We have a truck again!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Wow, what a day today turned out to be!

Since the truck was booked to be looked at tomorrow morning, I rescheduled my mother’s shopping and errands to today. The plan was to do her errands, making sure to bring along our water jugs that needed refilling, so that I could go to the town nearer to us and fill them while running some errands of our own before going home.

Early this morning, I got a text reminder – at about 7am! – from Canadian Tire for our 7am appointment on Monday, saying to make sure to be there ahead of time and be ready to drop off the keys; standard stuff. I responded by saying the vehicle was already there, and they already had the keys.

It was probably around 9am when I got the first call from them.

They had already looked at the truck!

The problem was, indeed, a wheel bearing. I asked how much it would be, and it was thankfully lower than I feared. Being just the one tire, the total came to less than $500. I was half expecting both tires and a $1000 bill.

I authorized the work, which took a few texts, another call, then an email, because the link they texted me wouldn’t work on my phone. Instead, I got a message saying I needed to complete the process on my computer – but I don’t have text to desktop set up on this computer. In the end, all I needed to do was text back “approved”, but what they were trying to send me was the document showing an itemized list of what was to be done, and the cost of each item.

So that got approved just in time for me to start heading out to my mother’s.

Except…

I didn’t realize it, but my younger daughter was planning to come with me! I misunderstood something she’d said. She was behind on doing the morning cat feeding and the morning rounds, so I switched out one of the trail cam memory cards while she did the other. Everything else got skipped.

The slight delay turned out to be a good thing, because I’d forgotten the water jugs!

It’s a good thing I started heading out early. By the time we finally got everything ready, we were on the road exactly when I knew was the latest we could leave and get there for the time I told my mother I would be there.

When we got to my mother’s, I went in to get and go over her list with her. My daughter stayed in the car. With how my mother behaves towards her, she has no interest in being around her grandmother anymore and, to be honest, I can’t blame her one bit.

Normally, our first stop would have been the pharmacy, but they were still closed, so we went to the grocery store instead. They opened their doors at 11am – pretty much as we were parking! I keep forgetting about Sunday hours.

My daughter stayed in the car for that part, too, as there was nothing she needed there. That done, it was back to the pharmacy. It was still closed, so we went looking for the posted hours and realized they opened at noon, so we still had time. We took advantage of that and went to the gas station to fill my brother’s tank, which was just below half by then – it still feels so strange to be able to fill at tank for $30! That’s a quarter tank, on our truck.

I also picked up some fried chicken and wedges for our lunch, along with some drinks, since we would still have to wait. After parking by the pharmacy again, I called my mother to let her know we were waiting for the pharmacy to open at noon, so we would be longer. Then we had our lunch – very carefully, so as not to drop any crumbs in my brother’s car! – and watched all the people going to the pharmacy doors, realizing they were locked, then leaving again. 😄

As we were waiting, I got a text from the garage.

The truck was ready.

!!!!!

At this point, I’d already made arrangements with my brother and SIL for switching vehicles tomorrow. The garage already knew about this, so that was not an issue.

They were done so early, though. After updating my brother, he wondered if we meant to get it today, instead.

On finding out the garage was open until 6, and it was barely noon, we decided to just finish my mother’s shopping, then head straight to my brother’s, then to the city to get the truck.

After I did my mother’s shopping at the pharmacy and my daughter did part of hers, we went back to my mother’s place. She isn’t up to going to church lately, even though it’s just across the street, so someone comes over with communion for her, after services. She was all set up for this when I got there, so I quickly told her what was going on as I put her things away. I was just packing up my reusable bags when there was a knock at the door. Perfect timing! It was the guy from church.

So, off I went and soon, my daughter and I were on the road to my brother’s new place.

This is the first time I’ve driven to their place myself; I’ve been driven there as a passenger, and I’ve driven FROM their place, and everything looked different. I kept second guessing myself when I knew we were getting close. I had a landmark building I told my daughter about. It’s been there for probably 100 years. I told my daughter, it’s now an antique store.

“But what do they sell?” she asked me.

…

It took me a few moments. I’m not too swift with jokes.

I then laughed for the next 5 minutes!

Finally we got there, and then I had to remember which driveway was the right one. They’re in a row of townhouses now, and they all look identical, and I couldn’t remember their unit number. I recognized a car in another driveway, so I pulled into a driveway that I was pretty sure was theirs. I figured, if it was, their garage door opener would work. I knew which button closed the door, so I tried the other buttons to open it.

No garage doors opened.

I was still pretty sure we were at the right place. I could see some decor items near the door, but couldn’t remember if they were familiar to me or not.

Then, as we got out, I saw the block heater extension cord on the step, recognized that, and knew I was in the right place.

😄😄

Oh, and it turned out the same button on the garage door opener that closes it, opens it. We have no idea what the other two buttons are supposed to do. 😄

When we got there, they were all ready to set up a pot of tea and stuff, but I didn’t want to delay. The garage would be open for a few more hours but, since we were in the city, we could still do our errands at a nearby Walmart, and fill our water jugs at the Canadian Tire. So we were soon out the door again. Both my brother and SIL came along and drove us to the garage, taking advantage of the trip themselves to look for things.

When we got there, we were able to spot the truck fairly easily, so my brother pulled in behind it while we transferred my daughter’s shopping to the truck box – where I found the box with the old wheel bearings they’d left for me – and grabbed the water jugs, then my brother parked.

My brother went in to the auto service area with me while my daughter and SIL took the water jugs into the store to refill them.

I got the keys and paperwork for the truck and then got sent over to the cashier on the store side of the barrier to pay for it. Boom, boom, boom, and it was done!

I was so happy!!!!! What a relief!

We reconnected with my daughter and SIL soon after. They couldn’t find the refill station. I went to where I thought it was, completely forgetting that this is a different store than where I’d refilled at before. After looking around, I finally asked an employee.

This location doesn’t have a refill station. They only did Culligan brand exchanges.

Well… so much for that!

I put the jugs back in the truck, then met back up with everyone else in the store again. Since we didn’t need to get anything else and my brother and his wife were going to do some more looking around, we said our goodbyes and parted ways.

With the Costco pretty much across the street, I figured I would at least go there to fill the tank with cheaper gas.

Then we saw the lineups of cars at all the pumps.

We went straight to the Walmart, instead.

It was really busy, too!

My daughter had her list and I had mine, so we parted ways for a bit, then reconnected in the grocery section. We didn’t bring in the water jugs, though, because I didn’t know if this Walmart had a refill station.

We never did see one, so probably not.

By the time we were done and paid for our stuff – I didn’t take any stocking up photos, like I usually do, as we were just in high gear, the whole time – it was starting to snow quite a bit. So we just took the time to update the family before we started out. Well… updated my husband, as my older daughter would have still been in bed. She just closed the slots for her Christmas quick commissions sale, while also having several regular commissions to complete, last night, so she is going to have some very busy work nights for the next couple of weeks. She then takes time off for Christmas and New Years.

I also updated the Cat Lady whenever I could, throughout the day, and confirmed that we will NOT be rescheduling those spays she booked for us on Thursday!

She had good news for me, too. A friend of hers had donated 50 cans of wet cat food to us! That’s on top of the 100 or so, she is going to pass on to us because her own cats won’t eat that flavour, plus some kibble a grocery store donated. When we meet up with her at the vet, she’s going to have all sorts of donated cat food to pass on to us! In fact, we might find ourselves with enough wet cat food that we might be able to treat the outside cats to some cat soup! The Cat Lady is so awesome in being able to do this for us!

If we can keep it from freezing.

We’ll figure it out.

She said she even ordered more kibble for us from Amazon, though with the postal strike, it’s hard to say when it’ll get here. It’s a rotating strike; mail gets delivered in some places, while others are picketing, then it changes every week. So mail can potentially get through, at some point. We just have no idea when or where.

This strike is killing a lot of small businesses that depend on shipping out orders. Especially this time of year, when most businesses have their highest sales, putting them in the black before the end of the year. Some things just can’t be shipped by courier.

Anyhow.

For most of the drive out of the city, we took things easy. Nearer the city, roads were icy, but they cleared up the further north we drove. Which was good, because visibility decreased at the same time!

We got to the town nearest us and made our first stop for my daughter to run in and get what she needed while I updated the family again. Then it was to the grocery store. This time, I ran in with the water jugs to refill them – and picked up some food for my daughter, since she was too stressed out to choose something to eat on the road. She’s even worse for crowds and shopping than I am!

By the time we were done there, it was full dark. We made one more stop for gas, since we didn’t get any at Costco, then finally we headed home.

The snow was coming down harder by then, and I was very glad my daughter was with me. I had to focus on the road directly in front of us, just to stay in my lane. I couldn’t see the centre line, but I could make out the shoulder, at least. Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic. Still, at times we were doing only 60 kph in a 100 zone.

My daughter, meanwhile, was on deer watch, scanning the ditches for me. You’d think deer would be hunkering down in shelter somewhere in weather like this, but nooo. These are Canadian deer. They’ll stand in the middle of the road and wait for the vodka to freeze.

Credit to my daughter for that one… 😄

So this day ended up being much, much longer than expected. The outside cats hadn’t been fed before it got dark, like we usually try to do. My older daughter wasn’t up yet, and my husband can’t manage getting kibble to all the spread out food bowls anymore, now that there’s ice and snow on the ground making it more dangerous for him to hobble about, even with a cane.

Which worked out, really, since we had to feed them to get them away from the truck before I could park it.

We had some very hungry babies. By the time I finished doing the outside trays and bowls and came back into the sunroom, the sunroom trays were almost empty!

As for me, I was very happy to be parking our own truck in the garage, instead of a borrowed car.

I’m so incredibly thankful they were able to get it done today, and that we could work out the transportation and vehicle switching with my brother and SIL on such short notice.

Best of all…

All the time that we were driving, all I was hearing was normal road noises. 😄

When I get a chance, I want to bring in the old part from the truck and take a look at the damage. I’m curious to see what kind of damage would make the noise I was hearing, since it was so different from the last vehicle we had to replace wheel bearings on.

To top it off, we now no longer have anyplace we will potentially need to go to, tomorrow. My mother’s errands are done, and now the truck is home, too.

We can actually *gasp* stay home for a day!

Which is good, because it’s supposed to be colder, tomorrow. The next day – Tuesday – is supposed to be warmer, so that will be a good time to make a much needed trip to the dump and, since I’d be going in that direction anyhow, go to the town north of us and get a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble. Yes, we have cat food donations coming, but you just can’t have too much kibble! Especially in winter. It’s looking like we will have a mild winter, but if things ever change and we end up not being able to get out for some reason, we need to have the pantry stocked up with enough for all of us – humans and feline alike. In the winter, I want to have at least one, preferably two, months worth of supplies on hand. We’ve already have a few times when we’ve relied on our stocked up items. It’s getting harder to keep it up, with the cost of everything going up, but I view this as an essential.

An essential, like our truck is!!

Have I mentioned, how glad I am that our truck is back?

😄😄

The Re-Farmer

The Costco shop that didn’t happen

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Oh, wow. What a day.

I don’t mean that in a good way, but I have to say that I am very grateful. Things went wrong in the best way possible, if that makes any sense!

Today was my day to go to Costco for our second stock up shopping trip. Shopping there on a Saturday is definitely better than on Black Friday! Still, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I just don’t like shopping in general. On top of that, while today was warmer than yesterday, the winds were still pretty high. But, it needed to be done, and it really wasn’t all that bad out, as far as winter weather goes in this area.

My mother called last night and we arranged for a grocery shopping and errands day on Monday. However, she mentioned being out of milk, so I told her I would swing by the grocery store in her town on the way out, and get some for her. She asked me to get her something to go with her tea, too. 😊

So that was my first stop of the day. While at the grocery store, I picked up a sandwich and a drink to tide me over until I got to the city.

I am so glad I did.

My plan had been to stop at a shopping mall near the Costco first to grab lunch at the food court, then do the shopping. As I was getting closer to the city, however, I began to notice the sound of tires on the road was getting louder. I had the radio on, and it was loud enough to be heard over the music, which is not usual.

I couldn’t think about it too much, though, once I made my first turn onto the highway bypassing most of the city. At this point, I was no longer driving with the wind at my back, but was getting blasted from the side. The truck was being buffeted quite a lot, until I finally reached my exit.

At this point, I turned off the radio and was listening to the tires. It still sounded like tires on the road. Just louder.

When I got to the mall, I found myself having to drive through the parking lot, trying to find a spot. It was really full, and I couldn’t find any, even far from the building. However, that sound was really bothering me. There is a Canadian Tire between this mall and the Costco, so I headed for the Canadian Tire. Just to make things even more interesting, by this time I was really needing a bathroom.

Thankfully, I found a parking spot near the Canadian Tire auto service area. When I got out of the truck, I quickly checked the tires. They looked find, but there was a lot of ice built up on the mud flaps. Could that be all it was?

I didn’t stop to find out and ran inside to use the bathroom, then messaged my family about the status of things. I messaged my brother, too. I had messaged them earlier about the possibility of meeting for lunch. My SIL had gone out of province and wasn’t back yet, and my brother was running errands. When they bowed out, I responded and said, just as well, and explained why.

After that, I went back to the truck and knocked the ice free from all the mud flaps. From the gouges in the ice, there was no doubt that it had been rubbing against the tires.

That is was pretty thick, too!

By the fourth tire, the scraper on my snow clearing brush broke off. That piece of ice beside it in the photo was probably the biggest of them all.

I then got into the truck and started backing out, thinking I could head back to the mall and get food.

Which is when the other noise started.

As soon as I started moving, there was a sort of screeching, rubbing, grinding noise.

I stopped and moved back into the stop, and the sound continued when I was moving forward.

I was not going to drive anywhere with that noise!

I thought that maybe it was just ice somewhere in there, but it wasn’t worth taking a chance. We only have the one vehicle!

Back into Canadian Tire I went.

After waiting in line for a while – there were a lot of people around – I told a guy what was happening and asked about getting it checked. He told me that they were really busy, and it was unlikely they’d be able to check it for at least 6 or 7 hours.

!!!

So I asked where the next nearest garage was and he told me about a couple of them.

I wasn’t about to drive the truck, though. After looking up on my maps app, I found which one was closest and headed that way.

Walking straight into the wind.

Thankfully, I was dressed for the weather, so I was fine. I made sure to wear my down filled parka today. It may be old and ratty, but it’s very warm.

I just checked, and the distance I walked was a little over half a mile.

I talked to the guy behind the counter, explaining the situation. Unfortunately, they were really busy, too. They closed at four and, even if we got the towed over, he couldn’t guarantee they’d be able to look at it before closing. The truck would be staying there for the weekend.

So I thanked them and decided, 6-7 hours isn’t that bad.

I was going to message my family but found my brother had tried to call me while I was walking, so I called him back. It turned out he was in the area – stuck waiting for a train! – and wanted to meet me. I told him I was going back to the Canadian Tire and why.

Amazingly, I got there before he did.

This time, I had the wind at my back, so it was a much more pleasant walk.

Once there, however, I found I was too late. They were now booking for Monday.

Meanwhile, I was concerned about the budget. There was only so much we could absorb. So I ended up calling my bank to talk about that. I ended up sitting in the truck to have the privacy and quiet to make the call.

I got an automated message saying how long the wait was expected to be and was able to choose a call back option.

I just finished on the phone when my brother called. He was in the auto service area, looking for me! When I told him where I was, he told me to stay there and he’d meet me.

When he got there, he asked me all sorts of questions, then got me to try moving the truck back a few feet, then forward again, while he listened.

He was able to narrow the noise down to the front tires (from the inside, the sound seemed to be all around). He also thought it sounded like metal on metal.

*sigh*

He wanted to try and look under, but didn’t want to lie on the snow. I had a tarp in the back, though so we brought that out. He looked, then had me move the truck back again, while he was looking under it.

After he got up and got me to more forward again, he told me everything that he could see looked in really good shape. The only thing he could think of that could be making the noise was the bearings.

I’ve had to replace a bearing before, and it didn’t sound anything at all like this.

If it is the bearings, he thinks it would likely cost around $1000.

!!!

He also said that when I was going in reverse, the sound seemed to come from the front driver’s side tire – but when I moved forward, it seemed to be coming from the front passenger side.

At that point, the only thing to do was to book the truck in. He said he would lend us a car – or I could possibly spend the night with them.

When we got back in and talked to the guy at the counter, my brother was able to tell him exactly what he saw for the notes.

Just checking the truck is going to cost almost $200 in total.

It’s now booked for 7am on Monday. I’d say that’s their earliest slot that no one else wanted. I won’t be in the city and the truck is staying in their parking lot, so it doesn’t matter to me. He did say that they will try and see it tomorrow, if possible. Otherwise, Monday it is.

While this was going on, my phone vibrated but didn’t ring. I don’t know why my phone doesn’t ring for incoming calls. It is set to both ring and vibrate, but there’s never a ring. Anyhow, it was CIBC trying to call me back. My brother and I were heading for the doors when I felt my pocket vibrating, so I took the call.

Long story short on that one: I spoke to 5 different people for 1 hour and 11 minutes. During this time, I followed my brother to his car, we sat there for a bit until I was on hold again, he drove me to his place, made a pot of tea and got out a lunch to heat up, all while I was either on hold or being transferred and put on hold again.

In the end, though, it was done. If necessary, we will have back up funds to finance the cost.

*sigh*

Meanwhile, my brother still had errands to do – and was going to be meeting my SIL at the airport! She was in the loop with messaging and we even spoke on the phone while having lunch. I am so glad I got that sandwich earlier, or I would have been dizzy and nauseous from hunger by that point! The hungrier I get, the sicker I get, but the more I lose my appetite. It’s really weird. The more I need to eat, the less I want to eat.

Anyhow.

During the drive to their place, the weather got really bad. By this time, it was past 2, so going to Costco was not going to happen. We would be losing light, soon, so I wanted to go straight home.

My brother then moved the car he drove so I could take their other car out of the garage, and we went our separate ways.

I don’t know what I would have done without my brother’s help! I’d still have talked to the bank, but likely would have had to find a hotel or something, and I don’t think there are any in this area.

By the time I was heading home, though, the road conditions and weather were excellent, so I made a stop at the small Walmart along the way. I figured I could at least pick up some butter and toilet paper.

I messaged my family and my daughter added a couple more things to the list that we would need soon.

They were out of butter, other than the expensive stuff sold in sticks, but I got a few other things. I even got some more kibble, just in case.

Then I loaded the car and started messaging my family to let them know I was soon to be back on the road, when I realized, I forgot the toilet paper! 😄😄 We aren’t out, but it would have been good to have extra, just in case.

Meanwhile, I also got messages from the Cat Lady while I was driving to the Walmart. I answered her and told her what was going on.

Finally, I was on the road home again. Since I had the cat food, I had arranged for the sun room doors to be untied so I could go in that way with them.

Which is why I found the kitten.

The tiny little grey and white kitten that wasn’t getting any bigger, lying on one of the patio blocks in front of the shelf shelter.

😭

I can’t say it was a surprise, since she was obviously not thriving. With the cold we’ve been having, it was probably just too much for her tiny body. There was nothing obviously wrong with her. She didn’t seem sick, no injuries, just… not thriving. I knew that if we were going to lose any to natural causes, she was the most likely.

It still really sucks. Yes, we have too many yard cats, but it’s always sad when we lose them – and we lost so many this year!

I couldn’t even bury her. I had to put her in the branch pile for cremation.

*sigh*

So, that’s our situation now. I’ve got my brother’s car again – he was telling me that, at this point, I’ve driven their “new” car more than he has! – which is such a Godsend. The fact that I was able to get the truck parked right at the garage is another thing to be grateful for.

Meanwhile, we’re going to have to change things up next week, since we have no way of knowing when we’ll get the truck back. Even if they check it and find the problem, they may not be able to actually repair it right away.

The Cat Lady has already said she will reschedule the spays on Thursday. I may or may not have to reschedule with my mother on Monday, but if we don’t get the truck back on Monday or Tuesday, my daughter and I will have to reschedule her doctor’s appointment and my eye appointment, which are both on Wednesday. Which we might have had to do anyhow. My daughter still has her dizzy spells and might not be able to drive me home from my eye appointment, even if we had the truck, and my brother doesn’t want anyone but me driving their car.

Oof.

What a day!

For all the things that went wrong, I can still say, they went wrong in as good a way as possible. I didn’t break down on the road, or while I was running errands for my mother or.. or… or… There are so many ways things could have been worse.

Meanwhile, I am safe at home and, thanks go my brother, we have transportation.

Life is good, and we have much to be thankful for.

The Re-Farmer

A quick isolation shelter build

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Yesterday, we had my husband’s prescription delivery and I headed out too early. It was cold, so I went into the garage to get out of the wind and started poking through the lumber and other left over building material my brother gave us while they were moving things out.

I struck gold.

I found a few pieces of plywood that looked liked they were the size I needed and brought them to the house, after the prescription delivery.

Today, I could have gone into the city to do our Costco shop. It is, however, Black Friday. I don’t know why we have Black Friday in Canada, since our Thanksgiving is in October. Truthfully, I was really confused about when the US Thanksgiving was, since these sales have been going on for about two weeks. Even so, this is the “big day” for sales which, for me, means, staying away from stores as much as possible! It’s not like we’d be buying anything different that we usually do, and that stuff tends to not go on sale.

I’ll be doing that tomorrow. Even shopping on a Saturday at Costco would be better than shopping on Black Friday!

So, today was a home day.

As I write this, we’re currently at -16C/3F, with a wind chill of -29C/-20F Our high of the day was supposed to be -13C/9F, but I don’t think we reached it.

With that in mind, I decided it was a good day to see what I could do with those pieces of plywood, and whatever else I could find.

What we have been wanting to do is build some sort of shelter over the isolation shelter opening. It’s a large opening and the winds can blow right in – and would blow in snow, as well. We needed something to keep the weather out. It needed to be easily moveable, but also heavy enough that it wouldn’t get blown away. The plywood I found looked like it would fit the bill for making a box that would fit over the ramp door.

All three pieces were exactly 2′ long, but one was slightly narrower. The narrower piece became the top. I made the 2′ the height of the box, since the bottom level of the isolation shelter is 2′ high. That does not count the pallet floor or wheels, though, so I knew I would need to keep that in mind, too.

The slideshow below is a couple of photos of the basic box shape.

That bit of a gap from the narrower piece would go against the isolation shelter. I didn’t take any measurements, so this was just in case it lined up with the top of the latch on the frame.

I had some lumber left over from making the garden bed cover frames, so I cut 2′ of that to join the bottom of the box and stabilize it. That is meant to go under the ramp door. I might end up removing that, though. The wood split on one side as I nailed it in place. I found a skinnier but longer nail for the other side, and ended up splitting the plywood.

As you’ve probably guessed, this entire projected was made with scavenged materials.

Speaking of scavenged materials…

I had found another piece of plywood with a perfect circle cut into it that would have made a great “door”, but it was too small to fit the front of the box.

I did, however, still have a panel of the old tub surround in the house.

So, I laid that down and used the box itself to mark out a piece large enough to cover the front completely. I decided I would use that to cover the front and make a cat flap door. You can see progress photos in the slideshow below.

One the front panel was cut out, I found the center, the marked off four inches on either side, then … I forget if I went 10 or 11 inches from the bottom. That got cut out to make the door flap.

I then cut about half an inch off the bottom, and less than 1/8th of an inch off one side. I didn’t measure. Basically, I had a piece of wood I was using as a straight edge to cut against, and it was whatever amount looked right. The main thing is that the flap had to be able to move freely in the space. With a gap on the bottom, I figured it would be easier for the cats to figure out how to use the flap, as they would instinctively snuffle at the gap to try and get in or out.

All I had to create a “hinge” for the flap was duct tape, though. So I secured that as best I could, while still allowing for the flap to freely swing in both directions.

The next thing was to attach it to the front of the box, and secure it. Slideshow below…

I had some smaller nails that were white that I bought for something else quite a while ago, and those were perfect for attaching the panel.

I used a lot of nails, since I figured cats might end up dashing out and bashing into the sides when startled.

Which is also why I added a cross piece above the cat flap on the inside. I was able to nail that into place at each end, but I also wanted to attach the panel to the cross piece, and for that I needed smaller nails.

After scrounging around through various buckets we found while cleaning the old basement, I found three short little nails.

They would do!

I’ve kept a chimney block in the basement because it’s been such a handy work surface for various projects, and it came in handy again. I set it up inside the box, under the cross piece. It was shorter than the height needed, but a piece of scrap 2×4 was enough to make the difference. The panel is now secured to the cross piece above the cat flap, where I figured it would need the most support.

I then spotted a potential problem. All of this exposed wood that’s going to be in the snow all winter. Even if we had paint, I wouldn’t have wanted to use it, as it would need time to dry, and I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible.

Tub surround to the rescue, once again.

I made a roof.

That could only be nailed down on the sides, as the nails I had are 1″ and the plywood is 3/4″, so I used quite a few to secure it. In the first photo of the slideshow above, you can see that I also used more duct tape around the edges of the panel at the cat flap, plus added another strip above the flap, just in case.

The next image shows how it looks on the inside, with the cross piece, and the last image from the back. I’d laid the top of the box to mark out how large it was, on the back of the tub surround piece. This piece has holes in it from the arm bars, which didn’t matter for the front panel, but for the roof, I made sure there were no screw holes. This time, when using the piece of scrap lumber as my cutting guide (I just used a utility knife to cut it), I lined it up with my marks, then cut on the other side of the wood, to create an overhang on three sides.

It was now done!

Next year, when we get more paint for the isolation shelter, we’ll paint the exposed wood on this, too, but there is no urgency on that, now that there is a roof in place.

At this point, I needed to get this up the basement stairs and outside. Between the unfortunate way the door is hung (it swings over the stairs instead of into the entry) and the cats, I commandeered my daughter for assistance. She helped me get it outside and set up over the ramp door, lifting it so I could slide that back cross piece under it.

I foresaw a few potential problems, once the box was in place. I’d hoped to avoid them, but nope.

In the first photo, you can see the first problem. The patio blocks are not level, and one in particular has been heaved by the roots of the elm tree in front of the house, quite a bit. It actually cracked the front panel at the corner. In the next photo, you can see that not only is it lower than the frame between floors, but not at all level.

What you can’t see is that the cat flap could only swing outwards. Inwards, it was hitting the ramp. The extra height the pallet floor and wheels added were causing this problem.

All I needed was a raised the box higher by a couple of inches. Leveling it was not going to happen, but it at least needed to be raised up and supported enough to not wobble or anything like that.

Bricks from the old wood burning furnace chimney to the rescue! I found four that had the least amount of mortar stuck to them.

It was enough. The flap can now freely swing in or out. The bricks provided a stable enough lift that there is no wobble at all, even though it’s still not level.

In the future, we need to rip out this patio and redo it so it’s level again, but there’s no point in doing that until we get rid of the tree in front of the house. Not only is it lifting the patio blocks, but there are cracks in the basement wall.

While setting up the box over the ramp, there were several cats inside the shelter, very interested in the goings on. Others had already dashed out as soon as we started fussing around the shelter.

For the cats inside, it would be an easy thing for them to figure out the cat flap. What we need to watch for is if they can figure out they can push against it to get in. If it seems that this is an issue, we can prop the flap open, or even remove it entirely. That would allow some of the weather in, but it’s far enough away from the entrance that it should not affect much more than the ramp itself.

When we have cats isolated in the shelter, we’ll need to move the box away completely and close the ramp door. Once that is closed, the box won’t be needed to keep the weather out. There is enough space beside the shelter to store the box until it’s needed again – where it can double as another shelter for the cats. We already have a small food bowl beside the shelter for cats that aren’t willing to go inside it, but it’s completely exposed. Even if it’s for just a couple of weeks while there are cats recovering from spays inside, that would be useful, as long as it doesn’t block access to the sliding door we use to refill the kibble bowl in the second level.

What I’ll probably do in the spring is add legs to the box to raise it up a few inches, so we don’t need to use bricks. The bricks we are using now will be just fine for this winter, though.

When we first moved out here and started cleaning up around the yard, it amazed me just how many bricks I was finding, all over the place.

Now that we’ve been here a few years, we’ve found those bricks incredibly handy, and I even find myself thinking, we need more bricks! 😂

So that’s one more job done for the isolation shelter. Hopefully, the cats will be fine with it, because it will make a big difference in the conditions inside during the winter. Especially when we get hit with winds from the south.

I’m rather pleased with out it turned out, and really grateful for all that scrap wood my brother gave us. The pieces may have been too small for projects my brother needed to work on, but they are perfect for small projects like this!

The Re-Farmer

Glad to be home!

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Well, that was a fun drive.

Not.

Okay, it wasn’t too back, but I really hate driving at night at the best of times. Add in things like blowing snow and being buffeted by winds, even if it’s just a smaller amount, is something I’d rather avoid. That wind was really bitter. As I write this, we are at -13C/9F with a windchill of -26C/-15F. I actually broke out my ratty old down filled parka for the trip!

I need a “going out” coat. 😄

My husband’s appointment for his CT scan was at 5:30, and we needed to be on the road by 4:30 at the latest. We decided to leave at about 3, giving us time to get some gas and *gasp* make a date of it!

A cheap date.

We ended up going to the nearer Walmart I usually go to in between stock up shopping trips, as it’s very close to the hospital my husband’s appointment was at, and had some McRaunchies. 😁

It doesn’t take much to make us happy.

Best of all, it was still daylight for the drive in.

A downside was not being able to park close to the doors. My husband does have a disabled parking permit, but all the parking spots were full. I was driving around and there was one open spot, but another vehicle pulled into it – parking diagonally, and not even trying to straighten out – before I got close. So we had to park quite a bit further out and my husband had to push his walker through the snow.

As far as we could see, the car that got the spot ahead of us did not have a disabled parking permit.

It was still there when we left, too.

Even when we got to the hospital parking lot, most of the disabled parking spots were taken – at least the ones that were closest to the entry. I thought there was one really great spot, but it turned out to be permit parking only.

I dropped my husband off at the entrance, but had to block the access lane to do it. The area in front of the doors was blocked by a handy van, and all the spaces in front and back of it, which are all 10 minute drop off zones, had cars parked in them.

By the time I found a parking spot and came in, my husband was already checked in and in the waiting room at diagnostic imaging. We were only about 15 minutes early at that point.

They got him in about 15 minutes late.

The downside of leaving so early is, he was in quite a lot of pain by then.

As for the scan itself, he was in and out in less than 10 minutes! That included the time needed for them to help him get off the table. He could get on all right, but his back wouldn’t let him get up without assistance.

When we stopped in the lobby so my husband could put his coat on, I checked the time and it was exactly 6pm. It was straight home from there, but the drive took quite a bit longer than usual. With the poor visibility and blowing snow, I was driving about 80-90kmh (50-55 mph) in 100kmh zones (62mph).

I got passed only once, and there was quite a bit of traffic!

What is usually around a 45-50 minute drive ended up taking just over an hour.

But, it’s over and done with. His new doctor will have up to date scans to look at and see how much more his spine has deteriorated since the last scan, a few years ago. Which isn’t even the injury that disabled him, but there’s nothing they have been able to do about the soft tissue damage. Hopefully, when she wants to talk to him about the results, his doctor will be okay with a telephone appointment. Even though the clinic is in the town nearest us, it’s still really painful for him to get to it.

Once at home and heading into the house, I was very happy to see that there were several cats hanging out inside the isolation shelter. Since we can’t see into it unless we are outside, I’m never quite confident that it’s being used. Especially when I look out the bathroom window and see piles of cats smashed together on the cats beds in there. 😄

My brain is still not used to these early sunsets. Even during the drive home, when it just past 7pm, it felt like it should be midnight! Now, I look at my clock and it’s not even 8:30pm yet.

It just feels wrong. 😄

Then, just when I’ll finally be used to it, it’ll be the solstice and the days will start getting longer again. 😄

I can hardly wait!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

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First up, a great big Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbours in the US. I hope you have an awesome day with friends and family and lots of delicious food! You have much to be thankful for, this year. 💕🦃

My daughter has not been able to get much sleep for the past couple of days, so she asked me to do the morning rounds today.

I got to indulge in kitties this morning!

Of course, there is always stuff to do, and this morning I did a bit of shoveling of paths and clearing of snow.

The first photo above is the little solar panels for the motion activated lights inside the kibble and food bowl shelters. They were completely covered with snow.

There isn’t a lot of snow on the ground, but enough that I made paths to the shrine and the catio. In the second photo above, you can see how some snow was piled up around the bottom of the catio. We tried to make sure the extra length of vinyl wrapped around the catio was tucked under the frame when we put it on, but of course, it can get loose. I wanted to make sure there was no chance of the wind catching the edges and pulling them loose. Of course, the snow will also act as an insulating layer and keep out any breezes that might get under. The catio is slightly elevated in the front, which did not get snow added, since the cats need space to slip into the door, and the door itself needs room to swing open if we need to untie it to reach inside.

The added insulation ceiling on the isolation shelter seems to have made quite a difference! Quite a few cats like to hand out in the upper level. The corner where the heated water bowl is actually gets condensation of the window and sliding door. The cutout for the extension cord is in that corner, too, and that’s where you can see a single spot where the snow is melted from below.

I’m quite happy with how this shelter is working out.

By the time I was heading back inside through the sun room, the cats had mostly finished eating and were settling in the various beds and cozy spots.

Adding that strip of insulation on the shelf in the isolation shelter is being much appreciated by little toe beans! They make full use of the spaces made for them in the sun room, too, including the cage under the platform – both in it and on top of it! Unfortunately, they do knock off the pieces of insulation in some areas, like one of the upper level cubes inside the cage, and even in the narrow space between the top of the cage and the platform. They knocked off the feed bag bed in the black shelf so often, I just left it on the floor. They seem to really like it on there, too.

What a bunch of cuties!

Surely, there are people out there that would want to adopt them!

Right?

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Learning something new…

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While winding down for the night, I’ve been watching some videos, including this new one from MI Gardener; a resource I have recommended before.

This is an interesting video, since I fairly regularly see these concrete blocks being recommended to make raised beds. He lists the reasons he believes they should not be used.

I found it really interesting, and wanted to talk about some of them.

One of the first things he brought up was the weight. The ones he uses in the video are 8″x8″x16″ This is the size of most of the blocks we’ve been finding all over the place, though I think I’ve found some that are 10″x8″x16″

He also adds that they are cheap, and says they cost about $2 each.

So, of course, I had to look it up!

It turns out, one of these concrete blocks weighs about 30-35 pounds. The ones he’s using has flat ends. Some have shaped ends, and from what I found on the Canadian Home Depot page, they weight 42 pounds (19kg). The 10″ ones weigh 45 pounds (20.4kg).

I’d never really thought about how much they weighed. I found them heavy to carry around, but not that bad, really.

As for being cheap, interestingly, the 8″ ones are listed as just under $5 each – and are more expensive than the 10″ ones, which are just over $4 each. The last time I looked at their prices, at an actual store, not online, was a few years ago, and one 8″ block was priced at over $8 each, which shocked me. This was before inflation went nuts, too. Very odd.

This got me wondering, since we are using concrete chimney blocks as planters. So I had to look those up, too. I found plenty of links, but not one of them included a price. The closest I could find was an old image with a price on it, but the link was no longer active. Other than that, I found some on FB Marketplace were someone lists a whole bunch of things, not just chimney blocks, with a $4 each price listed. I don’t think that price was the same for all the wide variety of items listed, so I still don’t know how much they sell for here.

The chimney blocks we have are the standard square size of 16.75″x16.75″x7.62″

That measurement is so odd, I thought it would make more sense in metric, but not really. That works out to 42.5cmx42.5cmx19.35cm

What caught my attention was the weight.

Each one of those chimney blocks weighs 68 pounds (30.8kg)

So… I was lugging almost 70 pound blocks around the yard when I built the retaining wall and the chain link fence planters.

Okay, so weight was one of his reasons not to use them, but the other was height. They’re only 8″ high (slightly higher than our chimney blocks), making only 8″ of growing space.

I found that curious. His sample concrete block raised bed is on top of soil. Granted, it looks like the area was just leveled and has been driven over, so it might be compacted, but it’s still open soil, not a concrete pad or something. Any plants could send it’s roots lower. We have maybe 8″ of top soil – 10″ in a really good spot – before we hit gravel, clay and rocks. An 8″ high bed gives us about 16″ of growing space. We have been using modified hügelkultur, so the first couple of years would have sticks and branches at the bottom, so we don’t plant root vegetables in them right away.

I would find 8″ too low for accessibility reasons, and when I see people doing raised beds with concrete blocks, they are often two, three or even four blocks high. He talks about adding a second level, and demonstrates how easily the block spins around, since the base row is not perfectly level. He mentioned that people have suggested rebar to hold them in place.

I agree with him on the rebar. It seems almost counterproductive.

I’d just use concrete glue. AKA construction adhesive. It’s really cheap, one tube goes a long way, and can be applied using a caulking gun. Granted, that makes it permanent, but most raised beds don’t get moved around once they’re built, anyhow.

He makes a point about breakage being a problem, but not in the way he talks about. Where we are, we have temperature extremes. Pretty much all the concrete blocks we’ve been finding have been outdoors. Most of the chimney blocks we’ve used were stored outdoors since my parents bought this farm in 1964. Yeah, they have dings and chips, but they are still sound. The only blocks we’ve had actually crack and split where the two we put into the fire pit to hold old oven racks over the coals to cook on. It was exposure to high heat that lead to them cracking, not outdoor temperature fluctuations.

He mentioned that concrete is very porous, and that the edges of beds would need extra watering. True enough, though with our chimney blocks, there isn’t any centre space that would hold water longer than the edges. We still watered them as often as the other beds. We just have them more water. It’s been a few winters now for the retaining wall blocks long the old kitchen garden, and not one of them has cracked due to water absorption and the fresh thaw cycle. I’m not saying it can’t or won’t happen. Just that is hasn’t happened to us.

He then mentions that concrete absorbs a lot of heat. More so than even metal raised beds.

That may indeed be a problem in a lot of places.

Where we are, that’s a selling point! Even in the heat of our summers, it just makes them better for heat loving plants that might normally not grow well here.

There is another element to using concrete blocks he doesn’t mention, and that is the effect on soil pH. I’d read before that concrete can help lower the pH, which would be great for our alkaline soil.

As I was looking it up just now, though, I found one article that said concrete can lower the pH, but that was it. Other articles, however, said that concrete will increase the pH.

Which is the last thing we need!

Given the smallish growing space inside our chimney block planters, it wouldn’t take much to affect the pH in the soil there. Granted, I did amend the soil with sulphur this past year, as well as with peat, but with our pH already at 8 or higher, it’s going to take a long time to adjust the pH even slightly lower. Getting it to be slightly acidic, which most of the things we want to grow do better in, will take years. Looking up what vegetables grow well in alkaline soil, the list is pretty long, but most of them have an upper limit of 7.5. If we can get our soil at least down to that, it would be good, but it is harder to lower the pH than it is to increase it.

Well, the mint I transplanted into some of the retaining wall blocks seems to be handling the high pH quite well, as are the chives. Our biggest issue, however, is roots growing in from below. With the blocks at the chain link fence, it’s the nearby elms that took over the soil in the blocks. In the retaining wall, it’s some sort of invasive flower we haven’t been able to get rid of. It’s almost killing off the mint, in some blocks!

So when it comes down to it, whether using concrete blocks for raised beds is a good idea or not really depends on a lot of things. Stuff he saw as negatives, are positives for us, or non-issues.

Would I use concrete blocks for a raised bed?

Probably not.

We’ve got all those dead spruce trees that need to be cut down that can be used. For other raised beds, I’m liking the wattle weave idea and want to build more, though it’s surprisingly hard to gather enough suitable branches to use for the weaving. If we did happen to have enough concrete blocks to make raised beds, there are other things I’d much prefer to use them for.

When it comes to gardening, it is such an individual thing. We all just have to figure out what will work for our own gardens in our own regional area and microclimate, and use what materials we have access to.

Hearing what works or doesn’t work for others and why can still be a huge help. Which is why I like videos like this one. Not only did I find what he had to say very interesting, it got me checking things out and looking things up to learn more.

And now I know how much those chimney blocks weigh, too!

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: this is what $453 looks like

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$453.51, to be exact, plus $50 in gas and $18 for lunch.

Today turned out to be a good day to do our first stock up shopping trip to the city. The roads were clear, though some areas were wet with melting snow. The truck’s thermometer told me it was a mild -6C/21F while in the city, though our local high was supposed to be -4C/25F

I’ve discovered that our truck’s onboard computer not only flashes a text warning of “possible icy conditions, drive with care” warning, but it has a slippery conditions dash warning light that turns on. I’ve never seen it before, and this is our second winter with the truck.

It’s very distracting!

Even on the drive home, the road conditions were good, as I left the city early enough that the areas with melted snow weren’t freezing yet, even though my truck thought it was!

My first stop of the day (aside from getting $50 gas enroute) was Canadian Tire. The only thing on my list for there was the litter pellets.

During the drive in, however, I discovered I also needed washer fluid!

I got four bags of pellets at $7.99 each, and some super-duper, rated to -45C/-49F water fluid at $5.79.

The store’s layout has changed since I was last at this location, with one corner now a rather large Party City section. The pellets used to be in that corner, so it took a bit to find them again. When I did find them, I noticed I was near the outdoor supply stuff. On a hunch, I went looking for their lawn mower filter section. I’d been trying to find a new filter for our mower all summer – even after our push mower stopped working. It’s a Canadian Tire brand mower, so only they have the filter I needed, and every location I went to was out of stock.

They had some in stock today, so I grabbed one. If I had the budget for it, I would have grabbed two! They’ve increased in price since we got the mower, though, and now cost $22.99 Almost double what I remember them costing when I first bought the mower. 🫤

The grand total after taxes here was $65.79

My next stop was Walmart.

There were a few things not on my list that I ended up getting, because I was able to take advantage of sales. Here is what I got.

I got three loaves of rye bread. Rye bread is pretty much always on our list, since it’s a type we don’t make ourselves. I got a different brand this time, as the price was actually lower than the house brand I usually get.

I got some Q tips for now; later on, I’ll get the multi pack we usually get at Costco. My husband requested nacho fixings, and mentioned we were out of lactase, so I got the house brand version for my lactose intolerant family.

The 4L jugs of 5% vinegar was on sale, so I grabbed one. That’s something else we also usually get by the case at Costco. Next time, I’ll be looking for 10% cleaning vinegar.

I picked up four different types of cheese. I thought I was grabbing all four from the 2 for $12 selection, but apparently the Old Cheddar and Gouda were not. The Mozza and Havarti were, though.

I would have picked up a large jar of green olives, but the shelves were bare. So I got three small jars, instead.

I got two bags of the cheaper 7kg kibble for the outside cats and one 9kg bag for the inside cats to tide us over until we get more at Costco and the feed store. I did not get wet cat food because, thanks to the donation from the Cat Lady, we still have two unopened cases. I will get the bigger cases at Costco, later.

I notice cat food is never on sale at Walmart.

The nacho chips were 2 for $6, so I got four bags. I also picked up some deodorant for the girls that was on sale. Deo is really expensive these days!!! Canned beans were on sale at 3 for $5, so I got a case of them; three cans each in four different flavours. The coffee creamer is cheaper at Walmart, at 2 for $9, so I got some more of that for the girls. I was going to get them more coffee, but the shelves were empty of the dark coffee they like.

Cases of pop were also on sale at 2 for $14, so I got some Coke Zero for my husband and I, and root beer for the girls.

I ended up going through the self check out because the regular checkouts were going soooooo slow. There were plenty of them, but the lines just weren’t moving. Having worked as a cashier a few times over the years, I feel sorry for the staff. It looked like a lot of “I don’t work here, so I won’t use self checkout” Karens in all the lines. That and some “can I use this expired coupon from another store’s flier?” types. For a load like this, I would have preferred to go through a cashier, but after finding line after motionless line of customers giving the cashiers a hard time, taking forever to load their carts or slowly digging through their purses while ignoring everyone around them, blocking others from being able to unload their carts, I gave up, did it myself, and was out in no time at all.

There’s a reason the cashier position is a revolving door, and not just because it’s a ground floor position people move up from. I say this as someone who actually enjoyed the job!

Anyhow…

While finishing up at the till, I ended up adding a $5 donation to the Children’s Hospital, so the grand total, after taxes, was $219.91

By the time I got out of Walmart, it had started to snow, so I didn’t want to take too much longer. My next stop was the international grocery store, which is where I was also going to have lunch, first.

Normally, I would have had the dim sum, but the last time I was there, they had been over the steamer for too long, to the point some of it was falling apart. So I went to the Chinese buffet instead. It was very tasty! The only down side is that they no longer have plastic cutlery. Instead, it’s the “environmentally friendly” bamboo cutlery. I ended up eating half my meal with my fingers, because the tines on the fork couldn’t stab into the food, but if I tried to just scoop it up, it would fall off. Even the shanghai noodles were hard to get with it.

Anyhow; my large meal – which was both breakfast and lunch for me – plus a drink cost pennies over $18.

Then it was time to do some shopping.

There were a few things not on my list, too.

Since nachos were on the menu soon, I picked up some artichoke and asiago dip for my daughters and I – my husband requested the 7 layer dip. I got some frozen fish for my daughters, and the baby spinach was something they had asked for, too. For fruit, I just grabbed some bananas.

I picked up a pork line because the price was very good. We don’t need to get a lot of meat during our stock up shopping trips, as we will be getting our 1/8 beef pack soon, but extra for the freezer is always good.

The flavourings were on sale, so I got maple, caramel and rum. Teas were also on sale, so I got chamomile and Early Grey. There’s a 2L of 3% milk. With the rest of the family all being lactose intolerant, we don’t use regular milk enough to make it worth buying a 4L jug anymore, as my girls have been drinking oat milk lately. The soy milk we used to get has been going off really quickly, so we no longer get that.

The energy drinks were on sale, so I got 6 cans in 6 different flavours; two each for me and the girls.

I did get a new cheese to try: a smoked Irish cheddar. I also got a Redwood smoked cheddar, which we have had before. These are the only things that are more for our Christmas or New Year’s meals. I remembered to grab more powdered milk, as we were running low.

Oh! I forgot to grab cocoa. We’ve been making our own hot chocolate mix, so we’re running low on both the powdered milk and the cocoa. I should be able to get some at Costco, though.

I also remembered to grab some rolled oats, as we’re almost out of that, too.

Grand total after taxes was $167.81

Our grand total for the day, including gas and lunch, is about $521.51

Which is in budget, but … ouch.

By the time I was done, it was no longer snowing, so that was nice. The drive home was uneventful, other than my truck telling me to watch out for slippery roads the whole way.

Once home, I backed up to the house to unload. The sunroom doors were both tied off, so I couldn’t open them from the outside. I got my daughter to take care of that while I unloaded everything else at the main doors for her to bring in and put away, then started hauling the litter pellet bags to the old kitchen. The cats were all over the place, getting under my feet, waiting for their evening feeding! Once everything was in the old kitchen, including the new bags of kibble, I gave them a feeding so I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it in the garage. I think I counted 43 as I headed to the truck. When I came back, I counted 36 or so.

After wading my way through the cats in the sun room, I emptied the two new bags of kibble into the bin, then topped up the trays in the sun room again. The kibble in there disappeared fast!

We won’t be able to give them the warm and softened kibble in the mornings anymore. There was so much frozen kibble in their outside bowls! No wonder they were so hungry. It would be great if we could have heated water bowls for the warm, softened kibble, but we just don’t have anywhere to plug in more bowls anymore. At least they still have warm water. It looks like the heated water bowl in the sun room is working again, too!

Oh! I almost forgot.

While at the Walmart, I turned into an aisle and stopped to look at a display when a customer looking at soup cans on the other side said hello and asked how I was doing – then asked for help! He was trying to figure out the different displays (it turned out someone had stuck what he was looking for in the wrong spot, which he didn’t realize) and the prices. Of course, we started talking about how expensive everything is getting (condensed soup that used to be under a dollar a can not long ago is now almost $2 – and that’s the cheaper Walmart prices!) and he mentioned he’d read that a lot of house brands are the same as the name brands, made by the same companies, but just a different logo. You’re paying extra for a label. Which is true for some things, but not everything. As an example, I pointed to the kibble I was getting. I told him we are caring for a colony of cats, but even the outside cats won’t eat the no-name kibble from Superstore, if they could avoid it.

Well, that got us to talking about cats!

It turns out, his kids are asking for a cat, so he’s looking into adopting one. I told him about the Cat Lady’s rescue, what her adoption fee is (which is ludicrously low), and that includes the spay/neuter, vet check, vaccinations, treatment for ear mites, etc. I know the Cat Lady has had to actually stop putting her number out because she was getting too many calls from people that were basically looking for designer cats, so I gave him the URL to the rescue’s website. It has an address and phone number on there, but the website hasn’t been updated in a long time, and I don’t think the address (it’s just a box number, not a street address), is their current one. The email should still work, though, and probably the phone number, too.

Who knows. If he follows through with it, he may even end up adopting one of “our” cats! 😄

All in all, it was a productive day. Our Costco shop may not happen until next week; we shall see how things work out.

Tomorrow evening, I’m taking my husband to the hospital for his rescheduled CT scan. Hopefully, the weather will be good, because we’re going to be leaving pretty much at sunset, which is now earlier than 4:30 these days.

Hello, Little One – also, confirmation!

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I headed out to do the morning rounds today. My daughters have been doing it so I can sleep in, but as much as I’m not a morning person, I was really missing the yard cats!

Like this little one, who followed me up the driveway.

This is the one my daughters have named Magda. She is happily socialized, except for on thing.

She does not like to be carried.

I tried picking her up to carry her so she wouldn’t be walking in the cold snow, but she didn’t like that. So I tried again and managed to accomplish this.

As long as I wasn’t holding her in my arms, she was good, and she stayed in my jacket until I poured her out in the sun room when I was done.

I tried to do a head count this morning. I got either 38 or 39.

Last night I repaired a cat collar that we found a while back and brought it out with me. I was happy to see Collin still had his – he’s the fixed cat that is the hardest to tell apart from the other white and greys. I got the collar on Nosy. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Then I found a collar in one of the cat beds on the platform. Looking around, I discovered the Judgement no longer had a collar, so I got that back on him.

Giving the cats warm, softened cat food in the mornings is something they really enjoy, but we’re starting to have a problem. The food outside freezes before they finish it! Last night, I was able to break or knock loose most of it, but there was one tray that it was really stuck to. Once it’s loose, they can eat it, but… well… it’s frozen.

This morning, I found ice in the heated water bowl in the sun room.

*sigh*

That was the one my SIL passed on to us that was left from when they had dogs. It was working fine when I checked on things last night.

We do still have two working heated water bowls; one in the water bowl shelter and one in the isolation shelter.

Anyone out there that has used these for a long time? Is it normal for heated water bowls to stop working for no obvious reason? We’ve had some last only one year. Brand or size doesn’t seem to make a difference.

Anyhow.

Not long ago, I got some messages from the Cat Lady. We are not confirmed. On Dec. 5, we are two bring two females in to get spayed, vaccinated and treated for ear mites.

I know we’ll be able to get Kohl in – among the kittens, she’s the only female we can get that’s at least 2 pounds in weight. We have a couple of adult females that we should be able to get into a carrier. We give the cats their last feeding of the day before it gets dark, which is around 4:30 right now, so fasting will not be an issue. Of course, if they do any hunting during the night, we have no way of knowing that, but there isn’t much to hunt out there this time of year, either.

Hopefully, the rescue will be able to help us get a couple more done each month over the winter, and we can trap more of the adult ladies before they go into heat. Many of the kittens are so small, we have a bit more time for them, but there are some larger ones we don’t know the gender of, so it’s hard to say.

It just occurred to me. I haven’t seen Broccoli for a while. I’ve seen Brussel and Sprout, but not their mom.

Hmmm.

Well, it is what it is. Sometimes, they disappear for weeks or months. Sometimes, they don’t come back at all. We just do the best we can.

Which is all any of us can do, isn’t it?

The Re-Farmer

Temporary insulation

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Well, that didn’t take long at all!

The cat isolation shelter now has a “ceiling” of rigid insulation – and extra butt warming insulation on the cat shelf in the upper level!

A few years back, my daughter bought a package of half inch rigid insulation, and we still have a few sheets that have been untouched. These sheets are 2′ x 8′. The isolation shelter is 4′ long, so the first thing was to simply cut a sheet in half.

One piece went on whole, except for a notch cut out where the power cord comes out, near the hinge.

For the remaining space, my original thought was to have the piece long enough extend under the overhang of the roof, almost to the house all. I cut a strip off and set it in place, but found that the balance was off and there was a chance it could fall in between the house and the shelter. So I cut another strip off so that it would be flush with the frame, instead.

The insulation at the front is flush against the roof’s hinge board, which creates a 3/4 inch space. The rear is now raised a half inch, so the roof is almost completely level instead of sloping to drain to the rear of the shelter. Which is not a problem for the winter. We can allow snow to collect on the roof as more insulation over the season but, when it melts, I don’t necessarily want it to drain against the wall of the house.

With the new “ceiling” resting on the frame of the shelter, there is no longer a large space between the frame and the roof, but it will still have air circulation. The sliding doors would allow for slight air exchange, plus they get opened and closed whenever we do the food and water. The gap around the power cord will also allow air circulation. The bottom is now wrapped in plastic, but that’s hardly air tight, plus the floor is a pallet, so fresh air can come in from below, even if the ramp door is closed – and the ramp door has spaces between the boards and around the sides, so that will let fresh air in, too.

I was left with two 4′ lengths of insulation. One was a bit wider than the other, so I trimmed on end to fit and set it on the cat shelf. This will basically create a self-warming surface for them to sit on.

Of course, it would get knocked off easily, so I simply tied it in place with some paracord. One end is easy enough to do , since the sliding door is right next to it. The other end has the door in the front half, creating an insulated corner for the cat bed. I can reach inside easily with one arm, and could wrap the cord around the shelf, but tying it needs two hands.

It was a rather messy knot, but I think it will hold!

The excess cord was left because I know the cats will enjoy playing with it. In fact, Stinky tried to do exactly that, while I was still trying to tie a knot!

Hopefully, this will do well for the winter. We still need to figure out the best way to shelter the entrance from snow and wind, with the materials we have on hand.

All of this is temporary and will need to be removed in the spring, so that also has to be taken into consideration.

For now, I think the cats will be happy with that extra bit of insulation keeping the heat from the lamp, and their own bodies, from escaping out the top.

Plus the butt warming insulation on the shelf!

The Re-Farmer