Also, she seems to now be more expecting and accepting of her wet cat food delivery. She didn’t growl at me this morning, as I used the food delivery back scratcher to drop it as close to her face as I could. She didn’t even bother leaving the cat cave while I was doing the kibble this morning, and simply waited, nursing her babies. Once the food was delivered, she didn’t hesitate to start eating, too.
This afternoon, she did leave her babies briefly after I came out with the second feeding of the day, but went back before I was done refilling water bowls. She didn’t growl at me until I stopped to try and get photos and video of her.
My younger daughter has been having a rough time getting sleep (with both cats and high pain levels to blame), so she ended up awake all night. This morning, she was a sweetheart and shoveled the plow ridge away, and cleared the end of the driveway before going to bed for the day. We haven’t bothered to try and clear the rest of the driveway, or the turn around space in the yard to back up to the house. Though our high of the day was just below freezing, it was bright and sunny, and things are melting all over. I considered doing the Costco run today, but decided against it.
I did make a quick trip into town and stopped at the hardware store to pick up a heat mat. Unfortunately, they were all out. I did stop at the grocery store for a few things, but I will do the Costco run tomorrow. There is a Canadian Tire across the street from the Costco I go to, and I’m hoping they will have a heat mat…
… because our pre-germinated seeds need to be potted up!
The first image has the 4 Sunshine squash and the 6 Mashed potato squash. As you can see, their seed leaves are emerging from the shells.
In the second image, with the 2 Arikara squash and the 5 Baked Potato squash, are just going wild with their roots, as well as the seed leave emerging!
In the last image, the luffa now has 3 out of 4 seeds showing radicals.
I have everything ready to pot these up, except a second heat mat. The eggplant and peppers won’t start showing for a while, yet, and those need to be on the heat mat. The luffa will go into peat pots, so they can fit into the tray with them and be warm, but the rest of the squash will be going into the large celled tray. I might have to just hang out in the basement with the heater on and warm things up. I can also use hot water in the tray to help warm up the seed starter mix, too. The basement, however, was at only 10C/50F when I went down this afternoon. That would be really warm, if I were outside in the sun, but in the basement, it feels cold!
Those germinated seeds need to be put into the seed starting mix, though.
I think I’m going to take the chance and just do that today, then go hunting for a second heat mat for them, tomorrow.
It’s still snowing a bit as I write this. According to the weather radar, we are pretty much in the middle of the system that’s passing over us, but I’m just barely seeing snowflakes fluttering around at the moment. We are still under a snowfall warming, and they are now saying to expect a total of 15-25cm/6-10 inches of snowfall.
Unfortunately, the wind direction was blowing snow right into the kibble house, and the space between the kibble house, the cat house and the water bowl shelter was deep with snow.
On the plus side, there is no longer a big puddle of water on the bottom of the catio! I haven’t returned the food bowl into there, though, and have been leaving kibble on the replacement hammock we put in to replace the damaged one. I can reach that with my scoop of kibble without having to untie the door.
As you can see in the second photo of the above slide show, the cats are quite enjoying the catio!
In the last photo, taken after I shoveled around the shelters and cleared some paths, you can see how much snow accumulated on the shelter roofs. I didn’t go all out on the shoveling, though. We’re going to be warming up again and, even when the temperature is just a degree or two below freezing, things will start to melt.
The yard cats were certainly appreciating the cleared paths around their shelters – and the shelters themselves.
They also seem to really appreciate that I left those box nests under the shrine for them to use. Since one of the kibble bowls under there has disappeared, I started to put kibble inside the box nests as well as the one kibble bowl that’s left. If nothing else, it keeps the snow off the kibble! The cats seem to like eating out of them – and sitting on top of the boxes, too. These cat been built to be used inside the isolation shelter, they seem to be quite useful in other places, too!
There was no way to get them all in a photo, but I counted 13 cats inside the isolation shelter! Including Syndol, lounging on the hammock which, I’m happy to say, is no longer being constantly knocked loose from its hooks. Simply adding a cord joining the two hooks closest to the ramp to the second level seems to be enough to keep it from happening.
I didn’t even notice what The Grink was doing in the second picture above, until now. She’s got her face right up at that heat bulb!! (Yes, it is confirmed: The Grink is a lady.) I’m glad the new clamp lamp has a guard around the bulb, but she’s so tiny, she could easily push her face past it. I don’t think she will, but it’s a possibility.
Brussel seems to have picked up on my new routine for her. At first, when I came out to do the kibble and water, she would jump out of her nest and eat outside. I would wait until she was back with her babies, then use the long handled back scratcher to deliver wet cat food into the cat cave. Since she would be nursing her babies, I tried to drop it close to her face, so she could eat and nurse at the same time.
Lately, she hasn’t bother leaving the cat cave when I come out with the kibble. She growls at me when I take her food and water bowl out of the cage in the evening, then put it back, refilled, in the morning, but she doesn’t leave. She also grows when I deliver the wet cat food next to her, but she now immediately starts eating, without waiting for me to leave. This is encouraging, since one of my concerns is that she will take her kittens out completely, and who knows when – or if – we’d see them again. The mamas don’t bring their babies to the house until they’re ready for weaning and, by then, it’s a lot harder to socialize them.
I’m going to be on the lookout for another small cat cave like the one we brought over for Brussel. If we can fit another one in the cube where she originally went into labour, perhaps one of the other more feral mamas that went into heat really early will have her litter in it, instead of somewhere in the outer yard. We do have another cat cave in the house, but it’s far too big to fit into the cube. Plus, that one is in pretty constant use by the inside cats!
Looking ahead in the long term forecast, it seems this will be the last big snowfall for our area, and April is looking to have daytime highs above freezing consistently. In fact, we are supposed to start getting daytimes highs of 13C/55F and up by the middle of the month.
Of course, forecasts that far ahead are never a sure thing. What we’ll really be starting to look at as the season progresses is the overnight lows. Once the overnight lows are consistently 6C/43F or higher, the soil should be warm enough for cool weather crops. With my winter sowing, that means taking the mulch off the beds so the soil can warm up, and give the seeds we planted in the fall a chance to germinate. Those overnight temperatures, though, are unlikely to hit until the second half of May and into June.
With the current 10 day forecast, the snow we got should melt fairly slowly, which will be good for the garden beds. So far, it looks like we won’t be getting any serious spring flooding. Of course, that could change very quickly, if we find ourselves with an April blizzard. We shall see!
For now, I’m happy with the snow we got. We didn’t have a lot of snow over the winter, so this extra moisture will be good for the farmers’ fields, as well as our gardens.
Wow! We got home just in time! My daughter and I headed into the city for our first stock up shopping trip. It took longer than usual, and by the time we were driving the last couple of miles to home, we were driving into the first signs of snow. As I write this, it’s starting to come down pretty heavily, though there’s little wind, so it’s a pretty pleasant looking snowfall. It’s supposed to keep falling through the night. We’re are looking at possibly 10-20cm/4-8inches by tomorrow evening.
I’m quite happy we got this trip done!
Today was our trip to multiple places all along one street in the city. Canadian Tire, Walmart and our favourite international grocery store.
As we headed out, we made a stop in town to get some gas ($40 worth, at $1.549/L). Since neither of us had had breakfast yet, we got some drinks and beef jerky for the hour’s drive in, where our first planned stop was somewhere for breakfast. We ended up going to a shopping mall right next to the Canadian Tire we go to, and went to the food court. I haven’t been in this mall in… I honestly can’t remember. Several decades, at least. My daughter had some A&W for “breakfast” (it was past 11 by then), while I hunted around for something I could eat. Giving up sugar and simple carbs for Lent makes it challenging. I was going to get Chinese food, and they were willing to do a meal and skip the standard rice or noodles, but all the options they had available were covered with sweet sauces. I ended up going to a Korean BBQ place. When I asked to skip rice or noodles, they gave me extra stir fry vegetables instead, which was quite appreciated.
After we finished eating, we decided to check out a Winners. This is a store we haven’t been to since before we moved out here, so more than 7 years. We didn’t find anything worth buying. On the way to the exit we were parked closest, to, we passed a Dollarama, so we went in. I wanted to see if they had those garden stakes I was looking for in stock, yet. They did! These are 6′ long plastic coated metal stakes that each some with a strong, reusable plant tie. They were only $3 each. I’ve seen similar at Cdn Tire, but those were much more expensive, didn’t come with the plant tie and are actually a lesser quality.
I bought 10.
Between these and the ones I already have, it should be enough for this year’s garden.
That done, we moved the truck to the Cdn Tire. The one thing on my shopping list was 3 bags of litter pellets but, of course, we looked at other stuff.
This is what $181.85 looks like.
The litter pellet bags are only $7.99 each. We have been looking for frying pans to replace some we have now that have warped bottoms and are no longer non-stick. After much searching, we finally broke down and bought a 2 pan set that was on clearance for $49.93
Then there were the three recycling bins. The set up we have right now is just large bags over wire frames that hold them open. They take up a lot of space, but the real problem is that the cats tear into them. Especially the one for aluminum, since it has most empty cat food cans in it.
After looking at our options, we settled on taller, narrower bins. They won’t hold as much as our current set up, but will save us a lot of space, and the cats won’t be able to tear into them. We do have smaller recycling bags that should fit them, too. This style of bin cost $29.99 each.
Our next stop was the Walmart. The main things on my list was wet and dry cat food, plus things like nail clippers and other things we don’t normally by every month. My older daughter had also sent funds to cover things like energy drinks, until we can pick up a case at Costco.
We got quite a bit more than usual this time!
This is what $361.47 looks like. Well… minus $10, which was a food bank donation, so you can’t actually see it.
We got three 9.1kg bags of kibble, at $34.97 each. The cases of canned cat food was $28.77. They also finally had the big 30″x36″ puppy pads, so a grabbed a package. Cats peeing/spraying in places other than one of the many litter boxes is still a problem, and I don’t know how to fix it! The puppy pads are saving us a lot of mess and potential damage.
Other things we got today include large bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Including extra ones, and selective bars of soap. Since discovering she is allergic to most deodorants, my daughter realized she was also allergic to shampoos and conditioners. She thought she was having fungal infections on her scalp. It got so bad, she basically just shaved her head, so she could apply anti-fungal cream. After doing some research, she tried a particular brand of shampoo and conditioner and, lo and behold, no more scalp issues. It turns out one of the common ingredients she is allergic to is coco butter – which is in the shampoo and conditioner I chose for myself and my husband. She still has the one she knows she doesn’t react to, but we got a different brand she researched for her to test out. It’s the same with soap. Shea butter, at least, is okay for her to use!
Let’s see… what else did we get.
The energy drinks are a lot cheaper at Walmart compared to other stores (except the cases at Costco), so we got a bunch for the three of us. For my husband and myself, we got a case of Coke Zero that was on sale. Then I spotted the Ginger Ale brand ginger beer, which is new. We got a case for my daughters to try. I’m not a fan of ginger beer myself, but they like it.
We also got two types of herbal teas and coffee creamer. Distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. Oh, and a couple of boxes of bandages in various sizes and shapes.
After we loaded everything into the truck, we used the wet wipes I keep in the truck at all times to clean my hands. Then my daughter helped me put small bandages on my fingers where the skin was split and bleeding, because my hands are so dry! I do lotion them, regularly, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
There was one thing we got at the Walmart that didn’t get included in this. I needed straight edge toenail clippers and, while I was looking at other stuff, my daughter went looking for them. She found them locked up in the cosmetic section, so she had to get staff to get them out for her (the only option was a pack that included smaller nail clippers). The employee then took them straight to the till that was practically barricaded, and my daughter hat to pay for them right away. The employee then put them and the receipt into a little clear plastic bag that got tied off with a knot before my daughter was finally allowed to touch them!
Ya gotta wonder just how much theft there was for all this!
Once done there, our next stop was the international grocery store. By then, we were both getting hungry again, so we stopped in their restaurant section for some dim sum and, for my daughter, steamed pork buns.
Our list for here was pretty vague, and mostly we just go through the entire store and pick things. There were a lot of sales, plus I used my loyalty points for some things, so what we actually got would have cost a lot more.
After all the discounts, etc., this is what $227.24 looks like.
Some things are completely hidden.
There was an excellent sale on coconut milk, which my daughters like to cook with, so we got four cans. Asparagus was also on sale, so we got two bunches. One sale we really took advantage of was a big frozen block of Ahi tuna. At first, we were going to pick some fresh “steaks” of them, last thing, as the packages were on ice, but when we found the frozen chunk (top right corner in the photo), we went with that. My daughter found some frozen pork bao on sale that we got. We picked up some blue brie cheese we’ve been wanting to try, but it was always too expensive before, but they were almost half price today. We also got a regular brie on sale, and an Irish Whiskey Cheddar on sale to try. I even picked up a “snow man cheese” – some caiocavallo for my husband. He absolutely loves it, just to snack on, but it’s gotten very expensive over the years, so it was nice to finally get some for him.
Then, because we got the lovely cheeses, we got three loves of French bread, some charcutier meats, and a sausage (the meats were on sale) to go with it. We also picked up some prosciutto to make prosciutto wrapped asparagus.
The prosciutto was actually free, because I redeemed points for those. There’s also a frozen turkey I got for free with points.
Other things we got was a frozen fillet of salmon for the girls that was on sale, some regular smoked slab bacon, plus an applewood smoked slab bacon with a “enjoy tonight” coupon, so that’ll need to be used up tonight. We picked up some Wagh Bakri tea on sale to try (we’d had the ginger tea version in that brand before that was enjoyed), as well as some instant milk tea on sale. Even the toilet paper was on a massive sale, so I had to get at least one package.
Finally, we grabbed some food that we could quickly heat and eat when we got home. Almost. For my husband, we got half a Lumberjack sandwich (which is still huge), the girls got themselves taquitos in a flavour that they like that we almost never see in stock, and I got some cold dim sum that I’ll be steaming for my supper later on.
Then, when it was time to pay for it all, I was able to use more points for another $15 off the sub total.
Looking at my receipt, it tells me I saved $91.65, however that only reflects the loyalty card savings. Some of the items that were sold by weight rung up at the sale price rather than being discounted later, so our actual savings was higher than that. The savings on the Ahi tuna alone would have put that total to over $100.
All in all, we had an excellent haul for our money here!
Then, on the way home, we swung by a Domo to get gas again. Today is Thursday, which is one of their 4¢ off/liter days, so we put another $40 in, and it pretty much filled our tank.
Next stock up shop will be our Costco trip in a few days.
Which means we won’t need to be driving anywhere in the new snow that’s falling on top of all the ice from yesterday’s melt!
Today was in incredibly gorgeous day! We actually hit 10C/50F this afternoon!
So, of course, we’re now getting weather warnings for a major snowfall coming. It’s supposed to hit our area tomorrow evening, and we could get 10-20cm/4-8 inches of snow.
I’m still waiting on a blizzard to hit around our anniversary in the beginning of April.
Why?
Because it’s spring in Canada, that’s why! 😄
Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room was reading about 23C/73F, which was wonderful for the new babies.
I didn’t get a chance to sneak a pet today, though. Gotta work on that!
Of course, with things melting all over the place, the moat around the garage has started to form. Only the remaining deeper snow and packed ice is keeping it it in check. The path I use to reach the litter pellet compost behind the outhouse is getting pretty deep with water. I’m going to have to dig out my rubber boots at this rate!
The usual low spots are also filling, including the moat that completely encircles the storage house. The gap the cats use to get under it is a big puddle. I’m still seeing cats go under there, which is a bit of a surprise, since the entire “basement” space gets pretty full of water, too.
I did find water in an unexpected place, though.
Inside the catio.
It is likely because I piled snow around three sides to act as insulation. Between that and the area being a bit lower, what has been little more than a puddle this morning has become quite a pool by late afternoon!
I took out the two box nests and the big bowl that used to be a heated water bowl that I used as a kibble bowl. Somehow, water actually got inside the bowl itself! The opening where the power cord used to run through allowed water to get inside, so I ended up setting it on the catio roof in such a way that it will hopefully drain.
The insulated box nest was still partially frozen to the ground, so it took a bit to get that loose. The uninsulated one was resting on top of a couple of pieces of rigid insulation, so it was easy to lift – except for the edge of the blanket inside that had slipped out and was frozen to the ground! Once the box was removed, I hung the blanket over the edge of the catio roof to drip and dry, making sure to weight it down, so it wouldn’t blow away.
In the second picture of the above slide show, you can see where I set up the box nests. Their bottoms were damp on the inside, but these have no “right side up”, so I just flipped them damp side up and set them under the shrine next to a kibble bowl.
There was another kibble bowl under there, but it disappeared a few days ago. I have yet to find it! I assume it got dragged off by a raccoon, maybe?
Magda immediately showed her appreciation for a new surface to stand on. 😁
With the bottom of the catio flooded, she still found a way to enjoy it. She used the brick I have in the doorway, to make sure it doesn’t close all the way by accident, as a dry surface to jump up onto one of the floating shelves inside the catio. From there, she could jump across to the other shelf, where she obligingly posed for a photo. The door was tied off again by the time, so I was sticking my phone through to take a picture, being VERY careful to not drop it into the water below!!
With the protective plastic around the side, plus the clear roof, it’s quite warm inside that catio during the day. Not as warm as the sun room, of course, but still a very noticeable difference.
I’m really glad we were able to give the catio a paint job before putting the roof on. That will protect the wood from the water at least a little bit. The original frame was painted, but the wood lathe I added in places could possible get water damage, since the water would be able to seep between the old and new wood on the bottom. We won’t be able to check for damage for probably a few more weeks, though.
In other things, my younger daughter and I went into town today. We had to go to the pharmacy for her to pick up a prescription, plus a couple other things. I was able to cash in a digital lotto ticket and my win not only paid for her purchases, but lunch and a quick stop at the grocery store to get drinks for the ride home, too – and I still have a bit of cash left over. It’s always nice to win more than just a couple of bucks, or a free play – though I won a couple of bucks and a free play, too! 😄
I also made sure to stop at the post office on the way out, as it closed at noon today. The seed packets from my Vesey’s order came in today, so as soon we were back at home and things were put away and settled, I headed down to the dungeon… er… basement, to start some of them.
There’s always a lot of commotion in the mornings, when I first come out with the kibble. Brussel ran outside, and she ate while she was in the yard. That gave me a chance to check on her baby, and when I discovered a sibling.
She still wasn’t back when I finished my rounds – and I kept having to chase Syndol out, because he wanted to see what those squeaky little worms were! I saw she was just outside the sun room door, so I hung out in the old kitchen, out of her sight, until she was back with her babies. Then I used the bamboo back scratcher again, to deliver a chunk of paté into the cat cave in front of her.
She growled at me, the whole time.
I’d taken out her food/water bowl during the night, so no skunks or racoons would try to get into the cage. It was empty by morning, and the water was filthy. How do racoons get water in even such a small bowl to filthy?? Anyhow, it got cleaned out and refilled, so she has her own food and water bowl inside the cat cage, too. Once she got the wet cat food, though, I closed up the cage for about half an hour, to give her uninterrupted time to enjoy her treat.
So it looks like she has a black and white, along with the calico-tabby.
She is a very good mama.
The Cat Lady is already talking about making an appointment for her in 10 weeks to be spayed. Our job is to get her socialized enough that we can take her in!
After watching for a bit to make sure she was okay, I quickly finished my rounds, then checked on her again. I didn’t think she was done, but it was hard to tell. I could see one little calico squirming around, but Brussel is so fluffy, there could easily have been more hidden in there.
What I ended up doing was pulling the entire cage away from the window wall, where it would be colder. I grabbed a cat cave from inside and, after straightening out the blanket bed in the cut next to Brussel, I squeezed it in, using the handle of a broom stick to shove it into place. I’m hoping Brussel will move her kittens into there.
I also got a two sided bowl and set it up for her with food and water. I also changed the angle of the second heat lamp with the warmer bulb to face more into the cage.
She growled at me, the whole time.
I’ve let the Cat Lady know already. We have never been able to get close to Brussel, though her sister, Sprout, is even more feral than she is. But she chose to have her kittens in the sun room, which is a total shock. Given how insanely early in the year it is for having kittens, it was probably the warmest place she could find. Since she is in the cat cage, if we could get a litter pan in there somehow, we could close it up, too. That would keep the other cats – and racoons and skunks – out.
I have the critter cam set facing the cat cage and the live feed up right now. With the cage pulled further from the wall, I can see into it more, but the heat lamp’s shield blocks my view of the corner she is in. I did, however, catch another cat going in to check things out, and was able to use the camera to tell it to leave, which it did.
Hopefully, this will mean we can finally socialize Brussel, and be able to socialize her kittens, too, and get her fixed.
Meanwhile, I need to head out soon to run errands. The family can keep an eye on her while I am gone. My biggest concern is that she will move them out of the sun room completely, which would probably kill the kittens. I know, I know. We don’t need more kittens, but after last year, finding so many dead and dying kittens, day after day, I really don’t want that to happen again this year.
Whatever happens, happens. We’ll deal with things as they come – but I can still try to set things up to hopefully have a happy result!
We have a lovely warm day today! As I write this, we have reached -3C/27F, and are expecting a high of -1C/30F. I was just outside, and was finding it too warm for my toque and jacket! We’re talking t-shirt weather for this time of year!
Not a lot happening today, but I have a couple of adorable faces to share with you. The first is what I woke up to, this morning.
Butterscotch was in the “cat bowl” right next to me!
She looks like such a kitten. Can you believe she is at least 11 years old? Probably more.
For my morning rounds, I was able to give the outside cats their version of “cat soup”, since it was going to be so warm today. By the time I was ready to go back inside, I was seeing a lot of contented cats all over the place. Including several in the isolation shelter. I opened one of the windows so I could get a picture without reflections or dirt in the way, and that really got their attention.
Oh, wait. I think this one is the female. There are two tabbies with a bit of white that look very much alike. I was just petting the male a little while ago, and he has a different pattern in the white patch over his nose, which means this one has to be the female.
Unless there’s a third similar looking tabby running around, which is possible!
Gotta work on socializing this one, so we can easily get her into a carrier to get fixed! Still waiting on word from the rescue about getting 3 cats done soon.
She has discovered the donated cat bed that I keep on my bed.
For those who don’t know, here’s the background on Butterscotch. She is one of the “originals”. Not only was she already living here before we moved here, but she is one of the yard cats my late father cared for. We had made a road trip to visit family back in 2015, and when I looked at some old photos after we moved here, we could identify her among the yard cats my dad was taking care of.
Over time, while she was fairly social, she became increasingly testy. She stopped allowing us to hold her, and would not accept being indoors, even if it was just in the sun room, when we turned it into a maternity ward. While she took good care of her kittens, she also pushed them away as soon as she could, and was more than willing to let Beep Beep, another original, nurse them. We were finally able to get her to a vet to be spayed, and the vet found that her uterus was “tattery and falling apart”.
After she was spayed, we isolated her and another female in the sun room, expecting her to tear her way out, as she had in the past.
She didn’t.
In fact, she underwent a complete catonality change, and we were able to bring her indoors.
While she suddenly loved attention and was willing to be indoors, she self isolated in my bedroom/office. At first, she would sometimes come out and explore, but would quickly return. After a while, she wouldn’t even do that.
Then one day, another cat managed to tear the screen out of my window, and several cats and a kitten got out. We were able to return the kitten and Butterscotch (another cat disappeared completely, and we were able to adopt the other out as a barn cat, where she is very happy and loved).
Once she was back in, she seemed really relieved – but increasing limited herself. While my office/bedroom is quite large (about the size of my mother’s apartment, maybe bigger), she kept herself almost exclusively to one corner. Other cats would bother her and keep her from using the litter, which caused problems, to the point where we would have to kick the other cats out, just so she could use the litter – and she will only use the one under my computer table. We had to put food and water bowls on my craft table so she could eat, because she wouldn’t jump down to the floor if the other cats were around. She would sleep on the window shelf, or my pillow, or hide in the shelf above my pillow, but would go nowhere else in the room.
Something changed recently.
First, she started working her way further from my pillow, and even slept on the bed while other cats were around, though she would often growl and snarl at some of them.
Then she made her way across to the other pillow, and finally to the shelf of cat beds I have against the wall on the far side of my king size bed – and she would stay there, even when the other cats were around.
The cats are now all getting into the routine of being kicked out of my room in the morning and, once they were gone, Butterscotch started to go around more of the room. Recently, she even started running around and playing.
Then, she actually allowed my daughter to carry her out of my room while petting her, and visit my husband in his bedroom. She wasn’t quite ready to explore his hospital bed, but she was willing to move onto my husband and allow him to pet her, before returning to my room.
And now, she has discovered the donated cat bed all the cats love, that is kept on one side of my bed. She’s been in it all day today. This is a HUGE bit of progress, because she is surrounded by other cats while in there, and hasn’t growled or hissed at any of them. She’s just been sleeping in there, pretty much all day!
It is so good to finally see her expanding her space!
It’s also good to see the other cats bothering her less.
Who knows. At some point, she may even be willing to walk out the door and explore the rest of the house!
Yesterday, the first day of spring, was a gorgeous day!
We reached a high of 5-6C/41-43F, and it was awesome. While I was at my mothers, the truck cab warmed up so much in the sun, I almost turned the air conditioning on to cool it down. The thermometer in the sun room was reading 16C/61F and was feeling positively hot!
I took advantage of it to get some stuff done outside in preparation for today. The forecast high is supposed to be -11C/12F This is what it was like this morning, as I was getting ready to head outside for my morning rounds.
I actually waited until a bit later for things to warm up, too. The -17C/1F is bad enough, but that -27C/-17F windchill… Yikes!
One of the things I did yesterday was to finally replace the heat lamp in the isolation shelter. I had the 200w ceramic heat bulb in the new fixture, but decided to put the 250w incandescent heat bulb in, instead. Partially in anticipation of the temperatures dropping so much overnight, but also because I’ve found the light it gives off is handy. When I look out the kitchen window, it illuminates the area around it fairly well.
This light fixture has the guard around the bulb, too, so less chance of a cat burning themselves on the bulb!
I had to do quite a bit inside the isolation shelter. The cat bed had been knocked down to the lower level, where the litter box had already been knocked about, spilling most of the litter all over. My guess is, racoons. Thankfully, we’re using stove pellets for litter, not clay, so it will be easier to clean up in the spring. We still have the box over the opening on the bottom to keep the wind and snow from getting into the lower level. That had to be moved to access things.
Once I have some, I need to put handles on that thing.
I replaced the litter box with a new one with fresh litter pellets. It does seem like the cats have actually started to use it as intended, though with it being knocked over, it’s hard to tell for sure. When we had cats isolated in there, they were using everything BUT the litter box!
The hammock has been a bit of an issue, in that two corners are always getting pushed off the hooks holding them. Sometimes, a third corner gets pushed off somehow, too, and how that one happens perplexes me. I ended up tying some paracord across the two hooks that get pushed off all the time. Hopefully, it will be enough to keep it from happening, as the cats use the ramp to go between levels.
The heat lamp hides it in the photo, but there is a spot in the insulation on the wall next to the sliding window that has a hole scratched into it. The cats really like to use that insulation to scratch at! Even more than the actual scratch pad I made out of rope on the ramp for them to use. I did expect this top happen, but not in that spot! 😄 When the snow is gone and things are dry, we’ll move the isolation shelter away from the house and give it a thorough cleaning. That would be a good time to replace any of the rigid insulation that is damaged. The insulation “ceiling” will simply be taken off until next winter, though one piece will need to be replaced. They really managed to chew it up! You can see some of the damage above Ink’s head.
It won’t be much longer before we can stop using the heat lamps entirely.
I’m so glad we got this thing built, and the cats are making full use of it!
On the down side, today is turning into a laundry day for all of us. Yes, we’re still running the hose out the door to drain the washing machine. We still haven’t been able to use the new pipe brush to try and clear out that drain. I keep waiting until we don’t need to use the kitchen sink for a while, so we don’t get splashed when opening the coupling access, but that just doesn’t seem to be happening! So every now and then, between cycles, I pop outside and make sure the hose is fully drains, so it doesn’t freeze closed again.
We have another problem, though.
The drier isn’t drying.
We thought it was because the vent outside was too clogged, but once it was clear, it didn’t make much difference. So I though the duct might have been clogged and we checked it before starting our first load in the drier. It’s completely clear. The lint trap’s space is clear, too.
We’ll see how it works today, but it’s starting to look like we need a new drier. We already had to replace the washing machine since moving here. I don’t know how old this drier is, but it definitely has a lot of years on it.
Yes, we do have a clothes line outside, which would be handy but, with how cold it is today, it would take forever for anything to dry, and we have a lot of bedding to wash today. It’s a long line, but not that long! Originally, it was set up with three clothes lines, but there’s only one, and I had to replace that one a few years back. I do want to set up two more lines again, but we need to buy all the hardware for it, first.
Technically, we also have clothes lines rigged up in the basements, but we’d have the same problem of it taking forever to dry, though I suppose we could set up a blower fan or two. The basements are dank and dusty, though, so we’d be hanging things outside before we used the basements!
*sigh*
Well, so far, we’ve replaced the washing machine, stove, range hood, and the hot water tank (three times). I expect we’ll be needing to replace the fridge in the not too distant future, too. That and the drier are the only original appliances left.
Well, that’s part of the deal we have for living here, in place of paying rent. We take care of the place, maintain it and improve it, as we are able. That includes replacing appliances, when the time comes.
Still, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. One of the troubleshooting solutions for what our drier is doing is to simply unplug it for 10-15 minutes. This could reset the heating elements. We unplugged it when we moved it out to check the vent. We’ll know if it worked once the first load that’s in there right now is done.
Last year, I did my first “garden tour” video on the first day of spring. I knew I wouldn’t have time to do it today, so I did the tour on the last day of winter, instead.
The Re-Farmer 