kittens

We have four again! Also, how did that happen?

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I’m just taking a lunch break from working on that garden bed, and first wanted to share some adorable news.

We have four kittens again!

There is one white and grey with a distinctive line of darker colour beside one eye. That one is more comfortable with contact, and I was able to pick it up and cuddle it. I was seeing the other two – one that has markings that are more black than grey, and another white and grey.

I turned to do something, with the one kitten in the sun room with me, when I turned back to the cat shelters and noticed three kittens playing around! The mama brought over her last baby! I didn’t see the mama, but I had heard her calling to her kittens, distracting the one I was paying attention to at the time.

After all this time, I was sure we’d never see that fourth kitten again, yet there it is!

Working on the garden bed later one had a different distraction, and one that I quite enjoyed. I heard a utility vehicle driving around beyond the outer yard and, when it sounded closer, I went over to see. The renter was checking the fence line in preparation for rotating their cows to this quarter section. I had a nice chat with her, and even showed her around the inner yard to see what we’ve been doing – and the tree that fell on the outhouse! She told me she found some trees fallen on the fence line, but nothing she wasn’t able to just move aside, herself.

The weather we’ve been having has made things difficult for them, too. Normally, they would have planted in the field on our quarter section by now, but they’ve missed the window of opportunity because of the rains, and how muddy the field is. They might just leave it fallow this year or, possibly, plant some sort of cover crop.

After our bit of a visit, it was back to sifting soil. I got about half way done when I stopped for lunch.

Before I’d gone outside, I’d restarted my June Garden Tour video upload. I figured it would be done by the time I got back inside.

It was at only 53%.

???

What the heck?

I left it running as I had my lunch and checked again.

56%

My husband came by around then and I expressed my frustration. It’s only a 26-27 minute long video. I’ve uploaded videos, with the same quality settings, before and had no issue. I even did a speed test, and saw no reason why my upload would be taking so long.

He asked about the file size, which I didn’t know exactly. I figured it would be about what my other videos were. I did some looking and comparing.

It was 20 gigs.

The last garden tour video I uploaded wasn’t as long, and it was just over 1 gig.

I exported the draft again. According to the software, the exported file size could range from 740 mb to 2.7 gigs, based on the default settings I use.

It saved at 20 gigs again.

So I’m trying again. This time, I went into the advanced settings and lowered the quality. The software now tells me the exported file should be between 530 mb and 1.89 gigs.

I’m trying to think of reasons for this. About the only thing I can think of is that I used my current phone to make the recordings that went into the video. When doing videos where I set up the tripod, I use an older phone of my that is currently being used just for recording on a tripod. The newer phone allows for higher quality images and video, hence larger file sizes. Which would make sense, except that I use this phone to record hand held video. Plus, the software goes by the file sizes in the draft video, as well as the quality settings, when it gives an estimate for the finished video being exported. The size range it gives is pretty wide, but the final file size shouldn’t be almost 10 times the high end of the estimate!

I also deleted, rather than overwrote, the previous file this time. It’s now taking longer to export than when I tried it earlier. The export is taking longer this time, so maybe that will also make a difference.

Well, we’ll see what we get this time.

I hate having to reduce the quality of a video like that, though.

If this worked out, I’ll set it to upload again, and hopefully will actually be able to share a video with you, soon!

The Re-Farmer

(oh! It just finished exporting. The new file size is just over 3 gigs now. Time to actually watch it and see how much quality was lost!)

Wet, wet, wet – but the babies are okay!

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We had short, fast downpours throughout the night. It never really cooled down, though. I was hoping to get out early again but, at 5am, it was already 18C/64F, and still blowing like crazy. Things have calmed down a bit – still very windy, but the sun is out. All the areas that had finally become just wet, rather than filled with standing water, are once again filled with standing water. I’m glad we got as much mowing as we did. It’s going to be a while before we can try again.

When I came out this morning, there were plenty of cats eager for food, at least. The poor long haired cats are just soaking wet. I didn’t see any kittens at the time, though. When I finished my rounds and was coming around the laundry platform, when a single, wet little kitten climbed out from under the platform and onto a step. I’d left a bit of kibble there, and it seemed to be sniffing for it.

This is the kitten that has been the most willing to be cuddled, so I picked him up and did just that, so warm it up. He was a bit nervous about being carried around until I set up a small bowl of kibble in the cat cage and put him beside it, at which point he started chowing down!

Over the next while, I kept looking for the other kittens. Yesterday, it seems the litter was down or 3, so I was concerned it was now down to one. He was okay with running around and playing in the sun room, at least, and I kept an eye open for any others.

With the soil being far too wet to continue working on the garden bed, I decided to make recordings for a garden tour video, in spite of things looking a mess and being half done. After I finished that, I paused to pull some burdock coming up from under the cat house – and startled a baby! The two other kittens were inside the cat house! That makes me so happy. The cats haven’t been using it much, lately – it probably gets pretty hot and muggy in there at times like right now. The kittens were happily playing in the entrance, though, so I brought the other one over and they immediately started all horsing around together.

As I write this, we’re now at 21C/70F, with an expected high of 22C/72F. The winds are supposed to die down this afternoon. We should get a break from the rain for today and tomorrow, though we’re supposed to get more the next evening. Hopefully, that will give use the time we need to finish those beds and get the last transplants in.

Either that, or I’ll have time to put the garden tour video together, at least.

Looking out the window right now, we definitely aren’t getting the break from the wind, yet! I’m honestly amazed I found only a couple of fallen branches. The box frame over the eggplant and hot peppers is tied down and holding, but even the plastic around it is still there, though the bottoms keep getting pulled loose and need to be weighted down again. I’ve given up tacking down the mosquito netting at the chain link fence. They are well secured at the top, to the fence itself, but the ground staples keep getting yanked out, and most have disappeared. Bricks used to weigh the bottoms down just get flipped off. This netting lets water through, but the weave is still fine enough that they are more like sails than nets. They still do the job of keeping the elm seeds off. Those, at least, are almost done their season.

On the plus side, our water table may finally be recovered from all those years of drought that started before we moved out here! I’m not sure where to find that out. Plus, this is normally fire season. I’m quite liking not having to deal with smoke for weeks at a time!

There’s always a trade off of one kind or another, both good and bad. We just hope to have more good than bad!

The Re-Farmer

The babies are (mostly) back!

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When I headed outside to see how much I could get done in the heat, I had quite the surprise, hissing and spitting at me!

The sun room babies are back!

Except, one is missing.

They are hanging out on and under the laundry platform right now, which is next to the rain barrel. They weren’t too happy with my going back and forth to refill watering cans, but they didn’t leave the laundry platform.

I replaced the coupling on one of the broken hoses and was able to do some watering further away. I’m not sure if it was necessary, as I was hearing thunder by the time I was heading inside. From the looks of the weather radar, we should get a bit of rain, but nothing substantial. Enough that I should probably bring the transplants inside, I suppose. I don’t want the pots to get all blown around and knocked over.

I didn’t make it back to the garden bed, unfortunately.

Okay, that was one heck of an interruption.

I decided to look up old posts to see how far along we were at this time, last year. As I was doing that, the trees outside my window suddenly started swaying like crazy. So I ran to the sun room to bring the transplants in.

We were in a downpour!

There are only 6 trays left to bring in, so it didn’t take me long, but I got completely soaked!

Now that I’m dried off and changed, I look out my window, and the trees are barely moving. The rain has already moved on!

Because I used the rain barrel earlier, I left the diverter off so it could refill. It was about half full. I’ll have to check it and see if it needs to be put back. There was a LOT of water pouring into the barrel as I brought in the trays!

Wow.

Now… where was I?

Ah, yes…

Looking at posts made in June last year, we didn’t get the last of our transplants – the melons – in until June 24th. On the one hand, that’s a bit encouraging. On the other hand, around the same time, we already had tomatoes and Sweet Chocolate peppers formed. We were already harvesting spinach by now, and about to pull them to be replaced with the last of our onion transplants, but this year, the spinach just isn’t doing well at all, and most are still just tiny little things. A couple of them are bigger, but nothing that can be harvested from.

So we’re not “behind” when it comes to getting everything into the garden, compared to last year, but we were further along in the things that did get into the ground by now. Even our shelling peas, last year, were blooming and starting to develop pods. This year, I just got the shelling peas planted a few days ago!

However, our focus was very different this year. We didn’t do as many tomatoes – we will have lots in the freezer from last year – but instead went with a lot of winter squash and melons. We aren’t doing a lot of peppers, but do have at least as many varieties. Much of our attention has been directed towards getting the existing low raised beds shifted to their permanent positions before planting in them. That’s been slow going, but not shifting them would not have been any faster, since they got so thoroughly invaded with weeds, despite our best efforts.

Well, we’ll see how things work out.

As much as all the rain we’ve been having this spring has slowed things down, What we do have planted is certainly the better for it!

Though, after this downpour, I’m going to have to check the squash and melons, in particular, to see if they were damaged.

Well, we do what we can, when we can.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

First sighting and, good grief, it’s hot out there!

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Well, I got the shopping done, with extras. Along with the cat food (three 9kg kibble bags and one 32 count case of canned food: $132.92), my daughter sent funds for a few things. I went to the Canadian Tire for litter pellets and found a box fan for the girls to use upstairs, along with 20″x20″ furnace filters. They attach the filter to the back of the fan to keep the dust and cat hair down – or smoke, if there are fires in the area. I also found the trellis netting I need for when the peas and beans are bigger. I needed netting with wide enough openings to reach through to harvest. I even remembered to pick up couplings to repair a couple of hoses. My daughter transferred extra to cover some groceries while I was at the Walmart, too, which was nice.

One thing our truck has that our van didn’t is a temperature display. After I loaded up and was ready to come home, it was reading 26C/79F. Here at home, we’ve reached or expected high of 25C/77F, with the humidex at 26C/79F, but I would not be surprised if we get higher. We now also have a 54% chance of showers tonight.

I’m still going to water the old kitchen garden out of the rain barrel. Between the house and the ornamental crab apple trees, it doesn’t get the rain as much as other areas, so it’s pretty dried out.

(update: it’s just after 3pm, and we’re now at 27C/81F with the humidex at 28C/82F )

After I got home and my younger daughter and I unloaded, she and I moved the mini greenhouse out of the living room, and moved one of the shelves over, so we can hook up the AC. I had to fuss with it for a bit, as the duct from the AC is larger than the vent pipe to outside. As I was McGyvering a secure fit, I was literally dripping with sweat. The thermometer in the living room was at about 22C/72F. The living room almost never gets hot, so this is really unusual!

Now that the AC is running, I’ve also got a fan on the piano, blowing the cooler air into the dining room. This should help quite a bit!

When the truck was unloaded, I gave the outside cats a feeding to make sure none were under the truck, and I could move it to the garage. As I was leaving kibble under the shrine, I saw a little fluff ball!

We knew there was a litter in the junk pile, only because we could hear meowing while working nearby – but that was a while ago! I was wondering if the mama had moved them or something. Now, we know there’s at least one surviving kitten in there.

It’s getting to be that time. However many litters and kittens there are out there, we’re going to start seeing them, and the mamas will start bringing them to the food and water by the house as they get older.

Meanwhile, I’m going to see how much more I can do outside, before the heat and humidity force me indoors again. I suspect I’m not going to be able to finish that bed today. We’ll see.

Maybe I’ll get to see more kittens, though!

The Re-Farmer

A raised bed workaround

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So with the sudden appearance of kittens in the sun room (I think we have identified the mama, and they now have their own food, water and cat soup bowls in the cage🩷) I got to work rather later than intended! When I came inside for sustenance, hydration and rest, my app said it was 17C/63F, feels like 17C/63F. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, no, it feels like 25C/77F out there!

But maybe that’s just me.

The main job for today was to get the remaining shifted bed properly lined up and prepared for planting. We don’t have logs to frame it ready right now, but I needed to get the bed set up as if we did. Plus, the weeds were already starting to take over!

I started off on the new side of the bed, which had so many weeds taking it over, I could barely tell where the edge was! With some pieces of sod, they were so full of Creeping Charlie, I just tossed the entire sod rather than try and sift out the soil. Any tiny root left behind will start growing again.

Once it was clear, I went over it with the thatching rake, filling in some low spots. The north end of the bed is where it’s been extended from about 15 or 16 feet to 18 feet, so that end is a bit on the low side.

After tamping the soil down with the rake, I went and got the old boards I found in the barn that have become so handy in the garden. They are 6″ wide, so they will make a good guide for where the logs will be. They will also give me a surface to stand on, while planting.

After doing the new side edge, I walked on them to tamp them into the soil a bit. One of the boards is so old and rotting, every spot I stepped on, cracked! The long side took four boards, with a bit of overlap.

After adding boards over the ends, it was time to work on the side that is where what had been almost the middle of the bed, previously! The north end of the bed needed quite a lot of soil pulled over to fill it in, which was good, because quite a lot of soil needed to be moved from the middle, before I could mark the remaining side of the bed. Once I got that end filled and a board laid down, I went to the south end and did the same, before working my way towards the middle.

Of course, with all the digging and shifting, along with the weeds to get rid of, there were more tree roots, and plenty of larger rocks to take out. This is one of the beds that was wider. Now that it’s measured to 4′ wide, with the width of the future log walls taken into account, that means there was quite a lot of soil to mound in the middle!

Once the sides were levelled off, the boards in place, and the soil spread more evenly from end to end, I sort of flattened the top of the mound for planting.

By this time, however, it was getting way too hot. It was time to go inside for lunch and hydration, anyhow. The whole thing took about 2 1/2 hours. About twice as long as I thought it might take!

But, it’s now ready. When I head out next, it will be to plant the last of the winter squash, and intercop them with a super early sweet corn. Then, because the sides of the mound are as steep as they are, I’ll used some of those grass clippings my daughter so kindly collected for me, to mulch the sides and keep them from sliding onto the boards.

The next bed that has to be done hasn’t been shifted at all, yet, so it needs some serious weeding and digging. I expect an entire section will need to be removed entirely because it’s so full of Creeping Charlie. What a waste of good soil!

While I was having my lunch, I was watching the critter cam. I caught the orange tabby batting at one of the kittens, so I went to deal with that. He wasn’t trying to actually hurt it… yet.

This particular kitten is the most exploratory, and is already quite content to be picked up and snuggled!

Later, I saw the cat we’ve identified as the mama come in. She was eating the kibble I left on the floor in front of the cat cage… and the little brave one was eating, too! Then mama left, and the bitty kept on eating.

They now have their own bowls of kibble, water and cat soup, inside the cat cage.

I’ve also pulled the blanket I had blocking the opening they could get in and out of, since they were obviously still getting in and out. I used a small plant stand and some cardboard to turn the “door” into a ramp, so it’s no longer partly covering the opening under it. I’ve been able to pick up three of them for cuddles, so far. The black and white one I picked up last night, thinking it was one of Broccoli’s kittens, objected the most to being picked up again!

Other cats have been curious about them, including several I know are mamas, which made me doubt which one was the real mama of this batch. Eventually, though, I saw the mama come in on the critter cam, and the kittens went running to her, and even tried to nurse her while she was still walking!

I brought a smaller cat carrier into the sun room and set it next to the big one, so they have a couple of carriers to explore and, if necessary, hide out in. I also tied off the sun room door, with the inside door partially closed. This not only discourages other cats from coming in (now that all the food and water bowls are outside again, they come in only when they start getting hungry, waiting at the old kitchen door for the kibble to appear!), but the inner door blocks more light, so the room won’t get quite so hot. With the doors open and the sun shining through, the temperature in there starts creeping up to 30C/86F.

I’ll need to adjust the critter cam a bit, to see more of the floor area. It’s so adorable, being able to watch the kittens running around and playing in the sun room!

It’s just past 2pm as I write this, and we’d reached 19C/66F, with the humidex at 24C/75F – and we’re supposed to reach a high of 21C/70F, still! It’s not supposed to start cooling down until after 8pm.

I still need to get out there and get things transplanted, but working on the next bed will have to wait. I’m not going to do that kind of manual labour, in full sun, at these temperatures.

I keep trying to go to bed early, so I can get an early start out there, but things keep interrupting!

It’s almost the middle of June, already, and the garden is barely half in.

*sigh*

I have to keep reminding myself: little by little, it’ll get done!

The Re-Farmer

Four!!!

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Okay, I was definitely wrong about that kitten I found in the sun room last night.

This morning, I heard the beginnings of a cat fight in the sun room, so decided to quickly feed the outside cats right away, instead of waiting until I headed out to to my morning rounds. By spreading kibble all over, it would get the cats out of the sun room, and away from that baby. I messaged a daughter to join me, to check on kittens, and went on ahead with the kibble.

The first thing I saw was two kittens on a cat bed INSIDE the cat cage! Then I spotted two others outside the cage. It was like they were still trying to be close to each other.

I left some food for the mama – whoever that is! – in front of the cat cage, then went outside to feed the rest of the cats. Meanwhile, my daughter tried to figure out how to get at the two outside the cat cage, and put them with their siblings.

I saw Broccoli at the kibble on the cat house roof, so I went around to the old garden shed to leave some food for her there. No sign of her two, but unless they pop out to look at me from their hiding place in the back, I have no way of knowing for sure.

Now that I see the kittens in the sun room, I realize they are younger and smaller than Broccoli’s would be by now.

When I got back to the sun room, my daughter had just managed to reach one of the kittens, and was able to pass it to me. I gave it a cuddle, then put it with the two inside the cage.

It was more difficult to get the other one! It ended up going behind the cage, where there is a window sill the cats like to sit on.

I took the plants outside, then we had to mess around with the plant table to make space. The “table” is an old folding closet door over sawhorses, above the cat cage. An extra board was added for the cats to sit on, instead of the plant trays. That got removed, which gave a bit of wiggle room, but the kitten made its way to the other side of the cage. My daughter had to get down on her hands and knees and squirm under the sawhorse, but she managed to reach it and pass it to me. I got a quick cuddle and put it with the others.

Yes, the kittens hissed and spit at me while being cuddled, as expected.

My daughter was able to pet them a bit through the doorway of the cage, which is at the second level, before going back in to wash up.

Now, we set this cage up for Toni, in hopes that we could keep her in there to recover from her leg amputation. She had kittens somewhere, and we cut a small opening in the cage side, under the “door” for her kittens to fit through.

We didn’t expect Toni to be able to squeeze through the openings of the cage, though! So she ended up inside and, as far as we know, her kittens got adopted by the creche mothers. We never got the straight of which ones were hers, so we can’t be sure.

We’ve left the cage in the sun room and several cats quite enjoy going in there for naps.

After the kittens were all in the cat cage, I finished putting the last plant tray out, came back and…

There was a kitten, outside the cat cage, looking at me. It had found the opening!

I was able to grab it and pick it up – and it didn’t really resist this time! After I put it back in, I set other things back in place, including putting that board back over the sawhorses, but I also grabbed a cat blanket to put over the opening. I stuffed part of it in the opening, from the inside of the cage, and already had to move away the kitten that was going for it again!

After the opening was blocked and the kitten dug around in the blanket a bit, looking for the opening, it just sat there, looking at me.

So I reached in and pet it.

It let me!

I went inside and got a few cat toys, and put them in the cage with the kittens. It didn’t take them long to start investigating!

Over time, we’ll take the spare little litter box that was donated to us, and set it up in the cat cage. It’s small enough for the kittens to crawl into.

I’m going to have to check the critter cam more often, and hopefully spot which of the cats is the mama. I just checked now and the only cat I can see in the sun room right now is Stinky – a male – napping on the board above the cage.

The interesting thing is, the mama would have put the kittens inside the cat cage herself! The kittens can get out but, once out, they can’t seem to figure out how to get back in. Aside from the opening under the door, the bottom of the cage is lined with cardboard on the inside, since we were trying to stop Toni from squeezing through the 2″ square wall pieces (the are 1″ square).

I would love to get Broccoli’s kittens in here, too!

Well, time to get my butt in gear and get outside. We didn’t get actual thunderstorms in our area last night, but I need to see what wind or rain damage there might be. Especially on those melons that were transplanted yesterday. They are the most fragile transplants compared to all the others we’ve got. Then it’s back to work to prep more beds, so the last of the transplants can go out!

After I take more painkillers.

The Re-Farmer

A sunroom surprise!

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When I set out kibble for the outside cats this morning, I saw Broccoli come over to eat. I made sure to go to the old garden shed to check on her kittens and leave some food for her.

I did not see or hear any kittens.

Later, as my daughter was mowing the lawn, she saw the kittens outside, running around and playing with their mom. That was encouraging!

This evening, after my trip into town, my daughter and I unloaded the truck in the yard. After parking the truck, I saw a lot of cats prowling around, so I checked their kibble bowls, even though I’d fed them earlier.

There was nothing left at all, and the cats were circling like sharks!

So I gave them a top up, and even ended up scattering a bit of kibble in the sun room, along with all the other little places I leave food, to ensure less confrontations between cats.

As we were already getting some rain, after I tied off the outer door to the sun room, so the cats can still come in, I partially closed the inner door.

I found a fluff ball hiding behind it!

It was the black and white kitten from the garden shed!

So I picked it up and cuddled it for a while. He did not like that very much, and kept spitting at me ! I put him into the cat carrier, making sure the door was propped open so it couldn’t get stuck in there, and let it be.

No sign of the calico, though.

Except…

I just went looking at pictures I took of the black and white and the calico together, and suddenly, I’m not sure it’s the same kitten. This may be an entirely new kitten! They look very similar, but … well… you tell me…

The garden shed kitten seems to have more white fur around the eyes, and the dark parts of his fur seems not as dark as the kitten in the sun room.

I may have picked up a completely strange kitten!

I’ve looked through the bathroom window a few times, and it’s still there, exploring and playing in the sun room, or just sitting at a window, watching the other cats going through the old kitchen garden.

Well, this IS a surprise!

The Re-Farmer

A good day!

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I like it when things actually work out!

First, the cuteness!

I was able to say hello to the babies this morning, and cuddle them for a bit. One of these mornings, though, I will need to bring a daughter along. The kittens are getting big enough and active enough to climb out of their “nest”. When I first opened the door, the calico was in between a bucket, their bed set up and some netting. If I can get someone to snuggle the kittens and keep them warm, I want to take more stuff out of the old garden shed that they might get hung up in. Ideally, we’d move them to the baby jail in the sun room, but the room is too busy, I think. Both with us going in and out, and other cats. Broccoli would probably move them out.

We’ll figure it out. For now, I’m just happy she hasn’t hidden them already.

While continuing my rounds, I had to get some photos of the lilacs on the East side of the house.

The ones by the house bloom a bit earlier than the same type of lilacs that form a hedge along the north property line. The house itself creates a bit of a microclimate for them. The rest of this type of lilac are just starting to open. I expect to have a sea of lilacs blooming out here, tomorrow morning!

My husband and I were going into the city to meet with a friend at a shopping mall. We decided to make a date of it and leave early to have lunch (well… breakfast, really) together.

No, we didn’t go to a restaurant or anything. We went to the food court!

My husband was quite content with a burger and fries, but I had something I haven’t had since we left the city.

I got a beef Bento box.

Oh, my goodness, it was so awesome!!! The only thing I didn’t care for was the edamame. I don’t like it to begin with, but these were incredibly salty, and had strings. I ate a couple, got a string caught in my teeth that took ages to get out! LOL My husband tried one and actually spit it out.

The rest, however, was blissfully delicious!

After placing my order for the Bento box, I noticed they also had tempura vegetables. We tried doing that at home during our New Year’s fondue, but we really need a proper frier do to that. So I ordered some, and they were absolutely fantastic!

When offered chopsticks, I made sure to accept them. I’m not good at eating with chopsticks, so it forced me to eat slowly. 😁 It would have been sooo tempting to finish it off too quickly, if I were using a fork!

I know there’s a lot of negative things said about food court food, but honestly, I don’t see why. Yeah, you have the usual fast food places, but there were also options for Greek, Italian, Korean, Thai, Chinese and Japanese food, plus various other specialty cuisines, all freshly made.

So we had ourselves a lovely meal together, then headed over to our pre-arranged meeting point.

It was so fantastic to catch up with our friend! Being able to keep in touch online is great, but there’s no equivalent to being able to give someone a great big hug, and spend time together! Hopefully, we will be able to get together again, before he leaves the country again.

The trip was hard on my husband, of course, and he did have to say he’d reached his limit, but he was so very happy to be able to make the trip, and wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Right now, after being home for a while, I’m having a battle with myself. I could go outside and try to get some overgrown lawn mowed… or I could go to bed early, and get an early start on the outside stuff. I got only about 3 or 4 hours of sleep last night, so I think early to bed is going to win out!

Tomorrow is our last average frost date. After that, it should be safe to start transplanting things outside.

And we still haven’t finished shifting those beds over, or harvested more dead spruces for the raised beds, because of the weather we’ve been having!

Well, we do have places we can start transplanting or direct sowing into. Just not a lot, yet.

It’s not even just about co-operative weather, but a co-operative body!

Yeah. I definitely need to get a good night’s sleep, so I can work more effectively tomorrow.

Which means, I need to get my butt off the computer!

The Re-Farmer

The start of a long day!

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Today was our second stock up shop in the city, but I had a couple of things to do in town, before then. The first was to get to the garage when it opened at 8, to get our repaired tire, have it put back on the truck, and the spare returned to its spot under the box.

Which meant being out rather earlier than usual for my morning rounds, starting with feeding the outside cats, including heading around to check on the babies in the old garden shed.

I’m happy to say that Broccoli has accepted our cat bed gift, and the babies seem quite cozy in it. I always knock on the door, so they can know the door is about to be opened. There are no windows in the shed, and the morning sun streams right in once the door is open, so the babies get a bit blinded. It was also windy again, this morning, which is probably why the calico is shivering so much.

I was quick about petting them, leaving food for their mama and closing the door again.

The girls were going to take the transplants out after I left, but the winds were still so high, I messaged them to tell them not to, while I continued my rounds.

Some of the Purple Caribe potatoes are getting much bigger – but most of the bed still has nothing showing yet. There are more Red Thumb potatoes showing than the the Purple Caribe, and those ones were mostly wizened when I planted them! I honestly would have expected those ones to not grow at all.

The second planting of peas is coming up nicely, while there are still only 3 from the first planting. The carrots are still barely visible, and I think a lot of them have failed, and the spinach seems to have stalled. Very strange.

The strawberries grown from seed last year, in the wattle weave bed, are getting really big! We did get berries last year, and they were tiny, like wild strawberries, so it’s a bit of a shame that these are the ones that are doing best. We hadn’t put anything around the asparagus and strawberry bed. I thought we were still okay, but two of the 4 strawberry plants in there have already been munched on! I do sometimes see a deer on the trail cam, so I guess it’s coming into the yard as well. So that bed will need some protection.

The new strawberries are doing quite nicely, which means we’ll have to put something around that bed rather quickly, to keep the deer from munching on them, too.

There is still a lot of squelching as I walk around the yard. The unfortunate thing is that one of the softest parts of the yard is where I drive in to turn and back up to the house. So far, it just seems to be a bit muddy, and not forming ruts, but this is not a good thing. There’s another, less ideal, area I can use to turn in, but it’s almost as wet, so there’s really not much advantage to that.

By the time I finished my shortened rounds, it was time to head out. I got to the garage just as it opened I had to wait while the guy got their computer system going, which was fine. I had to go to the pharmacy next, and they didn’t open until later. Once he got everything up and running, he got the truck backed into the garage and switched the tires for me. He was a new guy, and a fairly new mechanic, who had never worked with a spare tire system like we’ve got before. I got to show him all the stuff I just learned about the truck myself, while waiting for CAA to come and change my flat for me. 😄

In the end, it didn’t take long, and the final bill for the repair and installation was less than $60. Less than I had budgeted, which is always nice. It was still early, and I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I popped across the street and got a hot breakfast sandwich before going to the pharmacy. They turned out to be already open, so I was able to get my refills right away. We actually had a prescription delivery for my husband on Wednesday, but they had to fax my doctor to update my prescription, so mine wasn’t included. I’m glad I remembered it was called in, because I was planning to head straight to the city after the tire was done.

I’ll cover the shopping in another post. I only went to two places; Walmart and Superstore. On the way home, my husband sprung for burgers, so I stopped in town again to get those, then hit the mail on the way home. I left at 7:30am, and got home some time after 2pm. Almost 7 hours of mostly driving around! There was no Costco in the area to get gas, and the gas station at the Superstore was at $1.469/L, while town was at $1.449, so I was going to get gas while in town. On the way out of the city, though, I passed a gas station and saw the price was at $1.399/L, so I filled up. Then I got to town and discovered the prices had gone down while I was in the city, and they were at $1.399/L, too!

So we have a full tank of gas for tomorrow. We’ve been in touch with our friend and worked out a time and place to meet him in the early afternoon. My husband and I will be leaving shortly before noon to get there. It’s been a very long time since my husband has done a city trip. It’s going to be painful, but it’ll be worth it to meet with our friend. With my husband’s mobility issues and living here in the boonies, it’s been harder for him to keep in contact with his friends. Rather ironic that the one he did keep in contact with wasn’t even on the same continent! I really wish he were able to get together with friends more often. He’s just around us ladies all the time. Not a lot we can do about that, but when the chance is there, I’m going to make sure we can take it!

While I was gone today, the girls took are of a few things for me, including getting some of the weed trimming done around the house. It’s still too wet to mow, but at least that can be done. Hopefully, tomorrow, they’ll be able to do the paths between the garden beds I’m trying to work on, too. Some spots would have water in them still, but not where I’m working on, next.

Today, we reached a high of 21C/70F, and they’re now saying we’ll have light showers this evening, but just for about an hour. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 21C/70F again, and have sun and some cloud all day, but no rain. Then on Sunday, we’re supposed to hit 23C/73F and get rain in the evening. I’m hoping that, I’ll be able to get more progress in those last 4 garden beds! It’s getting to the point that they need to be worked on, rain or no rain. My daughter is feeling bad because she hasn’t been getting more dead trees processed, to frame the beds, but she’s not been feeling well. With the high winds and rain we’ve been having, though, she wouldn’t have been able to work on them, anyhow.

So many setbacks, but at least we do have several beds we can put transplants in, once we cross that last frost date threshold! Looking at the overnight lows we could, theoretically, put stuff out now, but why take the risk when we don’t have to? With not being able to take the transplants outside to harden off consistently, though, we will have to make sure to protect them once they’re in the ground. All those distilled water bottles for my husband’s CPAP humidifier that we’ve been saving will come in handy for that!

We’ll get there, eventually!

The Re-Farmer