The predicted rain actually reached us for a change. Our weird climate bubble didn’t push it away. It’s been raining all night and, at past 2pm as I write this, is still sort of raining.
We really could have used rain like this, over the summer!
Unfortunately, I’m finding my window leaks.
It’s the only original window left in the house. Before we moved out here, my brother convinced my mother to have the windows replaced, since sheets of Lexan on the inside just wasn’t cutting it. New windows probably reduced the winter heat bill in this place by a couple hundred dollars a month! She balked, however, at doing the north facing window in what used to be her own bedroom. Too expensive, she said, and refused to pay for it (the living room window, meanwhile, probably cost at least twice as much, just on its own!).
This is actually a pair of windows, side by side, creating a long, wide rectangle together. One half has a screen and we used to be able to open it. At some point, Lexan sheets were installed on this inside. While the turning handle to open the window is still clear, the window itself can no longer be opened – and there’s no point to opening it, since there’s a sheet of Lexan on the inside.
During a driving rain some time ago, I discovered there was a drip between the Lexan and the window on the side that didn’t open. I was supposed to seal it on the outside, but completely forgot. It seems it leaks only if there’s a driving rain in just the right direction, and it didn’t leak again after that one rainfall.
Until today.
The first thing I noticed is that the window on that side is fogged up on the inside. Eventually, I could see the drip.
Some hours later, I sat at my computer, when I realized I was seeing wet all over the top of my printer and the various other things on there. The printer is directly under the window that we used to be able to open.
My first thought is that a cat had gone into the cat bed on top of my drinks fridge, then sprayed over the printer. Because we have cats that are dicks and would do that. Then I saw the drip! I don’t know exactly where the water is getting in, but it seems to be flooding on top of the molding framing the window (this window is in a log wall, so it’s quite deep) enough to travel across and drip on the inside side of the Lexan panel, rather than in between the glass window and the Lexan panel.
*sigh*
Unless we can fine some way to remove the Lexan panels, it’s going to take days for things to dry out once the rain stops. Then I have to get out and put sealant around the window on the outside.
I’m not sure how the Lexan was installed. A frame for the Lexan is screwed directly to the wood framing the two windows. The Lexan sheets, however, are on the inside, against the window frames themselves. Basically, it’s a spacer between the Lexan and the window frames, which means the panels were add after that inner frame was screwed in place. The only alternative would have been removing the windows and putting them back again which, of course, didn’t happen. The panels themselves have their own plastic frames around the edges, and I can’t tell what’s holding them in place against the screwed in spacer frame.
If these can actually just be popped out somehow, that would be helpful. We could then set a fan facing the window to dry things out, and we wouldn’t have to wait for days before sealing up the outside.
We’ll figure it out.
For now, I’ve had to set a towel up on the edge of the window that’s dripping on the inside. It does seem to have finally stopped raining, more or less. It’s supposed to continue until past 4pm, but still potentially have sporadic rain off and on until midnight or so.
We’re actually under two weather advisories right now. One for heavy rain, the other for high winds.
Which is what we definitely had while I was doing my morning rounds!
The cats really appreciated having shelters to go into to eat. The ones that normally like to eat on the cat house roof were willing to use the kibble house, for a change! 😄
Once the bellies were full, the tiniest kittens were back in their new favourite cat bed.
Except for the one that came over to me and was snuggling against my boot!
The tinies might be more than eager for human attention. Blot is now a constant presence in the sun room and the tinies love to cuddle him (her?), but so far I’ve only managed to sneak the odd pet.
The white and grey adult cat on the right of the photo is one of the trio we used to have; Magda, Frank and this one that never got named. Madga, who got spayed, and this one both disappeared, while Frank stayed to have her babies. Then this one came back, looking more grown up and burly, but still quite small. At first, we thought he had an injury beside one ear but, over time, I’m starting to think he’s got really severe ear mites in that ear.
This morning I dug out an umbrella to do my rounds, but I probably should have just worn a hoodie. The winds were so high, they almost yanked it out of my hands. It’s a good thing it’s one of those big golfer’s umbrellas. Anything smaller or of lesser quality would have been flipped inside out.
The weather meant an indoor day, which I suppose worked out. Today is Sunday and is supposed to be my day of rest. If it weren’t for the rain, I would have been back out, digging in the garden, or under the canopy tent, sorting through bins that need to go back into the sun room, or stored somewhere else.
I’m glad I set that taller shelf in front of the bathroom window. The cats are using it to look in, including some of the smaller kittens. It’s just a joy to see my husband coming out of the bathroom, all excited to tell me about which face he saw peeking in the window while he was in there! He’s in so much pain all the time, seeing him happy because of what was really such a little thing to do, is pure gold. If that means converting the entire sunroom over to the cats and storing my tools and supplies elsewhere, it’s more than worth it.
Rainy, cloudy weather like this always makes me sleepy, so once the morning rounds were done, I did end up crashing for a couple of hours.
As I write this, there are twelve cats scattered all over my bed.
This afternoon, I did get one “extra” thing done. I brought out the little bins of green tomatoes we harvested before a frost in early September. Almost all the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes ripened beautifully.
In the second picture, you can see the ones that are still green or under ripe. I’m really impressed with how these turned out! Chocolate Cherry tomatoes seem to do quite well in our area, even if they get harvested really early and really green.
The other bin had the Black Beauty and Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes in it. The larger Black Beauties had ripened, but the smaller ones just sort of started to dry out, instead. The Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes did ripen… sort of. The larger ones ripened but started going bad at the same time. Some of the smaller ones got to orange before they started drying out. Others didn’t change at all. They just got wizened. So there weren’t many of those to set aside for eating or cooking, and the rest went into the compost bucket.
Well, it does look like the rain has actually stopped for now. I should take advantage of that and head outside for my evening rounds, feed the ferals and see if we lost any more trees or branches.
The first picture was of a group of three very round mushrooms – I thought they were puffballs at first, until I saw the stems. The next three pictures are with my hand for perspective – then I found a fourth one, off to the side!
I have no idea if they are edible, and have no intention of finding out.
As I was heading inside, I found this adorable cuddle puddle.
Two of them! The smallest kittens really like to pile together.
Once the morning round were done, I was able to get a few things done before heading to my mother’s. My brother came out today, but he had to focus on replacing the radiator on one of his tractors that got damaged last fall, then try to get it going. Days are short, so I just popped over to say hello before I headed out.
When I got to my mother’s, she was all “prepared” for me. I barely got through the door! She had ice cream buckets of tomatoes she wanted me to take home. One of her neighbours in her building has had a great tomato year in their little garden plot and has been leaving boxes of them in the common room for people to help themselves. My mother keeps taking more than she needs for herself, because apparently no one else is taking any, and she doesn’t want them to go to waste.
So… she gives them to me.
While I was getting the two ice cream buckets of tomatoes out from under her table for her, I saw her collection of jugs for her drinking and cooking water, so I refilled those right away.
There were other errands she wanted me to do, but I told her I’d do them after I’ve put away her groceries.
She didn’t have a list, so I sat down to start that with her. It took a while, because she kept wanting to go on about other things. There’s one home care worker she has issues with in particular. For a basic med assist, they are supposed to be there for 5 minutes, making sure she takes her medication before they leave. The morning assist is for 10 minutes, as they are supposed to help with emptying the commode or helping apply her Voltaren to her back. This one rushes to put the meds in the little bowl she has for them, to make sure they’re all there (sometimes, they can get caught in the packaging), locked the box up and leaves without making sure my mother takes her meds. Apparently, she’s been so rough with the lock box, she ended up knocking my mom’s phone off its charger and just left it where it fell.
My mother was also angry about her new schedule. She has five evenings, which is two med assists done by the same person, plus four mornings, done by someone else (out of a 2 week schedule) listed as “unfilled”. I tried to explain to her that they have to have the schedules out by a certain time, so if they don’t have someone for a specific date or time, they have to list it as “unfilled”. That doesn’t mean they won’t find someone. Just that they hadn’t, before the deadline. My mother thinks it means people are going to show up because they’ve… called in sick, in advance? She doesn’t understand how scheduling works.
It did give me a chance to try and talk to my mother about things she can do to try and get herself into a nursing home faster. I tried to explain that, because she’s only getting med assists, they basically view her as being able to care for herself. But if she takes advantage of the other assists they have available – meal assists, bathing assists, dressing assisted, etc. – that would go a long way to helping her get in faster.
She just got angry at me. She doesn’t trust the home care workers (there’s one that she says is really good at her job, and that’s the one that helped care for my father, before he went into the nursing home) and doesn’t want them touching her or preparing her meals. I tried to explain why she needed to get it anyhow and, besides, if she were in a nursing home, she’d be having that all done for her, anyhow. To which she said, in a nursing home, she would have “professionals”. I told her, the home care workers are “professionals”. They may or may not be good at their jobs, but they get training, first.
At one point she told me she had been talking to a woman that used to live in our little hamlet, that I went to school with. Her mother lived in the same building as my mother, having moved in a few years ago. It turns out her mother is in a nursing home now! She was visiting a friend and stopped to chat with my mother. As my mother told her how much she wants to be in a nursing home, she was told to try falling down! Which is pretty much what I was thinking, but hadn’t mentioned. My mother is constantly afraid of falling down, so she is super careful not to. If, however, she did have a fall, she’d have to use her Lifeline to get help, because she certainly couldn’t get up again on her own. They could call her an ambulance (and would call me to inform me of any issues). Chances are if that happened, my mother would end up going straight to a nursing home or supportive living, somewhere.
She did mention about the last time she used her Lifeline to talk to someone about her she was feeling. At the end of it, she was asked if there was anything else they could do for her. She said, help me get into a nursing home! The person on the Lifeline said they would talk to someone higher up about it.
I don’t know what they can do, but if there’s something, it would help! Lord knows, my mother isn’t willing to do anything herself that would get her in faster. We keep telling her things that would help (like getting other home care assistance that they have available), but she just refuses. I can understand why, but she doesn’t understand that she is sabotaging herself. She much prefers to complain and expect other people to do things for her, not do them herself. This is not a new thing. She’s been like this for as long as I can remember.
After much circular conversation, I did manage to get a shopping list written down for her. Some of it was “see how it looks” or “depends on the price” type stuff. She needed more of her Voltaren, too, so a trip to the pharmacy was also in order.
I was able to find everything she wanted, and even got her a pumpkin pie as a treat I was pretty sure she would be happy with. Either she’d be happy, or she’d be angry. Thankfully, she was in a good mood, and was very happy to see the pie!
Once everything was put away, she insisted I sit with a cup of tea for a while before I finished doing things like sweeping her floor, taking care of her garbage, etc. Then she foisted a bag of aluminum foil she saved from her Meals on Wheels packaging onto me, together with the tomatoes! She’s been carefully washing and setting aside the foil each part of her meal is wrapped in. From the amount in the bag, it’s been probably a year’s worth of foil! She thought I might be able to use them in the garden (??) or something. I told her, I could add them to our aluminum recycling. We save up our aluminum until it’s worth the trip to the salvage yard. She was quite happy with that idea.
All in all, the visit with my mom was pretty good. Just one racist rant I had to distract away from, and during the times she did get angry because she didn’t like what she was being told, it wasn’t quite the personal attacks on me such things often become. It was actually a pretty good visit, as far as that goes with my mother!
That done, I had a request from my husband, so I went to the town we usually go to for our local shopping. The difference in prices between grocery stores was worth the extra driving.
Thankfully, fruit cake was not part of his shopping list.
I could not believe how expensive these fruitcakes have become! Not that long ago, seeing them at prices above $7 was considered expensive!
After I got the few things on my husband’s list and made a stop at the gas station, it was time for home.
My brother was still working on his tractor, so I headed over for a quick hello and to update him a bit about how it went with Mom. Then I went in to change into my grubbies to do some work in the garden, instead of in the sun room, while there was still light enough.
I made sure to water the winter squash and cover them for the night, first. We’re supposed to get rain, but it’s also supposed to get cold enough that I’m not sure the winter squash would survive it. They might be kept covered for several days, if the 7 day forecast is at all accurate. The next three nights in particular will probably put an end to the eggplant, peppers and summer squash, so if there’s anything to bring in an ripen indoors, tomorrow will be the day to do it.
I need to get more garden beds ready for winter sowing, though, and today I started working on the bed the carrots and peas were grown in.
I got a little more than a quarter of it done. As I was working my way down one side, I kept getting tangled up in tree roots. It was a while before I found root they were all coming from and got that pulled out. Then I found more from another root!
It was starting to get dark, so I didn’t want to start fighting with roots I couldn’t quite find yet, so I decided to call it a night. For all the work done in these beds, particularly when they got shifted to their permanent locations, getting them ready for the winter should be easy. All of these roots I’m hitting were not there in the spring. I’m blown away by how far they are extending from the trees, and how big they are.
According to the weather apps, we’re supposed to get rain all night and all through tomorrow, with heavy rain warning. So it might be a couple of days before I can continue. The overnight lows that had been forecast to drop below freezing have changed to just at freezing. Hopefully, the cover will be enough for the winter squash. After that one cold night, we’re actually supposed to get decent, if cool, weather again. That would be a good time to get the garlic in.
Well, we’ll see what actually happens! I’ll take the mild weather for as long as possible!
One of my goals for today was to get more done in the sun room. Which did happen, though quite a bit later than I originally intended. My daughters had their own grocery shopping to do that was worth a trip into the city, which we ended up doing today.
Last night, for some reason, was a sleepless night. It was one of those nights where, the more I wanted to sleep, the more wide awake I became. Not because of pain, or busy brain, or cat shenanigans. Just… awake. I finally fell asleep somewhere around 5am. I woke up a couple of hours later, as it was starting to get light out, and ended up asking my daughters to do the morning routine outside, so I could get some more sleep. The only thing they didn’t do was switch out the trail cam memory cards. Which was okay. I was considering changing from switching them in the morning to switching them in the evening.
Which turned out to be a good thing.
My younger daughter and I started heading for the city in the late morning. I was in the truck at the end of the driveway while my daughter closed the gate behind us. By the time she was in the truck and buckled in, I saw that a tractor on the road was close enough that I waited for it to go by.
I didn’t recognize him at first, but it turned out to be our vandal, sporting a new beard. Instead of driving past us, he stopped his tractor on the road, directly in front of us.
When it looked like he was going to get off the tractor, I drove around him and down the road. It’s just a short distance to a stop sign, and I could see in my mirror that he was still sitting on his tractor, in front of our driveway.
Creepy Creeper was creeping again.
As we continued on our way, my daughter texted the family to keep an eye out on things. Then she checked the security camera’s live feed and he seemed to be gone. She updated the family again as we continued on our way.
When I switched out the memory cards this evening and checked the files, I could see from the time stamps that he sat there for a full two minutes after we drove away, before finally leaving.
Creepy.
The rest of our trip to the city was uneventful, thankfully. My daughters’ shopping list was for the international grocery store I’d skipped when I did our stock up shopping last week. It happens to be near a Dollarama, so I went there first while my daughter started her shopping. I’ve been getting a particular pattern of dishes from there, but the cats knocked a couple of bowls off the counter and broke them, and I wanted to get replacements. Of course, I found a few other small items that would be useful, then met up with my daughter at the grocery store. I took advantage of the trip to pick up a few other things – bread, milk, eggs, mayo and a box of large slide-lock freezer bags (generic brand). Those five items cost over $50!
My daughter had a much larger shopping list that ended up being over $200. It looks like they’re going to be doing a lot of Asian themed cooking over the next while!
That done, we headed home, backing into the yard to unload. It was getting around 4pm by then, so I fed the outside cats to distract them so we could unload. It almost worked! My daughter unloaded the truck to the door, where I grabbed the stuff to bring in the rest of the way. She kept having to use her cane to push kittens away from the door! Even so, Sir Robin and one of Frank’s tinies still managed to get through the door once. They are so fast! Sir Robin would happily be an indoor cat. So would all three of Frank’s grublings!
Once the truck was parked and everything was put away, I headed outside. I didn’t get too much done inside the sun room. There were two plastic storage shelves, one large, one small, that could be brought in the corner I want to keep covered so the critters won’t do their business in it. I might still change things, but I put the larger shelf in front of where the bathroom window is, and the smaller shelf in the corner. The cats like to climb up to the window to say hello, but the cube shelf that was there before is a lot shorter. Cats would scramble to reach the window to look in. Now, if we decide to leave the shelf there, cats could potentially go on the top two shelves to look in.
Yes, I’m a suck for the cats!
It also means they won’t be scrabbling up the wall to reach the window sill, scratching things up, and they’re less likely to fall and potentially hurt themselves.
I moved a couple of other things in – parts of the platform we’d had on the other side, previously, a metal garbage can we used to store things like hoes and spades, plus the actual garbage can. Those were moved mostly because we might get rain tonight, and I didn’t want water getting in them.
Another part of the platform was our “summer door” to the old basement. It allowed us to keep the door open for air circulation on hot days, while keeping the cats out. It didn’t get used that way this year, because it was part of the platform and had the clamp lamps hanging off of it still.
That will get stored in the sun room, too, but first it needed a good hose down and scrubbing of the wooden frame. I’ve got it set under the canopy tent to dry. Now that we have a gallon of paint to cover the exposed wood on the isolation shelter and the box that will go in front of the ramp door to block wind and snow, I will paint the frame of this summer door, too. One of the plant stands that the cats used to get up onto the platform was also in need of a scrub. I’ve decided I will paint that, too.
With the shelves in place in the sun room, I spread the kibble trays out a bit, so they’re not all crowded on one side. I’ve been watching the live feed on the critter cam and the cats and kittens seem to be really happy with the set up. They’ve been running around and playing all over the nice, clean floor!
I could probably bring the floor mats back in, too. I forgot that they’re still hanging on the chain link fence, after getting pressure washed with the hose. These are indoor/outdoor water proof mats with a carpet-like surface. One more thing to protect tiny toe beans from a cold concrete floor, in the winter.
I still don’t know how I’m going to set up the heat lamps. One is a 250 watt ceramic heat bulb and has a protective cage so nothing can accidentally touch the bulb. I would like to have that one over the open space between the cat cage the the shelf at the window. I can’t clamp it to the shelf itself, which would be the easy thing to do, as that shelf is all cat beds, and it might get knocked about as they move around the different levels. The only other thing above the area I want to set the heat lamp is the hanging pair of shop lights. Nothing stable enough to hold a heat lamp, there.
Must think about this some more.
The second lamp should probably go closer to the cat cage, more or less where the heated water bowl will be set up, once it’s plugged in. There’s an arm bar on the wall there, but I don’t think the clamp lamp would hold onto the chrome surface very well. I could set it up on the other side of the door, but I’d rather encourage the cats to use the west facing half of the sun room.
All things to figure out over the next while. I’ll need to sort through the bins that will go into the shelves I set up today and reorganize them, which will include storing things somewhere else entirely. Once the space under the canopy tent is clear, I want to roll the isolation shelter under it, so it can be painted and protected from any rain (or snow!) we might get over the next few days. The weather apps said we might get rain storms this evening. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to get rain all day but, again, I think it’ll mostly be south of us.
I will be heading to my mother’s do to her grocery shopping tomorrow, anyhow.
*sigh*
I’ll be honest; I’m not looking forward to spending time with my mother. I never know, from one day to the next, if she’ll be having one of her good days or, more frequently, be on one of her nasty days. Ah, well. It is what it is.
Tomorrow is looking like our last warm-ish day for a while. From the long range forecast, I’ve got maybe two weeks to prepare more garden beds and get the garlic in. I might be able to hold off until the the second half of October before I do the winter sowing. Once the isolation shelter is painted, we need to set it set up by the house for the winter, where we can plug in the heat lamp and heated water bowl.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on that new pre-hung door that needs to be installed! They have to move a hand rail against the wall to do it, which means the isolation shelter can’t be set up against that wall until the door is installed.
Lots to do, and not a lot of time to get it done.
On a completely different note, while I was doing my evening rounds, I was happy to see more flowers blooming.
I’m not sure if there’s eight of nine jammed in that one shelf!
We have been able to finish deep cleaning the west facing side, and it was ready to have shelves brought back in. The other side was half done, but we still needed to move out the counter shelf and table saw so we could do a deep clean under them.
The counter shelf is something we have under a built in shelf between two smaller windows. The inner panes on both of the windows cracked a few winters ago – likely a combination of temperature differences and the entire room slowly shifting downwards at one corner. The pane on the bottom window broke apart to the point that there were shards, so I removed the broken inner pain as best I could, and then we set insulation against it, to protect both the glass from temperature differences between inside and out, and the cats from any broken bits of glass that couldn’t be removed.
The shelf itself is sitting on bricks to elevate it a few inches. Kittens and skunks like to hid under it, but the – and the raccoons – also get between the shelf and the window. Things that had been stored on top of the counter also got knocked in between the shelf and the window, as well as under the shelf itself.
So… basically, I was expecting quite a mess under there.
Before I started, though, we fed the outside cats. My younger daughter was on cat herding duty, getting any cats and kittens that made a dash while I stepped out with the food bowl. Once she got the doorway clear, she could close the doors for me – usually at least the storm door with the missing window screen that makes it so incredibly handy.
As I was scattering kibble in different trays, my daughter got the storm door closed and was waiting to see if I needed anything else. That’s when we both spotted something strange, sticking half out from under the counter shelf, near a kibble tray we keep under the table saw.
Strange, flat and furry.
It was the remains of a kitten.
My daughter was horrified and had to leave. I can’t say I blame her.
Once I finished putting the food out, I got a shovel to use to get the remains the rest of the way out, after moving the kibble tray and the table saw.
It turned out to be really easy. The sun room has been hot and dry all summer, which basically mummified the remains. My guess is that a skunk had gone under the counter shelf and, while scrambling around, pushed the remains out one side.
It was a larger kitten. A grey tabby. That’s all I could tell. There wasn’t much left of it.
With how often cats and kittens appear and disappear, we just can’t tell if any are missing because they’ve wandered off, or because something happened to them. This is the first time we found one that passed under that shelf, though.
After I buried the remains, I was pretty nervous about moving the shelf, but thankfully, there was just stuff knocked off from the top to clean up, and a whole lot of insulation bits from the cats scratching at it.
So all that got cleaned up, and then the area got soaked and scrubbed and soaked and scrubbed and soaked and scrubbed again!
When it was time to let the floor dry before moving the shelf back, I was able to start moving shelves into the other side of the room. I decided to put the cube shelf right against the west facing window, and then set one of the large plastic storage shelves next to it. The main goal was to fill the corner, so there would be no space for critters to do their business in it. Both shelves were set on bricks, just in case the floor gets wet, as water flows towards that corner.
We won’t be able to set up a platform again, with this set up. I’m going to have to figure out a way to hang one of the heat lamps there. The platform worked well for that, as they could be hung under it.
Something to think about.
Once the shelves were set up, the cat beds that were hosed out and sitting in the sun to dry were brought back in, along with the two cat caves, which now have wire supports inside them to keep them from collapsing and being smushed flat by kittens crawling on top of them.
The first picture is of the counter shelf corner, after clean up but before scrubbing and mopping. The window sill got a scrubbing, too, but I didn’t take the insulation out. The shelf shelter is on the other side of the window. Between the two, it should keep the now single pane glass window protected on both sides from temperature extremes.
The second picture shows the new set up in the west facing side. The cube shelf will be left empty, so that cats can sit and look out the window in their own little shelves. The second shelf from the bottom has the self warming mat, which is tied down so it won’t get knocked off the shelf easily. The blue striped cat cave has a loop at the top. I used that to tie it to the shelf above, so it won’t get knocked out.
The plaid cat cave above is a really weird design. It’s basically a bit drawstring pouch. It could never hold itself up so, for the longest time, I rolled the sides down to make a cat bed. It still got squished out of shape. It now has a wire frame inside to hold it up, while still allowing the drawstring cord to be pulled partially closed. It’s still tippy, though, and it’s now tied to the shelf above, too.
Cats were moving onto the cat beds in the shelf before I was finished setting it all up!
That side is now essentially done. Once the other half is finished, the kibble trays will be rearranged so that it’s not all on one side. Some of the cats get pretty aggressive at feeding time, so it’s good to split up the trays to give them more space from each other.
The cat bed from inside the cat cage is back in its cube, which now has insulation pieces on the bottom and outside walls. The bed itself will keep the wall pieces from falling in. So far, the cats have been ignoring the bed in favour of the cubes above, now that those have insulation pieces as floors.
When that was all done, the floor was dry enough to return the counter shelf and table saw to their spots. Then the rest of the floor in that corner got another sweeping, soaking, scrubbing and mopping.
By then, it was getting dark, so that was in for the day. Tomorrow, I’ll start bringing in the last two storage shelves and figure out how to set them up so that cats won’t use the corner on that side to do their business, either. Drives me nuts when they’ll use the concrete floor, right next to a litter box!
Then I need to go through the storage bins and other stuff that were on the shelves before we took them out. It’s all sorts of tools and supplies that I want to have easy access to, while also keeping the cats out of them, or keep them from knocking things right out of the shelves. There’s no way to stop the cats from going into the shelves, so I want to plan around that.
There’s still the things we used to make the platform, which need to be stored somehow/somewhere.
That’s something we’ll figure out as we go along.
For now, though, the cats have their beds in the sun room again, and they are very happy about it!
Today was my day to get into the city for my appointment with the sports injury clinic about my hip.
I had a really rough and sleepless night. Not because of my hip this time, but I kept waking up and just generally couldn’t settle in. As dawn approached, I messaged my daughters, who both ended up awake all night, and asked them to take care of the morning routine for me, so I could try and get more sleep. I didn’t want to be driving to the city feeling the way I did.
They were sweethearts and took care of the entire morning routine for me, from feeding the cats to switching out the memory cards on the trail cams, to all the yard and garden checks.
My appointment was for 1pm, and I made sure to check the maps for the address. It turned out to be well within the area we normally do our not-Costco shopping. My landmark was a Shell gas station that seemed to share a driveway with the clinic, from what I could see on the satellite map.
Still, I ended up leaving about 2 hours before the appointment, even though it would take only a little more than an hour to drive there.
I am so glad I did!
As I was heading out and reached the first highway, there was an ambulance, lights on but no siren, that turned towards the north of us. A short distance away, I could see the vehicles of volunteer fire fighters at the fire station, and the fire truck was gone. On the other side of town, there were a couple of police vehicle, sirens and lights going, rushing through.
When I got to the next highway, I paused at a case station to pick up an energy drink and a sandwich (made by the restaurant in our little hamlet) for “breakfast”, and messaged my family. They kept tabs on the news, but nothing came up. Hopefully, whatever happened, no one was seriously harmed.
The highway I took into the city turned into the street that went past the clinic I needed to go to, so no turning or side trips needed.
Almost.
When I reached the Shell station, I went past and turned at the next entry, trying to find a street number, somewhere. I ended up driving around a building and, on the side facing the gas station, finally saw a sign over a door, saying “medical clinic and mall entrance”. That entire side of the building was all grey concrete, with a few service doors along the way. You really needed to want to find this place to get there!
I went in and the inside was just as bleak. Nothing but narrow hallways with lots of doors. The doors all had signs for different businesses, with some saying “employees only”. Eventually, I reached a door that actually had the street address on it.
It was a different address.
???
I headed back out and went into the Shell station, and asked the guy behind the counter. I gave the address I was after, and the name of the clinic, but all he could tell me is what his own address was and point vaguely further down the street.
*sigh*
So, off I went again and continued down the street until…
I passed another Shell station.
I’ve gone down this street so many times, but only really paid attention to where I needed to go. I had no idea there were two Shell stations so close together.
This one, however, had a very new looking building with a big sign and the name of the clinic. I swear, it wasn’t there the last time I drove this far.
I also drove right past it. Missed the entrance completely.
I was able to turn around and go back fairly easily but, again, you really had to want to find this place! The building may have been well marked, but the entry and exit lanes were very hard to see.
Then, there was finding the right door. It turns out this place has several related clinics in it, plus a pharmacy with a drive through (very unusual in our neck of the woods).
By the time I got to the right place, I was only 10 or so minutes early.
They did take me in a bit late, but not by much. The first person to see me was not the main doctor. He introduced me to himself with his first name only, telling me he was an orthopedic surgeon from China. Since he had just given me a very English name to us, I’m guessing his real name is hard for English speakers to pronounce! Much like my previous doctor who used his initials as his name.
This doctor started off by asking all sorts of questions to try and get a bead on why I was there.
By the time he was done, he seemed a bit perplexed. The thing that seemed to make it more difficult to figure out is that the hip troubles I’m having only really happen when I lie down to try and sleep. The more I try to relax, the worse the pain. It’s actually been a lot better lately, but it’s not gone away.
After a lot of questions and discussion, and looking at my file (for some reason, my most recent X-rays didn’t come up; just the report), he left to consult with the doctor my appointment was with. Then he came back with more questions before leaving again to consult with the doctor.
The doctor I was booked with swung by a short time later, apologizing for the wait (which I really didn’t notice as a problem) and said he just had to finish with another patient, and then he would be back to talk with me.
When he came back and we started talking, he was able to give me a diagnosis. GTPS. Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome. In looking it up, I can see why there was some confusion. My pain is really, really localized, and it happens only at certain times. My thought is that the anti-inflammatories I’m on, as low a dose as it is, helps with most of the symptoms that I would normally be feeling, or feeling more acutely, and now it’s just that hip joint that the anti-inflammatories aren’t enough to help with.
The other doctor had already given the area a physical exam, plus he also had me doing a number of range of motion tests. I had no issues with range of motion at all. During the physical exam at one point, he had me lying on my back, got me to lift one leg at a time, while he pressed down on my thigh. I was to resist his pushing my leg down as much as I could. He wasn’t able to push my leg down. When I got up from that, he commented that I had a lot of muscle.
The primary doctor got me on the table again, too, but he focused on finding the exact area in my hip to work on. That location would be the site for an injection. At first, as he poked and prodded, it was no big deal, but then he found THE spot. WOW did that ever hurt! Worse, he kept having to poke and prod around the area to find where the pain was the most acute.
Ouch.
That done, he explained the situation and that they could try a steroid injection. Which is exactly what my regular doctor and I were expecting. He wanted to know if I could come back tomorrow, or if I was okay to wait to get it done today. I told him, it’s a long drive, so I’m more than willing to wait to get it done today!
That decided, he had another patient to see before he could come back. While I was waiting, the first doctor came back to check on me and make sure everything was all right.
I didn’t have all that long to wait, really, and I was able to update my family on things. When the doctor came back, he made sure to go through all the usual disclaimers, then got me up on the table again. More poking and prodding to find the right location. He actually inserted the needle at one point, without doing the injection, and I didn’t even feel it compared to how much the poking and prodding hurt, when he hit that “sweet spot”. He ended up moving the needle to a different location before finally giving the injection. He told me it would take a while for the anesthetic to kick in, but there still might be pain in the injection location later on. I was also warned that there might be a “rebound” affect, where the area might actually hurt more before it starts feeling better.
He wanted to do a follow up with me in two weeks. Looking at my calendar, I asked if 4 weeks would be okay. In the end, he said he didn’t need me to actually come in, in person, and we could do a phone appointment in 2 weeks, instead. Which was just fine by me!
All in all, I was really happy with how things went. I now have a name for what’s going on with my hip and, hopefully, the steroid injection will make the difference. For some people, it doesn’t help at all, for others, it helps, but by how much is really an individual thing.
That done, I made the telephone appointment and headed out. I had a couple more places to go to.
My first stop was a Canadian Tire. I remembered to bring a paint sample for the colour of the isolation shelter. The exposed wood on it needs to be painted before winter, plus I want to pain the wind/snow break box that fits in front of the door when it’s open at its winter location.
Unfortunately, the piece of painted wood I brought as a sample wasn’t smooth enough. The colour matching machine “saw” it as a grey. So the paint person and I went looking at the colour samples and found one that was pretty close, and she tinted a gallon for me.
When she opened it up afterwards, though, we were both pretty surprised. The purple was a LOT darker than it should have been. She checked and double checked, and she had all the inputs and base paint correct. Yet the result was a darker purple than any of their samples!
After talking about it, we decided on another shade that we had been choosing between. It’s lighter, but not by much. When she tinted another gallon of paint, this one worked out and matched the colour sample. It’ll look a bit darker when dry, but will still be lighter than the original. It’s just for the cat isolation shelter, though, so it’s not like it’s meant for anything fancy. It’ll be close enough!
That done, I also picked up a large bag of kibble for the inside cats, some wood screws I needed, and a quick release hose connector repair kit. I also went looking and found a “calming” spray for the cats. We’ve got a lot of problems with some of them pissing outside of the litter boxes and other places – that’s why we go through so many puppy pads – which is likely stress related. I’ve been looking at pheromone diffusers, too, but all they had here was the spray. I decided it was worth a try.
I was able to pay for all this with my Canadian Tire dollars, so nothing at all came out of budget.
My next stop was the Walmart nearby. My husband gave me his card, a budget and a shopping list that included another bag of kibble for the inside cats. We should be set for the month for both inside and outside cats now. Along with a few grocery items, I ended up getting another box of moon cakes, very different from the last ones I got. The Autumn Festival is over now, so they were on clearance. I snagged a package of chestnuts, too, because they were also on clearance. I love chestnuts, but I seem to be the only one in the household that likes them!
With all this walking around, I did have some issues with my left hip after a while. Not pain, but it did feel… unstable. I used shopping cards as if they were walkers and was limping but, overall, the hip and injection site were feeling pretty good.
The shopping done, I was soon on my way home. By then, it was late enough that I asked my daughters to do the evening outside cat feeding, too.
When I got home, I was going to pull up to the house to unload, forgetting the vehicle gate to the inner yard was still closed. I don’t think we need to worry about that heifer getting through the outer yard fence again, and if he does, I really don’t think he’d wander into the inner yard, all by himself. Too far from the rest of the herd. I’ve left the gate open with that in mind. Hopefully, we won’t find ourselves with cows in the inner yard tomorrow! 😄
After everything was put away and I had my supper, I decided to head outside to walk around before it got dark. I brought out the hose repair kit and cut off the leaking and of a hose at the tap, only to discover…
I bought a quick release connector kit. Not a repair and quick release kit. I ended up having to switch hoses so I could still reach to water the winter and summer squash, until I can get the proper kit to replace the hose end I’d cut off! At least I was able to water what needed to be watered.
While I was outside still, my phone gave me a notification for a voice mail message.
It didn’t ring, of course.
Yes, it was home care again.
This time, it wasn’t to let me know about a cancellation, though! The person who was to see my mother for her bed time med assist was having vehicle troubles, and would my mother be okay if she came in almost an hour early, instead?
This time, the scheduler actually left a phone number, so I went in to use the land line to call back. I tried to listen to the message again to get the number, but I couldn’t access voice mail. Apparently, my number isn’t “registered” (I’m having no end of troubles with wi-fi calling!) and I had to go back outside to get enough data signal to listen to the message again and get the number. I had the land line handset with me and tried to call.
It failed. Twice.
Finally, on the third try, I got through.
It rang, then went straight to voice mail. The voice mail with the message saying no one would be checking the messages outside of office hours.
Why ask me to call back, if I can’t get through to a person, and any message I leave wouldn’t be listened to until the next day?
Still, I left a quick message confirming early visits to my mother was okay, then I called my mother.
After how terrible the call went the last time I talked to her, this one was actually almost pleasant! I had interrupted her evening prayers and was going to make it short, but she was talkative and kept me on the phone. I finally was able to end the call because the med assist was supposed to arrive.
That done, I was finally able to go back outside to finish my walkabout – this time with a flashlight, because it was full dark!
I heard some strange noises as soon as I came out. Noises from the shrive feeding station.
I chased away the skunk, then saw something moving in the isolation shelter.
Yup. That’s a raccoon in the cat bed! It had been at the empty food bowl when I first came over, then went to “hide” in the cat bed.
What cheek!
I did get it out, but it was really a moot point by then. There was no kibble left, anyhow.
Then I went and chased the skunk out of the sun room.
Once I was done my walkabout and settled at my computer, I got the live feed to the critter cam open. Since then, I’ve had to chase both skunks and raccoons out of the sun room, several times!
Greedy buggers.
It’s been getting really, really hard to get in and out through the old kitchen door into the sun room, lately. Frank’s three littles, plus a couple other really tiny kittens, all make a mad rush for the old kitchen door. They want in, so badly!! I really hope there’s a rescue out there than can take Frank and her babies. The new rescue we’re working with is putting feelers out, I’m told, so we’ll see.
Anyhow. That’s how the day went today. As I write this, I can say that my hip is feeling a lot better now. Tonight will be the first litmus test, though.
I might even be able to sleep on my left side and not wake up in massive pain for a change!
It seems weird to be winterizing things when we were hitting 27C/81F! It is, however, the best time to be doing it, this late in the season.
My daughter had intended to work on the sun room more, but for the past few days she’s been in so much pain, she can barely move at times, and is caning it in general.
Side note: she got a letter to say she was approved for our province’s disability assistance. She’s going to be getting a whole $200 a month for six months, when it comes up for review.
Well, it’s $200 a month more than she had before, but it does make me wonder about all the people on disability I know that have government income assistance much, much higher than that. That was in another province, though.
So with my daughter out of commission, and my being able to be home all day today (I completely forgot that my medical appointment in the city is tomorrow, not today!), I set to work in the sun room.
The room is mostly empty already, so it was basically to continue the cleaning in the one half. The wooden molding around the three huge windows is drying out, so I gave it a cleaning with Murphy’s oil. I even remembered to clean the old kitchen window’s frame, too.
My daughter had mopped the concrete floor already, but kittens immediately went back to doing their business in the corners again. That got a quick clean up, then litter pans were put in the corners. Today, those got moved out and I used our stiff bristled broom to soak and scrub and soak and scrub and soak the affected areas some more. I rehung the large number dial thermometer back up before cleaning all the windows. The old kitchen window was the worst. Cats like to sit on the sill to look inside while their kibble is being readies. The bottom pane was covered in kitty nose prints!
That was enough time for things to soak on the floor, and I was able to finish with a mop. I then had to leave it to dry completely, before I could start moving things over.
All the cat beds, meanwhile, were taken out and hosed down to clean as best I could. We’re not comfortable putting these in the washing machine. Once they got cleaned up and squeeze out, they were set out on the kibble and water bowl shelter roofs to dry in the sun.
I was planning on completely changing the set up in the sun room. With that in mind, one of the things I did was move the power bar from where I’d had it hanging between the two west facing windows, and attached it to the wall between the door and the old kitchen window. This freed up the extension cord I was using for the critter cam, as I could now plug it into the power bar.
I then spent the next while setting the shop lights back up. I had to replace a couple of the hooks I had lines attached to, as the lights are hung from wall to wall, not from ceiling. I was able to set the lights up a bit higher than before. Much easier to do while that side of the room is empty! The lights are designed so that one can be plugged into the end of another in a series, so I had only one cord to plug into the power bar to power both lights. The heated water bowl was cleaned up and set up in reach of the power bar, too, though we won’t need to plug that in for quite a while, yet.
The floor wasn’t dry enough yet, so I started working on the shelf shelter outside. This is an old shelf that used to be in the upstairs of the house. It was meant to go into storage, but we set it aside outside the sun room until it could be moved again – it’s quite awkward to move – and it was so handy there, we kept it! The bottom two shelves, and half the top shelf, have been turned over to the cats. Previously, I’d used pieces of rigid insulation set inside, and longer pieces nailed to the outside, to make it a better shelter.
Well, those didn’t last. A spooked cat dashing through the opening was enough to break them apart, even though I’d nailed on some old salvaged paneling to secure it better. Until today, the only thing left were nails sticking out of the shelf!
Those were the first to take out.
I then went to the garage to dig out what used to be a clear roof panel on the donated catio. There had been three of them, but two blew off during transportation. I took that off and replaced it with a different style of clear roof panels.
I was very happy to see that the salvaged panel was just the right size, with a bit of overlap.
It’s nailed into place along one side, the bottom and the two shelves. There’s nothing to nail it to at the top, but that’s okay, since that’s where I store some garden stuff. I bit of flex will make it easier to reach things.
I think this will work out much better. Not only can we still see any cats inside (since they sometimes give birth in there!), but the clear panel will give a bit of passive solar heat on sunny winter days. I think any cats using it will not get startled as much, if they can see out, too.
Now I just need to figure out what I can put on the top as a waterproof roof. The plastic I’d used originally has long since disintegrated.
By the time that was done, the floor was finally dry enough. I got the cleaned out interlocking foam mats and set them up in the corner against the old kitchen wall. The cats and other critters have been making messes in the corners the most, so I want to block those off as much as possible.
With the mats in place, I moved the cat cage on top, but not into the corner, yet. When we moved it across the room during cleaning, I’d put a broken piece of rigid insulation under it. I used that to cut pieces to fit inside the cage, using the top to measure my cuts. Cats like to use the upper levels inside the cat cage, but keep knocking off any “floor” we’d put on top of the wire frames to keep their feet from falling through. I cut pieces of insulation to fit snugly on there. Hopefully, they won’t get knocked down anymore!
The cat bed had been removed for cleaning, and there were no dry cat beds to put in the sun room for the night, so I cut more pieces for a floor and two walls around where the cat bed goes. That cube, and the one above, will be closest to a single pane window, so extra insulation in at least one cube is a good thing. The cube next to it has the litter box, so I didn’t do anything to that one. The front is open, with no cubes, so I just put some leftover pieces of insulation on the floor and that was it.
Once that was done, the cage got tucked into the corner. I put the old reflective car windshield sun protector on the top again – the cats seem to really like lying on it! – and secured it.
I still wanted to have something to act as cat beds, though, so I brought back the mini greenhouse frame. The shelves on it are open wire. The top already had something secured on it so the cats could use it without their feet falling through. There was a cat blanket available that I used on the bottom self. The other two got pieces of cardboard secured onto them. Then I brought back a small plant stand for the smaller cats to use to get to the top of the cage, and set one of the carriers on top – not realizing a kitten was inside it, napping!
So this is what they’ve got so far. I’m not sure where we’ll hang the heat lamps from, yet. We’ll decide that when the other shelves are returned.
I ended up adding a second carrier on top of the cat cage, later on. Two more got set up in the opposite corner, to make sure no cats did their business there, and to give more safe places to sleep.
For now, the sun room food trays have been moved over to this side, and we can start working on the other side tomorrow or so. We still need to move the table saw and the counter shelf, and wash under that corner. Once that’s done and the counter shelf and table saw returned to their places, we can start bringing the other shelves back in and figure out how to set them up. I’d still like to set up a platform for the cats, if possible, but that might not be an option with priority being to put things in the corners so the cats (and skunks, and raccoons) will stop making messes in them.
Gah!
I had the critter cam up on my phone while working on this. I saw a couple of skunks going into the sun room and was able to chase them out through the camera.
Then a raccoon came in. I used the camera to “yell” at him and he left, only to come right back in. This time, instead of being scared away by my voice, he went into the cat cage!!!
When I came in, the bugger started to “hide” in the litter box! I ended up having to stick a broom handle through the sides to chase him out. Had to be careful. Raccoons can be a lot more aggressive than skunks – skunks are pretty chill – and this beast was snarling.
Raccoons have a really vicious sounding snarl.
Anyhow…
By the time I got all that done, the afternoon was gone and I was just melting in the heat, so I called it a day. No sense in starting on the other side until I have another several hours in a row available to work on it.
Looking at the weather, we’ve got a few more warm-ish nights ahead of us, and then some overnight cold temps, approaching freezing. I’m hoping to have everything set up again, including the heat lamps, before then to help keep the littles warm.
It’s been a huge job, but that room was way overdue for a deep cleaning like this!
Also, I just had to pause and chase the frikkin’ raccoon out of the sun room again!! At least the cats had a chance to eat first. There isn’t much kibble left.
That’ll be another good thing, if we are able to have rescues come and trap cats. Less cats, less cat food, less raccoons and skunk thieves!
We might even be able to use the sun room to just sit in and enjoy again! Wouldn’t that be something!
I’ve been feeding the outside cats a bit later every day, simply because it’s dark for so much longer. Which means getting through the old kitchen door with hungry cats and kittens swirling under my feet can get pretty dangerous! My younger daughter was on cat herding duty this morning. I can get through the door with the kibble bowl and avoid stepping on cats (barely), but I can’t also stop them from running into the old kitchen or close the door behind me at the same time! So I just try to get through as quickly as possible and start dropping food into trays to get their attention, while a daughter herds kittens making a mad dash through the door back out again until she can close at least one of the doors.
Later on, after the cats were fed, I’d done my rounds and I popped into the sun room to get some pruning sheers, I found this.
A great big bowl of kitties! Sir Robin seems content to be snuggled up with seven littles!
After the chat I had with the rescue, where they were trying to get an idea of how many cats we have, I did a head count as best as I could, of all the cats and kittens I could see. Usually, I try to count just the adults, as it’s so hard to spot the running around kittens at times. I think I got a total of 35, but I’m not 100% sure. I am sure that there were some “missing”, but I may also have counted some of the kittens twice.
We’re going to be warm for the next while, so this morning I uncovered the winter squash and watered the few things left to water, including the sunflowers, which are blooming more and more!
The sunflower in the first photo had been chomped by a dear. It sent up two new shoots, which then branched out more, so now it has four or five stems reaching upwards. All the flowers in the first photo are from that one plant.
The second photo is from the one that got flower buds developing at the base of almost all the leaves. I couldn’t fit them all in a photo what would fit on Instagram. “Only” eight blooming seed heads are visible in that photo!
The last photo is of the tallest sunflower. So pretty!
I still have no idea if we’ll get any viable seeds out of these. We have almost no pollinators around these days. At least not the flying types. This past smoky summer, with drought and heat waves, was brutal on everything. There are still other types of pollinators, but I don’t tend to see them on the sunflowers. We shall see how it works out.
I’m happy to finally see some colour on the Cosmos flower buds. There are so few buds at all! Most of the plants don’t seem to be developing any at all, even though they are quite tall and healthy looking, other than a bit of frost damage on a few.
I’m even happier to see so many of the memorial asters blooming. I’m pretty sure the plants are supposed to be much bigger (the nasturtiums were much smaller than normal, too), but they seem to be doing okay. If all goes well, I’ll be able to harvest seeds from them before the hard frosts hit.
Speaking of which, this is why I went back for the pruning shears.
Those are all the onion seed heads in the trellis bed. They were starting to open and I decided to bring them in to finish off indoors, so I don’t lose too many seeds into the bed itself. I found so many tiny onions while working on the bed in the spring, from seeds lost last year!
The other bowl is the driest of the carrot seed heads. There are still more on the plant that were quite green, so I’ve left them for now. We even still have some carrot flowers.
I’ve got quite a collection of seeds “curing” in the living room now. I need to settle in one of these evenings and package them up soon.
Once done outside, I came in for breakfast. I just sat down when I got a notification on my phone that there as a new voice mail. My phone never rang.
Yes, it was home care.
I’ll have to get back to that, though. I’m still shaking my head over the whole thing.
I was booked to drop off the courtesy van and pick up the truck for 1:30. I left early so I could fill the van’s gas tank (as required) and put it through a car wash (not required, but it was getting pretty covered in gravel dust already). I still got to the autobody shop quite early. As I was driving in, I could see a truck that looked like it might be ours, but I wasn’t 100% sure until I spotted my phone holder on the dash.
The truck was so clean, I barely recognized it!!!
I headed in to switch keys, sign what needed to be signed, and pay what needed to be paid. The final damage, including the “betterment” cost, insurance waiver for four days and the deductible, was $720 and change.
If this were not covered by insurance, it would have cost us almost $1500.
I’m glad I went with the bed liner stuff instead of regular paint. It looks really good, and I like that it has a texture and won’t be as slippery anymore. The inside of the tail gate was already coated with that, so it even matched that.
Then I got into the truck. Wow!!! They actually cleaned out the whole thing! The truck hasn’t been this clean on the inside since we bought it!
Once I was parked at home, I opened up the tail gate to check out the new cover. The latch to free it is much easer to find than the old one’s was. It rolled up nice and easy, and at the cab end, there are loops. Under the cover are straps with hooks to go into the loops. Waaaaayyyy easier to fasten then the buckles the old cover had!
That was about it for differences between old and new that I could see.
The trip to get the truck was almost enough for me to reduce my blood pressure after this morning.
The voice mail from home care was to let me know that the person scheduled to do my mother’s 9:30am meds today had called in sick.
It was past 9:37 when I was listening to the message.
She scheduler told me that they did find someone to cover it, but he wouldn’t be able to get to my mother’s until 10:30. She was concerned it might be late and wanted to know if I preferred to cover it myself. She wanted me to call back, but said she would schedule the 10:30 visit, just in case.
She didn’t leave a number.
Since my phone never rang (which means my Wi-Fi calling needs to be reset again), there was no caller display number. I couldn’t call her back. It would have been to give the go ahead for the late visit, anyhow, so I wasn’t too worried about it.
Being past time for her med assist, I was more concerned about calling my mother to let her know they’d be late.
When she answered, she told me she had just finished her breakfast. I don’t think she’d noticed they were late, yet.
I told her what the situation was and that someone would be coming, just at 10:30, instead.
She started making disparaging comments about how they call in sick so often.
Then she started going on about how we need to stop leaving her to strangers to take care of her. We need to take care of her. All weekend, and no one even phoned her.
…
…
I told her, my brother and I were AT HER PLACE on Saturday. It’s like she completely forgot that I came in to do her meds, grocery shopping and some housekeeping, just the day before yesterday, plus the surprise visit from my brother, and our taking her angel statue when we left, at her request.
When I told her that, she paused a moment, but just kept on going.
She was feeling sick. She’s been feeling sick for days. I tried asking her, sick in what way? but she got mad and told me to let her speak.
It turns out she meant her breathing, which makes everything else worse. So she was feeling bad overall, but blaming her breathing.
Then she told me she used the inhaler that I’d left out of the lock box for her, and was feeling SOOO much better, so she’d decided she will keep using the “puffer”.
…
…
I told her, she could finish that one off, but she no longer has a prescription. Because she’s been using it for a long time (more than a year) and it wasn’t helping.
Oh, but this one’s from the hospital, not the other one, and the one from the hospital works so much better.
I told her, they are the same medicine. The only different is how it’s released. Inside, it’s the same medication.
Oh… she says. Well I’ll still take it.
I reminded her that when I got her refill last time, she freaked out at me over how much it cost. I can afford it, she says (she could afford it before, too, but that didn’t stop her from yelling at me because it wasn’t free).
This went on for a while and I was starting to lose my patience. We do all we can to help her, and she keeps sabotaging our efforts. I told her I’d done a lot to get things the way she wanted, talking to the doctor, etc., and now she’s messing with everything again.
Ah, but this is my mother, so she took that to mean that I was complaining about how doing all that I do to take care of her is just too much for me. It really should be my brother doing all this, because he’s got the “biggest piece of the pie” (meaning, he now owns the farm). She has zero understanding that the farm is a burden for him, not a benefit, even with us helping as much as we can by living here, plus she thinks that transferring the ownership to him basically means he should be her slave, at her beck and call at all times.
My brother is on a flight across the country for his work right now. He works in internet security, at an international level. She has no clue how stressful or important his work is. All she wants is for him to be available to her at all times, and obey her every command. She’s been pretty blunt about that expectation, too. All because she transferred ownership of the property so it wouldn’t be part of the will anymore, in hopes our vandal would stop harassing her. Which he hasn’t. He just thinks she gave the property to me, for some reason. At least he can’t contest ownership of the property in the will, because she no longer owns it. Instead, she now thinks she owns my brother.
*sigh*
Then she started begging, pleading, for us to get her into a nursing home. Which we’ve been trying to do for more than a year, now. As she started that, she suddenly started talking about how Canada is turning into an African country, and this is a bad thing. I kept asking her, what does this have to do with being in a nursing home? She just kept repeating about Canada turning into an African country, then shifted to, it’s about her health. She needs to have people around her. She could start screaming.
???
Eventually, she was able to tell me that if she were in a nursing home and having troubles at night, she could start screaming, and someone would come to help her. But where she is now, she could start screaming, and no one would come (which has actually happened). I told her, that’s why you have the Lifeline. If you need help, push the button.
The entire conversation was very confusing and all over the place, with a lot more than what I’m including here – and all I was wanting to do was let her know her morning med assist would be an hour late.
I finally told her, again, I was calling to let her know her morning med assist would be late, adding that my breakfast was getting cold (sometimes, that works), and cut the call off. I just couldn’t handle the call anymore. There was no reasoning with her in any way.
While I was working on this post, I called and left a message with the mental health assessor that had come out this past Tuesday, mentioned that I had just found out the appointment had been interrupted by our vandal. I mentioned I had a phone call of concern just this morning and wanted to talk to her about it.
I do have my medical appointment in the city tomorrow, though, so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to connect with her. If she’s able to call before I had to leave, that would be great (I did get a time frame). Otherwise, it might be a few days.
We are very much at a loss with my mother. She really does need to be in a nursing home or supportive living, but we’ve done everything we can to get her in. Unfortunately, she’s sabotaging a lot of our efforts by refusing the home care help she should be getting, like meal assists, dress assists, bathing assists. Not that I blame her for not wanting it, but if she can’t handle home care doing this stuff for her, how is she going to handle nursing home staff doing this stuff for her? Meanwhile, because she is NOT getting all this extra care that she actually needs, she’s viewed by the system as being too able bodied and independent to qualify for a spot in home car.
Being Sunday, we were able to mostly make it a day of rest. I didn’t even do my full morning rounds, because I have a terrible habit of starting things and not coming in for a couple of hours. 😄 Mostly, I made sure the outside cats were fed, then went back to bed for a couple more hours, since it was still pretty dark out.
I did go into town this morning to refill water jugs, as we were on our last one, and picked up a few things my daughter requested and sent funds for. Then I went to the hardware store to find an epoxy to repair the crack on the garden angel my mother sent home with me, yesterday. The hard part was finding one that dried clear.
I was about to head home when my daughter messaged me – her timing was perfect. She ended up sending more funds and treated us to Dairy Queen. She had plans to roast lots of vegetables and do bread baking today, so she didn’t want to have to do more cooking or dishes before hand. 😄 Meanwhile, her sister has been in a lot of pain lately, so she’s been in recovery mode for the past two days.
I did check on the garden, as usual. The old kitchen garden needed a watering, but I’d watered the winter squash before we covered them last night, and never uncovered them this morning, so they would have been fine. Pretty steamy, actually. We ended up hitting 27C/81F today. For the past while, our daytime highs have been higher than predicted, while the lows have been colder than predicted (we dropped to about 5-6C/41-43F last night, instead of the 10C/50F we were expecting). The next few nights are supposed to be a fair bit warmer, so I might be able to uncover the winter squash tomorrow morning and leave them uncovered over night for a while. At this point, we should have at least one, maybe two, mature squash to harvest, if I can keep them alive long enough.
Speaking of squash…
The one pumpkin we have was on a dead vine, so I brought it inside. The underside of it was rather funny.
Can you tell that it was supported by a mesh sling? 😄
Later this evening, I had a chance to message with the new rescue. As the females we need to spay are mostly still nursing, I asked about being able to get help adopting out some of the indoor cats. I explained how we sort of ended up being a “rescue” ourselves, with cats needing surgery, a couple with amputations, or being sick, plus females that we managed to snag before they were old enough to go into heat. This rescue has just officially opened their doors, and I knew they were struggling to find fosters, so I made sure to tell them I’m not looking to foist cats on them. We need help with the spays and neuters with the outside cats, and with adoption, but we are already taking care of them now. I also made sure to say we want to avoid attention. They had started talking about going to the media to bring attention to just how many cat colonies there are out here int he boonies that need help. I was all, nope. Nononono. No media. That last thing we need it that sort of attention. Obviously, with our vandal, that’s an issue. I also explained I don’t want the RM or province involved, as that’s just going to lead to a whole lot of dead cats. What I didn’t mention is that, after many years of first hand experience, I simply don’t trust the media. They often either get even the most basic details wrong, or lie outright.
They ended up asking about the outside cats and kittens. How many kittens, how many adults, how many need to be fixed, how many males, how many females.
It was really hard to answer. I tried to do a head count of the littles this morning and counted 11, but I didn’t see Slick’s 6, and who knows how many others. We never see all of them at the same time. As for the females, I tried to think of how many we’re still seeing regularly. There are quite a few that have simply disappeared. Brussel, Caramel, Ink, Slick’s white and grey companion, and Magda, just to name a few – and Magda was spayed. There are a couple that are skittish to the point that we don’t know if they’re male or female.
I answered as best I could and, at their request, started sending pictures.
I think I sent them into a bit of a panic. There are so many!
…
I did eventually get a chance to say that, in our situation, we actually have a lot less this year. I’d already mentioned that we have more in the winter than, then they take off again in the spring. I told them that one winter, I was counting about 45-50 for a while. Then spring came and most of them disappeared permanently. I mentioned last year was the worst for kittens. Not just with how many there were, but how many I had to bury, including miscarriages I had to euthanize. Even this year, I had to bury a few, but nothing like last year.
As they are completely full, the woman that started the rescue has said she would contact some of the other rescues. There are some that will come out and trap. Which would be great, if we could get those mamas! Not while they’re still nursing, though.
If there was someone who could take Frank and her three, plus the fourth she’s been nursing as well, that would be fantastic. They are the youngest, tiniest ones, and winter is coming.
If that works out, and we end up with the outside cats trapped and taken in for adoption, that would be a huge help for us. Outside cats need more food than inside ones do. Especially in winter. The cost of cat food is built into our grocery budget, and there have been times where we’ve spent more on cat food than on food for ourselves.
I had just been hoping to get help with spays, in particular, and mostly adopt out some inside cats (I’ve been asked to provide photos and information on them). It would be amazing if we could finally get our numbers down. I’m not counting on it too much; it’s been really hard for all the shelters and rescues to get adoptions. Still, every little bit will help!
Anyhow. That’s my excitement for the day! 😄 I think now I might do something really radical, and go to bed before midnight. 😂
I went for a walk last night. Yesterday was the solstice, so it’s already getting dark a lot earlier. The sky was clear, so I tried some of the “pro” settings on my phone to try and get some pictures.
I didn’t have any sort of tripod set up, so I lay my phone on a surface and used voice commands to take the pictures – turning off my flashlight before I did, of course. Which worked for the most part, except the cats were very curious. Especially when I used the wall of a raised bed to set my phone on. Photobombing a camera while taking night results in some rather unusual glowy fuzzy shapes. 😄
Today, meanwhile, my younger daughter and I got started on the sun room. It needs to be cleaned out and prepared for winter.
The first part of the job was just… aweful. I did not take “before” pictures. Too gross! One side of the sun room was supposed to be for storing some of the yard and garden tools, folding camp chairs, a large garbage can and spare litter pans. Of course, the cats knocked things all over the place and, despite having a litter box available to use, they would go into the tiniest corners to do their business. The skunks and raccoons sometimes did, too. It should have had a spring cleaning, but that didn’t pan out, so basically it was a year’s worth of critters getting into things, knocking things about, and making biological messes.
Thank God it’s just a concrete floor in there!
We started off filling some garbage bags first, until I could get at some of the storage bins and whatnot and started moving them under the canopy tent. I’m going to have to go through the bins themselves to organize and probably throw away some things. Yeah, they even found a way to make messes in some of the storage bins!
We also took out all the kibble trays to hose them off and set them soaking, along with various buckets, the extra litter pans. The broom I keep in the sun room has very stiff bristles so, once we got the floor clear enough, I hosed it down a bit and used it as a scrub brush.
The problem with hosing the floor down, though, is that the sun room’s floor is no longer level. I’m guessing the rain barrel was allowed to overflow too many times, and the corner is undermined. Mostly, the concrete sidewalk block the rain barrel rests on is sinking at one end, but when I was cleaning up the old kitchen garden after we moved here, I found that the corner of the sun room floor next to it was losing the rocks and gravel from under it. This is why we had such a hard time replacing the outer sun room door. The door frame is no longer straight.
Anyhow, as I was scrubbing the floor on one side of the room, the water started draining towards the sinking corner. Which meant it was going under the cat cage. The cat cage is sitting on top of interlocking foam mats for insulation, so at least it wasn’t getting anything inside the cat cage wet.
The first picture was taken after sweeping, but before scrubbing. The table saw still needs to be taken out, and that counter shelf will need to be moved out so we can clean under it. The cats have knocked all sorts of things under there, and both kittens and skunks like to hide under there. The skunk has gotten so big, it can barely fit anymore, but it still squeezes its way under!
The second picture is after the initial scrubbing. The floor was still wet and the interlocking foam pieces were outside, getting cleaned in stages, so I grabbed some of the rigid foam insulation that used to be used between the main entry doors to try and keep the frost from building up inside. Now that the inner door is removed, since it can no longer be closed, we’d set the insulation sheet up against the storm door when we had a few really cold nights a while back. The cats, however, LOVE this insulation for scratching, which they would do when no one was around to chase them off. They scratched their way through until it broke. So I used the pieces to put on the still wet floor and moved the cage cage over it.
A couple of kittens got a ride in the process!
When Brussel had her litter in the cat cage so early in the season, I’d put the windshield sun shade around the back of the cat cage – the window side – to try and keep the chill out. It eventually got knocked out of reach, but once the cat cage was out, I could get at it. I decided to set it on top of the cat cage. Cats like to hang out on there, squeezed under the platform, and there’s carboard to make a floor over the wire panels, but one corner wasn’t covered. I decided to put the sun shade on to, making sure the open corner was covered. I think the cats will like sitting or lying on it.
Once the cat cage was out, I could clear under the platform. Huge mess around where the cat cage was, including from the water that had just drained under there while I was scrubbing the floor on the other side. Of course, there was also stuff that got knocked about. Under one of the heat lamps was a cat bed that needed to be hosed down. In the next picture, you can see the initial cleaning. Tomorrow, we’ll need to dismantle the platform and take it, and the shelves, out completely, so we can give the area a good cleaning. Kittens and other critters would hide in the corners and left “presents” for us to clean up.
Just barely visible behind the inner door is a metal garbage can. That’s used to store things with long handles – hoes, rakes, spades, etc. I made sure it was resting on scrap pieces of rigid insulation, not directly on the floor, and I’m really glad I did that!
When it was time to stop for the day, and brought the cleaned food trays in and set them near the cat cage. Then I did an early cat feeding. I am still giving some cat soup for Frank’s babies, inside the cat cage, so I hope they’ll accept it and be okay with the new location. I put the littles inside the cage with the cat soup, but they left right away. They seem to prefer dry kibble more! Hopefully, Frank will also be good with the new location. While I was cleaning under the platform, she kept running in and out, looking pretty alarmed about the while thing.
Good grief. It feels like the day should be almost over, but I’m looking at the time and just realizing it’s not even 5pm yet!
I am not at all up to working on the sun room more, but there’s plenty of time to do some clean up in the garden. A much more pleasant job!!
The Re-Farmer 