getting things done

I’m feeling totally wasted!

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It has been a looooong day!

Of mowing.

My hands are shot, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to write, and I’ll probably have typos all over the place. This would normally be a post loaded with photos, but I don’t feel like embedding Instagram photos.

So… this was my day.

Doing my morning rounds I, as always, checked all the garden beds after feeding the cats…

… and the kittens. Much kittens. Adam and her kittens have been in and out of the sun room all day, and I’ve seeing the four behind the garage playing around all day, too. Those ones, it turns out, are Slick’s! (aka: Octomom). I thought they were Brussel’s, but nope. I saw Slick mothering them.

I’m glad she had only 4 kittens this time, and not 8!

Also, it turns out the dark grey kitten with the white eyeliner is NOT the sunroom kitten. We have two of them!

I was quite happy to see the first scapes appearing in our garlic. We are so looking forwards to eating scapes again!

All the strawberries – the older ones with the asparagus, the ones in the wattle weaves we started from seed last year, and the everbearing ones we got as bare roots this spring – are developing berries. Now, if we can just keep the birds and deer from eating them first, we might have a decent amount to enjoy this year!

Quite a few of the first bed of winter squash we transplanted are blooming now. All male flowers for now. I even saw a few tiny flowers on some melons!

Quite a few of onions that overwintered and got transplanted into the first trellis bed are developing seed tops. I look forward to being able to collect our own onions seeds for next year!

The Crespo squash is also blooming quite a bit. There’s some sort of small weed that’s showing up in almost all our beds, but there’s a rather surprising amount around the Crespo squash . Since I was able to do some mowing yesterday, I gathered up grass clippings to mulch around the Crespo squash, leaving space where the beans were plants. There’s still just 3 or 4 beans growing on one side, and I plan to reseed them, though it’s getting pretty late for pole beans right now. The grass clipping mulch should help take care of those weeds and, with more rain on its way, get the squash vines off the wet soil.

Then, since I was gathering grass clippings nearby, anyhow, I mulched around the strawberry and asparagus bed. That one is almost impossible to weed properly. I made it to fit the spacing the asparagus needed, but that left it too wide for me to reach without stepping right inside the bed.

I did some weeding in the spinach, snap pea and carrot bed. I ended up pulling some of the larger spinach. Even the tiniest ones are bolting, but a few had leaves large enough to actually use. I’ve been using them in sandwiches all day today.

Soon after I was done my rounds, I went to town with the 20L jerry can to get premium gas for the mowers. At the last minute, I decided to hit another store and pick up a bunch of artificial flowers. Then I went to a hardware store and found small engine oil for our push mower, before finally getting the fuel for the lawnmowers. On the way home, I swung by the cemetery and left flowers by the stones for my father, my father’s uncle, my brother, my grandmother, a cousin and her baby. I’ll have to come by another time with some soap and water and give the stones a wash. Birds are no respecter of persons! Later, I want to grab the cross with a solar powered light in it, that I got for my MIL’s grave, and set it out with flowers. I’ve never actually seen her grave. When my daughter and I went to tend to is, and my FIL’s request, since he can no longer make the trip out, we couldn’t find it. We did find a sign saying a number of markers have been removed due to flooding, and would be repaired and returned. I would hope it’s been replaced by now!

Once I got home and fueled up the push mower, it was time to start mowing! We’re expecting rain starting tonight, and all day tomorrow, so I wanted to get as much done as I could. I didn’t even try using the riding mower. I tried using it yesterday, but it just can’t handle the tall, wet grass very well.

For the first while, I worked on the south yards. These were the worst, even though we’d actually been able to mow parts, previously. Unfortunately, these yards are also where all the kittens are! The area behind the garage was just brutal to work on. There is no longer standing water, but the ground still squelches when I walk on it. I scared off the garage kittens quite a few times, but after a while, they did start to get used to me and the noise, and would come out and play more often, ducking to hide only when I got close again.

The south west yard is where the kibble and water bowl houses are. That corner needs to be done with the weed trimmed, but I got as close around the cat shelters as I could.

The cats and kittens were not happy.

I even had time to do the west yard, around the fire pit area, though I didn’t even try to go behind the storage house, where there is an open area between rows of trees. It got so full of water there, so it’s bound to be really wet. However, it gets very little light, so the grass there is so sparse, being overground there isn’t really much of an issue.

At that point, I finally stopped to have lunch. It was past 3pm by then, and today the dump is open from 2-6pm Once I finished lunch, I brought the truck into the yard and my older daughter helped me load the garbage and recycling.

I had quite a nice surprise when I got to the dump. My cousin-in-law was there! He was with the attendant dealing with electronics garbage and didn’t seem me, so I just got rid of our recycling, then drove to the pit. I was just finishing up when he drove to the pit, too, and we finally got to say hello. It’s been a long time since we chatted.

After we said our goodbyes and I was getting ready to leave, I spotted something very strange on the ground beside the truck I hadn’t noticed when I first got out. It was so strange, I had to call my cousin over to see!

I found a foot.

It had just enough flesh on it to hold the bones together, but it was most definitely a foot.

Then I found another one, a few feet away.

Then I found a “hand”.

The “hand” did not have an opposable thumb.

My guess is, they were from a bear. A hunter probably processed one, tossed the unused bits and pieces in the pit, then some animal dragged them out.

Not something I ever expected to see in my life, that’s for sure!

The dump run done, as soon as I got home, it was back to mowing.

I was able to finished off the north and east yards, much to the discomfort of Caramel, who dove under the tarp covered pile of boards she has her two kittens in. I saw no sign of Broccoli’s two, around the old garden shed, though I did see them this morning.

When I got those done, I kept pushing the mowing further into the area between the spruce grove and the garden beds. This is an area we’re going to be dragging trees through, and part of it is where the trellis beds will be built, so I wanted to get as least some of it done, in the more level areas.

I also finally mowed a path through the maple grove. Just enough that we can walk through from near the old kitchen garden, around to where the main garden area is. This took me near where the old tap and its part and pieces are lying on the ground, waiting for when we can set it up again. That will happen after we get the pipes we want to run the hose through, to protect it, before burying it in a trench.

All this means we have FINALLY been able to mow the entire inner yard. Not between the trees, but at least the higher traffic areas!

Yay!!!

My next area to do was in the outer yard. I’d already cleared part of it in front of the chain link fence, between the vehicle gate and the people gate, so we could actually access the people gate again. Today, I cleared a path to access the burn barrel to the electricity meter, then back to the people gate. Once that triangle of paths was made, I worked on clearing the grass inside the triangle.

Not only had this area not been mowed yet this year, but it’s one of those areas that’s really dense and had different, tougher, grasses in it. Which means, for most of this area, even with the mower on its highest setting, I had to go forward with the wheels up first, drop the mower and back up over the same area, then go forward again normally. Basically going over the same sections, three times. I had to do this in the inner yard, too, but not as much as this one section. It was almost as difficult as going over the wet area behind the garage.

I had just a small triangle left when I ran out of gas again. It was actually worth refilling the mower to get that little triangle. 😄

And that was it. I was done. The temperatures are really nice right now, there’s still light out, and I probably could have kept going, but I was DONE. I’m going to need someone to put the bath chair in the tub for me later on, so I can shower.

I was working on that last bit when my daughters came out. The ground is finally solid enough that they can set up the ladder against the house, and it won’t sink into the ground. They were finally able to clear the eavestroughs. My older daughter just came in and updated me. Since her sister was up on the roof, anyhow, she cleared away some of the elm branches from the tree in front of the kitchen window that were overhanging the roof, while my older daughter hauled the branches away to the burn pile. That would have been quite a big job, and rather precarious in places.

I’m going to be so much more comfortable when we can get rid of that tree!

I’ve also been informed, we need to get more bug spray. The mosquitoes are insane, and we’re running out. At least it isn’t horseflies anymore. When I was moving the back hose over so I could mow, I heard buzzing like there was another wasp next back there. There wasn’t. It was hundreds of horseflies, all in that corner of the house!

I’m heading into the city tomorrow for our second shop, so I’ll make sure to add that to the list!

I definitely will need to pain killer up tonight. I’m going to be paying for all that mowing. It was worth it, though. Everything looks so much better and, now that it’s done, it’ll be so much easier to keep up. We’ll even be able to use the riding mower on it!

Plus, we now have lots of grass clippings to use as mulch in the garden!

The Re-Farmer

Very little progress

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Man, I just can’t handle heat like I used to!

We did get one thing done this morning; the Dwarf Korean Lilac is kicking into full bloom, so we finally got our group picture done. By the time we finished that, it was coming up on 9am, and that’s when I finally started on the next garden bed.

As an aside, though, it looks like the kittens in the sun room, and the old garden shed, have been moved. I saw the kittens this morning, at feeding time, but by the time I was coming in from the garden, they were gone. I’m hoping they’re just staying cool under the cat house. Unfortunately, we’ve seen both skunks and racoons going for the kibble today, and that might have been just too much for the mama. As for the garden shed babies, I left food inside the door, but saw and heard nothing from the back.

We shall see if they’re still around somewhere.

The main thing I wanted to work on today was that next garden bed.

I’ve been really dreading this one. In the end, I decided all I can really do is work on the area that was path, first, and just flip the sod. There’s no way it can be properly weeded. It’s not even worth trying to sift it.

I started at the north end of the bed, where it has been extended to 18′, but only got maybe 2 1/2-3 feet of sod turned. Around then, I got a message from my husband, asking when I was planning to go to the post office to pick up some parcels. I had originally thought to do it after I’d turned the bed, but it was already 19C/66F, and I was baking in the sun. My app said the “feels like” was also 19C/66F.

It lies.

So I stopped at that point and picked up the parcels. I now have my tips for my new impact driver! A really good range of shapes and sizes, too.

After I got back, my daughter made us lunch – cold chicken salad sandwiches, because no one wants to cook in this heat! My daughter is still recovering from arm damage, trying to mow the lawn with the push mower. Yesterday, her grip strength was so non existent, she actually had to ask me to finished changing the toilet roll for her, because she couldn’t squeeze the stretch spindle enough to fit it back into the holder. Today, she is much improved.

Which is great, because I needed her help with the riding mower, after lunch.

The last time I used it, last year, it was only the second use after my brother had fixed and upgraded all sorts of things on it and brought it back, when I stopped the mower to move something out of the way, and then it wouldn’t move. The engine was still running. There was just no go, forward or reverse. I didn’t want to bug my brother about it, so we just used the push mower for the rest of the season.

The challenge for us was how to safely look under it to see what was going on. When this happened before, there was a chain that fell off. My brother got that replaced and adjusted a number of things to ensure it would not happen again. I figured, that must have somehow fallen off again.

With the truck, however, we now have a way to get a look under the riding mower. We opened the tail gate and set up the ramps my brother gifted to us. Then we pushed the mower onto the ramps, then blocked the wheels, so we could safely look under it.

Well. Under the front of it.

After not finding the problem from there, we reversed it, so that the engine was up the ramp. That was rather more difficult to manage, because of the weight distribution. Even blocking the front tires didn’t want to work as well, since they wanted to turn and roll off, anyhow!

We got it secured, though, and my daughter ended up crawling under it to see. She found a loose belt that the pedal at the front should have been engaging. After fighting with it for a while, she asked me to fight with the pedal, to see if I could get it to lift up more, rather than push down. Which I was able to do, and that gave her the slack she needed to get the belt on. We tested it out (after charging the battery!) and it worked!

I started some mowing while my daughter put stuff away and went back inside, but not for very long. It was just too hot. So I parked the mower in the shade and took a hydration break. When I came back out to continue, I made sure to have a wet towel to drape over my shoulders to help keep cooler. It really helped a lot.

The poor riding mower was really struggling. The grass is so tall, it’s going to see, but there are some types of grass in the driveway area that is different, and more fibrous. This old mower just doesn’t have the juice to handle them. Sometimes, if I go just a couple of inches forward at a time, I can get through without it getting too overworked, or getting clogged. In a few places, I would have to go over the same patch several times, and even reverse over it, before getting it properly cut. It seems counterintuitive, but it seems to work better when I have the blades set lower, rather than higher. You’d think I could go over it at the highest setting, then lower it for another pass, then lower it again for a final pass, but nope. When it’s higher, the blades just bend the grass, without cutting anything!

Meanwhile, the grass is still pretty wet and not trying out, because it’s so tall, so things clog up, too. After my second mowing session, I parked the mower in the shade to cool down, then used the hose to try and wash off anything stuck around the blades. I’ll head out again to try and mow a bit more. There’s no way I’m getting more done on the garden bed today. We’re at 24C/75F, and the humidex puts it at 28C/82F. It’s not going to start cooling down until about 8pm – three hours from now – and won’t reach reasonable temperatures until maybe midnight. If I’m going to get progress done on the beds, I’m going to have to be out there, digging, at 6am.

Which means I’ll be doing a bit more mowing before putting the riding mower away, then heading to bed early. The problem is, even if I head to bed early, that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to sleep! I tried that last night, and had all sorts of disruptions keeping me up. 😢

Meanwhile, I am totally behind on visiting blogs, so if you’ve got a blog that I follow and you haven’t heard from me lately, I’ve just not been able to spend the time online for it! I’ll have a lot of catching up to do, when I finally get the chance.

I started getting messages from the Cat Lady while I was writing this. There’s a cheap spay day coming up, and she wanted to know if we have cats to do. Of course we do, but the ones we can catch are all male. She will contact the clinic and see if they are good with a group of males. The rescue will cover the costs completely.

Oh, and her youngest daughter has a birthday coming up. The Cat Lady asked her if she wanted cash, or a new bike, for her birthday. She wanted neither.

She wants the Wolfman!

They’ve already got so many of our cats, permanently! We were afraid this would happen!

Anyhow…

When she hears back from the vet about doing males, she’ll get back to me, and let me know how many they can cover.

If we can get Sad Face done, that would make a huge difference. Hopefully, it would reduce his aggressive behaviors! It took 5 years to be able to pet him. Getting him into a carrier right now is something else entirely.

Well, time to get back outside and to a bit more mowing, then call it a night, so I can get that bed done tomorrow. We seriously need to get those last transplants in!

The Re-Farmer

Low raised bed progress

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Before I get into how things went, I want to share some adorable news. While checking in the old garden shed while Broccoli was eating at the other side of the hose, I found both kittens, curled up together on a grow bag next to their cat bed. I was able to pick both of them up and cuddle them! The black and white male hissed at me a bit. The calico mostly just started at me. Neither tried to run away. The calico’s eyes are changing colour! The black and white still has very blue eyes.

I straightened out the cat bed and set them in it, before leaving some kibble for Broccoli just inside the door. I’d already left some in a sheltered spot outside the shed, and when I closed the door, I found her there, munching away. Happily, she is tolerating my visits to her babies, and not hiding them.

One of my goals for the day was to plant some summer squash in the pots we’ve got outside the main doors into the house. I got some seeds scarified and presoaking while I did my morning rounds, then planted them after I had breakfast. While checking the garden beds, I noticed the one available chimney block planter at the chain link fence and decided to plant in there, too.

In the pots, I decided on white patty pans (a new one for us), green Endeavor zucchini, and yes, I found a package of Magda seeds! I’d ordered a variety pack of summer squash years ago, and accidentally ordered three instead of one – and those extra seeds are coming in handy! The chimney block planter got Goldy zucchini. Hopefully, we’ll have space to plant out more summer squash in other places, but for now, we at least have these in. I had to add sticks around where the seeds were planted, to make sure no cats lay on them!

Then I found cats lying on my onions that were transplanted! I remembered I had a packages of disposable plastic utensils in the old kitchen, so I stuck those in among the onions. I don’t know that they’ll all survive being squashed flat by cat butts, but at least now they have a chance!

One of my other goals for today was to start transplanting into one of the shifted beds in the main garden area, with or without a frame. My daughter, however, figured we should be able to drag that second log out of the spruce grove today. So that’s what we started on.

Since she debranched it and cut it to length, all the space she cleared around it has grown back! The mosquitoes in there were brutal, too.

Dragging it out was a pain. We used a rope to heave it forward a few feet, then I’d go to the other and and swing it around a foot or so, we’d drag it forward some more, then back to swinging the other end around, until we finally cleared some trees and had a straight line out of the spruce grove. Even then, we had to make our way between a narrow space between trees at the edge of the grove. It was a bit easier to drag once we were clear of the spruce grove, but an 18′ log is pretty heavy!

Oh, wow. I just used a log weight calculator. I don’t know the exact dimensions for the calculator, but at the lowest estimate, it would be 210 pounds/95kg. At the largest estimate, 337 pounds/152kg. I would guess it’s actually closer to about 250 pounds/113kg.

I don’t feel so bad, now.

Earlier in the morning, I’d taken out the weed trimmer and trimmed where I would be working around the beds, as close to the ground as I could. I also trimmed around the logs that were already by the raised beds – the grass and dandelions were so tall, you could barely see them!

After the log was dragged out, my daughter wanted to start mowing part of the lawn. It’s still damp, but it really needs to be done! She started on a section in front of the house that did not get mowed at all this year, around where the kibble and cat shelters are. It’s one of the densest sections of lawn we’ve got. She started off with the mower set high, then tried to go over the densest spot with it set lower, but the grass is so wet, the lawnmower kept clogging! She was collecting the grass clippings, which means she was stopping and starting often, to empty the bag. After a while, the lawnmower just wouldn’t start anymore. She switched to using the weed trimmer around the edges for a while, as we left the mower in the shade. After maybe half an hour, it started again. When it happened again, my daughter just stopped for the day. She was so hot and tired by then, she couldn’t even grip the pull cord anymore!

While she did that, I worked on the logs.

One of the first things to do was go over all of them with the baby chainsaw (cordless pruner) to cut away all the sticky-outy bits. Stubs of branches, lumps in the wood, etc. I did the 18′ lengths first, then the 4′ lengths. Being able to set the 4′ lengths across the long logs made it a lot easier! Once the bits were trimmed off, I broke out the draw knife and debarked the 4′ lengths. When we built our first high raised bed out of logs, I didn’t bother debarking them, as it was an experiment. What I’ve since found is that ants just LOVE to build nests in the logs, between the bark and the wood! Insects, in general, like to get in there, and of course, moisture collects between the layers, too. These logs have been out in the elements long enough that things were already getting in between the layers. After everything is set up, I’ll be making sure to use the jet setting on the hose to pressure wash the logs!

Once the bark was clear, it was back to removing sticky-outy bits again, that had been hidden in the bark.

Once the 4′ end pieces were done, I moved the marking posts with the twine on them over, then brought the short logs close to where they will be assembled. Then I worked on one of the 18′ logs. That was made easier by setting the ends on other logs, including a pile of them still mostly buried in the grass. These smaller logs will be the upright supports for the trellises, once the trellis beds are assembled. For now, though, they provide a surface I can use to roll a big log around, while debarking it!

By the time I got the first 18′ length debarked, I was totally hooped. We were at 17C/63F, with a humidex of 20/68F, and I was working in full sun. It felt a lot hotter than that, to me! It was time to stop for sustenance and hydration. I think I might still make it out this evening, but I’m not sure, yet, if I’ll get back to the logs. I might do some other transplanting, first. For now, though, even if we just get the 18′ lengths in position, the soil inside can be spread out, and some of the winter squash can be transplanted. The 4′ ends can be permanently attached, later. So finishing the second 18′ log is a priority, but I’ll see how I feel physically, first. I don’t need to go to my mother’s tomorrow until the afternoon, so I can hopefully do some transplanting in the morning, but I definitely won’t be working with the logs in the morning, when I have to leave for my mother’s!

I did get a bit of an update about her. I haven’t talked to her since she hung up on me yesterday, when she was trying to convince me her pills are all wrong. My brother spoke to her, and he mentioned he’d heard she hung up on me. She started going on about how her pills are all mixed up, and he basically repeated the same things I did, adding that the pharmacist knows which is which, and makes sure they are in the right places in her bubble packs. She ended up changing the subject. She told him she hadn’t gone to church today, because she wasn’t feeling good (no idea why) then asked if he went to church today. He reminded her, they go to their church on Saturdays (she’s said to me a few times that she doesn’t think they go to church anymore. I remind her that they go on Saturdays, but she doesn’t believe me!). Then he mentioned this Saturday was particularly special, as they attended the funeral of a dear friend’s mother. My SIL sang during the service, while my brother played the guitar.

To which my mother lamented that my SIL cares more about taking care of her friends, than taking care of my mother…

My poor brother. He told me, he was absolutely speechless when she said that. He couldn’t think of what to say at all, so he told her he had to get back to working on their sump pump, and said goodbye.

When he told me about this, I remembered telling my mother about this upcoming funeral, and that my SIL was asked to sing, and her response then was the same. My SIL takes better care of her friends that of my mother.

Oh, I think I know why. My mother has been obsessed about her own funeral, and giving us instructions on what she wants us to do. She had brought up my SIL singing at her funeral. My SIL almost never talks to my mother anymore, and doesn’t come out when my brother does. Too many years of being told she wasn’t “real” family, just my brother’s wife, and my mother being horribly cruel to her, when my SIL has never been anything but kind to my mother.

My brother and his wife are such amazing people. They deserve so much better than how my mother treats them!

Ah, well.

Tomorrow, she has her home care panel. One more step in the process for her to go into long term care. I’m just really thankful that this is something she actually wants, and not something we have to figure out how to do around her!

We’ll see how tomorrow goes!

The Re-Farmer

How things went

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There were a few things that were planned for today. The trip to my mother’s was the biggest one, but I was also planning to get a quick, low raised bed for the Crespo squash done, as well as to finally get a family photo done.

Well, I got one of them completely done! 😄

But first, the cuteness!

This adorable little lady still won’t let us anywhere near her. She is from the latest litter of last year, and isn’t quite a year old yet. I really, really want to snag her before she goes into her first heat, but she just won’t allow it!

When I did the morning feeding, I didn’t even try to do a head count. They come and go too much, this time of year. I did check in the old garden shed to see how the kittens were doing, but they were not visible. I saw them through my bedroom window, last night, playing among the stuff pile at the back of the shed, over the rotted out hole the cats get in and out of. That was reassuring, as I’d feared Broccoli had finally moved them. This morning, though, I didn’t see or hear anything, plus there was still kibble left from yesterday, just inside the door. I didn’t see Broccoli at the kibble house, which is what usually happens when the mamas have moved their kittens further from the house and don’t necessarily hear the kibble hitting the trays.

I’m happy to say, though, that when I went around the back of the house this evening, to check on what I thought was where I was hearing a cat fight, I spotted the black and white one playing among the remains of a pallet, then Broccoli popped out to check on what I was doing. So the kittens are still in the garden shed.

After my morning rounds were done, the weather was good enough that I thought we could finally get the group photo done, out by the lilac hedge. As I was setting up the tripod, my husband and older daughter started coming around, when my daughter suggested we find somewhere else.

My husband was barefoot.

I had no idea my husband no longer had outside shoes! He has tried to buy himself some sandals online, a couple of times, now, but … well… let’s just say, my daughters now have new sandals. When I would take him to medical appointments, he would wear his grandpa slippers, which I thought was just a comfort thing. There was no way we were going to let him walk through the old garden area to the lilac hedge, in bare feet! Especially since he doesn’t feel pain in his feet anymore.

So we decided we will wait for the Dwarf Korean lilac by the house to start blooming, and do the photo there. Hopefully, he’ll have outdoor shoes by then, but if not, it’s only a few steps from the house and there’s nothing there he can injure himself on. These lilacs will bloom in a few weeks, so it’s not much of a delay.

I had thought I would have time to start some projects before I had to leave for my mother’s, but decided to head to her place early, rather than work on things that would get me dirty and sweaty. 😁 I figured I’d pick up lunch for us, too. I checked the grocery store, first, to see if they had those hot dinners she likes so much, but they didn’t. Instead, I put some gas in the truck, and picked up some fried chicken and wedges at the same time.

I gotta say, my messed up left elbow is annoying. When starting to put fuel in the truck, I couldn’t squeeze the lever on the nozzle! I had to switch hands to do it! Strange how an elbow injury can prevent certain motions in the hand from happening. It wasn’t even the pain. The hand just couldn’t squeeze while in that angle!

Ah, well.

I tried calling my mother before I left to let her know I was coming early, but there was no answer. When I got there, she was in the lobby, chatting with a neighbor, so seeing me then was a surprise for her. 😊

She didn’t even give me a hard time for what kind of food I brought, so she was definitely in a good mood.

We had our lunch first, which is when I noticed something on her table that needed to be dealt with. It was an appointment card for a local doctor that she made with my sister, but never told me the date for. She’s wanting to change doctors, even though any doctors out here tend to not stay long, and only come out a few days a week from the city, anyhow. But she doesn’t like her current doctor, and while her racism and sexism plays a part, the reality is, it’s hard for her to make the trip, and between the doctor’s strong accent and fast speech, and my mother’s own grasp of the English language, she has a really hard time understanding what the doctor is saying. The problem is, the appointment with this new local doctor was for Monday.

The day she’s getting her Home Care panel done.

When I commented on it, she asked if I could call and cancel it for her. Which I did, as soon as we finished eating. It was a very quick call, which really surprised my mother. I think she expect them to give me a hard time for cancelling or something, but it was no issue at all.

That done, we brought out her bubble packs and I started looking up her medications. It turns out the water pills she’s on are a round white pill – and she’s taking two different round white pills! They are taken at different times of the day, though, so they were in different bubbles in her pack. While I was at it, I went through each of her prescriptions and wrote down what they were for, and what they looked like, so she could keep track. She thought her water pills were the one that’s split in half and taken twice a day, but that one is a heart pill! It took a lot of repeating and explaining, with both of us writing things down, but I think she finally has it straight as to which pill she is to stop taking, and when. What finally seemed to help make it click for her is that she is now taking 2 pills in the morning instead of 3, but everything else is the same.

I wasn’t going to confuse things by pointing out it was actually 1 1/2 pills. 😁

She has one prescription that is for acid reflux that is in its own bubble, to be taken before she goes to bed. As we were talking, she mentioned that she takes it with her evening pills, because she didn’t want to be bothered with taking a pill again before bed.

She takes her evening pills at 5pm. She doesn’t go to bed until past 10pm.

Suddenly, the problems she was having that the Pepto helped with makes sense. The one medication that should have prevented that was being taken way too early in the day.

*sigh*

But we got it straightened out, and she says she’ll take that one pill before going to bed, again.

She absolutely will not change the times she takes her morning and evening pills, though. It’s 5am and 5pm and that’s it, even though the recommended time frames on the bubble packs would mean not having to get up at 5am every day, but at a far more reasonable hour!

Not something that’s worth giving her a hard time over, though. She just takes her pills, then goes back to bed for several more hours.

After that was done, we went over her shopping list, and then I went and did her shopping for her. I even remembered something we talked about, but wasn’t on her list – a small case of water bottles! It turns out, she remembered that after I left, so she was really happy when she saw me carry it in.

We then spent some time talking about her need to increase hydration, and how these 500ml bottles can help her keep track. I was able to show her that the amount of water she should be drinking was 4 of those bottles – which seemed to shock her. It’s only 2L. The average amount of water an adult female should be drinking (including about 20% fluid from food) is just under 3L. I don’t expect her to be able to start drinking that much right away, but it’s a visible and easy way for her to keep track.

On her list was some canned soup, for those days she doesn’t want to cook, but now also because she is keeping in mind that she should eat more soup for hydration. As we talked about it, she mentioned that she couldn’t open the cans. She had to get a neighbour to do it, for her! She says she needs a new can opener, but she is also having more trouble with her hands. The easy solution would be to get her an electric can opener, but I think that might actually be beyond her.

We’ll figure something out. The good thing is, she has neighbours that are willing and able to do it for her, until then!

Remembering that she was having trouble using the can opener, I remembered to open one of the water bottles for her, just in case, and jokingly nagged at her until she drank some.

She took the tiniest of sips, and that was it! I’m hoping it’s just because she’s not used to drinking from a water bottle, and not because that’s how much she usually drinks at a time!

Oh, I was also able to help her put some things away, that were still sitting in the middle of her living room, from the last time the exterminators were there. While I was doing that, I noticed the traps they’d left in various places, so I checked them. There were a very few insects caught in them, but no bed bugs. So that is encouraging!

While I was sorting through some things to put away for her, I pulled a jar out of one of the bags.

A jar with change in it, labelled “bingo”.

My mother seemed surprised to see it, but then started saying they don’t play bingo anymore, so maybe she should use the change.

I think this is the jar of change my mother claims the exterminator stole from her. When she talked about it, I had in mind that this was a larger jar, like a pickle jar or jam jar or something. Not a tiny jar like this one. Now that I think about it, a larger jar like I thought she was describing doesn’t make sense, as she said it was completely full, and she wouldn’t be able to pick up larger jar with the weight of change in it. Her hands are just too messed up with arthritis.

It didn’t stop her from checking inside the jar while I continued sorting, and making comments about how the exterminators just love going into her apartment, so they can go through her stuff, while she’s gone.

*sigh*

Ah, well.

After I finished at my mother’s, I headed home, then took the time to send an email to my siblings to update them on how it went, before heading outside. I’ll share more about that in a separate post. While I was working in the sun room, though, I spotted a visitor!

The little skunk had come by for some kibble!

It’s so cute.

It was then that I started hearing thunder, too, but I was able to do most of what I needed to, before heading inside to avoid the storm!

Which I will cover in my next post…

The Re-Farmer

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