Today was much cooler, with possible rain, so I didn’t need to water the garden today. I did get a harvest, though. This time, from the opposite end of the row.
These are the Viking potatoes. Not as many as when I harvested from the south end of the bed, but there was a definite reason for that. SO many elm roots under just the two plants at the end of the bed I dug under! Very frustrating.
In the next image is the complete harvest. More tri-colour bush beans, a few little carrots (they don’t seem to be getting any bigger; the soil is probably too compact again) and a couple of stalks from the walking onions. I broke off most of the bulbils and laid them down where I want to keep the walking onions growing, otherwise, they’d take over in the grass beyond the garden. The “stalks” are so big, I only grabbed two of them, which was more than enough for the day’s use.
I checked out one of the corn cobs that had dried out silks. It was on the outer edge, and I found it was very poorly pollinated. Very few developing kernels. I did try to shake the pollen down and make sure the stalks along the outside were dusted, to sort of imitate the wind, but I guess it didn’t work very well. I really should have had that second block I’d intended to plant but was never able to, right next to it. That would have improved things. Ah, well. We should still have something!
I then headed out for most of the day, which I’ll cover in another post, and the girls will be doing something with what I picked. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!
Well, I’m glad I didn’t head to the city today for our second stock up shop. That will definitely wait until after the long weekend. Not only will I not have to deal with holiday crowds, but Tuesday is supposed to finally be cooler again.
I had an early start to the day, not by choice. It wasn’t pain that woke me up – it was cats going nuts! – though I did immediately get a headache. I don’t normally get headaches, and I don’t know what triggered it.
I topped up the inside cat kibble bowls which calmed them down a little bit, but they’ve been really bonkers lately. Since I was up anyhow, I went out to do the morning feeding and watering of the yard cats.
Sprout’s baby has starting coming to the food bowls in its own, without mom around!
(As an aside, Gouda did show up again. I had a scare with Batman, but he showed up, too. Still no Havarti, no Domino, no Adam and no Flopsy. At this point, it is highly unlikely we will see them again. Others seems to have disappeared, too, among the tabbies we never got to name. All have gone missing in an unusually short time. 😢😢😢)
It was wonderfully cool, heading outside that early in the morning. It helped my headache a bit, at least. I was planning to go straight back to bed, but I found myself not only with the headache, but suddenly famished. As in, feeling nauseous and dizzy and ready to pass out, hungry. Also odd, because I had gone to bed early last night, but got up at around midnight because of the pain my left hip. The painkillers helped with the abdominal pain but did nothing for the wrecked hip. My older daughter was up and working on commissions while it was cooler, and she was kind enough to rub some of the topical painkiller on my hip joint for me. Then she was kind enough to make me some grilled cheese sandwiches. Since I was up anyhow, I turned on the computer and paid the bills. By the time she brought me the food, my hip was no longer hurting, and I could finally sleep. I went back to bed at around two, so it was only about 3-4 hours later that I found myself awake and suddenly famished.
My body is completely out of whack!
My attempt to get more sleep was only half successful. It was disorienting to get up, feeling like it should be coming up on noon, but it was early enough that my alarm to do a wellness check on my husband hadn’t gone off yet.
With having to move the hoses because I knew my SIL was planning to mow the lawn, the garden hadn’t been watered at all for two days. Being slightly cooler today, and the mowing done, I went out to do it early this afternoon. Everything got an extra deep watering today, and I set up the hose into the leaky barrel to do the food forest trees, too. They also got extra water, and the leaking barrel will continue to water the apple, gooseberry and probably the plum, too, slowly as it empties.
When I moved to the south side of the hose to water the garden beds there, I started a little creature and saw a streak of white bolting out from under the water bowl shelter and across the yard.
It was Sprout’s baby! It is starting to come closer to the house for food!!! Progress!!!!
While watering the tomato bed, I spotted a splash of colour.
Our very first ripe tomato! 😂🤣 This is an Orange Currant tomato which is pretty much an orange version of the Spoon tomatoes we’ve grown before – the one kind of tomato I can eat raw. I didn’t eat this one, though. My daughter had gone to the truck to sew up a split seam on the driver’s seat for me, so I gave it to her.
She said it was very good!
I was getting close to finishing the watering when my brother and SIL arrived. They have their own planned out stuff to do, so I don’t expect to actually see them much while there are here. Especially since I have not been outside anywhere near as much as I normally would be.
Still, by the time I was done watering (which took almost 3 hours), I was feeling pretty good. Good enough that I brought the truck around and my younger daughter helped me load up the garbage and recycling.
Thankfully, she came with me to the dump.
By the time the truck was loaded, I could tell the pain was starting to return. By the time we drove the two miles to the highway, it was getting hard to sit up straight. I was still good to drive, though. When we got to the dump, we stopped at the recycling bins first, and I got out to help my daughter take care of those. By then, I knew I was done. I could get in and out of the truck, but I was not going to be able to throw anything into the pit. So when we drove to the pit, my daughter took care of throwing the garbage bags in while I stayed in the truck.
On the way home, we made a side trip to the general store. The only thing I didn’t get while doing the earlier stock up trip was butter, and I discovered we were almost out. I ended up giving my daughter my debit card so she could run in and get the butter, plus a couple other things, while I stayed in the truck.
When we got home, she asked me to drive into the yard so she could hose down the box of the truck, as one of the kitchen garbage bags had leaked. I was happy to do that, as it meant a shorter walk to the house. While she took care of things, I took some painkillers and hydrated for a while.
My older daughter had started supper and it was ready before we got back, which was much appreciated.
Thankfully, the painkillers actually kicked in, so I was up to heading outside again. I’d forgotten to change out the memory cards on the trail cams yesterday. I no longer switch them out every day, but every week or so, now that we have fewer security concerns. Sad to think that it took our vandal passing away for that to happen, but it really has been a weight lifted off of all of us.
Of course, I just had to check out the garden beds before going back inside. Which is when I spotted something that I’m amazed I hadn’t seen before, while I was watering.
These are the California Wonder bell peppers. The biggest plant has these two big peppers on it – one of them is stuck upside down, between stems. I had need tiny peppers forming on other plants, but somehow missed these ones!
Tomorrow is supposed to get quite hot again, so I plan to go to bed extra early to do an early morning watering, and will likely do an evening watering, too. Tomorrows heat is supposed to last from about noon to 8pm, before it starts cooling down. The overnight temperatures, at least, are much more bearable!
So, today didn’t happen as planned, but it sort of happened as expected.
For all that I felt so well yesterday, I had a mostly sleepless night. I finally just got up, fed the outside cats, and did my morning routine. I made sure to bring a container along, as the bush beans had not been harvested yesterday, so I knew there would be plenty to pick, today.
I pretty much filled the colander I was using. It was mostly yellow beans, as we have more plants of those, and they seem to be more prolific, but there were plenty of purple and green pods to pick, too.
Once back inside, I stayed long enough that knew the lab would be open, then headed out. The plan was still to go to Costco after I got my blood work and EKG done, so I made sure to grab ice packs. By the time I got to the hospital, though, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else. I was just too tired and sleepy, on top of all my joints aching from tossing and turning all night.
At the lab, I was called in very quickly after dropping off my requisition papers. Blood was drawn first, and then it was straight to gown up for the EKG. The test itself took less time than it took to wire me up!
From there, I just stopped to get a bit more gas before heading home, had a light lunch, took some pain killers and tried to lie down.
It didn’t really work. Neither the painkillers, nor the attempt at a nap.
When I finally gave up, I was soon back outside again. It was a bit early, but I went ahead and did the evening cat feeding, as well as refreshing their water bowls and putting in new frozen water bottles. My brother and SIL had their own plans change a few times, but they will be coming out today; while my brother works on his tractor, my SIL planned to start mowing the lawn. It goes a lot faster with their big zero turn mower, that’s for sure! They’ll be going back to the city for the night, though, and coming back tomorrow.
I decided to do a bit of weed trimming.
One area I wanted to get trimmed is what will be a stone framed flower garden near the gate, around my mother’s angel statue. I had already started to place rocks down but wasn’t happy with it. I moved them all aside, then weed trimmed the area before laying them back out in what I think is a better set up. Eventually, soil will be added to make a slightly raised bed, as that area is low and becomes a pond at times. The plan is to sow varieties of flower seeds in there that do better being planted in the fall and going through a winter’s deep freeze.
After that, I did some trimming around the garage and the baler my brother parked beside it. I’ve got my first two logs meant for the outdoor kitchen in there, too, and it’s hard to get in there with a mower, so it was starting to get pretty overgrown.
By the time I was done that area, plus trimming around some rocks in the yard so no one would accidentally go over them with a mower, I was also just plain done. Even this small amount of physical activity has trigged a return of my abdominal pain. Something I’d hoped wouldn’t happen, after not having any of this pain at all yesterday. Even so, I hoped I could rest and go back outside, but as I sit here typing, I’m realizing that this is not going to happen after all.
*sigh*
I did, however, do something else today, for next year’s garden.
I’m starting to think I’m addicted to seeds. 😂🤣
I’d been going through the MI Gardener site last night and even went so far as to start a shopping cart going, but then headed to bed. I don’t actually need more seeds, but I wanted to try some new varieties, fill some gaps, and there was a modest sale on.
Well, today a 40% off seed sale started, so I went back and added a few more things and placed the order.
I am such a sucker for seeds!
This is what I ordered today.
Yes, I got more tomatoes. These mature in only 42 days, hence the name, 42 Day Tomato, which means they can actually be direct sown in the spring rather than started indoors.
I tried another variety of spinach, Verdil. I still have others, but we like spinach, but have not been able to actually get good results for a while. This variety is less prone to bolting.
I also got yet another variety of pepper, Diamond Bell. We’re still working out what varieties the family enjoys most.
The Honey Rock Melon is a short season variety that could also be potentially direct sowed, rather than starting indoors.
The Tendergreen Cucumber can be harvested small for pickling or long for fresh eating, and the girls have expressed a desire for a slicing variety.
I got yet another variety of corn – Double Red Sweet. Not a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two. I just like the look of them, and like to try something other than your basic yellow corn.
I got even more carrot seeds. I’m coming to the conclusion that we can’t plant too many carrots. I chose an orange variety called Tendersweet, and…
… I got a yellow variety, just for something different.
Yes, I still have Atomic Red carrots, too. Variety is good.
I have had no luck with the tiny bok choi, as they always seem to bolt, so I’ve decided to try a Pak Choi cabbage that is less prone to bolting.
I was looking at the beets and decided to just get another Assorted Beet Mix – and then got another Sugar Beet packet. I still have some, but I want to try growing enough both to try making my own sugar, and to use as chicken feed, when we finally get our birds.
The Black Sesame seed is something I am curious to try, though it might not be next year.
I already got the plain garbanzo beans, and I figured I may as well try the black version, too.
I also wanted to try a new zucchini variety; Bianco Di Trieste. Because we never manage to have “too much” summer squash!
I have so many different types of melon sees, but I couldn’t resist getting some Tendersweet Orange watermelon – another shorter season variety.
I also have quite a few varieties of peas, but decided to try the Wando pea as well. We have yet to grow grow enough peas to do much more than snack on them, so I hope this variety does better. There aren’t a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two.
I’ve been interesting in growing leeks for some time, and today I finally picked up Carentan Leek; a variety that has a shorter growing season.
And finally, I picked up some Copenhagen cabbage which, if I remember correctly, is the variety of cabbage I bought transplants for when I didn’t think the Purple Savoy cabbage would grow at all. So we will have both varieties again, next year.
Once of the things I’ll be doing closer to fall is going through my entire seed inventory and organizing it into things I can plant in the fall for winter sowing, things that need to be started indoors, and things for direct sowing.
Hopefully, after I’ve had my surgery, I’ll be better able, physically, to build and prepare beds. This forced inactivity is driving me nuts.
If I’m not careful, I might end up buying more seeds again…
I took the above screen cap well before we were to reach the hottest part of the day, which was around 3 -5pm. As I write this, we’ve finally started to cool down. While the high was around 32C/90F, the humidex reached heights of 38C/100F
I decided to stay home. Today’s city trip would have been the Canadian Tire, Walmart and international grocery store run. I have my doctor’s appointment tomorrow in the smaller, nearer city. I can do the Canadian Tire and Walmart stuff after my appointment, and anything we wanted to get at the international grocery store can wait.
I ended up spending most of the day lying down. I did manage to get outside to feed the cats (I counted 18, including the kitten that showed up for cat soup), and a morning walkabout, but not much beyond that. The new painkillers are doing nothing. I eventually tried the T3s again, and they did nothing. It wasn’t the worst pain day I’ve had, but it was enough to make doing anything very uncomfortable – and “doing anything” included sitting, standing or lying down.
I really hope the doctor can figure out what’s going on when I see her tomorrow.
In the end, I did finally put together the clips I took and made the July garden tour video.
Today had definitely turned out to be a hot one. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. It should also be our first stock up shopping trip to the city, so I’ll want to head out quite early, before things get too hot.
Knowing the heat was coming, I made sure to water the garden this morning, though I’ll have to ask the girls to do it tonight.
I was able to get a nice harvest this morning!
I decided to gather some potatoes this time, expecting to dig up a few smaller potatoes, since it’ll be a while before the potatoes mature and the plants start dying back.
In the first image, you can see what I uncovered when pulling the mulch aside. Some nice, big potatoes growing, right at the surface! Thanks to the mulch, there was no exposure to the sun, so this just made it easier to get them.
In the second image, you can see the potatoes I got from under two plants. The single carrot is the Uzbek Golden Carrot that seeded itself in the purple cabbage bed.
Then there were the bush beans. There were so many pods! Especially with the yellow beans, but I got quite a few green and purple ones, too. I also grabbed a few more little carrots from the Rainbow Carrots Mix row.
While I was outside, my sister called my cell phone. She had gotten the text I’d sent her about my mother and had called to ask what the heck was going on between us. I explained a bit about what happened during my last visit. I had mentioned in my text the conversation I’d had with my mother, telling her about going to the hospital, so she asked about that, too. After making sure to tell her to NOT say anything to my mother, I gave her the Cole’s Notes of it. She asked for more detail about my mother saying she was sick, and I told her I had none. She went straight from saying “I’m sick. Very sick” to “come visit me.” My sister also thinks my mother is just wanting more visits so she’s pulling the sick card. Which doesn’t work very well, since she is in exactly the right place to be if she really were sick. From the strength of my mother’s voice, I don’t think she’s actually sick.
So my sister is somewhat caught up on things. She knew that we had health issues, but she had no idea things were as bad as they are (I mentioned both my daughters need very different surgeries, too) and, if my mother asks, that’s all she plans to say. My mother already knows this, but doesn’t care.
I did get the watering done while we talked. I told her about watering the garden twice a day when it gets hot like this. She told me, they haven’t had to water their garden at all this year! They live near a creek and their soil, as my sister describes it, is gumbo. Wildly different from what we have! After a while, I had to end the call because I needed two hands to be able to harvest the beans. 😁
Once inside, I covered the colander with the harvest in it and left it, as I needed to sit for a while and have breakfast. My daughters were sweet and brought something for me, as they were going to be using the kitchen for a while. After eating, I sorted through the harvest, plus got what we left in the fridge from before, and organized the vegetables into several bowls, based on what would take the longest to cook, then scrubbed all the potatoes. They are too fresh to bother with trying to peel them.
By the time I was done scrubbing the potatoes, though, I was needing to at least sit down for a while. My younger daughter had come down and I told her what I meant to do next. She was a sweetheart and did the rest of the cleaning, peeling, trimming and prepping for me. I tried sitting at my computer, but the pain kept getting worse. I was preparing to take the new painkillers and lie down when the phone rang.
It was a follow up from my ER visit and CT scan. The gyno wanted me to come in, and she was wondering if Thursday was okay.
As in, the day after tomorrow.
!!!!!
Obviously, I said yes. If I’d had anything booked that day, it would have been cancelled. As it is, it will be in between our regular city stock up trips, so that worked out perfectly.
Then I was able to lie down for a while. I wasn’t laying down to try and sleep. I just needed to not be upright. My SIL started messaging me and we chatted for a while about things. She was very happy to hear I got an appointment so quickly! So am I. I’m getting hit with this pain daily. It’s oddly predictable, too. Very strange.
My husband offered me a muscle relaxant after seeing my face when I walked past to the washroom. It’s one of his “take as needed” meds – and it was bad enough that I actually said yes, since the tramadol was doing nothing. In the end, the muscle relaxant didn’t make a difference, either. The pain just got worse, then started to subside again on its own.
So frustrating.
Once I was able to get up, though, I started on the Hodge Podge after getting the remaining marinated pork belly into the oven.
It’s been a long time since I’ve made Hodge Podge! It’s a great way to use up a lot of different vegetables at one. Of course, I had to modify the basic recipe to match my ingredients, but that’s what Hodge Podge is all about.
So for mine, I had the:
fresh new potatoes bush beans Spring Blush peas I’d picked before the plants started producing the remaining garlic scapes we had that didn’t fit on the pan for dehydrating the little carrots the few turnips I’d picked previously (most of which my daughter had to toss because they were worm damaged) a bunch of Golden Boy celery couple of onions from the grocery store we had left. salt, pepper and a bit of powdered beef soup stock mix. chive blossom oil and butter butter salt and pepper to taste sour cream
I started it off by cutting the onions into big chunks and started to cook them down in a half and half mix of butter and chive blossom oil. Then I added the carrots, turnip, celery and garlic scapes to the pot. Once they had about 5 minutes to soften, I added the potatoes, chopped large, then added just barely enough water to cover the potatoes.. Once the potatoes were almost done, I added the peas then, after a minute or so for them to cook, added the bush beans.
The bush beans are easy to know when they are done. I have the tri-colour mix, and the purple pods turn green when they are cooked through.
Once that was all cooked, I drained some of the water away before going to the next step. I added in a big chunk of butter – about 1/3-1/2 cups. After stirring that in, I added the 250ml container of sour cream.
I’m quite happy with how it turned out!
That done, I had to sit down, as the pain had gotten worse again. I am currently fighting myself. I want to go straight back to bed and pass out, but it’s way too early. I’ll been to take my evening meds. I haven’t even eaten the supper I’d made, yet!
I am so looking forward to the appointment coming up. Hopefully, I’ll actually get something useful out of it!
There are a couple of female flowers that have gotten quite large. No male flowers are as large, but there are enough that they might actually bloom at the same time and pollinate. The vines are getting big enough that I’m starting to train them around towards the compost ring, so there is room to mow and walk around that side of the bed.
I have no idea what type of caterpillar that is, but it was enjoying the oregano. There is so much of it, I just left the caterpillar be. It actually didn’t seem to be eating the leaves, though. So we’ll see.
I didn’t try to do any harvesting, though I’m sure I could have picked more bush beans. Plus, there is that one yellow zucchini that is looking great. I’ll probably harvest it tomorrow morning.
Hopefully, I’ll actually be home tomorrow. I got my CT scan done today, but I’ll cover that in my next post.
We were getting predictions of rain and thunderstorms. At one point, my weather app told me it was raining right that moment.
It wasn’t.
So I went out to water the garden in the morning. In the process, I gathered what I would call our first real harvest of the year, with everything weeks behind.
I picked a few of the Rainbow Mix carrots. They’re still small, and it was more of a thinning by harvesting action. The baby carrots will taste just fine!
I was very happy when I started checking the bush beans. The yellow ones seem to be ripening the fastest, and I picked a decent amount of those, plus a few green and purple ones. Then I grabbed a few of the turnips that were left and a bunch of Golden Boy celery. I’ve been picking a bunch of celery every now and then, along with harvesting some turnips, but nothing that I would really consider what would be a typical harvest I would normally get from the garden, until today.
After watering the main garden area, I left the harvest on the chest freezer in the old kitchen and went back to watering the garden beds around the east and south yards, and the old kitchen garden. The Arikara squash is looking amazing, and I can see more Blueberry tomatoes starting to form.
About half way through, I was starting to feel pain starting to kick in, but it wasn’t too bad yet. I messaged my daughters asking them to put away the harvest, and if they could make me a breakfast. By the time I was inside and finished eating, it was definitely time to take some pain killers and try lying down.
It didn’t work.
It just kept getting worse. Quickly. Bad enough that I finally started talking to the family about driving myself to the ER.
They agreed.
My brother and SIL were still here and I was updating them, but it turned out they had their Messenger off. Which is fine. I was just keeping them informed.
The girls got the truck to the house and unloaded of market inventory, loaded my walker for me, put my prescriptions and a charger cable for my phone into a bag for me to bring along, and took care of the gate so I didn’t have to go in and out of the truck as I left. The only time I started having issues with the drive in was when I found myself stuck behind someone doing 65kph in a 100kph zone and couldn’t pass.
When I parked at the hospital, I was so incredibly glad for that walker. Sitting while driving wasn’t too bad, but once I was walking, I found I couldn’t straighten up.
Once by the admissions window, I started getting my health care card and the woman at the desk waved me over right away. When I handed her the card through the slot under the window, my hands were shaking violently. I couldn’t stay standing, and my face must have been a sight, based on how quickly she got me processed.
From there, it was a brief time in the waiting room and then I was in the triage room. A nurse got my vitals and asked me all sorts of questions. My BP was, understandably, a bit high, but not too bad. Considering the pain I was quite obviously in, it was not a concern.
Then it was back to the waiting from for a bit longer before they took some blood, and then it was a wait until the results were in. That’s when I got to talk to the ER doctor.
We went over the details again, including the whole background about how this started with those anti-inflammatories I had started taking, a while back. They had worked so well for what I was taking them for, too!
The doctor then found herself with a bit of a conundrum. The things she normally would have done – the tests, the referrals, etc. – were things that were already done, or in progress. There was that one ultrasound that showed abnormal, and it’s why I was being referred to a specialist in the city for a biopsy.
So what, she asked me, did I want her to do, in context of being in the ER?
We talked about the pain levels some more. I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t even lie down, to get any relief. She did prescribe tramadol and she wanted me to fill the prescription right away, to use in stead of the T3s. She even made sure that it was not anti-inflammatory, and that it wasn’t contraindicated with anything else I was taking. The pharmacy was still open for a couple more hours, and she was ready to send me home with the prescription.
As we talked more about how bad the pain was, and she looked at the ultrasound results some more, she realized that my doctor’s referral was something that could take months to be fulfilled. I needed to be seen right away.
She knew of a specialist at the hospital in the smaller, nearer city. She told me to stay until she had a chance to get through to the specialist and see if I could see her right away.
The pharmacy closed while I was waiting.
When she came back later, she told me the specialist wanted me to have a CT scan, and that I should get a curretage.
*sigh*
She wanted me in either tonight or tomorrow. Which I was actually quite happy to hear.
The next while in the waiting room was for the appointment for the CT scan. I was there long enough that I was starting to become hungry to the point of getting light headed. Of course, I kept the family up to date on all this (my brother and SIL had seen my messages by this time). My husband and daughters were suggesting that, if I was going home, to make sure I grabbed food somewhere first, even before I mentioned getting so hungry. Frankly, I would have just gone to the truck for the beef jerky in our road food stash, but I didn’t want to miss someone coming back with information for me.
One of the nurses came by as soon as they had the appointment made. It’s for tomorrow morning, and my daughter and I will have to be on the road by 9am. I’ll need to fast, plus make sure to have a liter of water to drink before the CT scan.
My daughter, meanwhile, has called the clinic for her own appointment in the city tomorrow and left a message about rescheduling. I can’t say I feel too badly about that, since this is the clinic I found so creepy and actually felt was unsafe, while in the waiting room during her last appointment, which was essentially a meet and greet. This is something we disagree on.
So that’s where we’re at now. I’ve just finished having something to eat with my evening meds and supplements and will now start my fast. I’ll be going to bed pretty much as soon as I’m done this post.
Tomorrow should be… interesting.
Hopefully, this will finally bring an end so the issues I’ve been having! Or at least tell us what’s going on, so long after I stopped taking the anti-inflammatories.
Meanwhile, all my brain can do is list off the things I want to, or should be, doing that I physically can’t right now. The pain did eventually recede, but just getting up and walking around it enough for me to feel it threatening to come back.
I need to lie down before I start doing tasks I really should not be doing.
Today was market day, and the original plan was to be there for the usual 10-3, then stay for the 4-8 special event. In the wee hours, I got a response from the rescue mentioning that we were the only ones talking about being there for the 10-3 part, and that they were closing to tours from 2-4 to prepare for the event. So I decided we’d skip the first time slot and just be there for the event.
Which make for a more relaxed morning. I got up to feed the outside cats in my nightgown and tried to go back to bed for a couple more hours, instead.
It didn’t work.
I can’t complain, though, as I started getting messages from my SIL, and I always enjoy a chat with her. After a while I got up and headed outside to water the garden before things got too hot.
*sigh*
Yes, I found some deer damage. More of the Jet Black hollyhock leaves are gone, and then there was this…
The first image was the single self seeded Jabousek lettuce I had meant to leave to go to seed. It was starting to bolt, too. Nothing left but this stump. This type of lettuce has survived deer damage before, though, so I’m leaving it and expect it will sent up new shoots fairly quickly.
The second image is a purple cabbage that also got eaten. Just one. Apparently, the deer liked the lettuce better than the cabbage. It’s unfortunate the wire mesh cover had to be removed to make room for the seed onions. Now there’s nothing to protect it from the deer.
Thankfully, that was the only deer damage I spotted while watering. Once that was done, I had plans to finish mowing areas of the lawn that I’d finally cleared of other things, so I only needed to move some garden hose out of the way. Since we were going to be out, I was planning to do it tomorrow, but cleared what needed to be cleared in advance before going inside.
I’d been inside for awhile when I got messages and photos, letting me know…
… my brother had cleared the old tire from around the stump! It’s now ready for the tree guys to come back with the stump grinder. My brother had to move several patio blocks to get the job done, which I had expected might be necessary. Once the stump is cleared out, we’ll be able to level the area and reset the blocks that the roots had heaved out of place.
I was stunned that he’d gone it. I hadn’t heard a thing! Neither had anyone else in the household. Meanwhile, he’d been concerned he was making too much noise!
The above photo was taken much later in the day, though. After we’d come back from the market.
Set up time was from 2-3:30 if we wanted to unload our vehicles on location. After unloading, we were requested to park in another area to make room for families coming to the event. When my daughter and I loaded the tent, folding chairs and table into the box of the truck (everything else has been staying in the back of the cab all month), my SIL was out mowing the outer yard with their big zero turn mower. When I opened the gate before we drove out, she took advantage of it and mowed around the driveway on the other side of the gate, which was handy. My daughter and I left early enough to stop at the general store first, where we picked up some canned drinks in two sizes to use as part of my display, along with a couple of sub sandwiches and drinks ourselves, since we’d be having our supper while at the market.
We were the first vendors there. I found someone to let us know where to set up, since it was no longer going to be in what is otherwise a parking area.
Happily, we got to be next to the emu and chicken enclosures.
Emus make the most remarkable noises. !!!
We had started out as the end of the row (or the beginning of it, I suppose), but someone set up their display a bit closer to the emu enclosure, while others set up in the other direction. Enough vendors showed up that a couple of displays were set up across from us to start a second row.
It was hot for the first couple of hours, and the poor vendor that set up closer to the emus hadn’t been able to bring her tent. She only had a patio umbrella, and the wind kept trying to blow it away! She ended up spending quite a bit of time in the shade of our tent, and we had some wonderful conversation with her.
In the end, though, we didn’t sell a single thing, and she sold only one thing – and it was to another vendor! A couple of others we spoke to as we were packing up did have some better sales, and the hot dog guy who was set up in a concession stand near the petting zoo shelter must have done really well. The rest of us did not do well at all. The people were there for the event and the animals, not the market.
This is a major fundraising things for the rescue, so they went all out. They had mascots from popular children’s shows and movies wandering around. There was a bouncy castle, face painting, pony and horse rides and, of course, the petting zoo inside a shelter where admissions were also processed. They had three new baby donkeys in there, plus the kittens that are up for adoption.
They weren’t doing tours, so no one was going into the large animal enclosures, but they did allow people to go into the chicken enclosure and coop.
Which was fine, at first, but near the end we started becoming very concerned. Some kids were chasing the chickens around too aggressively. These chickens are also rescues. Some of them still having visible red patches where their feathers had been pecked out. The parents were in the enclosure, too, taking video of their kids trying to catch the chickens.
It kept getting worse. There was one little black chicken that two kids were chasing around. I saw the girl catch it several times, only to let it go, so she could chase it again. Then kids started chasing the chickens around the back of the coop, where there is a narrow space between the coop and the enclosure fence, with a kid at each side of the coop, trying to trap the chickens. When we started seeing a little boy running after the chickens, stomping his feet and flailing his arms – and the adults just watching and taking photos and video – it was too much. I went over to the shelter where the petting zoo was and found a couple of the volunteers who help run the rescue and manage the tours. I started to say that there were kids getting out of control in the chicken enclosure and one of them immediately turned and headed for it, before I even finished.
This is not an uncommon problem.
I explained a bit more to the other person before returning to our tent. The woman who’d left to deal with the situation was inside the enclosure and working on getting the kids together and away from the chickens.
As my daughter and I continued to chat with our neighbour, I could see the volunteer in the enclosure, looking like she was supervising the kids for a while.
The next time I looked over, everyone had been removed from the chicken enclosure and the volunteer was latching the gate (a wooden frame with wire mesh). She then left and came back with a lock and chain to wind around the latch and gate handle. She left again, then came back to staple a sign to the gate. After a while, I decided to go read the sign when I saw one of the kids from earlier – about 5 or 6 years old – that had been chasing the chickens, going to the gate with an adult I presume was the father. The kid immediately began trying to open the gate, pulling on the chain, the handle, the latch… The dad then told the kid it was closed and started leading him away.
The kid promptly began screaming and crying and having a major tantrum because he couldn’t get back in to torment the chickens.
When I got close enough to read the sign, it said the chicken coop was closed so the chickens could have a rest, adding a “thanks for understanding” at the end.
That one little black chicken that was being chased, caught, released and chased some more, was sitting on a step into the coop, not moving. All the others were moving around, pecking and drinking and clearly looking much calmer, but that one little chicken just sat there. The poor thing must have been so exhausted!
By this time, it was getting close to the end of the event, and the crowds were starting to disappear. Some of the vendors were already packing up. We waited a bit longer, since I could see that our truck was blocked by another vehicle, so there wasn’t much point in rushing things.
Our neighbour was done packing up at about the same time we were, and my truck was no longer blocked, so she and I walked over to our vehicles together. The family that owns the place had said we could drive to the vendor area from where we were parked, but it is so rough, we both took the road and went around the other way. The section of fence we’d gone through before, though, had been boarded up again, and we had to wait for someone to come with a driver and take the boards off again. By the time she was done, there were four vehicles, including me and our neighbour, waiting to come in, and one vehicle on the other side of the fence, waiting to leave!
My daughter and I were able to pack up very quickly. While my daughter was in the box of the truck, strapping it down, I went over to help our neighbour. I figured the least I could do was bring her packed bins closer to her car, but in the end, my daughter and I were able to help her load things in, too. She did not have a particularly large car. No wonder she didn’t have room for a canopy tent!
As far as any of us know, this is the last market day at the rescue. They had brought up the possibility of extending into August, but no one had heard anything about that actually happening. It was pretty disappointing for the vendors in general, but we also understood that this was the first time they’d tried including a market, so no one knows about it and people coming in for the tours were probably not expecting to shop at a market, too. With how busy it was, I hope the rescue had a good fundraising day, at least!
While we were at the market, I got some messages from my brother and SIL. They had loaded up one of their trailers and were planning to go to the dump while it was open. I have the card needed for that, but was able to just send them a photo of it and they were able to show that to the attendant. When we first moved here and were cleaning 40+ years of my parents’ stuff out, we found a lot of paint cans. Some of which had never been opened, but where so old, the box they were in was degrading. We took all the pain cans we could find and put them in one of the stalls in the barn. Today, they took all the pain cans to the dump! The dump has an area set aside for paint cans. This will have opened up quite a bit of space in the stall we’d put them in. That’s also where we put all the batteries we’d been finding. They will be taking those to a scrap yard. Taking old batteries to a scrap yard is something the yard will pay for, like when we take in our aluminum. When a large number of batteries are brought in at once, they pay extra. There are more than a dozen old batteries to take in, so that should work out rather well. The scrap yard isn’t open on the weekends, though, and that’s when my brother and SIL can make it out, so they’ll have to figure out when they can do that.
After we got back from the market and brought some of the stuff into the house (we’ll unpack the inventory and display items tomorrow), I immediately did my evening walkabout while it was still like. Much to my surprise, I found that my SIL had not only mowed the outer yard, but the inner yard, too! I had done much of it not long ago and there were just the smaller areas I’d cleared – including where I’d finally cut up that big maple branch that had fallen – that still needed to be done, and the grass doesn’t grow quickly there, anyhow. My SIL had mowed those areas, and in the main garden area we’re slowly trying to reclaim, too! It looks amazing!
I took a peek under the net over the high raised bed, with the bush beans. I might actually be able to start harvesting beans tomorrow! I might wait an extra day, though. It’s looking like we’ll have quite a few beans! The yellow beans seem to be ripening the fastest, but I’m also seeing the green and purple beans starting to look ready to pick. I am so looking forwards to having our first fresh green beans!!
I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, though, so I didn’t stay out for too long. We did find the can of bug spray in the truck, though – it had rolled under the seat! I made sure that got brought to the house.
So that’s where we are at tomorrow. It was a good day, in that we enjoyed being at the market, had a great time chatting with the vendor next to us, and had some nice surprises at home. The only disappointment was the lack of sales, and not just for ourselves. It should be interesting to see if the rescue will do this again next year. I suspect not, but you never know!
This morning, my daughter and I headed out for errands. Too early, it turned out. I had a package waiting at the post office, but while the general store it’s in opens at 9, the post office itself turns out to open at 9:30. I could have sworn they opened earlier! My daughter had dashed in and did get the mail, but left the parcel card for on the way home.
When we got to town, my daughter was a sweetheart and took me out for breakfast (lunch, for her) before we hit the grocery store. This time, we were actually able to refill a couple of water bottles – last time we barely managed to fill one, as both dispensers had no pressure. We picked up a few things, including some things for my husband to make sure he’d have easy food available while my younger daughter and I are away all day tomorrow. My older daughter will be home to make sure he doesn’t have a repeat of last week and almost die on me again!!!
After that, we made a stop at the gas station that ended up taking an unexpectedly long time. On the way home, we just made it to the post office before they closed for a couple of hours over the lunch period, and my daughter was able to get my parcel.
Unfortunately, by the time we finished in town, my pain levels were kicking in again. By the time we got home, I was able to help bring things inside, but had to pain killer up and used some diclofenac cream, then lay down for a while. After a couple of hours, there was no relief in pain. It was long enough that I could take more T3s, and that eventually did it. I’m really hoping that new prescription does the job and this pain goes away, but I’d only had one dose so far. It’ll take at least a little while before I can tell if it’s working.
By the time I was able to get up again, I was eager to test out the contents of my parcel.
I was pleased to see it had a quick connect, but when I tried to attach it to the hose, I realized it had two male couplings. I had to remove the quick connect nozzle and attach the piece with the on-off switch (not visible in the photo) directly to the hose. Very odd.
I then spent the next hour or so, trying to clean a couple of the shortest eavestroughs.
I did not succeed.
I knew it would be difficult. The eavestroughs all have tiny forests of elm seeds growing in them. The debris was dense enough to break the brush head on the other cleaning tool I’d picked up – it came with two brush heads, and the first one broke the first time I tried to use it!
I was able to get some debris cleared out, but found myself with a different problem. The downspouts were getting clogged. After fighting it it for quite some time, I gave up and tried to clear the eavestrough on the other side of the old kitchen/sunroom. It was even worse. Finally, I have one last try at a corner of the living room, just trying to clear the opening to the downspout. Water could barely leak through at all!
I had to stop. There was no point in continuing. The eavestroughs were just too badly clogged.
I’d been updating my brother and SIL about all this, knowing they’d be coming out some time tonight. After failing to clear the eavestroughs, I got out the chain saw and a 100 foot extension cord, instead.
I FINALLY got that big piece of fallen maple branch cleared! It had broken up a bit when it hit the ground and I’d been able to drag off the narrow part of the branch, but the remaining piece was just too large and heavy to move – and it was taking up a significant portion of the lawn.
It took two wagon loads to clear away the logs and the scattered pieces of bark. Anything big enough to be a problem for the law mower. In the second image of the slide show above, you can see most of the logs (a couple of pieces are hidden behind the pile) set up and ready for the fire pit. Maple will make some good cooking fires, and this wood has been dead and dry for some time, so it can be used right away.
It was while I was finishing up putting the logs away and cleaning up as much bark out of the grass as I could, that I heard my brother and SIL arrive.
Since I had the chainsaw out anyhow, I moved on to the sections of maple I’d dragged under the hawthorn “fence”. This includes the pieces that had broken off another maple some time ago that I hadn’t got to, yet.
With these, I stacked the logs in between trees in the living “fence”. There are still some branches to do, but they were too thin to bother using a chain saw. I’ll come back with a hand saw.
I had considered cleaning up more fallen trees in the maple grove, right near the old branch pile and the fire pit logs. I decided against it. I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, and the chainsaw needs sharpening.
Part way through the cutting, I had to refill the oil in the chainsaw, so I went to the garage to get the jug. My brother was in lean to side where their mower is stored, looking for something. When he came out and saw me, chugging a water bottle I’d got from the truck, he told me he was going to go up on the roof to check where the leak is coming from. While he did that, I remembered to grab a broken old hose reel he’d dug out of the junk pile for me. I’d found it in the barn some time ago and we tried to use it for an actual hose, but it didn’t work and the hose ended up splitting and cracking. He had the idea that it could still be used to store the longer extension cords, and I was finally able to give it a try when it was time to put things away.
It worked beautifully.
By the time I was putting things away, my brother had done checking the roof over the second floor, and was clearing the eavestrough over the “new part” of the house. He mentioned he might need a hose, so I passed that up to him and he was able to grab it with the tool he was using the clear the eavestroughs. He was up there for quite a long time. The eavestroughs were horribly clogged. Thankfully, he was also able to clear the downspouts.
As for the roof that was leaking, he said the eavestrough over the 2nd floor windows were also clogged. Which is odd, because the girls told me that it never gets clogged. He concluded that this was why there was a leak at one of the windows.
I’ve since passed that on to my daughter and they disagree. This area was a problem before we moved out here. They’d patched the damaged wall, only for it to become damaged again in our first winter. It had stopped after the roof was replaced, until this past winter. They don’t see a connection between the state of the eavestroughs and the leaking.
Well, we’re supposed to get more storms in the next while, so I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
While trying to clear the eavestrough from the sun room, I almost refilled the rain barrel, so while my brother was using the hose to pressure wash the eavestroughs he had cleared of debris, I use the rain barrel to do some watering, even though we had rain this morning.
This is a luffa seedling! I direct sowed them because this variety needs only 55 days to maturity, which means it still has a chance to make it, and we might actually have luffa. I still have not been able to find my package with the remaining seeds, so it would be really awesome if it survives long enough that we can collect seeds.
After my brother was done on the roof, he brought over some tools and a reciprocating saw, with a blade that can cut metal, to work on the tire around the elm tree stump. He was able to cut through it in three places, then we used a pry bar and my chisel tip bar to try and work things loose.
There was progress, but my brother was so tired by then, we left it for the night.
After he left, I brought the hose over to rinse the dirt off my tools when I decided to use the highest pressure setting to try and wash away some of the soil inside the cut up tire.
That ball of dirt is so filled with swirling tree roots, almost no soil got washed away at all. !!!
Still, we’ll probably have it off by the end of the weekend, which means the tree guys will not have to figure out how to deal with it when they come back with their stump grinder. That tire has been sitting there for so long, the rubber is starting to disintegrate in places. It was still hard to cut through, though!
So that’s where we’re at now.
Tomorrow is going to be a very long day at the market, but I’m looking forward to it.
Now, to try and get some actual sleep, so I’m not drifting off at my table tomrorow!
My husband’s condition has stabilized, and he is feeling so much better. He’s looking a lot better, too – though some of that is partly because, with the heat we’ve been having, he finally shaved his head and most of his beard off, a few days ago. Today, however, was a much cooler day; more like our typical summer heat.
We had predictions of rain and possible thunderstorms for the afternoon, so I did not water the garden this morning. I did end up adding more rods to the hoops over the bush beans on the high raised bed. The onions planted with them were starting to poke through the netting. It’s now as high as the netting can go and still be secured around the edges. No sign of beans, though. Lots of flowers, but I’m not seeing a lot of pollinators. I’ve pretty much only seen bees on the poppy flowers. Nothing in the flower beds. With our spring lurching from hot during the day to almost freezing at night, that would have affected a lot of our emerging pollinators.
Our corn started to show tassels a few days ago. Today, I saw my first corn silk. Those, at least, get pollinated by the wind. In the next image of the slide show above, you can see the sudden burst of poppy flowers that opened this morning. In the last photo, we have two yellow zucchini flowers open – both female. No sign of male flowers.
While doing my rounds this morning, I also finally had a kitten sighting, enough to take pictures! I hadn’t seen the kitten in so long, I feared a coyote got it, but then I spotted it in the junk pile. The pile that has since had stuff removed from to the bin (which got taken away today), and other stuff sorted for other types of disposal. That area is going to be disturbed quite a bit before it’s all finally cleared away by winter but, for now, it’s still the place they can hide in! I am happy that Sprout is bringing her baby to the food bowls. We now have a chance to socialize it.
These are not the best pictures, since I had to zoom in so much. I didn’t want to scare them away before the kitten had a chance to get to the food bowls!
Later in the morning, I headed out to town, with a stop to visit my mother before I ran errands.
*sigh*
Before visiting her, I stopped at the nursing station to ask about the swelling in her legs. It’s not at a stage they are concerned about, so I asked if there was anything else. She told me my mother was being mean to people more often. It turns out she’s been going into the hallway, sitting there and mocking the guy in the room across the hall from her. They’ve had to have talks with her about her behaviour.
*sigh*
Then there was the visit itself.
I barely made 40 minutes before I had to leave.
When I asked how she was doing, she was feeling terrible, then started talking about how the staff is neglecting her because they want her to die. They want the old people to die, because there’s so many of them and they want to open up the rooms.
Then my mother brought up our vandal’s funeral, asking me what I thought of it. She has asked me this before, but I don’t think she remembered. Before I could say much, she started telling me how proud she was of him, how he had done so well for himself, etc. All I could do was stare at her as she spoke. I had no clue what she was talking about. Then she mentioned how SO many people were at the funeral. That’s when I clued in that she was rewriting her mind to make him out to be some sort of saint, instead of the person who stole from her, verbally abused her, squeezed many thousands of dollars from her over the years, demanded she pay for things he wanted for himself, vandalized things after we moved here, stalked and harassed us, left the most awful messages on her answering machine, continued to verbally abuse her and, the last time she saw him, he got up out of his wheelchair and walked out after she refused to pay for his funeral, which he’d already told her weeks before he’d taken care of. She saw lots of people at the funeral, and people said nice things under his obituary that my sister printed out and put into a binder for her, so now all the stuff he did no longer matters. She mentioned one comment in particular that I looked up, that included a story about horses. I told her that, when we moved here, he had two horses, but one disappeared. I later found out what had happened to it, and it was basically injured due to neglect and had to be put down. Mentioned that to her, and reminded her of how abusive he was towards dogs.
She changed the subject.
There was no way that I could tell her about the stuff going on around here. Especially the health related stuff, which meant I didn’t have much to talk about with her. So I tried showing her garden pictures, and photos of some of the maintenance stuff I was doing. During the conversation, it also came up that her lunch would soon be delivered, and I mentioned I wouldn’t stay to watch her eat (she wanted me to stay and watch her eat), and I’d be going to the grocery store then going home to have my own lunch, before the storm hit.
*sigh*
Every time I said anything, or tried to describe things I was doing to maintain the property, she somehow twisted it around. She was upset because I used the word “kill” when telling her I got rid of the vines that were killing trees and bushes. She accused me of talking only about “bad things” and complaining, when I was trying to describe how I was fixing things and making them better. She got upset because I was doing things she didn’t understand (she thought I had pulled up the grape vines for some reason), using words she didn’t like, and thinking about other things besides her.
Literally.
She got upset when I told her I was going to the grocery store, because I should only be thinking about her and visiting with her.
It got to the point where I finally said, that’s it. It’s time for me to go. She said no, she wanted my company. I pointed out that no, she did not want my company. She doesn’t enjoy my company. She doesn’t like me, she doesn’t like what I say, she doesn’t like what I do. It was time for me to go. As I walked out the door, I heard her staring her “remember your mama!” line that she uses so often, when she tries to guilt us about how when she’s gone, we will “remember your mama”, so we should go whatever she wants now.
*sigh*
From there, I did get my grocery trip done, focusing on stuff my husband requested. While I was driving home, I heard a notification from my phone and somehow knew exactly what the message was. When I got to the highway we cross before the gravel roads, I was not at all surprised to see a big truck coming up. Sure enough, it was the truck hauling away the bin of garbage – and the notification was my husband letting me know it was picked up! 😄 Talk about timing!
After I was home for a while, however, things started getting painful again, so I had to take some painkillers and lie down for a couple of hours. It did get interrupted by a phone call from my daughter, from her doctor’s office about her upcoming surgery. Then I got a call from the tree company.
Twice.
The first was to let me know they should be able to come by later this week, which is great news. The second was to let me know they’ll be able to come out tomorrow afternoon!
That tree in front of the kitchen will finally get taken down. No more big heavy branches over the roof! They’ll also take down a dead spruce that is tall enough that, if it fell, it could also hit the roof.
I still had my phone appointment with my doctor at 4:15, though I knew it might be a while before he got to me. She’s just back from vacation and would have a lot of other phone appointments to catch up on, too. It was closer to 6:30 when the call finally came in.
The first thing she wanted me to do was tell her exactly what was going on with me, and so she could connect it to the ultrasound results and figure out the next steps. Two of the ultrasounds came back normal, but one was not what it should be for a woman my age. I’m going to get a referral to a specialist and will get a biopsy, and then she gave me a prescription. I found all this quite hilarious, because so much of it is matching my daughter – we’re even on the same prescription now. The causes are different, but the symptoms and current treatment are the same. Even my daughter, on finding out the details, thought it would be hilarious if we ended getting “bulk surgeries”.
Yes, we joke about stuff like this.
Oh, I did ask and the doctor told me there was no sign of any cysts. I’m actually a bit surprised by that, since I am prone to them, but it was good news.
Meanwhile, this afternoon, we did get a very brief, very heavy deluge and thunderstorm pass through. After today, things should be both cooler – meaning average temperatures for this time of year – and no rain. I should finally be able to catch up on things outside. I should finally be able to get the electric chainsaw out and take care of that last big piece of tree that’s still lying in the middle of the west yard and cut that up for fire wood for the fire pit. Maple will make for great cooking fires. I also need to get the push mower into the maple grove. The Creeping Bellflower is taking over and starting to bloom, and that’s the last thing we need! That stuff is just as bad as Creeping Charlie.
I am so looking forward to when the tree guys get here. It will be such a relief to have those to trees down! Every time we have high winds, we half expect pieces of tree to fall on the roof.
The yard cats are not going to like it. They won’t be able to get onto the roof and peek through the upstairs windows anymore! 😄
So this has turned out to be a much more hectic day than expected, but at least most of it was good news. Yes, I consider the doctor’s call good news, too.
The Re-Farmer 