pain

Morning in the garden, and then off the rails!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It’s just past 5:30pm as I write this, and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open. I am SO tired! Please forgive any odd sentence structure or typos, because I’m sure I’m going to miss many when I got over things before hitting publish!

The cats had me up at about 5am this morning. I got up and fed them – the morning feeding includes kicking all the cats out of my bedroom except Butterscotch and Freya. After the dry kibble is dispensed, I pour some cat milk into a small bowl for our elederly Freya (Butterscotch gets the rest of the little carton), and then I sit beside her on my bed, holding the bowl for her while she eats until she is done. This saves her from having to jump down from the bed to eat, and she can stay all curled up in whatever cat bed she’s in.

Yeah. I’m a suck for the cats.

After a while, I let the other cats back in, then tried going to bed for a couple more hours. I swear, the cats know exactly when I fall asleep for real, and that’s when they start getting into things they shouldn’t, and start making loud noises. Or just going crazy. Tissue got the zoomies this morning. So what sleep I did manage to get was highly interrupted. I can’t even keep the door closed, because then they start scratching at it and that keeps waking me up.

The temperature had dropped to 2C/36F at 5am. By about 8am, it had warmed up to a whole 8C/46F. Which was about when I started heading out. First, the kitties got fed, and I got a daughter to help out. Not with the feeding, though. With kitten catching! Kale and Sir Robin the Brave are incredibly fast about getting into the old kitchen, and haven’t learned to stay away from moving feet, or closing doors! After luring the adult cats away with kibble, I closed the inner door into the sun room and my daughter started handing me bowls of wet cat food to set out for the littles, plus one with both wet and dry cat food for Poirot at her cat carrier nest. Another bowl with part kibble and part wet cat food went into the cat house for Caramel and her babies.

Then I continued my rounds, leaving the sun room closed up, even though all three mamas were out. The white and grey mama has been seen nursing the creche babies more often, now that her third baby is in the sun room again.

Poirot’s grublings are getting more mobile, so I set up a a bit of a shield for them.

I’ve been saving cardboard for the garden in the old kitchen, and there just happened to be a couple of pieces of cardboard that was used as spacers inside a box that were just perfect for this. In the second picture, you can see how they’re set up to cover the gap between the shelf and the wall, and cat carrier and the wall. This should be enough of they accidentally squirm out of the carrier. As they get more mobile, we might just move the carrier to the floor, so they can go in and out as they wish.

Once done with tending the colony, the first thing I do it switch out the memory cards. As I go out to the sign cam, past where the food forest is being built up. That corner gets very sun baked and dry in the summer, but these guys don’t seem to mind at all!

They are absolutely everywhere. It’s impossible to not walk on them, but they don’t seem the least bit bothered by that. I don’t know what they are, but if I had to guess, I’d say they are some type of pansy? Whatever they are, they are pretty indestructible!

The next thing was to check on the garden beds. Especially the one where I just planted peas, yesterday. I thought they were fine until I got to the northernmost end, where I saw the cats had been digging. *sigh* Hopefully, they didn’t actually dig up any seeds, but I really couldn’t tell. I was trying to figure out some way to cover things when I remembered I still have grass clippings saved to use as mulch. There isn’t a lot left, but enough to do the job!

The soil got a gentle watering, first. After the grass was laid down, that got watered down, too. Partly so it wouldn’t blow away too easily.

The plastic covered beds all got watered, too. With the sprouting seedlings, it’s hard to tell which are what I planted and which are weeks. Some that I suspected to be weeds were starting to show their true leaves, and I was correct: they are maple seedlings. So I pulled as many of those as I could, along with identifiable stuff like dandelions – so long as pulling them wouldn’t disturb any other sprouts.

The low raised bed that no longer has plastic on it got watered. I’d tried blocking off one end of the cover and hoped that would be enough protection until I could do the other end. This morning, I discovered, I was wrong.

*sigh*

After repairing the digging damage as best I could, I got creative. This is all temporary.

In the first picture, you can see I just stuck some boards across the opening. The stick holding them in place is secured at the top through the mesh, so those could only go so high, so I used what I could find to add verticals on the inside. Hopefully, the cats won’t try to jump through the gaps.

In the next picture, you can see the twine I wove through the mesh to close up the end. Again, temporary, but this should hold for a while.

After the watering and weeding was done, I headed inside for breakfast, before going back out and continuing what I hoped to get finished today.

It was almost exactly 10am and I just sat down with my food when the phone rang.

It was my mother.

No one showed up to do her med assist this morning.

I should have gotten a call, but I got nothing. My mother had tried calling the case coordinator, but it’s Saturday; her office is closed.

So I told her, I would quickly finish eating, then head out to give her her medications. She wanted me to dispense her other two meds for the day, too, in case her med assist didn’t show up for those times, either, but I refused. Got quite a mocking for following the rules. So what will you do? she asked me. Come out two more times?

I said, yes! I will!

I told her, there’s a reason your medications are in your lock box. You were messing with your medications, forgetting if you took them, etc. Oh, I wasn’t that bad, she said. Yes, you were, Mom. That’s why you have a lock box! She actually seemed to stop and think about that!

One of the things I did was write up a note and leave it in their notebook, stating that I had dispensed that morning’s medications and at what time.

I also told her that, since I was out anyhow, I would make a trip to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping. I had planned to do it later in the weeks, but I could do it now. The Walmart carries 2L plastic milk jugs, which she finds easier to handle, so I told her I was thinking of getting a plastic jug for her. I did just get her a carton, but…

She does still have milk, but it turns out she had dropped the carton while trying to open it and spilled some. So more milk, in a better container, was a big yes from her!

I ended up leaving with a small shopping list and some cash. One of the things she was running low of was the topical pain killer she’s been using on her knees. She’s now using it on her back, too, so she’s going through it faster. I had already been thinking of checking that out, too, as I figured it would be a better price.

Since it was well past 11am by the time I was going to head out, I offered to make a lunch for her, but she said she had leftovers from yesterday’s Meals on Wheels, so she was fine. Once I knew she was settled, I headed out.

My first stop was actually a Dollarama that shares a parking lot with the Walmart. There were a few small things that I wanted to pick up and, of course, I went through the garden supply section. I ended up picking up four 4′ metal posts. Not T posts, but the same idea. They have hooks in the metal to hold trellis netting. They would have been perfect for what I was doing yesterday – and easier to set into the soil! We will be trellising pole beans and more peas, though, so new posts will not go amiss. I probably should have gotten more, but I should be able to get some more next month, if I need to.

After I was done at the Dollarama, it was across the parking lot to Walmart.

I got a few things that were not on my list. 😄

One thing that was on my list was more wet cat food. Since we are giving wet cat food to the kittens, we’re going through it faster. Normally, at Walmart, I pick up cases of 32. Looking at the new prices for the individual cans, though, I realized it would actually be cheaper to buy them loose, than by case lot! I ended up using some of their cardboard flats and got 48 cans of paté for the inside cats (paté works better when making cat soup) and 24 cans of chunks in gravy for the kittens.

They had sales on canned food for humans, too, and I got a flat of 24 cans of tomato soup for the pantry, too.

I also went through the garden centre. I picked up some replacement Yukon potatoes, since I’m sure the ones I’ve been chitting are no longer viable. Their herbs and vegetables were out, so I went hunting and found a few herbs. I got English Thyme, Golden thyme, two containers of oregano, lemon balm and basil. These will go into the tiny raised bed in the old kitchen garden, which has a cat proof cover already.

As for my mother’s list, the topical painkiller she uses was there – and cost $11 less than at her local pharmacy! That’s a huge difference!

The store was very busy, so it took a while for me to get everything I was looking for (and then some), and I was really tired and hungry by the end of it. I had some frozen stuff in my cart, so I stopped to get some take out that I could eat while driving, then headed out, making sure to update my family and let them know I was on my way to my mother’s, then home.

Which is when things went sideways.

Literally.

The last part of my route to my mother’s is a provincial trunk road, from one highway to another, that leads to my mother’s town. This is an east/west route.

The wind was coming from the south.

As I was driving towards an area of wide open fields, I saw the entire horizon was covered with what looked like black smoke. Once clear of some trees, I could see it swirling over the fields – but no flames.

It was dust.

Basically, the topsoil from the south side of the road was being blown to the north side of the road.

As I was being buffeted by the wind, driving through it.

Which is when I heard and felt something behind me and looked in my mirror just in time to see the cover over the box of our truck blow off, into the ditch and keep on going!

I pulled over, but by the time I did, there was no sign of the cover. I’m sure it was still being blown across that field for some time!

I had stuff in the box of the truck, and it was already getting scattered across the box. I gathered it all together and crammed it mostly into the back of the cab, making sure nothing went to the front that could get mixed up with my mother’s stuff.

I made sure that there was no way those metal posts would be able to slide and hit a window!

Once everything was put away, I continued to my mother’s place. Wow, what a difference in how the truck felt while driving! The wind swirling into the box of the truck was very noticeable.

When I was done at my mother’s, I was able to get for damage, which you can see in the second image in the slideshow above. There was enough flex on the box when the cover was torn off that it cracked the tail light cover.

But I didn’t get a chance to see that until later.

As soon as I entered her apartment, my mother, who was lying in bed, started saying, Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! I’m so glad to see you! while getting up to sit on the side of her bed.

I’m doing poorly, she tells me. Maybe I should go to the hospital. What do you think?

I certainly did not voice what I was actually thinking. My mother has cried wolf so many times, and uses having us take her to the hospital as a way of getting attention.

I asked her questions about what was going on. She was pretty vague about it; as if she expected me to already know. She told me she took one of the new pills (the T3s), but it didn’t seem to make a difference.

I told her, these pills aren’t magic. They are just stronger painkillers. As she kept on basically about what her expectations were (take pill: pain ends utterly and completely), I told her that her prescription for these is just a couple a day, morning and evening, as needed. I’m on the same pills, same dosage per tablet, and I can take up to 9 of them in total, per day. So it really depends on the individual.

She was pretty shocked that I could take so many per day, when she had a limit of two per day.

As I was putting things away, she lay back down in bed and suggested that maybe using the topical painkiller would help (confirming, finally, exactly what it was that was causing her problems this time). So that’s what we tried. She asked me to do, not only her hips (the pain is mostly just on one side), but her entire back as well. As I was doing that for her, she said to add lots, so I did it second time. As I was putting away the tube, she started saying she could feel a difference, already!

Hopefully, that will be enough.

My brother and I are planning to be there tomorrow for Mother’s Day, so we’ll be able to check on her more thoroughly, then.

Meanwhile, whenever I had a few moments, I kept my family and my siblings updated on things. I told my mother that I had frozen things in my vehicle and had to get them home, so I was soon back on the road. A daughter was sweet enough to have the gate open for me when I got in.

After everything was unloaded, and the new transplants and bags of seed potatoes secure in the portable greenhouse, it was time to feed the outside cats. I had another daughter on kitten duty, too! Other than doing a quick check to make sure none of the raised bed covers were blown away, I was more than happy to finally settle in at home.

So much for my garden and planting plans for the day! As I write this, we have continued to get warmer. It’s past 7pm now, and the temperature has risen to 24C/75F, though with the wind, it does feel a bit cooler. Not much, though! One of the local weather groups I follow on Facebook has been posting information and the coming heat way, with significant heat warnings to come.

We’re supposedly getting rain right now, though the current systems are skirting right past us. Later this evening, we’re supposed to be getting real rain. One of the things that the weather nerds that run the group noted is what appears to be pyrocumulous clouds forming in some areas! These are thunderstorm clouds that are created by heat; you might typically see them form over volcanoes, but can also form over forest fires, if the conditions are right. Scary stuff!

Tonight, the coolest temperatures are supposed to be at around 5 and 6am, at 14C/57F, and then start heating right up. The heat wave is supposed to hit us the hardest on Monday and Tuesday, but still be very hot on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Friday, the temperature is supposed to drop right down, with overnight lows of 0C/32F, and a mix of rain and snow. Saturday is supposed to be only slightly warmer.

Spring weather is so chaotic.

Well, if we can work around the hottest parts of the day, I should still be able to get at least some of those walnut seeds planted, get more areas prepped in the garden and, if all goes well, even do more direct sowing done. Chances are, though, that very little will get done until after the heat wave passes, and we’re back into cooler temperatures. At which point, we’ll be needing to protect some things from frost! For now, we’ve been able to leave our transplants in the portable greenhouse day and night, but we’ll have to bring them inside on those coldest nights.

As for me, it’s time to pain killer up and get to bed. If the cats are going to be waking me up at 5am anyhow, I may as well take advantage of it and get work done outside, before it gets too hot! I just have to work out what time I’ll be meeting up with my brother at my mother’s place tomorrow.

What a day today has turned out to be!

The Re-Farmer

So much hurt

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

It’s just past 6pm as I start this, and it’s all I can do not to pain killer up and go to bed right now.

My goal for today was to get started on planting the things I bought at the homesteading show yesterday. Which I sort of did. Just not directly, yet!

Oh, before I forget, check out these seedlings!

This is in the winter sown low raised be near the dead tree on the outhouse we were working on last night. I was starting to wonder if they had survived the winter, and the cats! This bed has the root vegetable seed mix I put together, plus our own collected lettuce seeds.

After doing some reading on the tree nursery’s website, I decided a trip to the nearest Walmart was in order, to pick up some supplies. The bed with the new sprouts was going to need protection, too! After doing my morning rounds and a few things at home, it was getting close to noon before I headed out. I ended up going to the Canadian Tire first, though, and that’s where I found pretty much all that I was looking for.

The main things I got were a couple of bags of cattle manure and another couple of sheep’s manure. I wanted to pick up some peat, too, but there wasn’t any, which I found rather odd. After getting some feedback in the comments section of a gardening video, I went looking in the paint section for some plastic to use on raised bed covers, without having to order 6mm greenhouse plastic online. I ended up needing help from two different staff members to find what I needed. Most of what was available was much, much thinner, but they did find some 7mm sheets for me. I ended up getting two 10’x25′ sheets plus three 8’x10′ sheets. Hopefully, this will work out better than cobbling together lengths of dining table protectors! I also got a 50′ roll of 1/2 inch pex pipe. These will be cut to length to use as support hoops. I also found a couple of small watering cans with long, narrow pour spouts. I’ve been looking for them for some time, as it’s been a real pain trying to water the aloe vera without water splashing off the leaves all over the place. It will also make it easier to water the transplant trays under the seedlings.

I did get one completely unplanned thing and that was a smaller Dutch oven that was on clearance.

That done, I went over to the Walmart. They didn’t have peat, either, but I did find cat milk for our elderly Freya and got a whole bunch. Since I was there, I went ahead and picked up things for the pantry and generally just looking for various things we might need.

By the time I was done and the truck was loaded up, I was completely wiped out. Yesterday had finally caught up to me. I had also skipped lunch, so I was tired, in pain and very hungry. I messaged home to let the family know I was on my way and my state. When I got back, I had plenty of help getting things unloaded and put away, and there was a hot meal waiting for me.

Pain levels aren’t the only thing that kept me from getting outside stuff started for planting. It’s been steadily raining/misting all day. On my way home, as my route took me closer to the lake, it was just straight up thick fog. Which will be great for the garden, at least! At least it’s relatively warm, though. It looks like I won’t be getting anything done tomorrow, either. We’re supposed to have a high of only 6C/43F, and the overnight low is supposed to be -6C/21F! For the past while, our overnight lows have been hovering around the freezing mark, at the lowest, but not that far below zero! I’ll have to make a point of protecting the bed with the seedlings overnight! After tomorrow night, our overnight lows are supposed to stay above freezing from not until at least half way through May. Our long range forecasts actually show highs getting close to 30C/86F until the middle of the month, and then suddenly dropping to the point of a rain/snow mix.

If I’m not going to be able to get things planted tomorrow, I’m going to have to make sure the trees don’t try out. They’re being kept in the old kitchen right now, where it’s cooler, so at least they won’t come out of dormancy too quickly.

We have seedlings in the basement that are ready to be potted up, so that can be a project for tomorrow. I should be able to get out and plant the trees the day after.

For now, though, it’s all I can do to stay awake at the keyboard while I type this. I’m not looking forward to trying to get out of my office chair and walking, though. I can feel every joint in my body stiffening up. Even typing is getting difficult.

Yeah, pain killers and an early bed time are definitely in order.

The Re-Farmer

Morning catertainment

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I had lots of company this morning!

It was hard to do a head count, as they were milling around so much, but I might have fed 37 cats this morning, not counting Brussel’s kittens.

Before heading inside, I saw Brussel was well settled around her babies. I reached in to try and pet her. She didn’t like it, hissed at me, but did not actually try to bite me or anything like that. I got to sneak pet her babies, too.

There were no other cats in the sun room, so I went and got a squeeze treat. This is my first attempt to use one with her. She started growling as I reached in with it and immediately got distracted by the deliciousness in front of her face. She continued to growl at me, then entire time she scarfed it down!

I think that’s good progress on socializing Brussel!

With the temperatures swinging from a few degrees above freezing, to a few degrees below, things have been melting at a slower pace. As a result, the moat around the garage is nowhere near as large as it has been in the last couple of years. The “pond” behind the garage/in front of the outhouse that started to form is pretty much gone, and the paths are clear. There’s the low spot at the driveway into the yard, but it’s fairly easy to skirt around.

The cats have been enjoying the ice.

They seems to be “hunting” something through the ice at times. Probably water moving under their weight, or the ice making crackling noises. It’s barely thick enough hold the weight of the cats.

We’re supposed to have a high above freezing today, but below freezing over the next couple of days. After that, we’re supposed to warm right up and, if the long range forecast is to be believed, have highs well above freezing, from now on.

We’re still below freezing as I write this, so I’m going to wait a bit before I see what I can do with the raised bed cover in the old kitchen garden. The surface it definitely too frozen to remove any mulch, so I want to get that plastic over the frame. That should help thaw things out, even as the temperatures dip a bit, as we’re still supposed to get quite a bit of sunlight. It should get nice and toasty under the plastic.

I will have to watch myself, though. I didn’t think I’d over done it over the past couple of days, but my joints have been stiffening up and hurting a LOT. I honestly can’t tell if the new pain killers are helping or not. Worse, when I tried rolling over in bed last night, I got hit with a nasty Charlie horse in my left thigh. I haven’t had one of those in quite a while! While not the worst I’ve had (that was, hands down, the time I had it in both legs at the same time), I was unable to get to my phone to message my daughter for help. I did manage to take some acetaminophen (same family as the prescription painkillers). Ibuprofen would have been better, but they are NSAIDs, and contraindicated.

My daughters were both up, though, and heard me while I was trying to deal with the pain. My older daughter came down to see if I was okay, then stayed to try and help as much as she could. There really wasn’t much she could do until it finally started to go away. She then helped me stand up and walk to the bathroom, hung around to help me walk back again, and get back into bed. I needed her help to lift the affected leg up so I could lie down. After she was sure I was okay, she went back upstairs, and her sister came and stayed with me for a while longer.

Just looking at the time, I’m realizing it’s been about 7 hours since the Charlie horse hit me, and the affected muscles are still feeing weak and trembly, and like they are on the edge of cramping again.

I have been trying to think what changed recently that it would hit me again after all this time. I am thinking dehydration might have contributed to it, having been out and about for the past couple of days, but even that doesn’t seem likely. Very frustrating!

With how little sleep I ended up getting last night, because of it, I plan to try and get a nap in before heading outside again. I’m actually nervous about lying down and getting hit with it again!

Well, there’s only one way to find out…

The Re-Farmer

Not today

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Well, I’m glad I got as much done yesterday as I did, but today I’m paying for it!

My plans for outside, today?

Not going to happen.

Oh, I did my morning rounds, as usual, and got to make some kitties very happy.

The full belly kittens especially enjoy the isolation shelter, with its new, donated beds.

There is one thing I need to figure out about the isolation shelter, for times like this, when no cats are being isolated. I specifically made the door to also be a ramp, so they can go in and out freely. Where it’s sitting now, though, that big, wide opening is facing directly south. Which is great for passive solar heat through the windows, and even the plastic wrapped around the bottom.

Not so great for wind and snow.

That’s going to blow right into the opening.

I’ve considered getting some scrap carpet or something and attaching it above the opening on the inside, where it still allow for the ramp door to be closed, with the carpet cut into strips so they can easily push through. That’s what’s over the opening into the cat house and it works very well, though it does need replacing. The cat house, however, has an added entryway to it. After my brother built it for his dogs, he found he had this same problem with wind and snow getting into the original entrance. So he made an addition. The addition created a somewhat sheltered corner next to one of the windows, which is where the new entry is, while the original entry is at the far end of the addition. Between the new angle and the shelter of the corner, the carpet strips at the opening (a double layer of carpet with the strips cut so that the slits overlap the strips) and the distance to the main entry, very little wind can get in, and virtually no snow at all.

That’s not really an option for the isolation shelter, since it needs to be mobile. If the patio blocks were not so uneven, we could simply rotate it 45 degrees, and that alone would mostly solve the problem. Uneven patio blocks aside, that would also eliminate a lot of the passive solar heat, plus we’d have to change up how the cords for the heated water bowl and heat lamp are, so we could still plug it in.

Basically, we need a wind break and a roof over the opening. It’s just a matter of figuring out the best way to do that, using the materials we have on hand. It may be something as simple as leaning something against the shelter that’s long enough and wide enough, and securing it enough that it won’t blow away.

We’ll figure it out.

After completing my rounds, I prepared a shaker container with the native wildflower seeds mix and some potting soil, giving it a thorough shake to get the seeds well mixed in with the potting soil. Once the insulated tarp that’s been laying on the ground all summer is moved aside, I planned to loosen the soil beneath with the landscaping rake, then scattering the seed mix over it.

Well, not today, it turns out.

Before doing that, I went in for breakfast and to let things warm up at least a little more – our high for today is only supposed to be 5C/41F, and we’re supposed to be rainy. Oh, they’re now saying, light rain and snow. As I write this, it’s before noon, a fog has rolled in, but no rain, so far. The tail end of a system that is passing north of us isn’t expect to hit until about 3pm.

So I sat at my computer to watch some videos while having breakfast, then worked a bit on the second of six Singlade balls I’m making for this year’s Christmas decorations.

Then I got up to go to the bathroom and discovered my entire body had basically seized up.

Every joint in my body seemed to have stiffened up. My husband had been in the room with me at the time, and I was hobbling so badly he offered to bring me a cane.

I used the walls, instead.

I’m having a harder time moving around than he is right now, and he’s the one that’s officially broken!

Well… it is Sunday. I guess this is God’s way of making sure I get my day of rest! 😄😁

This time of year is so hard on my osteoarthritis. It’s frustrating, because I can do so well on some days, and then WHAM, I can barely move.

I guess this will be a good day for pain killers, hot tea, watching videos and making Singlade.

Lord knows, I’m not going to be able to do much else today.

Now… about those pain killers…

The Re-Farmer

Getting some rest today

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I did get some things accomplished today, but ended up cutting back on some of what I planned to do. I was just too stiff and sore, and I’ll be heading to the city for our Costco shop tomorrow, so I didn’t want to push my luck.

I wasn’t happy with the garden tour video I took yesterday evening, so I tried again this morning. I think they will do, though I did catch some mistakes I made. Ah, well. I can edit in some notes when I put the tour video together.

The truck was booked for the garage today. When changing the oil, he forgot to reset the computer, so I was still getting the “change oil soon” warning. He also forgot to put on a new sticker. The check engine line turned back on again, so he was going to diagnose that for me, plus get some pricing for other work we already knew would need doing.

My appointment was for 1pm, but I left early so I could put in a bit of gas and a car wash. I still dropped the truck off early. They were having lunch! After talking for a bit about what needed to be checked out, I told them there was no hurry, as I had some errands to run.

Without the truck, doing them meant a lot of walking!

My first stop was the furthest. I headed to the dollar store. There were some things I was looking for, for the bathroom, but I wasn’t sure if they would have them. I did, however, find some embroidery thread that I plan to use for this year’s Christmas decorations (I try to do a different craft every year). They had also restocked on breakaway collars. I got their last five that had reflective strands in them. The last time I got some, I got four of them to put on the four males that had just been neutered, but three of them were gone the next day. I think I put them on too loosely. I’d hoped to find them around the yard or something, but there was no sign of them. Only Syndol still has his collar.

After taking the bells off, I put the collars on after doing their evening feeding.

I had to double check for tattoos on a couple of them, to be sure! I had enough collars to include Judgement (who was done on a cheap spay/neuter day, and has no tattoo) and Gouda. Right now, the only fixed cat that does not have a collar is Rolando Moon. The grand old lady has no need for a collar, and I doubt I could get one on her, anyhow.

I made them a bit snugger this time, testing them out on inside cats, first. Hopefully, that will do the trick, and they won’t get lost. So far, the cats didn’t seem to notice them, once I got them on.

After the dollar store, I stopped at a Red Apple. Once again, what I was actually looking for wasn’t there, but I did find a blackout curtain for my husband. He has a south facing window, and the sun hits him right in the face while he’s on his computer. We had curtains there before, but they were too long, and the cats destroyed their bottoms. This curtain also turned out to be really long, but we just folded up the bottom out of cat range and clipped it in place for now.

My husband is very happy with it! Plus, it’s wide enough that a second one isn’t needed.

By the time I made my way back to the garage, it was past 1pm, but the truck hadn’t moved from where I parked it yet. I was able to leave my bag of shopping in it, then headed to the hotel next door that has a Chinese restaurant in it, and had lunch.

When I got back to the garage, they were just finishing up with the truck and just had to look up the codes that came up while he scanned it.

So the thing that’s turning on the check engine like turns out to be the Mass Air Flow sensor. Nothing urgent.

The part, however, costs almost $180 (plus labour and taxes).

The other thing we need to get fix, but got away with not needing last winter, is the cord for the block heater. I discovered the plug had been torn off. This being a GM vehicle, they have proprietary cords. You can’t just splice a new plug in. It won’t work. Apparently, GM is the only manufacturer that is like this. A new one is just pennies over $80. Last of all, I requested an updated price for the one of the wheel sensors. That will be just under $105, which is pretty much the same as when I asked about it, a year ago.

Thankfully, none of this is urgent stuff, because we won’t have the budget to get any of it done until next month. I asked which he would consider a priority, if we could only do one at a time. He suggested the MAF sensor. Next would be the block heater cord. Last winter was mild a mild El Nińo winter, so we were fine without it. This year will depend on just how strong the La Nińa current turns out to be.

That done, I made a quick stop at the grocery store across the street, then headed home, with a quick stop at the post office along the way. I had a letter from the government waiting for me. At tax time, I get the caregiver tax rebate, while my husband gets a disability tax credit. These are the only reason why we get anything back at tax time. The caregiver tax rebate is provincial, and has to be renewed every three years. It was time for me to renew it to get it on my 2024 tax return.

It turned out to be easily done online, so that got taken care of quickly.

My intention had been to try and get some more work done outside, while the temperatures were good and there was still daylight.

Instead, I decided to make it a day of rest. Even working on the garden tour video turns out to be something I’m just too tired to do. It doesn’t help that the arthritic in my hands is really kicking in. The crackling noises my finger joints make is truly unfortunate! It makes typing rather difficult at times. At least my wounded finger tips on each hand are healing up nicely. Just the one I dropped the trailer tailgate on is still hurting.

I think today will be a day for an early bed time. I’d like to get a relatively early start for the city. I say “relatively” because sunrise is past 8:20am this time of year, though it is usually pretty light by about 7:30. I do my morning rounds once it’s light out, so I’ll head out shortly after.

I’m glad we got the truck checked today, but I’m not looking forward to doing Costco on a Saturday. Hopefully, making it an early trip will mean fewer crowds.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Rough night and new kitten mama identified

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I was finally able to connect with my mother last night and, as expected, she needed a grocery shopping trip. So we made plans for that, and I headed to bed early.

I even fell asleep!

Then, in the wee hours of the morning, I rolled over and got hit with a Charlie horse. After much pain and difficulty, I finally managed to reach my phone and send a voice to text message to my daughter, asking for help.

I love technology.

She was able to give me a hand, bring me some ibuprofen, etc., until the cramps finally eased off. When I was finally able to walk, she stayed close while I made my way to the bathroom and back, ready to help me get back into bed if I needed it. Thankfully, I did not, but the muscles kept threatening to cramp up again. I finally got up and made myself something to eat. By the time I was done and able to get back into bed, I slept so hard, I never heard the thunderstorm and heavy rains that swept over us! I didn’t know we’d had a downpour at all until morning. My leg was still unstable, so I asked the girls to do the outside stuff and water the garden, but the garden didn’t need it this morning.

My mother and I had plans to go out for lunch before I did her shopping, so I intended to be there on the early side. While the girls did the outside stuff, I still wanted to check on things before I left, which reminded me to take pictures of the garden beds to show my mother.

One of the first things I saw as I headed out from the sun room were the new kittens – and their mama!

It is now confirmed: their mama is Sprout. I knew she must have had a litter somewhere, but this is the first time we’ve seen her with kittens.

The orange kitten looks so fluffy!

Unfortunately, Sprout is one of the more feral of the yard cats. She is even aggressive to the other cats, snarling, growling and hissing at them if they come too close. That might make it harder to socialize those kittens!

Then, as I was heading to the truck to head to my mother’s, I spotted Brussel’s last kitten.

She and her baby still like to hang out in and around the garage, much like Broccoli and her babies prefer to hang out by the garden shed.

The visit with my mother went okay. When I got there, she told me she was not up to going out to eat, so she’d made lunch, instead. I wish I’d known in advance, or I would have brought food. I don’t like eating her groceries! It did give us a chance to talk, and I showed her the photos I took of the garden (those will be in my next post), then we went over her shopping list, which included a stop at the pharmacy.

There were a couple of things I forgot to pick up when I went to the grocery store for ourselves, yesterday, so I did both our shopping at the same time. I even picked up a few extra things for my mother that weren’t on her list, but the prices were good, and I knew she could use them. Other things, I found substitutes, because the prices were too high. Still, she’s now well stocked for the week, and that’s the important part.

The visit did have its down sides. After I’d put everything away, she had the local paper out and open. Our vandal has made his annual “in memory” listing about my late brother, with a colour photo of him with my late father. This impressed my mother greatly, because he does it every year, and it costs extra to include a colour photo. The fact that the content is passive aggressive and misleading – even outright false, in one thing – she is totally impressed by it. I told her I’d already seen the listing online, and she was all “and you didn’t tell me?” My response was, why would I? He does this every year, and it’s not like he’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart. She then launched into making excuses for him and how he’s doing such great things, like volunteering to cut grass at the cemetery. Which I’m sure he made sure she knew about. Well, I visited the cemetery, too, but I don’t tell her about it, or about the flowers I added at the family graves, etc. Coming from me, she would find ways to either tell me how I am doing it wrong, or find a way to turn it around and start saying how great our vandal is.

Then I found out, he’d come by her place recently.

I told her, he shouldn’t be doing that.

She, of course, tried to turn it around on me, because that’s what she does. It took me a while to figure out what she was saying, because she phrased it so oddly, but she essentially said, if my daughters did what our vandal did, would I cut them off entirely? I told her, if they did what he did, yes! I would hold them responsible and accountable. I then called her out on making excuses for him the way she does, pointing out that he’s stolen 10’s of thousands of dollars of stuff from her that was on the farm (heck, his taking stuff was one of the biggest reasons she asked us to move here!), but that’s okay because he put a colour picture in the paper? He does this stuff because people have been letting him get away with is for years. I’m the first person to stand up to him, and he ended up vandalizing the place, we have to keep the gate locked, and worry that he’ll suddenly show up and try to burn the house down or something.

She changed the subject after that.

That was pretty much the only real downside of the visit. Mostly, I think she was just too tired to be as difficult as she usually is.

I didn’t stay too much longer after putting things away, since I did have my own few purchases getting hot in the truck, so I headed home soon after.

Once at home and settled, I gave the outside cats their lysine enhanced kibble. Since it’s the more granular type of lysine, I have been making sure the kibble bowls get some water in them, so it’ll stick to the kibble. With some of the bowls, I add extra water, as the kittens seem to prefer it, and this way they are getting more hydration in this heat, and the lysine will be dissolved in the water. Some of the kittens are getting leaky eyes and noses, including Button, and I want to make sure they get their lysine! It helps strengthen their immune systems.

No sign of the new kittens this time, though.

Then I went into the garden, but I’ll talk about that in my next post.

As for how things are now, my leg is still feeling like it’s about to start cramping up on me. More so as I’m sitting down then while I’m walking around. I’m going to be feeling downright nervous, getting into bed tonight! I’ve been looking into the various possible causes. One was the lawn mowing in the heat, but I didn’t do anywhere near as much as I have in the past. Lack of electrolytes is a possibility. I’m already taking B12 and Magnesium supplements, but it looks like I might be low on potassium and sodium, too. At least, those are the only possible causes I can be proactive about. Others include things like “getting older”. 😄

Well, we’ll see how it works out tonight!

The Re-Farmer

More plans gone awry

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I should be used to this, by now.

With my computer dying before Christmas, we never did our traditional family photo that I email to family and friends every year. With the lilacs in full bloom, we were doing to do it now, posting under the lilac hedge.

The weather did not cooperate.

Then I got an early morning phone call from my mother’s doctor. My mother’s last lab work included a kidney test. The last time she had this done would have been around February, and the results were fine. This time, there was a significant decline. The doctor explained the test results and gave me instructions for my mother; she needs to stop taking her water pills, and work on hydration.

I’ve been trying to get her to increase her hydration for quite a while, now!

Then she needs to be tested again, in a month.

That call done, I knew it was too early to call my mother, so I sent an email update to my siblings, did a short version of my morning rounds and had breakfast.

I did make sure to leave food for Broccoli in the old garden shed. Her kittens were not in the cat bed, but I could hear her growling in the back somewhere, so I left the food and closed the door. As I was leaving, I saw her pop out where the hole in the back of the shed is. Later on, I saw her standing guard near the shed. So I’m guessing her kittens are still in there, but that she’s tucked them somewhere in the back, under a bunch of stuff that’s been in the shed since before we moved here.

After a couple of hours, I tried calling my mother – and she was still in bed! Ah, well. I told her about the call from her doctor, and explained the instructions for her. The problem is, she’s not sure which of her pills is the water pills. I have a photograph of her prescriptions in her bubble packs, but that’s somewhere in the external drive of data saved from my dead computer. I sort my pictures by date, and I have no idea when I would have take the picture. My brother has the list, but won’t be able to get to it until he gets home from work.

After talking to my mother, I called her doctor’s clinic and asked about her requisition. I wanted to know if they could send it to the lab in the hospital that’s just a few blocks from my mother (the clinic there has even more trouble keeping doctors than other towns we’ve tried). It turns out they can’t fax it to that lab. They’d be willing to, but it goes against the rules of the other lab. However, if I were in the area, I could swing by and get it printed out for my mother. Once she has a physical copy, she can go to any lab she wants. So I’ll see if I’ll be able to do that within the next few weeks. Otherwise, I’ll have to drive her to the town her doctor is in, and that’s very tiring for my mother.

I did make arrangements with my mother to help her with grocery shopping tomorrow, so I can go through her prescriptions and verify. She’s on the same water pills my husband is, but when he showed me his, they didn’t look like any of hers, so they must be from a different supplier. The pharmacy we go to is a different franchise.

Speaking of pharmacies…

I was getting ready to head outside, when I found out I was going to need to go to the pharmacy. I was planning to do a dump run when it opened in the evening, then a run into town anyhow, but that would have cut things close to the pharmacy’s closing time, so I left for town right away, instead. By then, the post office was closed over the lunch period and a couple of packages had come in early, so I went to a couple of other places after getting the medications, then did the grocery store last. Once of the things I wanted to do was pick up a new water jug, along with getting a refill. With one of the jugs springing a leak, we were down to three, and that was just not working out. I was rather shocked to discover getting a new 18.9L jug cost just over $26!!! The fill is free when you buy a new jug, but I did have to buy a new cap, since I had to take off the cap it came with, in order to fill it.

All the running around took several hours.

I must have over did myself yesterday, more than I thought, because by the time I got home, I was pretty much wasted. I still feel wasted, and it’s all I can do not to just go to bed right now. It’s not even 6pm yet.

It also rained again. We weren’t supposed to get rain today. Not much. Just smatters of rain, but there’s no chance of anything really drying out right now.

I did make myself go outside, though. I gave the outside cats a light afternoon feeding (the little skunk was back for food, too!). I wanted to at least check all the transplants. The plastic on the box cover around the eggplant and hot peppers was starting to tear loose on one side, so I stapled that back on. The twine I tied around it yesterday did help, but the winds have been just insane for the past while.

All the transplants look just fine, though. None of them look stressed at all in their new locations. I’ve no doubt their protective plastic rings has helped with that, considering the winds we’ve been having. I checked the mulberry, too, but they didn’t look all that healthy when I planted them, so all I can say is, they don’t look any worse!

The largest chokecherry tree, out by the main garden area, has started to bloom. It actually starts blooming later than the ones along the edge of the spruce grove that I haven’t removed. Those ones actually get more sunlight than the one by the garden. The double lilac in the old kitchen garden is starting to pass its peak blooming period, but the honeysuckle are just starting to open. The white lilacs are also well into their blooming period now, while more Cherokee roses, by the sun room door, are starting to open. The pink rose inside the old kitchen garden has buds, but even with the pruning we’ve done, it still doesn’t get as much sunlight because of the ornamental crab apple tree in the corner of the garden bed. Those have bloomed, but not as much as in the past few years, and all of the crab apple trees seem to already be done blooming. They did not stay in flower for very long at all!

All the common lilacs are blooming now and, as you can imagine, the yard smells amazing! At least for a few moments before the wind blows the scent away. The dwarf Korean lilac by the house is still just budding, and then there’s the one I can’t remember the name of, over the be vehicle gate into the yard. That one blooms last of all.

I wonder if it would bloom earlier if we got rid of that big elm tree by the people gate? It does seem to be struggling a bit more this year. That could be because it’s so close to the “moat” that’s formed around the garage, with all the rain we’ve had.

Checking on things and repairing the box cover over the eggplant was about as much as I could manage. Even my ears are burning, from being out in the wind, yesterday and today. That left elbow is still giving me grief. I forget about it, until I try to pick something up, and my arm just fails on me. At least I can still turn doorknobs. 🫤 I took more pain killers and they should have kicked in by now, but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Ah, well.

I just want to hang on a bit longer before going to bed. Hopefully, I’ll get an early start tomorrow – and well finally get that family photo that keeps getting delayed, along with everything else!

The Re-Farmer

I’m going to be feeling this tomorrow…

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Actually, I’m already feeling it now.

I definitely over did it today.

Our bare root strawberries came in today, and they need to be planted soon. My original thoughts on where to plant them is too far from the house, so I had to decided on someplace closer, which turned out to be a much bigger job that it should have been. This was after I’d done some yard clean up, then amended and added more soil to the empty raised bed in the West yard.

I’ve taken pain killers, but will need to take more, if I’m going to get any sleep tonight. Still, the job got done, and tomorrow we’ll be able to plant the strawberries.

Also…

Those elms need to die.

Die.

Die!!!

More on that later!

The Re-Farmer

I didn’t think I’d pushed too hard!

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… but apparently, I did.

After I finished working outside, I sat at my computer to upload photos and video, write a blog post, etc. I was on the computer for maybe an hour? Hour and a half? I was feeling fine the whole time.

Then I got up to do something, and it hit me.

The first problem was stiffness. Top to bottom.

Then the second problem hit.

Pain.

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Full body pain.

Muscle pain, not my usual osteo pain.

I had forgotten to take painkillers again after I got back inside, because I was feeling so good.

You know it’s bad when my husband can move around better than me.

He took one look at me trying to move around and offered me two of his painkillers.

I only took one.

Good grief. No wonder he’s having such a hard time. It’s had more than enough time to kick in, but I’ve had almost no improvement.

I know I got a lot done today, but only working on the garden bed against the chain link fence was something I’d consider physically taxing, mostly because of all the bending over to pull roots and weeds out. I’ve been doing other manual labour as the days have warmed up, without getting anywhere near like this afterwards. This is really a big surprise for me.

My family, on the other hand, are not.

I guess they know me better than I know myself at times!

My daughters are making me something to eat, and then I’m going to bed.

Hopefully, I will be able to sleep!

The Re-Farmer

A rough night, but much improved

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We have GOT to get more of the inside cats adopted out.

Last night was a rough one. 

With my arm still giving me grief, I tried going to be early again. While I could move my right arm forward and back as normal, if painfully, I still couldn’t get it move more than a few inches straight outward. 

When I go to bed, I often has several cats that insist they MUST be either right against me, or me, and they don’t often give me a chance to finish getting into bed before they do it! Cheddar is one of several that has decided where I sleep is his spot. He’s a big boy, so moving him with one wonky arm was a challenge! Others will move as I pull the covers back, but not Shadow in the Dark. He’s one that likes to curly up near my face or against the back of my neck, and he won’t move. So lifting the covers usually results in him being rolled over and over, then he lies there, all sprawled out, looking at me like I’ve offended him somehow!

That’s not unusual, though. 

Butterscotch made things unusual.

She’s been doing quite well, and even gotten to the point that she has started to leave my room, if only to go as far as the steps to the dining room, or peak around the corner at the basement door, to look down the hallway, before running back into my room.

Lately, however, she has taken to growling and snarling. 

Sometimes, I can see that there’s a cat nearby that she’s snarling at, but they’re usually just there, and not even looking at her. A couple of times, one of them would go at her, but it seems more a response to her snarling, and not the other way around. Other times, I’ll hear her snarling, and I can’t even see any other cats around her.

Well, it seems that having so many cats in my room, usually covering my bed, sleeping in groups, is stressing her out to the point that she isn’t going to the litter boxes. She’d have to go past the other cats to do that.

The first time I heard the odd noises, I found her squeezed onto one of the boxes I’ve set in front of the wall shelf, under my craft table. I’ve got other boxes inside the bottom shelves; with the table there, they can’t be accessed for us, but when they were empty and I thought the cats were just using them as places to sleep, we discovered they were defecating in them, so we blocked them off with empty boxes. One of those overhangs the edge of the shelf, and she was squeezed between the box on the floor and the overhanging box.

Then I started hearing a very strange sound indeed.

The sound of hard turds dropping onto the box she was on!

I managed to get her out of there, but then she went into a shelf above where I sleep; the shelf I keep my glasses in, as well as where I put my phone on a stand to charge at night, among other things.

I got her out of that, and she squeezed herself into the space of another shelf, in between my cookbooks and the top of the mattress. I tried lying down again, but more noised had me getting up again to investigate, and this time she was digging into the shelf that I use for some of my clothes. I got her out of there and tucked her into the nearby cat cave, and she stayed there.

Not for long.

I was again awakened by strange noises, and this time I found she was making a mess on my bed, between my pillow, and my leaning sheep – a large stuffed sheep I sometimes use to lean against when sitting up in bed, but is normally stored in the shelve under where I keep my glasses. It’s large enough to almost fill the space completely.

Well, this time, it was a very messy mess.

My daughters are still timing things so that one of them is always available to help me with his, so I messaged my older daughter to help me. We wiped up as much as we could, then stripped the bed. The fitted sheet and the leaning sheep had to be washed, along with one pillow case, but the mess was bad enough that we had to strip the waterproof mattress cover for washing, too!

By then it was past 1am – so much for going to bed early! 

While my daughter got the laundry going, I started putting out wet cat food. That lured all but one cat out of my room. I set wet cat food out in the bowls I have there, which allows for Butterscotch and a few of the the shier cats to get some, without being pushed around by the other cats. This time, I was able to close the door and keep the other cats from coming back in during the night.

Of course, that meant frequent interruptions by cats trying to claw the door open.

Eventually, though, I did hear Butterscotch going into a litter box, which should have been a good thing, but… something didn’t sound right. So I used the flashlight on my phone to try and see her.

*sigh*

Yeah, she was using the litter box, finally, but didn’t quite go all the way in. 

She ran off again and hid in her cat cave while I got up and cleaned up the mess.

*sigh*

After that, things did finally quiet down, and I managed to get some sleep, but all this having to get up and check things was quite painful. 

I have discovered on thing, though. While my girth may make it seem otherwise, I’ve got some pretty decent abs! I had to sit myself up many times using just my abs, and not being able to use my arms at all. 

With just Butterscotch in her cave and what turned out to be Susan sleeping somewhere else, I actually was able to get some decent sleep, if only for a few hours.

This morning, I felt good enough that, when my younger daughter went to feed the outside cats, I went along to help out, then do the rest of my rounds and switch out the trail cam memory cards. 

I was very happy to demonstrate to her that I can now lift my right arm straight out again! While there is still some pain, I have almost full mobility of my arm again! The level of improvement since yesterday is amazing. I’m so relieved! There were times I seriously considered getting my daughter to drive me to the hospital, but giving it a couple of days of rest seems to be what I really needed. In fact, while writing this, I just tested my arm again, and I could do a full rotation at the shoulder, with no pain! Not even my left shoulder, which was not strained as badly, still has more pain now than my right shoulder does. I’m so relieved!

While doing the morning feeding, neither of us tried to do a head count. There were clearly fewer cats than usual, but they were also running around a lot, making it hard to keep track. There were these two, though…

The cats still aren’t going into the sunroom as much as usual. Checking it just a short while ago, there was a small pile of maybe three or four cats on the platform, and that’s it. Usually, we’d see about 6 or ten on the platform, and almost as many under the heat lamp or on the cat bed below, plus more in the shelf, at the food bowls or just wandering around. It’s going to take time for them to start feeling safe in there again.

These two are almost always in the sunroom. Syndol can’t get enough attention, but the little one (can you believe they’re only about a month or so apart in age?) is now getting to the point of enjoying pets and being picked up. We’d brought this one into the house a couple of times to give his nethers a thorough washing. He was so patient about it, the girls have named him Patience.

Even his tortie sister has started to allow me to pet her more often, and will tolerate being picked up more. Which is good, because it means we can bring her indoors for overnight fasting at the end of the week, before taking her to get spayed. Oh, how I wish more of the females could be socialized enough to get them done! My daughter was able to pet Broccoli this morning, but she wouldn’t let me near her. I did manage to pet Junk Pile – the first time in ages. She seemed shocked at being pet, and liking the shoulder skritches, but didn’t allow it for long. Even Caramel was around, but I only managed to touch her while she had her back to me while eating. Brussel won’t let us near her, but she will go into the kibble house and even into the sunroom. Sprout keeps her distance. If we’re around, she won’t eat at all, and she prefers to eat from the bowls under the shrine, across the yard. We’ve seen Slick around, I think (aka: Octomom), and there’s another grey tabby that’s more spotted then striped that I think is also female. That one will eat at the kibble house or on the cat house roof, but is even shier than Sprout, so we haven’t been able to confirm, either way. Another one we have not been able to confirm is one more from that late litter of either kittens; a small grey tabby with dense longer fur. It will go into the sunroom to eat, and I’ve been able to sneak a pet on its back, if it can’t see me, but that’s it. Given how it won’t let us near it, I’m going to just assume it’s female. 😕

Anyhow, that’s the current status.

In other things, my daughter was able to help me move a chair out of the living room so I have access to the aquarium greenhouses again. With my arm mobile again, my goal for today is to get the big aquarium ready for seed trays, then hopefully actually get seeds started. We’ve got the red onions, yellow onions and shallots that should have already been started by now, plus some peppers and eggplant. Possibly some oregano and thyme, too, but those can probably wait a couple more weeks. I’ll have to go through our seeds that need to be started the earliest and make some decisions. With having to build or rebuild so many beds, once things are thawed out enough, I’m going to work on the assumption we won’t have room for everything we want to plant. Especially for things that would need to be planted in ground, like corn.

We shall see how things work out. For now, I’m just glad to 1) be pain free and mobile enough to get back at it and 2) not have any unexpected running around to do, but actually be home to get my own stuff done!

Time to grab a stool and get at those aquarium greenhouses!

The Re-Farmer