Getting things done!

November 27, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Aside from a morning occupied with wandering around the yard, trying to get a signal on my cell phone, so I could listen to the voicemails from home care, with all the phone calls, emails and messages that get done because of it, it was a decently productive day!

The main goal was accomplished, and that was breaking open that straw bale and covering the septic tank.

I love how round bales just peel away in layers.

The outside was so densely packed, and partially frozen, that it formed a shell. I took advantage of that. After removing the insulated tarp and spreading out loose straw, I’d drop chunks of the outer shell on top, strategically, to keep the straw from blowing away before it could settle in place. There were still some chunks left over when I finished covering the septic tank area, and I put those on top of the bale to form a sort of roof. Once we’re done covering things with straw, I plan to “store” the insulated tarp by setting it over the bale. That way, moisture won’t get into the open end and cause rot.

Once the area was covered, I got the emergency bypass for the septic partially set up. The pipe in the basement needs to be pushed through, and the end can be set into the PVC pipe – after taking the cap off, of course! I’ve got the flexible hose running into the maple grove this time – something we couldn’t do last winter, because of the snow. Once it’s set up properly at the house, we’ll set various supports under everything, to create a gradual decline and try to make up for uneven ground. Last year, there was one time when the flexible hose froze closed because there was a slight dip in the ground.

Hopefully, we will not need to use it at all. However, should the ejector freeze again, all will be ready, and we’ll just need to open the ball valve. The heat tape is still set up around the parts of the ejector that is above ground, but that won’t help anything at the venturi valve on the bottom.

We were planning a dump run today, so I didn’t have time to start covering the winter sown garden beds with straw on top of the leaf mulch, but I did have time to winterize things more for the yard cats.

I especially wanted to the get catio strawed up. I took everything out and put a decent layer on the ground, focusing on filling the gaps under the elevated frame. Then I added some onto the hammocks, just because. I put the pieces of rigid insulation back under the self heating cat shelter again, but the other pieces were no longer needed under the box nests. Since the self heating cat shelter had been collapsed a couple of times, it was a bit floppy in one area, so I trimmed one of the scrap pieces of insulation to fit tightly between the floor and the roof, against the wall next to the entry. Hopefully, it will stay in place, but if it falls in, that’s fine. The cats love that insulation!

As you can see in the picture, the cats are indeed using the new shelter!

The straw will also help insulate the water bowl, at least a bit, so it won’t freeze quite so quickly. I still had to take a hatchet to the ice to be able to drain the water inside, and replace it with hot water. The hot water would melt at some of the remaining ice and soon be cool enough for the cats to drink.

When it was feeding time, I noticed the straw on the hammocks were compacted in circles. Cats are definitely appreciating the straw up there, too!

The catio winterized a bit more, I switched to the isolation shelter – which has seen a whole lot of activity of cats enjoying it being open again!

I removed the litter pans from the bottom level and swept things out as best I could. I’ve got an old telescoping snow brush with a broken scraper that’s perfect for the job. Once that was cleaned up, a fairly thin layer of straw was added – I didn’t want to add to much, since there is a heat bulb and power cords in the upper level – and then the refreshed litter pans were returned.

Which, as you can see in the second picture of the slide show above, Pinky promptly jumped into, before joining the crowd above, which you can see in the last picture of the slide show!

I had a bit of straw left in the wheelbarrow when the catio and isolation shelter we done, so I added it in the covered greenhouse, on the ground under the food tray and water bowl. Even with that, I had a bit I could set on the concrete patio block between the isolation shelter and the steps, just to give another insulated place for the cats to sit on.

While I was doing that, my daughter brought the truck into the yard and loaded up the garbage and recycling. Once the dump was open for the afternoon, we headed out. After unloading at the dump, we continued on to the town north of us – right into blowing snow. Not a significant amount, but definitely the most we’ve seen this year. The system passed our place entirely, but went right over the town to the north of us.

Our destination there wasn’t actually in town, but the feed store. I picked up four 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats while my daughter went shopping in there clothing and boots section. For that many bags, I paid for them, then backed the truck up to their shipping/receiving door to get the kibble, then parked again and rejoined my daughter.

She had been looking for something specific, which she found, but she got distracted by their display of bib overalls. She told me later that she’s been pining for bib overalls since she outgrew some she grew out of when she was 7! She’d looked at them at places like Mark’s Warehouse before, but wasn’t happy with what they had.

This place carried a brand called Tough Duck, which were exactly what she wanted. They had another, more expensive, brand as well, but she didn’t like them as much. She had a budget for only one thing, though, and the overalls won! She got these. (not an affiliate link) Given her rather generous feminine assets, plus these are meant to be worn over clothing, she went with a 3X. She didn’t try them on until we got home and she is very happy with them. These are men’s overalls and ludicrously long on her, but they can be hemmed. The website does have a women’s version but there are no hourglass figured in this household! My daughters and I take after my Eastern European side of the family. If it weren’t for boobs, we’d be straight, rectangular brick houses. 😄 So when it comes to pants, men’s clothing tends to fit better.

When I had a chance later on, I tried them on, too. I might actually want to go a size bigger, only because they tend to pull when I bend over to touch my feet. The fabric has no real stretch to it, though it would soften and loosen up a bit after a few washings. I do a LOT of bending from the waist when I work, since my knees aren’t stable enough to bend at the knees, so it’s something to keep in mind. Not that I’d be getting myself a set anytime soon, but they would be really handy to have come spring time!

After getting the legs hemmed. 😄

Once home and unloaded, the first thing I did was start feeding the outside cats, so my daughter could park the truck, then do my evening rounds. When I was done, I spotted this bit of adorableness.

That would be Sprig, who is only slightly less feral than her mother, Sprout!

I haven’t seen Sprout for a few days. I hope she’s okay.

Sprig has been coming into the sun room more often, and joining the cuddle puddles. So far, I’ve only managed to sneak a touch as she runs past. I’m happy to see her using the new cat cave. I zoomed in to get the picture, as I knew she would run away if I came to close, and I didn’t want to chase her out of a warm spot.

It would be really awesome if we could get her to the vet tomorrow! In a couple of hours, my daughter and I will head out to see who we can set up overnight in the isolation shelter for an overnight fast. Not that they’ll be fed again until after we leave in the morning, so any of the cats could be brought in – if we can get them into carriers. I really want to get Frank. She’s a bundle of nerves, but is still the most approachable of the intact females. Adam and Slick have been coming around, but Slick hasn’t been allowing contact, and Adam only allows it while she’s eating. The white one with grey tabby spots is even more feral. Trapping will likely be the only option. I just don’t see us being able to socialize them over the winter, and I really want to get them spayed before they go into heat in the late winter/spring.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, that’s for sure. The goal is to be on the road with the 3 cats by 7:30, as the drop off time is 8:50am this time. We’ll be staying in the city until the clinic calls us to pick up the cats – trying to avoid the Black Friday crowds. (Weird that Canada does Black Friday, when our Thanksgiving was last month.) Then, I’ll be doing my mother’s bed time med/personal care assist at around 9pm. If it were summer, I’d be napping in the truck while waiting for a call from the clinic, but it’s getting too cold to do that now.

Ah, well. It is what it is!

Happy Thanksgiving to my US visitors!

The Re-Farmer

Catio done, crazy wind damage and an interesting find

October 25, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was supposed to be a much warmer day. Technically, it was, but we also had high winds, so it sure didn’t feel much warmer!

The winds showed exactly why I needed to get the catio finished. The bottoms or the front panels I had to leave unsecured because it got too dark and too cold to continue were flapping in the wind.

I had some very curious helpers!

If you click through above, there’s a short video of the kitten being adorable.

Working on the bottom of the catio had its challenges, but the biggest one turned out to be Kohl. She absolutely HAD to be right in there, trying to lick my fingers and giving me little nips if I didn’t pet her often enough.

Once it was done, I figured it would be easier to make a video to share.

The only problem was that the door was loose. Previously, I was able to tie it in the mostly closed position, so it wouldn’t get blown around in the wind. There is a brick to keep it from closing all the way, but it sometimes gets knocked over and I’ve found the door closed a couple of times, just since it got moved to this location. Since it’s not latched, a cat inside could push their way out, though it might take them a while to figure it out, and it would be harder for the smaller kittens. No cats would be able to get in to the food, water and shelter, though.

What I ended up finding was a small Bungee cord with hooks small enough to fit onto the wire mesh. I’ve got it looped around the handle. It’s stretchy enough that larger cats can push their way through the gap, but strong enough to keep the door from being blown around – plus securing the door like this helps keep the brick in place, too.

All in all, I’m very happy with how it has turned out. There are a few finishing touches I’d like to do, but they aren’t essential.

After I finished with the catio, I had intended to work in the garden, but it was just too windy. Instead, I worked on putting things away for the winter. The canopy tent was really being blown around, so that is not down and tucked into the garage for the winter. Then it was puttering round, doing things like getting the insulation set up around the based of the house, putting the hoses at the back away, etc.

While I was working, I heard some load noises from somewhere in the outer yard, so when I had the chance, I went looking around to see what had been blown over.

Yikes!

It turned out to be a wall!

This old log building has been slowly collapsing more and more for many years. It’s a shame it was allowed to happen. I remember playing in there when I was a kid, and it was in front of where the chain link fence is now.

With the wall down, I went closer to take a look at things. We’re definitely going to have to get that cleaned up as soon as possible. There are a lot of nails and sharp things sticking out.

There is also an oil drum that is now visible, though not in the angle of the shot above. Something sitting on top caught my attention.

What that a fire brick?

There turned out to be two of them.

Yup. They are fire bricks. I had to remove moss growing on one of them.

After taking the picture, I looked up the name on the bricks.

It turns out they are vintage fire bricks! Claybank Brick Plant in Saskatchewan is designated as a national historic site! It operated from 1914 to 1989, with a brief closure in 1916, partly due to WWI.

The bricks are now in the garage.

There is so much stuff in there, including what appears to be salvageable small lumber and possibly a stack of plywood? I can just see the edges of them, with no indication of size, other than there being some smaller ones in the stack.

After inspecting the wind damage on the old log building, I went around the yard to see what other wind damage there might be. No new fallen trees, thankfully, but I did find some larger fallen branches. My mother’s angel by the gate is still upright, though! I’ve no doubt that, were it not secured to the concrete base under it, it would have fallen over with today’s winds.

While I was still outside, I got a call on my cell phone.

It was home care.

*sigh*

They don’t have anyone to cover my mother’s morning med assists, tomorrow. This was a time slot that actually had someone scheduled, not one of the “unfilled” slots. I went in to call my mother and left a message, then headed back outside to finish a few last things. When I got back in, I thought I saw a new message on the machine and listened to it. It was my mother talking about not getting her meds regularly, and that’s why her health is failing. I called her back but she was confused when I mentioned I’d heard her message. She hadn’t called me today! (She hadn’t seen my message to her, either.) It turned out I had listened to an old message.

Ah, well. I needed to talk to her, anyhow. She’s still upset about having the male home care workers from India. This time, she saw something on the news about a “new” gang from India that the police found. Nothing about where, but now she assumes that if the home care workers are from India, they must be gang members.

*sigh*

Anyhow.

I encouraged my mother to ask the home care workers for help more often, and she didn’t get angry with me about it, so that’s an improvement. Since I’ll be there tomorrow morning, I’ll be taking care of a few other things as well. Her current schedule was done before we had the meeting with the home care coordinator, so it doesn’t reflect extra time for this, but I noticed that she’s got 15 minutes for the morning, 5 minutes at supper, and 10 minutes for the bed time meds. If they’re going to be available to do things like make her a small meal, they’ll need to increase at least the scheduled time at supper.

With that in mind, I’d better get to bed before midnight for a change. :-/

Tomorrow is supposed to be just as warm as today. I hope the winds won’t be back. If I’m going to get any winter sowing done, I need to rake up lots of leaves to mulch the beds right away. I wasn’t even going to try, today. It would just get blown away!

Well, crud. I just checked the forecast. Apparently, it’s going to be even windier, tomorrow!

At this rate, there might not be any leaves left in the yard to rake up for mulch!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Paid in full, and winterizing progress

October 24, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, I seem to have pushed myself a bit too much, yesterday. I actually needed to use painkillers before doing to bed last night. In the morning, I asked my daughters to do the morning routine while I took more pain killers and tried to get a bit more sleep.

Which the cats sabotaged, of course!

My younger daughter needed to hit the grocery store, so she went along with me to the hardware store to pay the balance on the new front door. I even got Air Miles on it – and on the deposit I’d etransferred back when I first accepted the contract.

While there, we looked around for something to use to secure the vinyl I wanted to wrap around the catio. I knew what I needed it to do, but didn’t know what there was that I could use to do it. All the different things we looked at were either not flat enough, not strong enough, too strong, etc.

Finally, we just sort of gave up and starting looking at hand tools.

Because my daughter and I both have a thing for tools!

When someone asked if we needed help, I figured, why not? I brought up some pictures of the winterized isolation shelter and explained that I wanted to something that would do what the wood lath did to secure the vinyl, but narrower, and showed him a picture of the catio.

After talking about it for a bit, he took us over to a display we’d walked right past and showed us their steel strapping. I did already have some at home and would have preferred to not use metal, but in the end, it really was the best we’d be able to come up with. So we got a roll of 25′ galvanized steel strapping to supplement what I had at home, which would not have been enough for the job.

Then, my daughter treated us to lunch.

Well…

Breakfast, really.

Her disability has finally started to come in, so she had a small budget.

After lunch, we did her shopping, then headed home.

As soon as I was settled in and changed, I headed out to work on the catio.

The first thing to do was cover the door, on its own. For that, I repurposed some of the old vinyl that had been taken off earlier. It was a bit frayed so, after measuring the door, I doubled it up and duct taped parts of it to hold it together, and reinforce stress points.

Because of the latch and handle, one corner got folded under when it was time to attach it to the door.

Attaching the steel strapping to the bottom was the most difficult part. I don’t bend well.

I then measured the height of the sides for the next part. It is 50″ tall, and the clear vinyl dining table protectors I got for this are 52″ wide.

I am very glad I moved that folding table under the canopy tent near the catio!

I spent the next while setting strips of duct tape half way under one of the long edges of a vinyl sheet. The duct tape is 2″ wide, so I set it so the vinyl was around the middle – at least as close to the middle as I could manage. Kohl decided she REALLY needed to be on the table and giving me kisses! Even if it meant stepping on the sticky side of duct tape!

Plus, it kept getting windier, and I had to weight things down all over the place.

Once I had tape under the edge of the sheet, I turned the duct tape over, folding the vinyl to create a 1 inch “hem”.

Then I did the same thing on the other side, to bring it down to about 50″. I didn’t care if it wasn’t exact. In fact, a little excess extending past the based would be quite acceptable.

For the short ends, I folded duct tape over the edges to reinforce them, then added more to reinforce the corners.

By then, I’d been outside for quite some time and, while it was supposed to be warmer today, the wind made it feel colder – and the wind was picking up more. So I messaged my daughter and she helped me reinforce the edges of the second sheet. I was getting really chilled, so when that was finished, we weighted things down so I could go inside and warm up. After about half an hour, I headed back out – this time with a jacket!

In the first photo above, you can see the covered door. Instead of cutting off the excess vinyl, I folded it under, instead.

Then I cut away the rope handles at the corners. They were great for making it easier to move the catio, but they would be in the way of the vinyl wrap.

When I started attaching the side panels, I started with the one that needed to be folded under at the corner. In the next picture, you can see both, with the diagonal strips of steel strapping to keep the folded under edges from catching in the wind.

For the side panels, I didn’t expect to finish today, as I knew it would be getting dark soon. I focused on getting the front panels secured at the top and sides, then did the top only on a side panel. You can see in the next picture how far I got with the first sheet. I repeated the process on the other side.

I had forgotten that, when I fixed this thing up, I used metal strapping to secure the mesh on the side near the door hinge, so that had to be worked around. I had also used metal planted to reinforce the corners, so the strapping couldn’t go right to the corners. Which is okay. As long as the corners by the door were secured, the vinyl wrapped around the corners would not be as much of an issue.

Once both sheets were attached at the front and sides, the remaining vinyl was blowing in the wind, so I wrapped them around the back and secured them with short strips of steel strapping at the corners.

Before I even finished that, though, I saw a problem that I suspected would happen.

The two sheets were not long enough to meet at the back.

There was no way I could leave things like that, with the wind. I needed to close up the back.

Back I went to the leftover vinyl from last winter, cutting off a strip a fair bit wider than the gap. The top and bottom got reinforced with duct tape.

In the next picture, you can see the metal plate the top. When we were given this catio, the back was all one open space. I added a vertical support in the middle, then covered it with a couple of pieces of wood lath to secure the wire mesh. I added these metal plates all over the place while repairing and reinforcing the catio!

Working around the metal plate, I secured the gap filler with the steel strapping and a screw on either side of the metal plate, which you can see in the next picture.

Before securing the ends of the larger sheets, I made sure to go all around to pull things snug and straight. The catio is elevated by bricks, and the vinyl is long enough to hang below the bottom edge, and I had to make sure all the bricks were pushed in and flush with the edges, so the vinyl wouldn’t be pulled out of position. Once everything was as flush as I could get it, I could secure the edges at the back, setting them over the gap filler, rather than under. Once the corners were pulled as snug as I could, they got secured with screws, which you can see in the next picture. That done, I could finally screw the ends of the strapping in place.

The bottom did not have a metal plate, but the very middle did have the seam between two pieces of wood lath, so the initial screw needed to be off centre. I tugged and pulled to make sure there would be no gaps – the pieces don’t quite line up at the bottoms, since none of the edges were completely straight – before I secured the gap filled in the middle. Then it was repeat the process, to secure the overlapping pieces.

That was as far as I could do tonight. It was getting too dark and too cold! Securing the bottoms will wait until tomorrow.

Aside from that, though, it’s basically done. Here is a slide show of how it looks now, from all sides.

I had several cats who were just fine, going in and out of the catio, while I worked on it! Some even tried to “catch” me through the wire mesh from the inside.

Last winter, the wind tore at every loose bit of the covering. This winter, with the door having its own separate cover will make a difference, as will removing those rope handles. The steel strapping and reinforced edges should keep things from tearing away – I hope! In theory, I could probably get away with adding trapping to the bottom of the front panels, only. The back is already reinforced, and the sides are quite snug at the bottom. I’ll still had some strapping, though.

Tomorrow.

That done, it was time to put things away. As I went into the garage to tuck things into their places, I noticed I was being watched from the top of the truck!

Adam does not approve of my presence!

Pink seems to have moved into the rafters of the garage again – at least for the night. We do see her around the house, and she goes into the isolation shelter to eat. I even saw her on the rail outside the sun room, and she enthusiastically excepted pets. She even gave me kisses!

However, my working on the catio did get interrupted by a cat fight by the isolation shelter. I went over to break it out and found Pinky cowering behind the bin in full defense mode, while Patience threatened her! Even when she comes around other cats to eat, she will growl and snarl at cats that come close.

If we aren’t able to get her to the rescue to adopt out, I’m thinking of making a shelter for her in the garage. Something better to stay warm in, than the rafters!

Oh, that reminds me.

We heard from the foster that took our six cats and kittens. The one adult with the infected ear – they have been calling her Mila – has not been adjusting. She doesn’t get along with the other cats, and is growling and snarling at the humans. She will be getting spayed soon, and they’ll be checking her ear at the same time and determining treatment. The foster was wondering if we were okay with taking her back after, rather than trying to adopt her out.

She got along fine with the cats here, was a regular in the cuddle puddles, and even let us pet her, so I said yes.

They will keep her for a week after spay for observation. If things don’t improve, she will be coming back to us.

Poor thing. She is a real sweetie. I thought she would have been good for adopting out.

But I digress.

It was getting quite dark by the time everything was put away, and I switched out the trail cam cards. As I returned to the house, I saw this handsome fellow.

There had been two other cats with him but they ran off when I got closer. Midnight has been spending a lot of time in here, now that the heat lamp is going! I also saw a fluffy kitten using the hammock while Pinky was in there, earlier in the day. I think the cats are quite happy to have this shelter back beside the house!

I think the more feral cats will be happy with the winterized catio, too.

Tomorrow, I finish securing the bottoms of the catio, and then it’s back to the garden beds. I have been planning out what I want to winter sow and where. The weekend is supposed to be quite warm, so that will be a perfect time to get caught up. Monday is also supposed to be on the warm side, but we’re also supposed to start getting rain again. I should be able to get the winter sowing done fairly quickly, though, since I don’t need to use all of the cleaned up beds for that.

If all goes well, things should be done and ready for winter fairly soon!

In the garden, at least…

😄😄

There’s always something more to do! I’ve pretty much given up on being able to get a new bed started before winter, though. I was really hoping to be able to harvest more of the dead spruces for raised bed frames.

Ah, well. We shall see how the weather holds! Pretty much everything hinges on the weather. Especially this time of year, when every pleasant day is something to take advantage of. It won’t be long before the snow comes!

I am becoming much less of a fan of winter, every year, since we moved out here, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer

A productive day, and our vandal is stalking again

October 23, 2025October 23, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We had a slightly warmer day today, but I decided to leave working on the garden beds for the next few days, as it gets even warmer. Today, I focused on getting the cat shelters ready for winter.

I did, however, remember to take pictures of the finished garden bed in the old kitchen garden.

It doesn’t look all the different, really. The new stakes were pounded down with a sledge hammer, so they don’t need to be trimmed shorter. There’s enough height left that, should I want to in the future, more deadwood could be added for a taller wall. Towards the middle of the wall in the first picture, you can see some of the fly-away twine ends, where I had to fix where they snapped while I was pounding the stakes down.

I’m quite happy with the result. It’s not as pretty as wattle weaving, but it’ll hold the soil in place, and the taller stakes will be available to use to hold supports, should the bed need to be covered.

That done, it was time to winterize the isolation shelter and catio.

The vinyl (from dollar store table protectors) that had been wrapped around the bottom of the isolation shelter last winter was so torn up, it had to be thrown away. The vinyl around the catio had tears in it, but could still be salvaged. Especially since it ended up getting wrapped a second time part way through the winter. That gave me two layers to work with.

The bottom of the isolation shelter needed only 2′ in height. That meant I could take the vinyl from the catio and fold it in half, length wise. It took two dining table covers to wrap around the catio. With the second layer that was added, that gave me the equivalent of four covers, that were taped where they overlapped. I was able to separate the second layer easily into the original two length. There were larger tears near the bottoms, as well as small tears all along the edges, where they’d torn loose from the tacks that were holding them in place. Once folded in half, though, I was able to get a solid piece.

In the first picture, you can see that I duct taped the short ends to old the halves together, then added more to the corners to strengthen them more.

Thankfully, we didn’t have much wind and, with the folding table not put away for the winter yet, folding and taping the lengths wasn’t as much of a hassle as I’d feared. The only real problem I had was Grommet, constantly getting in front of me while I worked!

Next, I brought out my remaining pieces of wood lath and cut some to fit the shorter sides of the shelter, plus some for the section in the front. I had some short screws left from another project and used those to secure the vinyl at the top and bottom. Leftover lengths of wood lath were added to the ends of the vinyl as well, so the wind wouldn’t catch on them.

I secured one sheet to the ramp door side, first, then wrapped it around the back. The other end just reached around the opposite corner of the back, which I tacked in place with a push pin temporarily. Then I secured the other sheet to the front section of the shelter before securing the side, making sure to catch the edge of the first sheet with the screws.

For the back, I used a full length of wood lath to secure the vinyl at the top – the second sheet reached as far as the middle of the back.

At which point, I was out of the little screws I was using. I don’t want to use longer ones, as this is something that will be removed in the spring. The back will be against a well, though, so I just used a push pin half way down the centre support and let it be.

Next, I added some handles, to make it easier to move the shelter.

For the back, I had larger handles held in place with four screws. I replaced the ones the handles came with, which weren’t long enough to even go through the layer of insulation back there, with 2 1/2″ screws.

They felt good and solid at this point.

In the next picture, you can see the smaller handles I added to the front. Those had to fit in the space between the window and the edge, so there was room for a handle with only one screw to secure it. I didn’t need screws as long as for the back, but I still replaced the package screws with 1″ screws. They also had to be mounted lower down, so as not to be in the way when the roof is open.

At this point, the shelter could finally be moved to its winter home.

I was not able to use the handles.

The problem is the wheels. Even on the folded pieces of cardboard I put under the wheels, they sank into the soil. This thing is HEAVY!! It took a lot of manhandling to get it across the grass. It had to go across the sidewalk to the house, and one of wheels promptly sank so deep in the soil as soon as it was no longer on a concrete block, I had to actually lift the corner and pull the whole thing over.

Then there are the patio blocks.

Which should have been a lot easier, but there’s that tree in front of the old kitchen window. It’s roots have lifted and shifted the concrete blocks. Once again, I had to actually lift corners to get them over the edges of the patio blocks.

I did get it into position, though. Finally!

Once there, I did some cleaning, starting with washing the front windows, inside and out. I had taken out the sliding windows and gave those a wash before putting them back.

I had a couple more boards like I’d used to attach the roof panels that I added and screwed into place. It’s a low slope roof, and the plastic roof panels sagged just enough for water to sometimes collect on it. I gave the roof a washing, then left the roof open for the water to drain off. That was a good time to move the heated water bowl to the other side, and secure the heat lamp, which you can see in the second picture of the slide show above.

I found a piece of scrap wood that I added as a cross piece, which runs through the hanger part of the clamp lamp, for extra security. The clamp is secured with a couple of zip ties. The new cross piece is held in place by friction, but I zip tied it to the permanent cross piece the clamp is attached to, as well.

I did make sure to test the heat lamp before I started all this!

Once everything was set where I wanted to – make sure that I could reach the on/off switch for the heat lamp from the sliding windows – they were plugged into the extension cord, which got set up on its hooks on the outside.

Before that was plugged in, though, I got the ramp door shelter box ready to bring over (it was a handy table for while I was working on the shelter!) and started getting the catio ready to move to its winter location.

Around this time, I got a message from my SIL. They needed to go into storage and were on their way, and letting me know what their rental car looked like, while their car is in the garage for repairs.

They weren’t going to be long, so I went and opened the gate for them, then went back to working on things in the yard.

I heard a vehicle coming and looked through the trees to see if it was them, only to see our vandal driving by.

On seeing the gate was open, he started slowing down.

I couldn’t see him through the trees anymore, but I could hear him stop on the road, then start backing up.

I wasn’t about to give him a chance to drive in, so I walked out towards the driveway, so he could see that I was there.

He stopped at the end of the driveway, and just stayed there, watching me.

So, I got my phone out and started recording him.

I ended up getting more than four minutes of recording him as he got out of his vehicle and started gesturing at me (turns out he was “blowing kisses”). Then he opened his shirt, took off the belly strap and waved his colostomy bag at me. Then he started yelling at me, demanding to know why I was recording him, yelling that I wanted to put him in prison, that he was dying anyway, etc. He was yelling at me for so long, I ended up walking over to one of my brother’s pieces of farm equipment nearby, so I could brace my arms while he yelled. At one point, he started demanding that I go over and talk to him – like I would do that!!! – while gesturing to the road and saying he was legal there, and I should come and talk to him. As if! Oh, and I don’t own the property. I don’t own anything.

So… why has he been yelling at my mother about how she “gave” the farm to me?

Oh, my goodness.

I just got a message from my brother. Somehow, our vandal managed to leave a voice mail with my brother (his number is blocked). He was ranting about how he (my brother) is going against “the code”. The code of “Jesus and God.” Also, my brother and I are why he’s dying of cancer. The stress from us. He mentioned me recording him and said he “asked” me to come talk to him.

Also, I’m fat and my daughters and I never have to work again, and we’re apparently enjoying steak, caviar and champagne. And the pope is going to be reading a magazine about Christianity, and my brother’s not a real Christian.

He also brought up that he helped us, years ago, by living rent free for a year in a house he owned when my husband “lost his job”. Except, it was after my husband left the military, not “lost his job”, and it was only a few months before we got things worked out (we had zero income for 4 months because someone in the DnD forgot about the paperwork). We paid him rent until he put the house up for sale.

Yes, there was a time when we were close, and he did help us out. But now it seems he’s inventing things to make it sound like he helped us more than he did.

There was a lot more in the message, but it was all just insane. He is absolutely obsessed with us!

Ugh.

So… where was I?

Ah, yes.

After yelling at me from the road some more, our vandal got into his vehicle again and just sat there. By this time, my daughters had come out to see what was going on, and make sure I was okay. So I stopped recording and walked over. Once I was past the garage and couldn’t see him anymore, we heard him yelling at me some more before he finally drove off. We could hear his vehicle all the way, even to the sound of him tearing into his own driveway.

No, he doesn’t live THAT close to us!

My daughters stayed out with me for a while. I had move the catio to its winter location, so they helped me set it on pieces of bricks by lifting the ends so I could slide them under. As before, I set the pieces under the front corners on their edges, while the ones under the back were flat, so that water would drain off the flat roof towards the back.

My older daughter is going to be up all night as she works (she’s been trying to be up during more daytime hours lately, to be available to help with things).

This is how the catio was, after they helped set it up on bricks, so the wood won’t have direct contact with what will eventually be very wet ground.

I took out the cat bed that Pinky and her babies had been using. That went into the bottom of the isolation shelter, and the box nests got put in here. They are on top of scrap pieces of insulation.

After this picture was taken, I swept the leaves off the roof. I have an old snow brush/ice scraper where the ice scraper broke. It has been incredibly handy for maintaining the cat shelters!

Then I made sure to add the weights back onto the roof, so it won’t get blown over again.

Tomorrow, I need to go into town and pay the balance for the door replacement at the hardware and lumber store. While I’m there, I hope to pick up more of the tiny screws and anything else I might need. I would need more wood lath, if I’m going to use that to attach the vinyl on the catio, too, but I will get that somewhere else at a better price. The catio frame is 2×2 lumber, and I might want to find something narrower to secure the vinyl.

This winter, I’ll make sure to have the vinyl covering the door as a separate piece. Last winter, I had tried to secure it near the hinge but it kept coming loose and start flapping in the wind.

Meanwhile, my brother and SIL arrived. My brother did his thing while I was able to give my SIL a tour of the things I’ve been doing. She even helped me adjust the isolation shelter, when I realize that one of the wheels was hanging in the air, thanks to the uneven patio blocks.

The light above our main door had started flashing instead of working properly, so my brother wanted to take a look at it. He is the one who got and installed it originally – because while my late father was still living here, our vandal (who was “helping” my dad) would show up at all hours, and the motion sensor light would let my dad at least know he was in the yard. After fussing with a switch at the top that I didn’t even know was there (can’t see it without a ladder), he got it working again, but he doesn’t think it’ll last long.

Then I helped him move the old storm door that was still leaning against the house to the barn for storage. It’s still a good door.

It was really good to see them, as always.

After they were gone, I had a few more things to finish up. Now that the isolation shelter is no longer under the canopy tent, I move the folding table under there. I’ll be leaving that out for a while longer, as there’s still plenty that needs going around the yard before the snow flies.

For now, I’m just happy the isolation shelter is winterized.

I’m just looking at the temperature right now. I think I’ll go turn the heat lamp on for the night!

I can do that now. 😁😁

Little by little, things are getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens

September 11, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Yesterday, my daughter and I carried the catio over, closer to the house. The goal is to convince the garage kittens to actually start coming to the house for food and shelter, little by little.

We may have moved it too close.

The first photo was taken yesterday. Pinky and her white and grey have been good with the new location, but her smokey baby actually missed out on food rather than go to the shelter.

The next photo was taken this morning. The kitten has finally started to go into the shelter to eat, at least. None of them, however, are using it to just hang out inside, like they had been when it was next to the garage. I think part of the problem is that more of the other yard cats are going in there, now that it’s closer. Pinky and her babies do not like other cats! Even the skunks will go into there, which I’m not happy about.

This little guy is getting a big braver.

Colby will go into the sun room to eat a bit, before dashing off. While on the hand rail, I almost got close enough to touch him, but while he was willing to pose for a picture, he wouldn’t let me get any closer.

He is getting so big and fluffy!!

The Re-Farmer

Setting a “trap”, and itty bitty kitties

August 21, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While heading out to the garden again after breakfast, I noticed that the catio was unoccupied.

The perfect time to set my “trap”!

The plan is to set it up behind the garage to lure the garage kittens out. They run around the garage, but they won’t come to the house. Even if I catch the white and grey and take him to the sun room, he’s soon back in the garage.

What I’m hoping is that they will accept the catio as a place to eat and sleep. Then, over time, we’ll move it closer and closer to the house. If it really comes down to it, we could potentially close the door with them inside. That would be only once we get them socialized enough to get spayed/neutered.

Of course, it took more work than expected.

First up, I got the big food bowl off the ground inside and set it on one of the shelves to come along. It was still wrapped around with plastic that I put on for the winter and ended up leaving. I think later on, we’ll put clear plastic around the upper half of the catio to protect from the elements, but leave the bottom half open for air circulation. It’s very much a greenhouse as it is now!

Anyhow.

I had put rope handles at each corner to use to move the catio, and those were under the plastic, so I raised the plastic on one end so I could access them. There were a couple of bricks used to make sure the door didn’t accidentally close them in, and those got set on the roof to come for the ride (there are other bricks on the roof as weights against high winds). Last of all, I had a 2×2 piece of lumber under the frame at the door, so that water would drain off the roof to the other side. That got set in one of the cat shelves inside to come for a ride, too.

Then I started to try and drag it along.

The problem is, I put the rope handles too high. Because of how far apart they are, it can’t just be lifted and dragged. It would need to be “walked” across the yard. That risked breaking the frame. So I grabbed some twine and made new rope handles, lower down, threaded through short lengths cut from an old garden hose that can’t be used anymore. That would keep the twine from cutting into the hands.

That worked better, in that I could lift the end and drag it evenly, instead of “walking” it across. Unfortunately, they were still pretty far apart, making it difficult for short little me with my short little arms to pull it.

I was going to message my daughters to see if one of them could come and help me when I saw one of them had already messaged me. My mother’s pharmacy had called and wanted to talk to me about her bubble pack refills.

So I went in to take care of that and asked my daughters if they could finish moving the catio while I was on the phone. I didn’t realized that my older daughter had messaged me only because she had gotten up to use the washroom and happened to hear the phone ring. By the time I saw the message and came in, she was back in bed for the day.

Which meant my younger daughter moved it on her own!

That would not have been easy. She’s even shorter than I am! Not my much, but still…

Meanwhile, I made the call, then called my mother, then updated my siblings in our group chat. I’ll be going to pick up my mother’s bubble packs on Sunday, and will do her grocery shopping as well.

When I was done, I headed out to see where my daughter set up the catio – I’d only said it was going behind the garage.

It was already occupied.

Just by Pinky. I didn’t see any of her kittens until some time later, and even then, it was just the smokey one.

Pinky was so settled on that cat bed that when I lifted the front to put the 2×2 under it, she didn’t move! I dropped the plastic back down and set the bricks up in the door so make sure it wouldn’t close all the way, then tied it off so it wouldn’t blow around in the wind, either.

I also spent quite a bit of time petting Pinky on that cat bed. She was very, very content in there!

I set the food bowl – an old heated water bowl that burned out – just inside the doorway. Later on, I’ll find something to use as a water bowl for in there, too.

So, starting this evening, I will no longer be leaving food in the garage for the kittens. It will be in the catio, only.

I think it might be a good idea to add wheels to this. Not directly under, as that would leave a gap a cat could get out through. I’m thinking more like a pair of wheels on one side, and handles on the other, so it can be moved around like a wheelbarrow. Or a chicken tractor. We can certainly grag it around as it is now, but that puts a lot of strain on the frame and it’s more likely to break.

That done, I went back towards the house and noticed Slick under the canopy tent again. I had to use the zoom on my phone’s camera to see whether she was nursing or not. Once I was sure there were no kittens for me to scare away, I continued on my way.

Which is when I saw some ears in the window of the isolation shelter.

Look what I found!

I see other littles in the isolation shelter, but these ones have practically moved right in.

The inside of the front window really needs a cleaning. 😄

I didn’t get any pictures while doing the morning feeding, though I did try to get a head count of the adults. I think I counted 22. I didn’t even try to count the kittens. They move too fast!

Except one.

I’ve got a little bowl set under the ramp to the water bowl shelter, which is in front of the chimney flue they use to hide in. As soon as I come near, they start dashing into the flu to get under the cat house.

One of the, however, didn’t run away.

So I pet it.

It still didn’t run away.

So I picked it up.

Which is when I saw that its eyes were stuck shut!

Thankfully, it didn’t try to hiss or spit or bite, and I was able to wash its eyes until they could open again. Then it just looked up at me, seeming rather stunned!

Hopefully, this will be the start of socialization.

We’ve got our work cut out for us, to get these guys at least friendly enough to get them to a vet, once they’re big enough! The vet wants them to weigh at least two pounds for spays.

[obligatory addendum: if you wish to donate towards spays and neuters, there is a ko-fi donation button at the top right of the page. Every little bit helps, and is much appreciated.]

Enjoying kittens was just a bonus for the morning. I got lots done, and will be writing about that in other posts. This evening, I plan to take some footage for my monthly garden tour video, too. There will be quite a few changes on there, since last month!

The Re-Farmer

Ah, spring… the moats are forming!

March 26, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was in incredibly gorgeous day! We actually hit 10C/50F this afternoon!

So, of course, we’re now getting weather warnings for a major snowfall coming. It’s supposed to hit our area tomorrow evening, and we could get 10-20cm/4-8 inches of snow.

I’m still waiting on a blizzard to hit around our anniversary in the beginning of April.

Why?

Because it’s spring in Canada, that’s why! 😄

Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room was reading about 23C/73F, which was wonderful for the new babies.

Brussel is such a good mama!

I didn’t get a chance to sneak a pet today, though. Gotta work on that!

Of course, with things melting all over the place, the moat around the garage has started to form. Only the remaining deeper snow and packed ice is keeping it it in check. The path I use to reach the litter pellet compost behind the outhouse is getting pretty deep with water. I’m going to have to dig out my rubber boots at this rate!

The usual low spots are also filling, including the moat that completely encircles the storage house. The gap the cats use to get under it is a big puddle. I’m still seeing cats go under there, which is a bit of a surprise, since the entire “basement” space gets pretty full of water, too.

I did find water in an unexpected place, though.

Inside the catio.

It is likely because I piled snow around three sides to act as insulation. Between that and the area being a bit lower, what has been little more than a puddle this morning has become quite a pool by late afternoon!

I took out the two box nests and the big bowl that used to be a heated water bowl that I used as a kibble bowl. Somehow, water actually got inside the bowl itself! The opening where the power cord used to run through allowed water to get inside, so I ended up setting it on the catio roof in such a way that it will hopefully drain.

The insulated box nest was still partially frozen to the ground, so it took a bit to get that loose. The uninsulated one was resting on top of a couple of pieces of rigid insulation, so it was easy to lift – except for the edge of the blanket inside that had slipped out and was frozen to the ground! Once the box was removed, I hung the blanket over the edge of the catio roof to drip and dry, making sure to weight it down, so it wouldn’t blow away.

In the second picture of the above slide show, you can see where I set up the box nests. Their bottoms were damp on the inside, but these have no “right side up”, so I just flipped them damp side up and set them under the shrine next to a kibble bowl.

There was another kibble bowl under there, but it disappeared a few days ago. I have yet to find it! I assume it got dragged off by a raccoon, maybe?

Magda immediately showed her appreciation for a new surface to stand on. 😁

With the bottom of the catio flooded, she still found a way to enjoy it. She used the brick I have in the doorway, to make sure it doesn’t close all the way by accident, as a dry surface to jump up onto one of the floating shelves inside the catio. From there, she could jump across to the other shelf, where she obligingly posed for a photo. The door was tied off again by the time, so I was sticking my phone through to take a picture, being VERY careful to not drop it into the water below!!

With the protective plastic around the side, plus the clear roof, it’s quite warm inside that catio during the day. Not as warm as the sun room, of course, but still a very noticeable difference.

I’m really glad we were able to give the catio a paint job before putting the roof on. That will protect the wood from the water at least a little bit. The original frame was painted, but the wood lathe I added in places could possible get water damage, since the water would be able to seep between the old and new wood on the bottom. We won’t be able to check for damage for probably a few more weeks, though.

In other things, my younger daughter and I went into town today. We had to go to the pharmacy for her to pick up a prescription, plus a couple other things. I was able to cash in a digital lotto ticket and my win not only paid for her purchases, but lunch and a quick stop at the grocery store to get drinks for the ride home, too – and I still have a bit of cash left over. It’s always nice to win more than just a couple of bucks, or a free play – though I won a couple of bucks and a free play, too! 😄

I also made sure to stop at the post office on the way out, as it closed at noon today. The seed packets from my Vesey’s order came in today, so as soon we were back at home and things were put away and settled, I headed down to the dungeon… er… basement, to start some of them.

Which will be the topic of my next post!

The Re-Farmer

What a gorgeous day!

December 7, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

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.

I’m glad she’s warmed up to me again, because she wouldn’t let me touch her for the past couple of days!

Stinky really wanted to go inside and join them!

No luck touching the male, but he did sniff at my fingers!

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.

Any suggestions?

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

November 28, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

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

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

I got to indulge in kitties this morning!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a bunch of cuties!

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

Right?

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

A day of driving

November 7, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Today was supposed to be a bit warmer and, technically, it was.

We also had high winds.

That ruled working on the cat house out completely. With the direction of the winds, they would have torn the roof off – or at least damaged it significantly – if we opened it up.

I had to do some modifications to the catio because of the wind.

As I thought might happen, the plastic overlapping the back, which couldn’t quite reach the centre support of the frame, was getting damaged in the wind. I found it torn free from its tacks at the top, and the only reason the bottom wasn’t also torn free was because the excess was tucked under the bottom of the frame.

I ended up taping it to the first layer of plastic. I used packing tape, which should come off more easily when we take it off on the spring. There is a chance it won’t last the winter, but we’ll see.

Wind was still getting into the catio through the open door, causing the plastic to billow. I was already planning to prop the door so it was open just wide enough for the cats to get in and out. I decided an extra bit of security would not go amiss, and added paracord around the whole thing, while also making sure the door wouldn’t blow open, either.

It didn’t take long for the cats to discover the improvement! In the photo above, there are three cats in there. Not only is it now more sheltered from the wind, but would be a warm little greenhouse as well.

It would have been better to secure the paracord through the plastic at the hinge side of the door, but I don’t want to put larger holes, in the plastic, since I intend to use it in the garden next year. I think, for next winter, the door will get it’s own covering, separate from the catio walls.

This will be our first winter with it, though, so we’ll analyze how it worked out, in the spring.

With high winds kiboshing my outdoor plans, I decided a trip to Walmart was needed. We never did get to the feed store and were running low on kibble already, so I contacted the Cat Lady. Yes, she was able to meet me today. After working out the time, I left right away, since it takes me a lot longer to get to our usual meeting spot that it takes for her.

It took a bit longer than usual. During parts of the route, the winds were doing their best to blow the truck right off the road! I was driving against the wind for much of the trip, which visibly affected the mileage, too!

When we finally connected, we had a chance to chat while we transferred over a nice big cat tree, a couple of large bags of kibble, some smaller bags of kibble, and a big garbage bag stuffed with cat beds. She even gave us a 24 pack of wet cat food; turkey chunks in gravy. She got it for her own cats, but they don’t seem to like it – and The Wolfman turns out to be allergic to poultry, so he can’t eat it at all. The problem is, he loved chicken so much, he kept stealing the roasted chickens she fed them, while they were cooling down. It turns out he’s a real greedy guts, and constantly stealing food!

She no longer goes to what used to be her favourite vet clinic. The owner – the man that saved Cabbages’ life, and even Tissue, after her attempt to destroy their car – sold the clinic. She’s been there a couple of times. Once was to get Button neutered. That was when the new vet insisted Button had to be only 8 weeks old, and would not believe otherwise, no matter what. She had also talked to the new vet about The Wolfman and allergies – and was immediately offered euthanasia!

She is not going back.

She did take Button to another vet, though, and got some more information about his condition. It was determined that the reason he is so tiny, and why he is now deaf, was due to a particular virus. The vet figured that the reason we found him was because the mother had died of it, because it usually does kill off the adults. We never did figure out who the mother was, so that may well be true. That’s the thing with yard cats. When they disappear, we almost never know why. Very rarely do we find an adult cat that has died. Last year, there was one.

It’s entirely possible we’ve recently lost more. We haven’t seen Sad Face in weeks, now. There was that one day when I counted 50 cats and kittens. This morning, I counted maybe 33. Yesterday, 26. Aside from Sad Face, who is rather distinctive, I have no idea which cats – or kittens – are missing.

Meanwhile, the Cat Lady is trying to arrange spays for us. The clinic she’s been booking us with is very busy. At this point, they should be able to book two in December, and maybe one in November, plus she is on the cancelation list. The vet would really like to get the long haired tabby adult in, as she is more likely to go into heat before the kittens do, in the spring. I’ve actually been able to pet Adam a few times, so there’s a possibility we could get her in, without having to trap her, too.

The Cat Lady is going to need descriptions of what cats and kittens we can bring in. While I could do that, it doesn’t mean those are the kittens we’d be able to bring in. There is one very friendly little tabby with white that we’d have no problem catching. She’s really small, though. Button is probably bigger than she is, now. The vet prefers them to be at least 2kg (almost 4 1/2 pounds).

There is no way that kitten is 4 pounds, and she is definitely close to 5 months old.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, she’s had to deal with 4 cats that showed up at their cottage. They’ve closed it up for the winter, but they have a neighbour that lives there full time and called them about it. They were all males, about 8 months old. I guess someone knew the property was owned by a family that ran a rescue, and dumped them. You’d think they would consider that, like most of the cottages in that area, no one would be there in the winter. Thankfully, the neighbour that does live there full time keeps an eye on their place for them. So she had to go get the cats, was able to get them neutered and has already adopted one of them out.

One of the things that came up was comments people make about country cats like ours and, “why don’t they just get them fixed?”

That came up when I mentioned that we have gone from a high of 50 cats to now being down to a little over 30. We just don’t know what cats will show up, or if they will stay. There are some distinctive cats that do stay, even if they are more feral, but others… we just can’t tell. Especially with all the white and greys. They get so hard to tell apart! In previous years, we had lots of grey tabbies. They are all gone. The grey tabbies we have now are from more recent litters. At least the ones we did get fixed have been staying, but males like Judgement are still prone to disappearing for the summer and coming back for the winter – if they come back at all.

Then, of course, there is the cost. Especially for females. We’re both very frustrated by people who made disparaging remarks about how people should spay and neuter the strays, barn cats, yard cats, etc. Yes, that needs to be done, but some get very angry and accusatory when it doesn’t get done. To which I say, are you volunteering to pay for it? Are you donating to a shelter specifically for spays and neuters? No? Then zip it. People do the best they can. Those who aren’t willing to help – and it’s a huge problem in our province right now – aren’t entitled to cast judgement on others.

The Cat Lady and her family spend ridiculous amounts of money out of pocket to help their rescues; donations don’t come near to covering it all. She is constantly on the hunt for things people need. Recently, she found a particular cat item that is in demand, but hard to find, and she bought the store’s entire stock. Nine of them. As she was paying for it, another customer started ranting at her for being so greedy and taking them all. It was one of the staff who knows the Cat Lady well by now, that called out the customer, saying that they were all for donations. She wasn’t buying them for herself.

All of this was shared rather quickly, as we loaded stuff from her cat to our truck. The wind was brutal and cold, so we parted ways soon after.

I then went to the Walmart and, yes, got more kibble on top of the donated kibble!

That done, I headed home, with a brief side trip to get some gas. This time, I had the wind at my back, and I could really tell the difference by the gas gauge!

By the time I got home, it was well past 1pm. After the truck was unloaded, we loaded it up again – with garbage!

Two of the cat beds that were donated went straight into the isolation shelter; one on each level.

I then waited until 2, when both the dump and the post office opened, grabbed the water jugs we needed to refill and headed out again.

My first stop was the dump and, I swear, it is looking worse every time I go there! There’s barely room to drive in and turn to back up to the pit, for all the garbage that’s been allowed to spread over the driveway. I’ve never seen it allowed to get this bad.

At least the driveway area wasn’t covered in nails or glass.

Not that I could see, anyhow.

Once that was done, the next stop was the post office to pick up what turned out to be two parcels. I also got the first 2025 seed catalog of the season! I’m going to have fun going through that!

Then it was off to town and to the pharmacy for a prescription refill. Normally, I would have had my one prescription included with my husband’s deliveries, but we forgot to order it last week, and this week, my husband didn’t need any refills.

That done, the next stop was the grocery store to refill our water jugs, then finally, home again.

While the dump and town trip were planned on, I wasn’t expecting to be on the road more than that. Which is just as well, since the wind wasn’t going to let me do what I hoped to do in the garden.

Tomorrow, I’ll also be gone for much of the day, as I will be going to my mother’s place and helping her with her errands.

Meanwhile, I have also started working on this year’s Christmas decorations. Every year, I try to make new decorations for our tree, and maybe enough to give away to family and friends. This year, I’ve been inspired by Singlade balls. The Youtube channel in the link has some really amazing examples of them.

This video is a beginner tutorial.

I’m cheating a bit. I happen to have a number of Styrofoam balls, so I am using those as a core. At the moment, I’ve got six of them wrapped in white yarn, with the contrasting yard dividing them into eight sections, like the one you can see in the video thumbnail.

I’m working on the second half of my first ball, which is being made using bulkier yarn than wat’s in the video. As these will be Christmas decorations and meant to hand on a tree surrounded by lights, I went hunting for sparkly or reflective yarn. This first one has two colours per triangle and is mostly a red yarn with a silver metallic thread running through it. I also have some bits of reflective yard left. I had enough of a forest green to do half the ball. The other half is using a peacock blue reflective yarn. I have some neon colours of the reflective yarn that would be gloriously tacky. I also have some mini skeins of yarn that is almost a lace weight yarn, some of which have metallic strands in them. Those would make much finer stitches, but would also take longer to work up. I’ll see how far I get with the reflective yarn remains I have now before I start working on a finer weight yarn.

I’m happy with the progress, so far.

The only thing is, we will probably just have a small Christmas tree set up on top of the piano in the cat free zone again, this year. We have a couple of very small Christmas trees, and these balls would look gigantic on either of them! 😄

But that’s okay. I enjoy learning a new craft and, when it comes to yarn, my options are pretty limited. My hands are so rough, bit of fibre in the yarn sticks to my fingers!

That’s pretty much it for today. It may not have been the day I planned out, but at least it was productive!

The Re-Farmer

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