I couldn’t see any fresh growth on the sea buckthorn, mulberry or Liberty apple tree, but they all seem to have survived the winter. There’s still too much snow covering the ground to know if the snow crocuses or grape hyacinth are starting to come up. The saffron crocuses seem to be okay – something was digging around them and in the mulch around the Liberty apply tree, and some of the saffron crocuses got buried. Whatever did the digging – likely a skunk – clearly wasn’t after the bulbs, but probably found some insects or grubs to snack on. I haven’t seen any sign of tulips, yet. This section is now free of snow, so we should be seeing them pop through the mulch soon enough.
There were plenty of hungry kitties when I did the morning feeding, and some of them were still hanging around, looking for pets, as I was heading back to the house.
She really likes to lick my hands. The poor thing’s fur is so badly matted, and there are even burrs now stuck in her tail. At least she is socialized enough that, once things are warm enough, we should be able to use the new clippers to cut them off. Some of the other puffy cats, like Patience, are friendly, but getting any burrs or mats cut out might be too much for them.
Oh, dear. It just occurred to me.
I didn’t see Adam this morning. At all.
Which means she probably found some hiding place in the outer yard to have her litter. It would have been good if she’d used the sun room, but she doesn’t really go in there often at all. Even the cat house would have been good but, while there are cat beds at the windows in there, we had to take out the remains of boxes that had been in there, so there are no longer any more enclosed “nests” in that mamas have used in the past. Any time a cat has had a litter in there, though, they tended to disappear within days. I think it’s just too busy and active with other cats and they are quick to move their babies elsewhere.
If all goes well, I might be meeting up with the Cat Lady tomorrow. She has a whole bunch of wet cat food donations for us, and she said something about having more cat beds as well. We shall see. Tomorrow is looking to be a really nice day, too. Today’s high is supposed to be 8C/46F, but we’re supposed to reach highs of 16C/61F over the next two days! Even the overnight lows are supposed to stay above freezing for those two nights. We might be able to start removing the mulch from some of the winter sown beds, so the soil beneath can thaw out faster. If the long range forecast is to be trusted, we might even be able to sow cold tolerant things early. I’ll have to go through my bin of seeds for direct sowing and go through the most cold tolerant varieties to decide while ones can be planted first. At the very least, the peas will be able to go in, and we have two varieties of sugar snaps, and one variety of shelling peas we can plant as soon as the soil is workable. Those would be going into the main garden beds, though, and those are still covered in snow.
Today was in incredibly gorgeous day! We actually hit 10C/50F this afternoon!
So, of course, we’re now getting weather warnings for a major snowfall coming. It’s supposed to hit our area tomorrow evening, and we could get 10-20cm/4-8 inches of snow.
I’m still waiting on a blizzard to hit around our anniversary in the beginning of April.
Why?
Because it’s spring in Canada, that’s why! 😄
Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room was reading about 23C/73F, which was wonderful for the new babies.
I didn’t get a chance to sneak a pet today, though. Gotta work on that!
Of course, with things melting all over the place, the moat around the garage has started to form. Only the remaining deeper snow and packed ice is keeping it it in check. The path I use to reach the litter pellet compost behind the outhouse is getting pretty deep with water. I’m going to have to dig out my rubber boots at this rate!
The usual low spots are also filling, including the moat that completely encircles the storage house. The gap the cats use to get under it is a big puddle. I’m still seeing cats go under there, which is a bit of a surprise, since the entire “basement” space gets pretty full of water, too.
I did find water in an unexpected place, though.
Inside the catio.
It is likely because I piled snow around three sides to act as insulation. Between that and the area being a bit lower, what has been little more than a puddle this morning has become quite a pool by late afternoon!
I took out the two box nests and the big bowl that used to be a heated water bowl that I used as a kibble bowl. Somehow, water actually got inside the bowl itself! The opening where the power cord used to run through allowed water to get inside, so I ended up setting it on the catio roof in such a way that it will hopefully drain.
The insulated box nest was still partially frozen to the ground, so it took a bit to get that loose. The uninsulated one was resting on top of a couple of pieces of rigid insulation, so it was easy to lift – except for the edge of the blanket inside that had slipped out and was frozen to the ground! Once the box was removed, I hung the blanket over the edge of the catio roof to drip and dry, making sure to weight it down, so it wouldn’t blow away.
In the second picture of the above slide show, you can see where I set up the box nests. Their bottoms were damp on the inside, but these have no “right side up”, so I just flipped them damp side up and set them under the shrine next to a kibble bowl.
There was another kibble bowl under there, but it disappeared a few days ago. I have yet to find it! I assume it got dragged off by a raccoon, maybe?
Magda immediately showed her appreciation for a new surface to stand on. 😁
With the bottom of the catio flooded, she still found a way to enjoy it. She used the brick I have in the doorway, to make sure it doesn’t close all the way by accident, as a dry surface to jump up onto one of the floating shelves inside the catio. From there, she could jump across to the other shelf, where she obligingly posed for a photo. The door was tied off again by the time, so I was sticking my phone through to take a picture, being VERY careful to not drop it into the water below!!
With the protective plastic around the side, plus the clear roof, it’s quite warm inside that catio during the day. Not as warm as the sun room, of course, but still a very noticeable difference.
I’m really glad we were able to give the catio a paint job before putting the roof on. That will protect the wood from the water at least a little bit. The original frame was painted, but the wood lathe I added in places could possible get water damage, since the water would be able to seep between the old and new wood on the bottom. We won’t be able to check for damage for probably a few more weeks, though.
In other things, my younger daughter and I went into town today. We had to go to the pharmacy for her to pick up a prescription, plus a couple other things. I was able to cash in a digital lotto ticket and my win not only paid for her purchases, but lunch and a quick stop at the grocery store to get drinks for the ride home, too – and I still have a bit of cash left over. It’s always nice to win more than just a couple of bucks, or a free play – though I won a couple of bucks and a free play, too! 😄
I also made sure to stop at the post office on the way out, as it closed at noon today. The seed packets from my Vesey’s order came in today, so as soon we were back at home and things were put away and settled, I headed down to the dungeon… er… basement, to start some of them.
I am so loving these longer days. Not only is it beautifully warm out, at 7C/45F (yeah; I know – in a couple of months, this is going to feel cold!), but it’s 6pm as I start this, and still bright and sunny out!
The dump is open today, so I took advantage of the gorgeous weather to do a dump run – hopefully, we’ll be able to do these a lot more regularly again! – then headed into town. We had a couple of the 18.9L/5 gallon water bottles to refill, so I took advantage of that, too, and took advantage of some sales at the grocery store, too. Then, icing on the cake, I had enough loyalty points to bring the bill down by $20. My husband’s claim for his CPAP supplies may have been reimbursed, but every little bit still helps.
When I got home, I drove into the inner yard to unload and saw this.
Rolando Moon was in there when I drove in to load the truck for the dump, and still there when I got back!
After we were done unloading the truck and parking it, I did a few tasks outside while I still had my rubber boots on, including checking the outhouse. The water in front is so deep, I got my pantlegs wet, even though they were rolled up. While I managed to find rubber boots with wide enough tops that they fit over my calves, they don’t fit over my pantlegs as well. Which gets amusing. One of my calves is a bit larger than the other, so the boot is very snug against the skin. As a result, when I walk around, it makes farting noises.
*snicker*
It doesn’t take much to entertain me.
As expected, the pit under the outhouse is quite full of water. We’ll have to give the outhouse a spring cleaning, soon, if only to get rid of the cobwebs under the seat! Hopefully, this year, we will finally be able to do something about the roof and give the outside a scrape and paint, thanks to the small scaffolding we were able to buy last summer. This outhouse will have to do until we can build the outdoor bathroom we have in mind, and it will probably be at least another year before we can start on that, in the location we have planned for it.
Speaking of things to do, there’s one thing we should be able to manage soon. Take care of that raised bed that Rolando is lounging in! I’ll have to snag one of my daughters to help me move the cover off and set it aside. We can then remove the mulch and harvest the last of the carrots in there. I want to pick up some metal corner reinforcements for all the raised bed covers I made. With this one, I want to add horizontal supports across the middle, at the top of the arches. I’ll need to do that with the tiny one in the old kitchen garden, too. The hoops hold the mesh up fine on their own, but I didn’t count on the cats jumping on them and lying on them quite so much!
Whether I get the extra supports done right away or not, the main thing I want to do is put plastic over it, then put it back on the bed, to make a little greenhouse and heat the soil up faster. The bed next to it, where the corn was last year, has the box cover plus with the third arched cover I made, stored on top of it. I’m quite pleased with how the arched covers fit on the box cover so well; that will come in very handy for when we have taller crops that need to be protected. For now, though, I want to separate them and put plastic on that arched cover, too, and get a second bed warmed up. The first arched cover I made, using strong fence wire, is on the newest raised bed in the main garden area and, at the moment, we won’t be able to get at it. The snow there is still too deep.
Still, if we get at least a couple of the raised beds in the east yard warmed up faster, that means we can do some direct sowing earlier, too! Of course, I can just lay the plastic directly on the top of the third bed in there, and it’ll warm things up just like that, too.
Oh, that reminds me. This morning, I was checking on the seeds I decided to sprout before planting. The container they’re in was just on the coffee table in the cat-free zone (aka: the living room). I keep forgetting how cold that room gets. The damp paper towels were way too chilly. So I reversed how they were in the container, putting the damp paper towel with the seeds on the semi-transparent lid, then covering it with the black plastic base, before putting the whole thing on the heat mat in the big greenhouse aquarium. They need warmth, but not light. Hopefully, that will help. I’ll have to check them more often, since the warmth will also dry out the paper towel.
Meanwhile, we can expect things to get very messy out there for the next while. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to start getting highs in the double digits (Celsius), and even the overnight lows are supposed to stay above freezing! It’s also supposed to stay nice and sunny, too. As mild as our winter was last year, it is still a huge psychological boost to finally have sunshine and warmth!
I just have to post this picture, taken one year ago today.
Yeah, we’re pretty ahead of the game, this year! 😂😄😂😄
Yesterday, we ended up reaching a high of 7C/45F, and it was still above freezing, well past midnight. Today’s high was supposed to be 3C/37F but, as I write this, at almost 3pm, we’re at 5C/41F, with a “feels like” of 9C/48F!
The cats aren’t the only creatures loving the warmth!
When I came outside to feed them, I found a couple of odd things. The first was clumps of snow all over the well cap. I clear that, because some of the outside cats like to eat there, away from the other cats. There’s a pile of snow beside it from shoveling paths clear, and something had been digging into the pile, kicking chunks of snow all over, and creating tunnels into the pile.
That wasn’t the only thing dug up.
This is the roof of the cat house. Not only is the snow dug up, pieces of shingles have been torn of!
I’d say, racoons.
The roof of that cat house makes sense, since we normally drop food on there. Quite a few of the cats prefer to eat on the roof instead of at ground level.
As for the pile of snow, we’ve had snowfalls that covered kibble that was on the well cap. When I shoveled it clear, those bits of kibble ended up on the snow pile. The racoons must have been able to smell them, and were digging to find the food!
After feeding the cats and continuing my rounds, I remembered to grab a shovel and clear some snow so the two sides of the gate can be opened wider. The paths through the snow in certain areas were full of frozen pools of water, from yesterday’s melt. It was already warm enough for things to start melting again, so it was very slippery. We haven’t been able to make it to the dump lately, with the storms, and I was planning to do it today. Since we can’t drive into the yard, though, we’d have to carry the garbage to the garage. I was needing to use the snow shovel as a walking stick to keep from slipping. There was no way we could make multiple trips to the garage while carrying bags, safely.
The dump trip will have to wait.
I did end up having to go into town again today, though. One of the places I needed to go is a mini department store, so I made a point of looking at their rubber boots. The last time I got rubber boots, I had a hard time finding any that could fit over my calves. I ended up getting a pair that fit my feet, then cut the boots off above the ankles. One of the boots from that pair now has a bit crack across the top of the foot, so they are now useless. With the troubles I had before, I didn’t have much hope in finding a pair that fit.
Much to my surprise, not only did I find boots that fit over my calves (even if a bit on the tight side), they were wide enough at the feet that, instead of my usual men’s size 9’s, I was able to get size 8’s! I haven’t been able to wear size 8 shoes in decades! On top of that, the price was actually reasonable – just under $35.
When I got home and my younger daughter helped me put things away, I got her to try them on, since she has the same trouble finding shoes and boots that fit that I do. Happily, they fit her, too! There was even room for a pair of insoles she happened to have spares of.
Now we just need to see if they will fit my older daughter, too. She has an even harder time finding shoes that fit right than I do!
You know, I never thought I’d see the day where I would be so excited over being able to find a pair of rubber boots that fit. 😂😂
It’s going to make my morning rounds much more pleasant, though! Not to mention just going to the compost pile. That path is completely flooded out. I didn’t bother checking, but that would mean the low area in the path to the back door of the garage, and the outhouse, would be a lake right now.
We’ve got a few more days above freezing ahead of us, but the long range forecast now says we’ll have a high of only -8C/18F by Sunday, and that the highs will stay below freezing for at least the next week after that. Considering how often the forecasts change, though, I’m not holding much stock to that right now. We shall see what actually happens!
For now, we – and the outside cats – are going to enjoy the warmth and the melting snow!
Well, I did NOT finish off the cover for shallots I started yesterday. I did, however, get quite a bit accomplished. That, however, is for another post. For now, I’d like to share this…
Our very first tulips are blooming! When my older daughter and I checked on them this morning, these were still buds, but just starting to show colour. By evening, they were like this. 😊
The grape hyacinths in the maple grove have also exploded into bloom. Every time I try to get a picture of one, though, my phone keeps focusing on anything else but the spike of flowers right in front of it! 😄 My daughter daffodils that bloomed last year are coming up in lovely bunches right now. We’ve also found the leaves of some of her irises that barely made a showing last year. She’s absolutely thrilled, as she was sure they had died. Even the raspberries we got her for her birthday a couple of years ago are showing the tiniest of leaves. I thought they finally died last year, too. We managed to protect them from the deer, but couldn’t protect them from the horrible, no good growing year. The raspberries we planted this year are leafing out nicely right now, and even the newly transplanted apple tree has leaves unfurling. The mulberry, which are still in the house, have tiny leaves on them, too. The two surviving sea buckthorn have lots of leaves on them, as so the silver buffalo berry. The highbush cranberry are also showing leaves, though the one the deer got twice is a bit behind.
Near the tulips, the plum trees that didn’t get cut away are in full bloom. I love trees that bloom before their leaves come out! They will, eventually, need to be taken down, but I would rather not do that until we have something to replace them with. Like an edible variety of plum. For now, they are one of the few things in full bloom that the pollinators can enjoy.
We are most definitely well into spring out here in the Great White North!
Things are warmed up nicely, so I’ll be heading out to work in the garden soon, but first I wanted to share this, from last night.
Would you look at this adorable boy?
You can see the mix of orange and grey fur that, in some lights, make Pinky’s fur look pink! He was eating like he was starving. He’s among the cats that don’t hang around quite as much anymore, and I suspect that by the time he does show up, most of the kibble is gone.
I am now sure about how adding the lysine powder to their kibble is working. There is, of course, no way to control the dose. Gooby (in the background) does actually seem to be less gooby. Of all the outside cats, he was the one that had the stuffiest nose and… well… there’s a reason he’s named Gooby! The other cats were never quite as bad, but some had issues with leaky eyes. As you can see, Pinky’s eye is leaking a bit, but it doesn’t look like he’s got problems with it. So… I guess it’s working? Talking to the Cat Lady about it, she says they would likely be worse without it. These respiratory issues are a major problem with all the outdoor cats in our province. We actually don’t have it as bad, simply because of the distance between other farm colonies. Not as much opportunity for cross contamination.
While doing my rounds, I also set up and prepared to work on the old kitchen garden, and also did a bit of clean up. Look what I found!
In cleaning out the retaining wall blocks, I uncovered quite a lot of chives that were completely hidden by last year’s detritus. The rhubarb in the photo is from the patch next to the chives and were easily visible. The patch at the opposite corner was completely covered, but when I raked up last year’s dead litter, I found there is a whole lot more coming up there!
I also cleaned up where the 50+ year old asparagus is, but there’s no sign of anything there yet. Very few spread show up when they do, and we just leave them to grow into ferns. Nearby is a patch of some kind of lily, which is showing little green leaf tips. Unfortunately, the invasive periwinkle looks like it’s already growing! I’m going to try and pull some of that up, so it doesn’t choke out everything else. I know we’ve lost this battle, but I want to at least keep them somewhat at bay.
I’ve received the last of my shipping confirmations. Our package of raspberries are still listed with May 8 as the expected delivery date, while both the trees and the potatoes are expected to arrive on May 9. Since these will be labeled as live plants on the packaging, I will not be surprised if they arrive by the end of this week. The post office does seem to prioritize living things for delivery! Either way, we need to be ready for them.
For now, though, I need to de-cat myself, head outside, and get some work done!
It’s mostly dry enough now that this evening, I decided to check out the gravel pit and our seasonal “creek”.
The gravel pit is very full! I’m standing at the westernmost end of the marshy area that is still sort of part of the gravel pit.
Gooby followed me around until I finally picked him up, tucked him into my jacket, and walked around with him tucked in like a baby. Which would have been a lot more pleasant, if he didn’t keep trying to eat my chin!
I went over to where the road had washed out last year. There is a sort of lane over a culvert on our side of the fence that is in pretty bad shape still, from last year’s flooding, plus deep divots from cows walking through it while it was still wet. The water wasn’t quite high enough to overflow the lane, but higher than the culvert, creating a whirlpool of foamy water. Still muddier than I was willing to cross over, so I headed back around to check another pond, which is also very full, and the drainage into the field. We have a rather fast flowing little creek going under the fence there right now.
I wonder if the renter will try growing corn there again this year? Last year, it was a complete write off.
I also went through the car graveyard and went looking for this.
This is the roughly 90 – 100 yr old wagon that I’m hoping to salvage. The wooden sides have broken and fallen more since I last checked it. The wheels are deep in the ground, which is still too frozen to try and pry out. It looks like I’ll have to remove the rotted wood here – after removing the sheet metal someone put in it – before we can try prying it out of the ground. I really hope the metal parts are still solid enough to use. It would be great to salvage it for the mobile chicken coop I want to build.
Once I was back in the yard and looking around for the garlic and crocuses my daughters spotted, I saw a rare visitor. This is one of Broccoli’s two calico babies (her third kitten is a grey tabby). The long haired one is Brussel, which would make this one Sprout.
I have not been able to get a good picture of her face, though, so when I saw that black “mask” over her eye, I thought maybe this was the cat the girls referred to as The Phantom.
However, there is also Rosencrantz’s tortie.
Who also has a “mask”. She is the one that has been hanging out in the sun room a lot, and I’m actually able to pet every now and then. In fact, earlier this evening, I came into the sun room and saw her sleeping on the swing bench alone. Her back was to me as I went over and began to pet her. She started moving around and pushing against my hand and accepting ear skritches… right up until she turned, saw me, freaked out and jumped away! Clearly, she liked being pet, but didn’t realize who the pets were coming from.
I sent these pictures to the girls, asking them which is which. They confirmed that the tortie is The Phantom – but they didn’t recognize the other one! They described Sprout as being similar in colouration, but with a clearer face, and hangs around more often.
I have no idea what cat they are talking about. The only other calico, besides Broccoli, is Brussel, and Brussel is a long haired cat.
Maybe Broccoli is who they are talking about? I do see her more often.
With so many yard cats, it gets hard to keep track!
Well, I’m going to make the executive decision. The calico with the black over her eye, and the black spot under one side of her nose, is now officially Sprout.
I just wish she would stay close to the house more, so we could have a better chance of socializing her! But even Broccoli and Brussel, who do hang out closer, won’t let us near them.
When doing my evening rounds today, I decided to do a walkabout, which I will post about separately. I was just finishing up when I got a message from one of my daughters, who had gone out while I was going in, with a picture of purple snow crocuses! She said there was garlic up, too.
They were not there when I did my morning rounds!
So I went back outside and checked it out.
While trying to find the purple crocuses she took a picture of, I found a couple of white ones. They’re so small, it was hard to get a good photo while zooming in, so this is the only one good enough to post.
I’m so thrilled to see them!
As for the garlic, I had been thinking about whether it was time to move the winter mulch aside, or to wait a bit longer.
Well, now’s the time!
I found the one garlic that had pushed its way through the mulch and began clearing.
Marking each end of the rows with sticks when we planted helped a lot!
In the process, I found quite a few more garlic sprouting. They will do much better, now that they will be getting more light and air circulation.
My daughter took care of feeding the outside cats early this morning, so I headed out a few hours later to do the rest of my rounds, including checking to see if any fallen branches needed to be cleaned up, etc.
You would never know that, just a few days ago, we looked like this.
The day after the snow stopped, not only was all this new snow gone, but so was a lot of the remaining older snow! Right now, the only snow left on the ground is either from the deepest piles, or in the deepest shade. Which actually goes a long way to helping me identify where to prioritize new growing zones and high raised beds.
With so little snow and not a whole lot of accumulated water, either, I checked out a few areas in the outer yard I now have access to.
Removing the maple that was allow to grow at the back of this old cabin means there are no longer branches causing damage to the roof, but we have lost a few more pieces of that corrugated tin. There are pieces from a shed that collapsed long before we moved here that can be salvaged to replace the missing and damaged ones, but we have no way to safely get up there to put them on. I really want to cover these patches of roof. This is the last of the log buildings that hasn’t collapsed, and I want to salvage it, if at all possible, but that’s not going to happen if we don’t at least patch up the roof. Ideally, of course, we’d replace it entirely, but that’s not going to happen until we are in a position to repair the building, and that’s not going to happen for a few years, yet. We’ll need to continue cleaning up around it, and cutting away the trees that have been allowed to grow against the walls.
I find myself wondering if the best way to save this building would be to literally take it apart, log by log, and rebuild it on a better foundation (it’s sitting on giant logs that are rotting away and sinking into the ground), and put on a new roof in the process. We’d have to keep track of the individual logs so that they get put back together in the same order, since they are cut to fit just as they are.
When my parents bought this property, this building was used as a summer kitchen. My parents used it as a chicken coop, which never got cleaned up inside after they stopped having chickens, so there’s a lot of work that needs to be done inside. It is actually wired for electricity, though, with a couple of lights, light switches and outlets, so that heat lamps could be used for the chicks. I believe it was powered via the old pump shack, much like the current warehouse is now, except that my late brother buried the electrical cable between those two buildings. The pump shack and the old chicken coop are much closer together. I have no memory of it, but there was most likely a power line running from just under the eaves of each roof. I’ll have to take a closer look to see if there is any sign of where the line went into the cabin at some point.
Then there’s this old cabin.
I was able to get around to the far side of it, and it has collapsed even more. What a shame.
When I was a kid, this building used to be closer to the house, where we now have a parking area. It used to be a house. My parents bought this place from my dad’s uncle, but the family that owned it before had built the cabins. This one, and another before it, had been houses. When the family needed a bigger house, they just built another cabin. The original part of the house we live in now was the last cabin they built. I don’t know if they originally built it on a basement or if that was dug out later, but a second floor was included and what we now call the old kitchen was tacked on later, and is not built of logs. At some point, my dad had this old cabin moved here, and it was used as “storage”. Basically, filled with all the junk no one was willing to throw away, or that friends in the city gave to the farm, because there’s always room on the farm, right? I remember playing inside it as a child, before it was too filled up, then again after it was moved, and more filled with stuff. I even found the remains of the cradle I slept in as a child. I was quite startled by how small it was – way smaller than what is now considered safe for a baby crib – but I distinctly remember the little teddy bear design on the inside of what might be considered the footboard. Of course, in my memory, it was much, much bigger.
I have some very, very early memories.
I also remember playing and exploring in the other log building that had been a house. There had been a foot powered sharpening wheel in there, and I wonder if the one I found when cleaning up my dad’s old forge was from there. I doubt it, but I like to think that at least that one thing was saved. During the years I was away, I’m guessing it collapsed, too. All I know is that it was burned, and there is now no sign of it. Sadly, no one considered these buildings worth maintaining.
I’ve had it recommended that we just light a match to this, but I want to dismantle it to clean it up, and salvage what we can. There are bound to be sections of logs that aren’t rotted out, and they can be reused for things like the cordwood buildings we are wanting to build. Much of this wood is so rotted that yes, it will get burned, but there is so much stuff in there, we need to dig it out and see how they should be disposed of properly.
That oil drum in the foreground would make a good replacement burn barrel, if we had a way to cut the top off.
Because this is so close to the septic outlet, we might have to get rid of those trees that should never have been allowed to grow against the building in the first place.
What a shame.
Thankfully, the winds have died down, but to have an idea of just how windy it got…
The winds have been slowly destroying the tarp – or what was probably the roof of some kind of shelter – and I’d put the rocks and old tires to keep it from blowing around as much. The winds were high enough to actually blow that tire on the ground off the roof of the car! I pulled as much of the tarp back as I could – it needs to be replaced, of course, but a little bit of coverage is better than no coverage – and put the old tire back on top.
What’s really amazing is on the left of the photo. Do you see what looks like three sticks poking through the tarp?
Those look like maple. There’s a tree growing under there! It wasn’t there when I put the tarp on, several years ago. Somehow, it has managed to get enough light under there to grow and actually break through the tarp. Once things warm up a bit more (the tarp is still frozen to the ground on this side), I’ll have to uncover it and remove the tree.
Talk about resilient!
Usually, when extending my rounds this time of year, I’m making note of all the things that we’ll need to work on and hopefully complete over the summer months. What’s frustrating is looking at things like this, knowing what work needs to be done, but also knowing we can’t do it for various reasons. Like not being able to safely get up to patch the roof on the one cabin, so it doesn’t end up like the other one.
Well, we shall see what we manage to get done over the next few years.
As I write this, we are currently at our expected high of 8C/46F. Things will cool down more over the next while, and we might start getting rain today and tomorrow.
We have standing water in all the usual places, like this low spot by the trail cam stand. I really want to dig a trench along that fence line to collect the water more, so it doesn’t spread out like this. All in good time.
The areas around the garage do still have standing water, but it has receded even as the snow melts, which means the ground is actually absorbing it.
After doing my rounds, I headed into town to refill our water jugs for drinking water and pick up a few fresh groceries. I filled the gas tank on my mom’s car, too. When I was last in the city, gas prices were around 160.9 cents per liter. The Esso station in town I had been going to was at 159.9 0 but the Husky station next to the grocery store was at 148.9! Ever since they reopened after getting some work done, they’ve somehow managed to keep their prices a lot lower than everywhere else.
When I got home, I was actually able to drive into the yard and back the car up to the house to unload! First time this year. Much better than trying to drag a wagon filled with heavy water bottles through mud and water.
We can’t quite get to everything yet, though. The outer yard in front of the barn is all snow, still, except for a “river” opened up by water draining from the moat near the garage. The storage warehouse has a lake in front of it, but I could access the pump shack and the old chicken coop. I was even able go get through some less water filled areas and check on the Korean pine.
It’s still too early to tell if they actually survived their first winter. With two of them, their protective cages were smushed to one side, but the saplings themselves were still protected, and I was able to straighten out the wire. One sapling was still completely covered with snow, but I could see its green needles through the snow.
With things cooling down for the next while, we decided to hold off on planting the carrots we made seed tape with. The plastic covering the bed they will go into is still on place – since it’s just held with duct tape, and the yard cats have a habit of jumping onto our garden protection, there is always some doubt! We will leave it to keep acting as a little greenhouse over that bed as we continue to prepare others over the next while. In particular, I want to get the bed along the chain link fence ready to do our first sowing of peas. The high raised bed in the main garden area no longer has snow on it, but the ground around it is still covered in snow, including the bed the garlic is planted in, so there’s nothing we can do there quite yet. We do need to start gathering the materials to make the permanent trellis tunnels and portable trellises, though, so once the ground is ready, we can get those started right away.
With the ground in the spruce grove now mostly free of snow, this would be a good time to start cutting down some of the dead trees, too, along with the ones I’ve singled out for the permanent trellis tunnel. I should probably get our electric chain saw checked over for service and maintenance first, though.
The to-do list is long! The challenge is prioritizing what needs to be done first, rather than what’s easiest or fastest to start.
The Re-Farmer 