Bunny, garden and house update

Gertrude and her 6 kits

Mabel's 10 kits

(now out of the nesting box)

2 rabbit tractors (cages) will be built this week to house the kits on the grass once they are weaned. Gerties are weaned on Friday, and Mables the following Friday.

Our garden is getting put in as quickly as we can with everything else going on.

Garlic

The 2 rows on the left (tall ones) are Organic picked up when we arrived here and planted back in the fall (zone 4a).

The 4 rows on the right (short ones) are what we saved from our garden last year (zone 7b).

Such a stark difference.

A better view.

The organic are much darker green, taller and just more 'lush' if that term could be applied to garlic.

Now, about my brother's new house. I will be going to SK to paint it out for him when he gets possession next month. Super excited for him. This will also give me a chance to visit with my youngest son and his family too.

 

Shocking house work

Monday is massage day around here so Brad went off to Nanaimo and I stayed home to help Robbie get a few chores done around the house. He is a very handy dog.

1st we went to the local hardware store for some bleach and thumb tacks.

Once home we poured 5 Gallons of bleach (calculated amount) into the cistern to 'shock' it. It is preferable to do this whilst it is raining but alas, it was not. So I grabbed a garden hose (already put away for the season - of course), connected it to the outside tap and put the other end into the cistern rain pipe and turned the tap on while I poured the bleach in through 4 different pipes around the property which all lead to the cistern. This ensures the bleach is not concentrated in one area of the cistern and with the tap simulating rain to circulate the water below it kept the water moving and it all went well. 5 min job, okay maybe 10.

While in town, I ran over to a different hardware shop to get 1 piece of fiberglass insulation. The chimney (insulated pipe) is a round peg in a square hole which is cut in the roof. There was daylight and cold air coming in through there and I wanted to seal it so we don't lose too much heat over the winter. I had the neighbour come over to hold the ladder while I stuffed the box in the ceiling. We had this situation at our own home out east so I was familiar with what to do and just grateful that I didn't have to buy a whole bag of insulation.

Next, Robbie mentioned that because he is so damn hairy and drops that *$!^&$ everywhere - with the new 'baby' sitting under the open back stairs that we should sew something to stop his hair from falling all over the new machine. I chose red, because its my favourite colour, its almost Xmas and it was handy - not necessarily in that order. I then used the thumbtacks to attach it to the underside of the staircase with a mallet, because that wood is very hard.

I also washed a couple of quilts and put a more Thanksgiving/Xmas coloured one on the living room couch (again to control dog hair and also to keep the dog scent off the furniture) yes, we spoil him and allow him on the couch - well, on the washable quilt anyway.

Don't know what I was so busy with yesterday but Sunday is my housework day and I didn't get around to the bathrooms so that was another thing on my list that was done.

Our neighbour has an elderly friend who really enjoys Brad's lasagna and he has asked Brad to make her a few as they are very busy downsizing her from a 3 storey home to a 2 bedroom condo. We popped over on the first day of their garage sale and Brad noted how anxious and overwhelmed she seemed so we ran home and returned with a lasagna for her. She was so appreciative of the quick, easy meal that they would like a few more to help her get through the next few weeks while everything is being dealt with.

So Brad asked that I cook up a large package of ground beef that we had thawing in the fridge so that it would be ready to turn into lasagna when he returned from Nanaimo. I did and I believe he said he made 5 lasagnas from that batch.

In case you missed it: Today, Tuesday Oct 6 is delivery day.... no idea what time, but the 'new baby' is due. Hopefully the courier doesn't have a delay, the tracker tells us it is in Nanaimo, so.... fingers crossed.

Garden complete - Almost

We managed to get our garden planting finished on Sunday, but then yesterday an order of seeds that I placed weeks ago arrived...... so....

In this corner we have:

Asparagus, Sweet peas, several different Tomatoes and Romaine

In the main body we have:

Old and New potatoes, Butternut squash, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Green/Red/Yellow/Orange/Jalapeno Peppers, Celery, Dill, Parsley and Cucumber

Here I have Sunflowers, Dill, Oregano, Carrots, Onions and Romaine

Not sure yet how we will fit these new additions in as the garden space is pretty full but we'll have to find a way -- especially for the Romaine as we eat so much of it.

We also received an order of 2 cords of wood yesterday and we managed to get a good chunk of that stored into the wood shed before it started to feel like rain so Brad went to the shops for a part for the sink repair (hang on I'll get there) and grabbed a tarp while he was there. Good thing because we barely had it covered when the weather guessers were wrong and it bloody rained!! It will take a few days to get this put away because I am clearly still recovering from my Thyroid thing even if I do feel fine and with Brad's injuries we're a right pair.

Now about the sink. About a week after moving in I realized that the drain pipe under one side of the double sink was not attached (yes, I found that the hard way). We've been so busy with everything else that I was just using one side until we could get to sorting it. Yesterday was sink sorting day, now both sinks drain properly but there is a missing stopper so I'll have to pick that up as each of the two sinks have different stoppers -- no idea how that happened, but.... there you have it. Oh, and the dishwasher, which we don't actually use (not enough dishes, so easier to do by hand) doesn't drain.

As does (not) the washing machine (new washer and dryer expected to arrive on Friday, btw) I am able to do laundry (did it yesterday) by washing in the washer (bang/clang/boom), wringing the clothes out and then hanging them on my laundry line on the back deck to dry for a couple of days. There is a better laundry line in the front (in the sun) but I can't access it yet because the grape vines need to be redirected off the deck so I can get out there and we just haven't gotten to that chore yet. First world problems, I know.

I don't think I mentioned it but I am back to Pickleball. I started back on Thursday and went again on Sunday, today is the 3rd scheduled play day of the week... The club has been very welcoming which is nice, like me they seem to just want to play - not become professional picklers, so that is awesome. Playing with pro wannabe's is stressful, so having a club where everyone just wants to have fun (such as Salt Spring) is fantastic. So the Covid-19 protocols for play require that each player has their own ball and no one touches another players balls (never thought I'd write that on this blog - haha!) This is a pain in the arse but is easily adapted to and its all for fun anyway so who cares?!