Critters

It’s a good thing I’m flexible!

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Today started off as an open day. No appointments, no running around planned… It was a day to catch up on things around home.

Which is mostly what happened!

My day started off sluggishly. With thunderstorms on the forecast, I got up and fed the outside cats before any potential storms, then went back to bed.

Well. I tried to. I finally gave up.

There was one errand that did have to be done, though. We were running out of kibble for the outside cats. I was considering where to go to get enough to last a week that would be in budget, and was thinking a trip to the feed store in my mother’s town might be in order. It was either that, or Walmart, but it’s not worth the cost of gas to get just a bag or two of kibble.

While I was checking Facebook while having breakfast, I caught a share from livestock supply store I follow, even though I’ve never been to that store. They are just outside the town to the North of us, and I’ve simply never had cause to find them. From the photos shared, they just got new pet inventory.

Including 40 pound bags of cat food.

In two different brands we haven’t seen before.

I decided to give them a try, heading out in the early afternoon. After finding the place, I asked about the kibble and got prices, then checked the rest of the store out.

I will most definitely be going back there for other things in the future!

Of the two brands of cat food, I chose the less expensive one, though even the more premium brand was a slightly lower price that the 40 pound bags I was getting at the feed store in my mother’s town. While looking around I noticed they have live traps of various sizes. They had the size for cats that I was looking at in Canadian Tire – at a better price, too! The rescue was going to lend us a trap, but I think the last person they lent it to is still ghosting them.

On the way back, I stopped at the post office, expecting some packages for my husband. Nothing was there, though. I just looked up the orders and they changed from arriving by 8pm today, to “now expected by September 26”.

Ah… I see why now. They’re being sent by Purolator, not the mail. They’re apparently in the city, but delayed “due to external factors”, whatever that means!

After I got home, I made a point of giving the outside cats a light feeding with the new brand of cat food, to see how they like it.

They all but inhaled it!

I guess this will be a brand we’ll get more often! The only down side is that this town is in the opposite direction of anywhere we normally go. So we’ll still be getting kibble at the feed store in my mother’s town, but special trips to this place for kibble will also happen.

While considering my issues with the cat isolation shelter and the materials I wanted, in contrast to the materials I have, I remembered something.

I do have clear plastic.

We found two of what looked like some sort of sliding door to me, in the barn. We’d brought them to the house, cleaned off years of dust, then put them in the basement. When we were still letting the cats down there, we kept the “bar” area closed off for the breakable stuff, and used one of these as a door to the entry.

I decided to bring one of them over to the cat isolation shelter and see.

I don’t know if it’s Plexiglass or Lexan or what. What I do know is, it’s big enough to cover the top front of the isolation shelter – and there should be enough left over that I might be able to cover a section on each side, too. Perhaps not as a sliding door, as I had been considering, but at least as a window on each side.

I’m really loathe to cut take the frame off and cut it up, though. It’s really well constructed.

I decided to think on it while working on the catio hammock.

I brought out a black plastic mesh, measured and cut it to size, then used steel strapping to secure it in place.

Syndol approves!

Once that was done, I had a nice piece of left over mesh.

The Crespo squash that’s hanging inside the bean trellis and breaking the cross piece with its weight needs a hammock.

So I threaded some ties along two sides of the leftover piece, and set it up.

The ties are attached to the metal supports on the A frame trellis. I tried to lift the squash up at least a bit, in the process, so get some of the stress off the broken cross piece. I used Mason’s line as ties, as it was thin enough to thread through the mesh. It’s strong, but that squash is going to get heavier. I may need to supplement them.

We’ve got some cool nights coming, so it was time to get the eggplant and hot pepper bed set up. I picked up clear table vinyl table protectors for the job. I got two for the garden and two for our dining table.

It’s a good thing I had four, because I needed them all.

The bed is 9′ long and 3′ wide, so I needed a minimum of 24′, plus overlap. I thought I could get away with three of them, but that only gave me about 20′

In the end, I decided to use some clear Gorilla tape I picked up, and connect the sheets in pairs.

The kittens were very interested in what I was doing!

The wind made laying them out so the ends to be taped together were on the sidewalk, and all nice and even, quite a challenge! I got it done, though.

While I was working on this, I started getting messages from my SIL.

She and my brother were going to make a trip out to drop stuff off today! They had a small trailer to haul out, and were going to load up as much other stuff as they could in the process. I was surprised that they would make the trip out after my brother got off work, given how quickly things are starting to get dark, but they still have a lot they need to bring out here. She kept me up to date on their progress, as she was able, while I continued with the preparing the vinul.

Once the pairs were taped together, it was time to wrap the box frame over the eggplants and peppers.

When we had it wrapped before, we made a point of covering the length first, and having the overlap at the ends. I recall the wind really seemed to catch on those ends. This time, I decided to centre the vinyl sheets at the ends, and have the overlap in the middle of the long sides.

The box frame has a wire topped frame on top, and I was able to use that to hold the top of the vinyl in place, wrapping the excess over the top of the box frame and into the middle. The wire topped frame, however, isn’t secured in the center, and it starting to twist and bow out. We’ll need to set a line across and pull it in, but not today.

After the vinyl was in position, I used paracord to secure it to the box frame around the top. That one I made very tight, since it needs to not move at all. I added more paracord around the bottom and the middle, to keep the wind from blowing it around. Those are snug, but we will still be able to move the vinyl to reach into the bed, then tuck it back under the paracord again when we’re done.

The only problem is that the box frame has a cross piece in the middle. With the excess vinyl sitting on top of it, I could see the wind was going to be a problem. In the end, I ended up just using more clear Gorilla tape to secure the vinyl to itself on the inside. Hopefully, that will work!

With my brother and SIL on the way, when that was done, I went to open the gate for them. I think took advantage of the situation, grabbed a pair of loppers and the wagon, and headed to the end of the driveway.

If you click through to the second photo in the above slideshow, you can see my first wagon load. That’s all poplar saplings, spreading through roots. They were starting to obstruct visibility as we leave, making it hard to see if any vehicles are on the road, coming towards us.

I did three wagon loads like that!

While I was working on that, my SIL kept me updated. Then ended up driving into a storm with the rain coming down so hard, they had to pull over. When the could finally start driving again, they stopped at a gas station in town along the way to check on things before continuing on.

They still hadn’t arrived when I finished my third wagon load of saplings. At that point, it was getting hard to see the stems I was trying to cut!

My brother may have driven through torrential rain, but we got nothing all day, save a few spatters now and then.

After tossing the saplings on the burn pile and putting things away, I realized I hadn’t taken a picture of the wrapped garden. If you click through to the last image in the slideshow, you can see how that looks. Should we expect to get an actual frost, we can toss a cover on the wire frame on top. For now, the vinyl will act as a sort of greenhouse, keeping them warmer as our daytime temperatures start to drop. The open top should keep it from getting too hot. This bed has the only plants we have that like things quite a bit warmer, even during the day.

The real test will be how it holds up in high winds.

With my brother soon to arrive, and a smattering of rain starting, I headed into the garage to see what I could do on the isolation shelter.

I cut lengths of wood lath to use to secure the mesh on the bottom level, against the frame. I was just putting the last nail into the front section when they arrived.

It was pitch black out by then, and I ended up using the flashlight on my phone to help them see to open up the back of the trailer and unload the piece of equipment that was on it. That went into the barn, while the trailer itself got parked to the side.

Then they back the truck up to the barn and we unloaded it, assembly line style. That sure made things go very quickly!

They even had a couple of things they knew I could use in there, and I was very grateful for them! Those went into the garage.

We worked quickly to unload, and then they had to leave right away. They had a long drive home, and my brother still has to get up for work tomorrow. His job has him working with people in time zones around the world, so sometimes the hours get very unusual!

Before they got home, though, I got another message from them. They forgot their wooden ramp on the ground, that they were supposed to take home with them. My brother was concerned it would get rained on, so I went back out to put it in the garage.

It’s 16C/61F out there right now, and absolutely gorgeous. I’d be sleeping outside right now, if we had the set up for it!

Meanwhile, in the middle of all this, I got a voicemail message from home care about my mother. For some reason, they called my cell phone number. I was in the garage at the time, so my phone never rang. I started listening to the message as I went into the house, and promptly lost the signal. I had to go back outside to listen to the full message!

My mother was getting her first home care visit at suppertime, to help her with her medications. They will be coming in the morning and at supper, then one more time for her before-bed medications. The person calling me wanted to make sure to tell us that they wouldn’t have someone available for a supper and before bed visit this Sunday.

So I made sure to call my mother right away. It turns out they had called her, too, but didn’t mention to her about the day they wouldn’t be able to come. As we talked about her meds and the times, she started to get mixed up with things, and confused. I’m so glad we were able to get her to allow home care to come in to help with her meds!

The next thing will be the meal prep visits. Those are supposed to be every two weeks for bulk cooking. We’ll have to have some idea of what they can and can’t do for that, and plan my mother’s grocery shopping accordingly. Usually, I’ve been helping her with her groceries every week or so – sometimes, my sister is able to do it for her. With the bulk cooking every two weeks, that will change things, but I don’t know how, yet.

We’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, I am now scheduled to go to her place tomorrow. She’s need to go to the bank this time – the one thing I can’t do for her – so she’s going to have to climb in and out of our truck.

I’m still amazed that she can do it. When we got the truck, I thought for sure, it wasn’t going to happen. With her car out of commission right now, we don’t have much choice. We do have a foot stool for her, and I have to give her a bit of a boost, and she manages it!

Still, it’s something we want to do as little as possible!

With that in mind, it’s time for me to finish this up and get to bed. It’s coming up on midnight right now!

Until next time, I hope you have a fabulous day! Or night. Whatever time it happens to be for you as you read this. 😁😁

The Re-Farmer

So many little friends, and an update

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Yesterday, I was able to connect with the scrap guy, and he was scheduled to come over this morning to see what there was to see. After opening the gate for him, I stayed out to give the garden a watering, while keeping an eye out to make sure our vandal didn’t suddenly show up. Given his recent threat of “retribution” in a phone message to my brother, we just never know what he’s going to do next.

As I was watering the winter squash interplanted with now-dry corn, I spotted a tiny green friend on a leaf.

I paused to take a photo, then continued watering – and spotted another one.

And another.

And another!

There were so many tree frogs, just chilling on the dried corn leaves!

There was one larger frog, sitting with its eyes closed. Most of the others were no bigger than my thumbnail! I was absolutely enchanted by the one that was just sort of peeking at me over the bend of the leaf it was on.

I so love our tree frogs! Especially when they’re in the garden.

Eat those slugs, my little friends! Feast away!

I had just finished watering and was putting the hose away when I heard the scrap guy driving in. Perfect timing!

The first thing to look at was right nearby – the years of aluminum cans that we’ve been collecting since moving out here. Then we went to look at the old threshing machine and the three cars. There is other metal around those cars that they can take, too, plus a stack of salvaged steel doors that have been sitting outside for so long, they are no longer useable. I almost forgot to show him the old truck (or half a truck) that’s almost completely buried in burdock and weeds. He took photos as we went around, and asked about the old vehicles and farm equipment beyond the outer yard that we could see. I need to get clearance from my brother on those, because I think he has plans for some of them. There are also the old appliances and even the old bikes my daughter and I took down from the hayloft in the barn, and other things laying about that I was able to say yes to having removed.

I took him through the barn – the old cow stall where the collection of batteries we found while cleaning up is partially blocked with my brother’s stuff – to the former hay yard. I need to clear it with my brother, but we should be able to get almost all those old vehicles, and the old, broken snowmobiles, removed. Having them there is dangerous for the renter’s cows. They will actually try and eat things like the vinyl seat covers on the snowmobiles.

In fact, we had a hard time getting into the old hay yard because of them. We haven’t had any reason to go through that door in the barn until today, so I was expecting it to be blocked by overgrown nettle and weeds, but something else was blocking the door. Thankfully, I was able to open it wide enough to reach and move it, though not without difficulty.

It was a radiator.

Small, but rather heavy for its size.

I remember seeing it leaning against the barn along with some other junk. How the cows managed to drag it in front of the door, I have no idea!

After our walkabout, he was honest with me. For just the threshing machine and 3 cars, plus the appliances, it isn’t worth it for them to come out. When they go to a site, they bring along an excavator and other heavy equipment, plus a scale to weigh on site, to be able to load things. If, however, we were able to include the vehicles in the old hay year, that would make it worth the trip for them. If we could add some of the other old vehicles and farm machinery beyond the outer yard, even better.

So I will have to talk to my brother about that.

We will also need to go through some of the vehicles to take things out, as some of them seem to have been used for storage. One of them looks like it has at least one heavy duty tarp in it. Until we take it out, there’s no way of knowing if it’s still useable, or if it’s been there so long, it’s become brittle.

As for the aluminum and batteries, I asked him if it would be better for us to just load it into the truck and take it in ourselves. He said yes.

So that is something we will need to plan on. We might have difficulty fitting it all into the box of the truck. If we remove our bags of hard sided grocery bags from the back of the cab, we should be able to fit the dozen + batteries in there.

That should give us a few bucks, at least. The aluminum would be by weight. I have no idea what the batteries would give us. There are some very different sizes and shapes in there, too!

He’s going to email me with some information later, and I’ll ask them what their procedure is for drop offs.

After that was done, I was talking to my younger daughter, and she asked what plans I had for the day. She was wondering if we could make a trip to the city. She has been saving up for a really good pair of boots – she’s after something all season and high quality, to last her for many years. There is a specific outlet in the city she wanted to go to.

The location of this store is near the Costco we normally go to, so I was familiar with the route. My older daughter transferred some funds so that we could also pick a few things up at a nearby Superstore. So shortly after the scrap guy had come and gone, my daughter and I were on the road to the city.

We drive right into the predicted storm.

I love the tires on our truck! It’s been almost a full year since we got it and, while the monthly payments make things tight, it’s worth every penny!

We stopped at my mother’s town to pick up gas and breakfast (at lunch time), then continued on our way. My daughters were messaging each other to keep us up to date, and we learned that the rain we’d left behind as we got closer to the city, did reach our place with a lovely downpour. I was so happy to hear that!

Once we reached the outlet my daughter wanted to go to, I dropped her off then went to the nearby Superstore. I had barely started shopping when I got a message from my younger daughter.

It was a bust. They recommended a different store on a street I’m not familiar with.

I quickly finished my shopping – we didn’t need much – then went to pick her up. We considered trying this other store, but my daughter was pretty upset – I still don’t know what went wrong, but I’m sure she’ll be able to tell me later – plus we had refrigerator items among the groceries, so we went home, instead. Courtesy of my older daughter, we took a different route to go to the town nearest us, first, and pick up some Dairy Queen using coupons we got in the mail recently. That was a lovely treat from her!

Once we were at home, I looked up the store on the street they recommended. It turns out that, while it’s on another part of the city, it’s in the north side, and pretty easy for us to get to.

It also turns out they have another location, under a different store name, that was just a couple of blocks up from the store I’d dropped my daughter off at! The only difference it that the recommended location includes “casual” shoes by this outlet, which is not what my daughter is after, so that doesn’t matter.

*sigh*

We really need to get this done before winter, so I will happily make an extra trip for it.

I know my daughter feels bad about dragging me out for a “wasted” trip, but it did allow me to pick up some stuff that’s not available locally, so it’s not wasted at all. I just wish she could have found what she was looking for!

The Re-Farmer

Morning cuties

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Look what I found this morning, hanging out in the mulch.

When harvesting the potatoes in this bed, I remove the mulch and just piled it up close to the tomato I found among the potatoes and transplanted. The kittens absolutely love dried grass clippings as a bed!

The white one with the black on its head is the one that liked to snuggle with eye baby when he was at his worst. We can pet him, most times when he’s in the sun room or close to the house. Not so much, when he’s further away. The fuzzy tabby has sometimes let me touch him (her?) while he’s eating, but that’s about it.

We’re working on it!

Just before I started this post, I heard from the Cat Lady. Button had been treated for ear mites and had his ears flushed several times before he was allowed out of isolation and with the other household cats.

It turns out, the ear mites were so deep in the ear canal, they didn’t get them all.

She just had to treat all 23 household cats for ear mites, at $100 a cat.

*gasp*

Also, it turns out The Wolfman is allergic to probably chicken. He is now on a hypoallergenic food. This is the cat that would constantly steal the chicken, turkey or salmon roasted for them, as it was left to cool.

Which is just so weird. The outside cats eat what we can afford to give them, plus whatever they hunt for themselves. We haven’t see anything that might be an allergic reaction to the food. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a cat – or human, for that matter – allergic to chicken, but apparently it’s one of the more common allergies. The Wolfman did come inside when he was very small, and only because I found him with a dislocated shoulder. It popped back into place on its own, and we never sent him back outside. So he would have been eating at least canned chicken and turkey, since we do give the inside cats wet cat food. We’re not seeing any sort of allergic reaction with the inside cats, either. I mean yeah, the cats sometimes scratch their ears, but that’s been ear mites, which we’ve treated them for. They’re not displaying the other symptoms I’m reading.

The Cat Lady calls the Wolfman, Greedy Guts, because he eats so much and steals food so often. He’s gained 6 pounds since they took him in (he still refuses to allow anyone who comes to see him for adoption, anywhere near him). One of his most striking features was his fluffy flag of a tail. He has since been loosing fur on his tail, which turned out to be an allergy symptom. He looks so strange with a scrawny tail!

So very strange!

The Re-Farmer

Our very own jungle, and the catio is almost there!

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While doing my rounds this morning, I just had to get some photos of our Crespo squash. Here’s one of them…

What an absolute jungle!

Some of those leaves growing up from vines on the ground are taller than my waist! The vines climbing the cherry trees are really taking off, and blooming.

If you click over to the next picture, you will see my little green friend that I found in the main garden area. The onion flower stalk it’s sitting on is bigger than the frog!

Later on, I went back out to finish painting the catio.

Well, almost.

I thought a quart would be enough. I was wrong, but by so very little!

If you click through to the second photo, you’ll see that I finished painting the mesh in blue. I didn’t try to get into the spaces to cover the white on the frame. I just wanted to make sure the rusted mesh was protected. When more black paint is in the budget again, we’ll give the while thing a second coat. Except for the top, of course, since that would require taking the roof panels off.

Once everything is dry, we can replace the cat hammock and then it’s basically done. Getting more paint is not a necessity, since all the important bits are now protected with at least one coat of paint.

The cats will be happy to be allowed back in there!

Including this little one.

I find this kitten, curled up like this and napping, all over the place! Usually someone in a sun spot, in the open, on the grass. Today, he decided the kibble house roof would be his curl up spot.

I was actually able to pet him while he slept. Usually, when I try that, he wakes up and runs off. Today, when three adult cats pushed their way through, demanding pets and waking him up, he didn’t run away! I even got to touch his back a bit before the other cats pushed themselves under my hand. I stopped trying, because I didn’t want the bigger cats to end up pushing the little one right off the roof.

I tried to do a head count after feeding the cats this morning. I think I counted 41 this morning. I may have counted a cat twice, but I don’t think so.

*sigh*

Anyhow.

Today, we’re looking at a relatively bearable high of 23C/73F. As I write this, we’re at 21C/70F, with a humidex of 25C/77F. We got a little bit of rain last night, so I have decided not to water the garden today. I’ll definitely have to, tomorrow, though. The system that blew through barely touched us, but other areas in our province got enough that people in my local gardening groups had their gardens completely flooded out.

This morning I finally made some follow up calls. I left a message with the company that will be repairing our septic expeller. I got through to the scrap guy and told him about the threshing machine and cars that we have permission to get cleaned up. He will be coming over tomorrow morning to look at things and see what they’re dealing with. They were also supposed to take the collection of old batteries we found while cleaning up in the basement and garage. Those will be harder to get at, now that my brother is storing things in the barn, but we should still be able to do that. It will be good to finally get those bags of aluminum hauled off. We’re looking at almost 7 years of cans collected. With all the cat food cans in there, the outside cats keep digging into on corner and making a mess.

At least it’s just in the one spot, though!

I look forward to being able to clear out more of the old vehicles, but I have to clear with my brother, which ones he says can go or not.

Little by little, it’s going to get done.

The Re-Farmer

Adorableness, and cat shelter progress

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I first need to share with you this bit of adorableness!

In the first photo of the slide show, you can see the fluffy lady – we haven’t named her yet – nursing three kittens. They are not hers. She is the one that dropped her very late litter all over the yard and left them, so she had no surviving kittens of her own.

If you click through to see the video clip, you can see what seems to be the same three kittens going for nip, while being thoroughly mothered!

I no longer see any of the other mothers nursing. They’ve weaned all the babies off themselves. It seems these three kittens weren’t ready to be weaned, and somehow managed to get the fluffy lady to let them have nip! I am just sort of assuming they started this soon enough after she lost her kittens to start and maintain lactation, though we didn’t see her nursing them until weeks later.

We are so close to her letting us touch her, even when she’s not at the food bowls! If we can get her at all friendly, we can get her into a carrier, to a vet and spayed. It’s very touch and go right now.

While I was outside today, watering the garden, my daughter was a sweetheart and did some sewing for me. The torn cat hammock in the catio could not be repaired to be used in there again, but the fabric itself was still in good shape. It only had frayed edges. My daughter trimmed all the frayed parts straight, then hemmed all the sides. My husband had a grommet kit among his leatherworking tools, and she added a grommet to each corner. It will now be used inside the cat isolation shelter. I plan to set up hooks to hang it from. It’s smaller than the space, but we can just add cord loops to the grommets and use that to hang it off the hooks. It can then be easily removed for cleaning in the future, as needed.

I had scrubbed the floating shelves in the catio earlier, and they were dry by the time my daughter was done. She then started painting the inside.

She started off with the paint roller to do the wire mesh and most of the bottom of the frame, first. It would be touched up with the brush, later. The floating shelves would be done last, after those staples and bits of frayed fabric got removed. Once the inside is finished, the outside can be finished. The bottom was done first, so we could flip it upright and not have to flip it upside down again. Then the top was done, so the roof could be added. That leaves just the middle of the outside that needs to be done.

My daughter had to close up the door while she was in there, because the cats kept trying to go in with her. She was still in there, having moved to the other side, when I tried to take a picture from outside the catio. The mesh’s original paint it white, though, so there was no way I could get a picture of progress inside, so I opened the door, took a quick picture, then closed the door again before going inside.

I few minutes later, I got a message from my daughter.

I had locked her in!

Out of habit, I’d closed the latch on the door. There’s no way to reach it from inside!

It’s a good thing she had her phone with her!

While I was writing this, my daughter came by to update me. The inside is now completely done, except for the inside frame of the door. Rolando Moon wouldn’t leave her alone, so should couldn’t finish painting it, without also painting a cat!

Which means all that’s left to paint is the outside of the catio, and the inside frame of the door. Once that’s done, a new cat hammock will be added to replace the torn one, and then it will be finished!

The cats already love it. That will make it so much easier for when we need to keep a cat isolated in there for short lengths of time, in the summer.

The cat isolation shelter that’s still under construction will have insulation and a heat source in the upper half, so that one will be used in the winter.

Hopefully, to keep spayed females safe and warm for their 2 week recovery period.

Oh, that reminds me. I got an update from the Cat Lady about the family that was interested in adopting Gouda as a barn cat.

I think I’m going to have to take a pass on them!!!

I appreciate that they were honest, but good grief! It turned out they went through 8 barn cats.

In ONE YEAR!

One of them was a mystery loss. They came home and found it unresponsive. They took it to the vet immediately, but they could find nothing wrong with it. They gave it the standard antibiotics, etc., and told them to take the cat home and watch it closely. It passed away two hours later, and they never found out why.

The other seven…

Engines.

Seriously. Who lived in the country, with barn cats, and doesn’t do a cat check or bang the hood? Once, I can see, but SEVEN times?????

In ONE YEAR!!

What this also means is that they don’t have any sort of warm shelter for their cats, so they’re going into the engine compartment, instead. The woman the Cat Lady spoke to says they know better now, but it shouldn’t take SEVEN cats for them to learn their lesson.

Nope. I don’t want Gouda going there. He’s never tried to go into the engine compartment on our truck. He’s not even interested in going under it and exploring the undercarriage – but he has lots of other more comfortable shelters to use, in all seasons and all weather conditions. Including the catio, which he now loves to hang out in. Who knows what he would do, if he didn’t have any of that available.

We may have way too many cats, and need to adopt out as many as we can, but we still want them to go to the best situation we can find for them. The Cat Lady follows up on the cats she’s adopted out – many of the adoptees happily share photos of them with her, regularly. The few we’ve had that went to farms are all doing very well. Some of them are now indoor cats, they adapted so well.

That’s the sort of thing I’d like Gouda – or any other yard cat that becomes someone else’s yard cat – to have.

Gouda was one of the friendlier yard cats, but not overly so. Since he’s gotten his nibs nipped, and is now out of the catio, he has taken to following me around when I’m outside, wanting pets! He’s even allowed me to pick him up and hold him, briefly. That will make him much easier to adopt out, too!

Hopefully, as we start getting the females done, they’ll become more friendly, too.

We shall see!

We are such suck for the cats.

😂😂

The Re-Farmer

The catio has a roof! Plus, that vandal update

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With my brother and his wife on the way, I made sure to have the gate open for them, then started working on things outside, so I could keep an eye on things.

I didn’t realize until late last night that, in one of my posts yesterday, I’d said I would give an update on what’s going on with our vandal, but completely forgot about it when I hit publish.

Our vandal is out of the hospital, and I’m suddenly seeing him on the trail cam files quite frequently.

Granted, he has to go past our place to check on his fields, but considering he just had major surgery, it’s rather odd that he’d be doing this so often, when he’s just back from the hospital. I’ve seen his wife doing it while he was in the hospital, so it’s not like he’s the only one that can get it done.

There’s more to it than that, though.

Other than seeing him go by on the cameras, we’ve had no contact with him, even after the restraining order expired. He knows that I am willing to do things like that, and press charges for his vandalism. He’s not used to having someone stand up to him, rather than make excuses for him, so he stays away. I’m happy with that, as I really didn’t want to apply for it again. With the horrible messages and calls to my mother he’d been making, his number was blocked on her phone. My brother also blocked his number.

Yet, somehow, he was able to leave a message on his voice mail a few days ago.

We still don’t know how.

I have a copy of the recording, but could barely make it out. Probably because I was trying to listen to it on my phone. My brother was able to transcribe it, though.

Most of it was the usual weird stuff. He has invented scenarios in his head about what he thinks we are doing, and yells about it. This time, apparently my brother has a thousand dollar bottle of wine with which to celebrate our vandal’s death that he will have to put away for now. Oh, and my brother wants to put him in jail, apparently.

As always, he’s obsessed with this farm.

The property we’re on consists of two quarter sections. The one we’re on is all rented out except for the corner the house is on, which we are responsible for (and to keep an eye on the rest, in general). The other quarter, which is a half mile up and across the road, has no buildings or even fields on it and the whole thing is rented out to the same person. He, the renter, uses it for pasture and rotates his cows from there to here, regularly, along with other pastures he’s got for them. He’s very responsible when it comes to the land, whether it’s how he takes care of our field he grows crops on, or ensuring the pastures are never over grazed.

Well, our vandal had driven past the other quarter section recently (I only know this because my mother had tried calling him – which she should not have done – and spoke to his wife). In the message to my brother, he said that there’s a particular weed taking over and was ranting on how he took care of that piece of land for years – but also that he was fighting this weed on his own property. He was conflating the two things, so it’s hard to tell exactly if he meant he picked this weed on that quarter, as well as picking it on his own property right now, or just on his own property right now.

Either way, how could he have been taking care of that property for years, when it’s been rented out to the same farm family since my parents mostly retired from farming? I mean, we’re talking two generations renting from our family at this point. Plus, with the renter having his cattle grazing there, he would be on top of any invasive weeds that would affect the quality of the pasture, if they were there. So I honestly don’t know if this weed is actually there, or if our vandal just thinks that’s what he saw as he was driving by.

It’s also none of his business.

Either way, he ranted about how it’s going to ruin the farm, and that my “porkchop” daughters should go out there with a push mower to get it under control.

Yes. He said we should be mowing a pasture with a push mower.

Then he had a whole bunch of nasty stuff to say about me and my daughters (apparently, my husband doesn’t exist), with his usual lies about us having never worked a day in our lives (and by “work” he means a job he thinks is a “real” job, apparently), and trying to put him in jail, while demanding to talk to my brother about me, face to face.

It was how he ended the message that was the most concerning.

It was with a threat.

But of what?

Whatever it is, apparently he has something planned for before he dies, or after he dies, that is so big, even “the Pope will read it in a magazine,” about what we’ve done to him.

So his cancer scare and brush with death certainly hasn’t changed him in any way. If anything, he seems even more obsessed with the property – he is an example of what it means to “covet” something – and me, and my family. He has convinced himself we are trying to destroy him, so he is planning something to harm us as some sort of revenge.

*sigh*

I was hoping we’d be able to start relaxing a bit, but nope.

So while the gate was open, I wanted to be outside to make sure our vandal didn’t just suddenly show up.

One of the things I did was finally unwrap the sheets of clear plastic roofing material. I set up the saw horses and cleared space on the work table to support their 8′ length. They needed to be cut to 4′ lengths.

I marked out the centre of the panels, but wasn’t sure of the best way to cut it. I left it be, though, and went inside to have breakfast before my brother and his wife were supposed to arrive.

I timed it just right, too.

After they got here and my SIL was loaded up with tomatoes and a cantaloupe, she headed back home, and I went to help my brother.

He had a surprise for me.

One of the last times he was he, he checked on my mother’s car. We were able to get the compressor hose through a hole in the wall on that side of the garage, across the middle, section, and just reach the flat front tire on her car. We couldn’t reach the back tire, though.

He got me an extension for the compressor hose. One of those coiled ones that can stretch to 50′!

We can now easily reach the back tire on my mother’s care (which is starting to look low again), and I can even top up all the tires on our truck, without having to turn it around to reach the other end.

He is so thoughtful!

Meanwhile, since he was there, I asked for his advice on how best to cut the roof panels in half. After asking and seeing what I had, he suggested the jig saw, but to put painter’s tape over where I’d be cutting first. The jig saw, I had considered, but I would not have thought of the tape.

The hose extension set up and done, I helped him tie down a new tarp on the box of his dump truck, to keep the elements out, and the old tarp was getting worn out. The winds get really high out here, so we really wanted to make sure it was solidly tied down.

He’s already unhooked the piece of equipment he’d hauled out here, so as soon as the tarp was secure, he was off again. He wanted to come back with another load on his trailer before it got dark.

As for me, I followed his advice and used the painter’s tape over the line I’d marked. I could still see the line through the tape, so I didn’t have to measure and mark it out again.

Using the jigsaw worked, but WOW did it vibrate like crazy! So much so that the jigsaw blade and the line I was trying to follow were like trying to see with double vision! I was able to get it done, though, and pretty straight, too.

The cut edges were rough, though, so after removing the tape, I sanded the edges.

Leaving the panels still on top of each other, I left one end on top of the isolation shelter for later, then took the other end out to the catio.

Before starting on the roof, though, I brought over some of the wire that was used to hold the welded wire mesh rolled up. The bottom half of the catio is new mesh, with about 9 or 10 inches of overlap between old and new wire mesh. My daughter felt that some of the smaller kittens, should they require isolation in there, could potentially squeeze between mesh and get out, so I wanted to use the wire to “sew” it closed across the top.

I had help.

Gouda is no longer being kept in the catio.

Once he got over the scare of not being able to get out, he seemed to really enjoy his time in there. The Cat Lady thought she might have someone that could adopt him, but hadn’t heard back from them yet, so there was no point in keeping him in there longer.

When I opened the door for him, he didn’t even try to leave right away. As I was going back and forth with things, I suddenly realized, he was back in the catio, watching me!

Him and several kittens.

The cats quite like the catio! Especially the kittens.

Interestingly, after letting him out, Gouda seems to be extra calm, and wanting human attention more. He reaches out to my hands to get me to pet him – but if my hands are busy and I don’t pet him, he reaches out with his teeth!

He was not the only helper.

This little kitten was all over the top of the catio! When I was bent over to lace the wire through the mesh, she kept batting at my hat.

Yes, this is a she, and she is friendly!

I had other cats rolling around on the top of the catio while I worked, but this one, I sent pictures of to the Cat Lady, mentioning that she’s friendly. She seems to be the only female kitten that is friendly. All the rest of the friendly ones are male, as far as I can tell.

The Cat Lady responded that we should get her fixed soon, while she still is young enough to qualify for the special pricing for spays at the vet clinic we took Gouda to. That would be awesome! So, maybe next month, we’ll be doing her instead of two males.

I did as much as I could with the wire wrapping, but had to stop for a while. I ended up going into town to refill three of our big water jugs. I should have done a dump run, too, but after driving over that glass jar last time, I really don’t want to risk my tires. People on the local RM Facebook group I’m on have been talking about how bad the conditions at the dump have become in the last little while.

So I decided against going today.

Since I was not going to be around to supervise, I had to make sure the gate was closed up.

The good thing is, my brother has his own key.

By the time I got back, my brother was hear and had already started to load. After unloading our truck and leaving a daughter to put things away, I went to help my brother unload his trailer. He didn’t stay long after that, as he needed to start loading the trailer again when he got home, before things got dark. Nothing that’s coming here, though, so we shouldn’t be seeing them again this weekend.

Once we were done and he left – and the gate was locked again – I went back to the catio. I finished off with the wire wrapping, then brought over the hose. It had taken Gouda a while to figure out the litter box, and he’d made a mess on the cat hammock. I got that cleaned off before finally starting on the roof.

That catio now has a roof again!

The screws all have washers with neoprene seals on them, so water shouldn’t leak around them.

Since no cat will be in there overnight, I removed the empty food bowl, but didn’t bother removing the water bowl. The box nest went back in, though, as did the litter box, just to keep it out of the elements until I empty it and clean it for the next time it’s needed.

After this, we can finish painting the rest of it black, and replace the torn cat hammock that was removed. It will then be officially done!

Then I can get back to working on the isolation shelter. I really need to get that finished. Not just for the cats, but so I can get everything out of the garage and cleaned up, so we can park the truck in there again.

For now, I’m just glad to have that roof on. We’re supposed to get thunderstorms at around 5am. This gives the cats a bit of extra shelter they can tuck into.

After two weeks or driving all over, I’m happy to have one week of almost no driving at all, before it’s back to running around. This coming week, I expect to do grocery shopping for my mother at some point, but that’s about it. That will give me time to work on projects, but also get caught up on things like lawn mowing, and getting the loppers out to clear away saplings that are starting to take over some areas again.

Maybe even finally get back to working on those raised garden beds we’re supposed to be harvesting trees for!

If the weather holds. We may not be expecting frost, but by phone’s weather app is predicting thunderstorms on at least three days next week.

We shall see how it goes!

I’m just happy with whatever progress I manage to get right now.

The Re-Farmer

Nibs are nipped!

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One more down!

Our newly named Gouda is now home and in the catio, for recovery and observation.

The rescue covered the neuter, a set of vaccinations, ear mite treatment and deworming. We were sent home with medication to give him tonight, then another dose in 2 weeks.

He will be staying in the catio for a couple of days – if we can keep him in there! – so we can keep an eye on him. I found some reinforcing plates for the upper corners of the catio while Gouda was getting his surgery. Once those are on, and the top is painted, I also found neoprene lined washers to use when screwing the roof panels on, to prevent water leakage.

The Cat Lady and I were messaging and talking to each other throughout the morning. As I was waiting for the pick up time, she started asking me questions about his behaviour and how socialized he is.

She might have someone who can adopt him.

This is someone who needs a barn cat that is friendly, but not too friendly. She doesn’t want a cat that will get under the feet of people coming in to the horses. He might get under the feet at feeding time, but when there are other people around, he’s not to be seen anywhere. Which may be exactly what she’s looking for.

This wouldn’t happen for about a month, though, as we are to continue observing Gouda – in particular, his ears – over the next month. As expected, he had ear mites and, as seems to be usual, it was pretty bad. He’s going to need time to heal, and we are to try and see if there is any leaking.

We’ll do the best we can!

As I was picking him up and they were finishing off the invoice, the processed the payment from the rescue. I asked, trepidatiously, how much it cost. With the extra treatment and medications, plus the cost of the neuter, I was expecting it to be over $300.

It turned out to be a bit over $160! Which is an amazing price! The rescue gets a really good deal with this vet! Most vet clinics do offer discounts for rescues, but this one seems to be making the extra effort to make spays and neuters affordable.

If the rescue can also find a new home for Gouda, that would be really something. Especially after the person that was going to adopt Button backed out!

I don’t have any dates yet, but the Cat Lady said she had us booked for 2 more males next month.

Little by little, we’re getting them done!

The Re-Farmer

Waiting

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This is the boy we caught this morning.

We are waiting for the vet clinic to open, so he can get snipped.  Courtesy of the awesome Cat Lady and her rescue.

We hadn’t named him yet, so I’ve been messaging with the family.

We have decided to name him Gouda.

The Re-Farmer

Morning harvest, bee bum, catio update, and today has been insane!

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Wow. What a day it has been!

And it’s just 4:30 as I start this!

Today is our average first frost date. Thankfully, there is no sign of frost on the horizon! As I write this, we are at 27C/81F, with the humidex making it feel like 30C/86F, which I think it down from the predicted high of 28C/82F – or perhaps we haven’t reached the high, yet! Today’s overnight low is expected to be 11C/52F Starting tomorrow, and for the next week to 10 days, the overnight lows are expected to be about 15C/59F or higher, while risk of frost might not happen for most of this month at all, though we might be dipping pretty close by the last few days of September.

While doing my morning rounds, I took recordings for a garden tour video, then did a harvest.

It was while I was recording that I spotted the melon that had split overnight, so I made sure to pick that one, even though it was still tightly attached to its vine. The other one, however, turned out to have already dropped from its vine on its own!

There are a few Royal Burgundy bush beans, and a few of the green Seychelle pole beans. No Carminat pole beans today. I picked a couple of Purple Beauty peppers, then some Forme de Couer and Black Cherry tomatoes.

With today expected to be so hot, I also did a deep watering of the garden beds.

I had to be careful at times, though!

I didn’t want to disturb the bumblebees!

While I was watering in the old kitchen garden, I decided to actually taste one of the Black Cherry tomatoes. Just in case this is a type I can eat.

Nope.

Gag city. Ugh!!!

Since I was still watering, I was able to wash my mouth out with the hose. Even then, I went hunting among the tiny strawberries to find some I could eat to get the taste out of my mouth.

So far, the tiny Spoon tomatoes are still the only tomatoes I can eat fresh, without gagging. At least I can eat tomatoes after they’ve been processed into a soup or sauce or something, unlike peppers. Thankfully, it’s not an allergy, so if they’re processed in a sauce, as long as I can’t taste them, I’m fine. If they’re still in chunks or there’s enough that the taste is noticeable, I still can’t eat peppers, no matter how appetizing I find everything else about them!

At least the family likes them!

While I was back inside and having breakfast (at lunch time…) I got a lovely surprise phone call.

The roof panels I ordered for the catio and isolation shelter were in!

Since I’m going to be out for the next couple of days doing other things, today was the day to pick them up. First, we had to get some things ready, and move the catio beside the house.

I had already moved the pots with the summer squash in them to make room. My daughter and I moved the swing bench into the garage, then we cleared and swept the patio blocks.

How to carry the catio was a bit of a conundrum. There’s really no way to grip it well, except by the very bottom, at which point, it’s not very stable.

At some point, I should add pairs of handles to the frame.

My daughter had the solution, though. She went inside the catio, where she could lift the whole thing herself by gripping the frame on each side with her hands, and using her head on the roof mesh to lift from the middle! The only thing that made it difficult was the plastic that’s covering the top for a temporary roof. There was just enough of a wind to catch on it and try and blow it away. My job was just to stabilize it while she carried it over to the house.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t set the back against the house, as we wanted. Thanks to the elm tree planted in front of the house, some of the patio blocks are lifted out of place by the roots. The catio is just wide enough that the front rested over the highest point, making the whole thing wobble. We ended up rotating it so that the back now faces the concrete steps and landing by the main doors.

My daughter put food and water bowls inside while I ran into the house, because the phone was ringing.

Some of the kittens already love the catio!

As for the phone, I’ve been playing telephone tag with the guy that heads the local home care department. I had called and left a message this morning, and sure enough, this was him, calling me back. I wasn’t fast enough, and he’d left a message. So I called back right away… and left a message! I was expecting to leave for the hardware store soon, so I told him how long I expected to be. Then I remembered that I will have cell phone signal while away, so I called back and left my cell phone number.

Thankfully, he was able to call back before I left!

I told him about what was going on with my mother, including her actions that may lead her to being evicted. We tried to make an appointment to get together, but the day he suggested this week is when I’ll be taking a cat to the vet to get its nibs nipped. The week after that, he’s away, while the following week, I had only one day available for sure – that’s the week we can expect the exterminators to be coming out to my mother’s again, and I want to make sure I’m there, so make sure things actually happen, and she doesn’t get evicted. After that, I’ll be doing our stock up shopping.

Given the situation with my mother’s possible eviction if she doesn’t let the exterminator in to confirm the bed bugs are gone, he asked if I were available this Friday morning.

I said yes. I didn’t even care what time. We need to get this process started!

I’m not going to be getting much sleep this month.

So on Friday morning, I will go to his office, and we’ll do as much of the paperwork as we can. My mother will likely need to make another doctor’s appointment, but she’s now refusing to see her doctor, because her doctor is black and female. My mother did have the chest X-rays they need within the past few months, though, so we might be able to skip that. She is still supposed to get a brain scan, and that’s on the waiting list, so that would just need a confirmation.

After I see him, we’ll go to my mother’s place to go over the paperwork, explain things to her, and get her to sign the necessary authorizations. Which should include at least having home care meal preparation done. I’m hoping to convince her to add medication assist, too, to make sure she takes her meds when she is supposed to.

So that is all arranged for Friday.

Once that call was done, I headed out to my mother’s town and went to the hardware store. Before picking up the items, I got a quart of black outdoor paint for the catio, as well as galvanized steel strapping to secure the last section of mesh, next to the door hinges. I was thinking of nailing through the steel strapping, but it’s too thick, so I picked up a box of the smallest wood screws they had that will still be secure in the holes of the strapping. Finally, I picked up some screw hooks, which will secure a cat hammock in the cat isolation house. While I was paying for those, I gave my receipt for the stuff to pick up to the cashier, so she could complete the invoicing part of it (it was already paid for), then call the folks in back to let them know what was about to be picked up.

The roofing material turned out to be in an 8ft long roll, which is longer than my truck box. I rolled back the cover so that it could sit on top of the tail gate, then secured it against the tailgate with a Bungee cord.

I’m so glad I picked up that set of cords, the day we got the catio!

I also got my two bundles of wood lathe, which I hope will be the last I need for the current projects.

Once all was secure, I headed home, remembering to stop at the mail along the way, in case an Amazon order came in early, which they sometimes do. There were a couple of parcels waiting that seemed oddly shaped. They turned out to be stuff my husband had ordered elsewhere, so we’ve still got Amazon packages to come in. The store the post office is in closes at noon tomorrow, though, so I won’t be able to pick anything up until Thursday. We’ll see what time I come back from the vet with a groggy cat!

The catio will need to be painted before the roof is put on, though – or at least the top of the catio needs to be painted before the roof is put on. However, I want to paint the bottom of it, which means flipping it, so that needs to be done first.

If I get out there fast enough, I cat get that done tonight. The paint should then be cured before it gets dewy during the night. I’ll talk to the girls about painting the rest while I’m gone, tomorrow. My younger daughter is the only one that can go in, to paint the inside.

Which means, I need to finish this off, get out there and get painting!

Updates to follow – eventually.

!!

The Re-Farmer

Morning harvest, Button update, and my mother is determined to get herself evicted

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What a long, long day.

I’m exhausted, and will make this as sort as I can.

First up, the good stuff. Check out this harvest!

It was a sort of double harvest. I wasn’t expecting to gather anything, but that first and oldest melon finally dropped off its vine. That thing is about 9 inches across! There were also a few San Marzano tomatoes, but I didn’t have a container, and the melon made it harder to carry things. So I put them in the old kitchen, then went back to the old kitchen garden to gather was it in the second photo. I found myself picking a good handful of those tiny strawberries. Then I checked the Black Cherry tomatoes and found quite a few I could pick, hidden among the leaves. Way more that I expected!

My brother and his wife were expecting to come early to drop off another load, but I left before they arrived, so I never saw them. I went to my mother’s town, got a few things done, then got to her place nice and early. I’m really glad I did, so I could go over the letter she got from the hospital. I knew the location, but when I looked it up on Google Maps street view, across a specific parking lot from the main entrance, but I couldn’t see where the clinic entrance was.

Turns out, that’s because it was recently built in the parking lot, and street view hasn’t been updated yet.

When we got there, I had to park illegally because there were not parking spots available anywhere. Not even disabled parking. I then helped my mother up the ramps from hell to the door.

They were excellent ramps. There was just 3 levels of them, switch-backed up to the door, and that was a LOT of walking for a 93 yr old woman with busted up knees, using a walker!

I then had to leave her to register herself so I could find somewhere to park – several blocks away!

Long story short, she had some very uncomfortable tests, but she now has a diagnosis, a new prescription to try, and a plan of action.

I also found out that she has NOT been making any effort to drink more water, and the most the nurse questioned her in preparation for the tests, the more obvious it became that a lot of her problems would improve if she simply drank more water. She’s only drinking the equivalent of 1 500ml water bottle a day! She’s digging in her heals on this one, though, as she is completely convinced it has to be food that’s causing her problems. Of course, it’s the food she needs the most that she’s decided are bad for her. *sigh*

That done, the clinic was able to fax her new prescription in, and make a follow up telephone appointment in 3 months for the doctor so ask her how it’s working and adjust the dose, if needed. There are other drugs that can be tried, but this one has basically no side effects, so that’s the one he’s starting with.

On the way to her home, we stopped at a restaurant in her town, as neither of us had eaten since about 9 or 10am, and we got to the restaurant at 6pm. She needed to take her evening pills, and had brought her bubble pack for the list of medications they needed, so she went to take those – without water – before we went in.

Which is when I saw that she’s been messing with her meds again. She’s taking her morning pills, but for the past few days, skipping her evening pills. When she got this evening’s pills, she took the one that is supposed to be taken before bed at the same time. Something she promised she would stop doing.

When we finally got to her place and opened the door, we found her mail on the floor. She started to try and distract me with one envelope that she said was an invitation, but it was the other one that got my attention. It was from the government public housing department that owns her building. When I mentioned that, she tried to dismiss is as probably being about her rent.

I opened it.

It was her final notice.

She refused to allow the exterminators in her suite again, which goes against her rental agreement. This is the second warning letter they’ve sent her. If she does it again, she will be evicted.

As I was reading this to her, she basically started to laugh about it. When I tried to stress the seriousness of this, she started ranting about the “drunkard” in another unit, and how they’re not kicking him out. Then she started saying “this isn’t Russia”.

She refuses to accept how serious the consequences of her actions are.

It is so incredibly frustrating. She is her own worse enemy!

*sigh*

After reading the letter, we moved on to the information booklet she was given and I briefly showed her the sections that gave her concrete actions to do – and one of them is, drink more water! That was as much as she was up to, and I left soon after.

I’ll be back in a couple of days to drive her to another appointment. I’ve updated the family about all this, and I hope my siblings can get through to her on just how much of a problem she is causing herself. Both about the eviction warning, and messing with her medications.

There’s not much we can do about it, either. Unless a doctor declares her cognitively unfit, and she isn’t there yet, she is going to have to face the consequences of her actions.

Ugh.

Enough about that.

Throughout the day, I was also getting messages from the Cat Lady. She was taking Button to the vet. When her mother was cat sitting for them, she noticed that Button was having trouble seeing at night. His hearing isn’t back, either, so both his eyes and ears were going to be checked.

He has also had quite the growth spurt – after being dewormed three times, he’s finally putting on weight! Even the clinic commented on how big he’s getting.

They have decided that his issue is basically being developmentally delayed. His eyes are healthy, but just not where they should be for his age. He was treated for eat mites, and they believe his hearing will also recover.

That’s the good news.

The frustrating news is, the person who was going to adopt him has instead adopted another cat and is no longer interested in him. Given his vision and hearing issues, the Cat Lady wants to make sure he goes with someone who can take care of these issues until he grows past them.

Assuming he gets adopted out at all.

It was recently confirmed that a cat of theirs that was startled by a noise and disappeared, was the victim of a coyote. The Cat Lady says that Button is helping to heal her heart. She absolutely adores him.

I really hope she finds someone for Button. They already have way too many cats from us! She’s still trying to get The Wolfman adopted out, but any time someone comes over to see him, he hisses and even swipes, and runs away!

I’m just sad that the potential adopter backed out. A vet – even a large animal vet – would have been the perfect placing for Button.

So that is where we are now, and I am ready to crawl into bed and pass out.

I just know that the moment my head hits the pillow, I’m going to suddenly be wide awake! That was me last night, so I can really, really use some real sleep tonight!

The Re-Farmer