Critters

Critters, growing things and an update

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Before I get into how things went this morning, I wanted to share this…

You can click through for a short video I managed to take while doing the evening feeding. Being in the isolation shelter means cat soup treat. Curtis had spent the night in the shelter, came out after the morning feeding, then right back in again later. Then Havarti scrambled his way up to the window. Domino is back with her cuddle buddies, and that helps. She definitely still wants to go out the windows when I do the food and water, but when she can’t get through, she is willing to accept the pets. I know that, once she is out of isolation, I’ll probably never be able to touch her again, but in all the time she was with the foster, she hid and never accepted pets like this.

I sent the video to the rescue chat group we have and they were so happy to see her accepting pets.

They also told me, it looks like Sweetie might be coming back, too. She has not settled in at all. They can pet her, but she is constantly anxious. They sent some photos and video. In the video, she is being petted but not responding at all, other than moving her head, watching with giant, terrified eyes. Poor thing! They are going to try and give her more time, but if she can’t accept the indoor life, she will be coming back here.

After feeding the outside cats, I did my evening rounds, and finally had a chance to go into the fenced off area where the tulip patch is, and the saffron crocuses. For all the mulch I added, the weeds have taken over, and I couldn’t even see the saffron crocuses anymore. I pulled handfuls of weeds until I got close to where I knew they were, then had to be extremely careful. After pulling up the tallest stuff, I had the creeping bellflower leaves covering everything. With those, I basically had to grab a single leaf, carefully follow it down to the ground, then pull it out. Pulling from higher on the stem usually resulted in it breaking.

I couldn’t get everything, but the crocuses are no longer buried. Those are the thin, grass-like leaves in the above photo.

I also cleared enough to access the crocuses and a couple of nearby tulips, but that was all I was able to do, today. I’ll have to go in again and clear around the tulips. That is going to take a while!

My older daughter came out while I was putting the “gate” back and showed her some of the progress in the garden. Then we gathered some fresh herbs for the fish she was about to cook for her sister and herself ( my husband and I don’t like most fish) for supper before I continued with my rounds – pausing to check out the pink rose bush.

The white rose bushes are almost done blooming, and the mock orange is looking like it’s about to explode into flowers any day now. Some buds at the bottom are already starting to show white petals.

I was heading towards the barn to take a peek inside, walking past a couple of my brother’s trucks, when I heard a noise coming from one of them. As I went to check one of them, I heard the noise again, coming from behind me. This truck has a home made plywood cap on it that extends over the cab of the truck. For a moment, I feared a cat had somehow got locked inside, though I didn’t think my brother had opened the doors while they were here least weekend.

I opened the door and found this, looking back at me.

A single baby raccoon!

I would say this is one of the four that had been in the garden shed until my taking things out finally scared them off. The other three and the mama are probably under or in a shed somewhere. I looked around to try and see how it got in and realized the entire wall of the cap by the rear windshield wasn’t there. 😄 There are just small panels on either side, but there is more than enough space for critters to get in.

So no trapped critters. Just curious ones! I was actually happy to see it. I miss them being in the garden shed!

Now to how this morning went.

My daughter and I headed out 2 hours before her appointment, which should have gotten us there almost half and hour early. We did stop briefly at a gas station in the one town along the highway to pick up some drinks for the road and to get the maps app up. If we get it going from home, the app links to our wifi, then basically doesn’t like to switch to data once we’re on the highway, and the app doesn’t work right. I didn’t actually need it until we were well into the city, but it was ready for my daughter to be my Nav O once we got closer.

Along the way, there was a section that we needed to slow down at – the section of highway that got washed out during the storms not long ago. With all the rain we had yesterday, the gravel patch job was a real mess. I noted that they did install double culverts where the highway washed out, so this shouldn’t happen again, once they finished fixing and paving it.

We had to make one more stop at another gas station shortly after reaching the city, but neither stop took particularly long. It was the traffic and road conditions that set us back. Then, once we found the place (the streets being every bit as broken up as I expected) we found the parking lot I’d seen on the satellite map.

The entrance was through a back lane and partially blocked by a truck unloading cargo.

With all the one way streets, it too a bit for me to be able to drive around and back track. I did manage to get past the truck. From the signs, we saw they did have visitor parking for the clinic – a whole three spots. One of them was occupied. Another was “small car only”, and meant it. The third required me driving to the other end of the lot to turn around and drive back the other way so I could pull in, because there wasn’t room enough for me to drive right in, then straighten out, without hitting a parked car – and my truck isn’t particularly big!

As we walked around the building to the doors, the first red flags appeared. This is NOT a safe neighbourhood. We were maybe 10 minutes to my daughters appointment time at 10am, and there were already several people listing about. This is the sort of area that I wouldn’t want to be walking around in broad daylight without something I could use to defend myself.

No surprise, the entry doors were locked. No signs. I finally saw what looked like a possible intercom with a keypad and pushed a button I hoped was to someone inside.

No one answered, but a Purolator guy came through and let us in the first doors, and a staff member saw us and opened up the second set of doors.

They had a sign in sheet for the visitor parking that I filled out so we wouldn’t get towed, then my daughter checked in. Being a first visit, she was given a clip board with a form to fill out, and we sat in the first waiting room. When she handed that in, we moved to a second waiting room. My daughter was called in soon after.

Given what happened the last time she saw a specialist in the city, I offered to go in with her, as a sort of body guard. She said she would be okay. I will say now, from the start, that she was very happy with this appointment. It was an intake appointment, and she came out with a date for a follow up appointment near the end of next month.

Her appointment went quite long, so I had a lot of time to sit there and look around.

This place is a “community health centre”. Being downtown and in a sketchy area, there are some things I would expect that is different from other clinics. Still… there were significant difference that I could see.

All clinics have a few larger posters on the walls, giving health information about specific things. Or with information for people in abuse situations, telling where they can reach or for help. These are clean looking and informative as much as the space allows for.

This place was splattered with small posters all over the place, and they sent out more red flags. A poster about fentanyl, for example, wasn’t giving information on the dangers of fentanyl, but was about the “myths”, suggesting that using it was not all that dangerous. Another poster, instead of, say, giving information on how to get help for sexual exploitation, or cautioning about the dangers of promiscuous sex (plenty of other signs showed they have out free STD treatment kits) instead directed the reader to an app on… how to engage in promiscuous sex “safely”. Other posters basically pandered to all the current identities and ideologies currently trending, written like they were aimed at people with the cognitive development of kids in elementary school. None of them were about how to get healthy or avoid health problems. They were all basically enabling self destructive behaviour. The focus on race in some of them was both creepy and paternalistic.

Aside from all that, the longer I sat there…. Well. Let me put it this way. In my years, I have been stalked, threatened, harassed and physically attacked by a drunk person who wanted to kill me. I’ve walked through downtown city streets in the wee hours of the morning, when the bars were closing down and the drunks were staggering about. I lived in high crime areas. Then there was the situation with our vandal. Not once, in all these years, did I fell as unsafe as I did in the waiting room of this clinic. Everything around me triggered red flags. Even the times I got smiles from the staff felt… wrong.

Part of safety issue was how the staff had to use security key cards to go in and out several doors. Clearly, it wasn’t just the people outside the clinic that was a security threat. From one of these doors I saw two women come out, talking loud enough for everyone in the waiting room to hear. The older (white) staff member was quite angry as she demanded to know how the younger one knew that there was a laptop. The younger (not white) woman said she’d seen the older woman use it for a presentation. As they walked down the hall, I could see the anger in the older woman as she was first silent about being seen using it, then declared that there were two laptops, but only certain people were allowed to use them. This younger woman was clearly not one of them. The conversation, such as it was, continued as they went down the hall.

Shortly after, the older woman came back down the hall alone. I made eye contact with her and she gave me a friendly smile, totally at odds with how she behaved towards the other woman.

I had found news articles about an investigation and report about this place, released last summer. Among the things they looked into were problems of racism and a “toxic work environment”.

I just saw an example of that. Clearly, firing three board members didn’t fix anything.

By the time my daughter was done – looking quite happy – I was feeling my skin starting to crawl from the skeevy creepiness of the place.

We didn’t talk about it right away. Just getting out of the parking lot and avoiding people staggering in front of the truck, was an issue and I had to focus on driving. It was around 11 by then, and neither of us had had breakfast, other than sharing a bag of beef jerky from the truck snack stash during the drive in. My daughter wanted to buy us breakfast and I remembered that our route took us past a mall that was convenient to get into. So that’s where we ended up going. We found the food court and the first thing I spotted was a bento place I knew was good, even though I’d never been to this location specifically, before. On seeing the menu, we both ended up ordering the exact same thing. A salmon bento – normally, I would have gotten chicken, but it was tempura salmon – and a taro bubble tea.

It was amazingly good. That is one thing I do miss about living in the city. Having access to such a variety of fast meal choices from all over the world.

While there, I mentioned to my daughter about how I felt while at this clinic, that it wasn’t safe, and that I never wanted to go back there again. She was really surprised, because she’d had such a good appointment. I tried to describe what I was seeing with the posters, which she hadn’t had time to look at herself, and she just sort of … made justifications for them. She didn’t see what I saw and, chances are, she’s not going to get what the problem with them was.

This is going to be an issue.

Her next appointment is going to be more on the medical side rather than the intake side, and seeing what surgeons she needs to be referred to. Hopefully, she’ll be referred to actual good ones.

As for the drive, I was very happy to be getting out of the city – and that Damocles didn’t drop the sword again. The truck behaved. I needed to get gas, but the prices in the city were $1.649/L instead of the $1.599 we saw when we’d stopped at a station in the town along the highway. I had decided we would be getting gas along the way, but there was one last gas station, just outside the city, that was at $1.579, so we stopped there. I am planning to do a Costco run on Friday and will be filling the tank there, so I just needed to top up a bit. I’m glad I did, because when we drove through the town again, the gas prices there had gone up to $1.649 while we were gone!

Once at home, I was curious and looked up reviews for this clinic.

I wish we’d done this before.

Yes, there were some glowing 5 star reviews with comments like “best place ever!” But there were just as many 1 star reviews – and virtually nothing in between. These gave more information. At least one other person commented on how unsafe it felt in the clinic – especially for women – while others commented on the unsafe neighbourhood. People who had been going there for years commented that things had gone down hill so badly, they would not be going back. Some would say the doctors were great, but the nurses were horrible. Others would say the complete opposite. A lot of people talked about not getting the care they need, including being turned away from the walk in clinic, being denied mental health help (counseling and therapy are among the services provided), being pushed to go “trans” instead of getting help with their mental health, and some talking about wanting to take their own lives after going there. Plenty finished their comments with “don’t go. Just, don’t.”

Yes, I tried to bring it up with my daughter.

It just got her back up.

This is going to be a problem. I truly do not think she is going to get the care she needs there. I’m reminded of when my husband tried to be the “good patient” for so long, while his real problems not being addressed, and by the time that was looked at, it was too late and he was permanently disabled.

So… I don’t quite know how to deal with this right now. I just know, down to my bones, that this place is not good.

*sigh*

Anyhow. That’s where we’re at right now.

Tomorrow, I’ve got a day at home, and then we’ll be doing the usual end of month running around, plus my daughter has her blacksmithing workshop. When I have the chance to work around the yard, I have a new thing to focus on. My brother and SIL will be having a large bin delivered about half way through July, and it will be picked up again after 10 days. This will be for hauling away the non-scrap metal junk. My brother will take the metal to a scrap yard himself – he has the trailer and equipment needed to do it – for cash.

They’ll have it dropped off near our current junk pile, which actually has quite a bit of metal stuff in it, so anything we want to have hauled away can be brought over to that spot.

I’ll finally be able to clear stuff away from around the garden shed. I hadn’t wanted to do it yet, because there is so much in the junk pile already. Anything we add to the pile now will be hauled away by the end of July. Judging from the size of the bin they’re having dropped off, my brother has identified a lot of stuff in the outer yard that needs to go!

What a difference it’s going to be, with my brother and SIL able to come out so often now, and with the resources, tools and equipment they have. Night and day, really!! There was only so much we could do on our own and, with all the health issues showing up, it’s getting harder just to maintain what we managed to get done in our early years here. I’ve been feeling like we haven’t been able to hold up our end of the bargain for living here anymore.

Well, it’s certainly going to be a very different summer, this year!

On many levels.

The Re-Farmer

Domino progress, replacement seeds and the sword hasn’t dropped yet

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The rain started early this morning, and hasn’t really stopped since. We were getting thunderstorm warnings but, from the look of the weather radar, our weird climate bubble is in action again, and the most severe parts of the system is going around us.

Which means no progress in the yard and garden outside, but that’s okay.

First, an update on Domino. Curtis shared the shelter with her for the night. When I came around filling kibble bowls, I pause to pet Curtis through a window, eventually letting him out.

Domino came over and let me pet her!

Granted, she was after the window. She wants out. However, she didn’t run away or act all tensed up when I started petting her. She even leaned into my hand! Which she’s never done for me before.

Along with the dry kibble, I mixed up some of the freeze dried cat food mix to make a pate for her. This is the stuff that was donated. I’ve never heard of it before. Going over the ingredient list, is has all sorts of things good for the digestion, so I wanted to make sure Domino got it as a treat. When I brought it over after doing the kibble, Curtis climbed back in through the window to rejoin her, and they both seemed to enjoy the new food quite a lot! Curtis didn’t stay long, though, and I let him out soon after.

Bug so wanted to go into the isolation shelter. I would have let her in, but she runs away when I come close still, so I wasn’t able to open a window for her. Ah, well.

We waited for the worst of the rain to be done, then my younger daughter and I headed to town. Our first stop was at the post office, where I picked up my second package of replacement seeds, this time from MI Gardener.

The broccoli-rabe is something new for us to try next year, as is the Copenhagen Market cabbage. Possibly the Atomic red carrots. I can’t remember if I’ve tried that variety before, but we are out of carrot seeds in my stash. The rest are to replace seeds we either ran out of this year, or are almost out of. Next year, we’ll have to have a better set up for starting seeds indoors. One where no mouse can eat up all our seedlings as soon as they germinate, as well as having a warmer ambient temperature.

After getting the mail, it was off to town and a bank machine to get out some for the next stop; the clinic where my husband’s doctor had the paperwork for Canada Revenue ready and waiting for pick up – after paying the $70 for it. My husband has his own lines on the form to fill out, and then we can mail it in.

That done, it was off to the grocery store to refill a couple of our big water jugs and pick up a few groceries. Then some gas and home.

The entire time, my daughter was messaging the family, letting them know where we were, and that yes, the truck is still moving! Every time I grabbed the shifter, I was half expecting it to just slide around, because that linkage had fallen off again. It didn’t happen, but it’s going to be a long time before I stop getting that sensation! Especially when we are driving in the city. I keep waiting for that sword to drop!

Once at home, we pulled up to the house to unload, then my daughter took care of parking the truck and closing the gate while I put things away. By then, it was time to feed the outside cats for the evening, and I took the time to mix up more of the freeze dried cat food mix for Domino – this time adding more hot water to make it more soupy.

Once again, Curtis came over and wanted back into the isolation shelter, and I let him. Domino came right over to the window and would have run out if I wasn’t blocking it while pouring her treat into the kibble bowl.

She let me pet her again.

Not just a little bit, either. I stayed in the rain, petting her until I was starting to get too wet and cold, and she let me!!! She was pushing her shoulders up into my hand so I could scritch them for her, and rubbing her face into my arm. This is a HUGE step forward!

I’m still amazed that she didn’t adapt to the indoor life and spent the last two months hiding from people. She is more friendly to me now than the entire time she spent in the isolation shelter before we took her to the rescue! It would have been nice if she could have been adopted out to spend the rest of her days as an indoor cat.

Ah, well.

The rain is supposed to continue through most of the night. Tomorrow, my daughter and I have to leave by about 8am to get to her appointment in time. It’s in a horrible area to drive in, and I expect to have trouble finding parking. The satellite map shows me that there is a parking lot across a street from it, but nothing tells me if it’s public or private parking. Of course, because of all the one way streets, we’ll actually have to drive around and back track to get there.

I would really love to be able to go to a specialist that doesn’t require driving through downtown in the city. The streets are narrow, they haven’t been properly maintained for years and are crumbling, there are too many one way streets, and the parking sucks. Unfortunately, it seems that our province’s health care system has tried to mash everything into or near the downtown area. They don’t care for anyone living outside the city. We don’t have enough votes to matter.

Yeah, I’m feeling pretty cynical about it. We’ve been dealing with this BS for too many years.

*sigh*

I’m concerned my daughter was referred to this clinic, too. It’s one of those places that is very… ideologically driven, shall we say… and was the subject of a report released last summer, documenting a toxic work environment, racism, sexism, etc. Three board members got fired over it, though I couldn’t see anything that singled any board members out for the problems. Just vague “management” issues. This referral is after she saw a specialist in a different clinic, and was treated horribly. When I found out what happened, I encouraged my daughter to file a formal complaint, but she doesn’t want to go through the hassle. I have no reason to believe this clinic would be any better, since that first doctor was supposed to the top specialist in our province.

*sigh*

Well, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Domino is back, and Damocles got checked

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This morning, I got a message from one of the rescue people, asking if today was a good day to bring back Domino.

We were ready to set her up in the isolation shelter.   She was spayed just 4 days ago, and should be in there for 10 days.

While the rescue people where on the way, I broke out the weed trimmer and cleared around the isolation shelter and catio, then kept on going until I drained all three batteries.   Then I switched to sweeping up all the grass clipping and elm seed covered steps, sidewalk and patio blocks. I was part way through that when the rescue people arrived with Domino.  Two months, and she made zero adaption to the indoor life!

Once the carrier was brought to an isolation shelter window, though, she dove right in!  For the next while, she went from settling in the bed she spent so much time in before, and prowling around, trying to fund a way out!

They also had some cat food donations for us, including something I’ve never seed before.  Freeze dried meals that get warm water added to them.  Should be interesting to see how that goes over!

When I did the evening cat feeding, I allowed Curtis into the isolation shelter.  They used ti snuggle together regularly.

After I got that second picture of them eating together, Domino swatted at him!  She is so stressed out.  Hopefully, she will calm down over the next while.  We will allow other cats she used to snuggle with, in and out, so she’s not always alone in there.

Domino was back and I finished the clean up by lunch time.  I headed in for lunch and was considering heading back outside when the phone rang.

It was the garage.  He’d just listened to my voice mails!

Turns out they are no longer open on Saturdays in the new location.

I told him what happened, and he was very surprised.   He’d never had this happen before.  He asked if I could come by today so he could look at it.   Of course, I said yes!

I got there soon enough, and he took the truck into a bay immediately.   He jacked it up a bit so he could slide under and take a look.

The linkage was just a hair away from falling off again!

I told him about what my brother did, as the video I sent did not get to him.  He checked his company phone again, and they showed up (my text app doesn’t like sending images or video over wifi, but they got sent once I had a strong enough data signal in town) so he watched both videos my brother had made.

What my brother had noticed and done would not have had any effect, he told ne.  The linkage simply should have held.  He said he’d installed about 500 of this specific part, and not once has this happened before.

He went back under the truck and worked on it some more.

The only thing he could think of for this to happen is that the mechanic that installed it pushed it in, heard a click, then stopped.  When it is in properly, there are two clicks.  He can’t say for sure, as he wasn’t there to see it, but he can’t think of anything else.  Which likely means my brother had done the same thing though, again, there is no way to know.

He added another zip tie to further secure it, just in case.  If it happens again, they will replace the whole thing.

If it happens again???

He told me, it should hold.  But he understood my concern.  He gave me some instructions in case it does, and even gave me the after hours phone number for their tow truck.

I went straight home after that.

Tomorrow, I will be going back into town.  My husband had to get his doctor to start the paperwork so he could re-apply for his disability tax benefit.  He finally got through to the CRA, and they wouldn’t let him renew it without doing the paperwork all over again

Which will cost us $70.  My husband had a phone appointment with his doctor about it today, and the form is now ready for pick up.  Once he fills in his part of it, we can mail it out.

My doctor’s clinic charged $50 to fill mine out.

This will be a test run for the truck.  The day after, my younger daughter has a medical appointment in the city.  After that, we’ve got our stock up shopping, her blacksmithing workshop, and we are even going to be able to go to my husband’s brother’s cottage for Canada Day.

It’s been years since my husband has gone anywhere other than doctor’s appointments.

Hopefully, Damocles is done dropping the sword on us.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: critter rescue, and redoing a garden bed cover

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First, though, an update.

I have had no word back about the truck yet, which means they haven’t had a chance to look at it or do a diagnostic. I should try phoning directly, tomorrow.

Before I share about today, I wanted to share what I found last night. I am so glad I decided to enjoy the long daylight and walk around the yard before bed! This, of course, included checking the garden beds. In of them, I saw unexpected movement.

It was a garter snake.

Stuck in the excess black netting over the Daikon radish, turnip and red noodle bean bed.

I tried to get it loose with just my hands at first, but quickly realized that was not possible, to I ran… well.. hobbled…. to the house to get a utility knife. I then very carefully cut at the netting where it was tight against the snake’s body – and even its mouth! This netting is something even frogs can get through, but there is something about the garter snake bodies that get caught. The more they struggle to get loose, the worse they get caught. Last year, my daughter was helping me remove some of this netting from around the trellis bed and found a snake had been caught up in it, in a spot where it couldn’t be seen until we pulled the netting out. That one was already dead when we found it. This one was still alive, thankfully. Once I got its mouth and head free, it tried to curl up on itself as they are wont to do, but it had obviously been struggling for a while and didn’t have a lot of energy left.

Once I got it free, I set it aside in the greenery under where I stack the logs and boards we use in the garden. This morning, it was gone!

I am so glad I found it in time.

We really need to find different critter netting. This stuff is to keep the larger critters out while still letting the pollinators in, but I’m quite unhappy about how it catches on everything – including our much desired garter snakes!

So that was a happy start to the day.

We were expecting the insurance company assessor to come today at around 12:30. I did my morning rounds as usual, then had my breakfast before heading back out again at about 11 and do some work in the garden until she arrived. I started out by using the very full rain barrel to water the garden beds by the house and in the south and east yards.

I have been checking out the cabbage and kohlrabi beds, and they appear to be a total loss. The cabbage bed is full of self seeded radishes, which would be a good thing, except they are all bolting. The only thing doing well in that bed are the shallots and onions I transplanted while redoing the bed by the chain link fence. As for the kohlrabi, I can see a few seedlings here and there,, and they are quite eaten up. No sign of what did the eating. Normally, I’d say flea beetles, but there’s no sign of any. Those tend to show up later in the season, anyhow, after the canola fields are harvested.

After watering in front of the house, I moved to the main garden area to water there. That done, I was getting ready to set up the hose to fill the old rain barrel to water the food forest trees and bushes.

While I was watering everything else, I could hear a utility vehicle, and it was definitely coming closer, so I went to take a look. It was the wife of the couple that rents the rest of the property, checking the fence line. So I headed over to say hi. While she kept following the fence line, it gave me a chance to check on the walnuts.

*sigh*

The Manchurian Walnut, that had been doing so well, has been eaten by dear. So has at least one of the Black walnut, and it looks like the ash tree my mother gave us was also eaten.

I hadn’t gotten to making cages for them fast enough.

I still plan to do that; they should regrow their leaves again. It’ll set them back probably a year, though.

Around then, our renter was closer so we stopped to chat at the fence for a while. I told her where I had planted the basket willow, and how I’d set up the T posts and used a partially collapsed fence line to hopefully ensure their cows won’t trample them. She said they will be rotating the cows to this section very soon.

After a lovely conversation with her, I checked my phone because I’d heard some notifications while we were talking.

It was well past 12:30 when my brother messaged me, asking if the assessor had arrived. I told him no, and updated him about the renter and their cows. It was a little past 1 when my brother messaged me again. He just received a text from the assessor, saying she would be here shortly after 2.

Hmmm.

I went back to watering the food forest trees. When that was done, I moved on to the old kitchen garden.

The bed with the tiny bok choi, mixed beets, onions and parsnips needed weeding, and I decided I would remove the old mosquito netting, which is two lengths cobbled together, and replace it with the second sheet of new insect netting I picked up, one of which is currently protecting the cabbage transplants.

In the first image, I had removed the netting and done nothing else yet. While I was putting the mosquito netting pieces away, I heard some noise out by the barn and went to check it out. It was the renter; some stuff had blown around and she was moving them back onto their pile, so the cows wouldn’t step on it. We talked for a while again. The grass in this area is incredibly tall – tall enough to short out the electric fence, so she was going to have to come back with the weed trimmer. The fence posts in that section are getting really rotted. Part of the rental deal is that they are responsible for the fences, and she told me of what she would be telling her husband about the fences and what she sees that they need to do.

Then I went back to the garden.

That big green thing in the top right of the image?

That’s an invading rose stem! Likely from the pink rose bush at the end of the bed. In the wattle weave bed, it’s the white roses that invade.

While weeding the bed, I found the remains of some of the tiny bok choi, which you can see in the second image of the slideshow above. That little strip was almost the only ones I found at all.

There are beets and parsnips coming up, though. There was some self seeded spinach, but it was all bolting, so I weeded those out. The onions that got transplanted in the fall along the south side of the bed are looking nice and strong. You can see how the bed looked after clean up in the third image above.

Then I recovered the bed with the new insect netting. This stuff is much lighter and flexible, but it is still quite strong. It’ll hold the weight of cats using it as a hammock! I didn’t want to cut the netting to size, though, as it will be used differently in the future, so the excess length got rolled up at the end near the rose bush, and the excess width got pulled up over the top, then fastened in place with safety pins. There is a gab between the cover and the frame along the north side of the bed, so I used a board to hold the netting down and below the based of the cover.

By this time, it was past when the assessor was supposed to arrive, and I hadn’t had lunch yet. I went inside and the girls were cooking, so I went to sit and take a break.

Before I knew it, there was a knock at the door!

The assessor had arrived, but parked her car in front of the garage, out of view.

Now, as far as I knew, she was going to look at all the outbuildings.

Turns out, she needed to come into the house, too.

I warned her, the house is a disaster, and that we had 21 cats.

We did that part last.

We started out going to the garage, though she asked about the storage house along the way. She never took measurements of that, but did take pictures. Once at the garage, I told her about the ages of the different parts. She took her pictures and measurements. Then we moved on to the barn, though she did take pictures of one of the sheds beside it that is still used for storage. She checked out, photographed and measured the barn, then we headed to the pump shack. I explained to her the fence line marking where its rented out and where we are responsible for taking care of. While checking out the pump shack, she asked about the log building that used to be the chicken coop, and I told her that’s the last log building we have that is still salvageable; it needs a new roof, but the walls are still solid. So she took pictures of that, too. My brother’s caravan and trailers are not permanent, so she ignore those, but did check the warehouse, stuffed with my parent’s belongings.

Finally, we made our way back to the house, and I showed her where the septic tank is, where the well is, which part of the house was original log, and about what year it was built, and the additions.

Then she had to come inside.

*sigh*

We haven’t been able to do the spring cleaning of the sun room yet, because of the weather. Then there’s the old kitchen – I made sure to tell her that the old wood cook stove was broken and cannot be used. I’d already told her about the new roof, and that the chimney to the old wood burning furnace had been removed, so there’s just the chimney to the old kitchen.

Then she had to go through all the rooms in the house, which was downright embarrassing. Our house really is a disaster. Then we went into the basement, starting with the “new” part basement. Once in the old part, I made sure to tell her that we had a new well pump, and she checked out the other pumps, too. The blower fans are going continuously now, and I explained the the old basement was built before weeping tile was a thing, so it does get wet, but doesn’t flood.

I apologized for the disaster, and she basically said, between the cats and being on a farm, she knows how it can get.

Oh, and it turned out she’s allergic to cats!

After she was done, I followed her car out to close the gate behind her. By this time, I was getting pretty famished, so I headed in to finally have my lunch (it was well past 3 by then). We were running low on kibble for the inside cats which, for the price, would normally be a trip to Walmart. Chatting with the family, my older daughter ended up sending me funds and a list, so I ended up doing a bit of a grocery shopping trip. I checked out the garden centre after the shopping to see if they had any transplants worth picking up.

They did not.

So I headed home. If I hadn’t had frozen stuff in the car, and forgotten to bring insulated bags, I would have gone across the road to see the garden centre at the Canadian Tire, but everything would have just melted in the car while I did.

By then, it was late enough that my daughter took care of the outside cat feeding while I was gone. I will be heading out again after I finish this post to do my evening rounds and checks. It’s still nice and light out.

Hopefully, I won’t find another trapped garter snake, but I’ll bring my utility knife with me, just in case!

Tomorrow, I think I will re-work those failed beds and see what I can plant in there, that has a short enough season for it.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: transplanting and our furry family

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We had another chilly night last night, with temperatures dropping to 7C/45F Today reached 22C/72F, but we’re supposed to drop to 7C/45F again, tonight! In fact, over the next while, our overnight lows are expected to be below 10C/50F more often that above.

Not good for the garden.

This morning, after doing my rounds, I started on transplanting the purchased plants. I decided to plant the butternut squash in the bed along the chain link fence.

Each pot had two plants in it, so I prepped four spots. Unfortunately, there was no way I could separate them without damaging the roots too much. So I kept them together. I plan to train them up the chain link fence, and/or the sunflowers. You can see some sprouted sunflowers in the bottom of the above images. These went into the middle third of the chain link fence, and the two varieties of sunflowers each got half the entire bed, so the seedlings coming up next to the butternut squash would be the Mammoth sunflower variety. Both varieties should have stems strong enough to support climbing vines, if they get a chance to get big enough, first.

That job went quickly. The next one took quite a bit longer.

The rest of the transplants were to go into the bed in the main garden area that I had to put the insect netting over, to keep the cats out of the exposed soil. Newly exposed soil. The first thing to do was to remove the netting and hoops. I made a point of spreading out the netting and folding it up right away, because it was rather breezy and I didn’t want it getting blown around and tangled up.

Next, I went over the bed with the garden fork to loosen the soil and get rid of any weeds. There were hardly any weeds, which was nice for a change.

Once the soil was loosened and leveled, I spaced out the cabbage transplants to be more or less a foot apart. Or, slightly more than the length of my trowel. As this bed only recently had the plastic cover removed, the soil didn’t get much chance to be rained on. Moisture drains away and disappears so quickly, I made the extra effort to deeply water the planting holes before the cabbages were transplanted. I also made sure they were slightly below grade, so that any water would drain towards the plants. The dozen transplants took up about half the bed. Once they were in the ground, that half of the bed got a thorough watering, not just the plants. Then I started cutting up pieces of cardboard to set around the transplants as a mulch, which also got a soaking. Finally, I added straw on top of the cardboard and thickly along the edges. Then the straw got a soak.

The cabbages need insect netting to protect them, but the rest of the transplants need insects for pollinating, so I set hoops up over the cabbages only. For the entire bed, I’d made 7 hoops, but used 5 over the cabbages. I used the extra rods and connectors to add one more rod to the hoops. This way, the hoops could cover the width of the bed, including the straw mulch, completely. For the netting, I set it so that the salvage edge of one side was at the base of the hoops along one side, and the excess length was at the end of the bed instead of the middle. After clipping the salvage edge to the hoops, close to the ground, I pulled things snug to clip the netting close to the ground at the other side. That left me with a lot of excess netting, which got pulled up over the top and clipped on the other side as far as it could reach.

It isn’t set up yet when I took the last photo in the slide show above, but I later added weights along the edges of the netting between the hoops, too. I didn’t want to use ground staples as, with the straw mulch in place, they get pulled up very easily.

That done, it was time to do the melons.

For this, I had a large, heavy duty card board box that I could use to cover the entire remaining half of the bed. I decided to lay it down and cut squares out where the melons would be planted, first. It got moved aside after that, so the soil could get a good watering. Then I laid the cardboard down to give it a thorough soak, turned it over to soak the other side, then turned it back again to soak it some more.

For here, I have one pot of watermelon and three of muskmelon. All have two transplants per pot but, as with the butternut squash, there was no way to divide them without damaging the roots too much. Which means I have six muskmelon in three spots and two watermelon in one spot.

As always, the planting holes got a deep watering, before the plants were added. Again, I made sure they were planted into a slight depression for water flow, then the whole area got watered again.

That done, the straw mulch was added, including in the area that has nothing planted in it. If I find more transplants worth buying, I have room. I would just need to push aside the straw mulch, then cut a hole in the cardboard below.

The straw got a very thorough watering. If the straw is too dry, it’ll act as a thatch.

That done, and everything put away, I wanted to get some trellis netting out of the garden shed. Which meant disturbing our little furry family.

Things had been knocked about by the raccoons, and the wrapped balls of netting were coming undone and getting caught on things, which meant it took a while for me to get them. In the end, I grabbed several different types of nets and the tomato cage they were getting hung up on, just to not disturb the raccoons to much.

They didn’t seem to care.

The mama didn’t move. She actually seemed to be asleep. The babies just watched me. No chittering. No getting upset or scared. Not even looking particularly curious. They just stayed snuggled up to Mom and watched me.

These buggers have no business being that cute. 😄

The netting got set aside for now; the peas in the trellis bed are getting tall enough that the trellis netting will soon be needed.

Once everything was done and set aside, I got changed to head into town. My younger daughter forgot to call in her meds for delivery on Thursday and she just ran out of one of them, so she called her refills in when the pharmacy opened which, on Sundays, is at noon. My older daughter sent me funds to pick things up at the grocery store, too.

After picking up the prescription refills, I made a point of heading to the cash desk, just to show the cashier that there was nothing owing on the meds. Along the way, I passed a new display of what turned out to be bouncy balls. I had no idea. All I saw were all these round critter faces looking at me. Including a hilariously adorable dragon, though it took some doing to figure out that it was a dragon.

It called to me.

They weren’t expensive, so I bought one for my daughter and hid it in her bag of prescriptions. She loves dragons, and I knew she would get a giggle out of it.

The cashier started chatting about today’s weather, and how we are finally supposed to not get rain for a while. Where she lives, the flooding was pretty bad, but not as bad as an area south of her that got 12 inches of rain in 6 hours.

12 inches.

30 cm.

In six hours.

That’s just insane!

No wonder highways were being washed away!

That done, it was off to the grocery store to pick up a few things, then home.

My daughter loved the dragon. She thinks it’s hilarious.

By the time I got back from town, it was time to feed the outside cats, so I quickly did that while my older daughter made supper. After supper, I headed back outside again. First thing was to break out the weed trimmer and clear the grass away from several rocks in the west yard, so I could see them and not high them with the riding mower.

I am so thankful to my brother for letting us use their push mower and little riding mower. The riding mower they gave us years ago still runs but, for some reason, doesn’t cut. The grass just bends – and my brother had sharpened the blade when he repaired the chain that kept falling off. Our push mower lost pieces and couldn’t be repaired. We don’t have the funds to replace the push mower, and we can’t figure out what’s wrong with the riding mower. Thanks to my brother, we can still do the mowing.

I was able to do most of the inner yard. As I was moving into the West yard, where all the cat shelters are, I spotted a huge raccoon coming out of the catio, where it was stealing food! Not the mama, but a bigger one; likely a big male.

I didn’t even try to mow around the main garden area, nor did I start on the outer yard. That will wait for another day.

Not tomorrow, though.

On the way into town, I took a quick side trip to find where our garage’s new location is. It was very easy to find, and our truck is parked under the shade of a tree. Tomorrow morning, I will take my brother’s car into town to pay for the repairs and get the key, but will leave the truck there. After the funeral and internment, we’ll be able to switch vehicles, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that before the garage closes. It’s unlikely my mother will be physically up to anything beyond the funeral itself, but we are working out the timing so that we all arrive together with my mother, who will be using her wheelchair for this outing. Hopefully, it won’t be too difficult for her to transfer into my brother’s vehicle.

I really hope things work out well tomorrow. A part of me still suspects someone that believed our vandal’s lies about us might make a scene and try kicking us out or something. We shall see.

Time to go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

The Re-Farmer

Brutal

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The storms that hit last night were absolutely brutal.

Thankfully, we seem to have escaped most of it, but there is massive damage to the south of us. Highways were flooded over, and people shared images of cars with nothing but the top of the roof showing, along them. One of the highways we regularly take to the city has been shut down due to flood damage. One person reporting a sink hole the size of a car. Others posted pictures showing chunks of road missing. The highway and weather groups I follow were constantly posting warnings. Funnel clouds were scene, and there has been serious damage in the city. Parts of the province are without power and will probably remain so for another day, at least.

I was up by 4am and already getting notifications and started to message with my brother about highway conditions. Thankfully, where they now live hasn’t had any flooding or major damage, that we know of so far. My husband’s sister is in one of the areas without power, and says there are a lot of downed trees.

Once it was light enough out, I went outside to check on things, fully expecting to find more dead trees had fallen, or at least lots of broken branches.

I found neither!

We were expecting an assessor from the insurance company my brother hopes to switch to this afternoon, so I made sure to open the gate while I was doing my rounds. The mostly filled in and grown over pond in the old hay yard, near that gate, was singing loudly!

There were SO many frogs, and they were so very loud!

Along with checking around the outer yard, in the barn and around my brother’s equipment, I made sure to check the garden beds. Amazingly, they were all just fine. No damage at all! The netting, etc. on almost all the beds protected them from hail, and the collars protected delicate transplants and new sprouts from high winds.

In the image after the brief video above, you can see the nice new leaves showing on the Manchurian walnut! Checking the Black walnut, one of them doesn’t seem to have survive the winter, but the others are leaving out nicely. In the last image, you can see the two rows I direct sowed recently, with the re-seeded row of Daikon radish seedlings on the left, and red noodle beans on the right. Both of them germinated so very quickly!

I was also looking around to see how the yard cats were doing. They seem to have all been able to take shelter and were looking downright content.

I have been catching Sprig on the netting over this bed repeatedly, leaning against it and squishing the garlic. So I moved the hoops from being in the soil to jamming them into the wattle weave as best I could – the ends kept trying to go completely through. This raised the net high enough to make more room for the garlic and dwarf peas – and it turns out to be able to support the weight of Sprig, too!

In the next image, you can see Misha – a beautiful furry flower among the roses, being very nervous because I was getting too close.

In the next image, I caught Curtis, mid yawn! He, Bug and The Grink have been cuddling together a lot lately.

I got the last picture of Colby – mid yawn! – later in the afternoon. He is such a beauty!

I managed to get some weed trimming done around the house. I hoped to get more done, as we’re expecting more rain tonight. I only had two fully charged batteries, though, and it took more time and effort than usual. The Chinese Elm seeds have been drifting against the edges that I needed to trim, and the driving rain packed them into solid masses. In some places, I had to get the stiff bristle yard broom out to clear the stuck masses of seeds away before I could even try to trim the edges. There was a lot of starting and stopping, as I also had to move things around to get under or around them. In some places, I had to break out the pruning shears to trim things too thick or strong for the weed trimmer line.

One thing that didn’t happen today. The insurance company assessor didn’t make it. My brother had contacted her to tell her not to use a particular highway, but suggested a different one. At first, she said it would be okay, but after that she must have heard more damage reports and wanted to reschedule to Monday. That’s when the funeral is, though, so it was instead rescheduled to tomorrow morning. Which doesn’t make much sense to me, because not a lot will change overnight. Especially with more rain on the way. We’ve also got a prescription delivery tomorrow. We don’t actually know what the conditions of the gravel roads are, other than what’s immediately around us. What is immediately around us is fine, and there’s only a couple of sections that might be of concern if there was flooding. Based on what I can see so far, though, I don’t think there would have been any flooding. Our own ditches and driveway would be a lot fuller, if it got to that point.

As I’m writing this, I can hear thunder. We’re expected to get rain roughly and hour from now, for about an hour, then more rain is supposed to be from about 5am to noon tomorrow.

The assessor is supposed to come at around 10. She’s supposed to walk around the property to look at the house and outbuildings from the outside, and the scheduled time slot is for 2 hours.

Hmmm… We’ll see if she even makes it at all. I expect our gravel roads are fine, but if she’s coming from the city, from what I’m hearing, there is plenty of damage and debris on the other two highways she could take to come out here. From what I can see on the highways map, a couple of intersections are closed down due to flooding (unlike the many miles shut down on the highway nearest us), while other small sections are marked as “incidents”, stating water on the road and proceed with caution.

I’m chatting with my brother as I write this. He says he is thinking of cancelling the assessment outright for now.

That might be a good idea. After the upcoming rain, who knows how much worse it will be! We don’t have tornado warnings anymore, but do have warnings for flash flooding and hail.

Which reminds me. I’ve heard nothing from the garage about my truck. It’s entirely possible either mechanics couldn’t make it into work, or they’ve been deluged with vehicles damaged by hail, debris or flooding. Or both.

We’re oddly relieved that it broke down when it did!

Okay, that thunder is a lot closer. I think it’s time to shut down my computer, just in case!

For anyone else under this weather system, be safe out there!

The Re-Farmer

Another good bye, and I think the heat is getting to Damocles

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Well, this was a day…

My younger daughter and I were out shortly after 6am to try and snag cats into carriers. Particularly the two in the isolation shelter with Bug.

We let Bug out. She’s been in there for a week since her spay, and my daughter was able to give her the dewormer pill finally, yesterday. She will be better outside the shelter – especially in this heat!

Unfortunately, we had zero luck getting the other two. They know exactly where to go that we can’t reach.

So we tried for Adam, who suddenly was no longer friendly.

In the end, we were able to easily get Havarti and Curtis, plus we got Hypotenose because he was basically blocking the carrier while we were trying to reach Adam and practically went in on his own.

Then the door closed and he panicked. It was very concerning, but he did settle down a bit. I put the carrier with Curtis in it, door to door with Hypotenose, and I think that helped.

At this point, I left right away. I’d be very early, but I thought the vibrations of the drive would calm them.

It did.

However…

Along the way I suddenly realized the battery gauge was not where it usually is. It was still within the “normal” range, but well into the low side. I have never seen it there before. Not even the time we got low battery warnings.

Then I got to an intersection where I needed to stop at a stop sign for a while before I could turn, and the gauge went up to where it normally is.

By the time I reached the junction, maybe a mile away from the vet clinic, it started dropping again.

So, while I was parked and waiting, with the cats very quiet behind me, I started looking up the second location of our usual garage in town. I wasn’t able to phone right away, though, partly because my phone needed to be restarted before any calls would connect, and partly because the clinic opened and I went in.

When giving the info for Hypotenose, I made sure to mention that I was afraid he might have injured himself in his panic. He had been clawing and biting at the door, and it looks like there might be blood on his face. They were forwarned.

Once the cats were processed and taken to the back, I went to the truck and called the garage. After telling him what was happening, he said he was just going an oil change at the moment, and could take a quick look. I got directions to where the garage was (not anywhere near where I thought they were!) and headed over.

My phone started to ring while I was driving. I don’t answer my phone when I’m driving, but I thought it might be the vet clinic.

When I found the place and parked, I checked, and yes, it was. My phone will transcribe voice mail messages into text, so I did that. I had mentioned that we assume the cats all have ear mites and worms, but there was a misunderstanding. The rescue didn’t include deworming in what the cats were signed up for. I clarified things and said that, if they thought it was necessary, I would pay for the dewormer.

While I was on the phone, the mechanic came out with his tester, figuring I was the one who called earlier. I told him I was on the phone with the vet, so he went ahead and popped the hood while I walked around. When I was on hold, I came over to talk to him and see what was going on.

He tested the battery.

It was fine.

Alternator checked out fine.

He got another tester, opened up the fuse box (I now see how to open it, and can’t understand why I couldn’t manage it before!) and tested all the fuses. They were fine.

I stepped away for a bit when the vet clinic got back on the call and when it was done, I talked with the mechanic some more. I’m glad I took a picture of what the gauge was at, because it was back to normal when I drove over, and a bit of our history, as I’ve noticed something’s been draining the battery, every so slightly, somewhere.

He couldn’t find our electrical gremlin, but he explained to me what to watch for.

As he was testing the fuses, I joked that, since I was there, I might get him to change my headlight bulb. I picked up a new bulb yesterday, but the last time I tried to chance the bulb, it was a real pain. I ended up changing it from inside. He agreed it was a pain, because the whole light assembly comes out. He pointed out, this screw has to be taken off, there’s another under the shield, and one underneath, accessed through the wheel well.

…

I didn’t know about that third one. No wonder I couldn’t get it out!

When he was done checking and filling me in, I asked what I owed him, and he said, nothing. He didn’t charge me for the testing!

If I had gone to Canadian Tire, they would have charged me for the diagnostic and given me a printout of all the other things they wanted me to get them to do, costing many hundreds of dollars, most of which I have later found out were not at all needed.

That done, I headed back to the area of town where the vet clinic is nearby and basically tried to hang out at the Walmart. And the Dollarama. Then back to Walmart. I checked out the garden centre at the Walmart first, which is accessible only from the outside and by going around a construction and detour zone. I spotted a couple of things I wouldn’t mind picking up to fill in the gaps where we lost some sliver buffalo berry. Josta berry interests me. So does logan berry. We will decide that later on, though. I’m not buying transplants until I’ve actually transplanted what we have now, and have an idea of what survived and what hasn’t.

When lunch time started rolling around, I really didn’t want to do the usual McRaunchies, Subway or even the Timmies across the street. I haven’t gone to Timmies in a long time. They are not good, like they used to be. After watching the menu board for a while, I left without ordering anything. Nothing appealed to me. I ended up going to the McRaunchies in the Walmart.

At least the iced blueberry pomegranate drink was a nice change.

I tried to take a lot of time, but I just can’t sit still for that long, so I wandered the store some more.

I ended up driving over to the Canadian Tire after a while and hanging around there as long as I had the tolerance for.

I did pick up a few things. some for the lawn and garden, but also a birthday gift for my younger daughter, whose birthday is next month. I found a blacksmith hammer for her. Yes, I gave it to her early. She is thrilled!

Normally, I would have gone back to the truck and napped for a bit, since I have been up since 4:30 and never fell asleep until past 1am (I did sleep in the cat free zone, with the AC running, so that helped), but it’s just too hot. We slowly heated up to 34C/93F and are only now starting to cool down. If you can call 33C/91F at pat 6:30pm “cooling down”.

When it got around 1pm, I just went over to the vet clinic.

It turned out they hadn’t even started on them yet. I asked if I could stay and they were okay with that, except that they close their doors to the public between 3 and 3:30 for a staff meeting, and I would have to leave for that. The cats would be done and in recovery by then. After asking her for some ideas, I decided to go hang out at a library not that far away.

With the little bit of driving around I did, the battery gauge went from behaving normally, to suddenly dropping down again, and back again.

Once at library, I tried to park in the tiniest bit of shade I could find and headed it. They have a little cafe and I was able to get an iced drink and cool down for awhile, before going into the main library area and finding a comfortable armchair to wait in. Along the way, I updated my family, my brother and SIL, the rescue chat group, etc.

Part way through, I got a text message from the rescue worker who arranged these appointments.

The vet had called her to let her know, one of the cats had to be euthanized. She couldn’t remember which one, but she said he had major dental issues. I thought of Hypotenose and the damage he might have done to his teeth, but she said severe gingivitis was part of it, which means this was a long time problem, not something that started today. She thought it might have been Hypotenose, but wasn’t sure.

I was told the other two were doing well, and they would be ready for pick up at 3:30. I updated the family, and even the cat lady, who had been out of the country for a while and came back to discover Button and broken a lot of plates while she was gone! She sent me a picture of Button, yesterday. You can see the blue of his eyes more, now, which means the dilation is reducing and he would be able to see at least a bit more. The Cat Lady ended up phoning me and we chatted for a bit. She has been in a similar situation with some of the ferals she has brought in, even though she is not a rescue anymore. They just show up at her place. So she understood how it can happen.

By then, I decided to start heading back to the clinic. I was about 15 minutes early, so I was parked with the engine running and the AC on, while messaging with my brother and SIL. I had told them about what the truck was doing. Then, while I was sitting parked, I realized a new warning light was on the dash.

The “slippery conditions” light.

While I was parked.

The gauge was dropping again, too. The doors were almost open, so I opened the windows, shut the engine off and went to stand in the shade for the last few minutes!

This time, the vet didn’t come out to talk to me, so I don’t have details on what happened, but the tech asked if the rescue person had let me know what they had to do with Hypotenose. They gave me the paperwork for the other two, then went to get them and the now empty carrier.

I did tell them in advance that these are yard cats and would be going back outside. I was told to keep Havarti at least in the carrier for longer, as he had some scrotal bleeding. Just until the blood clotted. I said we would do the best we can, but he was in the smallest carrier, so he couldn’t stay in there for very long!

From there, I headed home – with my SIL making sure I knew to call them if something happened with the truck!

Everything was right were is normally is, the whole ride home.

*sigh*

Once home, my younger daughter came out to help unload and I told her the vet instructions. I was thinking of setting the carriers in the shade in the yard, but she suggested we put Havarti in the old kitchen for a while. It’s cooler in there. So she took care of that, and made sure he had a bowl of water and a bit of food.

Then we let Curtis out, since he’d already been in there for about an hour, which the tech recommended as a minimum. Curtis is going great.

The girls had supper ready by the time I got home, so after bringing everything in – and giving my daughter her birthday present, we ate, then moved on to other things for the next while. My daughter had a timer set to check on Havarti, so she let me know it went off, asking if I wanted to check on him, too. By the time I got there, she had already taken the carrier out and check on him. When I came in, she was aghast. Havarti came out, covered in blood. His back end saturated, and all his underbelly. He’d spilled some of his water bowl, and that didn’t help any!

He was moving around slowly, eventually splaying out on a sidewalk block in the shade, while I stayed out to do the evening cat feeding. When he flopped down, I could see his bits, and the bleeding looks like it has stopped, but he’s terribly swollen! I’ve never seen this happen after a neuter before, and we’ve had a LOT of cats neutered. In fact, I’ve never seen any of them have bleeding afterwards, until today!

In a little while, my daughter and I will be rolling the isolation shelter out and I’ll do my best to clean it up, then see if I can get Havarti in there for the night. In all honestly, though, it wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t make it.

It’s past 7pm now, and we’ve cooled down to 30C/86F. It might be an okay time to try and move the shelter into the shade of the white lilacs now.

… and check on Havarti again.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: one more bed prepped, and got a visit in

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The temperatures continued to climb today.

I started things off a bit early, and it was still lovely and cool. My priority, after I did my morning rounds, was to water the garden beds before the heat hit.

I’m happy to say that I am seeing new sprouts in the rows of spinach, chard, turnips and radish in the main garden area. I checked under the boards in the trellis bed and saw what might be carrot sprouts, so I removed the boards. It’s hard to say for sure, as a lot of weeds were trying to come up under there, too.

I’m pretty sure I saw new sprouts in the cabbage and kohlrabi beds, too. I’m pretty sure I’m seeing tiny bok choy and beet seedlings through the mosquito netting, thought it’s hard to be sure. I didn’t see any this morning, but this evening, I’m sure I could see the first dwarf pea sprouts!

After I finished outside, I came in and had breakfast, then tried to go down for a nap before I planned to visit my mother, then pick up anything we needed before doing our first stock up shop, tomorrow.

It was a failure.

For some reason, both Butterscotch and Cheddar have decided that, when I lie down, they absolutely MUST cuddle my head. Aggressively. Then curling up right at my head to nap themselves.

That doesn’t count the other cats that like to settle on my hip, against my back or on either side of my legs.

*sigh*

Next time, I’ll try napping on the couch. The living room is a cat free zone.

I eventually gave up and got ready to head into town. Before I did, I noted activity notification on my bank app and checked.

My husband’s tax return, which is supposed to include my first Disability Tax Credit, came in.

It was short by about $2500.

Unfortunately, my husband still can’t log into his CRA account to see why. I’m going to have to wait until our tax prepared is back from holidays at the end of the month and phone her, because she can log in and see his account – and maybe find out why he can’t log in, himself. anymore!

My younger daughter never got her disability tax credit, either. She did her taxes herself.

Frustrating.

Anyhow.

I headed into town and realized my mother would be just starting her lunch, so I decided to go to the grocery store, first. I actually picked up some ground beef that was on sale. I haven’t seen ground beef for under $6 a pound for a long time, even with sales.

My visit with my mother was pretty good. As I was headed to her room, I spotted her in the dining room and popped in. We then went to her room for the visit.

She is so enjoying having a room – and a bathroom – to herself! She says being in the nursing home, compared to the TCU, is like night and day.

Of course, she still had things to complain about. With her medications, as usual. Apparently someone tried to give her her breakfast meds and supper meds at the same time? Then the count for her morning meds was off. She said she asked who was in charge of the medications and was told it was the pharmacy in town. I suspect the person didn’t understand what my mother was asking, but she now believes the pharmacy decides what medications she gets, at their whim. She then started going on about how the staff all think she is stupid, and everyone living there is stupid, and that’s why they are deliberately messing with their medications.

*sigh*

She had asked my brother for a radio and he’d given me one to pass on to her. I plugged it in and tried to find the station she told me the number of. There was nothing on either AM or FM (she didn’t know which is was; she doesn’t understand anything about AM or FM). Since I couldn’t pick up her station (though I could pick up others), she decided it was a bad radio and started asking me if an old radio that belonged to my husband when we were in high school – a ghetto blaster, which tells you just how old it is! – was still around. It is, but I told her, it still won’t pick up that station. I tried to explain again about things interfering with frequencies, but she decided it meant that the radio stations were the problem, for having “weak” signals.

Then I tried to show her the sliding switch that goes from off to FM then AM. She demanded “just show me what button to push”. I told her, it’s not a button. It’s a switch that slides, and showed her again; Off – FM – AM.

She got angry that my brother would give her a high tech radio that she can’t understand.

*sigh*

It was a shorter visit, since there really wasn’t much we had to talk about. Now that she is in town, I can visit her more often, anyhow. Before I left, I spent some time at the nursing station. I explained what my mother told me about the medications, and that someone tried to give her her breakfast meds and supper meds at the same time. She was startled to hear that and said she would look into it. She got out the medication binder and looked up my mother’s file, going over everything, which is basically the same that it was while she was at the TCU. She said they tried looking at my mother’s list to compare (the hand written one she makes after she counts her pills, with little diagrams), but it was in Polish, so they were trying to translate it. My mother had been promised a list of her medications and they were going to try to get it translated into Polish for her, too. I told her, my mother knows pre-WWII Polish; she would not be familiar with modern medical terms in today’s Polish!

As we were chatting, the nurse told me how so many of the staff were startled when my mother was transferred over. Many of them had cared for Baba – “grandmother” – which is what they called my aunt. My mother looks SO much like her sister did. My aunt passed away a few years ago, so for the staff to suddenly start seeing their Baba again was a bit of a shock until they found out they were sisters.

This nurse had just started working there when my father came to live there. I’ve had it confirmed that he was there for only 5 months before he passed away; I thought it was 6 months. She remembered my father, and I told her about how, when I phoned him every Sunday, he would go on and on about how great they were treating him, how well taken care of he was, and how much he liked the staff. She was so touched to hear that!

So far, my mother has been very nice to them. I hope that lasts! She has been saving the nasty comments about the staff for when we are there. 😕

It was a good chat with the nurse, and I expect we will have many more opportunities to talk now that my mother is there!

That done, I headed home, then stayed indoors to stay out of the heat. Unfortunately, it just kept getting hotter. I finally headed out at around 6:30, which is about when we hit 27C/81F.

The predicted high was 25C/77F.

We’re supposed to keep getting hotter, with the hottest day in the forecast being Friday, which they are now saying is supposed to hit 34C/93F.

The yard cats are laying in puddles all over the yard, in whatever shade they can find.

Bobert was looking adorable in the cat bed I tucked under the isolation shelter’s door box, to keep the weather out in the winter.

With the heat, I made sure to do the watering again. This time, I did watering in the food forest area.

I’m happy to say that it looks like the apple tree survived, in spite of the damage to the stem. A single branch with new leaf buds has shown up. The plum tree also has leaf buds showing up finally, but only in branches coming up just above the graft at the base. None of last year’s growth is showing buds. Neither are the mulberry trees. They survived their first winter, but it looks like they didn’t survive their second. The poor little highbush cranberry have free leaves showing, but they are still remarkably tiny, including the one that the deer did NOT nibble one. The silver buffalo berry bushes, which I don’t bother watering because there are too many, had been covered with what I thought were leave buds. It turns out they were not leaf buds, but flower buds! The leaf buds are showing up now. The sea buckthorn also have leaf buds unfurling.

After the watering was done, I started working on the larger of the two East yard beds that had not been prepped in the fall.

I first removed the two lengths of twine that went around the sides. Those were there to keep anything wrapped around the box frame from flapping in the wind too much, but they were in the way for working in the bed. I considered taking the box frame off entirely, but decided it wasn’t necessary and worked around it.

In the second picture, you can see the cleaned up bed. Unfortunately, while I was leveling the cleared soil with the hoe, I caught the line running across that helped keep the sides from bowing outwards at the joins. The wood is rotting and the screw eye got pulled right out!

Honestly, I’m surprised these beds have lasted as long as they have. I used lumber I found in the barn that had been sitting there for probably at least a decade before I found them. They were not in particularly good shape, but they were the best I could find for the job. I expected them to last about 3 years, maybe, and they’ve lasted twice that by now.

Weeding the bed didn’t really take that much, except that I found a remarkable amount of tree roots! Given where this bed is located, they would not be from the elm tree, but from the nearby cherry bushes.

I look forward to when we can make these into high raised beds. These beds are about a foot high, but it was still really painful to be bending to work in it.

Once the bed was clear, I took some plastic that was rolled up and set aside from previous uses in these beds and covered the soil to protect it from cats, until we can plant in it. I’m looking to transplant tomatoes into this bed. We have four varieties to transplant, and couple probably fit three varieties in this bed. We don’t have a lot of each variety.

The pieces of wood frame on the left of the first photo are on the 4′ square bed that also needs to be done. By the time I finished the longer bed, I was too hot and in too much pain to do that one. Aside from weeding it – and that one has been infected by creeping Charlie – I will be adding the additional wood frame pieces to make it a bit higher, and can then add more soil into it. I’m planning to put the eggplant in here. It’s a small enough bed that I can add plastic walls around it, to protect them from high winds and create a semi-greenhouse around them.

I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get done over the next few days. I’ll be doing our city stock up trips and a vet trip in between. Shopping always drains me, so it will depend on how much energy I have left – and what my pain levels are at. At the very least, I plan to water everything in the morning, and again in the evening, because of the heat.

Once the city trips are done, I expect to be able to start the direct sowing, and then hopefully start transplanting soon after. Somewhere in there, I’ll be uncovering and reclaiming the area to plant our corn in.

A lot to do in a very short time!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: the potatoes are in, next bed ready, and the heat has hit

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Ah, life on the Canadian prairies. One extreme to the other. A short while ago, we were still getting snow and overnight temperature at or below freezing.

Today, we reached a high of 25C/77F – I don’t know what the humidex was – and passed 20C/68F by about 8 or 9am.

I headed out a bit earlier than usual to do the outside cat stuff. Then I checked the garden shed. Sure enough, the raccoon and her babies were still there. I decided to very carefully and as quietly as possible, take out as many things I expect to need in the next while.

I heard a lot of loud chittering as I was taking things out, most sounding like they were coming from the littles. They seemed to be chittering more about trying to latch on than what I was doing. The mama barely moved. After I cleared away things that were on top of the wheeled garden chair they are under, I stuck my phone into gaps to get the first three pictures.

Those are such roly poly babies! There are at least three, possibly four.

The last photo is most of the stuff I removed.

That roll of netting is long enough to go completely around the trellis bed, so I am saving it for this, if we need to do it again, as it would be way too long for anything else.

After that, I headed in for breakfast, iced up a water bottle, then got started on the covered bed that I wanted to plant our potatoes in.

In the first picture, you can see how it’s been since the fall, minus the bricks waying it down – something has dug holes through the plastic.

As you can see in the next picture, the solarization didn’t really work, and it was more like a greenhouse. So the first job was to loosen the soil and weed it. Especially at the end where the excess was rolled up, which was packed with creeping Charlie.

That stuff is just nasty.

Once weeded, I got it all leveled out, while leaving the soil thermometer in place. That soil is quite warm!

By this point, I was really starting to struggle with the heat and had to go inside for a bit. After grabbing a light lunch, I headed back out with the potatoes. I have 5 pound bags each of Viking and Yukon this year. Not a lot for our useage needs, but that’s all we have the space for right now.

In the photo where the potatoes are laid out, ready to be buried, you can see a board across the middle. That’s to mark between the two different types of potatoes in the same bed.

Next, the bed had to be protected. I decided to use the long roll of mosquito netting this time, which isn’t very wide, so I used shorter stakes. These were salvaged from a broken market tent and are all from pieces broken in half. The broken ends got pushed down so the end with the screw holes were at the top.

I had to gather things next, so I set up a cheap dollar store sprinkler hose over the potato bed. Double duty: I could start watering the bed while doing something else, and it kept the cats off while I wasn’t there to keep them away.

One of the things I had to go was get the roll of netting which, as you can see in the next picture, Gouda was using to nap on!!

In the past, I have strung twine from support to support, along the sided and crossing the middle. I wanted something stronger than that. This bed is 18′ wide, and I have 6′ bamboo stakes, so I ended up attaching three along the top of each side to hold the mesh up. The stakes were spaced out just under 6′ apart, allowing for some overlap. I used the screw holes in the supports and wire from one of the hoop kits I got to hold them in place. I still had to put the stakes deeper into the soil so that the netting could be secured to the ground on each sides. The sides are secured with ground staples.

Yes, I took the sprinkler hose out. It was a pretty terrible hose – but then, you get what you pay for, and this did not cost very much! It was just there for the moment, anyhow.

After I took that last picture, I gave the bed a very through watering.

Then I went inside, because I was getting dangerously overheated. I kept myself hydrated, but was feeling very exhausted. It was around 2pm by then, and I decided to nap for a couple of hours. I would then continue when the temperatures were starting to drop.

I passed right out and slept for three hours.

During this time, the girls took care of things like the outside cat feeding and starting supper.

We are going to need to get the AC going in the living room, and the onion snail rolls have been sitting on top of it, so I decided it was time to take them outside. Onions are hardy and I’m not worried about them, plus I need to start transplanting them as soon as possible. They are meant to be planted in between other things, as we go. The frame for the portable greenhouse is sitting in the shade near the shrine, so I put them there. I’ll need to start moving some of the trays from the basement out there, too.

Then it was back to the main garden area, where this is one bed that didn’t get cleaned up last year I wanted to prepare.

As you can see in the first couple of photos, the creeping Charlie is a real problem.

I had put the soil thermometer in there earlier, and it was reading a couple of degrees cooler than the first bed. By the time I removed it, though, it was just as warm as the first bed I tested! Having that plastic over the bed didn’t seem to make much difference. So much for solarization!

This bed turned out to be so filled with tree roots, too. I pile the creeping Charlie aside, half filling the wheel barrow, so it could be disposed of further away. I’d burn it, if I could. Getting those out means losing a fair bit of soil, too. In the fourth photo, you can even see some of the finer tree roots on top. I pulled out as much as I could, but somewhere under there is a major root. I was hitting it every now and then with the garden fork, but couldn’t lift it up at all.

No root vegetables in this bed, for now!

Once it was cleared and prepared, I gave it a thorough watering. For all the rain we had, that soil was pretty dry. Then I covered it with the plastic that had been over the bed the potatoes are in, covering the holes with scrap boards.

The potato bed is going to be a problem. I kept having to chase the cats off the netting! It stretches enough and is low enough that their weight pulls it down to the ground. Ideally, there would be horizontal supports across the top, joining the vertical supports, but I don’t have anything the right length.

At least they won’t be using it as a litter box.

I’ll have to figure something out.

By this time, it was around 8pm and the temperatures were downright pleasant. We’re expected to drop to 8C/46F tonight, but after that our overnight temperatures are expected to be no lower than 10C/50F On Thursday and Friday, we’re supposed to break 30C/86F, and the overnight temperatures are expected to be close to 20C/68F. It’s supposed to cool down a bit in the second week of June, but that’s a relative statement by then!

For the next while, with the exception of days where I have to drive into the city or something like that, my pattern is going to change. I’ll be getting up earlier to work outside while it’s cooler, then be inside (and probably nap) at the heat of the day before going out again when the temperature starts to drop. With the heat, I’ll be watering things in the morning. Possibly in the evening, too.

I have a couple of beds to take care of in the east yard, plus prep the old kitchen garden bed along the retaining wall. In the beginning of June – after I’ve done all our city trips and vet trip – I should be able to start direct sowing. I’m really trying to focus on getting each bed covered in some way to protect them from the cats. The one area I won’t be able to do is where I intend to plant corn. That area is currently covered by a black tarp/landscape cloth/whatever it is, and has been for several years. Everything under it should be dead by now. I need to move that aside and prepare blocks to plant corn in and, possibly, interplant them with winter squash. That area will simply be too large to cover. I’ll have to figure something else out.

It’s going to be very busy in the garden for the next while!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: starting melons, winter squash, pumpkin and cucumbers, plus updates

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First, though, we got a few other things accomplished today.

Bug looks like she is doing quite well. She is eating with her usual enthusiasm and is moving like she’d never had surgery.

I did, however, make a confirmation.

We were pretty sure the mostly black cat in there was female, partly because the females have been so much harder to socialize. When talking to the rescue, I’d forgotten this one had been named Batman, and had told them this one and the black and white were unnamed. One of the rescue workers named this one Marta for the spay appointment.

Today, however, I was able to see dangly bits. She is a he.

Batman it is.

Unfortunately, part of the reason I could see dangly bits was because he seems to have diarrhea. His fur it all flattened along his back end. After what happened with Furriosa, I am bracing myself for getting bad news at the appointment. Granted, I still have no idea how we’re going to get them into carriers.

Meanwhile, poor Adam, having only recently lost a litter, is being chased by the boys already. It’s been raining all today and, when we were outing and abouting, I saw her trying to get a drink of water out of a puddle, followed closely by a tabby, her fur absolutely matted with mud.

Both she and Slick have not been showing up at much at feeding time, and when Adam does, she can’t stay long because the boys are too agressively after her.

*sigh*

One of the first goals of the day was to head into town to see my mother at the nursing home. My younger daughter came along to help me bring in my mother’s stuff I’d taken before her transfer. That allowed us to bring it all in, in one trip.

The last time I was here, it was to visit my aunt, and she was in a completely different part of the building. I must have looked pretty lost, because someone came right up to ask me who I was there to see! When we got to the right floor and started heading to the hallway, a guy gathering linens into a trolly saw me and told me he thought my mother was asleep.

We recognized each other from when my mother was still at the TCU! He works in both places. Most of the staff is rotates between various nursing homes and TCUs, but it was still quite funny to have someone who recognized me and knew who I was there to see, less than 24 hours after her transfer!

My mother woke when we came in and we put her stuff away where she directed us to. She has quite a nice room. Not as big as the single room she had at the hospital, but a decent size, and all to herself. She has a nice view of a park outside her window, and plenty of closet and storage space. My mother seems… not so much happier to be there, as relieved. There are still things to figure out as far as how things are done. My mother has gotten used to having her meals brought to her, for example, and here they encourage residents to come to the dining room to eat, if they physically can, to get them moving around as much as possible. There is a monthly calendar of events on her wall, and every day has three or for things going on, from sing alongs to physical activities, to church services and so on. They even have bingo, which my mother enjoys.

So we had a nice little visit before heading back out. Now that she is here, I can visit her more often, simply because I go to this town so much more often, and it’s closer than where she was before.

We are all so much happier with this place, not just my mother! It’s going to be so much better for her.

She was starting to have pain issues, as no one has applied Voltaren this morning, and she wans’t even sure if they had any (it’s not a prescription, so we have to supply it), so on the way out I talked to someone at the nursing station, asking if the doctor would consider getting my mother a prescription for the stuff that I have, which is the same active ingredient, but 5 times stronger, as Voltaren. She said they will bring it up with the doctor. With a prescription, we won’t have to keep track of her supply, and they’ll be able to order it in with her other medications.

Our next stop was the pharmacy to pick up the rest of my older daughter’s prescription, plus her sister and I found other things we needed to get for ourselves. My daughter hadn’t eaten yet and it was almost lunch time, so we stopped at the DQ for lunch, then got two more meals to go for my husband and her sister. A quick stop for gas, then a stop at the post office, where I was also able to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble for the outside cats, then home.

After things were settled in and taken care of, my daughter and I headed back out and loaded my mother’s old mattress and box spring into the box of the truck. We FINALLY got them to the dump!

From the muddy paw prints on them, the cats are going to miss them. 😄

My brother and SIL had come out while we were in town, working on their caravan, so we popped over to get caught up with them for a bit – not going in because our boots were muddy, so we didn’t stay long. My mother had asked for a radio and my brother had one for her, so he gave it to me, since we’ll probably be seeing her before they get a chance to.

Our visit done, we headed inside for the next thing on my to do list.

Starting the last of our seeds for transplants.

These are the things that get started about 3 weeks before last frost date. Technically, we are less than that, but the way the weather has been, I don’t expect to get most things transplanted until probably the middle of June, though things like the onions can handle going in now.

With such a short time for these seeds, I decided to use my new hex cell planting tray. This has 6 rows of 12 cells, so they are pretty small.

I decided that I would start 12 different things, and see how it goes!

The first thing we had to do was make space and move the full spectrum LED light fixtures aside, then set up a heat mat. While my daughter filled the cells with pre-moistened seed starting mix, I went through my seed packets to decide on what to start.

I decided not to try and start any summer squash and will direct sow those.

I went with four types of melons (we have seeds for quite a few more); Canary Yellow, Tigger, Sweet Siberian Watermelon and Hale’s Best Jumbo cantaloupe. In winter squash, I chose Golden Hubbard, Black Futsu, Butterneck squash and Gill’s Golden Pippin. I also decided to try the Arikara squash again, because it’s a rare variety I want to save seeds from. I also chose the Cinderalla pumpkin (Rouge vif D’Estempes). Last of all are two types of cucumber; lemon and Eureka. These are older seeds, but I have a request for cucumbers this year. I have another variety we got as free seeds that I almost chose as well, but we’re not big cucumber eaters and two varieties will be more than enough.

After the initial filling of the tray with seed starting mix, my daughter was a sweetheart and cut up a sour cream container for me, to make more plant markers, because I was down to two blanks.

She cuts much neater, straighter markers than I do!

While she was working on that, I wrote the names and details for each packet on the markers. She finished before I did, and I have a nice stack of extra markers now.

The initial filling of the planting cells all got gently pressed down, leaving enough space for the planting depths of these larger seeds. My daughter started with the winter squash seeds, gently scarifying them first. Once I was done with the labels, I started at the other end of the tray with the cucumbers, then melons.

So we now have 12 rows with six cells planted, each. Hopefully, we’ll get a decent germination rate. I’m rather concerned about that, as it all seems so cold down there, and I don’t know that the heat mats are enough to make up for it. Half the time, they don’t even seem to be on. I realize that’s part of the temperature control, but it still feels wrong.

I ended up moving a couple of snail rolls around, putting two of them with the last batch of seed starts.

The orange current tomatoes are not looking very healthy, so I thought they might do better back on a heat mat, with less taller transplants overshadowing them. I also moved the roll with both the tarragon and summer savory. I’m actually amazing they are both surviving! They were in rough shape before going into the snail roll.

In the next picture, you can see the rest of the snail rolls. Things are getting way too big and need to be transplanted. I can’t pot them up any more at this point. No space.

Things are supposed to get quite a bit warmer – and drier – over the next while. There are even 30C/86F days in the forecast! Tonight, we’re supposed to drop to 6C/43F, but after that we’re supposed to get overnight temperatures above 10C/50, with lots of sunshine. That should finally warm the soil up. Even in the first half of June, where we’re expecting overnight temperatures to drop, they’re still expected to be above 6C/43F, which is where it needs to stay above consistently for the soil to have a chance to warm up and stay warm.

We shall see.

That done, I was able to head outside and get other work done, but that will be in my next post.

See you there!

The Re-Farmer