progress

Old kitchen garden, retaining wall progress

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

I am so happy I was able to get back to working on this today!

It is now basically finished for this year!

Here is where I started today.

I loosened the soil and leveled off the space where we could fit 1 more of the chimney blocks. In the process, I realized that I could completely miss the bunch of chives. However, I wanted to add a block to form a corner, so I decided to dig some out for transplanting, first.

After discussing what we wanted to put in these in the future, we decided to transplant just some of the chives into two blocks, just inside the corner. The bottoms were stuffed with mulch, then topped with peat, before transplanting. More peat was added, later.

I then went to work on the opposite corner, which had a bit of a problem.

That metal fence post is every so slightly in the way.

The ground here also started to slop upwards towards the house on this side, so I had to level the area by taking soil away from the area. On the other side, I had to level the soil by adding to it!

As for placing the block, I found I could push the metal post aside, just enough for it to line up right.

After everything we jammed in and settled into place, the post ended up being very close to straight, still. So I was happy.

On to the next step!

I raked the mulch I had moved aside, right up against the blocks, then used some of it to jam into the openings until they were filled to about an inch or two from the tops.

Next, I put a layer of peat on top of the mulch.

As I worked my way down the line, I added more mulch to some of them before adding the peat, just to make sure there was a deep, tamped down layer.

I then gave all of them a thorough watering, to give the decomposition process a bit of a head start – and wash off the tops of the blocks a bit.

As it breaks down, I expect the mulch and peat to sink by an inch or two. That will give us the space to add soil as we plant things in them.

As for the small openings, my daughter and I talked about filling them with sand or gravel. I don’t mind the idea of filling them with soil and planting things in them, though they are really too small for that. Even just leaving them empty will serve as a layer of insulation to protect the soil in the middle. However, if we were to put sand in them, it would keep unwelcome things from starting to grow in there, plus give a nice base to add garden stakes, supports, or even solar lights for lighting up pathways.

Since we’re stuck with those metal posts anyhow, I like the idea of using them to string decorative LED lights across, too. :-)

I’m pretty happy with how this area is starting to shape up.

For those new to this blog, here is what the area was like, when I started cleaning it up last year.

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four

We’ve made a lot of progress here! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Clean up: the old wood pile – a bit of progress

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

It’s been a while, but I managed to get a bit of progress on cleaning up the old wood pile.

This is almost how it looked when I left off last time.

I didn’t realize I’d neglected taking a picture after we shifted the doghouse aside and I took away the pallet it was on.

Today, I started digging and pulling up what I could of the rotted out pallets.

Continue reading →

Making mead, part 4: transferring for second fermentation

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

We’re back to making Meeeeeead, Baby!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

We are actually a bit late on this. After 10 days in the fermentation bucket, when we should have started sanitizing things and transferring the must to the carboy, we were instead dealing with hot water tank problems.

Pretty sure it’ll be fine. ;-)

Continue reading →

Clean up: old wood pile, progress

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

I was able to get about an hour of clean up in the old wood pile area. I made sure to check the temperature before I headed out, and it was only 22C. Thank God it wasn’t any hotter, because even that felt way too hot.

Y’know, I’ve always wanted to travel, and go vacation on some tropical island. I still want to do that, but I am realizing that I’d just die in the heat! :-D

So this is where I left off, yesterday.

Continue reading →

Clean up: old wood pile progress

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Today has been a very unproductive day. I felt exhausted all day, to the point of falling asleep at the computer. I even tried to nap, but that was a failure. Mostly because I’m a suck, and I didn’t have the heart to move the sleeping pile of cats on my bed. :-D

It was my turn to do the cat litter tonight, and I headed out a bit early to do the sun room litter pans. It seemed cooler, so I stayed out and worked on the old wood pile area. I didn’t get very far. Again, I was feeling exhausted, and was dripping with sweat. This is not usual for me.

Then, just before starting this post, I checked the temperature.

27C – feels like 30C.

Which means it was even hotter while I was out there, even though it was about 7pm at the time.

That might have something to do with how I was feeling!

This is what I managed to do, in the short time I was out.

Continue reading →

Clean up: around the outhouse and moving the debris pile

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Ah, what a perfect day to work outside! This morning, it was cool enough that I actually wore…

*gasp*

…long sleeves!

:-D

The goal was to move the debris pile from where I’m clearing in the old wood pile to the area behind the outhouse. Which meant I first had to clear around the outhouse.

Here is how it looked before I started.

Continue reading →

Making mead, part 3 – one last stir

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Part 1
Part 2

This is what the must looked like this morning, before I did the first stir of the day.

Bubbly bubbly!

I love me some CO2 action!

At the time of this writing, we’ve done the second stir of the day. The instructions we are using as a guide said to stir it twice a day in the first 48 hours, so this was the last one. We now leave it, loosely covered and untouched, for the remainder of 10 days. After that, we siphon it off into the carboy, leaving behind any sediment, set up the airlock, then tuck it away into the basement for a minimum of 4 weeks. After this second fermentation, it should be ready to bottle.

We will, of course, have to taste it first, and see if we’ve got mead. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Clean up: old wood pile, today’s progress

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

It’s been awesome to finally have some cooler weather, and a chance to get at least a bit more clean up done!

This old wood pile continues to prove itself a bigger job than expected.

Here is how it’s been progressing since I started on the area, if you want to look at earlier photos.

First post
Second post
Third post

Continue reading →

A little bit of progress. And kittens

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Today was a statutory holiday, and the pharmacy my daughter works at is closed for those, so my daughter had the day off. We still made a quick trip into town, as there was a festival going on. It was the market we wanted to check out, after I mentioned some of the vendors I saw. Unfortunately, half the market wasn’t set up today, so it was a bit of a wasted trip.

Except we got churros. Which makes up for that. These are a once a year thing, so it’s a really special treat. :-D

Another treat we had was when we got home and found the little furry bean, lying in a sun spot.

Is this little guy gorgeous, or what?

While things are starting to cool down, it still wasn’t until evening that I headed out into the yard to water a few things. I was pleasantly surprised to see Guildenstern coming into the yard with her baby.

After watching them for a bit, Junk Pile Kitten ran into the lilac bushes, so I settled myself on the steps at the door on that side and watched.

I was not disappointed.

What a beauty! Just look at those eyes!

He came pretty close to me, playing with a couple of the sun room kittens that came by. Including his brother, Keith. :-)

I was able to get a bit of pruning done in the yard. Some of it was getting rid of low hanging branches that were starting to hang too low. Some of it was in the lilac near where I’ve planted the haskap berry bushes. Some of the branches were hanging low enough to be all stabby at me when I try to mow around the bed, but most of what I cut away was dead branches, twisted among and around the live ones. That opened the bush up quite a bit.

The kittens immediately took advantage of that.

There was 4 of them in there, at one point! :-D

As I was hauling the branches off to the wood pile, my husband went around to get some photos of the sun going down through the trees. We could see a cat off by the pump shack. After putting the wheelbarrow away, I decided to see which cat was out there, because Beep Beep has been pretty vicious about chasing Rosencrantz off in that direction.

It was, indeed, Rosencrantz, but I had another pleasant surprise, too.

She and her baby are using the pump shack again! It looks like the little guy can squeeze himself through that hole in the bottom of the door.

The hole was not that big before.

He is such a dark grey little kitty!

The other kittens came around, and he did play with one of them that came over, a little bit, but for the most part they stayed away from each other.

I’m really glad they have stayed nice and close. I hope Pump Shack Baby will make friends with the sun room kittens and start coming to the house for food.

I may not have gotten a lot of work done outside, but seeing the two other kittens is enough to make up for that. :-D

The Re-Farmer