A leaky surprise, and blinding

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It’s a good thing I know how to touch type! 😄 I’m home from my eye appointment, and my eyes are still massively dilated.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I had quite a surprise when I did my evening checks in the basement. In the morning, everything around the well pump was almost completely dry, after pipes and fittings were replaced.

In the evening, there was a significant amount of water.

I took some pictures, emailed them to the plumber, then phoned him. It was later in the day, but this is a 24/7 plumber, and he actually answered the phone.

We talked for a while as he looked up the photos I sent him and was really surprised by how much water there was. He said he wasn’t able to come out tomorrow (meaning, today), but I told him that was fine, because I had my medical appointment. He did have a suggestion for me, though, after I described where the leak seemed to be coming from. He suggested I try tightening the screw clamps. The plumber that did the work had used an impact driver to tighten them, so I never even thought that they might be loose, but I was certainly willing to try!

He even told me what size socket I needed, which meant I didn’t need to bring the whole tool box down. 😄

I was quite surprised by how much I was able to tighten them – and I tightened all of them, on both pipes, just in case. When I’d tried it before, after the new pump was installed but it still had the old pipes, I had tried to tighten the clamps with a screwdriver after spotting one of the leaks, but couldn’t even budge them.

Once done, I swept away the water into the sump pump reservoir, then left it for the night.

Happily, this morning, everything seemed to be drying. I sent a picture to the plumber and let him know. I checked again just a little while ago, and it still looks fine.

The first picture in the slideshow above is what I found last night. The second is the one I took a little while ago, so maybe 20 hours later.

Hopefully, it will hold this time!

As for today, my daughter and I headed out after having a late breakfast. My daughter is coming down with something and her lymph nodes are all swollen, so she could barely talk, but she could still drive me home. We left early enough to stop at a grocery store right near the eye clinic to pick up a few things my husband asked for, then I popped into another store briefly, just to see if they had anything we needed. Even with all that, then taking the time to eat lunches in the truck, I was at the eye clinic early.

They were good with that, and even got me started early!

I got the pre-tests done, first, then only had a short wait before the doctor called me in. With my regular vision test, there was very little change. I could get a new prescription, but it really wouldn’t make much difference.

Then she did the drops to dilate my eyes.

Ouch.

I joined my daughter in the waiting room for the 15 minutes it took for my eyes to dilate, then I got a series of photos taken. I have the tiniest of hemorrhages in my eyes that they are monitoring with these.

After the photos were taken, I had a few more minutes to wait before the doctor called me in and we went over the images. Minor changes. Some of the hemorrhages were gone, some faded, and some tiny new ones in other places. Nothing of concern.

Then she did the direct examination, under a bright light.

Ouch.

Everything is checking out okay, though.

That done, I went to book my next appointment in 6 months – that one will include a field of vision test – and settle the bill. I wasn’t sure how it would work with the change in our insurance, and there was only so much information she could access in the system. In the end, I just paid the bill in full ($60) and got the receipt for my husband to submit to the insurance company later.

I thought I was doing fine until I stepped outside in the the bright sunshine! I was almost completely blinded, and had to get my daughter to lead me to the truck. The first thing she did when we got there was get my sunglasses that fit over my regular glasses on me.

What a sweetheart.

(My husband submitted the claim, then we talked about his insurance changes. It turns out that we have the same policy numbers as before. Which means, even though they don’t send out a physical card anymore and want us to use an app, I still had all the information needed on the old physical card that I could have shown the receptionist!)

I’d considered things like getting gas on the way out, or stopping at my mother’s to drop of the cushion I think she was asking me about, but nope. Not today. We went straight home!

Things are a lot better, but my eyes are still burning. I did manage to feed the outside cats while my daughter put away the groceries we got, and gave my husband the receipt for the insurance company, but I think that’s about my limit for the day.

I’m happy to say that both Slick and Adam showed up at feeding time, and I was able to pet Slick a little bit. I was able to pet Adam a lot! She even let me fuss in her fur to try and get a burr out of her side a little bit.

The rest of my day is going to be really quiet, and I’ll be trying to keep my eyes closes as much as possible. Even now, in just the time it took me to write this, the burning is increasing.

So I will say good bye for now!

Until next time…

😊

The Re-Farmer

A beautiful day!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We’re at 10C/50F as I write this. “Real feel” at 12C/54F – and we still haven’t reached our high of the day! Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer.

I am so enjoying this.

First up, I made sure to check on the well pump this morning, and I’m happy to say…

… everything is drying up nicely, and there is no sign of any leaks.

The picture is out of focus because that corner is completely dark, so the camera didn’t know where to focus before the flash lit up.

There is moisture on the floor below showing, but that is normal for this time of year. There’s a low spot where any water seeping through the concrete puddles, and I sweep it into the sump pump reservoir regularly.

Then I headed outside to feed the yard cats, and was even able to do a head count.

Twenty seven. There were 27 cats this morning!

This included Slick, who made a brief appearance.

She is no longer very round.

*sigh*

Then she disappeared.

I checked all the places we set up that I hoped she would use to have her kittens, but they were all empty.

I did find Gouda in the catio, enjoying the fresh straw on the hammock.

There is a beautiful feral tuxedo I saw this morning that I think actually lives across the road from us. He likely calls two colonies “home”.

Once the morning routine was done, I headed to the town north of us to sign the form for our taxes, then take my husband’s home for him to sign, before taking it back. It’s a half hour drive to this town, so doing this meant a total of 2 hours of driving time. Happily, the truck behaved the entire time.

Which is good, because tomorrow I have my eye appointment that my daughter will need to drive me home from.

Meanwhile, I’d messaged the rescue chat group about my count this morning, and we talked about how to at least get some of the friendly males neutered. With that in mind, I did a bit of clean up in the isolation shelter. Later on, when the ground is dry and we can set up a hose, we will move the isolation shelter away from the house and give it a through spring cleaning. For now, though, I wanted to clear out the bottom level. We haven’t been able to change the two litter boxes under there for a long time, because of the box shelter we set in front of the ramp door in the winter. It is warm enough that I moved it out completely and left it set aside, so we’ll be able to access the bottom regularly now. I left the emptied litter boxes out, only one of which will make its way back into the shelter. The other will go into the cat cage in the sun room, where I hope any mamas will bring their kittens.

The straw that was put in the lower level for the winter was thoroughly pooped on. I had to use a garden hoe to reach the far corner and drag it all to the ramp door. That all went to the litter compost behind the outhouse.

It was so warm, I shut off the heat lamp in the isolation shelter as well as both of them in the sun room. With overnight temperatures looking relatively mild from now on, we shouldn’t need to turn them back on again until the fall.

By the time I was done with the isolation shelter, I was starting to hurt again. Definitely something wrong going on in my abdomen. I would not be at all surprised to learn I’ve developed another large cyst. Doctor’s appointment is in the first week of May. We’ll see how it goes from there.

With my eye appointment tomorrow, I won’t be able to work on the garden beds I meant to, but I should be able to gather the materials I’ll need later today. The days are getting so much longer, I’ll have time for that. I think I’ve figured out what I want to use to protect the dwarf peas in the wattle weave bed from the cats, once the straw mulch is removed. Once I’ve got everything I need handy, it won’t take long at all to get the beds cleaned up and protected.

From twenty. Seven. Cats.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

This is going to hurt

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It is, however, done.

The plumber made it to our place today, to check out the leaks at the new well pump. I had checked it again this morning and, using a flashlight, could see that most of the water on the floor was coming from one of the pipes leading from the pump to the well (there are two).

Along with the leak at the well pump, I had also asked to have the taps replaced at the old laundry sink, install the shut off valve on the cold water pipe, plus repair an occaisional leak on the shut off valve on the hot water pipe.

I just checked the security camera time stamps. They were here for three hours.

*sigh*

They charge a base price, plus materials, for the first hour, so we’ll have two more hours of labour on top of that. I haven’t received the bill yet. It will be emailed to me.

We also got some bad news, but I can’t say it was unexpected. I’d already talked to my brother about this, but he had disagreed with me that it was a problem.

We’re going to have to replace our pressure tank. He hooked up a machine to the tank’s valve while it was still full. It had only 2.5psi! For this pump, the psi should be 28.

That will have to wait.

As for the well pump, he had his super bright light to check it out, and found both pipes to the well were also seeping at the fittings. This is on top of the small leak on top of the pump, at the pipe leading to the pressure tank.

He ended up replacing three sections of pipe, two brass fittings attached to the pump itself and two plastic elbows.

This, of course, meant we had no water while it was being worked on. I even had some water bottles available that he could use to prime the pump again when he was done there.

I already had new taps and a second shut off valve for the laundry sink. Getting the old taps off took quite a bit of effort – and a blow torch. The taps I got were designed to simply screw in place, but these old pipes weren’t threaded. Which is why he needed a blow torch to remove the old ones! Once he got those off and the copper cleaned off, he got the new ones on and soldered them in place.

As for the shut off valved, he ended up needing to add some copper pieces to get them to join right.

Once all of that was assembled, we ran the water in the laundry sink and full blast. There was SO much grit that came out, as well as a period where the water was rust colored and completely opaque.

One of the things he did after the well pump’s pipes were all back was use his compressor to bring the pressure tank up to 28psi. Hopefully, it will last a while, because it’s going to be some time before we can replace that.

After he was done and gone, I went to all the taps upstairs and ran the water until it was clear. The only taps left to clear is with the washing machine. We’ll run it through a tub clean tomorrow – then do a whole lot of laundry! I suppose the old taps in the basement that the washing machine had been hooked up to, before the laundry was moved to the entry, should be cleared, too. I leave a hose attached to the cold water tap there, for when I need to clear the floor drains to the septic tank

Here is the finished job.

The first photo in the slide show is of the two pipes leading to/from the well; a suction pipe and a pressure return pipe. New lengths of pipe, new brass fittings at the pump and new elbows to the well. The second photo in the slide sow shows the new pipe to the pressure tank, which did not need new fittings.

The next picture is of the new taps at the laundry sink, soldered in place. I’ve put a short length of hose on the cold water tap again, and will look for another to add the the hot water tap. Without those, the water sprays quite a lot. I did have one set aside already and tried adding it, but it has a plastic rather than metal fitting, and it leaked. It’s just too old. We have old hoses around that I can scavenge later on.

Last of all are the shut off valves. You can see the copper fittings he added, to make up for how much pipe he had to cut away to ensure the Shark Bite valves had something to grip on and not leak. He ended up moving the hot water one completely over by a few inches.

There are two other pipes that have leaks; one at a shut off valve on the hot water pipe to the bath tub. The other in a really hard to reach spot in the cold water pipe going up to the bathroom, where it is now a PEX to copper join. It was so hard to reach into there to crimp the join. By the time he was finished what needed to be done, I wasn’t going to get him to do two far less urgent jobs. Those can wait.

With how long things took, and the time of day, I decided not to go to the town north of us today, to take care of getting our tax forms signed. I will do that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I’d sent photos and updates to my brother. They are still in Spain doing their pilgrimage. With the 6 hour time difference, he was actually able to see them and respond to me. He’s still surprised about the pressure tank. He says it’s about 20 years old. Their pressure tank at the property they sold was over 30 years old and still working fine. Now that it’s at the right pressure, though, we will monitor things. We should even be able to check the pressure ourselves using a tire pressure gauge; it’s the same type of valve stem.

Hopefully, it will be a long time before we need to call a plumber again!!!

On a completely different note, after doing my morning rounds, I took my April “garden tour” videos. I got one of those “X years today” things in my FB this morning, this time from 2023. It was a photo of the snow we got on April 19 of that year. We had a storm with winds high enough they knocked over the gate trail cam’s stand again. That was when I finally found something heavy I could set across the legs at the base. It hasn’t fallen over, since!

We are now entering a very warm spell, and the forecast has changed, yet again. Last I looked, we were to get 4 very warm days, followed by a major drop in temperature together with rain in the day, snow in the night. Now we’re looking at only one evening, later in the week, with possible rain. We might actually be snow free before the end of April! Wouldn’t that be nice!

Meanwhile, I need to do some editing and upload the garden tour video. My project for this evening!

In between checking on the pumps and tanks in the basement throughout the evening, just to be sure there are no more leaks!

The Re-Farmer

An offering

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

What a lovely day today had turned out to be! At one point, checking one of my weather apps, it told me it was still -2C/28F out there, but the “real feel” was 6C/43F!

The outside cats were quite enjoying the sunshine.

One of the things I’d done, once the snow cleared away enough, was move the broken office chairs to the junk pile instead of several feet away, setting them upright again. As expected, the cats are taking advantage of them!

I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these pictures.

The cat in the first picture is one of the more feral ones. It comes to the house regularly, but we cannot approach it. The second picture shows Stinky keeping (her? him?) company on the other chair.

In the afternoon, I headed out with a project in mind, then got these pictures.

The first picture is Sprig. She’s mostly feral, but I was able to stand just a few feet away from her to take the picture. She’s got burrs stuck in her tail, but as soon as I stepped towards her, she ran off. No chance of getting them off for her.

In the second picture, you can see Bug and Fluffy enjoying the exposed straw mulch in the old kitchen garden! That bed is the one sown with beets and tiny bok choi, with transplanted onions that I found while cleaning it out in the fall. You can just see a stick behind Fluffy’s head. That marks the end of a row of beets, so she’s right on top of where they are planted.

I’m going to have to work on keeping that cats off that bed! I’ll be removing the mulch, hopefully tomorrow, and then setting up the vinyl cover sized for this specific raised bed cover. That will keep the cats off for the most part. Once the “greenhouse” is no longer needed, I’ll have to replace the vinyl with netting. I’ll have to find a way to protect the part of the L shaped wattle weave bed that is winter sown, once that mulch is removed, too.

As for my project…

We haven’t seen Slick much at all, and I just can’t figure out how we can possibly trap just her, given how skittish she has become. So I have made an offering to her, in the catio.

I cleared everything out and added fresh straw to the bottom of the catio, as well as some on the remaining hammock. Then I put the big donated cat carrier, with a cat bed in it that I was able to get out of the cat house without lifting the roof, set inside. The carrier is so big, I had to turn it sideways to get it through the door! Then I put the self warming shelter back, on top of some scrap pieces of rigid insulation, along with the food and water bowls. I took the two box nests out completely, along with the blanket that had been in one of them. The blanket went back inside, while the boxes went onto the feeding station under the shrine nearby. Now that enough snow has melted away, we can start leaving food there again, and I put the two bowls inside the boxes for now.

Once the inside was set up again, I used clear repair tape to fix some tears in the vinyl around the catio, caused by the wind. I couldn’t get all of them on the north side, as the bench there is still frozen to the ground and blocking access, but I got the ones on the south side thoroughly covered and reinforced. The tears I couldn’t reach shouldn’t be much of a problem, as they are “sheltered” by the pile of snow at the bench, so there would be very little wind or weather getting through those.

My hope was that Slick would either have her kittens in this shelter within a shelter I have made for her – or bring them there, if she had already had them! I just came back from doing the second feeding of the day and she did show up – still looking pregnant – but wouldn’t even go up onto the cat house roof to eat while I was around. I wish I knew what happened to make her suddenly so nervous.

The catio is one of the places she regularly goes into for food and water, and just hanging out. I’ve seen her using the self warming shelter as well, but the cats jump on top of it, crushing it flat, so she’s not going to have her babies in there. Now that the cat carrier is there, with a soft bed inside, on top of fresh straw, I really hope she will accept it as a safe place to for her babies. That will hopefully give us a better chance of catching her for the rescue, or at least socializing her babies. The only problem I foresee is that, any time she’s been in there and I’ve started to come over with food, she immediately runs away.

I was thinking about how, if she did have her babies in there, we could potentially close the door on the carrier while she’s in it, and then get her to the rescue. Since the carrier could only fit through the door by being turned sideways, we wouldn’t be able to move it if she and her kittens are inside. What we can do, however, is simply pick up the catio and move that, instead, but only if enough snow around it melts away that we have the space to access it and set it down nearby.

As I was still working on taping up the tears on the catio, I saw several cats go in to investigate the new set up. In the second picture of the slideshow above, I was able to get a picture of a cat enjoying the fresh straw on the hammock. I thought it was Pinky at first but, looking at the photo more closely, it might be the cat my daughters have named Bobert.

Staring tomorrow, we’re supposed to alternate in highs of 14C/57F and 12C/54F for the next four days. Thursday, we’re supposed to get rain as the temperature drop, leading to snow on Friday and Saturday, and the highs are supposed to hover at or just above freezing for the rest of April. Even in the first full week of May, we’re supposed to get several days rain during the day, with highs above 10C/50F, and snow overnight! After that, we’re supposed to start getting consistent highs above 20C/68F, and overnight lows staying above freezing.

Winter just does not want to let go, this year!

Well, we’ll see what actually happens when the time comes.

The Re-Farmer

Well, now

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

That’s not supposed to happen.

It’s a good thing we’ve already arranged for the plumber to come back next week.

One of the things he instructed my daughter, after the new pump was installed, was to keep an eye out for leaks. Which is a bit difficult partly because there tends to be a lot of condensation on the pipes. That well water gets really, really cold!

This is definitely not condensation.

That’s how I found it this morning.

As this basement was built before weeping tile was a thing, it’s pretty normal for there to be water on the floor in the spring. Sometimes all summer. We have oscillating fans and blower fans to try and keep it down, and switch the winter window to the summer screen window for air circulation. That frequent wet is part of why the well pump, pressure tank and hot water tank are all on an elevated concrete slab.

I am starting to see water in the floor drain, from the weeping tile under the newer basement, but for now, the concrete is dry. This is all from the pump. One spot, where I can feel a drop of water under the brass fitting, seems to be the only leak. The steel screw clamps are tight.

The plumber is coming out on Monday or Tuesday. I had mentioned the leak at the pump, plus the cold water tap at the laundry sink. He will be replacing both taps for us, since the hot water tap started leaking long ago and we could only install a shut off valve to stop it. He’ll check on the leak at the well pump as well.

Otherwise, the pump is working just fine.

In other things…

I made it out to visit my mother, though I had to turn around and come back. I had some stuff she asked for ready in bags and forgot them at home. Thankfully, I remembered before I reached the highway, and messaged my daughter to meet me at the gate with them.

When I got there, my mother was sitting on her walker in the hall as her room was being cleaned, so we went to the common room. It was a pretty quiet and calm visit. My mother had complaints, of course, but nothing unreasonable, really – even the ones that turned out to be based on her not understanding something she’d been told. I stayed until she was done her lunch, then talked to the nursing station for a bit – an opportunity to clear up one of her misunderstandings – before heading out.

From there, I drove to the town we usually shop in. My husband had a list and his own budget for me this time. Some of what he wanted I wouldn’t have been able to find at the grocery store in my mother’s town. It was a fairly short list, so it didn’t take long before I was done. Then I had to get more gas before heading home. That part was painful.

Throughout all that driving, I’m happy to say the truck behaved. After what happened with the differential, there were a few times on the highway where I was second guessing things, but it seems I was just driving headlong into the wind and being buffeted. More importantly, that oil pressure gauge was having normal readings. Hopefully, the mystery readings are now at an end! The real test will come with city trips, though, and those probably won’t happen for a couple more weeks.

For now, though, I feel ready to drop. For some reason, I just couldn’t fall asleep last night, and I can only partly blame the cats or pain levels. I was mostly just… awake. It was past 6am when I messaged the girls, asking them to take care of the morning routine for me. I did finally get a few interrupted hours of sleep after that. Enough that I was safe to drive, at least. I headed outside to do the evening rounds not long ago, and felt like I was ready to fall asleep the whole time. Now, I am just crashing.

It’s not even 4:30 as I write this.

It’s a gorgeous day out, though. We’re just below freezing, but it’s bright and sunny, and things are melting. The current forecast has us going from a high of 0C/32F tomorrow, to a high of 14C/57F on Monday! We no longer have a high of 20C/68F before the end of the month, though. That’s been pushed back until May. Still, I should have a few days next week to take the mulch off the exposed pre-sown beds and get them protected from critters. The garden beds in the main garden area are still fully covered with snow.

I’m quite looking forward to getting at it!

Hopefully, with more fresh air and sunshine, I’ll be sleeping better, too.

The Re-Farmer

Here’s hoping!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It feels like it’s been such a long day!

But first, the…

… cute sneak thieves!

The cheeky buggers! Both raccoons and skunks are now regularly seen in the sun room. While the camera didn’t catch them last night, I know they go into the isolation shelter, too.

*sigh*

The storm system that hit yesterday hasn’t been too bad, over us. Our weird climate bubble has rescued us again. We got a bit more snow, and it was still snowing this morning, but that’s it. The town my mother is in got pouring rain during the night! So did the city. The highways group I’m on had many reports of poor driving conditions on the highways.

My younger daughter came along for our errands of the day, with our first stop being the post office to pick up a parcel. The paved roads near our little hamlet were already starting to melt, even as more snow was falling. As we got closer to town, however, the road conditions slowly got worse. I found myself doing about 80-85kph/50-53mph all the way, instead of the 100kph/62mph speed limit. It was very messy and hard to see where the lanes were, the closer we got to the lake, which is pretty typical. I’d heard of one road, just before town, being washed out and we could actually see the damage as we drove by! Still, I’ve driven through much worse.

Our first stop in town was to drop off the truck at the garage. We’d left early, knowing it would be slow going, and ended up only about 15 minutes early instead of the half hour early it normally would have been, in good driving conditions. I just had to drop off the keys, and then my daughter and I – remembering to grab canes – started walking.

First thing we did was get a breakfast, since neither of us had eaten before we left. We took our time about it. My appointment was a drop off time, not a scheduled work time, and it looked like it was just the owner in today, so I knew it would likely be quite a while. We did have other errands to do, but not until after we got the truck back.

We decided to walk over to the second hand store, just to see what we could find.

Treasures. We found treasures.

Specifically, there were a couple of hand crank meat grinders. One looking very much like the one I found in the old kitchen that I remember using when I was a kid, which has missing parts now. The second hand one we were looking at even had a spare mincing plate, though both were coarse grind plates. There was a second one, much smaller, that had two spare mincing plates, and was the same price.

After hemming and hawing, I finally decided to go ahead and get the bigger one.

Then we started looking around and I got a few more things, the most expensive costing $2. My daughter admired a couple of items that I ended up getting for her, including a matcha bowl and saucer set, and a fabulously retro pitcher. For myself, I got a serving bowl, an old Mennonite cookbook, and a couple of books with plans for making things like furniture and garden structures. My daughter got herself a DVD and a couple of novels.

One thing we both spend quite a bit of time looking over was an old China cabinet, selling at only $80. The set up we have for our dishes, serving bowls, etc. was great when we first moved out here, but we now have a lot more cats. The shelves are open in the front, and that’s become a problem. That cabinet would actually solve a lot of storage space problems we have right now. What we couldn’t figure out, however, is how we would get it home. Yes, it would fit in the box of the truck, but none of us are able bodied enough to load and unload it.

We didn’t get it.

Once we paid for our stuff, we were then stuck with carrying them around! The meat grinder alone is cast iron, and weighs about 15 pounds. It got its own bag. The rest all together weighed more. Not normally a big deal, but we were both caning it and, with my right elbow still messed up, I could only carry the grinder with my left arm.

We’d already done a fair bit of walking by then and needed to sit down, so we headed over to a donut shop for drinks and a donut each. It was a place we could hang out for a while and not be taking up needed table space.

By the time we were done there, enough time had passed – about 4 hours altogether – that I figured we could head back to the garage, even though we hadn’t been texted yet. The walk was slow going. My poor daughter was in so much pain, I could see she was fighting not to cry. 😢

When we got to the garage, the truck was still up on a hoist and almost done, so we went into the office to sit down. I made sure my daughter sat in the normal sized chair by their desk. They have other chairs, but they are much lower. Hard to get in and out of when your knees or back are shot, but I was having an easier time of it than my daughter was.

It was past 2pm by the time we got to the garage, though. The original plan once the truck was done was to do a quick stop at the grocery store, then a gas station, then drive to the town north of us to the tax preparer. I had my form to sign, but we’d then have to take my husband’s form home for him to sign, then I would drive it back. Then we were going to go back to town again, as my older daughter wanted to treat us to take out and sent funds for it. Altogether, it would have been an extra 3 1/2 hours of driving, at least, and the tax preparer’s office closed at 5.

We were both already in too much pain, so I called them up instead and said we weren’t going to make it today. I was assured that was all right. We’ve got until April 30 to sign the forms!

I’ll do it on Monday.

It wasn’t too much longer before the truck was done and it was backed out of the garage. My daughter took our stuff to the truck while I settled the bill – just pennies over $388, in the end. Hopefully, that will solve the problem and we won’t be back again for some time!

I know where my tax return is going.

*sigh*

As we were talking about it, he told me that, if I don’t come back for anything until after June, they won’t be there anymore. They are moving locations! They are going from about 2,400 sq ft to about 35,000 sq ft, in an industrial park – and he bought the building, so no more renting! That is so awesome! They opened a second location last year, and are doing well enough to expand locally, too. I congratulated him, of course. I’m so happy that they are doing so well. There are a surprising number of garages in this town, so for him to have enough business that he can expand like this tells a lot.

That done, I went to the truck – then had to get my daughter to go behind me to guide me as I backed out, as there were a couple of vehicles making for a tight space. While we were doing that, the owner came out to get one of them, to drive it into one of the bays. He was chuckling a bit when he saw what we were doing, but it did give me a chance to quickly talk to him. The check engine light was still on. I figured it should turn off on its own in short order, now that the new sensor is installed, which he confirmed for me.

Once parked at the grocery store, my daughter stayed in the truck, as she was in too much pain for more walking. We only needed a few things, but I went through the whole store to see if there was anything I was forgetting. Of course, there was, so I’m glad I did.

From there, it was to the gas station. I put $50 in the tank, which gave me a quarter tank at $1.799 *sigh*

Next, we headed to the Dairy Queen for take out – and the check engine light was of by then. My daughter came in with me, so she could choose for her sister and herself. For treats like this, we order a combo meal each, plus an extra burger each, so it took a little while longer for it to be done! I even remembered to bring in a hard sided grocery bag to make it easier to carry the hot food. My daughter ended up with the tray of drinks on her lap for the drive home.

Unfortunately, while the road was in better condition by then, and almost completely clear of ice and snow, it’s a rough ride. The road needs resurfacing. She didn’t get splashed too badly, though! It got smoother once we were on the gravel road again.

Once at home and unloaded, it was late enough that I went straight to feeding the outside cats, making it safer for my daughter to drive out of the yard and park the truck in the garage.

During the drive home, I’m happy to say that oil pressure gauge was right were is was supposed to be, the whole way. Here’s hoping that new sensor will keep working properly! It’ll take a bit more driving before we know for sure.

Tomorrow, I should go visit my mother, at the very least.

Now that we’ve got this last bit of work done on the truck, we have quite a few things to catch up on, little by little. Plus, I’ve got my eye appointment next week, which my daughter will have to drive me home from, and FINALLY, my third attempt at a doctor’s appointment in the beginning of May. If all goes well, I won’t have to cancel any of that!

Here’s hoping!!!

The Re-Farmer

The snow is back

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

This morning was chilly. Just chilly; the incoming weather system hadn’t reached us yet. I was actually able to do extended rounds, with so much snow finally melted away after yesterday’s warmth. All of which froze overnight.

The amount of water had actually gone done quite a bit before it froze, though! This is behind our garage, this morning.

Yesterday, I needed to dump a litter bucket into the litter compost pile behind the outhouse. I neglected to wear my rubber boots, and the path we usually use was completely flooded, as was the path all the way to the outhouse. I ended up making my way through the other side to dump the bucket, skirting branch piles and snow drifts!

I had another bucket to dump this morning – and yes, I remembered to put on my rubber boots this time – and stopped to take the above photo. The path to the litter compost was almost completely clear. There was just one lower area with ice over it, but the water below was almost completely gone, so it was just a floating sheet of ice. This area in the photo is the lowest, so it takes quite a while for it to fully drain.

I was finally able to make my way around to the sign cam, only by skirting along the edge of the spruce grove, where much of the snow was gone. I just had one drift to break through at the far end. Literally. The snow was so soft in the warmth, yesterday, but this morning that was frozen to a hard crust at the top that I had to stamp and break through in order to cross. I didn’t even try to go through the garden area, where the snow it still over a foot deep. Going around did give me a chance to check out and confirm we have had two more dead trees fall.

The big spruce landed on top of another spruce that fell years ago. The other two pictures in the slideshow above are of a dead poplar that is now hung up on other trees.

I’ve already talked to my brother about clearing the deadwood out in the spring or summer. If he can get his tractor going, we can pull them out. Then we can start taking down the other dead spruces as well. We really, really want to get the ones that are closer to the house!

At this point, I would just like to have the trees all dragged into one general space in the old garden area where it’s still all wide open. Once they are there, I can process them to use. Some – the thickest trunks – will become support posts for the outdoor kitchen we are planning to build, while others will be used to build raised beds.

While walking towards the sign cam, I passed a huge poplar, and saw this lovely sign of spring.

Soft clusters of catkins, all over the branches! This tree is the only one I see them on right now.

All of this is now covered in snow.

The system is hitting other areas harder than us, but we will be getting snow, off and on, through to tomorrow. Some areas will be getting a mix of rain and snow, while other higher elevations might get as much as 15cm/6in, where most areas are looking at 4-8cm/1.5-3in

It started here in the late morning. When I headed out to meet the pharmacy delivery guy, we had about an inch of new snow. It was light enough that I could just use a broom to clear the steps and sidewalk. It has started snowing again, so I’ll probably need to do it again when it’s time to feed the outside cats for the end of the day. The delivery driver, meanwhile, said that his place is flooding! His house is not in danger, thankfully, but he’s had to contact the highways department. That tells me there would be an ice dam in a ditch between his place and the lake that needs to be cleared. This system is pushing north, and I was chatting with one of the rescue’s contacts this morning. She lives on the reserve that might have to do some evacuations because of this storm. For her, that means working out how to help animals, should that happen.

This morning, I was able to pet a very pregnant Slick while she was eating, and was able to send the group chat I have with the rescue some video. Slick is one of the few that allows contact, but only when she’s on the cat house roof and eating. Even then, it’s touch and go. They would like us to trap her and bring her in before she pops. We can try, but it would be very difficult to trap just one specific cat! Especially one that is more feral than not. We will do the best we can.

In other things, while doing my checks in the basement this morning, I found that the cold water tap in the laundry sink is dripping even faster. I contacted the plumber and talked to him about it. Both taps need to be replaced and I already have new taps. The problem is that the current ones were affixed permanently. My brother said a torch would be needed to get them off. !!! I explained this to the plumber – then mentioned we have other leaks down there to check, too. He started to look at his calendar saying he couldn’t come today, and I told him it wasn’t urgent. Next week would be better. So he will come either Monday or Tuesday, depending on his schedule, and will call us before he comes.

As for me, I am taking the truck in to the garage tomorrow morning. I got a text yesterday aftenroon, letting me know the part had arrived. So we will get the new OEM sensor, the engine flush and oil change all done as the same time. Hopefully, that will bring and end to those weird low pressure readings!

I also got a call from the tax preparers last night, just before 7pm!! They close at 5.

Our taxes are done. I will need to go in to sign my form, then bring my husband’s home for him to sign and bring back again. I will do that after getting the truck back, tomorrow. The tax preparer told me how much we’re getting back. For me, it will be zero. I thought I would get my disability tax credit the same as I had been getting the caregiver tax credit, directly to me. However, because I have 0 income and don’t “need” it, they were able to transfer it to my husband’s return – and got a larger tax return for both of us in the process, than if it had been done separately. That’s going to come in handy, that’s for sure! Especially with the extra plumber’s bills.

So tomorrow is going to be a busy day of driving around. Hopefully, the roads will not be too bad after this storm passes!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: “potting” up, and weather whiplash

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I have been seriously procrastinating with the seedlings in our basement set up. Today, however, my daughter was available to assist, and we got it done!

My daughter took on the job of sifting the rest of the bag of potting soil. She had to start a second bucket for all the sticks she sifted out, as the one I’d been using before was already 3/4 full. While she did that, I worked on making a whole bunch of strips for snail rolls, with a few extra strips, just in case.

Once the soil was sifted, my daughter thoroughly moistened the potting soil with hot water while I cleared all the trays of seedlings, the heat mats and the full spectrum lights. Everything was going to go on the shelf under the shop light. A shelf that sags in the middle. I did try to elevate the trays in the middle, but when I watered the bottoms, it would still all pool towards the middle, so anything on the outsides of the trays would end up with less water available. After some poking around in the old basement, I found a board to set across the top. It’s too short to be able to use heat mats under it, but I decided not to set those up again. Hopefully, they will be okay without them in our basement, where the ambient temperature is at least 5C colder than it should be for seedlings.

Once everything was cleared out and set up, the first things I wanted to “pot up” were the peppers and eggplant. They have been really struggling. Some new seedlings from a second sowing did start to germinate, but even some of those have already withered away.

I bottom watered the tray and had vermiculate on top, but there still ended up some algae growing on the surface. That’s not harmful to the plants, but it does suggest a moisture imbalance.

When it came time to transfer them, my daughter used a large spoon to scoop the seedlings out of the cells while I set them onto one of the strips, flattening out the seed starting mix they were in, then adding the moistened, warm potting soil to fill in gaps.

I had already transferred all the tomatoes, fennel and flower rolls into one metal tray – 8 snail rolls – and had room for two more rolls on there. In the end, there were only 5 surviving Caspar eggplant, and only three Sweet Chocolate peppers. I did have a full row of California Wonder bell peppers, though, and one of the cells had a two seedlings, so that gave us a very large and full snail roll to put into the second metal tray set up under the shop light.

One thing about these thicker snail rolls is that it’s a lot harder to keep the soil in them, while they are being rolled up.

Next was the Golden Boy celery, which has already been “potted up” once. They now needed to be split up into two rolls. We were really surprised by how dry their soil was! For all the regular bottom watering I did, they were large enough that they’d needed more.

The leaves were all tangled up, so it was very careful work to unroll the celery. The soil was very full of roots. Between use, we carefully broke out half the celery and spread them out on a new strip before adding the moistened potting soil to fill the strip. It took both of us to very carefully roll them up without losing too much soil from the bottom. Once that was done, we had the space to finish unrolling the original roll, space out the seedlings and add more soil.

So we now have two snail rolls of celery, to go with four types of tomato, three types of flowers and the Florence fennel.

I considered putting the sad little herbs into a snail roll, too, but decided against it. As for the last surviving luffa, I’m not sure it’s surviving any more! It got pretty buried under the celery leaves. Well, we did get seeds for a different variety with a much, much shorter growing season – short enough we could potentially direct sow them – so if this last one doesn’t make it, we can try the new variety, instead.

Once everything was set up under the shop light, I supported the light while my daughter shortened the chain it’s hanging from, so it wouldn’t be too close to the plants. Especially the celery. The chain on that side was hung even shorter, to give them the space they need.

Which means we now no longer have anything under the grow lights. With the snail rolls, everything fit in the two trays. They got a thorough bottom watering, then a second one when we saw how quickly the water was absorbed. With how dry the celery was, I’ll probably give that tray another watering, later today.

The next batch of seeds are the 4-6 weeks before last frost ones. I don’t have a lot of those, comparatively speaking. There are a LOT that can be started in the 2-4 weeks before last frost category, but a lot of those can actually be direct sown, so I plan to be more selective about it.

Looking at the forecast, we’ve got some more weather whiplash expected. Winter still does not want to let go! Today, we are now expected to reach a high of 15C/59F (it’s 8C/46F as I write this), shortly before noon), but the overnight low is supposed to drop to -7C/19F. At midnight, we’re supposed to start getting snow. Tomorrow we’re supposed to get a mix of snow and rain all day, through to the next morning.

The weather system that’s hitting us is mostly going to pass to the north. They are looking at potentially several inches of new snow. This is actually really good. Everything is still so dry u[ there. Every bit of moisture is needed, so this year’s fire season isn’t as bad as last year. There will be fires. There always are. Between any moisture we get, and the fact that last year’s insane number of fires probably cleared out a lot of deadwood, hopeful this means very fewer fires, and only little ones, this year.

The highs for the next two days are supposed to be -3C/27F. After that, we’re supposed to get back above freezing, and soon reach double digit Celsius highs. Before the end of April, we’re even expecting to reach 20C/68F, and once we’re into May, the long range forecast has us getting as high as 24C/75F It’s the overnight lows that are the thing, though. Last year, May had all sorts of hot days, but the nights remained cold, so the soil never got warm enough for transplants until the middle of June. Even then, it might still have been too cold. Our transplants really struggled last year.

Hopefully, our winter sown beds will do well. After the next couple of days of cold, and any snow we get on the beds melts away, I should be able to remove the mulches on at least some of the beds, so the soil can thaw out faster. I can set the vinyl over the cover in the old kitchen garden to create a little greenhouse. That bed has the beets and tiny bok choy in it, along with the little onions I’d found while preparing the bed for sowing. I have more vinyl I can potentially use on one of the other covers on a 9’x3′ raised bed to create another little greenhouse. Plus, once I can access the main garden area, I have the hoops and 6mm poly I’d ordered and can use to set over one of the other pre-sown beds to speed things up a bit. Or just to warm up one of the other, empty beds, faster. We shall see how things look, once the snow has melted enough to get to them.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Finally getting things done

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First thing I just have to say is…

Oh, wow, that new well pump is so QUIET!!!!

For 8 years, I’ve been hearing that old pump going off, never knowing what “normal” sounded like. Just that this one was sounding worse and worse as time went on. Now that it has finally been replaced, it actually feels weird to just barely hear it when it goes off.

The other thing I’m appreciating, in a still stressful way, though, is not having to worry about the truck’s oil pressure sensor triggering alarms. The alternative, until the OEM sensor comes in, is no sensor at all, but I’ve had to drive it with the gauge at 0 before. The check engine light is on now, of course. I’ve driven with that on for quite a while this past winter, until it warmed up enough and it shut off on its own. That was the O2 sensor and likely caused by the polar vortexes that his us freezing something in it.

Still, I’m going to be nervous driving the truck no matter what. We’ve had so many crazy things break down, that’s really to be expected.

Today, however, the dump is open from 9am to1pm, and we were seriously overdue for a dump run. The last time I managed a dump, I ended up needing a tow.

My younger daughter, sweetheart that she is, offered to come with me to keep me company. 😄

We loaded the back of the truck after the morning cat feeding was done. We had so many garbage bags, including from the sun room and the garage, to load, there was room for only one bag of recycling. The recycling can wait. The temperatures are warming up, and the garbage bags no longer freeze in the old kitchen, so they needed to be gone!

When we got to the dump and started making our way to the pit, my daughter got out to walk ahead, looking for anything that might puncture a tire. There was a pick up truck parked on the side, and we hadn’t realized someone was in it! It was one of the staff having his lunch, I think. He could tell what she was doing and I could see he was assuring her it wasn’t necessary. We got a chuckle out of that after she guided me in backing up to the pit and she told me what he’d been saying. He had even asked if we needed a hand unloading!

After we were done and driving out, I stopped at the truck to thank him. I mentioned to him about being paranoid, having gotten a flat after doing a dump run once. He told me that he’s been hearing stories like that from many, many people, so he has been making sure to keep an eye out and to clear in front of the pit if he sees anything that could cause damage. I made sure to tell him how great of a job they’re doing; the place hasn’t looked this good for a long time! I wanted him to know how much it is appreciated.

From there, it was a quick stop at the recycling bins, then then we made our way to the town north of us. I’d brought our files to drop off at the tax preparer. Our taxes are about as simple as can be; the only change this year is that I no longer am going to get the Caregiver Tax Credit, but now qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. We gave up trying to do taxes ourselves; the last time I picked up the software, it had changed so much, I could barely navigate it. I even got another company’s software, and it turned out to be just as useless. My husband has T4A slips – the slips for persons on long term disability. One brandy’s software didn’t even recognize the A, nor could I find where we could claim the Disability Tax Credit and the Caregiver Tax Credits. When it came to claiming my husband’s medical expenses – just his prescriptions, usually – it became impossible. There simply wasn’t any way to input his data accurately. I gave up, took it to a pro, and we’ve been doing that ever since.

After dropping the files off, I asked my daughter if we needed to get anything while in town, and she informed me we were out of milk, so we went to the grocery store.

Good grief.

I got a 4L of 3% milk instead of our usual 2L. A 4L of 3% is usually just over $5. In this town, one brand was over $8, and one was just under. That happened to be the brand we usually get, so we got it again.

We went through the store to see if there was anything else we needed. Most of the prices were just insane. The exception was beef prices. I saw a couple of big beef tenderlions that were just over and just under the $100 range. Those same beef tenderlions cost almost $300 at Costco! Still, it wasn’t something we were ready to get today, and ended up just getting snacks for the ride home. My daughter picked up a package of donuts to share with her sister. I don’t like cake type donuts much, but she said she’s been craving a good donut.

Then she grabbed everything and snuck ahead to pay for it for me! 😄

Later on, she came to me, very disappointed. The donuts turned out to be terrible. The same thing happened the last time we picked up some mini donuts about a month ago. They looked so good, but tasted horrible!

After we got home, I remembered to phone my mother. I usually remember too late in the day to actually make the call.

*sigh*

I asked how she was doing, and she started to complain about being in pain, but when I asked what kind of pain, she just started going on about how she’s been there for three months, and the doctor has never seen her. She told me that when she tells the staff that she wants to see the doctor, they just tell her “he’ll be here tomorrow” or “he’s on holidays”. She’s conflating responses. He was on holidays over Easter, but he’s been back for awhile now. She still claims they’re saying he’s on holidays. I tried to explain again that yes, he has (briefly, to be sure) seen her, but that he’s only there 1 day a week, and it’s to go over the staff reports, not necessarily to see individual people. She cut me off and told me she didn’t care

She did ask me if I’d heard from my sister and my brother. I told her, it’s been a few days since I’ve heard from my sister and got a lecture about how we need to stay in communication. I told her, if we have nothing to say, there’s nothing to say! Then I told her I’d heard from my brother yesterday, and how they’re now in Spain, after walking 190km, with another 90km to go. She told me, she didn’t care about kilometers, and how all she knows is that my brother has basically run away from his responsibilities and is hiding overseas. I told her, they are on a pilgrimage. Following the paths of saints. She brushed that off.

She’s asked what was new with us, so I told her about the well pump. I knew she wouldn’t care, but I figured it would stave off any lectures on why I hadn’t visited her. I told her the pump had stopped working on Sunday, so we had no water, which seemed to confuse her. Then I said we called plumbers, and she started demanding I call a guy she remembers my father hiring in the past that lives not far from us. I said no. I’m going to call a real plumber! Plus, he’s tight with our vandal. The guy actually is a plumber by training, but hasn’t worked as a plumber in years. He’s been on disability for years. I had to cut my mother off from demanding I call him to say, it’s already fixed. We got a plumber in and, thanks to my brother, we already had a pump, so it’s done. We have water again.

Oh, that’s your problem.

…

At that point I told her, don’t ask me what’s new with us, if you don’t care to hear about what’s new. I had to repeat it a few times before she got what I was saying, then tried to blame it on how bad she’s feeling.

She never did tell me exactly how she’s feeling bad, other than generic stuff. She started off talking about pain, but finished by saying she thinks it’s her digestion that’s causing problems.

The real problem is, my mother is someone that is 94 years old, has lived a life of great physical hardship, including surviving starvation and a war, but somehow thinks she would be feeling perfectly healthy – and any doctor that can’t just fix her (without pills, though, because she’s already taking so many and she’s still in pain…) is not a good doctor. I have tried to get her to explain her expectations to me, and she never quite answers.

It was a frustrating call.

She had been about to go for a nap, though, so I didn’t keep her on the phone for too long.

Meanwhile…

It’s been a lovely day, but one where I’ve been fighting sleep all day. I’m just drained. Still, I made sure to do the evening cat feeding, just to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We hit 10C/50F today, and it’s been so lovely!

This morning, my daughter had helped me return all the carriers for storage in the sun room, with the doors open so cats can go in and out. After doing the feeding, I got some puppy pads to set inside the carriers in such a way that they would also keep the doors from closing all the way.

This promptly happened.

That’s little Flopsy on the left. The one on the right is an unsocialized cat we haven’t named. Can’t get close to it, but it is quite content to go into a carrier and use it as a nest!

It was so nice out, I took the time to grab the snow shovel and do some clearing. I shoveled in front of the old kitchen garden retaining wall, clearing more than enough space for the assembled chicken coop. Now that there’s no longer over a foot of snow on the area, the layer of ice left on the grass can melt away and the area will have a chance to dry out faster. We won’t get chicks until the end of May, and they won’t be big enough to go into a coop for weeks later, but the earlier we set up the coop, the better. It will give us time to determine if that area will actually work, or if we need to try somewhere else. We don’t have a lot of level areas, anywhere.

I’m really, really enjoying the warmer weather! At this rate, it won’t be long before I can remove the mulch on the sown garden beds, so the soil can thaw out faster. Not in the main garden area, yet. That’s still completely covered in snow and will take longer, but the slightly higher raised beds in the old kitchen garden and in the east yard are already mostly free of snow.

Looking ahead, we are going to have a few days where the highs will dip below freezing again, but after that we’re supposed to start getting highs above 10C/50F, and overnight lows staying above freezing, regularly.

I can hardly believe April is almost half gone already.

Time is just flying by!

The Re-Farmer