It’s been a much cooler day today, so I took advantage of it and continued working along our west fence line.
In all, the before and after photos below represent about 2 1/2 hours work. This includes pausing to take some video, and also pausing to drag away the branches and tree trunks I took down.
What a job!
Let’s start at that group of three maples, where I left off last time. Continue reading
That face…
I actually thought he was asleep when I saw him sprawled on his back like this. Then I saw the eye. Staring. At me.
The Re-Farmer
Yesterday evening, while walking around the yard, I was followed by a little beast!
I was even able to pick him up and pet him for a bit. I dragged the end of a stick on the ground that he and his mother had a blast trying to catch, and I caught him (her? still don’t know). He was tense about it, but not freaking out, which is progress!
I found that the plums are now ripe.
These tiny little plums are almost all pit. If I were to do something with them, I would be harvesting them now.
I might just leave them for the birds this year.
I can think of a number of things to do with them, Continue reading
I finally got some photos of a drink mixed using the chokecherry vinegar I made not long ago.
I have been using it for other things already. One of the things I like to do is put some frozen mixed berries in container to thaw out over night and enjoy them with breakfast. Usually, I sprinkle a bit of vanilla sugar over them while they are still frozen. I tried it with a drizzle of chokecherry vinegar, and it worked out very well! It made plain, ordinary toaster waffles really something!
I’ve drizzled some over fresh cantaloupe, which was also really nice. It would work just as well over any melon or fruit salad. The vinegar adds just the right tang.
For a drink, we spooned some over some ice (about 3-4 tablespoons for a large glass), then added ginger ale.
Give it a bit of a stir, and that’s it!
Very refreshing.
I don’t actually enjoy ginger ale as a drink on its own, but I do like it as a mix. Half and half with orange juice or cranberry juice, with frozen berries instead of ice, is a favorite of mine. This chokecherry vinegar would be right at home in any drink like that!
Perfect for a 34C day!
The Re-Farmer
The beach was quite lovely this morning. :-)
Someone’s sand castle looks like part of its wall has already been claimed by the waves.
I played around with the settings on my phone’s camera and was happy to get more true-to-life photos.
The closer to the marina, the rockier the beach. I find the beach much more interesting, the rockier it gets.
These boulders are right at the wharf. It’s not unusual to see someone sitting on them, reading a book or something, and just enjoying this quiet little spot.
There is a little cove on the other side of the marina. The lake shore here is lined with boulders to protect from erosion. The entry/exit through the breakwater into the marina is near here, and the yacht club is nearby as well.
A beautiful day for a sail.
Near the frog fountain are a couple of mountain-ash trees, aka rowan. They are gorgeous trees. We had a couple, around where our plum trees are, when I was a kid, but I have no idea what happened to them. These trees are of similar size. When we first moved to the city we were in for the past 14 years, one of the things that amazed me was how many mountain-ash trees there were, and how HUGE they were, compared to here. When we first moved into the housing co-op, we were in a townhouse on the second and third floors at the end of the row, and there was a mountain-ash right outside the third floor bedroom windows. Every spring, it would fill with waxwings, eating the remaining berries. Gorgeous birds, though it didn’t take long for their incessant fee-fee-fee! noise, that would start at about 3 a.m. and continue for hours, to get very annoying. :-D
While in the area, I saw some gazebo tents set up and remembered that it was Saturday – Farmer’s Market day. This was the first time I was able to take it in, since our move. It was still early, to I walked for a while before coming back to the market and seeing what was there. I even had a bit of cash on hand, for a change. I normally never have cash and use my debit card for everything, but I had decided to take some money out this morning, just in case.
Then I found my cousin’s honey booth.
I no longer have any cash on hand, but I now have a big bucket of creamed honey!
That should last us through the winter. :-D
The Re-Farmer
My daughter had a slightly later shift today, so the sun was well up by the time I got to the beach.
During the drive in, we could see the haze of smoke, everywhere. The lake was no exception.
Normally, I’d be able to see at least a bit of the other side of the lake from here. Especially when the water is so calm.
(I believe there is an advisory against going into the water right now. The birds are pretty, but their fecal matter can result in E. coli problems.)
The camera on my phone automatically “clears up” images taken in fog or haze. The trees in the distance were not actually as visible in real life as in the photo!
While walking along the beach, a splash of colour caught my attention.
Someone left a bit of cheer for others to enjoy. :-)
I hung around town long enough for the post office to open, and for the postmaster to put out the mail, so I wandered over to the marina and sat by a fountain (and added a Pokemon into the gym that is there, which was controlled by my team at the time. :-D ).
It still feels weird to see the bright green frogs. They used to be just the brass, which developed a natural patina.
I still like them. Because they’re frogs. :-D
I headed home shortly after this and was able to stop at the post office. Sadly, my husband’s CPAP has not come in yet. The company could only guarantee speed of delivery within the US. Once in Canada, they have no control over how quickly something gets delivered. Usually, packages get processed quickly. Much faster than envelopes, anyhow.
Usually.
The Re-Farmer
Yesterday evening, I went out to rake out the leaves and twigs where I had cleared away earlier. There are too many twigs and pieces of wood to use to layer onto the garden by the house, so I got the fire pit going.
I also discovered the Butterscotch has moved her babies to the log shed by the fire pit.
I was watched, but none came near!
Later on, I did a walk around the yard and noticed the setting sun was an incredible red colour. I wasn’t able to capture it adequately in this photo.
Imagine the deepest red you can see was the entire ball of the sun.
The redness was because of the smoke of fires burning. There are none burning near us. The smoke may well be from another province!
That pile of wood in the foreground is part of what I’d cleared away earlier.
As I headed back into the yard, I discovered one of Butterscotch’s kittens in the area I had raked, dancing around.
I don’t think it ever did catch the moth. :-D
I raked up 3 wheelbarrows full out of that area. I’m going to have to clear the ashes out of the fire pit again!
The Re-Farmer
The lake was so very calm this morning!
I had the beach to myself, except for the seagulls and a woman doing yoga in the sand, while oriented to the sun. The sand looked like it had just been groomed, too.
I found some pretty rocks while I was walking, including one larger one I might try painting on. :-)
It almost makes me want to be a morning person.
Almost.
Gzzzzzz……
The Re-Farmer
We have had little success in getting the kittens more comfortable with us, though we have been able to touch the odd one.
This evening, we resorted to outright bribery.
Wet cat food.
It worked. Kinda.
Beep Beep and her kittens were out, and we started off with a can of paté. They quickly finished it off.
So I brought out a second can of chunks in gravy cat food.
I even found a broiler pan in the old garden shed to put the food on.
Why there was a broiler pan in the garden shed, I have no idea. But I will leave it there to put the cat kibble on, instead of in the dirt, until the kittens start regularly coming around the other side of the house to the food bowls there.
My daughter was able to pet BOTH of Beep Beep’s babies!
Once their bellies were full enough, they were no longer willing to let my daughter pet them. The tuxedo is a little more willing, but it will step back and hiss when touched. The tabby just runs off.
They are getting so big. :-D
We won’t be able to keep this up, since canned cat food is so much more expensive, but I hope we’ll eventually get them associating us humans with good things, and that they will become more socialized.
The Re-Farmer
I have learned many things from my daughters. They have very eclectic interests, and happily share them with me.
Sometimes, I get treated like a princess because of it, too.
Somewhere on the vastness of the internet (I have not been able to find a link), they read about a bog mummy that had an intricate twisted hair style. Basically, it was the oldest known hair style in the world. Those studying her apparently couldn’t figure it out. Then photos were released and stylists said, “oh, this is how it was done.”
Since I am the only person with long enough hair in the household, I then got to be experimented on.
When heading into the city today to visit their grandpapa, my younger daughter was sweet enough to do my hair up like she read about, adding in a lovely peacock hair/shawl pin to make it look really special.
I doubt the bog mummy was a princess, but I sure felt like one. :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 