kittens

Not the day I planned

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But first, the cuteness.

While doing my rounds this morning, I tried to move Poirot’s kittens into the cat cage in the sun room. I set them into the cat cave in one of the cubes and waited, but Poirot would not go into the sun room. So, I eventually moved things around in the water bowl shelter.

I accidentally reposted the first picture, and Instagram won’t let me delete it. If you scroll through, you’ll see a video of mama getting wet cat food while her littles try to nurse.

After she was done eating and moved away, I first put them into a cat carrier set in the space between the three shelters. She went in, and when she came out, the white one was clinging to her side! It fell off and Poirot ran a short distance away, so I but the kitten back into the carrier, then took it into the sun room. I made sure she could see me moving them into the cat cage. I then went inside and monitored the critter cam.

She wouldn’t go in.

After while, I moved things around in the water bowl shelter, then took the kittens, still in the cat cave, and set that up in the water bowl shelter. My concern is, we’re supposed to get a couple of cold nights, and that shelter is too exposed. Inside the cat cave would, at least give them more protection.

She seemed to accept the new set up. When we did the evening feeding, she went to the kibble bowls, then had some of the wet cat food we gave her. This time, though, she didn’t finish it off, so it went elsewhere.

Just a little while ago, my older daughter came in to tell me she found the white and grey kitten on the floor in the sun room. The white kitten was still in the cat cave, and she was asking, how many did Poirot have? The black kitten was missing!

I ended up finding it in one of the cat carriers we keep in one of the shelves supporting the platform.

On the third level.

I really hope that kitten she found hadn’t fallen down from that height!!

I ended up setting the cat cave back into the cat cage. Today was another warm day, but with a cold wind. I think she was trying to find a warmer place for her babies. That carrier would have been okay, if it were at floor level, but she ignored the two that were at floor level!

So now I’m back to monitoring the critter cam.

Meanwhile, Brussel’s two are very active.

Gosh, Kale looks just like her mother!!!

Also, Oofus the Brave is now Sir Robin the Brave. 😄

While my daughter was helping feed the outside cats and taking the wet cat food to Poirot, she found a strange kitten!

It was one of Caramel’s. They are getting active enough to actually climb out of the cat house! We do have a board set up as a ramp, just for the little kittens to be able to get in and out.

So my daughter took one of the other food bowls for the kittens that wasn’t being used, and put it inside the entry to the cat house.

The kittens loved it!

When I took this picture, I saw the food was all gone, so I brought over the container of wet cat food that Poirot didn’t eat and switched bowls. Caramel and her kittens cleaned it all up!

Meanwhile, after my daughter told me about finding the kitten in the sun room, I went looking for the black kitten. We were concerned it might have crawled under something and couldn’t get out. While I was looking for it, I found something – or should I saw, someONE – else!

The missing mostly white kitten! I had seen the mother trying to lure away Eyelet last night, and was afraid they would be gone by morning, so I was relieved to see Eyelet and Grommet were still there. Now it seems the mama has brought her third baby back to the sanctuary of the sun room!

Now I just hope Poirot will join her babies in the cat cage. It’s the safest, warmest place for the babies. That forecast of 0C/32F in a couple of nights is now a forecast for -1C/30F

We shall see how things work out.

Meanwhile…

I was outside way earlier than I wanted to be, doing my morning rounds, and had intended to try and get a bit more sleep after breakfast.

It was shortly after 9 when my phone rang.

It was my mother, and she was in high dungeon.

The home care worker had shown up to do her morning med assist, but her Monday bubble pack was missing its morning pills. This is because, some time ago, my mother had gotten the extra bubble packs down from on top of her fridge and taken them herself. She didn’t follow the days, but just took from the top corner; the Monday morning position. Her extra bubble packs are now stored in the lock box. The home care workers make sure to take the meds from the correct day’s bubble, even if it ended up being in the middle of a pack – which drive my mother bonkers. End result is, now that she was almost finished her current set of bubble packs, the Monday bubble was empty, and the home care worker refused to take them from another day.

It was difficult to understand my mother, as she was in rant mode and all over the place, but from what I got out of her, there was an old bubble pack that had just one day’s meds in it, and the home care worker could have given my mother that, but it was a Friday set of pills, not a Monday. So my mother didn’t get her pills this morning, and she was really angry about it. I asked if she wanted me to come in, and she said no. She didn’t want me driving all that way.

Her refills were to be delivered today, but she said they deliver after the pharmacy is closed, so that would be after her supper time med assist.

I told my mother I would call the home care case coordinator and talk to her about the situation, then call my mother back. I actually had to hang up on my mother because she started basically shouting “stupid, stupid, stupid” over and over again when I’d already said my goodbyes and told her I would call bac soon.

When I called the home care office, the case coordinator answered after the first ring. She was obviously expecting my call!

We talked about the situation and she confirmed what I already tried to explain to my mother (and the care aid did, too). They absolutely have to go by the days and times on the bubble packs, because some people take different pills on different days. The home care aids aren’t trained on the medications themselves. They just have to follow the care plan.

Then she told me she wanted to get together with me to go over my mother’s panel for long term care. Things have changed, and the paperwork needed to reflect that. So we made an appointment for this afternoon.

I then called my mother back.

She was in a completely different mindset, and was actually pleasant on the phone.

As we were talking, I decided I needed to get her meds, rather than wait for delivery. I told her I had an appointment in her town, so I would leave early, get her meds, drop them off and go to my appointment.

Once that was arranged, there really wasn’t anything of note I could start working on in the time period before I had to leave, so I ended up leaving even earlier than needed. I got her refills, which were already in the delivery area. It ended up costing over $200 (her pills are so cheap!), so I took care of that, then headed to my mother’s. She did pay me back.

The first thing I did was confirm that her new painkiller prescription was in. She told me that, after the doctor suggested it, she started using the topical painkiller she uses on her knees, on her back. Between that and Tylenol, she’s fine. But she also complained about waking up in so much pain, she couldn’t move to even reach her painkillers, so… I’m not even going to try and figure it out.

I opened up the lock box to put her bubble packs in, which is when I found out she still had pills for the rest of today, and tomorrow morning. She started telling me how she had told the care worker to just give her the pills for tomorrow morning, and started to get all angry again.

That was much of my time with my mother today. She would go from calm and normal speech, to getting really angry about something – but was associating thing with other things that are completely disassociated!

After a while, I got a message from my daughter. The case coordinator had call the farm to let me know she was available early. So I said my goodbyes and headed out right away.

When I got there, we updated each other on what happened this morning. It turns out the care worker had called the case coordinator from my mother’s place and she could actually hear my mother start to yell at the care worker.

The sad thing is, these home care aids probably deal with much worse in other homes!

We went through the entire panel for both physical and cognitive areas. Some of the questions are hard to answer, because we’re simply not with her to hear or see her engaging in the behaviour.

Along the way, I did tell her about what our vandal has been doing, since it does affect my mother’s health.

That reminds me; apparently, the last time he spoke with her, he said she had called the police on him and wanted to put him in jail. Which she never did, but he believes it.

By the end of it, the case coordinator told me she would go through it all and sort through the information to make sure they got to the right spots. With how my mother has been behaving, it’s looking like she may have crossed the threshold they need to get her into long term care/assisted living. I do hope it works out that way, because my mother really shouldn’t be living alone. As I was getting ready to leave, my mother was again saying how much she wanted to live in the long term care home so many of her old friends, her sister and my father, lived out their last days. I told her to take whatever comes available, just to get into the system! She can get into where she wants to be, later.

All of which has been very long and mentally exhausting. I’m literally falling asleep at my keyboard as, I type this, and have been correcting some of the craziest typos, and more than a few weird sentences!!! I’m hoping to get to bed early today. Tomorrow afternoon, my daughter and I have doctor’s appointments. We’ll both have the paperwork the doctor asked us to bring in, to start the application for disability.

Which means another day of delay with the stuff I want to get done as quickly as possible!

Ah, well. Such is life, eh?

I will be calling it a night soon, though. I’ll just make one more walkabout outside to check on things, then start heading to bed.

I am so…

…so…

…so…

…tired.

The Re-Farmer

New baby update

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After the heat of yesterday, this morning felt almost cold, at 16C/61F!

One of my goals with the new babies is to try and get them and their mama into the cat cage in the sun room. While setting out the kibble, Poirot joined the crowd on the cat house roof to eat, giving me a chance to see her babies in the cat bed.

I had already prepared bowls of wet cat food for the sun room kitties, and for Poirot. Once the cats were distracted with eating kibble outside, I closed up the inner door to the sun room (sort of; it doesn’t close completely without being forced) so the kittens and Brussel could have their wet cat food. Then I set things up in the cat cage, returning the cat cave into one of the bottom cubes. I’m hoping a nice, dark cave will be accepted by Poirot after we move her babies into it. When I was done, however, she was back with the babies and nursing them, so I just brought over her container of wet cat food. She was not happy with me coming close, but once the bowl was close enough, she devoured the food.

I hung around a bit to make sure the other cats didn’t come to steal her food before going back into the sun room and leaving the door open; the littles had eaten their fill by then. The other cats seemed to be ignoring Poirot and her babies, so I did the rest of my rounds, taking the time to water the winter sown beds that aren’t covered in plastic. By the time I got back to the house, Poirot had licked her bowl clean. She hissed at me when I moved it out. Before going in, I saw Brussel was tucked under the platform, on top of the cat cage, so I went to get our last two squeeze treats. Three of the littles were in the cat cage, so when Brussel wouldn’t come closer to have some treat, I was able to give a few squeezes to the babies. She did finally come closer to eat her treat. When the tube is almost empty, I squeeze the last of it out onto my finger and thumb, and she will lick that right off – then start growling at me for being too close!

I then went to give the last tube of treat to Poirot. When I came out, she was squeezing herself into the box covered part of the cat bed, getting her kittens in with her. I tried reaching in with the open squeeze treat, but I couldn’t see where her head was without lifting the top of the box (cats like to sit on it, so it’s bent). She was disturbed enough to start coming out of the box, at which point I practically shoved the squeeze treat to her mouth. Only then did she clue in that this was something good! I was able to give her most of the tube after that, but there was no chance of squeezing the last of it out only my fingers and letting her lick off the rest of it. That would have been pushing her tolerance too far! Stinky and Kohl were on the cat house roof while I was doing this, so they got the remains.

It’s not going to be easy to get Poirot into the cat cage. We were spoiled by Brussel actually giving birth in it, then willingly moving her babies into the shelter of the cat cave when we tucked into the cube next to her. Basically, I’ll have to wait until the kittens are alone, but Poirot is nearby enough to see me moving them. Tonight, we’re expecting a lot of 7C/45F, but tomorrow night we’re expecting a low of 0C/32F, so I really want to get them into a cozier shelter as soon as possible!

The Re-Farmer

Well, this heat was good for one thing! Plus, a surprise.

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My daughter and I headed outside for what was supposed to be one last check around the yard. That one raised bed cover needed more fussing with to keep the plastic from ballooning.

As we were finishing up, I asked her to go into the basement while I went to the ejector, so we could test it out. The septic pump had gone off not long ago, so I asked her to run the pump manually for just 30 seconds. My brother told me he’d left the cap off, in hopes it would warm up better in today’s heat.

Yes!!!! It’s working!!!

The stand pipe promptly got filled, because there is still ice on the bottom, but the venture pipe is finally clear! Every now and then, the water coming out would go completely black as it cleared settled gunk out.

My brother was so thrilled to hear the news!

Now, we just have to hope the warmer water flowing through will keep it from freezing up again, and actually help melt the ice in the stand pipe and the frozen ground, faster.

After messaging with my brother for a bit, I went to get a screwdriver to put the cap back on, forgetting that the screw on the elbow portion is a different size. So it was back to the house to get a smaller screwdriver and get it all put back together. My daughter, meanwhile, left the valve to the diverter closed. We’ll leave the diverter set up for a bit longer and, once we are sure it’s not going to freeze up again, we’ll store the pipes and hose used to direct the flow away from the house, then put a cap on the end of the pipe from the basement. With the valve installed, the diverter pipes in the basement can stay permanently, so if we ever had another emergency like this, all we would need to do is set things back up outside, then open the valve. Which, hopefully, we will never have to do again, but you never know, with this place!

While going back and forth to the house through the sun room, I made a sudden discovery.

With our water bowl shelter set up, we’d put a blanket in the back for cats to lie on. Then we added a couple of cardboard boxes, over time, just because cats love cardboard boxes. Plus, it would give them a bit more shelter from the elements, particularly in the winter.

This spring, while moving some of the cat beds around, I added one of them into the shelter, turning one of the boxes sideways and shoving half the cat bed into it, to create a sort of private cave. Something a mama might feel safe enough to have babies in, even. Not likely, considering the water bowls are in there, getting refilled a couple of times a day, and plenty of cat traffic, but you never know, right?

This afternoon, while topping up the water bowls, I spotted black fur on the cat bed, with the rest of the cat hidden by the box. My topping up the water bowl didn’t seem to disturb it, though, so I figured it was sleeping.

Well, apparently it wasn’t sleeping.

It was giving birth.

When going by this evening, I startled Poirot, and her new grublings!

It appears she has three. A white and black, a black with some white on the belly, and one that looks almost all white, but possibly with some cream patches, like Ghosty was when she was tiny.

After I was done putting the cap back on the ejector, I saw that Poirot was comfortably nursing, so I got a can of wet cat food for her. She is one of the more feral cats and doesn’t let us go near her, so I put it into a wider container, so I wouldn’t have to get too close for her comfort. She did start to get up, babies suddenly disturbed from nursing, and looked ready to either run away or go on the defense, but that gave me space to put the container into the cat bed with her.

I then stood guard to make sure no other cats went after her food while she was eating.

She must have been very hungry, because she ate the entire can and was licking the bowl clean before I could finally reach in and move it away.

We’re supposed to have some very cold nights coming up, so I’m hoping to perhaps move her and her babies into the cat cage.

While standing guard, I was hearing some maternal noises behind me. It was the white and grey mama.

She was trying to lure Eyelet away. Probably to wherever she has her third kitten hidden. I tried to discourage this and kept putting Eyelet back in the sun room. If she gets them away from the sun room, they won’t be getting their wet cat food anymore, and we won’t be able to socialize them. Well, Eyelet is quite happy with human attention. He brother is not!

Oh! I just thought of a good name for feisty brother!

Grommet!

Anyhow, I definitely would like to get them socialized, so they can be adopted out.

I’ve talked to the Cat Lady. This will be her last summer working with rescue. It has been taking a toll on her health, and she needs to back off. It’s a real struggle for her, as she’s been doing this since her teens, and she feels like she hasn’t made a difference. She says she will get three spays and a neuter for us over the summer, before she stops entirely. She also gave me the name of a no-kill rescue in the city she trusts that might be able to help out. This would get us on a wait list, but if we work on socializing the kittens, they might be able to have room to take them in for adoption by the time they are old enough to wean. So that’s a call I need to make, tomorrow.

Anyhow, finding Poirot just after she gave birth was a surprise. I suspected she was pregnant; the only reason we realized she was female was because I saw one of the other cats having his way with her. She didn’t look pregnant, though! She’s a fluffy cat, but not THAT fluffy, that we couldn’t see. I’ve even been looking at her, any time I’ve spotted her in the last while, trying to see if she was looking rounder or not, and deciding, not. Now she’s got three babies!

Meanwhile, I’ve moved the trap closer to the kibble house. I’ve even seen cats lounging in it – usually Syndol, who is already done! Now that it’s closer, and the overnight temps are warmer, I want to actually set the trap and see who we catch that isn’t already fixed. Tomorrow is Monday, so if we do one, Wednesday is the earliest we could get a cat to the clinic – if they can take us in on such short notice – because my daughter and I have medical appointments on Tuesday.

Here’s hoping!

The Re-Farmer

Kitty update, and… discovering unfortunate things

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With today’s heat, the cats have been splayed out in the shade absolutely everywhere!

The sun room thermometer was reading 30C/86F, which was actually the same as outside. The kittens were also puddled all over the place! I got the ceiling fan going, though, so that will help.

We spotted some excellent progress with the kittens!

They have discovered, and are using, the litter box! Something most of the adult cats haven’t figured out. So far, I’ve seen three of the four bigger kittens using it, including the adorable one above.

I had started calling this one Baby Button, because it reminds me of button so much. Today, my daughter came up with a much more entertaining name.

Eyelet.

So we now have Oofus the Brave and Eyelet named.

I checked on the cat house kittens. With today’s heat, I unplugged the power to the cat house, so the heat bulb will now be off, and so is the heated water bowl. Unless we drop below freezing overnight, we probably won’t need to plug it back in again.

I so wish we could reach into there! Once we have the chance, I want to cut a section out of the back wall and turn it into a door. That way, we can reach in and give them their own food and water, without having to lift the roof. The only other way to do it is through the entrance, which is at the opposite side of the cat house, and there is a sort of “porch” over what had been the original entrance. We can’t reach in very far, and other cats would just eat it first. These kittens look like they aren’t even leaving the cat bed yet, though they’re getting close.

My brother and his wife had come out again, today. I wasn’t expecting them at all and didn’t realize they were here until I went outside, just in time to see them leave!

With the message my brother got from our vandal yesterday, he wanted to talk to my mother about how our vandal found out they’d sold their property. He was too tired to visit her after hours working on that tree that fell on the outhouse, so he stopped by today.

Surprisingly, it actually turned out to be a good visit. He brought lunch, which turned out to be a good thing. My mother had gone to church, which tired her out enough that she went to sleep after, and she hadn’t eaten since whatever crackers she had when she got her med assist in the morning. After lunch, he set up my mother’s AC, in spite of her admonishing him that it’s too early, and then was all surprised that he got it done so quickly. He asked about the remote control so he could set it up, and she didn’t know where it was. He did some digging and finally found it, and was able to reprogram the default temperature on it. My mother does prefer things a lot warmer, as she gets older!

He did play the message our vandal had left him. My mother started going on about how he was the reason she moved away from the farm, because she was tired of his abusive behaviour (leaving my dad to be abused by him instead, but that’s another issue). Then she said that he keeps coming over and bringing her soup, and she tells him not to because his behaviour makes it taste bad.

She also said that the things he said in the message are much like what he says to her, and that he doesn’t let her get a word in when he’s there.

Yet… she doesn’t tell him to stop coming by.

When my brother asked about how our vandal knew they’d sold their property, she admitted that she might have mentioned it to him, a couple of weeks ago.

…

*sigh*

Then we found out that when he comes to visit my mother, when he walks down the hall, he tells everybody he meets all the accusations against me, my daughters and my brother about the farm and what he thinks we’re doing and saying. It turns out he even wrote out some long letter describing what he thinks we’re doing and left it in the common room. My mother didn’t see it until some time later and she tore it up. *sigh* She keeps all sorts of junk, but something important like this, and she tears it up!

Finding this out did explain something for my brother. While we was at his car and getting things to go inside, he started chatting with a guy that lives in my mother’s building. Not someone he’s met before. As they were talking and the guy realized he was my mother’s son, he said, “oh, so you’re the one who took the farm…”

My brother was so stunned and confused, he couldn’t say anything in response.

Now he knows why this guy said that.

The crazy thing is, the people in my mother’s building see me and recognize me. We’ve exchanged greetings and light conversation. I’m sure some of them have seen my brother, too. They know us.

So why would they believe the rantings and ravings of our vandal? Why would they even put up with him blathering at them in the common areas?

It’s getting to the point where I think I’m going to have to consult with a lawyer again. I’ve still got my Legal Shield membership, so any consultations are covered. It’s one thing for our vandal to be saying his crazy stuff about us to my mother or on phone messages. While I’ve suspected as much for some time, this is the first time it’s actually been confirmed that he is slandering us to others – even complete strangers. I don’t know that there’s much in Canadian law that we can do about it, but I can at least find out!

*sigh*

For someone who claims to be dying of cancer, he apparently hasn’t slown down even a little bit when it comes to his hate towards us. All because he thinks he’s somehow entitled to the property! I do understand that it isn’t even about him wanting it for himself so much and not wanting my brother to have it, or for us to be living here. In the 10 Commandments, it says “thou shalt not covet…” This is an example of covetousness. It’s one thing to see what others have an think “I wish I had that” and resent them for it. That’s your basic envy. It’s quite another to see what others have and think, “I should have that, not them,” and try to prevent others from having what they want, or try to have it taken from them. Marxism/socialism in a nutshell, really. The covetous person would rather see a thing destroyed, then see someone else have it. Or destroy the person who has what they want, and be willing to misuse the law and those in authority to do it. That is what our vandal is like.

Which makes it so frustrating when my mother just enables him and even allows him to turn her against my brother and me. He manipulated her so easily!

Another reason to try and get my mother into long term care or assisted living as soon as possible. There will be that extra layer of protection, and hopefully, our vandal won’t know where my mother will be at all.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Kitty update and… what heck, WP? This can’t be real!

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First, the cuteness – and something to keep an eye on.

The kitties are definitely enjoying being outside of the cat cage, though only the tiny adopted kitty wasn’t getting out of it very easily. They are often found piled up on or near the self warming mat – and all over each other!

Brussel is often found with grublings sleeping all over her!

In the second photo, you can see she is quite the creche mother, nursing any or all of the babies that want. She does have a permanently angry expression, though!

She is not, however, the only creche more anymore!

The next photo shows the mystery mother. I was able to get the picture through the bathroom window, as she avoids going into the sun room if we are around. Later on, as I was going through the sun room, I spotted her actively nursing several kittens, not just her own! I made a point of getting through the sun room as quickly as possible, so as not to scare her off, so no picture possible.

Not long ago, I noticed that the calico had developed a sore on her leg. It looked a lot like the one Ooofus The Brave had on a back leg, that is now all healed and the fur growing back. Today, however, I had my daughter check a clump of fur on her back leg. As she tried to wash it out, she discovered it was another wound. We weren’t able to do much at the time, but we’ll have to make sure to put some cat-safe antibiotic cream on both wounds, in the morning. If you watched her running around, you wouldn’t know the wounds where there at all. She is not favouring the injured legs at all. When Oofus had his on his back leg, it seemed to me it was the result of over grooming, likely because I’d accidentally dripped some squeeze treat onto him while feeding it to Brussel while he was nursing. It’s possible that same thing has happened to the calico, but it’s hard to know for sure. Hopefully, she will heal up as thoroughly as Oofus has.

On a completely different note, I have a WordPress mystery. It has to be some kind of glitch. I got a “you’re being noticed” increased traffic notification, but when I finally actually checked my stats… honestly, it has to be some kind of error. This is a small blog, with a small but steady flow of traffic – both views and visitors. As of right now, my stats are telling me I’ve had a whole 49 visitors today – and almost 5,300 views! That many views is a good month for this blog, not one day! Over 1,500 of these views are to the Home page/archives link. The next highest is a food related post that is typically at the top, with 40 views.

According to the stats, virtually all of these 5000+ views are from the US, with almost 2000 from Michigan and over 1000 from California. The Michigan views are almost all from Lansing – and almost all these views are from a desktop, not hand held device or laptop, which is also unusual these days. Even then, the devices information is odd. The browser is listed as “other”, and so is the OS.

How on earth did I get such a huge jump in views? It has to be some kind of glitch. It doesn’t even seem like it’s from a traffic inducing bot; I got hit with one of those a couple of days ago, when several dozen “like” notifications came through at a rate of almost 2 per second.

I would not be at all surprised if, a few days from now, my stats get “corrected” to something more usual!

The Re-Farmer

Moving Grublings – and a new tenant???

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I was in and out through the sun room a lot today (more on that in another post), which meant many opportunities to check on the kitties.

I ended up having to move the tiny one.

The girls had needed to pull the cat cage further from the wall to access kitties, and now Brussel likes to hang out in that space. The older kittens have no problem getting to her, but Caramel’s tiny baby can barely climb out of the cat bed she spends most of her time in. A few times going by, I saw her crying for mom – or at least some nip! – but Brussel kept behind the cat cage.

So I took the little grubling out. With the wet cat food we’ve been giving them, I’ve sacrificed a larger mixing spoon from the kitchen to be able to put it into the cat cage and not get attacked by Brussel. I ended up using it to hold the kitten to get it to the back of the cat cage, closer to Brussel. It worked well enough – she was able to get the rest of the way on her own!

The last I looked, two of the white and grey foundlings were snuggling in the cat bed. There is still no sign of the third one anywhere.

In the next picture, you can see the calico and her adopted sister snuggled together. The cats had knocked the self warming mat off the platform and I decided to leave it where it fell, and the kittens are making full use of it.

Oofus the Brave had been snuggled with them, too, but when he heard me moving about, he came over to say hello.

There were some issues with the new set up.

There was a skunk stuck in the corner, in the bottom of the shelf there. It couldn’t get out the usual way – behind the cat cage – because Brussel was there. It couldn’t get out in the only other direction, because it was blocked by the door of a cat carrier, and bundles of kittens.

There were two cat carriers stored there. I took one out completely, then move the other one aside, so the skunk could finally get out.

Except, it didn’t.

In fact, it seemed to be comfortably taking a nap in the corner!

The cats don’t seem bothered by it at all, in general.

I really hope it hasn’t decided to move in! We’ve already got one that keeps hiding under the counter shelf instead of leaving the sun room. It does eventually leave, but still…

The skunk wasn’t even there eating the cat kibble. There isn’t any, where it was sitting. It was just hanging out in the corner.

I want the sun room to be a safe place for the yard cats. Not the skunks!!

The Re-Farmer

Grubling update, and a near disaster

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Before I get into today’s stock up shopping post, I wanted to share an update on the grublings. Here are some video clips I took just a little while ago.

In the first video, we have the three kittens that don’t really leave the cat cage. The calico has, and has even figured out how to get out at the bottom, rather than climb out the “doorway”.

In the second video, we have Brussel’s black and white, who insists on climbing up the inside of the cat cage to clamber out the second level height doorway. This, even though he knows there is a kitten sized opening under it. He’s even used it. He just prefers to climb! He not clambers out as soon as we go into the sun room and wanders about. We really need to watch our step!

Oh, and he has a name, now. Oofus The Brave. 😄

The next video is of another brave baby that is constantly leaving the cat cage and wandering around. These two are also very much into eating solid food, which I’m sure is giving Brussel a break!

We haven’t seen the third foundling in a while. I have to assume the mama found a “nest” somewhere, and her baby has stayed with her. The other two seem content to stay with Brussel.

Last of all are Caramels other two little grublings. They seem so small compared to the others!!! I do wish we had a small door into the cat house in that back wall. That way, we could check on the babies, but also reach in to give them wet cat food. Right now, the only way into the cat house is by lifting the roof, and it’s definitely showing its age when we do that!

On another note, we had a near disaster with our transplants yesterday. Our first time using the portable greenhouse, and we almost lost and entire bin of tomato seedlings!

It’s possible the bin was knocked over by a cat – the door was tied open to keep it from getting too hot inside. It was also really windy, and that bin had been tucked into a corner on a top shelf. It’s possible the wind pushed the plastic enough to knock the bin right off.

My daughter helped me gather up the soil and repot the seedlings that had fallen out entirely. Some cups had very little damage. One seedling was completely buried in soil and it took some careful searching by my daughter to spot it. We lost a fair bit of the soil, as there was no way to scoop it all up out of the grass without getting too much debris, but I’ve got that bucket of reconstituted coconut fibre in there, and we were able to use that to top up the cups.

Once these were repotted, everything went back into the old kitchen for the night. Before I headed out this morning, the greenhouse has warmed up enough to move them back in. I even left the doorway partially unzipped so it wouldn’t get too hot. Happily, everything was fine when I got back! It was also warm enough that I opened the door all the way and tied it off. It’s nice enough today that we don’t need to move them back into the old kitchen for quite a while. I still don’t dare leave them in there overnight.

It’s too early to tell with the potted up seedlings, but the squash transplants show significant improvement after just a couple of days in the greenhouse. In the basement, when the true leaves started coming in, they were pale and almost on the yellow side. They needed better light. Looking at them today, there is no sign of yellowing in the leaves, and the plants are even looking more robust and slightly bigger! The luffa were really struggling, and we lost one of the three seedlings. A second one was just not growing, and still had only its seed leaves. Now that they are in the greenhouse, the one that had its first true leaves is showing definite signs of growth, and I think I’m even seeing the beginnings of true leaves showing up in the other one! The melons are going to do a lot better in there, too. Even the chitting potatoes hadn’t been showing any real growth while in the basement, and a few pieces simply shriveled up. Now, they’re starting to show some signs of growth, too. It would have been so much better if we could have put them into the greenhouse earlier! Ah, well. It’s our first time using it, and I’m happy with it so far!

Looking forward to calling an early night tonight, after the transplants are brought back inside. Doing the stock up shopping always wipes me right out. I’m glad I got it done, though. I’ll post about that, soon – after I have the supper my daughter has made for me!

She’s such a sweetie.

The Re-Farmer

Mystery babies! Plus, this and that

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Last night, my older daughter started hearing kittens outside, meowing loud enough for her to hear them over her headphones. So she went to see what was going on.

She found three mostly white kittens wandering around in the yard, crying. No mother in sight.

So she scooped them up and put them into the cat cage with Brussel.

Brussel was quite okay with the new additions.

What a good mama she is!

The image and video above were taken last night.

They were still there this morning, and my daughters kept an eye on them while I was away.

I admit, when I did my morning rounds, I was on the lookout for bodies. If there were more to the litter and they were outside during last night’s cold, they would not have made it. When I checked the thermometers, it was about -10C/14F inside the greenhouse and the covered bed in the old kitchen garden. Happily, I found nothing.

Brussel’s black and white kitten has been really working at climbing out of the cat cage and, this afternoon, he finally succeeded. One of the new babies discovered the opening under the door. So when I got back, there were two kittens I had to be really careful about not stepping on when I got home!

In the above slideshow, you can see the two most active kittens outside the cat cage. The last image in the series is the possible mother.

As of this evening’s feeding, there are now only two of the white kittens in the cat cage. It looks like Mamma has come for them.

Usually, the mamas bring their babies to the house when they are old enough to be weaned. They bring them here and basically leave them where the food is. This doesn’t typically start until late June, at the earliest, July or August. These babies are definitely NOT old enough to wean, so it’s strange that they should show up like this. The Cat Lady and her rescue have been updated. After last night, things should warm up enough for it to be safe to start trapping and hopefully getting more ladies spayed before we have more kittens!!!

As for me, I am totally exhausted. I went to my mother early, to be there for her doctor’s appointment. The confusion about her puffer was cleared up. She showed me the bottle she was talking about.

It was the spray for dry mouth.

She thought it was an inhaler.

I’m not going to get into all the stuff about her visit; it would just be too much. Suffice to say, this was note on of her good days, and she went off about my brother and how terrible he is, and even admitted that our vandal “was right”; she believes all the lies and slander he has said about my brother. It blows me away that she trusts the person that is the most abusive towards me, while treating the person who has given and sacrificed so much for her like crap.

On the plus side, the home care aid showed up while I was there. She was new to the schedule; it turns out the regular person was away today, so she was the substitute.

My mother recognized her. She provided home care for my late father. She even remembered him and the farm, and had the nicest things to say about him. I told her that, at the time, I was living in another province, but when I phoned my dad, he would go on and on about how great they were treating him and what excellent care he was getting. He was definitely a favourite of all the home care workers.

My mother is very, very different.

After the telephone medical appointment was done, I stayed long enough to get laundry going, then did some grocery shopping for her. She also had stuff to pick up at the pharmacy, which gave me a chance to talk to them about things discussed with the doctor this morning. After I got home, I called home care and left a message about relevant things they needed to know.

Speaking of medical appointments, my husband FINALLY has an appointment at the new pain clinic.

In June.

He doesn’t expect them to be able to do anything at all for him, though. After all these years, he’s gone though all the options and has given up on anyone being able to help him just control the pain, never mind improve.

On a less pleasant note… I hate being right sometimes.

Last night, as I predicted, Marx Carnage was installed as our new Prime Dictator. The media has been priming us for that result from the start. Yes, there were plenty of shenanigans. The election was called before ballots were even counted.

The ballots from the advance polls get counted after the regular polls. There were 7 million votes cast at the advance polls, but the election was called before they were counted. Video has surfaced of people taking the sealed ballot boxes out of their secure locations – one person was even seen rifling inside a ballot box – and taken to someone’s private home. Vote counting is not supposed to stop until it’s done, but they stopped at 9:30pm, after ballot boxes had been unsealed, then starting up again in the morning. Etc.

Then there was this.

This is a ballot from CPC Leader, Pierre Poilievre’s riding. Over 20 years of him serving that riding, there was never a ballot like this before, nor was there another like it anywhere in Canada. That’s 90 names running against him. He lost in his own riding because of it. Most of the people on there are listed as Independents. Most of them apparently didn’t even know their names were on the ballot. To be listed as an independent in this riding, it costs $1000, and only 50 signatures needed, per potential candidate. Now picture that process, 100 times, with 90 making it to the ballot. Somehow, Elections Canada didn’t question this. As the party leader, Poilievre can run in a bi-election elsewhere, but this seriously needs to be investigated. It won’t be, of course.

Dozens of ridings have results with less than 1% between the top two candidates. Normally, that would trigger an automatic recount. I doubt it will.

About the only good news is that the NDP lost so many seats, they lost official party status. Sellout Singh lost his riding and resigned.

The Liberals got a minority, but the Bloc, which is in Quebec only, got enough seats that they can form a de facto coalition with the Libs, just like the NDP did, and they will essentially get the majority government they were after. Another dictatorship.

There are a few things that can happen from here. The Libs already put out a report promising… er… predicting that people are going to be so desperate in a few years, they will be forced to resort to hunting, fishing and foraging on public land (people are already doing that), among other things. They plan to do things like tax the equity on people’s homes, along with their capital gains tax and layers of carbon taxes. They want to ban vehicles with combustion engines, and phase out the energy industry, phase out meat, etc. Basically, Canadians are about to see some very hard times.

I see a few possible options. Some have predicted that things will fall apart so fast, we’ll have another election within the year. I don’t think so. Another possibility is, Alberta will finally separate. Thanks to Quebec threatening to do this for decades, the process is actually easy. A referendum is held with a clear question, and a simple majority wins. So if AB holds a referendum and 50.1% votes in favour of separating, the results must legally be accepted. If they go, SK will soon follow. MB and BC won’t be far behind, though both have NDP premiers right now, so that will stall things.

If AB goes, Canada’s biggest cash cow is gone. Quebec will go bankrupt in no time at all, since they depend almost entirely on equalization payments to pay for their socialist paradise. The Western provinces and probably the territories will combine to form a new republic (this has been in the works for years, and there is already a draft constitution, among other groundwork). Without having the federal government and the Eastern provinces sabotaging everything, this would easily become one of the most prosperous countries in the world. Just as Canada could have been already.

Or, the provinces could separate and join the US. Which I think is jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, but it would still be loads better than continuing under a corrupt Liberal government, and a system designed to favour one part of the country at the expense of another.

Well, we’ll see how it pans out.

For us, it’s doing more of the same; trying to be as self sufficient as possible, grow and produce our own food as much as possible. It’s something we’ve been working towards anyhow. It has just become more urgent to get there.

The Re-Farmer

Chilly

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Today is definitely working out to be a chilly day. Depending on what app I look at, we are at either 1C, 0C or -1C! (34F, 32F or 30F). We’re supposed to reach a high of 5C/41F by early evening, but that’s also when the high winds are supposed to hit us, too.

Yesterday’s high pain day did lead to a high pain night, and these fluctuating temperatures sure don’t help. Part of the problem is that a lot of my pain actually gets worse after I lie down. Particularly with my hips. Along with my prescription pain killers (which are working even less than the first ones my doctor tried me on), I had to get my husband to slather on the Tei Fu lotion before I could finally fall asleep. With the cool and overcast conditions we have now, I feel like I could crawl back into bed right now and sleep for another week.

*sigh*

While doing my morning rounds, I tried to get a picture of the littles in the cat house.

It’s through a window, zoomed in and cropped, so a pretty terrible picture, but you can at least see the two littles in there, in the cat bed under the ceramic heat bulb.

In the sun room, the little black and white kitten almost managed to climb all the way out of the cat cage! I managed to snag him for cuddles before he did, then distracted him with wet cat food pieces I’d put into their cat bed. Once he figures out he can get out on his own, it’ll be pretty hard to keep them in there! At that point, I’ll unblock the opening under the doorway, so they can get in and out freely. There is currently a stuffy in front of the opening, and the “door” is hanging down over it on the outside. I’ll set something to hold the door panel away from the opening.

With the cooler temperatures, we’ll be staying inside for the most part, but I really want to get the one garden bed with the sprouts covered. When I checked on it this morning, there were fresh signs of digging in it. Not in areas where sprouts are coming up, thankfully, but seeds are spread out pretty evenly in this bed, so any digging at all is potentially killing things off.

My goal for today is now to pot up the peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. I am thinking we may have to start using the portable greenhouse, as even with the lights, the basement set up is just not cutting it anymore. The thermometer in the greenhouse was at just below freezing when I checked it this morning.

In theory, we could put things in the portable greenhouse during the day, then bring them into the sun room overnight. We do have the platform and shelves. The problem is, it’s still set up for the cats to use. We could move things around, but I still think the cats would end up knocking things about, or even walking right over them. They don’t deliberately try to get at the pots. It’s more a matter of them getting from point A to point B, and just going through whatever is in their way at the time. We’ve got to figure something out, though.

But first, we’ve got to get the seedlings transplanted.

In other things, I remembered to book a telephone appointment for my mother with her doctor to go over the blood tests and Xrays results. I was surprised when the receptionist asked if I wanted to book the call for today, but that would have been way too short notice for my mother. So I booked it for tomorrow morning. I then called to let my mother know, but it went to machine. She might have been out voting. Today is election day, and they set a mobile poll up in her building for people like my mom, who can’t get to the regular polling station. We voted at the advance polls, already, just in case something came up today. Of course, we’re already hearing about all sorts of election shenanigans going on. Ballot boxes from the advance polls are supposed to be kept sealed at a secure location. Just this morning, I was watching a video someone took. The guy happened to go shopping at a store next to the polling station and surreptitiously recorded ballot boxes being loaded into personal vehicles. One guy had opened the ballot box and was rifling through it. The guy taking the recording ended up following the vehicle, and the boxes were taken to someone’s home. He even questioned the people doing in, but thinks they figured he might be recording. They claimed they were moving the boxes to a secure location, which was obviously not true.

Meanwhile, in BC, people working in remote locations are told they are not going to be able to vote. For these jobs, people get flown in to work for 2 weeks, then flown out for 1 week off. They come from all over the country to work these very high paying jobs in the energy sector. Normally, they would be bussed to the nearest town to vote on election day. It’s been done this way for many years. Only a couple of days ago, they were told that, because they didn’t live in that town, they wouldn’t be able to vote there.

A lot of people going to advance polls told of polling stations running out of ballots (which should never happen), and being given blank pieces of paper and told to write in the person they wanted to vote for. This morning, I watched an interview with a couple of seniors that had a mobile polling station, like at my mother’s building – but it came on Thursday (the advance polls closed on Monday night). They didn’t have ballots, and the “scrutineers” offered to write in the names of who they wanted to vote for, for them. The women even saw them “help” one of their neighbours vote, and this was someone with cognitive decline that they knew would not have had any idea who she was voting for. Another example of shenanigans was in the riding for Opposition and CPC leader, Pierre Poilievre. The ballots had 90 candidate names running against him! There are only 16 registered parties for the federal election, and most of those do not have enough candidates to be in all ridings. The candidates are listed in alphabetic order by surname, so Poilievre’s’ name would have been in the middle somewhere. All this is on top of the RCMP report that the CCP has been actively working to influence the election results (the guy the Libs installed as the new leader and, by default, the current PM, has borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from the CCP). The Governor General (who is supposed to be a neutral representative of the Crown, and was chosen by the Liberal party) approved millions of dollars to the Libs not long ago, even though Parliament is shut down for the election, so there was no debate to approve it and no one knows what the money was for. Etc. We’ve got the most corrupt government in Canada’s history, and now what is obviously the most corrupted federal election in our history. The only thing we can do is hope enough people get out and vote, to make it too big to rig. It’s blatantly obvious, in spite of the government paid polls saying otherwise, that the Libs can’t win. If they do, Canada will fall apart; everyone knows it would not be a legitimate win. Alberta has been ready to separate for years. Thanks to Quebec threatening to separate for so many decades, this is one thing that is relatively simple. A referendum is held, and all that’s needed is a simple majority. If AB goes, SK will soon follow. BC and MB would, too, except both currently have NDP leaders, and they are hand in glove with the Libs, so as much as the population would want to, the leadership is unlikely to actually act on behalf of their own citizens. Unlike other parties, there’s no real separation between provincial NDP and federal NDP. Even Ontario is talking referendum. Northern ON is getting very tired of being screwed over by more populous southern regions.

Personally, I am going to ignore the media for the day as much as possible, and not check in until evening. With our first past the post system, the election will be decided by the East well before the polls close in the West. Another frustration. Canada needs something like the US Electoral College. It’s one thing to vote for your local representative. Is should be something else to vote for the PM. Right now, leader of whatever party gets the most elected MPs because leader by default. No one votes for the PM in Canada. We currently have 343 ridings, so what we really have is 343 independent elections, all on the same day. I fully expect that the Conservatives will win by a landslide, but that Marx Carnage will somehow get reinstalled as PM anyhow. Lord knows, the media has been priming us for a Liberal “win” for weeks now. The psychological manipulation and behavioural modification has been out in full force. What gets me is that it’s so blatant, and so few people care. They seem quite happy to be manipulated.

Well, what happens, happens. We’ll figure it out when the time comes.

I’m going to go tend to my seedlings now.

The Re-Farmer

Huge progress this morning!

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The last thing I do before doing back into the house after doing my rounds, is give Brussel a squeeze treat. For all that Brussel still hisses and scratches, she has picked up on the routine. While I feed the other cats their dry kibble, she goes into the cat cage and starts nursing her babies, waiting for her wet cat food. I go that after all the other cats are fed and watered, so that the sun room tends to be empty and she doesn’t get disturbed by cats wanting her treat. I do my rounds, giving her time to eat – and her black and white kitten! – then give her a squeeze treat. This usually involves me having to reach into the cat cage while she’s nursing or standing guard over her babies. Lots of growling involved, and she typically finishes her treat by attacking my hand!

Brussel has been out of the cat cage and away from her babies a lot more often as they get bigger. Today, as I was finishing up, she didn’t go back into the cat cage like she usually does. She just hung out in front of the door to outside.

So I went ahead and tried to give her her squeeze treat, anyhow.

She let me, and that right there was a huge step up.

Then I tried to pet her.

She wasn’t too keen on it, but the lure of the squeeze treat was greater than her desire to run away. I was able to keep petting her while she licked at the squeeze treat tube.

Then Stinky started pushing his way in to get some, too. She kept looking at me as if to say, “why aren’t you getting him away from me???” Which I tried to do a bit.

When the treat was done, she didn’t attach my hand, probably because Stinky was in the way. She also let me keep petting her. Not only that, but she allowed me to give her thorough, two handed neck skritches.

She even started to purr!

I was able to pet enough of her to identify where she has mats in her fur. I feared she would be as bad as Kohl was, but thankfully, no. Just a few lumps and bumps in her fur.

After a while, she did finally try to attack my hand again, but by then, I was already moving away. I did try again later, as she was heading towards the cat cage again, but she wasn’t happy with that and ended up sitting out of my reach at the window (third photo of the slide show above).

Her babies need names.

Any suggestions?

I also got to pet the tuxedo hanging out on one of the cat beds on the platform. Today, he was quite cooperative, and even rolled onto his back so I could pet his belly.

I’m about 95% sure he’s one of ours, but he’s so friendly, and he’s not a cat that hung out in the sun room during the winter. We have a whole group of males that have been super friendly, and he hasn’t been part of that crowd. Even now, when I put kibble on the cat house roof, where I usually get a mass of friendly males pushing and shoving for attention, he’s not among them. So I wonder if he’s from somewhere else? One of the neighbouring colonies? A drop off? Either way, he is much more like a pet than a semi-feral cat.

On a side note, watching his behaviour, I find myself wondering if he has vision problems. Something just seems a bit… off, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I’ve sent all the above photos and video to the Cat Lady. Hopefully, she can put the word out about them and we’ll get some adoptions happening! That would be awesome.

The Re-Farmer