Trying new things

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So, this no-longer doing daylight savings time nearly messed us up again.

While my younger daughter and I were out, the eye clinic called to conform today’s appointment. I asked my husband to verify the times, as it was a joint appointment with my older daughter and I. It had been rescheduled twice, but I never updated the note stating my daughter’s time, which was now about 5 hours later, instead of half and hour later. I also asked him to confirm the cost of my daughter’s appointment, since she does not have any insurance to cover it.

My calendar said the appointment was at 11, so my daughter’s should have been 11:30.

After we got home, my daughter asked me to cancel her appointment, because of the cost. She wanted to save the funds for something else. My husband and I intended to cover it for her, so she could pay us back later, but she refused.

So I called the clinic (because she was making supper) to cancel, starting off by saying that we had a double appointment at 11am. At the end of the call, I confirmed it was 11am.

Then the messages my husband sent through Discord came in.

The appointments were for 10 and 10:30am, and the cost for my daughter’s was $125.

So I now had two different times, with both from the clinic. I made this appointment months ago, though it was rescheduled, so the time should not have changed, like it had when I tried to make more recent appointment in my phone’s calendar.

This was all figured out too late in the day to call back, so my younger daughter and I headed out before 9am, to get there early for 10am. If it turned out to be at 11am, we could just go somewhere nearby – or wait in their waiting room. This clinic is very good about taking people in early.

We left early enough to get there shortly before 9:30, and sure enough, the appointment was at 10. The receptionist told me that a lot of people have been having the same problem.

I didn’t have long to wait before someone came in for my field of vision test. Which no longer involved a dark room and my head in a dome. It now has this spiffy new gadget.

Virtual reality goggles, with remote control clickers. Two of them available for right or left handed people. I did left handed, though I could have used either.

That was so weird.

The first weirdness was the view when it was first put on. Huge windows with a nature vista beyond a room with a glass coffee table in front of me, and my name and other information floating in the middle. When looking down to the remote clicker in my hand, it glowed a blinding white – but just the remote, not my hand holding it, hovering in space.

Then a cheery, annoying female voice gave instructions and I just about jumped out of my skin.

Then the test started, with a status bar around the green dot I was to focus on, letting me now how far along the test was – right eye first. Half way through, the cheery voice announced that I was half way there and doing great!!!

Yeah, I almost jumped out of my skin again.

The voice came back 3/4s of the way, telling me I was almost done, and doing really great!

This time, at least, I didn’t startle quite as much.

I can’t remember which time it happened, but I remember saying “that voice has got to go!!” 😂

Then there was another little information intermission and the left eye was done.

One of the issues I discovered was that, around the green dot, it wasn’t fully dark. More of a mottled dark grey. Which meant it was very hard to tell if the dimmer lights I was supposed to be hitting the trigger for every time I saw one was actually a light, or just part of the background. I’m sure I missed a lot of those little lights.

After that, I was back in the waiting room for a bit before being called back for the puff test. That one is always “fun”. Once it was done, I got the dilation drops, then back in the waiting room with my daughter for the 10 minutes or so the drops needed to do their thing. Once there was enough time for the dilation, it was back to another machine to take images of my eyes, then once again to the waiting room until the doctor came for me.

Most of this part of the appointment was going over what she saw in the images. I have been coming back every 6 months to monitor some tiny hemorrhages in my eyes. There was one spot in my right eye were fluid was visible between layers.

That pocket of fluid was noticeably bigger.

Not a concern yet, but something to monitor. If the fluid broke through the tissue, treatment would be needed, with involved an eye injection. That gave me the total heebeejeebies. I told her I knew of the treatment, as my mother had gotten it. She was an absolute trooper about it, too.

I am not as brave as my mother when it comes to stuff like this.

As we talked, I mentioned to her a couple of things. A couple of nights ago – my first night sleeping on my own bed instead of on the couch, away from the cats, my eyes had started to hurt. Like a headache, except in my eyeballs. That went away, however for the past while, I’ve had issues with irritation in my right eye. It felt like I was developing a sty, but I could see nothing.

I also gave her a short version of what’s happened over the past year, and of my surgery just a few weeks ago.

She immediately recognized that all of this is the most likely cause of what she was seeing in those images. Now that the surgery is done, things should settle down, but she wanted me back again earlier than 6 months, to monitor. We settled on my coming back in April. I chose April because the weather and road conditions should be past the worst of winter by then. It also puts us back on track, after my appointments being rescheduled several times. She made sure to let me know that, if I had any issues, to come back earlier.

Then she did a direct eye exam, with the bright lights.

Interestingly, that didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it usually does.

She went through both eyes as usual, started to back off and switch gears, then went back to look at both eyes again.

She found why my right eye was bothering me.

Turns out, I’d burst a blood vessel. Nothing major, and the blood was being re-absorbed as expected. However, she felt that the physical stress of the past while easily explained why this would have happened. I got instructions on what to do – and not do – for the next while as it heals.

Oh, and that field of vision test? Where I know I missed a lot of those little lights?

It seems they take that into account by simply doing more of them all over the grid. My field of vision test came back just fine.

So with that done, I booked another appointment in April – and my calendar didn’t even try to change the time! I’d mentioned it to the doctor and she has an Android phone too, and she showed me something in the calendar that’s there when a new appointment is being made, where I could change things. I ended up not having to do it.

What I had done today was completely covered by our province’s system, but my appointment in April is going to cost me $60, as this one is going to include an actual eye test for my prescription – something that wasn’t going to be done while my eyes were dilated.

After we were done, my daughter and I made a quick stop at a small grocery store on the way out. This store tends to be a lot more expensive for most things, but there are a few things that are worth getting. I ended up picking up a rib roast that was on sale, plus also had a price reduction tag on it, so it was something that needed to be cooked right away.

It’s in the oven right now, and the house smells heavenly.

I ended up getting my daughter to pick something for her and her sister, but they were out of what she normally would have picked. She ended up choosing some fresh made submarine sandwiches and, when I saw them, asked her to pick another for my husband. We also ended up getting a couple of bags of a dozen fresh baked cookies each, to split between the four of us.

Meanwhile, doing through their British Imports section – a favourite section of mine – I decided to try a new tea.

I had to laugh when I saw the name.

We get Tei Fu lotion, regularly. It is exceptionally good for sore muscles and joints, and to combat Charlie Horses. Finding a tea of the same name, spelled differently, was just funny to me.

It doesn’t take much to amuse me.

I’ve since had a cup, to go with a couple of cookies, and I quite like it!

From there, we did make one more stop on the way home, this time at the feed store in the town we drive through along the way. I picked up a 40 pound bag of kibble in a different brand, so the cats have some variety, that my daughter carried to the truck for me. The woman who came out to process the sale was the same women that was trying to arrange chicks for us in the spring, splitting an order between us and others. We never did get a call about it, so that didn’t pan out. I told her, it ended up turning out for the best, because so many things happened. She totally got that!

From there, we finally headed home.

I say “finally” but, in the end, because they took me in so quickly at the eye clinic, it was just barely noon by the time we drove up our own driveway.

Once we were home and everything was put way, I started on that rib roast. For the meat, I rubbed it with olive oil, then cut slits and pushed in whole garlic cloves. The meat was surrounded by whole, peeled potatoes and quartered onions. Then the meat was seasons with a steak spice mix my SIL gave us, while the potatoes and onions were seasoned with a lemon dill seasoning mix, also given to us by my SIL. It’s almost done, and I am quite looking forward to seeing how it turned out!

Oh, the house smells so good right now!

Meanwhile, I think I’ll be making myself some more of that tea.

The Re-Farmer

New collars, and new leaf buds!!

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This afternoon, once the shopping was unloaded, I headed outside to feed the yard cats a bit early. I wanted them to all have a chance to eat before the skunks and raccoons came out to empty all the food trays!

I counted 14 cats today, including Judgement, back for the winter, and most of them were being very friendly and wanting pets.

I took advantage of that.

I still had a whole bunch of reflective collars set aside. I’d been using them to show which cats were spayed and neutered at a glance, but as we are getting dark so quickly, I decided to put them on as many cats as I could. My hope being they will be visible while crossing the roads and not get hit by cars, and so that anyone who sees them knows they are not strays, but cats that are being cared for.

I’m not sure it’s much of an advantage for some of them!

That’s Colby in the first picture. With a black collar. Somewhere under that long fur!

The second picture is Gouda, and you can just barely see his pink collar. Surprisingly, I was able to get a collar on Fancy Pants, who usually allows us to pet him only while he’s eating. He actually came up to me for pets, while I was putting collars on other cats.

By the request of my daughters, I did not use any of the red collars. They find those very alarming to see glimpses of, as it always makes them think they are seeing injuries!!

I was able to get a pink collar on Pinky, when I spotted her on one of the shelves of the portable greenhouse frame, between the white lilacs and the shrine.

Which is when I spotted this.

Yes, those a fresh, green leaf buds emerging on the white lilacs! I’m seeing them only on the new suckers, not the older parts of the lilac bushes, but still… this warm weather is confusing some of the things that get the most sunlight!

Today, we reached a high of 12C/54F, which was gloriously warm and pleasant in the sun. Looking at the long range forecast, it seems this will be the last day we get with a high above 10C/50F for this year. Even so, we’re looking at another two weeks where the highs will almost always be above freezing, as well as about half of the overnight lows.

Which means we will continue to keep the hoses out and continue to deep water the haskaps regularly, for quite a while yet.

In other things, I’m happy to say that I have, for the first time since my surgery, slept in my own bed instead of on the couch in the cat free zone.

I decided to try it after I successfully napped there in the afternoon. I’d just laid down on the couch when the phone rang. Getting out of the couch from a prone position is not good. The call was from my mother. As I was talking to her, I could barely keep my eyes open. Once the call was done, I sent a couple messages to update my siblings about what my mother was asking for. Then I decided to try lying down on my own bed, instead of the couch.

Of course, I was immediately catted. Shadow was so excited, he curled up by my face and kept grabbing my nose closer so he could lick it. Butterscotch, as usual, ended up on my waist for a while. I woke a couple of hours later to find Tissue curled up hard against the backs of my knees and thighs – her favourite place!

No cats jumped on my abdomen.

So I gave it a try.

On the one hand, it went well. On the other, it did not!

Getting in and out of bed and being able to roll over was much, much easier on my incision sites, and while I had cats cuddling me, none tried to use me as a trampoline.

I did, however, get frequently awakened by some of them causing a ruckus. At one point, I was awakened by someone on my computer tower, knocking things off. Including my phone’s handset and charger. I found the charger and put it back, but never found the handset. This morning, I got my daughter to listen while I tried phoning our own number. Even then, she couldn’t quite identify where it was, other than vaguely where it always is.

In the end, I had to move most of what I have under my computer table to access the very corner – kept blocked to keep the cats out of it – and that’s where I found the phone. How it ended up there, I can’t imagine!

But we found it, and that’s the main thing.

If things go well, it might not be an issue for very much longer. I’ve been chatting with my SIL as she worked on clearing my FILs apartment. There are two desks that need to be moved out, and we will be taking them. Both my husband and I are using tables for our desktop computers, and mine has a litter box under it. When I go into the city for my follow up appointment, we’ll be just a few blocks away from my FILs apartment. My SIL works from home, and doesn’t have any meetings booked that afternoon, so once we let her know we are done, she can come over and we can load the desks into the truck.

No one has claimed my FILs couch, it turns out. It will have to be done another day, but we can take that, too. It will allow us to replace the couch that was already here when we moved in. My mother bought a couch and loveseat set; she took the loveseat when she moved out, and that’s currently in the storage house. She bought them because they are very pretty, and she liked how they looked, not because of how comfortable they were. She never used the loveseat in her own apartment, other than the stack things on every now and then.

So we will look into how we can get rid of the current set, and will use my FIL’s couch. Which has reclining seats on each end, and we already know is quite comfortable and easy to get in and out of. It’s in very good shape, too. There’s also a recliner that is quite a bit older and looks shabby, but we might take that, too, because it’s also very comfortable, but that has not been decided yet.

We might end up with a lot of other pieces, too, if only because my husband’s siblings can’t keep them, and there really isn’t a lot of time to try selling things. Once they are here, if we can’t use them, either, we can slowly get rid of things over the winter. It will take some stress off my SIL, and is one of the few things we are able to do to help her with a very difficult job.

Also, unlike my mother, there is no insistence that we must keep everything, forever and ever, like my mother has insisted with their stuff. We could easily furnish two houses with all the things of theirs we have in storage right now! Some of them can be sold as vintage or antique items. My mother has actually told us we should have a garage sale, but then says we need to keep everything and is constantly worried about whether the storage warehouse is locked or not, because she thinks people will come steal her precious, precious stuff. Especially her boxes and boxes of papers and printed out “historical” pictures that only she cares about. My FIL has never been attached to material things the same way, though we all have items that hold sentimental value for us, which is a completely different thing. For us, if we can keep something that was his while also being able to replace something that needs to go, that is a win win for everyone.

Thankfully, we still have about a month to work things out, so it’s not a huge rush like it was with getting my mother’s apartment emptied out – in January! I’m still amazed it took so many trips with our truck, plus a couple more trips with my brother’s truck that has a tall cap and can hold so much more.

Anyhow…

We do what we can!

For now, I’ve done what I can to make our yard cats more visible and hopefully increase their chances of survival!

Assuming they don’t all promptly lose their collars. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Second Walmart stock up: this is what $375 looks like

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We had planned to do this yesterday, but stayed home instead, as some items from my FIL’s were being delivered from the city. As much as could be fit into a car, so not a lot – and we found a place for pretty much everything!

One of the items was an office chair that my husband can use. He’d been using the exercise ball chair for the past while, and started to have issues with it. It was designed for a smaller size ball, which would have made the chair too low for him. Using the larger size he already had, he discovered the bottom of it would start dragging on the ground as the chair was moved, as it slowly deflated while in use. He’s still keeping that chair, as it forces him to use his injured back in ways he normally doesn’t, which helps strengthen it, but there’s a limit as to how long he can do that! So he was very happy to have his father’s chair now.

There were a couple of end tables straight from the 70’s that my daughter happily carried upstairs, where they will be well used. There was a bag full of kitchen utensils, most of which we might keep and use. We have a great deal of them, so now is a good time to go through what we have, throw some away, and set others aside to donate to the second hand store in town.

The only thing we don’t have a use for is a computer monitor. It’s quite small; a size that doesn’t meet any of our needs, so we shall figure out what to do with it later.

What my daughter was quite excited about was the old mantle clock she asked for. She has fond memories of hearing it chime. It just needs a new battery. She also requested a railroad spike that has a tiny railroad track attached to it. My FIL worked for CN for his entire career, so there is a special connection there. My husband “inherited” a set of four art pieces representing the seasons. Something I admired on their walls for many years. We are pretty excited about finding a good place to hang them.

Well worth staying home for!

My daughter and I headed out late this morning, taking the longer route to the nearest Walmart because the highway that is our usual route is still under construction. That meant going through town, and seeing the gas prices. Two of the stations were down to $1.599/L of regular.

The one we usually go to was $1.489/L We had a full tank still, so we didn’t refill until we were on the way home. After my CAA discount, bringing the gas down to $1.459/L, it cost $31.04 to fill the tank.

When we got to the Walmart, our first stop was the McRaunchies, because neither of us had had breakfast, and it was lunch time by then. I rounded up with a donation, making it an even $50 for the two of us; a burger meal each, plus 10pc chicken nuggets as a treat.

My older daughter had sent some funds for the trip, plus added a few things to the shopping list. The photo below is what we got, except for the energy drink I got for the drive home, while my daughter started using a self checkout.

This is what $375.20 looks like.

Since we are not likely to do a Costco trip this month, this trip turned out to be more of a stock up trip than originally planned. The receipt ended up so long, I took three pictures of it. I didn’t quite line things up right, though!

On this first image, we’ll start with the non-food items.

There is a package of paper towels and a pack of facial tissues.

There is a total of 9 Monster energy drinks (three each for my daughters and I), two 2L of oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters, plus a 2L of 3% regular milk. There is also 2 bottles of coffee creamer in a seasonal flavour. Those were on sale, so we made sure to get more.

Split between the two images is a package of medium ground beef. Then there is a case of Pizza Pops, some Black Forest Ham sandwich slices, and a whole chicken – the chicken was at a very good price.

In other food items, there are two 18 count packages of eggs, 5 pounds of butter, some beef jerky to keep in the truck.

In non food items, there is a pack of facial tissue, toilet paper (I actually can’t find the line item on the receipt for that, but it’s there somewhere!), a pack of C batteries for the mantel clock, and a case of wet cat food. My daughter also picked a bottle of scented oil for her diffuser, plus we got a two pack of air freshener spray, to use over the litter boxes.

There are 3 different flavours of tea, two loaves of white bread, two of whole wheat and two of rye.

My daughter remembered we were out of ground ginger, so there is a pack of that, and for treats there is a box of mixed chocolates and a strawberry rhubarb pie, as well as the cold energy drink for the drive home.

Listed here is a bag of kibble for the inside cats, and four 4L jugs of distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier.

That done, while my daughter packed things and loaded the truck, I popped across the parking lot to a Dollarama. There I found a new dust pan to replace one I used this morning with a cracked handle that finally gave out. I also got some slide lock freezer bags in medium and large, plus a roll of small garbage bags for the truck’s garbage can. I spotted a weirdly huge roll of paper towel – so big, the package of one had a ribbon handle across the top – that I picked up to try out. I also got a couple of air freshener pucks specifically for pet odors, that we like to set right on top of the covered litter boxes. That totaled $23 and change.

So, altogether, we totaled just pennies under $480 (I can’t remember the exact change on the Dollarama purchase) on this trip, including breakfast, Walmart, Dollarama and gas, with my older daughter contributing to the budget to cover almost half of that.

I guess it’s not too bad for this trip, price wise. We did get a full cart out of it.

The only thing we didn’t get much of was meat. The selection was not very good, so I expect to pick that up locally, as needed, and as the sales allow. With this, we will be good for a while, though.

The Re-Farmer

Look who is back!

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I popped my head into the sun room tgis morning, and found a cat quietly looking at me in the middle of the floor.  A cat I had not seen in so long, I had to come back later to get a picture and confirm it with my daughter.

That is Judgement!  He has been gone all summer.  Longer than usual, with this mild fall.  I wasn’t sure I’d see him again, considering how many cats have disappeared this summer.

Welcome back, “old man”!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: carrots and parsnips

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Yes, we have a harvest, today!

A week into November.

Also, I just noticed my desktop time stamp says it’s just past 10am, November 8.

It’s just past 6pm, November 7.

I suspect a cat walked over the keyboard at some point and changed the time zone somehow. 😄

Wow. My computer is on automatic time zone, and thinks I’m in Sydney, Australia… How on earth… ???

Anyhoo….

This afternoon, I was able to head outside to get things done and enjoy the day. I gave all the haskaps a deep watering.

It took about 2+ hours to get them all.

By the time that was done, it was time to do the outside cat feeding. Then I decided to grab some vegetables for supper.

I started with the parsnips and took extra effort to try and get entire roots out, without them snapping on me. I managed it with most of them. Interestingly, the widest ones were also the shortest ones.

Then I harvested some carrots from both the rainbow mix row, planted earlier, and the orange carrots, planted later. There is a definite size difference!

It blows me away that we are able to harvest anything at all, in November. I quite like having a longer growing season, even if it turns out to be just for one year!

We have a change of plans for tomorrow. My SIL and her closest friend – someone my in-laws considered another daughter – have been packing up my FIL’s apartment, since he will not be going back. Some things will be divided up, but the rest needs to be sold or gotten rid of somehow. They’ve asked and we’ve mentioned a few things we would like to have, but I also let them know that if they have things no one else will take, or they cannot sell, they can be brought here. Nothing will go to waste, and we can store things here until someone else that wants them has room.

This morning, we learned that a load is coming out here tomorrow. Aside from what we asked for (which isn’t much), I have no idea what is being brought over. We don’t know what time, either, so my daughter and I will stay home and do the small Walmart trip we were planning, the day after. Unless she comes really early or something. It gets dark pretty early this time of year, and I don’t want to do be doing any night driving. Too many deer.

We shall see how that works out!

The Re-Farmer

Doing all right

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Today was another quiet day of mostly indoors.  I did manage to do the morning cat feeding outside, for a change.

They are enjoying a different cat soup for now.  We are out of the donated wet cat food.  What’s left is for the indoor cats, and we are running low on that, too, sunce we didn’tdo a Costco trip yet.  We had a freezer burned whole fish in the freezer – the packaging got torn.  I ground it up, bones, skin and all, then boiled the grinding in a small amount of water.  It got me 6 little Tupperware containers, about the size of our usual cans of cat food.  That’s what we are now using to make cat soup, and the outside cats love it!

I counted 14 this morning.  A bit higher than usual.  I found ice on the water bowl in the isolation shelter, so I plugged in the extension cord.  I did the cat feeding in the evening, too, and remembered to turn the heat lamp on for the night.  It’s warm enough that we can shut it off during the day.

I spent a fair part of the day working on a hat and scarf set in bulky yarn.  The hat is done, and I’m more than half way on the scarf.  I will finish it after I’m done writing this.

My younger daughter was able to bring Butterscotch into the living room with me, so she is not harassed by other cats for a while.  She is such a bundle of anxiety, and my not sleeping the my bedroom has stressed her out.  She wanted back into the living room so much, she actually left my bedroom last night and greeted my older daughter in the hallway before it got too much for her and she ran back into my bedroom.

She was so excited to be back in the living room with me today!  I had to stop working to give her some love, so she would stop trying to climb me.  Eventually, she settled for a while, and I could finish the hat I was working on and start the scarf.  As I write this, she is loafed behind my head above the couch.

At one point, she got very restless and I tried getting her near a litter box.  Unfortunately, even though I tried distracting the other cats with kibble, some chose stalking her over food.  She didn’t try running back to the bedroom.  She ran for the living room!  I opened the wire mesh door that keeps the cats out, and she bolted in.

I ended up bringing her personal food and water bowl in.  Then found a spot for a litter box for her that I hope works out.  It seems she will be spending the night with me!  A few times, she has gone to the door, only to run off in a panic because another cat walked up to it to look in.

Tomorrow is supposed to be quite a bit warmer during the day, so I hope to at least give the haskaps a deep watering.  Then see what else I can work on, within my restrictions.  The day after, I think we will be doing a trip to the nearer Walmart.  I’m not sure we will manage a Costco trip this month.

Ah… my daughter just let us know supper is ready.

I wonder how Butterscotch will be when I bring my supper in.  We have smoked pork chops tonight, and they smell amazing!

The Re-Farmer

An indoor day

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Today’s high was just a bit above zero, so it was pretty much a completely indoor day. I spent most of it working on a crochet experiment that, in the end, I was quite happy with, even though I had to modify my plans because I was running out of the yarn I was using.

I did get outside at least a little bit, though, to get a meter reading. As I went to the pole in the outer yard, I spotted a cat toy from the isolation shelter I’d forgotten about. I’d washed it with the others on the sidewalk, but never noticed it was missing. It’s a round pink ball that lights up when it bounces. I grabbed it and tossed it back into the inner yard and Midnight, who had been following me, ran after it like a puppy playing fetch! He was quite hilarious.

I got my reading and started back to the house when I saw it in the grass and decided to toss it towards the sun room door and kibble house set up. As soon as I threw it, there was an absolute stampede of 5 cats, thundering after it! I don’t even know where they all came from. They just exploded after it! It was so funny!

On another note, I heard from my brother and SIL today. They were on their way to my mother’s with a new wheelchair for her. She has the one that was my late father’s and she wanted a new one. My brother had talked to her about what she wanted and ordered one from Amazon, and they wanted to get it to her as quickly as possible.

She hated it.

My brother, thoughtfully, took video of her trying it out and was able to send it to me after they got home – with the new wheelchair that they’ll be returning. On seeing the video, I understand why she wasn’t happy. She couldn’t use the armrests at all! It’s made for a smaller person. My mother is pretty tiny, but overweight, and it just wasn’t right for her. She needs a bariatric wheelchair. Not because of her the number on the scale – as I said, she is tiny, so “overweight” for her is still below the weight limits of non-bariatric chairs – but for the dimensions.

Then, in the video, she started talking about her current wheelchair. My late father’s wheelchair.

She is absolutely convinced it’s not the same chair. Someone “traded” it (something she accused my father of doing for as long as I can remember). She thinks someone took the chair at one of the TCUs she was in before finally getting to the nursing home and replaced it with an inferior one.

That chair had been stored here for some time. I brought it to my mother. Before I did, I cleaned it, oiled the moving parts and conditioned the vinyl. One of the foot rests had been stuck and I had to fight with it, and some WD40, to get it moving again. I recognize that chair very well. It has not been changed.

I now regret removing my late father’s name tag that had his picture on it, that the nursing home put on it while he was there.

I ended up sending a link to my brother for a bariatric chair in a style that would suit my mother better – and suggested getting anything but black (which would be hard to find), so the chances she’d believe someone switched chairs on her would be almost nil. We’ll see how it works out. He’ll have to return the chair and get his money back, and I don’t know if he’ll be able to order a bariatric one before then. Those things are not cheap!

On another note, I was rather taken aback by my mother’s appearance. Her face was quite grey, and she has dark circles around her eyes.

As I was writing this, I checked the sun room critter cam and noticed both a skunk and a raccoon in the sun room. I headed out to chase them away, and found not one, but two giant, fluffy raccoons (they have their winter fur and look massive, this time of year). As I chased them out, I noticed a cat bed had fallen off a shelf and went to put it back. Gouda and Fluffy had been snuggling in another cat bed and came out for pets. I got to give Fluffy some thorough pets.

It wasn’t fluffy. It was the one the girls call Lady Grey. She looks like Fluffy, but has a white chest. She had always been one of the more feral cats, but the girls have been working on her. She kept looking like she wanted to run away, but still let me pet her! That is just huge!

Now, we’re not 100% sure she is a she, with all that long fur hiding things, but the girls are convinced she’s female. If she is now allowing pets, even when it’s not feeding time, we should be able to finally get her spayed!

Or neutered, if Lady Grey turns out to be Lord Grey.

Anyhow…

That’s how today went. Rather quiet. We’re supposed to get a fair bit warmer over the next few days, so I hope to get more stuff down outside.

I know I’ve said this quite a few times already, but I am so appreciating this mild weather we are having this year. It’s allowing us to slowly get things done out there, as we are physically able to.

Next year, I suspect, is going to be a lot more productive in comparison!

The Re-Farmer

Got it done!

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It was another lovely day, and I was feeling well enough to finish winterizing the cat isolation shelter.

They are so happy!

My brother had been able to do a bit of leveling of the patio blocks, but they some of them are still a bit off. I had to put something under one of the front wheels of the shelter to keep it from wobbling. The weather blocking box also needed something put under the front legs, with one needing twice as much as the other.

One of the things I would normally want to do is put rigid insulation under the roof for the winter again. Unfortunately, the cats REALLY love that insulation. They love to scratch it, more than they like to scratch the hemp rope scratching board that serves as a ramp between the levels. Before cleaning up, I had pieces of insulation I’d been cutting from nearby, including a fairly large piece. The cats were all over it – and trying to burrow under it, too!

So while I’d love to put insulation under the roof to create a ceiling, nothing lasts the winter. It gets destroyed.

We need to figure something else out, because it really does make a difference to have an insulated ceiling. Thankfully, it’s still warm enough to not be an issue yet.

Other than that, it was a mostly quite day. My daughter and I did run into town this evening for a quick little grocery run. When we got to town, we found gas prices as dropped to $1.599 at two stations, and the Shell station I normally go to was $1.539

I filled the tank. With my CAA card discount, I paid the equivalent of $1.509

It was full dark before we even finished shopping. It’s been a long time since my daughter has driven at night. She had forgotten how much she enjoyed it. Except for oncoming vehicles forgetting to turn off their brights.😕

I’m feeling really good about getting at least one major thing finished today!

The Re-Farmer

Doing so much better today!

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While the temperatures today are cooler than yesterday, the rain has stopped and the sun has come out, so I was very happy to finally get outside!

While there is a lot to do all over, I am wanting to prioritize getting things winterized for the cats as much as possible. Today, that meant working on the isolation shelter.

Yes, I moved it by the house.

Yes, I moved it by myself.

Very slowly. Very carefully. Even with the rain, the ground was not too soft, and none of the wheel sank too much. Once I got to the sidewalk and could keep at least 2 wheels on the concrete blocks, it went a lot faster and smoother.

I had been working on it for a while when my daughter came out, having remembered we needed to pick up a package at the post office. We headed out together and it’s a good thing she interrupted me. After sitting in the truck for a while, my body started letting me know that I really needed to stop for the day, before I pushed things too far. So when we got back, I went over what I’d done so far with her, and what I was working on when I stopped, so she could take over for me, if she got to it before I did.

After cleaning up and putting things away, I decided to take a short video, instead of photos.

Before moving it, I took out the sliding windows, emptied it and cleaned out the bottom as best I could. The litter box had been tipped on its side, long enough ago that all the sawdust from the litter pellets was dry. I have a car bush/squeegee/scraper combo with a telescoping handle and a brush the rotates 90° that works really well for that. The scraper end broke long ago, but the brush/squeegee end has been so very handy when it comes to cleaning the and isolation shelter and the catio roof. I was able to brush most of the sawdust through the mesh floor. If it were spring or summer, I would have hosed it down, too, but I wasn’t going to do that this time of year.

When my older daughter and I removed the plastic (vinyl dining table covers, actually) from around the bottom earlier in the year, I made sure to label all the wood lath pieces with where they came from, and kept their screws in the wood, so I could put them back in the same places without making new holes in the wood frame. The vinyl is two pieces that overlap at the back. Their bottoms were pretty damaged from last winter. One of them was a lot more damaged at one end at the back than the other. While against the house last winter, there was enough space behind it that the cats can fit on top of some things I had stored behind it, and they sometimes slipped, clawing the plastic in the process. With that one, I folded the most damaged part in on itself. The vinyl table protectors are folded in half already, so the overlapping part in the back now has 6 layers in the middle, instead of four.

While we tried to store the vinyl as smoothly as possible, it was still pretty wrinkled, which made securing it with the wood a bit more challenging. On one end, the bottom was torn up enough that I had to use my clear repair tape before I could secure it with the wood lath.

I’d also had a length of wood lath at the back of the roof, joining the roof supports. It had been nailed in place and kept popping off, so I finally tucked it under the roof panels. Today, I put it back with tiny screws, instead of nails. This is to keep the roof supports from wobbling unevenly when it’s lifted. It’s not an issue at the front, where the hinge is. Two more supports were added under the roof panel to stop some sagging. I’ll need to bring the little step ladder out, and then I’ll add some more screws to secure the panels directly to the added supports in the middle, where I can’t otherwise reach.

One of the things I made sure to do was put rigid insulation on the walls of the upper level. The piece that was in the side over the hammock, however, was rather loose and kept falling down into the hammock, or even down to the lover level, before finally breaking. Cats in the hammock would use it as a scratching post, too, and kept pulling it loose. That panel is nothing but wood lath, with some pieces bowing a bit. Wind can get through it quite easily, so I wanted to put new insulation in there. This time, I used my measuring tape calipers to figure out the dimensions properly. When I’d added the insulation before, the front window hadn’t been put on yet, so it was easy to access. I basically just held the insulation to the space and cut it mostly by eye. Which would have worked fine, if there was no wind or cats to make it fall out. I had just finished cutting the piece to fit around the corner brace and the small piece of wood that’s screwed into the inside corner at the top. I had tried to fit in in place, and it is just the tiniest bit too wide. I could force it in place and it would hold very well, but I want to cut a second, matching piece, first, to make a double layer of insulation. The inside one, right up against the wood, can be trimmed to fit without being forced, and I am thinking the outside one can be left without trimming, and be tight enough to not be pulled out by the cats too easily – and if they do, there will be a second layer beneath it.

Not today, though. I’m glad my daughter came out when she did and distracted me. Otherwise, I would have kept going for quite a while and potentially injured myself before realizing it.

Speaking of injuries, once I’ve had my follow up appointment, and our doctor is at her new location, I need to get that left shoulder checked. It is starting to be a problem. The arm is strong, but range of motion is increasingly limited.

All in good time.

I’m just really happy with how much I was able to do today, while the weather is so lovely right now!

The Re-Farmer

A nothing, day…

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Well. For me, at least.

Today was overcast and rainy all day, as predicted.

Which meant I was feeling sleepy all day.

This is on top of already getting tired quickly and sleeping a lot more than usual since the surgery. A double whammy of sleepy. I didn’t even make it outside to do any cat feeding, or even doing my usual walkabout.

I did get a couple of things done. We had taken one of the turkeys out of the freezer and my older daughter roasted it last night, for us to enjoy today. She set aside the neck and bag of innards for me. Last night, when I found myself awake and ended up writing a blog post, I stayed up until past 6am. Before going back to bed, I got out the meat grinder my younger daughter and I had picked up at the second hand store earlier this summer and used it to grind the set aside turkey bits. It came out to quite a decent amount, which I packed up in a take out container and set in the old kitchen (which is uninsulated and currently refrigerator cold, even in this mild fall) for my daughters to use to make cat soup with. That seemed to work out rather well.

No one has succeeded in getting close to Sweetie to treat that horrible ear of hers. It’s probably the worst case of ear mites I’ve seen – or the worst damage from scratching. Yet none of us can get close to her, even while she is eating. We used to be able to pet her! Sending her to the rescue for spay and trying to adopt her out has really set her back. It’s been months, and still no progress.

I didn’t even get any crochet done today. Instead, I’ve been trying to catch up on my desktop. I haven’t been keeping up on visiting my blogs as regularly. I don’t do it on my phone, as I find it so much harder to read anything on there, never mind constant issue with tapping on a screen. I haven’t been keeping up on my emails, either, which is mostly newsletters and subscribed stuff, including bloggers I now follow on Substack. Personal communications are more often through text or Messenger, not email, these days. It’s remarkable, how quickly those emails build up. I won’t be able to catch up on them all today, that’s for sure.

Tomorrow is supposed to be chillier, but we should be getting some sunshine. I look forward to getting outside, even if it’s just for a little while!

I got a call from my mother today. I have to say, her calls have been wildly difference since I got my cancer diagnosis and surgery. She actually sounds cheerful. When I ask how she’s doing, she just says “the usual” in referring to her long list of maladies she likes to blame on some food or other, or on the staff for trying to kill her by giving the wrong meds, but doesn’t actually talk about them with me anymore. She saves that for my brother and sometimes my sister.

She has been refusing to dress for the day, staying in one of three long, thick nightgowns she has. She has suddenly decided that she needs more of them, but my sister has not been able to find any that my mother will like. She tried going at my brother about getting her clothes, because she has soooo much money (she doesn’t), and she’s entitled to new things. My brother, meanwhile, knows nothing about her clothing. That’s my sister’s specialty. She knows my mother’s measurements and will usually tailor store purchases to fit my mother. So when she started telling me about talking to my brother about clothes, I told her he’s not the one to talk to about that! That’s when she mentioned that my sister had said she would buy fabric and sew something for her. My sister used to sew all her own clothes, for many years, including clothing of her own design, so she is definitely the right person for that. In hearing some of what my mother was saying she needed, I told her that there are places that specialize in clothes for people with mobility issues. I’m sure there’s one such place in the city where the nearest Walmart is. My sister works at that Walmart, as lives just a 15 minute or so drive away. My mother liked that idea and I promised to pass the message on to my sister.

My mother has been at the personal care home for 5 months now, and has been basically living in those thick nightgowns the whole time. From how she was talking to me, I get the impression that she is seeing how other people living there are always dressed so nicely, and she would like to do that, too. If that’s what it takes for her to stop insisting on not dressing for the day, I’m good with that!

Hopefully, my sister will find – or can sew – things that my mother will like. She is very hard to please, but also doesn’t give much information about what she actually wants!!

It’s coming up on time for me to take my evening med and supplements.

I don’t think I’m going to finish going through the tabs of things I’m trying to catch up on tonight. I might just grab some supper to go with my meds, then go to bed!

I can’t remember the last time I went to bed before midnight so often – and actually slept! Even with waking during the night, I’ve been sleeping for about 10-12 hours a day.

That is so very unusual for me.

The Re-Farmer