kittens

Window, interrupted

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I am happy to say that I got the window for the old basement built – with considerably kitten interruptions!

While I did that, the girls installed the new kitchen faucet set. It turns out there are no shut off valves on the water. They had to shut off the main valve for the entire house.

On the list of things to do: add shut off valves all over. I’m pretty sure the bathroom sink doesn’t have any, and I know the toilet doesn’t. In following the pipes through the basements, the only valves we found where the ones for the outside taps, that just shut off every winter.

Also, the cold water pipes and well pump are all just dripping with condensation!

So we now have a nice, tall faucet on the sink that we can actually fit my big stock pots under. :-)

As for the window, this was my template.

As you can see, I have an enthusiastic helper!

This is the window we leave on throughout the winter, with 3 inch thick foam insulation on the inside. When it warms up, we would take it out and place a wire mesh “window” over the opening to allow air circulation to help keep the basement dry. It is much bigger than the window opening, and the wood framing the metal mesh is old and rotting. It finally broke apart last winter. Right now, we still have it leaning on the wall, but with the broken frame, critters could easily squeeze through, to the insulation is still in the window opening.

I used a piece of some of the wood I’d brought from a shed and used to make the screen door so we can leave the old basement door open. One piece was enough, even after cutting away the water damaged end.

I used the window to size the pieces, then double checked the sizing after cutting. The back of this window has self-adhesive foam weather stripping around the edges, but half of it is missing, so the pieces can’t lay flat, but it’s close enough.

Also, it’s very interesting to use a miter box with kittens trying to climb all over me and my work table! I had some trying to chew on the miter box, while others would take flying leaps at my legs, then climb up onto my shoulders.

The little beasts! :-D

The next step was to ready the right angle plates I got for this.

This was my original plan; I’d use a combination of wood glue and these plates to secure the corners. I thought to put them on the inner edges of the corners, first, but changed my mind and decided to put them on the outer edges. I marked out the screw holes so that I could drill pilot holes, later.

It…

Didn’t work.

I started by using wood glue on a corner, then putting on the plate, only to discover the screws I had were a fraction of an inch longer than the wood was thick! It was juuuuuusssssttt enough that I screwed the corner to the table a bit.

The other problem, however, was my pilot holes. They were shallow holes; I just wanted enough to make getting started, easier. A few of them ended up being ever so slightly off centre, then some of the screws started going off on angles.

The end result was that the angle plate ended up making the corners less squared!

So I took off the couple I’d put on and left it for later. I had already glued the pair of corners, which were supposed to be clamped for 10 minutes. I don’t have right angle clamps. One didn’t really need it, but I did end up using a C clamp on the other.

It was a good thing I had to wait for the glue to set for a while, because at that point, I was being thoroughly loved on and cuddled by Big Rig. Then Leyendecker joined us. Then they fell asleep on me! After a while, Big Rig took off, but Leyendecker stayed. I finally had to move, and discovered David settled in one of their box caves, so I put them together – and Leyendecker stayed!

Until my husband came down, and he ended up with kittens nursing behind his butt. :-D Finally, Beep Beep got tired of that – and she joined David!

David is such a sweetie will all the cats and kittens!

I was, eventually, able to continue with the window. :-D

One of the things I found among the many, many things shoved onto the support beam, between the floor joists above, was a roll of window screen. I dug it out and, after gluing the remaining two corners of the frame, used it to measure off a piece of screen.

I actually ended up throwing away the first piece I’d cut, as it turned out to be damaged.

I don’t know how long that roll had been sitting there, but it was just caked with dust!!! Enough to make unrolling it very… sticky. :-/ I cut the mesh larger than the frame, so that I could fold the edges in, for extra strength.

I also cut some of the wire mesh to size.

After fighting with the window screen for a while, trying to get the edges folded under, it occurred to me that I was working on the “pretty” side of the window frame, and that the screen and wire mesh needed to be on the “ugly” side, that would be facing inside the basement.

No, the wood glue wasn’t dry enough to hold, yet. Which was fine. After I flipped it, I just stuck it back together and kept going.

It took away longer to get those edges to fold under than I expected! Here, I’ve tacked the screen to the frame at the corners with a staple gun.

Once it was tacked in place, I got out some Weldbond adhesive and applied it to the edges, then used a cast off piece of wood to spread the adhesive and push it through the screen.

Then I added the wire mesh.

I was going to say I went overboard with the staple gun, but to be honest, I seriously considered adding even more. Every wire around the edge has a staple, alternating between the outside edge, and the next wire in.

The corners each got at least 4 staples. :-D

I’m hoping that, between the Weldbond and the staples, no critter is going to be able to force their way through.

I wasn’t gone yet, though!

Remember those plates?

It took some hunting, but I did find some shorter wood screws to use. The plates were positioned based on the wood based on where the wire was. As long as the point lined up with the corner joins, I just needed to not have a wire in the way of the screws.

Between the plates and the wire screen, this frame is not moving!

Next, I needed to add handles. I used cast off pieces of wood under the metal plates, to keep the adhesive off the worktable. I’d already accidentally screwed it to the table. I didn’t want to glue it, too! :-D

The weather stripping on the back of the window wouldn’t let it lie flat, but I could at least line up the edges. I then marked the sides of the new window frame at the latches, and at the knobs.

I then added the handles with the bottoms lined up with where I’d marked the placement of the knobs.

The latches on the window fit into holes in the window opening outside. Once in place, the window is flush with the wall around the window opening. The wood is much thicker than the plastic, so I know at the very least, it will stick out from the wall. What we might end up doing is adding another pair of latches, so the outside of that window opening will have the fittings for both windows on them.

We’ll make that decision later, though. It will all depend on how it fits.

For now, the window is finished. I’ll leave the adhesive to dry overnight, and tomorrow, I’ll see if I got it right and it fits – or if I screwed up! :-D

Once I know how it fits, we will be able to see what would work best for fastening it in place.

After that, the only thing left will be to paint it. We have several things that will need painting, so we’ll wait until later in the season and do all of them at the same time.

Happily, we are now able to cross a couple more things off the to-do list. The list isn’t going down as fast as I’d like, but it is going down! :-)

The Re-Farmer

A bit of relief, and catching up

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First up, kittens!

Well. A couple of them. :-D

Going down to tend to the kittens in the morning has become a two person job. The kittens are on the top step when the door is open, so we’ve got one person at the door, trying to pick up kittens so we can use the step, while the other holds a laundry basket to carry them in, and to catch the ones that slip past.

The kittens love that laundry basket! After they get a ride down the stairs, they stay and play in and around it.

Beep Beep loves that thing, too!

Temperatures have been cooling down a bit, lately. The overnight temperatures meant actually being able to sleep at night! We’ve to thunderstorms predicted for today and tomorrow, then we’re supposed to stay in the mid-20’s (77-80F) for the remainder of the long range forecast.

It really says something that “mid 20’s” are now “cooler” temperatures. Even during last year’s drought, those where our hot days. We did break 30 every now and then, but nothing like what we’ve had this year.

It does make the morning rounds outside much more pleasant.

Except for all the mosquitoes and horseflies. The horseflies usually ignore me, but I got bit this morning.

You know why they’re called horseflies?

Because getting bit by one is like being kicked by a horse, compared to mosquitoes!

It took a couple of hours, but the pain and swelling did go down. Now I just have a weird white spot at the bite, surrounded by red, and a bit of residual swelling.

After doing my morning rounds, I headed into town for a few things. One of my stops was at the pharmacy, to see if my husband’s one missing prescription got updated. Still nothing, but they did have the remains of a prescription for 3 days worth of pills on file, so I took that. These are my husband’s main pain killers. It’s not just the increased pain that’s a problem, but it basically has him going cold turkey off of a very powerful drug, and it’s doing all sorts of crazy things to his body.

With the lack of response from the clinic, I might just drive there on Monday.

Another stop in town was at the grocery store, with our water jugs for refilling. There was a line up outside, which gave me time to notice and get pictures of these guys.

Such gorgeous moths! Just hanging out on the wall, along with all the fishflies. :-D

While I was in town, the girls got everything ready for a trip to the dump, so I could unload, reload and take off right away. We’ve been needing a dump run for a while! Normally, when I get there, I unload into the bins by the caretaker’s shed (which then get hauled to the city). This time, I decided to go into the pit. As I checked in with the caretaker and mentioned I was going into the pit this time, he told me they’ve been having problems with bears lately!

The last time I went into the pit, it actually was a pit. Now, it’s so full, there’s just enough space for vehicles to back into it, and add things to the pile. !! I really don’t like going into there, mostly because I’m paranoid about my tires. I don’t want to be driving over nails or broken glass or anything like that. :-(

After unloading the garbage, I went back to the bins to unload the recycling and electronics garbage. I was just getting ready to head out, when I saw a truck pull in, hauling something.

Something large, round and made of steel.

The driver stopped to talk to the caretaker, so I just had to snap a picture, as I was leaving!

Yup! A bear trap!

In our area, we have typically only have black bears. They tend to prefer to stay away from people, but what bear won’t take advantage of free food – and defend it? Much better for the bear, to catch it and release it well away from the dump.

Once home, I had hoped to start on some work outside. Maybe get some mowing done. It started to rain a bit on the ride home, and now I can see dark storm clouds in the distance, through the security camera.

I guess that means it’s a good time to join the kitties in the basement, and finally build that window for the old basement. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Better than I expected

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Today, I finally got the riding mower in to the shop for some TLC. We finally got to use the new ramps my brother bought me. <3 The girls and I had to take the middle seats out of the van (one of the first things we did after buying the van was take out the bench seat in the back; we never put it back and left it behind when we moved) to fit it, but we got it in, with room to spare.

It was rather funny when I got to the shop. After talking to the lady at the counter and getting the work order form filled in, I asked about getting it unloaded out of my van.

She did a double take and looked at me. “It’s in your van?” Yes. I can fit a lot in that thing!

She got someone to come out to unload it with me. As we were walking out, he asked me where it was, and I told him it was in the van. My van was the only one in the parking lot at the time.

He did a double take.

“You got it in a van??”

:-D

Yes. Yes, we did!

So that is now delivered, and I will get a call with an estimate before they work on it. I made sure to mention the drive chain had come off, and that I didn’t bother putting it back on, since I can’t reach under to tighten what needs tightening. I also mentioned the tire I think may need replacing, as well as mentioning that it’s had a hard two years, so if they see anything else, let me know!

Thankfully, we have the new push mower, so there is no rush to get it done.

Once that was done, I called up my mother to see if she was home for the next while. My timing was perfect, as she did have something booked later. The building she lives is has started to hold social events again, organized by a social worker. I had just enough time to pop over. I told her I had something for her; a mushroom!

“Oh! I hope it’s okay,” she says.

It took me a moment to realize she thought I meant mushrooms I’d picked at the farm. :-D I cleared that up with her!

Now, I wasn’t sure how she would respond to the spoon. My mother is not exactly gracious with gifts. In fact, she is often very cruel, and I would not have been surprised if she refused it. As it was, when she finally saw it, she immediately started talking about what kind of mushroom it was that she wanted me to carve for her, and doodled it on the back of an envelope. I explained to her (again) that I got a spoon blank in my carving kit, and when she asked for a mushroom, I decided to include on in the spoon, and a morel was basically what fit. I would need wood in a different size and shape to carve what she wanted – and now I have her sketch to go by. She just laughed and said there was no hurry.

I had to ask specifically if she wanted to keep the spoon or not, since she had dismissed it immediately to do the sketch. I told her it was my first carving, and that I was offering it to her, if she wanted it. She said she would keep it.

Getting that straight was a bit like pulling teeth! I think she might actually like it, but I’m not sure.

Then she asked me if she’d ever shown me her Russian spoon. No, she hadn’t! So she brought it out for me to see.

While the spoon is from Russia, she got it from her late aunt, who was born in Canada. My mother said that it was spoons like this that they used for eating, when she grew up in Poland. (What a large size for an eating spoon!) She mentioned that the spoons they used were painted, too, and commented on how they must have been eating the paint, as it came off over time. Who knows what was used to make the paint; it’s unlikely to have been something commercially prepared, in that region and time period. Home made or purchased, any paint still could have been potentially toxic!

I’m really glad she showed it to me.

Once at home, I decided to spend some time in the basement to work on a hair pin my daughter requested. I’ll post about that separately. Before I do, though, I just had to share my company!

Of course, as soon as I sat down at the work table, I had kittens all over me. They did eventually move on, except Big Rig.

Who decided to give my arm kisses.

My goodness, she looks like Susan (who would be her big sister!).

Then she heard a kerfuffle and ran off to join her siblings.

Beep Beep is so patient! :-D

Later, I looked up from my work and found this face, staring at me.

Nicco looks ready for a nap! :-D

The lilac wood she has a paw on is the branch from which I’d cut off a piece for the hair pin.

Unfortunately, at the point I was at when I took that picture, I was needing to use the Dremel, and the noise chased her away.

I was actually able to start and finish the project, even with the kittens crawling all over me, so that worked out much better than expected!

I’ll have photos of the finished hair pin in my next post.

The Re-Farmer

Growing things, wins and losses

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Oy, what a day it’s been!

Our high of the day was reached at about 4:30 pm! 32C/89F, with the humidex putting us at 36C/97F. We’re not going to be cooling down much, even overnight, either.

At least there’s a wind, and on the weather radar, it looks like we’ll at least get some rain this evening, if not the thunderstorms. Those look like they’ll go right past us.

It was, at least, much more bearable when I did my rounds this morning. That, and the basement is nice and cool for the kittens.

Since they have gotten so good and escaping as soon as the door is opened and my hands are full, I’ve sacrificed one of my slightly taller laundry baskets for kitten jail.

I succeeded only in catching David! :-D He loves that thing!

I ended up just leaving the door open and let them be, until after I was done outside. By then, a daughter was available to help herd them back downstairs.

I am happy to say that some of the replacement sunflower seeds we planted are starting to sprout! They are just starting to break ground. The ones from the first planting have, for the most part, been growing quite well.

Something has been digging into the softer soil where we planted the seeds. Whatever it doing it, isn’t after the seeds themselves. This time, at least, the seedling didn’t get dug up in the process. My guess is, skunks are after grubs or worms.

We did, however, have a couple more losses of the original seedlings.

Something just up and ate a couple of them! Most likely deer. *sigh* The deer aren’t coming around much anymore; there is one that I’ve been seeing at the gate on the trail cams, but that’s it.

So far, at least, nothing has been eating the squash plants, and it doesn’t look like we’ve lost more beet greens.

The small mock orange by the side door of the house is going to be blooming very well this year! It got a major pruning, the summer before we moved out here, so that the walls could be painted, but it has recovered very well. The other one by the clothes line platform had a rough time last year, but it does have some flowers – all along the bottom! Most of it, however, has no buds at all.

These guys are finally starting to open. I expect to see many more, within the next few days!

This little shrub along the south side of the driveway has lots of berries on it. I have no idea what they are. There are quite a few of them around, but only this one has berries. I’m thinking location has much to do with it. It’s the only one that gets a lot of sun all day. The others are shaded by trees or sheds.

If anyone knows what this is, please feel free to let me know in the comments.

For now, I’ll just assume that whatever it is, is poisonous, and just appreciate it for its beauty. :-)

The Re-Farmer

First, the fun stuff

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Forecasts for today were for a high of 29C/84F, with the humidex at 33C/91F, with afternoon thunderstorms. So I wasn’t expecting to accomplish much outside.

In the end, I wouldn’t have been able to, anyhow. Pain levels are pretty high today. As long as I’m just walking on level ground, I’m okay – I’m just limping and hobbling like a decrepit old lady ;-) – but any sort of step sends shooting pains in my right knee.

I’ve been using my husband’s bath chair more than he has, lately! :-D

I was still able to do my rounds, as usual, though.

Rolando Moon has been hanging out in this tree, and on the roof, lately! She is so deceptively adorable. :-D

She even joined me when I was switching out the trail cam memory cards.

We have some new flowers I wasn’t expecting yet, this morning.

My mother has had a small flower garden along the East side of the house for as long as I can remember. This iris is near where we now keep the bird feeder. They and some lilies were completely crowded out by other greenery (I’m not sure they those were planted deliberately or not) and chickweed, but I managed to weed them out at least a bit. There were no signs of buds anywhere, then suddenly, this morning, there were two flowers!

Still no signs of other buds, though!

In checking the garden plots, it seems to me that something might be eating our beet greens in one of the plots. I’d thought at first that the cats were digging in the garden again, and that’s why it looked like there were fewer beets, but as I weeded, I noticed bare stems. It might be deer, but while I have been seeing deer at the gate in the trail cams, they don’t look like they came from the yard at all, but more like they’d come from the direction of the barn. Plus, I would expect deer to do more than nibble a few leaves here and there. I suppose hares are another possibility, but with the presence of yard cats, I don’t think we actually get them in the yard. So I’m not sure what’s going on there.

With no plans to work outside, I made a trip into town. I wanted to pick up a Dremel tip so I could finish my spoon, as well as pick up another litter pan for the basement. The kittens are getting bigger, and one pan isn’t enough for them anymore! The kittens were thrilled, which is pretty funny. Who knew litter pans could be so much fun for kittens?

I’ll post about how the carving went, separately. While I was working, however, I did have company!

Two Face and David joined the kittens, too. Between playing with them, and crawling all over me, the kittens got tired right out! :-D

When I was done and started up the stairs, I found someone looking at me!

David found one of the kittens’ favorite spots!

Then he “pounced”. :-D

What a funny boy!

While uploading photos to write this post, we lost our internet as a thunderstorm rolled by. From the looks of the weather radar, there is a very long, narrow storm system heading our way, so I think I’d better get to my other post, then shut the computer down, while I have time! :-D

Uh oh. Looks like we lost internet again… oh, it’s back. For now.

It’s going to be an interesting evening!

The Re-Farmer

Catch up, and kitties!

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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!

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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!

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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!

/ 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!

/ 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