Philadelphia Urban Garden: Autumn 2024
09/08/2024-09/11/2024
Hawking the Newest Batch
Most of Huma's kin from the same litter died mysteriously. They don't give autopsies for these kinds of things and cause little minature freakouts among all the neighbors. I find stray kittens to be fickle, fragile things but it's just possible that this particular bunch are genetically predisposed to some kind of disease or lack immunity to something.
The neighbors are all angels and rallied together to get this newest litter adopted so I could get the backyard into a livable space. The overgrowth rots and stinks, while insect swarms leave any of us human inhabitants moribund with irratation after only a few minutes.
I found a really cool artisan, a craftsperson of vegan blankets mimicking different animal's coats. Huma, initially, was terrified of walking on them. This one in particular is Italian Wolf. Huma would pause her little paw at the crest of each step, hesitant that she was walking on an actual giant predator. It was adorable. This new litter of kittens however was non-plussed.
I managed to make considerable progress on the front half of the yard while the kittens would either hang out in a carrying case in my apartment, or act as little minefields in their feeble attempts to assist my endeavors.
09/13/2024-09/20/2024
Making the Space Livable
The neighbor's friends visited for their pick of the litter while I managed to throw a lucrative side-gig to a local contractor to finish up with the back half of the garden and clear the weeds from a yard that's mostly small rocks. The garden beds were actually just gigantic litter boxes and the smell was overwhelming, I couldn't bare the thought of the neighbors not being able to use their back porches comfortably so I shoveled the leftover soil and shit into giant bags and hired someone to come take them to the dump.
Huma is not always immediately agreeable. Here she is bullying her twin.
The kittens all have many names. Here is me trying to keep track of all them.
The workers were saints for paying such careful attention to the safety of these babies <3
09/25/2024-09/30/2024
Haunted Castillo
With Halloween approaching and expecting the weather to get colder, I decided to build some shelter for the my furry backyard companions in the form of a haunted castle. I ordered a bunch of 2x4's and some smaller wood posts. I'm not really much of a handyman or architect and have no actual expertise in how to do these things so I bought some gorilla glue and twine to hold it together. I figured that should give me enough leeway to shape the structure as I went. I ended up being right because the wood screws I bought were essentially useless for the structure I was building.
The base is an old broken down garden box of some sort. I bought a couple hay bails and was delighted to make a mess of my apartment when they arrived.
I took the available kittens to the structure's frame to see how they'd react and acclimate them to the structure so they knew it was theirs.
The structure held together with only gorilla glue and twine turned out to be more sturdy then I expected.
I used a bread knife to separate the hay bales into panels to use as walls. I then tied a few pieces of twine around each one to hold them together.
I made little bundles reminiscent of the first season of True Detective to fill all the gaps I anticipated the panels would leave. Huma of course was eager to make more of mess and destroy anything I do as is her programming.
Twin decided that it might be nice to take a nap in the structure while it was under construction.
The work went well into the night and I was pretty pleased with the outcome.
The view from my bedroom makes me so happy. The unruly, unkempt, unbearable backyard situation was final under my control. The sense of relief from being able to finally navigate and spend time in your own backyard is impossible to forget.
