The winds are still blowing like crazy right now. I headed outside to check on things. I hoped to do a bit on that garden bed, but the soil is still just too wet to sift.
The plastic on the box frame was starting to blow loose and I was trying to find ways to fix it when I heard a cracking noise.
The dead tree by the back of the garage was blown over, right on top of the outhouse!
Thank God the wind wasn’t blowing the other way, or it would have landed on the garage!
Looking at the base, there’s basically no roots left! I don’t know how long this tree has been dead. Just that it was already dead when we moved here. My guess is, many years of water pooling behind the garage and around to the outhouse simply rotted away the roots until there was next to nothing to hold it in the ground. At least, not with winds like we’re having right now!
My younger daughter came out to see what the noise was and we talked about it for a bit. There’s nothing we can do about the tree right now. Once things have dried up enough, we can tie a rope around the trunk and pull it off with the truck. Waiting for the ground to dry is going to be important, since we’ll otherwise just be spinning tires in the mud and tearing up the yard.
Dragging it off will totally demolish the outhouse.
Well, so much for our “second bathroom”. We won’t need to patch up that roof and give the outside a paint job anymore, though the inside looks real nice. 😄
We still plan to build an outdoor bathroom with a composting toilet, rather than a pit, and it was going to go in a higher area. An area we are now having to walk through standing water to get to. The spot I was thinking would be good to build in is basically in an open area leading into the spruce grove, near where the compost pile is right now. It is very wet, but the plan had been to build up a pad of packed gravel, first, so it would be build on a raised and level foundation that drains real well. I didn’t realize at the time I was considering this, just how much that would be necessary!
But first, we need to cut down the dead trees, as some of them need to be felled into where the outdoor bathroom will eventually be.
Now I’m wondering if we’ll be losing any more trees today!
We had short, fast downpours throughout the night. It never really cooled down, though. I was hoping to get out early again but, at 5am, it was already 18C/64F, and still blowing like crazy. Things have calmed down a bit – still very windy, but the sun is out. All the areas that had finally become just wet, rather than filled with standing water, are once again filled with standing water. I’m glad we got as much mowing as we did. It’s going to be a while before we can try again.
When I came out this morning, there were plenty of cats eager for food, at least. The poor long haired cats are just soaking wet. I didn’t see any kittens at the time, though. When I finished my rounds and was coming around the laundry platform, when a single, wet little kitten climbed out from under the platform and onto a step. I’d left a bit of kibble there, and it seemed to be sniffing for it.
This is the kitten that has been the most willing to be cuddled, so I picked him up and did just that, so warm it up. He was a bit nervous about being carried around until I set up a small bowl of kibble in the cat cage and put him beside it, at which point he started chowing down!
Over the next while, I kept looking for the other kittens. Yesterday, it seems the litter was down or 3, so I was concerned it was now down to one. He was okay with running around and playing in the sun room, at least, and I kept an eye open for any others.
With the soil being far too wet to continue working on the garden bed, I decided to make recordings for a garden tour video, in spite of things looking a mess and being half done. After I finished that, I paused to pull some burdock coming up from under the cat house – and startled a baby! The two other kittens were inside the cat house! That makes me so happy. The cats haven’t been using it much, lately – it probably gets pretty hot and muggy in there at times like right now. The kittens were happily playing in the entrance, though, so I brought the other one over and they immediately started all horsing around together.
As I write this, we’re now at 21C/70F, with an expected high of 22C/72F. The winds are supposed to die down this afternoon. We should get a break from the rain for today and tomorrow, though we’re supposed to get more the next evening. Hopefully, that will give use the time we need to finish those beds and get the last transplants in.
Either that, or I’ll have time to put the garden tour video together, at least.
Looking out the window right now, we definitely aren’t getting the break from the wind, yet! I’m honestly amazed I found only a couple of fallen branches. The box frame over the eggplant and hot peppers is tied down and holding, but even the plastic around it is still there, though the bottoms keep getting pulled loose and need to be weighted down again. I’ve given up tacking down the mosquito netting at the chain link fence. They are well secured at the top, to the fence itself, but the ground staples keep getting yanked out, and most have disappeared. Bricks used to weigh the bottoms down just get flipped off. This netting lets water through, but the weave is still fine enough that they are more like sails than nets. They still do the job of keeping the elm seeds off. Those, at least, are almost done their season.
On the plus side, our water table may finally be recovered from all those years of drought that started before we moved out here! I’m not sure where to find that out. Plus, this is normally fire season. I’m quite liking not having to deal with smoke for weeks at a time!
There’s always a trade off of one kind or another, both good and bad. We just hope to have more good than bad!
They are hanging out on and under the laundry platform right now, which is next to the rain barrel. They weren’t too happy with my going back and forth to refill watering cans, but they didn’t leave the laundry platform.
I replaced the coupling on one of the broken hoses and was able to do some watering further away. I’m not sure if it was necessary, as I was hearing thunder by the time I was heading inside. From the looks of the weather radar, we should get a bit of rain, but nothing substantial. Enough that I should probably bring the transplants inside, I suppose. I don’t want the pots to get all blown around and knocked over.
I didn’t make it back to the garden bed, unfortunately.
Okay, that was one heck of an interruption.
I decided to look up old posts to see how far along we were at this time, last year. As I was doing that, the trees outside my window suddenly started swaying like crazy. So I ran to the sun room to bring the transplants in.
We were in a downpour!
There are only 6 trays left to bring in, so it didn’t take me long, but I got completely soaked!
Now that I’m dried off and changed, I look out my window, and the trees are barely moving. The rain has already moved on!
Because I used the rain barrel earlier, I left the diverter off so it could refill. It was about half full. I’ll have to check it and see if it needs to be put back. There was a LOT of water pouring into the barrel as I brought in the trays!
Wow.
Now… where was I?
Ah, yes…
Looking at posts made in June last year, we didn’t get the last of our transplants – the melons – in until June 24th. On the one hand, that’s a bit encouraging. On the other hand, around the same time, we already had tomatoes and Sweet Chocolate peppers formed. We were already harvesting spinach by now, and about to pull them to be replaced with the last of our onion transplants, but this year, the spinach just isn’t doing well at all, and most are still just tiny little things. A couple of them are bigger, but nothing that can be harvested from.
So we’re not “behind” when it comes to getting everything into the garden, compared to last year, but we were further along in the things that did get into the ground by now. Even our shelling peas, last year, were blooming and starting to develop pods. This year, I just got the shelling peas planted a few days ago!
However, our focus was very different this year. We didn’t do as many tomatoes – we will have lots in the freezer from last year – but instead went with a lot of winter squash and melons. We aren’t doing a lot of peppers, but do have at least as many varieties. Much of our attention has been directed towards getting the existing low raised beds shifted to their permanent positions before planting in them. That’s been slow going, but not shifting them would not have been any faster, since they got so thoroughly invaded with weeds, despite our best efforts.
Well, we’ll see how things work out.
As much as all the rain we’ve been having this spring has slowed things down, What we do have planted is certainly the better for it!
Though, after this downpour, I’m going to have to check the squash and melons, in particular, to see if they were damaged.
Well, I got the shopping done, with extras. Along with the cat food (three 9kg kibble bags and one 32 count case of canned food: $132.92), my daughter sent funds for a few things. I went to the Canadian Tire for litter pellets and found a box fan for the girls to use upstairs, along with 20″x20″ furnace filters. They attach the filter to the back of the fan to keep the dust and cat hair down – or smoke, if there are fires in the area. I also found the trellis netting I need for when the peas and beans are bigger. I needed netting with wide enough openings to reach through to harvest. I even remembered to pick up couplings to repair a couple of hoses. My daughter transferred extra to cover some groceries while I was at the Walmart, too, which was nice.
One thing our truck has that our van didn’t is a temperature display. After I loaded up and was ready to come home, it was reading 26C/79F. Here at home, we’ve reached or expected high of 25C/77F, with the humidex at 26C/79F, but I would not be surprised if we get higher. We now also have a 54% chance of showers tonight.
I’m still going to water the old kitchen garden out of the rain barrel. Between the house and the ornamental crab apple trees, it doesn’t get the rain as much as other areas, so it’s pretty dried out.
(update: it’s just after 3pm, and we’re now at 27C/81F with the humidex at 28C/82F )
After I got home and my younger daughter and I unloaded, she and I moved the mini greenhouse out of the living room, and moved one of the shelves over, so we can hook up the AC. I had to fuss with it for a bit, as the duct from the AC is larger than the vent pipe to outside. As I was McGyvering a secure fit, I was literally dripping with sweat. The thermometer in the living room was at about 22C/72F. The living room almost never gets hot, so this is really unusual!
Now that the AC is running, I’ve also got a fan on the piano, blowing the cooler air into the dining room. This should help quite a bit!
When the truck was unloaded, I gave the outside cats a feeding to make sure none were under the truck, and I could move it to the garage. As I was leaving kibble under the shrine, I saw a little fluff ball!
We knew there was a litter in the junk pile, only because we could hear meowing while working nearby – but that was a while ago! I was wondering if the mama had moved them or something. Now, we know there’s at least one surviving kitten in there.
It’s getting to be that time. However many litters and kittens there are out there, we’re going to start seeing them, and the mamas will start bringing them to the food and water by the house as they get older.
Meanwhile, I’m going to see how much more I can do outside, before the heat and humidity force me indoors again. I suspect I’m not going to be able to finish that bed today. We’ll see.
Okay, so yesterday was a bit of a blowout, and I got very little done on the bed that needed to be shifted to its permanent position, before it can be planted in.
This morning, the goal was to get out there by 6am, and I almost got it! We discovered some cat destruction and cleaning that up delayed things a bit. My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, made me a hearty breakfast. She has fully switched over to sleeping days and working nights, so this time of the morning is when she and her sister usually share a meal before she heads to bed for the day. I’m usually not up this early! At least, not on purpose.
So it was about 6:30 before I finally got started on the bed and, my goodness, what a difference it made! The morning was still wonderfully cool, making the work so much easier. Especially since this part of the main garden area is already in full sun at this time.
The first thing to do was finish breaking new soil inside the area the bed will be shifted to. The only think I could really do at this point was turn the sod over, root side up. I was able to pull out the largest of the tap roots, and some clumps of sod just got tossed towards the trees. If this were just a lawn, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but this is all crab grass, dandelions and creeping Charlie. Simply flipping the sod wasn’t going to be enough.
Once the new ground was broken, I have to figure out what to do with the soil in the raised bed. Most of it is in what will be a new path. It still had some mulch left on it for the winter, so I took as much of that off as I could. It won’t be useable as a mulch anymore, though. Too much creeping Charlie mixed in with it. I ended up spreading it near the end of the bed that was most recently planted in, where it will eventually be covered with cardboard or landscaping cloth, if I can get some, and wood chips.
I decided to just clear the soil from marker to marker, moving it aside to make room for the boards that will be laid down where the log frames will eventually go. The sod was just piled on top of the rest of the bed for now. The soil on this side of the bed is clear of creeping Charlie enough that I will actually sift it, later on, and salvage as much as I can. We’ve spent years amending this soil. It’ good stuff!
At this point, I finally had a 4′ x 18′ rectangle of turned soil, full of weed roots.
I had been collecting cardboard intended to be used for the paths, but this bed needed it more. I used every scrap I could, and just managed to cover the area, though not to the edges. The cardboard got a good soaking, tromped on, then soaked some more.
Once that was down, I used boards to mark the boarder of the bed, where the log frame will go.
Then I soaked it all again.
I had a bit of clean straw left from something else available. “Clean” being a relative term. Everything as those elm seeds all over. I scattered it on the carboard, then got some grass clippings to cover the cardboard completely.
Then I soaked it all again.
By this point, about 2, 2 1/2 hours had passed, and it was time for a break.
We are looking at a high of 25C/77F this afternoon. I’ve decided I’m going to let that soil piled on the side bake in the sun for a while, then sift it and start moving as much of get bed’s soil over the grass clippings as I can. Hopefully, I won’t need to get more soil from the pile to top it up.
I’ve decided to take advantage of the time and make a trip to get more cat food, and possibly a few other things. My daughters need to replace their box fan upstairs. It’s unfortunate there was no way to set up the air conditioner my brother gave us up there. It’s needed up there way more than anywhere else in the house! The heat is why my daughter has to work nights; otherwise, her computer and drawing tablet overheat and start randomly shutting down or glitching out. During the day, they set up the box fan in the south window to blow the hot air out. They have other fans, but that one in the window makes the biggest difference.
So that’s the next thing on my to-do list.
Time to get changed and head out.
The Re-Farmer
ps: I almost forgot to mention. The kittens are gone! I saw them in the sun room in the morning, but by the afternoon, they were gone. They are still gone. The mama has moved them somewhere pretty far afield. It’s a shame. The kittens were really liking the run room!
As for Broccoli and her babies, I don’t see them when I bring kibble to the shed, but yesterday evening, I saw Broccoli chilling on one of the old benches, while her kittens played nearby. This morning, the kibble inside the door was gone. They may not be inside the shed anymore, but they might be under it.
We did get one thing done this morning; the Dwarf Korean Lilac is kicking into full bloom, so we finally got our group picture done. By the time we finished that, it was coming up on 9am, and that’s when I finally started on the next garden bed.
As an aside, though, it looks like the kittens in the sun room, and the old garden shed, have been moved. I saw the kittens this morning, at feeding time, but by the time I was coming in from the garden, they were gone. I’m hoping they’re just staying cool under the cat house. Unfortunately, we’ve seen both skunks and racoons going for the kibble today, and that might have been just too much for the mama. As for the garden shed babies, I left food inside the door, but saw and heard nothing from the back.
We shall see if they’re still around somewhere.
The main thing I wanted to work on today was that next garden bed.
I’ve been really dreading this one. In the end, I decided all I can really do is work on the area that was path, first, and just flip the sod. There’s no way it can be properly weeded. It’s not even worth trying to sift it.
I started at the north end of the bed, where it has been extended to 18′, but only got maybe 2 1/2-3 feet of sod turned. Around then, I got a message from my husband, asking when I was planning to go to the post office to pick up some parcels. I had originally thought to do it after I’d turned the bed, but it was already 19C/66F, and I was baking in the sun. My app said the “feels like” was also 19C/66F.
It lies.
So I stopped at that point and picked up the parcels. I now have my tips for my new impact driver! A really good range of shapes and sizes, too.
After I got back, my daughter made us lunch – cold chicken salad sandwiches, because no one wants to cook in this heat! My daughter is still recovering from arm damage, trying to mow the lawn with the push mower. Yesterday, her grip strength was so non existent, she actually had to ask me to finished changing the toilet roll for her, because she couldn’t squeeze the stretch spindle enough to fit it back into the holder. Today, she is much improved.
Which is great, because I needed her help with the riding mower, after lunch.
The last time I used it, last year, it was only the second use after my brother had fixed and upgraded all sorts of things on it and brought it back, when I stopped the mower to move something out of the way, and then it wouldn’t move. The engine was still running. There was just no go, forward or reverse. I didn’t want to bug my brother about it, so we just used the push mower for the rest of the season.
The challenge for us was how to safely look under it to see what was going on. When this happened before, there was a chain that fell off. My brother got that replaced and adjusted a number of things to ensure it would not happen again. I figured, that must have somehow fallen off again.
With the truck, however, we now have a way to get a look under the riding mower. We opened the tail gate and set up the ramps my brother gifted to us. Then we pushed the mower onto the ramps, then blocked the wheels, so we could safely look under it.
Well. Under the front of it.
After not finding the problem from there, we reversed it, so that the engine was up the ramp. That was rather more difficult to manage, because of the weight distribution. Even blocking the front tires didn’t want to work as well, since they wanted to turn and roll off, anyhow!
We got it secured, though, and my daughter ended up crawling under it to see. She found a loose belt that the pedal at the front should have been engaging. After fighting with it for a while, she asked me to fight with the pedal, to see if I could get it to lift up more, rather than push down. Which I was able to do, and that gave her the slack she needed to get the belt on. We tested it out (after charging the battery!) and it worked!
I started some mowing while my daughter put stuff away and went back inside, but not for very long. It was just too hot. So I parked the mower in the shade and took a hydration break. When I came back out to continue, I made sure to have a wet towel to drape over my shoulders to help keep cooler. It really helped a lot.
The poor riding mower was really struggling. The grass is so tall, it’s going to see, but there are some types of grass in the driveway area that is different, and more fibrous. This old mower just doesn’t have the juice to handle them. Sometimes, if I go just a couple of inches forward at a time, I can get through without it getting too overworked, or getting clogged. In a few places, I would have to go over the same patch several times, and even reverse over it, before getting it properly cut. It seems counterintuitive, but it seems to work better when I have the blades set lower, rather than higher. You’d think I could go over it at the highest setting, then lower it for another pass, then lower it again for a final pass, but nope. When it’s higher, the blades just bend the grass, without cutting anything!
Meanwhile, the grass is still pretty wet and not trying out, because it’s so tall, so things clog up, too. After my second mowing session, I parked the mower in the shade to cool down, then used the hose to try and wash off anything stuck around the blades. I’ll head out again to try and mow a bit more. There’s no way I’m getting more done on the garden bed today. We’re at 24C/75F, and the humidex puts it at 28C/82F. It’s not going to start cooling down until about 8pm – three hours from now – and won’t reach reasonable temperatures until maybe midnight. If I’m going to get progress done on the beds, I’m going to have to be out there, digging, at 6am.
Which means I’ll be doing a bit more mowing before putting the riding mower away, then heading to bed early. The problem is, even if I head to bed early, that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to sleep! I tried that last night, and had all sorts of disruptions keeping me up. 😢
Meanwhile, I am totally behind on visiting blogs, so if you’ve got a blog that I follow and you haven’t heard from me lately, I’ve just not been able to spend the time online for it! I’ll have a lot of catching up to do, when I finally get the chance.
I started getting messages from the Cat Lady while I was writing this. There’s a cheap spay day coming up, and she wanted to know if we have cats to do. Of course we do, but the ones we can catch are all male. She will contact the clinic and see if they are good with a group of males. The rescue will cover the costs completely.
Oh, and her youngest daughter has a birthday coming up. The Cat Lady asked her if she wanted cash, or a new bike, for her birthday. She wanted neither.
She wants the Wolfman!
They’ve already got so many of our cats, permanently! We were afraid this would happen!
Anyhow…
When she hears back from the vet about doing males, she’ll get back to me, and let me know how many they can cover.
If we can get Sad Face done, that would make a huge difference. Hopefully, it would reduce his aggressive behaviors! It took 5 years to be able to pet him. Getting him into a carrier right now is something else entirely.
Well, time to get back outside and to a bit more mowing, then call it a night, so I can get that bed done tomorrow. We seriously need to get those last transplants in!
The first thing to do was mark off the centre of the bed, then space out the 7 “Wild Bunch Mix” winter squash transplants I had left. As with the others, I transplanted them by first digging the holes, filling them all with water, then planting the squash slightly below grade, to keep any water from running off.
That left fairly decent sized gaps between each plant, but was it enough for the corn I had? Or did I have enough corn seeds for the space? I had only one package of Yukon Chief corn. From the Heritage Harvest website…
Introduced in 1958 by Arvo Kallio of the University of Alaska, Agricultural Experiment Station. Yukon Chief is one of the earliest Sweet Corn varieties available maturing at just 55 days! The yellow cobs average 5” in length and the plants grow about 4’ tall. Highly recommended for cool, short season areas! (55 days to maturity) (50 seeds)
(image belongs to Heritage Harvest Seed)
Fifty five days to maturity is amazing!
But 50 seeds to a package?
I took them out and counted them. I counted about 80 seeds!
I say “about” 80, because some of them were really small and probably shouldn’t be planted, but they would be, anyhow. 😄
I decided to pre-soak them for a little while, and misted the other beds while I waited. The other beds didn’t really need a watering, but a misting would be good in this heat. I’m happy to say the melons that looks so wimpy, yesterday, have already perked up. They might all actually survive! The mosquito netting over part of the row was drooping a bit, so I adjusted the hoops in the middle, then used the weights on the sides to pull the netting tighter. The netting is there to protect the transplants from heavy rain, and won’t be there for long.
I decided to mark out three small trenches between each winter squash, then used the jet setting on the hose to drive water deeply into each trench. As with the squash, I wanted to plant the corn seeds below grade. To start, I set out four of the largest corn seeds in each trench then, at the end, divided the smallest seeds wherever there seemed to be a bit more space. Yes, this is closer than is recommended for corn to be planted, but I don’t expect a 100% germination rate, and some will likely be thinned out, later. The main thing is, they are clustered together so the wind should pollinate them more easily.
Once that was figured out, I just pushed the seeds down to planting depth, then watered the entire bed, to settle the soil around the seeds and the squash roots.
Last of all, I grabbed the wheelbarrow and brought over some grass clippings to mulch the sides of the soil mound, and closer in around each squash plant. Aside from the usual benefits of a mulch, this will help keep the sides of the soil mound from eroding down.
This bed is now finished! The boards can now be removed and used to mark out the next bed I’ll be working on.
Which is going to be a huge shift. The bed is not only far to one side of where it needs to be, but it’s at an angle. The north end of the bed is completely in where the new path will be, while the south end is about 3/4 in where the path will be. Shifting this bed is pretty much building a whole new bed from the ground up.
*sigh*
It will be worth it, in the end, but my goodness, getting these beds into their permanent positions is a huge job. The rain and the heat certainly aren’t helping any!
But, we have one more bed done and planted. Progress has been made! Once everything is planted, then we can shift over to harvesting more dead trees to frame the beds.
Looking at the forecast, we aren’t expecting rain until maybe Saturday night (it’s Thursday, as I write this), which means we might even be able to get more lawn mowed!
Ugh. Our temperature is now 21C/70F, with the humidex at 26F/79F.
In other things, before heading into the house, I checked the garden shed. This time, without knocking, first. I startled Broccoli and her kittens. She and the black and white ran off to the back of the shed, but the calico didn’t. I was able to pick her up and cuddle her. They haven’t been using the cat bed, so I checked it out and found a mess in it. I was able to clean it up and set it back, though, as well as straightening out the self heating matt and the felt grow bags they are using as a nest. The calico wasn’t happy with me but, after a while, she did seem to be okay with the cuddles! I was just happy to see her. I’d seen Broccoli and the black and white kitten outside, earlier, but didn’t see the calico. With yard cats, that could mean a lot of things!
Now, if we could just convince her to bring them to the sun room, too!
So with the sudden appearance of kittens in the sun room (I think we have identified the mama, and they now have their own food, water and cat soup bowls in the cage🩷) I got to work rather later than intended! When I came inside for sustenance, hydration and rest, my app said it was 17C/63F, feels like 17C/63F. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, no, it feels like 25C/77F out there!
The main job for today was to get the remaining shifted bed properly lined up and prepared for planting. We don’t have logs to frame it ready right now, but I needed to get the bed set up as if we did. Plus, the weeds were already starting to take over!
I started off on the new side of the bed, which had so many weeds taking it over, I could barely tell where the edge was! With some pieces of sod, they were so full of Creeping Charlie, I just tossed the entire sod rather than try and sift out the soil. Any tiny root left behind will start growing again.
Once it was clear, I went over it with the thatching rake, filling in some low spots. The north end of the bed is where it’s been extended from about 15 or 16 feet to 18 feet, so that end is a bit on the low side.
After tamping the soil down with the rake, I went and got the old boards I found in the barn that have become so handy in the garden. They are 6″ wide, so they will make a good guide for where the logs will be. They will also give me a surface to stand on, while planting.
After doing the new side edge, I walked on them to tamp them into the soil a bit. One of the boards is so old and rotting, every spot I stepped on, cracked! The long side took four boards, with a bit of overlap.
After adding boards over the ends, it was time to work on the side that is where what had been almost the middle of the bed, previously! The north end of the bed needed quite a lot of soil pulled over to fill it in, which was good, because quite a lot of soil needed to be moved from the middle, before I could mark the remaining side of the bed. Once I got that end filled and a board laid down, I went to the south end and did the same, before working my way towards the middle.
Of course, with all the digging and shifting, along with the weeds to get rid of, there were more tree roots, and plenty of larger rocks to take out. This is one of the beds that was wider. Now that it’s measured to 4′ wide, with the width of the future log walls taken into account, that means there was quite a lot of soil to mound in the middle!
Once the sides were levelled off, the boards in place, and the soil spread more evenly from end to end, I sort of flattened the top of the mound for planting.
By this time, however, it was getting way too hot. It was time to go inside for lunch and hydration, anyhow. The whole thing took about 2 1/2 hours. About twice as long as I thought it might take!
But, it’s now ready. When I head out next, it will be to plant the last of the winter squash, and intercop them with a super early sweet corn. Then, because the sides of the mound are as steep as they are, I’ll used some of those grass clippings my daughter so kindly collected for me, to mulch the sides and keep them from sliding onto the boards.
The next bed that has to be done hasn’t been shifted at all, yet, so it needs some serious weeding and digging. I expect an entire section will need to be removed entirely because it’s so full of Creeping Charlie. What a waste of good soil!
While I was having my lunch, I was watching the critter cam. I caught the orange tabby batting at one of the kittens, so I went to deal with that. He wasn’t trying to actually hurt it… yet.
This particular kitten is the most exploratory, and is already quite content to be picked up and snuggled!
Later, I saw the cat we’ve identified as the mama come in. She was eating the kibble I left on the floor in front of the cat cage… and the little brave one was eating, too! Then mama left, and the bitty kept on eating.
They now have their own bowls of kibble, water and cat soup, inside the cat cage.
I’ve also pulled the blanket I had blocking the opening they could get in and out of, since they were obviously still getting in and out. I used a small plant stand and some cardboard to turn the “door” into a ramp, so it’s no longer partly covering the opening under it. I’ve been able to pick up three of them for cuddles, so far. The black and white one I picked up last night, thinking it was one of Broccoli’s kittens, objected the most to being picked up again!
Other cats have been curious about them, including several I know are mamas, which made me doubt which one was the real mama of this batch. Eventually, though, I saw the mama come in on the critter cam, and the kittens went running to her, and even tried to nurse her while she was still walking!
I brought a smaller cat carrier into the sun room and set it next to the big one, so they have a couple of carriers to explore and, if necessary, hide out in. I also tied off the sun room door, with the inside door partially closed. This not only discourages other cats from coming in (now that all the food and water bowls are outside again, they come in only when they start getting hungry, waiting at the old kitchen door for the kibble to appear!), but the inner door blocks more light, so the room won’t get quite so hot. With the doors open and the sun shining through, the temperature in there starts creeping up to 30C/86F.
I’ll need to adjust the critter cam a bit, to see more of the floor area. It’s so adorable, being able to watch the kittens running around and playing in the sun room!
It’s just past 2pm as I write this, and we’d reached 19C/66F, with the humidex at 24C/75F – and we’re supposed to reach a high of 21C/70F, still! It’s not supposed to start cooling down until after 8pm.
I still need to get out there and get things transplanted, but working on the next bed will have to wait. I’m not going to do that kind of manual labour, in full sun, at these temperatures.
I keep trying to go to bed early, so I can get an early start out there, but things keep interrupting!
It’s almost the middle of June, already, and the garden is barely half in.
*sigh*
I have to keep reminding myself: little by little, it’ll get done!
Okay, I was definitely wrong about that kitten I found in the sun room last night.
This morning, I heard the beginnings of a cat fight in the sun room, so decided to quickly feed the outside cats right away, instead of waiting until I headed out to to my morning rounds. By spreading kibble all over, it would get the cats out of the sun room, and away from that baby. I messaged a daughter to join me, to check on kittens, and went on ahead with the kibble.
The first thing I saw was two kittens on a cat bed INSIDE the cat cage! Then I spotted two others outside the cage. It was like they were still trying to be close to each other.
I left some food for the mama – whoever that is! – in front of the cat cage, then went outside to feed the rest of the cats. Meanwhile, my daughter tried to figure out how to get at the two outside the cat cage, and put them with their siblings.
I saw Broccoli at the kibble on the cat house roof, so I went around to the old garden shed to leave some food for her there. No sign of her two, but unless they pop out to look at me from their hiding place in the back, I have no way of knowing for sure.
Now that I see the kittens in the sun room, I realize they are younger and smaller than Broccoli’s would be by now.
When I got back to the sun room, my daughter had just managed to reach one of the kittens, and was able to pass it to me. I gave it a cuddle, then put it with the two inside the cage.
It was more difficult to get the other one! It ended up going behind the cage, where there is a window sill the cats like to sit on.
I took the plants outside, then we had to mess around with the plant table to make space. The “table” is an old folding closet door over sawhorses, above the cat cage. An extra board was added for the cats to sit on, instead of the plant trays. That got removed, which gave a bit of wiggle room, but the kitten made its way to the other side of the cage. My daughter had to get down on her hands and knees and squirm under the sawhorse, but she managed to reach it and pass it to me. I got a quick cuddle and put it with the others.
Yes, the kittens hissed and spit at me while being cuddled, as expected.
My daughter was able to pet them a bit through the doorway of the cage, which is at the second level, before going back in to wash up.
Now, we set this cage up for Toni, in hopes that we could keep her in there to recover from her leg amputation. She had kittens somewhere, and we cut a small opening in the cage side, under the “door” for her kittens to fit through.
We didn’t expect Toni to be able to squeeze through the openings of the cage, though! So she ended up inside and, as far as we know, her kittens got adopted by the creche mothers. We never got the straight of which ones were hers, so we can’t be sure.
We’ve left the cage in the sun room and several cats quite enjoy going in there for naps.
After the kittens were all in the cat cage, I finished putting the last plant tray out, came back and…
There was a kitten, outside the cat cage, looking at me. It had found the opening!
I was able to grab it and pick it up – and it didn’t really resist this time! After I put it back in, I set other things back in place, including putting that board back over the sawhorses, but I also grabbed a cat blanket to put over the opening. I stuffed part of it in the opening, from the inside of the cage, and already had to move away the kitten that was going for it again!
After the opening was blocked and the kitten dug around in the blanket a bit, looking for the opening, it just sat there, looking at me.
So I reached in and pet it.
It let me!
I went inside and got a few cat toys, and put them in the cage with the kittens. It didn’t take them long to start investigating!
Over time, we’ll take the spare little litter box that was donated to us, and set it up in the cat cage. It’s small enough for the kittens to crawl into.
I’m going to have to check the critter cam more often, and hopefully spot which of the cats is the mama. I just checked now and the only cat I can see in the sun room right now is Stinky – a male – napping on the board above the cage.
The interesting thing is, the mama would have put the kittens inside the cat cage herself! The kittens can get out but, once out, they can’t seem to figure out how to get back in. Aside from the opening under the door, the bottom of the cage is lined with cardboard on the inside, since we were trying to stop Toni from squeezing through the 2″ square wall pieces (the are 1″ square).
I would love to get Broccoli’s kittens in here, too!
Well, time to get my butt in gear and get outside. We didn’t get actual thunderstorms in our area last night, but I need to see what wind or rain damage there might be. Especially on those melons that were transplanted yesterday. They are the most fragile transplants compared to all the others we’ve got. Then it’s back to work to prep more beds, so the last of the transplants can go out!
When I set out kibble for the outside cats this morning, I saw Broccoli come over to eat. I made sure to go to the old garden shed to check on her kittens and leave some food for her.
I did not see or hear any kittens.
Later, as my daughter was mowing the lawn, she saw the kittens outside, running around and playing with their mom. That was encouraging!
This evening, after my trip into town, my daughter and I unloaded the truck in the yard. After parking the truck, I saw a lot of cats prowling around, so I checked their kibble bowls, even though I’d fed them earlier.
There was nothing left at all, and the cats were circling like sharks!
So I gave them a top up, and even ended up scattering a bit of kibble in the sun room, along with all the other little places I leave food, to ensure less confrontations between cats.
As we were already getting some rain, after I tied off the outer door to the sun room, so the cats can still come in, I partially closed the inner door.
I found a fluff ball hiding behind it!
It was the black and white kitten from the garden shed!
So I picked it up and cuddled it for a while. He did not like that very much, and kept spitting at me ! I put him into the cat carrier, making sure the door was propped open so it couldn’t get stuck in there, and let it be.
I just went looking at pictures I took of the black and white and the calico together, and suddenly, I’m not sure it’s the same kitten. This may be an entirely new kitten! They look very similar, but … well… you tell me…
The garden shed kitten seems to have more white fur around the eyes, and the dark parts of his fur seems not as dark as the kitten in the sun room.
I may have picked up a completely strange kitten!
I’ve looked through the bathroom window a few times, and it’s still there, exploring and playing in the sun room, or just sitting at a window, watching the other cats going through the old kitchen garden.
