It seems, whenever the wheelbarrow or wagon are left out, I’m sure to find the oldest black and white catten in it.
Taking a nap.
I imagine this is a great shelter from the wind, while still being out in the sunlight!
The Re-Farmer
Nap Time
Critters
Last day
It’s 2C/36F as I write this. The projected high of the day is supposed to be 4C/39F. This will probably be the last day above 0C/32F for the year.
I counted possibly 31 cats this morning. Even the little bitty baby toodled out of the cats’ house to check things out, even though he could have stayed inside to eat. When I checked later on, he was back in his favourite corner by the window – and even played with me through the window, trying to “catch” my fingers as I moved them around against the glass. (Actually, I think it’s Lexan, not plexiglass.)
In the above picture, you can just see the scrap pieces of insulation I added yesterday, under the water bowls, and the kibble trays under the water bowl house.
With the temperatures, we’ve done as much as we can in the garden beds, so this morning I went around gathering any remaining tools to bring into the sun room, where they can be cleaned, oiled, sharpened, etc. at leisure. When things warmed up briefly, we brought the hoses back out so we could give the trees and bushes we planted this year, one last thorough watering. It’s not too cold to roll the hoses up again, so they’re going to be laid out in the maple grove. As long as the ends are open, they’ll be fine. There are just the hoses at the front of the house left. We have enough hoses now that we were able to use them from the front tap and still be able to reach every transplanted tree and bush, including the Korean Pine in the outer yard.
I brought the poles for the carport into the yard, and we’re going to try putting it together with one or both of the covers we found, and see if it’s something we can use somehow. I was able to use the snow and a broom to sort of clean off the cover that’s on the ground, since we never had the right conditions to hose it down.
I’m a bit frustrated with how little we got done this year. Yeah, we got progress with things like the wattle bed in the old kitchen garden, but there was so much that needed to be done, and it just didn’t happen. Half the beds never got weeded and mulched properly. We have trellis tunnels to build and I’d hoped to get that started this fall, but that didn’t happen at all. I wasn’t even able to cut down dead spruces that I wanted to use to build more high raised beds. We were also supposed to dismantle the shed with the collapsed roof, and hopefully salvage materials to build a chicken cook, and we got very little progress on that at all. This entire year felt like I was constantly behind on getting things done.
On another note, I heard from the cat lady yesterday evening. Cabbages is doing great, and so are the bitties!
We talked a bit about the lysine. She says it takes about 6 weeks for the results to be noticed. The first thing we’ll probably see is that their coats will start looking shinier and healthier. The coughing and sneezing should be reduced by then, too. A study done by a humane society she was working at at the time found the lysine resulted in an 80% reduction in respiratory issues. She has one cat that has continuous respiratory issues, and the lysine has saved her many vet visits.
I must say, this woman is amazing. She has a house full of cats right now that no one is willing to adopt because of health issues. She has one cat that was literally thrown onto the road by her house. Another was a rescue that had been dumped by a closed gas station in the winter. This is the one that needs continuous lysine treatment due to respiratory problems. When she found it, it was unconscious and frostbitten. It had to have its tail and a foot amputated, and lost its ear tips. Worse, there was evidence of substantial abuse, from a broken pelvis that didn’t heal right and can’t be fixed anymore, to cigarette burns, and even trachea damage. After he eats, they have to hold him up so the food will go down. The vet thinks that damage is from abuse, too. This cat is the worst case she’s ever seen. She and her amazing family are giving all these high needs cats their best life now. I’m just blown away. They are such awesome, amazing people. They’ve given up renovations on their house, to be able to give cats the medical care they need. And that’s on top of having her own health problems to deal with! I’m so glad to have connected with them.
The Re-Farmer
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The High Life
Ah, Nosencrantz… luxuriating…
… and making sure I don’t make my bed.
With other cats, I would just make my bed on top of them, and they’d either stay under the covers and nap, or slink their way out. I don’t want to do that to the Anxiety Bear, though. She gets way too stressed out!
Yeah. She still refuses to leave my bedroom/office.
The Re-Farmer
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First snow
Overnight, we got our first real snowfall. From what the live feed on the security camera showed, it looked like we had a storm, but it was just high winds blowing around a small amount of snow – just enough to cover the ground and stay.
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to reach a high around 5C/41F, so it should all by gone soon.
It made for a new adventure with the kittens! While I tried to do a head count, I found quite a few didn’t even bother coming out of the cats’ house, including the bitty baby. I do wish they wouldn’t knock the water bowl out of reach. I’d love to make it so that they could have water along with food in there.
I think I counted 29 in total, but I’m not completely sure.
When I was done my morning rounds, I checked on them again. I could see them balancing along the edges of the water bowls, and doing the cold toes dance at the food trays below. They don’t do that in the kibble house, thanks to the sheet of insulation under the floor.
The water levels were still low, so I heated up some more water to finish topping them up. I also raided the bin with scrap pieces of rigid insulation. There was one that just fit the length of the water shelter, and three water bowls could fit on that. Another piece went under the big heated water bowl that doesn’t work, next to the ramp. There’s an old crocheted blanket in the corner that used to be inside the cats’ house. I’d tossed it into there to get it out of the weather, then left it when I found the cats were using it. A couple more scrap pieces of insulation went against the walls in the corner, held in place by the blanket, for a bit more shelter. More pieces went under the kibble trays on the ground below. The trays will keep them from blowing away. I’d have added more, but at the time I didn’t have anything handy to weight them down without getting in the way of the cats.
Before I did all that, I had fixing to do. The tarp on the far side of the shed we’d covered had come completely loose from their nails, and some of the nails had even fallen out. No surprise, with the high winds we had last night. The only thing that kept the tarp from being blown off entirely was the weight from the length of PEX pipe that had been tied along the end! The only thing I had to improve the situation was a box of large cup hooks. After straightening out the tarp as best I could (it had bunched up along the pipe), I screwed in the hooks and tied the tarp down more thoroughly than before – I hope. It would be good to replace those with stronger eye hooks later but, to be honest, I don’t know how much good that would do. The cup hooks are not very strong and are likely to break if the winds are high enough, but the wood is so weakened with age that stronger hooks would get torn right out of the wood.
We really need new sheds to replace these old ones. Or one large building to replace them all, including the barn. One of those would probably cost less than multiple sheds.
Something else for the list, after we pick up our lotto winnings!
Oh. I suppose that would require buying a ticket, eh? 😉
It was about -5 or -6C (23 or 21F) at the time. Not particularly cold, but chilly to be in for as long as it took to get that tarp tied down again! Of course, I’m always fretting about the littlest kittens, so I made sure to check on them again.
Yeah… I think they’re good.
The Re-Farmer
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Chomp!
Plushy wasn’t playing around, either!
For some reason, she decided my hand was food on this particular morning. And I’d just fed them all, too!
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
The Re-Farmer
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Bitty Baby update, and… that’s a new one!
The bitty baby seems to have developed a bit of a routine. After I’ve put the kibble out, I check inside the entry to the cats’ house, and usually see the bitty at the kibble, with one or two other kittens. Then I do my rounds and when I come back, I’ve been finding the bitty here.
He’s come out for some water, and taking a break.
The poor thing’s eyes are so gooby right now. The inner eyelids no longer look red and inflamed, so they no longer look like they’re bleeding, but now the eyes tend to be more stuck shut. I’ll have to get the girls to go out later in the day and give the eyes a good cleaning.
I was able to pick it up for some cuddles. It definitely didn’t like being picked up, but doesn’t fight me off anymore, either. After some cuddles, I put it down inside the entry, where it’s warmer. We got a mix of snow and rain last night, and while doing my rounds I saw snow still on the ground in the more shaded areas.
He is so incredibly tiny for this time of year, but I had a reminder that this is not the first time we’ve had such tiny kittens so late in the year. In fact, we had one show up even later. I popped onto Facebook while uploading pictures, and got one of those “X years ago today” things. It was a video of Dah Boy, who moved out here with us from the city. We had two stray cats show up on our balcony, having climbed the fire escape stairs to peek at us through the living room window. They were starving, so we started putting food out. One of them had a collar, and both were very friendly, wanting human attention as much as food and water! Then one day, the collar was gone and we could see a sore around the neck; the cat had been on its own since a much younger age, and outgrown the collar. We were able to take them to a vet to check for microchips, but there were none – and the one with the collar turned out to be a pregnant female. We tried to make a nest for her using a carrier we had, but when she disappeared for a while, we figured she had her kittens somewhere else. Soon after, we were able to put a patio table on the balcony, over the carrier, with a vinyl table cloth covering the space. That turned out to be what she needed. Somehow, that mama managed to drag her one kitten from wherever she had her litter, up two flights of stairs and a landing in between, under the gate onto our balcony, and into the carrier.
What a mama!
We already had two cats – the limit for where we were living – but we got permission to bring the mama and baby in. It was November, after all, and there was no way that baby would survive the winter without help. He was even younger than our bitty baby is right now! Once he was old enough to wean, we were able to adopt the mother out. A year later, she showed up on our balcony again! Pregnant again, but that’s another story. In the end, we found ourselves with Mom and Son (over time, our other two cats passed away), and they moved out here with us.
Dah Boy is now eleven years old.
Wow.
Which gives me hope for the bitty baby.
The bitty might be just tolerating attention so far, but the fully socialized cats are something else. Especially Plushy! Once she decided humans were good for something, now she won’t leave us alone.
Also, apparently I’m a tree.
The three of them were fighting for real estate when Plushy decided to take that open spot on the top of my head! This is a first!
Also, apparently my face is delicious. All three of them kept trying to like my face. Especially my nose! It is a rather large nose, so I guess it’s just easy to reach. 😉
Well, it looks like we’ve reached our high of the day already. 3C/37F. I’d better head outside and get some of the more temperature dependant stuff done!
The Re-Farmer
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Quite a crowd!
Usually, I have one or two kittens follow me for my entire rounds.
Some mornings, however…
While you can see four in the photo, there were eight of them that followed me to the sign cams on this particular morning! I think that’s a record.
The Re-Farmer
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Generations
I tried to do another headcount while feeding the yard cats this morning, and got 29.
Then more adults showed up!
Speaking of adults…
Guess which one is the adult, and which is the teenager?
The smaller one on the left, caught in an adorable tongue blep, is the adult, Caramel – an obvious descendant of Beep Beep! The black and white is from the oldest litter that we discovered in the cats’ house, in late April!
They’re hard to tell apart, but here’s a photo taken on April 29.
These were Junk Pile’s first litter of the year, and she moved them out not long after. Thankfully, they all survived. These are Plushy, the tuxedo, the black and white, plus a grey tabby that will not let us near it.
Now these babies are almost adult size, and bigger than most of the adults! The black and white and the tuxedo are the burliest. They let us pet them every once in a while, too. Junk Pile went on to have a second litter of white and grey Shop Towel babies, younger than the ones Rosencrantz had.
Caramel was born just last year, and she had the latest litter of the year until the bitties showed up. It looks like there’s just two, or two that survived. They are very shy ones, but I do see them regularly now. One is a dark grey tabby, while the other looks even more like Beep Beep than her mother, with that distinctive orange splotch on her forehead. The truth is, I’ve never seen those two kittens with an adult, but I know Caramel had kittens somewhere around the collapsing log cabin and the old threshing machine, and that’s where those two kittens started showing up from. Now, they seem to have mostly moved in under the cats’ house. It must be pretty cozy under there, considering how many of the smaller cats I see under there. I’m hoping the scrap pieces of rigid insulation I slipped under there have helped make it even better. 😊
It was decidedly chilly out this morning, so of course I’m worried about the smaller kittens. Especially the bitty baby. I put kibble in the tray just inside the cat house entry and later saw it eating there – a long with two other kittens! When I was coming back from finishing my rounds, I saw it using the ramp to leave the water shelter, and I was able to pick it up for cuddles. It was shivering, the poor thing! I made sure to put it down inside the entry of the cat house. Just sticking my hand in to do that, I could feel a substantial difference in temperature!
I was glad to see it had come out for water but, at the same time, frustrated. I got one of those no-spill water bowls for inside the cat house, setting it on the tray just inside the entry. The tray may be jammed in nice and tight and isn’t moving, but the water bowl ended up knocked about and further into the cat house. That’s the second one that got knocked out of reach. I’d have to lift the roof to be able to get at it, and that’s just not something I want to do unless I have to. It’s very disruptive, and the shelter is old enough that there’s risk of breaking something. Which means the bitty has to leave the warmth of the shelter to get to water. Being the tiniest of the kittens, it’s far more at risk from the dropping temperatures.
I’m still holding out for a mild winter. The Farmer’s Almanac predicts that some areas will be bitterly cold this winter, while others will be much milder. Looking at their winter forecast map, we are – as usual! – basically at the border between the two areas, so if their forecast is accurate, we could go either way.
If it weren’t for the destruction caused by the racoons, I’d be leaving the doors to the sun room propped open overnight, so they’ve have even more shelter available to them!
I am such a suck, when it comes to the cats! 😂
The Re-Farmer
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I’ve been Mooned
By a snuggly Rolando Moon.
Rolando Moon seems to be hanging around more often, lately. I think she’s getting ready to stay with us for the winter again. She sometimes still likes to follow me around when I’m going my morning rounds.
What a sweet, badass old lady!
The Re-Farmer
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Making stock
I can’t help it. I feel like I’ve wasted a day. I got a stock going and tended it, off and on, for much of the day. While I didn’t have to be there constantly, I was checking on it often enough that I didn’t want to start anything that took too much of my focus or was too distracting. I ended up actually *gasp* watching TV, binge watching DS9 on Prime. I could use each the status bar on the episodes as my timer to go check the stove. Normally, I’d at least do something like crochet at the same time, but a summer in the garden has left my fingertips so rough, most yarns stick to them like Velrco, and I ended up pulling the loops right off the hook! 😆
Ah, well. I suppose it’s good to have a break every now and then.
One thing I discovered while sitting on the couch watching the show.
Fenrir missed me!
Before Butterscotch and Nosencrantz came indoors, she used to spend as much time as she could like this, while I was at my computer.
Which made it very difficult to type.
Unfortunately, Fenrir is one of the cats that will come in and immediately launch an attack at Nosencrantz if allowed in my room. Butterscotch, too, if she’s in view. I have no idea why she is so aggressive towards them. Especially Butterscotch. Butterscotch and Beep Beep took her in, along with their own kittens, when she showed up at our place as a kitten, our first summer here. Now, she will spend hours just outside my bedroom door, watching it and, if I’m not careful, she’ll teleport herself into my room as soon as the door opens, and attack Nosencrantz. She’s amazingly fast! Given the opportunity, however, she will climb onto me, curl up on my chest, and nap, as she did several times, today. She was not impressed by my frequently getting up to tend the stove. 😁
Our fridge freezer had quite a few bags of carcasses waiting, mostly from chickens, but also some turkey. I roasted them first, and they completely filled my roasting pan. There was enough that I used my giant stock pot, that I’ve also been using for water bath canning, to fit it all.
Into the pot went most of our remaining Uzbek Golden carrots.
I admit. I’m a coward.
I could have used at least a couple of Black Nebula carrots, too. That would have changed the colour significantly! But I decided that might not look too appetizing. 😂
Along with the carrots I added crushed garlic cloves, yellow and red onions – the little ones from our garden – plus celery. For seasonings, I added course salt, whole peppercorns, turmeric powder, dried thyme leaves and dried parsley, then covered it all with water. Later on, I added a generous splash of our crab apple cider vinegar, too.
After bringing it to a boil I let it simmer for about 7 hours adding more water to the pot part way through. After that, I used a hot pot soup strainer spoon that I find very handy, to take out as many of the bones and vegetables as I could, then a small sieve to strain out more, before finally ladling it through a fine mesh strainer into my other two stock pots.
The larger pot, with the measurements on the inside, shows a little under the 6 quart line. In total, I would say there’s about 10, maybe 11, quarts (11 to 12 1/2 litres).
For now, the pots are covered and cooling, as is the bowl of carcasses and vegetables. I’m debating what to do with it next. I could just pour it into freezer bags and freeze them, as is. Or I could cook it down to make a more concentrated stock. I’m kind of leaning towards cooking it down more. I’ll see how it looks in the morning.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 