Critters

Our 2021 garden: morning finds

/ Re-Farmer / 13 Comments

While doing my rounds this morning, I topped up the small bird feeder. As I took it down from its hanger, I heard something fly out from the plants below. It turned out to be a goldfinch. It flew onto a nearby lilac branch, and just stayed there, watching me.

As I went by again, on my way to the garden, I saw it again.

I came withing a few feet of it, and it just stayed there. Like it was trying to sleep and wondering what this idiot human was doing at 5:30 in the morning!

A few days ago, I noticed we’d lost a few sunflowers, among the Hopi Black Dye rows, and a couple of sweet corn. Off hand, I would have thought “deer”, but it was odd. There were just a few nipped plants, and they were in the middle of the rows, in roughly the middle of blocks, not along the edges as I would expect from a deer going around the roped off blocks.

Nothing showed up in the garden cam, which told me that whatever it was, it was too small to trigger the motion sensor where the camera was set up. So I repositioned the camera (mounting in on that flag stand was the best rig ever!) to hopefully catch something.

When checking the beds before watering them, I was disappointed to find this.

The second Crespo squash find has had its end nibbled off, too. Only as far as the hoop barrier, but then, the only vine had been nibbled about the same amount, and there was no barrier at all at the time.

Unfortunately, we don’t have another camera for this end of the garden.

As for the sweet corn…

Three corn plants were nibbled on. In the middle of a row, and in the middle block of the 3 corn blocks!

Just those three. Nothing else in the area was nibbled on.

It was a gorgeous 18C/64 when I first came out, but by the time I finished using the new action hoe to finish weeding a second row, it was already getting too hot for manual labour. So I headed indoors and checked the trail cam files, to see if whatever did this was captured.

Well, waddaya know. Do you see those two “lights” on the left?

Those are the eyes of two big, fluffy raccoons!!! And the far one could be seen coming out of the roped off area, while the nearer one was on the outside of the roped area.

*sigh*

So it is likely these guys that have been nibbling our sweet corn and sunflowers. We have not been seeing deer on the trail cams lately, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been going elsewhere in the yard. The water level in the kiddie pool is down, but not by much, so I don’t think anything as big as a deer has been using it.

The more stuff like this I see, the more I am thinking we are going to have to invest in a guard dog. A large breed that loves our cold winters. Which is a weird thing to think of, in our current heat.

As I write this, we’re at 33C/91F with a humidex of 36C/97F, and our high is predicted to be 34C/93F… oh, wait. My weather app icon on my desktop just changed. We’ve just hit 34C. The humidex is supposed to reach 37F/99F. Which is actually a bit lower than was forecast, a few days ago. But then, the weather forecasts have been unusually off this spring and summer. It’s one thing to be off by a couple of degrees, or even the continual calling for rain and thunderstorms that never happen. It’s when they say things like “rain will stop in X minutes”, and there’s no rain at all, anywhere in the region. Or “rain will start in X minutes”, but if I look at the weather radar, there isn’t any rain showing in the entire province, nor even in provinces on either side of us, nor the states to the north of us. Frustrating!

Still, over the next two weeks, the temperatures are expected to hover just above or below 30C/86F. One of my apps has a 25 day forecast, so it’s running into August, where, we’re expected to hover around the 25C/77F range. The average temperatures for both July and August in our area is 25C/77F, so I guess that’s about right. I was planning to plant spinach and lettuce in late July. I guess we’ll find out if it’s too hot for them or not!

One thing about our expanded gardening this year. We are continually looking at things and saying, “okay, so next year we’ll do this” or “next year, we’ll not to that.” :-D It would all be a waste, if we didn’t learn anything from it! :-D

Now.

What to do about the raccoons…

The Re-Farmer

I’m to sexy… for this heat!

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

I could not resist getting a picture of David the Magnificent!

It’s good thing we hardly ever use the microwave. This is the only counter in the kitchen the cats are allowed to climb on, and they love looking out that window! Cheddar, in particular, likes to lie here, taking up the whole spot, with his chin on the windowsill, like it’s a pillow. Today, David has claimed the prime spot! :-D

David must be just dying in this heat, but he will not let us brush him! We’ve been managing to cut away the fur clumps we find. Mostly. It’s hard to get at the ones in his armpits. He keeps moving!

This morning, I saw another furry beast that I haven’t in a while.

Creamscicle Baby is back! He’s been away for a few days. He and Junk Pile (David’s sister) were very happy to see each other. :-)

She’s like, “look who’s here!”

He was clearly very hungry, but he just wouldn’t stop rubbing up against Junk Pile. :-)

Even while they were both eating, he’d rub up against her, eating at the same time, to the point of pushing her away from eating, too!

Too bad he won’t let us pet him anymore, and Junk Pile never has. :-(

The only down side is that Creamscicle Baby has been pretty aggressive with his brother, Nutmeg, of late. Not just play wrestling, like they used to, but all out fights.

Ah, well. Nothing we can do about that, but break them up with a spritz from the hose.

The Re-Farmer

The big cheese!

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Just look at this big beast!

This big cheesy creature! Cheddar has grown to be such a big, meaty, boy. ;-)

I usually have several cats splashed across my bed, right where the breeze from my fan in the window hits. :-D

We’re at 33C/91F right now, with a humidex of 35C/95F. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to reach a high of 34C/93F with a humidex of 37C/99F. After that, we’re supposed to drop a few degrees, but then head back up to just above 30C/86F again. Not as hot as the heat wave we left behind, but definitely higher than the long range forecasts had been predicting earlier.

Which means the cats have been spending their days in furry puddles around the house during the day…

And going nuts during the night.

Somehow, flying insects are getting into the house. In my office/bedroom, I have a shelf that has a space for them (the cats, not the insects), right up near the ceiling. Unfortunately, to get to it, they can only use the back of my office chair, since their alternative jump off point is now filled with a box fan. I have a wall shelf at the head of my bed, and I’ve set things up to prevent them from getting to the top, since that is where fragile items that don’t fit anywhere else are stored. Some of the smaller cats, however, can climb straight up on part of it. I’ve tried to block the top by storing a triangular support designed to go under the knees, or behind the back, depending on how it is oriented, where they climb. Every now and then, I’m awakened by it crashing down because a cat has decided to go for it. Last night was so bad, I had to kick them out and close the door. Unfortunately, that meant they tore around the upstairs, instead. There are no doors up there, so the girls can’t close them out.

At least the cats won’t be keeping them awake for the next while. With the increasing temperatures, even with the much improved conditions after adding a box fan to the south window, set up to blow the hot air out, it gets too hot for my daughter’s computer and drawing tablet. She’ll be working at night again, which means they won’t be going to bed until something like 5am; shortly before sunrise. So they’ll be able to deal with the cats tearing around after flying bugs during the night! :-D

Time to start leaving ice packs on the floor for the cats to cool down on again. :-)

The Re-Farmer

The hoard, and a frustrating update

/ Re-Farmer / 12 Comments

Oh, my goodness!

I’d been hearing on some of my local gardening groups that people were having a really bad time with grasshoppers. I knew it was just a matter of time before they moved North.

And here they are.

Do you see them on the gravel? All those specks?

The dry grass is hiding many, many more. As I was driving and walking along our driveway, I was startling clouds of them.

I don’t think my phone picked up the sounds, but while walking paste the garage, I could hear the metallic noises as they bounced off the door.

I remember the grasshoppers being bad last year, but not as bad as this!!

As for why I was back and forth on the driveway, I had a very frustrating morning.

I heaved out very early to get to the court house in a nearby city – applying for a restraining order doesn’t get dealt with in the small, local courts. I was met by my brother, who was technically still at work. We had time to go over my papers a bit while we tried to figure out what to expect, and he kept up with work on his phone. We were told things would start at 10, so we walked over for 9. Always before, we had been able to come in and wait.

But then, always before, things turned out to be cancelled.

I think we were the first people to show up. The security guard recognizes me by now. No issues with my Mingle Mask. Because we were so early, we were told to wait outside, or come back closer to 10. So we walked back to my brother’s care and we went through our papers some more, trying to figure out what we might need – if anything at all – and he continued to work. When we walked back again, it was shortly after 9:30. There was another security guard there, and she asked our names. It turns out my name was not on the docket; just our vandal’s. After clarifying what we were there for and our connection to the file, she took the list and left to talk to someone about it. When she came back, she told us that they would not see our file until after 11, explaining the order that things were going to be taken, starting with federal files. As my application was done by me, as an individual, and not a crown case, it would be among the last files addressed. We talked about coming back at 10:30 and she said we could, but we might be waiting as much as an hour.

So we left again. That’s when I mentioned I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we started to think about where we could walk to. As we did, we saw our vandal and his wife drive by, so my brother wanted to get a move on, so as not to cross paths with them. Our province is still locked down, despite never having had a need to be, even over the winter, so I wasn’t sure where we could go that I would be allowed in. We finally decided to try a restaurant across the street. Signs said groups from one household only. When we went in, they didn’t say anything about the Mingle Mask and were going to seat us, but then we were asked if we were from the same household. My brother said we were family, but not the same household. We were then asked if we were vaccinated. Which is actually illegal to do, as it falls under the Privacy Act, but I didn’t think of that right away. My brother just got his second shot (which is a problem, because now I have to stay away from my family as much as possible for the next while), but not me.

I was then told I would have to eat by myself.

My brother was willing to, but I walked out. I will not comply with medical tyranny, any more than I will put up with our vandal’s abuse.

Speaking of which, as we left, we saw our vandal walking into the court building.

There was a nearby grocery store. Unfortunately, I had already heard that they illegally discriminated against people with medical exemptions, but things had supposedly eased up in our province, so maybe that changed?

When we first walked in, no one said anything, so I thought we would be fine. We were walking around to find where they had sandwiches or a deli, but before we could, a manager looking person walked up to me, demanding my papers. Meaning, my medical exemption note. Which is illegal to ask for, not required, and which doctors have been ordered not to give out. I just walked away. He kept talking at me and, while I shouldn’t have done it, I flipped him the bird over my shoulder. His response was to wish me a nice day, in the most sarcastic voice ever. I don’t comply with discrimination, either.

After that, we went to sit in my mother’s car, which I used because it has working air conditioning. My brother was taken aback by how I was treated. He’d never seen anything like it before, but then, I’m apparently the only person he knows that can’t wear a mask.

What I wish I’d thought of was to point out that they had no problem with me in the court building, so why would a restaurant and grocery store have a problem with me?

So we stayed in the car while he worked and we talked, until I could no longer stay seated, as I was starting to have troubles breathing and needed to be upright again. Which is why we were on the sidewalk, heading back to the court building, to see our vandal leaving the building and crossing the street with someone we assume to be his lawyer. We figured he was told to wait outside until 11, too. My brother wanted to avoid him, so we walked around the other side of the block to get to the court building.

When we got there, there was a whole bunch of people waiting outside, but not our vandal. I looked where the car we’d seen him to do had been parked, but didn’t see him there, either.

Since we were still early, I popped in quickly to asked the security guard what the status was.

August 6, he told me.

???

Yup. Our vandal and his lawyer had been taken in, and it was over and done with. Judging from when we saw them outside, they would have been taken in shortly after 10. The time we were told our file would NOT be seen.

I asked what happened to the 11:00 thing, and the poor guy could only slump and shake his head. He looked so defeated, even with half his face hidden.

My poor brother. This is now the third time he got himself away from work to be there for me, only to have this happen.

The problem it, we don’t actually know what happened. Only that there is a new date. Is it a trial date, because he’s contesting the application? Or did they defer because I wasn’t there? My name wasn’t on the docket, which suggests they didn’t need me there, but I keep getting told by the court office that I do need to be there.

This is so, so frustrating.

After my brother and I parted ways, I took advantage of being in the city and swung by a Walmart to pick up more cat food, and a bagel to eat on the way home. Like the court building, this Walmart has no issues with me. From there I went home and unloaded, then got my husband to call the pharmacy to let them know I was on my way to pick up his refills (he forgot to request delivery) in town, that it would be a parking lot pickup, and give them permission to put it through the till. Because, unlike the court building, the pharmacy still discriminates against people with medical exemptions and I’m not allowed to go in.

When I got back and gave my husband his medications, he found one of them had not been included. We weren’t billed for it, either. So he called them back about it.

It will be delivered on Monday.

Meanwhile, I’ve called my LegalShield firm. My file is updated, and my lawyer will call me about it. I don’t know that there’s any more advice he can give me, but hopefully by then I will have got through to the court office (my call went to voice mail, and the mailbox was full, so I couldn’t even leave a message) to find out what actually happened.

Oh, how I wish LegalShield still had a firm in our province! If I needed to, they would find me a local lawyer at a discounted price, but not as good of a discount as I would get if I were working directly with the firm. Mind you, we probably couldn’t afford even the discounted price, but at least we’d have a better chance of it.

*sigh*

I think I’d rather deal with the hoards of grasshoppers, than with all this garbage.

The Re-Farmer

Bring on the kittens!

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

I was able to get a whole bunch of kitten pictures this evening.

Only three of Butterscotch’s 4 kittens were visible while I was nearby.

Butterscotch’s expression is just too funny. :-D

I’ve been slowly trying to lure the kittens closer, so I can finally touch them, but it’s a little more difficult while sitting in a chair. My younger daughter can sit on the ground, and she has been able to get some of them to come close enough to touch. :-)

That stripe on the calico’s nose is just hilarious! :-D

This little lady almost came close though to touch. :-D

Later on, I spotted one of Rosencrantz’s babies, taking a drink, so I move a camp chair near their food and water bowls, too.

This one’s face bears a strong resemblance to Nicky the Nose. Particularly that tragic expression!

Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is another spawn of Nicky the Nose! :-D

The little orange one is quite a bit shier than its sibling. Rosencrantz, at least, is tolerant, if not friendly, and will once in a while let me pet her.

I’ve seen Junk Pile cat around today, but no sign of her two kittens. I do hope she brings them around again!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2021 garden: photo bomb!

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

I am so thankful that things cooled down overnight. The garden beds were watered thoroughly last night, and didn’t need to be done again this morning. It was all I could do to drag myself outside this morning. The past week or two has started to catch up to me, and the pain levels are getting pretty high.

While doing my rounds, I noticed one of the Ozark Nest egg gourds has reached a new stage of growth! :-)

Flower buds and tendrils have appeared. :-) The others aren’t quite there, yet. :-)

While the Spoon tomatoes had started to show fruit for a while, we now have tomatoes developing on the Mosaic Medley tomatoes. It should be interesting to see what kinds of cherry and grapes were included in the mix. :-)

This morning, I decided to go ahead and pick the biggest of the summer squash that we have right now.

Our first squashes of the summer! Two green zucchini and a Magda squash.

And a Nutmeg photo bomb. :-D

The littler bugger would NOT let me get a picture without him!

I noticed something interesting on one of the Crespo squash this morning.

All along the vine of the bigger one, these white shoots have appeared. Some are almost an inch long. There is nothing like this on any of the other squashes and gourds. I have no idea what they are.

If anyone knows what these are, I’d love to hear it!! My best guess is that, if these were on soil instead of over straw, they would root the vine to the ground.

Before heading indoors after finishing my rounds, I grabbed the twine and worked on filling in the gaps between the wire mesh of the squash tunnel.

I didn’t add twine all the way to the top. I figured, if we need to, we can add more later. Once done, a moved a few plants over to where they now have support to climb.

Quite a few plants are already starting to support themselves as they climb higher. Even some of the winter squash. A few of them did need to have a bit of twine looped around to lead them towards the trellis, rather than the path.

It should be interested to see how well the squash tunnel holds out, once things start climbing higher. This is not the strongest or most stable of structures, but I think it should hold.

Now that it’s no longer dangerously hot outside, I have quite a lot to catch up on. I’ll be seeing what I can scavenge out of the barn, too. That will still wait a little while, though. I have my court date this Friday for the restraining order against our vandal, but our province it still locked down. There was a slight easing of restrictions, so there’s a possibility the court rooms will be open, but while the rest of the world has moved on, our provincial dictators just don’t want to let go, no matter how many lives and businesses are destroyed for an illusion of safety.

Our vandal has been laying low, but we did happen to cross paths recently, as I was coming home from errands in town. I had to drive around him, walking on the road to our driveway, while turning off the main road. I never saw him on the trail cam files when I checked the next morning, so at least I know he didn’t try going into our driveway again. I did call my mother to remind her to check the call display before answering her phone. He was with someone else, and I’d smiled at her as I drove past, to show appreciation for them moving aside for me, and I was still smiling when I passed our vandal. He just stared at me, which is a change from his usual response of turning his back to me as I drive by. I think, because I was driving my mother’s car at the time, he didn’t realize who I was until then. Anyhow, from some of the messages he’s left on my mother’s answering machine in the past, if I smile while driving by, it’s because I’m laughing at him because I got the farm (I still don’t know why he thinks my mother gave me the property). Seeing me sometimes triggers him, and if he got drunk again, there was a good possibility that he would start calling my mother again, so I wanted to warn her.

Well, I think I’ve taken up enough time while writing this, and will try calling the court office again. I’d called earlier and left a message, but that last time I did that, they didn’t call back until the next day, so I’ll try again.

I am really tired of this whole mess. It should have been done with, one way or the other, more than 6 months ago.

The Re-Farmer

New fur babies!

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

When things started cooling down, I headed outside and checked on the old kitchen garden. I started to pull out some weeds I missed this morning, when I heard a noise.

I had startled Junk Pile cat, who was lying on the beets by the retaining wall.

She wasn’t alone!

What a cutie!!

I saw another one dash around the tree, so I started carefully moving around to the side of the garden…

Only to startle more critters.

I certainly wasn’t going to begrudge the skunks a drink of water, so I let them be (the water bottles had been frozen, earlier) and kept moving slowly though the side of the garden.

This confused the skunks, as usually we never go between them and the storage house. We usually go to the other side and use the hose to chase them that way, instead.

This baby was so confused, it started to follow me! :-D

On the far side of the retaining wall, I found the kitten.

It just froze there, watching me.

The other one came bounding over, playing in the mosquito netting, until it realized I was there, then it ran off into the maple grove. The first one stayed frozen for a while longer before it ran off.

I am so glad Junk Pile finally brought her kittens over! From how many teats I could see were in use, I had thought she had more. I don’t know if these are the only ones that were brave enough to follow her, or if they are the only survivors left.

As I headed around the kibble house – which got its second coat of paint yesterday – I spotted Rosencrantz’s babies.

This little one was hiding behind the pedestal, watching me, before coming out for a drink.

It’s sibling was watching me, too, while lounging on some scrap carpet in the junk pile.

I had been wondering how the kittens were getting through the fence. The ground rises slightly here and, between that and the junk, there is no gap at the bottom. This morning, I saw how. They are still small enough to fit through the chain link… but just barely! Pretty soon, they’ll have to go around to another part of the fence, where there is a gap underneath, to get through.

So that’s three litters of kittens we’ve seen now. Butterscotch and her four, and Rosencrantz and Junk Pile’s, with two each. That leaves Ghost Baby, assuming Ghost Baby is actually female and has a litter. We still don’t know, but are kind of assuming.

Hopefully, we will be able to socialize some of them, but if they just become comfortable enough to come to the house for food and water, I will be happy.

The Re-Farmer

Layendecker, destroy of chairs

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Yay! WordPress is finally loading for me – including the editor.

I hereby celebrate by sharing a photo of this disgusting creature. (I kid, of course.)

In my butt spot, as usual. What a beast! He will sometimes lie there, on his back, and start clawing at the chair like it’s the scratching post he’s too sluggish to walk over to.

The poor cats. Inside and out! It’s 32C/90F with a humidex of 36C/97F right now, and it’s almost 7:30pm as I write this. While we can make sure the outside cats have lots of water, and the frozen water bottles to help keep things cool, there isn’t much else we can do to help them.

The Re-Farmer

Kibble house and other progress

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Today was our day to head into the city for out monthly shop, so my morning rounds were a bit earlier than usual. Which seems to confuse the outside cats! :-D

Yesterday evening, when things started to cool down, my younger daughter was a sweetheart and crawled around inside the upside down kibble house, to complete the first coat of paint. It was dark by the time she was done!

Once the paint is cured, we’ll flip it right side up again and start the second coat.

As I write this, in the early evening, we’re at 29C/84F. In the city, it was 30C/86F with a humidex of 34C/93F. Before doing the shopping, I was able to visit my brother, who lives not far from the city, and got a tour of their grounds and all the things that are growing. Or not growing, in some cases! Sounds familiar. They don’t have groundhogs/woodchucks/marmots (woodchuck is the Canadian name for them) right now, but are having to deal with rabbits. The temperatures were still increasing at the time, but it was just baking out there!

Some things are just loving this heat, though. Like these guys, still in their morning shade.

The two seedlings next to each other on the left are the Tennessee Dancing Gourd. The others are the Ozark Nest Egg gourds. They have had a pretty huge growth spurt in the last few days!

While in the city, I made a point of checking out the gardening section and picked up something I hope will work.

It was the only one that included groundhogs on their list of animals. When I was loading the van, I sent a picture to the girls, who looked up reviews. They are… mixed! Some people wrote that the squirrels were eating the stuff! :-D I figure it’s worth a try. It’s inexpensive, too, so we’ll be easy to pick up more if it does.

I might even dare plant in those empty spinach beds, now that there’s some hope that any sprouts won’t get immediately eaten.

With the heat wave we’ve got right now, I’ve changed up what I intend to plant. Lettuces are no longer on the list; those will be planted later in the season. I still intend to plant radishes, but don’t expect bulbs in this heat. They will be just for their seed pods. If we get bulbs, too, that’s just bonus. I also picked up some chard. I’ve never successfully grown chard before, but they are one of the few greens that actually like the heat, so they will be a sort of replacement until we can plant lettuce and spinach again.

It’s interesting to see people’s reactions to this heat wave. There is a lot of “this is going to be the new normal” sort of panic out there. Which is curious. I checked the historical data. We’re supposed to hit 34C/93F in a couple of days, then it will drop back down to average temperatures. The record high for June in our municipality is 37C/99F, in 1995. The record low is 0C/32F in 2009. That’s just our area. As hot as it is right now, we’ve been hotter – and much colder – in the recent past, and “normal” just means the average over a span of 30 years, +/- 5 to 10 years. You’d think we’d be used to it by now, but every time things swing to one extreme or the other, we tend to freak out a bit! :-D

While I was in the city, the girls were finding ways to help the outside cats deal with it. The water bottles we put hot water in to protect the tomatoes when there was a chance of frost, are now filled with water and in the freezer. An ice pack was added to the bird bath, and the frozen water bottles will be put into the cats’ water bowls. A plastic coffee can was filled with water and put in the freezer yesterday. Today, it was placed near where Butterscotch’s kittens are, so they can rub against it to cool down, if they wish.

In the past, we’ve tried filling balloons with water and freezing them, then removing the balloon and leaving the ice in the cats’ water bowls and the bird feeder. It worked, but I think using water bottles as ice packs is better. No garbage, and they can be refrozen and used over again.

So far, we’ve only seen Butterscotch drinking from the bird bath with the ice pack. :-D

The ones having the hardest time is the girls. The upstairs gets insanely hot. My older daughter can’t work, because she has to shut off her computer and drawing tablet, because they are over heating. They haven’t been able to sleep from the heat, so they’ve been hanging out in the cooler living room, or my room, as much as possible. We want to put in a window air conditioner upstairs, but the entire second floor has only 4 outlets, and only 2 of them can handle the power needs of an air conditioner – and those are being used to power their computers!

Well, we won’t be able to do anything about it this year. I was able to get them a box fan today, to fit in one of their windows. Once that’s set up and cat proofed, they can use it to bring in some cool night air. The pedestal fan they have right now just moves warm air around!

We’ll deal. I’m more concerned about making sure our gardens are doing okay!

The Re-Farmer