It’s about 10:30am as I start this and, according to the weather apps, we’re at 6C/42F right now, with a “feels like” of 1C/34F
Which means it was probably a couple of degrees colder, at least, while I did my morning rounds, which I finished a couple of hours ago.
I didn’t even need a jacket while I was out there. Sweats and a sweatshirt had me more than warm enough!
Still, it’s rather chilly for the kitties – especially the littles – so I took the time this morning to set their kibble to soak in hot water until completely softened, and also had warm water to top up their water bowls.
The cats that prefer to eat on the cat shelter roof aren’t too happy when I just walk past them – some even reach out to grab my arm as I go by! – but they do eventually go to the trays.
I’d say the warm food is worth it for them!
As I was doing my rounds, I had quite a few branches to pick up. Mostly smaller branches around the yard. Then I found this in the maple grove, out by the fire pit.
When I first saw it, I was a bit confused. How could we lose a tree, but all the trees are still standing? Where did it come from?
Click through to the next photo, and you’ll see.
We just lost half a tree! 😄
Clearly, it had been dead for some time. As I was cleaning it up, I left the biggest piece of trunk for last. The smaller pieces and branches went to the two branch piles we have – one in the yard as fuel for the fire pit, one just on the other side of the fence that will eventually need a commercial wood chipper to get rid of.
The trunk turned out to be so dry and partially rotted that, when I went to pick up the larger end to drag it out, it broke in half!
Those pieces got dragged over next to the pile of cut logs we have for the fire pit, to be broken down more, later.
We haven’t used the fire pit even once this year. It’s usually been too windy for a fire, and when it wasn’t windy, there were too many mosquitoes. Now that it’s getting cooler and the bugs are mostly gone, I’m hoping to get it going at least once or twice – if the wind allows!
Another reason I want to get our outdoor kitchen built. We’ll move the fire pit into the shelter. It won’t keep the bugs out, but it’ll have at least some shelter from the wind and rain.
Until then, we won’t be getting much use out of the fire pit where it is now. Not only is wind a concern, but there are too many dead branches around that the sparks could ignite, as well as a nearby spruce. Spruce is basically a big torch waiting to happen.
After finishing cleaning up the wind damage around the yard – mostly very minor stuff, thankfully – I started heading inside, and found all sorts of adorableness in the sun room!
Poor judgement, trying to squeeze his way into the cat bed with the kittens and… I believe that is Not-Junk-Pile in with them.
If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see a kitten cuddle puddle. The “bed” they’re on is an old feed bag, from when we could still afford to buy deer feed and bird seed, we found, stuffed with… I can’t remember what. It was stored on the shelf and the cats knocked it flat to make a bed out of it! 😄
We will be rearranging the sun room as we clean it up for the winter, bringing in another shelf from the old kitchen that isn’t being used as intended. We’ll set up this side of the sun room for the cats, so they will have more places like this to stay warm in the winter.
Well, it’s time to go help my daughter in the bathroom. There is much to do to fix things up!
I’ve been trying something different with the outside cats, as the temperatures drop. Along with heating water for their water bowls, I’ve started boiling water to soak their kibble, with the lysine powder added, until it’s very soft. Not quite cat soup, but no longer crunchy.
I experimented with it last night and was shocked by just how much water kibble can absorb. No wonder cats with dry diets can get blocked so easily!
Anyhow; this gives them warm food, and we’re not wasting lysine on the bottom of the food trays.
They seem to like it.
It does mean no kibble on the roof of the cat house, which some of the cats prefer. We’ll still give them a top of during the day of dry kibble, but this morning, they had to go to the liquid proof trays to eat.
As I was putting the food out, I kept hearing a meow from… where? The cats I could see were all busy eating.
Eventually, I traced it to the shelf shelter. Each shelf has its own food bow for those shier cats.
I was able to pet her yesterday, but she would still run off at times when I reached for her.
This morning, she was right in there with all the usual adults that fight for attention when I first come out. When I opened the doors from the old kitchen into the sun room, she actually made a run for the door and tried to get inside!
As I was putting the food out, she eagerly accepted pets. When she got in the way of closing the storm door to the old kitchen, I picked her up and she let me cuddle her. Even outside, where tolerance for pets usually disappears, she even came up to me for pets.
I am so happy!
I believe this makes her the third female kitten – maybe the fourth – that we’ve been able to socialize. It’s been so hard to get the females friendly, without having to basically catch them and bring them inside.
Once the cat isolation shelter is finished and set up with a heat lamp, we’ll be able to work with the rescue to start getting the little ladies spayed over the winter.
Kohl’s brother, Rabi, meanwhile, stays well away from us, even at feeding time.
Well, it finally happened. We had our first frost this year, on the night of October 3 – well past our average first frost date of September 10.
It’s still earlier than last year. A year ago today, which was our Thanksgiving day (this year, it’s next week), we had just had a lot of rain the day before, and were still harvesting from the garden, and not needing to cover anything.
We have nothing to complain about. We still have a couple of beds in the garden we could cover that, if the forecasts are at all accurate, can continue to be covered at night and kept going for a few more weeks, if we want.
Also, no snow. We might get rain tomorrow, but the earliest we’re currently expecting snow is a little bit overnight, more than two weeks from how.
Last night, we did go below freezing, and had our first morning of using warm water from the house to give to the cats, instead of filling their water bowls from the hose.
The cold was enough to finally do in the mighty, mighty Crespo squash!
I’m still amazed by how huge those plants got!
This morning, the septic guy came to empty the tank for the winter. After he did that, he adjusted the weight next to the float/pill switch he replaced for us this summer. He tried adjusting the line from the basement first, but had to do it from inside the tank.
What a guy. He was actually on the ground, his upper body leaning right into the tank to reach.
As if that weren’t enough, he showed up with an eye patch and sunglasses over his regular glasses! He somehow detached a retina and, while it is healing well, without the eye patch, he was seeing double. I can barely even lean over the open tank to see inside without feeling like my glasses will fall off, and there he was, hanging head first right into the tank. He did take off the sunglasses for that, but yikes!
He got it done, though, and now the weight will no longer get hung up on the inside of the grey water side of the tank.
I’m really glad he was able to do it. It had gotten caught again this morning. I’d brought the hose from the garden to the house. The tap is in the wall next to the septic tank. I’d shut off the tap and left the nozzle open, so water could drain out rather than freeze. Not much drained out, though! When I turned the tap on so I could use the hose on the weight inside the tank, it was barely a trickle. There was too much ice in the hose. Still, it was enough to get the weight free hanging again, and I could hear the pump shutting itself off in the basement, as soon as it did. The hoses will be put away, soon, so we wouldn’t have been able to keep this up for long.
Now that the tank has been emptied, we can start preparing to cover it for the winter – but we still need to have the company come in and repair the expeller out by the barn. I’ve called and left another message, and still no call back!
After the septic guy was done, my daughter and I went into the root cellar. After wiping down the shelves and covering most with paper, we brought in the onions and garlic, then assembly lined it to bring the winter squash down. They had all been sitting on the washing machine, and we need to use that today!
While my daughter finished in the basement (there was no way my knees could handle going up and down those stairs!), I got the drainage hose for the washing machine set out the storm door window again. We’d been leaving it set up for at least the past month, but with temperatures dropping below freezing, we wanted to be able to close the inner door.
It won’t be long before we’re going to have to start using the drain to the septic tank again. Between the expeller needing to be fixed, and the state or our pipes, we’re hoping to delay that as long as we can.
Last night, I did the first treatment with the Free-Flow Drain and Line Maintenance stuff.
The instructions say to start at the drain closest to the tank, so that anything loosened in the pipes doesn’t end up clogging things further down. The closest is the access pipe in the floor of the basement. Based on the diameter of the pipe, that took 4 tablespoons of product in a cup of warm water. A cup of water isn’t enough to get the stuff to where things get hung up in the pipe, so I had to chase it down with more water.
We can do the next treatment tonight. That will be the bathroom sink, toilet and tub. The main drain pipe from under the bathroom is as large as the floor drain, but the product has to go through much smaller pipes, first, so we’ll do a smaller amount, but do all three at the same time.
Depending on how this works out, we might do these drains more than once, before moving on to the next furthest drain.
Once we’ve done the treatment with this stuff, we’ll start using the Septic Remedy stuff for regular tank maintenance.
None of which will make much difference at all, if that ejector pipe doesn’t get repaired!
In other things, I finally got a call back from the place that does Meals on Wheels in my mother’s town. After a bit of back and forth conversation, my mother is now set up to get meals delivered, instead of having homecare come in to do batch cooking. They only deliver three days a week, though. They no longer have enough volunteers to do five days a week. If I were living in the same town as my mother, I could have arranged to pick up meals on the other days myself and bring them to her, but it’s just not possible to do from where we are. The cost of gas would be higher than the cost of the meals!
One of my follow up calls to my mother, while arranging this, happened to be just after my sister left. She had come by for a visit, and to drop off some vegetables from her garden for my mother.
Including tomatoes.
My mother isn’t supposed to eat tomatoes.
*sigh*
It does mean I won’t be going over there to help her with her grocery shopping until after the weekend, though, which is helpful.
As for today, I’m going to have to make it a day of rest. It seems all the stuff my daughter and I were able to get done yesterday was pushing it for me. Last night, I rolled over in bed and got hit with a Charlie horse. Thankfully, I was able to message my older daughter and she was able to come help me. It was several hours before I could get back to sleep. My attempt at napping after my daughter and I finished with putting stuff in the root cellar, then setting up the laundry, was a failure. Being aggressively cuddled by cats was something I could get used to, but that’s when the Meals on Wheels lady called. By the time I was done all the phone calls, sleep was just not going to happen.
My every joint still and sore, though. The temperature fluctuations are not helping! Neither is the brain fog from lack of sleep.
Hopefully, we’ll get caught up over the weekend, but we do have warmer weather coming, so hopefully we’ll be able to get quite a bit more done.
I need to reign in my expectations, though. I keep forgetting how broken I am.
I think it’s time to make an appointment with the doctor and see about applying for disability. My last doctor said he felt I wasn’t at that point, yet, but that was a few years ago, and he’s moved on to another clinic. We’ll see what this other doctor has to say about it.
Something to do next week, though. The clinic doesn’t take calls on Fridays.
As for right now, it’s all I can do to stay awake, so if this post sounds disjointed and rambling, that is why!
The last time I did a head count, the highest number I got was 40, which is insane enough.
I know at least two, maybe three, are winter returns, but at least one of them, probably two, was part of the headcount of 40. Judgement is the most recent return.
Which means we’ve got perhaps another 9 extra cats from… somewhere.
Whatever cats these are, there is nothing unique about them to set them apart from our regular adults, and I’m pretty sure none of the “extras” are kittens. I did spot a tabby yesterday that I thought looked unfamiliar, but I couldn’t get a good enough look at it before it disappeared behind a cat shelter. We have quite a few grey and brown tabbies. Then there are the “printer babies”. The white ones with grey or black patches on them. Adults and kittens. Very few of them are friendly enough to be individually identifiable. There are some tuxedos, including one that showed up I’m not sure about. One of the returns is the mostly black cat that had an infected eye. If I can see his face, I can identify him by his one eye that’s half discoloured.
We have got to reduce this population!
I messaged the rescue about it, just out of shock. There’s nothing they can do at this point. None of the shelters are accepting intakes right now. They’re too full, and not enough people are willing to adopt a rescue. That doesn’t even take into account the people that either back out at the last minute, or return cats they decided they’re not up to caring for.
The Cat Lady said, ideally, we’d want to get down to a maximum of 15, which would be great, but if cats are just showing up from elsewhere, there’s not much we can do about it.
At this point, we need to seriously look at getting a cull done. It’s not sustainable. Not to mention expensive. I just bought 160 pounds of kibble, just for the outside cats from the feed store, today. That was well over $200 – and with this many cats, unless we find ways to supplement with other food, which I’m looking into, will not last the month. Maybe 3 weeks.
I keep forgetting I have a donation button. If anyone is able to help out – and I certainly understand that most of us are really hurting with the cost of living increases right now – you can click on the button at the top of the page, or below.
Feel free to share the donation link, too. 100% of donations go toward the care and feeding of the yard cats, and anything at all is greatly appreciated.
Judgement has always been great with the kittens, so it was no surprise to find him snuggled up with a couple.
The black and white is another one we can’t get close to. I think the other one is Magda. It’s hard to tell, sometimes, with so many similar kittens!
So many adorables out there!
The outside cats got their version of cat soup this evening. I adjusted the ingredients, using more dry kibble and letting it soak longer in hot water before blitzing it with the immersion blender. There was also a couple of cans of wet cat food, lysine and powdered pumpkin seed.
They absolutely loved it, and licked the food trays clean. The skunks and racoons will have nothing to steal tonight!
I first spotted him yesterday evening, though my daughters saw him earlier. It’s been weeks since I saw him last, just once, and more weeks before then.
Wow, is he ever hungry, too! He doesn’t seem too thin this time, though. Sometimes, when they come back in the fall, they look like they’ve been starved for some time.
Hopefully, he will be staying this time, at least for the winter.
I’ve started to do something different for the outside cats. Just for a few nights now. When I make the cat soup for the inside cats, I’m not making an extra soupy soup for the outside cats. It’s mostly warm water with only a couple of cans of wet can food (we can’t afford to do more), some lysine and pumpkin seed powder. I also add some dry kibble to the water to soften up a bit, then divide it out among all the liquid proof trays.
The outside cats absolutely love it.
Best of all, if there is any kibble left in the feeding trays, it all gets eaten up. They literally lick the trays clean, so any lysine that didn’t stick to the kibble from the morning feed and settled on the bottom gets eaten up, too.
There isn’t any kibble at all left for the skunks and racoons to steal, by the time they’re done!
Things are getting chilly out there. It’s time to get the sun room set up for the winter, open up and clean out the cat house – and get that isolation shelter finished! Hopefully, I’ll finally be able to work on that again, today.
Then there’s all the stuff to get done around the house and garden, too.
With last night’s chill, the yard cats were most definitely feeling it! A whole lot of kittens are hanging out in the sun room, curled up on various beds and blankets, in piles.
It’s getting time to open up the cat house to clean it up, as well as setting up one side of the sun room, for the winter.
They are also seem extra enthusiastic at feeding time, with this new kibble!
I had a bit of a surprise among the cats swirling around my feet as I tried to get out of the old kitchen, closing the inner door behind me to keep cats from running into the old kitchen, and not step on any cats while stepping down from the doorway.
An adorable little face I don’t usually see this close to me!
Baby Hypotenose was in the crowd. I got this picture of her, later.
The irony is, I’m less sure of who the mother is! I’m about 95% sure it’s Sprout, as I saw her with Hypotenose Jr and an orange kitten. Then the orange kitten disappeared.
Sprout quite a bit more feral, and is one of the mamas that isn’t very motherly.
As for Baby Hypotenose, as I was setting kibble out in the sun room, she was right in there with the other cats, milling around under my feet.
So I tried to pet her.
She let me!!!
She started to run off, but stopped and let me rub her neck and shoulders. I’m so happy! We’ve been able to identify her as female, only because she’s a bit of a show off when she runs around with her tail up. We have one female kitten that’s a lot more socialized. If we can get Baby Hypotenose socialized, too, that’ll make at least 2 female kittens we’ll be able to get to a vet over the winter!
Here’s hoping!
There was another rare visitor in the sun room, though not one I was able to touch. I got this photo later on, too.
They’re going to miss this tree when we finally have it cut down. The cats love to climb all over it.
I’m thinking we leave a fair bit of the trunk standing. My usual thought is that we could use the stump to support a table or a bench. Actually, it’s thick enough it could probably support both.
If we leave more of the trunk, though, we could also add cat shelves or small shelters onto it.
That’s not going to happen for a while, though. We need to get it done, though. It’s roots are cracking the basement all, and the branches are overhanging the roof. My daughters were able to trim some away, but the bulk of it will need a professional tree company to remove, without risking damage to the roof.
Unless my brother decides to do it himself. Which I wouldn’t want, as it would be a pretty dangerous job. It’s just too close to the house.
For now, though, the cats love it. They also use it to get onto the roof, where they can then go to the second floor windows and check out what my daughters are doing! 😁
Like this little one was checking me out from the branch above me.
I completely forgot today was the first day of autumn!
It certainly felt like it, this morning.
We got rather chilly night. A light rain started during the night and continued through the morning. At about 7:30am (sunrise was at 7:14am today), I quickly went to feed the cats outside, and could hear thunder in the distance as I did it. I wanted to make sure they got fed before any potential storms hit us.
We were at about 12C/54F at the time, but the humidex made it feel like only 7C/45F, which I think was our overnight low. Our long range forecast has changed and changed again. We went from not expecting frost until the end of October to now expecting overnight temperatures below freezing about 10 days in, with colder nights and potential frost before then.
I’m really hoping that holds off longer!
The thunderstorms didn’t hit us, but since we were getting some rain, I didn’t do my morning rounds until the afternoon. The fluctuating temperatures and humidity was really messing with my body. Lots of pain and stiffness. Add in the overcast skies and rainy weather, which always makes me feel sleepy, my morning was completely unproductive.
The fluctuating conditions have been very hard on my husband. He describes himself as “crunchy” these days. Every time he moves, he can feel things crunching in his lower spine, where the damage is worse.
By the afternoon, though, the sun came out and it warmed up a bit. We’re at 15C/59F as I write this, and are supposed to reach 16C/61F eventually. Tonight’s low is supposed to be 7C/45F. We’re still supposed to warm up again for the rest of September, particularly with the overnight temperatures, but even one colder night like last night will slow down ripening in the garden.
I am quite happy we got the vinyl wrapped around the eggplant and hot pepper bed. It’s held up so far, and I think it is making a difference in keeping the plants warmer during the night.
When I headed out to do my morning rounds in the afternoon, I spotted this big guy, enjoying the catio.
He’s got that permanently sad expression on his face!!
I’m happy to say that horrible wound he had on his face seems to be healing really well. He never let us get a good look at it, but it seemed like the skin of his entire cheek was torn open, with a flap of skin hanging down. Over the weeks, we could see it was healing, and the skin flap dried up. It hung on for a very long time, though, so we’d see him walking around with this black, dried up thing hanging off his face, and could do nothing about it. While I did sometimes manage to touch him while he was eating, he would not let me see that side of his face. We just got glances of it from a distance.
As it healed, though, he got less skittish again and, recently, he actually let me briefly see the injured side of his face. There’s a bald spot of fresh, pink skin. No sign of infection. What a survivor!
If he’s getting comfortable in the catio, I wonder if we’ll finally be able to get him into a carrier and get him fixed? I hope so.
After sneaking a picture of Sad Face (aka: Shop Towel), I was going to continue my rounds, but was followed by a herd of cats and kittens, getting under my feet! I had intended to feed them when I was done, but they convinced me otherwise.
One more melon was ready to pick, plus a couple of tomatoes, and I found a couple of G Star squash – including a mutant one! It’s two stuck together, but there’s only one stem.
I made sure to check on the winter squash I harvested yesterday. Mostly to make sure no cats knocked them off their makeshift shelf in the garage. All was fine! They are drying up nicely. I grabbed a smaller one with a bit of moisture damaged skin, where it had contact with the board or brick it was on. I figure we can try it with supper tonight.
Today, I finally remembered to change a headlight bulb on the truck. I bought the replacement bulb more than a month ago!
With our van, changing a bulb required removing the entire headlight fixture. They were designed to be easily popped off and on. The truck is very different.
I checked the User’s Manual, which wasn’t as helpful as I expected. It’s generic, and not for specific models like the one we have. It said you can just reach the bulb through the engine compartment to remove it, except on the passenger side, which had something in front that would need to be removed first.
I took a closer look under the hood – not particularly easy for me, as the truck is taller than our van was, and I’m short! I could see where the low beam bulb that needed replacing was, but couldn’t see how to reach it. The neck of the washer fluid reservoir was in the way, as was a wire and part of the frame.
After much fiddling around, and even trying to see if the fixture could be removed (it couldn’t), I finally just fought with it. Maybe if I had smaller hands, it would have been easier, but not by much! I could just barely reach it with my fingertips. Certainly not enough to grip it and turn it so it could be pulled out. I ended up having to use a pair of pliers to turn it. To top it off, there were so many things in the way, it was hard to see what I was doing. I also had to bring out the stool we keep in the truck, so I could reach and see better.
Once it was out, getting the old bulb off was a pain, partly because of reach, partly because it just wouldn’t unclip the way it’s supposed to, and I really didn’t want to risk snapping something. I got it off, though, and putting the new bulb in was not at all an issue.
It did, however, have to get put back at just the right angle, or it wouldn’t go in. I had to resort to using the pliers again, trying to get it positioned just right while having to move my head back and forth so I could see around part of the frame, a wire an the neck of the washer fluid container.
What a pain in the butt!
But, it’s done and tested. With the days getting so much shorter, this was not something to keep forgetting about!
That done, I decided to see what I could do with that clear plastic I hope to use on the cat isolation shelter. The frame around it came off easily, which was nice. I was afraid it might have been glued in place, but it was held in place by just friction.
I made sure to find a place to store the pieces, as they are quite reusable.
I laid the sheet over a couple of large wooden crates my brother gave me, then took some measurements of the areas on the isolation shelter it needs to cover. The front will be the biggest piece, at 2′ x 46″ The side pieces need to be about 16″ wide, and at least 21.5″ long.
After measuring and marking the sheet for the large piece, there rest of the length will just need to be cut in half, and I’ll have pieces large enough to fit over the side openings.
I still haven’t figure out the best way to hinge them as doors.
Or maybe I can still find a way to turn them into sliding panels, which is still my preference.
Either way, I’ll be able to get the three pieces I need, and still have a small strip left over.
The question now it, how to cut it. I was thinking to use the jigsaw, like I did with the roof panels, but it’s flexible like the roof panels, too, and that means lots of vibration. I don’t want to do that again!
We don’t have the right kind of blade to use the circular saw.
We might be able to set up the table saw in the sun room and use that, though.
I’ll need a daughter to help out with that, though.
So for now, it will wait. I’d rather delay getting it done, then risk damaging it by using the wrong tools.
At this point, though, I think we can start putting on the wire around the rest of the bottom half, and install the door/ramp. There is nothing else inside that needs to be done. We could probably even attach the hinged roof support pieces. The roof panels will wait until the upper level is enclosed, though, as any overhang would get in the way.
Today started off as an open day. No appointments, no running around planned… It was a day to catch up on things around home.
Which is mostly what happened!
My day started off sluggishly. With thunderstorms on the forecast, I got up and fed the outside cats before any potential storms, then went back to bed.
Well. I tried to. I finally gave up.
There was one errand that did have to be done, though. We were running out of kibble for the outside cats. I was considering where to go to get enough to last a week that would be in budget, and was thinking a trip to the feed store in my mother’s town might be in order. It was either that, or Walmart, but it’s not worth the cost of gas to get just a bag or two of kibble.
While I was checking Facebook while having breakfast, I caught a share from livestock supply store I follow, even though I’ve never been to that store. They are just outside the town to the North of us, and I’ve simply never had cause to find them. From the photos shared, they just got new pet inventory.
Including 40 pound bags of cat food.
In two different brands we haven’t seen before.
I decided to give them a try, heading out in the early afternoon. After finding the place, I asked about the kibble and got prices, then checked the rest of the store out.
I will most definitely be going back there for other things in the future!
Of the two brands of cat food, I chose the less expensive one, though even the more premium brand was a slightly lower price that the 40 pound bags I was getting at the feed store in my mother’s town. While looking around I noticed they have live traps of various sizes. They had the size for cats that I was looking at in Canadian Tire – at a better price, too! The rescue was going to lend us a trap, but I think the last person they lent it to is still ghosting them.
On the way back, I stopped at the post office, expecting some packages for my husband. Nothing was there, though. I just looked up the orders and they changed from arriving by 8pm today, to “now expected by September 26”.
Ah… I see why now. They’re being sent by Purolator, not the mail. They’re apparently in the city, but delayed “due to external factors”, whatever that means!
After I got home, I made a point of giving the outside cats a light feeding with the new brand of cat food, to see how they like it.
They all but inhaled it!
I guess this will be a brand we’ll get more often! The only down side is that this town is in the opposite direction of anywhere we normally go. So we’ll still be getting kibble at the feed store in my mother’s town, but special trips to this place for kibble will also happen.
While considering my issues with the cat isolation shelter and the materials I wanted, in contrast to the materials I have, I remembered something.
I do have clear plastic.
We found two of what looked like some sort of sliding door to me, in the barn. We’d brought them to the house, cleaned off years of dust, then put them in the basement. When we were still letting the cats down there, we kept the “bar” area closed off for the breakable stuff, and used one of these as a door to the entry.
I decided to bring one of them over to the cat isolation shelter and see.
I don’t know if it’s Plexiglass or Lexan or what. What I do know is, it’s big enough to cover the top front of the isolation shelter – and there should be enough left over that I might be able to cover a section on each side, too. Perhaps not as a sliding door, as I had been considering, but at least as a window on each side.
I’m really loathe to cut take the frame off and cut it up, though. It’s really well constructed.
I decided to think on it while working on the catio hammock.
I brought out a black plastic mesh, measured and cut it to size, then used steel strapping to secure it in place.
The ties are attached to the metal supports on the A frame trellis. I tried to lift the squash up at least a bit, in the process, so get some of the stress off the broken cross piece. I used Mason’s line as ties, as it was thin enough to thread through the mesh. It’s strong, but that squash is going to get heavier. I may need to supplement them.
We’ve got some cool nights coming, so it was time to get the eggplant and hot pepper bed set up. I picked up clear table vinyl table protectors for the job. I got two for the garden and two for our dining table.
It’s a good thing I had four, because I needed them all.
The bed is 9′ long and 3′ wide, so I needed a minimum of 24′, plus overlap. I thought I could get away with three of them, but that only gave me about 20′
In the end, I decided to use some clear Gorilla tape I picked up, and connect the sheets in pairs.
The kittens were very interested in what I was doing!
The wind made laying them out so the ends to be taped together were on the sidewalk, and all nice and even, quite a challenge! I got it done, though.
While I was working on this, I started getting messages from my SIL.
She and my brother were going to make a trip out to drop stuff off today! They had a small trailer to haul out, and were going to load up as much other stuff as they could in the process. I was surprised that they would make the trip out after my brother got off work, given how quickly things are starting to get dark, but they still have a lot they need to bring out here. She kept me up to date on their progress, as she was able, while I continued with the preparing the vinul.
Once the pairs were taped together, it was time to wrap the box frame over the eggplants and peppers.
When we had it wrapped before, we made a point of covering the length first, and having the overlap at the ends. I recall the wind really seemed to catch on those ends. This time, I decided to centre the vinyl sheets at the ends, and have the overlap in the middle of the long sides.
The box frame has a wire topped frame on top, and I was able to use that to hold the top of the vinyl in place, wrapping the excess over the top of the box frame and into the middle. The wire topped frame, however, isn’t secured in the center, and it starting to twist and bow out. We’ll need to set a line across and pull it in, but not today.
After the vinyl was in position, I used paracord to secure it to the box frame around the top. That one I made very tight, since it needs to not move at all. I added more paracord around the bottom and the middle, to keep the wind from blowing it around. Those are snug, but we will still be able to move the vinyl to reach into the bed, then tuck it back under the paracord again when we’re done.
The only problem is that the box frame has a cross piece in the middle. With the excess vinyl sitting on top of it, I could see the wind was going to be a problem. In the end, I ended up just using more clear Gorilla tape to secure the vinyl to itself on the inside. Hopefully, that will work!
With my brother and SIL on the way, when that was done, I went to open the gate for them. I think took advantage of the situation, grabbed a pair of loppers and the wagon, and headed to the end of the driveway.
If you click through to the second photo in the above slideshow, you can see my first wagon load. That’s all poplar saplings, spreading through roots. They were starting to obstruct visibility as we leave, making it hard to see if any vehicles are on the road, coming towards us.
I did three wagon loads like that!
While I was working on that, my SIL kept me updated. Then ended up driving into a storm with the rain coming down so hard, they had to pull over. When the could finally start driving again, they stopped at a gas station in town along the way to check on things before continuing on.
They still hadn’t arrived when I finished my third wagon load of saplings. At that point, it was getting hard to see the stems I was trying to cut!
My brother may have driven through torrential rain, but we got nothing all day, save a few spatters now and then.
After tossing the saplings on the burn pile and putting things away, I realized I hadn’t taken a picture of the wrapped garden. If you click through to the last image in the slideshow, you can see how that looks. Should we expect to get an actual frost, we can toss a cover on the wire frame on top. For now, the vinyl will act as a sort of greenhouse, keeping them warmer as our daytime temperatures start to drop. The open top should keep it from getting too hot. This bed has the only plants we have that like things quite a bit warmer, even during the day.
The real test will be how it holds up in high winds.
With my brother soon to arrive, and a smattering of rain starting, I headed into the garage to see what I could do on the isolation shelter.
I cut lengths of wood lath to use to secure the mesh on the bottom level, against the frame. I was just putting the last nail into the front section when they arrived.
It was pitch black out by then, and I ended up using the flashlight on my phone to help them see to open up the back of the trailer and unload the piece of equipment that was on it. That went into the barn, while the trailer itself got parked to the side.
Then they back the truck up to the barn and we unloaded it, assembly line style. That sure made things go very quickly!
They even had a couple of things they knew I could use in there, and I was very grateful for them! Those went into the garage.
We worked quickly to unload, and then they had to leave right away. They had a long drive home, and my brother still has to get up for work tomorrow. His job has him working with people in time zones around the world, so sometimes the hours get very unusual!
Before they got home, though, I got another message from them. They forgot their wooden ramp on the ground, that they were supposed to take home with them. My brother was concerned it would get rained on, so I went back out to put it in the garage.
It’s 16C/61F out there right now, and absolutely gorgeous. I’d be sleeping outside right now, if we had the set up for it!
Meanwhile, in the middle of all this, I got a voicemail message from home care about my mother. For some reason, they called my cell phone number. I was in the garage at the time, so my phone never rang. I started listening to the message as I went into the house, and promptly lost the signal. I had to go back outside to listen to the full message!
My mother was getting her first home care visit at suppertime, to help her with her medications. They will be coming in the morning and at supper, then one more time for her before-bed medications. The person calling me wanted to make sure to tell us that they wouldn’t have someone available for a supper and before bed visit this Sunday.
So I made sure to call my mother right away. It turns out they had called her, too, but didn’t mention to her about the day they wouldn’t be able to come. As we talked about her meds and the times, she started to get mixed up with things, and confused. I’m so glad we were able to get her to allow home care to come in to help with her meds!
The next thing will be the meal prep visits. Those are supposed to be every two weeks for bulk cooking. We’ll have to have some idea of what they can and can’t do for that, and plan my mother’s grocery shopping accordingly. Usually, I’ve been helping her with her groceries every week or so – sometimes, my sister is able to do it for her. With the bulk cooking every two weeks, that will change things, but I don’t know how, yet.
We’ll figure it out.
Meanwhile, I am now scheduled to go to her place tomorrow. She’s need to go to the bank this time – the one thing I can’t do for her – so she’s going to have to climb in and out of our truck.
I’m still amazed that she can do it. When we got the truck, I thought for sure, it wasn’t going to happen. With her car out of commission right now, we don’t have much choice. We do have a foot stool for her, and I have to give her a bit of a boost, and she manages it!
Still, it’s something we want to do as little as possible!
With that in mind, it’s time for me to finish this up and get to bed. It’s coming up on midnight right now!
Until next time, I hope you have a fabulous day! Or night. Whatever time it happens to be for you as you read this. 😁😁
The Re-Farmer 