I’ve been trying something different with the outside cats, as the temperatures drop. Along with heating water for their water bowls, I’ve started boiling water to soak their kibble, with the lysine powder added, until it’s very soft. Not quite cat soup, but no longer crunchy.
I experimented with it last night and was shocked by just how much water kibble can absorb. No wonder cats with dry diets can get blocked so easily!
Anyhow; this gives them warm food, and we’re not wasting lysine on the bottom of the food trays.
They seem to like it.
It does mean no kibble on the roof of the cat house, which some of the cats prefer. We’ll still give them a top of during the day of dry kibble, but this morning, they had to go to the liquid proof trays to eat.
As I was putting the food out, I kept hearing a meow from… where? The cats I could see were all busy eating.
Eventually, I traced it to the shelf shelter. Each shelf has its own food bow for those shier cats.
I was able to pet her yesterday, but she would still run off at times when I reached for her.
This morning, she was right in there with all the usual adults that fight for attention when I first come out. When I opened the doors from the old kitchen into the sun room, she actually made a run for the door and tried to get inside!
As I was putting the food out, she eagerly accepted pets. When she got in the way of closing the storm door to the old kitchen, I picked her up and she let me cuddle her. Even outside, where tolerance for pets usually disappears, she even came up to me for pets.
I am so happy!
I believe this makes her the third female kitten – maybe the fourth – that we’ve been able to socialize. It’s been so hard to get the females friendly, without having to basically catch them and bring them inside.
Once the cat isolation shelter is finished and set up with a heat lamp, we’ll be able to work with the rescue to start getting the little ladies spayed over the winter.
Kohl’s brother, Rabi, meanwhile, stays well away from us, even at feeding time.
Well, it finally happened. We had our first frost this year, on the night of October 3 – well past our average first frost date of September 10.
It’s still earlier than last year. A year ago today, which was our Thanksgiving day (this year, it’s next week), we had just had a lot of rain the day before, and were still harvesting from the garden, and not needing to cover anything.
We have nothing to complain about. We still have a couple of beds in the garden we could cover that, if the forecasts are at all accurate, can continue to be covered at night and kept going for a few more weeks, if we want.
Also, no snow. We might get rain tomorrow, but the earliest we’re currently expecting snow is a little bit overnight, more than two weeks from how.
Last night, we did go below freezing, and had our first morning of using warm water from the house to give to the cats, instead of filling their water bowls from the hose.
The cold was enough to finally do in the mighty, mighty Crespo squash!
I’m still amazed by how huge those plants got!
This morning, the septic guy came to empty the tank for the winter. After he did that, he adjusted the weight next to the float/pill switch he replaced for us this summer. He tried adjusting the line from the basement first, but had to do it from inside the tank.
What a guy. He was actually on the ground, his upper body leaning right into the tank to reach.
As if that weren’t enough, he showed up with an eye patch and sunglasses over his regular glasses! He somehow detached a retina and, while it is healing well, without the eye patch, he was seeing double. I can barely even lean over the open tank to see inside without feeling like my glasses will fall off, and there he was, hanging head first right into the tank. He did take off the sunglasses for that, but yikes!
He got it done, though, and now the weight will no longer get hung up on the inside of the grey water side of the tank.
I’m really glad he was able to do it. It had gotten caught again this morning. I’d brought the hose from the garden to the house. The tap is in the wall next to the septic tank. I’d shut off the tap and left the nozzle open, so water could drain out rather than freeze. Not much drained out, though! When I turned the tap on so I could use the hose on the weight inside the tank, it was barely a trickle. There was too much ice in the hose. Still, it was enough to get the weight free hanging again, and I could hear the pump shutting itself off in the basement, as soon as it did. The hoses will be put away, soon, so we wouldn’t have been able to keep this up for long.
Now that the tank has been emptied, we can start preparing to cover it for the winter – but we still need to have the company come in and repair the expeller out by the barn. I’ve called and left another message, and still no call back!
After the septic guy was done, my daughter and I went into the root cellar. After wiping down the shelves and covering most with paper, we brought in the onions and garlic, then assembly lined it to bring the winter squash down. They had all been sitting on the washing machine, and we need to use that today!
While my daughter finished in the basement (there was no way my knees could handle going up and down those stairs!), I got the drainage hose for the washing machine set out the storm door window again. We’d been leaving it set up for at least the past month, but with temperatures dropping below freezing, we wanted to be able to close the inner door.
It won’t be long before we’re going to have to start using the drain to the septic tank again. Between the expeller needing to be fixed, and the state or our pipes, we’re hoping to delay that as long as we can.
Last night, I did the first treatment with the Free-Flow Drain and Line Maintenance stuff.
The instructions say to start at the drain closest to the tank, so that anything loosened in the pipes doesn’t end up clogging things further down. The closest is the access pipe in the floor of the basement. Based on the diameter of the pipe, that took 4 tablespoons of product in a cup of warm water. A cup of water isn’t enough to get the stuff to where things get hung up in the pipe, so I had to chase it down with more water.
We can do the next treatment tonight. That will be the bathroom sink, toilet and tub. The main drain pipe from under the bathroom is as large as the floor drain, but the product has to go through much smaller pipes, first, so we’ll do a smaller amount, but do all three at the same time.
Depending on how this works out, we might do these drains more than once, before moving on to the next furthest drain.
Once we’ve done the treatment with this stuff, we’ll start using the Septic Remedy stuff for regular tank maintenance.
None of which will make much difference at all, if that ejector pipe doesn’t get repaired!
In other things, I finally got a call back from the place that does Meals on Wheels in my mother’s town. After a bit of back and forth conversation, my mother is now set up to get meals delivered, instead of having homecare come in to do batch cooking. They only deliver three days a week, though. They no longer have enough volunteers to do five days a week. If I were living in the same town as my mother, I could have arranged to pick up meals on the other days myself and bring them to her, but it’s just not possible to do from where we are. The cost of gas would be higher than the cost of the meals!
One of my follow up calls to my mother, while arranging this, happened to be just after my sister left. She had come by for a visit, and to drop off some vegetables from her garden for my mother.
Including tomatoes.
My mother isn’t supposed to eat tomatoes.
*sigh*
It does mean I won’t be going over there to help her with her grocery shopping until after the weekend, though, which is helpful.
As for today, I’m going to have to make it a day of rest. It seems all the stuff my daughter and I were able to get done yesterday was pushing it for me. Last night, I rolled over in bed and got hit with a Charlie horse. Thankfully, I was able to message my older daughter and she was able to come help me. It was several hours before I could get back to sleep. My attempt at napping after my daughter and I finished with putting stuff in the root cellar, then setting up the laundry, was a failure. Being aggressively cuddled by cats was something I could get used to, but that’s when the Meals on Wheels lady called. By the time I was done all the phone calls, sleep was just not going to happen.
My every joint still and sore, though. The temperature fluctuations are not helping! Neither is the brain fog from lack of sleep.
Hopefully, we’ll get caught up over the weekend, but we do have warmer weather coming, so hopefully we’ll be able to get quite a bit more done.
I need to reign in my expectations, though. I keep forgetting how broken I am.
I think it’s time to make an appointment with the doctor and see about applying for disability. My last doctor said he felt I wasn’t at that point, yet, but that was a few years ago, and he’s moved on to another clinic. We’ll see what this other doctor has to say about it.
Something to do next week, though. The clinic doesn’t take calls on Fridays.
As for right now, it’s all I can do to stay awake, so if this post sounds disjointed and rambling, that is why!
My younger daughter and I were able to get so much done today, all before our expected first frost.
Depending on which weather app I look at, we’re supposed to drop to either -2C/28F, or 1C/34F tonight.
Either way, we’re looking at frost tonight.
Strangely, there are absolutely no frost warnings. Perhaps the humidity is too low. The temperature alone is enough to cause damage, though.
Last night, my older daughter helped me cover the two beds that actually can be covered, and I’m glad we did. We dropped to 3C/37F last night, and that was enough to kill off the last of the squash and melon leaves. Even the Crespo squash was droopy, and they were the only ones that were still lush, green and growing.
My daughter started off by checking on the biggest Crespo squash. As she rolled it aside, the stem broke right off its vine.
The two that were growing in the bean trellis didn’t get to full maturity, so they’ll need to be eaten sooner, too. Or we could cut make a puree to freeze or something like that.
My daughter started off harvesting the tomatoes in the old kitchen garden ahead of me. She’d collected all the Forme de Couer and had moved on to the Black Cherry tomatoes by the time I was able to start helping her. The Black Cherries were so tangled up in the lilac branches, we had to cut our way through to be able see, never mind reach, the tomatoes. After a while, I grabbed a pile of cut up tomato plants to take it to the compost pile when I realized, there were plenty of tomatoes in the compost pile to gather.
So I grabbed another bin and worked on those.
I found a surprise!
I knew there were two types of volunteer tomatoes in there. A few Indigo Blues, and a whole lot of Roma VF from last year’s harvests.
I found a third type, completely buried by the others!
They look like a slicing tomato of some kind, but I don’t remember growing a red variety of slicing tomato last year. It was also the only one that had an almost ripe tomato.
You’ll notice a lot of the Romas are very pale – almost white – in colour. These were essentially blanched from being under so many stems and leaves. I’m really surprised by how many we got in there!
It’s a shame they never got to ripen. A few of the Romas had started to show a blush. Who knows how many of these will actually ripen once indoors.
By the time I got the compost tomatoes done, my daughter was almost finished the old kitchen garden, so I moved on to the main garden area, bringing the wagon with the Crespo squash, to start harvesting the squash and melons. Then my daughter joined me and started harvesting the rest of the San Marzano tomatoes.
I found several melons were already “harvested”! One had a hole in it and was essentially hollowed out, so I’m guessing a mouse got that one. The others looked more like racoon damage.
Once the squash and melons were picked, plus a few patty pan squash, I cut down and went through all the corn stalks to find the cobs I’d left to go to seed.
This was all the racoons left me, and it’s not even dried out enough to have viable seeds.
Ah, well. Live and learn!
That done, I got another bin and helped my daughter with the last of the tomatoes. There were so many San Marzanos in the main garden area! Then we did the tomatoes that were at the chain link fence.
The bin with the cat next to it has the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes from the chain link fence in it, plus the tiny tomatoes from the volunteer tomato plant that I found among the potatoes. There were so many perfect little tomatoes! Not a single one had a chance to ripen. We have no idea what kind of tomatoes they were, either.
My daughter had already moved the previously harvested winter squash from the garage to the house, so now these squash are set up in the garage. It looks like some of the blue squash did get to fully mature, but most of them seem shy of full maturity, so they won’t be able to properly cure. They are still quite edible, though. They just won’t last as long in the root cellar than if they had fully matured and cured. Still, some time set up like this in the garage will help them last a bit longer.
Once we were done with the harvesting, my daughter uncovered the box of the truck, and we loaded up with as many bags of cans as we felt we could properly secure.
Which turned out to be maybe a third of the pile!
The whole thing got covered with a tarp and strapped down with ratchet straps. We set two up in an X across the pile, plus two more across the front and back. It was pretty windy, though, and once we got to highway speeds, the tarp was billowing under the straps more than I liked.
We stopped at a gas station to tuck the tarp back in place, then secured it more using Bungee cords. It still billowed, but nothing that was a potential problem.
This is the first time we’ve gone to this salvage place, but they were easy to find. I’d called for instructions yesterday, so we knew where to go to start. After talking to someone in the office, she directed me to where we should pull up, and staff could unload the truck.
My daughter and I started taking the straps and tarp off while they brought over a couple of bins with a forklift to bring them to the scale. All the cans are in transparent bags, so they could see that there were some tin cans in there, too.
That was okay for them, but good for us.
The tin cans go for 10 cents per weight.
The aluminum goes for 50 cents.
When they’re mixed up like this, they basically figure out something in between.
After everything was unloaded, we moved the truck again, and I went back to the office to wait. I had thought I stopped out of the way, but I turned out to be wrong, when a very large truck pulling a very long trailer came in! One of the office staff asked if we could park on the street. When I moved the truck, though, there wasn’t enough room to get by the trailer. I went back inside while my daughter waited until the truck could pull ahead, then she found a place to park.
As I was waiting in the office, I heard some staff going back and forth and saying something about “getting her a magnet”.
Then a guy came up to me and handed me a red keychain with their company name and number on it. It turns out, I was the “her”, and the keychain has a strong magnet on its end. This is for the next time we bring in a load; when we back stuff up, we can use the magnet to make sure there’s no cans with steel in them mixed in.
It means we’ll have to re-bag all the cans again, but the difference in price makes it worth is. With sooooo many cat food cans, plus the pop and energy drink cans, it is quite a loss to not get full price on the aluminum because there’s half a dozen tin cans scattered among them.
In the end, we brought 208 pounds, which got us just over $17. While they did give us an in between price, we still could have gotten quite a bit more, if we didn’t have those tin cans in there.
Live and learn!
It was very nice of them to give us the magnet, too. We have magnets, of course, but this one will be much more convenient!
That done, my daughter and I made a quick stop at a gas station, then headed home. We made a point of not covering the box again so that, once at home, we could give it a cleaning. The truck has screw holes in the bed from when it was a commercial vehicle hauling trailers. A remarkable amount of dust from the gravel roads gets in there!
I know it’s just going to get full of dust again, but it sure did feel better to finally wash that out with the hose!
Then we filled the truck again, this time with our garbage. We were overdue for a trip to the dump!
I had planned to go to a different landfill in our municipality, but I don’t know the area it’s in, so we went to our usual one.
I was really glad to have my daughter with me! The pit area is a real disaster. My daughter got out before we went into the pit area to make sure there wasn’t anything that might puncture a tire. While she kicked things out of the way, I slowly crawled along behind her with the truck until she could guide me in backing up to the pit. Not as close as we normally would have gone; too much broken glass!
And nails.
She was finding and kicking away nails, the whole distance!
This place has really gone downhill. The previous municipal council had fired the guy that used to take care of the landfill. I don’t know what the new council is doing, but the attendant that’s here now is not someone physically able to maintain the pit. Which is fine, if being an attendant is the only part of her job description, but whoever it is that’s been hired to use the heavy equipment to clean where we’re supposed to drive up to the pit is not doing a good job at all. Even the equipment being used is different, and the tracks on that front end loader is just destroying the gravel driveways.
But, we got the job done, and so far, it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting any flat tires, thanks to my daughter!
As we were leaving, my daughter wondered about being able to go to town and pick up something. It had been a long time since either of us had eaten, and she was thinking of perhaps treating us.
After talking about it, we decided that, between the two of us, we could pick up some fish and chips for all of us for supper.
Which was about when we got a message from my husband. The pharmacy called. When he had his prescription refills delivered, they didn’t have enough to fill one completely. They now had the amount they owed him.
Well, that was handy! We would have time to do that, before the pharmacy closed at 6pm.
A trip to town, it was!
As we were going along, we ended up stuck behind some slower moving traffic, so it took a bit longer to get to the pharmacy. I was going to just dash in, anyhow.
As I was walking in the door, behind two other people, a staff member let us know…
…they were closing in one minute – and she locked the entry doors behind us!
It turns out, they close at 5:30.
Thankfully, my husband’s prescription was quick to find, and it was already covered, so it just needed to be handed to me, and I could go!
From there, we went and got the fish and chips to bring home, plus a quick stop at the grocery store for something else my husband needed. We could finally go home!
We weren’t quite done yet, though!
One home, my daughter took care of bringing in the hot food, while I started bringing the bins of tomatoes into the old kitchen.
I have no idea what we’re going to do with them all.
In previous years, we kept a bin of green tomatoes out and my family just snacked on them as they ripened. They were all small grape, cherry or pear type tomatoes.
I know there are lots of things that can be done with green tomatoes; we’ve just never done them. I wouldn’t be able to eat them, so it’s a matter of finding things the family would like.
What we don’t have is the space to lay out so many green tomatoes in what should be a single layer, to ripen indoors. It would have to be in the living room – the cat free zone – but it’s a disaster right now.
Until we figure that out, all five bins are now laid out on the chest freezer in the old kitchen. That room is too dark and gets too cold to be able to leave them there to ripen.
Once we were finally able to have our supper, things still weren’t done!
It was back outside to recover the two beds for the night, so the peppers and eggplant will survive. The hoses had to be prepped so they wouldn’t have any water in them to freeze, and I even remembered to close the doors in the side of the garage the squash and melons were in, so they won’t get as cold.
And now I am FINALLY done for today.
I’m hoping to actually get to bed before midnight and get some real sleep for a change. My attempt to do so last night was a total failure! 😄
There is, of course, lots to do outside. This is one of the busiest times of the year, as we get ready for winter, while the weather holds!
With all the problems we’ve been having with our plumbing and septic system, we’re doing everything we can to find ways to not just fix them, but to prevent them from happening again.
Once of those things is the use of enzymes, both for the septic tank and for the drain pipes.
The drain pipes are one of our biggest problems. There’s a section that needs to be cleared. We have the commercial drain auger, but access to the pipe is almost directly over the sump pump reservoir and hard to get at, between the mess of pipes around it, and a wall. We will get that done, eventually, but I will be doing it with the help of my brother, when he is available. The alternative is a $300 minimum visit from a plumber so he can use his commercial drain auger, instead… 🫤
Until then, we are doing everything we can to get the drains clear using bacteria and enzyme products. Since I had to go to the town north of us to pick up kibble at the feed store anyhow, I went to the hardware store there that carries a produce we’ve been using quite a bit.
After looking over their display, though, I decided to try something different.
One of them is specifically for the septic tank, so we won’t use that until after we get the tank emptied for the winter, which is a call I need to make today.
Looking at the instructions for the other one, I decided it was worth trying. It is to be used in stages, starting from the pipes closest to the septic tank. Which would be the accept pipe in the floor, right next to the pump. That’s where I’ve already been having to shove a hose through on a regular basis, to clear what feels like two bottlenecks between the opening and the tank.
The next closest would be the bathroom. Tub, toilet and sink are all really close to each other, so any one of them can be used to apply the product.
After that, it’s the drain for the laundry, and finally, the kitchen sink.
We really need to get things cleared up. We’re still draining our washing machine through a pipe running out the storm door window and into the lawn. When a large amount of water drains out of the kitchen sink, like draining a sink full of wash water, we can hear the water gurgling and backing up to the drain pipe for the laundry, with is just a few feet away. The pipe from the kitchen to the corner of the basement has already been cleared by a plumber. It’s the rest of the pipe, from the corner of the basement to where it goes through to the septic tank, that hasn’t been done yet, and that’s the one that needs to be worked on the most until we can get it augered.
We also have to consider the pipe from septic pump to the ejector, out by the barn.
Which still needs to be repaired.
Another call I need to make today!
While at the hardware store, I asked about a septic pump. With all the problems we’ve been having, and with how often it’s been running dry, it’s going to wear out. It already sounds wrong, but at least it’s working. I’ve been searching online to find out where we can buy one, and I’m even saving my Canadian Tire dollars towards the cost of one – but have had no luck. Any searches bring up septic pumps that are designed to be installed in the tank itself. Ours is in the basement.
It turns out, they are marketed as utility pumps, though when he was looking through his computer, he ended up having to search under sump pumps, which is something else entirely. The hardware store does carry them, but none were in stock that I could see. He was able to give me a printout, though.
As for the price, it turned out to be pretty much what I was expecting. $500
A quick search at Canadian Tire, though, and it seems they don’t carry the type of pump I need. The closest they have is a transfer pump for irrigation. It’s designed to pump water from a pond, creek or lake into an irrigation system. My sister has one of those her husband set up to water their garden from the creek their home is next to. I suppose, technically, it would do the job, but that’s not what it’s designed for.
So… we’ll have to come up with $500 over the next while, so we can pick up a “spare” before the current pump wears out!
Until then, we will be going everything we can to keep the system maintained as best we can, starting with using these new-to-us products.
The last time I did a head count, the highest number I got was 40, which is insane enough.
I know at least two, maybe three, are winter returns, but at least one of them, probably two, was part of the headcount of 40. Judgement is the most recent return.
Which means we’ve got perhaps another 9 extra cats from… somewhere.
Whatever cats these are, there is nothing unique about them to set them apart from our regular adults, and I’m pretty sure none of the “extras” are kittens. I did spot a tabby yesterday that I thought looked unfamiliar, but I couldn’t get a good enough look at it before it disappeared behind a cat shelter. We have quite a few grey and brown tabbies. Then there are the “printer babies”. The white ones with grey or black patches on them. Adults and kittens. Very few of them are friendly enough to be individually identifiable. There are some tuxedos, including one that showed up I’m not sure about. One of the returns is the mostly black cat that had an infected eye. If I can see his face, I can identify him by his one eye that’s half discoloured.
We have got to reduce this population!
I messaged the rescue about it, just out of shock. There’s nothing they can do at this point. None of the shelters are accepting intakes right now. They’re too full, and not enough people are willing to adopt a rescue. That doesn’t even take into account the people that either back out at the last minute, or return cats they decided they’re not up to caring for.
The Cat Lady said, ideally, we’d want to get down to a maximum of 15, which would be great, but if cats are just showing up from elsewhere, there’s not much we can do about it.
At this point, we need to seriously look at getting a cull done. It’s not sustainable. Not to mention expensive. I just bought 160 pounds of kibble, just for the outside cats from the feed store, today. That was well over $200 – and with this many cats, unless we find ways to supplement with other food, which I’m looking into, will not last the month. Maybe 3 weeks.
I keep forgetting I have a donation button. If anyone is able to help out – and I certainly understand that most of us are really hurting with the cost of living increases right now – you can click on the button at the top of the page, or below.
Feel free to share the donation link, too. 100% of donations go toward the care and feeding of the yard cats, and anything at all is greatly appreciated.
We had a lovely mild morning today. We supposedly had rain last night, but nothing noticeable. I’m going to have to go back out to water the remaining garden beds today.
As I write this, my various weather apps tell me we are at 15C/59F. I just made a trip to the town north of us. There’s a bank with one of those signs with a rotating display that includes time and temperature. According to that, it was 21C/70F.
I’d say the sign is right and the apps are wrong!
I did a harvest this morning and completely forgot to take a photo of it! There were some Chocolate Cherry and Black Cherry tomatoes to harvest, an orange bell pepper and a hot pepper, a surprising amount of beans, and some San Marzano tomatoes.
What I did not harvest was melons, but something did!
Considering the size and weight of the melon, and the fact that it was taken out of a raised bed and into the middle of a path, I’d say racoons did this.
This is all that’s left of my kohlrabi, after the flea beetles were done with it.
*sigh*
Tonight, we’re supposed to drop down to 4C/39F. Not quite frost temperatures, but we’ll definitely cover the two beds where it’s even possible to do so. I don’t think we’ll harvest the last of the other things until tomorrow, though. I’m taking a chance with that, but we’ll see how it goes. Just watering the garden really well will help things handle the temperatures a little bit.
It’s all one day at a time in the garden, this time of year!
All the areas needing mesh were done, with the mesh first tacked on with staples. For the short sides, I started securing the mesh with wood lath across the bottoms. I then spent a bit of time working out how best to start framing for the clear panels that will be sliding doors, while further securing the mesh on the bottom half.
The clear panel, which still needs to be cut to the sizes I need, is a quarter inch thick. The wood lath is also a quarter inch thick, though individual pieces have variations in width, so that will work out perfectly for sliding channels.
For this side, I added long, vertical pieces of wood that would both secure the wire mesh on the bottom, while also starting to form a frame around the opening that the clear plastic will be covering. This is so that the panel will slide towards the back, over the section that’s insulated and covered.
If you click through to the next photo, though, you’ll see my problem on this side.
The floor boards were placed flush with the edge on the other side. A couple of boards were slightly longer. When covering the section on this side, I took advantage of that and rested the first piece of wood lath right on top of the parts that stuck out, then worked my way up.
There was no way a door panel could slide across with those there. Mostly, it was the one piece that stuck out the furthest, but a second piece had to be dealt with, too.
Thankfully, I have a pull saw with a very thin and flexible blade – a Bear Saw, which I think is a model, not a brand. You can see how flexible the blade is in the next photo of the slideshow. I was able to saw off the parts that stuck out, then use a rasp to take off any bits that were left.
In the last photo, you can see the rest of the framing in place. Some of this will be hidden from view when the sliding channels are complete.
For the sliding door’s channel, I will need to set pieces across the top and bottom, positioned so they will be flush with the panel. I’ll need to find the thickest and straightest pieces for this part!
I am pretty sure I’ll need to add more framing pieces, but I won’t be positive until I have the panels as a guide.
I’ll probably give a bit of extra space for the panel at the top, so it’s not too snug – but not too much space, or it’ll wobble when being opened and closed. Once those pieces are fixed in place – and I’m sure the panel can slide over the covered and insulated section unobstructed – two more vertical pieces will be added that will overlap the top and bottom of the panel, holding it in place.
If we need to remove the panel for some reason, it can be slid right out one end.
The mesh for this section was just a square, but I made sure not to secure it too high. There needs to be enough space for the clear panel that will cover the front of the top level to have the overlap it needs to be screwed in place.
The covered section is over the opening to the second level, so there are no floor boards at the bottom. The bottom piece of wood covering the insulation was lined up with the horizontal frame piece, which made the whole thing slightly lower than the cover on the other side. That gave me room to put a long piece of wood lath across the top as well as the bottom. The rest was done pretty much the same as the other side.
That was it for today. Tomorrow, we need to get the table saw set up so we can cut the clear panel pieces.
Once the clear panels are in place, the door/ramp on the bottom will be installed. Last of all, the roof will be assembled. I have some handles I can add to the sides to make it easier to move it around, too. They were meant for something else, but are needed here, more.
After that, it’s done until we can pick up more paint! With or without paint, though, we can bring it over to the house and set it where the cats can start checking it out and getting used to it.
We’ll need to pick up more heat lamps so that we can have one to set up inside the upper level of the isolation shelter during the winter. Even with insulated walls, the plastic room and clear panels have no insulation. They may be good for passive solar heat during the day, but not very good at night!
I just checked online and the lamps I had in my wishlist are on sale right now, so I’ve just ordered a pair of clamp lamps and a pair of ceramic heat bulbs. I think we still have a timer laying around, too. If it has a light sensor, we can set it up like the one in the cat shelter, so that it will automatically turn the heat on at dusk, then off during the day.
Hopefully, the cats will get to enjoy the shelter soon. Especially the ladies we’re building it for, and their post trap and spay recovery period!
Judgement has always been great with the kittens, so it was no surprise to find him snuggled up with a couple.
The black and white is another one we can’t get close to. I think the other one is Magda. It’s hard to tell, sometimes, with so many similar kittens!
So many adorables out there!
The outside cats got their version of cat soup this evening. I adjusted the ingredients, using more dry kibble and letting it soak longer in hot water before blitzing it with the immersion blender. There was also a couple of cans of wet cat food, lysine and powdered pumpkin seed.
They absolutely loved it, and licked the food trays clean. The skunks and racoons will have nothing to steal tonight!
I first spotted him yesterday evening, though my daughters saw him earlier. It’s been weeks since I saw him last, just once, and more weeks before then.
Wow, is he ever hungry, too! He doesn’t seem too thin this time, though. Sometimes, when they come back in the fall, they look like they’ve been starved for some time.
Hopefully, he will be staying this time, at least for the winter.
I’ve started to do something different for the outside cats. Just for a few nights now. When I make the cat soup for the inside cats, I’m not making an extra soupy soup for the outside cats. It’s mostly warm water with only a couple of cans of wet can food (we can’t afford to do more), some lysine and pumpkin seed powder. I also add some dry kibble to the water to soften up a bit, then divide it out among all the liquid proof trays.
The outside cats absolutely love it.
Best of all, if there is any kibble left in the feeding trays, it all gets eaten up. They literally lick the trays clean, so any lysine that didn’t stick to the kibble from the morning feed and settled on the bottom gets eaten up, too.
There isn’t any kibble at all left for the skunks and racoons to steal, by the time they’re done!
Things are getting chilly out there. It’s time to get the sun room set up for the winter, open up and clean out the cat house – and get that isolation shelter finished! Hopefully, I’ll finally be able to work on that again, today.
Then there’s all the stuff to get done around the house and garden, too.
With today being a new holiday, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I first checked to make sure Costco would even be open, and they were, for slightly shorter hours. They will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, which is the second Monday of October – 2 weeks from today – so I figured it would either be pretty dead, or insanely busy.
It turned out to be insanely busy.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I left for the city before having breakfast. I considered eating at the Costco, but there really isn’t anything they have at their cafeteria that I can eat, anymore. I don’t care for their hot dogs or pizza, and the coating on their chicken strips has just enough spicy heat that I can’t tolerate it.
There is a mall nearby, though, so I figured I could go to the food court.
Nothing was open, yet. With the holiday, they weren’t going to open until 11, and I was there shortly after 10.
The Dollarama beside the food court was open, though, so I went to see what I could find there. I ended up getting one of those little snack packs with a tin of chicken salad, a few crackers and a stick for a spoon, plus a drink.
That actually tided me over until I got home!
The parking area for the mall shared access to a Canadian Tire, so I went there, next, and got 4 bags of stove pellets for the litter boxes. That came out to $33.56
My next stop was the Costco gas station. The price of regular there was $1.229/L, while the other stations in the city were generally $1.299. Much to my surprise, there was almost no one at the gas station, and I was able to get to a pump right away. I was at a bit under 3/4 of a tank, and filling cost $41.03.
I always reset my trip meter after filling at Costco, so I have an idea of how much we drive in a month. When I reset it, we were at just over 2400km – about 1000km more than usual for us! All that extra driving I’ve been doing for my mother really added up!
With how quickly I got through the gas station, I figured the store couldn’t be too bad!
Boy, was I wrong.
This is when I finally got in line. This is near the back of the store and, pretty much immediately after I got in line, so many more people got in line behind me, it had to do a switchback into the other aisle. When I got to the end of this aisle, The end of the line was already past the same end of the other aisle!
As the line moved forward, I found myself next to a second line. I knew there would be a third one – two for the cashiers, one for the self check. Self checkout being limited to 12 items or less. I hoped I was in the correct line and figured I was, since just about everyone else in the line with me had larger cart loads.
I was wrong.
The line I was next to eventually split off around the other side of the centre displays. So that one line was actually for the two lines to the cashiers.
The line I was in turned out to be the self checkout line.
Thankfully, someone in the other line let me in in front of him. Once we got to the cash desks, he ended up getting to a cashier before I did, so that worked out well for him, at least!
The weird thing is, it seemed as if more people were standing in line to pay than were shopping! The shopping itself wasn’t all that busy. The only real problem I had there was trying to get to places while pushing a flat cart. I kept having to navigate around people in line!
This time around, I didn’t put the cat supplies on a separate bill, as most of the dry kibble is going to be purchased at feed stores.
Everything all together, including pet supplies, came out to $680.88 after taxes.
Yeah. That far from full flat cart load is almost $700.
This is what we got today.
What you can’t see in the photo above, among the larger items, is two cases of canned cat food and a box of puppy pads.
For bread products, I only got four packs of tortilla warps.
Hhmmm… I could have sworn those were supposed to be on sale for $7.99, not regular price at $9.99 I don’t trust my memory for that right now, though.
There’s a case of Coke Zero in there, along with laundry detergent, a giant box of ramen noodles, and a big bag of paper towels. Not the ones we usually get, but these were on sale. We got facial tissues and toilet paper, too. There’s a bag of Basmati rice, frozen perogies, and a variety pack of sliced meats.
Among the smaller items in the cardboard box, we got 5 pounds of butter. I picked up a couple of 2pk salad mixes, whipping cream, cream cheese, goat cheese and a block of Old Cheddar cheese.
There’s a bag of hazelnuts, a jar of olives and a jar of Kirkland brand mayonnaise, which is a bigger jar for a lower price than the Hellman’s we usually get.
I got some pickerel filets for the girls, which were on sale, plus some lean ground beef. That ground beef… I can’t believe it cost more than the pork loin, which has a lot more meat! The package of pork chops was about the same weight as the ground beef.
Remember when ground beef was the affordable meat?
I picked up a 3 pack of Spam, a big bag of tortilla chips for my husband, a double flat of eggs and a giant pumpkin pie. While standing in line, close to the cashier, I threw in a box of Sweet and Salty granola bars, too.
That’s it.
There was stuff that was on my list that I didn’t get, because I was already going above budget for today. I decided to go for it since some of the items – the paper towels and facial tissue in particular – will last us a couple of months.
This time around, when I was offered assistance in loading, I accepted. When I got water refills yesterday, I used the wagon to the house. After unloading and starting to take the wagon back to the garage, I stopped to reach for something my daughter had, but my hand got caught in the handle of the wagon. I twisted several fingers, with one being twisted the most. That finger it still hurting.
Which puts me in a bit of a pickle. The nerve damage in my left elbow means I have to be careful lifting or carrying anything heavy with my left arm. The finger I injured is in my right hand, and I now have almost no grip strength in that hand because of it. On top of all that, our current temperature whiplash has resulted in every joint in my body being stiff and sore, including all my finger joints.
I nearly dropped that jar of olives, three times, because I couldn’t hold it!
So… yeah. I got help loading the truck.
Mostly, I was bagging things in our hard sided grocery bags. I brought ice packs to use in the insulated bags. While I was doing that, the guy helping me loaded up all the stuff too big to put into a bag. He started having trouble working around the litter pellets, so I brought out our garden claw tool that we keep in the truck and used that to push the bags further in. He was really happy and commented that they need to have something like that handy at the store for times like this!
That done, I could finally start heading home.
Before I left, I got a message from my SIL, letting me know my brother was coming out today, along with the guy with the triple axle trailer. They decided to move some decorative limestone blocks they have out here, and all of it together was way too heavy for their trailer. My brother had one more antique looking piece of equipment he wanted to bring out, too.
I have no idea what it is.
I thought I was miss my brother entirely, but he was still here when I got home, though the guy with the big trailer had already left.
Before I even started to unload, I went to say hello – and goodbye! He was gone before we finished unloading the truck. At least I got a hug in, first!
I unloaded most things to my daughter at the door, then she took care of putting things away while I finished unloading the larger items going straight into the old kitchen. Then I had to feed the outside cats, to get them away from the truck, so I could park it.
By the time I got back, everything was put away.
Except the pumpkin pie.
There was no room in the fridge for it!
So… we just had to sacrifice ourselves and eat it. Along with some whipped cream my daughter made. 😄😄
But not before I finally had some real food. I’d got the Crockpot going last night, with half of one of our winter squash on the bottom, and a whole chicken on top. The squash was so big that, even using just half, there was hardly any room for the chicken, even after spatchcocking it. Once everything was seasoned, I covered the top with parchment paper then pushed the lid on. It still couldn’t close all the way but, as the squash cooked, the chicken sank down. During the night, when my older daughter checked on it for me, she was eventually able to remove the parchment paper.
It was really nice having that to come home to!
I can’t say I like this particular squash all that much, though. Of the two we’ve tried so far, they were both… okay. Not as tasty as the Banana or Candy Roaster squash we grew last year, nor as good as the Red Kuri/Little Gem we’ve grown before.
But that’s why we tried this Wild Bunch mix this year – so we can taste, without having too many of one type we might not like!
Anyhow…
The last of the stock up shopping is now done, and I am so glad that’s over with! We’ll just need to get more dry kibble at the feed store, and fresh stuff locally, throughout the month.
Meanwhile, the winds have been wreaking enough havoc that we’ve lost power, momentarily, a few times, so I’d better publish this before we have another one and my computer gets shut down again!
That rain we were supposed to be getting right now has been pushed back a couple more hours. Time enough for me to do my evening rounds!
The Re-Farmer 