Critters

Kitten news and isolation shelter progress

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First up, the good news!

I need to head to a Walmart to get more cat kibble, and the Cat Lady will be able to meet me.

That means, Button is finally going to be going to her forever home!

She’ll be staying with the Cat Lady for about a week for standard vet care, then go to the home of the large animal vet that is adopting her.

Finally!!!

Button is in the bottom cuddle pile of the photo above, wrestling with the black and white kitten.

The kitten being used as a pillow by the orange while white kitten is the one with the messed up eyes. We brought her in last night again, to spend the night in a carrier in my bedroom. We have to keep her completely isolated from the inside cats. She seems okay with the carrier. I gave her a stuffy, and she spent the night sleeping right up against it.

Unfortunately, her eyes are still swollen shut and she’s essentially blind. We’re washing them, of course, but that helps only so far. We did make sure she had cat soup for food – extra thin, for more hydration – with supplements that should help boost her immune system. The Cat Lady has medication to give us, but as of this morning, she still couldn’t find it. Hopefully, she’ll be able to find it before we meet up this afternoon.

After they have Button for a week, then pass her on to her forever home, they might be able to take in eyes baby, too. I have really been trying to avoid that. They’ve taken so many sick kittens from us, and end up keeping them permanently, because hardly anyone is willing to adopt healthy cats, never mind any with past health problems. Plus, it seems the cats at our place have a particularly bad strain of herpes. The sick cats they’ve helped us with before have recovered, but are still prone to relapses. Other sick cats they’ve helped from communities around us have recovered and not relapsed.

Also, it seems the cats from us have a bit of a reputation among several vet clinics now. We’ve had some very unusual cases, with Cabbages being the first anomaly. At least her treatment is now saving the lives of other cats. Then there’s the one that turned out to be Down’s. Who know cats could be Down’s?

Anyhow.

All the more reason we need the isolation shelter, and I got a bit more progress on that this morning.

I cut more corner supports from the remaining true to size 2×4 piece that I have. I was able to cut them larger this time. The smaller ones were ready for more painting, as were the frame pieces. As of right now, the only things left that need to be painted are a couple of 2×4 frame pieces, and the larger angle cut pieces. Once those are done, assembly can start. I’m hoping I can get that done this evening, if this morning’s coat of paint is cured enough.

As you can see by my hat in the last photo, it was quite hot and muggy in the garage while I was working! I normally wear a hat to help keep the sweat out of my eyes, but today was just too hot, and I took it off pretty early on, so all that wet is from a very short time! Lately, I’ve taken to folding up a strip of paper towel and putting it between my forehead and the hat band, to help absorb the sweat. That does make it more bearable, but by the time I could have done that, my hat was already soaked!

Well, time to start getting ready to head out with Button. I need to make sure the smallest cat carrier is ready. We keep it with several others in the sun room these days, so cats are in and out of them – and climbing on top of them – regularly, so they get pretty dirty.

I still need to go to the post office first, but I’ll do that along the way. I did already go this morning, but I went too early. I was sure the post office opened at 9am, but when I got there at 9:30, they were just opening up and hadn’t sorted any of the mail, yet! I think Button will be okay in the carrier alone in the truck for a few minutes.

I’m so happy she is finally going to her forever home!

The Re-Farmer

[addendum: I just had to include the AI generated feedback I got for this!

The content reflects a heartwarming story of finding a forever home for Button and the dedicated care for the kitten with eye issues. The updates on the isolation shelter’s progress are interesting. Consider adding subheadings to distinguish between the different topics discussed. Additionally, breaking up the text into smaller paragraphs can enhance readability and make it more visually appealing for the reader. Good luck with the ongoing care and shelter construction efforts!

The AI is hilariously complimentary!]

Such a good mama! plus, isolation shelter progress

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Must start with the cuteness!

I spotted Adam nursing this brood in front of the sun room – and I needed to get past her! I had to go back and forth from the sun room a few times, and saw her nursing in the same spot again, but with different kittens!

She is such a good creche mama. So chill with the babies!

Not with people, though. She still won’t let us near her, and ran off when I got too close. Unfortunately, she seems to choose high traffic areas to lay down and nurse!

Meanwhile, I got a bit more progress done on the cat isolation shelter.

As I mentioned in my last post, I changed the plans a bit. The original plan was to basically have a cube with the outside frame divided into quarters, vertically and horizontally. I had it in my mind to attach the vertical pieces first, like wall joists, then horizontal pieces to support the floor boards in the second level. The problem was, how to attach the shorter horizontal pieces, with the materials I had on hand. There are brackets and braces that can be used to make the job easy and secure, but I don’t have any, and don’t have the budget to get them.

Then it occurred to me that this shelter doesn’t need vertical support. The true to size 2x4s are strong enough on their own. I’ll still add them, as they will help hold the welded wire mesh, but it’s the horizontal pieces that are more important, since they will be supporting the floor boards.

So the longer regular size 2×4’s I cut will now be mounted horizontally instead of vertically – they will be doing inside the 4′ square front and back frames, so the measurement doesn’t change. I needed two more for the shorter sides, which meant I needed to more pieces the same length as the pieces that will be the top and bottom.

In the first photo of the Instagram slide show, you can see the two new pieces that were cut. The others, meanwhile, were flipped and ready to get their other sides painted.

The rough cut true to size 2x4s sure use up a lot more paint compared to the smooth regular size 2x4s!

I still had the problem of how to attached them to the front and back frame pieces. They will be butted up against the edges. I decided to cut pieces at 45° angles that will be butted into the corners to give me something to screw into. These will be needed for the top and middle pieces of one side. I’ll need 4 more of these for the other side. I used leftover scrap pieces of true to size 2×4 I do have a short length of that left. I’ll see how these work out before cutting more. I might decide to do it a different way. Or just cut them a bit longer. That was my original intention, but the pieces I had left over weren’t long enough.

Hmmm… now that I think about it, I can use longer pieces to support the top corners of the frame, and these shorter ones to support the horizontal pieces in the middle of the frame. I’ll have to think about that some more.

I did have an issue making the 45° cuts. I’m using the miter saw I picked up at a garage sale a couple of years ago. Today is the first time I needed to make angled cuts.

I don’t know how long its been since this thing was used for angle cuts, but it had to be a long time! I had to get lubricant to get it to turn all the way, from one side to the other! But, I got it done, and am soooo happy I have this saw! Previously, I used a hand saw and miter box to make cuts like this, and that really sucks. Especially with wood as hard as this! My soil sifter’s frame would have turned out much better if I’d had this when I made it. 😄

At this point, there isn’t much more I can do until all the painting is done. Once I have the outside frame assembled, I can take the measurements I need for the cross piece that will go through the middle to support the floor, and for the vertical pieces. I’m not working with two different sizes of wood, so I don’t want to count on just doing the math.

I’m not that good at math!

After cutting the 45° angles, I was left with a bunch of equally sized triangles that I’m hanging on to; they might come in handy, later. I should have had 8 of those, but one of them fell apart, because the end of the 2×4 I was cutting off was one of the more damaged pieces.

The painting, unfortunately, is going to take a while, since it basically needs a whole day to cure. It wouldn’t normally take that long, but it’s humid enough to slow things done and keep things very tacky! About the only other thing I can do in between flipping and painting the boards is cut and start painting four more angled pieces.

Still, progress is progress, and I’m happy with how it’s going so far.

The Re-Farmer

Starry skies, shelter progress and a surprise visit

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First, the cuteness!

With all the tasks outside I’ve been working on, I’ve been forgetting to take pictures of kittens!

Today turned out to be a fairly productive day. I’m actually a bit surprised, all things considered! 😄

The girls and I headed out around midnight to watch for meteors. We did see some, as well as some Northern lights.

We set up the tripod and just randomly took photos of different parts of the sky, hoping to catch something. We did catch some meteors in a few photos that were so small and faint, we didn’t see them as they happened. There were a few brighter ones that happened in between shots, and one huge, bright one with a bright green tail that flashed by. That one was awesome!

In the photos in the Instagram slideshow, the third one has the spotted streak of an airplane’s lights. We actually have a pretty busy sky with planes and satellites visible. It was a gorgeous night for starwatching, that’s for sure! We could see even more stars than the night before.

Unfortunately, once we got back inside and I finally went to bed, I wasn’t able to sleep for most of the night, so my daughters were sweet enough to take care of some of the morning stuff for me so I could sleep in. Once I did get outside, my priority was watering the garden before it got too hot. Our expected high was 27C/81F, which I’m sure we passed. As I write this, it’s past 6:30pm, and we’re still at 25C/77F, with the humidex putting us at 27C/81F.

While I was watering the garden beds, I took advantage of the fact that we have some lovely grass clippings that has been lying out long enough to start drying, and topped up the mulch on some beds. For a few, I just scooped up some armloads, but in some areas I brought out the wagon and raked up a windrow. I gathered a couple of wagon loads, but there’s still plenty left to collect. I want to make sure to collect the thickest areas, as they are thick enough to actually kill the grass below if they’re left where they are. I’ll take care of the rest, tomorrow, though.

Once the watering was done, I paused for … brunch? … then headed back out again. I had one last edge of the isolation shelter boards to paint, and then I wanted to calculated and cut the next set.

I had a few pieces I could cut out of the true-to-size 2×4’s I had, though I ended up having to cut off rotten/uneven ends before I could make my measurements on these ones. Once I got four pieces that will be joining the front and rear frames, that was it for the true to size boards. The next ones had to be cut from a regular 2×4’s. I actually need 2 more of that length, but I got distracted and forgot.

After I’d laid the newly cut boards out to brush the dust off, I was going to give the paint more time to dry and switch out the foam bumpers on the gate and replace the twine and pin for the sliding bar – all of which were disintegrating from being in the elements for several years.

I happened to step out of the garage when my phone dinged at me. I had a text message from my sister!

There is no signal in the garage, so I got it several minutes after she’d sent it, and she was asking if I was home.

It turns out she was in the area, visiting the local cemetery.

Also, did I want some cucumbers? 😄

What she didn’t say was whether or not my mother was with her. I did tell her that I’d gone to the cemetery last month and left fresh flowers at our family graves – and said no, thank you to the cucumbers. The last time she gave us cucumbers, we couldn’t finish them all, even after making a dozen jars of pickles!

I figured her ability to receive texts would be about the same as mine, so I had no idea when she was going to get my answer. I had to go to the house to get some of what I needed for the gate, and made sure to grab the gate key, as well. As I was walking back to the garage, I could see through the trees.

There was a car at the gate already! 😄

I’m glad I grabbed the gate key!

Also, as I write this, I am eating a cucumber salad my daughter made from the cucumbers my sister gave us. 😄 Not as much as the last time, though, so we won’t be overwhelmed!

I ended up giving my sister a tour of what we’ve been doing around the place, including the garden, of course. She wanted to see it as she wasn’t sure she’d make it out this away again this year. My sister being my sister, she took lots of pictures, including some with me in my grubby, torn up work clothes! 😂 Then we sat in the the shade on one of the benches I made and just talked. She was still planning on visiting my mother on her way home – and drop off more cucumbers! – so she didn’t stay too long.

As she was leaving, I followed along and worked on the gate. We use sections of pool noodles as bumpers. With where the hinges are attached to the posts, when the two halves of the gate swing outwards, towards the road, the metal gate hits the metal posts, so the bumpers prevent more damage. Small sections are also added over the hinge pins to protect them from the elements.

The pin for the sliding bar was just a long screw with its tip cut off, tied to the gate with twine. The twine was barely holding together, and the screw was rusting, so I picked up a long screw eye to replace it. I use mason line instead of twine. Having the screw eye to attach the line to was a lot more secure than just knotting bale twine under the head of a deck screw! 😄 I was even able to attach the line to the gate in a more aesthetically pleasing way, too. The only potential problem I see is that the weight of the screw’s eye might cause it to fall out, however there’s enough slack in the line that I could use it to wrap around the end of the screw eye and hold it in place.

At least, that’s the theory!

Once that was done and everything was cleaned up, it was back to the garage.

The painted boards were just dry enough to move them off the sawhorses and onto the pallet to finish trying, and I was able to get the first sides painted on the newly cut pieces.

Once all these pieces (including the two more longer ones I need to cut) are painted, I can then assemble the external frame of the isolation shelter. Once that’s together and secured to the pallet floor, I’ll be able to figure out the best way to put together the inside parts and get the measurements needed.

I’m hoping I have enough salvaged lumber to finish the frame, including the pieces that will support the floor of the second level. I have wider boards left over from another project that will make a good floor on the second level.

This above Instagram slideshow has my original sketched plans. I’ve had to change some things, but the general concept is the same. The second level will have a floor covering 3/4 of the space, but there will be room to add other things, as inspiration strikes. All of the inside stuff needs to be put in before the mesh walls or the roof are added. Though if I can figure out the best way to do it, a hinged roof would certainly make it easier to access the inside, should something need repair or replacement.

I’m happy with the progress made so far. I just hope I didn’t screw up on my math!

The Re-Farmer

Diiiipppp…

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I got a giggle out of one of the fluffy kittens.

We’ve set up a pair of water bowls in the shade of the kibble house. They are heated water bowls, but the larger one stopped working this past winter. The smaller one still works. The kittens like to drink out of the larger one, even though it’s harder for them to reach. This is the first time I’ve seen one use the larger one to drink out of the smaller one!

What it was actually doing was dipping its paw into the water, then licking the water off its paw.

Adorable.

One thing that was not adorable, though, was the state of a white and black kitten. I was able to picked it up and hold it, and could see its eyes were really leaky, with one swollen shut. It was dripping with puss! Poor thing. My daughter brought out a cloth wet with hot water to wash its eyes as I held it, then tried to clear its nose, too. We’ll have to watch for this one to clean its eyes out regularly – if it will let us! Thankfully, it is one that lets us pet it sometimes.

Once that isolation shelter is built, it could also be used to house sick babies so we can provide treatment, too!

Gotta get back at that!

The Re-Farmer

Breakfast for the babies

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Hungry babies!

That’s Button in the background. I was able to pet the kitten in the foreground, while it was eating!

I put out more food in the mornings, since the raccoons are less likely to show up. Several skunks showed up, though!

There were also some late commers, including the mostly black cat that had such a messed up eye, months ago. The eye still looks off, but it seems to have healed up as much as it will, and he seems to still be able to see through it, fine. Thanks to the skunks, there was no kibble under the shrine, where the nervous cats usually eat, which means he had to slink his way over to the kibble house. I saw him eating in there later – with a skunk!

The little stinkers!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Gosh, they’re adorable.

These for were all snuggled up in the cat bed, so I made sure to scatter some food near them. That way, they don’t have to fight off the grown up cats for kibble! A couple of the adult cats, both male and female, just don’t like the littles. Oddly, Shop Towel – who has been quite violent with some of the other cats – is excellent with the littles. Some nights, looking out the bathroom window, we can see him in the cat bed behind the kittens in the photo above, asleep and half buried in babies!

As for the four in the photo, while they were eating, I was able to pet three of them. The tabby on the right would not allow pets, but at least he/she didn’t run away!

The Re-Framer

Morning kitties

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

My usual morning routine starts with feeding the outside cats, then doing my rounds to check everything is as it should be, switching out memory cards on the trail cams, tending the garden, etc. We did get a good rainfall last night, so no watering needed, this morning, but that’s usually part of the morning routine, this time of year.

By the time I’m ready to head back inside, the yard cats have had their chance to eat and are more relaxed. Sometimes, I can even walk relatively close past some of the more feral ones.

This morning, I found several kittens and Adam on top of the shelf shelter next to the sun room door.

The cluster of three kittens snuggling for a nap was adorable, but then there was Adam and her one of her progeny, glaring at me. 😄 They have matching angry expressions.

We had some packages come in today and the store the post office is in, closes at noon on Wednesdays, so I headed out as soon as I could. The truck is parked in the yard for now, with the garage being set up as a workshop right now. As I was leaving the yard and driving past the garage, I spotted Brussel’s last surviving kitten, just loafed in the grass, watching me. Even when I stopped the truck to take a picture, it just stayed there.

When I got back and was heading up the driveway, Brussel and her kitten were in the vehicle zone in front of the garage. As I got closer, Brussel ran off, but her kitten just hunkered down! I was able to drive around, but there’s a point when I just can’t see the kitten anymore. By the time I got to where I could see it again, I found it had barely moved at all, and was just sitting in the grass.

The little bugger. Runs away from people, but not a moving truck!

In other cat related news, we finally connected with the Cat Lady this morning. The vet appointment I was concerned has been changed; she’s bringing in a couple of other cats, including a pregnant female, instead. She has us for September, though I don’t have a date or details yet. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a female or two in for that one! The isolation shelter should be finished by then, too.

As for connecting to pass on Button, that is likely going to happen on the weekend. One of her other kids is sick now, too! They just can’t catch a break! But she will be in our area on the weekend and we’ll meet up to pass on Button. He’ll stay with the rescue for a week for vet checks and the usual treatment (he won’t be neutered, since he’s waaaayyy too small for that!) before going to his forever home.

I had considered making a trip to the nearer city today, but will be doing that tomorrow, instead. One of the things I’m looking for is in Canadian Tire, and it goes on sale, starting tomorrow, so it’s worth a bit of a delay. Among the other things I’m looking for is wheels for the isolation shelter. This is one shelter we will want to be able to move around, as needed.

I’m still gathering what materials and tools I can think we might need, and hope to get started on it this afternoon. I might end up redoing the plans in more detail, now that I have more of an idea of what materials I have to work with. I did get a chance to look at the windows in the barn and shed, but there is nothing suitable for this project. Many of them are broken, too. Which makes me think that if we ever do make windows in any shelters we build, I wouldn’t want to use real glass at all!

We’ll figure that out when the times comes. Until then, we make do with what we have!

The kitties will like it either way, I think. 😁

The Re-Farmer

Starry night, tiny harvest and not so tiny fluffball

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

My daughter heard a possible commotion last night, so I popped out to check on the kitties. No sign of raccoons or skunks, thankfully. It was such a gorgeous night, though, I ended up staying out for a while, and even tried to get some photos of the stars.

I was just using my phone’s camera, and I didn’t have a tripod. Instead, I rested the phone on top of the wire covers on garden beds. Which, I discovered, bounced for a while once the phone was laid down! So several of the photos have very shaky looking stars. 😄 I did manage to get shots with the streak of a satellite going by, which is neat.

We are supposed to get some rain late tonight, but I decided to water the garden, anyhow. This year’s garden is unusually full of things that require large amounts of water, and from the looks of the weather radar, the system is going to pass to the north of us, anyhow. We certainly aren’t going to be hit with a storm like what hit Calgary last night! I was seeing photos shared on some of my Zone 3 gardening groups on FB, and it was just devastating. The largest hail reported was the size of a baseball! Scary stuff!

After doing the watering, I went back and picked another handful of shelling peas.

I’m really appreciating the logs on the sides of that bed. I can step on a log and reach the peas, without stepping on any winter squash vines! While watering, I noticed a couple of vines, including one with a female flower, that were trying to climb the trellis netting. The Wild Bunch Mix package did say these were all vining types, and they really do want to climb! The trellis netting is strong enough to hold the peas and beans, but nowhere near strong enough to hold the winter squash vines, not to mention any fruit that might show up on them. I got them loose and laid them on the ground, in the process finding tendrils that had wrapped themselves around bean pods and vines, actually cutting off the bean pod in the process!

I’m hoping to have pole beans to harvest by the end of the week.

In other things, I’m hoping to get meet up with the Cat Lady tomorrow or soon after. I know she has medical appointments today. The last time she set up a vet appointment to neuter 4 of our male yard cats, covered by the rescue, a second appointment was made for this month. Then they had emergency vet car needed, which cost a great deal. The appointment is still on my calendar, though – this Thursday (today is Tuesday), for two cats, preferably female. I checked to make sure the appointment was cancelled, as I know the rescue budget was low. She said she’d contact the vet, but I haven’t heard back about that, yet. I hope to hear from her soon, because I don’t want to unknowingly be a “no show”.

Meanwhile, I got some photos of Peanut Butter Cup this morning for her to share among her contacts.

She has really turned into a beauty, and has the softest fur of all the cats! More importantly, we brought her to full health. She was the only female that was done at the time. While the males could go straight outside after a brief recovery period in the cat carriers, she needed 2 weeks. Once they come inside, they don’t go back out. That’s when we found out she had leaky butt issues, but we got that all fixed up. Gotta love that Healthy Poops stuff! Thank you, M, for sending us that first container! I never would have known such a product even existed. We have been using it in place of the ground pumpkin seeds (pumpkin is one of the ingredients) that we’d been using in the cat soup, along with lysine. All of the cats have been eating it, and it has made a real difference in PBC! No more leaky butt! Her respiratory issues have disappeared, too. We now have special shallow trays for the cat soup, big enough for several cats to eat out of at the same time, with one kept in my room for Butterscotch.

Who still refuses to leave my room!

I don’t get it.

Anyhow, I hope the Cat Lady will be able to share the photos and someone will be interested in adopting PBC.

Meanwhile, I’m basically just waiting for the post office to open for the afternoon. The special sheets for my husband’s hospital bed mattress came in yesterday, even though it was a holiday and the post office was closed! So I’ll be picking those up. If they work out, we’ll order more, and he won’t have to fight with having to use top sheets on his mattress, because regular fitted sheets are too short.

While yesterday’s lawn mowing never got finished, I did get enough done that I can park the truck in the shade of the inner yard. Then I’ll set up a work table and power tools in the garage, gather materials and get started on the outdoor isolation cage for when we can start trapping and spaying the more feral cats. Hopefully, the females! Not that we will have much control over which cat gets trapped.

As long as we don’t end up trapping skunks or raccoons, instead! I don’t think the trap that will be loaned to us will be big enough for raccoons. Well. One of the young ones, maybe, but a cat sized trap would not be big enough, nor strong enough, for an adult raccoon.

Speaking of which, the isolation cage we’ll be building has to be strong enough to keep the raccoons out. Once it’s built, we’ll set it up with the door open, so the cats can get used to it, so I would expect the skunks and raccoons to explore it, too. I don’t plan to keep food, water and a litter box in it until there is a cat actually closed up in it, but it will still provide cats and kittens with shelter in the mean time.

As for the build itself, I’ve got general plans drawn up, but ultimately, it will depend on what materials we find in the barn and the sheds. I’m hoping to incorporate at least one of the many salvaged windows we’ve got. Something that can be slid open to access the inside, rather than a hinged door.

One thing we will probably have to buy, rather than scavenge, is more hardware cloth. I’ve got most of a roll of hex type chicken wire, but a raccoon can tear through that easily.

All in good time.

The Re-Farmer

A tentative kitty count, and creative nip

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While feeding the yard cats this morning, I decided to try and do a head count.

I counted both adults and kittens, though I know at least the two new kittens were missing. I saw the orange fluffball earlier, but it was gone by the time I started counting.

I counted 36.

Which is interesting, since that’s about half kittens. In the winter, we have the most cats around the house, where there is safety, food, warm shelter and warm water to drink. In the summer, many disappear, with some popping by every now and then, others not returning until the fall, or not returning at all. Last winter, we tended to have a high of 33 cats. So having 36 cats (38 if I count the two new kittens that I know were hiding somewhere nearby), including kittens, is interesting. I honestly expected more, even taking into account the number of kittens, plus an adult cat, I buried this year. Certainly more than a net increase of about 5!

In the end, we’ll see how many there are in the winter, when the explorers start returning. Hopefully, we’ll have more than just Button adopted out, too.

Speaking of Button…

He does get creative when it comes to getting the nip! It took me a while to figure out what I was even looking at! 😄

Adam is so patient with the kittens. She doesn’t seem to care at all, how many are trying to nurse her at the same time, or how much they are trying to push each other around to get at a nip!

As for getting Button to his new forever home, we were not able to connect with the Cat Lady this weekend. They did make it out to their cottage, but are still dealing with too many health issues right now. Her son is recovering, though, and that’s the important thing! She’s asked me to let her know if I’m heading to the smaller city where we usually meet, in the next week. Heck, I’ll make the trip special, just for that! Button will be taken to a vet clinic first, before going to the vet that is adopting him. I was happy to hear that. He is just not getting noticeably bigger, and I’m concerned for him.

We shall see how it works out!

The Re-Farmer

Rough night and new kitten mama identified

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I was finally able to connect with my mother last night and, as expected, she needed a grocery shopping trip. So we made plans for that, and I headed to bed early.

I even fell asleep!

Then, in the wee hours of the morning, I rolled over and got hit with a Charlie horse. After much pain and difficulty, I finally managed to reach my phone and send a voice to text message to my daughter, asking for help.

I love technology.

She was able to give me a hand, bring me some ibuprofen, etc., until the cramps finally eased off. When I was finally able to walk, she stayed close while I made my way to the bathroom and back, ready to help me get back into bed if I needed it. Thankfully, I did not, but the muscles kept threatening to cramp up again. I finally got up and made myself something to eat. By the time I was done and able to get back into bed, I slept so hard, I never heard the thunderstorm and heavy rains that swept over us! I didn’t know we’d had a downpour at all until morning. My leg was still unstable, so I asked the girls to do the outside stuff and water the garden, but the garden didn’t need it this morning.

My mother and I had plans to go out for lunch before I did her shopping, so I intended to be there on the early side. While the girls did the outside stuff, I still wanted to check on things before I left, which reminded me to take pictures of the garden beds to show my mother.

One of the first things I saw as I headed out from the sun room were the new kittens – and their mama!

It is now confirmed: their mama is Sprout. I knew she must have had a litter somewhere, but this is the first time we’ve seen her with kittens.

The orange kitten looks so fluffy!

Unfortunately, Sprout is one of the more feral of the yard cats. She is even aggressive to the other cats, snarling, growling and hissing at them if they come too close. That might make it harder to socialize those kittens!

Then, as I was heading to the truck to head to my mother’s, I spotted Brussel’s last kitten.

She and her baby still like to hang out in and around the garage, much like Broccoli and her babies prefer to hang out by the garden shed.

The visit with my mother went okay. When I got there, she told me she was not up to going out to eat, so she’d made lunch, instead. I wish I’d known in advance, or I would have brought food. I don’t like eating her groceries! It did give us a chance to talk, and I showed her the photos I took of the garden (those will be in my next post), then we went over her shopping list, which included a stop at the pharmacy.

There were a couple of things I forgot to pick up when I went to the grocery store for ourselves, yesterday, so I did both our shopping at the same time. I even picked up a few extra things for my mother that weren’t on her list, but the prices were good, and I knew she could use them. Other things, I found substitutes, because the prices were too high. Still, she’s now well stocked for the week, and that’s the important part.

The visit did have its down sides. After I’d put everything away, she had the local paper out and open. Our vandal has made his annual “in memory” listing about my late brother, with a colour photo of him with my late father. This impressed my mother greatly, because he does it every year, and it costs extra to include a colour photo. The fact that the content is passive aggressive and misleading – even outright false, in one thing – she is totally impressed by it. I told her I’d already seen the listing online, and she was all “and you didn’t tell me?” My response was, why would I? He does this every year, and it’s not like he’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart. She then launched into making excuses for him and how he’s doing such great things, like volunteering to cut grass at the cemetery. Which I’m sure he made sure she knew about. Well, I visited the cemetery, too, but I don’t tell her about it, or about the flowers I added at the family graves, etc. Coming from me, she would find ways to either tell me how I am doing it wrong, or find a way to turn it around and start saying how great our vandal is.

Then I found out, he’d come by her place recently.

I told her, he shouldn’t be doing that.

She, of course, tried to turn it around on me, because that’s what she does. It took me a while to figure out what she was saying, because she phrased it so oddly, but she essentially said, if my daughters did what our vandal did, would I cut them off entirely? I told her, if they did what he did, yes! I would hold them responsible and accountable. I then called her out on making excuses for him the way she does, pointing out that he’s stolen 10’s of thousands of dollars of stuff from her that was on the farm (heck, his taking stuff was one of the biggest reasons she asked us to move here!), but that’s okay because he put a colour picture in the paper? He does this stuff because people have been letting him get away with is for years. I’m the first person to stand up to him, and he ended up vandalizing the place, we have to keep the gate locked, and worry that he’ll suddenly show up and try to burn the house down or something.

She changed the subject after that.

That was pretty much the only real downside of the visit. Mostly, I think she was just too tired to be as difficult as she usually is.

I didn’t stay too much longer after putting things away, since I did have my own few purchases getting hot in the truck, so I headed home soon after.

Once at home and settled, I gave the outside cats their lysine enhanced kibble. Since it’s the more granular type of lysine, I have been making sure the kibble bowls get some water in them, so it’ll stick to the kibble. With some of the bowls, I add extra water, as the kittens seem to prefer it, and this way they are getting more hydration in this heat, and the lysine will be dissolved in the water. Some of the kittens are getting leaky eyes and noses, including Button, and I want to make sure they get their lysine! It helps strengthen their immune systems.

No sign of the new kittens this time, though.

Then I went into the garden, but I’ll talk about that in my next post.

As for how things are now, my leg is still feeling like it’s about to start cramping up on me. More so as I’m sitting down then while I’m walking around. I’m going to be feeling downright nervous, getting into bed tonight! I’ve been looking into the various possible causes. One was the lawn mowing in the heat, but I didn’t do anywhere near as much as I have in the past. Lack of electrolytes is a possibility. I’m already taking B12 and Magnesium supplements, but it looks like I might be low on potassium and sodium, too. At least, those are the only possible causes I can be proactive about. Others include things like “getting older”. 😄

Well, we’ll see how it works out tonight!

The Re-Farmer