Critters

Morning… er… afternoon finds

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Well, I did get some sleep last night! The kittens did tackle me, but I almost slept through it. I really, really have to watch myself, though. I leaned forward in bed this morning, and something moved. Turned out I had a kitten curled up right against my belly!

My daughter, unfortunately, did not get any sleep at all last night. Big Rig would not leave her alone! So she was up and about early to find Leyendecker for his morning medications. As I was getting up to help her, I realized I was hearing pouring rain over the sound of my fan! We were not supposed to get rain today. That’s why I watered the garden yesterday!

My daughter went on to feed the outside cats while I supervised Leyendecker, trying to get him to eat his new food. The first time my daughter gave it to him, he ate it hungrily. Now, he won’t eat it at all. We’re not sure what’s going on. Even when he’s around the main food bowls, which we now keep empty between feedings, he hasn’t even really been looking for more food. It’s likely the medications are causing him to loose his appetite, but I don’t remember it happening when he was on them before.

Since it was pouring so hard out, I went back to bed. My sense of time is now completely messed up! I went out to do my “morning” rounds a little while ago, but it was about 3pm. It still feels like morning.

Anyhow, here are some of my finds of the day!

When I saw Octomom heading for the kibble house, I checked on her babies. Usually, they’re asleep when she leaves, but not today!

It took me watching this a couple of times, counting and recounting, before I finally spotted the eighth kitten, under the two black ones! 😄

While finishing my rounds, I spotted the kittens in the junk pile with their mama.

Looks like it’s just the 2 of them, and they’re starting to go further afield! I expect we’ll soon be seeing them eating in the bowl under the shrine. 😊

I managed to get a picture of the tuxedo with the messed up eye. This photo is cropped closer, to see it better.

I’m really surprised. That eye is clearing up really well! The inner eyelid is swollen like crazy, but I was sure he was going to lose that eye completely. I am happy to say, it looks like I was wrong!

Meanwhile, I had a first in the (very well watered!) garden today!

Our very first ripe Roma tomato! It picked itself. This was the first tomato to show up, so no surprise it ripened first. I reached out to touch it and it fell off the vine into my hand!

The next picture is of ripening Indigo Blue Chocolate tomatoes. Now I can see where the “chocolate” part of the name came from!

I didn’t get a picture, but I saw a female Crespo squash in full flower, and I made sure to hand pollinate it. In the photos above, you can see the female African Drum gourd flowers are getting larger. The male flowers have been blooming consistently, so I expect to be able to pollinate those by hand when they finally open.

The last picture is of the G-Star patty pans, and we’ve got a switch on that one! The female flowers are blooming, but the male flowers just buds right now. Which means those lovely looking squash are not going to develop fully. There aren’t even any other summer squash blossoms I could use to pollinate with. I suppose I could try using a winter squash blossom, but I don’t know if they are similar enough for that to work. The G-Star plants are doing very well, though, so I expect we’ll have both male and female flowers blossoming at the same time, fairly soon.

I’m thinking it might be time to harvest the garlic. I want to give the bulbs time to get nice and big – we have so few of them this year – but the stems are drying out, which means they probably won’t get much bigger than they are now. That will free up an entire bed for something else, if we harvest those soon.

In the wattle weave bed, I transplanted 4 different early peppers, just in case we didn’t get a chance to transplant more in the grow bags. When watering last night, it looked like one of them has suddenly died. I could not find a reason why, but it’s wilting away. Nothing else around it is affected. There is no insect damage that I can find. It even looks strong around the stem and roots. I hope it perks up, but I don’t think it will. Everything else in that bed is doing well. Even the chamomile is starting to bloom. That first luffa we planted in there is getting so big, it has started to climb the lilac above it, and clusters of flower buds are starting to appear.

My sense of time is not just messed up about today, where I feel like it’s so much earlier in the day. I also get that sense, in reverse, when tending the garden. “Spring” arrived so early this year, it feels like we’re heading into fall, when we’ve still got half the summer to go. I keep thinking I should be harvesting things from the garden regularly by now. I’ve looked back at photos I took in July over the last two years to get some comparison, and we weren’t harvesting much at all at this time. When we grew melons successfully, 2 years ago, we had baseball sized fruits developing at this time. This year’s melons germinated so late, they’re just starting to bloom right now, and just male flowers so far. Some of the corn was behind what we have now, while others ahead. No surprise the summer squash was ahead compared to this year, since this year we have barely any and did direct sowing instead of transplants. I’m glad I took so many photos. It helps me get a sense of what to expect now, more or less, based on how things did in past years. Taking into account that 2 years ago was a drought year with heat waves (which the melons loved!) and last year a lot of things were lost to flooding in the spring.

I guess I feel better after looking at the photos from previous years. Some things, I can’t quite figure out why there is a significant different between them and this year. Others, it’s pretty obvious!

At least we’re not having to deal with groundhogs eating everything again! They seem to have moved on and are staying away, and I’m quite happy with that!

Now we just have to worry about racoons! Especially when it comes to the corn.

The Re-Farmer

Things that got done today

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It was hot, muggy and gross out there, but stuff still needed to be done!

My daughter and I finally got to picking the sour cherries from the tree next to the house.

We picked as many as we could reach using the little household stepladder. The ground is too uneven to safely use the bigger A frame ladder, even with a spotter. Which is okay. We can leave the rest for the birds! We almost filled the colander we were using to gather them. Then my daughter used one of the window screens we found in a shed that have been so handy to lay them out. She gave them a good washing and picked over them to get rid of any damaged or bird eaten ones that got missed. I think we still had about 5 pounds of cherries when she was done. I’m thinking we might make a syrup out of them, but will look up different ideas to try, first.

We’ll have other fruit to harvest, too.

There are SO many grape clusters! I’m still amazed. The most we’ve ever since since moving here. It will be some time before they’re ripe, though. The chokecherry tree by the compost ring and low raised beds will be ready to harvest soon. Actually, there are two of them, very close together. There’s a larger, healthier looking chokecherry tree by the main garden area, but with the tall trees beside it, it doesn’t get anywhere near as much sun as the one by the low raised beds. The berries on there are still mostly green, and there are far fewer of them. These trees are still pretty spindly, as they were quite choked out until we cleaned up around them, but they are just covered with berry clusters, weighing down the branches.

While checking the grape vines, I was on the lookout for more of those caterpillars, but accidentally knocked a big brown one onto the ground!

I tried to pick it up to put it back, but it kept flipping, uncurling and curling. It was remarkably strong! In my attempts to use leaves and twigs to move it, it flipped itself onto the step, which made it very convenient to take photos! I did finally get it on a grape leaf and back onto the vine.

Then I went to get one of the vines out of the spirea, where I found the green spotted caterpillar. So pretty! I was able to untangle the vine without disturbing it.

While I had the timer going for the sprinklers in the garden, I finally finished attaching the fence wire to the raised bed cover frame.

What a pain in the butt that was!

While setting up to work on it, I noticed that a screw in one corner – top right in the first photo – had snapped, allowing the pieces to rotate slightly. Not good!

Propping the frame up with boards helped steady it, but it was a real pain to attach that fence wire. Plus, Gooby decided that rolling around on the ground and sticking his head or feet right were I was hammering was a good idea.

It was not a good idea.

He was very determined, though!

I did finally get the fence wire attached. Between the snapped screw in one corner, and the likelihood of the U nails simply popping out while the frame is being moved, I decided adding extra boards to sandwich the fence wire was a necessity. I cut spare pieces to length, but by then I had worked my way through the sprinkler and soaker hoses, and needed to do the rest of the watering directly. My daughter was a sweetheart and attached the new lengths to the frame for me. That definitely made the whole thing stronger.

The lengths of fence wire for this was 5′, which made for a rather tall arc. This would be perfect for things like the bush beans on the high raised bed. For the next one, though, I’ll use 4′ lengths.

What I will not use, though, is that fence wire again! The twisted wire at every join is just too thick, making attaching it to the wood less secure. I still want to have something structurally sturdy, though, as it has to support any mesh, plastic or netting that is laid over it. Either that or I will need to add hoops to support the material. Hardware cloth or chicken wire would not be enough on their own.

With this one, I plan to cover it with the black netting we have, closing up the ends in the process. That will make sure no cats will get into the beds and lay down on our vegetables!

The buggers.

Meanwhile, the garden got a good watering. We hit 28C/82F today, as we did yesterday, but did not get any of the scattered rain showers that were predicted. Tomorrow, at least, will be a slightly more pleasant 23C/73F but it’s supposed to reach that temperature by noon and stay there until 7pm. To top it all off, we’ve got air quality advisories from all the wildfires. It was definitely on the hazy side, today! Just moderate air quality advisories for our area. Others are listed as extreme, so we don’t have much to complain about, that’s for sure.

I gave up trying to go to bed early today – at least not as early as the last couple of nights. Still debating whether I should try sleeping on the couch to reduce the interruptions by kittens.

Speaking of kittens, Question has absolutely glommed onto me today! She’s constantly climbing up me, whether I’m standing or sitting. While bending over to pick up the adult cat food bowls, I suddenly had a kitten hanging off my butt. Question had been on the bed behind me and went for it. When I stood up, she climbed her way up to my shoulders and stayed there! After feeding them, I sat down to work on the computer with my own supper. Even though she ate her own food enthusiastically, she was determined to eat mine, too! She was not happy that I would not let her! When we were done giving Leyendecker his medications, I settled at the computer again, only to have her climb up me again, to nap on my chest. As I write this, I’m leaning way back in my chair as she sits on my belly. I think she’s nodding off! None of the other kittens behave like this. Mind you, while her sister has been improving in health, Question is still really gooby, and doesn’t have as much energy as the other kittens.

What a handful the litter bugger is, though. Literally. She’s just a tiny little handful. They all are! Not for long, though. They sure are growing fast!

Well, I need to make up my mind on where I plan to sleep tonight.

If I sleep tonight.

The Re-Farmer

Leyendecker update

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My daughter and I loaded Leyendecker up and took him to the vet, today. I wasn’t able to get a picture, so here’s one from last year.

This is from when we were taking him to the vet and found out he was blocked.

He is too big for that carrier! The carrier can be opened from the top, where the handle it. Seeing my daughter carry him to the car, I could see the top door bending from his weight! Once we got to the clinic, I carried the box with both arms, rather than the handle.

Once he was in the carrier, he started howling and yelling and wailing! I heard sounds coming from that cat I’ve never heard before! We even popped up the back seats (I’ve had them flat, so I can put my mother’s walker in the back without having to fold it) so that the carrier could be in one seat, and my daughter in the other, trying to comfort him. He yelled the entire way. Even as I was carrying him into the clinic, he was wailing.

That’s one way to get right into an examination room, even though we were half an hour early!

So it’s not good news, but not really bad news.

Also, that boy did NOT want to give a urine sample, and he’s so big – just under 22 pounds! – they couldn’t take a sample from him via a needle directly into his bladder. We could see in the ultrasound that things were cloudy. He even conveniently tried to pee while lying in the V shaped pillow on his back, and we could see the muscled contract, cloudiness going through his urethra – then going back into his bladder!

They were able to collect barely enough urine from him to get it tested. There were the expected high readings due to stress – and he was massively stressed out! – and some bacteria. Not that it was a clean sample, since she literally collected it as he leaked. When he was blocked before, one thing they did NOT find were crystals. This time, he did have crystals in his urine.

Crap.

But, he is still able to urinate, if uncomfortably and all over the house, so we caught it in time.

He’s now on the same medical regime he came home with last time, after he’d had his hospital stay. Onsior for cats, an anti-inflammatory, Clavaseptin, an antibiotic, and Prazosin, a smooth muscle relaxant. He’ll be taking half pills twice a day for 10 days, then once a day for another 10 days, with just one of the medications. We got extra of the Prazosin, just in case he needs it for longer.

We also picked up some anti UTI cat food. A 2.72kg (about 6 pounds) bag cost over $50. It actually cost more than 20 doses of Prazosin. We’d had some before, but he didn’t like it, and the cost was prohibitive. We tried a different brand that we hope he’ll like better.

The problem is going to be the food. We normally just have food available for the cats to eat at their leisure. For most of the cats, this is not a problem. Leyendecker, however, is going to have to be fed separately, which means we can’t have other cat food around all the time.

So from now one, we’re going to be feeding the cats – and giving Leyendecker his meds – at 8am and 8pm, with a third feeding (no meds for Leyendecker this time) at 2pm. With his special dry cat food, he’s supposed to get 1 1/2 cups a day, so half a cup each feeding. We’ll give him some of the wet cat food, which we do every evening, as well, but it’s never a large amount.

It was also recommended to try giving him cranberry juice, to increase the acidity of his urine. How, we’re not sure. The vet only knew of one person who gave it to their dog to successfully treat a UTI. It won’t harm the cats, so we could try adding it to their water fountain, but more likely we will get some cranberry supplements and add the powder to his food.

We’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, we are now $345 and change poorer. It meant going into the money we were setting aside for a downpayment on a new van.

*sigh*

It could have been worse.

Ah, I hear the girls coming down the stairs. Time for the evening medications and feeding!

The Re-Farmer

Morning activities, and a change in plans

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We’re supposed to get quite hot for the next while, so I tried going to be very early. Usually, I don’t go to bed until 2 am or so. Especially this time of year, when it’s still light out for so long. So “early” usually means “before midnight” for me. Instead, I tried to be in bed by about 8, hoping to be up and about outside by 5.

It didn’t work.

Some people can fall asleep soon after lying down. My husband has always been able to do that. I’ve never been one of these! I think I did finally fall asleep before midnight, but didn’t wake up any earlier.

Also, I need to start being very careful rolling over at night, because I’m starting to wake up with kittens chewing on my toes!

Anyhow.

The first order of business outside was to feed the cats. One of the first cats to show up was Octomom! I think the girls had called her Slick, but she’s around so infrequently, the name didn’t stick.

She is such a beauty! She didn’t like me being around, though, and kept moving away as I set kibble out in different places.

Last of all, I put kibble in the bowl in the garage for her. It was not only empty, but I could see in the box nest, that she had been digging around for any remaining kibble that might have been left behind in there.

Since the mama was at the kibble house, I took advantage of it. I grabbed one of the blankets, then went over to the barrel the kittens are in. After removing the “cover” (a sheet of aluminum weighed down with a brick), I took out the rotted pieces of the barrel top that had fallen inside, then lay down the blanket on one half of the bottom – which, I could not see, is just dirt. The barrel is upside down. The pieces I had taken out used to be the “floor” of the barrel. Now, it’s open at both ends.

After moving all the kittens onto the blanket, I went and got the other one and tucked it into the other half. Then I found some clean pieces of wood in the garage. They used to be part of the packaging for the wood chipper, if I remember correctly. They are longer, and I put them at angles above the kittens. This gives the mama something to land on when she jumps in, and an area to perch on above her kittens, when she needs a baby break.

By the time I was putting the cover back on, the mama was returning, and she was not happy to see me! She hovered around, growling at me, until I moved away. I watched as she climbed up to the rim of the barrel and looked down, but she did not go in yet. Instead, she perched on the edge and glared at me! The last I saw, she had moved onto the other barrel and continued to watch as I continued my morning rounds. I’ve been out that way a couple of times, since, and once I saw her in the grass. Later on, I’ll have to check again, when I’m sure the mama isn’t around.

As I headed back to the sun room, I spotted this.

It’s SuperAdam!

I don’t think any of those kittens are her own, and there are kittens from at least 3, possibly 4, litters that she is nursing!

One of the things I checked this morning was the raspberries, of course.

Those purple raspberries we transplanted this spring are doing amazing! The one in the photo is the largest of the three. We have been able to pick a whole 5 ripe raspberries from the three bushes.

The other image is of the raspberries I picked from the ones in the main garden area. My mother had transplanted them in the area long before we moved out here. Now that the crab apple tree that was there has died and was cut down, the raspberry bushes at that end, and around the old compost pile, are doing much better! The ones at the other end, closer to the chokecherry tree, are not doing as well.

Also, I don’t know if you’re seeing the bowl of raspberries okay, but after I uploaded the images to Instagram, that picture now looks like it’s got a semitransparent black overlay on it. Instagram seems to have issues with multiple images uploaded at once.

One of the other things I worked on this morning was an experiment.

I took the remains of some chicken wire and added it to the box frame. It’s just held in place with wire twists. I had a lot less chicken wire than I thought; not even enough to cover one side.

We do have enough of the black netting we got last year to cover it completely, which we might use as a temporary cover. I definitely want to use hardware cloth attached semi-permanently to the sides. I will probably put some on the top, too, but not permanently. The thing it, once the sides are covered, the only way to tend the bed would be to remove the box cover completely. That would be a 2 person job, to avoid damaging the corn.

Hmm… I was just thinking, as I look at that picture. Right now, I’ve got the excess wire over the top. The hardware cloth also comes in 4′ widths. I could have excess mesh on the bottom, covering the sides of the raised bed. That would ensure critters won’t be able to slip under the bottom of the box cover. It would also serve to keep the whole thing from getting knocked off the bed by a determined critter.

Something to think about.

By the time this was done, it was getting too hot and humid to stay outside, and it wasn’t even 10am yet!

We have a change in plans for today, anyhow.

We got a call from the vet clinic about Leyendecker’s appointment tomorrow. Looks like they got a cancellation or something, because they were asking if we could come in today, instead! So he now has a 4:30 appointment today.

Hopefully, it will not be something serious, but after his last vet visits, I have my doubts. 😟

Ah, well. It will be what it will be.

The Re-Farmer

Good news, concerning news, and thinking ahead for the garden

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I will start with the good news!

I phoned the vet clinic today and asked about the kitten we brought over last week because of it’s messed up eye, that promptly got adopted. He is doing fine! His eye was removed just a couple of days ago. While talking to the receptionist, she told me her daughter was playing with, as we were speaking.

That was really wonderful to hear!

I wonder if he will end up becoming a clinic cat? They had one before they moved to the new location, but I haven’t seen it since the move.

Next the concerning news.

I phoned the vet clinic today.

For the past while, we’ve been having issues with cats spraying around the house, but lately there have been massive problems with finding huge puddles of pee all over the place. Some regular spots included in front of the fridge, in front of the washing machine, in front of the main door, in front of the toilet, and under my older daughter’s bed.

It turns out to be Leyendecker. He’s not just spraying anymore. He seems to be losing bladder control, and he’s not happy about it!

We have an appointment for him on Saturday.

The last time he was there, it was because he was blocked and couldn’t pee at all. Now, he can’t stop peeing!

Poor bugger.

On a completely different note…

While going through the gardens beds this morning, I was thinking it’s time to pull the peas.

They’re about done their season, but mostly it’s because their tops are gone, and so are most of the developing pods. They never got very tall, but are now even shorter. My guess is a deer has simply been walking along the chain link fence, munching away. On both sides! There are still some pods developing, but I’ve been harvesting maybe 3 of 4 pods, at most, in the mornings and just snacking on them while I do my rounds.

When it comes to pulling the plants, though, they won’t actually be pulled, but cut. Peas are nitrogen fixers, but to take advantage of that while planting something else, it turns out the roots should be left in the ground.

One more reason I’m happy to have discovered the Gardening in Canada channel! I did not know that until recently.

Once those are clear, however, that leaves a long bed with room for something else.

In the second half of July.

We only have about 50 days before first frost.

Maybe. For the past couple of years, we didn’t get a first frost until much, much later. Based on those years, we may actually have another 4-4 1/2 months of growing season left.

Or we can get frost in July or August. It happens. That’s the problem when working with averages. The real world doesn’t know what those are! 😄

There are actually quite a few options available.

Among the usual recommendations are some we just won’t bother with. Arugula, for example, is something we just don’t eat, so we don’t even have the seeds. Radishes are another one, and we do have seeds, but they are something I want to grow for the pods to try, so they need a full season. None of us are actually keen on eating radish bulbs.

Among the greens we could plant, and have seeds for, spinach is something we enjoy. We haven’t done well with lettuces, as I found they got bitter even before they bolted. We also still have Swiss Chard seeds if we want a different green.

Bok Choy is a recommended crop, but the only seeds I had were the tiny ones that got smothered by the Chinese elm seeds. The few surviving ones are going to seed and pods are developing, so I’m hoping to save seed and try them again next year. Somewhere else!

Some varieties of carrots can be started now, as they handle frost well and can be left in the soil in the winter, if covered well enough. We already have 2 types of carrots, and I don’t want to start more now.

Summer squash is supposed to be something that can still be sown now, since they get harvested while small. I’ve already reseeded summer squash three times with poor success, so that’s out. They would be too big for the space, anyhow.

It’s the same issue with planting bush beans. We could use more beans, but we’ve got the onions planted where the Czech lettuce and tiny bok choy were choked out. Bush beans would cover them completely.

We could try more turnips and/or beets. The beets we planted earlier are really struggling. Perhaps they would do better in this bed. The Gold Ball turnips are growing, but I do have some leftover seed from varieties we tried last year, too.

We could actually plant the Dalvay peas again. We certainly have enough seeds, but I’m not interested in feeding the deer even more, as much as I would love to have a real pea crop to harvest!

Hhhmm. I think it will come down to either beets or spinach. Considering the length of the bed, and how the chain link fence posts conveniently divide it into three equal sections, we could do smaller rows of three different things, and still get decent potential quantities.

Whatever we decide on, we’ll be making sure to work in the early morning hours over the next week or more. We’re looking at temperatures at, or over, 30C/86F to deal with, and the hottest part of the day it typically around 4 or 5pm, and it stays hot until 8 or 9pm. As I write this, it’s almost 6:30pm, and we’ve been at our high of 27C/81F for a couple of hours already. It’s not going to drop to comfortable temperatures until almost midnight. Looking at the long range forecast, we’ll be getting temperatures just below 30C/86F for the rest of the month.

Which makes it weird to think about what cool weather/frost hardy crops we can plant right now!

The Re-Farmer

Kitten update

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First, the important stuff: the status on that litter of 8 kittens we tried to move into the safety and comfort of the sun room.

Well, we tried.

The kittens are fine.

They had spent the day contentedly sleeping in the nest we made for them. I saw the mom come over to eat when I put kibble out for the evening. We tried to stay away from the sun room as much as possible, so as not to spook her away from her kittens, so the chances of seeing her in there with them were low, but she didn’t seem to be engorged with milk. Hard to tell from a distance, though.

The last night, we started hearing the kittens crying.

And crying.

And crying!

Also, trying to scrabble out of the box nest.

They were so loud, all the other cats and kittens left the run room and were milling about outside.

Except the mother.

We went out through another door with the flashlight, and found her where she’d been hanging out lately; near the outhouse, which is where the rotten barrel she had the kittens in is beside.

I tried going around the far side of her, but she would not go towards the house. She did go through the back door of the garage, which we keep open for air circulation.

So we decided to move the entire box nest of kittens to the garage. There is an open shelf near the ground that it fit into. I even put a handful of kibble into a corner of the box nest to treat the mother.

This morning, I brought over a container with kibble to leave near the box nest and checked the babies.

The kibble was all gone, and there was just one kitten left. I had hoped she wouldn’t move them, but I did expect it. I figured at least they weren’t in that rotting barrel anymore.

As I did my morning rounds, I walked past the front of the garage, which has one door open, and spotted the mom. She had come for the last baby.

Then, while checking the garden beds in the area, I heard kittens.

*sigh*

Yup. She actually brought them back into the barrel!

We’re just going to have to leave them there and keep an eye on them.

At least our attempt to move them didn’t result in her rejecting them.

I wonder if she would allow us to move those fallen boards out and put a cat blanket on the bottom? I’d actually replace the fallen boards with a longer, less rotten one, that would make it easier for her to climb out, and have a perch above the babies – but not so long that the kittens could climb out while they’re still too small!

I just hope that, with her jumping in and out all the time, the barrel itself won’t finally disintegrate.

The Re-Farmer

A bit more progress

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When heading out earlier, I carefully checked on the babies, and they seemed very comfortable in their new nest!

I’ve seen the mama around, but not in the sun room. While she was willing to put up with me when I put the evening kibble out, once she’d eaten, she kept her distance. I was concerned when I started hearing the kittens from the sun room, but she was going in the other direction, so I made a wide circle around her to use the main doors, in hopes she would go towards the sun room to get away from me but, instead, she went up the sidewalk to the gate. So I went inside to not disturb her, and hope that she hears her kittens and tends to them. Earlier, I even made sure to leave little piles of kibble around where the nest is, to treat her when she does.

This is what I started working on while outside.

What a flippin’ pain to attach the fence wire to the frame! I was using U nails (aka: staples) to attach them, but they were the biggest problem. They were poorly cut, and the ends were often jagged instead of pointed. There was really nothing we could do about that, either. I also had to hammer most of them to be more closed, so that they wouldn’t splay while being hammered into the wood.

I tacked a section of fence wire to the ends first, the added the third section to the middle, so that it overlapped the end pieces evenly. Once that was tacked in place, I went back and added a U nail over every joint in the wire, with my daughter holding the frame steady and passing me the best U nails out of the bag that she could find. I would not be at all surprised if the U nails simply popped right out.

I was very frustrated with them.

Ideally, I would strength the whole thing by sandwiching the fence wire between another piece of wood, but the horizontal and vertical pieces of fence wire are joined by one being wrapped several times over the other, making each join triple the thickness of the wire on its own. It would still work, but there would be a larger gap between the boards than I would want. It would certainly make the corners more stable, though. Hmm… We do still have a couple of 12′ pieces that were cut wonky. Maybe I could experiment and try it with just one frame.

By the time I was hammering the last of the U nails in, it was starting to rain again, so we left the other half for another time.

Once inside, I was going to start supper, but the girls took that over and are working on it as I write this. We did decide that there really wasn’t enough of the potatoes I picked earlier for the four of us – we do like our potatoes! – so I went out and harvested some of the Red Thumb potatoes, too.

That colour is amazing! These are red all the way through, too.

After passing them on to my daughters to prepare, I went back out and harvested some fresh dill leaves from the self seeded dill we have along the edge of the old kitchen garden, to go with the new potatoes. When the old kitchen garden is set up to be more of an herb garden, we plan to include a variety of dill that is grown more for its leaves than for the seed heads, since that’s how we use it the most. We have another variety that is more for pickling, and we plan to sow those somewhere further away, where we don’t mind them self seeding and can treat them as a perennial.

I’m really looking forward to trying these potato varieties!

The Re-Farmer

Eight!

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We took the risk this morning.

Or, should I say, my daughters did.

I had a highly interrupted night last night, getting to bed late and repeatedly awakened by kittens and cats, and woke up with a splitting headache from lack of sleep. I’ll be so happy when I can start opening my door again, but not with the kittens so small and so active.

My daughters took care of feeding the outside cats, then collected the kittens from the rotting barrel, moving them to the nest I made for them in the sun room.

There did turn out to be eight kittens. The biggest litter we’ve seen yet!

I got this picture when I finally headed outside to check the garden. It took me a few times looking at the photo before I figured out where the 8th one was. All you can see is its nose!

There are two black tabbies on there – the stripes are barely visible – plus one almost all black tabby. The colours on these kittens are amazing!

They seemed content as we checked on them, but I’m concerned about the mother. She has always been the more feral of the yard cats. When my daughters saw her around after moving the litter, one of them took a kitten to show the mama. She started to follow towards the house for a bit, then went away. Later on, I saw her coming out of the barrel, then heading to the house for food. She has been in the sun room before – pretty much all that cats have, at some point – but she has never been one to stay close to the house. I’m hoping she at least comes in to tend to her babies. Even if she ends up moving them somewhere else, it won’t be back to that barrel, which would be an improvement.

Still, we have to keep a careful eye on the babies, and make sure not to scare the mama away.

I hope we did the right thing in moving them.

The Re-Farmer

Thinking ahead

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What shall we do with these babies!

They’re still on the bottom of that old and rotting barrel. As I write this, it’s raining, and I’m afraid rain is getting through the opening the mama is jumping in and out of, and they’re right under it. Where the barrel is is very sheltered, though, so not a lot of rain is reaching the barrel to begin with.

I hope!

I’ve cleared out a corner of the sun room, then used boxes and cat blankets to create a nest, with other stuff placed around it to make it even more cave-like. What I’m hoping to do is get the kittens out of the barrel and move them to the nest. Hopefully, the mama will accept the offering and leave them there. We can even put other things around it to make it more private, so she won’t be disturbed as we go in and out of the sun room.

But that is a job I can’t do without someone more spry and agile to get at the kittens. We can reach to move the boards out and then maybe tip the barrel over, very carefully. It might just fall completely apart once we start moving it.

Is it worth trying? What do you think?

Anyhow…

This morning, the girls were out before I was and took care of feeding the outside cats, then put together two more frames for the raised beds for me. The third one wasn’t done because somehow we missed drilling pilot holes at one end of the 3′ pieces, and they didn’t want to be making noise with the drill while my husband and I were trying to sleep!

I headed out early to go to my mothers, stopping for the mail, then pick up lunch. I went to the Chinese restaurant right next to her place and got myself a full meal, but just onion rings for her. Now that she’s been convinced they are using cat meat and refuses to even consider she might be wrong on that, onion rings are the only thing she’s willing to eat from there! Her loss. The food was delicious, as always.

Before we left, my mother said she had a letter to mail, but she didn’t want to mail it at the local post office. As we were going to get her new glasses, she started talking about the $45 she put in an envelope to pay, but wasn’t sure what she had paid for. I explained to her (again) that it was for her eye test, because it wasn’t completely covered by our province’s Medicare. She said something about the cost of her glasses, as she had written a check for half the cost and I said no, it was just for her eye test, not at all for her glasses. She then commented on not having any receipts, and I reminded her she got two receipts; one for the glasses, one for the eye tests. I had folded up the receipts and put them in the envelope she’d had the cash for the test in. I’d even made sure to show them to her once at home, them back, telling her to put them with her other tax receipts.

She didn’t remember that, and doesn’t know where that envelop is, anymore, but also had no interest in looking. Hhmm.

So, off we went to the town her glasses were in, which is about half way to the city from where she lives. Along with going to the post office, she talked about wanting to go to a grocery store, too. Once at the eye place, my mother got excellent care as they made sure everything was just right.

Then she started asking about the $45, and what was that for?

*sigh*

I’m not sure why my mother didn’t believe me, or what she thought that cash paid for. The lady patiently explained exactly what it was for; it turns out there is just one specific test she had that is not covered. Honestly, I’m still not sure she accepted the explanation.

She was happy with the glasses, though. After getting them to fit just right, she was told to start wearing them tomorrow, when she first gets up, rather than try and get used to a new prescription part way through the day. Since she already uses a walker, there’s a higher risk of falling if she gets dizzy or has depth perception issues.

When it was time to pay, the lady wrote the check out for my mother to sign, and my mother started talking as if they weren’t going to give her a receipt, but she would like one. She was assured they would give her a receipt. Then we made sure she saw the printout, and that it went into the bag with her glasses.

While we were chatting, my mother asked where the post office was, as she couldn’t remember. We got excellent directions. Once we were done, though, she wanted to go to the grocery store, first, since it was so close. As we parked, we saw a Canada Post sign on a pharmacy that shared the parking lot, so we tried going there first. Turns out they just had a postal box, and my mother refuses to use postal boxes anymore. The one outside the post office in her town was stolen, several years ago, so now she things if she puts mail in a post box, it will get stolen.

I didn’t mind stopping at the post office, though, because I was out of antihistamines, and I’m allergic to something out there!

Then it was time to go to the grocery store, but suddenly my mother didn’t actually want to buy anything there, though she did look through the bakery section. Their bakery section is one of the things she looks forward to in that store, as they carry types of bread she can’t get locally. In the end, I did some of my own shopping while she rested in her walker, but as I quickly went around for things on my list, I found her checking out the meat department! 😄 So she did get one thing – just not the thing she came to the store for! I paid for it with my own stuff, so she wouldn’t have to stand in line.

Next, it was off to the post office. She remembered what the building looked like, but the post office hasn’t been in that building for many years. I don’t know what the building is now, but it’s unique enough that it frequently gets used in movies. There have been a few times I’ve come to this town in the summer, and had to drive around blocks closed off and decorated with fake snow and Christmas trees, because another Hallmark movie was being filmed. Even explaining this as we drove past the original building, when we next drove by the old town hall, with similar architecture, she was telling me that was the post office!

I’m glad we got such excellent instructions, because the real post office turned out to be hidden in a strip mall breezeway! So well hidden, after I parked the car, I walked over to see, and discovered the doors where hidden by post boxes. 😄

When I went back for the envelope my mother wanted to mail, I got very specific instructions. My mother has sent mail to Poland (months ago, though she makes it sound like yesterday) that didn’t arrive. When mailing another letter to Poland, the lady behind the counter thought it was to Ukraine, apparently. I honestly don’t see how that could be, but that’s what my mother tells me. She also writes “Polska” on the address, rather than the English “Poland”, and the lady asked what that was.

So now my mother is convinced that the lady at the local post office just throws away her letters. Or that they are being stolen. Or that no one at the post office understand that Polska means Poland.

My instructions were to make sure they knew this was going to Poland, and whether she should write Poland in English rather than Polish.

When I got to the counter, I explained my questions. The lady at the counter even double checked to make sure if having Polska on there was fine, and was assured it was. In the end, I think the questions I made on behalf of my mother made her day!

My mother didn’t even need postage. All that, because she refuses to drop a letter into a postal box!

She was happy with the responses I got, though. But now I’m wondering, what is she going to do the next time she has to mail a letter to Poland?

That was the last of her errands, though, so we made the drive home. I didn’t even get guilted about staying longer after I helped her in. The folks from the seniors centre had some sort of coffe night in the lobby, and it was still going. My mother was happy to kick me out and be able to catch the end of it. 😂

Which is was fine by me – I didn’t have any insulated bags in the car, so I needed to get my few groceries home! I did stop at the hardware store first, though. I wanted to look for the coupling I needed to repair the pipe to the garden tap.

Turns out, the smallest size they had was for a 1 1/4″ pipe. The pipe I need to repair is 1″.

*sigh*

I was really hoping to avoid ordering it online.

Ah, well. Once I got home, I did exactly that. It comes in a 2 pack, so we’ll even have a spare.

That done, I headed outside. After setting up the kitten nest in the sun room, I did a bit of garden tending, then dragged the roll of fence wire over to where the frames were.

I had thought the wire was 4″ squares, but I was wrong. Once I started unrolling it, I could see it was several sizes. All the squares are 6″ long, but there are rows of 5″, 4″ and 3″ spaces.

The roll itself is just over 3″ wide. I decided for the first frame, I would try 5′ long pieces. Three of them will fit along the inside of the frame, with a bit of overlap. Bolt cutters made cutting the wire an easy thing, and I used pliers to bend the cut ends back. Being rolled up for so long, the pieces all have a curve we can take advantage of when attaching them to the sides of the frame.

I didn’t get that far, though. It started to rain while I was working on the last section, so I just put things away to finish tomorrow. Once I see how it looks with 5′ of fence wire, I’ll decide if the next one will get longer or shorter pieces.

For these ones, I plan to cover the fence wire with the black netting we used to protect beds last year, making sure to close up the ends in the process. The cats like to go into the garden beds and just lay on top of my vegetables, so this will at least keep them out! In the future, we’ll have to make a cover sized for the bed the Irish Cobbler potatoes are in right now. I never thought those would need covering! The other potatoes are fine, but the critters seem to really like that one bed! I keep finding kittens in there, but something bigger has been flattening the potato plants. So far, they have been able to recover okay, but there’s only so much abuse they can take! It’s too late to do anything about it this year, but we’ll have to keep that in mind when using the bed next year.

Funny how every year of gardening, I spend much of my time thinking about the next year’s garden! Everything we learn this year will make for a better garden next year.

I hope!

The Re-Farmer

Things I found this morning – and last night!

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Funny how I do my rounds every morning and evening, and I still sometimes find new things!

Though the first thing to share with you is what I found last night!

My daughters heard a ruckus outside, so I went out to check and found this.

There was at least one more racoon that ran off before I could shine a light into the kibble house.

The one trying to claw its way under the roof looks very unhappy!

Speaking of unhappy, while walking around in the outer yard last night, my older daughter twisted her ankle in a dip on the ground, hidden by grass. I keep dropping a lawn mower tire in it, or tripping over it myself, so I went and got a wheelbarrow of soil. While I was doing that, my daughters kicked around in the grass and found three more sunken areas. Once we saw the spacing, we realized what they were from. When we first moved here, there was a truck that was parked there. It belonged to my brother that lives in the quarter section across the road, so he moved it away our first summer here. The low spots are from the tires sinking during the years it sat there! The one tire made a deeper hole, because it was sitting where more spring meltwater would accumulate.

My daughter twisted her ankle bad enough that she’s still limping today. 😢

This morning, as I was checking the garden beds along the chain link fence, I started hearing kitten noises. I knew one of the mamas likely had a litter there, but had yet to hear or see anything until today. It took going all the way around to the back of the pile before I saw two kittens in the grass.

Yes, there are two kittens in the picture! There is a tuxedo hiding under a big burdock leaf. The mama was not happy to see me there!

Of course, I had to take a quick peek and check on the newest babies we found.

In this photo, I could count 7 faces.

The mama was near by and watching me closely, so I just quickly stuck my phone over the opening, snapped a couple of pictures and left.

Yesterday evening, I finally dragged away the broken tree top that fell near where the low raised beds and compost pile are. One of the branches snagged on a squash vine hanging out of the compost ring, so I make sure to check if it was okay this morning. Looks like the damage was very minor, because our mystery squash are doing very well!

There are even female flowers developing! The one vine is quite large, but there are at least 3 more smaller ones in there. It should be interesting to see what they turn out to be!

Though we had rain off and on all day yesterday, it was never more than enough to dampen the grass, so I got the sprinkler going over the squash patch this morning. It also waters the purple corn, so I could probably move that new soaker hose to another bed. While that was running, I took my time checking other things, and ended up pulling crab grass in the bed we grew potatoes and melons in last year – or should I say, tried to! – that still has the old straw mulch over it. After clearing away a bunch of crab grass, I found…

… a remarkably large potato plant was hidden in the grass! This would be an All Blue potato. In the other bed, where the straw was cleared in preparation for building the trellis beds, I uncovered a single potato plant (also pictured above), but it is much, much smaller. The smaller one would be the Briget variety.

Next I checked the high raised bed, where I noticed one of the clips holding the netting at the top was broken and floating in the netting above the beans.

I found some of the ground staples pulled up, too.

Something actually managed to eat more of our bush bean leaves!!!

It couldn’t possibly be a deer that did it. From what I saw while putting the netting and ground staples back, I got the impression that something got in, then panicked a bit while tearing itself out. But what? It’s not like a rabbit could climb up there. We haven’t seen any ground hogs, and I don’t know that they are climbers – plus, I think a ground hog would have done a lot more damage!

Whatever it was, it ate some leaves and left. The plants are still showing flower buds, so it looks like they will survive just fine, and we should be getting at least a few beans this year.

In other things, I finally got a call about my mother’s glasses, so tomorrow I will be picking her up and taking her to pick them up. I hope she’s happy with them. Since I’m going to her town anyhow, that will give me a chance to stop at different hardware store and see if they have the right size coupling in stock. It will be great to repair that pipe and be able to hook the hose up to the garden tap, instead of the house! If it works out and no new cracks appear, I want to see if I can drag a double laundry sink we found in of one of the sheds, and make a vegetable washing station under the garden tap, too. That would be very handy!

But first, we fix the water pipe!

The Re-Farmer