Critters

We got three!

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Finally!

When my daughter came in after feeding the outside cats, she told me she was able to pet ALL SIX of the little kittens. They were too interested in cat soup to run away.

We ended up going outside together to see if we could get any. My daughter was able to use the “fishing lure” toy to get the braver kittens closer to me, next to a cat carrier. It took some doing, because Sweetie kept very enthusiastically going for the lure, bowling right over kittens in the process.

The two braver ones – the ones I’ve been able to touch before – came out to play. The tuxedo, first. Once it was close enough, I was able to scoop it up and into the largest carrier that can open from the top. A while longer, and we were able to get the tabby in as well. They were not happy, but they didn’t freak out, which was encouraging!

The other kittens were more interested in playing with each other on the junk pile side of the fence, so my daughter had me sit on the old tractor tire with a carrier next to me, staying still, while she tried to lure a kitten over. Sweetie was a real problem. Even when I got another fishing lure toy to use as a distraction, she wanted that fuzzy orange lure! A kitten started to go into the opening of the carrier, following the lure, and I was able to get it the rest of the way in and close the door.

We actually ended up releasing it. It was so panicked, we were afraid it would hurt itself and break off some teeth on the door.

I let the rescue chat group know right away. I knew people had been available earlier in the week, but nothing about the weekend – forgetting that it’s a long weekend until yesterday! One person was out of town completely, others were working or had stuff scheduled.

Eventually, one of them asked if I could drop them off at her place in a beach town to the south east of us. I’ve done that before, so I said yes. They were still looking for someone to meet up with me earlier, but I let them know the kittens were all right. I had brought the carrier into the house and onto my bed. Inside cats started sniffing around immediately, which seemed to calm the kittens down.

We had already put a small container with cat soup in with them. I added a folded up puppy pad at the door and was able to add a shallow water bowl with the food bowl at the back. After a while, I salvaged a crochet project I was unable to finish because the cats kept digging it and the yarn out, no matter how well I tucked it away. It was just a flat rectangle at this stage. The last row I was working on had been undone completely, so I cut the yarn, sewed in the ends, then folded it so it fit across the middle of the carrier, between the pee pad and the food and water bowls.

Each time I reached into the carrier, I moved to pet them, and they let me. They didn’t like it, but they let me! Later, when I stuck my finger through the door, the tabby started to lick and gently chomp on it!

As time went on and we were still waiting on when we could get them to the rescue, my painkillers were starting to wear off and I had to lie down. I moved the carrier so that I could see the kittens through the carrier door. Then I found a YouTube video on my phone of kittens purring and set that up near the carrier door.

It wasn’t long after that was set up that I got a notification. The sounds stopped while I checked the message, but I could still hear purring.

That was when I let them know that the kittens were doing very well, so there was no urgency in finding someone to meet me for them earlier. We settled on dropping them off at 3:45. By the time we got that settled, I was able to take my next painkiller dose and lay down again with the purring noises going again.

I fell asleep to the sound of both recorded kittens and carrier kittens purring!

My daughter and I decided on leaving at 3, for a 3:45 drop off. At about 2:30, my daughter went out to try and get more kittens.

She got one!

She put one of the kibble soup bowls into the carrier for it to have something to eat. It crawled into the bowl and stayed in it, the whole time!

She did try to get more, but we had to head out, so we settled on the three. I made sure to let the rescue group know, and that we were on the way. We took the “longer” route to the address to avoid highway construction and gravel roads. We got there early, but not by much.

The rescue lady had a cat kennel ready for them. She has several of them around her house, with one of them holding a newly trapped feral who was staring at us with frightened eyes – but did allow her to reach in and scritch it’s neck and cheek! Mostly, it was too scared to move, to be honest.

The transfer of kittens went very well. She asked some questions about their temperament. They are feral, but “friendly” feral. Not terrified feral, or angry feral. If they are calm enough, they will go to a foster in another town for socialization, vetting and eventual spays/neuters before going for adoption. If they are too feral, they will stay with her. There are no fosters available that can/will handle feral cats. She’s the only one.

We need our own Furball Farm Cat Sanctuary so badly!!!

Meanwhile, we will keep trying for the others. Sweetie is turning out to be our biggest hurdle in this! Once we get the remaining three little kittens, we’re pretty sure we’ll have an easier time of getting the white and grey singleton, and they will take that one, too. It wants to play and have company so much! The older cats would chase it away but when the little kittens started going to the junk pile, they happily played together. It will be incredibly lonely with all the littles gone. As we were driving out, my daughter said she was considering laying a blanket on the grass, with a carrier nearby, a book and some cat toys. She’s sure the white kitten will come over to check her out if she does.

Unfortunately, the skunks probably will, too!

So that is done! We are down three kittens. Chatting with the group, one of them said we need to get the mother spayed and I had to remind them that the mother has disappeared. Right now, the only females we have left that I know of are Sprout and Sprig, the two calicos. I saw Sprig today, but haven’t seen Sprout in a while. There is a long haired grey tabby the girls call Munchkin that I thought was female, but I’m not sure. There was a mostly feral long haired grey confirmed female, but it might be among the cats that have gone missing this summer. The only reason why I think Munchkin isn’t female is because it didn’t get pregnant this summer – but then, neither did Sprig. The rest are all fixed, except a couple of males that still need to be neutered. Two or three for sure, depending on whether Munchkin is male or female.

It’s been a long, hard road, over many years, and we needed so much help, but the numbers are finally down. That some are gone most likely because of coyotes is not good, but there really isn’t anything we can do about that, unless we build a big catio and shed for all the outside cats. That would keep the raccoons and skunks out of their food and water, too, but it would mean no more rodent control. Just this morning, as I was taking the carrier with the two kittens to the house, I saw Pinky crossing the yard with a big mouse in her mouth! Such a good kitty!!

I miss Adam. And Havarti. And Judgement. And Slick. And Domino…

*sigh*

Thankfully, these kittens have won the lottery, though they don’t know it yet. At this age, they will be much easier to adopt out.

We just need to get the rest of them, hopefully over the next few days! I’ll be going outside with my daughter in the mornings for the next while, as that seems to be the time when they are all hungry enough to come close to my daughter.

She has become quite the cat whisperer!!

The Re-Farmer

Productive – finally!

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Okay, still limited, but productive!

Morning was quiet overall. My poor daughter has been caning it today; the last while of taking on a lot of what I normally do during the day has not been easy on her.

Still, she was well enough to do the morning routine and, when our prescription delivery came in, to meet the driver.

I got my new meds. Just in time for my afternoon painkiller dose. I got to take new new generic Percocet instead of the T3s. I have enough to take them at the same schedule, every 6 hours, for 7 days.

So far, it seems to be working! I’m not holding my breath as other painkillers I’ve tried did work for the first while, then gradually stopped working. However, it meant I did not get that gradual pain building up and lasting for several hours.

I took advantage of that, while trying to still maintain light activity levels.

I decided it was a good time to start the very, very last “spring cleaning” of the sun room!

I moved things around to make space under the canopy tent, then brought out the cat carriers. They got dismantled and scrubbed down. Some of them have bolts with wing nuts on them that were getting rusted, so I set them in a bowl with some CLR.

Then my daughter and I went to the general store to pick up a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble, which my daughter was able to carry for me (I felt perfectly able to do it, but I’m banned) and the mail. Which included an unexpected, long thin parcel for my husband.

After we got home and unloaded, my husband presented my daughter with a new cane he’d got for her! She has a fantastic “tactical” cane that she doesn’t use because it’s too top heavy.

Hmmm… I wonder why… 😄

Also in the mail, finally, was our ambulance bill. Since they only came and treated my husband, but did not transport him anywhere, the bill was only $100, and we’ll be able to submit the receipt to my husband’s insurance for partial reimbursement. Not too shabby!

After a very late lunch, I headed back outside.

The carriers could be reassembled by then, and I brought over an old toothbrush to scrub the bolts that had been sitting in CLR. Once those were rinsed and dried off, I treated them with WD40 before using them on their respective carriers again. We now have five clean carriers ready. There’s another in the sun room but the cats knocked it off the shelf so many times, it can no longer be closed. Then there’s the huge donated one that is in the catio, with a cat bed in it, as a trap for the kittens. You can see the before and after for the cat carriers in the first to images of the slide show above.

Once the carriers were done, I got the flat sink stopper I’d picked up not long ago and started filling the old bathtub I dragged out of the junk pile. It still needs more coats of enamel paint sprayed on, but there is enough that it can be used. While I had the hose going in the tub, with some laundry detergent added, I started bringing over various cat beds, blanket and caves from the sun room. Not everything would fit, though.

You can see in the last image of the slide show above, how it is now. I added water until it reached the overflow opening, poking at everything with an old broom handle to get it submerged and soaking, then tried to “stir” it a bit.

The handle broke.

I’ll be using a garden hoe to continue, later on. For now, it’s all left to soak overnight. It’s all pretty disgusting, to be honest. I expected to change out the water and soak it in detergent a couple of times before I start to actually wash the individual pieces. I’ll most likely transfer them into the wheelbarrow individually for the final cleaning. Then I plan to give them a final soak/rinse with the 10% cleaning vinegar.

That old tub is going to be very handy.

While doing all this, I kept an eye on the kittens. They all got their evening cat feeding. The kittens their their kibble softened with cat milk. I also brought out some of the donated cat treats. Some I used by the house to distract the adult cats, while kitten treats went into the catio “trap”.

I am getting quite frustrated. I’m leaving bait for the kittens, but keep having to chase away adult cats and skunks. Which startled the kittens, so they stay away instead of coming for their treats.

They have been enjoying their new “home” in the remains of the junk pile, though. Lots to run and jump and play around.

They even found a bed.

There’re some sort of old chair cushions in there; a matching seat and back. The seat cushion was leaning at a steep angle, but several kittens still found it made a cozy bed.

Once the tub was set up and soaking, I tried sitting by the catio to “fish” for kittens. Four of them had zero interest, and they all seemed to be easily startled.

When I was ready to move on, I took the cushions from the junk pile and lay them on the ground inside the catio, opposite the big cat carrier. Hopefully, this will encourage them to sleep in the catio instead of in the junk pile.

Then I got a container and did a garden harvest.

There was a surprising amount of bush beans available to harvest! The ones planted later, around the Arikara Squash, are absolutely prolific right now.

The two red tomatoes in the photo are supposed to be Blueberry tomatoes. The other three plants of that variety all have tomatoes so dark, they’re almost black, but one plant is producing red tomatoes instead, which are ripening faster. The plants are otherwise identical looking.

There were quite a few orange currant tomatoes ready for picking, too. The most I’ve picked at one time, so far!

While in the area, I checked on the one Arikara squash that’s maturing. It’s gotten as big as I think it’s going to get, and the shell is starting to harden. I had set it on top of a brick to get it off the ground, and I picked up the squash to check that the brick wasn’t causing any damage.

It wasn’t, but I found several huge snails!

Thankfully, the squash is big enough and hard enough that they’re not interested in trying to eat it. I still flicked them away. Then I went into my stash of lumber cast offs in the garage and brought back a board to set under the squash, on top of the brick, to give it smoother support – and hopefully, the snails won’t want to climb around it!!

After that, I checked on the grapes (second photo in the slide show above). It’s really hard to find them under all the foliage, but there are a LOT of grape clusters hidden in there. They look quite ready for picking. Not this evening, though. Hopefully, they’ll still be there tomorrow and we can start picking them and maybe make some jelly or something. It’s been a while since we’ve made grape jelly. The last few years, the raccoons got to them before we did.

By then, I could tell I was reaching my limit and didn’t want to push things. Once inside, my older daughter suggested we make up some individual charcuterie platters for ourselves for supper, which was quite enjoyed.

By then, the painkillers were definitely wearing off – just in time for my evening 6 hour alarm to go off and it was time to take some more.

As I write this, it’s still a bit achy, but it does not seem to be getting worse. I’m about ready for bed, though, and it’s not even 8:30 yet!

It looks like we’re going to have some absolutely beautiful weather over the next while, including days with more rain. Daytime highs are expected to mostly be in the low to mid 20’s C/68F, with overnight temperatures staying in the teens. Our average last frost date was September 10. As of right now, the forecast for the 10th is a high of 19C/66F, and the overnight low at 13C/55F. Absolutely no danger of frost at all.

Thank you, El Nińo!

At this point, the long range forecast suggests we’ll see our first frost around the 20th or so. I’m hoping for a repeat of one of our first winters out here, were we didn’t get our first frost until November and almost had a brown Christmas!

I’d rather like to see that again – and just a mild winter, overall.

I’m getting too old for winter, and we have too many things that break down – including ourselves! – when it gets colder. 🤣😂

Now, if I could just get a few cats off my bed, I might be able to call it a night.

I’m so glad I was able to be productive today! Even if it was just a little bit.

The Re-Farmer

Birthday treat and playing with bebbies

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Today was quiet, for the most part. We’re all pretty drained, exhausted and fighting different kinds of pain.

I’m incredibly frustrated. The weather and temperatures are absolutely ideal for working outside, and I can do next to none of it.

I never took the hydromorphone my husband gave me, last night. I waited until I was more confident that I had no T3s left in my system and, by then, the pain had subsided on its own. I wasn’t about to take such a high dose without genuine need. When my 6 hour alarm went off during the night, when I would normally have taken more T3s, I wasn’t even dealing with a lot of pain in my hip, so I skipped it. In the morning, there was just a dull ache. This time, I took a tramadol instead.

It made no difference.

Aside from my daughter doing the morning routine outside for me, we mostly just took it easy. We did have a planned outing, though. My husband has a birthday this month and my older daughter treated us to his dinner of choice. Normally, that would be pizza, but he can no longer tolerate dairy, even with Lactase, so he chose Chinese food, instead. With this, we typically order just a lot of meat and seafood, with my husband also getting some chicken fried rice. We order enough to last us a couple of days, at least, which got us some free rice and deep fried wontons, and we prefer to do our own vegetables at home. This time, my older daughter baked the last of the bush beans and summer squash we had in the fridge, which was quite delicious.

My younger daughter and I headed out shortly before 1, to miss the lunch rush and to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble on the way out. We both were thinking today was Tuesday, though. It’s Wednesday, which means the general store closed at noon. We’ll have to go tomorrow, instead. Which is fine.

When we got to the area around the restaurant, we had to drive around the block a couple of times trying to find parking. There was nothing nearby at all, and we ended up parking closer to the marina. I wasn’t even sure it that area was public parking, or parking for boat owners.

By this point, I was having trouble walking, but still well enough that I turned down a cane when my daughter offered to get one out of our collection in the back of the truck for me. We placed the order and paid for it, then set a pick up time long enough for us to make a side trip to the grocery store. We wanted to pick up drinks for everyone, but ended up getting a Boston Creme cake that was on sale, even though there is still a bit of the Costco slab cake left. I noticed some good sales on grapes and a few other things, so my daughter and I also picked what we needed to have a small charcuterie later on, to go with the new cheeses we got in the city. By the time the groceries were paid for, I was relying on the cart to use as a walker.

When we got back to the restaurant, there still wasn’t any parking nearby, so I dropped my daughter off by the door then pulled over in the lane around the corner. After she got back with the food, I had to ask her to do the driving. My alarm had gone off for my afternoon T3 dose just as we returned to the truck after ordering the food, but it made no difference. The pain just kept getting worse.

It has since subsided again, and I’m down to a dull ache. Tomorrow, my Percocet gets delivered. I’m really hoping that works better than the T3s. If it doesn’t, then I’ll probably end up with my own prescription for hydromorphone – just not as high a dose as what my husband is getting!

After we enjoyed our first day of birthday take out, I felt well enough to go outside and do the cat feeding. I even watered the south garden beds, though I wasn’t up to doing the main garden area, too. After a couple of hours, I went out again to top up the kittens’ bowl of kibble softened with cat milk in the catio, since other critters have been stealing their food. Then I set up the camp chair and started fishing for kittens.

The little black one with the white stripe up the side of its nose is more enthusiastic about it. One of the tabbies got curious and started coming over, but not close. The other kittens were much more interested in playing among the white lilacs.

The Grink wasn’t interested this time, but Sweetie sure was! At one point, she was stalking the lure at the same time as the kitten, but she does not like the kittens at all. Without the distraction of the lure, she growls and spits at them, and I’ve even seen her bat at them.

I did manage to get the little black one close enough that I could reach down and touch its back, but it did not like that, so I didn’t push my luck with it.

Then my alarm went off for my evening meds, so I headed back inside.

Tomorrow and the day after, there are people from the rescue available to meet up with us, so I’ve talked to my daughter about working on getting kittens closed up into the carrier. That will mean heading out fairly often to see if they’ve gone in, and maybe setting some treats out as bait. Hard to do that and keep the other cats away, though. Thankfully, the rescue have us quite a lot of donated treats, including some just for kittens, so we could probably set out some for the bigger cats as a distraction, then put the kitten treats out for the little ones.

I pray for quick success on this! With their mother gone, there’s only so much we can do to protect them. We really need to get them in to the rescue for fostering and adoption! Otherwise, their chances of survival are very low. At this point, it even looks like Sprout and Sprig, the two calicos, are gone! Sprout had Sprig last year, along with two others that disappeared. The older white and grey that we are also trying to catch is Sprout’s from this year, and I am sure she actually had more than one kitten.

We have had so many adult cats disappear this year. We would expect that with some of the males disappearing for the summer, then coming back for the winter, but these are mostly females that have disappeared. At least a couple that I’m sure had a litter somewhere. Among the others, both fixed and intact cats have disappeared. The person at the rescue whose daughter had been fostering Domino is pretty devastated that they brought her back, and now she’s gone.

Such is the reality of yard cats.

I say as I hear the sounds of cats fighting outside my window!!!

Excuse me while I go check on that.

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day at home

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My daughter and I didn’t have to go anywhere today, which turned out to be a good thing. We were both pretty wasted.

My daughter had done out to do the morning cat feeding, but was feeling quite terrible, so she ended up going back to bed to try and get some sleep. She told me she’d had nightmares for some reason, and got little sleep. !!!

While my doctor has not officially put me on bed rest, I did try to take it easy.

It didn’t make a difference.

As the day wore on, the pain returned even though I’d done nothing that might trigger it. I tried lying down again and it just kept getting worse.

I did eventually give and and went outside to do the evening cat feeding and switch out the memory cards. I do that every week or two instead of daily, now. As I went by the crab apples to get to the sign came, I made a discovery.

We lost another tree to yesterday’s high winds. Another dead spruce. This one looks like we can actually salvage it to use in raised beds. The last one that fell in this area – falling right on a crab apple tree – the trunk split down its length, so not something I want to use longer lengths of. This one seems pretty intact.

By the time I was done switching out the memory cards and walking through the garden beds, I was at my limit. I ended up setting a camp chair near the catio with the cat toy fishing rod. All the kittens were in the junk pile. I messaged my daughters and let them know the status of things, and they later came out to water the garden for me and take care of a few other things.

I had significant success with one kitten in particular.

The Grink and Sweetie made things difficult, as they were very interested in catching the worm, even if it meant going right through a kitten. After a while, though, they tired out enough that the kittens had a chance. The black one with the white line on the side of its nose came close enough that I was able to pet it and almost picked it up.

The tabby in the last picture of the above slide show is another braver one. My younger daughter sat in the chair to play with them before they came in and that one went under the chair – and she was able to pick it up and put it on her lap!!

None of them were going into the catio, though. The kittens that weren’t interested in the toy were busy playing in the junk pile, along with the older white and grey singleton.

So, no chance of catching them today, but progress on the socialization front.

Meanwhile, my pain levels are still increasing. I think today, I’m gong to skip the evening T3s, wait a couple of hours and try the hydromorphone. I forgot to call the pharmacy to see if the fax with my new Percocet prescription came in. I’ll have to do that tomorrow.

It I weren’t planning to wait to get the T3s completely out of my system first, I’d be going to bed right now, and it’s not even 7pm yet. I’m having difficulty sitting upright in my chair.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Bebbies, doctor’s visit and deer scarer failure

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Today was my follow up with the doctor after my last ER visit. The appointment was in the afternoon, but my daughter and I left early, with plans to have lunch before heading to the clinic.

I am quite glad we left as early as we did!

On the way to the truck, though, I checked on the catio in its new location. My daughter had seen the kittens at the branch pile again when doing the morning feeding, but they soon joined the singleton kitten at the shrine feeding station, so I wanted to see if they were still around.

I found a furry little slug in the carrier.

It moved before I had a chance to get my phone out to take a picture.

It had been completely flattened along the curve of the carrier, snoozing. After looking around a bit, it finally saw me and got nervous, so I left it be.

In wandering through the garden beds, I discovered something.

Every single Yellow Swiss Chard that had been growing between the garlic is now gone. All of it. There’s nothing but weeds left.

The deer scarer did not go off while I was there, even though I set it to 24 hours instead of night only. Yesterday I was hearing it go off constantly, but never saw any critters. I think tree branches in the wind might have been setting it off. I thought maybe the solar charge was dead because of this but when I tested it, it still worked. So I have no clue why it stopped working! Not that it matters anymore. There’s nothing that the deer like to eat left.

*sigh*

Meanwhile, I had been feeling quite good when I got up this morning but, by the time I finished walking around the yard, the pain was starting to come back, and it kept getting worse throughout the day.

*doublesigh*

With all the construction on the highway we would normally have taken, we took the highway towards the town south of us before cutting across. It was a very disheartening drive. There were SO many squished garter snakes on the road! There were some live ones we managed to avoid hitting, one I never saw that my daughter thinks I might have hit and one that I know I missed, only to look in my rear view mirror and see the vehicle behind me run over it. 😭

I wish the “snake fences” that are on the highway nearest the snake dens extended further south. These are fences in the ditches that guide the snakes through tunnels under the highway. These were built in an area so close to the dens that had so many snakes crossing it, it was impossible not to hit them and the highway actually became dangerously slippery from them all. We don’t get THAT many snakes this far from the dens, but it is still a tragic number of snakes never making it to their winter dens. Garter snakes are not at all dangerous and are excellent pest control. We need more of them!

Taking the alternate route did allow us to avoid most of the construction, but there was still a section of it we needed to get through before our turn off. Then we got stuck behind slower traffic. We still got to the area early enough to grab a quick lunch, then continue to the clinic. We left almost 2 hours early, with the drive normally taking about 45-50 minutes. We got to the clinic only 15 minutes early for my appointment.

I was most definitely relying on the walker at this point, and my daughter came in with me. We must have been quite a sight. Me with my walker, her with her cane!

We spoke for a while about how things went after the surgery, leading to the ER visit, and how I’ve been doing since then. I told her I’ve been taking the T3s every 6 hours as instructed, but I really don’t feel it’s making a difference. I had taken my afternoon dose just before going into the clinic, and the pain just kept getting worse as I sat there. We talked about taking tramadol and I told her I did still have some tramadol left, though not a lot. I’d had the tramadol injection at the ER, which did seem to work. I brought up that the ER doctor had suggested hydromorphone and that I might want to try my husband’s, just to see if it worked and if I had any reaction to it. I explained that she had said to take 1mg, and to split the pill if my husband was on 2mg, but that my husband’s dose is 12mg. The doctor was rather startled by that and asked what was wrong that he was on such a high dose, and I explained his back injury – and that the hydromorphone basically just takes the edge off the pain for him.

In the end, she did say that, if I felt the need, to go ahead and try my husband’s dose of hydromorphone! She could not prescribe it to me, though, as she did not have the hand written, triplicate prescription pad needed for it, as a “controlled substance”.

I never got to mention that I already had tried it, some time ago, and it worked quite well. I haven’t tried it again since then because it cannot be taken with the same class of painkillers as T3s. I’d have to wait until any acetaminophen type medication is out of my system completely. That includes the tramadol I still have left.

Meanwhile, we talked about it a bit more and she said she would prescribe some Percocet for me to try. At this point, we’re just on pain management until she gets the results of the biopsy. She did check before coming in to see me, and there was nothing back yet. I already have the 4 week follow up appointment booked, so I’ll be seeing her again in the middle of September and she will have the results by then.

She did start to tell me that she didn’t think she would have good news for me, but with that she meant she expects I will need a hysterectomy. To which I responded YES PLEASE!!! She laughed, because I’d already told her I was just fine with having one. If, however, the tests show cancer, I’m going to have to see a specialist in the city, because the hospital she does surgeries in does not have the resources for that. If she didn’t have to wait for the test results, she told me she could do the hysterectomy at any time, based on what she saw on the camera during the fibroidectomy. She said it’s actually pretty common as women get older.

Even as I was sitting there with the doctor, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the pain. I was till okay to drive to the nearby Walmart, while the doctor said she would fax the new prescriptions to our pharmacy. With my daughter helping out, we picked up a few things we hadn’t gotten during the city trip yesterday. I even finally found a package of assorted grades of sand paper that I had been looking for but couldn’t find while in the city.

There wasn’t much else we needed to get there, and we were soon heading to town to pick up my new meds, with my daughter driving. When we got to the pharmacy, I stayed in the truck while she ran in. She was soon back to let me know they had not received the fax yet. Meanwhile, I had just received a message from my husband. The pharmacy had called him to remind him that he’d be getting a delivery on Thursday. So I asked her to let them know that, once the fax comes in, my prescriptions can be added to the delivery.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, I will phone to see if the faxed prescriptions came in. If they did not, someone will need to call the clinic about it.

That done, we only needed to stop to get more gas in the truck – once again, I stayed in the truck while my daughter took care of it – before heading home.

It took a while, but the pain did finally start to recede and I felt able to go outside and walk around a bit. I tried fishing for kittens after topping up the food bowl in the catio (my older daughter took care of their evening feeding while her sister and I were gone). Theirs gets cat milk added to soften the kibble which, unfortunately, means I spent more time chasing other cats – and a very determined skunk! – away from their food. I was able to stay out until my alarm went off for my next dose of T3s. Which seems pointless. Taking it regularly should be acting as a preventative, which isn’t happening.

Hopefully, the Percocet will work better.

I have to say, I’m feeling increasingly frustrated. My daughter joked with the doctor about how I’m not allowed to do yard work right now. Fair enough, but I need to be doing SOMETHING! There is so much that I want to be doing. The doctor had brought up putting me on bed rest but decided against it. She could see I was already doing that as needed but one of the meds I’ll be getting is the one to stop bleeding, and I can’t be on bed rest if I’m taking that. I would have to mover around or risk blood clots. So I have not been put on bed rest, but I have to NOT be doing anything that that involves physical exertion.

At least I can use the riding mower.

On the way home, I talked to my daughter about some of the things I can physically do, with just a bit of help to set up. Like work on the round cutting boards I want to make out of slices of that elm tree. I want to get those cut, cleaned, sanded and conditioned before the green wood starts to dry out and crack. We’ll see about getting the chain saw out to cut the slices to the thickness I’m after, and she’ll take care of actually lifting and moving the pieces to where I can work on cleaning and sanding them before they can be oiled.

Cutting the slices might be a challenge. My electric chain saw has a 14″ bar. I’m pretty sure the pieces I’m looking to cut into thinner slices are more than 14″ across! The pile of elm pieces is right near an outdoor outlet, so that helps.

We had a solid rainfall last night, and rain off and on today, which was much needed. No rain is expected over the next few days, though, so we should be able to plug in the chain saw and do some cutting, if my daughter is up to moving very heavy pieces of wood for me.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shop: this is what $900

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$900.72 to be exact.

Ouch.

I had a much interrupted night last night, so I was quite thankful that my younger daughter is still insisting on doing the morning routine so I can sleep in. When I got up, I was feeling quite good, overall.

Which made me very suspicious.

As we were getting ready to head out, I checked on the catio and found this adorableness looking back at me.

They still run off when we come by, but not as far, and they tend to stop and watch. When this one started looking like it was going to run out of the catio, I backed off and continued on my way, rather than give it a reason to feel more nervous.

I felt well enough to be doing the driving on the way out. We stopped at a gas station in the town along the way to get some road drinks and a snack to tide us over. My daughter had eaten breakfast, though, while I hadn’t, so the fresh potato wedges I got for both of us ended up just for me. Which meant we didn’t need to stop for lunch while at Costco.

When we got there, our first stop was filling the tank. Regular gas was at $1.489 and it cost me $68.99 to fill the tank from a little over half.

I did make sure we brought my walker while my daughter pushed the flat cart and loaded it for me.

I am so glad I had that walker.

By the time we reached Costco, the pain was starting to return. The more time went by, the more often I had to stop and just sit for a while, keeping an eye on the cart as my daughter ran around getting things. When we got to the line to pay, I gave her my cards and settled at the other end of the cash desk until things were being loaded onto the belt and the cashiers were scanning things on the cart. With a long drive ahead of us, I let my daughter know before dashing to the washroom. By the time I came out, she was done and heading in the direction of the exit. Once I caught up with her, we squished ourselves to the side and paused. My alarm was about to go off, so I took my pain meds then my daughter dashed off to refill my water bottle from the fountain. Which gave me time to get my usual photos.

Does this look like $900 to you?

Yes, we have a birthday coming up! This time, my husband’s. It’s early to get a cake, but we have never been ones to celebrate on the actual day, and a cake that size will last us several days!

So, what did we get for our $900 and change?

Let’s start with the cat stuff.

We got two 9kg bags and two 11kg bags of dry kibble, a case of wet cat food and a box of XL puppy pads.

For non-food items, we got our usual toilet paper, plus a case of facial tissues, all purpose cleaner, and a 2 pack of the Head and Shoulders that we use as an anti-fungal body wash.

In beverages, we got a case of Monster, a case of Vanilla Coke Zero, a 3 pk of oat milk and two 2L of kefir. We also got a large box of Earl Grey tea.

For dairy, we got 5 pounds of butter, a block of Old Cheddar and of Mozzarella cheese, plus a shaker of Parmesan that was on sale.

We did not get a lot of meats. Two panini packs of sandwich meats, a 6 pack of canned chicken, and two packages of loose mild Italian sausage meat.

In breads, we got two 2 packs of rye and two packages of tortilla wraps.

In case lot foods, we got an instant oats variety pack, a case of tomato soup, spaghetti, Ramen noodles. In fresh/frozen stuff we got a case of Pizza Pops, rainbow tortellini and our usual double flat of 5 dozen eggs.

Then there was a large jar of mayonnaise, another of peanut butter, a box of Sweet and Salty mix granola bars that was on sale, a bag of Basmati rice, and a jar of strawberry jam that comes in a jar my daughters like to reuse for their tea.

For my husband, there’s the birthday cake, plus a giant bag of nachos and a large Caesar Salad kit. My daughter chose two nigiri platters for herself and her sister (which I have been reimbursed for), plus I chose a sushi platter for myself.

That’s everything. That all came out to $900.72 While there were a few things on there that we don’t get every month, the only thing that was completely not usual was the birthday cake.

*sigh*

My daughter took care of bagging our stuff (we did remember to bring ice packs) and load up the truck, and she drove home. We made a rest stop at a gas station just outside the city where we got a couple of drinks and small snacks to pay for our toilet paper 😉 and then it was straight home.

Once at home, I left everything to my daughters to unload and put away so I could lie down for a while. I actually did feel better by the time we got home (the drive is about an hour and 15 minutes, give or take), but I definitely could not have made this trip on my own without leaving myself in really bad shape.

I think this worked out. We should be able to do our second stop up shop in the weekend like this, before I see the doctor on Monday afternoon.

I am so tired.

The Re-Farmer

Kittens, grinding and tiny tomatoes

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This morning I got a call from the tree removal company. Someone would soon be here to finally do the stump grinding!

Which was a bit of a surprise. We had a downpour this morning, though it was past by the time he got here and, according to what he saw on the way over, hitting the town east of us. Normally, he would not have come out in the wet like this, but he had checked the weather radar before calling me and it showed clear skies over us!

I must admit, I was geeking out completely. I’ve never seen a stump grinder before, never mind one in action, in person. It was a beautious thing!

Since I was out anyhow, I took the time to check on the branch pile, were I spotted some kittens. I saw them again, after he started grinding, nervous but watching.

I only saw the four at one time. It’s possible I saw the other two on their own later, but from a distance and with tall grass and branches in the way, most of the time all I could tell was “black kitten” or “tabby kitten”.

We have not seen Slick for several days. I am beginning to think she may be gone. It’s also possible two kittens have disappeared as well.

For now, we are making sure they have plenty of food in the catio. Other cats, skunks and probably raccoons as well are going into the catio – there’s no way to stop them – go in and eat their food, but if we time things right, they get a chance to eat well. My daughter is still doing the morning cat routine for me, and we still have a bit of the freeze dried cat food mix left, so they are still getting cat soup in the mornings. Once we’re out of the mix, we might start using some of the donated canned cat food we still have left to make cat soup.

He set up a barrier around the stump to keep flying chips from hitting the house or flying all over the place, to make for easier clean up. While I was checking on things in the yard, I noticed him pause with the grinding to remove parts of the tractor tire that were still stuck under the root ball. He had bins around the stump to haul away the chips, but seeing him move the tire pieces, I brought the wheelbarrow closer. The next time he paused in grinding, I suggested it might be easier to use the wheelbarrow. Which worked out because he ended up using a bin to scoop up chips into the wheelbarrow, then dumping it with the rest of the wood chips behind the house.

More wood chips! Yay!

The first image above, he was about half way through the stump. Maybe a bit more.

While I was checking the tomato bed, pruning off yellowing branches, my younger daughter came out. She talked to the guy for a while as he paused with the grinding again. When he started up again, she and I walked around the yard a bit more, looking for kittens and checking the nearest garden beds.

That’s all I did. I swear.

That was all it took, and I could feel the pain returning. I headed inside to sit down, but it kept getting worse, and I had to ask my daughter to take over being available for the tree guy.

Then I remembered that, with stuff going on (including calling the clinic and leaving another message), I had forgotten to take my morning pain killers, meds and supplements. I took care of that right away. I’m finished with the antibiotics and the stuff that’s supposed to stop the bleeding (I’m still bleeding), so I’m back to almost all supplements.

The second image, was after he was done and had cleaned up. You can see the little pile of broken tire bits on one of the patio blocks. He’d had to move one of them to get a root out. We’ll later need to move all the blocks and re-set them. I don’t know what my brother has planned for that, but I expect we’ll need to get more sand or gravel to lay under it. That would be a good time to move a couple of other blocks in front of the steps that have sunk and build things back up underneath them.

Nothing I can do at all right now. Today is exactly 1 week from the procedure. I may not be restricted to lifting a maximum of 10 pounds anymore, but each of those blocks weighs about 50 pounds. Since I can barely walk around the yard without triggering the pain, it’s probably not a good idea for me to start rebuilding a patio!

While on that subject…

I got a call back from the clinic. The receptionist told me they hadn’t received anything from the hospital about my ER visit on Saturday, so she had already contacted them to fax my file to the clinic. The doctor that did the surgery won’t be back until Monday, and she was able to give me several times to choose from to come in. So I now have an appointment scheduled.

The pain kept getting worse, but I was still mobile when the guy finished the job. He was with my daughter, writing up a bill, when I came around. Once I had the invoice, I took a picture of it and sent it to my brother. The total for the tree removal (3.5hours), and the stump grinding and clean up – after taxes – came to a little over $1800. My brother was prepared for that, so he was able to send them an e-transfer soon after.

I ended up having to lie down and tried lying down in my own bed at first. I barely settled when I had three cats lying on me – Susan was on my ribs almost instantly – then Butterscotch on one side of my head, Cheddar on the other, plus two more on either side of my legs. Which would have been okay, if they would only stay still! The final straw was then a tabby – I don’t know if it was Mitsy or Shadow – suddenly parkoured off my stomach after vaulting over Ghosty nearby.

I ended up on the couch in the cat free zone, aka: the living room.

Which got interrupted by a phone call from my mother.

*sigh*

It turned out to be an okay call. Partly because, when she asked how I was doing, I flat out told her that I’d been at the ER again and was still dealing with pain. She had been prepared to regale me with her usual comments about her own health complaints, which have changed little in the years we’ve been living here. The main difference is that she is now blaming it all on her digestion, rather than her heart. It is very hard to pick out enough detail to determine what is going on. For example, she started off saying how she was feeling back “all over” and, at first, it seemed she was talking about pain. It took some questioning before I was able to figure out that she meant full body fatigue. Lord knows, I can understand where she’s coming from on both, but we’re still never sure how bad it is. She told me they are “neglecting her” because they “won’t let” her see a doctor or a dietician. I’ve tried to explain, several times, that the nurses have notebooks for each person living here, they write down about issues, then have regular meetings with the doctor to talk about them. My mother complains about the same things she has been for years but others – like her legs swelling – she brushes off completely. Oh, they’ve never told me they talk to the doctor, was her response. Except we’ve all told her this, several times. It’s not that she doesn’t remember. It’s that she doesn’t believe it. For other things, she makes things sound completely different than what’s really happening. When talking about her digestion, she starts talking about how she’s burping all the time, which is a very specific piece of information – until it comes out that she is forcing herself to burp because she says it makes her chest pains feel better afterwards. ???

I’ve been in the room with her while she is forcing those burps, and it’s really… unpleasant to watch and hear. One of her reasons for claiming the staff is “neglecting” her is because, if one of them is in the room with her when she starts (forced) burping, they leave. I have no idea what she expects them to do about it. She also keeps bringing up how her pills were two hours late and the nurse had said she forgot to give them to her, as if that happened just this morning. It didn’t. It happened during a festival, on a day when they were taking residents outside to watch a parade go by. The nurse had apologized, but she “forgot” because she was physically helping people outside to see an event my mother chose not to watch herself. This was weeks ago, and it only happened the one time.

In the end, the reason she had called me was because she wanted a few things brought to her. Things that I passed on to my siblings. My sister will probably be the first to visit my mother in the next while. My brother has his grandchildren for the week, and they might be able to come out on the weekend. I have no idea when I’ll be up to visiting my mother next. Even if I do make it into town, having the energy to do whatever brought me there, and visit her as well, is more than I can handle right now.

*sigh*

Thankfully, today’s pain did mostly pass by the time my mother called, though I had to take more painkillers for it at my usual 6 hour mark. My daughters had made supper and, after eating, I felt well enough to head back outside. I checked on the kittens (three of them were in the cat bed in the catio, but ran into the branch pile when they saw me coming), then went back to pruning tomatoes. In the process, I found some ripe Orange Current tomatoes.

One of them was red, like a Spoon tomato!

I gave them to my daughters. They quite like them!

Thankfully, the pain didn’t come back as I was outside, but I didn’t push myself, either. Not that I’d pushed myself this morning…

So that’s where I’m at now. Still frustratingly dealing with pain that the surgery should have stopped from happening. I had felt so good right after, I was quite hopeful about that. *sigh* It’s probably going to be too early for results from the biopsy when I see the doctor on Monday, but I definitely need to talk to her about what’s still going on. She already knows I’m more than willing to go for the next likely surgical option.

My daughter and I have talked about our upcoming stock up shopping trips. We have decided we will do the Costco shopping on Thursday, when CPP Disability come in, first. With the last business day of the month being on Monday, my husband’s main disability payment with his private insurance should come in on Saturday instead, so we’ll do the other stock up shopping on the weekend.

My daughter is going to have to do pretty much everything. We’ll be sure to bring my walker, so I can sit as needed, rather than using the cart as a walker.

So frustrating!

But, it is what it is. We deal with the hand we’ve been dealt.

What else can we do?

The Re-Farmer

Kitten progress!

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Whoot!

Before I get to that, though, this is what I found as I first headed out to see how my daughter was doing in the garden…

Curtis, just lounging on his back, like he’s at the spa or something! 😄

After talking to my daughter I checked to see if there was any kitten activity. I almost missed seeing this little one.

It was just sitting there, frozen, until I got a bit too close, and then it slithered away into the branch pile. I saw no others at that time, though.

When I came out again later on, I noticed kittens were exploring the catio. I decided to bring them more things to encourage this. Some cat milk added to the remaining kibble, several cat toys we had inside, still left over in the Christmas stocking of toys we got late last year (the inside cats got a few of those, too), and some kitten treats donated to us from the rescue.

As I got closer to the catio, I saw a little tabby slipping away and into the branch pile, but I also saw there was at least one kitten in the cat bed inside the carrier.

Progress!!!

There turned out to be two of them. Possibly three.

They disappeared between the bed and the carrier wall. I took a photo, not sure what I was going to get, since my screen was blinded by the sun. Then I went back to get some fresh water and a couple of ice bottles. The catio gets quite warm, so I got one ice bottle in the water bowl and one for inside the edge of the cat bed. As I was returning, I saw a little black kitten slink out of the catio and disappear into the branch pile.

This is very encouraging. I hope that they will spontaneously move into the catio, just for the comfort of the cat bed sheltered by the carrier. I would like to find something I can set up as ramps to the shelves above, as the kittens are too small to jump up there. I’m sure they would love the one hammock that’s there. We still need to find a piece of strong fabric to replace the plastic mesh hammock that was on the other shelf that broke; the plastic mesh got brittle from the cold and broke apart under the weight of whatever critter jumped onto it. Which could have been a cat or a raccoon. Anyhow, it will be good to have something they can climb up to the shelves.

The white and grey singleton kitten also seems to be progressing. It is still very shy, nervous and runs away, but it also will meow at us from a distance, as if asking for cat soup! When we get closer, it stays longer before moving away, and it comes back a lot more quickly to get food once we are gone.

This evening, I was up to doing the outside cat feeding. The cat milk with the remaining kibble I’d left in the catio before was completely gone, the bowl licked clean. So I made sure to bring more cat milk to add the their kibble. Later on, as the day gets cooler, one of us will go out and set the door mostly closed for the night. We dropped to 8C/46F last night. As I write this, we are at 23C/73F, with the humidex putting us at 26C/78F. Tonight is not supposed to get as cool and tomorrow’s high is supposed to be a bit warmer than today. I want to make sure the door to the catio is open wide during the day, but closed up so there’s just enough space for a cat to squeeze through, during the night. I had intended to remove the vinyl around the walls, or at least fold up the bottom half, for the summer but decided against it. I was a bit too diligent when securing it for the winter! Which was fine when the catio was in the yard and shaded for much of the day. Where it is now has no shade at all. Plus, we have too much wind, which would make being in there quite unpleasant. We might still drop one of the very large crocheted cat blankets over it for shade, but I’m not sure if that will make things better or worse! They are quite heavy, so we would have to make sure the edges of the catio roof are supported, or the weight of the blanket would cause it to bend enough to pop out the shorter screws holding it in place. I’d have to get my daughter to do that, as they are heavier than I’m allowed to pick up right now.

I wasn’t out a lot and the only “work” I did was feed the cats and carry a garden fork to my daughter. I am now feeling like I’m ready to fall asleep on my keyboard. Still, I’m glad I did get outside a little bit, just for the fresh air and sunshine!

Plus, I got to see kittens.

The Re-Farmer

Kitten, currant tomatoes and back in the ER

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What a day.

I kept feeling worse and worse all day. The pain was back, though not as extreme as the last time I ended up in the ER. It was the other stuff that came with it. Fatigue. Dizziness. Breaking out in sweats. Overall weakness. Feeling dehydrated, even though I was being careful to get enough fluids.

After things kept getting worse, I finally broke down and tried to call the health line number. This is a number in our province that we can call to talk to an RN about whatever’s going on and getting advice, including whether or not to go to the ER.

I got a robot voice telling me that “due to technical problems”, they couldn’t response, try again later, and then it went to a busy signal.

*sigh*

Not long after that, I asked my daughter to drive me to the ER. Last time, I was able to do it myself. This time, I could barely walk, never mind drive.

The girls loaded me (wearing a night gown and moccasins, because I didn’t have the energy to change) and the walker up and we headed out. I made sure to bring along the sheet I got from the hospital that listed the three procedures done during the surgery, and my new prescriptions. I was admitted immediately – by the same person that admitted me last time!

The first time a nurse called me into the triage room to take my vitals, I walked in but asked for the use of a wheelchair after that. The only one she could find left was actually meant for children, which was fine by me! As we were talking, I mentioned what happened when I tried to call the health line. She scoffed in frustration, saying they just tell people to go to the ER.

Next, I was wheeled over to the lab to get some blood work done. That went well. I have excellent veins. They always have the hardest time with my husband but, with me, it’s very easy for them! I’m pretty sure I recognized at least one of the staff in the lab as having taken blood from my husband.

I ended up being seen by the same doctor as last time and she remembered me (it wasn’t that long ago!), which made it easier to explain that yes, I’d seen the specialist she was able to get me to see so very quickly, and that yes, I’m post-op. My follow up appointment isn’t until the 15th of next month, though.

As we were talking, she even commented on my obvious discomfort. I’m glad my daughter was there because at one point, when she asked about my symptoms – something I’d already repeated several times to others – I was having difficulty speaking and my brain was too fogged to remember them all, so my daughter was able to list them off for me.

In the end, we had the same “problem” as last time. There was little that they could do for me in the ER. There was concerns that I was still bleeding and we went over how the T3s basically do nothing for the pain. She wanted to wait for the results from the lab, which would tell her if I needed a transfusion or not (I did not expect anything like that), or an IV for fluids, if I were dehydrated.

The main thing that they could focus on was pain control. She suggested hydromorphone, which my husband is on. I told her that, so she knew I was familiar with it. If the T3s aren’t working, she was willing to prescribe some to me, but that falls under the “controlled substance” label. In the end, she said it was okay if I took one from my husband to try and see if it works, or if I would have a reaction to it. I didn’t know what his dose was, and she told me to take 1mg, so if he’s on 2mg, I should break it in half.

For now, though, I’m to take two T3s every six hours, instead of the 1-3 tablets every 8 hours as needed, but not at the same time as the hydromorphone, if I’m going to try that. I got all the other warnings – no alcohol, don’t try to drive, don’t go swimming, etc. I told her, if I’m going to take it, I’ll be taking it and going straight to bed!

She approved of that.

She then told me that, on Monday, I need to call the specialist that did the surgery, tell her that I’d gone to the ER, and to get in to see her as quickly as possible, rather than waiting the 4 weeks.

Until then, I got an injection of tramadol for the pain I was dealing with right then. The nurse that came to me in the waiting with the injection recognized me from the last time I was there immediately! I think it was my sparkly hat. 😄

Not long after, the doctor came by with the lab results, which turned out to be really good. One of them was even better than the result from last time, and she told me to keep doing what I’m doing.

The main thing was, I did not need a transfusion or IV. I had just got the tramadol injection, so she said I could go home.

Then my daughter went and brought the truck over from where she’d parked it once I was admitted and we were soon on the way home. As we were driving, she commented on how quickly they took care of me. I suggested it might have had something to do with how terrible I looked.

She agreed. I was looking very ill!

Once at home, my younger daughter drove right up to the house to unload me and help me to the door, where her sister was waiting to help me once inside.

Have I mentioned how much I love all the arm bars and hand rails this house has? Quite a few times, I’m sure!

My older daughter had just finished making supper and, though it was early, got a plate ready for me, as I’d had only soup and toast all day. By this time, the tramadol was starting to do its job and I was feeling better. I did end up lying down again, as I was completely drained.

I don’t know how long I was down for, but I was awakened by the screeching of skunks fighting outside my window. I ended up going outside to see what was going on. I never saw the fighting skunks, but I did chase off two huge ones. One was coming around the corner of the house. The other was in the isolation shelter! Earlier, my daughter had messaged us to let us know she’d gone outside to feed the cats, but there was a skunk in the sun room that couldn’t leave – cats in the doorway were blocking it. So she went out the other door. While in the yard, she checked the sun room and found the skunk stretched out and taking a nap, right under the door into the old kitchen! So she didn’t go into the sun room at all.

Between that and the skunks, when I went out, I found all the kibble trays were empty. Even on the house house roof, there was only a few dregs.

By this time, my younger daughter had come out to check on me. I was going to top up the food bowls, but she did that for me. While she did that, I went over to the branch pile to see if the kittens were out.

I found one.

I saw no signs of any others.

I was feeling so much better that I kept walking around – slowly – to check on the garden beds. My daughter walked with me (turns out she was supposed to get me to go back inside, and failed!) and, when I spotted some colour hidden deep among the orange currant tomatoes, she picked them for me.

She found another spray with ripe Orange Currant tomatoes after the photo was taken. I think there were about 6 or 8 in total. Those vines are covered with sprays of tomatoes – so many!!! – and they’re all very green! The girls tell me the Orange Currant tomatoes are very delicious.

We did pick the one red Manitoba tomato, but it ended up going into the compost pile. The skin on that one got damaged while it was still green, and it was in pretty bad shape. There are more, but none are turning red yet.

Our single Arikara squash is getting huge.

Tomorrow, my daughter plans to harvest beans. She got the one golden zucchini that was ready, this morning and the garlic is ready to have their roots trimmed off and the soil brushed away before they come inside. She had planned to do a few things in the garden for me today, but got side tracked with having to drive me to the ER! I’ve been ordered not to have any more medical emergencies. 😂🤣

Meanwhile, at the moment, I’m feeling much better. The pain is gone, though I’m still feeling really weak. I’ve got timers and alarms set for the different meds I have, though I will be out of one of them rather soon. If things get bad again, I might try the hydromorphone. I have a slight problem with trying one of my husband’s, though. The doctor said to take 1mg, and split the pill if he’s on 2mg.

He’s on 12mg, and they’re not tablets, but gel caps. It’s the highest dose they’re allowed to give out, if I remember correctly, but I didn’t know what the actual number was until talking to my husband about it and he double checked.

I will admit, though, that I have actually tried it before, when the pain got extremely bad some time ago. I took one before bed and it worked incredibly well. No bad reactions, and it actually killed the pain, unlike the T3s. It also helped with my hip and shoulder pain. I was able to actually sleep. This is something to avoid, though, if only because he’s already so limited on when he can get refills.

Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow – and stay better! I still have to call the specialist’s clinic on Monday, though, and get in to see her as soon as possible.

What fun… not.

The Re-Farmer

Resting

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Not a lot to say about today. Still in recovery and today had me dealing with more exhaustion and some pain.

I did head outside in the afternoon to get some fresh air, and take some garden tour video. Before I started, I spotted Slick’s babies.

They seem to like hanging out around the old burn ring, rather than the catio. The catio may be too exposed feeling.

The girls have still taken on my usual outdoor stuff. No watering of the garden today, though, as it rained all night. Just walking around the yard taking video was enough to leave me feeling exhausted.

I’m at war with myself between all that I want to be doing, and knowing that I need to not be doing any of it to I can recover.

I am a terrible patient.

😄

The Re-Farmer