I was a bit late doing my rounds, so it was starting to get a bit dark. Which made finding this, that much more dramatic!
It was NOT blooming this morning!
When checking the squash beds, I have been keeping an eye on the back row, trying to decide with of the surviving plants are gourds. I noticed 3 of them (with possibly a 4th) sending up tall flower stalks. Completely different from all the others!
Now, two of them have these dramatic white flowers!
Not knowing for sure what is what, after the starter trays were knocked over, sure makes checking the squash beds much more exciting than one would expect! :-D
When I got back from the city with our new washing machine, I just had to go around back to see how the painting went for the girls.
The first coat of paint is done!
You know, when I first picked up this shade, I was afraid that once it was on large surfaces like this, it would be too much. I’m happy to say that, now that I see it, I’m loving it even more!
The bird feeder had also been started.
Since these photos were taken, the girls were able to go back and do another coat on the picnic table, then flip the bird feeder to finish the rest of the top side and give the roof a second coat.
I might have to get another can of this paint! The window frame for the basement screened window didn’t get done, but that’s okay. There is no rush on that. We’re also going to wait for the paint to fully cure before we add the spray on rubber stuff for the bottoms of the picnic table legs. Since they’ve already been painted, there’s no rush on that, either.
These are going to look great, once they’re done and set up in the yard!
With all the lovely rain we had yesterday, I could see the squash really appreciated it!
This is one of the recovering squashes that recovered after frost damage to our first transplants.
We’ve got baby yellow zucchini!
This is the first of the summer surprise squash mix that we can actually see what it is. :-)
I’m happy that some of the damaged ones have recovered so well. We won’t be getting anywhere near as many squash as I had originally expected, but that’s okay. We’ll still have lots!
Which is quite a surprise, since we got a call from the shipping company a couple of days ago, letting us know they didn’t have it, and that they’d call when they did. Home Depot gets weekly deliveries, so we were expecting to get a call next Thursday.
Then, I got a call today.
It was an automated survey to determine delivery satisfaction.
Delivery?
What delivery?
So I hung up on the survey, then phoned the store. It’s been a while, so while I got the guy who sold it to me, he didn’t remember the details of our particular order. He was just as confused about the survey call as we were. Once I mentioned we thought the store itself might have it, and he realized it was supposed to be delivered to them, he said he would check and call me back.
Sure enough, it was there!
So I basically dropped everything and headed out! :-D The girls prepped the entry for dragging the box through, then worked on painting, while I was gone.
Once the washing machine was loaded in the van, I took advantage of the situation and found some of the spray rubber stuff, for the bottoms of the picnic table legs.
Like the stove, it juuuuuust fit through the doorway – and because of the arm bar, we had to pull it in on its side. This time, I was able to back the van up so that the bumper was over the steps, which made getting it to and through the door that much easier!
Getting it open was easier, too. The bottom piece was not attached to the box, so once the straps were cut off, we could just lift the whole thing.
Then we set it up where the old machine was, while my younger daughter stayed squeezed in the back to hook it up.
We found one potential problem. The drain hose is shorter than the old machine’s. It just barely reaches the stand pipe. If we could have the machine with its back to that wall, it would be fine, but then we wouldn’t be able to use the machine.
So it is not tight against the side wall, and right up against the step leading into the dining room. It should be fine, but there is no wiggle room on that.
Thankfully, now that the old kitchen and sun room are done, my husband’s walker is now in the sun room. This way, he doesn’t have to do any stairs to get to the walker, nor does he have to lift it up and down the steps to the main entry. Being a larger than average man, he’s got a much larger walker than typical, making it heavier, too. Not something a person with a back injury should be struggling with! We used to keep it folded up right in front of the washing machine, but now that the machine has to be so far forward, there’s no room for his walker.
Once it was hooked up, we leveled it.
It turns out the floor sags a fair bit towards the middle, but my daughter was able to adjust the legs on one side. Then she squeezed out and we pushed the dryer back, moving it forward to line up with the washer.
There is now quite a lot of space behind the machines.
I’m sure the cats will enjoy it. :-D
While going through the manual, I found that it has a “test before using” function. So I tried that.
I don’t know if it worked.
The manual said to turn the power on, then push the spin and soil buttons simultaneously, until a particular letter/number code showed up on the screen.
The code never came up. A number did. I tried hitting start anyhow, and the machine started doing things, but I wasn’t sure if it was doing what it was supposed to!
In the end, I ended up powering it off. I noticed that the machine only uses the HE type of detergent. The detergent we have isn’t HE.
So I headed off to town to pick some up.
Once the water is no longer needed for anything else, I’ll try again, then start some laundry.
I’ve never been this excited to do laundry before!!!
First, I had a cheering squad waiting for me when I went to feed the fish.
Saffron, Cheddar, Big Rig and Two Face
The top of the big aquarium we can’t use right now has long been a favorite place for the cats to sit. Now, the kittens are big enough to appreciate it, too!
Also, Saffron wanted my phone.
It’s amazing, how one little fish fascinates the cats. :-D
Both girls ended up going into the city with me, which worked out rather well. I went into town first, to pick up my husband’s prescription refills. He got just one week’s worth, because of the weird rules over some of his more powerful medications, so he can’t get the rest until after Tuesday. We have actual doctor appointments on Thursday, so they should have updated prescriptions by Friday. Hopefully, that will end the problems we’ve been having regarding his refills, lately.
The bubble packs weren’t ready yet, so I made a quick run to the garage to see about my mother’s car. I was surprised to find it closed! My mother’s car was there, along with one other car, but that was it. Then I remembered that they often go into the city to pick up parts on Fridays. I’ll have to remember to call them tomorrow. I was able to get a medical appointment for my mother on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday this weekend), and it be nice to surprise her with her own car.
My mom’s car has been sitting there for so long, it has spider webs on the side mirror!
After getting the medications and heading home, it started to rain. I even drove through a very nice downpour! By the time I was unlocking the gate, it had slowed down a bit, but started to come down hard again as the girls and I were leaving.
By the time we were driving through the town my mother lives in, we had left the rain behind us and everything was dry! Which is basically the opposite of how it usually goes. :-D
The shopping went smoothly, which is something I can’t say about the drive. It was one of those days where it seemed like every other driver out there was determined to either tail gate me, or pass me into oncoming traffic!
Okay, I exaggerate.
A little.
A very little.
We had way too many close calls for my comfort.
I am so glad to not have to drive through city traffic all the time anymore!
We only had two places we needed to go, and once in the stores, things went much better. We found pretty much everything we needed, and the rest we can get locally as we need to throughout the month.
It feels good to be well stocked again.
Back on the highway, we drove into the rain again. By the time we got home, it was pouring. The girls unlocked the gate for me, so of course they got soaked while walking to the house. I pulled into the yard, right near the door, but got just as soaked while unloading the van.
It was beautiful! The rains have been passing us by for a while, now, so it was really nice to finally get some.
After the van was unloaded, one of my daughters went to check the picnic table under the tent. We hadn’t bothered to put on the walls, so it was possible rain could have been blown in from the sides. The back of the house provided enough shelter, though, to prevent that. The table was bone dry! The bird house I’d scrubbed last night was mostly dry, too. When doing my rounds this morning, I found something I could put the bird house on under the tent, just in case it rained, and I’m glad I did!
Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, we’ll flip the table and do the first coat on the top, as well as the bird house. I have to remember to bring the screened window over to paint, too. I’m leaving that as long as possible, since I’ll have to switch to the high density plastic window we use in the winter. I’ll be plugging in the big blower fan in the old basement to make up for the lack of air circulation while that one is in.
Right now, the sky is blue and there’s a lovely breeze.
I think this is a good time to do my evening rounds.
This spring, the cherry tree near the house has many flowers.
Unfortunately, they did not translate into very many cherries this year. There are just a few, scattered about.
Walking past it today, I noticed some seemed to be nice and ripe. After trying a couple, I picked the rest that I could reach, and brought them in for my daughters.
Yup. That’s it! Counting the one I’d already taste tested, it was a whole 8 cherries.
There are others that are not quite ripe yet, but we’re not going to get anywhere near what we had last year – and that was just barely enough to fill a medium slide-lock freezer bag.
They were, however absolutely delicious. Wonderfully sour, with just a bit of sweetness. A lovely, tiny little treat!
When we first moved here, three winters ago, there was a bird feeder mounted on a metal post at the opposite end of the flower garden where we currently have the platform feeder.
One of the first things I noticed about it was that there was a rock sitting on one corner of the base. I quickly discovered why it was there, when I lifted the top to add birdseed.
The whole thing tipped over to one side.
The rock was a counterweight, so it wouldn’t tip when birds landed on it, or in the wind.
Eventually, I took a look and discovered that the feeder had a metal mounting that fit over the post, so it could easily be lifted off.
Also, there were only 2 screws on one side, holding it in place, and that’s why the feeder kept tipping. Rather than add more screws. someone just put on the rock.
I’d set it aside for cleaning and painting, and for the past two years, it’s been sitting upside down on the bench near the main entry. I just kept forgetting about it.
This evening, my daughter wanted to add a second coat of paint to the bottoms of the picnic table legs, so I went out with her. We’d made a dump run, and I needed to hose out the plastic bin we put the cat litter bags into until we do. As I was putting the cleaned bin back next to the bench, I saw the feeder and realized this was the perfect time to prep it for painting. I just needed to take the two screws out and remove the post mount, first.
Of course, they were two completely different types of screws, that needed different screwdrivers.
One of them was actually bent.
That would be from the bird feeder tipping! I’m surprised they weren’t both bent.
Here is the feeder, after hosing it down to get rid of debris.
And spider webs.
I don’t know how much the birds would have used it, considering it was basically surrounded by the lilac, plus the maple tree that was growing through the middle of the lilac at the time. I’ve since removed the maple and pruned the lilac, so the post is now clear enough that I think the birds will use it, once we put it back again.
I suspect being engulfed in greenery had a lot to do with the feeder being so covered in lichen.
I scrubbed it as best I could, though there are still some crevices the brush I was using couldn’t fit into.
Which is fine. We’ll just paint over it.
I noticed there were holes drilled into the base to allow water to drain off. Considering much much water collected from the hose while I scrubbed, I don’t think they’re enough. I might drill a few more before we paint it.
If I remember… ;-)
I then flipped it upside down to scrub the bottom, then let it dry.
I see absolutely no sign that this was ever painted.
Yeah, the wood is definitely showing signs of rot.
It’s still pretty solid, though. Once it’s painted and the mount is properly secured, it will probably last for many more years.
The plan for tomorrow will be to head into the city for the rest of our monthly shop. Only one of my daughters will be coming along. I believe my other daughter is planning to do the first coat on the top of the picnic table while we are gone, when she takes a break from work. There should be plenty of paint to do the bird feeder, too.
I am also planning on painting the frame of the screened window I made for the old basement.
Long story short, we are still down to just one account.
Long story long…
First, we got a call from the tech guy, saying that he would be here between 1 and 3pm to see what’s going on with our secondary internet account.
Second, we got our ebill for the month.
Yeah. Over $550. They charged us $2 a gig in overage fees, even though my husband had been told they wouldn’t.
Which is when he had a conversation with them!
At first, they tried to say they couldn’t credit us the amount, or credit us for the account we couldn’t use all month that we paid for, anyway.
So he told them to cancel the secondary account.
Well, they couldn’t credit the whole amount, but they could credit us $10 a month for 6 months.
He told them to cancel the secondary account.
He got put on hold while she went to see what she could do.
In the end, he agreed to a credit of $20 a month for 6 months. Which basically covers the cost of the secondary account for a month.
After all the huge expenses we had this month, like having to get a new lawn mower and new washing machine, among other things, plus we’ve still got the rest of the bill for my mom’s car to pay soon, we’ll be paying this bill down slowly for a while. I’d already budgeted a higher amount for the bill, but not that much!!
Meanwhile, we still had the tech guy coming out.
Shortly after noon, I headed out to unlock the gate – just in time for him to pull into our driveway! Yup, he arrived almost an hour early. We got a good laugh over my being there to unlock it at just the right time. :-)
He started off by bringing in his own router to test with. While he did his best to make sure he wouldn’t disconnect us from the one account that was still working, if badly, my daughter stopped working, just in case. The last thing she needed was to be in the middle of something, and suddenly, no internet. So she and I started on the picnic table.
The tech ended up switching modems, changing connectors, changing the entire cable, replacing the receiver on the satellite itself, all while constantly checking and rechecking the signal we were getting.
He was actually getting negative numbers. Which never seen before. I mean, if there’s no signal, it should be zero, but to get negatives?
He was at it for about three hours, in 25C/77F heat, with the humidex at about 30C/86F, in full sun on the roof, and not even a breeze!
Thankfully, we had just picked up a case of van water, and what didn’t fit in the cooler in the van, I brought to the house. I had some nice, cold water bottles to give him!
He did everything he could, and nothing worked.
That one dish is just not getting a signal.
In the end, there was just one thing left, and it was not something he could do.
I identified a specific tree branch that might be causing the problem.
It was actually one I’d narrowed it down to, myself, though partly because it’s the one we can reach to try.
I was ready to just grab a ladder and take it down right away.
Thankfully, my daughter stopped me.
This is the trunk of that tree.
Do you see those holes?
The elms are all riddled with them.
They are made by bald faced hornets. Which are wasps that burrow into trees to make their nests.
That’s right. The tree itself is the nest.
In the fall, they all die. The ones that hatch, build a nest elsewhere.
The tree we’d already pruned huge branches from had been a nest last year, but is empty now.
The year before, they had been in this tree, but in other branches.
This year, their nest is this branch.
Now, these wasps are actually pretty docile. They will leave you alone, if you leave them alone. They are not aggressive. In fact, they are desirable, as they keep down other insects.
If, however, you F* them up, they will F* you up.
Cutting down the branch that is their nest is about as F’ing them up as you can get.
The guy was still hear as my daughter explained all this, which I think he appreciated. He may well need that information at someone else’s place, in the future!
Which reminds me…
I had talked to him earlier about how the satellites had worked for the past while, and that the trees themselves actually have a lot less branches than before. We can tell when the branches are a problem during high winds, as they block and unblock the signal. So when he told me which particular branch he thought my be the problem, we also talked about what to do if we took the branch down, and it still didn’t work!
After he was gone, we had a talk about it.
One option is to pick up a whole lot of wasp and hornet killer, spray the branch, then cut it down. The problem with that is, this isn’t an external nest like with paper wasps that we can spray. The nest is inside the branch, and it’s very unlikely we’d be able to kill them all. We’d probably have to empty 3 cans over the length of the branch, and hope the contact kill gets the ones we miss.
Unlike the paper wasps, though, we don’t actually want to get rid of these guys. These ones are “good guys”. Plus, they will die on their own in the fall. Until then, they will help keep actual problem insects down.
My daughter suggested we just get used to having one account for a while, then take the branch down after the tree stops buzzing.
So tomorrow, my husband will call our provider back and ask them to suspend the account for now. We’ll just have a small fee each month, instead. If we keep paying what we normally budget at the same time, we’ll pay off the current bill much, much faster, too.
In a couple of months, we should be able to remove the branch, then ask them to activate the account again and see if it worked. If not, it’s time to call someone to come out again. Which is what the “care” charge on our bill covers.
Until then, we just have to keep rationing our internet usage, and get used to having horrible internet. The guy did check the primary account, too, and it was working fine, though as I type this I’m noticing we have lost internet again.
Oh, it’s back.
Anyhow.
So I’m kinda feeling really lucky right now. I had been eyeballing that tree and thinking of that one branch that was most likely to be at least part of the problem. I was thinking of just taking it down, and even decided on where to cut it, so that new branches growing out of the remains would still provide shade.
I just never got around to doing it.
When going under the tree, you can hear buzzing, but I’d never been able to see where the buzzing was coming from. My daughter was able to point it out, and you can actually see the wasps crawling around. If I had cut that branch, once it crashed to the ground, I would probably have been swarmed.
I seemed to have really dodged a bullet on that one!
So that’s where we stand now.
Given that my husband already got them to credit us for the next 6 months, they might balk at suspending the account. Still, it’s not the same as cancelling it, and I would hope that they would be understanding once he tells them why we have to wait before we can take the branch down and see if that’s what’s causing the problem. The tech couldn’t even say that it would work. It’s just that he tried everything else he could do. It’s the only thing left that he could think of.
We’ve been wanting to get rid of that tree for various reasons, but now we have a new one.
Wasps!
We’ll just have to find some other way to provide shade.
While the tech was here to try and figure out why our secondary internet account wasn’t working (more about that on another post), my daughter and I got started on the scrubbed and fully dry picnic table.
First, we set up her tent!
Once we moved it over the table, she got the paint ready while I pegged down the legs.
Well.
Tried do.
I was able to get only 1 leg properly pegged down. With the others, it didn’t matter what angles I tried, I kept hitting rocks!
Hopefully, it’ll be enough to keep it down if we get any winds.
Even if we don’t end up getting rain, it provided much appreciated shade!
Since it’s the underside, we weren’t too worried about complete coverage, except for the ends of the legs. Those might even get a second coat before we flip it.
I’m really glad we had those chimney liners to use to raise it off the ground. They really made the job easier! Amazing what a difference just those few inches makes, on preventing back strain.
The colour darkens a bit as it dries, but it’s still really, really bright!
Of all the things we need to work on, this small project is something that will be done fairly quickly. It’s a psychological thing. Once it’s done and set up, we’ll be able to see this one bright object in the yard that is a thing that we actually finished. So many other things have been delayed, or are things that will be worked on over years, not days, or even months.
I really look forward to using it when it’s done! :-)
Just minutes ago, we saw our mystery critter again – this time out by the compost pile!
We ended up bringing the DSLR, with it’s 700mm lens, and tripod over to try and zoom in for some pictures.
Unfortunately, the window we were looking through is the one that was not replaced, when all the others were. It has a sheet of plexiglass mounted on the inside, to keep the drafts out. Which means that there was nothing we could do to keep the auto focus from focusing on the glass, instead of the critter. I even tried manual focus, and the pictures I got were actually worse.
So these are the best of the bunch. I cropped the photos and resized them, but that’s it.
The question is: what is it?
It was eating grass and what I think were dandelion leaves. In one of the photos, it looks like it has a stuffed cheek!
It’s surprisingly large. About the size of our big skunk, but bulkier. Almost as big as a beaver! It kinda has a beaver shape, too, but the tail is completely different.
So it is a gopher? Groundhog? Prairie Dog?
Whatever it is, it’s adorable!
In other things, I just finished making our fall plantings order from Vesey’s. This is what we have ordered (all links should open in new tabs, so you don’t lose your place!):
Fall garlic collection 2: This collection of hard neck garlic includes Porcelain Music, Rocambole and Marble Purple Stripe. The Purple Stripe is supposed to be really good for roasting. The collection has 1 pound of each. We are planning to plant these where we currently have the beets and carrots.
The rest that we ordered are flowers.
Muscari: aka Grape Hyacinth. I’ve wanted these since I was a kid! When we lived in Victoria, BC, they grew everywhere, like weeds. I loved them! We’ve ordered 2 packages of 100 bulbs.
The girls picked the rest.
Snow Crocus Collection: “This collection contains 105 bulbs including 25 Dorothy and 20 each of Blue Pearl, Tricolour, Snowbunting and Spring Beauty Snow Crocus.” Our plan is to mix these bulbs with the Muscari, then plant them randomly in the areas we have picked for them.
Double Tulip Collection: “This collection contains 58 bulbs, 8 of Black Hero, Pamplona & Vanilla Coup and 10 each of Pinksize, Orca and Brownie Double Tulips.” The girls aren’t big fans of the typical tulip shape, but they really love the more unusual shapes.
Speaking of unusual tulip shapes, definitely click on the next link!
Bulls Eye Tulip: We got 1 package of 8 bulbs of these. What an unusual tulip! I can hardly wait to see how they grow.
Eye of the Tiger Iris: They could have had so many punny names for this one… :-D This one comes in a package of 15. We do have some irises in the flower garden the bird feeder stand is currently in. They’ve been there for as long as I can remember! Only 2 of them bloomed this year, and they were done so fast, my daughters never saw them!
Gardenia Daffodil: These come in a pack of 6, and quite different from the usual yellow daffodils I’m used to seeing. When we lived in a PMQ in Victoria, BC, there was a field between our duplex and the military hospital that was just filled with bright yellow daffodils. It should be interesting if these will have the same spreading habit!
And spreading is something we actually want, and they will be planted with that in mind. Especially for the muscari and crocuses. For those, we are hoping they will form a floral carpet to fill in areas between trees, so we don’t have to mow such awkward places.
For our zone, we expect these to be shipped to arrive in the second half of September, in time for immediate planting.
The Re-Farmer 