Author: Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: this is what $513 in total looks like

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Okay, so today turned out to be completely different then planned!

Today was supposed to be a day to catch up on things outside before I have to do things with my mother for the next couple of days. Then I noticed that my husband’s CPP Disability came in earlier than I expected. So it was either do the first stock up shopping trip today, or do it on the weekend.

Today, it was!

My daughter came along this time, so we could try a different place for the shoes she’s been trying to buy for herself. There was going to be a prescription delivery this morning, though, so we just needed to wait until that was done.

Then the phone started ringing…

One of the calls today was from the home care guy, about my mother.

The first thing he brought up was that one of the aides that comes in to help my mother with her medication found a notice slipped under my mother’s door. It was about the bed bug exterminator coming in to check/spray her apartment today, and did I know about that? I told him about the call my brother got, and that they will be coming in on Friday afternoon – a manager and a tech, just to do her place – and that I would be there.

They are really bending over backwards to try and not have to evict a 93 yr old!

So for that day, while my mother is supposed to be out of her apartment for at least 6 hours, he has cancelled the home care visits.

I also explained that she does not seem to actually have bed bugs, but it looks like her neighbour does. So until this is taken care of, the home care aids will be wearing shoe covers and gloves and the like when they visit her. Hopefully, that will help my mother to take things more seriously.

Probably not.

Then he told me that the home care aids have been coming in in the mornings, and found that my mother had already taken her morning medication. That would be her usual 5am time, which has never been a requirement, but it seems she’s always been doing that. We’ve told her, she can sleep in. Take them when the care aides arrive.

When it comes to her before bed pills, she now has two, but insists she only takes one, and the other one she will take before she goes to bed, some hours later. They come in at 9 for the nightly pills. She should be taking both. She has been told this, too.

Then there is a confusion of bubble packs, and they are finding blisters have already been opened. It looks like she’s been taking the pills out and deciding what to take and what not to take? Either way, it’s hard for them to keep track.

He’s asked us to talk to her about it. If she can’t stop messing with her medications, they will have to put the bubble packs somewhere she can’t reach.

This could be a real problem.

After we got that call, I got another one… from the same home care guy! This time, it was about my husband. They’re supposed to do annual checks on those getting services; in my husband’s case, it’s about the state of his hospital bed and if it’s still in good shape (he had to have one replaced a couple of years ago). They also need a couple of signatures for his file, which I can do, so I will be leaving for my mother’s early tomorrow, so I can stop at their office, first.

Then I tried calling my mother. I ended up leaving a message, telling her I got the call from home care, and saying she needs to not touch her bubble packs, and only take her medications when they are there to help her with them.

I tried to be quick about it, because we were expecting the pharmacy delivery driver to call. It turns out he’d tried to call while I was on the phone with home care. While I was leaving a message with my mother, my daughter heard the honking at the gate, and ran out to get the delivery.

I’m so glad she did, because I never heard a thing!

That done, we could finally get what we needed – particularly ice packs – and headed out.

Our first stop was for my daughter’s shoes. We went to a factory outlet place she had recommended to her.

I so need to go there for my next pair of steel toes.

It’ll take some saving up for it, though!

While looking around at their displays, we could hear noises from other parts of the building. Those were the sounds of boots being made! It truly was a “factory” outlet, and every pair of shoes and boots in there were hand made.

Other stores carry their brand, though. In fact, the last time my daughter had herself a really excellent brand of shoes, it was this factory’s brand. She wore them until she outgrew them, and cried when they didn’t fit anymore.

She found the same boots!

She is so incredibly happy now. She’s been needing good shoes for a long time; her feet are almost as messed up as mine! They cost about $300, which took her a while to save up for, but these should last her a lifetime.

The entire rest of the day, she was practically dancing beside me as we walked around! No more foot pain. No more back pain!

This outlet happened to be not far from our first stop, which was the international grocery store.

This is what $123.57 looks like.

That doesn’t look like much for $123!

The seafood, oat milk – regular and chocolate – and coffee creamers are for my daughters.

This is where we like to get some excellent cheeses to try as treats. This time, we got both a honey gouda and a beer gouda.

The herbal tea is nettle; something for us to try. We do have nettles and could probably make our own, but we don’t have a lot and I like to leave them for the butterflies whose caterpillars like them.

The other tea is Irish Breakfast; something we haven’t picked up for a long time.

There is also an instant milk tea on there. We’ve tried something like this before, but it was a different brand. It has individual packets to make 1 cup of milk tea, which can be very handy at times.

The soy sauce is the Filipino brand my husband likes.

The applewood smoked bacon is a locally made brand I’ve not seen anyone else carry. After much searching, we finally found ground sage – a strange thing to be out of stock all over for such a long time! Last of all, we picked up some sweet potatoes (yams, on the receipt). We have a lot of peppers right now, and I found a recipe for a bell pepper and sweet potato soup that my daughters might want to try. Something I will taste, but I’m not likely going to be able to eat!

We also had a lunch at this store, before we did the shopping. Dim sum and smoked salmon sushi, which was really delicious. I forget what that cost. It was out of a different budget.

Our next stop was a Superstore. There wasn’t much we wanted to get there, though. It’s probably the smallest shop I’ve done at Superstore in a very long time!

This is what $91.12 looks like.

The only things we were really after was torpedo buns, a giant block of cheese, and to check out their energy drinks section, in case they had Beaver Buzz in stock.

They did not.

We got the torpedo buns, as well as a sourdough loaf, and a giant block of mozzarella cheese. After that, we just took a quick look around and added a big bag of bacon and cheddar cheese perogies, a couple of bags of pot stickers, two 1L boxes of orange juice, some prosciutto and a large package of chicken breasts.

Next, it was time to hit the Walmart, for what turned out to be the biggest part of our shop. This is what $298.73 looks like.

Yes, that’s a canopy tent in there! It was on clearance, and we needed one.

The canopy tent was on clearance, at $39, so I really didn’t want to pass that up.

The planned purchases included a large bag of dry kibble and two cases of 32 cans of wet cat food, for the inside cats. I also found a package of the XXL (30’x30′) puppy pads that I wasn’t able to find last month.

We got some toilet paper and a couple of spray bottles of eco-cleaner.

There is a couple of packages of hot dog buns to go with the hot dog wieners we got. The roti was a last minute grab; I haven’t had roti in ages! It won’t be as good as fresh made, but I don’t care! 😄

There’s some lean ground beef in there, as well as a frozen turkey – Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up, so it’s cheap turkey season!

We got some coffee, some ice cream to have with our melons, and there was a good deal on the soy milk my daughters like so we got two 2L of those, too. At the request of my older daughter, we also got a bunch of energy drinks.

We also got a couple of cold drinks for the road, and a package of cookies and cream donuts, which I’ve never seen before, as a road munchie.

The donuts were… okay. I had no desire for a second one! 😄

There are a couple of items visible in the cart that aren’t on the bill, because my daughter bought those.

So that was our stock up shopping for today.

On top of that, we got $40 of gas on the way out, at 1.329/L In the city, though, we were able to get gas at $1.269/L, so I put in another $40. We’ll do a fill, and I’ll reset the trip meter, at Costco.

The gas is a different budget, but gas and groceries together totaled $593.42, plus our lunch.

I’m certainly glad we brought along all our ice packs. Our high for today, here at home, was 26C/79F, but it would have been at least a couple of degrees hotter in the city. Plus, the truck would have gotten even hotter inside. By the time we got home, even in insulated bags and with ice packs, things were starting to thaw out!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, with a high of 28C/82F, and very windy. Since I’m going to be taking my mother to the eye specialist, I’ve asked my daughters to give the garden a deep watering for me. We’ve had some rain over the past few days, but nowhere near enough.

Meanwhile, I have not been able to get through to my mother today. I’m at a bit of a loss. My brother had called her about the exterminator coming out on Friday, and that I planned to be there, but if they showed up at her door today, she might have thought he meant today – and would be wondering why I wasn’t there! She may be staying out of her apartment for the required minimum 6 hours.

That’s just a guess, though. For all I know, she’s hanging out in the common room with some of her neighbours.

Well, if I don’t get through today, I’ll be finding out what happened, tomorrow!

I’m just glad we got this first stock up shopping trip done now. I really did not want to do all this running around on a weekend!

Now, we just need to do the Costco shop next.

*shudder*

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: harvest time, and our first yellow peppers!

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I had another sleepless night last night (courtesy of the cats!), so my daughters took care of most of the morning stuff. That let me get at least a couple of hours of sleep before I headed out to the garden, just before noon.

We got a smattering of rain yesterday evening, so I used one of the side walls from the broken market tent to cover the onions that were curing outside. Once things were warmer, I uncovered them again, so they could get some sun and air flow.

Speaking of air flow…

We’ve got some warm, sunny days coming up, and mild overnight temperatures, so I lifted the bottom half of the vinyl sheets wrapped around the box frame over the eggplant and hot pepper bed.

As you can see in the foreground of the photo above, Syndol is checking out the eggplant and hot peppers I harvested out of there this morning!

This is the rest of today’s harvest. We have a first today!

Finally! Some yellow peppers!

Yes, a couple still have some green on them, but I wanted to get some of the weight off the plants. It was much the same with the few tomatoes I collected today.

Also, yes, that is a mutant Little Finger eggplant on the left! I actually remembered to bring pruning shears to cut the stems – they are surprisingly spiky! – and it was rather a surprised to cut one stem and get two eggplants! There are two Classic eggplant in there, too. I’m harvesting a bit smaller, as the large ones we’ve harvested before were getting pretty seedy inside. Mind you, we could leave some longer just to collect the seeds, but it’s probably too late in the season for any of the ones still on the plants to have viable seeds to collect.

The long, straight hot peppers were easy to harvest, but the curled one was so twisted around the stalk and another pepper, I ended up breaking off the top of the pepper itself, rather than the stem.

We also have one melon today, and one purple Dragonfly pepper. The colour is very much the same as the eggplants!

Pretty darn good for near the end of September in our area!

The German Butterball potato plants have all died off, so we should be harvesting those, soon. A few of the winter squash are starting to look ready to harvest and get set aside to cure, too. The one Jebousek lettuce that seeded itself should have seeds ready to collect, too. The kohlrabi look like a total loss, though. The flea beetles just decimated them. 😢 We finally got some to actually grow, and this happens. *sigh*

As we build up our raised beds, making it so they can be covered with insect netting is going to be important! I would really like to grow kohlrabi and cabbage and brassicas in general, but it looks like that’s just not going to happen until we have a way to protect them from those flippin’ flea beetles!!

All in good time.

Little by little, it’ll get done!

For now, I’m just happy with what we have!

The Re-Farmer

My little buddy

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I have a new friend that follows me around when I’m checking on the yard and garden beds!

Meet Magda. The girls just recently named her.

She really, really wanted attention, too! Which is really unusual for the female kittens.

We encourage this, of course, since it will make it easier to collect her when it’s time to get her spayed!

The Re-Farmer

An unexpected shop: this is NOT what $60+ looks like

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Well, my upcoming stock up shopping schedule has changed again.

Normally, I would be heading into the city for our first stock up shop in a couple of days (Thursday), but I’ll be taking my mother to the eye specialist, instead. With that in mind, I’d already picked up a few things I knew we’d be running out of, yesterday, when I got more cat kibble in the town north of us. Grocery prices there are much higher, so I didn’t much at all.

Today, I wanted to refill our two empty 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs in the town nearest us. The only other thing we needed was more bread. Before I left, I asked my daughter to message me if she spotted anything else we were out of that couldn’t wait until Friday.

When I parked at the store and checked my message. Nothing from home to add to the shopping list.

There was, however, a message from my brother, asking if he could call me this afternoon about my mother.

Nothing he was in the office today, I figured it was urgent! So I let him know I’d just parked in town and that he could call me on my cell phone right away, if he was still able to.

He was.

Long story short, he got a call from the public housing department that owns the building my mother lives in. They don’t want to evict a 90+ year old woman, but if she doesn’t let them in to check/spray her apartment for bed bugs again, they have no choice.

They are going to be there on Friday. They even have an exact time (usually it’s between 9am an 5pm, and would have been done tomorrow, not Friday), and a manager will be there, due to her accusations of theft.

Right away, I assured my brother that I would be there. I had already been planning to go there tomorrow, as they usually come on the last Wednesday of the month.

The city shopping can wait.

As her Power of Attorney, my brother gave them permission to do in. I’ll shoot to be there earlier to move things away from the walls – they just need room for the wand to reach – and run interference with my mother. She has to stay out of her apartment for at least 6 hours. Given that she has respiratory issues, it should really be 12 hours, but that would mean spending the night somewhere. None of us have homes accessible for her, and she is no longer willing to rent a motel room. It was during a time she spent the night in a motel that she believes the exterminator stole stuff from her. Stuff that makes no sense for anyone to steal.

The guy my brother spoke to told him, they have to deal with this sort of thing all the time, unfortunately.

He also said they don’t think my mother has bedbugs, but they’ve been spraying her neighbour’s place for the past several months. If her neighbour has them, it would not take much for them to spread to her apartment. Plus, the eggs can stay dormant for up to a year. However, if the egg casings get sprayed, when the hatch, the hatchling will die as soon as it emerges. So even if she doesn’t have bed bugs, they still need to spray a certain number of times to ensure it stays that way, as far as the eggs go, at least.

So that pushes the city stock up shopping off to Saturday.

Ah, well. We’ll deal!

I still only intended to get just bread and water refills, but I still looked around.

It turns out they had some really good sales on. So good that some things were completely out of stock. The sale ends tomorrow, so that’s not surprising.

The store itself in in the process of being completely rearranged, too. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be a lot more logical in organization – and it looks like they’re expanding their international section, too!

So I ended up getting more than intended, and not all things I would normally get.

This is what $61.89 before taxes would have looked like – not counting the 60¢ for the bottle caps that got paid for when I picked them up at customer service. I cashed in a winning lottery ticket that paid for them. 😄

My loyalty card, however, had $20 I could take off the purchase, so this actually cost $41.89 before taxes.

This is what I got:

Each item shows how much the sale prices took off. You can see on the bottom that the total discounts and savings was $39.11, or 39% of the sub-total. That would be the sub-total before the $20 was taken off, so that means I had $59.11 in taken off altogether, leaving me with having to pay only $43.33 after taxes.

The things I normally would not have picked up were the boxed cereals, the instant puddings and the granola bars.

With the whole chicken, I try to get those on sale whenever I can – especially with it being over $8 off, like today.

The fruit juices were something I was looking for specifically for my daughters. I find fruit juices way too sweet. They’re basically like mainlining sugar, but it gives my daughters something different to drink.

With the bread, I usually get rye bread, but at $2 a loaf, I got two regular loaves of whole wheat bread, one whole wheat Texas Toast and one white sandwich bread.

With the cereals and granola bars, I got four different types for our 4 very different tastes.

The instant puddings were only $1 each and, at first, I picked 4 different flavours. Then I noticed they were all “low fat”. Fat is flavour, so that means they had to replace the fat with something else to make them taste good; usually sugar. So I went for the regular kind, but there were only two flavours that weren’t sold out.

Funny. There were plenty of low fat versions in stock. 😄

So, not the shopping trip I planned, but a pretty good one, I think. We got some things that are very occasional treats that I only pick up when the prices are good. Sometimes I’ll get them at Costco, but there usually isn’t a lot of space on the flat cart for what are essentially frivolous purchases.

Not too shabby, I think. Especially with today’s food prices!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: sleepy bees, afternoon harvest, and our mighty Crespo squash!

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Today was another one of those days where I just quickly fed the outside cats early, and left the rest of my morning routine for later. As I write this, we are at 16C/61F, with a “real feel” of 13C/55F.

I’m quite enjoying this, but it’s a bit cool for the garden.

And the critters.

Like these snoozy bumble bees!

Yes, there are three bees in that squash blossom!

Before I did what would normally be my morning rounds in the afternoon, I headed out to the town north of us to pick up more cat kibble at the livestock supply place. The inside cats’ kibble was out completely. With my mother’s upcoming eye appointment in the city on the day we would normally do our first stock up shop in the city, I decided to get two 40 pounds bags this time, for both the outside and inside cats. While I was in town, I hit the grocery store for a few items as well. Normally, I wouldn’t, as groceries are quite a bit more expensive, but not as expensive as the extra gas it would take to drive to the town nearer to home, where we usually do our smaller trips.

Once back home and everything put away, I gave both the inside and outside cats a light feeding. The outside cats were practically fighting each other to get at the bowls.

The inside cats, not so much! 😄

After feeding the outside cats, I could finally walk without having them try and trip me, meowing for food, and I was finally able to do the rest of my rounds. There was even things to harvest!

The two larger melons you can see in the photo fell off their vines as soon as I lifted them.

That little Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon is so tiny! With the stem completely shriveled up, though, there was no point in leaving it. I’m curious as to what it will look like, inside!

With the cooler weather, I wasn’t actually expecting to harvest tomatoes, but some of them looked ready enough. We have so many other tomatoes inside right now, these can stay in the bin in the cat free zone to ripe more before we use them. These are the Forme de Couer tomatoes – including one green one that broke off its vine as I was harvesting the red one next to it – and Black Cherry tomatoes. No San Marzano or Chocolate Cherries to harvest this time around.

Last night, my older daughter made a large pot of tomato soup using fresh tomatoes that was quite delicious. After I finished what I was doing outside, I got the Crockpot set up to make more tomato sauce/base. I used some of the small onions that were harvested yesterday, as well as 8 or 10 cloves of our garlic – the strings of garlic have been brought in from the garage and can now go into the root cellar, making room for the onions that can be braided. Then I just used up what vegetables we had on hand. This time, that included a Little Finger eggplant, one Dragonfly pepper (any more than that, and I probably couldn’t eat it), the one little green zucchini we had, and all the beans that were left over. It got whatever seasonings I felt like using (basil, thyme, paprika and turmeric, this time), plus salt and pepper, along with some olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Then as many tomatoes as could be fit into the Crockpot were added. This time, I seeded them, only to reduce the amount of liquid, so it won’t take so long to cook it down to the thickness we want.

This will be left to cook on high for a few hours, while there are people up and about to tend to it, then on low into the night, for maybe 6 hours. When the time runs out, the Crockpot automatically switches to the warm setting, which is still hot enough to keep cooking it. In the morning, it will be blitzed with the immersion blender, then go back on high, with the lid propped open to release moisture, until it’s cooked down to the thickness we want.

After that, we leave it to cool down completely, generally using some of it as a pasta sauce while it’s still hot. Once cooled, it’ll go into freezer bags and into the freezer. We can then use it later as a sauce, as the base for a tomato soup, or included in any “use watcha got” soup we make.

But I’m getting ahead of myself!

When I first headed out to check on the garden beds, I just had to get some photos of the Crespo squash. Our mighty, mighty Crespo squash! It is absolutely thriving!

I actually found two new squash developing, including the first one you see in the slideshow below.

Yup. That’s in the cherry trees! That one looks like it will be a survivor. It’s even bigger than the one in the second image that I’ve been watching. I wasn’t sure if that one got well pollinated or not. It’s starting to look like it has, but the first one that started growing in the trees died off when it was bigger than this, so it’s hard to say at this point.

The next photo shows one on a vine that’s stretching into the spruce grove. I’m pretty sure that one was successfully pollinated, and has a good chance of survival.

The next photo is of another surprise find. It was buried in the tall grass, so I weeded around it and set it on a brick to keep it off the wet ground.

I didn’t try to get photos of the two larger ones growing inside the bean trellis, but I just had to get a photo of the largest one, with my foot for perspective. THAT is more like they are supposed to look like. Though this one is still small for the variety, it’s the largest we’ve ever managed to grow, and I’ve been trying to grow these for something like four years now!

This new bed and location is definitely ideal for this squash. Even the deer are leaving it alone! Which is surprising, since they go through the path right next to the squash, to get in and out of the spruce grove, and I know they were eating the sugar snap peas in the bed not far away. The first year we grew these, the deer and groundhogs got to them several times before we could get enough barriers around them.

Now, we just need the frost to hold off longer, to give them a chance to mature more!

It would be great if we had another mild winter like last year, but that was a strong El Nino year, and this year we’re getting a strong La Nina – which typically means a colder, harsher winter, in our region. Which seems to be what the Old Farmer’s Almanac is predicting, too.

We shall see.

Until then, I’m going to appreciate the upcoming warm weather that’s in the forecast for the next week.

I know the garden sure will, too!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: harvesting onions, and prepping half a bed

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Well, I harvested the onions this evening, and there turned out to be more than I expected! At least, more than I expected to have survived! 😄

The variety of yellow onion we tried this year is called Frontier, from Veseys. I’m actually impressed with how big they got, even though they were flattened and had their necks broken so early on!

The first photo in the above slideshow is all the onions from the bed shared with the summer squash, and all the onions I could find under and around the San Marzano tomatoes. I know for sure I’ve missed some in that bed! The tomatoes are quite dense, making it hard to see, but I still found quite a few.

I also harvested a few shallots. There are others I left, as they had not been flattened and are still growing.

In the second photo, you can see what I used to lay them out to cure this year. That’s a home made bed frame, and they’re laid out on metal mesh window screens we salvaged from the barn, years ago.

Some of them have enough stems on them that they can be braided, so those ones will get braided and hung up in the garage to finish curing. The ones that can’t be braided will be brought into the house to be used first.

That done, I had a mess to clean up.

In the first photo of the slideshow above, you can see that, even with a mulch, the weeds are taking over. The main concern being the Creeping Charlie at one end.

The first thing to do was remove the mulch. We won’t be able to use the grass clippings as mulch again, since so many roots and rhizomes are mixed in with it now.

In the next photo, the soil had been broken up – our soil tends to get very compacted – to be able to remover as many weeds, roots and rhizomes as I could.

Including elm tree roots. Yes, even after clearing those out in the spring, they are once again reaching that far away from the trees!

I had considered skipping the weeding, but I’m glad I didn’t. I shooed away a remarkable number of frogs that were hiding in there!

In the next photo, you can see the pile of stuff I cleared out. That will be for burning, not composting. The bed itself was tidied up and levelled.

Of course, while working on this, I found onions that got missed! You can see those in the next photo. They are now on the screens to cure.

The last photo shows the finished bed. Boards that had been used to frame the bed space while it was being shifted over in the spring are now holding down plastic for solarization. We’ve got some hot days coming up, and that should be enough to start cooking the soil and killing off any weeds, seeds and roots.

But no frogs. I made sure they all got a chance to hop away!

Unless the wind manages to blow the plastic away, boards and all, this will stay until spring. When the summer squash and shallots in the rest of the bed are cleaned up for the winter, I should be able to cover the rest of the bed, too.

I think I might pick up more of those dollar store dining table protectors. They’re not a particularly heavy duty vinyl, but they are stronger than the clear plastic garbage bags I’d used in the spring. They are also completely clear and transparent, rather than slightly opaque, like the plastic I used today, or the bags I used in the spring. I think the vinyl might help the soil become hotter and do a better job of cooking the weeds. If nothing else, we can see through it and can tell if actually doing the job, or if it’s acting like a greenhouse for the weeds, instead! 😁

Tonight, we’re expected to have an overnight low of 11C/52F. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer than today, but the overnight low is supposed to drop to 9C/48F. After that, we’re supposed to get hot again. We’re now looking at a couple of days at 25C/77F, and lows of 15C/59F.

As for those temperatures cold enough for frost that the long range forecast was saying might happen within the first two weeks of October, that has changed again. The possible frost has been pushed back another week or so, though we are still expecting to get chilly nights.

I’m actually seeing possible snow on the last day of October – just in time for Halloween!

Who knows, though. The forecast will change again, soon enough! I just would like it to keep changing towards warmer nights for awhile. Since moving out here, we’ve had years when the first frost didn’t hit until November. I could do with a repeat of that!

It’s going to be interesting when I do my end of year analysis of how things went this year, as part of our planning out next year’s garden. This year has turned out completely different than how we originally planned! Having so many winter squash and melons to transplant made one huge difference. Shifting the beds to their permanent positions rather than building new ones was another big change. Then there was having to work around all that rain we had!

All things considered, I’m just happy to have as much as we do, this year!

The Re-Farmer

Chilly kitties – plus first contact!

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With last night’s chill, the yard cats were most definitely feeling it! A whole lot of kittens are hanging out in the sun room, curled up on various beds and blankets, in piles.

It’s getting time to open up the cat house to clean it up, as well as setting up one side of the sun room, for the winter.

They are also seem extra enthusiastic at feeding time, with this new kibble!

I had a bit of a surprise among the cats swirling around my feet as I tried to get out of the old kitchen, closing the inner door behind me to keep cats from running into the old kitchen, and not step on any cats while stepping down from the doorway.

An adorable little face I don’t usually see this close to me!

Baby Hypotenose was in the crowd. I got this picture of her, later.

That is Baby Hypotenose – or perhaps we could call her Lady Hypotenose.

This is one of those times when who the daddy is, is not in doubt!

The irony is, I’m less sure of who the mother is! I’m about 95% sure it’s Sprout, as I saw her with Hypotenose Jr and an orange kitten. Then the orange kitten disappeared.

Sprout quite a bit more feral, and is one of the mamas that isn’t very motherly.

As for Baby Hypotenose, as I was setting kibble out in the sun room, she was right in there with the other cats, milling around under my feet.

So I tried to pet her.

She let me!!!

She started to run off, but stopped and let me rub her neck and shoulders. I’m so happy! We’ve been able to identify her as female, only because she’s a bit of a show off when she runs around with her tail up. We have one female kitten that’s a lot more socialized. If we can get Baby Hypotenose socialized, too, that’ll make at least 2 female kittens we’ll be able to get to a vet over the winter!

Here’s hoping!

There was another rare visitor in the sun room, though not one I was able to touch. I got this photo later on, too.

I’m pretty sure this tuxedo is one of ours from last year, but I’m not 100% sure. It’s not a regular.

It was also very, very hungry, which would be the only reason I was able to get close to it while putting the kibble out.

I think it’s adorable that it is cuddling with the kitten in the shelf shelter! That kitten is one of the more socialized ones.

This one, however, is not…

They’re going to miss this tree when we finally have it cut down. The cats love to climb all over it.

I’m thinking we leave a fair bit of the trunk standing. My usual thought is that we could use the stump to support a table or a bench. Actually, it’s thick enough it could probably support both.

If we leave more of the trunk, though, we could also add cat shelves or small shelters onto it.

That’s not going to happen for a while, though. We need to get it done, though. It’s roots are cracking the basement all, and the branches are overhanging the roof. My daughters were able to trim some away, but the bulk of it will need a professional tree company to remove, without risking damage to the roof.

Unless my brother decides to do it himself. Which I wouldn’t want, as it would be a pretty dangerous job. It’s just too close to the house.

For now, though, the cats love it. They also use it to get onto the roof, where they can then go to the second floor windows and check out what my daughters are doing! 😁

Like this little one was checking me out from the branch above me.

They are so sweet.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: a morning of peppers

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Things definitely not chilly last night, though not – thankfully – frost chilly. We dropped to 6C/43F. Our expected high today is only 17C/63F, with tomorrow about the same. Then we’re supposed to warm up again over the next week, and even reach temperatures as high as 25C/77F before they start to drop again. Even the long range forecast into October has changed to warmer predictions, though we are still looking at potential frost. What gets me are the days we’re supposed to hit 25C/77F again, but have overnight lows of 3C/37F! Talk about temperature whiplash!

The garden seems to be okay with this, for the most part. The tomatoes, of course, aren’t ripening very quickly. The beans seem to be loving it, though. The Crespo squash is a surprise. While all the other squash and pumpkins are dying off, the Crespo squash is just thriving, growing and blooming. I’m not seeing any end of season die off at all!

This is what I was able to harvest this morning.

There are a few San Marzano tomatoes, all from the main garden area, none from the retaining wall blocks in the old kitchen garden. Hidden on the bottom of the colander is a single green zucchini. It’s small, but I picked it anyway, as it’s not going to get any bigger. There’s a whole three Chocolate Cherry tomatoes under there, too.

There’s all three types of beans in there. With the Crespo squash growing so enthusiastically, it’s hard to see the green Seychelle beans that are sharing the bed. Like the squash, the bean plants are thriving and blooming, as if it were the start of the season for them, instead of well past. There were more of the Royal Burgundy and Carminat beans than I expected, and they are still blooming, too. Even the one surviving Seychelle plant with the Carminat has a few beans on it, and is blooming.

I had a bit of a surprise while digging around to find the beans. I spotted a Carminat vine that didn’t make it onto the trellis netting, and was instead going under some winter squash vines. I gently pulled it out to see if I could get it on the trellis – and found a several huge pods! So we have more pods that might give us seeds, if the weather holds long enough for them to dry out.

With the peppers, I decided to go ahead and pick most of the Dragonfly peppers, as well as quite a few Purple Beauties. There’s a couple of Sweet Chocolates in there, too, though one of them turned out to be mostly green on the side I couldn’t see very well.

There were several peppers that are getting very yellow, but still not quite ready to pick. As for the variety that is supposed to be more or an orangey-yellow, they are all completely green, still.

Later today, when things are warmer and drier, I will head back to the garden and harvest yellow onions. Almost all of them had their necks bent down quite a while ago – most by cats, but some by the weight of the tomato vines they were planted around. No sense in leaving them to get mushy in the ground. I’m not entirely sure where I will lay them out to cure in the sun, though, since our picnic table is no longer useable, and the old market tent’s frame is broken.

I think I’m going to have to pick up another Walmart cheapie canopy tent. We’ll just have to make sure not to set it up where any trees can fall on it!

With the chill of the night, there were no Forme de Couer or Black Cherry tomatoes to pick today. I’m really hoping the upcoming warm weather stays for a while. We don’t have a lot of cat free space we can use to lay out green tomatoes to ripen! Another reason why getting another canopy tent would be useful.

And another picnic table. Probably a basic kit we can assemble ourselves, then paint.

When we get to building the outdoor kitchen we’re planning, that would be a good place to include areas where we can set out or hang produce to cure before they go to the root cellar. With the cooking surfaces we have in mind, we could even do large batch canning if we wanted.

All in good time!

For now, I’m just happy with a colander full of peppers and a handful of beans!

The Re-Farmer

[addendum: you know, if I followed the feedback suggestions on WP’s AI Assistant, my blog posts would be insanely long and even more verbose than I normally am! 😂😂]

First day of Autumn, afternoon kitties, and a little harvest

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I completely forgot today was the first day of autumn!

It certainly felt like it, this morning.

We got rather chilly night. A light rain started during the night and continued through the morning. At about 7:30am (sunrise was at 7:14am today), I quickly went to feed the cats outside, and could hear thunder in the distance as I did it. I wanted to make sure they got fed before any potential storms hit us.

We were at about 12C/54F at the time, but the humidex made it feel like only 7C/45F, which I think was our overnight low. Our long range forecast has changed and changed again. We went from not expecting frost until the end of October to now expecting overnight temperatures below freezing about 10 days in, with colder nights and potential frost before then.

I’m really hoping that holds off longer!

The thunderstorms didn’t hit us, but since we were getting some rain, I didn’t do my morning rounds until the afternoon. The fluctuating temperatures and humidity was really messing with my body. Lots of pain and stiffness. Add in the overcast skies and rainy weather, which always makes me feel sleepy, my morning was completely unproductive.

The fluctuating conditions have been very hard on my husband. He describes himself as “crunchy” these days. Every time he moves, he can feel things crunching in his lower spine, where the damage is worse.

By the afternoon, though, the sun came out and it warmed up a bit. We’re at 15C/59F as I write this, and are supposed to reach 16C/61F eventually. Tonight’s low is supposed to be 7C/45F. We’re still supposed to warm up again for the rest of September, particularly with the overnight temperatures, but even one colder night like last night will slow down ripening in the garden.

I am quite happy we got the vinyl wrapped around the eggplant and hot pepper bed. It’s held up so far, and I think it is making a difference in keeping the plants warmer during the night.

When I headed out to do my morning rounds in the afternoon, I spotted this big guy, enjoying the catio.

He’s got that permanently sad expression on his face!!

I’m happy to say that horrible wound he had on his face seems to be healing really well. He never let us get a good look at it, but it seemed like the skin of his entire cheek was torn open, with a flap of skin hanging down. Over the weeks, we could see it was healing, and the skin flap dried up. It hung on for a very long time, though, so we’d see him walking around with this black, dried up thing hanging off his face, and could do nothing about it. While I did sometimes manage to touch him while he was eating, he would not let me see that side of his face. We just got glances of it from a distance.

As it healed, though, he got less skittish again and, recently, he actually let me briefly see the injured side of his face. There’s a bald spot of fresh, pink skin. No sign of infection. What a survivor!

If he’s getting comfortable in the catio, I wonder if we’ll finally be able to get him into a carrier and get him fixed? I hope so.

After sneaking a picture of Sad Face (aka: Shop Towel), I was going to continue my rounds, but was followed by a herd of cats and kittens, getting under my feet! I had intended to feed them when I was done, but they convinced me otherwise.

They really, really like the new kibble!

I managed to get a photo of the most adorable tongue blep on Hypotenose!

The feeding done, I could continue my rounds without tripping over cats, every step of the way!

We had a triple harvest yesterday, so I wasn’t expecting to find much in the garden today. There was still a bit, though.

One more melon was ready to pick, plus a couple of tomatoes, and I found a couple of G Star squash – including a mutant one! It’s two stuck together, but there’s only one stem.

I made sure to check on the winter squash I harvested yesterday. Mostly to make sure no cats knocked them off their makeshift shelf in the garage. All was fine! They are drying up nicely. I grabbed a smaller one with a bit of moisture damaged skin, where it had contact with the board or brick it was on. I figure we can try it with supper tonight.

Today, I finally remembered to change a headlight bulb on the truck. I bought the replacement bulb more than a month ago!

With our van, changing a bulb required removing the entire headlight fixture. They were designed to be easily popped off and on. The truck is very different.

I checked the User’s Manual, which wasn’t as helpful as I expected. It’s generic, and not for specific models like the one we have. It said you can just reach the bulb through the engine compartment to remove it, except on the passenger side, which had something in front that would need to be removed first.

I took a closer look under the hood – not particularly easy for me, as the truck is taller than our van was, and I’m short! I could see where the low beam bulb that needed replacing was, but couldn’t see how to reach it. The neck of the washer fluid reservoir was in the way, as was a wire and part of the frame.

After much fiddling around, and even trying to see if the fixture could be removed (it couldn’t), I finally just fought with it. Maybe if I had smaller hands, it would have been easier, but not by much! I could just barely reach it with my fingertips. Certainly not enough to grip it and turn it so it could be pulled out. I ended up having to use a pair of pliers to turn it. To top it off, there were so many things in the way, it was hard to see what I was doing. I also had to bring out the stool we keep in the truck, so I could reach and see better.

Once it was out, getting the old bulb off was a pain, partly because of reach, partly because it just wouldn’t unclip the way it’s supposed to, and I really didn’t want to risk snapping something. I got it off, though, and putting the new bulb in was not at all an issue.

It did, however, have to get put back at just the right angle, or it wouldn’t go in. I had to resort to using the pliers again, trying to get it positioned just right while having to move my head back and forth so I could see around part of the frame, a wire an the neck of the washer fluid container.

What a pain in the butt!

But, it’s done and tested. With the days getting so much shorter, this was not something to keep forgetting about!

That done, I decided to see what I could do with that clear plastic I hope to use on the cat isolation shelter. The frame around it came off easily, which was nice. I was afraid it might have been glued in place, but it was held in place by just friction.

I made sure to find a place to store the pieces, as they are quite reusable.

I laid the sheet over a couple of large wooden crates my brother gave me, then took some measurements of the areas on the isolation shelter it needs to cover. The front will be the biggest piece, at 2′ x 46″ The side pieces need to be about 16″ wide, and at least 21.5″ long.

After measuring and marking the sheet for the large piece, there rest of the length will just need to be cut in half, and I’ll have pieces large enough to fit over the side openings.

I still haven’t figure out the best way to hinge them as doors.

Or maybe I can still find a way to turn them into sliding panels, which is still my preference.

Either way, I’ll be able to get the three pieces I need, and still have a small strip left over.

The question now it, how to cut it. I was thinking to use the jigsaw, like I did with the roof panels, but it’s flexible like the roof panels, too, and that means lots of vibration. I don’t want to do that again!

We don’t have the right kind of blade to use the circular saw.

We might be able to set up the table saw in the sun room and use that, though.

I’ll need a daughter to help out with that, though.

So for now, it will wait. I’d rather delay getting it done, then risk damaging it by using the wrong tools.

At this point, though, I think we can start putting on the wire around the rest of the bottom half, and install the door/ramp. There is nothing else inside that needs to be done. We could probably even attach the hinged roof support pieces. The roof panels will wait until the upper level is enclosed, though, as any overhang would get in the way.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Cat isolation shelter progress, and a productive day

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I must say, I’m pretty happy with how today went! It was a lot more productive than expected.

Aside from the triple harvest I wrote about in my previous post, I was scheduled to go to my mother’s to help her with errands.

I left earlier, as I wanted to stop at a store to find something I needed, then hit a bank machine before picking up some Chinese food for our lunch. My mother told me she’d had their steamed rice and vegetables for lunch after church and really liked it, so that’s what she wanted me to order.

I am not sure what she ordered, though, as that is not a typical menu item. At least, not as a combination meal for one. She also said it was “brown rice”.

They don’t serve brown rice.

They did have the steamed rice and mixed vegetables as separate items, so that’s what I ordered for her. Another reason I am not sure what she actually ordered that she liked so much; the mixed vegetables alone were more expensive than any of their combination meals. It, and the steamed rice, is meant to be shared by several people!

She’ll have enough to last her for a couple of days, at least!

I ordered a meal combo for myself.

When my mother saw the food, she was surprised by the rice being white rice. It was supposed to be brown! Sure enough, she had eaten stir fried rice, and somehow thought it was plain, steamed brown rice.

The vegetables were what she wanted, though.

They did, however, include small amounts of meat, which had my mother hesitating. She even asked me at one point, do you think it’s okay? before eating it.

She is still completely convinced that the Chinese restaurant serves cat meat. She’s given me several different stories as to why she thinks this. The first time, she told me one of her neighbours had told her this. Then she said she saw it in the news (though that turned out to be about a restaurant in the city, who know how many years ago). Then it was because she saw more stray cats around, so that must mean they’re serving cat. Talking about what she wanted me to order last night, she said that their prices are so much lower than the restaurant the specialized in deep fried chicken, so in her mind that must be proof they’re serving cat. *sigh*

She likes their food, their prices and their generous portions a lot, though, so she just can’t resist going back.

We had an excellent lunch.

My mother had her first home care visits to help with her medications last night. She would have had two visits last night, and one in this morning, by the time I saw her, so I asked how it went. That set her off into talking about how she couldn’t sleep last night, and it had be because of “all the pills” they gave her.

They’re the exact same pills, from her bubble packs.

Then she said she’d gotten up in the morning and had a bit to each, then went back to bed. Just as she was finally falling asleep, there was a knock at the door. Home care was there for her morning meds.

I asked my mother if she had taken her pills at 5am, like she usually does (she’s already been instructed not to, but to wait for home care).

I didn’t quite get a straight answer out of her, but I think she did.

Which has me wondering; did she take a second full set of pills when the home care person arrived, or just the new supplement for her eyes, which is the only one that’s still separate?

The whole point of getting home care to help her with her medications is because, even with the bubble packs, she is getting confused about them.

Hopefully, she will remember to NOT take her morning pills at 5am (there has never been any reason for her to take them that early), but to take all her morning pills, including the new supplement, with breakfast, when the home care person arrives.

After lunch, we went over her list and added a few things she had forgotten. She needed to go to the bank for cash, though – the one thing I can’t do for her. She really didn’t want to go out at all, with how she was feeling, but she had to. I told her that, after going to the bank, I could take her home again and do the rest of her shopping. She liked that idea.

For someone who wasn’t feeling well, my mother was pretty darn spry!

Getting in and out of the truck was hard for her, as usual, but once she was at her walker, she just took off like a shot! I actually had a hard time keeping up with her! I honestly don’t know how she does it, at times!

After she was done at the bank, she decided to come along to the pharmacy, but to stay in the truck. Her bubble pack refills were set to be delivered today but, since I was there on her behalf, anyhow, I could pick them up, then pick up some other stuff she needed from the pharmacy.

That was her limit, though, so I took her home from there.

Talk about timing.

She was unlocking her door when her phone started to ring. It was the eye doctor, following up on her. They’re already tried calling me and left messages, and were trying my mother’s next.

My mother now has an appointment to see the eye specialist in the city.

The clinic is in the opposite side of the city from us. The drive will be well over an hour, plus the appointment is expected to take about 2 hours in total for all the tests they need to do.

This is going to be a very long day for her!!

She’s going to have her eyes dilated, and they wanted to make sure she had sunglasses. I have extra sunglasses that fit over regular glasses in the truck, so that’s taken care of.

The appointment is on the day I was planning to go into the city for our first stock up shopping trip for next month, but that’s okay. My mother’s appointment is more urgent!

We were very happy about the timing with all this!

The call done, I headed out to get my mother’s groceries, then put everything away for her. There wasn’t anything else she needed for me to do, and she was more than ready for a nap, so I left soon after. Gas and a stop at the post office was in order. The items that were supposed to arrive yesterday, but then tracking said they would arrive on the 26th, were all in.

After I got home, I was soon back outside. After harvesting the winter squash, I started working on the cat isolation shelter.

I was able to finish tacking down the mesh covering the pallet floor with pieces of wood lath. There was just the back that still needed to be done but, with the wire mesh already in place on the back, it was the more difficult one to do. There is now nowhere any tiny kittens could squeeze through the pallet floor and get out.

Then it was time to start enclosing the top level. The not-door sections needed to have insulation cut to fit, then covered.

Here is a slideshow of how things went.

The first section I worked on had the shelf across the back to work around. I had cut it to fit snuggly, but it was a bit too snug, and the insulation snapped at the shelf cut. A bit of trimming, and the pieces were fit in.

Yes, there’s a gap at the angled corner support. It was large enough that I could cut a strip from the corner that had been removed and fill it in.

I don’t have enough paint to pre-paint the pieces anymore, so that will have to be done later. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a colour match.

I had a number of wood lath pieces left from my last bundle that weren’t all the same length, or had damage in areas. I cut 14 pieces to 16″ lengths, which left me with a 15th piece that was just a touch short. I wasn’t sure if I’d needed it, though.

This first side has floor boards that are ever so slightly too long. I hadn’t bothered to trim them. I made use of the excess length to hold the first piece of wood lath in place. Then each piece was lined up with that first one and nailed into place.

If you look at the second picture of the slideshow, you can see I had to use that slightly short 15th piece! That corner has the brace in it, so there was extra material to hammer the nails into, to secure it. Plus, it overlapped the top frame piece that it could be nailed into.

The other side was easier to do. The insulation for there just needed a 45° cut in one corner.

If you click through to the third photo, you’ll see I didn’t quite get the angle cut right! 😄 That shouldn’t be a problem, though.

I had to start a new bundle of wood lath to cover this side. They are supposed to be all 4′ long, but a few were just a little bit short. After finding 5 pieces that were all the same 4′ length, I was able to cut the stack into 16″ lengths, then nail them over the insulation.

In the last two photos, you can see how it looks on the inside.

It can be assumed the cats will try to use the insulation as a scratching post. There’s something about this insulation that they just love for that! In fact, in the photos of the insulation pieces before they were covered, you can see all the cat scratches!

I didn’t want them to pull the insulation right out if they did scratch at it. I had some nails just barely long enough to go through the insulation, so I used some of those to tack it to the wood lath from the inside. You can’t really see the nails in the photos.

The problem is, these probably won’t hold against cat scratching. Using any longer nails would just go right through the wood lath. I’ll have to think of some other way to keep them in place. I even tried nailing a piece of wood lath vertically on the inside, but I’m left with the same problem. Any nails long enough to secure it in place would go right through the wood lath on the outside. Any nails short enough to not do that can be easily pulled out.

I am more than open to suggestions in the comments!

After this, it’s time to cut that clear plastic I brought up from the basement. I found out from my brother that these were used to cover windows in the house, on the inside, to stop drafts. All but one of the windows were replaced before we moved in here. He thought these were from what is now my bedroom/office/craft room, but that window still has a covers over each half, as it was the one window not replaced. The frames on them are quite different from the frame of what I brought to the garage, so I still don’t know where these came from. It does tell me, though, that it is probably Lexan, which is good, since it can handle UV light and weathering better.

I’m going to have to be careful cutting it, though. My brother tells me there’s a possibility of shattering!

The first piece to cut will be to cover the front of the shelter’s upper level. That should leave enough material to use as clear doors on the sections that did not get covered today.

Hopefully, that will be a job I can work on tomorrow.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

Aside from all that, we got some good news today.

The electric company is currently doing a lot of work in the area, replacing power poles, doing over due maintenance and repairs, etc. – and clearing trees away from the power lines.

We got a call from them today.

They would like to come onto the property some time in the next while, to clear any trees or branches near their power lines.

We had to pay a tree company to do that, about 5 or 6 years ago. Things are starting to grow back and getting too close to the lines again.

The power company will be doing it, and there will be no charge.

They will only clear around their own lines; not the lines to the house, garage, barn or pump shack. Which is fine. The lines to the garage and barn don’t have trees near them. The one to the pump shack is something we can keep clear ourselves. The one to the house is almost directly under the main line to the pole the meter is on, so it’ll be cleared by default.

The guy I spoke to couldn’t tell me when they’ll be doing this, but it doesn’t really matter, except for the gate. I asked if they could call ahead, so we can unlock it for them. We’ll see how that works out.

So… yeah. It’s been a pretty productive day today! We’ve got all sorts of things falling into place. 😊

May things continue to go as smoothly and productively!

The Re-Farmer