skunk

Evening visitors, and growth progress

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Yesterday evening, I happened to glance out my window facing the garden and saw a deer making its way into the yard. Something startled it and it ran off, but I figured that would be a good time to do my evening rounds – and check the sunflowers!

I headed out through the sun room and found another visitor.

The cheeky little bugger completely ignored me and the noise I was making as I came out the sun room doors.

He seems to have some odd matting in his fur. Or maybe something it caught in it?

It wasn’t until I started moving further from the doorway that he started paying attention to me.

(Yes, I was zooming in to take photos, and then I cropped the photos. I was staying well away from Stinky!)

He was not a happy Stinky! I just kept moving away, and he eventually ran off through the old kitchen garden.

So I made sure to go around the other side of the house, to check the garden! :-D

After checking the sunflowers and making my way back to the house, I saw Stinky again – with a friend! – running through the back yard towards the old garden shed. Of course, that was the direction I needed to go! I was able to skirt around them, then use the garden hose to discourage them from coming closer.

Alas, we did lose one of the smaller sunflowers.

I took this picture this morning. This is one of the third variety of giant sunflowers that we planted much later, to replace the ones we lost in the original planting.

The survivors of our first planting are doing pretty good, I think!

Most of them are approaching 5 feet in height, now. Once they got higher than a couple of feet, the deer seemed to ignore them. One of the last ones that got its top chomped off is surviving quite well, and is growing a new “head” from the side of the main stalk. I have high hopes that the most recently decapitated sunflower will do fine and grow a new head, though being one of the variety planted the latest, chances are it won’t have long enough of a growing season to fully mature. We shall see.

I’m just really impressed with how big the pattypan squash plants are getting! They are also filled with buds and blossoms, and little baby squashes. None of the others are even close. There’s a good possibility these will be the only squash that actually produce this year. Which is okay. This year is our experimental year. Anything we get is bonus, and we’re learning a lot.

I keep forgetting to take pictures of the potatoes. They actually look rather sparse, as far as foliage goes, but some have started to bloom, so we can definitely look forward to having our own potatoes this year. Whether or not we use the same method to grow them will be decided when we harvest them.

I also found a rather dramatic surprise this morning, when checking on the carrot and beet beds.

This is a chokecherry tree growing among the sour cherries that are doing so poorly. When I went past it last night, the berries were all still green!

This one is mostly by the cherry trees and a lot of other stuff that we will be taking out (the cherry tree by the house has ripening berries on it, but none of the ones in this other location). I want to make sure to keep the chokecherry tree, since it seems to be doing so well, now. Our first two summers here, this tree didn’t even bloom, so we didn’t realize what it was!

There is another chokecherry tree, in behind where the sad little Saskatoon bushes are, that also decided to bloom and produce this year. It is in an area still filled with spirea that we need to clear out.

Another surprise this year is that we have more, stronger and healthier Saskatoon bushes, hiding behind the stack of boards and junk that have Junk Pile kitten her name. (No kittens in there, this year!) They are still producing big, juicy berries. There is another chokecherry tree growing with them. It’s berries are still very green. In this location, this tree is in shade most of the time, whereas the other two get a lot of sun.

Which had me curious about the other trees we’d gathered chokecherries from, over the past two summers.

It was pretty windy when I tried to take this photo, so it’s not very clear, but you can see there are no red berries on here, yet. A few of the berries are starting to show just a bit of a blush on them. This tree has more shade, being planted so close to the maple grove and rows of spruce trees my parents added on the North side over the years. The berries on this tree ripened later than the other two I checked next, but the berries it produced were larger and juicier.

This chokecherry tree is being choked – by lilacs! It is tipped way over and hanging down. My daughters and I have been talking about what to do with this one. I’ve been thinking of cutting away the lilacs surrounding it, then adding some sort of support I can use to train the tree to start growing upright.

My daughter suggested we leave the lilacs, and get rid of this chokecherry! The lilac hedge serves as both a privacy and dust screen from the main road that goes by on this side of the property. It has quite a lot of traffic, for a gravel road. The reason my mother spent so many years planting and extending this hedge was partly because of just how much dust drifts in, every time a vehicle drove by. Plus, every now and then, vehicles going by would slow down to peer into our yard and garden. And not just the year we grew “konopie” from seeds my mother got from Poland, after regaling us with stories from her childhood. It turned out that konopie is Polish for hemp, but someone thought it was marijuana and stole a row and a half of it.

Anyone who tried to smoke that would probably have gotten rather ill rather than high!

Anyhow. The lilacs serve a purpose, and in that location, privacy and dust screening is more important than having chokecherries. Especially since it turns out we have so many more, elsewhere.

This chokecherry tree is also among the lilacs.

Unlike the other one, this one is growing from the inside of the hedge, instead of out from the middle of it somewhere. So it is growing straight and tall, rather than falling over. In the last couple of summers, I found that of the two among the lilacs, this one also produced better berries, and ripened sooner, than the one that’s falling over.

There is also a small chokecherry tree growing in the middle of the area I move, near where the falling over chokecherry is. It likely sowed itself, but over the years, it has been allowed to grow, rather than getting mowed over. We will likely leave that one be. In the open as it it, it will have lots of light and space to grow straight and tall, and eventually produce lots of berries.

It’s a good thing we like chokecherries. I like to eat them straight off the tree, even though they are very … astringent, I believe the word used is. Given how many trees we’ll have producing berries this year, we can expect to have lots to make things with!

The Re-Farmer

Furry friends, and making do

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Last night, while heading out to do my evening rounds, I had a little surprise – a stinky friend coming out of the sun room!

I wanted to use water from the rain barrel, but Stinky had other ideas! :-D

He is not, however, the furry friend I was alluding to in the title.

While mowing the outer yard today, I saw a little dark shape, running across from the deep grass to the pile of junk that needs to be hauled to the dump.

Then a mostly while shape followed.

Two little kittens! About the same size as the inside kittens.

I am guessing they are Junk Pile cat’s babies, but they might be Rosencrantz’s, too. I saw no mom around.

This means we might start seeing kittens show up at the food bowls soon!

Which reminds me. I noticed, a couple of days ago, that Butterscotch is no longer pregnant. After what happened with her last litter, it’s hard to guess how many will survive. :-(

Also, this evening, I won lawn mower chicken! I was doing the very last patches of grass for the night, when the mower started to stutter. I just managed to back it up over the last bit of grass when it coughed and died, completely out of fuel! :-D

While I was finishing up with the lawn (though I still have the area in front of the storage shed to do – tomorrow!), the girls tended to the gardens, including thinning out the carrots. We now have lots of little, bitty carrots to snack on. They are all new varieties for us and, so far, they all are quite tasty! :-)

This morning, before I headed into town, I had a conversation with one of my daughters. Later, when I was at the hardware store, that conversation had me looking extra hard at the display of 20 x 20 inch box fans. We need at least a couple, including one for the old basement to replace the one that disappeared.

I finally broke down and bought one.

Plus a package of 20 x 20 furnace filters.

We now have a poor-man’s air filter! :-D A furnace filter is attached to the back of the fan with a few little strips of duct tape. For now, it’s sitting on my husband’s leather working desk as we test out how it works, before deciding on a final spot to put it. This one will stay in the living room, though. Depending on how things go, I hope to pick up another when we’re in the city, for the basement window. For now, I want to see how well it does in keeping the levels of cat hair down! :-D

I also had to pick up a round file while in town. I still haven’t been able to put on the second latch on the screen window. I did find a round file in one of the miscellaneous drawers in the basement, but it’s the wrong type, and was doing absolutely nothing as I tried to enlarge the opening for the new latch post. Hopefully, this new one will do the trick.

The cats and kittens have, of course, been exploring the counters and shelves in the basement, and I’ve been finding a few things knocked to the floor. Yesterday, I found a piece of wood with a rose design carved in relief into it, lying on the floor. Today, I found another piece of wood on the floor; this one had floral designs on one side, and my late brother’s name carved on the other. I don’t recall seeing those when we cleaned up the basement before bringing Beep Beep and Butterscotch indoors. I’d forgotten my brother had tried his hand at wood carving, too, and you can see quite a skill improvement between the two pieces.

While looking for a round file, I also found a small carving tool. I recognize it as part of a set we had, when I was quite young. There were at least a dozen different types of blades in the set. In fact, I’m pretty sure the wood box it came in is what’s now under my computer monitor, raising it up to a more comfortable viewing height. That box now holds my late father’s hair cutting supplies. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the wood carving tools. Considering how long ago we had them, I’m surprised to have found the one that I did!

I set it aside for sharpening. It has a flat tip, like a very fine chisel, that I think I will find useful.

Funny how, after being here for more than 2 years, we’re still finding things like this! :-D

The Re-Farmer

A good morning!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

As I write this, I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around how not-late in the day it is. :-D It feels like it should be early evening. Granted, part of that might be the lighting out my window North facing window right now. It’s looking a bit dark out there, even though it’s not that cloudy. We’ve got another storm heading our way. The storm itself looks like it will pass us on the North, but we’ll likely get some rain. There’s another storm that might hit us, during the night, but I suspect that one will pass by us as well.

Anyhow.

After tending to the kitties this morning, I brought both of the windows for the old basement outside. I’m happy to say the Weldbond seems to have a marvelous job of not only adhering the window screen in place, but the metal mesh as well. I was hoping it would hold the metal. That means that all the staples I used to attach the screens, as well as the metal plates, are all now bonded to the frame!

First things first, though: tending to the outside cats.

They were oddly nervous this morning. When I headed into the sunroom, I saw why!

Look who was visiting!

In the sunroom, we have two identical bins; one for the cat kibble, and one for the bird seed. The skunks had been managing to get the cat kibble bin’s lid off, and eating the kibble. The lid had a crack near a handle, so I switched it with the other bin. The skunks have not been able to open it, since.

I guess this guy was getting pretty hungry!

Gosh, he’s so cute!

After feeding the critters, I had an extra job to include during my rounds.

While in town yesterday, I was able to pick up 10 new little flags to put on our fence posts, replacing the old ones that were torn to shreds. There wasn’t enough of a wind to be able to see all of them in this photo, but when they’re all flapping in the breeze, it looks really awesome!

With my rounds done, I headed inside for a bit, to give the cats (and guests) a chance to eat, before testing out the window.

This is the eyesore we’ve had for the last while.

You can see a nail in the wall above the wooden frame, which would have been used to hold the metal mesh frame in place. We just shoved things in to prop it a bit, and the foam insulation made sure nothing got into the basement.

What a mess.

After moving the stuff out of the window well, and pushing the insulation into the basement (there is a platform under the window for it to fall onto), I swept up the dirt a bit.

I need to prioritize getting some puck board to make a new “roof” over this. It served a definite purpose!!

Then it was time to finally check out the new window.

It fit perfectly!

The top kept tipping forward, though, so I had to hold it to take the photo.

Not only did it fit the opening as well as the plastic window, but it is even just as flush!

That is the hole for one of the latches on the plastic frame. We can just get another pair of latches, and use the same holes.

That weather stripping must have been what made the difference, because this frame is easily twice as thick as the plastic frame.

I should probably get some of that self adhesive foam weather stripping for this frame, too. Not to keep the weather out, obviously, but to keep insects from crawling around the frame.

For now, I just propped up some bricks to hold it in place. I will see about getting new latches tomorrow.

I am so happy!

Then it was time to go into the basement and take care of that foam insulation.

Here is how it looks on the inside. The platform the insulation is now lying on was built to hold a box fan, which is among those things that disappeared while the house was empty. It still comes in handy.

The breeze though that window, though! Wow!!!

Now that the screen is in, I unplugged the blower fan, to give the motor a chance to cool down. We’ll get it going again later, though, because it’s really damp down there.

Which had me checking something else out.

When we moved here, there was a dehumidifier in the corner, next to the well pump. When the girls painted the second level, they had to lug it upstairs, because it was so humid, the paint actually sloughed off the walls. So we know it works.

Sometime between when it was returned to the basement, and this spring, the water reservoir for it disappeared.

I don’t know what happened. It was there when the dehumidifier was brought downstairs. The only people besides us who have been down there has been my oldest brother, and the plumber. So what happened to the reservoir? I have no idea.

Today, I took a look at where the water would drain from and realized it was a standard male coupling, like for a hose.

We have spare drain hoses for the hot water tank; these are short hoses with a female coupling at each end.

It fit!

This is what we have now.

I’ve got the hose draining directly into the sump pump reservoir. This area is getting the most water right now, due to the condensation on the well pump and all the cold water pipes.

Since there is no reservoir in the dehumidifier, there is nothing to trigger the float to shut it off automatically. Theoretically, it will just keep on running, non-stop. We will have to check it to make sure it’s working properly, later.

Between the window screen and the dehumidifier, even with the blower off for a while, it should make a big difference in the state of the basements.

Even the new part basement.

Where I had an audience, trying to check me out!

The new part basement has its own fan, but the cement is clearly saturated. This concerns me, since it means the weeping tile is not doing the job as well as it should. After what we discovered when the septic pipes got plugged, I was afraid it would be an issue. *sigh*

Oh! The rain seems to have reaches us now. Time to shut down the computers, just in case!

Another reason we need to get that “roof” over the basement window. The breeze is really nice, but there is nothing to stop rain from getting in.

Dang. I took to long to finish this post. Looks like we lost internet! Here’s hoping we don’t lose power – and this post!

If you’re reading this, that means I managed to save it… :-D

The Re-Farmer

Evening visitor, and escape attempts

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

While doing my rounds yesterday evening, I spotted a stinky visitor crossing the barn yard. He caught up with me some time later.

He moves pretty fast! :-D

I often see signs of where they have been digging up grubs during the night. Last night, I could hear their odd screeching noises out in the old garden – soon followed by some distinctive whiffs! – so I made a point of checking the area out when doing my rounds this morning. As long as they aren’t digging up our potatoes, I’m happy.

The potatoes beds are looking untouched. :-)

The kittens, meanwhile, are getting so much more active! And Beep Beep has been leaving them alone more often, even if it’s just to lounge nearby.

The kittens are also getting increasingly curious about that big world out there!

Leyendecker (the tuxedo) came very close to scrabbling his way out!

They may want to climb out, but if we actually take them out, they can’t wait to get back into their nest! :-D

Hard to believe they’re almost a month old, now.

With their increased activity, we’re going to have to find some way to set them up in the basement again. It is much safer for them down there.

Today, I’m hoping to get some more planting done, but at the moment, it’s amazingly windy out there! I was happy to find that our new garden bed, where we planted carrots and parsley so far, is quite sheltered from winds. Meanwhile, I’ve set up the trays of transplants in the open mini-greenhouse, next to the open door. I want to expose them to some wind as they harden off, but not too much! It’s a bit difficult to harden off the larger seedlings, when there are still new seedlings emerging in other ares of the trays.

Still no gourds, though.

Oh, my goodness! Looking out my window as I write this, I can see that the winds have increased again. Those maple branches are really swinging!

Hopefully, it will settle down a bit and I’ll be able to get some more planting done. Until then, I’ll use the time to head down to the basement workshop and help my daughter make some more plant markers. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Well, that’s a mess

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Before I show you the messy stuff, let me share with you some adorableness!

This morning, while doing my morning ablutions, I noticed Dave on the bath chair, eyeballing the towels. We have a small shelf with folded towels under some hanging towels. The hanging towels cover the top, and the cats like to go behind them to create a little cat cave as they nap on the towels. They do it so often, I now keep an old towel the top, just for them to use as a bed. I figured Dave wanted to get in there, so I moved a hanging towel to let him behind it.

It was already occupied!

I had no idea she was there, the entire time I was in the bathroom! :-D

Such a cutie. :-)

Now, on to the icky stuff.

During the evening cat routine, my daughter headed to the sun room to top up the food and water for the outside cats.

The sun room was a mess, with stuff scattered all over, part of the cat condo was collapsed and the bin holding the cat kibble was open.

Two skunks where in it, eating.

*sigh*

I had hoped it wasn’t them getting into the bin. They are likely why we are not seeing the cats using the sun room as often. When I do my morning rounds lately, the cats almost always come over from elsewhere.

My daughter splashed them with water to get them out. One left, but the other might have still been in there when she brought the bin into the old kitchen.

Since it was so late, the mess was left to be dealt with this morning.

When emptying the big bags into the kibble bin, I use one as a garbage bag for the others. It had been sitting beside the bin. I would also sometimes put a bit of kibble in the cat condo, to encourage the cats to use it. My guess is, the skunks has finished off all the food in the bowls, then dug through everything they could get at, to find stray bits of kibble, including pulling the crunched up bags out of the bag that was being used to hold them.

Spotting this as I picked things up was concerning.

Yeah. That’s frozen blood spatter.

While cleaning up, I heard a plaintive meow, but there was no sign of any cats. I eventually was able to lean far enough to look under the swing bench, where I saw a big orange lump loafed on an old blanket we’ve got under there.

It was Jim Boy.

When he came out, the poor thing seemed desperate for cuddles – and for food! I haven’t seen him in quite a while. He still looks like he’s in pretty rough shape, but better than the last time I saw him.

The more important thing was, no sign of injury. The blood did not come from him.

As I continued my rounds, I saw Creamsicle and Potato Beetle – both also looked fine. Butterscotch came from somewhere behind the house, looking uninjured and still very pregnant. I even saw Rosencrantz who, thankfully, does not look at all pregnant. Even Junk Pile cat showed up. I never saw Beep Beep, though. I also didn’t see Pump Shack cat, though I did see him later in the live feed for the security camera. None looked like they had any injuries, from what I could see.

Butterscotch even started to sort of follow me when I was doing the rest of my rounds. I heard her meowing in the spruce grove, but she never came close. On my way back to the house, I cut through the trees to see if I could convince her to let me at least pet her, but she wouldn’t let me come anywhere near her.

I did, however, find this.

Another old and rotting bench!

I may have seen the board before and thought it was an old, fallen tree, but once the leaves come in, it’s completely hidden and the area impassible. This is the first time I’ve been able to come close enough to see that it was a bench!

You can tell, by the trees growing around it, that it’s been there and fallen over for quite a long time.

As we clear things up, I do want to eventually put benches and seats among the trees. Seeing the remains of so many makeshift benches all over gives me an idea of what NOT to do. I might just go ahead and buy the heavy duty plastic benches or picnic tables that Costco carries every spring. If we do go with wood, we’ll need to take steps to protect it from the elements and the moisture of the ground.

All in good time.

As for the skunks, we’re going to have to stop topping up the food bowls in the sun room overnight. Once the weather finally turns to spring, all the food and water will be kept outside, so we can close the sun room doors again – especially after we’re able to empty it out and give it a thorough cleaning. I’m not actually too bothered about the skunks coming around, but they are greedy guts – cat kibble is bad for them to begin with – and seem to be driving the yard cats out of the very room we’ve taken great care to turn into a safe and warm sanctuary for them.

Yet another reason to finish cleaning up the basement and turning it into a maternity ward for Beep Beep and Butterscotch. I’d hoped to have had it finished by now, but my goodness, it is such a huge job!

Which I need to get back to, today.

Time to get to work!

The Re-Farmer

“I didn’t do it”

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

So… the outside cats didn’t need much feeding this morning.

This is how I found things when I came in.

How none of that fell into the litter pans, I have no idea!

Also, we had company while I was cleaning up.

Could this be our culprit?

Continue reading →

Night Time Visitors

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

My daughter and I headed out last night to close the cats up in the sun room (the 6 remaining kittens, Beep Beep and, lately, Doom Guy).

The first thing we saw was a skunk running off towards to storage house.

Which meant there could be…

… yup…

A second one was inside the sun room, eating cat kibble.

It took a while to convince this one to come out.

They both ended up under the storage house. I find myself wondering if they’ve got a “nest” under there or something.

I’m just sort of assuming that these are the same pair we saw before.

Gosh, they’re cute.

The Re-Farmer

Bonus critters, or “I think the kittens should stay outside longer.”

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

I headed outside to start rounding the kittens up and close them in the sun room for the night.

The kittens were all over the place, including in and out of the sun room.

Something, however, seemed odd.

It was getting dark, but the shadows seemed… darker, somehow.

Plus, something had the kittens’ attention.

Then they moved.

Not one, but 2!! skunks were in the sun room, eating cat kibble.

These two are smaller than the one that would visit us last year, and they have less white on them.

When I was first trying to figure out what I was seeing in the dark (I was able to lighten the photo up, so the skunks are more visible in the photo than they were in real life), there were a couple of kittens sharing the kibble with them.

All of the cats that were around showed only a mild curiousity about our visitors, and had no problem being near them. Likewise, the skunks had no real issue with the cats. They mostly ignored the cats, and only seemed to have a problem when there were too many kitties in the doorway.

We waited a while before putting the kittens away for the night! :-D

Both of the skunks went into the old kitchen. I kept watch from the side windows and saw one as it left, but where was the other? I saw it come to the window near me, go under the couch on the other side of the sun room, wander back into the old kitchen and out again, disappearing several times in the process.

After a while, I went to the old kitchen from the inside, making sure to rattle the door knob a bit and turning the light on, before opening the door. I saw no critters, so I went in and turned the light on in the sun room and started looking under things from the doorway before coming in.

Then I heard some noises on the other side of the freezer I was standing next too.

Sure enough, the skunk had gone behind the freezer, and I could just see its tail as it came out the other end and made it’s away through things to the other side of the room.

By the time we did get everything shut down for the night, I was still only about 95% sure the skunk was no longer in the old kitchen! (yes, it turned out to be gone)

They are such adorable critters. They are likely what is digging the holes I’m finding all over the yard lately. Dozens of tiny holes in groups around the yard, so I’m thinking there’s a fair few more than just these two! With the state of the lawn, I’m not too concerned about any damage they are doing, which is minimal to begin with. I rather like that they are eating grubs, which are probably worse for the lawn than their leaving little turf balls all over the place. :-)

I would really love to pet a skunk some day. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Gotta be careful!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Seeing our furry visitors, it reminded me that, when I was out in the yard earlier in the day, I had noticed the cat kibble was almost gone.  So I decided to top it up for the night.

We keep the kibble in the Old Kitchen now, so those were the doors I went through.  The kittens were on the swing bench – 6 of them!  They seemed to know I had food with me, which made their responses to me rather funny.  There’s Doom Guy, who comes right up to me.  The cautious ones, like Jim and Bob, sortof hang around, but are still not comfortable with me coming close, even with a bowl of food.  Then there are the super shy ones, who are clearly torn between wanting the food they can see I have, and wanting to run away from me, at the same time!

As I went for the outer doors, however, they all dashed ahead of me and started for the bowls outside.

Just to be cautious, I looked around, and sure enough, there was our Pepe Le Pew, hanging out by the steps of the clothes line platform.  Making himself look big at me!

So I put the food out for the cats, then got some video.

Just so you know, I am NOT really that close to him.  This is zoomed in a bit.

Getting back through the sun room took a little more time than usual. ;-)

The Re-Farmer