I headed out to do some weeding and prep in the main garden area. Just to get the beds ready for planting, and for adding more permanent walls around the low raised beds.
Of course, things turned out to be more than I expected, so I decided to set up the tripod for a future video. Here is a preview.
The plan is to have the beds in uniform sizes in this area, to match the trellis tunnel beds that will also be added. We don’t have a lot of time left to prep before things need to get into the ground, so we need to shift focus to getting these existing beds ready.
Part of the problem with the existing beds is that they are bordered by shorter chunks of logs, just laying on the ground. They don’t do a very good job of keeping the soil in place, and some of them get knocked out of position more easily. Plus, the crab grass rhizomes just grow right under them.
What we’re working towards is beds that are 4′ wide from the outside, with 4′ paths in between. They will also all be 18′ long, so each bed could fit a pair of the 9′ x 3′ covers we’ve been making (taking into account the width of the logs, the growing space will be closer to 3′.
Using the high raised bed as the starting point, I marked out the 4′ distances for the paths and the beds.
You’ll notice that the markers don’t line up with the existing beds. We never measured anything when we laid those down. To get the sizes and distances we are after, they will all need to be shifted over. Some more than others.
The photo above, however, was taken before I realized my mistake when I first started measuring them out.
My brain was thinking about using those covers on them.
The 9′ x 3′ covers. The ones made to fit over 9′ x 3′ beds built out of 1″ x 6″ boards, so they fit exactly right.
I had marked the rows at 4′, but the beds at 3′.
Thankfully, I caught my mistake early enough and reset them all 4′ apart.
At the far end, I only marked out the two beds closest to the high raised bed. Which required digging out some rocks, so I could push the markers into the ground. Since the high raised bed is shorter, I used the end of the first trellis bed as my guide. It doesn’t have to be exact. Just within an inch or so.
I got most of the bed with the Red Wethersfield onions in it done – I was originally going to just weed that one, but when I saw how much things needed to be shifted, I decided to transplant the onions and get it done right from the start. I paused for a break when I was working at the far end – the one closest to that row of trees – when I started breaking new ground, and hitting larger roots and more rocks.
So I paused to take a break, transplanting the onions I pulled out, into the first trellis bed.
Then it started raining.
So I too a longer break!
My daughter, meanwhile, has headed out to process logs for the beds. If we get them framed just one log deep this year, that will do. We can add more logs to make them higher after that, but we really need to get them ready for planting. Something that it taking far longer than it should!
I won’t be able to work in it tomorrow, since I’ll be helping my mother with shopping, so I’ll head back out in between the rain to keep at it. It’s not supposed to start raining hard until 7pm, so I should get at least a couple more hours in.
But first… food. It’s 2pm as I write this, and I forgot to have lunch!
I knew we would need to pick up some more kibble before the end of the month, so I took advantage of today being a rainy day to make the run to the nearest Walmart. It’s worth the gas to drive that far, if we need to get enough stuff.
Which is saying something, since it costs roughly $30 in gas to drive there and back – and this is the closer Walmart in the smaller city!
I got a whole 13 individual items, and it came out to over $100. *sigh*
The “extras” I got were a drink for the ride home, a couple of containers of gum to keep in the truck, and a mini garden claw to make life easier on my arthritic hands.
The two bags of kibble were the 9.1kg size; they didn’t have any of the 11kg bags in stock again. The distilled water my husband needs for his CPAP humidifier has gone down in price, and I got 4 of those, plus a couple of 2 for $11 blocks of cheese. I also got a 10lb bag of potatoes; the first we’ve bought since having our own potatoes.
That’s it. The whole shopping trip – and the grand total, after taxes, was $104.54.
The disturbing thing is, even with the cost of gas, I still saved money by driving further to get this stuff, and even then, that’s only because our province has temporarily held back a gas tax to keep prices lower for now, so we’ve got some of the lowest gas prices in the country. Once they stop doing that, the cost of gas for a trip like this would be higher than anything saved by making such a trip, except that once the gas prices go up again, so will the cost of everything else.
Very disheartening. Especially knowing that it’s all due to our federal government’s actions. Aside from the taxes on top of taxes, the value of our dollar keeps dropping. At least we can still afford to buy this stuff, for now. The local food banks are really struggling to meet the increased needs, and I’m starting to see ads asking for donations for what is basically a pet food bank, so people won’t be forced to surrender their pets.
Yes, we can grow our own food, to a certain extent, and we can work towards keeping small livestock. Our goals include being able to produce our own animal feed as much as possible, too, but of the stuff on this list, the only thing we can do ourselves right now is grow potatoes. Meanwhile, I’m already hearing proposals about how home gardeners should be registered with the government, or even prevented from gardening at all because, “climate change”, thanks to that laughable “study” that found home gardening was worse for the environment than large scale (government approved, of course) agriculture – along with wanting to end the beef industry and, eventually, all meat production, for the same reason. But hey, there’s a cricket farm for human consumption in the city, and it’s been ramping up production!
🙄🫤
I must say, I’m really glad to be living in the boonies in these times.
We had rain all night, with a foggy morning. We’re supposed to get possible showers this afternoon, with thunderstorm warnings for the night, and roughly the same tomorrow. Hopefully, this rain is reaching the fires to the north of us in adequate amounts. Currently, we’ve got 5 forest fires burning, with 2 still listed as out of control. That’s actually down two fires from when I checked, yesterday.
With the overcast morning, it was a perfect day to set the transplants outside to begin hardening off. Just a couple more weeks, and we can start transplanting them into the garden.
While I took out the trays in the sun room, my daughter brought the last of the trays that were in the mini greenhouse frame in the living room. As of now, the only things left in the house are three pots in the aquarium greenhouse; one Zucca melon that’s finally breaking the surface and one Pixie melon. There’s a second Pixie melon that has yet to emerge. The seeds that were left for pre-germination, however, have shown no progress. The Zucca seeds will be going into the compost, as they are starting to show signs of mold, but the three remaining Pixie melons look completely unchanged.
Most of our trays of transplants fit on the folding table we made, while a few went onto the set up we made above the seat of the laundry platform. A handy spot, though I always feel nervous going up those steps while carrying trays of plants. I’m never quite sure my knees won’t just give out at some point. Stairs and I do not get along, at all! 😄😄
While continuing my rounds, I checked on the bed with the peas, carrots and spinach planted in it. Of the first peas that were planted, there is one sprouting. I did see what might possibly be a second one, but it’s so tiny, I’m not sure yet. The second planting doesn’t have anything showing yet.
I checked the Royalty raspberries, as usual, and we are finally seeing new growth at the bottom of one of last year’s canes. These were supposed to be first year canes, which should have fruited for the first time this year, but they ended up producing berries last year, then dying back. I contacted Veseys about it and they assured me they would come back this year. So far, they are right about one of them! However, this does mean that any growth we get this year should not produce any berries until next year.
In other things…
I counted 25 yard cats this morning, though at least one or two more showed up later on. When I saw Broccoli while I was still setting the food out, I went around to the garden shed and left some food in a dry spot, then checked on the babies. They seem a bit more active. I ended up leaving some food for Broccoli not far from her baby nest.
With everything being so wet, and more rain and possible storms to come, I decided this was a good day to make a run to the nearest Walmart to get a few things. That took enough time that the transplants were brought back inside when I got back. We’re actually seeing a bit of sunshine, peeking through the clouds right now, too.
As I write this, it’s just past 2pm, and we’ve reached 16C/61F, with the humidex making it feel like 20C/68F. We’re supposed to get just a bit warmer before the end of the day. With how muddy things are, a lot of what we need to do outside has to wait. Very frustrating!
Ah, well. It is what it is! We just shift gears and do other stuff, like going into town for some errands, a bit earlier than planned – which I will cover in my next post. 😊
Broccoli was eating at the kibble house, so I took a quick check.
She has not moved her babies!
The old garden shed is a good place for them, other than the fact that we actually still use it.
In other things, the rain started yesterday, off and on, and will continue throught today. No downpours or anything like that. Just intermittent light rain. Enough to make the ground too wet to work in the garden beds or process the felled spruced.
If my husband is up to it, there will be a trip into town for some blood work.
I don’t think he’s up to it.
One of my older daughters, however, has offered to treat us to some Chinese food today, so a trip to town is still a possibility!
That would be a nice treat on a wet and chilly day. 🩷
I got the strawberries through one of their $20 specials. This was supposed to be a package of eight, but there turned out to be nine in the package. Bonus! Thanks, Veseys!
I’d gone to their website yesterday, to get the planting instructions. The first step was to set the roots to soak, while I continued working on the bed I prepared yesterday – which I found covered with kitty footprints, this morning!
I decided to add more soil, so I brought over the last of the amended soil left from when we redid the bed against the chain link fence. The extra soil from making the bed narrower has come in very handy!
After leveling off the new soil, I made holes to plant in and filled them with water. The instructions said to spread the bare roots over a small hill of soil, so I added soil back to make one in each hole, while the water was being absorbed. Next, the bare roots were spread over each hill, and soil pulled back around them, making sure the growing tops were above soil and supported.
After that, I brought over some straw that has been in the potato grow bags last year, and carefully mulched around each plant. I wanted to make sure the hills of soil were well covered so it wouldn’t erode when watered, as well as packing extra around the outside, to make it less likely for water to wash the soil out under the frame. Once that was all in place, it got a deep watering. Yes, we’re expecting rain this afternoon, but with our weird little climate bubble in our area, it could pass us by completely and we might not get more than a few drops.
From the information on the Veseys website, they recommend pruning away the flowers in the first year, to have stronger and more productive plants the next year – except for everbearing varieties. These are everbearing, so there will be no need to prune them.
Which means we should have strawberries to harvest this year – if they survive being transplanted!
We are supposed to get rain this afternoon, which would be great, considering it is fire season right now, so I made sure to get some work done outside. As I was putting things away, I noticed Broccoli by the house, so I dashed around to check the garden shed.
Yes, the babies are still there! Which means there is still hope of socializing them. Broccoli seems to be content with her nest, though lately she won’t let me anywhere near her. Not even at feeding time. It is, however, normal for the yard cat mamas to move their kittens several times, before they get big enough that they start bringing them along to the kibble houses for solid food.
I was thinking of sticking to the brassica theme for naming the calicos. We started with Cabbages, then Broccoli. We’ve got Brussel and Sprout, who are even more feral than their mother. What should we name the two calicos here?
Boc and Choy?
Kohl and Rabi?
One of the calicos is quite a bit larger than her siblings. You can’t really see it in the photo, but her head is huge compared to the other two!
They are so flippin’ adorable. Broccoli makes beautiful babies!
Yesterday’s progress turned out to be a lot more work than it should have been, but the job got done. Rather than try and post pictures through Instagram, I decided to take them and make a vlog, instead.
It’s coming up on 1am as I post this. Time to go to bed and, hopefully, the old bod won’t stiffen up and break down too badly overnight!
Our bare root strawberries came in today, and they need to be planted soon. My original thoughts on where to plant them is too far from the house, so I had to decided on someplace closer, which turned out to be a much bigger job that it should have been. This was after I’d done some yard clean up, then amended and added more soil to the empty raised bed in the West yard.
I’ve taken pain killers, but will need to take more, if I’m going to get any sleep tonight. Still, the job got done, and tomorrow we’ll be able to plant the strawberries.
We’ve got a much cooler day today – as I write this, it’s coming up on 1pm, and it’s still only 6C/39F, with a high of 13C/55F by about 6pm expected. I took full advantage of the cooler temperatures to get some things done! We’re supposed to start getting rain tomorrow, have more rain, off and on, over the next few days, so the more we can get done out there, the better!
The first job, of course, was to feed the yard cats. I counted 28 in total, I think. Knowing that we have kittens in the junk pile, I now put food out under the shrine, and even on the bench nearby. Which the Blue Jays appreciate… 🫤
Stinky, Hypotenose and Syndol were all pushing each other around, trying to get at pets!
I spotted Broccoli at the food bowls, so I interrupted my usual morning rounds and dashed to the garden shed.
I started taking out as many things as I could think to grab – garden stakes, hoses, netting, etc. I had to get under where the kittens were, so I lifted them all up in the self heating mat and set them on the ground as I worked. Once I got the stuff I thought I would need right away, I returned the tarp and the felted grow bags Broccoli has made her nest in, made sure it was flattened in such a way that no kittens would accidently roll off and get stuck somewhere, then carefully put them, still half snoozing, back in in their soft, fuzzy and warm mat.
By this time, Broccoli had come around the house and was watching me. When I was done and continued my rounds, she followed me around the garden. I’m hoping she will be okay with what I did, and not take her kittens away and hide them. By removing the stuff I did, I’m hoping we won’t need to open the door and disturb her and her babies for a while. I’ll still check on the, of course, but will try to do it only when I know Broccoli isn’t in there with them.
That done, I started doing garden related stuff. While rain may be on the way, we can’t count on it actually reaching us, so I did the watering. It looks like we finally have carrots sprouting, so I’ve moved the protective boards off of them. The German Butterball potatoes got the grass clipping mulch returned. I’m still putting the cover with the plastic on it over them, to keep the cats out. The garlic also got their mulch returned, now that they’re bigger, and watered.
After all the watering was done, I checked on the grapes. The false spirea growing nearby is trying to spread into them again, so I got some pruners to cut them away. Normally, I’d try to pull them up by the roots, but I can’t do that when they are right in with the grape vines.
Then I started clearing other spirea to clear more space around the grapes.
Before I knew it, I’d gone through the entire corner, clearing away dead false spirea, trimmed dead branches and last year’s flower husks, finding and clearing around a perennial flower that gets buried by the bushes every year, and really opening things up and cleaning them out.
The cats are very happy with this! They like to go under there. When they are in full leaf, it’s a shady spot they can hide in, and now it’s nice and clear of dead branches and twigs.
While the false spirea is leafing out, and the grapes are showing leaf buds, other things are further along. The “Mr. Honeyberry” haskap is in full bloom right now. I even saw a bumble bee among the flowers! The “Mrs. Honeyberry”, however, might have some leaves, not no flower buds yet. There’s no way proper cross pollination can happen, which means no berries.
*sigh*
The plum trees are blooming; they always bloom before they get their leaves. Quite a few tulips are showing flower buds, which is pretty awesome. The trees are also getting very green. So nice to see!
I look forward to getting back to work, when I get back from running errands!
My younger daughter and I started talking about what we wanted to do over the next while, both shorter and longer term. We got so into it, we ended up walking around the outer yard to talk about it more!
One of the stops we made was in the pump shack, where we tested out the old hand pump.
Much to my surprise, we soon had water flowing! I took video while my daughter started pumping. This confirms to me that all we need are new leathers for it to work properly. It shouldn’t take that long for water to start flowing again, once it had already started. It should stay primed and water should start flowing almost immediately.
Yes, the whole pump moves as the handle is pumped. It spins in place. I asked my brother about this, and he tells me this is because it is designed to basically float, allowing for the rise and fall of the water table. A neighbour of ours had the same system, but when they dug a new well and got indoor running water, they closed off the old well – I can’t remember how exactly that was done, but in the spring, when all the snow was melting and the water table rose, their pump ended up going through the roof of their pump shack!
After we ran water for a while, I even gave it a taste, and it tastes better than our household tap water. We really need to get our house well water tested, but we would need to do the full testing to find out what’s going on with it, which is out of our budget. Plus, once the samples are collected (full testing needs 2 samples in different sizes), we’d have to get it to a lab in the city within 24 hours. The sterile containers to collect the samples are, I believe, available in one of the larger towns in our municipality, but I’d have to confirm that. A fair amount of logistics is required for us to get the water tested, simply because of where we live. The full test, however, would include coliform, E. coli, HPC, Nitrogen-Nitrates and Nitrogen-Nitrites, total dissolved solids, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, manganese, zinc, iron, Chloride sulfate, pH, hardness, conductivity, arsenic, boron, barium, fluoride, uranium, lead and copper – and the cost for all that has almost doubled since I first looked into it, 5 or so years ago. The basic test for just coliform and E. coli is just $30, but there are 7 different levels of testing available, including the total testing for everything.
Anyhow…
The important thing, though, is knowing we do have back up water, if something ever happens to our household water.
My daughter and I went through most of the old shacks and outbuildings, and into the barn, looking at the various materials strewn about. There are SO many old doors and windows, it’s mind boggling.
What started this all was my daughter asking what we needed before we could get some sheep or goats, and where we would set them up. We also talked about the trees that need harvesting, and the old shed with the collapsed roof that still needs to be dismantled. My daughter, it turns out, really dislikes working in the garden, doesn’t feel she’s good at it, and would much rather do other stuff. So for the next while, she’ll focus on harvesting and processing the dead trees and dismantling the old shed. The lumber from there can be used to build an animal shelter. The lumber used to frame it is still good, and the old cladding, which is very weathered and rotting, covers wider boards, protecting them enough that those should be useable, too.
I had originally thought we’d build our outdoor kitchen where the shed with the collapsed roof is, or right in front of it, but we now know that area is lower, collects water and the ground gets really soft. The other area I considered was next to the pump shack, facing the “driveway”. The old fuel tanks are still there, and we have no reason to move them. The outdoor kitchen is going to be 20’x20′, and those tanks would be in the way. There is, however, enough space behind the pump shack, between it and the old chicken coop. We just have to get it cleaned up of old tires and appliances still sitting there.
We also looked at the old chicken coop. This is a log building that still has its roof, though that is damaged. The original roof is wood shingled, and it had been covered with … tin? … corrugated sheets. I don’t think corrugated is the right word, but I don’t know what it’s actually called. Unfortunately, as with so many other areas, trees were allowed to grow right against the building. One had branches that scraped across the roof in the wind, which eventually tore off several of these metal sheets, destroying them and damaging the roof beneath, which now has holes in it, and the weather gets into the “attic” portion. We have other metal roof sheets like this that we can salvage from another collapsed shed by the barn, but have no way to safely get up there. We would need scaffolding, but the scaffolding my brother remembers being here is gone.
Still, we want to salvage this building. The log walls are still pretty solid. This building had been used as a summer kitchen, before my parents bought the property converted it to a chicken coop. It had electricity wired to it for lights, and heat lamps for the chicks. When my parents stopped having chickens, no one cleaned out the coop, so it’s quite a mess in there, and there are some things that were tossed in for storage, too.
We could potentially clean it up and fix it up. The whole building is slowly sinking. Instead of being on a concrete or rock foundation, it’s on giant wooden beams, and those are both sinking and rotting away, but they are also why the building is sinking evenly, and not twisting. The roof, however, is also dropping, to the point that the door had to be taken off entirely for us to be able to get in.
So that’s a project my daughter will work on as well; clearing up around the old chicken coop, first, then working inwards. Mostly, though, we have to cut back the trees some more – I’d already done some of that a few years back, but these are maples, so they’re growing back.
We’ll have to do the same around the pump shack, but one old stump has been sending out useable suckers. It’s basically been accidentally coppiced. We can maintain that. More material for wattle weaving! 😁 We also talked about what we can do to fix up the old pump shack. The exterior cladding it starting to rot and pieces are falling off – and on this building, there is no inner layer of boards the cladding is covering. It’s directly attached to the open wall joists, as you can see in the Instagram video. The concrete floor is cracking, but the bones of the structure are still sound, so we’ve got ideas on how to fix and maintain it.
We also went around the warehouse, which used to be my late brother’s workshop. We could seriously use that building for a workshop ourselves, but it’s completely full of my parent’s stuff. There’s basically two short paths among the stuff, and we can’t get to the back of it at all. My mother is still obsessed with her stuff in there, and is so worried someone will steal it. At the very least, though, we need to get the old mattresses to the dump, as well as the bags and bags of old clothing. She had suggested we have a garage sale, which I will not do, but she did approve of my suggestion that we could try selling things online, instead. That would be one way to help pay for the things that need to be done around here! That, however, would require going through all those boxes and seeing what is actually worth selling, and what is just junk.
But I digress!
It was around the warehouse that we decided on a place we could build animal shelters. My daughter is interested in sheep, for their wool (she wants to process and spin yarn). I would like a couple of milk goats, partly for their use in permaculture, partly because my family are lactose intolerant, and they can drink goats milk without getting sick.
We did talk about getting chickens, but both my daughters are hesitant about that. The problem is, they have friends with pet chickens, and their chickens are always getting sick. They think if we get chickens, they’ll get sick all the time, too, and we’re very unlikely to take a chicken to a vet. In a way, I understand this, but I think chickens raised outdoors would be much hardier and healthier than chickens raised as pets. Honestly, I’d be more concerned about sheep, goats or pigs needing vet care.
Yeah, I’d like a couple of pigs, too. Partly, all these animals animals are an important part of regenerative practices, and would go a long way in helping us to reclaim and improve our soil, with each contributing in different ways, and partly, they are a food source. Get a couple of piglets in the spring, send them out for processing in the fall, and have a freezer full of meat! I suppose we could get a steer and do the same thing, but I don’t think we’re up to an animal that big. Mostly, though, we need grazing animals for the outer yard. There’s no way we can mow all of it; it’s too rough in places. The overgrown areas are a fire hazard. A controlled burn would fix that, but with so many outbuildings, that would be very risky. Grazing animals would take care of that problem for us.
So my daughter is going to focus more on harvesting and processing the dead spruces for me to build raised beds, dismantle the shed and salvage materials to build animals shelters, as well as the outdoor kitchen and her smithy that she wants to build. I’ll focus more and gardening and building garden structures, and maintaining the yards. There will be crossover, of course, as we help each other out on the big stuff, but it’s clarified with each other what our areas of focus will be.
All in all, this made for a grand Mother’s Day! Well… except for all the wood ticks. We were picking those off our clothes constantly, and had to shower when we got back inside!
However, the three racks of ribs that have been slow roasting in the oven are now down, so it’s time to start focusing on our Mother’s Day dinner!
