Here it is! I hope you enjoy it.
The Re-Farmer
Critters
So tired
Not physically tired.
Mentally tired.
Emotionally tired.
My brother and I visited with my mother today, at her request. We were there for almost three hours, with my brother ordering and picking up a lunch for us.
I’m not even going to get into it much, but she was all over the place. From getting mad at my brother, instead of grateful, because he picked up enough Pepto (which she says helps her so much) that she won’t run out again for probably a year (she actually said that she might sell some of them, before my brother even finished taking them out of the bag!), to talking about our vandal like he was some kind of saint for “helping” my dad so much before my dad went into the nursing home (he was actually pretty abusive to my dad, and his abusive behaviour towards my mother is why she moved off the farm in the first place), and so on.
When she started on how wonderful our vandal is, I figured that was a good time for me to take out her garbage. I just had to get out of there. A part of me understands that here’s some sort of guilt association on her part towards him. Considering how she treats those who are actually kind and helpful to her, and how she treats someone who was abusive towards her in between “helping” (because he thought he would get this property for it), really doesn’t sit well with me. Truthfully, though, theirs was a mutually abusive relationship.
We never got around to talking about her car at all, nor about her possibly helping us with the cost of replacing the door and frame, but she did bring up some “grand” ideas that would have completely messed up her own finances, which my brother, thankfully for her, has been keeping in order for her.
At least she was grateful, sort of, I think, for the cordless kettle my brother got for her. I had no idea she was worried about using her stove top kettle. Now she has a kettle that will shut itself off. We made sure to get it set up and tested out for her, and made sure she knew how to use it.
By the time we left, I was honestly feeling the most depressed and psychologically exhausted I have in ages – and this was a “good” visit!
So here is some cuteness, instead.
I’ve moved that blue tray into the portable greenhouse so it wouldn’t get rained on. A lot of the kittens like to hang out in there, so it didn’t take long for them to find it!
The size difference between these two was just too adorable. They look like they could be father and offspring! That’s Stinky, though, and he’s neutered, so they’re probably half-siblings, instead.
This evening, I did take recordings for the September garden tour video. I started and restarted several times before I could get into it, just because my head space was still messed up from the visit with my mother. I don’t know why it’s bothering me so much today, but I’ve been finding myself on the verge of tears repeatedly, since I left her place.
On another topic, Eyelet has settled in quite well at the foster’s. Meanwhile, I’m going to be meeting up with the woman who started the new rescue tomorrow afternoon. She has some cat food donations for us! That is so very appreciated. Plus, I’ll finally get to meet her in person!
For now, I should start editing the garden tour video. Hopefully, that will help my mood, somewhat. 🫤
We shall see.
The Re-Farmer
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The rain has stopped, and Eyelet is in being spoiled rotten!
Well, today’s schedule sure changed.
First, a quick update with the home care crazy from yesterday. The plan was, if the guy didn’t come back to do my mother’s bed time med assist, as he said he would, by 9pm, I would drive over to do it.
My mother called me at 8:50 (the actual scheduled time) so say, no one arrived. I wasn’t 100% sure she was scheduled for 8:50, and sometimes they come late, which is why I asked her to call me if no one showed up at 9. I asked her to wait a bit longer and if he still didn’t come, let me know and I’d go over.
My other told me to not bother. She would just take some Tylenol and go to bed. She would be okay.
*sigh*
I hated to do that, but I also really didn’t want to drive to her town, in the dark, in the rain.
This morning, after I did my rounds (it was still raining), I gave her a call.
In which I will pause to share the cuteness! The first picture was taken last night, the second this morning.
Seeing Colby on top of his sister like that is adorable!
She needs a name.
Anyhow… back to calling my mother!
My mother told me she’d had a great night.
Then started going on about how the Tylenol helped so much more than her medications did.
Red flag time! My mother has done this before. Basically, she’s convincing herself that the medications aren’t doing her any good, because she has these other problems. How can she be taking all these medications, but still feel have all these other things? This time, because Tylenol did such a great job with her pains, to her that meant it was working better than her medications.
I have explained this to her before, but I did it again. NONE of her medications are for pain. They are all for different things, and I mentioned a few of them. Unfortunately, I could hear in the tone of her response that she was basically not believing me.
It’s a good thing she gets home care med assists, or she would start skipping her meds regularly, or picking and choosing which ones to take. Again.
To distract, I then asked her about her grocery shopping. She said she was only out of milk and hadn’t started a list. She was in her night gown and didn’t feel like getting dressed. I told her, don’t bother getting dressed, and I’ll help with the list. She was quite happy with that arrangement!
Since I was going to be dropping Eyelet off in the early evening, I wanted to get to my mothers a little bit earlier than usual. Once there, I first focused on her meds. I found a pill organizer and took the meds out of her “orphan” bubbles; last night’s bed time meds and a Monday morning bubble that’s been carried over to new packs for a couple of months now. I made sure to write down which meds they were and tucked the note in one of the organizer spots and tucked the whole thing away. My mother has strict instructions to leave them, unless there’s an “emergency”. I also prepared her bed time meds for tonight – I brought another of the tiny tagine sauce bowls to keep them in – and set up another note with it, setting it aside with the note facing where my mother sits at her table.
That done, we started working on her shopping list. It was mostly her usual items, but we did remember to include things we’d forgotten last time, like the instant oatmeal that makes things so much easier for her. Some things were just “see what looks good” type stuff. When she gave me cash for the trip, she included a bit extra, asking me to keep an eye out for anything else I might spot and know she would like.
Which worked out well. I was able to get her extra fruit that she likes but normally wouldn’t get. Today, they happened to be on sale. Her favourite bread was on sale, so I got extra for her freezer. That sort of thing. As I put things away, I always go over what I got and what changes I made, and she was very happy with the selections. Before putting the milk carton in the fridge, I made sure to open it for her, and I’m glad I did. For some reason, every now and then, they just don’t want to open. If it’s difficult for me to open, that would make it almost impossible for my mother to open! I do wish her grocery store still had their 2L milk in jugs as well as cartons, as jugs are so much better for people with mobility issues in their hands.
That done, I made sure to give her floor a sweep before heading out. One of her neighbours that has a garden plot has been sharing their bounty of tomatoes by leaving them in the common room for anyone to take. My mother keeps taking some, even though she already has, and is supposed to avoid acidic foods like tomatoes. So she gave me an ice cream bucket full to take home! We still haven’t finished off the last bunch she gave us!
Once I was in the truck, I started messaging my family to let them know the status of things. Which is when I started getting messages from the woman I was to bring Eyelet to. She was wondering if I could bring him to a different address, as she’d forgotten she was supposed to go there after her work this evening. It wasn’t far from her own address, so that worked out okay.
We continued our conversation as I got home when she asked when I was planning to head out with Eyelet. I told her, but mentioned that I was flexible, now that I was done with my mother’s grocery shopping. She asked if I could bring him in right away. The new address is for a foster that already had a room ready for him and was home.
!!!
I was back on the road with Eyelet within 10 minutes. My daughter went looking for him as I got a carrier prepared. Finding him was easy. He was napping in the sun room.
He did not appreciate being awakened, then stuck into a carrier!
I grabbed a donated carrier that is triangle shaped and opens on one side, which makes it easy to take cats in and out. It is, however, not our largest carrier.
Eyelet was not happy!
So not happy, he stress pooped in the carrier during the drive out.
*sigh*
He went back and forth between trying to claw his way out of the carrier, to just lying down calmly, and back again, which meant he got messy in the process.
When I got to the address and the woman came out to greet me, I made sure to let her know! I then followed her in to Eyelet’s new home for the next few days.
What a set up! An entire little bedroom, all to himself, with several beds, including one at a window, a cat tree, toys and, of course, a litter pan and food and water. He was enough of a mess that she brought a cloth to wipe him off a bit before taking him out of the carrier.
Dude was not impressed!
He did, however, start purring as soon as she touched him! He was very open to pets in general.
I’ve since gotten an update that he has settled into his new digs very well. I’m not at all surprised. The set up is pure luxury compared to the yard cat life!
The best part is that this was all done well before I was originally scheduled to deliver Eyelet. It even stopped raining shortly after I got home.
It was an awesome rain, too. Almost 24 hours of constant rain. Nothing too heavy, either. The sort of rain we could have used so much of over the summer!
Meanwhile, my brother came out today. I didn’t even realize he was here until I left for my mother’s and saw his car. He’s been busy preparing their trailer for the winter, including driving it out to where the tanks can be emptied. When I got back from delivering Eyelet, he was able to come over and tell me what he’d been able to do for my mother’s car. There’s still more to be done, but it can wait. The priority was to deal with that tire that keeps going flat. He just used the spray stuff in it, then made sure to drive it around, and even put it up on a jack to just spin the tire, so it wouldn’t cure in a puddle inside the tire.
Tomorrow afternoon, he and I will be going to my mother’s tomorrow, and her car is one of the main things she wants to talk about. She says she wants him to get it all fixed up, and that she would pay for it, so that we have a second vehicle, and one that she can get in and out of. It might be better off to sell it, or maybe trade it in for a newer vehicle. My brother is in a better position to make recommendations on that than I am.
So we’ll see how that works out.
Weather wise, next week is looking to be warmer again, and dry. That will be when we seriously need to get the sun room cleaned out. That requires basically emptying it, so we can wash the concrete floor. The cat cage can’t fit through the door without being dismantled, so the room has to be done one half at a time. It’s going to be a big, messy job. I’m going to have to stop storing most of my tools and garden supplies in there. The cats, skunks and raccoons get into it all and make such a mess – and make messes on top of things!
With the rain, I’ve made little additional progress in cleaning up the garden, but tomorrow is the 21st, which is when I’ve been typically doing my garden tour videos. It also happens to be the first day of our new average frost date range. Instead of one day, they now have a range of days. Which isn’t how an average works, but whatever. They now say our average first frost days is between Sept 21 and 30, from the previous Sept. 10. Of course, this year, we had two frosts before Sept. 10! Well, it’ll be another 30 years before they do the math again. I’m still sticking with Sept. 10, when I work out when to do things in the garden, and what the length of our growing season is. It was 99 days before. Now it’s supposedly 125-150 days, since the last frost date has changed, too.
Yeah… I don’t think so. Not a chance, where we are.
Gosh, though… having a 125 day growing season would be amazing. 150 days would be heavenly! There’s so much more we could grow with a season that long!
Ah, well. A girl can dream but, in the end, we have to deal with what we’ve got in our local climate, not what a map of averages says.
Time for me to head outside for my evening rounds before it gets dark, and see examples of that along the way!
The Re-Farmer
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Morning in the garden, and some afternoon progress
It was a very pleasant morning today. I’m liking the cooler temperatures, even though I’ve also decided it’s been cool enough to keep the winter squash covered by plastic during the day. With the bits of rain we’ve been getting, I had some concern they would dry out, but I can see plenty of condensation inside the plastic, so they’re definitely not drying out.
I’m finding what’s left in the garden to be rather remarkable. The pumpkin vines, for example, aren’t just still blooming after all that frost damage, but are growing healthy looking new leaves. Except the one that has a pumpkin hanging in a sling on the trellis. That one seems completely dead, but the pumpkin is still slowly yellowing, so we’re leaving it for now.
Five vines. One pumpkin. *sigh*
Then there are the sunflowers. Especially that one stalk with all the extra seed heads on it.
There’s the one seed had at the top that has barely any outside petals, but the little ones along the stalk are opening right up! I don’t know how well they’ll do, given how late in the season it is, even if we do end up with a long and mild fall (which I don’t expect). There are hardly any pollinators right now. Between the wildfire smoke all summer, and then the early frosts, followed by a heat wave, and now cooler temperatures again, it’s just not been a good summer for the pollinators are much as for the garden.
The next two photos are of the blooming memorial asters, with more buds developing. I’m hoping the weather holds out long enough that they can develop seeds for me to collect.
The last photo, photo bombed by Sir Robin, is of our very first White Scallop squash female flower.
Yes, I hand pollinated it, though I really don’t know why I bothered. We’re past the middle of September. The chances of any of these squash developing is very, very low!
Morning rounds done, I headed in for breakfast, and was soon back out again. We’re expecting rain this evening, through to tomorrow, and there were a couple of things I wanted to get cleaned up while I could. One was the burn barrel area. We have several recycling bins for aluminum, which we take to the scrap yard once there’s enough to fill the box of the truck, one for stuff for the burn barrel, one for general recycling at the dump and one last one for glass to take to the dump, as glass has it’s own bin there.
The burn barrel bags would get taken out to where we would normally burn them. The barrel itself, which was here when we moved in and already in rough shape, basically fell apart, long ago. Instead, we set up a metal ring I found in the spruce grove, so we have a burn ring, instead.
The problem is, we haven’t been able to actually burn anything for a long time. Usually because there’s too much wind. Lately, it’s been because of burn bans. So the bags have been accumulating to the point that I’ve just started taking a few to the dump after loading up with household garbage and recycling. Most of the bags, however, have gotten torn up. Not from animals; there’s nothing in the bags to attract them. I’d say, mostly from the wind. The rain has also soaked a lot of it. It’s gotten to be a real mess.
To today I headed out with some garbage bag it up. A few bags were still intact, but most of it had to be completely re-bagged. It’s a good thing we’ve got heavy duty garbage bags, because a lot of it was very wet, so it didn’t take long to make the bags quite heavy, for the amount in them. So now, it’s all looking much better, though there’s still quite a few bags out there! They are next to the branch pile that needs to be burned, as that’s where I’ve been tossing diseased branches and garden plants. Unfortunately, my brother didn’t know that, so when he trimmed branches for their trailer to fit through, he put them on the same pile. At that point, I’ve just started to do the same. Plus, there are some sections of maple set near the pile that were too big for my brother to throw on top, and I’ve been making a point of keeping maple wood for the fire pit.
The fire pit we haven’t used this year, at all, yet!
That done, I then started working on the last bags of cans against the garage. We’ve had to stop storing the bags there, as the cats kept tearing them up. Most of our aluminum is from cat food cans, and they can smell it. My daughter and I had cleaned most of it up and we now have all the bags in the basement, taking up space. The only bags left were from a while back that have metal mixed in by mistake.
So today, I got bags set up for the aluminum and the not-aluminum and started sorting. I got through two torn up bags before it started to rain. Just a light rain, but enough that I called it and will work on the last bag another time.
What I did manage to do before heading in was finally deal with the mesh covers on the garden bed against the chain link fence. This is the one that was winter sown with tall and climbing things, mostly, but was a complete failure. The mesh was to protect the bed from the Chinese Elm seeds, which would have worked just fine, except for the cats. They would play on top of the mesh, or get under it, only to not be able to find their way out again, panic, and bounce of the inside of the mesh until the finally reached an opening.
Needless to say, nothing in that bed survives. Except some Jebousek lettuce, which I allowed to go to seed and have already collected their seeds.
I had already pulled the netting with their wire supports up and set them on the stump bench. Today, I got the wires out so that I could fold up the mesh to put away for the winter.
I had help.
I stretched out and folded one section, turned around and there they were! Eyelet, Grommet and The Grink, claiming the rest of them as beds. 😄
In that picture and the next one, you can see just how bent up the wire supports got. Some might be salvageable, but others might be just too twisted. I wouldn’t use them again for this, anyhow. They would have been fine if all they needed to do was keep the seeds off the garden bed, but they just couldn’t hold the weight of playing kittens! The channels in the mesh that the wire ran through might be large enough for the Pexx pipe hoops I now have. Maybe. It would be a tight fit, but I’d prefer that over loose.
The kittens were not all “helpful” though. Each section of netting has a drawstring at the ends, with a sliding cord lock bead to hold it closed.
The Grink discovered one. Started playing with it. Got startled. Tried to run off with the bead in her mouth.
The next thing I know, she’s running down the patch, a section of netting dragging behind her, catching on the wire supports and dragging them along!
She finally let go at the end of the path, having dragged almost a dozen of the wire supports down the path with her!
Definitely not helping!
While the wire supports may or may not be salvageable, the netting is just fine. For a Dollarama purchase, these are really good. I still have one package, unopened. If I can find something better to slide through the channels to support them, they would work to keep kittens off as well as elm seeds!
Since it was still raining a bit, I headed inside once the mesh and wires were added to the sorting pile at the bench near the garden shed. The rain and stopped and started a few times since I came in. If the weather radar is accurate, it’s going to rain steadily from now on until tomorrow evening, so I guess that’s it for outside stuff. I’d hoped to get a few more small things done before the rain. Ah, well. It won’t go away.
The dump is open tomorrow, so I might make that trip, but we don’t have much of anything to take to the dump right now, unless I want to grab what I bagged up by the burn barrel today. The main thing is that we’ll be taking Eyelet to the new rescue. He’s a bit young to be neutered still, but he’ll be getting that and all the usual vetting before he’s put up for adoption. The main thing is that he will be indoors and at less risk of becoming coyote chow, since he can’t hear.
Some lucky person out there is going to get themselves a stunningly beautiful and sweet little cat!
Speaking of cats, time to get the kibble out!
The Re-Farmer
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Winding down, and great yard cat news!
Today started off wet and rainy. A rain that was not in the forecast, nor even on the weather radar, which showed clear skies when I checked. We’re looking at more rain starting tomorrow evening, through to Saturday, but given their track record, I’m not going to assume anything. 😄
Things were quiet overall, today. There was not much I could do outside while it was wet, and I didn’t want to start some projects when we had to go to town in the afternoon.
My husband and I had joint dental appointments. Mine was a quick one. The dentist tried to track down why I sometimes get the pain I do when chewing in one area, but could find nothing. I did get a tiny cavity filled, and was done quickly. The same dentist then worked on my husband, who had a cracked tooth. Thankfully repairable. That too a while longer, but what a relief for him! Thank God for his insurance, though. It covers 90%, and our 10$ for the two visits cost just over $120. This clinic is really great about the insurance thing, too. Our last visit was still messed up somehow and they had to resubmit. In the end, they got us to sign the papers again so they could submit all over again, at the same time as today’s work. Today’s work got processed just fine, other than the insurance company suddenly saying my birth date didn’t match what they had on file (???), so the receptionist ended up calling them directly. With the bill from last time, she saw that we were covered 90%, so she just charged us for the 10% even though it would take some time before the insurance company’s side got processed. We’ve had similar issues in the past and we’ve been told to just go without paying, and they mailed us the bill when the problem was cleared up. Much appreciated, that’s for sure!
Thankfully, we don’t need to come back for any more work.
After I dropped my husband off at home, I left immediately to get to a feed store before they closed to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble. We were almost out again. It’s getting cooler, so the cats are eating more. I counted “only” 12 adult cats this afternoon, including one that had disappeared for a while. We had three white with grey kittens last year that looked very much alike. Magda was socialized enough to get fixed. Frank, with the distinctive blue eyes, was standoffish enough that we didn’t know she was a she until she got pregnant. The third one, we never named. Well, Magda is among those that have disappeared over the summer, and so did the unnamed one. It’s the unnamed one that is back. He’s looking much more burly now, and looks like he’s got some sort of relatively fresh wound by his ear, but we can’t get close enough to check him out. Perhaps we’ll see Magda again, too, before winter arrives.
Once I was back and settled in, I reached out to a rescue that just recently opened officially and is working in our area. With the Cat Lady stepping away from rescue, we have to find help somewhere!
I’ve been spending much of the evening, messaging with first one person, then group messaging with the woman who started the rescue. I very briefly explained our situation, making sure to say we weren’t looking to have cats go into foster, since I knew they were still looking for more people to do it. We need help with spays, neuters and adoptions. I mentioned we have a colony, plus that we’ve got cats inside that were brought in usually due to injury, like getting a leg amputated. With the outside cats, I made a point of mentioning Eyelet, because he’s deaf and his chances of survival are much lower.
Well, long story short, they’re going to take Eyelet.
On Saturday! (Today is Thursday).
Saturday evening, I’ll be delivering him to one of the neighbouring towns. The woman who started the new rescue is taking him herself, and he will go through all the usual vetting before being adopted out.
With those eyes, I would expect him to be adopted quickly!
We’ll be in more contact over time. Their website is still under construction, but they have places to post pictures of cats ready for adoption. I’ll have some paperwork for the adoptables, and I’ve also mentioned that we’re going to have to start trapping to get more spayed.
I’ve been talking to the Cat Lady about it at the same time. She’s glad that they’re willing to help, but she made sure to say not to mention her name. She knows one of them from when she was working with the big rescue that tried to adopt two of our kittens into the home of what turned out to be a hoarder, several provinces away. That was the final straw for the Cat Lady, she went independent and found more suitable homes for them within our own province. They weren’t part of that, but unfortunately, it seems the rescue community has a lot of issues. As happy as she is that this rescue started, and that the people are gung ho about it, she says she’ll be surprised if they are still around in five years. Things are just that tough these days. She hopes she’s wrong, of course!
The main thing for us is, Eyelet will soon be off to get adopted, and we will be getting help with spays and neuters and vaccinations. Honestly, though, I’m less concerned about vaccinations then to get them fixed and treated for ear mites. I just assume they all have ear mites.
What I hope to do, though, is start getting some of the inside cats adopted out. Having so many cats in the house is not good for anyone.
So that is the good news for today! Hopefully, there will be more to come.
The Re-Farmer
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Morning flowers and absorbed into the crèche
This morning, I woke up to the sound of rain. Lovely rain!
There was absolutely nothing in my weather apps calling for rain. Even the weather radar showed nothing.
I was glad to have it as we got very little rain yesterday. Before my trip into town to pick up prescriptions, I helped my daughter gather garden and yard tools to the bench under the canopy tent, and she spent several hours cleaning, sharpening, removing rust an otherwise tending to them. The job’s not done, as some things need repairs as well, and others just took a really long time, so this is a multi-day project.
The good thing is that she was set up under the canopy. I headed out later on and, while I was in the garage, it started to pour.
No, we were not expecting rain.
Then it stopped as abruptly as it started.
Then it started again, with another downpour.
This happened a few times, on and off like a tap, but in the end we didn’t actually get much rain. Even this morning, after whatever rain we were getting when I woke up, I found the level in the rain barrel had hardly moved.
The garden – what’s left of it – still appreciated it.
The pumpkins, which look so dead, are still popping out massive flowers. So are the winter squash, though not anywhere near as big.
In the next photo are three of the stem sunflower seed heads that exploded open yesterday. They’re looking a lot better developed and healthier than the main one at the top!
That first aster that bloomed, in the next photo, was looking so pretty with the rain drops on its petals. The buds on plants next to it look like they will be a very light colour.
One of the things about working outside – at least when the grass is dry – is that we have certain cats that like to follow us around. There is one kitten, a white with grey tabby spots, from the deluge of younger kittens that showed up weeks ago that loves to follow us around. The problem is, he is absolutely tiny. Though he is weeks older, Frank’s litter that she moved into the cat cage, which are the youngest of them all, are the same size as him. I often find myself picking him up and carrying him around, just because he’s so tiny, I fear he can’t keep up. He loves being carried, though, and loves attention.
One of the things I’ve started to do is put him into the cat cage with Frank’s litter. Sometimes, just to keep him out from underfoot to I can do things. Sometimes, so he can help himself to the bowl of cat soup we put in there and not have to fight through larger cats and kittens. Usually, he leave the cat cage right away, though.
He’s also one of the kittens that makes a dash through the door when I come out with their food in the mornings! I really have to watch my step as I go through, so as not to step on him or any of the other cats in the swirling horde. This morning, it was my older daughter who was available to help me get through the doors, then herd the kittens out again. This tiny one being the most determined to stay inside!
We had to wash the eyes of two of Frank’s kittens again. One always gets two eyes stuck shut, but that doesn’t stop him from finding his way out of the cat cage and to the food trays (we have confirmed that all three of Frank’s kittens are male). The other has one eye that sticks shut. Once the eye washing was done, I had a chance to tuck the little adventurer into the cat cage to enjoy the kitten soup. There was a fluffy little tabby already in there, sitting in the litter box. Not using it. Just sitting in it. 😄 I was happy to see the tiny white and tabby kitten start eating the kitten soup.
From there I did my rounds, checked on the garden, and all the usual things.
When I came through the sun room to go inside, I spotted a cuddle puddle in the cat cage.
With an extra head peeking out.
The white and tabby was right in there with the other three.
Before I could get a picture, Frank jumped in.
In this picture, you can see her three milling about. You can’t see the white and tabby, because he’s underneath her.
Nursing!
She has accepted him as one of her own! I’m happy to see this because the crèche mothers all have older kittens and are pretty much done with nursing. Slick is the only one we regularly see nursing her kittens, but they’re all out by the shrine feeding station near the junk pile, where the litter lives. The sun room kittens tend not to go there at all, so the little one isn’t there to be included.
I’ll be honest in that I don’t think this little one is going to make it. He’s active and eating and playful and friendly, but he’s just not growing. I’m hoping that with Frank allowing him to nurse, he will get stronger and better able to fight off whatever is going on with him.
I am very glad to see him snuggling with kittens his own size, too. I’ve never seen him with other kittens in a way that would suggest they are litter mates. He seems to be on his own. Perhaps his siblings are among those we had to bury. It makes me happy that Frank has accepted him as her own.
Oh, before I forget, I just have to share this picture from yesterday evening.
So adorable!
Also, so glad I’ve got those protective collars around the luffa! 😄
In other things…
Today and the next few days are supposed to be a bit cooler, though the overnight lows are still supposed to be warm enough that I shouldn’t need to cover any of the garden beds at night. Hopefully, that means we can get some more stuff done outside today. We shall see how it works out!
The Re-Farmer
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Fast little grublings, and … possible help?
I just have to start with this adorableness.
Frank’s kittens have gotten big enough and active enough to get in and out of the cat cage.
There are two of them.
My daughter’s t-shirt is appropriate. It reads “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” It’s actually an old design by her sister.
With so many kittens figuring out where the food comes from in the morning, it’s getting really difficult to get into the sun room from the old kitchen, while holding the kibble bowl, going through two doors, trying not to step on any kittens and trying to stop them from running into the old kitchen. There’s one kitten in particular that is so incredibly tiny, and so determined to get underfoot! He loves to be picked up and help, but hasn’t learned to stay away from feet!
So my daughter has been joining me to help with the doors, catching kittens as they try to run inside and then, once I’ve distracted cat enough by filling the kibble trays in the sun room and starting to do the ones outside, put a bowl of kitten soup into the cat cage. So far, the littles have just sniffed at it, but their mama can at least enjoy her own special treat when she comes in to nurse them.
My daughter has also been able to help with eye washing. One of the kittens she’s holding in the photo had one eye stuck shut, and we’d just finished washing it. Aside from the occaisional stickiness, Frank’s kittens are looking really strong and healthy. More so than some of the older littes!
Today turned out to be another day of going to my mother’s place. I almost forgot that it was arranged for me to pick up her bubble packs at the pharmacy. The pharmacy opens at noon on Sundays in her town, and I knew someone was going to be bringing her communion after church, so I was shooting to get to her place closer to 1pm. Since I was there anyhow, I made sure to pick up the Tylenol and kitchen garbage bags I hadn’t been able to get at her grocery shopping trips. I figured she probably forgot that I was supposed to pick up her medications today, so I called her before I left the pharmacy, but got her answering machine. When I got there, she was in the common room, enjoying the view out the window, and was very surprised to see me!
Even though we talked about it before, my mother was a bit ticked off that her got her refills so “early”. She had the equivalent of 8 days left in her lock box, and she still has the mindset of not getting refills until the last minute. They make up their bubble packs on Saturdays only, and I had told her I talked to the pharmacist to push her refills back a week so there would be less chance of her running out before they make the next refills. I don’t think she remembered the conversation, but that’s okay.
I remembered her telling me that my sister hadn’t taken out her garbage yet, because she was out of garbage bags, so I took care of that – and found that she did still have a few garbage bags left. The box was hidden behind the garbage can. 😄
My mother was very happy that I’d picked up more Tylenol for her. That was something she was almost out of.
After I came back from taking out her garbage, my mother started getting some cash out to pay me back for her stuff. Which reminded her of something she had meant to talk to me about.
The next while was very confusing, as she first started asking me about if the front door had been replaced yet, and how much it was going to cost. Then she started talking about her car, and “using that” to pay for it. Now, the last time she talked about her car, it was to tell me to go ahead and sell it. At first, I thought she was suggesting we get her car fixed up to sell and use the funds to pay for the door, except she wasn’t talking about the door anymore. I did get a chance to tell her my brother had checked the car out and tried to explain what he’d found, but she wasn’t interested and got annoyed that I was telling her this, even as she was telling me she wanted my brother to get the car fixed.
After much confusing and questioning, I finally got the straight of what she was wanting. She wants my brother and I to sit down with her and talk about the car and her money that she has in a tax free savings account. She wants my brother, with his Power of Attorney, to use that to get her car fixed up and running, because I need two vehicles, and she can’t get into my truck anymore. When I told her, now that we have truck payments, we can’t afford to pay the insurance on two vehicles anymore, she said she would pay for the insurance. She then started saying some other things and…
I’m not going to count on this, because of her history on such promises in the past, but I think she was offering to cover the cost of getting the new door installed. Considering we’ve had to go into debt to pay for it, on top of the truck repairs we had to do (having to replace the front tires, the MAF sensor issues, etc), that would be a huge help for us. Her comment was, the money is just sitting there, may as well use it.
!!!
Once I finally understood what she was trying to tell me – half the time, she talked as if I could read her mind, or she thought she’d already told me some things – I told her I would pass that on to my brother. She insisted, no talking this out on the phone or messaging or whatever. She wants us to both be at her place, in person. Which is the slower way to do it, but I do understand why she wants that.
She also insisted that we not be in a hurry to leave, but to spend time with her. The only problem with that is, her idea of being “in a hurry to leave” can change pretty dramatically at times! I’ve been at her place for hours and, when I finally had to leave, she accused me of being in a rush, etc. Other times, I’ve been at her place for less than an hour and she’s all but kicked me out, because she was done with company! 😄
Like today. I asked my mother if there was anything else she needed help with, and offered to make lunch for her, but she said she was fine, then told me I could leave, now. 😄 I think I was there for maybe 15 minutes. Twenty, at most.
Once I was done, I had to make a side trip. I’d used my card to pay for my mother’s stuff and she paid me back in cash. Our bank that we have our main accounts in used to have a branch in my mother’s town, but it was closed some months ago, so I can no longer use a bank machine to deposit the cash. The nearest branch of our bank is now much further away, so I decided to go to the town nearer to us where there’s a bank I have my own personal banking in. I’ve had an account there since I was in my teens and just never closed it when we moved and moved and moved again. I could deposit the cash there, then do e-transfers to pay off what I used on my card.
I had just reached town and was slowing down for a stop sign when something strange happened.
The check engine light started blinking.
It didn’t just turn on. It was blinking. I’ve never seen that happen before.
Then it went away.
So now, after all the weird stuff we’ve had going on with it, I’m absolutely paranoid about the truck.
My brother and I had been talking about selling my mother’s car, as she originally wanted us to do. The truth is, we really do need a second vehicle, and that sudden blinking light on the dash just reminded me of why.
Tomorrow, I need to remember to hook up the OBDII scanner and see if it picks up anything of concern. I’m also due for an oil change within another 1000km, so that will give the guys at the garage a chance to check it out.
I’ve already passed on the message to my brother and we’ll be visiting my mother together next Sunday. We can work things out if my mother backs out on helping us again, but if she follows through with it, and my brother is made responsible for taking care of things, the help would be much appreciated. So we’ll see how that goes!
At least she no longer rants at me about how the house was perfect, everything was perfect, when we moved in to take care of it for her, so why are there all these things that we need to fix? It took a few years, but now she’ll say things like “nothing lasts forever”. 😄
The Re-Farmer
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Sudden changes in plans, and morning photos
First, a follow up from yesterday. It took many hours, but the debilitating pain that had set into my left hip during the night did recede. I found myself able to walk normally again – not even a limp! – but my hip still feels very… unstable.
Which turned out to be a good thing, because my evening plans changed completely.
Yesterday evening, after a very warm day, I took advantage of being able to walk again, headed out and watered what’s left of the garden. I was back inside and settled down with my supper when I saw there was a message on the answering machine.
From home care.
The message told me they had a last minute cancellation and there was no one to do my mother’s evening med assist (they are just a few hours apart and typically done by the same home care aide). I was, however, assured that Saturday and Sunday were covered.
I got the message about an hour after it was left, since I was outside when the call came – and about 15 minutes away from when my mother’s supper assists are scheduled this cycle.
It takes about half an hour to get to her place, even if I just grab and go. I did quickly call my mother to let her know I was on my way, got my husband to tuck my supper into the oven, and headed out.
When I got there, my mother did try to do her usual snarky comments about, have they hired me yet? and the usual giving me a hard time for covering for home care again. I’ve still been in a dark place in the last while and I just told her, please don’t. I’m not in the mood for it. She paused a moment, then said, neither am I.
She did, however, have a good day. My sister had come out on her day off. Being a Friday, it was my mother’s scheduled turn for the laundry room, so my sister took care of that for her, as well as doing her dishes and light housework. It was much appreciated.
I helped my mother settle in with her supper to take her supper meds with, so I could then get her bed time meds ready, and she asked if I wanted a piece of her birthday cheesecake that I got for her. She had just a couple of pieces left, and had already had one with my sister. I agreed, and it gave me a chance to ask my mother about when she wanted me to do her grocery shopping.
It turned out she was already working on her list. I asked if she wanted me to come back tomorrow (which would have been today), and she said she had an appointment with her hair dresser – someone who comes to her apartment to cut her hair, which is really nice! – in the afternoon. As we were going back and forth I suggested, I could just do it right then. That way, I wouldn’t have to come back over the weekend. My mother was surprised by this, as she thought the grocery store closed much earlier. It was too close to closing for the pharmacy, though, so that got skipped. She only needed one thing there, anyhow, and not urgently.
So I did her grocery shopping and got everything put away. As we were chatting, she asked how I was and I mentioned I was out of sorts and explained a little bit about why. My mother had heard of the assassination but, of course, she only heard it from the TV news – “that guy from the states?” – and Canadian news has been lying about Charlie Kirk at every turn. Especially the CBC. So I told her who he really was. None of which was talked about on the TV.
I don’t think it’s possible to hate the mainstream media enough. I’ve had plenty of personal experience as to how dishonest and manipulative they are, over the span of decades, yet it still surprises me, just how bad they can be.
I didn’t stay too long, though, and was soon back home and having my supper. Then I noticed a notification on my cell phone.
I had a voice mail message.
My cell phone never rang.
After fussing with it for a bit, I realized the Wi-Fi calling had been turned off again – my phone keeps doing that on its own, and I don’t know why. I wasn’t able to get the message because there wasn’t enough signal. I couldn’t even go through the process of getting the wi-fi calling set up again, which required once again confirming my identity. I ended up having to go outside and wander around the yard, trying to find a strong enough data signal, to finally get it set up. Only then could I finally listen to the message.
It was home care.
The scheduler was very apologetic, but there was another cancellation. There was no one to do my mother’s morning med assist for today.
*sigh*
We were already planning to do a dump run, then a trip to a Walmart, and now I had to go to my mother’s again. The timing for it worked out, but it did mean almost another hour extra of driving.
So I called my mother again, thankfully getting her before she went to bed, and let her know I’d be back in the morning. She was not impressed. None of us are. My husband is getting right ticked off. He even went online to try and find somewhere to complain. What he did find were some forums with many, many other people in the same home care region we are in, having to deal with the same problem.
With the time scheduled for my mother’s morning med assist in mind, I managed to get to bed early and, happily, I did not have a repeat of what happened to my hip the night before. I still don’t know what triggered it in the first place!
I did my morning rounds early. There isn’t much to do in the garden, so things are done faster these days.
I did have to get a picture of that one Hopi Black Dye sunflower again.
Every day, more and more of it is actually developing seeds and they’re starting to bloom! I’m still amazed it survived the frosts.
In the next picture, you can see a huge cluster of tree mushrooms I found. I’d heard a cat commotion by the collapsing log building by the fire pit and checked to see what it was. It turned out to be The Grink, chasing after Sprout’s little calico (Sprout, once again, is AWOL). It was way up in a tree next to the log building. I did get The Grink away enough that the little one was able to get down.
Speaking of little ones…
Frank is such a good mama! And her littles are getting used to being handled. The one kitten who’s eyes have been getting stuck shut seems to be past the worst of it. No eye washing needed today!
The next photo is of, I think, one of Slick’s little tabbies. It was enjoying the cat bed in the catio that we moved over to lure the garage kittens to the house. They’re not using the catio since we moved it, but the littles are enjoying it! The garage kittens still seem to be using the garage as “home base”, but I am seeing them near the house a lot more often now.
Last night, I was hearing that we were supposed to have a dense fog this morning. It wasn’t too close around the property as I was doing my rounds.
Then I started driving to my mother’s.
I had to pull over at one point, just to take pictures, about a mile from home. When I was driving between the trees, there wasn’t much, but as soon as I cleared the trees and reached fields, it was like driving through a wall!
Keep in mind with the above photos, that the camera “cleans up” the shots, so the fog was actually denser than it appears in the photos.
Very moody.
Also, by the time I was heading out, the sun was fully up and we had bright sunshine!
Once I got onto the highway, it was even thicker, to the point that I had to reduce speed due to lack of visibility. I did eventually catch up to a shadow that turned out to be a car. Then we’d go through a section of highway bordered by trees, and the fog would disappear and we could see just fine. Then we’d enter a section surrounded by fields, and it would be like driving into a wall of fog.
Then… it was gone. Such a stark delineation!
When I got to my mother’s she was really struggling. She was still in bed and really didn’t want to get up. I can’t blame her! She’s had a sleepless night, too.
Yesterday’s grocery shopping trip had missed a few things. Particularly milk. It wasn’t on her list and I’d considered getting some anyway, but my mother has specifically said she had milk. I figured my sister had brought her some. It turned out my mother was thinking she had enough to last until I came to do her grocery shopping… on Sunday.
The day she told me she didn’t want to have her grocery shopping done on anymore…
She was so out of sorts, though, one minute saying she needed milk, then asking me to check and see if she needed milk (she did), and not to get this other thing that got missed, or maybe something else or…
I finally told her to just enjoy her breakfast, and I would get her some milk. The rest could wait.
Then, as I was heading out the door, I hear “and apples!”
😄
So that was a short shopping trip.
That done, I headed home where my daughter had things ready to start loading up the truck for the dump run. When we got to the pit, we were happy to see that they had finally cleared the wall of garbage at the pit edge. There was room to turn again!
Once we were finished there, we continued on, first making a stop at a gas station in town, along the way. The price there was still $1.409, whereas in my mother’s town, it was $1.419 With all the extra driving, I was down to a quarter tank. I really try to avoid letting it get below half. I asked for $50 in gas, and it didn’t even get me to 3/4 of a tank. By the time we reached the Walmart, I was at half a tank again.
*sigh*
I had a short shopping list for myself – mostly more cat food – while my daughter had a list for herself and her sister. She couldn’t find everything on it, though, so we decided to go to a regular grocery store further on. As we were driving to it, we passed an independent gas station.
The price on their sign was $1.349
After we finished at the grocery store (my daughter still had trouble finding one item!), I made a point of stopping at that gas station again and added another $30.
The price on the pump was $1.299
That $30 sure went a lot further!
From there, we could finally head home, unload, and finally settle in. Today was originally supposed to be just a dump run day, and instead I was out for most of it.
It’s been hotter today than yesterday, and it just now starting to cool down for the evening, so I’ll be heading out to water things again before bed. The next three days are supposed to be as hot, or hotter, than today, so still no need to cover garden beds yet. After that, the temperatures are supposed to drop quite a bit. Enough that I will probably keep the winter squash bed covered both day and night. I’m still amazed that was have any squash developing at all, so I want to give them every change to mature!
Getting outside and being productive has also been good for my overall mood, too, so the more of that, the better.
The Re-Farmer
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Morning kittens and too much pain
First, some cuteness that is actually from last night. I went out to do my evening rounds before it got dark when I spotted this before I opened the door.
Adam and Slick were both nursing babies on the sidewalk. Two mamas, seven kittens. Slick has a litter of five, but they’re not all there. I think only one, possibly two, are there. I don’t know how many kittens Adam has, but I’m thinking around four. Being a créche mama, I have no idea which are actually hers. She is content to nurse any kitten. I’m pretty sure at least one of those kittens belongs to a much more feral mama that I’ve seen nursing a kitten in the sun room, once or twice.
I wonder if my evening walk has anything to do with how things turned out?
It’s just hit 9:30am as I start this, and it’s already been a very rough day.
I was awakened this morning by pain. Something’s gone wrong with my left hip. Maybe a slept in it wrong or something, I don’t know. I tried using Voltaren on it and took an extra anti-inflammatory and tried to get back to bed. There was no position I could lie in that alleviated the pain. When I finally tried to sit up, after about an hour or more, I could barely move. I couldn’t lie down. I couldn’t sit. I couldn’t stand. Moving hurt in one way. Not moving hurt in another.
I finally managed to get up and get moving, hoping that if I walked around, it would help, as it often does when my joints stiffen.
I can’t say that it worked.
Getting dressed was a challenge. Just try and put on pants or socks while sitting down, but not being able to bend over far.
We have a cane with feet on it, so it can stand on its own, and I had to use that while feeding the indoor cats for the morning.
That done, I went into the old kitchen to start on the outside cat food. In the mornings, I still mix up a can of wet cat food with ground pumpkin seed and water to make a “cat soup”, then mix it into the dry kibble and leave it to soften. I couldn’t use a cane while feeding the cats their softened kibble, so I was hobbling around on my own.
I did spot an adorable surprise.
Yes!!! In the first photo, that’s the smokey garage kitten we’ve been trying to lure closer to the house, at the feeding station on the well cap! This is between the house and the kibble house. She even was at the doorway to the sunroom when I first came out of the old kitchen!
It was around this time that the girls realized I was having issues, and they came out to give me a hand. My older daughter got my husband’s walker out for me, and I used that to continue my morning rounds. It’s heavy duty enough that it can handle the rough terrain in the main garden area.
I took my time doing my usual checks, stopping to sit on the walker along the way. It almost wasn’t worth taking the break. The act of sitting down and then standing up was the most painful.
When I came around to the house, I found my younger filling the water bowls, and she came to join me. As I was wheeling around the portable greenhouse to return through the sun room, we spotted the kittens inside. There was a fluffy grey tabby snuggled up against the protective collar around the bigger luffa – that explains why I keep having to shift the collar back in position! There was a tiny white and grey on the ground next to the other luffa’s pot, and Colby was pretty posing on top of the heat sink’s cover.
One of these days, I hope to get an accurate head count on the smaller kittens. They run and hide way too much!
As for me, it’s been about half an hour and I think my hip is feeling a bit better. My daughter made a breakfast for me that would protect my stomach from taking another anti-inflammatory (I’m still taking far less than “allowed” with them), and she was able to get some Voltaren over places I have difficulty reaching on my hip and lower back.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to accomplish much outside, today!
*sigh*
The Re-Farmer
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Morning kittens
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
The Re-Farmer 