outside cats

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

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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

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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

Morning update

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At around 4am or so, we finally got hit by one of the many little thunderstorms that have been passing us by. It got very loud, and we had a bit of a light show, but it seems we only caught the edges of it. We had some rain, but not enough to bring the rain barrel to even half full again.

As I write this, my husband and I should be on the road to his medical appointment, but we got a call this morning to reschedule it to Thursday. I can’t say I mind the delay. With the van gone, we have to use my mother’s car, which is going to be an incredibly painful drive for my husband. There’s no getting around it until we can get a replacement vehicle, and that still won’t be for a few more months.

Then I found a text message from the garage asking if Thursday would work to get the oil changed on my mother’s car. It would be a morning drop off, and with only one vehicle, I’d have to stay in town until it’s done, so getting to the medical appointment takes priority. Hopefully, he can fit the car in soon after.

Pain had my husband up really early today, so he took care of feeding the outside cats at about 5am. That must have confused the kitties! 😄 When I went out later to do my morning rounds, I spotted this.

It’s Octomom, bringing one of her kittens to the kibble house!

We still haven’t figured out where she moved her babies, but from how active this little one is, we’re going to be seeing all of them, soon. Mama must be more than ready to bring them to where solid food can be relied on! There are two black kittens in this litter. My younger daughter has always wanted an all black cat. If we can get them socialized, we might bring one in, after Decimus and her babies are adopted out.

Oh, that reminds me! I was messaging with the Cat Lady. She’s still working on her husband about the two kittens she’s promised to take; Ghosty and one of the outside kittens that is sicker. She says she may have a placement for Ghosty, so long as she doesn’t turn out to have something major, like feline leukemia or something. That would be so awesome! It’s getting time to take good pictures of all the kittens to send to her, so she can pass them on to her contacts. Getting a picture of Decimus will be a bit more difficult. She is either moving around too much, or covered in kittens!

Anyhow…

Today has a high of only 22C/72F. According to my desktop app, we are 20C/68F right now, and raining.

There is no rain outside.

So I’m thinking I might be able to do some painting this afternoon, then start cleaning up and debarking the logs for the trellis bed. I want to make sure to cut away and smooth out any branch ends and sticky-outy-bits. That’s something I’ve noticed causing a surprising amount of trouble with the high raised bed. You don’t notice stuff like that, until you’ve stabbed yourself with a broken branch end you never even noticed! The netting we’ve got over the beans catches on everything, too, so the smoother we can make the logs, the better.

What rain we did have last night was enough to water the garden well enough. I had to refill the rain barrel out by the Crespo squash, but the squash itself did not need watering. I neglected to take a picture of my little harvest this morning; beans, a green zucchini, and a few Spoon tomatoes were ready.

I’m really happy with how the squash patch is doing. Part of why we’re trying to many different kinds of winter squash is to not only see what we like to eat, but what grows well here. Right now, we have a couple of Boston Marrow squash developing, one on each plant. I think there’s only one, maybe two, Red Kuri, and one hulless seed pumpkin. For all the plants and flowers, we still have only one Honeyboat Delicata developing. There’s also only one Winter Sweet developing.

Then there’s the North Georgia Candy Roaster, and the Pink Banana! Both are now producing plenty of female flowers, and there seem to be quite a few squash that have been successfully pollinated. Though I’m seeing and hearing lots of pollinators – especially in the melon tower – I’m still hand pollinating the squash, unless I spot an insect actively pollinating a female flower. If things continue to go well, we should at least have a decent harvest of the candy roaster and banana squash, and enough of the others to at least taste them. That will go a long way towards deciding what we will try growing next year.

Weather willing, I will make another garden tour video soon.

But first, I need to make a quick trip to the post office and pick up some packages!

I’m kinda glad we didn’t end up going to the clinic today. I’m much appreciating the quieter day.

The Re-Farmer

So much done!

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I am so happy right now!

Absolutely wasted, and will probably be sore and barely able to move tomorrow, but happy!

My daughter and I got so much done today. But first, the cuteness!

Would you look at that flat pancake of a kitten!

This one actually allows me to pet it, and even pick it up at times.

After our failure this morning in getting a shelter over the stump bench, I decided we may as well cut down the dead tree beside it. I was then going to clean up the bench and get at least one coat of paint on it.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way.

First, the dead spruce…

The first photo is the “before” image. Instagram crops things weird, and their crop options suck, so you can’t see the bench in that one.

Which direction to get it to fall was the issue. No matter where it fell, it would be landing on something. The thing was to get it to land on something with the least amount of damage. So I tried to get it to fall on the bench, in the middle, where it has the most support. It would still be hitting the big maple on the way down, but not as much of it.

As you can see in the second photo, it came down about as perfect as could be! One maple branch broke off and that was it.

My daughter and I then cut off all the branches; me with the chain saw, her with the electric pruner/baby chainsaw.

Once the branches were clear, I cut away the few bits of wood that were holding the trunk to the stump still, then cut the end flat. We then measured out 18′, and cut it with a few inches extra. This log is the right size to match the largest log we’ve got for the trellis bed. The two largest logs will be the bottoms longs for the sides, then the thinner ones will go on top.

Next, we cleared away all the branches and extra pieces. There was another stump that had originally been intended to be part of the stump bench, but it was too rotten. That finally got cut down to ground level. The new stump was also got trimmed lower, though not quite to ground level. Maybe we’ll put a planter on it or something, at some point. 😊 We also used a rope and dragged the 18′ piece over to where the trellis bed will be built.

It was SO much easier to grad that big log with two people!

This is the third dead spruce we’ve cleared out of this one little section. At least one of them was killed off by the Virginia creeper that had been allowed to attach itself to it. This tree that we had cleared away had still been alive until last year or so.

Then, since I had the chain saw handy, and 200 ft of extension cord, I took advantage of it.

First, I dealt with the crab apple trees.

The easy part was cutting away the remains of a dead crab apple tree that was off by itself. In the photos with the dead spruce tree, you can actually see it through the dead branches of the fallen tree.

In the above photos, the first one is in between two large crab apple trees. These were suckers growing out from around the remains of trees that died long ago. They were much harder to cut away and clean up, because they were so tangled up in the two live trees. In one of those, I cut away some dead branches, too.

Now that the suckers are gone, there are branches from the live trees hanging really low, as they are no longer being held up by the suckers!

The second photo shows where the single dead crab apple tree had been. Between the freshly cut stump and the next live tree are another three stumps cut to ground level, plus two more behind where I’m standing to take the photo. Way too many trees were planted way too close together!

There is still one more at the very end that will need cleaning up. Again, the original tree had died long ago, and there are just suckers growing. There may still be one that produces tasty apples; another that I knew for sure had good apples broke in a storm last year and didn’t recover. We’ll see if any of the remaining ones are worth salvaging, but they won’t be ripe for at least another month.

My daughter made many trips to the branch pile past the fire pit, clearing away as I cut. As we were finishing up, I decided to take a closer look at the stuck tree my brother had cut down for me. I wanted to see if I could safely cut away the dead tree it was stuck on. There were actually a couple of trees that were holding it up. One was a small spruce that got bent under the fallen trunk. Sadly, I had to cut it, even though it was still alive. I could see that even if I got the bigger tree cut away, the little one would still hold up the tree we were trying to access, and cause the tree we were after to roll towards other trees, rather than fall to the ground

I was able to cut through the little spruce’s trunk, but with everything so jammed together, nothing moved. I was, however, able to get a good look at the dead tree the fallen tree was stuck on.

It wasn’t a tree.

What you’re seeing in that first photo is a tree top. You can see that, at some point, the tip had broken off, and two branches grew upwards, forming a double top. This is pretty common for spruces. As the tree my brother cut down fell and got caught on other trees, it broke this tree top. As it slowly continued to fall lowers in high winds, the tree top ended up vertical, with its broken end on the ground as it it had grown there!

In the second photo, you can see the tree with a broken off top that I think it came from.

So I grabbed the rope my daughter and I used to drag the 18′ log out, and wrapped it around the bottom of the tree top. I wasn’t able to get it completely off, as there were branches getting caught, but it is no longer holding up the stuck tree. Since I had also cut the other little tree, that came off its stump and fell, too. Finally, the stuck tree came down! No, it’s not on the ground, but that’s just fine. It’s only being held up by its own branches and undergrowth now, and it completely accessible!

We can now clear it, cut it to size and drag the pieces out.

But not today! My daughter and I were both completely beat by then. Thank goodness it was a “cooler” day, with a high of “only” 27C/81F.

So… we didn’t paint the bench and, with possible thunderstorms or showers starting tomorrow afternoon and over the next few days (depending on what app I look at), it may not get done for possibly another week.

That’s okay. The bench and the folding table I want to also paint won’t melt. It just means we work on something else, instead. Like finally continuing that trellis bed!

I’m just so happy we were able to get all this stuff done. It feels so good!

The Re-Farmer

What a morning

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Ugh.

Let’s start with the cuteness, shall we?

This litter of two that live in the junk pile by the chain link fence are starting to explore further afield.

Gush, they are adorable!

This morning, the girls were out very early to clean out the eavestroughs. There was one corner, however, they did not do. It was occupied!

This is an active wasps nest.

We’ve had wasps around here before that we had to destroy. Once, because they had made their nest partly inside the wall somewhere, finding their way in under the eaves at the corner of the old kitchen and my bedroom. The next year, it was because they had built their nest under the old kitchen, through a crack in the crawl space foundation – and were also somehow getting inside the old kitchen!

This one, however, looks like we can leave it. Wasps are pollinators, and I would prefer not to destroy pollinators if I can avoid it! When they die off in the winter, we can remove the nest.

Part of my plan for the day was to head into town after I finished my morning rounds. My husband was supposed to get prescriptions delivered yesterday, but it didn’t happen and we didn’t know why.

Before heading out, I phoned the pharmacy, since I figured I could order my own refills a bit early, too. I mentioned what happened with my husband not getting his delivery yesterday, which was a surprise to the pharmacist I spoke to. She checked, and his name wasn’t even on the list for refills. She said she would take care of it, and mine as well. My prescription needs to be renewed by the doctor, however, so she was going to fax the clinic about that.

Well, that didn’t work out.

I got a call just as I was about to leave for town. The pharmacy had a letter from our doctor. Our doctor had moved to a clinic in the city, and we were going to stay with him until we could find a new doctor at a nearer clinic. Preferably the one he just left. There just aren’t a lot of rural doctors around, and most of them are not accepting new patients. My husband had tried to do a phone appointment with our regular doctor, as his disability insurance requires regular doctor’s visits, but it ended up not happening, and we didn’t know why the doctor never called. We did know he wanted my husband to come in, in person, but the drive is just too painful for him.

Well, the pharmacy’s letter from the doctor was telling them that my husband was no longer a patient of his, because he did not see my husband within 3 months of his moving to the new clinic, therefore he could not renew the prescriptions.

?????

Yet, my husband tried to do a phone appointment within that time frame, and the doctor never called.

So I called the new clinic and asked about it.

It turns out that, to maintain status as one of our doctor’s patients at this new clinic, they required at least one in-person visit for a physical within 3 months of the doctor moving to the new clinic. Which would have been by the end of June. Once that was done, then phone or video appointments could be made. Since we did not do that, we are no longer his patients (I was asking about my husband, but it would apply to me as well).

Which means neither of us have a doctor at all, and my husband can’t get his many prescriptions renewed.

So I decided to call the clinic we’d been seeing our doctor at. They lost three doctors at the same time, and I hoped they would have new doctors by now, and that at least one of them would be open to new patients.

They will be getting new doctors.

In the fall.

September, at the earliest.

There was, however a doctor at the clinic who had agreed to see our doctor’s patients until they could find a new doctor. So I made an appointment for my husband with her. This weekend is a long weekend, but they were able to squeeze him in on the Tuesday.

We’ll have to keep on top of the status for new doctors at this clinic. Until then, we’ll have to see this one doctor that was willing to take on our old doctor’s patients temporarily.

Once that was done, I finally made my way to town. One of my husband’s prescriptions did not need a renewal, so I could at least pick that up. While there, I informed the pharmacy of why we lost our old doctor, but that we have an appointment with another doctor, so they can expect to get a fax about the prescription renewals on Tuesday. I was asked to make sure to call ahead of time before filling the prescriptions, because they get so many faxes, it can be hard to get to them all. Which is fine. My husband normally calls his refills in for delivery.

At least my husband was able to get one of his injections, but that prescription was added to work with the other injection. The one that’s missing is a slow release insulin. My husband is going to have to monitor his blood sugars more. He doesn’t like to do it, because it’s so discouraging. Chronic pain causes elevated blood sugar readings. The pain also results in loss of appetite, so it’s not like he’s eating much at all, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference, whether it’s his blood sugars or his weight. The only thing he’s been losing is muscle mass. For someone who was so athletic in the past, this is very depressing. There isn’t much that can be done about it, though. He’s on the strongest doses of painkillers they are legally allowed to give him, and they barely control the pain at all. Quality of life? What’s that?

*sigh*

So… yeah. That was something I did not expect to be dealing with, this morning. At least now we finally know that we no longer have a doctor! It doesn’t make finding a new one any easier, though. That’s the one down side of not living in the city. There are plenty of doctors in the city to choose from. Not a lot of doctors want to live in rural communities, though.

*sigh*

At least we were able to book an appointment with a doctor that can take care of prescriptions for us.

The Re-Farmer

Some morning cuteness for you!

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This little guy is getting a little more socialized!

He was on the rail and did start to move away as I got closer, but the other end is covered in rose bush, slowing him down. That allowed me to pick him up and cuddle him a bit. When I put him back on the rail, he stayed and let me take his picture a few times.

I just about squee’d out loud when I uploaded the pictures and saw this.

I got a tongue blehp!!!

*melt*

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens

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I had to wash the eyes of only one kitten, this morning.

In the background, around the kibble house, you can see the little tuxedo. That one had the really messed up eye, but we couldn’t get anywhere near it. We still can’t, but it looks like the eye healed on its own!

I heard from the Cat Lady last night. Their cat that was more recently blocked has had surgery and is being monitored at home now. They’re going to be giving us their regular cat food, because they will now be buying only medicated cat food. !!! I just can’t imagine how much that will cost on a monthly basis. They have more cats inside than we do, and the UTI cat food is insanely expensive.

As for our own Leyendecker, I will have to go to the clinic today and see if I can get another syringe for his liquid meds. The last dose we gave him, he bit it hard enough to make a hole. He is responding to the medications – he’s got about a week left, just once a day, now. He still doesn’t seem to be eating much at all, but we’ve still got the problem that sent us to the vet in the first place. He’s peeing in all the wrong places! My younger daughter has taken on the task of deep clean up, and has been mopping the floors frequently. Considering the state of our floors, especially in the kitchen, that is not an easy job. The linoleum is worn down to the sub floor in places, and the mop catches on the edges. If we were using the sponge mop, it would be torn to pieces!

Now if we could just win that lottery jackpot, we could put in new flooring, along with all the other renovations this place needs! 😅

The Re-Farmer

Kitten status and garden gathering

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We’ve reached our predicted high of 26C/79F today, with 54% humidity. Tomorrow, we are supposed to hit 30C/86F.

The first thing I want to share with you is this adorableness.

I even got a bit of video.

This was the first time she nursed the babies in the comfort of my bed. She is so tiny!

And filthy. Especially her belly. Those kittens get her very dirty! She has gotten to the point where she actually enjoys being held and cuddled, so chances are pretty good we should at least be able to take a damp washcloth to her.

These next photos are from yesterday evening.

I spotted the two kittens in the junk pile, without mom around, playing. When it saw me, the black one went and hid, but the other one stayed and watched me while I took photos. The black one has a single small patch of white on its chest that I could see.

The third photo is of a kitten I’ve never seen before. I saw it again this morning, with two other kittens of similar size that I didn’t recognize. I have no idea which mother they came with. There are several of the more feral mamas that had kittens quite early in the spring, and I was wondering when their babies would start showing up.

Beside the main garden, there is an area we’ve allowed to grow wild that is now tall with what I thought was a type of alfalfa but, when I tried to look it up, I couldn’t find any images with white flowers like them.

Whatever it is, it was just buzzing with bees last night, and I managed to get a decent picture.

I also got a picture of our first fresh garlic – after cleaning it off with the hose!

The squash is our first Honeyboat Delicata. The one I hand pollinated from a different type of squash, as there were no Delicata male flowers blooming. There still aren’t. So far, it looks like the cross pollination took. Hopefully, we’ll have at least one Delicata to try and see if we like them, and if the Honeyboat variety really does store well. If so, we will plant them again – with purchased seeds, though, since the seeds from any we grow this year will likely all be cross pollinated.

And finally, a handful of Royalty raspberries I picked this morning! Most of those were from one plant, with a few from a second. The third is the smallest, and its berries are still unripe.

I’m still amazed we got any at all in their transplant year!

I forgot to get a picture, but one of the African Drum gourd female flowers was blooming this morning, so I made sure to pollinate it with one of the male flowers from another African Drum gourd. If it works out, it should be interesting to see just how fast the gourds develop, and if we have a mild enough fall for them to reach full maturity.

In other things, we’re concerned about Leyendecker. He’s getting his medications, but he’s still refusing to eat. We even mixed the new food with the food he’s used to, and he won’t eat either! He also spends most of his days just lying around, but that could be from the medications. This morning, while staying with him in the bathroom, trying to convince him to eat, he just sprawled tragically at the closed door. I took the opportunity to palpate his abdomen. He not only tolerated it, but shifted so I could reach better as I was pushing around where his bladder is. He had just gotten his medications, so it would have been too soon for the pain killers to kick in. If he were having blocking issues, my poking around would have been very uncomfortable for him, and I would have been able to feel an over full bladder. Neither was an issue. So we’re not sure what’s going on with him right now. 😟 We will continue to monitor him.

For now, I’m going to go help my daughter with juicing those cherries we picked. By request, we will be making jelly with them!

The Re-Farmer

Morning… er… afternoon finds

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Well, I did get some sleep last night! The kittens did tackle me, but I almost slept through it. I really, really have to watch myself, though. I leaned forward in bed this morning, and something moved. Turned out I had a kitten curled up right against my belly!

My daughter, unfortunately, did not get any sleep at all last night. Big Rig would not leave her alone! So she was up and about early to find Leyendecker for his morning medications. As I was getting up to help her, I realized I was hearing pouring rain over the sound of my fan! We were not supposed to get rain today. That’s why I watered the garden yesterday!

My daughter went on to feed the outside cats while I supervised Leyendecker, trying to get him to eat his new food. The first time my daughter gave it to him, he ate it hungrily. Now, he won’t eat it at all. We’re not sure what’s going on. Even when he’s around the main food bowls, which we now keep empty between feedings, he hasn’t even really been looking for more food. It’s likely the medications are causing him to loose his appetite, but I don’t remember it happening when he was on them before.

Since it was pouring so hard out, I went back to bed. My sense of time is now completely messed up! I went out to do my “morning” rounds a little while ago, but it was about 3pm. It still feels like morning.

Anyhow, here are some of my finds of the day!

When I saw Octomom heading for the kibble house, I checked on her babies. Usually, they’re asleep when she leaves, but not today!

It took me watching this a couple of times, counting and recounting, before I finally spotted the eighth kitten, under the two black ones! 😄

While finishing my rounds, I spotted the kittens in the junk pile with their mama.

Looks like it’s just the 2 of them, and they’re starting to go further afield! I expect we’ll soon be seeing them eating in the bowl under the shrine. 😊

I managed to get a picture of the tuxedo with the messed up eye. This photo is cropped closer, to see it better.

I’m really surprised. That eye is clearing up really well! The inner eyelid is swollen like crazy, but I was sure he was going to lose that eye completely. I am happy to say, it looks like I was wrong!

Meanwhile, I had a first in the (very well watered!) garden today!

Our very first ripe Roma tomato! It picked itself. This was the first tomato to show up, so no surprise it ripened first. I reached out to touch it and it fell off the vine into my hand!

The next picture is of ripening Indigo Blue Chocolate tomatoes. Now I can see where the “chocolate” part of the name came from!

I didn’t get a picture, but I saw a female Crespo squash in full flower, and I made sure to hand pollinate it. In the photos above, you can see the female African Drum gourd flowers are getting larger. The male flowers have been blooming consistently, so I expect to be able to pollinate those by hand when they finally open.

The last picture is of the G-Star patty pans, and we’ve got a switch on that one! The female flowers are blooming, but the male flowers just buds right now. Which means those lovely looking squash are not going to develop fully. There aren’t even any other summer squash blossoms I could use to pollinate with. I suppose I could try using a winter squash blossom, but I don’t know if they are similar enough for that to work. The G-Star plants are doing very well, though, so I expect we’ll have both male and female flowers blossoming at the same time, fairly soon.

I’m thinking it might be time to harvest the garlic. I want to give the bulbs time to get nice and big – we have so few of them this year – but the stems are drying out, which means they probably won’t get much bigger than they are now. That will free up an entire bed for something else, if we harvest those soon.

In the wattle weave bed, I transplanted 4 different early peppers, just in case we didn’t get a chance to transplant more in the grow bags. When watering last night, it looked like one of them has suddenly died. I could not find a reason why, but it’s wilting away. Nothing else around it is affected. There is no insect damage that I can find. It even looks strong around the stem and roots. I hope it perks up, but I don’t think it will. Everything else in that bed is doing well. Even the chamomile is starting to bloom. That first luffa we planted in there is getting so big, it has started to climb the lilac above it, and clusters of flower buds are starting to appear.

My sense of time is not just messed up about today, where I feel like it’s so much earlier in the day. I also get that sense, in reverse, when tending the garden. “Spring” arrived so early this year, it feels like we’re heading into fall, when we’ve still got half the summer to go. I keep thinking I should be harvesting things from the garden regularly by now. I’ve looked back at photos I took in July over the last two years to get some comparison, and we weren’t harvesting much at all at this time. When we grew melons successfully, 2 years ago, we had baseball sized fruits developing at this time. This year’s melons germinated so late, they’re just starting to bloom right now, and just male flowers so far. Some of the corn was behind what we have now, while others ahead. No surprise the summer squash was ahead compared to this year, since this year we have barely any and did direct sowing instead of transplants. I’m glad I took so many photos. It helps me get a sense of what to expect now, more or less, based on how things did in past years. Taking into account that 2 years ago was a drought year with heat waves (which the melons loved!) and last year a lot of things were lost to flooding in the spring.

I guess I feel better after looking at the photos from previous years. Some things, I can’t quite figure out why there is a significant different between them and this year. Others, it’s pretty obvious!

At least we’re not having to deal with groundhogs eating everything again! They seem to have moved on and are staying away, and I’m quite happy with that!

Now we just have to worry about racoons! Especially when it comes to the corn.

The Re-Farmer

Morning activities, and a change in plans

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We’re supposed to get quite hot for the next while, so I tried going to be very early. Usually, I don’t go to bed until 2 am or so. Especially this time of year, when it’s still light out for so long. So “early” usually means “before midnight” for me. Instead, I tried to be in bed by about 8, hoping to be up and about outside by 5.

It didn’t work.

Some people can fall asleep soon after lying down. My husband has always been able to do that. I’ve never been one of these! I think I did finally fall asleep before midnight, but didn’t wake up any earlier.

Also, I need to start being very careful rolling over at night, because I’m starting to wake up with kittens chewing on my toes!

Anyhow.

The first order of business outside was to feed the cats. One of the first cats to show up was Octomom! I think the girls had called her Slick, but she’s around so infrequently, the name didn’t stick.

She is such a beauty! She didn’t like me being around, though, and kept moving away as I set kibble out in different places.

Last of all, I put kibble in the bowl in the garage for her. It was not only empty, but I could see in the box nest, that she had been digging around for any remaining kibble that might have been left behind in there.

Since the mama was at the kibble house, I took advantage of it. I grabbed one of the blankets, then went over to the barrel the kittens are in. After removing the “cover” (a sheet of aluminum weighed down with a brick), I took out the rotted pieces of the barrel top that had fallen inside, then lay down the blanket on one half of the bottom – which, I could not see, is just dirt. The barrel is upside down. The pieces I had taken out used to be the “floor” of the barrel. Now, it’s open at both ends.

After moving all the kittens onto the blanket, I went and got the other one and tucked it into the other half. Then I found some clean pieces of wood in the garage. They used to be part of the packaging for the wood chipper, if I remember correctly. They are longer, and I put them at angles above the kittens. This gives the mama something to land on when she jumps in, and an area to perch on above her kittens, when she needs a baby break.

By the time I was putting the cover back on, the mama was returning, and she was not happy to see me! She hovered around, growling at me, until I moved away. I watched as she climbed up to the rim of the barrel and looked down, but she did not go in yet. Instead, she perched on the edge and glared at me! The last I saw, she had moved onto the other barrel and continued to watch as I continued my morning rounds. I’ve been out that way a couple of times, since, and once I saw her in the grass. Later on, I’ll have to check again, when I’m sure the mama isn’t around.

As I headed back to the sun room, I spotted this.

It’s SuperAdam!

I don’t think any of those kittens are her own, and there are kittens from at least 3, possibly 4, litters that she is nursing!

One of the things I checked this morning was the raspberries, of course.

Those purple raspberries we transplanted this spring are doing amazing! The one in the photo is the largest of the three. We have been able to pick a whole 5 ripe raspberries from the three bushes.

The other image is of the raspberries I picked from the ones in the main garden area. My mother had transplanted them in the area long before we moved out here. Now that the crab apple tree that was there has died and was cut down, the raspberry bushes at that end, and around the old compost pile, are doing much better! The ones at the other end, closer to the chokecherry tree, are not doing as well.

Also, I don’t know if you’re seeing the bowl of raspberries okay, but after I uploaded the images to Instagram, that picture now looks like it’s got a semitransparent black overlay on it. Instagram seems to have issues with multiple images uploaded at once.

One of the other things I worked on this morning was an experiment.

I took the remains of some chicken wire and added it to the box frame. It’s just held in place with wire twists. I had a lot less chicken wire than I thought; not even enough to cover one side.

We do have enough of the black netting we got last year to cover it completely, which we might use as a temporary cover. I definitely want to use hardware cloth attached semi-permanently to the sides. I will probably put some on the top, too, but not permanently. The thing it, once the sides are covered, the only way to tend the bed would be to remove the box cover completely. That would be a 2 person job, to avoid damaging the corn.

Hmm… I was just thinking, as I look at that picture. Right now, I’ve got the excess wire over the top. The hardware cloth also comes in 4′ widths. I could have excess mesh on the bottom, covering the sides of the raised bed. That would ensure critters won’t be able to slip under the bottom of the box cover. It would also serve to keep the whole thing from getting knocked off the bed by a determined critter.

Something to think about.

By the time this was done, it was getting too hot and humid to stay outside, and it wasn’t even 10am yet!

We have a change in plans for today, anyhow.

We got a call from the vet clinic about Leyendecker’s appointment tomorrow. Looks like they got a cancellation or something, because they were asking if we could come in today, instead! So he now has a 4:30 appointment today.

Hopefully, it will not be something serious, but after his last vet visits, I have my doubts. 😟

Ah, well. It will be what it will be.

The Re-Farmer