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Kitten update, garden update, and an unexpected outing.

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

It’s a hot and muggy day today! As I write this, past 3:30 pm, we are at 26C/79F, with the humidex at 31C/89F We are not expecting any rain, but with the heat and humidity, I wouldn’t be surprised if a thunderstorm suddenly appeared.

No storms, but we did have a power outage this morning! The power went out in the area for more then an hour. After it came back, I learned that the outage, which included several towns in the area, was due to a fire on a power pole. !!

I did get my morning rounds done before we lost power, checking on the babies and the garden beds.

I found a new female winter squash blossom forming! Hopefully, when it opens, there will be some male flowers open to pollinate it. I’m rather happy with how the winter squash is recovering from being transplanted.

The kittens are doing all right. As I was coming back to the sun room, I actually found Broccoli’s two babies had come around to eat. They ran off as soon as they saw me, though, and are really skittish.

I’m not sure what to make of some of the adults, though. Sprout, one of Broccoli’s calico babies from a couple years ago and sibling to Brussel, comes over for food, but she is not just skittish of me. She frequently growls and snarls at the other cats. I don’t remember her doing that before, but then, this is the first year she’s really been coming this close to the house for food, too. She’s not the only one, though. There’s a grey and white cat that I think it is a mama that is also snarly. This morning, a male that is all black except for a white blaze on his chest showed up, and he was growling and snarling at other cats, too, though with him, I got the impression he has not had food for awhile.

That was this morning. Yesterday evening, things seemed to be okay.

We had some power flickers due to storms, and I had to go back and forth between the house and the garage to reset the device we have for our garage security camera. WiFi isn’t reliable at the garage, so it’s plugged into a device that uses our power lines to send the signal, which gets converted to WiFi inside the house.

Some of the kittens are getting quite used to my coming and going, and don’t bother moving, never mind running away (unless I approach them).

Kittens sleep in some of the strangest positions.

While I was going to the garage, though, I saw Brussel and her four.

Two of them ran off into the tall grass, while two of them just loafed on the driveway!

I left, then came back, and found just a black and white fluff ball still loafed on the driveway. I also saw a tiny black and white face peaking at me from the hole under the doors to the side of the garage we store the lawnmowers in.

I decided to see how close I could get to the one loafed in the driveway. As I got closer, it ran to the edge of the tall grass, then leaned against the grass to hiss at me. I came closer, and it rolled onto its back and hissed at me.

I picked it up and it lay on its back in my hand, and hissed at me!

Also, it’s a boy. 😂

A carried him over to the garage and put him down next to the hole under the door, where I could just see the legs of his sibling. Once on the grown, under the door he went!

So I guess that’s where Brussel has her babies now. Which she might have issues with, when we need to get at the lawn mowers.

I do hope she brings her babies to the house, soon!

Today, however, I saw no sign of them when I headed out.

I did not have plans to head out.

I got a call from my mother this morning. She started telling me about how she has stuff that she’s packing up and setting aside to go to my sister. Then she mentioned adding more things to her bag for the hospital – long story behind that I won’t get into here. Then she said she had stuff she wanted me to take to the farm. It took a bit of questioning, since she talks as if I already know the background of what she’s saying, but I eventually figured out that she is starting to go through her stuff, basically to give to people she things they should go to, after she dies or something. The stuff she wanted me to take was things like fabric (???) that she thought we could use, and if we don’t, then we can donate it to a second hand store. She started talking about she has so little room (true) and needs to get rid of stuff, so they can go to the farm…

I told her, we have too much stuff here already!

That’s when she suggested we could donate things to the second hand store. I wasn’t sure these would be things suitable for donation, okay.

I asked when she wanted me to come over.

Can I come over today?

…

So, that was my unplanned trip out!

I did stop at the post office first, though. Our reordered 4lb bucket of lysine is supposed to arrive today – but when I look at the tracking information, it says it’s still at a carrier facility in the US, and hasn’t moved since June 27.

It wasn’t there, but I just checked the tracking information again. It still says it’s in a carrier facility in the US, but also it’s supposed to arrive locally by 8pm today. ???

Anyhow.

Once at my mother’s, she at first basically ignored why I was there, as she kept going through her “important” papers. Which are basically all old newspaper clippings, printouts of photos of dead relatives, and various other papers that she considered of great historical value.

My poor sister is going to be getting all this stuff.

Eventually, I got her to tell me what she was wanting me to take to the farm.

Which turned out to be a storage bin she wanted me to dig out of her closet.

So we went through that together, and most of it we might actually be able to use. I did put my foot down when it came to taking an old bra. She said it could go to the second hand store. I told her to just throw it away!!

Then there was another storage bin to go through.

It was quite a mix of things. Pieces of fabric that she used to use as a cover for an old couch here at the farm – a couch our vandal stole while the house was empty. Old curtains that had been using in the living room window. Why would she even take those with her? The living room window is huge, and there’s nothing in her apartment they could have been used on! There were some table cloths that look like they were among those my late brother salvaged from a restaurant he demolished, years ago (a lot of the cutlery we still use now was from that one job!). One thing I was very happy to take was a lacy crochet table cloth. My mother crocheted it. I remember it being used when I was a child! That, to me, is a treasure! There were a few things from Poland, and some strangely old sewing kits material, crochet hooks and knitting needles. Apparently, my mother bought the sewing kit – woven box – for me. I have no memory of that, though I do remember the woven box. What I was really excited to see what the darning mushroom inside! I remember using it to darn socks when I was a kid. I’ve been wanting one for years, but they are rather hard to find, and the few I have found over the years are strangely expensive.

After going through the bins, she got me to grab a bucket that was full of yarn and other odds and ends.

Including the Bamboo Silk yarn I’d used to make a wheelchair shawl for my aunt. A shawl my cousin gave to my mother after her sister passed away. Which my mother undid.

I talked to her about that, trying to get her to understand how I had made this for her sister, and it was something she could have used herself, that would have reminded her of her sister, but she undid it.

I washed it first, she assured me.

???

Also, her sister is dead now, so it doesn’t matter.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just…

…

no words.

I just have no words.

What makes it extra bizarre is that, here she was, spending all this time and effort to divide up her possessions to the family members she thinks they should go to, because she thinks she’s going to die any day now. She actually asked me what I thought about how much longer she’ll last. I told her I thought she had many years ahead of her, yet, and I truly believe that. Barring her doing something weird to herself again, like messing with her medications, she’ll probably outlive us all, even as her mobility and cognition decreases. She’s got the most amazing constitution.

But, she thinks she’s about to go any time now, yet still refuses to call an ambulance when she’s having the breathing problems she complains about. She did call my sister yesterday, knowing my sister works on Sundays, then hung up when, after complaining about burping so much (my mother has got it in her head that if she forces herself to burp, it makes her feel better, but she talks about burping a lot as if it’s something happening to her, rather that something she’s doing to herself), and my sister said people don’t go to the hospital for burping. My sister was so confused after being hung up on, she called me. I told her, my mother wouldn’t call me or my brother, because we’re both telling her that if she feels that bad, call an ambulance. This time, she tried my sister. But she won’t call an ambulance, and prefers talk about how she’s going to die any minute now.

*sigh*

So…

She was given stuff that belonged to her sister, including things that were hand made by me for my aunt, and she had no problem destroying them, but we’re all supposed to be falling over ourselves for the stuff she is “leaving” to us, most of which is important only to her, and a lot of which is literally just garbage, and expects us to keep them and value them long after she’s gone. As my mother set aside a stack of papers for my sister, most of which were printouts my sister made for her, at my mother’s request, I suggested that maybe she doesn’t need the empty, used envelop.

It’s not empty, I was told.

Well, I just saw her removing the contents and adding it to the pile of papers, but.. okay.

So the bucket of yarn and other items were combined with the other stuff in the storage bins.

Then my mother started talking about calling the lab to see if they were open, before I took her there.

I was taking her to the lab?

She had told me she was going to take the Handi Van to get her blood work done. She hadn’t done it yet, and since I was there…

Okay, fine. I put the bins in the truck, moved it to where she could wheel right up with her walker, prepped the foot stool for her, came back and…

She was still going through papers for my sister, and kept offering me juice or whatever… “sit down… have a rest…”

I told her, this was not a planned trip. I do have stuff to do at home. Oh, but you have helpers. I don’t have any helpers.

*sigh*

I did finally get her to set the papers aside, and focus on having her blood work requisition form ready, as well as her health card, so she wouldn’t have to dig for it once at the lab.

She really would have done better taking the Handi Van.

I had the foot stool out for her, but still had to physically help her get up into the truck. It’s much easier for her to get out – no foot stool needed – but getting in is so diffuclt.

That fact that she can get in at all is pretty amazing, to be honest.

The hospital the lab is in is just a few blocks away from her place. She was the only person there, so she got in very quickly. She only needed to give one vial of blood for the 5 things she’s being tested for. She asked about what she was being tested for, and the technician explained it – whether my mother didn’t remember me already explaining it to her after dropping off the form, or didn’t believe me when I did, I don’t know. When she mentioned one of the things being tested for was urea, my mother immediately launched into how this was a problem, and how she has just a few drops…

For the sake of the technician, I mentioned that, while that may be a problem, this blood test isn’t about that at all. Once the technician understood my mother was conflating different things, she made a point of saying that this was correct; the test results from this are about kidney function only.

I don’t think my mother got it, but that’s okay.

As we were leaving, I asked my mother if there was anything she wanted me to get for her while we were out, but the only thing she’s going to need to do is go to the bank, and I can’t do that for her. This trip already exhausted her, so it will wait for another day. Perhaps my sister will be able to visit during the week and can take her, using her car. That would be much easier for my mother to get in an out of.

Speaking of cars…

When I went in to reset the garage cam device, I noticed my mother’s car now has two flat tires on the driver’s side!

It hasn’t been used since the day I tried driving it and it started making a banging noise from the back.

I’ll have to use a hand pump on them. After discovering the leaking valves on our truck, it now makes sense to me why my mother’s car got flats so often. I suspect she has leaking valves, too. The other two tires look just fine. Which is good, because that side of the car is parked closer to the wall, so that the driver can get in and out without hitting a shelf against the opposite wall.

So that’s one of the things I was wanting to do today.

I think I’ll wait for things to cool down a bit more, though – and use lots of bug spray! We’ve been storing our bags of aluminum in the garage, in front of my mother’s car. Most of the cans are from cat food, so critters have been getting into them. Before I can pump up her tires, I will need to pick up and bag a lot of cans, first!

The cats have also been using the dirt floor as a litter all winter. With how much rain we’ve been having, we haven’t been able to clean it up.

They turn a remarkably bright green under those conditions.

So that’s going to need to be raked up, too. It’s still a bit damp for it, but it needs to get done!

The problem is, it won’t even start to cool down for another 3 hours or so, and the front of the garage faces south. Full sun and full heat!

*sigh*

It would have been good to get started before it got hot, but that’s when my mother called, wanting me to come over.

Well, I’m hoping the heat will be good for the garden. I was trying to remember how it was last year at this time, so I went looking at some of my garden tour videos for June and July of last year.

This was recorded on June 1, 2023

This is the one I recorded on June 16, this year.

Then there is the one I recorded on July 4, 2023.

We were much further ahead, as for as growth, at the start of July last year, than we are this year. We actually had peppers forming at the start of July last year! This year, only the hot peppers, which were started much earlier, are starting to bloom. The luffa are a lot smaller this year, too, even though they were transplanted at about the same time, and had a stronger, healthier start indoors this year. We also already had tomatoes forming by the start of July last year. Right now, we just have some of them blooming.

All that rain this spring has really set a lot of things back!

I did my June garden tour video in the middle of the month, so I will wait until the middle of the month before doing a July garden tour. Hopefully, things will have picked up at least a bit by then!

This has been a very different gardening year. Not only because of the weather, but just everything we ended up planting this year. I had so many things planned for that just didn’t happen. The balance between things that can be harvested earlier and throughout the summer, and things that get harvested all at once, is way off.

Next year will be different, again. Hopefully, we’ll have more progress on the trellis beds, and the area that was a squash patch last year will have new beds built into them, and we’ll have much more growing space.

Ah, well.

Little by little, it’ll get done!

The Re-Farmer

A day of rest… and a quick storm

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It’s a good thing I’m working to get back into keeping Sunday as my day of rest. Last night, for some reason, I just didn’t sleep. I finally started to doze after 4am or so. After a couple of hours of that, I fed the outside cats, then went back to bed, skipping the rest of my morning rounds.

But I did find these, yesterday.

The Albion Everbearing strawberries are starting to ripen, little by little. For a patch with only 8 plants, there are quite a lot of berries on each of them! The deer seem to be leaving this patch alone, too. The ones with the asparagus keep getting their leave eaten, even though I have stakes around them. I have some mesh netting around part of the patch, but need to set up more flexible netting around the rest.

But not today.

This afternoon, I made a quick run into town to get distilled water for my husband’s CPAP. Just one gallon, though. They cost almost twice as much locally as they do in the city, so I’ll get more the next time we need to hit a Walmart or something. Of course, while in town, I picked up a few other things as well.

Just a little while ago, I headed out to do my evening rounds, checking all the garden beds. I’m quite impressed with how much some of the winter squash is getting. Our first Madga squash seedling appeared in one of the pots, but the stem was already broken by a cat lying on it, in spite of the stakes I have around the pot to keep them out. In the main garden area, though, I spotted our first G-star patty pan squash. So we should have at least some summer squash this year – as long as the slugs don’t get to them! We’re down to 1 Zucca melon because they got into the kiddie pool planter.

While I was outside, it suddenly started to thunder and a storm blew in before I finished my rounds. We’re supposed to continue getting these blowing over us for the next few hours. It’s so hot and humid out there, the wind and rain is welcome. It’s not a lot of rain, either; the moats around the garage and the storage house are not coming back. The power flickers, I could do without. I settled down at my computer to start this, and discovered my machine was shut down! I’m not complaining, though. Other places are being hit much harder than we are.

A reminder of why it’s a good idea to “prep”, and have at least three days of shelf stable food, drinking water and other necessities on hand.

My daughter just popped by to chat, so this post was put on hold for a while. As we were talking, another quick storm rolled through. The upstairs has been really hot and muggy, so my daughter did not get much sleep. We’ve been able to keep the downstairs cooler. The portable AC in the living room has been running almost constantly, and we have a fan blowing the cooler air to the dining room. Which means that, in a complete switch, the new part of the house is cooler than the old (log) part of the house, where the bedrooms are. With the septic issues we were having, we moved out the makeshift hardware cloth door, which is kept in place with hook and eye closures, so we could go up and down the stairs more easily. It meant having to close the door to keep the cats out of the basement, though. Now that the source of the septic issues was tracked down and the pump is working as it should, we don’t need access quite as often. So today, I moved one of the blower fans to the bottom of the stairs, facing up, then set the hardware cloth door back. We now have cool basement air being blown up the stairs and, my goodness, what a difference it has made! The only downside is, the distinct smell of wet basement. 😄

I just got some messages from the Cat Lady. The system that hit us is now hitting them. The Wolfman has been freaking out with every peel of thunder, the poor thing! They’re getting the power fluctuations, too. After this, though, things are clearing up, so we should be good for the next while. In fact, if the long range forecast is anything to go by, we won’t get rain again for about 2 weeks.

We might actually dry up enough that we can bring the truck into the yard and pull that tree off the outhouse!

Wouldn’t that be nice?

The Re-Farmer

Netting up, and socialization progress

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The shelling peas planted in one of the winter squash beds are starting to get tall, so it was time to put up the trellis netting. My older daughter and I headed out early in the morning to avoid the heat.

It didn’t really work. 7am, and it was already feeling too hot!

The first thing we had to do was steal some of the lighter posts marking the 4′ distances for the low raised beds and attaching them to the tops of the bamboo stakes already in place, to support the netting at the top.

The netting wasn’t long enough, but we were reusing wire twist ties, and some of them were long enough to cross the distances at the ends. Later on, I’ll use jute twine or something to lace through the ends, so they don’t pull and sag too much once the weight of the peas are on it. We also made sure to leave a gap at the bottom for the winter squash vines to pass through. We don’t want any of those climbing! They would be way too heavy for this set up.

Later, we’ll at another trellis net on the other side, for the pole beans. The Seychelle beans planted in the gaps between the few carminate haven’t germinated yet, so it’s entirely possible we won’t end up needing it.

After that, it was just the usual morning rounds which, these days, includes cuddling as many kittens as we can convince to let us.

Right now, there is one white and grey that doesn’t run away and allows us to pick it up at any time. It even purrs. The tiny foundling – I think we’ll call it Button – needed no time at all to be okay with human contact. In fact, I have to watch my feet when it’s around! It is SO much smaller than the other kittens! It starts purring pretty much as soon as we picked it up, will crawl around on our shoulders, and when we put it down near out feet, it starts to rub on them.

I make sure to put it down near a food or water bowl as a distraction. 😄

I’ve made a point of adding water to one or two of the sun room kibble bowls to soften the kibble. I’m also seeing Junk Pile nursing the new baby. It appears to be in good hands!

I just came back from topping up the kibble outside, and Syndol was back and very hungry. I hadn’t seen him since yesterday evening.

When I paused to take a picture of Button, he wanted me to take his picture, too!

Oh, and today, I finally found a spot to transplant the Orange Butterfly flowers (milkweed) that have still been languishing in their Jiffy Pellets. Only three had germinated, and I had intended to direct sow more, but we just didn’t have a good place for it.

Well, since we didn’t end up planting poppies in where I’d intended, and yesterday, I buried Driver there, I figured it would be appropriate to transplant the butterfly flowers onto his grave. This bed can be a milkweed bed.

There are a lot of things that need to be done outside, of course – the list is never ending – but it’s going to have to wait. There are dozens of little thunderstorms blowing across the prairies right now, in both the US and Canada. I was hearing thunder while I was out, just a little while ago. Plus, as I write this, we are 26C/79F, with the humidex putting us at 30C/86F. I think the garden, in general, is going to like the heat we’re supposed to have over the next while. Much of what we planted this year prefers hotter temperatures. We’re supposed to keep getting hotter over the next few days and, a week from now, we’re supposed to have highs of 30C/86F. We’re supposed to have the storms blowing through today, plus a bit of rain tomorrow afternoon, but after that, we’re not expected to get more rain withing the 10 day forecast.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

More running around, and… another loss!?!

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This morning, while feeding the cats before doing my rounds, I made sure to be on the lookout for the newly snipped boys, and the kitten I found yesterday.

I’m happy to say the kitten is still hanging around the sun room, and I think I even saw one of the creche mothers – Adam – nursing it.

As for the newly snipped boys, I saw Syndol in the sun room a lot yesterday evening, but not this morning. I did see Stinky and Nosey, who were their usual selves. With Nosey, that means a combination of PET ME NOW and I’M GOING TO BITE YOU! Of course, I checked their nibs, and everything looks fine.

There has been no sign of Collin since he ran out of the carrier. It may be a while before we see him again!

I was scheduled to help my mother with her grocery shopping this afternoon, but I remembered that I still hadn’t picked up her bloodwork requisition at the clinic. I was supposed to do it while going to and from the city, since this town is on the way, depending on which highway I take. I completely forgot.

So, after I finished my rounds, I left early enough to pick up a couple of packages at the post office before they closed, then drove the 45 minutes to the clinic, got the requisition printed out, then drove to my mother’s place.

She didn’t quite understand what I was giving her when I handed her the printout. She thought it was test results of some kind, but she hasn’t had any tests done recently. She just remembered that they took 5 vials of blood last time, and thought this was the results. I had to repeat myself a few times, and read out what she is being tested for (she might be getting 6 vials taken, this time) and why. The call from the doctor telling her to stop taking her water pills for a month was based on her last bloodwork, and this is to see if anything has improved.

Once she understood, she said she would go to the local lab and get her bloodwork done, no appointment needed, on Monday. The town she lives in has a handi van available that, for a few dollars, will shuttle people with mobility requirements around town. It would be far easier for her to use that, than for me to drive her in the truck.

After getting that cleared up, we went over her shopping list, for both a pharmacy trip and the grocery store, talked about potential substitutions if things weren’t available or didn’t look good, and then I headed out.

I had a pleasant surprise while at the grocery store part of her shopping. I ran into an old friend/former co-worker and her kids that I haven’t seen in ages. They live on a farm in the area, and I pass their place fairly regularly, but we just don’t cross paths very often. So that was really nice.

After the shopping was done, I went through everything with my mother while I put things away. While talking about her blood tests, I’d asked her about drinking more water, and she remembered to add water bottles to the shopping list. I was happy to hear she found them very handy, though I got the impression she has not been drinking more water like she’s supposed to. Anyhow. The water turned out to be on sale, so I got her a bigger case this time. Water bottles will help her keep track, visually, of how much she is drinking, too.

She didn’t have protein of any kind on her list, as she apparently still had, but there was such a good sale on chicken legs and thighs, I got her a package. That one package could last her a week. She was quite happy with my additions and substitutions (all within her budget, of course), and even complimented me on how I’ve got so much “experience” with this sort of thing. I’m not entirely sure how she means it, but I’ll take the compliment.

In fact, the entire visit with her was good. She definitely was having one of her good days.

She had something going on in her building in the afternoon, so I wasn’t going to stay long. I did remember to ask her about the commode home care got for her. She told me, she doesn’t use it.

??

The problem was in emptying the reservoir. It’s light and easy to remove, but requires two hands to carry it. Since she would have one hand either using a cane, or using the walls and furniture to steady herself, she can’t carry it to the bathroom to empty it. So she has continued to use an ice cream bucket at night, rather than going to the washroom. How using the ice cream bucket is easier than walking to the bathroom in the first place, I can’t understand. I have no idea how she actually uses it, what with her messed up knees, but it has handle and she can carry it with one hand, so…

The solution turned out to be easy.

The ice cream bucket fits inside the commode reservoir, and the seat opening fits over it, almost exactly. She can use the commode, then easily carry the bucket away to empty it during the day.

Problem solved.

There was one other thing I remembered to ask my mother. When arranging for me to come out today, she mentioned having an appointment this morning – but it was a secret and she wouldn’t tell me what it was, and no one else was supposed to know.

Which means, of course, I had to warn my brother about it, because she has a terrible habit of causing problems he ends up having to fix.

So I jokingly asked her how her seeeecret meeting went this morning.

Well, it turned out, our vandal had somehow arranged with her to come over for a visit. Since his phone number is blocked, I don’t know how this was done.

The first thing I wanted to know was, was he alone? He has been behaving properly, when there is someone else there as a witness, but when it’s just him, that’s when he is verbally abusive towards her. It did turn out that he was alone.

I’m not sure what he was after, but whatever it was, I don’t think he got it. Apparently, he’s got cancer and is undergoing chemo, but she can’t even remember if it was his lungs or kidneys or whatever. But he’s taking lots of pills, and is getting surgery soon.

Whether this is true or not, I have no way to know, but I’m guessing he’s going to milk it for all he’s worth on her for… something. Usually, money, but who knows. Whatever it is, though, it’s going right over her head. After only a few hours, she was already forgetting most of what he talked about.

At least he didn’t start yelling at her in the doorway, like he usually does when he’s on his own.

After that, I headed home. Before settling in, inside, I made a point of doing some outside stuff first. Our high of the day was supposed to be 26C/79F, which I’m sure we did reach. As I write this, it’s past 4:30, and we’re at 25C/77F, with the humidex putting us at 30C/86F. It was definitely feeling hot out there, and the humidity isn’t helping. Especially when it comes to mosquitoes. We have SO many mosquitoes right now! They are just loving this weather.

I went to top up the cat kibble outside but, in this heat, they aren’t actually eating all that much. I still made sure to leave some spread out in spots around the house, where I know kittens are starting to come closer.

Then I was going to continue my evening rounds, when I saw a cat lying in the grass, in the shade of the storage house, looking like it was asleep.

Except, cats don’t sleep there. It’s too open and exposed.

It turned out to be Driver (Adam’s sibling), and he was dead.

There was no sign of injury of any kind on him. Since the snow melted, we had only been seeing him every once in a while. The few times I’ve seen him recently, he was very skittish and nervous around the other males; particularly Shop Towel. There was no evidence he’d been in a fight of any kind, though. He was just lying there, like he was taking a nap in the shade.

So bizarre!

I then had the problem of finding a place to bury him. We’re running out of places to bury cats and kittens. Too many big tree roots and rocks. In the end, I buried him where we were supposed to have a poppy bed this year, but it never got cleared out in time for sowing. We can build up the bed and plant flowers over him, next year.

*sigh*

This has been a pretty rough week or so for that. The litter of newborns, the baby raccoon, and now Driver…

Yeah, I know; this is to be expected when you live in the boonies, and we do have way too many cats, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Ah, well. It is what it is.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Changes in plans, and nature is a b****

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Well, I am currently waiting around in a Walmart, as 4 males are being neutered, courtesy of the Cat Lady and her rescue.

This morning was rough, though.

Before seeing what cats we could catch, I went to bring the truck into the yard.  I heard a strange noise, and something dark in the grass.

It took a moment to identify it.  It turned out to be a baby raccoon.

Unfortunately, it was still alive.  And suffering.   I had to dispatch it.  This is not something I have never done before, but this one left me crying.  I don’t know what got to it, but I’m guessing another racoon.

Nature can be so cruel.

After moving the truck, I had the distraction of helping my daughter get 4 males into the carriers. 

I was left with a bloody arm and the need to change my shirt, but we got them.

We got Stinky and Syndol, which I expected.  Nosey was a bit of a surprise.  I think the last one is Collin. 

Today was not one of the cheap spay days (where they will also do neuters), but a regular clinic day.  The rescue still got a very good price.  The Cat Lady also passed on some donated cat trees, a cat cave, a couple of cones and some blankets.  She has kibble for us, too, but it was to be delivered later today.

Since I am hanging around until pick up time – for the time and cost of gas, it is not worth driving home and back – we talked about meeting up again, so she could pass on the kibble donation.

Well, that changed.

She got home and discovered their dog had a medical event and had to rush him to a vet. 

They just can’t catch a break!!!

We did get a generous cash donation, though, so I was able to pick up three 9kg bags of kibble.  We still have some from our monthly shop, so we are good for a while.

For now, I’m just hanging out in the Walmart area, checking different stores out.  I want to scope out some traps.  The rescue will lend us one, but it would be good to have our own. 

It would be good to get a raccoon trap, but those are a lot more expensive.  With good reason.  We might be able to get one of those on loan from the municipality.  Yesterday, I found that we have at least one raccoon in the pump shack.  I didn’t see it, but I heard it barking and snarling and went looking.  When I opened the door, I heard movement in the back.  I don’t mind the mama and her 3 babies (or is she down to 2 now?), but I think the big one is a male, and they can be a real problem.

Crud.

I need to think about something else.  I’m getting weepy again.

Anyhow.

The clinic knows I’m hanging around town, so they will try to fit the boys in as early as they can.  Hopefully, it won’t be too long. 

I think it will be a while before they trust us or the carriers again! 

The Re-Farmer

I love our septic guy

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The septic guy has come and gone, and the news turned out to be much better than I expected.

But first, the cuteness.

The kittens are getting very comfortable around the sun room and the house, running and playing together. Even the smallest ones are rough housing with the older kittens. Then they all pile together, sometimes in one big group, sometimes in several smaller ones, and nap.

It’s so flippin’ adorable.

Back to the less adorable stuff.

We closely monitored the septic pump all night. I went to bed early, since I wanted to get up very early to drive to a bank machine and take out cash to pay the septic guy. Before I went to bed, I heard the pump start running, so I went down to keep an eye on it. At the end, it did the thing again; the filter suddenly emptied of all liquid, but the pump kept running, dry. Thinking of what the septic guy told me on the phone, about how it sounded like we had an air leak somewhere, I shut it off manually, primed the filter, and turned the pump back on again, making sure to check if anything seemed to not be sealed properly. As soon as I flicked the switch, the pump started running, drained the filter, and kept running. So I repeated the process a couple more times until I flicked the switch, and the pump stayed off. I saw no sign of any leaks, and when I opened the top of the filter, there was most definitely a tight seal.

Everything worked the way it should, for the rest of the night.

I know this because every time the pump started running, I went back down to check. My intent to get to sleep early went right out the window. My daughters were going to check on it regularly during the night, but I’m the only one that can actually hear when the pump starts running, so I ended up checking anyhow. The girls still checked on it, too. That basement saw more traffic in and out in one night than it has in years! 😄

Which means I got no sleep last night. I didn’t finally get an hour or two of sleep until past 5am.

Oh… the pump just turned on. Gotta keep an ear out on it…

Okay, so I couldn’t do that. I had to go down and keep an eye on it.

It worked perfectly.

Anyhow. Where was I?

Oh, yes.

By about 7:30, I was on the road to my nearest bank branch, in the town my mother lives in, took out some cash and put some gas in the tank, since we’ve got a trip to the vet tomorrow, with whichever four males we can get into the carriers before we feed the outside cats.

Once back at home, I made sure the gate was left open, then did some work around the house until he arrived.

When he got here, he stopped in front of the garage, then got out to check the conditions. We still have standing water at the vehicle gate into the yard. There are ruts in the entry just from driving through with our truck. Walking through where he would be backing up together, we could see there could be problems. He did NOT want to back into the yard with that super heavy truck, and get stuck!

So, he first did a visual check on the tank. The pump had clearly run fairly recently. Everything looked the way it should.

Next, he wanted to check the pump itself.

When I checked on it earlier, I remembered his questions about vibrations and the possibility of a crack at the fittings. With that in mind, I grabbed a brick and a thin piece of Styrofoam that was no longer being used for something else, and set it under the filter. The filter basically floats above the concrete, held up by the pipes. I figured the weight of the water in there might be a possible contributing factor, so it is now supported. When he saw that and I explained I’d just added it this morning, he said it was a good idea.

He checked all the fittings and connections, then we opened up the filter to check that. He examined the condition of the O ring, while I topped up the water in the filter reservoir. It was an inch or so lower than it had been, but not so low that the inflow opening at the top was exposed. We put the cap back on, and everything looked fine.

He asked me a number of questions, wracking his brain, trying to figure out what was going. Then he asked about the outflow. Did we have an expeller or a septic field?

We have an expeller.

Was the pipe white or black?

White.

That got his attention, and he wanted to see where the water gets expelled.

This is just past the fence around the outer year, in the area the renter rotates his cows over to graze. They aren’t here, yet, so the grass is really tall. Of course, the grass in the outer yard is tall, too, since we can’t mow it. We made our way through and went to where the pipe was.

Or, should I say, where the pipe should have been.

The grass was so tall, it was hard to see, but we made our way to where it should have been, and couldn’t find it! I was having a bit of a heart attack, thinking it had been knocked over some how (it would have take a LOT for that to happen), but it wasn’t even lying on the ground.

Then he spotted it, hidden not only by the tall grass, but over handing willow branches.

The willows are fuller than I’ve ever seen them!

Unfortunately, the expelled water isn’t flowing in the direction it should, as there is too much debris, so there we had an area full of water we couldn’t get through. We were, however, able to go around from the other side.

When we got there, and he was checking out the pipe, water started flowing out. The pump was running. He popped the cap off, with the narrow, inner pipe attached, and pulled it out.

I commented that I had no idea that came out so easily.

It shouldn’t he told me. !!!

He started examining the bottom of the pipe he’d pulled out. Meanwhile, the larger, outer pipe filled with water and began overflowing, as it should. He’d brought along a long screwdriver and used that to poke into the bottom of the inner pipe, and I could see debris falling out. He popped it back on place, and water started flowing through it much better than before.

This clog was most likely the source of our problems!

As we walked back to the house, he told me that gunk inside the pipe running from the house to the inner pipe he’d just cleared would be breaking loose in chunks and getting stuck at the bottom of that inner pipe. He mentioned a chemical product with enzymes that they use. I told he, we do use the SeptoBac (which is specifically for the tank), as well as a product for maintaining the household pipes. This commercial stuff they use is much, much stronger, and designed specifically to clear these pipes that run underground.

He told me that if it gets clogged again, to take that inner pipe and cap off completely, and leave it off for about a month. The water will overflow the outer pipe, like it did while we were there, and that would give it a change to wash out the gunk in the pipes. He said this is a pretty common problem, too.

We checked the pump again and everything was fine. He took off the ring holding the clear cap in place, but the seal was so tight, he couldn’t take the cap off. I’m used to it, so I was able to pop it off. The water level was just a bit lower than before, so I topped it off (I keep a bucket of water in the old laundry sink, just for this) and we closed it up again.

He said to keep an eye on it over the next few days, and if we have a problem, to call him again. With it working, he was not going to empty that tank; there was no need, and no need to risk getting his truck stuck in our yard!

I asked him what we owed him, and he said nothing! He did not charge us for his time! I know he, technically, didn’t do any repairs, but he still spent at least half an hour, figuring things out.

He is so awesome! I’m glad to be having the septic guy checking all this out, too. Normally, we would have called a plumber, but who is going to know a septic system better than a septic guy? Especially an old and more uncommon system like ours.

So we are now on monitoring duty, and hopefully things will be back to working the way they should.

Plus, a nap.

I really, really need a nap.

I might even be able to sleep through the sound of the pump running, now!

The Re-Farmer

First harvests, first sighting and first use

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It’s been a day of firsts!

Some, better than others.

This morning, I harvested our first garlic scapes! Not a lot, but enough to enjoy today.

The strawberries in the wattle weave bed had one ripe berry to harvest.

It was quite tasty. 😄

I also saw our first female winter squash blossom! That was quite a surprise, since they don’t usually show up until later. The flower was oddly closed, though. It wasn’t until later that I saw why. One of the vine’s tendrils had wrapped itself around the petals before they opened! So when the outer edges of the petals did open, they were “strangled” and there was no access to the inside for pollinating. I did take off the tendril which, unfortunately, broke off most of the petals. We’ll see if the remaining parts of the petals will finish opening up to allow pollination.

When coming back inside after doing my morning rounds, I saw an adorable sight.

I’m so glad the kittens like that cat cage!

Later on, I needed to make a run to the post office, and saw another adorable sight.

Barely.

Brussel and her sprouts were snuggled in the tall grass! This is the first official, confirmed sighting of her with her babies.

I am not sure if any of them have shown up in the sun room or not. I couldn’t even see how many there were. Two, for sure, but if there was more, I couldn’t tell.

The final “first” of the day was…

… using our new drain auger.

I’d gone to check on the septic pump, when I realized it was running, but no one had used any water recently. I hadn’t heard it earlier, because I have the fan going in my room, and my room is pretty much the only place where it can be heard.

— major interruption as I fought with the septic pump and tank, again —

Oh, man.

Where was I…

Right… I checked the pump’s filter, and it was running dry. No liquid flowing through. I shut off the pump manually, primed the filter with fresh water then turned it on again. Sometimes, that’s enough. The pump, when it first turns on, shakes a bit, so before turning it on, I like to grab the outflow pipe to hold it steady.

The pipe was hot.

The pump was running dry for so long, and got so hot, the pipe itself was hot!!

That is NOT a good thing!

For the last while, when this happens, I would run a hose through the access pipe in the floor. I can tell where there are some bottlenecks and, by the length of hose pushed through, can generally tell when it’s all the way into the solids side of the tank. With the water turned on, I can usually push through any blockages and eventually get it so that, when the pump it turned back on, it no longer runs dry. Which means the float has dropped far enough.

I know. This shouldn’t work. The hose is in the solids side. The float is in the liquid side. But it works.

This time, it didn’t. Instead, I basically hit a wall, and the hose would go no further.

Worse, fluid was backing up the access pipe enough to start overflowing the floor drain.

Well, there’s a reason we got that drain auger. Now we just had to get it down the stairs.

The problem is the stairs. These are steeper than usual, with narrower steps. Just going down them, I basically turn myself sideways, using both the hand rail and the wall, and go down one step at a time.

With the help of my husband, though, I was able to get it part way down, and then I could carefully maneuver it the rest of the way on my own.

Then I spent some time reading over the manual again.

Unfortunately, the schematics in the manual did not show how the belt was supposed to be attached. The photos looked like colour photos that had been photocopied as black and white, so I couldn’t even see where a belt might be. As far as I could tell, there was only one way for it to go, and that was around the drum that the cable is rolled up in. I finally just went on my computer, looked up the order and the colour photos. There, I could actually see the belt around the drum.

The tips are secured with a screw and tightened with an Allen key that came with the auger.

It was missing.

I know it was there when I unpacked it, but it was not where I put it.

Someone will probably find it with their feet at some point, wherever the cats left it.

*sigh*

I do have a tool kit with Allen keys in both metric and imperial, so I was able to use that.

The next hour or so was spent using the different tips to clear the pipe. The water didn’t drain, though – until I remembered the pump was still off! That got turned on, and things cleared. Yay! All done!

Right?

Wrong.

The pump ran for a while, then started running dry again. So that got shut off.

I tried pushing the hose through and there was still that bottleneck a couple of feet past the wall. I ran the auger through again, then the hose. Eventually, I could determine that the pipe itself was clear; the problem was in the tank. With the pump running properly again, though, and so much well water being used to clear things up, the pump and the outflow pipe were so cold, there was condensation on them.

However, things were working again, so everything got cleaned up and put away… and there was much cleaning up to do. I had expected to find tree roots blocking things, but nope. No sign of roots. Just… solids, shall we say.

I just can’t seem to wash up well enough to feel clean again.

After I started writing about all this, I realized I had the fan going, and was I hearing the septic pump running or not? I shut off the fan, and yes, it was running.

I went to check, and discovered it had been running dry, long enough for the outflow pipe to be starting to get warm again.

This time, in pushing the hose through, I hit that barrier again, far enough from the basement wall that it had to be in the tank itself.

WTF?

This time, I got my husband to be in the basement while I went to check the tank.

After putting on a latex gripper thing I don’t know the name of, that attached to the ear pieces of my glasses and goes around the back of the head, to ensure they don’t fall off. I am forever paranoid that when I look down from a height, my glasses will fall off, and that last thing I want is for them to fall off into the septic tank!

Now, with the pump running dry, I expected to find it drained and the float visible at the liquid side of the tank. From above, you can see a larger opening over the liquid side and and a smaller opening over the solids side. A few feet above is the pipe that the float’s cord runs through from the basement, directing it over the solids side and above the liquid side.

When I opened the tank, it was over full, and just a foot below the pipe the float’s cord runs though.

This is not a good thing. Not at all!

I got my husband to the pump on.

No change. I could see some sort of bubbling on the solids side, but that’s it.

That would have been from water running through the hose at the time.

When there was no sign of the contents being pumped out, I covered the tank again, then headed back to the basement. The pump was still running, but it was running dry! At that point, I was able to relieve my husband from duty. 😉

Not only did the pump not drain the tank (we shut it off manually again), but water was backing up to the basement again.

It turned out the hose was still on.

With the hose off, I kept pushing it back and forth. It was definitely moving easier. After a few minutes, I turned the pump back on and…

It started training the tank!!!

So I hung around like a mother hen as it ran, until the filter suddenly emptied and it started running dry again. I still had the hose handy, so I primed the filter again, then ran it through and turned it the water on. After pushing it through a few times, I turned the pump back on. It started running for about half a second, then shut itself off.

Once that was done, I went back out to look into the tank. I could once again see the top of the tank, with the two openings. I could see the float on the one side…

It seems to be sitting on something.

I really don’t know what it was I was looking it. It just seemed to me like there was something in the tank.

We’re going to have to get it emptied. Especially since it overfilled the way it did.

So I called the septic guy. As I was explaining what was going on, he was quite perplexed. My using the hose like I do should not make a difference, because it’s in a different part of the tank.

After more descriptions and questions from the septic guy, he does have one theory. Because the pump does shake when it first turns on, he thinks we have an air leak. Most likely, the shaking has caused a crack, probably on the underside of where the pipe from the tank is attached to the filter. He won’t know until he sees it, though.

He’ll be coming out late tomorrow morning. A basic pump out will be $160. He won’t know if it’ll cost more than that until he sees what’s going on, and if he is able to do any repairs.

My older daughter, bless her, will be able to cover the cost. It’ll just take a few days for the PayPal funds to be transferred. (While I was doing all this, she was a sweetheart and did the cooking, etc., too)

Which means tonight, I should probably head to my bank and take out some cash to at least pay for the pump put. If it costs more, I can pay him the rest later.

Or maybe tomorrow morning. I really don’t want to go anywhere right now.

I think I’ll go wash again, then call it a night!

The Re-Farmer

Happy Canada Day – and a kitten sighting!

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First up, a Happy Canada Day to my Canadian visitors.

I think we’ve got a wet, rainy and windy day in most places!

We have a little thing to celebrate this morning.

Broccoli has finally brought her two babies around the house! I spotted them in the old kitchen garden while in the sun room, after I’d finished up outside, and they were looking very nervous. I made a point of not hanging around so as not to scare them away from the kibble.

Today has been a quiet day, overall. We’re not getting rain as heavily as the weather radar seems to think we are. It has come and gone, all day, and will continue through to tomorrow morning. Plus high winds, of course. Areas to the south of us, however, are getting hit with more severe weather, including thunderstorms. We have nothing to complain about. I’m taking advantage of the time inside to finally work on the video I’m editing. It’s slow going, with many interruptions – I just got back from chasing a skunk out of the sun room, and it wasn’t leaving because of the racoon blocking the doorway!

I’ve been able to pick up and cuddle one of Adam’s little fluff balls. One that looks like it’ll grow up to look a lot like mama! I think the only reason I’ve been able to get it is because it’s the time to freeze rather than run away immediately, not because it’s any more socialized than the other kittens!

I really hope we can get more of them socialized this year, so we can get them fixed more easily. It would be a lot easier if the mamas could be socialized!

Well, time to get back to editing. Hopefully, I’ll have it ready to upload to YouTube tonight – and not have the weird situation where the video ends up a ridiculously huge file for some reason, like the last one!

The Re-Farmer

Some kittens, and a day of rest

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I can’t say it was a good start to the day. I was awakened about about 3am, and the cats kept me from falling back asleep again. I finally got up around 7 to feed the outside cats, have some breakfast, then go back to bed for a few hours of real, honest to goodness, restful sleep.

I did the rest of my rounds quite late, and did get a few things done. As always, I checked on the garden beds. I remembered to bring along the Seychelle green pole bean seeds, to replant them because the Crespo squash. Since so few Carminate purple pole beans germinated, I planted some Seychelle in the gaps. We’ll see if there will be enough growing season left for pole beans! Assuming they germinate at all.

The Royal Burgundy beans that I replanted have quite a few sprouting right now – but only in one row. I’d planted two rows, on either side of the original single row, and there’s just a couple of those that survived. Now, there’s at least half a dozen sprouts coming up, but they area all in the row closer to the outside of the bed. The row closer to the middle has nothing. Very strange!

While going in and out of the sun room for my garden tools and whatnot, I got to see many babies.

The puffy one that’s asleep while through the cube wall is one of Adam’s tinies, and just too cute for words. It won’t let me near it. When it sees me, it immediately runs and hides. This tiny little fluff ball bouncing into the sun room. I want to scoop it up, so badly! 😄

Before heading inside, I gathered a bunch of rhubarb. This has been the best year for rhubarb we’ve had since moving here. The chives are looking amazing, too. We have quite a bit of cream cheese right now, and my daughters are talking about making a chives infused cream cheese spread. That sounds really good!

I’m trying to think of some way to put a barrier around the eggplant and hot pepper bed again. The plastic was completely destroyed by the wind, but I’m thinking what they might actually need is a bit more shade! They don’t seem to be growing much at all, and I think they’re getting baked. Which is odd, considering these are heat loving plants, and they’ve got plenty of heat. Both had done quite well int he wattle weave bed last year, and that bed is heavily shaded by one of the ornamental apple trees – both of which need more pruning, to open them up and let more air and light through. Honestly, I’d take them out completely, if they weren’t a food source for birds in the winter.

Anyhow, that’s pretty much the extent of my “work” today, and that was more fun than work. Sunday is supposed to be my day of rest, but it hasn’t worked out that way lately. We had to do as much as we could outside when there was a break in the rain, no matter what day that fell on. Now that those beds are shifted, and all the transplanting and direct sowing is done, I can get back to taking a regular day of rest. I seem to be really needing it, too. I had been planning to work on editing a video today, but for all that I did get solid sleep this morning, it’s been all I could do not to crawl back into bed all day! Even now, I can feel myself falling asleep at the keyboard. I don’t want to mess up my sleep cycle too much, though, and end up awake all night.

Anyhow.

The video editing will probably wait. It requires more mental focus than I can manage right now.

We’re supposed to get rain starting at about noon tomorrow, and continuing on through to 6am the day after. That would be as good a time as any to work on the video editing.

For today, I’ll take a break.

The Re-Farmer

Rough start to a good day

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I woke this morning to way too much pain and stiffness, so I asked my daughters to do both the outside and inside cat feeding, so I could take some painkillers and sleep in a bit.

Then I saw my younger daughter come in to do the food bowls in my room, and she’s still using a cane! Damn. We’re quite the household of gimps!

I’ll cover the garden stuff I got done today in a different post, but besides that…

First on the to-do list was a trip into town. Our expected prescription delivered on Wednesday is going to be delayed, as their driver isn’t available on the usual day. With most of my husband’s medications, he has ample supply, but not his new painkillers. So that got ordered, and was ready for pick up today. That gave me a chance to pick up some antihistamines for myself as well. I don’t know what I’m allergic to outside – likely a tree pollen – and it’s very annoying.

Since I was going to be in town anyhow, I grabbed our two empty 18.9L (5 gallon) water jugs to refill at the grocery store.

I forgot.

This is Canada Day weekend.

Town was so incredibly busy and crowded! We definitely need to avoid it until after Canada Day.

There were, at least, some really good sales on at the grocery store. I only took advantage of two; one brand of salad kits were almost half off, so I ended up getting 12 bags; 4 of three different mixes. Then I saw nacho chips were on sale, so I grabbed some of those. We already have cheese and olives, so my husband could have some nachos for a treat.

Once back at home and after I had lunch, it was outside to get some work done, while the weather was good. In the process, I got to see a whole bunch of kittens, of course.

We can now confirm that the white and grey mama has brought her four white and grey/black kittens back to the sun room! I spotted her on the critter cam, nursing some of them, while others – white and and greys from Adam’s litter – played nearby. I counted six kittens with her at the time. That makes 12 kittens in 3 litters now using the sun room.

I do wish Broccli would bring hers over. They are starting to get big! I’m going to stop leaving food by the old garden shed, so they have reason to come to the house for kibble, instead.

Towards the end of the day outside, I just had to pause and get a picture of the mock orange under the clothes line.

It is in full bloom right now, and a mass of white flowers. Just gorgeous!

The only downside of the day was finding the racoon back – with two very big, round babies (more like teenagers!) in tow!

Racoons make the strangest snarling, barking noise.

I saw some skunks around, too, but they are not as destructive or greedy as the racoons, and easier to chase away.

Still, I was able to get quite a bit done outside, in just a few hours, so I’m happy.

More on that, in my next post!

The Re-Farmer