Yesterday, I’d prepped as much as I could in advance of my brother and SIL coming out with haskap bushes they managed to acquire. My SIL estimated about 30 pots. I marked out 36 spaces to plant them in.
My brother arrived first, having come out after he finished work, getting their tiller out of the barn. By the time he checked it, filled the gas tank and pushed it over to our food forest area, and we were talking about what I’d done, my SIL was driving their truck over to unload.
We were already loosing the light by then.
My brother started tilling the soil at each marked spot while I helped my SIL unload the truck. She had managed to bring 21 pots of haskaps, along with more than 10 trays of spruces. Spruces are not something we need – if we ever want to transplant any, we can get seedlings out of all sort of places, including the ditches. Those got laid out between the crab apple trees and will be taken back later, to be given to a friend.
My sister now estimates there are about 45 pots of haskaps in total. She had brought barely half of them.
My brother had intended to till each spot, then start digging holes to plant all the haskaps, before the left. It was full dark, and my SIL had moved the truck around so he could work under headlights. We stopped him after he’d done about 30 of spots. As we started transplanting from the north end, he realized there was no way they’d all be done that night. Between the three of us – and several flashlights – we got 6 into the ground. Then they had to leave.
My SIL took the truck, leaving the car she came here with, so she could pick up the rest of the haskaps today. We messaged each other this morning. Since my brother is off tomorrow (I keep forgetting that the last day of September is a statutory holiday), they will both come out tonight to unload, stay the night, then plant them tomorrow.
We talked about where to plant the extra haskaps. It’s a bit difficult to figure that out, since we don’t know exactly how many are left. She hopes to give me a count as soon as she is able. We settled on adding a fourth row, which would be another dozen spaces marked. That would bring the total to 48. If there turns out to be more, there are empty spots among the silver buffalo berry, where bushes had not survived, they could go in.
My younger daughter headed over after she did the outside cat feeding. She was determined to finish transplanting the remaining pots this morning, before things started to get too warm for her to work. Our expected high was 20C/68F. Which we have reached now, in the mid afternoon, with the humidex putting us at 23C/73F. That area gets full sun and bakes, and my daughter has a little tolerance for heat.
I made sure to have breakfast before I headed out to help her. While she was digging and transplanting, I measured and marked off another row. Then I wanted to help her, but she banned me from digging holes. Instead, I got the thatching rake (or landscaping rake, or whatever that type of rake is called now) and used it to level out the “excess” soil around each transplant, while also removing some of the bigger rocks that would be in the way of any mowing or weed trimming.
Towards the end of it, my daughter switched to just digging the holes, then setting a haskap into it, before moving on to the next hole to dig. I had caught up enough that I could bury the root balls and pack things down, then continue raking the soil into place.
We got them all done just in time. I don’t know what temperature we were at by then, but my daughter was already having a hard time with it.
We had some light rain last night, and it was still raining when she first started on the transplanting, which is great for the transplants, but I made sure to give them all a watering. I brought another hose from the front tap, so we could reach to water each transplant directly. Plus, with the soil damp and rather sticky, I needed to stop to wash the muck stuck on the rake, and even my shoes, before I could continue. While watering, I mostly wanted to use water pressure to settle the soil between the root balls and the walls of the holes that were done, and wash away any loose soil that fell onto the base of the stems. These have been in their pots for too long, and were quite root bound. With so many of them, we made no effort to address that, so anything that encourages them to start extending roots into the surrounding soil is a good thing.
Later on, I will go back and make narrow trenches around them, or build up soil walls, depending on how rough the ground it, so encourage the water to stay and get absorbed near the root balls, rather than draining away into the paths. Then, they will be mulched with wood chips.
The first image has the 21 freshly watered haskap bushes. In the background, you can see the trays of spruces. Now that I look at it more closely, I think there’s a dozen trays of seedlings. On the right of the photo, you can see the new row marked out.
You can also see just how huge these are!!!
In the second image of the slide show above, you can see a photo my daughter took when she was still just starting with digging the holes. We expect to find rocks and roots, but under this one, she seems to have hit a boulder. She could not get it out, at all. She did, however, find an “edge” around it. In the end, she went ahead and planted on top of it. The haskap should still be able to spread its roots to the sides and around the boulder.
Given that these have been getting neglected for some time, the owner of the greenhouse having become ill before passing away, we fully expect that some of these will not survive the winter. The next while is expected to be mild enough that they should start developing new roots, and they should be able to survive their first frosts. With so many of them, we should still get enough surviving to get decent harvests. My daughter even noticed a few of them already had berries!
This is such a HUGE boost to our food forest area. We had meant to get more haskaps, but this is enough that they could potentially bring in a market income in a year or two, even if half of them don’t make it. There is no way we could have afforded to buy this many through regular channels.
What we don’t know is what variety they are, or even if they are all the same variety. There could be several varieties in there. Nothing was labeled. Given this came from someone’s greenhouse dreams, I would expect there to be cross pollinating varieties in there. Expectations, however, don’t mean much!
It’s getting later now and I don’t know what time my brother and SIL are expected to arrive tonight. It may be while we are losing light again. Sunset, this time of year, it shortly after 7pm, so that wouldn’t be particularly late, either.
My SIL started sending messages, telling me they had an opportunity to get a whole bunch of haskaps, if there was somewhere to plant them.
Somewhere around 30 of them.
!!!!!
I told her we’d been preparing areas in the food forest for the past several years that had the full sun and space needed.
Long story short…
She would come over to get their pick up truck, so she could pick them up and bring them over. My brother would then come out after work to plant them.
While she was on the way out, I went to the future food forest area and started preparing it. The three rows where we once grew bush beans, with fresh garden soil added, were still there, slightly elevated from the new soil. What had been an annoyance while mowing now made it easy to find and clear them with the weed trimmer.
The old rows were marked out at 6 feet apart, while the rows themselves were about 2 feet wide and 18 feet long, leaving a 4 foot path between them.
With planting space needing to be 4 feet apart, I knew the three rows would not be enough. I weed trimmed the length of them, then extended them in a curve to match the curve of the silver buffalo berry. The plan was to leave a lane in between large enough to drive through with a truck, and the curve making it easier to change direction.
Once the weed trimming was done, I measured and marked out three rows at 20 feet, each with six poles that were 4 feet apart. I was just finishing up when my SIL arrived, so I went over to ask if she had time to see.
She was surprised. It turns out they intended to do it all themselves, expecting nothing from us to do in advance. I was feeling really good today, so I was happy to do it.
Once we got out there and I explained what I was doing, and why I was marking the way I did, I realized the curves I’d trimmed were completely off and did not match the curve of the silver buffalo berry as well as I’d though, while actually doing the trimming.
While showing there the different zones for planting I had in mind, she was quite surprised by how much we had planned out already. I told her that, with these new trees, they’re basically shaving probably 5 years off our plans!
While we were talking, my SIL noticed the gorgeously red crab apples, and we went over to check them out. The small red ones still have apples higher up and she was able to reach some. She also grabbed one from the tree with larger apples. We both enjoyed a snack of them and agreed that the smaller ones, with their sweet tart flavour, were more delicious than the larger, milder ones, though both are quite good.
As we walked back to their truck, she told me that she would drive right up to where I’d marked the rows, if I were okay with her driving through the yard. She was concerned the truck might damage the yard. We have a septic truck drive though there with no issues, so I assured her it was fine – and was exactly the sort of thing I was leaving a drivable lane open!
While she was getting the truck ready, I started heading back to continue marking rows but realized there was a bit of a problem. The huge maple by the old garden shed overhangs the entire space between the maple grove and the spruce grove, and one branch in particular was hanging low enough to be in the way while mowing the lawn. The truck would be hitting that branch.
So I headed to the garage and got the long handled pruning saw set up. The pole is designed to telescope but the wingnut that would have allowed the length to be adjusted was plastic and broken. I’d tightened it with a wrench. Ironically, that part of it held. The nut that was secured to the bottom length didn’t, coming loose while I was using it. I hadn’t put it back yet, not having needed the extra length until now. So, today, I finally worked on it and got the two lengths together again, making extra sure they were secure. Then I headed over and cut away the lowest hanging branch.
It was quite large, but I was able to drag it off to the branch pile outside the gate near the fire pit, where I left it on the ground. It was too big for me to maneuver onto the pile without over doing it. I messaged the girls and arranged for someone to come out and break it down enough to toss onto the pile, then went back to the tree.
Walking back, something dramatic caught my eye.
The dead maple near the fire pit had a pale frill around its base.
The maples get mushrooms growing on them regularly, but I’ve never seen a ring of them completely surrounding a trunk at the base like this!
Once back at the trimmed maple, I could see two other branches were hanging low enough that they would scrape the truck, so I took them down, too. Those branches were already dead and a bit smaller, so I was able to drag those over the branch pile inside the yard, for fire pit fuel. That left quite a few small broken off branches to clean up in the grass before I could continue. There was one more low hanging branch that should probably be trimmed, too, but even at its full extension, I couldn’t reach where the branch would need to be but to bring it down. There was room to drive around it, though, so it can stay for now.
Another thing I’d done was hook the garden hose back up. We have three hoses to be able to reach all of the main garden area, plus there is a fourth one added on when watering the food forest trees and bushes. While working on clearing the eavestroughs with the hose attachment, I needed only one hose length. I’d already hooked that back up again to the second length but, as I was cleaning up the broken branches, I realized I was hearing a hissing noise.
The female coupling on the second hose was leaking, under where it rotates to attach to the male coupling. I fiddled with it a bit and it got worse. I had to shut the tap off. Since we need the hose working to water the transplants, I messaged my brother and SIL, asking if they could pick up a Quick Connect repair kit, and was even able to send them a photo one I had an another hose, so they knew exactly what I was asking for. Hopefully, one of them will have a chance to swing past a hardware store along the way and get one, and I’ll etransfer them to pay them back for it. Otherwise, I’ll have to steal a hose from the front tap until I can pick one up myself.
Then it was back to marking planting spaced in a curve that match the sliver buffalo berry.
By the time I was done, lining the three rows up, I had marked 36 potential spots to plant in.
I was going to go back with the weed trimmer to clean up the corrected curves, but my alarm went off to take my afternoon pain meds, just as I was finishing the last couple of markers. I hadn’t had lunch yet, either, so I went in for both.
I still haven’t heard from cancer care, so I called my specialist’s clinic to see what I could find out. I’d called and left a message last week, but no one had called back.
The guy that answered the phone was able to look up my file and saw that cancer care had acknowledged they received my referral…
On the 24th.
I’d been expecting to get a call from them on the 17th or 18th.
Which means that, at this point, my file is most likely being assessed by the doctor(s) that will be taking my case, working out what needs to be done and finding a date for me to come in for the surgery. This is for a biopsy and to test my lymph nodes and determine what stage I’m at. Given my circumstances, it should happen quickly. Just not as quickly as my specialist expected. He then told me he would phone them right away to see what he could find out, as far as a time line.
With the longer wait, I brought up that the specialist, who was out of office today, had given me a 2 week prescription of Tramacet based on her expecting me to be in surgery around the time it ran out. I’ve got about 4 days of it left (only because I’ve taken T3s instead, while not at home). He told me that, once he had a chance to talk to cancer care, he’d be able to give the doctor enough information to know if I should get a 1 or 2 week extension on the prescription.
That done, it was past 2pm and the post office was open, so I headed out to pick up the mail and a parcel, then came back and made myself a late lunch.
Unfortunately, I seemed to have pushed myself a bit too far, as the abdominal pain started to come back, even with the painkiller. By the time my food was ready, it was still getting worse. I was going to lie down after having my lunch, but decided I was feeling well enough to write this post, instead.
As I was writing the above, I got a message from my SIL. She had messaged me earlier to tell me she had overestimated how many she could fit into the truck. She sent me some photos. She had already told me that these were from a friend who had a greenhouse and dreams of selling trees, only to become ill and recently passed away; they went to his funeral this past weekend. His family are dealing with a lot right now, of course, and she found out they were planning to throw them away. That’s why she was wanting to contact me about whether there was a place for them this morning. So these are all potted saplings. She sent me some photos of them, and the partially loaded truck. They are HUGE!! She did tell me they were starting to be neglected, so it’s possible they won’t all survive, but even if they don’t all make it, we’ll still end up with quite a lot.
She is still working out how to get them all into the truck, and it has started to rain where she is. My brother will be coming out here ahead of her and start preparing the ground for transplanting. They have a working tiller stored out there, and I now have what should be more than enough spots marked out for him to prepare. If things work out, it’s going to be quite late by the time it’s all done, but this is not something that can be set aside for later. They have “now” to do it, so it needs to be done.
Hopefully, the preparations I made will help it go faster. If nothing else, my brother won’t need to do any measuring.
With the mild fall we are having now, they should have enough time to develop a root system before the ground freezes, and they’ll survive the winter.
So that is where we are at now. Hopefully, tomorrow, I’ll be able to get some photos of a whole bunch of transplanted haskaps to share!
For now, though, I think I’ll go ahead and lie down for a bit, so that I am more likely to be feeling up to joining them outside when they get here – or at least when my brother gets here after work. For my SIL, it’ll be about a 2 hour drive from where she’s picking up the haskaps!
I love my brother and SIL. They are amazing.
This will be a HUGE boost to our food forest plans.
This evening, before things started to get dark, I headed outside to do my evening rounds. I remembered to bring a bowl to finally harvest some tiny Orange Currant tomatoes!
I actually dropped quite a few of them that were damaged by frost to the ground. Which means we might have some self seeded tomatoes showing up in this bed next year, which I am okay with. I still managed to get quite a few, plus a couple of Blueberry tomatoes. I even found a Manitoba tomato that was getting ripe, with no cracks in it! All over those, I’m seeing green tomatoes already cracked. The cracked ones I’d brought in before, intending to dehydrate the non-cracked portions, ended up molding almost right away and had to be composted. *sigh*
Once the tomatoes were picked, I checked the beans in the bed beside them and found a few ready to harvest. A couple of the plants have lots of developing beans still, so this will probably not be the last beans we pick from there.
While checking the main garden area, I found myself really impressed by this bolted carrot.
It is HUGE! Those flower clusters are downright massive! We’ve had carrots bolt before. Usually Uzbek Golden carrots. This one is from the Rainbow Mix carrot seeds, and I’m not sure which colour of carrot this is from. When we can finally harvest this bed, we’ll be able to see. I’ll make sure to leave the bolted carrot. If it survives long enough before it gets too cold to develop seeds, I intend to harvest them.
We’ve got at least three more mild nights before temperature drop enough that I would want to cover as much as I can, just in case the actual temperature drops lower than the forecasted temperature – again. Overall, though, we’ve possibly got almost two weeks of fairly mild overnight temperatures.
I’m really hoping for a mild winter overall. My tolerance for our typical prairie winters is getting shorter as I get older! 😄
$513.19, to be exact, but that’s not the total for the day. Just the two I got pictures of.
My younger daughter and I headed out for the city shortly after 10. Normally, we would have taken the highway that, once reaching the city, because the street that goes past all the places we were planning to hit. There is still major construction there, so we took the highway closer to us. This one passes through one town along the way, so we stopped for gas. I put in $30 in gas from half a tank, then went in to pay and gets some drinks and some beef jerky to snack on until we reached the city, since neither of us had had breakfast, while my daughter cleaned the windows. Total was about $50. The $30 of gas, at $1.729/L, brought us to just under 3/4 of a tank. The last I’d heard, gas in this town was $1.809/L, which was a drop of 9¢/L, so seeing another 8¢ drop was good to see – even if the prices are still insanely inflated.
My daughter was cleaning the passenger side of the windshield as I came back to the truck when the squeegee caught on the driver’s side windshield wiper, pulling it off the arm.
She spent several minutes trying to get it back on, but it simply would not stay. The passenger side wiper was already being held on by the pressure of the arm alone, and she finally got the driver’s side wiper to stay the same way.
That changed where our first stop was going to be. We’d intended to go to the Walmart first, this time, since we pass it before we pass the Canadian Tire, and I wasn’t planning to get anything that needed refrigeration while there.
We went to the Canadian Tire, first.
I’d meant to get only the litter pellets there, originally, but of course we had to get a pair of windshield wipers. I ended up getting a staff member to help us find the right one for our truck. We’d tried using their computer tablet by the display and got several options that didn’t make sense. While the staff member was looking it up on his computer, I got a message from my daughter saying she’d found it, based on what came up on the tablet. Which turned out to be the wrong one – a couple of inches too short, to start with! It was also a single blade in the package that cost almost $50 by itself, and we needed two. We found the one the guy had found in his system, and it was a two pack at pretty much the same price. !!! I’m glad I asked the guy!
Along the way, we spotted some AAA batteries on sale, so I picked it up. It’s just a small package and I expect to pick up a bigger one when we do the Costco shopping, but we were out at home and I needed them.
Since the wipers were an unexpected purchased, I used some of my Canadian Tire dollars against the bill. I didn’t want to use too much, as we are saving it up, hopefully to be able to use against a new pressure tank. To get the same size as what we have now would cost about $500 after taxes, so every little bit will help.
Total at Canadian Tire, $57.79
This location is attached to a mall with a food court, so we went there for “breakfast” (it was past noon by then). I ended up getting some Pad Sew at Thai Express – something I haven’t had in years – and they even gave me a 15% off coupon to use, so the total with a drink was just under $14. My daughter ended up going somewhere else and paid for her own lunch, so that didn’t come out of my own budget.
Sadly, my lunch was not as good as I remember it being, the last time I had it. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good enough that I’ll want to get it again.
On the way out, we passed a Dollarama and went in. I’m still looking for larger mirrors to go with the small ones I got through Amazon for the decorations with shisha embroidery I want to make.
There were zero mirrors.
In the end, I did get some gold and silver glitter felt, plus we picked up some more votive candles for our stash, plus found some taper candles that would fit the church candles we brought from the old church that was burned by an arsonist a few years back, before it was torn down.
I never did go back to bring home some pews or benches. I do regret it, but had nowhere I could store them until we could clean them up and find a place for them. I hope someone else was able to take them. To properly dispose of anything in a church, what can be burned is burned, and what can’t be burned gets buried. I would hate for those beautiful, it soot covered, pews and benches got burned! I did, at least, get a pair of candle holders with red glass globes. The candle is put inside the stems, where a spring slowly pushes it up as the candle burns down. Until today, I hadn’t found straight candles that would fit inside the stems, so I made sure to pick up a package.
I got something else as well, but my mind is drawing a blank right now. 😄 Grand total was just over $12, though.
Next stop was back tracking to Walmart. This is what we got for $163.
The stuff in the smaller basket is stuff my daughter picked up herself. Originally, I only planned to get cat supplies, but got a few extra things.
The cat kibble, wet cat food and large box of XXL pee pads where on my list. Between this and what we have left from last month, we won’t need to get any more for October. We’ll be getting toilet paper at Costco, but when I saw large packages on sale, I grabbed one. Because in our family, we can never have too much toilet paper!
My daughter remembered that we were almost out of conditioner, so I got a large bottle, plus some antiperspirant – the cheapest brand – for myself. The orange yarn is for some ear warmers that fit over a baseball cap that I want to make to sell.
Grand total (including a donation to round it up) was $163.
*sigh*
My phone’s alarm went off for my scheduled painkiller while we were finishing up and I almost forgot to take it. I had my T3s with me, not the Tram-acet I’ve got only a 2 week prescription for, and my daughter got that for me while we were driving to our next stop.
Superstore.
Normally, we would go to the international grocery store, but I wanted to make it a bigger trip today, just in case our Costco trip got delayed. I was supposed to be going for surgery by the end of the month, but still haven’t heard from the cancer clinic in the city. I’ll be calling my specialist’s clinic again to see if I can find out what’s going on, since I have no idea who to call at the cancer clinic.
Plus, Superstore has some things we wouldn’t get anywhere else, including Costco.
Today, that included a free turkey. !!
This is what $350.19 looks like.
You can just barely see the frozen turkey under the cart. For the promo, the cashier apparently didn’t need to even scan it, so it isn’t on the receipt.
I do like that their receipt prints out sorted by category.
First up, under “grocery”, we got a can of roasted, salted cashews for the truck, as we try to always have some sort of food in the truck for emergencies, or for those days we have to drive around and don’t have time to stop for a meal.
The honey Dijon is for my husband, as he likes to use it as part of a dip with mayo. Normally, we get mayo at Costco, but we’re almost out, so I got one here, too. They had large bags of cornmeal at a very good price (almost $4 less than local, for the same size package). The stuffed olives are mostly for my husband, too. They had Monster energy drinks at a very good price compared to most places, so we picked up two cans each for myself and my daughters, until we pick up a case at Costco. Then my daughter spotted some Beaver Buzz. Yay! They have it again! Two flavours were on sale, so I got three cans in two flavours. We also got my husband’s favourite soy sauce, and the drink in that list was something my daughter picked out of a fridge as we were in line, for the drive home.
Under dairy, I picked up some Old Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese, some butter to last us until Costco, and an 18 pack of eggs.
I’m not sure why eggs is listed under “dairy”.
Under “frozen” (which doesn’t include frozen meats”, we’ve got some mixed berries (mostly for my husband), plus a big package of perogies.
Under “produce”, there’s a bag of Ambrozia apples that were on sale, as were the Mandarin oranges and a bag of avocados.
Next is the “meats” section. My older daughter specifically requested a sausage she wanted to use in a soup. For my husband, we got several different types of frozen chicken pieces – something he is able to cook himself, when he is able to, since his pain levels often leave him unable to eat at regular meal times. I also got a piece of frozen pork loin, plus a package of pork tenderloin.
For my seafood loving daughters, we got some frozen popcorn shrimp, frozen tilapia fillets, and fresh rockfish fillets at a “use tonight” discount price.
Under “bakery”, we got two big bags of torpedo buns, one for the freezer and one for right away, a couple of loaves of 14 grain bread, plus a tin of mooncakes as a treat.
Under “deli”, there’s just a wheel of double cream brie, at a “use right away” discounted price.
Then, there was supper for when we got home, under “home meal replacement”. A massive sandwich for my husband that will be good for at least a couple of meals for him, some teriyaki chicken sushi for myself, and my daughter picked a couple of “family size” sushi platters (one is labeled as a bento) for herself and her sister, plus three taro bubble teas for the three of us (my husband has zero interest in bubble tea).
There we have it. $350.19 after tax. Since the total was over $300, we got the free Thanksgiving turkey, too.
By the time we were done with the shopping, my poor daughter was really starting to struggle. She’d brought her cane and was needing it, badly.
Thankfully, along with my T3s, I also keep some extra strength Tylenol in my purse, so my daughter took some after we loaded everything into the truck.
I was actually doing way better than she was. My lower back was starting to go, but nothing out of the ordinary for all the walking we did, and nothing I couldn’t deal with easily. Usually, by this time, my left hip starts to give out, too. It barely ached. No cancer related pain (just some extra bleeding) at all.
Meanwhile, my poor daughter struggled just to walk to the truck!!
Thankfully, that was our last stop, other than getting more gas. I’d thought to get more in the city, thinking there would be a better price. The prices we saw in the city, however, were all $1.799/L So we skipped it until we reached the same gas station we went to this morning.
I was just under half a tank by the time we reached the gas station – from the gas station, through all the city driving, then back to the same gas station, taking the same rough, used up that $30 I put in this morning.
*sigh*
This time, I put in $40, and we got nothing else. I did, however, use some of my points to get 10¢/L off when I paid for it, so I actually paid $37.69
That put me just above 3/4’s of a tank. That extra $10 made very little difference!
I’ll do a complete fill when we do our Costco trip, and reset my trip meter for the month.
Once at home, I back up to the house and my daughters and I unloaded the truck, assembly line style, then I left them to put things away while I parked the truck in the garage. As I drove out of the yard, however, I spotted something dark, moving in the grass behand my brother’s parked trucks.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen one! We had one year, back when we could still afford to buy black oil sunflower seeds to set in the bird feeders outside our living room window, where we had several of them. They would come eat the bird seed, along with a cat or two.
Yes, we had a couple of cats that would eat bird seed.
The groundhogs caused some problems with their digging, and eating our garden vegetables. The next spring, we had massive flooding, and I think the dens they were hibernating in got flooded. Especially if there was one under our outhouse. Even in a normal spring, it floods under there. In the years since, I think I’ve seen only one or two, in about the same area as this one.
They are so cute. Destructive, but cute!
So that’s our first stock up shop for October. The grand total, give or take some change, is $684.67 That includes gas, food, the Dollarama purchases and the extra expense of having to get windshield wipers, though most of that was covered by my Canadian Tire points.
Considering what we were able to get, that’s not too bad for these days.
It also means our Costco trip shouldn’t be as big. I’ll probably get only one more bag of kibble (we still have donated kibble) for the inside cats, while for the outside cats, I expect to be getting 40 pound bags from the feed store.
Speaking of outside cats…
When doing the morning feeding, my younger daughter has been able to give the Shrine Lady kitten all sorts of skritches! She still allows it only when food it around – especially the cat soup – but she is becoming more tolerant of it.
She has the softest fur imaginable!!!
While we were heading home, my older daughter did the evening feeding – and she was able to pet the Shrine Lady, too!! Just a bit, while she was acting very offended that there was no cat soup.
When I do the evening feeding, I have started adding a couple of cartons of cat milk to the food trays in the sun room (my older daughter does not do that). I want to encourage the kitten into there, and it has apparently been working. She does have a favourite tray to eat from, outside the sun room door, but when they’ve gone out to feed the cats lately, she has been inside the room.
Progress!
Hopefully, we will soon be able to get her into a carrier, and off to the rescue for spay. They are overwhelmed and aren’t doing intakes, but she is younger and they might be able to find a space for her. Otherwise, she will come back to us.
We shall see.
Meanwhile, our next stock up trip at Costco should happen on Wednesday, the last day of the month.
Oh, and I’m happy to say that the truck was behaving – and I think we got a confirmation that the cause of that check engine light is dust in some lines. When putting gas in this morning, I used the hold-open latch that lets you let go of the nozzle until it’s either full, or the pump reaches the pre-set amount. Right away, it started clicking off, as if the sensing port was reading the tank as full. After a couple of times, I had to manually hold the lever for it to fill without stopping itself. When we had the 2007 Uplander, before getting this truck, it was doing that constantly not long after we moved here. Driving on gravel roads so often means dust gets into spaces that triggers this. The person I was talking to about it added that getting it fixed is really expensive, and it’ll just happen again, so it’s not worth the cost. It affects nothing else.
I’ll bring it up with our mechanic when I have the chance, but that seems to be the most likely thing. The only difference now is, in this truck, it triggers the check engine light. Which also means it probably won’t turn off, even if we clear the code.
The main thing is, the truck is running well. We’ve got a lot of trips to the city for medical appointments coming up over the next couple of months, and really need to be able to rely on it!
Last time, I’d gathered bush beans from the ones planted later in the season around the Arikara squash. This time, I harvested beans from the high raised bed. The plants there have considerably more frost damage, and yet are still producing!
Along with the beans, I picked the two Prolific Long Neck summer squash that looked ready.
The girls ended up using this summer squash in their roasted Arikara squash soup, which they tell me turned out very excellent. It included carrots and bell peppers from the garden, too. Not something I can even taste, but that’s okay. I had some of roasted Arikara squash separately, and made sure to taste some on its own, with no seasonings, first.
Definitely something we would be okay growing again. The flavour was mild, and smooth and stringless, with a texture much like mashed potatoes.
The girls also taste tested our first California Bell peppers before adding it to the soup, and they liked it enough that we set aside some seeds, though I still have some in the package. So we now have two varieties of peppers – these and the Sweet Chocolate – that pass the taste test with the family.
Aside from that, today was a home day, though it could have been our first stock up shopping day. My husband’s CPP Disability came in early, as it does when deposit day falls on a Monday. I was feeling well enough for the trip, but rainy days like this make me very sleepy, and my daughter is still fighting her own pain levels. We’ve decided to do the shopping tomorrow, instead.
One thing I started on today was a Christmas garland, crocheting around a purchased bead garland, 6 feet long, with lace weight white crochet thread paired with a strand of silver reflective thread, using a 3.25mm hook. I was working on the second row of the pattern, about 3/4 through, when I spotted an error…
Made about 6 inches from the start of that row.
I’d already found the same error made after about a foot and ripped the stitching back to fix it, but that just isn’t going to work with something closer to three feet. The strand of reflective yarn is quite thin, and I don’t want to end up breaking it or adding too much wear to it. Plus, the sheer length of what I’d have to undo would be difficult to keep from tangling. Just the short amount I’d ripped earlier, kinked into waves from the stitches, kept wanting to tie itself into knots.
So, I’m going to finish the second row and not do the third row I had planned on. On its own like this, the error would not be visible unless someone knew what they were looking for, but would throw the pattern of a third row off completely.
I still can’t believe I did that. The girls are still laughing at the wail of despair I made when I found it and realized where it was.
Ah, well.
I still have a fair bit to do to finish the second row, but I won’t finish it tonight. I’ll just have to make sure to tuck it away somewhere safe from that cats for the night. 😄
Today came in densely foggy. Enough that we were getting fog advisories from the weather department. While the girls were out doing the morning cat feeding, they heard was sounded like rain, but it turned out the fog had condensed on tree leaves so much that it started to “rain”, but only directly under trees!
I was feeling good today, and my plan had been to get some more progress on the sun room. It was too damp out for the things that needed to go outside. Instead, I decided to focus on jerry rigging a tool to finally work on the eavestroughs. We have three areas where it is too dangerous to get up to the eaves without proper safety equipment, which we don’t have. I’d bought a bristle brush tool to clean them from the ground, but both heads that came with the kit broke off. I also got a hose attachment. We can’t see it, but there was obviously too much debris for the hose attachment to accomplish much, plus the elbows on the downspouts kept clogging.
The brush tool’s head might be broken, but I was left with a useable handle. I repurposed some heavy gauge wire from the mesh garden bed row cover hoops that the cats bent up by jumping on it. A hoop got folded in half with the ends secured to end piece the bristle brush had been attached to, with the loop formed by the fold bent to make a hook. It’s only held with tape, but it’s the heavy duty repair tape I picked up. I figured if it worked, I could find something more permanent to use another time. Until then, this stuff is strong enough to hold it.
It worked surprisingly well. Two of the eavestroughs were particularly bad, as it’s been quite a long time since anyone has tried to clean them. There was basically compost at the bottoms of them. As well as the modified tool worked, there was only so much I could flick out with the wire hook, but I was at least able to loosen things a bit, too. Hopefully enough that the hose attachment could finally wash it away.
It was a very messy job.
I started working with the hose attachment on at the eavestrough that runs along one side of the old kitchen, then over my bedroom window, with a right angle turn where the two roof sections meet. The roof sections form a sort of channel where everything drains or falls into that corner, so it was seriously built up with debris. Being a corner, it was also very difficult to use the hook tool in the space, but I got a fair bit out.
Once I switched to the hose attachment, the first thing I focused on was the opening to the downspout to try and clear the elbows. Thankfully, I was able to get it fairly clear. The next while was spent trying to drive debris towards the opening, then forcing it through the elbows when it started jamming up again. Every now and then, I would hear a thunk as the debris would finally come free and drop down to the elbow at the bottom before finally getting washed away. I had to stop regularly to clear debris away from the opening at the bottom.
It was slow going.
I could only work small sections at a time, and had to stop to scrape with the hook tool again, several times. After about an hour of that, I got the old kitchen section – roughly 10 feet – mostly done, and had started around the corner. That corner is going to be particularly difficult to clear!
Then my alarm went off for my scheduled painkiller time. By then, I was actually start to feel it, so I knew I would have to call it a day and come back to it later. Still, I’m pleased with how much I was able to clear.
Meanwhile, I started getting messages from my SIL. They were on their way over to take the trailer of hot water tanks to the scrap yard, then use the trailer to get and bring back a water tank for their caravan. Water suitable to use for showering as well as the toilet and sinks. They’ve been using an outhouse all this time! There was already one against the storage building that they had cleaned up and put a new door on, as well as using the one in the inner yard that we’d made all pretty inside, several years ago. Definitely not something they’ll be wanting to do if they come out in the winter!
Once inside, cleaned up and medicated, I ended up helping my daughter in the kitchen.
She was trying to butcher the Arikara squash. It was fighting back.
The outer skin on that thing was definitely well cured. 😄
She managed to get it cut in half crosswise, with me helping keep it steady on the cutting board. It took a lot of strategic stabbing, then it took both of us to break it open. We made sure to collect the innards in a bowl, and I started collecting seeds while she tried to split the halves lengthwise. The knife would only go so far, and then it took the two of us pulling to break them apart.
The second image in the slide show above is the collected seeds, rinsed and set out to dry on parchment paper.
We are wanting to get a taste of this to know if we even like it, so the pieces are being roasted plain. My daughter will be using half of it for a soup that I will not be able to eat, as it will be spicy and full of fish. I prefer to eat winter squash on its own, seasoned with butter and brown sugar. My husband doesn’t like winter squash, so I’ve basically got an entire half of the squash to myself!
While my daughter was getting things into the oven, I headed out to the compost pile and found a surprise at the door. My SIL had left a bag with some items she had brought for us! I called back to my daughter to tell her that my SIL had already come to the door, then went to the compost ring. She was still close enough to hear me and came back. It turned out she had knocked on the door, but we were so buy wrestling with the squash, we never heard it. She thought I might have been resting and didn’t want to disturb us, and just left the bag.
So we had a chance to talk, and walked over to where my brother was struggling to hook the trailer up to their truck. It was not cooperating! Since I wasn’t going back in right away, I messaged my daughters about the bag by the door, so they took it in and my older daughter came out to return the bag. We talked for a while longer and got caught up on things. They won’t be staying overnight, and likely not come back during the weekend. They’ll just be coming back tonight with the water tank, dropping it off and leaving, and it might be full dark by the time they get here.
After that, it was late enough to do the evening cat feeding, so I headed in through the sun room, where I spotted this guy, tucked away in the shelf shelter.
This is Bobert. He is not very friendly, but not feral, either. He and Larence, another grey tabby, with no white on the nose, used to both hang around together a lot, but Larence seems to be among those that have disappeared. I saw very few cats around when I did the evening feeding. More show up during the morning feeding. I think I’ll try to join my daughter tomorrow morning and do a head count while she’s setting out the cat soup.
My older daughter just came by to let me know that the squash is done roasting.
Time to go and find out how it tastes!
The Re-Farmer
addendum: I almost made it – then got a message. They got to the scrap yard and almost got turned away, because they’re on strike!!! My brother explained they drove 80 miles to get there, and how where they do know about the strike? They were eventually allowed in, but only if he unloaded the trailer himself. For the amount they got back, with him having to do the work himself, it’s no wonder most people just send this stuff to the landfill. It’ll barely cover the cost of gas for the trip in that truck! That’s why I’ve been just collecting aluminum. Ferrous iron just isn’t worth much.
We had some rain, off and on, during the night, and today was mostly overcast. Overnight temperatures were quite nice, and the garden survives.
This morning was very good, on the pain scale, for myself, but not for my daughter. I headed to the garage this morning on my own, and didn’t even bother to bring the walker – though I did remember to bring the water jugs.
I always leave early, but I forget that the new location is closer enough to make a difference in travel time. I got there almost 45 minutes early.
He took the truck in almost right away.
The oil change got done and, when I asked, I found out he’d already checked the steering linkage for me when he was doing the diagnostic on Monday. All is good. We talked for a while about the check engine light. The most common fix he’s seen for that code is changing the gas cap, but we might not need to do that. It could be as simple as the cap not being on tight (we know it is), or the O ring not sealing as well. Applying some oil to the O ring would help with that. It could be dust in the EVAP system, especially since we drive on gravel roads. He described the system to me and told me about a number of other possibilities. My scan showed it as a “very common” code to come up. He assured me it won’t affect drivability. He never recommends getting work done, if it isn’t actually necessary. We can clear the code ourselves with the scanner, or it might even go away on its own.
In the end, he charged me for the oil and filter change, and an hour of labour for the diagnostic testing done on Monday. Considerably less expensive than I feared, at the start.
The whole thing was done before my actual appointment time!
I didn’t have a lot of driving after that, but I could already feel the truck felt like it was running smoother. The oil gauge was where he said it should be, and looking better than before. We’ll be doing many trips into the city next week, so it’ll get a work out, then.
I headed into town to refill the water bottles and picked up a few other little things, then headed home. My older daughter helped me with bringing the bottles in, as her sister has barely been able to get out of bed for the pain.
Later on, after I’d gone out to do the outside cat feeding, I hosed down the mats from the sun room some more, then checked on the garden. I ended up with a little harvest; just enough for a meal or two.
It’s been a while since I’ve tried harvesting, or even weeding, any carrots. The Rainbow Mix carrots are harder for me to reach, but are the one planted earlier, so I made sure to take from that row. They were a lot thicker than I expected! Then I grabbed the two Lemon Squash from the old kitchen garden. My older daughter is making a hearty potato soup for supper and made sure to include some of this!
The 10 day forecast is looking pretty good. Aside from a trip to the post office, we don’t need to go anywhere and the weather looks like we should be able to get things done outside – and finish clearing and cleaning the sun room!
My daughter and I headed into town this morning, hoping to get the truck worked on, even though I hadn’t received a message back from the garage with a time. I had my suspicions, but my daughter had something to do in town after, so I knew it wouldn’t be a wasted trip.
Oh, my. I really feel for the owner of the garage.
When we got there, he was outside, on the phone. My daughter stayed outside by the truck while I went into the office and waiting for him. I couldn’t hear what he was saying on the phone, but I could hear his tone, and it was a lot tenser than his usual laid back manner.
When he came to the office door, he was furiously texting while also apologizing. He had meant to text me back with a time, but had never had a chance to look at his schedule to tell me when. He was finally able to set his phone down on a shelf just outside the door, telling me how, after he’d had to go home yesterday, unable to work on our truck, things ended up taking hours longer than it should have. Of course, that absolutely screwed up his schedule completely.
He had just sat down at his desk and started getting his schedule out when his phone started ringing again. From where he’d left it just outside the door! He had to answer it and went outside again to talk. When he came back, he looked absolutely frazzled.
He was, of course, needing to catch up on things, and I could already see his bays were full, so there was no way we’d be getting in anytime soon. He had no openings today and, at best, could squeeze me in between other scheduled jobs. Of course, that would me us waiting in his office, since there’s nowhere else to go in the industrial park his shop is now located in. Alternatively, he had openings tomorrow.
We’ll be back tomorrow morning.
Poor guy. Yes, there was another mechanic, but there are things only the owner can take care of and, when it comes to our truck and needing to figure things out, he had taken that on himself rather than delegating.
That arranged, my daughter and I headed into town. I had forgotten our water bottles to refill, but we’ll be back to do that tomorrow. My daughter ran her errand and we were soon home.
I was feeling really good today – left the walker in the truck and didn’t even need a cane. After we had lunch at home, I headed outside to see what I could get done, as we are expecting rain.
I got the cat beds soaking in the tub finished and set out to drain and, if it doesn’t rain, dry. Floor mats got hosed down, which will need to be done again another time or two. I got the cat cage dismantled and the interlocking mat under it set out for soaking, then hosing down.
With the cat half of the sun room finally empty, I swept as best I could, but the floor washing and window washing will have to wait. Instead, I brought out all the cleaned cat beds and blankets and set them on one side, then brought all the food trays that had been removed and laid them out on the other, along with a water bowl. This way, the cats will at least have someplace warm and dry to hang out in, should the weather get wet. The wind, at least, seems to be dying down.
By the time all that was done, it was time to do the outside cat feeding. The singleton kitten would not let me touch her today, but she kept calling at me. She looks so sad without the little kittens to play with! I’m glad she’s staying close to the house now, though. Hopefully, with all the trays returned to the sun room, she will start hanging out in there more often, and the other cats won’t chase her out.
Before heading in, I did my evening rounds and checked on the garden. I watered the muskmelon, since they are under their own mini greenhouse set up. Then I noticed a strange bit of colour among the yellow leaves of the red noodle beans in the other bed.
There it is. Our single, sad, floppy little red noodle bean! I couldn’t see any others. Which I found funny because the same thing happened the first time we tried growing this variety during what turned out to be a drought year. We got just one sad little bean that year, too.
I would really like to successfully grow this variety, but I think I’ll wait a year or two before I try again.
I was still able to get a little harvest for today, though.
I got a handful of beans from the ones planted later in the season, with the Arikara squash. My pain levels started to kick in, so I asked a daughter to make supper, and I now have those beans on my cooling plate as I write this. I also grabbed a few of the Blueberry Tomatoes for the girls.
Sept. 23, and we still have a few things we’ll be able to harvest. If the long range forecast is at all accurate, we will have no danger of frost at all for at least the next 10 days.
I’m appreciating every frost free day we’re getting as a gift right now!
Okay, main goal of the day: getting the truck to the garage for our afternoon appointment.
As usual, we planned on leaving early. My daughter was really struggling this morning, unfortunately. She’d had a bad night. We’ve had more outings than usual that she came along with to help me out, and it’s starting to wear on her.
This time, it was Gouda, parked on one of the inside out cat beds under the canopy tent. So adorable!
I was having a good day, when it comes to pain levels, and started off driving but right away realized I was feeling unusually sleeping. A down side of having to take painkillers every 6 hours. I never get more than a few hours of sleep at a time, if I manage to fall sleep at all.
We got to the garage about half an hour early and settled in the waiting room chairs. We could hear the owner working on something in the back and he didn’t see us, which was fine. We were in no hurry. I actually started to fall asleep in the chair.
Then he walked by the door to the office, focused on his phone, stopped and did a double take when he realized we were already there and waiting. He greeted us then continued outside, going back to his phone.
Shortly after, he came back and apologetically asked us if we wanted to go into town for lunch or something; he needed to go home to take care of something. We were okay with that and he said he would text me when he was back.
I got my daughter to drive and we ended up going to the Dairy Queen, because I had some coupons. My daughter was a sweetheart and insisted on paying for it, too.
We took our time about it, though I wasn’t that hungry and ended up saving my burger for home. I just snacked on some fries. I don’t really like fries all that much, and gave the last of them to my daughter, since she hadn’t eaten before we left. After a while, we decided that we could just as easily go back to the garage and stay in the truck, where I’m sure I would have fallen asleep. We were getting ready to head out when I got a text.
The thing he had to take care of at home was taking longer than it should have, and he had no idea how long it would be. Rather than have us wait, he asked if we were willing to come back tomorrow.
I answered yes, then asked if he wanted us back for the same time. By that point, I don’t think he was able to keep checking his work phone. I’ll just assume the same time if he doesn’t respond.
So we headed home, instead, stopping only to pick up some gas.
$1.899/L
Ouch.
At least I got my 3¢/L CAA discount, so we paid $1.869/L instead. Every little bit helps.
Once at home, I sat at my computer for a while, but was still so sleepy, I couldn’t actually accomplish anything useful. My husband came over to talk and the first thing he said was that I looked really horrible! 😄😂 I did consider just going to bed but, by this time, it was past 3 and I knew that would screw up my night.
After a while, though, I started feeling better. Well enough to go outside to do the evening cat feeding. The singleton kitten, I noticed, is no longer a junk pile cat. She is now and under the cat house cat! The sun room trays are all outside right now, as we’ve made very little progress on clearing and cleaning the sun room, and spread out on the ground near the cat shelters. As I was topping them up, the little one was peeking out from under the cat house, meowing at me. I could see she wanted to come out so badly, but was also too scared to actually do it!
She did come out eventually, though. Especially after I started to add cat milk to some of the trays, too.
I was still feeling good, so I decided to do some yard stuff and garden watering in between topping up the cats’ water bowls a bit at a time, so as not to scare them away from the food. I checked the drying cat beds and stuff, and they were finally all dry, so I tucked those into the wagon and under the screen for now. I’ve got other pieces soaking with detergent in the tub, so I agitated them for awhile. That water got quite brown in the process! They are still soaking, as I wasn’t up to scrubbing them today. Then I started watering the garden.
Yes, the garden is still worth watering! Not all of the beds, but some of them. The strawberries, squash and sunflowers at the chain link fence all got a watering. I’m really impressed that the squash – winter and summer – is still surviving and blooming.
The old kitchen garden got watered and I found a surprise. In the beets and parsnip bed, the parsnip greens have gotten so tall, their leaves were sticking through the wire of the cover. Some of the beets are also quite tall and the only reason they aren’t going through the wire is because they’re in the middle of the bed, under the highest part of the curve.
About a third of them were gone.
Not completely, but at one end, there was a substantial empty spot that had been full of leaves.
My first thought was deer, but that seems so unlikely. The deer don’t typically go through that garden; too many paths and obstacles. Plus, my daughter added more wood chips to the paths yesterday, and that’s not a surface a deer would want to walk on. The alternative is skunks or racoons, and they would have cause more damage than just a bunch of leaves eaten. So it must be from a deer.
The wire cover did protect the plants at least somewhat, as they were not completely eaten down to the ground, like the Swiss Chard all was. So frustrating!
The tomato bed in the east yard got watered, but I didn’t bother with the other two beds. Since our single Arikara squash has been harvested, I cut away the vine, so that bed is now just bush beans. The leaves do have some minor frost damage, but I could see there are still beans developing. I probably could have harvested some, but didn’t have a container for them and didn’t want to push my limits.
In the main garden area, I did some more selective watering. I was doing the very last bed when my older daughter came out. I asked how her sister was doing, and she said not very good. She’s dealing with with increased pain levels now, so she’s settled down in the cat free zone to have some movies playing while she continues knitting my ankle socks for me.
While I finished watering the last bed, my daughter told me her plans for roasting the Arikara squash and to use half of it to make a squash soup. Personally, I look forward to having straight up roasted squash. I want to get a good taste of it to see if this is something we want to keep growing in the future, other than to keep collecting seeds for a rare squash variety.
I started telling my daughter how surprised I was with how little frost damage there was, and that I could probably harvest some things – then asked if she wanted some peppers. We had two California Bell peppers that are fully red now, plus a couple of Sweet Chocolate peppers that were ripe. She happily took them and will be using them in her soup. There are still some green peppers on the plants that will hopefully do all right. With peppers, though, we can also harvest them early and let them ripen in the house.
I did remember to look up what colour the California Bell peppers get, since they are bright red and, for some reason, I thought they would be yellow. I found images of both red and yellow peppers. 😕 I got them from MI Gardener and looked at their page, and their image is of green peppers!
So… red it is.
I headed inside soon after, as I didn’t want to push myself. At this point, I might head into town tomorrow on my own, rather than dragging my daughter out with me again. This time, I want to remember to grab a couple of 5 gallon water jugs to refill in town, after the oil change and whatever else needs to be done.
For now, I’m coming up on my schedule evening painkillers time, and I think I’ll try to go to bed after that and get a few hours of sleep before the next set. I tried that last night and it didn’t work. I ended up awake until somewhere past 4am. That might actually help me finally get some sleep tonight, though!
An odd thing about taking the painkillers every 6 hours. I’m not entirely sure how much it’s making a difference. I still get hit with the lower abdominal pain, enough that I’ve used the topical painkiller to help with that. Yet even when I’m not feeling the abdominal pain, I’m still feeling other pain. Particularly that left shoulder’s rotator cuff. The painkillers don’t seem to be touching that at all. Which makes me wonder; if they’re not helping with something as relatively minor as the shoulder pain, how much can it be helping with the abdominal pain? Granted, my shoulder has never hurt badly enough to warrant a trip to the ER, but you’d think a dose as strong as what I’m taking now, 6 times a day, would reduce the shoulder pain too, wouldn’t you??
Ah, well. It is what it is. At least I’m not getting side effects like that violent dizziness I was getting with the Percocet.
So… that’s how the day went today. We almost got the truck done! Our mechanic had told us what he’d needed to go home for, and I really hope it all worked out for him and his family.
If all goes well, the truck will finally be done tomorrow, and it’ll be ready for the winter, as well as all the trips to the city we’ll be needing to do over the next couple of months!
