Gardening

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

Our 2026 Garden: MI Gardener seeds are in

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Our order actually came in last week, but we weren’t able to get to the post office while it was open.

Here is what we got today.

In the bottom row, we have Tricolor Mixed bush beans, Rainbow and Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard, an Assorted Mix of beets, White Egg turnip, White Icicle radish and a rainbow blend of carrots.

In the middle is Bi-colour Pear gourds, my “just for fun” item, yellow scallop squash, Gill’s Golden Pippin winter squash, green scallop Bennings squash, Spring Blush peas and White Vienna kohlrabi.

In the top row is Red Beard bunching onions, Borage, American and Giant Noble spinach, Kandy Korn sweet corn, Purple Vienna kohlrabi, and an envelope to collect and store our own seeds in.

From this batch, these are the ones that will be planted this fall, before the ground freezes.

  • Rainbow and Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard
  • Assorted Mix beets
  • White Egg turnip
  • White Icicle radsih
  • Rainbow Blend carrots
  • Spring Blush peas
  • White and Purple Vienna kohlrabi
  • American and Giant Noble spinach

I am not sure about the Borage. I’ll have to do some research before deciding if those will be planted in the fall or started indoors in the spring.

Everything else except the corn and bush beans will be started indoors.

  • Bi-colour Pear gourds
  • yellow and green patty pan squash
  • Gill’s Golden Pippin winter squash
  • Red Beard Bunching onions.

Hopefully, starting the summer squash indoors next year will work. Direct sowing hasn’t been working out for those, for some reason. We didn’t have a slug problem this year, thanks to the many, many frogs, so that wasn’t the issue. We should be able to winter sow summer squash, but when I tried that for this year, none germinated. Most were old seeds, but there were new seeds in there, too. When I planted potatoes in that bed later, I did find a few seeds, but most seemed to have just disappeared. I did have to cover the bed with netting because of the cats, so they might have had something to do with the failure, too.

This, all on its own, is the makings of a decent garden for next year. We have other types of beans, winter and summer squash, melons, peas, corn and our own onion seeds. Of course, we’ll also be getting seed potatoes in the spring, and will probably try the little bell peppers and orange eggplants again. We have herb seeds that I might start indoors, if we have space, or we might cheat and buy transplants again, instead.

So there we have it! The beginnings of next year’s garden, much of which will actually be planted this fall.

Hopefully, we’ll have a better growing year than this one, because something really weird is happening with this year’s garden. It’s been so frustrating. We should be at the peak of growth and harvesting right now, and there’s basically nothing – and not just because of the deer! I’ll be talking about that in my garden tour video, and you’ll be able to see exactly what I mean.

Speaking of which, time to try and record some video. The rain has stopped, but we’re supposed to get thunderstorms later this evening!

So happy with all the rain!!!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, plum recovery, and we have rain!

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My plan had been to take some recordings for my July garden tour video. It was raining a little bit while I was feeding the yard cats and doing my rounds, so that got postponed. I’m happy to say that the rain became heavier, and it’s still raining, several hours later. It’s supposed to continue to rain for at least two, maybe three, more hours.

This is such a good thing!

So my recordings will wait until later today – as will my trip to the post office to pick up my package of seeds from MI Gardener. I’m really looking forward to seeing those!

For now, here are some adorable kitties.

Sprout is there with three of the four feral kittens. I did see the tortie, but it was hiding when I took the images.

The white and black cat nearby is Ink. I can tell she’s nursing, and it seems that she is keeping her babies in the unoccupied farm across the road from us. I do wish they wouldn’t go there. Crossing that road can be quite dangerous for adult cats, like the late Poirot, never mind for kittens!

The next picture is of Pinky and her two, in the garage. I had to zoom in from well outside the garage to be able to get that shot. If I come any closer, the kittens run off.

As I was finishing up and about to head back inside, I spotted the adorable trio in the last photo, all snuggled together. That cat bed is supposed to be a cat cave, but it always collapses. I finally just rolled down the side, and the sides still collapsed! The kittens seem to like it, though, so that’s good.

Havarti was hanging out in the sun room doorway, and I wasn’t able to get a picture of him. When the weather is good, I have the outer door secured open, so it doesn’t blow around in the wind. With the rain, I secured it mostly closed (there’s a brick to make sure it can’t close all the way) to keep the weather out, but the cats and kittens can still get in and out as will.

So we currently have four socialized kittens, six feral kittens, and several cats that I can see are nursing, but no sign of kittens. From what I can see, they have small litters. Maybe two or three active nips, though it’s really hard to tell at times. Adam will jump up on the cat house to eat kibble and will let me pet her. She might have one active nip, but I really can’t tell. I get the sense the Brussel has had a second litter, but that’s based strictly on behaviour. She doesn’t seem to have any active nips, though with her long fur, I could easily be wrong. Then there’s Slick. I am sure Slick had an early litter that she lost, then got pregnant again. She isn’t pregnant now, but I can’t see if she has any active nips. Does that mean she lost another litter? Or maybe has just one kitten, and I can’t see the active nip? She has been letting me pet her while she is eating, but only when there are other cats I can pet at the same time, so there’s lots of movement. If it’s just her, she won’t let me close enough to touch her.

While doing my rounds, I was very happy to see how quickly the Opal plum is starting to recover so many leaves being eaten by deer.

At the base of every leaf that was eaten, a new leaf is emerging. Pairs of leaves, actually.

I really need to figure out some sort of fencing around the garden. The remaining beet greens, more radish plants, and even some carrot greens, were gone this morning. I do have a cover – two, actually – that will fit this raised bed, but not with the radish plants being so big.

Not that they’re going to stay big for long, at this rate.

The peas also look like more of them have been eaten. I did add the pinwheels, but those are a deterrent only if there is a wind to move them. Same with the wind chimes. The new lights I added are working – I can see them from my bedroom window at night – but they don’t seem to be much of a deterrent either.

One of the suggestions I’ve read is to have a radio set to a talk radio station playing all night. I think we even have some old “ghetto blasters” that we could use (anyone else remember those? They were so popular in the 80’s), but I’d have to set up some sort of shelter to put one in and protect it from the elements. I don’t think I’d want to do that, though. Hearing talk radio from outside during the night would not go over well. Usually, when we hear voices in the night, it’s something to be concerned about and check on, not ignore.

With the garlic bed empty and waiting to be cleaned up, I’m considering. Should I bother trying to plant something in it? In theory, we still have enough growing season to plant something like bush beans. Perhaps a late planting for a fall harvest will actually work. The beans we planted earlier all seem to have stalled and stagnated.

We could also try planting anything that either needs about 40 days to harvest, or handles frost well. So we could try growing peas, beets, chard or spinach, too. I could even try zucchini. Anything we plant now would have to have a cover over it, though, since these are all things the deer like to eat.

With how things I direct sowed this year have been stagnating, though, is it even worth planting something? Either things will stagnate again, or it will give us at least something to harvest. We should be harvesting all sorts of things right now, and there’s just nothing.

I’ll look through my seeds again and decide. I might just leave the bed and save it for winter sowing, so we will have something next year.

What do you think?

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 garden: deer damage

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I could see that the deer have been visiting our yard for a while now. The flowers on one side of the vehicle gate into the yard have lost all their tops. The winter sown garden bed in the east yard had its lettuces eaten, and then some of the radish plants and seed pods.

In the main garden area, they’ve been walking past the pea trellises and helping themselves to the greens. I’ve still been finding posts along the trellis wire but the outsides of the plants have been pretty decimated.

What really disappointment me, however, was the plum tree. It was growing so well, and growing taller than the protective tomato supports I’d set around it.

The top of it was stripped of its leaves, this morning.

I am so unhappy with this. Thankfully, they just ate the leaves and not the stem, but still… that’s a huge set back for the tree.

The other new plantings were untouched. They also are nowhere near large enough to outgrow their protective supports.

While at the Dollarama today, I was going to get more of the same tomato supports and just add a new one on top of the old one, to make a sort of tower.

Then I went looking at their display of garden stakes, where I found much taller versions of the same things.

I got two.

It was all I could do not to pick up a whole bunch more garden stakes.

Aside from the height, the new supports are pretty much the same as the old ones. They just needed three sets of cross pieces instead of two. I put the two sets together and set them around the plum tree. Then I used the cross pieces from the smaller set and put them in alternating spaces at two levels, to discourage deer from sticking their heads through.

Last of all, I set a couple of pinwheels at the top, facing in different ways to catch the wind from different directions.

I had another pair of pinwheels and set those up at each end of the pea trellis. I had also picked up a couple of lawn decorations with solar powered lights in them that I added to one end. I’m hoping the lights will discourage the deer, too. Finally, I got a wind chime we’ve had set aside for quite a long time, and hung that off part of the red noodle bean trellis, where it could hang freely. I didn’t bother taking a picture of that. This wind chime is made of bamboo hanging from half a coconut, with a wooden clapper in the middle. I much prefer the sound of wooden wind chimes over all metal ones.

Of course, the pinwheels and wind chimes won’t do a thing, if there’s no breeze to move them. At least the new frame around the plum tree with do that job.

By the time I was done setting all that up, the heat and smoke from the wildfires was starting to get to me, and I had to get back inside. I still need to water the garden, but it’s not supposed to start cooling down for at least another hour. We aren’t exacting rain for a couple of days and even then, who knows if any of it will actually reach us, or go right past.

I am so tired. I’m falling asleep at my keyboard as I write this. I’m glad we made it in to the city to take care of things, but it just sucks the energy right out of me.

It’s just about 7pm as I finish this, and I could go to bed for the night right now!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: harvesting garlic

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By the time I headed out in the late afternoon, I was recovered physically enough to get a bit done in the garden. It was time to harvest the garlic!

In the first image above, you can see the potatoes in the background. They are yellowing and dying back, even though they’ve never flowers, and there are no signs that they ever will. I’ve looked around and have been able to rule out insects or fungal disease, which pretty much leaves heat and lack of water. I’ve been trying to keep up with the watering, but it’s very possible I wasn’t able to keep up, with the heat that we’ve been having. Mind you, the wildfire smoke probably hasn’t helped anything, either.

I’ve avoided watering the garlic bed for a while, so it could dry out before harvesting. A quick loosening of the soil with a garden fork, along both sides, and they all came out quite easily.

We got some of the biggest garlic heads we’ve ever grown in there!

In preparing this bed before planting the garlic, I did trench composting with whatever organic matter was handy. Including kitchen compost and grass clippings. These garlic have the biggest, strongest roots we’ve ever had, and a few of them pulled up partially broken down grass clippings, and even some egg shells, with them. The roots seemed very happy with the trench compost!

Once picked, I brought them over to the canopy tent I’d set up for them, and sorted them on the bench. Some of the garlic was picked too late, and were starting to split. There was one garlic where the scape never made it out, and instead got stuck in the stem. The bulbils formed in there and broke through the stem. We could keep those and plant them, if we wanted.

Or eat them.

The remaining garlic was strung up on two lengths of twine and hung across the canopy tent to cure.

The garlic that got too big and starting to split was cleaned up and trimmed, and are now in the kitchen for immediate use.

That done, I was finally able to give the garden a solid watering. I even had a full rain barrel to use on the old kitchen garden. I didn’t do the new food forest trees, though. I wasn’t feeling that good, yet!

Tomorrow, the dump is open and, now that we have the truck back, we’ll be able to do a dump run. I’m also going to have to do a shopping trip large enough to make it worth driving to Walmart. I’m hoping to get that done early enough in the day that I can continue working on the new wattle weave bed later on. Since I have an abundance of willow switches in particular that are too short for the distance the verticals are set at now, I’m going to take advantage of those chimney blocks and go the completely the opposite direction. Each of the concrete blocks has a series of openings around the sides. The posts are inserted in those openings along one side, with four empty ones in between each post. It was an easy way to evenly space the verticals.

I’m going to try adding verticals, using thinner posts, in each of the openings between the posts that are already there. I’ve got six posts now, which means there are five sections where I can add four more verticals. Since these will be sitting on top of the retaining wall, there will be no need to debark them, which will certainly save time, and be easier on my hands!

What this should do is allow me to use the shorter, thinner and more flexible willow switches we have so much of, adding new lengths along the way, held in place more securely. Right now, with what I’ve got so far, the overlapping ends just sort of sit there, loosely. I could probably tie the overlaps together, but that rather defeats the purpose of weaving them in the first place!

One of the things I am planning to get, to plant in the outer yard, is basket willow. Properly coppiced, these can produce an abundance of really long, flexible willow. It seems weird to buy more willow, since we have so much of it around, but they are a different variety, and surprisingly not-straight, unless they’re really, really young. I was originally thinking to get basket willow so that we could… you know… make baskets. However, if the coppiced willow is allowed to grow long enough before harvesting, they would be ideal for wattle weaving, too.

That’s at least a couple of years in the future, though. For now, we make do with what we have!

And right now, we have garlic.

Lots of lovely garlic, curing in the wind! 😁🧄

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties and tiny harvest

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Okay, I definitely over did it yesterday. Which happens a lot faster these days, then it used to!

I was preemptive on things, though. Before going to bed, along with my usual painkillers, I made sure to treat all the usual muscle groups that I’ve had Charlie horse issues with, with Tei Fu lotion. Just in case.

Once outside this morning, I did my usual rounds, starting with feeding the kitties. Including these hungry little wildlings.

The forth one did show up, eventually.

As I was finishing up, I spotted these two full belly babies, being adorable.

I didn’t see the garage kittens until much later, and not both at the same time, but they are there, and getting their own bowl of kitten food. I should start moving the bowl closer to the back door, to encourage them to go into the yard and discover all the amenities, awaiting them!

I should have watered the garden this morning, but my body was giving me a great big FU on the subject. I did manage to get a tiny little harvest, though.

Just a few Spoon tomatoes. In the next photo, there’s a few sugar snap peas, the Spoon tomatoes, a few tiny little strawberries from the old kitchen garden and some raspberries. I was able to leave a bowl full of berries and tiny bowl with the Spoon tomatoes for my husband, as a morning treat when he woke up.

Once back inside, I pain killered up and went back to bed for a few hours.

Being old and broken really sucks sometimes – and I’m still almost the most able bodied person in the household! Both girls are feeling better, though, hence the “almost”. My younger daughter still has to watch herself with the wrist, and has been doing mild recovery exercises. I heard her talking with her sister today, marveling at how much better her wrist feels, even with the remaining pain and discomfort from the surgery, without Squidly wrapped around the bones. She’s so happy to have been able to get that done!

On a completely different note, thanks to some assistance from my older daughter, I was able to pay the deposit for getting the main door and frame replaced. We had 30 days to accept the estimate. After that, we’d have to get a new estimate and, with the way prices are going up, the cost would likely increase if that happened. I’m okay with them taking a while to get the job done, though. That’ll give us time to raised the balance without having to use more debt. *sigh* It needs to be done, though. It’s not like we can go a winter with nothing but a storm door there!

Ah, well. It is what it is. We’ll manage. We always do!

The Re-Farmer