The day started out on the rough side, though so far, that seems to have worked itself out. Issues started in the wee hours of the morning, when I was awakened by the sound of something hitting the floor in the dining room. I came out to discover the container we are using to hold all the seed packs and supplies had been knocked onto the floor, spilling seed packs everywhere. I had them sorted by which need to be direct sown, and which need to be started indoors. That’s going to need to be sorted again.

Then I went into the sun room, and found the worse mess yet. Along with much of what was on the shelf under the bathroom window being knocked onto the floor, the wagon knocked over, and the new roll of netting we’ll be using as temporary deer fencing, all knocked to the floor, the bin with deer/bird feed in it was on the ground, and the lid to the bin with the kibble in it was knocked aside.

With the feed, at least we didn’t lose too much of it, since it was only about half full to begin with. I’d just refilled the kibble bin, which probably made it too heavy to knock over!

So that required some time to do a partial clean up. The heated water bowl was dry again, and I ended up unplugging it and setting it aside, along with the containers we were using as kibble trays. Things have warmed up enough that we will be closing the doors again, anyhow.

The outside cats were quite happy to see me when I finally came out with kibble. There was none left in any of the trays. The heated water bowl that isn’t working for some reason had a layer of ice across the top, but the cats had kept a hole in the ice to access the liquid water below. From today on, their water bowls should not be freezing up completely overnight, anymore.

I saw at least 11 cats this morning. I also startled our usual 3 deer visitors in the yard when I came out. 🙂

The snow in the driveway is completely churned up by all the deer coming through!

I even saw one in my brother’s field.

When I checked the trail cam files later on, I saw the expected deer traffic from last night, but there was also a whole bunch of them captured by the camera, roughly an hour before I came out!

After the morning routine was done, one of my daughters and I headed into the city for our Walmart trip. For the past while, we’ve been going to a smaller, slightly closer Walmart, but decided to go to the big on in the city that was used to go, before I got hassled for not being able to wear a mask during the first lockdown. It was the first day I’d tried to use a shield, but it wasn’t enough. The staff finally were willing to let me in, only for me to get hassled by a customer at the turnstile. I left and never came back.

We got the last of what we needed while we were there, and my daughter got her own shopping done for herself and her sister. I don’t think I’ll be going back again, though. Aside from the repeated creepy announcements about wearing masks, even though they are no longer required, I tried to go to their vision centre to see if I could get an eye exam. Though it was open, it had a barricade across the front. I stood and waited, completely ignored by the person at the counter inside, when a couple other people came up, wearing masks. One of them told me that no one was allowed to go into the vision centre without a mask – then they went through the barrier.

I realize I had only half a face to go by, but from the expression of her eyes and body language, she seemed absolutely gleeful about telling me a mask was required.

So even though there are no longer any restrictions forced on businesses by the province (federal restrictions are still in place, but health care is a provincial jurisdiction), people like me are still being denied basic care.

I’m still off social media for Lent, but I may have to make an exception and go to one of my local groups to find out who provides eye exams without medical discrimination and segregation.

Or I can wait until Lent is over. I think I’ll do that. As long as my glasses don’t fall apart, I should be okay for a few more weeks. My eye exam is covered by my husband’s health insurance, and more time before getting an exam means more time to set money aside to pay for new glasses, beyond the amount the insurance will cover.

Still, we got what we needed, and are stocked up for the month. The only thing we’ll need to do later is get our Easter basket supplies. We might even be able to get our baskets blessed this year. People are allowed to go to church again, without forced masking, injections, spacing and registration again. Hopefully, that means my mother’s church will be doing the basket blessing this year. For the past couple of years, we blessed them ourselves. It’s not quite the same!

On extra I did get at the Walmart, that I hadn’t been able to find elsewhere, is a suitable new hanging bird feeder.

It’s filled with deer feed, because that’s what we have right now. I think, after this bag is done, we’ll be switching back to the black oil seed. With the deer eating up all the seeds before the birds can get any, I have been looking to get a new one for a while. Most of what I found was either too small or too expensive. We had one like this before, and it worked out rather well, until the racoons discovered it and kept knocking it down, eventually breaking it. Hopefully, this one will last longer. I’d like to find a way to keep it from falling off the hook, while still letting me reach to get it on and off. Short people problems. I can just reach high enough to put the hanger cable over the hook – as long as the cable doesn’t slide downwards!

Anyhow. I’m happy to have finally found another one of these. The size is right, and so is the price. The chickadees were happy I found it, too, and were all over it as soon as I left after hanging it up!

So we managed to get a few things done today, and hopefully, we won’t need to go to the city again for another month!

The Re-Farmer