Critters

Sweetie sighting, and bee bombed

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Thanks to the generous donations from the rescue, one of the things I’ve been able to do for the outside cats is to use the freeze dried cat food powder to make a thin cat soup. Not a lot, but enough to spread around several bowls, in hopes to lure the more feral cats closer to the house.

Sweetie has finally discovered this. For the past while, by the time she showed up to eat, the other cats would have eaten all the cat soup. They absolutely love the stuff. (Interestingly, the inside cats keep trying to get into the boxes, but once it’s mixed up, they have no interest.) I mixed up a bowl of cat soup then leave it to rehydrate while I put out the dry cat food. I actually spotted Sweetie this morning, already at one of the food bowls under the shrine, looking for food. She ran off a bit when I came out and put food into the bowls in the area.

Not only did she come back for the soup but, when other cats bullied their way in, she went into the isolation shelter and found the cat soup in there!

Not only that, but when she saw me stop to take a picture (using zoom; I was not going to go too close!), she went back to eating.

This is progress!

After doing the cat stuff, I did the rest of my rounds, including checking on the garden.

That’s when I spotted our first Gigantheum poppy was blooming!

Of course, I stopped to take a picture and immediately got photobombed.

By a bumble bee.

You can just barely see it in the first image. If you click through, there are two short videos, too.

I didn’t do the morning watering today. Partly because I was heading into town for a meeting at the nursing home, and partly because we were supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon.

I got a message from my brother and SIL, letting me know they were on the way. My brother had to take a day off work for this. I ended up getting there about half an hour early, and met with my brother in the chapel to wait, as the meeting room was being used for another meeting. Their grandsons are still with them, so my SIL took them out around town and to the nearby beach.

The meeting is something that will be happening every year, though when they found out my brother took a day off work, they said future ones could be done over the phone.

Being the first one of these meetings, there was a fair bit to cover, as we gave them some background information that would explain some of my mother’s behavioural issues, etc. There was some discussion about my mother’s cognitive decline – something my mother notices in herself, even if she doesn’t have the vocabulary to explain it. One of the people looked through the binder of my mother’s files and found the past several cognitive test results. One she had done 2 years ago had a score of 14. One she had done this year had a score of 29.

Out of 30.

That is a huge fluctuation. It does match what we all have observed. In many ways, and on her good days, my mother is extremely sharp. On her bad days, she can’t understand some of the most basic stuff. What we have no way of knowing is, when she’ll be having a good day or a bad day!

The meeting went on for about half an hour. My plan had been to visit my mother, then do some grocery shopping. My brother had brought another radio for my mother (she was unusually cruel about the “junk”, high end radio he’d provided for her before, not understanding that it’s simply difficult for any radio to catch a frequency where she is) because she complained he’d taken her radio away.

…

He hadn’t planned to actually visit her, though, but when he called my SIL to let her know we were done, she said their grandsons wanted to visit their great grandmother, and they were already on their way.

So we all went to visit my mother, very briefly. She turned out to be in bed, asleep, when we got there and was very tired.

For a short visit, she managed to make digs and each of us. Not the boys, thankfully, but… yeah. She actually complained a bit that we were there, asking what the “celebration” was. My SIL explained that she was driving the boys back home tomorrow, so this was their last chance to see her for a while. I told her I was going the the grocery store and was visiting her first. We didn’t bother telling her about the meeting, as she would not have been able to grasp it. As it was, she never got up at all. Which was fine. Lunch was going to be brought over, soon, so we didn’t want to linger. As we were leaving, she twisted something in conversation into an accusation against my brother, then told him that she wanted him to come visit for longer… by himself… because she wanted to “talk” to him.

My poor brother. He practically ran from the room after saying his goodbyes.

From there, they invited me to join them for lunch so we could fill each other in and catch up on things. It also gave me a chance to see the boys for a bit longer before they left for home tomorrow.

After we parted ways, I did a small grocery shopping trip. Most of what I got was on sale, but it still came out to almost $130. I did finally get a decent amount of butter, though; it was on sale for under $5 a pound. At least the house brand butter was. With other brands, the half pound sizes cost more than that.

Oddly, by the time I was packing things up at the truck, I was hit with a wave of sleepiness that did not stop. I felt weary to the bone, and could barely stay upright.

What I got fit into three hard sided bags (I even remembered to grab some, since the back of the truck cab is filled with my market supplies) so I messaged home, asking if someone could meet me at the garage to grab one, so I wouldn’t have to pull up to the house or make two trips. Then I started driving, so I never saw what the response was.

I had also picked up an energy drink for the drive home.

It didn’t make any difference, that I could tell.

Much to my surprise, when I drove up to the garage, my husband was waiting for me! He’d gone over with just a cane, not his walker. When I asked him about it, he told my that our younger daughter had been up all night and had finally been able to fall asleep, and her sister has had a relapse and couldn’t walk to the garage.

!!!

We got everything in and I put it all away, and then went to bed. I pretty much passed out for a couple of hours, with the exception of when several cats decided they absolutely needed to use me as a bed.

I didn’t realize how hard I’d fallen asleep until the phone rang. When I answered, the person on the other end asked for my older daughter. From the tone of her voice, I knew immediately is was about her relapse. There was a distinct sense of urgency, almost alarm, in her tone. Talking to my daughter yesterday, she told me she intended to take the “use as needed” medication she has, and that they intended to phone the doctor at the women’s hospital today (her sister being the one to make sure she didn’t put it off again!).

In the end, she was told to go ahead and take the “as needed” medication again. The nurse that called was going to consult with the doctor about any changes in her prescriptions, and will hopefully call back tomorrow. My daughter has her pre-op appointment on the 17 and she was instructed to not worry about that at all and, if things get worse, get to an ER right away. For now, my daughter says it is manageable. When she filled me in on this later, I made sure to tell her that I will drive her to the ER, even if it’s 2am, if necessary.

After my much needed nap, I headed outside to take care of the cats, then stayed out to try and get as much of the lawn mowed as possible.

For all that I waited for things to dry out after the last rains, the grass in the more overgrown section of lawn I focused on was so wet, it actually clogged the riding mower ejector opening, several times!

Then it started raining.

*sigh*

At least I got the tallest grass done. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more done tomorrow, because the day after is market day, and I don’t expect to have the energy to do it when we are done there. I’m doing the riding mower parts, though, so we’ll see.

Also, there are SO many frogs! Many times, I had to reduce my speed or stop outright to avoid running them over. This makes me very happy. More frogs means less slugs and other nasty bugs! They don’t do much about the mosquitoes, unfortunately, but we’ve had a lot of frogs for two summers now, and I haven’t seen a single slug in the garden! 😁

Meanwhile, I think it’s time to pain killer up and head back to bed. That wave of sleepiness is coming over me again. The only thing keeping it from getting as bad as earlier is my increasing pain levels.

*sigh*

Less than 2 weeks to my telephone appointment with my doctor.

Being broken really sucks.

Being broken and not knowing what’s going on makes it that much more frustrating!!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: a harvest, some transplanting and direct sowing

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

But first, the cuteness!

Colby is one of several cats that just love that garden bed cover. So adorable!

And yes, those are garlic scapes on the netting beside him. Those are from the few garlic that are growing in the wattle weave bed. More on that later.

Today was our first market day at the large animal rescue. My younger daughter and I loaded up the cab of the truck, then headed out to arrive at around 9:30. They are only a mile away from us, so it was a quick drive.

A couple of vendors were already setting up, with vehicles all backed up to the spots they were setting up in. After pulling the truck in, along the row of vehicles, I went into the large shelter where there is a gift shop, admission is paid, and a petting zoo.

They have three kittens; two orange and a grey tabby that were free ranging. They really, really enjoyed the attention they got from the vendors! The kittens will be available for adoption at the end of the season. I expect they will have a waiting list of people interested by then!

I found someone and got instructions on where we could set up and where to park the truck after we unloaded. It didn’t take long to get everything out, then I moved the truck. Thankfully, the splayed leg style of the canopy tent we have was not an issue. We set that up, then the table with a cloth over it, then my daughter and I set out price tags on my inventory and made the display look pretty.

Thankfully, there was a pleasant breeze, and we had our shade. A couple next to us just had an umbrella, and it kept getting blown over. We took turns checking out the other vendors – there was 7 of us altogether on this first market day. I was told more are expected next weekend.

It was extremely quiet, and most of us made zero sales. I bought things from two different vendors, and those were very close to being the only sales for all of us today! We had plenty of time to talk and get to learn about each other, which was nice. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized one of the vendors is the mother of the woman that runs the rescue. Which means she’s the mother of our mechanic and his younger brother that drove the tow truck (though not anymore; he’s moved on to somewhere else). Too funny that I keep meeting more and more members of this family We had a great chat.

We were super appreciative of the shade and the breeze, as we hit 26C/79F. Things shut down at three, but we didn’t start packing up right away. The truck would have blocked others from being able to get around to load up then leave.

I got quite a laugh when I finally did bring the truck over. The vendor next to use had finished loading and was in her car with her family, waiting patiently as I turned and backed up to our tent. Then I reached out the window to open the door, and one of the guys in the car with her started to laugh and opened his window to say, “you’ve got a broken handle, too?” Sure enough, one of their doors was missing the handle on the inside, and they have to open the window to reach out and pull the handle from the outside, too.

While we were there, we kept the family updated, and I started to hear from my brother. They have their grandsons with them and today they visited my mother. They even managed to get her outside to enjoy the sunshine in a park that is right alongside the nursing home property.

Just as we were finishing loading the truck, I got a message that they’d be swinging by the farm to drop off some stuff, including the second solar powered, motion sensor noise maker they ordered for me. They got here shortly after we did. We’re leaving the truck loaded, except for the box of the truck, as we wanted to be able to put the cover back. I was still outside when the arrived and I was able to chat with my SIL and the grandkids while my brother rushed to get things out of the back of their car and into their caravan. The mosquitoes and horseflies were insane, and he didn’t want them getting into the vehicle. I got the box with the noise maker – I told my SIL that I plant to set it up by the corn, in hopes it will keep the raccoons away. Raccoons are very good at decimating corn, just when they get ripe!

We also talked about where to set the bin they are having delivered to haul away junk. My SIL was telling me they’re feeling quite frustrated. They hadn’t knows they’ve had their grandsons with them for so long before they’d ordered the bin. They’re having a blast with the grandkids, but it means they can’t come here to do any of the stuff they had planned to in preparation for the bin. We talked about where it should be dropped off, as I’ll likely be the person meeting with the delivery people.

They were in a bit of a hurry, so when they were ready to leave, I went ahead to the gate to close it, so they wouldn’t have to stop. Then I went straight to working in the garden.

With the heat of the day, I wanted to do some watering, but first I wanted to do some transplanting.

There were two that I decided to try and transplant. The largest, in the first image of the slide show above, is a Golden Hubbard squash, while the smaller one is a Gille’s Golden Pippin. They both got planted in empty spots in the bed along the chain link fence. Then I started watering everything out of the rain barrel.

As I started on the East yard beds, I remember I’d bought some fresh bush bean seeds (actually, my daughter bought it, along with the other groceries we picked up the other day). The square garden bed is down to four surviving plants!

The Arikara Squash on the middle is looking good! Big enough that I removed the protective collar.

I picked the Gold Rush variety to plant this time. I just wanted a yellow variety, as they are easier to see. Hopefully, these will back it. I have remarkably few bean plants this year!

That done, I continued watering in the main garden area with the hose. I’d picked the few garlic scapes that were on the wattle weave garlic They were much smaller than the ones in the main garden area with a hose.

While watering, I noticed the pods on the Spring Blush pea were looking very good. After i finished watering, I checked them out, then very carefully removed several.

Along with the scapes, I was concerned about the next bed. The red noodle beds are looking like they are doing what they did last year; growing just a few inches, then nothing. I harvested some of the largest turnips, as the greens are getting big enough to shade out the sun.

The turnips were pretty small, but the leaves where useful – and they are edible so we at least have that!

Not too bad for a first harvest. There are the turnips, scapes, Spring Blush peas, and a handful of herbs. Oregano, lemon balm and sage.

They made a nice addition to supper this evening.

Tomorrow morning, I plan to be back to watering the garden earlier in the day, before the heat hit. We are expecting the heat to potentially get up to 32C/90F tomorrow. Nowhere near as bad as other areas, but still not something anyone should be working in, if they can avoid it!

So… in the end, I would call today successful, even though nothing was sold. All the vendors were talking about coming back next weekend. It should be fun, and there should be more people.

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Sweetie is back!!!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Most of today went to plan.

This morning, my younger daughter and I headed into town. Our first stop was to visit my mother which… went as well as can be with her, I suppose. She did try to launch into how my brother basically needs to be her slave because she “gave” him “two farms” (the remaining two quarter sections of the family farm) but now he does nothing for her. Which is so completely opposite of reality it’s mind blowing. Then she tried to say that she “gave” us a “roof over our heads”, as if we owed her something, and I had to remind her that we had an arrangement (and she definitely got the better end of the deal, we learned after we moved out here). She actually asked me, what arrangement? *sigh*

After the visit, we made several stops along the way. I picked up a few things for tomorrow’s market and a float, while my daughter picked up prescription refills for herself and her sister. Then she got us some food. It was past 1pm by then, but it was breakfast for her, and lunch for me. We made one more quick stop at the grocery store, which she also paid for, then a bit of gas before heading home. Just in time for the rain to hit.

By the time we were done in the grocery store, my pain was back and I was having difficulty standing. As soon as I could, I made use of the topical pain killer, though it took quite a long time to kick in. I remembered to call the pharmacy about getting the prescription for that extended. I don’t have any refills on this. I’m not out, by my doctor is going to be away for 2 weeks, making today the last day that the pharmacy can fax in for the extension before she’s gone. If this keeps up, I might run out before she gets back, so I wanted to make sure I could get a refill, if needed.

I was having difficulty staying upright, whether sitting or standing, so I asked my daughters to take care of the outside cat feeding again. After a while, though, I did have to get outside. My younger daughter helped me get the outside folding table I’ll be using at the market cleaned up and in the box of the truck. It’s longer than the box of the truck, so we had to roll up the cover so we could lean it on the tail gate, and my daughter crawled in to strap it down securely. Everything else can go into the cab.

Once that was done, I brought out my inventory to check on it and get things ready in the cat free zone, to load into the truck in the morning. I won’t be using grid wall to hang things, so I’ll be finding other ways to display the wearables.

It was still a while longer before the pain went away, and I wanted to go outside for a walk to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise, since I did no yard work or gardening today. As I did, I noticed that all the kibble trays were empty. My daughter had fed the cats, which means the skunks and raccoons had already cleaned up the remains. It seemed that some of the cats hadn’t had any and were hungry, so I got out some more kibble.

Which is when I spotted her.

Sweetie came back!

I first spotted her behind the isolation shelter. I zoomed as I took pictures, then looked back at older photos to confirm that it was her. She has a distinct dark patch on her nose.

While she was back there, I skirted around her to put kibble in the trays in the catio and under the shrine before going the isolation shelter, just so I wouldn’t startle her. she didn’t run away – but then Bobert came along. I was heading back to the house when I started hearing scrambling and growling. Bobert had gone after her and chased her up a tree!

I got him to scoot away, but I couldn’t see her. I decided that I would make up some cat soup to try and lure her back. I made more than usual with the freeze dried mix and made sure to pour some into trays in the sun room, first, to lure the other cats in. Otherwise, the super friendly cats like Havarti and Curtis push their way into the isolation shelter for pets, while others like The Grink go in to eat up the cat soup. I wanted Sweetie to have a chance!

While I was coming over with the cat soup bowl, I heard scrabbling noises and saw Sweetie coming down the tree. I put some cat soup in the two food bowls under the shrine, and that was what she went for.

She still looks nervous, but not anywhere near as terrified as she looked when she first came back. I made sure to give her space, but I also didn’t stay too far away, and she still came down. She was clearly hungry and willing to go for the food even though I was still relatively close.

I’d had messages from the rescue chat earlier in the day and I was honest in saying that I was starting to lose hope. I made sure to send photos to the chat right away. Everyone is so relieved and happy she is back!!!

Now we have our work cut out for us, to slowly get her to trust us and know that it is safe for her to come closer to the house for food and shelter, rather than hiding wherever she was hiding in the outer yard.

It is so good to see her coming back and eating!!!

Now, we just have to make sure cats like Bobert will leave her alone!

The Re-Farmer

Storm damage and an escape

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Last night, the storm hit.

Not as bad as in other areas. Especially to the north and south of us. It was also quite brief but, for the time in where here, it hit hard.

The first sign of things was losing our internet. Thankfully, we did not lose power, though I later learned my brother did, briefly. Then I started hearing a lot of footsteps rushing around upstairs. A leak started at the window. This leak has been a problem in the winter, where an ice dam would form. It has never leaked during a rain storm. The roof is still under warranty, though, so we’ll be able to contact the company and see what they can find. That portion of the roof cannot be seen from the ground, and none of us are able bodied enough to climb up there to look.

Even I started having a leak in my bedroom window. The one that did not get replaced by a new window before we moved out there because my mother suddenly decided she was not going to pay for that one last window. This is an original window from my childhood, but I don’t know if it’s original from when this portion of the house was built in the 30’s. I know the molding around it is more modern, but when it installed.

When it started to develop problems, as did pretty much all the other windows, instead of fixing or replacing them, my parents installed panels of what is probably Lexan, not Plexiglass. This window is two parts, side by side. One side has a screen and a handle that could be turned to open the window, while the other side is just a plain double paned window, and each side has its own panel. Once the panels were installed inside, the screen side of the window could no longer be opened. In the last couple of years, I discovered that when the rain was driven from the north, a drip would start from the frame between the panel and the glass window, on the side without the screen. Last fall, I used spray seal around the entire window frame. It hadn’t leaked again until last night – and the leak was on the inside of the room, not between the window and the panel! It wasn’t much, but it was also a first.

Checking the sun room critter cam at one point during the night, I saw both a skunk and a raccoon at the kibble trays. They were both so completely soaked, I didn’t have the heart to chase them off! There were quite a few cats in their shelf at the window, sheltering from the storm, and none of them were the least bit bothered by each other.

When the storm passed by, we still had high winds all through the night, and through all of today.

When I came out to do the cat feeding this morning, I was very saddened to find this.

That is one of the sliding panels that forms both a window and a door on one side of the isolation shelter.

Sweetie is gone.

My guess is that, during the storm, the thunder and lightening scared her enough that she blaster herself into the window. The panel is flexible, and it would have bents and popped off the tracks completely.

Poor Sweetie!

There was no sign of her, anywhere, but there are many places she could hide, too. I put the panel back on, then opened the ramp door and the other sliding window a few inches while adding some kibble to the bowl. Then I made sure to mix up some cat soup and leave some in there. I’m hoping Sweetie will find things familiar, and remember that the house is where there is safety, comfort and delicious food she doesn’t have to hunt for.

Once the cats were fed, I did extended rounds, looking for storm damage – the first of which was really, really obvoius.

The first two images are of the West yard. The dead portion of a huge maple finally broke.

I was not surprised. If anything, I was surprised there wasn’t more. This tree is part of a row of three. The one in the middle is already dead and, when it broke in the winter, the piece fell on my market tent we had set up by the fire pit. Part of it embedded itself into the ground, and I wasn’t able to clear it until spring, when the ground thawed enough. The third three in this group is at least half dead, and I am fully expecting the dead parts to fall in high winds, too.

I had actually checked everything else, including around my brother’s stuff, when I came back into the inner yard through the gate by the fire pit. That’s when I noticed Colby sitting in a maple and paused to take a picture.

Which is when I realized, the tree he was on was freshly broken.

When I cam closer, I found it had come down in two large pieces. One of them landed mostly on the branch pile we have as fuel for the fire pit, and both where mostly hidden by the tall grass and weeds in that area. I simply couldn’t see them, earlier!

I checked the garden beds, of course. A branch and partially fallen on the tomato bed in the east yard. That bed has the box frame on it, which protected the bed and the branch fell mostly into the path, instead.

Everything else held.

While checking on the beds, I spotted these.

The Spring Blush peas have quite a few pods on them. They are underdeveloped, still, but they already have the pink blush on them.

Everything else in the garden held out fine.

I made sure to update my brother about the damage. He has all the paperwork for the roof.

By late morning, I started to head out to the city, making sure to stop at the post office, first. My husband’s forms to renew his Disability Tax Credit was ready to mail. I also picked up our mail and found my replacement debit card was in – the one they mailed a month before my old one was supposed to expire still hasn’t arrived. The card could be activated by a purchase, so I bought a 40 pound bag of kibble that I wanted to pick up, anyhow.

From there, I went into the city and did our shopping, which will be covered in another post. While I was gone, I was kept updated by the family on the continued severe wind conditions.

After I got back, the truck unloaded and parked, I stayed out a bit longer. The girls had already fed the outside cats, but I used some of the freeze dried cat food mix to make a cat soup. I put most of it in the isolation shelter, in hopes of luring Sweetie, and poured the rest into the sun room trays. The cats were very excited for the treat!

I did see a skittish tabby in the white lilacs when I came back from parking the truck, but I wasn’t sure if it was Sweetie or another tabby. Possibly Flopsy.

I so hope she is doing okay, and learned to come back to the house for food and water!

In the time since I did the damage check this morning, quite a few smaller branches came down – especially the willow – but there was no other large drops like that section of the giant maple that came down last night.

One thing I can see I am very happy about it the chicken coop. One of our concerns was that it would blow over. It did not. It was well sheltered from the wind by botht he house and the surrounding trees.

The last thing I checked was the old kitchen garden, where I found sprig.

This morning she was among the cats eating on the cat house roof. I was able to put my hand on her back and even rub her shoulders a bit! Then she ran off. Not far, though. Just to the next pile of kibbled on the roof.

Progress!

This evening, she was in what seems to be her favourite place, now that the netting here has been redone.

She really, really loves to be on or near the garden netting!

While I was gone, my older daughter got some good news. A call from a doctor. She now has a pre-op consultation with a referred doctor.

In a clinic in the city, of course. Not a close one, either. No matter! Surgeries can take years to happen here in Canada, so if this is being expedited, we are thankful!

The consultation is in the second half of July, so we have time.

After this consultation, it’s a guessing game to know when she will actually get her surgery. I don’t know what kind of waiting list this procedure has. It could be weeks, it could be months, it could be years. Canada is a place where people die on waiting lists. Thankfully, her condition is not life threatening anymore, now that she knows what is happening and can take medication for it. The surgery is the alternative to being on medication for the rest of her life!

Now, we just need for the truck to hold out.

The Re-Farmer

Terrified baby is back

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Poor Sweetie!

A couple of the volunteers from the rescue dropped Sweetie off today. The isolation shelter was ready for her. She will be there for a few more days – she’s 10 days post spay, but mostly to get used to being back in a familiar place and get special food while she’s there. She was with the foster for a couple of months and was terrified the entire time. Even bit the foster again! The same foster has Frank and Sir Robin. Frank had a really hard time, too, but is now completely socialized and ready for adoption. They’re even giving discounted adoption fees for anyone taking them both. Sweetie, unfortunately, never settled at all.

So she is back.

When I checked on her later, she had moved to the bottom of the shelter. The next image in the slide show above was when I came out to do the evening feeding.

The rescue also brough over nine cases – NINE!! – of donated cat milk. With so much, we can give both the inside and outside cats some as a supplemental treat. When I mixed up some of the freeze dried cat food for Sweetie, plus extra for the rest of the cats, I used a cat milk as well as hot water to rehydrate the food.

It went over very well.

With the evening feeding, I did allow other cats into the shelter. Cats Sweetie would have been familiar with. I did let them out again later, as she didn’t seem ready for more just yet. We’ll have to keep checking on her, but will also keep allowing these other cats that she used to cuddle with in to visit every now and then. After a few days, I hope to be able to open up the shelter so she can come and go as she pleases. It’s been a couple of months, but she should still remember this place.

Poor thing. I so hoped she would be able to get adopted and get to enjoy the indoor life. That’s two, now, that have had to come back. I’ve heard that Blot is also having trouble adapting, too, though not to the point of attacking people.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Critters, growing things and an update

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Before I get into how things went this morning, I wanted to share this…

You can click through for a short video I managed to take while doing the evening feeding. Being in the isolation shelter means cat soup treat. Curtis had spent the night in the shelter, came out after the morning feeding, then right back in again later. Then Havarti scrambled his way up to the window. Domino is back with her cuddle buddies, and that helps. She definitely still wants to go out the windows when I do the food and water, but when she can’t get through, she is willing to accept the pets. I know that, once she is out of isolation, I’ll probably never be able to touch her again, but in all the time she was with the foster, she hid and never accepted pets like this.

I sent the video to the rescue chat group we have and they were so happy to see her accepting pets.

They also told me, it looks like Sweetie might be coming back, too. She has not settled in at all. They can pet her, but she is constantly anxious. They sent some photos and video. In the video, she is being petted but not responding at all, other than moving her head, watching with giant, terrified eyes. Poor thing! They are going to try and give her more time, but if she can’t accept the indoor life, she will be coming back here.

After feeding the outside cats, I did my evening rounds, and finally had a chance to go into the fenced off area where the tulip patch is, and the saffron crocuses. For all the mulch I added, the weeds have taken over, and I couldn’t even see the saffron crocuses anymore. I pulled handfuls of weeds until I got close to where I knew they were, then had to be extremely careful. After pulling up the tallest stuff, I had the creeping bellflower leaves covering everything. With those, I basically had to grab a single leaf, carefully follow it down to the ground, then pull it out. Pulling from higher on the stem usually resulted in it breaking.

I couldn’t get everything, but the crocuses are no longer buried. Those are the thin, grass-like leaves in the above photo.

I also cleared enough to access the crocuses and a couple of nearby tulips, but that was all I was able to do, today. I’ll have to go in again and clear around the tulips. That is going to take a while!

My older daughter came out while I was putting the “gate” back and showed her some of the progress in the garden. Then we gathered some fresh herbs for the fish she was about to cook for her sister and herself ( my husband and I don’t like most fish) for supper before I continued with my rounds – pausing to check out the pink rose bush.

The white rose bushes are almost done blooming, and the mock orange is looking like it’s about to explode into flowers any day now. Some buds at the bottom are already starting to show white petals.

I was heading towards the barn to take a peek inside, walking past a couple of my brother’s trucks, when I heard a noise coming from one of them. As I went to check one of them, I heard the noise again, coming from behind me. This truck has a home made plywood cap on it that extends over the cab of the truck. For a moment, I feared a cat had somehow got locked inside, though I didn’t think my brother had opened the doors while they were here least weekend.

I opened the door and found this, looking back at me.

A single baby raccoon!

I would say this is one of the four that had been in the garden shed until my taking things out finally scared them off. The other three and the mama are probably under or in a shed somewhere. I looked around to try and see how it got in and realized the entire wall of the cap by the rear windshield wasn’t there. 😄 There are just small panels on either side, but there is more than enough space for critters to get in.

So no trapped critters. Just curious ones! I was actually happy to see it. I miss them being in the garden shed!

Now to how this morning went.

My daughter and I headed out 2 hours before her appointment, which should have gotten us there almost half and hour early. We did stop briefly at a gas station in the one town along the highway to pick up some drinks for the road and to get the maps app up. If we get it going from home, the app links to our wifi, then basically doesn’t like to switch to data once we’re on the highway, and the app doesn’t work right. I didn’t actually need it until we were well into the city, but it was ready for my daughter to be my Nav O once we got closer.

Along the way, there was a section that we needed to slow down at – the section of highway that got washed out during the storms not long ago. With all the rain we had yesterday, the gravel patch job was a real mess. I noted that they did install double culverts where the highway washed out, so this shouldn’t happen again, once they finished fixing and paving it.

We had to make one more stop at another gas station shortly after reaching the city, but neither stop took particularly long. It was the traffic and road conditions that set us back. Then, once we found the place (the streets being every bit as broken up as I expected) we found the parking lot I’d seen on the satellite map.

The entrance was through a back lane and partially blocked by a truck unloading cargo.

With all the one way streets, it too a bit for me to be able to drive around and back track. I did manage to get past the truck. From the signs, we saw they did have visitor parking for the clinic – a whole three spots. One of them was occupied. Another was “small car only”, and meant it. The third required me driving to the other end of the lot to turn around and drive back the other way so I could pull in, because there wasn’t room enough for me to drive right in, then straighten out, without hitting a parked car – and my truck isn’t particularly big!

As we walked around the building to the doors, the first red flags appeared. This is NOT a safe neighbourhood. We were maybe 10 minutes to my daughters appointment time at 10am, and there were already several people listing about. This is the sort of area that I wouldn’t want to be walking around in broad daylight without something I could use to defend myself.

No surprise, the entry doors were locked. No signs. I finally saw what looked like a possible intercom with a keypad and pushed a button I hoped was to someone inside.

No one answered, but a Purolator guy came through and let us in the first doors, and a staff member saw us and opened up the second set of doors.

They had a sign in sheet for the visitor parking that I filled out so we wouldn’t get towed, then my daughter checked in. Being a first visit, she was given a clip board with a form to fill out, and we sat in the first waiting room. When she handed that in, we moved to a second waiting room. My daughter was called in soon after.

Given what happened the last time she saw a specialist in the city, I offered to go in with her, as a sort of body guard. She said she would be okay. I will say now, from the start, that she was very happy with this appointment. It was an intake appointment, and she came out with a date for a follow up appointment near the end of next month.

Her appointment went quite long, so I had a lot of time to sit there and look around.

This place is a “community health centre”. Being downtown and in a sketchy area, there are some things I would expect that is different from other clinics. Still… there were significant difference that I could see.

All clinics have a few larger posters on the walls, giving health information about specific things. Or with information for people in abuse situations, telling where they can reach or for help. These are clean looking and informative as much as the space allows for.

This place was splattered with small posters all over the place, and they sent out more red flags. A poster about fentanyl, for example, wasn’t giving information on the dangers of fentanyl, but was about the “myths”, suggesting that using it was not all that dangerous. Another poster, instead of, say, giving information on how to get help for sexual exploitation, or cautioning about the dangers of promiscuous sex (plenty of other signs showed they have out free STD treatment kits) instead directed the reader to an app on… how to engage in promiscuous sex “safely”. Other posters basically pandered to all the current identities and ideologies currently trending, written like they were aimed at people with the cognitive development of kids in elementary school. None of them were about how to get healthy or avoid health problems. They were all basically enabling self destructive behaviour. The focus on race in some of them was both creepy and paternalistic.

Aside from all that, the longer I sat there…. Well. Let me put it this way. In my years, I have been stalked, threatened, harassed and physically attacked by a drunk person who wanted to kill me. I’ve walked through downtown city streets in the wee hours of the morning, when the bars were closing down and the drunks were staggering about. I lived in high crime areas. Then there was the situation with our vandal. Not once, in all these years, did I fell as unsafe as I did in the waiting room of this clinic. Everything around me triggered red flags. Even the times I got smiles from the staff felt… wrong.

Part of safety issue was how the staff had to use security key cards to go in and out several doors. Clearly, it wasn’t just the people outside the clinic that was a security threat. From one of these doors I saw two women come out, talking loud enough for everyone in the waiting room to hear. The older (white) staff member was quite angry as she demanded to know how the younger one knew that there was a laptop. The younger (not white) woman said she’d seen the older woman use it for a presentation. As they walked down the hall, I could see the anger in the older woman as she was first silent about being seen using it, then declared that there were two laptops, but only certain people were allowed to use them. This younger woman was clearly not one of them. The conversation, such as it was, continued as they went down the hall.

Shortly after, the older woman came back down the hall alone. I made eye contact with her and she gave me a friendly smile, totally at odds with how she behaved towards the other woman.

I had found news articles about an investigation and report about this place, released last summer. Among the things they looked into were problems of racism and a “toxic work environment”.

I just saw an example of that. Clearly, firing three board members didn’t fix anything.

By the time my daughter was done – looking quite happy – I was feeling my skin starting to crawl from the skeevy creepiness of the place.

We didn’t talk about it right away. Just getting out of the parking lot and avoiding people staggering in front of the truck, was an issue and I had to focus on driving. It was around 11 by then, and neither of us had had breakfast, other than sharing a bag of beef jerky from the truck snack stash during the drive in. My daughter wanted to buy us breakfast and I remembered that our route took us past a mall that was convenient to get into. So that’s where we ended up going. We found the food court and the first thing I spotted was a bento place I knew was good, even though I’d never been to this location specifically, before. On seeing the menu, we both ended up ordering the exact same thing. A salmon bento – normally, I would have gotten chicken, but it was tempura salmon – and a taro bubble tea.

It was amazingly good. That is one thing I do miss about living in the city. Having access to such a variety of fast meal choices from all over the world.

While there, I mentioned to my daughter about how I felt while at this clinic, that it wasn’t safe, and that I never wanted to go back there again. She was really surprised, because she’d had such a good appointment. I tried to describe what I was seeing with the posters, which she hadn’t had time to look at herself, and she just sort of … made justifications for them. She didn’t see what I saw and, chances are, she’s not going to get what the problem with them was.

This is going to be an issue.

Her next appointment is going to be more on the medical side rather than the intake side, and seeing what surgeons she needs to be referred to. Hopefully, she’ll be referred to actual good ones.

As for the drive, I was very happy to be getting out of the city – and that Damocles didn’t drop the sword again. The truck behaved. I needed to get gas, but the prices in the city were $1.649/L instead of the $1.599 we saw when we’d stopped at a station in the town along the highway. I had decided we would be getting gas along the way, but there was one last gas station, just outside the city, that was at $1.579, so we stopped there. I am planning to do a Costco run on Friday and will be filling the tank there, so I just needed to top up a bit. I’m glad I did, because when we drove through the town again, the gas prices there had gone up to $1.649 while we were gone!

Once at home, I was curious and looked up reviews for this clinic.

I wish we’d done this before.

Yes, there were some glowing 5 star reviews with comments like “best place ever!” But there were just as many 1 star reviews – and virtually nothing in between. These gave more information. At least one other person commented on how unsafe it felt in the clinic – especially for women – while others commented on the unsafe neighbourhood. People who had been going there for years commented that things had gone down hill so badly, they would not be going back. Some would say the doctors were great, but the nurses were horrible. Others would say the complete opposite. A lot of people talked about not getting the care they need, including being turned away from the walk in clinic, being denied mental health help (counseling and therapy are among the services provided), being pushed to go “trans” instead of getting help with their mental health, and some talking about wanting to take their own lives after going there. Plenty finished their comments with “don’t go. Just, don’t.”

Yes, I tried to bring it up with my daughter.

It just got her back up.

This is going to be a problem. I truly do not think she is going to get the care she needs there. I’m reminded of when my husband tried to be the “good patient” for so long, while his real problems not being addressed, and by the time that was looked at, it was too late and he was permanently disabled.

So… I don’t quite know how to deal with this right now. I just know, down to my bones, that this place is not good.

*sigh*

Anyhow. That’s where we’re at right now.

Tomorrow, I’ve got a day at home, and then we’ll be doing the usual end of month running around, plus my daughter has her blacksmithing workshop. When I have the chance to work around the yard, I have a new thing to focus on. My brother and SIL will be having a large bin delivered about half way through July, and it will be picked up again after 10 days. This will be for hauling away the non-scrap metal junk. My brother will take the metal to a scrap yard himself – he has the trailer and equipment needed to do it – for cash.

They’ll have it dropped off near our current junk pile, which actually has quite a bit of metal stuff in it, so anything we want to have hauled away can be brought over to that spot.

I’ll finally be able to clear stuff away from around the garden shed. I hadn’t wanted to do it yet, because there is so much in the junk pile already. Anything we add to the pile now will be hauled away by the end of July. Judging from the size of the bin they’re having dropped off, my brother has identified a lot of stuff in the outer yard that needs to go!

What a difference it’s going to be, with my brother and SIL able to come out so often now, and with the resources, tools and equipment they have. Night and day, really!! There was only so much we could do on our own and, with all the health issues showing up, it’s getting harder just to maintain what we managed to get done in our early years here. I’ve been feeling like we haven’t been able to hold up our end of the bargain for living here anymore.

Well, it’s certainly going to be a very different summer, this year!

On many levels.

The Re-Farmer

Domino progress, replacement seeds and the sword hasn’t dropped yet

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

The rain started early this morning, and hasn’t really stopped since. We were getting thunderstorm warnings but, from the look of the weather radar, our weird climate bubble is in action again, and the most severe parts of the system is going around us.

Which means no progress in the yard and garden outside, but that’s okay.

First, an update on Domino. Curtis shared the shelter with her for the night. When I came around filling kibble bowls, I pause to pet Curtis through a window, eventually letting him out.

Domino came over and let me pet her!

Granted, she was after the window. She wants out. However, she didn’t run away or act all tensed up when I started petting her. She even leaned into my hand! Which she’s never done for me before.

Along with the dry kibble, I mixed up some of the freeze dried cat food mix to make a pate for her. This is the stuff that was donated. I’ve never heard of it before. Going over the ingredient list, is has all sorts of things good for the digestion, so I wanted to make sure Domino got it as a treat. When I brought it over after doing the kibble, Curtis climbed back in through the window to rejoin her, and they both seemed to enjoy the new food quite a lot! Curtis didn’t stay long, though, and I let him out soon after.

Bug so wanted to go into the isolation shelter. I would have let her in, but she runs away when I come close still, so I wasn’t able to open a window for her. Ah, well.

We waited for the worst of the rain to be done, then my younger daughter and I headed to town. Our first stop was at the post office, where I picked up my second package of replacement seeds, this time from MI Gardener.

The broccoli-rabe is something new for us to try next year, as is the Copenhagen Market cabbage. Possibly the Atomic red carrots. I can’t remember if I’ve tried that variety before, but we are out of carrot seeds in my stash. The rest are to replace seeds we either ran out of this year, or are almost out of. Next year, we’ll have to have a better set up for starting seeds indoors. One where no mouse can eat up all our seedlings as soon as they germinate, as well as having a warmer ambient temperature.

After getting the mail, it was off to town and a bank machine to get out some for the next stop; the clinic where my husband’s doctor had the paperwork for Canada Revenue ready and waiting for pick up – after paying the $70 for it. My husband has his own lines on the form to fill out, and then we can mail it in.

That done, it was off to the grocery store to refill a couple of our big water jugs and pick up a few groceries. Then some gas and home.

The entire time, my daughter was messaging the family, letting them know where we were, and that yes, the truck is still moving! Every time I grabbed the shifter, I was half expecting it to just slide around, because that linkage had fallen off again. It didn’t happen, but it’s going to be a long time before I stop getting that sensation! Especially when we are driving in the city. I keep waiting for that sword to drop!

Once at home, we pulled up to the house to unload, then my daughter took care of parking the truck and closing the gate while I put things away. By then, it was time to feed the outside cats for the evening, and I took the time to mix up more of the freeze dried cat food mix for Domino – this time adding more hot water to make it more soupy.

Once again, Curtis came over and wanted back into the isolation shelter, and I let him. Domino came right over to the window and would have run out if I wasn’t blocking it while pouring her treat into the kibble bowl.

She let me pet her again.

Not just a little bit, either. I stayed in the rain, petting her until I was starting to get too wet and cold, and she let me!!! She was pushing her shoulders up into my hand so I could scritch them for her, and rubbing her face into my arm. This is a HUGE step forward!

I’m still amazed that she didn’t adapt to the indoor life and spent the last two months hiding from people. She is more friendly to me now than the entire time she spent in the isolation shelter before we took her to the rescue! It would have been nice if she could have been adopted out to spend the rest of her days as an indoor cat.

Ah, well.

The rain is supposed to continue through most of the night. Tomorrow, my daughter and I have to leave by about 8am to get to her appointment in time. It’s in a horrible area to drive in, and I expect to have trouble finding parking. The satellite map shows me that there is a parking lot across a street from it, but nothing tells me if it’s public or private parking. Of course, because of all the one way streets, we’ll actually have to drive around and back track to get there.

I would really love to be able to go to a specialist that doesn’t require driving through downtown in the city. The streets are narrow, they haven’t been properly maintained for years and are crumbling, there are too many one way streets, and the parking sucks. Unfortunately, it seems that our province’s health care system has tried to mash everything into or near the downtown area. They don’t care for anyone living outside the city. We don’t have enough votes to matter.

Yeah, I’m feeling pretty cynical about it. We’ve been dealing with this BS for too many years.

*sigh*

I’m concerned my daughter was referred to this clinic, too. It’s one of those places that is very… ideologically driven, shall we say… and was the subject of a report released last summer, documenting a toxic work environment, racism, sexism, etc. Three board members got fired over it, though I couldn’t see anything that singled any board members out for the problems. Just vague “management” issues. This referral is after she saw a specialist in a different clinic, and was treated horribly. When I found out what happened, I encouraged my daughter to file a formal complaint, but she doesn’t want to go through the hassle. I have no reason to believe this clinic would be any better, since that first doctor was supposed to the top specialist in our province.

*sigh*

Well, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Domino is back, and Damocles got checked

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This morning, I got a message from one of the rescue people, asking if today was a good day to bring back Domino.

We were ready to set her up in the isolation shelter.   She was spayed just 4 days ago, and should be in there for 10 days.

While the rescue people where on the way, I broke out the weed trimmer and cleared around the isolation shelter and catio, then kept on going until I drained all three batteries.   Then I switched to sweeping up all the grass clipping and elm seed covered steps, sidewalk and patio blocks. I was part way through that when the rescue people arrived with Domino.  Two months, and she made zero adaption to the indoor life!

Once the carrier was brought to an isolation shelter window, though, she dove right in!  For the next while, she went from settling in the bed she spent so much time in before, and prowling around, trying to fund a way out!

They also had some cat food donations for us, including something I’ve never seed before.  Freeze dried meals that get warm water added to them.  Should be interesting to see how that goes over!

When I did the evening cat feeding, I allowed Curtis into the isolation shelter.  They used ti snuggle together regularly.

After I got that second picture of them eating together, Domino swatted at him!  She is so stressed out.  Hopefully, she will calm down over the next while.  We will allow other cats she used to snuggle with, in and out, so she’s not always alone in there.

Domino was back and I finished the clean up by lunch time.  I headed in for lunch and was considering heading back outside when the phone rang.

It was the garage.  He’d just listened to my voice mails!

Turns out they are no longer open on Saturdays in the new location.

I told him what happened, and he was very surprised.   He’d never had this happen before.  He asked if I could come by today so he could look at it.   Of course, I said yes!

I got there soon enough, and he took the truck into a bay immediately.   He jacked it up a bit so he could slide under and take a look.

The linkage was just a hair away from falling off again!

I told him about what my brother did, as the video I sent did not get to him.  He checked his company phone again, and they showed up (my text app doesn’t like sending images or video over wifi, but they got sent once I had a strong enough data signal in town) so he watched both videos my brother had made.

What my brother had noticed and done would not have had any effect, he told ne.  The linkage simply should have held.  He said he’d installed about 500 of this specific part, and not once has this happened before.

He went back under the truck and worked on it some more.

The only thing he could think of for this to happen is that the mechanic that installed it pushed it in, heard a click, then stopped.  When it is in properly, there are two clicks.  He can’t say for sure, as he wasn’t there to see it, but he can’t think of anything else.  Which likely means my brother had done the same thing though, again, there is no way to know.

He added another zip tie to further secure it, just in case.  If it happens again, they will replace the whole thing.

If it happens again???

He told me, it should hold.  But he understood my concern.  He gave me some instructions in case it does, and even gave me the after hours phone number for their tow truck.

I went straight home after that.

Tomorrow, I will be going back into town.  My husband had to get his doctor to start the paperwork so he could re-apply for his disability tax benefit.  He finally got through to the CRA, and they wouldn’t let him renew it without doing the paperwork all over again

Which will cost us $70.  My husband had a phone appointment with his doctor about it today, and the form is now ready for pick up.  Once he fills in his part of it, we can mail it out.

My doctor’s clinic charged $50 to fill mine out.

This will be a test run for the truck.  The day after, my younger daughter has a medical appointment in the city.  After that, we’ve got our stock up shopping, her blacksmithing workshop, and we are even going to be able to go to my husband’s brother’s cottage for Canada Day.

It’s been years since my husband has gone anywhere other than doctor’s appointments.

Hopefully, Damocles is done dropping the sword on us.

The Re-Farmer

Damocles is home, and other good stuff

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, I’d say today was a productive day, in a very positive way!

Quite early on, I started getting a whole bunch of messages.

Some were from my brother regarding our mother. She has come down with a cold, though they are still waiting for test results to confirm, and is currently in quarantine, and the staff made sure to let him know.

Then I started getting messages from the rescue. Domino, one of the cats they took in from us quite some time ago, has not been doing well with the foster. She has been staying in hiding this entire time. She comes out to eat when no one is around, and that’s it. She’s been seen by a vet and as medication no one has been able to get into her. She’s booked to be spayed this Friday, and would we be able to take her back?

After some back and forth messaging, it was worked out that Domino would be staying with one of the rescue people for observation, first, then she will be brought back here, where we can keep her in the isolation shelter she is so familiar with for her recovery period, and then she will be back with the other yard cats. While in the isolation shelter with no other cats, we will be able to give her the medication in her food, if that’s still needed. She should be back here some time next week.

Then they asked how we were doing for cat food. I told them, I need to pick up more kibble for the outside cats today, and that I will never say no to the offer of cat food! At first, they talked about bringing some with Domino, but then someone said that, if I can meet her in our usual spot (thankfully, that particular stretch of road is no longer closed from the recent flash floods) this afternoon. Which I was happy to do.

Today being Wednesday, the store the post office is in closes at noon, and I had some packages to pick up, so I figured I would do that, first. The rescue worker, however, said that she could meet me shortly after 11, if that worked. That worked out very well, since it meant I could pick up the mail and then keep on going to meet her.

Then I got a call.

In between all the messaging, I managed to call the garage and left a voice mail asking about the status of the truck, suggesting texting me might work best, since I was suddenly going to be out and about.

The owner phoned me back very soon after I left the message.

The truck is fine.

They checked it out and found nothing wrong, but a code was coming on on the diagnostic computer. They cleared the code and took it for a test run. Everything is working find. They figure that the code was triggered while the part was being replaced. The only change is that, with the new part installed, moving the shifter is a lot stiff than it was before, which is to be expected.

Also, there was no charge. !!! They don’t charge for diagnostics, and they didn’t charge me for their time. There was nothing for them to fix.

I made sure to let him know how much I appreciated that! We were pretty stressed out by the potential bill.

I told him I was meeting someone soon and would be in the area, so I could pick up the key afterwards but leaving the truck, as needed to work out when my brother and I could switch vehicles, which he was good with.

I messaged with my brother and SIL about the truck, letting them know the status of the truck, and I would get the key after meeting someone with a kibble donation, and we could work out switching vehicles by their schedule. Which was settled until they messaged again, suggesting I take the truck home and leave their car at the garage. They’d pick it up with their spare key, then get the other key back from me the next time we meet up.

Plus, if something went wrong with Damocles again, at least their car would be nearby and available!!

So that was all worked out, and I was soon on my way, with my first stop at the post office.

One of the packages I picked up was my order of replacement seeds.

I have different varieties of purple and white kohlrabi, plus a different variety of fennel, all to try next year. The Giganthemum poppies are to sow in the fall. The last packet I got turned out to not have a lot of seeds in it, so I was going to order two. That size was sold out, though, so I got the next size of packet up.

If you check out the label, this one gram packet has about 1,691 seeds in it.

I don’t think I’ll be running out so quickly this time!

These are also for next year, but I will be direct sowing them in the fall.

I didn’t check the package out until after I got home, of course. From the post office, I headed out to meet the rescue person at our usual intersection. She had six 8kg bags of kibble for us!!!

As we were transferring the bags, she pointed out that some of them were taped. It turned out to be exactly what I thought. These were damaged bags that could not be sold retail anymore. She has a family member that works in a warehouse and she’s been able to collect the damaged bags to donate to the rescue, instead. Which is great, except she is retiring soon, so that donation source is not going to be around for much longer. For now, however, they have lots of these damaged bag donations.

After we parted ways, I headed into town to fill my brother’s gas tank before going to pick up the truck. After talking to the owner about the truck for a bit, and he told me about the test drives and so on, I asked about being able to leave my brother’s car for them to pick up later. He was good with that, and told me where I could park it.

I just had to transfer stuff over, first. Including those bags of kibble.

I am so incredibly grateful for this. This should last us to the end of the month, and maybe a bit beyond!

Once everything was transferred over, I parked my brother’s car as directed, then took Damocles home.

Of course, with the way things have been going, I was absolutely expecting something to go wrong.

Nothing did! N warning lights or messages on the onboard computer. No alarms dinging. Everything was running smoothly.

Also, it felt so good to be driving the truck again. My brother’s car is a sweet ride, but I find I really prefer to drive a larger vehicle! This truck is just on the edge of being too large for my comfort, but that’s been okay.

Damocles has been that most bizarre combination of being the best vehicle we’ve ever owned, and the worst vehicle we’ve ever owned!

Once at home and unloaded, I headed out again, this time with a daughter to help out.

It was time to protect some walnut trees.

One of them already has protection, which left three surviving trees to protect. One of the unprotected black walnuts was untouched, another black walnut was down to a stick in the ground, as was the new Manchurian walnut. It had leafed out so well, too! Both of the deer damaged walnuts, though, were already showing new leaf buds.

Once we brought supplies over (and my walker), I paced around the Manchurian walnut to decide how long a piece of chicken wire to cut, then my daughter and I unrolled the wire onto the ground so I could pace out the length. The roll is getting close to the middle, so it kept wanting to roll into itself. Annoying, but still workable.

We cut out the three lengths we needed, then set them up.

Here you can see the two black walnut, and the Manchurian walnut way at the end. This time around, I didn’t skimp on the wire, so the protective ring is a lot larger than others I’ve made, Plus, I didn’t cut the width in half, like I usually do. Once we had the wire overlapped, it was pegged to the ground and we secured the overlapping cut ends as best we could. I had considered using bamboo stakes to secure them more and add to the visibility, but the ground it just too hard. The bamboo would have broken. I did, however, bring some high viz, reflective cord. Each cage got the cord wrapped around the top, making sure to use it to secure the overlap more, and tied off.

Once that was done, I dragged the back garden hose over – which I was able to do while using my walker – as my daughter put the wagon of supplies away and brought me a pair of watering cans. The hose from the back tap reaches a decent amount into the outer yard. I set my walker up near the end to use while refilling, and gave all the trees we’ve got out there a deep watering.

That done, I brought the hose back and started watering the garden beds. I did as much as I could with the back hose, then continued with the front hose in the south and east yard garden beds.

While watering in the east yard garden beds, I was considering whether I should cut my losses rework the kohlrabi and cabbage beds, or keep watering it. I’m not seeing anything in the kohlrabi bed, but I watered it anyway. Then I started to water the cabbage bed.

Which is when I finally saw them.

This bed was getting overgrown with what I thought were self seeded radishes or turnips, but they were already bolting and starting to bloom. Yellow flowers. The radishes I grew for their seed pods had white flowers.

I took the cover off and weeded the bed, finding a surprising number of cabbage seedlings.

They are hard to see in the photo. That these are a purple savoy cabbage helped identify the seedings from everything else, as they have a darker purple in them.

Unfortunately, while the raised bed covers protect the garden beds from cats and other critters, they don’t block the elm seeds. They are everywhere, and many are starting to germinate. They are practically everywhere and, in some places, they are starting to germinate and crowd out the plants I actually planted.

The watering done, I remembered one last thing that I wanted to do. Clear out some stuff in the garden shed, that the raccoons had knocked about and could potentially harm them.

They didn’t like the commotion at all. Too many things tangled around each other. I did move the felted grow bags from previous years to make a sort of bed for them.

When I checked again this evening, after doing my walkabout, they were gone. I guess it was too much for them, and the mama moved them. Which, technically, is a good thing, but I’ going to miss the adorable little buggers! I’ll check again in the morning, though. Maybe she’ll bring them back after things have quiteted down again.

Meanwhile, I’ve since received a message from my SIL. They have retrieved their car and got it home.

I am so thankful for them. I honestly don’t know what we could do without them at times like this!

I am also ridiculously tired.

Time to go to bed.

It’s been a good day, though, and I am happy we have Damocles home!

Even if I do expect it to break down every time I drive it…

….

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: critter rescue, and redoing a garden bed cover

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

First, though, an update.

I have had no word back about the truck yet, which means they haven’t had a chance to look at it or do a diagnostic. I should try phoning directly, tomorrow.

Before I share about today, I wanted to share what I found last night. I am so glad I decided to enjoy the long daylight and walk around the yard before bed! This, of course, included checking the garden beds. In of them, I saw unexpected movement.

It was a garter snake.

Stuck in the excess black netting over the Daikon radish, turnip and red noodle bean bed.

I tried to get it loose with just my hands at first, but quickly realized that was not possible, to I ran… well.. hobbled…. to the house to get a utility knife. I then very carefully cut at the netting where it was tight against the snake’s body – and even its mouth! This netting is something even frogs can get through, but there is something about the garter snake bodies that get caught. The more they struggle to get loose, the worse they get caught. Last year, my daughter was helping me remove some of this netting from around the trellis bed and found a snake had been caught up in it, in a spot where it couldn’t be seen until we pulled the netting out. That one was already dead when we found it. This one was still alive, thankfully. Once I got its mouth and head free, it tried to curl up on itself as they are wont to do, but it had obviously been struggling for a while and didn’t have a lot of energy left.

Once I got it free, I set it aside in the greenery under where I stack the logs and boards we use in the garden. This morning, it was gone!

I am so glad I found it in time.

We really need to find different critter netting. This stuff is to keep the larger critters out while still letting the pollinators in, but I’m quite unhappy about how it catches on everything – including our much desired garter snakes!

So that was a happy start to the day.

We were expecting the insurance company assessor to come today at around 12:30. I did my morning rounds as usual, then had my breakfast before heading back out again at about 11 and do some work in the garden until she arrived. I started out by using the very full rain barrel to water the garden beds by the house and in the south and east yards.

I have been checking out the cabbage and kohlrabi beds, and they appear to be a total loss. The cabbage bed is full of self seeded radishes, which would be a good thing, except they are all bolting. The only thing doing well in that bed are the shallots and onions I transplanted while redoing the bed by the chain link fence. As for the kohlrabi, I can see a few seedlings here and there,, and they are quite eaten up. No sign of what did the eating. Normally, I’d say flea beetles, but there’s no sign of any. Those tend to show up later in the season, anyhow, after the canola fields are harvested.

After watering in front of the house, I moved to the main garden area to water there. That done, I was getting ready to set up the hose to fill the old rain barrel to water the food forest trees and bushes.

While I was watering everything else, I could hear a utility vehicle, and it was definitely coming closer, so I went to take a look. It was the wife of the couple that rents the rest of the property, checking the fence line. So I headed over to say hi. While she kept following the fence line, it gave me a chance to check on the walnuts.

*sigh*

The Manchurian Walnut, that had been doing so well, has been eaten by dear. So has at least one of the Black walnut, and it looks like the ash tree my mother gave us was also eaten.

I hadn’t gotten to making cages for them fast enough.

I still plan to do that; they should regrow their leaves again. It’ll set them back probably a year, though.

Around then, our renter was closer so we stopped to chat at the fence for a while. I told her where I had planted the basket willow, and how I’d set up the T posts and used a partially collapsed fence line to hopefully ensure their cows won’t trample them. She said they will be rotating the cows to this section very soon.

After a lovely conversation with her, I checked my phone because I’d heard some notifications while we were talking.

It was well past 12:30 when my brother messaged me, asking if the assessor had arrived. I told him no, and updated him about the renter and their cows. It was a little past 1 when my brother messaged me again. He just received a text from the assessor, saying she would be here shortly after 2.

Hmmm.

I went back to watering the food forest trees. When that was done, I moved on to the old kitchen garden.

The bed with the tiny bok choi, mixed beets, onions and parsnips needed weeding, and I decided I would remove the old mosquito netting, which is two lengths cobbled together, and replace it with the second sheet of new insect netting I picked up, one of which is currently protecting the cabbage transplants.

In the first image, I had removed the netting and done nothing else yet. While I was putting the mosquito netting pieces away, I heard some noise out by the barn and went to check it out. It was the renter; some stuff had blown around and she was moving them back onto their pile, so the cows wouldn’t step on it. We talked for a while again. The grass in this area is incredibly tall – tall enough to short out the electric fence, so she was going to have to come back with the weed trimmer. The fence posts in that section are getting really rotted. Part of the rental deal is that they are responsible for the fences, and she told me of what she would be telling her husband about the fences and what she sees that they need to do.

Then I went back to the garden.

That big green thing in the top right of the image?

That’s an invading rose stem! Likely from the pink rose bush at the end of the bed. In the wattle weave bed, it’s the white roses that invade.

While weeding the bed, I found the remains of some of the tiny bok choi, which you can see in the second image of the slideshow above. That little strip was almost the only ones I found at all.

There are beets and parsnips coming up, though. There was some self seeded spinach, but it was all bolting, so I weeded those out. The onions that got transplanted in the fall along the south side of the bed are looking nice and strong. You can see how the bed looked after clean up in the third image above.

Then I recovered the bed with the new insect netting. This stuff is much lighter and flexible, but it is still quite strong. It’ll hold the weight of cats using it as a hammock! I didn’t want to cut the netting to size, though, as it will be used differently in the future, so the excess length got rolled up at the end near the rose bush, and the excess width got pulled up over the top, then fastened in place with safety pins. There is a gab between the cover and the frame along the north side of the bed, so I used a board to hold the netting down and below the based of the cover.

By this time, it was past when the assessor was supposed to arrive, and I hadn’t had lunch yet. I went inside and the girls were cooking, so I went to sit and take a break.

Before I knew it, there was a knock at the door!

The assessor had arrived, but parked her car in front of the garage, out of view.

Now, as far as I knew, she was going to look at all the outbuildings.

Turns out, she needed to come into the house, too.

I warned her, the house is a disaster, and that we had 21 cats.

We did that part last.

We started out going to the garage, though she asked about the storage house along the way. She never took measurements of that, but did take pictures. Once at the garage, I told her about the ages of the different parts. She took her pictures and measurements. Then we moved on to the barn, though she did take pictures of one of the sheds beside it that is still used for storage. She checked out, photographed and measured the barn, then we headed to the pump shack. I explained to her the fence line marking where its rented out and where we are responsible for taking care of. While checking out the pump shack, she asked about the log building that used to be the chicken coop, and I told her that’s the last log building we have that is still salvageable; it needs a new roof, but the walls are still solid. So she took pictures of that, too. My brother’s caravan and trailers are not permanent, so she ignore those, but did check the warehouse, stuffed with my parent’s belongings.

Finally, we made our way back to the house, and I showed her where the septic tank is, where the well is, which part of the house was original log, and about what year it was built, and the additions.

Then she had to come inside.

*sigh*

We haven’t been able to do the spring cleaning of the sun room yet, because of the weather. Then there’s the old kitchen – I made sure to tell her that the old wood cook stove was broken and cannot be used. I’d already told her about the new roof, and that the chimney to the old wood burning furnace had been removed, so there’s just the chimney to the old kitchen.

Then she had to go through all the rooms in the house, which was downright embarrassing. Our house really is a disaster. Then we went into the basement, starting with the “new” part basement. Once in the old part, I made sure to tell her that we had a new well pump, and she checked out the other pumps, too. The blower fans are going continuously now, and I explained the the old basement was built before weeping tile was a thing, so it does get wet, but doesn’t flood.

I apologized for the disaster, and she basically said, between the cats and being on a farm, she knows how it can get.

Oh, and it turned out she’s allergic to cats!

After she was done, I followed her car out to close the gate behind her. By this time, I was getting pretty famished, so I headed in to finally have my lunch (it was well past 3 by then). We were running low on kibble for the inside cats which, for the price, would normally be a trip to Walmart. Chatting with the family, my older daughter ended up sending me funds and a list, so I ended up doing a bit of a grocery shopping trip. I checked out the garden centre after the shopping to see if they had any transplants worth picking up.

They did not.

So I headed home. If I hadn’t had frozen stuff in the car, and forgotten to bring insulated bags, I would have gone across the road to see the garden centre at the Canadian Tire, but everything would have just melted in the car while I did.

By then, it was late enough that my daughter took care of the outside cat feeding while I was gone. I will be heading out again after I finish this post to do my evening rounds and checks. It’s still nice and light out.

Hopefully, I won’t find another trapped garter snake, but I’ll bring my utility knife with me, just in case!

Tomorrow, I think I will re-work those failed beds and see what I can plant in there, that has a short enough season for it.

The Re-Farmer