I’m happy to see that Brussel’s two super shy kittens are now not only regularly coming to the house, but getting more used to our presence. I was actually able to stand right by the cat house while taking the above photos, and only the orange and white one moved away. Since it then posed for me so nicely, I couldn’t complain!
I just love that face.
I also love that triangle marking over the nose of his sibling!
I’ve been trying to do head counts, and have generally seen anywhere from a dozen to two dozen cats and kittens at a time. Some have simply disappeared. The small orange and white kitten, for example. I haven’t seen it in quite some time, though his ginger brother still hangs out in the sun room a lot. I can’t tell if I’ve seen One Eyed Jack of late, since we have so many tuxedos this year and I don’t usually get a good look at their faces when they’re around.
The inside babies are doing quite well, in general.
The older kittens are great bundles of energy, and the littles sometimes almost manage to keep up. Except the tiniest one. That one is not as healthy. She has gotten used to being handled, though, so this morning I took her to the bathroom and finally gave her eyes a proper wash with warm water. She also had some waste matter stuck at her nether regions. I was able to clean it enough to be sure orifices were not plugged, but couldn’t get it off. It took a fair bit of soaking her nethers in warm water while I washed her eyes, but I was finally able to get it off – and finally confirm that she is a she!
She handled the whole thing rather well, though she did finally tire of the whole thing and try to get away. Ideally, we’d be taking her to the vet to be checked and likely be put on antibiotics, but our vet budget all went to Toni’s amputation, and it’ll be a while before it gets built up again.
As I write this, she and Pom Pom are now curled up with Tweedle Dee on my bed, snoozing.
Speaking of snoozing!
I actually got sleep last night.
That cat nip mix, with the valarian and honeysuckle, seems to have worked!
Yes, they did wake during the night, and they did run around and play for a while before going back to sleep, but they didn’t get the insane and destructive zoomies. Which meant more sleep for me, instead of constantly being awakened by their crashing and banging, or having them stampede over me, etc.
I don’t know if it made a difference with the adult cats or not, since I slept through most of the night (yay!) and my door is still kept closed. They don’t even try to get into my room anymore, which is nice. No more scratchy scratchy! Even Toni has zero interest in coming into the room. She’s more interested in wanting to get outside.
The next vet trip will likely be to get her spayed!
Meanwhile…
Still no sign of the missing ladies that broke out of the house – or that lost dog that’s in our area. Until they find that dog, I think it’s unlikely the ladies will come back here. Too much traffic and commotion. There’s also still no response in regards to adopting the kittens. I will avoid anything to do with that with the Cat Lady for the next while. They’re expecting to be moving soon, with 5 kids, 27 cats and a dog. They’ve got enough on their plates right now!
Hopefully, today, I’ll hear back from the financing company with good news about pre-approval for a vehicle with monthly payments we can actually afford. Pre-approval is no use if we can’t make the payments, even if the banks are crazy enough to think we can pay $800 a month. I mean really. Who can afford payments like that? Especially anyone on a fixed, disability income?
The main thing is for us to get a new-to-us vehicle that is accessible for my husband, before winter. I don’t care about make, model, colour, whatever. We need something that runs reliably, that my husband can get in and out of without hurting himself, and that has room for his walker, as well as our monthly shopping. Especially for the larger, heavier stuff, like the litter pellets and bags of kibble. That alone will save us so much on fuel, since we currently have to make extra trips using my mother’s little car. Still, beggars can’t be choosers. We’ll take whatever our mechanic finds for us. He knows what we need, and will find the best he can for us.
My husband was expecting a parcel at the post office so, before the post office reopened for the afternoon, I called the Chinese food place in town to see if they were open. They were, so I was able to place the order (thanks to my daughter, again!) we’d wanted to place, yesterday.
Also, it turns out they just changed their name. Everything else is the same, but it seems there are two restaurants with the same name in the city, and they were getting calls meant for the city locations, instead. Enough calls to warrant the name change!
My post office trip was an unexpected surprise. My husband’s package wasn’t there, but there was a surprise package for me!
More on that later.
Since I was going to town after the post office, anyway, I took advantage of the trip and refilled a couple of our 5 gallon drinking water jugs – and some energy drinks for my daughter and I.
I should learn to drink coffee. It’s much cheaper than energy drinks. I just don’t like coffee as a beverage, unless it’s so adulterated, it’s more coffee flavour than coffee, and the amount of caffeine in tea just doesn’t cut it for me.
But I digress!
Because ordering take out is such a big deal, when living in the boonies, we tend to order enough to last us for several days, and this was no exception. Plus, when the orders at this place are more than a certain amount, they start adding things like free rice or deep fried won ton chips, so there was even more than we ordered. They were kind enough to provide boxes to make it easier to carry, and I had help carrying them out to the car, too.
Once at home and unloaded, we had ourselves some excellent food – with lots left over! I think it’s been about a year since we last ordered from then, and boy did it hit the spot! What a treat.
After that, I got the parcel that came in the mail – after removing the cat that decided it was her bed – and opened it up. So many amazing things! Thank you, M! You’re a sweetheart!
There were a few things for the garden, including packages of catnip seeds, and seed “eggs” with pollinator seeds in them. There were some toy mice for the kitties, treats and two different bags of catnip, including this herbal mix.
I have not seen this brand since we moved out here, but then, I haven’t been seeing catnip of any kind, except for one small, insanely expensive, bag just a few weeks ago at the local grocery store. I have no idea why there would be an apparent shortage of cat nip in this province. Granted, I haven’t been hunting it down at pet stores, but the pet sections of the stores I do go to used to always have cat nip, and now they just don’t.
The other bag in the care package was the usual catnip and nothing else. This one has valerian, honeysuckle and catmint, too.
So I gave the mix to the cats to try, first! Valerian is supposed to have a calming affect, and we could really use some of that! Especially for the night. 😄
The adult cats sure got excited when I started strewing out some of the cat herbs. Even TTT, who has never had any before, was real interested in it!
The kittens even got some but, while they were all over the packaging when I got it out, they weren’t as interested in it once the herbs were actually available. I even put some right next to Soot Sprite, curled up on their favourite blanket bed, and he just curled back up and went to sleep, surrounded by herbs!
They did eventually discover it and have some, and that calming thing really does seem to be working right now! All but one of the kittens are asleep, which is not unusual for this time of day, but one of them is away, and very laid back while playing with a strip of carboard from off the parcel package.
There were some other lovely things, including treats like Truffle salt – something else I haven’t seen since we moved – and useful things like medical glass droppers. Considering how easily the plastic ones that come with the cat medication break, these will be very handy! There was even a old Canadian cookbook I look forward to going through, and an old book on preserving food that is going to be so handy. Some of the canning recipes may not be considered safe to use anymore, but it also includes other methods of preservation, and I even saw a section on sheds and attics for storing preserved foods!
Oh, that last kitten is now asleep, too. It’s so nice and quiet right now!! Even the adult cats seem to have all quieted down, even though not all of them eat catnip. It might be a good idea to give them some after their evening feeding, instead of the late afternoon, as I did today. We might just get some proper sleep, for a change!
While I was out, the lady from the financing company had tried to call and left some messages, so I called her back.
Ha. That was an amusing call!
First of all, yes, we have been preapproved for financing a car, up to a maximum amount of $22,000 (that’s roughlyUS$16,200 at the current exchange rates). Way higher than anything we’d actually be getting.
This was the funny part.
We were also approved for a maximum of $800 a month in payments.
Nope!!!
That is NOT going to happen!
Yeah, I laughed out loud with that. I told her, if we could make payments like that, we wouldn’t need a loan! She understood.
Here’s the other thing.
This would be for just 1 year, as we rebuild our credit. After a year, they would expect us to either trade in the vehicle, or refinance it.
That’s another nope. I don’t want a temporary vehcile!
Now, I already talked to our mechanic about what we can afford for monthly payments. Whatever upper limit we might be approved for, he would be looking for something for us that we can actually afford the payments on.
I told the lady what we could afford for monthly payments on our budget. We’re on a fixed income, but the cost of living is increasing at insane rates, so we have to take that into account, too. Plus, of course, we’d have the monthly insurance and registration payments, so that adds another $100 a month, give or take, depending on the vehicle. She confirmed that our mechanic knew this, and I told her I’ve been very open with him about what we can manage.
Getting payments that low will not be easy; she was up front about that. However, there is still one more bank she’s waiting to hear from, and she said they would start going at it from a different angle to get us a vehicle on payments we can afford. She assured me, however, that they would get us a vehicle.
Oh, that reminds me. Any vehicle we get can have a maximum 250,000 km on it. The first time we went through this, we were applying for a Caravan, and that company’s limit was 180,000 km. The van we wanted was 1000 km over, so they wouldn’t finance it.
One of the things she asked about was the possibility of a down payment. I told her how much we could potentially put down, but said we would prefer not to, because it’s basically our emergency fund. Which mostly goes to vet bills. I mentioned having a recent cat leg amputation. Yes, my daughters did cover it between them but it still needed to be paid for first, then get replaced later.
She completely understood and told me she found herself with an $1100 vet bill after her dog ate a sock! Sadly, after 6 months, the dog passed away due to complications from the surgery, but she at least got those last 6 months with the dog.
So, yeah; she completely understood the need for a contingency fund!
Anyhow.
She once again promised me that they would find us a vehicle we could afford, and we will likely get another call about it tomorrow.
We shall see how it works out!
Until then, I’m just thankful we at least have my mother’s car to use.
I already posted a photo of the new kitten on the block. This is a photo I took, just before I caught it.
The kitten in the back is the one I caught. The puff ball in the front is also on the list for kittens that are so tiny, they need to come indoors.
It is not at all cooperative.
There are two more black kittens with white spots on their chests from this litter (plus a much bigger one from another litter that is more catten then kitten, now). One of them should be fine and is bigger, but the other is staying teeny tiny. I don’t know why there is such a difference in sizes in the same litter, but the littles are at far greater risk, so if we can snag them for indoors, we will.
In other things…
My husband and I headed out fairly early today to get our blood work done. The results should be ready in time for his appointment with a doctor, tomorrow. Hopefully, this is a doctor that will take him on as a new patient. Once of the requirements for his disability income is to be under the care of a doctor, and he doesn’t have one right now.
These were fasting blood tests, so after it was done, we had to go for breakfast. With all the medications my husband is on, he doesn’t feel hunger anymore, but I was at the “getting dizzy and nauseous” stage of hunger. There was one restaurant we’ve been to before that I thought would be open, but it turns out to open just before lunch, not for breakfast, so we stopped at a hotel café not far away. This is one of those places that has been around forever, and where locals go to regularly for breakfast. I haven’t been there in years!
It’s not accessible, though, so my husband had to cane it up the stairs. Once we were there and settled, looking at the menu, I happened to glance across the room and saw a familiar face I hadn’t seen in years! It was an old friend of ours from high school! The last time I saw her was before she’d moved up North to one of the territories! It was really great to run into her like that!
After breakfast, we made a stop at the pharmacy to pick up prescription refills that would normally have been delivered today, then headed home.
My husband told me to go ahead and park in the garage, rather than drive up to the house, once we got home.
Then he fell, trying to get out of my mother’s car.
Well. More like a half fall. He ended up with one knee on the ground, one leg still in the car, and stuck in a most awkward position. After some struggling, he managed to get himself up. There was little I could do to help him.
He thought he was fine at first, but after a few hours, that knee that hit the ground (we have a dirt floor in our garage) was starting to really hurt.
Thankfully, he has plenty of really powerful pain killers, including one that’s “take as needed”.
I had intended to wait until closer to the end of the month but, after this, I sent a message to our mechanic, who also used vehicles available for sale. It’ll be 6 months at the end of September, that I’ve been using a low limit credit card to rebuild my credit score. Which means I should be able to apply for financing on a vehicle and have payments we can actually afford. The last time I applied for financing, the terms and interest rates were insane, they wanted a high down payment, plus the payments would have been $700 a month!
We messaged back and forth for a bit. He actually has a truck available right now. I had walked over to see what he had available, the last time I was at the grocery store across the street, and it’s a really nice truck. We could certainly use one but, for our primary needs, we need another minivan, though we could possibly get away with a SUV. He told me he would look for something for us. He knows our needs by now.
Not long after, I got a call from him. He told me he was with a new financing company now. One that specializes in helping people rebuilding their credit. He’d talked to her about our situation, and that we were living on a disability income. She told him that they could do pre-approved financing. That would go a long way in helping him know exactly what he could find for us, and not be stuck with a vehicle to sell to someone else, if we can’t afford the financing.
So I gave him permission to pass on my contact information and I got a call from the company already. The initial process has been started. The next step at our end will be to send in our ID and probably proof of income, etc., like we had to before. We should know in the next couple of days, what we can get for financing. From there, our mechanic will be able to look for something that meets our needs, and falls into the financing parameters.
I pray this all works out. As much as I appreciate having my mother’s car to use, it meets my mother’s needs, not ours. Plus, that thing needs to be replaced, too! My mother has already told my brother and that we should just sell it, but it’s too difficult for her to get into a larger vehicle, so a small car is needed for her. She won’t buy another car, though. She doesn’t drive or even have a license anymore. She’s got no problem with the idea of us buying another car for her, though… Not that we could afford to have two car payments!
Let’s start from the beginning of the day, which started off well!
I picked a tiny harvest this morning.
I decided to pick the one cob of purple corn that was the first to develop. I knew it wouldn’t be ready yet, but I wanted to see how it was. In particular the pollination. There was a fair chunk of it that had not been pollinated at all, so the kernels did not develop, but overall, it was pretty well filled.
One of my daughter’s doesn’t like corn, so my other daughter boiled the cob and we split it between us for a taste test. Of course, not being fully ripe, it would not have reached peak sweetness, but this is not a sweet corn to begin with. It was almost meaty in taste and texture. It actually reminded me of the corn I grew up with, that my mother saved seed from, year after year. I didn’t even know sweet corn was a thing until I was in my early teens, and my mother came back from a trip to visit family in the US, with corn seeds they’ve given her. She planted them in the spring, and I remember being astonished by the flavour of sweet corn. I still liked our old corn, though, and this was very much like that. We both enjoyed our taste test.
Later on, my husband and I left early for our medical appointment. Very early. My daughter sent us some cash to treat us to lunch. My husband hasn’t gone out since his last in-person medical appointment, and that was at least 2 years ago. We stopped in the town my mother lives in to pick up gas, then went to a restaurant for lunch.
Which is when I got a message from the cat lady, asking if she could call me. Talk about perfect timing! If we had left when I originally planned, I would have been driving when she messaged me and would not have seen it for some time later.
She wanted to talk to me about possible placements for 4 female outside cats! She was contacted by someone on a farm near my mother’s town. Their yard cats of 14 and 15 years had all passed away, and they needed mousers. They have an ideal set up, including an insulated and heated barn. Basically, they would be inside cats that are allowed outside. They gave their cats quality food, regular vet visits, and – as amply demonstrated by having cats that lived more than a decade – have been able to protect them from predators. There was even a vet lined up to check on the new cats.
There are rescues out there that would happily have given them 4 or 6 female cats right now, but they wanted to go through the Cat Lady, instead. They figure to start with maybe 2 cats and keep them in the barn for a couple of weeks before allowing them outside, then getting a couple more and repeating the process.
When I mentioned that our female cats are all nursing babies right now, including the ones with older babies (they just nurse any kittens that wants to nurse!), and it turned out the vet had brought up that concern as well.
In the end, she asked me to talk to the family about it. If we go with it, she will bring a trap for us on Saturday, when she comes to pick up the sick kitty.
I’ll get back to that later…
From there, we continued to the clinic. We got there early, and were shown into an examination room right away, but the doctor was in emergency at the time (this clinic is in a hospital building), so we were among several patients waiting. By the time she finally was able to see us, it was about 20 minutes past our actual appointment. Not too bad, except my husband was really struggling with pain levels.
She ended up spending a lot of time going over his medications list. Unfortunately, he forgot to bring his meds along, but he does keep a current list in his phone. There was some confusion about doses, because what he was actually getting didn’t match what the official descriptions said were available. I think in his case, because he’s on such high doses of some things, there are exceptions being made.
One problem that was unexpected is that she could not prescribe opioids. Apparently, the College is telling doctors not to prescribe them anymore.
Opioids are the only thing that have even remotely been able to bring his pain levels down.
He didn’t need those renewed yet, though, so we should have time for him to get a new doctor, when they arrive at this clinic in the fall. This doctor added that she couldn’t take him as a new patient, but we already knew that. This is just interim. Going over his medications list, she commented that he was going to have a hard time finding a new doctor.
*sigh*
Funny how it’s easy to find a doctor, if you don’t really need one, but if you do need one, and especially with a complex file like my husband’s, it’s harder to find a doctor.
She also focused a lot on his diabetes. One of his meds actually causes weight gain. It’s an anti-depressant and he’s been on is since before we moved out here. What I remember is that it prevented weight loss, but she says is actually causes weight gain. She said it’s also for sleep. As someone who has Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea, he certainly wasn’t taking it to make him sleep! He’s off that now, and he’s happier for it. As we were leaving, he vented his frustrations. He has so many problems, but doctors keep focusing on the diabetes. The way he put it, he’s got a heart condition that has a life expectancy of 4-6 years, from time of diagnosis. Which means 2-4 years from right now. He is in constant pain, and when I brought that up, she dismissed it. He had been told, early on, that until he gets his pain under control, he won’t be able to get his blood sugars under control. Apparently, that’s not a thing anymore. She did put in a referral to a diabetic nurse. Then she brought up “it’s the diet. It’s all the diet.” And the weight, of course. He won’t get his sugars under control unless he loses weight. I’d already mentioned, he barely eats, because of his pain levels. With all the other stuff, his blood sugars are far from a priority for him right now. She also brought up that he’s on cholesterol medication, but he’s never had high cholesterol. He was put on that by the first doctor we had when we moved out here, because that doctor puts all his diabetic patients over a certain age and girth on statins. Never mind that the actual research shows statins do nothing, and actually cause more harm than good. The doctors don’t seem to be on top of the most recent data.
<<< pause for interruptions >>>
Okay, more has happened, but I’ll get back to that later!
After my husband was done, including getting a requisition for blood work, it was my turn. I only needed one prescription renewal. Should have been fast and easy. She still had to “see” me as a patient, though, so she took my blood pressure. Which, of course, was high. It isn’t high when I test it at home. She was ready to prescribe me blood pressure medication, but I said I wanted to wait on that, because it doesn’t match at home. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve tested myself, since my husband has the machine in his room now. So she asked me to test my BP morning and evening, three times a week, for three months, then follow up with our new doctor. It’s also been ages since I had my blood work done, so I left with a requisition for that, too.
I had also made an appointment with this doctor for my mother, but I really don’t think my mother would like her. She’s female, black and has a strong accent. When I called my mother about it, we talked it over. The only reason for her to see a doctor right now is for the same reason as my husband and I; for an interim doctor to renew prescriptions. Not the dozen other things my mother thinks a doctor should be able to fix for her. My mother has no idea about the status of her prescriptions, and once I realized she didn’t understand what she needed to ask the pharmacy well enough, I told her I would call them tomorrow, while I’m in town. If her prescription renewals are good for a couple more months, I’ll cancel the appointment. If she needs a prescription renewal within the next month or two, we’ll keep the appointment.
So that’s done.
As soon as I could, after we got home, I headed outside to do my rounds early, walk around and get some fresh air. It was starting to rain, but that was okay. I also fed the yard cats a bit earlier than usual.
Which is when I saw Not Junk Pile on the cat house roof.
With a dangling foot.
It looks like her foot is broken at the “wrist”.
Crap.
I’m bringing my mother’s car in for an oil change tomorrow. I’ve also asked to get that check engine light looked at, plus a check on the wheel alignment. I’m feeling a shudder in the front driver’s side tire that concerns me. We’ve got a budget for this.
We don’t have a vet budget right now. That’s going to have to come out of money meant for a vehicle down payment.
*sigh*
I called the emergency vet, anyhow. She said that, if we could bring her in tonight, they’d treat her. So my daugher and I got the cat carrier and went looking for her.
By then, it was raining harder, and there was no sign of her.
We went looking again later, but still nothing.
We did see her kittens, though, and figured out where their new “nest” is. It’s no longer in the tarp covered board pile (formerly known as the junk pile). They’ve found a way to get into the space under the concrete stairs outside the dining room door. A perfect spot for a mama and her kittens. Impossible for us to get at.
I’ve also been in contact with the Cat Lady. This is one of the mamas we were thinking would go to the farm she was telling us about. She’s going to work on arranging more spays for us, and will be dropping a trap off for us, too. Between adopting out 4 female yard cats, plus getting spays done, we should be able to reduce the number of kittens next year.
Of course, that will also depend on how many of this year’s kittens are female, too! Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some of them done, early next year, before they go into their first heat. This year, they started having babies before the snow was gone. 😥
While I was working on this, we’d gone out to try and catch Not Junk Pile. When it became clear we were not going to get her tonight, I sent an email to the vet clinic, letting them know the situation an dthat we’d be trying to bring her in in the morning. I then called the emergency vet back and updated her as well. That means we’ll have to be out and feeding the cats quite early, and try to get her into the carrier. My daughter and I will work to get her to the vet when they open at 8am, then drop the car off for 9am. My daughter can stay at the clinic while I take care of the car stuff. I’m also going to have to swing by the pharmacy to pick up prescription refills. My husband has been without insulin for several days now.
Well, this has been an unusually busy morning. Maybe busy is the wrong word. Let’s just say, there were a lot more different things that got done in a short time, rather than spread out over the day.
I took quite a few photos I wanted to share, but I am pretty short on storage space in my WordPress account (and I’m not willing to pay through the nose to upgrade my plan, when storage space is the only thing I need!), so I’ve uploaded them to Instagram, instead.
The Black Beauty tomato is well named. They are gorgeous, and there are so many of them! Of course, the colour makes them very easy to see, unlike the Roma tomatoes, where the developing tomatoes are the same colour as the plants right now.
We’ve figured it out. I’m not finding different Abbott’s Sphinx caterpillars. It’s the same one, in different stages of growth. So it went from that incredible blue, to brown and now brown and green. From the photos I’ve been looking at, I think we might see one more colour change before it starts to cocoon itself.
When feeding the cats this morning, Not-Junk Pile actually let me pet her… sort of. So we gave it a try and got the ear mite medication. It too my daughter and I many attempts to get close to her – she kept moving away, but was hungry enough to keep coming back for the food. Finally, while she was in the kibble house, my daughter was able to duck in and use the syringe to apply the ear might medication to a spot between her shoulders. Unfortunately, there’s no way she would let us rub it in like it’s supposed to, but it’s the best we can do.
We have not been able to re-catch that kitten with the messed up eye. The eye is still open, but the swelling around it is huge, and I don’t think it can see at all out of that eye. From what little I can glimpse between the eyelids, it’s just red flesh.
After we managed to dose the cat, I threw away the syringe and packaging, then went to switch out the memory cards in the trail cams. I was just coming up on the driveway cam, reached into my pocket for a memory card…
And pulled out a syringe package.
So I went back to the garbage can in the sun room and retried the memory cards I threw out with the syringe… 😂 It seems that when I dug around the bottom of my pocket for the syringe cap, I grabbed the memory cards as well. I also had the empty syringe in my hand, so I thought I grabbed the packaging as well.
Oops!
After I was done with my morning rounds, I headed into town to the post office to pick up the other two books my husband got me for my birthday – and was surprised to find another package as well. I was just turning the corner on my way home when I realized that stick on the road was NOT a stick!
I was so excited to see my first garter snake of the year! Well, maybe. I might have seen one other, squished on the road, awhile back, but definitely the first live one. I carefully drove around it, and it didn’t move, so I stopped to take a picture out my window. Then I drove ahead, parked, and got it off the road. I did not want to take a chance that it would stay there and get smushed by the next vehicle! I hope it would cross the rest of the way towards our garden, but it turned around and went the opposite direction. Ah, well. Hopefully, it will make its way to our garden and start feasting on slugs and other critters that might harm our plants!
Once at home, I quite eagerly opened the packages. Here are my new books.
Somehow, I was expecting the books to be much larger, like the first one that came in. 😄
If you look at the contents pages, the first book (which is on the right) is almost entirely dedicated to food. The second book (on the left) adds in a few more topics, but is still largely focused on food.
I look forwards to going through these!!
The next books I want are newer editions of the Back to Basics book we have now. That one covers growing and raising food, butchering, preservation methods and recipes, too, but it starts with things like how to select land to purchase, how to did a well, and even step by step instructions on how to build three different types of houses, including a cordwood house. I’ll be using some of the techniques in there for when we build our outdoor kitchen. It also includes things like joinery, blacksmithing, etc.
We passed on many of our books before we moved, so we need to rebuilt our resource library!
As for the other package, that was like Christmas! A dear friend passed on some items. There’s a whole lot of very old cookbooks that I’m quite excited to see, and even a collection of seeds that belonged to a mutual friend and neighbour. They are all “expired”, but I will try planting them next year, anyhow. The germination rate will be low, but at least a few should still manage.
Well, this took longer to write than usual, because I’ve also been messaging with our mechanic.
He wasn’t sure the van was worth fixing, either. It hasn’t been long enough to rebuilt our credit rating enough, yet, so applying for financing at this point would not be a good idea. Plus, the Caravan we were interested in has sold, anyhow. I mentioned we were planning to replace the van in the fall, anyhow, so spending so much money to fix it just doesn’t make much sense. He ended up offering to buy it for scrap, of that helps us any. I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. We’ll get a few hundred for the van, depending on what the price of scrap metal is right now, and can cancel the insurance. The van cost less than my mothers car to insure, but it’ll still be reducing that cost by almost half. We can put that money towards savings for a down payment, instead.
So I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. Which means a trip into town to remove a few things from the van. Maybe not today, but we’ll see.
I do hate having to rely completely on my mother’s car, but we weren’t driving the van because of the noises it was making, anyhow.
Well, that got interrupted mid sentence…
It’s decided. We’ll sell the van for scrap. I’ve let him know, and might head over this afternoon to empty it out and do whatever paperwork is needed.
That van had a lot of problems, but considering the circumstances and the mileage, it really did to well for us.
Wow. Things have lurched from great to not-great pretty severely, today!
But first, kitten updates!
All six of the inside kittens have figure out how to get out of baby jail. When I was up and about this morning, they got all excited and started wailing, so I put them on my bed with a bunch of toys, and they were happy!
The new kitten, Question (who, it turns out, is female) is definitely more lethargic than the other kittens. I had to wash her eyes out this morning, and throughout the day, we were more likely to find her sleeping somewhere by herself, rather than running around and playing with the other kittens.
They can get out of baby jail, but then they want to get back in and seem to have more difficulty, so I moved the little scratching post over. They can now climb up it and access the top of the “door” to get back in.
We have to keep the door closed and severely watch our feet, now!
When I went to feed the outside cats, I found several kittens curled up together and sleeping on the cat bed we brought in with the trio of kittens I found yesterday. I did not see the trio and hoped the mama had come by and got them, but as I was finishing my rounds, I spotted the two orange ones. Looks like they were just hiding under the counter shelf. The problem is, there’s still been no sign of Caramel. At least Gooby did show up last night. I was concerned about him. When I told the girls about not seeing him, they told me he’s been up on the roof, looking plaintively into their window, and batting at the screen to get in!
One important thing is that I was finally able to catch the kitten with one eye that’s been stuck shut for days. It took the longest time to gently moisten the gunk. It was completely dry and rock hard. The entire eye area was quite swollen. When it got to the point that I could finally, ever so gently, pull apart the lids a bit, all I could see was red tissue. I feared the eye may have been lost, but when I saw the kitten later, the eye was still open, and I could actually see the eyeball. So maybe I got to it in time. I sure hope so.
It’s been hot today, so all the cats and kittens outside are mostly lying around in the shade, sleeping! We were getting severe thunderstorm warnings today, too, but all we’ve got outside here is high winds. I’ll be dong my evening rounds pretty soon, so I’ll be sure to check on the eyes as best I can.
I have a birthday this month, and one of the books my husband ordered for me as gifts arrived today.
Click on the contents image to see the whole thing. The other two books are being shipped together, and are on the same general topic.
My husband knows what I like! 💖💖💖
Oh, I just checked the tracking, and apparently the other two books came in today! I may have gone to the post office before they had a chance to finish processing the parcels. I’ll have to go back tomorrow to pick them up. 😊
The girls, meanwhile, treated us to take out. Normally, the birthday person gets to choose what restaurant we get food from, but this time I told the girls to use the money to get their driver’s licenses for my birthday – or at least get appointments made. The last time my younger daughter was able to book a road test to get her full licence, the nearest appointment was 3 months ahead. She has to book 2 hours with a driving instructor before she can book a road test, though. That got delayed by the lockdowns, and just hasn’t happened, since. Who knows how backed up things might still be. Her sister needs to do the written test to get her learners licence.
The girls still wanted to treat the family, though, so my younger daughter drove me into town. We got a bucket of fried chicken, then hit the grocery store for a few other things, including the cheesecake I chose for a birthday cake. It was very delicious! Last month, the girls picked up the entire Columbo series on DVD, so we enjoyed the food while watching Columbo.
Anyone else remember when TV shows were actually good? It’s been so long…
There was one major downside of the day, though.
I got word on the van.
That noise I was hearing from the back?
It was the brakes. They all need replacing.
Which… considering how long it’s been since we had the brakes done, is pretty fair. However, it’ll cost almost $730 to do them. The power steering pressure hose that needs replacing will be almost $270. So we’re looking at just under a thousand dollars in repairs.
We don’t have that, even if we dip into savings, which is supposed to be going towards a down payment for a replacement vehicle.
The van isn’t even worth that much.
I saw the message letting me know the cost just before the garage closed, so I don’t expect to hear from him again until tomorrow, but I was honest and said as much regarding the repairs. He knows our situation, so I’m sure he was expecting something like that. Then I asked if he thought it was too soon to apply for financing on that Caravan his still has for sale! For all I know, the price on that has dropped again. I haven’t looked at it since I brought my mother’s car in to get it looked at because the check engine light had turned on. There wasn’t anything serious and he cleared the codes but, yesterday, it turned back on again. *sigh*
Talking about it with my husband, he brought up the possibility of asking if we could pay as much as we can for the brakes now – they would be the higher priority – and pay the rest off next month, then do the power steering pressure hose another month. As he pointed out, the van may not be worth much when it comes to dollar value, but it’s a vehicle that runs, and a vehicle that runs is worth a lot more than one that doesn’t! That’s something I can talk about with our mechanic tomorrow. The thing is, we plan to try and replace the van before winter. If we spread out the cost of repairs over several months, we’d be done at about the same time I’d be applying for a replacement vehicle anyhow – but we’d have nothing for a down payment except the “trade in” value of the van. Which would be going for scrap. So all that money we’d be paying would basically be throw away. When we did apply for financing before, it was with no trade in and no down payment, so maybe we can do that again, too. Either way, I’ll talk to the garage about it tomorrow.
Oh, I just thought of something. If we don’t fix the van and sell it for scrap, we’d be cancelling the insurance on it – and that will free up some budget that can go towards a replacement vehicle… Hmmm…
Well, what will be will be.
Time for me to head outside and check on the kitties!
First, the cuteness! I came into the sun room and spotted this ball of adorableness.
I sometimes like to add some kibble onto the feed bag stuffed with packing material they like to use as a bed. They have a proper bowl, but they can’t all fit around it. Especially when some of the adults decide to eat from it, too!
The kibble bin was running low. We bought four 9kg and two 11.6kg bags of kibble during our last Costco trip. The kibble bin for the inside cats just got refills, which left the equivalent of less than a bag for the outside cats.
All that, and it’s only July 11!
So I made the trip to the nearest Walmart, at the smaller, nearer city, to pick up more. I ended up buying their last three 11kg bags, then two more 9kg bags.
All the bags were the same price. 🤔
Of course, I took advantage of the outing and got a few more things we needed. A smaller case of wet cat food for the cats in my room and the kittens – I’m now seeing other kittens eating the wet cat food, too! The replacement coupling for the hose I needed. That sort of thing. But I completely forgot to look at shoes! I need a pair of work shoes that are not boots. 😁
Gas prices I saw were pretty high. Passing through the town my mother lives in, they’re at 158.9¢/L, and in the city it was 157.9¢/L. I took a chance and took a different route home, in hopes the prices were still lower in the town we usually go to. Sure enough, the prices are still 149.9¢/L I don’t know why this one town has prices that are so much lower than elsewhere, but I’m not about to complain!
One thing I did before heading out was leave a message at the garage, asking if they’d had a chance to assess what’s going on with our van, yet. It was something they were going to do in between other scheduled jobs. Still no word, though. I hope I hear something soon! As much as I appreciate being able to use my mother’s car – and the working air conditioning! – I much prefer driving the van. Especially when we need to get things like 5 or 6 big bags of cat food!
Of course, it’s entirely possible that noise I was hearing in the back will require more expensive repairs, and we’ll have to decide if it’s worth fixing at all.
Just a few more months of using my new credit card and paying it off every month, and my credit rating should be good enough to apply for financing on a newer van, with an interest rate and payments we can afford.
Well, for a while there, I thought the kittens that were moved into the sun room had been moved out again! We did not see them when doing the evening feeding, nor did I see them when checking during the night. Handily, we’ve left the shop lights that were hanging over the transplants where they are, which means we can use the remote control in the bathroom to turn them on and check the sun room. 😄
There’s a reason we didn’t see kittens.
My daughter happened to be in the bathroom when she heard a ruckus. She looked out the window, just in time to see one of the mamas chasing a skunk out of the sun room, batting at its butt.
Yeah. It still stinks in there.
When we didn’t see the kittens after that, we thought the mothers might have taken them away again, but nope! They were there this morning!
From what I can see by their sizes, I think the three kittens in this photo are from two different litters. Then there are the smaller kittens whose eyes are still blue, and finally there’s the tuxedo that’s been here a while, still running around outside. Which means we might have a total of 4 litters combined right now!
While they were eating, I was able to reach down and pet some of them. I was even able to pick up and cuddle three of them! Two from the above picture, and a third that wandered over to the kibble container I was standing next to. One of them hissed a bit while I picked it up, but the power of ear scritches is a magical thing, and they settled in a fair bit.
The cats have knocked so much stuff off the shelves and onto the floor. Even after picking up most of the stuck knocked over during the winter, the cats climb into the shelves and knock it all down again. Which is now giving the kittens lots of places to hide, so I guess it’s okay we haven’t been able to get it all cleaned up, after all!
In other things…
Before heading to the city yesterday, I texted the garage about our van. I mentioned that it seemed to be the power steering that was making the noise, and asked if I should drive or tow it in tomorrow (meaning, today) for him to check when he could. When I got to the city, there was a response, and he said it should be okay to drive it in; he just suggested I add power steering fluid. He also gave the okay to leave the van and gave instructions on where to park it.
Today being Canada Day, I knew he would be closed. He’s closed Sundays and, with Canada Day falling on the weekend, a lot of places close on the Monday, too. So he might not be able to look at it until Tuesday, which is fine by us. Since we were at Walmart, I picked up some power steering fluid, too.
So today, I topped up the power steering fluid. We haven’t driven the van in a few months. Even the doors are stiff to open and close! Then I drove it to town, with my daughter following in my mother’s car, to drop it off.
The fluid seems to have made a difference. The steering wasn’t making noise anymore, though when I was outside the van while the engine was running, I could still hear the noise from the engine area. From inside the van, the engine sounded quiet.
Gosh, it felt so good to be driving the van, instead of my mother’s little car! Except for the lack of working air conditioning. 😂
There was something else, though, that wasn’t there before. When I hit the breaks to decelerate, there was a repetitive whumping coming from the rear. !!!
So after parking the van, I sent a message to tell the garage where the keys were hidden, mentioned topping up the fluid, then told about what was happening when applying the brakes.
The 2016 Caravan we’d tried to get financing for is still there, and the price has dropped considerably! At the time we applied for financing, it was selling for $15,400 – though he knocked $400 off for us from the start. Later, I saw it go down to $14,600, then down to $13,900. It is now down to $10,400 ! We weren’t able to get financing for it, because it was just over their mileage cut off. The loan we were approved for was a newer vehicle with lower mileage, but with no credit cards, loans or mortgage to improve our credit rating, the interest rates and requirements were insane. I got a low limit credit card to use to improve my credit rating, which takes about 6 months to really make a difference. We’re at only a couple of months, so it’s still too early to apply again, and get a decent interest rate. But if that van is still there by fall, I’ll be applying for it again. We’ll even be able to make a down payment, though it we can get it with only the van as a trade in, that would be preferable. There are a lot of things that money would be useful for. Life finally getting a plumber to work on our bathroom taps! One vet bill used up the money we had for that, but hopefully, we won’t have any emergencies to require us to dip into it again.
Of course, as I walked by, I took a look at the van. Looking through the tinted back windows, I could see some bags in the back. Looking through another window, I could finally see that they were bagged tires. The van has a set of winter tires, too!
Gosh, it would be so nice to have that van! We loved it when we had a 2007 Grand Caravan, and while the 2005 Uplander we have now has little things that I really like about it, a newer Caravan probably has some version of them, too. I would just really love to have a vehicle that doesn’t have me saying an extra prayer for protection, every time I have to drive somewhere! If the van needs repairs that cost more than it’s worth, though, we might end up applying for it again, sooner, rather than later!
One nice thing about having the van waiting at the garage until it can be looked at: once at home, we didn’t have to squeeze my mother’s car into the side room of the garage, and could park where the van usually sits. Not only is there room to open the driver’s side door all the way, but someone can get in and out of the passenger side, too! 😂
Ugh. It’s past 4pm as I write this, and we’ve hit 30C/86F That matches the 30 year record high from 2012. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.
It could be worse. We could be matching the record low of 5C/42F set in 2001, instead!
Though we had some excellent rain recently, I need to check the garden beds and see if they need to be watered in this heat! It won’t start cooling down for 3 or 4 more hours, though.
Plus, of course, check to make sure the water bowls outside are full, and maybe add some frozen reused water bottles in them, as well!
Today has turned out to be a MUCH more pleasant day than yesterday. We did officially reach of high of 30C/86F, which makes the current temperature of 20C/68F feel downright cool! It was very refreshing while I was going my morning rounds and taking the transplants out for continued hardening off.
I took the folding set of closet doors I found in the shed and set it up on the hand rails of the laundry platform. It’s almost enough to keep the cats off!
You can’t really see them, but the squash and gourds in the bins on the left are getting huge! In the foreground, in the centre, you can see some new Zucca melon coming up enthusiastically. I’d planted more, since so few germinated the first time I planted them, but it’s taken this heat for them to finally get growing.
After I took this picture, a cat jumped up and nearly squashed them, but they seem to be okay!
I’ve got things set up on the kibble house roof to support one end of the trays, making them almost level. The metal baking sheets work very well for that. I should have picked up more of them before Costco ran out! I didn’t expect them to disappear entirely.
I’ve started to take the trays with the most recently planted seeds out, too. A few are showing germinated seeds, and there’s no reason not to harden them off at the same time.
I might actually start planting some of the larger tomatoes and the first peppers this weekend. We’ve got one chilly night expected between now and then and, after that, even the one colder day forecasted has no risk of frost. I want to plant these peppers in the wattle weave bed, which will also give them more protection, as well as the full sunlight they need, plus they would be relatively easy to provide protection for there, in case the long range forecast into June is wrong and we do actually get frost.
The priority today, though, is getting the last of the potatoes in.
My daughter and I took my mother’s car into town to be checked out. All they were going to do was see why the check engine light was on. My eyes have been going wonky at times, so my daughter came along just in case I needed her to drive. We dropped the car off and I explained what was going on, then I took her for lunch. Well. Lunch for me. Breakfast for her. She hadn’t eaten yet! We basically just had to wait until I got text saying the car was ready to pick up.
There really wasn’t anything wrong. A couple of codes came up, but nothing of concern. His guess is that at some point, when we started the car, it got a low pressure reading on the oil, which was changed fairly recently. Once the light was on, it stayed on. He cleared it, but had no work to recommend getting done. He didn’t even charge me for the reading.
I talked to my husband later on about my not being able to use the OBDII reader he got me. It didn’t work before, because of a known Blu Tooth issue on my phone at the time. We traded phones, because his worked, but I’ve since gotten a newer phone. I didn’t expect to have the same issue with the new phone. When he realized the phone simply would not pair with the OBDII reader, he remembered that it works with his table. So if the check engine light turns on again, I’ll have to remember go use his tablet to try and get a reading. Meanwhile, the light has stayed off so far. Hopefully, it will stay that way!
It wasn’t a wasted trip, though. I got to spend some relaxed time with my daughter. 😊
I’m just glad there was nothing wrong with the car. Confirming that at the garage was also well worth the trip.
Well, things are going to start cooling down. Time to get to work!
I spent some time just sitting outside before going to bed last night, enjoying the cool of the evening. Having the swing bench outside, to make room for the transplants in the sun room, is really nice.
Of course, Gooby was all over me, wanting lots of attention!
It was starting to get pretty dark when I heard what sounded like the beginnings of a cat fight in the outer yard, so I went to investigate. I never found the cats I was hearing, but the sound of frogs from the pond and gravel pit was so loud, I decided to go the outer yard fence and try and capture it on video. The grass from last year is still tall, but now has new growth in it, so it took some effort to get through!
I was in the middle of taking a short video when I could hear something in the grass behind me, coming closer and closer.
Then my legs got attacked.
In a loving way!
Make sure your speakers are on, to hear all the frogs!
I made sure to carry him back with me. I wouldn’t want an owl to make off with him!
Gooby just can’t seem to get enough attention from humans.
In other things, I made a quick trip to the post office to pick up a parcel this morning, and the check engine light turned on in my mother’s car.
*sigh*
My daughter did the driving yesterday and it had turned on then. I heard the ding when it turned on, but didn’t know what it was. She assumed I already knew about it, but it had not turned on before. I tried hooking up my OBDII reader, but it won’t connect with my phone. I had the problem before, and it was a problem with the phone’s BluTooth, not the reader. I have a new phone now and this is the first time I’ve tried to use the reader with it.
So I contacted our mechanic about it. I can drop by any time tomorrow afternoon and they’ll check it out.
Right now, we’re not using the van at all until we can get it to the garage to get a noise checked out. We won’t have the budget for that until next month. My mother’s car, however, is a higher priority right now. If there’s something that needs to be fixed, we’ll have to dip into the money being set aside for a down payment on replacement van. Which would really suck. Hopefully, it will be something minor.
Today is not going to be a very productive day outside. In fact, I’m not even taking the transplants outside to harden off today. As I write this, we are already at 27C/81F, and may reach as high as 30C/86F by the evening, depending on which app I look at. We don’t have a shady spot to set out the transplants, and I don’t want them to get sunburned or bake in their pots.
It also means, no one is going to be doing things like sifting the garden soil and hauling wheelbarrow loads over, to fill the bags we’ll be planting the potatoes in, until things start cooling off. Looking at the forecast for the day, that likely won’t be until tomorrow morning. We’re supposed to reach our hottest temperatures at about 4pm, and stay hot for several hours. The days are getting longer, but not that long!
Still, I’m hoping to get at least some things done. We need to break out the wood chipper, so we can run straw from last year’s deep mulch beds through the shredder, as well as some of the wood chips from the pile. The big commercial wood chipper the tree guys have did a great job of breaking down the branch piles that our wood chipper can’t do – mostly because they are too crooked to fit into the chipper! – but the resulting chips are quite course. That’s fine for mulching around trees, or to add among the layers filling a new raised bed, but is a bit hard to work around when used as mulch on the top of a garden bed. Plus, breaking the straw or wood chips down finer means they will break down into the soil faster, too, and our soil really needs that organic matter.
We are also going to have to break out the lawn mower! Especially in the outer yard, in front of the barn, where we were unable to mow last year. If we don’t get that under control quickly, it’s going to be a lot more difficult later on. Plus, grass clippings are gold, and we’ll need a lot of it for the garden beds! I don’t even bother putting on the grass catcher. It fills too quickly. Plus, I find that if I let the clippings sit for a couple of days to dry, then rake it up, it’s easier to work with.
Tomorrow we’re supposed to reach “only” about 18 or 20C/64 or 68F, and then get some rain the day after, so I hope to get at least the area around the pile of garden soil mowed, so I’m not fighting the wheelbarrow through tall grass with every load.
The Re-Farmer 