Well, this has been an unusually busy morning. Maybe busy is the wrong word. Let’s just say, there were a lot more different things that got done in a short time, rather than spread out over the day.
I took quite a few photos I wanted to share, but I am pretty short on storage space in my WordPress account (and I’m not willing to pay through the nose to upgrade my plan, when storage space is the only thing I need!), so I’ve uploaded them to Instagram, instead.
First up, check out these beauties!
The Black Beauty tomato is well named. They are gorgeous, and there are so many of them! Of course, the colour makes them very easy to see, unlike the Roma tomatoes, where the developing tomatoes are the same colour as the plants right now.
Then I spotted this guy on the grape vines.
We’ve figured it out. I’m not finding different Abbott’s Sphinx caterpillars. It’s the same one, in different stages of growth. So it went from that incredible blue, to brown and now brown and green. From the photos I’ve been looking at, I think we might see one more colour change before it starts to cocoon itself.
When feeding the cats this morning, Not-Junk Pile actually let me pet her… sort of. So we gave it a try and got the ear mite medication. It too my daughter and I many attempts to get close to her – she kept moving away, but was hungry enough to keep coming back for the food. Finally, while she was in the kibble house, my daughter was able to duck in and use the syringe to apply the ear might medication to a spot between her shoulders. Unfortunately, there’s no way she would let us rub it in like it’s supposed to, but it’s the best we can do.
We have not been able to re-catch that kitten with the messed up eye. The eye is still open, but the swelling around it is huge, and I don’t think it can see at all out of that eye. From what little I can glimpse between the eyelids, it’s just red flesh.
After we managed to dose the cat, I threw away the syringe and packaging, then went to switch out the memory cards in the trail cams. I was just coming up on the driveway cam, reached into my pocket for a memory card…
And pulled out a syringe package.
So I went back to the garbage can in the sun room and retried the memory cards I threw out with the syringe… 😂 It seems that when I dug around the bottom of my pocket for the syringe cap, I grabbed the memory cards as well. I also had the empty syringe in my hand, so I thought I grabbed the packaging as well.
Oops!
After I was done with my morning rounds, I headed into town to the post office to pick up the other two books my husband got me for my birthday – and was surprised to find another package as well. I was just turning the corner on my way home when I realized that stick on the road was NOT a stick!
I was so excited to see my first garter snake of the year! Well, maybe. I might have seen one other, squished on the road, awhile back, but definitely the first live one. I carefully drove around it, and it didn’t move, so I stopped to take a picture out my window. Then I drove ahead, parked, and got it off the road. I did not want to take a chance that it would stay there and get smushed by the next vehicle! I hope it would cross the rest of the way towards our garden, but it turned around and went the opposite direction. Ah, well. Hopefully, it will make its way to our garden and start feasting on slugs and other critters that might harm our plants!
Once at home, I quite eagerly opened the packages. Here are my new books.
Somehow, I was expecting the books to be much larger, like the first one that came in. 😄
If you look at the contents pages, the first book (which is on the right) is almost entirely dedicated to food. The second book (on the left) adds in a few more topics, but is still largely focused on food.
I look forwards to going through these!!
The next books I want are newer editions of the Back to Basics book we have now. That one covers growing and raising food, butchering, preservation methods and recipes, too, but it starts with things like how to select land to purchase, how to did a well, and even step by step instructions on how to build three different types of houses, including a cordwood house. I’ll be using some of the techniques in there for when we build our outdoor kitchen. It also includes things like joinery, blacksmithing, etc.
We passed on many of our books before we moved, so we need to rebuilt our resource library!
As for the other package, that was like Christmas! A dear friend passed on some items. There’s a whole lot of very old cookbooks that I’m quite excited to see, and even a collection of seeds that belonged to a mutual friend and neighbour. They are all “expired”, but I will try planting them next year, anyhow. The germination rate will be low, but at least a few should still manage.
Well, this took longer to write than usual, because I’ve also been messaging with our mechanic.
He wasn’t sure the van was worth fixing, either. It hasn’t been long enough to rebuilt our credit rating enough, yet, so applying for financing at this point would not be a good idea. Plus, the Caravan we were interested in has sold, anyhow. I mentioned we were planning to replace the van in the fall, anyhow, so spending so much money to fix it just doesn’t make much sense. He ended up offering to buy it for scrap, of that helps us any. I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. We’ll get a few hundred for the van, depending on what the price of scrap metal is right now, and can cancel the insurance. The van cost less than my mothers car to insure, but it’ll still be reducing that cost by almost half. We can put that money towards savings for a down payment, instead.
So I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. Which means a trip into town to remove a few things from the van. Maybe not today, but we’ll see.
I do hate having to rely completely on my mother’s car, but we weren’t driving the van because of the noises it was making, anyhow.
Well, that got interrupted mid sentence…
It’s decided. We’ll sell the van for scrap. I’ve let him know, and might head over this afternoon to empty it out and do whatever paperwork is needed.
That van had a lot of problems, but considering the circumstances and the mileage, it really did to well for us.
Ah, well. It is what it is!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
Good post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you.
LikeLike