Today is Sept. 10, which is the old average first frost date that I still go by. The new average frost date is now a range from Sept. 21-Sept. 30.
I don’t trust those new dates, at all!
Right now, however, we’re expecting temperatures to be all over the place. Today we hit a high of 27C/81F, and an expected low of 15C/59F Last night, we dropped to 9C/48F. By Tuesday, we’re supposed to drop to overnight lows of 6C/43F, and might go lower; the forecast changes depending on which app I look at.
Not a danger of frost, but temperatures that some of our garden plants don’t handle well. Some things, I won’t be able to do much to help them, like the summer and winter squash. Others, I might just be able to.
Like the melons.
When I was feeling better this evening, I went out to get some fresh and and, of course, check the garden beds. I had left the hoops over the harvested cabbage patch after removing the insect netting. Today, I shifted the hoops over to the melons, after replacing two taller vertical stakes with shorter ones I now had available.
The supports extend far enough to include the one lonely surviving melon from our own seed starts. It’s so tiny, I know it won’t make it, but I can’t help it. I want to give it every chance I can! 😄
I joined the hoops horizontally with twine at three levels to support the plastic it will be covered with, and to keep the hoops from tipping one way or the other. I also wound the muskmelon vines up the trellis support, then added twine at the vertical supports for a bit more structural integrity. They can’t be seen in this photo, but we have a surprising number of developing melons on there!
I haven’t decided on what I’ll use to cover this. The 6mm poly is out of the question, as it’s way too big and I don’t want to cut it at this point. The main thing is that I want to be able to lift the sides up. We don’t need to keep them covered completely all the time. I want to be able to lift the sides during warm days and for watering, then drop them for cooler nights, as needed.
I must say, I do appreciate the versatility of these hoop kits. The rods and connectors allow for a lot of flexibility. I had 5 hoops made with 5 rods each over the cabbage patch. I used that to make 4 hoops with 6 rods each to cover the melons. There was one extra rod leftover, and I’m using that to help secure one end of the horizontal twine, where it’s knotted together and secured with a ground staple, weighted down with a rock.
The kit with the metal connectors, rather than the plastic ones, works out better, too. I got two kits with the metal connectors and they are definitely worth getting more of.
Pain levels kept increasing earlier than usual, with no physical activity that typically triggers it. I ended up spending most of the day in bed, which was incredibly frustrating.
A couple of things of note, though. First, the good stuff.
I did head out not long ago to do the evening cat feeding outside. More because I just couldn’t handle the inactivity anymore. Of course, I walked around a bit and checked on the garden beds.
The Black Russian sunflowers at the chain link fence bed are mostly blooming, and very busy with bumblebees!
The Mammoth sunflowers seed heads are still very small, but some of the plants are now easily 7′ tall. Hard to say if we’ll get anything out of them.
Checking the tomato bed, there are plenty of Orange Currant tomatoes to pick, but I did not have a container for them. Same with the beans. I’ve asked my daughters to do those later. I checked on the Blueberry tomatoes, which are supposed to stay a dark colour with light blossom ends. Some of them felt soft and ripe, so I picked them.
I won’t be taste testing them myself – I’m willing to try with something tiny like the Orange Currant tomatoes or Spoon tomatoes, but just thinking of eating a normal sized, fresh tomato – even smaller ones like this – makes my stomach churn. Odd, that.
I didn’t take a photo, but I pulled the Gigenthemum poppy plants with their fully dry pods and set them on the curing frame near the tomatoes I picked yesterday.
By that point, I needed to get indoor and sit down again.
*sigh*
On another note…
Back in July, my husband ordered himself a new office chair through Amazon. A bariatric chair that can double as a sleep chair, if necessary. Only after placing the order did it tell us that tracking wasn’t supported by the delivery company. It did have a delivery date in August. A long time, but okay. We’ve had that before, and things would still show up at the general store the post office is in. Frustrating, but not something we were too concerned about. Once things arrived, we’d at least see it chance to having been delivered.
What we didn’t know is that the seller had tried to contact us. My husband never got the messages (the system should have sent him emails about them). After the delivery date passed, my husband was going to get a refund, but never got a verification on that.
Which is when I looked around and found the messages from the seller. One saying there was a problem and asking for an alternate address. Basically, they could not deliver to a post office (so why was the PO box address accepted? That happens pretty often) and needed a physical address. So I answered on behalf of my husband.
There were some messages back and forth and we finally got a Purolator tracking number. That lead to “shipping label created”, and never changed. After a while, I sent another message to the seller telling them that, according to Purolator, they don’t have the parcel. I told them that if there was a problem with the address (Purolator delivers to the general store but not to our physical address), they could use the physical address for the general store.
I got a message back saying they would contact the delivery company with the new info. Not long after, I got another tracking number, saying the package was in transit, and an apology for the delay. I responded to that, and then we waited some more.
And waited.
Purolator tracking still said “shipping label created” and never changed.
This morning, I tried to contact Purolator about it but all the system could tell me was there was only a shipping label created. They don’t have the package.
So I messaged the seller again, telling them this and saying that, at this point, we want a refund.
Some time later, my husband forwarded an email to me from Amazon.
My message could not be delivered, as “The seller associated with your order or inquiry has left the Amazon store or is no longer able to receive any further email communications.” Then it gave a link to request an A-Z Claim.
Which is when I gave up on being bedridden and went looking.
According to the Amazon listing, the seller is still there, the chair is still available, and even on sale now.
I went through the claim process, copy and pasting the email from Amazon about the seller no longer receiving messages, and saying we wanted a refund. My husband has already gotten a response from Amazon, and they are looking into it.
Hopefully, that means he’ll soon get his refund and we can look into buying a chair from somewhere else. With his current chair, he got some extra life out of it by replacing the wheels, but it’s still breaking down. He can’t sit normally on a chair, so he really need something that can handle extra wear and tear.
The problem is, finding something that works for him off line is almost impossible. Mobility aid places don’t carry office chairs, and office supply places don’t tend to keep specialty bariatric chairs in stock. You can only order them online – and they can be mind bogglingly expensive. An actual sleep chair is a completely different design unsuitable for his space and needs.
On the right and on the board in the middle are the Red Wethersfield onions that were interplanted with the bush beans in the high raised bed. The largest ones were all on the south end of the bed. The others were probably too overshadowed by the bush bean leaves to get as big.
The ones on the right are the Red Long of Tropea, which were interplanted with the caraway and along the west side of the bed with the (already harvested) turnips. On the other side of that bed, by the Daikon radish are the Red Beard bunching onions, which are looking very tall and strong.
I forgot to look for the onions that were planted near the celery, Those aren’t even visible anymore. Out of sight, out of mind!
That one tomato is a Chocolate Stripe tomato that I found fallen on the ground.
While checking other beds, I noticed some red tomatoes.
The little ones are supposed to be Blueberry tomatoes. 😄 The other, larger ones are Manitoba tomatoes. Then there’s that Chocolate Stripe tomato off to one side. They are now all set aside in the cat free zone to continue to ripen.
After harvesting the onions and the tomatoes, I checked on the summer squash and found a bit of wind damage. These are being grown vertically, but some did not get tied off high enough, yet, and one had been blown over, bending at the highest tie. So I spent a while going through all of them and securing them to their vertical posts with garden wire.
It isn’t a lot, but it felt good to be able to do at least that much in the garden!
Things were all right in the morning. After taking my morning painkillers, I went out to join my daughter during the cat feeding.
We did not get any kittens. They are still very skittish, and the older cats kept pushing their way in for the cat soup, even though they got some in the other food bowls. I tried distracting Sweetie with the cat toy but she was too hungry to be distracted, and insists on eating at the shrine feeding station, where the kittens come through the chain link fence. As today was supposed to be another day or rain and potential storms, we put the carrier and bait bowl back into the catio, with the regular food bowl set to keep the door from closing by accident, and let the kittens be for now.
I had brought my walker out so, after my daughter went inside, I went around the yard and checked on the garden beds. I found both winter and summer squash that I could hand pollinate. We should have some yellow zucchini large enough to harvest soon, and some of the green scallop squash. We might get more of the Early Prolific Straightneck squash, but there are still no yellow pattypans or lemon squash. Interestingly, I think one of the squash that were thinned by transplanting might be a lemon squash. The tiniest of round, yellow female flower buds are showing up and I don’t think they are pattypans.
In the main garden area, I just had to get a picture of a monster.
The first image above is of a carrot from the Rainbow Mix that has gone to seed. It is remarkably huge and sturdy! Normally, carrots don’t go into seed until their second year, but I don’t mind having one that I can save seed from.
The second image of the slide show above shows what’s left of the Daikon radish. The flea beetles not only denuded the stems of leaves, but they even ate a lot of the pods, too! There are still pods left, but nowhere near as many as before. Enough to collect seeds from, though, if they were not too badly damaged.
Once back inside, I was feeling well enough to have breakfast before trying to lie down for a bit. When I got up again, I was able to make a lunch using some leftover brisket, with potatoes and bush beans from the garden, to make a stew.
While I was cooking, I heard some noises outside the kitchen window. My brother was leveling the ground where the tree and patio blocks had been. He had to dig up some remarkable thick roots that were buried under where some patio blocks where. He also had to remove some of the soil along the edge of where the blocks would be so that it was lower than the blocks, instead of higher. He levels a block in the corner between the house and the concrete steps so it wasn’t draining towards the house as well, and the blocks along the outside edge were sloped slightly to drain away from the house. He ended up filling our wheelbarrow completely with dirt and detritus he’d removed. Probably the heaviest load it’s ever had. Which would have been fine, except the tire turned out to be flat! I had come out to talk to him and, as he pushed the wheelbarrow from the grass onto the sidewalk, I was able to see the flat. All he could tell is that it wasn’t rolling right. He’s checked the tire before and couldn’t see a valve, so he thought it was a solid rubber tire. He did find the valve, but it had been partially pushed in from lack of air. He assured me he’s take care of it and told me to go back inside. Later on, I saw that he had also loaded all the old hot water tanks and pumps into his little trailer. They’ll be taken to the scrap yard another time.
By the time I finished cooking, the painkillers had definitely worn off. After lunch, I took them when the 6 hour alarm went off and tried to stay up longer, but eventually had to lie down again. Frustrating when it becomes difficult just sitting upright in a chair. *sigh*
I did manage to get a basement check in. I had to turn on a couple of the fans. One, aimed at the well pump and pressure tank because there was so much condensation dripping, it was creating a puddle. The other more in the new basement, more for air circulation and humidity levels. The recent rain, which is still sort of happening now, hasn’t been enough to cause problems in the basements.
I was also able to head outside and do the evening cat feeding. Some of the skunks are getting quite brazen! As I was setting up some bowls with cat milk in the kibble, specifically for the kittens (with extra to draw the adult cats away), I heard a commotion. I’d put some kibble at the back of the shrine base. A skunk was there, but one of the little tabbies was wanting that food (even though there was more) and hissing and spitting at the skunk. Which was about 5x its size!!! I scooted the skunk away, going down a path behind a willow where there’s an opening under the chain link fence they can fit through. I knew it would be coming back, so I tossed some kibble into the grass of the path, so it would have no reason to go closer and scare the kittens.
I also move the shrine feeding station bowls next to the catio, on either side of the door, with the bait bowl inside the carrier again. The bigger cats will eat the closest food, which should leave the bait bowl inside the carrier for the kittens, when they go looking for food later.
If the skunks don’t eat it first.
*sigh*
Then it was back inside, and not doing much. The painkiller either didn’t kick in, or the pain was worse and the painkiller has managed to just take the edge off. At least I can tell myself that, with how wet it is outside, I wouldn’t be getting much done out there, anyhow. It’s supposed to continue raining, off and on, until about 2am. It does look like some onions are ready to harvest, though. Something I should be able to do tomorrow, if all goes well.
Tomorrow afternoon – if we’re not delivering kittens to the rescue – my daughter and I will work on breaking down that fallen tree. I can handle a chain saw, and my daughter will be able to clear away the branches and smaller logs. Normally, the two of us together will drag the bigger logs out, but we’re both pretty broken, so I just want to cut things to size. I’m hoping to be able to get an 18′ length for the next garden bed out of this tree. The base of its trunk looks like it will match the size of the one that’s currently in place for the garden bed fairly well.
That’s pretty much it for the day.
I am looking forward to seeing the doctor, a little over a week from now, and getting those test results. If things go as expected, she’ll get me in for a hysterectomy fairly soon. If not, then I’ll be referred to specialists in the city. Who knows how long that will take.
After a draining morning, I lay down after taking my pain killers to wait for it to pass.
It didn’t, but it at least got less severe.
Somewhere past 3:00, I headed back outside with my walker. I fed the outside cats, then say with the fishing rod toy to keep Sweetie busy so the littles had a chance to eat. We have storm warnings for tonight (as I started this, I could hear thunder in the distance!), so I took the bigger carrier we had set up for the kittens to explore and put it inside the catio, setting the door mostly closed. Then I headed to the garden.
One thing I noticed over the past while is that some of the winter squash on the chain link fence are producing more female flowers! I was even able to hand pollinate a few this morning.
Most of them are these Butterneck squash. There’s at least one that looks like it’s going to wither away, but the ones I got pictures of all look pretty darn good. I also spotted a new Black Futsu female flower that was open and hand pollinated it. Why I bother, I don’t know. It’s Sept. 6 today. There is basically no season left for them to mature! Still, I want to give them all the chance they can. It should be interesting to see how big they get before it gets too cold.
We will, however, have one winter squash this year, at least.
The outer shell of the Arikara squash is getting pretty hard. I should be able to cut it and set it to cure fairly soon. All the other squash that started on this plant have died off, almost as if it pruned itself.
The yellow bush beans around the Arikara squash are producing quite nicely, and I had plenty to pick from a relatively few number of plants. I also found a single red Manitoba tomato, hiding under some leaves that I picked. Then I went to the high raised bed and picked the bush beans there…
… after I picked the two Chocolate Stripes tomatoes that were ready.
In the above photo, all the beans to the left of the tomatoes are from the later planted beans by the Arikara squash. Everything to the right of the tomatoes are from the high raised bed. The yellow beans in that bed seem to have had a second life and are suddenly producing quite a lot, again. There’s only a couple of green bean plants, and they are not at all productive.
I didn’t keep this. I got a bowl for it all, then wheeled over to my brother and SIL’s caravan and offered it to them. They were quite happy to accept. After my SIL transferred them to their own container and brought back my bowl, we were able to stay outside and chat – I just sat on my walker rather than try to climb up into the caravan. They have stairs with a hand rail now, but they came outside rather than have me hobble my way in.
Unlike my mother, with her snarky comments about the little tomatoes I brought her, it was nice when my brother and SIL quite appreciated the beans and tomatoes I brought for them! They have been growing some things on their balcony, but no beans. My SIL is thinking that, next year, she’ll try to grow enough tomatoes to do some canning. This year, they have cucumbers and cucamelons that have done quite well!
We got all caught up with the birthday visit with my mother this morning. My brother hadn’t had a chance to go into detail with my SIL yet. My mother was so all over the place, it took both of us to describe things and figure out what she was saying. Part of the challenge is that her sense of time is completely gone. There was something she’d said that my brother thought had happened recently, but I’d caught her mentioned the town she used to live in, which means it could have happened several years ago. In some things, we had to mash together things, my sister had told me my mother had said to her, compared to what my mother had told me, compared to what my mother had told my brother, and work out what was actually intended. It’s like putting together a puzzle, but half the pieces are still missing, while pieces from another puzzle show up randomly, too.
Still, we do the best we can.
I can hear that the rain has started. My SIL was very happy to have gotten the mowing done!
It would be really awesome if the weather holds long enough for us to actually get more winter squash.
After dropping kittens off with the rescue late this afternoon, my daughter and I drove to town so she could order a prescription refill. While that was being filled, we made a quick run to the grocery store for a few small things (taking advantage of being in town), then back to the pharmacy to pick up the medications. Then it was home for supper.
After supper, I headed outside. I got the soaking tub drained, then cleaned out the cat carriers we used for the kittens. They are ready to use again, if we want to use the two biggest ones.
The soaking tub got refilled with detergent again. Next time I drain it, it’ll be to wash the individual cat beds, blankets, etc. in the wheelbarrow, then they’ll go back into the tub for rinsing with vinegar.
Once the tub was refilled, I went to water the garden. This time, I remembered to take some pictures. Slide show below…
I knew we had one little musk melon forming but as I looked around the vines, I found three more surprisingly large ones!
The chances of them fully maturing before first frost are very low at this point. The long range forecast has changed, of course, but it still shows potential overnight lows of 3C/37F in a few weeks, then it’s supposed to warm up again.
Goooooo Super El Nińo!!! Keep that frost away! 😄😄
If we can cover things, they might still make it. I might even cover them with plastic to create greenhouse tunnels.
In the other photos of the slide show, you can see our one Caspar eggplant. You can also see a flower on the ground. There were two flowers on two different plants. I was trying to carefully cross pollinate them, but one of them broke off. Ah, well.
Last of all are the Chocolate Stripe tomatoes. They have cracks at the top like the Manitoba tomatoes are getting. That type of cracking can be caused by a few things. One is inconsistent watering, which is possible. The other is extreme temperature fluctuations. Which is far more likely!
Today’s high was 25C/77F. Our highs are supposed to stay in the 20’s over the next week, then stay in the high teens. It’s the overnight lows we need to watch out for!
Who knows. We might actually get a melon or two this year, after all!
Well, I am not sure just how things are going, right now!
Last night, as I was going to be, I started feeling very ill. Nausea is s potential side effect with the new painkillers, so that might have been it.
Or it could have been the piece of birthday cake I’d had not long before. I may have been sighted out.
Or it could gave been both.
Either way, I had to message my daughter to help me just to get to the bathroom, which waz an extremely slow and careful walk. She got dome Pepto into me first, which seemed to work.
After I was finally stable enough to lie down, I took only 1 tablet instead of 2, for the next two doses. That didn’t quite cut the pain, but there was only mild dizziness. By the afternoon dose, I was back to 2 tablets, they kay riwn right away.
That seemed to work, because I felt well enough to get things done outside. I changed out the water in the tub all the cat beds, etc. were soaking in. That was really gross. I expect to be changing the water out at least one more time before I start using the wheelbarrow as a tub to wash individual pieces.
The kittens were looking for food around the shrine bowls, so while the tub was draining, I decided it was time to move the catio back to the inner yard. It topped up all the other kibble bowls to distract the adult cats away, then cleared and emptied the catio, including the weights on the roof to keep it from blowing over, into the wagon. The catio itself could then be walked over and got set uo where it was before.
Once everything was put back, eith fresh food and water, I went back to working at the tub nearby.
I then had to keep chasing away adult cats and skunks that were stealing the kittens’ food.
Which scared away the kittens.
*sigh*
While I was doing that, my younger daughter was doing some pruning of the lilacs by the house. We had talked about propagating the Korean Dwarf Lilac, so she went ahead and planted sone near where the sea buckthorn is, to fill gaps in the hedge. They may not take, but lilacs are much like willow or birch. You can just stick a branch in the ground, and it can grow. It’s really sun baked and dry out there, though, so they will need frequent watering for them to have any chance at all.
My daughter is dealing with a lot of her own pain, and walking with a cane again, so dhe headed in once the pruning and planting was done. After I finished refilling the soaking tub – and chasing off more skunks – I was feeling well enough to stay out and water the garden beds.
I didn’t get any pictures, but I’m seeing some Chocolate Stripe tomatoes starting to ripen. There is a single white Caspar eggplant developing. I even spotted some tiny melons developing, and one of the winter squash climbing the chain link fence is showing several female flowers, and even a few squash developing. With no season left to mature, unless that Super El Nino keeps things mild for a long time.l.
The pain killers were starting to wear off by then, so I headed back inside for a while. Just as I was sitting down with supper, my mother phoned. It was actually a pretty good call. She mostly just wanted to chat.
While we were talking about her health, my mother suddenly declared that she has a round belly, too, so maybe she has what I have.
…
I tried to explain how this could not be true. I don’t think she believed me.
*sigh*
I ended up having to cut the call short so I could have my supper, and my evening meds time was coming up. While I was eating, I updated my brother and SIL on the call … then they showed up! I wasn’t sure if they woukd make it out this weekend.
When I finished eating, I headed out to give the kittens a top up, since the cats and skunks steal their food donations quickly. I found the two bravest ones on a shelf in the catio. They ran off as I added some cat milk to the remains of kibble in the bowl, but they were soon back.
I still had to chase away Sweetie and two other adult cats, so the kittens could eat.
My brother passed by on the way to the garage, so we got to say a quick hello. He wanted to get their zero turn mower out and cutting the grass in the outer yard whike it was still light out.
I headed back inside just in time for my alarm to go off gir my evening meds. Including a full dose of the new painkillers.
I’m now in bed, in an over abundance of caution. I don’t want a repeat of last night! I’d forgotten my daily post, though, so I am doing this on my phone.
I much prefer my desktop!! 😁
I hope the night goes well.
Tomorrow, the main goals are a dump run, then a trip into town to get a birthday card and a visit with my mother. She’s turning 95 this weekend.
She is doing amazing for her age! Even with all her aches and pains, and declarations that she is dying. 😁
I did not tell her I was planning to visit while on phone with her, just in case I’m not physically up to it.
Morning was quiet overall. My poor daughter has been caning it today; the last while of taking on a lot of what I normally do during the day has not been easy on her.
Still, she was well enough to do the morning routine and, when our prescription delivery came in, to meet the driver.
I got my new meds. Just in time for my afternoon painkiller dose. I got to take new new generic Percocet instead of the T3s. I have enough to take them at the same schedule, every 6 hours, for 7 days.
So far, it seems to be working! I’m not holding my breath as other painkillers I’ve tried did work for the first while, then gradually stopped working. However, it meant I did not get that gradual pain building up and lasting for several hours.
I took advantage of that, while trying to still maintain light activity levels.
I decided it was a good time to start the very, very last “spring cleaning” of the sun room!
I moved things around to make space under the canopy tent, then brought out the cat carriers. They got dismantled and scrubbed down. Some of them have bolts with wing nuts on them that were getting rusted, so I set them in a bowl with some CLR.
Then my daughter and I went to the general store to pick up a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble, which my daughter was able to carry for me (I felt perfectly able to do it, but I’m banned) and the mail. Which included an unexpected, long thin parcel for my husband.
After we got home and unloaded, my husband presented my daughter with a new cane he’d got for her! She has a fantastic “tactical” cane that she doesn’t use because it’s too top heavy.
Also in the mail, finally, was our ambulance bill. Since they only came and treated my husband, but did not transport him anywhere, the bill was only $100, and we’ll be able to submit the receipt to my husband’s insurance for partial reimbursement. Not too shabby!
The carriers could be reassembled by then, and I brought over an old toothbrush to scrub the bolts that had been sitting in CLR. Once those were rinsed and dried off, I treated them with WD40 before using them on their respective carriers again. We now have five clean carriers ready. There’s another in the sun room but the cats knocked it off the shelf so many times, it can no longer be closed. Then there’s the huge donated one that is in the catio, with a cat bed in it, as a trap for the kittens. You can see the before and after for the cat carriers in the first to images of the slide show above.
Once the carriers were done, I got the flat sink stopper I’d picked up not long ago and started filling the old bathtub I dragged out of the junk pile. It still needs more coats of enamel paint sprayed on, but there is enough that it can be used. While I had the hose going in the tub, with some laundry detergent added, I started bringing over various cat beds, blanket and caves from the sun room. Not everything would fit, though.
You can see in the last image of the slide show above, how it is now. I added water until it reached the overflow opening, poking at everything with an old broom handle to get it submerged and soaking, then tried to “stir” it a bit.
The handle broke.
I’ll be using a garden hoe to continue, later on. For now, it’s all left to soak overnight. It’s all pretty disgusting, to be honest. I expected to change out the water and soak it in detergent a couple of times before I start to actually wash the individual pieces. I’ll most likely transfer them into the wheelbarrow individually for the final cleaning. Then I plan to give them a final soak/rinse with the 10% cleaning vinegar.
That old tub is going to be very handy.
While doing all this, I kept an eye on the kittens. They all got their evening cat feeding. The kittens their their kibble softened with cat milk. I also brought out some of the donated cat treats. Some I used by the house to distract the adult cats, while kitten treats went into the catio “trap”.
I am getting quite frustrated. I’m leaving bait for the kittens, but keep having to chase away adult cats and skunks. Which startled the kittens, so they stay away instead of coming for their treats.
They have been enjoying their new “home” in the remains of the junk pile, though. Lots to run and jump and play around.
There’re some sort of old chair cushions in there; a matching seat and back. The seat cushion was leaning at a steep angle, but several kittens still found it made a cozy bed.
Once the tub was set up and soaking, I tried sitting by the catio to “fish” for kittens. Four of them had zero interest, and they all seemed to be easily startled.
When I was ready to move on, I took the cushions from the junk pile and lay them on the ground inside the catio, opposite the big cat carrier. Hopefully, this will encourage them to sleep in the catio instead of in the junk pile.
There was a surprising amount of bush beans available to harvest! The ones planted later, around the Arikara Squash, are absolutely prolific right now.
The two red tomatoes in the photo are supposed to be Blueberry tomatoes. The other three plants of that variety all have tomatoes so dark, they’re almost black, but one plant is producing red tomatoes instead, which are ripening faster. The plants are otherwise identical looking.
There were quite a few orange currant tomatoes ready for picking, too. The most I’ve picked at one time, so far!
While in the area, I checked on the one Arikara squash that’s maturing. It’s gotten as big as I think it’s going to get, and the shell is starting to harden. I had set it on top of a brick to get it off the ground, and I picked up the squash to check that the brick wasn’t causing any damage.
It wasn’t, but I found several huge snails!
Thankfully, the squash is big enough and hard enough that they’re not interested in trying to eat it. I still flicked them away. Then I went into my stash of lumber cast offs in the garage and brought back a board to set under the squash, on top of the brick, to give it smoother support – and hopefully, the snails won’t want to climb around it!!
After that, I checked on the grapes (second photo in the slide show above). It’s really hard to find them under all the foliage, but there are a LOT of grape clusters hidden in there. They look quite ready for picking. Not this evening, though. Hopefully, they’ll still be there tomorrow and we can start picking them and maybe make some jelly or something. It’s been a while since we’ve made grape jelly. The last few years, the raccoons got to them before we did.
By then, I could tell I was reaching my limit and didn’t want to push things. Once inside, my older daughter suggested we make up some individual charcuterie platters for ourselves for supper, which was quite enjoyed.
By then, the painkillers were definitely wearing off – just in time for my evening 6 hour alarm to go off and it was time to take some more.
As I write this, it’s still a bit achy, but it does not seem to be getting worse. I’m about ready for bed, though, and it’s not even 8:30 yet!
It looks like we’re going to have some absolutely beautiful weather over the next while, including days with more rain. Daytime highs are expected to mostly be in the low to mid 20’s C/68F, with overnight temperatures staying in the teens. Our average last frost date was September 10. As of right now, the forecast for the 10th is a high of 19C/66F, and the overnight low at 13C/55F. Absolutely no danger of frost at all.
Thank you, El Nińo!
At this point, the long range forecast suggests we’ll see our first frost around the 20th or so. I’m hoping for a repeat of one of our first winters out here, were we didn’t get our first frost until November and almost had a brown Christmas!
I’d rather like to see that again – and just a mild winter, overall.
I’m getting too old for winter, and we have too many things that break down – including ourselves! – when it gets colder. 🤣😂
Now, if I could just get a few cats off my bed, I might be able to call it a night.
I’m so glad I was able to be productive today! Even if it was just a little bit.
Today was my follow up with the doctor after my last ER visit. The appointment was in the afternoon, but my daughter and I left early, with plans to have lunch before heading to the clinic.
I am quite glad we left as early as we did!
On the way to the truck, though, I checked on the catio in its new location. My daughter had seen the kittens at the branch pile again when doing the morning feeding, but they soon joined the singleton kitten at the shrine feeding station, so I wanted to see if they were still around.
I found a furry little slug in the carrier.
It moved before I had a chance to get my phone out to take a picture.
It had been completely flattened along the curve of the carrier, snoozing. After looking around a bit, it finally saw me and got nervous, so I left it be.
In wandering through the garden beds, I discovered something.
Every single Yellow Swiss Chard that had been growing between the garlic is now gone. All of it. There’s nothing but weeds left.
The deer scarer did not go off while I was there, even though I set it to 24 hours instead of night only. Yesterday I was hearing it go off constantly, but never saw any critters. I think tree branches in the wind might have been setting it off. I thought maybe the solar charge was dead because of this but when I tested it, it still worked. So I have no clue why it stopped working! Not that it matters anymore. There’s nothing that the deer like to eat left.
*sigh*
Meanwhile, I had been feeling quite good when I got up this morning but, by the time I finished walking around the yard, the pain was starting to come back, and it kept getting worse throughout the day.
*doublesigh*
With all the construction on the highway we would normally have taken, we took the highway towards the town south of us before cutting across. It was a very disheartening drive. There were SO many squished garter snakes on the road! There were some live ones we managed to avoid hitting, one I never saw that my daughter thinks I might have hit and one that I know I missed, only to look in my rear view mirror and see the vehicle behind me run over it. 😭
I wish the “snake fences” that are on the highway nearest the snake dens extended further south. These are fences in the ditches that guide the snakes through tunnels under the highway. These were built in an area so close to the dens that had so many snakes crossing it, it was impossible not to hit them and the highway actually became dangerously slippery from them all. We don’t get THAT many snakes this far from the dens, but it is still a tragic number of snakes never making it to their winter dens. Garter snakes are not at all dangerous and are excellent pest control. We need more of them!
Taking the alternate route did allow us to avoid most of the construction, but there was still a section of it we needed to get through before our turn off. Then we got stuck behind slower traffic. We still got to the area early enough to grab a quick lunch, then continue to the clinic. We left almost 2 hours early, with the drive normally taking about 45-50 minutes. We got to the clinic only 15 minutes early for my appointment.
I was most definitely relying on the walker at this point, and my daughter came in with me. We must have been quite a sight. Me with my walker, her with her cane!
We spoke for a while about how things went after the surgery, leading to the ER visit, and how I’ve been doing since then. I told her I’ve been taking the T3s every 6 hours as instructed, but I really don’t feel it’s making a difference. I had taken my afternoon dose just before going into the clinic, and the pain just kept getting worse as I sat there. We talked about taking tramadol and I told her I did still have some tramadol left, though not a lot. I’d had the tramadol injection at the ER, which did seem to work. I brought up that the ER doctor had suggested hydromorphone and that I might want to try my husband’s, just to see if it worked and if I had any reaction to it. I explained that she had said to take 1mg, and to split the pill if my husband was on 2mg, but that my husband’s dose is 12mg. The doctor was rather startled by that and asked what was wrong that he was on such a high dose, and I explained his back injury – and that the hydromorphone basically just takes the edge off the pain for him.
In the end, she did say that, if I felt the need, to go ahead and try my husband’s dose of hydromorphone! She could not prescribe it to me, though, as she did not have the hand written, triplicate prescription pad needed for it, as a “controlled substance”.
I never got to mention that I already had tried it, some time ago, and it worked quite well. I haven’t tried it again since then because it cannot be taken with the same class of painkillers as T3s. I’d have to wait until any acetaminophen type medication is out of my system completely. That includes the tramadol I still have left.
Meanwhile, we talked about it a bit more and she said she would prescribe some Percocet for me to try. At this point, we’re just on pain management until she gets the results of the biopsy. She did check before coming in to see me, and there was nothing back yet. I already have the 4 week follow up appointment booked, so I’ll be seeing her again in the middle of September and she will have the results by then.
She did start to tell me that she didn’t think she would have good news for me, but with that she meant she expects I will need a hysterectomy. To which I responded YES PLEASE!!! She laughed, because I’d already told her I was just fine with having one. If, however, the tests show cancer, I’m going to have to see a specialist in the city, because the hospital she does surgeries in does not have the resources for that. If she didn’t have to wait for the test results, she told me she could do the hysterectomy at any time, based on what she saw on the camera during the fibroidectomy. She said it’s actually pretty common as women get older.
Even as I was sitting there with the doctor, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the pain. I was till okay to drive to the nearby Walmart, while the doctor said she would fax the new prescriptions to our pharmacy. With my daughter helping out, we picked up a few things we hadn’t gotten during the city trip yesterday. I even finally found a package of assorted grades of sand paper that I had been looking for but couldn’t find while in the city.
There wasn’t much else we needed to get there, and we were soon heading to town to pick up my new meds, with my daughter driving. When we got to the pharmacy, I stayed in the truck while she ran in. She was soon back to let me know they had not received the fax yet. Meanwhile, I had just received a message from my husband. The pharmacy had called him to remind him that he’d be getting a delivery on Thursday. So I asked her to let them know that, once the fax comes in, my prescriptions can be added to the delivery.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, I will phone to see if the faxed prescriptions came in. If they did not, someone will need to call the clinic about it.
That done, we only needed to stop to get more gas in the truck – once again, I stayed in the truck while my daughter took care of it – before heading home.
It took a while, but the pain did finally start to recede and I felt able to go outside and walk around a bit. I tried fishing for kittens after topping up the food bowl in the catio (my older daughter took care of their evening feeding while her sister and I were gone). Theirs gets cat milk added to soften the kibble which, unfortunately, means I spent more time chasing other cats – and a very determined skunk! – away from their food. I was able to stay out until my alarm went off for my next dose of T3s. Which seems pointless. Taking it regularly should be acting as a preventative, which isn’t happening.
Hopefully, the Percocet will work better.
I have to say, I’m feeling increasingly frustrated. My daughter joked with the doctor about how I’m not allowed to do yard work right now. Fair enough, but I need to be doing SOMETHING! There is so much that I want to be doing. The doctor had brought up putting me on bed rest but decided against it. She could see I was already doing that as needed but one of the meds I’ll be getting is the one to stop bleeding, and I can’t be on bed rest if I’m taking that. I would have to mover around or risk blood clots. So I have not been put on bed rest, but I have to NOT be doing anything that that involves physical exertion.
At least I can use the riding mower.
On the way home, I talked to my daughter about some of the things I can physically do, with just a bit of help to set up. Like work on the round cutting boards I want to make out of slices of that elm tree. I want to get those cut, cleaned, sanded and conditioned before the green wood starts to dry out and crack. We’ll see about getting the chain saw out to cut the slices to the thickness I’m after, and she’ll take care of actually lifting and moving the pieces to where I can work on cleaning and sanding them before they can be oiled.
Cutting the slices might be a challenge. My electric chain saw has a 14″ bar. I’m pretty sure the pieces I’m looking to cut into thinner slices are more than 14″ across! The pile of elm pieces is right near an outdoor outlet, so that helps.
We had a solid rainfall last night, and rain off and on today, which was much needed. No rain is expected over the next few days, though, so we should be able to plug in the chain saw and do some cutting, if my daughter is up to moving very heavy pieces of wood for me.
There isn’t a lot in the garden now that can be harvested regularly. Most of it is waiting until everything can be harvested at once, but today, we had something.
My younger daughter took care of the morning routine. She had exciting news for me. She saw the missing kittens! She saw three at the shrine feeding station, then three at the catio!
Still no Slick. At this point, there’s no chance we’ll be seeing her again. All we can do is try and get those kittens.
My daughter then stayed out to do the weed trimming until she ran out of batteries, then used the push mower to clear areas I couldn’t get at with the riding mower. She was out there for about four hours straight.
I may not be able to go out and do this physical stuff outside, but I could at least have a lunch ready and waiting for her when she got back in!
We will do our second stock up shop tomorrow.
Late this afternoon, I was feeling well enough to feed the outside cats. I’ll head out again later on to give the kittens an extra feeding at the catio, since there are so many critter stealing their food that far from the house. Daytime highs are pretty hot again now; we hit 26C/79F today. It’s past 5pm as I write this, and we’re still at 26C/79F, with the humidex at 31C/88F. We’re starting to get thunderstorm and tornado warnings for tomorrow afternoon and evening, for the southern end of our province. For our area, we’re expected to get just rain in the wee hours of tomorrow night. We shall see.
After feeding the cats, I stayed out to harvest the bush beans.
The yellow bush beans planted later by the Arikara squash are reaching their peak now, though we are still getting plenty of purple beans in the high raised beds. There seem to be almost no green beans at all.
I grabbed another Golden Boy celery for dehydrating, and there were a couple of Green Benning scallop squash big enough to grab. Then I went ahead and picked some crab apples, too. The ones on this tree are brilliantly red now and much sweeter, though still very tangy at the same time. Peak ripeness! I didn’t pick a lot, as we have no real plans for them, other than straight eating. Later in the season, I will probably shake the branches to try and drop the highest apples so the deer can eat them off the ground, and not break branches trying to reach them.
This afternoon I got a strange call from my mother. Strange in that she was in a good mood, cheerful sounding, and didn’t insult me or my brother even once. Even when she did start in on some of her favourite topics to complain about, she actually stopped herself and changed the subject.
She thought I was going for surgery on Monday, though, so I had to explain to her that I’m seeing the doctor to talk about what’s going on; it’s too soon to know if I’ll be going for another surgery. For some reason, this time she seemed to finally clue in that the specialist I’m seeing is female, and she was quite surprised about that. I mentioned that she had probably seen this doctor, too, a few years back, and that I recognized the clinic from when my brother and I had brought her there for an appointment, but she didn’t remember that at all. Which is fine.
Oh, she also mentioned that she’s got a birthday coming up. She’s turning 95 in September. She made sure to tell me not to get her any “stuff” for her birthday. Which is good, because she doesn’t have room for a lot.
We didn’t have much to talk about. We’re not going out much or doing a lot. She was happy to hear the girls are taking good care of me. I apparently sounded quite tired on the phone, because she ended the call herself, saying she would let me rest.
Which I probably should be doing. I feel like I’m falling asleep at my keyboard. I’m glad I learned out to touch type. Several times, while writing this, I found I was typing with my eyes closed. I seem to have fewer typos when I do that! 😄
I didn’t do a lot of walking today, but I’m starting to feel the consequences of it. It’ll be a couple of hours before I can take more painkillers. *sigh*
Hopefully, things will improve for tomorrow, when we head into the city. We will make sure to bring my walker along!!
I am so tired of this. It certainly gives me a bit more insight on how my husband must be feeling, every day. His back pain is barely controlled with meds, there’s nothing that can be done to “fix” it, and he’s been coping with it for more than 20 years now.
The Re-Farmer 