It is turning out to be a lovely day today! We’re at 19C/66F right now, which is our predicted high of the day, with almost no wind at all. Which means I’ve been able to get some stuff done in the garden! Finally!
The first thing to get done was take down the last of the nets and support stakes on the future trellis bed and around the strawberries. I was surprised to find more strawberry plants have been eaten, though! As near as I can figure, a deer managed to get its heat under the netting on one side.
*sigh*
I had some chicken wire around the side where a hole had been made in the netting. Once everything was cleared, I put the chicken wire over the bed for now. The strawberries – what’s left of them – will be heavily mulched for the winter, but at this point I’m thinking we may need to transplant them closer to the house, where we can more easily keep the deer away. I’ll decide that later.
With all the hardware collected and set aside, I started cleaning up the high raised bed – mostly because it’s easier on the body!
I was expecting to find shallots that I missed harvesting, once I started cleaning up the dead pepper plants, and I was right. I found quite a few, actually, considering how small the bed is.
I’ve decided I will find a place to transplant these and mulch them over the winter, so that next year, we will have shallot seeds.
I removed the grass clipping mulch on the high raised bed and got about half way through digging out weeds and their roots, when I got a message from my brother. He’s on his way over with another load. He plans to cut away some tree branches while he is here, as they have a storage trailer they will be bringing out tomorrow, and they are in the way.
I’m more than happy to get those branches cleared away!
So I paused in the garden to come in and have lunch before he gets here, as I plan to help my brother as much as possible once he gets here.
While I was waiting for my food to heat up, I tended to the dehydrated peppers.
This is three trays of peppers, combined into one. They’re back in the oven for now, while it cools down (we used the “warm” setting at 150F to dehydrate the peppers). Later on, we might pop them into a jar for storage, or perhaps powder them. I’m not the pepper eater, so I will let the family decide which they would prefer.
Time to head back into the main garden area until my brother gets here. Now that all the stakes and netting are down, it should go faster. My goal right now is to prepare as many beds as I can to direct sow into, then cover with leaves for the winter. Hopefully, we will get a head start on the garden next year by doing this, but if it doesn’t work, the beds will still be ready for planting in, in the spring.
In the colander are what might be the last of the Purple Beauty peppers – they have had a lot of strangely small, thin walled peppers. There’s also a Sweet Chocolate pepper in there, as well as a few hot peppers. There are a couple of eggplants, and all three types of beans, some Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, plus a few San Marzano tomatoes.
In the bin are the Former de Couer and Black Cherry tomatoes. I’m picking most of them a bit on the green side, to get some of the weight off the plants.
Yesterday, we were able to get some things into the freezer.
I grabbed all the bell peppers and prepared them for freezing. If you click through to the next image, you can see them laid out in a couple of gallon sized freezer bags.
Earlier, I cut up enough melons to fill two baking trays. Those will be bagged up later.
While chopping up the peppers, I took advantage of my husband coming by and taste testing the four different kinds of bell peppers we had (the last variety still hasn’t turned colour yet).
His conclusion:
They all had that “bell pepper” taste, but they were very mild – as in there wasn’t a lot of flavour. The exception was the yellow pepper. Those have much thick walls, to it was great to hear that.
Something to keep in mind when deciding what varieties to grow next year.
In other things, we’ve got another windy day today. It’s supposed to continue through to tomorrow. So far, I’ve found found a few downed branches, but no fallen trees! We’re going to have to keep an eye/ear out for the next while.
I did end up going out this morning. My older daughter is feeling sick today and didn’t have the energy to cook. So she sprung for take out for all of us! Which worked out fine, as it gave me a chance to refill a couple of the 18.9L water jugs in town.
We’re supposed to reach a high of 26C/79F today, while the overnight low is, remarkably, supposed to be 21C/70F!
Tomorrow night, however, the overnight low is supposed to drop to 7C/45F, so we’ll need to make sure to drop the sides of the plastic around the eggplant and hot pepper bed. In a few days, we’re supposed to drop to 1C/34F. The eggplant and pepper bed can be covered, but we’ll have to pick all the green tomatoes, and probably the last of the melons and squash, too, since we have no way to protect those from frost. The high raised bed has a cover on it to protect the peppers from deer, and support any peppers tall enough to grow through it. We can use that to hold protective covers off the plants.
We’re 19 days past our average first frost date, so I am certainly not complaining. Still, it would be awesome if the weather decided to say milder for a bit longer!
I had another sleepless night last night (courtesy of the cats!), so my daughters took care of most of the morning stuff. That let me get at least a couple of hours of sleep before I headed out to the garden, just before noon.
We got a smattering of rain yesterday evening, so I used one of the side walls from the broken market tent to cover the onions that were curing outside. Once things were warmer, I uncovered them again, so they could get some sun and air flow.
We’ve got some warm, sunny days coming up, and mild overnight temperatures, so I lifted the bottom half of the vinyl sheets wrapped around the box frame over the eggplant and hot pepper bed.
As you can see in the foreground of the photo above, Syndol is checking out the eggplant and hot peppers I harvested out of there this morning!
This is the rest of today’s harvest. We have a first today!
Yes, a couple still have some green on them, but I wanted to get some of the weight off the plants. It was much the same with the few tomatoes I collected today.
Also, yes, that is a mutant Little Finger eggplant on the left! I actually remembered to bring pruning shears to cut the stems – they are surprisingly spiky! – and it was rather a surprised to cut one stem and get two eggplants! There are two Classic eggplant in there, too. I’m harvesting a bit smaller, as the large ones we’ve harvested before were getting pretty seedy inside. Mind you, we could leave some longer just to collect the seeds, but it’s probably too late in the season for any of the ones still on the plants to have viable seeds to collect.
The long, straight hot peppers were easy to harvest, but the curled one was so twisted around the stalk and another pepper, I ended up breaking off the top of the pepper itself, rather than the stem.
We also have one melon today, and one purple Dragonfly pepper. The colour is very much the same as the eggplants!
Pretty darn good for near the end of September in our area!
The German Butterball potato plants have all died off, so we should be harvesting those, soon. A few of the winter squash are starting to look ready to harvest and get set aside to cure, too. The one Jebousek lettuce that seeded itself should have seeds ready to collect, too. The kohlrabi look like a total loss, though. The flea beetles just decimated them. 😢 We finally got some to actually grow, and this happens. *sigh*
As we build up our raised beds, making it so they can be covered with insect netting is going to be important! I would really like to grow kohlrabi and cabbage and brassicas in general, but it looks like that’s just not going to happen until we have a way to protect them from those flippin’ flea beetles!!
Things definitely not chilly last night, though not – thankfully – frost chilly. We dropped to 6C/43F. Our expected high today is only 17C/63F, with tomorrow about the same. Then we’re supposed to warm up again over the next week, and even reach temperatures as high as 25C/77F before they start to drop again. Even the long range forecast into October has changed to warmer predictions, though we are still looking at potential frost. What gets me are the days we’re supposed to hit 25C/77F again, but have overnight lows of 3C/37F! Talk about temperature whiplash!
The garden seems to be okay with this, for the most part. The tomatoes, of course, aren’t ripening very quickly. The beans seem to be loving it, though. The Crespo squash is a surprise. While all the other squash and pumpkins are dying off, the Crespo squash is just thriving, growing and blooming. I’m not seeing any end of season die off at all!
There are a few San Marzano tomatoes, all from the main garden area, none from the retaining wall blocks in the old kitchen garden. Hidden on the bottom of the colander is a single green zucchini. It’s small, but I picked it anyway, as it’s not going to get any bigger. There’s a whole three Chocolate Cherry tomatoes under there, too.
There’s all three types of beans in there. With the Crespo squash growing so enthusiastically, it’s hard to see the green Seychelle beans that are sharing the bed. Like the squash, the bean plants are thriving and blooming, as if it were the start of the season for them, instead of well past. There were more of the Royal Burgundy and Carminat beans than I expected, and they are still blooming, too. Even the one surviving Seychelle plant with the Carminat has a few beans on it, and is blooming.
I had a bit of a surprise while digging around to find the beans. I spotted a Carminat vine that didn’t make it onto the trellis netting, and was instead going under some winter squash vines. I gently pulled it out to see if I could get it on the trellis – and found a several huge pods! So we have more pods that might give us seeds, if the weather holds long enough for them to dry out.
With the peppers, I decided to go ahead and pick most of the Dragonfly peppers, as well as quite a few Purple Beauties. There’s a couple of Sweet Chocolates in there, too, though one of them turned out to be mostly green on the side I couldn’t see very well.
There were several peppers that are getting very yellow, but still not quite ready to pick. As for the variety that is supposed to be more or an orangey-yellow, they are all completely green, still.
Later today, when things are warmer and drier, I will head back to the garden and harvest yellow onions. Almost all of them had their necks bent down quite a while ago – most by cats, but some by the weight of the tomato vines they were planted around. No sense in leaving them to get mushy in the ground. I’m not entirely sure where I will lay them out to cure in the sun, though, since our picnic table is no longer useable, and the old market tent’s frame is broken.
I think I’m going to have to pick up another Walmart cheapie canopy tent. We’ll just have to make sure not to set it up where any trees can fall on it!
With the chill of the night, there were no Forme de Couer or Black Cherry tomatoes to pick today. I’m really hoping the upcoming warm weather stays for a while. We don’t have a lot of cat free space we can use to lay out green tomatoes to ripen! Another reason why getting another canopy tent would be useful.
And another picnic table. Probably a basic kit we can assemble ourselves, then paint.
When we get to building the outdoor kitchen we’re planning, that would be a good place to include areas where we can set out or hang produce to cure before they go to the root cellar. With the cooking surfaces we have in mind, we could even do large batch canning if we wanted.
All in good time!
For now, I’m just happy with a colander full of peppers and a handful of beans!
The Re-Farmer
[addendum: you know, if I followed the feedback suggestions on WP’s AI Assistant, my blog posts would be insanely long and even more verbose than I normally am! 😂😂]
Some of those leaves growing up from vines on the ground are taller than my waist! The vines climbing the cherry trees are really taking off, and blooming.
If you click over to the next picture, you will see my little green friend that I found in the main garden area. The onion flower stalk it’s sitting on is bigger than the frog!
Later on, I went back out to finish painting the catio.
I thought a quart would be enough. I was wrong, but by so very little!
If you click through to the second photo, you’ll see that I finished painting the mesh in blue. I didn’t try to get into the spaces to cover the white on the frame. I just wanted to make sure the rusted mesh was protected. When more black paint is in the budget again, we’ll give the while thing a second coat. Except for the top, of course, since that would require taking the roof panels off.
Once everything is dry, we can replace the cat hammock and then it’s basically done. Getting more paint is not a necessity, since all the important bits are now protected with at least one coat of paint.
The cats will be happy to be allowed back in there!
I find this kitten, curled up like this and napping, all over the place! Usually someone in a sun spot, in the open, on the grass. Today, he decided the kibble house roof would be his curl up spot.
I was actually able to pet him while he slept. Usually, when I try that, he wakes up and runs off. Today, when three adult cats pushed their way through, demanding pets and waking him up, he didn’t run away! I even got to touch his back a bit before the other cats pushed themselves under my hand. I stopped trying, because I didn’t want the bigger cats to end up pushing the little one right off the roof.
I tried to do a head count after feeding the cats this morning. I think I counted 41 this morning. I may have counted a cat twice, but I don’t think so.
*sigh*
Anyhow.
Today, we’re looking at a relatively bearable high of 23C/73F. As I write this, we’re at 21C/70F, with a humidex of 25C/77F. We got a little bit of rain last night, so I have decided not to water the garden today. I’ll definitely have to, tomorrow, though. The system that blew through barely touched us, but other areas in our province got enough that people in my local gardening groups had their gardens completely flooded out.
This morning I finally made some follow up calls. I left a message with the company that will be repairing our septic expeller. I got through to the scrap guy and told him about the threshing machine and cars that we have permission to get cleaned up. He will be coming over tomorrow morning to look at things and see what they’re dealing with. They were also supposed to take the collection of old batteries we found while cleaning up in the basement and garage. Those will be harder to get at, now that my brother is storing things in the barn, but we should still be able to do that. It will be good to finally get those bags of aluminum hauled off. We’re looking at almost 7 years of cans collected. With all the cat food cans in there, the outside cats keep digging into on corner and making a mess.
At least it’s just in the one spot, though!
I look forward to being able to clear out more of the old vehicles, but I have to clear with my brother, which ones he says can go or not.
Oh, what a day it’s been! I’ll cover that in another post, though.
When I got home, my daughter was doing a walkabout, checking the yard for fallen branches and whatnot. We are supposed to get rain today but, so far, it’s just been sprinkles. I hope we get more, because I’ve been holding off watering the garden for it.
Instead of rain, we’ve been getting gusts of high winds. The catio Gouda is still in for 1 more night just has the temporary plastic roof over it, and the wind was tearing it loose from the cord that’s tying it down. We ended up putting a large floor mat on top to weigh it down, then added weights to that, to keep it from being blown off. I’m so glad we did, because that plastic would have been blown right off, not long after we did it!
Gouda, however, seems to be doing okay in the catio. He’s not too pleased about being stuck in there – and the other cats are not pleased about not being able to go in and steal his wet cat food! He only has to be in there for one more night. The catio’s walls are all mesh, but he does have his box nest with a blanket in there, and is using it. The catio is also sheltered by the house on one side, and a tree on the other, and branches above.
I’ll still be much happier when the isolation shelter is done, with a fully enclosed top level.
After we took care of that, we went through the garden beds and ended up picking another melon that had fallen of its stem, and a handful of the purple pole beans.
Then we started on the tomatoes in the old kitchen garden.
They haven’t been harvested for the last couple of days.
My daughter ended up bringing over the basin from the old kitchen to hold them all!
In the basin is a few San Marzano tomatoes, a whole lot of Forme de Couer tomatoes, and Black Cherry tomatoes.
In the second photo of the slide show, I was able to zoom in for a picture of a newly blooming female luffa flower. There is one other that I spotted, but there are no male flowers at all, anywhere. The male flowers bloom in clusters, making them easier to spot. I supposed it’s possible there are some way up high and hidden among the lilac branches, but it seems unlikely.
We have a whole bunch of things we will be doing with tomatoes over the next while; one of them is going to be using the slow cooker to make a sauce. It’s big enough that we should be able to use most of the tomatoes we’ve got waiting to be processed, along with a few other vegetables we have that can be included.
I won’t be starting on that for a while, though. I need to just sit and decompress for now. Much progress has been made in getting my mother into supportive living, as she has been wanting for some time now, but my goodness, am I ever mentally exhausted right now!!
I’ll cover that in my next post. Just writing about it, as much as I can on a public blog, will be very therapeutic!
I honestly didn’t think I was going to get more progress on the isolation shelter today. After helping my brother and SIL unload their trailer, I went back to watering the garden, then stayed to do as much weeding around the winter squash as I could. I was feeling the heat and probably should have called it a day. I didn’t want to push myself too much, which I apparently did yesterday.
I was finishing up on my computer when I tucked my foot under my chair, only to get hit with a Charlie horse in the back of my thigh! Thankfully, I was able to stretch it out before it got bad, and managed to hobble over to take some ibuprofen. I was eventually able to sit down again.
Then I moved to tuck my right leg under my chair, and got another one!
I was able to stretch that one out, too, but I spent most of the night having to sleep with my legs stretched straight. Any time I tried to bend my knees, I could feel the muscles starting to cramp again. I even ended up sleeping on my back, which I never do, because it hurts.
Not as much as a Charlie horse, though!
In the end, though, as I was putting something away in the garage, I figured I could at least do the painting.
The other side of the ramp/door pieces were done, as where the last sides of the box “nests”.
In the second photo of the slideshow, you can see that I also decided to secure the scratching post/ramp to the second level.
At which point I figured, may as well keep going!
I moved the shelter to the doorway, so I could work in the sunshine. The light was much better, but by the time I was done, I was really feeling the heat!
The first image in the slideshow, I just tacked on the sheet of insulation I’d cut to size previously. You can see a patch I made near the top left corner. A piece was broken off there, so just cut it more or less square, than cut a piece from some of the excess insulation to fit. One edge of the sheet needed to have a bit of excess trimmed off to make it straight.
The insulation has a crack in it, and a few holes but, for the purpose, it should work fine.
In the next image, you can see how I’ve attached the first piece of 4′ wood lath. Once I made sure it was straight, lined up with the width of the shelter and secured with nails, I trimmed the rough edges of the insulation to be flush with the top of wood lath.
After that, each piece of lath was lined up with the one above and nailed in place, first in the centre, then on each end. I just found it easier to start in the middle.
In the next picture, you can see how it looks with the back completely covered.
The next thing to do was to secure the wire mesh in the lower level. For that, I had some painted wood lath that were a quarter inch shorter than they should have been. I cut one of them in half for the sides, then checked the length I needed. I wanted them to be flush with the pallet at the bottom, and the top edges extended a bit under the lath above, where there was a gap where the insulation ended. They were then lined up with the inside edge of the shelter frame and nailed in place. I positioned the nails as best as I could estimate where the mesh was, so that if the mesh gets pulled or pushed on by critters, the nails will prevent the wire from getting pulled out from between the wood.
Once those were secured, I measured and cut my last two painted pieces of wood lath to fit in between the side pieces. Those were also lined up with the inside edge of the frame, and nails were placed to ensure the wire mesh can’t be pulled loose.
You can see the finished frame in the next photo.
I then spent a bit of time considering what to do about the middle. There were only a couple of staples holding it in place. With the frame in place to secure it, there really wasn’t much concern that the wire mesh could be pulled off. However, if the middle were pushed loose from the inside, a cat could potentially get stuck between the vertical support and the mesh.
I could have added more staples, but I don’t trust those.
I decided to add one more piece of wood lath. The next image shows the entire back of the shelter, including the extra piece. The next time I will be painting things, I’ll paint that piece, too.
There is so very little paint left, though! I would be amazed if there was enough to finish painting the upper level, when it’s enclosed. Unless I manage to acquire the clear plastic I’m looking for to use instead of wood, to use as windows.
That brick on top isn’t supposed to be sitting on the frame. I had to move it while I was rolling the shelter out of the garage, because it was bouncing. I have the painted piece of wood that was originally going to be part of the floor up there. It will be used to raised the roof slightly in the front, to create a low slope – and will be what I attach hinges to, so we can lift the roof from the back. What I noticed is that the piece of wood is slightly bowed in the middle. If it had been used in the floor, as originally intended, that would not have mattered. It would have been screwed to the floor joist in the middle, which would have pulled it flat. As the hinged part of the roof, it might make a difference. So I’ve got it sitting across the top of the shelter, with the brick weighing down the bend, to slowly straighten it.
The next photo is of the upper level. The insulated box “nest” can fit under the resting shelf, or can be moved wherever is needed. Food and water bowls can go under the shelf as well, accessible through one of the access panels/door – whatever I ended up making.
When the doors/access panels are added, I plan to have one in the opening near the back and the other in the opening near the front. I’m still hoping to be able to make sliding doors as access panels, rather than hinged doors, but it will depend on what materials I find.
The bottom level is shown in the last photo. The sides will be enclosed with mesh, as well as the non-door half of the front.
I’m debating adding a mesh to cover the floor. It occurred to me that, if we ever have a mama with kittens in there, really small kittens could squeeze through those gaps between the pallet boards. I have some plastic mesh a friend sent to me that would be perfect for this. The mesh is fine enough that it won’t be a problem for little toe beans, but will also allow debris to fall through, such as anything kicked out of the litter box that would be on this level.
The non-insulated box nest will fit in this level. Eventually, both levels will get cat blankets or beds.
I’m still thinking of where to add a cat hammock of some sort. As I look at the photo of the shelter from the front, I’m thinking across the larger opening, maybe covering half of it, would work. This would help keep the upper level warm in the winter, and if I can cover the entire front with clear whatever I find, a cat could lay on it and enjoy looking outside.
Winter is something else to think about, when it comes to keeping things warm. The mesh on the bottom can be wrapped with plastic sheets to keep the weather out, and at least some of the cold, in the winter. As long as the top has a heat lamp or something similarly safe, it will be a welcome shelter for the cats, in addition to what we already have. If no cats need to be kept isolated, we plan to just leave the door/ramp on the bottom open, so they can go in and out any time they please. That way, when we do have to isolate a cat, it will already be familiar with the shelter, and not afraid.
At least, that’s the theory!
I’m glad I was able to get at least this much done on the shelter, since it will be a while before I can work on it again. I’ll be away most of tomorrow, I’ve got one day at home, then two days of driving around. In that one day I’ve got, I need to find a way to secure the broken mesh on the catio. The girls and I will be moving the swing bench away from the house and into a spot I prepared for it in the garage, in front of my mother’s car. It will finally be out of the weather, and kittens can still enjoy sleeping on it in there.
Once the area the swing bench is currently on is cleared and cleaned up the catio will be moved there. Any last work that needs to be done on it can be done on site. Plus, we should be able to see into it from the kitchen window.
Knowing the yard cats, they’ll be climbing onto the top and looking back at us!
I’d hoped to have the isolation shelter done by now, but it will be some time before we have all the materials to finish it. If we need to isolate a cat, the catio is what we have to use. All it needs is to get that torn mesh secured. It’s unlikely a cat would go through there, but it is possible.
We’re booked to get one male’s nibs nipped in a few days. If we can get one of the males in there for the overnight fast, with one of the carriers in there as a bed, that might make things easier for us!
I hope.
Next month, the rescue has us booked for two males. If all goes well, they’ll be able to lend us a trap (I think the last person they lent it two is still ghosting them) and we can start getting the females before they go into heat in the spring!
It’s slow going, but we’re finally getting some progress on getting more yard cats fixed!
This clinic also has a new program they’ve started. Any females up to 5 months old will be spayed for only $150, including shots and tattoos. Cats can go into heat as early as 6 months, so they’re trying to encourage people to get them done young. Getting a spay typically costs about $350 – $375 – some places almost $400! Which makes it really difficult to get strays, ferals and semi-ferals done. Especially at a time when people can barely afford to buy food for themselves. Neuters are typically half what a spay is, so this deal is pretty much getting a spay for less than the cost of a neuter.
Some of our kittens may already be too old for this program; the ones born in late April/early May, like Kohl and Rabi. Some were born in June and would qualify for another month or so.
Which would be a good time to remind readers that there is a donation button at the top of the page! The rescue has been very helpful in covering costs, but they are struggling, too. If we can take advantage of low cost spays, that would be amazing.
The irony is not lost on me that, if we weren’t spending so much money on cat food, we would be able to do at least one spay a month, if we had to, and we wouldn’t have this over population problem!
What can I say. We’re sucks for the cats! We’re certainly not going to stop feeding them. Given the condition of some of the cats we see when they come back for the winter, they wouldn’t last long if they had to live on their own hunting, and starvation is a horrible way to go. Nope. Not gonna happen here.
In the first photo of the slideshow, you can see how the corners were done. The shelter is upside down in that photo. I added the angled brackets to the inside of each corner. I found I had the flat L shaped plates left over from when my daughter and I reinforced the raised bed covers, and they were perfect for further reinforcement of the corners at the base.
I want to add angled brackets to the inside of the top corners, too, but I’m too broken to go inside the catio to reach. I’ll have to get a daughter to do that for me.
While moving it around, I found that there was some damage from when it fell out of the truck while they brought it to us. In the second photo, you can see where a part of the frame had cracked. Ideally, I would have reinforced it with a metal plate, but I couldn’t find anything I could use, so I went through my scrap wood. I eventually found a piece that would work, and attached it with a combination of wood glue and 1 1/2 inch screws. Part of the piece of wood sticks out beyond the frame piece, but I can saw that off later.
The mesh on the back of the shelter had two holes in it, which were the openings that allowed cats to get into it from a basement window. There were also the remains of a couple of long screws that were used to attach it to the house. The heads were deep in the wood, so it was easier to just break off the pointed ends. Then I used wire cutters on the mesh, just a bit beyond the largest hole.
The mesh is held in place with staples, and I used pliers to pull those out. Quite a few of them were so rusted, they broke off, instead. The wire mesh was pretty rested out in some places, too.
Once the section of mesh was removed, I measured how much new mesh I would need. There was a corner of the mesh rusted out as well, so I want the new wire to wrap around the frame far enough to cover the hole. In total, 6′ of mesh would do.
The rolls I got are only 5′ long.
I don’t want to be cobbling together lengths of mesh from the two rolls. Not only would that leave me with almost nothing to use on the isolation shelter, but any sort of overlap creates a potential escape point, or a weak spot the racoons could get through. The rolls of hardware cloth that I got are wide enough that there will be a decent amount of overlap, horizontally. I don’t want to also have overlap, vertically.
Which means, I need to find longer rolls of hardware cloth, and that starts to get expensive.
*sigh*
So for now, the repairs need to wait.
Meanwhile, back to the load that came this morning!
It took them about an hour to get here, and the hired guy arrived first.
There were two tractors on his trailer. One was a small tractor with a front end loader. The other was a McCormick that looked very, very familiar.
Yes, it was the one I remembered from my childhood! When I asked about it, I was told that something had broken down on it and my dad told my brother, if he could fix it, he could keep it.
He fixed it, and it’s been working ever since.
The McCormick was very carefully loaded directly over those triple axles!
My brother and his wife had their trailer loaded, too, but the first order of business was to unload the tractors. The front end loader, which had its bucket resting on the gooseneck of the trailer, had to be pushed forward first, then the McCormick pushed towards the front of the trailer, until the fold out ramps were clear. Once that was done, it was a relatively easy thing for my brother to drive it off. The tractor with the front end loaded took a bit more work, though. Partly because it turns out there’s a trick to getting it started and staying running. It also needed to be driven off in reverse, which got tricky over those ramps!
Once that was done and the tractors parked by a shed near the barn, my brother’s trailer needed to be unloaded. One of the things they unloaded was a snow blower attachment for the tractor they brought over last time.
Do you hear that sound?
That’s the sound of my heart going pitter patter.
We might not have to try and keep the driveway clear with little Spewie this winter!
For those new to this blog, Spewie is a 20′ electric snow blower. Actually, I believe it’s marketed as an electric snow shovel. Either way, it’s very small, and we’ve really put it through a lot over the last few winters!
Not that any of us would be setting up and using my brother’s tractors and snow blowers. At some point, he might be able to take the time to show us how, but none of this stuff is straightforward when it comes to using them!
My brother did have something for us in the back of this truck, though.
He brought us a hose that we can use as a diverter for when the septic expeller is being worked on, so we can still use the plumbing in the house. The septic guy was supposed to swing by this evening, and I was going to talk to him about that – they might be able to hook up the pipe in the basement and get it through the foam filled opening in the wall. Once that’s through, it can be set up to this, and drain into the maples.
It’ll stink, but that’s a trade off we’re quite okay with!
Meanwhile…
There was other equipment that needed to be unloaded then, as soon as they were done, they rushed off again. The guy they hired was hoping to do three loads today!
They didn’t manage three loads.
The second load on the triple axle trailer included a square baler, larger than the one that was brought over before, and a hay cutter. Those two things filled the entire trailer!
A tractor was needed to pull the baler off, and they ended up strapping the hay cutter to the bucket on the front end loader, to lift it off the side.
Once that trailer was unloaded, the hired guy and his assistant left. On this trip, my SIL wasn’t able to come along, so it was just my brother and I to unload their trailer.
This trailer was why it was the last trip of the day. It took a lot to get the stuff on – and it was just three things! The hired guy had to use a Bobcat to load it.
We don’t have a Bobcat here. Our vandal still has that and has no intention of returning it, even though there are still parts and attachments, here.
One thing on the trailer was pretty easy to unload. My brother and I could lift it off together. The others needed to be dragged off with a tractor. One of them had to be pulled off sideways, and sections of it got caught on parts of the trailer, requiring another tractor to be used to pull it back again. The front end loader was once again pressed into action, to try and lift it off the end of the trailer, since there was no way it was going to slide down the ramps.
When it finally came off, the same parts that were getting caught on the trailer slammed into a corner of the tractor, punching straight into the radiator.
It’s going to have to be replaced entirely.
Considering how old this tractor is, that’s going to be a challenge. My brother is very good at hunting down parts that aren’t made anymore, though, so I hope it won’t be too difficult to find.
There was still one more piece of equipment on the trailer that had to be taken off. It was a bit easier, but this was a very old piece of equipment, with old and partially rotted wood, with parts attached, that broke off completely in the process. Still, my brother was able to get it off and parked. All of this equipment is being tucked away where there is space. Once the biggest of the items is here, which won’t be until next month, my brother will move things around in an organized way.
It’s a shame so many things were broken or damaged in the process, though.
Meanwhile, we can expect another load on the triple axle trailer next weekend, too!
My poor brother, though. I helped as much as I could, but some things, I just physically can’t. Plus, at one point, he tripped and, while he didn’t fall, I think he did hurt himself. He never complains, though.
All this took so long that, once it was finally done, he had to rush off home again.
I did manage to finally get a hug in, though!
I think he really needed one by then, too!
I don’t know how much more they will be bringing out here. I had thought they might sell off some of the equipment, but I’m starting to think they’re keeping it all, and just bringing it here!
This will actually be of great help to us, in the long term. A lot of this is the sort of equipment my parents had here before, that disappeared. Maybe not so many tractors, though. At least, not that I know of.
The outer yard is going to get very crowded!
More reason to get the scrap company out here to take out the junk vehicles and the old threshing machine.
I have got to remember to call them back tomorrow. It’s not too much of a rush. There are some things I know can go now, but with others, I need to go looking at them with my brother, first, so he can confirm with me, what can go and what stays.
Since I was heading to the city today, I didn’t try to see if anything needed to be harvested, while doing my morning rounds. I did it while doing my evening rounds, instead.
When I do my rounds, I usually have a cat or two, following me around. Sometimes, it’s Rolando Moon, wanting me to give her pets, then trying to scratch or bite me after I do. More often, of late, it’s been Syndol, who likes to be carried around, if he can convince me to pick him up. Other times, it’s this year’s Not-Junk Pile, (the previous Not-Junk Pile is now Toni the Tripod, and indoors. 😄) will follow me around.
I believe this is the kitten that pushes its way into the old kitchen – I really have to watch my feet when I open that door! – to explore. It even lets me pick it up and cuddle it for a while. This is the first time I’ve had one of this year’s kittens actively following me around the yards and garden beds, though. It’s hard to tell some of the white and black kittens apart, though. A few have distinctive markings, but the others… they just run around too much for us to get a good enough look at them to identify which is which!
I quite enjoyed having kitten company while harvesting these.
We’ve got all three types of beans in there, plus some Black Cherry tomatoes, and some Forme de Couer tomatoes. It’s getting that we have more tomatoes for fresh eating than my family can consume! Not enough to warrant going any canning or freezing, though. It’s been the same with the beans; more than we can eat right away, but not enough to make it worth processing. I think we might have enough to do a jar, maybe two, of quick pickled beans, but that’s about it.
It’s such a strange year. We plant with the goal to have enough to process for the winter months, but the spaces where we would have been planting stuff we’d harvest throughout the summer ended up being mostly winter squash and melons. Even the corn we planted as a trail of one variety, so not a lot there. We didn’t plant anywhere near as many beans, carrots, peas and summer squash we normally would have, and what we did plant, most didn’t even germinate. Even with three varieties of potatoes (only two that were planned), there isn’t a lot. We did plant four varieties of tomatoes, but cut back on how many plants we put in the ground – we still have tomatoes in the freezer from last year!
I am happy that we have so many winter squash and melons, but it’s going to be touch and go as to weather they’ll reach full maturity before the frost hit. The long range forecast still says we’re going to have a very hot two weeks in the middle of September, but the weather will do what it does, and the forecasts will probably change a few times between now and then! As it stands right now, we might not get a first frost until October. Which has happened before, since we’ve moved here. I seem to recall a fall where we didn’t get first frost until November, though I could be wrong on that.
Still, we’re expecting a few overnight lows that are on the chilly side, so I want to have that plastic around the eggplant and hot pepper bed soon. While not all the eggplants are fruiting, with the ones that are, I’m quite happy with what I’m seeing.
As an aside, while I was writing this, I got some updates on Button. He is doing fantastic, and getting spoiled rotten! In one photo sent, you can tell he’s getting bigger… but then there was a photo with him behind The Wolfman, and suddenly, he looks miniscule again! 😄😄 He’s got vaccinations and ear mite treatment this week, and then he’s ready to go. The woman that wanted to adopt him is still interested in him, and we’re hoping that doesn’t change, but sadly, too many people do change their minds at the last minute. The Cat Lady and her family have a whole bunch of cats living with them now, because of this.
We also just treated the eye baby kitten for the night, and gave her a feeding of cat soup, with my daughter holding her wrapped in a towel like a purrito. She seems to be getting quite used to the routine and accepting the ministrations, even if she doesn’t like parts of it. The swelling around that one eye does seem to be going down, but I’m still sure the eye itself is lost. Not even the rescue has a budget for her and, while it was suggested we could try turning her over to the humane society, chances are high they’d just euthanize her.
Which I shouldn’t be having a problem with, since we really do need to reduce the population, but I’d like to give them at least a chance to get adopted out.
Well, it’s time to call it a day and see if I can get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow, I need to follow up with the septic companies that haven’t called back yet. If I can’t get through to them, we need to contact the one company I did reach, and start making arrangements. This cannot be put off, now that we know about the problem!
Hopefully, the next time I write about it, I’ll have good news to pass on!
My daughters took care of the garden this morning, while I headed into town for groceries, so I didn’t get a chance to check things out until this afternoon.
Meanwhile, not counting today, we’ve got only 14 days left before average first frost. Hard to say if we’ll get anything!
I did check on the long range forecast, and it has changed back to saying we’ll have temperatures of 30C/86F for the 10th and 11th – and his 32C/90F on the 12th! In fact, most of that week is now supposed to have highs in the 30s! Even the week after is supposed to be just below 30C/86F! The last time I looked at the September forecasts, we were looking at highs below 20C/68F, and lows dropping down to 2 or 3C/36-37F
What a difference in forecasts!
Me, I’m hoping the heat stays longer. With everything behind by about a month, we need every hot day we can get!
Right now, things have been pleasantly cooler. Overnight, we reached a low of 9C/48F. It got cold enough I actually turns the fans off in my bedroom. It must have been quite a relief for the girls upstairs! They get so much hotter out there.
In other things, I have not had any calls back from the other two septic companies. I’ll be in the city tomorrow, so I’ll give them that one more day, then try calling them again after that. If I still can’t get through to them, then we’ll just have to go with the one company I did connect with. I’ll just have to get confirmation with my mother, in paying for it, and my brother. I was a bit perplexed when he started messaging me, suggesting I track down someone that had done this sort of work for my father in the past, but who may not even live in the area anymore. Heck, for all I know, he might not even be alive anymore. I recognize the name, but have probably never met him in person. I thought my brother had a problem with the companies I’d contacted, but I think maybe he just remembered this guy and started suggesting him to me.
Then he started telling me about how the emergency back up pipe will need to be installed while it’s being worked on, and how he’s got a pipe extension that will drain the effluent into the maple grove (which we may still need) … as if it was going to be done tomorrow, or something!
I’m so anxious about all this, I honestly couldn’t tell if this was his way of telling me what I should be doing, instead of what I am doing. My brother is awesome, but we don’t do things the same way at times. I hadn’t even considered going to somebody who happens to have an excavator, rather than a licensed and insured company that specializes in this kind of work. When I asked him more about it, he just came back with, it’s not a problem, going with a company is fine.
I hate to think I’m doing something he thinks is the wrong way!
So basically, there was a potential diversion, but then it went away.
I did not call the scrap company today. I will do that later, because I did contact the guy that bought scrap cars for parts last year, as I remembered they’d been looking at them. I told him that we were looking into calling the scrap dealer for the threshing machine and several vehicles, including those two, but wanted to know if he was still interested in them.
So those are now sold. Not for as much as before, but still more than we’d likely get from the scrap dealer for them. He won’t be able to pick them up until the end of September, though, as he’d going into surgery tomorrow, and needs the time to recover. There was another vehicle, which basically just the shell of a panel van, he asked about, but my brother and I didn’t talk about any of the vehicles on that side of the outer yard fence. I would hope the scrap company can come earlier than the end of September, but if they do, I hope they can work around the two cars by the threshing machine.
Okay, I’m getting perplexed. As I’m writing this, I keep hearing the septic pump go off, but no one is using any water. It’s shutting itself off as it should, but why is the tank filling so quickly? I’m not hearing the well pump go off more often, which would happen if we had a leak of some kind that was fast enough to trigger the septic pump that often.
I wonder if it’s related to the problems at the expeller end? That’s some 300 feet away, though.
Man, I’ve been paranoid about the pumps since we’ve moved out here. Now, it’s even worse!
Relax, Re-Farmer. Breathe.
Think gardening thoughts. That should calm me down!
Meanwhile, I took advantage of the lovely cooler day and got some lawn mowing done, using the lawn tractor my brother lent us. I was going to try our riding mower, but the battery was dead again. My brother replaced that battery when he repaired it for us, so it shouldn’t be dying so quickly. I didn’t want to take the time to charge it, and just used my brother’s machine, instead. Not all the lawns needed to be done, and one area still has a piece of tree that broke in our recent storm, waiting to be broken down into firewood for the the fire pit. The grass around there doesn’t grow very fast, so it can do without being mowed for a while. I did get to do the outer yard and driveway, though, and will have plenty of clippings to collect and set aside for mulch and for composting.
Well, it’s just hit 9pm right now, and I should be going to bed. I want to start for the city quite early.
Hopefully, I’ll get some decent sleep tonight!
The Re-Farmer
[addendum: okay, this is too funny! After I hit publish, I went ahead and clicked on the AI “Generate Feedback” button. This time, I didn’t get suggestions on breaking up paragraphs or adding pictures. Nope. This time, I got suggestions for regular maintenance on equipment, better communication with my brother, and possibly getting help to deal with my anxiety over the septic issues, and ensuring good self-care. 😄😄😄]
The Re-Farmer 