DahBoy likes it on top of the piano.
I love how he dangles his chin over things. And how his cheeks just sort of … puddle.
The Re-Farmer
inside cats
It’s a Cat’s life
That face…
I actually thought he was asleep when I saw him sprawled on his back like this. Then I saw the eye. Staring. At me.
The Re-Farmer
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Cat puddle
Good thing we have two driveways
We have ourselves another scorcher today. I had hoped to mow the inner yard today, but I don’t want to risk the riding mower’s motor overheating in these temperatures. So it will wait. I was also thinking of doing the last bit of the clean up I had started doing around the storage house yesterday, stopping when it got just too hot to be working outside, but nope. Not gonna happen in this heat!
Despite the heat, both cats are very cuddly. DaBoy spends his nights upstairs, taking over the bottom of one of the girls’ beds. You’d think, with his fur coat, the last thing he’d want to do is be in the hottest part of the house, snuggling up to warm feet, but he does.
At least his mom is doing it in the coolest room in the house; the master bedroom.
She was using my ankle and foot as a pillow.
Being the suck that I am, I was “trapped” for some time by the adorable fur ball.
My husband has been having a very bad pain day today, so he asked me to go into town to pick up something to help.
It’s a good thing he did. Otherwise, we would not have known until we were heading out for his medical appointment tomorrow, that we were locked in.
My younger daughter came along with me, and when the girls are along for the ride, they typically go ahead to the gate to unlock and open it while I get the van and drive through, then they lock it up again. This time, I drive up to the gate, and she’s still struggling with the gate.
The lock is a combination lock; the only thing we had handy at the time my mother asked us to start locking the gate. Of the 4 tumblers, three weren’t turning.
We tried using tools. We tried oiling it. Nothing. Those tumblers would not move.
Thankfully, we have another driveway, and that gate has a key lock on it.
This other driveway is not normally used. I’ve mowed a path to it, because we still need to rebuild the barbed wire gate and just haven’t gotten around to it. Right now, the lock and chain are the only thing keeping it upright and closed. It’s a rough drive to the gate, the the driveway itself is overgrown. I knew the path to the gate was clear, because I’d just mowed it, but we double checked the driveway itself to make sure there was nothing that would blow a tire on us or something. It was good.
So when we got to town, our first stop was at a hardware store. I picked up a new key lock, plus heavier duty bolt cutters. It was funny as we went to pay for them. The cashier joked about using the bolt cutters to cut a lock, then replacing it with a new one. We told her that yes, that’s exactly what we were doing! Then we explained that our lock was a combination lock, and the tumblers weren’t turning. I added in, “Either the weather got to it, or someone tampered with it.”
Her response was, someone probably tampered with it. When I commented that we live in the middle of nowhere, she just nodded and said, yeah; that’s where it’s most likely. Then she told us about her brother, who has a trailer out in the sticks, and someone had broken into his locked gate and stole a quad.
An unfortunately reality of living in the sticks. You’d think it would be safer, but people know that chances of getting caught are much lower, and the police are at least half and hour away.
I couldn’t see any sign of tampering on our lock, but unfortunately, I can’t rule it out. For it to suddenly stop working like this, it actually seems more likely to be the cause than weather.
After getting the new lock and bolt cutters, we finished our errands, then did a bit of quick Pokemon Go. We paused to battle a gym at the beach, sitting outside at a picnic table as we played. Oh, what a lovely breeze off the water!
The temperatures were 28C, with the humidex putting it at 32C, but the lake it still quite cool, and it made for such a pleasant time outside.
We didn’t stay for long, though. Once at home, we cut the broken lock off and put on the new one. I’m going to have to cut copies of the key, so we all have one, plus an extra in the house. I’ve kept the old lock and will see if I can find a way to open it up and see why it stopped working.
We did stop at the post office on the way home, and found a nice little surprise. We got our reimbursement for our vehicle registration in our previous province. It was enough to cover the cost of the bolt cutters, at least. :-)
For now, we keep cool inside. Looking around in the basement, I found an oscillating fan that actually works, though it needs a major cleaning. That’s what I’ll be working on, next.
While having lunch with my brother and his wife on the weekend, I found out about something I had been wondering. In the old part basement, at the window that we used to throw wood through, is a platform. I had no idea why it was there. It turns out my brother built it to hold a fan. There is a screen to replace the window that’s there now, and the fan was used for air circulation to help keep the house cool. The basement doors would be left open to help cool the house down, but we can’t do that until we’ve cleaned up the new part basement so it’s safe if the cats get down there. We talked about getting a cheap screen door in the short term, to keep the cats out until we can do that. The door is a standard size, so we could actually do that. Something to keep in mind!
My brother described the fan he had on the platform, and none of us could remember seeing it, so I went looking around today. Which is why I found the oscillating fan.
No sign of the fan he’d built the platform for. Like so many other things, it has gone missing. Another thing that came up in conversation, since I’d mentioned my search for a pitchfork in the past, is that there had been about 6 or 8 pitchforks stored in the barn. There is no sign of them, now.
It’s a good thing we are living here now. Too many things disappeared while this place was empty. :-(
The Re-Farmer
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Morning Cats, and shopping day
I want to start by sharing some photos of the cats this morning. Because it’s a great way to start the day!
Like waking up to this…
Actually, I woke up to see her sitting there, staring at me. :-D The cats really appreciate the extra thickness of the window sill, thanks to the log walls in the original part of the house. They’d love to get up onto the other window, too, which is much, much bigger, but it’s the one that didn’t get replaced. Which means it still has sheets of plexiglass covering them on the inside, so there’s nowhere they can sit at. Which drives them bonkers, when the outside cats are in the trees outside the window, looking in. :-D
Speaking of outside cats…
With all the rain we’ve been having, I moved the food bowls under the little roof over the basement window. They actually seem to prefer when the kibble gets a bit wet; likely softer on their teeth. “A bit wet” is not what’s been happening, lately. Which is a good thing!
When I came out this morning, Squishum (not in the picture) was all talkative, squeaking away as if wanting attention, but still won’t let me come near. Nasty Crime Boy, Beep Beep and Butterscotch were content to ignore me to come to the food.
The Hand, on the other hand…
…would not go to the food while I was around! I took this through the screen door of the sun room, after bringing back the container I use to take food to the bowls. She would only peak her head around the corner of the shelf outside, watching to see what I would do. I was able to move my phone enough to get more than just her head, but she was not comfortable with me being there and slunk away to the clothes line platform to wait for me to leave.
I don’t want to prevent her from eating, so I left.
I so want to touch that cat! :-D
Instead, I got to touch the Butterscotch!
I even got a decent picture of her! She makes it very difficult. :-D
I wandered around the East side of the house and did a bit of weeding to free up some irises that are coming up. Looking into the spruce grove, I just had to get another picture.
Remember this?
That photo was taken on May 15. The leaves are barely coming out at this point.
This is what it looks like, today.
That broken piece of tree in the first picture is still there, in the left side of the photo. Completely hidden from where I was standing, and barely visible even at other angles.
That horseradish is coming up nicely, too.
In time, that underbrush will be cleared mostly away, and the dead tree will be cut down. Likely not this year, though. I think we will focus on cleaning up the maple grove, first. At least as much as we can, until we have a working chain saw.
My goal is to have both the maple and spruce groves open under the trees, park-like and mow-able. I would like us to, at the very least, be able to walk through the trees without having to skirt dead branches, dead trees and other detritus. Including my husband, with his walker. Maybe set up a picnic table or something in the shade, so we can enjoy the spaces more.
Little by little, we will get there.
Late this morning, my older daughter and I made the trip into the city for our monthly bulk shopping trip. Our usual routine is to stop at the town we drive though on the way, to fill the tank. The gas station we stop at is a co-op we have a membership with, which will translate into a check at the end of the year, so we make it a habit. When we got there, however, I got the nasty surprise of seeing the gas prices had gone up 10¢ per liter. !!! Our tank was lower than I normally let it go (we drove over 1800km since I filled it and reset the trip counter at the end of last month), so I kind of had to put something in. I ended up putting in $30, which didn’t even bring it to half a tank. While paying for it, I asked when the big jump happened. Turned out to be a mere 2 hours before we got there!
When we finished our Costco shopping, I filled the tank there. The price was 14¢ per litre less! Plus, since it’s Costco, that will also be included in the check we’ll get at the end of the year. Even at the lower price, and having already put in $30 of gas and bringing it to just below the half way mark, it still cost over $60 to fill the tank. That’s almost half our gas budget for the month, right there. Thankfully, our van does have good mileage.
The increases in gas prices are really going to be a problem. The politicians can talk about how we should be using alternative transportation all they want. Even in the city, that’s not always feasible. For anyone living in the country, what choice do we have? It’s not like there’s a bus we can hop on, and we certainly can’t bike to the city to do our monthly grocery shopping. Or even to the next town. Plus, most people have multiple vehicles, because they are work tools, not just transportation. Heaven help those who make the commute to the city! When we last lived out here, my husband had a 70 minute commute, one way. That’s highway driving, for the most part, so it wasn’t affected by traffic until the last 10 minutes or so. I know others who have longer commutes. Back then, it was a big deal when gas prices went higher than 60¢ a litre. Now we’re looking at $1.309 (there are about 4L in a gallon, for those of you in the US. That works out to about $5.24 per gallon), and other areas are even higher.
That’s going to make life more difficult for a lot of people. :-(
We got the monthly shopping done, at least. $600 later. :-/ My splurge of the month was new wiper blades for the van, to replace the ones being held together with electric tape. :-D Tomorrow, we go to the regular grocery store to get the things we don’t need to buy in bulk.
It feels good to have well stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer again!
The Re-Farmer
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So Green!
We had predictions for a series of thunderstorms throughout the day, starting at noon.
It didn’t quite work out that way. At least not in our area. The first rainfall (I won’t even call it a thunderstorm, though there was some thunder) didn’t start until late afternoon/early evening.
Which worked out well for us, since today was when one of my husband’s medical appointments was rescheduled to. We left early enough to have lunch in town. Ooooohhh… a date! His appointment was for an hour, though, so it did make things a lot longer than was probably good for him. Especially after pushing himself so much for the family dinner in the city on Sunday, which he would not have recovered from quite yet. The specialist he was seeing cut the appointment a bit short, which was a good thing. We still had to stop at the pharmacy, grocery store and post office on the way home, too. My husband stayed in the van, with the AC going, by that point. No sense in dragging the walker out for quick stops.
It’s been a hot and muggy day today; the main floor manages to stay pretty cool, but the upstairs gets really hot. Just like, in the winter, it got really cold! There isn’t even anything we could do about it. Even if we got, say, an air conditioner, there aren’t enough grounded outlets to plug it in.
When the rains did come, it swept through in short bursts, with one big downpour. We even lost our internet for a bit, which is something we can expect any time there’s more severe weather. At least until we can get about 14 feet cut from the tops of the trees in the south yard.
It’s pretty amazing, how different things are looking right now!
This was our west yard, a month ago.
This is what it looks like now.
So much green!
We needed this so much!
After taking the above photo, I had some issues coming back into the house.
Mom and son, with their noses at the bottom of the door, waiting for me to come back! :-D
The good thing is, when I open the door, they aren’t really all the interested in going outside. They just become a tripping hazard. ;-)
At about 10pm, we’re still at 21C, and its expected to cool down only a few degrees as we get more rain overnight. More thunderstorms are expected tomorrow evening.
I do wish I’d been able to mow the lawn before the rains returned.
Ah, well. At least the girls were able to get most of the eaves troughs cleaned.
My mother had mentioned to me that there was a hooked tool somewhere around that allowed for cleaning the eaves from ground level, though she said a hose was still needed to finish the cleaning. She told me where she thought it was, but the only things there are long handled pruning tools (that I look forward to making use of!). I mentioned it to my older brother and he knew exactly what she was talking about. He’d bought it for my parents! He said it was in the sun room.
So that’s what that thing was! I’d seen it, tucked into a corner, and was wondering.
Turns out that it’s a hose attachment. My brother had demonstrated to my parents how to use it, but he didn’t think they ever did. This was before my mom moved to the senior’s centre, so we’re talking quite a few years ago!
It came in very handy.
It couldn’t clean out the eaves troughs on its own, though. My younger daughter got up on the ladder with a stick to clear out some of the eaves troughs out, then got onto the new part roof through the 2nd floor window to clear the others, while my older daughter used the hose attachment to finish clearing everything away with water.
Thankfully, we do have some very long hose.
There’s still one corner on the north side of the house that needs to be done, but that will have to wait until we get another break in the weather.
With how much rain we’ve been having, I am sure the fire bans can finally be lifted, and I hope the fires around the province have been thoroughly rained on!
We’re basically getting the sort of weather we were expecting last month. Which I suppose makes sense, since the winter weather came in about a month behind, too.
As long as the shift keeps matching all year, it should work out for the farmers and gardeners.
The Re-Farmer
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New Heights
With the new hospital bed installed, we still need to figure out what to do with the king size mattress. The first thing I’ll need to do is get a king size mattress cover before we can store it anywhere. Until then, it’s in our dining room, leaning against a wall.
The cats are in heaven.
They just LOVE the height. The fact that it’s also soft is certainly being taken advantage of, too!
DaBoy is absolutely languid.
Mother and son; a matched set.
They are just too cute for words!
Meanwhile, I phoned the electric company, since someone had come in to check the lines while I was in the city, to find out what their assessment was. The woman I spoke to looked up the notes, and talked about how, if we hired an arborist to clear the line to the house, they would come out to shut off the power, and drop the line, if necessary. What about the lines to the other pole? I asked. There was nothing in the notes. I described our set up, and how the lines from the main pole in the outer yard run through trees in the inner yard to reach the pole in the garden, before continuing on across the road.
You can barely see the power lines just right of center at the top of this photo.
There was nothing in the notes about it. This might be on me; when I called, I was thinking of the line to the house. It wasn’t until after I arranged for the assessment that I walked around and noted the lines to the garden. The guy that came out may have only been told to check the line to the house, which is our responsibility. The house line runs below the lines that lead to the pole in the garden.
Just to be sure, she wrote us up for another service check to assess, and hopefully included her own notes about where it needs to be checked. I hope that, this time, I’ll be home to talk to the assessor when he arrives.
The Re-Farmer
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Domesticity
It’s been a lovely day today! Enough that we’ve actually opened most of the windows in the house. We even got the inside front door open again. I’d tried to open it while my brother was here, to show him how the outside screen door was stuck, as if it were painted shut (it isn’t). I had managed to get the top unstuck, but not the bottom. I wasn’t able to show him this, though, as the inside door wouldn’t budge. He tried it as well, but we both stopped because we didn’t want to break the door knob. When I tried it again this morning, I discovered it wasn’t the door itself that was stuck; it was the knob! For some reason, it turned only part way; far enough that we didn’t notice, but not enough to get the tongue out of the groove.
Looks like we’re going to have to add “door knobs” to the list of things to replace.
Then, I set up our little step ladder in front of the screen door.
Yeah, I’m a suck when it comes to the cats, but in this case, without it there, the cats keep trying to get onto the dining room window, which involves jumping up onto shelves that hold a bunch of plants, coffee pot, kettle, etc. All stuff that can be knocked over by our less then elegant (amazingly clumsy) cats, too easily! :-D So, the lady gets her own perch, to look out the window at the birds.
I had hoped to get more work done on the wood pile in the garden, but today ended up being more of a day of domesticity. Things like cleaning the bathroom took priority.
It’s remarkable how different something as basic as cleaning a bathroom changes when you are on well water that is so rich in iron and minerals. Regular household cleaners don’t cut it – literally – while the specialty cleaners need greater care, like making sure windows are wide open! At least they’re septic friendly.
That’s another thing that’s reaching the top of our to-do list. The tank hasn’t been emptied in 2 years and, while the house was empty, it was still used now and then. No way of knowing how full that tank was, but with 4 people now living here, it’s bound to be overdue for emptying. The ground should be thawed enough for it too be done. After this, we’ll go back to the usual emptying of the tank in the late fall.
I did make a point of going out and starting my mom’s car again, to make sure all is well, after yesterday’s troubles when the battery was put back. All was well.
Except for the bird, trapped in the garage.
Though the main door stays open right now, until we can replace the handle, the bird stayed in the rafters and wouldn’t fly lower, though the wide open door. When I later found it bashing itself into the window in the lean to my mother’s car is parked in, I went around and opened the back door from the outside. That seemed to do that trick. I heard it flying out before I got much more than 10 feet away.
My brother was sure the new door handle we got would work, even if the cable doesn’t go through the squared post like the old one did, so I took another look at it. I think he’s right. One end of the cable was woven through a hole in the plate, the squared post, and then a second hole in the plate, before being tied to the cable from the other side. I managed to get the knot undone. The end of the wire cable that threaded through the holes is fraying, however, so it took some doing to get it undone.
I’m only bleeding a little bit.
I’m going to have to put tape or something on the end, to be able to thread it back through the second hole in the plate.
As for the handle itself, it was intended for a wooden door. The screws it came with are wood screws, and short. I’m going to have to look around for some nuts and bolts in the appropriate size. There are jars and tins of screws, nails and who knows what else, all over the place, so I should be able to find something, somewhere.
That squared post is still a bit of a problem, though. It’s a couple of inches longer than the old one. Which means the plate won’t be as close to the back of the door as it was, before. I’m hoping that won’t actually make a difference, since the whole thing freely turns to pull the cables. It should still be up against the door, though. Ah, well. We’ll see how it works once I find some fasteners for the handle.
The cables, themselves, could probably use replacing, too.
So does the entire door, really. It’s definitely the worse for wear!
More things to add to the list!
The Re-Farmer
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Rough
Rough night. Rough day. Ugh.
I didn’t get a single photo of the critters out the window today. In fact, it’s almost 9pm, and I still haven’t had my first cup of tea!
I did get a photo last night to share with you. Nasty Crime Boy came to the window upstairs for attention again. :-D
“Touch me, now. Don’t touch me or I’ll scratch you. Touch me, I said. No! I’ll scratch you! Touch me. I batt at thee!!!”
He didn’t really let my daughter pet him. He kept batting at her hand while still wanting her to reach out to him. Too funny!
I ended up awake until about 5am, unable to sleep. My chronic cough is tickling again, and I spent much of the night listening to my trachea squeaking. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaakkkk. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaaakkkkkkk. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeaaaaakkkkk. All night.
Then I woke up to this, over my head.
Good Morning.
It was another really bad pain day for my husband, too. He’s have a very rough time right now. :-( I did make it into town to pick up prescription refills for him. Then I tried to stop at the department store to see if I could find him some new undies. There is one basic store in town, with clothing, shoes and accessories. There are a couple other stores that have clothing, but that’s not their main thing, and one of them caters more to the touristy, trendy stuff.
I just about choked when I found the men’s underwear. A single pair of briefs in his size cost $15.
We’re talking your basic gitch, here. Not some name brand, fancy-shmancy stuff. The next size up cost $17.
For one. Just one.
We walked around the store some more and saw things like an ordinary t-shirt – something I’d expect to find at Walmart or the like – for $50. Even the higher quality T’s in Walmart cost less than $10.
I realize that it costs more to run a business in smaller towns, where it takes more resources just to GET inventory, but this is ridiculous, even for here. My daughter and I wondered how anyone could afford to shop there, and how they stayed in business. Then we realized that some people might not have any other choice. Which is a rather depressing thought.
We tried going to a discount, kinda-like-a-dollar-store-but-not, store, thanks to my daughter remembering that they had clothes, too, and while they had better prices (we could get 3 pairs for $15), they didn’t have the size I needed.
So that’s going to have to wait until the end of the month, when we can finally get to the city to shop.
After we got home, I had to lie down for a much needed nap. Which is really going to mess me up for tonight, but I just couldn’t stay awake. Still ended up lying there, listening to my squeaky breathing, but I was tired enough to fall asleep.
So our daughters took care of things around the house, and my younger daughter even had a chance to block a project she recently finished.
Beautiful, but frustrating. She has made several lacy projects from this one crochet pattern book, and they’ve all turned out about 1/3 of what the finished size should be. My daughter does stitch more tightly than I do, but she also checks her gauge, and so on. Her stitching is meticulous and the stitches are always perfectly formed. It doesn’t seem to make a difference. Instead of a full sized shawl big enough to tie in front, she has a baby shawl that, before blocking, looked too small to even be a cowl or kerchief. It would have been the right size for her sister’s 18″ Josephina doll.
Blocking is making a big difference, but it’s still a fraction of the size it’s supposed to be. This particular piece is made in three sections; the 2 side triangles, then the middle strip, which is then used to join the side triangles together. That middle strip is actually about the size it should be, so it’s not just a matter of her stitch tension.
She plans to try again, using a larger hook and thicker yarn.
For now, it’s getting late, but I’m going to have at least one cup of tea before bed, dangit! :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Oh, Hello there!
This morning had already warmed up to -3C when I went outside to put feed out. T-shirt weather! Yay!
Which means I’m also leaving the inside door open more often. Our indoor cats like to look outside through the screen door (which doesn’t actually have a screen in it).
Walking past to feed the deer, I found this…
“Watcha doin’ over there? You cheating on us with those other cats again?”
My brother had come by the other day, followed by his beautiful, shy dog. If you look at him, the dog will avert his gaze while still looking at you from the corner of his eyes. He’ll come up behind us to sniff our fingers, but if we turn to look at him or try to pet him, he runs away.
When he saw the cats in the window, however, he came right over. He likes cats – the ones at my brothe’rs, as well as the ones here. To him, these are clearly new friends!
Our cats, not to much! *L*
With no screen in the door, I opened the window just a bit. With a door in between us, his usual shyness disappeared, and he immediately stuck his nose into the opening to sniff at our mama cat. DaBoy ran off. :-D Our mama cat ended up hissing and spitting at him before running off, which actually seemed to hurt the dog’s feelings! He looked so sad!
So I opened the window enough that I could reach through – and he let me pet him! This is the first time he’s let me do more than touch him since we’ve moved out here. Through the window, however, I was able to give him a good, long scritching under the ears. Then my younger daughter came by, and he let her pet him, too.
At some point, we’re going to get this dog to accept us as new friends. :-)
Speaking of new friends, my daughters saw the new cat again – peaking through their window upstairs! They accidentally startled it before they realized what they were seeing in the window, and it ran off across the roof.
Wherever this cat came from, it seems we might have another regular visitor!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 