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Project progress: finally getting started!

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Today, after many, many delays, we finally got some progress on those raised bed covers we need to build!

My daughter and I set up the folding table we made using the legs we found when cleaning up the new basement, and a section of 3/4 plywood found in the pump shack. The hard part was finding level enough ground for it, and still be close to the outside outlet. We ended up putting it almost against the house, and that’s where we set up the miter saw. Then we moved the swing bench that’s been sitting on the sidewalk block patio under the kitchen window for the past while, so we could set up the table saw close enough to plug it in without an extension cord.

The first thing we tried to do was cut the 12ft long 1″x4″ boards in half, lengthwise. My daughter, sweetheart that she is, found where the saw blade could be adjusted up and down. My husband and I had tried everything to raise that blade and finally concluded it couldn’t be raised. Turns out, it was just badly rusted and that’s why it wasn’t moving. !! I wonder how many years it sat in that shed before I found it?

The first two boards we cut in half did not go well! My daughter was feeding the board from one side while I supported it from the other, but it just did not want to stay against the guide. We ended up with some wobbly cuts! So we cut the others shorter first, then cut them in half. We measured the beds first to confirm the dimensions. The side boards total 9′ long, but then there’s the width of the end boards; I forgot I’d attached those to the ends of the side boards, and not to the insides. That made the beds 9′ 2″ long. The end boards were 3′ 1/4″ long.

So we will be cutting 9′ and 3′ for the cover frames.

The boards were exactly 12′ and 1/4″ long, so we just measured off the 9′ and cut it. The cuts take off a fraction of an inch, so the remaining sections should be almost exactly the right length for the short ends.

It was much, much easier to cut the shorter lengths in half on the table saw!

All the pieces are now cut. The 3′ lengths are in the front, then the 9′ lengths. In the back is one of the two first 12′ boards we cut in half, with the wonky cuts. The other one was used to cut more 3′ lengths, since being a bit wonky won’t be an issue for some parts of the build.

There is also one board at the top of the photo that was set aside because it has damage on it in two places. We will still be able to use the undamaged parts at some point.

As for the plans, I sketched what I had in mind out for my daughter.

We will be building four 9’x3′ frames, but two of them will be used in one cover. The Tom Thumb corn is going to need taller protection from deer, so two frames will be joined by 3′ vertical supports. One more support will be added across the top in the middle, to keep it from bowing outwards. I also plan to add screw eyes inside the middles and tie a cord across, to keep the sides from bowing out. A cord that close to ground level will be less in the way of growing plants.

At this point, we could just put a net around it, though if we wanted this over a bed with taller plants in it, we could potentially add hoops to the top for extra height.

That box frame is the one we need to get done first, as the corn is most at risk for getting eaten. Between the deer and the racoons, it’s going to become an issue in the near future! If we want to keep racoons out, though, we’ll have to use hardware cloth and find a way to secure the cover to the frame, so they don’t just knock it off.

The other two frames will have rounded tops. We have some wire fencing with 4″ squares that I plan to use with one of them, making a slightly higher cover. The fence wire can then support things like netting, plastic or shade cloth, as needed.

With the other, I was thinking of using the hoops that are currently still over the carrot bed, but… now that I’m looking at the plans, I realized we have enough of that wire fencing to use on both frames. We could make them different heights, for different needs. A shorter one, for example, would be handy for shorter produce, or to create a mini greenhouse over newly sown beds. A taller one would be great for plants that grow higher, but not high enough to need that box cover we’ll be putting over the corn.

As we build more high raised beds, the plan is to stick to the 9’x3′ size, so that these covers can be used interchangeably on any of them. We’re doing three covers for now. One of them should be useable on the high raised bed we have now, which currently has hoops to protect the beans from the deer. The box bed with the red onions does not really need a cover, except maybe to keep the cats from lying in it, or the birds from digging in the mulch. Over time, we plan to build enough covers for all the raised beds we make.

As for cutting the pieces, I was really happy. We will definitely need to get a new table saw, as this one was having issues. It will do for now, though. What I was really excited about was the miter saw. I bought it at a garage sale, and this is the first time we’ve tried to use it. Of course, it didn’t come with an instruction manual! Which is fine. It’s easy enough to figure out.

Up until now, I’ve been using a hand saw to make cross cuts. No matter how careful I am, I always end up making crooked cuts, and there are always those little bits of wood that break before the saw can cut them that need to be sanded. So excited to get beautiful clean cuts! Plus, the speed of it was fabulous!

Once the cutting was done, I realized we would not have enough screws to assemble them all, so we decided to go into town and get more. The table and miter saws got put back into the sun room, and the cut pieces went onto the table we used for the miter saw. We were getting hints of rain, and we didn’t want to take a chance. It’s a good thing we did, because there was a downpour while we were out!

When we got to the hardware store, we drove around the block a couple of times but could find no parking, so my daughter offered to buy us lunch! By the time we were done, things were no longer so busy, and I was able to park and run in.

Before we left home, I took a pair of calipers to the water pipe leading from the house to the garden that needs to be repaired. It’s a 1 inch pipe. After finding the screws we needed at the hardware store, I went looking for a flexible PVC coupling with metal clamps. The smallest size they had was 1 3/4″. That would leave too big of a gap for the clamps to be able to seal it on a 1 inch pipe. I talked to an employee, and showed her the picture I took of the calipers on the water pipe, which also showed the crack in the pipe very clearly. She tried to find something else that would work, but there wasn’t anything they had. In the end, she recommended I talk to a plumber.

What I will most likely do is go to the hardware store in my mother’s town, which is where I first had the flexible coupling recommended as a possible fix. They are a bigger store with a larger plumbing section, and may have a smaller size coupling in stock. If worse comes to worse, we can order them online. In fact, I’ve already found some sized specifically to fit on 1″ pipe.

As you can tell, I’m really hoping to avoid having to dig up and replace the entire length of pipe!

By the time we got home, the downpour my other daughter told us about was done! I don’t know if it’ll be dry enough for us to start assembling the first cover today. We’re supposed to get more rain, too.

This is where I really wish the storage shed wasn’t full of my parents’ stuff, that my mother insists we keep and is constantly afraid someone might come in and steal. As if anyone would be interested in the bags and bags of their old clothes, boxes and boxes of household stuff, or their old furniture. My late brother had used that building as a workshop, but that was more than 10 years ago. We never had a chance to even see what all was still in there, as my brother and his wife had already started moving my parent’s things into there before we moved in, and it was being used as storage for other things even before then.

So we make do with working outside, when the weather allows!

Well, this project has been delayed repeated for about a month now. One more day won’t hurt, if it comes to that!

The Re-Farmer

What the heck???

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We had another beautiful, coolish day today. In the afternoon, I headed out to finish the last little bits of lawn I didn’t get done yesterday.

It was raining.

Not much, and it stopped and started frequently, but enough that the grass was too wet to mow, and I certainly wasn’t going to use anything with electricity.

So I worked on the sun room for a bit, cleaning out the corner the kittens like to hang out in, and moving things so I could finally access the shelf against that wall. I was also able to finally put those folding legs onto the piece of 3/4″ plywood I found in the pump shack. We now have a 6 foot by 2 foot table. This will come in very handy. Especially with the picnic table finally falling apart.

Next pay period, I need to include some outdoor paint in the budget.

Later on, I headed out to pick up our beef freezer packs that we ordered. By the time I got back and we had supper, it had been clear long enough that the grass was dry, so I headed back outside.

We took our van to the mechanic for him to check when he has a chance in between appointments, so we’re parking my mother’s car in the middle of the garage, where there’s lots of room. As I went to get the lawn mower out, I took advantage of the side her car is normally parked being empty. The garage has a dirt floor, and the cats have been using it as a litter all winter. We’ve had enough rain this spring, that the soil was damp until recently. It is now dry, so I grabbed a wheelbarrow and a rake and finally cleaned it all out. It looks – and smells! – much better in there now! Then I got the push mower out to finish up the mowing in front of the garage. One thing I can’t do with the riding more is mow right into the doorways, so that’s looking all nice and trim, now.

Speaking of trim, once that was done, I broke out the weed trimmer to continue doing the edges of the inner yard, and the outside of the chain link fence along the garden beds. I just went as far as the extension cord from the garage would let me, which gave me a chance to work on the edges of the sidewalk to the people gate in the chain link fence. It’s quite a mess, partly because we still have those horrid elm seeds along the edges. They have caked on along the edges, including where the blocks are uneven, and did not want to come off. Some did loosen enough that pieces came off when I swept away the grass clippings with a broom, but in the end, I had to use the stirrup hoe to get them loose.

The sidewalk is getting to be a bit of a mess. Parts of it have lurched out of position because of tree roots. Some are cracked, most likely because my family has been driving over with for decades, either driving up to the house, or when my late brother would use the Bobcat to clear snow away. That sort of thing. Some pieces have become uneven enough that I have to be careful when mowing, or the blade will hit concrete.

The lawn is also trying to encroach on parts of the sidewalk, so I worked my way down the edges with the stirrup hoe to try and cut back what the weed trimmer wasn’t able to clear away.

Then I got to the end of the sidewalk by the people gate.

In that area, there are a number of broken blocks set to make the sidewalk wider. We’ve tried to keep those clear, too, including clear of snow in the winter. I’d gone over it with the weed trimmer, but there’s a lot more growth into the cracks between the blocks there, so I ended up using the blade on the ice scraper to cut and clear away the grass, roots and soil.

I started to scape and clear the blocks and though I’d cleared it, so I got the hose to pressure wash debris off the sidewalk. I paid particular attention to the edges, to try and clear the soil away. When I got to the end with the broken pieces, I found I needed to do some more scraping and clearing, along with using the ice scraper to try and break up soil and roots, just to be able to move it aside.

Then I scraped and cleared some more…

… and more?

Hold on. Why am I hitting a brick???

I can’t believe I’m still finding those glazed bricks all over the place! But why here? There was another regular brick I found, but that one made sense, since it was filling in a cut out corner in the patio block.

I kept scraping, until it became clear that the last block actually extended under the chimney block planter at that end. So I cut away the soil and roots around the chimney block as best I could, then left it. I didn’t want to get too close to the chimney block and undermine it.

Then I started working on the other side.

I found another glazed brick and dug it out. That one was broken, but when I went back to clear some more, I found one more that was intact.

I also found more patio blocks.

Quite a bit more!

When the matted roots, grass and soil got to be more than 4 or 5 inches thick, I stopped for the night. Once again, there is a patio block under the end of the garden bed on that side, but this time, there might be more than a foot of patio block under the bed. Thankfully, the things we have growing in there have shallow roots.

There’s a block that extends towards the elm tree on that side, but it’s going to take a lot more effort – and better tools – to uncover it.

I wonder if my brother remembers those blocks being there, and how far they extend? Because these have been buried for decades! Over the past 30+ years, we moved back to this province a couple of times. Somewhere in between those moves, the chain link fence was installed, and those blocks were added, but I don’t remember ever seeing them extend that far. I can’t even remember if the sidewalk blocks where there before or after the fence was installed!

I plan to uncover as much as I can for now. Then we will decide it we need to remove the ones under the garden bed ends or not – after the growing year is done, of course!

You’d think, as we’re into our 6th summer here, we wouldn’t be finding mysteries like this anymore!

The Re-Farmer

Weighing our options

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Happily, I was able to arrange to get ear mite medication for Not-Junkpile! One tube of the kind to spread onto the skin between the shoulder blades. Now, we just have to get ahold of her in a calm way to apply it.

On the way home, I stopped at the post office. Happily, the last of the tomato transplants that had been left outside as give-aways were gone! I hope the people that took the transplants get to enjoy them all.

It was what we got in the mail, however, that leaves us in a bit of a conundrum, and I am more than open to people’s thoughts on this.

Not long after we moved here, my husband got an offer from his insurance company, to buy out his disability. The letter stated that this would be a one time offer. It was about $250,000. We decided against it, and figured that was that.

Well, he got another offer. It’s been a few years, so of course the offer is less – about $220,000.

The question is, should we take it?

Photo by Dids on Pexels.com

The pros and cons haven’t really changed over the years.

For the pros, it means being able to put the majority of the buyout into a TFSA, where it can earn compound interest. We could give ourselves the same monthly “income” out of that, and be okay. He would also still be getting his CPP Disability.

Not being on disability payments means that I would no longer be penalized for earning an income. With the current set up, we are allowed to have a maximum amount of outside income, and the rest gets deducted from his private insurance payments. When he started to get CPP Disability, it meant getting an extra $400 a month at the time, which was about a third of what his CPP Disability payments were at the time. In other words, his private insurance was reduced by about $800. Since the amount we are “allowed” to earn – and any income I make would be counted as household income – is maxed out, anything I earned would be deducted from his private insurance payments. We’d have to report my income, otherwise we’d risk losing it all.

This would no longer be an issue, so if I wanted to get a job, or start a home based business, etc., I would be free to do that.

Basically, we would have a lot more flexibility if we took the buyout package.

One thing that is both a pro and a con is that we would lose his medical insurance, too. Blue Cross pays 90% of most of his medications. Without insurance, we’d be paying about $2000 a month on his medications. Then there are the occasional costs, like CPAP supplies and, once every 5 years, a new CPAP. The province we live in has Pharmacare, and once the equivalent of the deductible is paid off by the 10% we pay ourselves, some of his meds switch to being covered completely by Pharmacare. He has one medication that his insurance has limited coverage for, so the doctor filed for a special exemption, and it is now covered 100% by Pharmacare. So while my husband would still get prescription coverage, but he might have several of his medications completely switched out to versions that the Pharmacare system covers. His CPAP, however, is not covered by Pharmacare, though I believe they will cover the costs of a BiPAP.

As for the cons…

Right now, we have a regular income that is unaffected by external factors. Something we really appreciated when the world went crazy. Had my husband still been able to work, he would have lost his job 3 years ago. We’d go from a regular income to living off a lump sum.

Now, arranging it so that we have a monthly income equivalent to what we’re getting now, plus adjustments to compensate for changes in prescription coverage, is great in theory. The problem is, we both know just how easy it would be to dip into the funds for things we need. For example, we need to replace the van. We’d be able to buy used one outright and not have car payments, but that would remove a large chunk out of the buyout. There are a lot of things we need that we do without, because the funds just aren’t there. It would be just too easy to use the buyout funds. Then, of course, if we end up with emergency vet bills, emergency vehicle expense, etc. … well, the money would be there.

But not for long.

Yes, I could go and get a job, but I’m turning 55 this month, and there is no job out there that I could get that would replace the lost income. I’d only be going for part time work, anyhow, because my “job” right now it taking care of the farm. Even if the girls both got jobs outside the home, the three of us together wouldn’t be able to replace the income. There are exceedingly few higher income jobs out here and, with the cost of gas, commuting to the city just isn’t feasible, even if we did replace the van with a newer vehicle that gets better mileage. If we did have to commute, we’d have to replace my mother’s car, too.

Of course, working outside the home isn’t ideal, anyhow. Especially in winter, where even if the plows manage to clear the roads quickly, we might not be able to get out of our driveway until a kind neighbour comes by – which means we’d have to go into the buyout to buy a new snow blower or some other snow clearing equipment. There are small utility tractors that come with all sorts of attachments, like plows, mowers, soil augers, front end loaders and back hoes. One of those would save us all kinds of effort here on the farm, but the cost would take a huge chunk out of the buyout package.

I admit, the thing I’m chaffing over is not being able to bring in my own income, but that would come at the cost of giving up a fixed, but liveable, reliable income.

On top of that, he’s only got 10 years left, anyhow. At age 65, his insurance plan ends. Even his CPP Disability would be converted to just CPP. In theory, in 10 years, I could also start getting a pittance for CPP (the consequence of being a stay at home mom and homeschooling the girls) and Old Age Security, which is also a pittance. Assuming both even exist 10 years from now. Both together would not make up the loss of his private insurance.

So do we accept the buyout and live off of it while working to build up incomes?

Or do we keep a fix income that pays the bills, but has very little wiggle room, and I would actually be penalized for earning extra money to make up for it?

What do you think?

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shopping: Costco. This is $736

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Well, it looks like I got home just in time! Things were clear and sunny while I was in the city, but I drove home to a dark cloud. As we unloaded, there was thunder all around us, and just touches of rain. From the radar, it looks like a series of small, severe storms are being blown in from the West, all across the Prairies.

Meanwhile, our weather apps are pinging with tornado warnings.

No, not for us. For the south end of our province, near the US border. We’re getting the warnings because the whole province is included in the warnings. Which is a bit like if you lived in Spokane, Washington, but were getting weather warnings intended for Boise, Idaho.

What’s hilarious is looking at a closer view of the weather radar, and it shows a storm system is expected to split in two, with one part passing to the north of us, and the other to the south of us. We might not even get rain.

No matter. We are now pretty stocked up and won’t need to go out again to do the rest of the stocking up for a few days.

Today was just a Costco shop, and this is what $736.36 looks like.

There were a few unplanned purchases this time. One was a linen summer dress for my younger daughter, who really, really loves linen fabric, for $23.99 I’m happy to say, it did fit her. The problem with sizing is, they aren’t standardized, so you never really know if a size on the label of one brand will be the same at the same label size on another. Plus, there’s no stretch to linen, so if the arm holes are cut differently, for example, even if it’s the right size, you might not be able to even put it on.

Another unexpected purchase was a 2 pack of down spout extensions, for $18.99. As soon as everything was unloaded, I got those on right away! There is a downspout near the main entry, facing the kibble house, that drains way too close to the house. I’ve never added to it, because it’s also a fairly high traffic area. These flexible extensions will solve that problem. The other downspout was off the corner of the old kitchen, near the septic tank. The end had a short length of downspout on it that was starting to split, and that was extended by another length of PVC pipe. Those have both been replaced by a single extender, and I am quite happy with the change!

One more unexpected purchase was a package of work gloves, at $14.99. Our garden gloves are getting worn out and falling apart, so we really needed new ones. A package of garden gloves, however cost more than $20, and the quality is not as good.

Of course, the bulk of the purchase was cat food. I got a case of wet cat food at $38.99. With the dry cat food, I got four Kirkland brand, 9kg bags at $26.99 each. I also got a couple of 11.6kg Whiskas brand. Regular price, $37.99, but they were $8 off, so that was a good deal.

For the rest:

Regular mayo, two jars: 10.99 each, minus $2.50 each at the till
Pork rinds: 10.99 (I plan to use them as a bread crumb substitute)
Two rotisserie chickens: 7.99 each
Ground pork chub: 19.99
Ground beef chub: 45.76, minus $5 at the till
Pork loin: 28.28
Two backs strawberries: 5.99 each
Family size sushi pack: 21.99 (for supper at home)
Shepherd Pie: 21.91 (for my husband who doesn’t eat sushi)
Triple berry jam: 7.99
5 pounds of butter: 5.49 each
4 packages of tortilla wraps: 9.99 each
Four 2pks of rye bread: 5.99 each, minus $2 each at the till
Two 1L cartons of whipping cream: 4.79 each
Double cream brie: 10.99
4pk cream cheese: 9,49
Sour cream: 5.49
Old Cheddar cheese: 14.99
Mozzarella cheese: 14.99
Iced tea mix: 9.99
Peanut butter: 10.49
10kg bag of sugar: 13.69
2pk fabric softener: 16.49 (I’ve been looking for these for months! This will last us for a couple of years.)
Dish detergent: 8.59
Toilet paper: 22.99

That made for a grand total of $692.92, plus $43.44 in taxes, for 49 items.

*sigh*

We didn’t get a lot of meat this time, as we will be ordering a couple of BBQ freezer packs from our beef supplier. Which I need to do after I finish this, or I’ll forget again.

By this point in the shopping, I didn’t even finish going through the store, as I was really pushing the limit on how much my mother’s car can handle. Another thing I need to remember: get the van to the garage! At least this month, we don’t have extra bills, or things like needing to empty the septic tank.

I got gas at Costco at 145.9 cents per liter. Everywhere else in the city is 157.9 With the new carbon tax kicking in on July 1, gas prices are going to go up, so a lot of people were filling jerry cans. Which reminds me: I need to refill our 20L can for Premium gas that we keep for the lawnmowers and wood chipper. To make it easier to fill the tanks, we transfer fuel from the 20L can to a pair of 5L cans. Right now, I’m down to maybe half of one of those 5L cans. We will probably do another city trip on Friday, so that would be a good time to swing by Costco again, just for gas, to fill the 20L container. That should last us for the rest of the summer, and possibly into next year.

Now it’s time to go over the list to see what got missed this trip, and make sure we get them on our next city trip, when the rest of my husband’s disability pay comes in.

After I place an order for that beef! I’m already forgetting!

The Re-Farmer

We had a fountain!

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I hooked up the hose end for the garden tap to the new connector, and it screwed on without any problems at all! The last few times I tried to connect it directly to the tap, the threads just would not line up, no matter what.

Which means I was able to check out where the leak is.

When I first turned on the water, I could hear it gurgling away, then start sputtering, until I could see water starting to gush out of the ground.

After a while, the pressure just kept increasing, and I had quite the fountain spraying high into the air!

I tried turning on the garden tap and did get some some water flowing. Brown, at first, which is no surprise. After a while, though, so much water was spraying from the hole, barely a dribble was making it up to the tap anymore.

When I grabbed a stake to mark the spot, I at first hit what I thought was a root going over the hose.

I was wrong.

It was the hose (looks like a pipe, actually), itself. I pushed the dirt around a bit and exposed more of it.

I honestly expected this to be buried a lot deeper. I was expecting to have to dig a trench to get it out, and was hoping it wouldn’t be too deep. It looks like it’s barely under the soil surface at all!

Which might explain those holes. They are a series of open lines in a row, not a crack. It makes me wonder if someone went over it with some sort of equipment that somehow punctured it.

When we do get around to pulling this up, I hope to be able to bury the replacement at least a little bit deeper! We’ll see how many roots we have to work around, when we do it.

I thought this whole thing was basically a buried garden hose, like the visble section by the house that gets screwed onto the tap, but the part uncovered looks like PVC pipe.

I am now very curious as to what this set up is.

The Re-Farmer

Recovered!

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Okay, I’m totally amazed! After almost 2 months of almost daily reporting and trying to recover my stolen personal Facebook account, I suddenly got an email – to my proper email address – from Facebook security, giving me a one time link and instructions to reset my password to recover my account.

And it’s done.

My stolen account is no longer stolen.

Now to assess the damage. So far, it looks like I lost about 70-75 people on my friends list, some of whom joined me on my new account, and let me know they’d unfriended or blocked my original account, after the thief tried to scam them.

I took a look at the Messenger list, and my goodness, the thief has been busy sending out scam message to people!

It took a long time and much frustration, but Facebook finally pulled through.

The Re-Farmer

New wheels

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My daughter and I had our trip to the city today. Feeling very thankful for air conditioning! The city is even hotter than we are right now. Here at home, we reached 34C/93F, and while the city hit 37C/99F. It’s also incredibly muggy. Like walking through soup. My daughters have a friend in Texas, who is apparently having the same conditions we are right now!

One of the things my daughter had on her list of things to pick up was a new set of wheels. Of all the bikes we have around the farm, including the mountain bike I got at a garage sale for $10, it would cost more to fix them up than to buy a new bike. At least the sort of bike that meets my daughter’s needs. We still plan to fix up the garage sale bike; basically, the only thing good on it is the frame and the seat. !! My husband says it looks like someone had scavenged it for parts. A new bike like it, however, would be very expensive so, for my husband, it would be worth fixing. He’s also the only one tall enough to ride it!

We went to Walmart, and this is the bike my daughter chose.

Image belongs to Walmart.ca

It’s a Huffy “Beach Cruiser”. It’s single speed, with a rear coaster brake. You pedal backwards to stop. Since we have no hills out here, a single speed bike is adequate. It has a very comfortable seat, according to my daughter. The pack on the handle bars is an insulated bag that has a weather proof cell phone holder on the top of the lid. Apparently, the clear plastic is touch screen enabled. Plus it has mesh pockets on the sides. The bike was also on sale, making it under $200, so that made it easy on her budget.

She got herself a helmet, too. There are bike helmets here, but they’ve been sitting in the barn and we have no idea how old they are – or how many spiders have made their home in them!

After we finished the rest of our shopping, we discovered a problem.

Getting it into the car.

The handle bars kept getting in the way. We finally figured we’d have to remove the handle bars, but didn’t have the tools for it. So while my daughter finished bagging up our other shopping, I dashed back into the store to find a tool. They had a single bike multi-tool in stop, so I snagged it. When I got back to the car, though, I discovered my daughter had managed to get it in! It took some twisting and turning, but she was able to work around those handlebars and get it in with room to spare.

It’s amazing what we can fit in the back of my mother’s little car!

My husband had picked up some bike tool kits so that he can work on cobbling together the garage sale bike, so now my daughter has her own bicycle multi-tool she can keep in one of those pockets on the insulated bag.

Once we got home and unloaded, my daughter rode it around the house a few times. It’s been years since any of us have ridden a bike. Testing out the garage sale bike doesn’t count. She and I both tried it out and basically fell over immediately. 😆

For now, we’ve set aside the makeshift table we used for the transplants to make room to store it in the sun room. Eventually, it’ll get stored in the garage. She wants to be able to take the bike into town and explore; something that’s more convenient to do with a bike than a car.

Hmm… According to the weather app, we’re raining right now. Except, we’re not. I’m seeing blue skies and a lot of wind out my window. Interestingly, the updated weather app that came with my computer now has a “Seeing different weather?” link on the mini-map. I was able to actually submit what we’re seeing here, rather than what their weather stations are reading. None of those weather stations are near us.

A large part of our province is currently under a severe thunderstorm watch, though much larger areas to the north and east of us are under extreme thunderstorm watches. It’d be nice if this system went further north of us, first, with rain to help quell the forest fires up there, but it’ll move out of our province well below where most of them are.

Meanwhile, we’ve got fans going all over the place, including in some of the windows, blowing air out of the house, rather than pulling hot, muggy air into the house! Even at night, the girls are really struggling upstairs with the muggy heat. We’ve got to find some way to get an air conditioner set up for them up there! It would have to be a portable one. The problem is, figuring out how to set one up with the types of windows we have. The other problem is, those things are frikkin’ expensive! Especially one powerful enough to cool down the entire upstairs. Maybe, at the end of the summer, we’ll be able to pick one up on clearance or something. Just in time for when the upstairs turns into a freezer for the winter. 😕

Ah, well. We’ll get it worked out, one of these days.

The Re-Farmer

Mowing last year’s lawn

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Considering it took me two days to do a relatively small area, I figured it was worth a video!

I am so glad I finally got this done. There was so much dead thatch in there, I spent more time emptying the bad into the wagon, then hauling it away, than actually mowing.

The Re-Farmer

About three hours

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Today has turned out to be absolutely gorgeous!

We dipped to 10C/50F during the night, and as I write this at almost 3:30 pm, we’re at 17C/63F, and I’m absolutely loving it!

I took advantage of the temperatures to work on a job that I was avoiding during the hot days. Mowing in the outer yard, with the push mower.

I had a specific purpose for this. When it was cut before, the riding mower was at its highest setting. I’ve lowered the push mower, while also using the bag to collect the clippings. In this area, that would be a mix of old, dried thatch from last year, and fresh growth. I had the wagon handy, as it holds a lot more clippings that the wheelbarrow, to empty the bag into until the load could be hauled off to the garden.

This is as far as I got before filling the wagon for the first time. About two and a quarter passes. It takes about five bags to fill the wagon. In the drier area with the deepest thatch from last year – including the portions we were able to mow and rake up last time – I was emptying the bag ever few feet. I’d say doing this narrow strip took me at least 15 minutes. Then, when I filled the wagon, I started mulching around the transplanted squash right away, which probably took another 15 minutes before I brought the empty wagon back and took this photo.

This is how far I got before stopping for lunch.

By this point, I was able to mulch all the squash mounds, including the ones that were direct sown with summer squash, all the grow bags with peppers and onions, and even low raised beds, around turnips, beets and carrots. I’ve removed the boards that were placed to protect the tomatoes from the wind, which opened up space that needed to be mulched.

That done, I started dumping loads onto the black tarp that has been so handy. We use to to cover areas to start killing off grass and weeds, to hold sifted garden soil until it can be returned to the beds, and now to hold grass clippings for later mulching.

I’m going to continue to focus on using the push mower in this area. Everything else can be done with the riding mower that my brother and his wife left for us to use.

He’s done a lot on the riding mower they took back with them. The drive chain turned out to be stretched, and that’s why it kept falling off. He replaced that – but even the new chain needed to have a link removed for it to work. He replaced the seat, which I didn’t even think needed replacing. The belt for the mowing blade had fallen off at some point. It may need a new battery, and at least one of the tires will need replacing, as the rubber was showing huge cracks. We’re all amazed it held air long enough for my brother to get the mower onto his trailer!

It turned out to need a whole lot more work than expected! He keeps finding more and more things that need to be fixed.

I so appreciate that they left one of their riding mowers behind for us to use while he works on it. It will save us a lot of time, that’s for sure.

For now, though, I’m going to continue to use the push mower and slowly reclaim the super long grass that we never got to cut, or even scythe, last year. This will give me huge amounts of wonderful clippings to use in the garden!

Meanwhile, one of my daughters have been supervising the cats in my office/bedroom. At about 3am, I was awaked by strange kitten noises and discovered Decimus had already moved two of her babies out of the cat cage. I found her peeking at me from one of the cat cave the Cat Lady gave us, so I quickly moved the last two babies over for her. Marlee has been snarling and growling at her most of the night, too. Every now and then, Decimus will leave her sleeping babies and go around the room, getting into things. I’ve learned that this is her looking for a place to poop or pee. For some reason, after the litter boxes where cleaned (with the litter pellets, we just need to empty the bins completely, every few days), she stopped using it – which got very messy! I managed to distract her away from her searching, and she finally ended up using one of the litter boxes. I get the impression eliminating isn’t very comfortable for her, yet. It’s been less than a week since she gave birth, after all.

She’s not the only one moving her babies. After using a load of grass clippings as mulch and starting to head back, I spotted Brussel, crossing the grass in the main garden area. There was something with her! It turned out to be a black and white kitten. It’s not as big as the first litter of kittens we started seeing in the yard, but pretty close! Based on where I’ve been seeing her, I think she had her kittens at the empty farm across the road, and she is now bringing them closer to the house – and kibble! I have no idea how many she has. I’m just assuming she had more than one.

Well, time to head back out and see how much more progress I can get on that super tall, thick grass!

The Re-Farmer

An early gift

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Father’s Day and my younger daughter’s birthday are just days apart. They have mutual interests in some things, so this year, they got a joint gift.

My husband has been trying to do leatherworking as something to keep his mind occupied and his creativity fed. So far, everything has been by hand. He did get a stitching pony, but it broke. Some of the leather he’s working with is pretty thick, so he was interested in getting a sewing machine that can handle heavy leather.

My daughter, meanwhile, has been interested in learning traditional skills. Blacksmithing is one of them, but making shoes is another.

So they got a manual cobbler sewing machine (not an affiliate link). Manual because, not only is it quieter, but it allows for more control.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08PFN17Y4

This image is from the website.

It didn’t really come with assembly instructions, but I did fine one – just one – video of a similar model being unboxed and assembled. It must have been enough, because in the morning, I found it assembled.

It hasn’t been tested out yet, but it did some with thread and needles. He also has lots of other tools and supplies. The only thing they don’t have is a lot of leather.

Leather is shockingly expensive.

But, they have enough to start, and learn how to use the machine!

The Re-Farmer