kittens

Eyes wide open!

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Here we have the first kitten whose eyes are fully open!

I’ve been noticing one kitten with eyes that seemed to be slowly opening more and more, and now they are completely open! It seems quite okay with being held, too. Unlike one of the other tabbies I picked up and cuddled yesterday, that was making spitting noises at me. Eyes very much still closed.

Mom is still looking decidedly scruffy! It’ll be awhile before all that clipped fur grows back.

Decimus is actually wanting to leave the room. Last night, I opened the door for her, and she went wandering. She even went into the basement, but the floor there is so damp, she didn’t stay long. She really likes the water fountain!

The other cats were very curious about her. Tissue was the one I kept the closest eye on, because she seemed to be actually stalking Decimus. Much to my surprise, Turmeric wasn’t very aggressive. She didn’t like seeing a new cat around, but didn’t do much of anything other than look startled, when Decimus walked past her and basically body slammed her as she want by, rubbing up against her. Decimus almost ignored the other cats as she explored. If another cat came up to sniff at her face, she would sniff back and keep going. Others would follow her along, sometimes close enough to sniff at her. Curious, but not aggressive.

Which is really something. Decimus has been in the house for less than 2 weeks, yet she’s doing better with the other cats in this one exposure to them than Marlee or Nosencrantz, after being here for months! Marlee, at least, does want to leave the room every now and then, but backs off when she sees other cats. Nosencrantz won’t go near the door, never mind out of it.

The outside cats, meanwhile, are doing just fine. That’s Caramel on the other side of Adam’s big fuzzy tale. I’m actually kinda glad she moved her kittens. We got quite a bit of rain last night, then more rain this morning. The ground under the cat house is no longer dry, even though no water actually runs under there.

Oh, and Adam has been letting me pet her! Not all the time, but when she does, I’ve been able to get some really good, friendly response.

I joked with the girls that we should rename Adam, Eve, now that we know that he is a she – and a mom, now, too! Unlikely, but I thought it was funny. 😉

We had the tax assessor lady come in this morning. I remembered to ask her if she were allergic to cats. She hesitated before saying, as long as she doesn’t touch any, she’s okay.

So, of course, Gooby came over and started rubbing on her bare lower legs! At one point, I had to distract him because I could see he was building up to jump up and climb her!

Gooby would be an excellent cat to adopt out. Talk about friendly!

The assessor took pictures of all the buildings, and took external measurements of the house and garage. Since other buildings are basically used for storage (or have collapsed), she didn’t need anything more from those. She did have to go through all the rooms of the house and take pictures to show the structure. Things like the new roof – and the removal of the chimney for the wood furnace – were things she took note of. The status of the sun room and old kitchen, which are not heated or insulated, were details she needed. When she saw the old wood cookstove, we talked a bit about how it was what we cooked on when I was a kid, but it can’t be used anymore, even if I were able to repair it. She even commented on how a lot of the old houses were like what we have; wood burning stoves close to the wall, and heat shields non-existent.

Then she made some notes. I think knowing that the stove can’t be used was an important detail. She even made note of things like the new hot water tank, and took pictures of the electrical panel for the electric furnace, as well as the main panel.

So that’s over and done with. I hope this assessment will mean lower tax bills for my brother!

Then, this afternoon, we finally had our Father’s Day/birthday pizza night! With cake and ice cream still to come.

It has worked out to be a beautiful day, today. Much cooler (22C/72F feels cool, after the heat we’ve been having!), with lovely rain this morning, and now finishing up with a much delayed celebratory meal, that someone else cooked.

How great is that? 😂

The Re-Farmer

So many bebbies!

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Early this morning, we were already at 20C/68F, and I don’t think we got any cooler overnight. We did have a series of thunderstorms pass us by during the night. Plenty of lightning visible. Here, we got some rain, thankfully! Enough to noticeably change the level of water in the rain barrel, at least.

By the time I headed outside, it was already 25C/77F. With the heat yesterday, and today expected to be even hotter, I mowed the inner yard last night, starting quite late. By the time I was done, there was barely any light left. This morning, I could see the parts I missed in the dark! 😄 No matter. At least the main areas got done. Around the main garden area and the rest of the outer yard still need to be done.

I am so appreciating the loan of that riding mower!!!

No mowing today, though. We’re supposed to reach 33 or 34C/91 – 93F today. More storms are supposed to come through, so hopefully we’ll get more rain. My younger daughter and I will be going to the city today, and they are supposed to reach 36C/97F today. Thankfully, the AC in my mother’s car works!

I just got interrupted by some alarmed squeaking.

From these guys.

We put the cat cave into the cat cage, but the kittens don’t want to be in there. They can crawl out, but can’t get back in, anyhow. Last night, I heard alarmed squeaking, and when I checked, Decimus had moved two of them into the cat cave, so I quickly put the other two with her.

Just now, I checked the cage and saw three squeakers, but heard another squeak from somewhere else.

My closet.

I have boxes at the bottom of one end to protect the floor, because Nosencrantz kept pooping there. Decimus discovered she could get into one of them and had moved a kitten into it! This is not a good place for them, so I took it out and put it back in the cat cage. Decimus was in the cave again, with one of her kittens, so I put the remaining three in with her.

One cat has not moved her kittens, though.

So far, Caramel is keeping her babies under the cat house.

I have no idea what Adam is trying to do to her in the photo, but it’s funny looking, and I’m glad I caught the moment!

There are at least three kittens under there. Looks like an orange and white, a tortie or muted calico, and a grey tabby. There’s a leg on the orange and white’s head that I can’t figure out, so there is probably a fourth kitten in there, somewhere.

They are so close to the opening, I’m seriously considering pulling them out and putting them in the cat carrier. Caramel would likely go in with them – I’ve actually been able to pet her when she’s on the cat house roof! – but then what would we do with them? We can’t put them in baby jail with Decimus. There’s not enough room. We have no other space for them. The Cat Lady isn’t able to take in more cats or kittens, either.

So, they stay where they are, for now. At least they’re still close to the house, nice and dry, and protected from the heat.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: so many things!

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Yesterday was hot, and today is supposed to be a hotter, so I made sure to give the garden a thorough watering last night. I think it really appreciated it!

The mock orange next to the laundry platform is just exploding with flowers. Even the smaller one against the east side of the house that I keep forgetting to water is starting to bloom (we really need to move both of them!).

I found a few surprises this morning.

We have ripening strawberries. The ones in the photo look like they had some pollination issues, but it looks like all the plants are producing.

The big surprise was finding Roma tomatoes! They’re not the first to start blooming, and where the third variety to be transplanted, so for them to be the first to have developing tomatoes was very unexpected.

Some, but not all, of the resown green beans have germinated. Even some of the summer squash have started to germinate. With the winter squash, while transplanting Jiffy pellets with sprouts in them, I also transplanted the pellets that didn’t germinate. At least one of those has sprouted with big, strong seed leaves emerging. All of the squash seem to be recovering from transplant shock, little by little.

There was one transplant I did not expect to survive. There was a squash of some sort that sprouted in the wattle weave garden bed, between a bell pepper and some shallots. I did not plant it there, and it would have to go, since a squash plant there would completely envelop the shallots and peppers. So I transplanted it to an open space next to the pink rose bush, where we grew leftover lettuce seeds last year. As I tried to gently dig up the squash plant, I discovered that it was far, far deeper than I expected. I’m guessing the seed came with the garden soil, which has compost in the mix. When I pulled it up, it was basically all long, buried stem, but I did see a hint of a root just under what had been the soil level, so I transplanted it anyway. When I saw it the next day, drooping on the ground, I figured it didn’t survive, but included it when watering, anyway. This morning, it was looking perked up and much stronger! So it might actually survive, and we’ll find out what kind of squash it is.

I also got a harvest this morning! We don’t have a lot of garlic this year, and one variety is a soft neck garlic, so even fewer will develop scapes. I’d noticed scapes starting to show up recently, so it was a surprise to see they were ready to harvest, this morning! I picked almost all of them. There are a few remaining that should be ready tomorrow or the day after. Then they will be done.

Next year, we have to make sure to plant a lot more hard neck garlic, and protect the bed over the winter more thoroughly.

In other things, when I came out with the cat food this morning, I saw Caramel out and about, looking very hungry. She even let me pet her, though I think that was more because she wanted food. I dropped a handful of kibble at the opening where she had her kittens. It wasn’t long before she eating it, and was back under the cat house. I could hear the squeaking of kittens. She may have let me pet her while she was on the cat house roof, but when I tried to use my phone again to look under the cat house, she was back to growling!

There was one unpleasant surprise this morning, though. When I got to the kibble house with food, I found blood all over the place! On the floor, in the empty trays, and even against the walls in a couple of places! I’ve seen blood around before. The cats do fight pretty violently at times. Never this much, though. While doing my rounds, I kept an eye out for an injured cat, but saw nothing. Not even blood on the grass to show me where an injured cat might have gone. I’m assuming it was from a cat, though it’s possible it came from a racoon. Definitely not a skunk, since there was no smell.

The weird part is, no one heard any fighting last night. My daughters have a window facing that way that is kept open all night. My older daughter was working all night, as usual, and she didn’t hear a thing. My husband’s window is closer, but between the fans and his CPAP, he would only hear something if he’s up and about already. It would take a lot of noise outside to wake him from all the white noise he’s got going around him, inside.

It is a mystery.

The kittens inside are getting more active. In fact, I found one crawling around on the floor! I don’t want to risk stepping on one during the night while going to the bathroom or something, so with the help of a daughter, we move the cat cave, with the whole family inside, into baby jail. One of my daughter has put strips of carboard around the bottom few inches, so if any of the kittens get out of the cat cave, they won’t be able to get through the cage openings. They’re still small enough to squeeze through!

So far, they seem to be okay with the new arrangement.

New squeakers

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Squeaking was all I had to go by!

I popped outside briefly through the sunroom, and heard quite a bit of loud squeaking. It was most definitely coming from under the cat house. On my return, there was no more squeaking, so I decided to stick my phone’s camera at one of the spots the cats have worn down as they go in and out from under there.

All I saw was this.

Then the phone got attacked by a claw, and much growling ensued.

I’d say Caramel just had her babies under there. It’s probably quite cool, compared to the inside of the cat house right now. I had been wondering if she were going to have her litter soon. I think she was the last pregnant looking mama at this point.

I’m extra glad we put bricks under the skids to try and level it off on the lightly sloped ground. This corner would have more room under there because of them.

I hope mom and babies do all right. Unfortunately, she’s right where the skunks also scoot under when we try to startle them away. I don’t expect her to keep them there for long.

The Re-Farmer

Happy and sad, and things to be thankful for

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First, the happy.

Would you look at these little grublings?

Decimus has been more comfortable leaving the babies to sleep and spend her time away from them, but the kittens are now also getting more active! While Decimus and the other cats were meowing for their evening wet cat food feeding – she has already caught on to the routine! – the bitties started squirming around and making their way out of the cat cave!

We’re still working on a spring cleaning in the house, with the tax assessor coming in next week as our motivation (I’m sure the assessor has seen far worse!). One of the things I seriously need to get done is vacuum my carpet. It gets so bad, so quickly, but with Decimus and the babies in the room, I’m not about to start the vacuum and scare the bejeebers out of them. We’ll be putting them in the cat carrier and keeping them in the living room, which is still the plant room and barricaded from cats, unless under supervision, so it will be a safe place for them. Today, however, we’ve been washing all the blankets, towels and mats set out for the cats to use, including from inside the carrier. So my floor is a job that will wait until tomorrow!

I did have an unexpected and sad surprise, though. While gathering the garbage and recycling together for a dump run, I passed through the sun room and found a white and grey kitten on the floor. A dead kitten. It was bigger than Decimus’ babies, but I don’t think it was old enough for its eyes to be open yet. Oddly, its lower jaw was missing. It’s as if a cat brought it into the sun room for us to do something about it. Of course, I looked around for other kittens, but there was nothing. No clue as to who the mother was, either.

So I quickly buried it with Keith under the white lilacs. We still have the boards and the concrete pedestal over the grave, but I just moved the pedestal aside, and moved one of the boards – though I had to pull up a lot of greenery just to access it – then put it all back after burying the little one.

That done, I got the rest of the garbage and recycling together, loaded it up on my mother’s car, and headed to the dump. My husband had asked me to pick something up for him at the grocery store, so when I got home, I grabbed the newly emptied 18.9L water jug to refill and headed out again. Before I did, he quietly told me he’d changed his mind. Instead of picking something up for him, he asked me to pick something up for our younger daughter as a surprise treat. She has been doing the bulk of the cleaning while I’ve been mostly doing the running around. Her sister is still working at night (when her computer and drawing tablet are less likely to overheat and stop working), so her contributions are limited to things that won’t wake the rest of us up. My younger daughter is a great lover of cheesecake, so that was one thing I looked for. I ended up getting her a caramel chocolate cheesecake. Then, as an extra surprise, I picked up a couple of trays of sushi. Yeah, it was just grocery store sushi, but it’s still a treat!

There was a time when none of us would touch sushi (my husband still won’t). Years ago, when we were still homeschooling, I’d take the girls to a weekly park day with other homeschoolers. For years, we didn’t have a vehicle and took public transit. Between the bus and LRT connections, it took about a 1 1/2 hours to get there, and we often got to the park about 45 minutes before anyone else did. It was either that, or be almost an hour later than everyone else. Then it took another hour to get home. Same busses, same connections. It just happened to take less time, later in the day.

Yeah, transit sucked. When we did finally get a vehicle, the same trip took only 10 minutes.

In between connections, we would sometimes stop to pick up food. One day we were looking at the sushi displays, and they looked so beautiful and delicious, we decided to buy some to have for lunch before the other homeschoolers showed up. California rolls, if I remember correctly. We were quite eager and had high expectations.

We each had one piece, and that was it. I couldn’t even finish mine.

The killer was the cold rice. We just couldn’t handle eating cold rice.

So there we were, with a mostly full tray of sushi, when another transit dependant mom and her son showed up. When we found out they liked sushi, we offered it to them. They very enthusiastically accepted.

It was years before we were willing to try eating sushi again. I’m not sure what changed, but this time we liked it. Even grocery store sushi! Cold rice no longer bothered us. Very odd.

Now that we live out here, the only sushi places are in the city, and we have yet to have the opportunity to try one. So grocery store sushi remains our only option! I know grocery store sushi is treated as a bit of a joke, but we like it just fine.

Today, the grocery store happened to be freshly stocked with several larger combo trays, and I picked out two of different ones. Before leaving for home, I messaged my daughter to let her know I was on my way and would be pulling up to the house to unload. Then I told her that after unloading, we could stop for her treat! She was quite surprised and very happy with both the cheesecake and the sushi, and I made sure to tell her how much her dad and I appreciated her hard work. I know how hot, sweaty and miserable it can get, and I wanted to make sure to thank her!

I’m so glad our daughter chose to move out here with us. Taking care of this place turned out to be a much bigger job than any of us expected. We did not have any illusions that the place would be “perfect”, as my mother kept saying it was, but were still unprepared for just how neglected it had become. My brothers did their best, but there was no way they could even know about some issues, without actually living here, and my mother was in complete denial. Since my husband cannot physically do a lot, it would have been just me, and it would have been beyond what I could keep up with. My daughters gave up quite a bit to come out here with us, and I am grateful.

The Re-Farmer

Morning of kitties!

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How squee is this?

I couldn’t even see the other two, wrapped up in Decimus. She now leaves the cave more often and wanders around the room, much to Snarly Marlee’s dismay! Poor Marlee. She’ll be sitting on her stool next to her own cat cave, snarling away; Decimus just ignores her and keeps coming up to her, curiously.

Usually, this happens around 2 or 3am.

I finally took the time to look up Decimus. Turns out it’s a very old name, going back to ancient Rome, and means “tenth” or “tenth born”, so the tenth son born into a family would be named Decimus. It’s also a character in Warhammer, and the name of a famous Victorian architect, Decimus Burton. I should remember to ask my daughters where they got the name from. I don’t think they’ve ever played Warhammer, but they probably know about Decimus Burton.

Along with the adorable kitties inside, we’ve been seeing the outside kitties around the house! They hide under the cat house when we come out, but after my daughters watered the garden yesterday, my younger daughter was actually able to touch one before it hissed and ran off. As I was getting the kibble ready this morning, I could see three of them playing in the water bowl shelter. After I put kibble out and put away the container, I turned around to see one of the mostly white kitten eating at the tray under the water bowl shelter, with Brussel. I saw another little head pop out from under the cat house, only to back off when it saw me, so I delayed refreshing the water bowls under after I finished my morning rounds.

I’m really glad they are starting to come close to the house. They are much safer here, and the chances of socializing them increases as well.

We’re starting to run low on kibble, so I’ve decided that I’ll head to Walmart today to pick up more, as well as Canadian Tire to get more litter pellets. Work outside is going to be delayed a bit, though. I found out last night from my brother that an assessor will be coming out next week. She’ll be going through and measuring every room in the house (with a laser measurer, so it’ll be fast). We’ll, we’re not exactly good at that “housekeeping” thing, so this is an excuse to finally do some major cleaning over the next 4 days. Which is not easy to do with so many cats! The girls are going to focus on the upstairs and the basement, while I start on the main floor. Hmm. This would be a good time to rearrange my husband’s bedroom. That room is so small, it would involve moving half the furniture out completely. Mostly, I want to make it so that, when we finally get the plumber in to work on our bath tub faucet and taps, he can access it from the other side, if necessary. We should have had him in long ago, but getting ear mite medication for 16 cats took up the budget, and then some, even with my daughter helping pay for the vet bill.

Well, we’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, it’s time for me to go stock up on some more cat food. Mamas and babies need to be fed!

The Re-Farmer

I’ll likely pay for this, tomorrow!

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After taking a break, I went back to the mowing, planning to stop when I ran out of the third refill on gas.

I didn’t quite make it. Just too tired! Working through that super tall grass involved a lot of back and forth-ing, and at times, the bag would be full within just 3 or 4 feet. It felt like I spent more time emptying the bag than mowing. I definitely spent more time trudging to the main garden area to dump the clippings than mowing. I did get all the necessary mulching done, though, and have been working on a second pile of clippings.

Once everything was put way, it was time to feed the outside cats, so I took care of that, too. Which is when I spotted these guys.

At first, it was just the one mostly white kitten at the food bowl, then the other three emerged from under the spirea. You can just barely see the black and white one on the other side of not-Junk Pile’s front leg.

That other white and grey one has really distinctive markings on one side! The other side is pretty much all white.

I’ve seen these kittens in a group of 6, but I think this litter is just the 4 of them. I think the other two are from another litter, but I have no idea who the mama might be.

From the size of the kitten I saw with Brussel, I think we’ll be seeing those ones around the kibble bowls too, pretty soon!

I was pretty tired when I finally came in, but it was after I’d sat for a while and had supper that I realized I will probably paying for today’s progress. My entire body stiffened up to the point that I could barely walk when I finally got up again. Yes, I did take pain killers, but it wasn’t pain that was giving me trouble. My joints just didn’t want to move! Of course, the only way to take care of that is to force them to move until the limber up again, but until that happens, I’m hobbling and lurching around like a broken automaton.

I keep telling myself to go to bed early, so I can get an early start on the day, only to find myself still up at 2 or 3 in the morning. Or awakened around that time by cats. Decimus is wandering around more often when her kittens are asleep, and that sets Marlee of into continue snarling and growling. Decimus just ignores her.

Now that the mats are trimmed off of her, and most of her fur is gone, we’re getting to see what an incredibly tiny cat Decimus is! Small in stature, but also very thin. I’m hoping that having a kibble bowl right next to her and her kittens, plus regular wet cat food, will get her filling out soon. I don’t think she’s going to grow any larger in size, though. She would be about a year and a bit old right now, and should be at her adult size.

I see the other cats have been fussy again, and didn’t eat much of their share of the wet cat food. More for Decimus, later! 😄

Okay. Time to pain killer up and try to get some sleep!

The Re-Farmer

Spot the kitten

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Look who I saw, today!

If you look carefully, you’ll see a total of four kittens. Two stay hidden under the spirea.

It looks like the kittens in the cat house are no longer in the cat house. I did see the mama at feeding time. I hope she didn’t move them too far.

My daughter and I headed into town today to run several errands. As we were finishing up, she wondered if the haze we were starting to see what fog or smoke.

It was smoke.

We are now getting air quality advisories for smoke from fires to the east and north of us. Most are on the other side of the lake, but quite a few are way up north, too. As I write this, only two are listed as out of control, and those are nowhere near any towns or villages. Most are listed as under control or being held, with a few as being monitored. Our current fire year isn’t anywhere near as bad at other provinces, but most of those are turning out to be arson. Ours are almost all listed as natural caused.

Right now, I feel like I’ve been totally lazy. Once we got home and put everything away, I tried to catch up on a few things on the computer before changing and heading outside. I was falling asleep in my chair, though, so I lay down to close my eyes for a few minutes.

Almost three hours later, I suddenly woke up, thinking it was morning. !! My brain still feels foggy.

I might still get some work done outside, but we’re at the hottest part of the day now, so not quite yet.

It definitely feels like a wasted day.

The Re-Farmer

Kitten pile!

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I stepped out for a moment, and came back to find Decimus had left baby jail, and was exploring my office/bedroom.

Which gave me a chance to get this photo.

Just look at that adorable little tongue blep!

Decimus was willing to sniff at my fingers when I held out my hand, but was very nervous and skittish.

Then she found the other food bowls that still had wet cat food in them, and cleaned them all up!

I left the room again for a while, and when I came back, she was curled up with her kittens again.

While she may not have been willing to let me touch her while she was out and about, if we reach in to give her ear and neck scritches while she’s with her kittens, then pull our hands away, she will actually reach out and grab our hands to pull them back for more pets!

She seems to be coming around to this whole “humans might be okay after all” thing.

The Re-Farmer