Catch up, and kitties!

June 24, 2020 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I’m happy to say that, yesterday evening, when things started to cool down a bit, we got a couple of big jobs finished.

The first was to finish cleaning up the pile of branches pruned from the apple trees.

My awesome daughters actually finished the job by cutting up the largest pieces. Except that one big stump piece. We’re not going to bother with that.

It’s going to take a while to burn this away, but at least it’s neatly stacked, and I can mow around it.

Speaking of which, that was the other big job I finally got done. I finally got into the west end of the old garden area, and into the maple grove. The new mower is just awesome, getting in between the trees. I turned on the “health” app that my phone came with, for the pedometer, and according to that thing, I walked about 7 km (4.34 miles), just mowing in the trees.

I’m glad that got done last night, because when I did my rounds this morning, it was already 24C/75F, and the dew wasn’t even dry yet!

These flowers will soon be a riot of purple, all along the south fence by the spruce grove. :-)

Since manual labour outside was not going to happen yet, I decided to spend some time working with the basement.

The kittens had already escaped when I first came down to tend to them in the morning, and I couldn’t get them all back. My husband was sweet enough to supervise them while I did the outside part of my rounds (more to make sure the adult cats didn’t hurt any of them), then helped me get them back into the basement, so I could give them some wet cat food.

When I tried to go back down later, I opened the door and found 4 kitten heads at the top step – the door just clears them when it opens! – and that was it. They were gone. All five of them ended up upstairs, running around.

I let them be. They’d done all right earlier – only Fenrir is a concern for aggressiveness – and I decided to take advantage of them being out of the basement. I brought down a long corded power bar, and some large cup hooks (among other things). I attached the cup hooks into one of the floor joists running across the ceiling of the basement. Two of them are now holding the cord for the power bar, with the plug ins hanging down. It even has USB ports, if I need to charge my phone. Three other hooks are now there to hold whatever else is needed.

With the kittens away, I used my wood burning tool, with the knife blade attachment, to cut a couple of 5 gallon water jugs in half, then cut the necks off the top. The halves are now available to use as covers for plants, if needed, and the necks I left as cat toys. ;-)

I was then able to let the tool hang from one of the hooks to cool down, completely safe from kitties, until I could take off the knife blade and put it away in its case.

Then my daughter helped me bring the babies back down again.

Once that was done, I started working on my carving practice. I had kittens crawling all over me until they got bored and left me alone.

How adorable is that!!!

Beep Beep had been persuaded to come down, too, and she decided to join her babies.

That lasted until I started using my Dremel tools and scared them all away. :-(

After I was done with the noisy tools, and continued to work on the spoon, I started hearing a very tiny, very wet, slurping noise.

Yeah. That’s Leyendecker, nursing!

What a silly kitty! Even Beep Beep is looking at him funny. :-D

I am quite happy with how the spoon progressed today, but I’ll post about that later.

We’ve finally reached the high of the day for today (27C/80F), so things should start cooling down now. I’m hoping that, after supper, it’ll be cool enough to get stuff done outside. The next couple of days are supposed to be even hotter, with thunderstorms expected tomorrow, so anything I can get done tonight is bonus.

The Re-Farmer

They do make life interesting!

June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Today is looking to be a slightly warmer, hopefully drier, day. One of my goals is to finally get some outside work done that had to be delayed. We shall see how that works out.

Yesterday evening, I was able to spend some time with the kittens.

That was an adventure!

They’ve taken to launching themselves at my legs as I walk past them, so in the space of a few steps, I’ll find myself with 2 or 3 kittens hanging off my pant legs. Then they’ll start climbing! :-D

These kittens are thoroughly socialized. :-D

Once I settle at my work table, they are all over me. Then things like this happen.

Turmeric settled right into my elbow and was ready for a nap!

Mostly, though, they were clambering all over me, but eventually I was able to get out my carving supplies and continue on my practice spoon.

They love the protective glove.

Saffron and Leyendecker were particularly cuddly.

Generally, though, I am able to continue carving while they clamber around me without too much trouble. Sometimes, it can be a problem. At one point, I had a kitten on my shoulder, eating my hair and tackling my ear. Another jumped up and they started to tussle. One fell off, but managed not to fall to the floor by dangling on a single claw.

From my ear.

Thankfully, kittens are very light. It didn’t even bleed. Having a kitten swinging off the side of my head was still rather uncomfortable! I didn’t even really do anything about it right away, since I had a spoon in one hand, and a knife in the other.

Eventually, though, I paused for kitten cuddles, which is when Beep Beep decided to get in on the action, by jumping directly on her kittens.

They retaliated by immediately starting to nurse. :-D

Just look at Saffron’s face!!!

I’m happy to say that, in the middle of all this, I did get some decent progress on the spoon. I’m slowly managing to get the bowl deeper and the handle in the rounded, swooping shape that I want. I also started cutting details into the morel at the end. Thankfully, the “holes” in morals are very random in shape and location, so I can put them wherever I feel they will create the overall shape that I’m after. Because the spoon blank already had a handle rough shaped out the way it did, the mushroom was very flat on two sides. As I cut in the details, it’s starting to look rounder, and more like an actual morel.

I plan to cheat, though.

The holes I’m making are pretty ragged on the inside, partly due to the small spaces I’m trying to work a knife tip into. There’s no way sandpaper can be used to smooth it out, so once the details are all roughed out, I plan to use a Dremel to smooth things out inside the holes. The last thing I plan to do, before oiling the wood, is take a lighter to the cap of the mushroom, to darken it like the real thing.

It’s slow going, but I’m rather pleased with how it’s turning out so far.

Later in the evening, while my daughter and I were chatting, she had a chance to cuddle with Keith.

What a face! :-D

Meanwhile…

When tending the kittens this morning, they were just as eager to climb me.

With the kittens now waiting at the top of the stairs before we can even open the door, and the upstairs cats trying to get down, all while I’m juggling things like a pitcher of water and a bucket of cat litter, my daughter has been trying to come down and help whenever she can. That usually involves using a spray bottle to keep the adult cats away, while I struggle down the stairs, trying not to step on kittens. Sometimes, she even manages to get down the stairs right after me, though this morning we had to close the door first, and she couldn’t come down until I was able to come back and carry away the 3 kittens that were on the top step, waiting for her. :-D

Having her there did mean she could get this picture for me. :-D

While walking across the basement, I had a couple of kittens making their flying leaps at my legs and hanging on while I walk, like I’m some sort of carnival ride. At one point, I had a kitten on each leg, and another hanging off my butt. :-D I believe that was Saffron, who made her way up to my head, soon followed by Leyendecker, attacking her tail. :-D

Once I got outside to do my rounds, I had Junk Pile cat and Rolando Moon already waiting for me.

I think Rolando spent the night in the tree outside our kitchen! The other cats are really after her, for some reason. :-(

Butterscotch and Rosencrantz were already quick to show up for food. Once I started going around the yard, much to my surprise, it was Rolando that followed along.

Butterscotch did start to head my way, but as soon as Rolando spotted her, she started growling. Which is what is happening in the photo above.

Rolando can be pretty mean herself! I’d be petting her and she’d be all happy with it, then suddenly turn and attack my hand. Even when I paused to do some weeding in the garden, she came over, just to attack my hand!

Nasty girl.

Ah, cats. We have way too many of them, but they do make life fun!

If sometimes painful, too. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Morning roundup, and I’m a tree!

June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

After the heat we’ve had for the past while, it actually got remarkably chilly last night.

It was great!

I had some concern about how it got for the kittens, but the basement is pretty good at remaining a constant temperature.

This morning, I took one of the long boxes that held pieces of my new bed frame and lay it out on the floor for the kittens to play in.

They just loved it!

Leyendecker, however, got distracted by something that was apparently much more interesting.

Me.

He climbed me like a tree! All the way up to my head, where he began to tackle my ear and try to eat my hair.

What a silly boy!

The outside cats were eagerly awaiting me when I got outside. Their food bowls had been completely cleaned out. By them, or other animals, I’m not sure.

Butterscotch allowed my daughter to check her out yesterday, and it seems she is pregnant again. Considering how it went when we tried to bring her in before, that is just not something we can do again.

I’m happy to say that, when both Butterscotch and Creamsicle joined me while checking out my mother’s flowers, there was NO fighting, at all.

When checking out the squash beds, I’d found a pleasant little surprise.

Some pumpkins are sprouting!

These two hills had 3 seeds each planted in them. The other one had 5 seeds in the package, but so far, none have sprouted.

Most of the more recently transplanted squash are noticeably growing bigger, though they have also gotten pretty yellow. One of the possible reasons I’ve seen is a lack of iron. Which means we likely should supplement the soil with bloodmeal. I just haven’t been able to find any!

More potatoes are starting to show up through the straw mulch. When mowing last night, I moved out the wooden frames that were around the beds. They are no longer needed, and taking them out makes it easier to mow around the beds. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish the mowing today; we might be getting showers this afternoon.

This evening, we’re planning to get all wild and crazy. Father’s Day and my daughter’s birthday fall on the same day this year. Knowing how busy things are likely to be on Sunday, we’ve decided to celebrate today. Our favorite Chinese restaurant is open again, so we’re planning on ordering a whole lot of take-out!

It’s going to be such a treat!! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Mourning roundup – and what a nasty boy!

June 18, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

The morning rounds, as usual, started with a visit to the kitties.

I fully expected to find a couple at the top of the stairs, as has been the usual thing lately.

Nope. Just Beep Beep.

The other usual thing is to go down the stairs and find the kittens not already on the stairs, coming sleepily out from under the platform bed frame, where they’ve created a nest.

Not this morning!

Beep Beep jumped into the pile faster than I could get my phone out for a picture, but all the kittens had been on the chair, curled up in a furry mass, sleeping!

The outdoor part of my morning rounds went rather quickly, because I was being eaten by mosquitoes! Every time I paused to take a picture, I would be attached by clouds of them!

The first of my mother’s poppies has opened up.

The dwarf lilac by the house is just a riot of flowers!

This other variety of lilac, planted by the chain link fence, doesn’t have a lot of flowers, but the few clusters is does have are starting to open.

When feeding the outside cats, I saw some faces that have not been around as much, lately.

Junk Pile cat has been hanging around, even if I only see him in passing, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen Butterscotch. I was happy to see Rosencrantz show up.

While checking the garden plots and switching memory cards on the trail cams, I got some company.

Creamsicle came to join me and wanted attention. :-)

Butterscotch came along this time, too.

Then this happened!!!

Her boy went into a full-on attack! I couldn’t believe it! He wouldn’t stop, either. I broke them up several times, until I just couldn’t catch up with them. Each time, Butterscotch would run off, and Creamsicle would run right after her and attack as soon as he reached her!

What a terrible son!

I am not impressed.

The Re-Farmer

Yes, I got kitten pictures for you!

June 17, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

I just couldn’t let a day go buy without kitten pictures, could I?

Well, yes, I could, but I don’t want to. :-)

Our scorcher of a day was finally cooled down by a lovely rainfall – storms will once again go right past us, it looks like – so no chance to make use of the new mower.

*sadness*

;-)

So I decided it was a good time to once again do some practice carving on the spoon blank that came with my carving kit.

Which meant spending lots of time with adorable little furballs with sharp, sharp claws.

They were determined to use me as a bed, after using me as a jungle gym.

Even Beep Beep got in on the action, clambering over her babies, then lying on her back, going from laying with her head in my elbow to licking my nose enthusiastically! :-D

Apparently, I tasted good today, because all the kittens were after my arms and fingers. It might have something to do with the ham I had with lunch before coming downstairs.

It was pretty rough and tumble, with Beep Beep moving around and pushing her own kittens around before giving up and moving on.

Eventually, a daughter was able to come and rescue me.

Big Rig REALLY liked that glove.

Yes, one is missing. Nicco snuggled with Beep Beep on another chair until Beep Beep took off.

Once the kittens were extricated, I went back to trying to carve, only to have them return. Which was okay. I can continue to carve with a couple of kittens on the table in front of me.

Yeah, my arm is a mess! When Beep Beep was shifting around, she pushed Big Rig off my arm. She grabbed my arm as she fell and was dangling there for a while before she was able to scramble up.

Yes, it is all cleaned up and treated with antibiotic cream.

Saffron is just adorable! Turmeric was content on my lap for a while.

It didn’t last, of course.

They certainly do make things interesting!!

I did, at least, get some progress on that spoon! :-D

Unfortunately, there was other damage.

From the other cats.

At one point, I had two kittens in my arms and three on my head and shoulders, when we heard a loud crash above us. The three kittens exploded off my shoulders to the ground. The two in my arms, thankfully, didn’t panic like that.

Which reminds me. I need to get my husband to check my shoulders for wounds.

Later, as my daughters were on their way from the second floor to rescue me, they found the cause.

One of the cats had knocked over a plant pot with a substantial jade tree in it.

I am not impressed.

After seeing how the jade tree recovered after our move, however, I would not be surprised to see now branches and leaves growing out of that stem.

Assuming the cats don’t destroy it completely, before then. :-(

The Re-Farmer

Feeling the heat, and fun stuff

June 16, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

So, I think this is a sign…

For the first time since we cleaned and refilled this barometer, it has overflowed!

As I write this, it’s already 28C/82F and we’ve got weather alerts for heat and thunderstorms. Looking at the weather radar, it looks like we might actually get some rain. That would be nice!

At least the winds have died down for now.

My morning rounds, meanwhile, have been full of smiles.

Well, okay. I wasn’t exactly smiling when I was trying to wrestle kittens back into the basement, but once that was done, it got fun. :-D

Unfortunately, Keith and Fenrir in particular do not like the kittens, and they’re a bit too small to defend themselves if they get nasty. Big Rig ran right up to Susan and booped noses with her, leaving Susan looking astonished and confused! :-D

Temperatures were still on the pleasant side of hot while I did my rounds outside. The dwarf lilac is starting to explode.

The scent in our yard is amazing!

The carrot and beet beds seem to be doing all right.

We’re doing a fairly limited amount of weeding right now, as we don’t want to be pulling up too many seedlings. Whatever cat that decided to use a carrot bed as a litter box has done quite enough of that already.

The kohl rabi, on the other hand, may be a write off. Some things, I can tell are weeds, but others, I’m not so sure. A surprising amount of clover is showing up.

We’ll see how it works out over time!

My favourite pollinators!

The white roses were filled with a constant drone of insects buzzing around, but it’s the bumbles that have a special place in my heart. What beautiful creatures!

Also, I had very affectionate company. He just loved it when I carried him around like a baby! LOL

Once inside, I checked the trail cam files. I love it when doing that leaves me smiling. :-)

I got to see this deer from two angles! :-)

I notice there is a time difference on the cameras. I’ll have to figure out which one is off and fix that.

As for the new camera location, I really would rather it be a bit further back and higher, but it will have to do for now.

The Re-Farmer

Kitten Chaos

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

This morning’s tending to the kitties was truly an adventure!

It started when I opened the door and found Leyendecker and Saffron lying on the top step. Just chillin’! They didn’t even try to run upstairs right away. Unfortunately, in my attempts to step over them, Beep Beep and the other kittens had time to run over. It took a couple of minutes to get everything under control so I could close the door, with Two Face and David also in the basement.

Note to self. Do not visit kittens while wearing shorts.

Both my legs ended up rather bloody, by the time I escaped. Then one of my daughters slathered me with antibacterial cream, after I washed all the blood off.

I tried, and failed, to get a photo of Nicco in a sun spot, up on his back legs, trying to catch dust motes. Two Face was her usual aggressive groomer. The kittens also love climbing that piece of maple tree! :-D Big Rig going after David was just hilarious.

Then, I made a mistake.

I sat down.

It started with Leyendecker and Saffron. They climbed up on me and played for a while, then settled down for a nap.

Then Beep Beep jumped on top of them, pushing them around while settling. Saffron squirmed her way out from under Mom, found a nip and sleep nursed. Leyendecker passed out, until Big Rig jumped up and joined the fray. Leyendecker ended up pushing Saffron aside to find his own nip to sleep nurse on.

At some point, I felt a kitten clamber up my leg and settle on my lap. That left some damage!! It turned out to be Nicco.

By this time, I’d been trapped by them for about an hour, before I was finally able to alert a daughter for assistance. Which is when Two Face joined the party. Turmeric had earlier climbed onto the work table and played with Leyendecker over my shoulder for a while, but didn’t have any interest in joining the pile in my arms. You can just see her in the background of one of the photos, under the platform bed frame.

It took quite a while to extricate all the cats, but we managed to do it without shredding my clothes too badly, nor adding any new scratches.

Tending to the babies may be adorable, but my goodness, it can be painful, too! :-D

Next time: wear pants.

The Re-Farmer

Morning rounds

June 14, 2020June 14, 2020 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We’ve got ourselves a lovely – and windy! – day today. It made doing the morning rounds quite pleasant.

The routine started, of course, with babies. :-)

One of the down sides of not being able to do stairs very well is, even with my daughter at the top of the stairs to help keep the other cats away from the door, kittens manage to run across the length of the basement and up the stairs before I can get far enough down to close to door behind me.

Having a door that opens over the stairs doesn’t help, either.

Of course, while kittens are being wrangled, other cats try to take advantage of the confusion. David got into the basement, which we’re okay with, since he’s very good with the babies. I think Two Face got in, as well, but I’m honestly not sure if I remember that correctly. My daughter was dealing with the adult cats after we got the escaped babies back down.

Eventually, all the adult cats were herded upstairs, and the kittens got to have some wet cat food.

These guys have very hearty appetites!

After a while, we let Beep Beep down again, so she could have some, too. If she’s around when the wet cat food is first set out, she’ll push her own kittens away to get at it, no matter how much we spread it out!

Among the things I look out for when doing my rounds is fallen branches. Thankfully, between what we’ve been able to clean up ourselves, plus what the arborists were able to take down, there are far few of those than there was when we first moved here.

Usually, we’re just picking things up like the willow branch you can see in the photo. Willows are always dropping branches, but after having the power lines cleared, there are a lot less of those in the south yard. Recent winds did bring down one of the larger dead branches we can’t get at to clear. Even as I stood to take this picture, I could hear the winds knocking branches together, above my head.

Dead branches sound distinctively different from live ones.

Speaking of which…

The crab apple trees are not the only ones that are struggling. This plum tree seems to be mostly dead. There is one section that leans off to the right that is still alive, but it looks like the other two are completely dead. What few leaves there were, just weeks ago, have shriveled and died. It looks like another of the plums, behind it, is also dead or dying.

Other trees and bushes are doing just fine, though.

The pollinators were having a hard at my mother’s white roses, in the wind! I believe these are called Cherokee roses, and they have just exploded with flowers! Between these, the honeysuckle that is still if full bloom, and the double lilac that is nearing the end of its blooming period, this little garden is just a riot of flowers!

While the more common varieties of lilacs are finishing their blooming period, the dwarf lilac will soon be a mass of flowers!

I had cleaned up in this bush, taking out a maple that had been allowed to grow in the middle of it, cutting away dead wood and pruning things back. Now, even the new growth shooting up from below is showing masses of flower buds!

There is one more variety of lilac that blooms later, but I notice it is struggling, too. There is another maple that had seeded itself and was allowed to grow, near it. I think that maple is what’s killing the lilac. It’s keeping the lilac in shade for most of the day. I don’t think it gets any direct sunlight at all, really.

I’m going to have to choose: keep the healthy maple while the lilac slowly dies off, or take down the maple and hopefully save an unusual variety of lilac, that we have only one of.

The decision would be a lot easier, if I could only be sure that taking out the maple would save the lilac.

Meanwhile, while checking the sunflowers, I found we are down a couple more. I really wish I knew what is doing this. Then we could know how to stop it!

When I got back to the house at the end of my rounds, I had a lovely surprise.

Rolando Moon came back for a visit! I haven’t seen her in ages. The last time couple of times she came here, Creamsicle and Potato Beetle chased her up into a tree. My daughters could see her, but I never did spot her. The boys were away, though, so I got to say hello to Rolando. :-) She, Beep Beep and Butterscotch are the only yard cats remaining, that were here when my father was still alive. I have some photos from when we made the trip out to visit him, back in 2015. He did love the yard cats – and they loved him right back! Me, not so much. :-D After we moved here, it took a while to socialize them, to varying degrees. Most just sort of disappeared. Especially the males. Rolanda Moon has always been an ornery cat, aggressive with the others, but she seemed very happy for the attention, today! It was very good to see her. :-)

Today, being Sunday, is my day of rest. No unnecessary work. So the most I’m doing outside, really, is setting up the sprinkler to water the squash and potatoes. We’ve had some rain, off and on, but not very much, and these winds are really drying things out!

Time to go shift the sprinkler off the squash and give the potatoes a good drenching. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Carving with kittens: a story in photos

June 13, 2020June 13, 2020 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

So, today wasn’t a very productive day. I managed to get some watering and weeding, but just didn’t have the spoons left to do more outside.

In an attempt to get at least something done today, I decided to continue practice carving on the spoon blank that came with my carving kit. After my husband was able to sharpen the curved blade of the sloyd knife, I had been able to test it out a bit, but not much more.

Today, I actually got some real progress today.

My husband came down with me and kept the kittens busy as much as he could, before he had to leave. The kittens, however, were much more interested in what I was doing.

Especially Leyendecker.

Then Saffron.

Okay, not so much interested in what I was doing, as they were in getting onto the front of me. In between trying to eat my hair and wrestling with each other on my shoulder.

Eventually, the forced their way into my arms, and that was it. No more carving.

They absolutely exhausted themselves, climbing all over me, it turns out. Here, Leyendecker is using Saffron as a pillow, while Big Rig was busily licking the inside of my ear. !!!

That really, really tickles.

And it’s really, really exhausting for kittens, too, it seems…

Big Rig slithered her way onto the pile and eventually settled under Saffron.

It wasn’t long before Turmeric joined them, and I had four kittens in my arms.

Turmeric’s head is actually visible in the above photo. It’s just hard to see it against Saffron’s belly.

Nicco came to check things out, but she was more interesting in Beep Beep, who was in aggressive grooming mode.

Then Beep Beep jumped onto the pile, and lay down.

Right on top of them.

Before I knew it, I had this…

Yup. They squirmed out from under her, and started nursing.

In my arms.

It was all I could do to keep my arms held in angles to keep them from sliding right off.

Thankfully, I already had my phone in my hand to take pictures, so I was able to use voice to text and message the girls to come rescue me.

Beep Beep heard them coming, so she jumped down, but the babies stayed.

My daughter was able to get a few photos, and that is the only reason why I have any pictures at all of the carving progress! LOL You can see the underside of the spoon on the table. The bowl has been carved out and now I am shaping it. The handle is intended to be a swoopy stem for the mushroom at the end.

With the girls’ help, I was de-kittened, the sharp stuff got put away, and I was able to escape. :-D

My arms are shredded.

It was worth it. :-D

The Re-Farmer