Morning kitties, and WOW did it get cold!

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Yesterday was beautifully cool, and I knew it would get cooler overnight but, my goodness, did it get cold last night! With June’s temperatures, I haven’t even bothered putting a blanket on my bed; just a top sheet, and I’d often sleep on top of it, with the fan blowing right over me. Last night, the fan was off and I should have closed the window and gotten a blanket, but was too sleepy to do it, and slept cold, instead. When I finally checked the temperature at about 6am, it was 7C/45F!! I don’t know if it got any cooler than that last night, but you can bet I was checking on the tomatoes and squash this morning, for cold damage. They seemed to be just fine. If I’d known it might get that cold overnight, the girls and I would have covered them! I keep a bottle water by my bedside for when I take my supplements, or just need a drink during the night. When I drank it this morning, it was as cold as if it had come straight out of the fridge!

The kitties seemed to handle the drop in temperature just fine. I’m sure they were well cuddled by their mamas!

Speaking of mamas…

I thought I saw a pregnant cat run by, last night! There she is! I almost never see this cat anymore. I can’t remember if we’ve ever named her. Good grief, she looks ready to pop! Considering we’re in July, I suspect this is a second pregnancy, and that she lost her first litter. Unless she’s the tuxedo’s mother, but I don’t think so. She is from one of the oldest of last year’s kittens. We can’t get anywhere near her, and the only reason I was able to take this photo was because she was really hungry, and I can zoom in.

As I was finishing up my rounds, I was pleased to spot this.

The tiny tuxedo has figured out that there’s safe food on the roof of the cat house! Normally, he eats at the tray under the water bowl shelter. He couldn’t do that at the time. It was occupied.

An adult skunk had already run off, but these two little ones did not want to leave the food. I sprayed them with a hose to chase them off, as I usually do, and one ran off. The other, however, kept trying to go back for the food, then hunkered down beside that ceramic chimney flue and just took the spray. Of course, I stopped. The little guy eventually started moving around as if looking for the food. I felt so bad! The urge to go over and try to comfort it was very strong. I didn’t, of course. They shouldn’t be eating kibble (it has to do with how their jaws hinge, not because it’s bad for them), but my goodness, how can I say no to a hungry baby? I just completely soaked it, and the poor thing even looked like it was shivering as it moved around.

I’m such a horrible monster! 😥😥

Looking at the long range forecasts, we’re going to get more cooler night, but not as cold as last night. Daily highs are expected to be slightly below average for July, with less rain than June. This will work out just fine for getting work done outside. It’ll be great for the local farmers, too. Some have already baled their first cut of hay, and may even get three cuts this year. I’m seeing grain fields turned golden and almost ready for harvest, and the canola fields are in full bloom. There is lots of pasture for the cows, and the dugouts are full of water. Wild berry bushes are ripening, too, so there will be plenty of food to keep the wildlife uninterested in our garden!

It’s looking to be a really good growing year. Plus, it’s supposed to be a strong El Niño year which, for our area, usually means a mild winter, too. That would be so nice! For us, and for all the critters outside!

The Re-Farmer

Got some stuff done, and first fruits!

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After the hours spent outside yesterday, trimming, cutting and dragging around trees, I fully expect to be in a world of hurt today. I wasn’t! Just tired. Sleepy tired, not fatigue tired.

Today was a wonderfully cool day and it would have been prefect to get back out there, but I decided not to push my luck. Instead, I went out and made recordings for a July garden tour video. My husband had some parcels come in, so in the afternoon I went to the post office to pick them up. My younger daughter got her new debit card in the mail, which needed to be activated by doing a physical purchase, so we went into town and she bought me lunch. After we ate, we went to walk on the beach. By then, I was really noticing my hips were starting to give out. No pain. Just… unstable. So I’m glad I didn’t push myself to do more work with the trees, just because I thought I was better than I really was.

I couldn’t let such a wonderful day go to waste, though, and took advantage of the riding mower my brother loaned us. I was able to do the driveway and most of the outer yard before running out of gas again. By then, the light was starting to go, and it had been trying to rain for almost an hour, so I left the rest for later.

One of the things I need to mow around in the outer yard is the pile of insulation buried in branches. It’s been there so long, there are trees growing out of it, and wild raspberry bushes.

Lots of wild raspberry bushes.

With ripe berries! The ones in the garden are almost ripe, but these had berries ready to pick now!

So after the mowing was done and the kibble topped up outside, I got the girls to grab some bowls and pick berries with me. I’m not sure what happened with my younger daughter, though. She came out using a cane! After we came back from town, she went for a bike ride and seemed fine, but something gave out on her. Her PCOS really affects her joints, and she worked hard in the basement today. None of us do stairs well at all! I didn’t get a chance to ask what happened, though.

After we picked some berries, I was going to do my evening rounds when I remembered, we have other berries, too! There are Saskatoons ready to pick. My older daughter helped pick for a while, then commented on the cherry tree by the house. It has so many cherries on it, and some of them are just starting to turn red. I told her to go take a look at the other cherry trees along the edge of the spruce grove. I have been able to just see red cherries there. She took a look and forced her way closer, to pick some.

She was able to get at a whole 4 ripe cherries!

My older daughter and I ate those. They’re really sour cherries, and she and I are the only ones willing to eat them fresh like that! 😄

Not too shabby for a first berry harvest of the year! The girls washed them and made whipped cream to go with them. They were awesome.

The weather is supposed to be quite pleasant for the next while – slightly below average for July. I’m pretty excited about that. Hopefully, that means I can finally get lots done outside!

The Re-Farmer

Babies inside, outside!

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First, though, I want to wish all my visitors from the US a Happy Independence Day!

When heading out into the sun room this afternoon, I disturbed Adam from out of a corner. Why is it that they insist on lying in the junkiest corner? 😄 When she ran off, I saw this.

She had been nursing all of the kittens, including Ghosty’s sibling.

When I came out with the kibble this morning, I found him at the food bowl we moved into the sun room, with his mom; the white and grey I can never keep track of. She ran off, but he just stayed at the bowl. Turned out his eyes were completely stuck shut. So I took him inside and got my husband to hold him while I washed his eyes. It didn’t take much at all, which is good, and he was soon returned to mama.

Later in the evening, I spotted his mama nursing all of the babies, too. So the two mamas have basically combined their litters into a single creche. I’m happy about that! I keep thinking it might be 3 litters, but today, at least, it appeared to be two litters; Adam’s 4 older kittens, plus the white and grey’s remaining kitten.

Ghosty, meanwhile, is doing quite well.

Decimus has accepted her, and allows her to nurse. They both enjoy the wet cat food and kitten kibble, too. I pre-dosed the kitten kibble with lysine when I transferred it into a resealable container. We have not needed to wash her eyes lately, which is excellent progress. She’s still a bit sticky, but nowhere near as bad as when we brought her in!

Too many babies!

The Re-Farmer

Trellis bed progress

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Finally!

With last night’s storm, I was happy to see the tree my brother cut down that got hung up on other trees had fallen closer to the ground. It’s not going to drop any further, though. It’s now hung up between the trunks of a group of trees. We can, at least, reach most of it better, though, so we’ll be able to work on it eventually.

With today’s slightly cooler weather and a nice, clear day, I started working on getting those dead spruce trees my brother cut down for me, out of the bushes.

I took photos and will eventually put it all together in a video but, for now, this is what I managed to get done today.

Gosh. That doesn’t look like much, now that it’s done! 😄 It did, however, take a LOT of prep work before these logs could finally be dragged over.

The two trees that were on the ground were almost completely hidden by underbrush. I used the weed trimmer to clear a path to them first, then did a bit around the trees themselves. There were too many hidden branches, though, so I had to shift gears.

The top of the first tree extended a lot more than I thought it did. I used the little mini-chainsaw pruner to clear the branches, then remove the most crooked section of the top, before working my way down the trunk. I had the wagon nearby to put the branches in, and made a few trips to the branch pile near the fire pit, cleaning up as I went along.

Once I got it clear enough, I was able to pull the entire trunk out from under the stuck tree, then continue removing a few more branch stubs. Next, I measured 18 feet from the thick end of the trunk, and used the electric chain saw to cut it. I used a rope to drag the top part through the trees and into the garden, which was harder than it should have been. I neglected to roll it over and check it, first. There turned out to be a stub of a broken branch at the end, acting like an anchor!

Needless to say, I made sure to check the 18′ piece before I dragged that away, too!

The top of the tree is around 16-17′ long. Too short and thin to make the long walls of the beds, but it will do nicely, cut into 4′ lengths, to create the end walls.

The other tree that was flat on the ground was looking very crooked – spruces tend to be like that at their tops – and I thought it was shorter than the first one. As I cleared more dead branches and tried pulling it out from under the stuck tree trunk, I realized it was a lot longer, and thicker! In fact, when I finished clearing the branches and measured out 18′ from the end, I was still at the far side of the stuck tree! It was simply too big to pull out first, like I could with the first tree.

The top was moved first. I hadn’t bothered to measure it, since I figured it would be too short, but when I dragged it between the posts that are 18′ apart, it almost reached, end to end! The thinner top, though is still pretty crooked, so it will likely not be used as a side wall.

Then it was time to drag out the rest of it. I rolled it around to cut away any branch stubs that might cause problems, but the trunk was quite a bit larger and heavier, and getting caught on things. While I was working, I was constantly finding very old and rotting branches and pieces of tree trunks hidden in the undergrowth, that have clearly been there for many years. They made for a rough surface to drag on. I ended up tying a plastic bag around the end of the trunk, to reduce friction. It helped a lot but, by then, I was getting pretty hot and tired, so I got a daughter to pause making supper to come help me drag it out.

While working on this tree trunk, I found the fourth tree my brother had cut down. It is another big one, and he felled it in the opposite direction. It’s almost completely hidden, not just by undergrown, but other trees, and I’m honestly not sure how I’m going to get at it.

As for the tree that’s stuck, that one is even bigger. This is one that’s going to have the thickest 10′ cut off and taken to where we plan to build the shelter for the outdoor kitchen we plan to build. These trunks are far too thick to use for raised beds, as they would take up a lot of growing space. Rather than cut them in half or something, we will instead use them as vertical supports for the shelter.

But I was not about to work on either of those logs, today.

I started to put things away, but I really wasn’t happy with having done only two trees. Especially when there were other thinner dead trees, right there.

Yup. I ended up cutting down another tree.

Gosh, that thing felt so light, after fighting with the big one! Even though I used a hinge cut, it still fell off to one side and got a bit hung up on other trees. It was easy to get loose. I just put the rope around the trunk near the stump and pulled it until it fell the rest of the way. It also fell across the stuck tree, which made it much easier to work around.

Then it was just a matter of clearing a few branches – there weren’t very many at the bottom half – measuring out and cutting 18′ and dragging it out.

The top of the tree is resting on top of undergrowth, and I left it there for now. I am not sure how much of it will be useable. It won’t be useable for the walls on the raised bed, but it might be useful in other ways.

I’m still going to have to cut down one more smaller tree for this bed. There’s one that looks like it’s similar in girth as the log with the plastic bag on the end. I’m planning to make these beds 2 logs high, but I want the bottom logs to be the bigger, thicker ones.

This time I have the draw knife, so I want to de-bark the logs and cut away any remaining branch nubs, lumps and bumps. I didn’t do that for the high raised bed, and I can see that it would be much better to do it than not.

I want to get at least one bed built, with the vertical trellis supports in place, before cutting down more trees for the second one. Ideally, I’d put in the vertical supports for both beds, along with the horizontal supports to make a trellis tunnel, right from the start, but we’re going to have to work on things piecemeal for now. Plus, we will be building at least one, probably two, more of these, so this one is the learning experience!

I’m happy with the progress, and I’m paying for it now, but I’m actually not having as much trouble as I’ve had in the past. Of course, tomorrow might prove me wrong, but it seems my body is finally starting to handle things better. Yes, I’m stiff, my left knee tried to make an escape, and a thigh tried to go into a conniption fit, but I’ve certainly had far worse pain, stiffness and joint instability after far less work.

It just feels so good to finally be able to work on this!

The Re-Farmer

It’s a living scarf! Plus, storm damage

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I’m quite late starting this, because I am so very tired. One of the main reasons why is, almost no sleep last night!

We had a storm blow over us. A few of them. While we had driving rains and high winds, thunger and lightning, we did not actually get the brunt of any of the storms. From photos I saw people sharing in local groups online, the town to the north of us got hit much harder than we did!

Because of the wind and rain, we ended up propping the sun room doors like we do in the winter, making sure there was something blocking the outer door to make sure it didn’t get slammed shut. This way, the kittens and cats would have a more secure shelter in there. With the doors open, as we’ve been leaving them lately, the wind was blowing the rain straight through, and half the floor was soaked in no time. After propping the doors, we left the shop lights on, so we could check the room from the bathroom window, too.

At about 2 in the morning, one of my daughters went into the sun room to check on things. When she untied and opened the inner door, she discovered the ghost kitten huddled on the threshold between the doors, completely alone. Both its eyes were completely stuck shut.

So she brought it in. They washed its eyes, and brought it to my room to baby jail, to see if Decimus would accept her. This kitten is older than hers but at least a few weeks, but more helpless.

At first, Decimus seemed to be okay with this. The kitten immediately tried to find nip, and she did not seem to object. I was still awake, so I stayed up and watched over them for a while. When Decimus started hissing and batting at the ghost baby, I let the girls know. They came with the cat carrier and took the baby upstairs with them. They also gave it wet cat food, with a dose of lysine. It took a while to figure out the dish of food, but when she did, she basically sprawled on top of it and devoured it. Then she curled up in my daughters arms (they took turns holding her) and went to sleep.

In the morning, they tried bringing her back to Decimus. Again, Decimus seemed okay with her at first, but she was so aggressive with trying to find nip and failing, pushing the other kittens aside, we finally took her out. I’d make a quick trip into town to get some cat milk and kitten kibble, and my daughter bottle fed it for a while. Ghosty didn’t seem to figure out the bottle, either, but my daughter just squeezed the bottle so she at least got drips of the milk. Then, she was put back with Decimus.

With a full belly, she didn’t try to nurse, and just snuggled, instead. Decimus seemed quite okay with that!

So, we now have another kitten in the house. At least this one is slated to be taken by the cat lady when she gets back. She’s out of the country right now, but I’ve been sending her pictures and keeping her updates. She will take both gooby babies. While she has had no luck adopting out bonded pairs, singletons get adopted quickly. She took in a pair of older kittens from a shelter that were slated for euthanasia before she left the country, and they were adopted out within 24 hours!

Since then, I’ve also been able to catch and bring Ghosty’s litter mate inside to get its eyes and nostrils washed. It isn’t anywhere near as bad as Ghosty, but still bad enough to be a problem. It looks like these two are the only ones of this litter. I still haven’t managed to count how many are in Adam’s litter, because they run and hide so quickly. Plus, I think there is a third litter visiting the sun room. The tuxedo that was here earlier seems to like having other kittens to play with, but he still tends to stay away, claiming the cat house as his own.

While we were up and about with kitten happenings, my daughter were in the dining room when they heard a whole lot of cracking and crunching noises. Either a tree fell down, or the one that was stuck fell further down.

When heading out for my morning rounds, I found more downed branches in the yard than usual. The biggest drop was a chunk of one of three big maples near the fire pit. The middle one has died, and one of the main branches finally broke. Thankfully, it fell into a part of the yard that is wide open.

I ended up finding quite a few downed branches, this time. We haven’t had a lot before now, since we’ve been cutting down as many dead branches as we can reach. Those winds last night, though, were really something. We had power flicker out for a few moments. Enough to shut down our computers (we weren’t fast enough in shutting them down first!), and wake my husband. His CPAP is quite high pressure, so he’s got a chin strap to keep his mouth closed while he sleeps. Rather than a face mask, he has nozzles that fit into his nostrils. If the CPAP shuts off, he suddenly has no air at all. As you can imagine, it’s a very stressful way to be awakened!

Still, I have no complaints. The garden is enjoying the rain, and while one potato bed had all its greenery blown to one side, there was no damage. In fact, the closest thing to damage I found was a hoof print, right next to a summer squash seedling! A deer had made its way through, and almost squished one of the squash we re-sowed.

Today was a slightly cooler day, with a high if “only” 25C/77F, so I took advantage of it to do work outside. Tomorrow is supposed to be even better, with a high of only 19C/66F. Alas, we will be going above 20C/68F again after that, but not quite like the heat we’ve been having for the past while.

I look forward to the work, but am now concerned I might not be able to do it. As I was writing this, I got up to go to the washroom, and my left knee tried to give out. Not with pain. It just decided it wanted to dislocate. Then when I got back and tried to sit down, I started getting a Charlie horse in my left leg! Thankfully, it didn’t get bad, and I was able to stretch it and relax it before it could do that.

I’ll share just what I did to cause all this, in my next post!

The Re-Farmer

Baby bed, drainage and feeling frustrated

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Would you look at this tiny worm?

I found a cardboard carton large enough for the mama to fit comfortably in and lined it with one of the blankets the Cat Lady donated to us for the kitties. Unfortunately, I really spooked the mom when I opened the door; enough that she ran out the hole in the back of the shed she’d been using to get in and out. I suppose that made it easier, since I didn’t have to worry about her reactions. I quickly put the baby in the bed box outside the shed, cleared the netting and other odds and sots where the baby had been lying, fit the bed box in, and left. The whole thing probably took less than a minute to do.

Picking up that tiny baby, though. Wow! It must have been maybe hours old, the first time I spotted them a few days ago.

The mother is Baby Beep Beep, which means she is NOT the mother of any of the sun room kittens.

In other things, we got quite a lot of rain last night. I’d used the rain barrel to water the front garden beds, as it was full to the top, and got it down to maybe a quarter or a bit less. This morning, it was full to the top. Not overflowing, but close, so I put the diverter on for now. We’re expecting more little thunderstorms passing through tomorrow. This morning, I was hearing thunder around us, and even got rained on a bit.

The potted herbs on the front step seem to be doing well. The lemongrass is getting taller. The spearmint in one pot by itself, and the thyme and oregano in the other, seem to be recovering from being transplanted well. Those two post have drainage holes and are sitting on trays, but the pot the lemon grass is in does not have any drainage holes. As I was weeding, I could see it was way too wet, so I just got a hammer and a nail and made one drainage hole.

I got this picture after it had been draining for more than half a minute, and there was still lots of pressure!

The bottom and sides of the pot are lined with grass clippings, and I don’t really mind there being some water accumulated in the clippings. Having a drainage hole higher up will work well, I think. It’s not like I could tip the pot and put holes in the bottom!

The down side is that, after weeding the Chinese elms that were sprouting in that pot, my hands smell like stagnant water. Yes, I’ve washed them. Several times. The smell still lingers. Ick.

I moved the last of the Jiffy Pellet trays to the steps near these pots. There is still that one Lemon Cucumber that sprouted, nothing else. It’s probably too late in the season, but when it gets its true leaves, I’ll find somewhere to transplant it. One cucumber plant is better than none.

This has been a very frustrating gardening year. The intension had been to expand the garden again, or at least use as much as what we did last year. With the weather and the heat, we weren’t able to build those trellis beds in time, which means two large sections, where we’d planted potatoes and melons last year, aren’t being used at all. We got transplants in, but didn’t have room for all of them, which means we have far fewer paste tomatoes than I intended. That was the one type I wanted to have a lot more of, since making our own tomato paste last year went over so well. Along with the weather and heat issues, I’ve lost more than a few days that would have been good days to work outside, because I had to help my mother out, and she demands I take a “holiday” when I’m with her, and not be “in a hurry” to leave. When I point out I have work to do, she just says, “what work? You don’t have cows!”

*sigh*

We didn’t do anywhere near as much direct sowing as intended, because there weren’t enough prepared beds to sow into. As it is, we had to use the old kitchen garden differently then intended, just to get things in the ground. That’s okay. Normally, I’m quite flexible about such things, but after a while, it just gets frustrating. In the end, instead of expanding the garden this year, we’ve got a smaller garden then last year. One positive thing, at least, is that we aren’t having the no good, terrible growing year we had last year!

I was feeling good about the garden in many ways. We have tomatoes growing and starting to produce fruit. The Gold Ball turnips, which disappeared last year, are growing well. Yes, something is eating the leaves, but not enough to hinder their growth. We’ve got two types of carrots, and both are doing well. The bush beans are struggling a bit, but they’re growing. Even the tiniest of onion transplants – the ones so small, they probably shouldn’t have been transplanted at all – are picking up. I’m happy to see so many pea pods forming, even though the plants themselves seem a lot shorter than I expected them to get. I think it’s the squash patch that is most encouraging. They failed so badly last year, and now I’m seeing the winter squash getting big and strong. It even looks like we’ve won the battle against the slugs! I’ll just have to keep up with sprinkling that corn meal. We might actually have fully mature winter squash to harvest this year

The melons germinated so late, they probably won’t get a chance to produce fully mature fruit, but they are recovering from being transplanted nicely and, you never know; we might get a long, mild fall and the frosts will hold off until late in the year again.

Then I see people sharing pictures on the local and Zone 3 gardening groups I’m on, showing their huge plants and talking about the vegetables they’re already harvesting. How can they be harvesting beans already? How is their corn so tall? One person was even eating fresh tomatoes! In June!

I try to remind myself that Zone 3 is about winter temperatures, and covers a large, geographically diverse area, so a lot of these people have a last frost date in the middle of May. Even with local groups, most of the members live well south of us. With this year’s very early and warm spring, even people with later frost dates took a chance and planted earlier. We’ve also had a decent amount of rain, though some people did lose or partially lose their gardens to driving rain, winds or hail.

Still, seeing all those photos of huge, lush garden growth and harvests, suddenly my garden seems really pathetic, and way behind, without even taking into account the things we didn’t get built in time to use this year.

I know better than to compare our situation to others, because it’s so different, but when I’m already feeling so far behind, it’s easy to start feeling down about the whole thing.

Things are supposed to cool down over the next few days, and the storms are supposed to stop for a while. Which means we should finally be able to chop our way through the undergrowth and get those trees my brother cut down for me! This should have been done weeks ago.

Well, it is what it is.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Still there, and baby care

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I had to pop into the garden shed briefly, and much to my surprise, the kitty was still there!

The mom was startled away when I opened the door, so I got to take a quick picture of her one baby, before taking what I needed and leaving them alone.

Later on, though, I’m going to snag a daughter. We’ll bring a box with something soft on the bottom, and quickly transfer the kitten into the box, and move out that mass of garden netting, so it won’t get tangled in it. Then put the kitten back in the same spot, in the box. Hopefully, the mom will accept the nest and keep using it.

When I first headed out this morning, there were no kittens visible in the sun room, but I spotted the almost white kitten in the middle of the yard. It was just bobbing around, mewing, with the moms circling around. Sure enough, both eyes were stuck shut. I ended up bringing it inside and held it, while one of my daughters carefully washed its eyes until they could open again. Then I put it in the sun room, near some food and water. Popping into the sun room later one, there were other kittens in there with it. So it seems like the mamas move the kittens out for the night, but bring them back for the day. I did not see the second kitten with the gooby eyes; it may have been in the sun room, but they have plenty of hiding spaces in that corner.

I’m going to prepare a bed in a box, now, then snag a daughter to help set up in the garden shed! Thankfully, that kitten isn’t very mobile yet, so it won’t get tangled, but that’s not going to be true for very long!

The Re-Farmer

Stuck

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As things cooled down, I was able to get some stuff done outside, which had me in and out of the sun room quite a bit.

I had to be careful not to step on any kittens!

Yes, most of them were running away and hiding, but a couple of them were not.

This is why.

Now I understand why I kept seeing this kitten doing things like napping in the middle of the floor, or just moving around slowly. It can’t see.

One eye was completely stuck closed, and the other was open, but not wide open.

I was able to pick it up and gently dampen the eye until the gunk finally started to come off. The kitten was not happy with the rubbing on the eye, of course, even though I was more about getting it wet then actually rubbing. After a while, though, I got the big stuff off and the eye started to open, so I left it at that. I didn’t want to push things too far.

There was another kitten with gummy eyes, but it was just around the eye lids, not gluing them shut, so it would still see. We will have to make cleaning those eyes a regular thing. That’s one way to socialize them, I guess. Handle them while their eyes are stuck shut!

The good thing is, the kittens are starting to eat kibble, which means they’re going to get the lysine it’s coated in. That will help them fight off the herpes that’s causing this. If things start getting worse instead of better, we’ll see about getting eye drops for them.

While I was tending to the kitten, Baby Beep Beep came in, with a mouse. She growled constantly as she ate it, but didn’t leave! I think she might be the mom of the littlest kittens. Later on, I saw Adam skulking around the door – with another mouse hanging out of her mouth! Towards the end of the day, when I was ready to come in, I found her lying just inside the doorway, nursing. She’s the mom of the bigger kittens – the black and white ones that look so much like her! That means the grey and white cat I’ve been seeing in the sun room (I believe the girls call that one Pistachio), would be the mother of the in between sized kittens, including the ones with the gooby eyes.

I’m still not sure who the mother of the tuxedo is. I’ve seen him try to nurse on a grey and white, but she wouldn’t let him, so either it was his mother enforcing weaning, or another mother, refusing to nurse a kitten that isn’t hers.

As things started to cool down, I was able to empty most of the rain barrel to water the front garden beds. Then I went around to use a hose in the main garden area. While doing the squash patch, I hoped to see some frogs using the little houses we made for them, but so far, nothing. I also wasn’t seeing any slugs, so that’s encouraging. The second sowing of summer squash still hasn’t germinated. Looks like we’re going to be very short of summer squash this year!

For the tomato beds, I hooked up the sprinkler hoses, and remembered to get some ground staples to hold them in place, facing slightly inwards, so the inside of the beds are being watered, not the paths. The soaker hose takes a lot longer to deeply water the bed, and that gave me time to remove the old straw and what’s left of the cardboard underlay in the area the trellis beds will be built. Once the beds are built, and the vertical posts for the trellis are in, the old straw will be layered back into the beds.

I’d watered the Crespo squash, in the bed far from the house, with the watering can earlier in the day, so the rain barrel out there was due for a refilling, too. After using the watering can, I always leave it full of water, so it doesn’t blow away. When I used that first can of water, it sure was warm from the day’s heat! Not hot enough to harm the squash, thankfully.

When I was done and heading back to the house, I startled some creatures at the kibble house. Racoons. A whole family of them! One big one ran off – I think the same one I’ve been seeing fairly regularly, by itself – but then I saw about four of five little ones and an adult run off. Some of them ran under the laundry platform, which is accessible only though the spaces between the steps. From the noise, I think there was a bit of a panic when they realized they couldn’t get out any other way. I made sure to stay back and to the side, so they couldn’t see me, and could get back out.

Gosh, racoons are cute. Especially when they are little!

The Re-Farmer

Kittens ‘n things. Also, Happy Canada Day!

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Well, for a while there, I thought the kittens that were moved into the sun room had been moved out again! We did not see them when doing the evening feeding, nor did I see them when checking during the night. Handily, we’ve left the shop lights that were hanging over the transplants where they are, which means we can use the remote control in the bathroom to turn them on and check the sun room. 😄

There’s a reason we didn’t see kittens.

My daughter happened to be in the bathroom when she heard a ruckus. She looked out the window, just in time to see one of the mamas chasing a skunk out of the sun room, batting at its butt.

Yeah. It still stinks in there.

When we didn’t see the kittens after that, we thought the mothers might have taken them away again, but nope! They were there this morning!

From what I can see by their sizes, I think the three kittens in this photo are from two different litters. Then there are the smaller kittens whose eyes are still blue, and finally there’s the tuxedo that’s been here a while, still running around outside. Which means we might have a total of 4 litters combined right now!

While they were eating, I was able to reach down and pet some of them. I was even able to pick up and cuddle three of them! Two from the above picture, and a third that wandered over to the kibble container I was standing next to. One of them hissed a bit while I picked it up, but the power of ear scritches is a magical thing, and they settled in a fair bit.

The cats have knocked so much stuff off the shelves and onto the floor. Even after picking up most of the stuck knocked over during the winter, the cats climb into the shelves and knock it all down again. Which is now giving the kittens lots of places to hide, so I guess it’s okay we haven’t been able to get it all cleaned up, after all!

In other things…

Before heading to the city yesterday, I texted the garage about our van. I mentioned that it seemed to be the power steering that was making the noise, and asked if I should drive or tow it in tomorrow (meaning, today) for him to check when he could. When I got to the city, there was a response, and he said it should be okay to drive it in; he just suggested I add power steering fluid. He also gave the okay to leave the van and gave instructions on where to park it.

Today being Canada Day, I knew he would be closed. He’s closed Sundays and, with Canada Day falling on the weekend, a lot of places close on the Monday, too. So he might not be able to look at it until Tuesday, which is fine by us. Since we were at Walmart, I picked up some power steering fluid, too.

So today, I topped up the power steering fluid. We haven’t driven the van in a few months. Even the doors are stiff to open and close! Then I drove it to town, with my daughter following in my mother’s car, to drop it off.

The fluid seems to have made a difference. The steering wasn’t making noise anymore, though when I was outside the van while the engine was running, I could still hear the noise from the engine area. From inside the van, the engine sounded quiet.

Gosh, it felt so good to be driving the van, instead of my mother’s little car! Except for the lack of working air conditioning. 😂

There was something else, though, that wasn’t there before. When I hit the breaks to decelerate, there was a repetitive whumping coming from the rear. !!!

So after parking the van, I sent a message to tell the garage where the keys were hidden, mentioned topping up the fluid, then told about what was happening when applying the brakes.

The 2016 Caravan we’d tried to get financing for is still there, and the price has dropped considerably! At the time we applied for financing, it was selling for $15,400 – though he knocked $400 off for us from the start. Later, I saw it go down to $14,600, then down to $13,900. It is now down to $10,400 ! We weren’t able to get financing for it, because it was just over their mileage cut off. The loan we were approved for was a newer vehicle with lower mileage, but with no credit cards, loans or mortgage to improve our credit rating, the interest rates and requirements were insane. I got a low limit credit card to use to improve my credit rating, which takes about 6 months to really make a difference. We’re at only a couple of months, so it’s still too early to apply again, and get a decent interest rate. But if that van is still there by fall, I’ll be applying for it again. We’ll even be able to make a down payment, though it we can get it with only the van as a trade in, that would be preferable. There are a lot of things that money would be useful for. Life finally getting a plumber to work on our bathroom taps! One vet bill used up the money we had for that, but hopefully, we won’t have any emergencies to require us to dip into it again.

Of course, as I walked by, I took a look at the van. Looking through the tinted back windows, I could see some bags in the back. Looking through another window, I could finally see that they were bagged tires. The van has a set of winter tires, too!

Gosh, it would be so nice to have that van! We loved it when we had a 2007 Grand Caravan, and while the 2005 Uplander we have now has little things that I really like about it, a newer Caravan probably has some version of them, too. I would just really love to have a vehicle that doesn’t have me saying an extra prayer for protection, every time I have to drive somewhere! If the van needs repairs that cost more than it’s worth, though, we might end up applying for it again, sooner, rather than later!

One nice thing about having the van waiting at the garage until it can be looked at: once at home, we didn’t have to squeeze my mother’s car into the side room of the garage, and could park where the van usually sits. Not only is there room to open the driver’s side door all the way, but someone can get in and out of the passenger side, too! 😂

Ugh. It’s past 4pm as I write this, and we’ve hit 30C/86F That matches the 30 year record high from 2012. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.

It could be worse. We could be matching the record low of 5C/42F set in 2001, instead!

Though we had some excellent rain recently, I need to check the garden beds and see if they need to be watered in this heat! It won’t start cooling down for 3 or 4 more hours, though.

Plus, of course, check to make sure the water bowls outside are full, and maybe add some frozen reused water bottles in them, as well!

The Re-Farmer

So. Many. Babies!!!

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I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. First, I was awakened by Turmeric going after Nosencrantz. Then I had Fenrir climb on top of my stomach, demanding pets. Then Butterscotch came over for attention which, for some reason, requires that she get her claws caught in my sheets, repeatedly, before Potato Beetle came over and wanted pets, too. It’s rather hard to pet three cats at the same time!

After a few more aggressive incidents with Turmeric, I finally gave up and headed outside to do my morning rounds, early.

I spotted a couple of kittens in the sun room as I went through from the kitchen, but they quickly hid. Later, while checking on the garden beds, I spotted a very wet Adam crossing the garden from the road. The morning dew was really excessive, and I was getting soaked half way to my knees, and I wasn’t even walking in the tall grass!

Adam appreciated breakfast, but would not let me come any closer.

Nor could I get close to Not-Junkpile. It might be a while before we can giver her that ear mite medication! But we have to do it quickly, considering how madly she’s injuring herself with scratching.

Decimus and her babies are doing quite well. My daughter and I headed to the city and stopped at the clinic to drop off the extra medication we got by mistake. They were very happy I did that! 😄 While there, I mentioned being able to grab a yard cat right after she had her babies and bring her in, and that she likely has ear mites, too. She agreed. Since I was there anyhow, I bought a second dose for Decimus. She, at least, will be easier to get ahold of!

We did our errands in the city, then picked up gas at Costco, for both the car and the lawn mowers. While in town yesterday, I was shocked to find that gas prices had dropped from 158.9 cents/litre to 149.9/litre. We usually see prices jump by that much, but never drop by that much. Costco was still at 145.9/L, and the gas station was insanely busy. We saw other people filling their jerry cans, too. For the lawnmowers, we only use Premium, which was 165.9/L

Before we left, my daughter and I looked into the sun room from outside, and saw at least 5 kittens playing in a group, with several others ducking in and out of view.

After we got home, I looked again from the inside of the house, and spotted Adam with a white and grey. They are both mamas, but it seems to me there are actually three litters combined.

One of Adam’s kittens looks almost exactly like her! It looks like there is a second tuxedo, or something very close to a tuxedo pattern, among her brood as well. The younger ones seem to belong to the white and grey mama. The tuxedo that has been handing around for a while seems very happy to have other kittens to keep him company, now! I get the impression he is older than all the other kittens.

While running our errands today, we were able to pick up more bell collars. They are a lot cheaper in the city! The two boys that spray are now belled. Next, we wanted to bell the more aggressive females. We got a black one with white skulls and crossbones for Turmeric, as it suits her catonality! Tissue got a pink one, to stand out on her white fur. The third went to Fenrir, as she tends to harass Nosencrantz, too. That one is pale green and glows in the dark.

Turmeric didn’t like the colour, but seemed to get used to it quickly. My daughter got Tissue upstairs, and I think she slept through ti! Fenrir, on the other hand, was not a happy camper!

The main thing is, we should be able to hear them before they get into trouble!

The Re-Farmer