Gardening

Our 2026 Garden (and beyond): Oops. I did it again

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Yup.

I ordered more seeds.

I placed an order with MI Gardener previously, and it arrived a while ago. So why did I order more? Well, MI Gardener prices are some of the best around right now, even when ordering from Canada. I’m on their email list and they announced a 25% off sale that started today. I happened to be up past midnight, so I went ahead and placed an order to take advantage of it. In fact, I might even made another one. I haven’t decided yet.

I took advantage of our winter sowing experiment to clean out my seed inventory of older seeds, so part of my goal was to replace things with fresh seed. With the sale, I’m continuing that, but I am also building my my seed inventory with extra. How much we actually plant will depend on how many beds we have ready this fall for winter sowing as well as for spring sowing and transplanting next year.

So, without further ado, this is what I ordered last night/this morning.

This time, I’m going to link to each item I ordered. All links should open in a new tab. They are list below in the same order as in the images above.

Tigger Melon This was something I had in my wish list. It’s a tiny, personal size, melon. More importantly, it takes 90 days to full maturity, and we average 99 days between first and last frost. In theory, we could direct sow them and get a harvest, though I would start them indoors, just to be safe.

Summer Savory This year, I bought a summer savory transplant. We plan to expand our culinary herb garden, and this will be part of that. Only 65 days to maturity.

Golden Sweet Pea I got another colourful variety last time. We have other peas as well. I just like to have a variety to shake things up. 😊 60 days to maturity.

Black Futsu Squash We have a variety of winter squash seeds, but we’re still experimenting to see what we like. This variety has an edible skin and stores 4-5 months. It needs 110 days to maturity, so definitely one to start indoors.

Orange Currant Tomato This looks very much like an orange version of the Spoon tomatoes we’ve been growing for a few years now – and it the only tomato that has anything we can harvest at the moment. It would be great if these do as well. 65-70 days to maturity.

Yellow Swiss Chard We have Rainbow Chard. We have Fordhook Giant Chard. Why not Yellow Chard, too? As with the other chards, this one is heat tolerant, drought tolerant and can grow in cold weather, so it can be succession sowed as well as winter sown. 28-57 days to maturity.

Sweet Siberian Watermelon One of these days, I’d really like to get watermelon! I only get short season varieties, of course, but so far, none have done well. The one Cream of Saskatchewan melon we got last year about about the size of a baseball, and they’re supposed to be much bigger. This variety is supposed to produce 15-20 pound fruit, yet has only 80 days to maturity. It does come with the warning that it needs lots of room to spread!

Shogoin Turnip a good cool weather variety that needs only 40-60 days to maturity. Plus, it’s really pretty.

Lemon Squash In our first couple of gardening years, we had good summer squash production. Then… nothing seems to be growing! I’m hoping this variety will do better. It’s supposed to be prolific, and only 50-60 days to maturity.

Hailstone Radish with finally being able to grow radishes, and even radish seed pods, through winter sowing, I’m more than happy to experiment with different varieties. This one is only 25 days to maturity!

Garbanzo Bean Okay, this is an odd one. Until fairly recently, I didn’t even know garbanzo beans, aka chickpeas, could grow here. I happen to really like chickpeas. However, they are also drought tolerant, nitrogen fixers. They are 100 days to full maturity, though, so it’s touch and go for this one.

Early Prolific Straightneck Squash So this seems to be another winter squash with an edible skin? The description specifies it is like zucchini, and that the whole thing can be eaten. I’m not sure, but with our luck with any squash these days, I’m willing to try it! Heat tolerant and somewhat drought tolerant. Only 70 days to maturity.

Chicory Okay, I’m not sure how to categorize this one. Perhaps it’s one for the kitchen garden. The leaves can be eaten, and it can be used medicinally, but it’s mostly the roots I’m interested in, as they can be used as a coffee substitute. I remember my parents sometimes buying it at the store, but never tried it. I don’t drink coffee, but my daughters do, and that stuff’s getting really expensive. So… worth a try. Especially with only 80 days to maturity.

Caspar Eggplant I’ve definitely got a “white” theme going on this year! This is described as a rare Japanese variety. Of course, I see “rare” and I’m all for growing it to save seeds. 😄 75 days to maturity.

Blueberry Tomato yes, another tomato to try! A cherry tomato with a lovely appearance. Hopefully, it’ll taste as good as it looks. 75-85 days to maturity.

Purple Savoy Cabbage Growing cabbages is something that’s been our list for when we have more space in the garden. Cold tolerant and good for storage. Only 65-70 days to maturity, too.

Daikon Radish I actually meant to order this last time, but they were sold out. I got the icicle radish instead. My younger daughter really likes Daikon radish. The last time we tried to grow it, something ate them as soon as they sprouted. With winter sowing, we might actually succeed this time! Best of all, only 55 day to maturity. Long for a radish, but well within our growing season.

Florence Fennel This is another one that we tried before, but it did not succeed. We didn’t have the right growing conditions for it. This is one of those vegetables we like, but almost never buy, just as a matter of budget priorities. 70 days to maturity.

And now I’ve gone and removed everything I’ve ordered from my wish list, so I don’t accidentally buy them again! 😄

All of these cost US$27, which is pretty darn good!

Oh, look at me… I’m already going through what they’ve still got in stock to see if there’s something else I want to order.

😂

Anyhow.

We will now have lots of options to choose from when we do our winter sowing in the fall. Last fall, I just scattered mixes of seeds. This time, now that I’ve seen how things worked out, the sowing will be more planned and more attention paid to spacing. Plus, our seed inventory is built up again, so if some things don’t work out, there are other things that can be sown in their stead.

Of course, that means continually adding more garden beds!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: still kicking! Plus, bonus kittens and insane prices

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First, the cuteness!

When I went out this morning to feed the yard cats, I had an adorable little surprise. Fluffy Colby was with some other cats INSIDE the sun room! I found the other three kittens around the cat shelters and they did run off, but Colby stayed close.

When it was time to bring out the kitten soup bowls, I found him sharing a tray with Havarti. He ran off a bit when I put the kitten soup bowl down, but he was soon back, sharing with with his cousin.

I want to pet that kitten so much!!

The garage kittens, sadly, still won’t come closer.

Today, my plan was to focus on finally giving the garden, and the food forest additions, a deep watering. Particularly since tomorrow will be hotter again, and I will be doing my Costco shop in the city. Tomorrow is supposed to reach 25C/77F. Today reached a comparatively cool high of 23C/73F. I didn’t need to go anywhere today, so I hoped to get some progress outside.

Well, of course, that changed.

My husband called in refills for his injections, so a trip to the pharmacy was in order. Of course, I combined errands as much as possible, grabbing our big water bottles to refill at the grocery store after getting the meds. Then, since I was there anyhow, I checked out the sales and picked up a few things.

There were also a few things I did NOT pick up.

Like Necterines.

$5.49/lb, or $12.10/kg

*gasp*

*choke*

Nectarines always tended to be more expensive, but they still were usually under $2/lb in season.

The next image is of a beef tomahawk steak. This is a cut I almost never see. I know people on carnivore that prize these as having an excellent protein to fat ratio. I just can’t imaging spending $84.95 ($55.09/kg) for about 3 pounds of bone-in meat (1kg=2.2lbs) that would be just one meal. Sure, that might be enough for the entire day on carnivore, but… yikes!

I did pick up a family pack of stew meat, though, which was in the $20 range.

Once back at home, I was soon outside doing the watering. When I got to the high raised bed, though, I also did some harvesting. In this bed, I had left one Purple Prince turnip to go to seed. Which it did.

Then the deer at the seed stalk.

So, I harvested the turnip.

Look at the size of that thing!

It’s probably past its best stage for eating, but it wasn’t regrowing a new seed stalk, so I figured it was harvest it, or it would start rotting.

In the next photo, you can find the fuzzy friend I found on one of the leaves. I broke off that section of leaf and set it aside, so as not to disturb the caterpillar. I have no idea what type of caterpillar it is. Hopefully, not something I will regret saving!

In the last image, you can see the turnip with the Uzbek golden carrots I also harvested. I was careful to pull the biggest ones. I’m leaving the smaller ones to give them a change to get bigger, instead of just harvesting the entire bed as I was considering doing. I found a single orange Napoli carrot large enough to harvest. I see hints of orange on some of the other carrots, but for the most part, it’s the Uzbek Golden carrots that have been growing. The Napoli carrot seeds were a couple of years older, and I finished off the last of what was left in the packet. I didn’t expect many of those to germinate.

For all the garden struggles this year, things are still kicking! In both winter sown beds, the radish seed stalks that the deer ate are trying to recover.

They’re blooming again, and sending out more leaves in some of them.

While watering the Spoon tomatoes, I noticed something. When they were being transplanted, I pruned off the bottom leaves before planting them inside the protective collars. One transplant had a larger branch that I pruned off. It was so nice and strong, I decided to just stick it into the ground between two other tomatoes and giving it a chance to grow.

It’s still tiny but, as you can see in the next image above, it’s producing tomatoes!!! The entire plant is maybe 8 inches high, if that. Just one little branch, and it’s producing!

As for those Royal Burgundy beans in front of the Spoon tomatoes – the whole three plants that emerged – one of them has a tiny bean starting to grow! I didn’t get a picture, but one of the yellow Custard beans planted with the tomatoes in the East yard had a whole bunch of tiny bean pods forming. It’s really late in the season, but we might actually have beans to harvest before summer is over!

Even the sugar snap peas are trying to make a come back! Some of them are dying back – they are well past their season – but after the deer munched away at them, some of the plants are pushing out new growth, and blooming! I’ve got one Super Sugar Snap pea plant that I’m leaving (and the deer have left alone) to fully mature so I can save the seeds, but it looks like we might have a few more fresh pods to enjoy, too.

If the deer don’t get to them, first!

It’s encouraging to see some signs of the garden trying to recover and grow. The tiny summer squash are getting a bit bigger, and blooming, though still just male flowers. The winter squash seem to be recovering a bit, too, and some are blooming. The melons are still tiny, but some of them are blooming. The pumpkins are doing quite well, and one of them even has a female flower bud showing!

Whether or not any of this will have time to recover, grow and produce before our season runs out is questionable. With some things, unlikely. Looking at the monthly forecast, it’s possible we’ll have all of September with no frost, though we would probably still need to cover things on colder nights. August, at least, looks like it’ll stay pretty warm. Of course, such long term forecasts are completely unreliable. I’m still going to assume our average Sept. 10 first frost date.

After finished up in the garden and bring the little harvest in, I used some of the carrots, onions from last year – yes, we still have a few! – and an entire head of fresh garlic in a beef and barley dish for my husband and I. The girls hate barley, but my husband and I love it, so they get to make their own supper using some of the fresh fish I picked up for them, yesterday. There will be enough of the beef and barely for my husband to have tomorrow, as well, while I am in the city. My younger daughter is having some PCOS issues right now, so she won’t be able to come with me this time. Which is fine; I don’t actually need the help, but I do like her company. I’ve been doing so much better myself, since I’ve been on the anti-inflammatories, I’ve actually been able to handle these outings better, too. I’m only taking them at the end of the day, instead of twice a day, before with my last meal before bed. I can take them up to 3 times a day, as needed. I just haven’t needed to take that many!

I haven’t taken any pain killers at all since I started on the anti-inflammatories. I do still have pain. Particularly if I lie on my left hip for too long, and I still have issues with my injured left arm. The pain, however is now more specific, and really not all that bad. Nothing worth taking more meds over. I should probably take some painkillers before I leave for the city, though, since I’ll be doing a lot of walking on concrete, and these shopping trips really take a lot out of me.

Our 2025 Garden: “just enough” harvests

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This afternoon, I harvested just a few things to use right away.

In the first image, I finally harvested that White Vienna kohlrabi I’ve been eyeballing for a while now! I also grabbed a smaller Purple Vienna kohlrabi.

They were peeled and quartered to go into a roaster with potatoes and carrots, including the Uzbek Golden carrots in the photo. I made sure to taste test them, first. If I had to choose, I’d say the Purple Vienna was tastier, but I think I might have allowed the White Vienna to get too big before I harvested it, so that might account for the taste difference. Once peeled, there’s really no visual difference between them.

In the next photo in the slideshow above, I picked some of the largest beets that had their greens eaten by deer. On one of the albino beets, you can see where the deer actually chomped off part of the beet root, too! These, I’m leaving for my daughters to get creative with.

I went to my mother’s this evening to do her med assist, as home care didn’t have anyone for her two evening med assists. I didn’t bring anything from the garden for my mother at the time, but I will be in her town again tomorrow. I’m meeting a friend as she drops her car off at the garage to be checked out. Originally, she was going to come by and pick me up on the way, but my mother’s almost completely out of her medications, so I want to make sure to get her bubble packs from the pharmacy – and that they get properly locked way in her lock box! Last month, she snuck one of the bubble packs away and hid it, for those days when home care simply doesn’t show up.

Since I’ll be leaving quite early to meet my friend, I’ve already prepared a bag with some fresh potatoes and some garlic bulbs from the ones curing under the canopy tent outside for my mother and left it in the truck. I had already promised her some garlic, and I think she’ll really like the fresh potatoes, too.

Also, I’m happy to say that my not being up to watering the garden this morning was not a problem. We got a lovely little downpour this afternoon!

Tonight is supposed to be a fair bit cooler. Hopefully, that means I’ll finally be able to get some real sleep!

The Re-Farmer

Morning in the garden

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I have to admit, I’m feeling disoriented right now, looking at the time. It’s still morning??

It was another mostly sleepless night, so I did my morning rounds, then went back to bed. I did get some sleep, but my brain just wouldn’t shut off. I’m starting to feel rather ill at this point.

Thankfully, we did cool down during the night, and today is not as hot. We’re supposed to have some rain in about an hour, and it should keep raining for a couple of hours. Which is good, because I wasn’t able to water the garden this morning.

I started off feeding the yard cats, as usual. This morning, little Colby – the fluffy orange and white feral – was actually in the space between the cat shelters, meowing for food! What a brave little one. Even the other three were in the grass, heading towards the cat shelters near the house. As I came closer, the tortie ran into the isolation shelter and watched me go by with the kibble from the bottom level, rather than running away. Alas, my hands were full, and I wasn’t able to get any pictures!

After the dry kibble is set out, the bowls of kitten soup get set out. Some of the cats have started to actually wait for the kitten soup before they start eating! I have to set a couple of bowls up higher for the four socialized kittens, then quickly set out more bowls in various spots outside, so they have a chance to eat before the grownups push them away. One of the larger two-sided bowls goes to the shrine feeding station for the Colby and his sibling. I also have the mixing bowl and add some kitten soup to some of the dry kibble bowls before taking the rest of it to the garage for the kittens and their mom living in there. These days, they are almost always outside and seem to have moved out of the garage and into the area directly behind it. This morning, I spotted the two kittens were making their way through the sun choke and asparagus beds. They seemed to be aiming for the shrine feeding station! It would be great if they did that.

After the cats were fed, I did my usual rounds, which includes switching out trail cam memory cards. For one of them, I get to check on the crab apple trees along the way.

There are lots of apples forming, and some of them are starting to blush. The apples on this tree still have a long way to go. They get larger and tend to be ripe in September, or even October. The big tree with smaller edible apples tends to ripen a month earlier.

Checking on the garden beds, there was this blooming pumpkin. Of the five plants, this one is the largest. It has one primary vine that is long enough that I’m starting to train it up the bean trellis – since the beans clearly will not grow large enough to start climbing it. You can see how yellow they are, in the background.

In the top right corner, you can see the sunflower that got its top eaten by a deer. It is sending up a pair of new tops that grew out from the bases of the remaining leaf pair.

The onions from last year are blooming nicely, and one of them was serving as a bed.

I could not resist getting a bunch of pictures of the sleepy bee!

While doing my rounds, it’s not unusual for me to be followed by one or more cats. Usually, Stinky comes along and wants all sorts of attention. Lately, though, I’ve had a tabby hanging out and calling to me. He has a high pitched, peeping sort of meow, and he meows at me like he wants attention. He’s feral, though, and will not let me near him. Instead, he circles around, lays on the ground when I stop, but if I move towards him, it’s a big NOPE!

This morning, he was rolling around adorably in the grass. He stopped when I tried to get video of his cuteness, though. 😄

It’s hard to be sure, but I do think I actually have been able to pet this cat – when it was a teenager! I think he’s the one that would hang out in the upper level of the isolation shelter, when it was set up against the house for the winters, waiting for me to fill the food bowl. That was the only time he allowed me to pet him, and he stopped doing that after the isolation shelter was moved to its summer spot. He’s much bigger now, but he’s got a mark on the side of his nose that makes me think it’s the same cat. That might explain the almost-socialized behaviour.

Today being Sunday, I do normally try to make it a day of rest, and it seems like today, I won’t have much choice. Lack of good sleep is doing me in. I do hope things improve, since I need to go to my mother’s for her evening med assist.

Ugh. I just checked the weather. According to two of my weather apps, it’s raining right now (it’s not). We’re at 26C/79F right now, and the humidex is 29C/84F. We’re supposed to cool down a bit, then reach our predicted high of 27C/81F at about 6 or 7 pm. Checking the weather radar, more thunderstorms are happening to the south of us. There’s still that huge, out of control fire across the lake. It has crossed provincial borders. Then there are more fires to the north, including an ever bigger one, also still out of control. There are so many fires, in a big swoop along the Boreal forest, starting from Alaska, all the way down into Northern Ontario.

We could really use a whole lot of rain right now!

The Re-Farmer

Morning in the garden

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Today is going to be a killer.

It never cooled down much during the night, so none of us got much sleep. We are now expected to reach a high of 30C/86F, with a humidex of 38C/100F While nothing much reached us, a massive storm blew in from the US across the south of our province, with alerts telling people to seek shelter.

As I write this, it’s 26C/79F, which is only slightly hotter than it was while I was watering the garden this morning. Humidex puts us at 30C/86F right now.

About all I can say for now it, at least it’s not windy like it was last night. I’m happy to say that we did not lose any trees. At least not anywhere that I could see.

My morning, of course, started off with feeding the yard cats. With the expected heat, I set frozen water bottles in the water bowls, too. I’ll change them out for fresh ones, later in the day.

I saw little Colby running around and playing in the grass.

In the second photo above, you can see his sisters still eating. I didn’t see the white and grey one anywhere, though. I hope it’s all right.

After doing my rounds, I gave the garden beds a deep watering, which ended up taking about 2 hours, maybe longer. I didn’t even make it to the trees. The heat and humidity was already getting to me. They still need to be done, though. I’ll have to go out again, later.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to say that some of our corn finally has tassels!

Only in the bed with the Arikara squash, where they are bigger than the ones in the corn bed. No sign of cobs, though.

When doing the watering, I often see lots of frogs jumping out from under the mulches and hopping away. Usually, they are the greyish, brownish wood frogs. Sometimes I’ll see some tiny copper or emerald ones.

Today, I got to see this beauty.

Apparently, this is a Pacific tree frog! Which is strange, because we are nowhere near their range. The other possibility is the common tree frog, but from the images I’m finding, that’s not it.

Well, whatever kind of frog it is, I am happy to see it!

Today is looking to be a day of staying out of the heat as much as possible. None of us tolerate heat very well, it seems!

The Re-Farmer

Food forest first, tiny harvest, and many changes of plans!

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If today had gone as originally planned, we would have dropped the truck off for the insurance claim repairs this morning, and been driving a Caravan until Tuesday.

The courtesy vehicle being broken down, the repairs and truck box cover replacement are now on hold.

Which should have meant a day at home, with no driving around.

Ha!

Last night was actually a very rough night for me. Zero sleep. You know those nights when you start to drift off, suddenly wake up and… that’s it. The more tired you get, the less you’re able to sleep.

That was my night.

I finally got up to do my morning rounds as usual. The morning was still pleasant. The high of 29C/84F my weather app said we were supposed to get, when I went to bed last night, with 31C/88F tomorrow was reversed by this morning. We did, indeed, reach 31C/88F this afternoon, and the humidity is at 85%.

I had intended to water the garden again this morning, but everything was still damp from last night’s watering, and I was feeling like I got hit by a truck, so I skipped it.

I did find a lovely surprise, though! Some flashes of red in a silver buffaloberry.

We have a food forest first.

Our first silver buffaloberry bushes have produced berries! Only two of them.

The berries are edible, but I didn’t try them yet. I believe they’re supposed to ripen to an even darker red, so I will wait a little longer before tasting one.

My morning rounds done, I intended to crash right away, but ended up chatting with my brother for a while, then making a call. My daughter’s computer was supposed to be shipped to their address yesterday, but it didn’t show up. The tracking information now said it would be delivered on Monday. My brother can’t work from home on Monday, which means it would get left at their front door with no one to bring it inside before it got stolen. We considered coming over and just hanging out on Monday, but to do that, we would need a house key, and we don’t have one.

He suggested we might be able to find out where the computer was, and perhaps pick it up from the depot, directly. After much searching on the website, I was able to find a customer support number to try calling.

Of course, the first thing I had to do was navigate the automated menu system. That finally sent me to the appropriate customer service department.

Which got me to the strangest recorded lecture I’ve ever heard. First, there was a bizarre speech about Canada Post being “accepting” of “diversity” and all the usual Woke butt kissing BS. Then it started to say that racism, bigotry, and abuse would not be accept – oh, and they were very polite. Be polite.

I would have taken the second part better if they hadn’t started with the first part, which is the epitome of racist and bigoted ideology, but I digress.

After a minute or two of a robot voice lecturing me, I finally got sent to…

… an AI support voice.

It took a couple of times go get it to understand that no, I did not have a business tracking number, but I did have a tracking number, and let me read it out. Then it basically told me exactly what the website did, and told, hey, did you know you could get all this from the website? You should really use the website.

When it ended by asking if there was anything else, I said no, I’d like to speak to a person.

“It sounds like you would like to speak to an agent!”

It then repeated the same thing it had before, ending with, is there anything else?

It took me three times asking to talk to a person before it finally transferred me to a person.

Who, much to my surprise, answered almost right away.

I explained the situation – after he got the tracking number and repeated to me exactly what the website and AI support voice already told me, assuring me that the package absolutely would be delivered on Monday. I told him that what I was asking was, where is the package now, and if we could pick it up ourselves, rather than wait until Monday.

Once he understood what I was after, he told me that the last time it was scanned was on the 22nd, when it got processed and shipped.

Three days ago.

Since it had not been scanned at any point since then, even though it was apparently in transit to my brother’s place, yesterday, they had no idea where it actually was.

…

So, there was nothing we could do. He couldn’t even tell me if it was in our province, never mind if it was in the city.

Well, so much for that idea.

I passed that on to my brother, and we left it for then, and I was finally able to crash for about an hour.

I had just woken up when I got a message from my brother.

With a picture of a package left next to their lock box. He just happened to catch the delivery as it happened!

Well, that changed our plans entirely!

My brother had to finish things up by 3pm, as he’s heading out of the province for the weekend for one of their grandson’s birthday. I updated my daughter and we were able to be on the road within the hour! Which is good, because it takes about an hour to get to his place, and by then it was just past lunch time.

We didn’t stay for long, as we knew he had lots going on. Much thanks and hugs were given!

Neither my daughter nor I had eaten yet, though, so on the way home, we swung by the Walmart we were at yesterday, and we had a quick lunch. While we were there, I picked up a big bag of kibble that I forgot to get yesterday. The outside cat’s kibble bin was going down fast, and I knew it wouldn’t last until our first city stock up trip.

By the time everything was done, we got home shortly after 3pm. Which is close to when I would normally do the evening cat feeding.

That didn’t happen quite yet, though. I noticed we had a message.

It was from home care.

They didn’t have anyone for my mother’s evening med assists tonight, nor for Sunday evening.

*sigh*

In the middle of all this, I started getting messages from the large animal rescue. They’ve had guided tours and a petting zoo open, as part of their fundraising and educational efforts. Poirot’s kittens are a big hit, and people are interested in adopting.

Of course, they all want a fixed and fully vetted cat, but not pay for it.

They do have adoption fees, but a spay is $300.

I made sure to tell them about the clinic we’ve been going to through the Cat Lady’s rescue, which is $175 for a spay.

We’ve been trying to adopt out cats for a long time now, and I’m starting to get really frustrated with people. Everyone wants a “free” cat, or at least very low adoption fees, but they also want the cat to have hundreds of dollars in vet care spent on them first.

Which is almost like saying they want to be paid to take the rescue.

Just one of the many reasons the Cat Lady is dropping out of rescue.

I had time to send in some of the information the local rescue lady was asking for. Mostly. I’m sure she’ll have more questions. Then I quickly did the evening feeding of outside cats before heading to my mother’s.

Of course, since I was there anyhow, my mother had stuff for me to do. 😄 Things the home care aides don’t do, like floor sweeping, or refilling her water bottles. The aides in the city will do light stuff like that, but not out here in the more rural communities.

My mother then wanted me to leave her morning pills out for her.

It turned out she thought I would be coming for all her visits for the entire weekend. I told her that she was covered for tomorrow and for Sunday morning, but I would be back on Sunday evening.

I did set out her bed time pills, and her inhaler, so that I wouldn’t have to come back for… pretty much the time I’m writing this, right this moment. As I was filling out the booklet where I record when I do these visits, my mother almost took her inhaler, which is supposed to be just before bed. Simply because it was there.

My mother is still convinced she can do her own meds, and doesn’t even really realize that, if I weren’t still there to stop her, she would have taken it at the wrong time. In this case, it would not have harmed her, but that’s why she has a lock box! Well. One reason why.

Once I was back home from my mother’s, I did the evening rounds I normally would have done after doing the evening cat feeding. I spotted this adorable sight and had to get a picture.

After getting the picture (I couldn’t see the second kitten anywhere), I went over and Pinky let me pet her. She even started purring and rolling around in that old barrel.

The kitten, however, disappeared behind the sheet of metal roofing and stayed hidden.

I had considered watering the garden for the evening, but we were getting severe thunderstorm warnings. The wind was picking up, and I could hear thunder in the distance.

Looking at the weather radar, it appears that particular storm passed to the north of us, but it’s still really windy, and I think more little storms are blowing towards our area. I even had some broken branches to pick up as I checked around the yard.

I did manage a tiny little harvest in the garden this evening.

A little handful of Spoon tomatoes!

I gave them to my husband as a little treat. He got a laugh out of them. They are so adorable!

Good grief…

As I sit at my computer, I can see out my window facing part of the maple grove. I’m watching these giant maple branches being violently blown about in the wind. I’m half expecting a chunk of that tree to break off! It has an overhanging branch that is so old and so thick, it’s basically another tree trunk.

Anyhow…

That has been my day today! Not at all as planned or expected.

Tomorrow, I’m expecting to be able to stay home for a change.

We’ll see if that actually works out!

Meanwhile, I think I’ll go visit my daughter and see how the new computer is. 😁

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, eye tests, and oops! I missed one!

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Gotta start out with the cuteness!

When I came out this morning, I found all four of the feral kittens in the grass around the catio area, like they were coming towards the house. The little orange one does come to the kibble tray under the water bowl shelter, and I’ve even seen it a bit closer to the sun room, but the others are much shier, so it’s great to see them inching closer.

The garage kittens, I notice, have been spending more of their time hanging out outside. Still right up against the garage, where there are things they can hide behind, but they seem to prefer being outside of the garage rather than inside it, now.

While doing my morning rounds I did my usual check of the garden beds. When I got to the potato bed, I spotted something strange. I guess a cat or something had been digging in the loose soil, and uncovered something I missed!

A single potato! A pretty big one, too! I don’t know how I missed that! 😄

Today I had my eye appointment booked. I was going to be getting the dilation drops, so my daughter came along to do the driving afterwards. Plans for after my appointment included possibly going to my brother’s to pick up her computer, that was supposed to be delivered today.

It wasn’t.

As I write this, and the tracking information still says it’s “in transit” and expected to be delivered between 9:30am and 1:30pm today.

It’s just past 10pm right now.

My daughter and I left early as I wanted to stop at a gas station before my appointment. I was going to go to one in the town my eye doctor is in, but when we got close to the gas station I saw it was mostly blocked off by the truck refilling their tanks.

So we kept on going and got to the eye clinic almost an hour early.

As we drove into the parking lot, though, we noticed a new ice cream store had opened in the same building. When I checked in, and was told that not only was I very early, but the doctor as behind and hadn’t even had her lunch yet, we decided to go for ice cream.

The place was so new, they weren’t finished setting up yet. The menu boards were dark and there was no seating inside, though they did have picnic tables outside. They did, however, have many varieties of ice cream for us to check out, and we got a couple of waffle cones. The tables outside were occupies, so we cross the street to a tiny park where we could sit on some large rocks in the shade. It was very pleasent.

By the time we got back, they took me in very quickly, for the initial photographs of my eyes they needed to take, first. I have the tiniest of hemorrhages in my eyes that the doctor is monitoring. I didn’t have to wait long before the doctor called me in. We started out by looking at the images, comparing back to when I first started seeing her, in 2023. There are slightly more of these tiny hemorrhages, but nothing has gotten worse, so we are still in “monitoring” mode.

Then she tested my vision. Much to my surprise, there is almost no change in my prescription. The tiny big of change in my left eye is so minor, there’s no reason to get new glasses.

Then it was time to dilate my eyes.

Those drops really burn!

After the drops were done, I was sent to the waiting room for a while to give my eyes time to dilate before being called back in. Then I got to get that bright light flashed into my eyes while she examined inside them. Of all the tests, that’s the one that bothers me the most. Not even the puff test bothers me much. I mentioned that and she told me that with some people, it’s the field of vision test that bothers them the most, while others have issues with the puff test. I told her about my mother and her macular degeneration, and how she got the eye injection. I told her, my mother handled them like a champ, but I honestly don’t think I could get that done! She asked me who the doctor at the special eye clinic in the city was that saw my mother. I told her, and she said she had heard very good things about him. She’s read some of his papers, and was quite impressed by them. I told her, he’s really excellent – and has a great “bedside manner”. He was always very sweet with my mother. I was happy to have a chance to share how good he was; if she ever found herself with a patient with newly developed eye issues beyond what she can do in her clinic, it’s that clinic in the city she’d be referring people to, and she would know that this particular doctor is highly recommended for more than his very impressive credentials.

Those tests done, the doctor wanted me to get one of the sets of pictures taken earlier done again, while my eyes were still dilated, since they’d be able to get more detail. After that, she wanted me to book another appointment for 6 months from not. That would put us in January, though. After talking about it, and our issues with travel in winter, which I try to avoid if I can, we decided that I will come back in October for a field of vision test – but no eye dilation! – and then come back for the dilation test again in 6 months after that. This way, my appointments will be spring and fall instead of summer and winter.

While at the counter, settling my bill (a whole $5.50, after the insurance coverage was deducted), there was a guy trying to book an appointment during a certain week. The other receptionist kept telling him they were going to be up north. Somehow, he understood that to mean they were fully booked, which they are – but the staff will all literally be up north. The receptionist I was with told me, she was the one who got them doing this. She mentioned having a lot of First Nations friends up north, and I completely understood. They just don’t have these sorts of clinics up there. They’d have to go south to the city. She said, that’s exactly it. It’s easier for a few staff at the eye clinic to be flown up north and see 200 patients, then to fly 200 patients to the city! And that’s just from one place. They now go up to visit 9 different northern communities throughout the year. It’s fantastic that they can do that!

By the time I was done, we’d heard from my brother that my daughter’s computer was not delivered. She and her sister had their own shopping list, though, which meant a Walmart trip. It would have been on the way home from my brother’s, but we went straight there, instead – after getting some gas, since the station was no longer blocked by a giant tanker truck! Since we were at the Walmart anyhow, I picked up a few little things as well, to tide us over until we do our first stock up shop, next week.

By the time we got home, it was past 5pm, and we were greeted by some very hungry kitties! My daughter took care of putting everything away, then making a heat-and-eat supper, while I quickly took care of the kitties.

The next two days are supposed to get really hot, so when things started cooling down this evening, I went out to give the garden a thorough watering. I plan to water twice a day, when it gets really hope. I am still holding out home that at last some things will start growing again, instead of just stagnating. It’s starting to look like all the red noodle beans are not only stagnating, but starting to die. I did spot one new sprout – a late germinating bean – and it’s all nice and green, like all the others were when they first sprouted. Now, they seem to be getting yellower, every day.

I wish I knew why. Even the extra seeds I had that got planted in the gaps among the peas that didn’t germinate, they’re looking yellow, so it’s not something specific to the beds. I’m at a total loss about it.

The winter squash, at least, seem to be recovering, though it’s unlikely there’s enough season left for them to develop fruit, even if they had an explosive growth spurt. The melons are just… not happening.

So furstrating!

I’m still tending them, just in case they recover. Who knows what will happen in the next couple of months.

Aside from all this, I have something good to share, and that’s how good I’ve been feeling. It’s only been a couple of days on the anti-inflammatories, and I can’t believe how pain free I’ve been. I haven’t even been taking the max dose I can “take as needed”. In fact, I even reduced how many capsules I cat at a time; I can take 2 capsules up to 3 times a day. I’ve taken 2 capsules, twice a day. This evening, I took just one. We’ll see how I feel overnight before I decide if I’ll take 1 or 2 in the morning.

I still have various pains, but the last couple of days have been the closest to being completely pain free as I can remember being in a very long time. Particularly when it comes to how much my body stiffens up if I’ve been sitting for a while, such as while driving, or sitting at my computer. I’m just blown away by how much difference I’m feeling, in such a short time!

Things are now winding down and I’ll be heading to bed soon. It should be interesting to see if half the dose will still be enough for me to be able to sleep without various joints keeping me awake with pain during the night.

I am so happy I thought to ask about trying the anti-inflammatories! What a difference they are making!

The Re-Farmer

Afternoon in the garden, and there’s our vandal again

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Today, I was out giving the garden and the food forest trees and bushes a deep watering. Yes, we did have good rain not long ago, but everything is bone dry again.

I had company, of the adorable kind.

I caught him, mid yawn! 😄

Sadly, in the video in the next file above, it did not pick up the purring. Eyelet started purring loudly as soon as I started moving closer with my phone. So adorable! Someone needs to adopt this baby!!!

Party way through, my younger daughter came out to let me know her sister had to jump into the shower, asking me to pause on the watering for a bit. While I was waiting for her to be done, I decided to see what we had for potatoes. With them dying back like they are, without ever having bloomed, I wasn’t sure if we could have any at all. I chose a spot where the plants were the deadest, and this is what I found.

This was from two or three plants, so not a lot, but gosh, those are lovely potatoes! Whatever is going on with our potatoes, we will at least have enough for a few meals, from the looks of it.

One of the things I noticed is that we are finally having some flower buds on bush beans.

Two of the three surviving Royal Burgundy bush beans – the two that did not get topped off by a deer – are blooming. Some of the yellow bush beans in between the tomatoes are also starting to bloom. The plants are still absolutely tiny, so I don’t expect much. They just don’t have the foliage to provide a lot of energy towards growing beans. We’ll see how that works out.

Then there was the weird thing that happened.

While I was watering, I could hear a quad start up and head out way, which meant it was our vandal. I saw him driving by through the trees, but he didn’t keep going. I could hear that he’s stopped at our driveway. So I went over to take a look, cutting through our garage, since we keep the main door wide open for most of the summer.

Sure enough, he had stopped at the end of the driveway, and was off his quad. I missed whatever he’d been doing since I first could hear that he had stopped. He was doing something to the back of his quad when he saw me looking at him from the garage. So he lifted his hands up to either side of his head, and seemed to be wiggling his fingers at me?

Then he pointed straight at me, before pointing down to the ground.

It was clearly intended to be a threatening gesture.

Then he got on his quad and drove away.

*sigh*

I really hope the cameras got that, and it didn’t get missed in the gap between capturing files and the motion sensor being triggered again. I’ll know, tomorrow.

Our vandal is clearly getting more unhinged, and his anger and hatred is aimed directly at me. He claims even his doctor said that I caused his cancer, which I assume is due to stress. Which is his own problem. I’d happily forget he existed, except he’s starting to show up and do weird stuff again.

I really don’t want to go through the process of applying for a restraining order again. It is such a pain.

Bah.

Anyhow. Once he was gone, I just went back to watering the garden and that was that. I never heard him driving back again, so who knows where he headed off to.

I really wish I understood why he got like this. I can come up with all sorts of contributing factors, but lots of people have been through the same or worse, without becoming like he has. It is the one major point against living here. Even my brother has said, if this farm ever does get sold, it will be because of our vandal, and my parents’ wishes have always been very clear about keeping the property in the family name. The irony of that is, our vandal is hating on me and doing all this because we live here when he expected to be able to convince my mother to change her will and leave it to him, instead of my brother. He’s causing all his own problems.

Well, there isn’t much we can do about it. We just focus on the thinks we can do something about!

Side note; while I was writing this, I got a message from the rescue that took in Poirot’s babies. She was asking what other kittens we have! I told her, but made sure to mention things like Eyelet being deaf, and Sir Robin’s infected eye that isn’t quite recovered. I told her about the feral kittens, too. Who knows. They might be able to help out with them! One can hope!

Oh, on a completely different note.

I got a call back from the autobody company. The arrangements we made for them to pick up the truck tomorrow have fallen through. Partly because the guys that would be doing the repair and painting on the damaged part of the box says they will need to use a primer, and it will need to sit overnight, at least. They know we don’t have any other transportation, so until the can arrange a courtesy vehicle, our insurance work is on hold. Otherwise, the earliest they can book us for is in September. Thankfully, the damage being worked on is not essential, and the truck can be driven.

Which worked out, in the end. My daughter was able to order her new computer, using my brother’s address for it to be delivered to. It’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. Which means that, after my eye appointment, we should be able to drive to my brother’s and pick it up, since where my eye appointment is is already about half way to their place.

I also just realized something else.

I’ve been doing various things, inside and out. I’ve taken no pain killers since yesterday morning. I’ve only had two dozes of the new anti-inflammatories, though I can take them up to three times a day, if I felt the need.

I am virtually pain free right now. Even my shoulder isn’t bothering me as much. Normally, while typing, my finger joints would be stiff and sore, making it hard to type. Not only that but, after sitting for a while, when I got up to walk around, I could actually do so normally. Usually, my knees and feet would have stiffened up so much that I have to hobble for a while, before I “grease my joints” and they can bend normally again. Yes, there is still some pain and stiffness, but much, much milder.

How utterly amazing. Such a huge difference, in so short a time!!!

Wow.

I wish I, or one of my doctors over the years, had thought of this earlier.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: I was wrong!

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I’m so happy I was wrong!

While taking video of the peppers for the garden tour yesterday, I spotted what I thought was a tiny pepper beginning to form. It turned out to be the remains of a blossom. From what I could see, if it did develop into a pepper, it would be our first one.

Today, I went to take another look. After moving the dried remains of petals off, I did indeed find a teeny, tiny beginnings of a pepper.

It will not, however, be our first!

Hidden in the leave below, I found a pepper forming! Looking at the other plants, I found a second one.

Just two. That’s it. But that’s two more than I thought we had!

Bonus picture for you, from checking the grapes this afternoon.

An absolutely adorable little tree from, no bigger than the tip of my thumb.

I am so happy we have so many frogs this year. I wish they could make a bigger end on the mosquito population, though! Lots of frogs, but no dragonflies.

Gotta set up some bat houses at some point. Walking around this afternoon, the air was filled with the whining of mosquitoes. It’s absolutely insane, how many there are this year!!

Thankfully, I wasn’t needing to be out there for long. My daughter and I had our back to back medical appointments, after doing my mother’s med assist this morning, followed by a trip to the pharmacy, so we were away most of the day. Plus, it’s been raining off and on all day. Very happy for the rain, too! Not much to do in the garden right now, anyhow. Just see how much more the deer have eat, and stare perplexedly as all the things that just aren’t growing this year.

*sigh*

As my SIL once said about their own garden; if they had to live off of what they grew, they’d starve! They weren’t trying for any sort of self sufficiency. Just to supplement. We, on the other hand, are planning our garden out specifically to have a combination of fresh eating, freezing, canning and winter storage. Last year, we at least were able to freeze a few things. This year, I don’t think we’ll even have anything more than for fresh eating.

We do still have just under 50 days before first frost – a bit longer, if we go by the adjusted average, though I certainly won’t count on it. Who knows what might happen in that time! Maybe, things will actually start suddenly growing and producing and we’ll have a long and mild fall, with plenty to harvest at the end of the season.

Not going to count on that. 😄

The Re-Farmer