outside cats

Moody morning, and testing them out

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We’ve got a foggy, moody day today!

I took this several hours ago and, while it’s not as dense now, it’s still foggy out there.

We’re just barely above freezing right now, but even earlier things were starting to melt again.

I got to test out the new rubber boots!

This is part of the path crosses the moat that surrounds our garage every spring. I was more than happy to break up the ice and walk in water, because it was incredibly slippery in all the paths! The boots don’t have much grip.

They did allow me to check the lake that’s forming in front of the outhouse, and finally get to the sign cam to switch memory cards. I cut through the spruce grove to avoid the deepest snow, then went around the edges of the tree and fence lines. The snow in the open isn’t excessively deep, but why fight through it, if I can avoid it?

I did remember to change the clocks on the trail cams, though – just a little bit late! I actually forgot about daylight savings time almost entirely. We have only two clocks that need to be manually changed, and one of those is on the oven. I suppose we could do the microwave, too, but after getting a series of power outages a while back, we just didn’t bother setting the time on it again, at all. I find myself at least a day late in switching the trail cams, every daylight savings.

As for today, I’m looking forward to a quiet day of indoor tasks, and no driving around with errands. Especially with so much melting on top of ice out there! We’re only supposed to hit a high of 2C/36F today. Right now, we’re at 0C/32F, with a “feels like” of 3C/37F. So we’ll see what we really get. Oh! I just checked one of my weather apps, and the forecast has changed again. Now they’re saying we’re supposed to reach 4C/39F today.

One thing we do have with this weather is far fewer cats running around! I think I counted about a dozen or so this morning and, every now and then, I’ll see one come running from somewhere in the outer yard. They are most definitely exploring further afield, possibly to neighboring farms.

They also haven’t been eating as much kibble as things get warmer, which is going to be nicer on the budget, but all the containers were empty this morning. I think we got visited by racoons again. I’m pretty sure I heard some screeching outside my window last night, but I didn’t see any in the sun room when I checked the critter cam. I imagine we’re going to start seeing the skunks again in the near future.

The inside cats, meanwhile, are being driven insane by the occasional lady bug or fly that has come out of dormancy and started bouncing off the ceiling or windows.

Ladybugs are remarkably loud when they do that!

So is the crashing and banging when the cats launch themselves after them, sending anything in their paths flying! *sigh*

Speaking of cats, I’ve been keeping in touch with the Cat Lady. The “problem cat” she took in at the request of a shelter is not doing well. Hissing and spitting and terrifying the other cats in the room. It’s only been a couple of days, though. About the only positive thing she could tell me is that the shelter didn’t have to remove all the cat’s teeth. She’s still a gummy cat, but there are a few teeth left. The poor thing must be so traumatized – and that’s on top of having been removed from an abusive home in the first place.

Needless to say, I’m not going to be pushing about the Cat Lady taking our three. Especially since I think they would be staying with her for a short while, first. Thankfully, she does have an entire separate, heated building on their new property for some of the rescues, but others have to be in the house for special care.

She and her family are so amazing. They put up with so much – and she puts up with the two calicos from our place that are still nasty to her, even though they are great with everyone else! In all her years working with rescues, she’s never encountered anything quite like that before!

Hopefully, the new addition will learn to feel safe and trust again, but it’s likely going to be a hard road after having gone through so much.

I just can’t understand people who abuse animals.

The Re-Farmer

In full force!

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The melting is happening at full force right now!

Yesterday, we ended up reaching a high of 7C/45F, and it was still above freezing, well past midnight. Today’s high was supposed to be 3C/37F but, as I write this, at almost 3pm, we’re at 5C/41F, with a “feels like” of 9C/48F!

The cats aren’t the only creatures loving the warmth!

When I came outside to feed them, I found a couple of odd things. The first was clumps of snow all over the well cap. I clear that, because some of the outside cats like to eat there, away from the other cats. There’s a pile of snow beside it from shoveling paths clear, and something had been digging into the pile, kicking chunks of snow all over, and creating tunnels into the pile.

That wasn’t the only thing dug up.

This is the roof of the cat house. Not only is the snow dug up, pieces of shingles have been torn of!

I’d say, racoons.

The roof of that cat house makes sense, since we normally drop food on there. Quite a few of the cats prefer to eat on the roof instead of at ground level.

As for the pile of snow, we’ve had snowfalls that covered kibble that was on the well cap. When I shoveled it clear, those bits of kibble ended up on the snow pile. The racoons must have been able to smell them, and were digging to find the food!

After feeding the cats and continuing my rounds, I remembered to grab a shovel and clear some snow so the two sides of the gate can be opened wider. The paths through the snow in certain areas were full of frozen pools of water, from yesterday’s melt. It was already warm enough for things to start melting again, so it was very slippery. We haven’t been able to make it to the dump lately, with the storms, and I was planning to do it today. Since we can’t drive into the yard, though, we’d have to carry the garbage to the garage. I was needing to use the snow shovel as a walking stick to keep from slipping. There was no way we could make multiple trips to the garage while carrying bags, safely.

The dump trip will have to wait.

I did end up having to go into town again today, though. One of the places I needed to go is a mini department store, so I made a point of looking at their rubber boots. The last time I got rubber boots, I had a hard time finding any that could fit over my calves. I ended up getting a pair that fit my feet, then cut the boots off above the ankles. One of the boots from that pair now has a bit crack across the top of the foot, so they are now useless. With the troubles I had before, I didn’t have much hope in finding a pair that fit.

Much to my surprise, not only did I find boots that fit over my calves (even if a bit on the tight side), they were wide enough at the feet that, instead of my usual men’s size 9’s, I was able to get size 8’s! I haven’t been able to wear size 8 shoes in decades! On top of that, the price was actually reasonable – just under $35.

When I got home and my younger daughter helped me put things away, I got her to try them on, since she has the same trouble finding shoes and boots that fit that I do. Happily, they fit her, too! There was even room for a pair of insoles she happened to have spares of.

Now we just need to see if they will fit my older daughter, too. She has an even harder time finding shoes that fit right than I do!

You know, I never thought I’d see the day where I would be so excited over being able to find a pair of rubber boots that fit. 😂😂

It’s going to make my morning rounds much more pleasant, though! Not to mention just going to the compost pile. That path is completely flooded out. I didn’t bother checking, but that would mean the low area in the path to the back door of the garage, and the outhouse, would be a lake right now.

We’ve got a few more days above freezing ahead of us, but the long range forecast now says we’ll have a high of only -8C/18F by Sunday, and that the highs will stay below freezing for at least the next week after that. Considering how often the forecasts change, though, I’m not holding much stock to that right now. We shall see what actually happens!

For now, we – and the outside cats – are going to enjoy the warmth and the melting snow!

The Re-Farmer

Gorgeous days, and another delay

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It is so beautiful out there right now!

And so is this beastly beast!

Rolando Moon was loving the hard packed snow on the sides of the driveway, while I was doing my morning rounds. In fact, all the cats were running around, enjoying the bright morning sunshine. I counted 26 this morning. The most I’ve seen for a while, now!

At the time I did my morning rounds, it was about -5C/23F, but felt much warmer. As I write this, shortly after 1pm, we’re at 2C/36F, and expected to reach a high of 5C/41F! Several degrees warmer than the forecast has been, for the past few days.

Even yesterday, with the forecast shifting and predicting a high of 2C/36F, we actually hit 4C/39F, and things were melting all over!

This morning, I took the time to widen a section of the driveway, to make it easier to turn into the garage when coming home. Coming back to the house I noticed the old market tent set up by the fire pit was partially collapsed. It’s broken on one side, so it doesn’t take much. Unfortunately, we haven’t dug any paths to the fire pit, so I was slogging through snow half way to my knees to get to it.

Getting the roof of the market tent, which is set up over the old picnic table and the folding table we made with parts and pieces we found in the barn and basement, clear was more difficult that I expected. Because of how warm it was yesterday, melted snow started pooling in the canvas roof, even leaking through and leaving icicles hanging on the inside. We have an old hoe with rounded edges that is safe to scrape the snow off without damaging the canvas. The handle is a steel pipe welded onto the hoe, so we use it in the fire pit, rather than the garden, so it was handy. I got as much snow off the tent roof as I could, then ducked underneath to try and knock it off from below, and lift the roof supports. One section turned out to be really, really heavy for some reason. That’s when I realized there was a big pool of water that had frozen overnight! I was able to scrape more snow off and break up the ice from the outside, until I could finally lift things from the inside.

We have been using the picnic table to cure onions and potatoes, setting them on old window screens I found in the barn and sheds. Short scrap boards were used to elevate the screen for more air circulation. All of that is still stored on the picnic table. The boards are just long enough that I could set them up on the picnic table and the folding table to prop up the tent roof supports. Unless they get knocked over by a cat or something (the cats do love the shelter the tent and tables provide!), they should keep the roof from collapsing again. The long range forecasts have changed again and now say that, a week from now, we will have highs below freezing again and, depending on which app I look at, we might get a bit more snow, too.

I got a message from the Cat Lady last night. The “problem cat” that the city shelter had asked her to take on is going to her today. The cat had all its teeth pulled and is now well enough for her to try and rehabilitate. Which means she couldn’t meet me to get our three today. We should be able to connect mid week, but that will depend on how things go with her new acquisition.

Since we were going to meet her half way, at the smaller city, I was going to take advantage of the trip to pick up a few things. Now that we were not going to be meeting her today, after all, my younger daughter and I went to town this morning, instead. Since I was in town anyhow, one of my stops was at the pharmacy. My husband had ordered prescription refills for delivery on Wednesday, so I thought I might be able to pick those up while there. They weren’t ready yet, so those will wait, but the other reason I was there was to get our printouts for our taxes, now that my husband’s second T4A is in. They were able to print mine out, but then needed permission them to be able to give me my husband’s printout. They gave me the form for him to fill out, and we’ll give it to the delivery guy when he comes. They will make sure my husband’s printouts are included in the bag with his refills.

I found out something interesting while doing this. Just about everyone that works there knows me well, by now, so when I come in, they know my husband’s name, and that I have a hyphenated name. Today, there was a new person helping me. I first asked about the refills, and gave her my husband’s name for her to look up. She confirmed having the right file using our postal address. After she confirmed the prescription wasn’t filled yet (since it didn’t need to be delivered for another 2 days), I said it could wait and mentioned the printouts.

In looking up my file, she didn’t know I had a different name. She started confirming my postal address, but the box number was one we hadn’t used since the last time we lived in this province, some 25 years ago! A pharmacist that knows our file well came by and helped her find the right file under my hyphenated name. While doing all this, I commented that the box number she had read out was one we used to have, many years ago. She noticed that the health care number was the same.

They had two files on me!

My old file had been using my non-hyphenated married name – something I would use when people didn’t have enough space to put in my full name. A common problem I had for many years! At some point, programmers changed software to fit longer names, because I no longer have that problem.

As I was leaving, they were in the process of merging my old and new accounts, so they will have just one account for me now.

To think, if it hadn’t been for a new person who didn’t know me as well, it wouldn’t have been discovered that there was a second file for me!

I may not have been able to get my husband’s refills early, nor get his tax printouts, but we at least got that discovered and fixed!

Today was such a nice day to be out and running errands. In the time it took me to write the above, we’ve already warmed up to 4C/39F – with a “feels like” of 7C/45F! That’s downright tropical for this time of year. 😄 Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room is reading 15C/59F!! There are cats played out in sun spots all over the room. 😄

On days like today, I can hardly wait for the snow to be gone, and finally getting outside and back to work! We’ve still got probably another month or two before we can do that, though!

I guess I’ll just enjoy it as it is. 😊

The Re-Farmer

Good morning, my pretties!

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Just look at these handsome boys!

Gotta laugh at Patience in the back, caught mid yawn!

I got to pet the tuxedo on the left while it was eating. He seemed so surprised when I did. Not “oh, no, the human is touching me!” surprised. More like “I’m not supposed to like the human touching me!” surprised. 😄

I counted only 17 outside cats this morning. Most in the sun room. They are using the cat house for shelter, but clearly the heat bulb in there is not working. I tried looking in the window, and I can see the heat shield is handing down, but that’s about it. I am assuming they unplugged it somehow, because I can’t see the red light that’s on the timer device. The window is so dirty and dark on the inside, I can’t see the timer or the outlet it’s plugged into at all. The good thing is, even without the heat bulb going, it’s warm enough that their body heat alone will warm it up in there. Opening up the roof to check isn’t an option right now. I like to leave the snow on the roof for extra insulation, plus we haven’t dug the path around it since the most recent snowfalls, so we can only access one corner right now. Even the back, where the counterweight is set up, would need to be dug out more. Otherwise, it can’t be fully opened.

When it comes time to build a new cat house, I definitely want to change up how to access the inside. The roof is just too heavy to be opened the way it is now. As it’s getting older and more fragile, we have to have two people to open it, so it won’t twist and crack. The counterweight helps, but not enough.

My brother built it so it’s sitting on a skid that allowed him to move it around. That skid is rotting and falling apart now, so it wouldn’t be of any use to try and move it again. In the future, I want to built a cat house that’s on legs maybe 6 inches off the ground, and then we can use things like bricks or whatever, to 1) protect the wood of the legs from the moist soil and 2) level it, since our yard is wildly uneven.

Since the cats like to use the space under the various shelters, I will also want to put some sort of skirting around probably three sides, maybe 3 1/2 sides, to shelter them from the winds. With how well having a sheet of rigid insulation under the kibble house has worked out so well for them, I’d want to do something similar under any other shelters we build, too. It would be good to include a racoon proof space to store their kibble and supplies. We need to free up space in the old kitchen, where it’s all currently stored. We used to keep it in the sun room, but the racoons kept getting at it.

I also want to have one whole wall, or at least a large part of one wall, to be of Lexan, and have that side facing south. That will allow for passive solar heating (we would need to be able to vent that heat out in the summer, so it doesn’t get too hot!), while also allowing us to see what’s going on inside. The problem is, a single sheet that’s .093 Inch x 18 Inch x 24 Inch costs almost $90! That’s at Home Depot in the city. There are cheaper brands, like Optix, where a sheet that’s .080 Inch x 18 Inch x 24 Inch costs a little under $35. Lexan is a much higher quality, but… well, it’s for a cat house, so we don’t necessarily want to go all out on it!

One of these days, when we have a budget for it, I want to go to the Restore in the city. There’s no way to know what’s going to be in stock at any given time, but they often have all sorts of building materials available for much lower prices. Not just for building cat houses, of course! We need materials for the sheds and other structures we need to build. For the cordwood garden shed we want to build, for example, I want to make sure it’s on a foundation that can hold the weight of the walls. Otherwise, it’ll just sink into the soil. I follow the local Restore on Facebook and have seen all sorts of bricks and pavers and the like some available at times. There’s also a salvage yard in the city that sells items salvaged by a demolitions company – the company my late brother used to work for – and they’ve got huge piles of bricks and stone that would work. For a trip there, though, I’d want to go with my brother and his trailer. This is not stuff I would be able to load into the back of our truck!

So many plans to prioritize!

The Re-Farmer

I think they like it!

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The yard cats seem to really like the freshly cleared paths!

They are much more active these days, and I’m seeing far fewer of them when I head out.

On the downside, this being prime baby making season, is increased fighting among the males.  This morning, I found things knocked about in the sun room.  As I cleaned up, I was finding tufts of fur all over.  When I untied the doors, I found fresh blood on the threshold.   I’m not seeing new injuries on any cats, but Sad Face has more scratches healing on his nose.

We did make it out yesterday to pick up some takeout.   The driveway is a bit tight in places, but we had no issues getting in and out.  This morning, though, I saw that someone had widened the end of our driveway, on the side we normally turn towards.  I’m pretty sure I know who it was, but the piles of snow are so high that whoever it was did not trigger the motion sensor on the gate cam.  Which is fine since it still gets triggered where I need it to monitor.

I shared a couple of photos of our plow ridge to a FB group for our municipality.   Many others had the same problem, which they never had before this year.  One person lost days of work because their road wasn’t plowed, then when it did get plowed, their driveway was blocked by the plow ridge, and they still couldn’t get out!  It seems we are not the only ones with limited means to clear our own driveways.

I’m glad we got it done, though.  I heard from the Cat Lady this morning, and we are on to bring three cats to her on Monday.  We will meet her at our usual parking lot to do the deal. 😉  I just need to get a time to meet, depending on her schedule.  I might widen a couple of spots in the driveway between now and then.

I did clear the paths to the compost heap, back door of the garage, and outhouse this morning.  It was a beautiful day for it.   I’m actually quite surprised by how much I am not in pain today.

As much as I’m tempted to get out and do more digging, I need to make myself take a break.  I’m a terrible one for pushing myself too far, then paying for it for days.  I keep forgetting how broken this old body is!  Especially on beautiful days like today.

So today will be a day of enforced rest, even though I did already do more digging! 😆

The Re-Farmer

Got some snow.

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I was keeping an eye on the local highway conditions groups last night, and apparently things were pretty bad. We didn’t get a large amount of snow, but the high winds made the biggest difference.

It was all over by this morning, though.

I got this shot as I was coming back inside, and they were all done with breakfast. This bunch is directly under the heat lamp. The mostly black one is friendly, and the orange one allows pets most of the time. The tabby with his head tucked allows pets at feeding time, but that’s it. The other tabby runs off. The tuxedo on the left is at that “hey! I think I actually like this… maybe?” stage of discovering pets.

I love that black strip on his nose.

Once again, it seems the racoons visited during the night. The water bowl in the sun room was dry, even though I’d refilled it during the evening feeding, and I had to clean dirt off the bottom before I could refill it.

After their food and water was done, I started shoveling.

And shoveling.

And shoveling some more!

Fair warning, there is a photo of a wound later on.

I was able to clear the cat shelters and the cat paths to the food bowls under the shrine, and to the corner of the storage house, where they go in and out of the “basement”. The cats get SO excited when their paths are clear! It’s hilarious to watch them running around and playing in the paths. I then made sure to clear the sidewalk to the gate in the chain link fence wide enough for my husband’s walker walker. The snow was still light and fluffy, though, so I kept going and cleared the area I back up into, to unload the truck. The rest of the driving area will wait for the snow blower, though.

Then, because I actually enjoy shoveling snow, I kept going and cleared paths to the burn barrel and electricity meter, before continuing to the garage. The path to the garage needs to be wide enough for my husband’s walker, plus I cleared enough in front of the driveway that we can open the side doors where little Spewie is stored. The snow isn’t deep enough that clearing the driveway and yard is a necessity, but we’re supposed to get more snow later in the week, so it’s more to keep things from accumulating.

It’s stuff like this that’s the problem, though.

That’s a whole lot of ice under the snow!

This is the path to the garage where it crosses the “driveway” to the inner yard. That area is lower and collects water, so when we had our nice, warm days with all the snow melting, the moat around the garage started to form. A couple of days ago, we reached a high of 6C/43F, only to have a high of -11C/12F yesterday. This morning, while I was shoveling, we were at a very mild -7C/19F, which was perfect for shoveling – as long as I was out of the wind. However, I kept hitting patches like this, which can be quite dangerous to find unexpectedly. In the inner yard alone, around the cat shelters, I almost slipped a few times.

I was still shoveling in the inner yard when I suddenly noticed this.

I have no idea where I got this, but by the time I noticed it, enough time had passed that it had stopped bleeding. My cuff kept sliding over it while I was shoveling, which is why it looks so horrible!

I just kept shoveling, though. No point in stopping when it wasn’t bleeding anymore, and didn’t hurt at all. Once I was inside, my daughter was handy, so after I washed the blood off, she got the wound all cleaned up and bandaged for me. The wound was actually a lot bigger than I expected, and it’s a couple of scratches, not just one.

I keep going through what I did before I started shoveling, trying to figure out where or how I could have gotten this, and I’m still drawing a blank!

Ah, well.

The paths to the compost pile, outhouse and the back door of the garage still need to be done, but I stopped for a while and finished my rounds instead. My daughter, sweetheart that she is, made breakfast for me after tending my wound. The more time goes by, the stiffer my body is getting, from the shoveling. 🫤 Time for some more painkillers, I think!

Tomorrow, I’m expecting to do our Costco shopping, so if we’re going to get the rest of the driving area in the inner yard done, it’s going to have to be today. Unless the girls do it while I’m gone tomorrow, but tomorrow is supposed to get much colder again. Current forecast is for a high of -5C/23F today, but a high of -18C/~-1F tomorrow. We’re also expected to be getting some light snow from about 4pm tonight until 4am tomorrow morning.

Oh, wow! I’m just looking at our record highs and lows for today. The record high is 5C/41F in 1999, but the record low for today is -34C/-29F, set back in 1962! The average high for this time of year is a nice and mild -7C/19F.

A few more days and we’re into March. The time feels like it is really flying by, this winter! Maybe it’s because my brain is constantly thinking ahead, to what we need and want to do, once spring arrives.

The next few days are going to be really busy ones, with our stock up shopping and other end of month errands, so I’m going to appreciate having one more quiet day, with no running around involved – and no crowds of people!

The Re-Farmer

A day of rest, and possible adoption news

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I try to keep Sundays as my day of rest, but that doesn’t always work out. Today, I finally did, though not from much choice! 😄

I was awakened early by hungry cats, so I went ahead and did my morning rounds early, too.

The outside cats get rather confused when I come out that early! The sun was barely up. I got a head count of 28 or 29, though.

Also, I can tell when the racoons have gotten in. Now only is the garbage can typically knocked over, but they leave the water bowl absolutely filthy! Ew.

As I was heading back in, these four posed beautifully for me. When I moved to pet them, after taking this picture, the tuxedo with his back to me took off. Syndol, of course, wanted aaaaalllll the pets and pushed the orange and white away to get them. 😄 I tried to pet the tuxedo with more white on its chest. He wouldn’t let me, but he didn’t run away, either. As I pet Syndol, he sniffed my hand – then started giving me kisses!! It was so sweet!

Once back inside, I uploaded and went through the trail cam files. No computer troubles! Yay! I did have a surprise, though. The gate cam is set to take one still image, then a 10 second video. I was going through the stills when I saw a great big racoon near the gate, but the next image… what the heck was that? Something looked to be jumping through the bottom bars of the gate, but I could not tell what it was.

Then I checked the video.

It was a fox!

We know we have foxes around, but very rarely see them. I think we saw a fox crossing the outer yard once, our first summer here? I only vaguely remember.

So… now I’m wondering if we’re feeding foxes in the kibble house, too!

One of these days, I’d love to set up a critter cam facing into the cat shelter area, just to see what visitors we get! Any camera there would have its motion sensor constantly triggered, so I’d be looking for something NOT on batteries.

Maybe some day.

Anyhow.

After going through the files, I tried to get other stuff done on the computer, but was falling asleep at my keyboard, so I finally gave up and tried for a nap. After fighting the cats for space on my bed, they converged on me as soon as I was lying down. Potato Beetle was really cuddly! He kept shoving his face into my hands, and ended up sleeping curled up around the top of my head, with his face snuggled up against my forehead. It was so sweet!

I’m happy to say that, at some point, PBC joined the pile and napped with me, too! She’s getting quite socialized. She still gets a bit standoffish, but likes pets, purrs lots, and cuddles with the other cats.

Speaking of cats.

I heard from the Cat Lady last night. She has someone that’s looking to adopt. It’s an older person who is healthy and living on her own, but is lonely. So she’s looking for a calm and affectionate cat. Given her age, her family has already said that they will take care of the cat when she passes, but that’s unlikely to happen soon. The Cat Lady told her about Ginger, but asked if we had others that might fit the bill. So we sent her pictures and told her about several others, including Cheddar and Potato Beetle. Ginger would still be top of the list. She asked about PBC, but while she’d be great to adopt out, I don’t think she’d be appropriate for someone that’s elderly.

So that information has been passed on. It would be good for Ginger to be away from so many cats, and to have his very own human. Things like his needing help to clean his ears, since he can’t do the ear on the side of his missing leg – something Toni manages to not have a problem with! – have been mentioned. If he gets picked, he will first stay with the Cat Lady as he gets vet checked and shots, etc. first. With our history with cats, that makes me nervous. The vets always seem to find some hidden but major health problem! Okay, so it hasn’t been all of them, but enough to be rather alarming. Not that Ginger has shown any signs of health problems, but then, neither did some others that got adopted out.

Gosh, I feel teary just thinking about giving up Ginger! He’s so sweet. It’s better for him, though.

I just have to keep telling myself that.

So we’ll see how that goes. For all I know, the Cat Lady might have other cats that would be a better fit with this potential adoptee. Whatever happens, happens!

The Re-Farmer

More computer frustration (updated)

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But first, the pleasant stuff.  Like this adorable beast.

No name here just can’t get enough attention!

This morning, I counted only 20 yard cats while I was feeding them. 

This coukd have something to do with it.

The high forecast for today actually changed, increasing from 1C to 2C, within an hour.  The forecasts are all over the place!  It’s already 1C as I write this, but -10C tomorrow, followed by 4C the day after?

Well, we’ll see what we actually get.

Meanwhile, I’m struggling with my computer again.  At first, while trying to upload the trail cam files, it seemed to be the same problem.  This time, I just left Windows Explorer to do its thing, and moved onto something else for a minute or so, and UT would work itself through.  It was just being incredibly slow.  I checked my RAM and CPU status, but there wasn’t anything taking up massive resources to explain it.  Eventually, though, it sorted itself out and everything worked fine again.  I was even able to go through the back up data on the external hard drive and continue setting the new computer up with it. 

It wasn’t Windows Explorer I was having troubles with.  I’ve been using Firefox as my browser, but today, it simply stopped loading pages.  I checked around and discovered my computer was unloading a couple of gigs to One Drive!  All the changes I’d just made were being uploaded.  I thought I’d turned off permissions for that.

So I spent some time shutting that, and other things I found, off.

Firefox still wouldn’t load anything.

Looking around some more, I saw it had an update.  So I updated it and tried again.

It still won’t load.

The problem isn’t the internet connection, as other things connected are working fine.  It’s just Firefox.  In fact, I’m using my phone to make this post, while trying to get something – anything! – to load.

At this point, I think I’ll have to try MS Edge and maybe use it to download another browser.   Assuming Edge works at all.

What a pain.

The Re-Farmer

Update: Well, it worked. I was able to us MS Edge and ended up downloading Opera. It works fine. I still have no idea why Firefox just stopped working!

Now I have to input all my passwords and bookmarks again. *sigh*

More computer stuff

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

But first, the… cuteness?

While doing my morning rounds, I got this rather serendipitous shot of Shop Towel.

That piece of kibble looks like it’s stuck to the tip of his tongue. 😁

I know the girls named him Shop Towel, since he’s clearly Tissue’s dad. I still think of him as Sad Face. Just look at that poor beat up face and sad, sad eyes! Even his body language, as he moves around the sun room, looks heavy and sad.

Having said that, he seems to be integrating into the colony rather well. Since Judgement got fixed, there has been a dramatic drop in cat fights. They do still happen, but seem more due to being startled, than active “I’m going to kill you” cat fights. He now spends much of his time, curled up on the platform set up in the sun room, sleeping. When I bring the kibble out, I put some right on the cat bed or warming mat he’s always on, so he doesn’t have to jump down and battle it out with the swirling mass at my feet. Given how he looks, I imaging getting up and down may be uncomfortable for him.

Any time I’m in the bathroom, I always look out the window to check on the cats. Often, I’ll see a big pile of cats on the platform, above the heat lamp, and Sad Face curled up and asleep on his own, on the other half of the platform. In the last few days, however, I’ve started to see other cats curled up with him! I wasn’t able to get a picture, but just day ago, I saw Patience with his chin draped over Sad Face’s back. Last night, it looked like there were two or three of the smaller cats, curled up around him.

Five years, he’s been showing up at our place and causing trouble. I managed to sneak up behind him while he was eating and pet him once last summer, and it’s like he’s a whole new cat. We’re now able to pet him regularly, though he still has his nervous times. We need to get him comfortable enough to be able to get him into the big carrier. That’s kept in the sun room right now, with the door open, so they can all be used to going in and out of it. I usually find Judgement sitting on top of it when I go into the sun room!

Yesterday, my husband let me know he had a package in, so after I did my rounds, I headed to the post office. It turns out he got more RAM for my new computer!

Which brings me to my odd computer issues.

I was having insane problems using Windows Explorer. It kept locking up on me. I couldn’t even browse through the folders to get where I needed to go without it locking up. With some things, like uploading trail cam files, I was at least able to right click on the Explorer icon in my task bar and select the trail cam folder from the “recently used” choices. That allowed me to at least be able to make a new folder for the files I needed to upload, but it would lock up and I’d have to end task and start over. When I opened it again, the new folder would be there, at least. When it came time to renaming the folder, it would lock up again, half way through typing the new name, I’d have to end task it, and start over. Then I’d have to do the same thing, over and over, to access the trail cam files through the card reader.

Last night I downloaded and installed the Advanced System Care recommended to me, along with their Driver Booster. I did scans, updated drivers, etc. This system came with only 8g of RAM and we thought that might be the problem, but the ASC actually has a little widget that continuously shows how much RAM is being at any given moment.

By last night, I concluded, it’s not the RAM. I don’t have problems with anything else. The one almost exception was when I tried to test out my video making software. When it came to importing the files – which is basically through Explorer – it would lock up. It was so impossible to work with, I had to give up until we solve this problem. I haven’t even installed my photo editing software yet because, what’s the point?

So there is something wrong with our Windows 11 Explorer.

When the new RAM came in, though, we gave it a try. There was one 8G card, and he says RAM cards should always be paired, so he took out the original one and installed the pair of cards he got. I now have 16g of RAM and I still have 2 slots left. If we get another 8g card and use the original card, we could potentially double my RAM again.

I don’t think that’ll be necessary for the things I do with my computer.

Unfortunately, it made no difference with Windows Explorer. I went to upload the trial cam files, and started having the same problems.

Now, one possible issue is that I’ve been trying to upload these to the new external hard drive that computer repair place backed up my data to. One of the changes in Windows 11 is that the “pictures” folder is now in One Drive, and stored in the cloud. I really don’t want that, but navigating through USB on anything is always going to be slower. So I tried navigating through my local disk and got to the “saved pictures” folder under users. It did fail on me once, but I was eventually able to create a new trail cam folder and upload the files. It seems to me that the photos are now being stored both in my computer, and in the cloud, at the same time. As I went through the files and deleted what I didn’t need to keep, I got a pop up warning me that if I deleted the files, they would no longer be accessible by other devices through the cloud. Which I’m just fine with.

What I also found was that, as I added or deleted things while going through the files and it seemed to lock up again, if I left it alone long enough, it would start working again. So, if I made a new sub folder and it would not appear, I ignored it and did stuff on my phone, until suddenly the folder would appear. I’d then rename the folder, nothing would seem to happen, so I’d work on my phone again, and eventually it would appear. So while Explorer still locks up on me completely, it also seems to just be incredibly, ridiculously slow in responding.

I don’t know what to make of it. Everything else is working fine. Not that I’ve done transferred or installed much from my old computer’s back up data to the new machine, mostly because of this problem.

I wonder if I dare install my photo editing software now? All I’ve got is a very old version of Paint Shop Pro that I’m happy with and, for my uses of it, have no need to upgrade.

Hmm. My husband just came over and suggested I get a different file manager to try, and see if it works any better.

I think I’ll do that, next.

The Re-Farmer

A productive morning

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The only thing I had planned for today that was time dependent was a trip to the dump, which opened at 9am today. Everything else was flexible. I figured I may as well head out as soon as I finished my morning rounds. I managed to get this adorable picture of Syndol in the process.

I caught him in mid stretch!

Gosh, he is such a beauty!!!

I also managed to zoom in to get a picture of this next cat. He (she?) is one of the more feral cats. I’m pretty sure he is one of Brussel’s kittens. She had hers well away from the house, and while we eventually saw them running around the shed with the collapsed roof and the garage, they did not come to the house for a very long time. One of them is the orange and white that now accepts pets, but this tuxedo plays strange, still. Hypotenose is also Brussel’s, if I remember correctly. They both have distinctive nose patterns.

There’s also something weird going on with this one’s eye.

I zoomed in, then cropped, to get this picture and finally get a good look at it. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’d have to trap him to get him to a vet, and with so many yard cats, it would be hard to trap any one particular cat.

We did have another cat with an eye that was basically gone. He disappeared some months ago, so I’m guessing the coyotes or bobcats got him. I’d rather think that some local farm family was able to catch him and take him in. At least with this cat, he does seem to still be able to see out of the damaged eye, so that increases his chances of survival. I might still send this photo to the Cat Lady, just to see if she has some information she can share with me.

Speaking of which…

Since my husband asked me to pick up some more distilled water for his CPAP humidifier, plus we had a couple of our big water jugs to refill, after going to the dump, I messaged the Cat Lady, to see if we could meet up at at the nearer Walmart parking lot again. Getting the donated cat food makes it well worth the gas for the trip, and I could run my errands there, as well as locally. Both the distilled water at Walmart and the water jug refills at Canadian Tire are much cheaper there, too. She was available to meet me at our usual spot in the parking lot behind the Dollarama, before her kids came home from school for lunch. I had just enough time to make the drive from the dump and meet her, which worked out perfectly.

We had a chance to chat for a bit – and she got a chance to vent for a bit, too! I can understand why she recommended against us becoming a rescue. People can really suck. All the money to the rescue has been going to spays and neuters. They’ve been paying vet bills out of pocket, both for the rescues and for their own cats (all 27 permanent cats!). I feel bad that they found themselves with so many of our cats, permanently, because they turned out to have so many health problems, they couldn’t get adopted! They did adopt out more than they kept, but still… yikes! I could just feel her frustration with some of the people she’s been having to deal with through the rescue. So we got to commiserate, and I got to give her a great big hug!

She, meanwhile, gave me these.

When she told me about getting a good deal on kibble at Amazon that she ordered for us, she sent me a screen cap. She’d ordered four 7kg bags.

These are 9.1kg bags!! And yes, there are four bags. One is completely hidden by the bag on top of it.

Then she brought out the box of cat treats, catnip, canned cat food and an open bag of cat food for senior cats. Apparently, the cat these were intended for, didn’t like them. Our cats will be more than happy to have it! We are so incredibly grateful for any donations. It helps us out a lot, and many times it means the cats get better quality stuff than we can usually afford.

After we parted ways, I ran my errands at Walmart, then headed to the Canadian Tire to refill our water jugs. The Walmart has a water refill station, but Canadian Tire has three, plus a sanitation station.

Today turned out to be a great day to drive around with errands. Bright and sunny! As I write this, we’re at -3C/27F, and are still expected to reach our high of -2C/28F, but the way things were melting by the time I got home, it feels like it’s warmer. While loading the garbage into the truck this morning, the sun room thermometer was already reading 10C/50! The yard cats are very happy cats these days. 😊

After I got home and everything was unloaded and put away, the inside cats got their first wet cat food feeding of the day. With Butterscotch acting the way she is, we’ve been making sure to close the door to my room before putting food out, so she has a chance to eat, drink and use the litter without being bothered. Since the donated cat food is in smaller tins, I’ve started using those in my room, so she gets an extra treat of fancier food, along with whichever cats are in the room with her. Our elderly Freya is one we can allow to stay, along with Potato Beetle, who has no interest in wet cat food for some reason, and just loafs on my bed.

I’m happy to say that Butterscotch seems to be relaxing a bit. She’s actually come out of her hiding place in the wall shelf, and is now sleeping on the window shelf I built for them, instead.

We think the cat that set Butterscotch off must be Susan, and possibly Leyendecker as well. When Butterscotch sees Susan, she immediately starts growling, even if Susan is not even close to her, and completely ignoring her. She sometimes growls like that at Leyendecker. At least now, she’s growling from her bed on the window shelf, instead of while hidden in the wall shelf. Any progress is good progress!

All in all, it’s been a very productive morning, and I’m glad I was able to make the trip out to meet the Cat Lady! I’m always happy to see her. She is such an awesome person!

Now, it’s time to see how productive the rest of my afternoon can be. 😊

The Re-Farmer