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Critter of the day, plus apples for my mother

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Yesterday I was finally able to grab the step ladder and pick some of the last apples that are pick-able for my mother.

The cats were VERY interesting in the bag! Especially Cheddar! :-D

I was able to pick all the crabapples from the one tree, where the apples were the biggest and they had finally gotten sweet. Previously, they had almost no taste at all; not even the usual sour taste of crabapples, but now they have that delightful sweet/sour taste crabapples are the best for. There weren’t very many, so I picked some from the tree next to it. You can really tell which apples came from which tree! This tree had quite a lot of little apples that are more sour, but still quite edible.

Since I was there, anyhow, I took advantage of the ladder and cut away dead branches. The one tree with the bigger apples has a main trunk that is basically dead, but I did see some leaves on some of the branches at the top, so I just cut away the ones I knew for sure were dead. I pruned dead branches off a couple other trees, too, but I will save a major pruning for the spring.

I was able to bring the crabapples to my mother pretty much right away, and even get a little visit in. She was very happy to see them. Usually, there is someone who leaves their extra apples in the lobby where she lives, free to whomever wants them, but there were none this year. So now she will be able to make herself some apple sauce and compote that she likes. I also brought one each of the different flavoured jellies I’d made. I even remembered to bring an extra knife sharpener we has, as she was looking for one while we were out before. She was looking for a file, actually, so I brought her what I thought would be much easier for her to use.

I didn’t realize she wanted it for the hoes provided for the little community gardens where she lives. LOL I have, however, discovered that she has a knife sharpener with an antler handle, that matches the meat fork we found here. She tells me there used to be a knife as part of the set, but it’s one of the things that disappeared over the years.

I’m glad I was able to bring the sharpener I have, though. In the process, I discovered my mother has no good knives. At all!

Something to take care of for her, soon!

The cold, meanwhile, is already starting to show.

For the past while, I’ve been doing my rounds in grass sopping wet from dew, but this morning, it was all frost! The furnace has even been turning on regularly during the night.

We still have lots to do before winter!

The Re-Farmer

People actually enjoy this?

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Today the girls and I headed into the city for our monthly shop.

I know that there are people out there who actually enjoy shopping. I don’t get it. I really don’t!

Okay, so today turned out to be a more complex shop than usual, but still… Ugh. It’s just so draining!

So here is a picture of a fungus. Because it cheers me up!

With all the rain we’ve been having lately, mushrooms are showing up everywhere!
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Clean Up: mowing the big garden

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Today started early for me, as I had to drive to my mother’s to take her for an appointment to get her CT scan. She had a requirement to drink a litre of water an hour before her appointment, then restrictions on going to the bathroom shortly before, so I wanted to make sure she got there early enough to not have to worry about the restriction. Given how long it takes to drive from her town to the city where her appointment was, that meant she had to start drinking her water while we were driving.

She also had to fast 4 hours before the scan, but my mother went a bit overboard and, aside from eating some crackers with her morning medications, she had fasted since the supper! So as soon as we were done, I made sure to take her to lunch somewhere fast.

By the time I got home, it was mid afternoon. The weather was holding, so I decided to break out the push mower and get as much done as I could. (I only got rained on a tiny bit! :-D ) I was going to start working in the trees, but then decided to do the old, overgrown garden, instead.

When my brother brought the mower back, he walked me through what he had done. It started fine when we tested it, but he mentioned that he felt the prime pump wasn’t doing its job. So, just in case it wouldn’t start, he showed me where to open up the side of the engine, where there is a filter and an opening behind it, and told me I could basically just splash some fuel into it, and that should be enough to start it.

I’m very glad he told me that, because it wouldn’t start. I ended up having to do it twice! The second time was after I ran out of gas, but I found that if I filled the tank before it was completely empty, I didn’t have to do it again. Except I didn’t just splash it. I tipped the mower onto its side and poured a tiny bit, using the cap of the jerry can spout to hold the tiny bit of fuel I needed. After that, it started just fine.

Mowing the old garden ended up taking about 4 hours.

It is not a small garden.

It was also incredibly rough. Plus, I had to look out for stuff like this.

Thankfully, it wasn’t sticking too far out of the ground, but that’s something we’re going to have to dig up at some point. Maybe. Depends on how big it is, underground!

Here are the before photos.

Right now, the garden area is split by the section we covered with straw to mulch it, used some RoundUp when things started to grow through the mulch, then covered with tarps, that I worked around. That is where we are hoping to be able to start planting something next year. I also tried to get into those trees my mother left growing when she transplanted her raspberry bushes, as much as I could.

Here is what it looks like now.

Did I mention it was rough in there?

This picture barely begins to show how rough it was! It’s hard to grasp from the photo, just how big that hill in the foreground is. When this area was last plowed, this is where the tractor turned, so there are huge ridges all over.

If the weather continues to hold tomorrow, I want to work on mowing between the trees in the maple grove, plus the area leading from the big garden to the gate. My mother said she planted elms in there, so the area had not been mowed, but I see no signs of them.

And now I have to try and get the burrs out of my pant legs.

The Re-Farmer

Clean up: ditch view

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Despite a very foggy, moist start to the day, it dried up enough that I got to use my new toy; the push mower my awesome brother fixed for me.

I love his work-around for the seized throttle cable.

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Fixing the garage door

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The last couple of days have been very, very wet! :-D First, we had a series of thunderstorms that lasted all day Friday and on through the night. On Saturday, we were no longer getting thunderstorm warnings, but we were still getting weather warnings for heavy rain.

As usual, the weather systems were more to the north and south of us, but we did still get quite the light show, and a lot of rain.

Oh, and our internet cut out.

Repeatedly.

So I have some catching up to do!

The rain and damp did not stop my amazing, fantastic, wonderful brother from coming out to fix our garage door!

I honestly thought it wasn’t going to happen, and we’d need to get a new one – something we certainly cannot afford – but he found a way!

Have I mentioned my brother is amazing?

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A cool find!

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This morning, after dropping my daughter off at work, I took the time to check out the beach and take a walk.

It was really quite gorgeous.

As always, I keep an eye out for interesting things washed up by the waves and tides. For myself, I look for interesting rocks. For my older daughter, I look for interesting… anything.

And, wow, did I ever hit the jackpot today!!

At first glance, I actually thought it was some washed up, crumpled plastic or something.

I’ve found the odd jaw bone of a fish before, but never an entire skull! It’s pretty big, too. About the size of the palm of my hand. Slightly longer, in fact.

I have no clue what it is, though. That bone “sail” at the back of the skull is fascinating.

Does anyone recognize what it is?

Also, it rattles. There is something stuck inside the skull. Sounds like a small pebble.

As I write this, it is being disinfected! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Slowing down, and cats, cats, cats!

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With all the rain we’ve been having, life is starting to slow down on the home front lately. After the various trips made in the last while, we’ve got a couple of “days off” to just stay home.

It’s been either too wet or too windy to do the junk wood burning I had hoped to do, so there has been no progress there at all. While there are a number of things I want to do around the yard, they are not things that should be done in the rain. We’re supposed to warm up over the next few days, and even start approaching 30C by Tuesday, so I hope to get a chance to work on those.

Yesterday was a quiet day in which I got to spend some quality time with my hooks. My husband requested a pair of warm and cozy slippers for winter, so I picked up some blanket yarn while in the city for my medical appointment. I wanted to try something different, too, so I basically made up the pattern as I went along. I am very happy with how they turned out, so I plan to pick up more of the blanket yarn and do different sizes for myself and the girls.

We had rain all night and most of the morning, so it was pretty damp when I did my morning rounds.

The cats inside even seem to be feeling it. This is what I woke up to.

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