I counted 11 while I was taking the photo. It’s hard to tell, with all the reflections. Altogether, I think I counted 32 cats this morning. They were running around so much, it was hard to keep track of which ones I’d already counted.
Last night, my husband glanced out the bathroom window and saw the heat lamp was out. I went to check and found the cats have managed to knock the plug loose out of the power bar.
While there, I realized there was a cat using the heated water bowl as a butt warmer.
Even though I’d given them an early feeding so I could park the truck, they were out of both food and water! Even the broken heated water bowl we replaced, which had been full of ice and slowly melting, was down to just dregs. So I gave them another feeding, then rinsed out and filled the water bowls.
This morning, the water bowls were all empty again! Well. Except we have two outside that aren’t heated, so they were just solid ice. Both are in shade, so they never melted with the warmer temperatures. The cats were more interested in the water than the food!
I just got back from doing the evening rounds. We’re still at our predicted high of -3C/27F, but it’s so lovely and sunny out there, any ice and snow still on the sidewalk blocks are melting. The cats are just loving it. I think I counted 29. They needed their water bowls topped up again, too, though at least they weren’t completely out, this time.
With the warmer weather, I’ve actually seen a couple of visitors in the sun room on the critter cam. Once, a skunk, and another time, a single massive racoon. Hopefully, they won’t be visiting more often, and will stay in their hiding places when the temperatures drop again!
Overall, though, it’s been a home day for me, and I’m quite happy to not have to go anywhere. I might make a quick trip into town tomorrow, though, to get the last couple of things I wasn’t able to get on the stock up trip, and check the mail. The strikers might be back at work, but we’re still missing mail. At least my husband got his bloodwork requisition, even though we can’t do anything about it until after the holidays.
In other things, I got to see the first files from the new solar powered trail cam. I am quite happy with it. I won’t need to move the stand it’s one, for starters. I will probably need to reduce the resolution and motion sensitivity, though. I have it set to take a photo, then a short video, just like the camera it replaced. I was amazed by how well it picked up audio! With the other camera, it would have a recording of me right next to it, talking to a cat or something, and barely pick up sound. This thing’s microphone is so sensitive, I could hear the sounds made by the chain and sliding bar when unlocking and opening the gate, some 30 feet away!
We shall see how it holds up when the temperatures drop, though. That’s always the litmus test for the cameras!
It’s almost 1pm as I start this. Outside, we’re at -17C/1F, which is a huge improvement from the last couple of days. Our predicted high for today is -15C/5F
The wind chill right now, however, is -30C/-22F
Tomorrow, however, we’re expected to reach a high of -6C/21F, then -2C/28F over the next couple of days! It’s going to feel downright tropical out there! 😄
My daughter did the outside rounds this morning. The short rounds, since it was -27C/-17F out there, before wind chill, at the time. When I did the evening cat feeding last night, I saw that the wet cat food in the isolation shelter bowl was frozen. It’s right next to the sliding window, so that corner is pretty cold. I reached in to tilt the clamp lamp so the heat bulb faced the back of the shelter, instead of the hammock below.
I was actually able to handle the metal shield around the heat bulb with my bare hands. It was just warm. Normally, I would have burned my fingers if I’d touched it. Another sign of how cold the ambient temperature in there got, even with the heat bulb!
The kitties are okay, though. Kohl had frost on her face fur again, but her fluffy partner did not. My daughter says there was a bit of frost around the top of the heated water bowl.
The kitties have now been in there for a full week. Kohl is handling her surgery just fine. No sign of infection, and neither of them seem interested in licking their surgical sites at all. They’ll be in there for one more week of observation.
They have company, though.
After talking about it with my daughter last night, we decided to add another kitten. There’s one white and grey that has leaky eyes, a stuffy nose, and has been sneezing and snuffling a lot. My daughter thinks it’s Eye Baby, but I’ll have to look closer to be sure. This morning, she was able to snag the kitten and take him into the isolation shelter. She said, he really didn’t like being carried outside in the wind, so he was very quick to jump into the isolation shelter all on his own!
With the temperatures improving over the next week, he will be better off in there than in the sun room, and will get to share the wet cat food as well. A week not having to fight so many adult cats for food, water and warmth will help him recover faster, as well.
At least, that’s the hope.
Today is a bright and sunny day, so they should have some passive solar heat in there, too.
My daughter doesn’t stop to take any pictures when she does the morning routine, though, so I’ll give you this, instead…
It may be warming up out there, but today will be another home day. I think, tomorrow, I’ll make the trip to a feed store. I’m looking to get the 40 pound bags of cat food, but also want to see what they have for heated water bowls. I’d like to get another smaller one. They seem to last longer. When I took the one my SIL gave us outside to chop the ice out, and flipped it upside down to spill out the shards, I found there was a melted spot in the plastic in the middle of the bowl’s bottom! I had intended to go to the town north of us for that, but we are almost out of lysine, and the feed store in the town my mother lives in was able to order some for us. Since I’m also thinking of another smaller shopping trip in preparation for Christmas and New Years, in the nearer city, it would be along the way.
Until then, I’ve got another day to enjoy my hibernation.
The power is back on again, and stayed on long enough that I turned my computer back on and will try posting this.
We’ve got another brutally cold morning. While doing the morning routine, after feeding the cats, I took the litter buckets out to their compost pile behind the outhouse. They had been in the old kitchen, which is not heated. I couldn’t empty them completely, because of the damp sawdust frozen to the sides of the buckets! Normally, I’d knock the buckets against a tree, but I didn’t want to shatter the plastic.
By the time I got back inside, it had warmed up to -25C/-13F, with a wind chill of -34C/-29F. I just checked again now, and I have three different weather apps telling me three different temperatures! I’ve got one saying it’s -24C/-11F, another saying we’re still at -25C/-13F, and another saying we are at -26C/-15F. Only two of them give me wind chills, with one saying -30C/-22F, and another saying -33C/-27F
I was supposed to pick up our beef share today, but I had already tried to reschedule last night, on seeing the temperatures expected for today. We haven’t replaced the cord on our block heater yet, so I don’t want to try driving the truck. It’s not cold enough to crack the engine block (yes, we’ve had that happen before), but I still would rather not take any chances.
With there being power issues today as well, that’s even more reason to stay home.
In the second photo of the above slide show, you can see the ice and frost accumulated on the inner door of our main entry. There’s frost on the bottom, too.
The next photo shows Caramel in the bigger cat bed inside the shelf shelter, with frost on her face. She could go into the sun room (the thermometer on the wall was reading -15C/5F), or the heated cat house, but she chose the shelf shelter.
In the next photo, you can see that even Kohl has frost on her face! The other fluffball didn’t have any frost on him at all. The insides of the windows were frosted, though. Even the heated water bowl was starting to show ice freezing near the top. After giving them their wet cat food, I scooped out most of their water bowl (the power cord is wrapped around the support on the top, so I can’t take it very far out of the shelter to spill it out) and replace it with warm water.
I noticed a corner of the plastic wrapped around the bottom was coming loose. When I checked it, I found that cats had pulled the plastic down, all along the back of the isolation shelter. So I got a cardboard box and opened one corner, to make one long, flat piece. Three sections were just long enough to cover the entire back, with one section was enough to cover the side of the shelter. I quickly tacked the cardboard in place, but after taking the picture, which is the last one in the slide show, I secured it a bit better and bent the flap, so it wasn’t overlapping the sliding door.
The water bowl in the sun room was frozen solid. It was also completely full. Normally, it just top it off with the warm water, which melts through the layer of ice to reach liquid water below, but that was not going to happen. I ended up taking it outside and chopped the ice out with a hatchet, being careful not to hit the bowl itself. The heated water bowl in the water shelter is still working fine, so they at least had that.
There was still quite a lot of kibble in the outside food trays. No surprise there, really. They would have had to be incredibly hungry to go out there in last night’s cold for food! I know for sure we hit -29C/-20C before I’d gone to bed last night.
With the power going out, we needed to keep tabs on how long it was out. With the heat lamp in the isolation shelter off, it would get dangerously cold in a very short time, and it would be hard for two small cats to keep each other warm, even with the cat bed in the most insulated corner. The cardboard would have helped some, but not enough. We would have had to take them out to join the other cats in their cuddle puddles to stay warm, as there is no way we can bring them inside the house.
Thankfully, the power seems to be staying on, now.
It did get me thinking of alternatives.
If we really needed to, we could use the fire bricks we’ve bee slowly accumulating for our future outdoor kitchen to create a radiant heater in the isolation shelter. A brick or two on the second level floor, more bricks to form a wall around, tea lights inside, and bricks on top to make sure no kitty could touch the flames. The bricks themselves would absorb heat and continue to radiate heat out, even after the candles burned out. For a small space like that, it could work.
We have the ability to do things like cook if the power goes out, but that’s all outside. With temperatures like today, it just wouldn’t be feasible.
Another reason to put a priority on building the outdoor kitchen. Even if we just had the structure up, it would give us a sheltered space for a fire pit to cook over. I’d love to find a way to have it closer to the house, but there just isn’t a good space in the inner yard for that. Too many trees and other structures. As it is, we’ve changed our minds on the outer yard location a few times before settling on the space between the pump shack and the old chicken coop.
Things to think about!
In other things…
I was so happy to get that call from the new pain clinic. They have just opened recently, and my husband’s new doctor had referred him to it already. They needed to send him a questionnaire, which they normally would have mailed, but the postal strike is still going. So they wanted an email address to send it to, instead.
This is why having a corded phone on a land line is still important. We don’t get enough signal to get phone calls on our cell phones – I’m amazed I was able to make my earlier post, with how poor our signal was at the time. Far less signal strength is needed to send things in text, thankfully. At least there was a signal. Usually, there’s nothing.
Hmmm… I’m going to try something here. My current computer with the current OS has features my old one didn’t. One of those is the ability to do a video screen capture. Check this out…
This is the animated weather on my desktop app. From the colours, you can see that large swaths of Canada and the US are as cold as, or almost as cold as, the Greenland glaciers!
Thankfully, days like this will apparently be few and far between, this winter. We’ll have some cold days in the week before Christmas, but the long range forecast is now saying to expect 3C/37F on Christmas Eve, 1C/34F on Christmas Day, and 5C/41F on Boxing Day! Then stay with highs above freezing, through to New Year’s Eve!
Of course, I expect those forecasts to change, but so far, we’re not going to be getting weather like today very often. Quite the change from our first couple of winters here, when we saw entire months much like what we’re getting right now.
Funny. As I get older, I’m finding I can handle the cold a lot better than I used to, physically – but mentally, it’s the other way around!
That’s -28C/-18F with a windchill of -38C/-37F, in case the image isn’t showing up.
Brutal!
The wind is coming from the northwest, though, and we are pretty well sheltered from those.
Our high for today isn’t supposed to be much warmer, either. We’ve got one more day like this, then things are supposed to warm up dramatically for a while.
Checking the critter cam, the cats in the sun room are active and prowling around, waiting for food and warm water. There must be something wrong with the wall thermometer, though. The needle is just below freezing. I didn’t have my glasses while looking out the bathroom window, but it looks like it’s reading around -5C/-23F and there’s no way it’s that warm in there.
The first screencap image is Celsius, the second in Fahrenheit. Instagram wouldn’t let me show the whole image, even though that’s what I set it for. Underneath, it gave the expected overnight windchill of -36C/-32F
I keep telling myself, the isolation babies are okay. They like to curl up together on the cat bed in the upper level. It is under the lounging shelf, so there is a low ceiling, the back wall is insulated, the side wall in that corner is insulated, and the box nest next to the cat bed forms another insulated wall. In front of the cat bed is the heated water bowl. All this, plus the insulation forming a ceiling, plus the heat lamp. They should be just fine.
Today, I’d hoped to stay home for a few days (I really, really didn’t want to go to the dump today!) but when my husband needed something from the pharmacy, I figured I’d do that right away, since it was supposed to be milder. The next couple of days are supposed to get much colder.
A high of -9C/16F is milder, right?
It seemed all right when I headed out to feed the outside cats.
The full belly kitties were content to stay in the sun room. Not all of them, but enough to make nice, warm cuddle puddles!
The isolation kittens are doing fine, too.
It was a different story, once I started heading to town!
The first thing I realized was that the driveway needed to be cleared. Best to do it while the snow is still light and fluffy, too. Much easier on little Spewie. After closing the gate behind me, I made sure to message the family about that, because I knew I would forget once I got going again.
Driving conditions really sucked!
Once on the main gravel road, visibility was low with blowing snow, made all the more interesting when I had to cross paths with oncoming trucks bringing in bales. The trucks alone are wide loads, but their trailers were loaded 3 round bales wide. To fit them, about a third of a bale sticks out on each side of the trailers, adding about 3 feet to the total width. The main gravel road is wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other well enough, with room to spare, but it’s a very different story with these trucks! They did try to go to the side as far as they could, but with how slippery things can be under the snow, it wouldn’t take much to hit some ice on the shoulder and slide right into the ditches… and these ditches are narrow, steep and deep!
Even on the highway, it wasn’t much better. I found myself doing 70-80 kph (43-50mph) in a 100 (62mph) zone – and no one was trying to pass me!
I’m glad the roads were plowed yesterday, or it would have been so much worse!
Once in town, I did my errands, with my last stop at the grocery store. My husband had called in a prescription delivery for Thursday that I was able to pick up today, instead. At the grocery store, after refilling a couple of our 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs, I ended up taking advantage of some sales and picked up a few extra things besides what was on my list, and my older daughter’s list that she send funds for, once she found out I was going into town. Poor thing is not feeling well at all, today. PCOS sucks.
The drive home was not any better than the drive out, so it was slow going. I’ve driven in far worse. I just didn’t want to be driving at all today! Ah, well.
With the water jugs on top of everything else, I drove up to the house to unload, but had some troubles backing up to the main doors. The truck had to go over the sidewalk from the house to the gate, which was shoveled, and it was just too slippery!
I was quite happy to be parking the truck back in the garage!
My younger daughter was a sweetheart and took care of clearing the driveway after everything was put away, and the outside cats got a light feeding to keep them distracted. The isolation kitties seem very content in their shelter. I was even able to pet the fluffball! He started to run away, but once I started petting his back, he stopped and let me!
I’m going to be worrying about them over the next while, though. As I was writing this, I could see the temperature on my task bar dropping. We’re down to -14C/7F right now, but the wind chill is -30C/-22F!
The isolation kittens are protected from the wind, so that shouldn’t affect the heat lamps ability to keep them warm, but we’re supposed to drop to -25C/-13F tonight, and the high tomorrow is supposed to only reach -23C/-9F, with an overnight low of -26C/-15F, before wind chill. The next day is supposed to be slightly warmer, before our highs are supposed to get back into the single digits below freezing (Celsius).
Those would be good days to stay home, but I’m expecting to pick up our 1/8 beef share on one of those days. I’m just waiting on an email to confirm the date.
I hadn’t been home for long, when I got a phone call from my mother.
Guess who had just showed up at her place?
*sigh*
Yup. Our vandal. My surprising him by being there yesterday didn’t scare him off for long.
My mother was in the common room, though, and our neighbour was with him again, so he was on his best behaviour. Apparently, he was in the nearer city for “treatment” (chemotherapy?) so they stopped by on the way home.
I’m glad my mother called me as soon as she got back into her apartment after they left. In the past, she wouldn’t tell us if he showed up, even when he was alone and his behaviour was verbally abusive.
Then she told me that the doctor that was supposed to call her at 2pm, did finally call! It was past 4pm by the time he did. Thankfully, my mother still remembered our conversation, and on telling him how things went, his recommendation was exactly what I said was most likely. He wanted to increase the dose of the medication.
Then my mother, being the way she is, asked him if she could just stop taking them. What would happen? His response was, probably nothing would change. She could stop taking them, if she wanted, but to call him again if things got worse.
*sigh*
I just had to express my frustrations with her, as carefully as I could. She keeps complaining about all sorts of health problems, but when people try to help her, she won’t do the things that she is supposed to do to make things better. When we first moved out here, she mostly complained about her knees, but refused to wear the braces my brother got for her (as recommended by her doctor at the time), for her knee that’s bent sideways. I forget it he got two or three different braces, trying to find one she was willing to wear, but she wouldn’t. Instead, she would wear sport knee pads. They kept her knees warm, therefore, in her mind, they were helping her knees more than the brace.
It’s the same thing with this new medication. I tried to explain again, it takes time to see if a specific medication would work, and at what dose. As an example, I told her how my husband it still trying to get the dose right on the new pain medication he’s on (the previous one is no longer available), and it’s been about a year. Her response was to start talking about how much she pities us for him having health problems, but I had to cut that off. I told her, this was just an example of something that is common. Everyone is different, so they have to take the time to figure out exactly what will work for each person.
Her bubble packs are due for new ones, and the doctor would be faxing the increased dosage to her pharmacy, so I told her that when she gets her new bubble packs, they should have the new dosage, and nothing would change. Just keep taking her prescriptions as always, and give it time to work.
I don’t know if I got through to her. I might have, at least for a little while.
I’m so glad she has homecare doing med assists, now. Even with the bubble packs, she was messing with her prescriptions. Which is more of a problem because she forgets what some of them are for, and gets them mixed up.
I need to remember to call the home care office and see where her application for assisted living or a nursing home is at! There’s only so much my siblings and I can do to help her. Especially when she isn’t willing to help herself at times!
So today didn’t turn out the way it was intended to, but things got done and, more importantly, my mom is okay after our vandal showing up at her place again.
I really, really wish she would just tell him to not come around anymore, but she still holds out home that things will get better.
Another reason to get her into some sort of long term care! She can move to a better living situation, and no one needs to tell him where she is. As long as she doesn’t tell him herself, of course. 🫤🙄
Ah, well. It is what it is! All we can do is deal with the cards we’ve got.
I swear, it was more hectic as soon as I got home than with the running around I did earlier!
The Cat Lady and I met up after I dropped the cats off at the vet, then had breakfast at McRaunchies at the Walmart. She started handing me things for the back of the truck.
The big reusable bag, the cat bed, the small bags of cat food under it, and the big bag on the other side, are all from the Cat Lady. These are all things she can no longer feed her own cats, because it all has chicken in it, and The Wolfman keeps steeling into it, even though they give him things like freshly baked salmon way too often. There are five small bags under the cat bed. They are some fancy type of cat food – she described it as a prescription cat food, though the bags say senior cat on them – that normally cost $60 each. *gasp* She got them at half price, which is still insane. She warned me that this kibble really stinks. It’s a herring and chicken blend, so it’s likely the fish smell, she says. The cat bed is one her cats have stopped using for some reason, so she passed it on to us.
I am more than happy to take her cast offs!!
The other two bags were donated by a friend of hers for us. She’d never seen the brand before, so she couldn’t tell me anything about it.
After we loaded up the truck box, parted ways. I headed to the Dollarama to get new vinyl to repair the catio covering and things I thought might help hold it in place better – and some spring cat toys.
Then it was off to the Walmart to get some stuff my husband asked for. I also got myself a pair of slipper shoes. I’ve been trying to replace my inside shoes for ages, and can’t find any that are as comfortable as the old ones. So I tried the men’s slippers. I wasn’t able to try them on, but I got some size 9’s – the size I usually get – that were indoor/outdoor with memory foam insoles. I figured, if they didn’t fit, my daughter/s would have some new inside shoes.
I would have looked around for other things, but so many people were blocking the aisles, I gave up, paid for my stuff and left.
I still had time, so I drove across the street to the Canadian Tire to hang out there. Usually, I would have just stayed in the truck and napped, but it was too cold.
I did remember to pick up a carabiner for the isolation shelter latch, and a windshield fluid funnel for the truck. I was able to pay for it with change. I’m glad I had some, because I wouldn’t have wanted to make such a small purchase on my debit card! 😄
I did almost buy myself a new winter “going out” coat. I found a display of nice parkas on clearance that were very affordable. Alas, it was not to be. Being built like a tank has its disadvantages. I found an XXL to try on, and it mostly fit, until I tried to move my arms. My shoulders were too broad for it, and they didn’t have any bigger sizes.
Ah, well.
I still had time and it was coming up on noon, so I headed over to a nearby Timmies for lunch. For my readers outside of Canada, Tim Horton’s, aka: Timmies, is an iconic Canadian coffee and donut shop, though I don’t think they are Canadian owned anymore. Tim Horton was a hockey player. Today, they now do all sorts of sandwiches, soups and so on, as well as coffee and donuts.
Until yesterday, when my daughter and I went to one for breakfast, I hadn’t been to one in ages.
My daughter worked at the local one for awhile. She ended up quitting because of the health and safety violations from one employee. When she made a complaint to the manager, she was the one who got in trouble. After seeing more health violations by this employee that got ignored, she quit. She later got a job at the pharmacy across the street. During her interview, she told them why she’d quit her last job. The manager that was interviewing her just nodded and told her, that manager was gone.
The problem employee, however, wasn’t, yet.
We don’t go to that location at all anymore.
Then the illegal lockdowns and mandates happened and the entire franchise went full gestapo, right down to the physical assault of patrons.
I would rather have gone somewhere else, but it was either Timmie’s or back to McRaunchies. I do like their chili. A nice, thick, robust chili that is low on spice heat, so it’s something I can actually eat, served with a generously sized baguette style bun. I figured I would have chili for lunch.
It was quite the disappointment. It wasn’t chili. It was soup. I ended up literally drinking it out of the cup, because I could barely get anything with the wooden spoon they now provide. The bun was half the size, too. Meanwhile, the price was higher than it used to be, too.
Ah, well. At least the Boston Creme I also got was still tasty! A donut used to be part of the meal deal, but I had to order it separately.
I should have gone back to McRaunchies.
At this point, I still hadn’t heard from the vet clinic, but I figured I would be hearing from them soon, so I decided to go back and stay in their waiting room until the cats were ready to go home.
When I got there and told the receptionist which cats I was waiting for, she went to check their status for me.
They were ready!
It turned out, they had tried to phone me and left messages, but I never got a call. I had given my cell phone number before I left earlier, and asked what number they had.
One digit was wrong.
Someone out there must be getting some very confusing messages on their voice mail! This happened last time, too. I will need to take extra care in enunciation when I gave them my cell phone number in the future.
I’m told the kittens both did really well. They got their spay and neuter, basic vaccinations, tattoos and treatment for ear mites.
Since the rescue was covering the cost of this, they had to call the Cat Lady before they could release the cats, and then I was on my way.
Once they were loaded up, it was straight home. I’d already arranged for my daughter to take care of getting the isolation shelter ready, making sure the food and water was topped up, the litter box was good, moving the entry box and closing the ramp door so that there would not be other cats in it. She had to use the bricks that were under the entry box to keep the ramp door closed, though, until I could get the carabiner on the latch.
When I got home, I backed the truck up to the house, then dashed inside for a quick bathroom break while my daughter headed to the truck to get the carriers out.
When I got back to help her, I discovered she had slipped and falling, landing hard on one knee, on the concrete.
She is now walking with a cane again, because of it!
😢😢
As for getting the cats in, we used one of the sliding doors on the second level. I tossed in a couple of the spring toys for them, first.
Kohl was easy to do; she let me pick her up and cuddle her a moment before I put her on the shelf board with the sheet of insulation on it. She promptly loafed on the insulation and stayed there.
The fluffball – we still haven’t named him – wouldn’t let me take him out of the carrier, though, so my daughter just brought it up to the open window in the second level and opened the carrier door. He dashed right in, then down to the lower level and tried to get out!
My daughter took the carriers in while I unloaded the truck. Kohl stayed calm, but the poor male was having panic attacks, in between stopping to eat a bit. He really wanted out.
With the stuff brought inside, I fed the rest of the outside cats early to occupy them, so that I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it in the garage. When I came back, I grabbed a can of wet cat food and added it to the food bowl in the isolation shelter. While they are in isolation, they will get to enjoy wet cat food, since we know it won’t freeze in there. Hopefully, that will help socialize the male.
In between things, I took the new cat bed and set it on my bed next to our elderly Freya, who was asleep on one of my pillows. I came back a few minutes later and found this.
There are three cases of 24 cans from the Cat Lady – plus the 6 I used to make cat soup. There were also two big containers of treats. Made with Real Chicken! There’s another case of 12 same size cans from her friend, plus I think 9 of the big cans. There are also 3 boxes. They are labelled duck paté, but also as “sensitive” and as grain free. The boxes look like they should have liquid in them, though, not paté. I’m curious to find out what these are!
There were also three more bags of kibble hidden under the cans, the same size as the five small bags of kibble from the Cat Lady.
I’ve looked up the brand for most of these, and it looks like they are the house brand of a specific pet store franchise, which would explain why neither the Cat Lady nor I were familiar with it.
After I got all the cat stuff done, I finally settled down to try on the new slipper shoes I bought.
My daughter now has new indoor shoes.
I couldn’t even get my feet into them! I do usually get size 9 men’s shoes – in triple wide. These were NOT triple wide. *sigh*
Then I remembered that, since I had cats in the truck, I hadn’t stopped to close the driveway gate behind me, so I bundled up and took care of that. On the way back, I got a couple of pictures.
The entry box is just off to the side, and as you can see, it’s also being used as a shelter, even though it’s completely open at the back!
A lot of cats were trying to get into the shelter. Some of them had gotten used to being able to stay in there. Unfortunately, we can’t be letting other cats in and out when we have one that needs to recover. The fluffball male could probably be let out, but then Kohl would be in there by herself, and that would not be good. The male does seem to be calming down and only panics a bit and tries to get out when the house door opens and startles him. If you click through to the next picture, you can see that Kohl is still quite content to just loaf on the insulated shelf!
So the isolation shelter is getting its first test run. So far, it seems to be holding well, though it already looks like cats have tried to claw their way in from the outside! The vinyl on one corner at the back is tattered a bit. Not that they can get through the wire, but they may be trying to reach the window. They know it opens.
As I write this, we are at -16C/3F. The wind chill is -33C/-27F, but with the plastic around the bottom, that should have little effect inside the isolation shelter. The vinyl wrapped around the lower level should keep the wind out. They have the heat lamp, two cat beds to curl up in, one on each level, plus the insulated box “nest” under the shelf. Even the heated water bowl would add some warmth to the upper level. Some wind might get through the spaces between the boards of the ramp door, but this will make sure they get some fresh air coming in. With colder air coming in from the bottom, and warm air escaping through the gaps around the sliding windows and the space in the insulation ceiling the extension cord runs through, there should be decent air circulation in there, while still being warm.
Our temperatures are supposed to go up overnight, and keep going up for our daytime highs. Our forecast for Saturday is now a high of 4C/39F. It’s expected to slowly drop after that until we get a sharp drop on Wednesday, which is supposed to have a high of -20C/-4F, though the overnight low is supposed to be just a few degrees colder.
The long term forecast has changed and, while we are still supposed to reach highs above freezing in the week before Christmas, the overnight lows around Christmas and Boxing Day are expected to dip below -30C/-22F. 🥶 The cats will no longer need to be isolated well before then, so they will be able to join cuddle puddles in various heated areas by then.
Of course, the forecast is different pretty much every time I check it, so we’ll see how things actually go. I just want things to stay mild during their isolation period!
Meanwhile, tomorrow I will finally be able to do my Costco shopping. December is a weird month for my husband’s disability payments, though, and it comes in before Christmas instead of at the end of the month. Usually, that has meant us doing our Christmas/New Year’s shopping and January stock up shopping at the same time. This trip is so much later in the month than usual, I might be able to do most of that tomorrow, but we’ll see.
The less time spent shopping, this time of year, the better. I’d hibernate all winter, if I could! I don’t like shopping and I don’t like crowds at the best of times, never mind with holiday crowds and winter driving! Even just today, by the time I got home, I found the donated canned cat food I used to make the cat soup had started to freeze!
Ah, well. It is what it is. No point complaining about it! 😁
As for me, I didn’t get much sleep last night and had to get up extra early, so I am more than ready to go to bed early tonight!
Who am I kidding. I’ll probably be lucky to get to bed before midnight, anyhow! 😄😄
I’d rather stay home for the rest of the week, too, but if there was a day for it, it’s today.
As I write this, we are at -9C/16F, but the wind chill puts us at -21C/-6F. I’m not sure what it was when I headed out this morning, to do the rounds. My daughter was going to do it, but when I saw her using a cane this morning, I just went ahead and did it!
It was still dark when I started, but the sun was up well before I was done. I also got to see this little puff ball.
Not a good picture, but I had to zoom in in the half light to get it. Little mustache baby will not let us come any closer.
I want to snuggle that face!!!
His fluffiness is very much like Patience, even though he’s still about half the size.
I think he’s a he. I’m not 100% sure, though. Too much fluff.
Another good thing about getting outside as early as I did is that it was in between snowfalls. Not long after I got back inside, it started blowing snow and visibility dropped quite a bit. As I write this, is has been calm for a little while, but the snow is supposed to start up again basically now, according to the weather maps.
The temperature, however, is expected to increase. By 9pm, we’re expected to hit -3C/27F before it starts to drop to a low of -16C/3F by 8am tomorrow morning. We’re expecting another bit of snow at around 6am.
For my daughter’s appointment tomorrow, we need to be on the road by 7:45am at the latest. I want to make sure to give us extra time in case the road conditions are not good.
The day after is also supposed to be older, with temperatures of -18C/0F expected right when we need to be catching a couple of ladies into carriers before feeding time, and taking them in for spays. Hopefully, road conditions will be good for that, too.
From then, it’s supposed to warm up again. We’re now supposed to be getting 3C/37F by Friday.
This month is going to be all over the place, temperature wise!
I’m good with that. Especially the warmer temperatures. We have a lot of small kitties this year, so the milder things are, the easier it will be for those tiny bodies to keep warm.
Yeah. I’m a suck for the cats.
As for today, I’m content with another hibernation day.
Since yesterday – Sunday – ended up being a very long day of driving around and getting our truck in the city, today became my day of rest.
I even got to sleep in, and sleep well. As usually, I got inundated with cats but this time, they actually snuggled pleasantly. No stepping painfully on various body parts. No trying to lie on my face. No fighting amongst each other.
Well. Not much. Just a bit of hissing at times.
In fact, they helped keep me warm and cozy and let me fall into a deep and restful sleep.
I don’t expect this to happen again, so I’ll take it!
My daughter was only up to doing short rounds this morning, which is basically just making sure the outside cats got food and warm water. I did their evening feeding and topped up their warm water, too. With the sun room water bowl no longer working, it was full of ice.
And the critter cam.
Some cats like to hang out on the plant trays on the shelf where the critter cam was set up. I saw it was pushed downwards when I tried to check it. By the time I got out and could fix it, it had been knocked off completely. The camera was held in place with Alien Tape, which works great, normally. It’s frozen now, so once it gets unstuck, it won’t work again until it’s thawed. I ended up having to put the camera one shelf down and tried to wedge in in place. I had to make sure it couldn’t fall into the water bowl again, too. If it does get knocked off, it should just dangle a few inches but that’s it. It it working now, except the view is partially blocked by the shelf itself on one side.
While I was outside, I just had to try and get a good shot of Patience. I wasn’t able to get the shot I wanted, since he moved while I was getting my phone out, but I think I got one that captured what I was after.
His fur has gotten SO long and thick. When he’s loafed on the ground, he’s just a big round mass of fluff with eyes.
If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see his sister, Peanut Butter Cup. She, too, is a mass of fluff!
The Cat Lady and I are both surprised she hasn’t been adopted yet.
Overall, today was pleasant outside, if a bit colder than yesterday. We reached a high of -11C/12F, which is a degree warmer than was in the forecast yesterday. It’s supposed to start snowing tonight, then tomorrow, we’re supposed to reach a high of -4C/25F I was thinking of doing a dump run tomorrow, but the dump is open in the morning, and it’s supposed to still be snowing then. We’ll see what the road conditions are like, since I was planning to also hit a feed store for 40 pound bags of kibble.
Wednesday – which is when my daughter and I have our doctor and eye appointments – and Thursday – when we have 2 cats to go in for spays – are supposed to have highs of only -16C/3F and -15C/5F, but it’s Friday and the weekend that is really catching my attention. Friday is supposed to reach a high of 0C/32F, while Sunday is supposed to reach a high of 2C/36F!! It’s supposed to cool down again after that, but I’m really hoping it’ll stay quite mild, since we will have the ladies recovering in the isolation shelter for 2 weeks after their spays. Looking further ahead to the week of Christmas, and we have forecasts for highs up to 6C/43F for a couple of days! Christmas day itself is currently expected to be the coldest day of the week, with a high of -1C/30F.
I’m just excited by the idea of having two mild winters in a row. Having an El Nińo winter last year was great, but NOT having a strong La Nińa winter this year is just bonus. I’m hoping this will also be good for our winter sown garden beds, too.
One thing we haven’t been doing at all yet is start decorating for Christmas. I haven’t bothered setting up the Advent wreath. Normally, we would have had it on the dining table or on the counter dividing the kitchen from the dining room, but some of the cats would have a field day with it. The alternative is the living room – the cat free zone – but the bins of tomatoes I brought in from the old kitchen are still ripening in there, and taking up the space.
Yes. We still have tomatoes ripening!
Hopefully, we’ll be able to get stuff like that cleared out enough that we can at least put our little Christmas trees on top of the piano, like we did last year.
I think it’s going to be a quite Christmas this year. I don’t mind that at all. In fact, the quieter the better, as far as I’m concerned! 😄
It’s all gone as I write this, but heading out this morning was a glittering, sparkling winter wonderland!
All the trees were frosted like this. There’s no way the camera in my phone could pick up how it was all sparkling in the sunshine!
I also had a nice surprise when I got to our gate. Yesterday, I saw that someone had opened up one side of the driveway more for us, at the plow ridge. This morning, the other side was done! This time, the motion sensor on the trail cam was triggered, and I could confirm it was the same neighbour who would suddenly clear our driveway last year. Last year, we had enough accumulated snow that, once it was deeper than the bottom of our gate, we left the gate open, so he just went in and cleared our driveway for us. With how much milder this winter has been, and seeing our vandal do things like stalk along the road when the vehicles we’d sold for parts were being collected, we didn’t dare leave the gate open. Otherwise, I know he would have widened the whole driveway for us. As it is, he did what we could, just because he could!
Having such great neighbours does make up a lot for having to take extra precautions because of our vandal.
The good thing is, our new truck can handle a plow attachment. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find a used one, because even the cheap, generic new kits start at around $1300, before taxes, with some costing more than $5000!
Something else to try and figure out how to squeeze out of our budget!
The Re-Farmer 