Morning in the garden, and… not again!

/ Re-Farmer

I ended up picking Roma tomatoes yesterday evening (more on that later), so there weren’t that many to pick this morning. Here is today’s morning harvest.

With the beans winding down, I might start picking them every three days, instead of every other day. It’s nice to be able to pick at least a couple of the Indigo Blue Chocolate tomatoes almost every day now.

Our volunteer sunflower has started to bloom, so went to take a picture. Just as I did, a bumble bee landed on it. It ended up under a petal, so I waited until it worked its way out before taking some photos.

It was not until I uploaded the photos that I spotted the tiny little spider!

Yesterday evening, when things cooled down, I got out the riding mower my brother spent so much time and effort to fix for us. For all the rain we’ve been having, most of the grass doesn’t actually need cutting. The south yards needed to be done. One half never got done last time, because of the weather, and the main garden area was also missed. Even then, things weren’t anywhere near as overgrown as it got in the spring.

I got the south yards done but skipped the west and north yards completely. Even the grass between the crab apple trees and the spruce grove didn’t need to be done, though around the trees themselves the growth is taller. I’ll probably do that with the weed trimmer, as well as the really rough section west of the squash patch.

When doing the old main garden area, I was taking it very slow and careful. There are a couple of more level areas where I can put the speed at the second slowest, but for the most part, I was going as slow as the mower can go. I’d done a fair bit of it when I reached a point where I stopped to shift from 2 to 1.

Nothing happened.

The mower simply stopped moving.

Previously, this happened when the drive chain would fall off, but the chain has been replaced. Also, there was no change in the sound that might have suggested there was a problem. It was running fine.

Then it wasn’t.

I’ll have to go back and see if I can get a better look under there. Maybe with my phone camera. My brother had sent me pictures of everything while he was working on it, but apparently I did not save them to my computer. I’ve been going through our old messages to find them and see what things are supposed to look like again, and it turns out we message each other a LOT. The farther back I go, the longer it takes for things to load.

Anyhow, I messaged my daughters for assistance, and got help pushing the mower to the garage. Pushing it isn’t a problem. Pushing it and trying to steer at the same time is rather awkward!

Then I got out the push mower and finished mowing the old garden area. I was also able to mow some areas the riding mower can’t fit into, including around the garden beds a bit. The rest will have to wait for the weed trimmer.

After I finished mowing, I checked on the garden beds and noticed some Romas were starting to fall off the vines, so I ended up picking quite a few of them, after checking on the rest of the beds.

Alas, I found that we have lost one of our two Boston Marrows.

We only had two surviving seed starts to transplant, and only one squash on each of them. I have no idea why the one died like that. The other seems okay, but I ended up putting a piece of broken pottery under it to get it off the mulch, making sure the curve of the pot would drain any water away from the squash.

As for the rest of the garden beds, both the Irish Cobbler and Red Thumb potato plants have completely died back. Time to dig them up and set them out to cure for a few days. We’re supposed to get rain tomorrow, so it’ll have to be under the old market tent. We just have to set them up so that the cats will stay off of them! 😄

As I was finishing up and putting things away around the house, I suddenly saw Adam go running towards the corner where the old basement window is, on high alert. At first I thought she was responding to Cheddar, meowing in my husband’s bedroom window, but then I saw she was laser focused at the stucco wall beside it.

All I could see was what looked like a leaf or something, splattered against the wall, so I went to take a closer look.

This is what the “leaf” turned out to be!

What an adorable little frog! I’m curious about how it got there. It was easily over 6′ above the ground when I saw it, and it looks like it was on its way down.

I love frogs. I’m so happy we have so many of them this year. They are good garden friends!

Last off all, I just have to share this adorable photo I got of a couple of the kittens last night.

At first, I thought it was Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but I don’t see an all pink nose, which is the main difference between them. Which means one of them – the bottom one, I think – is Shadow in the Dark.

Gosh, they are so cute!

They are also very cuddly, and love to sleep on me when I’m in bed. They’re so tiny, sometimes I can’t even tell they’re there, until either they or I move! I love it. :-)

I’ll still be happy when they are adopted out, though! So will Decimus. She spends as little time with them as possible now! I hope to adopt her out, too.

In other things, TTT is still doing very well in her recovery. There is only one major problem with her.

She refuses to use a litter box.

Any of them.

Last night, as I was getting into bed, I found my elbow in a puddle. She’d peed on my pillow again! Thankfully, I have a mattress cover – and those puppy pads do a great job of soaking up the puddle. I still had to leave one over it, absorbent side down, and rotate my mattress, so I wouldn’t be sleeping on it.

Then, at about 5 am, I was awakened by the rustling of puppy pads under my desk. I caught her before she made a mess and put her in a litter box, but she wouldn’t use it. I tried her in a different litter box, in case she didn’t like the covered one, and she still wouldn’t use it. I didn’t dare go back to bed, knowing she would go under my desk as soon as I was asleep, so I shoved the cat carrier under the desk, then went to bed.

This morning, I found she’d left a “gift” under the chair I keep my laundry basket on.

*sigh*

I’ve never had to teach an adult cat to use the litter box before. I mean, Nosencrantz had been bad about making messes elsewhere, but she knew how to use a litter box. She just preferred to go elsewhere, until I eventually blocked off all the spots she would go in. Even the kittens have been trained to use them now. Every cat we brought indoors was able to figure the litter boxes out right away. But not TTT. She just doesn’t seem to know that that’s what they’re there for!

Hmm… We still have that new litter box in the cat cage in the sun room. Cats are going in and out of it at will, but none have used the litter box. I wonder if she’ll use it, if I put it under my desk?

I’ll just have to watch my feet! Which I’m already having to do, with the carrier under there now, so I may as well try it!

The Re-Farmer

3 thoughts on “Morning in the garden, and… not again!”

    • Thanks!

      We’ve switched completely to the stove pellets for litter (hardwood or softwood; whatever’s in stock at the time). Clay litter had too many problems, and all the other options are too expensive. She’s been exposed to litter pellets before. We kept a litter box in the sun room in the winter, and another in the cat house.

      I’ve got a new litter box set up under my desk now. She’s been going either while I’m in bed, or out of the room, so I don’t expect to find out it if worked until tomorrow morning.

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