Today was a remarkably warm day for October – we hit 22C/72F this afternoon! We are expecting a thunderstorm this evening, now, while other areas to the West are already getting snow, and north of us is still getting blizzard predictions. Tomorrow is supposed to reach 15C/59F as the high. Things are expected to drop significantly after that, with highs barely above freezing, and lows consistently below freezing.
Which means we are running out of time.
My daughters and I have gone over a list of things that need to be done over the next few days. Most of which, I am banned from doing.
There were a few things, however, that I could help with.
This afternoon, I gathered most of the hoop kit pieces, tomato trellis supports that the muskmelons were trained up, and other things gathered. To make things easier on my body, I set it all into the wagon, then set myself up on a seat near the floating bench I’ve been collecting everything at, until they can go into the old garden shed for the winter.
Then I sat on the rolling garden seat to start sorting and bundling.
The hoop kit on the left is the first one I got. It has the plastic connectors and the rods are slightly shorter and thinner. The plastic connectors bend under stress, so I won’t get that kit again.
The one in the middle has slightly longer, thicker rods and metal connectors. I liked that one so much, I got a second one and plan to eventually get a third. They’re just that handy. With that kit, we still have them supporting the netting at the chain link fence. I was not planning to take those down, yet. Partly, the net needs two people to be removed, folded, rolled up and put away, and I can’t be one of them. The other reason is, those rods and the net are the only thing that has kept the Mammoth sunflowers from being completely blown over by high winds.
So those will wait.
I bundled the rods into 10s, and did the same with the ground staples, with some still loose because there are more to gather and bundle, along with sorting and bundling other supports I took out.
In the garden, there is just some netting left that needs to be taken down, as far as materials go. Once we’ve got all the stuff gathered, sorted, bundled, etc., my daughter plans to re-organize the old garden shed for more efficient storage.
One of the things she was able to do today was clean, then set, the rigid insulation back around the base of the house for the winter, and secure them from being blown away. Now that the insulation is set up under the kitchen window, the cat isolation shelter can be moved onto the patio for the winter. It needs the bottom level to be cleaned up – the litter box under there got tipped over recently – straw added, two fresh litter boxes set up, and the vinyl wrapped about the bottom again, to keep the wind out. Then the heat lamp and the extension cord for the lamp and the heated water bowl will be set up.
At some point, we need to add better wheels to that thing. It is amazingly heavy, and the small wheels – all I could afford at the time – sink right into the soil. It takes two people to move it over the grass. For the summer, I set pieces of floor tile under the wheels, thick enough (hopefully) that it didn’t sink too much. We definitely need to get wider, heavier duty wheels under there. For now, once it’s on the patio blocks, it moves a lot more easily.
At the same time, I’ve contacted the rescue about Shrine Kitten. My daughter thinks she can get her into a carrier, during the morning feeding, but we can’t do anything else. Someone is being contacted to book a spay appointment and, once we have a date to work around, someone is going to come out here to pick her up before the appointment for her fast, and then we expect her to come back for here recovery. As much as I would love for her to be fostered and adopted out, all the rescues are closed for intakes right now. We expect her to come back, and want to have the isolation shelter moved and ready for her 2 weeks of recovery and observation.
It isn’t much, but it did feel good to get some stuff outside done. While I spent most of the time sitting, I did reach my limit for bending and stretching, I think. Or close to it. No pain, though, which is important. Just tired.
Little by little, it’s getting done.
The Re-Farmer
