Month: October 2022

Some good news

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Well, according to the Canada Post tracker, my replacement phone will arrive today. So I am delaying my trip into the city a few hours. It’ll take a while for the postmaster to sort through the packages that should have arrived by now, and scan it into the system as arrived, so I’ll be checking the tracker until I see it listed as arrived. Once I’ve got the phone activated and set up to bare bones functionality, I’ll head into the city. Once I have the time later today, I’ll finish setting it up and transferring my data from the other phone’s backup. Then I can wipe the old phone, and I should be able to send it back as part of their buyback program.

I’ll be able to take pictures again!

I mean, it’s not like I use my phone as a phone, after all. 😉 That’s what the landline is for! 😄

Meanwhile, I’ve done my morning rounds and checked on the bitty kitty. I’m happy to say that I could see him in the soft cat bed I put in there last night, right next to one of the windows. (I even put the sun room litter box in there, tucked into the corner we’ve found they usually crap in, in the winter, when it’s too cold to go outside.)

He also had a fair bit of company. I’d put some other donated cat blankets, and the box with a pillow in it that was in the sun room, inside and it looks like they were well used. I could see several smaller kittens in there with the bitty, though the smallest ones (still bigger than the bitty!) still seem to prefer being under the cat shelter, rather than in it. Among the things I did yesterday was push some larger sheets of leftover rigid insulation under there, so they can sit on those rather than bare ground.

I tried to do a head count, several times. The first count, I got 21, including the bitty. The second time, I got 23. The third time, I got 24, not including the bitty, since I didn’t want to poke around the entry too much, but he would make it 25.

Among the adults, I saw Broccoli running around from food to food, going from the roof of the cat shelter, to under the water bowl shelter, to into the kibble house, and even nibbling on the kibble I’ve been putting on the ground for the kittens under the cat shelter. I also saw Junk Pile, coming out of the cat shelter. We still don’t know which of the mamas the bitty belongs to. If it’s Junk Pile, that would make it her third litter of the year, and considering how young her second litter is (they were the pump shack babies), I just don’t see that as likely. If Broccoli is the mama, that would make it her second litter of the year. That makes a bit more sense, since her two are among the oldest kittens. It seems unlikely, though, because when Broccoli comes over for kibble, it’s always from somewhere outside the yard.

Oh, gosh. I hope that doesn’t mean there’s an even younger litter out there, somewhere!

I know it’s not Rosencrantz. She had two litters, but lost the first one. They were born so early, everything was still frozen and covered in snow. Her second litter is the older white and greys, plus a tortie. That litter is slightly older than the pump shack kittens, and I’m pretty sure they would not have been weaned yet, when the bitties would have been born. It would have been the same situation with Junk Pile’s second litter. I’m pretty sure Caramel is the mother of the youngest kittens (until the bitties showed up), and they look barely weaned.

If it’s not Broccoli, that means it’s one of the ‘iccuses – and they’ve all disappeared. The females since weaning their own litters, and the males even earlier.

Well, whoever the mama is, the little spitfire seems to be taken care of, for all it doesn’t seem to be growing. I’m hoping that, with the kibble I’m putting just inside the entry, it will beef up a bit. I moved one of the baking trays I was using as a kibble tray into the entry, and it just barely fits. Which is good, because it means it won’t get knocked about, like other containers we’ve tried to put in there. I’ve added a smaller container for water to sit on top of it, that I can reach to pull out and refill.

Here’s hoping it works out! So far, so good.

The Re-Farmer

Oh, you’re not going to believe this!

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I headed out this morning to do my rounds, starting with feeding the outside cats, as usual. I managed to do a head count and got 26! That included several adults, including Rolando Moon, Rosencrantz, Caramel, Broccoli and Junk Pile (I think!). I also spotted one of the younger kittens that I think are Caramel’s, that has the distinctive Beep Beep orange splotch on the forehead. 😄

When I was finished my founds, I stayed to pet as many kittens as I could. One of the little white and grey ones now allows me to pet it, though it has the most startled expression when I do!

While moving around the cat house to reach different kittens on the roof, I suddenly realized I was being watched.

From inside the cat house.

By tiny blue eyes.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Yes! The last bitty baby is back in the cat house!

I suddenly couldn’t remember if I’d put kibble inside the entry. I usually do, but I was drawing a blank, so I went and got a scoop, just in case, and carefully poured it in. I could hear the very familiar spitting and hissing in response.

I hung around to watch and after a while, I could see a single paw grabbing one of the strips of carpet that serves as a door to the entry. After a while, I decided to try and pick it up – and found it had climbed the carpet strips almost to the top of the entry! It exploded with hisses and spitting as I picked it up and held it. Several kittens on the roof came running and started sniffing it, which seemed to calm it down.

As far as I can tell, it is in good shape. The eyes are clear and look like they are starting to change colour, but still very blue. It doesn’t seem to be hungry or dehydrated. It does not seem to be any bigger, though.

When I couldn’t find it the night I found its two surviving siblings in the middle of nowhere (and a dead one in the cat house that same morning), I was convinced I would never see it again. To find it back in the cat house just blows me away!

We still don’t know who the mama is, but she’s been dragging those kittens all over the place. I’m hoping, now that there is just one for her to take care of, it will have a better chance of surviving. I don’t want to take it from its mother, and inside the cat house is the safest place for it to be.

Now, if the mama will just stop taking it away, we can help her take care of it!

The Re-Farmer

Old Kitchen Garden, wattle weaving progress

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Oh, I am so happy!!! It’s almost completely done!

I went and borrowed my husband’s phone to take a picture. It’s my old phone, but of course he’s set it up to how he wants it – which turns out to include fingerprint scan to unlock it. I really hate that function. I find they don’t scan fingerprints well, and the last thing I’d want is to get locked out of my own phone because the thing can’t recognize my fingerprint. It could well be because my hands are so rough, it messes up my fingerprints. Either way, it looks like I won’t be borrowing his phone when I got into the city after all. It’s changed so much, I had to get him to tell me where the camera icon was! He does love his funky themes and designs. 😁

Anyhow…

Here it is!

I had enough long poles that I could do the back without having to overlap any. The only problem came when it was time to do just the taller posts. It wasn’t too bad when I was weaving around seven of them, but when it came to just the three at the turn, it was more difficult. I had the shorter pieces for it, but three poles just isn’t really enough to hold the wattles in place, though for some of them, I could push the more flexible tips into the previous wattles to lock them down.

There was lots left over when the inside of the L shape was done, and I wanted to use them while they were still green and flexible, so I went ahead and did the outside. The first thing that needed to be done was to hoe the soil out of the path and back into the bed, while also clearing and leveling where I estimated the uprights would go. Once that was done, I measured two feet from that long pole right in the corner, marking three places; the left and right are lined up with the back walls, while the center one is in the middle.

Knowing I would be working with much thicker poles, I spaced the uprights further apart along the sides, compared to the previous ones. That left me with four extra prepared posts. After using the pencil point bar and a sledge hammer to make holes for the posts, then sledge hammering the posts in place, I could see I wouldn’t be able to use the uprights at the ends, so I added another post at each end, just inside the posts supporting the end wattles.

When it came time to weave the wattles in, I used the longest poles first, with the thickest parts at the ends, so that the more flexible tops would go around the curve. Some of the posts were long enough to actually bend all the way around the curve! When I put in the second side, I was able to wrap the ends around the wattle in the first side. I was able to do this for the first several layers before I found myself having to weave a shorter third pole around the curve. Unfortunately, a few of the poles just couldn’t go around the curve without breaking.

With the more flexible ends going around the curve, this meant the ends built up higher, faster. Which I’m okay with. For the last few pieces, they weren’t long enough to go around the curve at all.

I will need more material to build up the curve, but I also want to build that corner higher, too. So what I need to look for now is a lot of thinner and flexible, pieces. If I can find enough of them, I might be able to not only build up the corner and the curve, but wrap a nice edging along the top, all the way around.

Finding appropriate materials to do this was surprisingly difficult, but I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. By the time this is finished, though, we probably won’t be able to accumulate enough materials to do it again anytime soon, except perhaps for some very small beds.

Once the walls are done, we can add amendments and more soil to this bed to build it up, and it will be MUCH easier on the back to work in it.

The Re-Farmer

Some chilly morning progress

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At some point, I’m going to have to borrow my husband’s phone or something, just to have handy to take some progress pictures!

And kitty pictures.

I counted 26 this morning. !! And I didn’t see Rosencrantz until much later, nor did I see Rolando Moon, who seems to have moved on again.

My new phone is expected to arrive on the 28th, which is the day I’m taking my mother’s car in to get the tire fixed. The shipping notice originally said the 27th, which I would have preferred, since that meant I could have the phone set up and ready before going in for our first city shopping trip for next month. I’ll definitely borrow my husband’s phone for that trip, at least.

Once I was done my morning rounds, I grabbed the loppers and went into the south side of the spruce grow. We haven’t done any clean up in there for quite some time. Much of that area was under water this spring, anyhow.

This area has been mostly taken over by poplars, and that was what I was after. As we clean out the spruce grove, one of the things I want to do is cut back a lot of the poplars and plant more spruces. I want it to stay a spruce grove, not turn into a poplar grow. Spruces are better for cutting the wind and snow year round.

What I was looking for were tall, straight poplars small enough to cut with the loppers. At that thickness, they should still be flexible enough to bend as I weave them around the uprights. If it’s too thick to cut with the loppers, it’s too thick for the wattle weaving.

While I was doing that, I found myself working around the apple trees we’ve been uncovering out there. I asked my mother about them, and these were trees she’s planted herself, mostly from seed. My mother still has a hard time understanding that you don’t get the same type of apples from seeds at the tree they came from (as far as I know, there is only one type of apple that grows true from seed). We have no idea what kind of apples these can produce. The area is so overgrown, the much shorter apple trees barely had enough sunlight to start blooming. I was even cutting poplars that were growing through the branches of an apple tree!

Since I was there anyhow, I went ahead and pruned several of the apple trees, cutting away dead branches, and opening them up to more light. With the number of poplars I cut away from around them, that will be a help, too. We will need to come back with other tools to cut away the ones that were too big for the loppers to cut through, as well as other bushes I can’t identify at this point. I was happy to spot little spruces trying to grow through the tall grass and fallen trees and branches, which also need to be cleared away. I was also very thrilled to find a single Tamarack tree. There were three others planted closer to the house, in between some spruces, that are way too crowded together. I’m hoping to save them, but that might require cutting down the spruces next to them, and I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. This Tamarack, however, as all on its own and would not have been deliberately planted there. I really like Tamarack, and would like to eventually plant more of them.

Anyhow.

I kept finding more of these apple trees, but I couldn’t get at most of them. Of the ones that I was able to prune, though, I’m hoping they will finally get enough light to bloom and produce. I did see some flowers on one of them for the first time last spring, but no apples developed.

I am quite happy with how many small, straight poplar I was able to get at and harvest. Once I was done, it took several trips to drag the piles of them I’d made, over to where the burn barrel is. The branch pile may be chipped, but I’m already adding more to the remains that need to be burned! The next while was spent trimming all the branches and twigs off, adding those to the burn pile, then sorting the remaining poles more or less by length. Then they all got dragged over to the old kitchen garden.

I should actually have enough to finish wattle weaving the inside of the L shaped bed, and even start on the outside of it. What I think I will do for the outside is not have a 90 degree corner, like there is around the double lilac, but to have a curve, instead. I haven’t quite decided yet, but if I think having a curve would actually make things easier, and more even.

By the time the poles were dragged over to the old kitchen garden, I had to go inside to warm up! I don’t know what the temperature was outside at the time, but the thermometer in the sun room was at only about 3C/37F. Which is what our high of the day is supposed to be. It’s almost 2pm as I write this, and we finally reached that temperature outside. Tomorrow’s high is expected to be only 4C/40F, but after that, we’re supposed to have three days with highs of 13C/55F.

I have to get back at work with the poles I cut this morning, though, while they are still at their most pliable. It’s definitely going to be chilly work!

The Re-Farmer

Wet, wet morning

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While the Western parts of the prairies got walloped with snow yesterday, by the time the system reached us last night, it was rain. Some places even got thunderstorms, apparently.

When I headed out this morning, it was still raining pretty heavily, so not a lot of kitties were coming out for kibble! Quite a few of them were inside the cat house, though, so that was good to see. As I went to switch the memory card for the driveway trail cam, I had to walk on the grass to the side of the driveway because it was covered in water.

We seriously need more gravel on that driveway.

While we have not finished winterizing the sun room, we did get the broken glass cleaned up, so I’ve been allowing the kittens to go in. When I topped up their kibble last night, some of them were still in the sun room, so I rigged the doors so that they were mostly shut, but the kittens could still get in and out. Then, because racoons remain a problem, even if we don’t see them, I used my husband’s walker to brace the kibble bin in its shelf, then took the two big bags of kibble my BIL and his family so generously gave us, and tucked them into the old kitchen.

Well, I forgot to put the breaks on, on the walker! This morning, I found the walker had been pushed aside, and the kibble bin open and almost knocked onto the floor. Thankfully, the bin was only half full, so while it was on its side, hung up on some buckets (with a kitten sitting in the kibble!), the kibble wasn’t spilled onto the floor.

Before moving things around, I’d had a shallow bin, designed to fit under beds, on the top of the shelf we used to hold the kibble bins to catch water from the leaking roof. Well, that shelf isn’t there anymore. I wasn’t expecting it to rain this heavily, so there was just stuff set aside against the wall until we could finish cleaning and winterizing the sun room. I had to move those out – and my husband’s walker that had been pushed that far back – so I could set up a bucket to catch the drips.

I will be so happy when that roof finally gets done, though my brother and I are both on pins and needles, afraid our mother will suddenly decide not to pay for it after all. She tends to do that at the last minute, though, so I expect that once the roofers are actually here and the final bill is being tabulated (the total will likely be higher than the estimate, as I expect them to find rot from leaks that needs to be repaired), she’ll try to refuse to pay it. Much like she tried to do after promising to pay for the movers so we would move out here to take care of the place for her.

There was water on the sun room floor, of course, but it’s a concrete floor and not going to be a problem. Seeing how it all flowed across the room to the opposite corner, though, really shows how much the room has shifted since the concrete was poured, and how much that one corner has been undermined.

Speaking of which…

Something knocked the diverter off the downspout above the rain barrel. It had not been full before, but it sure is now, and was starting to overflow. I got the diverter back in place, so it’s not an issue anymore. Getting that barrel empty and set aside for the winter is going to have to be done soon. The girls are going to have to clean the eavestroughs (aka: rain gutters) out again, too. I did pick up rolls of mesh to cover them, but those won’t be put on until after the roof is done. I also picked up a spray sealant to be used after they’ve been cleaned. There are a couple of places where they are leaking. The roof is supposed to be replaced, but I don’t think that includes the eavestroughs.

Looking at the short range forecast, we’re supposed to get a couple of chilly days, with highs barely above freezing, then it’s supposed to warm right up again for about a week, with several sunny and dry days. That will be a great time to get more progress on things, and to finally be able to finish cleaning out and winterizing the sun room. Cleaning the other half of the sun room will require removing the swing bench, the table saw, and a couple of shelves, along with all the stuff in them, outside. Because overnight temperatures have already been going below freezing in there, all the remaining squash have already been moved to the living room. Some of them are still ripening, so they won’t be going to the root cellar, yet.

In putting the stuff back, we need to keep in mind that we’ll be using the sun room as a greenhouse again in the spring. I want to come up with a way to be able to hang those lights we used last spring, more efficiently. If we do it right, the same set up can then later be used in the fall to hang things like strings of onions and garlic to cure.

Wow. I just realized that, if we’re going to be doing things like starting onions from seed again (which we likely will be), we’ll be needing to get those going in just a couple of months. Onions should really be started indoors in January in our area.

The girls and I will go over how the garden went this year and, taking into account the failures due to flooding and other issues out of our control, what worked, what didn’t, what we want to keep doing, what we will stop doing (if only temporarily), and what we don’t want to ever do again! 😄

We have lots of work to get done before the snow flies, and then lots of planning for next year to get working on.

It’s going to be fun!

The Re-Farmer

A bit of a change for the next while

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One of the things I’ve tried to do is include at least photo with all my blog posts. I just find it more appealing. Of course, in general, this is a very photo heavy blog, since it’s also being used to document what we’re doing here on the property. We’re coming up on our 5th anniversary here, so that’s been a lot of photos!

Most of the images are taken with my cell phone, with others taken on the DSLR we have set up in the living room, though we don’t use is much anymore. With having to take down the bird feeders because of the racoons, there isn’t a lot to take photos of there anymore.

Not long ago, my husband traded his newer phone for mine, because of Bluetooth issues my phone had with the new OBDII reader he got for me. It takes better pictures, too, which is nice. It’s dimensions are also slightly larger. I carry my phone in my pocket while working outside, and quickly discovered a problem. The larger size meant it would get activated as I moved around, and I would suddenly be hearing voices from my pocket, as an app would start playing video. I could have set the lock screen, but when I’m in the middle of something and want to take a photo, I don’t usually have the time or ability to fight with a lock screen. So I got the thinnest wallet case I could find, which covered the touch screen, and that problem was solved.

After a while, though, I noticed something odd. Around where my thumb or fingers, depending on how I was holding the phone, rested while I was using it because to sort of bow towards the back of the phone. It seems that the pressure of my thumb or fingers was causing the case to be pushed away from the phone. This misaligned where the case covered the power and volume buttons, requiring more effort to use them. It may sound like a minor inconvenience, but with my osteoarthritis in my hands being so bad right now, it was actually quite painful.

Today, I decided to take the case off and see if there was some way to correct the problem.

Which is when I realized something.

It wasn’t the case that was bowing.

The back of my phone was coming loose.

Now, I didn’t remember this being there when my husband and I traded phones, but I thought I’d double check. As soon as my husband saw it, however, he just about had a fit.

It seems this happens when the battery expands, which is isn’t supposed to do. The phone could potentially explode or catch fire. !!!

Now, I happen to still think it’s actually been pulled away because of how and where I have to hold my phone with my wonky hands. The phone itself seems to be fine in all other respects.

Just in case, though, we went ahead and ordered a new phone on one of those $0 down, monthly payments for 2 years, plans. We are already in the habit of rounding up our bill payments, so there’s always a credit, but lately I’ve upped that so that enough credit was built up that, if necessary, we could skip a month’s payment or two. We’re not at that point, with any of our utility bills yet, but even with the new phone upgrade, the cell phone bill will still be under the budgeted amount.

Until it comes in, though, I won’t be using the phone I have now, nor will I take back my old phone from my husband. There’s no way I will drag around my daughter’s DSLR in case I want to take spontaneous photos, either. Aside from the bulk, I don’t want to take a chance of damaging it.

Which means that, until the new phone comes in, I won’t be taking any photos. Aside from the post I have scheduled for tomorrow morning, I won’t have any new photos to include with my posts.

Considering my WordPress media storage is at over 90% filled, I suppose that’s a good thing.

It feels weird to write a post without a photo, though. Those are often my “anchor” for what I’m writing about. Writing a post without a photo feels… naked, somehow! 😄

Ah, well. It shouldn’t take too long for the new phone to arrive. I’ll be getting a Samsung Galaxy S21. We’d had Samsung phones before and I was happy with them, but this one apparently has really excellent photo and video quality.

Not the best way to end up needing a new phone, though, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer

An awesome day!

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I didn’t get to do much posting yesterday, because most of it was spent outdoors. We had our company come over, and we spent many happy hours around the fire. This will probably be the last really pleasant weekend of the year to do that, so we were really happy to be able to drag things out as long as possible!

My day, of course, started with feeding the outside cats.

I think I counted 21, or maybe 23, cats at feeding time. Quite a crowd!

The girls decided to take advantage of our plans to use the fire pit and went out several hours early. There was quite a build up of ashes, so that got cleared out to make room (getting dumped near the main garden area, so it can be used to amend soil in the beds). I’d found another fire brick and it was added to the others that were set in there previously, so there is now a sturdier base to put the Dutch Oven on, the next time we used it.

Once that was done, the girls started working on clearing away the branch pile that was against the collapsing log building nearby. It took about four hours, but it got done!

There were a few logs that are too big for the fire pit and need a saw to break down. Once the pile was gone and the ground raked up, I found a half buried metal pipe, with another piece of metal under it, both of which are now leaning against the wall. I also uncovered a surprisingly loose large rock. It came out of the ground quite easily, but I put it back so no one would twist an ankle in the hole it left behind. Since my daughter has plans to use rocks to create a wall to frame her daffodils and irises, along the edge of the old kitchen garden, I was quite happy to find it. We will be able to make use of several more that I could see, once we are able to start clearing the far side of the building. There are dead trees that need to be cut down, so it won’t be a small job!

While the girls were working on cleaning up the branch pile, they had a major breakthrough with Plushy.

This is Plushy.

We have been trying to socialize this one for ages, with little success, but yesterday my younger daughter managed to reach her ears for some scritches.

Ah, the magic ear scritches.

Before long, she was accepting pets and cuddles, and stayed with the girls as they tended the fire, even to the point of accepting belly pets! Even I was able to pet her, when I joined them!

Which hasn’t continued into today, unfortunately. I’ve been able to touch her, but she moves away before I can pet her.

Also, she is confirmed female.

Unfortunately, it looks like it’s too late for the possibility of adoption, as the potential adoptees have arranged to adopt a pair of kittens. But who knows. It might still happen, of we can continue the socializing!

When my BIL and his family arrived, they had quite a surprise for us – two big bags of kibble! My SIL said it was one bag for the cats, and the other for the skunks! 😄 We actually have not bee seeing skunks much at all for quite some time! We know they’re still coming around. I’ll even see one running by the garage security camera at times, but we’re not getting the sort of visits to the kibble house that we used to. They didn’t know it, but they’ve saved us from likely having to get more kibble before our usual monthly shop.

The socialized kittens, by the way, were in heaven. The entire family are cat people.

I’ve taken to calling this one Baby. He basically took my nephew over and claimed him as a bed. All the most socialized kittens got more human attention in one evening then ever before! 😄 They had a blast! Unfortunately, while she certainly hung around, Plushy was not one of them. She skulked about and watched, but once more people showed up, she was done with human attention. I don’t think it will take too much effort to get her more comfortable with people, though.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening, and we really enjoyed it. Even my husband was able to join us for far longer than he’s been able to previously, though when my daughter checked on him later, he was seriously medicated for it. It was worth it to him, to be able to spend time with his brother and family, though.

We’re already talking about doing it again in the spring – before the bugs are out in full force! The last time they were here for a cookout, the mosquitoes were so bad, even though we were all using bug spray, we ended things far earlier than we had wanted to. I’m quite looking forward to it!

The Re-Farmer

Old Kitchen Garden: Wattle weaving progress

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After finishing up my morning rounds, I did as much as I could with the wattle fence, using what materials we had been able to gather. There wasn’t much I could do with the longer sections. With the shorter part of the L shape, I was able to use a few single lengths, but even there I had to start combining them in pairs.

The girls had gathered some really nice, even pieces of maple suckers, though, and they were the perfect length for the wider end bit.

The red barked lengths are the maple the girls had gathered. When I used those up, I went to the pile of small willow branches I’d set aside and brought over the pieces that were close in size to the maple. Those are the greenish coloured branches. Last of all, I topped it with two thicker pieces of maple that I’d pruned from the nearby maples that are now clear of the branch piles. Those are are lot tighter, and will lock everything in place. I didn’t trim the top one to size yet, as I might need to move it out while the other section of wall is worked on. However, as it is now, that is as high as I intend to go for most of the bed.

It would be great if the whole thing could have been done like this! It looks so much prettier, with smaller gaps and more consistent sizes. The only down side is that such small pieces will also break down faster than the larger ones. It will likely still take a few years, but it’s something to be aware of.

I used more of the maple suckers I had gathered at this end, along with more willow that was left, and locked it down at the top with two thicker pieces of maple.

This corner looks a mess right now! It will be built up, end to end, until they are the same height as the walls at the ends. After that, it will be build up higher to match the heights of the debarked posts. By time I’m working on just the three tallest posts, I’ll be working with much shorter pieces, and should be able to tidy up the whole thing a lot more. Right now, it’s looking quite the mess!

That piece of 2×4 is my mallet.

At this point, I am out of useable materials. I think I will go hunting around the spruce grove for more material, before I start wandering father afield. The Red Osier Dogwood that we have would make excellent, flexible pieces, but that’s something I’m trying to encourage as undergrowth. I might still be able to harvest some, though. There might even be some young poplar I can harvest. Mostly, I just want to find enough material to finish this back wall. The remaining sections can wait until spring, if we have to. Once the back wall is done, the soil that has eroded into the paths can be hoed back into the bed and tidied up. I will likely use grass clippings that we still have all along the bottom of the wattle wall to keep the soil from falling into the gaps. Slowly, this bed will be built up to the height of the lowest sections of wattle, which will make growing in it MUCH easier on the back!

That’s about all I’ll be able to get done today, though. We’ve had another change in plans, with company coming tomorrow. We’re hoping to be able to have a bonfire with the remains of the big branch pile that got chipped, but it will depend on the weather. The forecasts keep changing. Just in case, we need to be prepared to move indoors, so we’re going to have to start moving things like our canning supplies back into storage, and all that other stuff that just sort of takes over every flat surface! We’ll need to be able to expand the dining table, too, which will take up twice the space.

We are terrible house keepers. 😂

But I’m really looking forward to seeing my BIL and his family, and really appreciate that they are willing to make the long drive out here, knowing that my husband can no longer go to their place. It’s going to be awesome!

The Re-Farmer