Farm Friday, July 28th, 2023

Goodbye sweet Prince

Rest in Peace, dear friend

This week our beloved cat Prince died unexpectedly. It was easily the worst day I’ve had in a long time. One minute he was eating his breakfast and the next he was yowling and peeing uncontrollably. Within twenty minutes he died on the way to the emergency vet. The vet said that all signs point to a stroke. What a shock! Prince has been our sweet boy cat for the last fifteen years.

He was a good boy. In his prime, he hunted and killed many mice, chipmunks, and even a rabbit. He would come when called. All we had to do was meow loudly and he would come from wherever he was. When he was outside and we wanted him to come in for the night, we would stand on the deck and meow as loud as we could. He would always come. Here in Wisconsin, I don’t think anyone hears or cares, but when we lived in California, I can only assume some of our neighbors thought we were weird. But it worked.

In his elder years, he became a champion snuggler. He would position himself as close to me as possible and when I put my hand down to pet him, he would grab it with his paws and pull me in. Such a good kitty!

Cultivating the fall broccoli plants.

It rained this week. A lot! In the last seven days, we have had almost three inches of rain. That is three times more rain than we had in the eight weeks prior. Rain, I don’t mind. But last Saturday we got a downpour with pea-sized hail that shredded many plant leaves. Some plants will bounce back. Others might not.

A baby bunny in our front yard. It was so still, I thought it might be dead, but it jumped away when I touched it.

The golden chicken is Sweet Pea. The coppery hen was standing next to Sweet Pea and picking mites out of Sweet Pea’s feathers by her face. Sweet Pea was tolerating it. It was the first time I have seen chickens grooming each other, but my partner Jen told me she sees it all the time. Maybe I just wasn’t observing enough.

Young acorns

Zinnia — we are growing a mix of zinnias for a seed saving project.

Another Zinnia

This green zinnia seems a little pointless, since we have green leaves.

Prince’s grave. I hauled a very large rock to make sure that no animal dug him up. It also makes a good marker.

Right before the hail

It was a lot of hail!

The downspout at the school.

Hail damage to the onions

Shredded pumpkin leaves

The garlic harvest

We dry the garlic hanging up. A few years ago we discovered that we could hang the bundles from the wagon and then park the wagon in the shed for perfect drying conditions

Monarch with milkweed.

Monarch on the driveway. Not dead.

More rain than we have had all summer.

I think this is Hesperis. But this plant has purple foliage. Cool.

After the rain and hail, the air was thick with fog.

It has been a hard week to work. I have been grieving our cat. And it has been very hot and humid. There is so much that needs to be done. And so we keep working in the heat. Every day, I am covered in sweat within a few minutes of starting to work outside.

Aside from the hail, the gardens look okay. The humidity is predictably giving us fungal problems in tomatoes. So maybe we won’t have much for tomatoes by September.

Chewy.com is our source online for pet food and treats. When they heard that Prince had died, they refunded us over $100 and told us to donate the extra food. Then two days later these roses showed up from Chewy. I know it is a script, but they are really good at it.