life is good

More kittens, and an update

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Yes! We have transportation again!!!!

Before my friend arrived, I did have to play interference with an Eyelet, who wanted to follow me along. Which meant cuddle time!

It’s so hard to get pictures of those eyes, but I think I managed to capture their colour pretty well. They are SO white!

Eyelet kept trying to follow me down the driveway, which is not good, since I’m 99% sure he’s stone deaf. You can’t tell to watch him running around and playing, but I’ve gone past him with a lawn mower while we was sleeping and he didn’t wake up, so that’s a pretty sure sign!

I also spotted the secret kitties.

Can you spot the mama in the first picture?

These two kittens are the bravest of the four secret kitties – and the location of their “nest” in the outer yard is still very much a secret. Sprout is a good mama, but I do wish she would learn to accept us humans. When I got closer, she hissed at me and hid deeper in the tall grass. The white and grey ran off and hid. The orange on, however, started to run off, then came back. He’s getting curious enough that I think we might be able to touch him, fairly soon.

Sprout, meanwhile, just glared at me through the grass! 😄

As soon as I could hear a car coming down the road, I tucked Eyelet into the isolation shelter (which is open) and dashed to the gate before any cats or kittens could follow me! I did see Pinky’s two kittens in the garage, but they ran off before I could do more than confirm I was seeing both of them.

The drive to my mother’s town was a good time for catching up. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.

I did, however, have to interrupt the conversation to ask her about the noise her car was making. She thought it might have something to do with a recall on her vehicle model, but she didn’t know for sure. She needed to get it checked but didn’t want to go to the dealership in the city she bought it from, because it turned out, they suck.

When we got to the garage, I paid my bill – $56 and change, after taxes, including 12¢ for the C clip he used to fix the break in the linkage. I asked about the part he’d ordered, and he confirmed that they had sent him the wrong one for some reason. Frustrating, but their mistake saved me about $300, and the truck is working fine.

Then, since we were there, my friend asked about her car. He asked some specific questions about the noise, then asked if she was okay to go for a drive. So while I got set up in the truck and put back a few things I’d made sure to take out before leaving it for the tow truck, they went for a run. The mechanic did the driving. Later on, my friend laughed while saying it was a good thing there were no police around at the time! He was wanting to see if it was the wheel bearings, as the sound should change while swerving.

The sound didn’t change.

She was really happy with him, though, and booked an appointment with him for next week. I happen to not have anything scheduled on that day, so she’ll be coming over to here, first, to pick me up. We’ll go for breakfast somewhere nearby, then visit with my mother.

Which is what we did after we were done at the garage. Well; breakfast for her, lunch for me. We had a great time catching up before heading over to my mother’s.

I didn’t call ahead to my mother that we were coming by. Normally, my mother doesn’t like surprise visits like that, but I knew she would be happy with this one. She has always liked my friend, back from when we first got to know each other in junior high. Even back then, she called my mother “mom”, just like I called her mother, “mom”. When my mother nearly killed herself causing an accident, years ago, my friend happened to be there to witness it, and took care of my mother afterwards. If it weren’t for that, we would have never found out what happened that day, since my mother basically lied about some of the details, and left lots of information out.

My mother was thrilled with the surprise visit. She was also just as tickled to be called “Mom” by my friend, still, after all these years.

I had showed the pictures I took of Eyelet this morning to both my friend and my mother. My friend has a one cat right now. She was telling me I needed to come visit her and meet her cat, and I joked about bringing Eyelet along.

Long story short, after her car is done at the garage next week and she drives me home, I will grab Eyelet and follow her to her place in the truck for a visit. We will see how Eyelet and her cat get along. If they get along, she might adopt Eyelet! She does know he is probably deaf. I do want to make sure she knows he’s probably got ear mites and worms, and has never had vet care. At least I’ve seen him use a litter box in the sun room, though, so he’ll figure that out rather fast.

Once done at my mother, we parted ways.

I’m now rather glad my sister wasn’t available to drive me today. It was so good to catch up with my friend, while getting the truck back. She has a very eclectic work schedule, so even for her to have today available at all was serendipitous. It worked out for her, too, since she is now going to get her own vehicle looked at with a mechanic/garage owner she really likes – unlike the dealership garage in the city she’s been having issues with!

It’s late enough now that I won’t be starting any projects outside, and will just do my evening rounds after feeding the outside cats. Right now, other than a potential grocery shopping trip for my mother, I have 4 days of pleasant weather to get work done outside. Finally! I have two large projects I’ve had to set aside for now, partly due to being pulled away for other things, and partly because I had to give my left arm time to heal from my fall. It is still bothering me, but at least I can do more with it. If it’s still a problem when I see my doctor at our rescheduled time next week, I’ll request X-rays. It’s been quite some time, and it really shouldn’t still be hurting like it does.

Oh, speaking of medical stuff, my daughter just came by to show me her wrist. The surgical bandage could finally come off today and, my goodness, the incision is healing quite nicely! Oddly, it looked so small while the bandage was on, but now that the bandage is off, it seems larger, somehow. They definitely needed space to evict Squidly.

So that is where we are at now. The truck is back and working, we might have Eyelet adopted out, and plans to spend time with my old friend again next week.

It’s been a very good day.

The Re-Farmer

Well, it’s all we can do for now

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I had to bring the van to the garage for 9am, so I was outside, doing my rounds, earlier than usual.

I usually wait until it isn’t dark anymore, but of course, it’s staying dark much longer now.

That didn’t stop the kitties from coming out for an early breakfast, though!!

Things didn’t quite work out at the garage, though. When I got there, I asked if it was okay if I could stay in his office/waiting area. With all the restrictions, there’s no place to just sit, and it’s too cold to stay outdoors.

It turned out, however, that he somehow double booked. My appointment wasn’t written in his schedule! He remembered what I was booked for, but he had someone else scheduled.

On top of that, the lift he needed to be able to access my tires was occupied by a truck that was supposed to have had only hours of work, but has instead been there for days.

Considering he had my mother’s car on a lift for almost a month, I could only appreciate the situation.

He asked if I could come back in the afternoon, but with my needing to go to the court office, it wasn’t an option. I could have gone in the morning, but I had no way of knowing how long it would take. I might not have been able to get back in time.

So we re-booked me for Monday. A quick stop top

pick up breakfast at the grocery store, then the gas station before driving the 30-40 minutes to the small city it’s in. While I was inside, nowhere near anyone, waiting to pay for my gas, a masked customer came up to me – so much for physical distancing! – telling me that there was a sign at the door saying we had to wear masks. There is no mask mandate in this municipality, but I just told him I was medically exempt. He slunk away with a snarky “isn’t that convenient” type of comment. I told him, “… and that’s harassment.”

At least he had the decency to seem embarrassed.

The clerk behind the counter wasn’t wearing a mask, either.

A tree, keeping watch over my van in the parking lot! :-D

When I got to where I needed to go, the court itself, in a different area of the building, was in session, so there were two security guards in body armour at the door. Though the mask mandates were supposed to expire two days ago, they got extended (is anyone surprised?). The guards were wearing cloth masks that matched their uniforms. I got questions about why I was there, if I had any symptoms or have been around people who tested positive, etc., and about masking. They accepted my exempt status, though I don’t think they believed me. I was the only person I saw, anywhere in the building, without a mask. Since I had everything prepared and needed only to have things signed, witnessed and to swear on the Bible, that part went by quickly. The lady behind the counter was surprised by my typed affidavit, and I explained I was told I could do that, so she accepted it. I then had to wait outside the doors until someone came to me.

The chairs had been taken away since I was there on Monday, so I tucked into a little cubby in the wall next to the pay phone, opposite the security guards. Which was… interesting.

One of the guards, who was wearing thick cloth gloves, kept pulling at his mask and adjusting it. Because of this, I could see that it wasn’t even layers of fabric, but little more than a single layer of interlock knit (t-shirt material) over his face. Cloth masks are confirmed as being the most useless type of mask to begin with, but this was about as flimsy as could be! Still, they satisfied the mandate. :-/

Then I saw him repeatedly use hand sanitizer.

On his cloth gloves.

It was the strangest thing!

I think I waited for about an hour before someone came out and handed me some printouts.

The application was denied.

The letter explained why. It came down to two related things; one of which I might have been able to dig up old emails to meet their standard of evidence, but the other… I just don’t have it. Since I’ve cut communications off with our vandal, I am not in a position to know those sorts of details. At least not to the extent they need.

So that is that. Unless/until something else happens, I will not apply again. As much as he needs the help and won’t get it himself, there is a reason these mental health applications are hard to get, and I do appreciate that. Too many people already abuse the court system for their own personal vendettas. To force someone to have a psychiatric evaluation, the application absolutely must have the evidence to back it up.

I really should have done this when it was first recommended to me, 2 years ago, when the worst of it was still happening.

Ah, well. Live and learn.

One thing that helps is, my family is very supportive of me in all this. When I got home, one of my daughters made lunch for me. As I spent time writing related emails and making a call to get legal advice (I love my Legal Shield!) for the court date, my husband and I had a chance to talk about it, and I updated my brother. As he now owns the property, what our vandal is doing is against him as much as against us! Later, my daughters put together a charcuterie board for us to share for supper, as we watched an episode of The Edwardian Farm. That did get cut short when my lawyer called back. We didn’t talk for long; he asked me to email him copies of the court form about the peace bond, will do some research, and get back to me next week.

Among the things I need to talk to him about is that our vandal has been dropping hints for some time that he’s planning to sue… someone… not sure who. When I first heard of it, it was in a voice mail directed at my mother, but now that my brother is the owner, perhaps that who he plans to sue? Of course, we are “making” him do this but I have no clue what grounds he thinks he has that he can sue any of us for. He apparently still thinks everything has been “given” to me, and by “everything”, he means all the stuff on the farm he feels entitled to because he helped my parents, way back when. It seems he honestly believes he owns it all. When we moved here, my mother expressly stated that we were to treat everything and use everything here as if it were our own, and my brother is on board with that, too. Even so, the stuff that’s here belongs to the farm. It’s not “ours” any more than the farm or house is. It’s a sort of package deal. :-D Of course, there’s more to it than that, which I can’t get into here.

What a mess!

With all the stuff we’ve discovered since moving here – like needing a new roof and a complete renovation, possibly needing a new well, not having the tools and equipment we should have had had to take care of the place, and so on, in the end, this is really the only major problem with living here. In the end, that’s really not too bad. It’s still better than what we left behind.

Life is good.

The Re-Farmer

First cookout!

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Yesterday was a perfect evening for a cookout!

Well… except for the mosquitoes. The bug spray we used is supposed to last for 8 hours. It didn’t!

Unfortunately, my husband wasn’t up to joining us, so it was just the girls and I. One of whom helped me unload the riding mower for the van, while the other tended our first fire in the new set up. :-)

Those blocks turned out to be very handy, in many ways!

With the pit all cleaned out, we were reminded of just how big it really is!

This metal ring is one of several my late brother had acquired. He worked in demolitions, and once had the job of dismantling a coal fired electric generating station. A company in the States had purchased it, so my brother and his team had the job of dismantling the pieces that would go to the train station for shipping. Dismantling them was very dangerous. While the station had not been used for many years, there was still coal dust all over, and coal dust is explosively flammable. What wasn’t shipped to the purchaser was demolished and went to the landfill, so he was able to salvage sections of pipe. This is one of three that I know of, that became fit pit rings. :-)

As for our cookout, we have a terrible habit of starting to cook way too early. We’re just too impatient to wait for proper cooking coals! :-D So we deliberately didn’t being the food out until later. The question was, how to set up the food and fixings? The picnic table is in the process of being prepped for painting. The folding table we’d used before is now being used for something else. Plus there was that whole bug problem.

Solution found!

Yup. The mini greenhouse! We could put everything in, the close it up to keep the bugs out. :-D

The only thing that was a bit of a problem was how wide the mesh is on the shelves. The squeeze bottle kept tipping over. :-D

Ah, perfect!

Did I mention how handy those blocks turned out to be? :-)

After we’d had a bunch of hot dogs, we build the fire up again, then tossed in a packet of stuff to make colourful flames. I’d actually bought them last year, but with the fire bans, we never had a fire to use them in!

I’m sure the colours would have been much more dramatic if we had waited until it was darker. :-D We’re saving the second one for another time.

Unfortunately, no one remembered to read the packet to see how long the stuff lasted. We still had S’mores to do, and a coloured fire is not for cooking over. I was eventually able to find that it could take from 1 – 2 hours, depending on the fire and conditions. So we built the fire up more, until it was all burned up, before letting it get down to cooking coals again.

Then we made S’mores. :-)

The problem with that is, while we all love to toast marshmallows to golden perfection, none of us actually like eating them all that much. :-D I could sit there and toast marshmallows all day, as long as I had someone else to eat them! :-D

It was a wonderful, peaceful evening. While the girls and I were out there, we got visits from Creamsicle and Potato Beetle, with all their loving attention. We also got to see Junk Pile cat’s THREE kittens! Just flashes of them, really, as they’re even more skittish than their mom, but they are now coming to the house – even into the sun room! – with her. We also got charmed by a chipmunk on the stacked wood pile, and even Stinky came by, determined to dig for grubs among the nearby hawthorns.

With our big shop coming up some time next week, the girls and I will have cookouts in mind when we make our list. :-) I can definitely see popping on the racks and cooking supper out there.

Hmmm. As I’ve been working on this post, I’ve noticed some connectivity issues. We had still not received a call from a tech about coming here to check out equipment. The secondary account is still getting no signal at all, while the primary account is also kicking out much more frequently than usual – and no winds or storms to account for it. At least my daughter can still work. That’s the main thing!

Now let’s see if the connection is back, and I can hit “publish”! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Things that make me smile

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I’m just loving the longer days and weather conditions we’re having right now. I was doing my evening rounds of the yard some time past 9:30 last night, the temperatures were perfect, and I got to watch this gorgeous sunset through the willow branches and spruce trees.

This morning, I was thoroughly entertained by feline antics.

David so wants to play with the kittens! When he jumps into their nest with them, though, and they come running over, he gets skittish and leaves. Lately, he’s taken to dangling at them from above, and waving his furry paws in the air above their heads. :-D

They are so funny!

The Re-Farmer

Grateful

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The family had quite the day, yesterday. One in which my husband and I both found ourselves feeling incredibly grateful for so many things.

Long story short; my husband ended up in the hospital, for about 24 hours, in the emergency ward. He is now home with appropriate medication and happily sleeping in his own bed again.

Continue reading →

Cats, kits and the things we find

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It was a hot one today, so no progress on pruning and clearing the spruce grove today.  My daughter was able to get some of what I cut away yesterday, hauled out, before it got too hot.   It’s 7:30pm as I write this, and we’re still at 30C, and we’re supposed to hit the 30s again, tomorrow.  So it was a good day to be inside!

It’s probably for the best.  After driving my younger daughter to work, I was thinking of getting more work done on the grove while it was still cooler.  In the end, I found I had to painkiller up and lie down for a while.  My body was reminding me not to overdo things again.

Getting old sucks, sometimes! :-D

This evening, Beep Beep and her kittens were out while I did a walk around the yard.  I did a bit of watering, including the grape vine, though I harvested most of the grapes, yesterday evening.  Some bunches weren’t ripe yet, but I could also see that something – likely a bird – has been eating them, so I want to leave some behind.  I don’t want to take away some creature’s food source.

The kittens wouldn’t let me come near them, even when the tuxedo deigned to play with the end of a stick I was wiggling for him.  When I headed towards the storage house, they ran ahead of me and hid in the lilacs.  When I got near the stairs, I could see a sparkly cat toy I’d brought out for them some time ago, and went to get it.

Which is when I noticed something in the dead leaves and grass.

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I wonder how many years it had been there? :-D

I sat on the stairs for a while, eating some of the grapes that had ripened since yesterday.  The tuxedo was watching me from the lilacs, so I tossed over the cat toy, which he immediately pounced on.

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He’s pretty much right on top of where I found the shot glass.

Then there was Beep Beep.

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No birds use this bird bath.  I wonder why?

If you look under the grape leaves, you can see the black fur of the tuxedo kitten, sitting on the tire planter.

You know, growing up here, I never imagined I would ever someday be sitting on the steps, eating fresh grapes off the vine.  I never imagined there would ever be grapes that could grow here!

The Re-Farmer

Morning at the lake

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After the heat we’ve been having lately, this morning was downright chilly!

No, that’s not a complaint! :-D

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I actually wore a light jacket when I drove my daughter to work. :-D  After dropping her off, I stopped at the lake and walked on the beach for a while (which just happens to help me get some kilometers in on Pokemon Go… ;-) ).  By the time I got back to the van, it was starting to be too warm for that jacket!  We’re supposed to hit over 30C today, so we’ll really be appreciating how cool the house got overnight, because it’ll stay that way for most of the day, once we close up the windows.

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Life is so much slower and calmer out here.  For all the inconveniences of the move, and the various challenges we’ve had since then, life is good!

Speaking of good…

My husband’s CPAP came in yesterday!!  He was lying down when we got back, but for this, I disturbed him. :-D  We got it set up, and he immediately lay down to sleep again – this time, with his hospital bed flat.  He’s been without for so long, he has to get used to it all over again!  Much to our surprise, he even had to reduce the pressure on the machine.  It’s an adjustable pressure machine, which means it is set at a range, rather than just one pressure.  It’s rather a big deal for him to be able to reduce that range, considering how high he normally needs to keep it.

Pretty awesome. :-)

The Re-Farmer.

 

 

Midnight Light Show

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We had a storm sweep through last night – lots of rain and lightning, but oddly, no wind.

These two photos were taken .04 seconds apart.

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My older daughter and I went into the sun room to watch, and there were many times when the yard was suddenly bright as day!

I tried to take video as well, and have one that I will upload later.  It’s a lot darker than what we were actually seeing, but still shows how much lightning we were getting.

I did a walk around the yard before driving my younger daughter to work, and was amazed by the complete lack of downed branches.  Usually, any stiff wind will at least send willow branches flying.  Not a one!

Which I am grateful for.  This morning, I learned that a tornado touched down to the south of us, and at least one home was torn from its foundation.

We have much to be thankful for here.  The brunt of storms always seems to pass our area by.

The Re-Farmer

Update: I have since learned that the tornado touched down to the northwest of us, on the other side of another lake.  One person was found dead next to his destroyed home. :-(

Some little things

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Not a particularly productive day, but a good day for little things.

And pretty things.

I’ve noticed quite a difference in behavior in the birds as they visit the feeder now, compared to when we were still just putting seed on the frozen ground.  They seem a lot more chill and relaxed!  The bird in the photo on the left was just hanging around in the feeder, pecking at a seed every now and then, shifting position now and then, but otherwise just sitting there.  Even on the planter feeder, the birds more frequently take just sit around and take their time as they feed.  Rather nice. :-)

Earlier today, my younger daughter and I made an unplanned trip to the city.  When we got home and were walking to the door, we saw Butterscotch coming over, and could see her babies over by the old dog house.  So I grabbed our things and went inside while she topped up the cat kibble, and took some over for the kittens, too.

When I came out again shortly after, I found her over by the storage house with Beep Beep.  We now know where she moved her kittens to!  They are under the storage house.  My daughter brought some kibble for them, too, and they were quite happy to scarf it down.  They are much more nervous than Butterscotch’s kittens, though, and quickly hid themselves as I walked by, even though I didn’t go towards them.  No chance for photos!

I’m happy to know where Beep Beep’s babies are, and that they are eating solid food now, too.

It’s good to enjoy the little things in life.  Especially if those little things also happen to be furry and adorable! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Dead Wood Down, and cat models

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With yesterday’s heat, I did not head out until the evening, to clean up the piles of wood I’d cleared out the day before.  We had caught just the edge of the storm that night, with some rain and high winds, but nothing near as bad as the areas to the south of us.  Some places got tennis ball sized hail, and there were power outages in places.

When I got to where I’d left the cut wood, I noticed a branch, just off by itself, but still near the pile of deadwood.  Had I missed it, somehow how?

Then I looked up.

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The big maple tree reaches out over this area, and it has a lot of dead branches.  One of them was broken in the high winds we got, and the bigger part of it got hung up on other dead branches.

Lovely.

After I clearer away the piles of wood, I added another length to the extended pruning saw.  I was able to pull down the dangling branch, then with the extra length, was able to cut down two dead branches.

The first one was the one at the bottom of the dangling branch you can see in the picture above.  The other was a larger one, that you can see part of, above the big, thick main branch.  That one was being partly held up by the main branch.

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You can see all three branches, here.  The big one, as it got hung up on the main branch on the way down, basically exploded, sending side branches and twigs all over the place! (That would be Rolando Moon, in the background. :-D )

After taking out the big branches, I filled two wheelbarrows with small branches and twigs, just from here!

We had a wiener roast shortly after, and when we were done eating, I stayed longer to clear both wheelbarrows. :-)

While we were having our cook out, we got visited by Nasty Crime Boy, who decided that one of the folding chairs we brought out would be a great place to hang out.

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When my daughter came closer with her phone to take pictures, he was very curious about the whole thing, sticking his face up to the phone, then reaching out to grab her with his paws!

Too adorable. :-D

I ended up staying out several hours, tending the fire and watching the sun setting behind the trees while listening to the renter’s cows mooing, with frogs and cranes, croaking in the distance.  By the time the girls came out to check on me, it was fully dark except for the glowing coals in the fire pit.

Life is good.

The Re-Farmer