Well, things are looking good for our area, weather wise. The snow system seems to mostly be skirting around us. We’ve had some snow, and are expected to get more later today, but nothing like other areas are getting. As I write this, we are at -14C/7F, instead of the high of -18C/1F that had been forecast, the last time I checked the weather, yesterday. The wind chill is -23C/-9F, but it’s coming from a direction we are mostly sheltered from.
After the running around I did yesterday, though, I’m happy to have a day to stay home. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading out again for a meeting with the doctor about my mother.
I do have a bit of cuteness to share with you today!
This is Tin Whistle (named for her distinctive meowing habit). A few weeks ago, she suddenly decided to attach herself to my husband.
Often, literally.
She is all over him. He can’t do anything, without her trying to be on him in some way. I’ve tried to rescue him by taking her away, so he could at least go to the bathroom, but she is soon back in his arms. More than a few times, I’d go past his doorway and find him stuck with her in one or both arms, watching videos on his computer, because he can’t do anything else. He used to try and get her to leave, but has pretty much given up.
Instead, he started putting her into his vest, and they’ve come to a truce! She will curl up in his vest and sleep for hours, and his arms are free to use.
Tin Whistle is one of Decimus’ babies from a couple years ago. We discovered her newborn litter, just hours, at most, from birth, in the shelf shelter. We’d never been able to socialize Decimus, but when we put her kittens into a carrier, she went in with them, and we brought them inside. There, we were finally able to de-matt her (her entire back was one big matt of fur) and socialize her. Along with her four kittens – Tin Whistle, Clarence, Shadow in the Dark and Mitsy – she was willing to become a wetnurse for Ghosty and The Wolfman.
The Cat Lady was able to adopt Decimus out when the babies were weaned, along with one of the outside cats, to be mousers on a farm. They were so friendly, however, they both ended up as indoor cats permanently!
Sadly, we were never able to adopt out the kittens.
With how Tin Whistle has bonded to my husband, I’m not sure we even could adopt her out anymore!
It’s almost 1pm as I start this. Outside, we’re at -17C/1F, which is a huge improvement from the last couple of days. Our predicted high for today is -15C/5F
The wind chill right now, however, is -30C/-22F
Tomorrow, however, we’re expected to reach a high of -6C/21F, then -2C/28F over the next couple of days! It’s going to feel downright tropical out there! 😄
My daughter did the outside rounds this morning. The short rounds, since it was -27C/-17F out there, before wind chill, at the time. When I did the evening cat feeding last night, I saw that the wet cat food in the isolation shelter bowl was frozen. It’s right next to the sliding window, so that corner is pretty cold. I reached in to tilt the clamp lamp so the heat bulb faced the back of the shelter, instead of the hammock below.
I was actually able to handle the metal shield around the heat bulb with my bare hands. It was just warm. Normally, I would have burned my fingers if I’d touched it. Another sign of how cold the ambient temperature in there got, even with the heat bulb!
The kitties are okay, though. Kohl had frost on her face fur again, but her fluffy partner did not. My daughter says there was a bit of frost around the top of the heated water bowl.
The kitties have now been in there for a full week. Kohl is handling her surgery just fine. No sign of infection, and neither of them seem interested in licking their surgical sites at all. They’ll be in there for one more week of observation.
They have company, though.
After talking about it with my daughter last night, we decided to add another kitten. There’s one white and grey that has leaky eyes, a stuffy nose, and has been sneezing and snuffling a lot. My daughter thinks it’s Eye Baby, but I’ll have to look closer to be sure. This morning, she was able to snag the kitten and take him into the isolation shelter. She said, he really didn’t like being carried outside in the wind, so he was very quick to jump into the isolation shelter all on his own!
With the temperatures improving over the next week, he will be better off in there than in the sun room, and will get to share the wet cat food as well. A week not having to fight so many adult cats for food, water and warmth will help him recover faster, as well.
At least, that’s the hope.
Today is a bright and sunny day, so they should have some passive solar heat in there, too.
My daughter doesn’t stop to take any pictures when she does the morning routine, though, so I’ll give you this, instead…
It may be warming up out there, but today will be another home day. I think, tomorrow, I’ll make the trip to a feed store. I’m looking to get the 40 pound bags of cat food, but also want to see what they have for heated water bowls. I’d like to get another smaller one. They seem to last longer. When I took the one my SIL gave us outside to chop the ice out, and flipped it upside down to spill out the shards, I found there was a melted spot in the plastic in the middle of the bowl’s bottom! I had intended to go to the town north of us for that, but we are almost out of lysine, and the feed store in the town my mother lives in was able to order some for us. Since I’m also thinking of another smaller shopping trip in preparation for Christmas and New Years, in the nearer city, it would be along the way.
Until then, I’ve got another day to enjoy my hibernation.
She posed for a picture, but don’t let her deceive you. Tissue: Destroyer of Cars is just resting in between rampages!
Unfortunately, that usually involved chasing other cats around. Especially Tiny and Ginger. Yet, today, she was super cuddly with me. That’s unusual. She prefers my younger daughter!
It’s just a few degrees below freezing today, and just starting to snow a bit. The “real feel” or whatever any particular app calls it, is actually warmer than the thermometer says. According to the forecast, these milder temperatures will last a few more days, and then we’ll be getting highs in the double digit minus-Celsius.
The long range forecast into December is downright strange.
Check out the 20th of December! They’re actually predicting 8C/46F!
Yeeeaaahhhh…. I don’t think so. But, you never know. This is the prairies. Wild fluctuations in temperature happen pretty often.
Personally, I’m hoping the forecast for the 6th and 7th is wrong, and it will be much warmer. If things go to plan, we will have a couple of cats in the isolation shelter during that time. Even with the heat lamp in there, that’s going to get cold. If we get temperatures like that, we might want to at least put sheets of rigid insulation as a ceiling, under the roof.
I’m also trying to wrap my head around the fact that we are now into the last week of November. The month just flew by!
We’ll be doing our first stock up shops for December in a few days, but with all the holidays, my husband’s disability payments will probably both come in before Christmas. CPP Disability, for sure. That always messes up our stock up shopping for January!
I haven’t even thought of what we are going to do for Christmas. Meanwhile, messaging with the Cat Lady last night, she mentioned Cabbages had already knocked down their tree. They have their tree up already! With almost 30 cats in the house! Our first “official” day of the Christmas season is November 27, the Feast of St. Catherine. In my husband’s family, the tradition was to make pull toffee on that day, but we haven’t done that in many years. Too much cat hair drifting around!
Even my Christmas decoration progress has been slow. I’ve got four Slinglade balls stitched up, with two more to go. I haven’t quite decided how I will attach hangers on them, yet. There’s no hurry. We will be having miniature trees on the piano in the cat free zone (aka: the living room) again this year, so they wouldn’t be used for that, anyhow! We do like to hang garlands near ceiling level around the dining room and have decorations hanging off of those, so that’s likely where we’ll end up using them.
I think this year will be a lot quieter than usual. Especially for New Year’s. Last year, we decided to do a fondue, using both our oil fondue for cooking meat, and our ceramic one for a cheese sauce to dip into. It ended up being way more expensive than expected. I think this year, we’ll just do lots of finger foods again. 😄
As for Christmas, which we start celebrating after sunset on Christmas Eve, we already have a turkey in the freezer, though I’ll probably pick up another, just to take advantage of cheap turkey season. We’ll get our 1/8th beef pack in a couple of weeks, so we will have other options. A lot will depend on what we end up getting during our stock up shopping trips. As we get older and are now happily in the boonies, we’re quite content with very quiet holidays!
In fact, I’m good with quiet every day.
Like today!
Hold on… what was that noise….
*goes to grab paper towel to clean up the latest cat mess*
This morning, I headed out to meet with the Cat Lady to pick up a kibble donation. I got a message that she was running a bit behind, but that was not an issue. It takes me 45 minutes to get to our meet up location, anyhow.
I intended to get there anyhow, but as I was leaving, I did a quick sidewalk shovel. Then, when I got into the garage, I discovered the cats had knocked stuff off the wall shelves above the counter in front our truck, and I had to clean that up before I could move the truck. This stuff all predates us, and we have yet to get to the point where we can go through what’s in the garage, figure out what to keep and what to get rid of and organize it. It’s pretty low on the priority list of things that need to be done, but the cats do use the shelves to get up into the rafters, so sometimes I make discoveries.
By the time I was actually leaving, I ended up being late for the time we’d arranged, so I sent a message to let her know I was on the road and would be 45 minutes.
Well, it ended up taking more like an hour! The roads where clear, except for one section, and that one has a slower speed limit, anyhow. I think I might simply have got the time it takes to get there wrong.
It worked out, though. The Cat Lady had vehicle troubles, so she was even later than I was! Which was rather funny, since it’s a much shorter drive for her.
She brought out a bunch of bags of kibble for us. These were the ones she ordered for us on Amazon that were delivered to her place instead of us for some reason. With the postal strike, that turned out to be a good thing. These were small bags – under 2kg (5lb bags) – that she was able to get a really good deal on.
After they were loaded, I thought we were done, but nope. She came out with five more small bags of another brand! She’d gone couponing.
Then she brought out almost two full flats of canned cat food. It’s turkey, which The Wolfman is allergic to, and he’s the only one that wants to eat it. Twenty nine cats, and twenty eight of them will not eat this flavour of cat food! Not even Button, who was an outside kitten until he went to them, and used to eat whatever we could give them. It was that, or not eat at all, but now he’s become incredibly fussy!
Then she brought out a kibble bin that was almost completely full. This was kibble that had chicken in it, and The Wolfman is able to break into it, so they’re getting rid of everything with wings that he might be able to get into. Then she apologized, asking if it was okay to give us what are basically their discards.
Okay??? I was ecstatic!
As we were talking, she told me she was going to go through their “cat tree inventory”, and see what they could pass on to us, and is it okay if she doesn’t vacuum them first?
I was still processing the “cat tree inventory” concept. Cat trees are something we just haven’t been able to afford, unless they were really small and cheap or on clearance prices, and it’s a rare time when this comes up while we have a budget for them. Apparently, they have cat trees that their cats don’t use, so they’d like to get rid of them. Are we okay with that?
Yes, please!!!!
Then she started talking about a spay day in December, but I’d never gotten a confirmed date on that, so she will double check with the clinic and get back to me. If all goes well, we’ll have two spayed ladies to keep in the isolation shelter for 2 weeks, in the beginning of December.
With the donations gratefully accepted, we parted ways. Since I was so close, anyhow, I popped into the Walmart for a few things I didn’t realize we were running out of, the last time I was there – and one 7kg back of cheap kibble, because we can never have too much kibble!
That done, my next stop was the town closest to us, to hit the pharmacy with my daughter’s prescription. I was able to fill it, though they didn’t have it in the dose my daughter was prescribed, so she will have to split them. She is to take them “as needed” for up to three times a day. The question becomes, what does “as needed” mean, since she is now dizzy, all the time. At which point, it would just be morning, afternoon and night. At three times a day, she has enough for 10 days, so she’ll have just enough to last until her follow up appointment.
After the pharmacy, it was home to unload. I didn’t feel like dragging a wagon through what snow we have, so I backed into the yard to unload. The stuff for the outside cats went straight through the sun room to the old kitchen, while my daughter took care of the few groceries and the inside cat stuff for me.
It was while I was unloading the outside cat stuff when my right patella suddenly popped. Thankfully, I was next to the open tailgate and could use that to keep from falling. I was able to get the last load in, then had to hobble around, putting kibble out to get the cats away from the truck, so I could park it in the garage. Then I limped my way back to the old kitchen and filled the kibble bin with all of the bags I brought home, including the 7kg one.
It’s a pretty big bin!
That gave my knee a bit of a break, but it was still a struggle to walk through the house from the old kitchen.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: I am SO thankful this house has arm bars all over the place!
After catching the family up on things, my daughter took care of making cat soup for the inside cats while I pain killered up and sat down.
Not before getting a picture of our little voidling, though.
The camera on my phone hates, him, though. It has the hardest time being able to focus on him, instead of what’s around him! At least this time, it could focus on his eyes!
Soot Sprite is such an appropriate name for him. When it’s darker, he’s just a black shadow with eyes moving around. 😄
I’m am so glad that I was able to meet up with the Cat Lady. She and her rescue have been helping us out so much. I don’t know what we’d do without her! She and her entire family are just so awesome. The world needs more people like them!
I’m also glad we managed to get together today, since it’s supposed to start snowing tonight and continue through the next two days. Not a lot, but enough that I wouldn’t want to drive in it, if I don’t have to. There’s going to be a lot of driving starting next week, so I’m hoping to hibernate at home until then!
This morning, I was expecting to meet up with the Cat Lady to pick up some donated kibble.
That’s going to happen tomorrow.
In our area, it wasn’t too bad. We had quite a bit of snow coming down in the morning, while my daughter was doing the morning rounds and feeding the outside cats.
This picture is their afternoon feeding. That’s all the snow we got.
You can tell where the heat lamp is, on the inside!
Yesterday’s forecast had gone from just an hour or so of light snow today, to snow continuing until noon, this morning. That forecast was for the whole province, though, and it was mostly the southern end of the province that got it. Our snow stopped by about 8 or 9am.
The Cat Lady, however, had gone into the big city already and, on her way home, the roads were very icy and drivers were being stupid, so she postponed. Which I’m fine with!
David is not happy with us. We’re treating the cats’ ears for ear mites again, and he does not approve of the daily cleaning and treatment! Four more days to go, Buddy. 😄😄
So far, so good, with the new shelter! We do still need to find something to put around the entrance to protect from the south winds, which would blow straight into the main opening. When I look out the kitchen window, I can see a melted spot in the snow above where the heat lamp is hanging, so we know that is working, too.
With three sheltered heat lamps going, the cats aren’t all crowding into the sun room anymore. Even in the sun room, they prefer the platform the heat lamp is hanging off of, rather than under the lamp itself, though there’s always a few curled up under it. We get maybe a dozen in the sun room at a time, at night – it’s hard to tell, when they’re all piled on top of each other, when we used to see far more, before. They are using both the cat house and the isolation shelter, though some of the more feral ones have their hidden places in the outer yard and only come to the house to eat. When I did their afternoon light feeding, I tried to do a head count. I think I got 40, but I’m not sure. If so, we haven’t had a count that high in a while.
Tomorrow is supposed to just be cloudy, then we’re supposed to get some snow over the next two days, so rescheduling with the Cat Lady to tomorrow works out better.
It isn’t a lot of snow so far, but it does seem like it’s going to stay, though the long range forecast actually has us going above freezing in the week before Christmas, for a few days! If that turns out to be accurate, we might still end up with a mostly green Christmas!
After helping my brother unloading equipment yesterday, I was still in a lot of pain this morning. My daughters were sweet enough to do the morning feeding of the outside cats, so I didn’t see them until much later. That is when I spotted this surprise.
I had to slowly, carefully walk around to be able to confirm what I was seeing.
That kitten is actively nursing.
That cat is not a mama.
This is the cat that dropped her litter around the yard and abandoned them. She never nursed any newborns. Which means she shouldn’t have a milk supply.
Yet there she was, with one of the older kittens attached to a nip, and actively nursing.
Which can happen, of course, but for her to have any milk now, she would have had to be allowing at least one kitten to nurse, right after she lost her litter, and we saw zero evidence of that until today.
Very strange!
I did end up having to give the outside cats a small feed – mostly making lots of noise to lure them away from the truck, so I could leave!
I wanted to go back to the feed store to pick up more kibble, including one bag that I’d already paid for, and the lysine they ordered for me. I didn’t know when their delivery truck was supposed to arrive today. Just that it was supposed to arrive, today.
I called my mother shortly before lunch time and asked if she wanted me to do her grocery shopping for her, since I would be in town, and could do it before running my own errands. So that was my first stop.
We had started a list, but as we went over it, she remembered more. I ended up rewriting the list, partly due to her increasingly creative spelling. Even her little doodles are getting harder to identify.
She is now all stocked up, though. I’m glad I called her ahead to do this, because she has a terrible habit of waiting until she is out of lots of things before calling me to shop for her.
On this day of the week, there are social activities in her building, and those had already started when I got back with her groceries. We visited for a bit after I put it all away, but she still wanted to join the group for coffee, at least, so that worked out.
I went to the feed store but, unfortunately, their delivery hadn’t arrived yet. I spoke to the guy that ordered the lysine for me, and he couldn’t be sure when they would come in. We confirmed that they had my number, and he said he would call me.
My next stop was at the hardware store. I wasn’t expecting the clear roofing sheets to be in yet, but I asked, anyhow. When I ordered it, I knew it was past their order cut off time, but sometimes the supplier has them in stock. If so, it would arrive this week.
I guess they didn’t have it in stock, because when the cashier went to ask for me, she was told it will be 2 weeks.
Which is fine.
What they DID have in stock was hardware cloth/welded wire mesh!
I had gone through the store and never saw any, but when I was asked if I needed help and told what I was looking for, the cashier took me into a part of the store I didn’t think customers were even allowed in! I always thought it was one of their inventory storage areas.
They had quite a bit of wire mesh, and the quarter inch mesh I was looking for came in 3′ x 25′ rolls!
Unfortunately, it was well out of budget.
There was, however, 3/4″ mesh, also in 3′ x 25′ rolls – and it was almost half the price!
This size would still be small enough to keep cats or kittens from getting through. I decided to get a roll.
Thinking about it as I was driving home, I decided that the 3/4 inch mesh will be used on the cat isolation shelter I’m building. The donated catio is already enclosed in 1/2 inch mesh. I have two 5′ rolls of 1/2 inch mesh that are 3 feet wide. I had intended to have one longer piece, covering the space where I’d removed the old mesh with openings in it, plus wrapping around one side to cover a corner of damaged mesh.
The length of the opening that needs to be covered is over 5′ long, but the width is only 20 inches.
So my plan now is to cut lengths of about 24 inches, to overlap the remaining mesh on the catio. I’ll need to “sew” the pieces together with wire to make sure there are no gaps a cat, or other critter, could get through.
If I can find a piece the right size, I’m thinking of adding a center support on the back of the catio. That will give me something else to attach the mesh to, making it even stronger.
We shall see.
As for the 3/4 inch mesh, I will use that on the isolation shelter.
I have time to get these done, though. The Cat Lady confirmed with me a date for a neuter, not a spay, this month. This means we will not have to isolate a cat for a 2 week recovery period. The males just need time to recover from being under anesthetic, and they can do that in a carrier.
So that’s the plan.
For now!
By the time I was heading home, the post office had reopened for the afternoon, so I made sure to stop and get the mail – just in case my Amazon order of lysine came in early.
It did.
So we at least have lysine again! We have a bit left, but where saving it to use in eye baby’s cat soup feeding. Now I can start dosing the outside cat’s kibble again.
Once at home, I didn’t stay long. Today was our day to order in my husband’s birthday dinner from the Chinese food place. Everyone had already marked off what they wanted on the take out menu, so I just confirmed those, called the order in, then headed out.
We got enough to last us for two or three days! This is a real treat for us, so we save up and don’t go half way on it!
I must say, the drive home from picking up the food was pure torture. I was getting really hungry by then, and the food smelled soooo good! We’ve already had our celebratory dinner.
I’m just going to do my evening rounds now – and then go for seconds!
Today started quite late for me. For some reason, I was completely unable to sleep. I finally got up at about 5am, when I heard my older daughter come down for what, for her, would be her supper. After having a chat with her, and making myself a couple of sandwiches, I tried going to bed again. The girls, sweethearts that they are, took care of my morning stuff for me, including feeding the outside cats (they usually already do the morning feeding of the inside cats).
I managed to get maybe 4 hours of sleep and, apparently, that was all I needed.
The first thing I needed to do was make some calls. I tried calling the home care guy and left another message, letting him know I wouldn’t be home after about 2. He didn’t call me back.
Then I called the two septic companies that hadn’t responded to my messages. With one, I left another message. With the other, I tried their cell phone number instead of their land line, and actually got someone. Considering what town they are in, chances were pretty good their cell phone coverage wouldn’t be any better than hours, so I was glad it worked.
This company charges by the hour. We talked about our system and the problem. He didn’t even mention that these ejector/expeller systems are not supposed to be repaired anymore, but replaced with a septic field.
Given that they charge by the hour, he couldn’t give me a firm estimate, but figured it would be at least $1500. They charge $250/hour and that covers all costs, including transportation, parts, etc. After asking a few more questions, he thought it might take 4-6 hours. At 6 hours, that’s $1500 (before taxes).
I’m just going to assume it will take longer. That’s generally how things tend to be out here!
I greatly appreciated the information, and passed it on to my brother.
So we have one company that charges by the job, regardless of time, and the estimate was $2032 before taxes, for all the materials, labour and transportation (both companies are located about a 40 minute drive away from us). The other charges by the hour, regardless of what the job ends up entailing. Based on his time estimate, it could cost anywhere from $1000 to $1500 – though he did say that it would likely be “at least” $1500. If it took 8 hours, that would be $2000, plus taxes.
As for the third company, since we’re not hearing back from them, and this job really needs to get done soon, I figure they are going to be dropped from the list.
That done, I went outside and checked a few things. I didn’t bother taking any pictures, but I ended up picking what is probably the last of our corn. There are a few cobs left that are pretty immature, and are unlikely to have been pollinated. I grabbed a few Forme de Couer tomatoes, too. I probably could have left them longer, but I wanted to take some of the weight off the vines!
In the afternoon, I loaded the truck up with three empty 18.9L/5gallon water jugs to refill. I made a quick stop at the post office on the way out, and found that my replacement Mastercard was in, and just needed a PIN purchase to be activated. With Disability coming in tomorrow, I’ve already changed the info in my online banking to pay off the balance, then do the Costco shopping.
On a Friday before a long weekend.
May as well get it over with!
Oh, I forgot. Before I left for the grocery store, I had to pause and get a shot of Ginger.
That’s him on our dining table, which is currently protected by a giant self-healing cutting mat. Ginger is the only cat that is allowed on the dining table, because he still gets bullied by several of the other cats. My daughters even gave him his own bed.
He’s bigger than the bed. 😄
Now… where was I?
Oh, yes. The grocery store.
Since I was at the grocery store, anyhow, I got a few more things. My husband requested nacho fixings, so I got that – including lactose free cheese – and I found the last things to go with the fancy meats and cheeses I got yesterday. The girls and I can now have ourselves a charcuterie and Columbo marathon night again. 😁
When I got home, and my younger daughter helped me unload the truck, then I reloaded it with our garbage and recycling, in time to get to the dump just as it opened for this evening.
I now wish I’d left it for Saturday. It’s open longer hours on Saturday, but that’s not why I wish I’d waited.
When entering the landfill area, there is a little hut for the attendant, where I can show our card that shows we live in the area and can use the dump without charge. They had to implement this because too many people from rural municipalities with landfills that charged a fee, would come to one of the three landfills in our RM instead.
Next to the attendant’s hut is a row of recycling bins – those get emptied and the contents shipped to the city for processing – plus one bin for glass only. There are other sheds and areas set aside for batteries, oil, paint, etc. that we drive between, while on the way to the pit.
The first thing I noticed about the driveway to the pit – aside from it being half underwater, due to having rain almost all day today – were tracks in the clay, filled with garbage. There was no way to avoid driving over them.
The tracks were from the front end loader that was in the enclosure around the pit, which had literal tracks rather than wheels. It was going back and forth, pushing garbage into the pit.
Another problem is all the people who just dump their garbage on the edge of the pit, rather than into the pit. It builds up until there’s no more room for vehicles to turn around in, or pass each other.
So it was a good thing that the front end loader was pushing the garbage into the pit.
The bad thing was that its tracks were not only tearing up the clay heavy gravel, but dragging garbage all over.
Normally, I would drive forward, then back up and turn the tailgate towards the pit, but I didn’t dare drive over the area the loader had driven over. I could see all sorts of wire, metal objects, and things I couldn’t identify. I’ve already gotten a flat after a visit to the dump, once before, and did not want a repeat!
I decided to not even try backing close to the edge of the pit. Instead, I tried to drive a bit further forward in an area that the loader had only partially driven over.
Which is when I heard a horrible popping sort of noise, and could actually feel that something broke under my front tired.
I stopped to take a look and discovered…
… I had driven over a glass jar and broken it.
There were some larger shards that I picked up and tossed into the pit, then I started checking the front and back tires that would have driven over it.
There was no obvious sign of damage.
So I moved forward a bit more, then emptied the truck box of garbage bags, without bothering to get closer to the pit.
The driver of the loader seemed to appreciate me keeping a distance, as it gave him room to drive along the edge of the pit, then go in reverse, dragging the bucket on the ground, pulling all the stuck garbage back with it.
Too little, too late.
I’ve never seen the area in front of the pit look so bad, and that was from the cleanup, not the garbage piles!
I checked the tires again, then found space to turn around. I stopped to unload the recycling and glass into the bins near the attendant’s shack, then checked the tires again.
Still fine, so far.
I did go to the shack and tell the attendant what happened, just so it would be known as a problem, and a thing that happened.
After giving the tires one more check, I finally headed home.
Once at home, I made sure to park the truck so that my husband can see it through his window, and let me know of we suddenly have a flat!
I am not a happy camper.
It’s been a few hours, though, and it’s still all right. I may have gotten lucky.
Meanwhile, I started to get messages from the Cat Lady, along with some photos. She just picked up a new cat tree – 9 feet tall! – for only $60 on FB Marketplace. In the first picture she sent me, I could see several cats all over the cat tree – but almost missed the tiny face of Button, barely visible on a bottom shelf!
He was all over that thing, along with the other cats.
He is also apparently becoming very fussy!
The Cat Lady wanted to know if I would be in town this weekend. She has some bags of kitten food that Button won’t eat. He’ll only eat one brand, now! Among the brands he now rejects is the very brand we usually feed the outside cats!
They also have a 5 foot cat tree that cats weren’t really using, that she wants to pass on to us.
The girls have already called dibs on it, for upstairs.
pause for interruption
I’m back!
My mother called, and I had a lot to update her on!
We talked about the numbers I have so far for the septic repair. She confirmed, she will pay the full amount. That is so awesome of her!!! There’s still the one company I had hoped to hear from, but expect that tomorrow, I will be calling the company that charges by the hour, and make arrangements for the excavation and repairs.
We also talked about her pending visit from the home care guy. I told her, he left a message while I was out, and we haven’t been able to connect yet. She couldn’t quite remember what it was about, but when I reminded her it was about her application for supportive living, she was quite happy. She would rather be in a particular nursing home, but to live somewhere that provides meals, snacks, laundry and light housekeeping is exactly what she needs right now – plus access to 24 hour home care support, if something happens. She was concerned about the cost, and I explained it will be 30% of her income (which is what she’s paying now), plus the package that includes the services (meals, etc.) She won’t have to cook for herself, though she’ll have a “kitchen” with a mini fridge, probably a microwave, a sink, and room for a kettle or or coffee pot. She won’t have to buy groceries anymore, unless she wants something to keep in her own apartment.
The application process, of course, will just get her on a waiting list. The website doesn’t say if there are any vacancies, and it’s unlikely there are any. There just isn’t a lot of supportive living housing out there, and the demand is high. There would be a triage process, I’m sure.
I’m glad she called, because it was getting late and I wasn’t going to call her to update her until tomorrow.
So there’s that…
Now… where was I?
Ah, yes. I was chatting with the Cat Lady!
As we were talking and she told me she wanted to pass on the kitten food and cat tree to us, on the weekend, I mentioned the possibility of going to the city tomorrow. She asked me to message her if I do end up going. Chances are, she’ll be able to meet me in the city, instead.
I hope I have room in the truck box for the cat tree, plus the shopping!
We shall see.
After we chatted, and it was still light out, I did my evening rounds, and I just have to share this picture with you.
The Crespo squash is getting so huge! The leaves reach about waist height on me. You can see a squash under the leaves in the foreground. In the distance, you can see the vines climbing a cherry tree – and there is at least one squash developing among the branches! It is also trying to climb the pole bean trellis, and there’s at least one baby squash in there, too, though it’s still too early to know if it got pollinated. With that one, I hope not, because the trellis was not made to hold the weight of squash!
What a difference from when we tried to grow it last year! Clearly, it likes having more shade than where we tried to grow before. Plus, this area gets much wetter, and stays wetter longer. Perfect for a thirsty plant like this!
While doing my evening rounds, I was checking on the San Marzano tomatoes in the main garden area and actually found a couple of red tomatoes! One was ripe enough to pick, while the other was not ready but close – and fell off while I was tending the plant! I also picked more Forme de Couer tomatoes that probably could have done to stay longer, but the plants are getting so overloaded with tomatoes, I wanted to take some of the weight off!
By the time I was done that, it was getting time to tend to eye baby. She was in the cat cage in the sun room and did not make it easy to reach her, but once I picked her up, she started purring like crazy.
Her eye is still in that terrible “she looks better, but her eye looks so awful” state.
My daughter got her all wrapped up in a towel and held her during her ministrations. She’s gotten very good about taking her antibiotics, though, and quite enjoyed a feeding of warmed up cat soup. She also seems to be okay with being held pretty restricted, the entire time.
We aren’t washing the eye anymore, as that would cause more injury, but we do try to get the fur around her eye at least somewhat clean of gunk. Then, after a snuggle with my daughter, she went back outside, where she can go back to her cuddle pile in the cat cage!
So that was the gist of my day today.
For now, I need to try and get to bed early – and hopefully get some actual sleep! I want to head to the city early – if I don’t have a flat in the morning – so that I have plenty of time to make a call to the septic company when I get back.
My daughter heard a possible commotion last night, so I popped out to check on the kitties. No sign of raccoons or skunks, thankfully. It was such a gorgeous night, though, I ended up staying out for a while, and even tried to get some photos of the stars.
I was just using my phone’s camera, and I didn’t have a tripod. Instead, I rested the phone on top of the wire covers on garden beds. Which, I discovered, bounced for a while once the phone was laid down! So several of the photos have very shaky looking stars. 😄 I did manage to get shots with the streak of a satellite going by, which is neat.
We are supposed to get some rain late tonight, but I decided to water the garden, anyhow. This year’s garden is unusually full of things that require large amounts of water, and from the looks of the weather radar, the system is going to pass to the north of us, anyhow. We certainly aren’t going to be hit with a storm like what hit Calgary last night! I was seeing photos shared on some of my Zone 3 gardening groups on FB, and it was just devastating. The largest hail reported was the size of a baseball! Scary stuff!
After doing the watering, I went back and picked another handful of shelling peas.
I’m really appreciating the logs on the sides of that bed. I can step on a log and reach the peas, without stepping on any winter squash vines! While watering, I noticed a couple of vines, including one with a female flower, that were trying to climb the trellis netting. The Wild Bunch Mix package did say these were all vining types, and they really do want to climb! The trellis netting is strong enough to hold the peas and beans, but nowhere near strong enough to hold the winter squash vines, not to mention any fruit that might show up on them. I got them loose and laid them on the ground, in the process finding tendrils that had wrapped themselves around bean pods and vines, actually cutting off the bean pod in the process!
I’m hoping to have pole beans to harvest by the end of the week.
In other things, I’m hoping to get meet up with the Cat Lady tomorrow or soon after. I know she has medical appointments today. The last time she set up a vet appointment to neuter 4 of our male yard cats, covered by the rescue, a second appointment was made for this month. Then they had emergency vet car needed, which cost a great deal. The appointment is still on my calendar, though – this Thursday (today is Tuesday), for two cats, preferably female. I checked to make sure the appointment was cancelled, as I know the rescue budget was low. She said she’d contact the vet, but I haven’t heard back about that, yet. I hope to hear from her soon, because I don’t want to unknowingly be a “no show”.
Meanwhile, I got some photos of Peanut Butter Cup this morning for her to share among her contacts.
She has really turned into a beauty, and has the softest fur of all the cats! More importantly, we brought her to full health. She was the only female that was done at the time. While the males could go straight outside after a brief recovery period in the cat carriers, she needed 2 weeks. Once they come inside, they don’t go back out. That’s when we found out she had leaky butt issues, but we got that all fixed up. Gotta love that Healthy Poops stuff! Thank you, M, for sending us that first container! I never would have known such a product even existed. We have been using it in place of the ground pumpkin seeds (pumpkin is one of the ingredients) that we’d been using in the cat soup, along with lysine. All of the cats have been eating it, and it has made a real difference in PBC! No more leaky butt! Her respiratory issues have disappeared, too. We now have special shallow trays for the cat soup, big enough for several cats to eat out of at the same time, with one kept in my room for Butterscotch.
Who still refuses to leave my room!
I don’t get it.
Anyhow, I hope the Cat Lady will be able to share the photos and someone will be interested in adopting PBC.
Meanwhile, I’m basically just waiting for the post office to open for the afternoon. The special sheets for my husband’s hospital bed mattress came in yesterday, even though it was a holiday and the post office was closed! So I’ll be picking those up. If they work out, we’ll order more, and he won’t have to fight with having to use top sheets on his mattress, because regular fitted sheets are too short.
While yesterday’s lawn mowing never got finished, I did get enough done that I can park the truck in the shade of the inner yard. Then I’ll set up a work table and power tools in the garage, gather materials and get started on the outdoor isolation cage for when we can start trapping and spaying the more feral cats. Hopefully, the females! Not that we will have much control over which cat gets trapped.
As long as we don’t end up trapping skunks or raccoons, instead! I don’t think the trap that will be loaned to us will be big enough for raccoons. Well. One of the young ones, maybe, but a cat sized trap would not be big enough, nor strong enough, for an adult raccoon.
Speaking of which, the isolation cage we’ll be building has to be strong enough to keep the raccoons out. Once it’s built, we’ll set it up with the door open, so the cats can get used to it, so I would expect the skunks and raccoons to explore it, too. I don’t plan to keep food, water and a litter box in it until there is a cat actually closed up in it, but it will still provide cats and kittens with shelter in the mean time.
As for the build itself, I’ve got general plans drawn up, but ultimately, it will depend on what materials we find in the barn and the sheds. I’m hoping to incorporate at least one of the many salvaged windows we’ve got. Something that can be slid open to access the inside, rather than a hinged door.
One thing we will probably have to buy, rather than scavenge, is more hardware cloth. I’ve got most of a roll of hex type chicken wire, but a raccoon can tear through that easily.
There is definitely and up side to the girls being up during the night and sleeping during the day. It means there is someone up and about to keep an eye on things.
My younger daughter came downstairs to discover our entry way flooded, and water pouring down the stairs to the basement.
We still have the washing machine set up with a hose extension. When we do laundry, we run the hose through the window on the storm door to drain into the grass, rather than drain to the septic tank. The septic pump has been having so many issues, the less wear and tear on it, the better. When we’re not doing laundry, the hose is pulled in and sort of rolled up between the drier and the wall of the build in closet.
Somehow, a cat turned on the washing machine last night.
Usually, if they accidentally push the on button, the machine will eventually turn itself off. Somehow, that didn’t happen this time. Instead, it ran an empty load. Which is the one plus side, as the machine automatically adjusts the water level based on weight. So it would have run a very small load.
That’s the only saving grace.
My daughters mopped as best they could. After they told me about it, one of them went down to move the new blower fans and set them up over the worst areas. One at the stairs that have old carpet on them (we really ought to take that off, but whoever put it on, really nailed it down thoroughly!). The other is aimed at a low area where the water tends to pool under some counter shelves. We’ll have to check things regularly and move the fans around, as needed. I might have to steal another fan or two from the old basement.
I did get a bit of a fun thing out of it, though.
There is a window at the stairs for the new basement. It doesn’t have a screen, but I had opened it up just a bit to allow some air circulation.
The swing bench is on the patio blocks outside of this window, as well as a wooden bench right up against the wall behind it. The more feral kittens tend to hang out there, so I’ve made a point of leaving kibble under the swing bench, but they will not let us come anywhere near them.
As I was going up the stairs, I saw some kittens playing at the window, with one on the wooden bench batting at another under the bench, right at the window, who was batting back. A third kitten was managing to squeeze a leg in to join the batting party, too.
So I stuck my fingers through the window and wiggled at them.
Immediately, three kittens started batting at my fingers!
I don’t think they could see me through the window at all, or I’m sure they would have run away. I was able to slowly open the window a bit more and reach further. There’s one kitten that’s mostly black but has two white spots under its nose like a funny mustache. That one was on the bench and kept playing with my fingers even as the others got nervous and left. It even let me almost touch it, sniffing at my fingers as I reached as far as the bench’s top.
Thanks to a window, I was able to make physical contact with kittens that we’ve never been able to get closer than 5 feet or so before!
Once things were set up in the basement, I noticed a small pool of water near the door at the top of the stairs. The mop and bucket were still there, so I started mopping it up, moving some things to get more puddling that I found – and started to see water running across the floor again!
That’s when I realized the drainage hose was still full of water. I’d knocked it over a bit, and it was starting to empty onto the floor.
*sigh*
We got the hose running through the door to drain and left it set up. I was needing to do laundry today, anyhow!
Some day, we intend to put new mesh in the window of that storm door. For now, being able to run things through the door has been the handiest thing ever! We do have to fill the gap under the window with a towel to keep the mosquitoes out, and to keep the bottom of the window from dropping directly onto the hose, but that’s not a bit deal.
So… that was quite a way to start the day!!!
After we finished setting all this up, I headed outside to feed the cats and do my morning routine. One of the first things I saw was that the green zucchini is finally starting to bloom!
The plants aren’t looking very strong, though. I did move both pots with squash growing in them onto the patio blocks by the swing bench. I was concerned they were getting too hot where they were. They’ll still get plenty of light, but will be shaded during the hotter parts of the day.
I’m trying to think of an empty spot we might have somewhere, large enough that I could dig a hole to fit the entire pot’s soil. I think the zucchini will do better in a garden bed then a pot, but transplanting them at this point would have to be done very carefully.
Note for future reference. Don’t try to plant summer squash in pots. At least not these ones. I believe there are varieties that were bred specifically for container gardening, but these aren’t them.
At least they didn’t get eaten by slugs this year.
While the potted summer squash aren’t doing very well, the G-Star patty pans that got planted so much later are getting huge! I’m so glad we got those sent to us by mistake a couple of years back. This variety seems to just love growing here.
I’m also glad we have so much space between the shifted beds in the main garden area. We are training the winter squash and pumpkin vines to grow along the sides of the beds, but they are getting so big, it’s getting harder to walk between the beds to check on them or water them. Even the melons in the low raised bed are starting to need to be trained to run along the sides of the bed, to keep the path open.
The corn is really starting to kick in, with silks visible all over, and the tassels opening up. There isn’t much wind to blow the pollen around right now, though. I considered trying to hand pollinate them, or even just give the stalks a shake, but the winters squash vines below are so big, it would be hard to reach without damaging them. I’ll just have to let nature take it’s course.
I’m happy to say, the new strawberry plants that got eaten by a deer are recovering. I’m seeing new leaves appearing, at least. I don’t expect them to recover enough to produce berries again, but hopefully they will recover enough to survive the winter.
We’re supposed to be getting hotter again today, and even hotter tomorrow, so I’m still watering the garden every morning, while it’s still cooler. After feeding the outside cats, of course. Some of the kittens are getting gummy eyes, including Button. I brought him inside and held him while my daughter cleaned his eyes, but he was the only one I was able to catch.
Speaking of Button…
I was just finishing up when I started getting messages from the Cat Lady. Her son is expected to be home from the hospital on Friday, so she’s hoping to be able to get Button on the weekend. I’m so glad to hear he’s responding to treatment, and isn’t going to need surgery. Thank God! Things could have been so much worse!
She came home late last night to discover Cabbages had knocked over a 15′ palm tree they have in their house. That’s a new achievement for Cabbages! Good grief! What is it with her and plants?? I told her about a cat turning on our flooding issues, and we commiserated over the destructiveness of cats! 😁
Thankfully, Broccoli isn’t destructive! At least not like that. She’s very destructive when it comes to anything threatening her babies.
I spotted her nursing her calico baby under the wheel barrow while I was watering. They stayed there long enough that I was able to sneak a photo, after they were done. Rabi is such a beautiful kitten! She’s going to be a long haired beauty, like her big sister, Brussel. Hopefully, though, we’ll have better luck socializing Broccoli’s kittens, this year!
I’ve started making plans for an outdoor isolation cage. I’ve got two versions I’m thinking of. The small version, we could probably put together with materials we have on hand and maybe just need to buy hinges, or wheels, if we decide to make it more easily mobile. This “small” version would still be 4’x4’x4′, I think – plus the height of legs – and have two levels. I want it to have a floor at least a few inches off the ground. It also has to be solid enough to keep the raccoons out, since it would have food and water inside. A smaller cage would be ideal to keep a single newly spayed or neutered cat safe during the recovery period. I’m thinking an insulated shelter box on the bottom level, with a hinged access door on one side or the back, and a covered area beside it for a litter box. The litter box would also have a hinged door to access it from the outside. The door in the front would be hinged so that we can drop it to the ground like a ramp. When no cats are in isolation, they could go in and out as they please, and it wouldn’t be associated with the fear of being trapped. The upper level would have space for a cat bed or two, food and water bowls or whatever we set up for them to enjoy and play with.
While we plan to use wire mesh for the walls of the shelters, we’ve got so many salvaged windows in the barn and one of the sheds, I would love to be able to incorporate some into the walls of an isolation cage. It would be very convenient, for example, so have a window in the wall that could be slid open to access the litter box or food bowls inside, rather than making a hinged door.
I haven’t decided on the roof, yet. We still have leftover pieces of metal roofing material, so we’ll most likely scavenge some of that.
A larger version would be something with a human sized door, that we could walk into. Maybe not with a lot of room, but enough to go in and clean things or do whatever is needed. That one I’m thinking would be made large enough to keep two or three cats in during recovery or treatment. If we get the old catio the Cat Lady can no longer use, that would probably be what we use to make a larger isolation cage. I have no idea what the catio looks like or how big it is. We did have some photos of cats in catios sent to us, before they moved to their current house, but I don’t know which one couldn’t be used anymore after their move.
For now, though, we need to have something ready for when we can start trapping cats, one at a time, for spays. A smaller isolation cage should be faster to build.
In theory, at least!
Anyhow.
So that was our morning today.
As I write this (just past noon), we’ve reached 25C/77F, with the humidex putting us at 29C/84F. We’re expected to get a few degrees hotter, but we might actually get a bit of rain late this afternoon. Just a 35% chance of it, though, so not likely. The weather radar does show the system being pushed right over us, though, so we’ll see.
The Re-Farmer
[just before publishing this, I decided to see what the AI assistant would tell me about this blog post. I found it rather funny, and thought I’d share. This is what the AI thinks of this blog post:
The content is engaging and provides a detailed account of a challenging morning. Consider adding subheadings to break up the text for easier reading. Also, including more images or visual elements would enhance the reader’s experience. Additionally, linking to relevant content within your own blog can increase reader engagement and time spent on your site. Overall, the personal storytelling style is authentic and enjoyable to read.
😄😄
Also, I hate their “improve title” alternative title suggestions. They are the sort of titles that would have me NOT click to read a blog post! They feel so… artificial.
Today was my day to take my mother to her medical appointment. It got hot fast this morning, even as I was just going my rounds. As I write this, coming up on 7pm, we are still at 29C/84F, and the humidex is at 34C/93F. This heat is supposed to continue for the next couple of days, and no rain or even thunderstorms expected, so tomorrow morning, I’ll have to make sure to give the garden beds a deep watering, before it gets really hot again.
I am really appreciating the AC in the truck!
I was thinking of going to my mother’s a bit early, so we could get a bit of a visit in before her appointment, since I had to go to pick up eggs after. I was going to call her to see if she was good with my arriving early when she called me, instead.
While I was in the washroom, of course.
The message she left was almost a wail, asking where I was, and did I forget about the appointment today?
I had told her I would arrive at about noon. She was calling shortly after 11.
So I called her back and told her I could leave right away. In the end, it was only about half an hour earlier than I intended to be there originally.
I tried to have a conversation with her. I really did!
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out well. A couple of times, I was trying to share some information with her related to the topic at hand, and she would cut me off and start going off on a rant. It was as if she’d assumed the conclusion of what I was saying and responding to that – even though it was not at all what I was trying to say. She had no interest in what I was actually saying, but in what she thought I was saying.
When she cut me off again by making a racist comment, I gave up and suggested it was time to leave.
So we were a bit early for the appointment.
While in the waiting room, we got to talking about the purpose of the appointment, which was to get her medications reviewed, including the changes done by the ER doctor, and for the pharmacy to get the updated information before they have to do her next bubble packs.
That’s when I found out my mother wasn’t taking the one pill the ER doctor told her to start taking again, every day. She was taking it every other day. She had already been saying to me, how she was feeling better after being back on the pill, but then she was saying that she was feeling worse after being back on that pill.
I told her she needs to stop messing with her prescriptions, and that we needed to make sure to tell the doctor about this. She was to stop taking the pill for 30 days, and the blood work she had done would tell the doctor if anything about it needed to be changed.
When the doctor came in, we explained about my mother going to the ER. She tried to look it up on my mother’s file.
The hospital never sent the information to her!
She was able to go online and link into their files, though, and see test results, at least. There were no notes of any kind attached, which was very frustrating. The ER doctor had not only told my mother to start taking this one prescription again, but doubled another one, so she’s now taking it morning and evening – but no information as to why the doctor made these decisions!
The other information was there, though. My mother had Xrays done, and everything looked clear. The hospital’s blood work was done a week after my mother did her scheduled blood work after stopping the pill for 30 days, so the doctor was able to compare three different test results; the first one that identified a problem, then the other two showing any changes.
My mother’s results showed significant improvement in that 30 day period, and even more improvement in just the week before the ER tested her again. Everything is now right back where it should be!
The doctor has taken this pill off my mother’s prescriptions. If my mother starts to have any particular symptoms start, she’ll add it back, but only as a “take as needed” prescription, not part of her bubble packs.
My mother’s turning 93 this year and, for all her complaints about her health, she is remarkably resilient and has an amazing recovery time. It’s just amazing!
After her appointment was done, my mother had wanted to go to a particular grocery store that was on our way out of town, but she changed her mind as we were leaving. It turned out she’d only eaten a piece of toast for breakfast, and had deliberately not eaten lunch before this appointment. I’m not sure why! Needless to say, she was famished, so we stopped for lunch and shared a pizza. After that, she didn’t have the energy to get out of the truck again.
As we were leaving her town, I’d pointed out to her where I’d be going to get eggs later; part of their property borders the highway. My mother suggested I stop to pick up the eggs on the way, rather than driving back later. She even said she might want to get some eggs, too.
Of course, what she really wanted as to see was the egg lady’s place and make judgements. Because that’s what my mother does!
I ended up sending a message to the egg lady, because I wasn’t sure if she was even home.
She wasn’t, but she was on the way.
I told her about my mother being interested in getting a dozen eggs, too, and we worked things out. I was going to stop at a gas station and take my time about it, to give her more time to get home ahead of me.
Which worked out well. We got there and, as we were driving in, my mother got to see the guinea hens, and a couple of free range goats, without having to leave the truck.
She changed her mind about the eggs, though. Which I expected, since I knew that was just her way to get me to take her to the egg lady’s place.
I don’t think my mother was impressed. It didn’t look like a picture postcard, but an active homestead and home based business that also involved animals.
I’m probably going to hear about it later. At the time, she was just too tired to say much.
I got her home and settled in, but couldn’t stay long with the eggs in the truck; they didn’t fit in any of my insulated bags. Hopefully, my mother went for a nap soon after I left!
As we were driving into her town, though, I realized the farmer’s market was started. It’s every Friday, but I’m almost never in this town on Fridays. I saw my cousin’s truck there, too, so I wanted to make a quick stop.
But first, I wanted to stop at a nearby feed store. We haven’t been able to connect with the Cat Lady to pick up the kibble donation, and we were running low. I knew the grocery store prices would be insane, but maybe the feed store would be better.
Plus, it was half a block away from the farmer’s market.
So I went there first and looked around. Sure enough, they did have cat food – in 40 pound bags! (18.1kg). The price was a little over $60, though, which would have used up most of my cash on hand. They did have 20 pound bags (9.1kg) for just over $30, though. It looked like they had only one 20lb bag left, too! So I bought it and paid cash. Then I picked up the bag and set it on my shoulder to carry it out.
Which is when I heard and felt something very strange.
I pulled the bag down and discovered the sewn strip across the top had come loose. I’d just spilled kibble all over the floor!
Of course, I was very apologetic. What mess!
The guy behind the counter came out with a broom and dustpan to clean it up while telling the other guy (the owner?), who was in the office, what happened. They talked back and forth for a bit when the other guy said, “give her a 40 pound bag.”
??? !!!
In the end, the other guy came out and went to their storage building out back and got me a 40 pound bag himself, while the guy behind the counter finished sweeping up the kibble.
So I got to take home a 40 pound bag for the price of a 20 pound bag!
That was so awesome of them!
As soon as possible, I want to go back and pay the difference.
The one guy (the one I think is the owner) was also complaining to the guy behind the counter that almost ever third bag they’ve been getting, the stitching is loose at one corner, so this is not the first time it’s been a problem! As he was loading the bag into the back of my truck, he made a point of telling me this, and to watch out for those corners.
With such great customer service, I definitely plan to go back there!
Plus…
While the price per kg is slightly higher than what I’m paying at Walmart for the 9kg bags, and Costco has even better prices for that size, the price is SO much better than at the grocery stores. Factoring in the cost of gas to drive to the city, and it comes out cheaper.
So while we will still pick up kibble when we are already in the city to do our stock up shopping, when it comes time to get more, later in the month, it would be more cost effective to buy from the feed store than to drive to the nearest Walmart.
Best of all, I’ve already given some to the cats outside, and they like it. The last time I got kibble at a feed store, it was in another town, and they had 16kg bags (35 pounds) for an even better price. The problem was, the cats didn’t like it, at all. Even the outside cats didn’t want to eat it. They did anyhow, since there was nothing else, but this stuff is clearly a better quality cat food.
After getting the cat food, I popped over to the farmer’s market. I talked to my cousin for a while, and picked up some of his creamed honey. He doesn’t have a lot of honey right now; he lost all his bees when a neighbour sprayed their field for grasshoppers, and had to buy more. He doesn’t have much of an inventory yet. No 3kg buckets for quite a while!
Then, I made a quick stop at a booth selling baked goods and picked up a bumbleberry pie. It had better be good – it cost more than the honey I just bought, and more than twice the grocery store price!
While I was doing that, I got a message from my husband asking if I could swing by the post office. I had just enough time to get there before they closed.
All this made for a very long day, but a more productive one than I expected. I’m really glad I remembered this feed store and decided to check it out.
Ugh. I need to go outside and do my evening rounds. It’s now coming up on 8pm, and we’re still 27C/81F with the humidex at 30C/86F.
It’s going to be sticky out there!
Even our overnight temperatures are supposed to only drop to 19C/66F. I think I’ll be leaving my window fan to keep blowing hot air out, for the night.
There should be quite a few raspberries to pick, though, so I’d better remember to bring a bucket of some kind, and get out there!
The Re-Farmer 