weather

Our 2025 Garden: first pea shoot! and fighting the wind

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Good grief, what a day!

It’s past 5:30pm as I start this, and we’re just now starting to cool down to what was or forecasted high of 28C/82F

Knowing today was supposed to be hot, I made a point of watering the winter sown chain link fence bed, where I’m happy to say, I spotted a first!

A very first pea shoot!

I have no idea what the other shoots are, yet.

As things got hotter in the afternoon, I headed out again, hooking up an extra hose to the front tap to water that bed again, as the winds are drying everything out. Inside the portable greenhouse, it was above 50C/122F. Since this is just a plastic covered frame, there is no way to vent the heat, other than to keep the door tied fully open. So I misted everything in there, several times, to try and cool things down. Even the chitting potatoes got misted, a little bit.

The wind was threatening to blow away the plastic covers in the East garden bed and on the high raised bed. The heavier plastic on the old kitchen garden bed cover was handling things much better, even though that cover is slightly elevated by bricks and whatnot, allowing some air flow underneath. I did open up one end and gave it a watering, too. Normally, I would have lifted the cover off completely to water that bed, but that was just not going to happen with this wind!

The covered raised bed in the East yard was getting hit the worst. I ended up tying some more sticks together to drape across the top, but they were still too light. This bed did get a watering, too, and I kept tucking the excess plastic under the frame itself, but the wind kept blowing it loose. I even tied it down around the entire base of where the mesh connects with the frame, but that just got blown loose, too. Eventually, I raided a pile of rocks I’d taken out of the sun choke bed and stacked against the garage, grabbing the larger ones, and using them to weigh down the edges more, rolling them up in the excess plastic where I was able.

The high raised bed was also being blown around like a balloon. Even the extra hoops on the outside of the plastic were getting pulled loose from the stakes they were set on. I used the 3′ extra piece of pipe at one end to give a bit more something to keep the plastic from ballooning in the wind. Between that and the stone and board I already had to secure it, it finally held.

This bed got a pair or sticks joined with twine draped over it, too. These sticks were heavier, but still not heavy enough. I had already used rocks rolled up in the excess plastic as weights, but they were not heavy enough, so I raided another rock pile for larger ones to weight the edges. One of the hoops on the outside kept getting blown loose and I finally had to find a longer piece of bamboo stake – going from about an 8″ piece to one almost 2 feet long – before I could finally secure one end enough that it couldn’t get blown loose again. Once that end was secure, the other end was no longer being pulled loose.

In between fighting with the wind, going back and forth between the two beds, I also set up several hoses from the back tap to the main garden area and got a daughter to open the valve in the basement. I managed to water inside the high raised bed cover first. I’ve got one of those long reach spray guns and the sprayer end can be adjusted up and down. I had it spraying upwards, into the plastic, to rain down, so I wouldn’t accidentally damage the sprouts under there with water pressure. The weight of the water also helped with securing the plastic cover a bit.

The garlic bed also got a thorough watering, including the end that has the same mix of seeds as the high raised bed. The bed winter sown with summer squash got a thorough watering, too. There are things sprouting in the squash bed, but definitely not any squash seedlings, yet!

The one bed I didn’t have to do anything with is the one with flower seeds winter sown into it. When my daughter and I covered that one with plastic last night and weighted down the edges with bricks, I ended up using the mulch set to one side and basically burying the edge of the plastic along that side. That was all it took to keep that bed’s cover from being blown around! I could also see condensation inside the plastic, so I knew it wasn’t going to need watering yet.

Tomorrow, we’re expecting heat again, so I’ll be doing more watering early in the day. I’m hoping the wind will die down by then. One of my weather apps says possible rain tomorrow might, but looking at more detail, it’s only a 1 or 2% chance of rain. So I’m going to keep watering.

Weather willing, I am hoping to get to the outer yard and transplant that Walnut sapling. The way things are going, I’m going to shoot to do just one planting out there a day, starting with the sapling that should have already been planted by now. The walnut seeds are less urgent for planting. Each is going to be a big job on its own. I’m rather dreading to see how many roots I will be hitting when I try to dig transplant holes!

I watched this video this morning, and I might be changing up a few things.

After watching the video, I checked and it seems our last average frost date has changed from June 2 to May 21-31. This is based on the town to the north of us, which is now the same as the town to the East of us. The town to the East of us had a last frost date of May 28, so it’s still in that range now.

This means that, once I get the beds ready, we should be able to get things into the ground about a week earlier than I expected to. Some of the direct sowing can be done now, if I had beds ready for them. I’ve got a couple of beds solarizing that will be easier to prep, and I want to get the potatoes in soon. We still need to finish building the trellis supports on one of the low raised beds, but the climbers I want to plant there can be planted before the trellis is ready.

We’re supposed to cool down to more reasonable temperatures in a few days, then get hot again. The overnight lows are still expected to drop to just above freezing a few times. We’ll see how it actually turns out, when the time comes!

For all the fighting with the covers in this wind, I’m glad we got them on.

On a related note, the water table is high enough that I had to set up a the blower fans in the old basement, where water is starting to seep through. The sump pump has even gone off a couple of times, which will be great for the bed in the old kitchen garden it is set up to drain at. My brother came over again today and checked on the ejector; the stand pipe still has ice in it, but with this heat, I’ll be testing it more often, to see if we can finally start getting through the venturi pipe. Even if it’s just a dribble, once fluid starts going through, it will thaw out faster at the bottom.

It’s hard to imagine, with how hot it is today, that the ground is actually still frozen further down!

The Re-Farmer

It’s brrrr out there, again

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April really sucks, when it comes to the weather!

The last two days were awesome. Today, we’re looking at 6C/43F. As I write this, coming up on 11am, we’re at 3C/37F – but the “feels like” is -6C/21F We are finally getting some of the predicted rain, at least. Later on, it’s supposed to be a mix of rain and snow. A system is pushing in from the south and affecting the southern prairies, with the potential for quite a bit of snow. Our climate bubble is in effect, still. Looking at the weather radar, I could even see the horseshoe shape in the weather system as is splits up and goes around our area. The lake effect is really something!

It hadn’t started raining yet, while I was doing my rounds.

I had lots of company this morning, too. Magda (scratching at the log in the background) follows me but still hasn’t forgiven me for closing her up in the isolation shelter, over and over. 😄 She isn’t coming close enough for me to pick her up and tuck her into my jacket anymore! She still accepts pets, though.

Speaking of pets, I managed to sneak some pets onto Brussel as she tried jumping back into the cat cage to join her babies, and her expected wet cat food and morning squeeze treat. Her babies are SO eager for attention, and climbing all over the place. I’m glad I lined the bottom of the cage with cardboard so long ago. They haven’t quite discovered the opening we’d cut into the bottom under the entry. We had done that when Toni was in recovery from her amputation, hoping her somewhat older babies would find her and nurse. Instead, Toni squeezed through! We had to bring her indoors for recovery. We were never sure which babies where hers, but the creche mothers – including Adam and Brussel – likely took them in with their own, just as Brussel has with Caramel’s first baby.

I had to go into town today to pick up a prescription refill for my husband; his “controlled substance” painkillers that he’s not allowed to refill until he’s almost out, so getting it delivered on Thursday was not an option. After getting his meds, I popped across the street to the Red Apple and went looking for smaller food and water dishes. The smallest one we have right now doesn’t quite fit into the back of the trap. It can only fit at and angle, which puts it over the trigger. They were inexpensive, so I got four of them. One will go into the cat cage, now that the littles are getting more mobile and interested in solid food. We don’t want to put much food in there, as that would encourage other cats, or even the skunks and racoons to get in there. The alternative it to close up the cage in between feedings, and I don’t want to do that to Brussel. She heads out more often, and for longer, now. I’ve even seen her on the trail came, crossing to the neighbouring property. In fact, I see a LOT of cats going back and forth in there. Which may explain some of the new faces we sometimes see. They would be from the next closest colony. Which is preferable to them being dumped cats!

We won’t live set the trap quite yet; the overnight temperatures are just too low, for the next few days, and we aren’t in a position to constantly monitor it. What we can do is move it closer to the house. I am also thinking to make a shelter over it to make it cozier and more cave-like, so that when we do activate the trap, any critter caught in there will be sheltered and warm until we can see who it is and either get them to a vet or release it. I don’t want to get any of the lactating mamas and, of course, we don’t want to get any skunks or racoons, and this trap is big enough for a racoon.

We do have two smaller traps as well, and these new food and water bowls might fit in them, too. They are more squirrel traps, though, and might be too small for an adult cat. We shall see. I haven’t taken too close of a look at them since my brother gave them to us.

Along with the food and water dishes, I also picked up some jingling toys for Brussel’s babies. They are getting so active, they need something to play with! When I got home, I put one of them into the cat bed in the cube next to where their cat cave is, and another right into the cave. Who knows. Maybe even Brussel will play with it!

As I was walking back to the house, I caught the attention of these cuties.

Magda and her doppelgangers, keeping cozy under the heat lamp! It actually gets too hot in there on the sunny days, so I’ve been unplugging the extension cord for both the heat lamp and the heated water bowl, then plugging it back in for the night. With today being so wet and chilly, they appreciate that heat lamp!

The wind and rain also means I won’t be able to work on the outside projects quite yet. If the forecast is at all accurate, tomorrow afternoon might work out. We’ll need to dig the longer extension cords out of winter storage, if it’s dry enough to use the electric chainsaw. Otherwise, there are some repair and maintenance jobs that can be worked on.

For now, though, I’ll take advantage of the unpleasant weather and start editing the recordings I made yesterday, into our April garden tour video. It won’t be a very long one, yet! 😄

The Re-Farmer

Rough night

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I tried to go to bed early last night.

The cats had other ideas.

So did my hips.

Ah, well.

This morning, I stayed in my pjs, popped on some rubber boots and did my short rounds. Which is just as well. It was snaining – snow-raining – at the time. You could even hear a continuous almost crackling noise as frozen rain hit. In fact, you can hear it in the video I took this morning.

It was -1C/30F, with a wind chill of -4C/25F at the time. The thermometer in the portable greenhouse was reading 1C/34F. Not a lot of difference.

The holes in the roof probably didn’t help.

Yup, I found a couple of tears in the plastic this morning. Best guess is, a cat tried to jump onto it from the kibble house roof.

Thankfully, there was no other damage. For now, I used clear duct tape to close them up from the inside. Once everything is warm and dry again, I’ll at more to the outside.

I had a lot of hungry cats this morning, including Brussel, but she was nursing her babies and wouldn’t leave the cat cave. She waited for me to deliver her wet cat food breakfast, instead. I’m glad of that, as it is more assurance that she and her kittens won’t simply disappear one morning, to some hidden location.

Last of all, I gave her a squeeze treat. It was harder than usual, as there were other cats around, and they can smell it. They want some, too, but we don’t have enough for all the cats. They’re just for the mama.

Once again, as I moved the tube away so I could squeeze the rest out, she got angry at me. She did wait, though, as I squeezed the last of it onto my finger and put my hand in. There was no hesitation as she licked the last of it off – but when I pulled my hand away, she attacked it, trying to pull it back!

Sorry, Mama. You ate it all up!

Once I was back inside, I headed to bed pretty much right away. This time, the cats let me sleep – as did the pain killers. Somewhat. I got at least a couple of hours of sleep out of it.

Meanwhile, my daughters got the drain from the washing machine set up out the storm door and started laundry day. Later on, I will be opening up the drain pipe in the basement and working to clear it out some more. We’ve done the hot water/detergent flush from the kitchen sink a few times, but I can still hear from the laundry drain, what sounds like water backing up the pipe a bit. Not a problem at all for the kitchen sink, but a potential problem for wash cycle draining, as it drains so much faster than the kitchen sink, and is at least 6 feet closer to that first bottleneck. As good as that drain auger tip is for clearing the pipe, what we really need is a heavy duty bottle brush type pipe cleaner that can really scrape off the inside of the pipe. I’ve been looking and the closest I can find is up to 30 feet long (you can add sections to it) and can be attached to a drill, but it’s designed to clean dryer vents, so the brush is a LOT larger than the inner diameter of the pipe I am trying to clean out. The bristles may be flexible enough to bend and fit, though. I’ve found another version that includes a narrower bottle brush end for the lint trap that looks like it would fit much better, but the rod is only a maximum of 2′ long, and costs almost a much as the 30′ version.

*sigh*

I hate having to shop for this stuff online. I’ve never even seen anything like these at the hardware stores. Perhaps, however, I was just not in the right sections. Something to keep an eye out for.

Meanwhile, we’ll try to clear the pipe out as best we can, with the tools we’ve got.

It’ll be so nice to not have to run a house out the storm door window to do laundry again.

The Re-Farmer

Weather whiplash, hits again!

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Yesterday, the first day of spring, was a gorgeous day!

We reached a high of 5-6C/41-43F, and it was awesome. While I was at my mothers, the truck cab warmed up so much in the sun, I almost turned the air conditioning on to cool it down. The thermometer in the sun room was reading 16C/61F and was feeling positively hot!

I took advantage of it to get some stuff done outside in preparation for today. The forecast high is supposed to be -11C/12F This is what it was like this morning, as I was getting ready to head outside for my morning rounds.

I actually waited until a bit later for things to warm up, too. The -17C/1F is bad enough, but that -27C/-17F windchill… Yikes!

One of the things I did yesterday was to finally replace the heat lamp in the isolation shelter. I had the 200w ceramic heat bulb in the new fixture, but decided to put the 250w incandescent heat bulb in, instead. Partially in anticipation of the temperatures dropping so much overnight, but also because I’ve found the light it gives off is handy. When I look out the kitchen window, it illuminates the area around it fairly well.

The kitties seem to like it.

This light fixture has the guard around the bulb, too, so less chance of a cat burning themselves on the bulb!

I had to do quite a bit inside the isolation shelter. The cat bed had been knocked down to the lower level, where the litter box had already been knocked about, spilling most of the litter all over. My guess is, racoons. Thankfully, we’re using stove pellets for litter, not clay, so it will be easier to clean up in the spring. We still have the box over the opening on the bottom to keep the wind and snow from getting into the lower level. That had to be moved to access things.

Once I have some, I need to put handles on that thing.

I replaced the litter box with a new one with fresh litter pellets. It does seem like the cats have actually started to use it as intended, though with it being knocked over, it’s hard to tell for sure. When we had cats isolated in there, they were using everything BUT the litter box!

The hammock has been a bit of an issue, in that two corners are always getting pushed off the hooks holding them. Sometimes, a third corner gets pushed off somehow, too, and how that one happens perplexes me. I ended up tying some paracord across the two hooks that get pushed off all the time. Hopefully, it will be enough to keep it from happening, as the cats use the ramp to go between levels.

The heat lamp hides it in the photo, but there is a spot in the insulation on the wall next to the sliding window that has a hole scratched into it. The cats really like to use that insulation to scratch at! Even more than the actual scratch pad I made out of rope on the ramp for them to use. I did expect this top happen, but not in that spot! 😄 When the snow is gone and things are dry, we’ll move the isolation shelter away from the house and give it a thorough cleaning. That would be a good time to replace any of the rigid insulation that is damaged. The insulation “ceiling” will simply be taken off until next winter, though one piece will need to be replaced. They really managed to chew it up! You can see some of the damage above Ink’s head.

It won’t be much longer before we can stop using the heat lamps entirely.

I’m so glad we got this thing built, and the cats are making full use of it!

On the down side, today is turning into a laundry day for all of us. Yes, we’re still running the hose out the door to drain the washing machine. We still haven’t been able to use the new pipe brush to try and clear out that drain. I keep waiting until we don’t need to use the kitchen sink for a while, so we don’t get splashed when opening the coupling access, but that just doesn’t seem to be happening! So every now and then, between cycles, I pop outside and make sure the hose is fully drains, so it doesn’t freeze closed again.

We have another problem, though.

The drier isn’t drying.

We thought it was because the vent outside was too clogged, but once it was clear, it didn’t make much difference. So I though the duct might have been clogged and we checked it before starting our first load in the drier. It’s completely clear. The lint trap’s space is clear, too.

We’ll see how it works today, but it’s starting to look like we need a new drier. We already had to replace the washing machine since moving here. I don’t know how old this drier is, but it definitely has a lot of years on it.

Yes, we do have a clothes line outside, which would be handy but, with how cold it is today, it would take forever for anything to dry, and we have a lot of bedding to wash today. It’s a long line, but not that long! Originally, it was set up with three clothes lines, but there’s only one, and I had to replace that one a few years back. I do want to set up two more lines again, but we need to buy all the hardware for it, first.

Technically, we also have clothes lines rigged up in the basements, but we’d have the same problem of it taking forever to dry, though I suppose we could set up a blower fan or two. The basements are dank and dusty, though, so we’d be hanging things outside before we used the basements!

*sigh*

Well, so far, we’ve replaced the washing machine, stove, range hood, and the hot water tank (three times). I expect we’ll be needing to replace the fridge in the not too distant future, too. That and the drier are the only original appliances left.

Well, that’s part of the deal we have for living here, in place of paying rent. We take care of the place, maintain it and improve it, as we are able. That includes replacing appliances, when the time comes.

Still, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. One of the troubleshooting solutions for what our drier is doing is to simply unplug it for 10-15 minutes. This could reset the heating elements. We unplugged it when we moved it out to check the vent. We’ll know if it worked once the first load that’s in there right now is done.

Here’s hoping!

The Re-Farmer

Enjoying the quiet

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It seems so very strange to be sitting here and realizing it’s almost 6pm right now, and we’ve got bright sunshine outside. I’ve gotten so used to the sun setting between 4:40 and 5pm, it feels almost wrong for the sun to still be up. Of course, we just had daylight saving time a few days, which would account for some of that, but I was getting this sense even before the switch.

Before I go on, though, we must have the cuteness!

Would you look at those adorable faces! Clarence and Cheddar.

You’d never know from the photo that Clarence is quite the troublemaker. 😁😄 One of his favourite things to do is run and jump onto my office chair before I can reach it to sit down. He will then roll onto his back and look at me, like he’s all innocent. 😄

Anyhow…

Today has been a pretty quiet day, though I made a discovery this morning, while I was outside feeding the cats this morning.

For some time now, I’ve been finding frozen throw up on the ground here and there, with roundworms in it. Surprisingly large and distinctive looking things! On learning that Button needed to be treated for worms 3 times before he was clear of them – and then he suddenly grew to the size he should have been for his age – I just sort of figured it was from one of the tiny cats. There are three small ones, plus one more that’s a bit bigger, but not by much. My bets were on The Grink, a black and white, but the other three white and greys were candidates, too.

While going to the isolation shelter with kibble, I just happened to be in time to see a cat that had finished throwing up, and yes, the throw up had worms in it. The cat, however, was not any of the ones I thought it would be! It was a tabby that’s about the same age as my suspects. It’s the one that was all sick and stuffy, and allowed us to treat him, last fall. He is now somewhat socialized. He’s quite a bit larger than the suspects, which is why I hadn’t considered it might be him.

In a way, I’m glad it’s this one, since he is socialized enough that the chances of treating him are much higher. The Cat Lady was going to try and get some medication for us, but 1) we weren’t sure which cat needed to be treated and 2) if it turned out to be one of the more feral ones, we wouldn’t be able to use it anyhow. Of course, it’s also possible more than one cat has been leaving evidence of roundworms frozen in the snow, so that may still be true.

We had a Colorado Low making its way up today which, for our area, meant we did get a pretty good snowfall shortly after I’d gone back inside, but nothing major. The south part of the province got a lot more than we did. My husband’s bubble packs were delivered late this morning, and it had been snowing a while by then. The current pharmacy delivery driver is also a school bus driver; I see him go back and forth past our place, every weekday, on the trail cam files. He starts his deliveries after he’s parked his bus in the morning, and told me about the different areas he’d already been to, and still had to go to. By the time his deliveries were done, he would be going straight back to the bus for more driving! Deliveries are only one day a week, but it does make for a long day of driving for him! Thankfully, the road conditions were still pretty good, and the snow stopped not long after.

I did end up going out later this afternoon. Several packages had arrived earlier than tracking said they would, including a large one for my husband, so I got a daughter to come along and help load it into the truck. It was not at all heavy, but awkward – and fragile! My husband was able to get himself a larger monitor for his computer. It’s a gaming monitor, with a curved screen, but he got it mostly for reading electronic books. With his disability, he spends a lot of time on his computer, and he was having a very hard time being able to see on his old monitor. This one is much, much easier on his eyes. The other monitor is still good, though. My daughters both have dual monitors for their desktops; an essential for my older daughter as she works on commissions. One of her monitors is quite old and starting to die, so she will have a much newer monitor to replace it.

Speaking of which, my older daughter has a birthday this month. She has chosen Pizza Hut take out for her birthday dinner. It’s a bit early, but we will probably be doing that tomorrow. While I’ve given up sugar and simple carbs for Lent, exceptions are made for special occasions – like birthdays!

As I write this, we are at -4C/25F and haven’t reached our high of the day yet – and it will not get any colder through the night. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of 2C/36F, then it’s supposed to drop below freezing again. So tomorrow will be a good day for the drive to pick up birthday pizza! We’re trying a different location this time, and will be going to the town our new doctor is in. In fact, the Pizza Hut is right near the clinic – and a grocery store. So I’ll be taking advantage of that to pick up a few things, including a birthday cake. Or a cream pie. Or cheesecake. My younger daughter will be with me, so she will help me choose. 😊

All in all, I’ve been quite enjoying another nice, quiet day! I admit, though, I’ve been procrastinating terribly. I want to set up an area in the basement to start seeds, but I just haven’t been able to get to it. There isn’t a lot my daughters can do to help me, since I haven’t quite decided how I’ll be setting up – I need to consider that, if we have a wet spring, water is going to seep through the concrete even in the new part of the basement, which has weeping tile, which isn’t doing its job anymore. That means setting up pedestal fans, box fans and blower fans all over, again.

The main issue, though, is the stairs. Stairs and my knees are not a good combination. Especially if I’m going to be carrying anything.

Ah, well. I’ll figure it out.

I just need to get my butt in gear about it!

The Re-Farmer

Getting chilly again

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As much as I appreciate that we are slowly warming up and getting some really nice days, the weather whiplash of spring seems almost like an insult. 😄

With things warm enough to be melting all over, today’s high of -7C/19F (which we are already at) with a wind chill of -21C/-6F feels so much colder. A few weeks ago, these temperatures felt like spring!

While doing my morning rounds today, little Magda decided to follow me around. She kept getting under my feet, so I picked her up. She doesn’t like to be carried and ended up on my shoulders – which she didn’t like, either! – but she was cold and shivering, and actually allowed me to tuck her into my jacket.

For a little while, at least.

There’s a weather system blowing from West to East, almost straight across the country, bringing snow and high winds. The snow is supposed to start hitting us withing the next half hour or so, and continue for several hours. Tonight’s low is supposed to drop to -22C/-8F, which means the winds will probably make it feel colder than -30C/-22F

This see-sawing of temperatures means our usual explosion of pot holes on the roads over the next few weeks! While we’re just getting a bit of snow today, it’s not unusual to have at least one big blizzard in March or April.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of -7C/19F again, with a warmer overnight low. I’ll be helping my mother with grocery shopping tomorrow, then do some of our own errands as well. After that, we’ll be getting a few days above freezing, then dropping down again, for more weather whiplash!

Winter and spring will be battling out for a few more weeks, yet!

The Re-Farmer

Feeling so good!

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Yesterday, I found myself falling asleep at my desk by 6pm. Eventually, I succumbed and simply went to bed shortly after 7.

I slept for more than 10 hours!

Okay, not a solid 10 hours. I do tend to toss and turn, there are cat interruptions and bathroom breaks, but overall, I did manage to get a very long, solid night of sleep out of it!

It could very well have been a relief response, now that we’ve got the septic running again and we can use our plumbing again!

When I headed out this morning, to do my morning rounds, it was about 3C/37F, and actually what will be the warmest part of the day. Apparently, we hit 5C/41F at some point of the night! We are now slowly cooling down slightly until tomorrow, when we are supposed to reach a high of 2C/36F.

With temperatures like this, I took the time to soak the kibble and lysine mix for the outside cats with hot water, as a treat. From what I could see when I got out, they have been spending more time outside than in the sun room. Much of the kibble I left in the sun room last night was still there this morning, but kibble trays outside are looking much emptier.

The cats were everywhere, and I even had several while I was doing my rounds.

It felt good to be doing my full rounds, too!

I even had Stinky (top), Syndol (middle) and Magda (bottom) follow me to the sign cam. I had to carry Magda around, as much as she would let me, so I wouldn’t step on her as she ran around my feet.

When I checked the gate cam files later on, there were quite a lot more files than I expected. It turned out, our gate was very busy during the night, with groups of cats going back and forth!

Those reflective collars work very well. Even with the long haired cats, I could see them glowing in the infrared light.

These milder temperatures feel sooooo good after the last couple of polar vortexes! Things are melting all over the place. From the road reports I’ve seen, the highways are wet, but not icy, and we should stay that way for a while. Which is good because, starting tomorrow, we’re going to be doing a LOT of driving!

In other things, I’m happy to say everything is still working at it should, with the septic pump. My daughter had left one of the blower vans running after she washed and disinfected the floor around the pump. It’s all dry now, so I shut that off. We’d changed out the filter basket while working on the pump yesterday and, after giving it a general scrub down, I left it to soak in a bucket with detergent in it overnight. I took the time to finish scrubbing it clean, as well as washing the rag I use to wipe down the hose when I do drain maintenance that was also soaking overnight. All the water I was using was just enough to trigger the septic pump while I was down there, so I got to see how well it was working.

I am so glad for that filter. If we were not able to actually see the water flow, we would have no idea if there was an issue of the water no longer flowing. All we would know is that the pump was running and not stopping, and we’d have to go outside and open up the septic tank to see if the grey water side was drained or not. Or go to the ejector out by the barn to see if anything was flowing there. Can you imagine having to do that over and over, while working on the pump and testing it out? That would be ridiculous in the summer, never mind in the winter! Considering how many problems we’ve had with the septic system since moving here, that one simple thing has been a life saver!

As it is, I could sit there and watch how the water was flowing through the filter, and everything looked just fine. Since it is just pumping out into the yard, via the emergency diverter, and not 300′ feet away towards the barn, it also finished pumping really fast!

We still aren’t running the washing machine drain into the plumbing yet, though. I want to give the pipe a few more cleanouts, until we can no longer hear it backing up when we drain the kitchen sink. With how much warmer it’s going to be today, we’ll run the hose out the front door window again and do a whole lot of laundry!

I never imagined I would be so excited over being able to do laundry. Or flush a toilet. Or wash dishes. And I grew up without running water or an indoor bathroom for part of my childhood!

Ah, the things we learn to appreciate! 😄

The Re-Farmer

Glad to be home today!

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First, I need to share this bit of cuteness. Behold, the grandmas!

Even Butterscotch is in the picture!

Just before I was able to take this picture, I watched as Freya slithered her way into the cat bed, on top of Beep Beep. They spend a lot of time, snuggled together in there!

Butterscotch being where she is on my bed is a big deal. She has expanded her range by about three feet to be there. Butterscotch, one of the originals, still refuses to leave my office/bedroom/craft room. In the mornings, I have to chase most of the cats out and close the door so she has a chance to use the litter. There have been times I’ve seen her go for it (she will only use the one under my computer table), and stopped what I was doing to stand guard. Out of nowhere, one of several cats will teleport from somewhere and start stalking, if not outright attacking, her when she tries to use the litter. Most of the time, though, she will stuff herself into the shelf above my pillow to snarl and growl at other cats, even if they’re just walking by some distance away and completely ignoring her.

Beep Beep, on the other hand, has no issues getting along with the other cats (except Butterscotch; they don’t like each other). She has become downright kittenish in her behaviour since moving indoors. You’d never know that she (and Butterscotch) is more than 10 years old. Probably closer to 15, but we just don’t know their exact ages.

Freya, on the other hand, showed up on our balcony in the city in 2010, and we estimate she was barely a year old at the time. She is really showing her age these days. We make sure there is softened kibble for her in a tray in my room. It’s easier for her to eat out of a shallow tray than a deeper bowl. Usually, the kibble is softened with plain water. When we do their afternoon cat soup, I make it extra thin and use it to soften the kibble for her, too. She spends most of her time in my room, these days, snuggled up and sleeping. At night, she will sometimes come over to cuddle with me, too. Every day that she is still with us is appreciated.

As I was outside this morning, doing the morning rounds after giving the outside cats their food and warm water, I was really thankful I don’t need to go anywhere today! There was almost no wind, but it was cold enough to be quite painful. The gate cam is having issues. It is fully exposed so, while it does get plenty of sun to both warm it up and power the solar charged batteries, it’s too cold for the batteries. While changing the memory card yesterday, the display would shut itself off almost immediately. Today, it stayed up long enough for me to read “low battery”. The solar batteries will charge up during the day, but the back up regular batteries were too frozen to take over powering the camera. I haven’t checked the files yet to see how much it manage to capture during the day. The sign game is more shade, as it’s under a tree, but it has enough to shelter it that the camera’s batteries didn’t completely freeze.

As I write this, we’re coming up on noon and have warmed up to -26C/-15F We don’t have a wind chill right now, but the region is under a several cold warning. Tonight’s low is expected to drop to -30C/-22F, but the wind chills are expected to drop it to -40C/F

Looking at the long range forecast, it seems we’ve got about another week of these temperatures before things start warming up a bit. By the end of February, we’re even supposed to get highs above freezing. I don’t hold much stock to that, though. It wasn’t all that long ago when the long range forecasts were saying we’d be warming up and even going above freezing right now.

My husband popped by earlier asking if I could go to the post office to pick up a parcel.

I told him we were at -27C/-17F.

He said, tomorrow, then. 😂

The down side is, I have to take the truck in to the garage tomorrow morning. I have a 9:30am drop off time. At the time I will need to start heading out, we are expected to still be at -29C/-20F Thankfully, the truck is in a garage and plugged in, but it’s still going to be wicked cold. There is no heat in the garage. I’m told there used to be a kerosene heater in there, for when my late brother was working on my parents’ vehicles, but that’s among the things that disappeared in the two years it was empty before we moved in.

Tomorrow we are finally getting that slow leak in the tire fixed. Hopefully, that will also get rid of the “service tire monitoring system” warning I get, every time I start the truck. Next month, we will take it in for the engine flush, sensor replacement and oil change, which should get rid of the check engine light and get our oil pressure gauge working again. I really wish we had to budget to do that first! As it is, I’ve just messaged to ask if they could replace one of our windshield wipers as well. I could do it myself, but wouldn’t be able to get a new blade for a while, and sure as heck don’t want to be figuring out how to replace it while standing on a stool to be able to see and reach, in the bitter cold!

Then, on Thursday, my daughter and I are taking Fluffy to the vet for a follow up appointment, though at least that appointment is for later in the day. This will be Fluffy’s last day in the isolation shelter, and we will be able to open it up to the other cats again. My daughter is coming with me so she can stay in the truck with the carrier while I go into the Walmart to take care of the overcharge from a couple weeks ago, and pick up a few things.

The daytime highs over the next while won’t be too bad, but the overnight lows are expected to be brutal, and last through most of the mornings.

For now, I’m going to enjoy staying at home. I’m not looking forward to more driving over the next couple of days! I’m really hoping things warm up faster. I have to take my mother to the eye clinic in the city on the 19th. It’s going to be hard enough on her without having to also deal with the cold!

I keep wanting to basically hibernate over January and February, and avoid going out as much as possible. Somehow, it just never seems to work out, but this year has got to be the worst for appointments and errands in a February since we have been living here! I’m just thankful we have the truck and that it handles the cold as well as it does. Our first couple of winters, we got hit with far worse temperatures and our van and my mother’s car froze.

I know it could be worse, but gosh, I’m getting really tired of winter.

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day

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Well, things are looking good for our area, weather wise. The snow system seems to mostly be skirting around us. We’ve had some snow, and are expected to get more later today, but nothing like other areas are getting. As I write this, we are at -14C/7F, instead of the high of -18C/1F that had been forecast, the last time I checked the weather, yesterday. The wind chill is -23C/-9F, but it’s coming from a direction we are mostly sheltered from.

After the running around I did yesterday, though, I’m happy to have a day to stay home. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading out again for a meeting with the doctor about my mother.

I do have a bit of cuteness to share with you today!

This is Tin Whistle (named for her distinctive meowing habit). A few weeks ago, she suddenly decided to attach herself to my husband.

Often, literally.

She is all over him. He can’t do anything, without her trying to be on him in some way. I’ve tried to rescue him by taking her away, so he could at least go to the bathroom, but she is soon back in his arms. More than a few times, I’d go past his doorway and find him stuck with her in one or both arms, watching videos on his computer, because he can’t do anything else. He used to try and get her to leave, but has pretty much given up.

Instead, he started putting her into his vest, and they’ve come to a truce! She will curl up in his vest and sleep for hours, and his arms are free to use.

Tin Whistle is one of Decimus’ babies from a couple years ago. We discovered her newborn litter, just hours, at most, from birth, in the shelf shelter. We’d never been able to socialize Decimus, but when we put her kittens into a carrier, she went in with them, and we brought them inside. There, we were finally able to de-matt her (her entire back was one big matt of fur) and socialize her. Along with her four kittens – Tin Whistle, Clarence, Shadow in the Dark and Mitsy – she was willing to become a wetnurse for Ghosty and The Wolfman.

The Cat Lady was able to adopt Decimus out when the babies were weaned, along with one of the outside cats, to be mousers on a farm. They were so friendly, however, they both ended up as indoor cats permanently!

Sadly, we were never able to adopt out the kittens.

With how Tin Whistle has bonded to my husband, I’m not sure we even could adopt her out anymore!

The Re-Farmer

Snow day

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I’m so glad I don’t need to go anywhere.

As I write this, we’re at -9C/16F, but the wind chill is at -25C/-13F

Around the house, we are sheltered from the wind direction for a change, so we’re not getting quite that wind chill effect in our immediate area. Which I am happy for, since we have to keep the isolation shelter closed, and there was only two cats in it.

These two.

The (Fluffy) Lady, and The Grink.

I’d given them their wet cat food this morning, and Fluffy stayed well away from me. Even when I was about go go inside the house, saw her sharing the food bowl with The Grink and paused to get my phone out to take a picture, she saw me stop and moved away.

Clearly, she has not forgiven us for her trip to the vet! There’s no way I can check her incision, but at least we can tell how she’s feeling by her behaviour, at least somewhat.

The Grink, meanwhile, seems quite happy to stay right where he is! We see them cuddling together in the cat bed pretty regularly now.

I also managed to get a picture of this dude.

At least I think he’s a dude. My daughters tell me he is, but I haven’t been able to see, myself, with all that long fur. He does not allow us near him. I had to zoom in to get this photo. He looks so much like Fluffy! She doesn’t have any white fur, other than inside her ears, so we can at least use that to tell them apart. This fluffer is one of this past summer’s kittens, so there’s almost a year between them. Fluffy is pretty small for her age, though, so there isn’t a lot of size difference between them.

The snow in our area started last night. It started coming down pretty hard at one point, but mostly it was light and constant, so there’s a few inches accumulated already. We’ve got a break in the snow right now, but it’s supposed to start up again tonight and keep snowing until about noon, with only a couple of hours break at about 7am. From what I’m hearing and seeing on the highway conditions group, the roads were getting pretty snow covered. The road between us and town was pretty bad, which is typical when the winds are blowing this way. The east-west roads are almost always the worst.

Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have to break out Spewie and do the driveway.

Needless to say, I did NOT head to town to see my mother. I did phone to ask how she was doing. I’d called shortly after shift change, though, so the nurse had only been there for 15 minutes. She knew my mother was doing well, and was feeling better, but that’s about it.

Then she asked if I wanted to talk to her on the phone. They could bring a phone to her room and she could transfer me over.

Yes, please!

It was good to be able to talk to her directly. Not that she could tell me much; she doesn’t understand much of what they are saying or doing in regards to her treatment, but she could tell me how she felt and we could just chat for a bit. My cousin had visited her today, so she was happy about that.

Little by little, I’ve been remembering different places to call that needed to know about my mother. Home care. Meals on Wheels. Today, I remembered to call her pharmacy. They would normally have delivered her bubble packs for the month, yesterday. Now that they know she is in the hospital, they can suspend her prescriptions until either we let them know she’s home, or a doctor calls to tell them her prescriptions are cancelled with the pharmacy, which they would do if she goes into long term care or assisted living.

I think that’s the last place that needs to know about my mother! Her church would already know, since the guy that took her to her appointment is from the church and has been bringing her communion since she hasn’t been physically up to going to church lately, and the church next to the hospital knows, as the priest has already come to give her communion since she was admitted.

It will probably be a couple of days before I can go and visit her again. While the roads might be clear earlier, it’ll take us some time to get our own driveway clear. In particular, I need to get the end of the driveway done. With what’s already there, once the plows go by, we probably would get stuck trying to get through the plow ridge. It’s going to start getting cold again, though. Today and tomorrow are going to be relatively warm, and then we’re getting highs of -19C/-2F, with overnight lows of -27C/-17F

I worry about the outside cats, but they know how to take care of themselves. The cats that used to hang out in the isolation shelter now hang out in the cat house and the sun room. Usually in big cuddle puddles.

We did get a big stinky kitty visit the sun room last night. I didn’t try to chase it out, after watching it on the camera for a while. The big heated water bowl that stopped working is set to the side, near where the heat lamp is. It’s full of ice, but on less frigid days, the heat lamp is enough for it to start to melt, and the cats seem to really like the melted ice water.

So goes the skunk, apparently. On the camera, I could see it sitting on top of the ice, doing something. It looked almost as if it were chewing on the ice, where a gap forms between the ice and the wall of the bowl. When I headed out this morning, I made sure to look. I could see a deeper spot in the ice, with smooth sides. The skunk had been licking the ice enough to create a hole!

By the middle of the month, I’m hoping we’ll have a new critter cam in the sun room. I’ve just ordered a small security type camera. It can be rotated 360° remotely, while the one in there now is stationary. The cats regularly knock it out of position. The main thing, though, is that it does not require a subscription to record and save files. We can add a micro SD card to record locally. As long as it can connect to our WiFi, that should be good. The last camera I tried simply would not connect to our WiFi, and we could never figure out why. If this one works out, I might try to get a lightbulb camera again, for the basement, to monitor the septic pump.

If I had the funds, I’d be like my brother with their old place. He had cameras everywhere! The buyers actually paid extra to keep his camera system. 😄 In the summer, I expect he will start adding more cameras around the property, since he moved his farm equipment here.

I have no problem with more cameras around!

But that will wait for when things are much warmer, and the snow is all gone.

It’s only February, but I am so done with winter already!

The Re-Farmer