We’re ever so slightly starting to warm up this morning. The high is supposed to be fairly decent, but we’re supposed to drop below freezing overnight again. I don’t know if we got snow last night, but we did get enough rain to almost fill the rain barrel by the sun room. It was down to about 1/3 full after I used what was there to water winter sown garden beds, and now it’s just a few inches from the top. So that’s a good sign. Once it’s warmed up more, I’ll use it to water the covered garden bed, since it would not have gotten any rain.
The kitties were out in full force this morning, though I counted “only” 25 this morning. Not counting the bebbehs.
When Caramel is out, these two just quietly curl up together and sleep. This cat bed is almost directly under the heat bulb, so they would be nice and cozy.
Their sibling with Brussel’s older two, however is a lot more active!
Click through the slide show for a series of short videos.
She can’t quite keep up with her cousins, but she sure is trying!
I had a whole bunch of cats following me and trying to trip me up after they were fed and I continued my morning rounds. Judgement is not much of a surprise, but even Patience was getting under my feet, and he’s not normally willing to get that close. I did have to do a bit of straightening out of the mesh over the chain link fence garden bed, showing that at least one cat was laying down on a section of it. They seem to gravitate towards the overlapping sections of mesh, too.
For some time now, I’ve been watching there the rhubarb is, partly to avoid stepping on it when I got into the old kitchen garden from the north side. Tiny hints of red have been poking through. This morning, they were quite a bit larger. They much have liked the rain we got!
We’ll need to prune back the ornamental crabapple trees that are shading them. Especially the patch and the north corner of the garden. Honestly, I’d love to get rid of those trees completely and replace them with something that produces edible food for humans, and doesn’t shade out the things we’re trying to grow there. They tiny crabapples they produce, which are about the size of big blueberries, do provide food for the grosbeaks in winter, though. Plus, they can be cross pollinators for the Liberty apple tree we planted nearby. So I guess we’re stuck with at least one of them. If we can keep up with the pruning, though, they should be less problematic. It always surprises me when I cut away one branch, only do discover a whole section of dead branches were hidden inside. That’s one thing about any fruit trees we will be planting. They will be pruned! I want to try espalier as well. I know my dad used to prune the trees when he was able, but my mother would just shove things into the ground and leave them. Then wonder why other things would start dying off… Ah, well. It is what it is! They certainly are pretty trees. During my last visit with my mother, I was showing her pictures of the garden and trying to explain the cover on the bed in the old kitchen garden. When I told her it was the same idea as her cold frames, she seemed to start grasping it. Then she asked about the pink rose bush. I told her how, when we first moved there, it was just a couple of stems and dying – until we pruned the ornamental crab apple tree because it and it finally started to get light again! I didn’t have any good photos to show her, but she was happy to hear it is doing well now. It took years for us to get it to the point where it could actually bloom and we saw it was a pink rose bush! Unlike the Cherokee rose, which turns out to be invasive and is trying to take over the garden. They’re beautiful, too, but it’s going to take work to keep them under control, that’s for sure!
At some point, I will want to transplant that rhubarb into a fresh area. Since we will be planting asparagus where the black tarp has been for the past couple of years, that might be a good area to plant the rhubarb, too. It could be the beginnings of a perennial garden.
If we can keep those elm tree roots from choking everything out. Those elms have got to go!
The last two days were awesome. Today, we’re looking at 6C/43F. As I write this, coming up on 11am, we’re at 3C/37F – but the “feels like” is -6C/21F We are finally getting some of the predicted rain, at least. Later on, it’s supposed to be a mix of rain and snow. A system is pushing in from the south and affecting the southern prairies, with the potential for quite a bit of snow. Our climate bubble is in effect, still. Looking at the weather radar, I could even see the horseshoe shape in the weather system as is splits up and goes around our area. The lake effect is really something!
It hadn’t started raining yet, while I was doing my rounds.
I had lots of company this morning, too. Magda (scratching at the log in the background) follows me but still hasn’t forgiven me for closing her up in the isolation shelter, over and over. 😄 She isn’t coming close enough for me to pick her up and tuck her into my jacket anymore! She still accepts pets, though.
Speaking of pets, I managed to sneak some pets onto Brussel as she tried jumping back into the cat cage to join her babies, and her expected wet cat food and morning squeeze treat. Her babies are SO eager for attention, and climbing all over the place. I’m glad I lined the bottom of the cage with cardboard so long ago. They haven’t quite discovered the opening we’d cut into the bottom under the entry. We had done that when Toni was in recovery from her amputation, hoping her somewhat older babies would find her and nurse. Instead, Toni squeezed through! We had to bring her indoors for recovery. We were never sure which babies where hers, but the creche mothers – including Adam and Brussel – likely took them in with their own, just as Brussel has with Caramel’s first baby.
I had to go into town today to pick up a prescription refill for my husband; his “controlled substance” painkillers that he’s not allowed to refill until he’s almost out, so getting it delivered on Thursday was not an option. After getting his meds, I popped across the street to the Red Apple and went looking for smaller food and water dishes. The smallest one we have right now doesn’t quite fit into the back of the trap. It can only fit at and angle, which puts it over the trigger. They were inexpensive, so I got four of them. One will go into the cat cage, now that the littles are getting more mobile and interested in solid food. We don’t want to put much food in there, as that would encourage other cats, or even the skunks and racoons to get in there. The alternative it to close up the cage in between feedings, and I don’t want to do that to Brussel. She heads out more often, and for longer, now. I’ve even seen her on the trail came, crossing to the neighbouring property. In fact, I see a LOT of cats going back and forth in there. Which may explain some of the new faces we sometimes see. They would be from the next closest colony. Which is preferable to them being dumped cats!
We won’t live set the trap quite yet; the overnight temperatures are just too low, for the next few days, and we aren’t in a position to constantly monitor it. What we can do is move it closer to the house. I am also thinking to make a shelter over it to make it cozier and more cave-like, so that when we do activate the trap, any critter caught in there will be sheltered and warm until we can see who it is and either get them to a vet or release it. I don’t want to get any of the lactating mamas and, of course, we don’t want to get any skunks or racoons, and this trap is big enough for a racoon.
We do have two smaller traps as well, and these new food and water bowls might fit in them, too. They are more squirrel traps, though, and might be too small for an adult cat. We shall see. I haven’t taken too close of a look at them since my brother gave them to us.
Along with the food and water dishes, I also picked up some jingling toys for Brussel’s babies. They are getting so active, they need something to play with! When I got home, I put one of them into the cat bed in the cube next to where their cat cave is, and another right into the cave. Who knows. Maybe even Brussel will play with it!
As I was walking back to the house, I caught the attention of these cuties.
Magda and her doppelgangers, keeping cozy under the heat lamp! It actually gets too hot in there on the sunny days, so I’ve been unplugging the extension cord for both the heat lamp and the heated water bowl, then plugging it back in for the night. With today being so wet and chilly, they appreciate that heat lamp!
The wind and rain also means I won’t be able to work on the outside projects quite yet. If the forecast is at all accurate, tomorrow afternoon might work out. We’ll need to dig the longer extension cords out of winter storage, if it’s dry enough to use the electric chainsaw. Otherwise, there are some repair and maintenance jobs that can be worked on.
For now, though, I’ll take advantage of the unpleasant weather and start editing the recordings I made yesterday, into our April garden tour video. It won’t be a very long one, yet! 😄
Well, yesterday, we finally admitted it. The battle has been lost. We’ve thrown in the towel and admitted defeat – for safety reasons, really.
Despite my best efforts, Magda kept getting out of the isolation shelter. Once, I found a sliding window open, but most of the time, I could see nothing disturbed. The only way I could see how she could be getting out was through the roof, even though it was weighted down with bricks, and there is a ceiling of rigid insulation. I couldn’t see how she could be getting out the back, where it lefts, but how could she be getting out through the front, where it’s hinged?
Now, the insulation has been slowly scratched and chewed up through the winter, so there is a big gap where the two pieces meet. The gap between the insulation and the roof panels is very narrow, but Magda is so tiny. Was it possible?
Just in case, I found some boards and more pieces of scrap insulation that I slide in between the roof panels and the insulation ceiling. There were still spaces, but they were very small.
Once inside and in the kitchen, went to open the window, which is directly above the isolation shelter. I spotted Magda at one of the gaps in the insulation, scratching at the roof panel. When she heard me tell her to stop, she disappeared below.
Off and on, I would check out the window. Nothing was happening.
Then I looked out and found a very flat Magda, squeezed between the boards, the insulation and the roof panel, like a pancake. !!!
I dashed outside but, as I came closer, she slithered her way back into the shelter, flung herself into the cat bed and stretched out, looking at me as if nothing had just happened. !!!
I found some more scrap pieces of insulation and shifted the boards I’d added around, then kept checking out the window. I didn’t see anything.
Eventually, though, something about the insulation seemed… different.
I went out to check, and there was Magda, sitting on the lawn, looking at me. She had somehow managed to pull the insulation downwards enough for her to squirm through.
At that point, I gave up. She’s supposed to be recovering from surgery, and the last thing she should be doing is squeezing through tight spaces and dropping down from a height. Since we’ve finished the ear medication, and The Grink was looking fine, too, I opened the ramp door to the isolation shelter and let them out, putting the wind breaker box over the opening again.
Even so, when I came out this morning, I found that window open again!
While I was doing my rounds this morning, I had a whole lot of cats following me, including Magda! The second photo above was taken while I was checking the garlic bed. After I got the picture, she walked under Stinky to get to the other side of him.
She is so small, she didn’t have to duck at all to go under him.
Gosh, those two look alike. Given when he was neutered and how old she is, I suppose it’s possible he’s her daddy.
The garlic, meanwhile, is looking much better now!
Their finally turned nice and green and, with the netting in place, nothing it digging them up anymore.
Yesterday was such a gorgeous evening, I was able to do a few things in the garden, though I neglected to take photos. One of them was to uncover the winter sown bed in the old kitchen garden to give it a good watering. With the plastic cover, it didn’t get even what little rain we’ve had, and the sump pump that drains at the high end of the bed has yet to go off this year, so it’s not being watered from below, either. There was enough water in the rain barrel that I could give this bed a thorough watering. Once the cover was off, I could also see that there are quite a few seedlings in there, and what appears to be a couple of onions that I missed from last year!
Once the cover was back on and the plastic secured, I started watering the bed at the chain link fence that is now covered with mesh. I came back to the rain barrel to refill, and found two cats lounging on top of the raised bed cover!
I am not impressed.
The pre-sown bed at the chain link fence, plus the one among the east yard garden beds got watered, and I was still able to refill the watering cans to leave in the portable greenhouse to warm up during the day and add to the heat sink effect during the night.
Which doesn’t actually seem to be accomplishing anything. Whenever I check the thermometer in the morning, it’s reading the same temperature as outside the greenhouse. Still way to cold to be able to move our seedling trays into there!
In checking the other areas, I did some clearing around the walking onions. There are quite a few of them coming up right now. Unfortunately, so is the crab grass, only some of which could be pulled out for now. I check on the fenced off area where the tulips are and there are a lot more leaves showing now. Even the saffron crocuses look like there are more of them. While they never reached the point of blooming before they got choked out by weeds, clearly the corms have expanded.
After I finished my rounds this morning, I grabbed the turkey dinners I put together for my mother and headed out. I left early enough to swing past the grocery store to see if it was open today. It was, so I popped in to pick up a few things I knew my mother was running low on. I also picked up some instant oatmeal for her to try, since she’s having a harder time standing long enough to cook herself breakfast. I figured instant oatmeal would be better than boxed cereal. I got a package with three different flavours for her to try out. When I got to her place and was putting things away, I opened the box to read the instructions – she would have great difficulty reading them herself. Each flavour called for a different amount of water. Oops. Ah, well. I explained the instructions to her as best I could.
While today was just a day to visit, I of course did a little jobs for her, including bagging up her recycling. I noticed bean cans in there, which was something I’d got for her to try before, so I asked how she liked them. She was very enthusiastic in her response, so canned baked beans are now on the list of heat and eat things for her! 😁 Until now, she’d just been getting canned soups.
With the few things I picked up for her today, plus the dinners, plus her three days a week of Meals on Wheels, it turns out my mother isn’t going to need an actual grocery shopping trip for a while. It was, for the most part, a good visit. It wasn’t until the very end, when it was getting time for me to leave anyhow, that she started going off on a tangent. One was about how surprised she was that my brother didn’t phone her for Easter. I pointed out, he came over to visit her because they were going to be out of province this weekend, to spend time with the grandbabies. “Oh, two weeks ago”, she scoffed. Except it wasn’t; it was last weekend, and he spent a long time with her going over her financial stuff, as he regularly does, along with bringing her stuff for her basket and an Easter card.
Then she started going on about my daughters, and how terrible I am for keeping them “tied” to me (she doesn’t get that they actually chose to move out here to help maintain this place) and even back to ranting about how they “know nothing” because we homeschooled. She doesn’t know the girls at all, has made no effort to get to know them (she has only ever wanted to control them and get them to perform for her), but assumes she knows everything about them and about our life in general. Basically, making scenarios up in her mind and assuming they are true, then blaming all the bad stuff on my making parenting choices she didn’t approve of. It’s been decades, and she still does it! I swear, in her mind, the girls are still 10 yrs old or something.
It was definitely time to leave.
By the time I got home, it was getting close to when I would normally go out for my evening rounds, so I was soon back outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather we’ve been having. According to my weather app, we’ve been raining all day, but it was bright sunshine and warm temperatures. After feeding the cats – and playing with the kittens a bit – I ended up taking some April garden tour video. It’s been a month since the last ones I took, so I figured it was about time. I’ll be checking those soon and seeing if I need to do it again or not! 😄
Tomorrow is supposed to be quite a bit colder, with a mix of rain and snow starting in the afternoon. On a day when I have no outings planned and want to get work done outside, of course. 😁 We’ll see how things actually turn out. Some jobs I want to start require power tools and extension cords, so if we’ve got rain or snow, those will wait a bit longer. There is always something that can be worked on, though. I actually have a whole week ahead of me, with no scheduled outings until our first city stock up trip! What a remarkable thing! I might actually get some real work done outside! Gosh, that would be nice!
While doing my morning rounds, I checked on the netting over the winter sown beds.
The first thing I saw was tracks in the soil of the summer squash bed. Something had gotten in! Looking around, I found that the netting at one end of the bed had been pulled up and even torn in one spot that I could see. Whatever got in must have panicked in trying to get out, because the excess netting on the sides were disturbed, and I found another area where the ground staples had been pulled up.
I’ve got the netting pulled fairly tight along the sides, but it is rather hard to see, so I used old bricks to weigh it down more along the sides and ends. Hopefully, that will make it a bit more visible.
The other bed seemed fine, but some of the twine was looking rather loose. I think something jumped on top of the netting, pulling the supports inward a bit.
My daughter and I made an unexpected trip to the nearest Walmart area today. While we were there, we also hit the Dollarama, and I bought a bunch more ground staples. Those things are very handy.
On another note…
Magda got out of the isolation shelter again. She came over when I was going the feeding, letting me put her back in to get her share of the wet cat food. I got Kohl in there and she seems to be staying this time. I added more weight to the roof, which I still think is the only place they could have gotten out through. That may have been enough to keep Kohl in, but I would have expected it to have been more likely to keep Magda in, since she’s so much lighter. Magda was out even before my daughter and I started to head out! We let her be, at the time.
After my daughter and I got home, it was late enough to do the evening feeding, plus we wanted to dose their ears. I think tonight might be the last dose, as the bottle seems pretty empty. Once her ears were done, we put Magda back into the isolation shelter with Kohl while we did The Grink’s ears, and then gave them the wet cat food right away, to distract them from trying to get out. I’m still holding out hope that we can shave those mats off of Kohl!
Meanwhile, Brussel’s babies are increasingly active. The black and white has been climbing out of the cat cave and calling to us, regularly, and now the calico is starting to as well.
We try to handle them as much as possible, without freaking Brussel out too much. As for Caramel’s babies in the cat house, I haven’t been able to see them. Any time I’ve tried looking through the window I am either seeing Caramel in the cat bed, or there’s too much reflection to see inside.
From what I can see from the other cats, Slick and Sprout have both had their babies somewhere in the outer yard. I’m pretty sure the dead kitten I found was Adam’s. She doesn’t seem to be pregnant, there’s no sign that she’s nursing, and she’s hanging around the house a lot more than she would, if she had a litter somewhere in the outer yard. There’s a talkative white and grey that no longer looks round. That’s pretty much it for cats I could say for sure were pregnant. After Easter, we’ll set the trap up for reals and see if we can start bringing in more ladies, before they start showing. We’ll have to pace things, though. With three small cats in the isolation shelter right now, we could put in one larger cat without too much issue, but we wouldn’t want to put in another until after Magda and The Grink are done their isolation period. The Cat Lady was talking about getting us in for more spays in May, so that will work out.
Meanwhile, we will continue working on Brussel, Caramel and Slick for socialization, so we can hopefully get them in when their milk has dried up without having to trap.
On the plus side, things have warmed up again, though it’s still pretty windy. We’re even expected to hit 18C/64F tomorrow. It’s supposed to cool down again after that. We might even get rain in a few days! That would be good. Things are pretty dry out there, and a fire ban for open fires and grass burning is already in effect for our municipality. Which isn’t unusual for April, really. Contained fires and burn barrels are still okay.
Overall, it’s looking to be a nice weekend for Easter.
We got 4 of the 5 Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon seeds potted up, as well as a couple of Honeydew. There were still 2 Honeydew seeds, and the Kaho melon seeds, that were not germinated, so we ended up combining them into one tray. I’d gotten rid of the one Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon seed that didn’t germinate, as it seemed like it was not viable, but the remaining Honeydew seeds look like they might still germinate. I’m not sure about the Kaho seeds, though. They may simply be too old.
With the pre-germinated seeds potted up, there wasn’t room in the tray for the container with the remaining seeds, plus the container with the Zucca melon seeds, so they got stacked. The large Zucca melon seeds would need longer to germinated, but it does seem like it’s taking too long. I’m not sure we’ll get any at all this year. We shall see.
My daughter and I then went through some of my herb seeds to figure out what else we could be starting inside. In the end, I decided that I will buy transplants, instead, for the ones we want. I also seem to be missing some seed packets! I’ve no idea what happened to them.
We also talked about some of the flower seeds. I’d picked up some Baby’s Breath for my daughters, as my older daughter in particular really likes them. They looked them up and, apparently, they are considered invasive in our area. Which I find strange, since we already have some in a small flower garden where my mother had planted them, ages ago. They barely survive and are certainly not spreading! It’s part of the reason I got more seeds.
Once we were done, my daughter ended up staying in the basement for a while longer to use the exercise bike, so we could keep the heater on for longer. Later, we both headed outside to feed the cats, then go through the garden beds. I wanted to make sure she was on top of the plans I had, in case they had to take over for me for some reason.
She was very happy to see that her tulips are coming up, and we even spotted a few grape hyacinths emerging. No sign of the snow crocuses, though. We pulled back the black tarp to check out where I was thinking of planting the asparagus and strawberries, and it does look like the weeds and crab grass have been killed off well enough to use the space. The only issue will be the roots from the nearby elm trees, and I’m really hoping we can finally cut those down this year. In trying to clean the area up, I found stumps that showed others have tried to clear them away in the past, and they grew back, so I’ll have to take that into account when we finally get those taken down. It still blows me away, how much their roots have been getting into the garden beds and choking things out.
We checked on the beds that I want to cover with the netting, and had to refill more holes dug by the cats. Very frustrating, that we couldn’t cover them because of the wind.
Speaking of the wind, in the next photo of the slide show above, you can see an area in our spruce grove I was finally able to get to. I tell that we lost a few trees over the winter, and saw some that look like they came down within the past day or two. Cleaning up in there is going to be a huge job!
We checked on the netting I put over the bed at the chain link fence yesterday. Much to my surprise, one of the supports at an overlapping section had been completely pulled up and almost took a few others with it! It seems like the extra netting with the drawstring that would normally be the end of the row cover got caught somehow. Hopefully, that won’t happen again, and there was no damage.
The portable greenhouse was getting some wind damage, though.
In the last photo in the slideshow above, you can see the tear along the zipper. It has gotten bigger – big enough that cats could easily fit through, if they wanted. I’m not sure how to reattach it to the zipper. I did add some clear duct tape above the tear, in hopes it will prevent it from tearing more. We also found a tear in one corner where the tie downs are attached. The loop of fabric the cord was tied to actually tore loose from the plastic. The loop is part of a tie that is fastened to the frame itself on the inside, so it can’t go very far. The clear duct tape came in handy to cover the hole and, hopefully, prevent it from getting worse. I know the covers on these little greenhouses don’t last long, but we don’t even have any plants in it yet! High winds were why I’d hoped to set it up in a corner closer to the house, but the ground is just too uneven there.
I’ve been looking at 6mm greenhouse plastic online. What I’d really like to do is get a roll of it, but that’s well out of budget right now.
I keep looking at various notifications on my weather apps, telling me things like, light rain coming soon, or, rain will end soon. The problem is, we’ve had NO rain at all. According to the weather radar, we’ve got a system right on top of us, and we’re supposed to get rain for the next couple of hours, yet I’m not seeing a drop of rain out my window. At this rate, I’m going to have to hook up the hoses and start watering the winter sown beds! I might even have to fill the rain barrel I’ve set up with the hose, to have warmer water for the garden beds, because we sure aren’t getting any rain to fill it! Nor are we expecting any, for weeks.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a cooler day than today, though with the wind, today felt downright chilly. I’m really hoping the wind dies down, so we can get those nets set up. Given my pain levels today, it’s probably good I’ve got an enforced day of rest.
My husband, sweetheart that he is, ordered some Tai Fu lotion (not an affiliate link), that came in today. We’ve used this stuff, in balm form, in the past and it helped, but we were a lot less broken back then. I’m looking forward to trying it when I go to bed tonight. I hope it helps. Lord knows, the prescription stuff I tried a few years ago didn’t do much, and I’m hurting a lot more these days, then at that time. Between the lotion, and today’s enforced rest, I’m hoping to be able to get some work done tomorrow!
I picked up some bare root strawberries, and asparagus crowns.
The asparagus that was have now, which has been drowned out for the past couple of years, is a purple variety, so I grabbed a package of Purple Passion to basically replace them. They had a couple of varieties of green asparagus, and I chose Jersey Giant. Each package has 5 crowns in it.
We already have the Albion Everbearing strawberries that did so well last year, except for when the deer kept eating the greens. I got another everbearing variety – Ozark Beauty. I also want to try the White Carolina strawberries again. We tried them a few years ago, but not one of them survived.
I am thinking of planting these in a section of the main garden area that has been covered with a black tarp for a couple of years, now. We had grown squash and pumpkins in there, previously. I want to move the tarp to cover the rest of what used to be the squash patch. Hopefully, the asparagus will do better there. I’ll probably interplant them with the strawberries, too.
But not yet.
Something else I got but didn’t get a picture of were some 12′ (I think) lengths of tubing. They’re more flexible than the 5′ lengths I tried before. I plan to use one of them, cut in half, to make a netting support over the 4′ square Albion strawberry bed, so we don’t have to worry about them getting eaten by deer again! I might work on that tomorrow.
The first thing I did when I got home, though, was pot up some pre-germinated melon seeds. The four Sarah’s Choice seeds were ready to go!
I had just enough pre-moistened seed starter mix left to fill 4 cups to plant them in. The cups have drainage holes in them, and they and the other seeds are now in a tray over the heat mat. I took the old heat mat out completely. It was cold, and no longer working.
There are a few other seeds starting to germinate. Nothing with the Zucca melon. I expect to be planting more pre-germinated seeds in a couple of days. I want to give some of the seeds more time.
With the old heat mat removed and the new one shifted over, I also moved the tray with the seedlings over. There are still a few blank spots, but enough sprouts are up that it shouldn’t be on a heat mat anymore – but I do wish that old mat was still working though, because I think they would still do better with one.
That done, I headed outside again.
I’ve noticed that the cats have really been digging around in the winter sown garden bed at the chain link fence. While I was at the Dollarama today, I picked up some row covers that I hoped would work out.
This bed is narrow, so those metal supports would be fine for it. It was the mesh that was important. It’s open enough that the wind can blow through it – the mosquito netting we’ve been using gets turned into a sail rather quickly! – and rain can get through, but it’s fine enough to keep the Chinese Elm seeds from choking everything out, once those start to drop. Plus, the ends can be closed up, which will keep the cats out.
I wasn’t sure how many I would need to cover this garden bed, so I got 5, just in case. In the second photo, you can see some of the damage the cats have been doing.
Setting them up with the wire supports was a bit of a challenge! The wire is supposed to be run through evenly spaced pockets in the mesh. That was the first problem! The wire is thin enough to pass through the mesh. It was hard just to get it through the opening of the pockets! The other end, meanwhile, kept getting caught up in, and through, other sections of mesh.
The set came with a solution for threating the wires through the pockets, though I doubt it was intended as such. Each kit has a bundle of 5 supports. They are held together by fitting the ends into a white plastic cap, one for each bundle of ends. I used one of those caps on the end of a wire support and, as long as there was enough tension to keep the cap from falling off, the wire slid through quite easily. If the cap did fall off, it could be pushed back through the pocket to the wire.
It took a while to get the hand of it, though. The wires and the mesh kept wanting to get all tangled up with each other. Plus, every stick or twig or leaf on the ground seemed to automatically get caught in it! What I eventually figured out was to first make sure the netting was bunched up in the middle of the wire, then stab one of the ends into the ground next to my leg. At least a little bit. I was sitting in the shade, so while the ice and snow was melted away, the ground was more frozen than in other places. It was enough to keep the wire upright, though, and I could just add the next ones as they were done.
I set up the first two assembled kits at each end of the bed. The kits have a drawstring at each and to close them up, but I needed to overlap several of these to ensure no gaps. Once the ends of the beds were covered, I assembled two more kits to fill in the space. Once the ends were closed with the drawstring, those got set in place with ground staples. In one area, the two kits overlapped enough that they didn’t need anything else, but another join got secured with more ground staples.
I think this will work out very well for now. I could probably remove that mosquito netting entirely and use it somewhere else. If the winter sowing survived, this netting can stay until things start getting too tall for it. The mess easily slides up and down the wire supports, so it’ll be easy to reach under to weed.
The bed was incredibly dry, though, so I used the water from the heat sink in the portable greenhouse to water it, then refilled the container. With sort of defeats the purpose of the heat sink, but there are no plants in there to protect right now.
When it was time to refill the container, I also prepped something else I found in the Dollarama.
Coconut fibre bricks! It’s been years since I’ve seen these. I’ve got one of them in a bucket of water to expand until tomorrow. I plan to incorporate it into the soil that’s in the pots I’ll be using for the luffa inside the portable greenhouse. It will be a while before the luffa can be transplanted, I’ve got time to get those ready. With the coco fibre in there, it should help keep the soil fluffier, and hold moisture more evenly. I’ll save the second brick to amend soil in one of the garden beds, later.
The garden bed at the chain link fence is not the only ones the cats are damaging. After I finished refilling the heat sink in the greenhouse, plus the watering cans, I checked out the main garden area. The garlic bed and the summer squash bed have both been dug into. Some of the garlic was almost completely dug up! We’re going to have to cover them.
These are the parts and pieces from a gazebo tent that was broken when a piece of tree fell on it. I had a bunch of shorter pieces – all pieces that were broken in half – that I put around the garlic bed, as it won’t need a lot of height. The tent pieces all have holes in them that had screws or pins running through them, which are prefect for holding twin in place. I ran the twin through to make Xs across the bed, as well as straight across and the sides. I did the same with taller supports I put over the bed sown with summer squash.
We have a couple of types of netting that is large enough to fit over these. We’ve got black netting that is more open, but for that, we’ll have to put something on top of the support posts, so they won’t tear through. There’s also the mosquito netting I’ll be moving off the chain link fence. We have other netting, too, but they are for trellising, so the openings are large enough for a cat to fit through.
The roll of bale twine I used on this has been sitting in the sun room all winter, and the cats have been pulling out the middle and playing with it. By the time I got things untangled while threading it through the support posts, it was starting to get quite chilly out there! As I write this, our temperatures had dropped just below freezing. According to the short range forecast, though, we’re expecting overnight lows of -6C/21F. At those temperatures, we’ll want to put some sort of protection over the winter sown beds. Something more than netting! That’s the down side of having removed the mulch, so the ground could thaw out. I will probably spread some of the mulch back lightly over the beds again. The beds are even looking like they could use a good watering, too! We didn’t get a lot of snow this winter, so things are pretty dry right now, and there is no rain in the forecast for some time. What rain and snow we’ve had lately hasn’t been enough keep these beds from drying out.
Tomorrow, we’re looking at a high of 15C/59F. That will be a wonderful temperature to get things done outside!
As long as I don’t overdo it. I got chilled enough while working the twine through the supports, I still haven’t warmed up, even after a hot meal and a hot cup of tea! My entire body is stiffening up and starting to really ache.
Time to pain killer up and get to bed. Hopefully, the painkillers will be enough to let me get some sleep!
I had a rough night last night and my balance wasn’t very good, so I asked one of my daughters to accompany me while I was doing my morning rounds. My daughter popped out ahead with the warm water for the cats while I was getting the kibble ready when I heard her saying something about Brussel and the kittens.
When I first looked over, I was quite alarmed. I had not been able to straighten up the cat cave, so it was still on its side – but now it was half crushed and Brussel was sitting on top of it, looking at me! My first thought was that the kittens were still inside, being smothered.
I was wrong, of course. They were on top of the flattened side of the cave with Brussel.
All three of them.
That’s what my daughter was trying to point out to me. Caramel’s first kitten was still with Brussel and nursing!
I tried to get a picture, but this was the best I could get.
That little calico is resting her chin on her new sibling while she’s nursing. I think this kitten is a tortie; if so, it’s a female.
So it seems that when Caramel jumped into the cat cave with Brussel and my daughter moved her baby in with them, Caramel just left her baby to Brussel’s mothering. When I saw Caramel the next morning, she still looked pregnant, but not when I got home, which is when I spotted the two in the sun room.
I’ve heard that cats can do that sort of thing, but for there to be such a long time between births is pretty amazing. It’s unlikely she had them somewhere else then brought them over, or she would have brought her first kitten over, too. It would have been much closer and easier to bring to the cat house.
Caramel is also much more comfortable leaving her babies while she goes outside – unlike Brussel who barely leaves them to get some kibble, water and do her business.
Here, you can see Caramel milling around with the boys. It took a bit, but I was able to pet her – until one of the males pushed his way in between, demanding I pet him, instead!
When we peeked through the window, we could see the kittens curled up around each other, sleeping.
The down side of Caramel being in the cat house is, there’s no way I can give her wet cat food or squeeze treats like I can with Brussel. Caramel, at least, already allows us to sometimes pet her. Unlike Brussel, who actually seems to be getting more aggressive, not less, even as she accepts the food and treats.
We had another surprise this morning that was a bit more perplexing.
This is the side of the water bowl shelter. Somehow, one of the boards got loose! It may not even had been doing by a cat, but a racoon or skunk. Well. Maybe not a skunk. Nothing was knocked about inside, so I don’t think it got pushed out during a cat fight. It was just nailed in, so we’ll dig out the drill and use screws to secure it, later on.
My daughter and I checked out a few areas while we were out and about. The garden beds in the main garden area are almost completely uncovered now. With today’s high expected to be 17C/63F, the rest of the ice and snow should soon be gone. We can start doing some clean up and remove the mulch on the winter sown beds. I remembered to tuck one of the thermometers under the plastic covered bed. It should be interesting to see what it’s at, when we remove the cover to remove the mulch this afternoon. With the cover on, it’s entirely possible the soil below is already thawed out.
But not yet. I got another Charlie horse during the night, and my leg still feels unstable, though it was the mildest Charlie horse I’ve ever had. I’m going to try and get a bit more recovery time. Today is Saturday, which means the dump is open longer hours, so a dump run is also on my to-do list today. We’ll also need to get the isolation shelter prepared to hold three adult females for 2 weeks. We’ll be moving one of the box nests back into the bottom, after it’s cleaned out as best we can, and the litter box prepared.
I look forward to when we can roll that isolation shelter out, open it all up and give it a good cleaning! I’m glad the cats are enjoying it, but they do make a mess of things. 😄
Things are going to be busy for the next while. Lots of driving around to do, on top of the usual spring clean up.
I’m looking forward to it, but I really need to remember that I’m a lot more broken now, than when we first moved out here!
I’m also falling asleep at my keyboard.
*sigh*
Time to try lying down and hopefully get some real sleep for an hour or two.
This afternoon, I headed out to drop our tax stuff off at the preparers, late enough that when I got back, I immediately started feeding the outside cats.
When I feed them in the mornings, I try to see into the cat house, but at that time of day, there is a lot of reflection. Plus, they get pretty dirty on the inside. Yesterday, I could see there was… something… in the cat bed next to the larger window. So while feeding the cats this afternoon, I made a point of trying to see what it was.
It was a dead kitten.
*sigh*
The cat house roof needs two people to open it, so once the cats finished eating the kibble on the roof, my daughter came out to help me open it. The counterweight is supported by two milk crates. The bottom one is embedded in ice, so we couldn’t move it. My daughter, however, was able to hold up the roof for me while I got the kitten out (there was just the one) and wrapped it in paper towel.
As I was going back and forth, however, I noticed Caramel in the larger cat bed on the bottom of the shelf shelter. I don’t usually see her there.
And was that a squeak I heard?
After we finished with the cat house roof and I set the little body in the branch pile for later cremation (the ground it still too frozen to bury anything), I went past the shelf shelter and heard it again.
There was just one kitten, but she was clearly still in labour, so while my daughter went inside, I hung around. I did ask her to bring a cat bed from my room that the cats don’t like to use. I set it up in the cube of the cat cage next to Brussel – with her growling at me the whole time – but I wasn’t sure how that would work out. It is meant to be drawn closed at the top with a rope, but it always collapsed, so we folded the sides down to turn it into a big bowl. We used it with Decimus and her kittens that way, but that was when the cat cage was in my bedroom. In the sun room, it’s a lot more open. Plus, the sides tend to collapse. Still, I thought it was worth a try.
I kept checking on Caramel, and even tried to pet her. Much to my surprise, she not only let me pet her without trying to bite my hand, but when I moved away to switch hands or adjust my position, she actually reached out to grab my hand, trying to pull it back for more pets!
After a while, I figured it might be better to just try and take the entire bed, with mama and baby, into the cat cage. I took the other cat bed out and, with the help of a daughter tried to move the big cat bed with Caramel.
Caramel, of course, got off, but we put it with the baby into the cat cave. It started crying for Mom loudly, and it wasn’t long before Caramel started coming back into the sun room.
Then we heard a cat fight in the outer yard, so I went to check on that, while my daughter monitored things through the old kitchen door.
By the time I came back, Caramel was in the cat cage – and in the cat cave with Brussel! Caramel’s baby, however, was still in the other cube, on the cat bed.
So my daughter moved the baby over, and things became quiet again.
There’s no way this was going to work out, though. I was hoping Caramel would still use the other, larger cat bed. Especially since she was clearly still in labour. There just isn’t enough room in there for them.
Okay, as I was writing this, I had the live stream for the critter cam going and saw a couple of skunks. I went to chase them out, then checked on the mamas. I could only see Brussel and her babies. I could see no sign of Caramel and her baby.
Except…
I have the live stream up right now and Caramel is in the sun room. I see her milling about, eating a bit, milling around some more. Now I’m wondering if maybe her baby is still in there with Brussel, but I just couldn’t see?
Oh, Caramel just left the sun room. You’d think she’d be staying close to her own baby, and with how actively she was still milling around, I don’t think she’s still in labour.
I’m at a loss.
While all this was going on, I updated the Cat Lady. She was very apologetic. She’s been trying to get us in for spays and neuters for weeks. We’re not the only ones she’s helping, though, and donations only go so far. I told her about the dead kitten, too, which I’m pretty sure was a stillbirth. We have no way of knowing which cat that was from.
After much messaging back and forth with the Cat Lady, she now has us booked for next week. We’re shooting to bring in 3 pregnant females. It won’t be easy, but that’s the goal. She wants to get us for 2 more younger females and a male in May. I don’t know how she managed to get us in so quickly for 3 pregnant females!
She and I will also be meeting up tomorrow. She has some donations of canned cat food for us. That will be a big help!
In the middle of all this messaging back and forth, I finally was able to get to that drain pipe in the basement. I ran the big auger bit through and, while I did hit a spot where there was definitely something hard on the inside of the pipe, I was able to get past it easily. I was even able to get through the bend under the bathroom and push through quite a bit further. I did this several times. There wasn’t anywhere near as much gunk stuck to the auger parts as there was before.
I think it might actually be safe to hook up the washing machine drain again!
Once I got someone to run water to test for leaks and everything was cleaned up and put away, the only thing I wanted to do was take a shower!
I most definitely needed to use my husband’s bath chair, though. I even made sure to take pain killers before I started.
We can test the washing machine tomorrow.
I must say, nothing about today has been at all like I expected it to be! 😄
I couldn’t see any fresh growth on the sea buckthorn, mulberry or Liberty apple tree, but they all seem to have survived the winter. There’s still too much snow covering the ground to know if the snow crocuses or grape hyacinth are starting to come up. The saffron crocuses seem to be okay – something was digging around them and in the mulch around the Liberty apply tree, and some of the saffron crocuses got buried. Whatever did the digging – likely a skunk – clearly wasn’t after the bulbs, but probably found some insects or grubs to snack on. I haven’t seen any sign of tulips, yet. This section is now free of snow, so we should be seeing them pop through the mulch soon enough.
There were plenty of hungry kitties when I did the morning feeding, and some of them were still hanging around, looking for pets, as I was heading back to the house.
She really likes to lick my hands. The poor thing’s fur is so badly matted, and there are even burrs now stuck in her tail. At least she is socialized enough that, once things are warm enough, we should be able to use the new clippers to cut them off. Some of the other puffy cats, like Patience, are friendly, but getting any burrs or mats cut out might be too much for them.
Oh, dear. It just occurred to me.
I didn’t see Adam this morning. At all.
Which means she probably found some hiding place in the outer yard to have her litter. It would have been good if she’d used the sun room, but she doesn’t really go in there often at all. Even the cat house would have been good but, while there are cat beds at the windows in there, we had to take out the remains of boxes that had been in there, so there are no longer any more enclosed “nests” in that mamas have used in the past. Any time a cat has had a litter in there, though, they tended to disappear within days. I think it’s just too busy and active with other cats and they are quick to move their babies elsewhere.
If all goes well, I might be meeting up with the Cat Lady tomorrow. She has a whole bunch of wet cat food donations for us, and she said something about having more cat beds as well. We shall see. Tomorrow is looking to be a really nice day, too. Today’s high is supposed to be 8C/46F, but we’re supposed to reach highs of 16C/61F over the next two days! Even the overnight lows are supposed to stay above freezing for those two nights. We might be able to start removing the mulch from some of the winter sown beds, so the soil beneath can thaw out faster. If the long range forecast is to be trusted, we might even be able to sow cold tolerant things early. I’ll have to go through my bin of seeds for direct sowing and go through the most cold tolerant varieties to decide while ones can be planted first. At the very least, the peas will be able to go in, and we have two varieties of sugar snaps, and one variety of shelling peas we can plant as soon as the soil is workable. Those would be going into the main garden beds, though, and those are still covered in snow.
No one was available to go my mother’s med assist this morning.
Hmmm…
I was already planning to go to town today, but not for a few more hours. Instead, I arranged with the girls to take are of feeding and watering the cats outside, while I quickly took my meds, got dressed, grabbed our empty water jugs (the main reason I was going to town today) and headed out to my mothers. Since I had three water jugs to take along, my older daughter came down to help me with the doors before feeding the outside cats. She wasn’t impressed that I got another call to cover a no-show (nothing was said about why, this time, and I didn’t ask). She asked if the med assists were being done by volunteers, or if my mother was paying for the service. I told her, it’s covered by our health care system, so they are being paid. My mother has a list of names for all the home care aids she can expect to see. there are ten names on that list. It does seem odd that, with so many aids just for the scheduled route my mother is on (there would be many others), there isn’t someone who can cover when one can’t do the scheduled rounds.
Ah, well. It is what it is. At least the weather is better!
I did remember to phone my mother, first, to let her know I was on the way!
When I got there, my mother was not at all impressed. She’s angry that I have to drive aaaaall that way (it’s about 20-25 minutes of driving time, so not that bad) to do her meds. At least she didn’t start yelling about how we need to get rid of the lock box because she can do her meds herself.
She did, however, get upset over how I was taking the meds out of the bubble pack, and where the lock box was sitting, and where I put the note pad…
She began telling me how the home care aids would pop the pills out of the bubble packs “in the air” (meaning, not over the table, but right into their hands), and pills would go flying all over. Which may have happened a couple of times but, as far as I know, this was before she went to the hospital. It’s why I brought over the tiny dish so the meds could be put into it and double checked.
There was a different reason I was having issues with the bubble pack, though. I was opening the last bubble in this particular pack – and discovered it had been taped shut. I mentioned the tape and my mother said one of the aids did it because she had opened up the wrong day’s bubble.
I got the pills into the little bowl, then checked on the printout inside the cover of the bubble pack to count how many there supposed to be for her morning medications.
One was missing.
A few days ago, while digging for the lab work requisition form, I found a loose pill on the bottom of the lock box.
Now we know where it came from.
When the next aid came to do the med assist saw the pill and my note, she got a tiny envelope for it, labelled it and put it back in the lock box, so I was able to open that up and include it with the rest of the pills Mom was to take this morning.
I then made out a detailed note about when my mother got her medications, what I found and what I did, including putting a new bubble pack into the lock box.
My mother also has an inhaler to take morning and night and I asked her about it, but she said she hasn’t really been taking it. It was a test to see if it would help any with her breathing issues, and it made no difference that she could tell. So we skipped that.
Since I was there anyhow, I did some other stuff for her. The aids are supposed to have extra time booked to help my mother with things like a meal assist (she usually has food ready before they arrive). Some they ask if she needs anything done. Some of them never do. For her morning visit, this includes emptying the bucket in her commode, but they’re also supposed to be available to help her get dressed if she needs it.
I stayed with her to visit for a bit longer, basically waiting until the pharmacy in town opened at 9am, so I could phone them. When my mother started to complain again about my coming out – she is convinced the aids are cancelling simply because they don’t want to do their jobs – I told her that my being able to come out, and having a reliable vehicle to do it, is a blessing. That seemed to take her aback a bit, and I think she liked the idea of thinking of it that way.
After saying my goodbyes to my mother, I spent some time in the truck to update my family and my siblings before calling the pharmacy. With the meds my husband takes, I wasn’t sure they’d even be ready so quickly; he’d called in his refills just yesterday. As we were talking, she asked my time frame, so I told her where I was (which gave her an idea of how long it would take) and why. We deal with this particular pharmacist often enough that she remembers our names and most of my husband’s medications. When I mentioned that there was no one to do my mother’s med assist this morning, she completely understood. They had been in the same situation with her own mother – they even had a lock box. She said they often had home care cancelling visits for them, too. Being in another town, they had their own home care office and staff, but the issue was exactly the same. Last minute cancellations that the family had to cover, frequently. It seems to be a pretty universal problem, and not just in our province.
As for my husband’s refills, they wouldn’t be able to have them ready today, so that’s still scheduled for delivery in a couple of days. Which is fine. I still needed to make the drive to town. I just wasn’t going to go to the pharmacy as well.
Once in town, I got the water jugs refilled. I have a “frequent buyer” list where, after getting 10 refills, I get one free, so one of my refills was free today.
While there, I picked up a couple of things for home, as well as things for our Easter basket. I think we have everything we want to put in it, this year, except for a small ham, which we might simply skip this year.
That done, it was just a quick stop for fuel before heading home. After unloading the truck to my daughter in the house, I left her to put things away while I parked the truck and closed up the gate. I had noticed the plastic on the cover over the raised bed in the old kitchen garden had some gabs fluttering in the wind, so I got the clear duct tape to secure it more.
Before finishing up and heading inside, I spotted Brussel with her babies and decided to give her a squeeze treat. She was really nervous today, though.
I found myself wondering if other cats had been bothering her and her babies – or maybe a skunk or a raccoon! In the two videos above, you can see how agitated she was.
Once I started giving her the squeeze treat, she was right in there – still agitated and somewhat aggressive, but very quick to start eating the treat! When I had to move my hand out so I could use my other hand to squeeze out what was left in the tube, she actually snarled at me and attacked my hand, trying to pull it back! I ended up squeezing the remaining paste onto my fingers (it didn’t start out on purpose!) and let her lick the treat off. She was okay with that, even as she continued to snarl at me.
It should be interesting to see if she has calmed down any, when I do the evening feeding.
I’m glad I was able to go into town for errands today, though. As I write this, we’ve reached our expected high of 6C/43F We’re actually supposed to stay above freezing overnight, but in the wee hours, we’re supposed to start getting a combination of rain and snow, which is supposed to continue through tomorrow. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be only 2C/36F, but if the long range forecast is at all accurate, that’s going to be the coldest high we have from now on. We’re even expected to reach 15C/59F in a few days! Things are supposed to cool down again, and we’re even supposed to get more mixed rain and snow later in the month, but daytime highs are no longer expected to dip below freezing.
Not including wind chill. That’s a whole other animal!
I will continue to monitor the temperatures inside the greenhouse. While it gets colder overnight, it still maintains at least some warmth. I might decide to try starting seeds inside there, rather than in the basement, when it’s time to start the next batch.
As it is now, I am expecting to start potting up the pre-germinated tomato seeds tomorrow. I could do some tonight, but I want to be able to do all of them at once. Maybe not all 4 varieties, but at least all the seeds in a couple of varieties, just because of space issues.
With how chilly it is in the basement, they should handle the cooler night time temperatures in the greenhouse fairly well! My younger daughter has made a point of working on things while in the basement, so that the heater can be left running. She’d been down there for a couple of hours when I joined her for a bit, and the thermometer was still at 12C/54F. Meanwhile, the thermometer in the greenhouse was reading 19C/66F!
With the combination of rain and snow we’re getting tomorrow, I’m not going to uncover the raised bed but, by the day after, it should be thawed enough that we can take the mulch off the winter sown seeds.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what manages to germinate.
The Re-Farmer 