just talkin’

A Social Call

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Yesterday evening, I was able to take a walk up the road; just to the half mile mark and back, so a short walk.  It was the perfect temperature for a walk, and the skies were just beautiful.

20180505.big.sky

Alas, those were not rain clouds.  We really need rain right now.  With so little snow over the winter, and no rains all spring, everything is tinder dry.  Farmers will be planting soon, and the conditions are not good for that right now.

Today, we were able to make a trip into the city for a pure social call – a visit to my father in law.  This was the first outing for my husband that wasn’t for a medical appointment, since before Christmas!  Just three of us, though, as my older daughter volunteered to stay home and hold the fort.  It was a fantastic visit, and my FIL very generously gifted us with a box of “almost perfect” chocolates.

20180506.chocolate

What you’re looking at is a box with 2 kg of chocolate.  That’s about 4.4 pounds.

I need to find out where he got these.  I don’t particularly care if chocolate is ugly.  :-D  The last time we found a place that sold imperfects was in Richmond, BC. almost 20 years ago.  We found a chocolate factory that had a store open to the public.  I don’t know how much was paid for these, but in a store, the unblemished chocolates would have cost about a dollar a piece.  There are at least 3 layers of chocolates in this box!

While it was a wonderful visit, it was very hard on my husband and his pain levels.  Still, we’re hoping to be able to make the trip in to visit at least once a month, now that the snow is gone.

For all the unexpected hassles we’ve been having since moving out here, his being able to see is father again makes up for that a lot!

The Re-Farmer

Domesticity

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

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.

20180505.cat.perched

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

Another Stunner

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

It was a rather cold day today, but peaceful.  At least for us.  From what I’ve heard, two more homes were lost in yesterday’s fire to the North of us.  At this point, I know nothing more.  The province’s website that is supposed to have an up-to-date interactive map of current fires has not been much help.  It didn’t have either of the local fires on there at all.  I’ve seen others comment on the site’s lack of updating, as they’ve had to turn to social media to keep on top of the fire situation.

We never got the predicted showers, but at least with the reduced wind and colder temperatures, the fire risk has dropped a bit.

It was another day of the birds, outside.  I think it might be a while before the deer start coming back.

Oh, my.  As I was inserting the above photos, I heard another thump at the dining room window.  I went outside and found a little junco on the ground.  My younger daughter came out to hold on to it, to keep it safe from the cats, until it was ready to fly away on its own.  I’m hearing her come back inside right now, so it must be gone.

This is the second junco we’ve tended to after it hit the dining room window, just today.  The earlier one took quite a bit longer to recover.

20180501junco1

Here is the female, dark eyed junco from earlier today, in my daughter’s hands.  It was very calm about being held, too.

20180501junco2

It started to stand itself up and look around after a minute or so.  Note its bent under foot.  The other foot was like that, too.  No damage, it turned out.  It seems that it just wasn’t aware of it, quite yet.

20180501junco4

When it finally did start to flutter away, it just moved over to my daughter’s arm.  And immediately pooped on her! :-D

It seemed fully aware at this point, looking around and watching us closely, but content to stay on her arm for several minutes more.

20180501junco5

After a while, it flew off to the bench seat on the platform to our old clothes line.  There was a cat about, though, so I came over to encourage it away.  It moved to this bush and stayed there for another minute or so before finally flying away, none the worse for the experience.

While it’s unfortunate so many birds are hitting our window hard enough to stun themselves, it is so amazing to be able to hold them and watch over them until they can fly away on their own.  They seem to like the warmth of our hands as they recover, too.

Pretty awesome!

The Re-Farmer

Blue for You

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Alas, no pictures of deer today.  I did see one cautiously making its way towards the house, just a few minutes ago, but it saw me move in the window and dashed right off.

Sadness.

I did, however, manage to get a photo of a blue jay today.  For the past few weeks, even if I’ve been at the window, watching them for a while, the moment I get behind the camera, they all fly off!

2018-04-29.bluejay

This morning, I managed to get just one decent picture, through the sun reflected on the window.

I love how they collect so many seeds in their beaks like that, before flying off.

It was a fairly quite day today.  We’re still in recovery mode and pretty low on energy.  My younger daughter and I made a run to the dump with our garbage and recycling, before heading to town to find a new handle for our garage door.  In the process, I remembered to pick up some chain and a carabiner to replace the heavy duty wire that’s been used to hold our main gate steady.  It has a sliding bar across the top to close it.  I’m not sure why it also needed the wire to hold it closed, and one of these days, I’ll remember to ask a sibling about it. :-D  The chain and carabiner will be much easier to handle than twisting and untwisting the wire every time.  It’ll look better, too!  Plus, we’ll have the ability to add a lock as well, if we ever need to.  Sadly, there have always been people who seek out solitary farms as targets for theft and vandalism.  At best, the RCMP are at least half an hour away, and that assumes they can even find any individual farm.  My oldest brother and I are already talking about adding a security camera on the garage, which would catch anyone coming in or out of the driveway, and another on the house itself.

Such is life, even in the sticks!

My daughter and I went to two different hardware stores, looking for a garage door handle.  Both stores had only one option available!  They were even the same brand and style.  On the plus side, the second place we went to had a much, much better price.

On the down side, while driving to town, I went into a coughing fit so bad, I had to pull over and get her to drive the rest of the way.

It’s so nice having another driver available!

This cold has really done a number on my chronic cough.  :-(

We had some other things happen that were polar opposites.  Such as my husband’s disability payment coming in early (they do that every now and then!) on the plus side, then getting a call from the tax preparer and finding out he’s now owing $3000 instead of the $1300 that came up when we tried using Turbotax at home.  I don’t understand how he can owe anything.  He’s supposed to be paid back taxes, retroactively, from two years ago!  And here we thought getting our taxes professionally done would mean it would be better, not worse.  On top of that, it’s going to cost us almost $70 in fees.

*sigh*

This has happened every time we’ve moved back to this province, no matter how late in the year we’ve returned.  We would be expecting a return, only to end up owing thousands.  This time, though, I am sure that has to be some kind of mistake.

Living here was supposed to save us money.  Instead, it’s been unexpected expenses, one right after the other!

Ah, well.  We’ll figure it out in good time.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

That Circle of Life thing… and I hate shopping

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

For the past while, we’ve had a huge drop in deer visits.  I didn’t see any yesterday, until quite late, when one showed up, then ran off when it saw me in the window.  Pretty sure it was a new one, since our regulars are no longer bothered by seeing us.

We are certainly getting plenty of birds, though, including this new one that I’ve been trying to identify.

2018-04-27newbird

There were two or three of them among the dark eyed juncos and the male redpolls that were also in the feeding station.  Looking through my bird book, its body looks similar to a Brown Thrasher, but the eye and beak are totally different.  Another closer match is the Fox Sparrow, but according to the book, we’re not really in their territory.  They might be passing through during migration, if that’s what they are.

If anyone reading this knows what they are, please let me know in the comments!  Thanks. :-)

As I was taking pictures of the new birds, there was a sudden whoosh of movement and all the birds flew off.

Well, almost all.

2018-04-27hawk

What a beautiful hawk!  I barely managed to tilt the tripod over to snap a few quick pictures before it flew off, with its meal, into the trees.  Much to my surprise, the pictures all turned out, but only a couple caught the hawk’s face as it looked over before flying off.

This is one of the things we have to consider, if we do get chickens.

Later on, I went to tell my older daughter, who was upstairs, about the hawk.  She hadn’t seen the hawk, but she did see the fallout, as panicked birds suddenly flew up, including one that smacked right into the window near her.

She went out onto the roof and moved it, so it could fly off when it regained consciousness.

Except, it didn’t.  It hit the window hard enough to kill itself.  It looked like one of the new birds, too. :-(

Wow.

This all happened in the mid morning or so.  Shortly before noon, my younger daughter and I headed out to the city – our first trip to the city since all that work was done on the van – for a much needed Costco trip.

Just to jump ahead a bit, the van ran beautifully.  Also, I didn’t get a call back from the garage about those parts they’d ordered for me.  I’m not sure how I would have handled such a call, now that the work they wanted to do turns out to not be needed at all.  Aside from not bringing the van in, of course.

I had hoped, even though it’s a Friday, going to Costco in the early afternoon would mean missing out on the crowds.

Maybe we did, but it was still insanely busy.

We didn’t go to the closer one, which is smaller, has a ridiculously horrible parking situation, and where the pharmacy staff were such a problem.  Instead, we went to one that was not only larger, but also near a whole lot of other shopping.

Along with our usual bulk grocery shopping, I had one goal in mind.  To get more undies for my husband.  We’re in the city.  That shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Well, it turns out that Costco didn’t carry any in his size.  They do in clothing, just not in underwear.  Which makes no sense.

So after we finished at Costco, with all its joyous moments (seriously; what is it about people who saunter to a stop, blocking the entire isle, and just stand there, staring into space?  This happened several times, all different people!), we figured we’d just go to that mall up the block.  They had a Marshals there.  Marshals has clothes, right?

We’ve never actually been to a Marshals before.

It turned out to be kinda like a crappy Winners.  We found the teeny, tiny men’s underwear section, half of which was shirts, and it was such a disaster, I could barely find anything at all, never mind the size and style I wanted.  There was only one brand, too – an expensive one, of course.

But we’re in a mall, right?  There’s lots of other stores we can try, right?

I found a map and… it wasn’t very encouraging.  Still, there were several possibilities among the athletic stores.

We went to about 4 or 5 different shops.  Any that did have men’s underwear had hardly anything at all, none in the style I was looking for, and certainly not the size.

What the heck?

As we were leaving the mall, my daughter pointed out that there was a Winners across the road.  So that’s where we tried next.

It was better than the Marshals, at least.  The shelves were better organized, but again, there was only one tiny display for the men’s section, and nothing in the size we were after.

I checked on my phone and found the nearest Walmart.  I figured that would be our last stop.  Even if we didn’t find the style I was after, if I could only find the size, that would be great.

Walmart, at least, has a nice, big section for men’s underclothes – but still a tiny clothing section.

Men, you guys are really short changed in the clothing department!  Sheesh!

We found several brands in the style we wanted.  Yay, right?

Nope.

There was a lot out of stock, so my daughter and I kept hunting for the right size, somewhere.  After a while, I stopped looking at what was there and started looking at the labels in front of the hooks.

It turned out they weren’t just out of stock.  They didn’t even CARRY the size we needed.  In any brand, or any style!

What the heck???  He wears a common size.  Why don’t they have it?

This was supposed to be our last stop, but we had noticed further down the parking lot, a Marks.

One more try…

Sure enough, we actually found both the style and size we were after!!!  Finally!  So I bought as many packages as I could afford without messing up our budget.

When we got to the counter, me looking a little wild eyed by now, the cashier asked us if we’d found everything we were looking for.

I told her that yes, we did, and that they were the ONLY ones to have what we were looking for.  She looked completely surprised.  Not even Walmart, she asked?  Nope.  Nothing in this size.  That is so strange, she tells me.

It’s their most popular size.

Which doesn’t surprise me in the least.  So why don’t other places even HAVE the size at all?

Who know buying underwear would be so difficult?

By the time that was done, we were both exhausted and more than ready to go home.

I really, really dislike shopping.

After we got home and unloaded, it occurred to me that none of us had the energy to cook supper.  My older daughter is sick, my younger daughter is also getting sick, and just unloading the van was more than enough to remind me that I’m certainly not yet recovered from this stupid cold.

Since my daughter can now legally drive, I asked if she was up to a trip into town, so we could get some take-out.  Thankfully, she was.  So off we went to the van and…

20180427handle

When she tried to open the garage door, the handle came off.

Talking to my oldest brother not long ago, I mentioned this.  He told me that thing has needed replacing for probably 15 years.  It just never got done.  It was on our list of things to fix sooner rather than later.  Well, it just got bumped up higher on the list.  :-D

My daughter had to go into the garage from the back door (which is used so rarely, it has self-seeded trees growing in front of it) and open it from the inside.  The bar that runs through the hole to the handle is still there, and I couldn’t find any pieces that fell off onto the ground, so I’m actually not sure why the handle hadn’t fallen off sooner! :-D

I was just informed that we had deer outside our living room window again.  A group of four.  It’s almost completely dark at the moment, but still enough light for us to see them.  And for them to see us.  And hear us.  Even the creaking of the floor had their ears going in all directions, and they could hear my daughter cough!  As I was at the window, one was watching me until I shifted slightly, and off it ran, startling the others away.

So we will stay away from the window for a while, in hopes they come back.

Looks like we’ll be going into town again tomorrow, even if it’s just to pick up a new handle for the garage door! :-D

The Re-Farmer

New Birds today!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Another sick day for me today, so not much accomplished!  My husband put out the food and water for the animals outside this morning.  Now that the snow is pretty much gone and the risk of falling is reduced, he wants to do that more often, as the pain allows.  He informed me that we were now out of deer feed and almost out of cat kibble, which meant another trip into town – our own hamlet for the deer feed, then the next town over for the cat kibble.  We can get the kibble locally, but the brand they carry is something even the outside cats don’t like.  I don’t mind going farther afield.  It gives my younger daughter and I a chance to play Pokemon Go for at least long enough to get some achievements in the game.  Still, I look forward to when I’m not the only one with a valid driver’s license!

When we got home, I pulled up near the house to make it easier to unload the bags, then we took advantage of the situation to clean up the garbage and recycling (yes, I keep recycling bags for sorting in our van, too! :-D ), refill the cooler we use to keep water bottles (that came in REALLY handy when we had to keep adding coolant the day the hose broke) and reorganize things a bit.  So the back of the van is now all open and ready for when we do our monthly bulk shopping.

It didn’t take much to clean up the van, yet it was enough to wipe me out.  I may be feeling a bit better, but wow, am I running out of energy fast.  By the time we were done, I had broken into a sweat and my chest was on fire.  Ugh.

Have I mentioned how much I appreciate that the girls are with us to keep things going when I’m out of commission?  Well, even if I have, it’s worth saying again.  I so appreciate that they chose to stay with us.  They didn’t have to move out here.  They could have stayed behind and done their own thing.  Instead, they chose to stay and help us.

I am so blessed to have such amazing daughters.

Who also happen to be good cooks.  Supper is smelling so good!

On the wildlife front, once again, we had very few deer visits.  My husband had to get up insanely early, when it got too painful to be lying down, so he was there to see a couple in the wee hours.  We didn’t see more again until about 7pm.  I had hoped all our regulars would keep coming back; I really wanted to see how the antlers on the young males are coming in.  Hopefully, we’ll still get visits from them.

2018-04-21.squirrel

The squirrels are chasing each other all over the place, but only one seemed at all interested in the seeds.

I love those little paws!

We also got a new type of bird today!

2018-04-21.newbird1

There was only one of this greyer one.  The rest were much darker.

2018-04-21.newbird2

I’ve gone looking through my bird book, and there’s nothing quite like them in there.

2018-04-21.newbird3

There were quite a few of the darker ones.  They are slightly larger than the redpolls.  Their behavior is also more… sedate, shall we say.  They seem downright chill, compared to the non-stop motion of the redpolls, chickadees and grosbeaks.

If anyone knows what they might be, please let me know in the comments!  I’d love to know what they are.

Then Hungry Girl and Barbecue showed up.

2018-04-21.two.deer

At first, it was just Barbecue on her own, then Hungry Girl came trotting in from behind the house.  She was much more antsy, though.

2018-04-21.hungry.girl

It didn’t take long before she took off into the garden area and stayed away, though I did see her grazing on the far side of the garden for a while.

2018-04-21.barbecue

Barbecue ran off, too, then came back for a bit, before finally taking off for good.

I noticed something interesting as they were leaving.

As the more shaded areas of snow slowly melt, we now have a kind of long, narrow “river” of melt water running across the opening to the garden, and then a bit past the spruce grove.  After that, it’s still ice and snow, where it only gets sunlight for a short time in the mornings.

Both Hungry Girl and Barbecue carefully skirted around the water, to where it was still ice and snow, then cut across to the row of apple trees and into the garden.  Going through the water would have been much shorter and faster, but I guess even deer feet don’t like getting cold and wet, if they can avoid it! :-D

I look forward to seeing who shows up outside our window, tomorrow. :-)

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Critter pictures, and feeling better

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

After another very rough night, and some major quality time with an electric heating pad, I can finally say that I’m starting to feel a bit better.  This morning, I had even managed to get an audio recording of the weird noises my chest is making.  While some was definitely cold related, the squeaking noise actually happens fairly regularly and is related to my chronic cough, so I figure it would be good to have a recording for the next time I go to the doctor about it.

2018-04-20.deer

Hungry Girl and Barbecue came by today.  We are getting significantly less deer visits since the weather has gotten warmer!

Thankfully, the girls have been able to take over for me while I’ve been down for the count.  As I type this, they are busily making supper.  I don’t know what they’re making, but it smells delicious. *L*

Though still feeling sick, I did have to drive into town to pick up a few things.  I’m the only person with a valid driver’s license right now, so it’s not like I could foist it off on someone else, though my husband was willing to do the drive.  This, in spite of having his own rough night and still having really bad pain days.

For the first time since stores started putting them out, I actually used the disinfectant wipes on my hands and on the cart handle, then hid my hands in my sleeves to push the cart, while my daughter did all the touching of product that was needed.  I sure don’t want anyone else to get sick because of me!

2018-04-20.deer.profile

I’ve noticed for some time, the odd fur pattern on Barbecue’s neck.  I have come to the conclusion that it is the result of scarring.

We are really noticing what a difference it has been, not doing that monthly Costco shopping trip in the city.  We’re having to go into town for groceries far more often, and it’s costing us a lot more per item.  We’re still not spending as much as we normally budget, simply because our budget had to be re-adjusted to pay for the work on the van; the money isn’t there to overspend.  However, it’s more because of what we’re NOT buying, that what we ARE buying.  It has set back making up for the costs of the move by at least a couple of months.

2018-04-20.deer.tongue

Hungry Girl was nice enough to give me a silly face picture! :-D

But we have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and the bills are being paid, and that’s the important part.

2018-04-20.chickadee

I think this is the first time I’ve seen a chickadee, just resting on a branch, rather than in constant motion!

Still, we are really looking forward to being able to do the monthly bulk shopping again, and restocking the cupboards and freezer!

The Re-Farmer

Rough

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

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

20180415.window.visitor

“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.

20180416.dahboy

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.

20180416.blocking

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

Day of the Cats

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today, outside our window, it was cats, cats, cats!

I got to see Beep Beep trying for a bird.  She did not succeed.  Nor did the several of them that were interested in the very noisy squirrel! :-D

 

We got a couple of pictures of Nasty Crime Boy enjoying a nap in his favorite place, while Rolando Moon was on her favorite place on the junk pallet pile.  Beep Beep and Butterscotch came to play, Trülbus made faces at us, while Squishum got rude and turned her back on us!  Only The Hand neglected to make an appearance – at least when we were there to see.

:-D

The Re-Farmer

Oh, Hello there!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

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…

2018-04-09.curious.cats

“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