Today, I was scheduled to meet with the Cat Lady in the early afternoon. Since this meant a trip to the nearer city, I was going to take advantage of it to pick up some more kibble, a few little groceries to last us until CPP Disability comes in next week, but mostly to look at different stores to see if I could find inspiration for the cat isolation shelter door and access panels, among other things.
With the delay due to road construction on the way out, I didn’t quite have time to do what I intended, but that wasn’t the only delay.
As I was driving in the truck, I found myself smelling something unfortunate. In fact, it smelled a lot like cat pee.
No cats get into the truck, though.
Was it from my t-shirt? That was fresh from the laundry.
My pants? Well, I couldn’t sniff my own pants, but I didn’t think so.
I did return the bag of grocery bags from the house to the truck, which get stored behind the driver’s seat. Could a cat have peed on the grocery bags? I couldn’t see how. We keep those out of cat reach, on top of a bin on top of a counter.
When I got out of the truck to get gas, then again at the feed store, I didn’t notice the smell, but it was back once in the cab.
It took a while, but I suddenly remembered one thing it could possibly be coming from.
Yes, my sequin covered, bling hat that my daughter got me, got pee smell on it. There was no evidence that it was peed on directly, thank God, but the smell was definitely there – and getting stronger the more I was sweating in the heat.
So my first stop was at a Dollarama. The last time I was there, they still had this hat. Sadly, they were out of stock.
Instead, I got the blingiest hat I could find. Not as dramatic as the other one, but it’s got enough sequins to send sparkles of reflected light around when I move my head. 😄😄
This was one of the places I had planned to go to, though not first thing, so I spent time time there before heading to the Walmart it shared a parking lot with. Between this and the road construction delay, I had just enough time to do the shopping I needed at Walmart, and a bit of looking through the hardware section, before I had to meet the Cat Lady.
I didn’t get a chance to go to the Canadian Tire, though. Once I had the medication, I didn’t want to delay going home, even with an ice pack. I think I might have better luck at one of the local hardware stores, anyhow.
As for my super sparkly bling hat, I’m hoping I can put it through the wash, while in a lingerie bag. It’s not supposed to be machine washable, but I really like that hat!
While I was out tending and harvesting the garden, the girls took care of eye baby.
We’re still having to feed her with the modified bottled, and she eats from it voraciously – and if we’re not fast enough, she’ll try to eat our fingers!
Then her eyes get washed and treated, and she gets set out in the sunroom for the day.
By the time I was heading back inside, that was all done, so of course I was keeping an eye out for her.
I have no idea which litter that black and white kitten is part of, or who its mama is, but it’s one of the ones that is a bit less skittish, and likes to hang out in the sun room.
After I finished with the morning routine, I headed out early to meet with the Cat Lady, so I could do some shopping – and window shopping – in advance. This time, I took the route through my mother’s town, as I wanted to get gas, then stop at the feed store to pick up cat food – and pay the difference from the last time I was there. That was when I bought a 20 pound bag of cat food, not noticing that the stitching on the top had come loose, and ended up spilling it all over the floor when I hoisted the bag on my shoulder!
I’m glad I left early. The highway is still being resurfaced; right now they’re at the stage of adding fresh oil over the new chips that were laid down. It’s looking fantastic! However, I did end up getting stopped on the highway to wait for the pilot truck, which ensures traffic doesn’t go above 60kph/37mph over the newest section.
Once I got through that area and into town, I was very happy to see that the gas prices had dropped. The last time I saw them in the town closest to us, it was $149.9/L, while the town my mother is in is always a penny higher – but now it was $140.9/L (On my way home, I took the alternate route to avoid construction, and the gas station I would have gone to otherwise was still at $149.9/L.) So that was a nice surprise.
When I stopped at the feed store, asked to get a 40lb bag of cat food, then asked about paying the difference between the 20 and 40 pound bags, explaining what happened. That’s when I heard a voice coming from the office behind him saying, nope! It was the same guy from last time that said to give me a 40lb bag when the 20lb bag spilled! He would not hear of my paying the difference, and said that it was not an uncommon problem.
As we were talking, I asked if they had any lysine. I explained a bit about trying to find bulk quantities, like for horses – I know they come in 2lb and 4lb buckets. I said I haven’t found a local supplier, and my attempts to buy some online failed at the border for some reason. He didn’t have any, but they made a note and will look into it. He might be able to get some for me.
After I paid for the kibble, the guy behind the desk came out to grab a bag for me from the adjoining building and loaded it in the truck for me. He made a comment about how that will last me a while. I said, about a week. He was shocked to hear that, so I told him we are caring for a colony. I don’t know how many we have right now, but in the winter, we’ve had a high of 33 (at least, that’s what I can remember right now). His jaw literally dropped!
I didn’t even mention the 22 we currently have inside! They need more variety in kibble than the outside cats, since they can’t supplement with hunting, so they won’t be getting feed store kibble.
Oh, while I was paying for the kibble, the guy behind the counter wondered out loud if I had a card.
Card?
It turns out the feed supplier has a deal where, if you buy a dozen bags of feed, you get one free. So they keep a Rolodex type organizer of cards for people, and made up a new one for me.
All the more reason to stock up on kibble for the outside cats from here! A 40lb bag is $60, and it won’t take us long to reach a dozen, if we buy there regularly. I’ll still be getting some from Costco, etc. for the inside cats, but I’d much rather get four 40lb bags at a time here, than eight 20lb bags at Costco.
That done, I headed to the smaller city and had time to do some shopping (more on that later) before meeting the Cat Lady, and three of her daughters. She had the antibiotics for eye baby – and a cat carrier! She got it as a donation. It’s an unusual one, triangular in shape, that folds down flat. Not something that can hold any of the heavier cats, but perfect for kittens and light cats.
(David has already claimed it.)
As we talked, she told me that Button is doing very well on the antibiotics, even though it’s only been a couple of days. She said they flushed his ears while at the vet, and there was a lot of black coming out of there, then treated him for eat mites. Now his hearing is back! So that is more good news, as they thought the hearing loss might be permanent. His appetite picked up as well, which is very encouraging.
As we were talking, I found out more about The Wolfman’s eye injury. It is fully recovered, but all I’d heard until now was that they figured the injury was some sort of blunt force trauma. Either he ran into something, fell onto something, or something fell onto his eye. My only guess is that he fell off of something. We can’t think of anything else.
Well, it seems that, even after the eye was healing and the swelling was gone, it was still leaking a lot. Then, about a week or two later, while getting checked, they found something had been pushed out of his eye as it healed! The vet said it looked like a nail (as in, from a cat’s claw), but she thinks it looked more like a sliver of wood. Either way, once that was removed, the eye stopped leaking.
Go figure!
That makes the cause of his injury even more of a mystery. A piece of claw I can understand, though that wouldn’t cause the blunt force trauma injury, but a sliver of wood? From what? With that one, unfortunately, there are too many possibilities, but not with blunt force trauma, too!
The Wolfman, meanwhile, has asserted his dominance over the other cats in the household! This is very different from our place, but he was brought in as a tiny ball of fluff with a dislocated shoulder, so he was too young to assert any sort of dominance in the pecking order here. Once in a new home, I guess that changed things for him!
He is also terrible for stealing drumsticks off of roasted chickens and turkeys!
The Cat Lady has gotten very familiar with the butcher at a particular grocery store, and they let her know when, for example, whole chickens are available for about $4 a bird. Normally, a whole chicken is about $16-$18, at least! When they’re super cheap like that, it becomes less expensive to feed the cats freshly roasted chicken than cat food. It’s the same with other types of meat and seafood; typically, when things are very close to their best-by date, they mark them down dramatically, and put on an “enjoy tonight” sticker to let people know they need to be cooked right away. Ideal for feeding the cats – but something we can’t take advantage of, because we live too far from the city.
Meanwhile, along with the medication, the cat carrier, and a couple of rings of turkey garlic sausage she got for just pennies a ring, so she bought over 30 of them (they had a cash back deal that allowed her to buy more cat food. 😄), she gave us a small bag of kibble. It hadn’t been opened yet, except that The Wolfman and chewed his way through the side of the bag, so it was taped up. 😄
It was great to get together with the Cat Lady. She is so awesome!
I’m also glad I brought an extra ice pack, and was able to split things up a bit to make sure the medication was kept cold. The fridge and freezer stuff I had were in the cab of the truck, so I could keep the AC going, too. It was way too hot to have anything like that in the box of the truck!
I just checked the weather again. When I started writing this, we had cooled down to 25C/77F. We’re now back up to 27C/81F! At least we’re now expecting some light showers this evening. That will give the garden some relief!
I’m not complaining, though. As unpleasant as I’m finding the heat and humidity, I’ll take this as long as we can get it, and be thankful for it, just for the garden!
I don’t know that the outside cats would agree with me, though. When I head outside, I find them splayed out in any shade they can get, all over the place!
Speaking of which, it’s almost time for my evening rounds, and I’ve got one more post to write…
Today, we were expected to reach a high of 28C/82F, so I wanted to make sure to give the garden a deep watering early in the morning, before things got hot. I’m glad we did, because we seem to have reached 30C/86F, with the humidex closer to 35C/95F!
I’m so glad I remembered to grab ice packs before I headed out today.
Anyhow…
After the garden was watered, I did some harvesting, and this is what I gathered.
There was a single patty pan ready to harvest. I mightily resisted picking the one Magda squash we have right now, but I decided to let it get bigger. There’s one zucchini that looks like it’s going to reach a harvestable size soon, too.
There was a nice handful of the Royal Burgundy bush beans (bottom right corner in the bin, as well as the longer Carminat pole beans. There was a single San Marzano tomato to pick, plus a whole two Chocolate Cherry tomatoes – the first of the season! I went ahead and harvested a few more Uzbek golden carrots as well. I think the next harvest will be the last of them, except for the ones gone to seed.
I always second guess myself when it comes to harvesting corn. I’ve heard it said, you can tell they’re ready when the silks are dried up, but I’ve harvested them at that stage and found immature cobs. It’s also suggested to tear through the husks to actually see the kernels, but if the cob isn’t ready, that leaves it with an opening where moisture and insects can get in.
This morning, I found one corn stalk broken at the cob, as if something tried to pull it down. Raccoons are notorious for cleaning out an entire corn patch at peak ripeness, but I don’t think a raccoon did this. I would expect more damage from a raccoon. Still, since the cob was above the broken stem, I shucked it and it was perfectly ripe.
Yes, I ate it raw, and it was deliscious.
So I went ahead and picked more that I thought might also be ripe. Happily, when I shucked them at the compost pile, I found they were all ripe. I ended up putting them in the oven to roast along with something else, and they were absolutely fantastic!
Yukon Chief is definitely a variety worth growing again!
I have a different short season variety to try next year, so we’ll be able to compare, but with how super short the Yukon Chief’s growing season is, it already has an extra point going for it. Once we decide on a variety we like that grows well here, we will start saving seeds. By then, we should have more space to dedicate to growing corn, too.
It’s nice to finally be having some decent sized harvests this year! I honestly did not thing we would be getting any bush beans at all, so to have both bush and pole beans to harvest is just icing on the cake!
I’m glad I set up shop in the shade of the garage to work on this, because even in there, it got so very hot!
I got progress done on the isolation shelter, but also discovered some things I neglected to take into account. I am definitely getting tires, though, as I made some pretty silly goofs today, too. Nothing that couldn’t be worked around, but still… Yikes!
I won’t be able to do much on it over the next few days, though. I will be heading out over the next three days, and while I might have time to do something before I have to leave, I don’t want to be getting covered in paint or sawdust or getting all sweaty before I need to go out in public!
Anyhow.
The first thing I needed to work on today was adding the verticals. They are not needed, structurally, but they will be needed to attach things to, whether it’s a door or access panel, or to support the welded wire, etc.
I’m not going to go into too much detail right now, but gosh, some of them were a pain to put in! I had painted the cut ends, and on a couple of them, I had to sand the paint off to get them to fit. In others. I actually had to use the miter saw to shave off some of the wood.
I did want them to be very snug, and most of them were. I used a piece of scrap wood and a hammer on some of them, to tap them into place without damaging them.
Then I had to cut out a chunk from the floor board that was to go against the back wall.
I don’t really have the tools to do that properly, but I managed.
That was my first goof.
I measured out the hole to fit around the vertical, forgetting that the board was not intended to fit flush with the back, but flush against the next board. So I ended up cutting a deeper opening than needed.
Ah, well. It’ll still work.
After setting the long floor boards across the back half of the shelter, I realized something else I didn’t take into account. I’d added an extra, narrower, board that straddled the center line, with the vertical 2×4 placed in the middle, the 1×4 boards fit exactly in between the new vertical and the outside frame.
The long, narrow board could no longer fit.
A 1×4 could fit, but there was nothing to support it at the vertical.
After debating it for a while, I ended up attaching one of the triangle blocks I’d made out of regular 2x4s (not the true to size 2x4s) and attached it to the horizontal bar, to support a floor board, and I just had to cut one of the pre-painted boards a bit shorter. That worked out fine.
But I was then left with a gap.
If I cut a new floor board to fit the space between the two “floor joists”, I’d have to just barely trim off a bit at one end, to fit around the corner post. That would leave a gap between the frame and the front horizontal piece. Or the wide board was cut to fit between the frame could still be added, with a corner cut out to fit around the front vertical piece, but that would leave a gap between it and the next floor board.
At that point, I decided to leave it and work on other things while I decided what to do next.
Which was to make a shelf.
I had a short length of true-to-size 2×4 that I could cut in half with opposing 45° angles to make shelf brackets.
I had piece of 1×8 board that I’d brought from the barn some time ago, with plans to make a shelf against the garage wall. It was pretty damaged and needed to be scrubbed down with water. I was able to cut a 4′ length, and the most damaged part will be the underside.
At that point, I decided to leave a large gap in the floor at the front, but to add a small shelf under it that a cat could use to access the second level like a step. So I cut a piece to fit, and will use a couple of 2×4 triangle blocks to support it.
Then, since I had to wait for the board I scrubbed to dry in the sun, I started working on the “nesting box”.
I measured the space under the shelf that will go across the back, as I wanted to make the box to fit under the shelf. It was 11 inches, so I decided to make the box 10.5 inches tall.
I took some of the 12.5″ long pallet wood pieces I cut yesterday, picking out the least damaged ones, and cut them to 10.5 inches. The longer pallet wood pieces are 13.5 inches, so that would be the length of the board.
After some consideration, I decided to make the box 3 of these boards deep. I had some scrap 1x2s and I cut a bunch to match the width of 3 boards to be used as cross pieces. I was going to make 3 short sides and two long top and bottoms, so I cut 8 cross pieces. The idea is that the cross pieces would be on the outside, and rigid insulation would be cut to fit in between them.
I started by using cross pieces to join the shorter boards using glue and nails. All those finishing nails I’d sorted out of the pile the cats spilled on the garage floor came in handy, but I had to watch not to grab any that were too long – after accidentally nailing it to the table with my very first nail!
After the two side pieces were done, I was going to do the same thing with the 13.5″ pieces, but realized I could just attach them across the top and bottom of the short pieces, using the same cross pieces.
Which worked perfectly fine…
Except…
Yeah, I goofed.
With the longer pieces attached this way, the whole thing is now higher than will fit under the shelf.
No matter. It can still be used. It just won’t fit under the shelf across the back.
I also decided it will be a “summer” nesting box, and not have insulation added. I’ll make another one – this time, one that will actually fit under the shelf – another day.
By then, the shelf board was dry, so I painted the new pieces, as well as the shelf supports that were already attached, then went around finding spots to touch up. After the painting was done and put away, I added a back to the “nesting” box.
I still wasn’t sure how to do the front. This is supposed to be a closed up, cozy space for a nervous cat do feel secure in – but also fully accessible. After showing the photos to my husband, he suggested leather. He has some really thick leather that he isn’t able to use for the projects he had in mind that I can use. A piece cut large enough to cover the front, then cut into strips or flaps that a cat can easily push through, would work just fine!
The inside of the boxes will also get something soft put inside. We’ll just have to make sure whatever we put into the insulated box is breathable, since the insulation will hold in moisture as well as warmth.
Once the shelves and boxes are built, I need to work on the door and access panels. I took measurements of what will be the main door/ramp in the front, but I have absolutely nothing suitable to make it with. There was one thing I thought I could salvage, but it’s full of nails that won’t come out, and it’s not worth it to cut them, either. Of all the things I have that are large enough, they are too thick and heavy. I might have to get creative with the lath that I picked up, but that is really thin. For a door that will double as a ramp, it would break too easily, I think.
I’ll figure something out. I’ll have a few days to think about it. Since I’m going to meet with the Cat Lady in the nearer city tomorrow, I might do some window shopping and look for inspiration.
So that is my progress on the isolation shelter for today. I still have to track down some half inch welded wire for the open sides, and figure out what to use for access panels on the second level. What I’d really like to do for the upper level is enclose it more. The question is, how to do that, and still be able to see inside. None of the salvaged windows I’ve looked at will work. Ideally, I’d just use some Lexan or Optix (both handle UV light better than Plexiglass), but even Optix is pricey.
Ah, well. We’ll figure something out.
As long as it gets done before we start trapping cats for spays and neuters!
There were some pretty decent sized bulbs in there!
They got trimmed and strung up and are how hanging in the garage with the garlic harvested from the bed with the Forme de Coeur tomatoes.
Speaking of which, I spotted a couple of those, starting to turn red, too! Finally!
Still nothing on the black cherry tomatoes, though.
While doing my evening rounds, I spotted a few things I could probably have harvested, but I decided to leave them for tomorrow morning.
While I didn’t have to water the garden this morning, I definitely will have to do it tomorrow morning. Today, we reached our high of 27C/81F, but the humidex definitely put us above 30C/86F. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 28C/84F, with not even a hint of rain in the forecast – and it’s supposed to continue like that for the next week to ten days.
What I found interesting when I did my evening rounds in the garden was that so many things were noticeably bigger – particularly the squash plants, both summer and winter – just from this morning! The Crespo and G Star squash are getting huge!
Now, if we can just keep this up through at least half of September, that would be good… 😁
Ha! I just checked the long range forecast. For a while there, around September 10 – our average first frost date – it was looking like we’d be getting pretty chilly, with lows of only 4C/39F on that day. Now it’s saying that we should be hitting 30C/86F on the 10th, with a low of 15C/59F! As it stands now, we might not get first frost until October.
Of course, I expect that forecast to change a few times over the next while, but still, there’s hope for the garden!
I’ve been outside most of today, and am finally able to sit at the computer to blog.
Of course, I’ve been constantly interrupted by one thing or another, since I’ve come inside! 😄
Before I get into things, which will be in separate posts, I figured I should write about the important things.
Updates on kitties!
A daughter and I got eye baby’s eyes washed and treated.
Actually, we had to feed her first. When I woke her up by picking her up, she almost immediately went for my fingers. Once the modified kitten bottle was close to her mouth, she practically attacked it! She got a good feeding in, and then she was calm enough for us to do her eyes.
The one, less swollen eye is looking clearer, though we can still only open it half way. The other eye still looks rather horrific. She clearly can see something, though. After trying her off, I took her to the sun room and put her near a bowl of kibble. She ignored it and went right for a small carrier next to the cat cage and used it to climb up and through the cat cage wall to her favourite napping spot.
I had been wondering how she got up to the second level of the cat cage! I didn’t think that she’s still small enough to fit through the wire on the second level.
I guess she wasn’t happy with her cuddle buddy up there, so she went to the bottom level to her other favourite napping spot.
There were two cuddle buddies in there. When she crawled in with them, one of them immediately started grooming her!
As I was going back and forth from the house while working in the garage today, I found her in different spots, including another spot that required climbing to get to. So she is managed remarkably well, considering the state of her eyes!
Then, as I was getting things together to go inside, I realized I couldn’t see her anywhere.
I had checked on the garden and the old kitchen garden was looking parched, so I decided to water it from the rain barrel while keeping an eye out for the baby.
I finally spotted her while refilling a watering can. Adam was lying in the grass with a whole bunch of kittens trying to nurse, and eye baby was trying to fight her way past bigger kittens to get some nip!
Adam didn’t like that I stopped to take a picture, though, so I caught her as she was standing up, with eye baby still half draped across her back!
As I finished the watering, I saw eye baby in the kibble house, searching through the kibble trays for something to eat. So I did the evening cat feeding, and she dove right in! She definitely has appetite!
Sadly, another sick kitty does not. I got messages from the Cat Lady about Button. He’s still sick, completely stuffed up and having to mouth breath. They’ve been having to force feed him. She was able to find the antibiotics, though, and he’s had his first doses, and she says he does already seem to be a bit better. Then, just a little while ago, she sent a photo of him, eating off of a plate! Hopefully, this means they don’t have to force feed him anymore.
I’m still amazed that he got so sick after they took him. The changes must have really stressed that tiny body out, and with him already having upper respiratory problems it just kicked right in.
She was able to get extra antibiotics, though, and I’m meeting her tomorrow afternoon to get some for eye baby. We’ll have to weigh her to confirm the dose. It’ll be once a day for 7 days. Between that and the eye drops, I hope that gives her the boost she needs to recover.
I’m honestly still amazed that we lost the orange and white kitten, but not eye baby. I still would not be surprised to find her gone, yet she does actually seem to be getting stronger!
We’ll keep on bringing her in for the night to treat her eyes and keep her in the carrier until the morning, then she’ll go back outside after treatment. This seems to be working out, and I think she’s getting used to this as a routine. The eye drops are supposed to be for 14 days, and now the oral antibiotics will be for 7 days, so we’ll be doing this for at least another 10 nights.
I’d better get busy with the other blog posts I need to write, because we’ll be bringing her inside again, in about an hour!
I started out with more of the 1×4 boards, but found a bit of a problem at the edge. The remaining space was too wide to use another of these boards by around an inch.
I did have a single 1×6 board, left over from when I guilt the low raised beds in the east yard. This one was never used because it has some damage and is rather warped, but I only needed 23 inches.
The board was too wide, though. I marked the overhang from below, but was stuck with how to cut the excess off. I wasn’t about to drag the table saw out of the sun room for just one cut, and the piece was too small to use the circular saw. I ended up getting my jigsaw and using that. The cut was a bit wonky, but it’ll do!
The next step was to paint the floor boards and half the verticals. I didn’t have a lot of room on the saw horses, so I painted the verticals on their edges, as well as their ends. I supposed the cut ends didn’t need to be painted, since they’ll be hidden once they are screwed into place, but I did them anyway.
While those were drying, I needed to figure out what to use to build the removeable insulated shelter box. Inspired by a comment, I decided to see what I could salvage from the remaining pallet.
This pallet has some charring on it, and quite a bit of damage. I used the circular saw to cut along both sides of the 2×4 supports (I can’t remember what these are actually called), doing one side, then flipping the pallet to do the other side. Some of the pieces were already split, or split while being cut, but most of them stayed intact.
That worked well until the very last section. The remains of the pallet kept wanting to move and jump about, and using the circular saw was just too dangerous. I ended up using the jig saw for the last pieces.
That left me with a completely uneven stack of short boards. I wanted them to be even and equal in size, so I made use of the screw clamp on the miter saw to cut stacks of them. I could fit 7 of these pieces at the same time. The screw clamp could hold a higher stack, but any higher and the top pieces would be above the guide that the stack is pushed up against, to ensure cuts are straight.
With the first stack, after shaving off one end to make them all even, I measured what was left and decided to cut the stack to 13.5 inches. This was a length that all the pieces were long enough for.
When I started the next group, though, I found some were shorter than 13 inches!
I continued to cut stacks of 7 to 13.5 inches with the longest pieces, then did then did the last short ones at 12.5 inches. In the Instagram photo, the two stacks in the foreground are 13.5 inches, and the one stack at the far end are the 12.5 inch pieces.
Some of these will not be useable, but that can be sorted out later. At this point, my thought is to make the box, then add insulation around the outside. That can be tacked into place with just enough pieces of lath to make sure the insulation doesn’t get scratched at. The cats like using the rigid insulation for scratching! The main thing will be to keep the box light and easy to move, while still being large enough for a cat to enjoy hiding out in it.
I haven’t quite decided how to do the entry. I could just leave one side open, but that won’t give a convalescing cat that cave-like feeling of security. So it will need to be at least be partially covered, but not so much that we see or can’t reach inside for cleaning.
I’ll work that out, later.
For now, though, I at least have the materials to get started.
It is now time to head out to do my evening rounds. The paint on the uprights should be dry enough to flip them to paint the other half. By morning, they will be dry and the uprights can be set in place, then the floor boards on the ends can be cut to fit around the verticals.
I think, before the floor boards are added permanently, I’ll see if I can added a lounging shelf or two, about half way up one or both levels. Just a little something extra. We shall see.
For now, though, it’s time to get back outside and get the other half of those verticals painted.
I’m starting to get quite low on paint, though I’m honestly surprised I still have any at all at this point!
The whole thing is coming along quite nicely, though. I’m no carpenter, but I’m happy with how things are working out.
We’re expecting heat but no rain for the next while, so it looks like I’m going to be back at watering the garden every morning again. I worked on that while the girls took care of eyes baby, cleaning and treating her eyes, then feeding her cat soup with the modified kitten baby bottle. That made a mess, of course, so she was looking really bedrabbled when I finally saw her outside!
While I was watering, I saw a little green friend on the grape leaves.
While watering the G Star pattypan squash, I found a squash I’d somehow managed to miss seeing before. It’s a bit bigger than I would normally let it get, but it’s still in the tender stage. I got a pretty good handful of Carminat beans and a few Dalvay shelling peas.
There was one Yukon Chief corn stalk that didn’t survive being broken by the wind, and it had a tiny little cob on it. I went ahead and shucked it and, small as it was, it was ripe. I ate it raw, and it was quite tasty. So I took a chance and harvested the ripest looking cobs I could find. Only one probably could have used a few more days on the stalk. I decided to harvest some of the Uzbek Golden carrots, and even found a few Seychelles beans in the bed with the Crespo squash. I’m happy with the carrots I picked this morning. There isn’t much left in the bed, including the two that have gone to seed. I really hope we’ll have the space to plant more carrots next year.
I was happy to see that we FINALLY have ripening chocolate cherry tomato. Just two, really, and one looked almost ready to pick, but I left it for now.
With having such small harvests for the past while, most have not had enough to make it worth including in a meal, so we’ve been setting some things aside. We had enough that, with this morning’s harvest, I decided to use it all up. I was inspired by A Jeanne in the Kitchen’s Low Country Boil. We had no seafood, and I just used what we had. Except the peppers, since I can’t eat those without gagging for some reason, but we did have a couple of little San Marzano peppers I could use. I can’t eat fresh tomatoes, either, but I can eat them when they are cooked or processed.
I ended up using half a package of bacon, half a package of fresh sausages, frozen onions from our garden last year, carrots, beans, shelled and sugar snap peas, the patty pan squash, the corn chopped into chunks (not a way I would normally cook corn on the cob), some Russet potatoes we bought that need to be used up, and several cloves of fresh garlic that couldn’t be hung for curing with the others. I think that’s everything. Some of this was browned before adding water.
For seasoning, I used some of the truffle salt we still have left, freshly ground pepper, ground thyme, dried parsley, a couple of vegetable bouillon cubes and a touch of turmeric. I was digging through the fridge and spotted some jars of seafood sauce and oyster sauce, so I went ahead and added some of that to the liquid, too.
I’m quite happy with out it turned out, and it made an excellent brunch.
It will now make an excellent… supper, I guess. I got busy working in the garage and am now realizing I haven’t eaten in way too long.
I’ll post about the progress on the isolation shelter next, but first, I need to eat!
As has been usual for the past few days, we planned to bring eye baby in for the night, along with the orange and white kitten that she’s been cuddling with so often.
When I walked into the sunroom, much to my shock, I spotted eye baby – on top of the table saw! I have no idea how she managed to climb up there. Thankfully, I was able to grab her before she walked off the edge!
I’d already prepared her very own cat soup in a bottle to feed her with, and had the bathroom ready to wash the eyes of both kittens. After carefully washing her eyes – gosh, they look so awful, and are still swollen shut – I held her while my daughter added the eye drops. Then I went and got the bottle to try and feed her.
She was very hungry! She kept trying to eat the top of the bottle while I was trying to be gentle about squeezing food into her mouth. I think she even bit the tip off the nipple, and almost pulled it out of the cap a couple of times! It all got very messy. After a while, my husband came out to hold her while I tried to feed her some more.
If she gets hungry later, all she’ll need to do is groom herself! 😄
My husband was going to put her into the carrier to give her a chance to settle before we brought in the orange and white kitten, and then added the food and water bowls. If the bowls are already in the carrier before she is, she ends up walking through them and knocking them over. He ended up settling in my desk chair, just holding her, while I put what was left of the bottle in with the rest of the prepared food, then washed up before heading out to bring in the orange and white kitten.
Instead, I found myself burying him under the honeysuckle and rose bushes, with the many other kittens we’ve buried under there this year.
Between the two of them, I honestly did not expect to be burying him, first.
Earlier this evening, I got messages from the Cat Lady. Because the clinic had been so busy when she brought Button in, she ended up not getting any antibiotics for him right away. Well, all the changes happening to him right now are pretty rough on that tiny body, and today his upper respiratory issues kicked into high gear. He’s so stuffed up, he’s mouth breathing. She called the clinic and they’ll have antibiotics ready for her when she’s back in the city. I told her that eye ball kitten and the orange and white kitten seemed to be getting worse, not better, and she told me she would have extra antibiotics that she can pass on for them, too.
Well, it’s going to be just for one kitten, now.
I’ve since messaged her to tell her about the orange and white kitten.
Eye ball kitten, meanwhile, may be essentially blind right now, but feisty as heck! For the first time, as I was washing her eyes and before I started feeding her, she was fussing to get free and actually started to bite at me! Once in the carrier, she started clawing to get out. I ended up taking her out to cuddle her for a bit, but she wanted down – something we can’t allow her to do – and she tried to bite me again! So, back into the carrier she went! I’ve got purring cat sounds playing again, and she settled soon after. She may not have her orange and white friend to cuddle tonight, but she does have her plushy, so she will at least have something soft and fluffy to sleep against.
What a way to end the day.
It was most definitely not the good bye I was expecting to make.
As soon as I was done tending to sick kitties, doing my morning rounds and grabbing a quick breakfast (a piece of pie my daughter made using that winter squash we had to harvest early – breakfast of champions!), it was back to work on the isolation shelter.
The horizontal piece that will be supporting the second level floor needed to have its other side painted, plus I needed to cut the horizontal pieces and paint them, too.
Well, I didn’t quite get to start on that right away. I had to clean up a cat mess, first!
Among the things I brought to the garage, just in case I might need them, was a container full of odds and ends that the cats had knocked onto the floor over the winter. When the girls tried to clean it up in the spring, they didn’t have the chance to try and sort through everything. When I brought it to the garage, I dug out the cardboard base that had been under the wood chipper when we unboxed it – a large, flat surface with sides on it that I could use as a tray. I dumped it all into there and took a look, then set the whole thing on top of the stack of scavenged lumber I’d brought over.
Of course, I had to move it while digging for pieces I could use, and set it on top of the lath bundles above.
Then forgot it there.
Some time during the night, some critter – likely a cat – knocked it upside down.
Since I was picking them up anyhow, I brought over a bunch of repurposed sour candy containers (my husband had bought a case of them) I had intended to use for seed and sorted them as best I could. Some odd things ended up back in the cardboard “tray”, some of the screws were the same as what I was using on the isolation shelter build but, mostly, it was finishing nails of various sizes – some ridiculously tiny. I ended up filling three containers of those!
Getting them out of the dirt floor was the worst. Eventually, though, I was able to grab handfuls and just lay them on my work table. Once everything was clear of the lumber, it was much easier on the back to go through the last of them on the table!
I think it took me at least an hour, just to clean up all those nails. When I’m done building the shelter and cleaning up so we can park the truck in the garage again, I’m going to have to make sure to rake the dirt floor towards the walls, and triple check to make sure nothing got missed. The last thing we need is for a nail or screw in one of our tires!
That done, I could finally access the lumber I needed! Specifically, the two pieces of standard size 2x4s.
Unfortunately, both pieces were so dirty, I had to bring the hose over and actually scrub them clean. One of them looked like it was covered with ashes.
I first measured around the bottom half of the shelter, where the verticals will go. Those were all about 18″. I say “about”, because one side is, for some reason, slightly different, and I had to cut one piece about an eighth of an inch longer. Then the top half got measured. It was the same thing; I needed 22″ pieces, except for one, that needed to be just a tiny bit longer.
I was able to cut all the 18″ lengths, but after cutting three 22″ length, I ran out of 2×4 The remaining piece left over was way too short. I did have one piece of true-to-size 2×4 left that I could have cut a 22″ piece out of, but I didn’t want there to be a single piece with different dimensions.
So I went hunting in the barn.
I didn’t find any scrap 2×4’s, but I did find a pair of large baking trays, like the one we found in the basement and are now using under the water bowl shelter for kibble. I figured we might find a use for them, so I brought them out. Then I checked the shed near the barn. Happily, I found a single piece of 2×4 long enough that I could cut a final 22″ length. It needed to be scrubbed clean, too.
Once all the pieces were cut, I set them outside to dry in the sun.
Since painting them was out of the question until they were fully dry, I decided to drag out the leftover boards from when we build the raised bed frame covers, and start cutting floor pieces. For some reason, I had it in my mind that they were 1×6’s, but they were 1×4’s. They’ve been stored against a wall in the side of the garage my mother’s car is parked in. Normally, that would have been fine, but we’ve had such wet weather, the dirt floor got damp, even that far into the garage, so they needed to be brushed clean, too.
At least they weren’t as bad as the 2x4s I had to scrub with water!
I thought I would have to rotate my work table to fit the 12′ lengths, but it turned out I didn’t have to. I was able to move the miter saw to the far end of the table, which gave me just enough space to fit a board. Most of the floor pieces for the back of the shelter needed to be 4′ long. Once the first cut was made, space was no longer an issue.
With the first board I used, though, there was too much damage in one area, so one of the 4′ lengths couldn’t be used. I might still be able to use part of it, though, for something else.
One board needed to be cut shorter, as it will go between the frame pieces. With these being standard 1x4s, while the frame is true-to-size 2x4s, that one board has a bit of wiggle room. I set the others where they will go in the shelter, and found they were about 2″ short of the centre line.
I then had a decision to make. I could leave it as is, and have a slightly larger opening for a cat to access the second level, or I could cut another piece and have a smaller opening.
Then I remembered, I has some old 1×3 boards we found in a shed some years ago. Was one of those long enough to cut 4′ off of it?
Why yes. Yes it was!
So now the floor will extend just an inch past the centre mark.
Once those were all cut, I painted them, along with the second half of the 2×4 that will run across the centre, to support the floor boards. The floor boards only need to have their tops and ends painted, except for the two boards that will be at the ends, which needed to have one of their edges painted, too.
At that point, since the verticals were still drying, I was pretty much done for the day – but I was then left with a conundrum.
I was expecting to use triangle blocks to attach the vertical pieces, but I would need 32 of those. I had a few from earlier cuts I’d set aside, and cut as many as I could out of some of the other scrap ends I had left. I ended up with 16 triangle blocks in the true-to-size 2×4 scraps, and only 4 in the regular 2×4 scraps. The vertical pieces are all regular 2×4, so if I used those 16 pieces, they’d all be wider than the pieces I was using them to join.
Plus, I’d have to cut gaps in floor board pieces to fit around the verticals. If I were to use the triangle blocks, I’d have to cut much larger gaps, and I am not about to try and go all journeyman on things, to cut them to fit over the angles on the blocks.
There was an alternative, though.
Inside I went, did some searching, then made a call to the local hardware store, for a pocket hole jig.
Then had one small kit in stock! Plus, it was only about $20, so quite affordable.
I asked them to set it aside for me, then headed into town.
Once I had the kit, I just had to use it right away!
I did a few test drills on some scrap wood, then drilled pocket holes on all the vertical pieces. They’ll be joined from the narrow sides.
Tomorrow, they’ll be painted, including inside the pocket holes.
That done, I checked on the boards painted earlier. They were pretty much dry!
So I set the horizontal piece that will support the floor in place at the centre marks. Unfortunately, it turned out to have just the slightest twist to the board, but not enough for it to be a problem. It’s still a nice, tight fit, so I didn’t need to add wood glue, or even anything to hold it until I could screw it in place.
I then laid the floor boards on top. They won’t be permanently attached for a while yet, but I’ll be able to measure things and see how many boards will be needed to cover one side of the remaining space.
While working on all this, I decided to make some major changes to the inside of the shelter.
My original plan was to have an insulated shelter box, with an access door, on one side of the back half, while the other side, with an access door, would have a litter box. The front would be open screen, except for the front door, which would swing down to form a ramp when open.
Then I decided to make a separate insulated box that can be taken in and out of the shelter for cleaning. That way, it could be smaller and more cozy.
The top half was going to be open, with spaces for cat beds, food and water bowls and whatever. It would also have an access door to reach the food and water bowls.
Altogether, that would have made for three access doors on the bottom level, and one for the top level.
As I was setting the floor boards and seeing how things fit, it occurred to me.
There’s really no specific reason to have the shelter box on the bottom, other than I happened to draw it that way.
Building all this on the bottom level would be rather more difficult than on the top level.
Instead, the bottom level can be screened in on all sides, except for the door/ramp. The litter box can still be kept in the bottom level. Any spilled litter can just be swept through the gaps in the pallet base. If I want, I can still add a shelf or two between some of the vertical supports for a cat to lie on, but nothing that would need more than reaching with a brush to sweep off through the doorway.
The top level can have the solid back wall, plus an access panels on each side. One to take the shelter box in and out. We can even make two of them. One, an insulated winter one, and the other a more airy summer one. A second access panel would be to reach the food and water bowls. I’m still trying to work out how to make these as sliding doors, rather than swinging doors. I still don’t know what I have available to make the doors out of.
I wonder if we have some small pieces of half inch plywood hiding in one of the sheds somewhere? I’ve gone through them so often, looking for specific things, I would not necessarily have noticed other things.
All that, and I’m still not 100% decided on how to do the roof of this. Ideally, it would be hinged for access, too.
That can wait, though. Gotta do the interior stuff, first!
In the end, I had to force myself to stop and leave painting the verticals for tomorrow. I’d been out there for most of the day and was getting really tired and hungry, but I wanted to keep on going! I want to get this thing ready as quickly as possible.
Oh, that reminds me. While at the hardware store, I looked at their supply of hardware cloth (welded wire mesh). They only had quarter inch size. I am looking for half inch. That will be the one thing we have no choice but to buy, as there is nothing suitable that we can scavenge here. I think I do have a small amount left in the sun room, but not enough for the entire shelter, that’s for sure. We probably won’t have a budget for until the end of the month. Still, that’s one of the last things that will need to be done, so that’s okay.
I’m rather pleased with today’s progress – and with my new “toy”!
The Re-Farmer 