rain

Why couldn’t we have gotten this in the summer?

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

The predicted rain actually reached us for a change. Our weird climate bubble didn’t push it away. It’s been raining all night and, at past 2pm as I write this, is still sort of raining.

We really could have used rain like this, over the summer!

Unfortunately, I’m finding my window leaks.

It’s the only original window left in the house. Before we moved out here, my brother convinced my mother to have the windows replaced, since sheets of Lexan on the inside just wasn’t cutting it. New windows probably reduced the winter heat bill in this place by a couple hundred dollars a month! She balked, however, at doing the north facing window in what used to be her own bedroom. Too expensive, she said, and refused to pay for it (the living room window, meanwhile, probably cost at least twice as much, just on its own!).

This is actually a pair of windows, side by side, creating a long, wide rectangle together. One half has a screen and we used to be able to open it. At some point, Lexan sheets were installed on this inside. While the turning handle to open the window is still clear, the window itself can no longer be opened – and there’s no point to opening it, since there’s a sheet of Lexan on the inside.

During a driving rain some time ago, I discovered there was a drip between the Lexan and the window on the side that didn’t open. I was supposed to seal it on the outside, but completely forgot. It seems it leaks only if there’s a driving rain in just the right direction, and it didn’t leak again after that one rainfall.

Until today.

The first thing I noticed is that the window on that side is fogged up on the inside. Eventually, I could see the drip.

Some hours later, I sat at my computer, when I realized I was seeing wet all over the top of my printer and the various other things on there. The printer is directly under the window that we used to be able to open.

My first thought is that a cat had gone into the cat bed on top of my drinks fridge, then sprayed over the printer. Because we have cats that are dicks and would do that. Then I saw the drip! I don’t know exactly where the water is getting in, but it seems to be flooding on top of the molding framing the window (this window is in a log wall, so it’s quite deep) enough to travel across and drip on the inside side of the Lexan panel, rather than in between the glass window and the Lexan panel.

*sigh*

Unless we can fine some way to remove the Lexan panels, it’s going to take days for things to dry out once the rain stops. Then I have to get out and put sealant around the window on the outside.

I’m not sure how the Lexan was installed. A frame for the Lexan is screwed directly to the wood framing the two windows. The Lexan sheets, however, are on the inside, against the window frames themselves. Basically, it’s a spacer between the Lexan and the window frames, which means the panels were add after that inner frame was screwed in place. The only alternative would have been removing the windows and putting them back again which, of course, didn’t happen. The panels themselves have their own plastic frames around the edges, and I can’t tell what’s holding them in place against the screwed in spacer frame.

If these can actually just be popped out somehow, that would be helpful. We could then set a fan facing the window to dry things out, and we wouldn’t have to wait for days before sealing up the outside.

We’ll figure it out.

For now, I’ve had to set a towel up on the edge of the window that’s dripping on the inside. It does seem to have finally stopped raining, more or less. It’s supposed to continue until past 4pm, but still potentially have sporadic rain off and on until midnight or so.

We’re actually under two weather advisories right now. One for heavy rain, the other for high winds.

Which is what we definitely had while I was doing my morning rounds!

The cats really appreciated having shelters to go into to eat. The ones that normally like to eat on the cat house roof were willing to use the kibble house, for a change! 😄

Once the bellies were full, the tiniest kittens were back in their new favourite cat bed.

Except for the one that came over to me and was snuggling against my boot!

The tinies might be more than eager for human attention. Blot is now a constant presence in the sun room and the tinies love to cuddle him (her?), but so far I’ve only managed to sneak the odd pet.

The white and grey adult cat on the right of the photo is one of the trio we used to have; Magda, Frank and this one that never got named. Madga, who got spayed, and this one both disappeared, while Frank stayed to have her babies. Then this one came back, looking more grown up and burly, but still quite small. At first, we thought he had an injury beside one ear but, over time, I’m starting to think he’s got really severe ear mites in that ear.

This morning I dug out an umbrella to do my rounds, but I probably should have just worn a hoodie. The winds were so high, they almost yanked it out of my hands. It’s a good thing it’s one of those big golfer’s umbrellas. Anything smaller or of lesser quality would have been flipped inside out.

The weather meant an indoor day, which I suppose worked out. Today is Sunday and is supposed to be my day of rest. If it weren’t for the rain, I would have been back out, digging in the garden, or under the canopy tent, sorting through bins that need to go back into the sun room, or stored somewhere else.

I’m glad I set that taller shelf in front of the bathroom window. The cats are using it to look in, including some of the smaller kittens. It’s just a joy to see my husband coming out of the bathroom, all excited to tell me about which face he saw peeking in the window while he was in there! He’s in so much pain all the time, seeing him happy because of what was really such a little thing to do, is pure gold. If that means converting the entire sunroom over to the cats and storing my tools and supplies elsewhere, it’s more than worth it.

Rainy, cloudy weather like this always makes me sleepy, so once the morning rounds were done, I did end up crashing for a couple of hours.

I had to fight for bed space, though.

Leyendecker, alone, takes up a lot of space!

As I write this, there are twelve cats scattered all over my bed.

This afternoon, I did get one “extra” thing done. I brought out the little bins of green tomatoes we harvested before a frost in early September. Almost all the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes ripened beautifully.

In the second picture, you can see the ones that are still green or under ripe. I’m really impressed with how these turned out! Chocolate Cherry tomatoes seem to do quite well in our area, even if they get harvested really early and really green.

The other bin had the Black Beauty and Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes in it. The larger Black Beauties had ripened, but the smaller ones just sort of started to dry out, instead. The Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes did ripen… sort of. The larger ones ripened but started going bad at the same time. Some of the smaller ones got to orange before they started drying out. Others didn’t change at all. They just got wizened. So there weren’t many of those to set aside for eating or cooking, and the rest went into the compost bucket.

Well, it does look like the rain has actually stopped for now. I should take advantage of that and head outside for my evening rounds, feed the ferals and see if we lost any more trees or branches.

The Re-Farmer

Ongoing

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

All day, we’ve been under an ongoing thunderstorm watch.

Sort of.

These watches cover a massive area. Looking at the weather radar, none of it seems to be heading to us. Instead, all the systems seem to be splitting off to pass either the north or south of us.

I had been holding off watering the garden because of these possible thunderstorms, hoping we would at least get some rain. I finally started watering the old kitchen garden this morning, and it actually did start raining hard enough that I stopped and went inside, planning to continue later.

Then the power outage hit.

Finally, when it was time to head out and feed the outside cats, I planned to finish the watering.

I was still filling various bowls with kibble when my pocket started screaming at me.

We were getting a tornado warning to our cell phones, complete with instructions to find shelter.

I could hear some thunder in the distance, but there was nothing over us to suggest any sort of storm or rain, never mind a tornado.

My daughter was on her computer when her phone went off so she looked it up. It turns out that while we were in the service range for the warning, we weren’t in the geographical range. That was to the south of us. Nothing was headed our way.

So I finished feeding the cats, then wandered through the garden area, checking on things while deciding whether I was still going to water or not. I could hear equipment running and voices on the road, so I went closer to see what I could over the lilac hedge. The electric company was replacing the top of a power pole across the road from us.

I’m sure they would have gotten the same tornado warning we did and, if it had been for our geographical area, they would have been ordered to pack up and leave!

I started watering, including the new food forest additions. It was while I was there that a second tornado warning with instructions to take shelter came in.

This is what the sky looked like at the time.

I could hear thunder from both east and west, but that was it. Once again, our climate bubble was in action.

I was able to finish watering without interruption.

We’re still supposed to get some rain today. There is a system that is supposed to actually pass over us this evening, with the more severe portions still missing us. We might get actual rain for about an hour. For all the watering I did, any rain would still be a blessing.

However, I’d still be more than happy for the rain to miss us, if it means all those fires get the rain instead. The current count is something like 700 fires across the country, making it the worst fire season in 30 years.

While the severe weather missed us, a homesteading friend who lives south of my mother’s town posted some video she took. While I was outside, watering the garden, she was getting a massive down pour, and hail started to fall while she was recording. It was absolutely insane to watch! They were under the geographical tornado warning area which, thankfully, did not happen. We are still under an ongoing severe thunderstorm watch but, from what I’m seeing on the weather radar, the system has already passed us and moving on into the next province. For our area, we might, just maybe, get some rain. Which is supposed to be happening right now, but the system split off to pass on either side of us again!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

We got rain!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Before heading to bed last night, I noticed the forecast was starting to suggest rain by this morning. Just a bit, and a fairly low chance of it.

By morning, my weather app was telling me things like, “rain expected to end in 30 minutes” or the like. When I headed out to do my morning rounds, though, it was barely even spitting.

With today expected to be much cooler, I didn’t water everything this morning, so my rounds were done a lot faster. Then my daughter came by to let me know that she had called in a prescription that she needed to bring to her doctor’s appointment, tomorrow. I didn’t realize just how much faster I was done my rounds until we had left and I was thinking to stop at the post office and realized they had only just opened!

By the time we left, though, it was actually raining. A gorgeous, solid rain!

It was still insanely smoky, though, and the smoke got thicker, the closer we got to town. There’s a large fire on the other side of the lake, so they were getting hit by the smoke a lot more than we were.

Both my daughters were not feeling well all last night, and no one was up to cooking, so they decided to treat us with burgers. When we finished at the pharmacy, they still weren’t open, so we drove around to take a look at the lake.

Which we could barely see! It was still pouring rain when I too the above photo.

It was no longer raining when we got home, and the smoke was far less. The good news was in checking the weather radar. The rain we got was being pushed straight towards the biggest fire across the lake. There’s rain up north, too. As welcome as it is, there isn’t anywhere near enough to do much for all the fires. From the looks of it, we won’t be getting more for almost a week.

My goal for today is still to get more transplants in, but delay due to rain is not a bad thing!

The Re-Farmer

Cold, wet and windy, and how we said goodbye.

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Today turned out to be pretty unpleasant, overall. Our high of the day was supposed to be 9C/48F which, according to the hourly forecast, was supposed to happen around 9am, with temperatures slowly dropping since yesterday afternoon. When I headed outside at around 8am, it was 5C/41F and still slowly dropping. As I write this, at past 5:30pm, we are currently at 3C/37F, the wind chill is -10C/14F, and it’s still supposed to drop more.

When doing my rounds this morning, I plugged in and turned on heat lamps in various shelters. The kittens will certainly need them! The bigger, mobile kittens have all been hanging out in the cat house together, instead of the sun room. The heat bulb in there is on a light sensor, so it’ll turn on as it gets darker, when they’ll need it the most.

The forecast for the overnight low has wobbled from -2C/28F to the current 0C/32F, but the coldest temperatures are not supposed to hit until 7am tomorrow. Meanwhile, high winds and rain continue. Yesterday, I’d uncovered some of the garden beds so they could get rained on. I goofed with the high raised bed, by lifting the sides. The plastic was all bunched up on top, so it wouldn’t get hit too hard with driving rain. This morning, I found the weight of water collected in the plastic was enough to bend the hoops all out of shape. I was able to re-cover the beds, but that one took some extra fiddling with. I never did take the plastic off the bed in the old kitchen garden, which turned out to be a good thing in the end. The sump pump is going off pretty regularly now, so that bed is getting watered from below, at least.

As I went out to do the morning rounds, there was only minimal wind damage found so far. The chunk of maple in the West yard, in the first image, was the worst of it.

The second image, which is focused in totally the wrong place, is of the Liberty apple leaves! It has survived its first winter with the coldest of Zone 3 temperatures (last winter was pretty mild). Not too shabby for a Zone 4 tree! This suggests that the micro climate in the location we chose for it is actually helping.

In the next photo, also focused in all the wrong places, you can see the leaves on the new apple tree we planted this spring. Good to see that it has taken.

After that are some leaves on one of the mulberry bushes – they both now have tiny leaf buds unfurling! I had been starting to wonder about those. They both definitely have some cold damage to the tips of some branches, but they have survived their first winter. While these are supposed to be hardy to our zone, they are also tucked in gaps of the lilac hedge, which should act as a protective microclimate, too, until the mulberry get bigger. They were planted where they are, partly to fill the gaps the deer were getting through.

The very last image is of something completely different. That is a sugar snap pea shoot! I found several of them coming up already.

We’re going to have to put something around/over that bed soon, to keep the deer from eating them.

Which confirms to me that any peas that were winter sown in the bed against the chain link fence are toast. The one sprout I did see is simply gone. I thought I saw some bean sprouts, but now I can’t find them. Just some weeds and onions, really. No sign of any of the corn or sunflowers planted in there.

So I will replant that bed, but not quite yet. The Chinese elm seeds are starting to fall and, while the netting is helping keep them off, the seeds are collecting along the edges, which will need to be scooped away. Also, between the cats and the wind, the netting is getting slid up the hoops, allowing the seeds to get under. What I will probably have to do is pull the netting off completely, straighten out the hoops as best I can, then use ground staples along both edges of the netting when they are being replaced. I’ll do that when I resow into the bed. We have quite a few ground staples, but this bed will need a lot, so I’ll be getting more as soon as I can. I still have a packet of Hopi Black Dye sunflower seeds I can sow, and I’ll probably plant pole beans along with them. If they survive and start getting too tall for the netting, we’ll have to find some other way to protect them, because the deer really love both beans and sunflowers.

The kitties, meanwhile, are doing okay in the cold and the wet. I’m not seeing anywhere near as many adult cats these days. I haven’t tried to do a head count lately, but I’m thinking under 20 in total, for the adult cats, for sure. Even Brussel isn’t around as much, leaving her babies to the other creche mothers!

A lot of the fixed cats have lost their collars, so today, several of them got brand new necklaces.

Even Kohl got her first necklace! We’ll have to keep an eye on her, as I don’t think she has reach adult size yet, and I had to make it pretty short to fit her. The Grink and Magda are still way too small.

Poirot, meanwhile, as been spending a lot more time with her babies, now that it’s gotten cooler!

We have chosen names for her babies.

The mostly white one is Miss Lemon. The white and grey is Captain Hastings. The black with white spots on the belly is Inspector Japp.

In other things…

My husband had a medical appointment this morning. This was the appointment we had to reschedule last time, because my husband was in too much pain and walked out before ever seeing the doctor (and where the appointment times were messed up). There must have been some notes added to his file, because they got him into the examination room 5 minutes early, and someone came in to take his BP right away. The doctor came in a bit on the late side, but only by a few minutes. We went over his most recent lab results, and another medication is being applied for (it needs approval for coverage with our province’s pharmacare system) and will be added to all the others he’s already taking. He’s got his first appointment at the new pain clinic next month, so we’ll see if they change up any of his other meds. At some point, they might actually find a pain killer for him that does more than just take the edge off.

My husband felt well enough that we even stopped at the grocery store and picked up a few small things. The next time we go to a city shop, we’ll need to pick up more flour, but that’s not something to buy locally. It costs almost twice as much. I might actually make a trip to the nearest Walmart tomorrow. Tomorrow is Saturday, and I didn’t get to do a dump run last weekend, so I’m hoping to get that done. We’ll just have to get a tarp or something to secure the load, now that we no longer have a box cover, so we don’t end up losing bags of garbage on the highway. I still need to gather the required info together to file a claim with our insurance and see if they’ll cover a replacement. I did notice damage to the truck I hadn’t seen before. Where the remaining piece of the box cover was twisted out of shape, I realized that a section of the box frame itself was twisted, too. It was just partially hidden by the remaining piece of the cover. The amount of force needed twist that is amazing!

One thing about today’s overcast dreariness is that I have been feeling incredibly sleepy. Once we got home, I went straight for a nap. The house has been cold enough that we actually turned the furnace back up. I’m noticing that, while my phone and desktop weather apps are both saying we’re at 3C/37F still, the old tablet I have set up as my clock and weather monitor, is telling me we are at -1C/30F right now, and that our expected low will be -2C/28F! It really makes me wonder where the weather station that app is connected to is! It almost always reads colder than the other apps.

A dreary day for a dreary mood, continuing from yesterday, and our trip to the vet.

Our elderly Freya had been declining for some time. Even before her more obvious physical decline and something going very wrong inside her mouth that we were never able to see, she was at that stage where we would see her peacefully sleeping, thinking, awww… how cute. Then checking to see if she was breathing.

We knew it was time but, lately, between trips to my mother, stuff with the truck, other running around, etc., I just hadn’t gotten around to calling a clinic. The Cat Lady recommended the clinic we’ve been doing the spays and neuters at, as having lower prices.

I actually called them up twice, yesterday. The first time, I was put on hold and, as I was waiting, I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen Freya all morning. Nor all night. The last time I’d seen her, she’d gone to the dining room to eat cat soup, and I found blood in the tray after she was done. She had been spending more of her time sleeping in my room and, at feeding time, I would take a bowl of soft food, just for her, go to where she was curled up (usually in her favourite box bed) and hold it until her chin until she either started eating, or moved away and didn’t eat at all. She hadn’t eaten when I brought her some cat soup, so I was glad to see her leaving the room to eat later, but she never came back to my room after that. She wasn’t around when I did the morning feeding. So when the receptionist got back on the line, I briefly told her why I was calling, but said I would have to call back later… maybe. It was entirely possible Freya had found a quite corner somewhere and passed away. The receptionist was very understanding.

I searched ever spot in my room that she normally went to, and there was no sign of her. I searched various possible hidden corners in the dining room. Nothing. The other areas she might have gone into were closed off. I let the family know to look for her, then went into the basement to check on things there (we’ve got both blower fans going in the old basement, to try and keep the seepage down; today, I added another fan), while my daughter looked for her.

My older daughter finally found Freya, asleep on her sister’s bed. My younger daughter was in the shower and missed all this.

Freya hadn’t gone up those stairs in months, so no one expected to find her up there!

My older daughter then brought Freya down, and she immediately curled up in her favourite box on my bed, while I called the clinic back.

After explaining the situation, they asked how soon we wanted to do this, and I said sooner was probably better, given the pain she was having.

Knowing we were in another town, she asked how long it would take us to get there. They could take us in pretty much right away.

It takes a little under and hour to get there, so we booked the appointment for during the noon hour. I also got the cost (just over $200, after taxes). On informing the family, my younger daughter said she would come along. My husband and older daughter had time to give Freya goodbye cuddles, and then we were off.

Freya was comfortable in her box bed, so we just put her, box and all, into a cat carrier with a side opening door. My daughter was able to open it and pet her as we drove. She never quite settled during the drive, though. It’s amazing how much you notice the bumps on a road, when you know they are causing pain.

We left early enough that I stopped and ran into a store to get some squeeze treats for her. My daughter gave her 2 of them (there were only 4 in a box) as we drove the remaining distance to the clinic, and Freya was quite enthusiastic about the treats!

Once inside, all the paperwork and paying was done at the start. The clinic has a separate room, with its own exit door, used for times like this. It’s larger than the other examination rooms, and has comfortable seating available. Once all the paperwork was done, we were set up in the room, and given a few more minutes alone with Freya. We opened up the carrier, and she quite eagerly went exploring. She did stop to enjoy the last two squeeze treats, though!

The vet came in after a while, along with a second vet that was just starting at the clinic and along as part of her orientation. While I wasn’t in their system until today, we’ve been here many times through the rescue, and the vet recognized us.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do this, so she explained the entire process to us. Things have certainly changed over the years. They were to give two injections; the first was the same used to put animals to sleep before surgeries. Then, after about 10 minutes, she would get a final injection, and not feel a thing.

My daughter got to hold Freya while she got the first injection, then the vets left. Freya was soon asleep with her chin tucked onto her paws on my daughter’s shoulder. We both got to cuddle with as she slept, before the vets came back, gave the final injection, and listened with a stethoscope until she could tell us it was over.

From there, they left us, saying we could spend as much time as we needed. They started to assure us that, as we left through the other door, a chime would go off, and someone would come get Freya right away, so she wouldn’t be left alone, but that was if we were going to do a cremation. We were taking Freya home with us, so that was not an issue.

I have to say, I really appreciate how well the clinic handled all this. The last time we tried to have a cat put down, we were still living in the city. We tried calling the Humane Society. The first issue was how long it would take to get an appointment. Almost a week. The next was that they were going to charge extra if we wanted to stay with our cat while it was done. !!! The cat passed away before we could get her to the vet. We tried to make her as comfortable as possible, but it was pretty hard to watch. My older daughter was pretty traumatized by the whole thing, really. So how things went yesterday was really about as good as things could be, under the circumstances.

Once we got home, my daughter and I went to the space I’d prepared for our incoming plum tree (which, according to the tracking, just got processed in the city today, so it should arrive locally on Monday). We dug the planting space out again, then kept going so we could bury Freya in her favourite box bed, and have room above her to plant the plum tree.

We have ridiculously rocky soil, but I think the physical labour was helpful for my daughter.

When we were done, my daughter picked a bouquet of dandelions to place on top.

The whole thing was a lot more comforting. We’ve lost a few cats since moving out here, both indoor and outdoor, and those circumstances were considerably more difficult. My daughter and I have both comforted cats and kittens as they passed in our arms. I’m glad we were able to give Freya a peaceful end, and she is no longer in pain.

The cold and dreary skies, however do suit our mood right now.

The Re-Farmer

Three more walnuts planted, and an unexpected treat

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We got a nice little down pour in the wee hours of the morning. Not enough to refill the rain barrel, but enough to water things nicely.

Knowing it was going to get hot today, I made a point of having breakfast before I did my morning rounds, as I planned to stay out longer to do some planting, before it got too hot.

While checking on the covered garden beds, I tried to open them up a bit so they wouldn’t get too hot inside during the heat wave (we haven’t reached the hottest part of the day yet, and we’re already at 31C/88F) today and tomorrow, while still giving them protection.

I was hearing thunder the whole time I was outside. As I was gathering my supplies together into the wheelbarrow, the rain started coming down again. It didn’t take long for me to get quite wet before I could dash inside! I ended up waiting until about 8:30 before heading out again, though I’d really hoped to have been done by then.

I went through the bag of walnut seeds and found three that were showing roots and needed to get into the ground right away. That worked out perfectly, as there were three spots marked out along the wet side of the lane I want to keep clear to the second gate. It the second picture of the slideshow above, you can just barely see a dot of orange in the distance, marking the northernmost spot.

The first thing to do was rake around the markers, clearing them of dead grass and debris – and any little poplars coming up that I’d missed, before!

Next, at each marker, I removed a circle of sod, which I quartered and set aside to put back, later. Once the sod was removed, I dug around a bit more to loosen the soil and remove any rocks I found in the process.

Once the holes were dug, I added some of the indoor-outdoor potting soil my brother gave me, mostly filling the holes. Then a plastic collar was set into the soil. The loose soil and and sod (placed upside down), along with any rocks I’d dug up, was set around the collar and the hole in such a way as to create a sort of moat, so wany water would drain towards the middle. Then, all of them got a thorough watering. I actually have a couple of photos reversed. The one with the arrow shows where a walnut seed is. Each got pushed into the moist soil, root side down, and the marker was inserted into the soil near it. Each collar got topped up with more of the bagged soil and pressed down gently, before getting a final, thorough watering.

Once the seeds were planted and watered, I raked up more dried grass to set around as mulch.

Here was have the three planted areas, with the grass mulch set around the collars for mulch. The very last photo shows the “combed” area I’d raked the dead grass out of. I just thought it looked rather funny. 😁

Three seeds planted; five more to go! All of those will be planted on the east side of the lane, and closer to the inner yard fence.

While it hadn’t gotten really hot yet, things were pretty muggy, so I was more than happy to get inside!

I had some plans to head into town today, which turned out to work out for everyone. Because of her work schedule, my older daughter basically didn’t see me on Mother’s day until some time past midnight. She wanted to treat me with a Mother’s day dinner today. After the four of us discussed options and ideas, my younger daughter and I left for town in the late morning.

My first stop was at the place our truck is insured at. I talked to someone about the wind damage to the truck, asking if it was something the insurance covered. She didn’t know for sure, but gave me the number I needed to call and find out. Since the cover isn’t actually part of the truck, she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be covered, but it’s worth asking.

The next stop was at our usual Chinese food place to place an order, only to discover they were closed. We keep forgetting. They are always closed on Mondays. After talking about it with my daughter, we decided to try the other Chinese restaurant. We keep forgetting about that one, but I’ve been there for sit down meals a few times while waiting for my truck to be worked on, since it’s in a hotel right next to our garage. This restaurant, it turned out, closes on Tuesdays, so we were good! 😄

After going over the menu and deciding on things for my husband and myself, I left my daughter to take care of the rest while I went to the pharmacy. My husband had ordered refills of his injections for delivery, but getting them faster was preferrable. While there, I also picked up some liquid, spray on bandage. The little calico kitten has a strange wound on her back leg, and lost some skin. We can’t bandage it and, while we’ve been applying antibiotic ointment, it really needs more protection.

That done, I got back to the restaurant early enough that my daughter and I popped across the street to the grocery store, where she picked up drinks to go with our Chinese food. We got back just in time for the food to be ready.

That was a very nice treat from my daughter – and no need to heat up the house more with cooking, today! The air conditioner in the living room has been turned on. We need to start bringing the fans up out of storage in the basement.

In the end, it has turned out to be a more productive day than I expected it to be, with this heat.

One more hot day, and then it’s going to get downright cold again! I’m certainly happy to have gotten those walnuts in!

The Re-Farmer

A wet, wet day!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

A large weather system has been slowly moving over us since some time last night. It’s been raining all day, and is expected to continue to rain through to about 4am. Some areas were getting rain and snow, but mostly, it is rain. Our temperature has remained steady at 4C/39F since the wee hours of the morning, so even though it feels like -2C/28F, there’s no snow right now, and the overnight low is supposed to remain above freezing. While there have been storm warnings for some areas, we’re just getting a steady and constant rain.

Image created by WP AI.

A good pajama day.

Not least of which because I got zero sleep last night. I don’t even know why! I was just awake and, strangely, feeling excited. Like something really great was about to happen.

Not a bad reason to be awake all night, I suppose!

I finally got up to join my daughters at about 5 or 6am. This is the time of the day when my older daughter is winding down from her work night, and my younger daughter is getting up to start her day, so they like to make a meal together – breakfast for one, supper for the other! They made a potato soup, using potatoes we still have left from our own harvest. It made the house smell so good! Since I didn’t sleep, I was, of course, already feeling hungry.

Once it was light out, past 7:30am, my younger daughter went out to do the morning rounds. I enjoyed some soup for breakfast, then managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. Which would be a lot easier if I didn’t have so many cats that like to use me as a bed! 😄

So it’s been a quiet day overall. Just the usual household stuff. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to the town north of us to pick up more kibble and a few things at the grocery store. The day after, I’m taking my mother for her eye treatment in the city. I almost forgot about that! Things must be improving, because she has not been complaining about her vision, at all, for quite some time. I do hope she doesn’t try to cancel at the last minute, because she thinks she’s dying, again. Based on her last visit, her next treatment might be 5 or 6 weeks later, rather than 4 weeks.

For now, I just want to get a full night’s sleep for a change!!

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

A city trip, kitten cuteness, and another deluge

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Today, things are a supposed to be a bit cooler than the past couple of days, but it sure didn’t feel that way while doing my rounds this morning! I’m writing this at a little before 7:30pm, and we’re still at 25C/77F. We were expected to hit 27C/81F this afternoon, but I’m pretty sure we beat that.

We did have rain overnight. Enough to refill the rain barrel, so I made sure to put the diverter back on. I’m glad I did!

Though several hours had past, and it was quite hot out already, it was so humid that nothing was drying. The grass and plants, I would expect, but even the sidewalk and patio blocks, and the front steps, were all still damp. By the time I was done and got back to the house, my feet were soaked!

After finishing my morning rounds, I was planning to go to the city, but made sure to call my mother and check on how she was doing. She sounded really good. We talked a bit about her prescription change, and that I would be calling the clinic on Monday to get her an appointment with the doctor to talk about them and get her prescriptions updated for the pharmacy. Of course, now that she’s back on one pill she was told to stop for a short while, then get the blood tests she had done at the beginning of the week, plus another pill is now morning and evening, instead of just evening, she has immediately begun to associate starting the medications again with whatever she happens to be noticing at the time. Lately, it’s been “dry mouth”. Not anything close to the medical dry mouth that can be a symptom of various things, but she doesn’t understand just how extreme the medical condition can be. From what she describes, it makes me think she is either dehydrated (for all our encouragement, she is just not drinking anywhere near enough water) or sleeping with her mouth open at times – or both! Well, she woke up with a dry mouth this morning, so it must be because she restarted taking that one pill, yesterday. More alarming, she started saying that maybe she should stop taking it again, and…

I stepped in at that point and reminded her to not start messing with her medications. Again!

*sigh*

We talked about it for a bit, and I reminded her that she’s been complaining about that for quite a while now, both with and without that one pill. She did admit that this was true.

As we were talking and I mentioned I was planning to go to the city, as my own little “day off”. This is my birth month and, when I was asked if I wanted to do the usual take out again, I said no. I wanted a grocery shopping trip! Not just any grocery shopping trip, though, but a more luxurious one. 😄 So I got a rather generous budget, instead!

I mentioned my birthday was coming up, too, and my mother had forgotten about it completely. Which doesn’t bother me at all. If it weren’t for my family and Facebook, I’d forget my own birthday. I even forget my age, most of the time. 😄

Anyhow.

When she found out I was going to the city, my mother wondered if I could pick up some milk for her along the way. 😄 I had intended to take a different route, but that was fine. I told her I’d do it on the way out, not on the way back, since I would have things in the truck that needed to stay cold.

So that was worked out. Before heading out, I remembered to return our reusable bags – most of them insulated – to the truck, including one filled with ice packs.

Then it was off to my mother’s town, a quick stop to pick up her milk, and a brief visit.

She was sweet enough to have an envelop with a monetary gift for me. Which I made sure to say, she did not need to do. I appreciate the gift (gas money!), of course, but I don’t want her to think she’s in any way obligated to gave me anything.

I did have to chuckle when I transferred the cash to my wallet, though. It was $50, which was very kind of her. What is funny is, with my brother as PoA keeping track of her finances, I know that she sent our vandal a check for $1000 for his birthday, a few months ago.

*shakeshead*

She has such a terrible habit of making things worse for herself and is completely oblivious as to how what she does can be such a problem. I mean, it’s her money, she can do what she wants with it, but to even keep having contact with our vandal, after his years of verbal abuse and trying to get her to change her will to leave this farm to him instead of my brother… what was she thinking???

Ah, well.

Once done at her place, I made a stop at the gas station. This time, I just preset the pump to $30, then went inside when it was done to get some food and a drink for the road as well, since I forgot to have breakfast. After I paid for everything, making sure to say which pump I’d used, I drove away from the pump and off to the side and parked. After opening my drink and setting up my food (I even keep a plastic plate in the truck, to protect the seat, for times like this), I checked my phone for messages before leaving.

There was a purchase notification from my bank that I started to clear, when I noticed something strange about the number.

I hadn’t paid too much attention inside the gas station as I was paying, and I don’t normally keep the receipt. I thought I’d heard the woman on cash give me the total, but clearly I’d heard wrong. This number was way too low!

She forgot to charge me for the gas!

So I went back inside.

I explained that I hadn’t got my receipt, but I saw my bank notification, and I didn’t think they charged me for the gas. At this point, I was talking to two women behind the counter, including one I see almost all the time. As soon as I mentioned the gas not being included, they both looked at each other and said “The $30!” After I’d left, they’d noticed the indicator on the machine inside, but I guess neither had seen who had gotten gas there!

I’m so glad I checked my phone before I left! If I hadn’t, I would not have seen the notification until I’d parked at my first stop in the city! I’m also glad I have my bank app set up to send me those notifications, too, I might not have noticed at all, even when checking my accounts, later!

Once that was cleared up, it was off to the city. I had a regular shopping list as well as personal shopping, and my first stop was at a large Walmart. I ended up getting most of what was on my list there, including more kibble. For myself, I picked up a couple of t-shirts, since I’m managed to stain pretty all of mine, including my new ones. I tried looking at shoes, too. I need to replace my indoor shoes, which I’d found at a Walmart, but I just can’t find another pair like them. The ones that are similar don’t fit my feet right. I ended up having to skip the shoes again. I did amuse myself by first looking at women’s shoes, including some “wide” pairs. Ha! Wide compared to what? I was looking at several sizes larger than my feet, and they were all so narrow, I didn’t even bother trying any on.

It’s not just a problem with shoes. Most of my clothes these days come from the men’s section. Even the Plus Size women’s clothes are just wrong for my body type. The fabrics and overall quality tend to suck, too, and even plain shirts tend to be more expensive.

So I’m happy with my very plain, very generic, men’s t-shirts!

That done, I packed everything into the truck, but was left with a bit of a conundrum. One of the things on my list that I picked up was a couple of packs of ice. They went into an insulated bag along with some other things that needed to be kept cold, plus ice packs I’d brought from home. I made sure to keep those bags in the cab, with air conditioning, but once the truck is parked, it gets so hot, the insulated bags can only do so much!

It just meant I needed to do the rest of my planned shopping a bit faster.

The next stop was at the international grocery store, which I haven’t been to in ages. It shares a parking lot with a Dollarama, so I dashed in there, first. They had the taller, plastic coated metal support stakes in stock, so I bought 8 of them. These ones each some with an adjustable plant tie, and cost $3. The same size support stakes, without the ties, cost more than twice as much at Canadian Tire, and Walmart doesn’t even have them.

That was my mother’s birthday gift to me. 😄

Part of why I wanted to go to the international grocery store was to go to their eatery section and treat myself to dim sum for lunch. Oh, how I love their dim sum!

It was also the place to pick up a nice selection of cheeses and charcuterie meats. I even found truffle enhanced gouda this time!

The fungus, not the chocolate.

I’m thinking, a Columbo marathon and some charcuterie with the girls. My husband wouldn’t be joining us, though. He likes Columbo. He doesn’t like charcuterie. 😄

While I was in the city, I got a message from my husband. He told me they’d just been hit with a wicked thunderstorm! They didn’t lose power or anything, but there was definitely a nearby lightning strike!

There was also a deluge.

Did I mention I was glad I put that rain diverter over the full barrel?

It was probably another hour and half after the storm ended, that I got home. Before leaving the city, I’d sent a message about driving into the yard to unload. My daughter went out to check the status of things, and suggested that was not going to be an option.

The moat was back.

Wow.

When I got to the gate, the driveway was still full of water. So was the entry through the vehicle gate into the yard. The ground there is already really soft, but with open water all around behind the garage again, the truck would have torn up the grass, or even gotten stuck, if I’d driven in!

My daughter helped me carry everything in. We didn’t even try to use use the wagon. Once loaded with things like 9kg bags of kibble, it would have sunk into the mud, too!

Once everything was unloaded, I gave the cats their evening feeding, then checked around the yard. It was the wheelbarrow that really showed me just how much of a deluge we got. This morning, the wheelbarrow had just a couple of inches of water in one corner. That corner now had about 8 or 9 inches in it! All the low spots around the garden were full of water.

Everything in the raised beds, though, is very happy! They got their fertilizer just a little while ago, and now they got a deep watering. Nothing seemed to be damaged by the rain itself. The winter squash is getting really big, and even the much smaller melon vines are seeing a growth spurt!

As for the cats…

I’m happy to see that Brussel’s babies are hanging out around the house now! Well. At least the orange one. The other two are black and white and, while one has a distinctive patters on its nose, there are so many black and whites or grey and whites, and they run around so much, it’s hard to identify them at times.

Thanks to a donation of kitten kibble, I’ve been making a point of mixing a bit of it in with the adult kibble, then putting the food around outside the sun room, first. Once the adults are distracted by eating, I put kitten kibble in the bowls inside the sun room, where the kittens prefer to hang out. Not all of them, though. Quite a few are coming to the house to eat, but they haven’t discovered the sun room, yet. By including some kitten kibble with the adult kibble that gets spread in some of the areas they are willing to go to, they will at least get some of it before the adults eat it all!

When I was done with the feeding and checking of the yard, though, I wasn’t able to go back in through the sun room, as Adam was busy nursing some babies in front of it. So I went in through the main doors, then went into the old kitchen to finish putting things away. From there, I spotted Adam through the window. She had moved outside, and was nursing a whole bunch of kittens – including Brussel’s orange baby! She had kittens climbing all over each other, trying to reach the nip, and she was just laying there, putting up with it all!

What a good creche mother she is!

I do sometimes see two other mamas nursing babies besides their own, in or near the sun room, but none on the scale that Adam does!

So, that has been my day today. All in all, I’m pretty happy with a more relaxed trip to the city, and am looking forward to treating myself to some really awesome cheeses!

I wonder if the girls are up to a Columbo marathon tonight?

The Re-Farmer

Aaaannddd… we got more rain

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

This morning, I was planning to work on shifting that last bed in the main garden area. I knew it would be wet, but figured it wouldn’t be too bad by then, since the rain had stopped so much earlier than forecast.

I didn’t real we got more rain overnight.

There is even more open water around the inner yard than every before. The ground is so saturated, it’s just got nowhere to go.

We’re supposed to get quite warm today, and tomorrow they’re now saying to expect a high of 28C/82F. The forecast now also says no rain until Friday. Which would mean, counting the rest of today, 5 days with no rain, and most of Friday, too.

I really hope this forecast is accurate!

I didn’t get to work on the low raised bed, but I did get to check out other things.

The first of our Purple Caribe potatoes have flower buds!

There’s only about 5 plants that have grown, with most of the row empty, but one plant is much, much bigger than all the others.

I also found a little frog friend. 💚

I managed to get a decent picture of Junk Pile. She normally doesn’t sit still long enough. I also saw all four of her babies, though I only got pictures of three. They are spending most of their time in the sun room. Understandably, they are more nervous than before, and are quick to run under the shelf counter to hide.

As for Junk Pile, I was keeping tabs with the critter cam last night. I saw her nursing her babies in the sun room and being generally maternal.

Then I heard her start growling and attacking something in the opening of the tied off outside door.

She didn’t succeed in driving the racoon away, but she tried!

I went and chased it out. It had gone straight for the cat cage, where I like to keep some food for the kittens.

We have got to do something about the racoons!

There is still no sign of the white and grey babies, though I do see the mama every time I go out to feed them. I startled Broccoli’s two in the garden shed when I opened it to leave food inside for them. I probably shouldn’t do that, since I want them to come to the front of the house, but Broccoli stands guard over them and being very protect and, after what happened to the newborns, they are probably safter in there. Mind you, they aren’t quite so helpless, but still…

So I’ll be monitoring how things are outside today, and see how much things get absorbed. While doing my rounds this morning, I went to check the barn to make sure the top half of the back door didn’t get blown open again. The tall grass has been flattened by the wind in places, and my pantlegs were still soaked to above my knees. I was splashing through water the whole way. All around the house in the inner yard, I’m seeing water where I’ve never seen it before, even growing up here as a child. My brother, who would remember things much clearer than me, says the same thing. I still hope to get work done on that bed, since tomorrow – Monday – is supposed to get so hot, but it might have to wait until Tuesday. Wednesday, I’ll be making my first city shopping trip, then the second one on Friday, so I’ll be trying to get things done in between. If things dry up enough, my daughter might be able to do some mowing while I’m gone, too. At least in the parts we’ve managed to mow so far.

Looking at my posts from a year ago, we’re not that far behind. It was a year ago tomorrow that I got our last transplants in – however, I also had our direct sowing done by now, and this year we have barely any direct sowing to do.

We went a little nuts on the winter squash and melons this year. They need a lot of space.

If I can’t work on the bed, I should at least remember to plant the new purple bush beans seeds I picked up, to replace the ones where only one germinated.

Mostly, though, I want to get that last bed done so I can finish transplanting the onions! Once those are in, time will be less of an issue. It shouldn’t even take all that long, either, since it’s not full of creeping Charlie and the soil doesn’t need to be sifted.

Well, if not today, we should be able to get it done tomorrow.

Unless it rains again.

The Re-Farmer

Afternoon critters, and yes – more rain!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I was able to make my trip to the nearest Walmart (a 45 minute or so drive) to pick up some kibble to last us until we have our first stock up shopping trip in a few days. As I was driving home, I was seeing people all over, with their riding mowers, trying to get as much lawn cut as they could before the rains hit. Something our own grass/lawns are too tall and too wet to do.

Once I got home and unloaded, I stayed around outside to give the yard cats a feeding and pay them some attention.

I’m glad I stayed out longer, because I saw Syndol coming in much later, limping! His right leg is injured, though he is putting weight on it, and it does not appear to be broken.

I recently had to break up a fight between him and Shop Towel. It was the first time I’d seen Shop Towel go after Syndol! I guess Syndol is now adult enough for Shop Towel to consider him a rival. Unfortunately, I’ve seen seeing Shop Towel actually stalking other males while they’re gathered around and eating. When he does go after them, he is absolutely vicious. I am pretty sure he is the reason a number of our males, plus other visiting toms, have disappeared over the years. If we can’t get him neutered, we’re going to have to figure out something to do about him. He’s injuring and possibly killing too many other cats. Judgement is missing again; hopefully, out exploring for the summer, but Shop Towel has been after him, too, even though Judgement is now neutered and wouldn’t be giving off that testosterone scent anymore. While Shop Towel has allowed us to pet him at times, since we’ve had to break up so many fights of late, that’s no longer happening – and right when we have neuters booked, early next month! Unfortunately, even if we do get him neutered, that doesn’t mean he’ll actually stop picking fights. We have indoor cats – male and female – that have been fixed since they were quite young, and they still go after Ginger and Butterscotch.

As for Syndol, he came about half way to the kibble house and then settled in the grass, looking nervous, so I ended up picking him up and carrying him to one of the food bowls in the kibble house. Shop Towel was eating in the shelf shelter. When he came and, I could see him going into stalking mode, targeting some of the cats in the grass, and I ended up having to persuade him to leave. Then he came back, and I had to do it again!

Meanwhile, I spotted what I thought was the grey ball of fluff in the junk pile, eating under the shrine.

I was wrong! It was one of the kittens from the grey litter. I still haven’t seen any of the others, nor have I seen the white and grey litter, but at least we have one coming back for food!

I knew for sure it wasn’t the junk pile kitten as I came closer and saw it run away from its favourite perch next to the chain link fence. I wasn’t able to get a good picture of it, but I dig get a picture of another friend!

A bright green tree frog!

I just love those tree frogs. They are so adorable!

When I came closer to the grey kitten under the shrine, it hid around the back of the pedestal. I noticed the kibble I’d left there was almost all gone already, eaten by a group of adult cats, so I got another scoop for it and, hopefully, the little one in the junk pile.

By then, it was starting to rain, more than an hour earlier than was forecast before I left for the city. We are now under a storm watch, and the rain is supposed to continue until 7am tomorrow! From the weather radar, the worse of the storm system will pass to the south of us, but I’m hearing plenty of thunder out there, right now. With the ground still so saturated, I can see from the garage came that our driveway is covered with water again. The driveway is getting to be more grass than gravel!

I really hope we get enough of a break from the rain that we can do something about our lawn!

Oh, and while I was at the Walmart, I picked up another package of the purple bush beans that don’t seem to be coming up, except for on, right now. I’m hoping if I plant more now, and we really do get the break in the rain until Wednesday that is forecast, they new ones will come up. I will probably sow more of the summer squash in their pots, since nothing has come up there at all. Hmm… I should probably set some seeds to soak and maybe even pre-germinate. Then at least I’ll know if it’s the seed that’s the problem, or the weather.

Hmmm. According to the weather radar, we should be under moderate to heavy rain right now. The rain has actually stopped. Looks like our climate bubble is still in action!

The Re-Farmer

Good grief!

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Our forecast had changed to rain starting last night, continuing though today and tonight, no rain during the day tomorrow, but rain again at night.

Well, all of that seemed to just hit us at once, last night!

It started off gentle enough, to I left our remaining transplants out, but let my daughter know they were out there. When she heard the downpour, she ran out to bring them in.

She also found kittens in the sun room again.

All of them.

They were still there, this morning. The mama may have wanted them in the cat house, but they definitely prefer the cat cage in the sun room!

It was looking like I wouldn’t be up to working on that next bed today, last night. I had to get someone else to put the bath chair in the tub so I could take a shower. Then, as I got up from my office chair and walked across the room, I got hit with a Charlie Horse. I ended up needing one of my daughters to assist me for the next while, until I could finally crawl into bed.

In the end, it’s a moot point. There is no way we’re going to be doing much of anything in the yard or garden today.

The paths around the garden beds are all full of water, including around the beds that still need to be shifted. The melons I planted last night seem to have handled the battering just fine, as did everything else, which I am most thankful for. In fact, of the stuff that got planted earlier, just about everything is growing really well. The only exception is the struggling spinach, really, and that is a different issue completely. Spinach has been really hit or miss for us. Either it does really great, or not at all.

So we shift our goals for today.

With Father’s Day and my younger daughter’s birthday being in the same month, my older daughter is planning to treat us to a pizza night, later this week. We were also going to do an extra trip ahead of that, as she has other things she wants to get (like heat and eats for those hot days when no one is up to cooking), and I’m planning to get a cake of some kind. Probably a cheese cake, as that’s the birthday girls’ favourite. 😊

So we will be doing that trip, today. We’ll be heading to the nearer city, so I’ll be taking advantage of that to combine errands.

We are supposed to get a bit more rain this evening, then on rain for three days, then rain all day on Saturday. Hopefully, those three days will be enough for us to get more done in the garden, and get those tomatoes and Zucca melon transplanted!

Since moving our here, we’ve had drought, heat waves, flooding, and now spring so wet, we’ve now got more water in the yard than we did the spring we flooded! At least roads are being washed out.

As far as I know, anyhow!

Well, it is what it is. We’ll just have to deal with things as they come. What else can we do?

The Re-Farmer