Cozy cat, sleepy bees and a garden harvest

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Today, the girls and I headed into the city. Something we decided on later last night. The amazing thing is that my older daughter came along, too. Not for any medical appointments or another ER trip. Just because she wanted to get out of the house, and actually felt well enough to do it!

After the last few years of barely being able to get outside the house, this is HUGE!

As for me, I took the last of my generic Percocet and almost immediately got hit with dizziness. At that time, I was able to just go back to bed, though, so it didn’t mess things up for me too much.

I had company.

Potato Beetle took his turn on my leaning sheep. Which I seem to have lost entirely. After washing it, I had found it worked well as support under my knees so I could lie on my back, so I hadn’t put it back in the shelf that is my “headboard”. The cats have all claimed it at one point or another! It is now a cat bed.

*sigh*

We didn’t head out until about 11 and as I was on the way to the truck, I just had to stop and take some photos.

There were a couple of very sleepy bees on the sunflowers! It was a nice warm day by mid afternoon, but the morning was still cool enough that the bees were sluggish.

Our destination in the city was a Medigas. My husband had ordered new nasal “pillows” that he has instead of a CPAP mask. The pressure he needs on his CPAP is so high, the type of mask that covers the nose and mouth leaks air unless it’s tightened so much, he actually developed lesions. He’s gone through various styles of nasal prongs over the years, as designs changed and older ones were no longer being made. He isn’t able to order from his usual source in the US, though. For some reason, they no longer accept his prescription that’s required to buy replacements. So he had to buy from Medigas.

He got two nasal prongs, and it cost $110.

When he was able to buy them from the US supplier, he got a package with 6 different sizes for maybe Cdn$30.

He’ll be able to submit his receipt to his insurance company to be reimbursed for most of that, but the cost of CPAP supplies from Canadian sources is just insane and always has been.

By the time we got to the Medigas, we’d been on the road for over an hour and I was starting to hurt. My alarm for my afternoon dose of painkillers was about to go off after we got the nasal prongs, so I made sure to take the T3s I had with me before we made our next stop. I had hoped to take advantage of being in the city to stop at the Walmart to do a bit of shopping, but wasn’t up to it. The Medigas is on the same highway that we do our non-Costco stock up shopping on, and the international grocery store was on the way home, so we stopped there to get supper for when we got home. I picked a couple of things for my husband and I while the girls remembered they were out of oat milk and went to get some. They ended up coming back with a few other things as well, then went looking for something they wanted for their own supper – while I had to sit down. The T3s never really seemed to kick in.

In the end, the girls were sweethearts and paid for everything.

One thing I meant to get on the way out of the city was gas. Prices had gone up to $1.799/L, even in the city. On the way to Medigas I spotted a place that was $1.639 and on the same side of the highway we were on, so I got gas there. It was pre-pay only, so I went in to pay for $40 while my daughter took care of the pump. It turned out to be just enough to fill the tank from about 3/4s, which was nice.

After we picked stuff up at the grocery store, I had to get my younger daughter to take over driving. There was no dizziness at all with the T3s, but they don’t work as well. Frustrating.

Once we got home and my daughters brought things inside, my younger daughter took care of feeding the outside cats, before we had our food and relaxed a bit. I felt well enough later to head outside and into the garden to do some harvesting.

Something I did not harvest yet… bell peppers.

These are the California Wonder bell peppers, which are starting to turn colour. The Sweet Chocolate peppers are also starting to ripen. We won’t be getting a lot of peppers, but we’ll at least have a few! Since these have the tomato cages protecting them, if things get chilly overnight, they can be easily covered with some fabric we have for frost cloth.

What amazes me is just how many bush beans I was able to harvest! Most of them still from the high raised bed, that were planted earlier in the season.

The yellow beans on top are from the later planted ones in the Arikara Squash bed. There are a couple of Blueberry tomatoes, and a whole bunch of Orange Currant tomatoes. Some of them are fully red, like Spoon tomatoes, instead of orange. I also grabbed a couple of yellow zucchini.

I think we have enough bush beans to actually be worth blanching and freezing in a medium sized freezer bag – and there are still developing beans we’ll be able to continue harvesting!

I am so grateful for the mild weather we are having so far. The forecast has changed again, of course, and now it’s looking like we won’t be hitting below 6C/43F for a couple of weeks, and will mostly be closer to 10C/50F. Not that I trust long range forecasts, but it does give something to plan on.

Tomorrow, we have no plans to go out anywhere. If we hadn’t gone in today to get my husband’s nasal prongs, it would have had to wait until Monday, and I didn’t want to do that to him. He really needed replacements, long ago. My younger daughter has been wanting to work on breaking down that fallen tree for a while now, but we have either not been home long enough, or it’s been too windy and rainy.

At some point, we’re going to need to get a gas powered chainsaw. There’s only so far we can get on extension cords, and battery powered anything won’t last long enough to finish the jobs we need to do. Our baby chainsaw (electric pruner) has two batteries and my brother’s weed trimmer has three, and none of them recharge fast enough to be able to cycle through them and finish most jobs.

Anyhow.

I’m just thankful to be able to get as much done as we have been, with all the crazy medical stuff going on.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

Sort of.

The Re-Farmer

In the garden: preparing protection

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Today is Sept. 10, which is the old average first frost date that I still go by. The new average frost date is now a range from Sept. 21-Sept. 30.

I don’t trust those new dates, at all!

Right now, however, we’re expecting temperatures to be all over the place. Today we hit a high of 27C/81F, and an expected low of 15C/59F Last night, we dropped to 9C/48F. By Tuesday, we’re supposed to drop to overnight lows of 6C/43F, and might go lower; the forecast changes depending on which app I look at.

Not a danger of frost, but temperatures that some of our garden plants don’t handle well. Some things, I won’t be able to do much to help them, like the summer and winter squash. Others, I might just be able to.

Like the melons.

When I was feeling better this evening, I went out to get some fresh and and, of course, check the garden beds. I had left the hoops over the harvested cabbage patch after removing the insect netting. Today, I shifted the hoops over to the melons, after replacing two taller vertical stakes with shorter ones I now had available.

The supports extend far enough to include the one lonely surviving melon from our own seed starts. It’s so tiny, I know it won’t make it, but I can’t help it. I want to give it every chance I can! 😄

I joined the hoops horizontally with twine at three levels to support the plastic it will be covered with, and to keep the hoops from tipping one way or the other. I also wound the muskmelon vines up the trellis support, then added twine at the vertical supports for a bit more structural integrity. They can’t be seen in this photo, but we have a surprising number of developing melons on there!

I haven’t decided on what I’ll use to cover this. The 6mm poly is out of the question, as it’s way too big and I don’t want to cut it at this point. The main thing is that I want to be able to lift the sides up. We don’t need to keep them covered completely all the time. I want to be able to lift the sides during warm days and for watering, then drop them for cooler nights, as needed.

I must say, I do appreciate the versatility of these hoop kits. The rods and connectors allow for a lot of flexibility. I had 5 hoops made with 5 rods each over the cabbage patch. I used that to make 4 hoops with 6 rods each to cover the melons. There was one extra rod leftover, and I’m using that to help secure one end of the horizontal twine, where it’s knotted together and secured with a ground staple, weighted down with a rock.

The kit with the metal connectors, rather than the plastic ones, works out better, too. I got two kits with the metal connectors and they are definitely worth getting more of.

The Re-Farmer

Future socks and future crafty plans

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Check out one of the parcels that we picked up today.

This is the “surprise bag” of yarn that I’d ordered. It’s supposed to be enough for 3 pairs of socks. I had also ordered two skeins of “festive feet” Christmas coloured sparkle yarn. The one in this bag just happened to be the same as what I got separately. I had ordered two in this same colourway, thinking one skein per sock. Seeing that this package is meant to give 3 pairs of socks and has only one skein of this yarn, that means the one skein is enough for one basic pair of socks. Altogether, that means I got enough yarn for 5 pairs. Probably more, because I am asking my daughter to knit me some ankle socks, not tall socks.

Yes, these are for my daughter to knit socks for me. I don’t knit. I crochet. Socks can be made in crochet, and I’ve made custom socks for people in the past, but nothing using actual sock yarn. My daughter has been making herself socks in 100% wool and having a blast. They work great for her needs, but will wear out and get holes faster than sock yarn. Sock yarn contains a minimum percentage of manmade fibres specifically to combat wear and tear, so they last longer.

She is finishing off a pair of socks for herself right now, and then she will start making me some sparkly ankle socks.

She’s going to be a pro at turning a heel by the time she’s done making me several pairs! I don’t expect her to make 5 pairs right away, though!

I’m going to have sparkly socks to go along with my sparkly hat collection.

I also got some mirrors and reflective embroider thread. I plan to be making Christmas decorations with shisha mirrors. It’s been a long time since I’ve done sisha embroidery. Long before things like YouTube tutorials were available!

The mirrors I got are round craft mirrors, not thinner, hand cut mirrors typically sold for shisha embroidery.

If I’m going to be stuck inside with enforced low activity levels, I figure it’s a good time to break out my crafting materials and start making things again. If I can make enough (not just shisha embroidery) to sell at the local annual Christmas craft market in November, I’ll give that a try, too.

Speaking of enforced low activity levels, today was an odd day. It wasn’t a bad pain day, and the bleeding was not any worse. I took my morning pain killers along with my regular meds and supplements, at the 6 hour scheduled time as usual, then went back to bed. Before long, I started feeling bizarrely dizzy. Just turning my head a bit while lying down was enough to trigger dizziness strong enough to make me feel nauseous! This is a known side effect with the Percocet, but I’d never had anything like this before. I suspected it might have been because I took them on an empty stomach, and I was feeling quite hungry. It took a while, but I managed to get up and reheat some food my daughters had made for breakfast, and I did feel better afterwards.

When it came time to take my afternoon scheduled Percocet, I took a half dose and not on an empty stomach.

I still got really dizzy.

I was at my computer when my daughter came by to talk to me before going to get the mail. It had been more than half an hour since I took my half dose of afternoon painkillers, and the dizziness was hitting me hard. Hard enough that I actually had to get my daughter to help me get into bed and lie down!

Thankfully, it did fade away and I was eventually able to get outside for some fresh air, though the girls had to do the evening outside cat feeding. Oddly, it’s now been almost 2 hours since I took my evening dose, along with my regular evening meds and supplements and, as I write this, I’m feeling increasingly dizzy.

So… maybe it’s not the Percocet? I don’t know what else it would be, though.

Well, I’ve got only one dose left in this trial prescription. Then I’m back on the T3s. We’ll see if that makes a difference, over the next few days.

Meanwhile, I would like to start planning out some embroidered Christmas ornaments with shisha embroidery!

Oh, on a completely different note, I was rather impressed with Amazon. We had made a claim to get a refund on that office chair my husband ordered back in July, just yesterday evening. This morning I checked, and it listed the claim and refund was done! That was really fast. I’m rathe impressed.

Now we need to figure out where and how to get my husband another chair that will meet his needs!

The Re-Farmer

A rough day

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I have no idea what was different about today.

Pain levels kept increasing earlier than usual, with no physical activity that typically triggers it. I ended up spending most of the day in bed, which was incredibly frustrating.

A couple of things of note, though. First, the good stuff.

I did head out not long ago to do the evening cat feeding outside. More because I just couldn’t handle the inactivity anymore. Of course, I walked around a bit and checked on the garden beds.

The Black Russian sunflowers at the chain link fence bed are mostly blooming, and very busy with bumblebees!

I was only able to get a picture of one.

The Mammoth sunflowers seed heads are still very small, but some of the plants are now easily 7′ tall. Hard to say if we’ll get anything out of them.

Checking the tomato bed, there are plenty of Orange Currant tomatoes to pick, but I did not have a container for them. Same with the beans. I’ve asked my daughters to do those later. I checked on the Blueberry tomatoes, which are supposed to stay a dark colour with light blossom ends. Some of them felt soft and ripe, so I picked them.

I won’t be taste testing them myself – I’m willing to try with something tiny like the Orange Currant tomatoes or Spoon tomatoes, but just thinking of eating a normal sized, fresh tomato – even smaller ones like this – makes my stomach churn. Odd, that.

I didn’t take a photo, but I pulled the Gigenthemum poppy plants with their fully dry pods and set them on the curing frame near the tomatoes I picked yesterday.

By that point, I needed to get indoor and sit down again.

*sigh*

On another note…

Back in July, my husband ordered himself a new office chair through Amazon. A bariatric chair that can double as a sleep chair, if necessary. Only after placing the order did it tell us that tracking wasn’t supported by the delivery company. It did have a delivery date in August. A long time, but okay. We’ve had that before, and things would still show up at the general store the post office is in. Frustrating, but not something we were too concerned about. Once things arrived, we’d at least see it chance to having been delivered.

What we didn’t know is that the seller had tried to contact us. My husband never got the messages (the system should have sent him emails about them). After the delivery date passed, my husband was going to get a refund, but never got a verification on that.

Which is when I looked around and found the messages from the seller. One saying there was a problem and asking for an alternate address. Basically, they could not deliver to a post office (so why was the PO box address accepted? That happens pretty often) and needed a physical address. So I answered on behalf of my husband.

There were some messages back and forth and we finally got a Purolator tracking number. That lead to “shipping label created”, and never changed. After a while, I sent another message to the seller telling them that, according to Purolator, they don’t have the parcel. I told them that if there was a problem with the address (Purolator delivers to the general store but not to our physical address), they could use the physical address for the general store.

I got a message back saying they would contact the delivery company with the new info. Not long after, I got another tracking number, saying the package was in transit, and an apology for the delay. I responded to that, and then we waited some more.

And waited.

Purolator tracking still said “shipping label created” and never changed.

This morning, I tried to contact Purolator about it but all the system could tell me was there was only a shipping label created. They don’t have the package.

So I messaged the seller again, telling them this and saying that, at this point, we want a refund.

Some time later, my husband forwarded an email to me from Amazon.

My message could not be delivered, as “The seller associated with your order or inquiry has left the Amazon store or is no longer able to receive any further email communications.” Then it gave a link to request an A-Z Claim.

Which is when I gave up on being bedridden and went looking.

According to the Amazon listing, the seller is still there, the chair is still available, and even on sale now.

I went through the claim process, copy and pasting the email from Amazon about the seller no longer receiving messages, and saying we wanted a refund. My husband has already gotten a response from Amazon, and they are looking into it.

Hopefully, that means he’ll soon get his refund and we can look into buying a chair from somewhere else. With his current chair, he got some extra life out of it by replacing the wheels, but it’s still breaking down. He can’t sit normally on a chair, so he really need something that can handle extra wear and tear.

The problem is, finding something that works for him off line is almost impossible. Mobility aid places don’t carry office chairs, and office supply places don’t tend to keep specialty bariatric chairs in stock. You can only order them online – and they can be mind bogglingly expensive. An actual sleep chair is a completely different design unsuitable for his space and needs.

Well… we’ll figure it out.

After he gets his refund!

The Re-Farmer

Well, crud

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I did the evening cat feeding today, before checking on the garden.

We’ve had so many cats disappearing, but sometimes coming back, I have been asking my daughter which ones she sees when she does the morning feeding. Sprout and her daughter Sprig, the two calicos, were ones I have not been seeing much at all, though Colby, Sprig’s brother, has become quite socialized and stays near the house.

Colby is very happy to stay nearby and often begs for pets.

My daughter had been telling me she has sometimes seen Sprout – and yesterday mentioned that she’s looking pregnant.

This evening, I saw a calico. It was not Sprout. It was Sprig.

And yes, she looks pregnant.

Sprout and Sprig look very much alike; especially as Sprig got older, and can be hard to tell apart. I’m starting to think Sprout has disappeared completely, as we’re only seeing the one calico.

She is quite feral, unfortunately. Not quite as much as Sprout, in that she will sometimes come into the sun room looking for food.

*sigh*

I am not sure how to get her. We need to get that white and grey kitten that’s left, of course. That kitten is also Sprout’s, making her Colby and Sprig’s baby sister.

I’ve put the wire trap with a back door inside the catio as something to get used to, and the other one that’s the same size but doesn’t have a back door on the table under the canopy. They are just open, not set, so cats can go in and out freely. I’ve not put bait in them. I really don’t want to use those traps because we are far more likely to get a skunk or some other cat than Sprig. Sprig prefers to eat on the tray under the water bowl shelter, where there is no room for any sort of trap at all.

This is so frustrating. We were finally able to get the 6 kittens to the rescue today! Now we have another cat that’s pregnant, very late in the season. We need to get her. If she has those kittens, they will not survive the winter.

Crud.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: harvesting onions and tomatoes

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Today was too wet and windy to break down that fallen tree this afternoon, but I did manage to get some progress in the garden.

First up was to harvest some onions.

On the right and on the board in the middle are the Red Wethersfield onions that were interplanted with the bush beans in the high raised bed. The largest ones were all on the south end of the bed. The others were probably too overshadowed by the bush bean leaves to get as big.

The ones on the right are the Red Long of Tropea, which were interplanted with the caraway and along the west side of the bed with the (already harvested) turnips. On the other side of that bed, by the Daikon radish are the Red Beard bunching onions, which are looking very tall and strong.

I forgot to look for the onions that were planted near the celery, Those aren’t even visible anymore. Out of sight, out of mind!

That one tomato is a Chocolate Stripe tomato that I found fallen on the ground.

While checking other beds, I noticed some red tomatoes.

The little ones are supposed to be Blueberry tomatoes. 😄 The other, larger ones are Manitoba tomatoes. Then there’s that Chocolate Stripe tomato off to one side. They are now all set aside in the cat free zone to continue to ripen.

After harvesting the onions and the tomatoes, I checked on the summer squash and found a bit of wind damage. These are being grown vertically, but some did not get tied off high enough, yet, and one had been blown over, bending at the highest tie. So I spent a while going through all of them and securing them to their vertical posts with garden wire.

It isn’t a lot, but it felt good to be able to do at least that much in the garden!

The Re-Farmer

We got them!!!!

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More specifically, my daughter got them. My job was to distract Sweetie as much as I could.

While doing the morning feeding, none of the shrine feeding station bowls were filled. Just a small two-part food bowl inside the big carrier. Once that had cat soup in it, it wasn’t long before the littles were in there – though for a while, not even the fishing lure cat toy could keep Sweetie from trying to push her way in.

Then all three kittens were in and my daughter simply closed the door. They didn’t even freak out. We got the carrier inside as I messaged the rescue and sent them this picture.

We were able to leave almost immediately. After getting the carrier into the truck, my daughter ran back to get her meds while I opened the gate. She didn’t even change out of her pajamas.

They were completely quiet for the entire ride. When we got there and my daughter took the carrier out, she found the three of them mashed onto the crochet mat, one asleep, one blearily looking up at her.

Transferring them over didn’t go as well. We forgot that the carrier opens from the top again, and the rescue worker tried reaching in through the door. One of the tabbies got out – the most skittish one we almost caught before but let go before she broke her teeth biting at the carrier door. She had three dewormer syringes ready. The escapee ended up under a dresser, so she went for the others. The first one, she got a good grip on (while wearing a scratch proof glove) and was able to administer the dewormer before putting it in the kennel cage with its siblings we brought on the weekend. The second was was harder to grab, but I was able to administer the dewormer while she held it, then got it in the cage.

She had to move the dresser to get at the escapee but, of course, it ran off and into a closet, climbing up another cage like Spiderman, terrifying a mostly feral cat that was lying on top, and eventually scooting down between the side and the closet wall. The rescue worker was able to get it with the gloved hand while my daughter helped by grabbing a blanket to hold the kitten. It was very loud and upset! The rescue worker finally got a good grip and I was able to quickly administer the dewormer, then into the cage it went.

The three we brought earlier were doing very well. She’s been able to pick them up and hold them, which is huge! They were confirmed male. Today they were ready to go to a foster and probably still will, though it’ll be harder for her to get them out of the cage and into a carrier with the other three in there. They did, at least, start calming down while we talked.

We are now down to one kitten. The older singleton (confirmed female). I suspect that one will be a spay and return, but we shall see.

The main thing is, the littles are all caught! They will stay with the rescue until they are old enough to get fixed, and will get all the usual vetting and tests, before going up for adoption. Being as young as they are, they are far more likely to be adopted. Few people are willing to adopt adult cats or older kittens, no matter how well socialized. 😢

I am so happy they are finally all in!!!

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day… not really in a good way

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Things were all right in the morning. After taking my morning painkillers, I went out to join my daughter during the cat feeding.

We did not get any kittens. They are still very skittish, and the older cats kept pushing their way in for the cat soup, even though they got some in the other food bowls. I tried distracting Sweetie with the cat toy but she was too hungry to be distracted, and insists on eating at the shrine feeding station, where the kittens come through the chain link fence. As today was supposed to be another day or rain and potential storms, we put the carrier and bait bowl back into the catio, with the regular food bowl set to keep the door from closing by accident, and let the kittens be for now.

I had brought my walker out so, after my daughter went inside, I went around the yard and checked on the garden beds. I found both winter and summer squash that I could hand pollinate. We should have some yellow zucchini large enough to harvest soon, and some of the green scallop squash. We might get more of the Early Prolific Straightneck squash, but there are still no yellow pattypans or lemon squash. Interestingly, I think one of the squash that were thinned by transplanting might be a lemon squash. The tiniest of round, yellow female flower buds are showing up and I don’t think they are pattypans.

In the main garden area, I just had to get a picture of a monster.

The first image above is of a carrot from the Rainbow Mix that has gone to seed. It is remarkably huge and sturdy! Normally, carrots don’t go into seed until their second year, but I don’t mind having one that I can save seed from.

The second image of the slide show above shows what’s left of the Daikon radish. The flea beetles not only denuded the stems of leaves, but they even ate a lot of the pods, too! There are still pods left, but nowhere near as many as before. Enough to collect seeds from, though, if they were not too badly damaged.

Once back inside, I was feeling well enough to have breakfast before trying to lie down for a bit. When I got up again, I was able to make a lunch using some leftover brisket, with potatoes and bush beans from the garden, to make a stew.

While I was cooking, I heard some noises outside the kitchen window. My brother was leveling the ground where the tree and patio blocks had been. He had to dig up some remarkable thick roots that were buried under where some patio blocks where. He also had to remove some of the soil along the edge of where the blocks would be so that it was lower than the blocks, instead of higher. He levels a block in the corner between the house and the concrete steps so it wasn’t draining towards the house as well, and the blocks along the outside edge were sloped slightly to drain away from the house. He ended up filling our wheelbarrow completely with dirt and detritus he’d removed. Probably the heaviest load it’s ever had. Which would have been fine, except the tire turned out to be flat! I had come out to talk to him and, as he pushed the wheelbarrow from the grass onto the sidewalk, I was able to see the flat. All he could tell is that it wasn’t rolling right. He’s checked the tire before and couldn’t see a valve, so he thought it was a solid rubber tire. He did find the valve, but it had been partially pushed in from lack of air. He assured me he’s take care of it and told me to go back inside. Later on, I saw that he had also loaded all the old hot water tanks and pumps into his little trailer. They’ll be taken to the scrap yard another time.

By the time I finished cooking, the painkillers had definitely worn off. After lunch, I took them when the 6 hour alarm went off and tried to stay up longer, but eventually had to lie down again. Frustrating when it becomes difficult just sitting upright in a chair. *sigh*

I did manage to get a basement check in. I had to turn on a couple of the fans. One, aimed at the well pump and pressure tank because there was so much condensation dripping, it was creating a puddle. The other more in the new basement, more for air circulation and humidity levels. The recent rain, which is still sort of happening now, hasn’t been enough to cause problems in the basements.

I was also able to head outside and do the evening cat feeding. Some of the skunks are getting quite brazen! As I was setting up some bowls with cat milk in the kibble, specifically for the kittens (with extra to draw the adult cats away), I heard a commotion. I’d put some kibble at the back of the shrine base. A skunk was there, but one of the little tabbies was wanting that food (even though there was more) and hissing and spitting at the skunk. Which was about 5x its size!!! I scooted the skunk away, going down a path behind a willow where there’s an opening under the chain link fence they can fit through. I knew it would be coming back, so I tossed some kibble into the grass of the path, so it would have no reason to go closer and scare the kittens.

I also move the shrine feeding station bowls next to the catio, on either side of the door, with the bait bowl inside the carrier again. The bigger cats will eat the closest food, which should leave the bait bowl inside the carrier for the kittens, when they go looking for food later.

If the skunks don’t eat it first.

*sigh*

Then it was back inside, and not doing much. The painkiller either didn’t kick in, or the pain was worse and the painkiller has managed to just take the edge off. At least I can tell myself that, with how wet it is outside, I wouldn’t be getting much done out there, anyhow. It’s supposed to continue raining, off and on, until about 2am. It does look like some onions are ready to harvest, though. Something I should be able to do tomorrow, if all goes well.

Tomorrow afternoon – if we’re not delivering kittens to the rescue – my daughter and I will work on breaking down that fallen tree. I can handle a chain saw, and my daughter will be able to clear away the branches and smaller logs. Normally, the two of us together will drag the bigger logs out, but we’re both pretty broken, so I just want to cut things to size. I’m hoping to be able to get an 18′ length for the next garden bed out of this tree. The base of its trunk looks like it will match the size of the one that’s currently in place for the garden bed fairly well.

That’s pretty much it for the day.

I am looking forward to seeing the doctor, a little over a week from now, and getting those test results. If things go as expected, she’ll get me in for a hysterectomy fairly soon. If not, then I’ll be referred to specialists in the city. Who knows how long that will take.

I feel like I’ve lost most of the year over this.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: winter squash and a harvest

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After a draining morning, I lay down after taking my pain killers to wait for it to pass.

It didn’t, but it at least got less severe.

Somewhere past 3:00, I headed back outside with my walker. I fed the outside cats, then say with the fishing rod toy to keep Sweetie busy so the littles had a chance to eat. We have storm warnings for tonight (as I started this, I could hear thunder in the distance!), so I took the bigger carrier we had set up for the kittens to explore and put it inside the catio, setting the door mostly closed. Then I headed to the garden.

One thing I noticed over the past while is that some of the winter squash on the chain link fence are producing more female flowers! I was even able to hand pollinate a few this morning.

Most of them are these Butterneck squash. There’s at least one that looks like it’s going to wither away, but the ones I got pictures of all look pretty darn good. I also spotted a new Black Futsu female flower that was open and hand pollinated it. Why I bother, I don’t know. It’s Sept. 6 today. There is basically no season left for them to mature! Still, I want to give them all the chance they can. It should be interesting to see how big they get before it gets too cold.

We will, however, have one winter squash this year, at least.

The outer shell of the Arikara squash is getting pretty hard. I should be able to cut it and set it to cure fairly soon. All the other squash that started on this plant have died off, almost as if it pruned itself.

The yellow bush beans around the Arikara squash are producing quite nicely, and I had plenty to pick from a relatively few number of plants. I also found a single red Manitoba tomato, hiding under some leaves that I picked. Then I went to the high raised bed and picked the bush beans there…

… after I picked the two Chocolate Stripes tomatoes that were ready.

In the above photo, all the beans to the left of the tomatoes are from the later planted beans by the Arikara squash. Everything to the right of the tomatoes are from the high raised bed. The yellow beans in that bed seem to have had a second life and are suddenly producing quite a lot, again. There’s only a couple of green bean plants, and they are not at all productive.

I didn’t keep this. I got a bowl for it all, then wheeled over to my brother and SIL’s caravan and offered it to them. They were quite happy to accept. After my SIL transferred them to their own container and brought back my bowl, we were able to stay outside and chat – I just sat on my walker rather than try to climb up into the caravan. They have stairs with a hand rail now, but they came outside rather than have me hobble my way in.

Unlike my mother, with her snarky comments about the little tomatoes I brought her, it was nice when my brother and SIL quite appreciated the beans and tomatoes I brought for them! They have been growing some things on their balcony, but no beans. My SIL is thinking that, next year, she’ll try to grow enough tomatoes to do some canning. This year, they have cucumbers and cucamelons that have done quite well!

We got all caught up with the birthday visit with my mother this morning. My brother hadn’t had a chance to go into detail with my SIL yet. My mother was so all over the place, it took both of us to describe things and figure out what she was saying. Part of the challenge is that her sense of time is completely gone. There was something she’d said that my brother thought had happened recently, but I’d caught her mentioned the town she used to live in, which means it could have happened several years ago. In some things, we had to mash together things, my sister had told me my mother had said to her, compared to what my mother had told me, compared to what my mother had told my brother, and work out what was actually intended. It’s like putting together a puzzle, but half the pieces are still missing, while pieces from another puzzle show up randomly, too.

Still, we do the best we can.

I can hear that the rain has started. My SIL was very happy to have gotten the mowing done!

It would be really awesome if the weather holds long enough for us to actually get more winter squash.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens and a birthday visit

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This morning, I headed out with my daughter while she did the morning feeding. We were hoping to catch some more kittens for the rescue.

The kittens are definitely more comfortable around my daughter, and were willing to come over for cat soup while she was right there, and she was able to pet them. When she tried picking them up to put in the waiting carrier, though, that was too much. These kittens are a lot more skittish than the ones we took in yesterday.

Sweetie, of course, didn’t help much!

After a while, my daughter and I talked about it and decided it would be better to wait. We made sure to leave the big cat carrier out, door open, so they could go in and out as they pleased and not find it scary. The white and grey singleton also came out, but it’s even more nervous that the littles.

We will try again tomorrow – if the weather holds. We’re supposed to get heavy rain in our area overnight and all day tomorrow. It’s supposed to be worse to the south of us, and the city is getting flash flood warnings, so we shall see.

Once inside and having breakfast, I remembered to tell my brother about the chainsaw mill. He would have seen it by now, but I wanted him to know that he was welcome to use it at any time, since it’ll be a while before I am able to. While we were chatting, I mentioned my plans to go into town to buy a birthday card and visit out mother, since I wasn’t able to do it yesterday.

He was planning to visit our mother today, too, so he offered to drive me in his car, which was very sweet of him. I had enough time to head outside again to move some hoses, as my SIL said she wanted to mow the inner yard for me, then I picked some Orange Currant tomatoes and even a few Blueberry tomatoes for my mother. I figured she make snarky comments about them being so small, but thought she would still enjoy them.

We dove out in their recently acquired electric car, and there’s a charging station almost across the street from the nursing home, so we went there to top the charge up, then walked over to the dollar store, half a block away. I found a card but decided against looking for the other stuff I had been thinking of on this trip. My brother had already brought a card last weekend, but found an actual 95th Birthday card and got it for her, too. Then we walked over to his car to fill the cards out inside.

We had brought my walker along and, by then, I felt that I was going to need it, so he got it out for me and we headed in. It was coming up on lunch time, but my mother was asleep in bed when we got there. Once she was awake enough to realize we were there for a visit, she got up and moved to her corner chair.

The visit was… draining.

My mother almost immediately went at my brother, going on about how she wanted a “good” radio – she simply will not accept that the station she wants to listen to cannot be picked up in her room, and insists the problem is the “junk” radio. My brother had not intended to tell her yet, but he ended up explaining that he did get her an internet radio, like she asked for, and had spent the last week setting it up. She can’t understand any of it, but when she gets it, she’ll only need to push a button to get a Polish radio station. It was not easy, since the one station she wants doesn’t broadcast online like most others. It took him 4 days to figure out how to get their website stream connected to the radio. It was just that one station that was an issue, but none of it was easy. The next step is to activate the new internet that was installed in her room. He tried to explain all this, but she kept interrupting him and complaining.

The rest of the visit did not get any better.

She mostly dismissed the cards we got her. She mocked the tiny tomatoes, then was wondering where her garlic was. She had asked for a bulb of garlic, which my sister had brought, but apparently it wasn’t good garlic (small?). Then she asked me if I had garlic in the garden. I told her no, it’s harvested. She glared at me, asking why. I told her, it’s September. It’s all harvested. She then went to talking about how my sister and her husband eat garlic every day, and that’s why they are so healthy, so she wants garlic.

My sister and her husband are not that healthy.

Then she went on about how she’s gained weight (she hasn’t; she has water retention and bloating) because they feed her too much and keep “pushing” snacks, and “they” put chemicals in food and that’s why she’s gaining weight and why people are getting cancer. She’s cutting our beef and pork, convinced it’s the cause of her “stomach problems”. Then she started talking about something she saw on the news (she doesn’t have a TV, so I’m guessing in one of the common rooms?), except she was clearly combing two completely different things into one, but that’s why everyone is dying of cancer. ??? Then she started on how, after she’s gone, she wants my brother, sister and I to all get along and not fight and push each other away – clearly she had imagined some sort of scenario and believes it happening or will happen, or… I don’t know, but she was making a big deal of it. Not the first time, though the first time she assumed we were behaving a particular way. Then my brother mentioned she’s used our sister for something (he didn’t even try to cover how badly she had stabbed him in the back and broke his heart in the process) and I mentioned she has specifically told our sister to keep it a secret from us, pointing out that she is the only one doing things like that.

It went over her head.

On and on it went, until someone came in with her lunch. We helped her set up with her table and tray to eat, then my brother said he and I would be going out for lunch now, leaving her to eat.

I think we were there for maybe half an hour.

My brother is a saint. I would have left much earlier. Mind you, by then the pain killers were wearing off and I had very little patience in me.

We did not go out for lunch. Neither of us had the energy for it.

Once at home, I had to pretty much lie down right away and my brother, being my brother, had many projects to work on. Later, he said that with all the manual labour he did over the next few hours, none left him as tired as that half hour or so with my mother! I’m glad we were able to go in together. If it had been just him, she would have been much worse. *sigh*

I eventually made it outside again, too, and get into the garden, but that will be in my next post.

See you there…

The Re-Farmer