Month: August 2024

No more Button! (and unexpected family drama) (updated)

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Yay, for Button!

Poor little guy passed right out, during the drive. For a while, there, he was really trying to get out of the carrier, and almost got the door open!

The exchange has been done, though. He is now with the Cat Lady. He’ll stay at the rescue for a week for standard vet care, then – if all goes well – be on his way to his forever home.

Even the Cat Lady commented on how tiny he is. He has definitely grown since we found him in the junk pile, but not by much!

One of the Cat Lady’s daughters was in the vehicle with her. She ended up holding Button rather than putting him in their carrier, and he actually started to fall asleep in her arms within minutes!

The Cat Lady also gave us a donation of cat food. There was a couple of cases of cat food – the kind that comes in pairs of packets with individual meal portions – plus a small bag of “immunity boosting” kibble.

She also found her bottle of the antibiotic drops for the eye baby. We are to give one drop in each eye, every 12 hours, for at least 14 days. She also warned that this stuff does does tend to burn, but to make sure not to wipe it off.

The hard part is going to be opening the eyes enough to get the drops in there!

I’ve got the kitten inside and in the carrier for the night. I’d gone out for my evening routine and found her in the outer yard, heading for the driveway, giving out her squeaky meow! The poor thing can’t open her eyes at all, even after we wash them. The eyelids are just too swoleen.

The girls and I will be doing the first dose of drops, soon. The kitten has already eaten and settled down in the carrier. Thanks to the individual portion cat food donation, it was easy to mix up some cat soup, just for the eye kitten, with the same supplements we use for the big batch we made for all the cats. When we added the food and water bowls to the carrier, I got some of the soup onto her mouth a few times before she figured it out and started lapping it up.

She asked us to keep her up to date on how things go. After Button has gone on to his forever home, they might be able to take this one for care. I appreciate that, but fear they’ll be stuck with another one of our sick cats – to go with the 6 cats from us they already have, all of which have had some sort of health problem! At least with The Wolfman, it was an injury that healed, rather than things like viral infections or heart problems.

She has us booked for the beginning of September for a spay or neuter. She’ll send me the exact date when she has a chance. This will be whichever cat we can catch, so I really want to get that isolation shelter finished before then. I was able to do the last of the painting this afternoon, which means assembling the frame can start tomorrow!

Several minutes later…

Wow. So much just happened in just a short time!

First, I started getting updates from the Cat Lady. Button has been eating well and sleeping well.

From his teeth, he looks like an 11 week old kitten, but he’s the size of a 6 week old kitten!

His eyes are weepy, which we could see, but he also had ulcerations in the back of his mouth, which we did not know about! Classic calicivirus, she says, and expects him to be put on antibiotics when he sees the vet tomorrow. Which likely means other kittens have it, too.

She also warned us that there is a severe panleukopenia outbreak in the province right now, and what symptoms to watch out for, and recommending to use bleach to clean even the outside bowls, if possible.

As we were chatting, my daughter came down and we took the eyes baby into the washroom to try and get those drops in. I don’t know that we managed to open the eyes enough, but at least it’s a start.

While that was happening, the phone started ringing. When I got to it, I found a message from my mother to call her.

*sigh*

My mother just heard geese flying by, and that reminded her that she wanted to take me and the girls to a nearby migratory reserve.

She has no idea what a problem this request is.

I told her, I would talk to the girls.

She didn’t like that, and then offered me a choice. We could go to the reserve and have a picnic there, or we could share a meal at the one local restaurant, then go to the cemetery where my father, brother and other family members are buried. That, I definitely don’t want to do, because then she’ll want to come here, and that’s never pleasant.

She could tell I wasn’t enthused, and I tried to explain.

First, there’s the fact that we all keep different hours, so my daughters would have to mess up their schedules. Which they wouldn’t mind doing, if it was for something pleasant, but my mother is never pleasant with them, but rather always testing and prodding and judging.

The other thing is, it would leave my husband here at the farm on his own – and no one to be on watch in case our vandal has another mental break and decides to burn the house down or something. A concern she dismissed.

What I couldn’t figure out how to explain was that, because of her own behaviour towards them – and how she treats me – the girls just don’t want to be around her.

It didn’t matter, though. She instead went on a rant about how I keep the girls basically imprisoned upstairs, and they should be free to go places.

I told her, just because she doesn’t see something, and it doesn’t involve her, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. The girls can go where they want (frankly, I wish they did want to go out more, but they don’t). They are adults and free to do so.

She instead started ranting that no, they aren’t free, and now she can see why the government takes children away from their parents, because they don’t know how to parent…

Which is when I said goodbye and hung up.

I think she has forgotten that the girls are 28 and 31 years old, not the 9 and 12 year old’s they were when we left this province because of her. She did not approve of our homeschooling and kept reporting us to different levels, making up lies about what was going on in our household (which she knew nothing about, but thought she did). Each time, we got “investigated” and they recognized that this was a problem with her, not us – but at that point, the next place left for her to report us would be children’s services, and she would have been perfectly willing to do that, and have the girls taken from us, simply because she did not approve of how we were raising our kids.

*sigh*

Well, that’s it. I’m done for now. I need to update my family and siblings on what just happened, because she’s going to cause problems for us over this.

*sigh*

I would really love to have a boring life right now.

The Re-Farmer

Update: Well, I talked to my daughters, and they really do want to go to the nature reserve. With my daughter’s work schedule, though, she had deadlines she needs to meet before the end of August, so we looked into September. My mother’s 93rd birthday is in September, so that fits, too. So we picked an open day, I called my mother back, and now she’s all happy – though she really tried to get it to be sooner! September will be too cold, she says… 😄

All that drama, and for what?

*sigh*

Kitten news and isolation shelter progress

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First up, the good news!

I need to head to a Walmart to get more cat kibble, and the Cat Lady will be able to meet me.

That means, Button is finally going to be going to her forever home!

She’ll be staying with the Cat Lady for about a week for standard vet care, then go to the home of the large animal vet that is adopting her.

Finally!!!

Button is in the bottom cuddle pile of the photo above, wrestling with the black and white kitten.

The kitten being used as a pillow by the orange while white kitten is the one with the messed up eyes. We brought her in last night again, to spend the night in a carrier in my bedroom. We have to keep her completely isolated from the inside cats. She seems okay with the carrier. I gave her a stuffy, and she spent the night sleeping right up against it.

Unfortunately, her eyes are still swollen shut and she’s essentially blind. We’re washing them, of course, but that helps only so far. We did make sure she had cat soup for food – extra thin, for more hydration – with supplements that should help boost her immune system. The Cat Lady has medication to give us, but as of this morning, she still couldn’t find it. Hopefully, she’ll be able to find it before we meet up this afternoon.

After they have Button for a week, then pass her on to her forever home, they might be able to take in eyes baby, too. I have really been trying to avoid that. They’ve taken so many sick kittens from us, and end up keeping them permanently, because hardly anyone is willing to adopt healthy cats, never mind any with past health problems. Plus, it seems the cats at our place have a particularly bad strain of herpes. The sick cats they’ve helped us with before have recovered, but are still prone to relapses. Other sick cats they’ve helped from communities around us have recovered and not relapsed.

Also, it seems the cats from us have a bit of a reputation among several vet clinics now. We’ve had some very unusual cases, with Cabbages being the first anomaly. At least her treatment is now saving the lives of other cats. Then there’s the one that turned out to be Down’s. Who know cats could be Down’s?

Anyhow.

All the more reason we need the isolation shelter, and I got a bit more progress on that this morning.

I cut more corner supports from the remaining true to size 2×4 piece that I have. I was able to cut them larger this time. The smaller ones were ready for more painting, as were the frame pieces. As of right now, the only things left that need to be painted are a couple of 2×4 frame pieces, and the larger angle cut pieces. Once those are done, assembly can start. I’m hoping I can get that done this evening, if this morning’s coat of paint is cured enough.

As you can see by my hat in the last photo, it was quite hot and muggy in the garage while I was working! I normally wear a hat to help keep the sweat out of my eyes, but today was just too hot, and I took it off pretty early on, so all that wet is from a very short time! Lately, I’ve taken to folding up a strip of paper towel and putting it between my forehead and the hat band, to help absorb the sweat. That does make it more bearable, but by the time I could have done that, my hat was already soaked!

Well, time to start getting ready to head out with Button. I need to make sure the smallest cat carrier is ready. We keep it with several others in the sun room these days, so cats are in and out of them – and climbing on top of them – regularly, so they get pretty dirty.

I still need to go to the post office first, but I’ll do that along the way. I did already go this morning, but I went too early. I was sure the post office opened at 9am, but when I got there at 9:30, they were just opening up and hadn’t sorted any of the mail, yet! I think Button will be okay in the carrier alone in the truck for a few minutes.

I’m so happy she is finally going to her forever home!

The Re-Farmer

[addendum: I just had to include the AI generated feedback I got for this!

The content reflects a heartwarming story of finding a forever home for Button and the dedicated care for the kitten with eye issues. The updates on the isolation shelter’s progress are interesting. Consider adding subheadings to distinguish between the different topics discussed. Additionally, breaking up the text into smaller paragraphs can enhance readability and make it more visually appealing for the reader. Good luck with the ongoing care and shelter construction efforts!

The AI is hilariously complimentary!]

Our 2024 Garden: a little morning harvest

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Well, the predicted rain did start last night, and it’s still raining now.

Sort of.

It’s a very light, barely there sort of rain. I’m just hoping it keeps up long enough to actually water the garden. It’s actually pretty much stopped right now, but it’s supposed to start up again this afternoon – quite different from the prediction of rain all morning that I was looking at last night.

I did get a bit of a harvest this morning.

This time, I actually picked sugar snap peas. The plants are well past their prime, and usually I just find a few to snack on in the morning, but today there was enough to actually bring some in – after I’d already eaten a few. 😉 There was a single green Seychelle bean ready to pick, plus a few Carminat, and one Purple Beauty pepper was ripe.

I was also happy to see the first blooming Magda squash blossom, though at this stage, it’s just male flowers. The Black Cherry tomatoes are starting to get too tall for the lilac they’ve grown into to hold them, so I’m going to have to find a way to support the vines while still keeping them in reach for harvesting. Not a problem I ever expected to have! We’ve never had tomatoes that grew this tall before!

I get the Farmer’s Almanac daily newsletter and caught a bit of their long term forecast for the fall and winter. They’re predicting a warmer than usual fall for some areas – a range that includes where we are. I hope they’re right. Even now, as I look at the local long range forecast into September, the predictions for the overnight lows has changed towards warmer temperatures. We shall see. With how far behind so many things are – and certainly not just for us! – I’ll take very frost free night we can get!

It’s sort of pins and needles time for gardeners – and a lot of farmers, too – at this time of year.

The Re-Farmer

(addendum: I’ve been using WP AI assistant to “generate feedback” pretty regularly, just for a lark. It tends to make the same suggestions, over and over. Clearly, it can’t tell that I’ve got Instagram images embedded in my posts, because it’s constantly recommending I use images or video. 😄😄)

Our 2024 Garden: first garlic, plus winter squash, melon and pumpkin progress

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After I did as much as I could on the cat isolation shelter build, I finally got around to harvesting some of our garlic. In particular, I wanted to get the garlic that was sharing a bed with tomatoes. The tomatoes are getting so huge and bushy, the garlic was barely visible!

The challenge was to find them and dig them out without breaking any tomato plants!

Not all of the garlic planted there in the fall emerged, but I think I found all the ones that did. The soil was surprisingly compacted, and the head buried much deeper than I expected. I could actually hear the wood on the handle of my digging tool making cracking noises if I went to deep, trying to loosen the soil.

Unfortunately, when I got them all out, I discovered they were just crawling with black ants!

After trimming the stems, most of them got strung up and are now hanging in the garage. Normally, I would have hung them under the market tent, but that broke over the winter. Right now, the garage is the only place that’s out of the elements, but still has air circulation. Since I’m using it as a workshop right now, I can at least be sure they won’t be forgotten about!

Before I headed in for the evening, I finally went out and took progress photos of the winter squash, melons, pumpkins and gourds. It’s been quite a while. The last time I normally would have done it, I did our garden tour video, instead.

If you want to see how they looked earlier, you can visit these links.

July 28
July 30
August 1
August 3
August 5
August 8

It’s now the 14th, so there is quite a lot of difference since I last posted photos. We lost a few things, and some look like they will also be losses, but I also found more melons, including a couple I found just this evening, while taking the photos!

With that in mind, I will start with the melon beds. First, the east bed. There were so many, I had to divide the photos between two Instagram slideshows.

This Summer of Melons mix is really prolific – though with where we are in the growing season, it’s likely we’ll only be able to harvest the earliest varieties, whatever they are. The mid and late varieties are unlikely to have enough time left to fully mature.

Then there is the west bed of melons, which also had to be split up between two slideshows.

If you notice some blood on my finger in the last photo, I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes while trying to take these photos!

In the above slideshow, you can see the only two Cream of Saskatchewan watermelons we’ve got right now, and the older one is dying off. The plant has more female flower buds and is blooming like crazy, but it’s probably way too late. While I was giving my sister a tour of the garden, she was telling me things are late in her garden, too. She’s not growing melons or squash this year, but she says her tomatoes are way behind. She barely even has tomatoes forming right now! That wet, wet spring we had has really affected so many people’s gardens, all over the province.

Next, we have the pumpkins.

We now have one completely orange pumpkin, and two that are starting to change colour! I’m really impressed by how well the pumpkins are doing.

And look!

We even have a drum gourd that’s getting bigger!

There are other drum gourds on the vines, but it’s still too early to tell if they were well pollinated. There are lots of male flowers, but I haven’t been seeing the female flowers when they first bloom, so I haven’t been able to do any hand pollinating.

Next is the east winter squash bed. This one has the most squash developing on it.

It does look like we’ll be losing several of them, though. Those big yellow ones that are now turning orange are looking awesome!

The west bed has only a few squash left.

One of them looks like it’s going to die off, too. It’s getting more yellow instead of more green.

Last of all, I did remember to get pictures of the Crespo squash!

It looks like we’ve got two surviving squash developing. I’m seeing at least one more female flower bud, but it’s too early to know if it’ll be a survivor. Again, we’ll see if they have enough growing season left. These are supposed to get very large.

I’m kinda regretting not watering this morning, even though the forecast is now more sure about us getting rain overnight. Looking at the weather radar, the trajectory of the weather system has changed, so it no longer looks like it’s going to go right past us. Instead, it’s heading towards us – and looks like it’s going to split in half and maybe miss us on two sides, instead of one! Still, we’re supposed to be getting right starting tonight, and continuing through to mid afternoon tomorrow. We shall see what actually happens!

Anyhow… that’s the status of things right now. I’m quite happy with things so far. In all honestly, considering how many winter squash we planted, I would have expected more – I don’t think there are any hiding under the leaves anywhere that I haven’t spotted. It does seem like some plants have more than one squash developing, while others have none at all. In the future, when we have our permanent trellises built – trellises strong enough to hold winter squash like these! – it’ll be easier to see, one way or the other. The squash in this Wild Bunch Mix really want to climb, too!

I’m quite impressed by how many melons we’ve got developing! They have a trellis to climb in one bed, but seem to prefer to sprawl on the ground, instead.

As late as things are, I’m happy with the Crespo squash, too. Last year, we had four struggling plants that ended up being baked in the sun in there location, and only one small, immature squash to harvest. It still made good pie!

They are definitely doing better in the new bed I made for them this year.

Lots to keep in mind for when we plant any of these again, in the future! Every year is a learning experience, and I don’t expect that to ever stop. That’s part of what makes gardening so fun!

The Re-Farmer

Such a good mama! plus, isolation shelter progress

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Must start with the cuteness!

I spotted Adam nursing this brood in front of the sun room – and I needed to get past her! I had to go back and forth from the sun room a few times, and saw her nursing in the same spot again, but with different kittens!

She is such a good creche mama. So chill with the babies!

Not with people, though. She still won’t let us near her, and ran off when I got too close. Unfortunately, she seems to choose high traffic areas to lay down and nurse!

Meanwhile, I got a bit more progress done on the cat isolation shelter.

As I mentioned in my last post, I changed the plans a bit. The original plan was to basically have a cube with the outside frame divided into quarters, vertically and horizontally. I had it in my mind to attach the vertical pieces first, like wall joists, then horizontal pieces to support the floor boards in the second level. The problem was, how to attach the shorter horizontal pieces, with the materials I had on hand. There are brackets and braces that can be used to make the job easy and secure, but I don’t have any, and don’t have the budget to get them.

Then it occurred to me that this shelter doesn’t need vertical support. The true to size 2x4s are strong enough on their own. I’ll still add them, as they will help hold the welded wire mesh, but it’s the horizontal pieces that are more important, since they will be supporting the floor boards.

So the longer regular size 2×4’s I cut will now be mounted horizontally instead of vertically – they will be doing inside the 4′ square front and back frames, so the measurement doesn’t change. I needed two more for the shorter sides, which meant I needed to more pieces the same length as the pieces that will be the top and bottom.

In the first photo of the Instagram slide show, you can see the two new pieces that were cut. The others, meanwhile, were flipped and ready to get their other sides painted.

The rough cut true to size 2x4s sure use up a lot more paint compared to the smooth regular size 2x4s!

I still had the problem of how to attached them to the front and back frame pieces. They will be butted up against the edges. I decided to cut pieces at 45° angles that will be butted into the corners to give me something to screw into. These will be needed for the top and middle pieces of one side. I’ll need 4 more of these for the other side. I used leftover scrap pieces of true to size 2×4 I do have a short length of that left. I’ll see how these work out before cutting more. I might decide to do it a different way. Or just cut them a bit longer. That was my original intention, but the pieces I had left over weren’t long enough.

Hmmm… now that I think about it, I can use longer pieces to support the top corners of the frame, and these shorter ones to support the horizontal pieces in the middle of the frame. I’ll have to think about that some more.

I did have an issue making the 45° cuts. I’m using the miter saw I picked up at a garage sale a couple of years ago. Today is the first time I needed to make angled cuts.

I don’t know how long its been since this thing was used for angle cuts, but it had to be a long time! I had to get lubricant to get it to turn all the way, from one side to the other! But, I got it done, and am soooo happy I have this saw! Previously, I used a hand saw and miter box to make cuts like this, and that really sucks. Especially with wood as hard as this! My soil sifter’s frame would have turned out much better if I’d had this when I made it. 😄

At this point, there isn’t much more I can do until all the painting is done. Once I have the outside frame assembled, I can take the measurements I need for the cross piece that will go through the middle to support the floor, and for the vertical pieces. I’m not working with two different sizes of wood, so I don’t want to count on just doing the math.

I’m not that good at math!

After cutting the 45° angles, I was left with a bunch of equally sized triangles that I’m hanging on to; they might come in handy, later. I should have had 8 of those, but one of them fell apart, because the end of the 2×4 I was cutting off was one of the more damaged pieces.

The painting, unfortunately, is going to take a while, since it basically needs a whole day to cure. It wouldn’t normally take that long, but it’s humid enough to slow things done and keep things very tacky! About the only other thing I can do in between flipping and painting the boards is cut and start painting four more angled pieces.

Still, progress is progress, and I’m happy with how it’s going so far.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: first G Star, plus a kitten update

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This morning didn’t need as much time out in the garden. I didn’t do any watering, as the forecast was for rain, possible thunderstorms, this afternoon, with rain continuing through to tomorrow.

I should have checked again before I headed out, though. Now we have an only 30% chance of rain in the late afternoon. We might still get rain overnight. Ah, well. The high for today is expected to be 25C/77C. I think things should be okay. Right now, we’re already at 24C/75F, while humidex makes it feel like 28C/82F, and it’s not even noon yet, as I write this.

I did manage to get a little harvest, though.

There was one G Star patty pan squash that was getting quite large – but the other one that I hoped was well pollinated hasn’t been growing any bigger at all, so I left it. It’s not turning yellow or looking like it’s going to drop off, so we’ll see. Meanwhile, there are more female flowers that should be opening soon, so we should have more patty pans to harvest soon.

I also spotted an open female winter squash blossom, while harvesting the peas and beans, that was on a vine that, as far as I can tell, has not had any female flowers yet. This vine is at one end of a bed, so it’s easier to tell it from other vines.

I made sure to hand pollinate it!

I’m spotting female flower buds on other vines, too, including the Crespo squash. Given that it’s August 14, and our first average frost date is Sept. 10, it’s unlikely they’ll have time to mature, but… you never know!

So here was have another little harvest for the day. Nothing compared to past years, but then, we have a very different garden this year!

In other things…

Last night, my older daughter went into the sunroom to check on a commotion, and the kitten with the messed up eyes came over and started squeaking at her. The poor thing’s eyelids were so swollen, it’s basically blind. We gave its eyes a wash, and ended up putting it in a carrier with some food and water for the night.

This would be a good time to have the isolation cage we’re working on right now!

It wasn’t happy being in the carrier, but eventually settled down. I get the impression it can still see something, but not much. I’m hoping to connect with the Cat Lady soon, as she said she had something she could give me to treat the eyes, when she picks up Button.

With the kitten in the carrier in my bedroom, I ended up leaving my computer on all night – I found a black screen video on YouTube with the sound of a cat purring for 10 hours, and I had that playing. It seemed to help. Not just for the kitten, who slept solidly all night, but the other cats in the room, too! While the baby was squeaking (it has the strangest meow!), they were very curious about it, that’s for sure! We also gave it some wet cat food with lysine mixed in, but I don’t think it ate any.

This morning, we have it’s eyes another wash – my daughter thinks they are getting better – and then I took it with me when I fed the outside cats. I think I saw it starting to eat and drink in the sun room. By the time I came back with my little harvest, I found it curled up in one of the cat beds, sleeping soundly.

We’ll see how it does and, if it seems warranted, we’ll keep it in the carrier for the night again.

I also had a less than pleasant surprise when I left the sun room to feed the outside cats. I found another stillbirth. More like a miscarriage, I’d say. The kitten was recognizable as a kitten, but the placenta was at least twice the size of it! I made sure to look, and there was only the one. I can’t even begin to guess with cat was the mama.

I have no doubt this sort of thing has been happening with the yard cats in the past, but this is the first year it’s been happening right next to the house, for us to find. I wonder what has changed. It’s not like the females are any less feral this year.

Ah, well.

Meanwhile, I need to get back to work on the isolation shelter. I’m going to have to nap first, though. I got to thinking about the design and decided to make some changes. I ended up spending time flipping the design around in my head, working out the best ways to assemble things with the materials I have, and what pieces I’ll be needing to cut and paint, and before I knew it, it was past 5am, and I hadn’t slept a wink! The last thing I need is to be using power tools while half asleep.

It’s slow going, but I’m getting there!

The Re-Farmer

Starry skies, shelter progress and a surprise visit

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First, the cuteness!

With all the tasks outside I’ve been working on, I’ve been forgetting to take pictures of kittens!

Today turned out to be a fairly productive day. I’m actually a bit surprised, all things considered! 😄

The girls and I headed out around midnight to watch for meteors. We did see some, as well as some Northern lights.

We set up the tripod and just randomly took photos of different parts of the sky, hoping to catch something. We did catch some meteors in a few photos that were so small and faint, we didn’t see them as they happened. There were a few brighter ones that happened in between shots, and one huge, bright one with a bright green tail that flashed by. That one was awesome!

In the photos in the Instagram slideshow, the third one has the spotted streak of an airplane’s lights. We actually have a pretty busy sky with planes and satellites visible. It was a gorgeous night for starwatching, that’s for sure! We could see even more stars than the night before.

Unfortunately, once we got back inside and I finally went to bed, I wasn’t able to sleep for most of the night, so my daughters were sweet enough to take care of some of the morning stuff for me so I could sleep in. Once I did get outside, my priority was watering the garden before it got too hot. Our expected high was 27C/81F, which I’m sure we passed. As I write this, it’s past 6:30pm, and we’re still at 25C/77F, with the humidex putting us at 27C/81F.

While I was watering the garden beds, I took advantage of the fact that we have some lovely grass clippings that has been lying out long enough to start drying, and topped up the mulch on some beds. For a few, I just scooped up some armloads, but in some areas I brought out the wagon and raked up a windrow. I gathered a couple of wagon loads, but there’s still plenty left to collect. I want to make sure to collect the thickest areas, as they are thick enough to actually kill the grass below if they’re left where they are. I’ll take care of the rest, tomorrow, though.

Once the watering was done, I paused for … brunch? … then headed back out again. I had one last edge of the isolation shelter boards to paint, and then I wanted to calculated and cut the next set.

I had a few pieces I could cut out of the true-to-size 2×4’s I had, though I ended up having to cut off rotten/uneven ends before I could make my measurements on these ones. Once I got four pieces that will be joining the front and rear frames, that was it for the true to size boards. The next ones had to be cut from a regular 2×4’s. I actually need 2 more of that length, but I got distracted and forgot.

After I’d laid the newly cut boards out to brush the dust off, I was going to give the paint more time to dry and switch out the foam bumpers on the gate and replace the twine and pin for the sliding bar – all of which were disintegrating from being in the elements for several years.

I happened to step out of the garage when my phone dinged at me. I had a text message from my sister!

There is no signal in the garage, so I got it several minutes after she’d sent it, and she was asking if I was home.

It turns out she was in the area, visiting the local cemetery.

Also, did I want some cucumbers? 😄

What she didn’t say was whether or not my mother was with her. I did tell her that I’d gone to the cemetery last month and left fresh flowers at our family graves – and said no, thank you to the cucumbers. The last time she gave us cucumbers, we couldn’t finish them all, even after making a dozen jars of pickles!

I figured her ability to receive texts would be about the same as mine, so I had no idea when she was going to get my answer. I had to go to the house to get some of what I needed for the gate, and made sure to grab the gate key, as well. As I was walking back to the garage, I could see through the trees.

There was a car at the gate already! 😄

I’m glad I grabbed the gate key!

Also, as I write this, I am eating a cucumber salad my daughter made from the cucumbers my sister gave us. 😄 Not as much as the last time, though, so we won’t be overwhelmed!

I ended up giving my sister a tour of what we’ve been doing around the place, including the garden, of course. She wanted to see it as she wasn’t sure she’d make it out this away again this year. My sister being my sister, she took lots of pictures, including some with me in my grubby, torn up work clothes! 😂 Then we sat in the the shade on one of the benches I made and just talked. She was still planning on visiting my mother on her way home – and drop off more cucumbers! – so she didn’t stay too long.

As she was leaving, I followed along and worked on the gate. We use sections of pool noodles as bumpers. With where the hinges are attached to the posts, when the two halves of the gate swing outwards, towards the road, the metal gate hits the metal posts, so the bumpers prevent more damage. Small sections are also added over the hinge pins to protect them from the elements.

The pin for the sliding bar was just a long screw with its tip cut off, tied to the gate with twine. The twine was barely holding together, and the screw was rusting, so I picked up a long screw eye to replace it. I use mason line instead of twine. Having the screw eye to attach the line to was a lot more secure than just knotting bale twine under the head of a deck screw! 😄 I was even able to attach the line to the gate in a more aesthetically pleasing way, too. The only potential problem I see is that the weight of the screw’s eye might cause it to fall out, however there’s enough slack in the line that I could use it to wrap around the end of the screw eye and hold it in place.

At least, that’s the theory!

Once that was done and everything was cleaned up, it was back to the garage.

The painted boards were just dry enough to move them off the sawhorses and onto the pallet to finish trying, and I was able to get the first sides painted on the newly cut pieces.

Once all these pieces (including the two more longer ones I need to cut) are painted, I can then assemble the external frame of the isolation shelter. Once that’s together and secured to the pallet floor, I’ll be able to figure out the best way to put together the inside parts and get the measurements needed.

I’m hoping I have enough salvaged lumber to finish the frame, including the pieces that will support the floor of the second level. I have wider boards left over from another project that will make a good floor on the second level.

This above Instagram slideshow has my original sketched plans. I’ve had to change some things, but the general concept is the same. The second level will have a floor covering 3/4 of the space, but there will be room to add other things, as inspiration strikes. All of the inside stuff needs to be put in before the mesh walls or the roof are added. Though if I can figure out the best way to do it, a hinged roof would certainly make it easier to access the inside, should something need repair or replacement.

I’m happy with the progress made so far. I just hope I didn’t screw up on my math!

The Re-Farmer

Beautiful night, productive day

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As I posted earlier, in the wee hours of the morning, my daughters and I had done out last night to see the Perseids meteor shower. My daughters had read that the peak viewing period would be around 3am. We even brought out the tripod so I could set my phone up and take photos.

Well, we didn’t see very many meteors, but we did get a light show!

My older daughter’s the one who actually took most of the photos. I the fourth one of the slideshow, at the top near the middle, you can just see that a meteor was caught in the shot.

It was an awesome night, too. Lovely and cool – just the perfect temperature! – with nice clear skies for viewing the stars.

The meteor shower is supposed to be visible tonight, too. I checked The Farmer’s Almanac, and it says that the peak viewing period should be around midnight, not 3am, but I guess that depends on what time zone you’re in. Either way, we plan to be out again tonight, at around midnight.

After we were done, my older daughter got back to work and my younger daughter ended up staying up as well. They have been arranging their sleep schedules so that and one of them is up and available, any time of day, and my younger daughter has the “day shift”. 😁 She was a sweetheart and took are of feeding the outside cats this morning – and washing the one kitten’s infected eyes – for me, so I could get a bit of extra sleep.

Once I got outside, my priority was to water the garden before it got too hot, then did a bit of harvesting. After I had breakfast… er… lunch, I made a trip to the post office, making sure to leave the gate open when I got back. I got some more painting done on the pre-cut frame pieces for the cat isolation shelter – three sides are now done. I then spent the next couple of hours, mowing. The driveway hasn’t been done in so long, I had to go over it twice to get it cut to the length I wanted.

I’m going to have lots of “hay” to collect! The grass is so thick in places, even this mower, set as high as it could go, was struggling!

Gosh, it all looks so much better!

Now that that’s done, I’ll get back to cutting more lengths of wood for the isolation shelter frame, so they can be painted before construction, too.

As I think about the construction, I am debating how to make the access doors. There’s going to be a main door that will swing down and convert into a ramp when it’s open. When not in use as an isolation shelter, we plan to leave it open and available for the cats to become familiar with it, and a ramp would make it easier for kittens to get in and out.

Since I don’t have salvaged windows that slide open to incorporate into the design, I am thinking of making sliding doors instead of doors that swing out. I think that will give more security for if we have a particularly feral cat inside. We’d be able to reach in and out without having to open a sliding door all the way. With a swing door, the door itself would be in the way if we wanted to open it partially. A sliding door would also be handy for releasing a cat from a trap, as it could be opened just enough to fit the end of the trap.

I’ll have to think about that, some more. Whatever I decide for the access points, the rest of the structure doesn’t need to change, so I can literally wait until the shelter frame and interior is completely assembled, then see what works best.

I’m having fun with this build! It’s going to be the most complicated thing I’ve built and, with using salvaged materials or whatever we can afford to get, the plans have to be pretty loosey goosey!

Little by little, it’ll get done!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: little harvest, with first corn

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We’ve got ourselves another hot day today. Our high was supposed to be 26C/79F today, but I’m pretty sure we passed that. I can’t say for sure, since I was mowing the lawn at the time.

I’m so thankful that my brother loaned us his smaller riding mower!! I actually got the driveway done!

Well… the edges of it, anyhow. We’ll need his tractor and mower attachment to get the rest.

Whatever the temperature actually turned out to be, the thermometer in the sun room was reading 32C/90F when I was done, which would have been after things started to cool down!

With the heat coming back for the next while, I made sure to give the garden a good watering this morning, then went over it to gather a bit of a harvest.

I wasn’t sure about the corn, so I harvested the ones that looked like they might be ripe – a whole three of them. 😄 After shucking them, I found two of them were still immature. Ah, well.

There were a few more Carminat beans and Dalvay peas ready to pick, and then I decided to see how the Uzbek Golden Carrots were doing. I ended up harvesting the rest of the row I’d started on earlier, except for a couple that looked really small. The other row has the carrots going to seed in it, and I’m going to let them. Carrot seeds don’t last very long, so fresh seed would be good, even though I still have lots. I ended up using some of the peas, beans and carrots in my breakfast, along with one of the cobs of corn I cooked separately and left for other family members to try. My younger daughter doesn’t like to eat corn on the cob because it gets in her teeth, so having just two left works out.

The G Star pattypan squash has squash large enough to harvest – just a couple – but I’m leaving them to get bigger. Another of the 4 plants was blooming this morning, with both male and female flowers, so I made sure to hand pollinate. I also found a new female flower on the Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon to hand pollinate. As for the winter squash, I went through them and took out the squash that were clearly starting to shrivel up. There do seem to be some new Turks Turban squash forming, though, which is neat. We seem to be getting the most of those ones – potentially. It all depends on if the weather holds, and we’re already reaching the middle of August! There’s basically just 3 weeks or so left in our growing season, based on our average last frost date. Not a lot of time for winter squash to grow!

Ah, well. We do what we can, right?

For now, I’m just happy with the little harvests we are managing to get this year.

The Re-Farmer

They work!

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It’s just past 4 am as I write this.  The girls and I just got back from checking out the meteor shower.

More on that in a separate post, but we discovered something else.

The solar powered lights work!

I’m so glad to see this!  I was ready to take them off, later today, and send them back.

They are si bright.  I think I will change to one of the other modes that are not quite so blinding.

I can definitely see getting more of these for other areas, in the future.  Being able to install the solar panels away from the lights makes them very useful!

The Re-Farmer