… our monthly stock up shops are getting so expensive.
Yes. We really are being taxed on so many levels, then getting taxed on the taxes.
And our idiot Prime Dictator thinks adding a grocery tax on top of everything else is a solution.
This is why our goal of self sufficiency keeps getting more urgent.
The Re-Farmer
I’ve been analyzing that side wall of the trellis bed with the bowed log on the bottom, and decided we needed to make a change.
The plan had been to cut joins into the horizontal logs and the vertical posts, then secure them in place. There will be four of posts, about 6′ apart but, the more I looked at it, the more I realized that in order for the posts to be in line with each other, I’d have to cut away far too much wood. It would weaken them too much.
There was one solution, though, that could be done before the end pieces were attached. The pairs of logs are attached to each other, but not to the ground.
So I snagged my daughter and some rope, and we reversed the wall.
I neglected to take photos at the start. To carry the logs, we wrapped some rope around the ends and used them as handles to lift and carry the logs around to face the other way. It was awkward, but it worked.
The rebar that joins the logs goes all the way through. At the end in the foreground, barely an inch goes through. At the far end, there’s almost 3 inches of rebar that could be jammed into the ground as we lined up and set the logs in place again. Since I cut the ends of the walls in line with each other, we had to make sure they still matched, so that the walls at the ends will be straight once they’re added.
This shows better, why I decided to switch it around. You can see where I used the chainsaw to flatten the top of the base log, for the other log to rest on! 😄 That worked out on the ends, at least! This is where the bow sticks out the furthest, pretty much in the middle. The vertical posts would have been on either side of this section. The top log is pretty straight, so I’ll probably just flatten the logs where they will come in contact, rather than actually cut joins.
But that will be done after the end pieces are added. Technically, once those are in place, we could still move the entire bed if we had to, but that would not be a very good idea!
The Re-Farmer
I was a bit later going outside this morning, so there were lots of hungry kitties, waiting for breakfast. I managed to do a headcount.
Twenty eight, plus Sad Face, who I discouraged from coming around. I do wish he weren’t so aggressive, even with the female cats. Otherwise, I’d have no problem with him. But then, I guess a big ol’ tom like him doesn’t last this long without being a scrapper.
This was a rare combination.
You can just barely see Brussel on the far right, under the grapes. At the bowl is her sister, Sprout, and two older kittens that I’ve started to see more often. The one looking over the heads of the other two is a muted calico. I think the both of them are Sprout’s babies, but I don’t know for sure.
Then there’s this little fur ball; one of the litter of eight.
I totally understand, little one. I’m not a morning person, either!
Just a little while ago, my daughter and I headed outside for a bit (more on that in a separate post) and had to go into the old garden shed. My daughter spotted a kitten on the log pile that I completely missed!
We have never seen this kitten before!
What a face!
What a pancake cat! 😄😄
No idea which of the older litters this kitten is from. I’ve been expecting more kittens from the shyer moms to slowly come around and discover where the food is, even if their mothers aren’t quite willing to bring them over. With those litters, there’s no way of knowing how many have survived long enough to start coming here on their own.
I hope this one gets comfortable enough to start coming around for food in the mornings, and maybe even enjoy the shelter and safety of the cat house and sun room!
The Re-Farmer
Well, I managed to get at least something done outside today!
The before and after pictures. I was losing light by the time I was done, so the second shot turned out pretty bad. Sorry.
My goal was to take care of the one at the end of the row of crabapples; far left in the photos. I’ve been tasting apples from different suckers, and there were two that have good apples on them. Everything else got cut away. Quite a bit of it was already dead. In the second photo, you can see the remains of the original tree that, from how rotten that stump is, died a very long time ago.
As I was clearing that one, I found quite a few branches from the tree next to it were entangled, so I started pruning that one, too. It has lots of little apples on it, but they are inedible. I was pretty ruthless in pruning it. The trees are too close together, and I don’t mind if we lose that one. The critters can eat the apples, though, so as I cleared away the branches, I made sure to shake off all the apples onto the ground. I’m sure the deer will enjoy them.
Since I still had some light, I did some work on the next tree. This is the one that has the really tasty little apples – a wonderful combination of tart and sweet. Unfortunately, this tree is dying. There were several large dead branches that I cut away, and wow did that ever open the whole thing up! One of the branches was so entwined with others, I had to cut it into three pieces, just to get it out.
All of the trees could use more pruning, but I did as far as I could reach. I could bring the little scaffolding over to work on them, but I think they’ve had enough pruning for this season. I don’t want to over do it. I’m not going to bother with the other crab apple trees, since they really should be cut down. One of them, diseased as it is, still has lots of tiny apples on it that the grosbeaks love to eat in the winter. I don’t want to remove a food source if I can wait. It will be a while before the silver buffalo berry start producing berries but, once they do, they are supposed to be quite prolific and should make up for the loss of crab apples as a critter food source.
Before starting on this, I went through all the tomatoes outside, boxed up the ripe ones and brought them inside. Tomorrow will be a day of preparing and freezing most of them, and maybe setting more up to dehydrate in the oven. We’re also supposed to be warm and dry over the next few days, so I hope to be able to get back to work on that trellis bed. Plus, our garlic should be arriving next week, so I want to make sure to have a bed prepared for them, too.
Lots of work to get done, before winter comes!
Oh, that reminds me. No word from the financing lady today, so I don’t expect to hear from her until Monday. It’s probably quite a challenge for her to find a deal that fits our budget for monthly payments!
Ah, well. What will be, will be.
The Re-Farmer
Some of those kittens are definitely cattens now – my term for the teenagers!
I’m happy to see that Brussel’s two super shy kittens are now not only regularly coming to the house, but getting more used to our presence. I was actually able to stand right by the cat house while taking the above photos, and only the orange and white one moved away. Since it then posed for me so nicely, I couldn’t complain!
I just love that face.
I also love that triangle marking over the nose of his sibling!
I’ve been trying to do head counts, and have generally seen anywhere from a dozen to two dozen cats and kittens at a time. Some have simply disappeared. The small orange and white kitten, for example. I haven’t seen it in quite some time, though his ginger brother still hangs out in the sun room a lot. I can’t tell if I’ve seen One Eyed Jack of late, since we have so many tuxedos this year and I don’t usually get a good look at their faces when they’re around.
The inside babies are doing quite well, in general.
The older kittens are great bundles of energy, and the littles sometimes almost manage to keep up. Except the tiniest one. That one is not as healthy. She has gotten used to being handled, though, so this morning I took her to the bathroom and finally gave her eyes a proper wash with warm water. She also had some waste matter stuck at her nether regions. I was able to clean it enough to be sure orifices were not plugged, but couldn’t get it off. It took a fair bit of soaking her nethers in warm water while I washed her eyes, but I was finally able to get it off – and finally confirm that she is a she!
She handled the whole thing rather well, though she did finally tire of the whole thing and try to get away. Ideally, we’d be taking her to the vet to be checked and likely be put on antibiotics, but our vet budget all went to Toni’s amputation, and it’ll be a while before it gets built up again.
As I write this, she and Pom Pom are now curled up with Tweedle Dee on my bed, snoozing.
Speaking of snoozing!
I actually got sleep last night.
That cat nip mix, with the valarian and honeysuckle, seems to have worked!
Yes, they did wake during the night, and they did run around and play for a while before going back to sleep, but they didn’t get the insane and destructive zoomies. Which meant more sleep for me, instead of constantly being awakened by their crashing and banging, or having them stampede over me, etc.
I don’t know if it made a difference with the adult cats or not, since I slept through most of the night (yay!) and my door is still kept closed. They don’t even try to get into my room anymore, which is nice. No more scratchy scratchy! Even Toni has zero interest in coming into the room. She’s more interested in wanting to get outside.
The next vet trip will likely be to get her spayed!
Meanwhile…
Still no sign of the missing ladies that broke out of the house – or that lost dog that’s in our area. Until they find that dog, I think it’s unlikely the ladies will come back here. Too much traffic and commotion. There’s also still no response in regards to adopting the kittens. I will avoid anything to do with that with the Cat Lady for the next while. They’re expecting to be moving soon, with 5 kids, 27 cats and a dog. They’ve got enough on their plates right now!
Hopefully, today, I’ll hear back from the financing company with good news about pre-approval for a vehicle with monthly payments we can actually afford. Pre-approval is no use if we can’t make the payments, even if the banks are crazy enough to think we can pay $800 a month. I mean really. Who can afford payments like that? Especially anyone on a fixed, disability income?
The main thing is for us to get a new-to-us vehicle that is accessible for my husband, before winter. I don’t care about make, model, colour, whatever. We need something that runs reliably, that my husband can get in and out of without hurting himself, and that has room for his walker, as well as our monthly shopping. Especially for the larger, heavier stuff, like the litter pellets and bags of kibble. That alone will save us so much on fuel, since we currently have to make extra trips using my mother’s little car. Still, beggars can’t be choosers. We’ll take whatever our mechanic finds for us. He knows what we need, and will find the best he can for us.
I’m really trying not to get my hopes up on this.
The Re-Farmer
It’s always interesting to go through the garden after the first frost of the season, and see what survived and what didn’t. I’m rather used to finding things that end up dead after a few days, but it’s a real boost to my day when I find things that not only survived, but continue to grow!
The first photo is of the Ozark Nest Egg gourd, near the compost pile. All the volunteer squash in the compost pile were frost killed, and it looks like this little thing was, too, yet here it is, blooming!
The second photo is the yellow patty pan squash. There were some developing squash that were killed by the frost, but now I see that lower down the stem, there are both male and female flowers growing! I am not cutting back any of the frost killed leaves, since clearly they provided enough protection to keep the plant alive. In fact, I’m not pulling or cutting back any of the squash plants. Not even the winter squash. There’s no rush to do it, but who knows how many others are like this.
The last photo was a real surprise to see. The second light frost did damage the luffa leaves more, but they are still alive. What I did not expect, however, was to see fresh vines climbing the lilac, and new female flowers! I don’t see any male flower buds anywhere, but they might just be hidden among the lilac leaves.
The last couple of days has seen rain, off and on, especially overnight. Just enough that I’m not getting out there to do work that involves things like the electric chainsaw. We’re supposed to warm up again over the next few days, then get cool again.
We’ll see what actually happens.
The Re-Farmer
My husband was expecting a parcel at the post office so, before the post office reopened for the afternoon, I called the Chinese food place in town to see if they were open. They were, so I was able to place the order (thanks to my daughter, again!) we’d wanted to place, yesterday.
Also, it turns out they just changed their name. Everything else is the same, but it seems there are two restaurants with the same name in the city, and they were getting calls meant for the city locations, instead. Enough calls to warrant the name change!
My post office trip was an unexpected surprise. My husband’s package wasn’t there, but there was a surprise package for me!
More on that later.
Since I was going to town after the post office, anyway, I took advantage of the trip and refilled a couple of our 5 gallon drinking water jugs – and some energy drinks for my daughter and I.
I should learn to drink coffee. It’s much cheaper than energy drinks. I just don’t like coffee as a beverage, unless it’s so adulterated, it’s more coffee flavour than coffee, and the amount of caffeine in tea just doesn’t cut it for me.
But I digress!
Because ordering take out is such a big deal, when living in the boonies, we tend to order enough to last us for several days, and this was no exception. Plus, when the orders at this place are more than a certain amount, they start adding things like free rice or deep fried won ton chips, so there was even more than we ordered. They were kind enough to provide boxes to make it easier to carry, and I had help carrying them out to the car, too.
Once at home and unloaded, we had ourselves some excellent food – with lots left over! I think it’s been about a year since we last ordered from then, and boy did it hit the spot! What a treat.
After that, I got the parcel that came in the mail – after removing the cat that decided it was her bed – and opened it up. So many amazing things! Thank you, M! You’re a sweetheart!
There were a few things for the garden, including packages of catnip seeds, and seed “eggs” with pollinator seeds in them. There were some toy mice for the kitties, treats and two different bags of catnip, including this herbal mix.
I have not seen this brand since we moved out here, but then, I haven’t been seeing catnip of any kind, except for one small, insanely expensive, bag just a few weeks ago at the local grocery store. I have no idea why there would be an apparent shortage of cat nip in this province. Granted, I haven’t been hunting it down at pet stores, but the pet sections of the stores I do go to used to always have cat nip, and now they just don’t.
The other bag in the care package was the usual catnip and nothing else. This one has valerian, honeysuckle and catmint, too.
So I gave the mix to the cats to try, first! Valerian is supposed to have a calming affect, and we could really use some of that! Especially for the night. 😄
The adult cats sure got excited when I started strewing out some of the cat herbs. Even TTT, who has never had any before, was real interested in it!
The kittens even got some but, while they were all over the packaging when I got it out, they weren’t as interested in it once the herbs were actually available. I even put some right next to Soot Sprite, curled up on their favourite blanket bed, and he just curled back up and went to sleep, surrounded by herbs!
They did eventually discover it and have some, and that calming thing really does seem to be working right now! All but one of the kittens are asleep, which is not unusual for this time of day, but one of them is away, and very laid back while playing with a strip of carboard from off the parcel package.
There were some other lovely things, including treats like Truffle salt – something else I haven’t seen since we moved – and useful things like medical glass droppers. Considering how easily the plastic ones that come with the cat medication break, these will be very handy! There was even a old Canadian cookbook I look forward to going through, and an old book on preserving food that is going to be so handy. Some of the canning recipes may not be considered safe to use anymore, but it also includes other methods of preservation, and I even saw a section on sheds and attics for storing preserved foods!
Oh, that last kitten is now asleep, too. It’s so nice and quiet right now!! Even the adult cats seem to have all quieted down, even though not all of them eat catnip. It might be a good idea to give them some after their evening feeding, instead of the late afternoon, as I did today. We might just get some proper sleep, for a change!
While I was out, the lady from the financing company had tried to call and left some messages, so I called her back.
Ha. That was an amusing call!
First of all, yes, we have been preapproved for financing a car, up to a maximum amount of $22,000 (that’s roughlyUS$16,200 at the current exchange rates). Way higher than anything we’d actually be getting.
This was the funny part.
We were also approved for a maximum of $800 a month in payments.
Nope!!!
That is NOT going to happen!
Yeah, I laughed out loud with that. I told her, if we could make payments like that, we wouldn’t need a loan! She understood.
Here’s the other thing.
This would be for just 1 year, as we rebuild our credit. After a year, they would expect us to either trade in the vehicle, or refinance it.
That’s another nope. I don’t want a temporary vehcile!
Now, I already talked to our mechanic about what we can afford for monthly payments. Whatever upper limit we might be approved for, he would be looking for something for us that we can actually afford the payments on.
I told the lady what we could afford for monthly payments on our budget. We’re on a fixed income, but the cost of living is increasing at insane rates, so we have to take that into account, too. Plus, of course, we’d have the monthly insurance and registration payments, so that adds another $100 a month, give or take, depending on the vehicle. She confirmed that our mechanic knew this, and I told her I’ve been very open with him about what we can manage.
Getting payments that low will not be easy; she was up front about that. However, there is still one more bank she’s waiting to hear from, and she said they would start going at it from a different angle to get us a vehicle on payments we can afford. She assured me, however, that they would get us a vehicle.
Oh, that reminds me. Any vehicle we get can have a maximum 250,000 km on it. The first time we went through this, we were applying for a Caravan, and that company’s limit was 180,000 km. The van we wanted was 1000 km over, so they wouldn’t finance it.
One of the things she asked about was the possibility of a down payment. I told her how much we could potentially put down, but said we would prefer not to, because it’s basically our emergency fund. Which mostly goes to vet bills. I mentioned having a recent cat leg amputation. Yes, my daughters did cover it between them but it still needed to be paid for first, then get replaced later.
She completely understood and told me she found herself with an $1100 vet bill after her dog ate a sock! Sadly, after 6 months, the dog passed away due to complications from the surgery, but she at least got those last 6 months with the dog.
So, yeah; she completely understood the need for a contingency fund!
Anyhow.
She once again promised me that they would find us a vehicle we could afford, and we will likely get another call about it tomorrow.
We shall see how it works out!
Until then, I’m just thankful we at least have my mother’s car to use.
The Re-Farmer
I really look forward to when we can let the bigger kittens out. Once or twice during the night, they all wake up and the bigger ones spend about an hour going insane all over the place. Even the littles – except for the newest, tiniest one – try to get in on the action. This morning, I discovered they somehow managed to remove the liner on one of my steel toe shoes. I hadn’t picked up insoles for them yet, so this was the permanent inner part! Thankfully I was able to fit it back in, but there was a sort of padded layer in between has mostly disappeared. I only discovered there was something missing because bits of it, deepest into the toe, were still there.
I never found the bits they pulled out.
On the plus side, they are very cuddly when they sleep. When I woke this morning, I had one kitten on a hip, and another cuddled against my back. Except it turned out to be three of them cuddled against my back, including the tiny new baby I brought in.
It still needs a name.
So… sleep is a precious and rare commodity right now.
I did try leaving my door open once. The bigger kittens sure liked it, but the little ones were not at all happy about strange adult cats coming over to sniff them. Then Tissue decided to pick fights with some of the bigger kittens, and that was the end of that. For now, at least.
Anyhow.
My husband was a sweetheart and fed the outside cats for me, earlier on. While checking on the garden beds, it seems that one of the hot pepper plants in the grow bags may have been more frost damaged than it looked at first. I still have hope for the melons, though.
The wattle weave bed in the old kitchen garden seems to have really lived up to what I hoped it would be. The second frost did in most of the luffa – at least the parts climbing up the lilac bush – but all the peppers, strawberries and herbs look completely free of frost damage. I’m really impressed by this…
The Classic Eggplant is still blooming!
A lot of the peppers are still blooming, too, but only one Classic Eggplant started indoors survived to be transplanted.
It has been raining off and on since yesterday, so not a lot of outside work is going to get done today. I’ll be heading out this afternoon to pick up a parcel in the mail, and will be likely heading into town after that. My daughter treated us to take out yesterday, but the Chinese food place turned out to be closed, and we got fried chicken, instead. Which was good, but now we’re all craving Chinese food. So she’s treating us again! We had been in town yesterday for my husband’s medical appointment, so we didn’t phone ahead. This time, we have no other reason to go into town, so I’ll call first to make sure they’re open, and then place the order if they are. If they’re still closed, we’ll try again tomorrow.
In other things, my daughter’s house sitting is going well. She made a trip to the grocery store yesterday, which involved driving over in one of my brother’s two mobility scooters (they got them for my mother, who refuses to take one, while also complaining about not being able to go far with her walker because her knees are so bad). It was funny, because when she got to there and parked it before walking into the store, a guy passing by complimented her on her sweet ride! 😄
Meanwhile, my brother and his wife are having the time of their lives, and have managed to take in several countries so far. What a way to celebrate their 40th anniversary! I’m so glad they were able to do this.
Well, time to see if I can get anything productive done today.
What I’d really like to do is go for a good, long nap!
Without kittens.
The Re-Farmer
First, some adorableness!
When I came out to feed the outside cats this morning, I spotted these three. The tabby was curled up and asleep when I came over. I reached in to pet them, and the other two started purring before I even touched them! I got to pet the tabby while it was asleep, but once it woke up, it would not tolerate pets and ran off – though I did manage to pet him more while he was trying to get out of the bin and onto the shelf above!
As I was finishing my morning rounds, I decided to pick the potato berries from the large volunteer potato plant from last year’s potato patch. The frost has killed the plant off completely, which is interesting, because the potato plants in the grow bags are still undamaged by frost and barely dying off for the end of their growing season.
Potato berries are toxic, but these all should be full of potato seeds. I will do a bit more research on what to do with them, but during one brief search, I read that the seeds need to be fermented, much like tomato seeds. Which makes sense, since they are related.
For now, though, they are tucked away in the cat proof living room.
This morning, my husband had his meet and greet medical appointment with a new doctor. That went better than he expected, and he now officially has a new primary care doctor. The paperwork to transfer his medical files have been signed, and he’ll need to update the pharmacy and disability insurance company.
Some of the medications my husband is on are not at all familiar to her, so she’s going to be doing some research. We will probably do a follow up appointment with her in the near future, if only because some of the blood test results from yesterday are not in yet.
My husband was happy with her. More so than the interim doctor, that’s for sure. I had my issues. The first being, she was the only person I saw all day wearing one of those useless masks. After years of being surrounded by mask nazis, being treated like trash, and having an ever shortening list of places I could go without risk of being physically or verbally assaulted, either by customers or staff, spending so much time around a faceless person is still something that triggers anxiety. That we still have medical professionals, who should know about the mountains of data and research showing how wearing them are more harmful than beneficial, also immediately lowers my opinion of their competency. There were a few other things that came up when I asked questions about medication that are red flags for me, such as her response on my husband being on statins (he should not be on statins) or Ozempic (the side effects can be very… messy), neither of which have actually done anything to improve his health. But, this is a first time visit, and beggars can’t be choosers.
After the appointment, I did ask at the desk about any other doctors taking patients, which my mother in mind. It turns out that no, even this doctor we just saw is already closed to new patients. My husband is basically the last one. Not that I would ever make an appointment with her for my mother. She has a hard enough time with a doctor that is black (and has an accent strong enough to make it difficult for my mother to understand what she’s saying). This doctor may be the “right” colour but, in a passing comment, she mentioned her wife, and that would just be too much for my mother to handle!
The receptionist suggested I ask again in a few months about doctors taking new patients. Which is much the same situation in the other clinic. As much as I’d like to have the same doctor as my husband, since I go to all his appointments, anyhow, I’ll see if I can have the same doctor as my mother for the same reason. It’s just convenient to have the same doctor.
After the appointment, we were going to try and get my husband’s photo ID, since he has no up to date photo ID right now. Unfortunately, there’s a public sector union strike going on right now, so he decided against it. Even if we got the ball rolling locally, who knows when the processing will actually happen. So he decided to skip that – though I think the state of the streets might have had something to do with his decision. They are rougher to drive on than our gravel roads, and his back feels every bump!
Our daughter was a sweetheart and send money for take out. We were going to get Chinese food, but the place was closed today, so we ended up getting a whole lot of fried chicken, instead. It’s good, but we got less food for her money with that. Ah, well. It was still delicoius food that someone else cooked for us!
After we got home, I found a couple of messages from the financing company. I called her back and she told me everything is proceeding well. We have a conditional approval, and there are two banks vying for our file. She will choose the one that gives us the best deal, then negotiate the best contract for us. Meanwhile, we’re at the stage where we have to send in our ID, income confirmation, etc. She had tried to email us already, but the emails bounced back. Turns out she misheard part of mine, and had the wrong language spelling on my husband’s – pretty common problems with our emails, to be honest! 😄
One thing I’ve never heard of before is that they want an “ID selfie”. Basically, a photo of ourselves holding our photo ID next to our face. Which does make sense, with everything being done electronically, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of that being requested.
I mentioned that my husband does not have current photo ID, which may be a problem. He does have his old driver’s license, which is expired, but still a government approved photo ID. He also has his Metis card from when we lived in this province before. That has no expiry date, but I don’t think it counts as government approved. So for him, we got pictures of the fronts and backs of 4 different IDs, when only 2 are needed, plus a picture of him holding both his old photo IDs next to his face. I had to get one of those for myself, too. Then there’s the proof of income, which was his annual letter from the insurance company saying “yes, you’re still disabled, yes, we’re still paying you!” , etc.
So that’s all sent in. Hopefully, it’ll be enough. One bit of info I did include was that the vehicle will be in my name only; with all his medications and pain levels, my husband simply doesn’t drive. Even when he still had his license, he voluntarily stopped driving, long ago. That might also make a difference. It did with a previous company, and my husband’s name was removed from the application completely.
Either way, we’re one step closer to approval, and getting a replacement van.
Which we really, really need. The check engine light on my mother’s car has turned on again, plus I had to pull over at a gas station to top up the air in one tire. It might have a slow leak, and will need to be checked. I did a cursory check, myself, but could see nothing. I’m so paranoid about tires. We’ve had way too many problems with tires, on three different vehicles, over the years!
The Re-Farmer
Just a short video of today’s harvest.
Not to shabby for a frost enforced harvest!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 