Today was a day for visiting.
We even got a visit from my brother’s dog, this morning. :-)
I think we need to add “dog” to the list of critters we’ve been feeding – he does seem to enjoy the cat kibble! :-D
Then it was time for me to go and visit my mother. Continue reading
Doom Guy and Beep Beep kept me company while I was cleaning up around the garage and fence line this afternoon. When I got to where I had to figure out some way to lift the post hole pounder, to free up the bikes under it, I went into the lean to on this side of the garage, to find something to help.
Since I was going in and out of it, I left the door open.
Of course, the cats went in to check it out. This is the only part of the garage they can’t squeeze their way into, so it was all new to them!
While working on the junk pile, I could hear meowing from the garage. I went in to see, and from the direction of the sound, figured Doom Guy was exploring under the counter. After a while, though, the meowing started to sound decidedly distressed.
So I went back to look again.
Which is when I discovered Doom Guy was trapped behind the counter.
The counter has open space under it, but it also had a back to it. Above the counter are boards covering the wall joists; likely to prevent things from falling off the back of the counter, where they could not be retrieved.
Doom Guy was somewhere in the wall joists!
Now, while we’ve been using this lean to for storing the riding mower, and a few other things, we were not going to start sorting and cleaning up the garage any time soon. So stuff that’s in there have been there for years.
Lots of stuff.
I ended up getting one of my daughters to come and help me. She came into the garage, just in time to see the top of Doom Guy’s head, before he fell back down again. He could climb to the top, but couldn’t get over the edge of the board.
So we cleared the end of the counter, my daughter climbed on top of it, and ripped the board that was there off completely.
The blue on the left is another section of board, blocking the space.
This is some of the stuff that was on the counter.
The shadow is Beep Beep’s tail. :-D
The wooden things on the ground are shelves, filled with nuts, bolts and other small items. All metal.
I’m glad the two parts were separate, because it took two of us lift each of them off!
The noise and bustle we made spooked Doom Guy into squeezing over to another space. I could only see him by using my phone!
We even put some cat treats at the top, to tempt him to climb up again.
At one point, I could hear him purring!
I even managed to move the counter away from the wall by a couple of inches. It couldn’t be moved too far, as that end is resting on a bit of concrete foundation. It would fall right off, if moved too far.
We left the garage to give Doom Guy some quiet, so he would try and climb again. After a while, my daughter came back. We could hear some scrambling, so she hopped onto the counter. As soon as he was close enough, she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him the rest of the way out!
He was just covered in dirt and cobwebs!
He does not look happy. :-D
When he got down to the ground, she tried to give him treats there, but he was more interested in attention.
So his mom ate them.
My daughter took the treat container and, shaking it to make some noise, tried to tempt him away from the garage. Instead, he kept sniffing the spot where the treats his mother ate had been. So I picked him up and took him to my daughter, who got him over to the house.
I’m glad we were able to get him out of there. For a while, I was seriously considering cutting a hole in the wall, from the outside!
I haven’t put anything back on the counter, yet. A lot of what’s there might just get thrown out (why are there so many empty tool and tool accessory cases?). At the very least, I want to clean the end of the counter before putting the shelves back – and getting rid of all the dead Asian Lady Beetles that fell out when the board got pulled off!
I supposed the board should be put back. Maybe not nailed and glued in place again, though!
While fussing with things on the counter later on, though, something caught my eye, in between some pieces and parts, boxes and cases.
Was that a glass?
With liquid in it?
What on earth?
Oil.
Dirty oil.
Why is that there?
How long has it been there?
We’re going to have our work cut out for us, when we finally get to cleaning the garage.
Hopefully, no more kittens will need to be rescued!
The Re-Farmer
What a gorgeous day we had today! We actually hit 19C!
I don’t expect we’ll hit above 10C again, for the rest of the year. It’d be nice, but I’m not going to count on it!
Which meant a final run around the yard. I took out the string of lights that wasn’t working, then hauled away a few more loads of pruned and cleaned up branches from the spruce grove; what hasn’t been cleaned up are in piles that can stay the winter. Mostly, I wanted access to the larger, less noisy, wheelbarrow! The straw around the old dog house I prepped for the cats to use over the winter had settled, so I added three more wheelbarrows of straw around the outside. I also finally cleaned up the platform for the clothes line. Some of what was on there went to the junk pile – we won’t be able to get that hauled away this year, unfortunately. There was a plastic bin under the bench seat on the platform that had some plant pots in it, sitting in half frozen rain water. The pots went into the shelf we’ve left by the sun room – that thing has been too handy to haul away. The bin itself was put back under the bench, but on its side, so it won’t collect water. Bricks that had been lying around went inside it, to ensure it doesn’t get blown away. One more little shelter from the weather for the cats, though they also go under the platform itself.
The tools and equipment have been put way, but into the sun room, not the garden shed. That shed will need to be hauled away with the junk, after we clear it out of whatever is not broken in there. I’ve put the garden hoses in there, but I hope to replace those next summer.
It looks like getting the trees done will have to wait until the spring, after all. The pump for our well has been making some strange noises when it first turns on, but I’ve never been able to get to it to record it, before the noise stops. We’ve been listening for it, as it doesn’t happen every time the pump turns on, and it seems to make the noise only after the pump has not had to turn on for several hours. So, mostly, when the first shower of the day is started. Before contacting the plumber I emailed my older brother about it. From the description, he says it sounds like the foot valve is letting water slowly leak down. If it has long enough time to leak, when it turns on again, it will make the grumbling noises we’ve been hearing, as it tries to prime itself.
If that’s what it is, it’s a job for the plumber, because fixing it would require taking the pipe out of the manhole outside.
I’ve asked the girls to let me know before the first one of them showers tomorrow morning, so I can go downstairs and start recording when the water is started, and hopefully catch the pump making the noise when it turns on. Then I can call the plumber, play it for him, and it will give him an idea of what it is.
This is one of those things we can’t take a chance on. If the pump goes, we have no water. Better to have it fixed now, before winter gets here! I’m just hoping we can pay for that, and still be able to get me to a dentist. :-(
Renting a wood chipper this fall is also out the window.
*sigh*
Once it was dark enough, I went out to check the lights again. One string shorter, but all are working!
I’m really happy with how the whole fence line is looking. After I took the broken string of lights down, I took the time to cut away the small underbrush I’d left behind, since I was focusing on getting the fence itself clear of the big stuff. There was enough of it to be in the way while walking back and forth, with the lights.
That done, I spent some time walking around, just enjoying the warm and peaceful night in the yard. Gosh, it is so nice! I really missed this, when living in the city. You can actually see the stars, and it’s so quiet. Even when being chased down and having my calves tackled by a Doom Guy. :-D
I played around with the “pro” settings on my phone to try and get some photos. Here’s one of them.
You can actually see a star next to that moon! I’ve resized the image, and some of the detail is lost. The lights on the bottom right are the solar lights I’ve got on each side of the vehicle gate into the yard, and you can see the moon reflecting on the metal roof of the garage.
Anyhow. As for as outside the house goes, we’re ready for winter.
It’s been a good and productive day!
The Re-Farmer
While working in my office this morning, our Mama cat started getting all agitated, and going up to the window. That’s when I realized I was hearing a low growling noise from outside.
This is what we saw.
It’s a dad-cat standoff!
No wonder our Mama wasn’t happy!
I’ve never seen this cat before, though I think the girls have.
This is the one that showed up in the sun room, one day. :-D
It should be interesting to see how things pan out with these two, over the winter!
The Re-Farmer
Heading over to my crochet corner, I noticed something odd on the bird feeder.
At first, I thought it was Butterscotch.
Then it looked at me.
Why, hello, Rosencrantz…
or Guildenstern.
All the birds were on the ground while she was up there, and she was VERY interested in watching them.
Guildenstern (or Rosencrantz) wasn’t quite sure what to make of me. Normally, she runs off as soon as any of us comes near. Which means this is probably the best look at her I’ve ever gotten!
Of course, as soon as she was on the ground, all the birds were on the feeder. :-D
Such a pretty kitty!
The Re-Farmer
After coming back from checking the new Christmas lights I’d added to our fence line yesterday, I noticed the outside cat food bowls were empty. I went through the Old Kitchen to take care of that, and disturbed the pile of kittens, sleeping on the swing bench.
This is what I saw when I opened the door to the sun room, plus The Outsider, who jumped down when I opened the other door to get the photo.
It occurs to me that I have not seen Corvo for some time. Also, it’s been quite a while since I’ve both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the same time.
It’s getting cold enough that, along with the food, we’ve started to put warm water out for them, too. They seem to be liking that!
We’re going from highs of barely above freezing, to 16C tomorrow, then right back down again. One last day to get that last of things finished up and put way outside. I don’t expect we’ll get another warm day like that again until next year.
I wonder how many of the cats we had over last winter will come back this winter?
The Re-Farmer
Some time back, my older brother and his wife generously passed on items to me that used to belong to my brother’s late MIL. Among them were outdoor LED Christmas lights, and a timer. Today… er… (glances at the time)… yesterday, I took them out to add to the stings of white lights we already have at the fence line near the gate.
I had two areas I was considering to put the timer. One was in the garage, where the main power cord is plugged in. I figured, if I were able to get the timer to sit at the window, I could set it to turn on from dusk until dawn.
Turns out, I can’t do that.
The timer’s plug in area is slightly recessed and rectangular in shape. The power cord’s plug is round and rather large. It doesn’t fit into the space.
The other possibility was to put it between the new strings of lights and the set of white lights I was adding them on to. This way, the white lights would be on all the time, while the Christmas ones would only turn on at night. I even had a clear plastic bag to put over the timer to protect it from the elements, while still allowing the sensor to detect light levels.
Nope. I could plug a string of lights into the timer, but the timer’s plug has three prongs, and the light strings can only accept two prong plugs.
So I just added them on, as is.
It turned out to be 4 strings of lights in total, already plugged into each other. Which was just fine by me! I strung them out and affixed them to the barbed wire with zip ties. Though they had power running to them, there was too much sunlight for me to see how they looked. I waited until dark to go back and see them, since there’s too much brush in the way for us to see them from the house.
So… they look just fine…
Except for the gap.
I did test these in the house a few days ago, when I was deciding what to do with them. They were all working fine. I was all set to put them up in the sun room and had even started to unroll the bundle a bit, before I realized I didn’t have a way to affix them the way I had in mind. Finding an entire string of lights out was a bit of a surprise! Checking it out with a flashlight, I could see nothing to tell me why it wasn’t lit.
So I’ll be going back tomorrow with something to cut the zip ties, and remove the string that’s not lit up.
I was rather impressed by how much the white ones light up the area around them. I definitely want to pick up more of those, when I can.
Yeah, I know, it’s not even Halloween yet, so it’s early for Christmas lights. I figure, better to get them up now, before the snow arrives to stay. :-)
The Re-Farmer
After many months, I finally got it!
Good photos of an upside down nuthatch!
I love it when they do that… :-D
The Re-Farmer
Just look at these guys.
So cute.
So innocent.
Such sneaks!
The bucket was just refilled a couple of days ago. A new bag filled it just a couple of inches from the top.
It’s now at about the half way mark.
Taking into account what was used since it was refilled, about a quarter of a big bag of cat food got eaten overnight.
The bucket is now kept in the Old Kitchen.
The Re-Farmer
One of the photos from our deer visit, yesterday. Taken just before it stood on its back legs to try and reach the apples.
Such a beauty!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 