Just loving how the colours shine on those feathers.
The females aren’t all shiny, but you can see detail on them, much more easily.
Critter of the Day: iridescent
photo of the day
Morning cheer
Before I continue with what I found while doing my rounds this morning, I just have to share this adorable photo I managed to take, yesterday.
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Growing things – and that’s dedication!
While doing my evening rounds, I found all sorts of lovely growing things!
My mother’s yellow lilies ad opening up like crazy, with lots of buds. They are going to do very well this year!
The white roses my mother planted in the same area are doing much better than last year. These are the same type as by the house, but it’s not as good a location for them, so they tend not to be the explosion of flowers, like I can see outside my bedroom window right now.
I was really happy to see so many cherries forming! These are just the ones by the house – where last year, I found only 3 cherries, in total! The ones by the spruces are also showing lots of cherries starting to form.
Not long after I did my rounds and got these photos, it start to rain.
It continued to rain pretty much through the night, and was still raining when I drove my daughter to work.
Which is so awesome! All the flowers, fruit trees and berry bushes are going to love it!
I swung by the lake this morning. It was still raining and quite windy, so I was expecting things to be empty, but nope. Some people are just really, really dedicated to their fun!
I watched as this guy was kneeling on his board, struggling to paddle against the waves. He managed to stand for a little while, but was soon back on his knees, trying to paddle out further. He was still at it when I left!
Though the rain has certainly cooled things down, we’re still supposed to be hitting temperatures in the mid 20s C for a while, then into the high 20s C by next week. I’ll take the cool breezes while I can! :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Making a quick rope gate
Yesterday, our renter transferred his cows to this section, so I added making a gate to my to-do list for this morning.
Before I started on it, though, I painted the gates. One side is now done, and the other now has its first coat done and just needs a second coat.
This is the area I needed to work on.
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Critter of the Day: Good Mourning
We had a new bird show up at our feeding station in May that had us pretty excited. It was clearly a dove, but not one I’d ever seen before.
My daughter did some research and identified it as a mourning dove, and mentioned that we’ve been hearing them many times.
This was when I discovered that a hooting owl sound I remember hearing throughout my childhood growing up here, was not an owl at all, but a mourning dove!
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Fixing garden hoses
Today, I made a quick trip into town to pick up a new litter box for the sun room. Small as they are, 10 kittens and 1 little litter box isn’t working anymore! :-D
Since I was in town anyways, I stopped to pick up replacement hose connectors.
Garden hoses are among the things we’re finding lots of, all over the place, and they all suck! Last year we threw out a couple because they had so many holes in them. Why they were kept at all was a mystery! I’ve even found some in the barn, but they’ve been there so long, they’re actually brittle.
For the past while, we’ve been using 4 hoses that we’ve found. They all leak, but were still usable, for the most part. When I washed the gates in the garage in preparation for painting, I had to hook all 4 of them together to be able reach into the garage. One of the connections had started to spray so much, my daughter thought it was a sprinkler, at first!
We do need new hoses, but replacing them is low on the budget priority list. Especially since I want to replace them with heavy duty 50′ and 100′ hoses. Replacing the connectors, on the other hand, is much more affordable.
I picked up some inexpensive brass connectors. After testing the first pair of hoses, these are the ends that need replacing.
This was very much a “use the tools I got” project. I used pruning sheers to cut the old ends off.
I could really tell the difference between the quality of hoses while inserting the connectors! Yes, I did get the one on the right pushed in further. This involved slamming the end into the bench I was using as a work surface. LOL
Then I used the concrete step as a surface to hammer the grips into the hose.
When I tested it later, I discovered I accidentally hammered the female coupling into an oval, and had to hammer it back into shape. LOL
After finding these two no longer leaked, I tested the other pair of hoses.
This one was spraying so much, it reduced the water pressure when using it. Which was a problem when we had it hooked up to the back tap and were using it with a sprinkler to water the raspberries I’d transplanted. :-D
Fixing this turned out to have an unexpected problem. This is a heavier duty hose than any of the others, and the inner circumference was much smaller. I wasn’t able to stretch it enough to insert the connector. I could stretch it quite a bit with the tools I had, so I knew I could get the connector in, but it didn’t stay stretched. Which is good for a hose, but not good for what I was trying to do! :-D
Through a combination of careful snips with the pruning sheers and some spray lubricant, I was able to get it in. Not far enough for the grips to catch all of the hose, though. I eventually thought of using a small box cutter to make a couple more surgical incisions in the outer layer of the hose, which allowed it to stretch enough that I could push (well… slam, repeatedly…) the connector in further. I had my doubts whether it would work or not, so I tested it right away.
Yes!!! It worked! No more spraying. Not even a little leak.
The other hose it’s attached to was not leaking… yet.
It had several cracks like this at one end, so I cut off about two feet of hose, then attached the connector.
While not as heavy duty as the one I’d just finished, this one also had an inner lining that made it too a bit small for the connector. This time, however, I had my skinny little box cutter handy, and I was able to shave some of the inner liner off at the end. Between that and the spray lubricant, I was able to get the connector in and finish the job.
I wish I’d thought of that with the previous hose. It would have been a lot easier to do, if I had!
We do still need to replace the hoses, but for less than $15, I’ve added years to their usability.
It also means that I can leave the water tap on, and not be wasting water from all the drips and spraying.
Once done, I was glad to get inside again. While I did the work in the shade, the testing was done in full sun. We’ve hit 28C today, and it’s supposed to stay hot like this for the next couple of weeks.
At times like this, I quite appreciate how cool the main floor of the house stays.
The Re-Farmer
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Good Morning!
It was lovely doing my rounds with morning, and I just wanted to share some of my flowering finds. :-)
One of my mother’s fancy lilacs is now blooming. Last year, while cleaning up this flower bed, I took out a maple tree that was growing in the middle of it!
At its base, where I had pruned and cleared quite a bit, there is now massive new growth of this lilac.
Swallowtails love lilacs, we’ve noticed. :-) I wasn’t able to get a picture of one this morning, though.
The first couple of my mother’s poppies opened this morning. This one is near the lilac bush in the above picture. The large leaves you see to the left is a small cherry tree. Small enough that I hope to transplant it to a better location, by next year.
Another poppy that opened up this morning is under the bird bath.
We’re going to have lots of these blooming, this year!
I tried making my way through an area of the spruce grove this morning, but there were too many fallen trees and undergrowth blocking my way. The wild roses scattered throughout, however, were blooming enthusiastically in the mess. It should be interesting to see how they do after the area is cleaned up, and they have more light and space. :-)
This is one of the plants I’ve been seeing growing all over the places where I had pruned branches and cleared away deadwood. This one is near the south fence of the spruce grove, where I’d managed to do some clearing before the snow fell, last year. This is the first of the flowers I’m seeing from this plant. I don’t know the name of it, but we’re going to have quite a lot of these, all over the place! :-)
I also did a bit of patriotic decorating today.
Canada Day will be here soon, so I set up four sturdy little flags that we have, on the East fence line, facing the road.
Kinda wishing I had more! I love how they look. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Critter of the Day: strange bird!
Basement finds and explorations
It’s been a hot one here today, so not a lot of outside stuff until later on. It was fascinating to find out from a dear friend that, in the city we moved away from, they had only 8C, and not too far from there, people got snow!
One of the things I need to do is re-pot some of our indoor plants. Today, I made a trip into the basements (which I usually avoid, because my feet and stairs don’t get along at the best of times!) to rifle through the various plant pots I had seen hidden in various places.
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The Re-Farmer 