health

Planned and unplanned outings, and sooo many kittens!

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The morning started out as usual, with the feeding of the yard cats and my morning rounds.

Oddly, I seem to be seeing fewer kittens? I think? Meaning the littles that have been showing up in the past couple of weeks. They tend to hide so quickly, I’m not sure, but it just feels like there are fewer of them. The older kittens are still around, but I just can’t get a handle on how many littles there are.

Even though I’d picked up another 9kg back of kibble for the outside cats recently, we were already running out. I was already scheduled to pick up my mother’s bubble packs and do her grocery shopping today, so I decided I would keep going from her place and hit the Walmart. Plus, my husband is having issues with his cracked tooth that won’t be worked on until the middle of next month. So I wanted to pick up foods that were safer for him to eat.

My younger daughter was able to come along with me, which was nice.

My brother, SIL and their older grandson were staying in their trailer this weekend and were going to be heading back to the city soon after I needed to head out, so we made a quick hello and goodbye visit. My great-nephew will be heading home next weekend, before school starts, so I wanted to make sure we got our hugs in!

My daughter and I got to my mother’s town early enough that the pharmacy wasn’t open yet – but the gas station with the best fried chicken and wedges in town had their chicken ready – so we picked up a meal for my mother boxed up separately, then got some for ourselves to eat in the truck. The truck’s seats are more comfortable than the chairs and tables they have in the station. 😄

We still got to the pharmacy just minutes after it opened. My mother’s bubble packs were ready, and most of it was covered this time, so I had very little to pay for it this time. I’m glad I made sure to pick them up today. When I put them in my mother’s lock box, I checked what was there. She had only enough for this evening, plus tomorrow morning. The pharmacy’s records show she should have had enough to last until Wednesday. However, with so many messed up times with her meds, and her abusive behaviour towards the home care aids for not using the partial packs of meds because they were the wrong days, etc., I have taken a few old partial packs back to the pharmacy. They were required to dispose of the meds, which I haven’t mentioned to my mother, or she’d blow a gasket, but it was that or have her constantly harassing the care aids about them. I’ll have to call the pharmacy tomorrow and talk to them about that. They do the bubble packs on the weekends, and that’s cutting it really close for my mother at this point. Better to have her meds prepared earlier. Normally, she would have had them delivered, but that leaves her medications outside the lock box, and she’s already tried hiding a week’s worth of meds away because she doesn’t trust the home care aids.

When we got to my mother’s, it was still not much past noon. Mass was still going on in the church across the street, but I was able to find parking. I wasn’t sure if my mother would have had the energy to make it to church or not, but thought it was unlikely.

I was right. My mother was home and praying the rosary, with her table all set up in preparation for when someone from the church would come by with communion for her. The interruption of us coming when we did messed her up a bit. Which I totally get. When I’m right into something and get interrupted, the mental shift can actually be physically painful.

My brother had given me a new drip pan specifically for my mother’s model of stove, to replace one she has that is completely rusted out for some reason, so I popped that in for her while she got out her shopping list. It was really short this time! We went over it and I asked a few questions, but she said she was well supplied with everything I remembered to ask about.

She was happy to see my daughter, though, and didn’t make any of her usual rude comments, which was nice.

She told us to take our time because she didn’t want to be interrupted when the guy came with communion, but her list was so short, we were back just as church was letting out. My mother was once again thrown by us coming in when we did. I told her that people were just starting to leave church, so we were quick about putting everything away, and making sure her mild carton was opened for her (the local grocery store no longer has 2L milk in plastic jugs, just cartons, and with my mother’s hands, it’s a real struggle to open a carton). My mother was a bit upset about the rush. She had been expecting me to come later, and had been looking forward to being able to “talk for hours and hours”… ??? Especially since my daughter was with me. So she said, no more Sundays for grocery shopping! Which is fine, but I was there today, on a Sunday, so that she could get her medications before running out!

We were in and out quickly, though, and soon on the road to the Walmart. I didn’t take a photo, but it totaled almost $200. Ouch! We got two 9kg bags of kibble, and a package of XXL (30″x30″) puppy pads, plus some on sale TP. Peanut butter, bananas and bread for my husband at times when no one is available to cook for him, and hot dog wieners/hoagies for times when there is someone to cook for him. He can’t chew “real” meat right now, no matter how tender! We got some water flavour packages for him as well. We remembered to grab a couple of containers of popcorn seasoning, and found a charging cable for my daughter’s older phone with a micro-USB port. After that, it was some cheese mini-croissants to snack on for the ride home, and some $1 chocolate bars for each of us as a treat.

I keep thinking I’m forgetting something, but nope. That list is all it took, to cost almost $200.

Once we got home, it was late enough that, while my daughter put away everything else, I refilled the kibble bin and did the evening cat feeding.

Which brings me to the cuteness!

I’ll actually start with a couple of pictures I got, yesterday.

First, there was this cuddle puddle!

Can you spot the Little in there? One of them has figured out how to climb up to the platform and discovered the cat beds up there. Here, it’s being snuggled by Eyelet on the left, and The Grink on the right.

Can you believe The Grink is about 2 years old? He’s barely bigger than Eyelet!

Then there were this two.

That black kitten was absolutely snuzzling its face into the tabby. This cat bed is in the back of the water bowl shelter.

When opening the door into the sun room to do this morning’s feeding, I found a while pile of kittens – large and small! – waiting right under the threshold, making it very difficult to step through! I need to be careful, as Sir Robin in particular REALLY wants to be inside. He managed to sneak into the house while my older daughter and I were bringing the cured garlic in, after covering the eggplant for the night, and my daughter found him in the kitchen!

Most of the kittens scatter as I step through, but one kitten didn’t. It stayed loafed and moved its head around, as if confused.

It turned out its eyes were stuck shut, so it had no idea what was going on around it!

I finished putting the food out but, when I got back to the sun room, I couldn’t see the stuck eyed kitten. I finished my rounds and tried looking again before heading inside. That’s when I spotted a little white kitten bum through the opening of the new cat cave.

It’s a bit difficult to get close, since it’s in a shelf, and I need to step around food trays and the little plant stand that’s there for the cats to use to get to the platform. I was able to reach in and felt a couple of kittens in there, but managed to get the white butted kitten. Once I got it out, I could confirm it was the one with the stuck eyes. It wasn’t happy, but I was able to get it to the bathroom and into the bathtub to chill a bit, while I ran the hot water in the sink while getting something to wipe its eyes with.

The kitten wasn’t happy about being picked up again, but stopped fighting me once I started washing its eyes. Once both eyes were cleared, it just started up at me for a while. This kitten is mostly white with grey “eyebrows”, like Button, Eyelet and Grommet – but where Button and Eyelet have blue eyes, and Grommet has yellowish eyes, this one has really dark eyes!

Once done, I took it back to the sun room and tucked it back into the cat cave. Then I used my phone’s camera to take a picture and see who else was in there.

Wow!

There were AT LEAST six kittens in there! Including another one that could have used an eye wash. It’s amazing I was able to grab the right kitten right from the start!

That little tabby with white in the foreground… he always looks so furious! 😄

As we were getting ready to head out, I went to open the gate first and spotted this adorableness, under the truck.

This is the garage kitten that will sometimes let me pet him and pick him up.

Still no such progress with his sibling (I’m about 98% sure the smokey one is a female).

Yes, we ALWAYS check the truck before starting it and driving.

After we got back from errands and the evening feeding was done, I did my evening rounds. As I was heading in, I spotted Lady Hypotenose on top of the cat cage… and what was that not far from her?

Oh! Hello!

My goodness, these two have such thick, thick black eyeliner!

Then there was the platform kitten, no longer in a cuddle puddle. I just had to get a picture.

It has claimed that bed for its own!

Last of all, I’ve got two pictures of this adorableness. The second one was taken yesterday.

We already have a cat we call Ink, because she looks like she got into a pot of ink with her mouth and paws. This one also looks like it got into some ink.

We’re debating whether to call it Spot or Blot.

What do you think?

I did try to do a head count of the littles this morning, and I think I counted twelve but, as I mentioned earlier, I’m pretty sure some are “missing”. Especially the ones that showed up in the junk pile by the chain link fence, instead of the sun room or cat shelters by the house. It could be that they’ve been moved on by their mothers, or they simply didn’t happen to be out while I was putting the food out.

The next few weeks will be ones to keep an eye on them. This is the stage where, if they are going to get hit with the local variant of herpes, now will be it. That’s the ones with the leaky eyes, and that’s what did in Kale and, I’m sure, Zipper. This year, though, not all the kittens got it. Poirot’s babies have had zero issues, nor have the outer yard kittens that started out coming to the shrine feeding station (they are now willing to go right into the sun room!). The garage kittens have shown no sign if it, either. It looks like some of the littles are resistant.

From what the Cat Lady told me, that would be because of the lysine we’ve been adding to their food for the past year or two. For the cats that are already struggling with the virus, I’m told it’s “lysine for life”, and if they stop getting the lysine, they can get really sick again. BUT, it benefits the next generation, and they can not need it at all. That’s what I seem to be seeing now, with the littles. In fact, at this point, it seems like more of them are resistant than not.

Still, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen over the next few weeks. Which means we might start finding losses.

Well, it is what it is, and there’s not much we can do about it, that we aren’t already doing.

The Re-Farmer

[addendum: I was curious as to what WP’s AI image generator would come up with based on the contents of this post.

This is what I got.

What’s with the two headed kittens????]

Our 2025 Garden: getting bigger, some firsts in the harvest, and peeking!

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First, the cuteness. I got this picture last night.

The littles are happily discovering the perks of being close to the house. They’ve been sleeping on various cat beds all over the place, enjoying reliable access to food and water, and the creche mothers are taking good care of them. Some are still super shy, but even they are getting brave enough to go into the sun room.

I was on the late side getting out this morning. I had a rough night. What little lawn mowing a managed with the push more did more than remind me I hadn’t fully recovered from suddenly getting sick.

It reinjured me.

My left arm, that I injured in a fall more than a month ago, had been feeling fine for awhile. Well enough that I wondered just what we’d be talking about when I see my doctor at the end of the month, to go over the X-rays.

Last night, all the joints were hurting enough that I got my older daughter to come over and rub them down with Voltaren. Only after that could I finally get some sleep. By then it was around 3am.

My left hip has also increasingly an issue. Not so much with pain, but stability. The lack of it! It’s gotten so that I have to sit down to put on my pants, because I can’t stand on my left leg. When taking the two steps from the original part of the house to the addition, I can only step up on my right leg. If I try to step up using my left leg, my hip just gives out.

Something else to talk about when I see my doctor!

With that in mind, I got one of my daughters to help me in the garden at the end of my morning rounds.

When I first got into the old kitchen to start preparing the wet and dry cat food mixture I feed them in the mornings, I spotted one of the white and grey littles, right at the window! This window used to be an exterior window, before the sun room was added on, so the sill on the outside is angled down for any moisture to drain away from the window. It makes it a challenge, but the smaller cats and kittens are still able to get onto it and not slide right off. To see the littles up there – I think the one I saw traded off with a second one while I was filling the kibble bowl – is good progress. They have figured out where the food comes from, and are comfortable with that.

Now if only the garage kittens would come out! They are SO hungry by the time I arrive to feed them, because they don’t come to the house where there is more food, after their bowl is empty. I’m seriously considering moving the isolation shelter closer to the garage, and use it to slowly get them closer to the house. The problem with that it, the littles and the outside yard kittens are already using it regularly.

Maybe the catio would work, instead.

After the cats were fed, I continued my rounds and checking on the garden.

I’m quite happy with what’s happening in the trellis bed. The noodle beans are still stunted, but the sunflowers and pumpkins are looking great!

One pumpkin plant – the one with the pumpkin in a sling – is the biggest of the five, and opened up a couple of massive flowers this morning. There’s just male flowers, though. I’ve been seeing tiny female flowers start to form but, so far, they’ve all shriveled up and fallen off, long before they opened up. So it looks like we’ll get a single pumpkin this year.

In the second image of the slideshow above, you can see the tallest of the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers. it has almost reached the height of the top horizontal support for the temporary trellis netting, which is at least 6 1/2 feet from the ground, so about 6 feet from the inside of the bed.

I’m surprised by all those little tomatoes I found when doing a major weeding, some time ago, and transplanted. I’ve since found three more that got missed, but I won’t bother moving those. Some of the transplants are getting surprisingly bed. The largest one is hidden under the leaves of the biggest pumpkin plant! One even has blossoms on it. I suspect that some of them, at least, might be Spoon tomatoes.

Speaking of Spoon tomatoes…

My younger daughter came out to help me pick them. With the instability of my hip, I can only pick from one side, where I can lean against the log wall. My daughter can actually get right into the bed, standing on the mulch in between the melons (which are not really growing, even if some are blooming) and pick the tomatoes on that side of the plants.

This is our morning’s harvest.

Yes, those are grapes! My daughter found the ripest looking clusters. There are lots more, but they are still more on the green side. If my guess is correct, these are Valiant grapes and they should get much bigger, not be the same size as the Spoon tomatoes. Once we figure out a place to transplant them, hopefully they will do better. The vines themselves are doing great where they are, but the fruit is not what it should be.

This is the first time in a couple of years we’ve been able to harvest some grapes before the raccoons ate them all.

Under the colander is a selection of fresh herbs; two types of oregano, two types of thyme, sage, basil, lemon balm and even some dill weed from the self seeded dill that came up among the herbs. I also gathers some walking onion bulbils; we don’t want them to spread beyond where they are now, so the bulbils are for eating, not growing! There’s a small amount of bush beans, some Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes and some Chocolate Cherry tomatoes.

At the bottom are some nasturtium seeds. My daughter was admiring the flower bed (the Cosmos are getting so tall!) and asked about the nasturtiums, which are winding down right now. While checking them out, we noticed some of the seeds had started to dry up and fall off the plants. Rather than leave them there to likely rot, we gathered them up. They are now in the cat free zone (the living room) where we are keeping gathered seeds and seed pods to stay cool and dry before they get stored away.

As for the rest of today, I’m not sure what I’ll manage to get done outside. I’ll give myself a chance to rest, but I most likely will just pain killer up and head out later and do as much as I can. We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Feeling better and catching up

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Just a quick catch-up for now. I’m hoping to get outside and get some mowing down.

Yesterday turned out to be a good day to be sick. It rained off and on all day. I think it’s finally dry enough to mow. I want to get the area I allowed to get overgrown with alfalfa and whatnot, so the pollinators would have something. I’m not seeing a lot of pollinators of late, though. I think all the smoke has caused problems. The area is done blooming, though, so time to get it under control!

I still don’t know what happened to me, in getting so sick so suddenly. I had a chance to chat with my SIL and mentioned what I was feeling. She told me that she suddenly got sick like that, too, while they were out camping with the grandkids. The dizziness got so bad, she thought she might be having a stroke or something. Then my brother got sick, too. That was a few weeks ago, and neither have fully recovered. Hearing I was sick actually was a bit of a relief for her, as she now things they caught some sort of virus, though she felt back if they passed that on to me.

Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s it. By late afternoon yesterday, I was feeling good enough to go outside, do the evening cat feeding and my evening rounds. By the end of the day, I was feeling normal again and went back outside, just to enjoy the fresh air.

While checking on the garden beds, I found that a few of the Turkish Orange eggplants had damaged leaves. Just on one side of the plants, and among the ones that were more forward in the bed. I suspect it is cold damage when the overnight low dropped to about 6C/43F.

The drooping leaves, however, exposed something else.

There’s a ripening eggplant under there! It’s small, but from the photos of the ripe eggplant, it looks like it’s very close to being fully ripe. I think it’s supposed to get a darker orange, still.

The second photo has my hand in the photo, so you can get a perspective of the size.

This eggplant is so low on the plant, it’s resting on the ground, so after I got the picture, I took one of the dead leaves off the plant and put it under the eggplant in such a way that any water would drain away from the fruit.

We are all very curious as to what this variety will taste like!

The Sweetie Snack Mix peppers around the corner of the wattle weave bed have more fruit on them now, but they are all still very green. They should ripen into red, yellow and orange. At this point, there isn’t even a blush of colour on even the oldest peppers I have been keeping an eye on.

While doing my rounds, I noticed Pinky and her babies on the old tire that’s holding a door on one side of the garage open – I keep that door, plus the back door, open all summer for air circulation. The tire is still on a rim, so it’s heavy enough to keep the wind from blowing the door around. Pinky and her kittens were milling around on the tire, leaning into the rim.

They were thirsty and drinking the accumulated rain water!

There is food and fresh water by the house, but the kittens just won’t come over. I’ve seen the white and grey sneaking over to the shrine food bowls, and I think I’ve even seen him go into the isolation shelter or catio. The smoky kitten, however, will not go more than a few feet away from the garage. I only have a food bowl for them in garage, not a water bowl. I want them to come to the house! Pinky does, but she hates other cats and any kittens not her own. She will attack any that come too close. If they come near the garage, she will drive them away. Even the littles.

The white and grey, however, is starting to get used to me. The smoky kitten ran away, but the white and grey stayed while I pet his mother. After a while, I was not only able to pet him, but I was able to pick him up and snuggle him!

And confirm he is male.

I put him back on the tire and got some pictures while the smoky kitten started to come back. She (I think) does let me pet her while she is eating, sometimes, and I think it starting to learn that the giant, hairless food giver is not something to be scared of. She came closer while was there, but not all the way, so I left so she could finish drinking.

Later on, while walking behind the cat shelters near the sun room, I spotted Adam in the middle of them all, covered in kittens.

At least two ran off when they saw me in the gap between the shelters. She was nursing the whole lot of them. I don’t think any of the kittens in the picture are actually hers.

Of course, when doing the cat feeding this morning, I saw all sorts of kittens, including the “new” ones under the cat house creeping out. Some of them are even brave enough to go into the sun room already! I am 99% sure the kittens from the collapsing log building are Ink’s babies. I’d seen her climbing up into there a few times over the summer.

I don’t think I’ve seen Ink around for several days.

She was always one of the more feral cats and would run off faster, so that’s not too unusual, but after what happened to Poirot, it makes me wonder.

As I was finishing up my rounds, I spotted this baby under the shrine.

I don’t recognize it. It’s hard to know for sure, as the “new” kittens run and hide so quickly, but I think I would have noticed one that had all white around one eye, and black around the other like that.

Today, I had to go into town and my daughter and I headed out in the late morning. She wanted to come along, just in case I wasn’t feeling as well as I thought I was! I went ahead to the truck with the big water jugs that needed to be refilled when I spotted Slick in the grass, under the canopy tent.

She was nursing two babies!

One ran off, and it’s possible that one was the kitten in the photo above, but I didn’t see its face well enough to be sure. The other looked more like Mom. I gave them a lot of distance, so as not to scare it away. My daughter spotted the two of them still there as she came out a few minutes later. She tried for an indirect photo, trying not to startle them, but isn’t sure if it turned out yet.

We left early enough to stop at the post office where a parcel for my husband was waiting. It turned out to have a custom’s duty on it, so I had to pay $30 to pick it up. The postmaster told me she was processing a lot more customs duties of late, and thinks it might have something to do with the new tariff wars. Customs duties are a different category of taxes, though, not tariffs. If it is, that means it’s our own government charging us for stuff they didn’t before. Anything that gets shipped into Canada can potentially be charged duties. Usually, it’s the equivalent of what the sales tax would have been if the product was purchased in Canada. We have very rarely been charged duties on anything we’ve had come in from the US, whether by mail or courier. This was some stuff from a leatherworking supply company he’s purchased from before, without being charged duties.

Now I’m wondering if our government is going to tax me on all those seeds I ordered from MI Gardener that are making their way through the USPS right now. I’ll find out, soon enough, I guess.

Once in town, our first stop was at the pharmacy, where my daughter was able to get her own refills as well. Then we popped across the street to check out the Red Apple; one of the things my husband asked me to pick up is slightly cheaper there. Then it was off to the grocery store to refill the water jugs and get a few little things as well.

Seeing the prices change in just the last few weeks can sometimes be mind blowing. For example, I sometimes like to buy shelled pistachios as a truck snack. There is a brand that has them with various seasonings. About a year ago, they were still under $7. That price has been creeping up until even at Walmart, they went from just under $8 to almost $9 per bag within a couple of months. Locally, they were already just under $9 for some time. That’s what I saw them as, about a week ago.

Today, they were just under $12 a bag. 🤯

Needless to say, I haven’t been buying shelled pistachios.

We didn’t need to pick up much, though, and were soon on my way home. Now I want to get out and mow around the kibble shelters first, before the outside cats get their evening feeding. This is going to spook the heck out of the littles, so I want to get that done as quickly as possible!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get quite a bit done, but we’ll see. That left hip of mine is causing more problems, so the point that I have to do things like sit down to put my pants on, because it’s too unstable for me to stand on my left leg.

Something to talk to my doctor about when I see her at the end of the month. Looks like I’m due for another round of Xrays!

Ah, well. It is what it is. I’ll deal with it when the time comes!

The Re-Farmer

Sick day

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I have no idea what happened.

I was winding down for bed last night, listening to some videos on my computer before shutting it down, when I was suddenly hit with waves of dizziness. Then nausea. Then the shakes. Not just my limbs shaking, but even the insides of my torso felt shaky. I wasn’t even able to finish getting changed for bed before having to lie down.

I was able to message my daughters, and they helped as best they could. My younger daughter brought over our blood pressure monitor (BP was fine) and even tested my blood sugars (right were expected for how long it was since I ate anything). Of course, that’s when bunch of cats decided they needed attention!

The girls even brought me a bowl to keep nearby, in case I needed to throw up, as there was no way I’d make it to the bathroom in time if I did. When I did need to go, I had to walk super slow and careful and a daughter hovered nearby, in case I fell.

At one point, shortly after 1am, I opened the step counter app on my phone, which has a heart health monitor. You put your finger over the phone’s flash and it gets readings through that. According to the reading, my heart rate was in the “perfect zone”. My stress levels were low. My HRV (heart rate variability) was excellent, and even my energy level was good. In fact, I got one of the best readings since I downloaded the app.

Uh huh.

For a while, I seriously considered getting my daughter to drive me to the ER. In the end, I decided there was no point. Driving all that way to just sit in ER for hours, and probably just get sent home with a “we couldn’t find anything wrong with you” seemed like it would be less conducive to feeling better than simply staying in bed and trying to get some sleep.

I am feeling better now. I’m still feel shaky, though, and I don’t mean my limbs. In fact, my hands are rock steady, which is actually unusual. My hands always shake, normally.

All I can think of as to a cause is that it might be a reaction to medication. I’d taken my anti-inflammatories with my evening supplements, as usual – I only take the anti-inflammatories before bed, even though I can take them up to three times a day, if need be. I had them with a snack, rather than with a meal, since I didn’t want to eat too much right before bed. Could that have been it? Unlikely. I’ve done that before, too. As my left hip has been keeping me awake at night, I took some T3s this time. I’ve never reacted to them before, though, and they are safe to take while also taking the anti-inflammatories.

I don’t get it.

This morning, my daughters took care of all my usual morning routine, so I could stay in bed. They stayed up all night to be available for me, so they are both crashed right now. I felt well enough this morning to make myself some breakfast, but all I could handle was some soup. Eating did make me feel better, though.

I’m going to go back to bed after this. Hopefully, a few more hours of sleep will get me over whatever it was that did me in!

This is what WP’s AI image generator thinks this post describes. Apparently, AI can fine no reference images of a blood pressure cuff.

The Re-Farmer

More kitties and, it’s official

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We must, of course, start with the cuteness!

The cat cave I hoped that Frank would use has been discovered by the littles.

Some of them, at least.

I honestly expected to see it being used more but, hey… if it gives the littles a place to chill without scary strange adult cats to bug them, that’s just fine! They seem to be discovering the cat cage is good for that, too.

I didn’t see any in there this morning, but things get pretty chaotic when I come out with the food. More of the littles are actually staying and eating, rather than running and hiding. I really need to watch where I put my feet!

After feeding the cats and doing my rounds, I was about to go back into the house through the sun room, when I heard little squeaky noises and paused.

I’m glad I did.

Lady Hypotenose was being absolutely tackled by her littles. Where she is in the photo is right next to the door to the old kitchen. I stayed out of the sun room and just zoomed in with my phone’s camera to get some photos, then left them be! I could use the other door to go inside!

On a completely different note. While checking my email this morning, I found a notification from Canada Revenue that there was a message awaiting me at the website.

Well, there it was.

I am now officially classified as disabled by the government. Until 2030. I suppose in 2030, I’ll have to reapply? I dunno. I’ll get a letter in the mail about it. The website doesn’t give any other informaiton.

What this means is that, at tax time, I can get the disability tax credit instead of the caregiver tax credit I’ve been getting. As my younger daughter has also applied for disability and most likely has also been accepted, this means my older daughter can apply for the caregiver credit for one of us.

It also means I can apply for various supports available, and get my own disabled parking placard. My husband has one which, in this province, we have to pay a doctor to fill out a form, then send it in with a check for the placard itself, which then gets mailed to us. In the province where we were living when my husband went on short term disability, he got a prescription that we took where we had our van insured, and we were issued one without charge, immediately. It was a red, temporary one. After six months, when he went on long term disability, we did it again and he got the blue, long term one.

Other than that… I don’t know. I’ve been looking at the various supports out there, both provincial and federal, but it seems I don’t qualify for most of them. Most are aimed at people who are in supportive living or long term care, neither of which I need.

So… really, it doesn’t change anything for me other than being something the federal government recognizes at tax time.

I somehow thought there was more to it than that. I’m used to dealing with my husband’s private disability insurance. Not government stuff.

Thank God for private insurance. We’d be so hooped without it!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: morning in the garden, and a tiring visit!

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Just a few photos I took while doing my rounds and checking on the garden this morning.

In the first photo of the above slide show, you can see more of the Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes are ripening. There are more than what’s visible in the frame of the photo.

The second photo is of some wonderful new leaves coming up on the Opal plum, recovering from what the deer ate.

Last of all is a developing pumpkin. Sir Robin was happy to pose for size reference. 😄

We apparently had rain not long before I went out this morning, so no garden watering needed. In the evening, though, I did water the things that need it the most; the winter and summer squash! I did the melons, to, even though I really don’t see any chance of them growing. Some are blooming, though, so you never know!

Late this morning, I headed out to meet my brother, SIL and their grandkids for a surprise lunch with my mother. That turned out not at all as planned, but it worked out in the end. I brought along several take out containers of the turkey and vegetable soup I made in the slow cooker yesterday (I had it for my breakfast, too) for her freezer. During lunch, I ordered a 3 pc chicken and fries, then packed up most of the fries and the biggest piece of chicken for my mom to have for supper. Between two very active young boys and having to distract my mother when she started to go into one of her odd tirades, we were all very exhausted by the time lunch was done! The boys did really well, considering how many hours they’d spent in a car. My mother wanted them to go to her place, which was not an option. It’s soo small and too full of things rambunctious children could get into and hurt themselves or destroy. They ended up going for a walk with my SIL when we were done, while my brother focused on getting my mother home and I went ahead with their stuff along with what I brought for her. I had time to get the meals I brought into the freezer, and left the restaurant food on the counter to cool, then get to the side door and open it before they had to fight with keys. My mother can get in and out of my brother’s car without a stool, so he could park closer to the side door she prefers to use.

We both had to head out as soon as she was settled in. By the time we got out, my SIL was almost there with the boys. We’d talked about them coming her to the farm afterwards, but that went out the window. They’ll be coming out next weekend and staying overnight in their new abode, so we’ll get to visit with them and the boys soon.

As we were settling her in, my mother made a point of telling us not to make “surprises” like this for her anymore. Which we really can’t do. If we plan this stuff and tell her in advance, she works herself up and behaves even worse – downright cruel, in fact – than if she doesn’t know about it, first.

At least my brother was able to get a visit in, and she got to see her great grandsons. Of course, all she cared was to lecture them about making sure to take them to church. This was the time! When they’re young! Of course, they had just gone to church with her earlier (which was not planned). My SIL had to repeatedly tell her, they don’t live with us. It’s not up to us. They don’t live with us.

I was sitting next to my mother and repeated to her with slightly different working, that they don’t live here.

Well, where do they live, then? she asked.

…

Uhm… with their parents?

That one really threw us. It seems that my mother somehow decided that the boys being with my brother and his wife today meant that they… have moved in with them? Or she forgot that they live with their parents in a different province?

Something to bring up with the home care case coordinator, that’s for sure.

It was really good to see the boys, though. I haven’t seen the younger grandson since he was a babe in arms, still.

We also got some surprises at home today. Kitten surprises! That will get its own post, though.

See you there!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, eye tests, and oops! I missed one!

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Gotta start out with the cuteness!

When I came out this morning, I found all four of the feral kittens in the grass around the catio area, like they were coming towards the house. The little orange one does come to the kibble tray under the water bowl shelter, and I’ve even seen it a bit closer to the sun room, but the others are much shier, so it’s great to see them inching closer.

The garage kittens, I notice, have been spending more of their time hanging out outside. Still right up against the garage, where there are things they can hide behind, but they seem to prefer being outside of the garage rather than inside it, now.

While doing my morning rounds I did my usual check of the garden beds. When I got to the potato bed, I spotted something strange. I guess a cat or something had been digging in the loose soil, and uncovered something I missed!

A single potato! A pretty big one, too! I don’t know how I missed that! 😄

Today I had my eye appointment booked. I was going to be getting the dilation drops, so my daughter came along to do the driving afterwards. Plans for after my appointment included possibly going to my brother’s to pick up her computer, that was supposed to be delivered today.

It wasn’t.

As I write this, and the tracking information still says it’s “in transit” and expected to be delivered between 9:30am and 1:30pm today.

It’s just past 10pm right now.

My daughter and I left early as I wanted to stop at a gas station before my appointment. I was going to go to one in the town my eye doctor is in, but when we got close to the gas station I saw it was mostly blocked off by the truck refilling their tanks.

So we kept on going and got to the eye clinic almost an hour early.

As we drove into the parking lot, though, we noticed a new ice cream store had opened in the same building. When I checked in, and was told that not only was I very early, but the doctor as behind and hadn’t even had her lunch yet, we decided to go for ice cream.

The place was so new, they weren’t finished setting up yet. The menu boards were dark and there was no seating inside, though they did have picnic tables outside. They did, however, have many varieties of ice cream for us to check out, and we got a couple of waffle cones. The tables outside were occupies, so we cross the street to a tiny park where we could sit on some large rocks in the shade. It was very pleasent.

By the time we got back, they took me in very quickly, for the initial photographs of my eyes they needed to take, first. I have the tiniest of hemorrhages in my eyes that the doctor is monitoring. I didn’t have to wait long before the doctor called me in. We started out by looking at the images, comparing back to when I first started seeing her, in 2023. There are slightly more of these tiny hemorrhages, but nothing has gotten worse, so we are still in “monitoring” mode.

Then she tested my vision. Much to my surprise, there is almost no change in my prescription. The tiny big of change in my left eye is so minor, there’s no reason to get new glasses.

Then it was time to dilate my eyes.

Those drops really burn!

After the drops were done, I was sent to the waiting room for a while to give my eyes time to dilate before being called back in. Then I got to get that bright light flashed into my eyes while she examined inside them. Of all the tests, that’s the one that bothers me the most. Not even the puff test bothers me much. I mentioned that and she told me that with some people, it’s the field of vision test that bothers them the most, while others have issues with the puff test. I told her about my mother and her macular degeneration, and how she got the eye injection. I told her, my mother handled them like a champ, but I honestly don’t think I could get that done! She asked me who the doctor at the special eye clinic in the city was that saw my mother. I told her, and she said she had heard very good things about him. She’s read some of his papers, and was quite impressed by them. I told her, he’s really excellent – and has a great “bedside manner”. He was always very sweet with my mother. I was happy to have a chance to share how good he was; if she ever found herself with a patient with newly developed eye issues beyond what she can do in her clinic, it’s that clinic in the city she’d be referring people to, and she would know that this particular doctor is highly recommended for more than his very impressive credentials.

Those tests done, the doctor wanted me to get one of the sets of pictures taken earlier done again, while my eyes were still dilated, since they’d be able to get more detail. After that, she wanted me to book another appointment for 6 months from not. That would put us in January, though. After talking about it, and our issues with travel in winter, which I try to avoid if I can, we decided that I will come back in October for a field of vision test – but no eye dilation! – and then come back for the dilation test again in 6 months after that. This way, my appointments will be spring and fall instead of summer and winter.

While at the counter, settling my bill (a whole $5.50, after the insurance coverage was deducted), there was a guy trying to book an appointment during a certain week. The other receptionist kept telling him they were going to be up north. Somehow, he understood that to mean they were fully booked, which they are – but the staff will all literally be up north. The receptionist I was with told me, she was the one who got them doing this. She mentioned having a lot of First Nations friends up north, and I completely understood. They just don’t have these sorts of clinics up there. They’d have to go south to the city. She said, that’s exactly it. It’s easier for a few staff at the eye clinic to be flown up north and see 200 patients, then to fly 200 patients to the city! And that’s just from one place. They now go up to visit 9 different northern communities throughout the year. It’s fantastic that they can do that!

By the time I was done, we’d heard from my brother that my daughter’s computer was not delivered. She and her sister had their own shopping list, though, which meant a Walmart trip. It would have been on the way home from my brother’s, but we went straight there, instead – after getting some gas, since the station was no longer blocked by a giant tanker truck! Since we were at the Walmart anyhow, I picked up a few little things as well, to tide us over until we do our first stock up shop, next week.

By the time we got home, it was past 5pm, and we were greeted by some very hungry kitties! My daughter took care of putting everything away, then making a heat-and-eat supper, while I quickly took care of the kitties.

The next two days are supposed to get really hot, so when things started cooling down this evening, I went out to give the garden a thorough watering. I plan to water twice a day, when it gets really hope. I am still holding out home that at last some things will start growing again, instead of just stagnating. It’s starting to look like all the red noodle beans are not only stagnating, but starting to die. I did spot one new sprout – a late germinating bean – and it’s all nice and green, like all the others were when they first sprouted. Now, they seem to be getting yellower, every day.

I wish I knew why. Even the extra seeds I had that got planted in the gaps among the peas that didn’t germinate, they’re looking yellow, so it’s not something specific to the beds. I’m at a total loss about it.

The winter squash, at least, seem to be recovering, though it’s unlikely there’s enough season left for them to develop fruit, even if they had an explosive growth spurt. The melons are just… not happening.

So furstrating!

I’m still tending them, just in case they recover. Who knows what will happen in the next couple of months.

Aside from all this, I have something good to share, and that’s how good I’ve been feeling. It’s only been a couple of days on the anti-inflammatories, and I can’t believe how pain free I’ve been. I haven’t even been taking the max dose I can “take as needed”. In fact, I even reduced how many capsules I cat at a time; I can take 2 capsules up to 3 times a day. I’ve taken 2 capsules, twice a day. This evening, I took just one. We’ll see how I feel overnight before I decide if I’ll take 1 or 2 in the morning.

I still have various pains, but the last couple of days have been the closest to being completely pain free as I can remember being in a very long time. Particularly when it comes to how much my body stiffens up if I’ve been sitting for a while, such as while driving, or sitting at my computer. I’m just blown away by how much difference I’m feeling, in such a short time!

Things are now winding down and I’ll be heading to bed soon. It should be interesting to see if half the dose will still be enough for me to be able to sleep without various joints keeping me awake with pain during the night.

I am so happy I thought to ask about trying the anti-inflammatories! What a difference they are making!

The Re-Farmer

Morning Trashpandas

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Well, today went not at all as planned. I’m actually going to be able to stay home today!

I was expecting to be picked up by a friend at 8am this morning, and was starting my morning routine a bit early. Before making the kitten soup, I popped into the sun room to grab the one bowl for it that I knew was still there.

Opening the doors created a massive scramble, with all sorts of crashing and bashing.

A BIG raccoon ran out the sun room door, but her four babies all squeezed themselves into the space between the counter shelf and the window.

These are not small babies.

Well, the mom was beside herself. She wanted to run away, but her babies were stuck inside!

The growling noise she makes is so… unique. It’s almost like a deep, throaty barking noise, but it’s a growl. Once of these days, I need to try and record the sound!

Meanwhile, I could hear the babies scrambling. I tried to give them time to leave by mixing up the kitten soup and getting all the bowls and dry kibble ready.

Eventually, two did run out, but two others ran back into hiding. I decided to go ahead and start setting out the dry kibble.

Gosh, they are so frikkin’ cute!

Once the dry kibble was distributed, I same back through the sun room, and heard massive crunching.

They were so, so hungry!

I let them eat for a bit, then tried to get a broom behind their butts to push them out to the door.

They pushed back, wanting to get back behind the shelf, instead. Which was blocked by the broom.

So they just sort of stood up, squeezed between the broom and the table saw the food tray is under.

Looking at me.

With those eyes.

I gave up.

There was so much commotion, I had to let the for socialized kittens into the old kitchen so they could eat their cat soup, while I started setting the other bowls out. The little feral orange kitten has been brave enough to come to the house! Which was great, except he ended up missing out on the kitten soup, as he was eating dry kibble by the laundry platform, instead. Hopefully, he got some later.

Going back and forth, the two raccoons went back to eating. One of them moved out from under the table saw and was eating at another tray. They didn’t stop eating as I went by.

I admit it.

I couldn’t resist.

I pet the raccoon.

Just a little!

They have very course fur.

The raccoon was so focused on food, it just looked up at me, then kept eating.

After that, I did my morning rounds. While coming back from the driveway, I spotted them on the steps in front of the house. They were clearly looking for Mom!

Mom, however, had done the opposite direction.

When they spotted me, they ran up the tree in front of the kitchen window. The one that cats really like, and use to get onto the roof. Yes, there were a couple of cats in the tree, and they weren’t sure what to make of the new additions!

I continued my rounds and when I came back, I found them like this.

At some point, this tree was cut short (it should have been cut down!). Over the years, branches had grown up and around the top, but there is still a flat spot that the cats love to hang out on. I found the raccoons, snuggling each other, huddled up on the flat spot.

Checking later on, they were gone, so I’m guessing they are reunited with their mother.

The morning stuff done, I headed out to meet my friend at the gate for 8am.

She never showed up.

I didn’t want to message her, in case she was driving, but after a while I finally did.

Long story short, she thought her car drop off was on the 28th, not the 23rd. That’s what she had written in her schedule. I’d put it into my own phone calendar. So I looked up the number for her and she called the garage.

It was supposed to be today.

She ended up rescheduling to the 28th.

Okay, that meant I could stay home?

Not really. My mother needs a grocery shopping trip. My sister, however, was planning to visit today, too.

I called my mother and got her up to date on getting the blood work requisition for her, and the doctor’s appointment I made for her. As for her shopping, she will get my sister to do it.

I get to stay home!

Then I got a call from the autobody shop.

I’ve got my eye appointment tomorrow (Thursday), then I’m supposed to drop the truck off for the insurance claim on Friday. They had arranged for a courtesy car for me to use until it could be picked up on Tuesday.

The courtesy car is broken down and won’t be ready on time.

They wondered if I could bring it in on Thursday night, they’d do the repairs/painting on Friday morning, then I could take the truck back until they are ready to install the cover, and I would bring the truck back for that.

I told her about my eye appointment, and that I won’t even be able to drive myself home, because my eyes will be dilated.

As we were talking, and she asked where I lived, she even offered to drive me home after dropping off the truck! In the end, what they will do is have someone come get the truck from here, on Thursday, just before they close. They’ll do the repair work and painting on Friday morning, and will figure out how to get the truck home for me after that. Likely, a drop off. Then, I’ll get a call to bring it back to install the cover. For that, I can just stay and wait until it’s done.

They are really bending over backwards to help me out here!!! Wow!!

So that’s been my morning.

I get to stay home for day.

I’d love to be productive and all, but so much has been going on, I feel totally drained – and I’m still not completely recovered from yesterday’s… reaction… to the lunch I got from the grocery store before our doctor’s appointment. Even my arm is still giving me grief.

Oh, crap. I forgot to take my anti-inflammatories while eating my lunch. Maybe it’s not too late! I’m still full…

Done.

I did take some yesterday, then went to bed early. I did NOT take any painkillers before bed. I did have some pain during the night, but nothing like I normally do, even with painkillers. It’s too early to draw any conclusions, but for a first dose and first night, that’s very encouraging!

I didn’t take any painkillers this morning, either.

So far so good!

I think I’ll actually try lying down for a bit, then see how I feel before trying to get some work done outside. I really need to let that arm heal.

We’ll see how it goes.

The Re-Farmer

Kitties in the heat, our two headed cat, and first appointment with the new pain clinic physiotherapist

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As I write this, it’s just past 4:30pm, and we’ve surpassed our predicted high of 31C/88F and reached 33C/91F.

That couple of degrees makes a huge difference!

It could be worse; some areas to the south of us reported up to 40C/104F today.

It was a relatively cool 16C/61F when I did my morning rounds at about 6am. I even spotted the two feral kittens that are starting to show up regularly. No idea what’s happened to the other one or two that I saw.

When we got home from the physio appointment, there we were immediately greeted by Sir Robin, while Havarti and Eyelet remained splatted in the shade. Eyelet got up, waiting for their special food, while Havarti just lay there, unmoving – so I got a picture! The last image above was taken after everyone had a chance to eat their fill, and the full belly babies were back in the shade. Grommet was around, too; just not where I could get him in the picture.

Before we headed out, I spotted this on my bed and had to get a picture.

It looks like we’ve got a two headed cat in there! Ghosty and Tin Whistle had merged into one. 😄

That inside cats have also been splayed all over, but it’s a whole lot better for them, that’s for sure. Thank God for the AC my brother gave us. Between that and the living room, and a fan blowing the cooler air to there rest of the house, it’s so much better than previous years – and now my daughters have their AC set up in their upstairs “apartment”. It’s the fist summer since living here that the upstairs has been at all bearable. Even with that, they had to strategically place a fan to counter the wave of hot air coming up the stairs.

My husband and I got to enjoy the truck’s AC when we headed out just before noon for his appointment at the pain clinic. This was his first appointment with their physiotherapist, which made it more of a meet and greet. We met him last week, of course – he even remembered us a bit – but this was a more dedicated meeting.

It was a combination of interesting and encouraging… and not.

The interesting thing was, after asking questions about my husband’s specific issues and past treatment (the conclusion with the doctor, last time, was basically what we expected; he’s already tried everything there is to try, and there isn’t anything more or new they can offer him), he talked a fair bit about how things have changed in physio in more recent years. He talked about all the typical recommendations given out for decades; loose weight, exercise more, focus on core exercises, etc. simply haven’t been working. They weren’t helping people get past their pain or improve healing of injuries. There have been a lot of studies trying to figure out why, and they found many factors were at play. An example would be how they’d have two groups of people doing comparable exercises. Some people would report improvement, even though there was no measurable improvement in their condition. Others would report no improvement at all. When taking blood tests before and ever activities, it was found that people all had inflammation. The group that reported feeling better has less inflamation, the other didn’t – and the only difference was that the ones that reported improvement actually enjoyed the activities they were doing. The ones with the worst outcomes did not enjoy the exercises they were doing, and they had higher inflammation after their activities. Inflammation in general, it was found, played the biggest role in how people felt. It basically came down to individual body chemistry.

There were also things like how doing small amounts of activity more often was more beneficial that doing lots in a short time. He also talked about how misleading the “in your head” idea was. When he did talk about weight, he mentioned studies that found that when people enjoyed their activities, did them regularly without overdoing it, etc. they reported improvements, both physical and mental, with no change in their weights at all. This was something I appreciated hearing, since part of why my husband’s conditions deteriorated so much was because he started seeing a nurse practitioner (the only person available after our regular doctor went on medical leave and didn’t come back), she basically ignored the reason he as there – his back injury – but focused almost entirely on his weight. His blood sugars, too, but it all came down to his weight. Of course, in being the “good” patient, he just went along with it. For some two years. It was like she believed if only he would lose the weight, all the other things would magically go away. Of course, he never lost any weight at all in that time, and we finally insisted that she start focusing on his back injury. When he saw the spine specialist, the damage was too severe, and there was really nothing that could be done but give him stronger and stronger pain killers.

So having someone who knew to focus on the actual reason my husband was there, and not pet causes, was always a relief.

That was the encouraging part.

The discouraging part was, we already knew all this. This is really old news, even though most doctors don’t seem to know anything about these studies. I’ve been reading papers on this stuff for more than a decade.

After some discussion, a plan of action was worked out. My husband will start doing tai chi again (he used to teach it at one point), starting out by finding his limit, then maintaining the activity regularly, based on those limits.

Next month, we’ll be having a phone appointment with him.

As we were leaving and talking about it, my husband said he felt like the guy was a puppy discovering a new and fabulous toy and being all excited about it. Which is only because we were already aware of the stuff he was talking about already.

We shall see how it pans out.

Once the appointment was done, with a follow up telephone appointment booked at the end of this month, we headed over to the nearby Walmart to have lunch – breakfast, for my husband. My older daughter got quite sick last night, and hadn’t even been able to eat all night, while she was working. I made sure there was something she could eat before going to bed for the day! She sent me some funds to pick up heat and eats, which I did while my husband finished his lunch. Then it was off for home, with a brief stop at the post office. My husband had ordered more Tei Fu lotion for me, since it helps so much with the Charlie horses. He ordered three tubes, so the company added a freebie. It was a bottle of cordyceps, for “… energy, stamina, endurance and strength”. That one free bottle costs more than one tube of Tei Fu lotion! That’s quite a freebie!

I’m happy to be well stocked with Tei Fu lotion, though. I was running low.

When we got back, we found my younger daughter had the gate open for us, and was out hanging laundry in this heat! She’d done all their laundry, including bedding, plus my laundry, too! What a sweetie.

I planned to head out to water the garden this evening, but I’m not so sure about that right now. We’re at 31C/88F, with the humidex putting us at 33C/91F, and apparently won’t be dropping below 30C/86F until after 9pm! Even the overnight low is expected to be 21C/70F

I think I’ll just do my evening rounds and go to bed much earlier than usual. I’ve been waking up as it starts to get light out, anyhow, so I may as well wait and do the watering in the morning. That way, I won’t be shocking the plants with cold well water. Something the winter squash and melons could certainly do with out, with how much damage they got from that one cold night a while back! We’ve definitely lost a few completely.

Not looking forward to doing my evening rounds this evening, that’s for sure! Stepping outside is like walking into a wall of heat.

Ugh.

The Re-Farmer

Protecting garden beds, trellis build progress, and that could have been really bad

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For now, I can type, and that is a good thing.

I tried taking garden tour video yesterday, but wasn’t happy with the results, so I hope to be able to take new recordings later today. I should be able to walk, and my right arm is okay, but I might not be able to use my left, if I have to switch hands or something.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though.

This morning, I needed to get a few things done, and I worked on the fast things first. Protecting garden beds from cats.

The potatoes are large enough that they no longer need to be covered with netting, so I removed that and brought it to the tomatoes and beans bed in the east yard. It was just long enough for me to be able to wrap it around the tomato support structure (after folding it in half, lengthwise), and secure the bottom with ground staples. No more cats using it as a litter box.

The next image in the slideshow above is the Arikara squash and corn bed. The mosquito netting I had over it wasn’t long enough to wrap around the bed. I did have the plastic I used to solarize the bed that now has the corn and beans. They’re large, clear garbage bags that were cut on the sides to make a single longer sheet. It took three of them to go around the bed. I’m hoping it’s enough to keep the cats out, and that the wind won’t blow it away. If not, I’ll have to find more netting.

That done, it was time to gather my tools and work in the trellis bed.

The first image was before I started.

The bed is 18′ long, so the first thing to do was measure and mark out where the three verticals would go, at 4.5, 9 and 13.5 feet. Then I used a hoe to scrape out the soil directly below and position the pieces of brick that will go under each vertical. This way, they won’t have direct contact with the soil and won’t get wet and rotten at their bases too quickly.

I had three posts waiting. Their bottoms had already been trimmed straight. I just cut away any sticky outy bits along their lengths, first.

I took the straightest one to set in the middle. With each post a different size, they all needed to be marked and cut individually. I used my baby chainsaw (cordless pruner) to cut away a section of the vertical, first, then double checked against the low raised bed and marked the horizontal log again, before cutting away a section there, too.

The first one I did was probably the most perfect, snug fit I’ve ever done. I was so happy!

The post was large enough that I secured it with four 3″ deck screws.

The process was repeated for the next post. By the third one, though, I’d drained both my batteries when I started to cut away the first notch, so I stopped for lunch. When I was done, it didn’t take very long at all to get that third one up. In the very last image of the above slide show, you can see them all up and done.

What they now need is a horizontal support across the top.

The verticals are all different, and one leans a fair bit.

The ground isn’t level, so we had to install them first, and now we can go along and cut the tops to all the same height, before putting on the horizontal support at the top.

The question was, did I have anything I could use for a horizontal? As in, one single long piece? Or would I have to piece together more than one piece?

I’d set aside from trees I’d cleared out of the spruce grove that were nice and straight, last year some time. I took a look and selected on of them, which you can see in the second image above. It definitely looked to be more than 18′ long.

So I dragged it over to the raised bed. The plan was to cut the wide end straight, then measure 18′ from there.

I’d just dropped the log in the path and started talking to the other end, when – I think – my toe caught on a bit of branch or something along the log.

I fell headlong, right onto the log.

I landed on my right knee on one side of the log, my left palm on the other, and my face hit the log in the middle.

It could have been so, so bad.

The first blessing is that I have glasses. They got a bit twisted, while keeping my face from smashing too hard into the log.

As I lifted my head, I saw my second blessing.

Had I fallen just a few inches forward, my face would have hit a small broken branch, about the length and thickness of a finger. I would have impaled been impaled by that. Instead, I landed on a smooth section of the log.

Thank God!

My got my glasses off, as I couldn’t see through them at the time, then started digging my phone out of my pocket.

The pocket I was lying on, of course.

I managed to tap a request for help to the family. As far as I knew, only my husband was available, and I wasn’t sure he could make it out to where I was. Thankfully, my younger daughter saw my message and headed out.

I did make sure to add that I wasn’t injured. I just couldn’t get up – and asked her to bring my husband’s walker.

I was able to at least sit up by the time my daughter reached me and helped me get to my feet. After checking me out for injuries, she helped me get to the walker, where I could wheel myself over to the shade and sit for a bit.

Obviously, I wasn’t going to get anything else done, so she put all my tools back into the wagon and took it to the garage for me, while I made my way to the house. I couldn’t use my left hand to hold the walker, though, and had to lean on my forearm, instead.

Now that I’ve had a chance to sit for a while, it seems that my left are too the brunt of the fall. My right knees is already feeling better, though I imagine I’m going to have bruising and swelling there. My daughter straightened out my glasses, and I was able to clean off my eyeball print smeared inside one lens. I’ve got some marks on my face, but no unjuries.

It seems it was my left palm, just under my thumb, that took the brunt of the fall. I’m starting to feel pain and stiffness working its way up to my shoulder. So far, it doesn’t look like I’ve broken anything, but I have to watch myself. My pain tolerance is unusually high. I’ve broken bones before and just kept on going. The most recent being a toe that I thought was merely dislocated. My husband set if for me and I didn’t realize it was broken until I happened to get it Xrays while I was accompanying my mother to a Doctor’s appointment. It had been set very well! As for other injuries… well, ignoring them is why I’m dealing with post traumatic osteoarthritis now.

Well, at least I got those vertical supports up. If necessary, we can add whatever netting is handy for the red noodle beans to climb. Depending on how my arm is, I might have to get my daughter to do it!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

I’m just so incredibly grateful I’m just dealing with a sore arm right now.

It could have been so. Much. Worse!

The Re-Farmer