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Medical update and Our 2026 Garden: more seeds are in

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Two things were supposed to happen today, and one was a “hopefully will happen”, and one shopping request, taking advantage of my being in the city..

The “hopefully will happen” thing was for my walker to come in. I kept checking the tracking and it just said it had arrived in the city on Friday. No “in delivery” or anything like that. I hoped to go to the mail before they closed over the lunch hours to pick it up, but started to think it might not happen.

The other thing I was waiting for was for the septic guy to arrive. He had said he would be here around 10, but couldn’t say for sure. We were prepared in case I had to leave before he got here, with one of my daughters set to do the cat watch while the tank was open, to make sure none came to close. Having a cat fall in would be disastrous.

The main thing that was scheduled for today was my appointment at the sports injury clinic in the city, in the afternoon.

The last minute request was for a stop at Walmart. I had forgotten a couple of things the last time I was there, so my older daughter requested I pick up a few things for her. She has not been well at all lately, and needed some health related items. When my husband found out I was hitting the Walmart, he let me know he was on his last bottle of distilled water for his CPAP humidifier. So I had a short list to take advantage of the trip.

I made one last check on the tracking and found, lo and behold, the walker was in and ready to pick up! Yay! So I left shortly after 11 to get it, before heading to the city. The septic guy had not arrived yet, but everything was ready for him.

When I got to the post office, I had two parcels to pick up. One was the walker, and the other was my seed order from MI Gardener! More on that, later.

Once everything was loaded in the truck, it was off to the city.

The first thing I noticed when I drove in was a gas station on the outskirts with a price of $1.489/L Local prices rare $1.889/L Driving through the city, I saw $1.889, $1.629 and $1.559, so the prices were just all over the place! I was definitely going to get gas before coming home.

Then I drove right past the clinic.

I did that last time!

I found a place I could turn off and park to double check the address, then headed back again. I was too busy looking at gas prices and completely missed it, even though it is right net to a gas station!

One of the higher prices ones, though.

I’m glad I left early, because that gave me plenty of time for doing things like this. 😁

I was still almost an hour early when I checked in, but that was okay. They had one comfortable armchair in the waiting room. One that was far less painful to sit on than a regular chair! I didn’t get much sleep last night, partly because of the pain in my hips, so I took advantage of the situation and drifted off for a bit.

When the doctor called me in, we talked a bit about the last time I was there, when I got the cortisol injection to my left hip. This time, I mentioned that my right hip was also starting to bother me, so it was decided to do both.

As for the rest…

My Xrays were not in yet. There was nothing we could talk about or do, without them. He marked the file so that they will call me when they come in, and we discussed whether I should go ahead and make an appointment for next week. In the end, I suggested they call me, and perhaps even have just a telephone appointment, depending on what the Xrays show.

As I was telling him about my fall before Christmas, explaining my injuries, I brought up the walker and asked if I could get a note or something, to submit to the insurance company. When my husband got his walker, it was in another province and done through home care, which also covered the cost of the walker, the bath chair and arm bars in the tub/shower of where we were living at the time. It turns out that here, they write a prescription. Which he did for me, after asking questions about the style and type of walker (4 wheels with a seat), and included in the notes why it was needed. Which is pretty much just for when I’m working around the yard, for the most part.

When we were done, I didn’t need to make another appointment, so I just headed out, saying good bye to the receptionists as I went by. Once in the truck, I paused to message the family, when there was suddenly someone at the window.

It turns out there’s a fee for the cortisol injections – and they only take cash. It was only $20. I asked her where the nearest bank machines were, and she mentioned one that was near the Domo gas station I was planning to go to, next. So I told her I would go to the gas station, then the ATM and be back.

When I got to the Domo, the line was quite backed up. Today is Monday. Monday and Thursdays is when they have a 4¢ off/L deal, and a lot of people were taking advantage of it! So I filled that tank at $1.449 It still cost almost $85 to fill, as I dropped below half a tank by the time I reached the city.

That done, I parked and got the cash, then headed back to the clinic. I asked, just in case, and they don’t do direct billing with any insurance companies, but they always give out receipts. So I got that to include with the prescription for my husband to send out, after getting the invoice for the walker from online.

Every little bit helps.

Finally, I headed to the Walmart, where I had to stop to eat. It was about 2pm by then. I hadn’t had lunch and was starting to get dizzy. It was a quick McRaunchies meal, and then I did the shopping. One of the things I’d forgotten before we nowhere to be found, but I got everything else on my three short lists lists.

That done, it was time to head home. By then, it was starting to rain a bit, but not much – until I got closer to home. At which point, we were getting real, solid rain! An absolute downpour of much needed rain! I was so happy to see it!

By the time I got home, it was around 5pm, and the downpour had stopped, though it was still raining a bit. I drove up to the house to unload, then fed the cats so I cold safely drive the truck out of the yard to park in the garage.

We have a bit of a conundrum with the yard cats right now.

Furriosa and Bug have gone into heat.

Both are ridiculously tiny, and they didn’t want the attention, but the boys have been after them. The boys are twice their size and many times heavier! I contacted the rescue about it, and we’ve sort of worked out a plan. Bug, Furriosa and a little black and white female like to hang out in the isolation shelter. We can’t approach them, but we can close the ramp door and keep them there. That would also keep the boys away! From there, we can make arrangements for spays. We’ve been trying to focus on getting Slick who we barely see these days, but the larger adult ferals are not the same sort of concern. If the littles get pregnant, they are so small, they won’t survive.

So the goal right now is to catch them when all three are in the isolation shelter and close it up, even if they are with other cats. Unless those other cats are intact males, of course, but we can remove them once the ramp door is closed.

Anyhow. I digress.

Once the purchases were put away, I assembled the walker. I love it! I didn’t get a picture, though, as I had to hide it in the old kitchen right away. Otherwise, the indoor cats will crawl all over it and piss on it, or use it as a scratching post. I expect to be able to work outside tomorrow, and will be able to get a picture then.

Finally, I got to open up my envelope of seeds.

Starting from the top left, yes, I got more coffee seeds. These are for my daughters, and any successful tree would be a house plant, with some time outside in the heat of summer.

Below the coffee seeds is another packet of Blue Berries. The packet we got before had only 8 instead of 10 seeds. It looks like they all germinated, but I wanted to have extra of this variety, just in case.

The Marsh Mallow is something I’ve been interested in trying pretty much since I discovered I could get seeds for it. It’s a plant I’ve read about in my herbals, long ago, but didn’t know could be grown here. All of the plant is edible, except the seeds/pods, as a vegetable. Sap from the root was used to make the first mashmallow confections. The leaves and flowers can be used as an herbal tea, and has medicinal uses both when ingested internally, or used externally. They do require more marshy and damp conditions to grow, so that part will be a challenge. It’s worth a try!

Below that is a fresh Purple Savoy cabbage packet. I probably still have some left, considering there’s 150 seeds in the packet, but I’m pretty sure the ones I winter sowed did not make it. I might try starting some indoors, just in case. Either way, I now have extra seeds.

The Tom Thumb Dwarf peas are because I haven’t seen any sign of them germinating in the old kitchen garden’s wattle weave bed. There are only 25 seeds in a packet, so I don’t mind planted extra, even if the winter sown ones do end up germinating.

I got more Spring Blush peas because I was sure the winter sown ones had been killed off by those cold nights we got after I removed the mulch. Now that it looks like most of them have survived and are sprouting, I will happily use these for a second sowing.

Then there are the sunflowers! Both varieties, Black Russian and Mammoth are supposed to be good for eating. When we grew sunflowers before, it was partially to create a privacy screen, what with our vandal going around and doing things like shouting at us or giving us the finger from the road as he drove by. We didn’t get a lot of fully mature seed heads. I want to try them again, this time in hopes of being able to have seed to feed the chickens we’re getting, as they should be adult size by the time the sunflowers are mature.

Weather willing, and if the deer don’t get them!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: survivors, cuteness and clean up

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Happy Mother’s Day to the moms out there!

Today, my daughters took care of the morning routine, so I could sleep in, though “sleeping in” is rather different as the days get brighter so early now, and breakfast waiting for me.

I headed outside to take care of something and ended up staying out to get a few things done. One of those was to clean up under the green house frame, move it out and tiny up.

I think the cats are okay with losing their winter shelter.

The first image above is Fluffy (spayed), sleeping in the straw under the mock orange, which has become a favourite napping spot for her. We have huge progress with her. Yesterday, while I was coming around the north side of the old kitchen garden, she actually came running towards me, coming to a stop on a retaining wall block and waited for me to come over and pet her. After I got the picture above, I was able to walk up to her and pet her, and she stayed all curled up. Until recently, while she would sometimes allow pets while eating, she would otherwise not allow us to approach her. I would sometimes manage to sneak pets, but that was about it. Now, I can just walk up to her to pet her.

The second image is Sprig, in what seems to be a favourite napping spot for her. I have a giant crocheted blanket I left on the kibble house roof over the winter as extra insulation. I’ve left it there because it’s heavy enough to not be blown away by the wind, and the cats enjoy sleeping on it.

Sprig is more feral, though not as feral as her mother. Sprig hangs out close to the house and in the sun room, whereas her mother goes elsewhere until it’s feeding time, and runs off if we come to close.

While I was watering late this morning, I heard a cat fight that was a real surprise for me. Judgement, who is neutered, was violently attacking Sprig, who is intact and has not gone into her first heat. (We really need to trap her!!!) He is about twice her size and probably more than twice her weight. Why he would attack her like that, I just can’t understand!

The third picture shows where the portable greenhouse frame was, and you can just see part of Sprig, on the kibble house roof, in the photo. I had to wrestle part of the frame loose from the tall grass draped over one end before I could move it. For now, it’s set up next to the shrine, against the chain link fence. It barely fits between the shrine and the white lilacs there, and blocks one end of the path, but it will not stay there permanently. I just had to get it out of the way. Once the frame was clear, I raked up the straw and dead grass that was under it, into the wheelbarrow. It’s been pooped in by cats, so it can’t be reused as mulch or go into the regular compost, so it went to the cat litter compost pile. The pots I’d tried growing luffa in were also thoroughly pooped in, so I emptied the soil into the wheelbarrow, too, and it went into the litter compost, too.

One of the pots somehow ended up with a hole cracked into the side, with a chunk missed. I’ve no idea how that could have happened, in that location!

The rotting wooden bench that I’d had against the back of the tarp to reduce billowing in the wind is now set up against the back of the kibble house. The wire mesh frame, now leans against it, resting on broken pieces of brick so it doesn’t have contact with the ground. That was made to be a summer “door” for the old basement, so we can keep it open for air circulation in the summer, and no cats can get down. Once things get warm enough, we might do that again. For now, it’s nowhere near warm enough.

Last of all, I move the folding table up to the kibble house, and all the pots and bins, and even the black garbage can I was using as a heat sink, fit under the table.

That scrap yarn crocheted blanket on the table is even heavier than the one on the kibble house roof!

Today’s watering has finally included the main garden beds, as I now have enough hoses set up to reach them all. I found a lovely surprise. High winds had blown the leaf mulch over the onions and the row I’d planted peas, so I gently removed it as I watered, and made the discovery.

The Spring Blush peas have survived!

They had already sprouted when I first removed the mulch, looking rather blanched from being buried by mulch. Then we got those ridiculously cold days and it seems that they had all been killed off. I even ordered more seeds, since there weren’t a lot in the packet of this variety, so I had no extra seeds to try again. Now, it looks like the peas have recovered and sent up new shoots!

Still no sign of the rainbow mix carrots, though. Under the boards was still damp, but the only sprouts I’m seeing are a few tentative weeds. With those, I do have more seeds, I believe, so it can be resown, if it turns out they didn’t survive the spring.

The garlic is looking good!

Their tips were blanched when I removed the mulch, and those tips did get damaged by frost, but now you can’t even tell where the damage it. A couple of them needed a bit of help, though. Their leaves were suck in a membrane that would normally have been the cover of the stem at the base, just above ground. It was already starting to split, just from the size of the leaves, but they were getting all twisted out of shape, so I carefully got them free. They’ll be standing straight in no time.

There’s no sign of the spinach or yellow chard, but it may be too soon to tell. It’s been too dry. Now that I’m able to, I’ll be watering them daily, so if anything survive the temperature lurches we’ve been having all spring, we should see something soon. There’s no sign of poppies yet, either, but I don’t expect to, yet. The plot does show evidence of cats walking all over it, though, so that might be a problem. I was also able to water the Albion everbearing strawberries that have survived the winter.

I’ll need to hook up more hoses, so I can fill the water barrel out by the plum, gooseberry and haskap. the gooseberry’s leaf buds are starting to unfurl already, but I can barely see the haskap at all. I’d be concerned they got eaten by deer during the winter, but I never saw any tracks around there. The snow was too deep. Hopefully, if I can start watering them, they’ll perk up and start budding leaves. The plum seems to be okay and is starting to show leaf buds. The plum still has chicken wire around the tall dollar store tomato supports I set up around it, after the deer got to it a couple of times last year.

I intend to get more of those supports. They are really handy. I might even use them for tomatoes at some point. 😄

According to the forecast, we might get some rain in a couple of hours, but only a 35% chance of it, so I’m glad I did the watering. What rain we got yesterday really wasn’t much at all.

After moving the portable greenhouse frame, I noticed that the white lilacs are starting to spread into the path, toward the chimney block planters, quite a lot. Normally, I’d prune them back, but I remembered that the renter’s wife had said she would like to have white lilacs, so I messaged her today, telling her she can gab as many suckers as she wants. She accepted the offer. Once she has an area prepped, she will come over and dig them up. I just asked her to let me know when she’s going to come, so I can water the area the day before, to make it easier to dig them up and transplant them. This is the perfect time of year to transplant them, since their leaf buds are just starting to form. Once she has taken as many as she wants, I’ll prune away any other suckers remaining.

Yesterday, I’d been hearing heavy equipment and the sound of cattle and thought they might have been moved to this quarter. I asked about it, since our basket will are going to be shipped at the end of May, and I’ll be transplanting them beyond the outer yard. I’ll have to make sure they are protected from the cows for the first few years. It’ll be about 5 years of coppice training before they produce useable switches, but I can use any sprigs cut away and plant them. Which means that, every year, there should be at least a few more new basket willows started. There are two more varieties I want to try, with differently coloured bark. I’d hoped to order them for this year, too, but the budget did not allow for it. Too many truck and plumbing repairs!

I got through to the septic guy today and he will be coming out tomorrow morning. I should still be here, but will probably be leaving early to go to the post office before it closes for 2 hours over the lunch period, so I might end up leaving before he’s done. Which is okay; the payment is already ready and waiting for him. Tracking information shows my new walker is now in the city, which means is should get to the post office tomorrow morning, even though it still says Wednesday for delivery. A friend suggested I could get a note from a doctor about it, which would allow us to claim it on my medical insurance. I should be able to get that done by the doctor at the sports injury clinic during my appointment.

Things are looking very calm outside right now. I think, after I feed the outside cats for the night, I might get a fire going in the pit and char those stakes for the chain link fence raised bed. I probably won’t have a chance to get more done on it tomorrow, but at least they’ll be ready for when I can.

Time to go feed some kitties!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: new sprooots!

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Not the ones I expected, though.

When checking on the new seed snail rolls last night, I saw a surprising number of chicory has sprouted. Those are in the first image of the slide show above.

This morning, I spotted some French double marigold. You can see one in the second picture. The others were seeds, pushed through the vermiculite, green seed leaves not yet exposed, behind part of the packing foam holding the roll together.

I would have expected either the chamomile or the kohlrabi to have emerged first, for some reason. I’ve never grown caraway before, so I am not sure what to expect from that roll.

Over the next week, I plan to start the 3-4 week seeds. I’ll be doing a few winter and summer squash in a seed tray, rather than snail rolls, just because of their size. Large seeds would need more seed starting mix or potting soil, and the more that’s added to the snail rolls, the harder it is to roll them up and the more gets lost from both the top and the bottom.

I’ve been out for most of today. It has been cooler, and it’s tried to rain off and on all day, so I decided not to water the pre-sown beds with the hose today. Last night, I spotted some turnip seeds under the polytunnel, but it looks like all the daikon radish that had already sprouted when I took the mulch off have died off. I wish I had enough to cover all the beds with plastic, because I don’t think the kohlrabi or purple savoy cabbage survived the cold May we’ve had this year. The garlic is doing okay, but I see no signs of the chard or spinach in between. The purple blush peas in the first trellis bed also seem to be gone, and I see no sign of carrots germinating under their protective boards. I never saw any of the dwarf peas sprouted when I removed the mulch and covered that section of the bed with mesh to protect it from cats. The protection seems to be working, but still no sign of peas. Peas are the one thing that should have been able to handle the cold spells.

Well, I’ve ordered replacement seeds for some things, and have more seeds left over with others, so I can try again when the soil warms up enough.

I need to remember to bring out the new soil thermometer I got and set it in various beds to see how cold things still are.

Until then, I need to finish off the bed at the chain link fence, then move on to the few others that weren’t done in the fall.

It’s been a much colder May this year, but there’s still time to see if the winter sowing survived the spring or not.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: raised bed progress, and it’s nekkid now

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Well, I got some progress on that troublesome raised bed by the chain link fence. Not as much as I’d hoped, but still, a decent amount.

The first photo was taken after I finished weeding, removing more soil, then leveling it off. There’s a short video next.

The remaining photos are of the stakes I prepared, to hold the deadwood walls in place.

I decided on doing half the stakes at about 24 inches. Closer to 23, really. I’m not too concerned about the length, since I’ll be driving them into the ground and can more or less level them just by hamming them in until the match. The hoops or whatever I decide on to support protective covers will be attached to these stakes. The other half, I went with about 18 inches. After cutting them to length, I used my handy dandy draw knife and a vice to create points. Then they all got de-barked.

I had gathered the materials for these in the fall, and they’ve been frozen in the garage ever since. Now that it’s warmer, they are very green, and some of them even have sap trying to run! It did make it easier to remove the bark, but these are really damp.

Because they are so damp, the ideal thing would have been to char them all over a fire. This would dry and harden the wood, and make them less prone to rotting.

It was too windy to get a fire going in the fire pit, though. Tomorrow is supposed to be even windier. So, I have them all laid out on the bench to dry overnight.

You’ll notice in the last picture there is a single piece of wood that’s different. I needed 18 stakes in each length, and I ran out of gathered materials while doing the shorter length. I was one short. I had a scrap piece of wood from another project that was about 19″ long, so I will be using that.

I will need to gather the materials to get the same number of stakes for the front wall, plus the ends.

Not today.

Having done as much as I could for the raised bed today, I got a few other things done. I’ve been watering the old kitchen and East yard beds, plus all the strawberries in the chimney blocks, and will be trying to do that daily, for now. Despite the fact that we have open water in low lying areas, the soil surface is incredibly dry. I should be watering in the main garden area, too, but I haven’t got enough hoses set up, yet.

After watering, I set the hose to start filling the rain barrel, so I can use a watering can and ambient temperature water, instead of ice cold well water. There was just a few inches of water in the rain barrel, and we won’t be getting any real rain for quite some time.

While that was filling, I finally got the tarp off the portable greenhouse, and removed the torn up original cover.

The frame is now nekkid.

I had left the pots the luffa had been growing in, and discovered that they’ve been used as litter boxes.

*sigh*

The frame, despite being knocked half over and nearly told apart in one particularly bad wind store, is completely undamaged. It just doesn’t have a cover any more. If we’re going to cover it again, it has to be done in a way that can handle the weight of cats jumping on top of the roof.

Until then, I might end up moving the whole thing to a different location to get it out of the way, and to clean up under it.

The giant tarp that was covering it for the winter is now laid out and pinned to the ground. When I have someone to help me, or the wind dies down, I’ll fold it up and put it away properly.

That’s it. Garden progress for the day. Most of it was spent cutting, sharpening and debarking the stakes.

Tomorrow, Saturday, the dump is open for longer hours, so I plan to do that in the late morning, then I’m planning to visit my mother in the afternoon. The weekend is supposed to be cooler, and then things are supposed to warm up again on Monday, which is when I’m heading into the city for my appointment at the sports injury clinic. Somewhere in between that, I’ll need to go into the spruce grove and harvest more materials for this garden bed’s walls. I might have to go further afield to find enough material strong enough and relatively straight enough for the stakes.

Hopefully, it’ll be done soon, and I can focus on the remaining beds that need to be prepared for planting.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: let’s try this again

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Today was a much nicer day, and I finally got some work done outside.

Today, I decided to work on the bed by the chain link fence. Mostly, because I want to use the bricks that are lining it for something else. Once we figure out where the chicken coop is going to go, I want to put the bricks under the coop frame, so that there is no contact between the wood and the ground.

Here are the progress photos, so far.

The first image in the slide show above is the “before” picture. I’ve started nothing at this point.

Before I moved the bricks out, I went through the pile of maple lengths I gathered in the fall and cut a couple pieces to roughly 2 feet in length, then put them in the vice and used the draw knife to create points at one end, before debarking them. I set one at each end, inside the row of bricks. They aren’t all the way to the ends, though. The posts for the chain link fence are set in concrete, so I worked out how far the concrete extended, first, and used that to determine where to pound in the stakes. When the deadwood walls are built, the stakes will line up, front and back, so they can be used to support hoops or whatever I decide on to support future covers for this bed. Once the two stakes were pounded in, I removed the bricks and took them to where I am thinking the coop is going to go.

The next job was to remove the bulk of the weeds in the bed. It’s mostly crab grass, but there were also dandelions and – or course – elm tree roots.

*sigh*

I also found a bunch of shallots and a couple of onions! I planted shallots and onions along the edge of this bed for several years, but they’ve never been able to mature. Either that cats rolled on them, or the elm seeds smothered them. Yet they still survive!

I transplanted them into the winter sown cabbage bed.

I was able to get 2/3rds of the bed cleared before my body started to give out. I did remove a couple of wheel barrow loads of soil onto a tarp, and will remove more as I finish weeding the bed. This will make it easier to reach the back of the bed. There are currently boards all along the bottom of the chain link, to keep the soil from falling through. I’ll be adding pairs of stakes on either side of the boards, then adding deadwood on top of the boards to make a higher back wall. Once that’s done, I’ll do the front and ends to match the back in height, before returning the soil. I still have some sulphur granules, so I will probably mix some into the soil before returning it, to try and increase the acidity.

Once it is done, I need to decide on how I want to add supports across the bed. I could use hoops, but I’ve only got so many of those. I could also add wood cross pieces at the stakes, permanently attached, but do I want something permanent? Even if it’s likely to hold the weight of cats better than hoops? Whatever I use will be supporting either netting or plastic or frost protection, depending on the time of year and what ends up grown in here. I need to protect the bed from being smothered by elm seeds, to keep the cats from getting under any cover, hold the weight of cats on top of any cover without collapsing, and be able to protect from deer.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer than today. After that, it’s supposed to cool down for a couple more days, but it should still be nice enough to get work done outside. I hope to get it mostly done tomorrow, but I know I will need to gather more materials for the dead wood walls before I can finish it completely.

Once this is done, I’ve got just a few other beds that need to be cleaned up and prepared for planting, that didn’t get done in the fall.

Then I need to pull back the black tarp/landscape cloth/whatever it is, that’s over where we had winter squash a few years back and prepare it for the corn I will be planting there, this year. It’s been laying there for a few years, now, so any weeds and crab grass under it should finally be dead!

Lots of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it. I can’t believe we’re already a week into May. I can hardly believe we’re into May at all!

Still, little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

My husband is the best

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So, it was a rough night last night.

Where I’d slept well the night before, last night I simply could not fall sleep. I finally fell asleep sometime around 6am, which is closer to when I wake up in the morning.

No, it was not because of pain. It was only partly because of cats. At least not until I finally did fall asleep and that’s when Ghosty decided to dig into and absolutely destroy things all over, waking me repeatedly until I gave up. I was finding and putting away bibs and bobs she managed to scatter for hours after I finally got up. I will probably still fine more, later on.

Lack of sleep was totally my fault, though it took me a while to figure it out.

No more Earl Grey tea – or any other caffeinated tea – before bed. 🫖🍵 Especially not an entire pot. 😂🤣

The funny thing is, I could have had an energy drink instead, then slept light a rock. I’ve been trying to ration those, because a case doesn’t last long when split three ways!

My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, took care of the morning routine for me.

Currently, I am indeed in pain, but not in my joints, as usual. That diclofenac gel is doing the job. Instead, I’m in pain because I ended up sleeping on my back, pinned flat under my blanket by the weight of I don’t know how many cats in total. There’s a reason I never sleep on my back, normally! I think they were cold last night, because they were snuggling hard against me!

Ah, well.

My husband had a surprise for me last night that I thought was funny at first, but considering how I feel right now, I think it’s more apropos than not.

He ordered a Mother’s Day gift for me, from one of my wish lists on his Amazon Prime account. Something I’d put there months ago, along with many, many other things we have both added to lists and will probably never order. It won’t arrive until after Mother’s Day, but he let me know it was ordered right away. As of this morning, it has been shipped and is expected to arrive on the 13th; a week from now. I would not be surprised if it came earlier.

This is what he ordered for me.

Yup. I’m getting a walker of my very own.

Now, I could borrow my husband’s bariatric walker. I’ve certainly had to, in the past, such as when I had my fall last June. His is designed for someone that’s burley and over 6′ tall, though.

We also have my late father’s walker, which is more suited for my height, that I have seriously considered taking with me during some of my outings. Those are usually shopping trips, though, and I tend to use a shopping cart as a walker.

Where I would be using it most, though, would be around the yard, and that’s that I had in mind when I found this one and added it to a wish list.

This walker is an off-roader.

The frame is reinforced, and it has larger all-terrain, anti-slip, shock absorbing wheels. It also has a step-on curb climber; something I wish my mother’s walker had! It comes with a cane holder; something we had to add to my husband’s walker, ourselves. There’s even a drink holder. 😁 With my late father’s walker, as well as my mother’s, storage is under the seat. This one is more like my husband’s walker, with the storage in front of the seat (or in back, for the person sitting on it).

My parent’s walkers also folded up by lifting the seat, then pulling a bar or handle in the middle that brings the front and back together. In my mother’s walker, the storage under the seat is a wire basket that needs to be removed in order to fold it. This walker folds together like my husband’s does, pulling the sides together, which I find much more efficient. It also allows it to be free standing while folded, as my husband’s walker is, whereas my parents’ walkers cannot stand on their own once folded up. The storage basket is soft sided, so it just folds in on itself as well though, if I needed to, it could be easily taken off.

When my husband asked me why I had a walker in one of the wish lists, I told him, adding that this was obviously something I don’t need yet.

Today, I’m not so sure!

I don’t expect I’ll need to take it with me during outings, but I most definitely will have it nearby when I’m working in the garden. Many is the time that I simply needed to sit down for a while. Over time, we will have benches and seats built all over the place, but we’re not there yet.

I’ll be modifying it, of course. We added LED lights to my husband’s walker, so that while he’s walking, he can have a white light on the back rest as a headlight, plus red and green lights facing behind him. Red on the left, green on the right, of course. Sailors will understand why. 😁 I want to find a similar set of lights I can add to this walker. Especially one as a headlight, if I’m going to be using it while working around the yard in the summer.

I will probably bling the heck out of it, too. To match my sparkly hat collection. 🤣😂

Hey, if you need mobility aids, may as well have fun with them.

Oh, wow! That was fast!

I just got a phone call from the sports injury clinic, regarding the referral from my doctor, sent the day before yesterday. I could have gotten an appointment today, if it didn’t take an hour just to reach the city.

I now have an appointment on Monday afternoon.

I am so looking forward to getting another injection in my left hip. Not sure what treatment will be recommended for my shoulders and knee.

Being broken sucks. It is what it is, though, and we do the best we can!

The Re-Farmer

*sigh*

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Yup. More snow.

At least the rhubarb (second picture) can handle it. The garlic seems fine, too. I think my winter sown beds are toast.

I’m skipping the dump run today.

On another note, I got the new topical painkiller, diclofenac, applied last night. Between that and regular painkillers, I actually slept, with only a couple of interruptions, for nearly 10 hours last night. I could still go back to bed for another 10 hours, if I could, but I recognize that this fatigue is my usual response to dreary days like today.

Oh, dear. I just got interrupted by a phone call from my mother.

*sigh*

She was demanding I take her to the doctor. She wants me to walk her across to the clinic in the same building (the doors to the TCU are locked to prevent residents from wandering) and she would make the appointment herself. I tried to explain – again – that I already called about making an appointment for her and they said now, because of where she is. She is under constant medical supervision. The staff there can tend to her current needs. After several times asking, she finally told me why she wanted to go to the doctor.

It’s her ears.

She got her 5 days of mineral oil treatment, but no one has flushed her ears. I pointed out, it’s not even 9am yet. Give them time. It took a while before she told me that one of the staff had said she would find someone experienced with ear flushing, and then she left. She’s gone. Maybe it’s her day off (I have no idea if this happened yesterday or this morning; my mother’s sense of time is pretty much gone). I said again, give them time. If she said she was going to find someone with experience, she needs time to do that.

My mother went back to demanding I take her to the clinic so she could make an appointment, accompanied by various insults on how I’m “afraid of the doctor” and how she’s “not allowed” to see a doctor, and “is this Russia or Canada?” The irony of that is, she’s probably be getting better care in Russia right now, than anywhere in Canada.

I kept trying to explain to her how things work, but she ended up hanging up on me.

*sigh*

What a way to start the day.

And it’s still not even 9am yet.

The Re-Farmer

Snow, and medical stuff

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We got snow.

Beginning of May, and it’s been snowing all day.

Granted, it’s really light snow and melts as soon as it touches anything. We are still at our high of the day, 2C/36F, but the wind chill has us at -9C/16F

A good day to have my doctor’s appointment, since I wasn’t going to be able to get anything done outside!

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

In the end, it looks like having to cancel the previous two appointments because of the truck being in the garage so much turned out to be a good thing. Once I made the connection and decided to stop taking the anti-inflammatories to see if they were the cause of my bleeding, my symptoms quickly reduces and, as of today, are almost completely gone.

After explaining everything to the doctor, she agreed. Another possibility might have been PCOS related, but I’ve been post menopausal for so long, that could be ruled out.

Before the physical exam, though, we talked about my second reason for being there. I told her about needing to go back to the sports injury clinic regarding my left hip, then told her about my fall before Christmas and how, after all this time, I still have pain in my right knee, plus my right shoulder feels like it’s about to dislocate so often, and my elbow pain. She wrote it all up in a referral to the sports injury clinic, and a requisition for Xrays. Not for my elbow, but I didn’t push for that. That is most definitely nerve damage, and not something that will show up in Xrays.

Then I got the physical exam, PAP smear and swab taken, followed by abdominal palpitations, because of the pain I have in my lower abdomen that I don’t think is related to the bleeding.

Gosh, I hate those tests.

I did mention again that I’m prone to cysts and what I was feeling reminded me of when I ended up in the ER, years ago, except not at bad.

On the plus side, absolutely everything seemed normal except for one minor thing. She could actually see where the bleeding is coming from, which in turn confirmed to her that it was the anti-inflammatory that was the cause.

Since it’s been so long, she also wrote me up for extensive blood work, including checking my iron levels – understandable, considering how much continuous blood loss I’ve had over the past few months. I’ve also got a referral for an abdominal ultrasound.

It shouldn’t take too long to hear back from the sports injury clinic, since it’s been less than a year from my last visit. The ultrasound might take a few months or a year before I hear from them.

As she was writing all this time, I mentioned that there was a problem with not being able to take the anti-inflammatories anymore.

“The pain”, she immediately responded.

Exactly.

The prescription painkillers stopped working after a very short time. I’d requested trying anti-inflammatories instead, and they helped out incredibly well. I never even had to take the max three a day I was prescribed for. Usually, it was just once a day. Twice if I had to do a lot of shoveling or something like that. Now that I’m no longer taking them, I’m taking the Tylenol Extra Strength again. It works just as well as the remaining prescription painkillers I’ve still got. That and Voltaren.

Well, I now have a prescription for a topical painkiller. Basically, it’s Voltaren, but at 5 times the strength. I’ll just need to get some help applying it to some areas.

That prescription was faxed in to our pharmacy in town. After the appointment was done, I went straight to the lab next to the clinic for the blood tests and urine sample. After that, it was off to the hospital to get the Xrays done.

I had messaged the family about the new prescription, asking if anyone needed refills to be delivered on Thursday, so we could combine them. By the time I was done with the Xrays, though, there was a message from my husband. The pharmacy had called. They got the prescription, and did I want it filled right away?

My husband told them, yes.

So, instead of heading straight home, I headed to our pharmacy to pick it up, instead. I’ve already talked to one of my daughters about getting help to apply it to the areas I can’t reach, or reach well enough. At the very least, I will use it before bed, as the pain makes it very difficult to get any sleep at times.

I was out long enough that my daughter took care of feeding the outside cats. Slick showed up this morning and allowed pets. She was back again when my daughter was there. She got to pet Slick, Fancypants (he’s getting so much better at allowing pets!), Adam and lots and lots of Flopsy pets!

The boys seem to be leaving Slick alone now. Which means that 1) it should be easier to catch her now that she’s no longer being chased around by 5 males and 2) she’s probably pregnant again, by about a day or two.

We really need to get Slick to the vet!!!!

If we could get Adam, too, that would be bonus. She has been more friendly, too, but as with Slick, only while being fed. We can’t approach them, otherwise.

We’re looking at a few more chilly days and nights ahead; enough that I’ve turned the heat lamps back on for the cats. Looking at the long range forecasts, we won’t be getting past the chill for almost 2 weeks.

I’ve been reading that we are looking to get a very strong “super El Nińo” this year. Typically, that means a very hot summer. I won’t be holding my breath on that, either way.

Just as I was writing this, a weather group I follow sent out a message. Due to the dryness and high winds, several municipalities have have implemented bans on open fires. Ours is not included. We still have full ditches and standing water in places, yet the soil surface is so very dry. We got snow and rain today, but very little. We could really use more! I haven’t seen anyone doing controlled burns, even though they are needed. Too much wind.

I’m getting very tired of being cold.

Anyhow.

I’m glad I finally got my medical appointment. In a month I will have a follow up telephone appointment to go over the results of my bloodwork and swabs. Aside from that, everything is checking out as fine as can be, under the circumstances.

Hopefully, that will continue!

Now, if only that snow would go away and get replaced with just rain…

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: starting more seeds and “potting up”

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I finally got the next batch of seeds started, as well as doing some “potting up” with the seed snail rolls.

But first, the cuteness.

Not in the photo is Adam, who very enthusiastically took pets. No sign of Slick today, anywhere.

My goal for today was to start the 4-6 weeks before last frost date seeds. After going through them, I decided on some herbs, caraway, chicory and chamomile, some French Double Dwarf marigolds, some Early White Vienna kohlrabi I picked up, just in case the winter down bed doesn’t make it, and Bi-Colour Pear gourds.

I pre-moistened a bag of seed starting mix with hot water and had the heater going. That basement is way too cold for this, but it’s our only option this year. The six new seed snails got their own metal tray. The Bi-colour Pear gourds have fairly small seeds, so I went ahead and did a snail roll; for the squash, etc. with larger seeds, I will go back to using the planting trays.

All the rolls got topped with vermiculite after the seeds were sown and covered with soil, except the chamomile. Those seeds are so tiny, they got covered with vermiculate only.

Speaking of which…

My brother and SIL came out today to take care of some things and I was able to see them shortly before they left. They were out by the barn as we were talking and the pile with trees growing out of it came up. The trees are self seeded and need to go, as does the pile. I’d been told it was some sort of insulation under there.

My brother informed me that no, it is vermiculite.

We’re talking a truck load, and it’s been sitting there for at least 20 years. It used to be covered in taps and plastic, and I can still see some shreds of that, but over the years a thick layer of moss has grown over it, dead branches had been tossed on top and, along with the self seeded maples, there are a bunch of self seeded raspberry bushes growing on one side.

When my brother gets his old tractor with the front end loader going, he will help me move that pile out. It’s in the way, and I don’t want trees growing in this location; they would eventually block access to the barn. Now that I know it’s vermiculite in that pile, I might actually be able to use it in the garden!

If it’s still good. It’s not exactly “clean” anymore. Some patches got exposed and they’re looking pretty… moldy? We’ll see when the time comes.

Anyhow…

Once the new seeds were planted, the tray was set aside, and I removed the tray with the celery snail rolls in it so I could reach it. I got another metal tray out for the next rolls.

I got rid of the dead luffa entirely. Poor thing.

I decided to “pot up” the Russian Tarragon and Summer Savory seedlings into one snail roll. The tarragon looks pretty good, but I don’t think the summer savory is going to make it. We’ll see.

For this is part, I used what I had left in my bucket of sifted potting soil, which was still damp from when we used it last. The bucket had been sitting on the concrete floor, and the damp potting soil was COLD. I’m really hoping that doesn’t cause too much shock for the seedlings. I used it to “pot up” the four varieties of tomatoes by unrolling them, adding the potting soil, then rolling them back up again. I also potted up… I think it was the Crackerjack marigolds, but I’m suddenly drawing a blank on that.

The rest did not get potted up, partly because I was almost out of potting soil. The potted up rolls are thicker now, so everything is now on three trays, with the two big rolls of celery in a tray to themselves now. The celery is really big! They are a short season variety, and I probably started them too early for this specific variety.

Once the three trays were set back up on the shelf under the shop light, I returned the plant lights on one side, then set up the heat mat on the work table, in front of the shelf, where the second plant lights can reach. At least the new seed rolls will be a bit warm on the mat.

So that is finally done.

I didn’t try to get much done outside today; I’m very tired and hurting. It was a warmer day – our high is 18C/64F – though we also had high winds. We even got a smattering of rain.

Unfortunately, we’re dropping down to a low of 2C/36F overnight, and that’s our high for tomorrow. Over the next few days, the highs and lows were be just over or just under freezing. Even when we start warming up by next weekend, those overnight lows are going to stay around the freezing mark. We aren’t expected to get warmer until the third week of May, and the long range forecast shows us still expecting lows below freezing at the beginning of June.

Right around our old last frost day, which is what I’m going by, rather than the updated average.

Tomorrow, I finally have my doctor’s appointment – the one I had to cancel twice because of the truck issues. I won’t be losing much by being out, though, as it’s supposed to be not only cold, but very windy, too. Over the next while, I’ll need to focus on cleaning up and preparing a few more garden beds, including the one at the chain link fence that is going to be redone completely again.

I have a strong suspicion our winter sown beds aren’t going to make it this year. There were a few things where seedlings had already emerged when I removed the mulch, but I can’t see them anymore. Not even in the bed I was able to cover with the 6mm plastic. I hope I’m wrong, but these are all things I can direct sow before the last frost date. I’ve even reordered a few things, so I can replant the same varieties in the same places, if they don’t work out. The soil surface is all so dry – and yes, I’ve been watering what I could. I’ve now got hoses set up at both the front and back taps, though I need to make sure the water is shut off at the house and the hoses are empty, so there’s nothing to freeze in them overnight.

Hopefully, even though it’s going to be pretty chilly for the next few days, I’ll be able to get some progress on the garden beds that need preparing.

Meanwhile, we’ll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow about the issues I’ve been having.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

A draining visit, a good visit and some spring clean up done

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Today, I was supposed to do a dump run, but I was just too tired and in pain. It’ll have to wait until they’re open again on Tuesday.

I had a rough pain night and didn’t get much sleep, so I was going to try lying down for a bit, then visit my mother in the afternoon. I wasn’t looking forward to that, after her last phone call, but it needed to be done. I wasn’t down for long when I got a message from my SIL. My brother was on his way to see our Mother, and would then come here to the farm.

So I decided to head out to my mother’s earlier and meet him there. When I got there, though, I found another message from my SIL, as well as from my husband. My brother had tried to call me, but he was calling the land line. He was going to the farm, first.

Which worked out. I got the messages just as I parked at the hospital and realized my mother would be getting her lunch tray, so I walked around for a bit to give her time to finish eating before I went in. I stopped at the nursing station to find out about the phone call I didn’t get on Tuesday, about arranging a family meeting with the doctor. The person at the desk wasn’t the one in the know, so she made a note for the nurse in charge to come see us while I was visiting her.

The first part of the visit was okay. My mother talked a lot about things she remembered from back in Poland. All stuff I’d heard before, but that’s okay. I took a chance and showed her pictures of the chicken coop. She asked me why I didn’t build a shed for them instead of something with so many “windows”. I told her, because we can’t do that right now, this is what we’ve got. She laughed at me for having a chicken coop but no chickens. I told her we were getting chicks at the end of the month. Just 10 for now. Only 10? So few?

…

I told her, the coop is only big enough for 10 chicks.

Then she started going on about how wonderful our vandal is, because he buys his eggs from the Hutterites, and he bought chickens for the freezer from them, too. Now, it’s entirely possible he did this once or twice, years ago, but in her mind this is something he always does. I told her, the Hutterites have a huge operation; we just need enough chickens for eggs for ourselves.

Oh, and my sister’s husband visited our vandal, who told him he doesn’t want me or my brother at his funeral. Which I figured. My mother told me, she wanted us to do what was the right “Christian” thing to do. *sigh*

Then the nurse came and things got… brutal, though in a relatively calm way, for my mother.

In a nutshell; the doctor will not see her or have any meetings about her, because he simply doesn’t have the time. She does not have any medical need for a doctor’s care. She went on about her hearing and her vision, but neither is something that requires him. My mother is undergoing the mineral oil treatment on her ears again – it will be for 5 days this time – before they try flushing it again, and my mother had all sorts of things to complain about with that. Meanwhile, my mother is adamant that they are not giving her her second eye vitamin pill of the day. She writes it all down, she counts all her pills, but they tell her different things about different pills – the nurse and I both realized that my mother was mixing a blue pill up with a green pill, thinking they were the same pill, so that’s why she was getting different answers. My mother is also now convinced that her hearing was “perfect” before she came there, and her hearing problems have something to do with not getting her pills. When I pointed out that she used to have her TV and radio incredibly loud when I’d come over to her apartment in the past, she switched to Polish and accused me of taking their side and of lying. She also wants a pill for her eyes. I had to go over how the eye vitamin is only helpful for her left eye and the dry macular degeneration. The only treatment for the wet macular degeneration in her right eye is the injections she would have to go to the city for. She has rejected that and demands another pill; going back to how she claims they have stopped giving her the second one of the day. Even her own notes show that she is getting two pills at 5pm, but now she says she only gets one.

Even after the nurse left, my mother kept insisting they were not giving her these eye vitamins, and all her health problems have now only started after she came to this TCU. Things she has been dealing with for a long time. I kept trying to explain things, but she just went back to the manipulation, saying I was taking their side, etc. etc. I finally said, it was time for me to go.

As I was getting ready to leave, my mother brother up her wheelchair. This is a folding wheelchair that had been my father’s.

She asked me if I recognized it. I saw it in the hallway and said I did. She asked me to bring it over, and began questioning me about recognizing it. The staff had clearly given it a really good cleaning; whatever they used on the heavy vinyl got it all nice and supple and looking brand new. They even oiled the squeaky food rest. However, it’s an old chair, and there are cracks in the wheels and spots of rust that I could say where there before.

My mother clearly didn’t believe me. She has decided it’s not the same chair anymore. The hospital switched it.

This is not a new thing. For as long as I can remember, she accused my father of “trading” cattle, vehicles, furniture, the TV, etc. and he was giving the “good” versions the second family she believed he had, and the “bad” versions for us. When she tried to convince me a particular cow had been traded because it looked different – it had matured and filled out, looking bigger, strong and healthier – I pointed out that if this cow had been “traded”, we now have a better cow, so how did her accusations make sense?

I had a very confusing childhood at times.

The visit done, I headed home, utterly drained. My brother was still here, so we sat in their mobile home and I filled him in. It was good to talk to him about it in person, and we had a great visit! He was dreading his visit with Mom, but I just heard from him. He ended up staying with Mom for a couple of hours and the visit went well. It seems my mother got her nasty out of her system before he got there. I’m very glad it worked out that way, because she has been incredibly cruel to him during most of his visits with her.

After filling in my brother, I headed inside and took a bit of a break before changing into my grubbies and going outside for some manual labour. That, more than anything else, really helps decompress after a visit with my mother.

My focus for today was getting the straw off the septic tank. I had just started when I began getting messages from the cat rescue.

They are trying to get ahold of special traps to borrow and bring here. Traps with motion sensors and operated by remote. We can set up the camera currently facing the isolation shelter to monitor the traps. When the motion sensor goes off, check the camera to see what critter is in it. This way, we can trigger the trap only if the specific cat we are after – Slick, for example – is in the trap. Skunks and raccoons can be ignored. 😄 That would be amazing!

My brother was getting ready to head out around then, and dropped off some lovely compost they’d made from their own kitchen scraps for me. He had time to check out the chicken coop and we talked about the septic area, and the emergency bypass set up I had set off to the side until the straw was gone. After he left, I continued and got it all clear. The surface straw was set aside in a pile, but the damp straw touching the ground, which was already starting to rot, got raked up and repurposed as mulch around the honeysuckle and white rose bushes in the old kitchen garden.

That clear, I set up all the parts and pieces for the emergency bypass against the old kitchen wall for their summer storage.

That done, I also set up a hose at the tap in the wall next to the pipe running out of the basement for the emergency bypass. The shut off valve in the basement can now be opened. I won’t set all the hoses up until things warm up more, but I can at least fill watering cans for the pre-sown beds, etc., for now.

My next garden priority is to start more seeds inside. That keeps getting pushed back, but most of what we have left to start indoors are for 3-4 weeks before last frost, so for those we still have a bit of breathing room. I have only a few things in the 4-6 week range that need to be started now.

So this has been… a day. I’m very happy I got to see my brother and that I got some work done outside. As for my visit with my mother, it is what it is.

It just left me feeling so incredibly drained! Getting the straw cleared off actually helped with that. Now I’m just physically tired, not both physically and mentally tired! 😄

The Re-Farmer