Remember this resilient sunflower?
This is how I found it this morning.
The developing seed head is still there…
I guess those new, developing leaves are delicious to deer. !!
The Re-Farmer
It must be delicious
postaday
Yard bebbies
While doing this morning’s rounds, I got to see all of Butterscotch’s babies!
My apologies for the terrible picture. :-(
I was zoomed in from the far side of the lilacs in the flower garden to get this. Thankfully, after clearing out the spreading cherry saplings, I had a perfectly positioned window to watch them through. As soon as I moved, however, they were gone!
I was just finishing up and starting to go into the house when I saw Little Braveheart was out, so I sat on the steps and tried to lure her closer.
This was as close as she would get. She was curious enough to come out, but content enough to just sit there!
After I while, I did see a little Tabby face peering at me through the spirea, too. :-) Not quite as brave as Little Braveheart!
I really hope we can get these bebbies socialized, at a little bit!
The Re-Farmer
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Resilient
Last night, a massive storm system passed over us. In parts of the province, there were tornado warnings.
Here, we had rain.
Finally.
It started to rain somewhere around 2am, and didn’t stop until about 7am, and we might still get more, later.
For all the watering of the gardens we’ve been trying to keep up on, it couldn’t match last night’s deep soak, and it really showed!
We now have several of the self-sown, tiny sunflowers under the platform bird feeder with seed heads opening up.
The pumpkins had been starting to bloom for a while, but I was only seeing the odd male blossom here and there. This morning, there was an explosion of flowers and new buds, and…
Our very first baby pumpkin.
This is on one of the first pumpkin plants that sprouted. I found a second one, on the mound that took so long to sprout one of the 5 seeds planted in it, that I had begun to think none would come up there.
We’ll keep an eye on them to see how many more begin to develop, then select one or two on each plant to keep growing. It’s still highly unlikely they will have a chance to fully ripen, but who knows; we might have a long and mild fall this year.
The big sunflowers have been pretty remarkable.
More and more seed heads are developing, which I would expect with these ones that are well above my head.
There are others that are quite a surprise.
This is one of the deer damaged sunflowers. You can see the dark spot in the middle, where the original top of the plant had been eaten off. Two branches have now developed into stems, and have their own tiny seed heads starting to develop among the new leaves.
Which is impressive, but this next one shows resilience at a whole new level!
You can see, lower down, where the original top had been eaten off. Of the two new stems that developed has also lost it’s top, and basically all the leaves have been eaten off – and yet there it is! A seed head, developing among the tiny cluster of new leaves.
How absolutely remarkable!
The Re-Farmer
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An unexpected outing
You know those times when you suddenly think of someone, and how you should talk to them… and then the phone rings, and it’s that person you were thinking about?
Yeah. That happened to me this morning!
Just as I was thinking that I should call my mother and ask if she needed help with grocery shopping or something, the phone rang. My mother was calling, to see if I were available to help her with grocery shopping!
Perfect timing.
So we arranged that for in the afternoon.
I had another nice surprise when I did my morning rounds. When I do the outdoors part, I always start with putting kibble out for the cats. The cats usually aren’t around in the mornings anymore – likely because it’s been getting so hot, so early! The last thing I’ve been doing in my rounds is going through the garden to pick what vegetables need picking.
As I came around the corner of the house to go to the garden, I saw this.
The tiny little calico was hungry enough to come out in the heat, all by herself!
Unfortunately, she ran off as soon as she became aware of me.
Ah, well. We’ll get them used to us, eventually!
At least, I hope so!
Meanwhile…
I got to my mother’s place, just before 2pm. So I was quite surprised when she told me she hadn’t had lunch yet! She wanted to go out to eat, and was waiting until I arrived. !!! She asked if one of the local restaurants was open again, since I had to drive past it to get to her place, and that’s where we ended up going.
This place used to be half restaurant, half convenience store. They’ve had to completely change everything, and the convenience store side is pretty much empty now.
Hopefully, they will get enough business to stay open. The shut down has been decimating small businesses like this. :-(
While we were eating, my mother started talking about garden sheds.
She has got it in her head to replace the old garden shed that’s here now, even though it’s a very low priority item. It’s come up a few times since we’ve moved here. However, there are a couple of places that have garden sheds in different sizes and styles on display, and she really likes them.
So we drove across the street to a hardware store to look at the one they had on display near the parking lot. She then asked me to go in and get information and a price for her. I ended up getting the information for several different kinds, including a couple of shed kits (which were decently priced) that we would have to put together ourselves, and several more fully assembled types (which are MUCH more expensive), as well as information about delivery and set up.
She then wanted to see where there is a display of 5 or 6 sheds, in the parking lot of an empty building, not far away.
Forgetting that today is Friday.
There’s a Farmer’s Market there, every Friday.
Which was fine, since both of us have been meaning to check it out, but hadn’t gotten around to it.
It was quite busy, but I did find one last parking spot – and found myself looking at the younger of my brothers! He was there with his chainsaw carvings. :-)
I made a quick dash to one of the display sheds to pick up their pamphlet, then rejoined my mother…
At my cousin’s honey display, right next to my brother!
She bought herself some honey, and I placed an order for a 9kg bucket of liquid honey.
We’re finally going to be making mead again!
I’ll be going to their honey farm on Monday to pick it up, as he didn’t have any buckets that big at the time. I keep driving past there and thinking I need to stop by and get some honey, without being able to stop during that particular trip! So I’m extra glad we stopped for the market.
We checked out my brother’s display, of course, but he was with customers, so we didn’t stay long. He’s been making some really nice mushroom lawn ornaments lately. I love his morels, of course, but the fly’s bane he’s been making lately are just adorable, with a tall one surrounded by little ones. My mother was thrilled to see them. As a child in Poland, she remembers picking mushrooms in the forest, and they had these. They could grow to knee height, she says! Now, that might be knee high to a child, but that’s still really tall! She says her mother would cook them, then leave them on the window sill, for the flies to land on and die. I knew they were used that way, but had never heard of them being cooked, first!
Once we were done at the market, we did her grocery shopping, then I stayed for a while as we talked garden sheds.
After going over the information I got and explaining things, I did offer an alternative.
That’s a lot of money, and we don’t really need a garden shed right now. With the roof on the old one covered with strips of metal roofing, the old one no longer has a leak, and is adequate to our needs. What would be more useful for us right now would actually be a gas powered wood chipper, so we can get rid of all those piles of branches all over the place.
To think, when we first moved here, I thought we would be able to use the wood I cleaned up in the fire pit, during cookouts. Aside from not being able to actually use the fire pit more than a couple of times, due to fire bans, we cleaned up far more wood and branches than I ever imagined. Even without a fire ban, there’s just too much to burn. I told her about the estimate I got, to have a company come out with their huge wood chipper. They estimated 6 hours to do the job, at $750 (though, after all this time, I would expect it to be more now). But if we had our own chipper, we could clean out the piles, and have something we could use, year after year.
Unfortunately, when I mention that we can also use the wood chips, she gets upset, because she’s never heard of anyone doing this before, she didn’t do it, so why do I want to do it?
…
*sigh*
Still, a chipper would be less expensive than a shed and, for us, more needed at this time.
I left the suggestion with her to think about. She told me she would talk to my older brother for advice. Which she has actually done before, at least once, that I know of.
In the end, I honestly don’t expect it to happen. If it does – either a shed or a chipper – I’ll be happy, but the likelihood is very low.
And that’s okay.
In the end, it turned out to be a very good visit. My mother got an outing she really, really needed, she got her groceries, and we even got to enjoy the market and see other family.
I am content with that!
The Re-Farmer
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Close, closer and gone
Last night, Little Braveheart was willing to come close to me.
But not as close as this little guy I found on the rain barrel, when I lifted off the screen cover.
He even came closer and posed for a picture, with the phone just inches away!
Then he went down the outside of the barrel, much to my relief. The screen cover did its job in keeping critters out, as well as debris, but it only works while it’s on! :-D
I remembered to check on the caterpillar last night, too.
Alas.
It is gone!
So are the berries that were left on the tree, next to it. Stripped clean!
I am thinking a deer had a snack of berries, and knocked the caterpillar off in the process.
Dang.
I was really hoping to be able to see its transformation!
The Re-Farmer
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My favorite mutant
While doing my morning rounds and picking more squash, I always check on my favorite mutant sunburst squash.
It looks like, where it rests against a leaf or stem (which I’ve moved to take the picture), it turned yellow, while the exposed parts are green.
I find myself torn between wanting to pick it, and seeing if it’s any different on the inside and if it tastes any different, or leaving it to grow, to see how big it gets, and let it to go to seed. :-D
I think I’m leaning towards leaving it. :-)
My husband and I will be heading into the city soon, for his appointment at the pain clinic. I figure it’ll take about 1 hour, 45 minutes, to get there, so we’re leaving 2 hours early. How long the appointment will be, I have no idea. Then there’s going to be the drive back.
This is going to be very difficult on my husband. For medical appointments, he tends to skip his quick release painkillers (which are “take as needed”), so that his mind is clearer. What a choice to have to make: reduce the pain, but be in a brain fog, or have a clearer mind, but with increased pain.
I really hope they can help him get this pain under control. This is no way to live.
With us being gone for most of the day, I’ll have to remember to ask the girls to freeze some of the sunburst squash we’ve got so much of right now. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Trying out the beets
Many thanks to carolee of herbalbelssingblog for her suggestion on how to cook our little beets.
She wrote:
Even tiny beet thinnings are wonderfully tasty! Pulled whole and left intact, scrub the beet and root to remove any soil and give the green parts and stems a good rinse. Heat butter in a skillet and throw the entire beets in. Cover with a lid and let cook a couple minutes. Add a bit of chicken broth or water and cover again. Cook just until beet is barely tender and greens are wilted. Salt and pepper. (If beets are 1″ or more, I cut them off and cook them a couple of minutes by themselves before adding stalks and greens.) Enjoy!
Which sounds awesome!
Me being me, I had to modify things a bit. After scrubbing the beets, I found I did have to cut off the remaining greens and trim bits and pieces off, then cut them into similar sized pieces. I started them in butter, as suggested, but I didn’t have chicken broth.
I did, however, have leftover roasted ham still in its gel, so I cut off the last bits of meat from the bone, and used the gel as the liquid with the beets.
Because you can’t go wrong with pork, right?
There was quite a bit of the gel, and not a lot of beets, so I cooked the liquid down until it was basically a glaze.
My apologies for the following picture. :-D
This is the better of the pictures I took.
Those deep red beets make it all look like carnage happened! :-D
You can still make out the rings in the beets with alternating red and white rings, though the white is dyed pink now! The golden beets were so few and so small, you can’t really see them at all. There is one right on top. Honest!
But those deep red ones… wow!
So how did this crazy combination taste?
Really good! It had a salty, “meaty” flavour, but the sweetness of the beets still came through, and the flavours complimented each other surprisingly well. Some major umami happening in there!
In another pan, I browned the last of the ham bits, added cubed sunburst squash and green zucchini, with a bit of water to cover and steam them, before cooking away the liquid. Lastly, I covered it all with beaten eggs and covered the pan again, turning the egg mixture a couple of times to make sure it was cooked through.
And that was lunch. :-D
I’ll likely try beets cooked this way again, though with some other liquid. Maybe even the recommended chicken stock! :-D
Meanwhile, I picked more sunburst squash this morning and we’re getting to the point of having to start preserving them. I’ve looked at some recipes to do a quick pickle with them, but so far, none have really appealed to me. Plus, they all called for ingredients I don’t have.
With today looking to hit 30C, it’s going to be an inside day, so I’ll have plenty of opportunity to look up other ideas.
We will most likely just freeze them. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Brave babies
It was a lovely evening to do my evening rounds last night, so I found myself sitting in the sunroom, Potato Beetle curled up on the swing bench beside me, fiddling with my phone and enjoying the quiet.
When I suddenly realized there was a tiny tabby in front of me!
One of Junk Pile’s kittens was exploring through the open door, saw me, saw Potato Beetle and ran off, before I could get a photo.
Alas!
With where the bench is set up, the open inner door blocks my view of where the cat food is set up, but I could hear some crunching – and an almost non-stop, low growl.
That would be Junk Pile. Even as she sometimes comes a bit closer to give us a sniff, she keeps up that growl.
I ended up moving to the steps of the storage house to see if I could lure some kitties closer – or at least get them more used to me.
The food bowl I’ve put there for them was empty, but the ones by the house still had kibble in them, so I didn’t add more. I wanted to encourage them to go to the house.
Little Braveheart and her tabby sibling were willing to come out and play nearby. More Braveheart than Tabby, who often ran back into the spirea.
Unfortunately, Rosencrantz was in there, too, and she does not like Junk Pile’s babies. Any time one of the kittens went in there, I could hear her growling at them.
In the end, I think they felt my presence was safer!
Little Braveheart was even almost-kinda-justabout-willing to play with the stick I was wiggling around.
After a while, the kittens took to ignoring me and just running around and playing – which, in itself, is progress – before going to the house to eat.
Junk Pile, however, has three kittens.
Eventually, I spotted the shy one, peeking at me from the spirea. It never came all the way out, so I left, so as not to stress it too much.
Instead, I went into the sun room and dug up a baggie with a few cat toys in it, tossing some outside for the babies. Potato Beetle was with me again, and he went running after the toys, too. I was pleased to see that he and the kittens would sometimes play with the same toy together, with no animosity between them!
As I was walking back and forth around the front of the house, the kittens stopped running away immediately, and would either just ignore me, or pause to watch.
More progress!
Meanwhile, I went over to the junk pile, and was happy to see and hear some of Butterscotch’s kittens. She came out for pets, too. Earlier in the day, though the living room window, I saw one of her orange babies playing in the collapsed wine barrel that I’d cleared beside. I had hoped they would find it a good place to play, and they have! Now, when they do, we can see them from the house. :-)
It will take time, but I am hoping we can socialize these babies better than we were able to with Junk Pile and Rosencrantz. The biggest problem with working on that, however, is mosquitoes. I was being eaten alive while out there! I didn’t want to put on bug spray, as I’m sure the smell would be unpleasant for the kittens. Unfortunately, the times when the kittens seem to come out the most are also the times when the mosquitoes come out, too!
We’re working on it, though! :-)
The Re-Farmer
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How does the garden grow?
Check out this sunflower!!
It’s just towering above the others! I figure it’s getting close to 7 ft tall. :-)
There are a couple of others that are getting really tall, too. Like this one.
You can really see the huge seed head developing on this one – and it should get much, much bigger!
But… something’s wrong with another tall one. It’s head is gone?
Nope.
Just fallen over.
It looks like some sort of grub got in there.
This is actually above my head, so I am seeing it better now, in the photo, than I could while looking at the sunflower. The head is still alive, so I’m hoping it’ll survive. It’s the only one that has this.
While going through the squash and harvesting some – the sunburst squash is very prolific! – I spotted an odd looking squash and took a closer look.
This green, bulb shaped squash is a sunburst squash! It looks completely different from all the others on the plant.
I left it, and look forward to seeing how big it gets, and if the shape changes. :-)
The girls and I have been talking about what we want to plant next year, and sunburst squash is definitely staying on our list!
The Re-Farmer
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Yikes!
This morning I went to get a meter reading to submit to the electric company.
Being rather short, I tend to see more glare on the cover than the numbers themselves. My solution has been to hold my phone up and take several pictures. The display cycles, with a short blank period in between, but after taking 3 or 4 shots, I can be pretty sure at least one of them has the reading in it.
What this means is that I’m fiddling with my phone to open the camera as I walk up to the power pole.
I really should pay more attention.
After I took the pictures, I looked down and found myself staring at this, maybe a foot and a half away from my face.
There were no wasps flying around, so I took pictures.
Because I’m like that. :-D
But why were no wasps flying around?
I think this is part of my answer. These are not the aggressive yellow and black wasps. I couldn’t see much, but they look a lot like the docile bald faced hornets in the Chinese elm trees.
From what I could see, they wasps were not so much “docile” as “sluggish”. It was a bit cooler this morning, so maybe they just weren’t warmed up yet.
We are actually going to leave this nest. We go to the post once a month to get a reading, and since I’m using a camera to see the numbers anyhow, we don’t disturb them in the process. In the winter, after they die off, we can carefully remove the nest. Who knows. We might Ebay it or something. There is apparently quite the demand for the nests!
I just wish I’d noticed it before I took the meter reading. It would have been much easier on my heart! :-D
The Re-Farmer
