.  They are Snowberry Clearwing Moths, also called hummingbird moths.  They do sound like hummingbirds, and are almost as big as the one variety of hummingbirds we have in our area.

Meanwhile, I added the bird seed I found to the feeder and stand we’ve put near the living room window.  The birds are just starting to discover it, and I hope to get photos, soon.  I also saw a deer last night, just quickly passing through our yard.  All I managed was one blurry photo before it ran off.  Good to know they are still willing to come by, even with all the yard activity these days. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Finding things out

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I had an adorable surprise, while puttering around the kitchen, making supper.

I had a furry audience!

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Trülbus was watching me. :-D

Then he and our mama cat started talking to each other through the window. Too funny!

This evening, I got a phone call from my older brother and had a lovely long talk. He was able to answer some questions for me – and not answer others!

That linoleum under the eaves?

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No clue. It wasn’t there before. He’d never seen it before. Best guess; when our late brother was building the sun room, he might have put them there to protect the underside of the eaves from any back splash of rain from the sun room roof. That was the only thing he could think of. :-D

He also told me that he’d been looking through some old photos and happened on one taken inside the shed we’re storing my parents’ stuff in. There in the photo was an A-frame ladder. He knew we hadn’t been able to find one, so he let me know.

As soon as I got off the phone, I grabbed a flashlight and checked.

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On the one hand, yay! It’s there!

On the other hand… it’s completely blocked with stuff.

Since I was there anyway, I looked around and noticed something odd about a hand saw hanging on the back wall.

It was two hand saws. One of them was the fine, narrow bladed one I remember using in my youth, that I was wishing I had while doing yard work.

Also, completely blocked off. Plus, way out of reach. My late brother would have hung it up there. He was fairly tall, but not that tall!

That shed is so full of stuff. Somehow, we’re going to have to fit in more!

*sigh*

I also got to talking to my brother about what the lawn mower was doing. Turns out it was doing the same thing for him, though he’d hoped he’d fixed it.

Easiest thing to do to fix it once and for all is to have the carburetor replaced.

Time to go looking for a small engine repair shop. I mean, we *could* do it ourselves, but when it comes to things to put our time and energy to, it would just be simpler that way.

Not everything is worth doing it ourselves.

The Re-Farmer

Morning Cats, and shopping day

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I want to start by sharing some photos of the cats this morning.   Because it’s a great way to start the day!

Like waking up to this…

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Actually, I woke up to see her sitting there, staring at me. :-D  The cats really appreciate the extra thickness of the window sill, thanks to the log walls in the original part of the house.  They’d love to get up onto the other window, too, which is much, much bigger, but it’s the one that didn’t get replaced.  Which means it still has sheets of plexiglass covering them on the inside, so there’s nowhere they can sit at.  Which drives them bonkers, when the outside cats are in the trees outside the window, looking in. :-D

Speaking of outside cats…

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With all the rain we’ve been having, I moved the food bowls under the little roof over the basement window.  They actually seem to prefer when the kibble gets a bit wet; likely softer on their teeth.  “A bit wet” is not what’s been happening, lately.  Which is a good thing!

When I came out this morning, Squishum (not in the picture) was all talkative, squeaking away as if wanting attention, but still won’t let me come near.  Nasty Crime Boy, Beep Beep and Butterscotch were content to ignore me to come to the food.

The Hand, on the other hand…

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…would not go to the food while I was around!  I took this through the screen door of the sun room, after bringing back the container I use to take food to the bowls.  She would only peak her head around the corner of the shelf outside, watching to see what I would do.  I was able to move my phone enough to get more than just her head, but she was not comfortable with me being there and slunk away to the clothes line platform to wait for me to leave.

I don’t want to prevent her from eating, so I left.

I so want to touch that cat! :-D

Instead, I got to touch the Butterscotch!

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I even got a decent picture of her!  She makes it very difficult. :-D

I wandered around the East side of the house and did a bit of weeding to free up some irises that are coming up.  Looking into the spruce grove, I just had to get another picture.

Remember this?

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That photo was taken on May 15.  The leaves are barely coming out at this point.

This is what it looks like, today.

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That broken piece of tree in the first picture is still there, in the left side of the photo.  Completely hidden from where I was standing, and barely visible even at other angles.

That horseradish is coming up nicely, too.

In time, that underbrush will be cleared mostly away, and the dead tree will be cut down.  Likely not this year, though.  I think we will focus on cleaning up the maple grove, first.  At least as much as we can, until we have a working chain saw.

My goal is to have both the maple and spruce groves open under the trees, park-like and mow-able.  I would like us to, at the very least, be able to walk through the trees without having to skirt dead branches, dead trees and other detritus.  Including my husband, with his walker.  Maybe set up a picnic table or something in the shade, so we can enjoy the spaces more.

Little by little, we will get there.

Late this morning, my older daughter and I made the trip into the city for our monthly bulk shopping trip.  Our usual routine is to stop at the town we drive though on the way, to fill the tank.  The gas station we stop at is a co-op we have a membership with, which will translate into a check at the end of the year, so we make it a habit. When we got there, however, I got the nasty surprise of seeing the gas prices had gone up 10¢ per liter.  !!!  Our tank was lower than I normally let it go (we drove over 1800km since I filled it and reset the trip counter at the end of last month), so I kind of had to put something in.  I ended up putting in $30, which didn’t even bring it to half a tank.  While paying for it, I asked when the big jump happened.  Turned out to be a mere 2 hours before we got there!

When we finished our Costco shopping, I filled the tank there.  The price was 14¢ per litre less!  Plus, since it’s Costco, that will also be included in the check we’ll get at the end of the year.  Even at the lower price, and having already put in $30 of gas and bringing it to just below the half way mark, it still cost over $60 to fill the tank.  That’s almost half our gas budget for the month, right there.  Thankfully, our van does have good mileage.

The increases in gas prices are really going to be a problem.  The politicians can talk about how we should be using alternative transportation all they want.  Even in the city, that’s not always feasible.  For anyone living in the country, what choice do we have?  It’s not like there’s a bus we can hop on, and we certainly can’t bike to the city to do our monthly grocery shopping.  Or even to the next town.  Plus, most people have multiple vehicles, because they are work tools, not just transportation.  Heaven help those who make the commute to the city!  When we last lived out here, my husband had a 70 minute commute, one way.  That’s highway driving, for the most part, so it wasn’t affected by traffic until the last 10 minutes or so. I know others who have longer commutes.  Back then, it was a big deal when gas prices went higher than 60¢ a litre.  Now we’re looking at $1.309 (there are about 4L in a gallon, for those of you in the US.  That works out to about $5.24 per gallon), and other areas are even higher.

That’s going to make life more difficult for a lot of people. :-(

We got the monthly shopping done, at least.  $600 later. :-/  My splurge of the month was new wiper blades for the van, to replace the ones being held together with electric tape.  :-D  Tomorrow, we go to the regular grocery store to get the things we don’t need to buy in bulk.

It feels good to have well stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer again!

The Re-Farmer

Redwing Blackbird

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For the past few days, we haven’t been putting anything out at the feeding station; there was no point in continuing to put out deer feed this time of year, so I didn’t bother buying more when we ran out.  When next we buy seeds, I hope to get mixed bird seed, and have a bird feeder out the living room window to put it in. :-)

There are still enough seeds left on the ground to attract birds, and today, I got photos of a male redwing blackbird (the females look VERY different).

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This particular bird has very little of the red showing through its wing.  Perhaps it is transitioning from juvenile to adult?

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The red is certainly there, though under black feathers.

I really wasn’t expecting to see them in our yard, since they prefer wet and marshy areas.

Not that there are much of those right now.

I’ve read in the news today that there are 3 fires threatening some communities to the west of us.  Not close enough for us to see any smoke.

We also got weather alerts today, for the heat.  Though our local temperature is at “only” 19C, the next town is at 29C.  I wish I knew where our local weather readings are coming from, because they seem to be on the low side.  I’d like to see the weather station and how it’s situated.  The station in the next town over is a class A station; about as perfectly situated as a weather station can be.

Stating tonight and through to Friday, there are possible thunderstorms but all for the southern and western parts of the province.  They will likely miss us, though I hope we at least get rain.  Temperatures are predicted to hit 23-25C, with humidexes of 31-35C.

From the weather alert;

Residents of and visitors to the above mentioned regions are advised to take the following precautions to protect themselves, their families and their neighbours;

  • drink plenty of water even before you feel thirsty and stay in a cool place.
  • reduce your heat risk. Schedule outdoor activities during the coolest parts of the day.
  • the risks are greater for young children, pregnant women, older adults, people with chronic illnesses and people working or exercising outdoors.
  • Outdoor workers should take regularly scheduled breaks in a cool place.

 

And that is why we aren’t doing yard work during the day!

I think we might want to move the bird bath over to the East side of the house, too, once we clean it up.

The Re-Farmer

Sun Room Cats

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This evening, I decided to spend a bit of time in the sun room, leaving the door open to see if any cats came to join me.

They did, of course.

Including this strange cat…

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My first thought was that it was The Hand, whom I rarely see and stays away, but quickly realized the patterning was all wrong.  Yet, I still felt I should know this cat.

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Then a (suddenly skinny) Butterscotch came by, and clearly they were familiar with each other.

As the cat slunk into the doorway, I realized…

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The strange patterning was dirt.  It was Squishum!

The cats LOVE rolling in the dirt, but this is the first time one got dirty enough that I no longer recognized it. :-D

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Squishum and Butterscotch hardly came into the door, but Butterscotch was more adventurous, coming all the way in and exploring behind the stuff that still needs to be taken to the storage shed.

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Nasty Crime Boy also explored the room, including spending time in one of his favourite places; my dad’s old walker.

When my mom came out yesterday, she borrowed the walker to get around the yard.  At one point, I looked over to see the walker sitting outside the sun room, while my mom was inside, and it was covered in cats.  Two on the seat, and one in the basket! :-D

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Trüllbus the Crime Eater is looking like he’s shouting “Ah!  Something under the door has got me!”

Though it was evening, the sun room was very hot.  Once we get it cleared out and set up the way we want, I can picture spending some late evenings in there, enjoying the residual warmth, long after the sun goes down.

I can also foresee using the room as a greenhouse to start seeds in late winter, for transplanting in the spring.

We won’t work on it until the yard is cleaned up enough that it can be mowed.  The grass is starting to get to that point!

While in the sun room, I plugged in the weed whacker I found in there and tested it out.  It doesn’t work. :-(  There’s another one in the garage, but my older brother pointed out to me where it was broken, so it’s not usable, either.

I guess we’re going to buy our own, after all. :-/

The Re-Farmer