I was up way too late finishing this off, then set it to upload while I went to bed. It wasn’t until I watched it together with the girls this morning that I realized I’d inserted a video clip twice somehow. I don’t have the motivation to fix it! 😄
So there we have it: a tour of how the garden is doing, as of a couple of days ago.
I hope you like it! Feel free to watch it on YouTube and give it a like, subscribe, etc. if you wish. 😊
The Re-Farmer
Yesterday was beautifully cool, and I knew it would get cooler overnight but, my goodness, did it get cold last night! With June’s temperatures, I haven’t even bothered putting a blanket on my bed; just a top sheet, and I’d often sleep on top of it, with the fan blowing right over me. Last night, the fan was off and I should have closed the window and gotten a blanket, but was too sleepy to do it, and slept cold, instead. When I finally checked the temperature at about 6am, it was 7C/45F!! I don’t know if it got any cooler than that last night, but you can bet I was checking on the tomatoes and squash this morning, for cold damage. They seemed to be just fine. If I’d known it might get that cold overnight, the girls and I would have covered them! I keep a bottle water by my bedside for when I take my supplements, or just need a drink during the night. When I drank it this morning, it was as cold as if it had come straight out of the fridge!
The kitties seemed to handle the drop in temperature just fine. I’m sure they were well cuddled by their mamas!
Speaking of mamas…
I thought I saw a pregnant cat run by, last night! There she is! I almost never see this cat anymore. I can’t remember if we’ve ever named her. Good grief, she looks ready to pop! Considering we’re in July, I suspect this is a second pregnancy, and that she lost her first litter. Unless she’s the tuxedo’s mother, but I don’t think so. She is from one of the oldest of last year’s kittens. We can’t get anywhere near her, and the only reason I was able to take this photo was because she was really hungry, and I can zoom in.
As I was finishing up my rounds, I was pleased to spot this.
The tiny tuxedo has figured out that there’s safe food on the roof of the cat house! Normally, he eats at the tray under the water bowl shelter. He couldn’t do that at the time. It was occupied.
An adult skunk had already run off, but these two little ones did not want to leave the food. I sprayed them with a hose to chase them off, as I usually do, and one ran off. The other, however, kept trying to go back for the food, then hunkered down beside that ceramic chimney flue and just took the spray. Of course, I stopped. The little guy eventually started moving around as if looking for the food. I felt so bad! The urge to go over and try to comfort it was very strong. I didn’t, of course. They shouldn’t be eating kibble (it has to do with how their jaws hinge, not because it’s bad for them), but my goodness, how can I say no to a hungry baby? I just completely soaked it, and the poor thing even looked like it was shivering as it moved around.
I’m such a horrible monster! 😥😥
Looking at the long range forecasts, we’re going to get more cooler night, but not as cold as last night. Daily highs are expected to be slightly below average for July, with less rain than June. This will work out just fine for getting work done outside. It’ll be great for the local farmers, too. Some have already baled their first cut of hay, and may even get three cuts this year. I’m seeing grain fields turned golden and almost ready for harvest, and the canola fields are in full bloom. There is lots of pasture for the cows, and the dugouts are full of water. Wild berry bushes are ripening, too, so there will be plenty of food to keep the wildlife uninterested in our garden!
It’s looking to be a really good growing year. Plus, it’s supposed to be a strong El Niño year which, for our area, usually means a mild winter, too. That would be so nice! For us, and for all the critters outside!
The Re-Farmer
First, though, I want to wish all my visitors from the US a Happy Independence Day!
When heading out into the sun room this afternoon, I disturbed Adam from out of a corner. Why is it that they insist on lying in the junkiest corner? 😄 When she ran off, I saw this.
She had been nursing all of the kittens, including Ghosty’s sibling.
When I came out with the kibble this morning, I found him at the food bowl we moved into the sun room, with his mom; the white and grey I can never keep track of. She ran off, but he just stayed at the bowl. Turned out his eyes were completely stuck shut. So I took him inside and got my husband to hold him while I washed his eyes. It didn’t take much at all, which is good, and he was soon returned to mama.
Later in the evening, I spotted his mama nursing all of the babies, too. So the two mamas have basically combined their litters into a single creche. I’m happy about that! I keep thinking it might be 3 litters, but today, at least, it appeared to be two litters; Adam’s 4 older kittens, plus the white and grey’s remaining kitten.
Ghosty, meanwhile, is doing quite well.
Decimus has accepted her, and allows her to nurse. They both enjoy the wet cat food and kitten kibble, too. I pre-dosed the kitten kibble with lysine when I transferred it into a resealable container. We have not needed to wash her eyes lately, which is excellent progress. She’s still a bit sticky, but nowhere near as bad as when we brought her in!
Too many babies!
The Re-Farmer
I’m quite late starting this, because I am so very tired. One of the main reasons why is, almost no sleep last night!
We had a storm blow over us. A few of them. While we had driving rains and high winds, thunger and lightning, we did not actually get the brunt of any of the storms. From photos I saw people sharing in local groups online, the town to the north of us got hit much harder than we did!
Because of the wind and rain, we ended up propping the sun room doors like we do in the winter, making sure there was something blocking the outer door to make sure it didn’t get slammed shut. This way, the kittens and cats would have a more secure shelter in there. With the doors open, as we’ve been leaving them lately, the wind was blowing the rain straight through, and half the floor was soaked in no time. After propping the doors, we left the shop lights on, so we could check the room from the bathroom window, too.
At about 2 in the morning, one of my daughters went into the sun room to check on things. When she untied and opened the inner door, she discovered the ghost kitten huddled on the threshold between the doors, completely alone. Both its eyes were completely stuck shut.
So she brought it in. They washed its eyes, and brought it to my room to baby jail, to see if Decimus would accept her. This kitten is older than hers but at least a few weeks, but more helpless.
At first, Decimus seemed to be okay with this. The kitten immediately tried to find nip, and she did not seem to object. I was still awake, so I stayed up and watched over them for a while. When Decimus started hissing and batting at the ghost baby, I let the girls know. They came with the cat carrier and took the baby upstairs with them. They also gave it wet cat food, with a dose of lysine. It took a while to figure out the dish of food, but when she did, she basically sprawled on top of it and devoured it. Then she curled up in my daughters arms (they took turns holding her) and went to sleep.
In the morning, they tried bringing her back to Decimus. Again, Decimus seemed okay with her at first, but she was so aggressive with trying to find nip and failing, pushing the other kittens aside, we finally took her out. I’d make a quick trip into town to get some cat milk and kitten kibble, and my daughter bottle fed it for a while. Ghosty didn’t seem to figure out the bottle, either, but my daughter just squeezed the bottle so she at least got drips of the milk. Then, she was put back with Decimus.
With a full belly, she didn’t try to nurse, and just snuggled, instead. Decimus seemed quite okay with that!
So, we now have another kitten in the house. At least this one is slated to be taken by the cat lady when she gets back. She’s out of the country right now, but I’ve been sending her pictures and keeping her updates. She will take both gooby babies. While she has had no luck adopting out bonded pairs, singletons get adopted quickly. She took in a pair of older kittens from a shelter that were slated for euthanasia before she left the country, and they were adopted out within 24 hours!
Since then, I’ve also been able to catch and bring Ghosty’s litter mate inside to get its eyes and nostrils washed. It isn’t anywhere near as bad as Ghosty, but still bad enough to be a problem. It looks like these two are the only ones of this litter. I still haven’t managed to count how many are in Adam’s litter, because they run and hide so quickly. Plus, I think there is a third litter visiting the sun room. The tuxedo that was here earlier seems to like having other kittens to play with, but he still tends to stay away, claiming the cat house as his own.
While we were up and about with kitten happenings, my daughter were in the dining room when they heard a whole lot of cracking and crunching noises. Either a tree fell down, or the one that was stuck fell further down.
When heading out for my morning rounds, I found more downed branches in the yard than usual. The biggest drop was a chunk of one of three big maples near the fire pit. The middle one has died, and one of the main branches finally broke. Thankfully, it fell into a part of the yard that is wide open.
I ended up finding quite a few downed branches, this time. We haven’t had a lot before now, since we’ve been cutting down as many dead branches as we can reach. Those winds last night, though, were really something. We had power flicker out for a few moments. Enough to shut down our computers (we weren’t fast enough in shutting them down first!), and wake my husband. His CPAP is quite high pressure, so he’s got a chin strap to keep his mouth closed while he sleeps. Rather than a face mask, he has nozzles that fit into his nostrils. If the CPAP shuts off, he suddenly has no air at all. As you can imagine, it’s a very stressful way to be awakened!
Still, I have no complaints. The garden is enjoying the rain, and while one potato bed had all its greenery blown to one side, there was no damage. In fact, the closest thing to damage I found was a hoof print, right next to a summer squash seedling! A deer had made its way through, and almost squished one of the squash we re-sowed.
Today was a slightly cooler day, with a high if “only” 25C/77F, so I took advantage of it to do work outside. Tomorrow is supposed to be even better, with a high of only 19C/66F. Alas, we will be going above 20C/68F again after that, but not quite like the heat we’ve been having for the past while.
I look forward to the work, but am now concerned I might not be able to do it. As I was writing this, I got up to go to the washroom, and my left knee tried to give out. Not with pain. It just decided it wanted to dislocate. Then when I got back and tried to sit down, I started getting a Charlie horse in my left leg! Thankfully, it didn’t get bad, and I was able to stretch it and relax it before it could do that.
I’ll share just what I did to cause all this, in my next post!
The Re-Farmer
I had to pop into the garden shed briefly, and much to my surprise, the kitty was still there!
The mom was startled away when I opened the door, so I got to take a quick picture of her one baby, before taking what I needed and leaving them alone.
Later on, though, I’m going to snag a daughter. We’ll bring a box with something soft on the bottom, and quickly transfer the kitten into the box, and move out that mass of garden netting, so it won’t get tangled in it. Then put the kitten back in the same spot, in the box. Hopefully, the mom will accept the nest and keep using it.
When I first headed out this morning, there were no kittens visible in the sun room, but I spotted the almost white kitten in the middle of the yard. It was just bobbing around, mewing, with the moms circling around. Sure enough, both eyes were stuck shut. I ended up bringing it inside and held it, while one of my daughters carefully washed its eyes until they could open again. Then I put it in the sun room, near some food and water. Popping into the sun room later one, there were other kittens in there with it. So it seems like the mamas move the kittens out for the night, but bring them back for the day. I did not see the second kitten with the gooby eyes; it may have been in the sun room, but they have plenty of hiding spaces in that corner.
I’m going to prepare a bed in a box, now, then snag a daughter to help set up in the garden shed! Thankfully, that kitten isn’t very mobile yet, so it won’t get tangled, but that’s not going to be true for very long!
The Re-Farmer
Well, for a while there, I thought the kittens that were moved into the sun room had been moved out again! We did not see them when doing the evening feeding, nor did I see them when checking during the night. Handily, we’ve left the shop lights that were hanging over the transplants where they are, which means we can use the remote control in the bathroom to turn them on and check the sun room. 😄
There’s a reason we didn’t see kittens.
My daughter happened to be in the bathroom when she heard a ruckus. She looked out the window, just in time to see one of the mamas chasing a skunk out of the sun room, batting at its butt.
Yeah. It still stinks in there.
When we didn’t see the kittens after that, we thought the mothers might have taken them away again, but nope! They were there this morning!
From what I can see by their sizes, I think the three kittens in this photo are from two different litters. Then there are the smaller kittens whose eyes are still blue, and finally there’s the tuxedo that’s been here a while, still running around outside. Which means we might have a total of 4 litters combined right now!
While they were eating, I was able to reach down and pet some of them. I was even able to pick up and cuddle three of them! Two from the above picture, and a third that wandered over to the kibble container I was standing next to. One of them hissed a bit while I picked it up, but the power of ear scritches is a magical thing, and they settled in a fair bit.
The cats have knocked so much stuff off the shelves and onto the floor. Even after picking up most of the stuck knocked over during the winter, the cats climb into the shelves and knock it all down again. Which is now giving the kittens lots of places to hide, so I guess it’s okay we haven’t been able to get it all cleaned up, after all!
In other things…
Before heading to the city yesterday, I texted the garage about our van. I mentioned that it seemed to be the power steering that was making the noise, and asked if I should drive or tow it in tomorrow (meaning, today) for him to check when he could. When I got to the city, there was a response, and he said it should be okay to drive it in; he just suggested I add power steering fluid. He also gave the okay to leave the van and gave instructions on where to park it.
Today being Canada Day, I knew he would be closed. He’s closed Sundays and, with Canada Day falling on the weekend, a lot of places close on the Monday, too. So he might not be able to look at it until Tuesday, which is fine by us. Since we were at Walmart, I picked up some power steering fluid, too.
So today, I topped up the power steering fluid. We haven’t driven the van in a few months. Even the doors are stiff to open and close! Then I drove it to town, with my daughter following in my mother’s car, to drop it off.
The fluid seems to have made a difference. The steering wasn’t making noise anymore, though when I was outside the van while the engine was running, I could still hear the noise from the engine area. From inside the van, the engine sounded quiet.
Gosh, it felt so good to be driving the van, instead of my mother’s little car! Except for the lack of working air conditioning. 😂
There was something else, though, that wasn’t there before. When I hit the breaks to decelerate, there was a repetitive whumping coming from the rear. !!!
So after parking the van, I sent a message to tell the garage where the keys were hidden, mentioned topping up the fluid, then told about what was happening when applying the brakes.
The 2016 Caravan we’d tried to get financing for is still there, and the price has dropped considerably! At the time we applied for financing, it was selling for $15,400 – though he knocked $400 off for us from the start. Later, I saw it go down to $14,600, then down to $13,900. It is now down to $10,400 ! We weren’t able to get financing for it, because it was just over their mileage cut off. The loan we were approved for was a newer vehicle with lower mileage, but with no credit cards, loans or mortgage to improve our credit rating, the interest rates and requirements were insane. I got a low limit credit card to use to improve my credit rating, which takes about 6 months to really make a difference. We’re at only a couple of months, so it’s still too early to apply again, and get a decent interest rate. But if that van is still there by fall, I’ll be applying for it again. We’ll even be able to make a down payment, though it we can get it with only the van as a trade in, that would be preferable. There are a lot of things that money would be useful for. Life finally getting a plumber to work on our bathroom taps! One vet bill used up the money we had for that, but hopefully, we won’t have any emergencies to require us to dip into it again.
Of course, as I walked by, I took a look at the van. Looking through the tinted back windows, I could see some bags in the back. Looking through another window, I could finally see that they were bagged tires. The van has a set of winter tires, too!
Gosh, it would be so nice to have that van! We loved it when we had a 2007 Grand Caravan, and while the 2005 Uplander we have now has little things that I really like about it, a newer Caravan probably has some version of them, too. I would just really love to have a vehicle that doesn’t have me saying an extra prayer for protection, every time I have to drive somewhere! If the van needs repairs that cost more than it’s worth, though, we might end up applying for it again, sooner, rather than later!
One nice thing about having the van waiting at the garage until it can be looked at: once at home, we didn’t have to squeeze my mother’s car into the side room of the garage, and could park where the van usually sits. Not only is there room to open the driver’s side door all the way, but someone can get in and out of the passenger side, too! 😂
Ugh. It’s past 4pm as I write this, and we’ve hit 30C/86F That matches the 30 year record high from 2012. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.
It could be worse. We could be matching the record low of 5C/42F set in 2001, instead!
Though we had some excellent rain recently, I need to check the garden beds and see if they need to be watered in this heat! It won’t start cooling down for 3 or 4 more hours, though.
Plus, of course, check to make sure the water bowls outside are full, and maybe add some frozen reused water bottles in them, as well!
The Re-Farmer
I popped into the old kitchen for something and glanced through the door into the sunroom.
I saw the most amazing looking kitten!
Poor photo quality, due to taking pictures through a window screen.
It’s almost, but not quite, a white kitten!
Then I spotted two more.
The one that’s fully visible is the one I’d spotted earlier in the day. The second one seems to have more grey, but it kept hiding behind the bin, so I never quite got a good look at it.
From her behaviour, I think Adam, the black and white, is the mother. The other cat is Baby Beep Beep, and I’m pretty sure she has kittens somewhere, too.
The coat on that kitten, though… Wow!
The Re-Farmer
I’ve been watching the self seeded poppies in the old kitchen garden, where one plant in particular has been growing faster than the others, with flower buds looking ready to open.
Today, it bloomed.
I did not plant this poppy.
I had figured the poppies that were showing up were from the Giant Rattle bread seed poppy we planted in the area previously. Which are supposed to look a lot like these Hungarian Blue poppies…
The tiny raised bed we have shallots in do have poppies coming up in it, too, and those are likely the Giant Rattle poppies we planted there 2 years ago, then again using our own seed last year. This is what they looked like.
Looking back at my photos, I found we did get one of these red poppies last year.
This, however, showed up after we cleared away some of the undergrowth along the spruce grove, on the other side of the house.
From what I can find, these are Double Scarlet Papasver somniferum – an opium poppy! These predate us living here, but they are not the poppies I remember my mother growing here, when I was a child.
Meanwhile, the bed where we did deliberately plant bread seed poppies that seemed to be overtaken by weeds, does have poppies growing in it. The flower pods that are starting to develop on some are more elongated than I’ve seen before. These are the Hungarian Blue that we are trying this year. At least I hope that’s what they are! The Baker Creek website has photos of the pods and flowers, but not the plants or flower buds.
Now I’m very curious about what the poppies in the shallot bed will be!
In other things, I saw Non-Junkpile today, and she has a new injury, on the other side of her head!
It’s very much like the first one, that is healed.
We are now thinking this is a self injury. She probably has a very bad infestation of ear mites, and is injuring herself by scratching.
The problem is, this is not one of the friendlies. I’ve been able to get fairly close, while there is food, but even as I tried to get a picture of the injury, she kept moving away. There is no chance of getting her to a vet. Especially since she has a litter of kittens somewhere.
There is the type of ear mite medication that can be applied to the skin between the shoulders. If we could get some of that, there is a better possibility that we could snag her long enough to apply it, than to get drops into her ears. But the clinic can’t usually give out prescriptions for cats they’ve never seen. I’ll have to see what we can figure out about that
Oh! Well, would you look at that. I’m getting messages from the Cat Lady. Maybe she has some suggestions!
The Re-Farmer
While feeding the outside cats yesterday evening, I spotted Not-Junkpile and was able to get a fairly good look at the side of her neck.
She may end up with a permanent scar, but it does look like she’s healing well. No signs of infection that I can see.
That’s a relief!
The Re-Farmer
Okay, the running around I did with my mother yesterday drained me a lot more than I thought it did. I feel totally wasted today. And she wasn’t even having one of her bad days, either.
I’m also not quite sure what is worth getting started on outside right now. We’re under thunderstorm warnings. The south end of the province is supposed to get the brunt of the storms, but looking at the weather radar, is does look like the system will go right over us, too, for a change. However, with the weird climate bubble we have over us, due to our location between lakes both small and huge, there have been times when the radar shows a system right on top of us, but when I look out the window, there’s nothing. So do I go out and start a job that would normally take a lot of time, or requires electricity, and risk a storm blowing over? Or just putter around with small jobs and leave myself feeling like the entire day is waste?
At least I got this cheerful sight, first thing.
Best of all, I GOT TO TOUCH THE BABY!!!! While he was eating under there, I was able to come close, reach under and start petting his back. He sort of looked around at me, then kept eating. If another cat hadn’t made some sudden crashing noises, he would have stayed longer, too.
I was able to see that the big wood tick visible in his fur previously is now gone, and I could feel no other lumps and bumps as I pet him. I think it was in a location fairly easy to get groomed out. Unlike when I found that cluster of wood ticks by Pinky’s ear a few days ago.
While doing my rounds, I checked out all the garden beds and did some weeding, but I’m hoping we’ll at least get some rain, so I didn’t hook up the sprinkler and soaker hoses, or do any other watering. The girls hadn’t had a chance to move the branch pile I’d made yesterday, so I dragged that off. I was rather pleased to find the branches were stacked in such a way that I could just grab the bottom branches and pull it across the lawn, all at once!
I haven’t completely put away the seedling trays with the Jiffy pellets that didn’t germinate. It looks like two little Birds Egg gourds have shown up! While weeding in the old kitchen garden, near my daughter’s daffodils, I found cleared a space that could actually have something planted in it. I’m considering sticking the new seedlings in there. If they survive, they would get big enough to shade out a lot of the weeds, but might also get big enough to shade out the flowers my daughter planted in there. Another option is the space we had ground cherries in last year. This was partly an experiment to see if they would seed themselves, and it looks like they did not. Which means there’s a spot with really good soil potentially available. If I pull more dandelion roots out of there, I think it would be worth trying.
I’m still disappointed over how many things had zero germination rates. Some winter squash, and both types of cucumbers, in particular that I was looking forward to.
Now… it is worthwhile for me to get the extension cords out and use the weed trimmer, so I can access those trees my brother cut down for me? According to the weather app, it should stop raining within half an hour. In fact, on the animated radar, I can watch the rain system moving right over us.
It’s not raining right now. There isn’t even any wind.
*sigh*
Well, we’ll see what I manage to get done, so the day isn’t entirely wasted.
The Re-Farmer
