One of my mother’s flower patches is blooming quite enthusiastically right now. Like dozens of little yellow suns, waving in the breeze.
The Re-Farmer
picture of the day
Cats in things
While walking past the garbage can in front of the sun room, I was startled to find it looking back at me!
Beep Beep decided the empty cat food bag made a good bed!
Her tuxedo takes after his mom.
The Re-Farmer
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Smoking
Absorbed
While walking around the trees in the west yard (because we can do that now!), I took a rake to the bottom of some of the tree stumps that are all over the place. The taller ones, to prepare them for when we can cut them close to the ground. Other, old and rotting ones, to uncover them and make them more visible, because I keep finding them by tripping over them!
There is a large elm tree in there that I’ve walked past many times, but it wasn’t until I started raking a stump next to it that I really paused to look at its trunk.
Where I realized I was looking at … another trunk?
It looks like a tree inside a tree.
With all the clean up I’ve done, and seeing so many trees growing against each other, I am guessing that this tree had suckers growing out the bottom that no one trimmed away. Over the years, the main trunk simply grew around the smaller tree growing against it, absorbing it into itself.
It looks like there are two more of them on the other side!
I’m sure there is some deep and meaningful metaphor that can be seen from this.
The Re-Farmer
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Out of reach
Of all the crab apple trees we have, only one of them has bright red apples. The rest tend to be a yellowish green, or green with a reddish blush.
The apples on this tree also tend to be larger than the others, and are quite good eating apples.
The majority of them are also completely out of reach. :-D
Time to break out the A-frame ladder!
The Re-Farmer
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A Beautiful morning… avoiding the snakes
Driving to and from town on the gravel road for the past while, I have been noticing quite a lot of garter snakes trying to cross the road. Avoiding them has become a challenge. Is that a stick on the road? Nope, it moved! swerve
Sadly, I’m also seeing quite a few that have been run over, too.
I had been wondering why the sudden uptick in snakes, until I remembered what time of year it is. They are starting to make their way back to their winter dens, to the north of us. We will likely be seeing increased numbers for a few more weeks.
It was a beautiful morning to drive my daughter to work, then swing by the lake, after.
Usually, I walk past the wave line, but not today.
Today, I got soaked to my knees from the waves. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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A bit early, isn’t it?
I would not have expected this many leaves on the ground, this early in the year. :-/
This photo also shows just how little rain we have had this year. If you look in the back, near the tire planter, there is a definite rectangle of greener grass. I had set up the sprinkler to water where the grapes are, a couple of times. Since it was there anyway, I set it to full to water the grass as well. When I came to harvest some grapes, I moved the sprinkler to the other side of the steps, to water the wilting lilacs at the corner of the storage house. Just that little bit of watering made a difference!
While I will water the plants, I don’t typically water the lawn. Yes, we are on a well and water is “free”, but running the water means the pump is running constantly until it’s shut off. I’d really prefer not to wear it out!
I have been chomping at the bit today, wanting to start working on the spruces. While it hasn’t been quite as hot as predicted yet, we’re still up there, and the humidex makes if feel even hotter. I kept thinking, it’s not that hot. I could probably get a couple of hours in… I managed to resist working on the trees, but I did go outside to work on the wiper blades on the van. It’s parked by the house, to make it easier to load up for the dump run we’ll be making later, and I finally remembered. Our van’s washer fluid sprays out from the wipers themselves, but on the driver’s side, the sprayer was held on with electric tape, which seemed to be blocking it. The other side was held in place with a zip tie. I ended up doing both of them with new zip ties, only to find that it just sprays wonky, anyhow. LOL Then I cleaned up and rearranged in front of the main entry, making the hand rail more accessible. I didn’t realize how much my mother needed it to get to the door. The bench I placed in front of the bin we use to keep garbage bags until we can haul them away was blocking her from reaching it.
By the time I was done, I realised that yes, it is quite hot out there, and heavy manual labour is not a good idea. No matter how fun it is! :-D
Tomorrow will be cooler and…
oh! My phone just dinged. A severe thunderstorm watch for today and tomorrow for the area. Hmm. What I was going to say is that it is expected to be cooler tomorrow, but it’s Sunday, and I do try to have Sundays as a day or rest, so I wouldn’t be working on the trees, anyhow. I guess the weather is going to be making sure of that, after all!
Seeing all those leaves on the grass has made me more aware of how quickly time flies. I want to get as much done in the yard as I can, before winter sets in.
I know it’s a running joke to talk about the weather, but it really is a big deal. For my neighbouring farmers, weather can make or break their entire year. I am grateful that our income does not depend on what the weather does, it still plays a big part in deciding what we do, and when. Something as simple as the leaves coming down early is a good reminder of that.
The Re-Farmer
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Oh, my shaggy friends!
Driving home from town this morning, I was happy to see the bison were by the fence – on a day when I had the DSLR with me!
Though the orange haze of this morning was fading away, it was still smokey, as you can see in the background.
This adolescent bison seemed rather curious about me.
What a beautiful, shaggy face!
Oh, how I love seeing these beautiful creatures!
The Re-Farmer
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Orange haze
It was almost disorienting, getting up to drive my daughter to work this morning. Instead of the usual brightness for this time of year, it was dark. Instead of sunshine, everything had an orange overcast to it.
The cloud of smoke from the fires on the West coast that had engulfed our former home for the past few days has finally reached us.
And yet, we weren’t getting any air quality warnings on our weather apps at all – that didn’t come in until several hours later – and it didn’t smell like smoke.
I had planned to bring my older daughter’s camera along, to take photos at the beach after dropping her sister off at work. I decided to bring it anyhow, leaving the telephoto lens on it. I honestly didn’t expect to get any good photos, but I did manage a few.
(click on the photos to see larger versions)
Everything was just this greyish orange colour. There was no sun. We couldn’t even see any sign of where the sun should have been.
I wanted to stay in town long enough to be able to pick up some prescription refills, so along with my usual playing of Pokemon Go, I decided to walk along the wharf and the breakwater. The wharf ends abruptly, and then there is a gravel path along the stones of the breakwater. While walking to the end of this section (there is a gap for the larger boats, then it continues into a cove), I had my game up. I couldn’t help but laugh.
I can walk on water! :-D
The wharf is on the game’s map, but not the breakwater.
Interestingly, the line of buoys in the lake, marking the closest boats can come to the shore, and the farthest swimmers can go out, is on the map, looking for all the world like a sidewalk, running through the lake.
The stones are naturally more of a pale yellow in colour, but not today!
After while, I headed to a park that’s part of my gaming routine and stayed a while. I was just getting ready to leave, when the sun made an appearance, at almost 9:30!
It was so hazy, I could look directly at it, comfortably. I tried playing with the settings on the camera to try and get how orange it was, but this is the closest I could get. The orange that you can see around the circumference is what the entire orb looked like in real life.
Though I couldn’t smell the smoke much at all – it was more than lost in the smell of yeast from the distillery – by the time I was done walking around and returned to my van, I could feel my throat and lungs starting to get irritated. These conditions would be awful for anyone with respiratory conditions!
I pray that the rains will come and help the firefighters put out these devastating blazes.
The Re-Farmer
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Morning at the lake
After the heat we’ve been having lately, this morning was downright chilly!
No, that’s not a complaint! :-D
I actually wore a light jacket when I drove my daughter to work. :-D After dropping her off, I stopped at the lake and walked on the beach for a while (which just happens to help me get some kilometers in on Pokemon Go… ;-) ). By the time I got back to the van, it was starting to be too warm for that jacket! We’re supposed to hit over 30C today, so we’ll really be appreciating how cool the house got overnight, because it’ll stay that way for most of the day, once we close up the windows.
Life is so much slower and calmer out here. For all the inconveniences of the move, and the various challenges we’ve had since then, life is good!
Speaking of good…
My husband’s CPAP came in yesterday!! He was lying down when we got back, but for this, I disturbed him. :-D We got it set up, and he immediately lay down to sleep again – this time, with his hospital bed flat. He’s been without for so long, he has to get used to it all over again! Much to our surprise, he even had to reduce the pressure on the machine. It’s an adjustable pressure machine, which means it is set at a range, rather than just one pressure. It’s rather a big deal for him to be able to reduce that range, considering how high he normally needs to keep it.
Pretty awesome. :-)
The Re-Farmer.
The Re-Farmer 