Our 2026 Garden; getting covered, a harvest, and brave flowers

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This evening, I was able to head out to the garden before things got dark and cold. We are looking at a potential low of 1-2C/34-36F, depending on what app I look at. 1C/34F is cold enough for potential frost.

So I first made sure to bring our single winter squash that was curing, into the house. Then I took our frost cloths (repurposed old sheets) to see what we could cover. My older daughter came out to help.

Embedding from Instagram seems to crop the images quite a bit. Irritating!

Three of the clothes I brought were the right size to wrap around the protective tomato cages around the California Wonder bell peppers, and another around the Sweet Chocolate peppers and eggplant. I got some garden wire and my daughter helped me fasten the bamboo supports for the Chocolate Stripe tomatoes at the top. This old sheet was large enough to drape over the supports and reach all the way to the ground on all sides! All of these got secured with garden clips and clothes pegs, to keep them from blowing away.

After that, my daughter started to harvest the fully dry caraway seed heads while I started harvesting some bush beans. She finished first, then helped me pick beans. After that, she watered the melons – we had lots of rain the past few days, but they were covered, so they didn’t get any direct watering – while I moved on to pick beans from beside the Arikara squash plant. Then I picked some of the ripest larger tomatoes. My daughter joined me in time to work on harvesting the Orange Currant tomatoes.

She had to go inside before we got all the tiny tomatoes. This bed is one we don’t have anything large enough to cover and protect from frost.

I was finishing up and gathering the containers when I noticed something in the next bed.

Every single Swiss Chard in that bed is gone.

*sigh*

They never got quite large enough to be worth harvesting yet!!

From there, I went to the old kitchen garden and harvested what little there was that looked big enough. Then I used my last and largest sheet to cover the self seeded tomatoes in the wattle weave bed, which you can see in the second image of the slide show above.

In the last picture, you can see the harvest. The larger tomatoes that are split, I will cut the split off then dehydrate the rest of the tomatoes. I finally harvested the one green scallop squash I had been leaving to get bigger. There was only one other that was at all large enough to harvest. I grabbed a few little yellow zucchini.

If we do get a frost tonight, this is very likely the last harvest we get of the summer squash, beans and tomatoes. There are so many green tomatoes on the plants. I was talking to the girls about bringing them inside to ripen, but they tell me that it’s not worth it. They say tomatoes ripened indoors don’t test as good, but mealy instead. I’ll have to take their word for it.

One thing that isn’t having a hard time with the cooler weather are the marigolds and cosmos!

These are the French Dwarf marigolds that suddenly got quite a bit taller. I neglected to get a picture, but the Crackerjack marigolds by the high raised bed have gotten taller than any marigolds I’ve ever seen before – well above the height of the high raised bed. The cosmos are a dwarf variety, so they aren’t as tall as what we had last year, but some of them still reach higher than the high raised bed, too.

With the cooler weather, there are still some thing I expect to harvest. There are the carrots, which we haven’t been trying to get at lately. We will need to start digging those up, though they can stay in the ground for quite a while longer. There are also the Red Beard bunching onions, which can stay longer. None of the onions from our own seed appear to have survived much after transplanting. They got smushed at some point. Probably rolled on by cats. There’s the beets and the parsnips, and I still can’t tell if we have much root development in those. I’m also not sure about the chicory. At this stage, I don’t expect them to bloom anymore, but will they still have roots worth harvesting? The Florence Fennel all bolted, but I should be able to harvest seeds from them, instead. I don’t expect to have any Diakon radish, since they all bolted, too. I don’t think we can even harvest seed pods from those, they are so badly damaged.

If we get frost, that’ll be it for the winter squash on the chain link fence. The sunflowers might be okay, but it doesn’t look like we’ll have any seed heads worth harvesting.

Tomorrow morning, the covers will need to come off. We are supposed to get rain from about 3pm – 9pm, and the overnight low is supposed to be warmer than tonight, so we might be able to get away with not covering them again for quite some time. The rain itself would prevent an actual frost and covering them while it’s raining might be worse than not covering them at all. It looks like things will actually be decently warm for the next 10-15 days or so! All it takes is one cold night to kill everything off, though.

We need to leave by about 9am tomorrow morning for my daughter’s appointment at the Women’s Hospital in the city. This time around, I’m not even going to try an park by the hospital and keep adding $2 to the meter every half hour, when we don’t know how long it’ll be. I’ll drop the girls off at the door, then head back out to a shopping area with free parking. Maybe check out a Michaels and see their craft supplies. My bead kit came in today, so there isn’t much more I need to find before I can start making the Christmas ornaments I have in mind. I’ll just need somewhere to hang out until my daughters message me to come pick them up. Depending on how long her appointment ends up being, we might be able to get home before the rain starts.

What I should be working on now is preparing beds for the winter, and for the garlic we need to be planting in October. Something may not be physically able to do, if I’m going to be having surgery by the middle of October. There’s only so much my daughters can do, as they are dealing with quite a lot of pain issues, too, though very different from my own.

This year has basically been in a holding pattern. Virtually no progress. We even had a lot of good weather days that I should have been able to take advantage off. Instead, I am largely banned from manual labour, and spend way too much time having to lie down due to pain.

Ah, well. It is what it is. We do what we can with what we’ve got!

The Re-Farmer

Got the news

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Today was my doctor’s appointment to get my test results.

My daughter and I left very early, so we could pick up some parcels at the post office, as we knew it would be closed by the time we got back. I made sure to pick up another 40 pound bag of kibble for the outside cats, too.

I tried a route that I knew would avoid most of the road construction on our usual route. We still had to go through a couple of constructions zones, then an unexpected third zone as we crossed from one highway to the next. With how early we left, we were okay with the delays, though driving along an area where there was a knee deep drop where the shoulder used to be was a bit nerve wracking.

Our first stop in town was the Walmart, where my daughter and I had lunch at the McRaunchies, then we did some shopping. My husband had his own shopping list this time, too. We took our time about it, and I had my walker while my daughter took care of the shopping cart. She brought her new cane along, too. We were both starting to hurt by the end of it, though.

After we got what we needed and put them away in the truck (with plenty of ice packs we remembered to bring, for the frozen stuff), we still had lots of time, so we walked over to the dollar store across the parking lot. We got a few small things, but ended up cutting that a bit short because I was starting to hurt worse. I’d even taken my painkillers on schedule, before going into the dollar store.

With that done, we went to the clinic, where I even found an actual public parking lot we could use this time. We were there an hour early, but we were okay with that. Both of us really needed to sit for a while by then.

We ended up being called in late though, to be honest, it didn’t feel like we’d waited more than an hour at all.

The first thing we noticed in the room we were taken to was the sky light.

We both found that quite funny! It looks almost like a projection, but I’m guessing it’s a coating on the back of the light cover.

When the doctor came in, she was quite apologetic about being late.

She asked a few questions about what tests my regular doctor had done before, and we went through the time line again, and I mentioned again that I had been referred to a specialist in the city, but ended up seeing her first, after my first ER trip.

She then apologized and told me it was bad news. It’s endometrial cancer. Not what I was expecting, to be honest, but the “cure” is the same. A hysterectomy. The only thing is that she now has to refer me to the city, where they can do tests she can’t, to see what stage I’m at. I should get a call either Thursday or Friday, and I should have a time to go in for further testing in a couple of weeks. The surgery should be done in about a month. What happens beyond that depends on what the tests show.

Which is really fast. Unusually fast. I commented on how I wished it would be that fast for my older daughter, and she was actually quite concerned and asked specific questions. My daughter’s condition, however, is currently controlled with medication. Mine isn’t.

We talked about painkillers a bit since, even after taking mine about an hour and a half before my appointment time, my pain kept increasing to the point I was having difficulty sitting up straight. The T3s don’t seem to be doing well. I forgot completely to tell her what the Percocet was doing to me. I did mention that I sometimes took the Tramadol I had left and that seemed to be doing better, so she said she would send out a new prescription for me so I can get more, instead of the T3s.

The doctor apologized again for the bad news but really, it doesn’t bother me at all. She had mentioned there’s a possibility of chemo, if it turns out to be later stage (she doesn’t think so, based on what she saw) and I told her I would probably turn that down. That’s a case of the cure being worse than the disease, in my view.

As she was telling me about having to send me to the city and likely won’t be going back to her again, she said she was going to miss me and my sparkly hats. 😄 I was wearing a blue sequined one, this time. It is possible, depending on how things work out, that I might be able to go back to her. I told her, I would prefer that. Not that I have anything against the doctors in the city – I haven’t even seen them yet – but because I just like her. Plus, I don’t like going to the city. She started talking herself about how bad it’s been getting; not enough parking, expensive parking, road conditions getting worse, etc. I told her I used to live in pretty much the down town area some 30 years ago (it’s actually closer to 40, now that I think about it), and it has gotten so much worse over the years. Endless construction, and nothing gets fixed!

So we shall see how that works out. I’ll know, either way, within the next month.

That done, we headed out and my daughter started messaging the family to update them. Which is when I realized my daughter was looking really upset and trying not to cry. Maybe I’m weird, but that kind of surprised me. I don’t see anything to be upset about. It is what it is. Later on, I told her we need to come up with a name for it, though. We named the cyst I had removed years ago George, so that’s taken. My daughter suggested “B***” 🤣😂

Our next stop was the gas station, which was just up the block from the clinic. I’m glad we did it there. Gas prices were $1.649/L and my CAA card got me 3¢/L off. I had to pre-pay, so I put in $40 and that just barely filled the tank. On the drive home, everywhere else was $174.9 or $1799 !!! At my husband’s request (and his budget), we stopped at the Walmart again and got some McRaunchies to bring home for supper, then my daughter took over the driving. By that time, the pain was starting to recede – interestingly, having an energy drink actually seemed to help quite a lot! ??? When we got home, I was feeling well enough to get out and open the gate, then walk to the house without a walker or a cane.

Which seems to be the pattern. Hopefully, the Tramadol will make things different, but I seem to usually start out okay in the morning, slowly get worse through the afternoon, regardless of painkillers, then it fades on its own. Some days are worse, of course, but that’s become the general pattern.

I did manage to get some stuff done outside, after supper, though, and that did more to make me feel better – psychologically, at least – than anything else!

But that will be in my next post.

See you there!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: Will they make it?

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I’m glad I was able to get outside this morning. It started raining in the afternoon and is expected to continue through to about 3am.

Last night, we dropped to about 5 or 6C/41 or 43F, depending on which app I check. Tonight, it’s supposed to drop to 9 or 11C/48 or52F, depending on where I look, so no worries of frost. The next night, however, is expected to drop to 3 or 4C/37 or 39F Definitely enough to start covering things, even if we don’t get frost.

Some things can’t be covered, though. Things like this Butterneck squash.

These are the two largest ones. In the second photo, you can just see a bit of wind damage. The Black Russian sunflowers on this side are shorter than the Mammoth ones, and the high winds have been pushing them all over the place. I’ve had to untangle both varieties of sunflowers from each other. In this corner, a couple of shorter sunflowers had gotten tangled with the squash vines climbing the fence. One of them ended up right against that second developing squash. The stalks of sunflowers are quite course and the winds pushing them around damaged the squash’ skin like sandpaper.

I know these are unlikely to survive an actual frost. Will they survive temperatures just above that? Hard to say. The colder temperature and shorter daylight hours also mean they are growing more slowly, so they will take more time to mature even without the colder temperatures.

These squash are from the second sowing of seed starts I did after discovering all the squash and melon seedlings were destroyed overnight, so these are also already quite late. One of the other things from the second sowing that got transplanted is a Black Futsu squash. When I bought some butternut transplants and the plants seemed to be growing all right after being transplanted, but they are barely even blooming now. The winter squash in that area that is growing and actually has female flowers and developing melons are the Black Futsu. They look like little green golf balls right now, and one of the earlier ones seems to have disappeared. So we won’t be getting any butternut squash from from the purchased transplants at all.

I headed out again not long ago to do the evening cat feeding, but it was raining pretty hard, so I didn’t check any of the garden beds. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ve lost more cats. Neither my daughters nor I have seen Bug for a while now. My precious little Bug is missing! I was never even able to get her to accept pets from me again, other than sneaking them while she was eating.

We need to do another head out in the morning. That’s when most of them show up.

I’m so glad we got Slick’s orphans to the rescue when we did. I got a quick update on them. They are allowing themselves to be held, and the one that was the most alarmed and scared and fighting us off? That was the first one to start purring!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: curing and collecting

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Well, I’m certainly glad I was able to cover those melons yesterday. According to the weather app on my phone, we dropped to 4C/39F last night. No frost, but still cold enough to potentially cause problems for heat lovers like melons.

When I headed out to check the garden beds this morning, I made sure to fill the slow watering jugs by the melons. Hopefully, that will help give them the heat and moisture they need for those few little melons to develop.

What can I say. I’m an optomist.

Nothing seemed to be damaged by the cold night, thankfully. The Spring Blush peas are completely dried out, so I collected the pods. They’re not in a bowl in the cat free zone, waiting to be put into a jar or something. Then I completely forgot about them. 😄

When I headed out again this evening, I took care of a few things. The first was to bring in the onions, which have had enough time to cure.

They all got their stems trimmed off and the dirt on them gently removed. I also trimmed the Giganthemum poppy pods off their stalks and brought those in. In the next image, you can see what seeds we got (some of the pods were empty), in an amber glass jar. The plan it to sow those in the fall, just before the ground freezes. Between these and the bread seed poppy seeds we have, I am hoping to finally grow enough poppies to have seeds for baking with as well as for sowing the next year. I have a couple of spots in mind to sow the different varieties, so they don’t cross pollinate.

I also finally harvested our single Arikara squash.

The first photo is to give a perspective of how big it is, in the wheelbarrow. As it got bigger, I set it on a brick, then later added a board, so keep it off the damp ground. The rough surface you can see is what was face down on the board. It was a bit damp so, when I set it on the curing frame (over the cross piece, to support the weight), I made sure the damp part was facing up.

This, I expect, will be the only winter squash we will get this year, and I’m glad we finally got an Arikara squash, since I specifically want to save the seeds from this rare variety. There’s no chance of cross pollination since there were no other winter squash around to cross pollinate with.

We do have the winter squash on the chain link fence, and we do have a few Butterneck squash developing. Some are large enough now that I could be harvesting them as a summer squash. I don’t expect that they will have a chance to reach full maturity, but even young winter squash can be eaten.

According to the weather app on my desktop, we dropped to 6C/43F last night, not 4C/39F. Tonight might be just as chilly as last night, but shouldn’t be any colder. By Tuesday night, though, both apps are saying we will be dropping to 3C/37F overnight. At that point, I might want to add jugs of hot water under the plastic with the melons, and drape frost cloths over the peppers and eggplant. After that, we’re expected to warm up again for a while.

I definitely need to remember to close my window for the night. It’s only open a few inches, and I was cozy under my covers, but I woke to find 6 cats plastered against me, 4 around my face and shoulders, trying to keep warm! 😄🤣

I am so not looking forward to winter. My tolerance for cold, and winter in general, has really dropped a lot in the last few years! Medical emergencies and vehicle breakdowns have contributed significantly to that. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: protecting melons

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Today, I went through my supplies to figure out what I could use to create a makeshift greenhouse over the melons. It was a cooler day today, and some areas of the province – not ours – are getting frost warnings. Our local forecast for overnight lows are not that far, but last year we frequently had nights colder than predicted, rather than warmer, which caused a fair amount of damage.

Some things, there isn’t much we can do to protect them. The winter squash on the chain link fence for example, share the bed with sunflowers that are quite a bit taller, and there’s no real way to cover them. In theory the tomato bed, which has the box frame around it, could be covered, if I had anything large enough to go over the vertical support stakes as well. I do not.

The peppers, eggplant and Chocolate Stripe tomatoes could be rather easily covered, if necessary, at least. The summer squash, growing vertically, could also be potentially covered if we had anything large enough. Again, we do not.

The melons, however, can be done. I had a couple of options and this is what I ended up with.

I ended up using two clear shower curtains. Must stronger than the other plastic I had. I had to push the hoops and vertical stakes down quite a bit and, at the end over the very tiny surviving transplant from our own seeds, I made the hoop shorter by one rod. Just pushing the hoops in took a lot more effort than expected, as I started hitting rocks. One of them had to be pulled up and moved several times before I had to be satisfied with the height it was, because there was no getting them any lower, and they weren’t at a location where I could simply remove one of the rods.

I set the shower curtains with the grommets at the ends where I could weave ground staples through the holes to gather the excess and secure it to the ground, then weighting them down. Of course, the wind started picking up, trying to blow things away while I worked, but I made sure the overlap was facing a direction where it was less likely to be picked up by the wind. I was able to use clips from the hoop kit to secure the plastic in key areas, though the thicker plastic made that more difficult. Hopefully, not less secure.

Then I put together more rods to make a couple of hoops to go on the outside of the plastic, further securing it. Wind will still be an issue, but hopefully not by much.

It started to rain while I was working on this. We barely hit 13C/55F today, so it was pretty chilly!

One of the sheets of plastic can’t quite reach the ground near the south end. It’s still enough to keep the heat in, and still allow some air circulation. I should be able to raise the sides on hotter days, or to be able to water them. I even tested that out without even having to raise them much at all, and was able to fill the upside down gallon water bottles I’ve got in between the plants for slower, deeper watering.

Hopefully, this will work out. As we build the walls around these beds, I will be making wire mesh covers for them that will be easier to cover with insect netting or plastic. This will do for now, as least.

Hopefully, this will be enough to protect the melons and give them the heat they needs. The developing melons are about the size of a golf ball, with some slightly bigger. It’s highly unlikely they will have time to reach full maturity, but I at least want to give them a chance!

I had intended to get the riding mower out and work on the lawn but, even with just a light rain, the grass was just too wet. So I started working on the cat stuff that had been soaking in the old bath tub. I took everything out, dividing them into piles of stuff that can be hung on the clothes line, and stuff that can’t. I started washing fleece cat blanket, using the wheelbarrow as a tub, only for the rain to start up again. So I left it to soak – there’s a lot worked into the fabric I will not be able to work loose, but the soaking will help – and headed back inside.

Unfortunately, even this little bit of manual labour is messing with me and the pain is returning, even with T3s. I will still be able to go out and do the evening cat feeding, but I won’t be able to help my daughter, who is currently starting to break down the fallen tree. For now, she’s just removing branches and hauling them away, using non-power tools. The downed tree is completely blocking the open lane between the spruce grove and the crab apple trees, so we really need to get that cleaned up.

It isn’t a lot, but it felt good to at least get this project done. We’ll just need to make sure it holds against the winds!

The Re-Farmer

Cozy cat, sleepy bees and a garden harvest

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Today, the girls and I headed into the city. Something we decided on later last night. The amazing thing is that my older daughter came along, too. Not for any medical appointments or another ER trip. Just because she wanted to get out of the house, and actually felt well enough to do it!

After the last few years of barely being able to get outside the house, this is HUGE!

As for me, I took the last of my generic Percocet and almost immediately got hit with dizziness. At that time, I was able to just go back to bed, though, so it didn’t mess things up for me too much.

I had company.

Potato Beetle took his turn on my leaning sheep. Which I seem to have lost entirely. After washing it, I had found it worked well as support under my knees so I could lie on my back, so I hadn’t put it back in the shelf that is my “headboard”. The cats have all claimed it at one point or another! It is now a cat bed.

*sigh*

We didn’t head out until about 11 and as I was on the way to the truck, I just had to stop and take some photos.

There were a couple of very sleepy bees on the sunflowers! It was a nice warm day by mid afternoon, but the morning was still cool enough that the bees were sluggish.

Our destination in the city was a Medigas. My husband had ordered new nasal “pillows” that he has instead of a CPAP mask. The pressure he needs on his CPAP is so high, the type of mask that covers the nose and mouth leaks air unless it’s tightened so much, he actually developed lesions. He’s gone through various styles of nasal prongs over the years, as designs changed and older ones were no longer being made. He isn’t able to order from his usual source in the US, though. For some reason, they no longer accept his prescription that’s required to buy replacements. So he had to buy from Medigas.

He got two nasal prongs, and it cost $110.

When he was able to buy them from the US supplier, he got a package with 6 different sizes for maybe Cdn$30.

He’ll be able to submit his receipt to his insurance company to be reimbursed for most of that, but the cost of CPAP supplies from Canadian sources is just insane and always has been.

By the time we got to the Medigas, we’d been on the road for over an hour and I was starting to hurt. My alarm for my afternoon dose of painkillers was about to go off after we got the nasal prongs, so I made sure to take the T3s I had with me before we made our next stop. I had hoped to take advantage of being in the city to stop at the Walmart to do a bit of shopping, but wasn’t up to it. The Medigas is on the same highway that we do our non-Costco stock up shopping on, and the international grocery store was on the way home, so we stopped there to get supper for when we got home. I picked a couple of things for my husband and I while the girls remembered they were out of oat milk and went to get some. They ended up coming back with a few other things as well, then went looking for something they wanted for their own supper – while I had to sit down. The T3s never really seemed to kick in.

In the end, the girls were sweethearts and paid for everything.

One thing I meant to get on the way out of the city was gas. Prices had gone up to $1.799/L, even in the city. On the way to Medigas I spotted a place that was $1.639 and on the same side of the highway we were on, so I got gas there. It was pre-pay only, so I went in to pay for $40 while my daughter took care of the pump. It turned out to be just enough to fill the tank from about 3/4s, which was nice.

After we picked stuff up at the grocery store, I had to get my younger daughter to take over driving. There was no dizziness at all with the T3s, but they don’t work as well. Frustrating.

Once we got home and my daughters brought things inside, my younger daughter took care of feeding the outside cats, before we had our food and relaxed a bit. I felt well enough later to head outside and into the garden to do some harvesting.

Something I did not harvest yet… bell peppers.

These are the California Wonder bell peppers, which are starting to turn colour. The Sweet Chocolate peppers are also starting to ripen. We won’t be getting a lot of peppers, but we’ll at least have a few! Since these have the tomato cages protecting them, if things get chilly overnight, they can be easily covered with some fabric we have for frost cloth.

What amazes me is just how many bush beans I was able to harvest! Most of them still from the high raised bed, that were planted earlier in the season.

The yellow beans on top are from the later planted ones in the Arikara Squash bed. There are a couple of Blueberry tomatoes, and a whole bunch of Orange Currant tomatoes. Some of them are fully red, like Spoon tomatoes, instead of orange. I also grabbed a couple of yellow zucchini.

I think we have enough bush beans to actually be worth blanching and freezing in a medium sized freezer bag – and there are still developing beans we’ll be able to continue harvesting!

I am so grateful for the mild weather we are having so far. The forecast has changed again, of course, and now it’s looking like we won’t be hitting below 6C/43F for a couple of weeks, and will mostly be closer to 10C/50F. Not that I trust long range forecasts, but it does give something to plan on.

Tomorrow, we have no plans to go out anywhere. If we hadn’t gone in today to get my husband’s nasal prongs, it would have had to wait until Monday, and I didn’t want to do that to him. He really needed replacements, long ago. My younger daughter has been wanting to work on breaking down that fallen tree for a while now, but we have either not been home long enough, or it’s been too windy and rainy.

At some point, we’re going to need to get a gas powered chainsaw. There’s only so far we can get on extension cords, and battery powered anything won’t last long enough to finish the jobs we need to do. Our baby chainsaw (electric pruner) has two batteries and my brother’s weed trimmer has three, and none of them recharge fast enough to be able to cycle through them and finish most jobs.

Anyhow.

I’m just thankful to be able to get as much done as we have been, with all the crazy medical stuff going on.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

Sort of.

The Re-Farmer

In the garden: preparing protection

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Today is Sept. 10, which is the old average first frost date that I still go by. The new average frost date is now a range from Sept. 21-Sept. 30.

I don’t trust those new dates, at all!

Right now, however, we’re expecting temperatures to be all over the place. Today we hit a high of 27C/81F, and an expected low of 15C/59F Last night, we dropped to 9C/48F. By Tuesday, we’re supposed to drop to overnight lows of 6C/43F, and might go lower; the forecast changes depending on which app I look at.

Not a danger of frost, but temperatures that some of our garden plants don’t handle well. Some things, I won’t be able to do much to help them, like the summer and winter squash. Others, I might just be able to.

Like the melons.

When I was feeling better this evening, I went out to get some fresh and and, of course, check the garden beds. I had left the hoops over the harvested cabbage patch after removing the insect netting. Today, I shifted the hoops over to the melons, after replacing two taller vertical stakes with shorter ones I now had available.

The supports extend far enough to include the one lonely surviving melon from our own seed starts. It’s so tiny, I know it won’t make it, but I can’t help it. I want to give it every chance I can! 😄

I joined the hoops horizontally with twine at three levels to support the plastic it will be covered with, and to keep the hoops from tipping one way or the other. I also wound the muskmelon vines up the trellis support, then added twine at the vertical supports for a bit more structural integrity. They can’t be seen in this photo, but we have a surprising number of developing melons on there!

I haven’t decided on what I’ll use to cover this. The 6mm poly is out of the question, as it’s way too big and I don’t want to cut it at this point. The main thing is that I want to be able to lift the sides up. We don’t need to keep them covered completely all the time. I want to be able to lift the sides during warm days and for watering, then drop them for cooler nights, as needed.

I must say, I do appreciate the versatility of these hoop kits. The rods and connectors allow for a lot of flexibility. I had 5 hoops made with 5 rods each over the cabbage patch. I used that to make 4 hoops with 6 rods each to cover the melons. There was one extra rod leftover, and I’m using that to help secure one end of the horizontal twine, where it’s knotted together and secured with a ground staple, weighted down with a rock.

The kit with the metal connectors, rather than the plastic ones, works out better, too. I got two kits with the metal connectors and they are definitely worth getting more of.

The Re-Farmer

Future socks and future crafty plans

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Check out one of the parcels that we picked up today.

This is the “surprise bag” of yarn that I’d ordered. It’s supposed to be enough for 3 pairs of socks. I had also ordered two skeins of “festive feet” Christmas coloured sparkle yarn. The one in this bag just happened to be the same as what I got separately. I had ordered two in this same colourway, thinking one skein per sock. Seeing that this package is meant to give 3 pairs of socks and has only one skein of this yarn, that means the one skein is enough for one basic pair of socks. Altogether, that means I got enough yarn for 5 pairs. Probably more, because I am asking my daughter to knit me some ankle socks, not tall socks.

Yes, these are for my daughter to knit socks for me. I don’t knit. I crochet. Socks can be made in crochet, and I’ve made custom socks for people in the past, but nothing using actual sock yarn. My daughter has been making herself socks in 100% wool and having a blast. They work great for her needs, but will wear out and get holes faster than sock yarn. Sock yarn contains a minimum percentage of manmade fibres specifically to combat wear and tear, so they last longer.

She is finishing off a pair of socks for herself right now, and then she will start making me some sparkly ankle socks.

She’s going to be a pro at turning a heel by the time she’s done making me several pairs! I don’t expect her to make 5 pairs right away, though!

I’m going to have sparkly socks to go along with my sparkly hat collection.

I also got some mirrors and reflective embroider thread. I plan to be making Christmas decorations with shisha mirrors. It’s been a long time since I’ve done sisha embroidery. Long before things like YouTube tutorials were available!

The mirrors I got are round craft mirrors, not thinner, hand cut mirrors typically sold for shisha embroidery.

If I’m going to be stuck inside with enforced low activity levels, I figure it’s a good time to break out my crafting materials and start making things again. If I can make enough (not just shisha embroidery) to sell at the local annual Christmas craft market in November, I’ll give that a try, too.

Speaking of enforced low activity levels, today was an odd day. It wasn’t a bad pain day, and the bleeding was not any worse. I took my morning pain killers along with my regular meds and supplements, at the 6 hour scheduled time as usual, then went back to bed. Before long, I started feeling bizarrely dizzy. Just turning my head a bit while lying down was enough to trigger dizziness strong enough to make me feel nauseous! This is a known side effect with the Percocet, but I’d never had anything like this before. I suspected it might have been because I took them on an empty stomach, and I was feeling quite hungry. It took a while, but I managed to get up and reheat some food my daughters had made for breakfast, and I did feel better afterwards.

When it came time to take my afternoon scheduled Percocet, I took a half dose and not on an empty stomach.

I still got really dizzy.

I was at my computer when my daughter came by to talk to me before going to get the mail. It had been more than half an hour since I took my half dose of afternoon painkillers, and the dizziness was hitting me hard. Hard enough that I actually had to get my daughter to help me get into bed and lie down!

Thankfully, it did fade away and I was eventually able to get outside for some fresh air, though the girls had to do the evening outside cat feeding. Oddly, it’s now been almost 2 hours since I took my evening dose, along with my regular evening meds and supplements and, as I write this, I’m feeling increasingly dizzy.

So… maybe it’s not the Percocet? I don’t know what else it would be, though.

Well, I’ve got only one dose left in this trial prescription. Then I’m back on the T3s. We’ll see if that makes a difference, over the next few days.

Meanwhile, I would like to start planning out some embroidered Christmas ornaments with shisha embroidery!

Oh, on a completely different note, I was rather impressed with Amazon. We had made a claim to get a refund on that office chair my husband ordered back in July, just yesterday evening. This morning I checked, and it listed the claim and refund was done! That was really fast. I’m rathe impressed.

Now we need to figure out where and how to get my husband another chair that will meet his needs!

The Re-Farmer

A rough day

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I have no idea what was different about today.

Pain levels kept increasing earlier than usual, with no physical activity that typically triggers it. I ended up spending most of the day in bed, which was incredibly frustrating.

A couple of things of note, though. First, the good stuff.

I did head out not long ago to do the evening cat feeding outside. More because I just couldn’t handle the inactivity anymore. Of course, I walked around a bit and checked on the garden beds.

The Black Russian sunflowers at the chain link fence bed are mostly blooming, and very busy with bumblebees!

I was only able to get a picture of one.

The Mammoth sunflowers seed heads are still very small, but some of the plants are now easily 7′ tall. Hard to say if we’ll get anything out of them.

Checking the tomato bed, there are plenty of Orange Currant tomatoes to pick, but I did not have a container for them. Same with the beans. I’ve asked my daughters to do those later. I checked on the Blueberry tomatoes, which are supposed to stay a dark colour with light blossom ends. Some of them felt soft and ripe, so I picked them.

I won’t be taste testing them myself – I’m willing to try with something tiny like the Orange Currant tomatoes or Spoon tomatoes, but just thinking of eating a normal sized, fresh tomato – even smaller ones like this – makes my stomach churn. Odd, that.

I didn’t take a photo, but I pulled the Gigenthemum poppy plants with their fully dry pods and set them on the curing frame near the tomatoes I picked yesterday.

By that point, I needed to get indoor and sit down again.

*sigh*

On another note…

Back in July, my husband ordered himself a new office chair through Amazon. A bariatric chair that can double as a sleep chair, if necessary. Only after placing the order did it tell us that tracking wasn’t supported by the delivery company. It did have a delivery date in August. A long time, but okay. We’ve had that before, and things would still show up at the general store the post office is in. Frustrating, but not something we were too concerned about. Once things arrived, we’d at least see it chance to having been delivered.

What we didn’t know is that the seller had tried to contact us. My husband never got the messages (the system should have sent him emails about them). After the delivery date passed, my husband was going to get a refund, but never got a verification on that.

Which is when I looked around and found the messages from the seller. One saying there was a problem and asking for an alternate address. Basically, they could not deliver to a post office (so why was the PO box address accepted? That happens pretty often) and needed a physical address. So I answered on behalf of my husband.

There were some messages back and forth and we finally got a Purolator tracking number. That lead to “shipping label created”, and never changed. After a while, I sent another message to the seller telling them that, according to Purolator, they don’t have the parcel. I told them that if there was a problem with the address (Purolator delivers to the general store but not to our physical address), they could use the physical address for the general store.

I got a message back saying they would contact the delivery company with the new info. Not long after, I got another tracking number, saying the package was in transit, and an apology for the delay. I responded to that, and then we waited some more.

And waited.

Purolator tracking still said “shipping label created” and never changed.

This morning, I tried to contact Purolator about it but all the system could tell me was there was only a shipping label created. They don’t have the package.

So I messaged the seller again, telling them this and saying that, at this point, we want a refund.

Some time later, my husband forwarded an email to me from Amazon.

My message could not be delivered, as “The seller associated with your order or inquiry has left the Amazon store or is no longer able to receive any further email communications.” Then it gave a link to request an A-Z Claim.

Which is when I gave up on being bedridden and went looking.

According to the Amazon listing, the seller is still there, the chair is still available, and even on sale now.

I went through the claim process, copy and pasting the email from Amazon about the seller no longer receiving messages, and saying we wanted a refund. My husband has already gotten a response from Amazon, and they are looking into it.

Hopefully, that means he’ll soon get his refund and we can look into buying a chair from somewhere else. With his current chair, he got some extra life out of it by replacing the wheels, but it’s still breaking down. He can’t sit normally on a chair, so he really need something that can handle extra wear and tear.

The problem is, finding something that works for him off line is almost impossible. Mobility aid places don’t carry office chairs, and office supply places don’t tend to keep specialty bariatric chairs in stock. You can only order them online – and they can be mind bogglingly expensive. An actual sleep chair is a completely different design unsuitable for his space and needs.

Well… we’ll figure it out.

After he gets his refund!

The Re-Farmer

Well, crud

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I did the evening cat feeding today, before checking on the garden.

We’ve had so many cats disappearing, but sometimes coming back, I have been asking my daughter which ones she sees when she does the morning feeding. Sprout and her daughter Sprig, the two calicos, were ones I have not been seeing much at all, though Colby, Sprig’s brother, has become quite socialized and stays near the house.

Colby is very happy to stay nearby and often begs for pets.

My daughter had been telling me she has sometimes seen Sprout – and yesterday mentioned that she’s looking pregnant.

This evening, I saw a calico. It was not Sprout. It was Sprig.

And yes, she looks pregnant.

Sprout and Sprig look very much alike; especially as Sprig got older, and can be hard to tell apart. I’m starting to think Sprout has disappeared completely, as we’re only seeing the one calico.

She is quite feral, unfortunately. Not quite as much as Sprout, in that she will sometimes come into the sun room looking for food.

*sigh*

I am not sure how to get her. We need to get that white and grey kitten that’s left, of course. That kitten is also Sprout’s, making her Colby and Sprig’s baby sister.

I’ve put the wire trap with a back door inside the catio as something to get used to, and the other one that’s the same size but doesn’t have a back door on the table under the canopy. They are just open, not set, so cats can go in and out freely. I’ve not put bait in them. I really don’t want to use those traps because we are far more likely to get a skunk or some other cat than Sprig. Sprig prefers to eat on the tray under the water bowl shelter, where there is no room for any sort of trap at all.

This is so frustrating. We were finally able to get the 6 kittens to the rescue today! Now we have another cat that’s pregnant, very late in the season. We need to get her. If she has those kittens, they will not survive the winter.

Crud.

The Re-Farmer