planning ahead

Glad to be home

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First, the cuteness!

The cats are quite enjoying the box I found to better stabilize the platform I rigged up for them as a way to store the wire mesh door we made to keep cats out of the old basement in the summer. The one that reminds me of Nosencrantz so much especially likes to just be a loaf in it! I’m constantly seeing cats milling around under there, though, and they do like that rigid insulation!

Also… I’m not 100% sure I recognize the cat on the left. It’s getting so hard to tell some of them apart!

I counted “only” 34 outside cats this morning.

As for the inside cats, Tiny, aka: The Beast, is now big enough that it’s safe to let her out of isolation. With the loss of Snorri, we no longer have to keep the door to my bedroom/office closed, even overnight. Tiny has been thrilled with her new freedom to explore the rest of the house.

The rest of the cats are thrilled to be able to go into my room again. As I write this, there are currently 8 of them asleep on my bed, with all but one of them in a single, huge pile of fur!

Gotta get more adoptions done!!!

Anyhow…

The plan for today was to help my mother with errands so, while doing my rounds, I took the time to open the doors to where her car is parked and give it a quick check.

I almost immediately noticed the back tire on the driver’s side looked awfully low. The tire that had gone flat before was the front driver’s side tire, so this was not expected at all.

The car barely fits in this addition to the garage, so I backed it out, then checked the tire pressure.

It was only 10psi!!

So I pumped it up, but saw no sign of a leak anywhere. I checked the front driver’s side tire, and it was really low, too, though not enough to be noticeably flat.

Of course, I checked the other two, and they were slightly on the slow side, too.

The bizarre thing is, when I took the car in to get that tire checked, the employee that worked on it thought it was the passenger side tire that was leaking and was done checking it when I returned to the garage. I told him it was the driver’s side tire, so he took that one off. He could not find a leak in either of them. All the tires, however, were topped up with air, just in case. I was there to see it done.

So why would all four tires be low, with one practically flat? We even used the car a few days ago, when we had to pick the truck up from getting its new battery.

I’m so glad I took the time to check on her car, so far in advance of needing it! With all the driving around I did with my mother, the tires have held their psi. No evidence of leaks, anywhere.

Very strange.

If it weren’t for the fact that we have snow on the ground that would have given evidence, I would be concerned that a certain “someone” made their way into the garage and let the air out. As it is, the only foot prints in the snow have been our own.

Another reason I am glad I checked the tires.

Road conditions sucked.

But only the gravel roads, and only those sections shaded by trees. They were sheer ice! Even though I was driving slowly and cautiously, ever now and then, the car would suddenly start fishtailing. Not much, thankfully, and not for long, but enough to be a concern. The last thing I’d want is to hit either ditch on the sides of these roads. They are very deep and very steep! The chances of being able to drive out, even with 4 wheel drive, are very low.

We got a light and fluffy snowfall overnight, which didn’t help matters.

Even on the highway, for the first while, I was not confident driving at the speed limit for quite some time.

Oh, how I wished to be driving the truck, instead!!!

Thankfully, today turned out to be warmer than forecast – again – and the paved roads melted clear by the time I was heading home.

Except the gravel roads, where were even slipperier!

As I was reaching the intersection by our place, though, I saw the grader coming through. Our section of the road had just been done. He had to move aside for me to be able to turn in, so at least the last 200 ft or so was good!

This should have been done long ago. People are really upset with our current municipal counsel. For some reason, they didn’t go with the usual company for road maintenance – a local company that has all the equipment and storage facilities on hand, and had done an excellent job of keeping our roads cleared and safe as quickly as possible, every year we’ve been here. Instead, they’ve decided to lease a grader, rent someone’s space to store it, for a ludicrous monthly fee – and a 125 hour limit. Oh, and they’d have to hire a driver each time, too. They only got the grader today, which means for the past while, roads like ours have been just left as they were. It got so bad in areas that the school division would not allow buses to drive on them, for safety reasons.

Which means parents on these dangerous roads had to drive their kids, however many miles, to meet the bus at the highway, instead.

Hopefully, it will no longer be an issue for the rest of the winter.

Anyhow.

Since I was there with the car, my mother wanted to do as many errands as she could, so we stopped at quite a few places. For all that my mother is 92, uses a walker, frequently complains about how bad her knees are (but won’t wear her brace), and is clearly struggling at times, once she gets going, she is really hard to keep up with! At the grocery store, we’ve switched from her using the shopping cart as a walker, to her using her walker and me pushing the cart, so that she has the option of sitting down if she needs to. Once she gets going, though, she just races off! Unfortunately, she’s one of those people who doesn’t really watch out for others or, if she does see them, all but barrels right through them. Yikes!!

We got it all done, though, and she was quite glad to get home and finally rest!

For me, it was just a stop at the gas station, then home, and I was sure glad to be home, too!

I thought I could look forward to taking it easy for the next while, but…

There was an answering machine message when I got home. A reminded for my eye appointment on Monday. I was very glad to get it! I have my phone set to send me a reminder 1 day in advance, so I wouldn’t have forgotten or missed the appointment. However, my eyes will be dilated for a field of vision test, which means I have to get my daughter to drive me home.

Other than parking in the garage, she has yet to drive the truck.

So tomorrow, we’ll be heading out for her to do some practise driving. Pretty much everything is in different places from any other vehicle we’ve driven. It’s also just a few inches wider and longer than the van – just enough to really affect getting in and out of parking spaces, or taking turns. It won’t take long for her to get used to it, but better to do that in advance, then when I need her to drive me home because I’ll essentially be blinded.

I just checked my calendar and see I have a reminder to get my bloodwork done on the same day my husband’s CPP Disability comes in, before Christmas instead of after. That, at least, is not an appointment. I just need to show up at the clinic and ask for the requisition for that should be on file, then step across the hall to the lab to do the tests. Since I will likely be doing our first January stock up shopping that day, and don’t usually have breakfast until I’ve reached the city, I can swing by on the way and get the bloodwork done while still technically fasting.

Then there’s the extra city trip that my daughters will need next week.

Good grief. I try to keep the winter months as close to home as possible, but this year it looks like our December is going to be filled with outings!

I just want to stay home and hybernate!

The Re-Farmer

Analyzing our 2023 garden: onions and shallots

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Onions are something we use a lot of. I once took the time to estimate how many onions we go through in a month when buying them from a store, and calculated an estimate of how many we would need to plant to meet our needs. I think it came out to something like 200 yellow onions. That did not include red onions, which we bought less frequently. It also didn’t include shallots, which we rarely bought, because they are so expensive.

Which meant that, if we wanted to grow enough onions for the four of us for one year, we’d need to plant more than 200 yellow onions because, once we have them handy, we would probably be using them even more often than we normally do.

Plus the red onions.

Plus we wanted to plant shallots, because they are so expensive, but we like them.

With onions, we could buy sets for easier planting. A lot of sets. Or, we could start them from seed. Seeds would cost less than sets, plus we would have more varieties to choose from.

For our geographical area in Canada, we need to choose long day onions. Until I started growing them myself, I didn’t even know there were such things as long day, short day and day neutral onions!

As shown in a video in the Best Laid Plans post, we also need to start seeds indoors very early. Onions need a much longer growing season than we have.

We chose two red varieties, one yellow, plus shallots for this year. In the red onions, we’d grown Red of Florence successfully before. We like the taste of them, and their elongated bulb shape makes them easier to cut up compared to round bulbs. I also bought some Red Whethersfield to try, choosing them for their purported storability, as well as their flattened shape. With the yellow onion, we tried a new variety called Talon. The shallots variety we tried before wasn’t available, so we got the Ambition shallot to try.

All of these were started in January, and they sprouted very quickly in our large aquarium greenhouse!

Over time, we shifted some into them small aquarium greenhouse, because we needed the space.

With the issues we had starting seeds indoors and destructive cats, we also began our plans to turn the living room into a cat free zone. This required not only making a door that would keep the cats out while not being a permanent addition, but also a sort of window to block an opening in one of the shelves that act as room dividers. Protecting the seedlings in the aquarium greenhouses and the covered mini greenhouse we have was not good for the seedlings, as it was hard to give them the air circulation they need. By the time we had to move the first batch of seedlings out of the aquarium greenhouses and start other seeds, the barrier was built, and we now have a cat free zone!

With so many onion seeds to start, we went with densely sowing them, which I talk about in this post, including videos from MI Gardener explaining the technique. All the varieties grew very well, very quickly!

Since we had so many onions to transplant, we didn’t plan on dedicating entire beds to them. Instead, they were mostly planted as borders, where we hoped they would also do double duty as insect and deer repellers.

There was just enough Red Whethersfield onions to encircle the Roma VF tomato bed.

The Talon onions encircled the other two beds with tomatoes, with the last few going into the ends of the high raised bed.

In the above Instragram slideshow, you can see the Red Whethersfied and Talon onions around each of the tomato beds.

With the Red of Florence, they ended up all over the place! Some shared grow bags with peppers.

Others got planted between rows of spinach.

There were so many Red of Florence seedlings, it was hard to find space for them. After the spinach was harvested for the season, we still had seedlings left, and most of them went in where the spinach had been, leaving us with one bed dedicated to just those onions. We still had onion seedlings left over, including some of the yellow onions . By this point, they were the last little, spindly seedlings that we probably shouldn’t have bothered transplanting. Those ended up getting transplanted into the bed where we had peas and greens at the chain link fence.

Then there were the shallots. They got their own little bed, with a few last ones tucked into the end of the wattle weave bed.

That bed ended up needing extra protection! The cats just wouldn’t stay out of it.

Once the open ends of the cover got chicken wire over them, we could finally keep the cats out of there!

So, how did the onions and shallots turn out?

With the Red Whethersfield, not at all.

I have no idea what happened to them. They were there and growing, and then just basically disappeared. Not a single transplant made it. It was really quite strange!

The seedlings planted in the bed along the chain link fence never really grew at all, with most of them dying off. That was not a surprise, really, considering how small those seedlings were.

The Talon onions around the tomato beds and in the high raised bed did better.

This picture is of the last of the yellow onions that got harvested, being left to cure. They were later braided to hang in the house. As I write this, there’s still a few left. Oh, there were a few other yellow onions in the high raised bed that were harvested later. They were still growing so well, we left them as long as possible before harvesting them.

The Red of Florence did a lot better, in most places. The ones in the grow bags were smaller, but those were where we turned out to have issues with fine tree roots making their way into the soil from below. The ones planted in between the spinach got quite large, with the ones transplanted after the spinach was harvested only somewhat smaller. We got a lot of onions out of that bed!

That bed was left until after the first few frosts before it was harvested completely. We already had some cured and braided indoors, but these last ones were still actively growing and would not have cured properly, so most of them ended up chopped up and in the freezer, with some set up to dehydrate in the oven.

Now, every time we open up the chest freezer, we get a strong smell of onions!

With the dehydrated onions, I ended up using our spice grinder and powdering about half. I think I like the onion powder more than the dehydrated pieces.

As for the shallots, they turned out to have self seeded company! Even though the soil in that bed was completely reworked, with fresh garden soil added, they still had seeds from years gone by in them. Specifically, dill and poppies. We’d planted Giant Rattle Poppies in this space before the little raised bed was built, so I left the poppies to grow. The self seeded dill keeps coming up every years, but never gets particularly large, but we still like to harvest the leaves for cooking, so I left those, too. The poppies grew so tall they started growing through the chicken wire of the cover, making moving it for weeding pretty much impossible. When they started blooming, we realized they were a completely different type of poppy, that my mother grew at some point! No Giant Rattle Poppy seeds seemed to have survived. 😄

When it came time to harvest the shallots, I actually left them be until the poppy pods were dried out. Once I could harvest the pods, the cover could be removed and the shallots finally harvested. They were smaller than they should have been, likely because they had so much competition for water and nutrients, but still pretty good. We got a decent amount to harvest and, as I write this, we still have some left.

Final thoughts on onions and shallots

It’s a given that we will be planting onions again next year. We will probably get more Red of Florence seeds again, as they do so very well.

I want to try the Red Whethersfield again and hopefully actually get some to taste! I’m still somewhat perplexed as to why they to utterly failed, but I suspect it has more to do with the growing conditions in that bed, then anything else.

We definitely need to plant more yellow onions, though. There turned out to be fewer seeds in the package than I expected. I need to pay more attention to seed counts! The Talon onions did all right, but they did not reach their full size potential. In fact, we only got a couple among the tiny ones planted in the high raised bed that got really big. This would be due to growing conditions and compacted soil, which we have issues with.

I want to do shallots again, though I might try a different variety, as we’re still in the “what kind do we like?” stage.

Which means I need to choose and order seeds soon, because we’re coming up on December in a few days, and we need to get seeds started in January! In fact, we could actually get them started in December and not go wrong.

At some point, we will try growing green bunching onions again, and I want to grow leeks, but those will wait until we’ve had more time to improve and amend our soil, and build more higher raised beds. Soil compaction is one of the major obstacles we have to deal with before we can grow those successfully.

All in all, onions, shallots and garlic will probably remain a staple in our garden, every year.

The Re-Farmer

The breakfast crowd, and technology frustrations

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Today is supposed to be a chillier day. We’ve already reached our expected high of -9C/16F Which wouldn’t be too bad – especially with how bright and sunny it is – but the wind chill brings it down to -19C/-2F The wind is just whipping around the house, too, so areas that would typically be more sheltered, aren’t.

We got a light snowfall overnight. Just enough to cover the ground. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of -10C/14F, then reach 0C/32F and 1C/34F over the next two days! So much of it will probably be gone before we dip below freezing again.

No surprise, that the cats were preferring the sun room to have breakfast in, rather than the cat house roof, or the kibble house!

This is 10 cats eating out of 2 bowls! There was another 5 eating behind me as I took this photo. All total, I counted 33 or 35 cats this morning.

When I was about to head in after finishing my rounds, I spotted a whole crowd of heads in the cat bed, watching me. A couple ran out as I stopped to get a picture, but I did manage to catch the runners in the shot.

I cropped out the second one that ran off. I don’t think anyone really wants to see that particular side of his anatomy. 😂 That calico in the back won’t let us come near her, but my goodness, she is not at all shy about telling us it’s feeding time! She is an unusually talkative cat. Especially for a yard cat.

We can sometimes pet that orange and white cat. There was a second orange and white kitten, but it disappeared a couple of months ago. The fluffy black kitten with the white blaze on its face is also getting better at letting us pet him, and even pick him up.

Barely visible behind the orange and white’s head is the little tortie. She won’t let us just pet her, but if we manage to pick her up, she will allow us to cuddle her. Being one of the only females we can actually touch, we have plans to bring her indoors as soon as we can. The calico is a priority, though, as she’s old enough to go into heat. Something that might actually happen earlier in the season, with our milder temperatures. That one, we just can’t get close to at all. Not even while they are all eating. With some of the other stand offish cats, I’ve managed to pet a few backs while they are eating before they run off. All seem to be males, of course. It’s hard to tell at times, because they move around to fast, but the older ones are a bit easier to spot.

You can see the little one with the cloudy eye. The pupil seems to be dilating the same as the good eye. There’s just that cloudy patch across it.

With the racoons being such an issue, I asked my daughter to give the cats their evening feeding earlier in the day, after we loaded the truck so I could make a garbage run. Sunset these days is around 4:30, so this not only got the cats away from the truck so I could leave, it meant they could finish eating while it was still light out. At night, I “arm” the motion sensor recording on the critter cam. When I checked the files this morning, I did see a couple of racoons go in, but there was no food left, so they didn’t stay long.

Meanwhile…

Yes!! I finally made it to the dump! It was even still open. I got so busy working on something else, I lost track of time. Thankfully, on Saturdays, they are open for 8 hours instead of 4.

After I tossed all the household garbage into the pit (they have bins for recycling, and various sheds and storage areas for electronic waste, paint, batteries, oil, etc., as well as separate areas for tires, large appliances, construction waste and other large stuff like that) and was closing things up, the woods on the other side of the pit suddenly started screaming. There had to be at least a dozen, probably more, coyotes back there! Coyotes have such a piercing howl, and some of them really did sound like they were screaming. Then there’s that yipping noise they make. Yikes! I’d hate to have a farm with livestock in this area. We do have coyotes here, of course, but I’ve never heard that many, all at once!

On a completely different note, yesterday evening I got to get some more progress on my garden analysis series of posts. I’ve got them planned out and organized into drafts, but each posts takes a lot of time to work on, as I go over my old posts and photos in the process. This year, I also have a number of videos to go over, as well. With my WordPress storage so close to maxing out, some things only got covered in video, or images are on my Instagram page, instead.

I think WordPress was having issues last night, Thankfully, it seems to not be happening today, as it hasn’t happened while I’m working on this post. As I was writing in my drafts last night, every now and then, it would simply disappear. Everything in my browser window would suddenly go white. The rest of the browser was still visible and uneffected; my tool bar was still there, the URL was unchanged, my tabs were still up. Just the contents of my WordPress editor would disappear. I’d have to reload the page to get it back.

Thankfully, WP automatically saves draft quite frequently, so I didn’t lose more than a sentence, but when it started happening more and more often, I had to stop for the night. I’m hoping to get more progress done on the drafts tonight. I’ve got the first completely post scheduled to post on Tuesday, and if all goes well, there will be a new one posted every morning for 10 days, altogether.

Which means I need to get my butt in gear. These analysis posts can take hours to write!

It does, however, help me get my thoughts together and make plans for next year, so it’s worth it.

The Re-Farmer

A much better day

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Just look at this sunrise!

I’m pretty sure we exceeded our predicted high for the day, though we were in the city at the time, which is typically a couple of degrees warmer, just from the Urban Heat Island effect.

When I fed the outside cats this morning, I was able to do a head count and got 33, several times. Then I saw two more come running, while I was setting up for our departure. When we got back, we pulled up to the house to make it easier for my husband. I fed the outside cats early so that I could safely get the truck out of the yard and into the garage. I did another head count, and got 37! Repeatedly!

I have no idea where these extra cats are coming from, or which ones they are!

Anyhow…

My older daughter was not feeling well, so she stayed home. Having someone at home was probably for the best, anyhow, with our vandal’s freak out over the scrap cars being hauled away. I got a call from my brother this morning, to check on us – no, my mother did not call to apologize, nor did I get a response from my email to my sister. He, however, checked his home answering machine and found a couple of messages from our vandal, with his usual ranting and raving. I’ll be getting copies of those, when he gets the chance to send them to me, for our records.

The drive into the city went well. Highway conditions were great. Road conditions in the city were not as good, but not because of the weather. I was told that apparently the city has fixed all the streets over the past while, but you sure can’t tell from how badly the residential roads in particular are falling apart. My husband, unfortunately, feels every crack and pothole. I try to drive gently, but there’s only so much you can avoid!

The visit itself was really excellent. My BIL, his wife and adult children have been to our place, but this was the first time in about 5 years since we’ve seen my FIL, and the first time we’ve seen my SIL since she moved back out here a couple of years ago. My FIL is having a lot more mobility issues, which but he’s looking great.

There was only one unfortunate thing that happened, and it was me. *sigh*

Their dining room is a step lower. A step my FIL has difficulty with, so they have a sort of platform that’s half a step high, making it easier for him to get down into the dining room.

I was going to help clear the table, grabbed a dish of mashed potatoes and the gravy, turned to take it to the kitchen and…

Caught my toe on the edge of the platform.

I went flying.

Mashed potatoes went flying.

Gravy went flying.

I landed hard on my left knee.

In the mashed potatoes.

Of course, everyone was concerned that I wasn’t hurt. I was more upset over the waste of food and making such a mess!

Oddly, while there is some minor swelling and I’ll likely get a bruise, it doesn’t hurt much at all. It seems I’ve landed on that knee so many times over the years – I actually don’t fall often, but when I do, it’s always been onto my left knee! – it seems to have just stopped hurting. Mind you, with the OA and bone spurs, I might just have such a high pain tolerance by now, something like this just doesn’t phase me anymore.

So that was unfortunate. 😕

That was the only down side of the visit.

My husband, meanwhile, held out as long as he could, but could only push himself so far. He hides it well, though. My daughter and I could see the signs that he was struggling to remain upright, so we called it before dessert. Which also meant we got home while it was still light out, which is always a good thing.

As soon as we got home, my husband hooked himself up to his TENS, took his evening meds and his “take as needed” painkillers, and went to right to bed. He’s going to pay for this trip for a while, but to see his father again was, for him, worth it.

Another reason to be so glad we got this truck. He could not have managed this trip at all, even if we still had the van. The seats on this truck are so much better for his back, he can handle the drive much better.

With my daughter coming along, we had to put one of the back seats down, so the walker had to go into the back of the truck. We were able to secure it so it wouldn’t slight around. Before we left, I grabbed a crate and started returning some of the stuff we used to keep regularly in the van. Booster cables. Tire iron. Stuff like that. We’ll need to look for some sort of storage box to install on the back for this stuff. The typical truck box I see that is mounted behind the cab is too tall; we’d have to remove the cover, and we like the cover! There are storage boxes that fit over the wheel wells that would be more ideal, and easier for short people like me to access! 😁 We were also talking about getting things like straps and tie downs and other things that we would find useful with a truck that weren’t needed with a van. Little by little, we’ll get the tools and supplies we will need!

Another thing we talked about was our next fix. My brother has told me to keep the money from the sale of the cars, so that’s going to go back into the property. For the amount we have, there are a few things we could do, but there’s what feels “urgent” vs what needs to be prioritized first.

Among the things we need to do is get the well pump replaced. My brother has already bought a pump and all the fittings he could think of that would be needed to install it. The problem is, shortly after we moved here, we noticed issues that might mean the foot valve is starting to be a problem. One plumber came out and actually went into the area above our well – the concrete well cap is about 12 feet down – to look at the pipes to pump in the basement. This well was dug in the mid 70’s. Since then, the standard size for well pipes has changed. If there were any issues, we couldn’t simply replace the pipes. We’d have to find and special order that size, or have a new well dug. At that point, we’re looking at many thousands of dollars.

So no plumber dares replace the pump. The risk is low, but if that foot valve goes, we have no water until we can afford to get that fixed.

Water is our one weak spot. If we lose power for an extended period, we are okay with everything else. We can cook, stay warm, use the outhouse… the only thing we have no back up for is water.

But we do have that original well with the hand pump.

So that will be our priority fix.

I just talked to my brother about it, and he’s quite on board with the idea.

Over the next while, I will look for a company that can service a hand pump. I’ve been able to pump water, but it took a long time for it to start flowing, and if I slowed down pumping, the water would stop. So it does seem to just be a matter of replacing the leathers and getting a proper seal again. I’ve watched videos on how to do this but none of them involve a pump like what we have. I’ve looked up suppliers for the leather gaskets, and they’re pretty cheap, but I have no idea what size or type we need. Once we get someone to do it, we will probably be able to do it ourselves after that, though new leathers should last for years.

Once that is done and we have back up water, we can look at getting that new well pump installed. It should be just fine but, if things go wrong and we lose water, we will have that back up. We might end up hauling water for an awfully long time, but that’s preferable to not having any water at all!

It will probably be a while before I find someone, but that will be what the funds will be set aside for.

*sigh*

I suppose I should phone my mother and see how things are with her. She and I talked about the old well, and she was quite thrilled when I said I wanted to get it going again. So she should be happy to hear that this is what we’ve decided to do next, but she also wanted me to get rid of those old cars, only to become furious when I actually did get rid of a couple, thanks to our vandal.

*sigh*

We’ll see how that goes. Hopefully, she’ll have calmed down, and the day will end as well as it began.

The Re-Farmer

Snowcats!

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The arrival of some expected snow kept being pushed earlier and earlier. It hit us last night, so we woke to a winter wonderland of soft, fluffy snow. We were at 0C/32F while I was outside, so it could just as easily have been rain. That was supposed to be the high of the day, but by the time I was settled back inside, we’d warmed up to 1C/34F and the system had passed us by. As I write this, the system is still hitting the southern part of our province, and crossing into the next, as well as hitting the Canada/US border. From what I’m hearing, the city is getting more snow than we got, and some of the highways are getting packed snow. Enough that I’ve decided to not bother with a dump run today. It can wait until next week.

We’re supposed to hit 3C/37F over the next couple of days, and then warm up a bit more, before we’re supposed to start getting highs below freezing next week. All I care is that the roads and weather are good for Saturday, when we’re heading to the city so my husband can finally visit his family!

The deep snow did make it a bit harder for the cats to eat on the roof of the cat house – but they insist on eating there!

It wasn’t until I uploaded this photo to my desktop that I realized I’d caught, not one, but two tongue blehps!

I didn’t even try to do an overall head count, but…

… at one point, I could see eight cats crowded together in the big cat bed at this window! Then the tabby in front came by – there was no room in the cat bed for him! – plus I saw some other movement in the background.

They do love the cat house, this time of year!

While I was out, I took advantage of the snow still being light and fluffy and shoveled around the cat shelters, paths around the yard, including to the compost ring, the back of the garage and our emergency bathroom – the outhouse! 😄 I also made sure there was a path from the house to the front of the garage, wide enough for my husband’s walker, and cleared enough snow that we can open the doors on the sides, to access my mother’s car, of where the little snow blower is stored. No point in using the snow blower at all, though. The snow may have been light and fluffy, but it was also very sticky. Nothing like trying to toss a shovel full of snow and nothing happens, because the entire load is stuck!

We’re supposed to fluctuate around the freezing mark all day today, but as we reach our high tomorrow, all those paths should melt away first and make things easier, later on.

It’s a good day to say inside and work on the Christmas decorations I am crocheting for this year’s ornament.

We have a cat free zone in the living room now. We can actually put up a proper tree, rather than hang one against the door in the dining room. The problem with that is, we’ve been using the room as a catch-all for everything we need to keep safe from the cats, so it’s just jammed full of stuff!

Wanting to set up the Christmas tree is a good excuse to finally go through everything and reorganize.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties (Updated with names!)

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I counted 35 this morning. I didn’t see Shop Towel this morning. Broccoli showed up later, so… 36?

I got some pictures after the feeding frenzy had died down. 😄

I’ve decided to call the black and white cat, Hypotenose. Actually, I was going to call him Hypotenuse, but then my husband made the pun and I just had to run with that.

I think the white with grey tabby spots has a name my daughters gave it, but I can’t remember for sure.
(Update: I have had a wonderful name suggestion for this cat. Purrthagoras. )

We haven’t given this sweet boy a name yet. He is pretty well socialize, and I can usually walk right up to pet him, and even pick him up and cuddle him. He’s so incredibly soft! He’s also got a permanently stunned expression that reminds me of Decimus (who now has a new name in her new home). Unfortunately, he also reminds me of Pointy Baby, and my heart kind of breaks a little bit every time I see him.

*sniffle*

He’s such a sweet little thing.

He needs a name!

(Update: I got an awesome name suggested for him! Syndod (sun-dod). Welsh for “surprised.”)

In other things…

We are hovering just below freezing today, though we might warm up a bit. Yesterday turned out to be warmer than predicted, so that might happen again today. It’s cloudy and has stopped snowing, but it actually looks like we have snow or fog, off in the distance.

Tonight, we have to isolate the 6 cats that will be going to the vet tomorrow morning, to fast overnight. The rain that had been predicted for tomorrow morning kept getting pushed back, and is now supposed to start on Sunday afternoon. Temperatures are supposed to continue to reach highs above freezing for at least another 10 – 14 days. By Tuesday, they are now saying we will reach a high of 7C/45F. After that, it’s expect to be colder, but still above freezing, for the highs. At this point it looks like the day we are planning to visit my husband’s family in the city will have good driving weather.

The weather app that came with my desktop includes monthly forecasts. For what that’s worth, it’s predicting mostly sunny days and relatively mild temperatures; all highs warmer than -15C/5F, and even the lows are expect to mostly be warmer than -20C/-4F, with only a few nights dipping just under that, all winter. We don’t even plug in the vehicles unless temperatures are expected to go below -20C/4F. With the strong El Niño we’re getting this year, that should mean we won’t be getting those dangerous, bone chilling, polar vortexes for a change. Between that and the new truck’s higher clearance, we should actually have a winter where we aren’t stuck at home for weeks at a time!

Not that we’ll stop stocking up, just in case. With all our spare funds going towards getting the truck, we won’t have the 2 – 3 months of supplies we normally try to have on hand for the winter, but we will at least have enough for 1 – 2 months. Especially once we pick up our quarter beef in January, which will be quite a bit larger than previous years. We’ve been paying $100 a month towards it since spring, but for November and December, we’re paying $200 a month, for a total of $1400. In January, the final balance should be about $35. The price is by hung weight, and the first quarter beef we got was about $800 at $6/pound. The next year was over $1000. This year, they had to increase their price by just under 50¢/pound, on top of the weight being quite a bit higher.

We’ll have to make more room in the chest freezer! 😁 Christmas is going to be tight, but we’ll have plenty of food! We don’t really do much for gift giving anymore, unless it’s hand made, and our Christmas and New Years are spent quietly at home. Gone are the days when we would do Christmas dinner with my family on Christmas day, here at the farm, then Réveillon with my husband’s parents after Midnight Mass, and finally a Christmas dinner on Boxing Day with his brother’s family. We’ve lost so many members of our families over the years, we couldn’t do those gatherings anymore, anyhow. We’re planning to just have our usual quiet, non-traditional Wigilia dinner on Christmas Eve.

When I was a kid, we butchered our own cows and chickens. We sometimes had pigs and geese, too. One year, my parents tried turkeys, and they had ducks for a couple of years, too. Between that and the garden, they kept two freezers; one just for meat, and the other for everything else. I look forward to a day when we can have that set up again! Though if we ever have meat in such quantities, I will most likely can, quite a bit of it. I’d hate to lose a freezer full of meat if the power ever went out for an extended period.

But I digress!

We’ll have to adopt out and fix a lot more cats before we can afford that, anyhow! 😄😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Just a bit of snow!

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Well, we didn’t get storm conditions, but we did get plenty of snow overnight!

The cats were very hungry, so I made sure they got their food and warm water, first. I actually had to knock snow out of the kibble bowls, first! Somehow, at least some snow always manages to get in, but when the wind comes whipping around the West side of the house, it really gets into that kibble house.

I messaged my daughters for a refill of the water jug while I started shoveling. I wasn’t sure if I’d need one, but I set the kettle going after I filled the first jug (half cold water from the sink, half water heated in the kettle), just in case! The cats really, really appreciated that warm water!

I didn’t want to scare away the cats with shoveling, so I cleared the stairs in front of the main entry, then the sidewalk to the chain link fence, before digging my way back to the sun room. From there, I cleared in between and around the shelters, then a path to the shrine. I actually had to take the ice scraper to the concrete in front of the sun room. I even cleared the snow on the hand rail. From the last photo in the series above, you can see that even the birds appreciated that!

After that, I continued my morning rounds, including switching out the trail cam memory cards. The snow is really light and fluffy, bit it’s also quite warm – we’re already above freezing as I write this, and warmer than the expected high still listed. Which meant that, at first, the snow was very easy to push down the path, but when I paused to shovel it to the side, the bottom was heavy with wet snow. The ground is not frozen yet, and even the grass is green, so the snow as basically being melted from below.

When I was done and starting to head inside, I realized that there was no kibble left in the sun room at all. Not a crumb! Nor was there anything left in the two levels of the shelf shelter I drop handfuls into. There was still a bit left in the kibble house, at least, but before I headed inside, I topped up their food a bit. They need those extra calories, this time of year!

I’ve asked my daughters to clear other needed paths to the garage, the compost pile and the area we dump the litter sawdust as its own compost pile. Burning it would be preferable, but in the summer we rarely had days with low enough winds – we only did one burn all summer! Other paths I would normally shovel can wait. With how much snow there is on the ground now, and the long range forecast changing downward, I no longer expect all the snow to melt away next week. The next couple of days are supposed to be a bit warmer, and the main paths we shovel today will clear faster, which is what we need.

I’m hoping that, this winter, we’ll be able to keep enough of the south yard clear that we can drive right up to the house to load and unload the truck. We’ve only got the little electric snow blower, but it can do that job. The snow we have right now, though, is too wet and would clog up even the gas powered snow blower, if that thing still worked.

In the near future, we need to invest in a variety of straps. With the truck, we can now take the snow blower in to be checked out and, hopefully, repaired, but right now we don’t have what’s needed to secure anything back there, properly.

I’m keeping tabs on the local highway information group, and a lot of people were saying, stay home if you can! Even the local school division closed the schools in our region, because road conditions were too dangerous. The plows and sanding trucks are out, though, and I’m already hearing about some of the highways being clear.

Yesterday, my phone gave me a notification for an appointment I had today. !! I completely forgot about it. It was for a 6 month follow up, with a field of vision test and dilation, so I’d have to make sure my daughter came along to drive me home.

I’m glad I always set my phone to remind me of appointments 1 day ahead! I called and rescheduled to next month. When I told the receptionist I had an appointment for today, which she confirmed, then asked to reschedule, she just laughed! She was not at all surprised, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few out of towners were rescheduling their appointments!

Unfortunately, as I write this, I’m realizing I think my neck and one shoulder is having rather painful issues. Not from the shoveling, though. I think I slept in a bad position or something, because it was already a problem when I woke up. It’s just worse now, after the shoveling.

So… I injured myself by sleeping.

*sigh*

I was hoping to avoid taking pain killers for at least one day!

The Re-Farmer

Adorable

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We’ve got some quiet days ahead of us, so there won’t be much to write about. There is never a shortage of adorableness to share, though!

Like this cuddle pile on my bed, from last night. How cute is this??? 🧡🖤🧡

Cheddar is so good with the babies, and they love him right back! But to see Cheddar hugging Sprite like that is just too precious for words!

The outside cats do their fair share of cuddling, too – mostly because they’re all in the bigger cat bed, under the heat bulb!

There is at least six cats in the window; one is mashed in the middle, under the orange and white, and moved while I was taking the picture. I’m pretty sure there was at least one more I saw through that top left corner of the window.

I didn’t get a chance to do a head count while I was feeding them this morning. They were running around too much.

Last night, I went to chase three massive racoons out of the sun room. When I turned around, I saw a Sad Face, looking at me from my storage shelf in the corner, his head level with the bathroom window. There’s a case to store the market tent in there, and he was using it as a bed. He was watching me, ready to run away, but clearly didn’t want to leave his spot. I made sure to not make any moves to make him think I was going to chase him out.

Now that things are colder, and the cat house is plugged in again, the cats have almost abandoned the sun room in favour of the cat house, overnight. By morning, though, there’s quite the crowd milling around, crying for kibble!

I’ve been tossing the new lysine powder that is more granular than the other brand, into the kibble. It does seem to be sticking, but I find myself thinking more of the granules are falling off before the cats are eating it. I can’t say for sure, since the fine powder also came off. There’s no way to measure. However, with winter coming, they are going to need more reliable doses. I looked it up and found that yes, lysine can be dissolved in water! The sites that talked about it gave warning that this might affect how well it works when used topically, but we’re not using is topically. So I’ve now started to put a bit of lysine into their water, as well as onto their kibble. Between the two, it should make a difference! There are a couple of smaller kittens with gummed up eyes, but I’m also starting to hear more sneezing and raspy breathing among the cats in general.

I think they’re going to appreciate the warmer temperatures we’re expecting next week! We’re supposed to have highs above freezing through this week, too, but we’re also supposed to get up to 10cm/4in of snow in total, starting this evening, through tomorrow night. Given that we’re also supposed to get highs of 2C/36F – at least, that’s what one app is telling me – I would expect it to be melting almost as fast as it hits the ground! Another app says to expect heavy snow this evening – but rain, overnight! Thursday night, into Friday morning, is also expected to have potentially heavy snow, but not rain. At least Friday and Friday night are expected to be clear. Friday evening is when we have to isolate the kittens and Toni for overnight fasting before their trip to the vet. The roads should be clear of ice and snow by then. I am planning to leave much earlier than necessary, just in case. The trip is about 45 minutes, and the drop off time is 8am, but I’m considering leaving at 6:30, so I have time to take it slow, if the conditions warrant.

It should be interesting, fitting the 6 carriers into the truck! I’ve got my emergency kit and a bin with extra winter hats, gloves, etc, tucked in along with our collection of hard sided, reusable grocery bags, so half the space in the back is already taken up. Thankfully, the hard sided carriers can be stacked and secured, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

Until then, I’m going to enjoy some boring, uneventful days at home!

The Re-Farmer

What a switch, and making plans

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I am so glad I did the drive to find cat carriers yesterday! The predicted rain and snow arrived overnight. As I was doing my morning rounds, we were getting ice pellet type snow and high winds.

The winds were enough that most of the cats ate in the kibble house, instead of the cat house roof! I counted 33 this morning, which did not include Sad Face, though my husband saw him in the sun room, later.

That fluffy black cat in the photo is Driver. He was favouring his right front paw this morning, so we need to keep an eye on him. I could see no obvious injury. As I was finishing my rounds and coming inside, I spotted him in the sun room, on the cat bed inside the cage, so that was good.

This morning was the second time I came out to find that not only was the heated water bowl in the sun room empty, but the big one outside was knocked out of the water bowl shelter and hanging by its cord (the cord is reinforced and protected with steel wire). There is a piece of wood across the front specifically to prevent that happening, so it takes a lot to knock that bowl out! I had thought it might be a deer, but last night I chased two giant, fluffy racoons out of the sun room, so it might have been a racoon that did it.

The metal water bowls (old stainless steel frying pans with no handles) were solid ice, of course. The cats seem to prefer those over plastic bowls. Usually I just top them up with a bit of water, but they needed to have the ice knocked out this time, before I could add more. With the big heated water bowl alone holding 1 1/2 gallons, I had to go back for more water to refill them all!

I also made sure to give the cats a little extra food to tide them over. I try not to give extra at the end of the day, as I don’t want to be feeding the racoons! At least, not much… But with the cold and wind, the cats will definitely need the extra calories. Happily, they are mostly staying close to the house, and really enjoying that warm corner in the cat house, under the heat bulb! It’s funny to walk by and see half a dozen faces or more, all mashed against each other, looking at me through the window.

All in all, it’s looking like an unpleasant day today. Looking at the weather radar in the wee hours of the night was funny. As I zoomed in closer to our area, I could actually see where the weather system split up to form an open space as it passed over us. We were catching just the edges of that open space. My mother’s town was looking completely clear. Our climate bubble, in action! 😄

After today, however, it’s going to switch up. Things are supposed to start warming – and keep getting warmer! Check out the most recent forecast I captured this morning.

They’re now saying we’ll be getting as high at 8C/46F!

The nice thing is, we’re in the middle of planning a trip to the city with my husband, to visit family. By the time we’re doing that, all the snow should be gone and the roads should be completely clear. Even after that, for pretty much the rest of November, we’re looking at highs above freezing on most days.

Of course, the forecast will probably be different in a few days. Hopefully, though, it’ll still be warm. The last couple of times we tried to go into the city to visit family, we ended up turning around to come home because a weather system hit and the roads were too dangerous. Then my husband’s back got worse, and it’s now been 4 or 5 years since he’s seen his dad. Thankfully, the truck’s front seats have so many micro adjustments that can make the trip less painful for him.

Now we just have to pray those weather predictions are correct!

The Re-Farmer

Check this out!!!

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Here we were, happy to have one last “warm” day to do the winter mulching, because it was likely to be the last day above freezing this year.

The forecast has changed.

They’re now saying we’re supposed to hit 6C/43F … in the middle of November!

While I was out, helping my mother run errands, it was just below freezing, and that was enough to set things melting in some areas. Over the next few days, we’re supposed to get snow, or a mix of snow and rain, because we’re expected to go just above freezing again. To have basically a week of temperatures between 4-6C/39-43F, that is enough to melt away all the snow we currently have.

I’m not complaining.

The mulch we put on the garden works both ways; it’ll keep the ground from freezing too much, but will also keep it from warming up too much. Otherwise, the garlic might start sprouting, only to get killed off when the deep freeze hits.

Also, we’re supposed to hit 4C/39F on the day I’m taking 6 cats in to be spayed and neutered!

I was messaging with the Cat Lady about that. She’s really stressing that we need to make sure and use all those slots she’s booking, and stay on the good side of this vet. It seems the last time the vet had one of these steeply discounted spay days, half the people who booked never showed up. Which I find absolutely astonishing. After that happened, the vet basically banned the no-shows from rebooking. Understandable! As for the Cat Lady, she’s been trying to help someone else slightly north of us that has a yard cat colony even larger than ours. That person was one of the no shows. Apparently, the drop off time of 8am was too early for her. Which blows me away. Yeah, it’s early, when you have to drive quite a ways to get there, but the vet has even said that if someone is in that situation and has to stay in town until it’s time to pick up their cats, let them know and they’ll try to do those cats first. For me, I’ll leave earlier than necessary, just in case I get stuck behind slow traffic, or have a breakdown or… who knows. Things happen. I just can’t imagine giving up such a deal on getting spays and neuters, and I especially can’t imagine just not showing up after booking an appointment! It’s happened so often, however, that the Cat Lady says we’re basically the only ones she’s still willing to help out with spays and neuters through her rescue.

We actually show up.

The only stickler right now is, each cat has to be in its own carrier. We’ve got 4 carriers, and need to bring in 6 cats. She’s put the word out to people who have borrowed carriers from her to bring them back, trying to come up with two more we can use.

I got curious and went looking online. If we really need to, there are soft sided carriers available through our nearest Walmart that are on clearance – but only if we order online, it seems. But we’re talking about only $10 or so for a carrier. Heck, I might just order a couple for pick up, since I have to go there soon, anyhow. I’d rather have hard sided carriers, but any carrier is better than no carrier! We’d just have to be careful what cats go in them, because some would tear their way right out of a soft sided carrier!

Well, if I’m going to be doing some running around, at least I’ll have good weather for it!

Just not tomorrow, because that’s when we’re supposed to get both snow and rain.

The Re-Farmer