I would totally do something like this. Okay, I wouldn’t be doing 350+ cats, but between the inside and outside cats right now, we total over 50 already. I would lovelovelove to have something like this where we could take in the cats that no one else will.
Because I am a total suck for the cats, and it hurts my heart to know that there are so many out there that are hurting or going hungry or sitting in shelters and no one is adopting them. Plus, having the space so that we don’t have to have situations like we have right now, were there’s too many cats for our space, and it’s so hard to get them adopted, even with the help of a shelter.
I’ve still got gardening on my mind, and just had to share this video, from MI Gardener.
I’m glad I found it, since I was looking to start drum gourds and Crespo squash fairly soon. These are much bigger seeds and need bigger pots than the ones he shows in the video. Based on this video, it looks like they would do better in the smaller peat pots I still have from last year, not the bigger ones.
I didn’t mass sow my peppers as he did with his, and I did use larger celled trays and Red Solo cups for them and the San Marzano tomatoes, but I think the main thing would be not to thin them too early. I did thin the earliest peppers and the eggplant I started already, but they were quite a bit larger than his examples, too.
That reminds me. I forgot to turn the fan on in the living room today. Those seedlings need a breeze over them, to help develop strong stems.
On a completely different note, I just spoke to my brother on the phone about what’s going on with the septic pump. He knows the system better than anyone, having fought with it so often over the years. The switch the septic guy mentioned is actually part of the float, and it got replaced not long before we moved in here. It’s possible it’s malfunctioning, but those things tend to last for many, many years. In fact, the old one got replaced as part of troubleshooting while trying to find the cause of the problem at the time, and probably was working just fine. My brother even hired a plumber to excavate the tank and under the pipes leading to and from it. They never did find the problem, which was a lack of vacuum, and the plumber ended up leaving without a solution. They assumed there was a leak somewhere, but they couldn’t find one. My brother stayed late and kept working on the system in the basement and finally tried one last thing. Our BIL had installed a filter, with the same idea as the one we have now. My brother took that off and put in a new section of pipe – and suddenly it was working fine. The filter hadn’t been installed properly, and air was getting in. The current filter my brother later installed is a much higher end one, and he made super sure it was well sealed! When we switch out the filter basket, we make sure to prime the reservoir before closing it up again. It’s been working just fine since then.
So… it shouldn’t be the switch, since it’s so new. The septic guy knew I thought the problem might be the float was stuck, and I know if he’d seen anything wrong or unusual, he would have knocked on the door to tell someone. Still, I will be swinging by his place tomorrow to pay him, and hope he will be home to talk to.
Until then, we have a workaround until we can get a plumber in to check it out and determine why the pump won’t shut itself off like it should. Getting the tank emptied will help a lot, too.
We’ll get it figured out.
Until then, I’m going to think gardening thoughts. 😄😄
This time of year, the McKenzie Seed displays are everywhere, including the grocery store I do my mother’s shopping at. Today, she just gave me her list and stayed home, so I took the time to take a quick look at the display.
I should have known better! 😄😂
I ended up getting these.
What caught my eye were the Royal Burgundy bush beans. I grabbed their last package. We grew these back in 2021, and of the three types of bush beans we grew that year, they did the best. In fact, everything we grew that was purple seems to do really well. We’d ordered them from Veseys, but they don’t carry them anymore. Last year, I ordered a different purple variety, but those were sold out and not replaced, so we got the Red Swan beans as a substitute. We still have lots of those. What we really wanted, though, was more of those Red Burgundies! So I snagged them.
I didn’t want to be buying just one packet of seeds and nothing else, though, so I looked for some edible pod peas. We have plenty of the Dalvay peas, but no edible pod varieties. We had tried growing edible pod peas before, but they didn’t do well. We aren’t growing vegetables in that area anymore, so I expect them to do better planted somewhere else.
Just not at the chain link fence again. The deer ate everything that grew through to the outside of the fence! The next time we plant climbers at the fence, we’ll have to make sure there is protection on the outside of the fence, as well as the inside!
I’m back from helping my mother with her shopping. The septic guy came and went while I was gone, so as soon as I got home, we went into the basement to turn power back on to the pump. With that tank having just been emptied, is should NOT have turned on, if it was just the float being stuck.
It turned on, and won’t turn off.
When I talked to the septic guy and mentioned what was happening, his first thought was that it was the switch. That may be true. We’ll have to get a plumber in to look at it, though.
Until then, we’ll have to manually turn it on and off, regularly, and do things like turn it on before starting to shower, then turning it off after. Same with doing the laundry. It takes a while for the solids side of the tank to fill and overflow into the greywater side, but we’ll have no way of determining that.
*sigh*
Sometimes, I think this place is going to be the financial death of us.
This morning started out pretty normal. All our usual activities. Including the use of water. Which means, of course, the pumps in the basement go off.
Well, this morning, I heard the septic pump go off, but after a while I realized it wasn’t turning off.
I waited a bit longer, and it still wasn’t turning off.
Finally, I went into the basement. Everything looked normal enough, but it was just running and not stopping.
I finally turned it off manually, so I could check the filter my brother had installed in a section of pipe running from the tank to the pump.
The filter is a sort of basket with a handle on it. When I opened the top and lifted it out, it was completely black and so clogged, it was holding liquid, and not draining!
I popped in the other basket (we switch out between two of them) and set the clogged on in a container we have in the old laundry sink to soak in detergent. Once the filter casing was refilled with water and sealed, I turned the switch back on. The pump turned on immediately, and I left it for a while.
It still wouldn’t shut off on its own.
I finally went back down and turned it off manually again.
I made sure to listen to the pipes, and I wasn’t hearing much splashing, so it does sound like the greywater side of the tank had been emptied.
While doing my morning rounds, I went to check the outflow area. It’s not an area we check often in the winter, because it’s so hard to get to. Much to my surprise, for most of the distance to the area, I was actually able to walk on top of the snow and it held my weight! All that freezing and thawing has resulted in a very hard surface.
This is the outflow. One of our jobs for when things thawed out was to clear in front of it. At some point, someone laid down what looks like a piece of metal roofing, bent into a slight curve, to direct the flow towards the pond. It is full of debris. Now, instead of flowing to the pond, it goes off to the side and towards the inner yard, and where the old collapsed log building is.
The area in front was wet, but I honestly couldn’t tell if there had been a recent outflow of grey water from the tank.
I’m hoping the problem is something as simple as the float being stuck.
Oh! The phone just rang. I called the septic guy and left a message, and he just called back.
He’ll be coming over to empty the tank this morning, and is okay with my paying him tomorrow, when we’ll have cash.
Time to go take the insulated tarp off the tank, and unlock the gate!
Fingers crossed that it’s just the float, and this will take care of it!
Today is Palm Sunday. As we go into Holy Week, I hope you enjoy this song of praise.
As we enter Holy Week and the end of Lent, it is a good time to reflect on just how quickly things can change. Two thousand years ago, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the praise of those who recognized Him for who He really was. Yet, the leaders His presence threatened were able to have him arrested on false charges, and set him before a kangaroo court that broke their own laws. Even though they brought false witnesses against Him, they still could not get the verdict they wanted until He basically gave it to them, by saying outright, who He was, in terms they understood to mean exactly what they were intended to mean. Even then, they had to whip up a crowd that threatened to riot, if the emperor’s representative didn’t agree to execute someone he found to be innocent. All within the space of a few days.
Looking at what’s going on in the world today, it seems that some things really haven’t changed much.
Judgement decided to join me while I did my morning rounds today.
While I was penguin walking over the icy driveway, he kept running ahead, then flinging himself to the ground in front of my feet! Except sometimes, he would fail because the driveway is so slippery, he paws would start skittering, instead. So he’d just run ahead and try again! 😄 I finally got to a patch of exposed gravel, where I could stop and pet him for awhile. At which point, he started running around my feet, then rolling like crazy, making it hard to pet him – or get a decent picture!😄
I counted 24 yard cats this morning, then spotted a couple more in the outer yard as I went to the gate, so my headcount was 26 today.
I contacted the Cat Lady this morning, but she has heard nothing back from the woman who was a potential adopter for Ginger. She did adopt out a cat to someone else today, and another 3 legged cat is coming in. She was talking about having them together in the separate cat room they have (along with the cat with no eyes, I believe), but they are going to the US for a while soon. I told her, no worries. The less disruption for him, the better, so it can wait. He’s stressed out enough as it is.
Plus, I don’t mind his sweet company for a bit longer. I know it’ll be better for him, but gosh, we’re going to miss him!
It’s been a very quiet and uneventful day today. I quite like those! But I did get some potential good news from the Cat Lady.
She had a potential adoptee for either Ginger or Toni. She didn’t have a very good picture of Toni, though, so I managed to get a few for her, including this one.
She filled me in on the potential adopter. They had a cat for 17 years, before losing it to age, and are interested in adopting another. They already have a three legged dog, so a three legged cat was definitely of interest! The dog is only 6 pounds – Ginger is heavier than that! He’s also the calmer one, as far as general temperament goes. Toni is younger and much more energetic. This is an older person, so I think Ginger would be better fit. They still have to go through the application process, but if this does go through, whichever cat they decide on would basically to the vet for shots and an exam, then straight to their new home, instead of the usual week or two at the Cat Lady’s first.
As we were talking, the Cat Lady told me about a struggle the shelters are having. They recently did a TNR for a stray that I believe turned out to be female. Once the cat was with them, though, she was incredibly friendly. They didn’t want to release her to fend for herself again, as she would have transitioned to the indoor life instantly. They had no room, none of the other shelters have room, and after sharing her photo and bio everywhere, they could find no one to take her in or adopt her. Even the Cat Lady had to say no. Tomorrow, the cat goes back to the streets.
It was all I could do to not say “we’ll take her!” We have too many indoors already, and I wouldn’t want another situation like what happened with Marlee escaping, never to be seen again. I still feel so bad about that.
It illustrates, however, just how difficult it is for animals in our province right now. Cats in particular. It’s just so hard to get them adopted out!
So I went through my seed bin again – main bin, not just the smaller bins organized by “direct sow” or “start indoors” – and found my package of Uzbek Golden Carrots from last year. I really liked these carrots, so I want to plant more this year. I also found my leftover Napoli carrots. Those are pelleted seeds, so no need to do anything with those, but after how well it worked out with our Naval carrots last year, I wanted to make seed tape with the Uzbek Golden Carrots. I also found some other things, but more on that later.
The package still had quite a lot of seeds in it. We planted only one row, about 14′-15′ long, last year, so we didn’t use much.
Like last year, I used strips of toilet paper the length of the end of our dining table, split into single ply. I pre folded the toilet paper, lengthwise, to make it easier later on. A flour and water paste was used as the “glue”, and I used a bamboo chopstick to apply the paste with the thick end, and to pick up the seeds with the narrow end. Once the seeds were in place, the toilet paper strip was folded over, pressed into the flour paste, then set aside to start drying while the next batch was done.
After a while, the stack of drying strips was getting rather thick. There were still plenty of seeds when I stopped, so I took another look at the package.
A minimum of 800 seeds! Wow!
Each strip has 20 seeds in it (a few got pairs of seeds stuck together, but I’m counting those as one). I counted the strips, and had another 20.
I think 400 seeds will be enough! I’d estimate there’s still close to 300 seeds left in the package.
The seed tape is now draped around the cat free zone in the living room to finish drying, before they get rolled up and stored until it’s time to plant.
As for the other stuff I found…
I confirmed that I do have a few Crespo squash seeds left. I really want to grow those, as they are supposed to be quite delicious. I got the seeds from Baker Creek, but they don’t seem to carry them anymore, so I want to be able to save my own seeds. I also am thinking of trying the African Drum gourds again. Last year, I had issues with the gourd seedlings and replanted a few times, to the point I started getting the pots mixed up. By the time the survivors were transplanted and started producing fruit, we discovered none of them were drum gourds! Hopefully, I’ll have better luck this year.
I also was surprised to find I still had luffa seeds! Last year, they also had issues and got replanted a couple of times, but it’s also the first year we actually had a luffa develop. So I think I will try those again, this year. Being in the old kitchen garden was so much better for it compared to our previous attempts, so I will take that into consideration when it comes time to transplant them. It’ll be the same thing with the Drum gourds and Crespo squash. I’ll need to really think about where they need to be planted, as much to protect them from the deer as anything else. The first year we grew Crespo squash, they did fantastic, until then got eaten by deer and groundhogs three times before we could get them sufficiently protected! They recovered very well and started developing fruit like crazy, but there just wasn’t enough growing season left for them. Last year, we had one develop to about the size of a smallish pumpkin, but I think their location got too much sun, and the plants got baked.
Anyhow.
I will try starting the three of them within the next couple of weeks. I still have some larger peat pots left from last year, so they’ll go straight into there. Hopefully, that will mean there will be no potting up needed. The pots didn’t break down after transplanting the Crespo squash, like they were supposed to, but they can be broken up without disturbing the roots at transplant time. The main thing will be to keep the pots moist until then. Otherwise, they dry out and suck the moisture out of the seed starting mix!
I’m still waffling about whether or not I will try growing corn again this year. We have some short season varieties, but I don’t know that we’ll have enough space prepared for them. They are not a priority, compared to some of the other things we want to grow this year. A lot will hinge on being able to get those new beds built in time for planting. We’ll be growing potatoes where we grew winter squash last year, so we’ll be needing space for the squash we want to grow this year, and I hope to grow quite a bit of both winter and summer squash. We’ve got a melon mix this year, too.
Well, we’ll see how it works out when the time comes. For all the plans we’ve made, I’ve found it’s awfully easy for things to side swipe them!
Still, I’m happy to at least have the seed tape done and ready for planting, once the ground is thawed out enough. Carrots, at least, can be planted before last frost, and I can hardly wait!
Shuffling the trays around has certainly helped! Check this out.
When I turned the lights on yesterday morning, there was nothing in the tray. When I turned them off in the evening, all the cells on the far right of the photo had seedlings breaking ground. By morning, they were opening their seed leaves, and I could even see one starting to break the surface in the middle row, though it’s not visible in the photo.
That row of seedlings on the right are the Black Cherry, which are new seeds for this year. The middle row are the Chocolate cherry, which are seeds from previous years. The ones on the left, which we got this year as a freebie with our order, are a completely different type of tomato, so I expect those to take longer to germinate, compared to the cherries.
I will wait until there’s more sprouts before I raise the tray off the heat mat. I’ll just put one of the dome lids under it, which will raise the tray about 5 or 6 inches off the mat and closer to the light. I don’t want to unplug the mat until the peppers start germinating, which will take longer.
The tray with the San Marzano seeds has been a bit of a surprise. There weren’t many seeds in the packet, but it turns out that there were more than I thought. There are seedlings in all the cells in the tray, but in the row where I had enough to plant only one seed per cell, there’s extra, and in some of the cells where two seeds had been planted, there are three seedlings! These would have been seeds that had stuck together in the package. Some are so close together, I’ll just cut away one, rather than thin by transplanting, as removing one would damage the other.
The Re-Farmer 