Month: July 2018

Kitten Kibble

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While topping out the outside cats’ bowls with kibble, I decided to leave a bit extra beside the old dog house for Butterscotch.  There’s some old carpet that was dumped there that the kittens climb all over, and that’s what I put the kibble on.

While doing my nightly walk around the yard this evening, I saw the kittens, digging into a fold of the old carpet, trying to find some last pieces of kibble!  The kittens are eating solid food now. :-)

Then Butterscotch came out and went over to me for some pets, before going to the food bowls.

So I got more kibble for the kittens.

Soon, Butterscotch was back with them, and they were all eating kibble!

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One finished before the others and decided to explore.  This one actually came fairly close to me – but not too close!

They’ll get used to me, eventually. :-D

I knew zooming in with my phone to take pictures wasn’t going to be the best, so I took some video, too.

Unfortunately, I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes!

So I didn’t stay long.

The Re-Farmer

After and after-after shots

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This afternoon, I went back to the area in the maple grove I worked on last.  Rather than working my way farther down the rows of trees, I focused on taking down dead and dying trees, pruning away lower branches, and so on.

So here are the after pictures from before, and the after-after pictures from today. :-D (click on them for larger images)

When I took pictures last time, I had worked closer to ground level, so you can’t really see as much of what I cleared away higher up.  There’s a nice, straight spruce tree in the middle that had a lot of dead branches that I pruned away.  In this section, that tree saw the most work.

I pruned as many branches as I could reach.  One tree has a large dead and rotting branch that will have to wait until I’ve got a full size chain saw.

Aside from pruning, this area had a small, dead spruce tree taken out, too.

I did nothing with the big dead spruce tree in front (with the rock at its base), though some of the lower branches were a bit in the way.

This area is where I started to need to do a lot more picking and choosing.

The maple that’s under the power lines came down.  I left the stump tall for when I have a full size chain saw.  If I were to just leave it, it would probably start growing new branches.  Maples are resilient that way.

More small trees had to come down.  I’m trying to salvage some of those spruces, but the more I look at the one on the right of the photo – the healthiest looking one out there – the more I realize I will probably need to take it down completely.  It’s just too close to the power line.  It’s not a problem now, but it can potentially grow another 20 ft or more, and it’s already just a few feet shorter than the height of the line.

I think I will leave it for now and ask the arborists when they come out.

Lots to clean up in this area.  I got to one tree that was clearly planted deliberately; the sticks that had been put in the ground to mark and protect it when it was planted were still there.  When I got to it, however, I discovered that the only green leaves on it were from those vines!  Once I pulled those free, I could see the tree was quite dead.  In other areas, I took down a dying spruce that had been planted in the row, but growing out of its base were two self-sown maples.  I ended up taking out one of them.  We shall see how the other one survives.  In other areas, I was pruning branches from a couple of elms so close together, I couldn’t fit between the trunks, but they seem to be doing fine, so I’m not going to thin them down.  Unlike the dead spruce that was also right next to them.  The spruce was planted.  I think the elms sowed themselves.

As I was working, I noticed I was getting pretty close to the birch trees I’d noticed when I was surveying the area a while back.  I had shown the pictures I took to my mother and she was happy to see them.  She had transplanted them from saplings she dug up while visiting her grandparents’ homestead up north, years ago.

I also found some apple trees further in.  A strange place to plant them.  The one closes to the power pole gets enough light that it is now producing apples, but these ones are practically in the dark.  It will be good when I finally go through that area to thin and prune.  Hopefully, they will be able to do better, next year, because of it. :-)

Not back for a couple of hours.

My branches piles are getting huge. :-/

Next time, I will finally start working further West down the rows.

The Re-Farmer

Beach finds

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20180721.beach

I was able to stop at the beach again, after dropping my daughter off.

One of these days, we should there and actually swim or something. :-D

When I’m just there for a quick visit, I like to walk away from the sandy part of the beach and head for the rocky part.

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I like to keep a look out for unusual colours, shapes, fossils and fairy stones.

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It’s mostly sand and lime stone.  I like ones like this, with the interesting colours and textures.  Sandstone is remarkably light.

It’s common to find pieces of shell as well, but today, I found what looked like teeth.

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Which turned out to be exactly what it was!  On the jawbone of a fish.

No.  I didn’t keep it.

It’s a really nice and relaxing way to spend a bit of time in the morning.  Especially when it’s early enough that there’s hardly anyone else out, yet! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Bloom time

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When we moved out here to take care of the farm for my mother, one of the things we knew is that this first year would be a year of discovery.  With the yard in particular, I wanted to get an idea of what was growing where.  Sure, my mother could fill in a few details, but she hasn’t lived here in a few years, and isn’t going to remember everything.

As summer progresses, and things come to bloom in their seasons, I am making more and more of these discoveries.

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This is at the base of one of the dead spruce trees I’d pulled a whole triffid of vines out of, not long ago.  When I was going around here with the weed trimmer, I avoided this area, partly because I could tell it wasn’t just a whole lot of overgrown crab grass and weeds, partly because I wasn’t sure what was hidden in it.  I’m glad I left it. :-)

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The main garden area is completely overgrown right now, much to my mother’s dismay, but I did try to explain to her that I wanted to see what was there.

In the middle of some tall grass and burdock that I’d pulled, there is this splash of colour.  There is another next to it that’s more white than pink.  Just the two of them, in a sea of grass!

I will see about transplanting these somewhere, to salvage them, later on.

There were a couple of areas with a lot of thistles that I pulled when they were larger (easier to pull), but I didn’t get all of them.  There is another type of thistle, with fewer but larger leaves and spines, that grows much larger flower heads.

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The bees and butterflies love them.

There’s only a couple of these big thistles.  I will leave them for the insects and pull them out just before they go to seed.

There were many more random flowers and raspberries (I picked almost 2 cups of raspberries while taking these photos – far more than I expected to get out of them!) growing in between the trees in the maple grove, including in areas where I’d already used the weed trimmer.

The girls and I have been talking about what we’d like to do, and it turned out we’re all on the same page.  When things are cleaned and cleared out, we want to plant, in some areas, a variety of wildflowers and bulbs that will naturally spread.  The rows of trees are not the same distance apart, so I’m thinking of keeping the widest area clear, and planting between the rows that are closer together.  If we’re careful about what we select, we can encourage them in these areas to not only make it look pretty, but to reduce maintenance.  No grass to mow or weeds to trim.  We’ll just have to make sure there is plenty of grassy areas, too (or maybe moss) to walk in.  Plus, I’d like my husband to be able to enjoy the space, too, and not have to worry about getting stung, since he’s allergic to stings.

Finding that balance, and thinking years into the future, will be the key in deciding what we do.  We don’t want to be in the same situation, years down the road, that we are in now with the spirea and the vines!

Until then, we’ll just enjoy the blooms as we find them!

The Re-Farmer

Windy Beach

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One of the bonuses of dropping my daughter off at work for an early shift is taking a quick stop at the beach before heading home.

It was very windy off the lake today, making for some awesome waves!

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As I parked, I could see a guy struggling through the waves near the water line, carrying an oar and dragging what I at first thought was a kayak.

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Passing him on the sand a few minutes later, as he fought the wind to put it on its wheeled carrier, I saw it looked more like a surf board.  So I’m guessing it was a paddle board.

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The combination of the lake’s size and how shallow it is, makes it one of the more dangerous lakes to sail on in rough weather.  Today wasn’t too bad for boats, but I would not have dared go out there on a paddle board in these conditions!

It sure is beautiful, though.

The Re-Farmer

Sky on fire

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While tending the fire pit, burning away the rhizomes I’d pulled up earlier, I got to watch a lovely sunset.

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The photo does not do it justice.  It was as if the sky on the horizon was on fire!

I went over to the outer fence line (the cow fence. ;-) ) to get this shot, so there would be fewer trees blocking the sunset.

We had another hot and muggy day today, so I didn’t plan on doing any manual labour in the trees today.  Which worked to be a good thing, since my husband was able to reschedule a medical appointment from next week to today, so he could get updated prescriptions, and then fill them.  He was able to get an updated prescription for a CPAP as well.  He’s been without for almost a week, now.  Interestingly, after that first night without, he’s actually been breathing quite a bit in his sleep.  Granted, the incline of the hospital bed helps, but it’s no where near as bad as it was before he finally got the sleep apnea diagnosis.  Back then, he spent more time not breathing, than breathing, and had 0 REM sleep.  His case was so extreme, the sleep researcher that had his file, who was also a university professor, asked permission to use the test results and video for his classes, and his data for future text books.  In all his years as a sleep researcher, he’d never encountered a case as severe before!  So any improvement is a good thing.

This province does things differently when it comes to CPAPs, which is covered by the medicare system with a deductible.  We had to explain to the doctor that we were intending to just get a new one from cpap.com  In the end, it’s cheaper that way.  Even with the dollar difference and before insurance coverage (we have to pay in full ourselves, first, then submit the receipt).  It’s amazing how incredibly more expensive the machines and supplies are, when purchasing them from Canadian suppliers!  It makes no sense!  So by doing it this way, we are not only saving money for ourselves, but for our insurance company, too.  Also, since the machine we plan to get is an adjustable type, he doesn’t have to go through new testing to work out the settings, so it’ll probably be faster, too.  In the long term, though, it would be good to get him tested again, and see if he would be eligible for a VPAP (variable pressure, rather than continuous pressure) instead.  That is still covered by the system 100% here, too.  That will be discussed with the doctor another time.  The most important thing is getting a new machine quickly.  Sleep apnea is not something to take lightly!

The Re-Farmer

Die! Die! Die, already!!!

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It’s amazing how quickly we went from “gee, that’s a pretty vine!” to, “this in an incredibly invasive plant that needs to DIEDIEDIE!!!!”

Case in point.

I went to clear the vines that had grown back in the tire planter under my mother’s Mary statue, as it was quickly being overtaken again.

I ended up pulling out this.

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The greenery also includes some suckers growing outside the tire planter, out of the base of a tree I had cut back in the spring.

Those rhizomes?

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They are almost all from under the lip of the tire, where they have worked their way around and around in ropy masses.  The two spots where the tire lip is deformed is where the bulk of the vines were growing out of.

I did not get all of it out, by any stretch.

To the left, inside the tire, you can see lots of little white dots.  Those are ant eggs.  I disrupted a nest in the process, and tiny red ants were scurrying around, trying to pick up the eggs that had come out with the rhizomes.

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The area behind was also filled with new, viny invaders.  I wasn’t able to get any rhizomes out, though.

I think the only way I’m going to be able to reclaim this area it so either use some glyphosate (from my research, the only thing that will reliably kill this vine), which I might do in the short term, or remove all the dirt, take out the rhizomes, and burn them.

Long term, that’s what I’ll likely do, since I want to get rid of the tire planter completely.

On a more pleasant note;

I have seen one of Butterscotch’s kittens today.  It looks like she moved them to the area behind the old dog house, where the firewood pile used to be.  My younger daughter and I had been talking about them and came up with tentative names.  The orange ones are Flooftus and Pooftus, and the calicos are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

And we will never know which is which. ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Fun photos

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A couple of fun photos to share with you today.

This one is from yesterday, after picking my daughter up from work.  She rescued a snowberry clearwing moth, aka hummingbird moth, while at the pharmacy.

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Then it just sort of chilled on her hand and didn’t want to leave! :-D

I got this one just a few minutes ago.  I noticed the water in the cat bowls outside was completely gone (it was another hot one, today, and the bowls are right in the sun), when I came out to see why Beep Beep was being so talkative.

After filling the bowls, I looked around for her and found her…

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I guess she didn’t want to wait! :-D

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any birds use that thing.  Maybe now I know why! :-D

The Re-Farmer

An Afternoon’s Work

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Yesterday afternoon, I got some progress done in the maple grove.  I don’t expect to do more later today, as it’s supposed to get quite hot again.  We shall see.

At this point, I’m just slowly working my way Westward from the garden path I recently cleared out.  I had already gone through here and taken out the fallen branches that I could find.  Well.  At least the bigger ones.  I’m always finding more, hidden under the tall grass!

Here are some before and after pictures. :-)  (click on them for larger images)

This is the area directly North of the trees I’d been working on a little while ago.  Quite a bit of dead brushes that I couldn’t tell what they were.  Some seemed to have either very long thorns, or very pointy twigs!  Those pretty much pulled out of the ground, they’ve been dead for so long.

Just past the elm tree on the right of the photo was this…

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I really liked it when I found it; that moss covered stump of an old maple looks to nice.

Most of what was around it was dead or dying, with little bitty new growth coming up and making it look more alive than it really was!  I did keep the two strongest ones, which you can see in the after photo above.

Lots to clean up, here!

I would have loved to keep the two maples in front (you can see their remains in the after photo), but they were right under the power lines.  Maples can get so huge, there was just no way it was worth leaving them.  Better to take them down when they’re small then when they’re big.

I had gone in with the weed trimmer, first, just enough to clear away the grass so I could see any hidden branches.  Even though I’d cleared a lot out already, there was quite a lot left to take out, even before I could start cutting and pruning.

The spruce tree with the rock at the base is dead, and is the one we will be getting the arborists to take down when they clear the power lines.  It isn’t at the line, but is tall enough that if it falls, it could land right on it.

You can’t see it in the after pictures, but I was able to clear a smaller dead spruce behind the big one.

I didn’t think to take a before picture that included the power pole.  I hadn’t expected to clear anything that far.

The maple tree in the foreground is going to have to come down.  I hate to do it, as it’s a nice, healthy tree, but it’s also right under the power lines.

I also cleared some small elm and maple from by the power pole for the same reason.  I cut away the bottom branches of the spruce near the pole, but am considering if it’s worth the risk of keeping.  It’s not directly under the power lines, but when it reaches its full height, it would be a falling risk.  I think I’ll wait until we are ready to get the arborist in and ask them.

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Some of the dead spruces could just be torn out of the ground, like this one!

I cut back the lower dead branches on a couple of little spruces, but some of them have only a few living branches barely above my head.  As I work my way down, I’m going to have to pick and choose which to keep and which to take down.  Once there’s more space between them, while also clearing away more from the trees near them, I’m hoping the survivors will have enough sun and space to fill out and grow stronger.

Oh, and those vines!!  They are everywhere!

Unfortunately, I may have done something to my new little chain saw!  After a while, it start to “scream” and get easily jammed.  I took it into the sun room (where I keep the packaging, and the tools that came with it), opened up the side and started cleaning out the blade oil soaked sawdust that was jammed around the blade.

Then the blade and chain fell off.  I was hoping to avoid that.

No worries.  I’ll just pop it back on, right?

Suddenly, I couldn’t remember if the blade had landed upside down, or right side up!  I took out the instruction booklet and read it over.  According to the diagram, the logo should be facing me as I put it on; except the logo is already warn off.  The print on the other side is still very visible, but that isn’t anywhere on the diagram.

If I look at the image elsewhere, however, the logo is on the other side of the chainsaw.

Now, I know I put it on facing the right way.  My head knows that.  But I can’t help but keep double checking.  Finally, I was done, brought it back to where I was working, tried to cut my first branch and…

It’s still screaming, and jams easily.

So I just stopped it and set it aside.  Then went back to using a hand saw.

Not going to take any chances!

Some of what is in here is going to have to wait for a full size chain saw, anyhow.

It’s going to look so good in here when I’m done!

The Re-Farmer

Three lonely cherries!

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While walking past the flower garden between the house and the spruce grove, a flash of red caught my eye…

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I had been wondering what kind of trees these were!

When I asked my mother where the cherry trees were, she told me about a completely different location.  There may still be cherry trees there, but I haven’t been able to find them.

She never mentioned the ones beside the house!

One of the trees had a whole three cherries on it (you can see a second one by the birdhouse).  The other, nothing.

I wish I know what variety they are.  Then I could figure out if there is anything I can to do help them produce, or if it’s just not the right climate for them here.

I’m just happy to finally find some cherry trees at all! :-D

The Re-Farmer