If all goes to plan, my only outing before January will be when my husband’s private insurance disability payment comes in – with all the holidays, I’m not quite sure what business day that will be – and I make one last shopping trip of the year. We will be doing both an oil and a cheese fondue for New Years, so the food we get needs to be fresh, rather than the mostly frozen finger foods we got for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Christmas day was highlighted by charcuterie boards – we had so much, I had to split it between two!
On Christmas day, we gave the cats a break with the ear cleaning. We’ve treated them with mineral oil for 10 days, and from what we’ve read and been told, that should do it. Some of the cats, however, still have insanely dirty ears – a sign of either continued mite activity, or just that it was so bad, we haven’t been able to get it all out. Our grandma seems to be the worst case. Black gunk in the ears of a black cat. It seems we just didn’t see what was happening until it git really bad, and my goodness, it’s hard to do her ears!
I do think it has made a difference in her, though. She is becoming more active and her appetite seems to be improving!
Some of the cats seem to be developing what looks like dandruff around the ears. We suspect the mineral oil may be getting a but much for their skin. So when we started up the ear cleaning again (if we need to do one, we need to do all), we switched to coconut oil. The girls are the only ones that use coconut oil in cooking, so the big Costco size tub they got is still quite full. It just needed to be melted, first, so the prepered strips of paper towel we use can absorb it. Which had the added benefit of the oil being still warm when we started.
Or, should I say, when I started. Before my daughter was able to start brung7ng cats, I was able to do Clarence, Tin Whistle, Misty, Shadow, Ghosty, Cheddar, Potato Beetle and Ginger, all on my own. They let me just come to where they were, curled up on my bed, and do their ears. Even Ginger, who had among the most severely dirty ears, due to not being able to self clean as well, no longer complains or tries to fight. Beep Beep is another one that has become quite calm about it, but I couldn’t reach her in the middle of the king-size bed. 😄
In the end, it was only Soot Sprite and The Beast (Tiny) we couldn’t find. Knowing the routine, almost all the other cats were milling around the good bowls, waiting for their wet cat food. Soot Sprite came up from the basement, and we got him done, but we had to start opening cans before The Beast came up from the basement, too!
This is Ginger, with a full belly, enjoying the cat cave. We have a second one, but the cats don’t use it.
I hope the coconut oil works well, and we can finally get their ears all clean. There are three cats that are still really bad for some reason. Thankfully, Ginger is not one of them!
I tapped away at a blog post this morning. Tried to publish it, but it wouldn’t work. Turned out we lost power while I was writing it.
So I set it aside for later.
Later was a few minutes ago, when I discovered it hadn’t even been saved as draft.
*sigh*
I’ll try to remember what I meant to write, and try again, later.
Well… I guess if I’d been writing it on my computer, I would have known the power was put because my machine would have died as I was typing, so… I’ll take the W for that, at least. 😄
The Re-Farmer
Update: oh!!! I just realized why it didn’t save to draft! My phone published it on its own!
I found myself waking up way too early this morning. That’s what I get for going to bed before midnight!
It has been warming up all night, and is supposed to stay above freezing for most of the day.
I think the yard cats are liking it. Only 25 came around for breakfast! They don’t get as hungry when it’s warmer.
The fog is still here and expected to stay for a while longer. The resulting frost on the trees is quite gorgeous – and I’m happy yo not have to drive in it!
I did get some good news of a sort, this morning. Our oldest cat didn’t show up for breakfast this morning. When my husband came out, I told him about her being missing, and that was why we’d come knocking at his door after we couldn’t find her during the ear cleaning session. I feared we were now looking for a body. He told me that she did turn to be in his room! He thought all the cats were out before closing his door. She may have been under his hospital bed, far enough that we couldn’t see her. Or maybe under the table that holds his little medication fridge.
While I’m glad she was around after I’d gone to bed, the fact that she isn’t coming around for food concerns me. For now, I hope she is in her usual spot, cuddling my daughter in bed!
The Re-Farmer
(This post will be published late: it seems we lost power, while I was writing it!)
Freezing fog rolled in last night, making for a gorgeous morning!
It didn’t go away.
My daughter and I headed into the city pretty much as soon as I was done the morning rounds. The roads were good and the visibility was okay, so long as no one tried to pass anyone. We made a quick stop at a gas station in my mother’s town to pick up drinks, and I sent an update to a road conditions group I’m on. When a was able to check it later on, people driving a highway almost parallel to the one we were on described several times when there were people trying to pass others in the fog and almost causing accidents! That highway is notorious for dangerous drivers.
Once in the city, our first stop was the computer place to drop off my tower. I told them, no hurry, for budgetary reasons. We talked a bit and I got an idea on what things might cost, depending on what he finds. The prices were quite reasonable, though if it’s a worst case scenario, replacing the valves on the truck tires will have to wait a month. In talking budget, I mentioned the various expenses that crop up, especially this time of year, and he totally understood. Turns out his engine blew on his own vehicle, recently! He’s got a loaner that needs to be returned today.
When I mentioned the valves on our tires, he immediately asked if the rims were aluminum. Why, yes. Yes, they are! He suggested getting steel ones, as soon as we can afford it. Which is funny, because the mechanic that checked my tires was saying much the same thing! 😄
With the computer, I’d things turn out to be badly damaged, we might need a new hard drive. He told me the cost for a 1T drive, which was very reasonable. Except, it turns out we have a spare! A recent care package we received included a hard drive, in case we found it useful. When I messaged my husband about the computer and the worst case scenario, he checked, and it’s a 1T hard drive.
Thank you, M! We may not need it, but what a serendipitous gift!
Once that was taken of, we went across the street to the Costco. We topped up on gas, which was 123.9 cents/litter. Higher than last time, but still 10 cents lower than everywhere else. After tanking up, I dashed in to get more eggs and cream. The girls are planning to make eggnog.
After that, we finally went for breakfast, though it was noon by then. We then went to a Sobeys I wanted to check out, which had a liquor store attached. I got stuff for our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals, which will be all finger food this year. My daughter went to the liquor store and picked up what they would need for the eggnog, and for both Christmas and New Year imbibing.
Our last stop was supposed to be the Superstore, where I got the last of what we needed for our celebrating. We will need to pick up other stuff for our New Years fondue, but that will wait until after Christmas.
I was also looking for a gift for my mother. She always says, she has too much stuff, so I wanted to get her food gifts as treats. I had no luck, so I left my daughter to pack away the purchases (I even got $50 off with loyalty points!) while I walked over to a Walmart.
I took me so long to settle on something. What did you get for the person who hates everything?
I ended up getting a little gift set with tea, crackers and tiny jam jars, which is the sort of thing she eats when she takes her medications. I got a pretty cup for the tea. I also found a Hickory Farm set with beef sausage, cheese, crackers, and a little cleaver. Again, stuff much like what she likes to have. Just a bit fancier.
I got a gift bag for it all, with plans to drop it off at her place on the way home.
I was settling into the truck and about to call my mother to let her know I’d be dropping her gift off, but not staying, because of the fog, which was still just as dense, when I saw a message from my husband suggesting we bring home McDonald’s. The budget was getting slim by then (McRaunchies is not a cheap deal anymore!), plus burgers from the city would be cold and wet by the time we got home. I’m not sure why he didn’t suggest the new Dairy Queen that’s closer to home!
I called my mother, and my daughter started messaging her sister. Before I knew it, she’d sent me the funds to stop at the Greek restaurant in town.
Before all that was settled, though, we’d reached my mother’s place and I ran in to drop off her gift.
She had already forgotten I was coming.
When I gave her the bag, she asked what it was, and I told her it was her Christmas present. She promptly started telling my she didn’t need it, and we needed it more (even though she had no idea what “it” was).
Then she wanted me to sit and visit. I reminded her, I was just dropping the gift off, because its foggy out there, and it was going to get dark, soon. I made the mistake of mentioning my daughter was with me, to help look out for deer. She started going on about how she didn’t even come in to say hi…
I left, with her glaring daggers as me.
*sigh*
With supper arrangements made, we crossed to the next highway to go to town and order four meals to go. This place is so generous in their portion sizes, it’ll be enough to feed us for 2 days!
Unfortunately, by the time it was ready, it wS fully dark. Thankfully, the fog was not as dense, so I could use my brights at times. We only saw one deer along the way!
Though it felt far later, it was only past 5 when we got home and unloaded. My daughter parked the truck while I distracted the outside cats by feeding them, while my other daughter put the shopping away.
It was a couple of hours late, so we went straight to cleaning that cats’ ears with mineral oil. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find one cat. Grandma. Even when we started putting out wet cat food, she didn’t come out. I still haven’t seen her.
Unfortunately, with a senior cat, I can’t help but think she found a quiet place for her final nap. But where? My daughter even checked the basement. We can’t find her.
I’ll try looking in the basement myself, later on. I hope I’m wrong in my concern.
It’s been a while, and we’ve had our supper (the girls and I all ordered pickerel dinners, and I got a burger meal for my husband), but as I tap away, writing this post, I have eleven greasy cats on the bed behind me, most of whom are still grooming either their own ears, or the ears of a cat next to them! They all look so bedraggled. 😁
I really hope this treatment does the trick. Some of them still have such dirty ears, which means they still have active mites. At least some of them are noticeably better! Some were never bad at all. We’ve got at least 4 more days of this, though if we feel they still need more, we might switch to using aloe vera gel, which should also help with healing. We shall see.
Beyond that, I’m just glad we got this trip in and, hopefully, we won’t need to go anywhere until after Christmas!
On the way to the city, I took a side trip to the clinic to get some scheduled bloodwork done. It was awesome to go to the reception desk and find the plastic wall gone. I just had to comment on it, saying, I can hear!! One of the receptionists, who knows me by now, was absolutely giddy about it!
She found my requisition on file and printed it out for me, and didn’t have to push it through a slot. 😁 The staff is so happy.
Then I walked across to the lab and their reception. Where I had to pass things around a barrier, and stick my ear around it to hear and confirm I was fasting. One guy was wearing a mask, still.
I got sent straight to a room, though, and he very quickly took some blood, and I was on my way!
I’d made plans to meet my SIL to break my fast, so I messaged her to let her know I was done already. I even got to the restaurant before her, for a change! We had a fantastic time together. Gosh, I love her so much! My brother found himself an amazing woman to marry! I managed to treat her for the meal for a change, too. 😊
She had some things for me to take home with me, so we transferred those to the truck, which she finally got to see for the first time. She understood why I parked so much further out, rather than the closer spot she ended up parking in. The truck would barely have fit! 😄
My next stop was to try and find a recovery USB for my computer. There was a Best Buy not far off, so I went there, first. They hadn’t even heard of one before. She thought I meant a basic thumb drive. The saleswoman tried to look it up, but only found it on Amazon. They don’t carry them at all.
I’d noticed a Visions Electronics while driving over, so I tried them next. The guy I approached wasn’t sure what I meant at first, either, but understood when I explained what it was for. After confirming with other staff, he said they did not carry them, but told me about a computer place, just up the block. So I went there.
The first guy I spoke too immediately sent me to one of their tech guys. He asked various questions, and I showed him the pictures I’d taken. Including this one.
This is what I got after trying the F1 option on the previous screen. I later tried the F8 option that was next, which took me yo a more extensive menu. I wasn’t going to start fussing with it at the time, though, and went to bed, instead.
Turns out that was probably a good idea.
After asking me more questions, and what options there might be, he said it sounded like a hardware problem – then asked if there was data I wanted to save on there.
Yes. Lots!
He asked if I considered bringing it in. I told him, we weren’t at that point, yet, and I was there to determine exactly that!
He talked about different things we could try, but recommended bringing it in, since every time we tried something, if the hard drive were the issue, we’d be risking damage to it. Which is something I was already aware of and concerned about.
So that is what we will do. It’s just a matter of when. There’s no way of knowing how much it would cost until they look at it, but given how much a new tower would cost, it would be the cheaper option.
Unless it can’t be fixed at all. Something else I need to be prepared for.
This place happens to be across the street from the Costco we go to, which is handy. It’s also next to some other shops I’ve been interested in checking out. Convenient!
Until we can get that done, though, I’m stuck using my phone as my computer, and I don’t like it! 😄 I’m so spoiled by my big monitor, ergonomic keyboard and elbow room! That, and there are so many things I just can’t do on my phone.
Not having my desktop is getting frustrating in unusual ways.
But first, the cuteness!
In the parcel we received yesterday (thank you!!), a blanket was used as packing material, with instructions that it be used for the outside cats.
They love it!
Especially Sad Face, who now seems to prefer it over the self warming mat.
My usual task of switching out the trail cam memory cards, after feeding the outside cats, is pointless right now. I don’t have a computer to upload the files to.
The solar camera, however, is supposed to be wifi accessible. My husband looked up which app it needed, which I downloaded and started to set up. Then, I continued the set up at the camera.
Once the camera wifi was turned on and readied in the settings, I tried to link it to my phone.
As far as the app is concerned, the camera doesn’t exist.
Same with my wifi settings.
It’s much warmer today, with almost no wind, but it was still below freezing, so I wasn’t going to hang around. I might have to bring the camera indoors to figure it out.
The other frustration is a blogging one. Normally, in the days leading up to Christmas, I do things like embed daily Christmas carol videos. Then, in the days before New Years, I do some “10 most popular posts of the year, type stuff.
Things I am not going to do on my phone.
When writing these posts, I work in several tabs at the same time, with related posts I intend to link to, open in still more tabs. I also spend quite a bit of time, finding and selecting videos to embed.
Can’t do that on a phone. At least, not the way I prefer to do it.
I also have issues with tapping a screen. I end up with many more typos, autocorrect messes the strangest things up, and it’s just a lot more painful on the hands – though not as painful as using the little Bluetooth keyboard. Overall, it’s just not conductive to writing like I usually do.
Tomorrow, I go into the city. My husband suggested I stop somewhere to pick up a rescue USB. So I will try that before I start calling computer repair places.
Speaking of tomorrow.
My mother called. She’s not doing well. The exterminator is coming tomorrow, you see, and the letter she got has so much she needs to do…
She would have gotten that letter maybe a week ago. She never told me about it. I knew she got it because she told my brother, and he updated me, but we didn’t get a date from her.
I reminded her of how little she had to do, the last times the guy came to spray for bed bugs. He’s used to having to go into homes with people who have mobility issues.
Then I asked if my sister had her day off tomorrow, and could help her, because I’m going to be in the city, with a stop at the clinic along the way to do some regular bloodwork. She said yes about the day off, so I suggested she call my sister.
The thing is, the exterminator can come in anytime between 9am and 4pm. Because he’s doing other provincially run buildings in the area, too, there is no way to know when he will make it to her town. He has shown up right at 9am, and at just before 4pm. My mother should be staying out of her apartment for 12 hours, instead of the 6 hours recommended for people who don’t have respiratory issues. Which means one of us needs to get to my mom’s for 9am, then stay there until the guy arrives, then find somewhere for her to hang out for hours. She’d rented a motel room before, but she doesn’t want to do that anymore. I can’t blame her for that! Still, I’m not able to do it this time, so hopefully, my sister will be able to step up. Otherwise, my mother will basically be hanging out in the common room.
She wondered where the bed bugs came from. I told her, since she doesn’t get out much, it’s likely from within the building. She told me her apartment is going to be the only one sprayed. I told her, my thought is that others have them, but they just aren’t reporting it.
Which means the common room is most likely where they are being spread.
Another frustration! If that’s true, then her apartment being sprayed won’t do much, since she will just get infested again. Ideally, the entire building would be done, including the common areas. It’s not a big place, so it is pretty feasible.
Standard practice is, he will leave traps to check, and spray again in a month. I think my mother would rather live with the bed bugs. It was already a fight for my brother to keep her from canceling tomorrow’s appointment.
Our winter has been so very mild so far (yes, I know: on the calendar, it’s not officially winter, yet), so it was a surprise to see this, this morning.
-18C, with a wind chill of -22C!!! That is far colder than the forecast for overnight temperatures, last night!
We are expected to warm up to about -7C today. By the weekend, we are even supposed to go above 0C again! Talk about temperature whiplash!
The outside cats seemed all right, thankfully. I think I counted 33. Twenty of them were in the sun room! The smallest kittens were all accounted for.
For the past while, I’ve been getting away with doing my rounds with just a light jacket. A zippered hoodie, really. Today, it was a morning to break out the down filled parka!
Normally, when writing about temperatures, I include the Fahrenheit as well, but it’s not this time. I’m on my phone instead of my desktop. Usually, I have a temperature converter up in another tab on my browser. Can’t really do that on a phone.
I had just settled at my computer to start writing this post, when I started hearing an unfortunate repetitive noise coming out of the tower. So I shut it down.
It didn’t shut down.
I tried again.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
So I did a hard shut down.
Once I’m done this, I want to open up the case and see what I can see.
Crud.
My husband’s computer is toast. Since he tried to increase the RAM, something went wrong. Now, it won’t even boot. He thinks it’s the video card. The cheapest he can find for his machine is $700. If not the video card, it’s the motherboard. Those are cheaper. Neither is affordable. He’s been using his old work laptop. His computer is the newest one in the household, since his previous one did not survive the move. Mine is much older, and has been struggling of late. For how I use it, I knew was already needing to upgrade.
Desktop computers are really expensive these days. Even if all you need is the tower, and already have all the peripherals. Especially for a computer that can handle the graphics and video intensive uses we need. I suppose a laptop would be cheaper, but I hate laptops for general use. I’d just be hooking it up to my ergonomic keyboard and 27″ monitor, anyhow.
I’m really hoping my tower just needs to have the dust cleaned out or something simple like that, but… *sigh*
Today is the third Sunday of Advent; the day of Joy.
For me, at this point in my life, Joy is having a quiet, boring life!
We don’t have any running around and errands to do, so it’s another day of domesticity. I am considering whether or not to run an errand today or tomorrow, as it looks like we don’t have quite enough kibble to wait until I do the city shopping on the 20th; my husband’s CPP Disability comes in early in December, so we’ll be doing the bulk of our stock up shopping for January before Christmas.
We are at -4C/25F right now and might warm up another degree. We’re getting light snow every now and then; just enough that it looks like fog in the distance when I check the live feed on the garage cam.
I’m happy for the milder temperatures, for the outside cats.
The older and larger ones are fine. It’s the youngest ones that would probably not have survived this long, if we had more typically average temperatures for this time of year.
I counted 35 this morning, I think. It could have been 34. As I was finishing my rounds, I spotted Sad Face by the old dog houses near the outhouse. This is the closest thing to evidence I’ve seen that those old dog houses are actually being used for shelter.
With the inside cats, we’re having a “fun” time. Though we had spent well over $600 on medication for ear mites to treat all 16 cats we had in the house at the time (not counting the kittens, yet), it seems it didn’t take. We had two types of medication. One type was drops squirted into the ear, but they didn’t have enough doses for that many cats on hand, so the last few doses were the (more expensive) type that is applied to the skin between the shoulder blades.
We’re pretty sure those were the ones that didn’t take.
So now they all have ear mites again, including the kittens. Plus a couple of the cats just have a really hard time cleaning their own ears. Poor Ginger. He’s got it the worst. Particularly in the ear he can’t clean at all, on the side he’s missing a leg. Somehow, Toni is managing it with just one front leg – for now. Then there’s our old grandma that moved out with us. She’s getting on in years, and we can see she’s starting to show her age. So she’s not doing as well with cleaning her own ears, either.
We certainly can’t afford to buy medications for all of them again. The clinic wouldn’t even be able to sell them to us without seeing at least one cat first, because it’s been more than 3 months since we’ve brought a cat in to that clinic. The kittens that got fixed recently would have been treated for ear mites while they were getting spayed/neutered if the vet saw any, but those would come back rather quickly if all the other cats have them.
I’ve been told that an alternative is to treat their ears with mineral oil, every day for 10 days, and that should kill off the ear mites.
Which means doing all the cats, every day, for 10 days.
I just had to make a list to count and, unless I forgot someone, we’ve got 21 cats in the house right now, including 8 kittens. This, after losing three kittens, Marlee escaping and disappearing, and adopting Nosencrantz out after her escape and unwillingness to come back indoors.
We’ve decided to give it a try. If nothing else, it’ll help clean their ears.
So my younger daughter and I have taken on the task. She holds the cats down while I use mineral oil and some paper towel to clean out their ears. It’s only been a few days, so far, and I can already tell the difference. Some cats actually looked really clean and clear from the start. Others… it’s rather horrible!
Some of the cats are good about it. We have a couple that fight us off quite a bit. Then there are the ones that complain loudly, because their ears are so bad, it’s uncomfortable. Ginger has started to connect the unpleasantness of being manhandled with some relief, afterwards, so he’s already becoming more co-operative.
All of the cats look hilariously bedraggled, with their oily ears and heads.
The mineral oil we have is pharmacy grade (we’re going to need to pick up more, before we’re done!), so it’s safe for them to groom it off. It’s sold as a laxative, though, so… we may have some explosive results after a while!
Between the cost of food, the lysine, vet treatment, etc., is getting ridiculous. Yes, we do have a rescue that’s helping us, but it’s basically just one person running the show. There is the huge rescue in our province that the Cat Lady left that will work with rural communities like ours, but there’s a reason she left them. It seems the bigger the organization gets, the less they become about the animals, and more about the money and the politics. 😥 That and it turns out, when the Cat Lady was still with them (and paying out of pocket for things they were supposed to cover), they had issues with us, and claimed we were just “breeding cats” – as in, on purpose, instead of doing the best we could to prevent just that. Heck, population control is one of the biggest reason we’ve got so many cats indoors! And why we sought help to adopt cats out, get them fixed, etc. Nothing like connecting with a rescue, only for them to get upset with us for having cats that need to be rescued… When they tried to adopt out a pair of kittens from us to someone in BC that turned out to be a hoarder, she left them, started her own rescue, and found local homes for them, instead.
With the Cat Lady in the middle of moving right now, plus it being a time of year with so many holidays, we can’t expect to accomplish much right now.
So what options do we have? I’m not prepared to call the municipality had have them send someone out with a gun.
One option has come to mind.
We could become a rescue, ourselves.
I’m not entirely sure how it works, but if we could start a non-profit rescue, we would have access to resources we don’t have, on our own, including funding and tax benefits, and maybe being able to support fosters, etc. that would help us find forever homes for the cats. Not all of them, of course, since we do need yard cats out here in the boonies, but they need to all be fixed!
Oh, my husband just came by and reminded me of another cat I forgot to count.
We have 22 cats inside.
Once things have settled down for the Cat Lady, I will talk to her about it and see if that is a reasonable option. Perhaps we could even become a branch of her own rescue or something like that.
Well, time to get my butt off the computer. It’s almost time to oil up some ears!
The Re-Farmer 