outside cats

Baby bed, drainage and feeling frustrated

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Would you look at this tiny worm?

I found a cardboard carton large enough for the mama to fit comfortably in and lined it with one of the blankets the Cat Lady donated to us for the kitties. Unfortunately, I really spooked the mom when I opened the door; enough that she ran out the hole in the back of the shed she’d been using to get in and out. I suppose that made it easier, since I didn’t have to worry about her reactions. I quickly put the baby in the bed box outside the shed, cleared the netting and other odds and sots where the baby had been lying, fit the bed box in, and left. The whole thing probably took less than a minute to do.

Picking up that tiny baby, though. Wow! It must have been maybe hours old, the first time I spotted them a few days ago.

The mother is Baby Beep Beep, which means she is NOT the mother of any of the sun room kittens.

In other things, we got quite a lot of rain last night. I’d used the rain barrel to water the front garden beds, as it was full to the top, and got it down to maybe a quarter or a bit less. This morning, it was full to the top. Not overflowing, but close, so I put the diverter on for now. We’re expecting more little thunderstorms passing through tomorrow. This morning, I was hearing thunder around us, and even got rained on a bit.

The potted herbs on the front step seem to be doing well. The lemongrass is getting taller. The spearmint in one pot by itself, and the thyme and oregano in the other, seem to be recovering from being transplanted well. Those two post have drainage holes and are sitting on trays, but the pot the lemon grass is in does not have any drainage holes. As I was weeding, I could see it was way too wet, so I just got a hammer and a nail and made one drainage hole.

I got this picture after it had been draining for more than half a minute, and there was still lots of pressure!

The bottom and sides of the pot are lined with grass clippings, and I don’t really mind there being some water accumulated in the clippings. Having a drainage hole higher up will work well, I think. It’s not like I could tip the pot and put holes in the bottom!

The down side is that, after weeding the Chinese elms that were sprouting in that pot, my hands smell like stagnant water. Yes, I’ve washed them. Several times. The smell still lingers. Ick.

I moved the last of the Jiffy Pellet trays to the steps near these pots. There is still that one Lemon Cucumber that sprouted, nothing else. It’s probably too late in the season, but when it gets its true leaves, I’ll find somewhere to transplant it. One cucumber plant is better than none.

This has been a very frustrating gardening year. The intension had been to expand the garden again, or at least use as much as what we did last year. With the weather and the heat, we weren’t able to build those trellis beds in time, which means two large sections, where we’d planted potatoes and melons last year, aren’t being used at all. We got transplants in, but didn’t have room for all of them, which means we have far fewer paste tomatoes than I intended. That was the one type I wanted to have a lot more of, since making our own tomato paste last year went over so well. Along with the weather and heat issues, I’ve lost more than a few days that would have been good days to work outside, because I had to help my mother out, and she demands I take a “holiday” when I’m with her, and not be “in a hurry” to leave. When I point out I have work to do, she just says, “what work? You don’t have cows!”

*sigh*

We didn’t do anywhere near as much direct sowing as intended, because there weren’t enough prepared beds to sow into. As it is, we had to use the old kitchen garden differently then intended, just to get things in the ground. That’s okay. Normally, I’m quite flexible about such things, but after a while, it just gets frustrating. In the end, instead of expanding the garden this year, we’ve got a smaller garden then last year. One positive thing, at least, is that we aren’t having the no good, terrible growing year we had last year!

I was feeling good about the garden in many ways. We have tomatoes growing and starting to produce fruit. The Gold Ball turnips, which disappeared last year, are growing well. Yes, something is eating the leaves, but not enough to hinder their growth. We’ve got two types of carrots, and both are doing well. The bush beans are struggling a bit, but they’re growing. Even the tiniest of onion transplants – the ones so small, they probably shouldn’t have been transplanted at all – are picking up. I’m happy to see so many pea pods forming, even though the plants themselves seem a lot shorter than I expected them to get. I think it’s the squash patch that is most encouraging. They failed so badly last year, and now I’m seeing the winter squash getting big and strong. It even looks like we’ve won the battle against the slugs! I’ll just have to keep up with sprinkling that corn meal. We might actually have fully mature winter squash to harvest this year

The melons germinated so late, they probably won’t get a chance to produce fully mature fruit, but they are recovering from being transplanted nicely and, you never know; we might get a long, mild fall and the frosts will hold off until late in the year again.

Then I see people sharing pictures on the local and Zone 3 gardening groups I’m on, showing their huge plants and talking about the vegetables they’re already harvesting. How can they be harvesting beans already? How is their corn so tall? One person was even eating fresh tomatoes! In June!

I try to remind myself that Zone 3 is about winter temperatures, and covers a large, geographically diverse area, so a lot of these people have a last frost date in the middle of May. Even with local groups, most of the members live well south of us. With this year’s very early and warm spring, even people with later frost dates took a chance and planted earlier. We’ve also had a decent amount of rain, though some people did lose or partially lose their gardens to driving rain, winds or hail.

Still, seeing all those photos of huge, lush garden growth and harvests, suddenly my garden seems really pathetic, and way behind, without even taking into account the things we didn’t get built in time to use this year.

I know better than to compare our situation to others, because it’s so different, but when I’m already feeling so far behind, it’s easy to start feeling down about the whole thing.

Things are supposed to cool down over the next few days, and the storms are supposed to stop for a while. Which means we should finally be able to chop our way through the undergrowth and get those trees my brother cut down for me! This should have been done weeks ago.

Well, it is what it is.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Still there, and baby care

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I had to pop into the garden shed briefly, and much to my surprise, the kitty was still there!

The mom was startled away when I opened the door, so I got to take a quick picture of her one baby, before taking what I needed and leaving them alone.

Later on, though, I’m going to snag a daughter. We’ll bring a box with something soft on the bottom, and quickly transfer the kitten into the box, and move out that mass of garden netting, so it won’t get tangled in it. Then put the kitten back in the same spot, in the box. Hopefully, the mom will accept the nest and keep using it.

When I first headed out this morning, there were no kittens visible in the sun room, but I spotted the almost white kitten in the middle of the yard. It was just bobbing around, mewing, with the moms circling around. Sure enough, both eyes were stuck shut. I ended up bringing it inside and held it, while one of my daughters carefully washed its eyes until they could open again. Then I put it in the sun room, near some food and water. Popping into the sun room later one, there were other kittens in there with it. So it seems like the mamas move the kittens out for the night, but bring them back for the day. I did not see the second kitten with the gooby eyes; it may have been in the sun room, but they have plenty of hiding spaces in that corner.

I’m going to prepare a bed in a box, now, then snag a daughter to help set up in the garden shed! Thankfully, that kitten isn’t very mobile yet, so it won’t get tangled, but that’s not going to be true for very long!

The Re-Farmer

Stuck

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As things cooled down, I was able to get some stuff done outside, which had me in and out of the sun room quite a bit.

I had to be careful not to step on any kittens!

Yes, most of them were running away and hiding, but a couple of them were not.

This is why.

Now I understand why I kept seeing this kitten doing things like napping in the middle of the floor, or just moving around slowly. It can’t see.

One eye was completely stuck closed, and the other was open, but not wide open.

I was able to pick it up and gently dampen the eye until the gunk finally started to come off. The kitten was not happy with the rubbing on the eye, of course, even though I was more about getting it wet then actually rubbing. After a while, though, I got the big stuff off and the eye started to open, so I left it at that. I didn’t want to push things too far.

There was another kitten with gummy eyes, but it was just around the eye lids, not gluing them shut, so it would still see. We will have to make cleaning those eyes a regular thing. That’s one way to socialize them, I guess. Handle them while their eyes are stuck shut!

The good thing is, the kittens are starting to eat kibble, which means they’re going to get the lysine it’s coated in. That will help them fight off the herpes that’s causing this. If things start getting worse instead of better, we’ll see about getting eye drops for them.

While I was tending to the kitten, Baby Beep Beep came in, with a mouse. She growled constantly as she ate it, but didn’t leave! I think she might be the mom of the littlest kittens. Later on, I saw Adam skulking around the door – with another mouse hanging out of her mouth! Towards the end of the day, when I was ready to come in, I found her lying just inside the doorway, nursing. She’s the mom of the bigger kittens – the black and white ones that look so much like her! That means the grey and white cat I’ve been seeing in the sun room (I believe the girls call that one Pistachio), would be the mother of the in between sized kittens, including the ones with the gooby eyes.

I’m still not sure who the mother of the tuxedo is. I’ve seen him try to nurse on a grey and white, but she wouldn’t let him, so either it was his mother enforcing weaning, or another mother, refusing to nurse a kitten that isn’t hers.

As things started to cool down, I was able to empty most of the rain barrel to water the front garden beds. Then I went around to use a hose in the main garden area. While doing the squash patch, I hoped to see some frogs using the little houses we made for them, but so far, nothing. I also wasn’t seeing any slugs, so that’s encouraging. The second sowing of summer squash still hasn’t germinated. Looks like we’re going to be very short of summer squash this year!

For the tomato beds, I hooked up the sprinkler hoses, and remembered to get some ground staples to hold them in place, facing slightly inwards, so the inside of the beds are being watered, not the paths. The soaker hose takes a lot longer to deeply water the bed, and that gave me time to remove the old straw and what’s left of the cardboard underlay in the area the trellis beds will be built. Once the beds are built, and the vertical posts for the trellis are in, the old straw will be layered back into the beds.

I’d watered the Crespo squash, in the bed far from the house, with the watering can earlier in the day, so the rain barrel out there was due for a refilling, too. After using the watering can, I always leave it full of water, so it doesn’t blow away. When I used that first can of water, it sure was warm from the day’s heat! Not hot enough to harm the squash, thankfully.

When I was done and heading back to the house, I startled some creatures at the kibble house. Racoons. A whole family of them! One big one ran off – I think the same one I’ve been seeing fairly regularly, by itself – but then I saw about four of five little ones and an adult run off. Some of them ran under the laundry platform, which is accessible only though the spaces between the steps. From the noise, I think there was a bit of a panic when they realized they couldn’t get out any other way. I made sure to stay back and to the side, so they couldn’t see me, and could get back out.

Gosh, racoons are cute. Especially when they are little!

The Re-Farmer

Kittens ‘n things. Also, Happy Canada Day!

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Well, for a while there, I thought the kittens that were moved into the sun room had been moved out again! We did not see them when doing the evening feeding, nor did I see them when checking during the night. Handily, we’ve left the shop lights that were hanging over the transplants where they are, which means we can use the remote control in the bathroom to turn them on and check the sun room. 😄

There’s a reason we didn’t see kittens.

My daughter happened to be in the bathroom when she heard a ruckus. She looked out the window, just in time to see one of the mamas chasing a skunk out of the sun room, batting at its butt.

Yeah. It still stinks in there.

When we didn’t see the kittens after that, we thought the mothers might have taken them away again, but nope! They were there this morning!

From what I can see by their sizes, I think the three kittens in this photo are from two different litters. Then there are the smaller kittens whose eyes are still blue, and finally there’s the tuxedo that’s been here a while, still running around outside. Which means we might have a total of 4 litters combined right now!

While they were eating, I was able to reach down and pet some of them. I was even able to pick up and cuddle three of them! Two from the above picture, and a third that wandered over to the kibble container I was standing next to. One of them hissed a bit while I picked it up, but the power of ear scritches is a magical thing, and they settled in a fair bit.

The cats have knocked so much stuff off the shelves and onto the floor. Even after picking up most of the stuck knocked over during the winter, the cats climb into the shelves and knock it all down again. Which is now giving the kittens lots of places to hide, so I guess it’s okay we haven’t been able to get it all cleaned up, after all!

In other things…

Before heading to the city yesterday, I texted the garage about our van. I mentioned that it seemed to be the power steering that was making the noise, and asked if I should drive or tow it in tomorrow (meaning, today) for him to check when he could. When I got to the city, there was a response, and he said it should be okay to drive it in; he just suggested I add power steering fluid. He also gave the okay to leave the van and gave instructions on where to park it.

Today being Canada Day, I knew he would be closed. He’s closed Sundays and, with Canada Day falling on the weekend, a lot of places close on the Monday, too. So he might not be able to look at it until Tuesday, which is fine by us. Since we were at Walmart, I picked up some power steering fluid, too.

So today, I topped up the power steering fluid. We haven’t driven the van in a few months. Even the doors are stiff to open and close! Then I drove it to town, with my daughter following in my mother’s car, to drop it off.

The fluid seems to have made a difference. The steering wasn’t making noise anymore, though when I was outside the van while the engine was running, I could still hear the noise from the engine area. From inside the van, the engine sounded quiet.

Gosh, it felt so good to be driving the van, instead of my mother’s little car! Except for the lack of working air conditioning. 😂

There was something else, though, that wasn’t there before. When I hit the breaks to decelerate, there was a repetitive whumping coming from the rear. !!!

So after parking the van, I sent a message to tell the garage where the keys were hidden, mentioned topping up the fluid, then told about what was happening when applying the brakes.

The 2016 Caravan we’d tried to get financing for is still there, and the price has dropped considerably! At the time we applied for financing, it was selling for $15,400 – though he knocked $400 off for us from the start. Later, I saw it go down to $14,600, then down to $13,900. It is now down to $10,400 ! We weren’t able to get financing for it, because it was just over their mileage cut off. The loan we were approved for was a newer vehicle with lower mileage, but with no credit cards, loans or mortgage to improve our credit rating, the interest rates and requirements were insane. I got a low limit credit card to use to improve my credit rating, which takes about 6 months to really make a difference. We’re at only a couple of months, so it’s still too early to apply again, and get a decent interest rate. But if that van is still there by fall, I’ll be applying for it again. We’ll even be able to make a down payment, though it we can get it with only the van as a trade in, that would be preferable. There are a lot of things that money would be useful for. Life finally getting a plumber to work on our bathroom taps! One vet bill used up the money we had for that, but hopefully, we won’t have any emergencies to require us to dip into it again.

Of course, as I walked by, I took a look at the van. Looking through the tinted back windows, I could see some bags in the back. Looking through another window, I could finally see that they were bagged tires. The van has a set of winter tires, too!

Gosh, it would be so nice to have that van! We loved it when we had a 2007 Grand Caravan, and while the 2005 Uplander we have now has little things that I really like about it, a newer Caravan probably has some version of them, too. I would just really love to have a vehicle that doesn’t have me saying an extra prayer for protection, every time I have to drive somewhere! If the van needs repairs that cost more than it’s worth, though, we might end up applying for it again, sooner, rather than later!

One nice thing about having the van waiting at the garage until it can be looked at: once at home, we didn’t have to squeeze my mother’s car into the side room of the garage, and could park where the van usually sits. Not only is there room to open the driver’s side door all the way, but someone can get in and out of the passenger side, too! 😂

Ugh. It’s past 4pm as I write this, and we’ve hit 30C/86F That matches the 30 year record high from 2012. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.

It could be worse. We could be matching the record low of 5C/42F set in 2001, instead!

Though we had some excellent rain recently, I need to check the garden beds and see if they need to be watered in this heat! It won’t start cooling down for 3 or 4 more hours, though.

Plus, of course, check to make sure the water bowls outside are full, and maybe add some frozen reused water bottles in them, as well!

The Re-Farmer

So. Many. Babies!!!

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I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. First, I was awakened by Turmeric going after Nosencrantz. Then I had Fenrir climb on top of my stomach, demanding pets. Then Butterscotch came over for attention which, for some reason, requires that she get her claws caught in my sheets, repeatedly, before Potato Beetle came over and wanted pets, too. It’s rather hard to pet three cats at the same time!

After a few more aggressive incidents with Turmeric, I finally gave up and headed outside to do my morning rounds, early.

I spotted a couple of kittens in the sun room as I went through from the kitchen, but they quickly hid. Later, while checking on the garden beds, I spotted a very wet Adam crossing the garden from the road. The morning dew was really excessive, and I was getting soaked half way to my knees, and I wasn’t even walking in the tall grass!

Adam appreciated breakfast, but would not let me come any closer.

Nor could I get close to Not-Junkpile. It might be a while before we can giver her that ear mite medication! But we have to do it quickly, considering how madly she’s injuring herself with scratching.

Decimus and her babies are doing quite well. My daughter and I headed to the city and stopped at the clinic to drop off the extra medication we got by mistake. They were very happy I did that! 😄 While there, I mentioned being able to grab a yard cat right after she had her babies and bring her in, and that she likely has ear mites, too. She agreed. Since I was there anyhow, I bought a second dose for Decimus. She, at least, will be easier to get ahold of!

We did our errands in the city, then picked up gas at Costco, for both the car and the lawn mowers. While in town yesterday, I was shocked to find that gas prices had dropped from 158.9 cents/litre to 149.9/litre. We usually see prices jump by that much, but never drop by that much. Costco was still at 145.9/L, and the gas station was insanely busy. We saw other people filling their jerry cans, too. For the lawnmowers, we only use Premium, which was 165.9/L

Before we left, my daughter and I looked into the sun room from outside, and saw at least 5 kittens playing in a group, with several others ducking in and out of view.

After we got home, I looked again from the inside of the house, and spotted Adam with a white and grey. They are both mamas, but it seems to me there are actually three litters combined.

One of Adam’s kittens looks almost exactly like her! It looks like there is a second tuxedo, or something very close to a tuxedo pattern, among her brood as well. The younger ones seem to belong to the white and grey mama. The tuxedo that has been handing around for a while seems very happy to have other kittens to keep him company, now! I get the impression he is older than all the other kittens.

While running our errands today, we were able to pick up more bell collars. They are a lot cheaper in the city! The two boys that spray are now belled. Next, we wanted to bell the more aggressive females. We got a black one with white skulls and crossbones for Turmeric, as it suits her catonality! Tissue got a pink one, to stand out on her white fur. The third went to Fenrir, as she tends to harass Nosencrantz, too. That one is pale green and glows in the dark.

Turmeric didn’t like the colour, but seemed to get used to it quickly. My daughter got Tissue upstairs, and I think she slept through ti! Fenrir, on the other hand, was not a happy camper!

The main thing is, we should be able to hear them before they get into trouble!

The Re-Farmer

Three!

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I popped into the old kitchen for something and glanced through the door into the sunroom.

I saw the most amazing looking kitten!

Poor photo quality, due to taking pictures through a window screen.

It’s almost, but not quite, a white kitten!

Then I spotted two more.

The one that’s fully visible is the one I’d spotted earlier in the day. The second one seems to have more grey, but it kept hiding behind the bin, so I never quite got a good look at it.

From her behaviour, I think Adam, the black and white, is the mother. The other cat is Baby Beep Beep, and I’m pretty sure she has kittens somewhere, too.

The coat on that kitten, though… Wow!

The Re-Farmer

Not what we planted, and self injury?

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I’ve been watching the self seeded poppies in the old kitchen garden, where one plant in particular has been growing faster than the others, with flower buds looking ready to open.

Today, it bloomed.

I did not plant this poppy.

I had figured the poppies that were showing up were from the Giant Rattle bread seed poppy we planted in the area previously. Which are supposed to look a lot like these Hungarian Blue poppies…

The tiny raised bed we have shallots in do have poppies coming up in it, too, and those are likely the Giant Rattle poppies we planted there 2 years ago, then again using our own seed last year. This is what they looked like.

Looking back at my photos, I found we did get one of these red poppies last year.

This, however, showed up after we cleared away some of the undergrowth along the spruce grove, on the other side of the house.

From what I can find, these are Double Scarlet Papasver somniferum – an opium poppy! These predate us living here, but they are not the poppies I remember my mother growing here, when I was a child.

Meanwhile, the bed where we did deliberately plant bread seed poppies that seemed to be overtaken by weeds, does have poppies growing in it. The flower pods that are starting to develop on some are more elongated than I’ve seen before. These are the Hungarian Blue that we are trying this year. At least I hope that’s what they are! The Baker Creek website has photos of the pods and flowers, but not the plants or flower buds.

Now I’m very curious about what the poppies in the shallot bed will be!

In other things, I saw Non-Junkpile today, and she has a new injury, on the other side of her head!

It’s very much like the first one, that is healed.

We are now thinking this is a self injury. She probably has a very bad infestation of ear mites, and is injuring herself by scratching.

The problem is, this is not one of the friendlies. I’ve been able to get fairly close, while there is food, but even as I tried to get a picture of the injury, she kept moving away. There is no chance of getting her to a vet. Especially since she has a litter of kittens somewhere.

There is the type of ear mite medication that can be applied to the skin between the shoulders. If we could get some of that, there is a better possibility that we could snag her long enough to apply it, than to get drops into her ears. But the clinic can’t usually give out prescriptions for cats they’ve never seen. I’ll have to see what we can figure out about that

Oh! Well, would you look at that. I’m getting messages from the Cat Lady. Maybe she has some suggestions!

The Re-Farmer

Healing

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While feeding the outside cats yesterday evening, I spotted Not-Junkpile and was able to get a fairly good look at the side of her neck.

She may end up with a permanent scar, but it does look like she’s healing well. No signs of infection that I can see.

That’s a relief!

The Re-Farmer

Wasted

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Okay, the running around I did with my mother yesterday drained me a lot more than I thought it did. I feel totally wasted today. And she wasn’t even having one of her bad days, either.

I’m also not quite sure what is worth getting started on outside right now. We’re under thunderstorm warnings. The south end of the province is supposed to get the brunt of the storms, but looking at the weather radar, is does look like the system will go right over us, too, for a change. However, with the weird climate bubble we have over us, due to our location between lakes both small and huge, there have been times when the radar shows a system right on top of us, but when I look out the window, there’s nothing. So do I go out and start a job that would normally take a lot of time, or requires electricity, and risk a storm blowing over? Or just putter around with small jobs and leave myself feeling like the entire day is waste?

At least I got this cheerful sight, first thing.

Best of all, I GOT TO TOUCH THE BABY!!!! While he was eating under there, I was able to come close, reach under and start petting his back. He sort of looked around at me, then kept eating. If another cat hadn’t made some sudden crashing noises, he would have stayed longer, too.

I was able to see that the big wood tick visible in his fur previously is now gone, and I could feel no other lumps and bumps as I pet him. I think it was in a location fairly easy to get groomed out. Unlike when I found that cluster of wood ticks by Pinky’s ear a few days ago.

While doing my rounds, I checked out all the garden beds and did some weeding, but I’m hoping we’ll at least get some rain, so I didn’t hook up the sprinkler and soaker hoses, or do any other watering. The girls hadn’t had a chance to move the branch pile I’d made yesterday, so I dragged that off. I was rather pleased to find the branches were stacked in such a way that I could just grab the bottom branches and pull it across the lawn, all at once!

I haven’t completely put away the seedling trays with the Jiffy pellets that didn’t germinate. It looks like two little Birds Egg gourds have shown up! While weeding in the old kitchen garden, near my daughter’s daffodils, I found cleared a space that could actually have something planted in it. I’m considering sticking the new seedlings in there. If they survive, they would get big enough to shade out a lot of the weeds, but might also get big enough to shade out the flowers my daughter planted in there. Another option is the space we had ground cherries in last year. This was partly an experiment to see if they would seed themselves, and it looks like they did not. Which means there’s a spot with really good soil potentially available. If I pull more dandelion roots out of there, I think it would be worth trying.

I’m still disappointed over how many things had zero germination rates. Some winter squash, and both types of cucumbers, in particular that I was looking forward to.

Now… it is worthwhile for me to get the extension cords out and use the weed trimmer, so I can access those trees my brother cut down for me? According to the weather app, it should stop raining within half an hour. In fact, on the animated radar, I can watch the rain system moving right over us.

It’s not raining right now. There isn’t even any wind.

*sigh*

Well, we’ll see what I manage to get done, so the day isn’t entirely wasted.

The Re-Farmer

Long day

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I managed to get a few things done before I had to head out to my mother’s. This is what I was greeted with, when I started getting the kibble for the outside cats.

This kitten has moved right into the shelter area! He runs away from me, but waits until I’m fairly close before he does. For example, I was able to walk past him while he was on this rail, and all he did was tuck himself further under the rose bush.

After feeding the cats and doing my morning rounds, I got out the extended pole pruner and cut away some of the problem branches from Chinese elms near the chain link fence. We’ve been pruning them back pretty much every year since we’ve moved here, but the branches grow back very quickly. Pruning one tree now allows for more light to reach where the peas are planted, but the branch that’s casting the most shade is too high for the pruner, even at maximum height. I dragged off the one branch I did get down, to add it to the pile by the fire pit. I really should have broken it down to smaller pieces, first! Elm is a very heavy wood, and once it was on the ground, I realized the branch was quite a bit bigger than I thought.

I also worked on the elm near the vehicle gate into the inner yard, next to the asparagus patch. This is another tree we’ve cut back before, but when the septic truck came out, it was hitting branches again! I got a couple of the problem branches down but started running out of time, so I just broke them down quickly with the mini-chainsaw pruner and piled them for the girls to haul away later. Some of the branches that need to be taken down will probably have to wait until fall, as they would end up falling right on the asparagus and strawberries. If I wait until they are mulched for the winter, they will protected enough.

Then it was time to change and head out to get some gas, then pick up my mother. We then drove to the next major town, about half way to the city from her place, for her eye appointment. I wanted to get her there early, since she was a first time patient. I explained to her that they would need her health care card and do the “paperwork” to get her into their system, and that they would need to take her glasses to measure her current prescription and do some pre-tests. When we got there, though, she actually seemed surprised when they actually did all the things I explained to her. It was as if she didn’t believe me or something! The timing worked out just right, though; all the pre-stuff was done just before her appointment time, and the eye doctor called her in, right on schedule!

There were a few tests she did with my mother that she didn’t do with me when I had my appointment, like checking my mother’s peripheral vision. My mother will have a fairly minor change in her prescription. She mentioned having headaches, mostly when reading, so we hope the change will make those go away. If the headaches turn out to be caused by something else, she’ll at least be seeing better!

Then the doctor went over the photos taken of the inside of my mother’s eyes. She is showing early signs of macular degeneration, but it is still dry, so there is no treatment for it. She was given a booklet about a specific multivitamin that can help slow down further degradation, that also has a grid eye test on the back page. The doctor got her to use it as instructed, looking at a center dot with one eye covered, and what to look for. It turns out that, with one of her eyes, the grid lines look wavy. For now, the thing to watch out for is if it starts to get worse and, if it does, to get back to her right away.

The one odd thing was when she asked if we had any other questions, and my mother started asking about why an eye might turn all red. The doctor said there could be many reasons and, as my mother continued, I realized she was talking about what that happened to her, four or five years ago. After having a sneezing or coughing fit (I can’t remember which, right now), she popped a blood vessel in her eye. I drove her to the hospital in this town every day for a week, so she could get a blood thinning injection, to help it heal faster. And it did.

Turns out, she either doesn’t remember why it happened, or doesn’t believe that her sneezing/coughing fit actually caused it, anymore. It looks like she’s rewriting her memory about it, too. When I realized what she was talking about and mentioned driving her to the hospital for the injection daily like that, she gave me this death glare for saying something. *sigh*

But, the appointment went well, and she got her prescription. She had brought up with me earlier about the possibility of going to Walmart to get her glasses, because one of the people in her building suggested it. I told her that she could probably get cheaper glasses there, but recommended getting them here, because she’d get better care. After her appointment, when she was told she could look at frames to get her new glasses if she wanted, she started hemming and hawing. I again recommended doing it right away here, if only to get it over and done with, and she sort of agrees. But first, I took her to the counter to pay for the appointment. That confused her and, for some reason, she thought they wanted her health care card again. She had the money for the payment already set aside in an envelope in her purse. She was told she could pay for it together with her new glasses, but that confused her even more, so I told them to just process the payment for the appointment on its own.

With her knees being an issue, my mother wasn’t up to wandering around to look at frames, so one of the staff asked her some questions, then went looking for frames that were sort of like what my mother already had. She ended up bringing two metal and two plastic frames. One of the metal frames were a bright red that matched the shirt my mother happened to be wearing, but my mother would not consider such a bright colour! What was funny about that is that the frames she did choose were a plastic pair with blues, browns and greys, and very trendy! 😄 They look good on her, though, and she liked them, so that’s all that mattered – though I know my mother well enough that she chose them more because she was overwhelmed by having to choose at all.

Then they started asking her about what coatings she wanted, and that was almost more than she could handle. She basically told the woman that was helping her at this point to just give her good glasses, and that she would trust her! 😄 They checked her current glasses and basically matched what she already had.

As we were talking, my mother kept asking questions about the chain and how long they were here, etc. They didn’t quite understand what she meant at first, and told her about other franchise locations, but she was really trying to ask if they’d been located anywhere else. She was still convinced that there was only one eye clinic in this town. They told her there was another one, and where it was located, so she figures that’s what she was remembering. I don’t know when she was last taken to this town to get her eyes tested, but considering she says she was taken to it by her niece, it had to have been well over 10 years ago!

I’m amused that it took them telling her there was another eye clinic for her to finally believe it. We even drove past it later one.

The main thing is, her glasses are ordered. They’ll call me when they are in, and I’ll bring my mother in to pick them up.

That done, even though she was clearly tired, my mother wasn’t ready to go home. So we ended up going to a chicken place for a late lunch/early supper. This is a place she normally goes to in this town, but I don’t know that she’ll be willing to go back again, even though the food was excellent, and so was the service. There seems to have been a change in ownership since we were last there, the the people running it are *gasp* not white. We heard another customer talking to the guy that seated us (well; my mother ignored him and walked right to the table she wanted, so… tried to seat us) and he said he was from Pakistan, so when the waitress came by towards the end of the meal, my started asking her where she was from and how long she’s been in Canada…

She was born here. Second generation Canadian, it turned out.

Thankfully, my mother behaved, and didn’t make any rude comments.

Oh, that reminds me. During conversation, she brought up not going back to the Chinese restaurant that’s right next to her building. Why? Because she’s been seeing so many strange cats lately. *sigh* I think one of the people in her building told her this, but when I asked, my mother said there was something in the news about a Chinese restaurant in the city, where they were caught serving cat meat. The problem is, she could have seen something about this years ago, and who knows in what context it was in. Now, very suddenly, she has decided that because she once saw a strange cat in the field outside her window, it means the Chinese restaurant next to her place is using cat meat…

*sigh*

Anyhow…

When it came time to take care of the bill, I made sure to pay it, because my mother doesn’t believe in tips. Before we left, though, she took the receipt from me. When I got her home and she looked at it, she was really shocked by the amount. I told her that included the tip, and she was all “why did you give a tip? She just did her job. She should be happy to have a job…” The usual.

I told her, I tipped her because she gave us really good service. I know the tipping expectation has gotten pretty extreme these days, but some people will always get tips from me. Wait staff is one of them (especially if my mother’s behaviour has been particularly bad!). Our septic guy is another. 😄

By the time I got my mother home and was getting ready to head home myself, I realized I’d been out for 6 hours already. Almost 5 1/2 of those were with my mother. No wonder I was feeling so tired!

One the way home, though, I swung by the post office. I wasn’t expecting anything, but I did want to see if the tomatoes and peppers were gone. The peppers were all gone, as well all the Black Beauty tomatoes, but there were still a few Spoon and Romas left. I hope someone will take them, but if they’re still there the next time I check, I’ll take them back and try to find someplace to plant them!

Once at home, I went straight back out again to do my evening routine with, today, included giving the Korean Pine in the outer yard a deep watering.

I was watched the entire time by cows. 🐮🐮🐮🐮

I thought I had been hearing them for the past couple of days! I love it when the renter’s cows are here!

I was planning to go to bed early tonight, and get and early start working outside, but it’s already 9pm as I finish writing this, and I still need to update my siblings about how things went with my mother!

Then, it’s bed time. Hopefully, I’ll actually fall asleep instead of suddenly becoming wide awake once my head hits the pillow! 😄😄😄

The Re-Farmer