pain

Here we go again

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I had done so well yesterday. Feeling almost completely normal again.

This morning, my body gave me a great big F you.

In the wee hours of the morning, I woke. I did two things. I used the bathroom and fed the inside cats. That’s it.

By the time I got back to bed, the pain was starting.

It was still there when I got up for the day. It wasn’t too bad, so I headed out to feed the outside cats.

Good news. Flopsy showed up for breakfast! Then disappeared again. At least we know one of the disappeared cats is still around.

I also saw this little one…

I had to zoom in from half way across the yard, then crop the photo, to get the above image. This cat goes into that splay legged position, like it’s ready do run away in a flash, quite often.

I hadn’t done their water yet, but didn’t want to scare the little one away from the food, so I went around to the main garden area to start watering that garden beds, partly to judge just how well I was doing, and if I’d be going to Costco or not.

I took it easy and didn’t do a really deep watering; we weren’t expected to get unusually hot today, so that was enough. By the time the main garden area was done and I moved to the other side of the house, the cats (and a few skunks) had all had a chance to eat, so I refilled their water bowls in between watering different beds.

We are now up to four luffa seedlings, with a second one showing up next to the oldest one. Each spot got several seeds, so it’s entirely possible more will show up, still. Even with only 55 days to maturity, it’s getting really tight for them. They will have a chance only if have a very mild fall and no frost until the end of September.

Which, given that this is a Super El Nińo year, might actually happen. At this point, the shorter daylight hours will also have an effect.

By the time I was done, I knew going to Costco was going to be an issue. I could handle the drive, but not the shopping. Not without making things much worse.

The problem was, my younger daughter, who is the only one that can come with me, was dealing with her own very different pain issues today, too.

I decided to pain killer up and try lying down for a while, to see if things would improve.

They did not. The tramadol seemed to have zero effect. Not only that, but the bleeding kicked up again, too. *sigh*

After waiting a long enough time, I tried taking the T3s and lying down again.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t trying to nap. As soon as I lay down, I got covered with cats, including some that don’t normally cuddle with me like that. At one point, I had 5 cats directly on me, and I don’t know how many against my legs. I ended up with Shadow right against my side, and Clarence right against him, both draped over my bicep.

This was my view when I opened my eyes.

Both images are of Shadow, just inches from my face. So close that my phone’s camera (which I keep close by in case I need to message for help) measured as dark and used the flash. His face looks mashed because it IS mashed. By Clarence.

I had updated the family on our group chat about my status, still willing to go into the city later in the day, if someone could come with me. My husband had already suggested I wait until tomorrow. My older daughter came by later and basically said the same thing.

*sigh* Another day wasted because of this pain. I am so glad the surgery is happening in just a couple of weeks.

Eventually, the pain did recede a bit. My daughters were working on supper – my younger daughter was looking really rough today! – and I felt well enough to do the outside cat feeding again. Once that was taken care of, I did a light version of my evening rounds. I find the fresh air and moving around helps. Mentally, if not necessarily physically.

While doing that, I noticed that the old, leaking water barrel by the apple tree and gooseberry bush was looking surprisingly full of water. Usually, it leaks until there’s only about half a foot of water on the bottom, but I could see the water line was at about 3/4 full.

So I took advantage of that and watered just some of the fruit trees and berry bushes. I wasn’t up to hooking the hose up to do all the ones I normally water. It actually felt pretty good to do as much as I did, and didn’t make things worse, which I was grateful for.

While checking the main garden area, I noticed these are getting nice and big.

So far, only one of the Chocolate Stripe tomato plants has developing tomatoes. They’re looking pretty good!

I’m going to have to get that canopy tent set up soon. The garlic looks about ready to harvest, and I plan to hang them under the canopy tent to cure. I’ve got one kohlrabi and a couple of green pattypan squash (Green Scallop Benning) that I will be able to harvest tomorrow. Of the five types of summer squash I’ve got, one of them has not had any flowers yet, male or female. The Lemon squash. The yellow scallop squash at least has male flowers blooming, if no female flowers, yet.

Now, near enough to the end of the day that a trip to Costco is out of the question, I’m actually feeling a lot better.

If only that can last through tomorrow, and I can finally make the trip in, and not need to drag a daughter along, too.

The Re-Farmer

Another too-hot day, she’s at it again, and saying good bye?

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As expected, today broke 30C/86F. I don’t know what the humidex was. I was outside by 7am, watering the garden and it was starting to get too hot before I finished. It’s past 7:30pm now, and it’s just barely starting to dip below 30C/86F now.

I do have to chuckle a bit about when I do the outside cat feeding these days, both morning and evening now. There are at lest 4 little skunks that come out almost right away. I found myself with an extra tray that I ended up setting under the rail I hang the end of the hose from as an extra kibble and cat soup tray. After feeding the cats and getting ready to water the garden, there was a little skunk under the hose. I used it to rinse off the soup bucket, and it didn’t turn away. It got all foot stompy and chittering, but didn’t run. It was famished and kept eating, clearly struggling between wanting to run away and eating.

Which is the only reason I don’t chase them away. These little ones are famished – and I’m not seeing a mama with them. I suspect something got the mama and, right now, we might be their only reliable source of food. I am not setting out any extra for them, but I can’t begrudge a hungry baby its sustenance. They get along with the cats and, other than leaving poop in the sun room, they don’t make a mess or cause damage. So I let them eat. I only chase them off if the big one comes out and starts bullying the littles. Pretty sure that one is a big male.

Meanwhile…

I got a couple of calls from my mother this afternoon.

*sigh*

I had to hang up on her, the first time.

I saw the call display, so I knew it was her when I answered, but when I said hello, there was nothing. I said hello again. Still nothing. I checked to make sure the line was still open, and it was. I said hello again, and she finally answered.

???

We had barely said our hellos when she started. I’d asked how she was doing, and she started talking about all the commotion outside her window from the “big celebration”. This would be the annual festival that has been happening in this town for more than 100 years, and has been getting bigger and bigger over the past two or three decades. An entire “village” with historical re-enactments gets set up in the park next to the nursing home, and the parking normally used for fishing boats or people parking at the marine across the road gets set up with at least a dozen food trucks – and this isn’t even the main event area! All the carnival rides, stage performances and indoor exhibitions are at another park, across town.

“Across town” being about 4 blocks.

When she mentioned it, I told her I knew it was on – and that it was why I was not going anywhere near town today or tomorrow.

She then started saying she thought the parade was happening tomorrow (it is), and that I should “bring the children”. I needed to “bring the children” and get them around people. Get “the children” doing things.

I finally cut her off and said, “they’re not children. They’re adults.”

She just doubled down. I needed to take “the children” to see the parade.

Never mind that we’ve never really liked parades. Never mind that both daughters have health problems and one of them almost died not that long ago. We’ve only told my mother they have health problems, because we know she doesn’t care, and couldn’t understand it anyhow. So she doesn’t know the details, but she does know that none of us are well. The last time she called was when she wanted me to come visit and I had to tell her I’d just come back from the ER. She didn’t ask anything about it. She just kept hammering at me that I needed to take “the children” to the parade.

As she kept going, I told her to stop.

She didn’t.

I told her to stop again.

She ignored me.

I said good bye and hung up.

The entire call was less than 1 minute.

I had started to update my brother and SIL when the phone rang again. It was my mother, so I answered.

I got a dial tone. She hung up before I had a chance to pick up.

So I finished updating my family on the group chat we have specifically for discussions about our mother, when the phone rang again. It was my mother. I answered and said hello.

Nothing.

Hello?

Nothing.

Hello?

She finally said hello.

She then spoke as if the last call never happens. This time, she launched into how she wanted me to come over so she could give me money. “Lots” of money, so I could buy her some fruit. For some reason, she really felt she needed fruit.

I told her again, I was not going into town today. At the earliest, I could go tomorrow afternoon.

Not today?

No. Not today. Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest – partly because the streets in front of the grocery store will be closed off for the parade.

Oh, as long as the grocery store is open.

…

Then she started listing off the other things she wanted me to bring. One, her oscillating fan, I can do. The other two items would require digging past other stores items blocking the way, and digging through boxes. One of them was an old radio that she is convinced will be magically able to get the radio station she wants, even though it’s not any better than the radio she already has. When I told her no, it was in storage, and I can’t get at it, she wanted to know why. Was it locked? I couldn’t exactly explain to her that I have so many things from her apartment here, we can barely used our own living room. I just said, there are other things in the way and I can’t get at it.

She did, eventually, accept that.

Then she told me she didn’t know how to turn the light off on her phone. The light by the neck strap. As near as I can figure out, it’s the built in flashlight. She somehow turned it on, and now doesn’t know how to turn it off. She keeps pushing buttons, she says, but it won’t turn off.

I told her, don’t button mash!

Then she told me she had tried to phone my sister, then my brother, and tried to phone me, but was only able to reach me.

Which explains the earlier non-call.

She doesn’t know how to use the phone. She needs a “real” phone. I told her, my brother got her the simplest, easiest phone he could. He and I had looked at all kinds of phones, and he picked the easiest one for her. Oh, she leaves the technology to my brother.

*sigh*

Oh, and it’s been a long time since my brother visited, and did I know where he was?

I told her, he’s been busy trying to fix their car – which is true, but he’d come out here to fix his tractor, too. I wasn’t going to tell her that. Especially since the part he got turned out to not work so they went back to the city this morning – I saw them drive by while I was watering the garden. They didn’t get back until this evening.

I told her I would pass on to my brother and my sister about her wanting fruit, so whoever got to her first could bring something. Amazingly, she actually let me go shortly after that.

After messaging my brother and texting my sister, I finished eating my supper then headed outside.

As I was finishing setting out the kibble and the cat soup, I saw Batman, loafed in front of the sun room door. I stepped outside and pet him and he didn’t move so, right away, I knew something was wrong. He normally runs away.

When I came back, he was still there. I picked him up and put him near a tray with cat soup in it. When I came back moments later, he was loafed again, and using the edge of the tray as a pillow, barely breathing. I don’t think he ate.

At this point, I just tried to make him as comfortable as possible, and gave him pets. He’s never allowed pets before, but he seemed to appreciate them. Every now and then, I’d come back and find he’d moved a bit. When I found him next to the water bowl, I found a shallow water bowl and set it beside him with fresh water. I don’t think he drank.

After a while, I set up a soft bed for him, instead of the hard concrete, but later found he’d gotten off, then lay on the concrete.

I don’t think he’ll last until morning.

The only external evidence of illness that I can see is on his back end, where he’d clearly had done some messy business, but just as clearly, it was not recent.

I kept checking on him as I got things done. We had high winds today, so I walked around the yard with the wagon to pick up fallen branches, mostly from the willows. It was too hot for some of the jobs I meant to do, and too windy for others, but I did get the folding table out of the garage and set up behind the kibble house. I brought the canopy tent over, too, but it was too windy to set it up. Over the next while, I hope to be able to empty the sun room and give it a proper cleaning, and some things need to stay out of the weather. I also expect to be harvesting the garlic soon, and I’ll be hanging them to cure across the inside of the tent.

With the heat, the garden needed another watering, but it was still too hot. I went inside, planning to rest and hydrate before going out again, but by then, the pain was kicking in and I knew I wouldn’t be able to. My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, went out to do it for me.

As for myself, I’ve taken my tramadol, and it doesn’t seem to be doing a thing. In fact, the pain has been getting worse as I have been writing this.

My daughter just came by to update me. She has seen Batman moving around but, being covered in bug spray, she didn’t want to touch him. I’ve been warned he is now directly under the door between the old kitchen and the sun room, so to watch my step. Also, she had to chase both a skunk and a racoon out of the sun room! She also had a chance to talk to my brother while she was watering the garden, which is nice. Since she works nights, she doesn’t get a chance to see them much.

As soon as I’m done writing this, I’m going to have to take my evening supplements and lie down. Just sitting up at my computer is getting too painful.

I am so looking forward to surgery.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: first tomato, peppers, some cuteness and the status of things

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Well, I’m glad I didn’t head to the city today for our second stock up shop. That will definitely wait until after the long weekend. Not only will I not have to deal with holiday crowds, but Tuesday is supposed to finally be cooler again.

I had an early start to the day, not by choice. It wasn’t pain that woke me up – it was cats going nuts! – though I did immediately get a headache. I don’t normally get headaches, and I don’t know what triggered it.

I topped up the inside cat kibble bowls which calmed them down a little bit, but they’ve been really bonkers lately. Since I was up anyhow, I went out to do the morning feeding and watering of the yard cats.

Look who I spotted!

Sprout’s baby has starting coming to the food bowls in its own, without mom around!

(As an aside, Gouda did show up again. I had a scare with Batman, but he showed up, too. Still no Havarti, no Domino, no Adam and no Flopsy. At this point, it is highly unlikely we will see them again. Others seems to have disappeared, too, among the tabbies we never got to name. All have gone missing in an unusually short time. 😢😢😢)

It was wonderfully cool, heading outside that early in the morning. It helped my headache a bit, at least. I was planning to go straight back to bed, but I found myself not only with the headache, but suddenly famished. As in, feeling nauseous and dizzy and ready to pass out, hungry. Also odd, because I had gone to bed early last night, but got up at around midnight because of the pain my left hip. The painkillers helped with the abdominal pain but did nothing for the wrecked hip. My older daughter was up and working on commissions while it was cooler, and she was kind enough to rub some of the topical painkiller on my hip joint for me. Then she was kind enough to make me some grilled cheese sandwiches. Since I was up anyhow, I turned on the computer and paid the bills. By the time she brought me the food, my hip was no longer hurting, and I could finally sleep. I went back to bed at around two, so it was only about 3-4 hours later that I found myself awake and suddenly famished.

My body is completely out of whack!

My attempt to get more sleep was only half successful. It was disorienting to get up, feeling like it should be coming up on noon, but it was early enough that my alarm to do a wellness check on my husband hadn’t gone off yet.

With having to move the hoses because I knew my SIL was planning to mow the lawn, the garden hadn’t been watered at all for two days. Being slightly cooler today, and the mowing done, I went out to do it early this afternoon. Everything got an extra deep watering today, and I set up the hose into the leaky barrel to do the food forest trees, too. They also got extra water, and the leaking barrel will continue to water the apple, gooseberry and probably the plum, too, slowly as it empties.

When I moved to the south side of the hose to water the garden beds there, I started a little creature and saw a streak of white bolting out from under the water bowl shelter and across the yard.

It was Sprout’s baby! It is starting to come closer to the house for food!!! Progress!!!!

While watering the tomato bed, I spotted a splash of colour.

Orange colour.

Our very first ripe tomato! 😂🤣 This is an Orange Currant tomato which is pretty much an orange version of the Spoon tomatoes we’ve grown before – the one kind of tomato I can eat raw. I didn’t eat this one, though. My daughter had gone to the truck to sew up a split seam on the driver’s seat for me, so I gave it to her.

She said it was very good!

I was getting close to finishing the watering when my brother and SIL arrived. They have their own planned out stuff to do, so I don’t expect to actually see them much while there are here. Especially since I have not been outside anywhere near as much as I normally would be.

Still, by the time I was done watering (which took almost 3 hours), I was feeling pretty good. Good enough that I brought the truck around and my younger daughter helped me load up the garbage and recycling.

Thankfully, she came with me to the dump.

By the time the truck was loaded, I could tell the pain was starting to return. By the time we drove the two miles to the highway, it was getting hard to sit up straight. I was still good to drive, though. When we got to the dump, we stopped at the recycling bins first, and I got out to help my daughter take care of those. By then, I knew I was done. I could get in and out of the truck, but I was not going to be able to throw anything into the pit. So when we drove to the pit, my daughter took care of throwing the garbage bags in while I stayed in the truck.

On the way home, we made a side trip to the general store. The only thing I didn’t get while doing the earlier stock up trip was butter, and I discovered we were almost out. I ended up giving my daughter my debit card so she could run in and get the butter, plus a couple other things, while I stayed in the truck.

When we got home, she asked me to drive into the yard so she could hose down the box of the truck, as one of the kitchen garbage bags had leaked. I was happy to do that, as it meant a shorter walk to the house. While she took care of things, I took some painkillers and hydrated for a while.

My older daughter had started supper and it was ready before we got back, which was much appreciated.

Thankfully, the painkillers actually kicked in, so I was up to heading outside again. I’d forgotten to change out the memory cards on the trail cams yesterday. I no longer switch them out every day, but every week or so, now that we have fewer security concerns. Sad to think that it took our vandal passing away for that to happen, but it really has been a weight lifted off of all of us.

Of course, I just had to check out the garden beds before going back inside. Which is when I spotted something that I’m amazed I hadn’t seen before, while I was watering.

We have peppers. Surprisingly large ones!

These are the California Wonder bell peppers. The biggest plant has these two big peppers on it – one of them is stuck upside down, between stems. I had need tiny peppers forming on other plants, but somehow missed these ones!

Tomorrow is supposed to get quite hot again, so I plan to go to bed extra early to do an early morning watering, and will likely do an evening watering, too. Tomorrows heat is supposed to last from about noon to 8pm, before it starts cooling down. The overnight temperatures, at least, are much more bearable!

Hopefully, that will help with sleep, too.

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

Morning harvest, didn’t make it, and I think I’m addicted

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So, today didn’t happen as planned, but it sort of happened as expected.

For all that I felt so well yesterday, I had a mostly sleepless night. I finally just got up, fed the outside cats, and did my morning routine. I made sure to bring a container along, as the bush beans had not been harvested yesterday, so I knew there would be plenty to pick, today.

I pretty much filled the colander I was using. It was mostly yellow beans, as we have more plants of those, and they seem to be more prolific, but there were plenty of purple and green pods to pick, too.

Once back inside, I stayed long enough that knew the lab would be open, then headed out. The plan was still to go to Costco after I got my blood work and EKG done, so I made sure to grab ice packs. By the time I got to the hospital, though, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else. I was just too tired and sleepy, on top of all my joints aching from tossing and turning all night.

At the lab, I was called in very quickly after dropping off my requisition papers. Blood was drawn first, and then it was straight to gown up for the EKG. The test itself took less time than it took to wire me up!

From there, I just stopped to get a bit more gas before heading home, had a light lunch, took some pain killers and tried to lie down.

It didn’t really work. Neither the painkillers, nor the attempt at a nap.

When I finally gave up, I was soon back outside again. It was a bit early, but I went ahead and did the evening cat feeding, as well as refreshing their water bowls and putting in new frozen water bottles. My brother and SIL had their own plans change a few times, but they will be coming out today; while my brother works on his tractor, my SIL planned to start mowing the lawn. It goes a lot faster with their big zero turn mower, that’s for sure! They’ll be going back to the city for the night, though, and coming back tomorrow.

I decided to do a bit of weed trimming.

One area I wanted to get trimmed is what will be a stone framed flower garden near the gate, around my mother’s angel statue. I had already started to place rocks down but wasn’t happy with it. I moved them all aside, then weed trimmed the area before laying them back out in what I think is a better set up. Eventually, soil will be added to make a slightly raised bed, as that area is low and becomes a pond at times. The plan is to sow varieties of flower seeds in there that do better being planted in the fall and going through a winter’s deep freeze.

After that, I did some trimming around the garage and the baler my brother parked beside it. I’ve got my first two logs meant for the outdoor kitchen in there, too, and it’s hard to get in there with a mower, so it was starting to get pretty overgrown.

By the time I was done that area, plus trimming around some rocks in the yard so no one would accidentally go over them with a mower, I was also just plain done. Even this small amount of physical activity has trigged a return of my abdominal pain. Something I’d hoped wouldn’t happen, after not having any of this pain at all yesterday. Even so, I hoped I could rest and go back outside, but as I sit here typing, I’m realizing that this is not going to happen after all.

*sigh*

I did, however, do something else today, for next year’s garden.

I’m starting to think I’m addicted to seeds. 😂🤣

I’d been going through the MI Gardener site last night and even went so far as to start a shopping cart going, but then headed to bed. I don’t actually need more seeds, but I wanted to try some new varieties, fill some gaps, and there was a modest sale on.

Well, today a 40% off seed sale started, so I went back and added a few more things and placed the order.

I am such a sucker for seeds!

This is what I ordered today.

Yes, I got more tomatoes. These mature in only 42 days, hence the name, 42 Day Tomato, which means they can actually be direct sown in the spring rather than started indoors.

I tried another variety of spinach, Verdil. I still have others, but we like spinach, but have not been able to actually get good results for a while. This variety is less prone to bolting.

I also got yet another variety of pepper, Diamond Bell. We’re still working out what varieties the family enjoys most.

The Honey Rock Melon is a short season variety that could also be potentially direct sowed, rather than starting indoors.

The Tendergreen Cucumber can be harvested small for pickling or long for fresh eating, and the girls have expressed a desire for a slicing variety.

I got yet another variety of corn – Double Red Sweet. Not a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two. I just like the look of them, and like to try something other than your basic yellow corn.

I got even more carrot seeds. I’m coming to the conclusion that we can’t plant too many carrots. I chose an orange variety called Tendersweet, and…

… I got a yellow variety, just for something different.

Yes, I still have Atomic Red carrots, too. Variety is good.

I have had no luck with the tiny bok choi, as they always seem to bolt, so I’ve decided to try a Pak Choi cabbage that is less prone to bolting.

I was looking at the beets and decided to just get another Assorted Beet Mix – and then got another Sugar Beet packet. I still have some, but I want to try growing enough both to try making my own sugar, and to use as chicken feed, when we finally get our birds.

The Black Sesame seed is something I am curious to try, though it might not be next year.

I already got the plain garbanzo beans, and I figured I may as well try the black version, too.

I also wanted to try a new zucchini variety; Bianco Di Trieste. Because we never manage to have “too much” summer squash!

I have so many different types of melon sees, but I couldn’t resist getting some Tendersweet Orange watermelon – another shorter season variety.

I also have quite a few varieties of peas, but decided to try the Wando pea as well. We have yet to grow grow enough peas to do much more than snack on them, so I hope this variety does better. There aren’t a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two.

I’ve been interesting in growing leeks for some time, and today I finally picked up Carentan Leek; a variety that has a shorter growing season.

And finally, I picked up some Copenhagen cabbage which, if I remember correctly, is the variety of cabbage I bought transplants for when I didn’t think the Purple Savoy cabbage would grow at all. So we will have both varieties again, next year.

Once of the things I’ll be doing closer to fall is going through my entire seed inventory and organizing it into things I can plant in the fall for winter sowing, things that need to be started indoors, and things for direct sowing.

Hopefully, after I’ve had my surgery, I’ll be better able, physically, to build and prepare beds. This forced inactivity is driving me nuts.

If I’m not careful, I might end up buying more seeds again…

I’m not addicted. I can quit at any time! 😂

The Re-Farmer

Harvest, Hodge Podge and Health

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Today had definitely turned out to be a hot one. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. It should also be our first stock up shopping trip to the city, so I’ll want to head out quite early, before things get too hot.

Knowing the heat was coming, I made sure to water the garden this morning, though I’ll have to ask the girls to do it tonight.

I was able to get a nice harvest this morning!

I decided to gather some potatoes this time, expecting to dig up a few smaller potatoes, since it’ll be a while before the potatoes mature and the plants start dying back.

I was wrong!

In the first image, you can see what I uncovered when pulling the mulch aside. Some nice, big potatoes growing, right at the surface! Thanks to the mulch, there was no exposure to the sun, so this just made it easier to get them.

In the second image, you can see the potatoes I got from under two plants. The single carrot is the Uzbek Golden Carrot that seeded itself in the purple cabbage bed.

Then there were the bush beans. There were so many pods! Especially with the yellow beans, but I got quite a few green and purple ones, too. I also grabbed a few more little carrots from the Rainbow Carrots Mix row.

While I was outside, my sister called my cell phone. She had gotten the text I’d sent her about my mother and had called to ask what the heck was going on between us. I explained a bit about what happened during my last visit. I had mentioned in my text the conversation I’d had with my mother, telling her about going to the hospital, so she asked about that, too. After making sure to tell her to NOT say anything to my mother, I gave her the Cole’s Notes of it. She asked for more detail about my mother saying she was sick, and I told her I had none. She went straight from saying “I’m sick. Very sick” to “come visit me.” My sister also thinks my mother is just wanting more visits so she’s pulling the sick card. Which doesn’t work very well, since she is in exactly the right place to be if she really were sick. From the strength of my mother’s voice, I don’t think she’s actually sick.

So my sister is somewhat caught up on things. She knew that we had health issues, but she had no idea things were as bad as they are (I mentioned both my daughters need very different surgeries, too) and, if my mother asks, that’s all she plans to say. My mother already knows this, but doesn’t care.

I did get the watering done while we talked. I told her about watering the garden twice a day when it gets hot like this. She told me, they haven’t had to water their garden at all this year! They live near a creek and their soil, as my sister describes it, is gumbo. Wildly different from what we have! After a while, I had to end the call because I needed two hands to be able to harvest the beans. 😁

Once inside, I covered the colander with the harvest in it and left it, as I needed to sit for a while and have breakfast. My daughters were sweet and brought something for me, as they were going to be using the kitchen for a while. After eating, I sorted through the harvest, plus got what we left in the fridge from before, and organized the vegetables into several bowls, based on what would take the longest to cook, then scrubbed all the potatoes. They are too fresh to bother with trying to peel them.

By the time I was done scrubbing the potatoes, though, I was needing to at least sit down for a while. My younger daughter had come down and I told her what I meant to do next. She was a sweetheart and did the rest of the cleaning, peeling, trimming and prepping for me. I tried sitting at my computer, but the pain kept getting worse. I was preparing to take the new painkillers and lie down when the phone rang.

It was a follow up from my ER visit and CT scan. The gyno wanted me to come in, and she was wondering if Thursday was okay.

As in, the day after tomorrow.

!!!!!

Obviously, I said yes. If I’d had anything booked that day, it would have been cancelled. As it is, it will be in between our regular city stock up trips, so that worked out perfectly.

Then I was able to lie down for a while. I wasn’t laying down to try and sleep. I just needed to not be upright. My SIL started messaging me and we chatted for a while about things. She was very happy to hear I got an appointment so quickly! So am I. I’m getting hit with this pain daily. It’s oddly predictable, too. Very strange.

My husband offered me a muscle relaxant after seeing my face when I walked past to the washroom. It’s one of his “take as needed” meds – and it was bad enough that I actually said yes, since the tramadol was doing nothing. In the end, the muscle relaxant didn’t make a difference, either. The pain just got worse, then started to subside again on its own.

So frustrating.

Once I was able to get up, though, I started on the Hodge Podge after getting the remaining marinated pork belly into the oven.

It’s been a long time since I’ve made Hodge Podge! It’s a great way to use up a lot of different vegetables at one. Of course, I had to modify the basic recipe to match my ingredients, but that’s what Hodge Podge is all about.

So for mine, I had the:

fresh new potatoes
bush beans
Spring Blush peas I’d picked before the plants started producing
the remaining garlic scapes we had that didn’t fit on the pan for dehydrating
the little carrots
the few turnips I’d picked previously (most of which my daughter had to toss because they were worm damaged)
a bunch of Golden Boy celery
couple of onions from the grocery store we had left.
salt, pepper and a bit of powdered beef soup stock mix.
chive blossom oil and butter
butter
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream

I started it off by cutting the onions into big chunks and started to cook them down in a half and half mix of butter and chive blossom oil. Then I added the carrots, turnip, celery and garlic scapes to the pot. Once they had about 5 minutes to soften, I added the potatoes, chopped large, then added just barely enough water to cover the potatoes.. Once the potatoes were almost done, I added the peas then, after a minute or so for them to cook, added the bush beans.

The bush beans are easy to know when they are done. I have the tri-colour mix, and the purple pods turn green when they are cooked through.

Once that was all cooked, I drained some of the water away before going to the next step. I added in a big chunk of butter – about 1/3-1/2 cups. After stirring that in, I added the 250ml container of sour cream.

I’m quite happy with how it turned out!

That done, I had to sit down, as the pain had gotten worse again. I am currently fighting myself. I want to go straight back to bed and pass out, but it’s way too early. I’ll been to take my evening meds. I haven’t even eaten the supper I’d made, yet!

I am so looking forward to the appointment coming up. Hopefully, I’ll actually get something useful out of it!

The Re-Farmer

Home for now, plus a harvest

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So… today actually started out pretty good.

We were getting predictions of rain and thunderstorms. At one point, my weather app told me it was raining right that moment.

It wasn’t.

So I went out to water the garden in the morning. In the process, I gathered what I would call our first real harvest of the year, with everything weeks behind.

I picked a few of the Rainbow Mix carrots. They’re still small, and it was more of a thinning by harvesting action. The baby carrots will taste just fine!

I was very happy when I started checking the bush beans. The yellow ones seem to be ripening the fastest, and I picked a decent amount of those, plus a few green and purple ones. Then I grabbed a few of the turnips that were left and a bunch of Golden Boy celery. I’ve been picking a bunch of celery every now and then, along with harvesting some turnips, but nothing that I would really consider what would be a typical harvest I would normally get from the garden, until today.

After watering the main garden area, I left the harvest on the chest freezer in the old kitchen and went back to watering the garden beds around the east and south yards, and the old kitchen garden. The Arikara squash is looking amazing, and I can see more Blueberry tomatoes starting to form.

About half way through, I was starting to feel pain starting to kick in, but it wasn’t too bad yet. I messaged my daughters asking them to put away the harvest, and if they could make me a breakfast. By the time I was inside and finished eating, it was definitely time to take some pain killers and try lying down.

It didn’t work.

It just kept getting worse. Quickly. Bad enough that I finally started talking to the family about driving myself to the ER.

They agreed.

My brother and SIL were still here and I was updating them, but it turned out they had their Messenger off. Which is fine. I was just keeping them informed.

The girls got the truck to the house and unloaded of market inventory, loaded my walker for me, put my prescriptions and a charger cable for my phone into a bag for me to bring along, and took care of the gate so I didn’t have to go in and out of the truck as I left. The only time I started having issues with the drive in was when I found myself stuck behind someone doing 65kph in a 100kph zone and couldn’t pass.

When I parked at the hospital, I was so incredibly glad for that walker. Sitting while driving wasn’t too bad, but once I was walking, I found I couldn’t straighten up.

Once by the admissions window, I started getting my health care card and the woman at the desk waved me over right away. When I handed her the card through the slot under the window, my hands were shaking violently. I couldn’t stay standing, and my face must have been a sight, based on how quickly she got me processed.

From there, it was a brief time in the waiting room and then I was in the triage room. A nurse got my vitals and asked me all sorts of questions. My BP was, understandably, a bit high, but not too bad. Considering the pain I was quite obviously in, it was not a concern.

Then it was back to the waiting from for a bit longer before they took some blood, and then it was a wait until the results were in. That’s when I got to talk to the ER doctor.

We went over the details again, including the whole background about how this started with those anti-inflammatories I had started taking, a while back. They had worked so well for what I was taking them for, too!

The doctor then found herself with a bit of a conundrum. The things she normally would have done – the tests, the referrals, etc. – were things that were already done, or in progress. There was that one ultrasound that showed abnormal, and it’s why I was being referred to a specialist in the city for a biopsy.

So what, she asked me, did I want her to do, in context of being in the ER?

We talked about the pain levels some more. I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t even lie down, to get any relief. She did prescribe tramadol and she wanted me to fill the prescription right away, to use in stead of the T3s. She even made sure that it was not anti-inflammatory, and that it wasn’t contraindicated with anything else I was taking. The pharmacy was still open for a couple more hours, and she was ready to send me home with the prescription.

As we talked more about how bad the pain was, and she looked at the ultrasound results some more, she realized that my doctor’s referral was something that could take months to be fulfilled. I needed to be seen right away.

She knew of a specialist at the hospital in the smaller, nearer city. She told me to stay until she had a chance to get through to the specialist and see if I could see her right away.

The pharmacy closed while I was waiting.

When she came back later, she told me the specialist wanted me to have a CT scan, and that I should get a curretage.

*sigh*

She wanted me in either tonight or tomorrow. Which I was actually quite happy to hear.

The next while in the waiting room was for the appointment for the CT scan. I was there long enough that I was starting to become hungry to the point of getting light headed. Of course, I kept the family up to date on all this (my brother and SIL had seen my messages by this time). My husband and daughters were suggesting that, if I was going home, to make sure I grabbed food somewhere first, even before I mentioned getting so hungry. Frankly, I would have just gone to the truck for the beef jerky in our road food stash, but I didn’t want to miss someone coming back with information for me.

One of the nurses came by as soon as they had the appointment made. It’s for tomorrow morning, and my daughter and I will have to be on the road by 9am. I’ll need to fast, plus make sure to have a liter of water to drink before the CT scan.

My daughter, meanwhile, has called the clinic for her own appointment in the city tomorrow and left a message about rescheduling. I can’t say I feel too badly about that, since this is the clinic I found so creepy and actually felt was unsafe, while in the waiting room during her last appointment, which was essentially a meet and greet. This is something we disagree on.

So that’s where we’re at now. I’ve just finished having something to eat with my evening meds and supplements and will now start my fast. I’ll be going to bed pretty much as soon as I’m done this post.

Tomorrow should be… interesting.

Hopefully, this will finally bring an end so the issues I’ve been having! Or at least tell us what’s going on, so long after I stopped taking the anti-inflammatories.

Meanwhile, all my brain can do is list off the things I want to, or should be, doing that I physically can’t right now. The pain did eventually recede, but just getting up and walking around it enough for me to feel it threatening to come back.

I need to lie down before I start doing tasks I really should not be doing.

The Re-Farmer

Bad pain day

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Well, so much for being productive…

One of my daughters took care of feeding the outside cats for me this morning, so I could get a bit more sleep after doing a wellness check on my husband.

My first attempt at lying down got interrupted by a phone call. It was the pharmacy. They noticed I was to get prescriptions delivered today, but my husband’s were listed as a pick up. Did I want his delivered, too? After confirming that an in person pick up was not required (which sometimes happens, due to regulations around some of his meds), I absolutely said yes! That made things more flexible for me when it came to getting the mail and going to town.

Then my daughter was a sweetheart and kept a handset with her upstairs, so she could answer the phone if it rang again.

After I got a couple more hours of attempted sleep, I eventually made it outside and started with the watering. The rain barrel was finally full again, so I used watering cans to do all the south garden beds and the old kitchen until the barrel was empty, finishing by using the hose to water the grape vines.

By then, I was really struggling and having difficulty standing up straight, so I went inside. I let the family know that the front was watered, but not the main garden area, but that I was going to take some pain killers and try lying down. Not to sleep, but because it was sitting was just as painful as standing. Granted, lying down wasn’t any less painful, but at least I didn’t have to try to keep myself upright.

I had meant to finish the watering after I felt better, but my younger daughter went out to finish the watering for me, leaving the phone with my husband. Over time, however, the pain increased rather than decreased. When my daughter came in to check on me, I was wanting to sit up so I could take another painkiller, but needed her to help me. My prescription says to take two or three at a time, but I was only taking one. I’m going to have to change that.

Getting up was not an option, though. So when the prescription delivery came, my daughter went out to meet him.

For my own meds, I got a refill on my topical painkiller, more T3s, as I was running low, and my new prescription. My older daughter just came down while I was working on this to take a look, because she’s on the same medication, but my dose is 5 times higher than hers. It turns out to be a different type of the same thing – and a lot less expensive. It is covered 100% by our provincial pharmacare system, though, so it’s not even billed to my husband’s insurance. It is also the only medication I’m on where the time between doses makes a difference. It says to take one before bed, and I never get to bed at the same time, so I’ve set a daily alarm for myself.

For today, though, I took my first dose right away, after getting a daughter to help me sit up again. Then it was back to lying down. My SIL messaged me around this time, and we talked about the bill for the bin for trash that was hauled away already, and asking about the bill for tree removal that my brother hasn’t received yet. They’ll be coming out for the weekend again and my brother plans to check the roof and the window where it’s leaking. A major concern would be mold. I know the roofers put an extra layer of underlay on that section of the roof, because it’s such a low slope, and it has held out fine until this year, and even before the new roof was put on, it had never leaked with rain. Just from the ice dam that forms during spring melt. So something has gone very wrong up there, but we can’t see it from the ground, and none of us are able bodied enough to climb onto roof to see.

I’m really hoping the new meds help, because what I was dealing with today was some of the worst pain yet. The T3s, at least, seemed to finally kick in, and was was feeling much better later. Well enough that I could feed the outside cats – and got to see Sprout bringing her little white and grey kitten to the food bowls under the shrine! That’s a first that we’ve seen.

I even felt well enough to finally rake up some grass clippings that were thick enough to start killing the lawn under them, and even do a walkabout. As I was doing that, spotting the kitten and then the skunks coming in, too, I realized something. I haven’t seen Domino for a while. We let her out of the isolation shelter just before Sweetie came back, and Sweetie broke out during the storm her first night here. I think Domino disappeared soon after that. I haven’t seen Adam for about a week now, and today I realized that I haven’t seen Havarti for several days. That’s three cats disappearing in a relatively short time, for long enough that I wouldn’t expect them to come back at all. Domino is the missing one that bothers me most. She was at the rescue for a couple of months, could not adapt to the indoor life, so we took her back. She seemed so happy to be back and let me pet her far more often than she ever did, before she’d gone to the rescue. Now, she’s just gone.

*sigh*

Anyhow.

In the end, it was a pretty rough day. Even my family later commented on how much better I was looking this evening, and how terrible I’d looked earlier!

Tomorrow will be my first test on how the new meds are working, but the real big test will be on Saturday, when I plan to have my table at the market open from 10am to 8pm. Those last four hours should be the busiest, as the large animal rescue has a big event planned.

Personally, I’ll be happy if I can just stay upright all day tomorrow, and not end up back in bed, curled up in pain, for hours again.

The Re-Farmer

A good night, a rough day

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Last night, we were expected to drop to about 17-18C/63-64F

We dropped to 14C/57F

It was glorious. Best sleep I’ve had in a while!

I still headed out early to do the watering, after after the rest of my morning routine. While watering in the old kitchen garden, I decided it was time to remove the insect netting from the rectangular garden bed.

The self seeded poppies had pods pushing up against the nettings from below, as well as some onion seed heads. They are now free to bloom and be pollinated. The parsnip and beet greens are looking nice and lush.

The cats are going to miss their hammock!

While laying the netting out on the grass so I could fold it up to put it away, I spotted a couple of spots where eggs had been laid. When I folded the netting over, I discovered that one of them still had the spider mama on it! She would not move, and stayed clutching the cocoon of eggs.

I ended up folding the netting in such a way that the spider was on top and uncovered, then found a place in the sun room to tuck the netting away that should be safe from having cats climb on it.

Yeah, I’m a suck.

Even for spider mamas and their eggs.

By the time the watering was done, it was almost time for the general store to open, so I headed out right away. The kibble bin in the sun room was pretty much empty after this morning’s feeding, so I needed another 40 pound bag of kibble.

It is so much handier now that the local general store carries that size. Otherwise, I’d be driving to towns with feed stores, to the north or south of us.

Once back home, I had my breakfast and was on the computer when I started having issues. I was starting to fall sleep at my keyboard. Plus, the pain in my lower abdomen was back. So I decided to lie down for a couple of hours.

That seemed to help, but as I was up and about, the pain got worse again. It got so that I could neither stand nor sit properly because of it. So I tried lying down again. I fell asleep again, covered in cats, and after a couple of hours I woke feeling much better.

Until I moved.

All I did was shift a leg to a more comfortable position, and the pain was back. It went away after a while, until I had to move again. Then, just to top it off, I found I had a headache behind my eyes.

*sigh*

In the end, I had to ask a daughter to do the outside cat feeding. I’ve taken pain killers and am hoping to be able to at least do the evening watering, in a couple of hours or so.

On the plus side, we didn’t break 30C/86F again, as was being forecast last night. We “only” hit 28C/82F. The overnight low is supposed to be 18C/64F. The forecast for later in the week has also changed to less extreme highs. For me, I’m mostly looking at Friday, when I take my daughter to the city for her pro-op appointment, and Saturday, when I will be doing the market again. By myself, this time. My daughters have both been invited to a digital wedding on Saturday that they will be “attending”. For our time zone, it will be in the afternoon. It seems the couple live in different countries and are unable to travel, so they are getting “married” in a game, using their game characters as proxies. Obviously, not a legally recognized marriage, but it’s what they are able to do for now.

What a strange world we live in.

Anyhow.

My telephone appointment with my own doctor is next week. I find myself wondering what the next steps will be, if nothing showed up in those ultrasounds. An MRI, perhaps? I don’t know, but something is very wrong, and it’s causing problems. This started out as a side effect from anti-inflammatories I am no longer taking. While the initial side effect is almost non-existent now, it hasn’t gone away completely, and the pain has gotten worse. It’s gotten to the point that my husband, broken and in constant pain as he is, looks at me and comments on what bad shape I’m in, and that I’m moving around worse than he is!

Speaking of which, my husband finally broke down and placed an order for a new chair. An ergonomic, bariatric chair that he could potentially use as a sleep chair, if it ever came to that. Putting one more thing on his credit card is not something we wanted to do, but we were supposed to get it when our tax return came in, and that mess still hasn’t been sorted out. The new disability tax credit paperwork got sent in a while ago, and he did check off the box giving permission for them to go over his previously filed taxes, and that takes time. He should at least get the tax credit that didn’t come in this last time. Who knows, though. He was officially on long term disability back in 2014, and we didn’t know the tax credit even existed back then. We only found out about it after going to a different tax preparer a few years back, and she had asked me why he wasn’t getting it. She was able to set him up on it, right then and there, and set me up for the caregiver tax credit – something else we didn’t know existed.

Meanwhile, the chair he’s got now is breaking and unsafe, and this is a medical necessity. Perhaps not the specific type of chair. I suppose he could have gotten a prescription for a chair from his doctor, but that would just had more time, and he can’t really put it off for much longer. The chair he ordered should arrive before the end of the month. That’s the most important thing.

All four of us dealing with painful health issues, all at the same time, was not something any of us thought would happen, that’s for sure!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Sweetie sighting, and bee bombed

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Thanks to the generous donations from the rescue, one of the things I’ve been able to do for the outside cats is to use the freeze dried cat food powder to make a thin cat soup. Not a lot, but enough to spread around several bowls, in hopes to lure the more feral cats closer to the house.

Sweetie has finally discovered this. For the past while, by the time she showed up to eat, the other cats would have eaten all the cat soup. They absolutely love the stuff. (Interestingly, the inside cats keep trying to get into the boxes, but once it’s mixed up, they have no interest.) I mixed up a bowl of cat soup then leave it to rehydrate while I put out the dry cat food. I actually spotted Sweetie this morning, already at one of the food bowls under the shrine, looking for food. She ran off a bit when I came out and put food into the bowls in the area.

Not only did she come back for the soup but, when other cats bullied their way in, she went into the isolation shelter and found the cat soup in there!

Not only that, but when she saw me stop to take a picture (using zoom; I was not going to go too close!), she went back to eating.

This is progress!

After doing the cat stuff, I did the rest of my rounds, including checking on the garden.

That’s when I spotted our first Gigantheum poppy was blooming!

Of course, I stopped to take a picture and immediately got photobombed.

By a bumble bee.

You can just barely see it in the first image. If you click through, there are two short videos, too.

I didn’t do the morning watering today. Partly because I was heading into town for a meeting at the nursing home, and partly because we were supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon.

I got a message from my brother and SIL, letting me know they were on the way. My brother had to take a day off work for this. I ended up getting there about half an hour early, and met with my brother in the chapel to wait, as the meeting room was being used for another meeting. Their grandsons are still with them, so my SIL took them out around town and to the nearby beach.

The meeting is something that will be happening every year, though when they found out my brother took a day off work, they said future ones could be done over the phone.

Being the first one of these meetings, there was a fair bit to cover, as we gave them some background information that would explain some of my mother’s behavioural issues, etc. There was some discussion about my mother’s cognitive decline – something my mother notices in herself, even if she doesn’t have the vocabulary to explain it. One of the people looked through the binder of my mother’s files and found the past several cognitive test results. One she had done 2 years ago had a score of 14. One she had done this year had a score of 29.

Out of 30.

That is a huge fluctuation. It does match what we all have observed. In many ways, and on her good days, my mother is extremely sharp. On her bad days, she can’t understand some of the most basic stuff. What we have no way of knowing is, when she’ll be having a good day or a bad day!

The meeting went on for about half an hour. My plan had been to visit my mother, then do some grocery shopping. My brother had brought another radio for my mother (she was unusually cruel about the “junk”, high end radio he’d provided for her before, not understanding that it’s simply difficult for any radio to catch a frequency where she is) because she complained he’d taken her radio away.

…

He hadn’t planned to actually visit her, though, but when he called my SIL to let her know we were done, she said their grandsons wanted to visit their great grandmother, and they were already on their way.

So we all went to visit my mother, very briefly. She turned out to be in bed, asleep, when we got there and was very tired.

For a short visit, she managed to make digs and each of us. Not the boys, thankfully, but… yeah. She actually complained a bit that we were there, asking what the “celebration” was. My SIL explained that she was driving the boys back home tomorrow, so this was their last chance to see her for a while. I told her I was going the the grocery store and was visiting her first. We didn’t bother telling her about the meeting, as she would not have been able to grasp it. As it was, she never got up at all. Which was fine. Lunch was going to be brought over, soon, so we didn’t want to linger. As we were leaving, she twisted something in conversation into an accusation against my brother, then told him that she wanted him to come visit for longer… by himself… because she wanted to “talk” to him.

My poor brother. He practically ran from the room after saying his goodbyes.

From there, they invited me to join them for lunch so we could fill each other in and catch up on things. It also gave me a chance to see the boys for a bit longer before they left for home tomorrow.

After we parted ways, I did a small grocery shopping trip. Most of what I got was on sale, but it still came out to almost $130. I did finally get a decent amount of butter, though; it was on sale for under $5 a pound. At least the house brand butter was. With other brands, the half pound sizes cost more than that.

Oddly, by the time I was packing things up at the truck, I was hit with a wave of sleepiness that did not stop. I felt weary to the bone, and could barely stay upright.

What I got fit into three hard sided bags (I even remembered to grab some, since the back of the truck cab is filled with my market supplies) so I messaged home, asking if someone could meet me at the garage to grab one, so I wouldn’t have to pull up to the house or make two trips. Then I started driving, so I never saw what the response was.

I had also picked up an energy drink for the drive home.

It didn’t make any difference, that I could tell.

Much to my surprise, when I drove up to the garage, my husband was waiting for me! He’d gone over with just a cane, not his walker. When I asked him about it, he told my that our younger daughter had been up all night and had finally been able to fall asleep, and her sister has had a relapse and couldn’t walk to the garage.

!!!

We got everything in and I put it all away, and then went to bed. I pretty much passed out for a couple of hours, with the exception of when several cats decided they absolutely needed to use me as a bed.

I didn’t realize how hard I’d fallen asleep until the phone rang. When I answered, the person on the other end asked for my older daughter. From the tone of her voice, I knew immediately is was about her relapse. There was a distinct sense of urgency, almost alarm, in her tone. Talking to my daughter yesterday, she told me she intended to take the “use as needed” medication she has, and that they intended to phone the doctor at the women’s hospital today (her sister being the one to make sure she didn’t put it off again!).

In the end, she was told to go ahead and take the “as needed” medication again. The nurse that called was going to consult with the doctor about any changes in her prescriptions, and will hopefully call back tomorrow. My daughter has her pre-op appointment on the 17 and she was instructed to not worry about that at all and, if things get worse, get to an ER right away. For now, my daughter says it is manageable. When she filled me in on this later, I made sure to tell her that I will drive her to the ER, even if it’s 2am, if necessary.

After my much needed nap, I headed outside to take care of the cats, then stayed out to try and get as much of the lawn mowed as possible.

For all that I waited for things to dry out after the last rains, the grass in the more overgrown section of lawn I focused on was so wet, it actually clogged the riding mower ejector opening, several times!

Then it started raining.

*sigh*

At least I got the tallest grass done. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get more done tomorrow, because the day after is market day, and I don’t expect to have the energy to do it when we are done there. I’m doing the riding mower parts, though, so we’ll see.

Also, there are SO many frogs! Many times, I had to reduce my speed or stop outright to avoid running them over. This makes me very happy. More frogs means less slugs and other nasty bugs! They don’t do much about the mosquitoes, unfortunately, but we’ve had a lot of frogs for two summers now, and I haven’t seen a single slug in the garden! 😁

Meanwhile, I think it’s time to pain killer up and head back to bed. That wave of sleepiness is coming over me again. The only thing keeping it from getting as bad as earlier is my increasing pain levels.

*sigh*

Less than 2 weeks to my telephone appointment with my doctor.

Being broken really sucks.

Being broken and not knowing what’s going on makes it that much more frustrating!!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: flowers, tomatoes and strawberries

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Today turned out to be a bad pain day, so I didn’t get much accomplished. I did my morning rounds, as usual, but as the day wore on, things just kept getting worse – and I was mostly just sitting at my computer, crocheting some new items for the market on Saturday, not attempting anything active or physical!

I did remember to call my doctor’s office to make a telephone appointment to go over my ultrasound results. It turns out the doctor is leaving for holidays for 2 weeks, so I wasn’t able to book it until the 20th. The fact that the clinic hasn’t contacted me for an appointment by now means either 1) nothing showed up in the ultrasounds or 2) the doctor hasn’t seen the results yet. All I can say is, there is something wrong and it causes problems that fluctuate in severity.

It was bad enough that I asked my daughters to take over the evening feeding of the outside cats (still no sign of Sweetie). One of the things on our to-do list was to pick up prescription refills for both my daughters, but in the end I asked them to call them in for pick up tomorrow, because I wasn’t up to the trip into town. I have a couple of other places to go at well, and I really should visit my mother, too.

Thankfully, by around 7pm I was feeling well enough that I could go outside to walk around and get some fresh air with my younger daughter – until the mosquitoes drove us inside. We decided to give the last few garlic scapes another day before a final harvest, but I also spotted a couple of firsts, today.

Our very first nasturtium flower has emerged. These were direct sown using seeds we saved from last year. All the flowers in that bed are doing much better, now that they have a straw mulch around them.

In the next photo of the slide show above, I have a couple of Albion Everbearing strawberries. I’m not expecting much from these at all this year, so it’s nice to see at least a few strawberries developing.

It was while I was walking with my daughter in the early evening that we spotted our first tomato! (Which you can see in the next image.) I hadn’t even noticed any flowers, but we have one Manitoba tomato plant with a few flowers and a developing fruit. With the weather we’ve been having, the tomatoes aren’t actually growing much, so seeing this was a nice surprise.

The last image isn’t a first, but more of a last – the last of the flowering bushes. The mock orange has just exploded in blooms! It is definitely liking the weather we’ve been having.

The sad thing is, we’re going to have to move it at some point. My mother planted it against the laundry platform, and it’s in the way when we try to hang things. Not that we’ve been able to use the clothes lines much this year, but it is something we want to use as often as possible in the summer. The other thing is, we’re going to have to do some maintenance on the platform itself, including lifting it and replacing rotting wood. It needs to be on bricks or blocks or something, so that it no longer has direct contact with the soil. I suspect it has actually sunk into the ground a fair bit. The bottom step is almost lower than the patio block that is butted up against it, and is quite rotten. Some of the boards on the floor of the platform need to be either replaced or reinforced. To do that, we need to access the platform from all sides, and the south side is completely covered by the mock orange. So, it will need to be transplanted at some point.

I’ve just been watching the Gardening in Canada video released today, and it was interesting to hear her comment about the super El Nińo we’re supposed to be getting this year. It depends on where you live, of course, but she talks a bit about how it will mean a cold, wet summer, and a long hot fall. Something to consider, when it comes to planting in July.

Right now, I’m thinking of re-sowing bush beans in the square raised bed. Only a few of the seeds I planted have come up, and a few of those look like they got munched by insects. The seeds I used are older, so I’m not surprised by the low germination rate. I’ve also got more seeds germinating in that tray of winter squash and melons! If we really do get a long, mild fall, they might actually have a chance to reach full maturity. Either way, I plan to give them a chance. I’m also looking to plant spinach again – we have yet to have any spinach or chard succeed this year, though we do have a few new seedlings right now – and more peas.

It’s going to be a strange growing year.

The Re-Farmer