Month: December 2017

Damage 

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Got some pictures of the damage done.


They were really lucky the pole broke, and not the wire!

They tore up the driveway quite a bit.


Even at the gate.


They even went into the ditch a bit.

I never imagined a few inches of snow would be too much for the truck. It’s not like they don’t drive through snow all the time!

The driveway is what it is.  It’s not going to be a problem.  That only the pole will need to be replaced, and not the roof is good.  Very fortunate no one got electrocuted.

The latch on our screen door got broken, too.  It can close, but the bottom part broke off, so it turns on the remaining top screw.  I have discovered it opens in the wind.

Ah, well.

The Re-farmer 

Some Outside Cats

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I went to take pictures of the damage the movers did, after feeding the outside cats.  As I got back, several were co-operative photo subjects.

Allow me to introduce…

Butterscotch.

Butterscotch awaits. But don’t come too close!

Beep Beep.

Beep Beep just wants to drink water in peace, but will tolerate a bit of closeness. While eating, pets will even be allowed.

Trüllbus the Crime Eater

Trüllbus is much more nervous, and tries to sneak over to fresh water from behind.

And finally…

The Mothman. Who seems to be getting more comfortable with us. A bit.

The Mothman does not tolerate much.

The Re-farmer

Insane

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The delivery of our stuff was simply insane.  I am not up to detailing it, so here are the highlights.

  • They had a hard time with finding us on a map, despite my directions. It’s actually very straightforward, but we are quite isolated.  I did tell them, we are in the bush.
  • They came with a full size semi trailer.  After stopping on the road and walking in, I told them they could go into the yard.  They would have broken tree branches, but I told them that was okay.  If they went into the yard, they potentially could have had a ramp right into our front door for an easy offload. They said they would look around and decide.
  • They decided to go in front of the yard, by the small people gate, and that’s where they started pulling up, with spotters.
  • While driving in, they hit the power line to the garage.  They broke the power pole by the garage, which is now leaning of the roof. The line got hung up on the truck.
  • The driver blamed me for not telling him about the power line.  It was dark, but we have a yard light. The light is on the main power pole, which means the lines to the garage and house were in the light.  By driving to the small gate instead of the yard, they drove under the lowest point of the line.
  • Unhooked, the only thing keeping the line off the ground was tree branches.
  • They got stuck in a few inches of snow.
  • The driver yelled at me because it way my fault, and he had been doing me a favour by coming out in the dark.
  • Later, he came in and talked at my husband, demanding we call a tow truck, on our dime. If we didn’t, he said he would leave with our stuff.  My husband refused.
  • After more than an hour, they started unloading. They called a tow truck. The driver ended up helping unload.
  • We called Hydro. A guy came and cut electricity to the line and took it down. The pole is not theirs, so it is up to our end to get it repaired.
  • Between the girls and I, the movers and the tow truck driver, there was 7 of us working on it.  The girls did much hauling of things upstairs.
  • They were finally done around 11pm. They got here at about 7pm.
  • The driver apologized.
  • It took them about another half hour to get out of our driveway.
  • The house is in chaos. But we slept on our own mattresses.

This is what the master bedroom looked like.  There was space on the floor for the mattress and that’s about it.

But our stuff is in.

Finally.

The Re-farmer

Timing

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My older daughter just shared this with me.

She and her sister were sitting on the bed, talking about how, with the movers coming and lots of work to do to prepare, there would be no time to heat enough water to take a bath.  It would be sponge baths again. My younger daughter was not too thrilled with the idea.

My older daughter then commented that at least, tonight, her sister would be sleeping in her own…

KA-KLUNK!!!!!

The bed collapsed under her.


The timing could not have been more perfect. If uncomfortable!

It looks like the box spring slipped off the frame.  Which was a problem I had with the bed when I came out for my father’s funeral, a year and a half ago.  It collapsed when I rolled over at about 2am.

Meanwhile, we have changed some plans.

After consulting with my brother about the noise the alternator is making, we do not want to risk a trip to The City today.  It’s one thing to be driving 15-20 minutes to the next town. Quite another to be on a highway for an hour.

So instead, they will be driving to town and transferring his file from the Costco pharmacy in The City.  We were not happy with them, and their confusion over my husband’s medications and insurance, as it was. It will be more expensive, but the trade off makes it more practical. And safer to drive.

After we get paid at the end of the month, we will get the alternator checked.  How much it will cost to fix will depend on if we can get used parts. We are not knowledgeable enough to go to the wreckers and find the parts ourselves. New, we are probably looking at anywhere from $260-$390.

That’s on top of paying my mom back the $300+ for the Hydro (electricity) bill.

The hot water tank will have to wait. I hope those replacement bands my brother ordered will work!

Damn. Does this mean we will have to cancel our Christmas dinner trip to The City next weekend?

The Re-farmer

Movers Confirmed

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It was later in the day, but I did finally get a call from the driver with our stuff. Turns out it never left our previous province.  He had made a drop off along the way and paused to call me, which I appreciated.

Tomorrow, he will arrive at The City for another drop off, then he will come to our place. He estimated 2, maybe 4 o’clock.  He also said he would phone me first.

I figure, with time to get lost, it’ll be more like 5pm.

I told him that, when he called, I would give directions to our place. He started to say he had our address, but I had to explain we didn’t really have an “address” (we do have a driveway marker, but that’s the closest to a street address there is out here), and that we literally live in the bush.  The house is in the bush. He was a bit concerned that the truck couldn’t get in. Our stuff is in a semi trailer, it turns out.  That won’t be a problem, at least.  They will be able to pull into the yard.  And if they have a side door, they might be able to put a ramp right into our front door.  That would certainly make getting the piano in easier, though there are still two steps inside the house to go over.

So that gives us a bit of time to get more boxes to the shed. We are not going to move the furniture. We are all lagging in energy.  Dismantling the beds we are using will be about as much as we can handle.

Then my husband and daughter can head into The City.  All I need to worry about is how serious that noise coming from the alternator is…

*sigh*

The Re-farmer

Getting used to the new normal

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This afternoon, my husband had an appointment with a new doctor.  For a GP, we don’t need to find someone in The City, so he booked one in the nearest town with a medical centre.  It took about 15 minutes for him to input the list of medications, which my husband handily keeps up to date on his phone.  The process has been started to get his files transferred over from his old doctor.  We will have to apply for new medical numbers, which we have 3 months to do (by mid-February), though the earlier, the better.

I had forgotten something about this town.  The distinctive smell from the distillery, when the wind is right.  The smell of fermenting grains.  Like a giant bakery.  It smells delicious. Continue reading →

Energy.

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So much work to do.  So little time to do it.  I am so close to finishing things in the master bedroom. Unfortunately, I’m at that stage where the only things left are weird sizes and shapes, and I don’t know how to pack them.  I am running out of energy so quickly, now, and there is no end in sight. First, there was weeks of sorting and packing our old place. Now, weeks of packing the stuff here. Then our own stuff will get here, and we will have to unpack that.

My energy levels are dropping fast.

Speaking of energy…

My mom never transferred the electric bill to us, so she got the bill for the month my husband and daughter were here (the meter readings go in mid-month). It went from over $60 to keep an empty house from freezing, to over $300.

With all four of us, the next bill will probably be higher. At least for the winter.

It’s transferred over to our name, now. We want to pay my mom back, of course. That might delay getting a new hot water tank, though. My brother found what may be the last two bands in the country, if not the continent, and ordered them.  Hopefully, replacing them will work. It will not be easy. The old bands will need to be slid out, then the new ones pushed around the inner tank, all through the panel openings.

Here’s hoping that does the trick.

Meanwhile, my husband has been looking up solar. It’s available through the power company, so it gets paid for with the energy bill.  It’s a grid tie in system, so excess energy produced in the summer, for example, goes back to the grid and we would credited for it. Theoretically, if we get a big enough system, and a sunny location (not the roof, as it slopes the wrong way), we would consistently generate more than we need, and our electricity bills would just be paying off the system, or slightly more.

The catch. It has to be done by the home owner.  Which is my mom. We would need het permission to do it.

But that is to look into more in the future.

Now I need to find the energy to get back to packing.

The Re-farmer

Movers Update

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Some time after I posted our saga of the movers earlier today, we got a call back from them.

They will be here on Saturday (today is Wednesday). !!!

They will load the truck tomorrow, but only once they are paid in full, by 5pm Thursday.

I’ve already sent the maximum my bank allows for etransfers. Received and acknowledged. Tomorrow, I send them the remaining balance.

Hopefully, all will go well, and we will have our stuff in three days.

We still have lots to do, but most importantly, we have furniture to move out. Then, Saturday morning, we take the current beds out. 

The girls had to rearrange the shed to make room for it all.  People have been putting things in There, willy nilly, for a long time. No one was thinking an entire house would end up in there.

Tomorrow, we take the mirror off my mom’s big dresser, then figure out how to fit it in the van.

Too bad we don’t have a trailer hitch we could hook a trailer up to, like we originally planned. 😕

Meanwhile, we hauled another load to the shed as well. The cold has my van making a horrible whining noise. I am so paranoid out the engine failing or something. When our last vehicle died, we went a month without a vehicle.  That was extremely difficult, and my husband had to cancel medical appointments because taking the bus was too painful.  Being as isolated as we are, losing our vehicle would be a major blow. This vehicle is older than our last one, with a lot of miles on it. It was all we could afford, and the dealership screwed us over. Our mechanic assured us the engine was sound (we had a lot of other work that needed to be done, just to make it roadworthy). 

But I am still paranoid.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, I am so looking forward to sleeping on our own mattresses again.  I might even be able to stop taking pain killers before bed.

Nah. Who am I kidding? Lol

The Re-farmer 

Our Cat is Smrt

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There was a large framed mirror we were not sure what to do with. We decided to just hang it back in the same place, oriented differently.  The base is now much closer to the floor than before.

Then we put my big umbrella tree in front of it.

A chair had been set aside where the plant is now, and once the plant was in place, it just got tucked out of the way beside it.

Later, our darling mama cat was on the chair, and decided to jump into…

A cat’s eye view…

That new space behind the plant.

Straight into the mirror.

She then ignominiously ran away.

Silly girl.

The Re-farmer