Critters

Our 2021 garden: seed planning, a furry mushroom, and oops!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

After hauling to many loads of soil over the rough, rough ground, none of us were up to doing it again today.

So our Sunday remained a day of rest!

We did still go out to soak down the beds we are working on, though, along with other watering and checking of things. There is fresh new growth on the grapes, which was good to see. I wasn’t sure they’d survived February’s deep freeze. We’ve got rhubarb coming up, and the one haskap is leafing out nicely. The other is still struggling. :-( The garlic is looking awesome. Unfortunately, the birds are digging into the soil, as they have been digging into all the leaves on the ground all over the place. They’re not after the garlic, but they’re scatting soil all over, and some are getting partially uncovered in the process. We’re going to have to come up with a way to cover those!

While checking out the snow crocuses and grape hyacinths (so many are coming up now!), we found a strange, furry, orange mushroom in a tree.

Rolando Moon found a perfect spot to settle down and groom herself! :-)

The girls and I talked about where we are going to plant things; the space we have to work with is turning out very different than we expected while working with the satellite image, and we’re going to have open spaces where we had expected to have garden beds.

Which is okay. Nothing is written in stone, and most of the beds are going to be temporary.

We then went through our seed packets, sorting out the ones that need to be planted before the last frost date.

There are a lot of things that should have been planted “as soon as the ground can be worked”, but we aren’t ready for all of them.

These are the ones that should be in the ground right now.

Two of the three beds for the spinach collection are not ready yet. The kale will be interplanted with onions, and one of those beds is ready. The bed for the strawberry spinach is ready. The beets will be going into the new bed beside the garlic, and that one’s not quite ready. It’s a small bed, so we will probably be planting one type there, and another somewhere else. The poppies will be going in the old kitchen garden, which also is not ready yet.

We still aren’t sure where the carrots will go. They need deep soft soil, so I think they will be going where the potato beds were last year. We are making those longer, so only the part that was used last year will have the soft soil needed. Some might end up in the old kitchen garden, too.

Then there is the next batch.

We can start planting lettuces now, with successive sowing every couple of weeks until about the middle of June, before it gets too hot. These will go in the old kitchen garden, with some of them going into the retaining wall blocks, which are ready now, and others further into the garden, once we’ve worked out where the paths will go and add more soil.

These can be planted in the middle of May. It’s a bit surprising for a corn to be planted before first frost. Once we’re done with the beds that need to be direct sown right away, I’ll be marking off the block the corn will be planted in. At the same time these are being direct sown, I will be starting the Montana Morado corn indoors, along with half of the sunflowers.

The kohlrabi will be interplanted with onions. Onions are supposed to repel those beetles we had issue with last year.

While going through the seed packets, we discovered an oops.

The pink celery should have been started 8-12 weeks before last frost!!

So we quickly planted them now.

The seeds are absolutely minuscule! They are surface sown, so they just needed to be scattered on the soil and pressed down, so we used a take-out container as a mini-greenhouse. The sun room is warmer than the house, and there’s no room in the aquarium greenhouses, so we set it up with the tomatoes and luffa. We still use the ceramic heater bulb at night, but according to the thermometer in the sun room, it reached almost 30C/86F in there today!

They’re getting less than half the time to start than they should, but we’ll see how it goes. Who knows? We might have a long summer this year.

Everything else that needs to be direct sown has to wait until after our lost frost date. Especially the Peaches ‘n Cream corn collection. The radishes (two varieties) will be interplanted with some of them, to help break up the soil. They mature very quickly, so being overshadowed by the corn will not be an issue. The sunflowers will be a mix of transplants and direct sowing, to see which works better. And finally, there are the three varieties of bush beans.

If all goes well, we’ll be transplanting all the squash, gourds, cucamelons and tomatoes at about the same time. The potatoes and asparagus should be in and ready to plant by then, too.

The first few weeks of June are going to be very busy, and we’ve got a lot of manual labour to get done ahead of that!

The Re-Farmer

I got Ginger pics!

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Ginger has been so active, it’s been hard to get pictures of him!

I finally managed to catch him while napping. :-) He earned that nap! He spent much of the day, running around and batting at a cat toy. He clearly has adapted well to the loss of his leg, but being able to run and bat at things at the same time is really impressive!

His sister, Cabbages, and Keith were being absolutely adorable. Those two get along really well.

Ginger is not the only cat that likes to hang out on the very edge of the bed.

He’s also not the only one that has rolled and squirmed around so much near the edge of the bed, they fall right off! :-D It’s usually Cheddar that does it. Thankfully, Ginger didn’t fall off this time. :-)

(Oh! I just wanted to add that I got a rather exciting interruption while I was working on this post. My daughter came over to let me know a Crespo squash has emerged! It was not visible when I checked on them this morning. :-) )

Back to cat stuff…

While doing our city shop, we’d picked up some wood pellets to try as a litter alternative. Today I cleaned out one litter pan and put some in. The cats were very, very curious about it! It does make a lot more noise while being poured into the pan than normal cat litter does. :-D

There was one unexpected problem, though.

As the cats checked out the new, rattling round things in the litter box, they started trying to chew on it! We caught a few of them grabbing pieces and taking them out of the litter box. We discouraged that, of course. We were starting to think the cats wouldn’t use it, but I’m happy to say one of the cats finally did – and I’m not smelling a thing!

So far, so good! If this stuff works out, it’ll be much better on the budget.

The Re-Farmer

Ginger, Nutmeg and chives

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I had some spicy company this morning!

Ginger was quite enjoying his morning stretches. :-)

He had been rolling and stretching next to me so enthusiastically, he rolled right off the edge of the bed. Whereupon he looked up at me, as if to say, “I meant to do that!”

His brother was also keen for attention this morning, even to the point of demanding face pets instead of scarfing down breakfast! He followed me around a bit while I was doing my rounds.

He decided to roll in the dirt next to the chives. :-D

If you look past him, you can see rhubarb coming up, too.

When we plant in this garden, we know not to plant around this particular tree. It’s one of their rolling spots. They don’t roll around under the other one, likely because this spot gets more sun. :-)

The brothers are very much alike in personalities! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Catching up on this morning

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Things went in unplanned directions this morning!

But first, the fun stuff. :-)

We have the handsome Ginger to greet us! He’s been quite the character, and a lot of fun. :-)

The outside cats were happy for breakfast. :-)

We finally took the tarp off the top of the kibble house. We got some rain yesterday; enough to soften the ground a bit. It should be fine until we get some paint.

My daughter wants to paint it yellow. !! Not a bright lemon yellow or anything like that, thankfully. :-D

The girls and I removed most of the mulch from the garlic beds the other day, and uncovered many more sprouting garlic. Most were a bit on the yellow side, since they hadn’t worked their way through the mulch to the light, yet, but they are already looking nice and green and strong.

We moved the mulch over to the new bed, then covered it with a sheet of metal we scrounged from the outer yard, so the wind wouldn’t blow it away. We will have to build a box around this bed. At this point, if I add soil to the top as planned, it’s high enough that it’ll just fall off on the sides. I think we have some scrap wood in the barn we can use for that. It’ll be temporary, so it doesn’t need to look fancy or anything! :-)

After doing my morning rounds, I had some calls to make. One of them was to the court office about the restraining order I applied for against our vandal. The last time we had a court date, everything had been cancelled again, due to our province’s extended restrictions. I was told everything was deferred to after April 23rd, and to call around them. Well, that was on Friday, but I remembered too late in the day, so I called today.

The person I spoke to told me that they were holding court sessions now, and that I have a court date on May 21st. She wanted to check something, though, and said she would call me back.

Which is when I found out that the file had actually been in court on Friday. Our vandal was represented by a lawyer. The court offices informs the lawyers when things change, but people who don’t have representatives have to call themselves to keep updated. :-/

Nothing came of it, other than the new date, and it’s just on the morning docket. It will likely go to a trial date after that. One of the possibilities she said that might come out of it is a mutual restraining order. He stays away from us, we stay away from him. Before our move, I was in a situation where I agreed to one of those, and I regretted it. The type of restraining order I applied for would mean our vandal would have to stop drinking – and provide proof of that regularly – and have his guns removed. I believe his drinking has a lot to do with his behaviour. He often sounds drunk in those bizarre messages he’s been leaving with my mother. I would hope if he were at least sober, he might finally get the help he needs. It would, however, drag things on longer. His having a lawyer, and our not being able to afford one. I have LegalShield, which gives me free, unlimited phone consultations, among other things. If I need a lawyer to represent me in court, I would get a discounted price, but we don’t have the funds to spare to begin with, so that’s a moot point. I’m not going to let what he’s doing to us financially ruin my family, even if he’s willing to financially ruin himself, apparently. He has no defense, really. About the only thing a lawyer can do is drag it on. That’s just going to cost him more money – and he’s already said that he’s willing to sell his farm and be homeless, so he can sue me, my mother and my siblings.

I wonder what his wife thinks of that. :-/

Anyhow.

After that, there was an unplanned trip into town, and then a stop at the post office. We crossed paths with our vandal in the process, but only passing him on the road. I could see him well enough to tell that he recognized our vehicle, too. He lives near enough that, when I was working outside later one, I could hear him and his chainsaw, as he cut wood.

A part of me wonders how it would work out, if he really did follow through with his threats. He’s already got his silly suit against me, wanting me to pay him for things that aren’t his, and that I don’t claim to own in the first place. What can he do by going after me? We own nothing, so we have nothing to lose. He’s the one willing to bankrupt himself. And if he does end up selling his farm to pay for lawyers, well… we won’t have him living so close and creeping through the bushes from the road, and whatnot.

What a mess.

Whatever happens, happens. We’ll deal with things as they come.

Once at home, though it’s been a pretty chilly day, I did get to start on one project outside.

That, however, will get it’s own post!

The Re-Farmer

Window kitties!

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

It’s been warm enough (out of the wind) to open the kitchen window at times.

Cheddar and David, bird watching!

This is the one counter in the kitchen that the cats are allowed to be on. It’s a favorite spot at the best of times, but when the window is open, we’ve been seeing as many as 4 cats crowded onto here! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Filthy felines and seedling surprise

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It was a gorgeous day to do our morning rounds, and the yard cats were taking full advantage of it. :-D

It’s a good thing we’re not trying to keep the grass alive around the cat’s shelter. :-D This spot is where a smaller old dog house was, when we first moved here, and the cats roll around in the spot so much, no grass or weeds are growing into it. :-D

As you can see, the based of this linden tree is another favorite spot they like to roll in!

They get so, so filthy! Enough to turn and orange cat black! :-D

In other things, I found a nice little surprise this morning.

The third dancing gourd seed has sprouted!

I honestly forgot how many seeds I planted in there.

The main reason we used peat pots to start the gourds is so that we can just bury the pot into the garden and reduce transplant shock. Which means thinning out the seedlings. The problem is, most of the seedlings we’ve got so far are looking really strong and healthy! Among the luffa, there’s really just one sprout that is smaller and would be thinned out, but the rest are doing so very well! I want to plant them all! :-D

We’ve got over a month before we can transplant any gourds at all, so we’ll see how they are and make decisions then.

The Re-Farmer

Morning spice

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Ginger says “good morning!”

And then he attacks my phone. :-D

Ginger continues to settle in. With so many cats in the house there are, of course, moments of aggression. He has no problem standing his ground when one of the other cats decides to take out their bad mood on whichever other cat happens to be nearby. I’ve even seen him running around and tussling playfully with the spice girls.

He does have a habit of squirming around too close to the edge of the bed and sliding right off. :-D

His fur is growing back in the shaved area, but not evenly! He’s got patches of longer hair that’s surprisingly dark. Being right next to the corner where the incisions meet, it looked like he somehow got the area very dirty. :-D

Best of all, he’s now starting to actively seek out people for attention. :-)

He is such a sweetie!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I managed to get a picture of Ginger this morning.

This was just a moment before he leapt up and tackled my phone! :-D

He was very fierce-some this morning!

I got this picture of David the Magnificent, yesterday, and just had to share.

He is such a pretzel!

Meanwhile, I had a whole crowd, outside!

The Ghost Baby was peeking between the shelters to see if it was safe to go eat!

She finally dared!

My daughter told me that she sometimes shows up at their second floor window, describing her as a ghost baby. I figure that’ll do just fine as a name. Better than “that sort-of calico cat…”.

My daughters have also been telling me about another grey and white tabby. I honestly can’t remember (I’m losing track!), but they say it’s Junk Pile’s baby from last summer, and it looks like here, except thicker. So they call it Thickilous.

:-D

I may well have seen it and thought it was Junk Pile, but until I see them both at the same time, I have no way of knowing.

So we have these 7, possibly Thickilous, and Nicky the Nose, hanging around. We have more cats inside than outside right now!

Well. At least until the kittens are born. Only Butterscotch looks pregnant, but that doesn’t mean the others aren’t!

The Re-Farmer

Ginger baby, on the hunt

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I finally got some Ginger pictures!

He’s been running around all over the house, but I managed to catch him and lure him with some cephalopods.

It’s not the squidlies he’s hunting.

It’s my phone!

:-D

As a side note, my spell check dictionary does not recognize the word “cephalopod”. Which is weird enough on it’s own, but the alternative spelling it suggests for the plural is “hydrocephalus”, while the suggestion for the singular is “cephalic”.

Excuse me while I “add to dictionary.” :-D

I dug up the patterns to make more of these. I am in error. Neither of these are squids. The pink one is a cuttlefish. :-D

The cats love them!

But not as much as Ginger loves to attack my phone while I try to take his picture. ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Morning flowers

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

My daughter’s orchids are looking beautiful this morning!

They have been doing very well since she starting using kokedama, though finding a place to hang them where the cats couldn’t get at them was more of a challenge!

Unfortunately, one of them seems to be struggling. You can see some of the dead leaves behind the flowers in the above photo. My daughter has figured out that, when we had the polar vortex hit us in February, it simply got too cold for them at the window, and one in particular is having a much harder time recovering.

Now that we have the aquariums converted to cat proof greenhouses, next winter we will be able to move them into one of those to keep them warmer.

I also saw some fluffy, furry flowers this morning. ;-)

I was able to bring them some meaty treats from the kitchen this morning, and they were very happy!

I love how Creamsicle Jr. is licking his chops! :-D

We’re supposed to have a nice, warm day today, and I’m looking forward to getting some garden preparations done outside. The cats have already discovered the soil my daughter moved to the old kitchen garden. They LOVE rolling around in dirt. We have several trees with bald patches at their bases, because the cats roll under them so much. One of them is an ornamental apple tree in the old kitchen garden, and now they have bonus dirt to roll in.

I don’t mind them rolling at the bottom of the tree. We can’t plant anything under them, anyhow – but it’s going to be a problem if they decide to roll in the new soil after we’ve planted!

We’ll work it out. ;-)

The Re-Farmer