Strange things

Today, we finally got our monthly shop in the city done. We got the main shopping done at Costco, and still had energy enough to take in a couple more stores. It made for a long, achy day. I forgot to take pain killers before we left. Ah, well.

We encountered a couple of strange things in the process. The first was at Costco, when we stopped to look at a food dehydrator. I had one but passed it on before the move, and will be wanting to replace it by the time we start gardening. The one on display was tipped over on its side, so while we were maneuvering it around so we could see it properly, we got a good look at the settings.

We both did double takes.

20190430.living.food

Living food? What on earth is “living food” supposed to be? It’s already got settings for yogurt, so not bacteria, and bread, so not yeast. I’m familiar with the raw food diets and the claims about enzymes, but there’s fruit and vegetable settings there, too. I’ve even been doing searches, and I’ve found a Living Food Institute, living food as a brand name for, among other things, dehydrators, and raw food diets that define living foods as “all natural and uncooked.” Which doesn’t explain having its own setting.

Very strange! :-D

Then as we were heading into another grocery store for things we don’t want to buy in bulk, we walked past a cart corral and spotted this…

20190430.lost

Someone left their liverwurst behind, and there it sits, all sad and lonely. Strange, indeed! :-D

It was a productive shop, though the Costco was very busy for a Tuesday morning! My daughter and I were both pretty sore and tired by the time we got home. My younger daughter had a shift today; we dropped her off, then headed straight to the city. One of the things we got were cat treats for the mamas in the sun room, so before I headed out again to pick her up, I took some time to sit in the sun room with them.

Beep Beep could not get enough cuddles!

20190430.cuddle.me.now

I spread cat treats in different areas, including the box nest I hope Beep Beep will use when she has her babies, as well as tucking some under the blanket for Butterscotch. She would be in this picture, too, if the blanket were lifted up. :-D Beep Beep was a real greedy guts and ate up all the other treats, then came over to me and demanded all of my attention!

Having a heavily pregnant cat try and roll around on your stomach and chest is truly amusing.

And painful. She kept slipping, and she has very sharp claws!

I’m happy to say that, by the end of the day, I could see that both cats had used the litter box. I was really hoping they wouldn’t find the litter too odd and just used the floor or something. I’m also happy to say that Butterscotch seems quite okay with me being around her and the kittens, and purrs up a storm when I reach under the blanket to pet her, and even touch her babies. They are so adorable!!!

There is one thing about having them in the sun room that makes things less convenient; we can’t go outside through it right now. I don’t want to take a chance of either of the mamas getting out. The bags of outside cat food are kept in the old kitchen, but the deer/bird feed is in a bin in the sun room. That means getting the cat food from the old kitchen, then walking through the house to the main doorway, then back to the sun room, from the outside, to the cat’s food and water bowls. Then going back through the house, the old kitchen and into the sun room, to get a bucket of feed for the birds and deer. I don’t mind, but it is kinda funny.

I was almost finished the last bag of deer feed, so on the way to getting my daughter I stopped to pick up more feed. I am now switching away from the deer feed (which is a mix of mostly oats and sunflower seeds) to straight black oil seed. I don’t expect the deer to be coming by as often, now that things are greening up and food is more available in the bush, and the birds prefer the black oil seeds. The deer are more than happy to eat it, too, so it’s win-win. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Cats, cats and more cats (on the way)

We are just surrounded by adorableness, inside and out!

I was getting ready to head to the post office when I saw a giant slug, rolling around on my bed.

20190429.slug.cat

She had a duster for company.

20190429.duster.cat

Fenrir and our mama cat hang out together a lot, these days. :-)

As I headed outside, I spotted Stinky coming out of the sun room and disappearing under the storage house. Another reason to start closing up the sun room, once we get the mamas set up. Skunks are omnivorous, and I don’t want it going after the babies.

Though there is a good chance we might be seeing some stinky babies at some point, too. I have no idea if our visitor is male or female, but it is more likely to be female

When I was coming back to the house later on, I spotted these two…

20190429.lazy.cats

At first, I could only see Bob, over on the left, and didn’t see Rolando Moon until I came closer for a photo.

Bob came over for some pets, and we got joined by a Big Beep.

20190429.big.beep

She is getting so huge! More kitties to come!

I think I’m going to head out to the sun room now, and start setting up a litter box, food and water!

The Re-Farmer

Bouncin’ Babies

Ah, spring is in the air!

Here is some video I found while checking the trail cam this morning.

Pay close attention to the background.

The young deer back there are just full of bounce and energy!!

We are also looking ahead to more bouncing babies.

20190409.big.butterscotch

Butterscotch is getting big, and it’s not just gaining weight from having a reliable food source, anymore! She’s getting quite rolly polly in the middle. Should be interesting to see how big of a litter she has!

20190409.hello.beepbeep

I’m pretty sure that Beep Beep is pregnant. She, too, has put on weight just from having reliable access to food, so it may be just that, but … well … it’s that time of year!

The last while, it has been Beep Beep that has been following me when I do my rounds and wanting to be picked up. Butterscotch still wants up and attention, but I think it’s starting to get uncomfortable for her to be picked up, no matter how gentle I try to be. Beep Beep is taking advantage of this, it seems. She will just loll about in my arms, then give me chin kisses.

Such sweet kitties!

The Re-Farmer

Well, that didn’t take long…

On learning that my nephew and his wife will be having a baby, I started working on crocheted baby gifts. I’ve just finished the last of them – a gift for the mom – to go with the stroller blanket and matching hats I made for Baby’s first winter, including adult sized hats for Mom and Dad.

I made a capelet for our new mom to wear while cuddling Baby, and wanted to get a photo of it. I can post those here, as my family doesn’t know about this blog, so I won’t be ruining any surprises. ;-)

It’s pretty big, so I cleared my bed and stretched up to try and get the whole thing in the shot.

rainbow.wrap.1

Oops. I cut off a couple of corners. Let’s try that again…

rainbow.wrap.2

… and again…

rainbow.wrap.3

… and again…

rainbow.wrap.4

… one more time!

rainbow.wrap.5

Okay. I give up. They win.

I then removed the cats – plus the clump of fur already left behind = and the capelet is now safely put away with the rest of the items, out of reach for cats!

Now I have to find a box big enough to hold it all, so I can mail them out. Baby will make his debut in July, so I have a bit of time. :-)

For those who are interested, I made this using a simple pattern I found online – click here for the link – using Lion Brand Mandala yarn in Thunderbird, and a 5mm hook. The only change I made to the pattern was to add the trim on the bottom. I wanted the starting and finishing rows to match in both colour and width, which left me with just enough yarn to work my way across the bottom.

The Re-Farmer

Primordial

I learned something new, yesterday.

20190315.primordial.pouch

That belly pooch on DahBoy has a name.

It’s called the primordial pouch, and all cats have it, to some extent. Our mama cat doesn’t really have it, because she’s all big belly on stick legs, so if she has one, it’s either full, or hidden by that belly or hers. Anything Fenrir has is hidden by long, long fur.

What a big boy he is. Fenrir is so small, she can actually sit on the window ledge, walk around and even turn around on it. DahBoy has to prop himself on the plant pot.

In case you are wondering about the yellow flags in the plant pot, I had put them around our avocado tree, with yarn going from one to the other. For some reason, the cats were absolutely insistent on getting into the pot. When one of the branches got broken off, I rigged this up. It sort of worked.

Unfortunately, the avocado did not survive the winter. This was the longest I’ve ever managed to keep one alive; it was about 3-4 years old. *sigh*

I’ve got two more pits in water to start new ones. Hopefully, we’ll manage to grow a tree!

The Re-Farmer