The complete and utter destruction of our corn patch. Clearly, the motion activated noise maker did nothing to deter the raccoons!
I found a whole three cobs that looked untouched. You can see in the last image, what was in them. Basically, just one cob that had anything remotely like ripe kernels.
This is so, so disappointing.
The rest of the day wasn’t much better. Ended up spending several hours in bed dealing with pain that painkillers had no affect on. Then I got a call from my mother who immediately began ranting at me about how nobody is visiting her, and why didn’t my brother or my sister visit her? By the time I had to cut the call short and hung up, it had gone from, no one is visiting her to trying to say I should visit her because she provided the roof over my head and “gave” the farm to my brother to the staff is neglecting her because they are paying more attention to other residents than her to wanting to know very specific details of why I’m getting surgery that are NONE of her business to saying I should make sure that I have a white doctor because brown people don’t care about white people and brown doctors make mistakes.
By then, I was more than done with the call.
The day has gotten better, though. My daughters were able to clear a path and get the big aquarium into the basement. They were able to get the living room actually useable again. There is now a charcuterie and a movie about to happen.
This little guy was waiting with the cats in the sun room when I came out. It seems to prefer this particular tray just outside the sun room, and was eating kibble where when I came out with the cat soup. It did not want to stop eating when I came close! Hungry baby. It did finally move but came back as soon as I moved on to the next tray. I find it amusing that Sweetie – who still behaves as if terrified all the time – is buddies with the skunk!
After feeding the cats, I hoped to water the garden but, after walking around and checking the beds, I was just in too much pain – and I had taken pain killers before I headed out. So I went in to have breakfast and hoped the painkillers would finally kick in.
They didn’t.
In the end, after waiting long enough, I took some more and tried lying down. That finally did it.
One of the things on my to-do list today was a trip into town. My younger daughter had her own list, so she came along. While heading to the truck and getting things ready, I had a surprise. The shed my brother had bought was up! I never heard a thing!
I had been wondering what could be done to create a base for the shed. After leveling the area, my brother salvaged an old steel door – for some reason, there are quite a lot of them scattered about! – to set under the shed. It is the perfect width.
I later found out that the shed is surprisingly light, so he wants to find a way to secure it to the steel door, so it doesn’t blow away in the wind.
I had a bag and a half of non-aluminum cans in that spot, and the cats were already starting to get into one of them. They are now in the shed. No more coming out to find cans scattered all over the place!
My daughter and I headed out soon after. I haven’t seen the renter’s cows for a while and I think they’ve been rotated out. We decided to leave the gate open and I made sure to send a message to let my brother and SIL know, so they knew it was us and left intentionally.
We had lunch first. While we were eating, I started getting a lot of notifications on my phone. It was the security camera at the gate. My SIL took advantage of the gate being open while she was mowing around the driveway. We had actually talked about that earlier and she wasn’t planning to mow, as we haven’t had rain lately and the grass wasn’t very long. The path to the barn that my brother uses a lot, however, was a fair bit taller, so she mowed that for them and just kept on going!
After lunch, we went to a nearby store to look for one of the things my daughter was after. She ended up finding a couple of things she needed, which was handy. Then it was off to the grocery store. I had a couple of the big water jugs to refill, plus a short list from my husband. Since we were there anyhow, I picked up some fresh fruit and a few other things that we would need soon that were on sale, and my daughter found a few things as well. I’m glad she was able to come along.
By the time we got home and everything was unpacked and put away, it wasn’t too much longer before it was time to feed the outside cats again, so I took care of that before doing the watering. This time, I also watered the trees and bushes in the food forest area. It’s been dry enough lately that they got extra watering.
After finishing watering the main garden area and the trees, I came around to do the south garden beds when I found my daughter going by with the wheel barrow. She had dug up the enameled bricks from around the fire pit and brought them closer to the house, where they are currently soaking in water to loosen the dirt before she scrubs them a bit. We were planning to take those bricks out and replace them with rocks that we’ve picked out of the garden, more of which needs to be brought over to the fire pit area. Knowing these were going to be taken out, she wanted to salvage them – to use in the basement! She is wanting to reorganize and do a keep clean in the living room. We’ve got that big fish tank we’d used as a greenhouse for seed starts in the past, and it’s in the way. We’d been talking about putting it in the basement, where I can use it as a greenhouse in the spring, but the concrete gets wet in the spring (parts of it are still wet now) because the weeping tile is probably full of silt and tree roots. Anything we set up has to be elevated, and we’d run out of bricks. Once she has these salvaged bricks cleaned up a bit, they will be used to set under the stand the fish tank rests on, so the wood won’t rot.
Getting all that out of the living room and down the stairs is not going to be easy. It will, however, free up a lot of space we need!
This was set up near the old kitchen garden so, once the bricks were soaking, that’s where I started the watering. While doing the wattle weave bed, I decided it was time to lift the garlic in there. These are from a bulb of garlic I’d found while preparing the rectangular bed nearby in the fall. This was well after I’d planted the garlic in the main garden area, and were clearly quite a bit smaller, even before I dug them up.
These are very young and small garlic, so we will be using them right away, rather than setting them with the other garlic to cure.
It’s a good thing I enjoy doing the deep watering, because it takes at least 2 hours – closer to 3, when the trees get watered, too. I was pretty tired, sore and hungry by the time I was done, and my daughters were sweeting enough to make me a supper when I came in.
Meanwhile, my brother has headed back to the city while my SIL stays here for a while longer. We never crossed paths in person today at all!
Anyhow.
Today has been a mixed bag, but I am happy with how much I was able to get done, in between dealing with pain. One of the things that came up while I was talking to my daughter about what I was feeling this morning was my doctor’s offer to start the process to get me a new pair of knees. I said no to that, as they aren’t that bad, really.
My left hip, however… that is something I should probably bring up, the next time I see my regular doctor!
Not anytime soon, though. One thing at a time, and there’s three of us waiting for various surgeries right now!
Just a few bush beans and some Golden Boy celery. Later this evening, while looking at the tomatoes with one of my daughters, I accidentally harvested some! They came right off the vines when I touched them! You can see those in the second image of the slideshow above. My daughter had tried one, thinking it might be ripe because of how easily they came off the vine.
It was most definitely NOT ripe. So the rest will sit in a window still or something until they ripen fully.
After lunch, I headed back outside again. I wanted to work on the area where the next garden bed will go, starting off by dragging our accumulated cardboard over, then using the weed trimmer on the grass and weeds that had come through the cardboard already laid down. That required moving all the boards and pieces of log that were holding the cardboard down. I had a pleasant surprise when picking up a board that was overlapping another board. A lovely little garter snake, curled up on the cap! It slithered away very quickly, so I wasn’t able to snag a picture, but I was very happy to see it.
After using the trimmer on that area, I kept going and trimmed around some old crab apple tree stumps, then around the plum, apple, gooseberry and haskaps, where the mower can’t get close enough.
Party way through, my older daughter came out and we walked around the yard (to keep the mosquitoes at bay) to talk about our options regarding the property. She and her sister had been talking about it already. With them, as they are now getting the medical treatment they need and will be getting the surgeries they need, they know that they will be in a better position to do things in the relatively near future. Just the fact that my daughter could walk around the yard with me is a demonstration of that.
Until I get the most recent numbers for what my brother pays in property taxes and insurance, we can’t say some things for sure. My brother has given me this information in the past, but I know the taxes have gone up, and I don’t yet know if things are complete with the new insurance provider he’s been in contact with.
In the end, though, my brother and his wife own the property and can do whatever they want with it. We can make some offers to lift the burden of the cost from him, but if we end up needing to move, we need to know that as soon as possible, as that would change our focus completely. No point in doing things like building the outdoor kitchen or planting more fruit trees and bushes if we aren’t going to be here in a couple of years.
One thing that needs to change as quickly as possible, either way, is, we need to get indoor cats adopted out. They are destroying the house, and we are spending more of our limited income on cat food and supplies per month, than on food for ourselves. The rescue has said they would be willing to post pictures and information on their adoption website, but that requires getting photos and video of each individual cat that’s available for adoption. Which means we’ll need to create a “set” in the cat free zone – aka: the living room – and bring them in, one at a time, and see if they will co-operate enough to get some shareable images and video. We have 21 indoor cats, and basically only three or four that we don’t want to adopt out. Unfortunately, adult cats are exceptionally hard to adopt out. Especially cats with any health issues, like missing legs, or a giant fat cat that has blocked twice already.
So I need to contact the rescue and we need to prioritize getting photos and video taken.
After we had a chance to talk, I went back to the weed trimming before getting back to the garden bed area.
The first thing to do was to measure and mark the 4′ wide path, then the 4′ wide future raised bed. Then I started laying out all the cardboard I had, starting with the smaller pieces along the outside edge, then working towards the existing bed this one will be paired with.
I didn’t have enough cardboard to cover all of the 8′ x 18′ area. More like about 6′ x 18′.
Then came the more difficult part.
The large log the tree removal guys had cut and brought over for me needed to be moved into position. It still needs to be de-barked and have branch nubs cut flush, but I wanted it to be in the location where it will eventually permanently sit, 4′ away from the current bed.
I’ve got two other lengths this log was placed beside. They are skinny and light enough that I could move them out of the way. The new log, however, is a lot bigger. Particularly at one end. It was also too far past one end. Once I rolled it near where it goes, I had to figure out how to shift the entire log about 8 inches over.
The direction it needed to go was also the thinner, lighter end of the log. What I ended up doing was finding some rope in the garden shed to wrap around the log near the thinner end then, using a short piece of wood that I’d moved aside earlier as a handle, pulled the whole thing over.
They cut it to 18′, but it’s not as long as the bed it needs to match. I didn’t measure, so I don’t know if they cut it shorter than 18′, or if the other bed is longer than 18′ because of the logs at the ends. Either way, I should be able to match the lengths with the end pieces, when the time comes.
In the above photo, you can see the rope and piece of wood I used as a handle. I also rolled the larger of the other two logs, which still need to be cut to size, to the outside 4′ mark of the bed. This log is too thin to be a bottom log, though. It’s there to hold the cardboard down for now. The really skinny piece is meant to go across the top of the vertical posts of the trellis bed this one will be paired with.
After cutting a 10′, then an 18′, length from the dead spruce, the tree guys cut the rest of the trunk into three 4′ pieces before it got too small; the top of the tree got chipped with the branches. I set one shorter piece at each end, then laid the last on inside the bed, to help hold down the cardboard. Then all the boards and pieces of wood I’d taken off earlier got set onto the cardboard, spread out to keep it from blowing away. You can see the final result in the second image of the slide show above.
The log that is currently on the outside of the bed will eventually be set on top of a base log. For now, these beds will be built to two logs high.
I need more cardboard to cover the rest of the path, up to the current bed. I’d like to cover the path in wood chips once more cardboard is down. Grass and weeds get through uncovered cardboard very quickly.
It’s a tiny bit of progress, but it’s better than nothing! I don’t know when I’ll be able to get more logs for this. I’d asked my brother about clearing dead trees out of the spruce grove with the help of his tractor. I believe he was finally able to get that fixed, but they said something about finding a lot of trees along the road heading south along the property line that need to be cleared away from the fence, so I’m expecting that will be a priority for him. I don’t know. I could cut trees down, cut them to length in situ, the drag the logs out myself, or with the help of a daughter, like we’ve done with all the others. It would just be a lot faster and easier to do it with a tractor!
So the past couple of days have been SO much better, it just blows me away!
Yesterday, I was not only well enough to go into the city for the stock up shopping at Costco, but felt well enough to keep on going after everything was put away and we’d had supper. I headed outside for the usual evening cat feeding, then gave the garden a solid watering before heading back in.
A couple of nights ago, my brother and SIL quickly came by to drop off a box with a small raccoon proof shed they picked up. I had some bags with cans at various stages of sorting against the garage, and critters had gotten into them again, spreading them all over. So this is something we can store the aluminum cans in until it’s worth bringing them to the scrap yard. Most of the cans are cat food cans. Even though they are empty, the critters still smell food on them and sometimes tear the bags apart – even after ignoring them for months!
They also let me know that they were coming back the next day (yesterday) to take the trail loaded with metal items to the scrap yard. When they told me about the shed, I mentioned that we had more bags of cans in our basement that would fit in the truck. My SIL said that they could load the bags into their truck (which has a taller cap over the box) and take it in with the rest of the load.
I didn’t know what time they would be coming by with the shed, so I headed out with some fresh bags to at least re-bag the bag with aluminum only that had been torn up. As I was walking to the garage, however, I saw something that wasn’t there when I’d gone out to feed the cats and water the garden earlier.
That wasn’t there when I was out watering the garden beds! I sent the picture to our family chat and my daughters said they had heard something – maybe 40 minutes earlier – fall. It wasn’t even particularly windy at the time!
After re-bagging the aluminum cans at the garage, I came to see how bad the damage was under this tree top. Much to my surprise, the garden bed cover was not damaged. The netting was bent, but it doesn’t have hoops under it, to it can be easily pushed back into shape. All those branches sticking out in every direction actually kept the full weight of the tree top from landing on the cover and doghouse roof. I broke off some of the branches while one of my daughters came over, and she held the tree top up until I could get the garden bed cover out from under it, then pushed it aside, so it’s not over the old dog house anymore. We’ll have to come back with the chain saw to break it down, soon, but for now it waits.
We went in after that and my brother and SIL were in and out to drop off the shed in its box so quickly, if I hadn’t gotten security camera alerts, I’d never had known they were here!
With my SIL’s kind offer to take our aluminum in, that meant getting all the bags out of the basement. I didn’t know what time they would be coming buy, and knew I’d be going to the city, so I wanted to get the cans out before we left. Which had to be done in stages, since we can’t just leave doors open, or the inside cats would be getting into the basement, or outside.
I got it done, though. By the time I got them out near the junk pile, which has been cleared out significantly, thanks to my brother and SIL, I had 11 large clear bags, plus another 8 or so small blue bags. Including the two bags from beside the garage I’d rebagged the night before.
What I found out later was that they weren’t coming out until my brother was done at work (I had thought he might have arranged to leave early or something). So we were back from Costco well before they got here, in seperate vehicles.
I had actually gone back out to water the garden, but suddenly realized my brother had somehow arrived and parked by the barn without my ever hearing him! Then I heard my SIL arriving at the gate. So I postponed the watering and started tying the garlic off so I could hang them to cure.
Which didn’t work out as planned.
Normally, I make two long strings of garlic that I hang under the canopy tent to form a large X across the middle. The garlic, however, turned out to be too heavy. The first string of garlic kept snapping at different spots. In the end, I hung the remaining pieces, reinforcing the longest one with more jute twine. With the rest, I tied off strings of roughly a dozen garlic each and hung them around the sides of the canopy tent.
I was working on this when my brother and SIL drove their truck and trailer up to where the aluminum bags were. In the end, though, they didn’t take them yet. They didn’t have time. The scrap yard closed at 8, but it was at least a 45 minute drive to get there, and they needed to be there before closing time. Last call is usually about 15 minutes before closing.
So they left without the aluminum, with my brother driving the truck and trailer and my SIL following in the car my brother had come out in. They got there just in time and were able to get it done. Once the trailer was cleared, my brother took the car and drove home, since he had to go to work the next morning. My SIL drove the truck and trailer back here.
Meanwhile, I had finished stringing up the garlic.
There are two images in the above slide show. I don’t like that the garlic is around the edges, as they could be affected by the weather more. We’re not expecting rain for a while, though, so I hope they will be okay.
I was just finishing watering the garden when my SIL got back with the trailer. I helped her unhitch the trailer (something neither of us had done before, though at least my SIL has seen my brother doing it), then she drove the truck over to the bags of aluminum. We didn’t want them out overnight, as the raccoons would probably tear them apart.
It was getting dark, so I messaged my daughters and they were both able to come out and help load the truck. Much to my surprised, they all fit, with room to spare!
By then, it was pretty much full dark. My SIL parked the truck near their caravan and stayed the night.
This morning, I was up by about 6am, even though I hadn’t actually slept much last night. I headed out into the wonderfully cool morning to feed the cats and do a quick walkabout before going back inside.
The last time I saw this Arikara squash, it was maybe 6 inches long!!
I set a brick under it, so it wouldn’t have direct contact to the ground. There are several more squash developing, but this one got huge, fast! One squash plant, and we might have as many as 5 squash off of it, if they all survive. This is how all our winter squash should be looking, but even the biggest of the other varieties do not look this vigorous and healthy!
This is a chokecherry tree, part of which has split.
Oh, I just realized. This is probably NOT wind damage. This might be deer damage. There are ripe chokecherries on this tree. If they were pulling on the berries like they do when going after the crab apples, they could easily have broken the tree like this.
My SIL and I were planning to head out around noon. That gave me time to go through the house for any remaining aluminum cans that were waiting to be bagged up, filling about half of a large, clear bag. Then I went to the garage, where a bag with crushed cans had been torn and spilling and picked that up. Then I crushed all the cans I could find in the crate and bin we us for recyclables. Last of all, I headed outside the garage with a magnet and sorted the last bag that’s been sitting there for months, pulling out the cans with steel. By the time I was done, I’d filled the large clear bag and about half of a small blue recycling bag. I carried them over to my brother’s truck and added them to what was in the back.
At this point, we have a couple of bags with just ferrous metal in them. We could have taken them with us, but it just wasn’t worth is for barely two bags. The price for steel is quite low.
I later found out my brother got 12¢ per pound for their load. The stuff didn’t weigh as much as my brother had estimated.
The cans sorted and bags and cleaned up, I headed back in to change out of my grubbies and into going out clothes. I double checked the hours I’d found for the place online, and they said they were closed today. !!!??? So I phoned.
They were very much open.
My SIL and I headed out soon after. We went to the salvage yard directly to the south of us that I was already familiar with, rather than the one they went to last night. There was enough in there that they brought out one of the bigger cages with a forklift, rather than the bin they’d brought out the last time we’d managed the trip, and we actually filled it. It turned out to be 252 pounds, and they paid out 70¢ per pound. a bit lower than the average going rate, but these were not “clean”; a lot of the cans had been outdoors for some time before we had to put the bags into the basement to keep the critters from getting at them, so they had literal dirt on them.
That got me just over $175 in cash. Not too bad!
I also remembered to ask for a new magnet keychain to replace the one that was stolen, I think by a raccoon. They had a whole basket full of them available to give out!
My SIL had suggested we go for lunch afterwards, and this allowed me to treat her, for a change!
I don’t know a lot of what’s available in this town, so when my sister suggested Chinese food, I was quite happy to try a place I’d never been to before. We had a lovely meal and a great time catching up with each other.
As we were finished, my SIL mentioned she wanted to go to the town north of us after we were done. I asked if she wanted company and went along, with just a side trip to the post office for something my husband was expecting.
The extra drive meant almost a lot more driving time to chat in. I really enjoy spending time with my SIL. She’s awesome.
The place she wanted to go to was the livestock supply store. She’d never been there before, but that’s one of the places I’d been getting 40 pound bags of cat food from, plus this place has all sorts of other farm supplies to ogle. I was able to give her directions to the store, which is actually away from the town itself. Since we were there anyhow, I picked up a couple of bags of cat food, as well as a very plain, inexpensive, folding knife. Something better than the utility knife I’ve been carrying around when doing yard stuff, with no fancy saw edges or do-dads. Just a plain knife. They had one left in bright orange, and I grabbed that. This way, if I drop it in the grass or dirt, it’ll be easy to see!
My SIL, meanwhile, picked up some stall liners. Something to put under the stairs to their caravan, or other places where they don’t want the grass to be taking over.
I have to admit, when I saw them being loaded into the truck, I started wanting one for our kitchen! These are designed to withstand cow hooves. The cats would not be able to scratch this up! They’re actually too big to fit on our kitchen floor, though, but gosh, that would be so nice. Pricey for what would essentially be considered a floor mat, but worth every penny.
That done, my SIL wanted to check out the hardware store. We both got a couple of little things, but mostly she wanted to look at their display sheds. They had quite a variety of designs on display, from basic wide open spaces, to ones with front porches, pretty windows and lofts.
Some of the price tags on these, though… there’s a reason I want to build a garden shed using the cordwood wall technique! The mortar needed for that, plus using wood from dead spruces we already have, would be a lot cheaper, even with having to buy roofing material.
With all the driving and checking things out, it was late enough that the girls took care of feeding the outside cats before I got home. We’re now good on dry cat food for both the inside and outside cats for probably the rest of the month, which was a nice bonus.
My brother has since made it out and they will be here for the weekend. Much of the focus is still going to be on cleaning up and hauling things away.
Which brings me to something the family is going to need to figure out.
My brother is going to retire in a couple of years. The deal is, he pays for the property tax and insurance, we pay the utilities and keep the place up – something that is getting harder for us to do with all of us being broken, one way or another. Something I hope will improve within the next 6 months or so, as my daughters and I each get the surgeries we need.
Once he retires, they won’t be able to keep up paying the expenses for this place. The money brought in by renting most of it out doesn’t even cover the cost of taxes.
We need to figure out what our options are, and we have only two years to do it in. Meanwhile, my husband’s disability income through is employer ends at age 65. That’s only 7 years away. It’s not like we can take over the property. With both our daughters having health issues, their options are limited, too.
So… I didn’t make it to the city again. I didn’t even make it to the garden to harvest until the late afternoon.
I will cover why in my next post.
When I did make it out, my daughter was there to help me with the walker and to harvest the bush beans. Then, as I was feeling well enough, she started doing the watering while I went to the old kitchen garden to harvest a bit more.
The amount of bush beans available to harvest has dropped quite a bit by now, so we didn’t have much to pick. I also harvested what will likely be the only kohlrabi we’ll get this year. Then a grabbed the two largest Green Benning scallop squash. We will definitely be getting more of those, later on! Those are looking really beautiful. Last of all, I grabbed a bunch of mint, to make fresh mint tea.
Then I decided I felt well enough to harvest the garlic. As I started on that, my younger daughter got a message from her sister asking what we were picking, as she was thinking to do a stir fry. So I told her where the colander with the vegetables was, then grabbed a few Swiss Chard leaves for her, for added greens. There wasn’t a lot of surviving Swiss Chard between the garlic large enough to pick, but enough to add to a stir fry.
I am so happy with the garlic. This is easily our best year for garlic, with SO many huge garlic heads! I believe the variety is Porcelain Music, if I remember correctly. They are from our own saved garlic, not purchased.
The first image of the slide show above is where I’d stacked them all while digging them up, on the mulch by the potatoes. There was one garlic head that broke off when I tried to pull it up, even after digging under it with the garden fork, with a snap so loud my daughter heard it while watering at the other end of the garden! I’m happy to say, I timed it right this year. Last year, I’d put it off longer and about half a dozen bulbs had starts to split. Which is fine. Those just got eaten right away. There were no split bulbs at all this time.
Yesterday evening, I’d set up the canopy tent and the folding table. You can see the bundle in the second image. In the last image, they’re all laid out with the bulbs off the edges of the table. I’ll leave them to dry overnight, then string them up to hang for curing tomorrow.
I had to zoom in from half way across the yard, then crop the photo, to get the above image. This cat goes into that splay legged position, like it’s ready do run away in a flash, quite often.
I hadn’t done their water yet, but didn’t want to scare the little one away from the food, so I went around to the main garden area to start watering that garden beds, partly to judge just how well I was doing, and if I’d be going to Costco or not.
I took it easy and didn’t do a really deep watering; we weren’t expected to get unusually hot today, so that was enough. By the time the main garden area was done and I moved to the other side of the house, the cats (and a few skunks) had all had a chance to eat, so I refilled their water bowls in between watering different beds.
We are now up to four luffa seedlings, with a second one showing up next to the oldest one. Each spot got several seeds, so it’s entirely possible more will show up, still. Even with only 55 days to maturity, it’s getting really tight for them. They will have a chance only if have a very mild fall and no frost until the end of September.
Which, given that this is a Super El Nińo year, might actually happen. At this point, the shorter daylight hours will also have an effect.
By the time I was done, I knew going to Costco was going to be an issue. I could handle the drive, but not the shopping. Not without making things much worse.
The problem was, my younger daughter, who is the only one that can come with me, was dealing with her own very different pain issues today, too.
I decided to pain killer up and try lying down for a while, to see if things would improve.
They did not. The tramadol seemed to have zero effect. Not only that, but the bleeding kicked up again, too. *sigh*
After waiting a long enough time, I tried taking the T3s and lying down again.
It’s a good thing I wasn’t trying to nap. As soon as I lay down, I got covered with cats, including some that don’t normally cuddle with me like that. At one point, I had 5 cats directly on me, and I don’t know how many against my legs. I ended up with Shadow right against my side, and Clarence right against him, both draped over my bicep.
Both images are of Shadow, just inches from my face. So close that my phone’s camera (which I keep close by in case I need to message for help) measured as dark and used the flash. His face looks mashed because it IS mashed. By Clarence.
I had updated the family on our group chat about my status, still willing to go into the city later in the day, if someone could come with me. My husband had already suggested I wait until tomorrow. My older daughter came by later and basically said the same thing.
*sigh* Another day wasted because of this pain. I am so glad the surgery is happening in just a couple of weeks.
Eventually, the pain did recede a bit. My daughters were working on supper – my younger daughter was looking really rough today! – and I felt well enough to do the outside cat feeding again. Once that was taken care of, I did a light version of my evening rounds. I find the fresh air and moving around helps. Mentally, if not necessarily physically.
While doing that, I noticed that the old, leaking water barrel by the apple tree and gooseberry bush was looking surprisingly full of water. Usually, it leaks until there’s only about half a foot of water on the bottom, but I could see the water line was at about 3/4 full.
So I took advantage of that and watered just some of the fruit trees and berry bushes. I wasn’t up to hooking the hose up to do all the ones I normally water. It actually felt pretty good to do as much as I did, and didn’t make things worse, which I was grateful for.
While checking the main garden area, I noticed these are getting nice and big.
So far, only one of the Chocolate Stripe tomato plants has developing tomatoes. They’re looking pretty good!
I’m going to have to get that canopy tent set up soon. The garlic looks about ready to harvest, and I plan to hang them under the canopy tent to cure. I’ve got one kohlrabi and a couple of green pattypan squash (Green Scallop Benning) that I will be able to harvest tomorrow. Of the five types of summer squash I’ve got, one of them has not had any flowers yet, male or female. The Lemon squash. The yellow scallop squash at least has male flowers blooming, if no female flowers, yet.
Now, near enough to the end of the day that a trip to Costco is out of the question, I’m actually feeling a lot better.
If only that can last through tomorrow, and I can finally make the trip in, and not need to drag a daughter along, too.
Today was much cooler, with possible rain, so I didn’t need to water the garden today. I did get a harvest, though. This time, from the opposite end of the row.
These are the Viking potatoes. Not as many as when I harvested from the south end of the bed, but there was a definite reason for that. SO many elm roots under just the two plants at the end of the bed I dug under! Very frustrating.
In the next image is the complete harvest. More tri-colour bush beans, a few little carrots (they don’t seem to be getting any bigger; the soil is probably too compact again) and a couple of stalks from the walking onions. I broke off most of the bulbils and laid them down where I want to keep the walking onions growing, otherwise, they’d take over in the grass beyond the garden. The “stalks” are so big, I only grabbed two of them, which was more than enough for the day’s use.
I checked out one of the corn cobs that had dried out silks. It was on the outer edge, and I found it was very poorly pollinated. Very few developing kernels. I did try to shake the pollen down and make sure the stalks along the outside were dusted, to sort of imitate the wind, but I guess it didn’t work very well. I really should have had that second block I’d intended to plant but was never able to, right next to it. That would have improved things. Ah, well. We should still have something!
I then headed out for most of the day, which I’ll cover in another post, and the girls will be doing something with what I picked. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!
As expected, today broke 30C/86F. I don’t know what the humidex was. I was outside by 7am, watering the garden and it was starting to get too hot before I finished. It’s past 7:30pm now, and it’s just barely starting to dip below 30C/86F now.
I do have to chuckle a bit about when I do the outside cat feeding these days, both morning and evening now. There are at lest 4 little skunks that come out almost right away. I found myself with an extra tray that I ended up setting under the rail I hang the end of the hose from as an extra kibble and cat soup tray. After feeding the cats and getting ready to water the garden, there was a little skunk under the hose. I used it to rinse off the soup bucket, and it didn’t turn away. It got all foot stompy and chittering, but didn’t run. It was famished and kept eating, clearly struggling between wanting to run away and eating.
Which is the only reason I don’t chase them away. These little ones are famished – and I’m not seeing a mama with them. I suspect something got the mama and, right now, we might be their only reliable source of food. I am not setting out any extra for them, but I can’t begrudge a hungry baby its sustenance. They get along with the cats and, other than leaving poop in the sun room, they don’t make a mess or cause damage. So I let them eat. I only chase them off if the big one comes out and starts bullying the littles. Pretty sure that one is a big male.
Meanwhile…
I got a couple of calls from my mother this afternoon.
*sigh*
I had to hang up on her, the first time.
I saw the call display, so I knew it was her when I answered, but when I said hello, there was nothing. I said hello again. Still nothing. I checked to make sure the line was still open, and it was. I said hello again, and she finally answered.
???
We had barely said our hellos when she started. I’d asked how she was doing, and she started talking about all the commotion outside her window from the “big celebration”. This would be the annual festival that has been happening in this town for more than 100 years, and has been getting bigger and bigger over the past two or three decades. An entire “village” with historical re-enactments gets set up in the park next to the nursing home, and the parking normally used for fishing boats or people parking at the marine across the road gets set up with at least a dozen food trucks – and this isn’t even the main event area! All the carnival rides, stage performances and indoor exhibitions are at another park, across town.
“Across town” being about 4 blocks.
When she mentioned it, I told her I knew it was on – and that it was why I was not going anywhere near town today or tomorrow.
She then started saying she thought the parade was happening tomorrow (it is), and that I should “bring the children”. I needed to “bring the children” and get them around people. Get “the children” doing things.
I finally cut her off and said, “they’re not children. They’re adults.”
She just doubled down. I needed to take “the children” to see the parade.
Never mind that we’ve never really liked parades. Never mind that both daughters have health problems and one of them almost died not that long ago. We’ve only told my mother they have health problems, because we know she doesn’t care, and couldn’t understand it anyhow. So she doesn’t know the details, but she does know that none of us are well. The last time she called was when she wanted me to come visit and I had to tell her I’d just come back from the ER. She didn’t ask anything about it. She just kept hammering at me that I needed to take “the children” to the parade.
As she kept going, I told her to stop.
She didn’t.
I told her to stop again.
She ignored me.
I said good bye and hung up.
The entire call was less than 1 minute.
I had started to update my brother and SIL when the phone rang again. It was my mother, so I answered.
I got a dial tone. She hung up before I had a chance to pick up.
So I finished updating my family on the group chat we have specifically for discussions about our mother, when the phone rang again. It was my mother. I answered and said hello.
Nothing.
Hello?
Nothing.
Hello?
She finally said hello.
She then spoke as if the last call never happens. This time, she launched into how she wanted me to come over so she could give me money. “Lots” of money, so I could buy her some fruit. For some reason, she really felt she needed fruit.
I told her again, I was not going into town today. At the earliest, I could go tomorrow afternoon.
Not today?
No. Not today. Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest – partly because the streets in front of the grocery store will be closed off for the parade.
Oh, as long as the grocery store is open.
…
Then she started listing off the other things she wanted me to bring. One, her oscillating fan, I can do. The other two items would require digging past other stores items blocking the way, and digging through boxes. One of them was an old radio that she is convinced will be magically able to get the radio station she wants, even though it’s not any better than the radio she already has. When I told her no, it was in storage, and I can’t get at it, she wanted to know why. Was it locked? I couldn’t exactly explain to her that I have so many things from her apartment here, we can barely used our own living room. I just said, there are other things in the way and I can’t get at it.
She did, eventually, accept that.
Then she told me she didn’t know how to turn the light off on her phone. The light by the neck strap. As near as I can figure out, it’s the built in flashlight. She somehow turned it on, and now doesn’t know how to turn it off. She keeps pushing buttons, she says, but it won’t turn off.
I told her, don’t button mash!
Then she told me she had tried to phone my sister, then my brother, and tried to phone me, but was only able to reach me.
Which explains the earlier non-call.
She doesn’t know how to use the phone. She needs a “real” phone. I told her, my brother got her the simplest, easiest phone he could. He and I had looked at all kinds of phones, and he picked the easiest one for her. Oh, she leaves the technology to my brother.
*sigh*
Oh, and it’s been a long time since my brother visited, and did I know where he was?
I told her, he’s been busy trying to fix their car – which is true, but he’d come out here to fix his tractor, too. I wasn’t going to tell her that. Especially since the part he got turned out to not work so they went back to the city this morning – I saw them drive by while I was watering the garden. They didn’t get back until this evening.
I told her I would pass on to my brother and my sister about her wanting fruit, so whoever got to her first could bring something. Amazingly, she actually let me go shortly after that.
After messaging my brother and texting my sister, I finished eating my supper then headed outside.
As I was finishing setting out the kibble and the cat soup, I saw Batman, loafed in front of the sun room door. I stepped outside and pet him and he didn’t move so, right away, I knew something was wrong. He normally runs away.
When I came back, he was still there. I picked him up and put him near a tray with cat soup in it. When I came back moments later, he was loafed again, and using the edge of the tray as a pillow, barely breathing. I don’t think he ate.
At this point, I just tried to make him as comfortable as possible, and gave him pets. He’s never allowed pets before, but he seemed to appreciate them. Every now and then, I’d come back and find he’d moved a bit. When I found him next to the water bowl, I found a shallow water bowl and set it beside him with fresh water. I don’t think he drank.
After a while, I set up a soft bed for him, instead of the hard concrete, but later found he’d gotten off, then lay on the concrete.
I don’t think he’ll last until morning.
The only external evidence of illness that I can see is on his back end, where he’d clearly had done some messy business, but just as clearly, it was not recent.
I kept checking on him as I got things done. We had high winds today, so I walked around the yard with the wagon to pick up fallen branches, mostly from the willows. It was too hot for some of the jobs I meant to do, and too windy for others, but I did get the folding table out of the garage and set up behind the kibble house. I brought the canopy tent over, too, but it was too windy to set it up. Over the next while, I hope to be able to empty the sun room and give it a proper cleaning, and some things need to stay out of the weather. I also expect to be harvesting the garlic soon, and I’ll be hanging them to cure across the inside of the tent.
With the heat, the garden needed another watering, but it was still too hot. I went inside, planning to rest and hydrate before going out again, but by then, the pain was kicking in and I knew I wouldn’t be able to. My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, went out to do it for me.
As for myself, I’ve taken my tramadol, and it doesn’t seem to be doing a thing. In fact, the pain has been getting worse as I have been writing this.
My daughter just came by to update me. She has seen Batman moving around but, being covered in bug spray, she didn’t want to touch him. I’ve been warned he is now directly under the door between the old kitchen and the sun room, so to watch my step. Also, she had to chase both a skunk and a racoon out of the sun room! She also had a chance to talk to my brother while she was watering the garden, which is nice. Since she works nights, she doesn’t get a chance to see them much.
As soon as I’m done writing this, I’m going to have to take my evening supplements and lie down. Just sitting up at my computer is getting too painful.
Well, I’m glad I didn’t head to the city today for our second stock up shop. That will definitely wait until after the long weekend. Not only will I not have to deal with holiday crowds, but Tuesday is supposed to finally be cooler again.
I had an early start to the day, not by choice. It wasn’t pain that woke me up – it was cats going nuts! – though I did immediately get a headache. I don’t normally get headaches, and I don’t know what triggered it.
I topped up the inside cat kibble bowls which calmed them down a little bit, but they’ve been really bonkers lately. Since I was up anyhow, I went out to do the morning feeding and watering of the yard cats.
Sprout’s baby has starting coming to the food bowls in its own, without mom around!
(As an aside, Gouda did show up again. I had a scare with Batman, but he showed up, too. Still no Havarti, no Domino, no Adam and no Flopsy. At this point, it is highly unlikely we will see them again. Others seems to have disappeared, too, among the tabbies we never got to name. All have gone missing in an unusually short time. 😢😢😢)
It was wonderfully cool, heading outside that early in the morning. It helped my headache a bit, at least. I was planning to go straight back to bed, but I found myself not only with the headache, but suddenly famished. As in, feeling nauseous and dizzy and ready to pass out, hungry. Also odd, because I had gone to bed early last night, but got up at around midnight because of the pain my left hip. The painkillers helped with the abdominal pain but did nothing for the wrecked hip. My older daughter was up and working on commissions while it was cooler, and she was kind enough to rub some of the topical painkiller on my hip joint for me. Then she was kind enough to make me some grilled cheese sandwiches. Since I was up anyhow, I turned on the computer and paid the bills. By the time she brought me the food, my hip was no longer hurting, and I could finally sleep. I went back to bed at around two, so it was only about 3-4 hours later that I found myself awake and suddenly famished.
My body is completely out of whack!
My attempt to get more sleep was only half successful. It was disorienting to get up, feeling like it should be coming up on noon, but it was early enough that my alarm to do a wellness check on my husband hadn’t gone off yet.
With having to move the hoses because I knew my SIL was planning to mow the lawn, the garden hadn’t been watered at all for two days. Being slightly cooler today, and the mowing done, I went out to do it early this afternoon. Everything got an extra deep watering today, and I set up the hose into the leaky barrel to do the food forest trees, too. They also got extra water, and the leaking barrel will continue to water the apple, gooseberry and probably the plum, too, slowly as it empties.
When I moved to the south side of the hose to water the garden beds there, I started a little creature and saw a streak of white bolting out from under the water bowl shelter and across the yard.
It was Sprout’s baby! It is starting to come closer to the house for food!!! Progress!!!!
While watering the tomato bed, I spotted a splash of colour.
Our very first ripe tomato! 😂🤣 This is an Orange Currant tomato which is pretty much an orange version of the Spoon tomatoes we’ve grown before – the one kind of tomato I can eat raw. I didn’t eat this one, though. My daughter had gone to the truck to sew up a split seam on the driver’s seat for me, so I gave it to her.
She said it was very good!
I was getting close to finishing the watering when my brother and SIL arrived. They have their own planned out stuff to do, so I don’t expect to actually see them much while there are here. Especially since I have not been outside anywhere near as much as I normally would be.
Still, by the time I was done watering (which took almost 3 hours), I was feeling pretty good. Good enough that I brought the truck around and my younger daughter helped me load up the garbage and recycling.
Thankfully, she came with me to the dump.
By the time the truck was loaded, I could tell the pain was starting to return. By the time we drove the two miles to the highway, it was getting hard to sit up straight. I was still good to drive, though. When we got to the dump, we stopped at the recycling bins first, and I got out to help my daughter take care of those. By then, I knew I was done. I could get in and out of the truck, but I was not going to be able to throw anything into the pit. So when we drove to the pit, my daughter took care of throwing the garbage bags in while I stayed in the truck.
On the way home, we made a side trip to the general store. The only thing I didn’t get while doing the earlier stock up trip was butter, and I discovered we were almost out. I ended up giving my daughter my debit card so she could run in and get the butter, plus a couple other things, while I stayed in the truck.
When we got home, she asked me to drive into the yard so she could hose down the box of the truck, as one of the kitchen garbage bags had leaked. I was happy to do that, as it meant a shorter walk to the house. While she took care of things, I took some painkillers and hydrated for a while.
My older daughter had started supper and it was ready before we got back, which was much appreciated.
Thankfully, the painkillers actually kicked in, so I was up to heading outside again. I’d forgotten to change out the memory cards on the trail cams yesterday. I no longer switch them out every day, but every week or so, now that we have fewer security concerns. Sad to think that it took our vandal passing away for that to happen, but it really has been a weight lifted off of all of us.
Of course, I just had to check out the garden beds before going back inside. Which is when I spotted something that I’m amazed I hadn’t seen before, while I was watering.
These are the California Wonder bell peppers. The biggest plant has these two big peppers on it – one of them is stuck upside down, between stems. I had need tiny peppers forming on other plants, but somehow missed these ones!
Tomorrow is supposed to get quite hot again, so I plan to go to bed extra early to do an early morning watering, and will likely do an evening watering, too. Tomorrows heat is supposed to last from about noon to 8pm, before it starts cooling down. The overnight temperatures, at least, are much more bearable!
So, today didn’t happen as planned, but it sort of happened as expected.
For all that I felt so well yesterday, I had a mostly sleepless night. I finally just got up, fed the outside cats, and did my morning routine. I made sure to bring a container along, as the bush beans had not been harvested yesterday, so I knew there would be plenty to pick, today.
I pretty much filled the colander I was using. It was mostly yellow beans, as we have more plants of those, and they seem to be more prolific, but there were plenty of purple and green pods to pick, too.
Once back inside, I stayed long enough that knew the lab would be open, then headed out. The plan was still to go to Costco after I got my blood work and EKG done, so I made sure to grab ice packs. By the time I got to the hospital, though, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else. I was just too tired and sleepy, on top of all my joints aching from tossing and turning all night.
At the lab, I was called in very quickly after dropping off my requisition papers. Blood was drawn first, and then it was straight to gown up for the EKG. The test itself took less time than it took to wire me up!
From there, I just stopped to get a bit more gas before heading home, had a light lunch, took some pain killers and tried to lie down.
It didn’t really work. Neither the painkillers, nor the attempt at a nap.
When I finally gave up, I was soon back outside again. It was a bit early, but I went ahead and did the evening cat feeding, as well as refreshing their water bowls and putting in new frozen water bottles. My brother and SIL had their own plans change a few times, but they will be coming out today; while my brother works on his tractor, my SIL planned to start mowing the lawn. It goes a lot faster with their big zero turn mower, that’s for sure! They’ll be going back to the city for the night, though, and coming back tomorrow.
I decided to do a bit of weed trimming.
One area I wanted to get trimmed is what will be a stone framed flower garden near the gate, around my mother’s angel statue. I had already started to place rocks down but wasn’t happy with it. I moved them all aside, then weed trimmed the area before laying them back out in what I think is a better set up. Eventually, soil will be added to make a slightly raised bed, as that area is low and becomes a pond at times. The plan is to sow varieties of flower seeds in there that do better being planted in the fall and going through a winter’s deep freeze.
After that, I did some trimming around the garage and the baler my brother parked beside it. I’ve got my first two logs meant for the outdoor kitchen in there, too, and it’s hard to get in there with a mower, so it was starting to get pretty overgrown.
By the time I was done that area, plus trimming around some rocks in the yard so no one would accidentally go over them with a mower, I was also just plain done. Even this small amount of physical activity has trigged a return of my abdominal pain. Something I’d hoped wouldn’t happen, after not having any of this pain at all yesterday. Even so, I hoped I could rest and go back outside, but as I sit here typing, I’m realizing that this is not going to happen after all.
*sigh*
I did, however, do something else today, for next year’s garden.
I’m starting to think I’m addicted to seeds. 😂🤣
I’d been going through the MI Gardener site last night and even went so far as to start a shopping cart going, but then headed to bed. I don’t actually need more seeds, but I wanted to try some new varieties, fill some gaps, and there was a modest sale on.
Well, today a 40% off seed sale started, so I went back and added a few more things and placed the order.
I am such a sucker for seeds!
This is what I ordered today.
Yes, I got more tomatoes. These mature in only 42 days, hence the name, 42 Day Tomato, which means they can actually be direct sown in the spring rather than started indoors.
I tried another variety of spinach, Verdil. I still have others, but we like spinach, but have not been able to actually get good results for a while. This variety is less prone to bolting.
I also got yet another variety of pepper, Diamond Bell. We’re still working out what varieties the family enjoys most.
The Honey Rock Melon is a short season variety that could also be potentially direct sowed, rather than starting indoors.
The Tendergreen Cucumber can be harvested small for pickling or long for fresh eating, and the girls have expressed a desire for a slicing variety.
I got yet another variety of corn – Double Red Sweet. Not a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two. I just like the look of them, and like to try something other than your basic yellow corn.
I got even more carrot seeds. I’m coming to the conclusion that we can’t plant too many carrots. I chose an orange variety called Tendersweet, and…
… I got a yellow variety, just for something different.
Yes, I still have Atomic Red carrots, too. Variety is good.
I have had no luck with the tiny bok choi, as they always seem to bolt, so I’ve decided to try a Pak Choi cabbage that is less prone to bolting.
I was looking at the beets and decided to just get another Assorted Beet Mix – and then got another Sugar Beet packet. I still have some, but I want to try growing enough both to try making my own sugar, and to use as chicken feed, when we finally get our birds.
The Black Sesame seed is something I am curious to try, though it might not be next year.
I already got the plain garbanzo beans, and I figured I may as well try the black version, too.
I also wanted to try a new zucchini variety; Bianco Di Trieste. Because we never manage to have “too much” summer squash!
I have so many different types of melon sees, but I couldn’t resist getting some Tendersweet Orange watermelon – another shorter season variety.
I also have quite a few varieties of peas, but decided to try the Wando pea as well. We have yet to grow grow enough peas to do much more than snack on them, so I hope this variety does better. There aren’t a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two.
I’ve been interesting in growing leeks for some time, and today I finally picked up Carentan Leek; a variety that has a shorter growing season.
And finally, I picked up some Copenhagen cabbage which, if I remember correctly, is the variety of cabbage I bought transplants for when I didn’t think the Purple Savoy cabbage would grow at all. So we will have both varieties again, next year.
Once of the things I’ll be doing closer to fall is going through my entire seed inventory and organizing it into things I can plant in the fall for winter sowing, things that need to be started indoors, and things for direct sowing.
Hopefully, after I’ve had my surgery, I’ll be better able, physically, to build and prepare beds. This forced inactivity is driving me nuts.
If I’m not careful, I might end up buying more seeds again…
