I’ve been monitoring the sun room with the critter cam. Chased out a racoon, a couple of times.
Then I spotted an amazing thing.
The grey kittens in the sun room – nursing on Junk Pile! We have finally confirmed the mama, and confirmed that all 4 kittens are safe and sound. As I write this, I can see them running around adn playing in the run room, even as mama leaves.
I am so happy they are safe!
Now, if we could just see the white and greys again…
The Re-Farmer
I was able to make my trip to the nearest Walmart (a 45 minute or so drive) to pick up some kibble to last us until we have our first stock up shopping trip in a few days. As I was driving home, I was seeing people all over, with their riding mowers, trying to get as much lawn cut as they could before the rains hit. Something our own grass/lawns are too tall and too wet to do.
Once I got home and unloaded, I stayed around outside to give the yard cats a feeding and pay them some attention.
I’m glad I stayed out longer, because I saw Syndol coming in much later, limping! His right leg is injured, though he is putting weight on it, and it does not appear to be broken.
I recently had to break up a fight between him and Shop Towel. It was the first time I’d seen Shop Towel go after Syndol! I guess Syndol is now adult enough for Shop Towel to consider him a rival. Unfortunately, I’ve seen seeing Shop Towel actually stalking other males while they’re gathered around and eating. When he does go after them, he is absolutely vicious. I am pretty sure he is the reason a number of our males, plus other visiting toms, have disappeared over the years. If we can’t get him neutered, we’re going to have to figure out something to do about him. He’s injuring and possibly killing too many other cats. Judgement is missing again; hopefully, out exploring for the summer, but Shop Towel has been after him, too, even though Judgement is now neutered and wouldn’t be giving off that testosterone scent anymore. While Shop Towel has allowed us to pet him at times, since we’ve had to break up so many fights of late, that’s no longer happening – and right when we have neuters booked, early next month! Unfortunately, even if we do get him neutered, that doesn’t mean he’ll actually stop picking fights. We have indoor cats – male and female – that have been fixed since they were quite young, and they still go after Ginger and Butterscotch.
As for Syndol, he came about half way to the kibble house and then settled in the grass, looking nervous, so I ended up picking him up and carrying him to one of the food bowls in the kibble house. Shop Towel was eating in the shelf shelter. When he came and, I could see him going into stalking mode, targeting some of the cats in the grass, and I ended up having to persuade him to leave. Then he came back, and I had to do it again!
Meanwhile, I spotted what I thought was the grey ball of fluff in the junk pile, eating under the shrine.
I was wrong! It was one of the kittens from the grey litter. I still haven’t seen any of the others, nor have I seen the white and grey litter, but at least we have one coming back for food!
I knew for sure it wasn’t the junk pile kitten as I came closer and saw it run away from its favourite perch next to the chain link fence. I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it, but I dig get a picture of another friend!
A bright green tree frog!
I just love those tree frogs. They are so adorable!
When I came closer to the grey kitten under the shrine, it hid around the back of the pedestal. I noticed the kibble I’d left there was almost all gone already, eaten by a group of adult cats, so I got another scoop for it and, hopefully, the little one in the junk pile.
By then, it was starting to rain, more than an hour earlier than was forecast before I left for the city. We are now under a storm watch, and the rain is supposed to continue until 7am tomorrow! From the weather radar, the worse of the storm system will pass to the south of us, but I’m hearing plenty of thunder out there, right now. With the ground still so saturated, I can see from the garage came that our driveway is covered with water again. The driveway is getting to be more grass than gravel!
I really hope we get enough of a break from the rain that we can do something about our lawn!
Oh, and while I was at the Walmart, I picked up another package of the purple bush beans that don’t seem to be coming up, except for on, right now. I’m hoping if I plant more now, and we really do get the break in the rain until Wednesday that is forecast, they new ones will come up. I will probably sow more of the summer squash in their pots, since nothing has come up there at all. Hmm… I should probably set some seeds to soak and maybe even pre-germinate. Then at least I’ll know if it’s the seed that’s the problem, or the weather.
Hmmm. According to the weather radar, we should be under moderate to heavy rain right now. The rain has actually stopped. Looks like our climate bubble is still in action!
The Re-Farmer
I got some decent progress this morning. I’m also happy to see the garden itself progress.
The Dalvay peas seemed to just explode overnight, and almost the entire row is filled with pea shoots. The Yukon Chief corn has also seen quite a growth spurt.
The beans don’t seem to be doing well this year. I could explain that away for the older seeds, but the purple bush beans were fresh seeds, and there’s just one bean that has sprouted! Hopefully, more will appear in the next while, but if they don’t, some of them will get a second sowing or, if I’m out of a particular seed, something else will be sowed in place.
My main goal for this morning was to get those tomatoes and as many onions as I could, transplanted, and I’m happy to day that has been accomplished!
The first thing was to break up the clumps of soil that were hilled into the new bed location and pull out as many roots and weeds (and rocks) as I could. This bed was in so much better shape than the previous one, it didn’t take very long at all. From there, it was using the thatching rake to even out the hill of soil between the boards – the north send, where the bed was extended, had to have more soil spread into it – and level the top for planting. Of course, more weeds, roots and rocks were removed at the same time.
Then I brought the transplants over. There were seven San Marzano tomatoes left, including one that wasn’t looking very good at all. I also happened to have exactly seven bamboo stakes left, to use as their supports, which was nice. I pre-dug holes for them down the middle of the bed, as evenly spaced as I could eyeball it, then used the jet setting on the hose to fill each hole with water, and basically drill the water deeper into the holes. I want those roots to have water below them to encourage them to grow deep.
I removed the transplants from their cells into the bottom drain tray to make it easier to carry them around. That last tomato that looked the most beat up, though, didn’t come out with its soil, but broke off, instead. I could still see some roots on the stem, though, so I kept it. I just transplanted that one at the north end of the bed, closest to the trees. I don’t really expect it to make it, nor do I expect that end of the bed to do as well as the rest, because of those !%$@# elms.
The tray still had vermiculite topped soil in it from the tomatoes that didn’t survive, so I dumped all that into the drain tray, then put a bit of it around each of the tomato plants. I didn’t bury the stems deep – they didn’t need it – but I did plant them deep, so each one is in a bit of a hollow, so water will flow towards the roots and seep into the soil there, instead of flowing down the sides of the bed.
Once the tomatoes were in, I made a narrow trench all around the perimeter of the bed, except the north end, which doesn’t quite quite a much soil, still, so it’s basically a long U shaped trench. That got watered with the hose on the jet setting, too.
For the onions, I chose the tray with the yellow bulb onions. I keep forgetting the name of the variety. It’s a good thing I record all this here in the blog! They are Frontier onions, noted for strong necks, consistent size and disease resistance. They are supposed to mature 100 days from transplant, which means I’m really late in getting these in the ground. Hopefully, we’ll have a mild fall, and the frost will hold off until October.
The tray I used for the onions was a vegetable party tray, divided into 4 spaces around the perimeter, and a shallow circle in the middle where a dipping sauce was kept. I am really liking this design. After giving the tray a thorough soak, to make it easier to separate the onions, I could just grab on section of onions and carry it with me as I went around the bed, pulling out and spacing the onions in the trench. I was able to finish off one section, plus another dozen or so transplants from another.
Once those were planted, I make more shallow trenched between each tomato plant and repeated the process. I was able to fit three or four transplants between each tomato, with enough space to fit five in one area. In hindsight, I probably could have planted the ones around the perimeter closer together, but what’s done is done. I wasn’t able to fit even half the tray of onions in!
The last thing to do was give the transplants a gentle watering, to settle the soil around their roots. It actually started to rain while I was doing this, but so little, I barely got wet.
When I looked at the forecast last night, it was saying we could expect rain for a couple of hours, starting at about 7 this evening. It is now saying the rain will start at about 5pm, and continuing until 1am! Today is Saturday, and the forecast says we will not have more rain again until late Wednesday night.
We shall see.
Now that the tomatoes are in (yay!!), there are the rest of the yellow onions to transplant, a few remaining shallots, and the Orange Butterfly Flower. I was going to try direct sowing some of that, but it just didn’t happen. I still don’t know where I want to plant them, since it has to be in a permanent location. I want it to be near the main garden area, but where I think would be best for them is going to see a lot of traffic and commotion as we build the frames for the beds.
The main thing, though, is the tomatoes are in. This bed will need to have mulch added around the sides, to keep the soil from being eroded, until we can get it properly framed.
This leaves one more bed to shift over. Like this one, the last one shouldn’t take very long, comparatively speaking. It’s more a matter of working around the heat of the day. From the looks of it, the entire bed could be filled with the remaining onion and shallot transplants. I might even have some left over.
Today, however, we’ve already reached our high of 21C/70F. It’s not even noon yet, which means we could still get hotter over the afternoon. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 22C/72F, and then we’ll get our hottest day on Monday, with an expected high of 27C/81F. After that, it should cool down a bit, but still remain in the 20’s for a while. Hopefully, we’ll have enough dry days to get the lawn mowed, and maybe even cut/process more logs to frame the beds. I might just go ahead and scythe in the outer yard a bit, tomorrow, so the hay can dry for a bit before being gathered and used as mulch. Grass clippings are great, but when green, wet clippings are dumped in a pile, the inside of the pile gets astonishingly hot. Then it gets all slimy, while the exposed grass on top dries out. Once the insides gets slimy, it’s not much use as a mulch and we just leave it to compost.
Meanwhile, it turns out we need to make another trip to Walmart. We’re almost out of kibble, and first disability check doesn’t come in until the middle of next week, when we do our first stock up shopping trip. The Cat Lady has said she’ll acquire some cat food donations for us, but they’re going to be in the US for a couple of weeks, so I don’t expect that anytime soon. They’re packing their bags now.
Well, time for me to get changed and head out to get kibble!
The Re-Farmer
I managed to get a photo of Broccoli and her little calico this morning.
I saw her black and white running around, too.
I often see Broccoli perched in various higher items around the old garden shed, like a guardian gargoyle, keeping an eye out. I think I’ve heard her chasing off other cats – or other critters – too.
So far today, her two are the only kittens I’ve seen today. Still no sign of the white and greys, and the greys weren’t around at feeding time. I know there’s a little fluffy grey kitten in the junk pile, but I didn’t see it this morning.
I hope the kitties are okay.
The Re-Farmer
Part of my morning rounds now includes checking on all the garden beds.
With the kiddie pool planted with Zucca melon, near the strawberries, I made sure to check them out.
One of them was squished!
The mulch around it was flattened, too, in an almost perfect circle. It looked like a cat took a nap on it!
I lifted it up and found that it did not seem to be damaged. I found some short support posts that used to be part of a canopy tent frame that a tree fell on a few winters ago. I set one beside each melon. A cat could still lie on the mulch beside in between, but not on a melon plant – at least not without being right up against a stick!
Yesterday, I’d turned the raw sod on the next raised bed that needed to be shifted. I’d hoped the exposed roots would get to back in the sun, but instead, they got watered by the series of storms we got. I was going to my mothers, so I didn’t do any weeding, as it would have been too messy. Instead, I used the thatching rake to break up some clumps around three sides and level them a bit, then set out boards to mark where the logs will go.
Then I just used a garden fork to turn the soil from the bed in it’s old location, piling it into the new location. Against, I didn’t try to weed, so it went really fast. This bed was in so much better condition than the last one, with all that creeping Charlie in it! Once the soil was moved, I used the rake to level the edge, as well as the area where the bed was that would become path, before adding the last of the boards to frame around it.
Then I had a few things to do, before doing to my mother’s and helping her with her groceries. These days, she just gives me her list and I do the shopping for her, and put it all away. It was actually a pretty good visit, until just before I left. She’s started to talk about coming here to the farm for a visit. The problem is, she behaves so badly here, especially towards my family, they don’t want her here. She also has no interest in seeing what we’ve done here at the farm. She want to see reasons to tell us what we’re going wrong, tell me how terrible I am at taking care of the place (because I’m doing things differently than she did), and rag about what a terrible parent I am for keeping the girls tied to my apron strings (the idea that they chose to out here to help with the property, and their disabled father, just doesn’t sink in with her), and so on. I tried to explain to her about the problems with her behaviour. The truth is, I’d love for my mother to come and visit. I’d love to be able to show her the progress we’ve made, and talk about our plans. But that is not anything my mother has any interest in.
One of the things I’d showed her on my phone was some video I’d taken of the tree that fell on the outhouse, then of the swaying of the trees. She commented on all the “dry” trees (the dead spruces), and I said we need to cut them down. She asked if I’d talked to my brother about this and I told her, yes (I’d already told her I’d sent him the video), and that we’d be cutting down the dead trees. Then I corrected myself and said that it would mostly be my younger daughter doing that.
At which point, my mother started saying that using a chain saw was a “man’s job”, and she can’t do that. I told her, Mom, anyone can use a chainsaw. But that’s a man’s work! I should get my brother to do it!
So… we aren’t doing enough, because we’re not doing things the way she wants them to be done, but we’re also not supposed to be doing any “men’s work” because we’re female.
Well, at least this time, she didn’t go on about how sorry she feels for me, not having a man around the house.
I guess, because my husband is disabled, he’s not a man anymore?
She says awful stuff like that all the time, but when I tried to explain that people don’t want to be around her because of this, she twisted things around to make herself as the victim and me as the big meany.
Not a good way to end the visit.
I did have somewhere else to go, though. I’d made arrangements with a homesteading friend to buy some eggs. She wasn’t going to be home, so they were going to be tucked into a safe spot outside, where I could also leave the payment. I didn’t want the eggs to be outside in this heat for long – when I started writing this, we were at 23C/73F, with the humidex putting it at 28C/83F, and it was hotter where my mother lives than here – so I wanted to leave as soon as I could. I actually got there before my friend had left, so we even got to catch up for a bit – and she gave me extra eggs, because she needed the room in her fridge! 😄
I was considering whether or not I could continue on the bed once I got home, but there’s no way I can do that kind of work in this level of heat and humidity. It will wait until the morning.
Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter by the afternoon, and we’re supposed to get more rain in the evening.
*sigh*
I’d really like just a few day’s break in the rain, so the ground and dry up a bit and we can try mowing some lawn again. At least the parts we managed to do, previously, since the taller stuff is just too wet. We’d need probably a week without rain before we could do anything about those areas.
Or a couple of cows to graze the outer yard for a week or two!
We really need some grazing animals! As long as we could keep them out of the garden beds, I’d be letting them graze in the main garden area. That would be good for the soil, too.
My daughter wants sheep, for their fleece, as she wants to spin her own yarn. I would like a couple of milk goats. That would be on top of the chickens I want to get!
We’ll get there. It might take a while, but we’ll get there.
For now, building up the garden beds is the main focus.
My brother and I were both saying how we don’t remember there ever being so much water in the yard before. Even when it flooded, a couple of springs ago, it didn’t get this bad. Yes, the flooding was more severe in places, but the ground didn’t get saturated right up to the house, and stay saturated for so long, like it is now! Every time it rains, the standing water returns, because the ground it just too saturated to absorb it. This, even though we have high drainage in our soil, what with it being basically gravel with a few inches of top soil.
Oh! I found an excellent picture of what our soil is like, at this web site.
This image belongs to Joselito (Lito) M. Arocena, UNBC and was taken in Edmonton, Alberta, but it’s exactly what we’ve got here, too. If there is any different I could find, it would be that we have more small rocks in between the second and third layers.
I keep hitting them with the garden fork or spade, while shifting the beds!
Yet another reason why raised beds are the way to go for our gardening!
For now, I just want to get these last two beds done, and get the last of the transplants in. If there’s room for direct sowing, that would be bonus, at this point.
The Re-Farmer
While feeding the cats this morning, I was very relieved to see all four of the grey kittens.
I like to scatter handfuls of kibble all over, and two of them came to eat right next to the sun room door. The other two were in the sun room, hiding under the counter shelf, so I left some in a bowl for them there.
It was a relief to see them. I haven’t seen any of the white and greys, though. I see their mother (I still don’t know who the mother of the greys is) around, but no babies. I’m hoping the mama has simply moved them. After what the racoons did to the newborns in the sunroom, I’m afraid they might have found other kittens, too.
I’ve been seeing the black and white cat with the black nose around more. I even saw that she spent the night in the sunroom, with a few other cats. The more I see her, the more I get the sense that she might have been the mama, but there’s no way to know for sure. For all I know, she may actually be a he.
I have also been seeing Broccoli’s two, playing around the old garden shed. Now that they are bigger and more agile, I can’t get anywhere near them. With how wet it’s been, the mosquitoes are really bad right now, so I barely stay long enough to leave kibble for them. The problem with using bug spray to help with the mosquitoes is, I’m covered in bug spray and don’t want to handle any kittens!
Hopefully, they will find their way to the front of the house, soon, and join the other babies.
I do hope we see the white and greys again. They did like being in the sunroom, until the newborns showed up, and all the cats got a bit freaked out over it. Some of them are still skittish about going in, too.
We need to do something about those racoons.
The Re-Farmer
What a crazy, mixed up day.
A warning, for those who don’t want to read about just how nasty nature can be.
Earlier, I posted about our morning surprise; a new litter of kittens in the larger cat carrier in the sun room.
We kept watch on the sun room, staying out as much as possible. No other kittens were around; I don’t know where their mothers moved them. Other cats stayed out as well. Every now and then, in the critter cam, I’d see a cat go in, sniff at the carrier, then run off. There was one short haired black and white that kept coming back, but it did not go in with the babies, and would run off again. We found the black kitten outside the cage a couple of times, and I put it back. It, and its siblings, were cold and damp and crying, but non mama came.
At one point, I ended up in the basement, clearing the pipe to the septic tank again, and was away from the critter cam for quite a while. When I checked on it next, I could see a black and white kitten on the floor in front of the carrier, and it wasn’t moving. My older daughter and I went to see what was going on.
My first surprise was noticing some blood under the kittens nose. When I picked it up to look at it, and its lower jaw was gone. Something had started to drag it out or eat it or something.
The other three were still in the carrier. While I went outside with the tiny body, my daughter closed up the front door of the carrier and opened the top, so the kittens couldn’t get out, but the mama could get in. We had also shut off the ceiling fan and tied off the door, so the room would warm up for the babies, but they were still way too cold.
We decided to bury the kitten under one of the crab apple trees in the old kitchen garden. I quickly dug a hole and laid the kitten down.
It moved.
Much to my shock, the poor thing was still alive.
Yes, I swiftly euthanized it. I was not going to let it continue to suffer, and there was no way it was going to survive.
All we could do is keep monitoring the sun room.
Before my younger daughter and I had to leave in the afternoon, I could see the kittens moving around in the cat carrier. They even seemed to be stronger and drier. Could we have missed the mama come in and tend to them? We weren’t going to risk going into the sun room and scare her away.
The forecast of no rain today turned out to be quite wrong. Before my daughter and I headed out, we were hit by two quick and dirty thunderstorms, and our area was under a severe storm watch. Our first stop was at my mother’s town to pick up a Purolator parcel. We drove through downpours a couple of times along the way. I thought the parcel was our bucket of lysine, but it turned out to be something else – something Amazon still says has been shipped, but won’t arrive until the 25th! The lysine still says an expected arrival of the 20th – today – but only that the carrier has picked it up.
After getting the package, we drove to the nearer city, with a stop at a grocery store first. While my daughter ran in with her shopping list, I stayed in the truck. I could still check the critter cam from there, so I did that a few times – and spotted a couple of racoons! I was able to use the microphone to chase them out. When I messaged my husband and other daughter about it, my daughter told me she’d already chased a racoon out, earlier.
I could, however, still see the kittens moving around in the carrier. Even zoomed in, though, I couldn’t see if there was a cat in with them.
Once my younger daughter was done her shopping, we went to pick up the birthday pizzas. We were early, so I checked the critter cam a few more times. I could no longer see any movement, so maybe they were asleep?
Once we got our order, we drove home, which took about 45 minutes. We pulled into the yard to unload. As my daughter took in the last back, I went through the sun room to get some kibble and distract the cats away from the truck while she went to park it. As I quickly went through, I looked into the carrier.
There were no kittens.
No cats or kittens in the sun room at all.
After putting kibble out, I stopped to look around more closely.
That’s when I found … evidence, shall we say.
The racoons got the kittens.
All I can tell myself is, at least it would have been quick.
Since then, we’ve seen the black and white cat – it turned out to be the one with a black nose I sometimes saw around – go in and out of the sun room. We are thinking she is most likely to have been the mother. The makeshift table we had for the transplants has been put away, and the cat cage is now in the corner. I’ve put a cat bed and blankets on it. The last I checked, I saw this cat, and a couple others, lying on top of the cat cage. The other cats seem to be returning to the sun room.
I’d been chatting with the Cat Lady throughout the day, so she knew about the kittens, and the end result. The reality is, as much as we hate that this happened, it may have been for the best. The more kittens there are, the more likely there will be illnesses and other problems. Last spring was a devastating example of that.
When we are able to connect again, she will be lending us a trap for a few months. We won’t have a problem getting most of the males to the vet, but the females will need to be trapped.
It’s getting to the point where we seriously need to look into a cull. Especially with not being able to socialize or catch the females. With the way prices have been going up, we are now spending more on cat food, than food for ourselves. Of course, the more cats there are, the more fights there are.
Messaging with the Cat Lady, she tells me all the shelters are full, and the Humane Society is overwhelmed. People just can’t afford to feed their pets anymore, never mind actually adopting any.
They will try and help us as much as they can, but of course, donations for everything are going down, whether it’s for animal rescues, or food banks.
For folks like us, out in the boonies, we get to see a whole different side of the population issue, and sometimes that side gets rather bloody.
Nature is a b*** sometimes.
Meanwhile, I can see another thunderstorm coming through on the garage cam, with lots of lighting.
Maybe I should take that as a hint to shut down the computer and go to bed. It’s almost 11pm, anyhow.
What a crazy, messed up day.
Meanwhile, we’re trying to celebrate Father’s Day and my daughter’s birthday, combined, this week.
*sigh*
The Re-Farmer
I was able to get some progress on shifting the next low raised bed, while it was still cooler, this morning.
My focus was on breaking raw ground and flipping sod in the area the bed will be shifted to. I’d only done about a foot at one end, last night. I was able to turn all the sod in the marked off area with only a few interruptions, like breaking up a cat fight! I was hitting a lot more rocks with the garden fork in this bed, compared to others! With so many, I only took the time to toss out the larger ones.
By the time it was done, things were starting to get hot, so I stopped there. The next step will be to move enough of the soil from the bed’s current location to be able to set out the boards marking where the logs will be. Then the soil will be moved to the permanent location.
For now, however, the turned soil will be left for the feed roots to bake in the sun. I’ll pull out the biggest ones as I continue, but most of the smaller roots should get killed off just from being exposed to heat and drying out.
I’m hoping to get this bed done and the last tomatoes transplanted, fairly quickly. This afternoon, we’ll be heading out to get birthday pizza. Along the way, we need to go to the Purolator drop off in my mother’s town. Our 4 pound bucket of lysine is in! Tomorrow (Friday), I’ll be going to my mother’s to help her with groceries, which usually takes up most of the day. The forecast now says rain on Saturday, but not until the evening.
Still lots to get done!
The Re-Farmer
ps: I was about to publish this, when I saw movement on the critter cam. Was it the mama going to the babies?
No!
It was a racoon, looking for kibble!
I used the critter cam to shoo it out, only to see a skunk run past the sunroom door after the racoon ran out.
Still no mama visiting the babies.
😢
Well, I got one heck of a surprise this morning!
Our bathroom window faces into the sunroom, so we can often hear, even if we can’t see, the cats and kittens.
This morning, I started to hear the mewing of kittens.
Mewing that began to sound increasingly distressed!
I finished up as quick as I could and headed into the sunroom.
Of course, the first thing I checked was the cat cage.
It had one grey kitten in it.
Where was the mewing coming from? Was a kitten trapped behind a shelf of something? Hurt somewhere?
Then I heard the mewing again and realized it was coming from the bigger cat carrier. The one that opens from the top.
So I opened the top…
… and found four newborn kittens.
I had no idea we even had a pregnant cat! As far as I could tell, they all already had their kittens, weeks ago.
It seems one of the more feral cats – one of the ones we don’t even know the gender of – had her kittens in the carrier last night.
The problem is, there’s no sign of her. I’ve been keeping an eye on the critter cam as I write this, and there are no cats – or other kittens – in the sun room.
It looks like the white and grey litter has been moved out. I only saw two of the greys this morning, and the last time I went by, I only saw one.
I currently have the app for the critter cam in the sun room running. I have not seen any cat going to them. In fact, I’ve only seen one short haired black and white, just as it was leaving the sun room, and I don’t think it was the mama.
Sometimes, I have to turn the sound off on the camera, because they start mewing and it just breaks my heart to hear them, but not see a mama.
Now, out in the wild, so to speak, this would not be unusual. The mamas have to leave their babies for hours as they go hunt (or come to the house for food). They come back when they are ready to feed the babies. But with them being in the sunroom, I’m concerned they have been abandoned, or will be abandoned. We are currently going to avoid using the sun room for the next while, so the mama won’t be scared off. While working outside this morning, when I needed to go into the sunroom, I’d check the camera first to make sure it was empty before going in.
This mama found a really safe “cave” to have her babies, though. You’d think that would mean she will come back to tend to them.
Right?
The Re-Farmer
I got a late start to the day, unfortunately. I just didn’t get to sleep until sometime past 3am.
What got me going was nothing pleasant, though. The septic pump was running and not shutting off again. I checked the filter, and it was running dry, so I shut it off. After priming the filter and turning it back on again, it just drained the filter and kept running dry.
We’ve got an old garden hose with a missing male coupling set up in the basement, just for times like this. It’s hooked up to the cold water tap that the washing machine used to be hooked up to, before the laundry set up got moved upstairs. Every now and then, I run it through the drain in the floor, towards the septic tank. There is a bottleneck it always hits, roughly under the basement wall. It takes some wiggling and shifting before the end of the hose can get through what opening is left. Usually, from there, it’s clear to the tank. Lately, though, it’s been hitting another barrier. This morning, I wasn’t able to get through it with the hose. When testing out the septic pump, though, it was working as normal again, so I left it.
I’ll get back to that, later!
Once outside (and after playing with any kittens that would let me!), I started on transplanting shallots with the peppers in the high raised bed. I kept forgetting to do that, and I didn’t want it to be forgotten again!
I considered doing the yellow onions, instead – none of those have been transplanted, yet! – but decided against it. They will form larger bulbs than the shallots, and I figured they would do better with more space than the shallots need.
One thing about the cover being sized to fit the box beds in the east yard: the frame is narrower, but longer, than the high raised bed. Which means there’s contact with the logs in only 4 small spots. This meant I didn’t have to worry about squishing any of the transplants when I put it back on. This cover has fencing wire on it, and a larger mesh. I am hoping that, as the peppers get taller, they can grow into the fencing wire arch, which will support them, while their growing habit should still leave enough light and air for the shallots to grow.
We’ll see if this actually works out!
With those done, the next priority was getting the Zucca melon in, and for that, I had to set up the kiddie pool as a garden bed.
We used it to grow melons last year, so it already has drainage holes in the bottom. I added a fairly thick layer of grass clippings on the bottom. This should act as a bit of a sponge to hold water, before it finally drains out, as it breaks down.
For the soil, I “stole” several wheelbarrow loads from the last bed that needs to be shifted over. The alternative was to push my way through the overgrown grass to the pile of garden soil in the outer yard with the wheel barrow, and sifting each load.
The soil in this bed just needs weeding, not sifting, and most of the weeds had deep tap roots. Aside from the tree roots and a bit of crab grass, it didn’t take long to weed the soil after it was loosened with a garden fork, then shoveling it into the wheelbarrow, where I could get any other weeds and roots I might have missed.
I had to remind myself not to fill the wheelbarrow as much as usual. The soil is still quite moist, making it a lot heavier than usual. All that meant was that it took three loads instead of two, to fill the kiddie pool deep enough.
Finally, the zucca melon could be planted! These can grow melons up to 60 pounds in weight. If they actually grow this year, they should need take up a lot of space! Last year, they were in the bed where the bare root strawberries went last year. The plants never thrived, and what melons began to from, started to rot and die before getting more than 6 or 8 inches long. After prepping the bed for the strawberries, I now know that bed was being choked out by elm roots, too. This won’t happen with the kiddie pool as a raised bed. Last year, the pool was set up and the end of one of the beds I’ve been working on, quite close to the elms and maple. When I cleaned it up in the fall, there were no tree roots in it at all, unlike the fabric grow bags! So hopefully, this year, the Zucca melon will actually have a chance to grow and thrive!
Once that was done, it was time to go inside for lunch. As I was eating, I realized I was hearing the septic pump … and it wasn’t shutting off!
So I hid my food from the cats and headed for the basement. After priming the filter a few times, and it would still run dry, I tried pushing the hose through the floor drain again.
It did not work out very well at all.
First, I couldn’t get past the nearer bottleneck. After much fighting, I finally got it through the opening, but then it hit the second bottle neck, and that was it. It would not go past and into the tank.
Unfortunately, to do this, I was absolutely killing my left arm. Yes, I’m mostly ambidextrous, but if I need to do anything that requires a higher level of control or strength, I use my left arm. It was absolutely brutal on my damaged elbow.
I finally gave up, left septic pump off, and headed back upstairs. The fact that I hadn’t finished eating and was still very hungry did not help!
After cleaning myself up and finishing lunch, I went back at it, this time with a daughter. I still couldn’t get the hose through at the floor drain, and neither could my daughter. We ended up getting the tool kit so we could open the access pipe, instead. Normally, these can just be opened with a special screw cap – bronze, in our case – but that is fused in place. The entire top needs to be removed, and that’s held in place with screw clamps around strip of rubber and… some kind of finely corrugated metal that I think is aluminum.
So we got that pulled off and tried again with running the hose through. It worked much better, this time! We got through the first bottleneck fairly easily, and it was only a bit more effort to get through the second bottleneck. Finally, we were able to push the hose all the way into the tank!
At which point I went outside and opened the lid to take a look.
Do you know that it’s very hard to see anything when looking into a dark tank in bright sunshine? Meanwhile, I was being totally paranoid and holding my glasses against my face every time I tried to lean over and see. Finally, a cloud passed over the sun, and I could see!
But what did I see?
Well, I could eventually figure out where the float was. There’s a lot of gunk floating at the top, but I could see a couple of spot with flowing water in them – that would be water from the weeping tile, since no one in the household was using water at the time. I got my daughter to try wiggling the hose around, but I still couldn’t see it. It was somewhere under the gunk.
What I think is happening is, as the pump runs and the liquid level drops, the float is probably getting hung on something. Something that running the hose through manages to knock loose, finally allowing the float to drop and trigger the pump to stop running.
As I closed up the tank and went back inside, my daughter kept working with the hose. She could actually feel when she managed to knock something out of the way. I turned the water on, and she kept at it for a while. The septic pump turned on while she was doing this, and we could see water flowing through the filter, so this was now running as normal.
After she was done with that, I took over and ran the hose in the floor drain, towards the weeping tile under the new part basement floor. We know the weeping tile in the north corner is somehow messed up. Plus, we get tree roots growing through. We could see the water turn silty while I pushed the hose, with the water running, as far as it could go.
Once that was done, I decided to not bother tightening the cap on the access pipe again, since we will likely be running a hose through there, instead of the floor drain, regularly. So my daughter put away the tools and headed out while I closed things up and hung the hose back up where we store it. There’s quite a bit of water on the floor, with all the rain we’ve been having, the floor is damp or flooded in places, even with all the fans and blowers running.
Our electric bill is going to be brutal. With the equal payment plan, I won’t be surprised of the monthly payments don’t jump quite a bit, and not just because they’re increasing the price per kw, either.
That all took way longer than it should have, and I was very frustrated.
My husband, meanwhile, helped the only way he could… and I’m torn about it.
He used his Amazon credit card to buy me a commercial level drain auger, so we won’t be fighting with a hose. I don’t know that it will clear the nearer bottleneck, though. I fear that is the cast iron pipe collapsing, and that running an auger through would damage it more. That would really mess us up, since repairing that would probably require breaking through the concrete floor in the basement, and excavating between the basement wall and the septic tank outside, to replace it.
*sigh*
I don’t even want to think of it.
That done, and the water flowing through properly again, I needed to destress.
For me, that means manual labour! Yay!
I headed back outside (topped of the cat food for the evening, played with a kitten…) and to the garden.
We had reached the hottest part of the day by then, and I realized I’d forgotten about the melon bed. We have a few small piles of straw mulch from last year that I raided.
That gave me some nicely damp, cool, partially decomposed straw to lay around the melons.
Then I mulched the newly transplanted Zucca melons, too.
The Zucca got watered after transplanting, of course, but after the mulch was laid down, I gave that a good soaking, too. I had considered putting a jug in the middle for watering, like with the pumpkins and drum gourds, but using the kiddie pool as a raised bed, with the grass clipping base, makes that unnecessary. It will take a while for water to drain, so the Zucca roots should find all the water they need before it finished draining.
I soaked down the mulch on the other beds, too.
Last of all, I started working on shifting the next low raised bed. That meant breaking new ground where the bed will be shifted over, and turning the sod, first.
I didn’t get very far. It was just too hot!
So I’ve left it for now.
My current plan is to try going to bed early, and hopefully actually falling asleep, so that I can get an early start tomorrow. This bed should go much faster than the last one, as it’s nowhere near as weed filled. I want to get at least a few hours in, in the morning. It’s supposed to get a lot hotter than today, in the afternoon. Which makes it a good time for us to do our combined birthday/father’s day pizza night, courtesy of my older daughter.
Based on the current forecasts, we’re supposed to get hotter every day until Monday (it’s Wednesday, today), but not get any rain until Saturday evening. After Monday, it will cool down a little, with no other rain in the 10 day forecast.
We shall see.
We’re in the final stretch to get things in the ground! For transplants, it’s just those last few San Marzano tomatoes, the yellow onions and a few shallots, and the Orange Butterfly Flower. Those have to go somewhere where they can be treated as a perennial, and I’m not sure where that will be just yet!
For all the garden plans we made over the winter, we’re basically flying by the seat of our pants right now.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 