High winds are sweeping across the prairies right now! There has been snow, now and again, as well. As I write this, I can see the live feed on our security camera, which has switched to its night setting. That means the snowflakes are being lit by the infrared flash, looking like white lights. I don’t know where the wind is supposed to be coming from right now, and those flakes are being blown in all directions – sometimes at the same time! I am quite happy to be indoors and warm right now!
The high winds had started the night before, but the outside cats were well sheltered. The three large kibble containers were all knocked on the ground, probably by skunks. The water containers along the side of the cat house were completely filled with leaves blown into them. The heated water, bowl, was disgusting.
A cat had somehow managed to crap in it!!!
So that took some time to clean up. 😦
Over the next week, it’s supposed to be warmer – even as high as 12C/53F! So we are making plans for what we want to quickly get done before it gets too cold again. Until then, we’ve got plenty to do inside. Our last fish has died, and I’ve decided not to get more. I’m hoping to salvage the live (barely) plants in a smaller, gallon tank. I have just not had success with live plants, and there are too many other things to focus on right now. So the 20 gallon tank is being cleaned out, while the entire living room is being shifted around. The camera and tripod are being set up again at the window. I don’t know that I’ll be up to starting my photo of the day again, but at least it’ll be available once I start putting deer feed out again.
The inside kitties are living a life of luxury right now, and even let me take a few pictures! 🙂
I’m happy to say that Cabbages is well settled in, if not quite fully socialized. She will sometimes let us pick her up and does enjoy pets and cuddles, but if we try to walk up to her, she still runs off and won’t let us touch her. She still goes into hiding during the day, but not as long as she used to.
Among the other cats, even Fenrir is finally accepting her, and not growling and hissing like she used to. She has even put up with Cabbages snuggling up to her butt for a nap. Mostly, I think, because when she does hiss at Cabbages, Cabbages just ignores her. 😀
Tissue (aka Little Braveheart) is fully socialized, not only with people, but the other cats, as well. Unfortunately, she, Turmeric, Cabbage and Leyendecker ALL keep trying to nurse on “grandma”!
Turmeric just looks innocent in this photo.
Actually… she doesn’t look at innocent at all, does she? 😀
I had to bring the van to the garage for 9am, so I was outside, doing my rounds, earlier than usual.
I usually wait until it isn’t dark anymore, but of course, it’s staying dark much longer now.
That didn’t stop the kitties from coming out for an early breakfast, though!!
Things didn’t quite work out at the garage, though. When I got there, I asked if it was okay if I could stay in his office/waiting area. With all the restrictions, there’s no place to just sit, and it’s too cold to stay outdoors.
It turned out, however, that he somehow double booked. My appointment wasn’t written in his schedule! He remembered what I was booked for, but he had someone else scheduled.
On top of that, the lift he needed to be able to access my tires was occupied by a truck that was supposed to have had only hours of work, but has instead been there for days.
Considering he had my mother’s car on a lift for almost a month, I could only appreciate the situation.
He asked if I could come back in the afternoon, but with my needing to go to the court office, it wasn’t an option. I could have gone in the morning, but I had no way of knowing how long it would take. I might not have been able to get back in time.
So we re-booked me for Monday. A quick stop top
pick up breakfast at the grocery store, then the gas station before driving the 30-40 minutes to the small city it’s in. While I was inside, nowhere near anyone, waiting to pay for my gas, a masked customer came up to me – so much for physical distancing! – telling me that there was a sign at the door saying we had to wear masks. There is no mask mandate in this municipality, but I just told him I was medically exempt. He slunk away with a snarky “isn’t that convenient” type of comment. I told him, “… and that’s harassment.”
At least he had the decency to seem embarrassed.
The clerk behind the counter wasn’t wearing a mask, either.
A tree, keeping watch over my van in the parking lot! 😀
When I got to where I needed to go, the court itself, in a different area of the building, was in session, so there were two security guards in body armour at the door. Though the mask mandates were supposed to expire two days ago, they got extended (is anyone surprised?). The guards were wearing cloth masks that matched their uniforms. I got questions about why I was there, if I had any symptoms or have been around people who tested positive, etc., and about masking. They accepted my exempt status, though I don’t think they believed me. I was the only person I saw, anywhere in the building, without a mask. Since I had everything prepared and needed only to have things signed, witnessed and to swear on the Bible, that part went by quickly. The lady behind the counter was surprised by my typed affidavit, and I explained I was told I could do that, so she accepted it. I then had to wait outside the doors until someone came to me.
The chairs had been taken away since I was there on Monday, so I tucked into a little cubby in the wall next to the pay phone, opposite the security guards. Which was… interesting.
One of the guards, who was wearing thick cloth gloves, kept pulling at his mask and adjusting it. Because of this, I could see that it wasn’t even layers of fabric, but little more than a single layer of interlock knit (t-shirt material) over his face. Cloth masks are confirmed as being the most useless type of mask to begin with, but this was about as flimsy as could be! Still, they satisfied the mandate.
Then I saw him repeatedly use hand sanitizer.
On his cloth gloves.
It was the strangest thing!
I think I waited for about an hour before someone came out and handed me some printouts.
The application was denied.
The letter explained why. It came down to two related things; one of which I might have been able to dig up old emails to meet their standard of evidence, but the other… I just don’t have it. Since I’ve cut communications off with our vandal, I am not in a position to know those sorts of details. At least not to the extent they need.
So that is that. Unless/until something else happens, I will not apply again. As much as he needs the help and won’t get it himself, there is a reason these mental health applications are hard to get, and I do appreciate that. Too many people already abuse the court system for their own personal vendettas. To force someone to have a psychiatric evaluation, the application absolutely must have the evidence to back it up.
I really should have done this when it was first recommended to me, 2 years ago, when the worst of it was still happening.
Ah, well. Live and learn.
One thing that helps is, my family is very supportive of me in all this. When I got home, one of my daughters made lunch for me. As I spent time writing related emails and making a call to get legal advice (I love my Legal Shield!) for the court date, my husband and I had a chance to talk about it, and I updated my brother. As he now owns the property, what our vandal is doing is against him as much as against us! Later, my daughters put together a charcuterie board for us to share for supper, as we watched an episode of The Edwardian Farm. That did get cut short when my lawyer called back. We didn’t talk for long; he asked me to email him copies of the court form about the peace bond, will do some research, and get back to me next week.
Among the things I need to talk to him about is that our vandal has been dropping hints for some time that he’s planning to sue… someone… not sure who. When I first heard of it, it was in a voice mail directed at my mother, but now that my brother is the owner, perhaps that who he plans to sue? Of course, we are “making” him do this but I have no clue what grounds he thinks he has that he can sue any of us for. He apparently still thinks everything has been “given” to me, and by “everything”, he means all the stuff on the farm he feels entitled to because he helped my parents, way back when. It seems he honestly believes he owns it all. When we moved here, my mother expressly stated that we were to treat everything and use everything here as if it were our own, and my brother is on board with that, too. Even so, the stuff that’s here belongs to the farm. It’s not “ours” any more than the farm or house is. It’s a sort of package deal. 😀 Of course, there’s more to it than that, which I can’t get into here.
What a mess!
With all the stuff we’ve discovered since moving here – like needing a new roof and a complete renovation, possibly needing a new well, not having the tools and equipment we should have had had to take care of the place, and so on, in the end, this is really the only major problem with living here. In the end, that’s really not too bad. It’s still better than what we left behind.
A few more weeks, and we’ll be celebrating three years of living here.
Three years and 2,324 posts! That’s a lot of documenting our journey, and recording how things have been changing in our lives since moving out here. As of today, we’re even up to 410 followers, which is amazing to me. Thank you to you all for joining us on our journey, in our little corner of the world! 🙂
Our journey has certainly taken some unexpected turns. Among them, I was not expecting to spend this day filling out the form and typing up an affidavit (then editing, tweaking, and editing some more!) to get a mental health order for our vandal. I’ve given him several days to respond to my email, asking him to get help but, at this point, it’s time to take the next step.
I’m also realizing that I’ve forgotten to eat both lunch and supper today. *sigh*
Time to grab a quick bite, then head to bed early. Tomorrow, I drop the van off first thing in the morning to get the winter tires put on, along with an oil change. From there I’ll head back to the court office and finish filing for the mental health order. Hopefully, I’ve included enough information this time.
Today was our day to do our monthly shop in the city. It went well, but my goodness, it’s draining! 😀
Of course, my day started with my morning rounds and a visit with the outside kitties. 🙂
Which included an explosion of sorts!
I was right by the heated water bowl, near the entrance into the cat’s house, when an explosion of fur and fury erupted through the strips of carpet covering the entrance. It was Nicky the Nose, making a mad dash for it!
That is a big, hefty cat!
Once my rounds were done, I settled in to check the trail cam files. I saw an RCMP pick up truck going slowly past our driveway, then again in the other direction. So it looks like they at least tried to serve our vandal about the restraining order court date, and checked our place out as well. Whether or not he was home to be served, I don’t know and probably will not be notified about.
We had snow last night, so when I checked the gate this morning, I was following all sorts of tracks – cats (of course), the prints of a large canine (likely my brother’s dog visiting again. 😀 ) and very, very fresh deer tracks!
There were not, however, any tire tracks in our driveway, on the outside of the gate.
As my daughter and I headed out to the city, a couple of hours later, there were tire tracks. I could see that someone had driven into our driveway. It could be just someone using our driveway to turn around, which is not that unusual, but it should be interesting to see what shows up when I check the memory cards tomorrow.
I also checked the security camera on our garage. It is set to take an image and email it to me, whenever the motion sensor is triggered. I was very interesting to see what would show up, now that it’s in a new position.
Did I mention it snowed last night?
I had almost 200 emails, and all but a few had pictures of snowflakes! 😀
I did a bit of adjusting of the camera’s position before we headed out, and from what files were waiting for me when we got home, I think I found the sweet spot for the motion sensor.
Our trip to the city went well, but also had its interesting moments.
On our way, we stopped at the next town to get gas. This municipality is under a mask mandate. They know me pretty well by now, so when I walked in without a mask, the lady behind the counter was comfortable enough to ask me why so many people coming from up north aren’t wearing masks. I said we aren’t under a mask mandate. Of course, she pointed out that when we come to places that do, we are are supposed to be wearing them. How can I be not wearing one? So I explained to her about the medical exemption, and she was all “but what does that mean?” I explained it, and how PIPA means they can’t ask someone why someone is medically exempt (though I did mention my own chronic cough, because I really don’t care who knows about it). A customer who had started to come in at the same time as me, but turned around to get his mask, heard part of the conversation and started asking, too. We talked a bit about the different kinds of exemptions, and how a medical exemption includes invisible disabilities, like PTSD or Autism. It turns out that the employees were simply told, everyone has to wear masks, but no one told them that the mandate included exemptions. Nothing! So I gave her one of my extra exemption cards, which states exactly where in the mandate medical exemptions are, mentions PIPA’s role, and includes related phone numbers. She was really happy to have it, and I think she was really ticked off that no one explained any of this to them.
Once in the city, we go to a drive through for breakfast, then Walmart, an international foods grocery store, Costco… then, hopefully, nowhere else! 😀
While at the Walmart, my daughter bought me a new toy.
I now have an angle grinder!! Oh, I am so excited. 🙂
My daughter knows what her Mama likes! ❤
Meanwhile…
At the international foods store, just as we were finishing up at the self checkout, I had someone come to me, reminding me to wear a mask next time. I thanked her and told her I was medically exempt, and she moved on to the next self checkout. Which is why I could hear when a security guard came to her and started telling her not to bother going to people who come in without masks because “suddenly, everyone is medically exempt.”
Oh, dear.
She did not need to be given a hard time for doing her job, and that comment was just too much! For me, it’s not a big deal, but if someone that is medically exempt for something like anxiety or trauma had heard that, it would have been extremely difficult for them.
So when we were done, my daughter went ahead with our stuff while I asked to speak to a manager.
I made sure to say I had no problems with being told about the mandate, that the staff member who approached me was doing her job; I told her I’m medically exempt, and that was it. He was nodding along as I spoke. Then I told him about the security guard going to her, and what I heard him saying to her. As soon as I repeated “suddenly, everyone’s medically exempt”, even with his mask on, I could see his face cringing! We spoke for a while, and he was very glad I’d told him about it, thanking me for doing so. I really stressed I understood what is required of them to meet the conditions of the mandate, and the staff member who approached me didn’t need to be hassled for doing her job, but also, there are alot of reasons people can’t wear masks, so that comment by the security guard was not right. He said he would talk to the security guard about it, and agreed with me that it came down to training. He also added, it’s not their job to be the mandate police! 😀 It was a very pleasant and positive conversation.
Costco went smoothly, except for a couple of things. One being a customer. We had our flat cart pretty heavily loaded, making it hard to steer, when there was a bit of a bottle neck around a woman who stopped her cart to look at some produce. Behind her was an older woman with a walker. I pulled back a bit, smiled and indicated that she could go around first. No, she told me. She didn’t want to go near me, because I wasn’t wearing a mask. So I just went ahead and pushed my flat cart forward – which meant I had to walk past her, anyhow! She ended up moving around the other side. As I passed, I told her I was at more risk from her than the other way around, but I don’t know that she heard me. Ah, well.
We were nearly done when I had a staff member approach me, asking about a mask. I told her I was medically exempt and she asked if I had a card or a letter from a doctor. I said it wasn’t a requirement, but she said they had a policy that people without masks had to have a card from a doctor. Now, I know doctors have been told not to write exemption letters, but she kept saying “card”. So I dug out one of my exemption cards and asked if that was what she meant. She said yes, and told me to keep it handy; there was a health inspector in the building, and she didn’t want me to get fined!
I never saw the health inspector but, as we were leaving, I made a point of telling the woman checking our receipt as we left, how much I appreciated them not giving me grief about the mandate, and how awesome they were at this location. I know people who have tried going to other locations and have gotten a lot of hassle, and this place never has. I wanted to make sure to say thank you and make a positive comment about it.
As smoothly as things went overall, these trips are really draining at the best of times. We were both pretty exhausted by the time we got home!
As we unloaded, I took the cat kibble for the outside cats to the sun room and refilled the bin. On cutting open a bag, I had Creamsicle actually sticking his head in and starting to eat! It was like he was starving! LOL After emptying the one bag into the bin, both he and Potato Beetle climbed right in to eat. I scooped some to top up the containers in the kibble house, but they didn’t leave the bin, even as I emptied another big into it. 😀 I finally had to drag them out and over to the kibble house, just so I could close the bin and put it away.
Junk Pile was hanging out, too, and she has been willing to come closer to us, even if we still can’t touch her.
Which is why I could see, she’s starting to look very round. !!!
I really hope I’m wrong, but she might be pregnant again! This is a very bad time of year for it. 😦 We’ll know soon enough, I guess.
Anyhow.
We are now well stocked for the month, and I am so glad to be done with it.
There’s even two of them tucked under the kibble house. 🙂 I’m glad they like being able to do that!
Since we are not using the sun room as a cat shelter this winter, we will not be putting the rigid insulation against the windows inside again. With the doors now closing properly, we can get away will keeping the light, and any passive solar we might manage to get this winter, instead.
Which means we can re-purpose some of the insulation. There should be several large enough that we can cut one to fit under the floor of the kibble house. It won’t do much for insulating, but it will make things a bit less wiggly. It would be nicer on their little toe beans to have the insulation on top of the floor, but the cats just LOVE using this stuff for scratching, and can tear it apart rather quickly!
After that, I can look at whether I still need to put something across the front, to keep the kibble containers from being knocked out. They’re not being knocked out every day, so I may not need to.
This morning, I was able to give the outside cats and extra treat with their breakfast; the pan juices from some pork we roasted, including some much needed fat to help them build up their reserves for the winter.
Yes, we’re careful about what’s in those juices, and I make sure not to cook with anything that might be harmful to the cats when I am planning to give them the meat juices.
This picture was taken as I was finishing my rounds and heading back in, well after that initial mad rush when the kibble is first brought out. 😀 They are a lot more peaceful and contented at this point!
Peace and contentment is what I’m hoping we’ll get for today, but I don’t know what to expect, really. Chances are, our vandal will get served for the court date regarding the restraining order today. I also sent an email – a group email, that included family members who need to know what’s going on – pointing out the escalation of his behaviour, and telling him he needs to get help. Long ago, I had to tell him to not only stop coming here, but to stop phoning and texting. Email was the one method of communication I left open, even if it’s through his wife. Yes, she was included in the group email, too. I don’t know how much she knows of what he’s been doing.
Things can go one of two ways, at this point. Either he’ll back off completely and keep playing the victim. Or it’ll trigger him into doing something stupid, and he’ll still keep playing the victim.
Meanwhile, we’ll maintain higher vigilance. Thanks to Silk Cords‘ comment, I decided it was worth adjusting the security camera on our garage. I have had it zoomed in and focused on the gate, as much as possible from that angle, since the gate itself has been such a physical target. An obsession, really. Now I’ve got it zoomed out and adjusted so that, in my live feed, I can see the driveway inside the gate, the old hay yard and most of the barn. It’s unlikely he’d go in through the barbed wire fence to access the barn, since he’d need to bring a vehicle in to take what he wants, but who knows what he’d do if he gets triggered. Between all the cameras, we have his key targets covered.
If all goes well, they will all be completely unnecessary.
Let’s start with some adorable kitties, having breakfast!
They’re just a great way to start the day! 😀
As for the rest of the day, things were just… tiring.
I got a phone call early in the day. Well, any phone call at all is unusual for us. ;-D
It was my older brother, letting me know he got a phone call from our vandal. My brother was at his work office, so he didn’t answer, but once he heard the message, he wanted to let me know about it, right away.
Amazingly, after making some nasty digs about not being allowed in the property anymore, he had the nerve to request written permission to come on the property.
There are some 2x4s in the barn, and he’s building a shed, so he wants them.
Unbelievable!
My brother was able to send me the file and I got it transcribed before I had to head out. So that was helpful, though ultimately, I never made use of it.
My first stop was at the garage to get the broken shield on my mother’s car fixed.
The tip of it was broken off. The shield had been held in place with a plastic clip that was still holding the tip in place. Since the length was changed, he ended up having to drill and screw into a new hole.
The whole thing, including the time to drive the car in, use the lift, fix it, then drive it out again, took 5 minutes.
I offered to pay, but he wouldn’t bill me anything for it.
What an awesome guy!
Since it took so little time, I was able to drive to the nearer small city and go to the court office to apply for a restraining order and involuntary mental health assessment for our vandal.
The municipality the court is in is under a mask mandate, so I had to go through the usual questioning about my not wearing one, but there were no issues when I said I was medically exempt. I explained why I was there and got the two forms explained to me, but I had to leave the space to fill them out, since the area around the counter was small, and they could only serve one person at a time. I ended up standing at a garbage/recycling station to have a flat surface to work on. Which was fine by me.
I wasn’t able to pass on any of the printouts I brought, but I was glad to have them, since as I filled out the forms, I could use them to get exact dates and remember key details. Not that there was room for much.
After passing the completed forms back, answering a few questions, swearing on the Bible (which was in a clear plastic bag, and got sprayed with sanitizer first) and getting my signatures witnessed, it was back out the door to sit and wait.
Surprisingly, it was the mental health order that was dealt with faster.
Someone came out to talk to me and, in a nutshell, she could not grant the mental health order. She did, however, tell me exactly why and what I needed, then gave me a new form to take home, so I could reapply. The biggest question was whether or not he’d been told to get help, and refused it, very recently – as in, within the last 24 hours or so. I’ve certainly told him to get help before, but I haven’t had direct contact with him in ages for a reason! All in all, she was very helpful. I think, even with how little I could fit into the form, she could tell that this was a real issue.
Then I had to wait about the restraining order. When I got called in for that, I was given the sheet that would go to the police to go over; after some details were corrected, I signed it.
I now have a court date in November.
He will be served by the police some time soon. Which means we will have to double down on keeping an eye on things, because this is likely to trigger him.
The whole time I was there was very stressful. I’ve actually had to go through some of this before we moved, but it’s very different when the person is not someone you used to be close to. My body was so tense, I had to go to the bathroom three times, just because of how much my abdomen was cramping up. My hands were shaking so bad, I could hardly write, and I felt like throwing up, all from being so physically tense. And yet, I was actually pretty calm about the whole thing, mentally. There is still that physiological response to stress, and I just had to push my way through it.
I am glad to have at least been able to get the process started. I have steps to take, and can try again with the mental health order once I get those ducks in a row.
The next while is going to require being on high alert. I thought I knew this person very well, but now, I have no idea how he will react once he’s served with the court date.
It has to stop. The process, however, is so very slow.
Instead, I’ve just spent roughly 6 hours, going through old emails, video and image files, and transcribing voice mail messages.
I’m not quite done, but that’s it for digging through old stuff.
If all goes well with my mom’s car tomorrow, I’ll be heading to court to file for a restraining order right after, and hopefully the psychiatric evaluation, too.
Transcribing the audio files was the most draining. I’d forgotten about some of the horrible things our vandal had said about us. Worse was having to listen to bits, over and over again, to try and transcribe things that were almost gibberish. Likely, he was drunk. There was some pretty crazy stuff in there. My guess is, he has Paranoid Personality Disorder.
To think, he’s been leaving messages like this, and worse, with my mother for almost a decade. Not about me all that time, of course, but other stuff. I’m just the first person who’s in a position to do something about it.
The last thing I want to do is write an impact statement. I don’t even know if any of this will be needed. I was selective in printing out old emails between me and my family that documented some of the crazier stuff – I even have some that predated our move! – and still ended up with a stack an inch thick. Granted, that’s with lots of formatted spaces and larger fonts, but still. The package for the restraining order is much, much smaller, but when it comes to applying for a psychiatric evaluation, I’d rather have more available than less, even if they don’t end up needing it all.
The good news: more progress on Cabbages’ socialization!
She has been going around us more often, and the other cats are tolerating her more. Those that don’t, she typically just ignores. It’s rather funny when Fenrir hisses and growls at her, and Cabbages just looks at her with this “gives no f***s” expression!
The bad news is, she has joined the group of older kittens that keep trying to nurse on Grandma.
Also, that picture?
That’s my side of the bed.
At almost 3 am.
She claimed my spot as her very own Cabbages patch! 😀
Normally, I have no problem shoving aside any cats that are in the way of my going to bed, but Cabbages is still learning to trust humans, and I didn’t want to chase her off.
I needn’t have worried. She ended up spending most of the night with me. Or, more accurately, Grandma! That did mean I was repeatedly awakened by loud slurping noises, after Grandma slithered out of her belly band. I kept having to pull her off, and block access to nip. She did not like that, but eventually curled up next to me and went to sleep! I do wish our old mama wouldn’t encourage the kittens so much!
I finally did some looking, and it turns out that yes, like humans, cats can start lactating with the stimulation of nursing. It’s entirely possible “grandma” is actually producing milk again.
With the older kittens, they were well mothered. I’m tempted to let Cabbages nurse. Butterscotch mothered them well when they were small, from what we could see, but I think she forcibly weaned them pretty early, and stopped being the least bit maternal with them, not much longer.
It would be hard to allow one kitten to nurse, but not the others!
I had quite the crowd greeting me when I headed out this morning!
Of course, they immediately abandoned me, once there was food! 😀
I will have to be more careful when I do this. One of the spice boys slipped into the sun room without my noticing, and got trapped! Thankfully, one of my daughters heard his plaintive meowing after she’d turned the light on to go into the bathroom, lighting up the sun room a bit through the window. He’d been in there most of the day! I went in through the old kitchen, then opened the outside doors of the sun room to let him out. It didn’t quite work! Instead, his brother immediately ran in, and the two of them started to snuggle and rub their faces against each other. They missed each other so much! 😀 I was able to lure them out while topping up their food in the kibble house. 🙂
Yesterday, I headed to town and finally got the opportunity to check the outside of the gate. Checking the gate is part of my morning rounds, but I don’t take the gate key with me, so I can’t check the outside of the gate very well. And why should I have to? After seeing how our vandal had reefed on the south gate, I took a closer look.
Sure enough, he actually managed to cause damage.
It may not seem like much, but he reefed the gate against the post hard enough to create permanent dents in the pool noodle bumpers. The top one had been shifted a bit, though I’d put it back before taking the picture. If you look at the gate post in the first photo, you can see a nick in the paint. That nick is right to the metal. The posts were originally painted black, so that is through two layers of paint. It had to take a lot of force to slam the gate hard enough against the post to cause even that little bit of damage, while there were still the other bumpers to cushion the gate.
Thank God my brother did such a fabulous job in replacing the broken hinges! Our vandal was clearly trying to break the gate. The other half of the gate had nothing, thankfully.
Dealing with this is what I’m procrastinating. I need to transcribe old phone messages to present to the court when I make my applications for a restraining order and involuntary psychiatric assessment. I am not looking forward to it.
One of the things I’ve done instead is finally put up the shelves I’d painted for the entry.
Previously, I’d had a net hanging from hooks to hold various things. The net was from our previous van, to keep things from rolling around. I’d kept it to use with the van we have now, but it doesn’t fit anywhere, but I still hung on to it. It was good enough to hold random things, but not very easy to get at those things, once they were in!
I’d painted the boards I’d cut from a piece salvaged from a shed, and they were ready to put up several days ago. My daughter provided some shelf brackets she was no longer using. I suppose I should have painted them, too, but – unlike the board I salvaged – they don’t have any damage to hide. 😀
The shelves are attached to the outside of a closet, but there is a joist only on the front and back. The rest is just paneling. With the window, I couldn’t have the shelves extend right to the wall, so only one side of each shelf is screwed into a joist. Inside the closet, there is a board that supports the rod, but not at a useful height. So for the bottom shelf, the bracket closer to the window is screwed into paneling, only. I wish I’d thought to attach the bracket to the wall, like the top one, before I’d screwed it into place, but… ah, well. We’ll just have to make sure nothing heavy gets put on that end of the shelf. 🙂
We are now waiting for the inevitable crash of a cat deciding to explore the shelves and knocking everything over! 😀 They love to sit in that window and watch the cats outside.
So by procrastinating one thing, I accomplished a job that had been procrastinated for a couple of years, now. 😀
Looking at the date, I am realizing that, for my husband and youngest daughter, they have been here for 3 years! In less than a week, it’ll be the 3 yr anniversary for this blog, too.
We had an idea of what we were walking into, when we decided to move out here, but my goodness, there was a lot we didn’t expect!
Having to deal with someone close to us becoming our own personal vandal, especially to the point that it has, was one of the last things we could have expected!
*sigh*
I guess I should get to transcribing those files.
Oh, wait… I should probably work on supper, first.
The kitties were very happy to see me this morning!
Okay, so maybe is wasn’t me they were happy to see, but the food I bring!
The heated water bowl was partially frozen again, so I had to lift the roof to plug it back in. I’ll have to go through my work station in the basement to find an appropriately sized hook to support the cord.
Which I will do later, because my morning was dedicated to a more unpleasant project. I have been putting together a package to bring with me when I go to apply for a restraining order. Thankfully, the type I’m after covers more “minor” stuff, like believing there is a threat to property. Which has already happened. I would have a more difficult time proving my need for, say, a protection order for stalking.
Before our move, we unfortunately had to deal with the police and court system quite a bit, and it left me incredibly jaded. Thankfully, I had long developed the habit of journaling and documenting things to share with family far away. It didn’t take much more to switch focus to document things for police files and courts.
As much as I try to keep everything organized on my computer, it still took some digging. Especially since I was going back to 2018, to establish a history of vandalism, as well as the more recent stuff showing that, whatever program our vandal was required to go through, it didn’t help.
The hard part is going to be going through what I have to present my case for an involuntary psychiatric assessment. It’s not like I can give them a bunch of electronic files and expect them to go through it all. I’ll have to select images and screen captures to print out and, what will be most difficult, transcribe some of the voice mail messages that this person has left. I’ve had to do similar documentation of many hours of security videos, before our move. Two others had already started to but had to stop because of how traumatic it became. It takes a lot for me to reach that point, but even I had to stop after a while. In the end, it was futile, since the police wouldn’t do anything about it, anyhow.
It’s particularly hard to disassociate when you’re right in the middle of the events that need documenting, and that’s what I’m dreading about all this. We’re talking about having a person arrested and forced into a psychiatric hospital for evaluation against their will. This is a big deal, which has a lot to do with why I haven’t done this since the police first started recommending it to me. It seems to be the only way to get this person the help they need. If he doesn’t get that help, it’s not going to stop, and will likely get worse. I need to make a really solid case, and while there is plenty I can produce to show this, going through it all is going to be really unpleasant.
So, I’ve got my work cut out for me over the weekend; Monday is the earliest I can make the drive and start the process.
I had really hoped living out here would mean getting away from stuff like this.
It’s still better than what we left behind, though.
The Re-Farmer 