There have not been a lot of cats around lately, when I first come out!
I did see others as I went out and about, but nowhere near as many as usual. I think they are enjoying the lack of snow and drying ground, and heading out further afield.
There is a tabby that hangs out with Junk Pile and her kittens, snuggling so close together, I’ve found myself trying to see if there’s a second litter in there, and they’re sharing the parenting. It’s really hard to see in there; the windows are dirty on the inside, and we’re not going to lift the roof to clean them right now, or Junk Pile will move her kittens somewhere else.
I saw The Distinguished Guest walking around. I noticed him limping a while back, but now he’s not putting any weight on that leg at all, but hopping around three-legged. We won’t let me near him, so I can’t check it. Usually, if he starts eating in the kibble house, I can at least pet him, but he didn’t go for the food at all.
The snow is pretty much completely clear in front of the sign cam, other than what’s in the ditches. This spot here is where I spread the wildflower seeds. I am a bit concerned that the gravel and clay from the road that ended up over here will prevent them from germinating. That puddle is there because road dust pushed over with the snow had enough clay in it to form a poll that isn’t draining as it would if it were on just soil.
I broadcast the seeds quite widely, though, so I hope at least some of them will make it!
I did NOT do the walking to check on the flooded out areas. The water continues to recede, and we’re just waiting for the repair crews to get to them. I’ve been walking 3-4 miles total, every morning, for about a week now, and as much as I love the walking, my broken old body is telling me I need to take a break.
I might even listen to it.
Or I might do the walking later in the day. ;-)
We’ll see!
The snow cleared around the yard enough that I could start picking up some of the larger branches. The smaller ones will wait until things dry up more, and we can go around with the wagon or wheel barrow.
I was also able to finally clear the broken canopy tent frame away from the BBQ and picnic table. I was able to collect the tent pegs, too, and the new BBQ cover is now properly pegged to the ground.
I still had to deal with this, though.
I was able to pull the leg part way out of the ground.
If you look at where the leg goes from dry to wet, that’s how much of the leg the fallen piece of tree pushed into the ground.
There’s still the base of the leg, which has a flat plate where tent pegs can be used to secure it. It was difficult to work with, because the rest of the canopy frame is still attached to it. I noticed the screws were standard Phillip’s head, so I got a screwdriver and was able to separate it from the rest of the frame. Unfortunately, while trying to wrestle it out of the ground, the leg started to bend. !! I didn’t want to break it off completely, and then have to fight with a much shorter piece, so I left it for now.
Once I realized how easily the frame can be taken apart, without the need for proprietary tools, I got pretty excited. We can take the whole thing apart and salvage the unbroken pieces. I’ve been needing stronger materials to use as supports in the garden. The unbroken pieces will work perfectly. And you can never have enough screws and bolts!
So that’s going to be a task for later today. Dismantling the frame, and seeing how much of it can be salvages. :-)
It’s going to be a good day for working outside. We’re already at 16C/61F, and are expected to reach 20C/68F this afternoon.
There is a lot of work outside that we can finally get started on! I’m almost giddy with looking forward to it!
Okay, yeah, it’s still mucky out there, but I can still get things done! :-D
I just had to start out with this bit of gardening excitement.
When checking the plants in the sun room this morning, I spotted our very first Kulli corn seeds germinating!
When I took the picture, I could only see a couple in this larger bin in the plant shelf. After uploading the photo, I spotted several more and … oh! I just spotted one more that I missed when putting the arrows in! It’s two pots to the left of the single arrow in the middle.
These are in the smaller bin that recently got moved to the platform we made over the swing bench, at the west facing window.
I am just so thrilled! For the new folks who just started following this blog (welcome! I’m happy to see you!), Kulli is a Peruvian purple-black corn, also called maiz morado, that I’m trying to grow in our zone. I thought I was trying them last year, but the information from where I bought them kept changing, and it turned out they were developed for cold hardiness in the US, but were not actually acclimated Kulli corn, as I originally thought. I found some Kulli seeds at Mary’s Heirloom Seeds, in Texas. They are supposed to be good both as a fresh eating corn, and as a flour corn. They are also used to make a drink called chicha morado, and as a dye. I have not been able to learn much about their native growing conditions, since Peru is so mountainous, and it’s hard to compare to our Canadian growing zones. This is why I am starting them indoors – not typically recommended for corn – to transplant. Plus, they take 120 days to maturity. Our growing season, from last frost in the spring to first frost in the fall, averages 100 days.
This is a pet project of mine, in that I would like to acclimate the variety to our growing zone (if that’s even needed). These will be kept well away from other varieties of corn. Starting them indoors also means they will pollinate earlier than the other varieties we’ll be growing this year. Between those two factors, there should be no cross pollination.
We’ll have to take extra care when transplanting these, to protect them from the critters.
I saw my first ground hog running around, when I did my rounds this morning. I also saw a racoon in the kibble house about a week ago and, of course, the deer area always around. I’m not sure which critter destroyed our black corn last year, that had been doing so well.
Today is 4 weeks from our average last frost date. We started some more seeds indoors, but I’m not sure if these will be our last ones or not.
But first, some re-arranging had to be done.
I moved more pots out of the mini-greenhouse and into the sun room. The mini-greenhouse is now about half empty.
The last of the tomatoes were moved out; these are almost all the Sophie’s Choice tomatoes and, I think, one last Cup of Moldova paste tomato. There was room in the bin, so I added the peppers I’d brought over yesterday. The larger bin with the larger tomatoes and the Canteen gourds got moved so this one could be closer to the window and not get overshadowed by the larger bin.
The re-started luffa, and ozark nest egg gourds, were brought over, too. The plants in the cups are the ones I thinned out from the larger, stronger pepper plants, yesterday. It doesn’t look like they’ll make it, but you never know.
The Red Baron bunching onions got moved out of the big aquarium greenhouse – and got a hair cut.
Then it was time to start planting.
We had only three seeds to start; two types of shorter season winter squash that we grew last year, and cucumber. For these, I used planting trays the same size that come with the Jiffy Pellets, but with 4 sets of 8 square Jiffy pots in them.
With the Little Gem (Red Kuri) seeds, we picked 8 seeds that looked the best, for 1 seed per square. We still have seeds left over, plus I also still have the seeds we saved from last year. The Teddy squash had only 10 seeds left, so we planted all of them, with a couple of squares having 2 seeds. The seeds got scarified and briefly soaked while the squares were filled with potting mix. With the cumber, we just planted 1 seed per pot, in half the tray, so we have plenty of those left over.
For all the re-arranging, we still couldn’t put the tray in the big aquarium greenhouse on the warming mat, because we still needed to use it for other things. With how warm the sun room is, though, the new tray went straight there!
Red Kuri and Teddy winter squashEureka cucumber
I didn’t want them drying out too quickly, plus the overnight temperatures are still a bit of a concern. The tray didn’t come with a dome, so I improvised.
Two small bin lids cover the ends, while a small big is deep enough to fit over the labels. :-D
That done, the girls and I headed outside to check things out, and we were absolutely thrilled to find so many crocuses blooming!
Many of them are blooming in clusters like this. Each one of those clusters was a single flower, last year. I just love how they are already spreading!
There are more grape hyacinth coming up, though they are very hard to see. We also spotted wild strawberry leaves in the patch under a dead tree that we’ve framed with branches to make sure they don’t get accidentally mowed.
My younger daughter wanted to check her raspberries that had such a rough start last year. One of them has tiny new leaves coming up at the base! Hopefully, both will have survived the winter.
Once back inside, I fussed a bit more with the big aquarium greenhouse.
I’d already rotated the bin with the melons in it; the Zucca melon is now in the foreground and the watermelon in the back. The Chocolate Cherry and Yellow Pear tomatoes were moved to the mini-greenhouse, while the larger pumpkins got moved to take their place. Some of them were getting too close to the light fixture, and this tray gives them more head room.
A few remained on the warming tray, but moving so many post out freed up just enough room…
… to move the other winter squash out of the small aquarium greenhouse and put them on the warming mat. Hopefully, that will help them germinate sooner.
I have refills of those square pots that fit in the trays like the one on the warming mat. I find myself waffling back and forth over starting the summer squash in them. We have 5 types. These have a short enough season that I could get away with direct sowing. I could leave them be, but I’ve never NOT started summer squash indoors, so I find myself really wanted to start some of them!
If I do start them, it would have to be very soon, and they’ll be going straight into the sun room, too.
What do you think? Should I try go for it, or leave them?
This morning, I was finally able to skirt around the edges with shallower snow, to get to where the main garden area is finally thawing out.
You can really tell how the shadows pass, by how much or how little snow there is! The bed that’s half planted with garlic is now fully clear of snow, and each bed further west has more and more snow on it.
I checked the soil under the wood chips mulching the high raised bed, and the soil there seems completely thawed. I also lifted up the straw mulch over the garlic, and immediately found an earthworm! Still, it’ll be a while before we can plant anywhere here.
In the fall, I hope to have enough of the dead trees in the spruce grove cut down and cut to size that we can build more high raised beds to replace the low ones.
Behind where I’m standing to take this photo is where we had a squash hill for the Crespo squash, and where we planted the Mountain Morado corn. The squash hill is surrounded by snow, and half the old corn block is still under snow.
It’s quite different at the other end.
The squash tunnel is looking a bit wonky! We should get one more year of of the tunnel and trellises, and then we’ll move things closer to the house. In the background is where we will be planting the berry shrubs that will be shipped in time for transplanting in our growing zone. The space between the tunnel and the trellises will be planted again, as will the rows that had bush beans last year. We will also start planting more in the wide open space on the right, which extends to the main garden area, as well as part of the area where I am standing. A lot of squash and melons were be planted in these wide open spaces. We’ll be putting temporary deer fencing around as much of the old garden area as we can, this year, along with other measures to try and protect our garden beds from various smaller critters.
Next year, if things go as planned, where the pea trellises are, and the rows we’d previously planted beans in, will have fruit or nut trees planted. We might get one more year out of the squash tunnel before that gets taken out, too. If all goes well, by then we’ll have enough permanent high and low raised beds and be able to build permanent tunnels and trellises on them.
Hopefully, we will have a good growing year, and fewer hungry critters to fight off!
I must say, we are really fortunate. The flooding issues have been around us, and not a threat to our home or safety. At most, it’s been an inconvenience. Not so, for many others!
The highway nearest us has flooded over in the south, part way to the town my mother lives in. Last I heard, it was still getting worse. No one I know can remember that highway flooding over. I think I maybe, kindof, sortof, remember the highway flooding over when I was a child, but I was so young, I don’t really trust the memory. If it did happen, we’re looking at 45+ years ago.
Not only is that section of highway flooded over, but the provincial road we usually use to cross from my mother’s town to the next highway has also flooded over. Which means, if I need to get to my mother, I would have to drive east to the next highway, drive south until I reach a crossroad to the south of where my mother lives, then travel north again on the highway we usually use. It would likely be an hour’s drive, instead of 20 minutes.
The highway near us runs to the north, ending at the town we pick up our beef packs at. The junction to that town has been closed down, as the highway is collapsing. This morning, I learned barricades have been put up at the junction of our own little hamlet. People traveling north will have to turn east to detour.
With so many road closures, I was going to phone my mother to tell her about them, but she called me first. It turns out our vandal had called her and went an a while rant about how she isn’t allowing him on the property, and all the other crazy stuff. As usual, she couldn’t get a work in edgewise. Then she found a picture on her walker outside her door, that he’d left this morning. A picture of him and my late brother doing work on the house we’re living in. I am sure of the message he intended to make by doing that, but it has completely escaped my mother. I wonder about what triggered him. We do have the conference call with his court case coming up soon, to decide when the first trial date will finally happen. I also saw him and his wife walking past on the road while I was working in the old kitchen garden yesterday evening, and seeing me might have triggered him, too.
Showing up at my mother’s door like that is creepy, but at least he didn’t try to come in.
Aside from that, things are okay with my mother. She’s in town and around people, with a grocery store just a couple of blocks away, and the town itself is not being flooded out.
This morning, I checked the washout to the south of us. I won’t bother posting photos I took of that, as not a lot has changed. Enough snow has cleared and water gone down that I could check out areas beyond the outer yard. Where I can, I will include past photos, for comparison.
May 2022August 2021
That photo taken in August was the most water I saw there all of last year.
Sadly, we lot another large tree by this pond.
The trunk had been damaged by ants. Most of the spruces that I’ve seen fallen have ant damaged trunks. Weird, the way it split around that core.
Of course, I had to check out the gravel pit that the renter had dug out again last year.
May 2022August 22
As with the pond, the photo from last year is the most water we saw in there, when we finally got rain at the end of summer. Last year, when I took photos, I tried to take some from the same spot. I couldn’t do that today, because that spot was under water.
Here is another view of the old gravel pit. The only area that was dug out is where you can see the pile of gravel on the left. The rest was left untouched. Not only is the low area in the foreground full of water, but the marsh beyond the gravel pit is full, too.
There is a lot of clay under there, so I hope that means this will stay full throughout the year. This is a water source for the renter’s cattle, as well as for wildlife.
I also checked on where the “creek” that forms in the spring drains into the field, as well as where the water enters our quarter by the washed out road.
That is a LOT of gravel washed out from the road. It’s remarkably deep.
This water flows through the trees, and the terrain is very rough at the best of times. I didn’t even try to follow along it this time, though I’ve done so before.
Here is where it emerges from the trees.
May 2022April 2020
I had to go back 2 years to find photos of the area, and still couldn’t find any from the same angle. In the old photo, there is some water from the spring melt, which didn’t happen in April of this year! That little “island” by the barrels could still be crossed to, but not this year!
May 2022April 2020
Aside from some spring melt, this area is dry except for a few lower spot – and last year, everything was completely dry because of the drought.
At this fence line, the water flows into the field and eventually joins the municipal drainage ditch, which then crosses the neighbour’s field before crossing the road, near where it is currently flooded out.
It should be interesting to see how things go for the growing season. As I write this, we are at 14C/57F, which is already a bit higher than forecast. The next week is supposed to get downright “hot” at 20-21C/68-70F. Though more rain is expected about 5 days from now, the ground should be thawed out and dried up enough to handle it. Right now, though, we have both high water level and overland flooding alerts, for our region. Still, with the warmth we’re supposed to be getting over the next while, farmers should still be able to seed their crops, and gardeners to start direct seeding cold weather crops, and be able to do their transplanting soon.
Speaking of which, I was able to reach parts of the main garden area, too. That will be in my next post.
I am really loving the longer days. I was able to get all sorts done this evening, while it was still light out!
The first job was to make some changes in the sun room.
A few things needed to be reorganized, which I worked on while the girls got the new metal sawhorses out of their packaging and set them up. There was no place to move the table saw, so one of them sticks out further than is convenient, but we can still get around it.
I suppose we could have laid out the closet door with the hinges down, but that happened to be the way my daughter and I grabbed it and laid it out. I don’t expect it to be a problem.
That done, I wanted to get those tall tomato plants out of the shelf, where they just barely fit.
Oh, oh.
Looks like Potato Beetle tried to jump into the bin that was in his favourite spot!
I do wish I’d caught this earlier. It’s pretty wilted. Still, tomatoes being how they are, I tried to salvage it.
I just buried the stem on the soil. Hopefully, those hair roots on the stem will do their job, and it will recover. If it doesn’t, we still have quite a lot of Cup of Moldova tomatoes.
That done, I brought the onions out of the shelf to give them a “haircut”, then switched them around when putting them back on the shelf.
The new set up is the perfect height to work at!
Next, I brought out the tallest plants that were in the mini-greenhouse.
I moved the two Canteen gourds out of the bin in the shelf and in with the larger tomatoes, then added laughably large poles for them to climb on. The poles look too big now, only in relation to the size of the plants, but those plants are going to get much, much larger!
More tomatoes went into the bin the gourds were removed from, another gourd that had still been in the mini-greenhouse joined the other two in the larger bin. The small bin of kulli corn got moved over. Hopefully, this will be a better spot for them. I also brought over a couple of pepper pots. They each had a pair of peppers in them, so I thinned out the smaller ones and repotted them. We’ll see if they will survive. Two more tomato plants joined them, as there wasn’t room for them in any of the bins in the window shelf. With the changes, though, there is now more room on the shelf for a couple more bins of seedlings, once we’re ready to move them over.
That done, I took advantage of the daylight, grabbed a hoe and went into the old kitchen garden.
I was able to prep three beds, including the one alongside the retaining wall blocks. There’s another bed on the left, in between where you can see stone and brick stepping stones. I won’t be touching that, as it was fall seeded with the bread seed poppies that grew there last year. We still have some of the seed pods, and I’ll be adding more seeds to that bed later on, just to make sure we get at least something. We did get another variety of bread seed poppies, but those will be planted in a completely different area, to avoid cross pollination.
The soil in these beds is not at all frozen – what a difference location makes! We’ll look through the seeds for direct sowing and make some decisions on what to plant here. We already sort of mapped things out, but things are flexible. This is a good location for root crops, be we already grew carrots and beets here last year.
Whatever we do, we’ll have to be prepared to cover the beds, so we don’t get a repeat of last year’s critter damage!
There are still the retaining wall blocks at the end. I transplanted mint that was growing where the log framed bed is, into alternating blocks. We’ll soon find out of they survived the winter. They’re mint, though, so it’s highly likely they did. We haven’t decided what to plant in the empty blocks. Perhaps some of the herb seeds we have.
There is another bed that should be quite workable now; the bed along the chain link fence where we planted tomatoes last year. We’re actually intending to put tomatoes there again this year, as they did so well in that location. The soil was very thoroughly reworked when a border of bricks was placed around it, so using it for the same type of plant again shouldn’t be a problem. Since it’s going to have things transplanted into it, and got well mulched in the fall with leaves, it’ll be left alone until planting time.
Gosh, it felt so good to be working in the dirt again! Though it was funny when I got my hands muddy, pulling out roots and weeds as I found them, and was able to go “wash” them off in snow.
We are just so incredibly excited right now! We’ve got an absolute explosion of seeds germinating!
There still aren’t any watermelons yet, but if you look at the back of the second picture, you can see our first Zucca melon has germinated!
Since taking these pictures this morning, the seedlings have gotten notably bigger, and are starting to lean inwards. We’re going to have to rotate the bin.
I’m just thrilled with how fast the hulless pumpkins are coming up. Since taking this photo, the ones in front are fully emerged.
It’s out of focus in the back, but you can see that there are roots coming through the pot with the Giant Pumpkin. I have larger biodegradable pots, still, so that will get potted up soon, with no root disruption.
I’m not sure what’s going on with these two dancing gourds. The leaves look almost as if they’ve been chewed on. They haven’t. That’s just how they emerged.
That’s okay. We have more. The seedling you can see just starting to break ground next to the dancing gourd already up is now fully emerged from the soil – as is the Giant Pumpkin next to it!
In the pots with the Baby Pam pumpkins, you can see the soil starting to lift and split. Since taking the photo this morning, seedlings have fully emerged, not only there, but in the Kakai pumpkin pot next to them! Even in the back corner, it looks like the Apple gourds are starting to germinate. Only the Yakteen gourds haven’t shown signs of germinating, but the way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if I checked them this evening, and found something there. :-D
The tomatoes and bunching onions haven’t changed a lot, though. Which is not a problem. They just suddenly seem like they’re growing slowly, compared to everything else exploding around them! :-D
I don’t know why I’m so much more excited about these, than anything else we’ve started so far. I’m not even sure where we’ll be planting these, exactly. More of a vague notion of where we want them, since we’ll be taking advantage of the large leaves of many of our squash to shade out weeds and reclaim parts of the old garden area.
Speaking of the old garden area, here’s how it looked this morning.
This is the view from the fence line. I’m still not even trying to get to the sign cam through the garden. Quite a lot of the snow has melted away, and the area by the squash tunnel (which will be used for pole beans this year) is pretty clear.
I can’t say the same for the areas closer to the house. There’s still deep snow stretching from end to end. The low raised beds are starting to emerge from the snow, but we just can’t get at them yet, any more than I get get to the sign cam.
I checked on a few other things this morning, like the haskap bushes.
The male haskap, which is the largest of them, has been deer damaged, but you can see that leaf buds are emerging.
The female haskap that was planted at the same time as the male has been struggling. It never leafed out or bloomed at the same time as the male. I do see tiny leaf buds, though, so hopefully, it will do better this year – in spite of the deer damage it also has!
The new female haskap we planted is a lot smaller, and seems to have escaped the notice of the deer!
After I got back from town today, and my daughter helped me unload the van – I was finally able to drive right up to the house! – we went around to check on her flowers. There are more irises and daffodils emerging along the old kitchen garden, and more tulips coming up among the nearby trees. We were able to spot more grape hyacinth coming up, too. I had mentioned the snow crocus flower buds I saw yesterday, so we checked those out, too.
Some of them have actually opened, since this morning! There were a few more I couldn’t get good pictures of, completely in water, but still managing.
After things being such a disaster with the tulips, irises and daffodils last year – the first growing season for all the corms and bulbs – we all thought for sure they were a loss. It just didn’t seem they would have managed to store enough energy in their bulbs to survive the winter, never mind spread. Yet that’s exactly what it looks like they’re doing.
My younger daughter is just beyond thrilled. These were her babies! :-D
Spring has been slow in coming this year, but there are finally things growing – and blooming!
Soon, there should be more. The beds in the old kitchen garden are thawed out enough that we can start planting some cool weather crops right now! We’ll have to go through the seeds for direct sowing, and see what we should start first. Some say to plant “as soon as the ground can be worked” while others say things like “plant a week before last frost date”.
But first, we need to prep the sun room some more, so we have space to lay out the plants that are too tall to fit in the growing shelves.
I think I spotted about 8 or 10 cats in total this morning; they move around so much, it’s hard to tell some of them apart. :-D
I did the walk to check on the washed out road to the south of us again, and things are much improved.
This deeper section is now about half as wide as it was before. The other section that was much wider but shallower is also substantially reduced.
While walking back, I saw something that made me very happy. A grader went by on the main road!
So of course, I had to check that washout, too.
Click on the images to see them in a larger size.
The patch job is holding out, and with the water receding, it shouldn’t get any bigger – hopefully! My goodness, though, that’s a lot of gravel that washed into our side of the fence line! In the middle picture, the grader is still visible, but it’s hard to see with the trees in the background.
I’d gone though our back gate to check this area out, and as I headed back through the outer yard, I saw a gravel truck going by. I know there are a lot more washouts to the west of us. The company we bought our garden soil from mostly works with gravel, as well as doing driveways, road repairs, etc. Once I got inside, I sent an email to the renter, who also happens to be on our municipal council, to thank them for doing such a great job dealing with all this. Then I sent a direct message to his wife to pass on that I’d sent the email to check at his leisure. I knew he would be incredibly busy. I was right! His wife told me he was out hauling. Their own farm came very close to major damage, but the water started to recede just in time. She also told me the gravel company has been working tirelessly, cleaning things up. So I made sure to pass on thanks to them, too! I’m sure the council has been hearing plenty of complaints, so I wanted to make sure to pass on some appreciation. There’s only so much they can do until the water recedes, and I totally understand how frustrated they must have been.
One thing about this time of year, is that I can actually see the state of the outer yard in some places.
This is in the part of the outer yard that leads to the back gate. Those tire tracks have been here longer than we have. I’ve put that stick there so that, when I’m trying to mow a lane to the back gate, I can see where it gets particularly rough. The whole section is full of ruts that there’s just no avoiding.
I wonder if this year, we’ll finally manage to do a controlled burn? The whole area is such a fire hazard in the summer, with all that thatch, a controlled burn would make is much safer – but with old buildings and sheds in the area, there’s a risk of one of them catching fire. With so much moisture this spring, it would be easier to control a burn.
When it comes to the risk, it’s 6 of one, and a half dozen of the other.
After finishing my rounds, I called the appliance repair guy that did the warranty work on our washing machine before. I was able to explain and describe what happened. He confirmed that the machine turning itself on and draining is a fail safe. With the drain still not tested properly – and I really don’t know how to test it without the washing machine, since it sends the most water through, under pressure, than anything else – what should have been a good thing is now a problem.
There is no way he can come out here for at least a week, so he described what to try first. We’ll have to pop the back panel off to do it. There is an air hose that goes from the electronics panel to under the tub; with the water sitting in the tub overnight, it may have gotten clogged. We’ll need to detach it from the top and try blowing through it. If it’s not clogged, he wants us to do a test wash. After putting the air hose back, of course, we need to run an empty load. With nothing in the tub, the water level should reach only about 5 inches deep. If it keeps on filling without stopping, we would need to shut it off, unplug it again, and call him back. Otherwise, if it starts working as it should and goes through a wash cycle, that may do a reset on the electronics (we had to do this when we first bought the machine), and that should solve any weird issues, there.
To do this, we’ll have to first pull the dryer out, so we can access the back of the washing machine.
The dryer duct needs to be replaced, as we found out the cats had damaged it, the last time we had to get back there. When my daughter put my super wet laundry into the dryer after she foot stomp washed it for me, the glass in the entire house fogged up! Going into the dining room and kitchen areas was like being in a sauna.
Which was actually really pleasant, and I’m sure the plants loves it, but not good for the house! :-D
Since the grader went by, I decided to make the trip into town.
I actually passed the grader, working the other half of the road, on the way out. :-)
Then I reached the washout.
Please excuse my terrible picture. I just stopped, stuck my phone out the window, and shot blind.
Right in front of me is where the municipal drainage ditch runs under the road. The area I noted earlier as looking like it would flood, is indeed washed out, and it extends almost as far as where the culvert is.
Knowing the grader went through here already, I wasn’t too worried about being able to cross it in our tender van. ;-)
The next area of concern was there the gravel road reached the highway. I knew it had been washed out badly, but this is a major intersection (as for as out rural municipality goes!) and I knew it would have been a priority fix. Sure enough, it was completely redone with fresh gravel, though the driveways to the nearby church, and into a private residence (thankfully, no one lives there right now) are badly damaged and under fast running water.
In fact, the whole way to town, the ditch on that side was a fast flowing little river. This ditch is a main drain straight to the lake and, from the looks of it, the two municipalities it crosses had managed to clear the snow out – again – to keep the water flowing. There’s just so much of it, even the driveways and roads that didn’t get washed out, still had all the gravel around the culverts washed away, exposing the rock foundations.
Town itself was all right, in the places I needed to get to. I know in other areas, there are major problems.
My first stop was the hardware store. This is a small store, and their major appliances are in the basement. I don’t normally go down there, so I made a point of looking around while there. I found the dryer duct I needed, and also picked up vent filters. With so much cat hair floating around, I knew this was something we needed, but hadn’t actually found any until today. One pack has 24 filters in them.
I got two.
While I was at it, I also picked up more of the drain maintenance stuff that uses bacteria and enzymes to help keep the plumping clean. I also got a product that’s a fast clog clearer – not something I got before, because it’s strong enough that the bottles are sold in their own plastic bags, to avoid any risk if there’s a spill. We’ll have to be very careful using it. It may not be designed specifically as septic safe, but with so much water flowing into our septic tank and the pump going off so often right now, I’m not too worried about that right now. Then, once that’s done, we can use the other stuff to get the bacteria and enzymes established again.
Since I was in town anyhow, I made a quick stop at the grocery store for a few small things, then remembered to stop at the store we found those storage bins that have been so handy for our seed starts. Happily, they restocked on the larger bins, so I got 4 more. I also found some plant clips and picked up some new wooden clothes pins. The ones we have now are really old and starting to fall apart. There are plastic ones, too, but they’re so old, many of them have become brittle and snap when we try to use them.
I forgot to look for clothes line at the hardware store, but that’s okay. We should probably measure how much we need, first, to replace the broken clothesline. I might pick up some more pullies, too. When my dad set up the posts for the clothes line, he made it to hold three of them. Back then, we were using a wringer washer, and had no clothes dryer. There’s just one clothes line, now. The posts are starting to lean inwards, though, so we’ll have to do something to correct that. I’d like to have the option of hanging clothes outside, if we want or need to.
We now have what we need for when we get behind the washer and dryer. I don’t know that we’ll get to that today, though. We need to set up the sun room so we can bring in more plants.
Which I’ll be talking about in my next post. The plants, I mean, not the sun room. I’m so excited!
I’ve just spent the last several hours fighting with a single load of laundry. The laundry I tried to do last night that ended up flooding the entryway.
Today, the first thing I did was remove the clothing that was still in the water, wringing it out as best I could, and putting it back in the laundry basket. While I was doing that, I realized…
I was seeing… daylight?
Check out how low that is. The top of the basin is usually just under the top of the washer. It was about 3 inches lower. There is a window in the wall behind the washer, with sunlight shining through some openings in the back of the machine, and I was seeing it only because it was so low.
Once the clothes were out, I used the new syphon pump to drain the water into a bucket. The breaking main door was opened and left open, to put as little stress on the hinges as possible.
I had to fight off cats, every time I came in and out. They were so excited to be able to see through the storm door, and sniff at the slightly open window!
Once as much water was removed from the basin as the pump could get, I left it be, hoping that without the weight of the water and clothes, it would lift itself up again.
While giving it time to do that, I dumped the basket of laundry into the tub. It had already been washed and needed to be rinsed, so I added water and stomped on it with my feet, like I was stomping grapes, to rinse it out. When the old washing machine broke, that was how we did our laundry until we could replace it.
The down side of doing laundry that way is, it’s hard to squeeze out the water. Which makes it much more work for the dryer. I did use one of the arm bars to twist as much water out as I could, but decided to take advantage of the sunny and warmer day, and hang them on the clothes line.
Before I did, though, I checked on the washing machine.
That was encouraging. The basin was almost at the top again.
I left it be to head outside and wipe down the clothes line – it hasn’t been used in a long time – while a daughter lugged the laundry basket out for me. While hanging the clothes, I made extra sure to pin them on well because, if they fell off, they’d fall right into mud, snow, water or even deer droppings, depending on where they were.
I did notice that we need to replace the clothes line. It’s a plastic coated wire line, and it’s so old, the plastic was cracking all over. I don’t want to get rust on the clothes.
One of the handy things we got were a couple of S clips. Our clothes line is on pulleys, so we can just stand on the laundry platform and move the clothes on the line, rather than having to drag a basket across the yard. With the weight of the clothes, it starts to sag, but S clips placed strategically between the clothes, holds the top and bottom together and reduces the sag. I had just put on the second S clip and was getting hear the bottom of the basket when…
… the clothesline snapped.
Almost all my laundry, now lying in the mud.
*sigh*
Well, we had to test the washing machine out at some point.
After a daughter and I picked up the laundry and brought it in, I decided to do a test run with half a load. I made sure the sump pump hose was set up out the window before even plugging the machine back in.
The cats were wild with curiosity.
Finally, it was time to plug it in and…
Nothing happened.
So far, so good.
I put in the half load of clothing, added the detergent, and finally hit the power button.
It turned on, and did nothing else.
Still, so far so good!
I started setting the machine for a normal load. All the buttons worked, and the timer showed 63 minutes, just as it should. I started the load, and it was soon filling with water.
I wasn’t sure it was so far so good, though. Didn’t it usually take longer before it started filling? The machine does a bit of a jig with the basin as part of its automated load size system. We don’t normally do small loads of laundry, so I’m not sure. Plus, there had still been some water at the bottom. Maybe that threw it off.
Being paranoid, I set up the household step ladder across from the machine and sat there on my phone, supervising it.
As the machine filled, the timer counted down.
It kept filling.
And filling.
And filling.
That was a small load. It should have stopped earlier.
Then I realized the countdown on the timer was at 55 minutes – and it wasn’t changing.
I do appreciate that the washing machine has a window in its lid. I kept watching the water level slowly rising. The basin did start to agitate a bit, but kept stopping, while the water kept going.
Finally I paused it, checked the load and restarted it.
It kept filling.
The timer stayed at 55 minutes.
About this time, my other daughter came down to see how my cursed load of laundry was doing, and I told her what was happening. When the machine still wouldn’t stop filling, and the level was just way too high, I finally shut it off. Clearly, there was something wrong with the machine.
I got my daughter to bring me the syphon pump while I removed the machine’s drain hose from the sump pump hose that was running out the window. The hose from the syphon pump fit into the sump pump hose, nice and snug – I could pump straight outside, instead of hauling buckets!
The cats REALLY wanted to check things out!
I started to pump, but there wasn’t enough of a seal and water started to leak from the join, so I went to get some electric tape to seal it.
I had just gotten the tape from another room, when I started to hear splashing sounds.
I came running to find water shooting out of the washing machine’s drainage hose. The machine had turned itself on and was draining!
This time, I had the presence of mind to shove the end into the washing machine. The little step ladder was still there, so I was able to climb up and reach the plug while staying dry.
Now that I think about it, the machine turning itself on to drain the basin may be a failsafe system, to make sure the basin wasn’t left with heavy water in it for too long. Which would be a good thing, if we actually had somewhere for it to drain, but with the pipe clogged, we don’t, and the only way to stop it is to unplug it!
My younger daughter, sweetheart that she is, went running for the mop and bucket as soon as she heard the splashing. We got the water cleaned up as best we could, then she dried off the hose connections so they could be taped together. Meanwhile, I started taking the clothes out – again! – squeezing as much water out them as I could, and putting them back in the basket, while my daughter started pumping water out.
We got that done, and then I took the laundry into the bath tub again, then headed outside, while my daughter used the syphon hose to empty out most of the mop bucket, so it would be easier to dump outside.
That pump and hose system through the door works really well.
While outside, I gathered up the broken clothes line. That took a while. It’s a long line! My daughter came to join me, and when we went into the sun room to put the line away until we had time to grab some tools and remove the line tightener, which is still good, we talked about how I want to set things up in the sun room to make a surface for plants above the swing bench.
Not something we’re going to do today.
Then we headed in, and I was talking about having to still do my laundry with my feet when my daughter started taking off her shoes by the tub.
She said I was having a bad enough day, so she would do it for me.
What a sweetheart!
So that’s done and, since no amount of manual squeezing matched the spin cycle of a machine, the load is being dried in two batches, so as not the overwork the dryer.
We went from not being able to do laundry because of a clogged drain, to now having a broken washing machine.
I hope it’s still under warranty. I’m not sure something like this would be covered, though.
As for the drain…
When I had the chance, I got my daughter to stand near the laundry and listen, while I ran both taps in the kitchen on full. She heard no gurgling and no sounds of water backing up the pipe.
Could we have finally cleared the clog?
I sure hope so. I’d really like something to go right!
Actually, something did go right. Wanting to cheer myself up, my daughter and I went to check on the seedlings in the big aquarium greenhouse. There are more sprooots! More Lady Godive and Kakai hulless pumpkins have sprouted, and I spotted a Styrian seedling just breaking ground. We also have more of the cantaloupe type melons! We have an almost 100% germination rate on those! There is only one out of 8 pots of Halona melons that hasn’t germinated – and those are seeds from last year’s garden, so they’re more than a year old. One of the grocery store melons, which has 4 pots, had only one seed germinated, but now the rest of them are up, too.
That did a great job in cheering us both up. :-)
Tomorrow, I want to call the plumber and, now that the washing machine is doing crazy things, call the appliance guy that came out to do warranty work on it before. I want to describe to him what happened, before trying to find the info for the company about possible warranty work.
What a day.
My other daughter commented on how all this was somehow to “make up” for our not being flooded outside, like so many others are!
While doing my morning rounds today, I made a point of visiting the old kitchen garden. The girls had gone out to see the sprouting crocuses and tulips yesterday, and checked out the side of the old kitchen garden, where they had planted irises and daffodils. We have some of both coming up!
They took some scrap boards and lay them on the ground outside where the seedlings are, to make sure no one accidentally walks too close to the new sprigs. These had done so poorly last year, only partly due to the drought, so we’re really amazing to find they survived.
Also in the old kitchen garden, I checked the rhubarb. One patch is next to where the irises and daffodils are planted.
It looks like something has been eating them! Rhubarb leaves are toxic, but is that true of emerging leaf buds? I don’t know, but these have been chewed on.
The other patch is on the opposite side of the garden.
I moved some snow to uncover the emerging rhubarb on the right. Some of the ones on the left were chewed on, too.
Very strange.
More snow had melted away in the area we planted grape hyacinth, so I checked there, too.
Yes! There are some grape hyacinths sprouting! I’m so excited about these. I just love grape hyacinths. :-)
More of the area the crocuses were planted is snow free, too, so I checked that out.
Some snow crocuses are actually showing flower buds! They’re barely out of the ground, yet, and already trying to bloom! Awesome!
Things are sprouting like crazy in the big aquarium greenhouse, too.
Just look at all those melons sprouting! Only the Halona melons are from purchased seed. The rest are seeds saved from grocery store melons.
The toilet paper tube pots were supposed to get one seed each, but I see an extra Halona melon seed snuck in. :-D
Only the watermelon and the Zucca melon, which is a type of birdhouse gourd, have not had any seeds germinating yet.
Meanwhile…
We now have a second Tennessee Dancing Gourd sprouting, and two types of hulless pumpkins. Last night, there was one Kakai in the back) and one Lady Godiva (in the foreground), but this morning, another Lady Godiva sprout exploded out of the soil.
I am so looking forward to seeing how these turn out!
We have just a few more things to start indoors, and that should be done soon.
If all goes well, we’ll be direct sowing into the garden in a few weeks, with cold hardy seeds that can be sown before last frost.
The Re-Farmer 