This morning, after dropping my daughter off at work, I immediately headed out to do some work by the main gate before things got too hot.
I was already too late.
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Sanctuary
When we decided to move out here and take care of the farm for my mother, we had some ideas of what to expect, and what we might do in the future.
We were not naive about it, though, and knew that things would have to change with circumstances.
One thing I did not even think of at all.
That we might become a cat sanctuary.
Now, this isn’t all that unusual. Every now and then, I’ll read something in one of the local papers, or see a news clip someone shared on Facebook, about farmers and the 40 or so barn cats that they take care of. Along with their cows and goats and chickens or whatever.
We don’t have barn cats. The house came with yard cats. My dad loved them, and taking care of them was just a given.
I think it’s gotten a bit beyond that, now. LOL
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Long day and ready to crash!
I headed out with my daughter to drop her off for work earlier than usual. She was very kind enough to be willing to be stuck outside until someone with a key showed up (which, thankfully, did not turn out to be long) so that I could head over to another town almost an hour’s drive from her work. It was a court date for our vandal, this time in a town closer to us – though not with the extra driving this morning! *L*
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Clean up: south fence path progress, and finding flowers
Today, I finally had both the time and the weather conditions to work on the south fence line of the spruce grove (there there aren’t actually any spruces left…).
So, while waiting for the freshly washed gates to dry, I brought out the weed trimmer, my new reciprocating saw, and a whole lot of extension cord!
Here is my first progress shot.
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Things that are, and are not
It’s been quite interesting, as I work around the yard, in areas I worked on last year, and seeing the differences.
One of the differences is, I am seeing all sorts of things popping up, in areas that used to be choked with years of dead grass, fallen branches and garbage, or hidden away by low hanging branches.
While mowing past the north side of the spruce grove, where I am now able to mow right up to the tree line, I was observing some of the wild roses I’d pruned down, but didn’t pull their roots, coming back up. For the most part, I will be leaving those. I also passed what looked for all the world like carrots, growing in the moss!
This is the largest of several I could see. I came back later and poked around the base, just to be sure.
No, they are not carrots.
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Work done, things found and kitten fix
While doing my rounds yesterday evening, I decided to prune away the dead parts of the mock orange at the clothes line platform.
It did so well last year, it’s a shame so much of it died over the winter. At the same time, I was happy to see the tiniest of leaf buds struggling to emerge from some main branches. I pruned all the dead stuff off and cleared out some Virginia Creeper that was trying to re-establish itself. That’s a wheel barrow full, right there. Now that it’s all open and pruned, I’m thinking it will recover quite well.
While hauling this away, I also started picking up branches in the West yard that had come down in the storms. I kept finding more and more branches – most were just small enough to be hidden by the grass, but still be enough that I wouldn’t want to hit them with the mower! I probably cleared another 2 wheelbarrows worth from the West lawn, including the section behind the storage house. I found more in the maple grove. I’m glad I was able to mow as much as I did, as it made it easier to find the fallen branches. Branches that had fallen into the areas I still need to get to with the weed trimmer were almost completely hidden! I’m also glad I brought my pruners with me, because I ended up cutting away spirea and caragana that was trying to reclaim the spaces between the lilacs, plum and apple trees again. It’s going to be a constant battle to keep those under control!
Then I checked on the transplanted raspberries and found a surprise.
A single asparagus spear!
It wasn’t there a few days ago. It wasn’t there last year.
It may be that, after having cleared away the weeds and mulching the area, a hidden root was finally able to grow.
Of course, I did have to go into the sun room to get my pruning sheers, and managed to get this adorable picture.
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My morning – in cats
It’s been cats, right from the start of my morning!
I didn’t even get out of bed yet, when Fenrir claimed my wrist as a chin pillow while I checked my phone. I could just barely angle the phone to get this picture.
Her chin is so soft and warm on my wrist, I can’t complain, even if it does make it hard to check the weather for the day!
While starting the cat stuff outdoors, a very dirty Big Jim came by.
Do I really want to know how he got black on him like that?
Beep Beep came over while I was securing the door from the outside.
A curious Big Jim! Checking on things while I washed out the kitten’s eye.
Jim has gone into the sun room with the kittens only once, that I know of, and the moms drove him out. This morning, this was as far as he dared go. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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10
While doing the cat stuff this evening, kittens were getting into the old kitchen. When I put out wet cat food for them, I did a head count, to make sure all 9 kittens were accounted for.
I got to 10.
I counted again.
Still 10.
That means the orange kitten we thought was taken back by Rosencrantz or Guildenstern has been here with his sibling all this time, and we couldn’t tell it apart from the other orange ones.
Which also means all those times we did head counts for 9, we were missing a kitten and didn’t know it!
Well, I guess that means it’s eyes healed up fast, because none of the all-orange kittens have eye issues. Just the one tabby (whose eyes are much better today!).
That was rather surreal! 😄
The Re-Farmer
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Storms and stuff
Things got rather interesting, yesterday!
A series of thunderstorms made their way through our area. Our power flickered off and on about 6 times, that I know of. The first time it happened, I was on my desktop computer, when suddenly, it was off. !! Thankfully, I wasn’t working on anything that was affected by it.
I’m rather happy that we have power bars, everywhere!! :-D
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Progress
Today is a day of all kinds of progress.
And some not-progress.
Some progress is happening as I write this, but that will get its own post. :-D
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The Re-Farmer 