I was feeling well enough to do my evening rounds. In fact, I feel as though I was never sick in the first place! Bizarre!
One of the first things I did was catch Ghosty’s sibling, and my daughter and I gave it a face wash.
Its eyes weren’t stuck, but there was a lot of crud around one of them, and its nose was partially blocked, so my daughter cleaned it up as much as the kitten could tolerate while I held it. This kitten is starting to get used to being handled, and doesn’t run away like the other kittens. It even comes right up to me, sometimes, and lets me pet it.
While checking the garden, I spotted this beauty.
The Black Beauty tomatoes have a lot more tomatoes forming than seems obvious, at first glance. Some of the stems are so dark, it’s hard to see the dark tomatoes against them. This one, however, is so dark, and was shining in the sun! What gorgeous tomatoes!
I tended to a few things from this morning, including reopening the gate by the fire pit, and using the bucket of water I’d left for the cows to water the Korean pine. Two of the Korean pine wire covers had been knocked off. They’re just held in place with ground staples. I’m going to have to find something better to hold them in place, so they don’t get knocked aside so easily.
I was puttering around the kibble houses before going inside, hoping to lure some playful kittens closer, when I spotted … a new kitten?
My apologies for the picture quality, but I didn’t dare come any closer, so this is zoomed right in from across the yard.
That is a rather large kitten!
Usually, then the mamas bring the kittens to the house, they are old enough to be weaned, or close to it, and able to start eating solid food. The tiny tuxedo that showed up first is the oldest; the others still have blue eyes.
This kitten looks much larger and older than any of the kittens around the house. It looks almost “teenager” size! I’ve never seen it before. It makes me wonder that the mother didn’t bring it to the kibble house earlier!
I’m glad we kept up leaving food so far from the house for cats that aren’t ready to come closer. We have a couple of kibble bowls further from the house, but this one has more shelter under the spirea, and is more popular with the kittens.
We are expecting to see more kittens show up at the house throughout the summer, but younger kittens, not an older one!
I actually took this photo yesterday. I haven’t taken any today.
This morning started out pretty normal. There were just a couple of things that had me wondering, as I did my morning rounds. For example, some of the slug trap jars were out of place, by quite a bit. I checked every squash plant for slugs (found only one!), and there were three of the jars knocked off the mulch and into the paths.
Later, while passing through the maple grove, I went to check on the pipe from the tap. I’m thinking we might be able to just patch the hole, rather than dig up the entire line. The bamboo stake I used to mark the location of the pipe and hole was snapped off at ground level.
It wasn’t until I was taking some fallen branches to the pile near the fire pit that I discovered the cause.
There was a cow on the wrong side of the outer yard fence! The entire herd was there, but one was most definitely not on the side was was supposed to be.
I sent a message to the renters to let them know, then closed off the gates to the inner yard. When I came back with a bucket to fill with water for the cow, as there is no open water source in the outer yard, I spotted a couple more cows – and possibly some calves, mostly hidden by the tall grass! A trail of cow patties by the fire pit gate, leading towards the yard, confirmed that at least a couple of cows had gone into the inner yard during the night. Thank goodness, they didn’t eat anything in the garden!
I sent an update to the renter and she said she would be there soon. I was quite relieved that she even looked at my messages, since we are connected through Facebook Messenger, but haven’t use it since before my account got stolen. I wasn’t sure if she knew I’d recovered it or not.
Next, I went to check the “gate” by the barn, where the cows often sometimes get through. The chain across it was still there, but one of the poles supporting the electric fence was down, and the wire was clearly broken somewhere, and was lying on the ground for as far as I could see.
I popped inside for a while and had a quick breakfast. When I could hear cows suddenly mooing, I headed outside again. The renter had come over in their utility vehicle – with her littlest one along for the ride! – and was by the gate in the fence leading towards the gravel pit. It’s a barbed wire gate, and a pain to open, but she had it down by the time I was crossing the outer yard in that area. At that point, I could see there were quite a few cows on the wrong side of the fence, and they were very curious about what was going on. I went around in one direction, so they’d move towards the opening, while she went around the other way. Unfortunately, one of the cows panicked, and that set them all off. The herd outside the fence stampeded off towards the gravel pit, and the ones inside the fence began panicking even more, trying to find their way through. A couple of cows found and went through the open gate, but at least one cow and a couple of calves barreled their way through the barbed wire fence. Then one last cow went and ran in the opposite direction. We got her going back again, but she wouldn’t go for the open gate. She eventually went through an opening in another part of the fence, which normally has the electric wire across it.
We got the gate closed again, but a couple of lines of barbed wire were loose. She brought out a fence tightener she’d grabbed on her way out, but it turned out to be broken. Her husband usually does this stuff, but there was some sort of accident involving a fence on another section of property he was dealing with, and he probably had the working tightener.
Thankfully, we have some. I’ve found at least 3 of them, and 2 of them were in the garage, so I went and got them. The first one we tried worked, and now I know how those things are used! It was the first time I’d seen one in action.
Once that was done, I went to put the tighteners away while she checked the fence line, so see how many fence posts would need to have the barbed wire re-stapled to them, and the status of the electric fence wire.
We continued to check the fence from both sides, though there were some sections I couldn’t get at, as it’s so overgrown. I even commented about how I don’t mind the cows getting through, because they can eat the overgrown grass we can’t mow, and how I wouldn’t mind borrowing a couple of cows for that. I’d said that to her husband, when he was her last, and they actually wouldn’t mind that, except that we have no way of knowing what might be buried in there that a cow might eat or hurt themselves on. Which is completely understandable!
While I was working my way around piles of stuff on our side of the fence, the renter found a broken end of electric fence wire, but there was no side of the other end.
The section of fence that is open is by the septic outflow pipe, which is on the outside of the fence line, near a collapse log building on the inside of the fence line. There used to be fences around the entire area where the outflow pipe and a low section it drains into is, but those fences have fallen down long, long ago. The only think keeping the cows out there is the electric fence. That’s where we found where they got in; the tall grass was all tramples and the electric fence wire had been dragged far into the outer yard. There wasn’t enough slack for her to connect them again, so she was going to have to get more tools and supplies.
I went inside and intended to go back out again to help later on, along with doing a number of other outdoor tasks on my list, now that we’re having such gorgeous weather right now. Unfortunately, that plan went out the window, when I was suddenly hit with a bout of severe intestinal discomfort. For several long, uncomfortable hours, I didn’t dare stray far from the washroom. As if that weren’t bad enough, my husband was hit with the same problem, at the same time! We have no idea why, but we were both fighting for the bathroom, and even our daughter’s had to get rushed out a couple of times. I didn’t even dare drive the 3 miles to the post office to pick up a parcel, and had to get my daughter to do it for me.
We seriously need a second bathroom. Yeah, we have the outhouse, but it’s too far from the house for times such as these! Thankfully, whatever it was, seems to have passed and I’m almost feeling stable again.
So plans for today have been thrown completely out the window. Thankfully, I’m feeling stable again – at least enough to do my evening rounds! I was even able to head out and harvest some more mint for my daughter. She decided to use the mint harvested earlier to make a simple syrup, but the longer she cooked it down, the less it tasted like mint, and the more it tasted like sugar. Once the syrup is strained and cooled, she plans to use it to make mint flavoured panna cotta. I’m quite looking forward to it!
Plus, mint will be good for my digestive tract. I just wish I knew why it went crazy in the first place, so I can make sure to avoid it in the future!
Thank goodness, the weather is supposed to stay good for the next week or more!
Last night was another chilly one, as we went down to 9C/48F – but not chilly enough for the furnace to turn on this time! The thermostat was turned down to 10C/50F for the summer, but we never expected it to actually get lower than that!
Today we hit 26C/79F. We keep getting storm warnings, but I can’t rely in them hitting us, so I made sure to water the garden. Starting by hooking up the soaker hose and just leaving it while I made a run into town to pick up some prescription refills for myself, refill a couple of our 18.9L water jugs, and fill the tank on my mother’s car. Thankfully, the gas prices in town have not gone up with the new tax, though it has in other parts of the province, including the city. Rather backwards on that, but I’m certainly not going to complain!
I haven’t heard from the garage about our van, yet, which means he hasn’t had a chance to look at it. Thankfully, we have access to my mother’s car, so it’s no hurry.
I wasn’t going to do any heavy stuff in the heat of the day – the rest of the week is supposed to be much more reasonable! – but that just meant catching up on smaller things. While moving the hose to the different beds with sprinkler hoses, I went ahead and planted some of the Red Swan beans we have so much of, in with the purple corn. These beans are both a fresh eating and dry bean, but this late in the year, I think we can only reasonable expect to have fresh beans in what’s left of the growing season. Hopefully, they will work out with the corn to climb. I considered planting bush beans, instead, but I’d rather pick beans from higher up!
After finding the newly sprouted summer squash eaten by slugs already, I sprinkled fresh corn meal around all the squash mounds. I spotted another seedling in the next mound over, and I didn’t want that one eaten, too! I also sowed more summer squash again. If this third planting doesn’t take, that’ll be it for trying to sow them. I just came back from checking the garden beds while there was still enough light, and I did find a few slugs around a couple of squash, but that’s it. Hopefully, this new application of corn meal will be enough to keep them from returning.
Along with watering the main garden with the hose, it was time to refill the old rain barrel out by the Crespo squash and new raspberries. I’m trying to make sure the squash out there get extra water, because that corner gets so dry and sun baked. For the garden beds in the south yards, I used water from the full rain barrel by the sun room, then left the diverter off so that, if we do get more rain, it’ll get refilled.
While watering the old kitchen garden, I took the time to take the cover off the shallot bed and do a thorough weeding. The first of the poppies in there has started to open, and I can tell these are more of the Double Scarlet, not the Giant Rattle poppies we grew there before. Darn. Still, these do seem to be an eating poppy, not an ornamental one, so that’s okay.
The shallot greens were starting to get too tall for the wire cover – a problem I did not anticipate! – and were falling over too soon, so I harvested enough of the greens to take some of that weight off. Then I decided to harvest some of that mint that’s been invading our paths; it’s much taller than the ones I transplanted into the retaining wall blocks! My younger daughter might try some of the mint to flavour a panna cotta. Sounds good to me!
I also spotted our can of marking paint when I got back inside, which reminded me to head back out again and use it to mark the rocks and high roots in the southeast yard, so we can see them when mowing the lawn. We’ll have to get more of that marking paint. I finished off the can, and it has been very handy.
I made sure the kibble was topped up for the evening – I don’t want to do it too late in the day, or we’re just feeding skunks and racoons. Of course, I still saw a skunk before coming back in, just a little while ago. The kittens were also out and playing. I was able to catch and pick up another of the white and greys, and give it a cuddle. It didn’t like being picked up and put down, but it tolerated being held and snuggled just fine!
I was happy to see the tiny tuxedo enjoying the bed and stuffy the Cat Lady donated to the yard cats. There are other beds in the cat house, but these are in the water bowl shelter. Even the littlest kittens have figured out how to use the board leaning on the edge as a ramp, to drink water in there. Of course, we have water bowls at their height, but it’s good that they can get at the ones in the shelter, too.
Among the two litters that now spend so much time in the sun room, there are a couple that are white and black, very much like their mother, but one of them is most definitely a tuxedo, even tinier than the singleton! I spotted the two tuxedos playing together, and can see that it’s going to get hard to tell them apart, once they’re both adult sized!
I think I managed to get a decent amount of stuff done today, even if it wasn’t the big stuff that needs to be done, too, just yet.
I was up way too late finishing this off, then set it to upload while I went to bed. It wasn’t until I watched it together with the girls this morning that I realized I’d inserted a video clip twice somehow. I don’t have the motivation to fix it! 😄
So there we have it: a tour of how the garden is doing, as of a couple of days ago.
I hope you like it! Feel free to watch it on YouTube and give it a like, subscribe, etc. if you wish. 😊
We had another beautiful, coolish day today. In the afternoon, I headed out to finish the last little bits of lawn I didn’t get done yesterday.
It was raining.
Not much, and it stopped and started frequently, but enough that the grass was too wet to mow, and I certainly wasn’t going to use anything with electricity.
So I worked on the sun room for a bit, cleaning out the corner the kittens like to hang out in, and moving things so I could finally access the shelf against that wall. I was also able to finally put those folding legs onto the piece of 3/4″ plywood I found in the pump shack. We now have a 6 foot by 2 foot table. This will come in very handy. Especially with the picnic table finally falling apart.
Next pay period, I need to include some outdoor paint in the budget.
Later on, I headed out to pick up our beef freezer packs that we ordered. By the time I got back and we had supper, it had been clear long enough that the grass was dry, so I headed back outside.
We took our van to the mechanic for him to check when he has a chance in between appointments, so we’re parking my mother’s car in the middle of the garage, where there’s lots of room. As I went to get the lawn mower out, I took advantage of the side her car is normally parked being empty. The garage has a dirt floor, and the cats have been using it as a litter all winter. We’ve had enough rain this spring, that the soil was damp until recently. It is now dry, so I grabbed a wheelbarrow and a rake and finally cleaned it all out. It looks – and smells! – much better in there now! Then I got the push mower out to finish up the mowing in front of the garage. One thing I can’t do with the riding more is mow right into the doorways, so that’s looking all nice and trim, now.
Speaking of trim, once that was done, I broke out the weed trimmer to continue doing the edges of the inner yard, and the outside of the chain link fence along the garden beds. I just went as far as the extension cord from the garage would let me, which gave me a chance to work on the edges of the sidewalk to the people gate in the chain link fence. It’s quite a mess, partly because we still have those horrid elm seeds along the edges. They have caked on along the edges, including where the blocks are uneven, and did not want to come off. Some did loosen enough that pieces came off when I swept away the grass clippings with a broom, but in the end, I had to use the stirrup hoe to get them loose.
The sidewalk is getting to be a bit of a mess. Parts of it have lurched out of position because of tree roots. Some are cracked, most likely because my family has been driving over with for decades, either driving up to the house, or when my late brother would use the Bobcat to clear snow away. That sort of thing. Some pieces have become uneven enough that I have to be careful when mowing, or the blade will hit concrete.
The lawn is also trying to encroach on parts of the sidewalk, so I worked my way down the edges with the stirrup hoe to try and cut back what the weed trimmer wasn’t able to clear away.
Then I got to the end of the sidewalk by the people gate.
In that area, there are a number of broken blocks set to make the sidewalk wider. We’ve tried to keep those clear, too, including clear of snow in the winter. I’d gone over it with the weed trimmer, but there’s a lot more growth into the cracks between the blocks there, so I ended up using the blade on the ice scraper to cut and clear away the grass, roots and soil.
I started to scape and clear the blocks and though I’d cleared it, so I got the hose to pressure wash debris off the sidewalk. I paid particular attention to the edges, to try and clear the soil away. When I got to the end with the broken pieces, I found I needed to do some more scraping and clearing, along with using the ice scraper to try and break up soil and roots, just to be able to move it aside.
I can’t believe I’m still finding those glazed bricks all over the place! But why here? There was another regular brick I found, but that one made sense, since it was filling in a cut out corner in the patio block.
I kept scraping, until it became clear that the last block actually extended under the chimney block planter at that end. So I cut away the soil and roots around the chimney block as best I could, then left it. I didn’t want to get too close to the chimney block and undermine it.
Then I started working on the other side.
I found another glazed brick and dug it out. That one was broken, but when I went back to clear some more, I found one more that was intact.
I also found more patio blocks.
Quite a bit more!
When the matted roots, grass and soil got to be more than 4 or 5 inches thick, I stopped for the night. Once again, there is a patio block under the end of the garden bed on that side, but this time, there might be more than a foot of patio block under the bed. Thankfully, the things we have growing in there have shallow roots.
There’s a block that extends towards the elm tree on that side, but it’s going to take a lot more effort – and better tools – to uncover it.
I wonder if my brother remembers those blocks being there, and how far they extend? Because these have been buried for decades! Over the past 30+ years, we moved back to this province a couple of times. Somewhere in between those moves, the chain link fence was installed, and those blocks were added, but I don’t remember ever seeing them extend that far. I can’t even remember if the sidewalk blocks where there before or after the fence was installed!
I plan to uncover as much as I can for now. Then we will decide it we need to remove the ones under the garden bed ends or not – after the growing year is done, of course!
You’d think, as we’re into our 6th summer here, we wouldn’t be finding mysteries like this anymore!
Yesterday was beautifully cool, and I knew it would get cooler overnight but, my goodness, did it get cold last night! With June’s temperatures, I haven’t even bothered putting a blanket on my bed; just a top sheet, and I’d often sleep on top of it, with the fan blowing right over me. Last night, the fan was off and I should have closed the window and gotten a blanket, but was too sleepy to do it, and slept cold, instead. When I finally checked the temperature at about 6am, it was 7C/45F!! I don’t know if it got any cooler than that last night, but you can bet I was checking on the tomatoes and squash this morning, for cold damage. They seemed to be just fine. If I’d known it might get that cold overnight, the girls and I would have covered them! I keep a bottle water by my bedside for when I take my supplements, or just need a drink during the night. When I drank it this morning, it was as cold as if it had come straight out of the fridge!
The kitties seemed to handle the drop in temperature just fine. I’m sure they were well cuddled by their mamas!
Speaking of mamas…
I thought I saw a pregnant cat run by, last night! There she is! I almost never see this cat anymore. I can’t remember if we’ve ever named her. Good grief, she looks ready to pop! Considering we’re in July, I suspect this is a second pregnancy, and that she lost her first litter. Unless she’s the tuxedo’s mother, but I don’t think so. She is from one of the oldest of last year’s kittens. We can’t get anywhere near her, and the only reason I was able to take this photo was because she was really hungry, and I can zoom in.
As I was finishing up my rounds, I was pleased to spot this.
The tiny tuxedo has figured out that there’s safe food on the roof of the cat house! Normally, he eats at the tray under the water bowl shelter. He couldn’t do that at the time. It was occupied.
An adult skunk had already run off, but these two little ones did not want to leave the food. I sprayed them with a hose to chase them off, as I usually do, and one ran off. The other, however, kept trying to go back for the food, then hunkered down beside that ceramic chimney flue and just took the spray. Of course, I stopped. The little guy eventually started moving around as if looking for the food. I felt so bad! The urge to go over and try to comfort it was very strong. I didn’t, of course. They shouldn’t be eating kibble (it has to do with how their jaws hinge, not because it’s bad for them), but my goodness, how can I say no to a hungry baby? I just completely soaked it, and the poor thing even looked like it was shivering as it moved around.
I’m such a horrible monster! 😥😥
Looking at the long range forecasts, we’re going to get more cooler night, but not as cold as last night. Daily highs are expected to be slightly below average for July, with less rain than June. This will work out just fine for getting work done outside. It’ll be great for the local farmers, too. Some have already baled their first cut of hay, and may even get three cuts this year. I’m seeing grain fields turned golden and almost ready for harvest, and the canola fields are in full bloom. There is lots of pasture for the cows, and the dugouts are full of water. Wild berry bushes are ripening, too, so there will be plenty of food to keep the wildlife uninterested in our garden!
It’s looking to be a really good growing year. Plus, it’s supposed to be a strong El Niño year which, for our area, usually means a mild winter, too. That would be so nice! For us, and for all the critters outside!
After the hours spent outside yesterday, trimming, cutting and dragging around trees, I fully expect to be in a world of hurt today. I wasn’t! Just tired. Sleepy tired, not fatigue tired.
Today was a wonderfully cool day and it would have been prefect to get back out there, but I decided not to push my luck. Instead, I went out and made recordings for a July garden tour video. My husband had some parcels come in, so in the afternoon I went to the post office to pick them up. My younger daughter got her new debit card in the mail, which needed to be activated by doing a physical purchase, so we went into town and she bought me lunch. After we ate, we went to walk on the beach. By then, I was really noticing my hips were starting to give out. No pain. Just… unstable. So I’m glad I didn’t push myself to do more work with the trees, just because I thought I was better than I really was.
I couldn’t let such a wonderful day go to waste, though, and took advantage of the riding mower my brother loaned us. I was able to do the driveway and most of the outer yard before running out of gas again. By then, the light was starting to go, and it had been trying to rain for almost an hour, so I left the rest for later.
One of the things I need to mow around in the outer yard is the pile of insulation buried in branches. It’s been there so long, there are trees growing out of it, and wild raspberry bushes.
Lots of wild raspberry bushes.
With ripe berries! The ones in the garden are almost ripe, but these had berries ready to pick now!
So after the mowing was done and the kibble topped up outside, I got the girls to grab some bowls and pick berries with me. I’m not sure what happened with my younger daughter, though. She came out using a cane! After we came back from town, she went for a bike ride and seemed fine, but something gave out on her. Her PCOS really affects her joints, and she worked hard in the basement today. None of us do stairs well at all! I didn’t get a chance to ask what happened, though.
After we picked some berries, I was going to do my evening rounds when I remembered, we have other berries, too! There are Saskatoons ready to pick. My older daughter helped pick for a while, then commented on the cherry tree by the house. It has so many cherries on it, and some of them are just starting to turn red. I told her to go take a look at the other cherry trees along the edge of the spruce grove. I have been able to just see red cherries there. She took a look and forced her way closer, to pick some.
She was able to get at a whole 4 ripe cherries!
My older daughter and I ate those. They’re really sour cherries, and she and I are the only ones willing to eat them fresh like that! 😄
Not too shabby for a first berry harvest of the year! The girls washed them and made whipped cream to go with them. They were awesome.
The weather is supposed to be quite pleasant for the next while – slightly below average for July. I’m pretty excited about that. Hopefully, that means I can finally get lots done outside!
First, though, I want to wish all my visitors from the US a Happy Independence Day!
When heading out into the sun room this afternoon, I disturbed Adam from out of a corner. Why is it that they insist on lying in the junkiest corner? 😄 When she ran off, I saw this.
She had been nursing all of the kittens, including Ghosty’s sibling.
When I came out with the kibble this morning, I found him at the food bowl we moved into the sun room, with his mom; the white and grey I can never keep track of. She ran off, but he just stayed at the bowl. Turned out his eyes were completely stuck shut. So I took him inside and got my husband to hold him while I washed his eyes. It didn’t take much at all, which is good, and he was soon returned to mama.
Later in the evening, I spotted his mama nursing all of the babies, too. So the two mamas have basically combined their litters into a single creche. I’m happy about that! I keep thinking it might be 3 litters, but today, at least, it appeared to be two litters; Adam’s 4 older kittens, plus the white and grey’s remaining kitten.
Ghosty, meanwhile, is doing quite well.
Decimus has accepted her, and allows her to nurse. They both enjoy the wet cat food and kitten kibble, too. I pre-dosed the kitten kibble with lysine when I transferred it into a resealable container. We have not needed to wash her eyes lately, which is excellent progress. She’s still a bit sticky, but nowhere near as bad as when we brought her in!
With last night’s storm, I was happy to see the tree my brother cut down that got hung up on other trees had fallen closer to the ground. It’s not going to drop any further, though. It’s now hung up between the trunks of a group of trees. We can, at least, reach most of it better, though, so we’ll be able to work on it eventually.
With today’s slightly cooler weather and a nice, clear day, I started working on getting those dead spruce trees my brother cut down for me, out of the bushes.
I took photos and will eventually put it all together in a video but, for now, this is what I managed to get done today.
Gosh. That doesn’t look like much, now that it’s done! 😄 It did, however, take a LOT of prep work before these logs could finally be dragged over.
The two trees that were on the ground were almost completely hidden by underbrush. I used the weed trimmer to clear a path to them first, then did a bit around the trees themselves. There were too many hidden branches, though, so I had to shift gears.
The top of the first tree extended a lot more than I thought it did. I used the little mini-chainsaw pruner to clear the branches, then remove the most crooked section of the top, before working my way down the trunk. I had the wagon nearby to put the branches in, and made a few trips to the branch pile near the fire pit, cleaning up as I went along.
Once I got it clear enough, I was able to pull the entire trunk out from under the stuck tree, then continue removing a few more branch stubs. Next, I measured 18 feet from the thick end of the trunk, and used the electric chain saw to cut it. I used a rope to drag the top part through the trees and into the garden, which was harder than it should have been. I neglected to roll it over and check it, first. There turned out to be a stub of a broken branch at the end, acting like an anchor!
Needless to say, I made sure to check the 18′ piece before I dragged that away, too!
The top of the tree is around 16-17′ long. Too short and thin to make the long walls of the beds, but it will do nicely, cut into 4′ lengths, to create the end walls.
The other tree that was flat on the ground was looking very crooked – spruces tend to be like that at their tops – and I thought it was shorter than the first one. As I cleared more dead branches and tried pulling it out from under the stuck tree trunk, I realized it was a lot longer, and thicker! In fact, when I finished clearing the branches and measured out 18′ from the end, I was still at the far side of the stuck tree! It was simply too big to pull out first, like I could with the first tree.
The top was moved first. I hadn’t bothered to measure it, since I figured it would be too short, but when I dragged it between the posts that are 18′ apart, it almost reached, end to end! The thinner top, though is still pretty crooked, so it will likely not be used as a side wall.
Then it was time to drag out the rest of it. I rolled it around to cut away any branch stubs that might cause problems, but the trunk was quite a bit larger and heavier, and getting caught on things. While I was working, I was constantly finding very old and rotting branches and pieces of tree trunks hidden in the undergrowth, that have clearly been there for many years. They made for a rough surface to drag on. I ended up tying a plastic bag around the end of the trunk, to reduce friction. It helped a lot but, by then, I was getting pretty hot and tired, so I got a daughter to pause making supper to come help me drag it out.
While working on this tree trunk, I found the fourth tree my brother had cut down. It is another big one, and he felled it in the opposite direction. It’s almost completely hidden, not just by undergrown, but other trees, and I’m honestly not sure how I’m going to get at it.
As for the tree that’s stuck, that one is even bigger. This is one that’s going to have the thickest 10′ cut off and taken to where we plan to build the shelter for the outdoor kitchen we plan to build. These trunks are far too thick to use for raised beds, as they would take up a lot of growing space. Rather than cut them in half or something, we will instead use them as vertical supports for the shelter.
But I was not about to work on either of those logs, today.
I started to put things away, but I really wasn’t happy with having done only two trees. Especially when there were other thinner dead trees, right there.
Yup. I ended up cutting down another tree.
Gosh, that thing felt so light, after fighting with the big one! Even though I used a hinge cut, it still fell off to one side and got a bit hung up on other trees. It was easy to get loose. I just put the rope around the trunk near the stump and pulled it until it fell the rest of the way. It also fell across the stuck tree, which made it much easier to work around.
Then it was just a matter of clearing a few branches – there weren’t very many at the bottom half – measuring out and cutting 18′ and dragging it out.
The top of the tree is resting on top of undergrowth, and I left it there for now. I am not sure how much of it will be useable. It won’t be useable for the walls on the raised bed, but it might be useful in other ways.
I’m still going to have to cut down one more smaller tree for this bed. There’s one that looks like it’s similar in girth as the log with the plastic bag on the end. I’m planning to make these beds 2 logs high, but I want the bottom logs to be the bigger, thicker ones.
This time I have the draw knife, so I want to de-bark the logs and cut away any remaining branch nubs, lumps and bumps. I didn’t do that for the high raised bed, and I can see that it would be much better to do it than not.
I want to get at least one bed built, with the vertical trellis supports in place, before cutting down more trees for the second one. Ideally, I’d put in the vertical supports for both beds, along with the horizontal supports to make a trellis tunnel, right from the start, but we’re going to have to work on things piecemeal for now. Plus, we will be building at least one, probably two, more of these, so this one is the learning experience!
I’m happy with the progress, and I’m paying for it now, but I’m actually not having as much trouble as I’ve had in the past. Of course, tomorrow might prove me wrong, but it seems my body is finally starting to handle things better. Yes, I’m stiff, my left knee tried to make an escape, and a thigh tried to go into a conniption fit, but I’ve certainly had far worse pain, stiffness and joint instability after far less work.
It just feels so good to finally be able to work on this!
I’m quite late starting this, because I am so very tired. One of the main reasons why is, almost no sleep last night!
We had a storm blow over us. A few of them. While we had driving rains and high winds, thunger and lightning, we did not actually get the brunt of any of the storms. From photos I saw people sharing in local groups online, the town to the north of us got hit much harder than we did!
Because of the wind and rain, we ended up propping the sun room doors like we do in the winter, making sure there was something blocking the outer door to make sure it didn’t get slammed shut. This way, the kittens and cats would have a more secure shelter in there. With the doors open, as we’ve been leaving them lately, the wind was blowing the rain straight through, and half the floor was soaked in no time. After propping the doors, we left the shop lights on, so we could check the room from the bathroom window, too.
At about 2 in the morning, one of my daughters went into the sun room to check on things. When she untied and opened the inner door, she discovered the ghost kitten huddled on the threshold between the doors, completely alone. Both its eyes were completely stuck shut.
So she brought it in. They washed its eyes, and brought it to my room to baby jail, to see if Decimus would accept her. This kitten is older than hers but at least a few weeks, but more helpless.
At first, Decimus seemed to be okay with this. The kitten immediately tried to find nip, and she did not seem to object. I was still awake, so I stayed up and watched over them for a while. When Decimus started hissing and batting at the ghost baby, I let the girls know. They came with the cat carrier and took the baby upstairs with them. They also gave it wet cat food, with a dose of lysine. It took a while to figure out the dish of food, but when she did, she basically sprawled on top of it and devoured it. Then she curled up in my daughters arms (they took turns holding her) and went to sleep.
In the morning, they tried bringing her back to Decimus. Again, Decimus seemed okay with her at first, but she was so aggressive with trying to find nip and failing, pushing the other kittens aside, we finally took her out. I’d make a quick trip into town to get some cat milk and kitten kibble, and my daughter bottle fed it for a while. Ghosty didn’t seem to figure out the bottle, either, but my daughter just squeezed the bottle so she at least got drips of the milk. Then, she was put back with Decimus.
With a full belly, she didn’t try to nurse, and just snuggled, instead. Decimus seemed quite okay with that!
So, we now have another kitten in the house. At least this one is slated to be taken by the cat lady when she gets back. She’s out of the country right now, but I’ve been sending her pictures and keeping her updates. She will take both gooby babies. While she has had no luck adopting out bonded pairs, singletons get adopted quickly. She took in a pair of older kittens from a shelter that were slated for euthanasia before she left the country, and they were adopted out within 24 hours!
Since then, I’ve also been able to catch and bring Ghosty’s litter mate inside to get its eyes and nostrils washed. It isn’t anywhere near as bad as Ghosty, but still bad enough to be a problem. It looks like these two are the only ones of this litter. I still haven’t managed to count how many are in Adam’s litter, because they run and hide so quickly. Plus, I think there is a third litter visiting the sun room. The tuxedo that was here earlier seems to like having other kittens to play with, but he still tends to stay away, claiming the cat house as his own.
While we were up and about with kitten happenings, my daughter were in the dining room when they heard a whole lot of cracking and crunching noises. Either a tree fell down, or the one that was stuck fell further down.
When heading out for my morning rounds, I found more downed branches in the yard than usual. The biggest drop was a chunk of one of three big maples near the fire pit. The middle one has died, and one of the main branches finally broke. Thankfully, it fell into a part of the yard that is wide open.
I ended up finding quite a few downed branches, this time. We haven’t had a lot before now, since we’ve been cutting down as many dead branches as we can reach. Those winds last night, though, were really something. We had power flicker out for a few moments. Enough to shut down our computers (we weren’t fast enough in shutting them down first!), and wake my husband. His CPAP is quite high pressure, so he’s got a chin strap to keep his mouth closed while he sleeps. Rather than a face mask, he has nozzles that fit into his nostrils. If the CPAP shuts off, he suddenly has no air at all. As you can imagine, it’s a very stressful way to be awakened!
Still, I have no complaints. The garden is enjoying the rain, and while one potato bed had all its greenery blown to one side, there was no damage. In fact, the closest thing to damage I found was a hoof print, right next to a summer squash seedling! A deer had made its way through, and almost squished one of the squash we re-sowed.
Today was a slightly cooler day, with a high if “only” 25C/77F, so I took advantage of it to do work outside. Tomorrow is supposed to be even better, with a high of only 19C/66F. Alas, we will be going above 20C/68F again after that, but not quite like the heat we’ve been having for the past while.
I look forward to the work, but am now concerned I might not be able to do it. As I was writing this, I got up to go to the washroom, and my left knee tried to give out. Not with pain. It just decided it wanted to dislocate. Then when I got back and tried to sit down, I started getting a Charlie horse in my left leg! Thankfully, it didn’t get bad, and I was able to stretch it and relax it before it could do that.
I’ll share just what I did to cause all this, in my next post!
