kittens

This and that

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I seem to still be in recovery mode today, even after taking yesterday as a day of rest. I tend to forget just how draining it can be after spending time with my mother, even when she’s having one of her better days!

It’s also working out to be a hotter day. We’ve got a high of 26C/79F for today and tomorrow and, depending on what app I’m looking at, we’ll be hitting either 29C/84 or 31C/88F by the end of the week.

I did get at least one thing accomplished – finally! I cut away the web of roots and got the water pipe out from where I’d tried patching it, to the tap.

It took more digging and cutting to find the bottom of the tap and cut it free!

The only thing holding it upright was the web of roots, and that length of conduit pipe.

The short sections of rigid pipe were filled with dirt and roots. A couple of them had to be blasted with water before I could get them off the water pipe.

I did find where water can been coming out, when I did the patches and tested the tap. Quite a split in the pipe!

How the ground pipe was joined to the tap pipe was not what I expected. I thought there might be some sort of threaded connector. The metal pipe is jammed into the water pipe – and it is still very water tight, and very secure! I’ll probably have to cut it off, if I bother to at all.

I would like to use the original tap again. Even parts of the original metal pipe, too, if I can. However, my intended replacement for all this is to use an ordinary, heavy duty garden hose that can be easily removed, as needed. The dirt and roots in the short sections of pipe reinforce my plan to have a long pipe, from house to tap, to protect the hose.

For now, however, I will not remove the rest of the pipe, to the house. There are going to be much larger roots to cut through, plus it runs through a higher traffic area that gets regularly mowed, so I don’t want to dig a trench until I’m ready to put in the new system. I’m very interested in seeing how that hose end that comes out of the ground is attached to the water pipe!

So, for this project I need to get a long enough heavy duty hose, enough pipe, with drainage holes, to fit together and reach from house to tap, angled fittings for the ends that will get a removeable seal around the hose to prevent water, dirt or critters from getting in, and appropriate pipes and fittings to attach the hose to the tap assembly. For the tap itself, I want to build a box for the vertical pipe with the tap mounted on the garden side. I liked the original post’s little roof over the tap and will probably expand on that, to double as a shelf or something. The box will have a door at the back to access the hose and pipes, with room enough to store a few things, like the cord that will be used to pull the hose through the underground pipes, should it ever need to be removed, repaired or replaced.

Once this is installed and complete, I plan to make a vegetable washing station under the tap, using salvaged materials I’ve found around the property.

Hopefully, by the time it’s done, it’ll be good enough to last another 50 years or so.

After I finished up with the tap and hose set up, I headed towards the house and checked out the old kitchen garden. I was finally able to get a photo of one of the developing luffa.

I’ve been able to spot three of these. Hopefully, they have been pollinated and will develop into mature luffa gourds before we get frost. These are so high up, there’s no possibility of hand pollinating!

Before heading back to the house, I had an adorable surprise.

Tiny, familiar kittens.

Octomom had brought them to the house!

I only saw 4 of them, including this one.

They still can’t move very fast, so I was able to catch this one and hold it for a little while. This one is completely black. I saw the other black one, and it appears to have a white patch on its chest. I also saw the brown and the grey tabbies. Where the other 4 are, I could not see. Eventually, Octomom came around for them, but only two followed her across the yard. The rest were still hiding under the storage house.

While I was outside, I started to get some messages from the Cat Lady. She was at the vet with the kittens, and the prognosis is not good. They would have died within the week, she was told. As it is, they have a cat virus (calci), herpes, low glucose, low oxygen, pneumonia, infected ears and sores in their throats. The kittens have been at the vet all day, and the bill is getting high. I feel so bad about this. We were only going to pass on the one kitten, so now it’s double the expense for her, and we have no way to help out.

Priority is going to be spaying and neutering, because a lot of this is exacerbated by the sheer number of kittens.

Oh, wow!! Something just happened while I was writing this!

Two Toes is letting Tin Whistle nurse!

I had been expecting the kittens to at least try to nurse on her, since Decimus leaves the room once she’s done with nursing, and batting them away when they want to nurse more. They had not been trying, though, nor did Two Toes, until just moments ago!

Two Toes is doing really well. She seems quite happy, loves head pets, and gave me kisses today!

Whatever fight she was in that left her with a broken leg, the fur on her face and head is full of scabs that are healing well.

The only down side is poor Snarly Marlee! She does NOT like the kittens. The girls try to bring her into the living room for a while, so she can get a break, while they are there.

Hopefully, it won’t be for much longer. It would be fantastic if we could adopt them all out!

The Re-Farmer

Morning mamas

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

We always had the hardest time telling Junk Pile and Not Junk Pile apart. When Not Junk Pile got really bad ear mites, to the point of causing wounds behind her ears from scratching, those wounds were one sure way to tell them apart.

Then the fur started growing back after treatment.

Well, we won’t have the problem now!

Here’s a hungry Junk Pile, who will not allow pets, and Baby Beep Beep. Or, Beep Bop, as the girls call her.

Junk Pile is a slightly stockier cat. I don’t think she could have squeezed through 2″ square openings!

As for Not Junk Pile, she was quickly renamed Two Toes Tony at the vet, but now that we’ve had her surgery and her many successful escape attempts, I’m tempted to rename her Houdini. When I messaged that to our family chat, one of my daughters came back with Anthony “2-12 toed” Houdini. (I’m pretty sure she has 15 toes, but that doesn’t alliterate well… LOL)

She is also the easiest cat to medicate we’ve ever had. When she was still in Baby Jail in the sun room, we knew forcing a pill in her mouth, or using syringes for the liquid meds, was not going to work. So the girls put a spoonful of wet cat food in a tiny bowl, buried the pill, seasoned it with the liquid meds, and gave it to her. She absolutely devoured it! When we tried that with other cats, they either ate around the pill, or refused to eat the dosed food at all. Even today, when we gave her the dosed food, the pill hadn’t been buried far enough and got left behind, but as she licked the bowl clean, she ate up the pill, too!

Then she got more food, even sharing a bowl with kittens. To keep them away, after taking the spoonful out for a dose, the rest of the can to split up into other food bowls for the kittens and other cats. Otherwise, the kittens would have been after Two Toes’ medicated food! The babies do have excellent appetites. For wet cat food, at least! Not so much the dry stuff. 😁

Decimus asks to come into the room and nurses the kittens briefly – maybe a minute or so – before checking out the food bowls, then asking to be let out. I think that if she didn’t need to nurse to relieve pressure, she would be completely done with nursing now!

Which means it’s time to look into booking the spay that’s waiting for her, then sending all their pictures to the Cat Lady to post for adoption.

The kittens are so sweet, but I’m going to be so glad when they’re gone!

(I say as a kitten in my chair behind my back starts violently attacking the end of my braid.)

The Re-Farmer

Our tripod Houdini, sick baby rescue, and unintended harvests

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Oh, my goodness. What a day.

Taking my mother to my brother’s place for a visit went rather well, overall. There were a couple of predictable incidents, like when she suddenly started yelling at me in a rage because I took a slightly different route than the one she always took. That took some time to calm her down. It amazes me how, in her mind, the “short cut” that she always took (it isn’t any shorter, nor is it a faster route) is the only right route. Which, in itself, I wouldn’t mind, but the sudden and incredible anger she displays because I prefer a different route just blows me away. She’s more laid back about other route changes, but this one, and one other, just set her off like nothing else. The one other route that sets her off, my brother had driven her and took a different route, probably more than 20 years ago, and she still hasn’t forgiven him for it. Very strange.

There was also the very predictable attempt to pit my brother against me. Of course, she brought it up completely out of context, saying that I’d “reminded” her that this is no longer her house – but she paid for the roof! She neglected to mention the parts about her and my sister being in the area, and my not inviting them over for an unexpected and unplanned visit, or how she had tried to guilt me by saying “don’t forget, you’re living in my house.” Then she tried to say that she “paid for everything”. Everything? She seriously has zero understanding of just how much my brother and I are spending to keep this place up – the “perfect” house she asked us to move into that turned out to be in far worse shape than I ever thought.

Thank God my brother now owns the property!

What was also not a surprise, but still sad to hear, is that after I said no to her about coming here, they instead went to visit our vandal. This, in spite of the abusive messages he still leaves on her answering machine, and the horrible things he says to her about me. I’m quite disappointed in my sister for doing this. She says she wants to stay out of it and be neutral, but there is no neutral in this. Part of taking care of our mother is protecting her from herself, too. And there is nothing neutral about staying in contact with him, knowing the things he’s said and done to the rest of us.

Ah, well. What’s done is done. I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite us in the butt.

My mother was very tired, even before we left, so the visit was relatively short. Which, of course, she turned around and made it sound like my brother wanted her to leave early, when all he had done was be solicitous about her being so tired, and giving her choices. She chose to leave.

During the visit, my daughter sent messages to keep me up to date on what was going on at home.

Two Toes had escaped again.

They reinforced the cage, and were able to catch her.

After I got home, I wanted to walk around outside, only to find…

… a tripod staple cat walking past me!

It took a while – and the help of another cat! – but my daughter was eventually able to catch her again and put her in the carrier.

She is such an escape artist, and so determined to get outside, that we had to make the decision to bring her inside and add her to the “isolation ward”. Which is getting pretty full! Her babies will be okay. Other creche moms will nurse them. Who knows. Maybe she’ll even nurse these guys…

When I brought the carrier in and put it on my bed, the kittens were immediately interested in it – and her! They were pawing at the door, trying to get at her. After a while, I opened the door, and a kitten dashed right in.

Much to my surprise, there was no hissing from her at all. The girls had tried to put the two sick kittens in the cage with her, but had to take them out, because she was hissing at them so much.

She comes out every now and then, but the carrier seems to be the spot she feels most comfortable in, and she goes back into the carrier fairly quickly. As I write this, she is napping in it right now.

So far, Butterscotch seems indifferent to her, contentedly sharing bed space with her, Nosencrantz is keeping her distance, and so is Marlee.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

While I was still at my brother’s, the Cat Lady came by to pick up the sick black and white kitty. She asked if there were any other sick kitties, so my daughter brought out the white and grey one.

I took this picture of the two of them napping together, yesterday.

I had not mentioned the second kitten to the Cat Lady because, to be honest, I didn’t think it would make it. Instead, it started to get better, though it’s still very weak and looks a mess. Plus, when I found out they were doing this out of pocket, instead of through the rescue, because donation money had gone to spays and neuters, I didn’t want to add to their expenses!

As sick as the white and grey one is, the black and white one is in worse shape. Before I headed out this morning, I washed both their eyes. The black and white one’s eyes were stuck shut again, and as soon as they started to open a bit, puss started to ooze out. From both eyes. The Cat Lady, however, has already let me know she’s picked up medication for them, and they will be seeing a vet soon for testing. Because she has the rescue, she can pick up medication that I can’t, without first bringing the cats in.

She is also asking if we can catch 4 older female kittens to place at that farm she was telling us about, plus she is going to arrange spays. Catching the mamas is not going to be easy, though! She was in a rush and using her vehicle to pick up kitchen cabinets they’d bought locally, so she wasn’t able to drop off a trap or anything else. She just took the kittens and that’s it.

She will also try to adopt the spayed cats out, but even if they end up coming back here, at least it will help reduce the number of kittens next year!

So that is done for now. I hope the kittens recover well for her. She’d be so heart broken if they don’t make it.

One of the things I asked the girls to do while I was gone was a bit of harvesting in the garden, mentioning what likely needed to be harvested. Which made it a surprise when I got a picture of these guys.

These are squash from the compost pile! I had intended to just leave them until the end of the season, but my daughter wanted to see how they are. She didn’t pick all of them, but I’m still a bit perplexed about it! I guess we’ll be cracking them open to see how they look.

Along with more bush beans, a few summer squash and some Spoon tomatoes, she also picked the largest, ripest Sweet Chocolate pepper. They had it with their supper. I’ll have to ask them how it tasted, since I can’t eat peppers without gagging, no matter how wonderful they look and smell.

I had my own accidental harvest.

While doing my evening rounds, I was checking the squash patch and found a couple of female flowers to hand pollinate. I’m amazed, every time I look at the candy roaster and pink banana squash. They are growing so fast, and there are so many of them! I also took a closer look at our one Honeyboat Delicata. It hasn’t been getting any bigger, but the colours were changing, showing that it was ripening. I moved it to look around and…

… the stem snapped.

It’s so tiny! Ah, well. I guess we can eat is like a summer squash, still. Plus, I spotted a couple more little Delicatas forming on another vine. Hopefully, these will reach the full size they are supposed to get!

So that was most of my day. I know I’m forgetting things, but my brain is pretty fried right now. Especially after I called my mother later on. Oh, right! After dropping her off, I had time to swing by her pharmacy to ask about when her prescriptions needed a renewal from a doctor. I’m so glad I did! It turns out the pharmacist had been trying to fax the paperwork to the doctor’s new office, not knowing that my mother is no longer his patient. He had extended her prescriptions himself, already, but he could only do it for 4 weeks, and only once. Then he gave me a copy of the forms they faxed to the doctor’s new clinic. When I take my mother to see the interim doctor, I can bring them along for her to sign, so there should be no hassle trying to look up what my mother needs renewed.

I waited until I knew my mother would be up from the nap she was going to take after I left before calling to let her know. I talked again about how this is going to be just about the prescriptions. This doctor isn’t taking new patients, so there’s no point bringing up any of the other things my mother wants to talk about. She always brings up the same things, but she’s convinced the doctors are hiding what’s “really” wrong with her and not telling her everything.

Then she started saying my brother should be taking her to the doctor. Because he’s so smart and knows English so well. Nice sideways insult thrown at me with that one. I pointed out that taking her to appointments is part of my “job” in living here. My brother not only has a much longer drive, but he would have to take time off work to do it.

Then she started complaining that my brother hardly ever calls her or visits her. I know full well he calls her, even though she treats him like crap when he does, and he is incredibly busy. I eventually got out of her that she was talking about how he used to visit almost weekly. This was before we moved onto the property. He would drive out here after work on Fridays, do more work around the property, trying to fix things, and since my mother’s place was along the route, he would stop and visit her, too. Part of our living here was to take that burden off of my brother, so he wouldn’t have to make the long drive out all the time. She didn’t care. She thinks he needed to keep right on making the drive out, just to visit her. She even said he needs to come out more often, because she’s getting older and he has to take care of her. I told her there’s three of us to take care of her, and it was wrong to put the entire burden on my brother, when he is the one least able to do it! He’s got his full time job, his own property to take care of and lives the furthest away. She pretty much told me flat out, she didn’t care.

*sigh*

This, after she betrayed him so badly not long ago. She still can’t understand that there was anything wrong with what she did and has essentially forgotten about it.

So… that phone call wrung me out even more than the drive with her today!

My poor brother. He’s such a good man.

For all the stuff going on, it was good to at least see him and his amazing wife today!

The Re-Farmer

A quick update

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

This morning, I took video and will be putting together a garden tour video tonight, after I finish watering the garden. Until then, here is some cuteness!

Inside cuteness…

… and outside cuteness!

I have been finding piles of outside kittens in that bed in the sun room more often.

The inside kittens quite enjoyed the freshly laundered fluffy blanket and towel!

Today was a wonderfully cool day. We had a high of only 18C/64F We had scattered showers in the region throughout the day, but I did eventually get to put a second coat of paint on the folding table and stump bench. I don’t think they will need a third coat. We’ll have lots of paint for other projects.

I also worked on trimming the lumpy bits on the debarked log. I drained both batteries on the mini chainsaw, with only one last large lump that needs to be trimmed.

We did not get enough rain, though, so I’ve been working on watering the garden. As I write this, I’ve got the last sprinkler set up in the main garden area, and a timer running. Once that’s done, I still need to water the front garden beds. I should be able to get that done while the light holds. Once that’s done, I’ll be able to start editing a garden tour video.

My day was almost disrupted completely. Thank God my sister phoned, first. She started off asking if we wanted cucumbers, which I thankfully declined; we still have pickles from last year! I said no to slicing cucumbers, too.

What does it mean that my sister’s call had me feeling slightly suspicious – and that my suspicions proved warranted?

As we were talking, I suddenly heard my mother announcing that they were in our little hamlet. It turns out they had gone to the cemetery to tend the family plot, and were at a nearby park (where they have public washrooms and water available), where they had their lunch. As we were talking, my mother suddenly asked, “are you going to invite us over?”

I was expecting that.

My answer was, no.

I then reminded her that we need to plan ahead for visits. Just dropping by suddenly is very disruptive.

First, she tried to guilt me. “Don’t forget, you’re living in my house”.

“It’s not your house anymore.”

Again, I repeated that we need time to plan visits. Then she threw a real whopper at me.

“Are you afraid of [my husband]?”

That one had me laughing out loud.

She kept trying to find ways to blame my family, but I finally said that it was HER behaviour that’s the problem.

She went silent after that. My sister and I talked a bit more before she finally said that our mother was in a “mood” and it was time to go.

My mother completely cannot accept that her own behaviour causes her own problems. When she comes here, she’s rude and often cruel. She has no interest in visiting us. Her only interest is in seeing what we’ve done and to criticize me for it – and I don’t mean constructive criticism! But she also expects us to wait on her, hand and foot, and dote on her. She treats my family like crap, insults them, then wonders why they don’t want to be around her. My husband is in constant pain, but he’s supposed to come out and pander to her as well. My older daughter works nights, but she’s supposed to interrupt her sleep to dote on her. My younger daughter has pretty severe PCOS, which affects her physical appearance that has my mother being particularly cruel. Today she wasn’t feeling well, either. My mother, however, gives zero thought to how other people might feel, or what they are dealing with. Her world revolves around herself, and she expects our worlds to revolve around her. There’s only so much of that that can be blamed on her age. Frankly, she’s been like this for a long time.

Oh! There goes my timer. Time to turn off the sprinkler and water the front garden beds.

<<< one hour later >>>

I’m back!

Gosh, it’s so gorgeous out there. I didn’t want to come back inside!

Anyhow. Where was I?

Ah… yes. We managed to not get what would have been a highly disruptive and unpleasant “visit” from my mother.

I’m sure she’s going to try and find some way to punish me for not allowing her to abuse me and my family. I’m just glad my sister made sure to phone ahead this time. The last time my mother talked her into suddenly showing up here, it was quite unpleasant and set my weather dependant work back for days, so she promised to always call first!

For now, the garden is taken care of, the outside cats have been tended to, and now it’s time for me to start on that video! Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish it tonight and be able to upload it by morning. We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Morning update

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

At around 4am or so, we finally got hit by one of the many little thunderstorms that have been passing us by. It got very loud, and we had a bit of a light show, but it seems we only caught the edges of it. We had some rain, but not enough to bring the rain barrel to even half full again.

As I write this, my husband and I should be on the road to his medical appointment, but we got a call this morning to reschedule it to Thursday. I can’t say I mind the delay. With the van gone, we have to use my mother’s car, which is going to be an incredibly painful drive for my husband. There’s no getting around it until we can get a replacement vehicle, and that still won’t be for a few more months.

Then I found a text message from the garage asking if Thursday would work to get the oil changed on my mother’s car. It would be a morning drop off, and with only one vehicle, I’d have to stay in town until it’s done, so getting to the medical appointment takes priority. Hopefully, he can fit the car in soon after.

Pain had my husband up really early today, so he took care of feeding the outside cats at about 5am. That must have confused the kitties! 😄 When I went out later to do my morning rounds, I spotted this.

It’s Octomom, bringing one of her kittens to the kibble house!

We still haven’t figured out where she moved her babies, but from how active this little one is, we’re going to be seeing all of them, soon. Mama must be more than ready to bring them to where solid food can be relied on! There are two black kittens in this litter. My younger daughter has always wanted an all black cat. If we can get them socialized, we might bring one in, after Decimus and her babies are adopted out.

Oh, that reminds me! I was messaging with the Cat Lady. She’s still working on her husband about the two kittens she’s promised to take; Ghosty and one of the outside kittens that is sicker. She says she may have a placement for Ghosty, so long as she doesn’t turn out to have something major, like feline leukemia or something. That would be so awesome! It’s getting time to take good pictures of all the kittens to send to her, so she can pass them on to her contacts. Getting a picture of Decimus will be a bit more difficult. She is either moving around too much, or covered in kittens!

Anyhow…

Today has a high of only 22C/72F. According to my desktop app, we are 20C/68F right now, and raining.

There is no rain outside.

So I’m thinking I might be able to do some painting this afternoon, then start cleaning up and debarking the logs for the trellis bed. I want to make sure to cut away and smooth out any branch ends and sticky-outy-bits. That’s something I’ve noticed causing a surprising amount of trouble with the high raised bed. You don’t notice stuff like that, until you’ve stabbed yourself with a broken branch end you never even noticed! The netting we’ve got over the beans catches on everything, too, so the smoother we can make the logs, the better.

What rain we did have last night was enough to water the garden well enough. I had to refill the rain barrel out by the Crespo squash, but the squash itself did not need watering. I neglected to take a picture of my little harvest this morning; beans, a green zucchini, and a few Spoon tomatoes were ready.

I’m really happy with how the squash patch is doing. Part of why we’re trying to many different kinds of winter squash is to not only see what we like to eat, but what grows well here. Right now, we have a couple of Boston Marrow squash developing, one on each plant. I think there’s only one, maybe two, Red Kuri, and one hulless seed pumpkin. For all the plants and flowers, we still have only one Honeyboat Delicata developing. There’s also only one Winter Sweet developing.

Then there’s the North Georgia Candy Roaster, and the Pink Banana! Both are now producing plenty of female flowers, and there seem to be quite a few squash that have been successfully pollinated. Though I’m seeing and hearing lots of pollinators – especially in the melon tower – I’m still hand pollinating the squash, unless I spot an insect actively pollinating a female flower. If things continue to go well, we should at least have a decent harvest of the candy roaster and banana squash, and enough of the others to at least taste them. That will go a long way towards deciding what we will try growing next year.

Weather willing, I will make another garden tour video soon.

But first, I need to make a quick trip to the post office and pick up some packages!

I’m kinda glad we didn’t end up going to the clinic today. I’m much appreciating the quieter day.

The Re-Farmer

So much done!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I am so happy right now!

Absolutely wasted, and will probably be sore and barely able to move tomorrow, but happy!

My daughter and I got so much done today. But first, the cuteness!

Would you look at that flat pancake of a kitten!

This one actually allows me to pet it, and even pick it up at times.

After our failure this morning in getting a shelter over the stump bench, I decided we may as well cut down the dead tree beside it. I was then going to clean up the bench and get at least one coat of paint on it.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way.

First, the dead spruce…

The first photo is the “before” image. Instagram crops things weird, and their crop options suck, so you can’t see the bench in that one.

Which direction to get it to fall was the issue. No matter where it fell, it would be landing on something. The thing was to get it to land on something with the least amount of damage. So I tried to get it to fall on the bench, in the middle, where it has the most support. It would still be hitting the big maple on the way down, but not as much of it.

As you can see in the second photo, it came down about as perfect as could be! One maple branch broke off and that was it.

My daughter and I then cut off all the branches; me with the chain saw, her with the electric pruner/baby chainsaw.

Once the branches were clear, I cut away the few bits of wood that were holding the trunk to the stump still, then cut the end flat. We then measured out 18′, and cut it with a few inches extra. This log is the right size to match the largest log we’ve got for the trellis bed. The two largest logs will be the bottoms longs for the sides, then the thinner ones will go on top.

Next, we cleared away all the branches and extra pieces. There was another stump that had originally been intended to be part of the stump bench, but it was too rotten. That finally got cut down to ground level. The new stump was also got trimmed lower, though not quite to ground level. Maybe we’ll put a planter on it or something, at some point. 😊 We also used a rope and dragged the 18′ piece over to where the trellis bed will be built.

It was SO much easier to grad that big log with two people!

This is the third dead spruce we’ve cleared out of this one little section. At least one of them was killed off by the Virginia creeper that had been allowed to attach itself to it. This tree that we had cleared away had still been alive until last year or so.

Then, since I had the chain saw handy, and 200 ft of extension cord, I took advantage of it.

First, I dealt with the crab apple trees.

The easy part was cutting away the remains of a dead crab apple tree that was off by itself. In the photos with the dead spruce tree, you can actually see it through the dead branches of the fallen tree.

In the above photos, the first one is in between two large crab apple trees. These were suckers growing out from around the remains of trees that died long ago. They were much harder to cut away and clean up, because they were so tangled up in the two live trees. In one of those, I cut away some dead branches, too.

Now that the suckers are gone, there are branches from the live trees hanging really low, as they are no longer being held up by the suckers!

The second photo shows where the single dead crab apple tree had been. Between the freshly cut stump and the next live tree are another three stumps cut to ground level, plus two more behind where I’m standing to take the photo. Way too many trees were planted way too close together!

There is still one more at the very end that will need cleaning up. Again, the original tree had died long ago, and there are just suckers growing. There may still be one that produces tasty apples; another that I knew for sure had good apples broke in a storm last year and didn’t recover. We’ll see if any of the remaining ones are worth salvaging, but they won’t be ripe for at least another month.

My daughter made many trips to the branch pile past the fire pit, clearing away as I cut. As we were finishing up, I decided to take a closer look at the stuck tree my brother had cut down for me. I wanted to see if I could safely cut away the dead tree it was stuck on. There were actually a couple of trees that were holding it up. One was a small spruce that got bent under the fallen trunk. Sadly, I had to cut it, even though it was still alive. I could see that even if I got the bigger tree cut away, the little one would still hold up the tree we were trying to access, and cause the tree we were after to roll towards other trees, rather than fall to the ground

I was able to cut through the little spruce’s trunk, but with everything so jammed together, nothing moved. I was, however, able to get a good look at the dead tree the fallen tree was stuck on.

It wasn’t a tree.

What you’re seeing in that first photo is a tree top. You can see that, at some point, the tip had broken off, and two branches grew upwards, forming a double top. This is pretty common for spruces. As the tree my brother cut down fell and got caught on other trees, it broke this tree top. As it slowly continued to fall lowers in high winds, the tree top ended up vertical, with its broken end on the ground as it it had grown there!

In the second photo, you can see the tree with a broken off top that I think it came from.

So I grabbed the rope my daughter and I used to drag the 18′ log out, and wrapped it around the bottom of the tree top. I wasn’t able to get it completely off, as there were branches getting caught, but it is no longer holding up the stuck tree. Since I had also cut the other little tree, that came off its stump and fell, too. Finally, the stuck tree came down! No, it’s not on the ground, but that’s just fine. It’s only being held up by its own branches and undergrowth now, and it completely accessible!

We can now clear it, cut it to size and drag the pieces out.

But not today! My daughter and I were both completely beat by then. Thank goodness it was a “cooler” day, with a high of “only” 27C/81F.

So… we didn’t paint the bench and, with possible thunderstorms or showers starting tomorrow afternoon and over the next few days (depending on what app I look at), it may not get done for possibly another week.

That’s okay. The bench and the folding table I want to also paint won’t melt. It just means we work on something else, instead. Like finally continuing that trellis bed!

I’m just so happy we were able to get all this stuff done. It feels so good!

The Re-Farmer

What a morning

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Ugh.

Let’s start with the cuteness, shall we?

This litter of two that live in the junk pile by the chain link fence are starting to explore further afield.

Gush, they are adorable!

This morning, the girls were out very early to clean out the eavestroughs. There was one corner, however, they did not do. It was occupied!

This is an active wasps nest.

We’ve had wasps around here before that we had to destroy. Once, because they had made their nest partly inside the wall somewhere, finding their way in under the eaves at the corner of the old kitchen and my bedroom. The next year, it was because they had built their nest under the old kitchen, through a crack in the crawl space foundation – and were also somehow getting inside the old kitchen!

This one, however, looks like we can leave it. Wasps are pollinators, and I would prefer not to destroy pollinators if I can avoid it! When they die off in the winter, we can remove the nest.

Part of my plan for the day was to head into town after I finished my morning rounds. My husband was supposed to get prescriptions delivered yesterday, but it didn’t happen and we didn’t know why.

Before heading out, I phoned the pharmacy, since I figured I could order my own refills a bit early, too. I mentioned what happened with my husband not getting his delivery yesterday, which was a surprise to the pharmacist I spoke to. She checked, and his name wasn’t even on the list for refills. She said she would take care of it, and mine as well. My prescription needs to be renewed by the doctor, however, so she was going to fax the clinic about that.

Well, that didn’t work out.

I got a call just as I was about to leave for town. The pharmacy had a letter from our doctor. Our doctor had moved to a clinic in the city, and we were going to stay with him until we could find a new doctor at a nearer clinic. Preferably the one he just left. There just aren’t a lot of rural doctors around, and most of them are not accepting new patients. My husband had tried to do a phone appointment with our regular doctor, as his disability insurance requires regular doctor’s visits, but it ended up not happening, and we didn’t know why the doctor never called. We did know he wanted my husband to come in, in person, but the drive is just too painful for him.

Well, the pharmacy’s letter from the doctor was telling them that my husband was no longer a patient of his, because he did not see my husband within 3 months of his moving to the new clinic, therefore he could not renew the prescriptions.

?????

Yet, my husband tried to do a phone appointment within that time frame, and the doctor never called.

So I called the new clinic and asked about it.

It turns out that, to maintain status as one of our doctor’s patients at this new clinic, they required at least one in-person visit for a physical within 3 months of the doctor moving to the new clinic. Which would have been by the end of June. Once that was done, then phone or video appointments could be made. Since we did not do that, we are no longer his patients (I was asking about my husband, but it would apply to me as well).

Which means neither of us have a doctor at all, and my husband can’t get his many prescriptions renewed.

So I decided to call the clinic we’d been seeing our doctor at. They lost three doctors at the same time, and I hoped they would have new doctors by now, and that at least one of them would be open to new patients.

They will be getting new doctors.

In the fall.

September, at the earliest.

There was, however a doctor at the clinic who had agreed to see our doctor’s patients until they could find a new doctor. So I made an appointment for my husband with her. This weekend is a long weekend, but they were able to squeeze him in on the Tuesday.

We’ll have to keep on top of the status for new doctors at this clinic. Until then, we’ll have to see this one doctor that was willing to take on our old doctor’s patients temporarily.

Once that was done, I finally made my way to town. One of my husband’s prescriptions did not need a renewal, so I could at least pick that up. While there, I informed the pharmacy of why we lost our old doctor, but that we have an appointment with another doctor, so they can expect to get a fax about the prescription renewals on Tuesday. I was asked to make sure to call ahead of time before filling the prescriptions, because they get so many faxes, it can be hard to get to them all. Which is fine. My husband normally calls his refills in for delivery.

At least my husband was able to get one of his injections, but that prescription was added to work with the other injection. The one that’s missing is a slow release insulin. My husband is going to have to monitor his blood sugars more. He doesn’t like to do it, because it’s so discouraging. Chronic pain causes elevated blood sugar readings. The pain also results in loss of appetite, so it’s not like he’s eating much at all, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference, whether it’s his blood sugars or his weight. The only thing he’s been losing is muscle mass. For someone who was so athletic in the past, this is very depressing. There isn’t much that can be done about it, though. He’s on the strongest doses of painkillers they are legally allowed to give him, and they barely control the pain at all. Quality of life? What’s that?

*sigh*

So… yeah. That was something I did not expect to be dealing with, this morning. At least now we finally know that we no longer have a doctor! It doesn’t make finding a new one any easier, though. That’s the one down side of not living in the city. There are plenty of doctors in the city to choose from. Not a lot of doctors want to live in rural communities, though.

*sigh*

At least we were able to book an appointment with a doctor that can take care of prescriptions for us.

The Re-Farmer

Some morning cuteness for you!

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

This little guy is getting a little more socialized!

He was on the rail and did start to move away as I got closer, but the other end is covered in rose bush, slowing him down. That allowed me to pick him up and cuddle him a bit. When I put him back on the rail, he stayed and let me take his picture a few times.

I just about squee’d out loud when I uploaded the pictures and saw this.

I got a tongue blehp!!!

*melt*

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I had to wash the eyes of only one kitten, this morning.

In the background, around the kibble house, you can see the little tuxedo. That one had the really messed up eye, but we couldn’t get anywhere near it. We still can’t, but it looks like the eye healed on its own!

I heard from the Cat Lady last night. Their cat that was more recently blocked has had surgery and is being monitored at home now. They’re going to be giving us their regular cat food, because they will now be buying only medicated cat food. !!! I just can’t imagine how much that will cost on a monthly basis. They have more cats inside than we do, and the UTI cat food is insanely expensive.

As for our own Leyendecker, I will have to go to the clinic today and see if I can get another syringe for his liquid meds. The last dose we gave him, he bit it hard enough to make a hole. He is responding to the medications – he’s got about a week left, just once a day, now. He still doesn’t seem to be eating much at all, but we’ve still got the problem that sent us to the vet in the first place. He’s peeing in all the wrong places! My younger daughter has taken on the task of deep clean up, and has been mopping the floors frequently. Considering the state of our floors, especially in the kitchen, that is not an easy job. The linoleum is worn down to the sub floor in places, and the mop catches on the edges. If we were using the sponge mop, it would be torn to pieces!

Now if we could just win that lottery jackpot, we could put in new flooring, along with all the other renovations this place needs! 😅

The Re-Farmer

No more Question

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

I can’t say it was totally unexpected, but… well… not today!

Earlier today, I got this adorable photo.

Question has squeezed herself in between her adopted siblings and promptly had a nap.

She’s been napping a lot lately.

I then went and got to work on a bunch of things before returning to my room, expecting to get some work done on the computer.

I’ll be honest; when I saw Question lying on the bed, I thought she was already gone! But then she moved in a silent meow.

Clearly, she wasn’t going to be with us long, so I wrapped her up in a towel, sat on the side of my bed and held her. I managed to tap out a message to the family on my phone to let them know. My younger daughter came and joined me.

We pet her and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. Her eyes wouldn’t close all the way, so we kept them moist with eye drops. When she seemed dehydrated, my daughter dipped water into her mouth, one drop at a time. For a while, she actually seemed to be more mobile, so I put her in my daughters arms so I could go find something to give her fluids more easily but when I came back, she was gone.

My daughter was crying, but I think she was glad to have been able to give Question comfort, right to the end.

Her sister and I buried Question in the little flower garden, next to the bird bath. From now on, she will be surrounded by lush growth and flowers.

I had messaged with the Cat Lady last night about Question and Ghosty. They were supposed to take both when they got back from the US, only to return to a very sick cat of their own. She wanted to give him another week of monitoring before introducing two new kittens to the household (there are no available fosters, and all the rescues have zero intakes for cats right now). Especially with one of them being pretty sick.

After a while, I messaged her again to let her know about Question. The Cat Lady turned out to be at the vet clinic we normally go to – which is not at all close to their place! Another of her cats was blocked and undergoing surgery at the time! Which likely meant she called a number of vets before finding one that could take her cat in right away. She just had a blocked cat that got surgery, and now his sibling is going through the same thing!

She just can’t seem to catch a break!

In a way, I’m glad they didn’t take the kittens. If they had, she would have pulled all stops to keep the kitten alive, and there are times when I just don’t think that’s actually a good thing. Sometimes, I think letting them go is the kinder thing. Which is what I think was the case with Question.

I’m going to miss waking up to that little fur ball tucked up against my neck.

The Re-Farmer