I could see that the deer have been visiting our yard for a while now. The flowers on one side of the vehicle gate into the yard have lost all their tops. The winter sown garden bed in the east yard had its lettuces eaten, and then some of the radish plants and seed pods.
In the main garden area, they’ve been walking past the pea trellises and helping themselves to the greens. I’ve still been finding posts along the trellis wire but the outsides of the plants have been pretty decimated.
What really disappointment me, however, was the plum tree. It was growing so well, and growing taller than the protective tomato supports I’d set around it.
The top of it was stripped of its leaves, this morning.
I am so unhappy with this. Thankfully, they just ate the leaves and not the stem, but still… that’s a huge set back for the tree.
The other new plantings were untouched. They also are nowhere near large enough to outgrow their protective supports.
While at the Dollarama today, I was going to get more of the same tomato supports and just add a new one on top of the old one, to make a sort of tower.
Then I went looking at their display of garden stakes, where I found much taller versions of the same things.
I got two.
It was all I could do not to pick up a whole bunch more garden stakes.
Aside from the height, the new supports are pretty much the same as the old ones. They just needed three sets of cross pieces instead of two. I put the two sets together and set them around the plum tree. Then I used the cross pieces from the smaller set and put them in alternating spaces at two levels, to discourage deer from sticking their heads through.
Last of all, I set a couple of pinwheels at the top, facing in different ways to catch the wind from different directions.
I had another pair of pinwheels and set those up at each end of the pea trellis. I had also picked up a couple of lawn decorations with solar powered lights in them that I added to one end. I’m hoping the lights will discourage the deer, too. Finally, I got a wind chime we’ve had set aside for quite a long time, and hung that off part of the red noodle bean trellis, where it could hang freely. I didn’t bother taking a picture of that. This wind chime is made of bamboo hanging from half a coconut, with a wooden clapper in the middle. I much prefer the sound of wooden wind chimes over all metal ones.
Of course, the pinwheels and wind chimes won’t do a thing, if there’s no breeze to move them. At least the new frame around the plum tree with do that job.
By the time I was done setting all that up, the heat and smoke from the wildfires was starting to get to me, and I had to get back inside. I still need to water the garden, but it’s not supposed to start cooling down for at least another hour. We aren’t exacting rain for a couple of days and even then, who knows if any of it will actually reach us, or go right past.
I am so tired. I’m falling asleep at my keyboard as I write this. I’m glad we made it in to the city to take care of things, but it just sucks the energy right out of me.
It’s just about 7pm as I finish this, and I could go to bed for the night right now!
That orange and white one, Colby, will come SO close when I’m putting the food out, but won’t quite let me touch him! The little tortie is the shiest of the bunch. Still can’t get near the mama, though she will sometimes come to the house for food.
Pinky, the garage kitten mama, always come to the house at feeding time, leaving her kittens in the garage. She does NOT like any of the other cats, and is quite aggressive towards them. If they come to the garage, she will chase them off. I did move their food tray closer to the the door between the middle and the side where the back door is, and have been seeing both kittens. I saw the white and grey one outside the garage, near the back door, this morning. Hopefully, that means they will soon make the trek across the yard and discover the wonders of regular food, water, shelter, toys and other kittens to play with.
The dump opened at 10 today, so I didn’t want to do anything that needed more time. I watered the garden beds last night, so they were okay for the morning. I’ll need to water them again, this evening.
My younger daughter’s desktop – currently the oldest in the household – has been dying, and she’s been looking online for a new one. She settled on one at Best By, but they would not accept any version of our mailing address. Not the physical address, no postal boxes, not even the physical address of the store the post office is in. No shipping company alternative that services our area. Nothing.
Oh, and they won’t ship to one of their own physical stores, either.
Their methods of contacting someone through the website were useless, so my daughter hoped to be able to talk to someone at an actual store about it.
That meant a trip to the city. There was a brick and mortar location near a Walmart we go to during are monthly stock up trips, so that worked out.
After loading up the truck with a couple of weeks of garbage, we headed out. When we got to the entry to the pit, my daughter got out and walked ahead of me. The area in front of the pit hasn’t been cleared since the last time I was there, 2 weeks ago, and it was bad, then! My daughter made sure there was nothing that could puncture our tires so I could drive in, stopping me when she reached and area of shattered glass. I did have room to back up towards the pit, at least. Well. To the pile of garbage and what looked like the remains of a small, busted up shed, in front of the pit.
I don’t understand why no one has gotten the front end loader to push all this into the pit. The custodian can’t do it; she’s a senior with mobility issues, so that’s not part of her job, but arranging it to be done should be part of her job! Unless council, for some reason, is refusing to get someone to do it? I don’t know, but it’s getting really bad in there.
That done, our next stop was the post office. The post office itself is closed today (Saturday), but my MI Gardener order of seeds is in, and I thought it might be in the mail box.
It wasn’t.
In fact, there were three parcel slips in there. I was only expecting one package. I’ll have to come back on Monday, when the post office opens again, and see what’s there!
That’s what I get for not going to the post office, after getting our truck back.
After picking up what mail we were able to, it was off to the city.
The first stop was in a mall with a tiny Best Buy shop in it.
My daughter explained her situation to the guy there, and it was clear she was not the first person he’s talked about this. He knew the answer right away.
Basically, there is no way to get something as large as a desktop computer purchased from their website delivered to a PO box, nor with they deliver to a physical address as far out as we live. Including the store the post office is in.
We’re just too far from the city. He did acknowledge that they lose a lot of sales because of this.
Apparently, it comes down to security and theft. They can’t assure that a large package delivered to a rural area won’t get stolen, so they just don’t do it anymore.
It makes me wonder just how often things had been disappearing for them to go that far!
Their own stores, however, will cannot accept personal orders for pick up, either.
The only alternative, other than buying a computer somewhere else, is to find someone in the city that was can get it mailed to, then pick it up ourselves later.
We have a few options on that, with the best one being my brother and his wife.
By the time we were done talking to the guy, it was about 1, and the only food we’d had were a couple of cheese buns I picked up at a gas station, along with a couple of energy drinks, for the drive in.
The cheese buns were from a bakery in the town north of us, and they were awesome.
So we went to the food court for lunch. As we were eating, I messaged my brother, asking if we could have something shipped to their place. It turns out they have a lock box for deliveries, so they don’t get left on the front step. The problem is, delivery companies and Canada Post mostly ignore the delivery instructions and just leave things at their door, in full view. However, with Canada Post, they might also just leave a card for pick up at the nearest post office. If necessary, my brother also has the option to work from home on the day something is supposed to be delivered.
They were good with it, though, so that was a relief for my daughter!
After lunch (I packed more than half of mine up to finish at home, the portions were so large!), I popped into the Dollarama to look some stuff for the garden – that will be in a separate post – before we finally headed to the Walmart.
I am not bothering posting a picture this time. We had a lot of bulky stuff, so the cart was full, even though we didn’t actually get a lot.
We got more cat food; a couple of 32 packs of canned cat food – we made a very large dent in our supply when we ran out of dry kibble and the inside cats were getting wet cat food only, until I was able to use my brother’s car to pick some kibble up. Then never drive it again, because of the brakes issue. I’d run out of canned cat food for the kitten soup outside, and have been taking from the inside cat supply, too.
We still have feed store kibble for the outside cats, but I got two more 9kg bags of kibble. One for the inside cats, one as a spare.
The cat food alone was about $120.
Then we got toilet paper and paper towels, which we’ve also been going through faster than usual this month.
Then it was three loaves of rye bread, two 18 packs of eggs, a small jar of mayo, three cheeses (gouda, Havarti and Old Cheddar), and a package of hoagie-type sausages. At my husband’s request, we also got some Crystal Light water flavours and a couple of large bags of pretzels. Oh, and we got 6 cans of Monster; two each for me and my daughters, and a jug of orange juice for my daughters. I did remember to get insect repellant, so we got a 2 pack of that. For the drive home, we got a couple of cold drinks.
All of that, plus $5 to the Red Cross, came out to $322.83 after taxes.
*sigh*
That done, we headed home, stopping to put in $40 in gas before leaving the city, as the prices were a bit cheaper there.
Once home and unloaded, I had to feed the outside cats to get all the kittens away from the truck, so we could move it away from the house again! By that time, it was late enough that they were being fed only a little bit early.
It was also supper time, so I have me leftover lunch, then headed outside to make use of my Dollarama purchases. I’ll be doing the watering, once things have cooled down a bit more.
Okay, I definitely over did it yesterday. Which happens a lot faster these days, then it used to!
I was preemptive on things, though. Before going to bed, along with my usual painkillers, I made sure to treat all the usual muscle groups that I’ve had Charlie horse issues with, with Tei Fu lotion. Just in case.
Once outside this morning, I did my usual rounds, starting with feeding the kitties. Including these hungry little wildlings.
I didn’t see the garage kittens until much later, and not both at the same time, but they are there, and getting their own bowl of kitten food. I should start moving the bowl closer to the back door, to encourage them to go into the yard and discover all the amenities, awaiting them!
I should have watered the garden this morning, but my body was giving me a great big FU on the subject. I did manage to get a tiny little harvest, though.
Just a few Spoon tomatoes. In the next photo, there’s a few sugar snap peas, the Spoon tomatoes, a few tiny little strawberries from the old kitchen garden and some raspberries. I was able to leave a bowl full of berries and tiny bowl with the Spoon tomatoes for my husband, as a morning treat when he woke up.
Once back inside, I pain killered up and went back to bed for a few hours.
Being old and broken really sucks sometimes – and I’m still almost the most able bodied person in the household! Both girls are feeling better, though, hence the “almost”. My younger daughter still has to watch herself with the wrist, and has been doing mild recovery exercises. I heard her talking with her sister today, marveling at how much better her wrist feels, even with the remaining pain and discomfort from the surgery, without Squidly wrapped around the bones. She’s so happy to have been able to get that done!
On a completely different note, thanks to some assistance from my older daughter, I was able to pay the deposit for getting the main door and frame replaced. We had 30 days to accept the estimate. After that, we’d have to get a new estimate and, with the way prices are going up, the cost would likely increase if that happened. I’m okay with them taking a while to get the job done, though. That’ll give us time to raised the balance without having to use more debt. *sigh* It needs to be done, though. It’s not like we can go a winter with nothing but a storm door there!
Ah, well. It is what it is. We’ll manage. We always do!
It’s been a long day! I didn’t have to go anywhere, and the weather was good, so I finally got some progress outside.
First, the cuteness!
The mama and her secret babies seem to be good with my coming into the garage and leaving food for them. No attempt to move them again. I guess actually picking up the smokey kitten was just too much for the mom.
Still, seeing both kittens at the same time – and eating with Mom – is pretty rare!
In the next photo of the slideshow above, we have full belly babies, enjoying the morning sun on my late fathers old car. I’m pretty sure this is two litters, but they behave like one.
I’ve been checking on the garlic while doing my rounds and they will be ready to harvest soon. With that in mind, I finally opened up the canopy tent I bought on clearance last fall and set it up.
I have to admit; for a cheap canopy tent, it came with the highest quality pegs I’ve ever seen with any kit we’ve bought before!
Usually, they’re skimpy pegs that easily bend. I’m quite glad for the high quality ones, because with a couple of the legs, I had quite a time finding a spot where I could actually put the peg through without hitting something.
The tent was packed in a cardboard box inside the case. After I got everything out and starting working on the tent, the cats discovered it.
They were having so much fun with it, I left it there for them when it was time to clean up.
That done, my next project was to finally start on the new wattle weave bed in the old kitchen garden.
Which took all day, and is nowhere near finished, but I’ll get into that in my next post!
It’s so hard to get pictures of those eyes, but I think I managed to capture their colour pretty well. They are SO white!
Eyelet kept trying to follow me down the driveway, which is not good, since I’m 99% sure he’s stone deaf. You can’t tell to watch him running around and playing, but I’ve gone past him with a lawn mower while we was sleeping and he didn’t wake up, so that’s a pretty sure sign!
These two kittens are the bravest of the four secret kitties – and the location of their “nest” in the outer yard is still very much a secret. Sprout is a good mama, but I do wish she would learn to accept us humans. When I got closer, she hissed at me and hid deeper in the tall grass. The white and grey ran off and hid. The orange on, however, started to run off, then came back. He’s getting curious enough that I think we might be able to touch him, fairly soon.
Sprout, meanwhile, just glared at me through the grass! 😄
As soon as I could hear a car coming down the road, I tucked Eyelet into the isolation shelter (which is open) and dashed to the gate before any cats or kittens could follow me! I did see Pinky’s two kittens in the garage, but they ran off before I could do more than confirm I was seeing both of them.
The drive to my mother’s town was a good time for catching up. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.
I did, however, have to interrupt the conversation to ask her about the noise her car was making. She thought it might have something to do with a recall on her vehicle model, but she didn’t know for sure. She needed to get it checked but didn’t want to go to the dealership in the city she bought it from, because it turned out, they suck.
When we got to the garage, I paid my bill – $56 and change, after taxes, including 12¢ for the C clip he used to fix the break in the linkage. I asked about the part he’d ordered, and he confirmed that they had sent him the wrong one for some reason. Frustrating, but their mistake saved me about $300, and the truck is working fine.
Then, since we were there, my friend asked about her car. He asked some specific questions about the noise, then asked if she was okay to go for a drive. So while I got set up in the truck and put back a few things I’d made sure to take out before leaving it for the tow truck, they went for a run. The mechanic did the driving. Later on, my friend laughed while saying it was a good thing there were no police around at the time! He was wanting to see if it was the wheel bearings, as the sound should change while swerving.
The sound didn’t change.
She was really happy with him, though, and booked an appointment with him for next week. I happen to not have anything scheduled on that day, so she’ll be coming over to here, first, to pick me up. We’ll go for breakfast somewhere nearby, then visit with my mother.
Which is what we did after we were done at the garage. Well; breakfast for her, lunch for me. We had a great time catching up before heading over to my mother’s.
I didn’t call ahead to my mother that we were coming by. Normally, my mother doesn’t like surprise visits like that, but I knew she would be happy with this one. She has always liked my friend, back from when we first got to know each other in junior high. Even back then, she called my mother “mom”, just like I called her mother, “mom”. When my mother nearly killed herself causing an accident, years ago, my friend happened to be there to witness it, and took care of my mother afterwards. If it weren’t for that, we would have never found out what happened that day, since my mother basically lied about some of the details, and left lots of information out.
My mother was thrilled with the surprise visit. She was also just as tickled to be called “Mom” by my friend, still, after all these years.
I had showed the pictures I took of Eyelet this morning to both my friend and my mother. My friend has a one cat right now. She was telling me I needed to come visit her and meet her cat, and I joked about bringing Eyelet along.
Long story short, after her car is done at the garage next week and she drives me home, I will grab Eyelet and follow her to her place in the truck for a visit. We will see how Eyelet and her cat get along. If they get along, she might adopt Eyelet! She does know he is probably deaf. I do want to make sure she knows he’s probably got ear mites and worms, and has never had vet care. At least I’ve seen him use a litter box in the sun room, though, so he’ll figure that out rather fast.
Once done at my mother, we parted ways.
I’m now rather glad my sister wasn’t available to drive me today. It was so good to catch up with my friend, while getting the truck back. She has a very eclectic work schedule, so even for her to have today available at all was serendipitous. It worked out for her, too, since she is now going to get her own vehicle looked at with a mechanic/garage owner she really likes – unlike the dealership garage in the city she’s been having issues with!
It’s late enough now that I won’t be starting any projects outside, and will just do my evening rounds after feeding the outside cats. Right now, other than a potential grocery shopping trip for my mother, I have 4 days of pleasant weather to get work done outside. Finally! I have two large projects I’ve had to set aside for now, partly due to being pulled away for other things, and partly because I had to give my left arm time to heal from my fall. It is still bothering me, but at least I can do more with it. If it’s still a problem when I see my doctor at our rescheduled time next week, I’ll request X-rays. It’s been quite some time, and it really shouldn’t still be hurting like it does.
Oh, speaking of medical stuff, my daughter just came by to show me her wrist. The surgical bandage could finally come off today and, my goodness, the incision is healing quite nicely! Oddly, it looked so small while the bandage was on, but now that the bandage is off, it seems larger, somehow. They definitely needed space to evict Squidly.
So that is where we are at now. The truck is back and working, we might have Eyelet adopted out, and plans to spend time with my old friend again next week.
Havarti does NOT like to be picked up or carried, but gosh, he loves pets!
He also loves wrestling with grommet.
After the heat we’ve been having, daytime highs are finally getting to be more reasonable, but last night?
We dropped to 7C/45F last night. Lower than was in the forecast.
We’re expected to drop that low again tonight, though some apps say to expect a low of 9C/48F which means we might actually be hitting lower, the way the forecasts have been off lately.
Yes, we’re still in July.
Not quite cold enough to cover things, but pretty darn close. Overnight lows are expected to warm up again after tonight, but not by much.
As if the garden isn’t have a hard enough time as it is. My squash and melons still haven’t recovered from that one cold night back in June.
They do like the grass clipping mulch around the winter squash!
This morning, I tried to get some images of the feral kittens at the shrine feeding station. One seems to be missing from view. No idea if it was just behind something, or hadn’t made it to the feeding station yet.
Several of the older cats tend to push the littles away from the cat soup, even though they’ve already had dried kibble. I don’t make a lot of it, since it’s supposed to be just for the kittens, but there’s no stopping the adults from getting at it. All I can do is spread it around as much as possible, so everyone gets at least a little bit.
I have one more quick share for you – an inside cat this time!
I need to get ready to go now. I found a ride to pick up the truck! Yay! We’ll have transportation again! Plus, I get to spend time with an old friend. 🩷 That’s about as good as it gets. 😊
I was definitely wiped out yesterday. I went to bed before 8am and, other than a few cat related disturbances, slept until 6am.
Some time yesterday evening, it started to rain, and was still raining when I went out to feed the kitties. Nothing major; just a gentle, constant rainfall. It was enough to finally refill the rain barrel by the sunroom, though, and I had to add the diverter!
Sprout’s feral babies (and she seems to have all four of them now; I don’t see the other mama around as much) are getting braver. Now that we’ve got kibble again, I’m back to setting out the dry kibble first, then distributing the bowls of kitten soup. As I was going back to the shrine feeding station, I spotted the tortie, loafed in the upper level of the isolation shelter! She ran off when I got too close, but that she was there at all, and just chillin’, is progress.
They were very happy when the kitten soup bowl arrived.
Even Sprout is starting to go in there more often. You can see her in the second image above, with Colby on top of one of the box nests behind her.
I took some kitten soup to the bowl in the garage, just in case the secret kitties were still around. This side of the garage is where we store the lawn equipment, and is accessible only through the main doors. A hole was dug under the door, I believe originally by skunks, so the cats could also get in and out with the doors closed. My brother tried to cover up the hole with a sheet of metal when he stored their big mower in there, but it got dug out again beside it, before we knew there were kittens in there!
After I was able to pick up and hold one of the babies, the mama moved them, and I feared she took them to the barn or one of the sheds in the outer yard. I was still leaving food in where they were before, just in case.
This morning, after putting the food bowl in, I spotted the mama coming up through the garage. The middle is where we park our vehicle, and where my brother’s vehicle he loaned us is currently parked. It has a doorway to the other lean-to side of the garage, and the back door is beside that, so it’s not unusual to see cats cutting through the garage from the yard through there.
She went to eat while I continued on to switching out the gate cam memory card. When I came back, I saw the mom going around into the middle of the garage, making calling noises, while doing to a back corner of the garage. Currently, there is a wrapped and stacked pile of summer tires from the van we no longer have, sort of blocking the space into the corner, between a built in counter shelf on one wall, and a storage shelf on the other.
On a hunch, I moved the food bowl into that part of the garage, and left it in front of the shelf near that corner.
Walking by a few minutes later, I spotted the mama sharing food with her white and grey kitten, which you can see in the last photo above. I didn’t see the smokey one, but it would be in there, somewhere.
The mama had simply moved her kittens to the other side of a wall.
I am so glad she didn’t take them far!
Now, we just have to convince them to come to the shelters in the inner yard.
I was going to simply say “the morning,” until I realized it’s not even 10am yet. 😄
We had the crock pot going all night, making food for the outside cats. I was up early to take the bones out and finish making the “cat soup”, so it had more time to cool down at least a bit before it was time to feed the kitties.
They really miss their kibble! Even the inside cats. You’d think they would find having all wet cat food would be a real treat for a change, but no. They keep begging for kibble!
I’ve heard from my brother this morning. They’ll be able to go into the nearest town to switch the insurance, so we can drive their vehicle legally. That’ll take a couple of hours so, once I get the word, I’ll be making a trip to pick up kibble. Which is good, because we’re almost out of the meaty bones we’ve been using to make the cat soup base for the outside cats. Doing this has certainly made more room in the chest freezer!
The yard cats still seem a bit perplexed about the cat soup they’ve been getting. They’re eating it, but they don’t prefer it. Except the really feral ones. The ferals will scarf down anything.
I did leave a bowl of food in the garage for the secret kitties, just in case. I have no idea where the mama moved then, but she still comes back to the garage – that’s her “home”, it seems – and I’m hoping her kittens are old enough to come out on their own and go back to a familiar place. Or, better yet, discover the inner yard, and all the things in there for the kitties.
I did see three of the four other feral kittens this morning. Colby is definitely the bravest of the bunch.
I love that first picture! I caught him in a yawn (just guessing he’s a he, because gingers are more likely to be male). He watched me from the tree and let me come pretty close. Later, I saw him going into the isolation shelter, where there was still some food left in the bowls in there.
I was able to get a surprisingly good picture of his torie sister. I had to zoom in from quite a distance.
I might have seen the white and grey, but I’m not sure. We have several really small adult white and greys, and this kitten is almost as big as they are. When they’re running around all over, it can be very hard to tell who I’m looking at.
After the kitties were fed, I did my morning rounds. I did not need to do any watering today, so they didn’t take too long. I did pick some sugar snap peas this morning, but it wasn’t really enough even for a day’s meal.
So I ate them for breakfast.
I thought there would be raspberries to harvest, but not really. There are lots of red berries, but they’re not “ripe”. Between the heat and the lack of rain, the berries don’t have a lot of moisture in them, so they aren’t letting go when I try to pick them, unless they’re almost over ripe. I’ve been trying to water the patch when I can, but it would need me to set up a sprinkler for an hour, every few days, to make up for the lack of rain this year. So I’ve been snacking on a few raspberries in the morning, but there really isn’t enough to do an actual harvest.
While checking on the eggplants, looking for flowers, I found this.
Give the location, I would guess it is a Black Cherry tomato, as that’s what was growing here, last year. No chance of it reaching maturity, this late in the season, but I’ll leave it be. If the eggplant seems to be covering it too much, I might transplant it to where it can get more light, but that’s about it.
I did find some eggplant flowers, on another plant.
They were set back quite a bit by that one cold night last month, so it’s good to see them recovering. Hard to say if they still have enough season to produce eggplants to full maturity, though. If we get a long and mild fall, they might have a chance.
Before heading inside, I did one last harvest of rhubarb. I’ve been leaving them without harvesting for quite a while, giving them plenty of time to recover from the previous harvest. After today, they will be left to recover and store their energy to survive the winter.
I trimmed the leaves and ends outside and took advantage of their huge leaves, using them as a mulch around where my daughter’s surviving double daffodils are trying to grow. Just one cluster has emerged, and they’re not doing well. We certainly won’t be getting any flowers from them this year, but if they can last long enough, hopefully their bulbs will have enough energy stored to grow and bloom next year.
Once the rhubarb was trimmed outside, they got a thorough washing inside before being cut up.
I wasn’t able to water the garden last night – I was just too burned out and went to bed early. It was going to be hotter again today, so I wanted to make sure it was done this morning, including the walnut trees and Korean pine, in the outer yard.
To water those, I drag the hose out as far as it can go, then grab a couple of watering cans. I keep those by the rain barrel against the house, filled with water, so they don’t blow away. Since they’re already full, I use that water on the first two saplings.
The last time I did this, something was clogging the water, and it turned out to be a frog in the watering can. So when the first watering can started clogging again, I figured it was another frog!
I took the rose off just in time to see a little frog face duck back into the spout. 😂
I poured it out and found the lovely green friend.
It seems that once a frog gets into the watering can, it can’t get out – but it can go up into the spout, above the water line, so it won’t drown, either.
When I was done and put the watering cans back, I refilled them – then removed the rose. If a frog gets into one of them again, it’ll be able to get out through the spout.
When feeding the yard cats this morning, I have been making sure to bring a bowl of food to the garage, where the secret kittens are. I never saw the kittens, though I did see the mama coming up the driveway from across the road, at the time. After the watering was done, I went to retrieve the bowl for this evening’s feeding. I peeked through the open door first, of course, and didn’t see anything, so I went right in.
A white and grey kitten suddenly bolted from my brother’s big mower, and hit under the stuff in the corner where their “nest” is.
Then I saw the mama, starting at me in alarm.
She had been curled up with her babies, nursing them, on the comfortable seat of the mower! The seat has a back to it, plus arm rests, so they were completely hidden from view from behind.
The mother was acting really nervous, but she did let me come closer. I reached my hand out and she sniffed my fingers, and allowed me to pet her for a bit before she ran off.
My goal was really just to touch the kitten, and give it a chance to learn my scent. It hissed at me, but not very enthusiastically. It gave my fingers a sniff, and hissed again, but didn’t move.
I went for it.
I pet the kitty – and it let me!
I was even able to give it skitches on the neck and ears. It just looked at me, but didn’t try to get away.
I was leaning awkwardly across the mower, so I had to pull my arm back and shift positions. I got another light his, but the kitten still stayed.
It let me pet it again.
As I was petting it, I thought again; do I dare?
I dared.
I very gently scooped the kitten closer to me on the seat, so I could pick it up.
It let me.
I was able to hold and snuggle the baby for a couple of minutes!
This kitten is a solid baby. All dens muscle! Even its fur is thicksome.
We have another kitten with blue, blue eyes!
After holding it for a while, I didn’t want to push it too far, so I gently put it back on the mower seat, then took the bowl and headed back. I am so amazed that I was able to pick it up at all! I would have been happy if I only managed to get it to sniff my fingers without running away!
Hopefully, I will soon be able to touch the other kitten, too – and bring them to the house, where they will have access to food, water and comfortable beds, and other kittens to play with.
This baby is an absolute stunner.
I don’t know where the mamas find them, but we’ve got some gorgeous genetics showing up in our colony!
It was just at one end of the bed in the east yard, and there’s still plenty left. What I ended up doing is gathering pretty much the last of my support stakes to create a carrier around three sides. Hopefully, it will be enough of a deterrent.
This morning, I “stole” kibble from the inside cats and made a big bowl of cat soup for the outside cats. There isn’t enough kibble to do that again. There’s plenty of wet cat food for the inside cats, but not enough for the outside cats, too, other than what I had already been using to make kitten soup on top of the dry kibble feedings.
I made sure to leave a bowl of food in the side of the garage where the kittens are, leaving one of the doors open. This would be their first taste of anything besides what their mama has been bringing – and she’s been acting very hungry when she comes to the house by herself. I did see the kittens run and hide but that was it.
My plan was to head to the feed store, using my brother’s vehicle, when they opened at 9am. I found their website and they’re open for short hours on Saturdays and closed on Sundays.
Thankfully, my brother messaged me, first.
I thought they’d gone into town yesterday about the insurance on their old vehicle stored here, but it turns out they ran out of time because they stopped to help me with the broken down truck, instead. They checked the insurance this morning, and saw they had only storage insurance on it. It can’t be legally driven.
The public insurance company wouldn’t let them change the insurance online or over the phone. They would have to come in, in person.
They are at a campsite with their son and grandsons right now, and the nearest insurance place is closed on Saturdays.
After much searching to find another location that was open today, the nearest one turned out to be over 2 hours drive away. Which meant at least 6 hours to do the drive, switch the insurance, then drive back again.
No. Not going to happen.
My brother was so apologetic!
I assured him, the only thing we needed was dry cat food, and we’ve got wet cat food we can use for now.
We are, however, completely stuck at home, with no transportation.
The feed store website said they could do deliveries, though. So I called them up and left a message, saying what I needed and asking if they could deliver to where we are.
Because they were on short hours today, I tried again about an hour later, and left another message.
They never called back.
So, no kibble delivery.
After looking at our options, we got some meaty soup bones out of the freezer and started those going, boiling the bones for a couple of hours, then putting the meaty bits back into the stock. I ended up making a very modified cat soup, thickened with a bit of rice, using the immersion blender to make the meaty chunks smaller, plus adding and a couple of cans of regular cat food. I even tossed the bones out for them to pick at, and for the raccoons to chew on, later in the night.
When I set that out, the cats were… confused. They would eat it, but not for long. They seemed to like it, but maybe not like it, but they did like it? But not… 😄
The more socialized cats, that is.
The more feral cats inhaled it. I ended up moving a tray I’d put on the cat house roof that was being ignored, under the shrine for the feral kittens, because they’d already finished off what I’d put there earlier. I wanted to make sure there was enough for the two shier ones. I also put a bowl in the garage again.
When I went to check on the bowl I’d left in the garage, it was already empty, and the mama was licking it clean.
I did my evening rounds, then came back to retrieve the bowl.
The mama, Pinky – a grey tabby with white, and a very pink nose – is one that has let me pet her at times. While I was in the garage, she was acting totally feral, but wasn’t quite ready to run off and abandon her babies.
The babies ran into the stuff in the corner, but did come out to take a look at me.
I thought the one was looking very Siamese, but maybe not? From the red glow in the picture (no, the flash did not go off), I’m thinking it might have eyes like Ghosty. That fur colour is soooo interesting! It gets darker towards the tail, and the tail is almost black.
When I had the chance, I messaged the Cat Lady, who is out of town right now. She’s mentioned to me that she only makes her own cat food now – and that’s for a LOT of inside cats – so I asked her for her recipe. I’ve tried looking up recipes, especially for “costs less than store bought!” recipes.
Yeah… no.
Not only did they tend use expensive meats, like rabbit, but they all included supplements that would require a trip to a health food store, and are also very expensive. Yet these recipes all claim to be cheaper than store bought cat food?
It turns out the Cat Lady just uses chicken drumsticks. That’s it.
She had less than flattering things to say about the online recipes.
The only exception is The Wolfman, who is allergic to poultry. He gets a salmon fillet a day, plus some herring dry kibble.
Oh, the tragedy… 😄😂
We actually do have a big family pack of drumsticks in the freezer right now, but we won’t use that unless we absolutely have to. We can use a meaty bone broth as a base, along with some leftover cooked meats and other suitable ingredients.
To make things easier for tomorrow, we’ll put more bones in the crock pot overnight, for the morning cat soup.
There were, of course, all the other usual things that need to be done, but by the time I was doing my evening rounds and seeing that the garden needed to be watered, in spite of rain we got early this afternoon, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do it. The last few days have drained me completely, and I’m burning out.
The worst of it is, I’m the most able bodied person in the household right now.
My younger daughter is still limited in what she can do while her wrist heals. She does as much as she can, though. Her sister, however, is down with PCOS related… issues, shall we say… She can’t lift, bend or stretch in any way at the moment, without unfortunate consequences.
My husband, of course, is pushing it just to go from his room to the kitchen or to the bathroom.
Thank God my daughter was able to get us all that early birthday take out food before we lost use of the truck! All we’ve had to do for the past couple of days is just reheat leftovers.
Still, I can feel myself giving out. I’ve tried to rest as much as I can, taking naps when I get the chance, but there’s just been too many things in too short a time.
I need to slow down and pace myself, but there’s so much that needs to get done. Thankfully, the temperatures will continue to be more reasonable for the next while, so at least I’ll be able to have some progress with the outside projects I’m falling behind on, little by little. We just have to watch for the smoke. We’re still under air quality warnings, and it’s still pretty bad. Everything is under a haze of smoke right now.
Little by little, it’ll get done.
I just wish it wasn’t quite so little, some times!
The Re-Farmer 