white tail deer

Not quite a day of rest

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It looks like we have a new addition to our outside cats.

Sad Face has been hanging around. This morning, I saw him milling about with the other cats without any trouble. He was even in the kibble house, though he ran off when I came by. The photo above is the closest he was willing to get, while I was out and about, and I had to zoom in with my phone.

Rolando Moon followed me when I went to switch memory cards on the sign cam.

Of course, we had deer visiting, including this one.

Green grass is actually starting to show in places, though I haven’t noticed any along the sidewalk. She found something to chew on, though.

Then I spotted the piebald heading for the kibble house, and one of my daughters was kind enough to send it away!

The girls started a load of laundry before we sat down for lunch, and it’s a good thing we were lingering at the table afterward. As the washing machine was draining, we suddenly heard water gurgling in the kitchen sink – then splashing!

The drain for the washing machine was overflowing again.

Crud.

I’d hoped, after getting the septic tank emptied and that backed up pipes in the basement cleared, it would have solved that problem, too. I made sure to dash into the basement to check, and all was fine down there.

It doesn’t happen every time we do laundry. In fact, it only happened once before, and that was the day we discovered the septic was backing into the basement.

From what I could hear in the pipes, things were draining. It just seems that it wasn’t draining fast enough for a larger load. With our new machine, we don’t choose a load size. It’s a “smart” machine, and adjusts the water levels itself, based on how much is in the drum.

The last time it happened, and we pulled the machines out to clean up the mess, we used drain cleaner in the pipe. Clearly, that wasn’t enough.

When the new part of the house was built, my dad included a sink in the entryway. That was taken out, long ago, which is why there was plumbing in place for my brother and daughter to install the washing machine (all those years my parents used the basement when, as their mobility decreased, they could have used the entry). It joins the drain pipe from the kitchen, which then joins with the tub’s drain, then the toilet, and finally the main pipe to the septic.

My guess is that we’ve got decades of kitchen grease and detritus, as well as whatever was washed down the sink that used to be in the entry, every time someone cleaned up after being in the barn, garage, garden, etc. I don’t think anyone really paid attention to what went down the drain. Out of sight, out of mind.

I followed the pipe as best I could, but the section that is under the entryway is actually hidden behind a floor joist in the ceiling of the root cellar. The root cellar is under the entry and built around a corner of the old basement. The pipe runs along the top of the old concrete wall, until it bends and joins the drain from the tub. It’s pretty inaccessible.

When we tried to use a plumbing snake in that drain, it didn’t really accomplish anything.

So, how do we clear the pipe?

Slowly, it appears.

I headed into town (I never made it yesterday, so I had to go to refill our water bottles, anyhow) and made a stop at a hardware store. I’d found something there before that we’d tried but, when we ran out, we never remembered to get more. It’s an enzyme based product that is designed to maintain both the pipes and the septic tank. It’s meant to be used once a month. I found a version of it made by CLR, so I got both. I also got a funnel with a flexible hose on it, so we can pour it into the drain without having to pull the dryer out, then the washing machine, to reach the opening.

Then I got a new bottle of heavy duty drain cleaner, since we emptied the last one was had.

With the monthly treatment products, it can be poured into any drain, so we might start from the kitchen sink. It’s the one that’s furthest out from the septic, but still close to the washing machine drain.

We already use a bacterial product to help maintain the septic tank, but this is something that gets flushed down the toilet regularly, and does nothing for the pipes. As the products I picked up today are to maintain both the pipes and the tank, I think we’ll stop using the flush additive for now. It’s probably not a good idea to have TOO much bacteria or enzymes in the system.

While I was out, getting the stuff for the pipes, my daughter monitored the washing machine so that, if it started to overflow again, she could quickly shut the machine off, wait until it drained, then turn it back on again.

I hope this stuff works, because I don’t see any other way we can get those pipes clear. At least not without calling in a plumber.

At least this happened early enough in the day that the hardware store was still open. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Morning Visitors

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I meant to post this earlier, but my friend is still in town and I was able to meet up with her at the last minute. We had a grand time!

It was getting dark by the time I was heading home, which meant being extremely cautious about deer! At one point, I passed at least 5 standing on the edge of the highway but, thankfully, they did not try to cross.

I put together some of the better videos from the gate cam, showing our morning visitors. I hope you like it! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Got it done

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The day started out on the rough side, though so far, that seems to have worked itself out. Issues started in the wee hours of the morning, when I was awakened by the sound of something hitting the floor in the dining room. I came out to discover the container we are using to hold all the seed packs and supplies had been knocked onto the floor, spilling seed packs everywhere. I had them sorted by which need to be direct sown, and which need to be started indoors. That’s going to need to be sorted again. :-/

Then I went into the sun room, and found the worse mess yet. Along with much of what was on the shelf under the bathroom window being knocked onto the floor, the wagon knocked over, and the new roll of netting we’ll be using as temporary deer fencing, all knocked to the floor, the bin with deer/bird feed in it was on the ground, and the lid to the bin with the kibble in it was knocked aside.

With the feed, at least we didn’t lose too much of it, since it was only about half full to begin with. I’d just refilled the kibble bin, which probably made it too heavy to knock over!

So that required some time to do a partial clean up. The heated water bowl was dry again, and I ended up unplugging it and setting it aside, along with the containers we were using as kibble trays. Things have warmed up enough that we will be closing the doors again, anyhow.

The outside cats were quite happy to see me when I finally came out with kibble. There was none left in any of the trays. The heated water bowl that isn’t working for some reason had a layer of ice across the top, but the cats had kept a hole in the ice to access the liquid water below. From today on, their water bowls should not be freezing up completely overnight, anymore.

I saw at least 11 cats this morning. I also startled our usual 3 deer visitors in the yard when I came out. :-)

The snow in the driveway is completely churned up by all the deer coming through!

I even saw one in my brother’s field.

When I checked the trail cam files later on, I saw the expected deer traffic from last night, but there was also a whole bunch of them captured by the camera, roughly an hour before I came out!

After the morning routine was done, one of my daughters and I headed into the city for our Walmart trip. For the past while, we’ve been going to a smaller, slightly closer Walmart, but decided to go to the big on in the city that was used to go, before I got hassled for not being able to wear a mask during the first lockdown. It was the first day I’d tried to use a shield, but it wasn’t enough. The staff finally were willing to let me in, only for me to get hassled by a customer at the turnstile. I left and never came back.

We got the last of what we needed while we were there, and my daughter got her own shopping done for herself and her sister. I don’t think I’ll be going back again, though. Aside from the repeated creepy announcements about wearing masks, even though they are no longer required, I tried to go to their vision centre to see if I could get an eye exam. Though it was open, it had a barricade across the front. I stood and waited, completely ignored by the person at the counter inside, when a couple other people came up, wearing masks. One of them told me that no one was allowed to go into the vision centre without a mask – then they went through the barrier.

I realize I had only half a face to go by, but from the expression of her eyes and body language, she seemed absolutely gleeful about telling me a mask was required.

So even though there are no longer any restrictions forced on businesses by the province (federal restrictions are still in place, but health care is a provincial jurisdiction), people like me are still being denied basic care.

I’m still off social media for Lent, but I may have to make an exception and go to one of my local groups to find out who provides eye exams without medical discrimination and segregation.

Or I can wait until Lent is over. I think I’ll do that. As long as my glasses don’t fall apart, I should be okay for a few more weeks. My eye exam is covered by my husband’s health insurance, and more time before getting an exam means more time to set money aside to pay for new glasses, beyond the amount the insurance will cover.

Still, we got what we needed, and are stocked up for the month. The only thing we’ll need to do later is get our Easter basket supplies. We might even be able to get our baskets blessed this year. People are allowed to go to church again, without forced masking, injections, spacing and registration again. Hopefully, that means my mother’s church will be doing the basket blessing this year. For the past couple of years, we blessed them ourselves. It’s not quite the same!

On extra I did get at the Walmart, that I hadn’t been able to find elsewhere, is a suitable new hanging bird feeder.

It’s filled with deer feed, because that’s what we have right now. I think, after this bag is done, we’ll be switching back to the black oil seed. With the deer eating up all the seeds before the birds can get any, I have been looking to get a new one for a while. Most of what I found was either too small or too expensive. We had one like this before, and it worked out rather well, until the racoons discovered it and kept knocking it down, eventually breaking it. Hopefully, this one will last longer. I’d like to find a way to keep it from falling off the hook, while still letting me reach to get it on and off. Short people problems. I can just reach high enough to put the hanger cable over the hook – as long as the cable doesn’t slide downwards!

Anyhow. I’m happy to have finally found another one of these. The size is right, and so is the price. The chickadees were happy I found it, too, and were all over it as soon as I left after hanging it up!

So we managed to get a few things done today, and hopefully, we won’t need to go to the city again for another month!

The Re-Farmer

Too many critters!

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While at my computer a little while ago, I started to see all sorts of activity in the security camera live feed. A whole lot of deer, making their way down the driveway!

So I headed over to look out a window and see where they were going. Mostly, they were milling around, just beyond the chain link fence, watching something in the yard, intently.

They weren’t going to the feeding station (though we spotted the sad faced, brick of a cat, sitting on the junk pile), so I decided to head outside and see what was going on.

That took longer than expected.

I opened the door from the old kitchen to the sun room, and found the flood covered with black and white, furry beasts.

At least four skunks were in the sun room, eating the kibble!

Two took off right away, but these two would not leave! I ended up having to get a spray bottle and spritz them with water to get them out.

Meanwhile, Rolando Moon was in her bed in the shelf, just watching them. !!

I didn’t even try to take stills in the fading light, but tried to get some video. It wasn’t very good, either, but I could at least get this screen capture.

They ran off as I came closer, but then I saw them on the camera again, coming back.

Several had already gone by, but in this image, you can see another four of them across the road, and another making its way to the gate!

While I was out, I found there was no kibble left for the cats at all, so I refilled their trays, then headed inside. When I saw that the deer were returning, I headed back out again.

Guess who else was back?

Yup. One of the stinkers was back, eating at one of the newly refilled kibble trays.

Using flash didn’t help see the skunk better, but I love the red, heart shaped glowing eyes of the cat on the left! :-D

Unfortunately, there was no way to chase off the skunk without also chasing off the cats, which certainly won’t help our socializing efforts.

More reason to looking forward to being able to close the doors to the sun room again. Hopefully, this will be the last night we need to leave them access to the heated water bowl in the sun room. Temperatures are still dropping below zero overnight, but not so low as to freeze their water bowls solid.

Between the deer and the skunks, no wonder we’re going through the kibble so fast outside!

Oh, and now I’m watching three more deer crossing the driveway from the barn yard to the spruce grove.

A fourth one just joined them.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many deer in my entire life, as I have this spring!

The Re-Farmer

I couldn’t resist

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I’ve made more videos in the past few days than I have in ages! I just can’t resist those deer images!

This is a short one; I did resist including more of the files of deer from the trail cams.

I love how they came so close to the camera! I don’t think they’ll be able to do that after today, though. It’s warmed up enough that I think they’ll start sinking, if they try.

The other trail cam had a deer go close by, too. The snow has finally melted enough that they can get through to that area again. :-D

I think we can officially say we’ve seen more deer this year, than we have since we moved out here.

The Re-Farmer

A whole parade of them!

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I haven’t been going out to the sign cam to switch memory cards for the last few days, due to the weather conditions and the path being blown in as much as it was, but I finally was able to get out there today.

It was just a few days, but there were over 300 files to check out!

Yes, they were mostly of deer. A whole parade of them!

I couldn’t resist. I put them together into a video.

So. Many. Deer!!!

The Re-Farmer

Brazen visitors!

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Spotted some company out our kitchen window this evening!

The one deer walking on top of the snow really shows how hard and solid of a crust has developed on there, with our melt/freeze cycles lately.

Seeing these two had me looking, and sure enough, I spotted the piebald, too.

In the kibble house, eating the cat food.

Yeah, I chased them off. I’m not buying cat kibble to feed deer! :-D

What cheeky little buggers!

The Re-Farmer

It’s party time!

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I checked the files for the security camera, which is set to email images to me when the motion detector is triggered, and made an amazing discovery.

After I headed into town to pick up Chinese food for supper, there was a bit ol’ party in our driveway!

That is just wild!!!

It should be interesting when I check the gate cam files, tomorrow!

The Re-Farmer

Night of the Deer!

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With all the stuff going on today, it was a while before I had a chance to check the trail cam files.

What a surprise I found!!

Here is a compilation of several of them.

So many deer!!!

What on earth where they all doing, hanging out at our driveway??

The Re-Farmer

Winter’s last gasp?

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Counting today, we’re expected to have three cold days before the spring-like temperatures return.

Not that it’s particularly cold – until you step out into the wind!

The outside cats barely made an appearance this morning. They were far more interested in staying out of that wind!

The wind was mostly coming from the north, which meant stepping around the house to put seed out, was like walking into a wall.

A cold wall.

The path to the sign cam was pretty much blown in.

I paused this morning to check out the deer damage to the Chokecherry and Saskatoon bushes we uncovered while clearing out the invasive spirea at the edge of the spruce grove. Cleaning things up meant they got more sunlight and actually produced fruit during their first uncrowded summer, but now the deer can get at them. All the lower twigs are nibbled away, and there are many broken branches. And by “lower twigs”, I mean basically anything under about 7 feet. The deer can reach pretty high when they stand on their hind legs!

I wonder if these deer were among those causing damage?

I didn’t see any deer when I came out this morning. They’d already left. :-D

The winds are still high and it’s quite unpleasant out there.

Rolando Moon the Wise has staked out her spot in the sun room, where it’s much warmer and cozier! Not to mention, she has her own private food and water bowls. :-D

As for today, we’ve got a big project to work on. While doing the laundry last night, I came to the entry and found water all over the floor.

It wasn’t from the washing machine. At least not directly. It’s from the drain. I’ve long had concerns about it. When the water starts to drain, you can hear it flowing, but the tone changes until the sound stops. Basically, the water is draining out of the washing machine faster than the water is flowing through the pipes, and what I’ve been hearing is the water backing up until it reaches the end of the drain hose from the washing machine, and then you can no longer heard the water flowing. I’ve been keeping an eye on it, to see if it’s at risk of overflowing, but until now it’s been fine.

I did a larger “heavy duty” load last night, and it may have been just too much water this time.

So what I want to do is see if we can clear the drain a bit. Which means we have to move the washing machine.

The washer and dryer just fit between the built-in closet and the wall the taps are in. There are two steps from the entryway into the dining room, and the bottom step is several inches in front of the washing machine. Which is handy for short little me to stand on and reach the bottom of the washing machine, but it also means we can’t simply pull the washing machine straight out. In order to move the washing machine, we have to move out the dryer.

Since we have to move the machines out, anyhow, we’re going to clean up the mess we know is back there. The cats have been knocking things down off the shelves and, from the smell of it, they’ve been peeing back there, too. It’s just so difficult to get back there, we haven’t done it, yet. I would love to find some way to keep the cats from going back there, but no practical solution has come up yet.

I am not looking forward to this particular job. I’d almost rather be working outside, in the wind!

The Re-Farmer