Critters

Garden first, and a quick run down

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Before I get into an update with things, I wanted to share this adorable little guy with you.

I found this while using the rain barrel to water the garden from the rain barrel. I had taken the caps off the watering cans, just in case frogs got into the filled cans again. They are kept full so they don’t blow away. I have no idea what kind of caterpillar that is, and hope it’s beneficial. It’s quite adorable.

I also found these…

The first image is our very first fully open winter squash flower. A male flower; I don’t expect to see female flowers for a while yet. The second image is a bit hard to see, but our caraway is starting to bloom!

Today was getting hotter and I normally would have watered the garden in the morning, but the girls and I were planning to head out a couple of hours early for my older daughter’s pre-op appointment. Thankfully, I made a comment about parking at the women’s hospital when my daughter reminded me that the appointment was somewhere else entirely! I had completely forgotten! I would have taken the wrong highway into the city!

So… we took a different route and stopped briefly at a gas station in the one town along the way for drinks and some fresh potato wedges to eat along the way. My younger daughter didn’t eat at all until afterwards, as she didn’t want to get sick at the start of the trip (eating in general always makes her sick for some reason).

The clinic we went to is clear across the city, and took well over an hour to get there, but the route was straightforward and there was plenty of free parking, which was greatly appreciated. We even got there a bit early, with more than enough time for my daughter to do the “first visit” paperwork.

Her appointment went well. She needs to book another pre-op appointment, but the person wasn’t in today so she’ll have to call them tomorrow. By the time she sees this person, they should have a time and date for her surgery. She was told it should be withing 3-6 months which, for Canada, is incredibly fast. She’ll also be getting a requisition for bloodwork emailed to her, which she can get done locally.

Since we were in the city, once the appointment was done, we went to a nearby Walmart to pick up cat supplies for the inside cats, plus a few other things for ourselves. I also wanted to pick up some food for all of us. This Walmart had a Subway instead of a Walmart – nothing on the menu I could eat while driving, but my daughter was able to get a sub for herself and her sister (who stayed in the truck). I tried looking around the grocery section of the Walmart for something I could eat while driving, but there was nothing. As we left, we got more gas and I went in to pre-pay, so I could use a discount coupon, and ended up getting some beef jerky to eat on the road, once clear of the city, with my daughter to hand me pieces.

Once at home and the truck unloaded, I changed and headed out. First to do the outside cat feeding, then to water the garden. After the watering, I was able to finish weed trimming around the East yard garden beds, but was not going to stay out to do more. Too many mosquitoes, even though I had bug repellant on!

I was almost done the watering when my brother and SIL showed up for the weekend. Before I headed in for the night, I quickly popped over to say hello. I was too much of a mess to go inside and visit, so it was a short one. We caught up for a bit, then my SIL remembered she had some things for us. One turned out to be a bag of frozen meat! Some butcher’s shop sausages that they found they couldn’t eat, and a packet of venison that had been given to them, but they aren’t fond of venison. If it turns out we don’t like any of it either (I already know I’m going to enjoy the venison!), we can always give it to the cats!

Oh, after looking at the forecast, I’ve decided I will skip the market tomorrow. I don’t want the truck to be baking in the heat. Not when those high temperatures somehow seems to be causing problems with the battery – or at least has the battery gauge doing weird things! Next weekend might be just as hot but for that one we will be there until 8pm, and things will be cooling down by then.

I will definitely be watering the garden again in the morning, before things get hot. I’m hoping the grass will be dry enough before it gets too hot that I can get the push mower out, as well as more weed trimming!

We shall see what the day brings.

The Re-Farmer

Almost forgot!

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Wow, did I ever lose track today. I almost forgot to do my daily post!

First, the cuteness.

Batman and Sprig like to hang out together. I draped that scrap yarn blanket over the “porch” of the cat house so it could drain and dry after a rain, and the cats enjoy it so much, I’ve left it there.

Another sort of cuteness. Teeny tiny zucchinis!

The first female flowers on the summer squash showed up.

Unfortunately, there are no male flowers at all. So these will die off pretty quickly.

The summer squash has been growing so much, I was able to tie off stems to their vertical supports a bit higher on most of them.

We had rain off and on all night and most of the morning. It cleared up for a while, though, which was perfect timing. I got a message from my SIL. The big trash bin they are renting for 10 days was going to be delivered today instead of tomorrow. So I headed out to open the cat, and that gave me a chance to go beyond the outer yard to check on things I haven’t been able to for quite a while.

Like the basket willow.

My hopes were not high, when I could see that one of the posts was flat on the ground, and others were knocked askew. After looking around, I did find all five basket willows and straightened everything that needed to be straightened. The ground is incredibly muddy and wet – something few other trees could handle. Still, at least two of the five are doing good. The others…

… one of them might not make it, but we shall see.

Getting to the where the willow is planted, I had to go past where the septic expeller is.

I couldn’t see it at all.

What a jungle in there!!! It’s going to take some doing to clean it up. That will need to be done before winter, at least, but if I can do it at least once before then, that’ll make things easier.

After the bin, then a prescription refill delivered, it started to rain again. That kept me from continuing the weed trimming I want to get done before breaking out the push mower. I was going to switch to some bigger jobs inside, only to get sidelined by pain again. Bad enough I had to take pain killers and lie down, and get my daughters to take over the evening outside cat feeding. It got better after a few hours, but I honestly couldn’t tell if it just faded away on its own, or if the pain killers did the job. I did have to take them again. It is so very frustrating.

Still, it is what is it. As my late father used to say, “can’t complain – it wouldn’t do any good anyhow!”

Meanwhile, we are getting different weather warnings today – air quality warnings. Ontario is on fire, and the smoke is reaching us. For all the rain we’ve been having, the boreal forest is on fire again. It takes a LOT of dead underbrush for that to happen.

Oddly, on my desktop app’s fire information map, it shows zero fires in Canada. It only shows fires in the US. Meanwhile, on a live fire map I found, it says we have almost 900 fires burning across the country right now. Yet I’m hearing nothing about them unless I actively go searching online for information. What’s with that???

Statistically and historically, we have fewer fires now during fire season than in the past, but more area is being burned. Our federal government is responsible for these areas. They have seriously failed when it comes to forest management, and have cut back on funding for fire fighting resources, for more than a decade. The current fire situation is barely even being talked about, and people are demanding to know why Ontario hasn’t declared a state of emergency, and their Premier hasn’t addressed the issue.

Where we are, however, we are safe. Thank God for that!

The Re-Farmer

This and that

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Today was a much more pleasant day today. Still very humid. Kept getting rain warnings that never materialized. I didn’t end up needing to water the garden at all today, though it’ll get done again tomorrow morning.

We got our stinky visitors again this morning.

This time I saw four bebbies with one adult. I also so the mama with her singleton, but didn’t get pictures of them.

Today was our day to head into town for birthday take out. Chinese food this time. Plus a quick trip to the grocery store for drinks, ice cream and cake, all of which my older daughter paid for, so it didn’t come out of our regular budget at all.

It has been so long since we got Chinese food from this restaurant. It’s one of those “special occasion” places. I think it may be two years since we’ve ordered from there!

By the time we brought that home and enjoyed… I don’t know whether to call it a late lunch or an early supper! – it was time for the outside cat feeding and evening rounds to be done. While doing my rounds, I spotted this…

A couple of hollyhock leaves have disappeared! Just two. I’d say it was a deer, and it didn’t taste very good, or it would have eaten more. They do like the yellow flowers that bloom in this area (which won’t happen for a while yet), so when the deer goes into the yard, all the flowers near that gate get eaten. I pulled them up from this end, to make room for the hollyhocks, so they’re going to have to work harder for their floral treat this year!

I also did some work in the chain link fence bed. In the morning, I’d raised the netting from the base so adjust the super sugar snap peas, and the larger surviving winter squash and melon vines trained up the chain link fence. The sunflowers are getting tall enough that they were starting to press against the netting. So, when I came back in the evening, I went through the recycling to get water bottles and adjusted things.

After moving the netting away from the top of the fence, I pulled the ends of the hoops out of the chain link spaces they were bent into. The tops got water bottles set over them, so they wouldn’t go through the netting. Then the netting was put over the ends of the hoops, and back over the fence. The hoops are still bent slightly towards the fence, but are now straight enough that the sunflowers have more room. At some point, the netting will have to be lifted off completely. At least from the top. Both sunflower varieties are supposed to get very large.

I headed back in but decided to go for a walkabout before calling it a day. I got distracted by the vines I could see climbing the lilacs and cherry tree by the house. The Virginia Creeper is severely invasive. I’ve been trying to pull them up by the roots for years, but they keep coming back.

It turned out to be a lot more vines than I expected!

The first image is all the vines I was able to pull off, smashed into a pile. The second is of the lilacs and cherry tree they were choking out. It was particularly bad at the cherry tree and dwarf Korean lilac. I’m going to need to get some pruning shears and get under there to clear away dead branches.

I didn’t get all the vines. Some are still high in the branches, having broken off as I tried to pull them out, and cannot be reached. Those will dry up where they are. I’m sure I missed others that are still attached to the ground. The sheer volume of just the ones I was able to find was quite surprising. By the time I was done getting as much as I could, the branches were much more open and airy! I’m sure I broke some trying to pull the vines out, though. They are remarkable strong! When it comes to trying to pull them from their bases, the outer “bark” tends to break, and the inner part of the vine is very slippery. I didn’t have a knife handy, so I did the best I could for now.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the pile of vines. They need to be burned but that’s way too much for our fire pit. I’ve mashed the whole pile into the wheelbarrow for now. They need time to dry up before we burn them, anyhow.

I’m glad I got it done, before the vines choked everything they were climbing!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden, and the heat continues

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Today was another hot one, with the temperatures reaching at least 34C/93F. I don’t know what the humidex was, but the humidity levels reached 80% at one point. For all the fans and the AC going, much of the house felt like being in a sauna.

… and now tomorrow is also expected to reach a high above 30C/86F, too. We continue to be under a Severe Heat Warning.

Which meant I was outside early again this morning, to water the garden before it got too hot – though the overnight temperatures never dipped below 20C/68F and was climbing again fast as I headed out.

I had a couple of surprises this morning.

The first was while I was putting out food for the outside cats, and found this very hungry little one, by the sun room door.

It was a surprise partly because it was so tiny!

It was also extremely hungry. I let it be. I was putting frozen water bottles into the cats’ water bowls at this point, and spotted a larger skunk at the shrine food bowls. It ignored me while I was at the insolation shelter. Then I went to the catio, and that’s when I spotted the little one. It was running through the grass like I wasn’t even there, going straight for Mama.

It ran over my foot, pausing a moment, then continuing on to the mama.

I literally could have reached down to pet it!

No, I didn’t try.

If you click through the slide show above, you’ll see it with the mama, and then a short video of them going up and down the sideway to the house.

They are just too cute for words!

Once the cats were taken care of, and the skunks moved on, I watered the south garden beds. Before heading to do the main garden area, I went past the seed starting tray on the step and checked it. There are more seedlings popping up, but one of the cells had a big green leaf blown onto it, covering any potential germinating seedling. So I went to brush it away.

It moved.

Then jumped down to the concrete.

!!!

This is what it turned out to be…

So. Flipping. Cute!!!!

Meanwhile, the garden actually seems to be enjoying this heat! I was happy to see that most recent sowing of bush beans are growing.

On the down side, some seedlings I saw pushing their way through the soil yesterday are gone. Something got to them. Something small enough to get through that netting.

Still, it looks like we’ve got a decent number of survivors.

I’m particularly happy by how that Arikara squash is doing! It’s already much larger and healthier than when we tried to grow them last year. There’s just the one plant. I do hope it gets enough time to produce squash to maturity, as this is a rare variety, so I want to be able to save seeds from it.

In the last image of the slide show above, there is a new little tomato I spotted yesterday. There’s a whole two of them in the entire tomato bed right now, though there are lots of flowers now. This one is a Blueberry tomato. The other is a Manitoba tomato. Still no sign of any Orange Current tomatoes in this bed, nor the Chocolate Stripes tomato in the main garden area.

Most of the rest of the garden is doing well. The green cabbages under their insect netting look visibly bigger between the morning and evening watering. Even the red noodle beans look like they might be getting bigger. I’m still concerned that they will just stagnate, like they did last year. The bush beans in the high raised bed are blooming like crazy, and the more recent sowing of carrots is actually surviving, while the earlier sowing of Rainbow Mix carrots are looking like we can start thinning by harvesting, too.

With the temperatures rising above 30C/86F, we are going to avoid going anywhere. Tomorrow, however, I do need to at least go to the general store to get another 40 pound bag of kibble for the outside cats. I’ll be doing that right after the morning watering, before things get too hot for the truck.

July is a birthday month. My daughter has said she will pay for the take out treat (it’s my turn to choose, and I chose Chinese food) but, after looking at the weather forecast, we decided it will wait until Wednesday! Absolutely no one wants to do any cooking in this heat. The oven is being used to dehydrate scapes, on the “keep warm” setting”, anyhow.

I’m seriously considering sleeping on the couch tonight, near the AC. I should have done that last night.

I may not be able to handle the heat like I used to, but I am glad the garden is handling it as well as it is. There’s at least that one positive we can make out of it!

The Re-Farmer

Market day in the heat!

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The older I get, the less I’m able to tolerate heat. In my youth, it was the other way around.

I was outside early to water the garden before it got too hot – and it was already feeling hot! I very promptly spotted a friend.

What an adorable toad! We rarely see toads. Most commonly, we see wood frogs. Seeing toads is pretty rare. I don’t know that the toads themselves are rare; we just don’t see them much.

After the watering was done, we had a bit it time before my daughter and I loaded up the box of the truck for the market, and what few things we needed to bring along from the house, and left early. I wanted to stop at the general store to pick up some canned drinks to use as display items for the new can cozies I’d made. Plus, I picked up a sandwich for breakfast. My daughter didn’t pick anything, and even drank only water (we brought ice packs and small insulated bags), because eating makes her sick, and there’s only a porta potty available at the market.

We drove past the rescue on the way to the general store, and there was already a tent set up! We later heard that someone had set up by 8:30am. The rescue doesn’t open to tours until 9am, and the market officially opens at 10am.

We got what we needed, then drove back to set up for the market, quickly unloading everything so I could park the truck as soon as possible. Otherwise, we block access.

We had the same neighbour as last week. Before, they had really struggled with having only a sun umbrella. This time, they had a tent with mesh walls. A much better set up – until the wind gust started hitting. Their tent started blowing around and they were going to at weight to one corner when I realize they didn’t even have any tent pegs. I’d bought extra at the dollar store, then found the ones that came with our canopy tent, so they were still in the packages. I was able to give them a package of 4, and it made a huge difference! Once pegged down, their tent actually handled the wind gusts better than ours side. It’s supports were more flexible and would bend with the wind. Our felt like it was about to become a kite at times!

Things were a bit busier than last time, and we made a few sales. It was only the second day of a first time market, so I really didn’t expect much. Add in the heat, and I’m surprised they had as many people visiting for tours as they did!

The highlight of the day was their cat. Last time, it was their Great Pyrenees, who did show up later. This time, it was their long haired ginger cat with the Maine Coon face, but not the Maine Coon size. This cat just hung out at various tents, sometimes visibly splayed out in the shade, other times emerging from under a table, and absolutely loving attention. Towards the end of the day, it came out from under a table at the tent next to us, walked over to my daughter for pets, climbed up into her arms and went for a nap on her shoulder.

It was the most precious thing, ever!!!

While we were there, my phone kept pinging with security cam notifications. My brother and SIL had come out yesterday evening and will be here for the weekend. My SIL brought out their big zero turn mower and was out there for hours. Not only did she mow the outer yard, around their equipment, caravan, to the barn, etc., but she did much of the inner yard, too! There’s one section that can’t be done because there’s still part of that fallen maple in the way. The grass doesn’t get very tall, anyhow. I’m just blown away. Yes, it’s on a riding mower, but it was still around 33C/91F, with the humidex making it feel closer to 40C/104F

After the market was done and the truck packed up, my daughter and I stopped at home just long enough to take the things in the box of the truck out, then grab a couple of water jugs for refilling before heading to town. I was in the truck, waiting for my daughter to come back from the house when my brother came by. I commented on the lawn mowing, and he told me that was all my SIL! He has been working on his tractor. He got it fixed and started again and…

Something else broke on it.

*sigh*

He also got stung by hornets, three times – with one of them somehow getting into the sleeve of his coveralls!!!

Once my daughter got back to the truck, we headed to town. My daughter finally felt it was safe to eat, so she bought us “lunch” first, then we went to the grocery store. They have two stations for refilling water jugs and one was being used, so we started using the second one, only to find it had no pressure. Both stations have signs on them saying that, if there is no pressure, use the other station while it recharges, with apologies.

The women using the other station were clearly also having issues. Both machines had low pressure. We tried to do some of our shopping, then come back, but it still wasn’t long enough. In the end, I was eventually able to refill one jug, and didn’t bother with the second one.

We each had a few small things to pick up as well before heading home again.

One thing I noticed during the drive is that the battery gauge was fluctuating a lot again. At one point, the needle kept dropping as I watched, while we were stopped. Still within the normal range, but it really shouldn’t be doing that. This has happened before when we were above 30C/86F, and I had it checked, so I now know it’s because of the heat. After today, we’re going to avoid going anywhere for the next couple of days. Especially tomorrow, when we’re expecting a high of 35C/95F or, depending on what app we look at, potentially 37C/99F – and that’s not counting the humidex. Other areas of the province are expecting higher temperature.

A good day to stay home!

Two more days of this, and then the highs are supposed to stay below 30C/86F for the rest of the 10 day forecast. I’ll still want to be watering the garden twice a day.

Anyhow…

Once at home, I backed up to the house to unload. Once everything was put away, I wanted to feed the outside cats so I could safely drive the truck to the garage. They still had lots of dry kibble, but were swirling.

They wanted their cat soup!

I am thrilled to say that when I headed out of the sun room with the morning cat feeding, I found Sweetie among the cats just outside the door. She was there again, when I did the evening feeding.

Since they had plenty of kibble, I decided to use the large bowl and scoop I use for the dry kibble to make a larger batch of cat soup, with just a couple of scoops of dry kibble added to the freeze dried cat food mix.

The cats were in heaven. Including Sweetie. She still acts nervous when she looks at me and startles easily, but she still went for the food bowls and was not shy about getting her share!

It also gave me a chance to park the truck in the shade of the garage. It stays remarkably cool in there, considering we don’t close the main door at all. In the summer, I park with enough room in front of the truck to access the counter against the wall. That leaves the back end sticking out a few feet. Somehow, it just doesn’t get hot in there.

I still have to get outside to do the evening watering, but it’s past 7:30pm and still 30C/86F out there, with the humidex still at 35C/95F. The mosquitoes are out like crazy, too. We’re not expected to cool down to a decent temperature until 3am.

*sigh*

The garden must be just baking, though.

Well, time to stop procrastinating, cover myself in bug spray and get watering. I’ll have to be careful not to shock the overheated plants with freezing well water!

Just a couple more days of this…

The Re-Farmer

Melting cats…

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So… it’s getting pretty hot out there… We’re currently under a weather advisory, due to the heat.

Sunday, we’re looking at a potential high of 35C/95F. The weather warnings are saying the humidex could reach 45C/113C

Ugh.

Today, we “only” hit about 28C/82F, with a humidex of about 30C/86F

The cats are coping pretty well out there…

… taking advantage of any shade out there!

I had a pleasant surprise this morning. I’d done out outside cats’ kibble and was coming out with the cat soup when I startled a cat splattered on the sidewalk in front of the sun room door.

It was Sweetie!

Though startled, she didn’t run far. As I moved away from the sun room door, she ran into the sun room and straight to a tray with cat soup in it!!

This is HUGE progress. She is readjusting to familiar places after being away for a couple of months.

I tried doing a head count this morning and got “only” 18. I didn’t see Adam, though you can see her in the melted cats picture. She’s the one in the middle. I’m seeing Slick a fair bit. She’s had her kittens, but I can’t tell if they’ve survived or not. She seems to be here an awful lot. I’ve not seen that one kitten I spotted a few days ago again.

I also realized, I haven’t seen Domino in a while. I see Bug and Batman, the two other little mostly black cats, but no Domino.

*sigh*

One thing I’ve noticed, now that I regularly give out cat soup. I don’t put out a lot, considering the number of cats out there, but they really like it. They like it so much that when I come out to do the kibble, they do start eating a bit, but then they run around while I do the various bowls further out, waiting for the cat soup! When I come back out again for the afternoon feeding, there’s lots of kibble left, but every bit of cat soup and kibble that had cat soup poured over it, is gone.

Which works fine for now, but it’s not something we can do in the winter. It would freeze before they could finish eating it.

Which is really hard to think about, with the heat we’re having right now!

The Re-Farmer

Sweetie sighting, and bee bombed

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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

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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!!!

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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

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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