Author: Re-Farmer

It’s brrrr out there, again

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April really sucks, when it comes to the weather!

The last two days were awesome. Today, we’re looking at 6C/43F. As I write this, coming up on 11am, we’re at 3C/37F – but the “feels like” is -6C/21F We are finally getting some of the predicted rain, at least. Later on, it’s supposed to be a mix of rain and snow. A system is pushing in from the south and affecting the southern prairies, with the potential for quite a bit of snow. Our climate bubble is in effect, still. Looking at the weather radar, I could even see the horseshoe shape in the weather system as is splits up and goes around our area. The lake effect is really something!

It hadn’t started raining yet, while I was doing my rounds.

I had lots of company this morning, too. Magda (scratching at the log in the background) follows me but still hasn’t forgiven me for closing her up in the isolation shelter, over and over. 😄 She isn’t coming close enough for me to pick her up and tuck her into my jacket anymore! She still accepts pets, though.

Speaking of pets, I managed to sneak some pets onto Brussel as she tried jumping back into the cat cage to join her babies, and her expected wet cat food and morning squeeze treat. Her babies are SO eager for attention, and climbing all over the place. I’m glad I lined the bottom of the cage with cardboard so long ago. They haven’t quite discovered the opening we’d cut into the bottom under the entry. We had done that when Toni was in recovery from her amputation, hoping her somewhat older babies would find her and nurse. Instead, Toni squeezed through! We had to bring her indoors for recovery. We were never sure which babies where hers, but the creche mothers – including Adam and Brussel – likely took them in with their own, just as Brussel has with Caramel’s first baby.

I had to go into town today to pick up a prescription refill for my husband; his “controlled substance” painkillers that he’s not allowed to refill until he’s almost out, so getting it delivered on Thursday was not an option. After getting his meds, I popped across the street to the Red Apple and went looking for smaller food and water dishes. The smallest one we have right now doesn’t quite fit into the back of the trap. It can only fit at and angle, which puts it over the trigger. They were inexpensive, so I got four of them. One will go into the cat cage, now that the littles are getting more mobile and interested in solid food. We don’t want to put much food in there, as that would encourage other cats, or even the skunks and racoons to get in there. The alternative it to close up the cage in between feedings, and I don’t want to do that to Brussel. She heads out more often, and for longer, now. I’ve even seen her on the trail came, crossing to the neighbouring property. In fact, I see a LOT of cats going back and forth in there. Which may explain some of the new faces we sometimes see. They would be from the next closest colony. Which is preferable to them being dumped cats!

We won’t live set the trap quite yet; the overnight temperatures are just too low, for the next few days, and we aren’t in a position to constantly monitor it. What we can do is move it closer to the house. I am also thinking to make a shelter over it to make it cozier and more cave-like, so that when we do activate the trap, any critter caught in there will be sheltered and warm until we can see who it is and either get them to a vet or release it. I don’t want to get any of the lactating mamas and, of course, we don’t want to get any skunks or racoons, and this trap is big enough for a racoon.

We do have two smaller traps as well, and these new food and water bowls might fit in them, too. They are more squirrel traps, though, and might be too small for an adult cat. We shall see. I haven’t taken too close of a look at them since my brother gave them to us.

Along with the food and water dishes, I also picked up some jingling toys for Brussel’s babies. They are getting so active, they need something to play with! When I got home, I put one of them into the cat bed in the cube next to where their cat cave is, and another right into the cave. Who knows. Maybe even Brussel will play with it!

As I was walking back to the house, I caught the attention of these cuties.

Magda and her doppelgangers, keeping cozy under the heat lamp! It actually gets too hot in there on the sunny days, so I’ve been unplugging the extension cord for both the heat lamp and the heated water bowl, then plugging it back in for the night. With today being so wet and chilly, they appreciate that heat lamp!

The wind and rain also means I won’t be able to work on the outside projects quite yet. If the forecast is at all accurate, tomorrow afternoon might work out. We’ll need to dig the longer extension cords out of winter storage, if it’s dry enough to use the electric chainsaw. Otherwise, there are some repair and maintenance jobs that can be worked on.

For now, though, I’ll take advantage of the unpleasant weather and start editing the recordings I made yesterday, into our April garden tour video. It won’t be a very long one, yet! 😄

The Re-Farmer

We have lost that battle! Plus garden stuff

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Well, yesterday, we finally admitted it. The battle has been lost. We’ve thrown in the towel and admitted defeat – for safety reasons, really.

Despite my best efforts, Magda kept getting out of the isolation shelter. Once, I found a sliding window open, but most of the time, I could see nothing disturbed. The only way I could see how she could be getting out was through the roof, even though it was weighted down with bricks, and there is a ceiling of rigid insulation. I couldn’t see how she could be getting out the back, where it lefts, but how could she be getting out through the front, where it’s hinged?

Now, the insulation has been slowly scratched and chewed up through the winter, so there is a big gap where the two pieces meet. The gap between the insulation and the roof panels is very narrow, but Magda is so tiny. Was it possible?

Just in case, I found some boards and more pieces of scrap insulation that I slide in between the roof panels and the insulation ceiling. There were still spaces, but they were very small.

Once inside and in the kitchen, went to open the window, which is directly above the isolation shelter. I spotted Magda at one of the gaps in the insulation, scratching at the roof panel. When she heard me tell her to stop, she disappeared below.

Off and on, I would check out the window. Nothing was happening.

Then I looked out and found a very flat Magda, squeezed between the boards, the insulation and the roof panel, like a pancake. !!!

I dashed outside but, as I came closer, she slithered her way back into the shelter, flung herself into the cat bed and stretched out, looking at me as if nothing had just happened. !!!

I found some more scrap pieces of insulation and shifted the boards I’d added around, then kept checking out the window. I didn’t see anything.

Eventually, though, something about the insulation seemed… different.

I went out to check, and there was Magda, sitting on the lawn, looking at me. She had somehow managed to pull the insulation downwards enough for her to squirm through.

At that point, I gave up. She’s supposed to be recovering from surgery, and the last thing she should be doing is squeezing through tight spaces and dropping down from a height. Since we’ve finished the ear medication, and The Grink was looking fine, too, I opened the ramp door to the isolation shelter and let them out, putting the wind breaker box over the opening again.

Even so, when I came out this morning, I found that window open again!

While I was doing my rounds this morning, I had a whole lot of cats following me, including Magda! The second photo above was taken while I was checking the garlic bed. After I got the picture, she walked under Stinky to get to the other side of him.

She is so small, she didn’t have to duck at all to go under him.

Gosh, those two look alike. Given when he was neutered and how old she is, I suppose it’s possible he’s her daddy.

The garlic, meanwhile, is looking much better now!

Their finally turned nice and green and, with the netting in place, nothing it digging them up anymore.

Yesterday was such a gorgeous evening, I was able to do a few things in the garden, though I neglected to take photos. One of them was to uncover the winter sown bed in the old kitchen garden to give it a good watering. With the plastic cover, it didn’t get even what little rain we’ve had, and the sump pump that drains at the high end of the bed has yet to go off this year, so it’s not being watered from below, either. There was enough water in the rain barrel that I could give this bed a thorough watering. Once the cover was off, I could also see that there are quite a few seedlings in there, and what appears to be a couple of onions that I missed from last year!

Once the cover was back on and the plastic secured, I started watering the bed at the chain link fence that is now covered with mesh. I came back to the rain barrel to refill, and found two cats lounging on top of the raised bed cover!

I am not impressed.

The pre-sown bed at the chain link fence, plus the one among the east yard garden beds got watered, and I was still able to refill the watering cans to leave in the portable greenhouse to warm up during the day and add to the heat sink effect during the night.

Which doesn’t actually seem to be accomplishing anything. Whenever I check the thermometer in the morning, it’s reading the same temperature as outside the greenhouse. Still way to cold to be able to move our seedling trays into there!

In checking the other areas, I did some clearing around the walking onions. There are quite a few of them coming up right now. Unfortunately, so is the crab grass, only some of which could be pulled out for now. I check on the fenced off area where the tulips are and there are a lot more leaves showing now. Even the saffron crocuses look like there are more of them. While they never reached the point of blooming before they got choked out by weeds, clearly the corms have expanded.

After I finished my rounds this morning, I grabbed the turkey dinners I put together for my mother and headed out. I left early enough to swing past the grocery store to see if it was open today. It was, so I popped in to pick up a few things I knew my mother was running low on. I also picked up some instant oatmeal for her to try, since she’s having a harder time standing long enough to cook herself breakfast. I figured instant oatmeal would be better than boxed cereal. I got a package with three different flavours for her to try out. When I got to her place and was putting things away, I opened the box to read the instructions – she would have great difficulty reading them herself. Each flavour called for a different amount of water. Oops. Ah, well. I explained the instructions to her as best I could.

While today was just a day to visit, I of course did a little jobs for her, including bagging up her recycling. I noticed bean cans in there, which was something I’d got for her to try before, so I asked how she liked them. She was very enthusiastic in her response, so canned baked beans are now on the list of heat and eat things for her! 😁 Until now, she’d just been getting canned soups.

With the few things I picked up for her today, plus the dinners, plus her three days a week of Meals on Wheels, it turns out my mother isn’t going to need an actual grocery shopping trip for a while. It was, for the most part, a good visit. It wasn’t until the very end, when it was getting time for me to leave anyhow, that she started going off on a tangent. One was about how surprised she was that my brother didn’t phone her for Easter. I pointed out, he came over to visit her because they were going to be out of province this weekend, to spend time with the grandbabies. “Oh, two weeks ago”, she scoffed. Except it wasn’t; it was last weekend, and he spent a long time with her going over her financial stuff, as he regularly does, along with bringing her stuff for her basket and an Easter card.

Then she started going on about my daughters, and how terrible I am for keeping them “tied” to me (she doesn’t get that they actually chose to move out here to help maintain this place) and even back to ranting about how they “know nothing” because we homeschooled. She doesn’t know the girls at all, has made no effort to get to know them (she has only ever wanted to control them and get them to perform for her), but assumes she knows everything about them and about our life in general. Basically, making scenarios up in her mind and assuming they are true, then blaming all the bad stuff on my making parenting choices she didn’t approve of. It’s been decades, and she still does it! I swear, in her mind, the girls are still 10 yrs old or something.

It was definitely time to leave.

By the time I got home, it was getting close to when I would normally go out for my evening rounds, so I was soon back outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather we’ve been having. According to my weather app, we’ve been raining all day, but it was bright sunshine and warm temperatures. After feeding the cats – and playing with the kittens a bit – I ended up taking some April garden tour video. It’s been a month since the last ones I took, so I figured it was about time. I’ll be checking those soon and seeing if I need to do it again or not! 😄

Tomorrow is supposed to be quite a bit colder, with a mix of rain and snow starting in the afternoon. On a day when I have no outings planned and want to get work done outside, of course. 😁 We’ll see how things actually turn out. Some jobs I want to start require power tools and extension cords, so if we’ve got rain or snow, those will wait a bit longer. There is always something that can be worked on, though. I actually have a whole week ahead of me, with no scheduled outings until our first city stock up trip! What a remarkable thing! I might actually get some real work done outside! Gosh, that would be nice!

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Almost there…

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This morning, we assembled our Easter basket for blessing.

This year, the bread is a sourdough loaf. We have a dry sausage and a small ham. The cheese this year is a brie. The olives are stuffed with cheese. There’s pink salt and honey mustard, and tiny jars with balsamic vinegar and truffle infused olive oil. The butter was whipped with parsley and a bit of the truffle infused olive oil. We also have two types of pickled eggs, one with beet juice. Then there’s all the little chocolate eggs all over.

I did have prosciutto as well, but at the last minute decided not to include it. I think we had enough in there.

After blessing, what needed to go in the fridge got put back in the fridge, and we will enjoy the contents for our Easter breakfast tomorrow.

I pray you have a wonderful Easter weekend.

The Re-Farmer

Something got through…

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While doing my morning rounds, I checked on the netting over the winter sown beds.

The first thing I saw was tracks in the soil of the summer squash bed. Something had gotten in! Looking around, I found that the netting at one end of the bed had been pulled up and even torn in one spot that I could see. Whatever got in must have panicked in trying to get out, because the excess netting on the sides were disturbed, and I found another area where the ground staples had been pulled up.

I’ve got the netting pulled fairly tight along the sides, but it is rather hard to see, so I used old bricks to weigh it down more along the sides and ends. Hopefully, that will make it a bit more visible.

The other bed seemed fine, but some of the twine was looking rather loose. I think something jumped on top of the netting, pulling the supports inward a bit.

My daughter and I made an unexpected trip to the nearest Walmart area today. While we were there, we also hit the Dollarama, and I bought a bunch more ground staples. Those things are very handy.

On another note…

Magda got out of the isolation shelter again. She came over when I was going the feeding, letting me put her back in to get her share of the wet cat food. I got Kohl in there and she seems to be staying this time. I added more weight to the roof, which I still think is the only place they could have gotten out through. That may have been enough to keep Kohl in, but I would have expected it to have been more likely to keep Magda in, since she’s so much lighter. Magda was out even before my daughter and I started to head out! We let her be, at the time.

After my daughter and I got home, it was late enough to do the evening feeding, plus we wanted to dose their ears. I think tonight might be the last dose, as the bottle seems pretty empty. Once her ears were done, we put Magda back into the isolation shelter with Kohl while we did The Grink’s ears, and then gave them the wet cat food right away, to distract them from trying to get out. I’m still holding out hope that we can shave those mats off of Kohl!

Meanwhile, Brussel’s babies are increasingly active. The black and white has been climbing out of the cat cave and calling to us, regularly, and now the calico is starting to as well.

We try to handle them as much as possible, without freaking Brussel out too much. As for Caramel’s babies in the cat house, I haven’t been able to see them. Any time I’ve tried looking through the window I am either seeing Caramel in the cat bed, or there’s too much reflection to see inside.

From what I can see from the other cats, Slick and Sprout have both had their babies somewhere in the outer yard. I’m pretty sure the dead kitten I found was Adam’s. She doesn’t seem to be pregnant, there’s no sign that she’s nursing, and she’s hanging around the house a lot more than she would, if she had a litter somewhere in the outer yard. There’s a talkative white and grey that no longer looks round. That’s pretty much it for cats I could say for sure were pregnant. After Easter, we’ll set the trap up for reals and see if we can start bringing in more ladies, before they start showing. We’ll have to pace things, though. With three small cats in the isolation shelter right now, we could put in one larger cat without too much issue, but we wouldn’t want to put in another until after Magda and The Grink are done their isolation period. The Cat Lady was talking about getting us in for more spays in May, so that will work out.

Meanwhile, we will continue working on Brussel, Caramel and Slick for socialization, so we can hopefully get them in when their milk has dried up without having to trap.

On the plus side, things have warmed up again, though it’s still pretty windy. We’re even expected to hit 18C/64F tomorrow. It’s supposed to cool down again after that. We might even get rain in a few days! That would be good. Things are pretty dry out there, and a fire ban for open fires and grass burning is already in effect for our municipality. Which isn’t unusual for April, really. Contained fires and burn barrels are still okay.

Overall, it’s looking to be a nice weekend for Easter.

The Re-Farmer

Modifications

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So… Magda escaped the isolation shelter again.

As did Kohl.

Once again, I found a top corner of the sliding window by the food bowl out of its track again. That corner can be reached if a cat is on the shelf above the food bowl. That Kohl fit through there too was a bit of a surprise, though!

I spotted her while I was feeding the cats and got her back into the isolation shelter, where she promptly discovered the wet cat food I’d put in for her and The Grink. That gave me time to grab some wood lathe and nails to reinforce that corner.

So this window now has a piece of wood lathe on both sides of the opening, to keep the window in its track. For now, I’ve added a strip of clear duct tape to one side of the panel for something to pull it with, since there is no longer an exposed edge to use to slide it.

Problem solved.

Almost.

Advance polls opened today and my younger daughter and I headed out to vote. On my way to the truck, I checked the isolation shelter and found The Grink, all alone again! Both sliding windows were still in place. That left only one way she could have gotten out.

Through the roof.

After we got back, I found Magda and put her back into the isolation shelter. I then took the bricks that the box we put over the entrance to shelter from the wind were sitting on top of, and put them on the roof to weight it down. You can see that in the next image in the above slide show. These bricks are salvaged from the chimney to the wood burning furnace that was removed when the new roof was installed.

Hopefully, that will keep Magda Houdini in the shelter! (You can just see her in the last picture; those windows need to be cleaned, inside and out!) It is not good for her at all to be squeezing through things and jumping down from such a height, when she is so fresh from surgery. Plus, we still need to dose her ears until we’re out of that medication.

Once we are able to move the shelter away from the house and give it a thorough cleaning, I hope to do a few minor modifications to it. One of them is to figure out a way to latch the roof so it can’t be pushed open from the inside. I also want to find some strong handles to attach to it – the ones I have on hand are not heavy duty enough for the job – to make is easier to maneuver. Eventually, I want to replace the wheels with larger ones, as well. We got the best that we could afford, and they’re good, but the shelter is heavy enough that the wheels want to sink into the ground when it’s being wheeled across the lawn. All in all, though, there is very little that needs to be modified. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.

Today has been a surprisingly cold day. When we were out and about earlier, it was around -2C/28F, but the wind chill put it at -9C/16F We’re supposed to reach a high of 2C/36F today, but it will still be very windy.

A good day to stay indoors and get ready for Easter.

We’ve got a turkey thawing out for Sunday, and the sourdough loaf for our basket is also thawing out. After a bit of organizing and cleaning up, we’re going to select a basket from our collection and start assembling it to be blessed tomorrow, and then we will enjoy the contents on Easter morning. Today being Good Friday, it is also a day of quiet and contemplation.

On that, note, my daughter has been working on things while I write this, and it’s time for me to go help her out!

The Re-Farmer

Kitty updates

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Well, Magda got out of the isolation shelter again. Poor Grink was all alone in there. I decided to catch Kohl and put her in with The Grink for company.

They seem okay with the arrangement!

It wasn’t until after I got back from running errands, late enough to do the evening feeding, that we were able to grab Magda and medicate her ears. We put her back into the isolation shelter after that, then dosed The Grink’s ears.

Kohl, seemed to want out, but not too desperately. Since she might be in there, with the heat lamp, for a couple of weeks, we figured this would be a good time to bring out the clippers and give her a hair cut. She is almost solid with mats, and it must be quite uncomfortable. I know there’s at least one patch on her tail that is burrs stuck in her fur.

Unfortunately, by the time we got the clippers out for what would be their first use, she made her way into the bottom of the isolation shelter, settled on the box nest, and completely ignored us as we tried to convincer to come come to us!

We finally have up.

We went inside and did David, instead.

David wasn’t as bad as Kohl, but we’ve been using a mat cutting comb on him, whenever we could. He really hates being combed or brushed, though, so he still had mats in various areas we haven’t been able to get at.

David did NOT like getting his hair cut. My daughter and I would work at one of us holding him while the other trimmed, then trading off when he got too squirmy. We had to stop a couple of times to just let him have a break and destress a bit – and to clean up the piles of hair.

That is one very fluffy cat!

We got most of him shaved now. Almost, but not quite, a lion’s mane style. It’s a bit of a mess in places, but the mats are gone, and that’s the important part.

He is most displeased with us.

He did finally allow much husband to cuddled him and keep him warm for a bit, though.

I’m hoping to get a picture at some point, but that might take a while. 😄

Meanwhile, the littles in the sun room are getting so very active!!!

The black and white one has climbed out of the cat cave, several times. The calico has been climbing the opening, and there have been a few times I’ve seen her basically dangling from the top. Even their adopted sibling is squirming and worming around.

At one point, my daughter walked past and heard a squeaking noise. She looked over and found the black and white with its front legs outside the cat cave, looking at her and “yelling”. It didn’t stop until she reached in and started petting him! Brussel has been leaving the sun room more often, and for longer times, so we’ve had more opportunity to pick up and cuddle the babies while she’s gone. After taking the last picture, with the black and white one outside the cat cave, I reached in to pick him up, cuddled him a moment, then put him back into the cat cave. Brussel was in there that time, and she was most displeased with me!

In other things…

It looks like we lost our window of opportunity. Slick no longer looks pregnant. I saw Sprout today, which I haven’t for a day or two, and she is looking less round, too. There wasn’t a chance we would have gotten her this time, though. I do wish we’d gotten Slick, though. Well, we just have to concentrate on catching some of the others. At this point, it’s probably a matter of bringing in any cat we can trap, male or female, though if we trap one of the mamas that just gave birth, we’ll have to let them go. The vet won’t spay them while they are lactating. The problem is, with the more feral ones, chances are we won’t be able to tell until the vet actually sees it.

Well, it is what it is. We do the best we can.

Hopefully, Magda will stay in the isolation shelter this time, and get some rest and recovery – and wet cat food! She did get at some of it before The Grink and Kohl ate it all, so maybe she’ll make the association between staying in the isolation shelter and getting extra tasty food, and not having to fight off a dozen other cats for it! 😁

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: protecting from critters

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First up, I’m happy to saw we actually got rain last night! After all those ours of the weather maps and apps saying we were getting rain, while not a drop was falling from the sky, it was wonderful to finally hear the sound of a good downpour, in the wee hours.

The down side was that I was awake during the wee hours, after trying to get to bed early! Ah, well.

My goal in the garden for today was to get those two beds covered with netting. I forgot to take pictures for most of it, though.

The first bed I covered was the garlic bed.

After filling in some of the holes dug by the cats during the night. In the process, some of the garlic has had their tips broken off. I’m hoping they will recover!

This bed has shorter support posts on it, and I wanted to use some black netting we have to cover it. I had some cut to size for past garden us, rolled up on a narrow fence post. I figured it wouldn’t take long to cover the bed.

It turned out to be too short. By only about 2-3 feet!

After securing it as far as it could reach with ground staples, I dug around and found another pre-cut length that I hoped was quite short. It wasn’t, but that just means a fair bit of the bed has a double layer of netting over it.

For the other bed, I was wanting to use the mosquito netting I reclaimed from the chain link fence. It was more than long enough.

It wasn’t wide enough.

Which would have been okay. All I needed to do was push the supports deeper into the soil until they were low enough for the netting to cover the sides.

The problem, however, was rocks. I kept trying to hammer the supports deeper, even pulling a few out to reposition them, but there was only so far I could go. Though I used a piece of wood on the tops to protect them, but sometimes I had to just hammer directly on them. Which, of course, damaged the tops.

Eventually, though, I had to give up. There was just no way I could get all of the supports deep enough into the soil for the mosquito netting to be able to cover the top and sides. So that got rolled up and put away, and I found more of the netting I’d used on the garlic bed.

This netting tears very easily, though, so I wanted to protect it where it came in contact with the supports. I’d picked up a pool noodle for something else, so I took a break to take care of that project, then cut up what was left of the pool noodle to make protectors on the supports.

Slits were cut to fit over the twine. The first photo above is a corner, while the next is of one of the side supports.

The next photo is of the summer squash bed, after the netting was fastened in place. If I’d used this netting in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to hammer the supports lower, and there wouldn’t have been so much slack on the sides. But that’s okay. As long as it’s pegged down and no cats can get under it, it should be fine.

The last photo is the garlic bed. Before putting the netting on, I lightly scattered mulch over the garlic, but not the end of the bed that has winter sown seeds at the far end. You can see where I added a couple of sticks to support the twine near one end. That’s near where the first section of netting ended. The two sections overlap by several feet.

I’m glad I got this job done when I did, because things got really windy again.

So this should keep the cats out of the beds. The problem is, the cats will try and jump on top of it. I caught Syndol doing that with the hoop covers on the bed at the chain link fence. That netting can better handle such a thing. If a cat jumps on this netting, it’ll probably tear. The black netting is harder to see, too. I’m thinking of finding something shiny that I can attach to the netting to make it more visible, but will also flash in the sunlight and scare off any critters.

This is pretty much it for garden related stuff today. My husband has some forms from the pain clinic he’d filled out that needed to be mailed, so I took advantage of that to head out and run some errands. With Easter in a few days, things were really busy, but that stuff I needed wasn’t going to wait until next week.

Hard to believe half of April is gone already.

Where has the time gone??

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: potting up and wind damage

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Well, our plans to set netting over the beds I prepared yesterday got kiboshed. It was just too windy!

We did get some other stuff done, though.

Today, my daughter was available to help pot up some more pre-germinated seeds.

We got 4 of the 5 Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon seeds potted up, as well as a couple of Honeydew. There were still 2 Honeydew seeds, and the Kaho melon seeds, that were not germinated, so we ended up combining them into one tray. I’d gotten rid of the one Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon seed that didn’t germinate, as it seemed like it was not viable, but the remaining Honeydew seeds look like they might still germinate. I’m not sure about the Kaho seeds, though. They may simply be too old.

With the pre-germinated seeds potted up, there wasn’t room in the tray for the container with the remaining seeds, plus the container with the Zucca melon seeds, so they got stacked. The large Zucca melon seeds would need longer to germinated, but it does seem like it’s taking too long. I’m not sure we’ll get any at all this year. We shall see.

My daughter and I then went through some of my herb seeds to figure out what else we could be starting inside. In the end, I decided that I will buy transplants, instead, for the ones we want. I also seem to be missing some seed packets! I’ve no idea what happened to them.

We also talked about some of the flower seeds. I’d picked up some Baby’s Breath for my daughters, as my older daughter in particular really likes them. They looked them up and, apparently, they are considered invasive in our area. Which I find strange, since we already have some in a small flower garden where my mother had planted them, ages ago. They barely survive and are certainly not spreading! It’s part of the reason I got more seeds.

Once we were done, my daughter ended up staying in the basement for a while longer to use the exercise bike, so we could keep the heater on for longer. Later, we both headed outside to feed the cats, then go through the garden beds. I wanted to make sure she was on top of the plans I had, in case they had to take over for me for some reason.

She was very happy to see that her tulips are coming up, and we even spotted a few grape hyacinths emerging. No sign of the snow crocuses, though. We pulled back the black tarp to check out where I was thinking of planting the asparagus and strawberries, and it does look like the weeds and crab grass have been killed off well enough to use the space. The only issue will be the roots from the nearby elm trees, and I’m really hoping we can finally cut those down this year. In trying to clean the area up, I found stumps that showed others have tried to clear them away in the past, and they grew back, so I’ll have to take that into account when we finally get those taken down. It still blows me away, how much their roots have been getting into the garden beds and choking things out.

We checked on the beds that I want to cover with the netting, and had to refill more holes dug by the cats. Very frustrating, that we couldn’t cover them because of the wind.

Speaking of the wind, in the next photo of the slide show above, you can see an area in our spruce grove I was finally able to get to. I tell that we lost a few trees over the winter, and saw some that look like they came down within the past day or two. Cleaning up in there is going to be a huge job!

We checked on the netting I put over the bed at the chain link fence yesterday. Much to my surprise, one of the supports at an overlapping section had been completely pulled up and almost took a few others with it! It seems like the extra netting with the drawstring that would normally be the end of the row cover got caught somehow. Hopefully, that won’t happen again, and there was no damage.

The portable greenhouse was getting some wind damage, though.

In the last photo in the slideshow above, you can see the tear along the zipper. It has gotten bigger – big enough that cats could easily fit through, if they wanted. I’m not sure how to reattach it to the zipper. I did add some clear duct tape above the tear, in hopes it will prevent it from tearing more. We also found a tear in one corner where the tie downs are attached. The loop of fabric the cord was tied to actually tore loose from the plastic. The loop is part of a tie that is fastened to the frame itself on the inside, so it can’t go very far. The clear duct tape came in handy to cover the hole and, hopefully, prevent it from getting worse. I know the covers on these little greenhouses don’t last long, but we don’t even have any plants in it yet! High winds were why I’d hoped to set it up in a corner closer to the house, but the ground is just too uneven there.

I’ve been looking at 6mm greenhouse plastic online. What I’d really like to do is get a roll of it, but that’s well out of budget right now.

I keep looking at various notifications on my weather apps, telling me things like, light rain coming soon, or, rain will end soon. The problem is, we’ve had NO rain at all. According to the weather radar, we’ve got a system right on top of us, and we’re supposed to get rain for the next couple of hours, yet I’m not seeing a drop of rain out my window. At this rate, I’m going to have to hook up the hoses and start watering the winter sown beds! I might even have to fill the rain barrel I’ve set up with the hose, to have warmer water for the garden beds, because we sure aren’t getting any rain to fill it! Nor are we expecting any, for weeks.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a cooler day than today, though with the wind, today felt downright chilly. I’m really hoping the wind dies down, so we can get those nets set up. Given my pain levels today, it’s probably good I’ve got an enforced day of rest.

My husband, sweetheart that he is, ordered some Tai Fu lotion (not an affiliate link), that came in today. We’ve used this stuff, in balm form, in the past and it helped, but we were a lot less broken back then. I’m looking forward to trying it when I go to bed tonight. I hope it helps. Lord knows, the prescription stuff I tried a few years ago didn’t do much, and I’m hurting a lot more these days, then at that time. Between the lotion, and today’s enforced rest, I’m hoping to be able to get some work done tomorrow!

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Feline escape artist, and eyes are opening

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An update on the spayed ladies, and the littles.

I definitely over did it yesterday, and was in major pain this morning, so we just took care of the cats, and then I went back to bed. Taking care of Magda’s and The Grink’s ears went much better than expected.

Then we discovered Magda is an escape artist.

The first image above was taken right after treating their ears. Since they are in the isolation shelter, they get treated with wet cat food, which The Grink has been enjoying, but Magda seems to be ingnoring.

Then I went out through the sun room to go to the post office, and spotted a very scrabbly looking cat on a cat bed.

It was Magda!

Since getting spayed, she has developed the runs and is looking very messy.

On checking the isolation shelter, I found a corner of the sliding window by the foot bowl was pushed out of its track at the top. I popped it back in place, then got Magda and put her back. After closing the window up again, I noticed it was bowed outwards slightly, so I took it out completely, flipped it so it was bowing the other way, then put it back. I thought that would do the trick.

Then I went inside to change my shirt. Magda left a mess on me while I was carrying her.

By the time I changed and came back out, I checked on the isolation shelter and found the window partly open! Magda figured out how to slide it open from the inside!

The Grink was just sitting there, looking at me. She had no interest in leaving, but she did really want attention!

I don’t like that The Grink is in there alone. We’ll have to find a way to secure the window before we put Magda back, though. When I came home from the post office, I found her snuggling with Syndol. Later on, while my daughter and I were going through the garden areas, she kept following us, when she needs to be resting and recovering!

We also checked on the kittens, of course.

In the first photo, Caramel, in the bed she moved her kittens to, had them completely hidden. I did manage to get a picture of her babies while she was out, though. They are getting very active! With the sides of this bed being so much higher, I could just see their heads bobbing around.

Brussel’s babies are getting downright rambunctious, but they still aren’t quite climbing completely out of the cat cave. They’ll dangle a leg out, or stick their heads through the opening, but so far, that’s it.

When we noticed that Brussel was out, my daughter and I took advantage to take the babies out and snuggle them. I got some pictures, though it was really hard to get good ones. Caramel’s baby’s eyes are opening now, and it seems more active than its siblings in the cat house.

We also had a chance to look at what seemed to be a wound on the black and white kitten’s back leg. With my daughter holding him, I could get a closer look, and it does just look like missing fur. My theory remains; some wet cat food dripped onto him and mama was too aggressive in cleaning it off!

So far, all seems to be well, though I was not seeing any cats going to the food bowl inside the trap today. It may simply have been too windy, even though it’s mostly sheltered by the catio. If we’re after Slick of Adam, though, we’re unlikely to catch either of them in that location. Any female we manage to get will be good, though. We’ll have to figure something out.

At least we got two more down.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: new acquisitions, potting up and protecting the garden beds

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While I was waiting for the clinic to call about the cats, I was able to find a bunch of things for the garden.

While at the Canadian Tire, I just couldn’t resist.

I picked up some bare root strawberries, and asparagus crowns.

The asparagus that was have now, which has been drowned out for the past couple of years, is a purple variety, so I grabbed a package of Purple Passion to basically replace them. They had a couple of varieties of green asparagus, and I chose Jersey Giant. Each package has 5 crowns in it.

We already have the Albion Everbearing strawberries that did so well last year, except for when the deer kept eating the greens. I got another everbearing variety – Ozark Beauty. I also want to try the White Carolina strawberries again. We tried them a few years ago, but not one of them survived.

I am thinking of planting these in a section of the main garden area that has been covered with a black tarp for a couple of years, now. We had grown squash and pumpkins in there, previously. I want to move the tarp to cover the rest of what used to be the squash patch. Hopefully, the asparagus will do better there. I’ll probably interplant them with the strawberries, too.

But not yet.

Something else I got but didn’t get a picture of were some 12′ (I think) lengths of tubing. They’re more flexible than the 5′ lengths I tried before. I plan to use one of them, cut in half, to make a netting support over the 4′ square Albion strawberry bed, so we don’t have to worry about them getting eaten by deer again! I might work on that tomorrow.

The first thing I did when I got home, though, was pot up some pre-germinated melon seeds. The four Sarah’s Choice seeds were ready to go!

I had just enough pre-moistened seed starter mix left to fill 4 cups to plant them in. The cups have drainage holes in them, and they and the other seeds are now in a tray over the heat mat. I took the old heat mat out completely. It was cold, and no longer working.

There are a few other seeds starting to germinate. Nothing with the Zucca melon. I expect to be planting more pre-germinated seeds in a couple of days. I want to give some of the seeds more time.

With the old heat mat removed and the new one shifted over, I also moved the tray with the seedlings over. There are still a few blank spots, but enough sprouts are up that it shouldn’t be on a heat mat anymore – but I do wish that old mat was still working though, because I think they would still do better with one.

That done, I headed outside again.

I’ve noticed that the cats have really been digging around in the winter sown garden bed at the chain link fence. While I was at the Dollarama today, I picked up some row covers that I hoped would work out.

This bed is narrow, so those metal supports would be fine for it. It was the mesh that was important. It’s open enough that the wind can blow through it – the mosquito netting we’ve been using gets turned into a sail rather quickly! – and rain can get through, but it’s fine enough to keep the Chinese Elm seeds from choking everything out, once those start to drop. Plus, the ends can be closed up, which will keep the cats out.

I wasn’t sure how many I would need to cover this garden bed, so I got 5, just in case. In the second photo, you can see some of the damage the cats have been doing.

Setting them up with the wire supports was a bit of a challenge! The wire is supposed to be run through evenly spaced pockets in the mesh. That was the first problem! The wire is thin enough to pass through the mesh. It was hard just to get it through the opening of the pockets! The other end, meanwhile, kept getting caught up in, and through, other sections of mesh.

The set came with a solution for threating the wires through the pockets, though I doubt it was intended as such. Each kit has a bundle of 5 supports. They are held together by fitting the ends into a white plastic cap, one for each bundle of ends. I used one of those caps on the end of a wire support and, as long as there was enough tension to keep the cap from falling off, the wire slid through quite easily. If the cap did fall off, it could be pushed back through the pocket to the wire.

It took a while to get the hand of it, though. The wires and the mesh kept wanting to get all tangled up with each other. Plus, every stick or twig or leaf on the ground seemed to automatically get caught in it! What I eventually figured out was to first make sure the netting was bunched up in the middle of the wire, then stab one of the ends into the ground next to my leg. At least a little bit. I was sitting in the shade, so while the ice and snow was melted away, the ground was more frozen than in other places. It was enough to keep the wire upright, though, and I could just add the next ones as they were done.

I set up the first two assembled kits at each end of the bed. The kits have a drawstring at each and to close them up, but I needed to overlap several of these to ensure no gaps. Once the ends of the beds were covered, I assembled two more kits to fill in the space. Once the ends were closed with the drawstring, those got set in place with ground staples. In one area, the two kits overlapped enough that they didn’t need anything else, but another join got secured with more ground staples.

I think this will work out very well for now. I could probably remove that mosquito netting entirely and use it somewhere else. If the winter sowing survived, this netting can stay until things start getting too tall for it. The mess easily slides up and down the wire supports, so it’ll be easy to reach under to weed.

The bed was incredibly dry, though, so I used the water from the heat sink in the portable greenhouse to water it, then refilled the container. With sort of defeats the purpose of the heat sink, but there are no plants in there to protect right now.

When it was time to refill the container, I also prepped something else I found in the Dollarama.

Coconut fibre bricks! It’s been years since I’ve seen these. I’ve got one of them in a bucket of water to expand until tomorrow. I plan to incorporate it into the soil that’s in the pots I’ll be using for the luffa inside the portable greenhouse. It will be a while before the luffa can be transplanted, I’ve got time to get those ready. With the coco fibre in there, it should help keep the soil fluffier, and hold moisture more evenly. I’ll save the second brick to amend soil in one of the garden beds, later.

The garden bed at the chain link fence is not the only ones the cats are damaging. After I finished refilling the heat sink in the greenhouse, plus the watering cans, I checked out the main garden area. The garlic bed and the summer squash bed have both been dug into. Some of the garlic was almost completely dug up! We’re going to have to cover them.

Tomorrow.

For now, though, they have the supports in place.

These are the parts and pieces from a gazebo tent that was broken when a piece of tree fell on it. I had a bunch of shorter pieces – all pieces that were broken in half – that I put around the garlic bed, as it won’t need a lot of height. The tent pieces all have holes in them that had screws or pins running through them, which are prefect for holding twin in place. I ran the twin through to make Xs across the bed, as well as straight across and the sides. I did the same with taller supports I put over the bed sown with summer squash.

We have a couple of types of netting that is large enough to fit over these. We’ve got black netting that is more open, but for that, we’ll have to put something on top of the support posts, so they won’t tear through. There’s also the mosquito netting I’ll be moving off the chain link fence. We have other netting, too, but they are for trellising, so the openings are large enough for a cat to fit through.

The roll of bale twine I used on this has been sitting in the sun room all winter, and the cats have been pulling out the middle and playing with it. By the time I got things untangled while threading it through the support posts, it was starting to get quite chilly out there! As I write this, our temperatures had dropped just below freezing. According to the short range forecast, though, we’re expecting overnight lows of -6C/21F. At those temperatures, we’ll want to put some sort of protection over the winter sown beds. Something more than netting! That’s the down side of having removed the mulch, so the ground could thaw out. I will probably spread some of the mulch back lightly over the beds again. The beds are even looking like they could use a good watering, too! We didn’t get a lot of snow this winter, so things are pretty dry right now, and there is no rain in the forecast for some time. What rain and snow we’ve had lately hasn’t been enough keep these beds from drying out.

Tomorrow, we’re looking at a high of 15C/59F. That will be a wonderful temperature to get things done outside!

As long as I don’t overdo it. I got chilled enough while working the twine through the supports, I still haven’t warmed up, even after a hot meal and a hot cup of tea! My entire body is stiffening up and starting to really ache.

Time to pain killer up and get to bed. Hopefully, the painkillers will be enough to let me get some sleep!

The Re-Farmer