kittens

Gosh, it felt good…

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… to get some physical labour done!

My broken old body may betray me now and then, or the weather may not be cooperative, but gosh I do love it when I can do physical labour!

I actually ended up going into town again today. I realized we weren’t going to have enough kibble for the outside cats to last us until our first stock up shop next week, and with other things on my calendar, it was either get it now, or run out before then.

I did wait until later in the morning to go, though. While we got a smattering of snow last night, mostly we got freezing rain. The highway conditions group I’m on has been quiet the last while, other than warnings about deer activity or accident sites, as road conditions have been really good. This morning, I was seeing warnings as soon as I opened my FB app about how dangerously slippery various highways were.

Even as I was heading out, when things had warmed up, I almost slipped while opening the gate. There is a pair of large spruces that shade it for most of the day – especially this time of year – so it was still all ice. Today was pretty warm, and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, so hopefully it will all dry up before tomorrow night, when I have to drive to and from my mother’s, after it gets full dark and the temperatures are below freezing.

Normally, I would have gone to the nearest Walmart for more kibble, but with the cost of gas, I decided to try the other grocery store in town. They have a house brand kibble that the cats will actually eat, even if they don’t like it as much as other brands, that is more affordable. I lucked out. Their 8kg/17.6lbs bags were on sale for $17, which made it cheaper than the one 15kg/33lbs house brand bag that was available. Since I was there anyhow, I was able to take advantage of some sales and got a few more little things, but it was still mostly the cat food.

That done, I headed outside after lunch to see what I could do to take advantage of the lovely weather. One of those things was to set up the little scaffolding we picked up second hand, a couple of years ago, under my bedroom window that leaks. I was going to caulk it, originally, but changed my mind and decided to go with a spray sealant.

I’m glad I did.

While scrubbing off cob webs and debris, I got a good look at the outside of that window for probably the first time in my life. On the side that we used to be able to open, I could see that there was a pane of glass added, with moveable clips holding it in place. The other window has the clips, but not the extra pane of glass. The clips are painted over, so they don’t actually move anymore, but that could be changed, if necessary.

Looking around, though, I could see why the window was having issues with leaking, when the winds drove rain in just the right direction. The house was painted the summer before we moved in, and some of it was starting to peel away. I could see gaps that should have been filled. I don’t think they were there when the window frame was painted.

I hope the spray sealant works, but there might be issues. It’s supposed to be used at temperatures between 10-35C/50-95F. At the time I started working on it, we were at about 4C/39F.

The directions said to wait 10 minutes between coats so, after I applied the first coat, I set a timer, then started working into the spruce grove.

With the leaves down and the foliage dying back, I went through to find the last section of tree trunk from one of three dead spruces my brother cut down for me, several years ago, to use as raised bed frames. I step counted what was left, and figured I could get 18′ out of it, after trimming off the remains of the tree top. My daughter had already trimmed the branches away when we used part of the trunk for the low raised bed frame most recently completed.

There was still the issue of getting to it, and that required cutting away some new growth. I also noticed a lot of nice, straight poplars, as well as cherry suckers. In time, I went to get rid of that entire stand of cherries, as they are not the right type for our climate and don’t produce. They just spread through their roots. For now, though, I started to widen the opening into the spruce grove by cutting away cherry suckers. I was getting enough nice, long and relatively straight pieces that when my timer went off and I stopped to apply another coast of sealant, I messaged my daughter to see if she could come help. I dragged the pile with the straightest stems over to the branch pile (the more crooked ones went straight onto the pile), and she came out to trim away all the little twigs and branches, and setting aside the longest, straightest sections.

I got quite a bit of the cherry cleaned up – and two more coats of sealant on the window – before I stopped with the cherry stand and started working my way to the downed tree trunk. At this point, I was saving the straightest poplar suckers. Like cherry, these spread through roots.

All of this took a couple of hours of before I finally got things clear enough around the downed tree. This part of the trunk was fairly narrow, and I was able to trim the top of it with a pruning saw to get it clear.

Then there was the question of how to drag it out.

We have a rock pile near our power pole that I’d gone through to collect rocks that will form the wall of a flower bed near the gate, where my mother’s angel statue is on display. Lying upside down on the rock pile was an old child’s sled. How many decades it’s been sitting there, I can’t be sure. I decided to grab it and try something, to make dragging the tree trunk out easier. I brought that, some rope with heavy duty latch hook clips at each and, and a metal bar to use as a handle, over to the tree trunk. The sled went under the far end – the top of the tree – so that it would slide through the remaining underbrush, rather than dragging along the nubs of branches that were bound to be on the underside of the trunk.

At the near end, I looped the rope under the trunk, past some branch nubs, so it couldn’t slip, then put the metal bar through the latch hooks to make a handle.

It did actually work.

For a while.

The only problem was that I had no way to secure the tree trunk to the sled. After a while, the sled got hung up enough that the tree finally slid right off. By that time, however, I’d gotten it through the worst of the underbrush and could keep dragging it as it was.

Well… almost.

Without the sled, there were still branch nubs catching and digging into the dirt. When it got to the point that I needed to turn the trunk so that it could be dragged between trees and into the main garden area, I called my daughter over for help. The trunk itself was not that heavy, relatively speaking. The first section of it that we dragged out before was the thickest part of the trunk, and THAT was heavy!

Between the two of us, we maneuvered it through the trees and into the main garden area, near where the next trellis bed will be built. From the looks of it, compared to the nearby 18′ raised bed, I’d say it’s about 18.5′, maybe closer to 19′ long. Which gives me some wiggle room to trim the ends when it’s time to use it for a garden bed wall.

We “just” need three more 18′ lengths, plus four 4′ lengths for the ends, to make a matching trellis bed.

By this time, it was getting too dark to keep going, so we just gathered things to be put away and did some clean up. My daughter had managed to trim quite a lot of the cherry and poplar I’d harvested, and those got added to the pile on the chain link fence garden bed, where they will be used to make new, slightly higher, walls. I doubt I’ll be able to actually build them this year, but we should at least have most of the materials needed to do it in the spring. Since these will be deadwood walls, not wattle weave, I don’t have to worry about keeping the lengths flexible. They can stay where they are all winter, and still be useable.

Since it was so dark by the time we were done, I didn’t get any pictures of our progress, but I did get this…

Would you look at how that little mostly white kitten is splayed out? 💕💕

That tuxedo’s eyes are too big for its head. 😄

Tomorrow, I’m going to look around in the spruce grove some more and see what can be done next. Several dead spruces have fallen on their own already. The based of their trunks, however, are huge. The ones that are too big to use for raised bed walls without being milled, will be cut to 10′ lengths and set aside. I need a total of ten of them for the posts of the outdoor kitchen we want to build and, so far, I have only one!

Unfortunately, the space I’d set it aside in, with plans to add more as I was able to harvest them, now has my brother’s baler parked in it. I’ll have to find somewhere else to store nine more 10′ logs!

There are, however, more dead spruce trees that need to be cut down, that are not so wide at the base. Not only am I looking to harvest them for the pairs of trellis beds that will become trellis tunnels, but there are another 5 or 6 already prepped low raised beds that need walls. The trellis beds will be 2 logs high for starters, but the low raised beds will be one log high for starters. We can add more height to them over time, as we are able, but the main thing is to get them framed. The goal is for most of the beds to be 4 logs high, like the current 9′ long high raised bed. That one is the perfect high for excellent reach without back or joint pain. Some beds will remain lower, to be used for tall climbers or things like corn, but I still want them to be at least two logs high.

I’ve been thinking ahead to the open area closer to the food forest. I’m hoping to have at least two more pairs of trellis tunnel beds beyond what is being worked on now. Give the amount of sun, etc. the open area gets, I am thinking of how to set up polytunnels. Perhaps we can continue to build more pairs or raised beds, but instead of forming trellis tunnels over the paths in between them, we can add supports to the outsides of the beds and cover them with greenhouse poly. I think we’d have room to build two, maybe three, pairs of beds as we get closer to the food forest area. If we can do that, it would allow us to grow perennials that would otherwise not survive our winters, and extend our growing season significantly. With the amount of direct sun that area gets, a polytunnel would be very warm, even in winter. We’d just have to find a way to keep it from getting too cold overnight.

Things to think about!

We will, eventually, run out of dead spruces we can harvest for this and will have to go further afield to find materials. Once we’ve cleared the spruce grove of dead trees and underbrush – and those spirea that I’d pulled out but came back anyhow! – I want to start transplanting spruces from other areas and make the spruce grove a spruce grove again. With how poplar spreads through its roots, it’s taking over. They are a useful material to harvest for various projects, but they are not as good at protecting from winter winds as the spruces are. With all the stumps we are leaving taller, we’ll also be able to use those to create benches and tables, and make ourselves a nice little park in there. When I was a kid, I used to be able to mow in there. Not any more! It would be great to have a space in there that my husband can go into with his walker, and just sit and enjoy the outdoors. Plus, once we’ve cleared out the cherry stand and all the dead spruces, we’ll be able to finally build that outdoor bathroom with a composting toilet I’ve been wanting to build, to replace the outhouse over a pit.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for 8 years now. When we first moved here, we’d developed a year by year plan on what we wanted to work on, staring with the inner yard, then moving outwards.

Things certainly have changed. Not the main goals, perhaps, but how and when we plan to reach them. That all four of us are also now broken, one way or another, with three of us officially considered disabled (my older daughter still won’t see a doctor and, really, I can’t blame her), that has changed our focus as well.

Which makes me appreciate days like today, when I can get out there and do things like drag tree trunks around! Even if I do need some help from my daughter. 😄

The Re-Farmer

A mostly quiet day, mother issues, plus, cats. 😄

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Today was expected to be chillier, with the forecasted high covering at, or just below, freezing, depending on what app I looked at and when. The next two days are supposed to be much warmer, and likely the last warm days of the year, so I’m planning activities accordingly.

Since moving out here (I forgot all about our 8 year anniversary here, almost a week ago!), our plans tend to very much revolve around the weather and the seasons!

The day started out with my usual routine, which always starts with tending to the yard cats.

Furriosa looks hilariously furious! Pinky is healing well and seems absolutely indifferent to her surgical site. I supposed her shaved belly must feel at least somewhat cold, but being in the heated isolation shelter is probably enough to make up for that. Especially when she has three kittens to cuddle up in the bed and keep her warm!

We’re going to have to do something about the second bed in the lower level. The litter box has been kicked around, and it is being used – somewhat – but they’re also using the lower level cat bed as a litter box, too! The trick will be to open up the ramp door to reach all that, without letting Pinky escape. The kittens have zero interest in leaving, but there’s still a chance she might. I believe she’s been trying to scramble through the roof. The rigid insulation above where the extension cord comes in is now very torn up!

Things that we’ll need to deal with, during the next few warmer days.

The first unexpected part of the day was an early phone call.

From the Home Care coordinator.

She got a report about my mother yesterday.

My mother had called me last night and, at one point, she started going off on how the home care workers, these “educated people”, didn’t know how to use her microwave. It’s so simple! I’d explained to her that her microwave is so old, none of them would have seen one like it before, and to give them time to learn how she wants things done, now that they are doing meal assists on top of her med assists.

Now I know why it was on her mind.

It turns out that when one of the home care workers went to use the microwave, my mother suddenly said NO! very loudly, grabbed her arm and sort of slammed it on the counter (not sure how that would have worked considering how things are laid out in her kitchen), then did the microwaving herself. The worker told my mother not to touch her like that and my mother did apologize.

Still, this is the sort of thing that could get her home care cancelled outright, and between my siblings and I, none of us are in a position to take over if that happens.

We talked about it for a while. One of the things that is part of the issue is how my mother is having more difficulty finding her words and gets very frustrated and angry. She expects everyone around her to just know what she is trying to say, what she wants, what she means. There’s no excuse for taking it out on people – especially not physically! I explained about my mother not understanding why people don’t know how to use her microwave and how, with her, she leaps to thinking people are stupid for not knowing things she finds obvious. This is not a new thing, by any means, but it is getting worse as her ability to communicate declines.

I assured the coordinator that my siblings and I would have a talk with my mother about it, and extended my apologies.

Then I updated my siblings in our group chat about my mother. I just finished doing that when my younger daughter came over and asked me what my plans were for the day. She and her sister had been talking, and were hoping to be able to go hunt for some energy drinks. More specifically, Monster energy drinks. They’re out of stock or of limited stock lately. We’ve tried other brands and have not been impressed by them.

I really miss Beaver Buzz! No one carries those anymore though, according to their website, places like both grocery stores in town still do. Maybe in other provinces, because I’m not even finding them in the city.

We decided to go into town and see what was available at the grocery store and, if that didn’t work out, we could at least try a gas station. They tend to have the individual cans at much better prices. We left early enough that, after checking the budget, we were able to grab a late breakfast, too.

Once at the grocery store, I picked up a few things as well, taking advantage of the trip, while my daughter did a much larger shop. Including energy drinks. She found 4 packs of Monster, on sale, and got the last three.

That done, we were soon on are way home. I considered stopping at the post office to see if any packages came in, but our timing was off. It was still morning, but they close at 11:30 for 2 1/2 hours, and we were just leaving town as they would have closed. When we got home, I checked tracking and found that yes, we did have two “attempted deliveries” (which means, there’s a card in our mail box). A third item is now in the city, though, which means it’ll show up on Monday morning. I decided to wait until then, since one of the items that came in today is the micro SD memory card to go with the security camera I got to monitor the isolation shelter.

I just realized something else this camera could be used for. We will have to trap the more feral cats and, with the females, we’ll have to do this in the winter, before they go into heat in the spring. The problem is, we aren’t able to monitor a trap and don’t want to risk a cat (or raccoon, or skunk…) freezing to death before we can check the trap. If we have this extra outdoor, solar powered security camera, we can set it up and we should be able to get notifications, and check the live feed.

Hhhmmm… that could work.

But first, it needs to be set up to monitor the isolation shelter, so we can tell when the raccoons are trying to tear their way into it again!

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get that done next week.

As soon as I was able to, I called my mother to have a talk with her. When I brought up that the Home Care coordinator had called me this morning and why, my mother immediately said that she realized she’d done the wrong thing and apologized. From how she described it, the home care worker had her hand on the dial of her microwave (which has a dial for the timer and a start button; that’s it) that my mother had pushed away. That actually makes more sense than what the coordinator described to me on the phone. We talked about it for a while and my mother went off again about how they didn’t know how to do things, like use the microwave. I had to keep repeating that her microwave is nothing like modern ones – and even with modern ones, there’s still a learning curve, because they’re all different. To her, not being able to use her “so simple” microwave means they’re all stupid. It took a while to talk her through that.

Then she started going on about her upcoming MRI. She is clearly working herself up about it and was trying to get out of having it done. She doesn’t need it. There’s no reason for it. It’s so late on a Sunday night…

We already went through this last night, but we went through it again. It’s Home Care that needs it, in paneling her for a nursing home. She had some difficulty separating out that this isn’t about her thinking (cognitive decline), but about her physical brain. I finally said that, if they found a tumor or something, they’d be sending her to a hospital, not a nursing home. Not quite accurate. In the end, she fell back on the “it’s a scam”, and starting talking about how they just want people to die. Especially old people.

I had to distract her from that one but I have to admit, she’s not wrong about that last part. Considering the insane rise in MAiD killings, what was done to seniors during the illegal lockdowns resulting in thousands of deaths, on top of the thousands of people in Canada dying every year on waiting lists for tests and treatment, she’s got a point. Some areas – major cities, mostly – are far worse than others. One thing is for sure. Once she does get admitted into a nursing home like she wants, my siblings and I are doing to have to be on top of everything going on with her treatment. If she gets in to the one in town, where she wants to be, I’ll still be the closest and can check on her, but also, that particular nursing home did very well by my dad and my aunt, so I think she’d be okay there. It’s hard to say, the way things are changing these past few years, though. Especially with our current provincial government.

But I digress.

Towards the end of our conversation, I reiterated with my mother on making sure to treat everyone nicely, and she started telling me how much she loves all the girls, how beautiful they all are (it seems some of the new girls are very pretty) and how nice they dress (one of them wore a shirt with flowers my mother really liked). She said some of them stop to chat with her as well, and she really appreciated that. Lately, she says she hasn’t been going to the common room of her building, as it’s getting so hard for her to move around and she doesn’t even get dressed for the day, so having someone to talk to helps her a lot.

She so needs to be in a care home!!

After talking to my mother, I updated my siblings again, then started to send an email to the home care coordinator to update her as well.

Which is when the phone rang.

It was Home Care.

This time, the scheduler.

They are short staffed and don’t have anyone for my mother’s Monday med assist, at 9:15am.

We’re already doing her two Sunday evening assists ourselves, as my brother and I get her to her MRI.

*sigh*

We’ll see how it goes, but we might be able to just leave her morning meds in her little covered bowl for her before we leave her place on Sunday night. Her morning assist is the longest time slot, though, as they also help her with breakfast, empty her commode, apply the Voltaren to her back and hip and help her get dressed, if she needs it. It’s not just about getting her her medications anymore.

We’ll make that decision when the time comes. For now, though, I’ve got it in my calendar and I’ll be ready to do it, if necessary.

I did let her know about the call I got about my mother from the coordinator. She remembered the report and commented that she doesn’t usually see reports about my mother and figured she was just having an off day. !! I made sure to let her know my mother was very apologetic about it, and the lovely things she said about the ladies at the end of our conversation. Home care workers put up with a lot of crap (sometimes literally), so I wanted to make sure to pass on something good!

That done, I sent my email updating the coordinator. I did remember to mention this time, that my mother has been commenting about how her vision is getting worse. Which means her macular degeneration is getting worse. Normally, I’d be getting her to the specialty clinic in the city for treatment, but she physically can’t make that trip any more. Just getting her in to do the MRI is going to be hard enough on her, and that’s about half the distance away!

All that done, the rest of the day was pretty routine.

When doing the evening cat feeding, I changed things up a bit for the isolation shelter cats. I’ve got some ground pumpkin seeds again, so this time their can of wet cat food got made into a cat soup that included the ground pumpkin. If any of them have worms, that would help, but just be good for them in general.

I have got to remember to order more lysine. We’ve been out for a while.

After feeding the cats (I counted 27 this evening) and doing my evening rounds, I had a while crowd following me. A dozen, to be exact.

Fancypants, in the first picture, won’t let me come near him, but does like to follow me around!

In the next picture of the slide show above, you can see the three of them that were trying to trip me up while I walked!

Once back in the inner yard, I spotted that big tom again. I have seen him all of twice before today.

While in and out of the sun room, I was able to pet one of the little tuxedos. There is one confirmed female that lets me pet her, though she is still nervous about it. When the next two are to be brought in for spays, I think this one is big enough to be an alternative if we can’t get two adult females.

Pinky (last photo) not only allowed me to pet her but, while I was walking around, followed me and meowed for attention. She’s still a bundle of nerves and skittish, but she was purring up a storm and allowing full back pets, and even some neck and ear skritches. If we can keep this up, we should be able to get her into a carrier for spay on the 28th. If not… well, we’ll grab whichever ones we can! We’ll just have to make sure not to put food out until after we’ve got two into carriers.

The outside stuff done, today I decided to use up that bone broth I made recently, it a great big pot of pork stew. Normally, I’d use beef broth in a beef stew, and even looked at beef in the grocery store this morning, but it’s just too expensive. So I just cubed one of the pork roasts we had.

When it came time to add the bone broth, I was very impressed with how thoroughly gelled it was. I even gave it a taste while it was still cold, and wow! Talk about concentrated flavour! It worked really well with the pork, too.

Here we have pork stew with fluffy baking powder dumplings, which get cooked right on top of the stew at the end. Those dumplings are one of our favourite things about making a stew! I got the recipe from an old Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook, from La Leche League – the 1981 edition – that I hung on to. I got it used and kept it for about 30 years. Then had to throw it out because a cat peed all over it when it was left open on a table. *sigh* I know I wrote the recipe down somewhere in an old blog post, but on an old blog that I can’t even log into anymore (thanks, Google). I think. Still can’t find it, so I went by memory. Seems to be very close! I’ve tried looking online, but all the baking powder dumpling recipes I’m finding seem different.

So I’ll write it down here, so I can find it again, when needed!

Fluffy Dumplings

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
about a 1/4 tsp salt
(optional: dried parsley flakes)
1 egg, beaten
water

Mix the dry ingredients. Once the soup or stew is done and still simmering, add the beaten egg to the dry ingredients with enough water to make a very sticky dough. More like a very thick batter. Drop by spoonful’s onto the top of the soup or stew. Cover and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. No peeking!

One of the things I can’t remember is if the original recipe used one or two eggs. Also, was it 1 tsp or 2 tsp of baking powder? Whatever the original was, this version here cooks and tastes very much the same as I remember. Delicious.

And… that’s pretty much it for today!

Until next time…

The Re-Farmer

Some progress, and isolation kitty update

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Today turned out to be a decently warm day, with a slightly higher than forecast high of 4C/39F. Thankfully, most of where I needed to work was sheltered from the wind.

I decided it was a good day to start collecting material for the walls on the chain link fence garden bed, to replace the temporary walls we have right now, as well as cutting things away and clearing up at the same time. This is progress so far.

The first stack is maple suckers that are strong and straight enough to be used as vertical supports for the garden bed walls. For what I have in mind, and the space I’m working in, I’ll need a total of 48 stakes, with a quarter of them double the length of the others. The longer ones will be used to support a cover for the bed, to keep it from being choked out by Chinese elm seeds, or used as a litter box by the cats. They’ll be cut to length, sharpened at one end, and peeled of bark. For now, I am mostly aiming to do the wall against the chain link fence, so I need only 24 stakes to be able to get started.

The next picture in the slide show is a collection of poplar, maple and willow branches and suckers. I will need a LOT more of these, but it’s a start.

Some of the material came from maple and willow I needed to cut back to get branches away from the power lines. I wasn’t able to clear it completely, as I needed a ladder to reach. It was a bit too windy to safely use a ladder there and, by then, that wind was causing what promised to be a massive ear ache, if I didn’t get inside soon!

Meanwhile, we have been keeping an eye on the isolation shelter. Pinky is doing very well and seems quite content in there with the three littles.

One of my daughters was able to get a look at her incision and it’s all looking excellent. They are all quite enjoying their special isolation shelter treat of wet cat food. Hopefully, this means the little will start gaining weight and getting bigger!

The angry looking little fluffball tabby is so chill for a mostly feral kitten! Totally enjoying the shelter. None of the littles have shown any interest in leaving it!

I think we have a name for the angry looking kitty.

Furriosa.

😄🤣

That little tuxedo has the smallest, roundest eyes. They look huge because the kitten always has this stunned expression on its face. I’m able to pet him (her?) and the white and grey pretty regularly, but Furriosa allows touches only while s/he’s eating.

Speaking of pets, I was able to pet Frank today! She’s still very nervous and was very cautious about coming to my outstretched and, but I was able to give full back pets, and even got some purrs out of her. Which means our chances of getting her to the vet one of the two slots we have on the 28th just improved dramatically.

Now, if I could just get one of the other adult ladies friendlier! They just will not let it happen. *sigh*

The kittens in the isolation shelter are too small for spays or neuters, but we might be able to get one of the bigger kittens in the sun room. A couple of tabbies are getting okay with being pet and handled, though I think the bigger one is male and the smaller is female. If I’m right, neither are ready for spay or neuter. The smaller one is under 2 pounds, which is the minimum weight the vet will do a spay, and if the other is male, his balls haven’t dropped yet, so he can’t be done for a while yet. We do have older, bigger kittens that would be easy to grab, all male, and priority is much higher to get females done.

Well, we’ll see how it goes. We’ve got about a week to work on it.

As much as I am appreciating the mild November we are having, just to get stuff done outside, I also appreciate it for making life a lot easier on the furballs! Especially the tiniest ones.

The Re-Farmer

More company

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Today turned out to be a very dreary day outside, so it was a quiet one for the family. I did, of course, keep an eye on Pinky, and she seemed to be doing very well.

Also, no damage to the isolation shelter from the raccoons trying to break in, that I could see. I did end up ordering a solar powered security camera that was on sale. It likely won’t arrive until after the cats are out of isolation, but it will still be good to have it set up to keep an eye on things in there.

When doing the evening cat feeding, I did grab a tiny tuxedo and put him (her?) in the isolation shelter. As with the mostly white one, it’s so small, it was being pushed away from the food trays and I would often find it off to the side, looking forlorn.

When I tucked it in s/he immediately started eating.

I’m glad Pinky is okay with the company of littles. She never really got along with the other cats and was a loner. When her own kittens were still around, she was such a good mama – but would bat at any other kittens that came close! Now, the mostly white one likes to snuggle up against her, and she’s fine with it.

That tuxedo settled in real fast. Once the belly was full, it curled up in the cat bed and promptly went to sleep!

I did make a point of stopping by and petting Pinky as often as I could while doing my evening rounds. The mostly white one was also enjoying pets. I was able to pet the fluffy grey tabby while it was eating, but that’s it. While not at the food bowl, I can’t touch it.

I did get a look at Pinky’s belly, and could barely tell there was an incision at all. No sign of infection or any sort of irritation. All is looking very well!

While doing my rounds and switching out the trail cam memory cards, I had a whole crowd following me. I ended up getting lots of pictures.

Above, the first picture is of a very gorgeous, Rabi (I’ve concluded that yes, he is Kohl’s brother), AKA: Fancypants. Then there’s an adorable black and white kitten that I think might be female. Next is Hypotenose, aggressively demanding pets. I came back later and paused to try and get a picture of the fluffy orange kitten, Colby, though the cat house window, which attracted a whole crowd on the roof! The seven biggest ones all wanted attention. The fluffy kitten in the back won’t let me close.

And that’s about the most exciting thing of my day today.

I like quiet, boring days. I need more of them. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Only one

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Well, having Frank and Pinky in the isolation shelter overnight (with a fluffy feral kitten) almost worked.

We were able to get Pinky into a carrier, but Frank escaped while we tried to get her into the second one. My younger daughter had been helping me while my older daughter distracted the other cats by feeding them. When the three of us failed to catch Frank, we couldn’t grab a substitute, since they had all eaten, and they need to be on an overnight fast.

*sigh*

So, my younger daughter and I headed out with just one cat instead of two for spay.

I made sure to open the gate before we headed out, so that we wouldn’t have an extra stop once Pinky was in the vehicle. The sky was just starting to get light in the East, when I spotted something interesting. Forgive the poor quality of the image. The best picture I could get was quite zoomed in.

That is a sliver of a moon, in the sunrise!

I absolutely hate driving at sunrise, and sunset. That half light makes it so hard to see. Especially with oncoming headlights. My daughter was on deer watching duty (she did see some, thankfully out in a field, not about to run across the road!). The visibility was so poor while we were traveling east, I never did make it to the posted speed limit. Once we were driving south, it was better, but when I ended up behind a slower moving truck, driving with its hazards blinking, I really didn’t mind slowing down. Not that passing would have been safe for quite some time. I was not the only one okay with driving slower, either!

It was full light by the time we got to the clinic parking lot, just before the clinic opened. Which is when my daughter saw that I had dried blood all over the side of my hand! Frank got me good, when I tried to pick her up!

Thankfully, we keep wet wipes in the truck.

Pinky was very quiet for the entire drive in, which was almost scary after a while. She had been scrambling to get out of the carrier before we put her into the truck and then nothing for the entire ride!

After we checked her in, they took her carrier to where they could keep her in a larger kennel until her surgery. My daughter and I then headed out, first to get some gas, then grab breakfast. We went to the McDonalds in the Walmart, because there really wasn’t anything else for that time of the morning.

Then we did some shopping. I had to pick up more kibble for both inside and outside cats, plus I got extra wet cat food, as kitties recovering in the isolation shelter get treated extra special while they are stuck in there, and that includes their own wet cat food. By the time I got the cat supplies, plus some household supplies, my budget was pretty much done. One thing I needed to get, but didn’t have much budget for anymore, was new work boots suitable for the winter. Both my regular work boots and my steel toed shoes are falling apart and are just not wearable anymore. My daughter, however, went looking for different boots for me to try on. When I saw the price, though, they were out of budget. Not by a lot, but enough that I wasn’t going to get them – but my daughter insisted that she would buy them for me! That was really sweet of her. She’s getting a disability income now, but it’s a paltry sum.

Aside from that, I had a few smaller items for my husband, such as more distilled water for his CPAP humidifier, while my daughter had her own shopping list. We took our time about it, since we knew it would be a while before the vet clinic called.

After the shopping was done and in the truck, we sat in the truck for a while and talked. Which is when I realized I’d forgotten a few things. Things we could get at the nearby Dollarama. So we went there next. Along with my forgotten items, I found some things for my mother. The one thing I knew she wanted, we couldn’t find in either store; a sink plunger. Her kitchen sink drains very slowly. She’s called about it before and they sent someone to pour drain cleaner down the pipes, and that was it. The problem never went away. So she’s been asking for a sink plunger for some time, and this time I actually remembered while I was out and about.

We didn’t find one at the Dollarama, but I did find an affordable cat cave; one with wire supports on the outside, that would keep cats from crushing it!

That done, we headed across the street to the Canadian Tire. We actually found several tyles of sink plungers there! I picked one that I thought would be easier for my mother’s mobility.

Another thing I remembered I wanted to pick up were more furnace filters, as we are on our last 3 pack. Canadian Tire is the only place I’ve been able to find the 20″x20″x1″ size our furnace needs. I just about lost it when I found them – and saw the price! A 2 pack for $42.99! Singles were $31.99!

I remember getting 3 packs for under $10.

After looking around, I found some off brand filters that were exactly like what we’ve been using. A three pack for only $7.99 What a difference!

By the time we were done there, it wasn’t even noon yet. It could still be a couple of hours before they called us. So my daughter and I went for lunch.

At McDonalds. Because that was what I had a budget for.

Twice in one day is a bit much!

After lunch, we decided to just go back to the clinic and sit in the parking lot to wait. We both ended up leaning our seats back and napping! My phone kept going off, though, so I didn’t get much of a nap. When it was getting closer to 2pm and we hadn’t gotten a call yet, I figured I would go in and ask.

Pinky hadn’t gone in for surgery yet!

That just blew me away. They’d never been this late before! In fact, knowing that I’m hanging around town because we live so far away, they’ve always made a point of getting our cats done as quickly as they could. Usually, I would have been on my way home by 2, or even earlier. Poor Pinky would have been so very hungry by then! I was assured they would call me when she was done.

So we waited some more – and fretted. They must have gotten her in shortly after I asked about her, because I got a call just before 2:30, saying she was done and recovering, and that I could pick her up after 3.

We ended up going in early, as we needed to use their facilities before our drive home, and they were able to get Pinky out right away. All I had to do was give them the marked envelop for the donated, and they gave me an after care printout.

Poor Pinkly was pretty upset when my daughter tried to put the carrier into the back of the cab. In the end, she held the carrier on her lap for the drive home. Pinky was quiet, but she would try to claw and bite at the door to get out. Most alarming was that she frequently stopped to just pant.

I did manage a picture before we got her into the truck. Not a very good one!

In the first picture, you can actually see that she’s panting.

The next picture, my daughter had taken for me earlier, of the damage Frank did to my hand – after I’d cleaned the dried blood away! That one didn’t hurt at all. Oddly, it was a less deep scratch under my thumb that actually stung more.

In the last picture, Pinky is all tucked into the isolation shelter, with the fluffy feral. They quite enjoyed their wet cat food that my daughter gave them, while I distracted the other cats with their softened kibble feeding.

After they were fed and everything was put away, I set up the new cat cave. It was immediately explored!

Havarti is almost too big for it! The little ones could certainly fit in there. They currently like to crowd into the blue striped one. That one is taller, but has a smaller base than this one.

Of course, we’ve been checking on Pinky and her companion often through the evening. Usually, all looked well. However, as I was writing this post, I paused to go into the kitchen. I heard a commotion out the window and feared Pinky was trying to escape.

Nope.

I found three or four big raccoons, trying to break into the shelter! There wasn’t even any food left inside, but they still were trying to get int! Two or three were on the roof, and one was at the ramp door below, when they all scattered as I stepped outside.

This is not good. I really don’t think the shelter is raccoon proof! Those buggers have hands. They might be able to open, or pull out, the sliding windows, or tear apart the roof panels.

While I was finishing things up outside, before it got dark, I did see Frank.

It’s going to take a while to regain her trust. She won’t let me near her anymore! We really need to work on that. We have two cats booked on the 28th. We really want to get her spayed. She is so small, and I remember how bloody she was the day she had her kittens.

Meanwhile…

Before we got home, my husband sent a note saying that my mother had called and left a message. When I checked the answering machine, though, I found a message that had been left earlier.

Much earlier. While we were still on the road.

It was home care, saying they had a list minute cancellation for my mother’s morning med assist. The scheduler did at that they had someone that could eventually do her med assist, but it would be so late that it would be about the same time my mother was getting her lunch meal assist. The scheduler even left a number for me to call.

Neither my husband nor daughter had heard the call come in, and the scheduler never tried to call my cell phone.

I thought that maybe my mother still got her med assist later, but when I called her back after hearing her message, she told me that no one showed up for her morning med assist. I told her about the message I got; that they did try to call me, but I was not home, and they never called my cell phone.

What my mother had wanted to talk about was a call she got from the hospital about her upcoming MRI. They asked all sorts of questions to make sure that my mother had nothing metal on or in her body. She had forgotten to mention her dentures. The form they sent for her to fill out did include dentures, which we checked off, but my mother doesn’t remember that and is now all worried about it.

Aside from that, though, her main reason for calling me was because neither I nor my siblings have called her in a few days. I’d spent most of Friday with her, so it hasn’t actually been that long – and I did mention to her that I had an appointment today, but she forgot. When I updated my siblings about the missed home care visit, my brother mentioned he’d just done a 13 hour day, and still didn’t finish what he needed to do, but had to call it a day. I’ve told my mother as often as I can, that my brother works very long hours at his job – sometimes odd hours, due to time zones – but she still expects him to be able to drop everything to tend to her. Even today, when I told her about the call I got from home care, she was asking “why are they calling you?” I don’t know how many times we’ve explained to her that I’m at the top of their list of people to call. Next on the list would be my brother, and there’s no way he’d be able to leave his job and drive out from the city to do something like a med assist. My sister is technically retired and works only part time, but she has a late shift, so she tends not to get up until much later in the morning. Plus, to be honest, I don’t know that my sister’s health is all that good, either. She isn’t saying anything, but even my mother is seeing signs that something is off. My sister is approaching 70 though, like my mother, she doesn’t look anywhere near her age. Anyhow, there are many reasons why I’m the one they call. If not me, I’m not sure who else my mother thinks they would be calling!

After talking to my mother, I sent an email to the home care coordinator. I did a reminder about my mother’s MRI on Sunday, adding that I plan to be there earlier, then my brother will be driving us to her appointment in his car, so we’ll be able to take care of both my mother’s evening med assists. I also mentioned the message I got this morning, and that I never actually heard the message until evening, so my mother missed her meds. I asked if they call me on my land line and it goes to the answering machine, to please try my cell phone after leaving a message. They know we live in a cell phone dead zone, but if I’m not there to answer a call to the land line, chances are good I’m out and about and can get a signal. Even if I’m just outside in the yard, I’m more likely to have a call get through than if I’m in the house.

We’ll see how that works out.

For the next while, I actually get to stay home until it’s time for my mother’s MRI. I asked about doing another grocery shopping trip for her on Friday, but she said no. The daytime temperatures are expected to be fairly warm, which I plan to take full advantage off, as much as possible. It will also be good for Pinky and her fluffy companion in the isolation shelter. Though, after what happened with the raccoons, I’m thinking we should look into getting an outdoor security camera that will allow us to keep an eye on the isolation shelter more easily. Considering how much use it will get in the winter, it might be worth the investment. Something solar powered. I’ll have to do some research on that.

Anyhow, that’s how things worked out today. It’s unfortunate Frank managed to escape this morning, but at least Pinky is done and seems to be doing quite well, so far.

As long as we can keep the raccoons out of the isolation shelter!!

The Re-Farmer

Progress outside!

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I wasn’t sure if it was going to get done. When I headed out this morning to feed the outside cats, it was decidedly unpleasant.

I also counted 38 cats. I haven’t seen that one tabby that I didn’t recognize, but none of the ones I did see were unfamiliar. Which means the crowd was congregating all at once!

I didn’t soak the kibble in the morning, because I knew it would freeze, so I saved that for the afternoon. I counted 32, that time. Including this little fluff ball.

Tomorrow evening, we are going to get Frank and Pinky closed up in the isolation shelter, so that they can have their fast (after a treat of wet cat food) and be easier to catch in the morning, for their spays. The other cats and kittens are not going to be happy with not being allowed in the isolation shelter for a month! We’ve got the first two that will be in there until it’s time to switch them out for about 10 days, and then we’ll have the next two set up in there for their recovery period. Assuming we can catch two more females. If we ended up with males, they won’t need that much time for observation and recovery.

After the second feeding, I did my evening rounds before it got too dark – these are being done earlier and earlier! Today, I made a point of checking the asters. I’d left the flower bed untouched, so that the Cosmos could shelter the memorial asters from the frost, and hopefully give them time to go to seed.

It worked!

I collected some to bring inside for planting next year. I left others to self seed. I’m so happy they had enough time to develop seeds before the deep freeze hit!

It was nice enough out that I grabbed a rake and collected leaves to do some mulching, then did a bit of winterizing.

The first picture in the slide show above is where the tiny strawberries were transplanted. I have no idea if they will survive in their new location, but it is worth a try. In the next picture, you can see that the strawberries transplanted into the retaining wall also got mulched with leaves. Next was the saffron. I don’t know if I am being too early with this, or too late, since they are showing new growth. The one flower bud that is still there looks like it froze before it could open, so I left it. I had considered leaving those until later, as we are supposed to warm up a little bit over the next week, but then I saw cats digging around them to leave “presents”, so the mulch is to keep them away, too.

I didn’t mulch the little herb bed, as we are still able to harvest from them, but I did get a pile of leaves ready for when it’s time.

Now that our septic tank is empty, it’s time to get that area ready for winter, too. We’ll be setting the emergency bypass up, just in case, so I stretched out the flexible hose so that it can warm up in the sun and straighten out. I ended up sitting a short length of pipe into the far end to flatten it, because it kept sticking up into the air. The two lengths of PVC pipe we set over the pipe from the basement got shoved into the flexible hose at the other end to help straighten that out, too. In a couple of sections, I leaned boards and bricks and whatnot to get them to straighten out and flatten to the ground.

We did not get the straw bale I was hoping to get this weekend. It might still get delivered in the next while but, just in case, I set the insulated tarp over the septic tank and weighed it down.

The forecast now says we should reach highs of 5C/41F next weekend, and that should be pretty much it for the winter. Time enough for a few last things, like covering the herb bed and, if the straw comes in, using that in various places. I’ll take advantage of every warmish day we have right now!

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

I am so tired

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The day feels way longer than it should have.

Today was set aside for me to go to my mother’s to do her shopping and errands and household stuff. I’ll start off by saying, she was actually on really good behaviour today, comparatively speaking. Things did go well.

The morning started off with the feeding of yard cats and doing my morning rounds. I tried for a head count this morning, and got 30. Last time, it was 35, including a cat I didn’t recognize. I haven’t seen it, since.

As I was heading in, I found this little crowd.

I moved both heat lamps lower, but this one is a 150watt ceramic heat bulb. The other is 200watt. I thought it was 250w, forgetting that I wasn’t able to find the ceramic heat bulbs at 250w. The lamp is rated to 250w, and there’s an incandescent 250w heat bulb in a matching lamp in the isolation shelter.

Speaking of which, that’s going to be used for its original purpose soon!

This morning, I got a message from the rescue. We have two dates to spay two cats each. I was sent a screen cap of a texted confirmation with two dates, one of which was for 3 cats. I was told I had two slots and someone else had the third, so I thought that was my date. I didn’t think the earlier date was also for me until I got a call while I was at my mother’s from the vet clinic to confirm the earlier date! It is straightened out now, though I did tell the woman who called me that, while we have two females we know we can catch for the first one, with the second one, we might have to just catch what we can, and see what they turn out to be! This isn’t very uncommon when it comes to strays and colony cats. I’ve brought in cats without even knowing for sure what gender they were, and they were fine with it.

But that got worked out much later.

I was able to head out a bit early to my mother’s bringing along my stock pot and a good knife, along with the prepped vegetables and herds, for the chicken stock was would be making for her. When I got there, my mother was back in bed, after her morning med assist. I noticed she had a garbage bag ready for the bin by the door, so I quickly dropped the stuff off, grabbed the garbage and headed out. Which turned out to be excellent timing. I passed one of her neighbours in the hall; someone who’s window faces the street. We ended up chatting for a while, and he told me he seeds me out his window quite often. He was very sweet. He mentioned that my mother clearly needs more help, and that he’d told her, if she ever needs anything, to just knock on his door.

When I got back, I told my mother about this, but she had no memory of him saying this to her! When I told her which apartment he was in, she even struggled to remember who lived there. She would recognize him to see him, but not necessarily connect him to any particular apartment.

It’s good to know she has some good neighbours.

When I got back to my mother’s, she was up and at her table. She joked about her being wrapped in a robe and wearing a regular shirt, because it’s been so long since her laundry was done, she ran out of nightgowns!

She was rather amused when I started unpacking my supplies and pre-prepared ingredients to work on her chicken stock. I just had to prep the chicken legs and thighs. My mother insisted I wash the pieces really, really well, to wash off the “chemicals”, then started telling me how the stores all spray meat with chemicals to make meat last longer. I told her that’s not quite what they do, and she got instant angry with me – but I was still washing her chicken for her, so she turned off the angry. I’m not sure if she was thinking of the CO that’s used to keep beef red in packaging, or she she was thinking of the chlorine rinse they used to do, to kill off bacteria like salmonella, though that hasn’t been done in years. No doubt, it was something she saw on daytime TV or read in a paper, many, many years ago.

After the chicken was in the pot, I started adding the mirepoix ingredients, then showed her the rest. I don’t think she has ever used ginger before, except maybe in power form. I know she was aware of turmeric, as she had bought a whole bunch for herself because she’d read about how healthy it was, but didn’t know how to use it. She ended up giving it to us! Apple cider vinegar is something she was completely unaware of.

She was oddly surprised by how many garlic cloves I brought – an entire head, so about 6 or 7 cloves. That was probably the last thing I would have expected her to be surprised about. “Polish penicillin” was always a staple ingredient when I was growing up, and she often brings up about how we should plant lots and lots of garlic. I remember how my parents would sometimes eat it. They’d pour some salt onto the table, then dip their cloves of garlic into the salt as they ate it raw!

Once the chicken stock was at the point where I could turn it down to a simmer, I got the first two loads of my mother’s laundry going, then we went over her shopping list. She had added a few things to it since I started it for her a few couple of days ago – including wine! The pharmacy has a liquor section, but the wine she likes isn’t available anymore. In our province, the government controls liquor sales (which is one of the reasons our booze is so expensive; it’s mostly taxes). When Trump started talking tariffs, our premier ordered all US booze to be pulled from the shelves. This was already bought and paid for by the government, of course, and hardly anyone was demanding US booze get pulled. It was just an childish tantrum on the part of our premier. Canada has one Western province where alcohol sales are private. Some places did try to remove US booze from the shelves, but the customers complained so much, they put them back. People in our province have no such say in the matter. The irony of this childish display is that we’ve had tariffs on US products for decades.

Which means the wine my mother usually gets – a super sweet kosher wine my parents bought for as long as I can remember – is no longer available. She asked me to try and find something I thought would be close. 😄

The pharmacy was my first stop and I had to ask one of the staff for help. I don’t know wines. Nothing against them. There just aren’t a lot of alcoholic drinks that I enjoy. In the end, I had two staff members looking things up, trying to find something my mother might like to replace what she normally would have gotten. It came down to just one thing – without US products, their shelves were pretty empty – and there was only one bottle of it left. On sale, too, which was nice.

That done, I picked up a few other things on her list, then got her bubble packs. I got another nice surprise at the checkout. My mother has the loyalty card, which is on her file at the pharmacy. She had lost track of the card for a while, but because it’s on her file, any times she got her prescriptions, she was still collecting points. Only at the store counter does the card need to be shown to collect points.

My mother was able to get $40 off her stuff! Plus, she collected enough new points through her prescription refills that, next time, she’ll be able to get another $20 off. !!!

When I told her that later one, her response was, why didn’t they use that $20 right then?

*sigh*

That done, the next stop was the grocery store for a somewhat larger shop than usual for her. She even requested I picked up some of the deli chicken I would get for her for sandwiches. She didn’t want slices, though. She asked for a chunk about an inch thick. That certainly made it easier for the deli person!

By the time I was done the shopping and back at my mother’s, her Meals on Wheels had arrived and the empty tray was waiting on her walker, outside her door. Those get left in the common room for pick up, on the next delivery day. So I took care of that for her before heading in. I was quite surprised she was done so quickly, and commented on it. I did notice the container with vegetable soup was on the counter, though. Once a week, they do a “use whatcha got” soup using leftovers. My mother says it tastes like dishwater. !!! So that ended up getting tossed. Another moment where she suddenly got angry at me, this time because I couldn’t read her mind over just how she wanted it tossed. *sigh*

Once her things were put away, the rest of the time was spent tending the stock, her laundry and general clean up. I did stop for some tea and a bun as a lunch, before getting back at it. Once the stock was done, I took out the meat to set aside for a bit, then the large sticks of celery and carrots, because I knew my mother would want to include them in a soup or something. I found a little strainer that I used to get most of the big stuff out for the stock before salting it and letting it cook longer, while I deboned the chicken. That all fit into one of the freezer bags that I’d brought along with everything else. The vegetables went into a handy take out container my mother had.

The stock was a different issue. I should have brought jars! I could find only two suitable empty jars and started ladling the stock into them, through the strainer. My mother kept telling me to leave everything out to cool down, first. It took me a bit to understand that she didn’t like the containers being used, and especially when I put the lids loosely on the jars. She thought they would take longer to cool down than if they were just left out. The idea of covering them at least to keep dust out apparently never occurred to her!

I find myself wondering if she was expecting to leave my stock pot behind?

By this point, I was finishing off and starting to pack things up to leave, as soon as her last load of laundry was dry. I had mentioned to my mother earlier that I needed to swing by the garage before going home (she wouldn’t understand what getting a tire torqued means). When she started complaining that I was getting ready to leave, I told her, I still need to go to the garage on the way home.

Which is when she started getting mad at me again. Why was I leaving so soon? I told her, I’d been there for almost 5 hours. Didn’t she finish her Meals on Wheels first? Yes – before I came back with her groceries. She actually tried to claim I’d been there for barely 2 hours, instead of almost 5 hours!

One of the things she wanted me to do was cut her toenails, which I really didn’t want to do on top of everything else. It would have been good for her to soak her feet to soften them, first, too, which hadn’t happened. She basically started having a tantrum. It was as if I hadn’t done anything else for her at all, because her toenails hadn’t been done.

Then she started berating me, asking why I booked to go to the garage on a day I was going to be at her place. I told her, I didn’t; I brought the truck in yesterday. This is a safety thing to make sure my tire doesn’t go flying.

Some time ago, I’d brought over a good set of toenail clippers, because she only had fingernail clippers, and a micro-pedi grinder thing. She told me to take those home, and was angry about it for some reason. I told her, no. She has toenail fungus. If I take them home and use them, I would get her toenail fungus. Only she can use them, now. That made her mad, too.

In the end, I agreed to take a look at her feet. It turned out her nails were really broken up, and only a few had anything to be trimmed. I started using the clippers and she got angry again, demanding I use scissors, because the clippers didn’t work.

They worked find.

I think she may have tried to clip her own toenails and couldn’t manage it, because then she told me one toe had gotten so bad, she grabbed scissors and cut as much as she could, herself.

While I was doing her toes, I pointed out which one had the fungal infection. That lead her to complain about how she spent so much money on medication for it, yet never used it. So I asked her were it was and went looking. At first, the only box I found that was the size I remembered it came in turned out to be eye drops. My mother got angry again, saying she’s never bought eye drops before, so why was it there? She forgot that we did get eye drops for her, when she started getting treated for her macular degeneration.

I finally found the box, hidden way in the back of her cupboard, and applied the medication, but this is not something she can do herself, and it’s not on her care list with home care. I’m not sure if we can even add it to the list or not, partly because I don’t know that my mother would be willing to let them do it.

Ironically, for someone who complains about all the medications she’s taking, she once again brought up about how she thinks she should be using the inhaler – a prescription that was cancelled. I had to explain to her, getting this was a test to see if she had asthma. The alternative would have been to get on a waiting list to get tested, and it could take a year or more before she got to the top of the list. It was simply faster to have her try the prescription to see if it worked or not.

My mother doesn’t understand. She has trouble breathing at night, and she’s gone from complaining about “having” to take it, to now wanting to have it, even though it made no difference at all. Her mind has just latched onto it, now that the prescription has been cancelled. She’d been wanting to stop using it for a long time, too.

Anyhow.

I finally managed to head out, though my mother was still quite angry that I was leaving “so early”. I did manage to get to the garage in good time. I just had to wait until someone was available to do it. Then, since I was there, I popped into the grocery store across the street to pick up some bread, after my daughter told me she hadn’t had a chance to do any baking today.

By the time I left, it was starting to rain! We had reached our high of 10C/50F, too. Happily, I managed to get home before it was getting too dark. That half-light at the end of the day makes it so hard to spot deer getting ready to run across the road.

While things ended on a fairly negative note, I got a lot done at my mother’s. Her fridge is stocked up again, she has her meds, I got her chicken stock made and she has cooked chicken to last her a while.

It just took a really long time, and unfortunately, spending that much time with my mother, even on a good day, is pretty draining.

I am so very tired now.

The Re-Farmer

How things went and, a new addition?

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Good grief, I can’t wait until the days start getting longer again. I keep thinking it’s closer to midnight, but it’s barely past 5:30 as I start this!

This morning was the first morning where I could actually say it was cold. We even had some snow on the ground, though not enough to cover much. For the past while, I’ve been giving the yard cats their morning feeding after softening it with some really thin, warm “cat soup”, but it’s been freezing faster than they can eat it, so I did just dry kibble this morning. They very clearly were expecting different and weren’t too happy not to get it!

I was heading out soon after to do my mother’s morning med assist, after being called yesterday about a cancellation. She now has 20 minutes scheduled, so they have time to do a meal assist and, if she’s willing, to help her get washed up or dressed on top of her regular assist.

When I got there, she was still in bed and really struggled to get up. I encouraged her to stay in bed while I made her breakfast, but she made her way out and did her morning washing up routine. Once she was settled with her meds and food, I took care of her commode, etc.

Since she has a lunch assist now, I asked her what she wanted, in case there was something I could leave out or set up for the worker that came for her lunch assist. In the end, I just brought out a can of chicken noodle soup, because the rest of what she wanted had to stay in the fridge.

Overall, things went well, though my mother seemed quite down and a bit depressed about how she was feeling. She said she thought she was going to the hospital today, but did acknowledge that she tends to feel better after getting up and moving about, and is usually feeling pretty good by the end of the day. What did catch my attention and showed me how much worse she was feeling than usual is that she did NOT do her usual complaining, with the whole “I’m dying!” thing, then launching into what she wants us to do for her before she dies. She was quiet about it, and that’s way more of a red flag.

Yes, I did send an email to the home care office when I got home, as this is something they need to know. The care aides also pass on things like that, as they observe them.

The only time things started to go south was near time for me to leave. She remembered something she wanted to tell me, then started going on about how she didn’t want us using her pension to pay for things here at the farm.

…

Yes, she paid for the door, and I told her again (when I had the chance) that I appreciated it, but I had never asked her to. It was my brother that talked to her about it because, for the past while, she’s been talking about how she wants to help me and my family out more. She’s also been hinting about helping with the door before, too. So something has changed.

Before I could figure out, she started talking about how, she doesn’t live here any more, it’s not her responsibility, then started complaining about how much doing the roof cost. She is convinced we were cheated, because it shouldn’t have cost $14,000. I told her, that was just how much things cost at the time. If it had been done three years earlier, it would have cost $9000. I didn’t get a chance to remind her that I’d gotten estimates from three different companies then, and they were all pretty much the same cost. She had said no.

She started telling me, I should have gone to other companies to find a better price, and I told her, I went to 5 different companies (3 responded, but I didn’t even try to bring that up). Then she started complaining that they charged for clean up. We shouldn’t have paid for that. We should have done it ourselves. I said to her, do you know just how much there is to clean up from a roof?

She was talking about the door.

It seems that when my brother talked to her about it, he’d brought printouts, including the original estimate with details on what was included in the cost. Clean up was part of it. My mother said that we could have “saved some pennies” by doing it ourselves.

*facepalm*

I just did not want to go there. Instead, I started getting ready to leave, because I still had to go to our own pharmacy to pick up some refills. I double checked his message about how they’d be ready for pick up today, to see if there was a time I had to wait for, as it was still early in the day for that sort of thing. As we were talking, I read out “pick up injections”, and my mom was all “injections!” then going on about my poooor husband that he has to take injections, and oh, we have it so hard, we suffer so much…

…

I told her, he’s been on two injections for years. (She knows that; she reacts the same way, every time) Doing injections is not a big deal these days. She still tried to play the pity game, and how she feels so sorry for us. I told her, yeah, we have problems, but so does everyone, and a lot of people have things a lot worse than we do. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Even with this stuff, I’d say it was a good visit when it comes to my mother.

From there, it was off to our pharmacy, where I was also able to get my vitamins that I didn’t get at Costco. Different budget. Then it was just getting some gas and going home. I wrote off my planned trip to the dump today. I want to avoid extra driving as much as possible until we can get that leaking seal fixed, next week, and we’ve got a trip for a doctor’s appointment in between.

By the time I got home, it wasn’t too much longer before I was heading outside to take care of the outside cats and switch out the trail cam cards, before it got dark.

The cats were very happy to have the softened kibble again!

After I put the food out, I was topping up water bowls with warm water when I spotted one of the older grey tabbies eating at the feeding station under the shrine.

Then I realized that cat I thought it was, was by the house – and this one was much bigger!

Also, shier. I didn’t try to get any closer, as he was clearly ready to take off if I did, but he also watched me from behind the shrine’s pedestal base, rather than running away.

Just in case, I did a head count and got 35. Which means we have several more than my last highest count.

So it looks like we have a newcomer. This was the only one that seemed a stranger. I think the other “extras” were cats that didn’t usually show up at the same time as others at feeding time. With the colder temperatures, more are coming closer to the house instead of waiting until later.

Later on, I headed outside to check on some noises the girls were hearing through their windows (they can hear a lot more than I can!). I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but I did spot this crowd.

There are four cats in that cat bed! You can barely see the little tabby.

Frank is the one looking right at me, and the little white and grey draped over her back end is the one that has been sick for the last while. It has discovered the heat lamp and spends most of its time in the isolation shelter lately, and it looking much stronger.

They’re going to have to get used to it being closed up, soon.

Thanks to a generous donation, the rescue we’re now connected to is going to book us for for spays and/or neuters. The goal is for four cats, two at a time. With keeping the isolation closed up while females recover from surgery for two weeks, two adult cats is the limit. Though if we are able to get Frank and Pinky in there, I’d probably keep that little white and grey in with them, too.

I’ll have the dates sent to me later, but they will be booked some time after the 16th. I would hope we can get other females after that, but they’ll do neuters are well, if that’s what we can catch. I would love to get Adam, Slick, Sprout, Sprig or that white one with the grey tabby patches, but that would involve trapping.

I should maybe talk to them about the possibility of taking the friendliest outside cats for adoption, some of whom are already fixed. More than a few times, I’ve almost been able to touch one of the more feral cats, only to have a super socialized cat or three, push their way in, demanding attention and scaring off the more feral ones.

We’ll work it out.

So, that’s how things have been today. Tomorrow is Sunday, and it looks like it will actually be a day of rest for a change. We’re expected to have some snow in the wee hours of the night, but tomorrow’s high is supposed to be just below freezing. After that, we’re supposed to warm up again, with highs above freezing for almost two weeks. More time to get as much done outside as I can, while the weather is good.

But not tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Not the day I intended

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I was hoping to go to Costco today. I didn’t make it, but not for the reason I was expecting.

I did check and the large payment I made against my MC was no longer “pending”. So I was mostly sure I could use the card for our Costco trip (Costco only takes MC, and using the Canadian Tire card helps build up Canadian Tire dollars, which paid for a whole bunch of stuff, recently). The freeze on the deposit of my mother’s check to cover the door was still there, though, so more than half the money is still inaccessible.

The thing is, I normally am able to use that card, even while the payment made against it is still “pending”. All I can think is that they froze the amount because it was over a certain threshold.

In the end, it didn’t matter.

I headed outside to do my morning rounds as usual. Fed the outside cats, checked on things, discovered the deer visited during the night…

Almost all the sunchoke leaves were completely stripped off the stalks, and even the tops of the stalks on the shorter ones were nibbled down! Sunchokes are related to sunflowers, which the deer like to eat, so I guess it was just a matter of time before they munched these down.

By the time I was finished my rounds, I decided I needed to stay home. My hip wasn’t hurting, but it was definitely unstable after a day of walking on concrete. If I were to go into the city and be doing all that walking on concrete while shopping, I know the probability of it wiping me out for days is very high. Better to give it one more day to rest.

Which was REALLY hard to do! We had a nicer day today and I was chafing at the bit to not be out there, working on various projects or cleaning up the last few garden beds. All of which would have stressed my hip out just as much, or more, than walking around to shop would have. At least while shopping, I could use my cart as a walker!

We did end up going out today, though. And by “we” I mean my younger daughter and I. This afternoon I checked Canada Post tracking and saw that her office chair that I got with my Air Miles was in and ready for pick up. Her current chair is badly broken, so we eagerly headed out.

I forgot.

Today is Wednesday.

The store the post office is in closes at noon every Wednesday for inventory.

Crud.

Since we were out anyhow, we instead headed to the town to the north of us. We stopped at the feed store to pick up a couple more 40 pound bags of kibble.

While there, we wandered around, first. I ended up getting a larger syringe that we could use to feed kittens with. It’s meant to be single use to give medication to larger animals, and they had all sorts of sizes available. Some were meant to have needles screwed onto their tips. The larger ones each came in their own container with a sealed cap for sterility, and the containers were only semi-transparent. We did manage to see enough to grab a type that wasn’t made to have a needle screwed on, but just an open tip like the small ones we have at home. The ones we have at home are made to dispense small amounts of medication. What I found would work much better for feeding sick little kittens. Plus, it cost less than $2.

My daughter, meanwhile, found the section for horse brushes. She ended up getting two small ones; one for her leather boots and one for her cowboy hat. You can get brushes specially marketed as boot brushes or hat brushes, and they are very expensive. These are pretty much the same, but since they’re marketed for horses, they were much cheaper!

She also made another find that she was so excited about. Leather gloves with wool lining. Most gloves have some sort of polyester lining; even the high end ones. She can’t wear those because her hands get all sweaty and they don’t absorb moisture well. She has the same simian hands that I have; a distinctive trait inherited from my father. Short fingers, broad, square palms. So the gloves she found that fit her palms were too long on the fingers, but that was a trade off she was willing to make! If she really felt up to it, she could undo the stitching and make the fingers shorter, herself.

Looking at them more closely as we drove home, after getting the kibble, she found that they are actually made by a company in the city! We’ll have to look them up. They are really high quality and cost her a pretty penny for something like gloves, but they will last her for many years. She wore them on the way home and was so thrilled. Her hands were roasty toasty, but not at all sweaty! While in the store, she suggested I try some on to get for myself, but I can’t do wool.

Once we got home and loaded things into the house, we went to the kibble and water bowl shelters and talked about some modifications I’m thinking to do. The water bowl shelter in particular has a lot of “wasted” space. I want to add a shelf about half way up. That would give the cats another place to perch, while also giving better coverage to the cat beds in the back of the shelter.

It would be good to do something similar in the kibble house, but that one is quite a bit longer. I built it so that the floor, which has rigid insulation under it, can be removed. We can’t add extra support in the middle without losing that ability, but without support, any shelf we make will sag in the middle. There is, however, a vertical support in the middle of the back wall, so we could attach angled supports to that. Something to think about. Mostly, I want to get the extra perch for the cats to be done in the water bowl shelter.

As we talked about that, we went into the garage, where we have scrap wood in a variety of shapes, sizes and types that we can use to do this. The back door of the garage is near the outhouse. Behind the outhouse is where we’ve been dumping the stove pellet litter to compost. With the number of cats we have and how many years we’ve been doing this, there is a large pile starting behind the outhouse, slowly extending further into the spruce grove. I’ve already scattered two boxes of wildflower seeds over part of it, but the oldest section still had the top of that tree that fell over the outhouse, that my brother managed to get off and save the outhouse at the same time, on top of it. I plan to use the pieces of that tree to make things, but even the smaller top of the tree is huge and heavy.

Well, with my daughter there to help, we got it off!

It was NOT easy. Not just because of the weight. This part of the tree had many branch nubs all around it. No matter what position we had the trunk, there were branch nubs digging into the ground – you can even see a gouged out trench in the soil from one of them, in the photo above.

The trunk had been straight across the pile, with a couple of old tires to keep it from rolling against the outhouse. We found we could rotate it almost 45 degrees, so that the heavy end was running more alongside the outhouse. I grabbed a rope we found in the garage some time ago, that has latch hooks at eat end (I think it was meant to attach to a horse’s halter) to put around the heavy end of the trunk. We also had a metal bar we could put through the hooks that was long enough for us to use as handles, rather than wrecking our hands trying to grasp the rope. With that, we could move the trunk about a foot or so, then I would go behind the outhouse to move the light end away from the outhouse a bit more, we’d move the entire trunk, I’d shift the top again, over and over. Sometimes, we would have to rotate the trunk to get whatever branch nub that was digging into the ground clear before we could move it more.

Once we got it clear of the pile and lying only on the ground, that was it. We couldn’t move it anymore. Somewhere along the bottom of the trunk, there’s a branch nub dug deep enough into the soil, anchoring it enough that, even with both of us, we just couldn’t move it any more. That was okay, though. I just needed it clear of the pile.

That done, my daughter headed back to the house to put things away, while I grabbed our last box of wildflower seeds and scattered them over the most composted part of the pile that the tree was on top of. Now that the trunk is where it is, it will be easier to get at it with a chain saw and work on it. I’m planning to use the parts and pieces to make some seating or maybe a table of some kind. We shall see.

Earlier, I had set up sheets of rigid insulation under the isolation shelter roof. They are the same pieces used last winter, and there are holes where the cats had scratched at them, so I ended up rearranging how to fit them in.

Last winter, I had a leftover piece of the insulation that was trimmed off and used it on the shelf inside. That ended up getting knocked off regularly, then broken. This year, I had some leftover insulating material that I’d used around the pipes on the emergency septic bypass, and it’s the right width for that shelf. So I put a length of that on there to try out for this year and, hopefully, tied it down well enough to stay there. That makes the shelf a slightly more comfortable place for the cats to hang out on, and warmer on the toe beans!

In the second picture of the slide show above, you can see where I tucked in a thermometer that was in the sun room. Hopefully, the cats won’t drag it out of there. While in the sun room, the thermometer read about 8C/46F. By the time I had set it up and paused to take a picture, it had already moved up to about 12C/54C. When I came back after we finished fighting with the tree, it was reading almost 20C/68F. The angle of the photos make the needle look off by a few degrees, though.

Meanwhile, there is a little sick kitten I’ve been monitoring. I can’t get near it, unfortunately. I would call is a semi-feral kitten, since it will not run away if I walk past it, but if I stop to try and pet it, it runs off.

It does seem to be getting better, though. For a sick kitty, it gets around quite a bit!

In the first picture, it was hanging out inside the shelf shelter, enjoying a sheltered, sun warmed cat bed. In the second picture, it’s hanging out on a step in front of the new door, and in the third, it was hanging out on top of the trap we’ve been leaving out for them to be used to, so that it will be easier to trap cats for spay or neuter, later on.

Well now.

I got a phone call while I was working on this post, from my mother. I guess it was a good thing I didn’t make it to the city, after all!

My mother got a letter from our regional health authority. She doesn’t understand what it is saying, but from what she could read to me, I think it is an appointment for the brain scan she’s supposed to get as part of her paneling for a nursing home. She was able go get the required chest Xrays and EKG right away. The lab and Xray is right across the waiting room from her doctor’s clinic, and those are all drop ins. The scan, however, has a waiting list and, if it is what I think it is, she finally got to the top of the list.

It’s been more than a year, or is it almost 2 years? since she got on that waiting list.

Since I can go through her town on my way to the city, anyhow, we worked it out. After picking up my daughter’s office chair when the post office opens tomorrow morning, I’ll drop that off at home so she can start assembling it, then head back out right away. I’ll stop at my mother’s and go over the letter with her and then continue to the city for the Costco shop. No extra trips needed.

After tomorrow, our daytime highs are expected to be below freezing for a while, and then warm up again. Those will give me a chance to work on more outdoor projects before the hard freeze hits. Everything depends on the weather.

As for today, it may not have been the day I originally planned on, but it all worked out for the better, because of it!

Funny how that can happen.

The Re-Farmer

Truck, garden bed and cuteness

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This morning, I did my rounds after feeding the yard cats (I counted 32 this morning), as usual. I even remembered to take pictures of the finished garden bed in the old kitchen garden.

Hopefully, the leaves will at least somewhat keep the cats from digging in it but, when I looked at the section of the wattle weave bed I cleaned up and covered, I noticed evidence that at least one cat had gone through it, leaving flattened patches behind.

And dug through to the soil in one spot. I did not see any “presents”, though, so it’s safe to click through to the next picture.😄

I headed out early to drop the truck off. Along with the keys, I gave them the printout from Canadian Tire that showed what they worked on. As I was heading out, I remembered the recommendation with the wires. It wasn’t in the printout, because I declined the work, so I headed back.

It’s so funny to bring something like that up with three mechanics in the room! I think one was actually a customer, but he clearly knew what he was talking about. When I mentioned that they recommended replacing the spark plug wires, all three of them started talking shop about why that might be. They agreed to check the wires, too.

I also asked them to replace my headlight, letting them know I’d bought a bulb and where it was. They were also going to look for the source of the oil leak while changing the oil. That there was oil on the spark plugs gave them an idea of where to look. My brother said it was likely a gasket, but I didn’t think to mention that at the time.

Then I headed out, first for a quick lunch, then to run errands. I stopped to take care of renewing my driver’s license in person, since the postal strike meant I hadn’t received the letter about it, yet. The vehicle insurances rolls over to monthly payments automatically, so she gave me a printout of what those would be. The cost to renew my driver’s license went up by $10, but my insurance went down by a couple of dollars per month.

Then I walked to the other end of town (about 5-6 blocks) to the dollar store to check out their craft section. I’ve made my decision on what I want to make for my annual hand made Christmas ornaments and wanted to look for Christmassy yarn, a sparkly contrasting yarn and maybe some little decorative embellishments.

There wasn’t anything.

Oh, they had their Christmas section up, but in the crafts area, there were no Christmassy materials. There was a time when, every year, these sections would get a whole bunch of items for Christmas; yarn in Christmas colours with metallic strands in them, baubles and beads, cordage, blank ornaments, etc. I haven’t seen anything like this in craft sections for years. Only Michaels, the only craft store franchise we have left in Canada (and I hear they might be closing down) had them and, being a specialty craft store, they have most of them year round, since it can take months to do some seasonal crafts.

In the end, all I got was a couple of skeins of yarn in green and red. I might have something in my stash that I can use as a contrasting edging, and I should be able to use some other things I can add. I think I still have some things in appropriate colours left I can use for hangers, too. It was pretty disappointing, though. That dollar store is pretty much the only place to get crafting materials of any kind, locally.

Once I was done there and making my way back towards the garage, I stopped at another store where I found some things my husband requested. Then I stopped at a bank machine to take out the cash I’ve budgeted for getting our septic tank emptied for the winter. The last stop on the way back to the garage was a hardware store, where I got copies cut of our new front door key. I still need to test them out.

By the time I got back to the garage, I was starting to have issues with my left hip. The truck was in one of their bays, so I dropped my bag off in the truck before going through to the office. The door was closed, though, as the manager was on the phone, so I stayed by the truck and chatted with the mechanic that was working on another car next to it.

It turned out the truck was done! He told me they did find the source of the oil leak, but that was something they would give me an estimate for before ordering in a part, so it was something to talk about once I was in the office.

First, we went over what they did do. That included replacing the headlight.

The bulb I had, though, was blown out! They couldn’t use it. He asked me where I got it from, and I told him – including that I had gotten it for “free” by using my Canadian Tire dollars. He was happy to hear that I didn’t pay for it. I didn’t take it back. He had gone ahead and used one of their own bulbs in inventory and replaced it, figuring I’d still want it done either way. He was right. Even with that, the final bill was under budget!

I asked about the wires that Cdn Tire had recommended I replace (which would have brought that bill to over $800, and that did not include the $150 or so they charged, just to look at it).

The wires were fine. Nothing wrong with them. They did not need replacing.

He made some guesses as to why they might have recommended replacing them, to which I added, “or it might just be Canadian Tire. We’ve been burned by them before.” I told him, if I had had any choice, I wouldn’t have gone there in the first place. He didn’t say anything overtly, but did agree with me.

After that bill was paid, we talked about the oil leak.

It was a gasket.

The oil cooler line seal, to be specific.

The part itself was only about $20, and they figured only half an hour in labour, so about $100 in total.

I booked the truck for next week to get that done.

When he told me it was a gasket, I mentioned that that was exactly what my brother was expecting.

It turns out the mechanic knows my brother! At least enough to ask a few polite questions about him. He clearly thought well of my brother. That was nice!

As for talking about trading in the truck, I brought that up when I dropped it off. This is a conversation to have with the owner, though, and the mechanics don’t do the car sales part of things. The mechanic/manager I was talking to, though, did understand why I would want to do that, even though the truck is perfect for our needs. In the end, it’s a conversation for another time.

The main thing is, the truck is running well now, and got the all clear. The only issue is the leak. I was told to check the oil every week until it was fixed, but I just booked the fix for next week, instead.

The only down side was when I tried to pay for the work using my Cdn Tire MC, which is what I will be using when we do our Costco trip, too.

It was declined.

It turns out that the payment I’d made against it is still “pending”. Which means I might not be doing the Costco trip tomorrow, after all. That’s where I put our budget (gotta build those Canadian Tire dollars back up).

I was still able to do a small grocery shopping trip after we were done, though. Just a few times to last us, in case the payment takes a while longer to be released.

By that time, my hip was really starting to hurt, not just feel unstable. Before heading home, I messaged to ask if someone could meet me at the garage to help me bring my shopping in, mentioning that my hip was giving out. I didn’t have enough to warrant parking by the house, but too much for me to carry in one trip.

When I got to our driveway, my daughter was waiting by the gate.

Surrounded by cats.

With more cats, all down the driveway!

She had probably 20 cats out, following her, with the more social ones around her feet, demanding attention! I had to actually drive carefully, because there were so many of them – and of course, one of them kept running ahead of my on the driveway, instead of going off to the side, like the others.

This was one of them.

I got this picture after we’d brought everything to the house. I so want to snuggle this kitten! I’ve been able to sneak a pet, every once in a while at feeding time, but that’s it.

So that is how things went today.