Month: July 2026

Our 2026 Garden, and a general update

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We were expecting a very hot day today, so I was up early to water the garden thoroughly before things got too hot – even though we have rain in the forecast. Depending on which app I check, we’ll either get rain or thunderstorms. Just before I started writing this, our phones started going off with tornado warnings, but it looks like the system will be passing to the north of us. We might get some rain from the edges of it. We did hit 31C/88F today. As I write this, past 7pm, we are at 28C/82F right now, with the humidex making it feel like 30C/86F.

After I did the morning cat feeding (with some cats very confused by the early hour!) and garden watering, I went back to bed. I must have been really beat because I slept for about 3 hours, checked the time, then passed our for another 2 hours.

Unfortunately, today has turned out to be a bad pain day, and not just for me. My daughter somehow ended up getting a sun burn yesterday, even though she was in the shade most of the day. I’ve been getting so much sun since it got warm enough to work outside longer, I don’t get burned, though apparently I’m quite the redneck right now. 😄 Meanwhile, my other daughter has had increased health issues again. Her pre-op appointment in the city is a couple of Fridays from now – the day the bin my brother is renting is supposed to be delivered! My younger daughter will have to stay home so she can meet them and tell them where to drop the bin off.

Aside from the pain related to why I got those ultrasounds done, my left hip has decided to start working wrong again. Not a lot of pain there. The joint just isn’t moving right and wants to give out.

I am so thankful for all the arm bars and hand rails that were installed for my father, all those years ago!

Eventually, though, I did head outside. I had to use the walker for it, but I set up the new deer scarer my brother picked up for me.

I’ve set this one up by the corn, which is going to need the netting removed from it pretty soon. I set the other one up by the peas to keep the deer away with the sound of a dog barking. With this one, I expect raccoons to be more of an issue, and I set it to the ringing of a bell, since I think raccoons would get used to the sound of a dog barking very quickly.

Once that was set up, I wandered around and checked on various things. In the next image in the slide show above, you can see some chard leaves. These are planted between the garlic and are finally starting to grow! Still pretty much nothing on the spinach in the other row; what little germinated and survived promptly bolted. It does look like we will at least have some Swiss Chard for greens this year.

In the next image, we have a red nasturtium flower. The seeds I collected were from a package with a variety of colours in it, and so far we’ve had yellow and red. They are still quite small, but adding that straw mulch once they got big enough has really helped.

Next is the row of summer squash. Those are picking up quite nicely. The plan is to grow them vertically, but I’ll need to remove the netting to do that, and they still need that protection for now.

The last picture is of the fennel and chicory. They’ve had a bit of a growth spurt! Unfortunately, some of the fennel at the end of the bed got flattened. Stinky found his way under the netting and I found him lying there. I opened the netting up at the other end, so as not to spook him, then moved to scoot him in that direction. Instead, he panicked and started running into the netting over and over before I finally got him to go out the open end. *sigh* He didn’t do too much damage, at least. We added more rods to the hoops over the fennel and it’s getting so tall, it’s almost touching the top of the netting again!

We just got another tornado alert on our phones while I was writing the above paragraph. While that is passing to the north of us, our region and the entire south end of the province are currently under a severe thunderstorm watch this evening and overnight. The warning includes 4-6cm (about 1.5-2.5in) hail, 50-70mm (about 2-3in) of rain and wind gusts up to 100km/h (about 62m/h). For us, we’re to expect rain starting around 4am tonight and lasting until about 10am.

We are definitely not going to be hit with the worst of it, for which I am thankful, but my heart hurts for the people that have been slammed by these storms, over and over again.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: a harvest, some transplanting and direct sowing

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But first, the cuteness!

Colby is one of several cats that just love that garden bed cover. So adorable!

And yes, those are garlic scapes on the netting beside him. Those are from the few garlic that are growing in the wattle weave bed. More on that later.

Today was our first market day at the large animal rescue. My younger daughter and I loaded up the cab of the truck, then headed out to arrive at around 9:30. They are only a mile away from us, so it was a quick drive.

A couple of vendors were already setting up, with vehicles all backed up to the spots they were setting up in. After pulling the truck in, along the row of vehicles, I went into the large shelter where there is a gift shop, admission is paid, and a petting zoo.

They have three kittens; two orange and a grey tabby that were free ranging. They really, really enjoyed the attention they got from the vendors! The kittens will be available for adoption at the end of the season. I expect they will have a waiting list of people interested by then!

I found someone and got instructions on where we could set up and where to park the truck after we unloaded. It didn’t take long to get everything out, then I moved the truck. Thankfully, the splayed leg style of the canopy tent we have was not an issue. We set that up, then the table with a cloth over it, then my daughter and I set out price tags on my inventory and made the display look pretty.

Thankfully, there was a pleasant breeze, and we had our shade. A couple next to us just had an umbrella, and it kept getting blown over. We took turns checking out the other vendors – there was 7 of us altogether on this first market day. I was told more are expected next weekend.

It was extremely quiet, and most of us made zero sales. I bought things from two different vendors, and those were very close to being the only sales for all of us today! We had plenty of time to talk and get to learn about each other, which was nice. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized one of the vendors is the mother of the woman that runs the rescue. Which means she’s the mother of our mechanic and his younger brother that drove the tow truck (though not anymore; he’s moved on to somewhere else). Too funny that I keep meeting more and more members of this family We had a great chat.

We were super appreciative of the shade and the breeze, as we hit 26C/79F. Things shut down at three, but we didn’t start packing up right away. The truck would have blocked others from being able to get around to load up then leave.

I got quite a laugh when I finally did bring the truck over. The vendor next to use had finished loading and was in her car with her family, waiting patiently as I turned and backed up to our tent. Then I reached out the window to open the door, and one of the guys in the car with her started to laugh and opened his window to say, “you’ve got a broken handle, too?” Sure enough, one of their doors was missing the handle on the inside, and they have to open the window to reach out and pull the handle from the outside, too.

While we were there, we kept the family updated, and I started to hear from my brother. They have their grandsons with them and today they visited my mother. They even managed to get her outside to enjoy the sunshine in a park that is right alongside the nursing home property.

Just as we were finishing loading the truck, I got a message that they’d be swinging by the farm to drop off some stuff, including the second solar powered, motion sensor noise maker they ordered for me. They got here shortly after we did. We’re leaving the truck loaded, except for the box of the truck, as we wanted to be able to put the cover back. I was still outside when the arrived and I was able to chat with my SIL and the grandkids while my brother rushed to get things out of the back of their car and into their caravan. The mosquitoes and horseflies were insane, and he didn’t want them getting into the vehicle. I got the box with the noise maker – I told my SIL that I plant to set it up by the corn, in hopes it will keep the raccoons away. Raccoons are very good at decimating corn, just when they get ripe!

We also talked about where to set the bin they are having delivered to haul away junk. My SIL was telling me they’re feeling quite frustrated. They hadn’t knows they’ve had their grandsons with them for so long before they’d ordered the bin. They’re having a blast with the grandkids, but it means they can’t come here to do any of the stuff they had planned to in preparation for the bin. We talked about where it should be dropped off, as I’ll likely be the person meeting with the delivery people.

They were in a bit of a hurry, so when they were ready to leave, I went ahead to the gate to close it, so they wouldn’t have to stop. Then I went straight to working in the garden.

With the heat of the day, I wanted to do some watering, but first I wanted to do some transplanting.

There were two that I decided to try and transplant. The largest, in the first image of the slide show above, is a Golden Hubbard squash, while the smaller one is a Gille’s Golden Pippin. They both got planted in empty spots in the bed along the chain link fence. Then I started watering everything out of the rain barrel.

As I started on the East yard beds, I remember I’d bought some fresh bush bean seeds (actually, my daughter bought it, along with the other groceries we picked up the other day). The square garden bed is down to four surviving plants!

The Arikara Squash on the middle is looking good! Big enough that I removed the protective collar.

I picked the Gold Rush variety to plant this time. I just wanted a yellow variety, as they are easier to see. Hopefully, these will back it. I have remarkably few bean plants this year!

That done, I continued watering in the main garden area with the hose. I’d picked the few garlic scapes that were on the wattle weave garlic They were much smaller than the ones in the main garden area with a hose.

While watering, I noticed the pods on the Spring Blush pea were looking very good. After i finished watering, I checked them out, then very carefully removed several.

Along with the scapes, I was concerned about the next bed. The red noodle beds are looking like they are doing what they did last year; growing just a few inches, then nothing. I harvested some of the largest turnips, as the greens are getting big enough to shade out the sun.

The turnips were pretty small, but the leaves where useful – and they are edible so we at least have that!

Not too bad for a first harvest. There are the turnips, scapes, Spring Blush peas, and a handful of herbs. Oregano, lemon balm and sage.

They made a nice addition to supper this evening.

Tomorrow morning, I plan to be back to watering the garden earlier in the day, before the heat hit. We are expecting the heat to potentially get up to 32C/90F tomorrow. Nowhere near as bad as other areas, but still not something anyone should be working in, if they can avoid it!

So… in the end, I would call today successful, even though nothing was sold. All the vendors were talking about coming back next weekend. It should be fun, and there should be more people.

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Sweetie is back!!!

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Most of today went to plan.

This morning, my younger daughter and I headed into town. Our first stop was to visit my mother which… went as well as can be with her, I suppose. She did try to launch into how my brother basically needs to be her slave because she “gave” him “two farms” (the remaining two quarter sections of the family farm) but now he does nothing for her. Which is so completely opposite of reality it’s mind blowing. Then she tried to say that she “gave” us a “roof over our heads”, as if we owed her something, and I had to remind her that we had an arrangement (and she definitely got the better end of the deal, we learned after we moved out here). She actually asked me, what arrangement? *sigh*

After the visit, we made several stops along the way. I picked up a few things for tomorrow’s market and a float, while my daughter picked up prescription refills for herself and her sister. Then she got us some food. It was past 1pm by then, but it was breakfast for her, and lunch for me. We made one more quick stop at the grocery store, which she also paid for, then a bit of gas before heading home. Just in time for the rain to hit.

By the time we were done in the grocery store, my pain was back and I was having difficulty standing. As soon as I could, I made use of the topical pain killer, though it took quite a long time to kick in. I remembered to call the pharmacy about getting the prescription for that extended. I don’t have any refills on this. I’m not out, by my doctor is going to be away for 2 weeks, making today the last day that the pharmacy can fax in for the extension before she’s gone. If this keeps up, I might run out before she gets back, so I wanted to make sure I could get a refill, if needed.

I was having difficulty staying upright, whether sitting or standing, so I asked my daughters to take care of the outside cat feeding again. After a while, though, I did have to get outside. My younger daughter helped me get the outside folding table I’ll be using at the market cleaned up and in the box of the truck. It’s longer than the box of the truck, so we had to roll up the cover so we could lean it on the tail gate, and my daughter crawled in to strap it down securely. Everything else can go into the cab.

Once that was done, I brought out my inventory to check on it and get things ready in the cat free zone, to load into the truck in the morning. I won’t be using grid wall to hang things, so I’ll be finding other ways to display the wearables.

It was still a while longer before the pain went away, and I wanted to go outside for a walk to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise, since I did no yard work or gardening today. As I did, I noticed that all the kibble trays were empty. My daughter had fed the cats, which means the skunks and raccoons had already cleaned up the remains. It seemed that some of the cats hadn’t had any and were hungry, so I got out some more kibble.

Which is when I spotted her.

Sweetie came back!

I first spotted her behind the isolation shelter. I zoomed as I took pictures, then looked back at older photos to confirm that it was her. She has a distinct dark patch on her nose.

While she was back there, I skirted around her to put kibble in the trays in the catio and under the shrine before going the isolation shelter, just so I wouldn’t startle her. she didn’t run away – but then Bobert came along. I was heading back to the house when I started hearing scrambling and growling. Bobert had gone after her and chased her up a tree!

I got him to scoot away, but I couldn’t see her. I decided that I would make up some cat soup to try and lure her back. I made more than usual with the freeze dried mix and made sure to pour some into trays in the sun room, first, to lure the other cats in. Otherwise, the super friendly cats like Havarti and Curtis push their way into the isolation shelter for pets, while others like The Grink go in to eat up the cat soup. I wanted Sweetie to have a chance!

While I was coming over with the cat soup bowl, I heard scrabbling noises and saw Sweetie coming down the tree. I put some cat soup in the two food bowls under the shrine, and that was what she went for.

She still looks nervous, but not anywhere near as terrified as she looked when she first came back. I made sure to give her space, but I also didn’t stay too far away, and she still came down. She was clearly hungry and willing to go for the food even though I was still relatively close.

I’d had messages from the rescue chat earlier in the day and I was honest in saying that I was starting to lose hope. I made sure to send photos to the chat right away. Everyone is so relieved and happy she is back!!!

Now we have our work cut out for us, to slowly get her to trust us and know that it is safe for her to come closer to the house for food and shelter, rather than hiding wherever she was hiding in the outer yard.

It is so good to see her coming back and eating!!!

Now, we just have to make sure cats like Bobert will leave her alone!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: flowers, tomatoes and strawberries

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Today turned out to be a bad pain day, so I didn’t get much accomplished. I did my morning rounds, as usual, but as the day wore on, things just kept getting worse – and I was mostly just sitting at my computer, crocheting some new items for the market on Saturday, not attempting anything active or physical!

I did remember to call my doctor’s office to make a telephone appointment to go over my ultrasound results. It turns out the doctor is leaving for holidays for 2 weeks, so I wasn’t able to book it until the 20th. The fact that the clinic hasn’t contacted me for an appointment by now means either 1) nothing showed up in the ultrasounds or 2) the doctor hasn’t seen the results yet. All I can say is, there is something wrong and it causes problems that fluctuate in severity.

It was bad enough that I asked my daughters to take over the evening feeding of the outside cats (still no sign of Sweetie). One of the things on our to-do list was to pick up prescription refills for both my daughters, but in the end I asked them to call them in for pick up tomorrow, because I wasn’t up to the trip into town. I have a couple of other places to go at well, and I really should visit my mother, too.

Thankfully, by around 7pm I was feeling well enough that I could go outside to walk around and get some fresh air with my younger daughter – until the mosquitoes drove us inside. We decided to give the last few garlic scapes another day before a final harvest, but I also spotted a couple of firsts, today.

Our very first nasturtium flower has emerged. These were direct sown using seeds we saved from last year. All the flowers in that bed are doing much better, now that they have a straw mulch around them.

In the next photo of the slide show above, I have a couple of Albion Everbearing strawberries. I’m not expecting much from these at all this year, so it’s nice to see at least a few strawberries developing.

It was while I was walking with my daughter in the early evening that we spotted our first tomato! (Which you can see in the next image.) I hadn’t even noticed any flowers, but we have one Manitoba tomato plant with a few flowers and a developing fruit. With the weather we’ve been having, the tomatoes aren’t actually growing much, so seeing this was a nice surprise.

The last image isn’t a first, but more of a last – the last of the flowering bushes. The mock orange has just exploded in blooms! It is definitely liking the weather we’ve been having.

The sad thing is, we’re going to have to move it at some point. My mother planted it against the laundry platform, and it’s in the way when we try to hang things. Not that we’ve been able to use the clothes lines much this year, but it is something we want to use as often as possible in the summer. The other thing is, we’re going to have to do some maintenance on the platform itself, including lifting it and replacing rotting wood. It needs to be on bricks or blocks or something, so that it no longer has direct contact with the soil. I suspect it has actually sunk into the ground a fair bit. The bottom step is almost lower than the patio block that is butted up against it, and is quite rotten. Some of the boards on the floor of the platform need to be either replaced or reinforced. To do that, we need to access the platform from all sides, and the south side is completely covered by the mock orange. So, it will need to be transplanted at some point.

I’ve just been watching the Gardening in Canada video released today, and it was interesting to hear her comment about the super El NiÅ„o we’re supposed to be getting this year. It depends on where you live, of course, but she talks a bit about how it will mean a cold, wet summer, and a long hot fall. Something to consider, when it comes to planting in July.

Right now, I’m thinking of re-sowing bush beans in the square raised bed. Only a few of the seeds I planted have come up, and a few of those look like they got munched by insects. The seeds I used are older, so I’m not surprised by the low germination rate. I’ve also got more seeds germinating in that tray of winter squash and melons! If we really do get a long, mild fall, they might actually have a chance to reach full maturity. Either way, I plan to give them a chance. I’m also looking to plant spinach again – we have yet to have any spinach or chard succeed this year, though we do have a few new seedlings right now – and more peas.

It’s going to be a strange growing year.

The Re-Farmer

Scapes, peas and a huge step

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Today was another day of off and on rain, though more off than on, thankfully. The last storm did a lot of damage in areas, including at least one tornado touching down at the edge of the city. We have much to be thankful for.

While doing my rounds this morning, I was able to harvest some more scapes. The largest one yet, which you can see in the first to images in the slide show below. There will be only one more small harvest after this, unless I find some I missed. The girls and I have already talked about dehydrating whatever we won’t use fresh, and my plan to grind the dehydrated pieced into powder, and that should get started soon.

While checking the old kitchen garden, I can’t help but be amused by the dwarf peas. They are incredibly tiny – I don’t know how big they are supposed to get, but I’m sure it’s supposed to be a lot bigger than these! – and yet they are producing pods! You can see some of them in the last image of the slide show above. The plants themselves are less than 6 inches high.

I’m glad I planted other peas, and am thinking of where I can succession sow more in the next little while. The Spring Blush peas are producing pods, too, and the super sugar snap peas I sowed not long ago are growing nicely. One more succession sowing would not go amiss.

Today is Canada Day, and it was a big deal for us for a change. It has been so long since all four of us went out together! It meant clearing out the back of the cab so we could put down the rear seats in the truck. I was able to put our emergency supplies in the box, along with the cane collection and other items, and secure it all on one side, so there would be room for my husband’s walker on the other.

We went to the cottage of my husband’s brother, in a little town on the lake. Talking to my SIL about how I don’t think we’d ever been there before, and she was pretty sure we did – though it would have been about 25 years ago! As an added bonus, their adult children were able to join us, as did my husband’s sister and her significant other. It has been so long!

We had a fantastic visit. Their cottage is very close to the lake, and the girls and I had a chance to walk to the pier, finding it had a set of steps to the shoreline.

The views from above the water level were gorgeous.

The area has a lot of large rocks set in place to reduce erosion, but there are a few tiny beaches in this area of the lake.

My BIL BBQd, though he had to check on the meat with an umbrella a few times when it started to pour rain. We had a great meal and great company, with lots of catching up to do. Thankfully, my husband thought to bring his “as needed” painkillers, though, as that’s the only reason we were able to stay for about 5 hours, plus driving time of about an hour in total. My husband usually can only manage about 2 hours, including driving time.

We had made sure to feed the cats before we left. When we got home and the girls helped get my husband inside, I stayed out to do my evening rounds. The outside cats were acting really hungry, even though some of the outside kibble dishes still had food in them. I topped up the empty ones, and they were still running around, like they were expecting more.

They were waiting for the cat soup I’ve been making with the freeze dried cat food and cat milk included with the hot water.

So I made some up for them. I’ve been making more than I had been, before, and pouring it around more food dishes besides the one in the isolation shelter.

No sign of Sweetie anywhere. I feel so sad for her! I hope she finds her way back, even if she does remain feral. She must be so scared.

The inside cats were also swarming around and I figured they wanted their wet cat food, too, even though they still had plenty of kibble. I decided to make them some cat soup with the freeze dried mix, too. They keep trying to dig into the boxes to get at the bags inside, so you’d think they’d be happy with that.

Nope.

They sniff at it. I sometimes see a cat taking a few licks, and that’s it.

If the cat soup is still there in the morning, I’ll just take the trays outside. The outside cats can’t get enough of the stuff. They’ll finish it off right away!

The inside cats are so spoiled that they can be fussy like that! 😄

Anyhow.

Tomorrow, it looks like we’ve got a rain free day. We should be able to get the corded electric chain saw out to clean up that big piece of maple tree that broke in the storm, It’s going to be cut to lengths for the fire pit. Maple is an excellent wood for cooking over. We’ll also need to go around the yard with the wagon or the wheelbarrow to pick up all the smaller branches that came down with the storms and high winds, before we can mow the lawns.

I’ve also got the first market day coming up soon, so I want to prepare for that, too. I wasn’t able to find the straight legged canopy/market tent, but we do have a splay legged one, so that’s what I’ll be using. I’ve also been crocheting small things to add to my inventory from when we used to do the markets every summer, back in the day. It should be interesting to see how the market goes. If it goes well, the large animal rescue will extend the market dates into August, too.

All in all, I’d say this is the best Canada Day we’ve had in a long time, simply because the entire family was able to get out, and my husband was able to see both is brother and sister again.

Being broken sucks, but when there are good days, we sure to appreciate them more for it!

The Re-Farmer