Author: Re-Farmer

Fourth raised bed cover done – mostly – and my conclusions

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After yesterday’s lumberjacking, we were pretty sore this morning, but not as bad as I expected. Still, my daughters were sweet enough to feed the outside cats in the morning, so I could sleep in a bit before doing my morning rounds.

My daughters had some shopping to do in town, so my younger daughter and I left after my morning rounds were done. One of her stops was the pharmacy, forgetting that today is a statutory holiday in Canada, and the pharmacy was closed.

I did notice that a BBQ food truck was out so after our last errand, I checked it out. I had enough cash on hand to get some take out to bring home as a treat. I miss food trucks! 😄 There’s actually quite a few in the region, but where we are just doesn’t have the population base to support one.

One thing I noticed while I was waiting for the food was a sign on the nearby hardware store. Along with cycling through their hours, specials, etc., they show the local temperature. According to my apps, the hottest I was seeing was 26C/79F with a “real feel” of 29C/84F at home. The sign, however, was showing a temperature of 32C/88F! Judging by how I was feeling while standing in the shade, I’d say the sign was right.

We really ought to get ourselves a weather station. I did find the parts of one while we were cleaning up the house, but the outdoor reader was (still is, actually) mounted to one of the steel clothes line poles, so the readings would be quite off!

Speaking of the weather, we started to get alerts for severe thunderstorms this afternoon. Looking at the weather radar, I could see spots of storms, scattered like confetti, sweeping across the prairies.

So far, none have hit us. The most we got was a smattering of rain. I was outside at the time, working under a tree, and never noticed until I saw parts of the sidewalk were wet!

This is what I was working on.

The last frame for a raised bed cover now has wire on it.

Of course, it was more of a pain than expected.

The wire I used was 2″ hardware cloth salvaged from the old squash tunnel. The roll is 4′ wide, so I could just use the length, rather than cutting strips, like I had to with the fence wire and the plastic hardware cloth. I was going to cut it to 9′ until I realized I had close to double that, so I folded it almost in half.

Putting the first side on was fairly easy. I used the steel strips again, as they are a lot more secure. In the past, for wire like this, we used staples, and there’s no way staples would hold this in place while being manhandled on and off raised beds.. The only real hard part of attaching the first side was having The Phantom suddenly decide she absolutely had to have attention! She’s been making strange lately, and I thought she was getting more feral, but not today!

Also, as she rolled around, I could see a single active nip. I had been wondering, as she never looked pregnant, if perhaps she were infertile, but she does have a single kitten somewhere.

Speaking of kittens, they were all over the place, and more of them are showing red and/or sticky eyes. None as bad as the two we regularly bring inside to wash their eyes, thankfully, but my goodness, it’s bad this year!

Anyhow… where was I? Oh, yes… the wire.

Once the first side was attached, getting the second side done was a real pain. The two layers of wire mesh kept getting stuck on each other and misaligning. After fighting with is for about half an hour, at least, I finally got some jute twine and wrapped the length of it near one edge, from the fold to where one end was a few inches shorter than the other, then secured the short end as well. Only then could I finally attach the other side to the frame.

Unfortunately, I started to run low on the short screws I was using the attach the steel strips. I had just enough to secure the length, but only on the bottom edges. What it needs is more of them to secure the wire to the top edges, to keep it from pulling away.

So… more of that size of screw is on my shopping list. I did try to secure it a bit better using the staple gun, but didn’t finish. Even with the steel straps, they will easily pop out.

Aside from securing the wire to the frame some more, I am thinking it will probably need more support. The wire can hold itself up, but it bends very easily. It would take next to nothing to crush the arch. If a cat decided to jump on it or something, it would collapse completely. I think I have a couple more lengths of the PEX pipe, but I would want at least 4 preferably 5, to support the wire.

So the cover is done to the point that it can be used, but needs a bit more to make it stronger.

For this one, I’m glad I decided to fold the hardware cloth in half rather than cut it too length. If it were 1″ squares or less, it would be stronger, but with 2″ squares, it’s relatively flimsy. It will be okay when we use other strips of the 2″ hardware cloth on the box frame to protect the bed with the popcorn in it, but not so much as a self supporting arch.

So, here are our experimental results.

The first one we built was the box cover, designed specifically to go over taller things like the Tom Thumb popcorn. It is intended to support wire, shade cloth, etc., as needed. It is probably the most structurally sound of the frames we made. It is unlikely we will need to build more like this, simply because things we grow that are taller are more likely to need other types of support or protection.

I can see two problems with this design. 1) Once the sides are wrapped in wire, there is basically no way to tend the bed without removing the entire cover, and 2) for anything needing a cover this tall, removing it would require 2 people, to avoid damage. If, however, it were wrapped in fabric mesh or netting, it could be done in such a way that the netting could be lifted for access. Fabric won’t keep the racoons out, though.

Conclusion: I’m happy with it. This frame is worth making again, if we ever need to protect tall plants, but there would be little need for more, based on our current garden needs.

The second one used fence wire we found in a shed. The fence wire turned out to have varying sizes of openings, from 6″ square to 6″ x 3″ The roll was just over 3′ wide, so we had to cut 3 strips to fit into the frame, with overlaps. I went with 5′ long strips to create a high arch, which worked out well for the bush beans.

The first problem we found was with how the vertical and horizontal wires were joined. Each intersection has a wire wrap, adding significant thickness to those spots. We were using U nails to attach them, hammering them diagonally over the joins to secure them. Between the nails themselves and the thickness, this was far more difficult than it should have been.

The wire itself was stiff enough that a couple of screws snapped in the frame’s corners, which resulted in them starting to rotate. Thankfully, we had a couple of scrap 9′ lengths that cut wonky, and were able to add those to the inside of the frame, sandwiching the fence wire in between. That also strengthened and secured the corners.

We currently have the frame over our bush beans, with netting on top, to protect the beans from critters. The wire wraps at each intersection is a problem, as the net catches on them, but aside from that, it’s ideal. The net strip is wide enough that I’ve even been able to secure the edges with ground staples into the soil under the frame, too.

Conclusion: I’m really happy with this one. I’m able to lift the netting and harvest through the fence wire without having to move the frame. If I can find 6″, or even 4″, square welded wire fencing, instead of the wrapped wire, that’s what I would use to make the majority of future covers. It’s strong enough to support itself. I could probably use 6′ lengths for an even higher arch, and it could still support itself, plus any shade cloth, insect netting, greenhouse plastic, etc. Though we would not use U nails again, and go with the steel strapping, I would still be good with that double thickness of wood on the long sides, which makes the whole thing much more structurally stable, while also securing the wire. In the future, I can see most of any new covers we make to be like this one, with a few modifications.

The third one is the one with the “rigid plastic” hardware cloth. Which turned out to not be very rigid at all. This is when I remembered I had the steel strapping and used that to secure the mesh. After the first hoops I tried to use, snapped screws in all the corners, I had to add extra pieces of wood inside the short ends. Switching to PEX pipe hoops worked much better, and the steel strapping worked well to secure the hoops, too.

The plastic hardware cloth rolls came in 3′ widths, so it took three lengths to cover the frame, which then had to be lashed together. I went with 4′ lengths this time, for a lower arch compared to the fence wire cover. Once the hoops were snugged in place and trimmed to size, I used garden twist ties to secure them to the mesh and prevent them from being pushed sideways.

With the outward pressure of the hoops, this frame had a couple of screw eyes added to the middle of each long side and cord strung across, to keep the sides from bowing outwards.

Conclusion: This frame is definitely the most aesthetically pleasing of them all. It’s easy to move around with 1 person, and the lower arch is good for shorter crops. I would not, however, use this plastic hardware cloth again. It creates too much shade. Which is great if I have it over a bed of lettuce, but obviously, it wouldn’t be good to use over something that needs full sun. I also would rather have the flexibility of using whatever cover I need for a particular bed. I want these frames to be interchangeable as possible, whether a bed needs shade cloth, greenhouse plastic, or frost protection. If I need to use hoops for support again, the PEX pipe is definitely the way to go.

Last of all is the frame done today, so I’ll just go straight to the conclusion:

Conclusion: As this one didn’t need any extra wood added to the sides or ends, it is the least structurally secure, but that’s an easy fix. I would not use this 2″ hardware cloth again, though, for the same reason I wouldn’t use chicken wire. It’s just not strong enough, and bends too easily, even doubled up.. It will also need support hoops added at some point. It’ll be used, but that’s about it.

As we build more high raised beds, we will also build more covers Experimenting with the different materials has shown me a lot of what works best for our needs – and what to avoid! Armed with this information, I’ll know what to keep an eye out for and pick up as the budget allows, to have on hand for when we have more beds to protect!

The Re-Farmer

So much done!

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I am so happy right now!

Absolutely wasted, and will probably be sore and barely able to move tomorrow, but happy!

My daughter and I got so much done today. But first, the cuteness!

Would you look at that flat pancake of a kitten!

This one actually allows me to pet it, and even pick it up at times.

After our failure this morning in getting a shelter over the stump bench, I decided we may as well cut down the dead tree beside it. I was then going to clean up the bench and get at least one coat of paint on it.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way.

First, the dead spruce…

The first photo is the “before” image. Instagram crops things weird, and their crop options suck, so you can’t see the bench in that one.

Which direction to get it to fall was the issue. No matter where it fell, it would be landing on something. The thing was to get it to land on something with the least amount of damage. So I tried to get it to fall on the bench, in the middle, where it has the most support. It would still be hitting the big maple on the way down, but not as much of it.

As you can see in the second photo, it came down about as perfect as could be! One maple branch broke off and that was it.

My daughter and I then cut off all the branches; me with the chain saw, her with the electric pruner/baby chainsaw.

Once the branches were clear, I cut away the few bits of wood that were holding the trunk to the stump still, then cut the end flat. We then measured out 18′, and cut it with a few inches extra. This log is the right size to match the largest log we’ve got for the trellis bed. The two largest logs will be the bottoms longs for the sides, then the thinner ones will go on top.

Next, we cleared away all the branches and extra pieces. There was another stump that had originally been intended to be part of the stump bench, but it was too rotten. That finally got cut down to ground level. The new stump was also got trimmed lower, though not quite to ground level. Maybe we’ll put a planter on it or something, at some point. 😊 We also used a rope and dragged the 18′ piece over to where the trellis bed will be built.

It was SO much easier to grad that big log with two people!

This is the third dead spruce we’ve cleared out of this one little section. At least one of them was killed off by the Virginia creeper that had been allowed to attach itself to it. This tree that we had cleared away had still been alive until last year or so.

Then, since I had the chain saw handy, and 200 ft of extension cord, I took advantage of it.

First, I dealt with the crab apple trees.

The easy part was cutting away the remains of a dead crab apple tree that was off by itself. In the photos with the dead spruce tree, you can actually see it through the dead branches of the fallen tree.

In the above photos, the first one is in between two large crab apple trees. These were suckers growing out from around the remains of trees that died long ago. They were much harder to cut away and clean up, because they were so tangled up in the two live trees. In one of those, I cut away some dead branches, too.

Now that the suckers are gone, there are branches from the live trees hanging really low, as they are no longer being held up by the suckers!

The second photo shows where the single dead crab apple tree had been. Between the freshly cut stump and the next live tree are another three stumps cut to ground level, plus two more behind where I’m standing to take the photo. Way too many trees were planted way too close together!

There is still one more at the very end that will need cleaning up. Again, the original tree had died long ago, and there are just suckers growing. There may still be one that produces tasty apples; another that I knew for sure had good apples broke in a storm last year and didn’t recover. We’ll see if any of the remaining ones are worth salvaging, but they won’t be ripe for at least another month.

My daughter made many trips to the branch pile past the fire pit, clearing away as I cut. As we were finishing up, I decided to take a closer look at the stuck tree my brother had cut down for me. I wanted to see if I could safely cut away the dead tree it was stuck on. There were actually a couple of trees that were holding it up. One was a small spruce that got bent under the fallen trunk. Sadly, I had to cut it, even though it was still alive. I could see that even if I got the bigger tree cut away, the little one would still hold up the tree we were trying to access, and cause the tree we were after to roll towards other trees, rather than fall to the ground

I was able to cut through the little spruce’s trunk, but with everything so jammed together, nothing moved. I was, however, able to get a good look at the dead tree the fallen tree was stuck on.

It wasn’t a tree.

What you’re seeing in that first photo is a tree top. You can see that, at some point, the tip had broken off, and two branches grew upwards, forming a double top. This is pretty common for spruces. As the tree my brother cut down fell and got caught on other trees, it broke this tree top. As it slowly continued to fall lowers in high winds, the tree top ended up vertical, with its broken end on the ground as it it had grown there!

In the second photo, you can see the tree with a broken off top that I think it came from.

So I grabbed the rope my daughter and I used to drag the 18′ log out, and wrapped it around the bottom of the tree top. I wasn’t able to get it completely off, as there were branches getting caught, but it is no longer holding up the stuck tree. Since I had also cut the other little tree, that came off its stump and fell, too. Finally, the stuck tree came down! No, it’s not on the ground, but that’s just fine. It’s only being held up by its own branches and undergrowth now, and it completely accessible!

We can now clear it, cut it to size and drag the pieces out.

But not today! My daughter and I were both completely beat by then. Thank goodness it was a “cooler” day, with a high of “only” 27C/81F.

So… we didn’t paint the bench and, with possible thunderstorms or showers starting tomorrow afternoon and over the next few days (depending on what app I look at), it may not get done for possibly another week.

That’s okay. The bench and the folding table I want to also paint won’t melt. It just means we work on something else, instead. Like finally continuing that trellis bed!

I’m just so happy we were able to get all this stuff done. It feels so good!

The Re-Farmer

I quit!

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That’s it. I give up.

Or, should I say, WE give up. My daughters and I.

After much fighting, the supports for the car port thingy were put together, slid through the channels in the cover, then dragged over to where it would be set up. What we needed to do next was get the whole thing upright, supported by the lengths of rebar I got to pound into the ground.

Well, here’s how it looks now.

That’s right. It’s all disassembled again.

I have no idea how this thing was put together originally. Clearly, it had been used. From the tool marks on the support pieces, it was also obvious others had struggled with it, too.

It simply would not go up.

This was how it was when I left it, yesterday.

The girls raised the first supports at the end by the tree, which took some doing as one side piece kept spinning, so instead of an arch shape, they were fighting with an S shape. Eventually, they had it so I could pound the rebar into the ground and they set the supports on them.

Of course, there was still the weight of all the other sections pulling on it, so even with the stakes supporting it, that first arch had to be held up. While they did that, I started to raise the next set of supports until they could reach out and hold it, too. They still could not let go of the first support, though.

Then one of the side supports fell off.

After pushing the cover up and over, we were able to get it back together again, but not completely. Plus, the pieces started spinning to the point that the top arch piece ended up upside down. There was just no way to get it back in position again. Particularly since the top arch piece was holding the cover, and the cover had the weight of several other support pieces hanging off of it.

There was simply no way it was going to work. Without any kind of horizontal supports, with the pieces constantly twisting and spinning, plus the weight of the cover, nothing would stay where it was supposed to. It’s not like we could put the supports up first, since they were designed to run through the channels in the cover. Maybe if we had two more people, we could have done it, but not with just the three of us.

Well, we’re just going to have to try and get things painted without any sort of shelter. We do have the market tent, but it’s broken on one side, so moving it would not be a good idea. We’re supposed to have rain in a few days, though when and how much changes depending on which app I’m looking at. If all goes well, we should be able to get at least a couple of coats done before it gets rained on.

I suppose we should take down that dead spruce, first. The only direction for it to fall without getting hung up on other trees is over the bench. The bench should be strong enough to hand it, though, since it’s built onto a tree stump in the middle, plus it has supports on each end. There are enough branches to keep the full weight of the tree from hitting the bench, too.

We’ll see how that works out!

As for the car port thingy…

I give up!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: morning harvest and how things are looking

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I didn’t pick any bush beans for a couple of days, so there was plenty to pick this morning!

I also grabbed a few Gold Ball turnips, Uzbek Golden carrots – a first harvest of those – and snagged a yellow zucchini. There’s some green ones starting to grow, and one that is almost ready to harvest, but not quite!

I uploaded other photos onto Instagram. As you go through these, can you please let me know if any of them look like the files got corrupted somehow? I am having problems with viewing batches of photos like this. They look fine as I go through the process, but after they’ve been published and I view them, there are usually visual changes to some of them. Some are so bad, I can barely see the image, so I delete the whole thing and start over. I had to do that with this batch, and I still see problems. The images are at least identifiable, though!

Please let me know if you see it to, or if it’s just my computer messing up!

The first image is of the North Georgia Candy Roaster squash that is getting SO big, so fast! It seems to be getting noticeably bigger, every day! There were also a lot of new female flowers among the candy roasters and the Pink Bananas.

There is a little patch of allium flowers that come up every year through a crack between sidewalk blocks and the laundry platform steps. They are in full bloom right now, and the bees loves them. I tried taking photos and just happened to catch the bee as it flew off to another flower head!

The earliest Sweet Chocolate bell peppers are turning colour quite nicely right now.

The next photo, of the chamomile flowers, looks like it has a block of purple over all but the top of the photo. Do you see that too?

The chamomile are blooming quite enthusiastically right now.

The very first luffa flower has opened – and is being pollinated!

Last of all is the first flower on the Classic Eggplant. Check out those spikes on it!

On another topic entirely, I brought one of the yard kittens in, so my daughter and I could wash its eyes out. They were completely stuck shut. As soon as the dried gunk was softened enough that the lids started to open, they started oozing more gunk! It’s nose was all gummed up, too, and somehow a tiny piece of flexible plastic was stuck to it! My guess is it was from the strips of plastic that covered the adhesive on the new roof tiles. We’re still finding them blowing around.

We got the kitten cleaned up as best we could, then set it outside again, but not before my daughter got a picture of it. The Cat Lady is going to be coming for Ghosty soon. I hated to asked, but I sent her the picture and asked if they would be able to take a second sick kitten.

She had to check with her husband, who was monitoring their cat that just came out of surgery not long ago. Their cat seems to be doing all right, so she will take the sick kitten. With its eyes gumming up so much, it tends to stay by the house a lot, so we should be able to find it and catch it, once we know she’s on the way.

The down side is, the rescue’s budget for August already done, having gone towards spays. Which means they’ll be taking on these two, out of pocket! They’ve already spent thousands on just two cats in the past, but they’re still willing to take on these two. The other downside is, once they’re all healthy, it’s been difficult to adopt cats out. Partly because she wants to keep them! 😄 I do expect Ghosty will get adopted out easily. She is a rather unique looking kitten. A bit freaky at times, too! She’s got blue eyes, and when the light hits them just right, her pupils glow red. We think she might have partial albinism. Her eyes are still sticky, too, but she has gotten much better since coming inside.

The Cat Lady commented that the strain causing these problems is particularly bad this year. Not just with so many sick cats, but so many kittens dying this year, too. So it’s not just at our place! We’ve found so many dead kittens this year, plus losing Question, even after bringing her inside. We’re still tossing the outside cats’ kibble with lysine to help their immune systems, but it’s the little ones that are suffering. The adults seem just fine, but with the littles, it seems that as soon as they start getting weaned, it’s just not enough.

Well, we do what we can! I feel bad asking the Cat Lady for help, though, but after Leyendecker, we just don’t have the budget to take another cat to the vet. The Cat Lady’s rescue runs on donations, but they do a lot out of pocket, too. Her husband, thankfully, makes good money, but it’s still a lot to cover out of pocket!

Ah, well. I’m just glad she’ll be able to take Ghosty and this other kitten. She is so awesome!

The Re-Farmer

Trying to get things done

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It was supposed to start getting cooler today. I guess a high of 28C/82F is “cooler” than a high of 30C/86F, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. As I write this, it’s 26C/79F and I’ve been driven inside by the heat.

My daughters headed out much earlier in the day. They took care of feeding the outside cats before clearing the area we will be planting the saffron crocuses when they come in, and pruning away some of the dead, overhanging branches. They also fought with that last carport support for me. They couldn’t get it completely together, but it’s close enough that it’ll work. For all the trouble it is to put it together, it’s almost as difficult to take it apart, too.

Thanks to them, I was able to actually sleep in a bit. At least as much as the kittens would let me! 😁 I even had breakfast before going outside for a change! In the slow cooker last night, I put in a whole bunch of our own garden vegetables – both green and yellow patty pan squash, a yellow zucchini, green and yellow bush beans, two massive cloves of garlic – that largest bulb we had that had to be used because it was starting to split apart was made up of only 4 cloves! – along with a family size package of ground beef, browned, and two cans of crushed tomatoes, plus salt and pepper for seasoning. It was set to low for 8 hours. My husband and I both had it for breakfast, and it was quite good. What we don’t eat today will be frozen in individual portions for heat and eat meals.

Here are some things from the garden from this morning.

The mystery squash are starting to show patterning. They almost look like those cross pollinated zucchini we were given last year, but the plant is a vine type, not a bush type.

The mesh covered bed was something I did last night, while doing my evening rounds. I had noticed the grass mulch in between the rows were getting spread out to the point of covering the seedlings and starting to kill them. Last night, I saw the culprits in action. Robins! They’re just digging around in the garden bed and spreading the grass clippings. So I dug one of the rolls of mosquito netting out of the garden shed to lay over the bed.

Then I put it back and got a different roll that was long enough to cover the bed. 😄

This should protect the seedlings from the grasshoppers, too.

I was seeing lots of pollinators today. The one in the photo actually seemed to be stuck in the flower, so I moved off a leaf that was pressing into it, and it eventually crawled out, then stopped for a rest! Though there were lots of pollinators, I still hand pollinated the open female squash blossoms I found, just to be on the safe side. I’m so happy to be seeing so many of them!

I got a picture this morning, of some modifications I did to the melon bed last night. I added more cross pieces closer to the top, then strung twine around it for the vines to grow. The metal pieces I used were longer, so I decided to take advantage of that and strung twine to the ends as well. We’ve been regularly trying to train the vines to keep climbing upwards, so things are more open below, for more air circulation, light, pollinator access. The melons are all blooming like crazy right now, and I’m finding lots of female flowers! Because this bed it so densely plants, I’m leaving it to the insects to pollinate. 😁

Last of all, we have our very first harvest of ripe Spoon tomatoes!

After checking out all the garden beds, I started to work on the carport thingy. I moved the whole thing to where it’s going to be set up, then tried to stand it up. My thought was that, if I could get at least the first supports set up on the rebar stakes hammered into the ground, setting up the rest of them will get easier and easier.

Which probably would have been true, if I could set up that first set of supports at all!

I got one end over a piece of rebar (you can see some of them in the grass; they’re a sort of aquamarine colour), but the other end twisted in another direction, and simply would not twice back again. I brought the other ones closer and, of course, one of the side pieces popped off the middle piece. I was able to push the canopy up to access it and put it together, but it’s a looser join and it won’t take much for it to come apart again. Moving more pieces around, I’m pretty sure another side piece popped off.

Clearly, this wasn’t going to be a single person job. When both girls are available at the same time, we’ll work on it together.

With that job having to be set aside, I checked out where the crocus are going to be planted, then decided to take down part of a dead tree. As much as I could, using the battery operated pruner/mini chainsaw. There’s one fairly large tree that has finally died, but the main trunk will need a full chainsaw to cut it down.

I also pruned off a large branch from on of the ornamental crabapple trees in the old kitchen garden. I got as far as cutting the branch into smaller chunks, but that was as far as I could handle. It wasn’t quite full sun where I was working, but enough to make me really feel the heat! So those branches will be cleared away later in the day.

Short range forecast shows temperatures will continue to cool down slightly. I look forward to being able to stay outside longer and actually finish the jobs I start!

The Re-Farmer

This is why I stay flexible

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When it comes to overall plans for the day, I tend to be very loosey goosey. Mostly it’s because I hate making solid plans, then having something else come up and disrupt them. Which happens.

A lot.

This morning, I was able to get out while it was still cool to do my morning rounds, sex up some squash flowers, prune the tomatoes and harvest a few carrots.

I only picked a few to add to a chili type dish I plan to make. I intend to leave the rest in the ground for as long as I can, to get bigger. These are the Naval carrots that we made seed tape with. There’s a bit of damage on a couple of them because I had to use a digging tool to loosen the soil enough to pull them out without breaking them. For all the amending and mulching we’ve been doing, compaction remains a huge problem.

It was getting quite hot and muggy by the time I came in. I ended up having my breakfast… er… lunch… in the living room. Partly to enjoy the cool of the AC, but also because I usually eat while working at my computer, but the kittens have started to try and get at my food when I do that! We have a Roku set up on our TV, so I got to enjoy my lunch while watching The French Chef on Tubi.

I was just finished up and planning to head outside again when the phone rang.

It was my mother, wondering if I could come over and help her with shopping.

😄

When we spoke on the phone a few days ago, I specifically asked about when she would need to go shopping next. She told me she was done, well stocked up, etc. She then spent the next while listing off what my sister had brought her from her garden, and that she had going to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things for her, and she had this, and that, and this other thing…

My response was, so… why don’t we plan on it for Friday?

Nope. She didn’t want to set a date, because she’s well stocked…

Today is Friday.

She almost sounded sheepish when she asked if I could come over!

So I changed out of my grubbies and headed over to her place. We had a bit of a visit, first. Of course, she found ways to criticize and insult me within minutes, because she’s like that. Apparently, it’s a complete shock that I was wearing socks. It’s summer. Why am I wearing socks? There was also something about hose. As if she thought I was wearing panty hose, until I lifted my pant leg to figure out what she was talking about.

We ended up talking about the new steel toe shoes I was wearing, instead of the boots I usually do, which lead to me telling her (again) that I’d injured my feet long ago, by being over active so that’s why I have to wear really good shoes all the time. My mother, of course, just had to make a dig about how it (my foot injuries) was because I was fat. She is utterly obsessed with my being fat, and always finds ways to point out how this is some sort of moral and personal failing, the cause of all my problems, and that if I just did what she told me, I’d be skinny. Or something. I reminded her that I injured my feet before I got fat, and it’s why I started getting fat. Well, that and childbirth. All the woman in my mother’s side of the family got fat after having babies. They also all lived to hale and hearty old age, while all my skinny ancestors died young, but that’s a conversation beyond her ability to understand. Yes, my mother is fat. She’s been fat for as long as I can remember and, for all her hypochondria, astonishingly healthy at 92 years old. Anyhow, I called her on her behaviour, and her habit of finding sly ways to point out how disgusting she finds me. She, of course, tried to gaslight me, going on about how I shouldn’t be so upset (pointing out her behaviour is always translated as being angry or upset, or otherwise out of control; typical of gaslighting), or that I was the one attacking her, and when that failed, she started talking to the picture of Jesus on the wall.

It didn’t work.

Eventually, my pointing out that it was her own behaviour that was the cause of the problem, not my inability to accept her verbal abuse, got her to a point where she couldn’t find a way to twist it around and make it my fault anymore.

At which point, I went back to says, yes, I wear socks with my work shoes in the summer.

After that, the visit went really well! 😄

I helped her run her errands, going to various places. She is really struggling to get in and out of the car these days. She would have just given me a list to do her shopping for her, but there were things she wanted to look at and choose herself. What I used to do at the grocery store was bring a cart for her to use as a walker, but now I insist she use the walker while I push the cart, so she has something to sit down on if her knees start to give out on her. And she’s taken advantage of that!

What was funny is that after everything was put away and we were sitting for a brief rest and visit, she actually “kicked me out”, saying she wanted to take a nap. Usually, when I try to leave, she tries to guilt me into staying longer, and how this is my “holiday”, and the girls can take care of things at the farm, and she’s not going to be around forever, so I should spent more time with her! Nope. Now, she’s tired. Time for me to go!

I’m quite okay with that. I was tired, too!

Not too tired, though. When I went to get some gas, I saw the farmer’s market was open, and my cousin’s truck was there. It’s been ages since I got honey from him! Last year, the weather destroyed most of his hives. Usually, we would get a 5kg bucket of honey from him, but not this year. I was able to get one of his large 1.5kg jars, though.

I also picked up some fresh baked sourdough bread and strawberry rhubarb pie!

I would never pay those prices at a grocery store – the pie cost more than the honey! That size jar – the largest he had available – was only $13. I also checked out, but skipped, a booth with fresh vegetables that looked really good. Just not vegetables we typically eat, or stuff we have our own of. Lots of people thought they looked good, to. There was an actual line up of people waiting to pay for their selections.

Small farmer’s markets like this are hard for me to go to. I want to support all of the vendors! Even if I’m not entirely sure what it is they’re selling. 😄

One of the other things I did while at my mother’s was to clean up her answering machine, saving the calls from our vandal that she’ still getting. I recorded them and sent them to my brother. We are very perplexed by some of the things our vandal has been saying. My vandal has been leaving me alone, but he recently called and left messages with my brother, and also called my mother, saying some very strange things about me. One text message he sent to my brother was so bizarre and disjointed, I honestly wondered if he had a stroke or something.

It did give me a chance to talk to my brother, though. Normally, I hate talking on the phone, but not with him! I think we spoke for about an hour or more!

Then I forgot about this post in progress. Oops.

Well, at least I sexed up some more squash flowers, watered the garden, added more supports to the melon trellis (we have baby melons!), got the slow cooker going, started laundry and had my supper in the living room with Marlee, to give her a break from the kittens!

By the end of the weekend, though, we will be down a kitten. The Cat Lady and her family are in the area, and she will swing by to pick up Ghosty, whose eyes are starting to get all sticky again, when they are on their way back to the city.

Soon, we’ll have to get some good photos of the other kittens and Decimus to send to her, so she can pass them on to her contacts and hopefully get them adopted out when they are weaned.

The kittens are sweet and adorable, but I’m going to be happy when they’re gone!

Not as happy as Marlee, though.

The Re-Farmer

What a morning

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Ugh.

Let’s start with the cuteness, shall we?

This litter of two that live in the junk pile by the chain link fence are starting to explore further afield.

Gush, they are adorable!

This morning, the girls were out very early to clean out the eavestroughs. There was one corner, however, they did not do. It was occupied!

This is an active wasps nest.

We’ve had wasps around here before that we had to destroy. Once, because they had made their nest partly inside the wall somewhere, finding their way in under the eaves at the corner of the old kitchen and my bedroom. The next year, it was because they had built their nest under the old kitchen, through a crack in the crawl space foundation – and were also somehow getting inside the old kitchen!

This one, however, looks like we can leave it. Wasps are pollinators, and I would prefer not to destroy pollinators if I can avoid it! When they die off in the winter, we can remove the nest.

Part of my plan for the day was to head into town after I finished my morning rounds. My husband was supposed to get prescriptions delivered yesterday, but it didn’t happen and we didn’t know why.

Before heading out, I phoned the pharmacy, since I figured I could order my own refills a bit early, too. I mentioned what happened with my husband not getting his delivery yesterday, which was a surprise to the pharmacist I spoke to. She checked, and his name wasn’t even on the list for refills. She said she would take care of it, and mine as well. My prescription needs to be renewed by the doctor, however, so she was going to fax the clinic about that.

Well, that didn’t work out.

I got a call just as I was about to leave for town. The pharmacy had a letter from our doctor. Our doctor had moved to a clinic in the city, and we were going to stay with him until we could find a new doctor at a nearer clinic. Preferably the one he just left. There just aren’t a lot of rural doctors around, and most of them are not accepting new patients. My husband had tried to do a phone appointment with our regular doctor, as his disability insurance requires regular doctor’s visits, but it ended up not happening, and we didn’t know why the doctor never called. We did know he wanted my husband to come in, in person, but the drive is just too painful for him.

Well, the pharmacy’s letter from the doctor was telling them that my husband was no longer a patient of his, because he did not see my husband within 3 months of his moving to the new clinic, therefore he could not renew the prescriptions.

?????

Yet, my husband tried to do a phone appointment within that time frame, and the doctor never called.

So I called the new clinic and asked about it.

It turns out that, to maintain status as one of our doctor’s patients at this new clinic, they required at least one in-person visit for a physical within 3 months of the doctor moving to the new clinic. Which would have been by the end of June. Once that was done, then phone or video appointments could be made. Since we did not do that, we are no longer his patients (I was asking about my husband, but it would apply to me as well).

Which means neither of us have a doctor at all, and my husband can’t get his many prescriptions renewed.

So I decided to call the clinic we’d been seeing our doctor at. They lost three doctors at the same time, and I hoped they would have new doctors by now, and that at least one of them would be open to new patients.

They will be getting new doctors.

In the fall.

September, at the earliest.

There was, however a doctor at the clinic who had agreed to see our doctor’s patients until they could find a new doctor. So I made an appointment for my husband with her. This weekend is a long weekend, but they were able to squeeze him in on the Tuesday.

We’ll have to keep on top of the status for new doctors at this clinic. Until then, we’ll have to see this one doctor that was willing to take on our old doctor’s patients temporarily.

Once that was done, I finally made my way to town. One of my husband’s prescriptions did not need a renewal, so I could at least pick that up. While there, I informed the pharmacy of why we lost our old doctor, but that we have an appointment with another doctor, so they can expect to get a fax about the prescription renewals on Tuesday. I was asked to make sure to call ahead of time before filling the prescriptions, because they get so many faxes, it can be hard to get to them all. Which is fine. My husband normally calls his refills in for delivery.

At least my husband was able to get one of his injections, but that prescription was added to work with the other injection. The one that’s missing is a slow release insulin. My husband is going to have to monitor his blood sugars more. He doesn’t like to do it, because it’s so discouraging. Chronic pain causes elevated blood sugar readings. The pain also results in loss of appetite, so it’s not like he’s eating much at all, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference, whether it’s his blood sugars or his weight. The only thing he’s been losing is muscle mass. For someone who was so athletic in the past, this is very depressing. There isn’t much that can be done about it, though. He’s on the strongest doses of painkillers they are legally allowed to give him, and they barely control the pain at all. Quality of life? What’s that?

*sigh*

So… yeah. That was something I did not expect to be dealing with, this morning. At least now we finally know that we no longer have a doctor! It doesn’t make finding a new one any easier, though. That’s the one down side of not living in the city. There are plenty of doctors in the city to choose from. Not a lot of doctors want to live in rural communities, though.

*sigh*

At least we were able to book an appointment with a doctor that can take care of prescriptions for us.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: morning harvest, and how things are growing

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Well, this morning sure didn’t turn out as expected, but I’ll write about that in another post. For now, here are how things are going in the garden.

I picked a lot of beans yesterday, so there weren’t many that needed picking today. I found three Gold Ball turnips that looked ready to harvest – one of them has even started splitting! I also harvested the big G-Star patty pan. My daughters had spotted it when they were out earlier in the morning, were really excited to see how big it had gotten and were wondering what plans I had for it. I have no interest in letting it get big enough to go to seed, as everything in the squash patch will likely be cross pollinated. I could have let it go larger, but as long as its there, the plant isn’t producing more squash. So I’ve picked it, and will let my daughters decide what to do with it! 😄

I posted more photos on Instagram, from last night and this morning.

While checking the Indigo Blue tomatoes last night, one of them fell off in my hand! So I guess it’s ripe. 😄 It was also very cool to see that radishes are already germinating!

In the squash patch, there aren’t a lot of squash forming, but some of the ones that are, are getting big fast. Like the North Georgia Candy Roaster. The squash plants in the compost pile, however, are really amazing. The mystery squash – there are two of them so far – bear no similarity to any squash we’ve grown before. Whatever cross pollinating happened, I can’t even guess which they might be. We had so few squash winter squash last year, and even fewer that would have had viable seeds that ended up in the compost pile. As for the three biggest and roundest squash, they are getting patterns on them, and I can now tell that they are a hulless seed pumpkin.

A surprise this morning was with that volunteer All Blue potato. The resent storms had knocked it over, but it’s still blooming and looking very strong and healthy. The other potato volunteers don’t seem to be growing, but this one is doing very well. It is also growing “berries”! Potatoes do go to seed, but this is the first time I’ve had one do it. I am absolutely going to let this plant go through its entire life cycle and harvest the seeds. With potatoes, if you plant the tubers, you get the exact same potato. They’re basically clones of the original seed potato. With seeds, however, you will get new varieties. I have heard of a single potato variety that has seeds that grow true to the original. Otherwise, they are like apples, and every seed will grow a new variety.

Someone in one of our local gardening groups posted pictures of their potato plant doing the same thing. From the conversation there, I read that when the seeds get planted, it results in only one potato, but if you plant that one potato, it will produce more. I have no idea of it’s true, but I’m willing to experiment!

The last photo is of our largest Crespo squash. It’s no longer a smooth, perfectly round ball. The mature pumpkin is supposed to have a warty texture, and it should be interesting to see how that develops over time. Still hoping to get a long enough growing season for them to fully mature! I know we started them indoors really enough but these plants are really spindly compared to the first year we tried growing them.

Some things still seem to be touch and go, but overall, I’m happy with how the garden is doing this year.

The Re-Farmer

Beaten by the heat

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I managed to get a few things done before the heat finally drove me indoors. I had my lunch and a break in the blessedly air conditioned living room, then went back out again.

Alas, I was defeated, but not just by the heat.

As I write this, my computer tells me it’s 29C/84F out there. This is what the sun room thermometer shows.

Yeah, that reads 36C/97F. That’s with shade and the ceiling fan going. It felt cooler to go into the sun room than being outside.

Before it got too hot, though, the first thing I managed to do was complete our third raised bed cover. Here is how it looks, over our carrots.

I have to admit, it’s the best looking cover I’ve made so far! Appearances aside, there things I would both do, and not do, again.

The first is, I won’t use that plastic hardware cloth again. Aside from the “rigid” plastic being not rigid at all and needing support, the plastic mesh is thick enough to actually cast shade. Which would be great for a day like today over, say, a bed of lettuce or something. However, we don’t have lettuce growing in full sun right now and, as you can see, those carrots don’t need any more shade! However, it will protect them significantly. For more complete protection, I would close off the ends, too.

The second is, those hoops I took off the high raised bed worked MUCH better than the ones I tried using before. These were cut to length from a roll of PEX pipe, and I would definitely use more of this in the future. Once the hoops were secured and holding the plastic mesh taught, the excess was cut off, which was easy to do with just pruning shears. The pruning shears also turned out to be the best tool to cut the steal strapping I used to secure the mesh and the hoops to the wood. An added bonus with having the hoops is that, if this cover were used over a larger bed or directly on the soil, the ends of the hoops could be put over stakes to secure them.

The next thing I decided to do was see if I could assemble the parts and pieces for the carport thingy we found in the barn. The metal pieces had been stored in the hay loft, but the cover piece(s) were in the main area of the barn.

I didn’t realize what they were and used one of them to cover the pile of garden soil by the barn, which is why it’s so dirty in the photo. It wasn’t until I saw that the metal supports had no horizontals that I realized what the pockets in the “tarps” I found were for. Once I figured it out, I took it off the garden soil pile and tried to clean it, but it’s still pretty stained.

Each of the supports is in three pieces. Two side pieces that are hollow aluminum tubes, and one top piece that is the same material, with steel inserts at the ends to join with the side pieces. I tested it out with one set of supports, first, scrubbing the rust off the steel and wrestling the pieces together, then sliding it through a channel in the cover.

As expected, the support was far longer than the cover is wide, which would make for open sides. Which I am good with, but it does make me wonder if that’s how it’s supposed to be, or if the second cover is supposed to be used at the same time. That doesn’t make sense to me, since it would have an open “seam” at the top, from end to end. I’ve never seen this thing assembled, so I’m just guessing.

The test done, I brought the other pieces over. I plan to set it up above the tree stump bench by the main garden area, so I can paint it and not worry about it being rained on. There will be room enough to bring the folding table over for painting, too.

All the pieces got scrubbed down, removing rust and dust (at least I hope it was dust). To assemble it, I worked most of a side piece into one of the channels in the cover, then attached a top piece.

What a pain that turned out to be.

After more scrubbing, liberal use of WD40 and, in some cases, flipping the top piece to use the other end, I got them together.

Maybe not perfectly snug in places, but close enough.

After that, the pieces were long enough to push the rest of the way through the channels in the cover, and still have a couple of feet sticking out to add the other side pieces.

After much fighting, I got them together.

Excpet for one.

I fought with this long enough that I had to get out of the heat and take a break before going back out and fighting with it some more, but I just can’t get it any farther than this. I’ve scrubbed both the top piece insert and inside the side piece tube. I scraped around, and there is nothing blocking it. I even found a tire iron that fit in the tube and tried using it to scrape and possibly widen the opening. I checked to see if the side piece had been flattened in any way, and it was not.

It simply will. Not. Go all the way in.

I finally had to go in to get out of the heat for the rest of the afternoon, and will likely try again later. It’s possible that, as the day cools, the metal will shrink enough for the pieces to finally slide together.

Part of the frustration is that, aside from the straight section where the pieces join, the tupes have bends in them, so I can’t even hammer them together from the other side!

Oh, and one more thing. There are six sets of supports.

I got 10 short lengths of coated rebar to hammer in the ground to secure the supports. I’m short two! Dangit! While I was at the store, I considered getting two more, just in case, but figured I already had two extra. For some reason, I thought there were only 4 supports for the canopy, maybe 5.

Ah, well. As long as the ends are secured, it shouldn’t matter if a set in the middle is not.

It’s starting to cool down outside. I’m going to go feed the outside cats and do my evening rounds, then fight with it again.

The Re-Farmer

Morning (and evening) in the garden.

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I’ve been working on another raised bed cover, with difficulty. I had to give up on plan A and switch to plan B, which involved stealing the hoops from the high raised bed. I left that for this morning, though. The beans still need to be protected from deer, though, so the raised bed cover I’d put over the carrots got moved over. With a daughter’s help, I was able to put it in place without damaging the beans, then drape the mesh over the fence wire.

That mesh catches on EVERYTHING!!!

I got a bit of a surprise, though. That bed is supposed to be 9′ x 4′ on the outside, to match the low raised beds, so the covers can be interchangeable. The low raised beds are 9′ x 3′, but with the log walls, the growing space is closer to 3′ than 4′, so that’s okay.

What I didn’t expect was for the cover to be almost 6 inches longer than the bed!

It works, though. Plus, the fence wire is open enough that I can just lift the mesh to reach in to weed and harvest, without taking the whole cover off. I also can use the ground staples to secure the mesh to the fence wire, which was not yet done when I took the above picture.

I did get a decent harvest this morning, though!

The green beans are really starting to recover from being eating by deer – they got hit a lot worse than the yellow beans. I finally picked that first yellow zucchini, and a G-Star patty pan. There is still a larger one that I’m leaving on the plant.

Last night, while doing my evening rounds, I discovered that the Black Beauty tomatoes needed help! The storm we had yesterday morning probably added to the problem. The tomatoes are getting so heavy, the entire support structure was starting to lean over with the weight, as well as more tomato laden branched hanging down. I’ve been tying them off regularly, but some still manage to escape. I’d already had to add a second support stake at the end, and last night I had to add three bamboo stakes, diagonally, to push back and hold the vertical supports.

The other photos in the slide show are from this morning. There are Spoon tomatoes starting to turn red! The earliest Sweet Chocolate peppers are starting to turn brown. (Most of the other short season varieties I started indoors later aren’t even blooming yet.) Some of the grapes are starting to turn colour, too!

I didn’t take photos, but there are more winter squash showing up, and I hand pollinated what I could. There is a single green zucchini that burst into bloom this morning – a female flower, with no male flowers blooming at all! I ended up hand pollinating it with a winter squash flower because none of the summer squash had male flowers available. Hopefully, that will be sufficient.

I salvaged some welded wire hardware cloth from the old squash tunnel this morning. Once I’m done with the raised bed cover I’m currently working on, there is one more frame left. I think I can use the salvaged mesh for that one. I’ll see if it will need hoops to support it, too. I hope not, because I’m out of useable hoops for that! There are still 2 more sections of hardware cloth on the old squash tunnel to salvage, which should be enough to wrap around the box cover over the popcorn bed. The cobs are developing nicely, which means the deer and racoons will be after it, soon!

High winds had started to knock down some of the purple corn, so they ended up getting stakes to support them. Their cobs are developing, too, but I don’t really have anything to protect that bed. I could use the fence wire for that, but it would be really difficult to manipulate and support that around the bed – and once it was up, we wouldn’t have access to tend it. Plus, the racoons would be able to climb over or squeeze through it, anyhow.

We’re looking at a high of 30C/86F today, and no rain, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some painting done today. The humidity is at 76%, though, and that certainly won’t help. Still, it needs to get done, and it’s one of the few things I can do in the heat. We’re not that hot yet, though, so I want to head back out right away and get as much done as I can before it gets unbearable!

The Re-Farmer