Month: February 2023

Am I jumping the gun?

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Okay, yeah. I probably am, but I can’t help it!

I just got off the phone with a financing company, regarding our application to finance another vehicle yesterday.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Here’s the story.

Yesterday, I had to make a trip to the smaller, closer city, making my usual stop for gas at the town my mother lives in. I used our van because it was a bit chillier, and the van handles the cold better than my mother’s car. That and getting my mother’s car out of the lean to on the garage is a pain. The doors need to be replaced, and I have to park the car at an angle, just so I can open the door without hitting anything.

By the time I got to the gas station, the temperature gauge on the van was almost in the middle, which is typical for the trip in these temperatures. It took just a few minutes to run in, get what I needed, pay for stuff and head out. No long enough for the engine to completely cool down.

The first thing was, the van did NOT want to start. It tends to stall easily when first starting anyhow, but when I first started it at home, it was just the usual “it’s cold!” sort or start. This time, it took a couple of tries, but I got it going.

I immediately noticed the temperature gauge didn’t move.

I pulled ahead to an out of the way parking area I normally pause in to send updates to the family or get my drink ready, etc., shut the engine off and started it again. It started fine, but the gauge’s needle didn’t move.

I made the rest of the drive, and it stayed on cold, the whole time. Once parked, I shut the engine off and started it again. It started fine, but no change on the gauge.

I messaged my family to update them, then phoned our usual garage. After explaining what was happening, I asked if I could swing by on my way home so they could quickly check it. Once that was worked out, I quickly did my errands, then headed to town.

Once again, the van did NOT want to start. Once it did, however, it ran fine.

I even made sure to take the shorter, but longer, route. I could have taken a different highway that was longer in distance, with a higher speed limit the whole way. The shorter route goes through several small towns and villages, so the speed limit is all over the place, but it also has houses and farms all along the way. I figured that, if I did break down, at least I’d be close to a door I could knock on. The other route has almost nothing along the way. Even the farmhouses aren’t near the highway. The drive went fine, though. Aside from the temperature gauge staying on cold, everything else seemed to be running smoothly, and the van was heating up nicely.

Once at the garage, I talked to the owner for awhile, explaining what was going on in more detail, including the issues with starting as the only other thing that seemed to have changed. He had one of his guys quickly go out and do a scan while we talked some more.

One of the things we talked about was the confusion from when we’d applied for financing a vehicle from him earlier, so I found out more about that. It turns out he’d sent info for two vehicles because he remembered that we needed something that would fit a bariatric walker for my husband. The one that we were applying for, a newer vehicle with higher mileage and a lower price, would not have had room for it. The other one was a few years older, had lower mileage and was more expensive, but it would have been more accessible for my husband and his walker. Then there was the whole thing about the company wanting a huge down payment for one, while approving only a 1 year term for the other (which would have had monthly payments of almost a thousand dollars, once their interested was included).

Well, it turns out he’s with a different financing company now, and I got the very strong impression that what happened to us was motivation for him to do that, because he’d been very happy with them when I applied! This one will do long term financing, with no down payments.

Then the guy came in with the results, and it turned out to just be a sensor that needs to be replaced. Since I’d have no way of knowing if the engine started to overheat, we rather have to get that done. Unfortunately, it’ll mean going into the funds we’ve set aside to save up for getting a replacement vehicle before next winter.

While making the appointment for next week, I once again asked if he could keep an eye out for something to meet our needs that was cheap.

“Well,” he says to me, “there’s the 2015 Caravan.”

???

I hadn’t even looked at the vehicles for sale when I drove in, since I was already looking ahead to try and find a parking spot, so I never noticed it.

We had a Grand Caravan before we got our current van, and were very happy with it. It’s amazing what you can fit in the back of one of those, with the Stow n Go seats folded down.

Yup. I ended up starting an application for financing. I filled out just enough to give him something to send in, and he said I’d get a phone call for the rest of the information.

Which I just got.

I much prefer that, since our situation requires explanation. First, there’s my husband’s employment status (technically, he’s considered employed for as long as he’s on the company’s disability insurance), and why I can’t have an income of my own. Which normally means he would be the one applying, not me, but I would be the owner and driver of the vehicle, so it has to be me, not him. Also, he’s on both private insurance and CPP Disability, so he’s actually got 2 sources of income, while I have none. Then there’s explaining how we neither own nor rent, but also have zero rent or mortgage, thanks to our custodial arrangement to live here.

Once that was cleared up and the call was done, I needed to email in pictures of my photo ID. The next step – if it gets that far – would be to email in pictures of a voided check.

If all goes well, that will happen pretty soon. It’s entirely possible we’ll have an answer before the end of the day. Last time, however, it took something like a week or more, so… who knows.

Still. I’m just thinking how nice it would be if I could cancel that appointment for the van, because we’ll be picking up our new van, instead.

Oh, my goodness! That last sentence was interrupted by a phone call. I didn’t recognize the number, but answered it anyway, since it might be a different department of the financing company.

Nope.

It was a cradle dial, then someone started telling me that they were calling about our computer, and could he talk to the main user of our computer?

Which is laughable, considering just how many computers we have in this household.

Yeah. I just laughed and hung up on him.

Gah! Now I’m on pins and needles, waiting for a call.

It’s a really sweet van, and would meet our needs much better than the SUV we originally applied for. It would also be the newest vehicle we’ve ever owned! 😄

Oh, and one more reason to really hope this works out. When it was time to leave the garage, the van didn’t want to start again. I don’t know how a malfunctioning sensor on the temperature gauge could affect that, so I’m not sure replacing the sensor would solve that problem.

I don’t want to get my hopes up, but… Gosh, that would be so nice if it works out!

The Re-Farmer

Hulless seed pumpkins, and treating the deer?

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Check out this handsome lady I found in the trail cam files this morning!

The critters much prefer the paths humans have cleared, including the trailed packed down by snow mobile-ers! This piebald seems to be the only deer that is visiting us regularly this winter, even though we’ve stopped putting food out this year, to raid our compost pile.

Yesterday, I decided it was time to crack open some of the hulless seed pumpkins. All the pumpkins and squash seem to have handled curing and storage pretty well. All the ones that were green or green striped have turned yellow and orange, with some of the hulless seed pumpkins turning more yellow with green, rather than green with yellow.

One type of hulless pumpkins (Styrian, I think. I’ve lost track!) have turned completely yellow and orange. So I decided to open up the two largest ones, first.

One of them was already being stored in the kitchen. It had a very hard shell and took some doing to break into!

There were fewer seeds than I expected, but that might be just the variety. The seeds looked nice and plump at least. I did try one, and the tasted was… meh. I’m sure they’d be much better, roasted and salted. After taking the seeds out, this was all there was.

So I went and got another one, which was larger.

That one did not have as hard a shell on it and was much easier to cut into. Which I actually took as a bad sign.

It had plenty of seeds in them, but they were all flat. Which suggested the pumpkin was still too immature when it was harvested. Considering the growing conditions of last year, that’s not surprising. I left them out as long as I could. I did go back and check the rest, and some are softer than others, but I’ve left them for now.

I know these pumpkins are supposed to be edible, not just the seeds, but in the end, I cut them into smaller chunks and set them on the compost pile for our visiting deer and the birds.

Later on, I was going through seed sites (because I can’t help myself!) and checked out the descriptions for things I’d already bought from other companies, including the hulless seed pumpkins. A couple of them noted that, while the flesh is edible, it’s not really table worthy. One of them even said that they are good for livestock!

Can we count a deer as livestock? 😄

As of this morning, I could see that the pieces were knocked about in the snow, but were still there. Something at least tried to eat them!

The Re-Farmer

Bedraggled!

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Oh, there’s such a down side to having a long haired gene show up in the yard cats!

This is the “in between” long haired black and white cat. He’s just a bit bitter than Pointy Baby.

I’m so happy I caught the tiniest of tongue blehps.

The girls have named this one… Thesamus? Something like that. Anyhow, he still won’t let us near him. When he moved away after I got this picture, I could see what looked like a huge matt of fur on one hip. Or maybe it was burrs stuck in his fur. I couldn’t quite see well enough.

Then Pointy Baby showed up. Pointy Baby loves attention, so I had no problem finding the half dozen or so burrs stuck on his fur! They were not there last night. He wouldn’t let me touch them. I plan to head out today, so I’m hoping one of the girls will have a chance to settle into the sun room with him and get them out.

The biggest of the long haired black and whites, and his long haired tuxedo brother, were also around and, so far, their fur looks clear of matts or burrs. I didn’t see the long haired calico this morning, but so far, she hasn’t been getting any visible matts in her fur. Hopefully, things will stay that way.

The Re-Farmer

After a tease, winter is trying to come back!

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As I type this, we are currently at -20C/-4F, with the wind chill at either -32C/-26F or -29C/020F, depending on which app I look at. Our high of the day is still supposed to reach -14C/7F, with a wind chill around -25C/-13F

Yesterday, we were supposed to reach a high of -1C/30F. I have no idea if we ever did, but what we did get was incredible winds. Whiteout conditions on many highways, with some of them closed due to the blowing snow. Today is a significant improvement!

The long range forecast has changed, of course. We went from expecting much milder temperatures for the rest of February, with the coldest days having highs just a little colder than -10C/14F, to now getting forecasts with highs colder than -20C/-4F, all with significant wind chills.

Winter just doesn’t want to let go quite yet!

Thankfully, with the current wind direction, our front yard is quite sheltered, and the cats and cattens are making good use of the cat house and the sun room to keep warm.

This morning, this little guy was absolutely determined to get stepped on.

When I first go out in the morning, there’s usually several cats right under the threshold of the old kitchen door. I have to carefully push the outer door open (while holding the kibble container) with one hand, pull the inner door closed behind me, while trying not to step on any cattens trying to get into the old kitchen at the same time. They make if VERY hard not to step on them, as they keep dashing right under my boot every time I try to move around them.

There are now three white and greys, all male, that come for attention, but this one here was making life quite difficult for me in the process! Absolutely suicidal around my feet! I do wish we didn’t have to keep the kibble bin in the old kitchen. At least there, they don’t start milling about my feet until I’ve got it open and am scooping out the kibble, and I can get in and out of the old kitchen doors with less risk of stepping on a cat!

I was able to count 24 cats this morning, but then I saw Sprout by herself next to the cat house, and I wouldn’t be sure if she was among the others I’d counted or now. So there might have been 25. No Distinguished Guest this morning. I haven’t seen Sad Face (aka: Shop Towel) for a while, either. The toms are probably visiting other farms in their range. Hopefully, The Distinguished Guest is doing better. That cat needs a vet visit. 😥

We have some progress among the inside cats.

Marlee and Ginger, sharing prime nap space! These two are hilarious. They hiss and snarl at each other, all the time. Then Marlee will flop down next to Ginger, often dropping right on top of him, and they settle down for naps together.

Nosencrantz is figuring out that the new shelf at the window is available for her, and I woke this morning to find her sitting on it. Unfortunately, what woke me was the sound of her batting something off the window ledge.

No, I don’t have anything on the window ledge the shelf is against. She went after stuff on the other half of the window!

My craft shelf next to her spot is where I store envelopes in a variety of larger sizes. She decided those were something to chew on, so I had to find a way to protect those but, otherwise, it’s been working out as hoped. I may not even have to shorten the legs, after all. No other cat has shown any interest in the shelf at all.

With how well this is working out, I should actually be able to clear and reorganize the rest of my craft table and even *gasp* use it to do crafting again!

What a novel concept.

With the temperatures dropping again over the next while, it’s a good time to catch up.

The Re-Farmer

Scrap wood cat shelf

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I have been having major issues with Nosencrantz in particular, trying to get at the north window in my room. My craft table is under half of the window, and that end of the table has my tea station and phone base/answering machine, among other things. They keep trying to get to the top of a set of shelves I have to hold supplies. The selves are repurposed wire shoe racks, so they can’t handle having cats jumping on and climbing them.

In trying to keep the cats out of my craft stuff, I’ve basically rendered my craft table useless, filling it with stuff to discourage them from jumping on it. Most cats have learned to stay off, but Nosencrantz won’t. She keeps digging into things, clambering over the stuff I’ve put on the table to block her, and basically driving me rather bonkers.

The thing is, I have no problem with them having access to the window. There just isn’t any way for them to get to it, without knocking things about or even collapsing my shelves of craft supplies.

Today, after repeatedly having to chase Nosencrantz off my craft table, I just got tired of it, went into the basement and scrounged together supplies to make her a shelf at the window, that will also protect my stuff on the table.

This is the result!

At some point, I’ll probably sand it some more, maybe paint it, and make a more padded cushion for the top, but for now, it does the job! The other cats are oblivious to it, but Nosencrantz has tentatively gone onto the table, which I’ve cleared enough for her to get to it. She has yet to jump onto it herself. Instead, she’s tried to get into a container behind my phone! I’ve figure out what she was after and have tucked them into a tin, so hopefully, she’ll stop doing that and just use the shelf to sit and watch things outside the window!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: lemony fresh!

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When I last posted a photo of our newly emerged thyme, a very close examination showed the tiniest of green hairs emerging in another row of grow cells. I waited a few days for them to be more visible before taking this photo.

Yes, the lemongrass has also germinated! So far, in just three of four cells, but even if the fourth one never has any seeds germinate, we should still have a decent number of seedlings for eventual transplant into a large pot (or two?) in the microclimate we will set up for them outdoors. We’ll be growing the luffa in the same area, so things are going to get crowed in that protected corner of the hosue!

The Re-Farmer

Look who’s back!

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I found this while checking the files on the gate cam. Such an elegant lady!

This is cropped out of a much larger still, so the date and time stamp is gone, but it was taken shortly after noon. So brazen! In the video clip, she was just bouncing up the driveway, like a thoroughbred.

I think this is the first time I could see that she has white patches just above her hooves, too.

While feeding the outside cats, someone else was back, though I couldn’t get a good photo of him. The Distinguished Guest was among the 25 cats I counted this morning. He is still looking in very rough shape, and the tip of one ear is flapping around. He still looks bedraggled and he’s moving slowly, but he’s not limping like he was the last time I saw him. I tried not to move too quickly and spook him, though he did still move away as I put the food out and refilled the water bowls. Mostly, he went from food tray to food tray, and even stayed under the water bowl shelter, eating, while I refilled the heated bowl. As I went around other paths, he started making his way up the path to the compost pile, then stopped part way, watching me. As I continued, I’d look over and he was a little bit closer… then a little bit closer… By the time I was done and tying off the sun room doors, he was almost back at the kibble house. What I was somewhat encouraged to see was Rolando Moon walking past him, and there was no altercation. It may be that he’s just too beat up to start a fight, but I’ll take what I can get.

I would feel much better if he were able to assimilate into the yard cats, and no longer be picking fights. Even better if Sad Face would stop fighting, too. I haven’t seen him in a few days, which is probably why TDG is back.

Well, we’ll see how it goes.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2023 garden: It’s thyme!

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While turning off the lights on the aquarium greenhouses last night, I noticed the tiniest specks of green in one of the herb grow cells. This morning, there was a bit more, but still so tiny, I didn’t even try to take a picture.

A few hours later, there was more. Still hard to see, but here they are!

All four German Winter thyme cells have sprouts! They are so incredibly teeny – matching the teeny size of the seeds!

Gosh, it’s so exciting to see green things growing when there’s still snow on the ground! We’re supposed to reach 2C/36F this afternoon, and the warmer temperatures have me absolutely bouncing, wanting to get outside and do things. Things we still can’t do until the snow is gone and the ground at least somewhat dry!

So for now, I’m enjoying teeny little thyme sprouts.

The Re-Farmer

Spotted!

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Yesterday, I mentioned that I’d spooked our visiting piebald deer in the yard. I had been unable to get a picture, but it turns out, we got a decent shot of her making her way towards our place, on one of the trail cams.

That old trail cam takes some pretty decent pictures.

I’d left some roasted squash in the compost pile for her yesterday, and today there was no sign of them at all. I hope that means she got a nice meal out of it!

The Re-Farmer

Still visiting!

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We’ve had a very quiet day at home today, catching up around the house and being very domestic.

Because of the racoons damaging things and eating everything up, we have not been putting out deer feed or bird seed this winter. I do still see tracks in the snow when I do my rounds, but not very many. We have, however, been getting one regular visitor.

This piebald deer has been visiting us every winter that we’ve lived here, making this the sixth winter of her visiting us! This video is from a few days ago, but yesterday, we spotted her in the yard, making her way to the compost pile. I’ve also been seeing deer tracks around the cat shelters, which tells me she – or some other deer – has been going for the kibble and water, too.

This morning, as I headed out, I heard a familiar huffing noise and looked up in time to see the piebald, half was up the path to the compost pile, leaping away.

We happened to have some roasted squash in the fridge. It was meant for something else and had no seasonings on it, but I decided to put it on the compost pile for our visitor to eat!

It’s getting that time of year when it’s harder for the wild critters to find food, so I’ve got no problem setting out some extra food for them, if we have it.

The Re-Farmer