progress

Productive

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I’ve just got home from errands and just realized, it’s not even 1pm as I start this! It feels like it should be later.

I needed to go to the town north of us to pick up our beef share this morning, so I asked my daughter to do the morning rounds while I checked on the truck and stuff. The front tires were just low enough to be worth firing up the compressor and topping them up. It was -24C/-11F with a wind chill of -32C/-26F at the time, so I ran the engine for a while, too. I did have to shut it off while pumping one of the tires, though. The breeze was blowing the exhaust right into that corner of the garage!

I did help my daughter as she was feeding the outside cats, giving the isolation babies, their wet cat food treat. Eye Baby really wanted out this morning! Well, it’ll just be one more day. Tomorrow, we will be opening up the door and setting the entry box over the opening again, so cats can freely go in and out again.

I left quite early so that I could get other stuff done before meeting up in our usual spot to get our beef share. The general store out post office is in closes at noon today, so I figured I’d try the post office, first.

Zero mail, still. Not even junk mail. The back-to-work order came into effect yesterday, though. I expect rural communities are going to be pretty low on the priority list for getting deliveries.

So I picked up a sandwich (freshly made at our one restaurant, kitty corner across the street) and a drink for my breakfast, then headed north.

My first stop was the feed store, and to look for heated water bowls.

They did have small heated water bowls, which is what I was after, since the big ones stop working so quickly. The price was insane, though. The volume it holds is less than our small heated water bowls, but it cost as much as a large one. The quality, however, was noticeably better. With everywhere else being out of stock, I went ahead and got one, along with a couple more 40 pound bags of kibble.

For the beef share delivery, we always meet in a grocery store parking lot – the only grocery store in town – and I still had time, so I went in to do a bit of shopping. I didn’t need much, and the prices for most things are quite a bit higher, but they have a remarkable selection for such a rural store, so I took my time looking around to see if there was something else I wanted to get besides a carton of milk. 😄 I did end up getting some buttermilk, which I rarely do. I think it will be great for the next time we make cornbread.

That done, I didn’t have very long to wait in the truck before the lady arrived with my beef share. We could only do a 1/8th share this time, so it was just two boxes. The shares were smaller this year, as they butchered heifers this year instead of steers, so with our monthly payments, we actually ended up with a refund. I would like to do a quarter beef again, so I asked about the possibility of sending them payments starting in January.

She asked me to hold off on that. They need to figure out what they will be doing this year. They already had to switch to beef shares only, moving away from the individual cuts and freezer packs. The market price they would get for their beef is pretty good right now, so it doesn’t make sense for them to hold onto cattle through to the fall right now. Plus, with everything becoming more expensive in general, they are going to have to increase their price. Right now, with the beef shares, they are charging $6.50/pound hanging weight, and they’ll be losing money if they don’t adjust that. She won’t know until March or so, what direction they will be going. Once that’s worked out, she has a list of regular customers – including us – that they will contact directly. If we don’t find out until March, though, we’ll probably end up doing a 1/8th beef again, which she understands.

As we were talking, we shared some frustrations. For her, as someone who sells beef shares, she has a real problem with other ranchers that sell their shares at a fixed price, rather than by weight. You never know until you get the hanging weight, how much each share will actually work out to be. Which is how we ended up with a refund. You can’t just decide a whole beef will be X amount ahead of time, and then divide it by whatever share someone is getting. At least, not ethically! It makes things harder for ranchers like her, too, because people catch on that they’re not being charged fairly. I didn’t even know there were people selling beef shares with fixed prices. I’ve only see it done by weight.

So we shall see how things work out for them. Meanwhile, I’ll just set the payments I would be making to them aside. I would rather send it to them, to help feed the animal we will be eating, but that’s okay. And if they end up not doing beef shares next year, well, that’s just more in the savings account.

With my other errands done, it was straight home after picking up the beef. I pulled into the yard to unload, then gave the outside cats a small feeding to get them away from the truck so I could park it.

Once that was done, I empties the boxes into the freezer. With the extra shopping we’ve done for Christmas and New Years, there isn’t a lot of room! We couldn’t have fit a quarter beef in there, that’s for sure.

We got quite a few 2 pound packages of ground beef, a whole lot of steaks and several roasts, plus beef bones. Now that we have the Instant Pot, I’m thinking we could try using it to make bone broth – something with onions and garlic in it, so it’s for our own use only, not for the cats! I actually found some packages of bones, both beef and pork, while making space in the freezer. They’re starting to get freezer burned, so we should make some broth with them for the cats – and free up some freezer space!

Once that was put away, I took down the old extension cord that the fried out heated water bowl had been plugged into, and replaced it with the new one I picked up not long ago, then set up the new water bowl. There was still some liquid water in the fried out bowl, so I poured that into the new bowl. Remarkably, the water started getting slushy on top, rather quickly! I got the critter cam plugged in, too, and at first it didn’t work. The app told me the camera was offline. ?? I plugged things in and out a few times and it started working, so I don’t know quite what went wrong.

The new bowl has been accepted, though!

The old one, with nothing but ice in it, got set aside not far from there the heat lamp is. It might actually get warm enough to melt under there. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of the cats using the heat lamp, it can stay there.

I had lots of curious kitties while I was setting up the new extension cord!

I was done and tying off the outside doors again when I noticed there were three amigos at the window, watching me, so I decided to take their picture.

I ended up catching a bit of action!

So much for being amigos! 😄

Anyhow.

Everything is now brought in, put away and set up.

It’s been a productive day, and that makes me happy.

The Re-Farmer

Who dat chonky boi?

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This afternoon, I glanced out my window and saw a stranger.

I think.

This Big Boi was loafed in a sun spot against the old garden shed. To get the photo, I had to zoom in through three layers of glass and Lexan in my window. I’m actually surprised I got as good a photo as I did! 😄😄

I don’t know that I recognize this cat. We have a lot of similar tabbies, which always makes is harder to tell, but this particular beast seems unusually chonk for an outside cat!

There is that distinctive slash of white fur through the black line running along the side of his nose. That’s the only thing that seems at all familiar to me. This may be a cat that has returned for the winter. Chances are, if I go through my old photos, looking specifically for that distinctive marking, I might find him there.

I just got back from doing the last outside feeding of the day, and did not see him among the other cats, though. Perhaps he is a visitor from one of the neighboring farms.

In other things, I’ve had a pretty non-productive day. I had a very interrupted night, so very little sleep, and was in a lot of pain in the morning. I got the outside cats fed with their warm, softened kibble, then took some pain killers and tried to go back to bed.

That didn’t work any better than last night.

I did eventually get some inside stuff done, at least. We have another batch of mostly San Marzano tomatoes that are ripened, so I went through those to pick out any of the damaged ones that started to go bad, then set the rest to soak in some vinegar water. I’ll set up the slow cooker for the night to make another sauce. We have plenty in the fridge right now, so this will be for the freezer. There are still green tomatoes in the old kitchen, and I’m still regularly picking out the ones that are starting to show a blush and setting them in one container. Once it’s full, I’ll bring them to the living room to finish ripening.

Mostly, though, today has been another enforced day of rest. Which, I suppose, is not a bad thing. Today was a bit cooler, and there was a smattering of snow on the ground in the morning. The next two days will be warmer, so that will be a good time to get outside and get some more stuff done before winter really sets in.

All in all, we’re having a very lovely and mild November. Last year was a mild fall, too, but around this time last year, well…

… we were missed by a storm, but did get quite a snowfall!

So I am really appreciating the temperatures we’re having right now – and the lack of snow!

Even if these temperature fluctuations are brutal on my arthritis!

The Re-Farmer

Today’s progress

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Since one of my tasks for the day was to help my mother with errands, I didn’t have anything in particular that I had on my list to do at home. That was more of a “squeeze in what you can, when you can” thing.

The day, of course, started with feeding the outside cats and doing my morning rounds. One thing I noticed, when checking the critter cam in the sun room during the night, was that there were fewer cats piled on top of each other on the platform, or on the makeshift cat bed under the heat lamp. I hope that means cats have discovered that the upper level of the isolation shelter is nice and warm!

By the time I come out with their food, though, they’re all crowded in the sun room, or just outside! This morning, I counted 33. Maybe. I might have counted a couple, twice. Which seems odd to me. We had as many as 50, not that long ago – a sudden jump from a high of 40, so 10 cats just sort of showed up. Now, we’re down by more than that. I’m even noticing the difference in the kibble. For a while, I’d go around the various areas I put kibble out, with some further from the house for the shiest of the ferals, and find all the kibble in and near the sun room absolutely gone by the time I got back. There were even times when I could see they were still hungry and added more. Now, not only do they not finish off the kibble immediately, but when I come out later, there is still some left!

Which is great for the kibble supply lasting longer, but it also tells me that these “extra” cats are simply gone, rather than possibly showing up later on.

I’m not sure what to make of that.

When arranging to go to my mother’s today, she reminded me that she was getting her Meals on Wheels this morning, and suggested I bring some take out for myself. She even offered to pay me for it! It took a while, but I eventually found out why. The last time, I made a point of eating my lunch before coming over, and just had a cup of tea while she had her lunch. Turns out, she didn’t want me to be sitting there watching, while she ate, and not eating as well! 😄

So I headed out early enough to stop at the Chinese restaurant next to her place and got myself some kung pao chicken. It was a “chef’s suggestion” that I decided to try.

I won’t be having it again.

Don’t get me wrong; it was quite delicious!

Unfortunately, though, when it said it was “mild”… well, I can’t tolerate even “mild” spiciness. It was just past the edge of “too much”. I ate it anyway, because it was so good, but it’s now on the list of things I know I won’t be ordering in the future.

Alas.

When my mother’s Meals in Wheels was delivered, we chatted a bit with the social worker that is the volunteer delivery person. As we were talking, my mother noticed the beautiful Remembrance Day pin she was wearing, and asked where she got it from. The social worker responded by taking it off and giving it to her! My mother tried to refuse, but she wouldn’t hear of it. We did find out she got it from the local pharmacy. My mother was still trying to say she wanted to pay for it, so I told her that I would be going to the pharmacy anyhow, with her list, so I could make a donation.

We had already gone over her list before lunch, so as soon as we were done, I headed out. First stop was the pharmacy. When I got to the cash desk, I found the manager was manning the tills. This new manager is really nice. During the illegal lock downs and mandates, this manager was the reason that particular pharmacy was on the black list for abusive behaviour towards people with medical exemptions.

I remembered to ask about the pin, telling him about the social worker giving my mother hers. He told me these pins – there turned out to be three designs – sold out very quickly. These are from the Legion, and he told the person that provided them that next year, they should make more of them! He had one buy 14 of them! When he asked her, are you sure? she told him she had many family members she would be gifting them to. That was awesome.

I asked how much they were, and he said he was telling them for $6 – and all the proceeds went to the Legion. So I made that my donation (not out of my mother’s envelope of funds for her purchases, of course).

The next stop was the grocery store. Thanks to her Meals on Wheels, she doesn’t need a lot, plus there were some good sales on. The pharmacy had some really good sales, too, so the total was a lot less than she was expecting, this time, even when I got her a couple of extras things that I knew she would enjoy.

After the shopping was brought in and put away, my mother asked me to do some light housework for her, as well, so I stayed a bit longer. I could see that she was really struggling to move around, today, though there were times when I wondered how much of it she was doing to herself. She has an unfortunate habit of latching on to things that somehow “make her feel better” that are… questionable, shall we say. One of those things is burping. On the one hand, she’ll tell me that she’s burping a lot, making it sound like she’s having digestion problems – then tells me that burping helps with her breathing. So as she’s moving around the apartment and getting out of breath, she start actually forcing herself to burp.

The problem is, as a couple of different doctors have tried to explain to her, is more one of conditioning. She’s out of breath because she’s out of shape.

Which no one is expecting her to do anything about. She’s 93 years old with busted up knees. While she does take part in the group exercises the social workers run in her building a couple of times a week, that’s not going to make a difference. She also says she “does exercises” every morning, but these are some strange exercises done in bed she was taught to do when she was a child in school – in Poland, before WWII. I’ve asked her to describe them to me, and I honestly am not quite sure what they are meant to improve. Not that it matters. She really doesn’t understand how absolutely amazing she’s doing, overall. Instead, she complains about her breathing and chest pains (her lungs are in great shape. So is her heart). As near as anyone can figure out, she’s dealing with 93 years of childhood subsistence living, surviving a war, starting over in a new country, having 5 kids and decades of living here on the farm, two sticks ahead of the stone ages, catching up to her.

She really is doing amazing!

Anyhow…

By the time I was done at my mother’s and heading home, it was mid afternoon. Once home, I popped back out to give the outside cats a light feeding, then checked things around the yard. Three of the boys have now lost their collars, and I was hoping to find them somewhere. One of them lost his three or four times, but each time, I found it in one of the cat beds on their platform in the sunroom and got it back on him, but this time, he managed to loose it somewhere I can’t find.

Ah, well. I’ll try and pick up more of them, when the store restocks. I specifically want the breakaway collars that have reflective stitches on them, and I’m only finding them in one place. At least it’s a dollar store, so they are quite affordable!

As I was coming back in again, I found this adorable sight.

The white and grey adult cat is Stinky, and he’s one that lost his collar almost immediately. He is a very friendly boy, which is why we were able to get him in and fixed, along with three other friendly males, not long ago.

The ball of fluff cuddling him is one of the more feral kittens. I had to zoom in to get this shot because, as soon as I came closer, it took off! The kitten making strange has me thinking it’s probably female. They are almost always the hardest ones to socialize!

Later on, I made sure to come back out to get as much done outside as I could, before the light faded and the temperature dropped too much. I finally got around to taking the netting and supports off the bed that had the sugar snap peas and Uzbek Golden carrots.

The netting was the worst. Absolutely everything wants to get caught in it – including cats!

As I was going back and forth to where I’m setting all the netting and supports before sorting through and packing them up for the winter, I spotted this grand old lady.

Rolando Moon was enjoying a sun spot on the roof! The cats like to visit the upstairs windows, and watch my daughters while they are on their computers. 😁

By the time I got everything but the T posts untied, untangled, cleared up and put away, it was getting dark fast, so I will continue tomorrow.

The forecast for tomorrow is now down to 11C/52F, and it’s supposed to be the last double digit (Celsius) day of the month. After that, we don’t have may more days left where the highs are expected to be above freezing. So tomorrow, I want to make one last push to get certain jobs done. Others will just have to wait until spring.

I’ve been hearing that “they” are now predicting a mild winter. It seems we won’t be getting a strong La Nińa year, after all. I certainly hope that turns out to be true. I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I now dread winter. Even though the cold doesn’t bother me like it used to, it’s what the cold does that concerns me. With winter, we always need to consider that there may be days, or weeks, where we won’t be able to get out anywhere due to weather, or that the power might fail, or… well… you know how it can be. Things happen, and we need to be prepared for them, just in case! We may not be totally isolated, but there have been times since we’ve moved out here where we may as well have been!

Everything is a trade off. For us, though, it’s still better than living in the city! 😄😄

The Re-Farmer

A day of driving

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Today was supposed to be a bit warmer and, technically, it was.

We also had high winds.

That ruled working on the cat house out completely. With the direction of the winds, they would have torn the roof off – or at least damaged it significantly – if we opened it up.

I had to do some modifications to the catio because of the wind.

As I thought might happen, the plastic overlapping the back, which couldn’t quite reach the centre support of the frame, was getting damaged in the wind. I found it torn free from its tacks at the top, and the only reason the bottom wasn’t also torn free was because the excess was tucked under the bottom of the frame.

I ended up taping it to the first layer of plastic. I used packing tape, which should come off more easily when we take it off on the spring. There is a chance it won’t last the winter, but we’ll see.

Wind was still getting into the catio through the open door, causing the plastic to billow. I was already planning to prop the door so it was open just wide enough for the cats to get in and out. I decided an extra bit of security would not go amiss, and added paracord around the whole thing, while also making sure the door wouldn’t blow open, either.

It didn’t take long for the cats to discover the improvement! In the photo above, there are three cats in there. Not only is it now more sheltered from the wind, but would be a warm little greenhouse as well.

It would have been better to secure the paracord through the plastic at the hinge side of the door, but I don’t want to put larger holes, in the plastic, since I intend to use it in the garden next year. I think, for next winter, the door will get it’s own covering, separate from the catio walls.

This will be our first winter with it, though, so we’ll analyze how it worked out, in the spring.

With high winds kiboshing my outdoor plans, I decided a trip to Walmart was needed. We never did get to the feed store and were running low on kibble already, so I contacted the Cat Lady. Yes, she was able to meet me today. After working out the time, I left right away, since it takes me a lot longer to get to our usual meeting spot that it takes for her.

It took a bit longer than usual. During parts of the route, the winds were doing their best to blow the truck right off the road! I was driving against the wind for much of the trip, which visibly affected the mileage, too!

When we finally connected, we had a chance to chat while we transferred over a nice big cat tree, a couple of large bags of kibble, some smaller bags of kibble, and a big garbage bag stuffed with cat beds. She even gave us a 24 pack of wet cat food; turkey chunks in gravy. She got it for her own cats, but they don’t seem to like it – and The Wolfman turns out to be allergic to poultry, so he can’t eat it at all. The problem is, he loved chicken so much, he kept stealing the roasted chickens she fed them, while they were cooling down. It turns out he’s a real greedy guts, and constantly stealing food!

She no longer goes to what used to be her favourite vet clinic. The owner – the man that saved Cabbages’ life, and even Tissue, after her attempt to destroy their car – sold the clinic. She’s been there a couple of times. Once was to get Button neutered. That was when the new vet insisted Button had to be only 8 weeks old, and would not believe otherwise, no matter what. She had also talked to the new vet about The Wolfman and allergies – and was immediately offered euthanasia!

She is not going back.

She did take Button to another vet, though, and got some more information about his condition. It was determined that the reason he is so tiny, and why he is now deaf, was due to a particular virus. The vet figured that the reason we found him was because the mother had died of it, because it usually does kill off the adults. We never did figure out who the mother was, so that may well be true. That’s the thing with yard cats. When they disappear, we almost never know why. Very rarely do we find an adult cat that has died. Last year, there was one.

It’s entirely possible we’ve recently lost more. We haven’t seen Sad Face in weeks, now. There was that one day when I counted 50 cats and kittens. This morning, I counted maybe 33. Yesterday, 26. Aside from Sad Face, who is rather distinctive, I have no idea which cats – or kittens – are missing.

Meanwhile, the Cat Lady is trying to arrange spays for us. The clinic she’s been booking us with is very busy. At this point, they should be able to book two in December, and maybe one in November, plus she is on the cancelation list. The vet would really like to get the long haired tabby adult in, as she is more likely to go into heat before the kittens do, in the spring. I’ve actually been able to pet Adam a few times, so there’s a possibility we could get her in, without having to trap her, too.

The Cat Lady is going to need descriptions of what cats and kittens we can bring in. While I could do that, it doesn’t mean those are the kittens we’d be able to bring in. There is one very friendly little tabby with white that we’d have no problem catching. She’s really small, though. Button is probably bigger than she is, now. The vet prefers them to be at least 2kg (almost 4 1/2 pounds).

There is no way that kitten is 4 pounds, and she is definitely close to 5 months old.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, she’s had to deal with 4 cats that showed up at their cottage. They’ve closed it up for the winter, but they have a neighbour that lives there full time and called them about it. They were all males, about 8 months old. I guess someone knew the property was owned by a family that ran a rescue, and dumped them. You’d think they would consider that, like most of the cottages in that area, no one would be there in the winter. Thankfully, the neighbour that does live there full time keeps an eye on their place for them. So she had to go get the cats, was able to get them neutered and has already adopted one of them out.

One of the things that came up was comments people make about country cats like ours and, “why don’t they just get them fixed?”

That came up when I mentioned that we have gone from a high of 50 cats to now being down to a little over 30. We just don’t know what cats will show up, or if they will stay. There are some distinctive cats that do stay, even if they are more feral, but others… we just can’t tell. Especially with all the white and greys. They get so hard to tell apart! In previous years, we had lots of grey tabbies. They are all gone. The grey tabbies we have now are from more recent litters. At least the ones we did get fixed have been staying, but males like Judgement are still prone to disappearing for the summer and coming back for the winter – if they come back at all.

Then, of course, there is the cost. Especially for females. We’re both very frustrated by people who made disparaging remarks about how people should spay and neuter the strays, barn cats, yard cats, etc. Yes, that needs to be done, but some get very angry and accusatory when it doesn’t get done. To which I say, are you volunteering to pay for it? Are you donating to a shelter specifically for spays and neuters? No? Then zip it. People do the best they can. Those who aren’t willing to help – and it’s a huge problem in our province right now – aren’t entitled to cast judgement on others.

The Cat Lady and her family spend ridiculous amounts of money out of pocket to help their rescues; donations don’t come near to covering it all. She is constantly on the hunt for things people need. Recently, she found a particular cat item that is in demand, but hard to find, and she bought the store’s entire stock. Nine of them. As she was paying for it, another customer started ranting at her for being so greedy and taking them all. It was one of the staff who knows the Cat Lady well by now, that called out the customer, saying that they were all for donations. She wasn’t buying them for herself.

All of this was shared rather quickly, as we loaded stuff from her cat to our truck. The wind was brutal and cold, so we parted ways soon after.

I then went to the Walmart and, yes, got more kibble on top of the donated kibble!

That done, I headed home, with a brief side trip to get some gas. This time, I had the wind at my back, and I could really tell the difference by the gas gauge!

By the time I got home, it was well past 1pm. After the truck was unloaded, we loaded it up again – with garbage!

Two of the cat beds that were donated went straight into the isolation shelter; one on each level.

I then waited until 2, when both the dump and the post office opened, grabbed the water jugs we needed to refill and headed out again.

My first stop was the dump and, I swear, it is looking worse every time I go there! There’s barely room to drive in and turn to back up to the pit, for all the garbage that’s been allowed to spread over the driveway. I’ve never seen it allowed to get this bad.

At least the driveway area wasn’t covered in nails or glass.

Not that I could see, anyhow.

Once that was done, the next stop was the post office to pick up what turned out to be two parcels. I also got the first 2025 seed catalog of the season! I’m going to have fun going through that!

Then it was off to town and to the pharmacy for a prescription refill. Normally, I would have had my one prescription included with my husband’s deliveries, but we forgot to order it last week, and this week, my husband didn’t need any refills.

That done, the next stop was the grocery store to refill our water jugs, then finally, home again.

While the dump and town trip were planned on, I wasn’t expecting to be on the road more than that. Which is just as well, since the wind wasn’t going to let me do what I hoped to do in the garden.

Tomorrow, I’ll also be gone for much of the day, as I will be going to my mother’s place and helping her with her errands.

Meanwhile, I have also started working on this year’s Christmas decorations. Every year, I try to make new decorations for our tree, and maybe enough to give away to family and friends. This year, I’ve been inspired by Singlade balls. The Youtube channel in the link has some really amazing examples of them.

This video is a beginner tutorial.

I’m cheating a bit. I happen to have a number of Styrofoam balls, so I am using those as a core. At the moment, I’ve got six of them wrapped in white yarn, with the contrasting yard dividing them into eight sections, like the one you can see in the video thumbnail.

I’m working on the second half of my first ball, which is being made using bulkier yarn than wat’s in the video. As these will be Christmas decorations and meant to hand on a tree surrounded by lights, I went hunting for sparkly or reflective yarn. This first one has two colours per triangle and is mostly a red yarn with a silver metallic thread running through it. I also have some bits of reflective yard left. I had enough of a forest green to do half the ball. The other half is using a peacock blue reflective yarn. I have some neon colours of the reflective yarn that would be gloriously tacky. I also have some mini skeins of yarn that is almost a lace weight yarn, some of which have metallic strands in them. Those would make much finer stitches, but would also take longer to work up. I’ll see how far I get with the reflective yarn remains I have now before I start working on a finer weight yarn.

I’m happy with the progress, so far.

The only thing is, we will probably just have a small Christmas tree set up on top of the piano in the cat free zone again, this year. We have a couple of very small Christmas trees, and these balls would look gigantic on either of them! 😄

But that’s okay. I enjoy learning a new craft and, when it comes to yarn, my options are pretty limited. My hands are so rough, bit of fibre in the yarn sticks to my fingers!

That’s pretty much it for today. It may not have been the day I planned out, but at least it was productive!

The Re-Farmer

I think they like them!

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The cats seem to be quite enjoying their newly winterized digs!

They are especially enjoying the cat isolation shelter. Which makes me happy! It will made it much easier, when it comes time to actually isolate cats in there during their recovery periods.

The last image in the above slide show is of the completed catio wrap. I had to get my daughter to crawl inside to pull the excess plastic under the frame. Especially where the second sheet overlapped the first. That one didn’t quite reach the middle of the back, where it could have been tacked to the centre support I added when we repaired it, so it’s only tacked top and bottom. I might end up taping it or something, or the wind will get under there and rip it right off.

I did add a board under the front of the frame, lifting it about 1 1/2 inches. This will give a slight slope for water to drain off the roof.

Today has turned out to be a cool and damp day, so I didn’t get a lot done outside. Aside from finishing winterizing the catio, I made sure the rest of the insulation got set up around the house.

We really need to find a better option for this. The insulation pieces are scrap pieces from who knows where, to begin with, so they’re all different sizes and thicknesses. Setting them up is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with pieces from different puzzles that don’t quite fit. They’re getting old and some of them are starting to break apart. It would be good to have a permanent solution, that we can make look like it’s part of the house and not just tacked on.

All in good time, I guess. Short term, we’re going to need to pick up some thicker sheets of rigid insulation to replace the busted up pieces. As it is, there is no longer enough to go completely around the wall there the back water tap is.

That took quite a while to get done, mostly spent trying to get the pieces to fit together, then finding ways to support them so they don’t get blown away. It’s been a dark and dreary day today, so even though it was still only mid afternoon or so when I was done, it was still dark enough that the light over the main door would turn on as I walked by. Mind you, sunset today was at 4:52pm, so I guess it wasn’t just the overcast skies.

At least the snow and rain that hit other parts of the province missed us. We’re wet enough right now, thank you! Interestingly, I noticed the signs up showing that we are under a fire ban in our municipality right now. We didn’t have a fire ban all summer, this year, so it’s quite unusual to have one start in the fall like this.

And here I was thinking it was finally wet enough and calm enough to burn that pile of diseased branches, as well as our burnable garbage.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 11C/52F, and even reach as high as 12C/54F on Sunday. The next few days will be a good time to get more done outside. The one cooler day is Friday, and I will be helping my mother with her errands that day.

For now, the important winterizing things have been done, and I can get back to cleaning up and and putting things away from the garden. It may even dry up enough to get our electric chainsaw out and finish clearing away that spruce that fell on the crab apple tree!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Getting some rest today

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I did get some things accomplished today, but ended up cutting back on some of what I planned to do. I was just too stiff and sore, and I’ll be heading to the city for our Costco shop tomorrow, so I didn’t want to push my luck.

I wasn’t happy with the garden tour video I took yesterday evening, so I tried again this morning. I think they will do, though I did catch some mistakes I made. Ah, well. I can edit in some notes when I put the tour video together.

The truck was booked for the garage today. When changing the oil, he forgot to reset the computer, so I was still getting the “change oil soon” warning. He also forgot to put on a new sticker. The check engine line turned back on again, so he was going to diagnose that for me, plus get some pricing for other work we already knew would need doing.

My appointment was for 1pm, but I left early so I could put in a bit of gas and a car wash. I still dropped the truck off early. They were having lunch! After talking for a bit about what needed to be checked out, I told them there was no hurry, as I had some errands to run.

Without the truck, doing them meant a lot of walking!

My first stop was the furthest. I headed to the dollar store. There were some things I was looking for, for the bathroom, but I wasn’t sure if they would have them. I did, however, find some embroidery thread that I plan to use for this year’s Christmas decorations (I try to do a different craft every year). They had also restocked on breakaway collars. I got their last five that had reflective strands in them. The last time I got some, I got four of them to put on the four males that had just been neutered, but three of them were gone the next day. I think I put them on too loosely. I’d hoped to find them around the yard or something, but there was no sign of them. Only Syndol still has his collar.

After taking the bells off, I put the collars on after doing their evening feeding.

I had to double check for tattoos on a couple of them, to be sure! I had enough collars to include Judgement (who was done on a cheap spay/neuter day, and has no tattoo) and Gouda. Right now, the only fixed cat that does not have a collar is Rolando Moon. The grand old lady has no need for a collar, and I doubt I could get one on her, anyhow.

I made them a bit snugger this time, testing them out on inside cats, first. Hopefully, that will do the trick, and they won’t get lost. So far, the cats didn’t seem to notice them, once I got them on.

After the dollar store, I stopped at a Red Apple. Once again, what I was actually looking for wasn’t there, but I did find a blackout curtain for my husband. He has a south facing window, and the sun hits him right in the face while he’s on his computer. We had curtains there before, but they were too long, and the cats destroyed their bottoms. This curtain also turned out to be really long, but we just folded up the bottom out of cat range and clipped it in place for now.

My husband is very happy with it! Plus, it’s wide enough that a second one isn’t needed.

By the time I made my way back to the garage, it was past 1pm, but the truck hadn’t moved from where I parked it yet. I was able to leave my bag of shopping in it, then headed to the hotel next door that has a Chinese restaurant in it, and had lunch.

When I got back to the garage, they were just finishing up with the truck and just had to look up the codes that came up while he scanned it.

So the thing that’s turning on the check engine like turns out to be the Mass Air Flow sensor. Nothing urgent.

The part, however, costs almost $180 (plus labour and taxes).

The other thing we need to get fix, but got away with not needing last winter, is the cord for the block heater. I discovered the plug had been torn off. This being a GM vehicle, they have proprietary cords. You can’t just splice a new plug in. It won’t work. Apparently, GM is the only manufacturer that is like this. A new one is just pennies over $80. Last of all, I requested an updated price for the one of the wheel sensors. That will be just under $105, which is pretty much the same as when I asked about it, a year ago.

Thankfully, none of this is urgent stuff, because we won’t have the budget to get any of it done until next month. I asked which he would consider a priority, if we could only do one at a time. He suggested the MAF sensor. Next would be the block heater cord. Last winter was mild a mild El Nińo winter, so we were fine without it. This year will depend on just how strong the La Nińa current turns out to be.

That done, I made a quick stop at the grocery store across the street, then headed home, with a quick stop at the post office along the way. I had a letter from the government waiting for me. At tax time, I get the caregiver tax rebate, while my husband gets a disability tax credit. These are the only reason why we get anything back at tax time. The caregiver tax rebate is provincial, and has to be renewed every three years. It was time for me to renew it to get it on my 2024 tax return.

It turned out to be easily done online, so that got taken care of quickly.

My intention had been to try and get some more work done outside, while the temperatures were good and there was still daylight.

Instead, I decided to make it a day of rest. Even working on the garden tour video turns out to be something I’m just too tired to do. It doesn’t help that the arthritic in my hands is really kicking in. The crackling noises my finger joints make is truly unfortunate! It makes typing rather difficult at times. At least my wounded finger tips on each hand are healing up nicely. Just the one I dropped the trailer tailgate on is still hurting.

I think today will be a day for an early bed time. I’d like to get a relatively early start for the city. I say “relatively” because sunrise is past 8:20am this time of year, though it is usually pretty light by about 7:30. I do my morning rounds once it’s light out, so I’ll head out shortly after.

I’m glad we got the truck checked today, but I’m not looking forward to doing Costco on a Saturday. Hopefully, making it an early trip will mean fewer crowds.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: winter sowing two more beds

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Mission accomplished!

I really wanted to push to get the rest of the seeds in for our 2025 garden. I still had to wait until the afternoon to start, so the ground had time to thaw from overnight frost. From there, it was a race against time to finish before I lost light. I even managed to get some quick footage for an October garden tour video. I haven’t checked the files yet, though, to see if they are worth using.

This is what I was able to get done today:

The first area I worked on was along the chain link fence. The long bed in the first image above was mostly done already, since I’d harvested potatoes out of it. I even found a couple of little potatoes that I’d missed when harvesting.

It still took a remarkably long time to prepare it, though. The section that had the purple caribe potatoes that never grew was compacted like crazy, even though I’d loosened at least part of it, to plant the kohlrabi.

Those actually had some leaves trying to grow! If they hadn’t been eaten by flea beetles, they’d still be growing now.

There was also the lone Jabousek lettuce that had seeded itself and survived being munched by deer. I got a bucket to use to collect the seeds. There was a lot for just one plant! I ended up putting a healthy scoop of them with the remaining root vegetable seeds, giving it a shake to mix them in with the other seeds, potting soil and vermiculite.

I also cleaned up the chimney block planters along the other section of chain link fence a bit. I just took down the tomato supports and cut the tomato plants at their bases, leaving the roots. I will be leaving those as is until spring.

As for the narrow bed, once the soil was loosened, weeded and leveled, I scattered the seed mix. This mix has Dalvay shelling peas, a few King Tut purple peas we saved, Royal Burgundy bush beans, Hopi Black Dye and Mongolian Giant sunflowers and a few black Montano Morado corn seeds I’d saved, plus onion seeds.

The onion seeds are so much smaller, though, I scattered the larger seeds first, which probably included a few onion seeds as well, then went back over the bed to scatter the remaining onion seeds. There wasn’t enough to do the entire bed, though, but I made a modification, later.

First, though, I went over the bed several times, looking for the larger seeds and pushing them into the soil, spreading them further apart, if necessary. When I found the bush beans, I pushed them into the soil closer to the brick edging. If I had to move peas, I pushed them into the soil closer to the chain link fence. The Mongolian Giant seeds were easy enough to see, but the corn and black dye seeds are so dark, they were much more difficult to spot. I’m sure I missed quite a few. I also replanted the two little potatoes that I’d found.

If all goes to plan, the peas will be able to climb either the fence, the corn or the sunflowers, the beans will have room to get bushy along the outside edge of the bed while doubling as ground cover, and the onions will dissuade hungry deer.

Once I’d pushed in as many of the larger seeds as I could find, I got some of the shallots and onions I’d set aside earlier for replanting. I transplanted them around the outer edge of the end that did not get the scattered onion seeds. These shallots and onions are there to go to seed – and to dissuade any hungry deer, I hope! Everything in this bed, except maybe the corn, is stuff deer love to eat!

After planting the shallots and onions, the soil was gently raked to make sure everything was covered before getting mulched with leaves topped with grass clippings.

That left the root vegetable – and now Jabousek lettuce – seeds to sow. Those went into the low raised bed that the German Butterball potatoes had been in, which is in the second photo of the slideshow above.

When the potatoes were harvested, the bed was weeded, and hadn’t been touched since. All it needed was to break up soil clumps, pull out any weed roots that got missed, soil clumps broken up and leveled.

With this higher bed, I did things a bit different. Anything along the walls of the bed would freeze, since the mulch can only protect from the top. So I focused on making sure the middle of the bed was readied for seeds, leaving about 6 inches from the walls unplanted.

This seed mix has Uzbek Golden carrots, Napoli carrots (an orange variety), Merlin, Bresko, Cylindria and Albino beets, French Breakfast, Champion, Cherry Bell and Zlata radishes, Purple Prince turnips and our saved onion and lettuce seeds in it.

It sounds like a lot, but this was finishing off packets of older seeds, so there wasn’t much of each variety, plus I don’t expect a high germination rate for any of them.

Once the seeds were scattered and gently raked over, they got mulched with leaves topped with grass clippings.

That is the last of the winter sowing vegetables to do! The only thing that could still be sown before winter is the wildflower mix, and that could even wait until spring, if I wanted. The space I’ll be planting them is still covered with an insulated tarp, and that won’t need to be moved to cover the septic tank for a while, yet.

While I was working on this, my younger daughter was taking care of things in the house, including re-installing the arm based over the new tub surround. She was able to find a way to fit the big L shaped bar in, as well, though it does make one of the corner shelves in the surround of limited use, now. Which is fine. The arm bar is needed more.

Now that the arm bars are in, my husband can finally use the shower! Even with the bath chair, he can’t get in and out without the arm bars.

My older daughter is not well today, and we’re all pretty broken and hurting, so my daughter offered to get us take out, if I were up to it.

Yes. Yes, I was!

Meanwhile, my brother and his wife were coming over for one last trip – to drop off the trailer they’ve been using to bring everything from their property to wherever it needed to go. They arrived after I left for town, but I was able to see them before they left. Tomorrow is the possession date for the new owners, so they not only pushed hard to get their own stuff out, but to make sure the new owners had things like flax bales to cover their septic field, and a few other things that got set up for them.

One thing they did was take off their “road sign” at their driveway. When the road past our driveway was named for our family, the municipality made five signs, but only needed four, so my brother was allowed to take the extra. They’ve had it at their driveway ever since. It has now been removed.

That sure made things feel a lot more final!

It would be good if we could use it at our intersection. There was one when we moved in, but then the stop sign it was attached to was knocked down and the road sign stolen. We’re pretty sure our vandal did that, but have no way to prove it, but like we can’t prove he stole the sign with my father’s name on it off the corner fence post, or that he stole the trail cam we had mounted on that post.

The municipality never replaced the road sign. I suspect that if we put this one up on the stop sign that got repaired, it would just get stolen, too.

Well, we’ve got our own painted sign at the corner, with a camera on it in case there are more vandalism attempts. That is working out just fine.

There is, of course, still lots more work to get done in the garden, but getting this winter sowing done was the thing that had to get done first. Now, we just do as much as we can while the weather holds. At the same time, my brother will be coming out as often as he is able, as he wants to sort things to their more permanent locations. Particularly the farm equipment, now that the storage trailer is in place. A lot of small things just shoved into the barn that will need to be sorted into the storage trailer or bread truck (which will be a workshop). He also has a dismantled shelter he needs to rebuild over the tractor that got its radiator damaged while lifting the discer off the trailer. It will need to be replaced, and he’s planning ahead to be able to do it during the winter, so having a roof over the tractor will be very important.

Anyhow…

They got here after I left to pick up the food, but I got home fast enough to at least give my brother a hug – my SIL was so exhausted, she fell asleep in their truck! – before they had to go.

We’re going to be seeing a lot more of my brother and, hopefully, his wife from now on!

That makes us very happy.

Getting the last of the winter sowing done today also makes me very happy.

😊😊

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 garden – I hope!

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Yes!!!

It felt so good to get a really productive day outside. It’s been so long!

I did have to wait until the afternoon, when it warmed up to our expected high of 6C/43F. Even so, some of the areas I worked in that were shaded longer were still partially frozen.

The first thing I did was finish off the bed I was working on yesterday. That little section was shaded and still rather frozen, so it took longer than it normally would have. When I was done, I grabbed a nearby roll of plastic that was rolled up and waiting to be put away for the winter and laid it out on the bed, starting from the shaded south end. It wasn’t long enough to cover the entire bed, but all I really wanted was to get the end that got more shade to warm up a bit, once the sun was able to start hitting it.

Once that was done, I shifted to the old kitchen garden and cleared the rectangular be that had the Forme de Couer tomatoes this year. That bed was shaded by the house on one side so it, too, was partially frozen. After clearing it of weeds and mint rhizomes, I grabbed one of the plastic sheets that had protected the eggplants and peppers earlier, and laid it over the soil. This bed is shorter, so the plastic was plenty long enough.

I had decided to use the high raised bed, which is already prepared, and the open section of the garlic bed for winter sowing, so I didn’t need to clear another bed, yet. Leaving the plastic to warm the soil, I headed into the house and started going through my seeds.

I had already considered what I wanted to winter sow earlier, but I’m always flexible on stuff like that.

After going through my seeds, I decided on some ordered chaos.

I’m also going to need to clear one more bed.

Most of the seeds I will be sowing are older seeds, so I don’t expect a very high germination rate for some of them. I also decided to include some additions.

Here are the beds I was able to finish planting before it started getting too dark.

The first image of the slideshow above is in the old kitchen garden. With that theme in mind, I’ve got more “kitchen” greens. These include:

– spinach – four different varieties
– Swiss chard – two different varieties
– Shallots – saved seed collected from a lone surviving shallot a couple of years ago
– Kohlrabi – both purple and green
– Hedou Tiny bok choi – we got these as free seeds a couple of years ago, but they were smothered by elm tree seeds after they sprouted. A couple of seedling survived and bolted, so I let them go to seed and saved them.

Lastly, I included some onion seeds collected this year. Hopefully including the onions and shallots will keep the deer and damaging insects away.

These and another group of smaller seeds were added to a repurposed herb/spice shaker container, along with some seed start mix and vermiculite I had left over from starting seeds indoors in the spring, and given a thorough shaking.

After emptying this container into the old kitchen garden bed, it was mulched with a thick, insulating layer of leaves that was topped with some grass clippings, as was done with the garlic already planted.

In the next image, you’ll see the bed I had started on last night. This one is now a summer squash bed. Years ago I had accidentally bought three collections of summer squash when I meant to get just one. We’ve been using the seeds for several years now, but they are starting to get old. The only new seeds were the White Scallop patty pan squash. The others are Sunburst (a yellow patty pan), Endeavor (green zucchini), Goldy (yellow zucchini) and Magda (mottled pale greens, similar to zucchini). I don’t expect much for a germination rate for the older seeds.

With these larger seeds, I scattered them from end to end on the bed, then pushed each one into the soil, spreading them out more evenly in the process, used a rake to gently cover them over, then mulched with leaves and grass clippings.

The next two photos – the remaining end of the garlic bed and the high raised bed – have root vegetables, plus protective onion seeds. These include:

– the last loose seeds of Uzbek Golden carrot (I still have the home made seed tape of those)
– pelleted Napoli carrot
– beets – three red varieties left over from before, plus a white Albino variety given to me
– Purple Prince turnip
– radishes – three red varieties left over from before, plus a yellow variety given to me.

Plus, protective onion seeds were added as well.

I used the shaker over the small area next to the garlic, but I honestly couldn’t tell if any seeds got out. I mulched it anyhow, but when I got to doing the high raised bed, I took the shaker lid off and just scattered the mix. I could at least see the pelleted carrot seeds! This bed is shorter, and I ended up not finishing off the container. I’ll find somewhere else to sow the rest of the seeds.

After mulching the high raised bed, I moved the wire cover onto it for winter storage. The wire is open enough that it won’t prevent snow from covering the bed, and the snow is an important part of this winter sowing process.

This left me with two containers of seeds. I decided to plant the flower seeds. I wanted those in the main garden area and decided to use the space by the high raised bed where the pumpkins and drum gourds had been planted. It’s a small space and did not take long to clean up. That last space got:

– Butterfly Flower: Orange shades (a milkweed) that I tried starting indoors this past spring, but never got to direct sowing the rest.
– Forget Me Nots – given to me by a friend
– Nasturtium; Dwarf Jewel Mix – I got those this year and never got around to planting them.

I look forward to (hopefully) have a busy patch of flowers for the pollinators in the main garden area next year! The Nasturtium should also act as a trap crop, luring in insects that might harm some of the other plants.

For flowers, I also have two packages of Western wildflowers mix. I have an area along the edge of the maple grove that has been covered with the insulated tarp, folded in half, since it was taken off the septic tank lid in the spring. I’m hoping that did the job of killing off any weeds under it. Once the tarp is removed, that is where I intend to plant the wildflower mix. It has 16 varieties of annuals and perennials native to Western Canada in it.

I am now left with one last container of seeds to plant, but I was losing light and need to prepare another bed for them. This container has:

– Dalvay peas, including seeds I collected from the ones we planted this past year
– King Tut purple peas; from collected seeds
– Royal Burgundy bush beans
– Hopi Black Dye sunflowers – just one of the two packages I had
– Mongolian Giant sunflowers – I had only one packet of those
– a small number of Montana Morado corn. We’d grown them a couple of years ago and left them to go to seed, as we were going to test grinding them into flour, only to have the cats dump the entire bowl of collected seed. I managed to salvage a few seeds – less than a dozen.

I chose this combination so that the peas could climb the sunflowers, while the pole beans can shade the ground. This group of seeds did also get onion seeds added to it. Everything in here is prone to being eaten by deer, so I’m hoping the onions will be enough of a turn off for them.

After talking to my daughter about it, we figured the place to plant this is in the long, narrow bed along the chain link fence. It’s mostly clear already, as it had potatoes in it this past year. There’s just one self seeded tomato plant still needing to be cleaned up. Plus, the kittens have been using it as a litter box, so that needs to be cleaned out, too.

So that is my plan for tomorrow. To get that last group of seeds winter sown seeds in. Then, I’m hoping to get a bit more clean up before taking the garden tour video I’d originally intended to take in the middle of the month. This will be the last garden tour video of the year.

In the spring, once the snow is melted away, the mulch on all of these will need to be removed, to allow the soil to warm up and the seeds to germinate. If all goes to plan, this will give us a head start to our 2025 garden.

With most of these, I completely finished off the seeds I had left from previous years. I still have plenty of other things that can be started indoors, and others for direct sowing.

Next year’s garden will be very, very different from how this year’s garden turned out. Not having four 18′ beds dedicated to winter squash and melons is going to make quite the difference! We will be planting fewer tomatoes next year, too.

Even if this winter sowing experiment doesn’t turn out turn out, I could get away with not buying any new seed this winter.

I will still buy more seed, of course! Just probably not until a month or two from now. I’ve already got my eye on some rare heritage breeds that I’d like to grow, if only to help keep the varieties going.

Mostly, though, I’d like to finally get some new beds started, and get at least one permanent trellis built.

If the weather holds.

We shall see.

I’m just happy with the progress I got today!

The Re-Farmer

Well, I didn’t get the progress I intended…

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But I did get progress!

My original plan for today was to get a garden bed ready to plant garlic in.

I ended up going into town, instead. My daughter’s transfer from PayPal went through, and she sent me the funds for two new heat elements for the hot water tank. Then, since I was in town anyhow, I make a quick stop at the grocery store to refill our big water jugs.

We still don’t have hot water, though.

Using the large socket set my brother loaned us, we first tried a practice run on removing the anode rod from one of the old tanks.

It would not come loose, no matter what. The socket wrench in this set had an extra long handle, so torque wasn’t the problem. It could also slide so that you can grab it from both sides of the socket.

Nothing.

This was an old tank that died a year ago, so perhaps that was part of the problem?

The current hot water tanks’ breaker is off, but I still double checked before setting it to drain completely. After a while, we tried to take out the original anode rod.

Nope. It was not moving. We also had the extra challenge of the tank trying to spin around, but not being able to hold it in place as easily as with the tank was wasn’t right up against a wall.

So that got set aside. I’m going to have to ask my brother for help with that.

We popped open the panels to access the elements, but ended up not doing anything. I just don’t want to take chances with anything electrical and, since we need my brother’s help anyhow, it would just be easier on my mind to leave it for him.

What I could do, though, was start setting up for the powered anode rod. It came with a 12 foot power cord. That was long enough to reach the outlet the sump pump is plugged into. I set up hooks to hold up the cord along the floor joists for the bathroom floor, while also keeping it away from the various water and drainage pipes, and still have a bit of slack at either end.

At times like this, it’s handy that the old basement’s ceiling is more than a foot lower than the new basement. Short little me can reach without any problem!

Meanwhile, we were kept up to date on how things were going for my brother and SIL. By the time they loaded the two trailers, their truck and their friend’s SUV, it was past 4pm by the time they could leave!

I made sure the gate was open for them. Then, when it was getting close to the time I expected them to arrive, I headed outside. I wasn’t going to be able to start preparing a garden bed to plant garlic in, but I could at least work on the small bed the Crespo squash was planted in. The A frame trellis, with its cross piece broken by the weight of a squash, and its netting was still there. I got the A frame parts and pieces unsecured and set with the stakes from the beds in the main garden area. Once all of the stakes, posts, nets, ties, etc. are gathered up, they’ll be sorted and bundled before being put into the old garden shed for the winter. There are a lot of broken bamboo stakes this year, but I might be able to use some of them for other things.

Once the stakes used to make the A frame trellis were set aside, it was time to clear the net of squash vines and pole beans. That took the longest to get done!

Once the net was bundled up and set with the rest of the stuff for winter storage, I pulled the rest of the squash vines out of the bed. The compost ring is, handily, right beside this bed.

I was just pulling the supports for the peppers in the bed beside it, when vehicles and trailers pulled in. By the time I set the supports aside and joined them, they already had one trailer backed up to the barn, both sets of doors open, and were already unloading.

With the four of us working together, unloading went very quickly, all things considered. Still, with two trailers and both vehicles loaded, we lost light quickly.

We got to enjoy another beautiful sunset, though!

Not as brilliantly orange and red as yesterday, but still very dramatic and gorgeous!

With the possession date on their sold property coming up fast, they just put everything into the barn, even though some of it will need to be moved out to their storage trailer and the old bread truck that will become a workshop. My brother is going to have to sort through and organize things later one. That’s going to be a huge job!

Even with all this going on, they had us in mind. Yesterday, we had the extra lumber that they gave us for our small building projects, as well as a heated water bowl from when they had dogs. Today, it was traps! They have two live animal traps. One is smaller; they used it for squirrels getting into their sheds. It’s big enough for a small cat. The other is a larger, two door trap that’s the next size up. After putting those in the garage, I made sure to message the Cat Lady. She was going to lend us a trap so catch the feral females for spaying, but the last person they lent it to hasn’t returned it. Now, we have two! That will come in very handy over the winter. The goal is to trap and spay as many of the feral females as we can before they go into heat in the spring.

If all goes well, the cat isolation shelter will get good use this winter!

Once everything was unloaded, they had to leave right away. Hopefully, tomorrow will be their last loads out here – at least, the last ones that need trailers to haul out!

Which means my goal of getting a garlic bed prepared and planted has been shifted to tomorrow.

It’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow, anyhow!

Another delay, but considering it meant getting that much closer to having hot water again, plus helping my brother and SIL out, it was worth it!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 – and 2025 – garden: final harvest, prepping for next year, and a long, long evening

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Yes! Finally!

I got work done in the garden!

It was pretty chilly this morning, so I didn’t get started until about 10 or 11. With overnight temperatures dropping below freezing, regularly, I focused on our final harvest. The German Butterball potatoes, and the sunchokes.

I’m actually really surprised by how many potatoes we got out of the bed. It wasn’t a very large bed, and the other potatoes we planted we pretty sparse. Plus, there is our compaction problem. Even so, after removing the mulch and pulling the dead plants, I was able to gather a surprising amount, just by brushed the soil aside with my hands.

I also managed to damage only two potatoes with my garden fork! 😄

The potato bed is a foot deep and, when I prepared it in the spring, I pulled out a lot of Chinese elm roots. Today, I was pulling out even more! It’s remarkable, how much those roots invade the raised bed!

I didn’t finish preparing the bed for winter, though, and left that for later, when I have more time to do a thorough weeding and removal or roots.

From there, I went to the sunchoke bed. I harvested the nearer half of the bed before I popped inside for lunch. I even grabbed a few potatoes and sunchokes to include with my food!

They were very tasty.

The second half of the bed took much, much longer, but I think I got most of them.

If you click through to the second photo above, you can see the sunchokes spread out. I went through them to pick the bigger ones for replanting. A couple of them were big enough to split before planting them.

There is one problem with the sunchokes. I tossed a few of them because they had some sort of worm in them. I assume it’s actually a caterpillar or some sort. They seem to burrow into the chokes and then just die. Some of them didn’t even burrow all the way, and at least once, I picked one up and saw half the worm wiggling away.

Being so close to the Chinese Elm trees, I was not surprised to find a lot of roots, though I found myself hitting a really massive one. In the second half of the bed, I found myself harvesting about as many rocks as I was finding sunchokes!

If you click through to the next image, you can see that Kohl was my helper today.

Also, I was pulling out some pretty big rocks! I could feel myself hitting what seemed to be even larger ones. I couldn’t get the garden fork under anything to be able to try and lift it out. I tried to dig out as many as I could, which slowed things down considerably.

When it came time to replant the chokes I selected, I made some changes.

I decided I needed to make the bed narrower, and further from the chain link fence.

A couple of sunchokes had come up close enough to the fence that they grew through the chain link, so I dragged over a couple of boards that we found inside the outhouse when we cleaned it out, and set them up as a barrier.

After removing all those rocks and loosening the soil, I laid out the chokes I picked out for replanting. I then used the soil I’d pulled aside while harvesting the sunchokes to build up a shallow mound over them. I then used some of the old mulch that had been set aside and set it all around the mound of soil.

I think got the rake out and started to gather leaves.

The rake’s handle snapped on me, so had to find another one!

I gathered two wheelbarrow loads and set those on the mound of soil over the sunchokes. Then I used the sunchoke stalks and set them on top, to keep the leaves from blowing away, as well as adding an extra layer of insulation.

I was just finishing this up when my brother drove in, pulling a trailer, followed by a friend pulling a second trailer, and finally my SIL. They have been working to empty the sheds before the new owners take possession of it – just five more days! – and had originally expected to arrive here at about noon.

It was closer to 4pm before they finally made it!

My SIL backed the car up by the garage to unload – they had more smaller pieces of wood for me! There was even some clear plastic, like what we used on the cat isolation shelter, shelf boards, pieces of plywood and more. All things perfect for the small building projects we want to work on.

The trailers were first taken to where their storage trailer and former bread truck are parked. The bread truck is going to be a workshop, so there were tools and equipment to go in there. Then they backed one of the trailers up to the barn to unload.

Things were going into the lean-to side of the barn. When the barn got a new metal roof, for some reason, the lean-to roof wasn’t done. It is covered with metal sheets that used to be parts of billboard type signs.

They all leak, now. My brother will need to cover things in there because when it rains outside, it rains inside that side of the barn, too!

Quite a few things stored in the lean-to had to be moved around or – in the case of an ancient washing machine – out! That will be included in the scrap pick up, whenever that happens.

Once space was made, they could start unloading some things from one trailer into there.

When that trailer was emptied, the other trailer was brought over to be partially emptied. Some stuff was emptied into the pump shack for storage, including something from my childhood!

When I was little, and the “new part” of the house wasn’t built yet, we did not have running water in the house. We did have a bathtub set up in the pump shack, and a wood burning cookstove for heating water.

At some point, my mother was going to get rid of that old stove, so my brother took it.

It is now back in the pump shack!

It’s a smaller cookstove than the one we have in the old kitchen, but it still has a water reservoir opposite the fire box, and a simple warming shelf that is just a open shelf, nothing more. The one we have in the old kitchen has an enclosed warming shelf with doors that swing downward. The one in the old kitchen is too damaged to use anymore, though, but this one is still functional.

So that has come full circle!

As hard as they pushed to get things unloaded, it was soon full dark and they were nowhere near finished unloading! The big trailer went from barn to storage to the pump shack and back to the barn, several times, and then they had to unload the truck, too, which was jammed full.

When it got full dark, I used the flashlight on my phone to help them see to unload. After a while, I gave my phone to my SIL to hold, and I went to get our large flashlight.

My SIL ended up leaving earlier, once they reached a point where she could no longer help out. I couldn’t do much to help, either, but I could at least hold a flashlight, so they could see! The barn, pump shack and even the old bread truck all have lights inside them, but it was in and around the trailer itself that needed light.

Eventually, they put all they could into the barn, then went back to the old bread truck and storage trailer. At that point, I had both the flashlight on my phone, and our big flashlight, going at the same time, and lighting up opposite areas, as they went back and forth.

Finally, they got it all unloaded, but had to put away straps and various other things before they could leave. For that, they moved the trailer under the yard light, so they could see.

At that point, I said my good nights and headed inside. With all the digging around in the garden earlier, and the evening getting chillier, my pain levels were really starting to get up there. As it is, I’m having difficulty typing this post because all the joints in my fingers are trying to seize up. 😞

I expect more things will be dropped off tomorrow, and probably the day after, as well. After living in one place for 30 years or so, and my brother being “Mr. Fix-It”, they have a whole lot of stuff to clear out – and this is after they’ve thrown things away, given things away, and sent things to an auction house.

What’s being brought over are also things my brother intends to use here on the farm, for maintenance and repairs – things we haven’t been able to keep up with since the tools and supplies that used to be here were all disappeared before we moved in. He probably won’t be able to do anything much until after winter, but I am looking forward to learning many things from him!

The next few days are supposed to be pretty nice still, so my plan is to get as much as possible done in the garden beds. The garlic needs to go in, and I’m hoping to get at least one bed winter sown with a mix of seeds.

Now that the potatoes and sunchokes are finally harvested, that can finally be my priority again!

For the moment, though, I need to pain killer up and try to get to bed. Even as I was writing this, I could feel muscles in one thigh trying to cramp up. I really, REALLY do not want to deal with another Charlie horse tonight!!!

The Re-Farmer