With needing to go to my mother’s for her bed time med/personal care assists for three nights in a row, I’ve asked the girls to take over doing the morning routine, so I could sleep in.
Too bad the inside cats didn’t get the memo. I had a really rough night last night, mostly due to cast deciding it was play time.
I had some concerns about my mother after seeing her, and have passed those on to the home care coordinator. There was some definite increased confusion. It might have been because she was really tired. She was actually surprised to see me because she said the guy that did her supper assist (no personal care on that visit, so she’s okay with a guy doing it) was supposed to come back for her bed time assist. She told me some conflicting things, so I had to include those in my email with the home care coordinator, because they just didn’t make sense. I need to confirm what’s actually happening.
As for today, we warmed up to a whole -6C/21F this afternoon, so I headed out to do a last few things before the temperatures start dropping.
One of those was to use the straw I’d collected in the wheelbarrow last night, before things started to get too dark.
The water bowl shelter now has straw on the floor in the back, on top of the rigid insulation that was already there. The giant crocheted blanket that was under there is now covering the roof of the kibble house as an extra layer of insulation.
After setting up the back of the water bowl house with straw, I had plenty left over, so I added some to the floor of the kibble house, too, which you can see in the second picture of the slide show above. There is a sheet of insulation under the floor boards, plus another sheet on the ground below, so any cats small enough to go under there are pretty well sheltered, too.
That done, it was time to put the straw bale away for the winter, so to speak. I dragged over the insulated tarp to cover it with. Unfortunately, that tarp got some holes worn into it in places, and water got inside the layers. I tried to set it up so it could dry, but then we started getting more rain. Which mean a section of it was frozen flat an inflexible.
Still, it’ll do the job.
I raked up loose straw around the bale first, then covered it with the tarp and tied it in place. Hopefully, the wind won’t catch on it too much. The wrapped bale is in the last photo of the slide show above
We are now officially done with winterizing things now.
Once the bale was covered, I stayed out to do a bunch of little things around the yard before it was time to do the evening food and water for the outside cats.
In the first picture above, you can see the cats are quite happy with the straw in their kibble shelter! In the next picture, you can see the usual crowd in the top of the isolation shelter. The last picture, however, made me happy to see. That’s Pinky, enjoying the straw bed in the bottom of the shelter. She used to enjoy the cat bed that had been under there until they started using it as a litter box. Now there’s no bed down there, but two litter boxes, and now straw.
It’s getting cold enough now that we will probably have to stop softening their kibble. It’s not an issue in the sun room or isolation shelter, but in all the other shelter kibble bowls, it’s getting to the point that it will freeze before they can finish eating it.
I am not looking forward to winter. I’m getting too old for the cold!
I’m happy to say that I pretty much finished all the stuff I needed to get done before the hard freeze hit, but I just had to share this first.
One of the adult females we’ve been trying to get is Adam. She sometimes allows us to pet her, but we just haven’t been able to get her into a carrier.
As I was going through the sun room this evening, I spotted her.
That’s her, peeking at me from one of the carriers, back in its spot on the shelf.
Well, at least she associates carriers as a cozy spot to hang out. If only she would do this when we can get her to a vet for a spay!
*sigh*
The first thing I needed to do when I headed outside this afternoon was set up the emergency diverter for the septic, now that the tank area is covered in straw. In the basement, I grabbed a length of foam pipe insulation to put around the pipe first, then pushed it as far as it could go against the wall. When the ejector froze last winter, every time the pump turned on and greywater was pumped out the emergency bypass, I would hear vibrating noises of pipe against concrete that always got me nervous. I’ve become rather paranoid about our septic system! The pipe insulation I used is one of several lengths I found in the old basement that is meant to go over water pipes, not the larger pipe from the septic, but it’s split lengthwise, so I could get it around the half that was against the wall. That’s all I need.
Once outside, I had to remove the insert plug my brother had put on the outside end, which was secured with a steel ring hose clamp. The plug he got has the ridges that help keep it from being pushed out by pressure, plus the tightened the ring enough to squeeze the end of the pipe tightly. Basically, it would have been a great permanent plug. Unfortunately, it’s not meant to be permanent. It’s meant to be taken out as needed. An ordinary, temporary, end cap would have sufficed, but my brother is very thorough! It took considerable effort, and an adjustable wrench, to finally get it out. Plus a flat head screwdriver to create space between the pipe and the plug, just to be able to move it at all!
Once the end was open, I could set it into the PVC pipe I had ready. Then I used the collection of boards, bricks and scrap pieces of Styrofoam insulation to create a gradual slope from the rigid pipe and along the flexible hose so that grey water could be diverted far from the house, into the maple grove.
Hopefully, we will never need to use this again, but it’s good to have it set up and ready, just in case!
The down side of having that set up is that it blocks access around that corner of the house from where the bale is. Once the emergency diverter was set up, I got the wagon and the wheelbarrow to get straw to the various areas I wanted to mulch. When it came time to do the old kitchen garden, I had to go the long way around with the wagon and wheelbarrow loads of straw. Not a problem. Just a bit inconvenient.
The first area I worked on was in the main garden. The above picture is a little preview. By the time I was done, light was starting to fade fast. I decided to do a quick, impromptu garden tour video. I’ll be working on editing that tonight, and will likely have it ready to post tomorrow. I have a few hours to kill before I have to go to my mother’s for her bed time med and personal care assist.
Before I finished for the night, I grabbed one more wheelbarrow load of straw and set it by the covered greenhouse. Tomorrow, I plan to clear out the water bowl house and set straw on the floor, removing the huge crocheted blanket entirely. We’ll set that over the kibble house roof as extra insulation. I expect to have leftover straw, and will find other places to leave it for the cats. The cats really, really like the straw! The last thing to do will be to rake up around the bale to clean things up, then cover it with a tarp for the winter.
I am so glad we were able to get another straw bale this year – and that the renters had one to spare! Next year, when it’s time to use straw as mulch on the garden beds, I plan to run it through the shredder chute on the wood chipper, first. In the past, I tried using the push mower to shred the straw, but it clogged up the air filter so quickly. We only have my brother’s push mower now, so I’m not going to be doing that with his equipment!
Getting this last bit of progress done before things got too cold feels so good! 😊
Aside from a morning occupied with wandering around the yard, trying to get a signal on my cell phone, so I could listen to the voicemails from home care, with all the phone calls, emails and messages that get done because of it, it was a decently productive day!
The main goal was accomplished, and that was breaking open that straw bale and covering the septic tank.
The outside was so densely packed, and partially frozen, that it formed a shell. I took advantage of that. After removing the insulated tarp and spreading out loose straw, I’d drop chunks of the outer shell on top, strategically, to keep the straw from blowing away before it could settle in place. There were still some chunks left over when I finished covering the septic tank area, and I put those on top of the bale to form a sort of roof. Once we’re done covering things with straw, I plan to “store” the insulated tarp by setting it over the bale. That way, moisture won’t get into the open end and cause rot.
Once the area was covered, I got the emergency bypass for the septic partially set up. The pipe in the basement needs to be pushed through, and the end can be set into the PVC pipe – after taking the cap off, of course! I’ve got the flexible hose running into the maple grove this time – something we couldn’t do last winter, because of the snow. Once it’s set up properly at the house, we’ll set various supports under everything, to create a gradual decline and try to make up for uneven ground. Last year, there was one time when the flexible hose froze closed because there was a slight dip in the ground.
Hopefully, we will not need to use it at all. However, should the ejector freeze again, all will be ready, and we’ll just need to open the ball valve. The heat tape is still set up around the parts of the ejector that is above ground, but that won’t help anything at the venturi valve on the bottom.
We were planning a dump run today, so I didn’t have time to start covering the winter sown garden beds with straw on top of the leaf mulch, but I did have time to winterize things more for the yard cats.
I especially wanted to the get catio strawed up. I took everything out and put a decent layer on the ground, focusing on filling the gaps under the elevated frame. Then I added some onto the hammocks, just because. I put the pieces of rigid insulation back under the self heating cat shelter again, but the other pieces were no longer needed under the box nests. Since the self heating cat shelter had been collapsed a couple of times, it was a bit floppy in one area, so I trimmed one of the scrap pieces of insulation to fit tightly between the floor and the roof, against the wall next to the entry. Hopefully, it will stay in place, but if it falls in, that’s fine. The cats love that insulation!
As you can see in the picture, the cats are indeed using the new shelter!
The straw will also help insulate the water bowl, at least a bit, so it won’t freeze quite so quickly. I still had to take a hatchet to the ice to be able to drain the water inside, and replace it with hot water. The hot water would melt at some of the remaining ice and soon be cool enough for the cats to drink.
When it was feeding time, I noticed the straw on the hammocks were compacted in circles. Cats are definitely appreciating the straw up there, too!
The catio winterized a bit more, I switched to the isolation shelter – which has seen a whole lot of activity of cats enjoying it being open again!
I removed the litter pans from the bottom level and swept things out as best I could. I’ve got an old telescoping snow brush with a broken scraper that’s perfect for the job. Once that was cleaned up, a fairly thin layer of straw was added – I didn’t want to add to much, since there is a heat bulb and power cords in the upper level – and then the refreshed litter pans were returned.
Which, as you can see in the second picture of the slide show above, Pinky promptly jumped into, before joining the crowd above, which you can see in the last picture of the slide show!
I had a bit of straw left in the wheelbarrow when the catio and isolation shelter we done, so I added it in the covered greenhouse, on the ground under the food tray and water bowl. Even with that, I had a bit I could set on the concrete patio block between the isolation shelter and the steps, just to give another insulated place for the cats to sit on.
While I was doing that, my daughter brought the truck into the yard and loaded up the garbage and recycling. Once the dump was open for the afternoon, we headed out. After unloading at the dump, we continued on to the town north of us – right into blowing snow. Not a significant amount, but definitely the most we’ve seen this year. The system passed our place entirely, but went right over the town to the north of us.
Our destination there wasn’t actually in town, but the feed store. I picked up four 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats while my daughter went shopping in there clothing and boots section. For that many bags, I paid for them, then backed the truck up to their shipping/receiving door to get the kibble, then parked again and rejoined my daughter.
She had been looking for something specific, which she found, but she got distracted by their display of bib overalls. She told me later that she’s been pining for bib overalls since she outgrew some she grew out of when she was 7! She’d looked at them at places like Mark’s Warehouse before, but wasn’t happy with what they had.
This place carried a brand called Tough Duck, which were exactly what she wanted. They had another, more expensive, brand as well, but she didn’t like them as much. She had a budget for only one thing, though, and the overalls won! She got these. (not an affiliate link) Given her rather generous feminine assets, plus these are meant to be worn over clothing, she went with a 3X. She didn’t try them on until we got home and she is very happy with them. These are men’s overalls and ludicrously long on her, but they can be hemmed. The website does have a women’s version but there are no hourglass figured in this household! My daughters and I take after my Eastern European side of the family. If it weren’t for boobs, we’d be straight, rectangular brick houses. 😄 So when it comes to pants, men’s clothing tends to fit better.
When I had a chance later on, I tried them on, too. I might actually want to go a size bigger, only because they tend to pull when I bend over to touch my feet. The fabric has no real stretch to it, though it would soften and loosen up a bit after a few washings. I do a LOT of bending from the waist when I work, since my knees aren’t stable enough to bend at the knees, so it’s something to keep in mind. Not that I’d be getting myself a set anytime soon, but they would be really handy to have come spring time!
After getting the legs hemmed. 😄
Once home and unloaded, the first thing I did was start feeding the outside cats, so my daughter could park the truck, then do my evening rounds. When I was done, I spotted this bit of adorableness.
That would be Sprig, who is only slightly less feral than her mother, Sprout!
I haven’t seen Sprout for a few days. I hope she’s okay.
Sprig has been coming into the sun room more often, and joining the cuddle puddles. So far, I’ve only managed to sneak a touch as she runs past. I’m happy to see her using the new cat cave. I zoomed in to get the picture, as I knew she would run away if I came to close, and I didn’t want to chase her out of a warm spot.
It would be really awesome if we could get her to the vet tomorrow! In a couple of hours, my daughter and I will head out to see who we can set up overnight in the isolation shelter for an overnight fast. Not that they’ll be fed again until after we leave in the morning, so any of the cats could be brought in – if we can get them into carriers. I really want to get Frank. She’s a bundle of nerves, but is still the most approachable of the intact females. Adam and Slick have been coming around, but Slick hasn’t been allowing contact, and Adam only allows it while she’s eating. The white one with grey tabby spots is even more feral. Trapping will likely be the only option. I just don’t see us being able to socialize them over the winter, and I really want to get them spayed before they go into heat in the late winter/spring.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day, that’s for sure. The goal is to be on the road with the 3 cats by 7:30, as the drop off time is 8:50am this time. We’ll be staying in the city until the clinic calls us to pick up the cats – trying to avoid the Black Friday crowds. (Weird that Canada does Black Friday, when our Thanksgiving was last month.) Then, I’ll be doing my mother’s bed time med/personal care assist at around 9pm. If it were summer, I’d be napping in the truck while waiting for a call from the clinic, but it’s getting too cold to do that now.
I wasn’t sure if it was going to get done. When I headed out this morning to feed the outside cats, it was decidedly unpleasant.
I also counted 38 cats. I haven’t seen that one tabby that I didn’t recognize, but none of the ones I did see were unfamiliar. Which means the crowd was congregating all at once!
I didn’t soak the kibble in the morning, because I knew it would freeze, so I saved that for the afternoon. I counted 32, that time. Including this little fluff ball.
Tomorrow evening, we are going to get Frank and Pinky closed up in the isolation shelter, so that they can have their fast (after a treat of wet cat food) and be easier to catch in the morning, for their spays. The other cats and kittens are not going to be happy with not being allowed in the isolation shelter for a month! We’ve got the first two that will be in there until it’s time to switch them out for about 10 days, and then we’ll have the next two set up in there for their recovery period. Assuming we can catch two more females. If we ended up with males, they won’t need that much time for observation and recovery.
After the second feeding, I did my evening rounds before it got too dark – these are being done earlier and earlier! Today, I made a point of checking the asters. I’d left the flower bed untouched, so that the Cosmos could shelter the memorial asters from the frost, and hopefully give them time to go to seed.
I collected some to bring inside for planting next year. I left others to self seed. I’m so happy they had enough time to develop seeds before the deep freeze hit!
It was nice enough out that I grabbed a rake and collected leaves to do some mulching, then did a bit of winterizing.
The first picture in the slide show above is where the tiny strawberries were transplanted. I have no idea if they will survive in their new location, but it is worth a try. In the next picture, you can see that the strawberries transplanted into the retaining wall also got mulched with leaves. Next was the saffron. I don’t know if I am being too early with this, or too late, since they are showing new growth. The one flower bud that is still there looks like it froze before it could open, so I left it. I had considered leaving those until later, as we are supposed to warm up a little bit over the next week, but then I saw cats digging around them to leave “presents”, so the mulch is to keep them away, too.
I didn’t mulch the little herb bed, as we are still able to harvest from them, but I did get a pile of leaves ready for when it’s time.
Now that our septic tank is empty, it’s time to get that area ready for winter, too. We’ll be setting the emergency bypass up, just in case, so I stretched out the flexible hose so that it can warm up in the sun and straighten out. I ended up sitting a short length of pipe into the far end to flatten it, because it kept sticking up into the air. The two lengths of PVC pipe we set over the pipe from the basement got shoved into the flexible hose at the other end to help straighten that out, too. In a couple of sections, I leaned boards and bricks and whatnot to get them to straighten out and flatten to the ground.
We did not get the straw bale I was hoping to get this weekend. It might still get delivered in the next while but, just in case, I set the insulated tarp over the septic tank and weighed it down.
The forecast now says we should reach highs of 5C/41F next weekend, and that should be pretty much it for the winter. Time enough for a few last things, like covering the herb bed and, if the straw comes in, using that in various places. I’ll take advantage of every warmish day we have right now!
According to the weather apps, we’re currently at -5C/23F, with the “feels like” at -9C/16F.
I don’t know where the weather station for that reading is, but it’s been mostly sunny today and feels much warmer than that, to me!
Warm enough that I decided we should go ahead and cover the portable greenhouse with the tarp so graciously gifted to us.
In retrospect, we should have removed the torn up plastic over first, but the tie downs are attached to it, so I didn’t think of it.
I had already adjusted the tie downs so that they no longer stretched away from the corners, creating tripping hazards. Instead, I wrapped them around the sides and and was able to secure them around the corners at the opposite end. They are long enough that the ones from the back corners wrapped around the doorway and were secured on the inside. Which meant there were no tie downs to work around while adding the tarp.
So this is a really high end tarp, which is so appreciated. It also is black on one side, so we decided to have the black facing out, so that it could warm up more in the sun.
As you can see in the second photo of the slide show above, the tarp is a fair bit bigger than the portable greenhouse frame!
I had the help of a daughter to get it unfolded, then up and over the frame. After that, I worked on it on my own, since I was figuring things out as I went along.
I deliberately put the tarp off center so that I could secure the side facing the kibble house to the ground, right at the base of the frame. I spend the next while trying to figure out how best to origami it in a way I thought would be least likely to get caught up in the wind. Once I secured most of it, I ended up tucking the excess on the side facing away from the kibble house, under the frame itself.
From the back and sides, it made a nice little package.
If you click through to the next couple of pictures, however, you can see the front was a very different challenge. I had considered and tried a number of options, and even considered turning that end into a sort of tent. Which probably would have turned into a wind tunnel, so it was probably good I decided it wouldn’t work . We need to be able to walk through there, shovel snow, etc, and it would have blocked things way too much. I ended up folding quite a bit of it under, tucking the edge back over the frame to secure it. Which left me with no grommets I could use to secure that anything around the doorway from the wind.
I had set up an old bench we found… in the spruce grove, if I remember correctly – that I’d had against the back to keep the wind from flapping the torn cover around. I also had our wire mesh door and folding table along the more exposed east facing side, for the same purpose. Those got put back, once the sides and back were done.
The doorway needs to be kept available, of course, and there was no way to shelter the doorway and still be able to get in and out as needed. I had to find another solution.
I tied one end of the twine to the frame on the inside on one side, wrapped it around the back, then secured the other end to the matching part of the frame on the other side, making sure all was snug and tight. If you click through the next couple of pictures, you can see how it was secured by twine, bench, wire mesh door and table. The bench has to be lying on its side, as it is too broken up to stay upright if there is any wind, or even if a cat just jumps on it. 😄
The door is wide open, and wind and snow will get into it. There is no getting around that, at this point.
As I was working in it, cats and kittens were very curious and checking everything out, so I am confident they will be comfortable using it for shelter. It is definitely warmer in there, too. Having it black side out is going to make a big difference, I think. Enough to make up for losing the greenhouse effect. It’s now quite dark in there, but the cats don’t mind that at all.
Now, if only we could find a way to make sure no cats try to jump up onto it! The tarp may be 10mm thick, but cat claws could still cause damage.
So that’s a bit more winterizing we found ourselves needing to do. I think it will work out all right for the most part. It’s only the front that concerns me. We don’t have any high winds in the forecast right now, though, so it will be a while before it gets a litmus test!
I got back from the city early enough, and it was still warm enough, to get some progress done in the garden.
My first priority was to winter sow in the east yard low raised beds. Two of these beds were already prepped, but not covered in any way, so they did require some clean up. The cats have been using them as litter boxes!
Some of their “presents” were astonishingly huge.
Ew.
My original plan had been to do the kohlrabi and cabbage on the outside of the beds, then have peas down the middle of one, while leaving a gap in the middle of the other to plant pole beans in the spring.
I forgot. The kohlrabi and cabbage will need to be covered in netting to keep them from being decimated by flea beetles and cabbage moths. Having something growing on a trellis in the middle is probably not a good idea!
In the first picture below, the beds are cleaned up, leveled and rows marked out.
In the second picture, you can see the planted rows of purple and white kohlrabi. If I had gone ahead with the plan to grow pole beans down the middle, these rows would have been further apart. I decided to stick with just the two rows and moved them closer to the middle. These raised beds are more prone to freezing than the beds in the main garden area, simply because the boards are so much thinner than the logs used in the longer beds. We’ve lost almost entire beds of garlic over the winter due to excessive cold, even with a mulch. I’m hoping that, with sowing them closer to the middle, deep mulching them with leaves, plus the predicted milder winter we’re expected to have, they will survive. The plant spacing for these, according to the package, is 4-6 inches, so I tried to scatter the seeds with my little hand seeder fairly lightly. If they survive and germinate, they will still need to be thinned later on, but not by too much. Hopefully, if I have the space, the will be thinned by transplanting.
In the next picture, I have the Purple Savoy cabbage. This is the first time we’ve tried to grow cabbage. I originally planned to have two rows on the outside, then peas in the middle, but decided to do three rows of cabbage. As they need about a foot per cabbage for spacing, I tried to scatter two or three seeds every foot or so, though a few spots accidentally got quite a bit more! You can sort of see a grid in the soil, from where the seeds were covered and the soil gently pressed down, while the rest of the rows I made with a hoe remain untouched.
Grommet REALLY wanted to “help” me with the sowing!
I had made sure to rake up plenty of leaves into the wagon and the wheelbarrow before I started, and was able to give the beds a good mulching for the winter. Then I transferred one of the raised bed covers for the winter. There is another one on the third bed I could move over, but I decided against it. That cover’s wire mesh does not have hoops to support it. Cats would knock that flat and out of shape in a heartbeat. So it’s up on top of the box frame one the other bed, which I’ve found surprisingly useful. I plan to make more 3′ x 9′ covers like this over time, but we need to buy more lumber for it, first.
That done, it was time to shift over to the old kitchen garden.
The cats have been having a field day in the cleaned up wattle weave bed, so that got a clean up, first. My plan is to winter sow dwarf peas in the back of the south facing section of the wattle weave bed, and transplant any onions, etc that I found in the rectangular bed in the front.
That… might not quite work out! At least, not so much for the onions part.
The first thing was to harvest the remaining Swiss Chard. It wasn’t until I uploaded the pictures onto Instagram that I realized I forgot them outside! They should be okay overnight.
In the second picture, you can see an area on the south side of the bed, where the cats dug into the dirt. I suspect there was a mouse or something that got their attention for them to dig it out that much. There had been grass clippings chinked in the gap between the logs, but that disappeared. It’s been filled repeatedly, and the cats keep pulling it out. So one of the things I needed to do was find a way to block that gap in a cat proof way.
Once the chard and remaining kohlrabi roots were cleared out, it was time to loosen the soil, pull the weeds and set aside any little onions I found.
I found so many, I started just tossing them with the weeds after a while!
What I really wanted to find out is what was going on with what looked like a cluster of garlic coming up, and another cluster of what I thought were onions but, as they got larger, the leaves started to look like some sort of ornamental allium, instead.
In the next picture, you can see that there were two entire bulbs of garlic that somehow got missed! I planted garlic in here a couple of years ago. This year, two garlic bulbs grew among the seed mix in this bed. They grew into nice sized bulbs that got harvested.
Now I find two full bulbs of garlic that somehow got missed over two growing seasons! I will probably separate the cloves and transplant them.
Next to the garlic is the cluster of alliums growing near by that did turn out to be onions. Several of them were growing together like bunching onions, rather than bulb onions, but I’ve never grown bunching onions. They are large enough that I will probably transplant them, too.
In the next photo, you can see most of the other onions I found while cleaning the bed. There were so many tiny ones! One red onion was quite large. I will transplant the larger ones, but I don’t know if I’ll bother with the teeny ones.
While working across the bed, I was finding a surprising number of roots. Some were definitely from the rose bush at the end of the bed, but it’s possible others were from the ornamental crap apples and the double lilac. It definitely made the job take longer. As I worked my way up the bed, I took advantage of having lots of old stakes handy from the bed along the retaining wall, before the wattle weaving was added on top of the retaining wall blocks. Some of the largest, strongest ones were used to stabilize the top side logs, as their supports were getting old and starting to break.
To block the gap, I used some flat pieces of scrap wood that were in the corner, then a whole bunch of old stakes, on the inside of the wall. Once the bed is done and ready for planting, these will be mostly buried and hidden from view.
As you can tell by the last picture, and the flash needed for the pictures of the onion and garlic, I had to stop before it was all finished. It was simply getting too dark. I was working by the light of the shop lights at the sun room window by then, and those were on only because their motion sensors were being triggered.
I don’t have anywhere to be at tomorrow, so I’ll be able to finish the job then, and do more winter sowing. I should also be able to clean out that little bed off by itself in the main garden area, where I’ve decided to plant bread seed poppies. Since I didn’t winter sow a variety of peas I’d meant to plant between the cabbage, I’m considering finding somewhere else to winter sow them. Once the dwarf peas are planted, that’s two varieties of peas that are winter sown, so leaving the third variety I was planning to winter sow for the spring would be fine, too. I also have our own saved sugar snap pea seeds that can be sown in the spring.
The rectangular bed that’s being cleared now will have beets and tiny bok choi winter sown in it, probably interplanted with some of those onions and/or garlic I’ve been finding! I was thinking of planting something down the middle, but I can’t for the life of me remember what that was right now. I’ve got diagrams drawn out, but those are in the basement, along with my seed inventory.
So that’s the garden and winter sowing status, for now. We should have a nice head start into next year’s garden, if this works out.
I will also be making what will probably be my last garden tour video of the year. Last year, I ended up doing my October video using video recorded on November 1, because the video I’d taken on October 31 was done too late in the day, and everything was too dark. So I want to make sure to get it done earlier, and earlier in the day.
Thankfully, it looks like the weather will hold for a while yet, and I should be able to get other things done before the snow flies. We’ll see how that works out!
Today was supposed to be a much warmer day. Technically, it was, but we also had high winds, so it sure didn’t feel much warmer!
The winds showed exactly why I needed to get the catio finished. The bottoms or the front panels I had to leave unsecured because it got too dark and too cold to continue were flapping in the wind.
If you click through above, there’s a short video of the kitten being adorable.
Working on the bottom of the catio had its challenges, but the biggest one turned out to be Kohl. She absolutely HAD to be right in there, trying to lick my fingers and giving me little nips if I didn’t pet her often enough.
Once it was done, I figured it would be easier to make a video to share.
The only problem was that the door was loose. Previously, I was able to tie it in the mostly closed position, so it wouldn’t get blown around in the wind. There is a brick to keep it from closing all the way, but it sometimes gets knocked over and I’ve found the door closed a couple of times, just since it got moved to this location. Since it’s not latched, a cat inside could push their way out, though it might take them a while to figure it out, and it would be harder for the smaller kittens. No cats would be able to get in to the food, water and shelter, though.
What I ended up finding was a small Bungee cord with hooks small enough to fit onto the wire mesh. I’ve got it looped around the handle. It’s stretchy enough that larger cats can push their way through the gap, but strong enough to keep the door from being blown around – plus securing the door like this helps keep the brick in place, too.
All in all, I’m very happy with how it has turned out. There are a few finishing touches I’d like to do, but they aren’t essential.
After I finished with the catio, I had intended to work in the garden, but it was just too windy. Instead, I worked on putting things away for the winter. The canopy tent was really being blown around, so that is not down and tucked into the garage for the winter. Then it was puttering round, doing things like getting the insulation set up around the based of the house, putting the hoses at the back away, etc.
While I was working, I heard some load noises from somewhere in the outer yard, so when I had the chance, I went looking around to see what had been blown over.
This old log building has been slowly collapsing more and more for many years. It’s a shame it was allowed to happen. I remember playing in there when I was a kid, and it was in front of where the chain link fence is now.
With the wall down, I went closer to take a look at things. We’re definitely going to have to get that cleaned up as soon as possible. There are a lot of nails and sharp things sticking out.
There is also an oil drum that is now visible, though not in the angle of the shot above. Something sitting on top caught my attention.
Yup. They are fire bricks. I had to remove moss growing on one of them.
After taking the picture, I looked up the name on the bricks.
It turns out they are vintage fire bricks! Claybank Brick Plant in Saskatchewan is designated as a national historic site! It operated from 1914 to 1989, with a brief closure in 1916, partly due to WWI.
The bricks are now in the garage.
There is so much stuff in there, including what appears to be salvageable small lumber and possibly a stack of plywood? I can just see the edges of them, with no indication of size, other than there being some smaller ones in the stack.
After inspecting the wind damage on the old log building, I went around the yard to see what other wind damage there might be. No new fallen trees, thankfully, but I did find some larger fallen branches. My mother’s angel by the gate is still upright, though! I’ve no doubt that, were it not secured to the concrete base under it, it would have fallen over with today’s winds.
While I was still outside, I got a call on my cell phone.
It was home care.
*sigh*
They don’t have anyone to cover my mother’s morning med assists, tomorrow. This was a time slot that actually had someone scheduled, not one of the “unfilled” slots. I went in to call my mother and left a message, then headed back outside to finish a few last things. When I got back in, I thought I saw a new message on the machine and listened to it. It was my mother talking about not getting her meds regularly, and that’s why her health is failing. I called her back but she was confused when I mentioned I’d heard her message. She hadn’t called me today! (She hadn’t seen my message to her, either.) It turned out I had listened to an old message.
Ah, well. I needed to talk to her, anyhow. She’s still upset about having the male home care workers from India. This time, she saw something on the news about a “new” gang from India that the police found. Nothing about where, but now she assumes that if the home care workers are from India, they must be gang members.
*sigh*
Anyhow.
I encouraged my mother to ask the home care workers for help more often, and she didn’t get angry with me about it, so that’s an improvement. Since I’ll be there tomorrow morning, I’ll be taking care of a few other things as well. Her current schedule was done before we had the meeting with the home care coordinator, so it doesn’t reflect extra time for this, but I noticed that she’s got 15 minutes for the morning, 5 minutes at supper, and 10 minutes for the bed time meds. If they’re going to be available to do things like make her a small meal, they’ll need to increase at least the scheduled time at supper.
With that in mind, I’d better get to bed before midnight for a change. :-/
Tomorrow is supposed to be just as warm as today. I hope the winds won’t be back. If I’m going to get any winter sowing done, I need to rake up lots of leaves to mulch the beds right away. I wasn’t even going to try, today. It would just get blown away!
Well, crud. I just checked the forecast. Apparently, it’s going to be even windier, tomorrow!
At this rate, there might not be any leaves left in the yard to rake up for mulch!
Well, I seem to have pushed myself a bit too much, yesterday. I actually needed to use painkillers before doing to bed last night. In the morning, I asked my daughters to do the morning routine while I took more pain killers and tried to get a bit more sleep.
Which the cats sabotaged, of course!
My younger daughter needed to hit the grocery store, so she went along with me to the hardware store to pay the balance on the new front door. I even got Air Miles on it – and on the deposit I’d etransferred back when I first accepted the contract.
While there, we looked around for something to use to secure the vinyl I wanted to wrap around the catio. I knew what I needed it to do, but didn’t know what there was that I could use to do it. All the different things we looked at were either not flat enough, not strong enough, too strong, etc.
Finally, we just sort of gave up and starting looking at hand tools.
Because my daughter and I both have a thing for tools!
When someone asked if we needed help, I figured, why not? I brought up some pictures of the winterized isolation shelter and explained that I wanted to something that would do what the wood lath did to secure the vinyl, but narrower, and showed him a picture of the catio.
After talking about it for a bit, he took us over to a display we’d walked right past and showed us their steel strapping. I did already have some at home and would have preferred to not use metal, but in the end, it really was the best we’d be able to come up with. So we got a roll of 25′ galvanized steel strapping to supplement what I had at home, which would not have been enough for the job.
Then, my daughter treated us to lunch.
Well…
Breakfast, really.
Her disability has finally started to come in, so she had a small budget.
After lunch, we did her shopping, then headed home.
As soon as I was settled in and changed, I headed out to work on the catio.
The first thing to do was cover the door, on its own. For that, I repurposed some of the old vinyl that had been taken off earlier. It was a bit frayed so, after measuring the door, I doubled it up and duct taped parts of it to hold it together, and reinforce stress points.
Because of the latch and handle, one corner got folded under when it was time to attach it to the door.
Attaching the steel strapping to the bottom was the most difficult part. I don’t bend well.
I then measured the height of the sides for the next part. It is 50″ tall, and the clear vinyl dining table protectors I got for this are 52″ wide.
I am very glad I moved that folding table under the canopy tent near the catio!
I spent the next while setting strips of duct tape half way under one of the long edges of a vinyl sheet. The duct tape is 2″ wide, so I set it so the vinyl was around the middle – at least as close to the middle as I could manage. Kohl decided she REALLY needed to be on the table and giving me kisses! Even if it meant stepping on the sticky side of duct tape!
Plus, it kept getting windier, and I had to weight things down all over the place.
Once I had tape under the edge of the sheet, I turned the duct tape over, folding the vinyl to create a 1 inch “hem”.
Then I did the same thing on the other side, to bring it down to about 50″. I didn’t care if it wasn’t exact. In fact, a little excess extending past the based would be quite acceptable.
For the short ends, I folded duct tape over the edges to reinforce them, then added more to reinforce the corners.
By then, I’d been outside for quite some time and, while it was supposed to be warmer today, the wind made it feel colder – and the wind was picking up more. So I messaged my daughter and she helped me reinforce the edges of the second sheet. I was getting really chilled, so when that was finished, we weighted things down so I could go inside and warm up. After about half an hour, I headed back out – this time with a jacket!
In the first photo above, you can see the covered door. Instead of cutting off the excess vinyl, I folded it under, instead.
Then I cut away the rope handles at the corners. They were great for making it easier to move the catio, but they would be in the way of the vinyl wrap.
When I started attaching the side panels, I started with the one that needed to be folded under at the corner. In the next picture, you can see both, with the diagonal strips of steel strapping to keep the folded under edges from catching in the wind.
For the side panels, I didn’t expect to finish today, as I knew it would be getting dark soon. I focused on getting the front panels secured at the top and sides, then did the top only on a side panel. You can see in the next picture how far I got with the first sheet. I repeated the process on the other side.
I had forgotten that, when I fixed this thing up, I used metal strapping to secure the mesh on the side near the door hinge, so that had to be worked around. I had also used metal planted to reinforce the corners, so the strapping couldn’t go right to the corners. Which is okay. As long as the corners by the door were secured, the vinyl wrapped around the corners would not be as much of an issue.
Once both sheets were attached at the front and sides, the remaining vinyl was blowing in the wind, so I wrapped them around the back and secured them with short strips of steel strapping at the corners.
Before I even finished that, though, I saw a problem that I suspected would happen.
The two sheets were not long enough to meet at the back.
There was no way I could leave things like that, with the wind. I needed to close up the back.
Back I went to the leftover vinyl from last winter, cutting off a strip a fair bit wider than the gap. The top and bottom got reinforced with duct tape.
In the next picture, you can see the metal plate the top. When we were given this catio, the back was all one open space. I added a vertical support in the middle, then covered it with a couple of pieces of wood lath to secure the wire mesh. I added these metal plates all over the place while repairing and reinforcing the catio!
Working around the metal plate, I secured the gap filler with the steel strapping and a screw on either side of the metal plate, which you can see in the next picture.
Before securing the ends of the larger sheets, I made sure to go all around to pull things snug and straight. The catio is elevated by bricks, and the vinyl is long enough to hang below the bottom edge, and I had to make sure all the bricks were pushed in and flush with the edges, so the vinyl wouldn’t be pulled out of position. Once everything was as flush as I could get it, I could secure the edges at the back, setting them over the gap filler, rather than under. Once the corners were pulled as snug as I could, they got secured with screws, which you can see in the next picture. That done, I could finally screw the ends of the strapping in place.
The bottom did not have a metal plate, but the very middle did have the seam between two pieces of wood lath, so the initial screw needed to be off centre. I tugged and pulled to make sure there would be no gaps – the pieces don’t quite line up at the bottoms, since none of the edges were completely straight – before I secured the gap filled in the middle. Then it was repeat the process, to secure the overlapping pieces.
That was as far as I could do tonight. It was getting too dark and too cold! Securing the bottoms will wait until tomorrow.
Aside from that, though, it’s basically done. Here is a slide show of how it looks now, from all sides.
I had several cats who were just fine, going in and out of the catio, while I worked on it! Some even tried to “catch” me through the wire mesh from the inside.
Last winter, the wind tore at every loose bit of the covering. This winter, with the door having its own separate cover will make a difference, as will removing those rope handles. The steel strapping and reinforced edges should keep things from tearing away – I hope! In theory, I could probably get away with adding trapping to the bottom of the front panels, only. The back is already reinforced, and the sides are quite snug at the bottom. I’ll still had some strapping, though.
Tomorrow.
That done, it was time to put things away. As I went into the garage to tuck things into their places, I noticed I was being watched from the top of the truck!
Pink seems to have moved into the rafters of the garage again – at least for the night. We do see her around the house, and she goes into the isolation shelter to eat. I even saw her on the rail outside the sun room, and she enthusiastically excepted pets. She even gave me kisses!
However, my working on the catio did get interrupted by a cat fight by the isolation shelter. I went over to break it out and found Pinky cowering behind the bin in full defense mode, while Patience threatened her! Even when she comes around other cats to eat, she will growl and snarl at cats that come close.
If we aren’t able to get her to the rescue to adopt out, I’m thinking of making a shelter for her in the garage. Something better to stay warm in, than the rafters!
Oh, that reminds me.
We heard from the foster that took our six cats and kittens. The one adult with the infected ear – they have been calling her Mila – has not been adjusting. She doesn’t get along with the other cats, and is growling and snarling at the humans. She will be getting spayed soon, and they’ll be checking her ear at the same time and determining treatment. The foster was wondering if we were okay with taking her back after, rather than trying to adopt her out.
She got along fine with the cats here, was a regular in the cuddle puddles, and even let us pet her, so I said yes.
They will keep her for a week after spay for observation. If things don’t improve, she will be coming back to us.
Poor thing. She is a real sweetie. I thought she would have been good for adopting out.
But I digress.
It was getting quite dark by the time everything was put away, and I switched out the trail cam cards. As I returned to the house, I saw this handsome fellow.
There had been two other cats with him but they ran off when I got closer. Midnight has been spending a lot of time in here, now that the heat lamp is going! I also saw a fluffy kitten using the hammock while Pinky was in there, earlier in the day. I think the cats are quite happy to have this shelter back beside the house!
I think the more feral cats will be happy with the winterized catio, too.
Tomorrow, I finish securing the bottoms of the catio, and then it’s back to the garden beds. I have been planning out what I want to winter sow and where. The weekend is supposed to be quite warm, so that will be a perfect time to get caught up. Monday is also supposed to be on the warm side, but we’re also supposed to start getting rain again. I should be able to get the winter sowing done fairly quickly, though, since I don’t need to use all of the cleaned up beds for that.
If all goes well, things should be done and ready for winter fairly soon!
In the garden, at least…
😄😄
There’s always something more to do! I’ve pretty much given up on being able to get a new bed started before winter, though. I was really hoping to be able to harvest more of the dead spruces for raised bed frames.
Ah, well. We shall see how the weather holds! Pretty much everything hinges on the weather. Especially this time of year, when every pleasant day is something to take advantage of. It won’t be long before the snow comes!
I am becoming much less of a fan of winter, every year, since we moved out here, that’s for sure!
We had a slightly warmer day today, but I decided to leave working on the garden beds for the next few days, as it gets even warmer. Today, I focused on getting the cat shelters ready for winter.
I did, however, remember to take pictures of the finished garden bed in the old kitchen garden.
It doesn’t look all the different, really. The new stakes were pounded down with a sledge hammer, so they don’t need to be trimmed shorter. There’s enough height left that, should I want to in the future, more deadwood could be added for a taller wall. Towards the middle of the wall in the first picture, you can see some of the fly-away twine ends, where I had to fix where they snapped while I was pounding the stakes down.
I’m quite happy with the result. It’s not as pretty as wattle weaving, but it’ll hold the soil in place, and the taller stakes will be available to use to hold supports, should the bed need to be covered.
That done, it was time to winterize the isolation shelter and catio.
The vinyl (from dollar store table protectors) that had been wrapped around the bottom of the isolation shelter last winter was so torn up, it had to be thrown away. The vinyl around the catio had tears in it, but could still be salvaged. Especially since it ended up getting wrapped a second time part way through the winter. That gave me two layers to work with.
The bottom of the isolation shelter needed only 2′ in height. That meant I could take the vinyl from the catio and fold it in half, length wise. It took two dining table covers to wrap around the catio. With the second layer that was added, that gave me the equivalent of four covers, that were taped where they overlapped. I was able to separate the second layer easily into the original two length. There were larger tears near the bottoms, as well as small tears all along the edges, where they’d torn loose from the tacks that were holding them in place. Once folded in half, though, I was able to get a solid piece.
In the first picture, you can see that I duct taped the short ends to old the halves together, then added more to the corners to strengthen them more.
Thankfully, we didn’t have much wind and, with the folding table not put away for the winter yet, folding and taping the lengths wasn’t as much of a hassle as I’d feared. The only real problem I had was Grommet, constantly getting in front of me while I worked!
Next, I brought out my remaining pieces of wood lath and cut some to fit the shorter sides of the shelter, plus some for the section in the front. I had some short screws left from another project and used those to secure the vinyl at the top and bottom. Leftover lengths of wood lath were added to the ends of the vinyl as well, so the wind wouldn’t catch on them.
I secured one sheet to the ramp door side, first, then wrapped it around the back. The other end just reached around the opposite corner of the back, which I tacked in place with a push pin temporarily. Then I secured the other sheet to the front section of the shelter before securing the side, making sure to catch the edge of the first sheet with the screws.
For the back, I used a full length of wood lath to secure the vinyl at the top – the second sheet reached as far as the middle of the back.
At which point, I was out of the little screws I was using. I don’t want to use longer ones, as this is something that will be removed in the spring. The back will be against a well, though, so I just used a push pin half way down the centre support and let it be.
Next, I added some handles, to make it easier to move the shelter.
For the back, I had larger handles held in place with four screws. I replaced the ones the handles came with, which weren’t long enough to even go through the layer of insulation back there, with 2 1/2″ screws.
In the next picture, you can see the smaller handles I added to the front. Those had to fit in the space between the window and the edge, so there was room for a handle with only one screw to secure it. I didn’t need screws as long as for the back, but I still replaced the package screws with 1″ screws. They also had to be mounted lower down, so as not to be in the way when the roof is open.
At this point, the shelter could finally be moved to its winter home.
I was not able to use the handles.
The problem is the wheels. Even on the folded pieces of cardboard I put under the wheels, they sank into the soil. This thing is HEAVY!! It took a lot of manhandling to get it across the grass. It had to go across the sidewalk to the house, and one of wheels promptly sank so deep in the soil as soon as it was no longer on a concrete block, I had to actually lift the corner and pull the whole thing over.
Then there are the patio blocks.
Which should have been a lot easier, but there’s that tree in front of the old kitchen window. It’s roots have lifted and shifted the concrete blocks. Once again, I had to actually lift corners to get them over the edges of the patio blocks.
I did get it into position, though. Finally!
Once there, I did some cleaning, starting with washing the front windows, inside and out. I had taken out the sliding windows and gave those a wash before putting them back.
I had a couple more boards like I’d used to attach the roof panels that I added and screwed into place. It’s a low slope roof, and the plastic roof panels sagged just enough for water to sometimes collect on it. I gave the roof a washing, then left the roof open for the water to drain off. That was a good time to move the heated water bowl to the other side, and secure the heat lamp, which you can see in the second picture of the slide show above.
I found a piece of scrap wood that I added as a cross piece, which runs through the hanger part of the clamp lamp, for extra security. The clamp is secured with a couple of zip ties. The new cross piece is held in place by friction, but I zip tied it to the permanent cross piece the clamp is attached to, as well.
I did make sure to test the heat lamp before I started all this!
Once everything was set where I wanted to – make sure that I could reach the on/off switch for the heat lamp from the sliding windows – they were plugged into the extension cord, which got set up on its hooks on the outside.
Before that was plugged in, though, I got the ramp door shelter box ready to bring over (it was a handy table for while I was working on the shelter!) and started getting the catio ready to move to its winter location.
Around this time, I got a message from my SIL. They needed to go into storage and were on their way, and letting me know what their rental car looked like, while their car is in the garage for repairs.
They weren’t going to be long, so I went and opened the gate for them, then went back to working on things in the yard.
I heard a vehicle coming and looked through the trees to see if it was them, only to see our vandal driving by.
On seeing the gate was open, he started slowing down.
I couldn’t see him through the trees anymore, but I could hear him stop on the road, then start backing up.
I wasn’t about to give him a chance to drive in, so I walked out towards the driveway, so he could see that I was there.
He stopped at the end of the driveway, and just stayed there, watching me.
So, I got my phone out and started recording him.
I ended up getting more than four minutes of recording him as he got out of his vehicle and started gesturing at me (turns out he was “blowing kisses”). Then he opened his shirt, took off the belly strap and waved his colostomy bag at me. Then he started yelling at me, demanding to know why I was recording him, yelling that I wanted to put him in prison, that he was dying anyway, etc. He was yelling at me for so long, I ended up walking over to one of my brother’s pieces of farm equipment nearby, so I could brace my arms while he yelled. At one point, he started demanding that I go over and talk to him – like I would do that!!! – while gesturing to the road and saying he was legal there, and I should come and talk to him. As if! Oh, and I don’t own the property. I don’t own anything.
So… why has he been yelling at my mother about how she “gave” the farm to me?
Oh, my goodness.
I just got a message from my brother. Somehow, our vandal managed to leave a voice mail with my brother (his number is blocked). He was ranting about how he (my brother) is going against “the code”. The code of “Jesus and God.” Also, my brother and I are why he’s dying of cancer. The stress from us. He mentioned me recording him and said he “asked” me to come talk to him.
Also, I’m fat and my daughters and I never have to work again, and we’re apparently enjoying steak, caviar and champagne. And the pope is going to be reading a magazine about Christianity, and my brother’s not a real Christian.
He also brought up that he helped us, years ago, by living rent free for a year in a house he owned when my husband “lost his job”. Except, it was after my husband left the military, not “lost his job”, and it was only a few months before we got things worked out (we had zero income for 4 months because someone in the DnD forgot about the paperwork). We paid him rent until he put the house up for sale.
Yes, there was a time when we were close, and he did help us out. But now it seems he’s inventing things to make it sound like he helped us more than he did.
There was a lot more in the message, but it was all just insane. He is absolutely obsessed with us!
Ugh.
So… where was I?
Ah, yes.
After yelling at me from the road some more, our vandal got into his vehicle again and just sat there. By this time, my daughters had come out to see what was going on, and make sure I was okay. So I stopped recording and walked over. Once I was past the garage and couldn’t see him anymore, we heard him yelling at me some more before he finally drove off. We could hear his vehicle all the way, even to the sound of him tearing into his own driveway.
No, he doesn’t live THAT close to us!
My daughters stayed out with me for a while. I had move the catio to its winter location, so they helped me set it on pieces of bricks by lifting the ends so I could slide them under. As before, I set the pieces under the front corners on their edges, while the ones under the back were flat, so that water would drain off the flat roof towards the back.
My older daughter is going to be up all night as she works (she’s been trying to be up during more daytime hours lately, to be available to help with things).
This is how the catio was, after they helped set it up on bricks, so the wood won’t have direct contact with what will eventually be very wet ground.
I took out the cat bed that Pinky and her babies had been using. That went into the bottom of the isolation shelter, and the box nests got put in here. They are on top of scrap pieces of insulation.
After this picture was taken, I swept the leaves off the roof. I have an old snow brush/ice scraper where the ice scraper broke. It has been incredibly handy for maintaining the cat shelters!
Then I made sure to add the weights back onto the roof, so it won’t get blown over again.
Tomorrow, I need to go into town and pay the balance for the door replacement at the hardware and lumber store. While I’m there, I hope to pick up more of the tiny screws and anything else I might need. I would need more wood lath, if I’m going to use that to attach the vinyl on the catio, too, but I will get that somewhere else at a better price. The catio frame is 2×2 lumber, and I might want to find something narrower to secure the vinyl.
This winter, I’ll make sure to have the vinyl covering the door as a separate piece. Last winter, I had tried to secure it near the hinge but it kept coming loose and start flapping in the wind.
Meanwhile, my brother and SIL arrived. My brother did his thing while I was able to give my SIL a tour of the things I’ve been doing. She even helped me adjust the isolation shelter, when I realize that one of the wheels was hanging in the air, thanks to the uneven patio blocks.
The light above our main door had started flashing instead of working properly, so my brother wanted to take a look at it. He is the one who got and installed it originally – because while my late father was still living here, our vandal (who was “helping” my dad) would show up at all hours, and the motion sensor light would let my dad at least know he was in the yard. After fussing with a switch at the top that I didn’t even know was there (can’t see it without a ladder), he got it working again, but he doesn’t think it’ll last long.
Then I helped him move the old storm door that was still leaning against the house to the barn for storage. It’s still a good door.
It was really good to see them, as always.
After they were gone, I had a few more things to finish up. Now that the isolation shelter is no longer under the canopy tent, I move the folding table under there. I’ll be leaving that out for a while longer, as there’s still plenty that needs going around the yard before the snow flies.
For now, I’m just happy the isolation shelter is winterized.
I’m just looking at the temperature right now. I think I’ll go turn the heat lamp on for the night!
One of my goals for today was to get more done in the sun room. Which did happen, though quite a bit later than I originally intended. My daughters had their own grocery shopping to do that was worth a trip into the city, which we ended up doing today.
Last night, for some reason, was a sleepless night. It was one of those nights where, the more I wanted to sleep, the more wide awake I became. Not because of pain, or busy brain, or cat shenanigans. Just… awake. I finally fell asleep somewhere around 5am. I woke up a couple of hours later, as it was starting to get light out, and ended up asking my daughters to do the morning routine outside, so I could get some more sleep. The only thing they didn’t do was switch out the trail cam memory cards. Which was okay. I was considering changing from switching them in the morning to switching them in the evening.
Which turned out to be a good thing.
My younger daughter and I started heading for the city in the late morning. I was in the truck at the end of the driveway while my daughter closed the gate behind us. By the time she was in the truck and buckled in, I saw that a tractor on the road was close enough that I waited for it to go by.
I didn’t recognize him at first, but it turned out to be our vandal, sporting a new beard. Instead of driving past us, he stopped his tractor on the road, directly in front of us.
When it looked like he was going to get off the tractor, I drove around him and down the road. It’s just a short distance to a stop sign, and I could see in my mirror that he was still sitting on his tractor, in front of our driveway.
Creepy Creeper was creeping again.
As we continued on our way, my daughter texted the family to keep an eye out on things. Then she checked the security camera’s live feed and he seemed to be gone. She updated the family again as we continued on our way.
When I switched out the memory cards this evening and checked the files, I could see from the time stamps that he sat there for a full two minutes after we drove away, before finally leaving.
Creepy.
The rest of our trip to the city was uneventful, thankfully. My daughters’ shopping list was for the international grocery store I’d skipped when I did our stock up shopping last week. It happens to be near a Dollarama, so I went there first while my daughter started her shopping. I’ve been getting a particular pattern of dishes from there, but the cats knocked a couple of bowls off the counter and broke them, and I wanted to get replacements. Of course, I found a few other small items that would be useful, then met up with my daughter at the grocery store. I took advantage of the trip to pick up a few other things – bread, milk, eggs, mayo and a box of large slide-lock freezer bags (generic brand). Those five items cost over $50!
My daughter had a much larger shopping list that ended up being over $200. It looks like they’re going to be doing a lot of Asian themed cooking over the next while!
That done, we headed home, backing into the yard to unload. It was getting around 4pm by then, so I fed the outside cats to distract them so we could unload. It almost worked! My daughter unloaded the truck to the door, where I grabbed the stuff to bring in the rest of the way. She kept having to use her cane to push kittens away from the door! Even so, Sir Robin and one of Frank’s tinies still managed to get through the door once. They are so fast! Sir Robin would happily be an indoor cat. So would all three of Frank’s grublings!
Once the truck was parked and everything was put away, I headed outside. I didn’t get too much done inside the sun room. There were two plastic storage shelves, one large, one small, that could be brought in the corner I want to keep covered so the critters won’t do their business in it. I might still change things, but I put the larger shelf in front of where the bathroom window is, and the smaller shelf in the corner. The cats like to climb up to the window to say hello, but the cube shelf that was there before is a lot shorter. Cats would scramble to reach the window to look in. Now, if we decide to leave the shelf there, cats could potentially go on the top two shelves to look in.
Yes, I’m a suck for the cats!
It also means they won’t be scrabbling up the wall to reach the window sill, scratching things up, and they’re less likely to fall and potentially hurt themselves.
I moved a couple of other things in – parts of the platform we’d had on the other side, previously, a metal garbage can we used to store things like hoes and spades, plus the actual garbage can. Those were moved mostly because we might get rain tonight, and I didn’t want water getting in them.
Another part of the platform was our “summer door” to the old basement. It allowed us to keep the door open for air circulation on hot days, while keeping the cats out. It didn’t get used that way this year, because it was part of the platform and had the clamp lamps hanging off of it still.
That will get stored in the sun room, too, but first it needed a good hose down and scrubbing of the wooden frame. I’ve got it set under the canopy tent to dry. Now that we have a gallon of paint to cover the exposed wood on the isolation shelter and the box that will go in front of the ramp door to block wind and snow, I will paint the frame of this summer door, too. One of the plant stands that the cats used to get up onto the platform was also in need of a scrub. I’ve decided I will paint that, too.
With the shelves in place in the sun room, I spread the kibble trays out a bit, so they’re not all crowded on one side. I’ve been watching the live feed on the critter cam and the cats and kittens seem to be really happy with the set up. They’ve been running around and playing all over the nice, clean floor!
I could probably bring the floor mats back in, too. I forgot that they’re still hanging on the chain link fence, after getting pressure washed with the hose. These are indoor/outdoor water proof mats with a carpet-like surface. One more thing to protect tiny toe beans from a cold concrete floor, in the winter.
I still don’t know how I’m going to set up the heat lamps. One is a 250 watt ceramic heat bulb and has a protective cage so nothing can accidentally touch the bulb. I would like to have that one over the open space between the cat cage the the shelf at the window. I can’t clamp it to the shelf itself, which would be the easy thing to do, as that shelf is all cat beds, and it might get knocked about as they move around the different levels. The only other thing above the area I want to set the heat lamp is the hanging pair of shop lights. Nothing stable enough to hold a heat lamp, there.
Must think about this some more.
The second lamp should probably go closer to the cat cage, more or less where the heated water bowl will be set up, once it’s plugged in. There’s an arm bar on the wall there, but I don’t think the clamp lamp would hold onto the chrome surface very well. I could set it up on the other side of the door, but I’d rather encourage the cats to use the west facing half of the sun room.
All things to figure out over the next while. I’ll need to sort through the bins that will go into the shelves I set up today and reorganize them, which will include storing things somewhere else entirely. Once the space under the canopy tent is clear, I want to roll the isolation shelter under it, so it can be painted and protected from any rain (or snow!) we might get over the next few days. The weather apps said we might get rain storms this evening. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to get rain all day but, again, I think it’ll mostly be south of us.
I will be heading to my mother’s do to her grocery shopping tomorrow, anyhow.
*sigh*
I’ll be honest; I’m not looking forward to spending time with my mother. I never know, from one day to the next, if she’ll be having one of her good days or, more frequently, be on one of her nasty days. Ah, well. It is what it is.
Tomorrow is looking like our last warm-ish day for a while. From the long range forecast, I’ve got maybe two weeks to prepare more garden beds and get the garlic in. I might be able to hold off until the the second half of October before I do the winter sowing. Once the isolation shelter is painted, we need to set it set up by the house for the winter, where we can plug in the heat lamp and heated water bowl.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on that new pre-hung door that needs to be installed! They have to move a hand rail against the wall to do it, which means the isolation shelter can’t be set up against that wall until the door is installed.
Lots to do, and not a lot of time to get it done.
On a completely different note, while I was doing my evening rounds, I was happy to see more flowers blooming.
The Re-Farmer 