Uncategorized

A bit early, isn’t it?

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

20180818.leaves

I would not have expected this many leaves on the ground, this early in the year. :-/

This photo also shows just how little rain we have had this year.  If you look in the back, near the tire planter, there is a definite rectangle of greener grass.  I had set up the sprinkler to water where the grapes are, a couple of times.  Since it was there anyway, I set it to full to water the grass as well.  When I came to harvest some grapes, I moved the sprinkler to the other side of the steps, to water the wilting lilacs at the corner of the storage house.  Just that little bit of watering made a difference!

While I will water the plants, I don’t typically water the lawn.  Yes, we are on a well and water is “free”, but running the water means the pump is running constantly until it’s shut off.  I’d really prefer not to wear it out!

I have been chomping at the bit today, wanting to start working on the spruces.  While it hasn’t been quite as hot as predicted yet, we’re still up there, and the humidex makes if feel even hotter.  I kept thinking, it’s not that hot.  I could probably get a couple of hours in…  I managed to resist working on the trees, but I did go outside to work on the wiper blades on the van.  It’s parked by the house, to make it easier to load up for the dump run we’ll be making later, and I finally remembered.  Our van’s washer fluid sprays out from the wipers themselves, but on the driver’s side, the sprayer was held on with electric tape, which seemed to be blocking it.  The other side was held in place with a zip tie.  I ended up doing both of them with new zip ties, only to find that it just sprays wonky, anyhow. LOL  Then I cleaned up and rearranged in front of the main entry, making the hand rail more accessible.  I didn’t realize how much my mother needed it to get to the door.  The bench I placed in front of the bin we use to keep garbage bags until we can haul them away was blocking her from reaching it.

By the time I was done, I realised that yes, it is quite hot out there, and heavy manual labour is not a good idea.  No matter how fun it is! :-D

Tomorrow will be cooler and…

oh!  My phone just dinged.  A severe thunderstorm watch for today and tomorrow for the area.  Hmm.  What I was going to say is that it is expected to be cooler tomorrow, but it’s Sunday, and I do try to have Sundays as a day or rest, so I wouldn’t be working on the trees, anyhow.  I guess the weather is going to be making sure of that, after all!

Seeing all those leaves on the grass has made me more aware of how quickly time flies.  I want to get as much done in the yard as I can, before winter sets in.

I know it’s a running joke to talk about the weather, but it really is a big deal.  For my neighbouring farmers, weather can make or break their entire year.  I am grateful that our income does not depend on what the weather does, it still plays a big part in deciding what we do, and when.  Something as simple as the leaves coming down early is a good reminder of that.

The Re-Farmer

Fruit of the vine

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I’ve picked our first grapes today!

Most of them are like this, still.

20180816.grapes.on.vine

But I was able to gather some ripe ones.

20180816.bowl.of.grapes

They are so tiny, and each grape has a single seed in it.

Growing among the spirea, I was doing a fair bit of digging among the leaves, and kept finding more and more bunches.   Few were fully ripe, but there are a lot in there!

This bowl full will be enjoyed as is.  Over the next while, I hope to harvest enough to make some jelly or something with it.  :-)

The Re-Farmer

Oh, my shaggy friends!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Driving home from town this morning, I was happy to see the bison were by the fence – on a day when I had the DSLR with me!

2018-08-16.bison.at.fence1

Though the orange haze of this morning was fading away, it was still smokey, as you can see in the background.

2018-08-16.adolescent.bison

This adolescent bison seemed rather curious about me.

2018-08-16.bison.at.fence2

What a beautiful, shaggy face!

Oh, how I love seeing these beautiful creatures!

The Re-Farmer

Orange haze

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

20180816-113303_AccuWeatherIt was almost disorienting, getting up to drive my daughter to work this morning.  Instead of the usual brightness for this time of year, it was dark.  Instead of sunshine, everything had an orange overcast to it.

The cloud of smoke from the fires on the West coast that had engulfed our former home for the past few days has finally reached us.

And yet, we weren’t getting any air quality warnings on our weather apps at all – that didn’t come in until several hours later – and it didn’t smell like smoke.

I had planned to bring my older daughter’s camera along, to take photos at the beach after dropping her sister off at work.  I decided to bring it anyhow, leaving the telephoto lens on it.  I honestly didn’t expect to get any good photos, but I did manage a few.

 

(click on the photos to see larger versions)

Everything was just this greyish orange colour.  There was no sun.  We couldn’t even see any sign of where the sun should have been.

I wanted to stay in town long enough to be able to pick up some prescription refills, so along with my usual playing of Pokemon Go, I decided to walk along the wharf and the breakwater.  The wharf ends abruptly, and then there is a gravel path along the stones of the breakwater.  While walking to the end of this section (there is a gap for the larger boats, then it continues into a cove), I had my game up.  I couldn’t help but laugh.

20180816-083905_Pokémon GO

I can walk on water! :-D

The wharf is on the game’s map, but not the breakwater.

Interestingly, the line of buoys in the lake, marking the closest boats can come to the shore, and the farthest swimmers can go out, is on the map, looking for all the world like a sidewalk, running through the lake.

2018-08-16.breakwater

The stones are naturally more of a pale yellow in colour, but not today!

After  while, I headed to a park that’s part of my gaming routine and stayed a while.  I was just getting ready to leave, when the sun made an appearance, at almost 9:30!

2018-08-16.hazy.sun

It was so hazy, I could look directly at it, comfortably.  I tried playing with the settings on the camera to try and get how orange it was, but this is the closest I could get.  The orange that you can see around the circumference is what the entire orb looked like in real life.

Though I couldn’t smell the smoke much at all – it was more than lost in the smell of yeast from the distillery – by the time I was done walking around and returned to my van, I could feel my throat and lungs starting to get irritated.  These conditions would be awful for anyone with respiratory conditions!

I pray that the rains will come and help the firefighters put out these devastating blazes.

The Re-Farmer

Kittens, kittens, all of the kittens!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Butterscotch seems to have moved her kittens again, and from seeing her yesterday evening while I was clearing the bush, I am afraid she may have moved them off our property entirely, and to the neighbour’s across the road (no one lives there, as far as I can tell).

This evening, I brought food and refilled the water for Beep Beep and her kittens, by the garden shed.  There was no sign of them, and I went on my way around the yard.  As I made my way back, I found Butterscotch and all her kittens!

20180815.butterscotch.and.kittens

I had to zoom in with my phone camera quite a bit, as they did not seem comfortable with me coming closer.

Eventually, I came around again and saw Beep Beep at the food.

Except it wasn’t Beep Beep!  It was her grey tabby!

I sat at the picnic table and, before I knew it, I had all 6 kittens around!  Butterscotch was still around, some of the time, too.

Here is some video I got while I was there.

Just before I was ready to leave, I did finally see Beep Beep.  She was carrying a bird in her mouth that was almost as big as her head!  She didn’t come close, though.  Her tuxedo saw her and ran after her, wanting that bird, but she continued carrying it through the garden.

It looks like she may have moved her kittens across the road, too. :-(  This concerns me.  While we are pretty isolated, that road is a main artery West from the highway, and is quite busy for a gravel road.

At least they know to come back here for assured food and water!

The Re-Farmer

Morning at the lake

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

After the heat we’ve been having lately, this morning was downright chilly!

No, that’s not a complaint! :-D

20180815.beach.waves

I actually wore a light jacket when I drove my daughter to work. :-D  After dropping her off, I stopped at the lake and walked on the beach for a while (which just happens to help me get some kilometers in on Pokemon Go… ;-) ).  By the time I got back to the van, it was starting to be too warm for that jacket!  We’re supposed to hit over 30C today, so we’ll really be appreciating how cool the house got overnight, because it’ll stay that way for most of the day, once we close up the windows.

20180815.beach.shell

Life is so much slower and calmer out here.  For all the inconveniences of the move, and the various challenges we’ve had since then, life is good!

Speaking of good…

My husband’s CPAP came in yesterday!!  He was lying down when we got back, but for this, I disturbed him. :-D  We got it set up, and he immediately lay down to sleep again – this time, with his hospital bed flat.  He’s been without for so long, he has to get used to it all over again!  Much to our surprise, he even had to reduce the pressure on the machine.  It’s an adjustable pressure machine, which means it is set at a range, rather than just one pressure.  It’s rather a big deal for him to be able to reduce that range, considering how high he normally needs to keep it.

Pretty awesome. :-)

The Re-Farmer.

 

 

There are fungus among us

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

My apologies for the bad pun… :-D

Walking through the West yard, we noticed these, high above our heads…

20180813.mushrooms1

This is on one of the three big maples near the fire pit.

They showed up very quickly; I know for sure they weren’t there, just a couple of days ago!

Looking around, we found these on another branch of the same tree.

20180813.mushrooms2

That’s as much as I could zoom in with my phone’s camera and still get a half decent photo.

Of course, we immediately started looking around the other trees for more, but found none, so we continued on through where I had been working this morning.  We ended up going through the rest of the maple grove, too, and found more!

20180813.mushrooms3

These were just a few feet above our heads.

Whatever these mushrooms are, they like maples, they like the spaces where branches used to grow, long ago, and they grow really fast!

The Re-Farmer

A visible difference

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While walking around the maple grove with my daughter (and finding mushrooms growing on trees!  Will post those later…), I found myself looking at the lonely little Colorado Blue Spruce near the main garden.

Here is how things looked about a month and a half ago.

This first picture was taken at the very end of June.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.near.gardenpath.lookingeast

On the left, you can see three sad looking trees, grouped together.

This next photo was taken on July 2.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.progress.evening

I cut away two of the three trees, and pruned the dead branches on the remaining one, hoping it would survive, and maybe even thrive.

Well, this is how it looks now.

20180813.colorado.blue

As you can see, the new growth filled in vigorously!

It’s even looking blue. :-D

Here’s a closer look at one of the branches.

20180813.colorado.blue.branch

Here, you can really see the older, greener, needles contrasted with the new, bluer, growth.

It is already becoming a happy little tree, instead of a sad little tree. :-D

This is exactly what I was hoping to see – and faster than I expected!

This is a tree with the potential to grow 65 ft tall, with a width from 10-20 ft, though I have read they can reach 135ft high and 30 ft wide. They can grow anywhere from 12 – 24 inches in a single growing season.  This is a tree that needs space!  It’s unfortunate that the three of them had been planted so close together.  There are others that I hope I can clear up around and salvage.  This one, at least, might actually make it!

This makes me happy. :-)

The Re-Farmer