Chubby's dying

Her kidneys are failing. The vet said there is nothing that can be done, neither surgery nor medicine can fix cats. Her BUN levels and Creatinine levels are extremely high. She has always been very skinny, contrary to her name. But during last week her bones are really sticking out. She can't keep any food down, and since the weekend she is not even trying to eat. Even when I give her churu which she loves and always eats, she just takes a couple of licks and goes away and vomits it all up. Since yesterday water just seems to run through her. If she eats or drinks anything it comes up again within a few minutes. I was following her around with paper, wiping fluid bubbly vomit, and pink urine everywhere she went.
The doctor gave me some pills to cleanse the waste products in her body but it would be just a very temporary solution and her levels would rise back up again cause her kidneys are not working. I tried last night but it would mean force feeding her with something that I mix the medicine in. Even mixing with churu and using a syringe puts her through such discomfort and stress that it breaks my heart. I will at least save her the temporary medicine I want her to do what she wants.
I am so very sorry and very very sad. She is a tiny tiny fur bag with small bones in. She weighs 2 kg now. When she is not throwing up or peeing, she just curls up into a very very very small ball and covers her eyes from the light and tries to sleep.
She slept on top of the blankets in my bed as usual. This morning I noticed it was wet all over the bed blankets, where she had not been able to control herself (the vet injected quite a lot of water along with vitamins) and I had to find every spot and wipe it because the pee quickly gets cold and uncomfortable to sleep in. I also wiped her hind legs and butt because for the first time she had not the energy to do it herself. I think the bed is right now the most comfortable place for her. I brought another blanket and covered her where she was trying to sleep.
She is not eating, she is not drinking, she is really down to her bones and I think if not already, she will start suffering....soon.
I think I need to put her to sleep soon before that. She doesn't deserve any pain. I hate myself.
It is all so sudden, only this weekend she was out in the garden and running around and playing. I even encouraged and taught her how to climb the ladder from backyard to garden main area.

Tidying up

The trees that I cut down and were laying around were posing more and more as problems. They took up so much space, it was so difficult getting around in the garden or do work without bumping into them, and they were generally a nuisance. I had promised myself to clean up as soon as I could after the garden was finished. So I did.
Just when I finished the garden on Sunday, around 4 PM the sun was getting cooler and moving down...
So I grabbed my trusty tiny handsaw and got to work.

Before. most of the trees are gathered around here...

I was going to strip them and put the needles and branches in the "chickens' backyard" i.e. the very very narrow strip next to the chicken run where I have gathered lots of branches to keep cats from going there. It is more of less out of sight, and the tiny life forms that gather there make for a good snack for the chickens whenever they come out.

The chicken backyard

And I cut and cut and cut like crazy for a couple of hours, and made it before the sun had sank. Voila!

After: Just the trunks are left. Hmm, what shall I use them for?

And the chicken backyard has gotten a green makeover. It is not as spiky and scary in the back so if Tora makes it past the first line of thorns, he will be easily able to jump the net. I have seen him walk extremely slowly in the thorns but gave up after a meter or so. I hope the needles dry and fall off soon so that the area goes back to its original scary state.

Doesn't look scary at all. Just soft and cozy. Damit

Lucky bastard

The garden plan is almost finished. Saturday morning I came out and stood there surveying the garden and planning what to do first. It was a beautiful morning and birds were singing all over. The sun had just gone up and I had my most positive attitude on, and could see very clearly in my head what shape the path would take.
Right then, a big wet thing hit me on the right side of my face, from above and slightly from behind.
I realized I had proven to be very lucky and had gotten hit by a flying bird's poop.
My ear was covered, as well as my neck and hair and chin. Yucketty yuck! I was even so extremely lucky that I didn't get any in my mouth.
Hurried back in, wiped my whole head trying to stay positive, and back out and worked straight till the day was over.

end of the day before the last

The day's time was spent moving more soil, flattening it as much as I could, cutting more bamboos, making paths and covering them with tarp, and playing with the chickens and the cats.
That night I had a kind of dream and decided to change the shape of the path slightly on the left side. The way it was now, it was a big waste of ground, too wide a path which was not used that frequently, plus a huge waste of garden stones to cover that path. So the last day I changed the shape and filled with all the rest of the garden stones. This is what it looked like when I ran out of stones.

The path is slimmer now on the left side

After a quick estimation of how much more stones I needed, I headed for the home center. Bought all their remaining stones, which was about 100 kg less than my estimate. So basically now the store was also out of rocks....
Nothing to do about it but to pour what I had bought in strategic places so the garden at least looks somewhat finished. Did that, fixed the mulch in the beds, planted sunflower, carrots, corn and asparagus seeds and marked their beds, and that was pretty much my day, as the sun started fading.

Pretty nice if I may say so myself

I think the garden has started to look much better than the sad thing I originally got when I bought the house. And there is a lot of potential.

Various plants

Spring is here and stuff keep coming out of the ground.

Hmm, looks like someone had sex. No not Tora

The beans flowers have started turning into beans. While cleaning the strip next to the net, I found this hairy prehistoric looking plant that scared the crap out of me for the instant I noticed it. I thought it was the hairy legs of a giant spider.

Hope its flowers are prettier than its leafs

The strip is all cleaned out and not a single bamboo to be seen.

I'm so proud....until they start sprouting back out.

The strawberries have also started to bloom.

long wait... tiny white flowers

I think I didn't seal the net properly because I saw a fly on one of the flowers. I think maybe it was laying eggs. Crap!

Rose is below the lilac

There is a rose bush near the entrance gate too, which I just noticed now that its leafs are coming out.
In the backyard too new things are happening. The broad beans that survived the harsh winter on rock hard soil and no fertilizer or protection have now started to bloom. Talk about tough.

purple flowers. Completely neglected beans

Flowers keep popping out too

Just one example

And then we have a bunch of mystery survivors that are coming out from the totaled surface of the level 1 in backyard triple levels.

I think they might be tulips

 

Chicken fun

Weekends I get time to give worms to the chicks. This week I noticed my worms finally have started going into pupa shape.

pupa in center, next to worm

Let's see if they reproduce after a while. In the meantime, the chickens all get super excited when I come with their worms.

aren't they cute?

They gather around me and whenever I throw a worm somewhere all four race to catch and eat it.

Where's the worm???

They also eat from my hand, and if I hold out my finger they come close to examine and see if there is anything edible attached...

I don't look stupid at all.... honestly that's my normal look

I happened to leave a couple of centimeters gap in their run door this weekend while I was emptying their poop board. In a matter of seconds all four had gotten out in the garden and ran under the big blueberry shrub and started scratching and picking at the insects there. I spent half an hour chasing them back into the run. Phew.... made sure to close the door properly even if it is for a second. They have become experts at where opportunities come up when they can break out.

Hey, who are you calling stupid?

Rainy day

Before moving to the main topic, I want to announce that the chickens are now at full production. For the first time ever, I got 4 eggs on Tuesday.

now we really have to eat them more often

Wednesday was rainy as expected but I was not going to let all of the day go to waste. I put on my strongest raincoat, and got out there in the mud and the rain. First of all I moved the couple of trees from the strip near the gate and dug a nice home for the lilac sapling I bought. Once I was done with that, I was all wet and muddy from head to toe. I didn't dig with my bare hands of course so I don't know when or how the mud reached my upper body and hat but it did. My gloves were also soaked and completely muddy and cold so I threw them away.
Anyway, the lilac now officially lives in the garden.

obvious where I dug the lilac in... and the tiny spot further away is jasmine

I then used all the remaining woven mulch to make more paths in the garden, and used all the remaining blue tarp on top of it. Coincidentally I ran out of both at the same time. And still had lots of area that needs to be covered. Not only weather gods were against me but also the supplies gods. Oh well, I will make a trip to the home center on Saturday to get the rest of what I need.
Still, I didn't want to just give up and call it a day yet, even if it was pouring down, so I started framing the beds where the paths were already covered. And then I filled the paths with mixed marble. Well at least that was what I was going to do before I ran out of rocks too. Grrr...
Add rocks to the shopping list. No more things left to do, so I came in and started to get dry.

Right now the garden shows different stages of progress at once

Now at least I have a couple of proper beds to work with on the weekend. Weekend weather is going to be milder according to the forecast. As for the garden, I need to buy more tarp, rocks and mulch, and finish all the paths. Not sure what to do with the path-endings yet to keep the rocks from pouring out. The tiny white flowers of the bush next to the compost are so cute that they have won my heart. I will let it stand there but I won't let it expand out. As for the pond placement, I found a better candidate, on the left side of the picture above, left of where the 2 blue tarp strips meet. The ground there is impossibly clay and cannot be good for anything other than maybe putting in a pool.

On the third day

Sunday was day three of my major plan. I mixed on manure in the top step of the backyard, and covered it with plastic mulch. This will become my pumpkin area.

pumpkin patch with side of cat

Then I covered the whole main area with a second thicker layer of soil, separated of course. Clay bits went to the paths and the softer darker soil went to the beds. My poor back. But I did stretch a lot.

Second layer is done, and still I have a quarter of the pile left. Hmm...

After I was done moving the soil I covered the paths with thick black woven mulch that is used especially for below pavements and such to prevent weeds from growing but lets water through. I know seeds and dirt that blows in eventually will make weeds grow on top of it but I will try to keep it somewhat clean. On top of that mulch I cut blue tarp and secured the whole thing to the ground using spikes.

Looks like an F

I did half the paths and then ran out of spikes. Great! My bike is still broken and walking to home center to buy more spikes takes like forever, so my third day came to an unexpected halt. I can avoid similar running out of things though by buying what I need for Wednesday. I bought spikes, some lumber, a few bicycle parts and paprika seeds. Oh and I also saw a lilac much bigger that the one I have in front of the gate so I bought that too.
Before going to home center I did water and cover the beds with plastic mulch, so now they can brew for a week.

At least now I will have beds to plant things in

By the time I was back with the stuff it was already dark. Checking the weather, looks like Wednesday will be rainy. Damn it!

Tora likes the garden

Tora gets up early every morning (I mean early even for me.. around 4) and meows his head off asking to go out in the garden. Of course I only grant him his wish 30% of the time so most of the time our house is full of meow meow meow in Tora's deepest bass voice. Mrrrrraoooowlll! Yaoooworllll!!! Nyeeeeeaaaaaahhouul! and so on

When he does get out he walks around a bit, then picks a spot and mostly just sits there. His favorite spots are the front gate and the backyard net where he can spot his enemies i.e. the neighbor cats.

Another of his favorite spots is the property marker post near the metal fence.

He just fits in so perfectly

There he sits for extended periods of time, watches the passing trains, the people on the other side and the birds and other animals near the tracks. I bet he really wants to go to the other side. Sometimes the neighbor cats pass him by on the other side.

So much going on. It must be like a TV for Tora.

The other day he also pooped in the garden for the first time. Hooray! And I covered it with dirt cause I was in the middle of covering everything with dirt anyway.

OF course he knows what goes on in the garden too

When the chicken vanished last year, I thought our neighbor's cat must have eaten it. But yesterday I found out the real culprit. After Tora had come in and I had closed the doors for the day, I went out to bring in the eggs and saw that the chickens were all creepily quite and all just standing and facing the same direction. I looked that way and thought I saw the neighbor's cat. But looked again, not a cat.. a dog? a fox? No, a tanuki.

Hello there, thanks for the chicken last year.

It was not afraid, just cautiously studied me for a bit and then walked away calmly. I am glad I reinforced the fence to the chicken run when one of them vanished. Hope it cannot find a way in...

Hmm, I smell cat.

 Maybe Tora sees this little fellow too from time to time, or smells it, and that is why he likes this spot....

Moving ground

Day two of my evil plans, aiming to level the garden.

Just started to move soil from the big pile to main area

Already before starting I realized I cannot finish the whole thing in a day, so I needed to prioritize. Good news is that we are still having light frost some mornings which I guess gives me 1 more week to sow seeds outdoors. It means 1 week before sowing the beds must be prepared, fertilized and covered to mature for a week. So I basically decided to concentrate on the main area in the middle of the garden, and postpone leveling the strip behind the blueberry. Also I postpone preparation of the soil in the lowest and the second step in the backyard, because they involve digging out the roots first and need time. I also left the area highest up along the metal fence alone for the time being.

The task for the day was to get rid of the huge pile of soil left after the backyard construction, and to smother the lawn.

Half of the area is covered. It's back breaking work but I enjoyed it.

It was rewarding to see the pile get smaller and smaller, and every once in a while I found a bug in the dirt that I fed to the chickens, using it as an excuse to rest a bit.

The pile was much bigger than I thought, here barely 1/3 has been used

The whole garden's soil is very rough clay except for the very top part which is dead or dying lawn and stuff that the wind brought in. Dig more than 5 cm anywhere and you get very solid clay. I am starting to think maybe I should be doing pottery instead of gardening. The pile was a mix of top soil and clay all in one place.

This is the clay type I have to deal with

I covered half of the main area with a maybe 10 cm layer of mixed soil, and started to realize that I should be separating the worst bits of clay while dumping the soil all over, so I proceeded to make out a rough path and bed plan, basically to know where to dump the better soil and where to put the real nasty clay chunks. The chunks would be useful to be trampled on in the path area.

The bed plan. Focus is on having access everywhere with maximum bed area.

The soil I was covering the area with is still not top quality exactly. So to improve it and maybe bring a bit of life into the soil I have to mix in lots and lots of manure and compost. Luckily I had lots of both and covered a nice thick layer in the bed areas and shuffled it around a bit. With that, the second day was over.

No time, so I left the remaining paths for tomorrow

I raised the level of the whole main area, except for the strawberry tunnel. That bed I have to leave as it is for this year...

Clean shave

Before step 1 which is the shaving of my garden, I fed the chicks and released the tiger...

Meal worm, or a warm meal

Tora finally noticed the grass and is now harvesting it

A couple of hours with scissors and my trusty electric chainsaw, and the garden looked very clean. Suddenly lots of flowers and other things that were hidden under the bamboo grass became visible. What a great feeling!

If you zoom in real real close you may see the difference. Maybe.

And I got rid of all the trees, except for 3. Those 3 probably need to stay there to keep the soil together I thought.

It's so open now, and I can walk on the top row without problem

Of course, the garden is much less tidy suddenly. Guess why...

The 10+ trees have to go somewhere...

So for now I piled the trees where they are least in the way.

I promise mom! Just a couple of days max, then I will clean up

For now I need to focus on the next step, evening out the garden soil and make it flat, and mix in manure and compost, and cover it and let it mature so to say. Then I can start planting stuff finally.
The seedlings are starting to come out. The cutest are the pumpkins.

The tiny buds are eggplant and tomato

Oh, and I learned that the store bought paprika are treated cause their seeds don't seem to germinate.Oh well, I guess I will just buy seeds this year.

Chicken Farts

Step 1 in my evil plan will soon begin, i.e. cutting all the remaining bamboo in the garden and also cutting the trees blocking the sun.
Actually I did spend 1 hour already cutting the bamboo. The area that needs to be cut is on the narrow hill along the net, starting from behind the blueberry bush and all the way to the compost.

Not easy to see bamboos in this picture but the area is full of the stuff

I started right next to the chicken run, working my way toward the house. The 1 hour was enough to cut all the bamboo right up to the blueberry bush, and pretty much everything behind the bush (where the little fence is in the picture)
During that hour I was sitting/lying down where the white sack is in the picture, and the chickens were extremely curious what I was up to, so they all gathered as close as they could and watched. Poor things must be real bored if me cutting bamboo is so entertaining for them.
Anyway, I got to enjoy 1 hour of constant farting from the chickens. God I had no idea how smelly these girls could be. They just stood there, clucking, watching and farting away. After 1 hour my back pain and the farts forced me to call it a day. Anyway, this was before the plan was made public so I have 1 day now to cat the rest and the trees. Hopefully the smell will not be so annoying cause I get farther (farter, hehe) and farther away from the chickens as I cut more.
Here is a bonus picture of the new cat grass which is so easy to grow.

Tora is not impressed. Yet.

No time...

Ok, so my original plan was to shuffle in some compost into the soil where the backyard levels are on Saturday, and then spend Sunday cutting big bamboos in the forest.
Of course I had not counted with having to remove all the roots from the shitty job the construction guys did. I did actually mail and complained, along with a couple of pictures, and the manager apologized a lot and said he would send the guy to dig out the roots that he had put into the ground, which made me happy. But I had to again prepare by putting up ropes all over the garden to mark where they could go. First day I didn't and I saw how they bumped into the samplings and walked all over the vegetables. So I put up the ropes. It had the desired effect just like when you put up a fence to keep cows from eating and trampling in a certain area.

Saturday morning the worker guy came, stinking of smoke. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, he had also left one of his cigarette butts in the soil which I found later. During the construction he took many many breaks and sat in his truck and smoked with the windows up. Real fresh, so when he came out there was like a 3 meter stink aura around him. So even this morning, except I actually had to talk to him now. Yuck! Did my best to talk while holding my breath. By the way, all those breaks did cut down the amount of time he could actually spend working, so everyday he ended up working way past it got dark and had to hurry and do a pretty sloppy job. I assume just stuffing all the roots back was his way of being "ef-cient" as my former incompetent manager use to say.
Anyway, with his hands in his pockets he looked at the soil and the roots I had dug out, and said "that spot we didn't dig, so any roots you find there must have been there from before" I told him that the roots I found were not intact and laid there in zigzag in soft soil (not clay which was the original soil there) but his explanation was that those roots' ends must have become cut when they dug in other places to put in the walls, thus severing the root. Yeah, right! It was obvious he was not very smart, if that was the best explanation he could come up with. I needed a gas mask badly every time he opened his mouth, and I really did not want to waste a second more arguing with the baboon. Plus I would much rather spend my Saturday without the retard in my garden. So I said "Wow, that explains everything. How could I not have seen that. OK, bye bye now. Have a nice life."

It felt great to know that he would never ever be in my garden, or near me.
So, I spent the Saturday digging out two sacks of reburied roots, plus bamboo leafs in the same places and depth as the roots (Hmm, I didn't know big green leafs appeared underground without tampering), plus one disgusting cigarette butt, again in the same place as the roots (I assume he did not smoke in his truck when I wasn't watching, but somehow missed this butt. It was a new brand of Marlboro, in "good" shape and slightly wet from the heavy rains. So definitely not there from before)
All I can think is: Fucking assholes. This way their business can't last long... Still, this is Japan. The land of patience and putting up with idiots like that, so I assume they do lots of business with people actually thanking them afterwards. I gave them a 2 star rating on Google. 2 because the manager was serious at least, so on paper things were fine. If only the staff who did the actual work were people too...

Dig, remove roots, fill back in. All the while careful not to dig too close to the posts

So, with the backyard levels being relatively root free, I started my Sunday. Of course, the forest can wait while I prepare the garden. I cut lots of bamboo from behind the blueberry, ended up with 5 more sacks of leafs and roots. At the end of Sunday, my back was killing me and I was nowhere near being done.

After top row was done

I figure I can do it this way, and not be able to sow anything on time.... Or I can find a different approach.
What I will focus on now is this. I will smother the weeds and bamboos and get a quick start. Hopefully this will give me enough time to plant:
1- Cut the bamboos above ground. (1 day)
2- Level the garden, only remove larger roots in the process (1-2 days)
3- Mix in compost and manure where the beds are supposed to be (1 day)
4- Cover everything with black mulch (1 day)
5- Cut down trees in the backyard (1 day)
6- Define paths and put down tarp and bricks (1 day)
7- Cut any bamboo that dares shoot up afterwards...

If I hurry a bit, I should be able to do 1 and 5 in 1 day, and the rest in 1-2 days.
Basically I should be able to be ready to sow next week.

As for the forest, I am thinking similar approach (Maybe I already mentioned it before)
1-Cut all the bamboo
2-Cover everything with cardboard boxes
3-Plant saplings