It’s almost 1pm as I start this. Outside, we’re at -17C/1F, which is a huge improvement from the last couple of days. Our predicted high for today is -15C/5F
The wind chill right now, however, is -30C/-22F
Tomorrow, however, we’re expected to reach a high of -6C/21F, then -2C/28F over the next couple of days! It’s going to feel downright tropical out there! 😄
My daughter did the outside rounds this morning. The short rounds, since it was -27C/-17F out there, before wind chill, at the time. When I did the evening cat feeding last night, I saw that the wet cat food in the isolation shelter bowl was frozen. It’s right next to the sliding window, so that corner is pretty cold. I reached in to tilt the clamp lamp so the heat bulb faced the back of the shelter, instead of the hammock below.
I was actually able to handle the metal shield around the heat bulb with my bare hands. It was just warm. Normally, I would have burned my fingers if I’d touched it. Another sign of how cold the ambient temperature in there got, even with the heat bulb!
The kitties are okay, though. Kohl had frost on her face fur again, but her fluffy partner did not. My daughter says there was a bit of frost around the top of the heated water bowl.
The kitties have now been in there for a full week. Kohl is handling her surgery just fine. No sign of infection, and neither of them seem interested in licking their surgical sites at all. They’ll be in there for one more week of observation.
They have company, though.
After talking about it with my daughter last night, we decided to add another kitten. There’s one white and grey that has leaky eyes, a stuffy nose, and has been sneezing and snuffling a lot. My daughter thinks it’s Eye Baby, but I’ll have to look closer to be sure. This morning, she was able to snag the kitten and take him into the isolation shelter. She said, he really didn’t like being carried outside in the wind, so he was very quick to jump into the isolation shelter all on his own!
With the temperatures improving over the next week, he will be better off in there than in the sun room, and will get to share the wet cat food as well. A week not having to fight so many adult cats for food, water and warmth will help him recover faster, as well.
At least, that’s the hope.
Today is a bright and sunny day, so they should have some passive solar heat in there, too.
My daughter doesn’t stop to take any pictures when she does the morning routine, though, so I’ll give you this, instead…
It may be warming up out there, but today will be another home day. I think, tomorrow, I’ll make the trip to a feed store. I’m looking to get the 40 pound bags of cat food, but also want to see what they have for heated water bowls. I’d like to get another smaller one. They seem to last longer. When I took the one my SIL gave us outside to chop the ice out, and flipped it upside down to spill out the shards, I found there was a melted spot in the plastic in the middle of the bowl’s bottom! I had intended to go to the town north of us for that, but we are almost out of lysine, and the feed store in the town my mother lives in was able to order some for us. Since I’m also thinking of another smaller shopping trip in preparation for Christmas and New Years, in the nearer city, it would be along the way.
Until then, I’ve got another day to enjoy my hibernation.
Today was a good day to just hunker down and stay out of the cold as much as possible. As I write this, at almost 3:30pm, which is usually the warmest time of the day, we are at -25C/-13F and the wind chill is at -35C/-31F, though we did hit wind chills of -39C/-38F earlier on.
Once I had my glasses on and could see properly, I did find the sun room thermometer really is working. The temperatures in there had dropped to about -10C/14F, though by the time I headed out to do the evening feeding, it was just below freezing. The cats were taking full advantage of the bright sunshine and sitting on the shelves at the south facing windows.
Or on the shelf near the bathroom window. That spot is pretty popular!
Of course, the cat beds on the platform had their cuddle puddles, too!
In the first photo of the slideshow above, we have the isolation babies. It is downright WARM in there! So much so, that I would say that confirms my hopes of getting passive solar heat from the windows is actually working. After putting the wet cat food into their bowl, I opened the window wider so I could reach in and pet the fluffy boy – which he let me do – and they have zero interest in going out!
In the next photo, there’s a couple of kittens at the window shelf. The canopy we got on clearance this year is currently stored there, and it heavy enough they can’t knock it down. Instead, they like to perch on it. The little black and white kitten is not socialized and was getting nervous with me untying the doors to I could get food to the outside bowls, so I dropped a bit of kibble for him, and he stayed!
The last photo is of one of the fluffy babies, on that shelf near the bathroom window, watching me. 😄There’s two fluffy tabby kittens that are mostly grey and I know one is female, but I’m not sure if this one is it. I have no idea what the second one is. Too fluffy.
Considering the temperatures we’ve got right now, I am very pleased with how that isolation shelter is working out. The other cats have their various shelters as well, so if things get cold, they can find the best spots, and just pile together to keep each other warm. Cats that normally don’t get along are now being seen using each other as pillows in their cuddle puddles. The isolation shelter is small and there’s just two kittens – I suppose they’re more catten then kitten at this point – in there, so not a lot of shared body heat, and they can’t go anywhere to find a better spot. Turns out, the isolation shelter IS the better spot, and that makes me happy. It will be good when their 2 weeks are up and we can open the ramp door, put the box entry back, and the other cats can start using it again, too.
The only down side is, that freshly washed cat bed I returned to the bottom level was immediately being used as a litter box again.
*sigh*
On a completely different topic…
Please let me know if you are finding this, too…
We all tend to use YouTube quite a bit. For me, one of the things I like to do is use the YouTube app on my phone to play videos to help me sleep. Usually, just certain styles of music (the music I would normally listen to would keep me awake) or, if I’m having a really hard time sleeping, something with a soothing voice speaking.
Well, last night, I started up one of my playlists and immediately got hit with a very loud ad. I haven’t had ads on my personal YouTube account in years! (oddly, if I log in as Re-Farmer, I always get ads, but if I switch to my personal account, no ads, even though I’m using the same app or browser). It was so bad, I gave up and just stopped trying.
Then I tried to watch videos on my desktop computer this morning, and the ads were there, too. I’ve been using the Opera browser and yes, the ad blocker was on. The ads were absolutely aggressive. There would be 2 or 3 short ads before a video would start, then more interrupting the video, with no “skip” option. When I started to get ads that where three and a half minutes long …
THREE AND A HALF MINUTES LONG!!! with no “skip” option!
… I gave up. Most of the videos I watch aren’t even that long.
I asked my family, and none of them are having this problem. My older daughter told me that every now and then, Google managed to get through the ad blockers, and it takes a while for the blockers to adjust.
The problem is, Google owns YouTube. And Chrome, And Opera. And most of the “independent” browsers. The only one she’s found that isn’t part of the Google monopoly is Firefox with their Ublock extension.
Guess what I’m using right now?
The problem for me is, I have been using Opera because it has sidebar features on it that I use frequently. Specifically the Instagram extension, since I use Instagram for my images and embed them into my posts here, now that I’ve almost run out of storage space on my WP account.
So I can watch videos now without the ads, but I hate switching browsers. There are just too many things that need to be switched over and logged into, settings adjusted and so on. That’s a pain on its own, but to do all that, just so I can watch videos without ads? Is it worth it?
Anyhow.
Has anyone else had this happen to them? I find it strange that I’m the only one in the household it’s happening to. If it were just my phone app or just my desktop, that would kinda make sense, but it’s both, and only with me.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind the ads, since that is how content creators get paid. I don’t mind sponsored ads done by the creators themselves; at least with those, if I don’t want to watch them, I can skip through. These ads I’m seeing now are just badly made, annoying and loud – and there is no excuse for an ad being THREE AND A HALF MINUTES LONG! Insane!
*grumblegrumble*
All it does it make me stop trying to watch the videos completely.
Well, we’ll see how long it goes on for. It’s likely the next time my Opera browser is updated, the ad blocker will be working again.
Until then, my YouTube watching, at least, will be limited to my Firefox browser.
Ah, well. Small problems. I was just wondering if anyone else was having this happen to them.
As for me, it’s time to check on some winter squash I’ve got roasting in the oven.
This is the sort of weather that calls for comfort food!
The first screencap image is Celsius, the second in Fahrenheit.  Instagram wouldn’t let me show the whole image, even though that’s what I set it for. Underneath, it gave the expected overnight windchill of -36C/-32F
I keep telling myself, the isolation babies are okay. They like to curl up together on the cat bed in the upper level. It is under the lounging shelf, so there is a low ceiling, the back wall is insulated, the side wall in that corner is insulated, and the box nest next to the cat bed forms another insulated wall. In front of the cat bed is the heated water bowl. All this, plus the insulation forming a ceiling, plus the heat lamp. They should be just fine.
It took me forever to get this video done, a little at a time.
Which actually worked out, in the end.
This is a video of the isolation shelter build and, because it took so long, I was able to include files of it actually in use for the first time, at the end.
As I write this, with less than an hour to sunset, we are at 3C/37F. I was just outside, getting a few more things done, with no coat on, and it was awesome! The only down side is that, with everything melting, some things were a bit slippery.
I will get to that part in a bit!
My SIL had let me know last night that she and my brother would be coming out this morning to park their truck here for the winter. They expected to be here around 8:30 am, so at 7:30 or so, I headed out to feed the outside cats and do the morning rounds, and open the gate for them.
When I came outside with the cat food, there was a set of headlights at the gate!
By the time I put kibble out in all the food bowls, including the isolation shelter, and added some warm water, they were in the yard and my brother was parking the truck. He got a solar trickle charger for the battery, so he wanted to make sure the windshield would get the most light for as long as possible.
So I went to my SIL, who had followed in their car, and we had a nice visit. A rather longer visit than expected, as my brother kept finding one more thing he wanted to do before they left.
As I was walking to their car, though, I saw that my SIL had started it again, and moved it a few feet. An odd thing, since she wasn’t in the way of anything, and they weren’t leaving yet.
It turned out that our vandal had showed up, driving every so slowly as he passed the open gate at our driveway, trying to see what was going on! They’d been there less than 5 minutes! How did he know they were here? He lives nearby, but not THAT nearby!
As we chatted, with me standing in the open door of the car, we saw him again, coming back the other way. We knew he was coming before we could identify the vehicle, because we could see headlights through the trees, slowing down as they got closer to the driveway. By the time we could fully see his vehicle, he was driving at a crawl. I just stood there and openly watched him. I don’t know that he recognizes either of my brother’s cars, since both had to be replaced in the years since we moved here and he lost his mind. With the trail cams set up, he’s been behaving, but in the last little while, I’ve been seeing him more often. All of the activity that’s been going on in the past couple of months, from stuff being moved here to the excavation and repair of the expeller, must be driving him nuts.
When I had the chance, I called my mother to warn her, he might show up out of the blue again. She’s sick with a cold right now, so after telling him what’s going on here is none of his business, she can also tell him to go away because she’s sick.
Anyhow.
I had a good long visit with my SIL before they were finally ready to leave. I had to switch out the trail cam cards, so I went ahead of them to close and lock the gate behind them. On changing the card, though, I found that the new batteries we’d put in were at 2%!
So, after finishing the rest of my morning rounds, which included giving the isolation babies a can of wet cat food and getting more warm water to top up all the water bowls, I grabbed some fresh batteries and headed back to the camera.
I figured I could change the batteries there, since it wasn’t so cold that I needed to come inside while I was doing it. This camera has a battery case that pops out, but in order to do that, the camera has to be removed from its holder. I did that, took out the case, then set the camera on top of its post so I could have two hands to change the batteries out.
*sigh*
It fell into the snow, opening as it fell, and landed right on its innards. Even the memory card sprang out into the snow when it landed. When I picked it up, there was sticky snow all over the inside – some even got into the space the battery case goes into!
*sigh*
So I took that in and set it up where it could melt and drain. I had to quickly do something else, and my daughter was sweet enough to change out the batteries for me. After trying the whole thing off with paper towel as best I could, I left it while I had my breakfast.
When that was done, I put everything back together and tested it out. With no power for so long, the date and time had reset to default – 2022! – so I hit the menu button to reset it.
Nothing happened.
I tried again. And again. And again.
The menu would simply not come up. It was in set up mode, and I could see it was functioning. The screen was working find, and I could even see the seconds on the time changing. I just couldn’t do anything with it.
So I took the battery case out again and left it to dry longer, then headed back outside to get some things done.
The first was to fix the wind damage on the catio.
The first image in the slideshow above shows how it looked before I started. The vinyl tore at the cord that is wrapped around the whole thing, but that cord is also what kept it from getting blown off even more. In the second photo, you can see where, even in the back, the vinyl was torn loose from the push pins holding it in place.
I picked up some foam mounting tape, with double sided adhesive, to help with the repairs, and also had some clear Gorilla tape, to tape the torn section together. I removed a number of push pins, first, then added the mounting tape to strategic sections of the frame. The mounting tape won’t stick to the wood very well – especially when it gets colder – but the vinyl will stick to it. This way, when the push pins are added back, they vinyl shouldn’t tear away anymore, and it will still be easy to remove in the spring.
In the third picture, you can see where the mounting tape was used in the front and on the door, but I also included it at the back, where the sheet was torn loose from the pins.
Once the vinyl was being held in place by the mounting tape, I got out one of the dollar store dining table protectors I’ve been using for this and set it up right on top, starting at the door, pinning it along the top. It was long enough to just reach around the corner at the back, so that edge got taped to the old sheet. Once that was taped, the push pins were added back, then the excess vinyl on the bottom was tucked under the bottom of the catio. Then the cord was wrapped back around and tied off again.
I had to kick away the snow that was added along the bottom of the shelter, so the last thing to do was get a snow shovel and put that back. The door, one corner and one end now have a double layer of vinyl.
The cats were really, really liking it.
I took some video after I was done, starting from the back of the catio.
Stinky REALLY enjoyed being in there! The vinyl creates a pretty decent greenhouse effect inside, so it’s pretty warm in there, too. At least during the day.
The next thing to do was patch up some tears in the isolation shelter, from the cats trying to get in.
Before I started, I took advantage of the fact that there is now an insulation ceiling and lifted the roof to drain off the melting snow and slush. With how uneven the patio blocks are, the slow slope of the roof is pretty flat, instead, so it doesn’t drain much at all, and I didn’t want to take a chance of any water getting inside. There is quite a bit of overlap in the roof panels, but until we can properly seal the edges in the spring, water can still get in between and potentially cause problems.
Next, I cut away some of the more tattered pieces of vinyl and removed some of the pins. I then cut pieces out of another dollar store table protector to create the patches.
At one corner, I taped the patch in place, but ran out of tape, so I used the last of the foam mounting tape to hold the other patch in place. Then the pins were put back. There is still one tiny corner near the back that is torn, but I no longer had suitable tape to hold a patch in place.
I had to be really careful while doing this job, though. It was warm enough to melt the snow, but the patio blocks were cold enough that the water was trying to freeze again. Water on ice is not a safe combination!
The isolation babies were quite interested in what was going on. Especially Kohl.
Not that Kohl would let him get close to my hand. She really, really wanted attention!
That done, I decided to take out the cat bed in the lower level, since I’d seen Kohl had used it as a litter box, yesterday.
It looked like they used it as a litter box for the rest of the night, too!
I got it out and cleaned it off in the snow as best I could and set it aside. Then I changed the litter box by grabbing another one, getting it ready with pellets, then simply switching them out. The lest time the ramp door was open, the less chance the isolations babies could escape!
The litter box was well used, too, so they probably didn’t start using the lower level cat bed until it got unpleasant to use the litter box.
With today being to warm, we’re taking advantage of it to do laundry. My daughter and I replaced the leaking hose extension on the washing machine, then set it out the storm door window. With the washer already set up for laundry, I grabbed the cat beds from the shelf shelter, too. These were the ones we took out of the cat house and weren’t sure if we were going to bother washing them. The cats are using them in the shelf shelter, though, so I figured I may as well do a load of just outside cat beds, once our own laundry was done. The shelf shelter beds are getting pretty tattered, but they’ll be nice and clean and fluffy again, soon.
As I was finishing up inside and getting ready to head it, I spotted this adorable one, on the isolation shelter roof.
Someone is happy the snow was cleared from the roof!
I thought this was Magda, but it wouldn’t let me come close, got scared and ran off. Magda is a mostly socialized cat that lets us pick her up and cuddle her. So now I’m not sure.
I did get another chance to pet Kohl, though, and this time she let me pick her up and check her incision. It is healing very nicely!
As I was finishing gathering the supplies to take them inside, I started hearing something that sounded off.
Like someone driving really, really slowly at our driveway. So I tossed everything into the house, then went to check.
This time, our vandal was driving his tractor. Once again, very slowly driving past our driveway, staring down our driveway the entire time. So I just stood there, in the open, watching him as he finally turned his tractor around and drove off. He had the snow blower attachment on his tractor which is rather odd, since we don’t have enough snow to use something like that right now.
I checked the trail cam again after that, and its still not working right, so I switched up trail cams to make sure the driveway is covered.
I also went looking through my Amazon shopping list, where I have several solar powered cameras with battery back ups saved. After looking through them again, I ended up ordering two of a cheaper one that had a higher rating, and lots of very positive reviews by Canadians. Including some mentioning how well the solar panel was able to keep it powered, even in winter.
No idea when we’ll get them, though, since the postal strike it still going.
By the time everything was done and I got the cat beds in the laundry, I really, really didn’t want to go anywhere. I was supposed to go to the dump, then the feed store, but when I checked their hours I discovered the feed store had already closed for the day. They close really early on Saturdays!
So… no feed store. We’re still good with kibble for the outside cats, so a few days wait should be fine.
Tomorrow looks like it will be a quiet, indoor day for us. We’ve got snowfall warnings for 10-20cm/4-8in of snow, starting around noon and continuing through to Monday. It’s not a lot of snow, but I’d rather not drive in it if I don’t have to.
We’ve got a few milder days ahead of us, then a couple of colder one, before it starts getting mild again. We are no longer getting temperatures above freezing in the forecast for the week before Christmas, though, so who knows how things will change over the next few days.
For now, I’m just glad to have been able to take advantage of today’s lovely weather and get those outside jobs done!
Meanwhile… we have a fluffy kitten in the isolation shelter that needs a name.
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.
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!
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!
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.
They are especially enjoying the cat isolation shelter. Which makes me happy! It will made it much easier, when it comes time to actually isolate cats in there during their recovery periods.
The last image in the above slide show is of the completed catio wrap. I had to get my daughter to crawl inside to pull the excess plastic under the frame. Especially where the second sheet overlapped the first. That one didn’t quite reach the middle of the back, where it could have been tacked to the centre support I added when we repaired it, so it’s only tacked top and bottom. I might end up taping it or something, or the wind will get under there and rip it right off.
I did add a board under the front of the frame, lifting it about 1 1/2 inches. This will give a slight slope for water to drain off the roof.
Today has turned out to be a cool and damp day, so I didn’t get a lot done outside. Aside from finishing winterizing the catio, I made sure the rest of the insulation got set up around the house.
We really need to find a better option for this. The insulation pieces are scrap pieces from who knows where, to begin with, so they’re all different sizes and thicknesses. Setting them up is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with pieces from different puzzles that don’t quite fit. They’re getting old and some of them are starting to break apart. It would be good to have a permanent solution, that we can make look like it’s part of the house and not just tacked on.
All in good time, I guess. Short term, we’re going to need to pick up some thicker sheets of rigid insulation to replace the busted up pieces. As it is, there is no longer enough to go completely around the wall there the back water tap is.
That took quite a while to get done, mostly spent trying to get the pieces to fit together, then finding ways to support them so they don’t get blown away. It’s been a dark and dreary day today, so even though it was still only mid afternoon or so when I was done, it was still dark enough that the light over the main door would turn on as I walked by. Mind you, sunset today was at 4:52pm, so I guess it wasn’t just the overcast skies.
At least the snow and rain that hit other parts of the province missed us. We’re wet enough right now, thank you! Interestingly, I noticed the signs up showing that we are under a fire ban in our municipality right now. We didn’t have a fire ban all summer, this year, so it’s quite unusual to have one start in the fall like this.
And here I was thinking it was finally wet enough and calm enough to burn that pile of diseased branches, as well as our burnable garbage.
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 11C/52F, and even reach as high as 12C/54F on Sunday. The next few days will be a good time to get more done outside. The one cooler day is Friday, and I will be helping my mother with her errands that day.
For now, the important winterizing things have been done, and I can get back to cleaning up and and putting things away from the garden. It may even dry up enough to get our electric chainsaw out and finish clearing away that spruce that fell on the crab apple tree!
Today started off chilly and damp, but by the afternoon, things were quite pleasant out there. A good day to work outside.
Not a good day to get to the dump. It opens in the morning on Tuesdays, and we didn’t make it. It opens in the evening on Thursdays, so we’ll do our dump run, then.
My priority for the day was to get the cat shelters set up for the winter. Since the isolation shelter was going to go under the kitchen window, the first thing that needed to be done was to move the catio out of that spot.
The problem is, now that the roof is on, the overhang makes it difficult to grab the sides to move it, without face planting into the edge of the roof.
The solution: make handles for it, using paracord.
The first image in the slideshow above shows how I was able to get the paracord around the corner frame pieces. The end was threaded through the mesh on one side, into the loop of a garden twist tie, until it could be pulled through to the other side.
In the next image, you can see how the rope was tied to itself first, then the knot moved inside the catio before a another knot was made as close to the frame as I could, on the outside.
I admit, part of the reason I chose an overhand knot with some excess cord and put it on the inside, is because it’s right above the platforms. I expect the cats will play with the ends.
The next image shows how long of a loop was left for the handle. There is one of these on each corner.
This worked out quite well and allowed me to drag it easily across the yard. In retrospect, I should have put them lower down. Due to my own height, I can use them to drag across the yard, but I can’t lift it off the ground. If I had a second person using the other two handles, we could carry the catio that way, but my daughters aren’t any taller than I am, so it’ll still be mostly dragged on the ground. If it really is an issue, I can just undo the knots and lower the handles by a few inches.
In the next image, the catio is set up where I decided it will be for the winter. I wanted to make sure it was where it needed to be, because once it was wrapped in plastic for the winter, the handles would be covered and it would be more difficult to move again.
The roll of plastic I used is one of the sheets that was wrapped around the hot pepper and eggplant bed. It’s two vinyl table protectors from the dollar store, taped end to end.
I started at the door, making sure that it could still be latched and opened and closed without interference, then kept going. The vinyl is slightly wider than the height of the catio, but the excess can be tucked under the bottom.
It wasn’t long enough, though. I do have another roll, but it’s the same length, and I don’t want to double up so much. I do have one more table protector from the dollar store in the house, though, so I’ll use that.
Tomorrow.
The next thing to do was move the cat isolation shelter to a more open space.
Which is when I discovered a bit of a problem.
The whole thing is so heavy, and the ground is so soft right now, after all that rain, the wheels kept sinking into the soil! I had to wrestle with it, pausing to lift wheels out of the soil every now and then, to get it over the sidewalk, where I could work on it.
Where it had been sitting was not level, so the sloped roof ended up level. That meant rain didn’t drain off very well. I left the roof open and cleaned the seam out as best I could. I have an adhesive sealant to use on the seam later on, but the seam will need more cleaning, and be completely dry, because it can be used.
I then went digging through the scrap lumber my brother gave me to see if there was something I could use to put across the middle, to attach the clamp lamp to.
It was just long enough to fit across the top, lengthwise.
I could see it had been cut from a larger piece, but that’s just fine. I needed something narrow for the clamp lamp.
While getting ready to attach it to the underside of the frame, Stinky came to help. 😄
So did my daughter. She held it in place for me while I drilled pilot holes to screw it in place.
I am so glad I was able to make those sliding doors! It would have been much more difficult to access the underside of the frame to attach this. Even so, my daughter ended up taking over and finished the last two screws for me.
The cross piece was installed slightly towards the front, over the cat hammock. The clamp was also mounted sideways, with the lamp angled down, making it even closer to the front, and higher up than if it were just hanging straight now. I did not want to take any chance that a cat might burn themselves on it.
Once the lamp was in place, it was time to wrap the bottom of the shelter in plastic. I had a sheet of dollar store dining table protector, cut it in half, lengthwise. It took both halves to wrap all the way around, with maybe a foot and a half of excess that got folded under.
For both the catio and the isolation shelter, the vinyl was tacked in place with push pins. I decided on push pins because they can be removed easily. I want to use the vinyl again in the garden next year, so I wanted to avoid making larger holes. Pin pricks along the edges should be fine.
After the bottom was wrapped up, I set up a heated water bowl on one side of the upper level, and a food bowl on the other. A litter box, with litter in it this time, was put back into the bottom level.
Once that was done, I finished clearing the patio blocks under the kitchen window and set up the insulation we put over the basement walls and windows for the winter. In the past, we used an old bench and a bin against the insulation to hold it in place. This winter, the isolation shelter will serve that purpose for most of it.
Once the insulation was in, the shelter had to be wrestled over to the patio blocks. It didn’t have for to go, but there was always at least one wheel that would end up sunk into the ground!
The patio blocks are not at all level, either, with some of them heaved out of place by the roots of the elm tree in front of the kitchen window. That, at least, was easier to maneuver around, once all the wheels were on the blocks.
The next while was spent working out the safest way to set up the extension cord to power the heated water bowl and heater. The new cross piece came in quite handy, to wrap excess cord around.
In the last image of the slideshow, you can see the final result. It was getting pretty dark by then, so I did the evening feeding. Before I left, I could see some kittens checking out the bottom of the shelter, where there used to be a food bowl. It shouldn’t take long for them to figure out where it is now – and discover that there is heat up there!
My only concern is if the racoons discover it. We haven’t been seeing them as much, lately, as the temperatures drop. The sun room, at least, has the critter cam, and we can check it every now and then. We have no such option now. Even if we look out the kitchen window, it’s hard to see things directly below.
In time, we will get a smoke detector to put in there, like we have in the cat house. I’d like to put a thermometer in there, too, though one that’s mounted directly to the frame. The one we set up on a holder inside the cat house kept getting pulled down as the cats would play with it!
Right now, there are only two things left that need to be done. One is to get a carabiner for the latch; I think I have one available, but I’m not sure where it is right now. The other is to get some colour matched paint for the exposed wood. With the bottom wrapped in plastic for the winter, though, that will wait until spring!
I’m quite happy with how this has turned out. The Cat Lady has contacted the vet clinic about getting spays done and should hear back soon. Once she has it confirmed, she’ll let me know the date – and for how many! The isolation shelter is now ready for them to be in for their two week recovery period. Since we will likely be doing mostly, if not all, kittens, it could easily shelter three or four at once. With adult cats, I wouldn’t want to have more than two in there at once.
There is the insulated box nest in there right now, plus the hammock, but we will add more cat blankets or beds as well, once we know how many will be in there.
Next, we need to open up the cat house, clean it out and get it plugged in and ready for the winter. That will be a two person, job, as the roof is quite heavy, and the wood is starting to crack. It has to be opened very carefully, so it doesn’t twist.
I haven’t been seeing the cats use lately. The insides of the windows are so dirty, I can’t see inside very well. I’m a bit afraid of what we’ll find in there, after having to bury so many kittens this year. It could simply be because the sun room is warm, and the cat house isn’t, but they seemed to stop using it before things started getting chilly.
Well, we’ll find what we find. Hopefully, just a lot of cat poop or something benign like that! 😄😄
The Re-Farmer 