Our 2025 Garden: something new, and tomato decisions made

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While I was out and about today, I found myself standing in line at the grocery store, right near a seed display. So, of course, I went looking.

Yeah. I bought more seeds.

In going through my seeds, I was thinking of what slicing tomato to grow this year. I had decided on doing the Spoon tomatoes, and will make a point of saving seeds from those, but for the family, I wanted a slicing tomato and a snacking tomato. I saw the two varieties of black tomato seeds we grew a couple of years back, and somehow completely missed the packet of Forme de Couer tomatoes (I think it was stuck to the back of another seed packet) that we grew last year. The black tomatoes took such a long time to mature, I figured it was worth getting these to try.

Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes, which need only 40-59 days to harvest, after transplanting outdoors. In the next photo, you can read that this variety was developed in Alberta specifically for our prairie climate, is a determinate tomato and does not need staking.

The “It grows here” guarantee is a nice touch.

Well worth the try. Hopefully, it will even taste good.

After I finished doing my evening rounds early and tending to the new mama in the sun room, I got my daughter to help me take some things to the basement, then we went through the packets of tomato seeds together, so she could help choose one more variety.

We ended up with two.

For a snacking tomato, I’ll start some Chocolate Cherry tomatoes. My daughter, however, spotted the packet of Black Beauty tomato seeds. While these took forever to ripen, and had a tendency to split like no other tomato we’ve grown, she says they were the most delicious tomatoes we’ve grown to date.

So we will have two types of slicing tomatoes. One short season variety and one long season. Depending on how things work out, the Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes should be done and harvested just in time for the Black Beauties to start ripening.

That makes four varieties of tomatoes we will be growing this year, and I will make sure to NOT start too many seeds! With the different places we’ve tried tomatoes before, I have a better idea of where I will transplant these. Most definitely not in the blocks along the chain link fence, for starters! I figure I will shoot for four transplants of each variety. That should be enough for out needs, since we will not be freezing or canning any tomatoes we grow this year.

Either tonight or tomorrow, I will head back into the dungeon and set some seeds up to pre-germinate. The tomatoes will wait until the first week of April, but there are other things I can start now.

I have decided to go ahead and try the luffa again, after all. They will get transplanted into large pots and be kept in the new portable greenhouse we got for the entire growing season.

I will also start pre-germinating seeds for winter squash, but I think I’ll sow the Turkish eggplant right away into seed starting mix, rather than pre-germinate them. I don’t feel like pre-germinating smaller seeds. I will pre-germinate the melon seeds, but not until April.

And that’s where we are at, for now!

The Re-Farmer

New baby update

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While I was out today, my daughters kept an eye on Brussel and her baby.

The first good news is that Mama has accepted the gift of a cat cave, and moved her baby into it.

The other good news is, there apparently is just one kitten. Not the four or five we usually see!

Unless there are more babies hiding under the fluff, somewhere!

Interestingly, the kitten seems to be a calico around its head and shoulders, but has tabby markings on its back!

While out today, I looked for a telescoping spoon, or something that would allow us to reach her from a distance. I could only find a telescoping camp fork, and that wouldn’t work. I did get some wet cat food in small packets, just for Brussel. After everything was unloaded, I fed the outside cats early, then used a bamboo back scratcher we weren’t using to hold the cat food and give it to her. She was growling every time I was in front of the cat cage and, of course, while I was passing the wet cat food over to her (she still had plenty of dry kibble and water in the cat cage with her). I ended up dropping the chunk of paté right in front of her.

Then I put the back scratcher in the old kitchen, turned around, and there was Gouda, in the cat cage, head in the cat cave, going for Brussel’s wet cat food!

I got him out, but then Magda jumped in, too.

I got her out, then closed up the door on the cat cage. I’ve got a time going right now, to go and open it up again so she can answer the call of nature. There isn’t room for a litter box in there, right now.

I will likely close her up in there again for the night, though, and open it in the morning, to make sure no skunks or racoons go in to steal her food. Either that, or take her food bowl right out for the night. That would probably be better. Otherwise, the racoons will try and break into the cat cage to get at it.

The live feed on the critter cam is going to be heavily used for the next while!

The Re-Farmer

First babies

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I got quite a surprise while feeding the outside cats this morning!

I’d done the food and was just about to go do the rest of my rounds when I heard a strange noise.

I tiny little squeak.

Being half way out the door, I at first thought I was hearing it from outside. It took some looking around, but I finally found the source.

It was coming from the cat cage under the platform.

Where Brussel was scrunched into a corner.

Giving birth.

After watching for a bit to make sure she was okay, I quickly finished my rounds, then checked on her again. I didn’t think she was done, but it was hard to tell. I could see one little calico squirming around, but Brussel is so fluffy, there could easily have been more hidden in there.

What I ended up doing was pulling the entire cage away from the window wall, where it would be colder. I grabbed a cat cave from inside and, after straightening out the blanket bed in the cut next to Brussel, I squeezed it in, using the handle of a broom stick to shove it into place. I’m hoping Brussel will move her kittens into there.

I also got a two sided bowl and set it up for her with food and water. I also changed the angle of the second heat lamp with the warmer bulb to face more into the cage.

She growled at me, the whole time.

I’ve let the Cat Lady know already. We have never been able to get close to Brussel, though her sister, Sprout, is even more feral than she is. But she chose to have her kittens in the sun room, which is a total shock. Given how insanely early in the year it is for having kittens, it was probably the warmest place she could find. Since she is in the cat cage, if we could get a litter pan in there somehow, we could close it up, too. That would keep the other cats – and racoons and skunks – out.

I have the critter cam set facing the cat cage and the live feed up right now. With the cage pulled further from the wall, I can see into it more, but the heat lamp’s shield blocks my view of the corner she is in. I did, however, catch another cat going in to check things out, and was able to use the camera to tell it to leave, which it did.

Hopefully, this will mean we can finally socialize Brussel, and be able to socialize her kittens, too, and get her fixed.

Meanwhile, I need to head out soon to run errands. The family can keep an eye on her while I am gone. My biggest concern is that she will move them out of the sun room completely, which would probably kill the kittens. I know, I know. We don’t need more kittens, but after last year, finding so many dead and dying kittens, day after day, I really don’t want that to happen again this year.

Whatever happens, happens. We’ll deal with things as they come – but I can still try to set things up to hopefully have a happy result!

The Re-Farmer

Faces

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We have a lovely warm day today! As I write this, we have reached -3C/27F, and are expecting a high of -1C/30F. I was just outside, and was finding it too warm for my toque and jacket! We’re talking t-shirt weather for this time of year!

Not a lot happening today, but I have a couple of adorable faces to share with you. The first is what I woke up to, this morning.

Butterscotch was in the “cat bowl” right next to me!

She looks like such a kitten. Can you believe she is at least 11 years old? Probably more.

For my morning rounds, I was able to give the outside cats their version of “cat soup”, since it was going to be so warm today. By the time I was ready to go back inside, I was seeing a lot of contented cats all over the place. Including several in the isolation shelter. I opened one of the windows so I could get a picture without reflections or dirt in the way, and that really got their attention.

Especially this guy!

Oh, wait. I think this one is the female. There are two tabbies with a bit of white that look very much alike. I was just petting the male a little while ago, and he has a different pattern in the white patch over his nose, which means this one has to be the female.

Unless there’s a third similar looking tabby running around, which is possible!

Gotta work on socializing this one, so we can easily get her into a carrier to get fixed! Still waiting on word from the rescue about getting 3 cats done soon.

Little by little, they’re getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Butterscotch progress!

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Not a lot happening today, but I did want to share some good news.

Butterscotch is expanding her “territory”!

She has discovered the donated cat bed that I keep on my bed.

For those who don’t know, here’s the background on Butterscotch. She is one of the “originals”. Not only was she already living here before we moved here, but she is one of the yard cats my late father cared for. We had made a road trip to visit family back in 2015, and when I looked at some old photos after we moved here, we could identify her among the yard cats my dad was taking care of.

Over time, while she was fairly social, she became increasingly testy. She stopped allowing us to hold her, and would not accept being indoors, even if it was just in the sun room, when we turned it into a maternity ward. While she took good care of her kittens, she also pushed them away as soon as she could, and was more than willing to let Beep Beep, another original, nurse them. We were finally able to get her to a vet to be spayed, and the vet found that her uterus was “tattery and falling apart”.

After she was spayed, we isolated her and another female in the sun room, expecting her to tear her way out, as she had in the past.

She didn’t.

In fact, she underwent a complete catonality change, and we were able to bring her indoors.

While she suddenly loved attention and was willing to be indoors, she self isolated in my bedroom/office. At first, she would sometimes come out and explore, but would quickly return. After a while, she wouldn’t even do that.

Then one day, another cat managed to tear the screen out of my window, and several cats and a kitten got out. We were able to return the kitten and Butterscotch (another cat disappeared completely, and we were able to adopt the other out as a barn cat, where she is very happy and loved).

Once she was back in, she seemed really relieved – but increasing limited herself. While my office/bedroom is quite large (about the size of my mother’s apartment, maybe bigger), she kept herself almost exclusively to one corner. Other cats would bother her and keep her from using the litter, which caused problems, to the point where we would have to kick the other cats out, just so she could use the litter – and she will only use the one under my computer table. We had to put food and water bowls on my craft table so she could eat, because she wouldn’t jump down to the floor if the other cats were around. She would sleep on the window shelf, or my pillow, or hide in the shelf above my pillow, but would go nowhere else in the room.

Something changed recently.

First, she started working her way further from my pillow, and even slept on the bed while other cats were around, though she would often growl and snarl at some of them.

Then she made her way across to the other pillow, and finally to the shelf of cat beds I have against the wall on the far side of my king size bed – and she would stay there, even when the other cats were around.

The cats are now all getting into the routine of being kicked out of my room in the morning and, once they were gone, Butterscotch started to go around more of the room. Recently, she even started running around and playing.

Then, she actually allowed my daughter to carry her out of my room while petting her, and visit my husband in his bedroom. She wasn’t quite ready to explore his hospital bed, but she was willing to move onto my husband and allow him to pet her, before returning to my room.

And now, she has discovered the donated cat bed all the cats love, that is kept on one side of my bed. She’s been in it all day today. This is a HUGE bit of progress, because she is surrounded by other cats while in there, and hasn’t growled or hissed at any of them. She’s just been sleeping in there, pretty much all day!

It is so good to finally see her expanding her space!

It’s also good to see the other cats bothering her less.

Who knows. At some point, she may even be willing to walk out the door and explore the rest of the house!

Baby steps, first, though. Baby steps!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: MI Gardener seed order in (video), and decisions to make

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I didn’t expect to be recording another seed haul video quite so soon! Our MI Gardener order came in today, though, so here we are.

I actually ordered these a full 10 days before the seed order that came in yesterday. It does take a while when things have to cross the border!

After this, I have just one more seed order to come in, with just two seed packets (the rest of the order are trees and bushes that will be shipped later; probably in May). One of those seed packets are a mix of mini bell peppers that I want to try, and I plan to start those indoors, even though they are short season peppers.

So, from among the seeds that came in today, I plan to start the eggplant, honeydew melon and possibly the luffa. If I’m going to do the luffa, I need to start those right away. For direct sowing, I will have the red noodle beans and sugar snap peas, with the carrots and spinach as back up seeds if our winter sowing experiment fails, while the sugar beets will be for next year.

From the seeds that came in yesterday, the Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon will be started indoors. I’m still debating whether to try the Arikara squash this year or next year. I’m leaning towards next year, since we will have three varieties of winter squash to try this year. For direct sowing, we have the super sugar snap peas, plus the white scallop squash as back up seeds, if the winter sowing fails, and the Yukon Chief corn is for next year.

When the Veseys seed order comes in, we will have the mini bell peppers to start indoors.

Aside from that, I will be starting my last Spoon tomato seeds indoors, a cherry or grape tomato, plus a slicing tomato. I will let the family choose which they would like. No paste tomatoes this year, since we still have so many buried in the freezer. I will also make some decisions on what herbs will be started indoors. There’s the other variety of watermelon I plan to start, and possibly one cantaloupe type melon.

I’ll have to be careful of how many things I start indoors, since we will have limited space – if the winter sowing experiment works – and I have other direct sowing things I want to grow. Last year, we had such high germination rates on the winter squash, melons and tomatoes that, by the time they were all transplanted, there wasn’t much room left to direct sow anything! So I will need to keep that in mind when I decide how many seeds to start from each. Plus, we need to keep space open for potatoes, and I’d like to plant more this year than we did last year. Seed potatoes are starting to show up in the stores, so I will likely pick them up sooner rather than later, and store them in the root cellar until it’s time to plant.

A lot of the direct sowing decisions will depend on just how well the winter sowing experiment did, and we won’t know that until probably mid May, or even early June!

We shall see, when the time comes.

The Re-Farmer

Weather whiplash, hits again!

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Yesterday, the first day of spring, was a gorgeous day!

We reached a high of 5-6C/41-43F, and it was awesome. While I was at my mothers, the truck cab warmed up so much in the sun, I almost turned the air conditioning on to cool it down. The thermometer in the sun room was reading 16C/61F and was feeling positively hot!

I took advantage of it to get some stuff done outside in preparation for today. The forecast high is supposed to be -11C/12F This is what it was like this morning, as I was getting ready to head outside for my morning rounds.

I actually waited until a bit later for things to warm up, too. The -17C/1F is bad enough, but that -27C/-17F windchill… Yikes!

One of the things I did yesterday was to finally replace the heat lamp in the isolation shelter. I had the 200w ceramic heat bulb in the new fixture, but decided to put the 250w incandescent heat bulb in, instead. Partially in anticipation of the temperatures dropping so much overnight, but also because I’ve found the light it gives off is handy. When I look out the kitchen window, it illuminates the area around it fairly well.

The kitties seem to like it.

This light fixture has the guard around the bulb, too, so less chance of a cat burning themselves on the bulb!

I had to do quite a bit inside the isolation shelter. The cat bed had been knocked down to the lower level, where the litter box had already been knocked about, spilling most of the litter all over. My guess is, racoons. Thankfully, we’re using stove pellets for litter, not clay, so it will be easier to clean up in the spring. We still have the box over the opening on the bottom to keep the wind and snow from getting into the lower level. That had to be moved to access things.

Once I have some, I need to put handles on that thing.

I replaced the litter box with a new one with fresh litter pellets. It does seem like the cats have actually started to use it as intended, though with it being knocked over, it’s hard to tell for sure. When we had cats isolated in there, they were using everything BUT the litter box!

The hammock has been a bit of an issue, in that two corners are always getting pushed off the hooks holding them. Sometimes, a third corner gets pushed off somehow, too, and how that one happens perplexes me. I ended up tying some paracord across the two hooks that get pushed off all the time. Hopefully, it will be enough to keep it from happening, as the cats use the ramp to go between levels.

The heat lamp hides it in the photo, but there is a spot in the insulation on the wall next to the sliding window that has a hole scratched into it. The cats really like to use that insulation to scratch at! Even more than the actual scratch pad I made out of rope on the ramp for them to use. I did expect this top happen, but not in that spot! 😄 When the snow is gone and things are dry, we’ll move the isolation shelter away from the house and give it a thorough cleaning. That would be a good time to replace any of the rigid insulation that is damaged. The insulation “ceiling” will simply be taken off until next winter, though one piece will need to be replaced. They really managed to chew it up! You can see some of the damage above Ink’s head.

It won’t be much longer before we can stop using the heat lamps entirely.

I’m so glad we got this thing built, and the cats are making full use of it!

On the down side, today is turning into a laundry day for all of us. Yes, we’re still running the hose out the door to drain the washing machine. We still haven’t been able to use the new pipe brush to try and clear out that drain. I keep waiting until we don’t need to use the kitchen sink for a while, so we don’t get splashed when opening the coupling access, but that just doesn’t seem to be happening! So every now and then, between cycles, I pop outside and make sure the hose is fully drains, so it doesn’t freeze closed again.

We have another problem, though.

The drier isn’t drying.

We thought it was because the vent outside was too clogged, but once it was clear, it didn’t make much difference. So I though the duct might have been clogged and we checked it before starting our first load in the drier. It’s completely clear. The lint trap’s space is clear, too.

We’ll see how it works today, but it’s starting to look like we need a new drier. We already had to replace the washing machine since moving here. I don’t know how old this drier is, but it definitely has a lot of years on it.

Yes, we do have a clothes line outside, which would be handy but, with how cold it is today, it would take forever for anything to dry, and we have a lot of bedding to wash today. It’s a long line, but not that long! Originally, it was set up with three clothes lines, but there’s only one, and I had to replace that one a few years back. I do want to set up two more lines again, but we need to buy all the hardware for it, first.

Technically, we also have clothes lines rigged up in the basements, but we’d have the same problem of it taking forever to dry, though I suppose we could set up a blower fan or two. The basements are dank and dusty, though, so we’d be hanging things outside before we used the basements!

*sigh*

Well, so far, we’ve replaced the washing machine, stove, range hood, and the hot water tank (three times). I expect we’ll be needing to replace the fridge in the not too distant future, too. That and the drier are the only original appliances left.

Well, that’s part of the deal we have for living here, in place of paying rent. We take care of the place, maintain it and improve it, as we are able. That includes replacing appliances, when the time comes.

Still, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. One of the troubleshooting solutions for what our drier is doing is to simply unplug it for 10-15 minutes. This could reset the heating elements. We unplugged it when we moved it out to check the vent. We’ll know if it worked once the first load that’s in there right now is done.

Here’s hoping!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: Heritage Harvest seeds are in (video)

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I decided to try doing a short video showing my little seed haul that came in the mail today.

The free seeds that came with the order were Bushy Cucumbers, so I went to look them up.

From the website:

A Russian heirloom that was introduced by Seed Savers Exchange and grown in Dacha gardens near Moscow, Russia. Productive and early tolerating cooler nights better than others! Great for pickles! Vines grow to 5 feet long. (45-50 days to maturity)

So, a pickling cucumber and, looking at the days to maturity, these can be direct sown, rather than started indoors.

I will make decisions on what we will be direct sowing after I get an idea of how the winter sowing experiment turned out, and see what growing space we end up having. If the winter sowing experiment failed, we’ll have lots of room!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: March garden tour video

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Last year, I did my first “garden tour” video on the first day of spring. I knew I wouldn’t have time to do it today, so I did the tour on the last day of winter, instead.

There isn’t a lot to see, just yet! 😄

Well… except for a whole lot of cats!

The Re-Farmer

Mid month shop: this is what $238 and $70 looks like

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This morning, once I was done my morning rounds, I headed out to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping.

My list was short. I needed seed starting mix, cat food, and a bit of groceries.

The Walmart did not have any seed starting mix.

This is what $238.76 looks like, which includes a small donation.

I got three 9.1kg bags of dry cat food, and one 32 count case of wet cat food. Last month, the dry cat food in this size cost $29.97 This month, they were back up to $34.97

Well, crud. I was just looking at the receipt and realized I was charged for an extra bag. I went through self checkout, so it’s my own fault. I now realize what happened. I was trying to scan the case of Coke Zero through the bottom of the cart, but it didn’t work. I thought I heard a beep and went scrolling through the items on the screen, but there was no Coke Zero, so I pulled it out from under the cart and got it scanned. I now realize there must have been a bar code on the side of the kibble bag that got scanned instead of the case below. No wonder my mental tally was off the final total by so much!

Well, we got to this location often enough that I can get it fixed.

So… this is NOT was $238 really looks like. 🤣

Anyhow.

On my list was peppercorns and eggs. They did have flats of medium eggs for just over $10, but I wanted large eggs, so I got two 18’s, instead. Those were $7.07 each. The Coke was not on my list, but they had a sale price for the case of 24 that was lower than buying two 12 packs – $11.97 instead of $14.97. The toilet paper was also on sale, so I grabbed a package for our emergency stash. 😉

I still needed to get seed starting mix, so after I loaded the truck, I decided to try the nearby Dollarama, since I was also wanting to see if their summer stock included those 6′ stakes that have been working out so well. They didn’t have the stakes, but I did end up getting three packs of “tomato stakes”. Each pack had three 3′ stakes with rigid connectors that can be popped on and off the stakes. I am actually thinking of using them around my corn, to help hold them up when we get high winds. I’ll slowly get more of these kits over the next few months until I think there is enough to support the corn stalks. I also spotted more of the half-bowls in the pattern I like so much, so I picked up four more of them. In the next couple of months, I’ll pick up four more side places and four more dinner plates, so we’ll have an 8 place setting. We can then pack away some of the dishes we never use, because they’re just too heavy. Plus, some are starting to get chipped. All of this together cost $28 and change, and I didn’t bother getting a photo.

They didn’t have seed starting mix, though.

So I went across the street to the Canadian Tire.

That is a very dangerous place for me to be!

This is what $69.54 looks like.

The seed starting mix was on sale, so I got the larger bags at $14.99 each. There was only one brand choice; Miracle Gro.

Then I started looking around the store.

I same SO close to buying a new compound miter saw that was on clearance! I have enough Canadian Tire dollars saved up that I could have gotten it for free. I’m hanging on to the CT dollars, though, to save up for something big, but it was really, really hard for me to talk away from that! We do have a compound miter saw that I got for $10 at a garage sale. It got a lot of use while I was building the cat isolation shelter. If I’m going to upgrade, it’s going to be a dual bevel sliding miter saw.

Which they also had on clearance. The clearance price was more than the CT dollars I have, but…

Oh, was it hard to walk away from that!

What I did end up finding and getting were a couple of 5 gallon buckets to replace the ones we’re using for doing the litter, so we don’t have to make multiple trips to dump the litter onto the compost pile (for those new to this blog, we use stove pellets for litter, which breaks up into sawdust as it is used). They were under $5 each.

I also got another S shaped cat scratcher. We got one not long ago, and the cats really like it a lot. More than any other set up we’ve tried. This is going to replace the scratching post I have in my bedroom that was donated to us. The post itself is still in great shape, but the shag carpet used to cover it has been shedding bits like crazy.

Last of all was an energy drink for the drive home.

Once home, I set the new cat scratched up in my room. The cats were all over it, immediately. It has a little dangling feather toy under the upward curve. That got ripped off within minutes. 😄 The scratching post it replaced has been set aside for now. I plan to remove the crappy shag carpet and recover it with some hemp craft rope that I have. It’s the same stuff I used on the inside ramp of the isolation shelter, and it holds up really well.

So that is our mid month top up shop, most of which was stuff for the cats!

On top of this, I also put in $50 in gas. The price was $1.479, which is down quite a bit. Likely because our new Prime Dictator has deigned to bring a carbon tax down to 0% in a pathetic bait and switch. Marx Carnage made a big show of it, too. With Trump’s public signings of executive orders being so popular, they basically made a set where he sat at a table in front of the media and signed an ” executive order”, to bring the carbon tax down to 0%. The thing is, Canada doesn’t have executive orders. Our version is something called an Order of Council, like they have in the UK. Because the carbon tax is a law, it can’t be removed, so bringing it down to 0% doesn’t actually get rid of the tax. Like I said, a bait an switch. What he signed was basically a fake document for show. An Order of Council has to go through Parliament, which is still shut down. Not that our new Prime Dictator could even be part of any debates in Parliament. He is not an elected Member of Parliament. At best, he can attend on the sidelines as a guest, and watch the proceedings from the gallery. We continue to be a de facto first world dictatorship, and the new guy is even worse than the old guy.

Canada is so screwed right now. While you probably aren’t hearing about it in the mainstream news, most of use are angry with our own government for starting this mess and making it worse. What started out as a joke about Canada becoming the 51st state is looking more and more like a solution. Since we still aren’t getting the election we should be, and haven’t been able to oust our corrupt government, a lot of people actually want Canada to join the US, and Alberta has even sent a delegation to discuss it. If Alberta leaves Canada, the rest of the country will fall apart, since Alberta basically funds the rest of the country through “equalization payments”. Especially to Quebec and Ontario. They’d go bankrupt in a heartbeat.

We are definitely in for some… interesting… times.

The Re-Farmer