While doing my rounds this morning, I found a few tomatoes to pick. We have enough in the house now, that we can start looking into makes sauces or soups, or other ways to process and preserve them.
My initial thought was to make a big batch of tomato soup, and freezing it in individual portions. With that in mind, I picked our first onions of the year.
We planted a lot of onions, but we’re not going to get much out of them, as far as size goes. So many of them have already had their stems broken, like the ones I picked this morning. Most look like they got rolled on by cats or something. I’m not sure, when it comes to the bed that’s almost all onions in the main garden area. The ones planted in the old kitchen garden were definitely flattened by cats. They actually seem to enjoy napping on the onions! The ones planted around the San Marzano tomatoes in the main garden area have been crushed by the tomato branches.
My plans to make tomato soup, however, changed rather quickly. I found out my brother was on his way, along with the guy with the triple axle trailer. I ended up spending most of the day outside, and got quite a bit done in between loads.
The tomato soup will have to wait for another day. With the way things are going, I might have to get my daughters to do something with the tomatoes, instead.
We shall see.
Meanwhile, we’ve got our very first Frontier yellow bulb onions harvested.
The larger ones are the Albion Everbearing strawberries that have recovered remarkably well after getting eaten by a deer. I’ve had the odd ripe strawberry every now and then, but this is the first time there was more than one to gather. There were actually more than what’s in the photo, as I left behind a couple that were slug damaged.
The little ones are from the strawberries in the wattle weave bed that were grown from seed last year. They are still blooming, too, and there are lots of little green berries still developing. It’s a shame they don’t taste any better.
Once back inside, my younger daughter and I started getting ready to head out. My older daughter wasn’t going to make it. She’s been burning the candle at both ends, working on new commissions, and was not feeling well today.
The general plan was for us to have a sit down restaurant lunch with my mother, then go to the nature reserve. My daughter was hoping we could do a picnic instead. With my mother, it all comes down to how she feels, and what she is up to.
I remembered to bag up a few slicer tomatoes for her. Just enough for a taste, really. She’s not supposed to eat acidic foods, but small amounts, early in the day, don’t bother her. My sister usually brings my mother large amounts of tomatoes, forgetting completely that my mother isn’t supposed to eat them. This year, however, she mentioned her tomatoes did not do well, so she doesn’t really have any to give. We have so many of the Forme De Couer tomatoes, there is plenty to spare.
We packed supplies we’d need to eat outside, if we did end up doing that. Then my daughter made lots of noise, topping up the outside cat food, to lure kittens away from the truck. There was one kitten that just did not want to get out from under there! We managed to get them away, though, and soon we were off.
We left early enough to stop and pick up a birthday cake for my mother. Or, in this case, a variety of cheesecake slices! We still got to my mother’s early.
We didn’t stay for long before heading out. My mother needed to stop at her bank, first. They merged with another and she said she needed to order new checks. She’s sent a check and said it was rejected, because of the old company name.
Getting in and out of the truck was difficult for my mother, though. She tires so quickly now, too.
Once at the bank, the teller was confused about a check being returned, since all the key information was unchanged. It took a while to get the rest of the store out of her. It turns out, she did not get a check returned. She had sent the check to a grandson for his birthday. He had come over to see her, and told her it was rejected, apparently because of the date. It’s possible my mother wrote the date out in her usual mix of Polish, English, numbers and Roman numerals.
This grandson is one that never contacts her, nor returns her calls, and hasn’t since he turned 18 and got his inheritance from my late father. Now, suddenly, when there was a problem with a check she sent him, he shows up at her door? He also never returned the check, but just told her there was a problem. It seems the name being an issue was something my mother “figure out” herself. My guess is, with him there, she just gave him cash. My mother has a terrible habit of pandering to those who treat her the worst, while treating those who help her the most, quite badly.
The more the story came out, the more the teller seemed concerned. She checked, and no one had tried to cash a check in the last 3 months. She did assure my mother that she did not have to order new checks. The ones she has now are perfectly fine.
From there, she decided she was still up to a sit down restaurant. We did bring up the idea of getting take out and going on a picnic, but she acted as if she never heard.
We had an excellent lunch. My mother insisted that she would pay for it, but she never tips, so I snuck ahead and paid for it. By the time we were done eating, my mother decided she was up to going to the nature reserve. That got amended to her staying in the truck while my daughter and I explored. Not that we’d leave her by herself, but that’s what she pictured in her mind.
When we got there, I was going to just follow the roads to parking lots and we could see what we could see. I did end up taking a sign road, which turned out to be exclusively for people with disabilities. This allowed us to see parts of the sanctuary we had never seen before.
As we were going home, though, I was hit by exhaustion. The sleepy kind. It just came out of nowhere and slapped me upside the head!
When we got to my mother’s my daughter and I were going to leave right away, but my mother insisted we stop for tea and some of the cheesecake. She asked about the bill at the restaurant, and I showed her the slip that did not include the tip. She gets very angry when she sees us tip! She was very… parsimonious, shall we say, about paying me back, and actually underpaid me. Then she declared that my driving her was my birthday gift for her, as her reason for not contributing anything for gas this time. Which I normally wouldn’t care about, if I hadn’t found out she’s been practically throwing her money at people that have disowned her again. My daughters have joked that maybe we should start being mean to her, too, and she’ll start throwing money at us, too. Not that we could ever do that, but the sad thing is, it is probably true.
Overall, we managed to keep things okay during this visit. We were able to cut away from her usual racist rants, and she was only moderately insulting to my daughter about her appearance. As for why my other daughter didn’t make it, when we told her she wasn’t feeling well, my mother flat out said she didn’t believe it. 🫤 Ah, well.
She started showing us pictures and newspaper clippings that are her typical segues to more racist rants, so we cut things short, then made our escape. I could see she was getting very tired, anyhow.
Which I could completely understand.
Before we left, she gave us a couple of cards for the girls, and it turned out she was at least as generous to them, as she had been with the grandson that only shows up when money is involved.
My daughter drove us home, and I’m so glad she was there do to it. I was able to close my eyes for a bit during the drive home, at least!
Not enough to get some rest, though, so that’s what I’m about to do. Even though it’s late afternoon. I have been drifting off, time and again, just working on this blog post!
Not long ago, I found one of the Summer of Melons Blend melons had turned yellow and was looking misshapen. When I picked it up, it fell of the vine. Technically, that should have meant it was ripe, but it didn’t look ripe. We haven’t cut it open yet, though. Too much other stuff going on.
Just a little while ago, my daughter and I did a sort of Florida weave to support the rest of the San Marzano tomatoes in the main garden area. That didn’t take long at all. My daughter’s been working on commissions, still mostly at night, lastly, so she hadn’t seen the garden in a while. As we were looking at the melon bed near the tomatoes, I noticed one of them had turned yellow, and fallen off the brick that was keeping it from direct contact with the ground. I went to put it back, and discovered it had fallen off its vine completely!
How handy, that my husband’s giant self healing cutting mat is still on the dining table. 😄 You can see that it’s about 8 inches long.
In the next photo, you can see the stem end. That’s how it’s supposed to be with melons, when they are fully ripe.
We haven’t cut it open yet. We’ll probably do that – and the little one – this evening, so we can compare.
I can hardly wait to try it! Being part of the Summer of Melon’s blend, we have no idea what variety it is, but if we like it, I want to save some of the seeds.
I tried going to bed early last night, which actually worked for a change, so I was able to get out and in the garden early. We were getting warnings for a possible thunderstorm (which never happened), so as soon as my morning rounds were done, I wanted to work on my tomatoes.
The first of the Instagram slideshow photos is as far as I got with the San Marzano tomatoes in the main garden area.
I was even able to pick a few tomatoes, first. They were so tightly packed in with the vines, a couple were weirdly misshapen, having had to grow around stems and even one of the bamboo supports.
With this bed, though, only the main stems were supported by the stakes. These weren’t pruned, so they all have suckers on them. The three southernmost plants (in the foreground) had suckers spread out and lying on the ground like a thick, green spider’s web! You can see a bit, how I added support to those vines.
For most of them, I couldn’t reach the stake in the middle, so I loosely tied jute twine to the stem I wanted to support, under a leaf stem, or the nub of one, if it was one that was broken off. I did prune some of the bottom leaves away, awhile back, as they were crushing the onions planted around them. The twine was then wrapped around the stem, with extra wraps near the base so it wouldn’t pull upwards. I didn’t skimp on the wraps all the way up, and made sure that any branches with clusters of tomatoes on them had wraps above and below. Once near the top, the whole thing was gently lifted, and the top tied to the support.
With so many of these branches splayed out around the main stem, I alternated sides as I worked, to more evenly distribute the weight. I also moved the metal posts that were marking the corners of the bed, as I was shifting it over. Those were brought closer in and pushed deep into the soil, so they – hopefully! – wouldn’t be pulled over. I then anchored the stake at the end of the row onto them.
As I worked on the next two tomato plants, I also straightened stakes that were being pulled down by the weight of the main vine, and secured them to the previous stake. With one plant, I could access the stake as I worked, so the jute twine was anchored to the stake at the bottom, rather than the base of the stem I was working on. A couple of vines were even anchored to the stake about half way up, as they were being wrapped. Not too close against the stake, though, but with space for air flow.
The three at the south end got done, but it took so long, I had to move on. The others don’t look like they will need individual wrapping like this. I’ll see, when I get back to them.
The second photo in the slideshow above is of the Black Cherry vines in the Old Kitchen Garden. They are getting so big and heavy, the lilac they are climbing is bending from the weight! These are already tied off and supported as much as can be, though.
Note for future reference. Find a way to incorporate stakes into the wattle weave to support things like this! The lilac can handle supporting the luffa vines just fine, but these tomatoes are just too big and heavy, and those branches are not near the main stems of the lilac.
It was the bed with the Forme de Couer tomatoes that needed help. I had to post this photo separately on Instagram, because it’s oriented differently. It was the bamboo stakes that had to be helped.
Each plant has a pair of stakes to support it. The pair in the bottom right corner of the photo were so heavy, the stakes were twisted around and starting to lean into the bath between this bed, and the wattle weave bed with the Black Cherry tomatoes. You can even see a bit, just above where the jute twine is tied, that one of them had started to split and bend. If there hadn’t already been some twine holding the pairs of stakes together, there’s no doubt the whole thing would have broken and fallen into the path.
That one got attention first. I was able to carefully pull the stakes upright again, then anchored them to the opposite corner of the raised bed. More twine was added to the pairs of stakes along one side, anchoring them to each other, then to the corners of the raised bed at the other end, before being tied off on the last pair of stakes on the opposite side. The other stakes on that side had already had support added to them and did not need more.
Once that was done, it was time to clean up and head into town. My friend from out of province had time to meet for lunch, one more time before she had to go home.
I left early so that I could stop at the dollar store, first. With one of the yard cats going in for a neuter next week, we have to start deciding which one we’ll be trying to catch. The friendliest ones have already done, but one of those is really hard to tell apart from others, now that the wound on his front leg is completely healed, without even a scar visible through is fur.
What I’ve decided to do is to try and put break-away collars on the four that have already been neutered, then another to add onto whichever cat we manage to catch and bring in next.
The store had only one style with breakaway snaps on them, so that’s what I got. They all have bells, which will need to be removed. These are outdoor cats, and they earn their keep by keeping the rodent population down. Having a bell would defeat the purpose, plus make them easier targets for coyotes.
After that, I hung around and enjoyed the day until my friend and I met up and went for lunch in the fish ‘n chips place that reopened not long ago. They’d been closed for many months, repairing and renovating after a fire (when I first saw the boarded up building, I actually thought they’d been vandalized). It’s the same owners using their same recipes, and their food was every bit as delicious as before. We quite enjoyed our lunch – and the portions were generous enough that both of us got take out containers to bring the leftover home!
My friend still had some time left before she had to go, so we got to walk on the beach for a while – a nice quite beach, now that the summertime crowds are done, and it’s the middle of the week! Then she had to head back. She’s leaving very early in the morning, and has a long drive ahead of her, so she had lots to do to get ready. Including a grocery shopping trip for her mother.
That sure sounds familiar! 😁
While I was in town, I got a message from my husband, letting me know the feed store had called, and the lysine they’d ordered for me was in. So, after we said our goodbyes, I headed to my mother’s town to pick it up, along with more kibble for the outside cats.
This morning, I tried to do a head count of just kittens. That’s a bit of a challenge, as some of the adult cats are pretty small, and the older kittens are almost as big as they are!
I counted twenty.
I think.
In the photo above, with the kittens, you can see the bright white granular type lysine on the bottom of the kibble tray. That is why I was wanting to have a finer powder, like I had been able to get before, but is no longer available.
If you look at the second picture of the slide show above, you’ll see the lysine I got today. I opened one of the tubs right in the store, as soon as I paid for it.
This bulk lysine is sold for horses, so I guess they don’t bother bleaching it white, like for human consumption! It’s still granular, though. Lysine is lysine, though, so it is otherwise the same.
I think what I’ll just have to do is use that Magic Bullet set we were gifted with, and just process the granules into a fine powder. This will coat the kibble better, and the cats are more likely to actually get a dose of the stuff. Thankfully, aside from eye baby, there don’t seem to be any sick cats out there right now. Just a little bit of crusty bits visible in the corners of some of their eyes, but nothing major. None need to have their eyes washed. Even eye baby’s messed up eye isn’t leaking much. It’s just really… gross.
No, I will not inflict you with a photo!
Anyhow.
Along with the lysine (I got two 1 pound tubs, which cost just under $20 each), I got the bag of kibble I’d paid for last time, but they turned out to have only two bags in stock, not three. Then I got one more on top of that.
Once done at the feed store, I headed home.
I don’t know what’s been going on with me lately, but during the drive home, a wave of tired just hit me. I don’t mean physically tired, or even mentally tired. I mean sleepy tired!
I did get a good night’s sleep! Honest!
Once I was at home, I unloaded everything but the 40 pound bags of kibble in the box of the truck, then went for a nap. When I woke up after a couple of hours, I was feeling even more groggy than when I lay down in the first place!
So I just did my evening rounds, but let my daughter that was going to help me, know that I wasn’t up to finishing with those last San Marzano tomatoes. They will be fine for another day.
Meanwhile, the writing of this paused just had a pause to it, as I dosed and fed eye baby, while my daughter held him, wrapped up like a purrito – and there was much purring happening!
Gosh, I wish all cats took their meds as well as this little guy!
I gave his face a bit of a wash around the eye, and just laid a warm, damp cloth over the eye itself, before giving him some saline drops. I wish I knew what I was looking at with that eye. All I can say for sure is, it’s getting better – as in, it’s not sticking out as much, and not leaking like it had been, when we first started treating him. He even seemed to enjoy the cleaning.
That is now done for the night, and that’s as much as I have energy for. I’m done for the day. My younger daughter and I have plans to watch Columbo together tonight.
I hadn’t planned on harvesting anything while doing my evening rounds.
My garden had other plans!
I ended up using the bottom of my shirt to carry everything, because I didn’t have my usual giant colander that I use for harvesting and washing the produce.
My shirt got very loaded down!
Before I got to that point, I spotted these seed heads.
While shifting and preparing the low raised beds, I spotted a small plant I recognized as a flower that shows up in our main garden area. Rather than tossing it with the weeds, I decided to transplant it into the log framed bed, with the onions I’d been finding. I had no idea if it would survive a transplant.
Well, not only has it survived, it has thrived! It has become quite large and, while the flowers are not particularly large, the seed heads are amazing! Each one of those puffs in the photo are bigger than the palm of my hand.
I don’t want it to seed itself in the raised bed, so whenever the seed heads open like this, I gather the seeds and let them loose in an area just north of the beds. I figure at least some of them will manage to germinate, in the spring.
While checking on this bed, I also spotted one of the larger melons starting to look a bit yellow. I went to pick it up and it fell off its vine, so I included it in my harvest.
Since this from the Summer of Melons mix, I have no idea if this is a variety that turns yellow like this at maturity. I suspect not, to be honest. Still, we’ll crack it open and see what it’s like inside. So I’m not sure if this is a “first” for the melons or not.
You may notice something else different in the photo.
A bright red Cheyenne hot pepper! Red from stem to tip! There was another, next to it, that is about half red. We grew these previously, in grow bags, but they stayed green. When we had frost predictions, we tried to protect them, but were late covering them up one nice. The next morning, I harvested all the green peppers that weren’t frost damaged, and we set them up in the living room. They did turn red as as they dried, eventually, but they didn’t look very palatable. So I’m very happy to have some ripening while still on their plants!
I think I could have harvested several Dragonfly peppers. Some are quite large and so dark a purple, they look black. I will wait a bit, though. I think we’d end up with too many to use quickly, so I want to be prepared to dehydrate some of them, before I bring them in.
As for the cherry tomatoes, they got all mixed up while I was carrying them in my shirt. I honestly can’t tell the difference between the Chocolate cherry and the Black cherry! I’ll have to ask the family if they can tell the difference by taste.
I’m really quite happy with the harvests we’ve been getting. I had been so sure that we’d have almost nothing to harvest regularly this summer, except maybe tomatoes, since we have four varieties. Granted, this is the sort of harvesting we should have been getting in July and early August, not in September, but I’m just so happy to have anything at all!
If the temperatures stay mild enough, though, we should have a pretty awesome harvest of winter squash and melons! I’m quite looking forward to it!
As part of my morning rounds today, I checked on the grapes, got a bit of a harvest, and did some watering, as we were expecting to get very warm today.
The first picture above shows how dark some of the grapes are starting to get. There are still more green than purple grapes, but they are coming along!
Though I’d picked quite a lot yesterday, I still was able to pick some beans and Forme de Couer tomatoes this morning. We are at that stage with these tomatoes where a lot of people pick them to finish ripening indoors. We don’t have the space for that, but I try to pick as many as I can, just to reduce the weight on the vines. I’m going to have to snag one or both of the girls tomorrow morning to help add more supports to some of the vines and stakes. We were actually supposed to do that today, but other things happened, instead!
That will be a topic for my next post, though.
Yesterday evening, I did go through the tomatoes that I could reach (not very many, among the Black Cherry vines!) and the trellised melons and pruned their tops. This should trigger the plants to focus more on ripening their fruit, rather than trying to grow more of them. I probably should have done that a while ago.
Only 7 more days (not counting today) before our first average frost. There are people in one of my zone 3 gardening groups that are expected to get frost tonight!
We have no way to cover the squash, trellised melons or tomatoes. The only beds we’d be able to cover is the eggplant and hot pepper bed, and the bell peppers in the high raised bed. We just might be able to cover the melon bed that isn’t trellised, too, but anything we use would be resting directly on the plants.
We’ll have to watch the forecast closely. If it comes down to the wire, we might have to just harvest everything early. I pray it doesn’t come to that!
It has been a bit longer than usual since I’ve actually done a morning harvest. With all the stuff going on for the past while, I lost track of time! I do try to harvest at least every other day. Since I’m in the habit of taking pictures what I harvest, unless it’s just one or two tomatoes or something like that, I checked the dates on my photos. Turns out, I haven’t done a harvest in 4 days!
In the photo are a few San Marzano tomatoes at the top, some black cherry tomatoes, and a nice bunch of Forme de Couer tomatoes. I had to battle some very spiky stems to reach those G Star patty pan squash! With the beans, there are all three varieties in there, including a very decent amount of the Royal Burgundy bush beans – but this is the first time I picked any of the green Seychelle beans from the main garden area, and not just from the trellis over the Crespo squash. I had planted some Seychelles in the gaps where the purple Carminat beans failed to germinate, but I think only 3 Seychelle germinated. However many there were, there’s only one plant left, and it’s finally producing beans!
Among the Carminat beans, I found a couple that had gotten too big to harvest; they would no longer be tender, so I left them on the vine. There probably isn’t time enough, but who knows. They might fully mature and give me a few seeds I can plant next year! This is definitely a variety that grows well here, and we do enjoy them, so we do want to grow them again.
Of course, along with checking on the garden, I checked on the kitties. After setting the food out, I tried to do a head count.
I counted 34 cats and kittens.
*sigh*
I don’t even want to think of how many there would be, if we hadn’t lost so many kittens this year, and at least one adult. There are other adult cats that I haven’t seen in a while, but they may come back and stay for the winter. Some of them, anyhow.
Eye baby is pretty active among the kittens, but also has her favourite place to hang out, in the cat cage.
Which she can’t do right now, because I took that cat bed out to give it a wash!
Her cuddle buddy doesn’t seem to care, either way! This bigger kitten seems to be rather protective of eye baby.
Or just likes to use her for a pillow.
~~~~~ pause for interruptions and treating of eye baby~~~~~
I’m back!
We just gave eye baby her daily dose of antibiotics, and a feeding of cat soup from the modified bottle. I did something a bit different, this time.
I remembered we were gifted one of those mixers, where you can make individual size smoothies or whatever. I used that to make the cat soup. It worked. We had zero issues of bits paté clogging the nipple.
Why didn’t we think of this before? 😄
I still don’t know what to make of that eye. I think it’s getting better overall, but I also still think the eye itself is lost.
Oh, and we have determined something else. At least I did, only just now, when I let eye baby back out in the sun room.
She, is a he.
The girls had been able to determine that when they took care of the cats outside recently. A couple of the kittens, including eye baby, decided to roll onto their backs and give a good view. The other kitten was female, but eye baby is definitely a little boy.
But I am getting ahead of myself!
Aside from my usual morning routine, I had a day “off” today. A friend of mine from another province is in town right now, and we had a lunch date!
After getting one of the girls to distract the outside cats away from the truck with some treats, I headed to town a bit early. There was a store I wanted to check out, but I didn’t find what I was looking for. What I did get, however, was clear Gorilla tape. That will be very useful in setting the “greenhouse” around the eggplant and hot pepper bed. I’m hoping that the two clear shower curtains, or the two clear table protectors, with be long enough to go all the way around the box frame, and I had been wondering how I would join them together. This should be strong enough to hold.
I then went to the dollar store and ended up getting a several packages of angle braces that can be used to reinforce the donated cat shelter, instead of the triangle blocks of wood I was intending to use. These would be much better for the size of wood the shelter is made out of. I also got a few more things to use on the shelters, plus new sonic deer/wildlife screamers for the truck. I was down to one, and they’re not much good if there isn’t a pair of them.
I had just finished putting them on the truck and started heading to where we had arranged to meet, when my friend caught up with me. Perfect timing!
We had intended to go to a fish ‘n chips place for lunch, at 1pm, that had reopened recently. They’d had a fire some time ago, and it took quite a long time to get things up and running again, and I wanted to see the renovations. They were so incredibly busy, though, we barely got in the door, and saw that every table was full (granted, there isn’t room for a lot of tables anyhow) with lots of people waiting to place orders at the counter. So we left and walked up the block to a Thai place. I’d thought this place had closed and moved to the city, but I guess they’d opened a second location, instead. I haven’t been there in years, but my friend has been going there regularly since she’s been in town.
We have a very lovely, quiet, lunch, with excellent service!
It was really great to be able to sit and talk and get all caught up with each other.
After lunch, we just walked around and went to different places, checking out the marina and the local art club’s art gallery, and stopping at other restaurants for her to collect take out menus for her mother, who still lives out here. One place didn’t have any take out menus and the guy I asked said it was all their website, but her mother isn’t online, so that was of no use for her!
Town was really busy, as a lot of people use this long weekend to close up their cottages for the winter, and spend one last weekend on the beach before their kids go back to school. It wasn’t too bad, really, but neither of us enjoy crowds! All in all, though, we spent a couple of hours just hanging out together, and it was grand!
After we finally said our goodbyes – we may or may not have a chance to get together before she has to leave – I made a quick stop at the grocery store before going home. My husband has a birthday this month, so we’ll be doing things for him over the next week or so. We never celebrate birthdays on the actual day. 😄
I picked up some snacks he likes for now, and the girls tucked away the ice cream I got for later. My younger daughter plans to bake him a cake. His take out meal of choice was Chinese food, and I confirmed their hours while I was in town and got a fresh take out menu, just in case anything had changed.
They don’t have a website. 😄
We will be able to do the take out on Tuesday – after the long weekend is over!
It looks like I’m going to be doing a lot of running around over the next couple of weeks. We’ve got not only my husband’s birthday stuff going on, but the girls and I are taking my mother out to a nature reserve as part of her 93rd birthday celebrations – sort of. My mother said she didn’t want any fuss for her birthday this year, but she did want an outing to the nature reserve with my daughters, so we’re going to do both. Then there’s at least one appointment for my mother that I will be driving her to, and hopefully another in her home with the home care guy. My husband has to get to a lab for some bloodwork. I will hopefully see my friend one more time before she leaves. I also need to get back to the town my mother lives in to pick up kibble and lysine at the feed store, and will likely be back another day to pick up the clear plastic roofing material I’d ordered from the hardware store.
All of that in just the first two weeks of September, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something!
Meanwhile, I still don’t have the date for the spay/neuter the rescue has set up for us! I’ll have to contact her again. They’ve been insanely busy, too.
A couple of weeks from now, we should have someone coming in to excavate and repair the expeller on our septic system.
This is going to be a really crazy month!
After that, things should settle down, though.
I hope!
Pretty much all of this is good stuff, though, so no complaints!
After my last post, I intended to grab something to eat, then head outside and see what I could get done while the light was still good.
As an aside, after I published my last post, I hit the AI “generate feedback”. It had the usual, break up your paragraphs, include photos, etc. – then at the very end, it included an encouraging statement about making sure I ate regularly! Too funny!
So, for the AI, should I do that again: this post is going to have Instagram slideshows of photos. Lots of them.
I didn’t get outside as quickly as I intended, however. I had started to make a meal for myself when my daughter came down and asked if I wanted to do charcuterie and Columbo with her.
Heck yes!
My husband doesn’t like charcuterie, and his back can’t handle sitting in the living room for long, so the food I had started to cook because his supper, instead. 😄
My older daughter wasn’t able to join us either; she’s been up all night and all day, busting her butt, trying to get several commissions finished before her end of the month deadline. She did come down and grab a plate to take upstairs, though.
My younger daughter and I quite enjoyed the Columbo episode. It was a season 4 episode, and they were hour long movies at this point of the series.
By the time we were done, there was still light out, so I did my evening rounds, then remembered to take progress photos of all the squash, pumpkins, gourds and melons, with my hand in most of the shots, for perspective.
For some reason, though, Instagram turned my most of the photos upside down when they were shared. They were not upside down when I uploaded them! I also make extra sure when I’m taking the photos, that the camera on my phone hadn’t flipped orientation. It does that way too often.
With that caveat, let’s start with the Crespo squash bed.
There are more of them now, even after losing some! The darkest green one that’s bumpy is the oldest one. They are supposed to get really huge, though, but I’ll take a little one, too!
The second last photo in the slideshow (which is upside down) is in a cherry tree. The last one, also upside down, is one I couldn’t reach to have my hand in the shot. This one is in the A frame pole bean trellis.
Next are the Summer of Melons blend melons in the east bed. I had to split these up into three slideshows to fit them all, even with having multiple melons in some photos.
The only drum gourd we’ve got that was getting bigger seems to be wilting away. There are other small ones on the vines, but none seem to be getting bigger.
It would have been really nice to have at least one drum gourd of a decent size! Ah, well.
Next up, more upside down images of the East winter squash bed.
The fourth photo in – the pale yellowish one – is one I was sure was dying off, but it seems that colour is what it’s actually supposed to be – and it’s starting to develop a textured surface. I hope it matures enough that we can identify the variety.
The first photo is all Summer of Melons blend, as is the second photo. There are actually two melons in that photo; the second one is hard to see, in the back. After that, it’s Sarah’s Choice and Pixie melons.
This set is all Sarah’s Choice and Pixie melons, with our one remaining Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon. The others that started to grow all died off. The one survivor is getting big – and looks more like a squash than a watermelon!
This image from the Heritage Harvest website is what they’re supposed to look like, when fully mature. The one I’ve got not only looks much lighter in colour, with no dark stripes, but seems to be developing ribs.
Considering I pre-germinated the melons after I’d started the winter squash, it’s not possible that I got the seeds and seedlings mixed up. No other seeds I started look like watermelon seeds, either.
Very curious!
While I was fighting my way around leaves and stems – and fighting off mosquitoes! – I had a little entourage following me around. It was all adult cats, except for this little cutie.
I don’t know why this one kitten has decided to follow me around the garden, but it does make me happy when I see it! I was even able to pick it up and carry it for a little while.
By the time I was done my evening rounds, and getting the photos, it was getting time to give eye baby her medication. We got everything ready, including the modified bottle with cat soup in it. When I came inside, I couldn’t see eye baby anywhere, but when I went out again to look for her, I quickly found her.
She started running towards the sun room from the shelters as soon as she heard me going through the old kitchen doors!
She was purring before I even picked her up!
She most definitely is enjoying these evening ministrations. Which is rather surprising, considering we wrap her up in a towel, dose her with medications, then get the fur around her eye wet, while moistening the … whatever it is… over her eye, and trying to rub the area around her eye as clean as we can first.
She also likes that modified bottle feeding, even though it gets pretty messy at times! No matter how much we mash up the cat food in the water/lysine mix, there’s always bits that manage to clog the modified nipple opening. Sometimes, it unclogs unexpectedly and she gets sprayed all over her mouth with cat soup! Even wrapped in a towel, it end up all over her neck and chest, too. It doesn’t seem to bother her one bit.
She does let us know when she’s done, though.
I still don’t know what to say about how her eye is doing. The swelling of the eyelids has gone down, but not completely. The swollen inner lids seem to be covering the eyeball, and the eye is still bulging out of its socket, though not at much. As we were tending to her, my daughter did see her attempt at blinking, and the eye does move, as if she’s trying to look from side to side.
For now, all we can do is keep up with the antibiotics the rescue provided for us, and giving her the supplemented cat soup. It doesn’t seem to be bothering her, she can obviously see out the other eye that is healed up, and she is quite active and playful.
Today started quite late for me. For some reason, I was completely unable to sleep. I finally got up at about 5am, when I heard my older daughter come down for what, for her, would be her supper. After having a chat with her, and making myself a couple of sandwiches, I tried going to bed again. The girls, sweethearts that they are, took care of my morning stuff for me, including feeding the outside cats (they usually already do the morning feeding of the inside cats).
I managed to get maybe 4 hours of sleep and, apparently, that was all I needed.
The first thing I needed to do was make some calls. I tried calling the home care guy and left another message, letting him know I wouldn’t be home after about 2. He didn’t call me back.
Then I called the two septic companies that hadn’t responded to my messages. With one, I left another message. With the other, I tried their cell phone number instead of their land line, and actually got someone. Considering what town they are in, chances were pretty good their cell phone coverage wouldn’t be any better than hours, so I was glad it worked.
This company charges by the hour. We talked about our system and the problem. He didn’t even mention that these ejector/expeller systems are not supposed to be repaired anymore, but replaced with a septic field.
Given that they charge by the hour, he couldn’t give me a firm estimate, but figured it would be at least $1500. They charge $250/hour and that covers all costs, including transportation, parts, etc. After asking a few more questions, he thought it might take 4-6 hours. At 6 hours, that’s $1500 (before taxes).
I’m just going to assume it will take longer. That’s generally how things tend to be out here!
I greatly appreciated the information, and passed it on to my brother.
So we have one company that charges by the job, regardless of time, and the estimate was $2032 before taxes, for all the materials, labour and transportation (both companies are located about a 40 minute drive away from us). The other charges by the hour, regardless of what the job ends up entailing. Based on his time estimate, it could cost anywhere from $1000 to $1500 – though he did say that it would likely be “at least” $1500. If it took 8 hours, that would be $2000, plus taxes.
As for the third company, since we’re not hearing back from them, and this job really needs to get done soon, I figure they are going to be dropped from the list.
That done, I went outside and checked a few things. I didn’t bother taking any pictures, but I ended up picking what is probably the last of our corn. There are a few cobs left that are pretty immature, and are unlikely to have been pollinated. I grabbed a few Forme de Couer tomatoes, too. I probably could have left them longer, but I wanted to take some of the weight off the vines!
In the afternoon, I loaded the truck up with three empty 18.9L/5gallon water jugs to refill. I made a quick stop at the post office on the way out, and found that my replacement Mastercard was in, and just needed a PIN purchase to be activated. With Disability coming in tomorrow, I’ve already changed the info in my online banking to pay off the balance, then do the Costco shopping.
On a Friday before a long weekend.
May as well get it over with!
Oh, I forgot. Before I left for the grocery store, I had to pause and get a shot of Ginger.
That’s him on our dining table, which is currently protected by a giant self-healing cutting mat. Ginger is the only cat that is allowed on the dining table, because he still gets bullied by several of the other cats. My daughters even gave him his own bed.
He’s bigger than the bed. 😄
Now… where was I?
Oh, yes. The grocery store.
Since I was at the grocery store, anyhow, I got a few more things. My husband requested nacho fixings, so I got that – including lactose free cheese – and I found the last things to go with the fancy meats and cheeses I got yesterday. The girls and I can now have ourselves a charcuterie and Columbo marathon night again. 😁
When I got home, and my younger daughter helped me unload the truck, then I reloaded it with our garbage and recycling, in time to get to the dump just as it opened for this evening.
I now wish I’d left it for Saturday. It’s open longer hours on Saturday, but that’s not why I wish I’d waited.
When entering the landfill area, there is a little hut for the attendant, where I can show our card that shows we live in the area and can use the dump without charge. They had to implement this because too many people from rural municipalities with landfills that charged a fee, would come to one of the three landfills in our RM instead.
Next to the attendant’s hut is a row of recycling bins – those get emptied and the contents shipped to the city for processing – plus one bin for glass only. There are other sheds and areas set aside for batteries, oil, paint, etc. that we drive between, while on the way to the pit.
The first thing I noticed about the driveway to the pit – aside from it being half underwater, due to having rain almost all day today – were tracks in the clay, filled with garbage. There was no way to avoid driving over them.
The tracks were from the front end loader that was in the enclosure around the pit, which had literal tracks rather than wheels. It was going back and forth, pushing garbage into the pit.
Another problem is all the people who just dump their garbage on the edge of the pit, rather than into the pit. It builds up until there’s no more room for vehicles to turn around in, or pass each other.
So it was a good thing that the front end loader was pushing the garbage into the pit.
The bad thing was that its tracks were not only tearing up the clay heavy gravel, but dragging garbage all over.
Normally, I would drive forward, then back up and turn the tailgate towards the pit, but I didn’t dare drive over the area the loader had driven over. I could see all sorts of wire, metal objects, and things I couldn’t identify. I’ve already gotten a flat after a visit to the dump, once before, and did not want a repeat!
I decided to not even try backing close to the edge of the pit. Instead, I tried to drive a bit further forward in an area that the loader had only partially driven over.
Which is when I heard a horrible popping sort of noise, and could actually feel that something broke under my front tired.
I stopped to take a look and discovered…
… I had driven over a glass jar and broken it.
There were some larger shards that I picked up and tossed into the pit, then I started checking the front and back tires that would have driven over it.
There was no obvious sign of damage.
So I moved forward a bit more, then emptied the truck box of garbage bags, without bothering to get closer to the pit.
The driver of the loader seemed to appreciate me keeping a distance, as it gave him room to drive along the edge of the pit, then go in reverse, dragging the bucket on the ground, pulling all the stuck garbage back with it.
Too little, too late.
I’ve never seen the area in front of the pit look so bad, and that was from the cleanup, not the garbage piles!
I checked the tires again, then found space to turn around. I stopped to unload the recycling and glass into the bins near the attendant’s shack, then checked the tires again.
Still fine, so far.
I did go to the shack and tell the attendant what happened, just so it would be known as a problem, and a thing that happened.
After giving the tires one more check, I finally headed home.
Once at home, I made sure to park the truck so that my husband can see it through his window, and let me know of we suddenly have a flat!
I am not a happy camper.
It’s been a few hours, though, and it’s still all right. I may have gotten lucky.
Meanwhile, I started to get messages from the Cat Lady, along with some photos. She just picked up a new cat tree – 9 feet tall! – for only $60 on FB Marketplace. In the first picture she sent me, I could see several cats all over the cat tree – but almost missed the tiny face of Button, barely visible on a bottom shelf!
He was all over that thing, along with the other cats.
He is also apparently becoming very fussy!
The Cat Lady wanted to know if I would be in town this weekend. She has some bags of kitten food that Button won’t eat. He’ll only eat one brand, now! Among the brands he now rejects is the very brand we usually feed the outside cats!
They also have a 5 foot cat tree that cats weren’t really using, that she wants to pass on to us.
The girls have already called dibs on it, for upstairs.
pause for interruption
I’m back!
My mother called, and I had a lot to update her on!
We talked about the numbers I have so far for the septic repair. She confirmed, she will pay the full amount. That is so awesome of her!!! There’s still the one company I had hoped to hear from, but expect that tomorrow, I will be calling the company that charges by the hour, and make arrangements for the excavation and repairs.
We also talked about her pending visit from the home care guy. I told her, he left a message while I was out, and we haven’t been able to connect yet. She couldn’t quite remember what it was about, but when I reminded her it was about her application for supportive living, she was quite happy. She would rather be in a particular nursing home, but to live somewhere that provides meals, snacks, laundry and light housekeeping is exactly what she needs right now – plus access to 24 hour home care support, if something happens. She was concerned about the cost, and I explained it will be 30% of her income (which is what she’s paying now), plus the package that includes the services (meals, etc.) She won’t have to cook for herself, though she’ll have a “kitchen” with a mini fridge, probably a microwave, a sink, and room for a kettle or or coffee pot. She won’t have to buy groceries anymore, unless she wants something to keep in her own apartment.
The application process, of course, will just get her on a waiting list. The website doesn’t say if there are any vacancies, and it’s unlikely there are any. There just isn’t a lot of supportive living housing out there, and the demand is high. There would be a triage process, I’m sure.
I’m glad she called, because it was getting late and I wasn’t going to call her to update her until tomorrow.
So there’s that…
Now… where was I?
Ah, yes. I was chatting with the Cat Lady!
As we were talking and she told me she wanted to pass on the kitten food and cat tree to us, on the weekend, I mentioned the possibility of going to the city tomorrow. She asked me to message her if I do end up going. Chances are, she’ll be able to meet me in the city, instead.
I hope I have room in the truck box for the cat tree, plus the shopping!
We shall see.
After we chatted, and it was still light out, I did my evening rounds, and I just have to share this picture with you.
The Crespo squash is getting so huge! The leaves reach about waist height on me. You can see a squash under the leaves in the foreground. In the distance, you can see the vines climbing a cherry tree – and there is at least one squash developing among the branches! It is also trying to climb the pole bean trellis, and there’s at least one baby squash in there, too, though it’s still too early to know if it got pollinated. With that one, I hope not, because the trellis was not made to hold the weight of squash!
What a difference from when we tried to grow it last year! Clearly, it likes having more shade than where we tried to grow before. Plus, this area gets much wetter, and stays wetter longer. Perfect for a thirsty plant like this!
While doing my evening rounds, I was checking on the San Marzano tomatoes in the main garden area and actually found a couple of red tomatoes! One was ripe enough to pick, while the other was not ready but close – and fell off while I was tending the plant! I also picked more Forme de Couer tomatoes that probably could have done to stay longer, but the plants are getting so overloaded with tomatoes, I wanted to take some of the weight off!
By the time I was done that, it was getting time to tend to eye baby. She was in the cat cage in the sun room and did not make it easy to reach her, but once I picked her up, she started purring like crazy.
Her eye is still in that terrible “she looks better, but her eye looks so awful” state.
My daughter got her all wrapped up in a towel and held her during her ministrations. She’s gotten very good about taking her antibiotics, though, and quite enjoyed a feeding of warmed up cat soup. She also seems to be okay with being held pretty restricted, the entire time.
We aren’t washing the eye anymore, as that would cause more injury, but we do try to get the fur around her eye at least somewhat clean of gunk. Then, after a snuggle with my daughter, she went back outside, where she can go back to her cuddle pile in the cat cage!
So that was the gist of my day today.
For now, I need to try and get to bed early – and hopefully get some actual sleep! I want to head to the city early – if I don’t have a flat in the morning – so that I have plenty of time to make a call to the septic company when I get back.
Since I was heading to the city today, I didn’t try to see if anything needed to be harvested, while doing my morning rounds. I did it while doing my evening rounds, instead.
When I do my rounds, I usually have a cat or two, following me around. Sometimes, it’s Rolando Moon, wanting me to give her pets, then trying to scratch or bite me after I do. More often, of late, it’s been Syndol, who likes to be carried around, if he can convince me to pick him up. Other times, it’s this year’s Not-Junk Pile, (the previous Not-Junk Pile is now Toni the Tripod, and indoors. 😄) will follow me around.
I believe this is the kitten that pushes its way into the old kitchen – I really have to watch my feet when I open that door! – to explore. It even lets me pick it up and cuddle it for a while. This is the first time I’ve had one of this year’s kittens actively following me around the yards and garden beds, though. It’s hard to tell some of the white and black kittens apart, though. A few have distinctive markings, but the others… they just run around too much for us to get a good enough look at them to identify which is which!
I quite enjoyed having kitten company while harvesting these.
We’ve got all three types of beans in there, plus some Black Cherry tomatoes, and some Forme de Couer tomatoes. It’s getting that we have more tomatoes for fresh eating than my family can consume! Not enough to warrant going any canning or freezing, though. It’s been the same with the beans; more than we can eat right away, but not enough to make it worth processing. I think we might have enough to do a jar, maybe two, of quick pickled beans, but that’s about it.
It’s such a strange year. We plant with the goal to have enough to process for the winter months, but the spaces where we would have been planting stuff we’d harvest throughout the summer ended up being mostly winter squash and melons. Even the corn we planted as a trail of one variety, so not a lot there. We didn’t plant anywhere near as many beans, carrots, peas and summer squash we normally would have, and what we did plant, most didn’t even germinate. Even with three varieties of potatoes (only two that were planned), there isn’t a lot. We did plant four varieties of tomatoes, but cut back on how many plants we put in the ground – we still have tomatoes in the freezer from last year!
I am happy that we have so many winter squash and melons, but it’s going to be touch and go as to weather they’ll reach full maturity before the frost hit. The long range forecast still says we’re going to have a very hot two weeks in the middle of September, but the weather will do what it does, and the forecasts will probably change a few times between now and then! As it stands right now, we might not get a first frost until October. Which has happened before, since we’ve moved here. I seem to recall a fall where we didn’t get first frost until November, though I could be wrong on that.
Still, we’re expecting a few overnight lows that are on the chilly side, so I want to have that plastic around the eggplant and hot pepper bed soon. While not all the eggplants are fruiting, with the ones that are, I’m quite happy with what I’m seeing.
As an aside, while I was writing this, I got some updates on Button. He is doing fantastic, and getting spoiled rotten! In one photo sent, you can tell he’s getting bigger… but then there was a photo with him behind The Wolfman, and suddenly, he looks miniscule again! 😄😄 He’s got vaccinations and ear mite treatment this week, and then he’s ready to go. The woman that wanted to adopt him is still interested in him, and we’re hoping that doesn’t change, but sadly, too many people do change their minds at the last minute. The Cat Lady and her family have a whole bunch of cats living with them now, because of this.
We also just treated the eye baby kitten for the night, and gave her a feeding of cat soup, with my daughter holding her wrapped in a towel like a purrito. She seems to be getting quite used to the routine and accepting the ministrations, even if she doesn’t like parts of it. The swelling around that one eye does seem to be going down, but I’m still sure the eye itself is lost. Not even the rescue has a budget for her and, while it was suggested we could try turning her over to the humane society, chances are high they’d just euthanize her.
Which I shouldn’t be having a problem with, since we really do need to reduce the population, but I’d like to give them at least a chance to get adopted out.
Well, it’s time to call it a day and see if I can get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow, I need to follow up with the septic companies that haven’t called back yet. If I can’t get through to them, we need to contact the one company I did reach, and start making arrangements. This cannot be put off, now that we know about the problem!
Hopefully, the next time I write about it, I’ll have good news to pass on!
The Re-Farmer 