I am happy to say that, yesterday, I was wrong in doubting we could get any of the predicted rain.
Very wrong!
It poured hard! This is the rain shooting off the end of the rain barrel diverter. Everything is getting so nice and green again. I might even have to mow the lawn again at some point! It’s a bit late to add grass clippings as mulch in the garden, but it certainly will be used, if we do get some.
One of the things I am happy to see when I first come out to do my rounds is Junk Pile’s kittens. They have been coming to the kibble house more often, and while they still run away in a panic when I come out, they are quicker to return.
Inside the kibble house are three of Butterscotch’s kittens, plus Junk Pile in the far corner, while Butterscotch is eating from the container on the ground. That is the container I’d been leaving out by the junk pile, and later the concrete steps, for her and her babies, but now that they are also coming to the kibble house, I brought it over. After taking the photo, I moved it to under the roof on the other side of the kibble house. I did see Junk Pile’s kittens in the kibble house with Butterscotch’s kittens, but with how shy they are, I figure having food on the other side would be nice for them. They come from that direction and, sometimes, instead of running off, they’ll squeeze under the cat’s house to hide. It’ll eventually join the other containers in the kibble house, but this will also keep things a little less crowded. Especially with the adult cats asserting their pecking order with each other.
Which is why I’m still putting food out by the other junk pile for Rosencrantz, Nosencrantz and Toesencrantz. It helps keep the peace, and they seem to prefer eating there.
I’d been moving the kibble container for Butterscotch and her babies around, to encourage them to come closer to the house. Having it on the concrete steps has been a bit of an issue, as I kept finding the container elsewhere. Likely dragged around by skunks. So yesterday, I put it in the slightly raised bed near the steps, where the cats like to hang out.
This morning, I found it half under the lilacs.
I also found this.
That corner is exactly where I’d put the kibble container. This is the first time I’ve seen this area dug up like that! The skunks don’t usually dig that deep. The larger hole goes under the wood, and was dug from the other side, too.
I suspect the rains brought a lot of grubs closer to the surface, and with this bed being so heavily mulched, it’s a lot softer than the soil outside of it. Snack time for the skunks!
Today, we are supposed to have a break from the rain, at least in our area. There are, once again “overland flow flooding” warnings near rivers. I should check out the gravel pit dugout again, later today. Light rains are supposed to return tomorrow, and again later in the week. After that, it should warm up again, a bit. We’re at 17C/63F right now, but in a few days, we’re expected to reach 20C/68F and stay in that range for at least the next couple of weeks. Perfect to get some big jobs done, outside!
For now, I leave you with one more photo. The adorable Nosencrantz, watching me as I checked on the potatoes!
She is such a cutie! And my younger daughter has even managed to pet her!
While doing my evening rounds, I was able to gather quite a substantial harvest from the garden!
The yellow beans are, as could be expected, winding down right now, but there was still quite a lot of them. There were plenty of green beans, too, but it was the purple beans that stole the show! There were so many ready to pick this time!
I picked a few sweet corn that seems like they might be ready, just to see how they were. Though their silks are drying, they are still quite immature. My expectations are on the low side for these, given how nitrogen poor the soil is, but we shall see as time goes by.
I was really happy to have so many sunburst squash and zucchini! I also had to straighten up a lot of the support poles, as the wind had blown them over somewhat. However, I can definitely say it was much easier to find and harvest the summer squash grown vertically! Last year, I was picking sunburst squash and zucchini pretty much daily, but this is the first time we’ve had a substantial amount to pick. They did not get eaten before we could get to them! The cayenne pepper is definitely working!
I applied more over everything after I finished picking things. The rains would have washed it all off by now. We might get more rain today, then off an on over the next week, but I don’t expect to get much here, so I wanted to make sure the garden beds had their spicy protection.
There was enough picked that we could blanch and freeze some more, but this time I’m keeping them for having with our meals. In fact, I’m enjoying some of those beans with my lunch as I write this, sauteed with our Purple Stripe garlic (crushed and chopped) in butter, then braised until tender, then seasoned and stir fried with rice and some of the grass fed beef we got with the package we ordered a while back. It turned out very well!!
It may almost be the end of August, but we’re finally getting to where we can probably eat from our garden every day. :-)
That feeder was almost completely full, as of last night.
I’m actually surprised it took until now for the hinged lid to break apart, considering how many times it’s landed upside down and open.
At least I can say the base finally held!
The screws tore right through the old wood of the feeder’s platform.
I don’t see any point in repairing it at this time, but I’ll be keeping some of the parts and pieces, should we find ourselves with the materials to build a new one.
As for the base still on the post, it’s so secure, I’m leaving it for now. Who knows. I might just make a quick platform to put on there for a simple feeder.
Frustrating, but considering the condition the feeder was in when we moved here, it really is amazing it didn’t happen earlier.
We have been rather entertained by our resident groundhogs under the junk pile of late.
The grog actually managed to drag some of the tarp down into the den entrance!
This tarp is one of several that I found when cleaning the junk off this pile of wood. They had clearly been used to cover and protect the wood, but had been blown aside and torn apart by the elements, along with all sorts of things being tossed into the area. Torn up as they were, I was still able to use them to cover the wood pile a bit, but the groundhogs are taking advantage of the deteriorated state. They are trying to gather it into their den for nesting material.
Last night, I cleaned it up a bit and tucked the tarp under some boards.
This is how I found it this morning.
I was able to see the groundhog in action through the living room window.
That little bugger is really working at it! :-D
I put together the videos I took from the window, too. :-)
These next photos were taken after the video was made.
It got quite a lot of that tarp down and into the den entrance!
In taking this photo, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before.
There is now a third entrance to the den in the back of the pile!
I cleaned up and tucked things away again. It should be interesting to see how long this lasts.
While I was working in a nearby beet bed (which will be in my next post), I could hear the grog trying to drag a corner of the orange trap around the back, too.
The gravel you see at the bottom of the photo is from the second entrance to the den.
I don’t think you can see it in the photo above, but there is the nose of a grog in their main entrance. It was watching me.
You’ll notice the gravel is different in this photo. I took advantage of their hard work and used it. I’ll be posting about that after I’ve processed the photos I took.
We seem to have made a truce with the groundhogs. I’m relieved, because we were getting to the point of taking some rather permanent steps. Something I won’t even consider right now, as they are nesting, and I don’t want to end up depriving babies of their mother. The cayenne pepper and covers are working, overall (more on that in my next post), and they seem content with eating the bird seed, grazing on whatever they’re finding in the grass, and leaving our garden beds alone now. From what I’ve been able to find about them, they don’t actually like to have overlapping territory, so if there are any babies, they will not stick around once they are big enough to live on their own.
For all the predictions of rain we’ve been getting, I don’t think we’ll actually get anything of substance, so I will be applying more cayenne pepper this evening. If it rains, well, I’ll just have to do it again.
Most of the squash are blooming like crazy right now. The Red Kuri/Little Gem winter squash is especially showy right now.
Isn’t that gorgeous?
Unfortunately, there is still just the one squash that is developing. There are so many little ones like this, but they have been dying off without getting much bigger.
Then there was this little – and I do mean little – surprise I found behind a leaf.
Our first luffa gourd has shown up!
There have been plenty of male flowers blooming, so there should be no pollination problems when this one finally blooms. It should be interesting to see if we get mature gourds, this late in the growing season!
The girls had gone through the garden beds earlier and picked a couple of big zucchini, as well as some sunburst squash. Which tells me that cayenne pepper seems to be working. In yesterday’s garden cam files, I actually saw a groundhog by the summer squash in a couple of videos, in between files of me going by while tending the sprinklers. It was just grazing something next to the summer squash. It did not try to go into them at all. Which is very encouraging. With the watering, I should probably add on more cayenne pepper, but there’s a 60% chance of showers this morning, so it would be washed off if it does. We shall see.
It’s been a long time since I was able to stop to get pictures of the bison while they are at the fence!
There are so many babies this year! <3
Gosh, they are beautiful creatures!
Though I think they lost a bull. I saw a local notice being shared on Facebook, warning people in the area to be on the lookout for it, and to stay well away from it. This is the only bison ranch I know of in this area, so I’m guessing it’s theirs. Hopefully, it has been found and brought home by now!
Well, the forecasts have changed again. Instead of things starting to cool down starting today, we’re now supposed to hit 33C/91F with a humidex of 40C/104F this afternoon, and hit 30C/86F over the next couple of days. Thunderstorm warnings are back for tomorrow, but now extending over two days.
I really hope we do get them!
Overnight temperatures are high, too, making it hard to sleep. Especially since the box fan I had in my window broke. I suppose I could take the one we’ve got in the root cellar, but I think our curing garlic needs it more than I do.
The cats, meanwhile, are melting.
David is just so… magnificent!
Layendecker spent hours in my butt spot, splayed out like this, until I had to claim my chair.
We were able to have our very first BBQ (grilling, for the purists) yesterday.
This is the first time we’ve used the BBQ my brother gave us. It was insanely hot, even in the shade, but being able to cook everything at the same time, and not heating up the house, was worth it.
After the meat was set on the warming grill, I took the zucchini strips and put them directly on the grill, just enough to get some char on them. It was awesome! Unfortunately, the photos I took of the finished meal did not turn out, but it was as pleasing to the eye as to the palate. The purple corn was interesting. The kernels were far harder than I expected. I liked them. I look forward to growing enough for both fresh eating (or making chicha morado) and to make corn flour. That will be a few years, which will also give us time to pick up a decent quality mill.
The steaks are the sirloin steaks from the meat pack we got from a local ranch. I kept it simple. Just a bit of oil (okay, maybe not so simple; I used (fake) truffle oil), salt and pepper. Oh, man. It’s been so long since we’ve had steak! My husband and I even made a “date” of it and ate at the table. He usually isn’t able to sit at the table for very long, but he put up with the pain for steak! :-D
We got a nice little haul of tomatoes yesterday evening; these are mostly the Spoon tomatoes.
I am quite enjoying having these, but have found I still can’t eat fresh tomatoes. About the best I can say when I tasted one last night is, at least I didn’t gag.
Much.
Which is weird, because I like tomato in things, to a certain extent. I just can’t handle eating them fresh. My younger daughter is much the same. No loss, though. We planted these for my older daughter and my husband. They enjoy tomatoes!
As the temperatures started to drop a bit, yesterday evening, my husband opened up various windows and the inner door in the dining room – setting up the little step latter so the cats can look out the window of the outer door, of course. We still have food and water set up on the concrete steps for Butterscotch and her kittens. Even though they have moved to the empty property across the road, she still brings them over.
Not long after things were opened up, I heard a commotion outside the door, and the cats were very interested in whatever was under their perch. So I popped over to the living room window to see what was on the steps.
I never saw anything on the steps, but I did find a shadow on the post for the hanging bird feeder! It was getting dark by then, but I could tell it was a raccoon. Not the big one we saw the first time, but a slightly smaller one.
So I went outside to shoo it away.
Now, normally, they run off as soon as they hear the door open, and I come around the corner just in time to see them dashing away.
Not this time!
As I came closer to the feeder, making shooing noises, the raccoon was far too busy eating to take off. It was sitting with its lower body on the bird perch – what used to support a platform feeder on the post before we cleaned it up and painted it – and was grabbing the base of the hanging feeder with its front paws. When I got to the post, it just froze.
And stared at me.
So there I am, standing RIGHT next to the post, face to face with a raccoon.
Before anyone starts, yes, I know what to watch out for re: rabies and so on. I am very aware that wild animals are unpredictable and can F you up, in general. I was being cautious and giving it plenty of opportunity to jump down and run away.
I think, however, the way it was hanging onto the feeder, it couldn’t just let go, and with this big human standing there, it probably didn’t want to off balance itself and drop to the ground.
So it froze.
And stared at me.
With that adorable face.
Since it wasn’t moving, I carefully reached out and poked the end of its tail.
Nothing.
I poked it again.
Nothing.
I wiggled its tail a bit.
Still nothing!
I poked its hip.
It just kept staring at me.
I even gently poked at its strange little man-hand foot.
Not a twitch.
Finally, I reached out and began to pet its lower back.
It let me.
The only time it really moved was then Potato Beetle started weaving around my feet. I paused to pick him up and the two of them stared at each other for a bit, but Potato Beetle was far more interested in being held than in the creature on the bird feeder post.
So I pet the raccoon some more for a while, the left it be. It took a minute or two before it finally got down and ran off.
I got to touch a raccoon. !!!!!
The rest of the family missed all this. I didn’t even have my phone with me to try and take a photo, though it was probably too dark for one. I certainly wasn’t going to use a flash on the poor thing. When I told them, I got chastised by my daughters, first for taking the risk, then for terrorizing the poor raccoon. :-D
Meanwhile…
With today’s heat, the garden beds are getting a thorough watering. Instead of standing out there in what is already 28C/82F, I’ve been using the sprinklers, moving them every 45 minutes or so, and will be finishing with the spray and soaker hoses. Though someone had already put kibble out for the cats, I did have to top up the containers by the junk pile and concrete steps already.
The kittens were out and about.
Toesencrantz won’t come anywhere near us, but she will watch from a distance.
I was watering the tomatoes and cucamelons from the rain barrel, going back and forth, and in one of my trips, I found I had an audience!
I love how Toesencrantz has her toes on the log like that. So adorable!
Since the rain we did get, and now the heat being back again, the squash are all blooming like crazy.
I really like the luffa flowers!
Still no luffa, though. For those who grow luffa, is that normal? Shouldn’t there be gourds by now?
The ants really like the luffa vines. I’m not sure why. They seem to just be climbing them. As long as they are not damaging them, I don’t mind. Ants are pollinators, too. I find it odd that they are only climbing the luffa, though, and nothing else growing at the squash tunnel.
The one Red Kuri squash is getting bigger. :-)
I am starting to think we can harvest some of our melons, but I’m not sure. The bigger ones don’t seem to be getting any bigger, so I figure we can at least start harvesting those.
Maybe I’ll pick one of each type, when I hook up the soaker hose, later on. :-)
I neglected to write a post yesterday, so I will make up for it today. ;-)
Starting with some inside cats for a change. :-)
Cabbages and Tissue needed to nap after their battle with the deadly flip flops.
Ginger, meanwhile, took advantage of the girls for some double cuddles on the couch.
Later, I found these furry shrimps on my bed. Cabbages, Turmeric, Beep Beep (or Big Rig) and Susan.
It was so fabulous to get a visit yesterday, and I’m so glad he was able to make the side trip to our place while on his way home. He was able to stay for a couple of hours, and even my husband was able to join us and visit for a while. Sitting at the picnic table did a number on his back, but he says it was worth it. :-) It was great to be able to sit outside and enjoy the breeze; something we had never been able to do before our move. Of course, we gave him the tour. He got too meet some of our new kitties, and reunite with our old mama cat that moved out with us, too. :-)
It was a good day, and I’m glad we were able to spend so much of it outside, before the heat came back!
There always seems to be something new to find when I do my rounds!
Some are good, some are not so good, and some are… kind of in between. :-D
Finding holes in the ground from skunks digging for grubs is not unusual. This morning, however, it was VERY unusual! I found probably a hundred off them over by the sweet corn and sunflower blocks! They were in the open areas around them, but also right in among them.
The skunks (I’m assuming there was more than one) seem to have worked their way through two corn blocks and about one and a half sunflower blocks. Only the corn block furthest north was completely untouched. Judging from how many holes there were, I’m guessing it had something to do with very full little bellies!
Before we planted here, and were just mowing, I never saw divots. My guess is that the area was so dry and sun baked, there simply weren’t any grubs in the soil. Now that we’ve started to amend the soil and have been watering regularly, plus all the rain we’ve recently had, it’s now a skunk buffet!
I don’t mind the skunks digging up the grubs. They have no interest in the plants. The only problem was that some of their digging was close enough to our already struggling corn and sunflower plants, that roots were exposed. I worked my way through the rows, pushing the soil back into those holes, at least. The others, I left. There were just too many, and I don’t care if the weeds have their roots exposed!
It took a long time, but we now have our very first vine making its way across the top of the squash tunnel! This luffa had reached the top some time ago, but not gone over.
The winter squash still has a ways to go, but it’s working on it!
Had conditions been more ideal, this structure would at least have had the walls completely covered in vines by now, if not the “roof” as well. Given what a tough year for the garden it has been, I’m quite pleased with what we have!
The girls moved the canopy tent over the picnic table by the fire pit for me this morning, so I dragged a hose over to give the table a bit of a power wash. While there, I checked out the nearby currant bush.
We only rarely watered this bed by the fire pit at all this year, yet the currant actually has a few berries on it! After picking these, I checked on the two currant bushes near the main garden beds and found a few more. Those ones did get watered more often, but are located under trees. They get a lot less sunlight, and even with the rains we’ve been having, they would have gotten less. The one by the fire pit is on the south side of the maple grove and has no overhanging branches, so even with almost no watering, it has more berries. Even so, the berries are a lot smaller and less juicy than they should be. I’m surprised there are any at all, to be honest!
This morning, I fussed around with the potato grow bags. Some of them were falling over, so I secured them to the chain link fence, then straightened the bags out again; the tops of the bags are more to keep critters out than anything else.
In the process, I uncovered this little guy.
So incredibly adorable!!!
Finding one is exciting enough, but then I found this slightly bigger one!
This one wasn’t too impressed with my moving the bags around. :-D
These are probably my favourite type of frog. :-D And we’ve seen so many of them, as well as the more common wood frogs, this year!
As we develop our permanent garden beds, providing shelter and moisture for frogs is on our list of things to include. :-)
Today is supposed to be our last comfortable day before the heat comes back, and no rain is predicted for a few more days, so I will be heading out to apply cayenne pepper to some of our garden beds after this. Especially our purple beans. Checking the garden cam this morning, I caught a young buck in the garden, nibbling on something. The summer squash was blocking the view, but there is only one thing where that buck was standing; our purple beans. I didn’t even notice the damage, this morning! The purple beans are a lot bushier and leafy than the other types, but it likely explains why I’m not seeing as many beans on there. I think the deer are actually avoiding the leaves to eat the beans, instead, judging from what I do see, when I am looking closely to find beans to pick.
We keep our containers from things like sour cream, and had one with a transparent lid. I poked a whole bunch of little holes in the lid, then emptied the bulk packages of cayenne pepper into the 500ml container, to create a shaker. I’m hoping the holes aren’t too small. We shall see how it works!
