The mystery eighth cat made an appearance this morning.

And that bugger is BIG! He’s about twice the size of all the other cats. (She?) Except maybe Rolando Moon.

We are deciding on a name.  Should we call him Mokele Mbembe or Mothman?

Another day of packing and cleaning. 

I was working on the main floor, packing away fragile things.  I have packed up two small boxes, and the table is completely covered in stuff I need to wrap and pack. And that’s after my younger daughter took away some if the stuff she wanted to keep out of storage.

She is a brave and mighty girl.

While working upstairs, they took down one of the black velvet paintings and vacuumed years of cobwebs from behind it.  She is arachnophobic. 

As they put it back, something fell with a clatter loud enough that we heard it downstairs.  I thought it was glass breaking. Nope. 

It was a butter knife.

It fell from the back of the painting.

I suspect that one will remain a mystery.  As will some other items they found. Like these, found in the far reaches of a shelf.

I have no idea why we have an unstrung… lute? The bayonet is something I recognize from my childhood, though I cannot remember where it came from.

They did not take photos of the skeletal remains of a mouse found behind a shelf. I’m told they found little skull eyes, staring back at them.

I think I’m good with just packing dusty fragile things and potentially moldy books.

The Re-farmer 

We went to the nearest town for some groceries and free WiFi.  Stopped by a few places to play Pokemon Go with my younger daughter, including heading to the lake to throw some mon into a gym that had room.

You know what this means?

Magikarp!

We caught two before the cold wind off the lake ice drove us away.

Then during the ride home, we got a reminder of why it’s really important to keep your eyes on the road and ditches out here.

White Tail Deer are really small.  From a distance, I at first thought it was a big dog.

That deer totally never heard us coming.  I had to come to a stop and started creeping forward before it turned it’s head and saw us.

Deer screamers are going on our shopping list.

The Re-farmer 

We finally got some tangible progress yesterday. A van load of stuff went into the shed and a couple of small shelves got cleared downstairs, while the girls started on the second floor.

We are finding interesting things along the way.  Like this.

The shelves themselves turned out to have stories.

This one, if I remember correctly, was made out of an old TV. Years ago, my parents bought some property and in one of the shed were dozens of old TV’s.  These were from when a TV was a major piece of furniture, with solid wood cabinets. Many got converted to shelves like this.

This is from that same property. The main building used to be a general store that closed in the late 60’s, maybe early 70’s. The kind where the store was in the front and the family that owned it lived in the back.

The store part had walls of shelves.  One section of those shelves is currently in the master bedroom and almost completely covers one wall.  This shelf is made of a small part of these shelves.  The top looks like a salvaged part of a counter.

Both shelves are very solid. Considering we got rid of several shelves in the move, we will likely hang on to these.  Certainly, we will need to use them until our own stuff arrives.

Then there are mystery items like this.

If you look closely, you will note that this is a white extension cord spliced onto a brown extension cord.

There is also stuff like this gem.

It is the base of a candle holder that is resting in a wall mounted fount that held holy water at the entry of a church at some point.

I kinda like it.

The Re-farmer

Back in the early ’80’s, I tried my hand at journaling.  I used a Hilroy scribbler and jotted my thoughts down a few times. Then I forgot about it, hidden under my mattress.

Years later, my mother found it. Read it. Kept it. Told me about it a short time ago.  I’m glad I switched to writing in code after a while.

More recently, my SIL found it, took some photos to send me, then left it.

I just glanced through it.  How embarrassing!  And yet, sad, as the few entries included descriptions of what, in our modern times, would be considered physical abuse.

Oh, how dramatically I wrote. Such angst! Such hyperbole!

That thing is going into the burn barrel right now, as it should have, years ago!

The Re-farmer

Being very tired, my husband and I went to bed ridiculously early (I typically don’t go to bed until about 2am, so going to bed at 7pm just doesn’t happen unless I am ill).  Of course, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was suddenly wide awake.

Eventually, I gave up and got up, shortly before midnight.  My husband did get some sleep, and soon joined me.  Our daughters had just got to bed themselves, so when I realized I was feeling a bit peckish, I asked if anyone else was.  It turned out we all were.

And so it was that, by 1am, the four of us where at the table over a spaghetti dinner, prepared by our daughters. As they were cooking, they were playing a drawing game that involved choosing an object to draw from memory. They couldn’t see each other’s drawings until both were done. I even joined in the game for a bit. The results led to much laughter at the table, as did our general conversation.  It was awesome!

We would not have been able to do this before the move, out of consideration for our neighbours. 

Isolation has its benefits.

The Re-farmer 

Our trip to The City got adjusted. Instead of an evening trip after working hours, we were able to leave in the late morning.

Heading out, it was a lovely day.  At one point, we drove through rain.  The sun broke out and it was all quite mild and lovely.

Then we drove into this.

It wasn’t too bad in these photos, yet. Later, it got to some white knuckle driving, all the way home.

The plus side of returning the car is that we can now park our van in the garage.  It’s not heated, or even close to the house, but it’s out of the elements.

I look forward to not having to go anywhere tomorrow.

Update: we learned the next day that this highway was shut down because of the weather conditions.  It wouldn’t be the first time a highway was shut down while we were on it.

The Re-farmer

I feel like I have accomplished nothing.

Which isn’t true, of course. I could list a few things, if I had to. Yet, when it comes to the state of the house, it feels like nothing has been done.

The family visit yesterday was great.  It was good to see my family members. We sat around the table and ate and drank (well… they drank. Lol) and talked for hours.  Unfortunately, when my side of the family gets together, it is very loud and chaotic, which made my younger daughter immediately ill, so she holed up in the room they are using. Her sister kept her company throughout the visit.  My husband was able to make an appearance before he had to go lie down again.

We now have the loan of a carpet shampoo-er.  I hope one of the several vacuum cleaners lying around here works. 

A great day, but none of what we hoped to do got accomplished – and our list was modest.

Today will not be much better.  We might get some work done, but we also need to make a trip into The City to return the car.  In the process, we will do a few errands. The girls are going to pick up the supplies they need to start on the upstairs.  Masks. Gloves. TSP.  I will need to remember to get more packing tape so I can put boxes together.  Thankfully, one of my brothers left some packing materials for us. Including cedar pieces to include in each bag and box, to keep the insects away.

Growing up here, I know insects are a thing. You can’t get away from them.  I am still amazed at how many we have been finding.  There are dead bugs everywhere.  I thought that, while empty, family was still coming in once in a while and cleaning a bit.  I guess “a bit” was the operative word.

During our far flung conversations with family, things like our sporadic hot water supply came up.  It was brought to light when someone tried to do dishes and ended up having to boil water in the kettle to get hot water.  Our hot water tank is apparently the only one that has ever been here, and it was purchased used.  I was given an estimated age of 60 years for the thing. At one point, my sister commented that this place is a money pit.

She is right.  More so than I expected.  

I’m starting to feel like my mother has cheated us by having us live here “for free.”

The Re-farmer