I just got back from my evening rounds, and was able to bring in a little bit of a harvest!
We have our first beans of the year! The purple Carminat and the green Seychelle pole beans. The one San Marzano tomato I’ve been keeping an eye on was looking ripe, and when I touched it, it fell off the vine on its own. I was even able to grab a small handful of Dalvay shelling peas.
I honestly didn’t think we’d get beans this year, with how much they’ve struggled.
I’m so happy!
The Re-Farmer
In the city we lived in before moving here, there were bottle depots all over. Anything that you paid an enviro fee on at the grocery store could be brought over, and you’d get the money back.
So we were in the habit of keeping our recycling organized and kept it up.
Then we discovered there are no bottle depots here. In the years we were living in other provinces, we sort of expected they would have them by now.
Since we need to go to the landfill anyhow, and they have recycling stations, we started sorting things differently. Glass is separate. All other recycling goes together. They even have signs at the landfill bins saying not to sort the recycling!
But we just don’t do it with the aluminum. I know most of the stuff that goes for recycling is more of a problem than just using the landfill, but with metal, that’s something different.
So we’ve been keeping our aluminum separate, but not taking them to the landfill. We’ve been storing them in the garage where my mother’s car is parked.
Unfortunately, since there are so many cat food cans in there, critters get into them. We also started running out of space, and were starting to store the bags outside the back door of the garage.
We now have a scrap company that is going to come by when they are in the area. They weigh things on site, so you know exactly what you’ll get for the metal. They take all scrap metal, old appliances, batteries, etc., but aluminum is priced differently.
We don’t know when they’ll be in the area next, but the last time the guy called, it was to come by the same day, and we just weren’t ready for that – plus, I was taking my mother to a medical appointment that day.
Meanwhile, even if they did come out, not only did the critters get into the bags again, but my mother’s car can’t be moved right now – and not just because of all the cans that ended up under the front end!
So when I found out my brother was coming out today, I headed out early to open the gate for him, then my younger daughter and I got to work on the aluminum, picking up all the loose pieces and rebagging those with torn bags. As we filled new bags, or found still intact bags, they got moved to a spot outside of the garage, where they would be easy to collect.
The garage in front of my mother’s car looks so much better now!
We did, however, find some very old cans of paint that were intended for the dump (they have an area set side just for old paint cans), but they got buried. These were cans we’d found in the basement, and some of them were leaking.
They’ve been moved into a plastic garbage can for now. The next time we go to the dump, we need to remember to grab it. The smell is so strong right now!
We got that done and I had time to grab a late breakfast. I was just finishing it when my brother and SIL arrived. It was a long, slow drive for them. The truck was heavily loaded, and they were hauling a bailer!
Some of the stuff they brought went to the barn for storage. They are planning ahead for my brother’s retirement, so they’re going to be bringing stuff here to the farm to store.
Including equipment.
Like their smaller lawn tractor.
That was brought over in case they needed to mow a spot for the baler. That’s not going to happen, though. The high area they plan to use is too overgrown.
They do have a mower attachment for a tractor that can clear it all, so they’ll be bringing a tractor and mower out next.
!!!
Oh, and the lawn tractor? I thought they were going to take it back, but nope. They left it here for use to use!
Yes, I did lawn mowing already, today! 😄
For now, the baler is stored next to the bags of aluminum. My brother and I went walking around so I could point out to him the various low areas we’ve discovered since moving here, and the few high areas that can be used to store equipment.
The grass where we went through is almost as tall as me in places!
My brother isn’t going to be haying and baling their acreage anymore, so they’ve been using the tractor mower to keep it under control; if it’s not cut, it makes growing conditions worse. That’s the situation we’re going to find when the overgrown areas are finally cleared. At ground level, the grass is going to be sparse and mostly dead.
It’s a shame we couldn’t borrow a few cows! 😁
So my day started very early, and we got lots of work done.
I’ll be heading back out again to do more painting, then get back to mowing!
We’re going to have to figure out how to fit it in the garage where we store our lawn and snow equipment. It’s getting pretty full in there, and it’s mostly stuff that needs repair!
The problem is, I’ve been up pretty much since sunrise and hadn’t gone to bed until around midnight, so I am ready for a nap! 😄
Okay, time to get back to work. Just a bit of painting, the the fun of mowing the lawn with a lovely little lawn tractor!
My brother is the best.
The Re-Farmer
I got a giggle out of one of the fluffy kittens.
We’ve set up a pair of water bowls in the shade of the kibble house. They are heated water bowls, but the larger one stopped working this past winter. The smaller one still works. The kittens like to drink out of the larger one, even though it’s harder for them to reach. This is the first time I’ve seen one use the larger one to drink out of the smaller one!
What it was actually doing was dipping its paw into the water, then licking the water off its paw.
Adorable.
One thing that was not adorable, though, was the state of a white and black kitten. I was able to picked it up and hold it, and could see its eyes were really leaky, with one swollen shut. It was dripping with puss! Poor thing. My daughter brought out a cloth wet with hot water to wash its eyes as I held it, then tried to clear its nose, too. We’ll have to watch for this one to clean its eyes out regularly – if it will let us! Thankfully, it is one that lets us pet it sometimes.
Once that isolation shelter is built, it could also be used to house sick babies so we can provide treatment, too!
Gotta get back at that!
The Re-Farmer
I’m skipping the progress shots for the squash and melons, since I’ve got a video to show, instead! I hope you enjoy it.
Let me know if you have any issues watching it – and do feel free to watch it over on YouTube and hit that “like” button – but only if you really like it!
The Re-Farmer
When I first started thinking about the plans for a smaller isolation shelter, one thing I did not think about was painting it. That’s always been something we dealt with after the build. Paint, however, is going to be needed, to protect the wood and keep it from rotting too quickly. This is especially important, considering that I’m using salvaged wood that already had damage to it.
Given that this build is going to have a lot of stuff going on on the inside, I decided it would be much easier to paint the parts and pieces before assembly, rather than trying to reach inside to do it.
In going through our leftover paint, the can that felt like it had a decent amount in it was the peacock blue used on the floating benches (benches built on tree stumps that aren’t painted, so they’ll look like they’re floating when things grow back under them) and the folding table we cobbled together. The can of red seemed to have some weight to it, plus I also found a quarter can of white that was used to make our sign for those trying to find our address that doesn’t exist on any online maps.
I know we’ll need a decent amount of paint, so why not mix them together? They are all water based exterior paints, so mixing them would work fine.
I started off by setting up the frame pieces that are already cut.
They all needed a bit of a cleaning of dust, dirt and debris, first. Once that was done, I opened the cans to see what we had.
The blue was about half full, but there wasn’t much left of the red or the white.
I had a very pleasant surprise once they were all mixed together. I really like the resulting colour! When it’s time to buy more, which I expect to need to do before the project is done, I definitely want to colour match this!
I had looked for paint rollers and trays, and I did find the roller frames and a tray, but no rollers. I know we have some. I even remember finding one still in its package. Where they ended up, I have no idea.
So, paint brush it was.
With the frame pieces, they were pushed close together so the tops could be painted all at once. The cut ends were done, and part of exposed sides of the row, but that’s it. After they were painted, I spread them out for air circulation as they dried.
I really like that colour!
Once that was done, it was time to put the wheels on the pallet.
My original plan had been to cut away part of the slats at each corner, so the wheels could be attached to the solid wood below. They were far too damaged to bother, though. These pallets were used by the roofers. While they were working, I have a fire going to burn the branches and wood that were too big for the commercial wood chipper used when we got the branch pile cleaned out, a couple of years ago. It was cold and snowing while the roofers were working, and they would sometimes go to the fire to warm themselves. When they were done, they tossed the pallets to the still-hot ashes. So what you’re seeing on the bottom of the pallet is ashes and a bit of scorching. The pieces at each long end got the most damage, so it was easier to just break them off and pull the nails. The slats were so cracked, it was easy to break them off by hand!
The ends were also a bit too damaged, so when I used the wheels to mark off where the pilot holes needed to be drilled, I butted them up against the next slats in.
Then I had to dig through our collection of wood screws to find ones suitable to attach the wheels. The ones I’d already brought to the garage were for attaching the frame pieces together, so there are a lot of really long screws, but no shorter ones. After digging around in the sun room, among the boxes of screws that cats hadn’t managed to spill all over the floor, yet, I found some that would do. Thanks to the new cordless drill and driver set, and the set of driver tips my husband got me for Mother’s Day, attaching the wheels took almost no time at all!
My husband is such a sweetheart.
Once the wheels were on, it was time to flip the pallet over and test them out.
Oh, they are going to make moving this thing SO easy!! They might have some trouble going through the grass in the yard, but that should be manageable. I love that they all rotate 360°, too.
That done, the top got brushed clean, and it was time to paint!
Have I mentioned, I love that colour?
I plan to do just one coat of paint, and will not be painting the underside. I did make sure all the edges were well coated, though.
Once that was done, I went and took garden tour video, then checked on the frame pieces. They were still too wet to flip, so the other sides will be done tomorrow, then the edges. In between painting, I’ll be measuring out and cutting other pieces, so by the time those are painted and dry on all sides, I’ll have more cut pieces ready to paint.
So that is progress on the cat isolation shelter, so far.
Next, I need to work on the garden tour video.
Oh, I’ve just been getting messages from my brother. They’ll be coming over tomorrow, early in the morning, to bring stuff to store in the barn. They do know we haven’t been able to mow a path to the barn, but I hadn’t told him yet that we have no working lawn mowers at all. He knows, now. They won’t be staying long or making much of a visit. My SIL is allergic to cats, so they can’t come into the house, really.
I’m looking forward to seeing them! That will be a great start to the day!
The Re-Farmer
Well, it finally happened! Almost half way into August.
The first female flowers have shown up on the green and yellow zucchini plants.
Whether or not they’ll be properly pollinated and actually form zucchini, we have yet to see. In fact, one of the green zucchini flower buds already looks like it’s going to whither away, as it’s more yellow than green.
I was talking to my mother on the phone last night. After telling me about all the wonderful things about my sister’s garden, she asked me about mine. I know better than to believe she’s actually interested – she does this as an opening to find ways to make sure I know what a failure she thinks I am. Still, I told her about how we planted so many squash and melons, we didn’t have room to plant things like the lettuce my sister brings her, or cucumbers, etc. I even told her about the squash we ended up having to harvest because it broke its own stem.
As we were talking, she started say, in a disapproving tone, how she never grew “quash”, that was something she never did. Meanwhile, she’d already told me about how she used to have so much zucchini. I told her, yes, you did grow squash. Zucchini is squash. She didn’t grow winter squash (though, now that I write this, I think she did eventually grow spaghetti squash at some point), but she did grow summer squash. Then I reminded her of the year she let the zucchini get big, and we had so many giant zucchini harvested, when we stacked them against the wall in the basement, they covered the entire wall in the corner. She laughed as she remembered. As a child, I remember that year very well. We had so many giant zucchini, we eve used some to make Jack O Lanterns that Halloween!
As we talked a bit more about the garden, I mentioned that I had to find a way to support the corn because gusts of wind had blown them flat. She started saying how I’ve had sooo many problems with the garden. Which is sort of true, but I reminded her, she had problems with her garden, too. Did I? she asked, sounding shocked. I told her, she had things fail, too (in fact, some of the times I’ve mentioned a thing that didn’t grow for us, she dismissed it by saying, “oh, that happens sometimes… I’ve had that too…”), and then there were the potato beetles.
Oh, the potato beetles!
I remember, year after year, picking off potato beetles!
My parents grew a LOT of potatoes. Enough to last the winter with 7 of us, plus have enough left to plant in the spring. The potato beetles were absolutely brutal. Some years, my dad even went so far as to buy poison to dust onto the plants to save them, because there were too many for us to be able to pick them off.
Funny. When I mentioned the potato beetles, my mother just laughed – and changed the subject! 😄
Today we’re supposed to reach 24C/75F. As I write this, just past noon, we’re at 21C/70F, with the “real feel” at 25C/77F. I did end up watering the garden this morning, even though it’s not going to be exceptionally hot. Most of it, anyhow. We have so many things growing that need a lot of water. I’m not watering the garlic, though. Those are looking like we can finally start harvesting them. Maybe not today, but soon.
One thing I do want to do today is take some garden tour videos. It’s a bit early, but today is one month before our average first frost date, which is Sept. 10.
Yup. We technically have only 31 days left in our growing season.
I’m still holding out hope that we won’t get frost until later in September, but as I look at the long range forecast, I see it has changed again, and we’re looking at temperatures possibly dropping as low as 3C/37F, even before the 10th.
At the very least, we’ll need to be prepared to protect some things from frost. Most things, like the melons and squash, are just too large to cover, but we should be able to protect the high raised bed, the pepper and eggplant bed, and maybe some of the tomatoes, if it comes to that.
*sigh*
I look forward to when we have a greenhouse.
Meanwhile, I need to get back to working on the cat isolation shelter. The rescue has us booked for some September spays or neuters (depending on what cats we manage to trap), so we’re going to need it. I got nothing done yesterday. While on the call with my mother, I found myself feeling ready to fall asleep. After the call, I quickly finished the blog posts I was working on. I was falling asleep at my keyboard! Once done, I went for a nap, crashed for 3 hours, then woke up still feeling completely groggy and drained. So I made it a day of rest.
Not that I had much choice.
Today’s goal with the isolation shelter: painting and wheels. I’ve gone through our paint cans to see what we have left. Mostly, it’s the bright blue I used to paint the folding table and floating benches.
Hmmm… I should see what is left of the red paint. They are the same type of paint. Maybe I can combine what’s left. I like purple… 😄 It’ll be a while before I can buy more paint, so if I can stretch what we have, all the better. We’re not after winning any beauty contests here!
I’m thinking of painting the cut pieces before putting the shelter together, since it will be difficult to paint it once assembled. Especially on the inside. I plan to start painting one side of the cut frame pieces first, then putting the wheels on the base while the paint dries. Once the wheels are on, I plan to paint the base. By then, it might be long enough that I’ll be able to paint another side of the cut pieces. I know we have paint rollers and pans somewhere, so I’m hoping to use that and make the job get done faster.
Time to go digging around the basement to see if I can find some paint rollers and pans!
Or the sun room…
It’s really hard to keep track of the stuff that we found while cleaning up this place. 😁
The Re-Farmer
Hungry babies!
That’s Button in the background. I was able to pet the kitten in the foreground, while it was eating!
I put out more food in the mornings, since the raccoons are less likely to show up. Several skunks showed up, though!
There were also some late commers, including the mostly black cat that had such a messed up eye, months ago. The eye still looks off, but it seems to have healed up as much as it will, and he seems to still be able to see through it, fine. Thanks to the skunks, there was no kibble under the shrine, where the nervous cats usually eat, which means he had to slink his way over to the kibble house. I saw him eating in there later – with a skunk!
The little stinkers!
The Re-Farmer
Yesterday, the 2 pack of solar lights I ordered came in. I chose these ones specifically because the solar panels and the lights are separate. This way, I could put the lights inside the kibble and water bowl shelters, where it’s consistently in shade, and the solar panels could be installed on the roofs.
In the package were the two solar lights, with motion sensors. On the back (under the cable of the one that’s turned over, in the photo) is a mode button that is also an on/off switch.
Each solar panel comes with a generous length of cable. The lights and the panels use the same type of mount, held in place with a knob that also allows for the angles to be adjusted. They also came with the teeniest remote controls!
Before setting them up, I went through the instructions, which starts be saying to test them first. The solar panels are connected, but placed face down, then the mode button is pressed to turn on the lights and go through the modes. The batteries in the lights already had a charge in them, so they work without being connected, too.
After testing them, I set the first light up under the roof of the kibble house, while the second light was set up on the side of the water bowl house (which is reversed in the Instagram slideshow).
After mounting the solar panel on the corner of the kibble house roof, I ran the cable through the frame and wound it around one of the horizontal supports, to the light. There was still plenty of cable, which was bunched up and held with the twist tie they came with, and it could be tucked on top of a beam under the roof. No hangy bits for critters to catch on!
With the water bowl house, the cable runs along the side, held up in one spot by a hanger I found. There’s already a eye-hook that is supporting a power cord for the water bowl, so the solar panel cable is help up in two places, before the excessed was wrapped up.
The solar panels are shaded in the photo, but the roofs of the shelters all get full sun for most of the day, so that’s not an issue.
What is an issue is, they don’t work.
The lights work hust fine, on their own, but as soon as a solar panel is attached, they turn off. Like a switch. Cable on, light is off. Cable off, light turns on.
I have no idea why.
For now, I’ve left them as they are. I looked up where we got them from, but can’t find contact information (I could easily just be missing it). I ended up leaving a comment in the review section. I’ll see what happens from there. We have 30 days to return for a refund.
I would much rather have working lights, though!
For now, I’ll wait and see what sort of response I get. Otherwise, bye bye lights! We’ll try again, from a different supplier
I like the lights. They are doing the job! Right up until the solar panels are hooked up. They worked when I tested them, so I have no idea what went wrong!
The Re-Farmer
Just a little harvest this morning.
My apologies for the out of photo picture. 😢
On the left is our very first Purple Beauty pepper! The peppers on the right are the Dragonfly peppers.
It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing!
The Re-Farmer
Gosh, they’re adorable.
These for were all snuggled up in the cat bed, so I made sure to scatter some food near them. That way, they don’t have to fight off the grown up cats for kibble! A couple of the adult cats, both male and female, just don’t like the littles. Oddly, Shop Towel – who has been quite violent with some of the other cats – is excellent with the littles. Some nights, looking out the bathroom window, we can see him in the cat bed behind the kittens in the photo above, asleep and half buried in babies!
As for the four in the photo, while they were eating, I was able to pet three of them. The tabby on the right would not allow pets, but at least he/she didn’t run away!
The Re-Framer
The Re-Farmer 