outside cats

Morning in the garden, and… not again!

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

I ended up picking Roma tomatoes yesterday evening (more on that later), so there weren’t that many to pick this morning. Here is today’s morning harvest.

With the beans winding down, I might start picking them every three days, instead of every other day. It’s nice to be able to pick at least a couple of the Indigo Blue Chocolate tomatoes almost every day now.

Our volunteer sunflower has started to bloom, so went to take a picture. Just as I did, a bumble bee landed on it. It ended up under a petal, so I waited until it worked its way out before taking some photos.

It was not until I uploaded the photos that I spotted the tiny little spider!

Yesterday evening, when things cooled down, I got out the riding mower my brother spent so much time and effort to fix for us. For all the rain we’ve been having, most of the grass doesn’t actually need cutting. The south yards needed to be done. One half never got done last time, because of the weather, and the main garden area was also missed. Even then, things weren’t anywhere near as overgrown as it got in the spring.

I got the south yards done but skipped the west and north yards completely. Even the grass between the crab apple trees and the spruce grove didn’t need to be done, though around the trees themselves the growth is taller. I’ll probably do that with the weed trimmer, as well as the really rough section west of the squash patch.

When doing the old main garden area, I was taking it very slow and careful. There are a couple of more level areas where I can put the speed at the second slowest, but for the most part, I was going as slow as the mower can go. I’d done a fair bit of it when I reached a point where I stopped to shift from 2 to 1.

Nothing happened.

The mower simply stopped moving.

Previously, this happened when the drive chain would fall off, but the chain has been replaced. Also, there was no change in the sound that might have suggested there was a problem. It was running fine.

Then it wasn’t.

I’ll have to go back and see if I can get a better look under there. Maybe with my phone camera. My brother had sent me pictures of everything while he was working on it, but apparently I did not save them to my computer. I’ve been going through our old messages to find them and see what things are supposed to look like again, and it turns out we message each other a LOT. The farther back I go, the longer it takes for things to load.

Anyhow, I messaged my daughters for assistance, and got help pushing the mower to the garage. Pushing it isn’t a problem. Pushing it and trying to steer at the same time is rather awkward!

Then I got out the push mower and finished mowing the old garden area. I was also able to mow some areas the riding mower can’t fit into, including around the garden beds a bit. The rest will have to wait for the weed trimmer.

After I finished mowing, I checked on the garden beds and noticed some Romas were starting to fall off the vines, so I ended up picking quite a few of them, after checking on the rest of the beds.

Alas, I found that we have lost one of our two Boston Marrows.

We only had two surviving seed starts to transplant, and only one squash on each of them. I have no idea why the one died like that. The other seems okay, but I ended up putting a piece of broken pottery under it to get it off the mulch, making sure the curve of the pot would drain any water away from the squash.

As for the rest of the garden beds, both the Irish Cobbler and Red Thumb potato plants have completely died back. Time to dig them up and set them out to cure for a few days. We’re supposed to get rain tomorrow, so it’ll have to be under the old market tent. We just have to set them up so that the cats will stay off of them! 😄

As I was finishing up and putting things away around the house, I suddenly saw Adam go running towards the corner where the old basement window is, on high alert. At first I thought she was responding to Cheddar, meowing in my husband’s bedroom window, but then I saw she was laser focused at the stucco wall beside it.

All I could see was what looked like a leaf or something, splattered against the wall, so I went to take a closer look.

This is what the “leaf” turned out to be!

What an adorable little frog! I’m curious about how it got there. It was easily over 6′ above the ground when I saw it, and it looks like it was on its way down.

I love frogs. I’m so happy we have so many of them this year. They are good garden friends!

Last off all, I just have to share this adorable photo I got of a couple of the kittens last night.

At first, I thought it was Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but I don’t see an all pink nose, which is the main difference between them. Which means one of them – the bottom one, I think – is Shadow in the Dark.

Gosh, they are so cute!

They are also very cuddly, and love to sleep on me when I’m in bed. They’re so tiny, sometimes I can’t even tell they’re there, until either they or I move! I love it. :-)

I’ll still be happy when they are adopted out, though! So will Decimus. She spends as little time with them as possible now! I hope to adopt her out, too.

In other things, TTT is still doing very well in her recovery. There is only one major problem with her.

She refuses to use a litter box.

Any of them.

Last night, as I was getting into bed, I found my elbow in a puddle. She’d peed on my pillow again! Thankfully, I have a mattress cover – and those puppy pads do a great job of soaking up the puddle. I still had to leave one over it, absorbent side down, and rotate my mattress, so I wouldn’t be sleeping on it.

Then, at about 5 am, I was awakened by the rustling of puppy pads under my desk. I caught her before she made a mess and put her in a litter box, but she wouldn’t use it. I tried her in a different litter box, in case she didn’t like the covered one, and she still wouldn’t use it. I didn’t dare go back to bed, knowing she would go under my desk as soon as I was asleep, so I shoved the cat carrier under the desk, then went to bed.

This morning, I found she’d left a “gift” under the chair I keep my laundry basket on.

*sigh*

I’ve never had to teach an adult cat to use the litter box before. I mean, Nosencrantz had been bad about making messes elsewhere, but she knew how to use a litter box. She just preferred to go elsewhere, until I eventually blocked off all the spots she would go in. Even the kittens have been trained to use them now. Every cat we brought indoors was able to figure the litter boxes out right away. But not TTT. She just doesn’t seem to know that that’s what they’re there for!

Hmm… We still have that new litter box in the cat cage in the sun room. Cats are going in and out of it at will, but none have used the litter box. I wonder if she’ll use it, if I put it under my desk?

I’ll just have to watch my feet! Which I’m already having to do, with the carrier under there now, so I may as well try it!

The Re-Farmer

My sense of time is a little off!

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

I was absolutely sure yesterday was Saturday. Right up until I told the girls I would finish something, then go get the car to load it for a dump run, and my daughter asked, are they even open today?

Well, they’re open on Saturdays.

Not Fridays!

I still had to go to town yesterday and refill a couple of water jugs, then run a couple extra errands since I was out, anyways.

I did the dump run this morning. 😄

I was so absolutely sure yesterday was Saturday, I still feel disoriented!

I got an adorable picture of Decimus last night that I just have to share.

Would you look at that pile of kittens! 😄 They are quite enthusiastic about nursing when she comes in, but she doesn’t let them stay for long. She’s there for food for herself. She knows we feed the cats in my room at different times than the girls do the cats in the rest of the house. She’s the only one allowed to have “extra” by coming in here. 😁

We feed all the cats with wet cat food at the same time we do Two Toes’ medications. We still have to watch closely as TTT gobbles down her little dish of medicated food, because there’s usually at least Nosencrantz and two of the kittens just fighting to get at that little dish while my daughter is measuring out doses.

I also find it funny how Decimus’ one eye just disappears in the black fur!

What’s not funny is getting this picture – after many attempts to get a closer look – this morning. Warning for those who might not want to see a messed up eye. You might want to just scroll right past.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This is NOT the tuxedo with the gummed up eye we’d been trying to catch but never succeeded. That kitten is older, and everything cleared up on its own. I was sure that one’s eye was lost, but it looks just fine now.

This kitten showed up later, and I never saw it with gummed up eyes. Just really red around one eye. It’s one of those kittens that sees us and runs away immediately, so a glimpse of a red rimmed eye was about all we could get. Today, it happened to be hiding out near the food trays and I was finally able to zoom in to get a shot. This photo is the best look of that eye we’ve been able to get.

We have to somehow catch it and get it to the vet to have the eye removed, but we’ve already had several expensive vet bills in the last few months. It’s going to be a while before we can scrape the funds together for another surgery. Considering how hard it is to get near the kitten, I think we’ll get the time for it.

On a more pleasant note…

These two were watching closely as I was doing my morning rounds!

We still can’t get near that white and grey one, but I’ve been able to sometimes pick up the orange tabby and pet it. Yesterday, it was because the wind was making so much noise while it was eating outside, I was able to walk up behind it and it never heard me coming! He (not confirmed, but statistically more likely, with an orange cat) did hiss a bit and half-heartedly tried to jump out of my hands, but didn’t fight too much, and enjoyed the cuddles at least a little bit! His orange and white sibling – confirmed male – is comfortable enough that I can just walk up to him and pet him now, and he doesn’t run away. They have a fluffy white and grey sibling that I can also sometimes catch and pick up. More often than the all orange one, but not by much!

In other things, I’m happy to say that the new bread machine has been working well, and the girls have been setting it up regularly. It only does one loaf at a time, so they’re trying to build up a supply! 😁

We were all amused by the French labeling on the box. Where English says bread machine, the French says bread robot! The girls, however, have come up with their own name for the machine.

Doughregard.

Ahahahaha!! I love it!

We need to go over recipes and see what ingredients we need to make something other than basic white bread. My daughter has been using a favourite French bread recipe when she bakes, whereas I like to use a basic bread recipe and modify it to include things like oatmeal, flax seed, chia seeds, or whatever else we might have on hand. The machine came with a variety of recipes, but their oatmeal bread, for example, is in their sweet bread section, and includes oat bran, which we don’t normally buy.

Today, we’re looking at a high of 25C/77F. It’s already 23C/73F. The humidity is at 58%, though, so even while doing my rounds earlier, I was just dripping. I was able to finally cut away a branch that broke some time ago, getting stuck on another branch, that has been blocking part of our security camera’s view of the driveway. It took the telescoping pruner at maximum length to reach the broken branch and reach and get almost half of it cut off. The other half will just have to stay there! It had been sitting on the lower branch for so long, that one was growing at a downward bend, so I took about half of that one off, too. I can now see the gate clearly again on my live feed! 😊 Anyhow, even that little bit of work had me sweating in the humidity. When I got back from the dump, I dragged the branches away, and by then it was even worse.

Even last night, it never really cooled down much. I have a box fan in my window, but it makes little difference. The way things are oriented, the fan blows air straight over my bed. The window is high enough, and the bed frame low enough, that I’m not being blasted directly, but even with the fan on its highest setting, I can barely feel the air moving. Once it gets hotter, I flip the fan to blow hot air outside, but my desk is in a corner that feels like it gets no air movement at all. Once the fan it blowing hot air out, that corner with my computer gets much hotter, almost immediately. Enough that I finally went and got the tiny fan we use on our seed starts when they’re in the various greenhouse set ups. It’s a very gentle fan, but it makes a difference.

So I’m not sure what I’ll be able to get done outside today. It might be a good day to get out with the riding mower. I’m loath to terrify all the kitties, but the grass is overdue for a cut. I’ll just have to keep an eye out for fallen branches! The bigger ones are easy enough to spot, but lots of little pieces are coming down, too, and disappearing in the tall grass.

In other things, I got an unfortunate call from my mother. I had taken her to the interim doctor to renew my mother’s prescriptions, only to have her assure my mother that she will take her on as a patient. My mother didn’t say anything, but she’s not happy with having a black doctor. And a woman, no less! She did ask about another doctor whose name is still on the list (along with other doctors that have been gone for years) that saw her once, before we even moved out here, that she likes. He’s white and male, so she would have preferred him, but it turns out he only comes out 3 times a week, and has his primary practise elsewhere. Anyhow, when my mother brought up that she wanted to talk about her knees, the doctored examined her briefly, then wrote her up for x-rays. We’ll come back another time to go over those. Until then, she added T3s to my mother’s prescriptions, to try instead of the usual Tylenol she’s taking now. If those don’t help, the next possibility is steroid injections. At my mother’s age, surgery is not an option.

After taking my mother home, I brought all the paperwork to the pharmacy, and arranged to have the new prescription filled and delivered the next day.

Which was yesterday.

The person who delivered it explained some things to her, then said if she had questions, she talk to the pharmacist. My mom said she would read the papers that came with it.

Which she did.

Which is the problem.

Of course, the law requires that all possible side effects get listed. Now, my mother is terrified and refuses to take it.

Her problems with it, aside from all those possible side effects that she interprets as “will happen” rather than “might happen”, include…

The doctor and I had talked about Tylenol, but the person who delivered it never used the word Tylenol, so it’s not Tylenol. (I explained, that’s what the T in T3stands for)

The person used the word narcotic. It’s a narcotic, which my mom understands only as deadly illegal drugs. I explained that narcotic is just a descriptive word, and that lots of medications are narcotics. My husband is on opioids. Those are much, much stronger than the T3s. I tried to explain that a lot of illegal drugs that are killing people, like fentanyl, are medicines that are being used wrong. But she won’t use them wrong. She will follow the directions.

So she said, if this is Tylenol, there’s stronger Tylenol than what she usually uses at the drugstore. She could take that, instead. I told her, those are narcotic, too, and the whole point is that those are not strong enough for her pain. This is just to try and see if they help with the pain. Then she got angry again, saying she wants something that will heal her, not take the pain away. She doesn’t understand that this is not something that can just be fixed.

Then she wanted to know how I know all this stuff. I told her, I I’ve dealt with it before, before we moved out here. Not for myself, but I know lots of people who have been on them. This stuff is bottom level for prescription pain medication. Not even close to what my husband is on.

My mother didn’t like that I was giving her this information, instead of being all upset like she was, so she started to get angry with me. She wanted me to validate her fears. Then she said maybe she should talk to the pharmacist. I said that was a good idea.

There were a few odd things she tried throwing out at me. For example, she talked about her one knee is “just” sideways. I said, there is no “just” sideways. Knees aren’t’ supposed to do that! So why do both knees hurt the same? I explained that one knee had to work harder to make up for the injured one. Then I reminded her (again) that she was in a car accident, where she hurt her knee. She dismissed that (she doesn’t like to be reminded of an accident was was totally her fault). Instead, she tried to suggest that it was because, when she was a child in Poland, she didn’t have proper shoes, and her feet got so cold! I said, we’re talking about her knees, not her feet. Well, her feet hurt, too!

She has massive bunions and bunionettes on her feet, not to mention arthritis. But no. It’s because she didn’t have good shoes as a child, in pre-WWII Poland.

Then, out of the blue, she started saying, I wonder why [my brother] doesn’t phone me or visit anymore?

I just took her out to visit them on Sunday.

I asked, where did this come from, since we were talking about something else entirely.

She said, she gave my brother $40 to cover the long distance charges.

What she did was hand my brother some cash and say “for long distance”. We though she meant for his previous calls. Nope. Turns out she was paying him to call her. I told her, we had no idea that’s what she gave him the money for.

She’s the one that doesn’t like to call him, because it’s long distance. She also doesn’t understand that he’s incredibly busy. Especially right now, because they’ve got a trip of a lifetime planned for their upcoming 40th anniversary. She wants him tending to her now, before they leave. It’s a massive control thing. She’s mostly giving up trying to control me and what we do at the farm. She’s shifted her attention to my brother, instead, because she “gave” him the farm. Meanwhile, every time she’s talked to him on the phone lately, and she asks him why he doesn’t call more often, he tells her point blank; it’s because he’s tired of her abuse. She usually launches into something within 30 seconds of a call.

I managed to get the conversation back to her new prescription and encouraged her to tall the pharmacist, but for now, she’s refusing to take the painkillers.

*sigh*

As someone who doesn’t like or trust many prescription medications very much myself, it was strange to be defending them to my mother.

When it comes to my mother’s knees, she has had several braces given to her over the years that she has refused to wear. If she had worn those, it would have saved her other knee and kept the bent one from bending so much! Now, she’s even refusing to take painkillers for them. At that point, I was even saying that if she won’t do anything herself for her own knees, she’d better stop talking to the doctor about it, because there’s no point. I didn’t get to finish saying it, through, because she started talking right over me, as if I wasn’t saying anything at all. Also very typical.

Ah, well. We’ll deal with whatever comes of it.

It does get very frustrating, though. She causes so many of her own problems.

The Re-Farmer

Morning harvest, and tiny unit

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

We’re getting high winds again today. Last night, I saw there was an expected high of 29C/84F by this evening, but now they’re saying a high of 26C/79F. At the moment, it’s a much more pleasant 18C/64F

Which made doing the morning rounds quite pleasant. Especially since the smoke is gone.

Here is what I picked this morning.

There are green and yellow beans on the bottom. Those seem to be winding down. There’s also an accidental onion that got pulled up while I was weeding!

The Romas are steadily ripening, and I got a few Indigo Blues this morning, too. I did pick some Black Beauties, too. The small one with the green was found on the ground. The others, I picked because they were starting to split.

I ended up picking a couple of Montana Morado corn, but the rest did not seem ready. From how the cobs feel when I check them, we had some pollination issues. We need some serious soil improvements before we can grow good corn in the main garden area again. I should probably pick a Tom Thumb popcorn cob, just to see how they look. They are being left to get completely dry on the stalks, but I’m still curious.

As for yesterday’s harvest that I picked for my mother, the reaction I got was pretty much exactly what I expected. The only thing she seemed happy to see was the garlic. Also, tomatoes should be red. Only red. When I reminded her she had actually asked for some of the others, she told me, “just to see!” Never mind that she told me to give some to her when they were ripe, while she was getting a tour of the garden and looking right at them. Of course, she waxed poetic about all the wonderful produce my sister gives her. When she saw the zucchini, she told me she thought she would be giving me zucchini, because someone had left some in the common area for people to take. While putting things away, I saw the zucchini she was talking about. They were huge, and looked like the hybrid zucchini we were gifted with last year. As for the brown pepper, she just laughed derisively. At least she didn’t have anything bad to say about the potatoes.

Ah, well. I tried.

I guess we’ll just have to keep our harvests to ourselves. 😉

Anyhow.

Where was I? Ah, yes. Morning rounds!

Kittens are, of course, running around all over the place. I got a picture of this teeny tiny unit.

For perspective, that’s a piece of paracord on the ground, next to it. This is one of the two kittens that were in the junk pile. It’s sibling is black with a tiny white patch on its chest.

It’s sibling is also easily twice the size.

This one does not appear to be sick in any way. Not even a little bit of leaky eyes. It’s just really, really tiny.

I’ve been trying to get close to it to touch it, but it won’t let me. All in good time. We’ll be keeping an eye on it.

For now, it’s time to bring the car over to the house and load it up for a trip to the dump. After that, we’ll be grabbing our empty water bottles for refilling.

Oh! I almost forgot! We had our first successful loaf of bread in the new bread machine yesterday. This morning, the girls got it going again. There should be fresh bread, ready to eat, by the time we’ve done our running around. It seems I guessed right; that first time, a cat much have climbed on it and accidentally shut it off. The machine is working just fine. 😊

The Re-Farmer

This and that

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I seem to still be in recovery mode today, even after taking yesterday as a day of rest. I tend to forget just how draining it can be after spending time with my mother, even when she’s having one of her better days!

It’s also working out to be a hotter day. We’ve got a high of 26C/79F for today and tomorrow and, depending on what app I’m looking at, we’ll be hitting either 29C/84 or 31C/88F by the end of the week.

I did get at least one thing accomplished – finally! I cut away the web of roots and got the water pipe out from where I’d tried patching it, to the tap.

It took more digging and cutting to find the bottom of the tap and cut it free!

The only thing holding it upright was the web of roots, and that length of conduit pipe.

The short sections of rigid pipe were filled with dirt and roots. A couple of them had to be blasted with water before I could get them off the water pipe.

I did find where water can been coming out, when I did the patches and tested the tap. Quite a split in the pipe!

How the ground pipe was joined to the tap pipe was not what I expected. I thought there might be some sort of threaded connector. The metal pipe is jammed into the water pipe – and it is still very water tight, and very secure! I’ll probably have to cut it off, if I bother to at all.

I would like to use the original tap again. Even parts of the original metal pipe, too, if I can. However, my intended replacement for all this is to use an ordinary, heavy duty garden hose that can be easily removed, as needed. The dirt and roots in the short sections of pipe reinforce my plan to have a long pipe, from house to tap, to protect the hose.

For now, however, I will not remove the rest of the pipe, to the house. There are going to be much larger roots to cut through, plus it runs through a higher traffic area that gets regularly mowed, so I don’t want to dig a trench until I’m ready to put in the new system. I’m very interested in seeing how that hose end that comes out of the ground is attached to the water pipe!

So, for this project I need to get a long enough heavy duty hose, enough pipe, with drainage holes, to fit together and reach from house to tap, angled fittings for the ends that will get a removeable seal around the hose to prevent water, dirt or critters from getting in, and appropriate pipes and fittings to attach the hose to the tap assembly. For the tap itself, I want to build a box for the vertical pipe with the tap mounted on the garden side. I liked the original post’s little roof over the tap and will probably expand on that, to double as a shelf or something. The box will have a door at the back to access the hose and pipes, with room enough to store a few things, like the cord that will be used to pull the hose through the underground pipes, should it ever need to be removed, repaired or replaced.

Once this is installed and complete, I plan to make a vegetable washing station under the tap, using salvaged materials I’ve found around the property.

Hopefully, by the time it’s done, it’ll be good enough to last another 50 years or so.

After I finished up with the tap and hose set up, I headed towards the house and checked out the old kitchen garden. I was finally able to get a photo of one of the developing luffa.

I’ve been able to spot three of these. Hopefully, they have been pollinated and will develop into mature luffa gourds before we get frost. These are so high up, there’s no possibility of hand pollinating!

Before heading back to the house, I had an adorable surprise.

Tiny, familiar kittens.

Octomom had brought them to the house!

I only saw 4 of them, including this one.

They still can’t move very fast, so I was able to catch this one and hold it for a little while. This one is completely black. I saw the other black one, and it appears to have a white patch on its chest. I also saw the brown and the grey tabbies. Where the other 4 are, I could not see. Eventually, Octomom came around for them, but only two followed her across the yard. The rest were still hiding under the storage house.

While I was outside, I started to get some messages from the Cat Lady. She was at the vet with the kittens, and the prognosis is not good. They would have died within the week, she was told. As it is, they have a cat virus (calci), herpes, low glucose, low oxygen, pneumonia, infected ears and sores in their throats. The kittens have been at the vet all day, and the bill is getting high. I feel so bad about this. We were only going to pass on the one kitten, so now it’s double the expense for her, and we have no way to help out.

Priority is going to be spaying and neutering, because a lot of this is exacerbated by the sheer number of kittens.

Oh, wow!! Something just happened while I was writing this!

Two Toes is letting Tin Whistle nurse!

I had been expecting the kittens to at least try to nurse on her, since Decimus leaves the room once she’s done with nursing, and batting them away when they want to nurse more. They had not been trying, though, nor did Two Toes, until just moments ago!

Two Toes is doing really well. She seems quite happy, loves head pets, and gave me kisses today!

Whatever fight she was in that left her with a broken leg, the fur on her face and head is full of scabs that are healing well.

The only down side is poor Snarly Marlee! She does NOT like the kittens. The girls try to bring her into the living room for a while, so she can get a break, while they are there.

Hopefully, it won’t be for much longer. It would be fantastic if we could adopt them all out!

The Re-Farmer

Morning mamas

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

We always had the hardest time telling Junk Pile and Not Junk Pile apart. When Not Junk Pile got really bad ear mites, to the point of causing wounds behind her ears from scratching, those wounds were one sure way to tell them apart.

Then the fur started growing back after treatment.

Well, we won’t have the problem now!

Here’s a hungry Junk Pile, who will not allow pets, and Baby Beep Beep. Or, Beep Bop, as the girls call her.

Junk Pile is a slightly stockier cat. I don’t think she could have squeezed through 2″ square openings!

As for Not Junk Pile, she was quickly renamed Two Toes Tony at the vet, but now that we’ve had her surgery and her many successful escape attempts, I’m tempted to rename her Houdini. When I messaged that to our family chat, one of my daughters came back with Anthony “2-12 toed” Houdini. (I’m pretty sure she has 15 toes, but that doesn’t alliterate well… LOL)

She is also the easiest cat to medicate we’ve ever had. When she was still in Baby Jail in the sun room, we knew forcing a pill in her mouth, or using syringes for the liquid meds, was not going to work. So the girls put a spoonful of wet cat food in a tiny bowl, buried the pill, seasoned it with the liquid meds, and gave it to her. She absolutely devoured it! When we tried that with other cats, they either ate around the pill, or refused to eat the dosed food at all. Even today, when we gave her the dosed food, the pill hadn’t been buried far enough and got left behind, but as she licked the bowl clean, she ate up the pill, too!

Then she got more food, even sharing a bowl with kittens. To keep them away, after taking the spoonful out for a dose, the rest of the can to split up into other food bowls for the kittens and other cats. Otherwise, the kittens would have been after Two Toes’ medicated food! The babies do have excellent appetites. For wet cat food, at least! Not so much the dry stuff. 😁

Decimus asks to come into the room and nurses the kittens briefly – maybe a minute or so – before checking out the food bowls, then asking to be let out. I think that if she didn’t need to nurse to relieve pressure, she would be completely done with nursing now!

Which means it’s time to look into booking the spay that’s waiting for her, then sending all their pictures to the Cat Lady to post for adoption.

The kittens are so sweet, but I’m going to be so glad when they’re gone!

(I say as a kitten in my chair behind my back starts violently attacking the end of my braid.)

The Re-Farmer

Our tripod Houdini, sick baby rescue, and unintended harvests

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Oh, my goodness. What a day.

Taking my mother to my brother’s place for a visit went rather well, overall. There were a couple of predictable incidents, like when she suddenly started yelling at me in a rage because I took a slightly different route than the one she always took. That took some time to calm her down. It amazes me how, in her mind, the “short cut” that she always took (it isn’t any shorter, nor is it a faster route) is the only right route. Which, in itself, I wouldn’t mind, but the sudden and incredible anger she displays because I prefer a different route just blows me away. She’s more laid back about other route changes, but this one, and one other, just set her off like nothing else. The one other route that sets her off, my brother had driven her and took a different route, probably more than 20 years ago, and she still hasn’t forgiven him for it. Very strange.

There was also the very predictable attempt to pit my brother against me. Of course, she brought it up completely out of context, saying that I’d “reminded” her that this is no longer her house – but she paid for the roof! She neglected to mention the parts about her and my sister being in the area, and my not inviting them over for an unexpected and unplanned visit, or how she had tried to guilt me by saying “don’t forget, you’re living in my house.” Then she tried to say that she “paid for everything”. Everything? She seriously has zero understanding of just how much my brother and I are spending to keep this place up – the “perfect” house she asked us to move into that turned out to be in far worse shape than I ever thought.

Thank God my brother now owns the property!

What was also not a surprise, but still sad to hear, is that after I said no to her about coming here, they instead went to visit our vandal. This, in spite of the abusive messages he still leaves on her answering machine, and the horrible things he says to her about me. I’m quite disappointed in my sister for doing this. She says she wants to stay out of it and be neutral, but there is no neutral in this. Part of taking care of our mother is protecting her from herself, too. And there is nothing neutral about staying in contact with him, knowing the things he’s said and done to the rest of us.

Ah, well. What’s done is done. I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite us in the butt.

My mother was very tired, even before we left, so the visit was relatively short. Which, of course, she turned around and made it sound like my brother wanted her to leave early, when all he had done was be solicitous about her being so tired, and giving her choices. She chose to leave.

During the visit, my daughter sent messages to keep me up to date on what was going on at home.

Two Toes had escaped again.

They reinforced the cage, and were able to catch her.

After I got home, I wanted to walk around outside, only to find…

… a tripod staple cat walking past me!

It took a while – and the help of another cat! – but my daughter was eventually able to catch her again and put her in the carrier.

She is such an escape artist, and so determined to get outside, that we had to make the decision to bring her inside and add her to the “isolation ward”. Which is getting pretty full! Her babies will be okay. Other creche moms will nurse them. Who knows. Maybe she’ll even nurse these guys…

When I brought the carrier in and put it on my bed, the kittens were immediately interested in it – and her! They were pawing at the door, trying to get at her. After a while, I opened the door, and a kitten dashed right in.

Much to my surprise, there was no hissing from her at all. The girls had tried to put the two sick kittens in the cage with her, but had to take them out, because she was hissing at them so much.

She comes out every now and then, but the carrier seems to be the spot she feels most comfortable in, and she goes back into the carrier fairly quickly. As I write this, she is napping in it right now.

So far, Butterscotch seems indifferent to her, contentedly sharing bed space with her, Nosencrantz is keeping her distance, and so is Marlee.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

While I was still at my brother’s, the Cat Lady came by to pick up the sick black and white kitty. She asked if there were any other sick kitties, so my daughter brought out the white and grey one.

I took this picture of the two of them napping together, yesterday.

I had not mentioned the second kitten to the Cat Lady because, to be honest, I didn’t think it would make it. Instead, it started to get better, though it’s still very weak and looks a mess. Plus, when I found out they were doing this out of pocket, instead of through the rescue, because donation money had gone to spays and neuters, I didn’t want to add to their expenses!

As sick as the white and grey one is, the black and white one is in worse shape. Before I headed out this morning, I washed both their eyes. The black and white one’s eyes were stuck shut again, and as soon as they started to open a bit, puss started to ooze out. From both eyes. The Cat Lady, however, has already let me know she’s picked up medication for them, and they will be seeing a vet soon for testing. Because she has the rescue, she can pick up medication that I can’t, without first bringing the cats in.

She is also asking if we can catch 4 older female kittens to place at that farm she was telling us about, plus she is going to arrange spays. Catching the mamas is not going to be easy, though! She was in a rush and using her vehicle to pick up kitchen cabinets they’d bought locally, so she wasn’t able to drop off a trap or anything else. She just took the kittens and that’s it.

She will also try to adopt the spayed cats out, but even if they end up coming back here, at least it will help reduce the number of kittens next year!

So that is done for now. I hope the kittens recover well for her. She’d be so heart broken if they don’t make it.

One of the things I asked the girls to do while I was gone was a bit of harvesting in the garden, mentioning what likely needed to be harvested. Which made it a surprise when I got a picture of these guys.

These are squash from the compost pile! I had intended to just leave them until the end of the season, but my daughter wanted to see how they are. She didn’t pick all of them, but I’m still a bit perplexed about it! I guess we’ll be cracking them open to see how they look.

Along with more bush beans, a few summer squash and some Spoon tomatoes, she also picked the largest, ripest Sweet Chocolate pepper. They had it with their supper. I’ll have to ask them how it tasted, since I can’t eat peppers without gagging, no matter how wonderful they look and smell.

I had my own accidental harvest.

While doing my evening rounds, I was checking the squash patch and found a couple of female flowers to hand pollinate. I’m amazed, every time I look at the candy roaster and pink banana squash. They are growing so fast, and there are so many of them! I also took a closer look at our one Honeyboat Delicata. It hasn’t been getting any bigger, but the colours were changing, showing that it was ripening. I moved it to look around and…

… the stem snapped.

It’s so tiny! Ah, well. I guess we can eat is like a summer squash, still. Plus, I spotted a couple more little Delicatas forming on another vine. Hopefully, these will reach the full size they are supposed to get!

So that was most of my day. I know I’m forgetting things, but my brain is pretty fried right now. Especially after I called my mother later on. Oh, right! After dropping her off, I had time to swing by her pharmacy to ask about when her prescriptions needed a renewal from a doctor. I’m so glad I did! It turns out the pharmacist had been trying to fax the paperwork to the doctor’s new office, not knowing that my mother is no longer his patient. He had extended her prescriptions himself, already, but he could only do it for 4 weeks, and only once. Then he gave me a copy of the forms they faxed to the doctor’s new clinic. When I take my mother to see the interim doctor, I can bring them along for her to sign, so there should be no hassle trying to look up what my mother needs renewed.

I waited until I knew my mother would be up from the nap she was going to take after I left before calling to let her know. I talked again about how this is going to be just about the prescriptions. This doctor isn’t taking new patients, so there’s no point bringing up any of the other things my mother wants to talk about. She always brings up the same things, but she’s convinced the doctors are hiding what’s “really” wrong with her and not telling her everything.

Then she started saying my brother should be taking her to the doctor. Because he’s so smart and knows English so well. Nice sideways insult thrown at me with that one. I pointed out that taking her to appointments is part of my “job” in living here. My brother not only has a much longer drive, but he would have to take time off work to do it.

Then she started complaining that my brother hardly ever calls her or visits her. I know full well he calls her, even though she treats him like crap when he does, and he is incredibly busy. I eventually got out of her that she was talking about how he used to visit almost weekly. This was before we moved onto the property. He would drive out here after work on Fridays, do more work around the property, trying to fix things, and since my mother’s place was along the route, he would stop and visit her, too. Part of our living here was to take that burden off of my brother, so he wouldn’t have to make the long drive out all the time. She didn’t care. She thinks he needed to keep right on making the drive out, just to visit her. She even said he needs to come out more often, because she’s getting older and he has to take care of her. I told her there’s three of us to take care of her, and it was wrong to put the entire burden on my brother, when he is the one least able to do it! He’s got his full time job, his own property to take care of and lives the furthest away. She pretty much told me flat out, she didn’t care.

*sigh*

This, after she betrayed him so badly not long ago. She still can’t understand that there was anything wrong with what she did and has essentially forgotten about it.

So… that phone call wrung me out even more than the drive with her today!

My poor brother. He’s such a good man.

For all the stuff going on, it was good to at least see him and his amazing wife today!

The Re-Farmer

We got her!

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Just taking a moment to share the good news!

TTT showed up when I did the morning feed. Her IV bandage was gone, but she still had her coat. Which is good, because I was able to use it to catch her and carry her, without any chance of injuring the incision site.

I got her into the cage and the girls took over while I got ready to head out. They mixed her meds with a small amount of wet cat food. She ate it all. That should make her sleepy, and reduce her attempts to escape.

The sun room doors will be left propped open enough for the kittens to come in and out. Hopefully, her babies find her soon, and find the opening into the cage we made for them.

I’m so happy she made it through the night okay!

The Re-Farmer

This is not good

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

*sigh*

What a day!

Things went as good as they could, for the most part. Everything from the car’s oil change being under budget, and not needing any other work, to news that the cat’s amputation went well, to being able to getting the shopping we needed to do (especially stocking up on kibble!), and finally picking up prescription refills on the way home, things went well. Once things were put away, the girls and I separated the baby jail cage in my room into two pieces so we could get it out the door. We even managed to do it without the kittens getting out!

My younger daughter and I put the cage together again in a corner I prepped in the sun room. Since we wanted her kittens to be able to get to mama, we made sure the 2″ square wire sections were at floor level. We also made sure the “door” was facing the half with the cubes, so we could more easily access the bottom cubes for the new litter pan and food/water bowl that I picked up today.

We had it assembled, but I had to leave before it was done, to pick up the cat. One of the things my daughter did was cut one wire out in a section under the “door”, so there could be no chance of a kitten getting stuck. We’re rather paranoid about that, after what happened to Pointy Baby. She added towels, blankets and a mat for bedding, as well as the prepared litter pan and added food and water to the new bowl.

Meanwhile, I headed off to the vet. My daughter had already made a $400 down payment towards the surgery; they won’t do surgery without one. The total bill was $1140. I had to go into our vehicle down payment fund to cover it. Thankfully, my older daughter will be able to cover it. It will just take a few days for the transfer to go through. At least she’s getting steady commissions.

After paying the bill, someone came over to explain the medications and which ones we could be giving tonight, etc. Knowing she was a yard cat, they also gave her a slow release antibiotic. I asked about the meds and nursing. That should be find, but they had a coat on her that completely covers her belly, so we’d have to take that off. Without it, we’d have be keep a close eye on whether she scratches or licks at the incision.

That done, she took the carrier and loaded Two Toes up. She was complaining a bit, but was generally quiet for the trip home.

I got her into the cage, and she was not at all happy. She kept going around and even jumped up into the second level cubes, then back down again. She did find the food and water and ate hungrily – her eating is something else we need to keep an eye on, in case she starts throwing up. I did get to pet her a bit, but she was really wanting out of the cage.

Then, much to my shock, she managed to shove her head through the 2″ openings!

The last thing we want is for her head to get stuck, so I popped into the old kitchen to grab a carboard box to line the walls with.

Which was when I heard a suspicious noise.

I came into the sun room and found the cage door closed, but the cage was empty.

Then I saw her outside the sun room doors!

For a post opp cat that’s down a leg, she’s fast!

She also would NOT go back towards the sun room, no matter how much I tried to circle around to get her go that way.

She was twisting around to bight at the ties on the coat, and later she was trying to get the IV bandage off. Then she went through the window to under the storage house.

There’s just no way to get her there.

So I went back to the sun room and lined the lower half of the cage, with the larger openings, with cardboard on the inside. I did cut away the opening intended for the kittens to get in and out. One low enough to the floor that I would hope mama couldn’t get through.

Once that was secure (I hope!) I put fresh kibble out for the yard cats, making sure to make lots of noise as I dropped the food onto the metal kibble trays. Some of the yard cats came around – I even saw Junk Pile at the food bowl by the grape vines – but no Two Toes.

I went inside for a while, then headed back out, and there she was, on the cat house. When she saw me, she jumped down, then went inside the cat house. I’ve left her there for now, since it is a far better place for her to hide than under the storage house.

At this point, I’m not sure what to do. I’m hoping we can catch her tonight and give her her meds. If not, the girls will have to keep trying, tomorrow, while I’m taking my mother to visit my brother. At the very least, we need to get that bandage and coat off. The bandage, because it’s quite tight. At least it’s one of those types that stick to themselves, so she had a chance of getting it off herself. The coat, because she needs to nurse. While other mothers might be willing to nurse her babies, if she doesn’t nurse herself, she might get mastitis.

I never in my wildest dreams though she could get out of that cage.

Oh, and on top of all this, it’s been raining steadily all day. The cats are all sheltering from the rain, which will make it even harder to get a hold of her. It seems to have finally stopped, now, so when I’m done this, I’ll pop outside and see if I can catch her.

Meanwhile, the Cat Lady is coming by tomorrow to pick up the sick outside kitty. I won’t be there, but the girls will take care of things. Hopefully, she’ll remember to drop off the trap, too. She’s had a really terrible day today, in several areas, so the fact that she’s going to be able to come out here at all is something I appreciate so much.

On top of all this, I forgot to call my mother’s pharmacy. I’ll have to do that tomorrow morning.

Here’s hoping tomorrow will be a better day!

The Re-Farmer

Small harvest, doctor update, and this is the last thing we need!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Let’s start from the beginning of the day, which started off well!

I picked a tiny harvest this morning.

I decided to pick the one cob of purple corn that was the first to develop. I knew it wouldn’t be ready yet, but I wanted to see how it was. In particular the pollination. There was a fair chunk of it that had not been pollinated at all, so the kernels did not develop, but overall, it was pretty well filled.

One of my daughter’s doesn’t like corn, so my other daughter boiled the cob and we split it between us for a taste test. Of course, not being fully ripe, it would not have reached peak sweetness, but this is not a sweet corn to begin with. It was almost meaty in taste and texture. It actually reminded me of the corn I grew up with, that my mother saved seed from, year after year. I didn’t even know sweet corn was a thing until I was in my early teens, and my mother came back from a trip to visit family in the US, with corn seeds they’ve given her. She planted them in the spring, and I remember being astonished by the flavour of sweet corn. I still liked our old corn, though, and this was very much like that. We both enjoyed our taste test.

Later on, my husband and I left early for our medical appointment. Very early. My daughter sent us some cash to treat us to lunch. My husband hasn’t gone out since his last in-person medical appointment, and that was at least 2 years ago. We stopped in the town my mother lives in to pick up gas, then went to a restaurant for lunch.

Which is when I got a message from the cat lady, asking if she could call me. Talk about perfect timing! If we had left when I originally planned, I would have been driving when she messaged me and would not have seen it for some time later.

She wanted to talk to me about possible placements for 4 female outside cats! She was contacted by someone on a farm near my mother’s town. Their yard cats of 14 and 15 years had all passed away, and they needed mousers. They have an ideal set up, including an insulated and heated barn. Basically, they would be inside cats that are allowed outside. They gave their cats quality food, regular vet visits, and – as amply demonstrated by having cats that lived more than a decade – have been able to protect them from predators. There was even a vet lined up to check on the new cats.

There are rescues out there that would happily have given them 4 or 6 female cats right now, but they wanted to go through the Cat Lady, instead. They figure to start with maybe 2 cats and keep them in the barn for a couple of weeks before allowing them outside, then getting a couple more and repeating the process.

When I mentioned that our female cats are all nursing babies right now, including the ones with older babies (they just nurse any kittens that wants to nurse!), and it turned out the vet had brought up that concern as well.

In the end, she asked me to talk to the family about it. If we go with it, she will bring a trap for us on Saturday, when she comes to pick up the sick kitty.

I’ll get back to that later…

From there, we continued to the clinic. We got there early, and were shown into an examination room right away, but the doctor was in emergency at the time (this clinic is in a hospital building), so we were among several patients waiting. By the time she finally was able to see us, it was about 20 minutes past our actual appointment. Not too bad, except my husband was really struggling with pain levels.

She ended up spending a lot of time going over his medications list. Unfortunately, he forgot to bring his meds along, but he does keep a current list in his phone. There was some confusion about doses, because what he was actually getting didn’t match what the official descriptions said were available. I think in his case, because he’s on such high doses of some things, there are exceptions being made.

One problem that was unexpected is that she could not prescribe opioids. Apparently, the College is telling doctors not to prescribe them anymore.

Opioids are the only thing that have even remotely been able to bring his pain levels down.

He didn’t need those renewed yet, though, so we should have time for him to get a new doctor, when they arrive at this clinic in the fall. This doctor added that she couldn’t take him as a new patient, but we already knew that. This is just interim. Going over his medications list, she commented that he was going to have a hard time finding a new doctor.

*sigh*

Funny how it’s easy to find a doctor, if you don’t really need one, but if you do need one, and especially with a complex file like my husband’s, it’s harder to find a doctor.

She also focused a lot on his diabetes. One of his meds actually causes weight gain. It’s an anti-depressant and he’s been on is since before we moved out here. What I remember is that it prevented weight loss, but she says is actually causes weight gain. She said it’s also for sleep. As someone who has Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea, he certainly wasn’t taking it to make him sleep! He’s off that now, and he’s happier for it. As we were leaving, he vented his frustrations. He has so many problems, but doctors keep focusing on the diabetes. The way he put it, he’s got a heart condition that has a life expectancy of 4-6 years, from time of diagnosis. Which means 2-4 years from right now. He is in constant pain, and when I brought that up, she dismissed it. He had been told, early on, that until he gets his pain under control, he won’t be able to get his blood sugars under control. Apparently, that’s not a thing anymore. She did put in a referral to a diabetic nurse. Then she brought up “it’s the diet. It’s all the diet.” And the weight, of course. He won’t get his sugars under control unless he loses weight. I’d already mentioned, he barely eats, because of his pain levels. With all the other stuff, his blood sugars are far from a priority for him right now. She also brought up that he’s on cholesterol medication, but he’s never had high cholesterol. He was put on that by the first doctor we had when we moved out here, because that doctor puts all his diabetic patients over a certain age and girth on statins. Never mind that the actual research shows statins do nothing, and actually cause more harm than good. The doctors don’t seem to be on top of the most recent data.

<<< pause for interruptions >>>

Okay, more has happened, but I’ll get back to that later!

After my husband was done, including getting a requisition for blood work, it was my turn. I only needed one prescription renewal. Should have been fast and easy. She still had to “see” me as a patient, though, so she took my blood pressure. Which, of course, was high. It isn’t high when I test it at home. She was ready to prescribe me blood pressure medication, but I said I wanted to wait on that, because it doesn’t match at home. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve tested myself, since my husband has the machine in his room now. So she asked me to test my BP morning and evening, three times a week, for three months, then follow up with our new doctor. It’s also been ages since I had my blood work done, so I left with a requisition for that, too.

I had also made an appointment with this doctor for my mother, but I really don’t think my mother would like her. She’s female, black and has a strong accent. When I called my mother about it, we talked it over. The only reason for her to see a doctor right now is for the same reason as my husband and I; for an interim doctor to renew prescriptions. Not the dozen other things my mother thinks a doctor should be able to fix for her. My mother has no idea about the status of her prescriptions, and once I realized she didn’t understand what she needed to ask the pharmacy well enough, I told her I would call them tomorrow, while I’m in town. If her prescription renewals are good for a couple more months, I’ll cancel the appointment. If she needs a prescription renewal within the next month or two, we’ll keep the appointment.

So that’s done.

As soon as I could, after we got home, I headed outside to do my rounds early, walk around and get some fresh air. It was starting to rain, but that was okay. I also fed the yard cats a bit earlier than usual.

Which is when I saw Not Junk Pile on the cat house roof.

With a dangling foot.

It looks like her foot is broken at the “wrist”.

Crap.

I’m bringing my mother’s car in for an oil change tomorrow. I’ve also asked to get that check engine light looked at, plus a check on the wheel alignment. I’m feeling a shudder in the front driver’s side tire that concerns me. We’ve got a budget for this.

We don’t have a vet budget right now. That’s going to have to come out of money meant for a vehicle down payment.

*sigh*

I called the emergency vet, anyhow. She said that, if we could bring her in tonight, they’d treat her. So my daugher and I got the cat carrier and went looking for her.

By then, it was raining harder, and there was no sign of her.

We went looking again later, but still nothing.

We did see her kittens, though, and figured out where their new “nest” is. It’s no longer in the tarp covered board pile (formerly known as the junk pile). They’ve found a way to get into the space under the concrete stairs outside the dining room door. A perfect spot for a mama and her kittens. Impossible for us to get at.

I’ve also been in contact with the Cat Lady. This is one of the mamas we were thinking would go to the farm she was telling us about. She’s going to work on arranging more spays for us, and will be dropping a trap off for us, too. Between adopting out 4 female yard cats, plus getting spays done, we should be able to reduce the number of kittens next year.

Of course, that will also depend on how many of this year’s kittens are female, too! Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some of them done, early next year, before they go into their first heat. This year, they started having babies before the snow was gone. 😥

While I was working on this, we’d gone out to try and catch Not Junk Pile. When it became clear we were not going to get her tonight, I sent an email to the vet clinic, letting them know the situation an dthat we’d be trying to bring her in in the morning. I then called the emergency vet back and updated her as well. That means we’ll have to be out and feeding the cats quite early, and try to get her into the carrier. My daughter and I will work to get her to the vet when they open at 8am, then drop the car off for 9am. My daughter can stay at the clinic while I take care of the car stuff. I’m also going to have to swing by the pharmacy to pick up prescription refills. My husband has been without insulin for several days now.

Why is this happening all at the same time???

The Re-Farmer

A quick update

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

This morning, I took video and will be putting together a garden tour video tonight, after I finish watering the garden. Until then, here is some cuteness!

Inside cuteness…

… and outside cuteness!

I have been finding piles of outside kittens in that bed in the sun room more often.

The inside kittens quite enjoyed the freshly laundered fluffy blanket and towel!

Today was a wonderfully cool day. We had a high of only 18C/64F We had scattered showers in the region throughout the day, but I did eventually get to put a second coat of paint on the folding table and stump bench. I don’t think they will need a third coat. We’ll have lots of paint for other projects.

I also worked on trimming the lumpy bits on the debarked log. I drained both batteries on the mini chainsaw, with only one last large lump that needs to be trimmed.

We did not get enough rain, though, so I’ve been working on watering the garden. As I write this, I’ve got the last sprinkler set up in the main garden area, and a timer running. Once that’s done, I still need to water the front garden beds. I should be able to get that done while the light holds. Once that’s done, I’ll be able to start editing a garden tour video.

My day was almost disrupted completely. Thank God my sister phoned, first. She started off asking if we wanted cucumbers, which I thankfully declined; we still have pickles from last year! I said no to slicing cucumbers, too.

What does it mean that my sister’s call had me feeling slightly suspicious – and that my suspicions proved warranted?

As we were talking, I suddenly heard my mother announcing that they were in our little hamlet. It turns out they had gone to the cemetery to tend the family plot, and were at a nearby park (where they have public washrooms and water available), where they had their lunch. As we were talking, my mother suddenly asked, “are you going to invite us over?”

I was expecting that.

My answer was, no.

I then reminded her that we need to plan ahead for visits. Just dropping by suddenly is very disruptive.

First, she tried to guilt me. “Don’t forget, you’re living in my house”.

“It’s not your house anymore.”

Again, I repeated that we need time to plan visits. Then she threw a real whopper at me.

“Are you afraid of [my husband]?”

That one had me laughing out loud.

She kept trying to find ways to blame my family, but I finally said that it was HER behaviour that’s the problem.

She went silent after that. My sister and I talked a bit more before she finally said that our mother was in a “mood” and it was time to go.

My mother completely cannot accept that her own behaviour causes her own problems. When she comes here, she’s rude and often cruel. She has no interest in visiting us. Her only interest is in seeing what we’ve done and to criticize me for it – and I don’t mean constructive criticism! But she also expects us to wait on her, hand and foot, and dote on her. She treats my family like crap, insults them, then wonders why they don’t want to be around her. My husband is in constant pain, but he’s supposed to come out and pander to her as well. My older daughter works nights, but she’s supposed to interrupt her sleep to dote on her. My younger daughter has pretty severe PCOS, which affects her physical appearance that has my mother being particularly cruel. Today she wasn’t feeling well, either. My mother, however, gives zero thought to how other people might feel, or what they are dealing with. Her world revolves around herself, and she expects our worlds to revolve around her. There’s only so much of that that can be blamed on her age. Frankly, she’s been like this for a long time.

Oh! There goes my timer. Time to turn off the sprinkler and water the front garden beds.

<<< one hour later >>>

I’m back!

Gosh, it’s so gorgeous out there. I didn’t want to come back inside!

Anyhow. Where was I?

Ah… yes. We managed to not get what would have been a highly disruptive and unpleasant “visit” from my mother.

I’m sure she’s going to try and find some way to punish me for not allowing her to abuse me and my family. I’m just glad my sister made sure to phone ahead this time. The last time my mother talked her into suddenly showing up here, it was quite unpleasant and set my weather dependant work back for days, so she promised to always call first!

For now, the garden is taken care of, the outside cats have been tended to, and now it’s time for me to start on that video! Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish it tonight and be able to upload it by morning. We shall see!

The Re-Farmer