getting things done

Our 2024 Garden: transplanting tomatoes, luffa, onions, thyme and mulberry, plus some updates

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Yesterday, I had my eye appointment, which included pupil dilation, so I had my daughter there to drive me home. I’ll have another field of vision test in 6 months, though probably not the dilation. This will be my third field of vision test, which will give a solid baseline to compare with in the future. For now, the miniscule hemorrhages she can see in my eyes have not really changed, and we’re still in the monitoring stage. As for my regular eye test, my left eye has changed, but not enough to be worth getting new glasses.

All that went well, and I took a break from stuff to give my eyes time to recover. So I can’t blame that for my rough night. I was just getting pains in different places at different times, making it impossible to get comfortable, nor stay asleep for very long. So my daughters did the morning cat feeding and kitten cuddling for me while I tried to sleep in.

Tried to.

This time, it was cats that kept me awake! Butterscotch, after months of hiding under a chair, now likes to sleep with me. Or on me. She still won’t leave my room, but this is progress! She gets along with most of the cats, but some of them have decided to be aggressive towards her, so every time she sees them, even if they’re just walking by, she starts snarling and growling. Then there’s Ghosty, who likes to lick my nose, and Shadow, who tries to eat my buttons. Or Cheddar and Clarence, who get aggressively cuddly!

It’s better than being kept awake by pain, at least!

In the end, my having a late start turned out to be a good thing. I was inside for the call from Home Care about my mother and her wanting to move to a nursing home. We’ve dealt with this guy before, and he has assessed my mother in the past, which didn’t help her any. They can’t provide the help she needs. He was somewhat confused about getting the fax from her doctor to do a panel on my mother. It turns out, this is basically the opposite of how it usually works. Typically, someone has a fall or some other incident that puts them into the hospital. That’s when Home Care does their panel, the doctors do the other tests, and the person usually doesn’t go home from the hospital, but straight to long term care.

Which is not what we were told. When my brother called the nursing home my mother wants to move to (which is where her sister and my father, as well as many of their friends, spent their final months and years), he was told we needed to get a doctor’s recommendation. Which we now have. We didn’t know Home Care would be involved until that appointment. Home Care and a brain MRI are the last things that need to be done.

As he was explaining it to me, he felt that, since my mother hasn’t actually put herself in the hospital or had any falls, he doesn’t expect his assessment to amount to much. We already know this is basically putting her on a waiting list, but when I mentioned this, his response was that “waiting list” is basically too generous a term. More like an “indefinite list”.

She’s coming up on 93. I really don’t think that’s going to be an issue.

At one point, I called out the absurdity of the situation. Basically, because my mother is being so careful about things like NOT falling down and hurting herself, she’s being penalized for it? He sort of walked that back but, really, that’s what it comes down to.

Anyhow. The appointment was made for Monday, which is nice and fast. I will be there for this one. The assessment should take 1 1/2-2 hours.

Once I got off the phone with him, I called my mother to give her the appointment time and explain some of the things he told me. I suggested she write down the things that concern her the most, just so nothing is forgotten. It’s not just about her physical difficulties, but we also talked about how she’s noticed problems with her memory, too, and that needs to be taken into account.

Then I sent an email to the family to keep them in the loop. It would be ideal if my brother could be there, too, since he’s got a longer history of helping my mother out, plus he has Power of Attorney, but there’s no way he can get off work for it.

Well, part of the deal for us living here is that I am now able to take on this stuff for my mother. My schedule is the most flexible, and we live the closest to her.

I was eventually able to get outside and get some things done. We had scattered showers, but that’s it. The yard still has water pooling all over, so mowing the lawn is still out of the question. We were also getting high winds, which were blowing the plastic on the box frame over the eggplant and hot peppers loose. I kept putting the weights back on the bottoms, but in the end, just before I came back in for the day, I ended up tying twine all the way around, on two levels, to keep the plastic in place. If the sheets had been long enough to overlap, it would not have been an issue, but it is what it is. I also finally anchored the T posts holding the netting for the snap peas to climb. Some of them are getting long enough to actually start climbing, and the weight of them would eventually pull the posts inwards. Now, they are secure.

But that was at the end of things.

I decided the place to start today was in the wattle weave bed.

I’ve already transplanted the Forme de Couer tomatoes in the rectangular bed. There were only six Black Cherry tomatoes, so I decided those could go in the old kitchen garden, too. They got their protective plastic rings, as well, each with a pair of bamboo stakes to hold the rings in place and, eventually act as supports for the tomatoes.

I had two pots of luffa, but they each had three plants in them. I considered just planting them in groups of three, but decided to split them, so we now have six luffa plants. I put them in the same area as last year, right around the turn of the L shape. They also got the protective plastic rings, but just one bamboo stake. These were positioned closer to the wall, so that the luffa can be trained up them, until they can reach the lilac above.

Then, because there was still space, I transplanted the last of the Red Wethersfield onions, and the German Winter Thyme. There is self seeded chamomile coming up in between some of the strawberries, with room for the thyme beside it. More chamomile is coming up in the path, too!

There is still a small space that can have something planted into it, closer to where the garlic is in this bed, but I have not decided what to put in there. Most of the transplants we have are things that will get rather large, so they would not be appropriate for that spot. I should look through my seeds for direct sowing for something to go there.

Once everything was transplanted, I used some of the grass clipping mulch that had been removed from the other beds in the spring, and mulched around everything. Especially right up against the wattle weave walls, since a lot of stuff growing outside the bed makes its way through there.

At this point, the only tomatoes left to transplant are the San Marzano – and I have no idea where those are going to go!

What really needed to get in the ground, probably more than anything else, was the Trader mulberry. They’ve been in their pots for too long, and were not looking very healthy.

These went on the north side of the main garden area. These can get quite large, so I didn’t want them casting shade over places we want to grow vegetables. Plus, they will act as a wind break from the North winds.

For now, however, they need to be protected.

The first one went in front of a gap in the lilac hedge that the deed have been getting through. I used the loppers to clear away some lilac and little poplars. There was also a dead poplar on the fence side of the hedge. It’s been dead for a long time, so I was able to basically tear it loose from the ground. I laid it across the gap, near the fence (it’s an old barbed wire fence that’s slowly collapsing), which should also deter the deer from using this spot.

Of course, as soon as I started digging a hold for the mulberry, I started hitting rocks and gravel. I added nothing to the soil, though. The planting instructions for these specifically stated to NOT add anything to the soil when transplanting.

Normally, I would have set them slightly above grade, but this area is higher than other parts of the yard, and tend to get very dry. For this reason, I actually want water to pool a bit around the trees before it drains away. Once the sapling was in place, I emptied a 5L watering can around it, to settled in the soil and the roots. Next, thick cardboard was placed around the sapling as a first layer of mulch. At this size, they need to be protected from critters. I had some wire mesh that was used for something else last year. It was taller enough that I could cut it in half. I put bamboos stakes through the wire, then into the ground through holes in the carboard, so they would hold both in place.

Then I walked about 10 paces to the West for the second sapling. There was no gap in the lilacs there, so I cut away some of it to make a little protective hollow. This time, when digging the hole, I was hitting both rocks and roots! The loppers had to be used a few times to cut through the roots.

Once the second sapling was done, they both got their final mulch. They each got an entire wheelbarrow load. Most of it went outside the wire mesh, but I carefully added some to the inside, too, making sure there was nothing too close to the saplings themselves.

By the time this was done, the winds were picking up again. I could actually hear it roaring at times, but where I was working was well sheltered! Tucking them close to the lilacs should protect them from the worst of the elements, until they get larger. They will still get the full sun that they need, too. These will eventually grow 15-20 ft/4.5-6m tall. The berries are edible, of course, but apparently the leaves can be used for a tea that helps control blood sugars. It should take 2-3 years before they start producing fruit. We got these last spring, but they were out of the 2 year old saplings, so instead of the one we ordered, we got two, teeny tiny 1 year old saplings that I didn’t dare plant outdoors yet! I don’t know if that will make a difference in how long before they produce fruit, but I’ll just assume it’ll take 3 years.

Assuming they survive in the first place!

We shall see.

We’re supposed to be a bit more rain this evening, but none at all tomorrow. The high should also be cooler, too. That means I should be able to get back to working on shifting those last three beds to their permanent locations. What really needs to be transplanted next are the winter squash and gourds. Especially the Crespo squash. They are getting really tall, I’ve already pinched off flower buds, and more are appearing! So I might first make small raised bed, just for them, behind the compost pile. We made a small bed there last year, but the few things planted there didn’t survive. Right now, it’s very wet, so it would need to be made into a low raised bed, anyhow. I do have a 4’x4′ frame, much like the one that’s around the strawberries planted this spring, that can be repurposed for this, then we can add a few loads of garden soil from what’s left of the pile. We haven’t even uncovered that, yet. That this location is very wet right now would actually be a benefit, since the Crespo squash are supposed to get very large, and they need a lot of water to reach their full potential.

This will be the… third? year we’ve tried to grow them. I just looked at some of my old posts. The first year we grew them was in 2021. So this will be our 4th year trying! They did amazing, the first year, until they got eaten by deer and groundhogs. They recovered so well, with many fruit developing, only to run out of season. We did a large squash patch in 2022, but that was the year we flooded, so just about everything was a loss. Last year, they got their own patch out by the old squash tunnel that still needs to be dismantled. They did quite poorly. This was close to where the mulberry have been planted, and it seems that the spot actually got too much sun and heat. We did get a squash to harvest, but much smaller than it should have been. It started developing so late, it never reached full maturity. So, this year, I am taking that into account in choosing where to plant them. The spot I have in mind still gets full sun, but is shaded in the morning, and doesn’t get baked like the north east of the main garden area does.

The other winter squash will need plenty of room to grow, too, so they’ll probably take up a couple of the beds that I’m working on now, at least. I’m planning to put melons in the trellis bed that was built last year, along the side the trellis will be attached, but those are small enough that they can stay in their pots a bit longer. We might have to get creative in finding space for all of them, though. A good problem to have, I suppose!

I plant to put the peppers in the high raised bed, but they, too, are small enough that they can handle staying in their pots a bit longer, while I work on the remaining beds.

I have three pots that we planted herbs in last year. I think I’ll direct sow summer squash in those. That way, we’ll at least have some, even if we end up not having room in any of the main garden beds!

So many things to plant, and so few beds ready to plant in!

The Re-Farmer

Gone squirrelly!

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Yesterday was a pretty wasted day. I wasn’t feeling well, so I decided to use the day to rest and recover.

I’m still feeling like crap, but not as bad. So I just pain killered up and headed out.

Unfortunately, we just can’t set aside mowing the lawn anymore. The grass is getting too tall, and I don’t want a repeat of the spring my brother and his wife had to come out with their mowing equipment to get it done. This time, the problem is how wet the yard has been.

Still, it needs to be done.

When I last mowed in the outer yard, I broke an attachment on the lawnmower. This was the diverter shield on the side that sends the grass clippings away. The grass was so tall and thick that it kept getting knocked out of position. Well, one time I wasn’t paying close enough attention, it got knocked off, and under the mower.

It is now in several pieces.

The side of the mower where it attaches has a permanent cover over the opening that it attached under. Without it, the opening is well sealed, so that the clippings can either go out the back and into the lawn bag, or if the back is closed up with its plug and cover, the clippings supposedly get mulched into the ground.

That mulch setting doesn’t work very well, and the mower really struggles if it is used.

So that means I need to use the mower bag, whether I want to or not. To set that up, I lifted the back cover and removed the plug.

Where I found evidence of squirrels! Grass clippings still manage to get into it, and squirrels took advantage of the “nest” to store acorns!

With so many cats around, I hardly ever see squirrels anymore, so this is a surprise, indeed!

Once that was cleared out, I started on the east lawn.

I didn’t finish it.

First, the grass it so tall, I’m constantly stopping to empty the bag. Second, the grass is still pretty damp, so the opening into the bag gets clogged up very quickly. Third, because the grass is so wet, the bag is heavier to lug around than usual!

It’s a good thing I enjoy mowing the lawn!

I’ve got a nice pile of grass clippings going, but we won’t even be able to use it as mulch. Sections of this part of the yard are infested with Creeping Charlie. If I use the grass clippings as mulch, I’ll just be spreading the stuff. 😢

In the end, I had to stop mowing, even though I didn’t have very much left to do. I was getting into the lowers – and, therefore, wettest – parts of the yard, plus I was just getting too tired and too hot.

And by “hot”, I mean it’s 11C/52F out there, with a humidex of 13C/55F Yes, I find that hot. I’m not acclimated to spring temperatures yet! It certainly didn’t help that the sweat on my face seemed to attract some sort of flying insect that would get caught in my glasses, or under the visor of my hat!

Anyhow. I’m taking a break for now. Once the post office reopens for the afternoon, I’ll head out to get the mail, and pick up some sour cream, so my daughter can make her rhubarb cake with our first harvest of the year! Hopefully, by then, the grass will have dried a bit more.

We are currently getting weather warnings for potentially heavy rainfalls, but at the same time, our area isn’t expected to get rain until about 5am.

We’re also getting low enough overnight temperatures that, in some places, they are getting frost warnings. We might be getting frost on the weekend, from the looks of it.

We shall see!

For now, I just need to hydrate, run some errands, then get back to mowing before the rain hits! I hope to be able to finish the inner yard, but I don’t expect to be able to mow around the main garden area, or finish the outer yard. That will have to wait for another day. The old garden area is yellow with dandelions right now. I hope to get that done before they all go to seed, but… we’ll see!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: I’m getting too old and broken for this

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But it’s finally done.

The second low raised bed has been weeded and shifted over.

It took way longer than it should have.

Finding and fighting the bigger tree roots was bad enough. Once I was finally clear of those and working my way through new ground to the other end, I had another issue. At about the middle, I started hitting mats of Creeping Charlie. At that point, I didn’t even try to weed them, and was just digging out and tossing aside sod. Plus, I kept hitting rocks. Not particularly large rocks, but lots of them.

So now the new edges of the bed are clear, and the soil piled in the middle … mostly. The hole where I dug out the most roots got filled, but that’s it.

The next bed is probably going to be done differently. One side of it is so infested with Creeping Charlie, it’s not worth weeding or shifting the soil I’ll probably remove the infested soil completely. Which sucks, because we worked really hard to amend that soil for our vegetables, not for the Creeping Charlie!

I won’t be starting it today, though. Time to pain killer up again, and take a break.

I keep forgetting that I’m getting too old and broken for this.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: all sorts of things

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I decided not to continue with prepping the garden bed I started working on yesterday. That area was in full sun, it was hot, and the mosquitoes were out in full force. So, other than helping my daughter drag out the first of the 18′ logs she prepped (she also cut two 4′ pieces for the ends, and they are now waiting to be debarked and have any branch bits cut flat), I stayed inside.

Instead, I went to be unusually early for me – at about 8pm – and actually fell asleep and everything! I was awake by 5am. Usually, I do my morning rounds, have breakfast, then head back out to do the more laborious stuff. This time, I made sure to eat first, then just stayed out after doing my rounds, so work on the garden bed.

I got distracted.

The first distraction was remembering to put netting over the chimney block planters at the chain link fence.

Syndol helped.

I had a roll of netting just long enough to cover the length of these blocks. It was actually longer than needed, but this piece has a tear near one end that was “sewn” together with twine. I made sure that end was the excess netting wrapped around the far end of the blocks

So that area is now protected from getting smothered by the elm seeds.

Of course, I checked the other beds, then gathered my tools to continue working on the low raised bed.

I had the loppers with me, to cut away the roots I knew I would find.

Since I had them anyway…

… I went into the edge of the spruce grove and started clearing things away from the Saskatoon bushes. There’s a lot of chokecherries crowding them – one bunch was so entwined, I accidentally cut away some Saskatoon branches along with the chokecherry! There were quite a lot of dead, broken branches to clear away. Those were broken by the deer standing up on their hind legs to reach the berries, and pulling the branches down. There was an elm growing right from the based of some Saskatoons. I cut most of it away, but will have to come back with a saw to get the rest of it.

That was just the big stuff. The next thing to do will be to clear away the false spirea.

Again.

I had this whole area cleared of the spirea, a few years ago! It’s all completely filled in again. That stuff is so hard to get rid of, and so invasive!

That will be for another time. Getting those chokecherries out was the main thing. The Saskatoons will no longer be competing with them for water and nutrients, and they will get more sunlight, too. These Saskatoons are the healthiest ones we’ve found. There are others, out by the garage, but every year, as the berries start to form, they start to get what looks like some sort of fungus. So we want to be keeping these ones by the house well cared for and healthy.

That done, it was time to finally get back to that bed!

The first part of the job went well enough. I cleared the weeds out of the second half of the bed, and started piling the soil up onto the half I cleared yesterday, shifting the edge of the bed in the process.

I had help.

That cat needs a name.

Trouble started at the end nearest the trees, where I was breaking new ground to the 18′ mark. I already knew there were roots under there, but I kept finding more! The finer roots are one thing, but those larger ones – even the smallest of them – are much more difficult to get out. After shoveling the soil away as best I could, I took a hose to them. Partly to make them easier to see, partly to wash the grit off the roots so I could more easily cut them with the loppers and not damage the cutting edge.

I didn’t get all of them out, but I did make sure to cut them at the tree side of the roots, pull them up and dig them out as far as was reasonable, then cut them out. Anything left should die off.

I hope.

Once those were out, I started putting some of the soil back into the hole and leveling off the side where a log will be placed. Then I started digging out past the existing bed, along the 18′ line to corner marking the new 4′ width of the bed, breaking new ground.

Where I found more roots, besides the one that I was hitting when putting the marker back up.

These ones continued through to what will be the path between beds, so I cut them away to that point.

At which point, it was time for a hydration break!

One of the things I remembered to do once inside was to turn the aquarium greenhouse lights back on. Since I was there anyhow, I decided to check on the pumpkin seeds I’d scarified and set to pre-germinate.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7Mfjs0rw5J/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

They are already germinating! It’s only been about a day. Maybe a day and a half, since they were set up!

I’ve left them for now and will probably pot them up this evening.

That was so, so fast!

Well, it’s past 11 now. I should grab lunch, then head back outside.

This bed is a lot more work than I expected it to be, mostly because of those frickin’ roots!

The Re-Farmer

More than expected

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Much to my surprise, it actually worked!

I got to bed “early” (which, for me, is anything before midnight), got actual sleep, and was outside and working while it was still cool out!

I even made sure to have breakfast before I headed outside, so that I could get right to work after finishing my rounds, though I did upload and check the trail cam files, first. Now that the weather is nice, I’m seeing our vandal going by fairly regularly, rubbernecking towards our place as he drives by on his quad. *sigh*

Anyhow.

My goal for the morning was to get the chimney block planters along the chain link fence ready to plant into, then maybe move on to the ones that form the retaining wall in the old kitchen garden. I thought I might have time to do both, before things got too hot for that sort of work.

Ha!

I should know better by now.

I took progress pictures and posted them on Instagram, since I don’t have the storage space to upload so many images onto Word Press anymore. I didn’t think to set up the tripod and take a time lapse video, as I do for other projects, because I thought this would be done quickly. I did consider taking the stills and making a brief video, with narration, but decided against it.

Let me know, though, which you would prefer. I know not everyone can see the images when I embed them from Instagram, without having to click on the embed area and go to Instagram to view them. Would you prefer a short video, even if it’s just a bunch of stills, and making a vlog post out of it? YouTube doesn’t have the storage limitations that WP does.

Anyhow… I have the slideshow here…

I remembered to take a “before” shot, too. There’s a bit of crab grass showing through the grass clipping mulch, but things didn’t look too bad. I figured, maybe an hour to get it done, give or take.

Then I removed the grass clipping mulch and tried weeding the first block.

At first I thought the soil was strangely compacted, but even using some tools to loosen the soil, it was still a struggle. There were quite a lot of roots in there… Way too many roots. I set the sifter up over the wheel barrow and started trying to lift handfuls of soil out, but it just wasn’t working. Finally, I just grabbed the entire block and tipped it off the soil.

Leaving behind a packed cube.

A cube filled with tree roots.

Yup. Just like with the grow bags near the row of trees my mother allowed to grow after she transplanted her row of raspberries, roots from the nearby Chinese elm had made their way into the growing space from below.

After that first one, I just pulled the next block over, without even trying to dig into the soil, first. The soil cube stayed behind, held in place by all the roots below. Others came loose with the block, as the soil was so filled with roots, it stayed packed into the block, even as the roots were being torn from the ground below, and I had to force the soil cube out. Then there was breaking up the blocks on the sifter, pulling out handfuls of roots. There were some crab grass rhizomes, but even they seemed to be choked out by the tree roots!

Now we know why all the vining gourds that we planted there last year, failed so miserably. They were completely choked out by invading tree roots.

While I was working my way down the row of blocks, there was something else that was unexpected.

The distinct sound of kittens, mewing!

One of the other mamas has had a litter, and it sounds like they are in the old freezer lying on its side in the junk pile. I didn’t see any of the mamas, though I did eventually see a black cat come out of that area. I didn’t think we had a black cat that was female. I certainly didn’t notice any that looked pregnant. Not even the one tuxedo that I figure is female, after seeing the boys going after her. Mind you, the cat I saw might not have been a mama. All the cats like to take shelter and climb around the junk pile.

After a while, though, I guess they all fell asleep, because I no longer heard the mewing.

Once the blocks were all moved off and the soil sifted, I did as much weeding as I could in the soil underneath where the blocks were, but there were just too many tree roots. The best I could do with a lot of them was simply severe them.

Then I took a rake to the area, getting rid of the weeds and roots, before leveling where the blocks would go. We’ve been saving our cardboard that’s suitable to use in the garden, so I took some of that and laid down a double layer. Hopefully, it will be thick enough to discourage the roots from growing up into the blocks.

The carboard got a soaking, but it takes a lot to saturate cardboard. I got it decently wet, then put the blocks back.

This is where I really appreciate steel toed shoes! After lining the blocks up first by hand, the final touch was to kick them into place.

I’ve gotten way too used to wearing steel toes all the time. Every now and then, I’ll be out somewhere, forgetting I’m wearing normal shoes, and almost break my toes kicking at something! 😄

Once the blocks were in place, I walked back and forth over them a few times, using my own weight to settle them into place, then took the hose to them. The blocks helped by actually holding the water and letting it start to pool, rather than running off the sides, allowing the cardboard to become better saturated.

The next step was to start amending the soil.

The wheel barrow was pretty full, so adding the peat and sulfur granules was done in batches; enough to fill a couple of blocks before the next batch of soil was amended.

Since the peat made for greater volume, there was soil left over in the wheel barrel after all the blocks were filled. Each block then got topped with a couple of handfuls of stove pellets to act as a mulch. The blocks got a watering, then left for the pellets to absorb moisture and start swelling, while I watered the potato bed and haskaps, nearby. The one “Mr. Honeyberry” haskap has all sorts of flower buds, with some of them even starting to bloom! The two “Mrs. Honeyberry” aren’t anywhere near that point.

*sigh*

That took enough time for the stove pellets to swell to the point that the sawdust could be spread around a bit, before getting another thorough watering.

The very last thing to do before clean up was to return the support posts – they had to be hammered through the cardboard. We need to put something similar along the bed with the potatoes, so we can place netting of some kind over them. This will be to protect the beds and anything growing in them from being suffocated by the Chinese Elm seeds, when they start dropping in their millions.

What I thought was a job that might take me about an hour, ended up talking almost 3 hours – though I did take a hydration break, part way through.

By then, it was starting to get pretty warm, too; the perfect time to be done!

After that, my daughter and I headed into town. We had some parcels to pick up on the way home, but the post office closed shortly after I finished working, so we had to find extra things to do. That way, we could time our trip home for when it reopened again. We ended up going to the beach; something we haven’t done in at least two years! The lake is mostly clear of ice, but there were a few patches being blown against the beach by the winds.

It was all candle ice, and in places, you could hear it tinkling like wind chimes in the waves! I tried to capture the sound with my phone.

That area of the beach has quite a lot of rocks, making it our favourite part. We spent the entire time, trying to find interesting ones. We found quite a few, including some that sparkled amazingly in the sun. I tried to capture the sparkle in photos, but the camera just couldn’t pick up the glitter.

We had no problem at all, taking up the extra time we needed to, on the beach!

From there, it was a stop at the grocery store. I just needed to refill a couple of the big water jugs and get some eggs. My daughter had her own shopping list. That done, it was back home, with a stop at the post office to pick up a parcel.

Which turned out to be five parcels!

One was for my daughter, which arrived faster than she expected. A couple more for my husband arrived early as well, plus there turned out to be another with the courier company packages. I didn’t know anything about that one, but the store owner stopped me on the way out to give it to me.

There was one parcel that would have been great to arrive early but, alas, it isn’t expected until next week. My husband needs to replace the face part of his CPAP set up. He’s been able to replace the hose the runs from the machine to the face mask, and he was able to get new nasal prongs. The part of the mask he can’t get has the latex tubes that attach to the sides of the nasal piece. Over time, the latex starts to harden, turn yellow and, eventually, begin to crack. My husband tends to wait way too long before replacing them, so they’re at that point, now. The problem is, it’s not in stock, and hasn’t been for months. It’s starting to look like they’re not being made anymore. So he’s simply ordered medical grade latex tubes to attach to the fittings, which are still fine.

What he really needs is a new machine. Medicare doesn’t cover CPAPs. His insurance does, but it’s by reimbursement, so he’d have to have the funds to buy it first, then submit a receipt. Medicare does cover BiPAPs, though, which would be better for him, anyhow. For that, however, he needs to get a new prescription. It’s been so long, he’ll need another sleep test, first. Which his new doctor has started the process of getting done. When he was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea, we were living in this province (for the second? third? time) and he spent the night in a lab at the sleep research centre. They actually interrupted the sleep test after a couple of hours and put him on a CPAP, because they were afraid he would die on them. That lab is no longer there. I don’t know if it moved to another hospital or city or province, or simply no longer exists. Now, they usually do home tests. Which should be… interesting.

However he ends up getting tested again, he’s on a waiting list, and has been for a few months now. Who knows when he’ll finally get tested.

Until then, he has to find ways to make do with what he has and, right now, it looks like he needs to buy parts and pieces to replace the worn out ones. He can’t even use a different style of mask, as they are made for specific machines, and the fittings can’t cross over. At least, not with the machine he has now.

Hopefully, the tubing he ordered will fit. He did order some earlier, but it turned out to be the wrong size for the fittings. It’s something we can find a use for, though, so no loss there.

Meanwhile…

As I finish this up, we’re coming up on 6pm, and it’s still 18C/64F (the high was 19C/66F), with the humidex putting it at 22C/72F. Unless I look at my other map, which has us a couple of degrees Celsius warmer!

While talking to my daughter earlier about what needs to be worked on next, we were both rather depressed at the thought of getting the low raised beds in the main garden area clear. The crab grass is taking over with a vengeance and, in one of them, Creeping Charlie is also invading. The only way to really make a difference when it’s that bad is to either use an herbicide, or sift it all. Since we also need to amend the soil with peat and sulfur, sifting it would be the best choice. Which basically means, every one of those beds needs to be redone – and these are all beds we want to make into higher raised beds. My daughter suggested we just skip ahead to making the beds higher, if we’re going to have to remove all that soil, anyhow.

Which means, we need to shift gears and start harvesting more of those dead spruces. We currently have only two downed trees to process. We need more. Lots more, even if we’re just doing middle height beds, like with the trellis beds we’re working on. Those are only two logs tall, which means we need four 18′ logs for the sides and four or five (depending on the width) 4′ logs for the ends, per bed. With the largest of the dead trees, the bottom 10′, which would be too thick for a garden bed, will be set aside for the vertical supports for the outdoor kitchen we will be building (we need 10 of those). Depending on how straight and tall the trees we harvest are, that means 2 or 3 trees per raised bed. We need to rebuild… hold on… let me look out the window and count… five low raised beds. One of those has the onions growing in it, so that one won’t be done this year; it’ll just get weeded for now. So, four that need to be rebuilt. Plus the other 3 beds we need to make to make two trellis tunnels (two beds per tunnel). So we’re looking at a minimum 7 new beds at 2 logs high. If we assume 3 trees per bed, we’re looking at about 21 trees that need to be harvested. I’m pretty sure we do have that many dead spruces that need to be cut down; I’d counted 22 before we cut down the ones we’ve done so far, but there are a couple that have fallen on their own and are stuck against other trees that we probably could use, plus I’m sure there are others in an overgrown area we can’t walk through. If worse comes to worse, there are more dead spruces in the old hay yard. It’s further to drag the logs but, at that point, we can use the truck to drag them out.

Which means, weather willing, we need to start cutting down all those dead spruces in the spruce grove. If we focus on cutting the dead trees down first, then processing them to the sizes we need and dragging the logs over, building the beds themselves won’t necessarily take long. Prepping the spaces usually takes longer.

That electric chainsaw is going to get quite a workout.

Hmm… I wonder if I can talk to my brother into coming out with his gas chainsaw? He’s so busy with so many things, though, I hate to ask him. Especially since we’d have no way of knowing if the weather would be good on a day he can come out.

Well, I guess tomorrow, I’m getting the chainsaw out and making sure it’s working after a winter in the garage!

It’ll be good to finally get those dead spruce trees cut down. Then we can start transplanting new ones!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: first direct sowing! (video)

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Okay, so I’ve scattered seeds and such, but today is the first day for direct sowing. It was such a gorgeous day for it, too!

I planted all the edible pod peas from the package, minus the ones that split apart as they soaked between damp paper towels overnight. Not a lot of carrots were planted; I’ll include them between other things, over the next while. I’ll probably do the same with more spinach. Basically, they’ll be space fillers and ground covers until it’s too warm to plant them anymore.

The box frame cover got worked on first, then set aside, since I put in the old salvaged T posts to hold netting for the peas to climb. I couldn’t drive them in very far, so they will need to have support added to them before any trellis netting is added, so they don’t get pulled into the bed by the weigh of the peas – or the net, for that matter! I intended to add a third post in the middle, but hit something hard. Possibly one of the branches set at the base of the bed, when it was first built and filled. Or a rock that got missed.

I found my pH meter and did a reading. No surprise the pH is still at 8. I even stuck it into the compost heap nearby, and the needle barely moved. I had a bit of an ah-ha moment earlier today. Well, more like a “duh, of course” moment. Maritime Gardening did an April garden tour video and was taking about how acidic his soil is, and mentioned that liming the soil can make the soil more alkaline.

Liming.

Lime.

Garden lime.

Which is made out of limestone.

Which is what we are sitting on top of.

Our area has limestone quarries and commercial gravel pits – we even have our own little gravel pit – with limestone based sand and gravel below a very narrow band of topsoil.

Of course our soil alkalinity is maxing out the pH meter. How could it be any different? *smacks forehead over what should have been obvious*

Increasing the acidity is going to be a challenge, that’s for sure. The use of raised beds will make it easier, at least.

Our order of sulfur is supposed to arrive by Thursday. Once we’ve got that in, we’ll be able to start amending the various beds with it, to increase the acidity. My husband actually ordered 2 different bags. One bag is 90% sulfur, 10% betonite clay. The other is guaranteed 99.5% elemental sulfur, but both are supposed to be broadcast evenly, then worked into the top 6 inches of soil, at a rate of 250g/10m² (0.5lb/100ft²). These low raised beds are 27ft², so they shouldn’t need much but, from what I’m reading, the more alkaline the soil, the more sulfur is needed (which makes sense), plus our soil type would also need more, for it to make a difference. Even so, it won’t actually do much for us this year; if we were treating a field, we’d be adding it to the soil a year before planting a crop. Any amending we do this year will mostly benefit what we grow, next year. Once we’ve started incorporating it into our soil, though, we should test the soil every few months to see how much difference it has made. Still, every little bit will help.

While it will be slow going to increase our soil acidity, using sulfur is supposed to be one of the quickest ways to do it!

Anyhow…

In the early evening, the girls and I went around the yard, checking things out and enjoying the longer daylight hours and warmth. We blew past our predicted high and reached 16C/61F! Plenty of trees and bushes have leaf buds showing. It took some searching, but we were thrilled to find a few shoots of snow crocuses and grape hyacinth emerging through the leaf litter. We even spotted the leaves of two tulips that had emerged near the saffron crocuses! These were not there, this morning!

We are getting into that period when everything starts to just explode into new growth.

Before long, we’re probably going to be complaining over how hot it is! 😂😂

For now, I’m just really happy to get some progress done outside. We’re supposed to get some rain next week, but we should have plenty of lovely days like today, to get things done outside!

The Re-Farmer

This day feels longer than it should! 😁

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First, the cuteness.

We haven’t named this one, but that pattern over his nose makes me think of Nosencrantz, every time I see him!

Nosencratnz is doing well at her new home, btw. 😊

I counted 32 yard cats this morning. Remarkably, while I was petting a bunch of the males as they ate on the cat house roof, Broccoli not only allowed me to pet her, but even pushed her way through the boys to get better pets! Even Caramel let me pet her, in between trying to bite my hand.

Yesterday evening, I got a call from my mother, and arranged for me to come over today to help her with her shopping. This morning, however, I got another call from her. She had a rough night, and wanted me to decide for her, whether she should go to the clinic in her town. At least she wasn’t talking about going to the emergency! That would have been in the nearer city. After talking to her for a bit, it seems that she had issues with heartburn again, but my mother can’t quite understand what that means, and always tries to blame whatever food the TV or magazines tell her is bad. We talked for a while and I reminded her of the list of foods that can make it worse. I remember she had it taped to a cupboard door in her kitchen at some point, but I have no idea if it’s still there. She keeps insisting on eating foods that are known to cause heart burn, though, then blames other foods that don’t, but that she has decided are bad for her. It’s really hard to talk to her about this stuff, because she can’t understand so much, including basic anatomy. We have tried to explain things to her, even showing her diagrams or looking up medical information, but if it doesn’t match what she had decided it is, she doesn’t accept it and promptly forgets it.

One thing that did seem to finally get through was talking about processed meats. She keeps trying to say she needs to eat less meat. If it weren’t for the meat we’ve been bringing over for her, she’d be eating nothing but garlic sausage and deli chicken. At least she eats eggs! I spent some time talking about how, as we get older, it’s important for us to eat high quality protein, and some of the ingredients in processed meats might be triggering her heartburn. She seemed to actually hear me for a change.

Still, what she wanted was for me to decide it I “wanted” to take her to the doctor or not. I told her no, that’s her decision, and we’ll see how she feels when I got there!

So I left I bit earlier and picked up Chinese food for lunch, which she actually did eat. As we were talking on the phone, she’d mentioned going there for onion rings (she still thinks they serve cat meat, because someone said something, and she saw a thing on the news …. ). Onions are among the things she shouldn’t be eating. Deep fried foods are also among the things she shouldn’t be eating!

She hadn’t had breakfast, though, so she was happy for the meal!

There was one unfortunate surprise, though.

When I reached her door, I saw some things on her walker, which she parks next to it. There was a jar wrapped in paper two, a carton of eggs, and two carrots.

Under it was a piece of paper.

I immediately recognized our vandal’s handwriting.

It seems he’d swung by her place, left the stuff, but never knocked or anything like that. Who knows how long it was sitting there.

I brought the stuff inside and ended up reading the letter out to her. It was all the usual stuff about the farm and me and my brother, some invented accusations, and how she’s going against the wishes of my late father and GOD!!! Complete with underlines. Then he threw in a comment about going to the doctor. From past calls he’d made to her, before his number was finally blocked, he told her he was dying, but didn’t say from what. He still seems to think she can give him the farm somehow? Either way, it’s clear he still thinks the property should go to him, but 1) he already has a farm and 2) if he’s dying, what’s he going to do with it, anyhow? It’s not like he’s got any kids to leave it to.

Our theory is, he’d simply sell it. It’s the money he’s really interested in.

The paper towel wrapped jar turned out to be soup in what looked like a small mayonnaise jar – at least it wasn’t a pickled herring jar this time! My mother was so disgusted after hearing what was in the letter, she didn’t want any of it. At least not anything that he cooked (it was full of onions and chunks of sausage, anyhow!).

Instead, we enjoyed our Chinese food and had a good conversation. She was feeling a lot better once she was up and out of bed, and I talked some more about how sleeping more upright can be a help (another thing that’s on the list I made for her, along with food choices). It would be really helpful for her to have a hospital bed, like my husband – it would even be better for her and her knees – but no. She doesn’t want to “bother anyone”. ?? In our province, our home care service department can provide a hospital bed as a “loan” – that way, if anything breaks or whatever, they simply replace it. The company they get these from sends a couple of people over to bring it in, assemble it and test it out. Easy peasy. But no. She even has a chair my brother bought for her that can be reclined almost flat and would be good to use as a sleep chair, but she won’t do that, either.

As we were talking about how being upright and moving around obviously helped out, she then suggested that if she hadn’t gotten out of bed this morning, she probably would have died.

*sigh*

She was clearly feeling better, but not enough to run errands, so we went over her list. She writes her stuff out in a mix of English, Polish or English with Polish spelling. Then she makes little doodles of what they are, beside each item.

I was very confused when I saw “soup” followed by an =, a drawing of a jar, another =, then a drawing of a cup.

It turns out, she meant “soap”.

For dishes.

We had a good laugh over that!

One thing I did take note of was that she included “turkey or chicken”, but not sliced, with a doodle of a deli chicken.

I can’t even wrap my mind around how she spelled “sliced” enough to remember it!

It’s been a while, and a longer list than usual, so I was hitting both the pharmacy and the grocery store to get it all. Which is fine by me.

My only problem is, I think I messed up with my new shoes. Wearing thinner socks has helped, but only with one foot. My other foot could have used a half size bigger. Not that there was any half sizes to choose from. Normally, I’d be confident that the shoe would eventually stretch out a bit, but I’m not sure how far the steel toe extends. I might be hooped. I won’t return them. I’m not going to take back shoes I’ve already worn in the mud. Ah, well. Live and learn! I’ll work it out, but gosh, it got pretty painful by the time I was done! The main thing is, my mother is now well stocked again, and I was even able to get her a variety of fresh meat in single person size packages, instead of the processed meats she usually gets!

As I was heading home, I remembered to stop at a hardware store. I got metal corner supports to put on the corners of our raised bed covers.

In other garden related things, I got a notification today that our T&T Seeds order of potatoes got shipped today, and should arrive tomorrow!

These are the varieties we ordered; 1kg of Purple Caribe and 2kg of German Butterball.

I wasn’t expecting them to be shipped so soon! The space we will be planting them was still mostly covered with snow, this morning. It was warm enough today that it’s almost all gone, but the ground is probably still quite frozen. Of course, they don’t need to be planted right away; they can be stored for a little while, at least, but perishables like this get shipped based on the local growing zone, which means they really should be going into the ground soon!

The potatoes are not the only things that are on the way. My husband ordered a hand crank for my crossbow. I have not been able to use it for a frustrating reason. I’m too short to cock the bow, using the rope cocking aid that came with it. Basically, it’s got a pair of hooks you place on the string, with a matching pair of handles. With the bow secured with a foot, you bend over the stock, pull the sting with your arms, then straighten up. Once upright, the string should be far enough along to lock in place.

I’m too short.

I even tried shortening the cords on the ropes of the cocking aid, but there’s only so far you can do that without compromising the gear. My husband can cock it but, with his back injury, he can only do it a few times before it becomes too painful.

The hard part has been finding a hand crank that will fit the model of crossbow I have. There was one made for it, but it was discontinued shortly after I bought mine! It took a couple of years, but my husband finally found one that is supposed to work on my model – and was affordable!

So that should arrive soon.

If Fed Ex can figure out the address.

It might just end up at the store the post office is in. We shall see!

I look forward to finally being able to practice again!

Anyhow.

That’s a few of the things going on today.

Tomorrow, the septic guy comes in to replace the pill switch!

I’m so excited! 😄😄😄

Besides that, I think the ground is thawed out enough that I can continue working on that bed along the chain link fence. I was able to pry out the last chunk of broken sidewalk block that was under the one end, but that was it. We hit 12C/54F today, so that should have helped a lot. We’ll see how tomorrow is. We’re expected to have a high of 9C/48F, with possible rain.

Rain would be good. I even drove through rain on my way home from my mother’s today!

Maybe not so good if it comes while the septic guy is working on our tank, though!

We shall see.

Lots to do outside, as things keep warming up, and that now includes preparing the potato patch!

The Re-Farmer

Adoption update, changes in plans, and a sad job finally done

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I got some sad news from the Cat Lady last night. The “problem cat” that they took on from the city shelter is going to have to be put down. For her to make this decision, you know the situation has to be exceptionally bad. She has had vets recommend euthanasia for cats many times, and she’s hung in there and saved so many cats, including several from us that are now living with them permanently. She was even wondering why the city shelter hadn’t already done it, long ago.

In the middle of all this difficulty, she was still thinking about us and her promise to help out.

The original plan had been for both tripods to go to the city shelter and their special needs area, while Ghosty would be going to the shelter that specializes in Siamese cats. However, because our adoptees are going from a loving home where they are well cared for, she feels it would be too stressful for them to go to a shelter, no matter how much they promise that tripods get adopted very quickly. If they were kittens, that would be a different issue, but if she wouldn’t feel right putting one of her own cats in there, she wasn’t comfortable putting any of ours in there, either.

I will trust her on that assessment!

She’s going to give herself some time to decompress from the situation with this other cat, and will then take Ginger from us on the weekend. Ghosty is going to wait until the other shelter has an open space, rather than go to the Cat Lady until they do. Toni is not being bullied like Ginger is, so she is not an urgent adoption. She was even willing to take Leyendecker instead of Ginger, since she’s quite familiar with dealing with cats with urinary issues, but Leyendecker is not the cat being bullied, and the chances of getting Leyendecker adopted out is much lower. His urinary issues are related to stress, and he’s had no issues at all for quite a while – just increasing the amount of wet cat food they all get seems to have helped with that, too.

So we get to keep Ginger a little bit longer. This time, we’ll be meeting in the town nearest us, rather than in the nearer city, half way between our homes.

I had intended to pick up more litter pellets after meeting with the Cat Lady, since I could only fit one bag in the cart along with the kibble. When my daughter wanted to go into town to pick up a few last things for her sister’s birthday, I suggested we go to the nearer city so I could get the litter pellets, too. That worked for her, so we headed out late this morning and ran our errands.

When we got home, I took advantage of our weather to do a job that should have been done awhile ago. We have not been able to do burns often enough, usually due to high winds, so our burnable garbage has been building up. Meanwhile, we’re getting to where my daughter wants to start burning the used litter, rather than adding it to the pile behind the outhouse, to compost. On top of that, we have not been able to cremate the cats we’ve lost over the winter. Today we happened to not only be pleasantly warm, at 2C/36F, but there was virtually no wind at all. It was time to finally get the job done.

The burn barrel is falling apart and needs to be replaced, so we’ve been using a burn ring, instead. That’s getting too full of ashes. So after digging a path through the snow to the burn ring, I also dug out a larger area nearby to basically do a bonfire. We’ve still got all those old rotten pallets we cleaned up from where the wood pile used to be, so I set one of those down on top of the snow where I’d cleared a space, then prepared a space in the middle for our lost ones. Their remains were kept under cover in the burn ring, so I moved then over, then continued to build up a pyre over their remains.

Between our paper garbage and the old pallets, I was able to built quite a fire – and wow, did it get hot! I couldn’t get close to it to tend the fire for more than a few seconds before having to back off to at least 10ft away.

I took advantage of this and cleaned out almost all the old rotten pallets, setting aside the wettest ones where they could dry in the sun, for the next time we need a fire. That junk pile looks so much better now! We’d intended to take the old pallets to the dump, along with all the other oversize garbage in there, but we were never able to hire someone to haul it all away for us. I would have preferred not burning them, since they are so full of nails, but we’ll just have to take extra care in cleaning up the ashes. Right now, I’m glad we didn’t get them hauled away, since they made for an appropriately hot and clean fire to take care of our lost ones.

Not something I ever expected to need to do, when we moved out here!

The good thing about doing something like this, this time of year, is that once things burned down enough, I could leave it to smolder. The fire melted enough snow around it to create quite a puddle under it, and there’s nothing but more snow for a substantial distance in all directions.

So there’s a job that finally got done. Hopefully, not one that will need to be done again for quite some time. This past year had an insane amount of cat and kitten losses, both indoors and out. Something the Cat Lady tells us has been happening all over our province, so it wasn’t just with us.

As for the inside cats, pretty soon we’ll be down one and, hopefully, we’ll be able to keep finding forever homes for more soon. It’s been really all over the place in getting adoptions done, but at least they are happening! I am so thankful we connected with the Cat Lady. She’s been awesome for us!

The Re-Farmer

Got some snow.

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I was keeping an eye on the local highway conditions groups last night, and apparently things were pretty bad. We didn’t get a large amount of snow, but the high winds made the biggest difference.

It was all over by this morning, though.

I got this shot as I was coming back inside, and they were all done with breakfast. This bunch is directly under the heat lamp. The mostly black one is friendly, and the orange one allows pets most of the time. The tabby with his head tucked allows pets at feeding time, but that’s it. The other tabby runs off. The tuxedo on the left is at that “hey! I think I actually like this… maybe?” stage of discovering pets.

I love that black strip on his nose.

Once again, it seems the racoons visited during the night. The water bowl in the sun room was dry, even though I’d refilled it during the evening feeding, and I had to clean dirt off the bottom before I could refill it.

After their food and water was done, I started shoveling.

And shoveling.

And shoveling some more!

Fair warning, there is a photo of a wound later on.

I was able to clear the cat shelters and the cat paths to the food bowls under the shrine, and to the corner of the storage house, where they go in and out of the “basement”. The cats get SO excited when their paths are clear! It’s hilarious to watch them running around and playing in the paths. I then made sure to clear the sidewalk to the gate in the chain link fence wide enough for my husband’s walker walker. The snow was still light and fluffy, though, so I kept going and cleared the area I back up into, to unload the truck. The rest of the driving area will wait for the snow blower, though.

Then, because I actually enjoy shoveling snow, I kept going and cleared paths to the burn barrel and electricity meter, before continuing to the garage. The path to the garage needs to be wide enough for my husband’s walker, plus I cleared enough in front of the driveway that we can open the side doors where little Spewie is stored. The snow isn’t deep enough that clearing the driveway and yard is a necessity, but we’re supposed to get more snow later in the week, so it’s more to keep things from accumulating.

It’s stuff like this that’s the problem, though.

That’s a whole lot of ice under the snow!

This is the path to the garage where it crosses the “driveway” to the inner yard. That area is lower and collects water, so when we had our nice, warm days with all the snow melting, the moat around the garage started to form. A couple of days ago, we reached a high of 6C/43F, only to have a high of -11C/12F yesterday. This morning, while I was shoveling, we were at a very mild -7C/19F, which was perfect for shoveling – as long as I was out of the wind. However, I kept hitting patches like this, which can be quite dangerous to find unexpectedly. In the inner yard alone, around the cat shelters, I almost slipped a few times.

I was still shoveling in the inner yard when I suddenly noticed this.

I have no idea where I got this, but by the time I noticed it, enough time had passed that it had stopped bleeding. My cuff kept sliding over it while I was shoveling, which is why it looks so horrible!

I just kept shoveling, though. No point in stopping when it wasn’t bleeding anymore, and didn’t hurt at all. Once I was inside, my daughter was handy, so after I washed the blood off, she got the wound all cleaned up and bandaged for me. The wound was actually a lot bigger than I expected, and it’s a couple of scratches, not just one.

I keep going through what I did before I started shoveling, trying to figure out where or how I could have gotten this, and I’m still drawing a blank!

Ah, well.

The paths to the compost pile, outhouse and the back door of the garage still need to be done, but I stopped for a while and finished my rounds instead. My daughter, sweetheart that she is, made breakfast for me after tending my wound. The more time goes by, the stiffer my body is getting, from the shoveling. 🫤 Time for some more painkillers, I think!

Tomorrow, I’m expecting to do our Costco shopping, so if we’re going to get the rest of the driving area in the inner yard done, it’s going to have to be today. Unless the girls do it while I’m gone tomorrow, but tomorrow is supposed to get much colder again. Current forecast is for a high of -5C/23F today, but a high of -18C/~-1F tomorrow. We’re also expected to be getting some light snow from about 4pm tonight until 4am tomorrow morning.

Oh, wow! I’m just looking at our record highs and lows for today. The record high is 5C/41F in 1999, but the record low for today is -34C/-29F, set back in 1962! The average high for this time of year is a nice and mild -7C/19F.

A few more days and we’re into March. The time feels like it is really flying by, this winter! Maybe it’s because my brain is constantly thinking ahead, to what we need and want to do, once spring arrives.

The next few days are going to be really busy ones, with our stock up shopping and other end of month errands, so I’m going to appreciate having one more quiet day, with no running around involved – and no crowds of people!

The Re-Farmer

A productive morning

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The only thing I had planned for today that was time dependent was a trip to the dump, which opened at 9am today. Everything else was flexible. I figured I may as well head out as soon as I finished my morning rounds. I managed to get this adorable picture of Syndol in the process.

I caught him in mid stretch!

Gosh, he is such a beauty!!!

I also managed to zoom in to get a picture of this next cat. He (she?) is one of the more feral cats. I’m pretty sure he is one of Brussel’s kittens. She had hers well away from the house, and while we eventually saw them running around the shed with the collapsed roof and the garage, they did not come to the house for a very long time. One of them is the orange and white that now accepts pets, but this tuxedo plays strange, still. Hypotenose is also Brussel’s, if I remember correctly. They both have distinctive nose patterns.

There’s also something weird going on with this one’s eye.

I zoomed in, then cropped, to get this picture and finally get a good look at it. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’d have to trap him to get him to a vet, and with so many yard cats, it would be hard to trap any one particular cat.

We did have another cat with an eye that was basically gone. He disappeared some months ago, so I’m guessing the coyotes or bobcats got him. I’d rather think that some local farm family was able to catch him and take him in. At least with this cat, he does seem to still be able to see out of the damaged eye, so that increases his chances of survival. I might still send this photo to the Cat Lady, just to see if she has some information she can share with me.

Speaking of which…

Since my husband asked me to pick up some more distilled water for his CPAP humidifier, plus we had a couple of our big water jugs to refill, after going to the dump, I messaged the Cat Lady, to see if we could meet up at at the nearer Walmart parking lot again. Getting the donated cat food makes it well worth the gas for the trip, and I could run my errands there, as well as locally. Both the distilled water at Walmart and the water jug refills at Canadian Tire are much cheaper there, too. She was available to meet me at our usual spot in the parking lot behind the Dollarama, before her kids came home from school for lunch. I had just enough time to make the drive from the dump and meet her, which worked out perfectly.

We had a chance to chat for a bit – and she got a chance to vent for a bit, too! I can understand why she recommended against us becoming a rescue. People can really suck. All the money to the rescue has been going to spays and neuters. They’ve been paying vet bills out of pocket, both for the rescues and for their own cats (all 27 permanent cats!). I feel bad that they found themselves with so many of our cats, permanently, because they turned out to have so many health problems, they couldn’t get adopted! They did adopt out more than they kept, but still… yikes! I could just feel her frustration with some of the people she’s been having to deal with through the rescue. So we got to commiserate, and I got to give her a great big hug!

She, meanwhile, gave me these.

When she told me about getting a good deal on kibble at Amazon that she ordered for us, she sent me a screen cap. She’d ordered four 7kg bags.

These are 9.1kg bags!! And yes, there are four bags. One is completely hidden by the bag on top of it.

Then she brought out the box of cat treats, catnip, canned cat food and an open bag of cat food for senior cats. Apparently, the cat these were intended for, didn’t like them. Our cats will be more than happy to have it! We are so incredibly grateful for any donations. It helps us out a lot, and many times it means the cats get better quality stuff than we can usually afford.

After we parted ways, I ran my errands at Walmart, then headed to the Canadian Tire to refill our water jugs. The Walmart has a water refill station, but Canadian Tire has three, plus a sanitation station.

Today turned out to be a great day to drive around with errands. Bright and sunny! As I write this, we’re at -3C/27F, and are still expected to reach our high of -2C/28F, but the way things were melting by the time I got home, it feels like it’s warmer. While loading the garbage into the truck this morning, the sun room thermometer was already reading 10C/50! The yard cats are very happy cats these days. 😊

After I got home and everything was unloaded and put away, the inside cats got their first wet cat food feeding of the day. With Butterscotch acting the way she is, we’ve been making sure to close the door to my room before putting food out, so she has a chance to eat, drink and use the litter without being bothered. Since the donated cat food is in smaller tins, I’ve started using those in my room, so she gets an extra treat of fancier food, along with whichever cats are in the room with her. Our elderly Freya is one we can allow to stay, along with Potato Beetle, who has no interest in wet cat food for some reason, and just loafs on my bed.

I’m happy to say that Butterscotch seems to be relaxing a bit. She’s actually come out of her hiding place in the wall shelf, and is now sleeping on the window shelf I built for them, instead.

We think the cat that set Butterscotch off must be Susan, and possibly Leyendecker as well. When Butterscotch sees Susan, she immediately starts growling, even if Susan is not even close to her, and completely ignoring her. She sometimes growls like that at Leyendecker. At least now, she’s growling from her bed on the window shelf, instead of while hidden in the wall shelf. Any progress is good progress!

All in all, it’s been a very productive morning, and I’m glad I was able to make the trip out to meet the Cat Lady! I’m always happy to see her. She is such an awesome person!

Now, it’s time to see how productive the rest of my afternoon can be. 😊

The Re-Farmer