A day of driving

November 7, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

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

We also had high winds.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She is not going back.

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

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

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

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

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

We shall see.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not that I could see, anyhow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

This video is a beginner tutorial.

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

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

I’m happy with the progress, so far.

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

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

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

The Re-Farmer

I think they like them!

November 6, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

The cats seem to be quite enjoying their newly winterized digs!

They are especially enjoying the cat isolation shelter. Which makes me happy! It will made it much easier, when it comes time to actually isolate cats in there during their recovery periods.

The last image in the above slide show is of the completed catio wrap. I had to get my daughter to crawl inside to pull the excess plastic under the frame. Especially where the second sheet overlapped the first. That one didn’t quite reach the middle of the back, where it could have been tacked to the centre support I added when we repaired it, so it’s only tacked top and bottom. I might end up taping it or something, or the wind will get under there and rip it right off.

I did add a board under the front of the frame, lifting it about 1 1/2 inches. This will give a slight slope for water to drain off the roof.

Today has turned out to be a cool and damp day, so I didn’t get a lot done outside. Aside from finishing winterizing the catio, I made sure the rest of the insulation got set up around the house.

We really need to find a better option for this. The insulation pieces are scrap pieces from who knows where, to begin with, so they’re all different sizes and thicknesses. Setting them up is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with pieces from different puzzles that don’t quite fit. They’re getting old and some of them are starting to break apart. It would be good to have a permanent solution, that we can make look like it’s part of the house and not just tacked on.

All in good time, I guess. Short term, we’re going to need to pick up some thicker sheets of rigid insulation to replace the busted up pieces. As it is, there is no longer enough to go completely around the wall there the back water tap is.

That took quite a while to get done, mostly spent trying to get the pieces to fit together, then finding ways to support them so they don’t get blown away. It’s been a dark and dreary day today, so even though it was still only mid afternoon or so when I was done, it was still dark enough that the light over the main door would turn on as I walked by. Mind you, sunset today was at 4:52pm, so I guess it wasn’t just the overcast skies.

At least the snow and rain that hit other parts of the province missed us. We’re wet enough right now, thank you! Interestingly, I noticed the signs up showing that we are under a fire ban in our municipality right now. We didn’t have a fire ban all summer, this year, so it’s quite unusual to have one start in the fall like this.

And here I was thinking it was finally wet enough and calm enough to burn that pile of diseased branches, as well as our burnable garbage.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 11C/52F, and even reach as high as 12C/54F on Sunday. The next few days will be a good time to get more done outside. The one cooler day is Friday, and I will be helping my mother with her errands that day.

For now, the important winterizing things have been done, and I can get back to cleaning up and and putting things away from the garden. It may even dry up enough to get our electric chainsaw out and finish clearing away that spruce that fell on the crab apple tree!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Cat shelter winterization

November 5, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today started off chilly and damp, but by the afternoon, things were quite pleasant out there. A good day to work outside.

Not a good day to get to the dump. It opens in the morning on Tuesdays, and we didn’t make it. It opens in the evening on Thursdays, so we’ll do our dump run, then.

My priority for the day was to get the cat shelters set up for the winter. Since the isolation shelter was going to go under the kitchen window, the first thing that needed to be done was to move the catio out of that spot.

The problem is, now that the roof is on, the overhang makes it difficult to grab the sides to move it, without face planting into the edge of the roof.

The solution: make handles for it, using paracord.

The first image in the slideshow above shows how I was able to get the paracord around the corner frame pieces. The end was threaded through the mesh on one side, into the loop of a garden twist tie, until it could be pulled through to the other side.

In the next image, you can see how the rope was tied to itself first, then the knot moved inside the catio before a another knot was made as close to the frame as I could, on the outside.

I admit, part of the reason I chose an overhand knot with some excess cord and put it on the inside, is because it’s right above the platforms. I expect the cats will play with the ends.

The next image shows how long of a loop was left for the handle. There is one of these on each corner.

This worked out quite well and allowed me to drag it easily across the yard. In retrospect, I should have put them lower down. Due to my own height, I can use them to drag across the yard, but I can’t lift it off the ground. If I had a second person using the other two handles, we could carry the catio that way, but my daughters aren’t any taller than I am, so it’ll still be mostly dragged on the ground. If it really is an issue, I can just undo the knots and lower the handles by a few inches.

In the next image, the catio is set up where I decided it will be for the winter. I wanted to make sure it was where it needed to be, because once it was wrapped in plastic for the winter, the handles would be covered and it would be more difficult to move again.

The roll of plastic I used is one of the sheets that was wrapped around the hot pepper and eggplant bed. It’s two vinyl table protectors from the dollar store, taped end to end.

I started at the door, making sure that it could still be latched and opened and closed without interference, then kept going. The vinyl is slightly wider than the height of the catio, but the excess can be tucked under the bottom.

It wasn’t long enough, though. I do have another roll, but it’s the same length, and I don’t want to double up so much. I do have one more table protector from the dollar store in the house, though, so I’ll use that.

Tomorrow.

The next thing to do was move the cat isolation shelter to a more open space.

Which is when I discovered a bit of a problem.

The whole thing is so heavy, and the ground is so soft right now, after all that rain, the wheels kept sinking into the soil! I had to wrestle with it, pausing to lift wheels out of the soil every now and then, to get it over the sidewalk, where I could work on it.

Where it had been sitting was not level, so the sloped roof ended up level. That meant rain didn’t drain off very well. I left the roof open and cleaned the seam out as best I could. I have an adhesive sealant to use on the seam later on, but the seam will need more cleaning, and be completely dry, because it can be used.

I then went digging through the scrap lumber my brother gave me to see if there was something I could use to put across the middle, to attach the clamp lamp to.

I found the perfect piece.

It was just long enough to fit across the top, lengthwise.

I could see it had been cut from a larger piece, but that’s just fine. I needed something narrow for the clamp lamp.

While getting ready to attach it to the underside of the frame, Stinky came to help. 😄

So did my daughter. She held it in place for me while I drilled pilot holes to screw it in place.

I am so glad I was able to make those sliding doors! It would have been much more difficult to access the underside of the frame to attach this. Even so, my daughter ended up taking over and finished the last two screws for me.

The cross piece was installed slightly towards the front, over the cat hammock. The clamp was also mounted sideways, with the lamp angled down, making it even closer to the front, and higher up than if it were just hanging straight now. I did not want to take any chance that a cat might burn themselves on it.

Once the lamp was in place, it was time to wrap the bottom of the shelter in plastic. I had a sheet of dollar store dining table protector, cut it in half, lengthwise. It took both halves to wrap all the way around, with maybe a foot and a half of excess that got folded under.

For both the catio and the isolation shelter, the vinyl was tacked in place with push pins. I decided on push pins because they can be removed easily. I want to use the vinyl again in the garden next year, so I wanted to avoid making larger holes. Pin pricks along the edges should be fine.

After the bottom was wrapped up, I set up a heated water bowl on one side of the upper level, and a food bowl on the other. A litter box, with litter in it this time, was put back into the bottom level.

Once that was done, I finished clearing the patio blocks under the kitchen window and set up the insulation we put over the basement walls and windows for the winter. In the past, we used an old bench and a bin against the insulation to hold it in place. This winter, the isolation shelter will serve that purpose for most of it.

Once the insulation was in, the shelter had to be wrestled over to the patio blocks. It didn’t have for to go, but there was always at least one wheel that would end up sunk into the ground!

The patio blocks are not at all level, either, with some of them heaved out of place by the roots of the elm tree in front of the kitchen window. That, at least, was easier to maneuver around, once all the wheels were on the blocks.

The next while was spent working out the safest way to set up the extension cord to power the heated water bowl and heater. The new cross piece came in quite handy, to wrap excess cord around.

In the last image of the slideshow, you can see the final result. It was getting pretty dark by then, so I did the evening feeding. Before I left, I could see some kittens checking out the bottom of the shelter, where there used to be a food bowl. It shouldn’t take long for them to figure out where it is now – and discover that there is heat up there!

My only concern is if the racoons discover it. We haven’t been seeing them as much, lately, as the temperatures drop. The sun room, at least, has the critter cam, and we can check it every now and then. We have no such option now. Even if we look out the kitchen window, it’s hard to see things directly below.

In time, we will get a smoke detector to put in there, like we have in the cat house. I’d like to put a thermometer in there, too, though one that’s mounted directly to the frame. The one we set up on a holder inside the cat house kept getting pulled down as the cats would play with it!

Right now, there are only two things left that need to be done. One is to get a carabiner for the latch; I think I have one available, but I’m not sure where it is right now. The other is to get some colour matched paint for the exposed wood. With the bottom wrapped in plastic for the winter, though, that will wait until spring!

I’m quite happy with how this has turned out. The Cat Lady has contacted the vet clinic about getting spays done and should hear back soon. Once she has it confirmed, she’ll let me know the date – and for how many! The isolation shelter is now ready for them to be in for their two week recovery period. Since we will likely be doing mostly, if not all, kittens, it could easily shelter three or four at once. With adult cats, I wouldn’t want to have more than two in there at once.

There is the insulated box nest in there right now, plus the hammock, but we will add more cat blankets or beds as well, once we know how many will be in there.

Next, we need to open up the cat house, clean it out and get it plugged in and ready for the winter. That will be a two person, job, as the roof is quite heavy, and the wood is starting to crack. It has to be opened very carefully, so it doesn’t twist.

I haven’t been seeing the cats use lately. The insides of the windows are so dirty, I can’t see inside very well. I’m a bit afraid of what we’ll find in there, after having to bury so many kittens this year. It could simply be because the sun room is warm, and the cat house isn’t, but they seemed to stop using it before things started getting chilly.

Well, we’ll find what we find. Hopefully, just a lot of cat poop or something benign like that! 😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Getting some rest today

November 1, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

I did get some things accomplished today, but ended up cutting back on some of what I planned to do. I was just too stiff and sore, and I’ll be heading to the city for our Costco shop tomorrow, so I didn’t want to push my luck.

I wasn’t happy with the garden tour video I took yesterday evening, so I tried again this morning. I think they will do, though I did catch some mistakes I made. Ah, well. I can edit in some notes when I put the tour video together.

The truck was booked for the garage today. When changing the oil, he forgot to reset the computer, so I was still getting the “change oil soon” warning. He also forgot to put on a new sticker. The check engine line turned back on again, so he was going to diagnose that for me, plus get some pricing for other work we already knew would need doing.

My appointment was for 1pm, but I left early so I could put in a bit of gas and a car wash. I still dropped the truck off early. They were having lunch! After talking for a bit about what needed to be checked out, I told them there was no hurry, as I had some errands to run.

Without the truck, doing them meant a lot of walking!

My first stop was the furthest. I headed to the dollar store. There were some things I was looking for, for the bathroom, but I wasn’t sure if they would have them. I did, however, find some embroidery thread that I plan to use for this year’s Christmas decorations (I try to do a different craft every year). They had also restocked on breakaway collars. I got their last five that had reflective strands in them. The last time I got some, I got four of them to put on the four males that had just been neutered, but three of them were gone the next day. I think I put them on too loosely. I’d hoped to find them around the yard or something, but there was no sign of them. Only Syndol still has his collar.

After taking the bells off, I put the collars on after doing their evening feeding.

I had to double check for tattoos on a couple of them, to be sure! I had enough collars to include Judgement (who was done on a cheap spay/neuter day, and has no tattoo) and Gouda. Right now, the only fixed cat that does not have a collar is Rolando Moon. The grand old lady has no need for a collar, and I doubt I could get one on her, anyhow.

I made them a bit snugger this time, testing them out on inside cats, first. Hopefully, that will do the trick, and they won’t get lost. So far, the cats didn’t seem to notice them, once I got them on.

After the dollar store, I stopped at a Red Apple. Once again, what I was actually looking for wasn’t there, but I did find a blackout curtain for my husband. He has a south facing window, and the sun hits him right in the face while he’s on his computer. We had curtains there before, but they were too long, and the cats destroyed their bottoms. This curtain also turned out to be really long, but we just folded up the bottom out of cat range and clipped it in place for now.

My husband is very happy with it! Plus, it’s wide enough that a second one isn’t needed.

By the time I made my way back to the garage, it was past 1pm, but the truck hadn’t moved from where I parked it yet. I was able to leave my bag of shopping in it, then headed to the hotel next door that has a Chinese restaurant in it, and had lunch.

When I got back to the garage, they were just finishing up with the truck and just had to look up the codes that came up while he scanned it.

So the thing that’s turning on the check engine like turns out to be the Mass Air Flow sensor. Nothing urgent.

The part, however, costs almost $180 (plus labour and taxes).

The other thing we need to get fix, but got away with not needing last winter, is the cord for the block heater. I discovered the plug had been torn off. This being a GM vehicle, they have proprietary cords. You can’t just splice a new plug in. It won’t work. Apparently, GM is the only manufacturer that is like this. A new one is just pennies over $80. Last of all, I requested an updated price for the one of the wheel sensors. That will be just under $105, which is pretty much the same as when I asked about it, a year ago.

Thankfully, none of this is urgent stuff, because we won’t have the budget to get any of it done until next month. I asked which he would consider a priority, if we could only do one at a time. He suggested the MAF sensor. Next would be the block heater cord. Last winter was mild a mild El Nińo winter, so we were fine without it. This year will depend on just how strong the La Nińa current turns out to be.

That done, I made a quick stop at the grocery store across the street, then headed home, with a quick stop at the post office along the way. I had a letter from the government waiting for me. At tax time, I get the caregiver tax rebate, while my husband gets a disability tax credit. These are the only reason why we get anything back at tax time. The caregiver tax rebate is provincial, and has to be renewed every three years. It was time for me to renew it to get it on my 2024 tax return.

It turned out to be easily done online, so that got taken care of quickly.

My intention had been to try and get some more work done outside, while the temperatures were good and there was still daylight.

Instead, I decided to make it a day of rest. Even working on the garden tour video turns out to be something I’m just too tired to do. It doesn’t help that the arthritic in my hands is really kicking in. The crackling noises my finger joints make is truly unfortunate! It makes typing rather difficult at times. At least my wounded finger tips on each hand are healing up nicely. Just the one I dropped the trailer tailgate on is still hurting.

I think today will be a day for an early bed time. I’d like to get a relatively early start for the city. I say “relatively” because sunrise is past 8:20am this time of year, though it is usually pretty light by about 7:30. I do my morning rounds once it’s light out, so I’ll head out shortly after.

I’m glad we got the truck checked today, but I’m not looking forward to doing Costco on a Saturday. Hopefully, making it an early trip will mean fewer crowds.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

A little bit of Gouda

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

Hello, Gouda!

I spotted him lying in the sun spot, enjoying the warmth, and hoped to get a picture of him in his happy place. Then he saw me coming up with the camera and got up to say hello!

He had no interest in leaving his sun spot, though. 😁

The Re-Farmer

Finally home

October 25, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Today it was arranged for me to go back to my mother’s place to help her with basic home stuff. These are the things my mother needs help with, but that Home Care out here doesn’t provide. Light housekeeping. Laundry. That sort of thing.

Of course, I stared my day with my morning rounds. This morning, I used some stock from the crockpot in the liquid I used to soak kibble for the outside cats.

Oh, my goodness, did they ever love it!

The kibble I picked up recently was the Walmart economy brand – we needed quantity over quality, this time. It didn’t absorb as much liquid as some other brands we’ve tried. That made carrying the bowl I use, without sloshing everywhere, rather more challenging! Of course, the first trays I add food to are in the sun room, and it’s easier to just put the bowl down in the middle of the floor and start scooping.

Thankfully, the scoop I have is larger and fairly deep, so scooping so much liquid works fine.

Of course, as soon as the bowl was on the floor, it was inundated by cats, already starting to eat, which made for another challenge to scooping it out!

This time, though, the cats were for more interested in the excess liquid. Hoo boy, where they ever excited with this treat!

This is definitely something we want to do more often. Especially in the winter, when not only having warm food first thing in the morning will be a help, so will the extra fat and nutrients in the liquid.

After the morning errands and breakfast were done, my first stop was the post office. Our powered anode rod has been in for a while, but we haven’t been able to pick it up until today. I was also able to mail my mother’s payment for her ambulance bill; she doesn’t trust her local post office, nor does she trust their outside mail box. She says some of her mail to Poland never arrived, and she’s convinced the staff at the local post office kept it back, because one of them mistook a letter she was sending as being to Ukraine, rather than Poland. As for the outside mail box, it got stolen and broken into, some time before we moved out here, so more than 7 years ago.

🫤

Anyhow. It’s sent, and hopefully, it’s made out to the right name, because there was nothing on the bill to specify who to make a check out to, since hardly anyone uses checks anymore.

With all that, plus a quick stop for some gas, I got to my mother’s at about 11, which is the time I normally get there when I’m planning to run errands for her. I did pick up a treat to go with our tea, though.

I was there for just a few minutes when my cell phone started ringing. That happens so rarely, I’m always surprised by it. 😄 It turned out to be our mechanic. When I called about having our truck towed to them, I spoke to one of his employees, as he wasn’t there, nor was he there when the truck was dropped off. He just found a note with the keys and my phone number on it, so he wanted to know why it was towed in!

I explained to him what happened and what we did, just to get the truck home. After hearing that, his initial thought was that some gunk got into the switch – that’s now three different people who have suggested this being the most likely reason the alert kept going, and the pressure gauge kept dropping, even after we’d added as much oil as we did. I told him we were already planning to book an oil change (after we had to cancel it when I booked it about a month and a half ago), with a diagnostic to figure out why the check engine like was on. My OBD II scanner gives several possible reasons, not nothing definitive. Once he had that information, he could take a look at it and know what he was looking for!

I haven’t heard from him since then, so that tells me he wasn’t able to do that today. This is something he would do in between other customer bookings, when he has a bay open, so that could take a while.

Of course, my mother was hearing bits and pieces of the call, so she was wondering about how that was going, so I explained it a bit before we got to work.

One of the first things she asked me to do was to check the schedule in the laundry room. It turns out her apartment was blocked off for 1-3pm. There two other apartments blocked off for the morning, but no one was doing laundry at the time. Lunch hour wasn’t blocked off for anyone on any day. We figured it would be fine to start early – but maybe not too early.

After getting her laundry out and sorting it the way she wanted, we settled in for some tea and conversation until her Meals on Wheels was delivered. The volunteer delivering it was one of the social workers that comes regularly for planned activities. When she got there, she told my mother that someone from Home Care had come out yesterday, but she wasn’t home. We asked what time, and she said at about 1pm.

My mother’s appointment in the city was at 1pm!

Normally if there is something going on, Home Care calls me, first, as I am the primary contact person. If they did, I could have told them my mother wasn’t going to be home at that time, but no one called either of us. All the social worker knew was that it was something about meals, and not about my mother’s medical assist visits.

They really should have called first. The social worker figures they’ll try and stop by again, later, but when she first brought it up, it sounded like she thought my mother had an appointment with them, then skipped out on it. We figure it has something to do with the bulk meal preparation we were originally going to get for my mother, until she decided to go with Meals on Wheels instead. I think the Meals on Wheels is the better choice for her. I don’t think she could tolerate someone preparing and packing up meals in her apartment for 2 hours for very long, even if it was every two weeks. Plus, she is so happy with the Meals on Wheels food she is getting!

After she had her lunch, we made up a grocery shopping list for her, then I started her laundry. Her building has two washers and two driers, so I got both washers going, then headed out to do her grocery shopping. With having prepared meals delivered three days a week, it reduces her grocery list a fair bit, so I was done, back and put everything away before the washing machines were done!

After her first loads went into the drier and her last load was started, I took advantage of her watching daily mass on TV and did some sweeping and dishwashing and whatever else I could see that needed doing, then sat and finished watching mass with her.

I did have a bit of a mystery that got solved while I was sweeping up.

Shortly after I got there, and I got the call from the garage while she was getting dressed for the day, I saw her taking a bucket of urine from her room to the bathroom. I figured she was finally using the commode in her room, but couldn’t see it. While sweeping in her bedroom, I saw that it was gone, and there was a table where it used to be.

It turned out to be in the living room, covered with a cloth and being used as a table.

I don’t understand why she refuses to use the commode. Her bucket fits perfectly into the pan it comes with, so she doesn’t have to struggle to remove a pan that would need to be carried with two hands. Instead, she’s squatting over a bucket? With her wrecked knees? I just don’t get it!

Well, we can’t force her to use the thing, I guess.

While sweeping, I also found one of the traps left by the exterminator and checked it out. There were plenty of insects stuck in it – it’s that time of year, when more of them come into the warmth – but no sign of bed bugs that I could tell. I was looking closely while going through her laundry and while sweeping, too. Nothing. The exterminators still need to come one more time, and she should have gotten the notification letter telling her when they’ll be coming by now, but she hasn’t mentioned anything to any of us.

We’ll have to be on top of this, so we don’t have a repeat of her almost getting herself evicted for refusing to let them in.

Anyhow…

My mother had told me she would fold her laundry herself, but I did that for her. I was going to need the basket for her last load, anyhow. She also had some things that were too heavy for her that I moved, and others that needed to be tucked up higher than she could reach for winter storage.

All in all, I was there for about five hours. My mother was really tired by then, too. She’s still having trouble sleeping at night, but with all this going on, she wasn’t able to nap during the day, either. She was still going to get two medical assists for her medications, with one of them typically about an hour after the time I left, so not much point in trying to nap then!

After leaving my mother’s, I made a quick stop at the grocery store for a few groceries to tide us over until CPP Disability comes in next week.

Once at home and heading to the house, an absolute army of cats came out to see me, clearly looking for supper! I left my daughter to put away the groceries and mail, then headed out to give the cats their evening feeding.

They were very happy kitties!

Especially this one.

This one is black with a white blaze on his chest – no other white that I can see – and I call him Midnight. He is friendly enough that, once we are able to get more of the females spayed, we will be able to easily catch to get neutered.

That reminds me. I want to find more breakaway collars to put on the cats that get fixed, so we can spot the ones that are done right away. I did pick up a collar recently to try out, not realizing until I went to remove the packaging that it was not actually a breakaway collar. With outside cats, I won’t use any other type, as the risk of them getting caught on something and choking is too high. So far, I’ve only found them at a local dollar store. Hopefully they will have more, the next time I get there. I got four of them, but only Syndol still has his. I think I put the other ones on too loosely. Since then, Gouda was neutered, but he and Rolando Moon are the only orange cats we have right now, so there’s no mistaking them for other cats.

So that was how things went today. Hopefully, over the next few days, I can stay home for a change and finally get work done outside! At this point, the very least I want to get done (besides finally harvesting the potatoes and sunchokes) is plant a bed of garlic. Anything I mange to get finished beyond then, as far as the winter sowing I’m hoping to do, is gravy.

I just need to have a few days at home, with no running around, to do it!

Wish me luck!

The Re-Farmer

“You’re mother is dying.”

October 24, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

No.

No, she isn’t.

But that’s what she told me when I got a call from her this morning.

This is starting to become a common refrain, unfortunately.

My schedule for today included heading to my mother’s nice and early, so I could drive her to the city. She had an afternoon appointment for another eye injection *shudder* to try and stop the bleeding of her wet macular degeneration and maybe – just maybe – improve her vision in that eye.

I tried to get more information about what was going on, but just got repeats of her usual. Her breathing. She only got 2 hours of sleep, and it’s because of her pills (it’s not because of her pills). Her chest pains (acid reflux). Pain in general. Even her incontinence. She’s convinced she is dying.

On the one hand, I get it. I totally get it! She feels like crap, and the idea of driving 1 1/2 hours to an appointment that would take at least an hour, then another 1 1/2 hours drive back, would seem overwhelming.

She’s 93 years old with busted up knees.

Yeah, I get it.

On the other hand, she has no understanding of just how good she is doing. I mean, she’s really amazing. At this age, her sister was already in the nursing home, being shuttled around in a wheelchair, and falling deep into dementia for several years. There are people far younger than her that are doing far worse.

Plus, canceling and appointment like this at the last minute is a big deal. There is only one place that does these treatments, and if she wants to retain any vision in that eye (she did say she was noticing an improvement), she needs these treatments.

Her response was, what does it matter, if she’s going to die, anyway?

She tried to guilt me, saying that I didn’t believe her. I told her, it’s not that I don’t believe her, in how she feels. I’m trying to understand why she thinks she’s dying. Because, really, there is nothing new in her complaints. That’s what I keep trying to get to. What is happening that’s different, that’s convincing her she’s about to die any at any minute.

In the end, she said she wasn’t going to say anymore and was going to say good bye, then she hung up.

At which point, I messaged my brother and his wife to let them know the situation. They are so busy right now, it’s the last thing they need to deal with, but they needed to know.

In the end, I decided that I would go to my mother’s place, anyways, and talk to her in person. If she still refused to go, I would phone the clinic and cancel the appointment from her place.

I meant to leave early, but so many cats were following me to the car, I had to ask one of my daughters to very noisily feed them.

Yes, they’d already been fed.

Including sweet Gouda. What a lovely kitty he is!

It was Syndol that would not stop following me to the car. I kept moving him away, and he kept coming back. I finally had to carry him all the way to the house, where he finally noticed the kibble and went to eat.

So much for leaving early, but I was at least on the road at the time I was intending to be.

While I was driving, my phone started ringing. I couldn’t answer, of course, but I’d told my brother that I would be on the road, and I figured it might be home.

It was.

When he couldn’t reach my by phone, he sent a quick message. He’d phoned her, they had a good talk, and she will go. He called her in between meetings at work, so he had to be brief. By the time I parked and could check messages, my SIL added that my brother had finally told our mother that they were selling their place, just so I would be aware.

So when I got to my mother’s apartment, she was up and ready and waiting.

She then launched into giving me all sorts of instructions on what to do and where to find things when she died. I honestly think she expected to die during the drive in.

She did mention my brother’s call, but as she was giving me instructions, including about her finances, she brought up my brother, and how he has the farm, but he wants her money, too. I sold her, the only person that wants her money is our vandal, and reminded her of the legal steps my brother had taken to protect her from our vandal. She just scoffed, then said that my sister was the only one who didn’t care about my mother’s money.

Which is weird, but she does like to try and play us against each other.

I’d worked out a time when we had to be on the road by, to get to her appointment, and we ended up leaving almost 20 minutes earlier.

She did walk very slowly to the car, lots of panting and pausing. It was a struggle for her to get into the car, and then she sat there, panting.

She really did play it up.

Her struggle to get into the car was very genuine, though. If we were using the truck, I probably would have had to practically pick her up to help her in!

She made a comment about her breathing as I was getting in, but then pretty much stopped the act at that point.

As we were driving, she started telling me things like, she’d talked to some of her neighbours in her building, and one of them had the same thing she did (at least that’s how my mother understood it), she didn’t go anything, and it went away. Then my mother told me about a Jehovah’s Witness that used to come visit (how many decades ago was this???) who talked about losing vision until she prayed and God healed her, and her vision had been fine ever since. She also told me about how, years ago (how many years?) she remember she had black spots floating around in her vision. She never went to the doctor, never did anything different, and they went away.

All I could say, really, was that these are all different things. That’s great for them, but that has nothing to do with you’re specific situation.

Also, for someone who was complaining about getting only a couple of hours sleep, she was very talkative and alert. I suggested she could try napping during the drive, but she wanted to enjoy the scenery…

Anyhow.

She told me she’d gone to bed at around 11, woke at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep, no matter what, and it was because of her pills. I told her, we know it’s not the pills. It could be anything. Even just busy brain or stress. Oh, but you don’t know what I’ve lived through…

???

Eventually, she brought up about my brother selling their property, and that they were selling it privately, not through an agency.

I’m not sure what reaction she expected from that.

I reminded her, I had told her, my brother is preparing for retirement.

She did bring up about him not selling the farm – the property we are on – and I told her, he can’t sell it. That was part of my father’s will.

She dropped that, too.

Overall, though, the conversation during the drive actually went pretty well. She kept commenting on the traffic. She still seems to think traffic should be like when she and my father lived in the city until the mid 60’s.

I’m glad we left as early as we did, though. It’s construction season.

If we’d left when I originally planned, we should have arrived about half an hour early. Leaving when we did, we should have arrived as much as 45 minutes early.

We got there 10 minutes before her appointment.

They took her in almost immediatley.

The next while spent getting her eye dilated while the tech tried to get images and video of it.

Normally, during these tests, they ask you to focus on a green X, or a picture of a house, or some such thing, in the middle of the device over the eye they are looking at.

With macular degeneration, that’s not possible. She can’t see the middle of anything.

So the tech instead set up a tiny green light on an adjustable arm in front of her left eye, and asked my mother to try and focus on that.

My mother kept getting distracted.

What do you mean a green light? It’s white?

There’s a dark spot in the middle.

The light isn’t on…

After a number of attempts to get video, I finally started to explain, they just needed her to look at that spot. It didn’t matter what the colour was, or anything else. It’s the location she needs to focus on.

I think she finally understood that, but by then, the tech was done!

She was then sent to a waiting room before the next stage, but the doctor requested one more image. He needed a specific location photographed, so he could compare with an image taken last time.

That, at least, was quick!

We do have good news.

The bleeding in her eye seems to have stopped. There is still a bit of blood in there, but mostly there is scar tissue right in the middle of her vision.

Then he asked her if she wanted to continue treatment!

She deferred making a decisions (which is her usual way), wanting him to make the decision for her. Which he couldn’t do, of course. He did say he would recommend still getting the treatments since, if they are stopped now, the bleeding might resume. I finally said we should at least do a treatment today, and we decide about further treatment later.

Meanwhile, my mother launched into how she’d had these black spots floating in her eyes, (I told her, this is not the same thing, and the doctor repeated that) and they went away on their own, etc. The doctor told her, this is not going to go away on its own.

She dropped the subject.

So they went ahead with the treatment, with a light freezing of the eye, adding antiobiotic drops, and finally the main freezing. That one needed 7 minutes, and my mother was asked to hold a tissue over her eye and just relax for a while.

As we were waiting for the freezing, the doctor and the tech – plus a third person that was in training – started looking at other files. They spoke quietly, but I could hear bits and pieces, and could see some of the images they were looking at.

All I can say is…

My mother is doing really great! She is there at a time when she can actually get treated, and the damage is relatively mild. At one point, I could hear them lamenting that there was absolutely nothing they could do to help one particular patient. She had simply waited too long to get checked. As quiet as they spoke, I could still hear the pain in their voices.

The doctor had a timer going, so they were soon back working on my mother. She got her injection, and was reminded that she will have redness, which is normal, but if there’s any pain, she is to come back right away.

As for the next treatments, he told her she no longer needs to come back in 4 weeks, but maybe 4 or 5 weeks. I checked my calendar and saw that my husband is rebooked for his CT Scan in 5 weeks, so it would have to be 4 weeks for my mother.

The doctor was very understanding about the long drive in, and that the next treatment would be winter driving. There is simply no other clinic like this that’s closer. One is planned for the town we are closest to, but that’s all it is at this point – plans.

Once he was done, that was it. We just needed to book the next appointment, then go.

By that point, we were both hungry – my mother hadn’t even eaten breakfast! – but neither of us were up to trying to find a place to eat in the city. We talked about where to go in her town and she wasn’t enthusiastic about her choices. Then I suggested we stop at the gas station where I could pick up her favourite fried chicken and wedges.

She was quite excited over that idea!

So we had a good drive home – traffic was a lot lighter, and we were no longer in any construction zones.

I picked up the food and got her home. She was pretty famished by then! I got enough that she could have another meal out of it later.

After that, there were a few things she needed help with. One was a letter from the government that she didn’t understand. Another was helping her write out a check to pay for her ambulance bill, from her trip to the ER a month or two ago. It didn’t come with a return envelope, though – they expect people to pay via etransfer, credit or debit. She didn’t have a suitable envelope, so I ended up taking that home to get ready to mail, which I will do tomorrow.

As we were talking, she mentioned that she needed her laundry done. She hasn’t been up to doing it herself, and it’s been piling up. She said she hoped to “hire” my sister to do it – but my sister and her husband are coming home from out of province tomorrow, and tomorrow is my mother’s laundry day on the building’s schedule.

I also noticed, her fridge was looking empty.

But she never asked me for help. I even asked if she needed shopping, but she said the only thing she needed was milk.

Okay…

That was it!

I left soon after. I’ve got her check ready to mail and have my own parcel to pick up at the post office.

I really, really need to get more work done outside. Tomorrow was going to be my first day in quite a long time where I didn’t need to go anywhere, and could get back to it.

*sigh*

I’ve just arranged to go over to my mother’s tomorrow, to do her laundry and, if she puts a list together for me, her grocery shopping, too.

The long range forecast has changed, again. The snow I was seeing in the beginning of November seems to have gone away for the most part. We’ll even have some warmish days. If the weather holds, I should still be able to get things done.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, we’ve had no word from the garage about the truck, which means no one has had a chance to look at it yet.

I also had a chance to talk to my brother this evening, and got to hear the rest of how his call with her went. He had so little time to make the call, he basically just told her, go to the appointment, and that I was already on my way to get her. When he mentioned that yes, they are selling their property, she launched into her usual lecture about how the value of land only ever goes up, etc. He just let it slide and had to tell her, he needed to get back to work.

When I talked to him this evening, it was after he’d had a very long day at work (he starts at 5am), and was at the property, packing up shed contents. They’ll be coming out here this weekend with the stuff they are keeping, but they are also sending stuff to auction.

It’s a huge job, that’s for sure!

So we will be at least seeing my brother and their friend on the weekend, with trailer loads. I honestly don’t know where he’s going to be putting things at this point! Most of the sheds here can’t be used anymore.

I’m sure he’s got a plan, though. He always does!

So that’s been my day today.

How was yours? 😁😁

The Re-Farmer

We have cat food again!

October 23, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Would you look at these happy critters?

This was taken in the late afternoon. This morning, they did get the food I used the slow cooker to make for them overnight. They dug right in!

Unlike the inside cats. They turned their noses up and their cooked food! Even when the girls gave them some of the canned cat food we still had, putting it right on top of the food cooked for them, they ate around the cooked food, but left the canned cat food that was on top of their cooked meal.

So I gave the rest of it to the outside cats, after feeding them with kibble, and they dove right into that, too!

Our inside cats have gotten fussy!

Yes, I was able to get cat food today – and we even have a vehicle now!

Getting some progress, though not as much as I’d hoped

October 21, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today turned out to be a gorgeous day. We reached a high of 22C/68F and, as I write this at almost 9pm, we are still at a lovely 14C/57F.

As usual, my day started with the feeding of the outside cats and my morning rounds.

I got an enthusiastic “thank you for a warm breakfast!” cuddle from Colin.

We were expecting my brother to come out today with their storage trailer; they had to hire a semi truck driver to haul it out for them. With that in mind, after I had my breakfast, I headed back outside to start re-bagging the aluminum and removing the mixed metal. Quite a few of the bags have been torn open by the cats; they can smell all the empty cat food cans in there.

After opening the gate for my brother, I set myself up by the garage, where the bags are stacked, with a folding camp chair, a crate for the mixed metal and the magnet keychain the salvage yard gave me.

And gloves.

Definitely gloves!

Then my phone started going of with messages from various people, including my SIL, keeping me up to date on their progress, so I would know when to expect them. It was a pleasant surprise that my SIL was able to come along this time.

With all the interruptions, though, I barely got through sorting half a bag before they arrived with the truck driver!

So, of course, I joined them and got some video to sent to them later on.

While my brother and the truck driver got the trailer lined up with where it needed to be, my SIL and I were staying a safe distance away. This put us near the old log building by the fire pit with the collapsed roof. Thinking about by brother’s suggestion to have the metal salvage company come out in the spring, instead of this fall, to give us time to add more to the salvage pile, I decided to take another look inside the log building to confirm my memory.

Yes, there were several old appliances in there, and even an old wringer washer. In fact there is quite a lot of metal in there.

Including…

… what that another grinding wheel sharpening stone? (I’d found another one, several years ago) Also…

… what was that I was seeing next to it?

Something that most definitely NOT be going for salvage!

What a find!

I can’t see well enough to know how this old grindstone was powered. The gears are all ceased, but that can probably be fixed.

If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see the grinding wheel still has its axel, unlike the one I’d found back in 2020. It’s a shame there’s no sign of the pedal powered frame it would have been on, though the pieces may well be buried in there.

I showed them to my SIL and told her, I’m thinking we have enough to have the salvage company come out this fall, then come back again next year. As far as I know, they won’t go into a collapsing shed like this to get stuff, so we’d have to pull out all the metal ourselves.

I forgot to talk to my brother about it, though, by the time the trailer was set and the driver left. They then needed to check inside to make sure nothing fell over or got damaged, so I left them to it and started going through the aluminum again.

They had to leave soon after checking the contents, but they will be back again next week, this time with a friend and a second trailer to haul things! They’re going to be running out of space to store things soon. 😄

After they left, I finished the bag of aluminum I was working on, then headed inside to help my daughter. Today was the day we could finally put up the tub surround!

That took way longer than either of us expected.

The problem was figuring out where exactly to cut the holes for the taps and faucet, then how to cut the holes themselves. We don’t have any hole cutting tools.

After much measuring and marking and measuring some more, my daughter marked out where the holes needed to be on the back of a panel. Then we headed outside and used incrementally larger drill bits to make the holes. My largest drill bit wasn’t going to make a large enough hole, of course, but I could still use it to enlarge the holes before we switched to using a utility knife – one of the alternative tools recommended in the instructions.

Eventually, we got them done and set it over the pipes to see how it fit.

For all her measuring, one of them didn’t.

The problem is, there is nothing level or plumb in our bathroom – neither the walls nor the tub!

We took turns carefully shaving off more and more of the opening over the hot water tap until we could finally get it on, and the panel was flat against the wall.

Which is when my daughter discovered her mistake.

Before we started measuring for the holes, the panels themselves had to be set against the walls, with their positions marked off, so that the corner pieces could properly cover the edges.

She measured and marked the back of the panel, as if it were the front. The whole thing was off by about half an inch.

But only at the top.

🫤

We’ll just have to figure it out.

Last of all, a notch had to be cut out at the top to fit under the shower. The previous tub surround fit under it, but these panels are ever so slightly taller.

They are also ever so slightly narrower. Which means that areas of old adhesive cannot be covered by the new panels.

We will also have a bit chunk of open wall open on one end.

We’ll have to figure out how to work around this.

Meanwhile, I had to move on to other things while my daughter got out the caulking gun to apply the adhesive. I was able to give her a hand as she was finishing with the second panel, then helped her with the third.

After being adhered to the walls as best could be done with how things are, they were taped in place and left to sit for about 20 minutes, before she could remove the protective film, then adhere the corner pieces.

So I headed back outside to work on the aluminum again.

I ended up out there for several house, coming inside only long enough to hydrate or use the bathroom!

Here is how things looked when my daughter finished adding the corner pieces.

It now needs to sit for 48 hours before they can be caulked with a silicone sealant.

Which is probably what we’ll have to use to cover the gap between the panel over the taps, and the corner piece.

Once the sealant has had a chance to fully cure, we will finally be able to put the new taps and faucet back on, and the tub and shower will be useable.

Though we still don’t have hot water.

I was supposed to call and see if we might still be able to get a warranty replacement, but never got to it. Meanwhile, the powered anode rod we ordered is ready for pick up, and I wasn’t even able to do that!

I did, however, get some decent progress on the aluminum.

In the first photo above, you can see the six bags of sorted aluminum. I had only two new clear bags left, so I have been finding ways to salvage bags that weren’t too badly damaged, and reusing them. With the mixed metal removed, and filling the bags as much as I could while still being able to tie them off, I was able to combine at least 8 bags into those six. I wasn’t really keeping track, but … hold on. Maybe I did…

If you click through to the next photo, you can see the rest of the bags that need to be sorted through, on the left. On the right, there’s one bag with mixed metal in it, had half a bag of aluminum (it got too dark to continue). I had to throw away three bags that were too torn up, one of them a smaller blue plastic recycling bag, but a couple of bags were double bagged, and I was able to salvage the outer bags. When putting things aside for the night, I stuffed three empty bags to reuse, into the crate. Not counting the two new bags… That makes 10 bags of that I’ve sorted through, for 6 1/2 bags of aluminum, and almost a full bag of mixed metal.

Tomorrow, I plant to keep at the sorting, then we’ll see how many we can fit into the truck. Unfortunately, we are now expecting to get rain between 8am and noon. If it’s raining, I’ll move the truck out so I can bring the bags into the garage to continue sorting. I don’t expect to be able to head to the salvage yard until the afternoon. After that, I’ll be heading to the nearest Walmart for more cat food. We are almost out!

While was writing this, the Cat Lady started messaging me. She has someone who is looking for two male feral cats – actual ferals – to adopt! That would require trapping. We’ve got a few that we can’t get close enough to see if they are male or female.

We should be able to catch 3 female kittens and one adult female without need of a trap, so she will see about booking us for spays next month.

I told her about my plans to go to the salvage yard with some aluminum tomorrow, then to the Walmart, near where we usually meet up. She had asked me to let her know when I’d be going there next, as she has some cat beds and a cat tree for us! When I told her I was needing to buy kibble, she told me she would get a couple of bags for us, and can meet me tomorrow afternoon. That is so awesome of her! Every little bit helps. That 40 pound bag I got just a little while ago is already almost gone, partly because I had to use it for the inside cats, too.

So that’s my plan for tomorrow, I guess!

Which means I’d better be getting myself to bed.

Until next time, then…

Have a wonderful day!

The Re-Farmer

Progress so far

October 19, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

My plans to work outside today have been derailed by high winds.

Hopefully, all the leaves in the yard haven’t been blown away, because I was planning to use them as mulch!

Stuff did get done, though.

But first, the cuteness!

The kibble I picked up yesterday is a different brand from what I’d picked up at the beginning of the month. The pieces are quite a bit smaller. When I set them to soak, it was absolute mush by the time I headed out to feed the kitties.

They didn’t seem to care one whit! They are just loving their warm breakfasts!

Once back inside, my first priority was to see if the leftover pieces of wood lath could be used as spacers in the cutaway portion of the wall around the tub. I was afraid they would be too thick, but they turned out to be the same width as the fake tile paneling. They were too thick for some places that already had spacers of a sort in them. We’ll just have to work around that.

My main focus was around the pipes, and the outer edges. There were also a few nails that simply would not come out, nor could they be hammered in, along the back wall, and I wanted to make sure there were spacers in between them. The areas you can see in the photo above with no spacers added are where there are already spacers of various sizes.

After that was done, my daughter grabbed the tube of mold and mildew resistant sealant. Unfortunately, when she started to apply it with the tip of the tube, the back end of the tub popped open! So she ended up squeezing the sealant out the back and using her finger to scoop it and spread it. If you click through to the second image, you can see part of where she used it. She sealed the cut edges of the openings around the pipes, and every corner and edge around the cut out portion.

She used most of the tub, but there was still a bit left. Since the tub was broken, it wouldn’t last and we didn’t want it to go to waste. I was able to use the last of it for what I’d bought it for in the first place; this stuff is both sealant and adhesive, and I used it along the edge of the overlapping roof panels on the cat isolation shelter.

Unfortunately, there is just no way to clamp it down. I put weights on, but some places still just did not want to stay together. We will just pick up another tube – this stuff is very inexpensive – and go over it again later. The catio roof needs to be seals, too.

Working on that roof was somewhat alarming, though. I’m glad the entire structure is as heavy as it is! It’s in a sheltered area, but not from the south winds we have today. The south facing edge of the roof panel was being rattled by the wind quite a lot.

Thankfully, we screwed the roof panels down quite securely. It could still potentially get blown off, but it’s not that bad, yet. We will need to keep an eye on it, though, because the wind could loosen, if not tear off, some of the screws.

Speaking of which, I was curious about what is officially considered “high winds” so I looked it up.

Did you know there is a wind scale, like there is an earthquake scale? It’s call the Beaufort wind scale.

According to the weather app, we’re getting 30kph winds. On the Beautfort scale, that is a “fresh breeze”, when “Small trees with leaves begin to sway.”

Yeah, I’m calling BS on that. Based on what I was seeing when I was outside, we are somewhere between a 6 and a 7 on their chart – a “strong breeze” or “near gale”, with the occasional “gale” gust strong enough to take down branches. I’m finding small branches all over the place, these days.

Anyhow… where was I?

Ah, yes. Sealant.

The sealant needs a full 36 hours to dure. After that, everything will get one last coat of paint.

Once that is dry, we can try and figure out exactly where we need to cut holes into the tub surround to fit over the plumbing.

So we’re looking at a couple more days before we can start installing the tub surround.

Since there is nothing more we can do in the bathroom for now, and it’s too windy to work in the garden outside, my daughter and I really pushed to get as many dishes done as we could. Without hot water, we’ve been mostly just using the kettle for hot water, which doesn’t go very far when it comes to doing dishes. This time, we filled up our stock pots (not the giant one; that would be too heavy for our glass top stove) to heat, then kept refilling and heating more. We were finally able to get those odd items that gets set to one side as we do loads of things we use the most often that somehow never get done.

My older daughter, who was working all night on commissions, sent me some funds for take out, so as the last of the dishes were being done, I headed into town to pick that up. We’ve had more take out in this month than we’ve had in years!

When I opened the garage door for the truck, I saw something curious on the tailgate.

Tiny little hand prints in the dust, from something that was climbing up to the box cover.

Those are not kitty paw prints, that’s for sure. Those are tiny little racoon hand prints!

What I don’t know is, why would racoons be climbing the truck? The box is empty, and there isn’t even food garbage anywhere in the truck or garage.

As long as they don’t damage anything…

Anyhow…

The sealant in the bathroom needs dry conditions as it cures, so no one is going to be heating up stock pots of water and use the tub for washing. Back to sponge bathing in the sink!

With getting as many dishes done as we were able to, though, I was able to set up the slow cooker with just water in it. That can be left without someone continually there to keep an eye on it, and we’ll have a larger amount of hot water handy for general washing and can just top it up as needed. Much better than our poor, over worked kettle! Our kettle is clear glass, and we can see just how quickly the rust and scale builds up! My older daughter gave it a good scrubbing last night.

Well, we might not be able to get more done in the bathroom until the sealant cures, not work done outside, so I guess this is a good day to collect the ripened tomatoes and peppers in the living room and see if there is enough to process for the winter!

Time to get back to it, then!

The Re-Farmer

The Re-Farmer

Sometimes, you need to go back, to go forward.

Critters

A day of driving

I think they like them!

Cat shelter winterization

Getting some rest today

A little bit of Gouda

Finally home

“You’re mother is dying.”

We have cat food again!

Getting some progress, though not as much as I’d hoped

Progress so far

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