This photo really highlights that mix of white and black fur he has! When the light doesn’t get these stark contrasts, he looks like a grey old man. 😄
Also, the poor bugger has SO many burrs hiding in the long fur. Every chance I got to pet him, I’d try to pull some more out, but I keep finding more. He’s got a big clump on his chest, and I found an even bigger one at the back of his belly. There’s another big one behind one of his ears, though I’m not sure if that’s a burr, or a matt of fur. We’re going to have to take scissors to this poor guy!
Speaking of poor guys. Or gals.
The girls can hear stuff outside from upstairs much better than on the ground floor, so when my younger daughter went flying out of the house, I figured it was to break up another cat fight. It was over by the time I joined her, but it was not what I expected. I figured The Distinguished Guest and Shop Towel were at it again, but nope. It was Rolando Moon…
And another orange cat.
A long haired orange cat.
Rolando Moon was in the tree in front of the kitchen window, with a tuft of long orange fur stuck in her teeth.
I got it out for her.
The cat had run away behind the storage house and, as we watched, I spotted it crossing the snow behind the pump shack. I realize I have seen this cat before. About a week or so ago, as I head up the driveway while doing my morning rounds, a cat exploded out from under the garage door and went running across the old hay yard, disappearing behind the shed and barn. With the sun rise behind it, I wasn’t sure if it was an orange cat, or a grey one, but I was leaning towards orange. All I knew for sure is that this was not a cat I’d seen before. Seeing the long haired orange walking across the snow in better light yesterday evening, I think it’s the same cat I saw before.
We’ve had long haired orange cats here before, and I have old pictures and video of one particularly mean bugger from the last time we visited the farm before my father passed away. It’s been a few years, though. Since moving here, we’ve gone from having almost all orange yard cats to only one – Rolando Moon, who is also among those photos I took so many years ago.
So it’s possible we might get a new addition to the yard cats (I counted 23 or 24 this morning). That’s assuming Rolando Moon doesn’t drive it away!
On another note, I was able to spend some more time cleaning up old blog posts to free up media storage space. I completely forgot just how many photo posts I made over the years! For a while, I was doing both Critter of the Day and Photo of the Day posts at the same time. While a lot of these posts are basically just a picture with maybe a line of text, some of them had four or five photos each.
No wonder I’ve been running out of storage space!
As I go further back, though, a lot more are full blog posts that also have a whole lot of critter photos added in. I’ve been leaving those. I also left the ones where the images are stored on Flickr. I still have more to go through, but I did manage to free up more storage space. As the seasons progress this year, the photo heavy gardening and progress posts I used to do will be a thing of the past, or I’m going to be facing the same problem in a very short time. I’ll be putting things together into videos, instead. As far as I can tell, YouTube and Rumble don’t have any storage limits.
It was a bit nostalgic going through those old photos before deleting them off of WordPress. There was one really good photo of Nicky the Nose’s face, looking directly at the camera. Gosh, Nosencrantz looks so much like him! No DNA test needed to confirm paternity! We haven’t seen Nicky the Nose for a couple of years, now. I found some old photos of Shop Towel, looking younger and less beat up, along with other toms that used to visit, but no longer do. Quite a few of our own yard cats that have disappeared in there, too. Seeing pictures of Keith as a kitten brought back memories. We sure miss him.
There are so many good photos. I can see why I posted them, and hate to have to remove them. I want to find some way to bring them back.
Hhmmm… What are your thoughts on this idea. If we were to use some of these photos on a site like Red Bubble, where they could be printed on demand on things like mugs, clothing, journals, clocks, stickers, etc., with all proceeds of sales going towards the care and feeding of the cats, how do you think that would go over? Would you buy, say, a cell phone case with beautiful bird picture on it? Or a notebook with a picture of a deer sticking its tongue out? Or a t-shirt with a cat photo?
Or maybe you have some other idea for these photos to suggest?
Today, my daughter and I headed out for what should be our last big stock up trip of the month.
Well. “Big” is a relative term.
Of course, the morning rounds were done first, and I had company!
The ice these cats are so curious about was melted and muddy by the time we got home.
Also, I counted 24 this morning. When we got back and finished unloading, I topped up their food and water, and The Distinguished Guest was there! I’ve been seeing him more often of late, though yesterday, Shop Towel also showed up and there was quite the cat fight. No new injuries on TDG that we can see. He still looks very rough, but he’s no longer limping. Poor thing. He was so hungry, he almost let me touch him while he was in the kibble house!
My daughter and I left a bit later than we usually would have, as we thought we might have company this morning. The timing didn’t quite work out, so while we were gone, my husband got a quick visit from his sister from another mother, who dropped off some gifts. Including this.
His sister had bought it recently, but then got a really good deal on a Ninja, so she passed the Magic Bullet on to us! That was very thoughtful of her. 😊
My daughter and I had only two places to go to. Our second stop was at Walmart. My daughter had her own shopping to do. I picked up two more 9kg bags of kibble. At $34.97 each, it was a better price than the Canadian Tire. I also picked up some more cheese, since I wasn’t able to get what we usually do at Costco. Some Havarti ($4.44), marble ($4.44) and mozzarella ($7.87). We also got a small ham for the Easter basket ($10.97).
My daughter was shopping for clothes, which reminded me that I needed to get a new pair of jeans. Generally, I don’t like most of the clothes in the women’s department. Especially pants. I find the proportions are off, and they are often made with fabrics that feel really unfortunate. They do sometimes have one specific style of jeans in stock that I find comfortable. Today, there were just a few left in one colour, so there wasn’t a lot of choice, but I snagged them, for $22. That put our grand total at Walmart at $130.70 after taxes, most of which was cat food. We should be good for kibble for the rest of the month.
Our first stop was at Canadian Tire where, along with two bags of hardwood stove pellets (they were out of softwood, which is a bit cheaper) at $7.29 each, we got this.
You can see my new jeans in the corner. 😄
We were very happy to see they had the Iron Out tablets in stock, so we grabbed two, at $6.79 each. I also found nice large eco-pots that can be buried directly into the ground. I will test them out when I pot up some of our larger squash and gourds and see how they are. I got 8 of them for 79 cents each. They had even larger sizes, which might be useful, depending on how big the Zucca melon and gourds get, before we can transplant them outside. The other varieties will be started over the next few weeks, and should not get quite so large before it’s transplanting time.
We got an extra caulking gun because it was on sale for $8.97, and the one we have now has a lot of roofing tar stuck to it. It’s still useable. We would just prefer not to have to deal with that when we’re adhering and caulking the tub surround (the plumber never called back; I’ll have to contact him again and make sure he has my number!).
Then there are the bricks.
I got four fire bricks at $6.99 each. This put our grand total at $78.96 after taxes.
The fire bricks are something I plan to buy a few at a time, every month, which will be manageable on our budget. They are among the few things we will need to buy new for when we build our outdoor kitchen. The floor of the bread oven will be lined with these, and so will the fire area that will be under an open grill.
My daughter and I spent some time talking about our plans for the outdoor kitchen, including something we should be able to salvage. We still have that old wood cookstove in the old kitchen. It’s broken and we can’t use it. Even if it wasn’t broken, and we didn’t have the insurance issues, I wouldn’t dare use it. This thing is sitting directly on the floor, and there are no heat shields. No one had any of that stuff, back when this was installed. It would simply be too dangerous to use it.
However, we could incorporate the cook top into our building plans.
There are two main things broken on the stove. The hinges on the oven door are snapped. Which, I suppose, only matters if you want to use the oven. The thing that makes it unusable is the damage to the firebox.
You can read about how cleaning this old stove went, here, but this is the damage I discovered after emptying out the ashes. The oven hadn’t been used in many years, but no one bothered to clean out the fire box or ash bin.
That’s cast iron, and the space behind it was jammed solid with ashes, which you can see in the picture. It was really sad to see the results of how badly this old stove was treated.
Also, it’s a wonder we didn’t burn the house down, back when this thing was still being used!
So we’ve got this big cookstove in the old kitchen that can’t be used and is taking up space.
Which means that once we’ve got the shelter built, we can dismantle the cookstove and set it up again in the shelter. As long as it’s protected from the weather, and not sitting directly on the ground, it should be fine. Then we can look at incorporating pieces of it into the cooking area we will be building, and it would give my daughter the set up for a wok that she was thinking of, though the openings might be a bit small for what she has in mind. That’s okay. We will have plenty of time to modify our design ideas before we actually start building. The main thing is to get the shelter built, first.
Once we get that out of the old kitchen, we’ll have more space freed up. The chimney will still be there, though, so in the future, we can get a smaller cookstove and set it up with all the proper heat shields and floor protection in place.
After fixing that room up. The floor condition in particular is … fascinating.
All in good time.
Until then, we can do things like slowly accumulate the materials we will need, like the fire bricks I bought today.
On top of the expenditures listed there was, of course, the cost of gas. We were at half a tank on my mother’s car when we left. We stopped at the town my mother lives in to get gas, where we found the new carbon tax brought the price up another 4 cents per litre (we now pay 14 cents per litre in carbon taxes altogether), bringing it to 156.9 cents/L. Because of road dust getting into things, the gas pump nozzle keeps shutting itself off, as if the tank were full, so I never know how close to full I really am. I just put in a little over $20, which at least got me above 3/4 of a tank.
On the way home, we took a different route and stopped at the town we do most of our local shopping. My daughter had an errand to run, and I decided to try a particular gas station on the way home. This place had been closed for a while, but when the reopened, their prices were much lower. I figured, even with the price increase, they might still be the best price. Their sign read 151.9 cents/L, which was better than the old price in other stations – but when I put gas in, I noticed the pump was reading 145.9 cents/L! I put in $25 and actually filled the tank!
Okay, my mother’s car has a small tank and has terrible mileage, but I’ll take what good I can find!
I think I’ve found where I’m going to be buying gas regularly, as much as possible, now!
So that’s been our rather expensive day. Other than things like fresh produce we buy locally, we should be good for the rest of the month!
I forgot. I should have filled the tank again on my way home yesterday.
Quick Dick explains it well.
The cost of everything is going to go up again.
This is going to hurt so many people.
Folks, if you haven’t started to grow and raise as much of your own food as you can (and this is a worldwide problem), get starting doing what you can, as best you can.
I had intended to do the Canadian Tire and Walmart trip next, but we were running out of too many things that we get at Costco, so I did that today, instead.
After my morning rounds, of course.
We are at 0C/32F as I write this, and it is quite gorgeous outside. I counted 23 cats this morning. They are spending far less time in the sun room with the warmer temperatures. I don’t know what they are doing, but so many of them are showing up with burrs stuck all over their fur! At least Pointy Baby (in the front) will let me pull them out of his fur with remarkable patience, but even he has his limits!
There is a rather interesting problem we have found that we get pretty much every spring. As the snow melts, a moat forms around the garage. At this point, there’s still a lot of snow, so no moat – but the path through the snow to the garage cuts through part of the low spot. Which means that any snow that melts pools in this one spot along the path. In the morning, it’s frozen, rough and very slippery. By afternoon, it’s melted and getting deep. There’s no way around it, since the water extends below the snow, too.
Thankfully, my boots are pretty waterproof, but when we have heavy loads in the wagon to bring to the house, the wheels sink into the water thawed inch or so of mud at the top, which makes it even rougher once it freezers overnight again. We really need to lay a whole lot of gravel down in this area!
Especially when we have loads like this to drag through it.
This is actually a small Costco shopping trip for us, but we do have four 11.6kg (about 25 pounds) bags of kibble, plus a case of 48 cans of wet cat food, weighing it down.
I didn’t want to do too large of a trip, since I was using my mother’s car, but it was sort of a moot point, anyhow. This came out to $530.28 ($27.59 of that was taxes). That’s quite a hit on the budget. Yes, it’s a monthly stock up trip, but we still need to keep part of the budget for buying fresh produce locally throughout the month. And we still need to do the Canadian Tire and Walmart trip. Not that we have a lot to get there (the main thing is to restock our stove pellet litter supply, which is inexpensive), but I also did a local shopping trip last night that ended up costing just over $200 – half of which got “reimbursed” by my husband, who asked me to pick some stuff up for him that we don’t normally get, but still. Ouch.
So what did I get for $500?
The four bags of kibble cost $37.99 each. They’ve gone up in price again, I think. Still better than elsewhere! Canned cat food, case of 48: $38.99 Toilet paper: $22.99
Butter, 5 pounds at $4.89 each – the price has actually gone down! Canned chicken for the pantry: $17.99 – I think that has gone down slightly, too Peanut butter, 2kg size: $8.89 Nutella, 2pk: $13.69 We almost never buy Nutella, but my daughter has a recipe she wants to try with it, and it’s cheaper to buy it at Costco Iced Tea mix: $7.99 sale price ($2 off) Regular mayonnaise: $10.69 Kirkland cream cheese, 4pk: $9.49 Crimini mushrooms: $4.99 – the white button mushrooms are now the same price as the crimini, so there’s no reason not to get the tastier ones! Strawberry jam: $9.99 – there were similar sized jars of slightly cheaper jam, but this brand comes in jars we like to reuse for other things Fresh blackberries, 2 clamshells: $4.99 each – which is a really good price for blackberries in packs this size! Basmati rice: $12.99 – not the brand we usually get, but they didn’t have what we normally get. I hope it’s good. The last time we tried a different brand, it was awful. Goat cheese, 2pk: $10.69 Farmer sausages: $9.99 Pork Loin: $26.35 Even the pork is starting to get expensive. They’re sold by weight, which makes it easy to choose a smaller one by looking at the price. Getting the smallest one used to put the price at or near $20. Not anymore! Tilapia fillets: $21.85 There was actually quite a lot of fillets in the package for that price. My daughters will get a few meals out of that. Ground pork chub: $19.99 Lean ground beef chub: $32.78 sale price ($8 off) This thing was quite large. I haven’t seen ground beef sold this way at Costco for many years. Rotisserie chicken: 2 at $7.99 each These are still cheaper than buying whole, uncooked chicken. Tortillas: 2 packages at $9.99 each
And that’s it. I didn’t get any of the giant blocks of cheese we normally get at Costco because they didn’t have any in stock. There’s other stuff I might have picked up normally, but couldn’t justify the expense. There are getting to be too many months where I see things and think, “oh, we’re getting low on that, I could pick some up…” only to not do it because of the price. Things like garbage bags, freezer bags of different sizes, facial tissue, etc. Instead, we end up getting smaller sized packages elsewhere, or skipping it for another month.
Unfortunately, I don’t see that situation improving any time soon.
But, we have what we need.
Once at home, I took the pork lion and split it into three pieces to freeze individually. The ground beef got divided up into four large Ziplock freezer bags, while the ground pork got split into four medium Ziplock bags. With what we still have left from our beef freezer packs and our recent Superstore trip, our chest freezer and fridge freezer are both quite full.
We’re still good, for which I am grateful. There are many who aren’t.
There’s a certain downside to ordering a lot of seeds. Namely, a tendency to forget what I already have, what I’ve ordered, or even what I wanted to order, but decided not to this time.
It helps to organize the packets at least a little. For me, the main thing is to have them divided into bins for what needs to be started indoors, and what can be started outdoors. I sort them more, within the bins, but those are my two most important distinctions.
As I worked on the seeds that needed to be started indoors the earliest, went through our garden plans, and even browsed the catalogs, online and off, every now and then I’d think… “huh. I thought I ordered another type of eggplant.” Specifically, the most common eggplant we see in the grocery stores. Then I figured I must have changed my mind and decided not to, this year.
Today, I got a shipping notification from Veseys, letting me know that my last packet of seeds, a purple bean variety, that was back ordered are on their way. After this, it’s just the live items that won’t be shipped until late May, before our last frost date.
Looking back at the original order confirmation to remind myself what would be coming in May, I noticed something else on the list.
Classic Eggplant.
I did order them.
They should have been started a week ago.
Where are they?
I went through all the Veseys packets in my “start indoors” bin. Nothing.
I got about half way through my “direct sowing” bin, when I found the packet, tucked in amongst the root vegetables.
Oops!
So, I quickly got them going!
There aren’t a lot of seeds, but we don’t need a lot of plants, since this is a “lets find out how they grow and if we like them” year. I had some 10 cell square peat trays, but only used half of one. If I’d found the seed packet earlier, they would have done in with the peppers and Spoon tomatoes that I started earlier in the week, instead of having 2 rows of tomatoes. Ideally, though, they would have been planted at the same time as the Little Finger eggplant.
Here they are, in the large aquarium greenhouse. They really ought to be on the heat mat, but there’s no room, so I added a small bin to raise them closer to the warm lights, and set it up with the strawberry tray. No sign of those, yet, but when I checked under the dome over the large tray, I think I actually saw some tomatoes elbowing their way to the surface!
It’s a bit late, but these only need 75-80 days, so we should still have time. I planted two seeds per cell, and still have some seeds left. If we get only 50% germination, that’s still enough for our needs for this year. We like eggplant, but we don’t buy it often.
I spotted this adorable sight, just as I was finishing up my morning rounds.
The cats are taking advantage of every snow-free space they can find!
This morning, my daughter and I headed out fairly early to do the first of our stock up shopping trips in the city for next month. We are using my mother’s car, as we are avoiding using the van as much as possible now that things are warming up, which means smaller trips.
Smaller in size, but not in cost!
Our first stop was at an international grocery store, where we also had dim sum for breakfast (which I was able to do and still stick to my Lenten fast of no sugar or starchy foods).
I completely forgot to get a picture of our first purchases, but this is what we got:
Food: 2lb bag of Mandarin oranges: on sale for $6.99 Avocados; bag of 4: on sale for $3.49 Bananas: $1.095/kg got us a bunch at $1.88 Caramelized onion goat cheese: $8.99 Triple creme brie for our Easter basket: on sale for $11.99 Gouda cheese, truffle (a real treat!!!): $9.61 Blue cheese stuff olives for our Easter basket: $7.99 4pk quantity sale: 2 of ground chicken, 2 of stir fry beef, $20 (saving us $4 total) Ketchup: sale price $4.49 Bell pepper variety pack: on sale for $5.99 Coffee creamer for my daughters: on sale for $4.49 Two 5lb bags of Russets: sale price $3.99 each Bacon slab: smoked applewood $10.43 Bacon slab: smoked $10.25 House brand sliced bacon, 2 packages: sale price $3.89 each Two 2L soy milk for my lactose intolerant daughters: $4.69 each Dark soy sauce for my husband (the Filipino brand we usually get was out of stock, so this is a new one for him to try): sale price $3.49
Non Food: Extra strength carpet odour eliminating powder: $4.79 Febreeze (for upstairs): loyalty card 20% off for $5.29 Non-bleach, pet safe spray cleaners, 2 bottles: $4.99 each
The sale prices (with our loyalty card discount) saved us $23.75, for a grand total of $155.62 after taxes.
All of that, except for the potatoes, fit into two of our hard sided grocery bags, with room to spare.
Our next stop was Superstore.
This is $424.02, plus a free turkey for purchasing more than $300
*sigh*
Non food: Dry cat food, two 10kg bags: $32.99 each Paper towels, 12pk: $11.99 Toilet paper, 24pk double rolls: $19.99 Replacement mop head: $6.99 Polysporin, extra strength + pain killer: $11.49 Gauze for the first aid kit: $6.79 Insoles, for my daughter: $17.49 Insoles, for me: $17.99 Deodorant: $4.99 Argan oil (hair treatment): $.68 Feminine liners: $13.99 Hair elastics: $5.00 Toothpaste for sensitive teeth: $6.49 Large bottles of shampoo and conditioner: $15.99 each (we finally found the kind we’ve been looking for!)
Food: Soy sauce – they had the brand my husband likes! (he’s basically the only one who eats soy sauce): $2.99 Tapioca pearls (for my mother): $1.49 Giant block of Old Cheddar: $32.49 Whipping cream: sale price $5.69 Frozen chicken nuggets (something I asked my daughter to pick for a quick treat): $10 Frozen pizza bites (another quick treat): $10 Giant pack of hot dog wieners: $9.99 Frozen pork lion: $19.71 Frozen shrimp: $16.99 Sourdough loaf: two at $3.00 each French bread: two at $0.95 each Torpedo buns: 1 large bag at $5.00 Rye bread: two loaves at $4.79 each Hot dog buns: two at $4.29 each (most of the bread went straight to the freezer) Goat cheese: $7.99 Sandwich meat: smoked turkey and Montreal smoked meat, at $6 each Figs and Port salami for the Easter basket: $9
Butterball turkey: free
I didn’t realize until now that the cashier didn’t ask me for my points card, and we were so busy loading the cart, I forgot I had one, which means I didn’t get my 4420 points. I’ll have to hang on to the receipt and claim those, because I can actually get cash off my groceries with them. We’ll be back in the city in a few days, so I should be able to take care of that.
Our next trip to the city will likely be a Walmart and Canadian Tire trip. I only got 2 bags of cat food, which won’t last long, but I didn’t want to overload my mother’s car. We’ll need at least 8 big bags, total (unfortunately, the cats don’t want to eat the larger bags of cheap stuff from the feed store) for the month. More, if I can only find the 9kg or less sized bags in stock. We also need to get more stove pellets for the litter boxes. Those come in 40 pound bags, but I think if I spread them out in the back of the car, it should be okay to get a couple of those, plus a couple of bags of cat food at the same time.
The price of beef is absolutely insane. I was looking to order another freezer pack from our local ranch supplier anyways. I’d hoped to find some good sales to supplement but, nope. The “sale” prices are still too rich for our budget! The only beef I got today were the stir fry beef that were part of a sale in the first store we went to.
On top of all this, I put $25 gas in the tank, which almost filled it, and by the time we got home, the fuel gauge was lower than when we filled!
On the way home, I asked my daughter about what she hoped to do here at the farm; things to build, fix, grow, whatever. She is very interested in having to buy as little as possible which, in the future, would include things like making shoes and weaving cloth. She wants fiber animals (goats or alpaca), but would also like to grow flax to make linen. For the space we would have available to grow flax, it would take a few years of accumulating the fibers, but then, it’ll take a few years to buy or build a spinning wheel and loom (her drop spindle won’t quite cut it!). I also have some heritage wheat seeds that I want to grow, just to collect more seeds, for future use. We would be converting parts of the outer yard into small fields for stuff like this – which requires significant clean up, first!
As for leather, once we get to the point of hunting deer, she would be interested in tanning the hides. My husband has been doing some leatherworking and has lots of tools, but the leather itself is so expensive, he hasn’t been doing anywhere near as much as he would like.
We also talked about building more smaller sheds. Most of the outbuildings here are falling apart. We’ve got way too many things crammed into one side of the garage, and that space would make a great workshop. Plus, the garage itself needs a lot of repairs. If we have someplace else to safely store this stuff, that’ll make it easier to do the repairs it needs. Right now, the only space we could use is the barn, and it’s already got so much stuff in it, much of which is probably junk, simply because of how long it’s been sitting there. Plus, the barn isn’t exactly in good shape, either. I certainly would never use it for animals again, without a lot more repairs than we are able to do ourselves.
We also talked about fixing the pump shack; the concrete floor is breaking up and the wooden walls are rotting away, but the frame is still sound, and it has a solid metal roof. It’s also possible that the only thing we need to get the old well going again is to replace the leathers in the pump. After all this time, they would need to be replaced anyhow. We just have to find out what size we need and find where to get them from. If it still doesn’t work right after that, then we would call a well company.
Of course, we want to grow as much food as possible. With the way things are going, food prices are not going to be going down again for a long time, if at all. The value of our dollar is dropping too much.
Once the snow is gone enough, the first thing we need to do for this year’s garden is start building the trellis tunnels. My plan had been to bury the vertical posts in the ground, which would still be mostly frozen. However, now that we know that that area can get flooded out, we would need to have at least low, probably mid height, raised beds at the base of the trellis tunnels, we might not need to. The vertical posts can be part of the walls of the raised beds. The tunnel part would be 4 ft wide (for accessibility reasons, all our paths will be 4 ft wide), but we would not be able to reach the beds from the inside of the tunnel once the climbing mesh is in place, so the beds would be only 2 ft wide. Once the walls, mesh and soil is all in place, we won’t need to worry about the vertical posts getting blown over. We will also be making portable trellises, but they are not as high of a priority, since they can be built much more quickly.
Then there is my priority to have a chicken coop. Our homesteading neighbor that has a shed he needs to get rid of promised to bring it over to us in the spring, once the snow is clear. We need to figure out where, exactly, to put it. It then needs a floor and a modification to the roof to make it into an angled shed roof, rather than a flat roof (which started leaking and is why it needs a new floor). Heck, as long as we have the floor, we can throw a tarp over the roof to start with. As for nesting boxes, I think we actually have some in the barn, and it wouldn’t take much to make roosts.
This would do to start with. I also want to get that antique wagon frame from the car graveyard and see if it’s salvageable to make a chicken wagon. For the amount of eggs we go through, having chickens will be a huge help with the food bill. Eventually, I’d like to have a couple of pigs; both chickens and pigs can be a huge help in clearing and reclaiming land so it can be used to grow food. Plus, of course, we will have manure for fertilizer. The fiber goats my daughter wants to get would be helpful with that, too, but I think that’s for a bit further in the future. Plus, we would get a couple of piglets in the spring and they would be butchered in the fall, so that makes them a priority over goats. Unless we get a milk goat, first. Then my daughters wouldn’t have to buy soy milk.
The main thing is, the more we can grow ourselves, the easier it will be on the budget, and the more food security we will have.
After spending more then $550 today (though we did spend more than usual on non-food items), and not having anywhere near what we need for a month’s stocking up, this isn’t even a matter of choice anymore.
The rest of the peppers got done today, along with the Spoon tomatoes. That bowl has all the Spoon tomato seeds left from last year, as well as the new seeds I got this year.
The tray has 6 long rows, and I considered also planting the remaining Purple Beauty pepper seeds from last year, but there weren’t enough seeds to fill a row, so I decided against it. There were not a lot of pepper seeds for any of the other varieties, but with just one seed per pellet, I still had some left over.
With the Spoon tomatoes, I used the last two rows, planting two seeds in each, and still had some seeds left over. (A wooden chopstick is really great for picking up individual seeds and planting them!) It’s potentially a lot more of these tomatoes than I was intending to plant of this variety, but they did go over very well the last time we planted them. If the germination rate is high and we have a lot of extras, I’m sure I can find someone who would like some transplants. 😉
As for the peppers, we’re not after a lot of each type, so if the germination rate is low, as long as we have a few plants of each to try, I’m good. I want to have an idea of which ones do well here, and which ones my family enjoys eating, and that will decide what we will grow again in the future.
After this photo was taken, I put the dome over this tray, and then switched out the tray on the warming mat in the aquarium greenhouse. I had thought I might be able to leave this tray, with the dome, by the window, but when I touched the Jiffy pellets, they were cold! These are heat loving plants, so onto the warming tray then went.
This is the tray that got switched out. The Crespo squash on the right will be potted up once the true leaves are more fully developed. We still have just the two Caveman’s Club gourds in the middle; I’m considering soaking a couple more seeds to add to the one pot where nothing germinated, just to have more transplants. I don’t expect everything that gets transplanted to survive, so having more just increases our chances of having at least one plant survive.
The Black Beauty tomatoes (middle) and the Indigo Blue Chocolate (left) are doing quite well. The Little Finger Eggplant (far left) are not. Of the few seeds that germinated, only two are growing, and one… I’m not quite sure if it’s going to make it. So I reseeded the pots. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more to transplant by June.
Oh, it looks like I’ll be heading out soon. A very excited daughter just came in to let me know her glasses ordered from Zinni have arrived. She has been absolutely miserable without glasses for so many weeks. I just have to wait for the post office to reopen for the afternoon. I’m really looking forward to seeing how these are for quality.
He will sometimes follow me at a distance, when I do my morning rounds. I’ve been able to sneak a pet every now and then, while he’s eating on the cat house roof, but he takes off as soon as he realizes he’s being touched.
He and his long haired tuxedo sibling are among the oldest of last year’s kittens. I found out the girls have named them. Because of what their faces, especially their noses, looked like when they were kittens, the girls names them Adam and Driver.
This afternoon, I headed into town with my mother’s car (the last time I started the van, it started better than it has been lately, but now there’s a strange noise coming from around the alternator), ran a few errands, then met up with the egg lady. I got a couple of flats of eggs for ourselves, and a dozen for my mother. I didn’t have my usual large insulated bag, so I just put our flats in the back of my mother’s car. I then went to my mother’s place to deliver her eggs before heading home.
The highway home has a couple of places marked with signs to warn that they are bumps or dips. One of them – a dip – has been getting much, much worse. For some reason, the highways department just won’t fix it.
I forgot to slow right down when I hit it.
I swear, the car got some air time on that.
When I “landed”, I heard it.
From the back of the car.
A sickening “crunching” noise.
I was really dreading what I would find after I parked the car and opened up the back.
I was most definitely expecting something much worse! I didn’t even notice the bottle of washer fluid when I put the eggs in, since it is kept tucked into a hollow way off to one side, and the eggs were in the middle.
We just lost the one egg. Even the eggs underneath were okay.
I am not alone in wishing the highways department would fix that dip! It’s brutal on vehicles, and many people have complained about it. Someone even went a put a big home made sign in the ditch beside it, painted with the words “fix me!”
I’m just glad the damage wasn’t any worse today! 😁
The snow on the driveway is pretty hard packed, but there are a few softer areas where tracks show up. This morning, I was seeing some unusual deer tracks.
Then I checked the gate cam files.
I watched at least 7 deer, over three videos, coming in. Later, the camera caught three of them running out again, at full speed!
That certainly explains what I was seeing in the snow this morning!
I have another slight change in plans today. I was going to meet a woman in a parking lot for a great deal… 😉 The homesteader I buy most of our eggs from is going to be in the town closer to us with a load of eggs at a certain time and place, so I figured that would be a good time to get a couple more flats
Then I got a phone call from my mother. I had bought an extra dozen eggs for my mother as a surprise a while back, and she was wondering if I would be getting more eggs. She wanted to get another dozen for her Easter basket – eggs she wouldn’t need to colour!
So I contacted the egg lady, letting her know how many I was after. She’ll have enough, so I’ll be getting eggs for both ourselves and my mother. Though it’s a bit early for Easter!
The funny thing is, I’ll be going to the town closer to us, getting the eggs, then driving to my mother’s place, which is in a town between our place and the egg lady. So instead of saving some driving, I’m at least doubling it! 😄 I don’t mind, though. I’m glad my mother liked the eggs I got her! Last time, though, she ended up with all brown eggs. This time, I’ll make sure she gets a few in other colours.
With that in mind, I’ve slightly postponed starting seeds today. I was able to pick up more Jiffy pellets to refill a tray, which is now set up and hydrating. Tomorrow, the rest of our peppers – all early varieties – and some Spoon tomatoes will be started. Depending on how much room I have in the tray, I may even fit in some Purple Beauty bell pepper seeds from last year. That was all I have that need to be started indoors in the 8-10 week range. We’re currently at about 9 weeks before our last frost, so next week I hope to start the seeds that need 6-8 weeks.
I’m going to have to figure out how to raise the mini greenhouse frame higher, in a secure manner, because we’re eventually going to need the shelf space. Where the shelves and frame are sitting, they get excellent sun in the morning, but the bottom shelves of the mini greenhouse are in the shadow of the wall under the window. I know how I can get it higher. It’s that “secure manner” that’s a bit more of a challenge.
Looking at the newest seedlings in the large aquarium greenhouse, I could see roots making their way through the biodegradable pots the Crespo squash are in. They need to be potted up! Right now, there are three, big healthy seedlings in one pot, and a new one coming up in the other pot. I’ll see if I can thin by diving. I’d hoped to have larger biodegradable pots to pot up to, but I’m just not finding them. I suppose I could order online, but by the time they get here, it’ll be too late. So they will go into plastic transplant pots.
We did lose that one sickly drum gourd, but the others are doing well. The Zucca melon, however, is really thriving. Both still have pots that were reseeded, so we might get more of each.
The thyme is doing so well, I’m thinking of eventually potting up one of the bunches into a permanent pot for growing indoors, while the others get planted outdoors. We have a second variety of thyme to start, but not for a few more weeks. I’m curious to see the differences between the variety. As small as the current seedlings still are, they have SUCH a strong fragrance when the leaves are handled.
I am quite happy with the new, cat proof living room set up. It’s really making things much easier this year!
The Re-Farmer 