Come on in, Grab a seat.. Coffee or would you prefer Tea today?
I have been jotting down notes this week on things I wanted to talk about today on the Friday ramble post. They are in no real order LOL
We chunked out just over several hundred this past two weeks on building materials and hubby didn’t check each board and so we got a split dud. I want it to go back.. he says he can find a use for it. It’s almost impossible to get that guy to take something back or to get picky in the lumber yard.
I am sure the guys always want to see him pull in instead of me! I want to see the boards, I want to check each one. It’s a full hour of my time to go there and back and I do not want to waste the gas to bring one back and get it replaced so I tend to be picky at the start. Dear Hubby on the other hand is not as picky, nor does he want to take it back.. So at least one of my costly boards is not of quality. The price of lumber has gone up another 15% in the past two months.
So at the hardware store was an interesting little sign, it said..
Due to the lack of sawdust, we are not able at this time to get in bulk volumes of wood pellets for the wood burning stoves. We will update as soon as possible.
This made me go hmm.. why do we have a lack of sawdust, clearly our lumber mills are working, we have lumber, we have our own forest’s and our mills.. so why are we in lack of sawdust?
Now this is an issue for sure for all the folks that have the big cast iron wood pellet burning stoves to heat their homes. It will lead to higher “heating” costs if they need to use backup systems which tend to pull power to do so.
The way the stoves are made, they can not use regular wood in them and while you can get cords easy enough in our area. The cords have gone up another 1o dollars this year..
So tell me, are you seeing a sawdust shortage in your area for wood pellet stoves, can you get your firewood locally and if so, have you seen a price increase?
The weather has turned and winter is truly nipping at our heels this week. -8 this morning and under a weather warning that we will be getting our first true snow storm of the year this coming weekend, thankfully it is not to be arriving till later Saturday afternoon which means we can idea get our build done Saturday morning. Talk about pushing it right to the line.
My second subject today is passing the buck! Sometimes when it comes to cats I feel like there is a sign on my farm that says.. hey.. drop them off here.. she has cats, I am sure she would not mind one more. I had already spoken to the vet about booking in and fixing momma cat and that is one of the things we are saving for in the month of Nov. So to say I was not happy when “Mac” (we had to give him a name) appeared this week.
We heard a cat “talking” just off our deck and both hubby and I looked at each other because it was clearly a “help call” and so off we went to see who needed us.. and there he was a 2 to 4-year-old in good shape none feral intact male cat. He is not afraid of other cats, he is not afraid of dogs, he loves people, full on purr, head bop and body curl up and down when you pet him. This boy has been well-kept and well-loved..
So I thought, maybe he is just doing a fall walk, so I let those up and down the road that we had him.. nothing.. I had him scanned for chip (long shot I know) no chip.. we had locked him up for a bit in case we found his home fast.. we let him back out.. he shows up on our deck and sits on my lap for a cuddle.. NOT A STRAY!
While I am thrilled that we had added our little wee LeeLoo to the farm, I was honestly not looking for another cat this fall. Now the perk of this boy is that is outside only, he is a good hunter, he has a good temperament.
However in order to get him his rabies, altered and get him his meds (even for just one month) it will cost us around 300. The simple truth of the matter is.. I am pissed.. not at Mac, not his fault.. but instead at whoever loved and dumped him. It’s not like this is a farm born feral that I need to trap, fix and put back into barn because there is no hope of him being rehomed.
Rat-B@#%tard’s for putting it on us! Do you have a low-cost alter clinic in your area? Do you have a farm cat placement program? We have a low-cost program in the city but we make too much money a year to use it.
There is a very good low-cost no frills Rabies shot clinic held each fall. Thankfully we can give the rest of our vaccines ourselves to the cats to help keep costs down. Not many do.. but if you have knowledge and skill to do it properly, it will save you a lot.
We will tighten our belt just a bit more and we will do what is right.. Maybe I will be able to rehome him, if not.. he will be looked after properly.
So how was your week? Did you see something in a store that made you go hmm? Did you read something in the news that you thought was interesting? Is winter nipping at your heels as well?
Leeloo says Dezbot is warm and me snuggle!
Looking forward to our visit next Friday!
Just another Day on the Farm 
Thank you for telling us about your week. I can’t believe that someone would just dump a poor cat out there, especially now that winter is coming. He has clearly had a home and engaged with humans in the past, due to how friendly he is. So didn’t the previous owner give him to the shelter if they couldn’t or wouldn’t have him anymore?
More then Welcome Silveryew. I wish this was the first dumped kitty that showed up.. sadly this is the fifth very clearly was a pet cat that has showed up on the farm over the past 14 years, we have clear strays or clear ferals come and go over the year and we have had three expecting pet females show up.. nothing like getting a clearly ready to pop young under the age of one female show up crying on your porch.. I do not know how it works in your country but here, it cost around 200 dollars to turn in to the shelter if its a owner surrender.. now some folks are good enough at fibbing that I am sure they can turn them in as strays (which is to be free if they are lost/found). In my own county our shelter is a very fast turnover kill shelter. They have 7 days to be claimed, they are offered up for 3 days and then they are put down. I just can’t bring myself to ever turn them over knowing that. I work with the local lost and found cat networks, and talk to the vets and check the boards at the library, the grocery store and so forth.
Coffee for me thanks. There are hardly any vet facilities here, let alone low cost ones. Even so, there is a special place in hell for those people who dump their pets. Grrr. Usually the coyotes get them. For comparisons sake, firewood on the local Facebook Buy and Sell, sells for about $250 – $300 for a cord of seasoned mixed fir and larch. It has gone up a bit in the last few years, but the price has remained fairly stable. Sometimes, if you are paying attention, people will post free wood available if you come and pick it up, usually after they have cut down a tree on their property. It’s usually pine but if you are in a pinch, it will do. Have a great Friday!
Morning Crafty.. I know the feeling, I drive almost 45 min one way to get to a old fashioned farm vet that gives me a good deal on getting the farm cats done and who is willing to alter the ferals.. (most of the vets will not touch a wild feral, they will only offer to put them down for me). Its so sad and I agree with you.. most of the drop off kitties never make it past their first few days to weeks..
Your prices are higher then mine for the wood, we are running 140 to 160 for a cord here if you are picking it up split and dried.. you can get 10 to 11 cords dropped off pre-trimmed and dried and ready to be split for a thousand. but then you need to do the splitting and stacking on your own of course.
I hear you on the free wood, friends in town know that if they take down tree’s, just give us a call and we will come load it up and take it away, have gotten a few cords that way over the years for sure. While I know pine is not great for the stoves, I do love it for a fire.. have always loved the scent of it burning 🙂
re: cat
The same thing happened to us this year. I couldn’t turn him away. He was nothing but a little skeleton. Now he’s got a full belly and the sweetest cat.
A pox to those who dump animals. I hope there’s a special hell for them.
Hi Maria, yours new kitty is lovely, such a sweet looking boy.
I’m glad Mac found you, and that he’s prepared to earn his keep. 🙂
🙂
We have lots of pine available here in our area of N. Calif. It is fairly cheap. Chimney needs cleaning more often. We burn hard wood. Mostly Oak. $300.00 plus for a cord, split and delivered. Just dumped, we have to stack. We do get a bargain. We get our wood in rounds. We have a splitter. A good friend gives us a bargain so we are blessed. Don’t know about sawdust, will do some checking.
Don’t get me started. I get so upset about people who can even think of just dumping their animals off somewhere to starve, etc. Let alone produce more offspring. There have been instances in our very rural area where some people couldn’t feed there horses and turned them loose.
At 3,000″ winter should be nipping at our heels, but nothing yet. Enjoy your weekend.
Thanks for the lovely Ramble back Bev, I know pine burns hot and fast, that must not help with the fires that I have seen on the news if they are burning in pine country.. Glad you can get Oak, that’s a lovely wood and congrats on your bargain in exchange for some extra work on your part. I hear you about the animals Out west I have seen horse’s turned loose but I have not seen that in the local area to date. We got our first snow fall last night, and its snowing down fluffy Christmas snow at the moment.. Enjoy your weekend as well
The Toronto Humane Society takes cats and finds homes for them after spay/neuter, shots and microchipping. I regularly head back from Curran to Toronto with a carload of kittens and “pet drop offs” to the THS. They also have a “trap, neuter, release” program for feral cats and colonies. We need these kinds of programs in every city!! My cats are both “found” cats from the area that had clearly been family pets at some time. I don’t understand how people can be so cruel!
morning Kathleen, bless you for giving those cats and kittens that helping hand. I agree, we should have them in all city’s