After yesterday’s gorgeous temperatures, doing my rounds this morning was feeling downright brutal. As I write this, we’re still at -22C/-8C, with a wind chill of -31C/-24F. I was more than happy to be back inside and checking the trail cam files.
Where I found this.
What on earth?
I tried zooming in on the full size image, but it’s just too grainy to tell. Normally, I’d say burrs, but find it strange that burrs would be all caught up just on her tail like that. I’d expect them to be more spread out. I suppose another possibility is her fecal matter somehow getting stuck, but that doesn’t seem right, either. They lift their tails well clear for that to be a possibility. Plus, some of the pieces look the wrong shape and size for that.
What a beautiful day today! Bright and sunny, with only a light wind, with an expected high of -4C/25F. A perfect day to finally get outside and do a burn! We’ve needed to do it for a while, as the cat litter sawdust was filling the burn ring to the top, but it’s just been either too chilly, too windy, or both.
I had company while I was getting set up to start.
Rolando Moon was enjoying the sun on a nice, snow free spot!
When we do a burn, along with the burnable household garbage, I have been slowly burning the old rotten pallets from the junk pile. This leaves a good body of coals that allows me to cover the burn ring, leaving the coals and litter sawdust to slowly smolder away for several days.
A lot of the old pallet pieces are so rotten, I can break them up with my hands, but there are still some longer pieces to fuss with. It takes a while to burn them through in the middle enough to break them pus the ends into the ring, so I made sure to bring a camp chair to use in between tending the fire.
Any time I sat down, Gooby came over and was all over me! He’s always had a thing for noses, but lately, he’s not just trying to lick my nose, but trying to bite it!
Then Pointy Baby came over. He’s still full of burrs. I tried to at least break them up, so he could groom some of them out himself, but he just would not stop spinning around. I think they were hurting him. After awhile, though, I think he figured out that what I was trying to do actually make him feel better. He still spun around a lot, and would lick/bite at my fingers, but he did stay mostly still enough that I got some progress. Some of the biggest bunches have been broken apart, and I even got a few out completely. There are some small, hard ones, completely encases in fur, that I haven’t been able to do much about. Still, he’s a much happier boy now!
When the fire was burned down enough to cover the ring, I was going to grab the camp chair and found this!
These two know a good thing then they see it! I didn’t have the heart to kick them off into the snow, so I picked the chair up by the arms and carried them. Pointy Baby did eventually jump off, but Gooby got a ride all the way to the sun room. So I just set the chair up where the frame to the mini greenhouse used to be, and the last I saw, he was still enjoying his comfy spot!
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to start getting a cold spell again. Nothing another bitter polar vortex like last time. As long as it’s not windy, it should still be fine.
Just out of curiosity, I just the app that has historical weather data. The 30 year average high for today is -8C/18F, and the average low is -19C/-2F. The 30 year record high for today is 7C/45F, set in 2017, while the record low was -30C/-22F, set in 2015!
Oh, there’s such a down side to having a long haired gene show up in the yard cats!
This is the “in between” long haired black and white cat. He’s just a bit bitter than Pointy Baby.
I’m so happy I caught the tiniest of tongue blehps.
The girls have named this one… Thesamus? Something like that. Anyhow, he still won’t let us near him. When he moved away after I got this picture, I could see what looked like a huge matt of fur on one hip. Or maybe it was burrs stuck in his fur. I couldn’t quite see well enough.
Then Pointy Baby showed up. Pointy Baby loves attention, so I had no problem finding the half dozen or so burrs stuck on his fur! They were not there last night. He wouldn’t let me touch them. I plan to head out today, so I’m hoping one of the girls will have a chance to settle into the sun room with him and get them out.
The biggest of the long haired black and whites, and his long haired tuxedo brother, were also around and, so far, their fur looks clear of matts or burrs. I didn’t see the long haired calico this morning, but so far, she hasn’t been getting any visible matts in her fur. Hopefully, things will stay that way.
As I type this, we are currently at -20C/-4F, with the wind chill at either -32C/-26F or -29C/020F, depending on which app I look at. Our high of the day is still supposed to reach -14C/7F, with a wind chill around -25C/-13F
Yesterday, we were supposed to reach a high of -1C/30F. I have no idea if we ever did, but what we did get was incredible winds. Whiteout conditions on many highways, with some of them closed due to the blowing snow. Today is a significant improvement!
The long range forecast has changed, of course. We went from expecting much milder temperatures for the rest of February, with the coldest days having highs just a little colder than -10C/14F, to now getting forecasts with highs colder than -20C/-4F, all with significant wind chills.
Winter just doesn’t want to let go quite yet!
Thankfully, with the current wind direction, our front yard is quite sheltered, and the cats and cattens are making good use of the cat house and the sun room to keep warm.
This morning, this little guy was absolutely determined to get stepped on.
When I first go out in the morning, there’s usually several cats right under the threshold of the old kitchen door. I have to carefully push the outer door open (while holding the kibble container) with one hand, pull the inner door closed behind me, while trying not to step on any cattens trying to get into the old kitchen at the same time. They make if VERY hard not to step on them, as they keep dashing right under my boot every time I try to move around them.
There are now three white and greys, all male, that come for attention, but this one here was making life quite difficult for me in the process! Absolutely suicidal around my feet! I do wish we didn’t have to keep the kibble bin in the old kitchen. At least there, they don’t start milling about my feet until I’ve got it open and am scooping out the kibble, and I can get in and out of the old kitchen doors with less risk of stepping on a cat!
I was able to count 24 cats this morning, but then I saw Sprout by herself next to the cat house, and I wouldn’t be sure if she was among the others I’d counted or now. So there might have been 25. No Distinguished Guest this morning. I haven’t seen Sad Face (aka: Shop Towel) for a while, either. The toms are probably visiting other farms in their range. Hopefully, The Distinguished Guest is doing better. That cat needs a vet visit. 😥
We have some progress among the inside cats.
Marlee and Ginger, sharing prime nap space! These two are hilarious. They hiss and snarl at each other, all the time. Then Marlee will flop down next to Ginger, often dropping right on top of him, and they settle down for naps together.
Nosencrantz is figuring out that the new shelf at the window is available for her, and I woke this morning to find her sitting on it. Unfortunately, what woke me was the sound of her batting something off the window ledge.
No, I don’t have anything on the window ledge the shelf is against. She went after stuff on the other half of the window!
My craft shelf next to her spot is where I store envelopes in a variety of larger sizes. She decided those were something to chew on, so I had to find a way to protect those but, otherwise, it’s been working out as hoped. I may not even have to shorten the legs, after all. No other cat has shown any interest in the shelf at all.
With how well this is working out, I should actually be able to clear and reorganize the rest of my craft table and even *gasp* use it to do crafting again!
What a novel concept.
With the temperatures dropping again over the next while, it’s a good time to catch up.
I found this while checking the files on the gate cam. Such an elegant lady!
This is cropped out of a much larger still, so the date and time stamp is gone, but it was taken shortly after noon. So brazen! In the video clip, she was just bouncing up the driveway, like a thoroughbred.
I think this is the first time I could see that she has white patches just above her hooves, too.
While feeding the outside cats, someone else was back, though I couldn’t get a good photo of him. The Distinguished Guest was among the 25 cats I counted this morning. He is still looking in very rough shape, and the tip of one ear is flapping around. He still looks bedraggled and he’s moving slowly, but he’s not limping like he was the last time I saw him. I tried not to move too quickly and spook him, though he did still move away as I put the food out and refilled the water bowls. Mostly, he went from food tray to food tray, and even stayed under the water bowl shelter, eating, while I refilled the heated bowl. As I went around other paths, he started making his way up the path to the compost pile, then stopped part way, watching me. As I continued, I’d look over and he was a little bit closer… then a little bit closer… By the time I was done and tying off the sun room doors, he was almost back at the kibble house. What I was somewhat encouraged to see was Rolando Moon walking past him, and there was no altercation. It may be that he’s just too beat up to start a fight, but I’ll take what I can get.
I would feel much better if he were able to assimilate into the yard cats, and no longer be picking fights. Even better if Sad Face would stop fighting, too. I haven’t seen him in a few days, which is probably why TDG is back.
Yesterday, I mentioned that I’d spooked our visiting piebald deer in the yard. I had been unable to get a picture, but it turns out, we got a decent shot of her making her way towards our place, on one of the trail cams.
That old trail cam takes some pretty decent pictures.
I’d left some roasted squash in the compost pile for her yesterday, and today there was no sign of them at all. I hope that means she got a nice meal out of it!
We’ve had a very quiet day at home today, catching up around the house and being very domestic.
Because of the racoons damaging things and eating everything up, we have not been putting out deer feed or bird seed this winter. I do still see tracks in the snow when I do my rounds, but not very many. We have, however, been getting one regular visitor.
This piebald deer has been visiting us every winter that we’ve lived here, making this the sixth winter of her visiting us! This video is from a few days ago, but yesterday, we spotted her in the yard, making her way to the compost pile. I’ve also been seeing deer tracks around the cat shelters, which tells me she – or some other deer – has been going for the kibble and water, too.
This morning, as I headed out, I heard a familiar huffing noise and looked up in time to see the piebald, half was up the path to the compost pile, leaping away.
We happened to have some roasted squash in the fridge. It was meant for something else and had no seasonings on it, but I decided to put it on the compost pile for our visitor to eat!
It’s getting that time of year when it’s harder for the wild critters to find food, so I’ve got no problem setting out some extra food for them, if we have it.
You’d think a city shopping trip would be more tiring than running errands with my mother, but nooooo…
We are having another beautiful sunny day, though the wind has certainly picked up. I counted 23 yard cats while doing their kibble and warm water this morning.
I was just coming back to the house would I saw these two, finishing off the kibble on the cat house roof. I tried to get a good picture of Brussel, but she moved around and sat with her back to me.
I swear, that fuzzy butt of hers is bigger than the little guy beside her!
She won’t let me anywhere near her – I had to zoom in quite a bit to get this shot – but she’s less shy than her sister, Sprout, who runs off as soon as she sees me and doesn’t come back to eat until I’m back inside.
Sadness.
When planning today’s outing with my mother, I brought up getting Chinese food for lunch again. She said no, made a big deal of the cost, and that she could make lunch for us, etc. Well, I didn’t listen to her. I left early enough to pick up some parcels at the post office before they closed for 2 hours over the lunch period, so when I got to her town, I picked up lunch anyhow and showed up early. She laughed and nattered a bit about my not listening to her, so I told her that I wanted a treat. Only later, while we were eating, did she say that I must have heard her thoughts. She had been poking around her fridge for something to make for lunch, didn’t find anything she wanted, and wasn’t up to cooking, anyhow. She’d been regretting telling me not to bring food! The next thing she knew, there I was with lunch for both of us! So that worked out.
After lunch and a bit of a visit, we headed out to do her errands, getting groceries last of all. I stayed long enough to put everything away, then started getting ready to head home. My mother was all ready to make tea, but I told her I had to go. As usual, she started going on about how, if we visit her, we should plan on staying for a long time. I told her I do – that’s why I come over so early! So we can get a visit in, first. I must say, I was pretty tired by then, anyhow. My mother is 91 yrs old, has a bum knee and uses a walker, but that hardly slows her down at all! It takes quite a bit to keep up with her, that’s for sure. She didn’t push for me to stay, though. I know she was tired, too, and would probably go for a nap as soon as I was gone!
Once at home, I found one of our backordered seeds from Veseys was in the mail.
I’m looking forward to these. I keep hearing about how great Delicata squash is, but it’s not a good storage variety. This new Honeyboat variety is described as good for storage, so I figured it was worth trying. At 100 days to maturity, it’s going to be one of the earlier ones to start indoors.
This leaves one more packet of seeds on back order to come in from Veseys.
While at the grocery store with my mother, I noticed they had a couple of seed displays up. I was so tempted to get more, but we already have so much, and in varieties better suited to our needs.
We had another lovely day today! Nice and sunny, with a high of -9C/16F, and almost no wind chill at all. The cats are quite loving it, romping around in the sun and the snow.
I had the hardest time getting this picture of Pointy Baby! He kept trying to reach out to me, or my phone. I managed to catch a shot during one split second he gave me a pretty pose! I counted 24 cats outside this morning.
With my last trip to the city, where were very few things on my list that I didn’t get, and I wasn’t intending to make another trip so soon. However, I’m going to be helping my mother with errands tomorrow, and I don’t want to shop on the weekend, so I figured I’d better head out today, before some things start running too low. I went to the closer Walmart, with the possible extra trip to Canadian Tire to get more stove pellet litter. I ended up not needing the extra trip.
This is $171.11
They had hardwood pellets in stock this time, and the price has actually gone down! They were $5 each. At Canadian Tire, the hardwood pellets have gone up in price from $6.99 to almost $8, while their softwood pellets stayed the same price. The Walmart price had been comparable to the Canadian Tire price, but I’d only ever seen softwood pellets. These hardwood pellets are the same brand that Canadian Tire carries. So I got two, and I would have gotten two more, if I weren’t also getting kibble.
Their inventory of large kibble bags was low again, except for the super cheap no-name brand, which come in 7kg/15lb bags. There were no 11kg/24lb bags, so I picked up a couple of 9kg/20lb bags, plus their largest size case of canned cat food. They all cost just under $30 each.
I wasn’t able to find the usual shampoo and conditioner we use, in the big bottles with pumps. I haven’t seen those in quite a while, so I got smaller bottles of the same brand – two types with different oils in them – to try. They were on sale, at under $5 each.
The only thing on my list that was groceries was the icing sugar, but I also grabbed some red rooibos tea. My husband requested nacho fixings, so I got the giant jar of olives (which was cheaper than at the wholesale place!) and no-name brand tortilla chips. I got a couple of loaves of rye bread. I saw some bakery cookies for sale and got some salted caramel chip cookies as a treat, plus a variety pack of gum to keep in the van. One last extra was a couple of packages of biodegradable pots. All of these were between $3 and $5.
They didn’t have the larger size pots that I would prefer to use for certain seeds, but these ones will do for others. Eventually, when we’re planting seeds that aren’t as much of an issue for size or potting up, we’ll just use the red solo cups we have so much of. I expect we’ll need at least a couple more bags of seed starting mix, but not for quite a while.
Everything except the big bags and the canned cat food fit into just one of my hard sided grocery bags.
With this done, anything else we need for the month can be picked up locally, as needed. We will be making one more trip to the city, though, to get the materials we need to build a cat barrier to the living room. This is a project the girls are planning out and paying for, so they get to tell me when that’s going to happen! 😄
After the shopping was unloaded, we loaded the van up again for a trip to the dump and I headed out again. That’s a quick trip, at least.
Then, more running around tomorrow, this time with my mother’s car. After that, I should be able to play hermit again for a little while! 😄
Of the 25 cats I counted this morning, that did not include any visiting toms. I usually see Sad Face wandering around later, or in the sun room, eating.
I just got back from doing the evening feeding of the outside cats. With how warm it’s been, I’m actually seeing the sun room completely empty when I check it through the bathroom window. Just before I headed out, I did see two cats on the swing bench. One of them turned out to be The Distinguished Guest. I’ve not seen him much at all lately, and even then, it’s been in passing.
The poor thing was looking in rough shape before, but he’s looking even worse now. When I came into the sun room, he jumped down and squeezed out the doors, so it was the best look I’ve been able to get of him in ages. He’s a long haired cat, but his tail has been looking very thin, and now I’m thinking there’s either fur missing, or grey muck is stuck to it. I tried not to spook him as I went out, but he still moved away towards the storage house. Slowly. His movements are stiff, and he’s got a limp. His fur is looking quite scraggly.
I don’t know where he spent the cold snap we had; I did see glimpses of him, but I don’t think he was using any of the other shelters around the yard. I’m afraid Sad Face has been attacking him and chasing him off. I suspect right now he’s dealing with both the effects of the recent cold we’ve had, and getting beat up by Sad Face.
I did see both of them in the sun room not that long ago, though. It took me a while to be sure it was The Distinguished Guest on the swing bench, as we now have a long haired tuxedo that I’m sure is his son, and they’re about the same size now. Sad Face was ignoring him in favour of food. If that was how the two would behave all the time, I would be much happier!
As for tonight, after I topped up the food bowls, TDG sat and waited by the storage house, then started to limp his way back. Hopefully, he’ll make his way back into the sun room and settle in for the night, without trouble, and spend time time resting and recovering, with food and water nearby.
When TDG first showed up here, he actually allowed us to pet him. I’m still sure he was dumped. Unfortunately, over time, he has become more feral, not less, and there is very little we can do to help him, beyond what we are already doing. Poor thing. 😥
The Re-Farmer 