skunk

Frost damage, progress, good news, and what a cheeky bugger!

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It looks like we dropped to about -3C/27F last night. There was still frost on the ground when I headed out to do my morning rounds. I think the covered winter squash survived, but I didn’t want to uncover them to check, as it was still quite chilly at the time. Hopefully, they got a nice greenhouse effect during the day, as our high was only 9C/48F. We’re looking at a low of 2C/35F tonight, and they will need all the warmth trapped under the plastic that they can get!

There was obvious cold damage on other things as I checked in the morning, but it was when I did my evening rounds that the damage could really be seen. In the second picture of the slide show above, the Cosmos got hit quite hard. I don’t expect them to recover enough to continue blooming, and we certainly won’t have any seeds to collect.

The memorial asters, however, seemed to fair better. I suspect they were protected by the much taller Cosmos. Looking at the long range forecast, getting seeds from the asters might still happen.

I didn’t bother getting a picture, but the summer squash got hit the hardest.

I had picked the larger peppers (this mix is all smaller “snack size” peppers) before the frost hit, but once the leaves started to droop, I found one I missed. While the leaves obviously had cold damage, the pepper itself seemed okay.

In the herb bed, everything but the basil seemed to handle the frost just fine! I’m hoping that, if I mulch the bed deeply enough, the rest will survive the winter, as some of them are supposed to be perennials in warmer climates.

I had a few things I wanted to work on today but decided the sun room stuff was more of a priority. I had all sorts of buckets and bins to go thorough and sort.

The problem is, these were in a room full of cats, and no lids. Quite a lot of stuff had to be thrown out due to cat damage.

Other things were fine, but their containers had to be replaced. I found a few things I’d been looking for, including that last sheet repurposed as a cover for a garden bed! That’s now soaking in a bucket of water. I ended up setting a couple more bins with small plant pots and Red Solo cups to use for starting seeds or potting up, to soak overnight. One bin had some of the black garden netting on the bottom. Not only did it need to get a soaking, but I’m going to have to snag a daughter to help untangle it so it can be rolled up and stored properly.

Some of the stuff I was going through predated our moving here. I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them. They’re not garbage, but some of the things, I don’t even know what they’re for, exactly. I also found a whole bunch of keys of all kinds, with no real clue as to what they belong with! The odds and sots are now in clear plastic jars with lids, so we can see exactly what’s in there.

I was able to sort some of the stuff out for storage in the garage, rather than the sun room. Other items are garden related in some way and I’m hoping to still store them in the sun room. The old garden shed doesn’t really have any space. Once the bins are no longer being used to soak things, and get a chance to dry out, I can finish organizing them. It turns out I have a whole lot of ground staples, still in their packaging, that simply got buried in other stuff!

Yesterday, I’d taken a bunch of garden gloves that had needed soaking and washing, and hung them up on the line to dry. Today, I found a whole bunch more that got soaked and washed, and hung on the line. There was at least six pairs, and maybe some strays as well. 😄 I’d been wondering where all my gloves were disappearing!

In the end, I was out there for several hours. It took a bit longer partly because I got cat pictures and started messaging with people from the new rescue.

I now have good news!

One of them volunteered to foster these two.

Originally, she volunteered to take Smokey, but when I sent the above photo of Smokey with her brother, she decided not to separate them, and will take both. !!! I’m really happy with this, as Smokey is getting big enough and old enough that she could potentially go into heat. Not that I would expect that, this late in the year, but it’s possible.

They do know that Smokey isn’t socialized, but isn’t quite feral, either. Well, I have more good news about that.

She let me pet her today!

Several times!

Granted, I wasn’t able to pet her for long, but it’s better than I’ve been able to do before.

The current plan is to meet the foster in the nearer city’s Walmart parking lot to transfer them over on Sunday afternoon. So I am thinking to simply close the catio door while they are in there, earlier in the day. Then my daughters and I can more easily catch them to put them into carriers.

That gives us four days to try and get Smokey more used to human contact.

Once I had done as much as I was able to with the sun room stuff, it was time to do my evening rounds. I had a bit of a surprise when I got to the isolation shelter, which is right next to where I had been working all afternoon.

The stinky kitty sure moved in fast! He had been all curled up in the cat bed until he heard me coming closer and started getting nervous. I stayed well away until I was doing the evening cat feeding. There’s a food bowl next to the cat bed. When I got there, he was sprawled over the bed like you can see in the second picture, with his chin on the edge of the water bowl, like it was a pillow!

Cheeky bugger!

He’s going to be most upset when I move the isolation shelter under the canopy tent for painting – and when it’s set up by the house for the winter! Once that heat lamp is set up, there will be a lot of cats using the isolation shelter. 😄

So that’s progress for today. Tomorrow is supposed to be a fair bit warmer so, once I’ve got the soaking things set to dry, I should finally get that garlic in, then get to preparing more beds for winter sowing.

Thankfully, it looks like the weather will hold for a little while longer. Lots of work to get done in the next few weeks!

The Re-Farmer

Keeping warm!

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Well, I didn’t last outside very long at all. Too cold and too windy! The garlic planting will have to wait!

I did spot something odd in the isolation shelter, though…

We have ourselves a stinky kitty, keeping warm and cozy in the cat bed!

It’s a good thing there are so many cat beds in other sheltered places for the cats to use!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, funny skunk and good news!

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When I headed out to feed the outside cats last night, it was chilly enough that I actually plugged in one of the heat lamps and turned it on!

I had taken the new cat cave outside to wash out the cushion, leaving them outside to dry.

It rained last night.

I had to find other places to set them to dry, but between the cooler temperatures and the humidity, it’s taking a long time!

We have been slowly washing various outside cat beds and blankets as we’re able, but sometimes, they’re just not available.

With the cat cave – their usual favourite spot – unavailable last night, these kittens took up the beds inside the water bowl shelter, instead. I checked inside the cat house, which has three cat beds in it, and only saw one kitten in there. I actually thought it might have been another loss, but when I tried to poke around the carpet strips over the entry, it moved, so it was just napping. *phew*

Today we decided to do my husband’s birthday take out, and his choice was our favourite Chinese food place. He actually would have preferred pizza, but his lactose intolerance has been getting pretty bad. So this afternoon, after checking to make sure they were open today, my daughter and I headed into town.

Sir Robin and Eyelet followed me to the truck and would NOT leave! My daughter came back from opening the gate and tried to shoo them away, only for Eyelet to go under the truck, while I was in it, getting ready to back out! She stopped me and started looking for him, and found him grooming himself – directly behind a tire! Eyelet is deaf, which makes it more challenging. By the time I could safely back out, she had both of them, one under each arm!

We really, really need to find a home for Eyelet, if he’s going to survive!

Once in town, we first stopped at the restaurant to place our order (and pick up an up to date take out menu), letting them know we’d be at least half an hour before coming back to pick it up. Then we went to the grocery store to pick up some other celebratory things, including lactose free ice cream for my husband. My daughter are also lactose intolerant, but they are good with using the digestive enzymes for that.

That done, we got the food – we ordered enough to feed us for a couple of days, at least! – then headed home. Once home, my daughters took care of putting things away and getting everything ready while I popped outside to feed the yard cats early.

As I came out the Old Kitchen into the sun room, I disturbed a big skunk.

This skunk has been a regular since it was little, and it would always hide under the counter shelf, instead of running out the door.

It is no longer little.

It still thinks it can fit under the counter shelf.

After much scrambling and flattening of its butt, it finally squeezed itself under the shelf.

Almost.

What a silly stinky kitty!

That done, we settled in for our celebratory take out. We’ll be doing cake and ice cream later, though maybe after the girls and I have gone out to cover garden beds for the night.

We did get interrupted with a phone call, though.

A happy interruption.

It was the company that’s replacing our front door for us. He’d emailed me while I was in town and I hadn’t checked my email yet, so he called. It turns out the installers can come out here tomorrow morning, and he wanted to know if that worked for us.

We’ll make it work!!!!

So another task for today is to find a way of barricade the entry, so no cats will get out while there is no door at all!

Hopefully, there will be no issues with the stucco and they won’t find anything bizarre when they remove the old, cracked frame.

It will be so good to have a solid door there again! Bonus if they can put the storm door back on again, too.

It will be so good to have a winter with no frost on the bottom of the door. On a really cold year, the frost would be up to the bottom hinge on one side, too.

It’s also going to be a major financial hit. When we had to remove the old door because it wouldn’t close anymore, and I mentioned it to my mother, she had told me to let her know how much it would be, hinting that she would help pay for it. Because God has been so good to her and she had the money (she does, thanks to my brother taking care of her finances for her; God has blessed her with an amazing son!). When I did find out what it would cost, and we made the down payment, I did end up telling her how much we still needed to pay. Only because she was asking about related things. When she heard there was still another $2700. When she heard that, she scoffed and basically accused them of cheating or something, because there was no way it was that expensive. I told her, my brother had replaced a door on their house (on the property that they sold, almost a year ago now), it was the same type of door, he didn’t replace the frame, and he did the work himself, and it still cost them over $2000. I didn’t even bother mentioning that prices have gone up since then. She refused to believe me. So… unless my brother talks to her or something (he’s already paying for so many other things here, they’re in no position to pay for this, too), there won’t be any help from her end.

And we will still have almost $750 we’ll need to pay for our insurance claim repairs on the truck, at the end of September – and that’s after the autobody company went out of their way to reduce the cost to us as much as they could. We’ve got a $500 deductible, and the rest is the “betterment” cost to replace the box cover.

So many years, we managed to stay debt free, and then everything just went nuts in the past year. *sigh* It wouldn’t be so bad, if we didn’t have the truck payments. They got the cost down as much as they could, but it was still more than our budget could handle. Add in how expensive everything is getting, and it just keeps getting worse. I could literally go into town and get myself a job within the week (not that I would want to do that over the winter) but anything I made would just be deducted from my husband’s disability payments, and put his health insurance at risk.

Well, we’ll figure it out.

Adopting out a dozen or so cats, inside and out, would help! 😄

The Re-Farmer

First sighting!

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Just a quick post before I head out.

I have noticed the feral kittens are starting to go into the catio more often, and even going into the isolation shelter. Last night, I saw the little calico in the bottom of the isolation shelter, but it got really spooked by me and kept trying to run through the mesh walls, even though I stayed well away. The calico and torie are much shier.

The orange one, however, is getting really brave! So is the white and grey.

They were under the shrine, eating kibble, as I came closer with the kitten soup bowls. There was a third kitten – the calico, I think – that ran off and hid behind the tree. As I came over with the bowl, the Colby (the orange one) started coming right back! The white and grey followed, almost immediately, even as Sprout sat there, hissing at me. I might even have been able to reach out and touch Colby, except Hypotenose came over to eat the kitten soup, even though I’d already left other bowls all over the place, closer to the house. I tried to shoo him away, but that was too disturbing for the kittens, so I just left them be and put the last bowl in the isolation shelter. Eyelet was napping in there again. 💕

Coming back to the house, I heard some very distinctive crunching.

A stinky kitty was already there! This is one of two very little skunks I’ve been seeing. There’s a big one somewhere, too, but it doesn’t come out as often.

The big mama racoon and her two babies were in the sun room again last night. I used the critter cam to chase them out and saw there was a skunk, too. By the time I got to the door, the raccoons were out, but the little skunk squeezed itself under the counter shelf.

I went to see how far the raccoons when, and could hear growling and snarling. I found that one was peeking through the opening that the critters use to get under the storage house. There was another hidden in the lilac bush in the corner – and they were growling at each other! I used a garden hose to chase them off. I didn’t see the little ones, so I’m guessing they were already under the storage house.

As I continued my rounds, I made a point of checking the lean to on the garage, where we store our mowers, etc.

I heard a noise and finally spotted it. For the first time, I saw the kitten my brother said he’d seen, about a week ago.

It was difficult to get a picture, and these are the best I could do. I don’t understand why the mama hasn’t brought this kitten to the house, yet. She comes over to eat regularly, before coming back to hang out in the garage. There is no food or water around this area, so the kitten is getting only what the mama can bring it – and at this size, it’s probably not enough!

My brother gave us several traps, including two small ones. Perfect to catch a kitten! I’d like to set up a camera that’s got a live feed on it, then set up a trap.

Not right away, though.

Time to get ready to head out. It’s going to be a long day at my mother’s, today, I suspect.

Ah, well.

At least today is going to be cooler. We might even get a bit of rain. The smoke is really bad, though. There are so many fires up North this year. We could really use a LOT more rain!

The Re-Farmer

Moving Grublings – and a new tenant???

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I was in and out through the sun room a lot today (more on that in another post), which meant many opportunities to check on the kitties.

I ended up having to move the tiny one.

The girls had needed to pull the cat cage further from the wall to access kitties, and now Brussel likes to hang out in that space. The older kittens have no problem getting to her, but Caramel’s tiny baby can barely climb out of the cat bed she spends most of her time in. A few times going by, I saw her crying for mom – or at least some nip! – but Brussel kept behind the cat cage.

So I took the little grubling out. With the wet cat food we’ve been giving them, I’ve sacrificed a larger mixing spoon from the kitchen to be able to put it into the cat cage and not get attacked by Brussel. I ended up using it to hold the kitten to get it to the back of the cat cage, closer to Brussel. It worked well enough – she was able to get the rest of the way on her own!

The last I looked, two of the white and grey foundlings were snuggling in the cat bed. There is still no sign of the third one anywhere.

In the next picture, you can see the calico and her adopted sister snuggled together. The cats had knocked the self warming mat off the platform and I decided to leave it where it fell, and the kittens are making full use of it.

Oofus the Brave had been snuggled with them, too, but when he heard me moving about, he came over to say hello.

There were some issues with the new set up.

There was a skunk stuck in the corner, in the bottom of the shelf there. It couldn’t get out the usual way – behind the cat cage – because Brussel was there. It couldn’t get out in the only other direction, because it was blocked by the door of a cat carrier, and bundles of kittens.

There were two cat carriers stored there. I took one out completely, then move the other one aside, so the skunk could finally get out.

Except, it didn’t.

In fact, it seemed to be comfortably taking a nap in the corner!

The cats don’t seem bothered by it at all, in general.

I really hope it hasn’t decided to move in! We’ve already got one that keeps hiding under the counter shelf instead of leaving the sun room. It does eventually leave, but still…

The skunk wasn’t even there eating the cat kibble. There isn’t any, where it was sitting. It was just hanging out in the corner.

I want the sun room to be a safe place for the yard cats. Not the skunks!!

The Re-Farmer

They’re open!

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While doing my morning rounds, I found that Brussel had left her babies and gone outside. This gave me a chance to take a peak at them before she returned, and I gave her her wet cat food treat.

The babies are a lot more mobile now, and their eyes are now open!

You can see the calico’s eyes in the first image, and the black and white kitten can be seen blinking in the video at the end.

I went to my mother’s today and was gone long enough that it was time to feed them again when I got home. I started that before even going inside, and asked my daughter to bring a jug of warm water for them. I was coming back into the sun room when she warned me about the stinky kitty!

She says this little guy had been hiding under that shelf all day!

This is the little one I’m not sure what to make of. He seems… lost, somehow. He’s quite a bit smaller than the couple of others that I’ve been seeing. He and the cats don’t seem to mind each other. I’ve sort of given up trying to chase him out, since he just goes under that shelf instead of out the door. The others will leave the sun room when I go to chase them out, sometimes even just by telling them to leave through the intercom on the critter cam, but not this little guy.

That crunching noise they make when they eat the kibble is very distinctive!

Anyhow…

Today has turned out to be a lovely day. Which was appreciated since my mother had to actually go with me for some of her errands. I’d made a point of eating breakfast before I left, since I wasn’t planning to eat at her place with my current Lent restrictions. I have given up sugar, but my mother gives up meat on Fridays. She did ask me to pick up some wedges for her, forgetting that she got her Meals on Wheels today. They tend to have fish on Fridays in general; today, it was a tuna sandwich for the main protein portion. She had enjoyed most of her wedges before it got delivered, so she just ate the soup and saved the rest for later.

This time, I remembered to take her blood pressure, though I had to ask her where she’d put the machine. It should be left on the table, tucked away behind her telephone’s base, next to the lock box, but she decides it takes up too much space, and hides it. This time, it was in the linen closet.

As she was eating her wedges, I went into the lock box to get her lab requisition paperwork for this month. The printouts had ended up on the bottom of her lock box and I had to really did to get them out.

Which is why I found the pill.

One of her medications – a pill she takes once in the morning, and again, just before bed – was loose on the bottom of the box. I checked her bubble packs in there to see which medication it was. There is no way to know how long it’s been in there. Even before we got the lock box, the home care aids are supposed to empty the bubble pack capsule for the time of day into a tiny bowl with a lid I’d given my mother, specifically for this. When she first started getting med assists, there were a couple of times when a pill was almost lost, just on her table, and another was found on the floor when she was sleeping. That’s why I brought the tiny bowl. It’s a sauce bowl made to look like a miniature tagine, so it has a conical lid. I ended up putting the found pill into the bowl, along with a note for the next home care aid. The pill would need to be thrown out, but they need to know that this happened, even if we have no idea when. Their job is to make sure my mother takes her meds properly. For them to start losing pills and not even notice is a problem!

My mother had other things she needed help with today, and I was able to get some things done before we left for our first stop, the lab at the nearby hospital (that doesn’t really have any doctors!). I had my own requisition forms from my doctor, which I’d left in the truck, yesterday. Which was an oops. It turns out my blook work required fasting. I was able to get my EKG done, though.

From there, we went to her bank for some cash, then to the pharmacy to get her bubble packs. They were going to be delivered later in the day, but she wasn’t sure if there would be money owing on it or not. It turned out there was; the fiscal year for her pharmacare deductible has flipped. She had stayed in the truck, so when I came back to tell her house much it would be, she was surprised and said she’d never paid that much before. Which just means she doesn’t remember, since it would have been a year since she’s had to pay. I explained it a bit, as she thought that getting charged for her meds was some random thing. She would not have understood what a deductible is, but she did understand that she’d have charges every April.

Not that she’ll remember, next April! Hopefully, by then, she’ll be in the supportive living situation she wants to be in.

After that, my mother was ready to go home. Once I got her inside and settled in, I got a couple of loads of laundry started for her, then headed to the grocery store with her shopping list. It turned out to be timed perfectly. By the time I got back, her wash was ready to be loaded into the driers.

I had to make a few substitutions on her shopping list this time, and I always go through everything with her while I put things away. I even made sure to open the milk carton for her. Her local grocery store only carries the 2L cardboard cartons now, instead of the plastic jugs. They can be difficult to open at the best of times. The last time I opened one for her, I had to use a knife to separate the carboard! This time, it opened properly, but my mother still would have had a hard time with it.

While waiting for her laundry, I had time to do some more housekeeping stuff for her.

Which is when we talked about a gift bag that was set aside when I first arrived.

From our vandal.

It turns out he had come over this morning, not long before I got there. She had told him I was coming and he apparently completely lost it and started saying some really horrible things about me. My mother didn’t want to repeat what he said, but confirmed that it was “the usual”. She said she told him that his hate is why he’s so sick now. He won’t let her talk, though. If she tries to stand her ground and respond to what he says, he just leaves.

The bag turned out to have a small head of cabbage, a couple of onions, and a jar of soup wrapped in paper towel to insulate it.

My mother has told him repeatedly, not to bring her soup. She says the terrible things he says and does makes it taste bad.

There was also an envelope, with written instructions that what was inside was only for her to read.

Which, of course, is the last thing she should actually do.

I ended up opening the envelop for her, then handed it to her to do as she wanted. There were some copies of a photo of our vandal in there, clearly taken while he was at the hospital, though not in a hospital bed. Then she started trying to read the letter, out loud.

After a while of her struggling to read it, I offered to read it to her.

Once I saw it, I could see why she was struggling! It wasn’t just because English is not her first language, or her eye sight. It wasn’t even because his writing was messy; in fact, it was somewhat more legible than usual. Just looking at the shakiness of the writing, he clearly is having a hard time controlling the mobility of his hands. No, it was the content and some of the very strange spellings of things. He had some terrible things to say about me, of course. According to him, I’m to blame for his cancer – and his doctor and counsellor agree, 100%. He also claimed I told my mother the soup from him is poison. ???!!!??? Plus a few other things that had us wondering where his mind is at, because they were complete inventions.

We talked about him for a while. Thankfully, my mother was able to handle the contents of the letter better than in the past, and she didn’t try to defend or make excuses for him.

Then I put everything back in the envelope, set it aside, and we moved on to other things.

All in all, even with the issue of our vandal, it turned out to be a really good visit. My mother was in good spirits, even if she was clearly really struggling to move around her apartment. The visit went well, the laundry and housework got done, and my mother is now well stocked with groceries and her medications.

Just before I left, my mother checked the time and realized that I was there for five hours! We got lots taken care of in that time.

It actually felt like I wasn’t gone that long, because it was still so bright out by the time I headed home. I am just loving these longer days!

It’s going to be extra nice once the snow is gone, and we can start getting work done in the garden!

Which I sort of started this morning.

Which I will share about in my next post!

The Re-Farmer

First sighting, and a bit of stuff done

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I headed outside this afternoon to check things out. Before I get to that, though, I just have to share!

We have a first sighting of Caramel’s babies! I thought they might be in the wood pile (which we thought was a junk pile, until we took the junk off the top), since I would sometimes see her disappear under it, but cats in general like to shelter under there.

As I was heading back to the house, I spotted a grey tabby by the opening under the tarp. When it saw me, it ducked under. For the briefest of moments, I saw an orange face peek out, then Caramel stuck her head out and stared at me. She seemed to be okay with my watching from where I was and came out. Her little grey one came out soon after, and then the orange one – which turned out to be orange and white – came out and stayed behind Caramel. I stayed long enough to see if any others would come out, but it looks like there are just the two of them.

As for things outside.

The water has been absorbed in some places, though everything is still very wet. I lifted the mosquito netting cover off the potatoes, since the elms are no longer dropping seeds, and over the chain link fence. I will leave it there for now, as the blowing of the netting should startle the deer away. Not that they’ll eat potato plants, but it might keep them from going into the yard and eating other things. I considered lifting the netting off the chocolate cherry tomatoes, too, but they don’t seem to be hampered by it at all, so I’m leaving it for now.

I took the cover off the bed with the German Butterball potatoes. They’re getting so big, they are starting to crowd against the netting. I set the cover on top of the old dog houses by the outhouse, for now. It’s pretty much the only place with enough for it, while also keeping it off the wet ground.

It looks like I will need to try planting the Seychelle beans again. Only a few have come up in one row, and none at all in the other. The seeds are a few years old and, between that and the weather we’ve been having, it’s no surprise if they don’t come up.

I did plant more of the Royal Burgundy bush beans. In fact, I had enough seeds to plant a row on either side of the original row, which has only one successfully sprouted bean plant coming up. I still have seeds left over, too. For some reason, I remember having only enough seeds to plant one short row, but these are the same brand’s seeds as before. I’ll have to check my seeds bin and see if I still have some left, after all. With only one bean successfully germinating (plus one more that broke ground and that’s about it), I figured planting two more rows on either side of the original row would hopefully ensure we have at least a few bush beans survive!

The water around the bed I was going to work on next has been mostly absorbed into the ground, and I considered working on it – but only for a moment. It’s 22C/72F out there, with a humidex of 28C/83F. I was not about to do that kind of work in full sun with this level of heat and humidity. I did do a bit of weeding, through. With the ground so wet, I could pull some of the weeds out, tap root and all. A bit of that was more than enough to convince me, turning new sod and shifting the remains of that bed over is just not something I should be doing right now! If I get out early enough tomorrow morning, though, I should be able to get it done and, if all goes well, transplant the last of the onions. Since I have so many, and this bed won’t have anything else in it, I should be able to get away with planting them a bit denser, too. It would be great if I could get all the onions, plus the last few shallots, in. It’s getting really late for onions. They really should have been planted in late May, as they prefer the cooler temperatures, but we shall see how they do.

Once that’s done, I can breathe a sigh of relief for a little while. Then I can look into seeing what I can do in the gaps where things that were direct sown didn’t come up, and replant where the spinach was sown. What little spinach came up and actually grew is now bolting in the heat! We never got anything to harvest, even out of those.

Maybe I’ll just plant more of the Uzbek carrots. I intended to plant a lot more carrots, but the beds are all full of winter squash and melons, which grow too big to interplant carrots under. I could have planted them under the tomatoes, but the onions needed to be transplanted – plus, the onions should help deter deer and other pests from the tomatoes.

Well, writing this just got interrupted quite a bit. A racoon was back in the sun room and had to be chased off repeatedly. We’re prepared to deal with it, once the opportunity arises. There is, however, a second one, and I haven’t seen both at the same time since last night.

For now, I’m going to enjoy watching kittens on the critter cam.

Oh!!! Did I just see a white kitten running by past a window??? It would be so great if the white babies came back, too! We were making such good progress in socializing those ones.

Ah, well. What will be, will be.

Oh… that’s a skunk I just saw walking by this time…

The Re-Farmer

How things went

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There were a few things that were planned for today. The trip to my mother’s was the biggest one, but I was also planning to get a quick, low raised bed for the Crespo squash done, as well as to finally get a family photo done.

Well, I got one of them completely done! 😄

But first, the cuteness!

This adorable little lady still won’t let us anywhere near her. She is from the latest litter of last year, and isn’t quite a year old yet. I really, really want to snag her before she goes into her first heat, but she just won’t allow it!

When I did the morning feeding, I didn’t even try to do a head count. They come and go too much, this time of year. I did check in the old garden shed to see how the kittens were doing, but they were not visible. I saw them through my bedroom window, last night, playing among the stuff pile at the back of the shed, over the rotted out hole the cats get in and out of. That was reassuring, as I’d feared Broccoli had finally moved them. This morning, though, I didn’t see or hear anything, plus there was still kibble left from yesterday, just inside the door. I didn’t see Broccoli at the kibble house, which is what usually happens when the mamas have moved their kittens further from the house and don’t necessarily hear the kibble hitting the trays.

I’m happy to say, though, that when I went around the back of the house this evening, to check on what I thought was where I was hearing a cat fight, I spotted the black and white one playing among the remains of a pallet, then Broccoli popped out to check on what I was doing. So the kittens are still in the garden shed.

After my morning rounds were done, the weather was good enough that I thought we could finally get the group photo done, out by the lilac hedge. As I was setting up the tripod, my husband and older daughter started coming around, when my daughter suggested we find somewhere else.

My husband was barefoot.

I had no idea my husband no longer had outside shoes! He has tried to buy himself some sandals online, a couple of times, now, but … well… let’s just say, my daughters now have new sandals. When I would take him to medical appointments, he would wear his grandpa slippers, which I thought was just a comfort thing. There was no way we were going to let him walk through the old garden area to the lilac hedge, in bare feet! Especially since he doesn’t feel pain in his feet anymore.

So we decided we will wait for the Dwarf Korean lilac by the house to start blooming, and do the photo there. Hopefully, he’ll have outdoor shoes by then, but if not, it’s only a few steps from the house and there’s nothing there he can injure himself on. These lilacs will bloom in a few weeks, so it’s not much of a delay.

I had thought I would have time to start some projects before I had to leave for my mother’s, but decided to head to her place early, rather than work on things that would get me dirty and sweaty. 😁 I figured I’d pick up lunch for us, too. I checked the grocery store, first, to see if they had those hot dinners she likes so much, but they didn’t. Instead, I put some gas in the truck, and picked up some fried chicken and wedges at the same time.

I gotta say, my messed up left elbow is annoying. When starting to put fuel in the truck, I couldn’t squeeze the lever on the nozzle! I had to switch hands to do it! Strange how an elbow injury can prevent certain motions in the hand from happening. It wasn’t even the pain. The hand just couldn’t squeeze while in that angle!

Ah, well.

I tried calling my mother before I left to let her know I was coming early, but there was no answer. When I got there, she was in the lobby, chatting with a neighbor, so seeing me then was a surprise for her. 😊

She didn’t even give me a hard time for what kind of food I brought, so she was definitely in a good mood.

We had our lunch first, which is when I noticed something on her table that needed to be dealt with. It was an appointment card for a local doctor that she made with my sister, but never told me the date for. She’s wanting to change doctors, even though any doctors out here tend to not stay long, and only come out a few days a week from the city, anyhow. But she doesn’t like her current doctor, and while her racism and sexism plays a part, the reality is, it’s hard for her to make the trip, and between the doctor’s strong accent and fast speech, and my mother’s own grasp of the English language, she has a really hard time understanding what the doctor is saying. The problem is, the appointment with this new local doctor was for Monday.

The day she’s getting her Home Care panel done.

When I commented on it, she asked if I could call and cancel it for her. Which I did, as soon as we finished eating. It was a very quick call, which really surprised my mother. I think she expect them to give me a hard time for cancelling or something, but it was no issue at all.

That done, we brought out her bubble packs and I started looking up her medications. It turns out the water pills she’s on are a round white pill – and she’s taking two different round white pills! They are taken at different times of the day, though, so they were in different bubbles in her pack. While I was at it, I went through each of her prescriptions and wrote down what they were for, and what they looked like, so she could keep track. She thought her water pills were the one that’s split in half and taken twice a day, but that one is a heart pill! It took a lot of repeating and explaining, with both of us writing things down, but I think she finally has it straight as to which pill she is to stop taking, and when. What finally seemed to help make it click for her is that she is now taking 2 pills in the morning instead of 3, but everything else is the same.

I wasn’t going to confuse things by pointing out it was actually 1 1/2 pills. 😁

She has one prescription that is for acid reflux that is in its own bubble, to be taken before she goes to bed. As we were talking, she mentioned that she takes it with her evening pills, because she didn’t want to be bothered with taking a pill again before bed.

She takes her evening pills at 5pm. She doesn’t go to bed until past 10pm.

Suddenly, the problems she was having that the Pepto helped with makes sense. The one medication that should have prevented that was being taken way too early in the day.

*sigh*

But we got it straightened out, and she says she’ll take that one pill before going to bed, again.

She absolutely will not change the times she takes her morning and evening pills, though. It’s 5am and 5pm and that’s it, even though the recommended time frames on the bubble packs would mean not having to get up at 5am every day, but at a far more reasonable hour!

Not something that’s worth giving her a hard time over, though. She just takes her pills, then goes back to bed for several more hours.

After that was done, we went over her shopping list, and then I went and did her shopping for her. I even remembered something we talked about, but wasn’t on her list – a small case of water bottles! It turns out, she remembered that after I left, so she was really happy when she saw me carry it in.

We then spent some time talking about her need to increase hydration, and how these 500ml bottles can help her keep track. I was able to show her that the amount of water she should be drinking was 4 of those bottles – which seemed to shock her. It’s only 2L. The average amount of water an adult female should be drinking (including about 20% fluid from food) is just under 3L. I don’t expect her to be able to start drinking that much right away, but it’s a visible and easy way for her to keep track.

On her list was some canned soup, for those days she doesn’t want to cook, but now also because she is keeping in mind that she should eat more soup for hydration. As we talked about it, she mentioned that she couldn’t open the cans. She had to get a neighbour to do it, for her! She says she needs a new can opener, but she is also having more trouble with her hands. The easy solution would be to get her an electric can opener, but I think that might actually be beyond her.

We’ll figure something out. The good thing is, she has neighbours that are willing and able to do it for her, until then!

Remembering that she was having trouble using the can opener, I remembered to open one of the water bottles for her, just in case, and jokingly nagged at her until she drank some.

She took the tiniest of sips, and that was it! I’m hoping it’s just because she’s not used to drinking from a water bottle, and not because that’s how much she usually drinks at a time!

Oh, I was also able to help her put some things away, that were still sitting in the middle of her living room, from the last time the exterminators were there. While I was doing that, I noticed the traps they’d left in various places, so I checked them. There were a very few insects caught in them, but no bed bugs. So that is encouraging!

While I was sorting through some things to put away for her, I pulled a jar out of one of the bags.

A jar with change in it, labelled “bingo”.

My mother seemed surprised to see it, but then started saying they don’t play bingo anymore, so maybe she should use the change.

I think this is the jar of change my mother claims the exterminator stole from her. When she talked about it, I had in mind that this was a larger jar, like a pickle jar or jam jar or something. Not a tiny jar like this one. Now that I think about it, a larger jar like I thought she was describing doesn’t make sense, as she said it was completely full, and she wouldn’t be able to pick up larger jar with the weight of change in it. Her hands are just too messed up with arthritis.

It didn’t stop her from checking inside the jar while I continued sorting, and making comments about how the exterminators just love going into her apartment, so they can go through her stuff, while she’s gone.

*sigh*

Ah, well.

After I finished at my mother’s, I headed home, then took the time to send an email to my siblings to update them on how it went, before heading outside. I’ll share more about that in a separate post. While I was working in the sun room, though, I spotted a visitor!

The little skunk had come by for some kibble!

It’s so cute.

It was then that I started hearing thunder, too, but I was able to do most of what I needed to, before heading inside to avoid the storm!

Which I will cover in my next post…

The Re-Farmer

More plans gone awry

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I should be used to this, by now.

With my computer dying before Christmas, we never did our traditional family photo that I email to family and friends every year. With the lilacs in full bloom, we were doing to do it now, posting under the lilac hedge.

The weather did not cooperate.

Then I got an early morning phone call from my mother’s doctor. My mother’s last lab work included a kidney test. The last time she had this done would have been around February, and the results were fine. This time, there was a significant decline. The doctor explained the test results and gave me instructions for my mother; she needs to stop taking her water pills, and work on hydration.

I’ve been trying to get her to increase her hydration for quite a while, now!

Then she needs to be tested again, in a month.

That call done, I knew it was too early to call my mother, so I sent an email update to my siblings, did a short version of my morning rounds and had breakfast.

I did make sure to leave food for Broccoli in the old garden shed. Her kittens were not in the cat bed, but I could hear her growling in the back somewhere, so I left the food and closed the door. As I was leaving, I saw her pop out where the hole in the back of the shed is. Later on, I saw her standing guard near the shed. So I’m guessing her kittens are still in there, but that she’s tucked them somewhere in the back, under a bunch of stuff that’s been in the shed since before we moved here.

After a couple of hours, I tried calling my mother – and she was still in bed! Ah, well. I told her about the call from her doctor, and explained the instructions for her. The problem is, she’s not sure which of her pills is the water pills. I have a photograph of her prescriptions in her bubble packs, but that’s somewhere in the external drive of data saved from my dead computer. I sort my pictures by date, and I have no idea when I would have take the picture. My brother has the list, but won’t be able to get to it until he gets home from work.

After talking to my mother, I called her doctor’s clinic and asked about her requisition. I wanted to know if they could send it to the lab in the hospital that’s just a few blocks from my mother (the clinic there has even more trouble keeping doctors than other towns we’ve tried). It turns out they can’t fax it to that lab. They’d be willing to, but it goes against the rules of the other lab. However, if I were in the area, I could swing by and get it printed out for my mother. Once she has a physical copy, she can go to any lab she wants. So I’ll see if I’ll be able to do that within the next few weeks. Otherwise, I’ll have to drive her to the town her doctor is in, and that’s very tiring for my mother.

I did make arrangements with my mother to help her with grocery shopping tomorrow, so I can go through her prescriptions and verify. She’s on the same water pills my husband is, but when he showed me his, they didn’t look like any of hers, so they must be from a different supplier. The pharmacy we go to is a different franchise.

Speaking of pharmacies…

I was getting ready to head outside, when I found out I was going to need to go to the pharmacy. I was planning to do a dump run when it opened in the evening, then a run into town anyhow, but that would have cut things close to the pharmacy’s closing time, so I left for town right away, instead. By then, the post office was closed over the lunch period and a couple of packages had come in early, so I went to a couple of other places after getting the medications, then did the grocery store last. Once of the things I wanted to do was pick up a new water jug, along with getting a refill. With one of the jugs springing a leak, we were down to three, and that was just not working out. I was rather shocked to discover getting a new 18.9L jug cost just over $26!!! The fill is free when you buy a new jug, but I did have to buy a new cap, since I had to take off the cap it came with, in order to fill it.

All the running around took several hours.

I must have over did myself yesterday, more than I thought, because by the time I got home, I was pretty much wasted. I still feel wasted, and it’s all I can do not to just go to bed right now. It’s not even 6pm yet.

It also rained again. We weren’t supposed to get rain today. Not much. Just smatters of rain, but there’s no chance of anything really drying out right now.

I did make myself go outside, though. I gave the outside cats a light afternoon feeding (the little skunk was back for food, too!). I wanted to at least check all the transplants. The plastic on the box cover around the eggplant and hot peppers was starting to tear loose on one side, so I stapled that back on. The twine I tied around it yesterday did help, but the winds have been just insane for the past while.

All the transplants look just fine, though. None of them look stressed at all in their new locations. I’ve no doubt their protective plastic rings has helped with that, considering the winds we’ve been having. I checked the mulberry, too, but they didn’t look all that healthy when I planted them, so all I can say is, they don’t look any worse!

The largest chokecherry tree, out by the main garden area, has started to bloom. It actually starts blooming later than the ones along the edge of the spruce grove that I haven’t removed. Those ones actually get more sunlight than the one by the garden. The double lilac in the old kitchen garden is starting to pass its peak blooming period, but the honeysuckle are just starting to open. The white lilacs are also well into their blooming period now, while more Cherokee roses, by the sun room door, are starting to open. The pink rose inside the old kitchen garden has buds, but even with the pruning we’ve done, it still doesn’t get as much sunlight because of the ornamental crab apple tree in the corner of the garden bed. Those have bloomed, but not as much as in the past few years, and all of the crab apple trees seem to already be done blooming. They did not stay in flower for very long at all!

All the common lilacs are blooming now and, as you can imagine, the yard smells amazing! At least for a few moments before the wind blows the scent away. The dwarf Korean lilac by the house is still just budding, and then there’s the one I can’t remember the name of, over the be vehicle gate into the yard. That one blooms last of all.

I wonder if it would bloom earlier if we got rid of that big elm tree by the people gate? It does seem to be struggling a bit more this year. That could be because it’s so close to the “moat” that’s formed around the garage, with all the rain we’ve had.

Checking on things and repairing the box cover over the eggplant was about as much as I could manage. Even my ears are burning, from being out in the wind, yesterday and today. That left elbow is still giving me grief. I forget about it, until I try to pick something up, and my arm just fails on me. At least I can still turn doorknobs. 🫤 I took more pain killers and they should have kicked in by now, but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Ah, well.

I just want to hang on a bit longer before going to bed. Hopefully, I’ll get an early start tomorrow – and well finally get that family photo that keeps getting delayed, along with everything else!

The Re-Farmer

Stinky kitty!

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I had another rough morning today. Along with pain and stiff joints, I had almost no balance, bouncing off the walls going to and from the bathroom, so I asked my daughters to feed the outside cats for me again.

Since Easter, when I was no longer on my Lenten fast from sugar and starchy foods, I have still not been eating a lot of either. I might include a potato with my breakfast, or some rice with my supper, and even had a couple of cookies my daughter recently bakes. That’s about it. I think, however, I am going to have to go back. I was mostly pain free during my fast, and certain other… bodily functions, shall we say… had improved. I even had days where I didn’t take any painkillers at all. Granted, some of the pain issues I’m having now may be related to how the temperature fluctuations affect my osteoarthritis, but that can only explain so much. Fatigue is another issue.

A lot of this stuff was so constant, I didn’t even really notice them until they came back after I ended my fast. So it looks like I’m going to need to cut out the sugar and starches, if I want to accomplish the things I need to get done this year. When I finally headed outside, it was because I made myself go. I sure as heck didn’t feel up to it. But, today is working out to be another gorgeous and sunny day, and I had things I wanted to check on.

The first thing I heard when I got outside was a very familiar crunching noise, so I checked the kibble house.

No wonder I was seeing cats cautiously circling around their shelters! Stinky Kitty was moved right in!

This little bugger did not want to leave, either. It’s still too cold to set up the hoses, so I tried to convince it to leave with a long stick. The little bugger just sniffed the end of the stick and kept on eating. He (she?) finally left after I went around the kibble house, banging on the roof and kicking at the back wall.

After that, I did the rest of my rounds. Once more of the snow is gone and the ground it less muddy, we’re going to have to take the wagon or wheel barrow around to pick up all the little branches and garbage that have been blown around. There are a few more garden beds that can be worked on, but I’m physically just not up to it. I kept seeing stuff that I want to get working on, some of which I can start now, but the old bod just can’t handle it today. Which is really, really frustrating. This is stuff that needs to get done, whether I feel like it or not. Especially since the weather forecasts – but just on one of my weather apps – is saying we might get 2-3 cm (about an inch) of snow starting tomorrow, and continuing over the next couple of days. Other apps say it’ll be rain. Either way, not good conditions for the outside work I want to do.

Which I will get into more in a video tour I made yesterday. Unfortunately, every time I try to save the file in a format I can upload, the video gets corrupted. I’m sure the problem is my computer, though, not the software. I’m going to try again today and, if it finally works, I’ll upload and post it.

Then, I’m going to take a nap before I plan to go into town to meet the egg lady for a couple more flats of farm fresh eggs!

The Re-Farmer