Analyzing our 2024 Garden: alliums

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For the next while, I’ll be going through my old posts and videos about our 2024 garden, looking at how things worked out, and use that information to decide what we will do in our 2025 garden.

These are some things that turned out pretty different from our plans. Especially the tomatoes!

I’ll start, however, with the alliums.

Garlic, onions and shallots – how it started

The garlic, of course, was planted in the fall. They went where I had the space prepared and available, which was the old kitchen garden. The long, narrow bed along the chimney block retaining wall was filled, as well as the tiny raised bed along the south side. The short section of the L shaped wattle weave bed was filled, and the last cloved were planted down the centre of the larger rectangular bed, which still had tomatoes growing in it.

With all of these, I tried to plant the cloves a fair distance away from the walls of the beds. In planting garlic in raised beds previously, most of them disappeared, while the ones planted in ground in the main garden area did really well. My conclusion is that the ones in the raised beds simply froze. Even though they were well mulched on top, there was nothing extra insulating them around the sides.

The onions and shallots were started early, indoors. The yellow bulb onions were a variety called Frontier, which was new to us, along with a new variety of shallots called Creme Brulee. For red onions, we were going to try Red Wethersfield again.

With the seedlings, the onions and shallots did well, though the Red Wethersfield onions had a rougher time of it. In the end, though, we did have quite a few seedlings to transplant.

How it went

Hit and miss.

As with everything else, the garlic was delayed. In fact, it was so long before they broke ground that I started to fear we’d lost them all. As the season progressed, however, they did very well, and we got to enjoy plenty of garlic scapes when they finally appeared!

For the onions, I try to interplant them with other things in hopes that they will deter deer and other critters from eating the things they are planted with, or in some cases, just to fill in gaps.

With fewer Red Wethersfield seedlings, I tried transplanting them among the tomatoes in the old kitchen garden, then spread the last of the seedlings in the wattle weave bed.

The yellow onions were interplanted with tomatoes in the main garden area, before the last of them went into one of the newly shifted beds, filling a little more than half of it.

For some reason, I got it in my head that the Red Wethersfield were interplanted with the sweet peppers in the high raised bed. Those were the shallots. The last few shallots went into the same bed as the last of the yellow onions. I planted them at the far end of the bed, with a space in between, so there would be no confusions over what was where, with the space in between getting direct sown with summer squash.

The unexpected surprise, however, was all the onions we found while shifting and cleaning up various beds.

While reworking the long bed at the chain link fence, I found a number of onions that survived the winter. Those got transplanted to one of the low raised beds in the East yard.

As we were weeding and eventually shifting the beds in the main garden area, we ended up finding a lot of Red Wethersfield onions we’d planted the previous year, around the Roma VF tomatoes, that just disappeared. We assumed they all died.

In weeding and shifting the other beds, more surviving onions were found, and even a couple of shallots. All of these got transplanted into the newest low raised bed, where most of the Summer of Melons were transplanted. As onions are biannual, I was very excited by this, as it meant they would be going to seed, which we could collect for next year, instead of buying more.

All of these transplanted onions took and most of them did very well. We found ourselves with many onions blooming.

How the harvest went

More hit and miss!

With the onions that were allowed to go to seed, we found ourselves with many, many flower clusters. They bloomed and bloomed and bloomed!

They bloomed for so long, I wasn’t sure we’d get any finishing their cycle so we could have seed to collect! I did end up being able to collect quite a few flower clusters that had dried on their stems and set them to continue drying out in the cat free zone. I collected the last of them, some of which were still rather green, and set them to dry in the cat free zone, after we had our first frost, which onions can handle.

Every flower in those seeds heads have three seeds in them.

We got quite a lot of seeds, just from the first batch harvested. The second batch took longer to dry out, but they eventually did, and I was able to separate out the seeds. Which meant I have seeds from yellow bulb onions from previous years (Oneida, I believe), Red Wethersfield onions, plus some shallots from previous years (I can’t remember the names of the varieties we tried before, just now), all mixed together!

The Red Wethersfield onions we planted this year, though, were a complete loss.

The cats killed them.

The yard cats just love the garden beds in the old kitchen. They loved to go in between the tomatoes in the larger rectangular bed and just chill, or they would roll around luxuriously – all over the onions! Even when I tried sticking plastic forks into the soil beside them, hoping the tines would deter the cats, they just squeezed in between them and rolled around, anyhow. When I finally cleaned up that bed at the end of the season, I did find a few tiny survivors, though. I saved them, and they can be transplanted in the spring.

The yellow bulb onions and the shallots that shared the bed with them also had cat issues! They actually grew quite well, and we did get a couple of decent sized bulbs out of them. Those where the ones that didn’t get rolled on by cats! At least, not right away. We simply could not keep the cats off that bed, and they really, really liked to lie on the onions or roll in the soil. They didn’t kill the onions, but broke the stems, which meant the bulbs could not grow any bigger.

The shallots had cats rolling on them, too, but they had the extra problem of fighting for resources. While I tried to remove as many of the elm roots that invaded the soil, it doesn’t take them long to grow back, and they send their capillary roots up into the softer, moister soil. They will even force their way through the bottoms of grow bags, as we discovered last year.

The yellow onions that were interplanted with the tomatoes fared better, even though the tomato plants ended up completely overshadowing them. More on that when I talk about how the tomatoes did, in another post.

Still, we managed to get a decent harvest, which was cured and braided, and we now have plenty in the root cellar.

The real success, though, where the shallots that were planted with the peppers. I did not really expect to have a good harvest from them, but when I started reaching around the pepper plants to pull them, I found a lot of nice, big shallots!

These, too, we left to cure, then braided, and are now in the cat free zone, where we can access them more easily to use in our cooking.

Oh, and then there was the garlic.

Usually, they would have been ready to harvest in June or maybe July.

They weren’t ready to harvest until the fall!

We did have really good bulbs, though. Not the biggest, perhaps, but certainly not small. In fact, there were enough good sized bulbs to make them worth planting!

Conclusion, and plans for next year.

Things are going to be pretty different, next year!

One thing will stay the same, and that is the garlic. Those are already planted in the bed where most of the yellow onions were. After spacing them out, I changed my mind and started them at the north end of the bed, where the shallots were, instead of the south. The south end of the bed gets shade for longer periods of the day, because of the trees closer to the house. Starting from the north end means the soil will warm up faster, in the spring.

I was really, really happy with how the shallots turned out this year. We’ve struggled to grow shallots every year, but this year they did fantastic in the high raised bed, in between the sweet peppers. As for the red and yellow onions, it was disappointing that the cats did so much damage – especially for the Red Wethersfield onions. At least we got a harvest with the yellow onions!

BUT…

We have seeds.

Lots of seeds.

This year, we are trying the winter direct sowing. I ended up making a couple of different mixes of seeds, and included onion seeds in the shakers. In the last bed that got winter sown, it got shallot seeds added in, too. So we now have several beds already sown with onions and shallots. Being cold hardy plants, they should start germinating before the other seeds in the mixes do which, hopefully, will go a long way in keeping critters away when the other seeds start to sprout.

If they sprout.

We’ll find out in the spring!

There are still plenty of seeds left, so we have the option of starting some indoors as well, if we want, but I don’t think so. We do want to keep growing onions and shallots, and if the winter sown seeds don’t survive, not starting any indoors means none to be had at all. Their growing season is just too long. I will take that change this year, though.

Onion seeds are only good for about a year. I might end up giving the rest of the seeds away or something, so they don’t go to waste.

Once onions go to seed in their second year, however, they go to seed every year.

In getting the bed ready to plant the garlic, however, I found more onions and shallots that got missed. The bed that had onions interplanted with tomatoes now has summer squash winter sown in it, and I found more missed onions while preparing that bed, too.

The Summer of Melon’s bed that had the transplanted onions in it got half-prepped for the winter. Just the side that had the onions and bush beans. (The other half will wait until spring)

All of the onions that were in there, plus the others I found in preparing other beds, were replanted in the cleaned up half of the bed. I was even able to separate them out by colour, and found myself with half the bed now planted with Red Wethersfield, and the other half with yellow onions, plus a few shallots in the very middle, as a divider.

We should have plenty more onions going to seed for us next year, too!

In the end, for all the issues we had, I would say this was one of the best years for garlic, onions and shallots we’ve had yet.

I hold out home that, with the winter sowing, next year will be even better.

The Re-Farmer

Christmas countdown

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One week today, and it’s Christmas! This year has just flown by, and this month seems to be flying by even faster.

Today, I share with you an excellent rendition of one of my favourite carols as a child.

I hope you enjoy it, too!

The Re-Farmer

Productive

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I’ve just got home from errands and just realized, it’s not even 1pm as I start this! It feels like it should be later.

I needed to go to the town north of us to pick up our beef share this morning, so I asked my daughter to do the morning rounds while I checked on the truck and stuff. The front tires were just low enough to be worth firing up the compressor and topping them up. It was -24C/-11F with a wind chill of -32C/-26F at the time, so I ran the engine for a while, too. I did have to shut it off while pumping one of the tires, though. The breeze was blowing the exhaust right into that corner of the garage!

I did help my daughter as she was feeding the outside cats, giving the isolation babies, their wet cat food treat. Eye Baby really wanted out this morning! Well, it’ll just be one more day. Tomorrow, we will be opening up the door and setting the entry box over the opening again, so cats can freely go in and out again.

I left quite early so that I could get other stuff done before meeting up in our usual spot to get our beef share. The general store out post office is in closes at noon today, so I figured I’d try the post office, first.

Zero mail, still. Not even junk mail. The back-to-work order came into effect yesterday, though. I expect rural communities are going to be pretty low on the priority list for getting deliveries.

So I picked up a sandwich (freshly made at our one restaurant, kitty corner across the street) and a drink for my breakfast, then headed north.

My first stop was the feed store, and to look for heated water bowls.

They did have small heated water bowls, which is what I was after, since the big ones stop working so quickly. The price was insane, though. The volume it holds is less than our small heated water bowls, but it cost as much as a large one. The quality, however, was noticeably better. With everywhere else being out of stock, I went ahead and got one, along with a couple more 40 pound bags of kibble.

For the beef share delivery, we always meet in a grocery store parking lot – the only grocery store in town – and I still had time, so I went in to do a bit of shopping. I didn’t need much, and the prices for most things are quite a bit higher, but they have a remarkable selection for such a rural store, so I took my time looking around to see if there was something else I wanted to get besides a carton of milk. 😄 I did end up getting some buttermilk, which I rarely do. I think it will be great for the next time we make cornbread.

That done, I didn’t have very long to wait in the truck before the lady arrived with my beef share. We could only do a 1/8th share this time, so it was just two boxes. The shares were smaller this year, as they butchered heifers this year instead of steers, so with our monthly payments, we actually ended up with a refund. I would like to do a quarter beef again, so I asked about the possibility of sending them payments starting in January.

She asked me to hold off on that. They need to figure out what they will be doing this year. They already had to switch to beef shares only, moving away from the individual cuts and freezer packs. The market price they would get for their beef is pretty good right now, so it doesn’t make sense for them to hold onto cattle through to the fall right now. Plus, with everything becoming more expensive in general, they are going to have to increase their price. Right now, with the beef shares, they are charging $6.50/pound hanging weight, and they’ll be losing money if they don’t adjust that. She won’t know until March or so, what direction they will be going. Once that’s worked out, she has a list of regular customers – including us – that they will contact directly. If we don’t find out until March, though, we’ll probably end up doing a 1/8th beef again, which she understands.

As we were talking, we shared some frustrations. For her, as someone who sells beef shares, she has a real problem with other ranchers that sell their shares at a fixed price, rather than by weight. You never know until you get the hanging weight, how much each share will actually work out to be. Which is how we ended up with a refund. You can’t just decide a whole beef will be X amount ahead of time, and then divide it by whatever share someone is getting. At least, not ethically! It makes things harder for ranchers like her, too, because people catch on that they’re not being charged fairly. I didn’t even know there were people selling beef shares with fixed prices. I’ve only see it done by weight.

So we shall see how things work out for them. Meanwhile, I’ll just set the payments I would be making to them aside. I would rather send it to them, to help feed the animal we will be eating, but that’s okay. And if they end up not doing beef shares next year, well, that’s just more in the savings account.

With my other errands done, it was straight home after picking up the beef. I pulled into the yard to unload, then gave the outside cats a small feeding to get them away from the truck so I could park it.

Once that was done, I empties the boxes into the freezer. With the extra shopping we’ve done for Christmas and New Years, there isn’t a lot of room! We couldn’t have fit a quarter beef in there, that’s for sure.

We got quite a few 2 pound packages of ground beef, a whole lot of steaks and several roasts, plus beef bones. Now that we have the Instant Pot, I’m thinking we could try using it to make bone broth – something with onions and garlic in it, so it’s for our own use only, not for the cats! I actually found some packages of bones, both beef and pork, while making space in the freezer. They’re starting to get freezer burned, so we should make some broth with them for the cats – and free up some freezer space!

Once that was put away, I took down the old extension cord that the fried out heated water bowl had been plugged into, and replaced it with the new one I picked up not long ago, then set up the new water bowl. There was still some liquid water in the fried out bowl, so I poured that into the new bowl. Remarkably, the water started getting slushy on top, rather quickly! I got the critter cam plugged in, too, and at first it didn’t work. The app told me the camera was offline. ?? I plugged things in and out a few times and it started working, so I don’t know quite what went wrong.

The new bowl has been accepted, though!

The old one, with nothing but ice in it, got set aside not far from there the heat lamp is. It might actually get warm enough to melt under there. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of the cats using the heat lamp, it can stay there.

I had lots of curious kitties while I was setting up the new extension cord!

I was done and tying off the outside doors again when I noticed there were three amigos at the window, watching me, so I decided to take their picture.

I ended up catching a bit of action!

So much for being amigos! 😄

Anyhow.

Everything is now brought in, put away and set up.

It’s been a productive day, and that makes me happy.

The Re-Farmer

Analyzing our 2024 Garden: doing things different with melons, squash and gourds

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For the next while, I’ll be going through my old posts and videos about our 2024 garden, looking at how things worked out, and use that information to decide what we will do in our 2025 garden.

Okay, I’m going to start with what turned out to be the largest category of food we grew in this year’s garden, as it really changed a lot for us. Oddly, that was because of how successful they started out!

One thing we had to seriously change up was how and what we started indoors. Last year, we were able to set up space in the cat free zone – aka: our living room – for the many trays and pots.

Too many trays and pots. We over did it.

That set up was no longer going to be an option this year, so we had to really consider what we would start indoors at all.

We also had a lot of issues with our large seeded starts, having to replant some things several times. So this year, we decided to try pre-germinating seeds. With large seeds, they were also scarified, first.

How it started

Let’s start with the melons.

We did still have some seeds left from previous years, but this year I decided to try the Vesey’s Summer of Melons Blend. We are still in the “try new varieties to figure out what we like” phase, though with this blend, we wouldn’t know what the varieties were. I figured we could look them up, once they ripened enough to be identifiable. The main thing was that the mix included early, mid and late season melons, for a more continuous harvest.

Which… didn’t quite work out as planned. More on that, later!

We also went with some we’d grown before; Sarah’s Choice and Pixie. We also added some Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon, a short season variety.

With the known varieties, I chose just a few seeds from each to pre-germinate. When it came to the Summer of Melons blend, not knowing what the varieties were, I started the entire package, which turned out to have 21 seeds in it. I figured there would be some losses, and we’d end up with less.

We ended up with a 100% germination rate on the blend, plus a near 100% germination rate on the rest.

That was a lot of seedlings!

It was much the same thing with the winter squash. We went with the wild bunch mix, skipping the other winter squash seeds we bought, and got another high germination rate using the pre-germination method. We also used it on some Crespo squash (a variety of Peruvian pumpkin), my last luffa seeds, some African drum gourds and the two free pumpkin seeds that are given out every year at the grocery store in my mother’s town, encouraging people to grow pumpkins for their pumpkin fest.

I am really, really happy with the pre-germination method, and will continue using it.

As for the summer squash, it was decided that these would be direct sown, rather than started indoors. I know my mother always direct sowed her zucchini here, and ended up with massive zucchini (she didn’t know they were supposed to be eaten while small), so I knew it could be done. My problem was, would the slugs destroy them, like the year before?

We ended up direct sowing the yellow Goldy zucchini in one of the chimney block planters by the chain link fence. In pots, we planted Magda squash (a pale green squash), Endeavor zucchini (dark green), and the new White Scallop pattypan squash seeds we picked up to try this year.

Later, when we found ourselves with a gap in a garden bed, it was filled with the last of our G Star pattypan seeds, and more Magda and White Scallops.

When it came time for transplanting, we had so many melons and winter squash, they filled four 18′ garden beds. A new growing area was added to fit the pumpkins and drum gourds, while the luffa went into the wattle weave bed in the old kitchen garden, where they had done so well last year, that we almost got a luffa to harvest! 😄

Oh, I almost forgot.

We also started Zucca melon seeds. That’s another experiment for me, as I’d really, really like to grow these massive melons. Then ended up being transplanted into a kiddie pool that got converted into a raised bed again. The Crespo squash went into a new bed in a completely different area.

The challenge

The first issue we had was having someplace to put the transplants. In the main garden area, my original intention was to expand with new beds that would eventually become trellis tunnels. However, the existing beds were in desperate need of cleaning up.

For a combination or reasons, including meeting mobility and accessibility needs, we will be making raised beds that are 4′ wide on the outside, with paths that are also 4′ wide. We also settled on them being 18′ long, and already had one new bed in those dimensions.

My daughter suggested that, since the existing beds needed to be cleaned up first anyhow, we should shift them into their permanent positions.

When we first made these beds, we basically eyeballed distances. They were roughly the same lengths, but slightly different widths, and some were crooked. The paths were not the same sizes either.

With some of the winter squash needing to be transplanted soon, we really needed to get at least one bed done quickly, and even had felled trees to prepare into logs to frame it with.

Of course, the job ended up being much bigger than expected.

Here is the start of the job.

Finishing it, however, had weather complications.

It eventually got done, but things were quite set back by the weather.

It took over a month to get the beds shifted, putting in transplants as we were able.

We did do interplanting as well. Peas and pole beans went in one bed of winter squash, corn in the other. The future trellis bed with melons planted in it shared the space with transplanted onions we found, and bush beans. The Crespo squash shared their bed with pole beans, too. I will talk about those in other posts, though.

How it ended

Late.

With the weather and late plantings, everything was set back about a month. The “Summer of Melons” blend didn’t give us any ripe melons until late in the season.

A trellis net had been added for them to climb and they grew pretty well. There were LOTS of melons developing, but it was ages before we could harvest any. In the end, we had to harvest most of then in an under ripe stage, before they could get killed by frost.

The winter squash were also late, but my goodness, they grew well! We ended up harvesting some that ripened on the vines and could be cured for winter storage, including one odd Crespo squash.

The last of them had to be harvested early, along with the melons, before the frost hit them.

The zucca melon in their kiddie pool raised bed were decimated by slugs.

The two pumpkins we transplanted did fantastic, and we got some decent sized pumpkins out of them.

The African drum gourd had a really slow start. Then they started blooming like crazy, with fuzzy little gourds forming all over. Some even started to get pretty big. None made it to first frost, though. If we had not had everything set back so much due to the spring weather, we might actually have gotten some gourds this year.

The luffa gourds in the old kitchen garden were set back dramatically. Last year, they had grown really huge there, vining their way up into the lilac branches above. This year, they barely got tall enough to reach the lilacs at all. The weather just set them back way too much. We barely even got both male and female flowers out of the largest ones.

The summer squash was also set back and did quite poorly. The ones in the pots had to be replanted several times. Unfortunately, even with adding barriers, the kittens found their way onto the pots and would often use them for naps, so that sure didn’t help, either!

The White Scallop patty pans did not make it at all. I gave up after replanting three times.

The Magda did okay, but we only got to harvest a couple of squash from them. The green zucchini did eventually grow and produce, but we had next to nothing to harvest.

The Goldy zucchini in the chimney block planter by the chain link fence produced some harvestable squash, but very few.

In the main garden area, between the onions and shallots, I was sure we’d get nothing at all. The Magda squash never did germinate. We did get a few of G Star patty pans, and they grew really well. There were even a lot of little patty pans developing. Unfortunately, with everything set back so much, we never did get many in a harvestable size before the frost killed them.

The White Scallop squash took so long to germinate, I was sure they’d died off, but we did eventually get two plants. It took even longer for them to start blooming and developing squash. We did have a few just big enough to harvest, at about 2 – 3 inches across, but the frost hit not long after they finally began to produce.

The big surprise and success was the Crespo squash.

We ended up with three surviving transplants, with one having a damaged stem after the bin the transplants were in got knocked over by cats in the sun room. They went into a new small raised bed near the compost ring. We’ve grown there before, but found the area gets soggy, so it was built up a few inches. That alone made a huge difference when the spring rains flooded everything out.

The Crespo squash absolutely thrived in that location. The vines spread so far, I had to train them to not cover the paths I needed open. Some vines grew into the cherry trees behind them, started to climb the branches, and even started to produce dangling squash!

Once again, though, the late start and weather delays slowed the development of squash. The very first one to grow got to a certain size and just stopped growing, becoming a darker green and staying small. Others, however, kept growing and stayed the pale green colour they are supposed to be. The largest ones developed the deeply fissured lumps and bumps this variety is supposed to get.

In the end, only one got to a size that I would consider fully ripe, with two others that got pretty close. With the oldest one included, we got four squash off those vines, though where were quite a few more little ones that never got a chance to get big before the frost hit.

I’m absolutely thrilled. I’ve been trying to grow these for years, and finally succeeded! I look forward to growing them again – this time with seeds saved from the biggest of them.

Thinking of next year

In general, I would say this year’s melons, squash and gourds were an overall success.

We did eventually end up with lots of melons to enjoy, though some had to be left to ripen off the vine for a while.

In the end, though, we basically planted too many. With the melon and winter squash mixes having such high germination rates, there were so many more plants than we intended.

Next year, we will do far fewer.

I’d still like to do Crespo squash again, or maybe try the Zucca melon in the bed the Crespo squash were in.

We got seeds for winter squash my daughter actually requested, though, and never used them. So next year, I want to try those. There is one variety my daughter chose because it’s described as an excellent soup squash. The other two are the Mashed Potato and Baked Potato varieties. I forget which one she actually asked for, so I got both.

I plan much the same with the melons. We will definitely grow melons again, and try another short season watermelon (we had only a single Cream of Saskatchewan melon show up, and it was about the size of a softball). At most, I am thinking only two varieties of melon, plus a watermelon, and only a few plants each.

As for the gourds, those continue to be my “fun” thing to grow. I want to get more luffa seeds from another source – I do want to grow some sponges! – and I want to grow large gourds for crafting purposes. Next year, I’m thinking of trying Canteen gourds again, as those are from a Canadian seed company that grows their seeds even further north than we are.

Conclusion

Aside from some drastic failures, such as the Zucca melon, or semi-failures, like the summer squash, I’d say this past year was a real success. Especially for the winter squash, though the melons did really well, too.

Next year, however, is already going to be very different.

I still had a lot of summer squash seeds from when I accidentally bought three collections instead of one. These included Endeavor Zucchini, Goldy zucchini, Magda squash and Sunburst pattypan squash.

For next year’s garden, we’re trying a winter sowing experiment. For summer squash, all the seeds we have – both old and new, zucchini type and patty pans – were combined, then scattered on a prepared bed in the main garden area. They got planted with some adjustments for spacing, then covered with a deep mulch of leaves and grass clippings for the winter.

In theory, once the snow melts and the mulch is removed so the warmth of the sun can reach the soil, and they should germinate once soil temperature is right.

With so many of these seeds being older, I don’t actually expect a high germination rate. Which would be okay. Otherwise, the bed will become overcrowded and I’d have to thin it.

All I’d really like is to finally get a good crop of summer squash.

Next year’s winter squash will be all new varieties to try, using seeds that were meant for this year’s garden.

We still have melon and watermelon seeds, so I don’t think we’ll buy new varieties to try next year. Same with the gourds, except the luffa. If I want to grow those, I will need to buy more seeds.

The main thing is that we will be growing fewer of them, so that they don’t end up taking over so much of the garden! There are quite a few other things that we were never able to plant simply because we didn’t have the space. Until we can get more progress on those new garden beds and trellis tunnels, we will need to be more selective on what we grow, and how much, for plants that take up so much space!

The Re-Farmer

Analyzing our 2024 Garden: what we planned vs what ended up happening

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For the next while, I’ll be going through my old posts and videos about our 2024 garden, looking at how things worked out, and use that information to decide what we will do in our 2025 garden.

So, to start, here is my post from 2023, where I review and reset my goals for 2024.

Boy, did things change. 😄

I first looked over our plans for perennials, our food forest and the fall garlic, which had already been planted by then.

The garlic hasn’t really changed. We’ve got next year’s garlic already planted – this time using garlic we harvested, rather than buying more.

The crocuses… that was an experiment that I’ll talk about more, later.

For fruit and berry trees, we just didn’t have the budget to buy more, but we did at least get the two Trader mulberry saplings transplanted. Of the other things we hoped to be able to do, getting everbearing strawberries were the only thing we managed.

For root vegetables and tubers, we did have the potatoes, which turned out different than planned. While we intended to skip things like beets, radishes and turnips this year, I had intended to plant a lot of carrots. Instead, we planted very few, simply because we never got the space to plant more.

The plans for onions and shallots were hit and miss, but we did get them in, with some bonus onions that I will talk about later.

We intended to scale back on tomatoes, but ended up with way more than planned! There were some distinct differences among them that I will have to note for the future.

With corn, peas and beans, that changed a lot. I had intended to plant many different varieties of beans, including shelling beans, but that just didn’t happen. Among the ones that did get planted, much went wrong. It was similar with the peas. As for the corn, we did plant one short season variety that actually did pretty well, under the circumstances. There are things I would want to change with growing corn that way, though, and while I’d like to plant another short season variety next year, we’ve already jumped the gun in other areas – more on that when I write about our winter sowing!

With peppers, herbs and greens, that was all over the place. We ended up planting more peppers than intended, and they did quite well, even if they were behind in maturity, like just about everything else was this year. We ended up planting very few herbs and had issues with the greens.

It was our melons and winter squash that really changed how our garden went this year, as we ended up with so many! Way more than expected, even though we ended up not planting some varieties at all. The summer squash, however, was a very different story. We did try a couple of gourds. One of my regular experiments that our spring weather did not give a chance to succeed.

We did manage two types of eggplant, with moderate success. We wanted to try salsify, sunflowers and possibly cucumbers for fresh eating, not pickling, but that didn’t pan out.

So many other garden related things ended up not happening. More raised beds, rebuilding the garden tap, starting a new garden shed build… none of that happened.

I’d hoped to start reclaiming garden beds in the main garden area from the previous year and continuing on the trellis tunnel builds. Instead, a priority was put on shifting the existing beds to what will be their permanent positions. That gave us longer, narrower beds, as they await the logs we need to harvest to frame them. We still managed to fit quite a bit into them, and the narrowing of these low raised beds made them easier for me to reach into.

All in all, this turned out to be a very different year than expected, with spring weather playing a major part in slowing down growth. Every year, we learn a little bit more about what we need to do to better protect our garden from the elements, with even the low raised beds turning out to be a major element that saved our garden.

And so, to start, here is our spring garden tour video for 2024, taken on what turned out to be a rather cold day!

I hope you enjoy this series of garden posts. Do feel free to leave feedback in the comments, too!

The Re-Farmer

Catching up and planning ahead

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First, the cuteness!

I just got back from doing the evening outside cat feeding. When I got to the isolation shelter, Kohl was right at the sliding window. She didn’t want food – she wanted attention!

So I gave it to her for as long as I could. She actually made it hard to close the sliding window, because she kept pushing her head through. I did take her out to cuddle her, which she was good with until she wanted back in, but she still wanted pets!

Eye Baby also wanted attention, but the fluffy male is still a stranger. I was able to pet him this morning, while he was eating wet cat food, but that was all he would tolerate. Eye Baby, once the way was clear, was as demanding of pets through the window as Kohl was.

None of them have shown any interest in trying to “escape” the isolation shelter.

In other things…

Last night, I got a message from my brother. Sadly, seeing me at the church closing service triggered our vandal. I thought thing had gone well, but nope. He left another message with my brother. He had some pretty nasty things to say about me, and my younger daughter in particular, and her beard. Of course, he has no idea about her PCOS – or anything else. He hasn’t seen my daughters in years, and only seen me in passing. How he even knows this, I don’t know, because I have no idea who else we have in common that would have described her to home – or why they would do that in the first place.

In the end, he was telling my brother to kick us out. He wants my brother living here, not us. He’s also demanding to meet face to face with my brother. My brother spent years asking to talk to our vandal, trying to find out what happened between them, and our vandal never responded. Now, he’ll insult my brother in the messages while demanding they meet face to face? Oh, and using his cancer as a weapon to try and manipulate my brother, just like he used my late brother and late father to try and manipulate my mother for so many years.

For someone who says he’s dying, he sure doesn’t look or sound like it. Not that that means anything.

My poor brother was really upset. He transcribed the message for me, which meant he listened to it over and over. I quite understand how traumatic that can be. I’ve had to do similar, years ago.

After we had a chance to talk, I ended up sending a message to my neighbour that had ranted at me in the church parking lot. I was going to not bother, but after the message – and a comment our vandal made that suggested to me that he and our neighbour had talked about what happened, since our vandal was already inside the church when some things were said – I changed my mind.

I didn’t address a lot of issues, but did point out some things our vandal has clearly been lying to him about, included the transcription of the new message and attached the last two, which were much more vile, as well. I also called him out on how he treated me and told him, never again. I told him, I wasn’t angry with him (I don’t waste my energy on anger) and I don’t hold grudges, but if he’s got a problem with me, we can have a conversation, but not that.

This morning, I found a brief response from him saying we could have a conversation, but he was pretty blindsided by things. Which is totally understandable. I hate that he has been dragged into the mess like this. I love him like another brother, though, and I would hate to lose his friendship over what our vandal is doing.

At this point, I’m am thinking it may be time to consult a lawyer to see what sort of legal action we can take. It’s not just about the slander anymore, when he is demanding my brother evict us. The irony is, one of the reasons we are here at all is because of our vandal. My brother and his wife were going to move here and rent their property out, but between our vandal and my mother’s mistreatment of my brother, they (rightfully) changed their minds.

Meanwhile, I just got a call from a hospital about my mother. She has finally been booked for an MRI.

On New Year’s day.

Before 8am.

Good grief.

Still, we had to take it. Otherwise, she would have been put on the bottom of the waiting list and who knows how long it would take for the next appointment they could get her.

Overall, though, today was a quiet home day. Tomorrow morning, I’m booked to pick up our beef share, then the day after, I’m booked to do my mother’s grocery shopping.

In the middle of everything else, I’m going to be starting my garden analysis posts. I’ve already started organizing notes and going through old garden blog posts. Normally, I would have done this in November, but that just didn’t work out.

It’s going to be interesting. So much changed from what our plans were, to what we actually ended up doing in the garden. All of which will help us decide what we will be doing next year, though with the direct winter sowing done in the fall, quite a bit of that is already decided!

So, for the next while, there should be quite a few gardening posts before Christmas!

In fact, I’m about to stary my first one, next.

I hope that others can learn from them as much as I do!

The Re-Farmer

Can we? Should we?

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Well, I’m back home now, and am really wrestling with myself.

I went to the old church again to see what was left. I saw a few things moved around, and a shelf in the entry that had been in the choir loft. Someone shattered a fluorescent light bulb, so there was new glass all over one area.

Someone managed to remove and entire window. They had simple stained glass panels in them; squares for the most part, with triangles to fit the semi circle tops.

Unfortunately, that leaves a big hole in the wall. It’s unlikely anyone will make any effort to board it up, since the entire building is going to be torn down.

Much to my surprise, the pair of candle sticks with red glass globe shaped tops were still there.

I decided to take them.

I went into the priest’s room and found the closet doors in there open, and vestments still hanging. The doors protected them, and they are not damaged by fire at all.

There’s a solid wooden shelf opposite the closet. I went through more of the drawers this time. They were a bit janky, trying to open them with one hand while using my phone as a flashlight with the other. Still, I hope someone takes the shelf. It’s big, heavy and incredibly solid. There is only smoke residue on it.

The drawers were for things like altar cloths, other cloths, and I even found the curtains that had been used as doors for these two tiny rooms on either side of the altar. At a bottom drawer, I found a cloth that looked very clean and picked it up. I am sure it is actual linen, not the usual cotton.

I decided to take it.

There were a number of glass items that I was very tempted by, but I left those for now. Instead, I grabbed the candles sticks and headed out.

My conundrum.

Should I take a pew? Plus a bench or two?

Five of them have already been taken. There are still eight left, plus a couple of benches. If no one takes these, they will be burned.

They are really solid. Even the ones in front seem to have only smoke damage, not flame damage. The benches in the back have the least damage of all.

They are all pretty long. Possibly longer than our truck box, though that is not a concern. I could just secure them with the tailgate down and put a red flag on the back.

With various projects we have in mind around the property, I can see being able to use these.

The problem is, where to keep them until then?

Ideally, we’d take them into the new part basement, where they could be cleaned over the rest of the winter. With how long they are, though, we couldn’t get them down the stairs. For the new part basement, we simply wouldn’t be able to maneuver them through the doors and down the stairs. Then, once at the bottom of the stairs, they would be too long to turn at the bottom. There’s a hand rail attached to a support pillar in the way.

Theoretically, we could take them straight through the house and to the old part basement doors, but we’d have the same problem at the bottom of the stairs. The space around those stairs is even tighter.

There are a few other things still there that I’m tempted to take but, again, where would I put them until we can use them?

After I was done going through the church, I went to the store the post office is in. Still no regular mail, but my daughters’ Christmas gift that I was expecting was there. The product packaging was wrapped in semi-transparent plastic, though, you could see exactly what was in it!

My daughter had sent me some funds and a request for some Crown Royal for the eggnog. Her sister had already picked up some booze when we were doing errands a couple of days ago, but she picked such good ones, they didn’t want to “waste” it on eggnog. 😄 The general store and post office has a booze section, too. After looking at the options, I chose a Salted Caramel.

It was that or “regular”, blackberry or peach.

As I was paying for our stuff, I asked the owner of the store if she knew when the church was going to be torn down. She didn’t know, but her husband happened to walk in while we were talking, and she sent me his way, as he was more involved with all the meetings and stuff.

It turns out he didn’t know, either, as that decision hasn’t been made yet. He thinks it would be in the spring, too. It just doesn’t make sense to do it in the winter.

We spoke for quite a while. He had been in the church this morning, while I had been there within maybe 15 minutes, and there were already some changes from between our visits. He himself had taken a couple of pews. I brought up the shelf in the priest’s room, with the janky drawers. He just laughed and said, they have always been like that! He agreed, though, that it is really solid, and hoped that someone could take it. It would not be easy to get out of there, but it would be worth it!

So we will have time to decide.

When I got home and brought things in, my older daughter met me at the door to help me come in.

…

Well, since she was going to see it anyhow, I handed her the box and told her, Merry Christmas!

We got them an Instant Pot.

My daughters had been talking about getting a rice cooker, and in my conversation with them, I suggested getting an Instant Pot, since it can do that, as well as being a slow cooker and a pressure cooker, among other things. We’re down to one slow cooker, so a second with be handy, and it would have more control than our little pressure cooker.

I got a positive response to the suggestion, so when we had the chance, I ordered one as a gift for them. We are a family that quite appreciates useful gifts like this!

So they got their gift early. I’m sure they’ll get good use out of it!

Then she helped me carefully take the candlesticks and their glass covers, which I had already taken off, to the cat free zone to join the other mementos. As she was going through the doorway into the living room, though, something fell and hit the floor.

Hard.

It was the insert from one of the candlesticks. The insert it meant to hold a long, straight candle and has a spring on the bottom so that, as the candle burns away at the top, it slowly pushes the rest of the candle up.

It still had most of the length of a candle in it!

After everything was put away, we started talking about what I found at the church and I told them about wanting to take a pew, and maybe a bench or two. They agreed that these were things we could definitely make use of but, again, where do we store them until then?

One possibility mentioned is the storage house, in the inner yard. That would be a good place where they would be protected from the elements, but there is already so much stuff in there, I don’t know that there is room for even a bench, never mind a pew.

Ideally, we could put it in the storage warehouse, which used to be my late brother’s workshop. That, unfortunately, is so full of stuff from my parents, there’s barely space to walk around.

A lot of what’s taking up space in there is bags and bags and bags of old clothing, bed pads and other fabric items. The clothing, at the very least, should be taken to the dump as far as I’m concerned. My mother, however is still very attached to her material goods and still frets over whether the door is locked, because someone might steel her stuff.

*sigh*

That building is the most structurally sound one in the outer yard, and we can’t even use it.

Either way, it would mean we couldn’t start to clean them until spring, at the earliest.

So … can we take a pew and some benches?

I think we could make it work. In fact, if we could find the space, I would take several pews. It would be a massive shame for them to be destroyed. They don’t make them solid like this, anymore!

Which leads me to our next question.

Should we?

The Re-Farmer

Walking in a winter wonderland…

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Well, okay. Maybe more shoveling, than walking!

It sure does look beautiful out there, though.

We’ve had a gentle snowfall all night. It has stopped for a while, but we’ll be getting a little big more, this evening.

We were actually already at our high of the day (-1C/30F) when I headed out to do the morning rounds, and it will be slowly cooling down for the next couple of days.

As relatively warm as it was, that didn’t stop this kitty from taking advantage of the empty heated water bowl!

Alas, this is one of the more feral cats and it ran off very quickly. I had to zoom in and crop to get the image above, because I couldn’t get any closer without scaring it.

The isolation shelter was very warm in the food corner, where the heat bulb is facing.

You can also tell where the two pieces of insulation under the roof touch. Enough heat is escaping in between to cause the snow on the back of the roof to melt more!

I’m a little concerned about Kohl, though. She has one eye that’s leaking a bit. When I took a closer look, I could see some redness and swelling in the corner. She’s also snuffling a bit. Something to monitor.

Eye Baby, on the other had, is looking a bit better. His eyes and nose are still leaky, but his eyes were not stuck shut this morning, like they were yesterday. He was also quick to jump down and start eating the wet cat food I gave them. Kohl was more interested in human attention.

The fluffy male meanwhile, is looking clear eyed, hale and hearty! I couldn’t touch him, though. Kohl and Eye Baby kept getting in the way!

After doing the food and water for the outside cats, I got a decent amount of shoveling done around the house. In the process, I piled up more snow around three sides of the catio. The cats quite enjoy using it! The only issue is when the more feral cats are in there when I come closer to put food in the bowl in there. They start panicking and bouncing off the wire mesh of the walls a few times before going for the open door.

I got a path cleared to the garage, wide enough for a walker, and cleared in front of the garage so the doors where Spewie is stored could be opened. My daughter will use Spewie for the driveway later on.

I will most likely be heading out before then, though. Just a quick run to the post office. I checked online and discovered that a gift I’d ordered for my daughters arrived on Friday. The last time I looked, tracking said it would arrive on January 7, because of the postal strike. This was to be delivered with Purolator, but they are (90%?) owned by Canada Post, so they weren’t delivering either. With that delivered, it means regular mail might have been delivered, too. There has been a back to work order made (since Canada Post is a Crown Corporation, it’s federally controlled), but I think that kicks in this week.

Whatever the reason, I’m just happy the gift made it in, and hopefully, so will other important mail that should have arrived, weeks ago. We don’t get a lot of mail, as most stuff is now done electronically, but the mail we do get tends to be things like letters from clinics for my husband, or other similarly important stuff.

Since I’m heading to the post office, anyhow, I think I’ll stop by the old church again and see what is left inside, after yesterday’s closing service. I expect people took as many mementos as they could, and the only things left will be too damaged, but you never know.

Oh, I almost forgot to share one more adorable photo! As I was coming back inside after doing my rounds, I spotted these boys.

We’ve got Midnight, Gouda and I believe the tabby is the one the girls call The Toe Biter.

What a face I caught on Gouda!

They are all more friendly than feral. They have their moments. Some days, they eagerly come over for attention. Others, they act almost completely feral and won’t let us near them.

Gouda is the only one we’ve been able to get fixed, in this group.

Meanwhile…

Last night, I had a chance to talk to my brother on the phone. I told him about what happened with our neighbour, before the church service yesterday. We are both perplexed by some of the things he was saying. Clearly, our vandal has been telling him things, but any time I tried to ask for more information, he just kept ranting. After talking to me, my brother said he would call our mom, then let me know when he was done so I could call her and tell her about the service, since she couldn’t be there.

In almost no time at all, he called me back to say he was done; he had brought up about the church service, telling her that I was going to be calling her to tell her all about it. She kept asking him questions, but he wasn’t there and couldn’t answer, so he just told her I would be calling to tell her all about it. She kept asking, so he told her he would get off the phone so I could call her.

Which I did.

When she answered, my mother started telling me she was watching a show and “a problem like Maria” – which I promptly started singing, then told her it was from The Sound of Music. She was watching it, but didn’t know the name, even though she watches it when this channel plays it this time of year, every year, apparently.

I told her why I was calling, but in the end, she was more interested in her movie and said we’d talk about it later.

??? 😄😄

She did call me back today, while I was working on this post, so I got to tell her all about it. I told her I recorded the entire service for her, and just have to figure out how to get it so she can see it, since I couldn’t have such large video files taking up space on my phone. I did tell her about what happened with our neighbour, and she was perplexed by it, too. I told her what I had picked up for her, and about the Bible stand I took for myself. She was really happy that I had taken that stand. She remembers it well, too. There were a few other things we talked about as well. My mother used to regularly go to clean the church, even after it was no longer being used. Over the decades, she picked up things like shelves and other items for it. I’m sure the artificial flowers all over were from my mother, but I didn’t know she had bought several shelves, as well, including one that was in the tiny room the fire was started in.

I told her about the print that was donated by my “uncle”, how damaged it was, and who I thought had taken it. I told her I planned to go back, too, and she was happy to hear that. I also explained to her what was going to happen to various things, as much as anyone was able to confirm for me. She was particularly interested in the statue of Mary outside. It turns out, that was donated and installed by a (distant) relative of ours!

Then Meals on Wheels showed up with her lunch, so I let her go.

Things are still looking good outside. As I write this, the post office is closed for another hour, so I think I will head out and go to the church first and see how things are now, and take my time until the post office opens again. I don’t have to wait to pick up the one package I know about, since it was delivered to the store, not the post office, but we might have others.

Then I have to figure out how to get the gift for my daughters wrapped without them seeing it. For the space I need, I might have to use the basement! 😄

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

I’m glad I went

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Before I get into it, I wanted to share this photo I took, after doing the evening outside cat feeding.

Nice to see them using the insulated box nest. Poor Eye Baby is looking gross, but at least his eyes didn’t glue shut again! Earlier, when I was topping up their food, he actually came over for pets. It was really, really warm in there, too. But then, it was also warm enough outside that I didn’t bother wearing a jacket, even when I stopped to shovel some snow.

I’m certainly glad we had such a mild day. The de-consecration service for our little church had to be done outside, because there was no room for everyone, inside. Not that were were a lot of people. Maybe 20? 25? However, it’s not like anyone could have used the pews or anything.

I got there early, so that I could take photos of videos. The front doors no longer had a board across them, so after I went around the outside, I checked, and the doors were unlocked. I’m not sure they even can be locked anymore.

So I went inside, rather carefully. I didn’t know how much fire damage there was to the floors. With some of the windows boarded up, some areas were just too dark for the camera on my phone, and it doesn’t allow the “flashlight” to be on while taking video.

I was finishing up when I heard the first vehicles showing up.

It was our vandal and his wife, plus our mutual neighbour.

I went to talk to our neighbour while they were turning their car around the back. I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t leave because of me.

Well, I got a surprise from our neighbour. I’d sent him a message after seeing him briefly and let him know what my mother said about the soup drop off, because of the messages she heard our vandal leave on my brother’s voicemail. I didn’t tell him the contents of the messages; only that he’d said some pretty vile things about me and my daughter. It was just an FYI. Mostly, I was telling him I was happy to see him, even briefly.

When I asked to make sure they wouldn’t leave because of me, he just lit into me. Apparently, my message to him was “vile” (if he thought that was vile, the things our vandal said about me and my daughters would give him a heart attack!). He basically just verbally barfed all over me, and wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise.

Very much like what our vandal does, in fact.

While he was doing that, our vandal and his wife went into the church, but they could hear what he was saying. He didn’t stop until other people started showing up.

I’m saddened that this happened. Clearly, he’s been dragged into the middle of something that he shouldn’t have any part in, but he was also basically repeating our vandal’s favourite victimhood lines – and he is only getting one side of the story. At one point, he was saying he’s seen all this evolve over the years I was living in other provinces and knows how all this started. I said, maybe we could get together and you can tell me, because we have no idea. I don’t think he heard me over himself.

Ah, well.

As more people arrived, I went into the church again. Everyone was looking around and taking pictures. There was a particular wall hanging I asked about, as it was no longer where it used to be, but no one knew where it went. Later, I heard someone call down from the choir loft to tell me it was up there. I hadn’t tried to go up there, as I didn’t know if the very steep, already dangerous stairs were safe. They’re more like climbing a ladder, with the rungs much wider apart.

I remember being up there with the “choir” as a child. The space is insanely tiny, yet somehow people got a pump organ up there. That antique went to someone else, long ago, so it was not there to be damaged by the fire. The church bell used to be in the ceiling up there, too, until people realized it was barely supported. A simple steel frame bell tower was made for it outside, and it’s still there.

When the priest arrived and it was time to start, he suggested we gather around outside, due to the lack of space. I was able to get video of the entire service for my mother, without being obtrusive. The priest shared some interesting historical information about how churches get consecrated, and traditions surrounding the process.

Now that I think about it, I really shouldn’t call this a de-consecration service. It was a sort of closing service. At the end of it, he explained what will happen next.

Everything in the church that can be burned, will be burned, as that is the proper and respectful way to disposed of things that are consecrated. The things that cannot be burned will be buried in the church cemetery, which is maybe half a mile away. A model of the church will be built and set up there, too.

The bell and its tower will also be moved to the cemetery. There is a statue of Mary outside as well. This was installed at a time when it was very popular to mount statues, crosses, etc. on large concrete bases that were decorated by pressing stones into the concrete, sometimes in shapes or words. This one also has a wider base forming a couple of steps, with larger stones embedded into the sides. I asked about it, and was told it was not yet decided what would happen to it. The statue itself is damaged, with missing hands. If it can be repaired and restored, it will also be moved to the cemetery. If not, it will be buried, because it, too, was consecrated.

After the service, everyone gathered for a group photo. Then the bell was rung a few times, including by the priest. Then we all went back into the church and looked around some more. We were allowed to collect mementos, if we wanted. For my mother, I took one of the Stations of the Cross plaques from the wall next to what was our family pew, and one of the votive candle holders from the stand where people could light a candle and say a prayer.

When I was an altar server here as a child, we would get ready and put on our cassocks in a tiny room near the back door of the church. Then, just before service started, we could go across, behind the altar, to join the priest in the tiny room he got prepared in, before coming out in procession. The fire was started by the back door, and that room was the most badly damaged. Completely gutted and destroyed. In the priest’s preparation room, there was some fire damage near the open doorway, but mostly it was smoke damage.

I was looking around in there with someone when I spotted something else from my childhood. Basically, a metal box with legs, and a top that could be raised to different angles, to rest a Bible on while being read from during services. It was a fancy one used for special occasions. (There was a plain wooden one for regular use.) It was still at its lowest setting, with a crochet doily on top. The doily was badly smoke damaged, and when I took it off, it’s pattern was left on the metal surface, where it protected it from smoke.

Smoke damage was pretty much it, for the stand. I ended up taking it as my own memento.

I also took the chance and went up into the choir loft. I saw the framed piece I’d been asking about, and it was quite badly damaged. I didn’t dare go too much further in, and it had been tucked behind the single pew up there.

Someone did take it down, though, and as I was getting ready to leave, I saw it in the entry. My cousin and her husband were there and we talked about it. I told them about how it was a donation from an uncle (not really an uncle, but a relative of my dad’s). They encouraged me to take it, but I told them I knew I wouldn’t be in a position to restore it, so I would rather it went to someone who could.

I think they ended up taking it!

Someone else took a framed print of the Last Supper my mother donated – her name was even on the back of it!

If I stayed too much longer, though, I knew I would have started loading up the truck. There were so many memories in there! Perhaps I’ll go back soon, after everyone else has taken what they want, and see what is left. I don’t think the actual dismantling and burning of the building and items will happen until spring, at the earliest. As I was leaving, though, I did see someone backing their truck up to the front doors. I think they were planning to take some pews.

As for the plot the building is on, there is talk of selling it. It would be a shame, but we just don’t have the population to support a church anymore.

With all of this going on, I even managed to ask some questions of our vandal, as he seems to be pretty involved with the stuff, and he even answered me, if briefly.

We shall see what comes of it.

Meanwhile, I will probably put together a movie and upload it, so that I can show it all to my mother. I had to take the videos off my phone, because they take up too much memory, and my phone doesn’t have the ability to add a micro SD, like my old one did.

I will also clean the items I got for her. She doesn’t have a lot of space, so I only got the two small items. The glass votive holder will be easy enough to clean, but the Station of the Cross plaque is a combination of ceramic on wood, and will need more care. As for the metal book stand, I’m going to have to do some more research on how to clean that. It has some pretty intricate designs on the sides in the metal, plus fake gems embedded in places. It’s going to need some very careful and meticulous cleaning.

I won’t be sharing any images or video here, though. Unfortunately, I still need to keep this blog anonymous, and these things are just too publicly recognizable.

Ah, well.

So while there were a few uncomfortable moments, I’m glad I went. This church was a big part of our community for a long time, and is full of history and personal memories. Such a shame, to lose it like this. But, as the priest said, the church is not really a building. We are the church. And we live on.

The Re-Farmer

It’s say they’re a hit!

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I’ve been keeping an eye on the sun room, since switch to the hotter heat bulbs. This morning, I made sure to change the angle on the critter cam, because the light was blowing out the image like a glowing sun! 😄

They are definitely making use of the warmth! Every time I look out the bathroom window, I can see groups hanging out under the bulb. The last time I checked the critter cam, I could see three of them bunched together, with two of them grooming the one in the middle.

It’s definitely made a difference in the isolation shelter, too. Reaching in to take care of their food bowl, next to the window, I could feel warmth. The kittens have been hanging out on the lounging shelf in front of the lamp, enjoying the warmth.

As soon as I opened the sliding window, Kohl was right at me, wanting attention. The fluffy male just went off to the side and watched. Eye Baby stayed on the shelf and I could see his eyes were stuck shut. I made sure to leave some food beside him, including wet cat food, before messaging my daughters about it, then continuing my rounds. The girls came out and cleaned his face, but had a hard time getting him, because Kohl kept getting in the way, demanding attention!

Today is going to be a much warmer day, though the snow that was supposed to start tomorrow is now expect to hit us this evening. I’m glad it’s holding off, since I’ll be heading out soon. The tiny church in our tiny hamlet that I was baptized in is being deconsecrated today. Both churches in our hamlet have been closed for years. Someone broke into this one, stole some stuff and started a fire. The damage was bad enough that it’s not worth fixing, and it will be torn down. A piece of history, destroyed. 😢 There are some things in there that were donated by family members. I’d like to know if they were damaged, too, or what will happen to them if they weren’t.

Time to go!

The Re-Farmer