Morning happenings

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We had an almost quiet night with Decimus and the babies. At one point, I was awakened by scratching that I thought for sure was Nosencrantz at the window again… but Nosencrantz was curled up next to my head!

It turned out to be Decimus. She had gone up onto the bed above where her kittens are (the cat cage has four “rooms” on two levels along one side) and was scratching at the cardboard on the roof. The carboard is under some towels, as cats like to sit on top of the cage, but their feet were pushing the towels through the open squares.

When she heard me moving around, Decimus stopped clawing at her “ceiling”. Soon after, though, I heard more useful scratching – in her litter box! So she has most definitely figured out what to do with that.

Babies having breakfast!

Motherhood suits her. She’s absolutely blissful and content, and enjoying when we reach in to pet her. A complete switch from the cat that would run away any time we came close, unless we managed to start scritching her neck and ears while she was busy eating and didn’t notice us coming close.

Her entire back is one huge mat of fur. Like armour plating.

Last night, I briefly took the kittens out and lay them together on my bed. Decimus stayed in the cage and rolled around to let me pet her belly. I managed to get her out and put her on the bed with her babies, but she got nervous and tried to go back into the cage! She was a bit confused on how to get in, though, as the “door” is on the second level, and she didn’t realize she needed to jump it. I picked her up and put her in, and she immediately settled down.

Also, she is really, really enjoying wet cat food. While the other, fussier cats turned their noses up at the food bowls when I did the evening feeding, she not only finished off her own share, but when I switched bowls and gave her what other cats ignored, she ate that, too. In the end, she had almost an entire can, all to herself. Usually, they get split 3 or 4 ways, depending on how many cats I have in the room at the time.

In doing my morning rounds, I counted only 14 adult cats. One of them was The Distinguished Guest. Then I saw Sad Face coming across the outer yard. So there’s a recipe for cat fights starting. 🙁 The mama with her two kittens are still in the cat house, which is good.

Of course, I checked all the garden beds. The transplants seem to be doing all right. The raspberries we planted this spring are starting to bloom! We might actually get raspberries off of them. I would not have expected that until next year. The raspberries that predate us, growing around the old compost pile and among flowers near the main garden area, are also blooming. Looks like we’ll have quite a bit, this year. I even found one of the Sweet Chocolate peppers has started to bloom!

We have a bit of a mystery between the Sweet Chocolate peppers, and those last tiny shallots I stuck into the end of the bed. A squash has sprouted! I have no idea what kind it is, or where it came from. The soil topping up this bed was from the pile of garden soil we bought. I’m curious as to what it might turn out to be. I’ll probably transplant it, though, because a squash in that spot would end up covering the shallots and probably the peppers and nearby thyme, as well.

The down side is those horrible Chinese Elm seeds are starting to sprout. There are so many of them, I think they choked out the bok choy and lettuce we planted next to the peas. There’s just no way to brush or scoop away so many seeds. We’ll be pulling seedlings out of the garden beds all over the place for the next while.

I really look forward to when we can take down all those Chinese elms. I think I’ll start with the smaller ones on the north side of the main garden area. I’m okay with leaving the maples in there for now, but those elms have got to go!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: summer squash, peppers and onions

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Well, we have now planted as much as we can until we build the new trellis beds.

The first job was direct sowing summer squash. I forgot that we have 5 varieties. Which worked out well. There were four empty mounds from yesterday, so prepping another row of six mounds meant two for each type. Much less than we would normally plant per type, but this year we seem to be more about variety than individual quantity.

The last row will not be used this year, since it gets the most shade. Each mound got two are three seeds – all the seed packets are from previous years, and several of them had only five seeds left in them. With older seeds, we have to consider that some of them won’t germinate at all. The varieties we have are sunburst and G Star patty pans, yellow and green zucchini, and Magda.

Next, the grow bags were gathered and filled.

The low, black ones were “raised bed gardens” we got from the dollar store last year. The green ones I picked up from the dollar store this year, and they are really good! I folded them down to about half height. The fabric seems really strong, and they have sewn in handles that also seem really strong.

Four of two different varieties were planted in the wider black bags/beds. Two each of a third variety went into the green bags. They all got Red of Florence onions planted around them. These are Early Sunsation, Early Summer and Dragonfly.

The last five feed bags were filled, and each got one Cheyenne pepper in them, with more Red of Florence onions. The last bag got all onions.

We still have lots of each type of pepper (and you can see the one late germinating Spoon tomato!), which can be given way. I plan to continue to interplant the onions any chance I get. We started a lot of them, because we use a lot of onions, and ran out fairly quickly, last year.

Oh, I didn’t bother taking a photo, but I also planted a few beans. The row of green Lewis beans had a lot fewer come up than the yellow Custard beans. The gaps in the yellow beans are minor, but less than half the green beans either didn’t germinate, or didn’t grow well once they did (some have just stems left, as if the leaves just died off), so I planted more.

We have so many varieties of beans I hoped to plant this year, but at this point, my priority is to get a trellis bed built so that we can put in our melon transplants.

Thankfully, all of these are short season varieties, so we should still have plenty of growing season left for them. The pole beans, however might have to be skipped this year. We shall see.

A high priority over the next while will be to mulch around today’s transplants, and the summer squash mounds. That means cutting more grass and collecting the clippings!

It’s only the 10th of June today. We should still have time. Plus, it’s an El Niño year, which means we should have a warmer, wetter summer and fall, and a mild winter, too. Anything that extends our growing season, I will be thankful for!

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

Doing fine.

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Well, Decimus and her babies had a very quiet first night indoors!

One thing that has always been distinctive about Decimus is her teeny, tiny quiet meow. Which really isn’t much louder than her kittens!

When I did the wet cat food last night, she absolutely devoured her share. She has been allowing head pets – we can’t reach much else in the cage – and enjoying them. We’ve been handling her babies, and she’s been okay with that, too. At one point, I even found her in another part of the baby cage, while her kittens were asleep in a pile, enjoying a bit of a break. I could tell that the litter had been used, as well. So she is settling in and figuring things out.

When I did the outside cat food this morning, I checked through the cat house window, and could just make out the two kittens sleeping inside. The mother was outside, eating, at the time. So far, so good, with them.

The only trouble I’ve been having lately is with Nosencrantz. The cat that refuses to leave my room has increasingly tried to claw her way out the window. This morning, I was awakened by the noise and found her somehow behind the box fan that blocks the window and the extra screen I’ve got to cover a gap on one side and the piece of cardboard to help keep the screen in place. Thank goodness we replaced the window screen with cat proof screen! So far, it seems to be holding up. My main concern right now is that she’ll simply pull the mesh right out of the frame.

Things have really cooled down. Last night, it was almost chilly! We’re coming up on noon as I write this, and we’re still at only 15C/59F. It’s gorgeous! Now, if the wind could just die down a bit. I’ve actually moved all the transplants off the picnic table under the old market tent and put them back on the laundry platform set up. The tent sheltered them, but they weren’t getting enough sunlight for too long. Some of the Spoon tomatoes were so gangly that, when Gooby decided to be really, really friendly while I was setting the trays down, two of them ended up breaking off at the stems. I just replanted them. They’ll probably be fine. We have so many, though, and may not get enough space to plant them, so we can afford to loose a few, if it comes to that.

Yesterday’s transplants are looking good. No sign of transplant shock, so far.

Everything seems to be doing fine, today.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: winter squash transplanted

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Well, I got them in, before things got too windy out there!

The winter squash were planted in the small Jiffy Pellet trays, six of each type. Of those where not all of them germinated, I still planted the empty pellets with ones that had germinated. They may not have had visible seedlings, but some of them did have roots showing through the pellet’s casing.

In the northernmost row, there are two Boston Marrow, two Winter Sweet and two Lady Godiva.

There were four Honeyboat Delicata seedlings to tranplant, but only two Little Gem/Red Kuri.

The North Georgia (I just noticed the typo I made when labeling the photo!) had the most seedlings, with five to transplant. There were three Pink Banana. That left four empty mounds. I’ve decided to fill one more row tomorrow, to direct sow summer squash in. We have four varieties, and I want to have at least two plants of each.

While I intend to mulch the rest of the patch with wood chips, I’ll be gathering grass clippings to mulch around the mounds of soil.

But not today.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, with a predicted high of 21C/70F, which will be much more pleasant to work in. Especially since I plan to have enough soil brought over to fill grow bags.

Weather willing, we should be able to get quite a bit done tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

More!

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It looks like Decimus was not the only yard cat to have babies today!

While putting kibble out this evening, I saw the white and grey cat with spots that are more black than grey, and she’s suddenly looking skinny compared to last night. I have no idea where she had her kittens.

Just out of curiosity, I peeked through the cat house window and spotted a wiggly worm on the pillow in a box at the back wall. Looking again later, I spotted a second kitten that looks completely black. By the time I came back to take a photo, the mama was with them.

The window is dirty on the inside, so I tried to clear the photo up as best I could. This mama is one we can’t get close to, but she’s been hanging out in the cat house for a while. She did not look pregnant at all. Seeing only two kittens, that would explain why. She just wasn’t very big.

I don’t know if we’ll be able to get this mama and her babies. Right now, I just want to make sure she doesn’t get spooked and move them.

Meanwhile, the oldest litter showed up this afternoon, and I saw them running around the yard. Later, I saw them at their kibble bowl by the grape vine, though not all at once.

Three litters in one day.

Wow.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: starting on the squash patch

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Ah, but first, the important stuff!

How is the new mama and her grublings doing?

They have been transferred to baby jail and seem quite content. Decimous (or Decimus, as my daughter spells it) has been very quiet and attentive to her furry little worms.

My daughter has been staying in my room to supervise the family (the babies are so small, they could potentially squeeze through the openings of the cave) and keep an eye on how the other cats behave around them.

She fell asleep on my bed. I think she had a sleepless night last night, too!

Meanwhile, I headed outside and broke out the weed trimmer. I cleared around the pile of garden soil and then, since I had the trimmer out already, as much as I could reach around the burn barrel. I didn’t fell like adding another extension cord, so that area isn’t quite done, but close.

Then it was time to start hauling soil. I didn’t bother to sift it, though I did pause to pull out the biggest roots.

Where the sticks are, marks where we had squash growing last year. In each spot, we dug out the sod, then added fresh soil. Each squash got cardboard layers around them (we didn’t have enough to do the paths with cardboard, too), then mulched with straw, grass clippings, scythed hay – anything we could get our hands on. It took much of the summer to have enough material to mulch all the paths, too.

So now, each pot is getting more fresh garden soil and, now that we have so much of it, the rest of the area will be mulched with wood chips.

There are still two rows that I did not add soil to. They get a lot more shadow, so I won’t do those unless we really need the space. Instead, I will work on filling grow bags, next. Those will likely get peppers in them.

After I took this photo, I removed all the sticks marking the spots. Then I went around with the spade and flattened each hill and spread them a bit. Finally, I went around with the hose and used a higher pressure setting to drill water into the middle of each mound of soil.

I’ve left them to absorb the water while taking a break from the heat and the sun. Later today, I’ll go back out and start transplanting what winter squash we have that’s ready. We’ve got some melons to transplant, too, but they’re still pretty small, so they can wait. With what space I have left, if there is any, I want to sow summer squash.

We seem to have reached our high for the day – we’re at 25C/77F and pretty windy – and things are supposed to cool down slightly from now on. Tonight, we’re supposed to have a low of 12C/54F. That is going to feel glorious! My goal is to get as many of the transplants in that we can right now, so we can start dragging out those trees my brother cut down for me and begin working on the permanent trellis beds. If we can manage to get those done over the next while, we might still have time to direct sow things into them, as long as they have a short enough growing season.

This gardening year isn’t quite working out as planned, but it’s getting done, little by little!

The Re-Farmer

We have babies!

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I had a sleepless night, so the girls took care of feeding the outside cats for me this morning. It wasn’t until much later that I headed out to try and get some work done. Before I did, I paused to top of the water bowls, when I heard a little squeak.

Decimous had a litter in the shelf shelter!

I wasn’t even sure she was pregnant, with her long and matted fur.

We always put some kibble in the shelf shelter, and it’s her favourite place to eat, so I’m not too surprised she had her kittens there. I’m so glad she didn’t have them in some secret place, like the other cats do.

My daughter brought out the cat carrier and, between the two of us, we got the four kittens in. They are just hours old! Decimous, who normally runs off, was definitely feeling maternal and enjoying scritches. She wasn’t too keen on being pulled out of the corner of the shelf, even though her kittens were already in the carrier. It took both of us to gently get her out and lift her into the carrier. There was a moment of struggle until we got the top closed, and she basically just stopped.

We got the carrier into the house, and it’s now sitting next to the baby cage. Marlee is going to have to give up her favourite place! For now, though, my daughter put a food bowl into the carrier. Decimous ate a bit and, then settled down to nurse.

What a cutie she is!

We finally got her.

Now that she’s got her kittens, it should be easier to socialize her, then finally get those mats cut out of her fur!!!

We’ve set up the baby cage a bit better. There’s a bin in there with litter pellets already, that the other cats ignored. A water bowl is set up, and the food bowl will be moved over once we’re ready to transfer the little family. For now, though, we will leave them in the carrier to calm down. Other cats have come over to sniff at them and moved on.

I’ve messaged the cat lady about them. Hopefully, she will be able to find a foster for them and get them adopted out.

For now, my daughter will be hanging out in my room to supervise, and I’m heading outside to get some work done.

An adorable start to the day!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: transplanting mysteries

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Okay, so I managed to get a bit done in the garden this evening. Also, I had a wonderful surprise. Rolando Moon appeared! I haven’t seen her in at least a month, maybe two. At her age, we just never know if she’ll disappear and not return anymore.

I was also happy to see The Distinguished Guest wander into the north side of the property. Happy, that is, until I heard a cat fight and discovered he had attacked Pinky, and I had to chase him off. *sigh*

I had some squash that were getting too big for their pots that needed to go in, so I focused on the hill we grew pumpkins in last year.

This is how it looked after taking a weed trimmer to it, after the mowing around it was done. Those bricks had been placed under the developing pumpkins to keep them off the ground. The round thing is an ant trap. There was two of them, but one disappeared when it got caught by the push mower, last year.

They didn’t work. The ant hill is still there.

Thankfully, the bug spray I used seems to do a good job of deterring ants, too. I dug up the bed with a garden fork and pulled out as many weeds and roots as I could. The ground was crawling with ants, but while I had them on my boots, that’s about as far as they went.

Before, this hill had only ever had two plants transplanted into it. After weeding it and working the last of a bag of sheep’s manure into the surface, I raked it out into a flattish square.

I fit 6 transplants in. The row of three on the far right are Zucca melon, from a second seed start. In the middle row, the two in the foreground are African Drum gourd, also from a second seed start. The other four were in an unlabeled pot. I restarted both the Zucca melon and Drum gourd at the same time, but one unlabeled pot got mixed up. I think they are also drum gourds, but I’m not sure. At this stage, the leaf and stem shapes look almost identical.

We’ll figure it out soon enough, if they survive.

I then filled in the last of the space available in the wattle weave bed.

I had removed the protective plastic from the Sweet Chocolate peppers, and they now all have support stakes. I left the protection around the one Classic Eggplant, though it did get its own support stake, as did the luffa in the corner.

I transplanted one of each variety of pepper seedlings we had waiting. Between the luffa and the eggplant is Dragonfly. The three around the curve are the Cheyenne, Early Summer and Early Sunsation. I wanted to get at least one of each type transplanted, just in case we aren’t able to get things ready early enough to get the rest into the ground.

To the left of the luffa is the largest of the 3 mystery squash that germinated with some Roma tomatoes. I think they might be luffa, but I’m 100% not sure.

As I write this, it’s coming up on 8:30pm, and we’ve finally started to cool down a bit. What I got done wasn’t a lot, and certainly didn’t involve much physical exertion, but it still left me dripping with sweat. The next few days are supposed to be every so slightly cooler, and then things are supposed to heat up again. And physical exertion is going to be the main work, because we have to start hauling garden soil over to the squash patch, so we can start transplanting. We can’t even start that until I take the weed trimmer to the tall grass around the pile that couldn’t be mowed.

It’s going to be hot, sweaty and disgusting work, but we’re running out of time. It’s not just prepping spots for the transplants. This year, I was going to try direct sowing the summer squash, and those seeds should be in the ground already.

I suspect that by the time we finish building the permanent trellis beds, it’ll be too late to direct sow a lot of things. I might try, anyway. We could find ourselves with a long, mild fall again.

There’s only so much we can do, though. None of us area handling this heat well.

The Re-Farmer

There was a time…

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… when I dreamed of living on a tropical island somewhere. A place where “winter” didn’t involve air so cold it hurt your face and snow measured in feet instead of inches, or whiplash seasonal temperature extremes.

As I’ve gotten older, however, I’ve changed my mind. Oh, sure, I could do without the extreme cold temperatures in winter. However, my tolerance for heat has dropped considerably. We’ve got a somewhat cooler day today, at 25C/77F right now, compared to the last few days. Still above average, but not breaking any records. Yet I still can barely tolerate it.

Looking at the temperature map of North America right now – and not even looking at the tropics – I’ve come to the realization that this old dream of mind is something I probably don’t want anymore! I mean, even the hottest areas in the screen cap above are just a few degrees hotter than we are right now, in the prairies.

If it weren’t for the even shorter growing season, I’d be more interesting in going further north, rather than south!

The Re-Farmer