kittens

Finding storm damage, and critters!

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My evening rounds today included picking up fallen branches, and assessing storm damage. It’s been a long time since we’ve had so many fallen branches, I needed the wheel barrow to help pick them all up!

Here is a slideshow of what I found in and around the spruce grove.

While I was out with my mother, my daughters tell me the rain, then the storm with hail, went through so quickly, it was like a tap was turned on in the sky. One of them actually saw the top of the spruce come down.

Walking around the perimeter of the spruce grove, I found where a large chunk of dead poplar had fallen, causing damage to an apple tree nearby. As I went closer to see how big it was, I realized I was seeing more than one tree top. It’s hard to see in the undergrowth, but the top of another dead spruce had come down, and the two actually overlapped each other on the ground.

In the same general area, there was also an entire tree that had fallen. No surprise that the based had been destabilized by ants. That’s usually why the dead trees finally fall.

Going past the garage and along the fence line, there was a pile of downed branches from several trees. After that, things seems pretty normal. A few dead branches and there, but there are already so many in there, it makes little difference. There is one tree, however, that keeps tipping further and further. It’s actually still alive, but slowly falling. Meanwhile, there are two dead trees right next to it that are still standing, straight and tall!

Making my way back to where I started around the spruce grove, I suddenly saw a little kitten running across the grass, towards the covered pile of boards – what we used to call the junk pile, but I’ve clear the junk off and discovered a carefully stacked pile of salvaged boards. Whatever tarps had covered it before were disintegrated by the wind, but we were able to cover it with a new, heavier duty tarp, in hopes that we’ll be able to keep them from rotting even more, and be able to use some of them. This pile has been home to litters of kittens for a very long time – and is how Junk Pile Cat got her name!

So I had no doubt little grey tabby was returning to its next under the pile. I took a couple of zoomed in photos, but didn’t try to come any closer, as I made my way back to the house, where I saw Junk Pile (or her doppelgänger; I can’t tell them apart unless they are next to each other, and I haven’t seen one of them in ages) cross the yard to the covered pile. When I came around the lilacs, I startled a little white and grey kitten! As I slowly paused and took its picture, I spotted another kitten peeking at me from under the down spout. When the two of them got together, I had to try and get some video. The image quality drops off the more I had to zoom in, but at the end, another white and grey kitten is there with Junk Pile – and this one is much larger than the others! I’ve no doubt they’re being cared for together as one litter, but the last white and grey kitten is clearly older.

After checking things around the inner yard, I headed out to check things in the outer yard. There are several maples with a lot of dead sections, and I wanted to see if any more dead branches had come down in the storm.

As I came close to one of them, I heard some scrabbling and at first thought it was a cat climbing the tree.

I was wrong.

I went looking for branches, but found three little racoons, instead! They kept freezing, the moving a few inches, then freezing, the shifting a bit, then freezing again.

That gave me a chance to get quite a few photos, and even some video.

Gosh, they are so cute!

But I do wish they wouldn’t keep eating the cat food! We already had to stop feeing the birds because of them (and the deer), but they are quite the opportunistic omnivores!

On top of all this, I was being followed all over by at least three yard cats the whole time. This was a very critter filled evening!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kittens

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The inside kittens are starting to get very mobile!

This morning, I took them out to run around on the bed for a while.

David came over to investigate.

Then to groom!

David likes the babies. Also, in just a few minutes, he groomed them more than I’ve ever seen Decimus grooming them!

While doing my morning rounds, I remembered to go into the storage house *shudder* to see if I could find something to use as a litter pan for the kittens. I found a stack of broiler pan drip trays that I considered, but ended up choosing a very old, rectangular roasting pan. It has straight sides that are about 2 inches high. Low enough for the kittens to climb over, but high enough to keep the litter in. I hope!

I heard from the Cat Lady last night. They got back from their trip, but came home to a kitty that got hand, foot and mouth disease while they were gone, so they’ve already had to go to the vet. He might lose an eye to it, and he’s got sores all over inside his mouth. Poor thing!

Once they deal with stuff at home, they’ll need to go to their cottage to assess storm damage that happened while they were gone, too. That’s a lot closer to us, so she plans to come by to pick up Ghosty and her sibling (who got some eye washing this morning), and drop off stuff for the cats. She did a lot of couponing while in the US and found a metal pet cage for us. It’s a smaller one, she says, but big enough for cats, so we won’t have to use baby jail anymore.

Which would be very useful. The kittens are starting to climb a lot more, and reaching the second level. The metal wire squares that make up some of the walls, plus the door, have larger openings that the kittens can easily fit through. A new cage where they can’t climb through the walls will be much appreciated!

The outside kittens were also out and about. As I was finishing up and preparing to go back inside, I spotted this.

One of the mamas had brought the babies a present!

So I went in through the main doors instead of the sun room!

I’ve been seeing the mamas bringing mice for the babies more often. Last night, while I was checking on some banging noises outside (fire crackers, not gun shots), I came into the sun room for a moment. I heard a kitten making a very strange, deep sounding growling noise from behind the inner door. I tried to see what was going on and found two kittens. One, the younger tuxedo, ran off, but he was the source of the strange growl. After a bit of effort, I could finally see the front of him and why he was making such a strange noise. He was trying to growl while clutching a mouse in his teeth!

The yard cats are most definitely earning their keep!

Oh! I hear thunder coming closer. Time to shut down the computer!

The Re-Farmer

New?

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I was feeling well enough to do my evening rounds. In fact, I feel as though I was never sick in the first place! Bizarre!

One of the first things I did was catch Ghosty’s sibling, and my daughter and I gave it a face wash.

Its eyes weren’t stuck, but there was a lot of crud around one of them, and its nose was partially blocked, so my daughter cleaned it up as much as the kitten could tolerate while I held it. This kitten is starting to get used to being handled, and doesn’t run away like the other kittens. It even comes right up to me, sometimes, and lets me pet it.

While checking the garden, I spotted this beauty.

The Black Beauty tomatoes have a lot more tomatoes forming than seems obvious, at first glance. Some of the stems are so dark, it’s hard to see the dark tomatoes against them. This one, however, is so dark, and was shining in the sun! What gorgeous tomatoes!

I tended to a few things from this morning, including reopening the gate by the fire pit, and using the bucket of water I’d left for the cows to water the Korean pine. Two of the Korean pine wire covers had been knocked off. They’re just held in place with ground staples. I’m going to have to find something better to hold them in place, so they don’t get knocked aside so easily.

I was puttering around the kibble houses before going inside, hoping to lure some playful kittens closer, when I spotted … a new kitten?

My apologies for the picture quality, but I didn’t dare come any closer, so this is zoomed right in from across the yard.

That is a rather large kitten!

Usually, then the mamas bring the kittens to the house, they are old enough to be weaned, or close to it, and able to start eating solid food. The tiny tuxedo that showed up first is the oldest; the others still have blue eyes.

This kitten looks much larger and older than any of the kittens around the house. It looks almost “teenager” size! I’ve never seen it before. It makes me wonder that the mother didn’t bring it to the kibble house earlier!

I’m glad we kept up leaving food so far from the house for cats that aren’t ready to come closer. We have a couple of kibble bowls further from the house, but this one has more shelter under the spirea, and is more popular with the kittens.

We are expecting to see more kittens show up at the house throughout the summer, but younger kittens, not an older one!

The Re-Farmer

Not what I planned for the day…

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First, the cuteness!

Here’s Adam, with a couple of the babies.

These are not her babies. 😄

I actually took this photo yesterday. I haven’t taken any today.

This morning started out pretty normal. There were just a couple of things that had me wondering, as I did my morning rounds. For example, some of the slug trap jars were out of place, by quite a bit. I checked every squash plant for slugs (found only one!), and there were three of the jars knocked off the mulch and into the paths.

Later, while passing through the maple grove, I went to check on the pipe from the tap. I’m thinking we might be able to just patch the hole, rather than dig up the entire line. The bamboo stake I used to mark the location of the pipe and hole was snapped off at ground level.

It wasn’t until I was taking some fallen branches to the pile near the fire pit that I discovered the cause.

There was a cow on the wrong side of the outer yard fence! The entire herd was there, but one was most definitely not on the side was was supposed to be.

I sent a message to the renters to let them know, then closed off the gates to the inner yard. When I came back with a bucket to fill with water for the cow, as there is no open water source in the outer yard, I spotted a couple more cows – and possibly some calves, mostly hidden by the tall grass! A trail of cow patties by the fire pit gate, leading towards the yard, confirmed that at least a couple of cows had gone into the inner yard during the night. Thank goodness, they didn’t eat anything in the garden!

I sent an update to the renter and she said she would be there soon. I was quite relieved that she even looked at my messages, since we are connected through Facebook Messenger, but haven’t use it since before my account got stolen. I wasn’t sure if she knew I’d recovered it or not.

Next, I went to check the “gate” by the barn, where the cows often sometimes get through. The chain across it was still there, but one of the poles supporting the electric fence was down, and the wire was clearly broken somewhere, and was lying on the ground for as far as I could see.

I popped inside for a while and had a quick breakfast. When I could hear cows suddenly mooing, I headed outside again. The renter had come over in their utility vehicle – with her littlest one along for the ride! – and was by the gate in the fence leading towards the gravel pit. It’s a barbed wire gate, and a pain to open, but she had it down by the time I was crossing the outer yard in that area. At that point, I could see there were quite a few cows on the wrong side of the fence, and they were very curious about what was going on. I went around in one direction, so they’d move towards the opening, while she went around the other way. Unfortunately, one of the cows panicked, and that set them all off. The herd outside the fence stampeded off towards the gravel pit, and the ones inside the fence began panicking even more, trying to find their way through. A couple of cows found and went through the open gate, but at least one cow and a couple of calves barreled their way through the barbed wire fence. Then one last cow went and ran in the opposite direction. We got her going back again, but she wouldn’t go for the open gate. She eventually went through an opening in another part of the fence, which normally has the electric wire across it.

We got the gate closed again, but a couple of lines of barbed wire were loose. She brought out a fence tightener she’d grabbed on her way out, but it turned out to be broken. Her husband usually does this stuff, but there was some sort of accident involving a fence on another section of property he was dealing with, and he probably had the working tightener.

Thankfully, we have some. I’ve found at least 3 of them, and 2 of them were in the garage, so I went and got them. The first one we tried worked, and now I know how those things are used! It was the first time I’d seen one in action.

Once that was done, I went to put the tighteners away while she checked the fence line, so see how many fence posts would need to have the barbed wire re-stapled to them, and the status of the electric fence wire.

We continued to check the fence from both sides, though there were some sections I couldn’t get at, as it’s so overgrown. I even commented about how I don’t mind the cows getting through, because they can eat the overgrown grass we can’t mow, and how I wouldn’t mind borrowing a couple of cows for that. I’d said that to her husband, when he was her last, and they actually wouldn’t mind that, except that we have no way of knowing what might be buried in there that a cow might eat or hurt themselves on. Which is completely understandable!

While I was working my way around piles of stuff on our side of the fence, the renter found a broken end of electric fence wire, but there was no side of the other end.

The section of fence that is open is by the septic outflow pipe, which is on the outside of the fence line, near a collapse log building on the inside of the fence line. There used to be fences around the entire area where the outflow pipe and a low section it drains into is, but those fences have fallen down long, long ago. The only think keeping the cows out there is the electric fence. That’s where we found where they got in; the tall grass was all tramples and the electric fence wire had been dragged far into the outer yard. There wasn’t enough slack for her to connect them again, so she was going to have to get more tools and supplies.

I went inside and intended to go back out again to help later on, along with doing a number of other outdoor tasks on my list, now that we’re having such gorgeous weather right now. Unfortunately, that plan went out the window, when I was suddenly hit with a bout of severe intestinal discomfort. For several long, uncomfortable hours, I didn’t dare stray far from the washroom. As if that weren’t bad enough, my husband was hit with the same problem, at the same time! We have no idea why, but we were both fighting for the bathroom, and even our daughter’s had to get rushed out a couple of times. I didn’t even dare drive the 3 miles to the post office to pick up a parcel, and had to get my daughter to do it for me.

We seriously need a second bathroom. Yeah, we have the outhouse, but it’s too far from the house for times such as these! Thankfully, whatever it was, seems to have passed and I’m almost feeling stable again.

So plans for today have been thrown completely out the window. Thankfully, I’m feeling stable again – at least enough to do my evening rounds! I was even able to head out and harvest some more mint for my daughter. She decided to use the mint harvested earlier to make a simple syrup, but the longer she cooked it down, the less it tasted like mint, and the more it tasted like sugar. Once the syrup is strained and cooled, she plans to use it to make mint flavoured panna cotta. I’m quite looking forward to it!

Plus, mint will be good for my digestive tract. I just wish I knew why it went crazy in the first place, so I can make sure to avoid it in the future!

Thank goodness, the weather is supposed to stay good for the next week or more!

The Re-Farmer

Today’s progress

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Last night was another chilly one, as we went down to 9C/48F – but not chilly enough for the furnace to turn on this time! The thermostat was turned down to 10C/50F for the summer, but we never expected it to actually get lower than that!

Today we hit 26C/79F. We keep getting storm warnings, but I can’t rely in them hitting us, so I made sure to water the garden. Starting by hooking up the soaker hose and just leaving it while I made a run into town to pick up some prescription refills for myself, refill a couple of our 18.9L water jugs, and fill the tank on my mother’s car. Thankfully, the gas prices in town have not gone up with the new tax, though it has in other parts of the province, including the city. Rather backwards on that, but I’m certainly not going to complain!

I haven’t heard from the garage about our van, yet, which means he hasn’t had a chance to look at it. Thankfully, we have access to my mother’s car, so it’s no hurry.

I wasn’t going to do any heavy stuff in the heat of the day – the rest of the week is supposed to be much more reasonable! – but that just meant catching up on smaller things. While moving the hose to the different beds with sprinkler hoses, I went ahead and planted some of the Red Swan beans we have so much of, in with the purple corn. These beans are both a fresh eating and dry bean, but this late in the year, I think we can only reasonable expect to have fresh beans in what’s left of the growing season. Hopefully, they will work out with the corn to climb. I considered planting bush beans, instead, but I’d rather pick beans from higher up!

After finding the newly sprouted summer squash eaten by slugs already, I sprinkled fresh corn meal around all the squash mounds. I spotted another seedling in the next mound over, and I didn’t want that one eaten, too! I also sowed more summer squash again. If this third planting doesn’t take, that’ll be it for trying to sow them. I just came back from checking the garden beds while there was still enough light, and I did find a few slugs around a couple of squash, but that’s it. Hopefully, this new application of corn meal will be enough to keep them from returning.

Along with watering the main garden with the hose, it was time to refill the old rain barrel out by the Crespo squash and new raspberries. I’m trying to make sure the squash out there get extra water, because that corner gets so dry and sun baked. For the garden beds in the south yards, I used water from the full rain barrel by the sun room, then left the diverter off so that, if we do get more rain, it’ll get refilled.

While watering the old kitchen garden, I took the time to take the cover off the shallot bed and do a thorough weeding. The first of the poppies in there has started to open, and I can tell these are more of the Double Scarlet, not the Giant Rattle poppies we grew there before. Darn. Still, these do seem to be an eating poppy, not an ornamental one, so that’s okay.

The shallot greens were starting to get too tall for the wire cover – a problem I did not anticipate! – and were falling over too soon, so I harvested enough of the greens to take some of that weight off. Then I decided to harvest some of that mint that’s been invading our paths; it’s much taller than the ones I transplanted into the retaining wall blocks! My younger daughter might try some of the mint to flavour a panna cotta. Sounds good to me!

I also spotted our can of marking paint when I got back inside, which reminded me to head back out again and use it to mark the rocks and high roots in the southeast yard, so we can see them when mowing the lawn. We’ll have to get more of that marking paint. I finished off the can, and it has been very handy.

I made sure the kibble was topped up for the evening – I don’t want to do it too late in the day, or we’re just feeding skunks and racoons. Of course, I still saw a skunk before coming back in, just a little while ago. The kittens were also out and playing. I was able to catch and pick up another of the white and greys, and give it a cuddle. It didn’t like being picked up and put down, but it tolerated being held and snuggled just fine!

I was happy to see the tiny tuxedo enjoying the bed and stuffy the Cat Lady donated to the yard cats. There are other beds in the cat house, but these are in the water bowl shelter. Even the littlest kittens have figured out how to use the board leaning on the edge as a ramp, to drink water in there. Of course, we have water bowls at their height, but it’s good that they can get at the ones in the shelter, too.

Among the two litters that now spend so much time in the sun room, there are a couple that are white and black, very much like their mother, but one of them is most definitely a tuxedo, even tinier than the singleton! I spotted the two tuxedos playing together, and can see that it’s going to get hard to tell them apart, once they’re both adult sized!

I think I managed to get a decent amount of stuff done today, even if it wasn’t the big stuff that needs to be done, too, just yet.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, and WOW did it get cold!

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Yesterday was beautifully cool, and I knew it would get cooler overnight but, my goodness, did it get cold last night! With June’s temperatures, I haven’t even bothered putting a blanket on my bed; just a top sheet, and I’d often sleep on top of it, with the fan blowing right over me. Last night, the fan was off and I should have closed the window and gotten a blanket, but was too sleepy to do it, and slept cold, instead. When I finally checked the temperature at about 6am, it was 7C/45F!! I don’t know if it got any cooler than that last night, but you can bet I was checking on the tomatoes and squash this morning, for cold damage. They seemed to be just fine. If I’d known it might get that cold overnight, the girls and I would have covered them! I keep a bottle water by my bedside for when I take my supplements, or just need a drink during the night. When I drank it this morning, it was as cold as if it had come straight out of the fridge!

The kitties seemed to handle the drop in temperature just fine. I’m sure they were well cuddled by their mamas!

Speaking of mamas…

I thought I saw a pregnant cat run by, last night! There she is! I almost never see this cat anymore. I can’t remember if we’ve ever named her. Good grief, she looks ready to pop! Considering we’re in July, I suspect this is a second pregnancy, and that she lost her first litter. Unless she’s the tuxedo’s mother, but I don’t think so. She is from one of the oldest of last year’s kittens. We can’t get anywhere near her, and the only reason I was able to take this photo was because she was really hungry, and I can zoom in.

As I was finishing up my rounds, I was pleased to spot this.

The tiny tuxedo has figured out that there’s safe food on the roof of the cat house! Normally, he eats at the tray under the water bowl shelter. He couldn’t do that at the time. It was occupied.

An adult skunk had already run off, but these two little ones did not want to leave the food. I sprayed them with a hose to chase them off, as I usually do, and one ran off. The other, however, kept trying to go back for the food, then hunkered down beside that ceramic chimney flue and just took the spray. Of course, I stopped. The little guy eventually started moving around as if looking for the food. I felt so bad! The urge to go over and try to comfort it was very strong. I didn’t, of course. They shouldn’t be eating kibble (it has to do with how their jaws hinge, not because it’s bad for them), but my goodness, how can I say no to a hungry baby? I just completely soaked it, and the poor thing even looked like it was shivering as it moved around.

I’m such a horrible monster! 😥😥

Looking at the long range forecasts, we’re going to get more cooler night, but not as cold as last night. Daily highs are expected to be slightly below average for July, with less rain than June. This will work out just fine for getting work done outside. It’ll be great for the local farmers, too. Some have already baled their first cut of hay, and may even get three cuts this year. I’m seeing grain fields turned golden and almost ready for harvest, and the canola fields are in full bloom. There is lots of pasture for the cows, and the dugouts are full of water. Wild berry bushes are ripening, too, so there will be plenty of food to keep the wildlife uninterested in our garden!

It’s looking to be a really good growing year. Plus, it’s supposed to be a strong El Niño year which, for our area, usually means a mild winter, too. That would be so nice! For us, and for all the critters outside!

The Re-Farmer

Babies inside, outside!

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First, though, I want to wish all my visitors from the US a Happy Independence Day!

When heading out into the sun room this afternoon, I disturbed Adam from out of a corner. Why is it that they insist on lying in the junkiest corner? 😄 When she ran off, I saw this.

She had been nursing all of the kittens, including Ghosty’s sibling.

When I came out with the kibble this morning, I found him at the food bowl we moved into the sun room, with his mom; the white and grey I can never keep track of. She ran off, but he just stayed at the bowl. Turned out his eyes were completely stuck shut. So I took him inside and got my husband to hold him while I washed his eyes. It didn’t take much at all, which is good, and he was soon returned to mama.

Later in the evening, I spotted his mama nursing all of the babies, too. So the two mamas have basically combined their litters into a single creche. I’m happy about that! I keep thinking it might be 3 litters, but today, at least, it appeared to be two litters; Adam’s 4 older kittens, plus the white and grey’s remaining kitten.

Ghosty, meanwhile, is doing quite well.

Decimus has accepted her, and allows her to nurse. They both enjoy the wet cat food and kitten kibble, too. I pre-dosed the kitten kibble with lysine when I transferred it into a resealable container. We have not needed to wash her eyes lately, which is excellent progress. She’s still a bit sticky, but nowhere near as bad as when we brought her in!

Too many babies!

The Re-Farmer

It’s a living scarf! Plus, storm damage

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I’m quite late starting this, because I am so very tired. One of the main reasons why is, almost no sleep last night!

We had a storm blow over us. A few of them. While we had driving rains and high winds, thunger and lightning, we did not actually get the brunt of any of the storms. From photos I saw people sharing in local groups online, the town to the north of us got hit much harder than we did!

Because of the wind and rain, we ended up propping the sun room doors like we do in the winter, making sure there was something blocking the outer door to make sure it didn’t get slammed shut. This way, the kittens and cats would have a more secure shelter in there. With the doors open, as we’ve been leaving them lately, the wind was blowing the rain straight through, and half the floor was soaked in no time. After propping the doors, we left the shop lights on, so we could check the room from the bathroom window, too.

At about 2 in the morning, one of my daughters went into the sun room to check on things. When she untied and opened the inner door, she discovered the ghost kitten huddled on the threshold between the doors, completely alone. Both its eyes were completely stuck shut.

So she brought it in. They washed its eyes, and brought it to my room to baby jail, to see if Decimus would accept her. This kitten is older than hers but at least a few weeks, but more helpless.

At first, Decimus seemed to be okay with this. The kitten immediately tried to find nip, and she did not seem to object. I was still awake, so I stayed up and watched over them for a while. When Decimus started hissing and batting at the ghost baby, I let the girls know. They came with the cat carrier and took the baby upstairs with them. They also gave it wet cat food, with a dose of lysine. It took a while to figure out the dish of food, but when she did, she basically sprawled on top of it and devoured it. Then she curled up in my daughters arms (they took turns holding her) and went to sleep.

In the morning, they tried bringing her back to Decimus. Again, Decimus seemed okay with her at first, but she was so aggressive with trying to find nip and failing, pushing the other kittens aside, we finally took her out. I’d make a quick trip into town to get some cat milk and kitten kibble, and my daughter bottle fed it for a while. Ghosty didn’t seem to figure out the bottle, either, but my daughter just squeezed the bottle so she at least got drips of the milk. Then, she was put back with Decimus.

With a full belly, she didn’t try to nurse, and just snuggled, instead. Decimus seemed quite okay with that!

So, we now have another kitten in the house. At least this one is slated to be taken by the cat lady when she gets back. She’s out of the country right now, but I’ve been sending her pictures and keeping her updates. She will take both gooby babies. While she has had no luck adopting out bonded pairs, singletons get adopted quickly. She took in a pair of older kittens from a shelter that were slated for euthanasia before she left the country, and they were adopted out within 24 hours!

Since then, I’ve also been able to catch and bring Ghosty’s litter mate inside to get its eyes and nostrils washed. It isn’t anywhere near as bad as Ghosty, but still bad enough to be a problem. It looks like these two are the only ones of this litter. I still haven’t managed to count how many are in Adam’s litter, because they run and hide so quickly. Plus, I think there is a third litter visiting the sun room. The tuxedo that was here earlier seems to like having other kittens to play with, but he still tends to stay away, claiming the cat house as his own.

While we were up and about with kitten happenings, my daughter were in the dining room when they heard a whole lot of cracking and crunching noises. Either a tree fell down, or the one that was stuck fell further down.

When heading out for my morning rounds, I found more downed branches in the yard than usual. The biggest drop was a chunk of one of three big maples near the fire pit. The middle one has died, and one of the main branches finally broke. Thankfully, it fell into a part of the yard that is wide open.

I ended up finding quite a few downed branches, this time. We haven’t had a lot before now, since we’ve been cutting down as many dead branches as we can reach. Those winds last night, though, were really something. We had power flicker out for a few moments. Enough to shut down our computers (we weren’t fast enough in shutting them down first!), and wake my husband. His CPAP is quite high pressure, so he’s got a chin strap to keep his mouth closed while he sleeps. Rather than a face mask, he has nozzles that fit into his nostrils. If the CPAP shuts off, he suddenly has no air at all. As you can imagine, it’s a very stressful way to be awakened!

Still, I have no complaints. The garden is enjoying the rain, and while one potato bed had all its greenery blown to one side, there was no damage. In fact, the closest thing to damage I found was a hoof print, right next to a summer squash seedling! A deer had made its way through, and almost squished one of the squash we re-sowed.

Today was a slightly cooler day, with a high if “only” 25C/77F, so I took advantage of it to do work outside. Tomorrow is supposed to be even better, with a high of only 19C/66F. Alas, we will be going above 20C/68F again after that, but not quite like the heat we’ve been having for the past while.

I look forward to the work, but am now concerned I might not be able to do it. As I was writing this, I got up to go to the washroom, and my left knee tried to give out. Not with pain. It just decided it wanted to dislocate. Then when I got back and tried to sit down, I started getting a Charlie horse in my left leg! Thankfully, it didn’t get bad, and I was able to stretch it and relax it before it could do that.

I’ll share just what I did to cause all this, in my next post!

The Re-Farmer

Baby bed, drainage and feeling frustrated

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Would you look at this tiny worm?

I found a cardboard carton large enough for the mama to fit comfortably in and lined it with one of the blankets the Cat Lady donated to us for the kitties. Unfortunately, I really spooked the mom when I opened the door; enough that she ran out the hole in the back of the shed she’d been using to get in and out. I suppose that made it easier, since I didn’t have to worry about her reactions. I quickly put the baby in the bed box outside the shed, cleared the netting and other odds and sots where the baby had been lying, fit the bed box in, and left. The whole thing probably took less than a minute to do.

Picking up that tiny baby, though. Wow! It must have been maybe hours old, the first time I spotted them a few days ago.

The mother is Baby Beep Beep, which means she is NOT the mother of any of the sun room kittens.

In other things, we got quite a lot of rain last night. I’d used the rain barrel to water the front garden beds, as it was full to the top, and got it down to maybe a quarter or a bit less. This morning, it was full to the top. Not overflowing, but close, so I put the diverter on for now. We’re expecting more little thunderstorms passing through tomorrow. This morning, I was hearing thunder around us, and even got rained on a bit.

The potted herbs on the front step seem to be doing well. The lemongrass is getting taller. The spearmint in one pot by itself, and the thyme and oregano in the other, seem to be recovering from being transplanted well. Those two post have drainage holes and are sitting on trays, but the pot the lemon grass is in does not have any drainage holes. As I was weeding, I could see it was way too wet, so I just got a hammer and a nail and made one drainage hole.

I got this picture after it had been draining for more than half a minute, and there was still lots of pressure!

The bottom and sides of the pot are lined with grass clippings, and I don’t really mind there being some water accumulated in the clippings. Having a drainage hole higher up will work well, I think. It’s not like I could tip the pot and put holes in the bottom!

The down side is that, after weeding the Chinese elms that were sprouting in that pot, my hands smell like stagnant water. Yes, I’ve washed them. Several times. The smell still lingers. Ick.

I moved the last of the Jiffy Pellet trays to the steps near these pots. There is still that one Lemon Cucumber that sprouted, nothing else. It’s probably too late in the season, but when it gets its true leaves, I’ll find somewhere to transplant it. One cucumber plant is better than none.

This has been a very frustrating gardening year. The intension had been to expand the garden again, or at least use as much as what we did last year. With the weather and the heat, we weren’t able to build those trellis beds in time, which means two large sections, where we’d planted potatoes and melons last year, aren’t being used at all. We got transplants in, but didn’t have room for all of them, which means we have far fewer paste tomatoes than I intended. That was the one type I wanted to have a lot more of, since making our own tomato paste last year went over so well. Along with the weather and heat issues, I’ve lost more than a few days that would have been good days to work outside, because I had to help my mother out, and she demands I take a “holiday” when I’m with her, and not be “in a hurry” to leave. When I point out I have work to do, she just says, “what work? You don’t have cows!”

*sigh*

We didn’t do anywhere near as much direct sowing as intended, because there weren’t enough prepared beds to sow into. As it is, we had to use the old kitchen garden differently then intended, just to get things in the ground. That’s okay. Normally, I’m quite flexible about such things, but after a while, it just gets frustrating. In the end, instead of expanding the garden this year, we’ve got a smaller garden then last year. One positive thing, at least, is that we aren’t having the no good, terrible growing year we had last year!

I was feeling good about the garden in many ways. We have tomatoes growing and starting to produce fruit. The Gold Ball turnips, which disappeared last year, are growing well. Yes, something is eating the leaves, but not enough to hinder their growth. We’ve got two types of carrots, and both are doing well. The bush beans are struggling a bit, but they’re growing. Even the tiniest of onion transplants – the ones so small, they probably shouldn’t have been transplanted at all – are picking up. I’m happy to see so many pea pods forming, even though the plants themselves seem a lot shorter than I expected them to get. I think it’s the squash patch that is most encouraging. They failed so badly last year, and now I’m seeing the winter squash getting big and strong. It even looks like we’ve won the battle against the slugs! I’ll just have to keep up with sprinkling that corn meal. We might actually have fully mature winter squash to harvest this year

The melons germinated so late, they probably won’t get a chance to produce fully mature fruit, but they are recovering from being transplanted nicely and, you never know; we might get a long, mild fall and the frosts will hold off until late in the year again.

Then I see people sharing pictures on the local and Zone 3 gardening groups I’m on, showing their huge plants and talking about the vegetables they’re already harvesting. How can they be harvesting beans already? How is their corn so tall? One person was even eating fresh tomatoes! In June!

I try to remind myself that Zone 3 is about winter temperatures, and covers a large, geographically diverse area, so a lot of these people have a last frost date in the middle of May. Even with local groups, most of the members live well south of us. With this year’s very early and warm spring, even people with later frost dates took a chance and planted earlier. We’ve also had a decent amount of rain, though some people did lose or partially lose their gardens to driving rain, winds or hail.

Still, seeing all those photos of huge, lush garden growth and harvests, suddenly my garden seems really pathetic, and way behind, without even taking into account the things we didn’t get built in time to use this year.

I know better than to compare our situation to others, because it’s so different, but when I’m already feeling so far behind, it’s easy to start feeling down about the whole thing.

Things are supposed to cool down over the next few days, and the storms are supposed to stop for a while. Which means we should finally be able to chop our way through the undergrowth and get those trees my brother cut down for me! This should have been done weeks ago.

Well, it is what it is.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Still there, and baby care

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I had to pop into the garden shed briefly, and much to my surprise, the kitty was still there!

The mom was startled away when I opened the door, so I got to take a quick picture of her one baby, before taking what I needed and leaving them alone.

Later on, though, I’m going to snag a daughter. We’ll bring a box with something soft on the bottom, and quickly transfer the kitten into the box, and move out that mass of garden netting, so it won’t get tangled in it. Then put the kitten back in the same spot, in the box. Hopefully, the mom will accept the nest and keep using it.

When I first headed out this morning, there were no kittens visible in the sun room, but I spotted the almost white kitten in the middle of the yard. It was just bobbing around, mewing, with the moms circling around. Sure enough, both eyes were stuck shut. I ended up bringing it inside and held it, while one of my daughters carefully washed its eyes until they could open again. Then I put it in the sun room, near some food and water. Popping into the sun room later one, there were other kittens in there with it. So it seems like the mamas move the kittens out for the night, but bring them back for the day. I did not see the second kitten with the gooby eyes; it may have been in the sun room, but they have plenty of hiding spaces in that corner.

I’m going to prepare a bed in a box, now, then snag a daughter to help set up in the garden shed! Thankfully, that kitten isn’t very mobile yet, so it won’t get tangled, but that’s not going to be true for very long!

The Re-Farmer