Ghosty loves that cat bed so much, she’ll curl up with any other cat that’s in it! This time, it’s Beep Beep, one of the originals cared for by my late father. She is very likely Ghosty’s great-great-great-grandmother or aunt.
Ghosty is probably the most intelligent cat we’ve ever had – and the reason why I feel like crap today, due to lack of sleep. Once we’re all in bed, she starts getting into all the things she knows she’s not allowed to while we’re up, and I’m the only one that can hear when she does. Particularly when she starts digging into things at my desk in the wee hours. She does it when she wants the kibble bowls topped up, because she knows it will wake me up, and she doesn’t stop until it’s been done. This morning, she dug into my organizer tray, pulling out all sorts of stuff and knocking one of my speakers half off the desk, which I discovered hours later.
I actually got the girls to do the outside stuff this morning, so I could get back to sleep, but it just wouldn’t happen, mostly because of the cats! Then I had the disorienting feeling that it was about 4pm, only to look at the time and see that it was noon. My daughters are feeling the same way, today!
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.
One of the strange things we have cats doing, is bringing objects from the basement up and using them as toys. Things like roofing nails (there’s a bucket of those down there), various types of electrical connectors, bolts, etc. Tissue used to bring up bullets. We never found where she was getting them, but she must have got them all, because that finally stopped.
We’ve seen several of the kittens come up from the basement and dropping things on the dining room floor. Even the Tiny Beast!
Of course, we take the stuff away as soon as we spot them. There’s a container in one of our shelves that has quite a collection, now.
With PBC in the house now, and not isolated in one room, we have the basement door closed until she and the other ladies heal up. Bonus: mo more weird metal things on the floor!
Some are not happy with that.
Yesterday, Ghosty found the container in the shelf and began violently digging into it, to reach the objects on the bottom. She had stuff flying all over the place before I could get to her and stop her. Of course, I picked up the objects she flung all around. Our lino has a very busy pattern, though. I knew it was possible I missed something. I made sure to let the family know. Especially my husband, who is almost always barefoot.
Well, I missed something.
I got up to feed the cats this morning, not bothering to put on my inside shoes.
This is what I ended up pulling out of my foot.
Good grief.
Thankfully, my feet are rather calloused, so it didn’t do much damage. Still, I got the girls to feed the outside cats while I cleaned the wound.
I had a much interrupted and sleepless night, so my daughter is sweet enough to head put into this for me.
Funny enough 😉, the yard cats aren’t really eating much of the food outside, so it’s mostly the food bowls in the sunroom that need topping up.
The sunroom still manages to stay Warner than -10C, even overnight. The heat lamp helps, of course, but so does the sheer amount of feline body heat!
We don’t have much to complain about, though. These temperatures are more typical for our winters. The areas hit by this year’s polar vortex were reaching temperatures from -40C to -50C last night. Plus, a lot more snow than what we got.
Amazingly, the long range forecast not only has us warming up noticeably after this cold wave, but we were even supposed to get highs bately below freezing!
Yeah, we’ll see about that.
As for me, I need to get some sort of sleep. The first half of my night, I was kept awake by the pain in my left hip. It’s actually worse when I lie on my right side, which is a switch. I finally gave in and took some ibuprofen. I’m out of my arthritis acetaminophen, but it didn’t actually help my arthritis much. Back to the more general version when I restock.
The other interruption was the cats. Nor that they were being rambunctious or anything. They were sleeping pretty soundly. I did have the usual trying to sleep right on me, or jammed up against me, etc. With my various aches and pains, though, I need to shift positions often.
It’s remarkably hard to roll over with the weight of so many cats on top of my blanket. Two of them weigh more than 20 pounds each, and most of them do not move, even as I’m shoving my legs right under them and rolling them around.
Which adds the unexpected problem of pajama pants. With the extra weight on top of the blankets, the pant legs end up twisting around until they are bunched up under my knees. I kept having to get out of bed to stand up and untwist my pajama pants.
What a strange problem to have!
I did get some sleep, at least. Especially when my husband started feeding the cats, and I suddenly had a bed again. Once I was free of cats and could fund a comfortable position, I fell asleep so fast and so hard, I never even heard when my husband came in to do the few food bowls in my room.
So I’m feeling pretty wasted right now.
From the looks of my bed, though, I’m not sure it’s worth trying.
Shadow has taken to cuddling me at night, but his sister, Tin Whistle, has taken to having a party on my daughter’s bed.
While she’s in it.
It’s gotten so bad, the girls are looking at building a door. The upstairs is two rooms, and we only ever had a curtain over the opening between them. If they want to get any sleep, they need to make a door to fit.
Plus, we need to get these teenagers adopted!
Beyond that, we are having another quiet day of domesticity. I expect to be heading out tomorrow to do put shopping for New Years, and run other errands.
It’s such a gorgeous day, today. Clear blue skies, sunshine and temperatures just below freezing. T-shirt weather! 😄
Snarly Marlee, taking a break from snarling at Decimus!
She’s doing quite well, actually. She’s been sleeping with me more often, and has even been making like she wants to leave the room, though when I open the door for her, she tends to back off.
As for Decimus, the other cats are getting used to her. I’ve seen her and Nosencrantz, both on top of the cat cage, next to each other. They were eyeing each other, but not being aggressive in any way. Even Butterscotch seems to have accepted her presence.
When other cats try to come into the room, though, they are not sure what to make of the new family! Leyendecker has come over to the cat cave, sniffing at Decimus, only to leap in astonishment and run away when the kittens started mewing. Other cats dash in ahead of me, see Decimus, freeze, then run out of the room again.
Very strange!
Meanwhile, today we continue to catch up on house stuff. One of my daughter’s goals is to mop the kitchen floor (a difficult thing, since the lino is worn down to the subfloor in places) before we put the interlocking foam mats down in front of the sink and the stove.
Last night, I came into the dining room to find this.
*sigh*
It’s not even out of the packaging yet, and already it’s being torn up by the cats! I’m hoping it will at least last until the next Costco trip. I believe they still have the heavy duty shop mats in stock. The cats shouldn’t be able to claw those up. At least, not right away. If Costco doesn’t have them in stock anymore, I did see them at a local hardware store, though that was months ago, and I don’t know if they regularly stock them.
There is just something about these mats that the cats can’t resist!
Of all the inside cats we’ve had over the years, none has taken to cuddling with me at night like Nosencrantz has! She is very particular about it, and she has actually started to “bully” me to get with the routine! She goes to her corner of the bed which, unfortunately, she starts kneading, which I don’t want because she’s going to put holes in my sheets. Then she sticks her face into my hand, demanding I pet her head. Especially around the eyes. And if I’m doing some last minute checking of my phone before putting it on the charger, she will bash at it with her face until I pet her!
Then she spins around, shoves her head into my hand again, then drops her body down on my arm, the back of her head and neck in my hand, and stretched out to my elbow, while demanding I continue to pet her face with my fingers cupped around the back of her head! Since she also starts kneading again, I usually end up having to use my other arm to grab her front paws to stop her. End result, she’s tucked into a nest between my arms, and happily goes to sleep.
Sometimes when I get up in the morning, she stays, even after I straighten the covers over her.
Of course, all my bedding is absolutely covered in fur. It doesn’t even wash out completely anymore, it’s so stuck into the fibres!
It’s a good thing she’s so darn cute, because she’s such a pain in the butt, too! 😄
Nosencrantz may turn into a ball of anxiety around the other cats, but she’s completely different, with me!
She has completely adopted me as her own, personal human. Incredibly affectionate. This is her napping after a hard session of “pet my face! Now!” 😄
She has the softest fur of all the cats.
Does it make up for her habit of crapping in all the wrong places? I gotta admit, when I had crawl on my hands and busted up knees to clean up another mess in the shelf behind my night stand at 2am, I certainly didn’t think so!
I’ve blocked off the space now. She has lost one of her hidey holes for when she runs away from the other cats.
After I cleaned everything up, blocked it off, and went back to bed, the little bugger came over and began snuggling me.
I ended up doing my morning rounds later than usual today, but I sure had some beautiful views!
We got another frost last night, and the trees look just stunning!
I had a pretty frosted morning, myself – frosted at Nosencrantz, mostly! Way too early in the morning, I heard a strange scratching sound in the shelf behind my night stand; there is a wall of shelves behind my bed that can’t be taken out of the room without somehow dismantling it, so I have my bed frame up against in, blocking some of the shelves. The one behind my nightstand is only half blocked, and it usually the place Nosencrantz hides in when some of the other cats decide to go after her.
The scratching I was hearing?
Yeah. She decided to poop in the shelf, rather than one of the freshly cleaned litter boxes. In the farthest corner, of course.
Then, after I cleaned it up and went back to bed, Nosencrantz started scratching again.
In a litter box.
She wasn’t using it. Just scratching in it.
And on it.
And the floor around it.
And the baby jail walls next to it (yeah, we still have that set up; Butterscotch loves to nap in it!)
She eventually stopped, but then Butterscotch tried to make a jump onto the window ledge, failed and somehow managed to knock over the small food bowl I’ve got tucked in the corner, partially blocked by a shelf specifically to prevent that from happening!
After cleaning that up, I tried to get a bit more sleep, but then Leyendecker and Cheddar started scratching at the door, wanting in.
I finally gave up and got up, heading to the kitchen to start the kettle going to heat water for the outside cats. It was still kinda dark, and I didn’t have my glasses, so I was perplexed by a glowing blue box in the wrong spot. The Cat Lady had given us their older water fountain for the cats, and it’s plugged in and set up in front of a shelf in the dining room. It has a blue light that makes the base glow, and you can see the water level. Well, the base was several feet away, in front of the entry to the kitchen – and the top part, with the fountain, was gone! I found it pushed up against another shelf.
I’m blaming Susan for this. She has a thing for digging in water bowls and splashing all over. I’m guessing she must have pulled the top right off – then kept splashing in the water, from the looks of the floor!
Still better than having to crawl on the floor to reach and clean up poop, though!
Nosencrantz just climbed onto my chest as I write this, and is getting all cuddly.
As if I could forgive her that easily!
Awww… she’s curling up and settling down now, purring like crazy.
The dash of our vehicles is decorated with faux jewels and tiny plastic animals, set up in amusing poses. At least it did until we prepped it for trade in (it’s going to be scrapped if that happens, so we left the faux jewels. 😁) Across the top of my monitor, I’ve got a row of tiny Kinder Egg dinosaurs and a couple of tiny chickens. As we cleared the house of my parents’ stuff, we found other tiny objects that we kept, ranging from toys they had for the grandkids, to miniature decorative plates and so on and I also kept.
Under my monitor, I had a number of tiny objects, such as a miniature treadle sewing machine, unique little rocks and pebbles, and tiny toy animals.
Note I said “had”.
Nosencrantz discovered them.
I keep finding them on the floor, so I started to hide them under my keyboard.
I am now regularly awakened by the sound of her scratching under my keyboard, trying to get at them!
This morning, she got my goat.
She even chewed off a leg!
We just got them a bunch of new toys, but nooooo…. she had to go and get my goat!
Why is she so determined to get these tiny animals???
The Re-Farmer 