We had another colder than predicted night, with a bitterly cold wind chill. It’s supposed to warm up quite a bit today, though not until this evening. After that, things are supposed to keep getting warmer.
We’re also supposed to be snowing, as I write this, and it isn’t, so… yeah. We’ll see.
I counted 14 or 15 outside cats this morning. Then I spotted Ghost Baby later on, so we had a headcount of possibly 16 of the outside cats.
They are most definitely appreciating having access to the heated water bowl in the sun room. As you can see in the above photo, the outside bowl is completely empty. Likely, the piebald visited the kibble house again, and finished off the water, too.
Speaking of which…
The three regulars were at the feeding station when I came around with seed. They ran off, but almost immediately started to come back. So I paused to see what they would do.
As usual, the piebald would chase off the other two, but they kept coming back.
They came within 20-25 feet of me!
I’m happy my phone was able to pick up that huffing sound the piebald makes.
I was making them nervous, though, so I moved on and let them be.
Chadiccus does not approve of my taking his picture, instead of petting him!
Oh, what a loaf Rolando Moon makes!
They keep breaking and knocking out the rigid insulation. I’ll have to think of something better to use, if we are going to keep using this old shelf as a cat shelter.
I had been talking about doing our Costco trip today, but one of my daughters has been suggesting that Costco on a Saturday might not be a good idea. Looking at the weather, we might not be snowing here, but it’s sure to be snowing to the house of us, and I’d rather not drive in it, if I don’t have to. So that will probably wait until Monday, then.
I’ve been keeping a close eye on the seedlings, and today we’re going to be doing some major changes, from re-planting to replace losses, to physically re-arranging a whole bunch of things. I’ll post about how that goes, later.
Today was a deceptive day. Beautifully bright and sunny – and colder than forecast! As I write this, we have warmed up to -19C/-2F – with a wind chill of -30C/-22F.
Oh, look at that. We’re supposed to warm up a few more degrees, but as I typed the above sentence, my weather app’s desktop icon just dropped to -20C/-4F, with a wind chill of -32C/-26F
We’re supposed to warm up over the next few days, until we reach above freezing, where we are supposed to stay for almost a week before dropping a couple of degrees below freezing again. Considering how off the forecasts have been, with the cold hanging on longer and colder than predicted, I’m not holding my breath.
Needless to say, I was not looking forward to going out today.
The outside cats were happy to see me. Or at least the fresh kibble I brought out for them! Even the kibble in the sun room was all gone. As cold as it got, the outside heated water bowl still had liquid water, and not even a layer of ice over the top. I’m not sure if that means it started working again, or if there was simply enough water in it to keep it from freezing over.
I left really early to go to my mother’s, giving myself time to shovel away the small snow drift that formed overnight, in front of the garage doors where her car is parked. I wanted to make sure to get to the post office before it closed for a couple of hours for lunch, as my daughter got notice that a parcel was delivered.
It wasn’t there.
Then I went to my mother’s town with plans to get some gas and pick up some take out chicken and wedges for lunch. Had a small heart attack when I saw the gas prices had gone up another 10 cents per litre, to 174.9. That works out to Cdn$6.63 per US gallon, or US$5.21 at today’s exchange rate.
Ouch.
My mother doesn’t do meat on Fridays for Lent, so we shared the potato wedges for lunch, and she saved her chicken for tomorrow. I gave up most social media for Lent, which is a heck of a lot harder for me than giving up meat!
With the lockdowns, a lot of the social activities my mother so loved about where she lived had ended, but after a while, people started just making their own coffee nights in the lounge on their own. Which may be why events are starting up again. (We’re supposed to open up completely in a few days, but the powers that be are already talking about locking down and imposing restrictions again.) Today, the social workers from the senior’s centre were going door to door (happily, I didn’t see a single mask in my mother’s building. What a relief that was!), letting people know there would be coffee and cake in the lounge this afternoon. My mother was quite excited about it, so we headed out as soon as we finished lunch. Once her errands were done and her groceries put away, it was early enough that she still had time to watch Mass on TV before her coffee date, so I didn’t stay very long. She was in very good spirits, and was even moving around better on her bum knee than I’ve seen in a while. So that was encouraging.
This meant I was on my way home a lot earlier than I expected, giving me time for a quick stop at the post office/general store again, to pick up more deer feed. A full bag is more than fits in the bin we use for the deer/bird feed, so I put an extra bucket of feed out. I’d startled a deer in the yard when I got home, so I figured it wouldn’t be long before I saw one or two out the window once inside.
It was more than one or two! We had five of them out there, in no time at all!
After taking a few pictures, I sat at my computer to upload them when my daughter called out, asking me if I saw the seven deer outside the window.
Seven? No I hadn’t! So I grabbed my phone to get some pictures and…
There was a LOT more than seven.
Where did they all come from?
This is our fifth winter here. The most deer we’ve ever seen outside our window at one time has been seven. Today, we counted at least fourteen!
I’m guessing some of them came from my brother’s farm, across the road, as he puts a bale out for them. He’s had as many as 30, during some really severe winters. I’ve driven by and seen as many as eight that I could count while driving. But fourteen? Wow! The down side of that is, the coyotes start coming in, and he’s seen them take down a deer, right by his house.
I only scoop out enough feed to fill a 1 gallon container at a time. That’s barely a snack for the few deer that usually show up, minus what the birds manage to eat. I’m not sure how this tiny bit we put out has managed to lure so many deer!
We are definitely going to have to take this into account when we plant our berry bushes this spring. The buggers are doing a number on the chokecherry and Saskatoon bushes we found between the spruces near the feeding station, after cutting away some self-sown elm and maple, and the invasion of spirea. They never went for the spirea twigs and branches. Berry bushes must taste better!
Once we start cutting down all the dead spruces, that whole area is going to open up quite a bit. We want to get rid of all the spirea in there, allow the wild roses and red osier dogwood take over as undergrowth, reduce the chokecherries, and increase the Saskatoons. We also intend to plant fruit trees that require more protection from the winds in there. It’ll all be a waste, if the deer just come in and eat them! We’ll have to figure out the best way to protect things, while still following our plants to turn some of the tree stumps into benches, seats and tables. My long term goal is to create a little park-like sanctuary in the area behind the stone cross, surrounded by rose bushes and dogwood, and whatever wildflowers re-emerge once things are cleared out and the ground starts getting more sunlight again.
So… deer, racoons, groundhogs, squirrels and birds are all critters we’ll have to take into account. Probably black bears, too. They haven’t shown up in our yard, but one of my neighbors about a mile away from us had them raiding and destroying his bird feeders all last summer. With the drought, they were pretty desperate for food.
More reason to plant forage trees, well away from the house. Near the newly dug out gravel pit, which should be able to hold a lot of water for a much longer time now, would probably be a good place. If they have enough food and water elsewhere, they won’t have reason to come close to were people are.
This morning, I had pretty much decided, Costco would wait until tomorrow. Which freed up my day for other things.
I was just starting to make a ham, leek and potato soup when the phone rang.
It was my mother.
After an atypical hesitant start in the conversation, of my mother saying she hoped she wasn’t interrupting anything (red flag! red flag!) she started asking me about a particular plaque that used to hang in the entry, above the doorway into the dining room. It had hung there for many decades, and was it still there?
No. It isn’t. She knew this, too, because we hung a cross of our own up there, made of olive wood from the Mediterranean, with the Lord’s Prayer engraved into the wood. She and I had had a conversation about it when she saw it. That was a while ago, so no surprise that she didn’t remember.
Then she started asking where the plaque was, asking if I even remembered it, and so on. I did remember it, but I did not remember where we packed it. I figure it’s on the storage warehouse. This building used to be a workshop, but it is now jammed full of my parents’ belongings, to the point we can barely move around in it.
She wanted me to get it for her, because she would like it now.
…
I reminded her that we can’t get to the warehouse because of the snow.
Oh, of course. It can wait until spring and the snow is going.
I pointed out that this is a very small item and would be very hard to find (in fact, I am not even sure it ended up in there, but it’s the most likely place) in all that stuff.
That’s okay, she tells me. It’s very important, you see. It’s patriotic.
The plaque has a Polish eagle on the front, and the Polish national anthem on the back.
*sigh*
Hopefully, but spring, she will forget all about it.
This is something that has frustratingly become more common. My mother suddenly remembers some possession she left behind when she moved out of here, decides she absolutely MUST have it, and then I have to find it and dig it out. Which isn’t too bag when it’s a large item, like a couple of framed prints she now has on her wall, but there is just no way we can keep on top of the little things. There was just SO much STUFF we had to pack away, just to be able to have the movers bring our own stuff out here, never mind the stuff we packed away, clean out and disposed of over the next couple of years. By the time we were cleaning out the old kitchen, we were having to put things in the old storage house in the front yard, because there is no more room in the warehouse. And the storage house is already full of junk and is so far gone, cleaning it up would require haz mat precautions. I don’t think we went in there even once, last year.
My mother has a very tiny apartment. The room I’m now using as my bedroom/office is probably bigger than her entire apartment. She has frequently rejected gifts, in her typically rude manner, because she has no room for them (then showing off the gifts given to her by family members that have been abusive towards her, but that’s a whole other issue…). Now, she’s suddenly wanting these old possessions she abandoned years before we even moved out here, with absolutely no consideration about how difficult it would be to even find these, while also worrying that someone is going to go into the warehouse and steal the things, and ALSO insisting we don’t throw anything away, because “they have value”.
*sigh*
I really don’t think anyone is interested in my late father’s old clothes, or the underwear she left behind in her dresser, along with the piles of old junk they just couldn’t let go of. Yes, there is some good stuff in there, too, but those pieces are literally buried in boxes and bags of stuff.
Thank God neither of them were actually hoarders!
Anyhow, after that conversation was done, my mother started saying she needed to run errands.
Which I will be helping her do tomorrow, thanks to her car being all fixed up, checked over and home again.
Since Costco tomorrow was not going to happen, maybe I should just go it today?
Nope. Not going to happen. Costco will wait another day.
I went back to making my soup.
After that was done, I came into my room and my daughter joined the cats on the bed as we got caught up on things. Even Butterscotch came out for attention, so she stayed longer.
There’s a problem with that.
I have a very comfortable, very large, bed.
It was covered with warm, sleeping cats.
We both got sucked into the cozy.
I fell asleep.
My daughter, sweetheart that she is, got up, laid more cats on top of me, covered us with blankets, then put away my glasses for me. She had some problems with my glasses, though, discovering that they don’t close anymore! LOL
Some time later, I got up, found my glasses, put them on and…
They don’t sit right on my face anymore.
It seems she bent them somehow, while trying to close them. They are so old and fragile, I don’t dare manipulate them too much.
So now I’m wearing my “spare” glasses, which are no longer the right prescription, but right now, the eye strain is slightly less.
Which means my plans for my tax return have changed.
With how much my progressive lenses alone cost, I’ll be lucky if I have anything left of my return by the time they’re done. Yes, we do have insurance, but only a few hundred dollars. Less than what my lenses cost – and that was years ago. At least the eye exam will be fully covered.
I just double checked. The plan covers 90% of lenses and frames, but only up to a certain amount. I go for the bargain basement frames, since I really don’t care to pay hundreds of dollars for a brand name and fancy colours. Maybe I’ll have something left over. We’ll see.
*sigh*
Well, it was nice to think about getting that portable greenhouse for a little while, at least…
Inside, outside, we are surrounded by adorableness.
Like this majestic beast.
Of all the cats, he likes this plant stand the most. He’s so fluffy, he fills it out the most, too!
What a handsome boy!
As for the new additions inside, we have some progress with Butterscotch!
Not only is she starting to come out more often for some cuddles, she actually stayed on the bed after her human of the moment left – while other cats were on the bed, too! No hissing or snarling to be heard, either.
Speaking of cuddles…
Here was have Beep Beep, dwarfed by Cheddar, her son of 3 years ago, snuggled by her daughter of 2 years ago, Turmeric, who is still slightly smaller than her mother, if heftier, and finally, Beep Beep’s grandson, David. Who is the same age as Cheddar.
I think Beep Beep and Butterscotch will both be very happy to be done with kittens. :-D
Before heading outside this morning, I popped into the bathroom, glanced out the window into the sun room…
…did a double take…
I couldn’t tell which cat it was while looking through the window but, from the photo, I’m thinking this is Caramel.
Before leaving the bathroom, I glanced through the window to see if he (she?) was still there.
Suddenly, there was more!
Also, that’s a different cat in the bowl. I recognize Agnoos and Potato Beetle. I half-think the one in the box might be Junk Pile, but she is really shy and doesn’t tend to go into the sun room, ever, so I’m likely wrong about that.
There were seven in the sun room, in total. Along with the 5 in the photo, where was one in the box nest in the shelf above, and one more was on the top of another shelf, in the corner by the old kitchen window.
Once outside, I think I counted 14 cats this morning, but I’m not quite sure.
While putting some kibble out under the shrine, I got a giggle out of this.
Deer tracks… of a sort! A deer went galumphing through the snow, instead of using the cat paths, leaving big holes.
You know what else is amusing?
The fact that my spell check accepts the word “galumphing.” !! :-D
In other things, I’m looking to finally go our Costco trip into the city today. We’re at -21C/-6F right now, with a wind chill of -31C/-24F. We are supposed to warm up to -12C/10F with a wind chill of -21C/6F this afternoon, so I’m going to wait a bit before I head out. Looking at the long range forecast, this is supposed to be our coldest day for the rest of the month. In fact, after the middle of the month, we’re supposed to have several days above freezing!
Wouldn’t that be nice.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Hhmm… the more I look at the weather, the more I’m thinking, maybe I should just wait until tomorrow to go to Costco.
Can you tell I really don’t want to go at all? :-D
Hard to get a head count, when they move around so much.
But I think I saw 13 cats in total this morning, out of the 18 yard cats we have outside right now.
I’ve been in touch with the Cat Lady recently. Yesterday was Cabbages’ day to be spayed, at the special vet that works with cats that have had neurological problems.
If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.
Cabbages seems to have recovered completely, however, so that’s amazing news. The original plan had been for her to stay with them for another 2 weeks, then go to someone she’d found to adopt her, that works in animal welfare. It’s looking like that won’t happen, though. Cabbages has adopted her daughter, instead, and it looks like she will be staying where she is!
Saffron and Nicco should be on their way to fosters, and the adoption process will begin. It seems that the three of them remembered each other, as the Cat Lady found them all sleeping together in a big pile. :-)
With her help, we’ve had 6 cats spayed, vaccinated, etc. at a steeply discounted price. The amount we pay for can be done as we are able. Two had already been paid for, and I let her know that I’d made a payment for 2 more, and would be able to send a payment for the last two at the end of this month. She let me know that we do not have to make the next payment.
It was already paid for by donation!
I asked for our thanks to be passed on, if possible, and it will be. It turns out that someone had bequeathed a donation to the organization for spays and neuters! That was so thoughtful of them, and much appreciated.
There are some issues going on, partly in regards to the vet bills with the clinic we use, partly due to finding fosters, so we do not have any more appointments set up, yet. The Cat Lady is trying to find us an alternate clinic we can take cats to. Worst case scenario, she would pick up cats from us to stay with her for a few days, they would have their appointments with a vet, and then they might have to stay with us for a while until fosters can be found and the adoption process started. Which works for us. We’re already taking care of them all, so there wouldn’t be much change. We still have several females to do that are indoors, but we should also be able to start catching some of the outdoor males, as well. Of all the outdoor cats that we can actually catch, Rolando Moon is the only female left, and she’s already fixed. Oh, and sometimes Rosencrantz, depending on her mood. It would be better if we could have started with the females, but that would require trapping, and we’re not going to do that until the temperatures are safer.
The Cat Lady will contact us as soon as she has information, and then we’ll decide on which cats are next in line for a vet visit.
We’re okay with any delays. At least the process is happening, and we will slowly be able to find forever homes for most of the cats.
Well, that “blowing snow advisory” has certainly been valid.
My husband noticed the piebald deer heading for the kibble house again, so I figured that was a good time to empty the kitchen compost bucket – and get her away from the kibble. When I opened the door from the sunroom, pausing to take this photo, she just stared at me until she saw me moving outside.
I don’t think she appreciated the interruption of her snack!
I topped up the kibble for the cats, while I was out.
Since it was a quick run to the compost pile, I hadn’t bothered putting on a coat. It was only -12C/10F, after all!
Of course, that didn’t take the wind chill into account. I don’t know what it was at the time, but we’re at -13C/9F right now, and the wind chill is -23C/-9F. Brrrr!!!!
But I’m thinking of spring as we tend the seedlings. I’d mentioned in my last post that the seedlings in the mini-greenhouse were not looking well, so I decided to get some photos to show what I meant.
At which point I discovered I’d forgotten to drop and zip closed the front of the plastic cover.
Much to my surprise, the cats have made no attempt to go into it! Perhaps they’ve satisfied their curiosity already. I decided to leave it open, for now.
These are the Cup of Moldova seedlings that got potted up as we thinned them out. They are actually looking worse now than this morning, and I don’t know why. They had been doing quite well after being transplanted, then suddenly… this.
Were they over watered? Too hot in the mini-greenhouse? Not enough light? Not enough air circulation? Any or all of the above? I have no idea. I’m hoping that leaving the front of the cover open will be helpful.
The Sophie’s Choice that got eaten are… well, the two that were down to just stems are dead, but the ones that still have leaves on them… I don’t know. They might still survive.
These are the ones that got repotted after a cat lay on and crushed the original pots they were in. They actually are doing better than anything else in the mini-greenhouse. The damage done to them is more visible now. Surprisingly, the peppers and eggplants that got the most shmooshed are doing pretty good! The remaining tomatoes are showing damaged leaves, but beyond that, they look like they will recover.
I guess we’ll see over the next few days, how many are complete losses, and how many will survive.
Switching up the seedling trays was definitely helpful for the newly germinated gourds!
It’s amazing how much growth can be seen, sometime in just a few hours! These still had their tips mostly in the soil when I checked them last night. The two Canteen gourds on the right were able to lift out of the soil without any issues, but the two on the left still had their seed covers stuck on the leaves. One slid off fairly easily, but I ended up tearing the leaf tips off to get the other one off. It just did not want to let go, and the whole thing wanted to come up by the roots when I tried to remove it!
We still have just that one little Wonderberry seedling in the back.
The shallots are happier in the aquarium greenhouse, too, and area starting to grow straight up again, instead of leaning towards the living room window, while in the mini-greenhouse.
I’m still a little concerned about some of the seedlings in the mini-greenhouse. Some are doing better than others, but it’s not an ideal set up for them. They need better light and more fresh air, but we can’t give them that and keep the cats out at the same time. :-( Hopefully, they’ll last long enough that we can transfer them to the sun room, even if it means setting up the heat bulb again. But then, we’ll have outside cats to deal with, too! :-( Gotta get the heated water bowl that’s still working outside, so we can close the doors again.
I just had to laugh when I came into the sun room this morning, and found Potato Beetle, curled up in the window.
My attempt to take a photo disturbed him.
Gosh, he looks like such a grizzled old man!
He’s only three.
Since we’ve been keeping the sun room doors propped slightly open to allow access to the working heated water bowl, he seems to be spending most of his time in there – if he can claim their favourite bed before one of the other cats gets into it!
In total, I spotted 15 cats this morning. Even Ghost Baby flashed momentarily into view before disappearing again.
I had a bit of a surprise this morning. After finishing with food and water for the cats, I popped into the sun room to get seeds for the feeding station. When I stepped outside again, I was startled by a loud HUFFFFFF!!
The piebald deer had just wanted into the people gate in the chain link fence. I think we startled each other, and she was warning me off! :-D
This is the first time I’ve actually heard a deer make a noise.
It was funny to watch her as she ran down the shovelled paths to towards the back of the garage, then across to the compost pile, huffing away at me every now and then, before running into the spruce grove. There, she and another deer that was already there, stopped to watch while I put the feed out.
I later saw three of them at the feeding station, watching me as I moved around in the outer yard.
I got the burn barrel going again and, as usual, had company.
I don’t know why, but Agnoos just LOVES it when we are at the burn barrel. He rolls around in the snow, usually at our feet, asking for attention. Of all the outside cats, Agnoos seems to be the one that wants human attention the most, but never so much as while we’re tending the burn barrel!
I wasn’t able to stay out too long, though, as it started to snow. We were already at -5C/23F this morning, and are holding there for most of the day, but we are now under a “blowing snow advisory”.
Unfortunately, for all the shoveling on the roof my daughters did, the warmer weather has resulted in leaking at one of the windows upstairs. *sigh* We need a new roof so badly! We have the leak upstairs, and right now the ceiling in the sun room has icicles hanging from it. :-(
We’re supposed to cool down to between -10C/14F and -15C/5F over the next few days, so that should stop the leaking for a while, at least.
Wow, did my order from Lee Valley come in fast! After picking up my mother’s car from the garage, I swung by the post office to pick up the mail, and found this.
Only three days to get here – including the weekend!
Now we just have to wait for enough snow to melt before we can get into the old garden shed, bring out the scythe and get a good look at it.
I was doing a bit of research, and it seems the curvy handle design is called an American scythe. These are apparently known for being very heavy, but the one we have has an aluminum handle, and is very light. I remember having no issues with the weight when I was a kid and my dad was showing me how to use it. Being much older and more broken now, I expect to fully appreciate the light weight and more ergonomic design! :-D
As for my mother’s car, my daughter drove it home, and she reports it running just fine. Nothing out of the ordinary, and the check engine light stayed off. We also didn’t get charged for the check up. He did the check, cleared the codes and ran it for an hour, and found no issues. So it does look like it was simply triggered by the changing of the battery. That was best case scenario, too.
