I am having another good recovery day today. Finished off a crochet bowl, but haven’t started anything else, yet.
It was warmer today, so when I headed outside to walk around, I decided to stay out and give the haskaps a deep watering.
About 5 minutes in, there was a sudden clap of thunder. No rain. No lightning. Just thunder.
As I was working on the very last row, there was more thunder, and it started to rain.
There had been no rain in the forecast for today.
It was just a light right, but I headed inside, anyhow. Which is when my younger daughter told me her sister had just gone out to look for me. We used different doors and missed each other. 😆
I went to the door to get her, and it was pouring rain. My daughter came in, completely soaked!
The rain stopped as abruptly as it started. Then did it again.
All I can say is, it’s better than snow. Which might be happening to the north of us, this weekend. We have rain in the forecast, but the northern communities might be getting a blizzard. !!!
Oh, and we’re also looking at a high of over 20C in a cooler of days.
Much of it was spent doing some crochet. I got a walk in outside, with lovely weather to enjoy, as well.
My daughters got the one garden bed cleaned up and weeded. As usual, the north end of the bed was filled with elm roots. They got two rows of garlic planted, and will be adding a third row, tomorrow. Then it will be mulched and pretty much done for the winter.
When I went over to see them, I got a few comments on the colorfulness of my bruising that they could see. 😆 I got these pictures, yesterday.
The first one is the arterial line site. It went in and was removed while I was under anesthetic. Being arterial, it is the “riskiest”, but looking the best.
The second is the IV port location. The student nurse removing it had trouble with the tape and dig a fair bit of pulling and tugging.
The third one looks the worst, and should have been the mildest. That’s were the anti- coagulant was injected, in my tricep. It was also the only one that hurt.
Funny how it all seems backwards in severity.
Meanwhile, I finished off a crochet hanging storage bag I was working on. Then, I whipped up a little critter, more as a reason to use some safety eyes I got, but never started a project that needed them. I’ve always used buttons or embroidered eyes on things, previously. It had to be tiny, because I could find only a little handful of polyfil to stuff it with. A quick project is always satisfying.
The enforced reduced mobility should be a good time to catch up on various incomplete projects. Something to make the time feel less wasted!
It’s been another good recovery day, and I’m feeling better than I have in a very long time.
It does mean keeping to restrictions is not easy! Still, I did manage to get a few useful things done. I’ve been able to make my own meals, even if it’s just reheating leftovers or making a sandwich, though I’m not supposed to lift pans or do dishes. Last this afternoon, my daughter got my walker outside for me and walked around the yard with me. We checked on the sunflowers and found the birds have been eating the Black Russian seeds, so she cut what seed heads there were that looked like they had salvageable seeds. The seeds in the Mammoth sunflowers are still blooming and quite white. With the temperatures we’re expected to have for the next while, they might actually have time to mature!
I collected what seeds I could from the Black Russian seed heads, and they are now set aside to cure. My younger daughter, meanwhile, stayed outside to prepare the bed the garlic will be planted in, incorporating the compost my brother brought for us. The garlic bulbs won’t be broken up into cloves until just before planting, and that will be done tomorrow. While walking around, I showed my daughter how to collect the marigold seeds, which are not as obviously visible as one might expect. She’s planning to find places to scatter them, to hopefully germinate in the spring.
Speaking of which…
There are a surprising number of things that we can plant in the fall. We won’t be able to do very much of it this fall, as we probably won’t be able to even finish cleaning up most of the beds before the ground freezes, never mind plant anything besides the garlic.
All in all, it’s been a quiet and calm day. Including for this sweet boy.
I suspect I will not be getting my leaning sheep back. Ever. It’s turned out to be a perfect cat bed. 😄
Meanwhile, I’ve found that I have not needed to take the anti-inflammatories I was prescribed, at all. I’m still taking the T3s at more or less scheduled times, though 3 times a day rather than 4, and am honestly wondering if I need to take them at all. I did start taking them for my osteoarthritis, and even that has been doing better of late.
I’ve tried to get a good look at my abdomen in the mirror. With five gauzed and taped incision sites, I’m not exactly getting a good view. I have always carried my weight front to back, rather than side to side – the sort of shape that has had people mistake me for being pregnant in the past. To do the surgery, they had to inflate my abdomen. Which means my belly is looking very deflated right now! Interestingly, it looks to have a different shape now, and there even seems to be a sort of hollowed out area on my right side. Not at all where I might have expected to see some changes, if any, after a full hysterectomy. Of course, everything is going to keep looking different as things heal up over the next few weeks. For now, though, I’ve got me a very wrinkly, deflated looking, floppy belly, with patches of gauze and medical tape scattered around it.
It’s a good thing I have absolutely 0 sense of vanity when it comes to my body, because it’s looking a hot mess right now. 😄
When I had a laparoscopy done, some 15 or so years ago, the thing that surprised me most was how it basically wiped me out for a month. I felt so weak for so long, and completely drained.
Now?
I feel none of that. If anything, I’m feeling downright energetic! The fact that residual pain from the areas they worked in has reduced so much, so quickly, certainly helps. Basic biological functions that were painful yesterday are pretty much pain free now. I still have to watch myself, of course, but I’m really amazed by how quickly the pains are passing.
I will continue to sleep on the couch in the living room for some time, though. Which means that cats have my king size bed to themselves. You’d think they’d be happy with that, but it hasn’t stopped them from trying to tear down the door into the living room. This set up was made to be temporary and easy to remove. It’s basically just famed chicken wire, with a hook and eyelet on either side of the door to keep it closed. Last night, several different cats decided they absolutely needed to get through that door, because I was there, grabbing at the chicken wire with their claws and trying to pull it open.
My older daughter stayed up almost all night, so that she would be available in case I needed help, and she ended up luring the cats away with wet cat food, after which they finally stopped trying to tear down the door. Mostly. I did actually get some sleep, and found getting in and out of the low couch much easier than I feared. I’d still like to raise it up by about 4 or 5 inches but, for now, it is working. My daughters set up my walker near the couch so I could use it to help get myself up and down, and that worked out very well. By morning, though, I found I didn’t even need to use it.
My brother and his wife did end up coming over for a few hours today, making sure to let us know we didn’t need to even come out to greet them. They had some winterizing to do, and very little time to do it. My daughter did head out to return their container from the lovely turkey soup my SIL had sent home with us, though.
I spent much of my day in the cat free zone. Got some crochet done until I found myself being blinded by the morning sun once it cleared the spruce trees. My husband and daughters made sure I got my high protein meals and plenty of hot tea.
Temperature wise, today was a lovely day, but we had high winds again. In the late afternoon, the girls helped get my walker outside so I could do some walking around, and we were seriously buffeted. We found a lovely surprise on our compost ring; my brother had left a bag of their compost for us. I had been perplexed by this, when he brought us several buckets of compost in the spring but, while staying overnight and their place, they showed me their electric compost machine. I’d never heard of such a thing before, though I’ve seen other types of countertop composters. This thing cooks down the kitchen waste and the end result is a compost that looks a lot like course coffee grounds. I was very happy to see more of it.
When I first started walking around the yard, I checked out the vines on the chain link fence. I’d picked the tiny yellow winter squash a while ago, but those were easy to reach under the frost cloth I’d draped over them. I remembered the green one from nearer the middle of the fence. The wind had torn most of the frost cloth loose, so I could reach around and finally found it. As we walked around the main garden area, I ended up picking the muskmelons that were under the plastic all this time.
In among the frost killed bush beans, fresh onions are growing! I’d harvested the onions from there, but obviously missed a few. These are quite small, so it’s possible they are transplants that simply didn’t grow until the bush beans died back.
While walking around, the girls and I talked about where we could plant more of the little haskaps, and the various things that need to be taken down and put away for the winter. There’s no way we’ll be able to get all the beds cleaned up and prepped before winter. As long as we get one done, planted with garlic and mulched, I’ll be happy. The next while should have good daytime temperatures, so my daughters will be able to harvest the last of the carrots, beets, parsnips and the rest of the chicory root, little by little. That has priority over clearing beds for next year. They are also wanting to get as many more of those smaller pots of haskap as possible planted, too. Looking at the long range forecast, it doesn’t look like the ground will actually freeze until about mid-November. That is unsure, of course, since the forecast that far ahead is based entirely on averages, and this winter is not supposed to be average with that Super El Nińo. It’s entirely possible the ground won’t freeze until some time in December.
I’m rather okay with that.
The hardest thing for me right now is to not go out there and try to do stuff, because I’m feeling way too good and way too energetic!
Much of the day was spent getting as many little things done before heading out. Things I won’t be able to do for weeks, after the surgery.
Of course, that meant the phone kept ringing. The pharmacy. Home care with their annual call to my husband. My mother.
That one got weird.
The prescription delivery arrived, but it wasn’t until we were on the road that we realized my daughter’s meds were not included. Which means the pharmacy didnt hear back from her doctor with an extension for her refills. Not good, considering she was already out.
We left a bit earlier than I originally planned on, because the weather was getting unpleasant. I’m glad we did, as the weather meant it started getting dark earlier. We did make one stop along the way to fill the tank again. It wasn’t down much, but the town on the highway we took was still at a lower price than we’ve seen everywhere but Costco. We went in to get drinks, too, and ended up getting chicken skewers to have on the road as my high protein supper. I find the skewers dry, but they are something I can eat while driving, and my daughter loves them.
We got yo my brother’s in good time, and have had a wonderful evening, talking. I learned all sorts of things from my brother that I was too young to remember, and some from before I was born.
We have all started settling in for the night, as I write this. My fast officially starts at midnight, and I made sure to bring meat snacks that I can have until then, so I don’t find myself famished in the wee hours. Hopefully, I will actually sleep. Knowing I have an early timeline for the morning usually means I end up awake all night. 😆 We shall see.
I am so looking forward to tomorrow and getting this over and done with!
Less than 12 hours before I am to check in for surgery.
The counter down has gone from days, to mere hours.
Today, I had hoped to do our second stock up shopping trip.
So much for that.
I woke up with my cold feeling worse. Still not as bad as my daughters have been feeling, but definitely not up to a trip to the city and a stock up shop. Which is getting to be a problem. It doesn’t help that I simply don’t want to go at all in the first place. I don’t want to make the drive. I don’t trust the truck. I don’t want to do the shopping – and certainly not a Costco shop in Thanksgiving weekend!
It turned out to be a very lovely day today. We hit 21C/70F today and, as I write this past 5pm, we are still at 19C/66F. Things are supposed to get quite a bit cooler over the next three days, with overnight lows just barely above freezing.
I did manage to finally get outside in the afternoon and worked on the sun room. I wasn’t physically up to moving things to work on the garden storage side of the room, but I could start setting the cat side up. With temperatures dropping, I want to be able to set up the heat lamps, soon.
It isn’t finished, but this is how far I got, after bringing some trays back at the evening feeding time.
I did not put the big cube cat cage back together again, instead setting the wire frames to make a wall of cubes to put bedding in. I used up all my little dollar store zip ties to secure corners, as the wire walls can pop out of the connectors quite easiliy. We’ve still got scraps of rigid insulation cut to fit the floors of a few cubes, and those got beds and blankets set on them. The insulation is to act as a floor more than anything else. Otherwise, the cats’ feet will fall through the openings, taking the cat beds with them. The smaller cat bed is on the floor, so it doesn’t need the extra insulation layer. The old windshield shade was set on top to act both as a floor that cats can walk on, and a sort of self-warming mat to sit on. Over time, we’ll probably be adding cardboard onto the other cubes to make solid floors in them the cats can walk on.
Other shelves were brought back and a few more cat beds laid out. I had some cardboard pieces that had been on top of the cat cage that won’t be used for that anymore, so I set them on the concrete before putting the larger kibble trays on top.
In the photo, on the left, you can see Colby, the orange and white cat. He’s had scabbing on his neck for a while, but today I realized he has a huge bloody wound and it looks like skin is missing. You can sort of see it in the photo. He seems to have an insanely bad case of ear mites in that ear. I do have some medication for it, from long enough ago that it’s expired. It needs to be injected directly into the ear canal, which is quite difficult to do with outside cats, and is why we still have it. Looking at the instructions, it says it needs to be used in both ears every 24 hours until the bottle is empty, though the bottle is enough for two cats. Being expired, it won’t work as well, but it’s all we have and and we need to at least do something. Getting Colby to allow us to do it, though, is going to be a two person job. Since it needs to be done every 24 hours, it would need to be done with the morning feeding, which is more consistent than the evening feedings when it comes to time.
Next, I need to figure out how to set up the clamp lamps safely. One can be attached to the cube shelf again. We had the second one attached to the mini greenhouse frame near the cat cage. The mini greenhouse is now behind the door and the cat cage is now just cubes. They have to be set up close enough to reach the plug, of course, so that limits things, too. I’m trying to think if one can be attached to the wire cubes, but not have any cats knocking into it while going into the cube beds. One of the issues we had before is that the cats would go under the lamps at feeding time, their tails up in the air, and suddenly we’ve be smelling burnt cat fur. Even with a wire guard over the bulb that one lamp has, their tails still managed to get into the cone and touch the bulb! Ideally, the lamps would be under something that would keep the heat in. In the past, we’ve used old closet doors and the summer door for our basement, but we don’t have the set up to support anything like that anymore. It did give the cats a whole other level of surface to sleep on, though, which they quite liked. It would be good if we could find a way to do something like that again.
At this point, I’m trying to keep access to the large window closer to the inside all open. That window is single pane and has been since before we moved out here. The inside pane having shattered long ago. In the winter, it gets completely frosted. I want to see if I can get a window insulating kit that can cover a window that large. Aside from keeping it from frosting up, it should act as a bit of insulation as well. We’ve tried setting the rigid insulation into the windows in the past, but the sheets are too long and too narrow then, once they were set in, they kept falling off. Plus, the cats really, really like to use that insulation to scratch at!
It isn’t much, but it felt good to at least get that done.
In other things, while I was feeling sicker with the cold, the pain levels didn’t get particularly bad today, which was nice for a change. Hopefully, that will continue tomorrow, and my cold will get better, because we really need to do that second stock up shop! Even if we just go to the nearest Walmart, instead. We might skip Costco altogether at this point.
My daughter came in from doing the morning feeding of the outside cats, so very excited!
She was able to pet the shrine baby. The single older kitten – who has started to come to the house, not just eating at the shrine feeding station!
What my daughter noted was that if she made eye contact with the kitten, it ran away – but if she faced another direction, it came back to the food bowl. Then she came back with the cat soup. It moved away, so she just crouched down near the bowl, looking in another direction.
While the kitten was eating, my daughter was able to reach out and pet it – and she let her! She even got an elevator butt response, while the kitten kept eating soup.
The kitten’s fur, my daughter told me, was astonishingly soft.
I was not doing very well today and ended up going back to bed. While I was down, my younger daughter headed out to start clearing and cleaning the sun room. This is something that needs to be done in stages, and it a huge and filthy job, since we were never able to get a spring cleaning done. She got some cat shelves out and cleared about a quarter of the room to bare floor, before she stopped for the day.
Unfortunately, I never got to see my brother and SIL before they had to leave. It turned out to be a good day for repairs. When he went to move his old pick up truck to move it and the trailer still attached, it wouldn’t start. After checking it over, he thought it might be the starter and was prepared to have it towed to our usual garage. Today, however, he thought of something else to try and it worked. He was able to do some other repairs, move the antique dump truck back onto the concrete blocks it had rolled off of, and even was able to check on the riding mower and get it working. It turned out that something was stuck, and nothing had actually broken. phew!
This evening, I decided I was well enough to do the outside cat feeding. Mostly because I needed to get outside and get some fresh air. Today is the 20th, so I was also hoping I’d be up to doing garden tour videos.
All the food trays that had been in the sun room are currently spread out on the grass near the cat shelters, since the sun room is being cleaned out. While setting the kibble out, I spotted the lone kitten.
So I tried what my daughter tried. I can’t crouch, but I could stand nearby and look the other way, until the kitten came back to the tray to eat. Without looking directly at her, I was able to slowly bend down and touch her.
She let me!
I didn’t stay for long, though. We don’t do cat soup for the evening feeding, but I do add a couple of little cartons of the donated cat milk (we’re on the last case that was given to us) spread out among various trays. I did only trays near the house, since we want to encourage the little one to stay close by.
She came back to the tray with Fancy Pants, whom she seems to get along with, and started eating again.
After a while I went to put things away when I heard a noise. A little skunk had come running and pushed itself onto the tray, shoving the kitten aside, startling Fancy Pants away, and started eating greedily. I scooted it away a couple of times before it left. I don’t mind them finishing off the kibble, but I want the cats to have a chance to eat, first!
After the cat feeding, I walked around a bit before going back inside and weighed in on how I felt. I decided to go ahead and do the garden tour videos. I haven’t gone over them yet, so I’ll see if I end up making new ones tomorrow or not.
Tomorrow, we take the truck in and I will be away until it’s ready to take home again. That’s partly way I made sure to get as much bed rest as possible today. My husband will make sure to keep the phone handy, as I never got the call from the cancer clinic in the city on Thursday or Friday, as we were told to expect. It means not much will get accomplished. My daughter will be coming with me, just in case I need help or need her to drive home when we get the truck back.
For now, I’m just happy we finally got to pet the lonely baby!
Today was my doctor’s appointment to get my test results.
My daughter and I left very early, so we could pick up some parcels at the post office, as we knew it would be closed by the time we got back. I made sure to pick up another 40 pound bag of kibble for the outside cats, too.
I tried a route that I knew would avoid most of the road construction on our usual route. We still had to go through a couple of constructions zones, then an unexpected third zone as we crossed from one highway to the next. With how early we left, we were okay with the delays, though driving along an area where there was a knee deep drop where the shoulder used to be was a bit nerve wracking.
Our first stop in town was the Walmart, where my daughter and I had lunch at the McRaunchies, then we did some shopping. My husband had his own shopping list this time, too. We took our time about it, and I had my walker while my daughter took care of the shopping cart. She brought her new cane along, too. We were both starting to hurt by the end of it, though.
After we got what we needed and put them away in the truck (with plenty of ice packs we remembered to bring, for the frozen stuff), we still had lots of time, so we walked over to the dollar store across the parking lot. We got a few small things, but ended up cutting that a bit short because I was starting to hurt worse. I’d even taken my painkillers on schedule, before going into the dollar store.
With that done, we went to the clinic, where I even found an actual public parking lot we could use this time. We were there an hour early, but we were okay with that. Both of us really needed to sit for a while by then.
We ended up being called in late though, to be honest, it didn’t feel like we’d waited more than an hour at all.
The first thing we noticed in the room we were taken to was the sky light.
We both found that quite funny! It looks almost like a projection, but I’m guessing it’s a coating on the back of the light cover.
When the doctor came in, she was quite apologetic about being late.
She asked a few questions about what tests my regular doctor had done before, and we went through the time line again, and I mentioned again that I had been referred to a specialist in the city, but ended up seeing her first, after my first ER trip.
She then apologized and told me it was bad news. It’s endometrial cancer. Not what I was expecting, to be honest, but the “cure” is the same. A hysterectomy. The only thing is that she now has to refer me to the city, where they can do tests she can’t, to see what stage I’m at. I should get a call either Thursday or Friday, and I should have a time to go in for further testing in a couple of weeks. The surgery should be done in about a month. What happens beyond that depends on what the tests show.
Which is really fast. Unusually fast. I commented on how I wished it would be that fast for my older daughter, and she was actually quite concerned and asked specific questions. My daughter’s condition, however, is currently controlled with medication. Mine isn’t.
We talked about painkillers a bit since, even after taking mine about an hour and a half before my appointment time, my pain kept increasing to the point I was having difficulty sitting up straight. The T3s don’t seem to be doing well. I forgot completely to tell her what the Percocet was doing to me. I did mention that I sometimes took the Tramadol I had left and that seemed to be doing better, so she said she would send out a new prescription for me so I can get more, instead of the T3s.
The doctor apologized again for the bad news but really, it doesn’t bother me at all. She had mentioned there’s a possibility of chemo, if it turns out to be later stage (she doesn’t think so, based on what she saw) and I told her I would probably turn that down. That’s a case of the cure being worse than the disease, in my view.
As she was telling me about having to send me to the city and likely won’t be going back to her again, she said she was going to miss me and my sparkly hats. 😄 I was wearing a blue sequined one, this time. It is possible, depending on how things work out, that I might be able to go back to her. I told her, I would prefer that. Not that I have anything against the doctors in the city – I haven’t even seen them yet – but because I just like her. Plus, I don’t like going to the city. She started talking herself about how bad it’s been getting; not enough parking, expensive parking, road conditions getting worse, etc. I told her I used to live in pretty much the down town area some 30 years ago (it’s actually closer to 40, now that I think about it), and it has gotten so much worse over the years. Endless construction, and nothing gets fixed!
So we shall see how that works out. I’ll know, either way, within the next month.
That done, we headed out and my daughter started messaging the family to update them. Which is when I realized my daughter was looking really upset and trying not to cry. Maybe I’m weird, but that kind of surprised me. I don’t see anything to be upset about. It is what it is. Later on, I told her we need to come up with a name for it, though. We named the cyst I had removed years ago George, so that’s taken. My daughter suggested “B***” 🤣😂
Our next stop was the gas station, which was just up the block from the clinic. I’m glad we did it there. Gas prices were $1.649/L and my CAA card got me 3¢/L off. I had to pre-pay, so I put in $40 and that just barely filled the tank. On the drive home, everywhere else was $174.9 or $1799 !!! At my husband’s request (and his budget), we stopped at the Walmart again and got some McRaunchies to bring home for supper, then my daughter took over the driving. By that time, the pain was starting to recede – interestingly, having an energy drink actually seemed to help quite a lot! ??? When we got home, I was feeling well enough to get out and open the gate, then walk to the house without a walker or a cane.
Which seems to be the pattern. Hopefully, the Tramadol will make things different, but I seem to usually start out okay in the morning, slowly get worse through the afternoon, regardless of painkillers, then it fades on its own. Some days are worse, of course, but that’s become the general pattern.
I did manage to get some stuff done outside, after supper, though, and that did more to make me feel better – psychologically, at least – than anything else!
Things were all right in the morning. After taking my morning painkillers, I went out to join my daughter during the cat feeding.
We did not get any kittens. They are still very skittish, and the older cats kept pushing their way in for the cat soup, even though they got some in the other food bowls. I tried distracting Sweetie with the cat toy but she was too hungry to be distracted, and insists on eating at the shrine feeding station, where the kittens come through the chain link fence. As today was supposed to be another day or rain and potential storms, we put the carrier and bait bowl back into the catio, with the regular food bowl set to keep the door from closing by accident, and let the kittens be for now.
I had brought my walker out so, after my daughter went inside, I went around the yard and checked on the garden beds. I found both winter and summer squash that I could hand pollinate. We should have some yellow zucchini large enough to harvest soon, and some of the green scallop squash. We might get more of the Early Prolific Straightneck squash, but there are still no yellow pattypans or lemon squash. Interestingly, I think one of the squash that were thinned by transplanting might be a lemon squash. The tiniest of round, yellow female flower buds are showing up and I don’t think they are pattypans.
In the main garden area, I just had to get a picture of a monster.
The first image above is of a carrot from the Rainbow Mix that has gone to seed. It is remarkably huge and sturdy! Normally, carrots don’t go into seed until their second year, but I don’t mind having one that I can save seed from.
The second image of the slide show above shows what’s left of the Daikon radish. The flea beetles not only denuded the stems of leaves, but they even ate a lot of the pods, too! There are still pods left, but nowhere near as many as before. Enough to collect seeds from, though, if they were not too badly damaged.
Once back inside, I was feeling well enough to have breakfast before trying to lie down for a bit. When I got up again, I was able to make a lunch using some leftover brisket, with potatoes and bush beans from the garden, to make a stew.
While I was cooking, I heard some noises outside the kitchen window. My brother was leveling the ground where the tree and patio blocks had been. He had to dig up some remarkable thick roots that were buried under where some patio blocks where. He also had to remove some of the soil along the edge of where the blocks would be so that it was lower than the blocks, instead of higher. He levels a block in the corner between the house and the concrete steps so it wasn’t draining towards the house as well, and the blocks along the outside edge were sloped slightly to drain away from the house. He ended up filling our wheelbarrow completely with dirt and detritus he’d removed. Probably the heaviest load it’s ever had. Which would have been fine, except the tire turned out to be flat! I had come out to talk to him and, as he pushed the wheelbarrow from the grass onto the sidewalk, I was able to see the flat. All he could tell is that it wasn’t rolling right. He’s checked the tire before and couldn’t see a valve, so he thought it was a solid rubber tire. He did find the valve, but it had been partially pushed in from lack of air. He assured me he’s take care of it and told me to go back inside. Later on, I saw that he had also loaded all the old hot water tanks and pumps into his little trailer. They’ll be taken to the scrap yard another time.
By the time I finished cooking, the painkillers had definitely worn off. After lunch, I took them when the 6 hour alarm went off and tried to stay up longer, but eventually had to lie down again. Frustrating when it becomes difficult just sitting upright in a chair. *sigh*
I did manage to get a basement check in. I had to turn on a couple of the fans. One, aimed at the well pump and pressure tank because there was so much condensation dripping, it was creating a puddle. The other more in the new basement, more for air circulation and humidity levels. The recent rain, which is still sort of happening now, hasn’t been enough to cause problems in the basements.
I was also able to head outside and do the evening cat feeding. Some of the skunks are getting quite brazen! As I was setting up some bowls with cat milk in the kibble, specifically for the kittens (with extra to draw the adult cats away), I heard a commotion. I’d put some kibble at the back of the shrine base. A skunk was there, but one of the little tabbies was wanting that food (even though there was more) and hissing and spitting at the skunk. Which was about 5x its size!!! I scooted the skunk away, going down a path behind a willow where there’s an opening under the chain link fence they can fit through. I knew it would be coming back, so I tossed some kibble into the grass of the path, so it would have no reason to go closer and scare the kittens.
I also move the shrine feeding station bowls next to the catio, on either side of the door, with the bait bowl inside the carrier again. The bigger cats will eat the closest food, which should leave the bait bowl inside the carrier for the kittens, when they go looking for food later.
If the skunks don’t eat it first.
*sigh*
Then it was back inside, and not doing much. The painkiller either didn’t kick in, or the pain was worse and the painkiller has managed to just take the edge off. At least I can tell myself that, with how wet it is outside, I wouldn’t be getting much done out there, anyhow. It’s supposed to continue raining, off and on, until about 2am. It does look like some onions are ready to harvest, though. Something I should be able to do tomorrow, if all goes well.
Tomorrow afternoon – if we’re not delivering kittens to the rescue – my daughter and I will work on breaking down that fallen tree. I can handle a chain saw, and my daughter will be able to clear away the branches and smaller logs. Normally, the two of us together will drag the bigger logs out, but we’re both pretty broken, so I just want to cut things to size. I’m hoping to be able to get an 18′ length for the next garden bed out of this tree. The base of its trunk looks like it will match the size of the one that’s currently in place for the garden bed fairly well.
That’s pretty much it for the day.
I am looking forward to seeing the doctor, a little over a week from now, and getting those test results. If things go as expected, she’ll get me in for a hysterectomy fairly soon. If not, then I’ll be referred to specialists in the city. Who knows how long that will take.
There isn’t a lot in the garden now that can be harvested regularly. Most of it is waiting until everything can be harvested at once, but today, we had something.
My younger daughter took care of the morning routine. She had exciting news for me. She saw the missing kittens! She saw three at the shrine feeding station, then three at the catio!
Still no Slick. At this point, there’s no chance we’ll be seeing her again. All we can do is try and get those kittens.
My daughter then stayed out to do the weed trimming until she ran out of batteries, then used the push mower to clear areas I couldn’t get at with the riding mower. She was out there for about four hours straight.
I may not be able to go out and do this physical stuff outside, but I could at least have a lunch ready and waiting for her when she got back in!
We will do our second stock up shop tomorrow.
Late this afternoon, I was feeling well enough to feed the outside cats. I’ll head out again later on to give the kittens an extra feeding at the catio, since there are so many critter stealing their food that far from the house. Daytime highs are pretty hot again now; we hit 26C/79F today. It’s past 5pm as I write this, and we’re still at 26C/79F, with the humidex at 31C/88F. We’re starting to get thunderstorm and tornado warnings for tomorrow afternoon and evening, for the southern end of our province. For our area, we’re expected to get just rain in the wee hours of tomorrow night. We shall see.
After feeding the cats, I stayed out to harvest the bush beans.
The yellow bush beans planted later by the Arikara squash are reaching their peak now, though we are still getting plenty of purple beans in the high raised beds. There seem to be almost no green beans at all.
I grabbed another Golden Boy celery for dehydrating, and there were a couple of Green Benning scallop squash big enough to grab. Then I went ahead and picked some crab apples, too. The ones on this tree are brilliantly red now and much sweeter, though still very tangy at the same time. Peak ripeness! I didn’t pick a lot, as we have no real plans for them, other than straight eating. Later in the season, I will probably shake the branches to try and drop the highest apples so the deer can eat them off the ground, and not break branches trying to reach them.
This afternoon I got a strange call from my mother. Strange in that she was in a good mood, cheerful sounding, and didn’t insult me or my brother even once. Even when she did start in on some of her favourite topics to complain about, she actually stopped herself and changed the subject.
She thought I was going for surgery on Monday, though, so I had to explain to her that I’m seeing the doctor to talk about what’s going on; it’s too soon to know if I’ll be going for another surgery. For some reason, this time she seemed to finally clue in that the specialist I’m seeing is female, and she was quite surprised about that. I mentioned that she had probably seen this doctor, too, a few years back, and that I recognized the clinic from when my brother and I had brought her there for an appointment, but she didn’t remember that at all. Which is fine.
Oh, she also mentioned that she’s got a birthday coming up. She’s turning 95 in September. She made sure to tell me not to get her any “stuff” for her birthday. Which is good, because she doesn’t have room for a lot.
We didn’t have much to talk about. We’re not going out much or doing a lot. She was happy to hear the girls are taking good care of me. I apparently sounded quite tired on the phone, because she ended the call herself, saying she would let me rest.
Which I probably should be doing. I feel like I’m falling asleep at my keyboard. I’m glad I learned out to touch type. Several times, while writing this, I found I was typing with my eyes closed. I seem to have fewer typos when I do that! 😄
I didn’t do a lot of walking today, but I’m starting to feel the consequences of it. It’ll be a couple of hours before I can take more painkillers. *sigh*
Hopefully, things will improve for tomorrow, when we head into the city. We will make sure to bring my walker along!!
I am so tired of this. It certainly gives me a bit more insight on how my husband must be feeling, every day. His back pain is barely controlled with meds, there’s nothing that can be done to “fix” it, and he’s been coping with it for more than 20 years now.
