Critters

Progress!

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Also, a cutie.

I just wanted to share the adorableness of Syndol, as he accompanied me on my morning rounds. That’s all. 😄😄

Anyhow…

Today turned out to be a rather productive day, all in all.

Our main goals for the day were to get my husband’s bed and computer set up again. He was telling me this morning how my bed is soooo comfortable – but is absolutely killing his back! He needs to be back in his hospital bed.

Which isn’t as simple as it sounds. Since the plastic covered mattress causes him to sweat, he had several layers of bedding on top to at least try and alleviate that. It took 4 loads of laundry to wash everything, pillows included.

What I ended up doing was laying out a king size cotton sheet over the entire bed, folding up and laying out the various layers of bedding as close to the dimensions of the bedding as I could get them without being lumpy, then pulling up the sides and ends of the cotton sheet to encase it all. Then the fitted sheet could cover the whole thing and hold it in place.

With this being the smallest bedroom in the house, and the wardrobe is still in it, getting this done involved a lot of shifting the bed back and forth so I could reach from both sides, layer after layer, until I could finally put it back in its corner….

Only to have to move it again, to set up one of the power bars with a super long cord that had to be removed earlier. This room has only two outlets, and one of them is in the wall the bed is against. Handily, both outlets are higher than usual. More typical of the height for accessibility in modern homes. I’m not sure why these ones were placed so high. Especially since they are both in log walls. I’m not going to complain, though!

After the cord was run under the bed in such a way as to not touch the floor (because, cats…) it was done.

Until my husband asked about some of the bedding and I realized I’d padded his mattress with bedding he preferred to sleep under.

One of them being the cotton sheet I’d used to wrap the whole bundle.

I found a replacement for that one, at least, but the covers I’d left out, thinking those were what he’d want to sleep under, now that winter is coming, were supposed to be part of the bundle.

It didn’t take much to readjust things, but it did involve having to move the entire bed back and forth repeatedly, while I did it!

Eventually, I was finally able to bring back a side table to hold the internet router, other electronics and the CPAP machine.

In between doing this, I also got my own laundry going, then cleared a spot for the girls’ bar fridge to be moved to my room, so that they can then move the wardrobe upstairs. That will open up quite a bit of space in my husband’s room.

Eventually, we had to head out for a dump run; my younger daughter came along to act as spotter again. The pit area looked even worse than last week. At least this time, she wasn’t having to kick away nails the whole way in!

While we were out, we got a message from my other daughter, asking if we were up to a trip into town. Which we were, so she transferred some funds to me, along with a shopping list.

While we were in town, she and my husband moved things off the table he uses as a desk, he set up his computer, and they got his chair in. He also moved his CPAP back, so he’s now set, even though the room is not done.

Once the wardrobe is out, we’ll be able to access the closet again. The bottom of it has storage boxes, some filled with some of my late father’s things, but the closet rod and shelf above are open. There isn’t a lot of space between the footboard of the hospital bed and the closet door, since the bed is quite a bit longer than standard, but it’s enough to be able to open the door completely and access it. There’s still another shelf and his little medication fridge that needs to be set up again, but not until the wardrobe is emptied and taken upstairs.

Most important of all, of course, is that the corner where the tub’s plumbing is, is now clear and accessible.

I don’t want to cut the access panel from this side of the wall, though. At least not at first. Once we are able to cut away the rotted aspenite around the taps, we should be able to see where best to set the access panel. Even if we just make some holes from the bathroom side, to mark the corners, we can use those as guides to finish cutting the panel out from the bedroom side. If we do it neat and tidy enough, we might even be able to use the cut out piece to make a removeable cover for the opening.

It’ll be the girls taking care of getting that wardrobe upstairs, which means that tomorrow…

Oh, my goodness!

Tomorrow I might even be able to…

*gasp*

… get some work done OUTSIDE!

😄😄😄

I noticed today that the sunchokes are starting to die back, so I might start harvesting some of those. I definitely want to get the potatoes harvested. We should be able to use both with our Thanksgiving dinner.

If we have one.

With the hot water tank managing to produce only warmish water, it makes it rather hard to keep up with the dishes. We’re rather not be boiling large amounts of water again, as that makes the entire house ridiculously humid.

We could use disposable dishes, though. I think we still have some. I forgot about that, entirely!

Speaking of hot water tanks.

In going over the manual, it looks like our bottom element might be burned out. The anode rod likely needs to be replaced, too. It might be premature, since we haven’t confirmed this, but we’ve ordered a Corro-Protec rod (not an affiliate link), which we had to do on a payment plan, unfortunately.

The main hesitation we had for ordering one earlier was being able to plug it in. There is an outlet near the tank, tucked next to a floor joist above, but it already has two things plugged into it. One, we can remove; I traced the line and it’s an extension cord that goes up into the closet in my husband’s bedroom, along with a TV cable. When my late father used this room, there was a TV set up for him to be able to watch from bed, but we don’t watch TV, and that power cord isn’t being used.

The other thing plugged into there is the well pump. The problem is, the plug for the powered anode rod is fairly large. We might still be able to fit it in with the well pump’s plug, if we move the well pump’s plug up to where the extension cord is currently plugged in, but I don’t know that there’s enough space around the outlet to fit the powered anode rod’s plug. We won’t know until we actually get it.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the hot water tank repaired affordably, but we have no idea when that’ll happen. It’s not like we can afford to call a plumber for that, any more than we can afford to call a plumber for the taps in the tub.

Until then, we’ll be making do with tepid water, and boiling water if we can’t get away with tepid.

It’s a good thing we only do laundry with cold water!

Still, it’ll make Thanksgiving dinner a bit more challenging to prepare!

This house is going to be the death of us. 😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Progress with the kitties!

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Some good news with the outside cats, this morning!

When I headed out this morning to feed the outside cats their warm, softened food, I kept an eye out for the kitten that was acting kinda sick.

The first place I checked was in the shelf bed it normally hangs out in. It was empty.

After I finished putting the food out, I finally spotted it.

It was eating on its own! This is the first time I have seen it eating since we first noticed there was something wrong with it. Even when we brought it into the old kitchen to give wet cat food, it was more interested in cuddles, and yesterday morning I was feeding it with a syringe.

This is a huge step forward! I even saw it moving to the other tray to eat, then some of the adult cats got a bit too pushy.

Not this one, though.

This is the cat that we aren’t sure where it came from. I asked the girls about it, and they’ve seen it hanging around for a little while, but don’t really recognize it, either.

When I saw that it was in the sun room, eating at one of the trays, rather than hiding in a corner of the shelf shelter, I took a chance.

It was facing away from me while eating, so I was able to reach down and start petting its back.

That startled it, and it stretched its head way up to look around, but didn’t run away. When I started to scritch it’s neck, it finally turned to look at me, but did not run away.

Shortly after, it actually came up to me, wanting more pets!

This actually confirms to me that it not likely one of our cats from last year, returned, which was one possibility. If it was, it would have been one of the more feral ones that we’d never been able to get close to. I also would have expected it to be an older cat. This one seems barely more than a “teenager”.

That it actually took to pets so quickly suggests to me that this is probably a cat that got dumped in the area. There’s no way to know for sure. It may even be a yard cat from one of the neighboring farms, though if it were, I would actually expect it to be more feral, not less.

If we can get to where we can handle it, we can look for things like an ear tattoo.

It’s nice to have some good progress with the kitties!

The Re-Farmer

Morning babies

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I had an unusually hard time getting out to do my morning rounds, today! 😁

As is now the routine, I started off by setting the outside cats’ kibble to soak in hot water before heading out. The cats were very hungry and eager for food!

There was even a skunk already there, coming in to eat along with the cats! I was going to chase it away, but I noticed it has some sort of injury around one eye and…

What can I say. I’m a suck for the skunks, as well as the cats!

At least the soaked kibble won’t cause problems for the skunk. They shouldn’t eat kibble, because of how their jaws are hinged. It can cause problems. Soft kibble, however, won’t do that.

It was very hungry.

Of course, I was keeping an eye out for the kitten that seems to be having issues. When I started putting food out, I saw it laying on the cat bed on the bottom of the shelf in front of the window.

It wasn’t moving, as I put the food out.

I was honestly prepared to have to dig a hole this morning, but when I came back with the empty food bowl, I saw the kitten. It was in the middle of a food tray, food right in front of it. Other cats were head butting it to get at the food, but it wasn’t eating.

So I picked it up and moved it to another tray, to see if it would start eating there.

It didn’t.

We’d tried to give it wet cat food last night. It wouldn’t eat that, either. The bowl was covered and still in the old kitchen, so I took it in to see if it would eat the wet cat food.

It didn’t.

I even tried to scoop it up with my fingers and put it right to its mouth.

It still wouldn’t eat.

It did, however, like and bite at my fingers. Eventually.

What it really wanted was snuggles.

Oh, my goodness, did it ever want snuggles!

I ended up sitting in my late father’s walker for a while, just holding it.

It still needed to eat something, though, so I ended up taking it, and the bowl of food, into the bathroom. I added warm water to the food, then used a larger syringe we now have to try and feed the kitten.

It did actually eat eagerly for a while, actively licking at the syringe.

But only a short while. I did force feed it a bit more, but it was far more interested in checking out the bathroom, and its own reflection in the mirror.

I do still get the impression there is something going on with its vision, yet it can clearly see at least somewhat.

It also seems wobbly on its legs.

I gave its eyes a wash, and cleared its crusty nose. There are definite lung issues going on, but that seems like the standard herpes related issues all the yard cats have.

Finally, I took it back to the sun room and managed to escape before it started finding my feet and laying its head on my boots again!

I had some followers as I did my morning rounds, though, including Eye Baby!

It was really hard to get a picture of him. He wouldn’t stop moving!

That eye looks so, so much better. I don’t know that it will ever improve beyond how it is now, but he seems to be completely adjusted to his condition. It certainly doesn’t slow him down in any way!

As I finished my rounds and started heading back in, through the sun room, I found this pile of cuties, watching me!

That’s one adult cat and four kittens, all mashed into that tiny cat bed! There is a larger cat bed right next to them, with a single kitten sleeping in it, but nope. They all needed to crowd together in the little one. 😄

I also spotted the little sick tabby.

His legs may be wobbly at times, but he still managed to get into the cat cage and settle onto one of the beds in there.

We will keep monitoring him and keep feeding him with the syringe. That will give him both food and hydration. Hopefully, he will start eating and drinking again on his own soon.

Or she. I haven’t tried to look, yet. 😄

In other things…

While I was working on this, I got a call from the supportive living coordinator about my mother. I updated them on some of the more recent changes, such as her macular degeneration, and starting Meals on Wheels. My mother is on that line, where she doesn’t quite fit for the services available in one level of care, but needs more care that would be a good fit for the other. The long term care coordinator also has my mother’s file, and the two of them will connect to talk about my mother, including the updated information I was able to give them just now, see where my mother needs to be, and how best to get her there!

My mother, meanwhile, just wants to be in one specific long term care home in the town nearest us. We’re trying to encourage her to take whatever they have available, because there’s just no way of knowing when a space will open. Once she’s in the system, she can be transferred later. She just needs to get in, first!

Progress is progress, though, and we’re slowing getting her there!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

A few updates, and I’m not sure about this kitten

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It was a nice, crisp and cool morning as I was doing my rounds. I made sure to get the kibble for the outside cats to soak in hot water before I headed out, so they could have a nice warm breakfast.

There is one kitten that I noticed last night; a friendly little tabby. It had been curled up in the cat bed at the bottom of the shelf in the window. While topping up their kibble at the end of the day, it basically didn’t move, while all the other cats and kittens came running as soon as they heard kibble hit tray.

This morning, it was still in the same spot, but meowing strangely. It reminded me of how eye baby used to meow, when he was pretty much completely blind and wandering around the yard.

Eye baby seems to be doing quite well, btw. The one eye is still shaped differently, but he can blink it and seems to be able to see out of it.

I was able to get the kitten out and tried to bring it near the warm food. It did not seem interested in the food at all.

It was very interested in attention, though.

I cuddled it a bit, but had to continue my rounds. As I was making my way back to the house, I could here it meowing, and found it following a couple of other kittens into the old kitchen garden. I went to pick it up and it really enjoyed being carried, started to purr and knead the sleeve of my shirt.

I tried to put it near food again and managed to free myself long enough to bring a water bowl into the sun room. It’s one of the working heated water bowls (at least I hope it’s still working!), and we will have it plugged in during the winter, so they’ll have a heated water bowl both inside and outside.

As I moved the kitten to different places, as much to get it out from under my feet as to show it where the water bowl and food trays were, it seems to me the kitten is not very steady on its feet. It does seem to be having vision issues though, as far as I could see, the eyes are clear and dilating normally.

There’s nothing we can do about it, other than monitor the kitten and see how it does. We do still have antibiotics we can give it, if it seems warranted.

Meanwhile…

My brother was finally able to get back to me on Messenger, this morning. With great hesitation, I had told him we would need help with the bathroom, as we don’t have the tools we need to cut away the rotten chip board – aspenite is the proper name for it. I never remember that, but my brother mentioned it.

He asked what tools we needed, but I honestly don’t know. What tool is the right tool to cut away the aspenite, without damaging what’s on the other side of it?

He did mention something that should have been obvious, though we hadn’t thought of it yet.

We’re going to have to take the tub out entirely. The rot extends down the wall where the water pipes are, and in the middle of the back wall.

*sigh*

That is not going to be an easy job. Not just because of the size of the tub in a rather small bathroom. This tub is old school. I’m pretty sure it’s enameled cast iron. When you first get into it, it’s absolutely freezing, but once it warms up, it holds heat so much longer than a modern tub.

Gosh, I miss being able to take a bath!

We basically went from, the taps and faucet need to be replaced, to a major repair and replacement job. The more we uncover, the more we find will need to be done.

My brother barely remembers what’s behind that aspenite. We know there’s log behind the two walls, and that there are more pieces of whatever was handy, like we found under the fake tile paneling, used to try and level the walls.

We’ve still got the fan set up on the bath chair to get things as dry as we can. Every now and then, I’ve been using more CLR on the rust stains under the taps. May as well try and clear that as best we can, while we’re at it.

As much as I like this tub, if we had the funds for it, I would replace it with one of those walk in tubs. The kind with a door on the side, and a seat at one end. This would allow both my husband and I to be able to get in and out safely, and get the hot, soaking baths that would give us at least some temporary pain relief. Especially for him, when his back starts to spasm.

A plain walk in tub with a seat starts at over $3600 at Home Depot. There are slightly cheaper walk in tubs, but they don’t have a seat which, for us, completely defeats the purpose of having one.

If we did get one, we would probably have to add more structural support to the floor in the basement. Which is not that big of a deal. I think we even have an adjustable steel pillar somewhere around the farm that could be used. The only down side of that is, it would make it harder to get at the well pump, sump pump and pressure tank, as well as the plumbing, that are all under the bathroom.

Ideally, we would be hiring someone to do all this and renovate the entire bathroom in the process. If we were to include installing a walk in tub at the same time, though, that would easily cost at $10,000. Probably more like $15,000 since we’d also be getting at least the walls around the tub tiled. When we looked it up before, the cost to tile the bathroom alone was in the $5000 for a room the size of ours.

*sigh*

If we had that kind of cash available, we wouldn’t have truck payments right now.

Well, we’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, my brother plans to come out here with another load, after work on Friday, and he will take a look at the bathroom while he’s here.

So today’s priority will be working on my husband’s bedroom. I’m hoping we can set his computer up on his leatherworking desk in the living room first. Then we can start clearing and rearranging his room, so we can access the corner on the other side of the tub and look into cutting an access panel.

One of the things we need to take out of his room is my late father’s wardrobe; it matches the vanity and nightstand I’m using in my room. In talking to him about it, he said we could take the wardrobe out completely and leave it out, as he doesn’t use it very much, but we have nowhere else to put it! It’s pretty darn big.

It seems like every thing we discover that needs to be done requires something else that needs to be done to do it… which requires something else to be done so we can do that…

When my mother asked us to move out here, we knew it wouldn’t be easy, and the house wasn’t “perfect” like she claimed it was, but my goodness, we never expected it to be this bad.

Well, it is what it is. We will deal.

It’s not like we have any choice!

The Re-Farmer

Winterizing the sunroom, and cheeky kitties!

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Today has been gorgeous and sunny, with almost no wind. The weather apps say we’re at 13C/55F, but feeling like 10C/50F.

The thermometer in the shelf shelter, which was getting hit with full sun, was reading almost 30C/86! 😄

My daughter took on the very messy job of starting to scrub the walls around the tub, as we let the rotten parts we found under the tub surround, dry a bit. There is very little room to assist, so I took advantage of the pleasant day to start winterizing the sun room, as well as making some changes in the old kitchen.

Last winter, we set things up for the cats on one side, while the other side was used to store our tools and supplies.

Unfortunately, the cats knocked so many things off the shelves and all over the floor. Then, because it’s darn cold out there in the winter, they used all sorts of corners to do their business in.

The girls started cleaning it up in the spring, but it never quite got finished.

So I got it mostly done today, which included moving some things out of the old kitchen.

The first thing was to get the broken pieces of tub surround and get that onto the junk pile for later hauling to the dump. Once those were out of the way, I could get at a rocking chair that was here when we moved in. We can’t use it in the main part of the house – too many creatures with tails! – and it’s just taking up space in the old kitchen, so I ended up putting it in the storage house. That gave me access to the small shelf I wanted to move to the sun room. It was meant to be used to hold things like extra packages of toilet paper or paper towel, cases of canning jars and the like. It ended up getting blocked off, and not just by the rocking chair! There were cases of canning jars on it that we never opened. Last year, we didn’t have enough produce to make it worthwhile to can, and this year will be much the same. I just moved those over to a plastic couch for now.

The old kitchen had been cleaned out and set up to be someplace we could sit and relax in, but that didn’t work out, either. We had to move the kibble into the old kitchen because the racoons kept knocking the bin over and spilling it onto the floor. Then we found ourselves having to use it to store our garbage until we could make a dump run. That basically took up most of the space.

I’d like to get that couch moved out, too, but there really isn’t any room for it in the storage house, either.

Still, once I cleared out the rocking chair and the shelf, I could move my late father’s walker in the space where the shelf was. Now we have all sorts of room in the old kitchen again!

I’m keeping the walker handy, because I see the day coming when I will need to be using it myself.

As for the sun room, I didn’t have to empty it entirely, which was nice. I started off cleaning and clearing around the cat cage until I could move the cage, and the interlocking floor mat it sits on, towards the middle of the west facing windows, then clean up the corner where it had been. The collection of cat carriers we keep in there got taken outside and dismantled to varying degrees, depending on the design, before getting scrubbed down and left to dry in the sun. Basically it was clear a spot, clean up under it, clear a spot, clean up under it…

The cats may use the great outdoors to do their business in the summer, but the skunks and racoons will drop their messes anywhere and any time!

Ew.

Then I had to take out a whole lot of stuff on the storage and tools side of the sunroom, and empty the matching shelf that needed to be moved into the other corner.

Quite a bit of stuff ended up getting thrown away due to cat damage.

Other stuff got moved to the garage for storage, including all the paint supplies I could find. Others got tucked into the counter shelf, where the cats can’t get at them.

Finally, the shelf itself got taken outside, where I could hose it down.

Once the shelf was out, I had to mop the floor several times to get the messes that were uncovered in the process.

Ew, again!

Finally, I was able to shift over the wooden shelf that was under the bathroom window, and move it into the corner. That cleared enough space to be able to open one of the doors under the counter shelf all the way. The floor isn’t level, so I had to put scrap pieces of rigid insulation under it, so it can’t fall forward. Then the small shelf from the old kitchen was set in place, and I could finally start putting things away again. This shelf got mostly gardening supplies, plus the critter cam was set up on to top of it, too. I ended up getting a piece of scrap 2×4 to raise the camera up a bit higher, with pieces of Alien Tape to hold them in place.

Eventually, I was able to bring the big shelf back in and set it up in the corner across from the one in the window. I had to get creative to work around the shop lights we’ve got hanging across there. These are set to turn on with motion activation after dusk.

Once the lights were adjusted for the new shelf, I was able to set up a folding closet door we found while cleaning up after moving here, and have found so many uses for! It is long enough to create a platform between the shelves, with enough space above the cat cage for the cats to still use the top as a bed.

With the cooler temperatures, we no longer have the wire mesh door we made to keep the cats out of the old basement, allowing us to keep the door open and let cool air circulate. Last year, we set that up between the shelf in the window and the top of the cat cage, with a box on top to level it. We then had to use some scrap 2x4s to support the wire mesh door, since it was bending under the weight of cats, plus we put a sheet of rigid insulation under it, partly to keep things warmer below, where the heat lamp was, partly so the cats could walk over the wire mesh without their paws falling through. We still put cat beds and another piece of scrap insulation on top.

The folding closet door I set up between the shelves is narrow enough to fit inside the wire mesh door frame, so that can now be stored and used for the cats at the same time again – and the closet door is far more solid! The wire mesh door is longer, too, making the entire platform more secure.

Then I could start putting some things back on the shelf for storage, including the cat carriers.

This is how the cat side of the sunroom looks now.

There are two small cat carriers on the bottom, and larger ones in the next two shelves above. Hopefully, the cats will just use them and not knock them about!

The platform now has a couple of cat beds, plus the self warming mat, on it. Two of the shelves against the window have the canopy and walls from the broken market tents on them for the cats to use as beds.

We have a number of other cat blankets that need to be washed, and then they’ll be set up inside the cat carriers or draped over the shelves of the mini greenhouse frame, though those will need cardboard or something laid on the wire shelves, first.

The sun room kibble trays were then returned to the sun room and, last of all, I got the critter cam positioned were I wanted it.

I have the live feed running as I write this. I can see cats in the cat beds and self warming mat on the platform, and more on the shelves in front of the window. I can’t see into the cat carriers to know of they are being used or now right now.

Later on, we will set up the heat lamp, clamped to the platform, and the heated water bowl near the small shelf that’s now in there, where it can be plugged into the same cord that powers the critter cam.

Aside from little things like that, the sunroom is ready for the winter, and moving things to the garage has given us a lot more open floor space, too.

One thing I’ve been considering it setting up the canopy tent I got on clearance, somewhere close to the house, as an extra shelter in the winter. Perhaps in the corner, where it could be over the window to the old basement, if I could find a way to secure it. For now, though, the tent is in its package, on the shelf between two windows.

It has been claimed by these cheeky little buggers!

Quite a few cats have decided it is an excellent bed. Especially the kitten in the foreground of the photo above!

At least they’re not trying to knock it off the shelf!

This was not the job I planned on working on today, but it was one that needed pleasant weather to do, so the other stuff will just have to wait a bit longer. This was a big and messy job, and I’m glad it’s over with!

Meanwhile, my daughter scrubbed at the bathroom walls until her arms gave out – it was so bad under that tub surround, she only got half of it done. My other daughter made supper for all of us, then cleaned detritus out the tub as best as can be done right now.

All in all, it was a productive day.

I’ll have to leave productiveness to the girls for the next couple of days, though. I will need to help my mother with groceries tomorrow because, the day after, my husband has to be at the hospital in the nearer city for an 8:30am CT scan. Which means we need to leave here by 7:30am at the latest.

Time to go call my mother and work out what time I’m coming over!

Until then, thanks for reading all my blathering, and I hope you have an awesome night!

The Re-Farmer

Cuddle puddles, and some wind damage

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It’s about 10:30am as I start this and, according to the weather apps, we’re at 6C/42F right now, with a “feels like” of 1C/34F

Which means it was probably a couple of degrees colder, at least, while I did my morning rounds, which I finished a couple of hours ago.

I didn’t even need a jacket while I was out there. Sweats and a sweatshirt had me more than warm enough!

Still, it’s rather chilly for the kitties – especially the littles – so I took the time this morning to set their kibble to soak in hot water until completely softened, and also had warm water to top up their water bowls.

Click through to see a second photo, above.

The cats that prefer to eat on the cat shelter roof aren’t too happy when I just walk past them – some even reach out to grab my arm as I go by! – but they do eventually go to the trays.

I’d say the warm food is worth it for them!

As I was doing my rounds, I had quite a few branches to pick up. Mostly smaller branches around the yard. Then I found this in the maple grove, out by the fire pit.

When I first saw it, I was a bit confused. How could we lose a tree, but all the trees are still standing? Where did it come from?

Click through to the next photo, and you’ll see.

We just lost half a tree! 😄

Clearly, it had been dead for some time. As I was cleaning it up, I left the biggest piece of trunk for last. The smaller pieces and branches went to the two branch piles we have – one in the yard as fuel for the fire pit, one just on the other side of the fence that will eventually need a commercial wood chipper to get rid of.

The trunk turned out to be so dry and partially rotted that, when I went to pick up the larger end to drag it out, it broke in half!

Those pieces got dragged over next to the pile of cut logs we have for the fire pit, to be broken down more, later.

We haven’t used the fire pit even once this year. It’s usually been too windy for a fire, and when it wasn’t windy, there were too many mosquitoes. Now that it’s getting cooler and the bugs are mostly gone, I’m hoping to get it going at least once or twice – if the wind allows!

Another reason I want to get our outdoor kitchen built. We’ll move the fire pit into the shelter. It won’t keep the bugs out, but it’ll have at least some shelter from the wind and rain.

Until then, we won’t be getting much use out of the fire pit where it is now. Not only is wind a concern, but there are too many dead branches around that the sparks could ignite, as well as a nearby spruce. Spruce is basically a big torch waiting to happen.

After finishing cleaning up the wind damage around the yard – mostly very minor stuff, thankfully – I started heading inside, and found all sorts of adorableness in the sun room!

Poor judgement, trying to squeeze his way into the cat bed with the kittens and… I believe that is Not-Junk-Pile in with them.

If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see a kitten cuddle puddle. The “bed” they’re on is an old feed bag, from when we could still afford to buy deer feed and bird seed, we found, stuffed with… I can’t remember what. It was stored on the shelf and the cats knocked it flat to make a bed out of it! 😄

We will be rearranging the sun room as we clean it up for the winter, bringing in another shelf from the old kitchen that isn’t being used as intended. We’ll set up this side of the sun room for the cats, so they will have more places like this to stay warm in the winter.

Well, it’s time to go help my daughter in the bathroom. There is much to do to fix things up!

The Re-Farmer

We have contact!

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I’ve been trying something different with the outside cats, as the temperatures drop. Along with heating water for their water bowls, I’ve started boiling water to soak their kibble, with the lysine powder added, until it’s very soft. Not quite cat soup, but no longer crunchy.

I experimented with it last night and was shocked by just how much water kibble can absorb. No wonder cats with dry diets can get blocked so easily!

Anyhow; this gives them warm food, and we’re not wasting lysine on the bottom of the food trays.

They seem to like it.

It does mean no kibble on the roof of the cat house, which some of the cats prefer. We’ll still give them a top of during the day of dry kibble, but this morning, they had to go to the liquid proof trays to eat.

As I was putting the food out, I kept hearing a meow from… where? The cats I could see were all busy eating.

Eventually, I traced it to the shelf shelter. Each shelf has its own food bow for those shier cats.

Like this one!

It was tucked way into the corner, and not going anywhere near the food bowl, just inches away.

I’m not sure I know this cat. It might be one of the extras that have started showing up.

I didn’t even try to do a head count this morning.

I do, however, have excellent news.

We have contact!

Full contact! Not just pets and scritches, but actual pick up and cuddle contact.

This unfortunate photo was the best I could get.

That, my friends, is Kohl!

I was able to pet her yesterday, but she would still run off at times when I reached for her.

This morning, she was right in there with all the usual adults that fight for attention when I first come out. When I opened the doors from the old kitchen into the sun room, she actually made a run for the door and tried to get inside!

As I was putting the food out, she eagerly accepted pets. When she got in the way of closing the storm door to the old kitchen, I picked her up and she let me cuddle her. Even outside, where tolerance for pets usually disappears, she even came up to me for pets.

I am so happy!

I believe this makes her the third female kitten – maybe the fourth – that we’ve been able to socialize. It’s been so hard to get the females friendly, without having to basically catch them and bring them inside.

Once the cat isolation shelter is finished and set up with a heat lamp, we’ll be able to work with the rescue to start getting the little ladies spayed over the winter.

Kohl’s brother, Rabi, meanwhile, stays well away from us, even at feeding time.

Ah, well. You can’t win them all!

The Re-Farmer

First frost

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Well, it finally happened. We had our first frost this year, on the night of October 3 – well past our average first frost date of September 10.

It’s still earlier than last year. A year ago today, which was our Thanksgiving day (this year, it’s next week), we had just had a lot of rain the day before, and were still harvesting from the garden, and not needing to cover anything.

Also, our another hot water tank died on us.

We have nothing to complain about. We still have a couple of beds in the garden we could cover that, if the forecasts are at all accurate, can continue to be covered at night and kept going for a few more weeks, if we want.

Also, no snow. We might get rain tomorrow, but the earliest we’re currently expecting snow is a little bit overnight, more than two weeks from how.

Last night, we did go below freezing, and had our first morning of using warm water from the house to give to the cats, instead of filling their water bowls from the hose.

The kittens were quite happy when I added the warm water on top of the ice! All those crackling noises had then entertained. 😁

The cold was enough to finally do in the mighty, mighty Crespo squash!

I’m still amazed by how huge those plants got!

This morning, the septic guy came to empty the tank for the winter. After he did that, he adjusted the weight next to the float/pill switch he replaced for us this summer. He tried adjusting the line from the basement first, but had to do it from inside the tank.

What a guy. He was actually on the ground, his upper body leaning right into the tank to reach.

As if that weren’t enough, he showed up with an eye patch and sunglasses over his regular glasses! He somehow detached a retina and, while it is healing well, without the eye patch, he was seeing double. I can barely even lean over the open tank to see inside without feeling like my glasses will fall off, and there he was, hanging head first right into the tank. He did take off the sunglasses for that, but yikes!

He got it done, though, and now the weight will no longer get hung up on the inside of the grey water side of the tank.

I’m really glad he was able to do it. It had gotten caught again this morning. I’d brought the hose from the garden to the house. The tap is in the wall next to the septic tank. I’d shut off the tap and left the nozzle open, so water could drain out rather than freeze. Not much drained out, though! When I turned the tap on so I could use the hose on the weight inside the tank, it was barely a trickle. There was too much ice in the hose. Still, it was enough to get the weight free hanging again, and I could hear the pump shutting itself off in the basement, as soon as it did. The hoses will be put away, soon, so we wouldn’t have been able to keep this up for long.

Now that the tank has been emptied, we can start preparing to cover it for the winter – but we still need to have the company come in and repair the expeller out by the barn. I’ve called and left another message, and still no call back!

After the septic guy was done, my daughter and I went into the root cellar. After wiping down the shelves and covering most with paper, we brought in the onions and garlic, then assembly lined it to bring the winter squash down. They had all been sitting on the washing machine, and we need to use that today!

While my daughter finished in the basement (there was no way my knees could handle going up and down those stairs!), I got the drainage hose for the washing machine set out the storm door window again. We’d been leaving it set up for at least the past month, but with temperatures dropping below freezing, we wanted to be able to close the inner door.

It won’t be long before we’re going to have to start using the drain to the septic tank again. Between the expeller needing to be fixed, and the state or our pipes, we’re hoping to delay that as long as we can.

Last night, I did the first treatment with the Free-Flow Drain and Line Maintenance stuff.

The instructions say to start at the drain closest to the tank, so that anything loosened in the pipes doesn’t end up clogging things further down. The closest is the access pipe in the floor of the basement. Based on the diameter of the pipe, that took 4 tablespoons of product in a cup of warm water. A cup of water isn’t enough to get the stuff to where things get hung up in the pipe, so I had to chase it down with more water.

We can do the next treatment tonight. That will be the bathroom sink, toilet and tub. The main drain pipe from under the bathroom is as large as the floor drain, but the product has to go through much smaller pipes, first, so we’ll do a smaller amount, but do all three at the same time.

Depending on how this works out, we might do these drains more than once, before moving on to the next furthest drain.

Once we’ve done the treatment with this stuff, we’ll start using the Septic Remedy stuff for regular tank maintenance.

None of which will make much difference at all, if that ejector pipe doesn’t get repaired!

In other things, I finally got a call back from the place that does Meals on Wheels in my mother’s town. After a bit of back and forth conversation, my mother is now set up to get meals delivered, instead of having homecare come in to do batch cooking. They only deliver three days a week, though. They no longer have enough volunteers to do five days a week. If I were living in the same town as my mother, I could have arranged to pick up meals on the other days myself and bring them to her, but it’s just not possible to do from where we are. The cost of gas would be higher than the cost of the meals!

One of my follow up calls to my mother, while arranging this, happened to be just after my sister left. She had come by for a visit, and to drop off some vegetables from her garden for my mother.

Including tomatoes.

My mother isn’t supposed to eat tomatoes.

*sigh*

It does mean I won’t be going over there to help her with her grocery shopping until after the weekend, though, which is helpful.

As for today, I’m going to have to make it a day of rest. It seems all the stuff my daughter and I were able to get done yesterday was pushing it for me. Last night, I rolled over in bed and got hit with a Charlie horse. Thankfully, I was able to message my older daughter and she was able to come help me. It was several hours before I could get back to sleep. My attempt at napping after my daughter and I finished with putting stuff in the root cellar, then setting up the laundry, was a failure. Being aggressively cuddled by cats was something I could get used to, but that’s when the Meals on Wheels lady called. By the time I was done all the phone calls, sleep was just not going to happen.

My every joint still and sore, though. The temperature fluctuations are not helping! Neither is the brain fog from lack of sleep.

Hopefully, we’ll get caught up over the weekend, but we do have warmer weather coming, so hopefully we’ll be able to get quite a bit more done.

I need to reign in my expectations, though. I keep forgetting how broken I am.

I think it’s time to make an appointment with the doctor and see about applying for disability. My last doctor said he felt I wasn’t at that point, yet, but that was a few years ago, and he’s moved on to another clinic. We’ll see what this other doctor has to say about it.

Something to do next week, though. The clinic doesn’t take calls on Fridays.

As for right now, it’s all I can do to stay awake, so if this post sounds disjointed and rambling, that is why!

My apologies!

The Re-Farmer

This is insane!

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We had a whole lot of very hungry kitties waiting for me when I started my rounds this morning!

Including this handsome fellow, who then followed me around after his breakfast, while I continued my rounds. He really, really wanted attention!

I did a head count this morning.

Then counted again…

… and again.

I counted 50.

Fifty.

Five Zero.

The last time I did a head count, the highest number I got was 40, which is insane enough.

I know at least two, maybe three, are winter returns, but at least one of them, probably two, was part of the headcount of 40. Judgement is the most recent return.

Which means we’ve got perhaps another 9 extra cats from… somewhere.

Whatever cats these are, there is nothing unique about them to set them apart from our regular adults, and I’m pretty sure none of the “extras” are kittens. I did spot a tabby yesterday that I thought looked unfamiliar, but I couldn’t get a good enough look at it before it disappeared behind a cat shelter. We have quite a few grey and brown tabbies. Then there are the “printer babies”. The white ones with grey or black patches on them. Adults and kittens. Very few of them are friendly enough to be individually identifiable. There are some tuxedos, including one that showed up I’m not sure about. One of the returns is the mostly black cat that had an infected eye. If I can see his face, I can identify him by his one eye that’s half discoloured.

We have got to reduce this population!

I messaged the rescue about it, just out of shock. There’s nothing they can do at this point. None of the shelters are accepting intakes right now. They’re too full, and not enough people are willing to adopt a rescue. That doesn’t even take into account the people that either back out at the last minute, or return cats they decided they’re not up to caring for.

The Cat Lady said, ideally, we’d want to get down to a maximum of 15, which would be great, but if cats are just showing up from elsewhere, there’s not much we can do about it.

At this point, we need to seriously look at getting a cull done. It’s not sustainable. Not to mention expensive. I just bought 160 pounds of kibble, just for the outside cats from the feed store, today. That was well over $200 – and with this many cats, unless we find ways to supplement with other food, which I’m looking into, will not last the month. Maybe 3 weeks.

I keep forgetting I have a donation button. If anyone is able to help out – and I certainly understand that most of us are really hurting with the cost of living increases right now – you can click on the button at the top of the page, or below.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Feel free to share the donation link, too. 100% of donations go toward the care and feeding of the yard cats, and anything at all is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

The Re-Farmer

So adorable!

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I just had to share a couple of photos of absolute cuteness.

First, there’s this kitten.

If I fits, I sits!

That’s my sun room tissue box he (she?) has made into a bed!

I want to snuggle this kitten so badly! Can’t get near it, though.

Then there is this picture of domestic bliss.

Judgement has always been great with the kittens, so it was no surprise to find him snuggled up with a couple.

The black and white is another one we can’t get close to. I think the other one is Magda. It’s hard to tell, sometimes, with so many similar kittens!

So many adorables out there!

The outside cats got their version of cat soup this evening. I adjusted the ingredients, using more dry kibble and letting it soak longer in hot water before blitzing it with the immersion blender. There was also a couple of cans of wet cat food, lysine and powdered pumpkin seed.

They absolutely loved it, and licked the food trays clean. The skunks and racoons will have nothing to steal tonight!

The Re-Farmer