With the cold and snow outside, it is so exciting to see green things growing in our aquarium greenhouse.
The one pot with the Cup of Moldova seedlings had more popping up by morning, but by evening…
Yes!! There is now a seedling in another pot!
It is still only the Cup of Moldova tomatoes that are sprouting. I find it interesting that they are germinating so much faster. Especially compared to the other tomatoes, Sophia’s Choice, which have a much shorter “days to maturity”.
What’s great is that, at this stage, you can almost see them growing. Talk about a psychological boost!
The Re-Farmer
Update: about 2 hours after I took the above photo, I looked again. The one sprout in the front is now standing tall, and another has popped up next to it – and the third pot now has a sprout showing, too!
There is most definitely a plus to not closing our gate anymore, to avoid having it freeze shut again.
Our angel with a front end loader showed up yesterday! What a beautiful sight!
With the temperatures, no one went out while he was still here, but I did make sure to send a note to the renter to pass on our thanks. Like many others, they were pretty snowed in, too. Having that front end loader sure makes a difference, though! Their kids were home; school was cancelled, and the buses haven’t been running for days anyhow, due to icy road conditions. Plus a shortage of drivers. I don’t know if that’s because the drivers are snowed in at their homes, too, or if they just don’t have as many employed right now. Could well be both!
The driver even made the area in front of our person gate wider. I think he could see, by the tracks in the snow from the tow truck, that the area in front is used, and where space is needed for turning around.
The cats are loving it! After the front end loader was done, I could see on the security camera, cats running around and playing all over the plowed areas! They were having a blast!
This morning, after feeding the critters, I started a bit of shoveling, including clearing part of the snow ridge in front of the people gate, where we unload the van. I couldn’t stay out for too long. I hadn’t put toe warmers on this morning, and my boots that are supposed to be rated to -40C/-40F… aren’t. :-D The girls and I will head out later in the day to clear the paths. I’m just so grateful that the big job is done. Yes, we couldn’t have gotten out with my mother’s car, but this makes life so much easier!
The kitties were looking pretty miserable when they came out for kibble! As you can see by the nose in the window, they were eager to get back into shelter, once they had their fill of kibble and warm water! I do wish I’d been able to catch the death glare I was getting from Caramel, who is drinking water in the above photo. I think she is going to be a very happy camper, once we manage to catch her and she gets placed into a forever home – indoors!
This is what the temperature was like shortly after I got back inside – and still is now, as I am writing this! The -28C/-18F is bang on, but I’m happy to say we weren’t getting that -36C/-33F wind chill. The wind may be coming from the south, which we normally have issues with, it’s only 9 kmh/5 1/2 mph, and what trees and outbuildings we have on the south side are enough to reduce that. Still, it wasn’t a good morning to be out there for very long, that’s for sure!
The 14 day forecast is looking pretty good, though more snow is on the way. On Sunday – tomorrow – we’re expecting less than 5cm/2in, but on Tuesday, they’re predicting another 5-10cm/2-4in, then another 2-4cm/1-2in starting late Thursday and into Friday. I know so many people who are even more snowed in than we have been. Many have the equipment to dig their way out, but they’re running out of room for all the piled up snow! It takes my old brother, who lives closer to the city, 4 hours to clear his driveway with his snow blower. My sister’s husband uses their tractor and it takes him 2 hours, though for where they are, it’s generally a longer wait for their roads to be plowed, so it only gets them so far.
I’m liking the sight of warmer temperatures in the forecast, but the warmer weather also tends to bring more moisture – and more snow!
As much as we needed that precipitation, we have enough, now. :-D
I just wanted to start by addressing the update that I made in my post last night. Specifically, about an Ontario court freezing funds people have donated to the Freedom Convoy 2022.
This sort of pressure by Ottawa is what cause GoFundMe to capitulate, much to their detriment. GiveSendGo, however has pointed out the obvious.
A court in Ontario has no jurisdiction on what they, a company in the US, do with the money people donate using their platform.
Fines for non-compliance will be up to $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment.
Aside from his inflammatory, slanderous tone, this part is of major concern.
The temporary order will be enshrined in new permanent law that his government will introduce, he said.
Now, there’s something that should alarm anyone, whatever their opinions about the Freedom Convoy!
Our Prime Dictator is right in there, too.
Perhaps he needs to remember this.
The trucker response?
There’s a funny thing about civil disobedience. It involved being civil. And disobedient.
Which is the stage we are at now.
Also, these government actions are illegal. No law can contradict our constitutional rights. It doesn’t matter if they get passed by politicians or even propped up by courts.
Manitoba, meanwhile, has made a new announcement. They went from promising to maybe lifting all restrictions by spring (first day of spring is March 20 this year) to announcing all restrictions will be lifted by March 15.
This is a legacy media link, but I included it because it included the response from Manitoba’s NDP leader, Wab Kinew; it is so very typical of the NDP.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are also living their mandates, though all seem to be conditional. They could change their minds (again) or bring them back at any time.
The things is, the prairie provinces never had reason to shut down in the first place. Check out these screen captures I took today, from the StatCan Provisional weekly all-cause death data.
The first thing you’ll notice is that Manitoba’s data is a year behind. I’ve been keeping an eye on these numbers for a couple of years now, and they have been consistently behind all other provinces.
Now, during a pandemic of respiratory viruses, there is a distinct pattern. There is a spike in excess deaths at the beginning, usually around early spring. That spike drops dramatically, then a small spike happens at the end of the year, during the usual winter increase in respiratory infections aka: flu season.
Manitoba had no such pattern. The only spike in deaths was at the end of the year – well after it kept increasing the restrictions. Plus, if you look at the ages, you’ll find that that spike is in the 65+ age categories. Manitoba was never part of the pandemic.
Now let’s look at Saskatewan.
Again, no pandemic pattern, but there is an increase in excess deaths for 2021 – after restrictions were mandated.
Alberta, however has something very strange going on.
Something very wrong has been happening in Alberta. This is not a pandemic pattern. These are all-cause deaths. There needs to be a much closer look at what lead to all those deaths – most of which, as with Manitoba and Saskatchewan, happened when the province was locked down and mandates were in place. This could be a reflection on increased in deaths due to lack of timely diagnosis and treatment, or deaths of despair, such as suicide, drug and alcohol overdoses, or vaccine deaths. It needs to be investigated.
These are not the only provinces that were never part of the pandemic, and had no evidence driven reason to shut down in the first place. This is not to say the Wu Flu wasn’t in these provinces, but that they did not meet the criteria for an epidemic, never mind a pandemic.
All of this needs to be questioned, and in a truly free country, we would be able to do so without being censored, demonized and punished.
I found this message from a Canadian army major well worth listening to.
There is no doubt that our Prime Dictator is underestimating the truckers, and our legacy is a disasterous failure, with very few exceptions.
Here is a reminder of just why the truckers are there, and why so many support them.
How will it end?
Well, here are some thoughts on that.
What’s hilarious is that tweet about a “wrecking ball” on a crane. Talk about showing how out of touch of elitists are, when it comes to ordinary working folk.
Just look at these terrible, violent, nasty protesters!
The weekend is coming, and the numbers will increase. How the police are going to enforce these new, draconian edicts is certainly a fair question. Hopefully, they will not resort to the levels of violence that has been happening in Australia and New Zealand.
In the end, though, the best way to face such attempts at authoritarianism is to simply expose it for the joke it is.
I think our political overlords are in their death throws, and they know it. Unfortunately, that makes them far more likely to do something very, very stupid.
Right now, how things go is squarely in our Prime Dictator’s hands, and he shows no sign of being intelligent enough to handle it.
Since I posted a screencap of our weather earlier, it has actually gotten a bit colder, instead of warmer, though the wind chill has been reduced.
While heating up water for the outside cats, I spotted this, outside our dining room window.
They were staring very intently at something past the south yard, but I couldn’t see what it was.
Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are still nice and cozy in the sun room. They are getting more active and wanting more attention, too. When the time comes, we’ll see if Butterscotch will let us bring her indoors with Nosencrantz this time, and see if she’s willing to become an indoor cat. If she does, that leaves only Rolando Moon as one of the originals that my late father used to care for, and there’s no way she’ll ever come indoors. My younger brother took her and had her spayed after my husband and younger daughter came out here ahead of the move, but by the time my older daughter and I came out, she had managed to escape the garage they were keeping her in and came back here. She is not a cat suited for indoors, at all! But as snarly, growly, bitey and mean she is – in between demanding pets and skritches! – we love her anyways!
Once outside, I did the minimum amount of cleared needed. We could open the door, but not all the way, so that got cleared. The cat’s non-heated water bowls had to be dug out of the snow. My daughters had already shoveled snow off the low-angle roof last night.
Things like the path to the compost pile, however, will wait a day or two.
You can see in the foreground, where the deer made their way through the snow into the south yard! They’re not quite comfortable enough to go around the front of the house, to the sidewalk path. :-D
We are fortunate where we are. We got snow, but were not snowed in. I would rather not, but if we absolute had to, we’d be able to use my mother’s car to get out, even if the roads are not yet plowed. I know others have had a lot more snow, and are going to need a while to dig their way out.
We’re supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow, so that might be a good day to start clearing out the paths. It’ll warm up even more, the day after, and generally stay mild for the rest of the month. We’re supposed to get a bit more snow here and there, but as far as temperature goes, we should be good.
Just think; the first day of spring is March 20 this year – not very long! Granted, where we are, we can reasonably expect a blizzard in April, but still… things should be slowly warming up now! If all goes well, we will have a slow melt of all this snow. It’d be nice for it all to be absorbed right were it is, and not drain away into the lake.
Looking back and how long it took for tomatoes to sprout, in this same aquarium greenhouse, last year, I’d say having that heat mat may have made the difference!
As I sit here, I can see more snow coming down in the security camera life feed. Seeing just this one little sprout makes the end of winter feel so much closer, despite the new snow on the ground!
And is living the high life! She’s getting a salmon fillet every day, as well as boiled chicken and high protein dry cat food. It takes her about 2 hours to eat everything, and she’s getting lots of weigh-ins. She gets tired very quickly, which the vet thinks is a side effect of the neurological infection. She also has her very own tiny human and to dote on her, and massaging her legs, every day. She also has a new name, but we will keep calling her Cabbages, here. :-)
She will be with them a while longer, until after she recovers from getting spayed, which will be later this month, I think. Then she will be moving on to her forever home.
They have done so well by her!
If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser to reimburse the cat lady for Cabbages’ vet bills, click on the button below, or click here. If you would like to read more about it, click here.
Actually, I’m not planning to do much of my own talking about the Freedom Convoy 2022 today. Others are doing a much better job than I am!
Update: I’m putting this update at the top, because it’s basically breaking news. It’s just been announced that the GiveSendGo donations for the Freedom Convoy and Adopt a Trucker have been frozen by an Ontario court. This link is to the Globe and Mail, which is legacy media and not freedom friendly.
Here are some of the newest, most informative videos I’ve been finding to share. Things change so fast, I highly recommend following the websites and channels for The Countersignal, Rebel News, True North, and individuals such as Viva Frei, Marcel Irnie, Clyde Do Something and Tireroasters Garage, just to name a few. In fact, as I am writing this, Tireroasters Garage is live streaming, on site in Ottawa.
Let’s start with this address to Canadians, from one of the organizers.
A lot of people are trying to bring their own concerns into things and, as legitimate (or not) as they may be, this convoy is about getting ride of all the mandates and restrictions, and making sure this never happens again. Pretty straightforward. Anything else that follows is outside of their perview.
And our Prime Dictator’s response?
Then he runs away.
Is it any wonder, his own party is starting to jump ship?
For all that the police were made to return the fuel they took before (which was returned contaminated), they have continued to take more fuel – gas, diesel and even firewood.
The trucks are still getting fuel, though.
Not all the police are good with what they’re being made to do.
Constitutional lawyers, meanwhile, are putting the police on note, that their actions are the ones that are illegal.
Meanwhile, in Quebec…
And in Vancouver.
In the above video, you get an idea of how the hateful lies, slander and rhetoric from our political overlords and media is resulting in violence and threats of violence against legal, peaceful protesters.
There are way too many smaller convoys and protests around the country to include videos from all of them, but most major cities, a lot of smaller towns and cities, many border crossings and even airports have their protests to end the illegal mandates.
Some of the international coverage is awesome – certainly better than our own legacy media coverage. This video is older (yeah, 6 days is “old” for this!), but I found it hilarious.
It should be noted that NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, isn’t allowed back to the country of his birth because of his connections to an Indian terrorist group.
Shapiro has covered the story, too, with humour.
Because our federal government is such a joke, as are our own legacy media and pundits.
While the GiveSendGo fundraiser continues to grow, as people around the world show their support for the Freedom Convoy 2022, GoFundMe has clearly not learned their lesson.
Not only did they end a fundraiser for the Canberra Convoy, but they are refusing to refund people’s donations!
I will finish with this video, of a woman sharing her story.
As I write this, the snow system that passed over us is now crossing Southern Ontario, so a lot of these freedom protesters are probably being snowed on right now. Judging from what I’ve seen, they are will prepared to handle inclement weather. Hopefully, it means a reduction in harassment and violence from either the Ottawa police, or misinformed counter protesters.
The tow truck arrived much, much earlier than expected!
Thankfully, the dispatcher called ahead of time and worked out exactly where we were on his map. It’s a good thing, too, because he was a mile off. The paved provincial road that runs through our little hamlet ends at the highway, then restarts again on our side of the highway, but north of us, so it’s a frequent error.
They came from a town much further away, too, which was a surprise, but I guess CAA could only call whomever was available.
Hopefully, some time tomorrow, we’ll get a call from the mechanic to confirm what’s wrong, and get an estimate. That will decide if we can get it fixed right away, or have to wait until the end of the month. :-/
Thank God we have my mother’s car to fall back on at times like this!!! Having a working vehicle is essential out here.
The snow started falling last night, and it hasn’t stopped yet!
We are at a relatively balmy -7C/19F. According to my app, the wind chill is -13C/9F.
I’d say our wind chill is colder than that!
It’s warm enough for the kitties to come out for breakfast, though Caramel’s expression looks like one of supreme displeasure! :-D
I am so glad we built the kibble house. It’s made things much nicer for the babies!
Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are still doing well in the sun room, though Nosencrantz did seem almost interested in going outside with me.
Almost.
I had deer hanging around the north yard and waiting for me to be done. It was the usual pair, at first. Then this one showed up.
The piebald deer has returned!
This is at least the 3rd winter she has been visiting us. I can’t remember if she started coming during our first winter here, so it might actually be her 4th winter visiting.
She also chased off the other two! :-D
I checked on the van this morning. The charger read full, so I unhooked it, then tested the van.
It started fine, but then I watched the display screen, as the battery charge dropped before my eyes, then the “charging system failure” warning came on again.
So I hooked the charger back on again.
After making sure our mechanic was good with it, I called CAA to tow it over. As you can imagine, they’re pretty busy right now, so I made sure to let them know, there was no emergency or urgency. They couldn’t even give me an estimated time. Logging on later, they have an ETS past 5:30 this evening, but I don’t expect them that “early”. The driver will have to call me for more detailed directions, anyhow, because they just have the map pinned at the highway junction nearest us. Honestly, if they couldn’t make it out today at all, I’d be okay with that.
When it gets here, we should have enough power to start the van and back it out of the garage, but I’d the battery would be dead before they could finish loading it up, based on how fast I saw it loosing charge in the display. Chances are, they won’t be dropping off the van until after the garage is closed, so they’ll probably have to use their own charger, just to be able to park the van after unloading it.
The snow has pretty much stopped falling while I was writing this. A quick look at the weather radar, and it shows the system is just passing us now. It looks like rain is also on the radar, but it is going to miss us entirely. Previous forecast of reaching as high as 3C/37F this afternoon are now saying a high of -3C/27F. I don’t know how much snow we actually got, but the paths didn’t need to be shoveled when I was out this morning, and the driveway looks driveable. Which is good, because we can’t get the little electric snow blower out of the garage. I was able to shovel out one of the swinging doors on that side, but it still won’t open far enough to take anything out, and we’d have to take the wood chipper out before we could take out the little snow blower. At least we can get inside that part of the garage now, though.
Areas to the south of us would have gotten more snow than we did. My sister wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it in to work. Their farm is one of those “turn on the gravel road and drive until it ends” sort of locations, and their driveway drifts over quickly. I haven’t heard from my brother, yet; he’s even further south, and would be in the thick of system right now, judging by the weather radar. He should be able to work from home, though.
The Re-Farmer 