Bebbies, doctor’s visit and deer scarer failure

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Today was my follow up with the doctor after my last ER visit. The appointment was in the afternoon, but my daughter and I left early, with plans to have lunch before heading to the clinic.

I am quite glad we left as early as we did!

On the way to the truck, though, I checked on the catio in its new location. My daughter had seen the kittens at the branch pile again when doing the morning feeding, but they soon joined the singleton kitten at the shrine feeding station, so I wanted to see if they were still around.

I found a furry little slug in the carrier.

It moved before I had a chance to get my phone out to take a picture.

It had been completely flattened along the curve of the carrier, snoozing. After looking around a bit, it finally saw me and got nervous, so I left it be.

In wandering through the garden beds, I discovered something.

Every single Yellow Swiss Chard that had been growing between the garlic is now gone. All of it. There’s nothing but weeds left.

The deer scarer did not go off while I was there, even though I set it to 24 hours instead of night only. Yesterday I was hearing it go off constantly, but never saw any critters. I think tree branches in the wind might have been setting it off. I thought maybe the solar charge was dead because of this but when I tested it, it still worked. So I have no clue why it stopped working! Not that it matters anymore. There’s nothing that the deer like to eat left.

*sigh*

Meanwhile, I had been feeling quite good when I got up this morning but, by the time I finished walking around the yard, the pain was starting to come back, and it kept getting worse throughout the day.

*doublesigh*

With all the construction on the highway we would normally have taken, we took the highway towards the town south of us before cutting across. It was a very disheartening drive. There were SO many squished garter snakes on the road! There were some live ones we managed to avoid hitting, one I never saw that my daughter thinks I might have hit and one that I know I missed, only to look in my rear view mirror and see the vehicle behind me run over it. 😭

I wish the “snake fences” that are on the highway nearest the snake dens extended further south. These are fences in the ditches that guide the snakes through tunnels under the highway. These were built in an area so close to the dens that had so many snakes crossing it, it was impossible not to hit them and the highway actually became dangerously slippery from them all. We don’t get THAT many snakes this far from the dens, but it is still a tragic number of snakes never making it to their winter dens. Garter snakes are not at all dangerous and are excellent pest control. We need more of them!

Taking the alternate route did allow us to avoid most of the construction, but there was still a section of it we needed to get through before our turn off. Then we got stuck behind slower traffic. We still got to the area early enough to grab a quick lunch, then continue to the clinic. We left almost 2 hours early, with the drive normally taking about 45-50 minutes. We got to the clinic only 15 minutes early for my appointment.

I was most definitely relying on the walker at this point, and my daughter came in with me. We must have been quite a sight. Me with my walker, her with her cane!

We spoke for a while about how things went after the surgery, leading to the ER visit, and how I’ve been doing since then. I told her I’ve been taking the T3s every 6 hours as instructed, but I really don’t feel it’s making a difference. I had taken my afternoon dose just before going into the clinic, and the pain just kept getting worse as I sat there. We talked about taking tramadol and I told her I did still have some tramadol left, though not a lot. I’d had the tramadol injection at the ER, which did seem to work. I brought up that the ER doctor had suggested hydromorphone and that I might want to try my husband’s, just to see if it worked and if I had any reaction to it. I explained that she had said to take 1mg, and to split the pill if my husband was on 2mg, but that my husband’s dose is 12mg. The doctor was rather startled by that and asked what was wrong that he was on such a high dose, and I explained his back injury – and that the hydromorphone basically just takes the edge off the pain for him.

In the end, she did say that, if I felt the need, to go ahead and try my husband’s dose of hydromorphone! She could not prescribe it to me, though, as she did not have the hand written, triplicate prescription pad needed for it, as a “controlled substance”.

I never got to mention that I already had tried it, some time ago, and it worked quite well. I haven’t tried it again since then because it cannot be taken with the same class of painkillers as T3s. I’d have to wait until any acetaminophen type medication is out of my system completely. That includes the tramadol I still have left.

Meanwhile, we talked about it a bit more and she said she would prescribe some Percocet for me to try. At this point, we’re just on pain management until she gets the results of the biopsy. She did check before coming in to see me, and there was nothing back yet. I already have the 4 week follow up appointment booked, so I’ll be seeing her again in the middle of September and she will have the results by then.

She did start to tell me that she didn’t think she would have good news for me, but with that she meant she expects I will need a hysterectomy. To which I responded YES PLEASE!!! She laughed, because I’d already told her I was just fine with having one. If, however, the tests show cancer, I’m going to have to see a specialist in the city, because the hospital she does surgeries in does not have the resources for that. If she didn’t have to wait for the test results, she told me she could do the hysterectomy at any time, based on what she saw on the camera during the fibroidectomy. She said it’s actually pretty common as women get older.

Even as I was sitting there with the doctor, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the pain. I was till okay to drive to the nearby Walmart, while the doctor said she would fax the new prescriptions to our pharmacy. With my daughter helping out, we picked up a few things we hadn’t gotten during the city trip yesterday. I even finally found a package of assorted grades of sand paper that I had been looking for but couldn’t find while in the city.

There wasn’t much else we needed to get there, and we were soon heading to town to pick up my new meds, with my daughter driving. When we got to the pharmacy, I stayed in the truck while she ran in. She was soon back to let me know they had not received the fax yet. Meanwhile, I had just received a message from my husband. The pharmacy had called him to remind him that he’d be getting a delivery on Thursday. So I asked her to let them know that, once the fax comes in, my prescriptions can be added to the delivery.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, I will phone to see if the faxed prescriptions came in. If they did not, someone will need to call the clinic about it.

That done, we only needed to stop to get more gas in the truck – once again, I stayed in the truck while my daughter took care of it – before heading home.

It took a while, but the pain did finally start to recede and I felt able to go outside and walk around a bit. I tried fishing for kittens after topping up the food bowl in the catio (my older daughter took care of their evening feeding while her sister and I were gone). Theirs gets cat milk added to soften the kibble which, unfortunately, means I spent more time chasing other cats – and a very determined skunk! – away from their food. I was able to stay out until my alarm went off for my next dose of T3s. Which seems pointless. Taking it regularly should be acting as a preventative, which isn’t happening.

Hopefully, the Percocet will work better.

I have to say, I’m feeling increasingly frustrated. My daughter joked with the doctor about how I’m not allowed to do yard work right now. Fair enough, but I need to be doing SOMETHING! There is so much that I want to be doing. The doctor had brought up putting me on bed rest but decided against it. She could see I was already doing that as needed but one of the meds I’ll be getting is the one to stop bleeding, and I can’t be on bed rest if I’m taking that. I would have to mover around or risk blood clots. So I have not been put on bed rest, but I have to NOT be doing anything that that involves physical exertion.

At least I can use the riding mower.

On the way home, I talked to my daughter about some of the things I can physically do, with just a bit of help to set up. Like work on the round cutting boards I want to make out of slices of that elm tree. I want to get those cut, cleaned, sanded and conditioned before the green wood starts to dry out and crack. We’ll see about getting the chain saw out to cut the slices to the thickness I’m after, and she’ll take care of actually lifting and moving the pieces to where I can work on cleaning and sanding them before they can be oiled.

Cutting the slices might be a challenge. My electric chain saw has a 14″ bar. I’m pretty sure the pieces I’m looking to cut into thinner slices are more than 14″ across! The pile of elm pieces is right near an outdoor outlet, so that helps.

We had a solid rainfall last night, and rain off and on today, which was much needed. No rain is expected over the next few days, though, so we should be able to plug in the chain saw and do some cutting, if my daughter is up to moving very heavy pieces of wood for me.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

Second stock up shop: this is what $364 in total looks like

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$364.05, to be exact. Plus the stuff I didn’t get photos of.

My daughter did the morning routine again. This morning, she found all six kittens – plus the older singleton! – playing together near the shrine feeding station. She startled them and they ran off, but when she came back with cat soup, she said all seven of them were eating out of the same bowl!

More progress on that later…

We headed for the city around 10am or so, crossing over towards town and stopping at a gas station to pick up drinks for the road, first. We chose this route because the highway goes straight into the city and turns into the street that all our stops are on.

That was a mistake.

While no construction workers were on the highway, there were still limits in places that required reduced speeds. Mostly because of the drop off at least a foot deep where the shoulder used to be! Then we got into the city itself and there was even more construction, with the first intersection we needed blocked to turns, so we had to pass it then turn around.

By the time we got to where the Canadian Tire is, it was lunch time, so we popped into the mall to eat, first. We ended up both going to A&W for some double mozza burgers – it’s been ages since I’ve had one. My daughter had poutine with hers and I chose sweet potato fries, plus we both had medium fountain drinks. It ended up costing just over $42.

*sigh*

This mall has a Dollarama, and I wanted to go there before we headed to the Canadian Tire. I was looking for the 10% acid vinegar in gallon jugs. We didn’t find any; just in smaller spray bottles. So we skipped that, but we did get a few other things. We’ve somehow lost track of a couple of spray bottles we use for water – mostly to use on the cats! – so we got two more. I also picked up two more pet odor remover pucks to keep near litter boxes. I also spotted some absolutely adorable little sauce dipping bowls in a set of four. My love of tiny bowls is a bit of a running joke, but we do actually use them a lot. My daughter noted that they were a very good size and shape, too, so I got a set. While going past the hats display, my daughter went digging and found a hat with the front and visor in rainbow glitter.

I now have a new hat in my sparkly hat collection.

The grand total came to $21.28

From there, we headed to the Canadian Tire. The main thing to get there is the litter pellets, however we also went looking for some other things and found stuff to pick up that we normally would not.

We got two 40 pound bags of pellets for litter. They also had a whole bunch of gallon jugs of 10% acid cleaning vinegar! We got two. Then we headed to the paint department. While there, I found a display of 30% acid vinegar! That one had all sorts of corrosion warnings on the label. 😄 A 4L/1gallon jug of 10% acid cost $4.99 each. The 30% acid vinegar cost almost $30 for a gallon. !!

I also found a new SeptoBac product to try. We have the powder that gets flushed down the toilet to add bacteria to the septic tank. This stuff is meant to be used monthly to help clear and maintain the pipes. We plan to use it from the kitchen sink, as it’s the length of pipe that runs from there to the corner under the bathroom that is of primary concern.

I found and picked up a roll of Tucktape outdoor repair tape, because the one I’d picked up before has simply disappeared, after a single use. I am a complete loss as to what happened to it, as I’d made a point of putting it somewhere in the open, with plans to use it again soon. When I came to get it, it was gone. It hasn’t shown up again in a few months, so I just bought another one.

Then we got a couple of wood conditioners. For myself, I picked up some Butcher’s Block finishing oil, designed for food handling surfaces. Aside from conditioning our wooden cutting boards, I have some elm rounds from the tree that was in front of the kitchen window that I plan to chainsaw into thinner rounds. They’ll be made into live edge, round cutting “boards” to be used with our outdoor cooking. Once the rounds are cut, cleaned and sanded smooth, they will get treated with this oil.

My daughter, meanwhile, wanted something to use on our tools and other outdoor items, and chose a teak oil. The blend has linseed oil in it, but she can work with that. We had been talking about various products during the drive in and she mentioned the warnings about linseed oil they got when she worked at a Home Depot and was paint trained. Be extremely careful with the rags when you’re done, because they have a tendency to spontaneously combust!!!

The oils were both pretty expensive, and they brought the total bill up to $123.48 (it would have been so funny if that 8 had been a 5…)

That done, our next stop was a Walmart, and I managed to get a photo of that cart. 😄

This is what $191.35 looks like.

Not a lot of stuff, really, but there are things I plan to pick up tomorrow after my doctor’s appointment that we didn’t want to bother picking up today.

I picked up some XXL puppy pads to go with the XL size we got at Costco. I usually get a pack of 50 but find I need to get a second one before the end of the month, so I went ahead and got a box of 100.

We have messy cats.

I also remembered to pick up wet wipes. The receipt says “baby wipes” but the packages say “all purpose wipes”. One will be for the truck, and the others are handy to have on hand around the house.

I remembered to grab a two pack of extra strength Pepto-bismol, as we were running low. My daughter remembered that we needed some hair conditioner, too. We also got a two pack of air freshener, plus a couple of spray bottles of all purpose cleaner. Also, a carpet powder odor eliminator and stain remover.

The cats like to be messy on my horrible, horrible bedroom carpet.

We got four 4L jugs of distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier.

My daughter then picked a couple of boxes of teas and a couple of bottles of coffee creamer.

Finally, my one real splurge; a box of moon cakes we grabbed on the way to the check outs.

That done, we headed to our next stop at the international grocery store.

Which took a lot longer than it should have, since we were driving back through that construction zone again.

This trip was not quite as planned, but that’s okay.

This is what $172.69 looks like.

There was one thing I was hoping to pick up, but we never found it. The big blocks of frozen ahi tuna were on sale, but it looks like they were completely sold out of the frozen ones.

I made up for it with a brisket.

The brisket was on sale for $4.99 a pound, which made it cheaper than any of the “cheap” cuts of beef out there. There were only three left and I picked the middle sized one that came to $83.27 by weight. Which pretty much took up the meat budget! Worth it, though.

They also had a significant sale on the locally made, smoked and peppered bacon, so I got two. I also got a dry sausage as a snacking item for my husband.

We found a couple of cheeses on sale that we decided to pick up. One was an ages Havarti, while the other was something we’ve never seen before; Iberico.

The only fruit we got was some bananas; we should be able to get fresh fruit at decent sale prices locally. My daughter also found an instant milk tea mix that was also on sale, so we got one.

My daughter picked up an Arizona green tea for the drive home, then we picked up supper from the restaurant area of the store. I got a hot two item combo of Chinese food and picked a Lumber Jack sandwich for my husband. My daughter picked a chef sampler of sushi for herself and a Poke bowl for her sister.

Last of all was a package of cheesy bread to snack on during the drive home, as we were starting to get pretty hungry again. Once done, we popped over to a gas station next to the grocery store and added $40, which just barely filled the tank. Gas in town when we stopped for drinks on the way in was $159.9 In the city, it was $154.9

Thankfully, on the way out of the city, there wasn’t as much construction. We did cut across to take another highway home, though, so avoid all the construction that slowed us down on the way in.

Which meant we drove through the town my mother used to live in, and saw gas prices at $147.9 !!! It is very unusual for the smaller towns to have better prices than the city.

Ah, well.

Both my daughter and I took our time about the whole thing, but were starting to struggle by the end of it. I brought my walker along and am glad I did, as it allowed me to sit down any time the pain levels started to creep up. My daughter was caning it by the time we hit Canadian Tire. I absolutely credit my daughter’s help for my feeling as well as I did when we got home!

In the time we were gone, I was getting messages from my brother and SIL. Their grandchildren went back home yesterday, as they start school tomorrow. Today, my brother was able to stop to visit my mother and take care of a few things for her before they headed here, just long enough to drop something off. By then, my younger daughter and I were on the road home, and my older daughter took care of feeding the outside cats. I’d let the family know my brother and SIL would be popping by, but she hadn’t noticed they were already their. Totally startled her while she was feeding the kittens in the catio!!

After we got home, put everything away and had supper, I cut the brisket into four chunks, then processed those further. One chunk got cut into stewing meat, another into “steaks”, and the last two into roasts. Three of the packages went into the freezer. These will be something to use the Instant Pot for!

Then I headed outside to check on the kittens. I had started getting messages asking how trapping the kittens was going. I know they are officially closed to intakes right now, but they really want those kittens! I updated them a bit, but they were pushing to trap them right away. Which I can understand, but they don’t seem to be quite understanding how it can’t really be done that way.

The food bowl in the catio was completely empty again, so I put out some distraction cat food in other bowls, then added more kibble with cat milk in the catio.

No sign of kittens.

I then went around the yard to check on things before coming back.

I found three kittens playing around the junk pile area. No kittens at the branch pile.

Time to move the catio!

I took the items on and in the catio and set them in the wagon, then walked the catio over until it was close to the junk pile, then set everything back up again. I kept seeing the three kittens playing around, with one of them even going all the way to the main door on the house! As I was finishing up and checking one last time before going in, I saw a little black kitten at the food bowl. I went over and, instead of running away, it ran into the huge cat carrier in the corner, which its cat bed inside.

Where there were already two other kittens.

!!

At that point, I could have just closed the door, but that would have left them without food an water overnight. I could have closed the catio door, but that would have prevented other kittens from coming in and having access to the food and water bowls near the carrier. So I left things be.

Once inside and at my keyboard, I started answering messages from the rescue group. I explained to them that the catio is our trap, and how we’d used it before to get Pinky’s two kittens closer to the house and socialized to the point we could just put them in carriers and bring them in, with no fight and no trauma. These kittens are much younger, so that will make things a bit easier. Especially with Slick gone, so they rely completely on use for food and water. Normally, they would be too young for weaning, I think. I don’t think they are 6 weeks old yet.

After explaining the progress made, I asked for instructions on what to do for the next time I can just close up the carrier door with kittens inside. I now have some available days and times. On any of those days (including, potentially, tomorrow after my doctor’s appointment) I will close up the carrier on any kittens inside, then contact the rescue group and one of them will be able to meet us to take in the kittens. One of them is making space in her house for them now.

I don’t expect to be able to get more than three kittens at once, and it’s three kittens that are braver and more playful. Once they have been taken in, we’ll have a better chance of getting the shier ones and – hopefully – the older white and grey singleton.

So, that’s where we stand now. Second stock up shop is done. All of it together, with lunch, gas and three different stores, came to $467.33

Those are some of the emptiest shopping carts for a stock up shop we’ve had for a while, but we did get some unusually expensive items on this shop that we likely won’t need to do again for some time.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: still something to harvest

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There isn’t a lot in the garden now that can be harvested regularly. Most of it is waiting until everything can be harvested at once, but today, we had something.

My younger daughter took care of the morning routine. She had exciting news for me. She saw the missing kittens! She saw three at the shrine feeding station, then three at the catio!

Still no Slick. At this point, there’s no chance we’ll be seeing her again. All we can do is try and get those kittens.

My daughter then stayed out to do the weed trimming until she ran out of batteries, then used the push mower to clear areas I couldn’t get at with the riding mower. She was out there for about four hours straight.

I may not be able to go out and do this physical stuff outside, but I could at least have a lunch ready and waiting for her when she got back in!

We will do our second stock up shop tomorrow.

Late this afternoon, I was feeling well enough to feed the outside cats. I’ll head out again later on to give the kittens an extra feeding at the catio, since there are so many critter stealing their food that far from the house. Daytime highs are pretty hot again now; we hit 26C/79F today. It’s past 5pm as I write this, and we’re still at 26C/79F, with the humidex at 31C/88F. We’re starting to get thunderstorm and tornado warnings for tomorrow afternoon and evening, for the southern end of our province. For our area, we’re expected to get just rain in the wee hours of tomorrow night. We shall see.

After feeding the cats, I stayed out to harvest the bush beans.

The yellow bush beans planted later by the Arikara squash are reaching their peak now, though we are still getting plenty of purple beans in the high raised beds. There seem to be almost no green beans at all.

I grabbed another Golden Boy celery for dehydrating, and there were a couple of Green Benning scallop squash big enough to grab. Then I went ahead and picked some crab apples, too. The ones on this tree are brilliantly red now and much sweeter, though still very tangy at the same time. Peak ripeness! I didn’t pick a lot, as we have no real plans for them, other than straight eating. Later in the season, I will probably shake the branches to try and drop the highest apples so the deer can eat them off the ground, and not break branches trying to reach them.

This afternoon I got a strange call from my mother. Strange in that she was in a good mood, cheerful sounding, and didn’t insult me or my brother even once. Even when she did start in on some of her favourite topics to complain about, she actually stopped herself and changed the subject.

She thought I was going for surgery on Monday, though, so I had to explain to her that I’m seeing the doctor to talk about what’s going on; it’s too soon to know if I’ll be going for another surgery. For some reason, this time she seemed to finally clue in that the specialist I’m seeing is female, and she was quite surprised about that. I mentioned that she had probably seen this doctor, too, a few years back, and that I recognized the clinic from when my brother and I had brought her there for an appointment, but she didn’t remember that at all. Which is fine.

Oh, she also mentioned that she’s got a birthday coming up. She’s turning 95 in September. She made sure to tell me not to get her any “stuff” for her birthday. Which is good, because she doesn’t have room for a lot.

We didn’t have much to talk about. We’re not going out much or doing a lot. She was happy to hear the girls are taking good care of me. I apparently sounded quite tired on the phone, because she ended the call herself, saying she would let me rest.

Which I probably should be doing. I feel like I’m falling asleep at my keyboard. I’m glad I learned out to touch type. Several times, while writing this, I found I was typing with my eyes closed. I seem to have fewer typos when I do that! 😄

I didn’t do a lot of walking today, but I’m starting to feel the consequences of it. It’ll be a couple of hours before I can take more painkillers. *sigh*

Hopefully, things will improve for tomorrow, when we head into the city. We will make sure to bring my walker along!!

I am so tired of this. It certainly gives me a bit more insight on how my husband must be feeling, every day. His back pain is barely controlled with meds, there’s nothing that can be done to “fix” it, and he’s been coping with it for more than 20 years now.

Brutal.

The Re-Farmer

I accomplished something today!

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Okay, yes, the stock up shop did get done yesterday, but my daughter did most of the actual work, so that doesn’t count. 😁

This morning, she did the outside stuff for me, as usual, and even stayed out to do a deep watering of the garden. We’ve been dealing with flea beetles, all of a sudden. The nasturtiums work as a trap crop for those, and they are absolutely covered with them. So many that, when startled, you can hear them bouncing off the leaves and petals like rain.

They also love the Daikon radish. These had all bolted and were being left to go to seed. They are now all stems and pods. No leaves left at all. My daughter has been blasting the beetles off with the hose, but there’s really nothing that can be done. They’re also on the remains of the cabbages. I’m not sure if the netting would have been enough to protect them, had they not already been harvested!

In the early afternoon, my daughter and I headed in to town. We wanted to get some ice cream to go with the birthday cake, among a few other small things. We ended up getting several ice creams. A small tub of lactose free ice cream for my husband, and another small one for me, since I’m not big on ice cream, and my daughter chose a larger tub to share with her sister. They like to add a scoop to their coffees, sometimes.

By the time we were done the shopping, I was starting to feel dizzy, so my daughter took over the driving. It wasn’t that bad, but just bad enough that I didn’t feel it would be safe for me to drive.

After everything was brought in and put away, it wasn’t too much longer before it was time to feed the outside cats, and I was feeling well enough to do that. I was eventually able to spot the four remaining kittens. We have the food and water bowls set up in the catio, which is great for luring them out, but is also a problem. The other cats and the skunks go in there and steal the kittens’ food! Hard to chase them away without also scaring the kittens.

Once that was done, I broke out the riding mower. There’s no way I can use a push mower of the weed trimmer – my daughter will be taking care of that part of the lawn care – but I can at least use the riding mower!

I ended up mowing for almost 4 hours, and I am so happy! I was able to get all the inner yard done, including in the main garden area. Everything I can get to with the riding mower. Some areas can only be done with the push mower or the weed trimmer, which my daughter is planning to work on tomorrow.

It felt so good to actually be productive. The forced inactivity is driving me bonkers. The yard looks so good, now, too. The outer yard and driveway still need to be done, but that can wait a bit longer. My SIL has been doing that area with their big zero turn mower for the past while, but they’ve got their grandsons still and will not be coming out here on the weekend, so I hope to get at least part of it done with the little riding mower. We are not touching the zero turn mower, at all! 😄

I was happy to get it done while it was still light out, too. That gave me a chance to top up the kittens’ bowl with kibble and cat milk again. It was completely empty, and I know the kittens didn’t finish that off one their own. Even while I was mowing, I had to chase both cats and skunks out. I made sure to top up the gas tank before running out, driving the mower to the garage to reduce the amount of walking I had to do, and ended up driving towards the catio so the noise would drive off the critters stealing the kittens’ food!

After refilling their bowl, I paused on the way back to the house to get a couple of photos at the chain link fence. In the time it took for me to do that, I spotted kittens heading for the new food I’d left for them. Encouraging!

These two photos are both of Black Russian sunflowers. The Mammoth sunflowers are not blooming at all, yet. Both varieties are supposed to have large seed heads, but I don’t think that will happen. The ones in the photos are about the size of the palm of my hand. It should be interesting to see how much bigger they get.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we’re at the end of August already. About two weeks away from our average first frost date (I’m not going by the new date ranges). Just a few days until September. Good grief!

I’m hoping that Super El Nińo will help us out with a long, mild fall and no frost for a long time. Since moving here, we’ve had one year were the first frost happened in November, if I remember correctly. The shorter days will still set things back, but if the frost holds off, it’ll be good for the garden.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to say that I did NOT over do things by getting the lawn mowed. I’m so thankful for that riding mower!

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shop: this is what $900

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$900.72 to be exact.

Ouch.

I had a much interrupted night last night, so I was quite thankful that my younger daughter is still insisting on doing the morning routine so I can sleep in. When I got up, I was feeling quite good, overall.

Which made me very suspicious.

As we were getting ready to head out, I checked on the catio and found this adorableness looking back at me.

They still run off when we come by, but not as far, and they tend to stop and watch. When this one started looking like it was going to run out of the catio, I backed off and continued on my way, rather than give it a reason to feel more nervous.

I felt well enough to be doing the driving on the way out. We stopped at a gas station in the town along the way to get some road drinks and a snack to tide us over. My daughter had eaten breakfast, though, while I hadn’t, so the fresh potato wedges I got for both of us ended up just for me. Which meant we didn’t need to stop for lunch while at Costco.

When we got there, our first stop was filling the tank. Regular gas was at $1.489 and it cost me $68.99 to fill the tank from a little over half.

I did make sure we brought my walker while my daughter pushed the flat cart and loaded it for me.

I am so glad I had that walker.

By the time we reached Costco, the pain was starting to return. The more time went by, the more often I had to stop and just sit for a while, keeping an eye on the cart as my daughter ran around getting things. When we got to the line to pay, I gave her my cards and settled at the other end of the cash desk until things were being loaded onto the belt and the cashiers were scanning things on the cart. With a long drive ahead of us, I let my daughter know before dashing to the washroom. By the time I came out, she was done and heading in the direction of the exit. Once I caught up with her, we squished ourselves to the side and paused. My alarm was about to go off, so I took my pain meds then my daughter dashed off to refill my water bottle from the fountain. Which gave me time to get my usual photos.

Does this look like $900 to you?

Yes, we have a birthday coming up! This time, my husband’s. It’s early to get a cake, but we have never been ones to celebrate on the actual day, and a cake that size will last us several days!

So, what did we get for our $900 and change?

Let’s start with the cat stuff.

We got two 9kg bags and two 11kg bags of dry kibble, a case of wet cat food and a box of XL puppy pads.

For non-food items, we got our usual toilet paper, plus a case of facial tissues, all purpose cleaner, and a 2 pack of the Head and Shoulders that we use as an anti-fungal body wash.

In beverages, we got a case of Monster, a case of Vanilla Coke Zero, a 3 pk of oat milk and two 2L of kefir. We also got a large box of Earl Grey tea.

For dairy, we got 5 pounds of butter, a block of Old Cheddar and of Mozzarella cheese, plus a shaker of Parmesan that was on sale.

We did not get a lot of meats. Two panini packs of sandwich meats, a 6 pack of canned chicken, and two packages of loose mild Italian sausage meat.

In breads, we got two 2 packs of rye and two packages of tortilla wraps.

In case lot foods, we got an instant oats variety pack, a case of tomato soup, spaghetti, Ramen noodles. In fresh/frozen stuff we got a case of Pizza Pops, rainbow tortellini and our usual double flat of 5 dozen eggs.

Then there was a large jar of mayonnaise, another of peanut butter, a box of Sweet and Salty mix granola bars that was on sale, a bag of Basmati rice, and a jar of strawberry jam that comes in a jar my daughters like to reuse for their tea.

For my husband, there’s the birthday cake, plus a giant bag of nachos and a large Caesar Salad kit. My daughter chose two nigiri platters for herself and her sister (which I have been reimbursed for), plus I chose a sushi platter for myself.

That’s everything. That all came out to $900.72 While there were a few things on there that we don’t get every month, the only thing that was completely not usual was the birthday cake.

*sigh*

My daughter took care of bagging our stuff (we did remember to bring ice packs) and load up the truck, and she drove home. We made a rest stop at a gas station just outside the city where we got a couple of drinks and small snacks to pay for our toilet paper 😉 and then it was straight home.

Once at home, I left everything to my daughters to unload and put away so I could lie down for a while. I actually did feel better by the time we got home (the drive is about an hour and 15 minutes, give or take), but I definitely could not have made this trip on my own without leaving myself in really bad shape.

I think this worked out. We should be able to do our second stop up shop in the weekend like this, before I see the doctor on Monday afternoon.

I am so tired.

The Re-Farmer

A careful day, and my new toy

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I woke this morning feeling really good.

So good, it made me suspicious. 😄

My husband asked if we could hit the post office before the store its in closed at noon today, so my daughter and I headed out in the late morning. I felt well enough to drive, but she went in to get the mail while I waited in the truck because I wasn’t going to push my luck. Several packages came in, including my husband’s new CPAP mask style that he is trying out, because his old style is discontinued and he can no longer get replacements he’s supposed to be getting regularly for it.

I also got a new toy, but I’ll show that later…

My daughter had bought a wrist brace for her sister that turned out to no be the right type, so she wanted to head back to the pharmacy today and exchange it. Neither of us had eaten yet, so she bought us lunch, too. I ended up going back to the pharmacy as I realized I needed something to carry my T3s in while I’m out and about, since I’m supposed to be taking them every 6 hours. If all goes well, we’ll be in Costco shopping when my afternoon alarm goes off. I ended up getting a waterproof metal pill holder keychain, large enough to hold a dozen tablets, which is 6 doses for me. I think it will work out.

We stopped to get some gas on the way out – I’ll do a fill at Costco. I had a 5¢ off coupon to use, which required pre-paying, so we both went into the store and got some energy drinks to last the three of us a few days, with my daughter picking flavours for her sister. We will pick up a case of Monster while as Costco, but those have only three flavours in them. The gas station not only has lots more flavours to choose from but, between their regular sales and my CAA discount, they are significantly discounted compared to most places.

I did get my daughter to drive home, though. I’m still feeling “good” but find myself moving very slowly, without actually thinking about it. Like I’m walking through water. Hopefully, I will still be up to the Costco trip tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have a new “toy”, but an physically barred from doing anything that would allow me to use it for the next while.

I got a portable sawmill for our chainsaw. We can cut our own lumber, or even just trim the logs that will be used to make raised beds, so they lay flat on top of each other.

I have no idea when I’ll personally be able to use it. One of my goals for this summer was to get more dead spruces out of the spruce grove, with the help of my brother and his tractor. He only recently got his tractor working again, and I’m unable to do the physical labour necessary to do the work while the doctors figure out why I’m still dealing with pain and bleeding that the surgery should have stopped.

However, it does mean we could potentially process the logs more in situ, rather than dragging whole tree trunks out of the bush.

I’ll be making sure my brother knows where I’m storing it and that he is welcome to use it himself, should he ever need to.

In other things, I did feel well enough to do the evening cat feeding. I spotted 4 kittens in the branch pile, looking to get into the catio for food. Just four. Still no Slick.

We have got to catch those kittens, before whatever got the other two and their mom gets them, too.

The Re-Farmer

Kittens, grinding and tiny tomatoes

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This morning I got a call from the tree removal company. Someone would soon be here to finally do the stump grinding!

Which was a bit of a surprise. We had a downpour this morning, though it was past by the time he got here and, according to what he saw on the way over, hitting the town east of us. Normally, he would not have come out in the wet like this, but he had checked the weather radar before calling me and it showed clear skies over us!

I must admit, I was geeking out completely. I’ve never seen a stump grinder before, never mind one in action, in person. It was a beautious thing!

Since I was out anyhow, I took the time to check on the branch pile, were I spotted some kittens. I saw them again, after he started grinding, nervous but watching.

I only saw the four at one time. It’s possible I saw the other two on their own later, but from a distance and with tall grass and branches in the way, most of the time all I could tell was “black kitten” or “tabby kitten”.

We have not seen Slick for several days. I am beginning to think she may be gone. It’s also possible two kittens have disappeared as well.

For now, we are making sure they have plenty of food in the catio. Other cats, skunks and probably raccoons as well are going into the catio – there’s no way to stop them – go in and eat their food, but if we time things right, they get a chance to eat well. My daughter is still doing the morning cat routine for me, and we still have a bit of the freeze dried cat food mix left, so they are still getting cat soup in the mornings. Once we’re out of the mix, we might start using some of the donated canned cat food we still have left to make cat soup.

He set up a barrier around the stump to keep flying chips from hitting the house or flying all over the place, to make for easier clean up. While I was checking on things in the yard, I noticed him pause with the grinding to remove parts of the tractor tire that were still stuck under the root ball. He had bins around the stump to haul away the chips, but seeing him move the tire pieces, I brought the wheelbarrow closer. The next time he paused in grinding, I suggested it might be easier to use the wheelbarrow. Which worked out because he ended up using a bin to scoop up chips into the wheelbarrow, then dumping it with the rest of the wood chips behind the house.

More wood chips! Yay!

The first image above, he was about half way through the stump. Maybe a bit more.

While I was checking the tomato bed, pruning off yellowing branches, my younger daughter came out. She talked to the guy for a while as he paused with the grinding again. When he started up again, she and I walked around the yard a bit more, looking for kittens and checking the nearest garden beds.

That’s all I did. I swear.

That was all it took, and I could feel the pain returning. I headed inside to sit down, but it kept getting worse, and I had to ask my daughter to take over being available for the tree guy.

Then I remembered that, with stuff going on (including calling the clinic and leaving another message), I had forgotten to take my morning pain killers, meds and supplements. I took care of that right away. I’m finished with the antibiotics and the stuff that’s supposed to stop the bleeding (I’m still bleeding), so I’m back to almost all supplements.

The second image, was after he was done and had cleaned up. You can see the little pile of broken tire bits on one of the patio blocks. He’d had to move one of them to get a root out. We’ll later need to move all the blocks and re-set them. I don’t know what my brother has planned for that, but I expect we’ll need to get more sand or gravel to lay under it. That would be a good time to move a couple of other blocks in front of the steps that have sunk and build things back up underneath them.

Nothing I can do at all right now. Today is exactly 1 week from the procedure. I may not be restricted to lifting a maximum of 10 pounds anymore, but each of those blocks weighs about 50 pounds. Since I can barely walk around the yard without triggering the pain, it’s probably not a good idea for me to start rebuilding a patio!

While on that subject…

I got a call back from the clinic. The receptionist told me they hadn’t received anything from the hospital about my ER visit on Saturday, so she had already contacted them to fax my file to the clinic. The doctor that did the surgery won’t be back until Monday, and she was able to give me several times to choose from to come in. So I now have an appointment scheduled.

The pain kept getting worse, but I was still mobile when the guy finished the job. He was with my daughter, writing up a bill, when I came around. Once I had the invoice, I took a picture of it and sent it to my brother. The total for the tree removal (3.5hours), and the stump grinding and clean up – after taxes – came to a little over $1800. My brother was prepared for that, so he was able to send them an e-transfer soon after.

I ended up having to lie down and tried lying down in my own bed at first. I barely settled when I had three cats lying on me – Susan was on my ribs almost instantly – then Butterscotch on one side of my head, Cheddar on the other, plus two more on either side of my legs. Which would have been okay, if they would only stay still! The final straw was then a tabby – I don’t know if it was Mitsy or Shadow – suddenly parkoured off my stomach after vaulting over Ghosty nearby.

I ended up on the couch in the cat free zone, aka: the living room.

Which got interrupted by a phone call from my mother.

*sigh*

It turned out to be an okay call. Partly because, when she asked how I was doing, I flat out told her that I’d been at the ER again and was still dealing with pain. She had been prepared to regale me with her usual comments about her own health complaints, which have changed little in the years we’ve been living here. The main difference is that she is now blaming it all on her digestion, rather than her heart. It is very hard to pick out enough detail to determine what is going on. For example, she started off saying how she was feeling back “all over” and, at first, it seemed she was talking about pain. It took some questioning before I was able to figure out that she meant full body fatigue. Lord knows, I can understand where she’s coming from on both, but we’re still never sure how bad it is. She told me they are “neglecting her” because they “won’t let” her see a doctor or a dietician. I’ve tried to explain, several times, that the nurses have notebooks for each person living here, they write down about issues, then have regular meetings with the doctor to talk about them. My mother complains about the same things she has been for years but others – like her legs swelling – she brushes off completely. Oh, they’ve never told me they talk to the doctor, was her response. Except we’ve all told her this, several times. It’s not that she doesn’t remember. It’s that she doesn’t believe it. For other things, she makes things sound completely different than what’s really happening. When talking about her digestion, she starts talking about how she’s burping all the time, which is a very specific piece of information – until it comes out that she is forcing herself to burp because she says it makes her chest pains feel better afterwards. ???

I’ve been in the room with her while she is forcing those burps, and it’s really… unpleasant to watch and hear. One of her reasons for claiming the staff is “neglecting” her is because, if one of them is in the room with her when she starts (forced) burping, they leave. I have no idea what she expects them to do about it. She also keeps bringing up how her pills were two hours late and the nurse had said she forgot to give them to her, as if that happened just this morning. It didn’t. It happened during a festival, on a day when they were taking residents outside to watch a parade go by. The nurse had apologized, but she “forgot” because she was physically helping people outside to see an event my mother chose not to watch herself. This was weeks ago, and it only happened the one time.

In the end, the reason she had called me was because she wanted a few things brought to her. Things that I passed on to my siblings. My sister will probably be the first to visit my mother in the next while. My brother has his grandchildren for the week, and they might be able to come out on the weekend. I have no idea when I’ll be up to visiting my mother next. Even if I do make it into town, having the energy to do whatever brought me there, and visit her as well, is more than I can handle right now.

*sigh*

Thankfully, today’s pain did mostly pass by the time my mother called, though I had to take more painkillers for it at my usual 6 hour mark. My daughters had made supper and, after eating, I felt well enough to head back outside. I checked on the kittens (three of them were in the cat bed in the catio, but ran into the branch pile when they saw me coming), then went back to pruning tomatoes. In the process, I found some ripe Orange Current tomatoes.

One of them was red, like a Spoon tomato!

I gave them to my daughters. They quite like them!

Thankfully, the pain didn’t come back as I was outside, but I didn’t push myself, either. Not that I’d pushed myself this morning…

So that’s where I’m at now. Still frustratingly dealing with pain that the surgery should have stopped from happening. I had felt so good right after, I was quite hopeful about that. *sigh* It’s probably going to be too early for results from the biopsy when I see the doctor on Monday, but I definitely need to talk to her about what’s still going on. She already knows I’m more than willing to go for the next likely surgical option.

My daughter and I have talked about our upcoming stock up shopping trips. We have decided we will do the Costco shopping on Thursday, when CPP Disability come in, first. With the last business day of the month being on Monday, my husband’s main disability payment with his private insurance should come in on Saturday instead, so we’ll do the other stock up shopping on the weekend.

My daughter is going to have to do pretty much everything. We’ll be sure to bring my walker, so I can sit as needed, rather than using the cart as a walker.

So frustrating!

But, it is what it is. We deal with the hand we’ve been dealt.

What else can we do?

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: August tour video

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Where on earth did August disappear to? I suddenly realized, just today, that we’re due to be doing our first city stock up trip THIS week!

It’s gone by so fast, it’s disorienting.

I have finally put together a garden tour video. Which is the extent of my ability to garden right now. My younger daughter took care of things in the garden for me today, again. No watering needed, as we got rain. We still have a “severe thunderstorm watch” in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow, though I expect we’ll just have more rain where we are. It’s quite windy out there right now, though. I haven’t made it outside at all today, yet. I’ve tried to call the clinic, as instructed by the ER physician, but have not been able to get through. I left a message shortly after they opened. I tried calling in the afternoon, got put on hold, then that was ended by an automated message saying they were unable to answer, either because they were closed (they were not) or too busy. It also recommended calling the health line – the one that was down when I tried calling before going to the ER – or leaving a message. I had already left one, so I did not do it again.

Being stuck inside and relatively pain free, I was able to finish editing the garden tour video, at least.

So, here it is for you to enjoy.

The Re-Farmer

Kitten progress!

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Whoot!

Before I get to that, though, this is what I found as I first headed out to see how my daughter was doing in the garden…

Curtis, just lounging on his back, like he’s at the spa or something! 😄

After talking to my daughter I checked to see if there was any kitten activity. I almost missed seeing this little one.

It was just sitting there, frozen, until I got a bit too close, and then it slithered away into the branch pile. I saw no others at that time, though.

When I came out again later on, I noticed kittens were exploring the catio. I decided to bring them more things to encourage this. Some cat milk added to the remaining kibble, several cat toys we had inside, still left over in the Christmas stocking of toys we got late last year (the inside cats got a few of those, too), and some kitten treats donated to us from the rescue.

As I got closer to the catio, I saw a little tabby slipping away and into the branch pile, but I also saw there was at least one kitten in the cat bed inside the carrier.

Progress!!!

There turned out to be two of them. Possibly three.

They disappeared between the bed and the carrier wall. I took a photo, not sure what I was going to get, since my screen was blinded by the sun. Then I went back to get some fresh water and a couple of ice bottles. The catio gets quite warm, so I got one ice bottle in the water bowl and one for inside the edge of the cat bed. As I was returning, I saw a little black kitten slink out of the catio and disappear into the branch pile.

This is very encouraging. I hope that they will spontaneously move into the catio, just for the comfort of the cat bed sheltered by the carrier. I would like to find something I can set up as ramps to the shelves above, as the kittens are too small to jump up there. I’m sure they would love the one hammock that’s there. We still need to find a piece of strong fabric to replace the plastic mesh hammock that was on the other shelf that broke; the plastic mesh got brittle from the cold and broke apart under the weight of whatever critter jumped onto it. Which could have been a cat or a raccoon. Anyhow, it will be good to have something they can climb up to the shelves.

The white and grey singleton kitten also seems to be progressing. It is still very shy, nervous and runs away, but it also will meow at us from a distance, as if asking for cat soup! When we get closer, it stays longer before moving away, and it comes back a lot more quickly to get food once we are gone.

This evening, I was up to doing the outside cat feeding. The cat milk with the remaining kibble I’d left in the catio before was completely gone, the bowl licked clean. So I made sure to bring more cat milk to add the their kibble. Later on, as the day gets cooler, one of us will go out and set the door mostly closed for the night. We dropped to 8C/46F last night. As I write this, we are at 23C/73F, with the humidex putting us at 26C/78F. Tonight is not supposed to get as cool and tomorrow’s high is supposed to be a bit warmer than today. I want to make sure the door to the catio is open wide during the day, but closed up so there’s just enough space for a cat to squeeze through, during the night. I had intended to remove the vinyl around the walls, or at least fold up the bottom half, for the summer but decided against it. I was a bit too diligent when securing it for the winter! Which was fine when the catio was in the yard and shaded for much of the day. Where it is now has no shade at all. Plus, we have too much wind, which would make being in there quite unpleasant. We might still drop one of the very large crocheted cat blankets over it for shade, but I’m not sure if that will make things better or worse! They are quite heavy, so we would have to make sure the edges of the catio roof are supported, or the weight of the blanket would cause it to bend enough to pop out the shorter screws holding it in place. I’d have to get my daughter to do that, as they are heavier than I’m allowed to pick up right now.

I wasn’t out a lot and the only “work” I did was feed the cats and carry a garden fork to my daughter. I am now feeling like I’m ready to fall asleep on my keyboard. Still, I’m glad I did get outside a little bit, just for the fresh air and sunshine!

Plus, I got to see kittens.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: potatoes are in, garlic is trimmed and I did none of this

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After yesterday’s trip to the ER, my daughters have been absolutely brutal about me not doing anything.

Which was probably a good idea. I have been feeling really good today, which means I probably would have overdone it, if they hadn’t!

My younger daughter has been focusing on the outside stuff and taking over in the garden. She’s been doing the morning cat feeding and this morning she did a deep watering of the garden beds – something that probably won’t be needed tomorrow, as there are thunderstorms in the forecast. Then she went out again to dig up all of the potatoes. Which turned out to be a harder job than it should have been. She couldn’t find where I’d left the garden fork, which still needed to have its broken handle replaced, so she was using a spade. When I came out to see how she was, she’d stopped for a break in the shade, having brought my walker out to use.

She found that thing so handy, she’s now considering buying one for herself!

When I found out about the lack of garden fork, I got the new handle I bought, a screwdriver and the garden fork over. Unfortunately, the Canadian Tire handle turns out to be smaller than the handle on the fork, so she wasn’t able to get it all the way on. We’ll need to reduce the circumference of the handle by a small amount – small enough that just some sand paper would do the job – to get it all the way on. So she had to finish using the spade.

Most of the Yukon Gold got rinsed off with a hose then brought inside. The first photo above is after her sister used some of it for supper. The second image is the last of the Yukon Gold with all of the Viking potatoes, curing on the screen.

I’m not too concerned about curing them fully. There aren’t a lot of them and they will likely be finished off rather quickly, much like the cabbage harvested earlier are being used up now.

In the future, we would need to plant a LOT more to have enough to last us the winter and, hopefully, have seed potatoes for the next year.

My daughter removed the garlic from the screen to make room for the potatoes, and then she trimmed the roots and dirt off the garlic, getting them ready to bring indoors.

We’ll be sure to selected the ones with the largest cloves to plant in October. We will have plenty to choose from. We’ve got the largest garlic we’ve grown yet, this year!

I joined my daughter again shortly before she finished with the garlic, so we were able to walk around a bit. I did harvest some bush beans planted around the Arikara squash, while she looked for any ripe Orange Currant tomatoes. Later on, I also harvested the one Prolific Long Neck squash that was large enough to make it worth picking.

While walking around, I couldn’t help but notice this.

The tree removal company has not been able to come out with their stump grinder, with the rain we had last week. From the looks of it, we’ll be getting thunderstorms and severe weather through Monday and Tuesday.

Which means the elm has had time to start trying to grow back already.

Elm is very difficult to get rid of, which is one of the reasons why my brother is willing to pay for stump grinding.

So the girls have been wonderful about getting things done that I would normally be working on, which is appreciated. Even feeling as good as I did, and as lovely it was to walk around the yard to get some fresh air and sunshine. it wasn’t all that long before I started feeling warning signs that I needed to get back inside to sit down. I still managed to get a few easy things done, though I had to sneak that in after my daughter went inside with the garlic. 😄

But that will be in my next post…

See you there!

The Re-Farmer