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A quiet day

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

I did get a decent amount accomplished today. Got rained on for some of it, which I didn’t mind.

First up, I just had to share this clip from the outside critter cam that I found.

That’s Sweetie in the front. The cats gets along with the raccoons, but I don’t blame her at all for running with those three barralling towards her!

While feeding the outside cats, I got to snag a picture of this little cutie.

The poor thing is such a bundle of nerves, ready to run away at any moment. The important thing, though, is that it’s staying close to the house and regularly coming over for food.

This morning, I had to stay close to the phone as I was expecting a call from a nurse about my surgery next week, any time between 8am and noon. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait too long! I now have pre-op instructions. I stop taking any supplements as of today, and one of my two prescriptions needs to be stopped three days before surgery.

Once that call was done, I could get some work done.

One of the things I got started on today was moving more rocks cleared from the garden bed over to near the fire pit. Then I took out the broken cinder blocks and fire bricks from inside the pit. It needed to be cleared of old ashes and leveled inside, then the fire bricks returned, as they are used under the Dutch Oven. The cinder blocks were very handy in there, but they can’t handle the heat and broke into pieces. We’ll make do without them for now.

The soil around the outside of the fire pit needs to be loosened and leveled before the rocks are added, to replace the old enameled bricks my daughter took out for me. The cracked handle on my garden fork finally gave out, unfortunately, so it’ll have to wait until I get a new one. Last time I was at the hardware store, there were none in stock. That fork is only thing I’ve got that’s strong enough to break up that soil, other than a spade.

This is a project that’s going to be spread out over quite a while.

After doing as much as I could on that for now, I heard something odd and went into the outer yard to see if something among my brother’s stuff had fallen or blown over. I never found anything out of place but, since I was there, I started pulling a whole lot of vines off the back of the junk pile and the willow trees beside it. I was able to access the old bath tub, drag it out and set it up.

It wasn’t that rusted out when it got buried in the junk pile.

For now, I’ve got it supported and stabilized with pieces of the elm tree that had been in front of the kitchen window. I’ll have to pick up something up to stopper the drain, as it will be used to soak and wash the outdoor cat beds and blankets. Some are too big for the washing machine, and all of them are too dirty and gross to use in our washing machine. At some point, the tub will get sanded down and spayed with enamel paint to keep it from rusting out entirely, and then I’ll build some sort of stand to hold it upright. Preferably with wheels, so it can be moved around easily as needed.

Once I got as much outside stuff done while being rained on as I could, I quickly changed and headed to the post office to pick up a couple of packages.

This was a surprise…

This is the 5 pound container of salt my husband got for me. The packaging was damaged, so Canada Post put it in this plastic bag, which has an apology printed right on it.

A 5 pound container, and Amazon packed it in a plain paper envelope. Not even a padded one. This really should have been i a box!

We also got a package of LED lights my husband got for me.

Each light came with the teeniest, tiniest of screwdrivers! That’s to open them up to change the batteries. 1

The Velcro it came with isn’t long enough to fit around my all terrain walker frame. My husband had some longer Velcro strips that he didn’t need, so I used those, instead.

Red light on the left, green on the right.

Who, reading that, knows why?

I gave the other two to my husband for his walker, though he’s stuck with blue instead of green.

I now have my first walker bling. 😄

For now, I’m done with the outside stuff I hoped to accomplish. We didn’t get a lot of rain, but it’s still too wet to use some of the equipment I’ll need to sue.

It’s not even 5:30 yet, and I’m so sleepy, I could probably call it a night! As it is, I’m starting to have a hard time typing. I can at least say it was a relatively pain free day, for now, and there’s no sign of it kicking in for the evening, either. Here’s hoping it stays away!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: utter destruction

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*sigh*

This is what I found this morning.

The complete and utter destruction of our corn patch. Clearly, the motion activated noise maker did nothing to deter the raccoons!

I found a whole three cobs that looked untouched. You can see in the last image, what was in them. Basically, just one cob that had anything remotely like ripe kernels.

This is so, so disappointing.

The rest of the day wasn’t much better. Ended up spending several hours in bed dealing with pain that painkillers had no affect on. Then I got a call from my mother who immediately began ranting at me about how nobody is visiting her, and why didn’t my brother or my sister visit her? By the time I had to cut the call short and hung up, it had gone from, no one is visiting her to trying to say I should visit her because she provided the roof over my head and “gave” the farm to my brother to the staff is neglecting her because they are paying more attention to other residents than her to wanting to know very specific details of why I’m getting surgery that are NONE of her business to saying I should make sure that I have a white doctor because brown people don’t care about white people and brown doctors make mistakes.

By then, I was more than done with the call.

The day has gotten better, though. My daughters were able to clear a path and get the big aquarium into the basement. They were able to get the living room actually useable again. There is now a charcuterie and a movie about to happen.

I really need that right now!

The Re-Farmer

Breakfast buddy, a great idea, and little garlic

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Today turned out to be a relatively productive day.

More than I expected it to be, considering I woke up in pain.

Which was odd considering I was up for a while between 2 and 3am, and had no pain, but when I woke again at about 6am, there it was.

I went out to feed the outside cats to see if moving around would improve things. I tried doing a head count this morning and saw “only” 14 cats.

I didn’t count the skunks.

This little guy was waiting with the cats in the sun room when I came out. It seems to prefer this particular tray just outside the sun room, and was eating kibble where when I came out with the cat soup. It did not want to stop eating when I came close! Hungry baby. It did finally move but came back as soon as I moved on to the next tray. I find it amusing that Sweetie – who still behaves as if terrified all the time – is buddies with the skunk!

After feeding the cats, I hoped to water the garden but, after walking around and checking the beds, I was just in too much pain – and I had taken pain killers before I headed out. So I went in to have breakfast and hoped the painkillers would finally kick in.

They didn’t.

In the end, after waiting long enough, I took some more and tried lying down. That finally did it.

One of the things on my to-do list today was a trip into town. My younger daughter had her own list, so she came along. While heading to the truck and getting things ready, I had a surprise. The shed my brother had bought was up! I never heard a thing!

What really caught my attention was this…

I had been wondering what could be done to create a base for the shed. After leveling the area, my brother salvaged an old steel door – for some reason, there are quite a lot of them scattered about! – to set under the shed. It is the perfect width.

I later found out that the shed is surprisingly light, so he wants to find a way to secure it to the steel door, so it doesn’t blow away in the wind.

I had a bag and a half of non-aluminum cans in that spot, and the cats were already starting to get into one of them. They are now in the shed. No more coming out to find cans scattered all over the place!

My daughter and I headed out soon after. I haven’t seen the renter’s cows for a while and I think they’ve been rotated out. We decided to leave the gate open and I made sure to send a message to let my brother and SIL know, so they knew it was us and left intentionally.

We had lunch first. While we were eating, I started getting a lot of notifications on my phone. It was the security camera at the gate. My SIL took advantage of the gate being open while she was mowing around the driveway. We had actually talked about that earlier and she wasn’t planning to mow, as we haven’t had rain lately and the grass wasn’t very long. The path to the barn that my brother uses a lot, however, was a fair bit taller, so she mowed that for them and just kept on going!

After lunch, we went to a nearby store to look for one of the things my daughter was after. She ended up finding a couple of things she needed, which was handy. Then it was off to the grocery store. I had a couple of the big water jugs to refill, plus a short list from my husband. Since we were there anyhow, I picked up some fresh fruit and a few other things that we would need soon that were on sale, and my daughter found a few things as well. I’m glad she was able to come along.

By the time we got home and everything was unpacked and put away, it wasn’t too much longer before it was time to feed the outside cats again, so I took care of that before doing the watering. This time, I also watered the trees and bushes in the food forest area. It’s been dry enough lately that they got extra watering.

After finishing watering the main garden area and the trees, I came around to do the south garden beds when I found my daughter going by with the wheel barrow. She had dug up the enameled bricks from around the fire pit and brought them closer to the house, where they are currently soaking in water to loosen the dirt before she scrubs them a bit. We were planning to take those bricks out and replace them with rocks that we’ve picked out of the garden, more of which needs to be brought over to the fire pit area. Knowing these were going to be taken out, she wanted to salvage them – to use in the basement! She is wanting to reorganize and do a keep clean in the living room. We’ve got that big fish tank we’d used as a greenhouse for seed starts in the past, and it’s in the way. We’d been talking about putting it in the basement, where I can use it as a greenhouse in the spring, but the concrete gets wet in the spring (parts of it are still wet now) because the weeping tile is probably full of silt and tree roots. Anything we set up has to be elevated, and we’d run out of bricks. Once she has these salvaged bricks cleaned up a bit, they will be used to set under the stand the fish tank rests on, so the wood won’t rot.

Getting all that out of the living room and down the stairs is not going to be easy. It will, however, free up a lot of space we need!

This was set up near the old kitchen garden so, once the bricks were soaking, that’s where I started the watering. While doing the wattle weave bed, I decided it was time to lift the garlic in there. These are from a bulb of garlic I’d found while preparing the rectangular bed nearby in the fall. This was well after I’d planted the garlic in the main garden area, and were clearly quite a bit smaller, even before I dug them up.

These are very young and small garlic, so we will be using them right away, rather than setting them with the other garlic to cure.

It’s a good thing I enjoy doing the deep watering, because it takes at least 2 hours – closer to 3, when the trees get watered, too. I was pretty tired, sore and hungry by the time I was done, and my daughters were sweeting enough to make me a supper when I came in.

Meanwhile, my brother has headed back to the city while my SIL stays here for a while longer. We never crossed paths in person today at all!

Anyhow.

Today has been a mixed bag, but I am happy with how much I was able to get done, in between dealing with pain. One of the things that came up while I was talking to my daughter about what I was feeling this morning was my doctor’s offer to start the process to get me a new pair of knees. I said no to that, as they aren’t that bad, really.

My left hip, however… that is something I should probably bring up, the next time I see my regular doctor!

Not anytime soon, though. One thing at a time, and there’s three of us waiting for various surgeries right now!

Ain’t life grand?

😄

The Re-Farmer

A small harvest and garden progress

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Today has turned out to be a lovely day to work outside.

After feeding the yard cats, I gathered a small harvest before watering the garden beds.

Just a few bush beans and some Golden Boy celery. Later this evening, while looking at the tomatoes with one of my daughters, I accidentally harvested some! They came right off the vines when I touched them! You can see those in the second image of the slideshow above. My daughter had tried one, thinking it might be ripe because of how easily they came off the vine.

It was most definitely NOT ripe. So the rest will sit in a window still or something until they ripen fully.

After lunch, I headed back outside again. I wanted to work on the area where the next garden bed will go, starting off by dragging our accumulated cardboard over, then using the weed trimmer on the grass and weeds that had come through the cardboard already laid down. That required moving all the boards and pieces of log that were holding the cardboard down. I had a pleasant surprise when picking up a board that was overlapping another board. A lovely little garter snake, curled up on the cap! It slithered away very quickly, so I wasn’t able to snag a picture, but I was very happy to see it.

After using the trimmer on that area, I kept going and trimmed around some old crab apple tree stumps, then around the plum, apple, gooseberry and haskaps, where the mower can’t get close enough.

Party way through, my older daughter came out and we walked around the yard (to keep the mosquitoes at bay) to talk about our options regarding the property. She and her sister had been talking about it already. With them, as they are now getting the medical treatment they need and will be getting the surgeries they need, they know that they will be in a better position to do things in the relatively near future. Just the fact that my daughter could walk around the yard with me is a demonstration of that.

Until I get the most recent numbers for what my brother pays in property taxes and insurance, we can’t say some things for sure. My brother has given me this information in the past, but I know the taxes have gone up, and I don’t yet know if things are complete with the new insurance provider he’s been in contact with.

In the end, though, my brother and his wife own the property and can do whatever they want with it. We can make some offers to lift the burden of the cost from him, but if we end up needing to move, we need to know that as soon as possible, as that would change our focus completely. No point in doing things like building the outdoor kitchen or planting more fruit trees and bushes if we aren’t going to be here in a couple of years.

One thing that needs to change as quickly as possible, either way, is, we need to get indoor cats adopted out. They are destroying the house, and we are spending more of our limited income on cat food and supplies per month, than on food for ourselves. The rescue has said they would be willing to post pictures and information on their adoption website, but that requires getting photos and video of each individual cat that’s available for adoption. Which means we’ll need to create a “set” in the cat free zone – aka: the living room – and bring them in, one at a time, and see if they will co-operate enough to get some shareable images and video. We have 21 indoor cats, and basically only three or four that we don’t want to adopt out. Unfortunately, adult cats are exceptionally hard to adopt out. Especially cats with any health issues, like missing legs, or a giant fat cat that has blocked twice already.

So I need to contact the rescue and we need to prioritize getting photos and video taken.

After we had a chance to talk, I went back to the weed trimming before getting back to the garden bed area.

The first thing to do was to measure and mark the 4′ wide path, then the 4′ wide future raised bed. Then I started laying out all the cardboard I had, starting with the smaller pieces along the outside edge, then working towards the existing bed this one will be paired with.

I didn’t have enough cardboard to cover all of the 8′ x 18′ area. More like about 6′ x 18′.

Then came the more difficult part.

The large log the tree removal guys had cut and brought over for me needed to be moved into position. It still needs to be de-barked and have branch nubs cut flush, but I wanted it to be in the location where it will eventually permanently sit, 4′ away from the current bed.

I’ve got two other lengths this log was placed beside. They are skinny and light enough that I could move them out of the way. The new log, however, is a lot bigger. Particularly at one end. It was also too far past one end. Once I rolled it near where it goes, I had to figure out how to shift the entire log about 8 inches over.

The direction it needed to go was also the thinner, lighter end of the log. What I ended up doing was finding some rope in the garden shed to wrap around the log near the thinner end then, using a short piece of wood that I’d moved aside earlier as a handle, pulled the whole thing over.

They cut it to 18′, but it’s not as long as the bed it needs to match. I didn’t measure, so I don’t know if they cut it shorter than 18′, or if the other bed is longer than 18′ because of the logs at the ends. Either way, I should be able to match the lengths with the end pieces, when the time comes.

In the above photo, you can see the rope and piece of wood I used as a handle. I also rolled the larger of the other two logs, which still need to be cut to size, to the outside 4′ mark of the bed. This log is too thin to be a bottom log, though. It’s there to hold the cardboard down for now. The really skinny piece is meant to go across the top of the vertical posts of the trellis bed this one will be paired with.

After cutting a 10′, then an 18′, length from the dead spruce, the tree guys cut the rest of the trunk into three 4′ pieces before it got too small; the top of the tree got chipped with the branches. I set one shorter piece at each end, then laid the last on inside the bed, to help hold down the cardboard. Then all the boards and pieces of wood I’d taken off earlier got set onto the cardboard, spread out to keep it from blowing away. You can see the final result in the second image of the slide show above.

The log that is currently on the outside of the bed will eventually be set on top of a base log. For now, these beds will be built to two logs high.

I need more cardboard to cover the rest of the path, up to the current bed. I’d like to cover the path in wood chips once more cardboard is down. Grass and weeds get through uncovered cardboard very quickly.

It’s a tiny bit of progress, but it’s better than nothing! I don’t know when I’ll be able to get more logs for this. I’d asked my brother about clearing dead trees out of the spruce grove with the help of his tractor. I believe he was finally able to get that fixed, but they said something about finding a lot of trees along the road heading south along the property line that need to be cleared away from the fence, so I’m expecting that will be a priority for him. I don’t know. I could cut trees down, cut them to length in situ, the drag the logs out myself, or with the help of a daughter, like we’ve done with all the others. It would just be a lot faster and easier to do it with a tractor!

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shop: this is what almost $790 looks like

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Yes! Finally! I felt well enough to go the Costco stock up trip!

In fact, I was up quite early and feeling rested. Did the morning routine and prepped the truck. We even remembered to grab the ice packs from the freezer before we left.

We postponed leaving long enough to go to the post office, first, to pick up a couple of parcels. There turned out to be three, with one of them being fairly large, so we headed back home to drop two of them off. One of them was a new phone case for me, as my old one was getting warn out, and my daughter switched my phone to the new one on the way out. It’s the thinnest “wallet” style I can get, so it fits in my pocket without being bulky, and keeps the screen from being activated by accident.

On the way to the city, we stopped at a gas station at the one town along the route, for some drinks and a food for my daughter, who hadn’t had breakfast yet. I also picked up some extra beef jerky to keep in the console of the truck as part of our usual stock of food and drinks we try to keep in the truck. Which came in very handy when I was in the ER and finally told I could have something to eat after fasting for well over 12 hours, and would NOT be going for any sort of emergency surgery. That totaled $50.04 Then it was off to the city again.

The first stop at Costco was to fill the gas tank. Gas prices had actually gone down to $1.669/L in most places, but at Costco, regular cost $1.619/L

It still cost me $89.61 to fill the tank

*sigh*

Once inside, we were not in any hurry and went through some aisles we hadn’t bothers to for some time. We haven’t had any major break downs or sudden bills, so the budget was a bit more relaxed, allowing us to get a few things that we might not have, or would have had to wait on.

When we were done and one of the staff directed us into a line, I went to get my membership card out of my pocket.

It was gone.

Checking that I hadn’t put it in my new phone case’s card slots and wallet, I was ready to have my daughter pull aside while I went back to look. My new phone case is not as smooth as my old one. It has a slight texture to it that feels slightly “sticky” with friction. I had pulled my phone out a few times while shopping. The card must have stuck to the new phone case and been pulled out. Which means it was on the floor, somewhere. I was going to backtrack.

The guy that had directed us into the line was still nearby and heard us. He asked me my name, then said he would see what they could do and went to the customer service.

He came back and handed me my card! Someone had found it an already turned it in!

God bless whoever did that!

While shopping, I keep a running count in my head and always round prices up. If something as a price that’s discounted at the till, I still count at the full price. This way, the final tally will always be at least a bit lower than what I kept as a running tally while shopping. That can lead to some nice surprises.

This time, that nice surprise was a final bill over $100 less than I was expecting.

This is what $789.86 looks like.

There’s quite a bit hidden from view. Here is the breakdown.

We tried to do all the frozen and refrigerator stuff first, as well as the heavier jars and such. A lot of refrigerator stuff was in a box and my daughter put the whole thing on the belt so the big stuff on the flat cart could be reached with the scanning gun.

So, from the top…

There is a case of frozen perogies and another of Pizza Pops (which mostly became our supper when we got home). There’s a 3 pack of oat milk for the girls. Two packages of chicken drumsticks that were discounted at the till. Two packs of loose sausage meat in mild Italian. A wheel of brie and a 4 pack of cream cheese. Two Panini packs of sandwich meats. Five pounds of butter. A liter of whipping cream. A 2L of Kefir for a treat. A shaker of grated Parmesan. Two blocks of cooking cheese; Mozzarella and Old Cheddar. A big bottle of oyster sauce.

On the cart was a case of Monster energy drinks, a case of Coke Zero and a case of water. There were two bags of Kirkland brand cat kibble, plus two larger bags of Whiskas. The Whiskas was on sale, at least. There was also a box of XL puppy pads and a cast of wet cat food.

One of the extras we got was a two pack of “cooling” pillows for my husband and I. Another was a three piece set of nesting ceramic “baskets”, designed to look like the cardboard baskets that fruit sometimes comes in.

We also got a case of large black garbage bags and another of clear bags for recycling.

Also scanned on the cart were two 2pks of rye bread and a bag of ciabatta buns.

Back to the stuff on the belt, there’s a large jar of mayo and another of peanut butter. There’s a big container of popping corn. I also grabbed a container of iced tea mix that was on sale.

We got some of the Dawn Platinum dish detergent; it’s better for keeping the plumbing clear. There’s also a case of toothbrushes; something we had been well stocked up on and were finally starting to run out of. There’s a package of seaweed for the girls, and a double flat of eggs. I got a sack of the Kirkland brand of Basmati rice. I’d bought another brand last time, and it sucked. Definitely don’t want to run out of the Kirkland brand again. Last of all are two packs of tortilla wraps and a package of Medjool dates from Israel. The last couple of times I picked up dates, they were from other countries, and they turned out to be pretty gross. These ones cost more, but are delicious. That is a “me” snack. I’m the only one in the family that likes dates!

And there we have it. $789.86 with several items that are not bought on a monthly basis, which actually put me right on budget!

On the way out, we made one stop at a gas station just outside the city to pick up some drinks and snacks for the ride home. That was another $17.08

Total damage for the day: $946.59

Ouch.

Still, there was stuff on there that we don’t normally get. The only thing that was truly a splurge was the set of ceramic fruit baskets, and that cost under $10.

I’m also just glad we finally made it in, a week later than it normally would have been done.

I am so looking forward to surgery.

The Re-Farmer

What a difference a day makes!

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Today, I was feeling so good, not only did we do the Costco shop, but I was able to get the garlic strung up, and kept going until it was getting too dark to see.

Which means I will be doing the stock up shop and update posts tomorrow. I’ll be heading out again tomorrow, this time to the scrap yard with my SIL. She and I and my daughters were able to fit about 3 years worth of cans into the back of their truck, with room to spare! There’s now way we could have gotten all that in the back of our truck and properly secured under a tarp.

For now, I need to start heading to bed. I want to have an early start tomorrow.

I can’t believe how much better I feel today. Every now and then, it hits me, and all I can think of is one word.

Salt.

What a difference it made!!!

The Re-Farmer

Here we go again

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I had done so well yesterday. Feeling almost completely normal again.

This morning, my body gave me a great big F you.

In the wee hours of the morning, I woke. I did two things. I used the bathroom and fed the inside cats. That’s it.

By the time I got back to bed, the pain was starting.

It was still there when I got up for the day. It wasn’t too bad, so I headed out to feed the outside cats.

Good news. Flopsy showed up for breakfast! Then disappeared again. At least we know one of the disappeared cats is still around.

I also saw this little one…

I had to zoom in from half way across the yard, then crop the photo, to get the above image. This cat goes into that splay legged position, like it’s ready do run away in a flash, quite often.

I hadn’t done their water yet, but didn’t want to scare the little one away from the food, so I went around to the main garden area to start watering that garden beds, partly to judge just how well I was doing, and if I’d be going to Costco or not.

I took it easy and didn’t do a really deep watering; we weren’t expected to get unusually hot today, so that was enough. By the time the main garden area was done and I moved to the other side of the house, the cats (and a few skunks) had all had a chance to eat, so I refilled their water bowls in between watering different beds.

We are now up to four luffa seedlings, with a second one showing up next to the oldest one. Each spot got several seeds, so it’s entirely possible more will show up, still. Even with only 55 days to maturity, it’s getting really tight for them. They will have a chance only if have a very mild fall and no frost until the end of September.

Which, given that this is a Super El Nińo year, might actually happen. At this point, the shorter daylight hours will also have an effect.

By the time I was done, I knew going to Costco was going to be an issue. I could handle the drive, but not the shopping. Not without making things much worse.

The problem was, my younger daughter, who is the only one that can come with me, was dealing with her own very different pain issues today, too.

I decided to pain killer up and try lying down for a while, to see if things would improve.

They did not. The tramadol seemed to have zero effect. Not only that, but the bleeding kicked up again, too. *sigh*

After waiting a long enough time, I tried taking the T3s and lying down again.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t trying to nap. As soon as I lay down, I got covered with cats, including some that don’t normally cuddle with me like that. At one point, I had 5 cats directly on me, and I don’t know how many against my legs. I ended up with Shadow right against my side, and Clarence right against him, both draped over my bicep.

This was my view when I opened my eyes.

Both images are of Shadow, just inches from my face. So close that my phone’s camera (which I keep close by in case I need to message for help) measured as dark and used the flash. His face looks mashed because it IS mashed. By Clarence.

I had updated the family on our group chat about my status, still willing to go into the city later in the day, if someone could come with me. My husband had already suggested I wait until tomorrow. My older daughter came by later and basically said the same thing.

*sigh* Another day wasted because of this pain. I am so glad the surgery is happening in just a couple of weeks.

Eventually, the pain did recede a bit. My daughters were working on supper – my younger daughter was looking really rough today! – and I felt well enough to do the outside cat feeding again. Once that was taken care of, I did a light version of my evening rounds. I find the fresh air and moving around helps. Mentally, if not necessarily physically.

While doing that, I noticed that the old, leaking water barrel by the apple tree and gooseberry bush was looking surprisingly full of water. Usually, it leaks until there’s only about half a foot of water on the bottom, but I could see the water line was at about 3/4 full.

So I took advantage of that and watered just some of the fruit trees and berry bushes. I wasn’t up to hooking the hose up to do all the ones I normally water. It actually felt pretty good to do as much as I did, and didn’t make things worse, which I was grateful for.

While checking the main garden area, I noticed these are getting nice and big.

So far, only one of the Chocolate Stripe tomato plants has developing tomatoes. They’re looking pretty good!

I’m going to have to get that canopy tent set up soon. The garlic looks about ready to harvest, and I plan to hang them under the canopy tent to cure. I’ve got one kohlrabi and a couple of green pattypan squash (Green Scallop Benning) that I will be able to harvest tomorrow. Of the five types of summer squash I’ve got, one of them has not had any flowers yet, male or female. The Lemon squash. The yellow scallop squash at least has male flowers blooming, if no female flowers, yet.

Now, near enough to the end of the day that a trip to Costco is out of the question, I’m actually feeling a lot better.

If only that can last through tomorrow, and I can finally make the trip in, and not need to drag a daughter along, too.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: morning harvest

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Today was much cooler, with possible rain, so I didn’t need to water the garden today. I did get a harvest, though. This time, from the opposite end of the row.

These are the Viking potatoes. Not as many as when I harvested from the south end of the bed, but there was a definite reason for that. SO many elm roots under just the two plants at the end of the bed I dug under! Very frustrating.

In the next image is the complete harvest. More tri-colour bush beans, a few little carrots (they don’t seem to be getting any bigger; the soil is probably too compact again) and a couple of stalks from the walking onions. I broke off most of the bulbils and laid them down where I want to keep the walking onions growing, otherwise, they’d take over in the grass beyond the garden. The “stalks” are so big, I only grabbed two of them, which was more than enough for the day’s use.

I checked out one of the corn cobs that had dried out silks. It was on the outer edge, and I found it was very poorly pollinated. Very few developing kernels. I did try to shake the pollen down and make sure the stalks along the outside were dusted, to sort of imitate the wind, but I guess it didn’t work very well. I really should have had that second block I’d intended to plant but was never able to, right next to it. That would have improved things. Ah, well. We should still have something!

I then headed out for most of the day, which I’ll cover in another post, and the girls will be doing something with what I picked. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!

The Re-Farmer

Another too-hot day, she’s at it again, and saying good bye?

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As expected, today broke 30C/86F. I don’t know what the humidex was. I was outside by 7am, watering the garden and it was starting to get too hot before I finished. It’s past 7:30pm now, and it’s just barely starting to dip below 30C/86F now.

I do have to chuckle a bit about when I do the outside cat feeding these days, both morning and evening now. There are at lest 4 little skunks that come out almost right away. I found myself with an extra tray that I ended up setting under the rail I hang the end of the hose from as an extra kibble and cat soup tray. After feeding the cats and getting ready to water the garden, there was a little skunk under the hose. I used it to rinse off the soup bucket, and it didn’t turn away. It got all foot stompy and chittering, but didn’t run. It was famished and kept eating, clearly struggling between wanting to run away and eating.

Which is the only reason I don’t chase them away. These little ones are famished – and I’m not seeing a mama with them. I suspect something got the mama and, right now, we might be their only reliable source of food. I am not setting out any extra for them, but I can’t begrudge a hungry baby its sustenance. They get along with the cats and, other than leaving poop in the sun room, they don’t make a mess or cause damage. So I let them eat. I only chase them off if the big one comes out and starts bullying the littles. Pretty sure that one is a big male.

Meanwhile…

I got a couple of calls from my mother this afternoon.

*sigh*

I had to hang up on her, the first time.

I saw the call display, so I knew it was her when I answered, but when I said hello, there was nothing. I said hello again. Still nothing. I checked to make sure the line was still open, and it was. I said hello again, and she finally answered.

???

We had barely said our hellos when she started. I’d asked how she was doing, and she started talking about all the commotion outside her window from the “big celebration”. This would be the annual festival that has been happening in this town for more than 100 years, and has been getting bigger and bigger over the past two or three decades. An entire “village” with historical re-enactments gets set up in the park next to the nursing home, and the parking normally used for fishing boats or people parking at the marine across the road gets set up with at least a dozen food trucks – and this isn’t even the main event area! All the carnival rides, stage performances and indoor exhibitions are at another park, across town.

“Across town” being about 4 blocks.

When she mentioned it, I told her I knew it was on – and that it was why I was not going anywhere near town today or tomorrow.

She then started saying she thought the parade was happening tomorrow (it is), and that I should “bring the children”. I needed to “bring the children” and get them around people. Get “the children” doing things.

I finally cut her off and said, “they’re not children. They’re adults.”

She just doubled down. I needed to take “the children” to see the parade.

Never mind that we’ve never really liked parades. Never mind that both daughters have health problems and one of them almost died not that long ago. We’ve only told my mother they have health problems, because we know she doesn’t care, and couldn’t understand it anyhow. So she doesn’t know the details, but she does know that none of us are well. The last time she called was when she wanted me to come visit and I had to tell her I’d just come back from the ER. She didn’t ask anything about it. She just kept hammering at me that I needed to take “the children” to the parade.

As she kept going, I told her to stop.

She didn’t.

I told her to stop again.

She ignored me.

I said good bye and hung up.

The entire call was less than 1 minute.

I had started to update my brother and SIL when the phone rang again. It was my mother, so I answered.

I got a dial tone. She hung up before I had a chance to pick up.

So I finished updating my family on the group chat we have specifically for discussions about our mother, when the phone rang again. It was my mother. I answered and said hello.

Nothing.

Hello?

Nothing.

Hello?

She finally said hello.

She then spoke as if the last call never happens. This time, she launched into how she wanted me to come over so she could give me money. “Lots” of money, so I could buy her some fruit. For some reason, she really felt she needed fruit.

I told her again, I was not going into town today. At the earliest, I could go tomorrow afternoon.

Not today?

No. Not today. Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest – partly because the streets in front of the grocery store will be closed off for the parade.

Oh, as long as the grocery store is open.

…

Then she started listing off the other things she wanted me to bring. One, her oscillating fan, I can do. The other two items would require digging past other stores items blocking the way, and digging through boxes. One of them was an old radio that she is convinced will be magically able to get the radio station she wants, even though it’s not any better than the radio she already has. When I told her no, it was in storage, and I can’t get at it, she wanted to know why. Was it locked? I couldn’t exactly explain to her that I have so many things from her apartment here, we can barely used our own living room. I just said, there are other things in the way and I can’t get at it.

She did, eventually, accept that.

Then she told me she didn’t know how to turn the light off on her phone. The light by the neck strap. As near as I can figure out, it’s the built in flashlight. She somehow turned it on, and now doesn’t know how to turn it off. She keeps pushing buttons, she says, but it won’t turn off.

I told her, don’t button mash!

Then she told me she had tried to phone my sister, then my brother, and tried to phone me, but was only able to reach me.

Which explains the earlier non-call.

She doesn’t know how to use the phone. She needs a “real” phone. I told her, my brother got her the simplest, easiest phone he could. He and I had looked at all kinds of phones, and he picked the easiest one for her. Oh, she leaves the technology to my brother.

*sigh*

Oh, and it’s been a long time since my brother visited, and did I know where he was?

I told her, he’s been busy trying to fix their car – which is true, but he’d come out here to fix his tractor, too. I wasn’t going to tell her that. Especially since the part he got turned out to not work so they went back to the city this morning – I saw them drive by while I was watering the garden. They didn’t get back until this evening.

I told her I would pass on to my brother and my sister about her wanting fruit, so whoever got to her first could bring something. Amazingly, she actually let me go shortly after that.

After messaging my brother and texting my sister, I finished eating my supper then headed outside.

As I was finishing setting out the kibble and the cat soup, I saw Batman, loafed in front of the sun room door. I stepped outside and pet him and he didn’t move so, right away, I knew something was wrong. He normally runs away.

When I came back, he was still there. I picked him up and put him near a tray with cat soup in it. When I came back moments later, he was loafed again, and using the edge of the tray as a pillow, barely breathing. I don’t think he ate.

At this point, I just tried to make him as comfortable as possible, and gave him pets. He’s never allowed pets before, but he seemed to appreciate them. Every now and then, I’d come back and find he’d moved a bit. When I found him next to the water bowl, I found a shallow water bowl and set it beside him with fresh water. I don’t think he drank.

After a while, I set up a soft bed for him, instead of the hard concrete, but later found he’d gotten off, then lay on the concrete.

I don’t think he’ll last until morning.

The only external evidence of illness that I can see is on his back end, where he’d clearly had done some messy business, but just as clearly, it was not recent.

I kept checking on him as I got things done. We had high winds today, so I walked around the yard with the wagon to pick up fallen branches, mostly from the willows. It was too hot for some of the jobs I meant to do, and too windy for others, but I did get the folding table out of the garage and set up behind the kibble house. I brought the canopy tent over, too, but it was too windy to set it up. Over the next while, I hope to be able to empty the sun room and give it a proper cleaning, and some things need to stay out of the weather. I also expect to be harvesting the garlic soon, and I’ll be hanging them to cure across the inside of the tent.

With the heat, the garden needed another watering, but it was still too hot. I went inside, planning to rest and hydrate before going out again, but by then, the pain was kicking in and I knew I wouldn’t be able to. My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, went out to do it for me.

As for myself, I’ve taken my tramadol, and it doesn’t seem to be doing a thing. In fact, the pain has been getting worse as I have been writing this.

My daughter just came by to update me. She has seen Batman moving around but, being covered in bug spray, she didn’t want to touch him. I’ve been warned he is now directly under the door between the old kitchen and the sun room, so to watch my step. Also, she had to chase both a skunk and a racoon out of the sun room! She also had a chance to talk to my brother while she was watering the garden, which is nice. Since she works nights, she doesn’t get a chance to see them much.

As soon as I’m done writing this, I’m going to have to take my evening supplements and lie down. Just sitting up at my computer is getting too painful.

I am so looking forward to surgery.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: first tomato, peppers, some cuteness and the status of things

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Well, I’m glad I didn’t head to the city today for our second stock up shop. That will definitely wait until after the long weekend. Not only will I not have to deal with holiday crowds, but Tuesday is supposed to finally be cooler again.

I had an early start to the day, not by choice. It wasn’t pain that woke me up – it was cats going nuts! – though I did immediately get a headache. I don’t normally get headaches, and I don’t know what triggered it.

I topped up the inside cat kibble bowls which calmed them down a little bit, but they’ve been really bonkers lately. Since I was up anyhow, I went out to do the morning feeding and watering of the yard cats.

Look who I spotted!

Sprout’s baby has starting coming to the food bowls in its own, without mom around!

(As an aside, Gouda did show up again. I had a scare with Batman, but he showed up, too. Still no Havarti, no Domino, no Adam and no Flopsy. At this point, it is highly unlikely we will see them again. Others seems to have disappeared, too, among the tabbies we never got to name. All have gone missing in an unusually short time. 😢😢😢)

It was wonderfully cool, heading outside that early in the morning. It helped my headache a bit, at least. I was planning to go straight back to bed, but I found myself not only with the headache, but suddenly famished. As in, feeling nauseous and dizzy and ready to pass out, hungry. Also odd, because I had gone to bed early last night, but got up at around midnight because of the pain my left hip. The painkillers helped with the abdominal pain but did nothing for the wrecked hip. My older daughter was up and working on commissions while it was cooler, and she was kind enough to rub some of the topical painkiller on my hip joint for me. Then she was kind enough to make me some grilled cheese sandwiches. Since I was up anyhow, I turned on the computer and paid the bills. By the time she brought me the food, my hip was no longer hurting, and I could finally sleep. I went back to bed at around two, so it was only about 3-4 hours later that I found myself awake and suddenly famished.

My body is completely out of whack!

My attempt to get more sleep was only half successful. It was disorienting to get up, feeling like it should be coming up on noon, but it was early enough that my alarm to do a wellness check on my husband hadn’t gone off yet.

With having to move the hoses because I knew my SIL was planning to mow the lawn, the garden hadn’t been watered at all for two days. Being slightly cooler today, and the mowing done, I went out to do it early this afternoon. Everything got an extra deep watering today, and I set up the hose into the leaky barrel to do the food forest trees, too. They also got extra water, and the leaking barrel will continue to water the apple, gooseberry and probably the plum, too, slowly as it empties.

When I moved to the south side of the hose to water the garden beds there, I started a little creature and saw a streak of white bolting out from under the water bowl shelter and across the yard.

It was Sprout’s baby! It is starting to come closer to the house for food!!! Progress!!!!

While watering the tomato bed, I spotted a splash of colour.

Orange colour.

Our very first ripe tomato! 😂🤣 This is an Orange Currant tomato which is pretty much an orange version of the Spoon tomatoes we’ve grown before – the one kind of tomato I can eat raw. I didn’t eat this one, though. My daughter had gone to the truck to sew up a split seam on the driver’s seat for me, so I gave it to her.

She said it was very good!

I was getting close to finishing the watering when my brother and SIL arrived. They have their own planned out stuff to do, so I don’t expect to actually see them much while there are here. Especially since I have not been outside anywhere near as much as I normally would be.

Still, by the time I was done watering (which took almost 3 hours), I was feeling pretty good. Good enough that I brought the truck around and my younger daughter helped me load up the garbage and recycling.

Thankfully, she came with me to the dump.

By the time the truck was loaded, I could tell the pain was starting to return. By the time we drove the two miles to the highway, it was getting hard to sit up straight. I was still good to drive, though. When we got to the dump, we stopped at the recycling bins first, and I got out to help my daughter take care of those. By then, I knew I was done. I could get in and out of the truck, but I was not going to be able to throw anything into the pit. So when we drove to the pit, my daughter took care of throwing the garbage bags in while I stayed in the truck.

On the way home, we made a side trip to the general store. The only thing I didn’t get while doing the earlier stock up trip was butter, and I discovered we were almost out. I ended up giving my daughter my debit card so she could run in and get the butter, plus a couple other things, while I stayed in the truck.

When we got home, she asked me to drive into the yard so she could hose down the box of the truck, as one of the kitchen garbage bags had leaked. I was happy to do that, as it meant a shorter walk to the house. While she took care of things, I took some painkillers and hydrated for a while.

My older daughter had started supper and it was ready before we got back, which was much appreciated.

Thankfully, the painkillers actually kicked in, so I was up to heading outside again. I’d forgotten to change out the memory cards on the trail cams yesterday. I no longer switch them out every day, but every week or so, now that we have fewer security concerns. Sad to think that it took our vandal passing away for that to happen, but it really has been a weight lifted off of all of us.

Of course, I just had to check out the garden beds before going back inside. Which is when I spotted something that I’m amazed I hadn’t seen before, while I was watering.

We have peppers. Surprisingly large ones!

These are the California Wonder bell peppers. The biggest plant has these two big peppers on it – one of them is stuck upside down, between stems. I had need tiny peppers forming on other plants, but somehow missed these ones!

Tomorrow is supposed to get quite hot again, so I plan to go to bed extra early to do an early morning watering, and will likely do an evening watering, too. Tomorrows heat is supposed to last from about noon to 8pm, before it starts cooling down. The overnight temperatures, at least, are much more bearable!

Hopefully, that will help with sleep, too.

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer