Well, I got the shopping done, with extras. Along with the cat food (three 9kg kibble bags and one 32 count case of canned food: $132.92), my daughter sent funds for a few things. I went to the Canadian Tire for litter pellets and found a box fan for the girls to use upstairs, along with 20″x20″ furnace filters. They attach the filter to the back of the fan to keep the dust and cat hair down – or smoke, if there are fires in the area. I also found the trellis netting I need for when the peas and beans are bigger. I needed netting with wide enough openings to reach through to harvest. I even remembered to pick up couplings to repair a couple of hoses. My daughter transferred extra to cover some groceries while I was at the Walmart, too, which was nice.
One thing our truck has that our van didn’t is a temperature display. After I loaded up and was ready to come home, it was reading 26C/79F. Here at home, we’ve reached or expected high of 25C/77F, with the humidex at 26C/79F, but I would not be surprised if we get higher. We now also have a 54% chance of showers tonight.
I’m still going to water the old kitchen garden out of the rain barrel. Between the house and the ornamental crab apple trees, it doesn’t get the rain as much as other areas, so it’s pretty dried out.
(update: it’s just after 3pm, and we’re now at 27C/81F with the humidex at 28C/82F )
After I got home and my younger daughter and I unloaded, she and I moved the mini greenhouse out of the living room, and moved one of the shelves over, so we can hook up the AC. I had to fuss with it for a bit, as the duct from the AC is larger than the vent pipe to outside. As I was McGyvering a secure fit, I was literally dripping with sweat. The thermometer in the living room was at about 22C/72F. The living room almost never gets hot, so this is really unusual!
Now that the AC is running, I’ve also got a fan on the piano, blowing the cooler air into the dining room. This should help quite a bit!
When the truck was unloaded, I gave the outside cats a feeding to make sure none were under the truck, and I could move it to the garage. As I was leaving kibble under the shrine, I saw a little fluff ball!
We knew there was a litter in the junk pile, only because we could hear meowing while working nearby – but that was a while ago! I was wondering if the mama had moved them or something. Now, we know there’s at least one surviving kitten in there.
It’s getting to be that time. However many litters and kittens there are out there, we’re going to start seeing them, and the mamas will start bringing them to the food and water by the house as they get older.
Meanwhile, I’m going to see how much more I can do outside, before the heat and humidity force me indoors again. I suspect I’m not going to be able to finish that bed today. We’ll see.
So with the sudden appearance of kittens in the sun room (I think we have identified the mama, and they now have their own food, water and cat soup bowls in the cage🩷) I got to work rather later than intended! When I came inside for sustenance, hydration and rest, my app said it was 17C/63F, feels like 17C/63F. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, no, it feels like 25C/77F out there!
The main job for today was to get the remaining shifted bed properly lined up and prepared for planting. We don’t have logs to frame it ready right now, but I needed to get the bed set up as if we did. Plus, the weeds were already starting to take over!
I started off on the new side of the bed, which had so many weeds taking it over, I could barely tell where the edge was! With some pieces of sod, they were so full of Creeping Charlie, I just tossed the entire sod rather than try and sift out the soil. Any tiny root left behind will start growing again.
Once it was clear, I went over it with the thatching rake, filling in some low spots. The north end of the bed is where it’s been extended from about 15 or 16 feet to 18 feet, so that end is a bit on the low side.
After tamping the soil down with the rake, I went and got the old boards I found in the barn that have become so handy in the garden. They are 6″ wide, so they will make a good guide for where the logs will be. They will also give me a surface to stand on, while planting.
After doing the new side edge, I walked on them to tamp them into the soil a bit. One of the boards is so old and rotting, every spot I stepped on, cracked! The long side took four boards, with a bit of overlap.
After adding boards over the ends, it was time to work on the side that is where what had been almost the middle of the bed, previously! The north end of the bed needed quite a lot of soil pulled over to fill it in, which was good, because quite a lot of soil needed to be moved from the middle, before I could mark the remaining side of the bed. Once I got that end filled and a board laid down, I went to the south end and did the same, before working my way towards the middle.
Of course, with all the digging and shifting, along with the weeds to get rid of, there were more tree roots, and plenty of larger rocks to take out. This is one of the beds that was wider. Now that it’s measured to 4′ wide, with the width of the future log walls taken into account, that means there was quite a lot of soil to mound in the middle!
Once the sides were levelled off, the boards in place, and the soil spread more evenly from end to end, I sort of flattened the top of the mound for planting.
By this time, however, it was getting way too hot. It was time to go inside for lunch and hydration, anyhow. The whole thing took about 2 1/2 hours. About twice as long as I thought it might take!
But, it’s now ready. When I head out next, it will be to plant the last of the winter squash, and intercop them with a super early sweet corn. Then, because the sides of the mound are as steep as they are, I’ll used some of those grass clippings my daughter so kindly collected for me, to mulch the sides and keep them from sliding onto the boards.
The next bed that has to be done hasn’t been shifted at all, yet, so it needs some serious weeding and digging. I expect an entire section will need to be removed entirely because it’s so full of Creeping Charlie. What a waste of good soil!
While I was having my lunch, I was watching the critter cam. I caught the orange tabby batting at one of the kittens, so I went to deal with that. He wasn’t trying to actually hurt it… yet.
This particular kitten is the most exploratory, and is already quite content to be picked up and snuggled!
Later, I saw the cat we’ve identified as the mama come in. She was eating the kibble I left on the floor in front of the cat cage… and the little brave one was eating, too! Then mama left, and the bitty kept on eating.
They now have their own bowls of kibble, water and cat soup, inside the cat cage.
I’ve also pulled the blanket I had blocking the opening they could get in and out of, since they were obviously still getting in and out. I used a small plant stand and some cardboard to turn the “door” into a ramp, so it’s no longer partly covering the opening under it. I’ve been able to pick up three of them for cuddles, so far. The black and white one I picked up last night, thinking it was one of Broccoli’s kittens, objected the most to being picked up again!
Other cats have been curious about them, including several I know are mamas, which made me doubt which one was the real mama of this batch. Eventually, though, I saw the mama come in on the critter cam, and the kittens went running to her, and even tried to nurse her while she was still walking!
I brought a smaller cat carrier into the sun room and set it next to the big one, so they have a couple of carriers to explore and, if necessary, hide out in. I also tied off the sun room door, with the inside door partially closed. This not only discourages other cats from coming in (now that all the food and water bowls are outside again, they come in only when they start getting hungry, waiting at the old kitchen door for the kibble to appear!), but the inner door blocks more light, so the room won’t get quite so hot. With the doors open and the sun shining through, the temperature in there starts creeping up to 30C/86F.
I’ll need to adjust the critter cam a bit, to see more of the floor area. It’s so adorable, being able to watch the kittens running around and playing in the sun room!
It’s just past 2pm as I write this, and we’d reached 19C/66F, with the humidex at 24C/75F – and we’re supposed to reach a high of 21C/70F, still! It’s not supposed to start cooling down until after 8pm.
I still need to get out there and get things transplanted, but working on the next bed will have to wait. I’m not going to do that kind of manual labour, in full sun, at these temperatures.
I keep trying to go to bed early, so I can get an early start out there, but things keep interrupting!
It’s almost the middle of June, already, and the garden is barely half in.
*sigh*
I have to keep reminding myself: little by little, it’ll get done!
Okay, I was definitely wrong about that kitten I found in the sun room last night.
This morning, I heard the beginnings of a cat fight in the sun room, so decided to quickly feed the outside cats right away, instead of waiting until I headed out to to my morning rounds. By spreading kibble all over, it would get the cats out of the sun room, and away from that baby. I messaged a daughter to join me, to check on kittens, and went on ahead with the kibble.
The first thing I saw was two kittens on a cat bed INSIDE the cat cage! Then I spotted two others outside the cage. It was like they were still trying to be close to each other.
I left some food for the mama – whoever that is! – in front of the cat cage, then went outside to feed the rest of the cats. Meanwhile, my daughter tried to figure out how to get at the two outside the cat cage, and put them with their siblings.
I saw Broccoli at the kibble on the cat house roof, so I went around to the old garden shed to leave some food for her there. No sign of her two, but unless they pop out to look at me from their hiding place in the back, I have no way of knowing for sure.
Now that I see the kittens in the sun room, I realize they are younger and smaller than Broccoli’s would be by now.
When I got back to the sun room, my daughter had just managed to reach one of the kittens, and was able to pass it to me. I gave it a cuddle, then put it with the two inside the cage.
It was more difficult to get the other one! It ended up going behind the cage, where there is a window sill the cats like to sit on.
I took the plants outside, then we had to mess around with the plant table to make space. The “table” is an old folding closet door over sawhorses, above the cat cage. An extra board was added for the cats to sit on, instead of the plant trays. That got removed, which gave a bit of wiggle room, but the kitten made its way to the other side of the cage. My daughter had to get down on her hands and knees and squirm under the sawhorse, but she managed to reach it and pass it to me. I got a quick cuddle and put it with the others.
Yes, the kittens hissed and spit at me while being cuddled, as expected.
My daughter was able to pet them a bit through the doorway of the cage, which is at the second level, before going back in to wash up.
Now, we set this cage up for Toni, in hopes that we could keep her in there to recover from her leg amputation. She had kittens somewhere, and we cut a small opening in the cage side, under the “door” for her kittens to fit through.
We didn’t expect Toni to be able to squeeze through the openings of the cage, though! So she ended up inside and, as far as we know, her kittens got adopted by the creche mothers. We never got the straight of which ones were hers, so we can’t be sure.
We’ve left the cage in the sun room and several cats quite enjoy going in there for naps.
After the kittens were all in the cat cage, I finished putting the last plant tray out, came back and…
There was a kitten, outside the cat cage, looking at me. It had found the opening!
I was able to grab it and pick it up – and it didn’t really resist this time! After I put it back in, I set other things back in place, including putting that board back over the sawhorses, but I also grabbed a cat blanket to put over the opening. I stuffed part of it in the opening, from the inside of the cage, and already had to move away the kitten that was going for it again!
After the opening was blocked and the kitten dug around in the blanket a bit, looking for the opening, it just sat there, looking at me.
So I reached in and pet it.
It let me!
I went inside and got a few cat toys, and put them in the cage with the kittens. It didn’t take them long to start investigating!
Over time, we’ll take the spare little litter box that was donated to us, and set it up in the cat cage. It’s small enough for the kittens to crawl into.
I’m going to have to check the critter cam more often, and hopefully spot which of the cats is the mama. I just checked now and the only cat I can see in the sun room right now is Stinky – a male – napping on the board above the cage.
The interesting thing is, the mama would have put the kittens inside the cat cage herself! The kittens can get out but, once out, they can’t seem to figure out how to get back in. Aside from the opening under the door, the bottom of the cage is lined with cardboard on the inside, since we were trying to stop Toni from squeezing through the 2″ square wall pieces (the are 1″ square).
I would love to get Broccoli’s kittens in here, too!
Well, time to get my butt in gear and get outside. We didn’t get actual thunderstorms in our area last night, but I need to see what wind or rain damage there might be. Especially on those melons that were transplanted yesterday. They are the most fragile transplants compared to all the others we’ve got. Then it’s back to work to prep more beds, so the last of the transplants can go out!
When I set out kibble for the outside cats this morning, I saw Broccoli come over to eat. I made sure to go to the old garden shed to check on her kittens and leave some food for her.
I did not see or hear any kittens.
Later, as my daughter was mowing the lawn, she saw the kittens outside, running around and playing with their mom. That was encouraging!
This evening, after my trip into town, my daughter and I unloaded the truck in the yard. After parking the truck, I saw a lot of cats prowling around, so I checked their kibble bowls, even though I’d fed them earlier.
There was nothing left at all, and the cats were circling like sharks!
So I gave them a top up, and even ended up scattering a bit of kibble in the sun room, along with all the other little places I leave food, to ensure less confrontations between cats.
As we were already getting some rain, after I tied off the outer door to the sun room, so the cats can still come in, I partially closed the inner door.
I found a fluff ball hiding behind it!
It was the black and white kitten from the garden shed!
So I picked it up and cuddled it for a while. He did not like that very much, and kept spitting at me ! I put him into the cat carrier, making sure the door was propped open so it couldn’t get stuck in there, and let it be.
I just went looking at pictures I took of the black and white and the calico together, and suddenly, I’m not sure it’s the same kitten. This may be an entirely new kitten! They look very similar, but … well… you tell me…
The garden shed kitten seems to have more white fur around the eyes, and the dark parts of his fur seems not as dark as the kitten in the sun room.
I may have picked up a completely strange kitten!
I’ve looked through the bathroom window a few times, and it’s still there, exploring and playing in the sun room, or just sitting at a window, watching the other cats going through the old kitchen garden.
The rain started last night and, while never particularly heavy, it continued through this morning, and we’re still getting the odd showers. It’s only 17C/63F out there and windy, making it feel like 12C/52F, according to my apps.
Overcast, damp and chilly…
… not a surprise that I woke up in pain and have been feeling ready to fall asleep all day.
Definitely not the sort of weather to take the transplants outside, never mind actually planting anything.
So it’s been an inside sort of day, and not a very productive one.
I think I counted 25 this morning! I did not see Broccoli or her kittens, nor did I hear anything when I left food in the old garden shed for them. Hopefully, they were just being very quiet, and have not been moved.
I’m rather concerned about Patience, Peanut Butter Cup’s brother outside. While their fur colours are very different, they look very much alike. PBC had problems with a leaky butt that has improved substantially. Patience, however, has suddenly gotten worse. His poor behind is looking quite unfortunately and messy. Whatever the problem is, it’s only affecting him and (previously) his sister. So we can rule out quite a few possible contagious causes. We’re already dosing their kibble with lysine. We’re not in a position to start dosing them with something like the Healthy Poops stuff that we’re giving the inside cats through their daily Cat Soup mixture. It’s not like we can isolate the one cat and treat him, right now, either.
Well, such is life with semi-feral cats, unfortunately. Hopefully, he will improve as time goes by.
In other things, my mother had her home care panel yesterday, and it went “well”.
Too “well.”
He went through one of the panel lists with us – about a dozen pages – and a few times, he simply handed it to me to read over and mark things off. This dealt with her physical challenges. He explained, before we started, how the “marking” system worked, and what was used to determined the level of care a person might need.
Before he arrived, my mother had made a list of concerns, as I suggested, that we went over together. I’m glad I showed up early to do that. My mother’s writing is a mix of Polish and English, usually with English words spelled phonetically Polish. Others… I’m honestly not sure how she’s deciding to spell things! Some of the things she wrote down, though, I just couldn’t figure out.
There are a few things she keeps trying to bring up with anyone she things is a medical professional of some sort, even when it’s not something they can answer – like asking the lab tech taking her blood about her urinary issues. This time, she was adding things like her burping. She complains about burping a lot, but as she talks more about it, she eventually says that she is having pains and making herself burp actually makes her feel better. After much questioning about the pain she’s feeling, she seemed to be talking about just below her solar plexus, but also about general chest pain. It is incredibly difficult to narrow things down because, no matter how many times we’ve tried to explain things to her, she cannot grasp basic anatomy.
While going over the list, there were things that, on their own, were not topics he could deal with, so we talked about what he was there for again, and the concerns she had, both physical and mental, that he could take into account.
Of course, once he was there, she found ways to talk about all sorts of things that were completely outside of his scope.
I’d also told her that this was the time to talk about her worst and most difficult days; the reasons why she doesn’t feel safe living where she is now.
When the time came, though, she – as always! – made light of the major things, and made a big deal out of the minor things!
I tried my best to keep her more honest, but he can only go by what she says and agrees to. So if she says she can cope with her knees, even though they are what puts her most at risk, he has to go with that. Meanwhile, she’ll start talking about waking up with a dry mouth at night as if it’s such a big deal, even though we’d already talked about how she’s probably just falling asleep with her mouth open. I tried to explain to her the difference between that, and having a medical condition that causes dry mouth, as they are VERY different, but she completely dismissed it.
In the end, he had a few things he could offer her from Home Care.
She rejected almost every one of them.
The only area she was willing to give in was for a commode to keep by her bedside, and you could see, it really was a “giving in”, not something she wanted. Frankly, I don’t know that she’ll even use it, but will keep using a bucket, instead. We’d already tried to loan her a commode, and she would not use it. Granted, one they provide would be a lot more comfortable and have hand rails. So we’ll see.
Among her concerns was how much harder it is for her to cook her meals or do her dishes, etc. because of her knees. She has to hang on to the counters, or use her cane, to get around her apartment. Meal prep was offered. One option was to have someone come to her home a couple of times a day to basically do a heat and eat, or prepare a soup and sandwich type thing. They only have 15 minutes, so they can’t cook a meal from scratch. Not something that would be very useful for her. The other was to have someone come every couple of weeks for 2 hours, and do a whole meal prep from scratch, with the complete meals left in her fridge and freezer to heat up as needed. That would have been very useful for her.
She turned it down, because she prefers to cook her own food – or use Meals on Wheels.
She actually had home care a few years back, as she was recovering from surgery. She hated it and was nasty to the home care worker. Back when I was a kid, she actually did home care for extra money every now and then, and she doesn’t understand that what she did, 40 years ago, is completely different from how it’s done now. Even the qualifications have changed. If today’s requirements existed back then, she could never have done any home care at all.
Basically, she wants help, but hates getting help, because it’s never “right” or good enough.
One of the things she brought up was moaning about how she’s probably going to need a wheelchair soon (she’s been saying that for a few years now). I reminded her, we have one waiting, if she needs it. It’s my late father’s wheelchair that was brought to her, but then she decided she didn’t need it, so I took it to store here until she decides otherwise. I mentioned that my brother tried to give her mobility scooters and even a powered chair (much smaller), and she started going on about how they are so jerky to drive, and they have batteries. I had to explain that she’s a bit paranoid about batteries, but was unable to elaborate.
When talking about the wheelchair, though, I remembered to point out that she might not be able to use a manual chair. She might not have the arm strength for it, anymore. Operating a manual wheelchair is hard work!
By the end of it, it was obvious she didn’t “need” the long term care situation she wants to move to. The guy even expressed frustration early on, as many doctors have no idea what the approval process for LTC is, and just assume if they say a patient needs it, they’ll get it. There are so many people on the waiting lists for LTC, only the most severe cases actually get in.
There are, however, other options.
We’d been talking about Assisted Living for my mother, which is a step below LTC, however there is another step that’s basically between places like where my mother is now, and Assisted Living, called Supportive Housing. (In other provinces I’ve lived in, Assisted Living and Supportive Housing was pretty much different names for the same thing.)
There are very few such places, though. He named a few towns and the city, none of which are places my mother wants to live in.
There is, however, one in the town my brother lives in.
He suggested we look into it as somewhere my mother can go. I looked it up later, and the place is just a few years old. The building is split between Supportive Housing and 55+ Independent Living, which is sort of like what my mother is in now, but with better amenities. My brother and his wife will check it out, when they have the chance, because their website really kinda sucks. 😄
There were quite a few things, however, I needed to tell him that couldn’t be talked about in front of my mother, so when we were done, I walked him out to his vehicle. As we were passing through the lobby, there was a folded up wheelchair available for residents, and I told him that’s much like the one we have that my mother would be using. He told me he was glad I caught on that she might not have the arm strength to operate a manual wheelchair anymore. That’s not something they typically have to consider, since anyone at that stage would be using a motorized wheelchair – which my mother doesn’t want.
Once at the relative privacy by his vehicle, we chatted for a while. I clarified a few things for him, but there was so much, I missed a few others I wanted to bring up, but forgot about until later.
With some of them, he asked if the geriatric care nurse that had done the cognitive assessments was told about. With some, I couldn’t remember but, with others, I know I did discuss them with her. This was also where I mentioned the situation with our vandal, which is also relevant, but from the cognitive function area, not physical mobility and self care, which is his area. With things like her physical condition being worse than she made it out to be, there was really nothing he could do. If she says she’s good, he has to accept it. Her cognitive impairment isn’t severe enough to override that for her own safety.
So… my mother sabotaged herself again.
He is going to follow up with the person who did the cognitive assessments, though.
The other thing he’s going to arrange is for an Occupational Therapist to come in. If there are any changes that should be made to her apartment, they can make recommendations. This sort of assessment, done for my late father, is why this house has arm bars and hand rails, everywhere, and why we still have his bath transfer chair, should my husband’s bath chair no longer be enough.
I think my mother should really be using a hospital bed – especially with her concerns about breathing. Maybe if the OT suggests it, she’ll finally accept? She really ought to be sleeping more upright, for her breathing issues, and have a bed that is lower to the floor to make it easier for her to get in and out of. When I bring it up, though, she says she “doesn’t want to bother anybody”.
Which reminds me… I did bring up that a lot of the health complains she makes – the minor ones, not the serious ones she makes light of – are clearly more about her wanting attention. A better way to describe it, though, would have been that it’s about control, too, but I didn’t think of that until just now.
Oh, I also remembered to talk to him about mental health. At some point, she did have a diagnosis, but we don’t know what it was. My brother had tried to track down her old health records, with no success. When we first moved here and I was packing up the stuff in my mother’s dresser, I found a full box of pills prescribed to her. The doctor that prescribed them passed away quite a few years ago. When I looked up the medication, one of the things it’s usually prescribed for is manic depression (now called bi-polar disorder, I believe), but that may not have been her diagnosis at the time. She has a very long history of simply stopping medications she’d been given, or not taking them at all. I told him I believe she may be paranoid schizophrenic; she’s a textbook example of that, and I told him about some of the things I remembered her doing when I was a kid. This is not a new thing. It’s just getting worse as she gets older.
As we were talking, he gave me a copy of another assessment he had – this one is “only ” six pages long – that we didn’t cover. It’s a Behavioral Assessment. When I was able to go over it, I realized we really needed to have done this one – but there was no way we could have done it with her! She is not aware that these behaviours of hers are a problem, and feels entitled and justified to act that way. As I went over some of the questions, my first thought might be “no, she doesn’t really do that”. Then I’d read the examples and realize, yes, she does this. A lot! But these are things she doesn’t usually do when she’s alone at home. She does them when she’s with us.
I was able to talk to my brother about the home care assessment, yesterday evening. With some of the stuff, my brother has more information than I do. I sent him images of the Behavioral Assessment, and he was going to try calling the home care guy some time today, in between meetings. Hopefully, they’ll be able to connect.
So that’s were we’re at now.
In limbo, really.
My mother’s just on the edge of qualifying for the level of care she’s asking for, but not quite there yet. At least when it comes to the stuff we talked about at the time. If we’d been able to do the other assessment, it probably would have made the difference.
Still, even if we can just get her into Supportive Housing, it’s a foot in the door, and there would be trained people seeing her every day that could make determinations, as to whether she needs more help than they can give her. Once she’s on that path, it’ll be easier to get her the next step up, compared to where she is living now.
One thing about the place he recommended. If she moves there, I will become the one living furthest away from her. There would mean no more errands, or driving her to medical appointments, from me.
It would be back on my brother, as he would be the closest to her – and she has been so horrible towards him! If she’s living in the same town as him (they don’t actually live in the town, but on an acreage), she would expect him to be waiting on her, hand and foot.
There were a few things that were planned for today. The trip to my mother’s was the biggest one, but I was also planning to get a quick, low raised bed for the Crespo squash done, as well as to finally get a family photo done.
This adorable little lady still won’t let us anywhere near her. She is from the latest litter of last year, and isn’t quite a year old yet. I really, really want to snag her before she goes into her first heat, but she just won’t allow it!
When I did the morning feeding, I didn’t even try to do a head count. They come and go too much, this time of year. I did check in the old garden shed to see how the kittens were doing, but they were not visible. I saw them through my bedroom window, last night, playing among the stuff pile at the back of the shed, over the rotted out hole the cats get in and out of. That was reassuring, as I’d feared Broccoli had finally moved them. This morning, though, I didn’t see or hear anything, plus there was still kibble left from yesterday, just inside the door. I didn’t see Broccoli at the kibble house, which is what usually happens when the mamas have moved their kittens further from the house and don’t necessarily hear the kibble hitting the trays.
I’m happy to say, though, that when I went around the back of the house this evening, to check on what I thought was where I was hearing a cat fight, I spotted the black and white one playing among the remains of a pallet, then Broccoli popped out to check on what I was doing. So the kittens are still in the garden shed.
After my morning rounds were done, the weather was good enough that I thought we could finally get the group photo done, out by the lilac hedge. As I was setting up the tripod, my husband and older daughter started coming around, when my daughter suggested we find somewhere else.
My husband was barefoot.
I had no idea my husband no longer had outside shoes! He has tried to buy himself some sandals online, a couple of times, now, but … well… let’s just say, my daughters now have new sandals. When I would take him to medical appointments, he would wear his grandpa slippers, which I thought was just a comfort thing. There was no way we were going to let him walk through the old garden area to the lilac hedge, in bare feet! Especially since he doesn’t feel pain in his feet anymore.
So we decided we will wait for the Dwarf Korean lilac by the house to start blooming, and do the photo there. Hopefully, he’ll have outdoor shoes by then, but if not, it’s only a few steps from the house and there’s nothing there he can injure himself on. These lilacs will bloom in a few weeks, so it’s not much of a delay.
I had thought I would have time to start some projects before I had to leave for my mother’s, but decided to head to her place early, rather than work on things that would get me dirty and sweaty. 😁 I figured I’d pick up lunch for us, too. I checked the grocery store, first, to see if they had those hot dinners she likes so much, but they didn’t. Instead, I put some gas in the truck, and picked up some fried chicken and wedges at the same time.
I gotta say, my messed up left elbow is annoying. When starting to put fuel in the truck, I couldn’t squeeze the lever on the nozzle! I had to switch hands to do it! Strange how an elbow injury can prevent certain motions in the hand from happening. It wasn’t even the pain. The hand just couldn’t squeeze while in that angle!
Ah, well.
I tried calling my mother before I left to let her know I was coming early, but there was no answer. When I got there, she was in the lobby, chatting with a neighbor, so seeing me then was a surprise for her. 😊
She didn’t even give me a hard time for what kind of food I brought, so she was definitely in a good mood.
We had our lunch first, which is when I noticed something on her table that needed to be dealt with. It was an appointment card for a local doctor that she made with my sister, but never told me the date for. She’s wanting to change doctors, even though any doctors out here tend to not stay long, and only come out a few days a week from the city, anyhow. But she doesn’t like her current doctor, and while her racism and sexism plays a part, the reality is, it’s hard for her to make the trip, and between the doctor’s strong accent and fast speech, and my mother’s own grasp of the English language, she has a really hard time understanding what the doctor is saying. The problem is, the appointment with this new local doctor was for Monday.
The day she’s getting her Home Care panel done.
When I commented on it, she asked if I could call and cancel it for her. Which I did, as soon as we finished eating. It was a very quick call, which really surprised my mother. I think she expect them to give me a hard time for cancelling or something, but it was no issue at all.
That done, we brought out her bubble packs and I started looking up her medications. It turns out the water pills she’s on are a round white pill – and she’s taking two different round white pills! They are taken at different times of the day, though, so they were in different bubbles in her pack. While I was at it, I went through each of her prescriptions and wrote down what they were for, and what they looked like, so she could keep track. She thought her water pills were the one that’s split in half and taken twice a day, but that one is a heart pill! It took a lot of repeating and explaining, with both of us writing things down, but I think she finally has it straight as to which pill she is to stop taking, and when. What finally seemed to help make it click for her is that she is now taking 2 pills in the morning instead of 3, but everything else is the same.
I wasn’t going to confuse things by pointing out it was actually 1 1/2 pills. 😁
She has one prescription that is for acid reflux that is in its own bubble, to be taken before she goes to bed. As we were talking, she mentioned that she takes it with her evening pills, because she didn’t want to be bothered with taking a pill again before bed.
She takes her evening pills at 5pm. She doesn’t go to bed until past 10pm.
Suddenly, the problems she was having that the Pepto helped with makes sense. The one medication that should have prevented that was being taken way too early in the day.
*sigh*
But we got it straightened out, and she says she’ll take that one pill before going to bed, again.
She absolutely will not change the times she takes her morning and evening pills, though. It’s 5am and 5pm and that’s it, even though the recommended time frames on the bubble packs would mean not having to get up at 5am every day, but at a far more reasonable hour!
Not something that’s worth giving her a hard time over, though. She just takes her pills, then goes back to bed for several more hours.
After that was done, we went over her shopping list, and then I went and did her shopping for her. I even remembered something we talked about, but wasn’t on her list – a small case of water bottles! It turns out, she remembered that after I left, so she was really happy when she saw me carry it in.
We then spent some time talking about her need to increase hydration, and how these 500ml bottles can help her keep track. I was able to show her that the amount of water she should be drinking was 4 of those bottles – which seemed to shock her. It’s only 2L. The average amount of water an adult female should be drinking (including about 20% fluid from food) is just under 3L. I don’t expect her to be able to start drinking that much right away, but it’s a visible and easy way for her to keep track.
On her list was some canned soup, for those days she doesn’t want to cook, but now also because she is keeping in mind that she should eat more soup for hydration. As we talked about it, she mentioned that she couldn’t open the cans. She had to get a neighbour to do it, for her! She says she needs a new can opener, but she is also having more trouble with her hands. The easy solution would be to get her an electric can opener, but I think that might actually be beyond her.
We’ll figure something out. The good thing is, she has neighbours that are willing and able to do it for her, until then!
Remembering that she was having trouble using the can opener, I remembered to open one of the water bottles for her, just in case, and jokingly nagged at her until she drank some.
She took the tiniest of sips, and that was it! I’m hoping it’s just because she’s not used to drinking from a water bottle, and not because that’s how much she usually drinks at a time!
Oh, I was also able to help her put some things away, that were still sitting in the middle of her living room, from the last time the exterminators were there. While I was doing that, I noticed the traps they’d left in various places, so I checked them. There were a very few insects caught in them, but no bed bugs. So that is encouraging!
While I was sorting through some things to put away for her, I pulled a jar out of one of the bags.
A jar with change in it, labelled “bingo”.
My mother seemed surprised to see it, but then started saying they don’t play bingo anymore, so maybe she should use the change.
I think this is the jar of change my mother claims the exterminator stole from her. When she talked about it, I had in mind that this was a larger jar, like a pickle jar or jam jar or something. Not a tiny jar like this one. Now that I think about it, a larger jar like I thought she was describing doesn’t make sense, as she said it was completely full, and she wouldn’t be able to pick up larger jar with the weight of change in it. Her hands are just too messed up with arthritis.
It didn’t stop her from checking inside the jar while I continued sorting, and making comments about how the exterminators just love going into her apartment, so they can go through her stuff, while she’s gone.
*sigh*
Ah, well.
After I finished at my mother’s, I headed home, then took the time to send an email to my siblings to update them on how it went, before heading outside. I’ll share more about that in a separate post. While I was working in the sun room, though, I spotted a visitor!
With my computer dying before Christmas, we never did our traditional family photo that I email to family and friends every year. With the lilacs in full bloom, we were doing to do it now, posting under the lilac hedge.
The weather did not cooperate.
Then I got an early morning phone call from my mother’s doctor. My mother’s last lab work included a kidney test. The last time she had this done would have been around February, and the results were fine. This time, there was a significant decline. The doctor explained the test results and gave me instructions for my mother; she needs to stop taking her water pills, and work on hydration.
I’ve been trying to get her to increase her hydration for quite a while, now!
Then she needs to be tested again, in a month.
That call done, I knew it was too early to call my mother, so I sent an email update to my siblings, did a short version of my morning rounds and had breakfast.
I did make sure to leave food for Broccoli in the old garden shed. Her kittens were not in the cat bed, but I could hear her growling in the back somewhere, so I left the food and closed the door. As I was leaving, I saw her pop out where the hole in the back of the shed is. Later on, I saw her standing guard near the shed. So I’m guessing her kittens are still in there, but that she’s tucked them somewhere in the back, under a bunch of stuff that’s been in the shed since before we moved here.
After a couple of hours, I tried calling my mother – and she was still in bed! Ah, well. I told her about the call from her doctor, and explained the instructions for her. The problem is, she’s not sure which of her pills is the water pills. I have a photograph of her prescriptions in her bubble packs, but that’s somewhere in the external drive of data saved from my dead computer. I sort my pictures by date, and I have no idea when I would have take the picture. My brother has the list, but won’t be able to get to it until he gets home from work.
After talking to my mother, I called her doctor’s clinic and asked about her requisition. I wanted to know if they could send it to the lab in the hospital that’s just a few blocks from my mother (the clinic there has even more trouble keeping doctors than other towns we’ve tried). It turns out they can’t fax it to that lab. They’d be willing to, but it goes against the rules of the other lab. However, if I were in the area, I could swing by and get it printed out for my mother. Once she has a physical copy, she can go to any lab she wants. So I’ll see if I’ll be able to do that within the next few weeks. Otherwise, I’ll have to drive her to the town her doctor is in, and that’s very tiring for my mother.
I did make arrangements with my mother to help her with grocery shopping tomorrow, so I can go through her prescriptions and verify. She’s on the same water pills my husband is, but when he showed me his, they didn’t look like any of hers, so they must be from a different supplier. The pharmacy we go to is a different franchise.
Speaking of pharmacies…
I was getting ready to head outside, when I found out I was going to need to go to the pharmacy. I was planning to do a dump run when it opened in the evening, then a run into town anyhow, but that would have cut things close to the pharmacy’s closing time, so I left for town right away, instead. By then, the post office was closed over the lunch period and a couple of packages had come in early, so I went to a couple of other places after getting the medications, then did the grocery store last. Once of the things I wanted to do was pick up a new water jug, along with getting a refill. With one of the jugs springing a leak, we were down to three, and that was just not working out. I was rather shocked to discover getting a new 18.9L jug cost just over $26!!! The fill is free when you buy a new jug, but I did have to buy a new cap, since I had to take off the cap it came with, in order to fill it.
All the running around took several hours.
I must have over did myself yesterday, more than I thought, because by the time I got home, I was pretty much wasted. I still feel wasted, and it’s all I can do not to just go to bed right now. It’s not even 6pm yet.
It also rained again. We weren’t supposed to get rain today. Not much. Just smatters of rain, but there’s no chance of anything really drying out right now.
I did make myself go outside, though. I gave the outside cats a light afternoon feeding (the little skunk was back for food, too!). I wanted to at least check all the transplants. The plastic on the box cover around the eggplant and hot peppers was starting to tear loose on one side, so I stapled that back on. The twine I tied around it yesterday did help, but the winds have been just insane for the past while.
All the transplants look just fine, though. None of them look stressed at all in their new locations. I’ve no doubt their protective plastic rings has helped with that, considering the winds we’ve been having. I checked the mulberry, too, but they didn’t look all that healthy when I planted them, so all I can say is, they don’t look any worse!
The largest chokecherry tree, out by the main garden area, has started to bloom. It actually starts blooming later than the ones along the edge of the spruce grove that I haven’t removed. Those ones actually get more sunlight than the one by the garden. The double lilac in the old kitchen garden is starting to pass its peak blooming period, but the honeysuckle are just starting to open. The white lilacs are also well into their blooming period now, while more Cherokee roses, by the sun room door, are starting to open. The pink rose inside the old kitchen garden has buds, but even with the pruning we’ve done, it still doesn’t get as much sunlight because of the ornamental crab apple tree in the corner of the garden bed. Those have bloomed, but not as much as in the past few years, and all of the crab apple trees seem to already be done blooming. They did not stay in flower for very long at all!
All the common lilacs are blooming now and, as you can imagine, the yard smells amazing! At least for a few moments before the wind blows the scent away. The dwarf Korean lilac by the house is still just budding, and then there’s the one I can’t remember the name of, over the be vehicle gate into the yard. That one blooms last of all.
I wonder if it would bloom earlier if we got rid of that big elm tree by the people gate? It does seem to be struggling a bit more this year. That could be because it’s so close to the “moat” that’s formed around the garage, with all the rain we’ve had.
Checking on things and repairing the box cover over the eggplant was about as much as I could manage. Even my ears are burning, from being out in the wind, yesterday and today. That left elbow is still giving me grief. I forget about it, until I try to pick something up, and my arm just fails on me. At least I can still turn doorknobs. 🫤 I took more pain killers and they should have kicked in by now, but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Ah, well.
I just want to hang on a bit longer before going to bed. Hopefully, I’ll get an early start tomorrow – and well finally get that family photo that keeps getting delayed, along with everything else!
As I was coming back from leaving food for Broccoli near her kittens (I did not stop to pet them, as she was still somewhere in back of the shed), I found the kibble house jammed full of cats. Several ran off before I could get a picture. The kibble I did put on the cat house roof was being ignored. Cats like to shelter in the back of the water bowl house, so when I put kibble on the tray under it, I emptied one of the water bowls and put some kibble in there, too. They have plenty of places to eat and stay out of the rain!
Needless to say, the transplant trays weren’t taken outside for hardening off this morning!
I checked on the beds I transplanted into, of course. So far, they all look as strong and upright as when they were put into the ground, yesterday. They are handling the rain just fine.
Some of my onions, though, are having a different problem. I found a cat sitting at the end of the bed where some Red Wethersfield onions were. *sigh*
At least he was just sitting, and not digging!
On a completely different note, I’m a bit at my wits end with some of our inside cats. The two male tuxedos, in particular. Even though they are both fixed, they both spray. Not just spraying, but urinating, too. We keep finding new and different places they’re leaving puddles. Last night, my daughters caught Leyendecker peeing on my old steel toed shoes. I hadn’t thrown them out as, even broken, they could be used as a back up pair. So much for that idea.
In my bedroom, I use a vintage mirrored dresser and a night stand that my late father used (my husband uses the matching wardrobe). I discovered part of the dresser was being sprayed, and I had to set up a stool with its legs around that part of the dresser, and puppy pads, to protect it.
For the longest time, I was trying to figure out how puddles were forming *under* the floor mat I had under my office chair to protect the carpet. It was one of those rubberized mats suitable for outdoors. It recently had to be thrown out and got replaced with one of the large outdoor mats from the sun room. Even with a puppy pad on the area, puddles were still forming under that mat. I’ve been laying puppy pads down on the floor, with part of the pad up against the storage bins I have against the wall, there, but would still discover puddles under the mat in that spot.
It turns out the storage bins themselves were being sprayed, above the puppy pad, so it was flowing under the pad, instead of being absorbed by it. I now have to hang puppy pads on the side of the storage bins. Considering how tight this corner is, with the office chair in the way, it’s a very determined cat that’s doing this – and I’m not even sure which one it is!
This morning was the most disheartening, though. I was sitting on the side of my bed, when I noticed my lamp had shifted. No surprise; some of the younger cats have decided they want to get to the top of the wall shelf, even though where they try to climb is blocked by a huge box. They’ve been knocking the box right off, along with other stuff that’s stored up there, some of which is there specifically to protect them from the cats.
Well, I moved the lamp aside, and discovered the remains of a puddle under it. It had been there long enough that the veneer had absorbed most of the liquid and was badly warped and cracking.
After wiping it down, I put layers of paper towel on the spot, weighed down with a stack of books and my rotary dial phone, which is about as heavy as all the books together. I’ll have to check on it, later to replace the padding and see if the weights are helping to reduce the warping.
I’m not even sure how a cat could have done this. With both a lamp and the big rotary dial phone, there’s just barely enough room on the top of the nightstand for a cat to walk over it to get to my craft table. And how did the cat manage to spray under the lamp, with no evidence on the lamp itself, or anywhere else on the night stand? I go into that nightstand every day, morning and evening, since it’s where I store my supplements and meds, and never saw anything until the lamp itself got shifted.
Right now, I am fighting the urge to start tossing cats outside, though that would just trade one set of problems for another. It’s getting to the point that I’m thinking we may actually have to have the two male tuxedo’s put down, and we sure don’t want to do that. One of them moved out with us. The other has already had thousands of dollars in vet bills spent on him. But they are causing so much damage. Not to mention the stress of so many cats in the house.
June is Adopt a Cat month. It’s hard enough to adopt out an adult cat. Adopting out a “problem” cat (even though the problem is being around too many other cats) is almost impossible. The Cat Lady currently has 31 cats in total, and a lot of her permanent ones are there because most people want cats that don’t actually require much out of them.
On the plus side, we might be able to get an arrangement with Broccoli and her kittens. The large animal rescue that is not far from us is currently working hard to make it a family destination of sorts. They’re putting in playgrounds and a petting zoo. I was asked if we had a cat with kittens. Their cats are all fixes, so no kittens. They’d like to have a mama and kittens to socialize and rehome, as part of the things they want to show visiting families. This would be part of their rescue fundraising activities, and helping to spay and neuter colonies like ours is one of their goals. The only challenge will be catching Broccoli. She’s been letting me pet her during feeding time, lately, but that’s very different from getting her into a carrier.
Well, we can’t really complain, I supposed. Taking care of the cats is something we chose to do. The alternative would have been to simply get rid of them, which has been repeatedly recommended. I’m not quite ready to call the municipality to send someone out with a rifle. Not that we have a municipal council right now, but the province should have someone assigned to run things until they set up a new election. I hear that’s not going to happen until July, at the earliest!
It is what it is. We do the best we can.
But I’m really, really starting to lose patience with the spray boys.
I was able to say hello to the babies this morning, and cuddle them for a bit. One of these mornings, though, I will need to bring a daughter along. The kittens are getting big enough and active enough to climb out of their “nest”. When I first opened the door, the calico was in between a bucket, their bed set up and some netting. If I can get someone to snuggle the kittens and keep them warm, I want to take more stuff out of the old garden shed that they might get hung up in. Ideally, we’d move them to the baby jail in the sun room, but the room is too busy, I think. Both with us going in and out, and other cats. Broccoli would probably move them out.
We’ll figure it out. For now, I’m just happy she hasn’t hidden them already.
While continuing my rounds, I had to get some photos of the lilacs on the East side of the house.
The ones by the house bloom a bit earlier than the same type of lilacs that form a hedge along the north property line. The house itself creates a bit of a microclimate for them. The rest of this type of lilac are just starting to open. I expect to have a sea of lilacs blooming out here, tomorrow morning!
My husband and I were going into the city to meet with a friend at a shopping mall. We decided to make a date of it and leave early to have lunch (well… breakfast, really) together.
No, we didn’t go to a restaurant or anything. We went to the food court!
My husband was quite content with a burger and fries, but I had something I haven’t had since we left the city.
Oh, my goodness, it was so awesome!!! The only thing I didn’t care for was the edamame. I don’t like it to begin with, but these were incredibly salty, and had strings. I ate a couple, got a string caught in my teeth that took ages to get out! LOL My husband tried one and actually spit it out.
The rest, however, was blissfully delicious!
After placing my order for the Bento box, I noticed they also had tempura vegetables. We tried doing that at home during our New Year’s fondue, but we really need a proper frier do to that. So I ordered some, and they were absolutely fantastic!
When offered chopsticks, I made sure to accept them. I’m not good at eating with chopsticks, so it forced me to eat slowly. 😁 It would have been sooo tempting to finish it off too quickly, if I were using a fork!
I know there’s a lot of negative things said about food court food, but honestly, I don’t see why. Yeah, you have the usual fast food places, but there were also options for Greek, Italian, Korean, Thai, Chinese and Japanese food, plus various other specialty cuisines, all freshly made.
So we had ourselves a lovely meal together, then headed over to our pre-arranged meeting point.
It was so fantastic to catch up with our friend! Being able to keep in touch online is great, but there’s no equivalent to being able to give someone a great big hug, and spend time together! Hopefully, we will be able to get together again, before he leaves the country again.
The trip was hard on my husband, of course, and he did have to say he’d reached his limit, but he was so very happy to be able to make the trip, and wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Right now, after being home for a while, I’m having a battle with myself. I could go outside and try to get some overgrown lawn mowed… or I could go to bed early, and get an early start on the outside stuff. I got only about 3 or 4 hours of sleep last night, so I think early to bed is going to win out!
Tomorrow is our last average frost date. After that, it should be safe to start transplanting things outside.
And we still haven’t finished shifting those beds over, or harvested more dead spruces for the raised beds, because of the weather we’ve been having!
Well, we do have places we can start transplanting or direct sowing into. Just not a lot, yet.
It’s not even just about co-operative weather, but a co-operative body!
Yeah. I definitely need to get a good night’s sleep, so I can work more effectively tomorrow.
Which means, I need to get my butt off the computer!
Today was our second stock up shop in the city, but I had a couple of things to do in town, before then. The first was to get to the garage when it opened at 8, to get our repaired tire, have it put back on the truck, and the spare returned to its spot under the box.
Which meant being out rather earlier than usual for my morning rounds, starting with feeding the outside cats, including heading around to check on the babies in the old garden shed.
I’m happy to say that Broccoli has accepted our cat bed gift, and the babies seem quite cozy in it. I always knock on the door, so they can know the door is about to be opened. There are no windows in the shed, and the morning sun streams right in once the door is open, so the babies get a bit blinded. It was also windy again, this morning, which is probably why the calico is shivering so much.
I was quick about petting them, leaving food for their mama and closing the door again.
The girls were going to take the transplants out after I left, but the winds were still so high, I messaged them to tell them not to, while I continued my rounds.
Some of the Purple Caribe potatoes are getting much bigger – but most of the bed still has nothing showing yet. There are more Red Thumb potatoes showing than the the Purple Caribe, and those ones were mostly wizened when I planted them! I honestly would have expected those ones to not grow at all.
The second planting of peas is coming up nicely, while there are still only 3 from the first planting. The carrots are still barely visible, and I think a lot of them have failed, and the spinach seems to have stalled. Very strange.
The strawberries grown from seed last year, in the wattle weave bed, are getting really big! We did get berries last year, and they were tiny, like wild strawberries, so it’s a bit of a shame that these are the ones that are doing best. We hadn’t put anything around the asparagus and strawberry bed. I thought we were still okay, but two of the 4 strawberry plants in there have already been munched on! I do sometimes see a deer on the trail cam, so I guess it’s coming into the yard as well. So that bed will need some protection.
The new strawberries are doing quite nicely, which means we’ll have to put something around that bed rather quickly, to keep the deer from munching on them, too.
There is still a lot of squelching as I walk around the yard. The unfortunate thing is that one of the softest parts of the yard is where I drive in to turn and back up to the house. So far, it just seems to be a bit muddy, and not forming ruts, but this is not a good thing. There’s another, less ideal, area I can use to turn in, but it’s almost as wet, so there’s really not much advantage to that.
By the time I finished my shortened rounds, it was time to head out. I got to the garage just as it opened I had to wait while the guy got their computer system going, which was fine. I had to go to the pharmacy next, and they didn’t open until later. Once he got everything up and running, he got the truck backed into the garage and switched the tires for me. He was a new guy, and a fairly new mechanic, who had never worked with a spare tire system like we’ve got before. I got to show him all the stuff I just learned about the truck myself, while waiting for CAA to come and change my flat for me. 😄
In the end, it didn’t take long, and the final bill for the repair and installation was less than $60. Less than I had budgeted, which is always nice. It was still early, and I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I popped across the street and got a hot breakfast sandwich before going to the pharmacy. They turned out to be already open, so I was able to get my refills right away. We actually had a prescription delivery for my husband on Wednesday, but they had to fax my doctor to update my prescription, so mine wasn’t included. I’m glad I remembered it was called in, because I was planning to head straight to the city after the tire was done.
I’ll cover the shopping in another post. I only went to two places; Walmart and Superstore. On the way home, my husband sprung for burgers, so I stopped in town again to get those, then hit the mail on the way home. I left at 7:30am, and got home some time after 2pm. Almost 7 hours of mostly driving around! There was no Costco in the area to get gas, and the gas station at the Superstore was at $1.469/L, while town was at $1.449, so I was going to get gas while in town. On the way out of the city, though, I passed a gas station and saw the price was at $1.399/L, so I filled up. Then I got to town and discovered the prices had gone down while I was in the city, and they were at $1.399/L, too!
So we have a full tank of gas for tomorrow. We’ve been in touch with our friend and worked out a time and place to meet him in the early afternoon. My husband and I will be leaving shortly before noon to get there. It’s been a very long time since my husband has done a city trip. It’s going to be painful, but it’ll be worth it to meet with our friend. With my husband’s mobility issues and living here in the boonies, it’s been harder for him to keep in contact with his friends. Rather ironic that the one he did keep in contact with wasn’t even on the same continent! I really wish he were able to get together with friends more often. He’s just around us ladies all the time. Not a lot we can do about that, but when the chance is there, I’m going to make sure we can take it!
While I was gone today, the girls took are of a few things for me, including getting some of the weed trimming done around the house. It’s still too wet to mow, but at least that can be done. Hopefully, tomorrow, they’ll be able to do the paths between the garden beds I’m trying to work on, too. Some spots would have water in them still, but not where I’m working on, next.
Today, we reached a high of 21C/70F, and they’re now saying we’ll have light showers this evening, but just for about an hour. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 21C/70F again, and have sun and some cloud all day, but no rain. Then on Sunday, we’re supposed to hit 23C/73F and get rain in the evening. I’m hoping that, I’ll be able to get more progress in those last 4 garden beds! It’s getting to the point that they need to be worked on, rain or no rain. My daughter is feeling bad because she hasn’t been getting more dead trees processed, to frame the beds, but she’s not been feeling well. With the high winds and rain we’ve been having, though, she wouldn’t have been able to work on them, anyhow.
So many setbacks, but at least we do have several beds we can put transplants in, once we cross that last frost date threshold! Looking at the overnight lows we could, theoretically, put stuff out now, but why take the risk when we don’t have to? With not being able to take the transplants outside to harden off consistently, though, we will have to make sure to protect them once they’re in the ground. All those distilled water bottles for my husband’s CPAP humidifier that we’ve been saving will come in handy for that!
The Re-Farmer 