Finally! I was able to bring over my tools and equipment, which I just keep in the utility wagon now, over to the garden and get a bit more done on the first trellis bed.
The first step was to cut the two logs set aside into 4′ long pieces. I know for sure I’ll need two per end, but these logs are thinner than the ones in the side walls, so I cut extra just in case.
Before putting one of the end pieces down, I loosened up the soil where it would be lying and tried to level it off a bit, since there was a dip near the middle of the space. Because I want these beds to be 4′ wide on the outside, after laying down the first end piece and matching it to the outer edge on one side, I shifted the other side a bit to line up with the other end.
Steel toes boots are create for kicking logs and not breaking my toes!
I started with the thickest 4′ log for the base log on this end. Using the side wall logs to mark where I needed to cut, I removed wood from the ends to fit over the side wall logs.
What a pain.
For this job, I used the mini-chain saw, a hatchet and hammer to remove the bulk of the excess wood, and even the electric chain saw to remove the excess wood.
A pain, to be sure, but much faster and easier than when I started building the high raised bed and had only hand tools!
Once I was satisfied with how the end piece fit, it was time to secure it. A couple of years ago, I’d bought some plastic coated metal rods to use as supports in the garden. The rods were hollow, and they quickly bent and broke in our rocky soil. I’ve been using the broken pieces to secure things like hoops for garden beds, but I also used some to secure the corners of the tiny raised bed in the old kitchen garden.
I decided to use them to secure the end pieces on the trellis bed, much like I already used rebar to secure the side walls. I drilled matching holes through the end pieces into the side walls, then hammered the metal rods in place.
Then I went through the other 4′ lengths to find one that fit the best on top of the first log and repeated the process. This time, though, I was having to fit them over two very different sizes of log, so that required some extra angled cuts, as well as flattening the length of both logs a bit, so they’d fit against each other better. There’s still quite a gap in between them in one place, but that can be chinked later. Last of all, they were secured with more metal rods, though the top log was thin enough that I could break one of the rods in half and use the shorter pieces.
And here it is! The first finished end cap, viewed from inside the bed.
This all took quite a while to do, so once it was done, I stopped for the day. I’ve got too many other things that need to be worked on.
I’m quite happy with how it’s working out so far.
Since the vertical posts will be added to the outsides of the bed, not down the middle as I’d planned to do originally, I will fill the bed once the other end cap is done. That way the layers of material will have at least a bit more time to break down under the top layer of soil it will get. I may even decide to get more logs to build the next bed, first. We need beds to plant in next year, more than we need the trellis part of it. The trellis posts can even be added after planting, if necessary. The priority is to have more planting space. This year’s garden is so much smaller than I had planned on, simply because I ran out of prepared spaces to plant in. I don’t want to have that situation again, next year!
So, once this bed is built and filled, it’ll be time to cut logs to size from the two downs trees we have ready right now and drag them over. These trunks are so thick, the bottom 10′ will be set aside to be used as supports for the outdoor kitchen we will be building. Using such thick logs in the trellis beds would be a real waste of material.
The first day of fall is tomorrow, and time to get work done before things get too cold is running short!
The plan for today had been to get the ends onto the trellis bed. Just before I headed outside, however, the power went out.
All I’ve got is an electric chainsaw, so cutting logs to size was out.
Which was fine. I needed to strip the logs of bark, first. I can see into the house from where I’m working, so I could keep an eye out for any lights back on again, letting me know the power was back.
Three hours later…
I started with the 2 dead spruces intended for the end pieces, one of which you can see on the saw horse. Then I started stripping the poplar that will be the vertical supports.
The poplar was much easier to work with, for the most part. The spruces have been dead for quite a while, so much of the barks is dried stuck to the wood. The poplar is still quite green. The draw knife could slide between the bark and the wood quite nicely, and just glide through.
Except for the branch nubs and damaged bits!
I ended up stripping them completely, as I could see critters were already getting under the bark and causing damage. The shorter lengths made them easier to handle, too, though I ended up putting the larger of the spruce logs back on the saw horse, just to stabilize it. With the lighter logs, there wasn’t enough weight to counter using the draw knife, and the darn thing kept rocking back and forth, and threatening to tip over.
Once stripped of bark, I lay them across the log walls to stay dry. Some of the logs I picked up were so damp from the grass, the undersides were covered with slugs!
After I got 9 of them done, my back was telling me it was time to do something else. So I grabbed a rope and dragged over the last 3 posts, then went back for the odd pieces. Those were light enough that I could drag 2 or 3 at a time, so that was done faster. These odd ones may or may not be usable as part of the trellis. If not, they will go into the bases of the trellis beds and buried, to break down over time.
I had just finished dragging over the last pair of odd sized logs when I saw a light on in the house. By then, I was done with this job for the day. I’ll continue tomorrow.
As for the power outage, it was likely due to high winds. Not long after ours was back on, my house sitting daughter let us know the power went out at my brother’s place, too. He’s got multiple back up generators, though, so she is just fine!
The power loss was just for 3 hours this time, but it’s a reminder on how we need to get our back ups done. Like the outdoor kitchen. With the high winds we had today, we could not have done any outdoor cooking, if it came to that. The outdoor kitchen we have planned will allow us to cook outdoors in pretty much any weather conditions.
The other thing is to get that old well checked. If all we need is new leathers for the hand pump, we’re set for water, too. Plus the outhouse will do until we build the more comfortable outdoor bathroom with a composting toilet we have planned.
It took forever to go through the trail cam video files this morning! There was a constant stream of activity triggering the motion sensor – and that’s just the stuff that it catches. There was clearly more activity, beyond the range of the motion sensor, that I could see happening in the background when something closer triggered the camera.
I was chatting with the Cat Lady this morning, and mentioned how all this activity would be driving away our missing cats. It probably isn’t helping bring that dog home, either. I was able to identify two pick up trucks, two minivans and a car, all involved in the search. She told me that it’s being shared all over Facebook right now. I haven’t seen anything, but I’m not in the groups it was being shared in. She sent me a screen cap. The group was a missing pet group for the city! That’s an hour’s drive away. Her thought was that the dog was probably stolen and taken up north. Apparently, that’s a common thing. I was able to let her know that the dog has been sighted here, so not stolen, at least.
I also shared with her my experiences with the owner, who was nice to my face, but not so nice behind my back. It probably never occurred to him that anyone would hear what he said about me, but all sounds from that direction really carry to the house, and the windows facing that way! My daughters hear way more than they would like.
I ended up sending an email to my brother that lives across from us through his wife (he doesn’t do tech very well. LOL), just in case they didn’t know what was going on. Their main driveway is a quarter mile up the road. The driveway across from us is just to the field, and they wouldn’t necessarily see or hear. I also mentioned our own lost cats, in the off chance they show up at their place. They are the closest home that’s occupied, and have plenty of their own yard cats. Butterscotch would remember their place. Maybe even Nosencrantz. It’s Marlee that would be completely out of her element, and we haven’t see any sign of her at all.
While talking about cats…
TTT has been at the small window in my room, squeaking away (what a strange, quiet meow she has!), wanting out. I’ve been trying to let her out of the room, but the kittens try for the door, instead. She’s so high strung, she backs off rather than goes through.
This morning, she was on my bed and accepting pets. Sort of. She spins and moves around so much, it’s really hard to pet her! However, I was able to pick her up and, while the kittens were distracted, take her out of the room. She’s been out before, but not for very long. It went rather well, so I just put her down and watched for a bit.
She’s still out.
We’ll see if she wants to stay out for good! I may be down to just the kittens in my room.
While doing my rounds this morning, I took some footage for a garden tour video, so that will be my project for today.
What I really want to do, though, is go for a nap. The kittens are actually sleeping right now. I might be able to get some sleep for a change!
I noticed the leaves on the Roma VF were looking like they got a fungus. I don’t know if it’s tomato blight or something else, but they needed to be pulled.
I started by picking the ripe and almost ripe tomatoes first, then my daughter and I picked the green and mostly green tomatoes and pulled up the bamboo stakes. Then she pulled the diseased plants, while I picked ripe Black Beauty and Indigo Blue tomatoes.
The green and almost green Roma are currently on the screens under the old market tent, while the ripe and almost ripe went into a box for indoors. These corrugated plastic boxes are very handy, but they have air circulation holes on the bottom and sides that are a bit big for some of the tomatoes, so I lined the bottom with carboard egg trays to keep them from falling out.
The Roma tomato plants will be allowed to dry out and will get burned with our paper garbage. That might be a while, since we are actually getting rain today! I’m even hearing a bit of thunder.
We now have a whole lot of very ripe tomatoes ready for processing. I’ll be doing more tomato sauce, first. I’m thinking of dehydrating some in the oven, late, and preserving some of the dried tomato in olive oil.
I’m still looking at recipes for making tomato sauce using roasted tomatoes and figuring out how I want to do them. I want to use as few cooking vessels as I can get away with, so there’s less to wash up! 😄
The kitten seems to be completely normal right now! No favouring the leg that was dislocated. No limp that I can see. The kitten stays away on its own, for the most part, but doesn’t run away when the other kittens come over to say hi. I’ve even seen TTT grooming in on the way by.
I’m also not finding any messes. Not even on the puppy pads under my desk. It looks like TTT has finally starting using a litter box. Not while I’m in the room, though, so I’m hoping she’s using the covered box in my closet – the only one I can’t see into – and not in some secret corner somewhere. I’m not seeing any tiny messes, either, so it looks like the kitten figured out litter boxes right away.
The main thing is, the kitten appears completely uninjured! I was able to sneak a pet this morning, but otherwise it stays away. Now that it’s indoors, socializing it will be much easier, so I am not concerned.
Today is supposed to be “cooler”, with a high of 27C/81F. We currently have weather advisories for smoke. I can see it on the security camera live fee, hanging in the old hay yard like a fog. It is worse now, than when I was doing my morning rounds.
Our squash flowers are very popular.
They are pretty much the only things blooming right now, other than some wild yarrow, so the bees are happy!
I wasn’t expecting to harvest anything this morning, but I found these!
I was surprised to find such large patty pans. They got missed yesterday, hidden under leaves, but this morning I could actually see them. I normally like to pick them a bit smaller, but these will still be tender, without a seed cavity yet.
I was not intending to pick the pepper, though. I had moved it to look at the back and see how much green there still was, and the stem broke off!
Some of the beans growing in the compost ring are completely dried on the vines, so I picked one of the pods. Once inside, I opened it up and found…
A mystery.
When I first opened the pod, I thought they were black, but once I uploaded the photos to the computer, I could see they are actually a deep, dark blue.
I have no idea where they came from.
I have never bought seed beans like this, nor do I remember buying dry beans like this. If we did buy some that I can’t remember, they would have been cooked; no viable, uncooked seeds would have ended up in the compost heap.
I’ve tried looking them up, but have had no luck. These had pale purple flowers, green pods, and now deep blue, almost black, seeds. I’ve found seeds similar to this, but they all come from yellow or purple pods, none green.
Well, whatever they are, we’ve got more of them with pods drying out on the vines. I’ll keep the seeds and maybe try growing them in the garden next year, and seeing if they are actually a tasty bean.
I’m considering a couple of things in the garden beds right now.
One is going to have to be done; it’s just a matter of doing it when it’s cooler in the day. The Roma VF look like they’ve picked up a fungus. I don’t know if it’s tomato blight or something else. Either way, all the remaining tomatoes need to be picked and the plants pulled. They will be burned, not composted.
I’m debating the bed along the chain link fence. The peas are pulled, but there are still some of those Czech lettuces in there that I’m allowing to go to seed. Plus the volunteer tomatoes.
The tomato plants are really small, but if the long range weather forecast is at all accurate, they still have more than a month of growing season. So I am thinking of transplanting them into the empty bed in the old kitchen garden, where the Irish Cobbler potatoes had been. I would need to protect them from the kittens that like to play or nap in there.
Once that bed by the chain link fence is clear and ready to be prepped for the winter, I’m going to make it a bit narrower. It’s too painful to reach near the chain link fence to weed. Plus, some of those pieces of concrete patio blocks I found run under one corner of the bed, and I want to dig those out.
I have those tillage radish seeds still. I am thinking, once some beds are emptied and cleaned up, I can plant some of those as a cover crop. They won’t reach full size before winter, but they should drill far enough to make a difference. These are meant to be left in the ground, where they will freeze in the winter, decompose, and add organic matter to the soil in the spring.
Amending this soil into something healthy again is definitely a years-long process.
It was this wild combination of fog and bright sunshine. Just beautiful!
We were supposed to reach a low of around 11C/52F last night, but when I checked my phone at about 7am, one app was telling me it was 7C/45F. Another was saying we were at 10C/50F, but I think the 7C was the more accurate one.
With that sort of chill, I was not expecting to harvest anything this morning. Certainly, no tomatoes ripened overnight! Yet, I did find this!
There were quite a few larger Gold Ball turnips (they are being thinned by harvesting), and a single radish was ready to pick. In that bed, there are almost no beets coming up, and I’m not really seeing any spinach, either. I think the slugs got to them. But the radishes are coming up, at least. The others are still looking small, long and skinny. There was just this one that was ready to pick.
It was barely moving in the colder temperatures. It’ll be warmed by the sun, soon enough. According to my computer’s weather app (I really should get a thermometer for outside my window!), it’s 13C/55F, and we’re expecting a high of 21C/70F.
While checking the purple corn (which we are leaving to dry on the stalks, to collect seed), I could see the Red Swan beans we’d planted among the corn are getting bigger, with lots of flowers. I also finally spotted these!
These were planted late, specifically for their nitrogen fixing properties. I was not expecting to actually get a harvest from them, yet here they are! We should be able to start harvesting beans in a few days! I hope they taste good, because we ended up with a lot of these.
While checking on the old kitchen garden, one of the things I regularly do is look up into the lilac bush that the luffa is climbing, and try to see the little bitty luffa that are developing. There’s one that’s resting on a lilac twig, and it looks like it’s been damaged by the wind rubbing them together.
As I was trying to see among the leaves, I realized there was a much larger gourd developing, high up. I went around the other side of the wattle weave bed to try and see it better, only to discover this one.
It’s huge! Easily a foot long. It is completely hidden by greenery on the other side.
With a gourd this big, we might actually have a fully mature and tried out luffa to harvest by the end of the growing season! As long as the frost holds off.
As I was finishing up around the sun room before going inside, I saw a few of Octomom’s babies emerging from under the cat house. I also saw the black and white garage kitty, way off at the bowl under the grape vines. Nice to see that one coming to the house, finally!
I was in the sun room, just about to go inside, when another cat came up, wanting attention.
It was The Phantom! She’s back!!!
It took a bit of convincing, but when I opened the doors, she came into the house. I let her explore for a bit – and get sniffed at by other cats – when my daughter was able to pick her up and we put her in my bedroom.
The “isolation ward” is getting very crowded.
She’s settling in, though, and loving attention. As I write this, she is behind me on my office chair, keeping my butt warm!
The new kitten we brought in has no problem with her. They would remember each other. I think Decimus still recognized her, too. I’m not sure about Ghosty; they would have met before we brought Ghosty in, but she was so sick, and it was long ago enough that I’m sure she doesn’t remember Phantom anymore, even if her scent might still be familiar.
A couple of Decimus’ kittens were making themselves big, and Tin Whistle even hissed at her, but they now seem used to her and are ignoring her.
Snarly Marlee has been practically living on the window shelf. She is not happy with so many cats in the room.
I’ve no idea how TTT is; they would know each other, too, but TTT is in her favourite sleeping spot in my closet.
Speaking of TTT.
I am not happy with her.
I slept on the couch again last night. I had my mattress uncovered, with “Pet Fresh” carpet powder on the damp spots. I hoped it would be left alone, but when I came in this morning, there was a huge new pee spot, right in the middle of the mattress. There was also a “gift” next to the litter box under my desk, with a puppy pad all bunched up around it.
I ended up taking the box fan out of the window and found a way to set it up directly on my mattress. If nothing else, the breeze it’s creating is making most of my mattress an unpleasant place to be! There is one corner that’s got their bed blanket on it, and they’re not even using that, all that much. The kittens are playing around the fan, though, but they’re more interested in the cave it creates in my wall shelf behind it. A spot they are allowed to play in.
I chatted with the Cat Lady this morning, very happy to pass on the news about Phantom. I also told her about what TTT is doing. She told me that this is apparently common with cats that lose a front leg. They can’t dig in the litter, so they go just anywhere. We didn’t have that problem at all with Ginger. After he had his removed and came indoors, he used a litter box right away, even though he’d never seen one before. As for TTT, considering how much she digs at the puppy pads to bury her poop, clearly, that is not the issue with her.
Butterscotch, meanwhile, is happy the box fan it out of my window. She’s contentedly laying on the window ledge, looking outside. I expected it to be Nosencrantz, considering how much she’s been trying to get behind the fan, but Butterscotch is more Alpha that Nosencrantz. 😄 Nosencrantz is in her favourite spot in the shelf beside the window.
Well, I hope things work out over the next while. Just a little while longer. Then Decimus, the no-name outside kitten and Phantom will all get spayed, then taken to their new home.
Just tomatoes, almost all Romas, and a few patty pan squash, but it was still quite a haul.
The other good stuff is that the kitten I brought in yesterday did just fine, overnight. It was running around and playing with the other kittens when I came into my room this morning.
Which leads me to the not so good stuff.
I had to sleep on the couch last night.
I thought we had been doing well, but in the space of just a few minutes, my nice, clear, dry bed suddenly had a massive puddle in the middle. Not only was it large enough that I couldn’t even sleep on another part of the bed, even though it’s a king size, but it was in a spot that didn’t have any puppy pads under the sheets to protect the mattress.
The girls helped me juggle kittens and strip the bed, but as I soaked up as much as I could with more puppy pads, they were the ones that suggested I sleep on the couch. After getting it as dry as we could, we took off the mattress protector, too, and got everything in the laundry. We laid out more puppy pads, absorbent side down, then carefully covered them with a blanket to keep them in place. Then I left the room with the window fan going on maximum.
I did not get much sleep last night, though I have to admit, it was rather nice sleeping in the cat free zone. I was awakened early by cat arguments. Having had just a couple of hours of sleep, I got up long enough to feed all the cats, inside and out, before going back to bed on the couch.
While doing the feeding in my room, the bed was clear and nothing was destroyed, so I was very encouraged. So I went back to the couch and managed to get almost a couple more hours of sleep.
When I came back to my room, I found a “gift” on my bed. On the blanket, next to the towel I laid out under the kibble bowls while dividing up the wet cat food.
At least it was easy to clean up, but really??? There are so many litter boxes, but noooooo. Gotta use my bed!
Then I sat on the side of the bed to take my supplements, only to discover a wet spot with my butt. The colour and fuzziness of the blanket had hidden it. At least that was on top of a puppy pad!
I am getting so very frustrated.
I did get a chance to chat with the Cat Lady a bit, letting her know that the kitten did well inside. As long as the kitten is about 3 pounds, they will spay her, and I think she’s pretty close to that. With her being inside and getting regular wet and dry cat food, I don’t think it will be an issue by the time of the appointment.
No sign of Phantom this morning, though. We’re already discussing options, if she doesn’t show up in time. I’ll simply grab one of the friendly males. I wouldn’t be able to grab any of the other females. They’re not socialized enough.
Oh, just heard from the Cat Lady again. She says she will drop a trap off for us, tomorrow. If we can snag any of the moms with older kittens that would be good. Still, it would be ideal of Phantom comes back and we grab her.
In other cat related things…
This is the kitten we thought was female that turned out to be male.
What is it all the friendly ones are male? It was the same thing last year. The females are almost universally standoffish, while the males have been more easily socialized and love attention.
Then there are those that are just plain feral. Not semi-feral. Just feral. Like this one.
I spotted this one when I finally got out to do my morning rounds. Brussel’s kittens seem to have moved into the garage, more or less. This is the shier one, and the first time I’ve been able to get a good look at him/her. I had to move slow and zoom right in to get a picture, so it’s not a good image at all. What unique face markings!
I’ve seen its orange and white sibling closer to the house. I think I even saw it in the kibble house. This one, however, stays around the garage, and that’s it. I didn’t top up the food in the bowl I set up in the garage this morning, though. Hopefully, this one will get hungry enough to brave coming to the house. I also saw Octomom’s littles. Not all of them, but they seem to have taken up residence – at least for part of the day – under the cat house.
While doing my rounds this morning, I was pleased to find just one fallen branch. We had more rain and high winds last night, but it seems that weird climate bubble we have over us has protected us. The winds did knock quite a few crab apples off the trees, though. This morning, on one of my local gardening groups, several people mentioned their gardens were completely destroyed. One posted a photo of her crab apple tree, its apples knocked to the ground and lying next to hail almost as big as the apples! So far that I’ve seen, she was the only one that also reported damage to her home. Just a broken window, thankfully.
Today should be quite a bit more pleasant. I plan to be doing stuff indoors, though. Specifically, making tomato sauce. Lack of sleep is catching up to me, though, and I’m dropping off as I type this. I think I will try napping again. I think I can squeeze into the dry corner of my bed around the kittens. I’m afraid that if I try napping on the couch again, I’ll come back to more puddles or piles!
The tomato sauce can wait a couple of hours. I’m all out of energy drinks, and feel like I’m about to drop right on my keyboard!
In the first picture, the potatoes from the wattle weave bed are on the far left. I hadn’t planned on planting potatoes there, and had just shoved the last seed potatoes that didn’t fit in the other bed in there. This bed was different in that, when it was prepared in the fall, it was topped with a mulch of wood chips. I just dug holes for each seed potato through the mulch, leaving most of it undisturbed. Then, a straw much was added on top. To harvest them, I removed the straw mulch and dumped it on the other bed I’d just emptied, but the wood chip mulch got brushed aside. After harvesting all the potatoes I could find, the wood chips and soil got pushed back and levelled off, all mixed together. The wood chips had already started to compost pretty well since last fall, and should break down even faster, now that it’s mixed in with the soil and all the worms and insects I was finding!
The second picture is of all the really tiny potatoes I was finding, plus a few slug damaged ones. They actually look far bigger in the picture than they actually are!
For now, they’re just sitting in their little piles on rhubarb leaves. I’ll figure out what to do with them later!
The Purple Peruvian potatoes should be much easier to harvest. We just need to dump them out of their grow bags and onto a tarp or something. The first time we had potatoes in grow bags, we dumped them into the kiddie pool we had, but that’s got melons growing in it right now. 😄 It’ll be a while before we harvest those. They are only just barely starting to die back right now.
We already knew we liked the Purple Peruvians. So far, we’ve only had one meal with the Irish Cobbler and the Red Thumbs, and we enjoyed them, too. They were cooked together, though. We’ll try them each on their own next, and see how we like them. At this point, though, I’d say both varieties are ones we’d be willing to grow again. When we’re at a point that we can grow enough potatoes to last us the winter, we’ll have tried enough different varieties to decide on two or three to stick to and save our own seed potatoes from.
I didn’t get back to the trench with anything to cut the roots, yet. I wanted to wash away as much of the soil as I could. First, to uncover the roots to better see them, but also to get a better look at the pipe itself.
I just don’t know what to make of this!
There are sections of the wider pipe, all along the main pipe (I agree with 53old; it looks like irrigation pipe). Once I get the roots cut away, I will take off one of the couplings I put on in my attempt to repair the pipe, and I should be able to take this length of the pipe out, all the way to the tap. Then I’ll be able to take a good look at what is under those wider sections of pipe.
The only thing is, I have yet to find the end of the pipe. I’ve been digging around at the bottom of the tap but keep hitting roots and rocks, and that end of the pipe is quite a bit lower than the rest of it. My brother will be here tomorrow morning, and I hope he’ll have time to see this!
I also managed to get the bed the garlic was harvested from almost completely ready for planting.
The first photo in the series is the “before” picture.
After clearing away the grass clipping mulch, you can see that there is a fair bit of weeding to do, mostly along the edge. That crab grass comes up from under the log border. I broke up the entire bed to weed it, and was finding plenty of rhizomes making their way into the middle! Then I added a bag of manure to work into the soil.
Because the edges are where the most trouble is for weeds, once the manure was worked in, I raked the soil away from the log edges and into the middle. Then I took some of the grass clipping mulch and packed a thick layer tight against the logs. They won’t be enough to choke out the weeds, but they will at least make it harder for them to get through. Plus, it’ll make sure we don’t accidentally plant too close to the edge.
Last of all, I raked the soil back towards the grass clippings and leveled it off a bit. There are a lot of hard clumps, though, so I’ll have to come back to it with the cultivator tool and break those up. Once that is done, it’ll be ready for planting.
What we’ll most likely do is plant in three blocks, square food gardening style, with the beets in the middle. The radishes are a fast crop, so having them near an end makes sense. The spinach is a cut and come again crop, so having them near and end also makes sense. While the beet greens can be eaten, we’ve don’t tend to eat them a lot, their roots will take the longest to reach a harvestable size. We will likely harvest them all at once at the end of the year, so they can stay in the harder to reach middle zone.
Once these beds get converted to high raised beds, reach won’t be as much of a problem. The lower the bed, the harder it is to reach the middle of it. If you’re short like me and thinking of growing in low raised beds, I would recommend not going more than 3 feet wide for that reason. Ours are 4 feet wide, which is great for a high bed, but gets pretty painful on a low one! Even the box beds, two of which are about a foot high, it’s still uncomfortable to reach into the middle and actually do anything of substance.
That’s where we’re at now! Once the bed prep is finished, we just have to choose which varieties we will be planting. 😊
The first unexpected thing of the morning was being awakened by my husband, asking what the current status was for feeding the indoor cats.
With Leyendecker getting his meds morning and evening for 10 days (the next 10 days will be evening only), and having to control what he eats, the girls have been putting food out for all the cats at the same time.
It wasn’t done at the usual time this morning.
Which means Leyendecker’s meds weren’t done, either. I slept right through it.
Why did I sleep right though it? I have reminders set to go off on my phone.
The next unexpected thing was not being able to move. I had a Question asleep on my neck, and several other kittens sleeping on various parts of my body.
I was eventually able to reach my phone, unplug it and check it.
It was off.
I did not turn it off. I have my phone playing soothing music or whatever, to help me fall asleep. It was active when I fell asleep.
I turned the power on, the start up routine began and…
Nothing.
My phone was a brick.
After prying off the rest of the kittens, I was eventually able to find that the charger itself had been unplugged at the power bar. Because of the cats, I actually have the power bar hanging from under my craft table. Somehow, the kittens rough and tumbled enough to yank it right out.
So I did my morning rounds with no phone, which means no pictures!
I’ll just share this picture from last night with you, instead.
Retired Grandma has finally accepted the kittens. I now regularly find her asleep on my bed, with at least Question or Ghosty snuggled up. This is the first time I saw her with 5 out of 6 kittens!
After extricating myself from the kittens again, I was able to give Leyendecker his meds and feed the indoor cats. We’re still not seeing Leyendecker eating. I don’t know what to make of it. He’s certainly drinking plenty, and we are still catching him trying to spray around the house, so he’s not blocked. When he’s getting meds once a day instead of twice, we’ll see if his appetite picks up.
I have yet to see the girls this morning. They both pulled all-nighters, I think. My older daughter was working, of course, but in between working on commissions, she came down to help her sister. My younger daughter was doing some baking during the night, because it’s too hot to bake during the day. One of the things they’ve been working on is the living room. Being a cat free zone now, we’ve been putting way too many things in there to get them away from the cats. We need to organize it and move things around because… !!!
My brother is coming out tomorrow morning with an air conditioner for us!!!
We have not seen it yet, but it’s one of those portable ones that would normally be set up in a window. We have no windows it can be set up in. It also needs a 3 prong outlet, and we don’t have a lot of those in the house.
So what my brother will be doing is making a hole in the wall under the big picture window in the living room to install a vent for the AC hose. To make space for the AC set up, the girls plan to rearrange the living room. It’s as good an excuse as any to finally get to reorganizing the room, and taking out stuff that shouldn’t be in there in the first place!
As I will likely be in the city for our Costco shop, my brother plans to come out quite early in the morning, so we can get it done before I leave.
My brother is a morning person.
I am not.
Anyhow. That’s now arranged, and having that AC is going to make live much more comfortable in the house!
So that will be done tomorrow.
After taking care of Leyencker’s meds, I headed outside to do my morning rounds. My husband had already put food out for the yard cats, which was much appreciated. There are a couple of kittens that allow me to clean their eyes, so I check for them right away. One white and grey one was looking much better this morning, which was a relief. I’d done its eyes last night, because one was stuck completely shut. as soon as I cleaned it to the point that the lids become unstuck, goo absolutely poured out, completely covering the damp paper towel I was using to clean it. It took me three sheets of towel to get its eyes and face cleaned up. Its nose is also really sticky and last night it was so bad, there was even kibble stuck to its face! Thankfully, it did not need any eye washing or nose clearing at all, this morning.
In checking the garden beds, I took extra care to check the Black Beauty tomatoes. Last night, I found several branches bent over from the weight of the tomatoes, in spite of their supports. I was finding and tying supports to those, even adding another bamboo stake at the end of the bed, when the girls came out for an evening walk. They helped me add more support lines to the melon bed trellis, as those are getting long enough to need training up the trellis.
This morning, the bent tomato branches I tied off are looking good – no wilting to show they were badly damaged. The melon vines were holding out on the trellis, too.
In checking the bush beans, I was able to actually harvest a handful of both green and yellow beans! They are recovering quite nicely from being eaten. I expect to have plenty more to harvest, soon.
Oh, speaking of unexpected things; I was looking over the squash growing in our compost ring, and a couple of new female flowers were blooming, so I hand pollinated them, just in case. On one vine, the developing squash look pretty usual; just round, green balls, as I would expect from a pumpkin. Another vine, however, is clearly some sort of hybrid. The developing squash are more elongated, but had flat parts on the surface. Completely unlike anything we’ve grown before.
It should be interesting to see what we get out of those!
There is also a developing Caveman’s Club gourd on the chain link fence trellis that’s looking pretty good!
In the main garden, the G-Star patty pan squash have exploded in huge flowers – but only one female! Previously, it was female flowers blooming, but no males. Checking the other squash, I have been finding developing fruit that point to successful pollination. There is still just the one Honeyboat Delicata that I hand pollinated, though that variety has the most transplants of them all. I was checking the label on another and saw we have some Red Kuri/Little Gem squash developing. It’s a good thing I label these, because I forgot we had any of those germinate at all. I’m also seeing some Candy Roasters and Winter Sweets developing. There are even some summer squash starting to show up. We have no surviving Madga squash at all, but there is one each of the yellow pattypan, yellow zucchini and green zucchini, and all of them are showing both male and female flowers.
The African Drum gourds seem to be doing well. I was able to hand pollinate another female flower this morning. Still no female Zucca melon flowers, though.
I spotted a hidden female flower among the Crespo squash, too, but I’m really wondering about those. The plants look completely different from the first years we grew those.
We’ll find out, eventually! Praying for a long mild fall, so give all these time to fully mature on the vine!
While it was still cool, I started working on that water pipe to the garden tap. I moved off the rocks around the tap base, then started digging a trench. I’ll have to go back later with the loppers, as there are so many roots to cut away from over and around the pipe.
What I found so far is even more of a mystery. I will be sure to take photos to show what I mean, now that my phone is no longer a dead brick. I wish I knew what was going on when this pipe was laid, because I’m just even more confused than ever. Perhaps when my brother comes out tomorrow, he’ll be able to look at it and remember something.
Now, the easy thing would be for us to simply run a hose from the house tap to the garden tap on the surface, then put the hose away for the winter. But I really like the original, more permanent set up. Once we get this old hose cleared out, I want to have another buried line, but I want to learn from what we’ve got going right now. I plant to lay down pipe large enough to accommodate a garden hose. The pipe comes in sections, so if for some reason there is damage, only a section would need to be dug up and replaced, not the whole thing. I also plan to drill drainage holes, in case the hose somehow gets damaged, or in case water gets in some other way. We can buy pipe with drainage holes, but the extra cost for something I can do myself isn’t worth it. They won’t even need that many drainage holes. At each end of the pipe, I want to have 45° fittings. At the garden end, I plan for the end to go into the support pillar the tap and pipe will be fitted into. At the house end, the opening will be closed/filled around the hose end to prevent dirt, water or critters from getting in, but something easily removed.
As for the hose itself, having it run through the pipe will make it easy to remove for repair or replacement. The support pillar box I plan to build for the garden tap end will have an access door that opens on one side (unless I go with a different design; it’s still flexible). There will be room enough to store things, including a length of cord that can be tied to the hose end. If the hose needs to be repaired or replaced, the hose, with the cord attached, can be pulled out at the house end, get taken care of, then the cord can be used to pull the repaired or replaced hose back through the pipe to the garden tap. If we wanted to, we could even remove the hose for the winter, though it shouldn’t be required.
Done right, this should last at least another 50 or more years, and allow for easy access for repair or maintenance, and not have a hose or pipe on the surface to have to work around.
Well, I sure got distracted! Here, I was supposed to be just writing about my morning. LOL
Aside from digging up more trench this morning, I also harvested the garlic. They are currently outside in the sun to dry a bit, then I will tie them off to hang in the old market tent to cure. Maybe. The humidity levels may be too high for that. I might have to find somewhere else to hang them to cure. We’ll see how the weather turns out.
We have quite a few soft neck garlic, but they are not very large. I probably should have left them longer, but so many have been broken flat by cats lying on them, I just went ahead and pulled them all. The hard neck garlic from saved cloves – the Porcelain Music – are the biggest we’ve ever grown! One is just huge. I can’t remember the other variety that we bought along with the soft neck garlic, but they are also quite large.
Once the bed is clear, I will do the fall planting I intended to do where the peas are. The peas have started blooming again! So I will just leave them. After talking with my daughters, we will do a fall planting of spinach, a few radish (turns out my younger daughter likes radish!) and some beets. All of these should grow fast enough that we’ll have something to harvest before first frost.
But first, I need to organize my garden supplies in the living room, move things out and make some space, so my daughters can rearrange the furniture.
The Re-Farmer 