The bush growing at the clothes line platform is now in full, enthusiastic bloom!
My mother told me the name of this, but I can’t remember it at all.
The Re-Farmer
Month: June 2018
Good Moooorning!
So my darling husband (picture me speaking with a rictus grin) cheerfully comes traipsing into the bedroom and wakes me up with a “so, are there supposed to be cows in the yard?”
What a way to be awakened!
No. There are not supposed to be cows in the yard.
He had been hearing the cows mooing and thought to himself, that sounds awfully close.
Then looked out the window.
That’s not good!
By the time I put my glasses on, they were at the opposite end of the yard, by the fire pit. When I got outside, there were no longer any cows in our yard, but there were several just outside the barbed wire gate at the fire pit.
I closed the gate.
I could see from the gate the the electric gate at the cow fence was in place, so before we closed the other gates, I went over by the barn, where the second electric gate is.
Sure enough, the wire was down, looking like something went right through it, dragging it into the tall grass on our side of the fence.
That left us with the task of closing up the vehicle gate, and the people gate.
Problem.
Yeah. The pole was still there.
Moving a 30 ft pole is awkward, to say the least. It wasn’t just getting it clear of the opening, but clearing the swing arc of the gate. So there was a whole lot of rolling and pivoting, but it wasn’t enough. He really shouldn’t have, but my husband was able to pull it a few feet away from the yard (yeah, I helped, but really… I wasn’t doing much) and it got rolled clear.
This is the first time we’ve closed these gates since we’ve moved here.
*sigh*
They’re broken.
On the vehicle gate, one side isn’t too bad, but had to be lifted to close. It shouldn’t need to be lifted. The other was off the top hinge and we weren’t able to put it back at the time (I will need to go back with a tool kit), but we swung it closed.
They are supposed to be able to latch together.
They don’t.
But we could at least sit the parts on top of each other and let gravity to the rest.
*sigh*
Then there’s the people gate. I had been wondering why there was a bungee cord on the chain link fence.
Now I know why.
The latch parts don’t latch anymore. So the bungee is used to keep it from swinging open on its own.
After phoning the renter and leaving a message for him (with apologies for calling so early), I went around the yard, just in case we missed a cow in the bushes or something, then went to see what was going on.
There were 6 altogether; 2 cows and 4 steers. The rest of the cattle were on the other side of the fence near the electric gate.
I decided not to try and get them out. They can graze all they want and, at some point, they may well wander back towards the barn and join the rest of the herd.
Granted, the rest of the herd might end up on the wrong side of the fence, too. But I’m not too worried about it. They can keep our grass down.
Now. I wonder if I can get another hour or two of sleep…
The Re-Farmer
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The Squirrel. Sees us.
My daughter got some pictures of a squirrel at our feeder stand today.
It would go up onto the platform, then stretch out to catch the bottom of the hanging planter, pull it closer, then climb onto it.
It saw my daughter taking pictures.
Now, there’s a face that can haunt dreams! :-D
Sure doesn’t seem happy with being watch, that’s for sure. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: old lilacs
I posted about an area I’ve been working on for some time that I feel is now pretty much done. Today, I was able to go back and take some photos. It will still need some raking and a pass with the weed trimmer, and the odd pruning of little things that got missed, but the big work is done. You can read more about the progress here, here, here, here, and here.
Yeah, I’ve been working on this section for a while!
Here are some before and after pictures.
What used to be rows of lush lilac bushes have been reduced to mostly dead branches and stems, and many long, tall stems with nothing but a few green leaves at the top, trying to get some sunlight.
I was being pretty ruthless in what I cut; the back of the row had a lot of undergrowth of false spirea at one end, caragana at the other, and lilac suckers all over. Much of it could be pulled right out of the ground without using pruning shears or saw.
Here is the next section’s before picture.
In this picture, I had already done some cleaning in the front rows of trees and bushes. Here it is, after clearing the back row.
I used a bow saw to cut part of the dead tree down as well. Some of the tiny little trees still in between are plum trees, so I wanted to keep them. Otherwise, I took out all the undergrowth and cleaned out the remaining lilacs in the back.
In the next section, I worked my way up to an old caragana, which is as far as I’d cleaned up from the other end of the row of trees and bushes. This next picture is from before I started on the front area with the plums.
I had cleaned up the front around the plums and linden tree, and from one side, cleared out some old lilacs and the caragana. This is what it looks like now that the back is cleared up.
I’ve decided to keep this caragana, though it still needed to have some old trunks removed. Like a lot of the other dead wood I removed, I was pulling some of it right out of the ground, with no need for cutting, it was dead for so long.
There are quite a few dead bits of trunk sticking up in several places that I have left for now. I am not able to cut them flush to the ground at the moment, so I’d rather they were taller – and more visible – then cutting them only part way down.
It’ll be good to get in with the weed trimmer and a rake, but it’ll wait for cooler temperatures!
The Re-Farmer
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Surprise finds
This morning we had some very welcome rain. We are also supposed to hit above 30C today, with chances of thunderstorms, so I decided to do a check around the yard and see if any more branches had come down, etc.
There were a few small branches, but as I went around the other house (I think I should call it the storage house, though we aren’t storing anything in there ourselves), I found a surprise.
Remember this tree?
The dead one on the right of the picture, with the crows nest in it?
This is what it looked like today.
Yeah, the crows nest is now almost hidden by greenery.
The trunk to the right is part of the tree, too, and is dead, but the trunk with the nest had suddenly sprouted leaves.
Just a few days ago, there was NO sign of life in that trunk. Not even buds. The only living thing growing on that trunk was moss and lichen.
Many of the branches are still dead or mostly dead, but fresh leaves have burst out all over the place.
The dead trunk had a large branch leaning on the disconnected power line running to the storage house, while the rest of it leans above it, holding up a broken, though still living, branch from another tree.
So I decided to take some of that down.
After taking down the branch on the disconnected power line with the extended pruning saw, I made the initial cut on the dead trunk higher up, where it was most vertical, so that I could guide the fall straight down, rather than have it falling sideways onto the power line. Granted, the power line is only held up by a tree outside the yard, but I still didn’t want anything landing on it, as much as I can avoid it. Then I cut the trunk again, lower down in a spot I could access with the bow saw.
As I was cleaning up after all this, I found another surprise, by the branch that had come down earlier in the month.
I had gone over this area with the weed trimmer as much as I could, and it was basically all just grass. I guess clearing it as much as I did was enough to spur the growth of some hidden horseradish!
I had no idea horseradish had ever been planted here!
When we first moved to the city we were living in before coming back here, we used to hike in the river valley trails a lot. The first spring we explored the trails, I was seeing horseradish growing wild, all over the place. It was like a weed! I’ve never seen anything like it, anywhere else. I like that it is such a resilient plant.
With big, healthy horseradish growing in other areas of the yard, I will not be making any effort to keep these when I come back with the weed trimmer, but it was still cool to find them.
The Re-Farmer
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Incredibles 2 and Solo
Today, I will do things a bit different. Movie reviews! :-D
We made the trip into the city to see a couple of movies for my daughter’s birthday. With the drive being more than an hour, it made sense to take advantage of it and see two.
In the afternoon, we saw The Incredibles 2, then Solo; A Star Wars Story in the evening.
So I will start with The Incredibles 2.
It’s hard to believe that the first movie came out 14 years ago! We enjoyed that one, and after reading some reviews, I was really looking forward to seeing it.
I was not disappointed. I would even go so far as to say, The Incredibles 2 was incredible.
Ah, ha! I slay me!
Sorry about that. ;-)
Before the movie started, there was a short called Bao.
We followed from baby bao through angsty teenager bao, to little bearded bao, introducing his fiance to his mother. I won’t give out any spoilers, but Mom’s reaction to that was not at all what I expected to see! Yeah. I teared up. I also loved the way it ended. So touching!
On to the main feature.
The movie begins where the first movie ended, which I think was a wise move on the part of the creators, even if they did drop the antagonist pretty much immediately. After the movie ended and the girls and I were talking about it, I noted that they never did catch that particular bad guy!
Visually, the movie was really beautiful. They kept the same aesthetic, while the graphics were simply so much better. At one point, a character walked into the scene and she is wearing a knit cardigan. Being a fibre artist myself, my eyes made a beeline for it. The detail, textures and drape of it were amazing. This was true of everything. The physics of things like how Elastigirl’s body responded while being a parachute, for example. The flow of water. Jack Jack’s transformations.
The movie did come with a warning that several scenes would have bright, flashing lights. Those definitely were potentially seizure inducing! But they were also a vital part of the story.
Which leads me to the next thing; the story line. Which was also really well done. You had all the family dynamics going on, as the family struggles with the consequences of what happened in the previous movie. They’ve got no jobs, no home, and with the government project shut down, no support system to help them start over again. Basically, you’ve got a regular family, trying to figure what they’re going to do next. They just happen to also have superpowers that are illegal for them to use.
Within all the superhero antics in the story line, this family dynamic continues to play out. Ultimately, it is their strength as a family, working together, that makes them strong as superheros, too. As Supers, none of them could reach their full potential on their own. It is only when they come together as a group that they succeed.
Among the highlights is when Edna Mode and Jack Jack are brought together. It was hilarious!
The whole thing was very well done, and I would highly recommend seeing it. No, you don’t need kids, either. :-D
This is a movie I would happily see again, and we will probably buy it when the disc comes out.
Then we saw Solo.
With this one, I’d heard that it was not doing well in the theatres, and was not well liked, but not a whole lot beyond that. When I first heard they were making a movie about young Han Solo, my reaction was basically, why? Was there some sort of interest in Han’s back story I missed?
Apparently, not.
Still, I was interested in seeing for myself.
If The Incredibles 2 was incredible, Solo was…
Loud.
Incredibly loud.
I have no idea what was going on in this auditorium, but we spent much of the movie with our fingers in our ears. It was painful. I still feel half deaf because of it, after nearly 3 hours.
As for the movie itself…
Well, it was kinda entertaining. It wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t call it good, either. It was just… there. Lots of action. Lots of fight scenes and flying scenes and flying fight scenes.
Aside from Han, Chewy and Lando, basically all the characters were new, but none of them were really developed enough to care what happened to them. The details revealed as the story line developed were not things that mattered. Did anyone really clamor to know how Han got his surname, or his blaster? Then there was that pair of dice that kept showing up. Yeah, it played a part in the Star Wars; the Last Jedi, and you could tell that’s the only reason they got written into this side story. Stuff like that could have been dropped completely, and no one would have noticed.
Ultimately, when it came to the story progression, there just wasn’t a lot of reason given to care about the story or the characters. So if all you want is to be entertained and see some cool flying and fighting scenes, it’ll fit the bill. As far as the plot, it was pretty mediocre, and for all the attempts to throw in twists and turns, they were all really predictable. It certainly didn’t live up to the standard set by Rogue One.
I’m glad to have seen it, but have no interest in seeing it again. Definitely not something I’d have any interest in owning.
In conclusion: I would definitely recommend seeing The Incredibles 2. It’s fantastic.
As for Solo; not really. Maybe rent it, if you are really curious, but I wouldn’t recommend paying theatre prices to see it.
The Re-Farmer
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I think I’m done?
With today’s heat (we hit 32C today, and it stayed there for hours), I wasn’t able to get any work done in the trees and bushes until past 8pm! Even then, it was about 28C when I first started. As I write this, we’ve dropped to 25C, so it’s still quite warm.
I continued to work in the row of old lilacs I had been working on last, and I think I’m pretty much done now. By the time I stopped, it was too dark to take pictures. There is still clean up to do; the piles of what I cut and pulled away need to be cleared out of the yard, and the ground needs to be raked up of the many, many twigs and who knows what is in among the dead leaves. I wasn’t too surprised to find the odd piece of garbage at the based of trees. Things blow in from all over, and once caught, no one would have seen them to clear them out. The oddest thing I found, though, was the tray from a Hungry Man dinner. My dad loved his Hungry Man dinners! But how did a tray end up buried in leaves in the bushes? It’s not the first one I’ve found, either. I found one buried in the tall grass when I was mowing along the driveway. I can’t even suggest they came from the pile outside the yard that was being used as a garbage dump, because of how far it is, and the face that there are rows of trees and fences in between.
After this section, I will start working my way through the maple grove again. I’ll be getting into clearing some big stuff in there!
But not tomorrow.
Tomorrow, the girls and I are planning on a day trip to the city to see some movies, to celebrate my younger daughter’s birthday – and to be in air conditioning! Unfortunately, it’s going to be too long of a day for my husband to join us. :-( We considered using the time for him to visit his dad, but that would just make a long day for both of them!
When we lived in the area back in 2004, we didn’t think twice about hopping in the car and driving to the city just to see a movie. My husband used to commute to the city every weekday. Now, just getting outside is an accomplishment for him. I had hoped that living out here would help him with getting outside more, but the pain just isn’t in control enough for him to manage.
Which really sucks.
The Re-Farmer
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Very Warm Today
Clean Up: lilacs – after
It’s been another scorcher today, but I decided to work on the lilac row in the West yard. It was shady, and I made sure to have a water bottle with me to stay hydrated. By mid-afternoon, though, the sun had moved far enough that my shade was gone, and it was time to stop.
Most of the work was done around just one old lilac bush!
Here is the before picture, from when I first started working in this section.
Then after I’d cut away the false spirea (and the branch that fell on it after hitting the power line!).
Finally, here is how it looks now.
Lots of skinny little dead branches among the skinny little live branches! :-D Several dead main trunks were cleaned away. There was quite a lot of undergrowth behind the lilacs that needed to be cleared away, just to reach the lilacs themselves. In one lilac bush towards the left in the photo, I didn’t even have to cut the trunks. They just pulled out of the ground, or came out easily with a twist.
At some point, we’ll have to rake under there to clean up the many tiny dead twigs and branches in the leaves. For now, I am focusing on just getting the big stuff cleaned and cleared out, while slowly working my way down the row.
It’s much slower work with the lilacs, since it involves removing so many little things, compared to working on the big trees, that’s for sure!
The Re-Farmer
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Some Handy Hooks
The sun room does not have any power to it, other than the light. Even the switch for that is in the old kitchen. When my dad used it, he had a radio and a clock going, powered by a household extension cord going through the window to the old kitchen. The cord was long enough to go up and over the door, then down to where my dad could reach it from his seat, kept in place behind nails hammered into the door frame.
That cord is still here.
With getting an electric weed trimmer, I needed something other than a household extension cord. So I added my own heavier duty cord through the window, which you can see in this picture, here.
I found those flowers while cleaning the room out and stuck them on the household extension cord as it leads up to the top of the door, but the orange cord has been kind of in the way. Putting it into that shelf works for now but, in time, the shelf will be used for other things.
Today, I came up with a solution.
While emptying the drawer in the table we took out of the sun room, I found two coat hooks. Perfect!
Here they are, now.
I just screwed them into the wall, facing away from each other, and now they keep my extension cord neat and tidy, while still being convenient.
Putting the prie dieu back in front of it, and it’s hidden away, too.
Easy peasy! :-D
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 