There is a down side

October 30, 2022 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

We have been working hard to socialize as many kittens as we can.

There is, however, a downside to that.

The more socialized the kitties, the more likely they are to hang around us, even when we are doing things that are potentially dangerous for them. It goes beyond deciding to run around our feet while we’re walking and accidentally getting themselves clocked in the head. I had a couple of examples, just this morning.

While doing my rounds, there was no wind at all, and the ground was covered in frost. I decided it was a good time to do a burn in the fire ring (the burn barrel is too old and damaged to use anymore). The fire ring is where we put the used stove pellet litter. It has time to dry before we do a burn, along with any paper garbage we have that can’t be composted so we don’t have to drag it to the dump, plus a few branches or whatever wood that’s around to keep the fire going stronger.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to tend a fire while kittens are trying to climb your legs, or even wanting to climb into the fire ring to find out what the noise is?

I managed to keep them safe and away. Here, Baby is sitting on the remains of the burn barrel that was here when we first moved in, staying warm. He, at least, wasn’t really trying to get any closer.

Most of the time.

After the fire was burned down enough that I could cover it and let it smolder (the litter sawdust doesn’t like to flame up, but it will smolder for days while covered), I worked on the cats’ house a bit, as they were done eating and it would no longer scare them away from food.

Here is an old picture of what it looks like while open.

As you can see, there are chains to keep it from opening too far and breaking, and the counterweight both helps open it smoothly, but also makes it less likely to drop unexpectedly. The cinder block alone wasn’t enough, though. We’ve added four more bricks into the openings to make it heavier. Even with that weight, though, that roof is heavy enough that if it started to drop, there wouldn’t be much to even slow it down, never mind stop it. As you can imagine, we’re pretty careful while working around it.

The problem?

While setting up the new cat bed and cleaning the windows, curious friendly kittens would jump up and walk around the top of the walls. Which is what the frame of the roof rests on. If that thing dropped for some reason…

*shudder*

So there I was, working in and around the cat out – and trying to chase away the kittens that are no longer scare of us, or anything we’re doing, anymore!

Today, we will continue working on the sun room. It’s going to be warm enough and dry enough for the next while that just about everything can be taken out, including a couple more shelves and the table saw, so give the concrete floor a more complete cleaning. My daughter has already cleaned up the worst of it, but it could use a good bleaching now!

Something else I’ll have to keep the friendly kittens out of while I’m working!

The Re-Farmer

Finally doing a burn, and getting cuddles for my efforts

September 1, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Today turned out to be actually chilly, for a change. Also, a bit on the damp side, with the odd bit of rain here and there.

Which made it the perfect day to FINALLY get a burn done.

I set this ring up last year, so we could burn away the scrap and rotted wood and other garbage that was too big or oddly shaped for the burn barrel.

With weather conditions, neither have been used much at all, lately! There was stuff in here, waiting to be burned, for months. This thing was supposed to be a short term set up that was meant to be cleaned up by fall of last year!

It is about 2/3rds full of ashes now, so this will be the last burn in it.

I was originally thinking that the ashes would be emptied into garbage bags, then taken to the dump, but I’ve decided against that. It will be added to the material we’ve been putting behind the outhouse. At some point, we’ll be ready to get rid of it and fill in the pit, and we should be able to just shovel this stuff in.

While tending the fire, I had some loving company!

He was not only determined to get hugs and cuddles, but also to lick my nose. If he couldn’t get at my nose, he would go for my neck, chin, ears, hair… but apparently, my nose tasted best of all! LOL Which wouldn’t have been too bad, except he kept trying to lick the inside of my nose, too.

Which actually hurts. That tongue is sharp!

When I had get up to tend the fire…

… he took my butt spot! :-D

After everything was burned out, I found some pieces of metal that I fished out. Nails and old wire are one thing; they’ll be left in there. These pieces, however, were a bit too big!

The metal plate could have been on pretty much anything that was in there, and I half remember the parts and pieces of an old drawer going in, which would explain the handle, but I cannot, for the life of me, think of what went into the pile that had such a huge hinge on it!

The next step will be to shovel out the ashes until I can move the ring. The metal sheet underneath will make it easier to clean up whatever is left. Then the whole thing will be moved away. I had deliberately placed it, not only far away from anything that could catch fire, while still being close enough to reach with a hose, but also in the way of using this part of the driveway. The inconvenience of it would be incentive to get it done! :-D

Well, it worked. It was definitely inconvenient where it was. LOL It’ll be good to finally have it cleared away!

The Re-Farmer

Off the to-do list

November 1, 2018November 1, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

So this has been a productive day! Most of my to-do list for outside is now complete. The last thing is to do a dump run, which will be taken care of soon.

Beep Beep made things a little more difficult. :-D As I was getting my supplies out of the sun room, I paused to respond to a message on my phone.

Beep Beep climbed me like a tree!

She did it again, while I was working in the garage, too.

What a girl! LOL

The first thing on my list was to use some metal rods I found while cleaning up at the garage recently, to set up markers at our driveway.

I don’t know how well they will hold out over the winter. We shall see. The main thing is, once the ditches are filled with snow, we’ll be able to see the outer extremes of the driveway. One of them has some reflective tape on it. I’ll have to remember to pick up more. There are a few places where we want to add reflective tape.

Once that was done, I reclaimed our wheelbarrow from the junk pile; an old, cracked rain barrel is now being used to hold things like broke glass and other small things that we didn’t want to just throw on the pile. Then I took the plastic I’d used to put water in an old bathtub for the cows to cover the whole thing (and added the bathtub to the pile, too). I tossed some stuff to weigh down the plastic, but I rather doubt it will stay. We shall see.

The next thing I wanted to do was cover the post pounder. First, however, I wanted to try pumping up the tires, to see if I could move it. In order to access the compressor, however, I had to finish cleaning up and putting away stuff we had to clear so we could rescue Doom Guy.

Beep Beep “helped” by jumping up onto the counter, then onto me!

I found a little hand broom and swept off the counter, then had to figure out how to put the shelves, back, without a second person. In the end, I took the drawers out of the top one, to lighten it.

This is why it was so heavy.

The one drawer with the long bolts probably weighed about 15 pounds, all on its own… and it got stuck. I managed to get it out, though, which made moving that shelf easy enough.

Then I went to clean off the second shelf before trying to remove the drawers.

I don’t know how I failed to notice this, when we first took it off. Probably because we were too distracted by the need to free Doom Guy from behind the counter.

Yeah. That’s shedded snake skin.

With this shelf, I wasn’t able to take any of the drawers out, but it was light enough I could just pick it up and put it on top of the other one.

Then I set up the compressor which, thankfully, has a hose long enough to reach both tires on the post pounder.

The first one, much to my surprise, pumped up rather well, and seems to be holding air.

Cool! Now, if the other one would hold air, it might be possible to move the post pounder into a shed or something.

What a hoot.

It pumped up, all right, but as soon as I turned the air off, it quickly deflated. I could even feel a breeze on my hand!

From this.

A big ole crack in the tire!

Ah, well. It was worth a shot.

I had noticed a tarp in the side of the garage my mother’s car is stored in and was happy to confirm it was big enough to cover the whole thing.

I don’t know what was used to fasten the old tarp – if anything – but I’m hoping that this one will stay. Between the bale twin at the top (which is what had been tied around the folded up tarp, and the zip ties, it’s pretty secure. I just wish I didn’t have to poke little holes into the tarp to thread the zip ties through.

It should hold for a while, though. It would take some pretty major winds to tear it off, at this point.

That done, I moved the toilet “art”. I decided to leave it near the outhouse for now. I think I really will put dirt in it and plant flowers next year. Just for a joke!

Then I took the oil drum that was along the garage and set it up as a temporary burn barrel.

Here it is, next to the remains of the old one. It’s not in very good shape, but until we can chisel off the top of the other barrel we found by a collapsing log building, it will do. I didn’t have to make drainage holes in the bottom. It already had holes.

And now it’s time to move on to the other things on the to-do list. :-)

The Re-Farmer

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