A couple of nights ago, it got cold enough overnight for the furnace to turn on, only to hit highs in the 20’s, half a day later!
Yesterday was supposed to be my day to finally get the mower out – which required taking the snow blowers out first, taking out the riding mower, then moving the snow blowers to the back of the shed until winter. I also made room by taking out the two broken push mowers my brother had tested. I stuck them in another shed at the old hay yard. There used to be a tractor in there, but that is one of the things that disappeared before we moved in.
Once the mower was cleared, I topped up the oil, filled the gas tank, checked it over and…
We are just surrounded by adorableness, inside and out!
I was getting ready to head to the post office when I saw a giant slug, rolling around on my bed.
She had a duster for company.
Fenrir and our mama cat hang out together a lot, these days. :-)
As I headed outside, I spotted Stinky coming out of the sun room and disappearing under the storage house. Another reason to start closing up the sun room, once we get the mamas set up. Skunks are omnivorous, and I don’t want it going after the babies.
Though there is a good chance we might be seeing some stinky babies at some point, too. I have no idea if our visitor is male or female, but it is more likely to be female
When I was coming back to the house later on, I spotted these two…
At first, I could only see Bob, over on the left, and didn’t see Rolando Moon until I came closer for a photo.
Bob came over for some pets, and we got joined by a Big Beep.
She is getting so huge! More kitties to come!
I think I’m going to head out to the sun room now, and start setting up a litter box, food and water!
Even the cats missed him. They have been super cuddly. I’ve been waking up with these two, fighting to get under the covers with me. Mama cat won; she’s still under the covers in this picture, and Fenrir settled for sprawling on top of them.
Which left me with one arm stuck out, and unable to put my phone away. This was handy when I started getting messages from my husband, telling me he would be able to come home by 10 or 10:30.
On learning that my nephew and his wife will be having a baby, I started working on crocheted baby gifts. I’ve just finished the last of them – a gift for the mom – to go with the stroller blanket and matching hats I made for Baby’s first winter, including adult sized hats for Mom and Dad.
I made a capelet for our new mom to wear while cuddling Baby, and wanted to get a photo of it. I can post those here, as my family doesn’t know about this blog, so I won’t be ruining any surprises. ;-)
It’s pretty big, so I cleared my bed and stretched up to try and get the whole thing in the shot.
Oops. I cut off a couple of corners. Let’s try that again…
… and again…
… and again…
… one more time!
Okay. I give up. They win.
I then removed the cats – plus the clump of fur already left behind = and the capelet is now safely put away with the rest of the items, out of reach for cats!
Now I have to find a box big enough to hold it all, so I can mail them out. Baby will make his debut in July, so I have a bit of time. :-)
For those who are interested, I made this using a simple pattern I found online – click here for the link – using Lion Brand Mandala yarn in Thunderbird, and a 5mm hook. The only change I made to the pattern was to add the trim on the bottom. I wanted the starting and finishing rows to match in both colour and width, which left me with just enough yarn to work my way across the bottom.
It’s called the primordial pouch, and all cats have it, to some extent. Our mama cat doesn’t really have it, because she’s all big belly on stick legs, so if she has one, it’s either full, or hidden by that belly or hers. Anything Fenrir has is hidden by long, long fur.
What a big boy he is. Fenrir is so small, she can actually sit on the window ledge, walk around and even turn around on it. DahBoy has to prop himself on the plant pot.
In case you are wondering about the yellow flags in the plant pot, I had put them around our avocado tree, with yarn going from one to the other. For some reason, the cats were absolutely insistent on getting into the pot. When one of the branches got broken off, I rigged this up. It sort of worked.
Unfortunately, the avocado did not survive the winter. This was the longest I’ve ever managed to keep one alive; it was about 3-4 years old. *sigh*
I’ve got two more pits in water to start new ones. Hopefully, we’ll manage to grow a tree!
First off, many thanks to Elfidd for mentioning using a snow rake in the comments of my last post. How did I not know about such a tool? After doing some searches and discovering not only what it was, but how affordable it was, I left early to pick up my daughter, so I could stop at the hardware store.
I got their last one. A telescoping version.
I’m extra glad I left so early, though. Road conditions had deteriorated quite a bit since this morning. All the areas that had blowing snow this morning, now had blowing snow over ice and snow – which was trying to melt and freeze at the same time! I was just driving through our little hamlet when I got a warning of what was to come – a car in the ditch! There was no one inside; between a farm house nearby, and our little town in the other direction, this person would be okay. Getting that car out of there is not going to be easy, though. :-(
Driving past it, I could see the car’s tracks. My guess is, as soon as the car hit the ice, it got blown off the road. The wind made driving on the ice more dangerous than the ice itself. (I’ve been eyeballing the trees around the house with trepidation all day!)
We will be leaving early, tomorrow morning.
Anyhow.
The snow rake needed to be assembled, and tools were needed, so I set up in the living room and started working on it.
In seconds after I got my wrench, my tool kit was occupied.
What a silly girl!
I did, however, need to get to the tray of tools under her, so I got her off, moved the foam, took out the tray, moved the other piece of foam, got my pliers and…
That girl is faaaast!
The assembly was much easier than reading the pictographic instructions. Yeesh! But I got it done!
There’s my other helper! Silly boy! :-D
This will be very useful over the next couple of days. :-)
It’s always interesting, looking out our bathroom window into the sun room.
You never know who might be looking back.
Nicky the Nose kept starting at me, unmoving from that position, for quite some time!
What a face. :-D
The cat pile in the cuddle corner consists of Butterscotch and three of her babies; Bob, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Butterscotch is doing very well, with only the occasional cough/sneeze. Her eye was still leaking a bit, yesterday, and looked clear today.
Doom Guy, on the other hand, sounds terrible. His nose is plugged, and every now and then he starts making these weird coughing/sneezing/raspy noises when he breathes. I do think he’s actually getting better, but it’s hard to tell. Unfortunately, he wants lots of cuddles, at the least opportune times. The backs of my legs must be covered with scratches from him! His way of letting us know he wants up is by standing on his back legs and grabbing a leg. Which is rather painful! He also has not figured out that we can’t pick him up at all, if he’s attached himself to the back of our legs.
At least his energy levels are better. :-/
The Outsider, meanwhile, is quite enjoying being an inside cat.
Her inside cat name is now Fenrir, and she has been expanding her explorations zones.
This is a problem.
She can fit behind the fish tank, which was quite a surprise. Yes, she’s tiny, but I didn’t think she was THAT tiny!
She has also managed to get up into the storage space above where the tank is, which was discovered by the sound of her landing in the tank lid, on the way down.
That space is jammed full of unknown stuff that we have not been able to get to; not very high on the priority list of things to clear away and pack up. There is at least one lamp up there, though. We can just see the top of it. It’s now tipped over and leaning against something we can’t see.
She is also determined to get up the shelf against the wall, next to my crafting table, as well as trying to get to the window on the wall. The side where the sill is narrower, of course, and too small for her to actually walk on. I have some stacking shelves on my work table, and several times now, I’ve come in to find it partly knocked down because she’s tried to use it to get to the top of the shelf against the wall. That top of that shelf has all sorts of breakable stuff on it, including two oil lamps and and antique electric lamp, among other things. I’ve been trying to position things to block the cats, but that doesn’t seem to stop them. DahBoy is also determined to get up there, but at least he hasn’t tried using my table shelves to do it. He was about 4 times what Fenrir does.
He and Fenrir are getting along better, but every now and then, he decides to chase her. I usually discover this by the sudden pain of being climbed as she runs up me to get away from him.
I am riddled with little cat scratches all over!
Fenrir has also been horrible about getting under our feet, and has been stepped on (though sometimes, just her long fur) a few times, now. Mostly by me. :-( Interestingly, when that happens and she howls and makes like she’s about to bat at the offending foot, our Mama cat goes on the attack and chases Fenrir. After this happened a few times, it seems like she’s defending me from Fenrir!
I’m really hoping to train her out of climbing my work table – and getting under our feet! – soon!
It seems that every morning, when I check the weather, the cold snap keeps getting pushed further and further into the upcoming days. We should have been in the low -20s and high minus teens by now, but instead I woke up to -31C with a wind chill of -42C, and the cold is now supposed to continue through Monday. Last Monday, it was supposed to extend until today, then start warming up.
The Re-Farmer 