insects

Cozy cat, sleepy bees and a garden harvest

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Today, the girls and I headed into the city. Something we decided on later last night. The amazing thing is that my older daughter came along, too. Not for any medical appointments or another ER trip. Just because she wanted to get out of the house, and actually felt well enough to do it!

After the last few years of barely being able to get outside the house, this is HUGE!

As for me, I took the last of my generic Percocet and almost immediately got hit with dizziness. At that time, I was able to just go back to bed, though, so it didn’t mess things up for me too much.

I had company.

Potato Beetle took his turn on my leaning sheep. Which I seem to have lost entirely. After washing it, I had found it worked well as support under my knees so I could lie on my back, so I hadn’t put it back in the shelf that is my “headboard”. The cats have all claimed it at one point or another! It is now a cat bed.

*sigh*

We didn’t head out until about 11 and as I was on the way to the truck, I just had to stop and take some photos.

There were a couple of very sleepy bees on the sunflowers! It was a nice warm day by mid afternoon, but the morning was still cool enough that the bees were sluggish.

Our destination in the city was a Medigas. My husband had ordered new nasal “pillows” that he has instead of a CPAP mask. The pressure he needs on his CPAP is so high, the type of mask that covers the nose and mouth leaks air unless it’s tightened so much, he actually developed lesions. He’s gone through various styles of nasal prongs over the years, as designs changed and older ones were no longer being made. He isn’t able to order from his usual source in the US, though. For some reason, they no longer accept his prescription that’s required to buy replacements. So he had to buy from Medigas.

He got two nasal prongs, and it cost $110.

When he was able to buy them from the US supplier, he got a package with 6 different sizes for maybe Cdn$30.

He’ll be able to submit his receipt to his insurance company to be reimbursed for most of that, but the cost of CPAP supplies from Canadian sources is just insane and always has been.

By the time we got to the Medigas, we’d been on the road for over an hour and I was starting to hurt. My alarm for my afternoon dose of painkillers was about to go off after we got the nasal prongs, so I made sure to take the T3s I had with me before we made our next stop. I had hoped to take advantage of being in the city to stop at the Walmart to do a bit of shopping, but wasn’t up to it. The Medigas is on the same highway that we do our non-Costco stock up shopping on, and the international grocery store was on the way home, so we stopped there to get supper for when we got home. I picked a couple of things for my husband and I while the girls remembered they were out of oat milk and went to get some. They ended up coming back with a few other things as well, then went looking for something they wanted for their own supper – while I had to sit down. The T3s never really seemed to kick in.

In the end, the girls were sweethearts and paid for everything.

One thing I meant to get on the way out of the city was gas. Prices had gone up to $1.799/L, even in the city. On the way to Medigas I spotted a place that was $1.639 and on the same side of the highway we were on, so I got gas there. It was pre-pay only, so I went in to pay for $40 while my daughter took care of the pump. It turned out to be just enough to fill the tank from about 3/4s, which was nice.

After we picked stuff up at the grocery store, I had to get my younger daughter to take over driving. There was no dizziness at all with the T3s, but they don’t work as well. Frustrating.

Once we got home and my daughters brought things inside, my younger daughter took care of feeding the outside cats, before we had our food and relaxed a bit. I felt well enough later to head outside and into the garden to do some harvesting.

Something I did not harvest yet… bell peppers.

These are the California Wonder bell peppers, which are starting to turn colour. The Sweet Chocolate peppers are also starting to ripen. We won’t be getting a lot of peppers, but we’ll at least have a few! Since these have the tomato cages protecting them, if things get chilly overnight, they can be easily covered with some fabric we have for frost cloth.

What amazes me is just how many bush beans I was able to harvest! Most of them still from the high raised bed, that were planted earlier in the season.

The yellow beans on top are from the later planted ones in the Arikara Squash bed. There are a couple of Blueberry tomatoes, and a whole bunch of Orange Currant tomatoes. Some of them are fully red, like Spoon tomatoes, instead of orange. I also grabbed a couple of yellow zucchini.

I think we have enough bush beans to actually be worth blanching and freezing in a medium sized freezer bag – and there are still developing beans we’ll be able to continue harvesting!

I am so grateful for the mild weather we are having so far. The forecast has changed again, of course, and now it’s looking like we won’t be hitting below 6C/43F for a couple of weeks, and will mostly be closer to 10C/50F. Not that I trust long range forecasts, but it does give something to plan on.

Tomorrow, we have no plans to go out anywhere. If we hadn’t gone in today to get my husband’s nasal prongs, it would have had to wait until Monday, and I didn’t want to do that to him. He really needed replacements, long ago. My younger daughter has been wanting to work on breaking down that fallen tree for a while now, but we have either not been home long enough, or it’s been too windy and rainy.

At some point, we’re going to need to get a gas powered chainsaw. There’s only so far we can get on extension cords, and battery powered anything won’t last long enough to finish the jobs we need to do. Our baby chainsaw (electric pruner) has two batteries and my brother’s weed trimmer has three, and none of them recharge fast enough to be able to cycle through them and finish most jobs.

Anyhow.

I’m just thankful to be able to get as much done as we have been, with all the crazy medical stuff going on.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

Sort of.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: morning in the garden

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I am not a morning person.

Seriously.

I can appreciate mornings. The cooler temperatures and softer lighting are great. Especially for working in the garden. Unfortunately, my body just can’t handle it. I’ve never been a morning person. The absolute best scheduling I ever had was when I worked the night shift at a gas station. I was alert and motivated all night, slept well all day; physically and mentally, I was at my best!

Unfortunately, I’m not able to do that now, and this time of year, I find myself being awakened earlier and earlier, no matter what time I make it to bed. This morning, I was up at 4 – 4:30 and just could not get back to sleep.

Still, I managed to get some thing done in the garden after doing my morning rounds.

I finally got this bed weeded. I had to wait until things got bigger. I still had to be really careful, and pulled only what I was 100% sure was a weed. In the first photo above, you can easily spot the nasturtiums and Cosmos. In the second photo, there are little sprouts of what I hope are the asters. I’ve never grown asters from seed, and I’m not sure what they are supposed to look like at this stage. I’ve even looking at photos online and am still not 100% sure. There are just too many things that look like this at this stage!

I couldn’t get everything, of course. I’ll be weeding those awful elm seeds all summer, I’m sure.

I had a surprise when I got to the winter squash bed. I’m not sure what these are.

Those are insects of some kind. They were only on the blossoms, and only on the squash. They’re so tiny, I can’t make out any identifying features. I tried asking in a gardening group and did get a response of one possible thing, but on looking them up, they seemed much bigger. Pretty much anything would be bigger! The solution was to spray with soapy water, so later in the day, I tried that. The blossoms were closed by then, though, so I don’t know how much good it did.

Our potatoes are looking good.

It won’t be long before the protective netting can be removed.

I also got another little harvest of garlic scapes.

They’re smaller this year. When picking them, I tuck the coils over a finger to carry them. Last year, I was putting them around my wrist.

After I was done my rounds, I headed inside for breakfast and planned to go back out to start working on the trellis bed. In the end, I didn’t make it. I was falling asleep in my chair. I finally gave up and went for a nap. Something I’ve found myself having to do fairly regularly.

I get better sleep in those 1-2 hour morning naps than in an entire night! It is a bit disorienting to wake up and it’s still morning, though. 😄

My goal for today was to get started on the remaining vertical supports for the permanent trellis bed.

As good as I felt, this put me outside at the hottest part of the day.

My goals got shifted, and progress was made. Just on something else!

Which will be in my next post.

See you there!

The Re-Farmer

This crab apple bites back!

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While doing my rounds this time of year, I like to grab some crab apples from the one tree that has tasty apples to nibble on as I walk. High winds have knocked down a lot of the apples, so I don’t know that we’re going to bother harvesting them this year, but there are enough in reach that I can snack on them.

I grabbed a couple this morning, buffed the dust off one of them on my shirt, and was about to take a bite, when I saw something move!

This wasp had been asleep in the apple! It was still very groggy in the cool of the morning, and eventually squeezed itself out and promptly fell to the ground. 😄

Gotta be more careful when I pick things!

The Re-Farmer

A couple days break?

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We had quite a lot of rain yesterday, with temperatures much cooler than forecast for the first day of summer. The cool was much appreciated! It was nice being able to open up more windows again.

The problem is how wet everything is. Even the new part basement now has water pooling in places. Unlike the old basement, we can’t sweep this into a drain or a sump pump cistern. All we can do is keep a fan on it, really.

We’re supposed to have a couple of days that are warmer and without rain. Hopefully, that will be enough to let the grass dry out enough that I can finish mowing the lawn tomorrow. No chance of being able to get it done today, even if I wasn’t going to be at my mother’s for her home care assessment appointment. After that, however, we’re looking at possible thunderstorms and more rain for several more days.

While doing my morning rounds, I saw a couple of the kittens under the cat’s house again. I’m glad to see them, after they got so frightened by the lawn mower. I caught a brief glimpse of the little calico’s face. Her one eye still seems gooby, but otherwise all right.

The garden plots seem to be holding out all right, though I noticed a lot of pole beans at the trellises seem to have lost their leaves. I can’t tell if it’s because they were eaten by something, or because they wilted and fell off from excess moisture. There are still lots of plants, though, so we should still be good.

I’m pretty sure one of the lilacs at the corner of the storage house has been totally drowned. The few leaves it managed to grow are gone. If it survives, I’ll be amazed. There are others that aren’t quite as bad, and I think they’ll make it.

The Kulli corn seems to finally be recovering from transplant shock, looking more green and actually growing. The bush beans growing with them are progressing nicely. The first planting of spinach and one type of lettuce are getting big enough we should be able to start harvesting leaves and thinning them out.

As much of a problem the excess rain is, after last year’s drought and having to water every day, twice a day, throughout the summer, I’m really happy with how things are growing right now.

Still, it’ll be nice to have a couple of days break from the rain!

The Re-Farmer

Sleepy bee is still there!

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While doing my morning rounds, I decided to check the sunflowers and, sure enough, the bee I saw yesterday was still there!

I did confirm that it’s still alive; when I brushed a finger near it, a single, pollen covered back leg lifted up to warn me away!

It’s simply too cold and wet for the poor thing, it seems.

My daughter did some searching, and what I think we will do is cut off the sunflower head to bring it, and the bee, into the sun room to warm up. We’ll cover it with a large sieve we have, so it doesn’t fly off and get stuck in the sun room. If it does revive and warms up, we will release it back outside. Hopefully, it will then be able to get back to its hive before the chill gets to it again.

Here’s hoping it works!

The Re-Farmer

[Edit: I accidentally used a photo from yesterday, instead of the one I took this morning. After much fighting with our increasingly crappy internet, it has been fixed!]

Cute fuzzy things in the morning

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I got to see all sorts of adorable things this morning. Starting with these guys!

They were very rambunctious this morning. :-)

The girls have informed me that the calico that looks like Cabbages has been named Broccoli. The tabby twins have also been named, but I forget them right now.

The fourth kitten, sharing breakfast with her mother here, does not yet have a name.

I also saw an adorable, fuzzy little monster this morning, but I wasn’t able to get a photo. The woodchuck was by the old garden shed, then ducked under it as I came over.

I’m happy to say that adding two bigger rocks and a bunch of broken bricks seems to finally be enough to keep the woodchuck from digging its way back under the stairs. I think it still tried, though. A small, gap-filling piece of insulation had been braced between the brick wall and the big rock, before. Looks like it got pushed inwards.

One last adorable bit of fuzziness! This bee wasn’t even gathering nectar or anything. It was just sitting there, like it was taking a nap while it was still cool. :-)

I got a few things worked out in the garden, before coming in from my morning rounds, but that will get its own post. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Pretty blooms

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We’ve got some lovely flowers blooming in one of my mother’s flower beds.

This flower bed has lilies, roses and a current bush my mother had planted. These flowers are mixed together with another type, and are the first to start blooming. When these are done, the others will start blooming. I don’t think either were deliberately planted. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Sunflowers progress

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The first seed head to blossom is already losing its little flowers!

I think I should be able to harvest it and set it to dry at this point; at least that’s what I’ve learned from my research. But would the seeds normally be this white?

I think I’ll leave it a bit longer. So far, no birds seem to be going for it.

Pollinators aren’t’ the only ones interested in the budding sunflowers.

The leaves make great shelter for resting dragonflies!

Those leaves have a lot of holes in them. I can’t see what’s causing them, though. They still seem to be doing all right, so I’m not concerned at this point.

The Re-Farmer