Well, it looks like we got a total of about 6 or 7 inches of snow by this morning. This may well be the largest single snowfall we’ve had this winter.
I didn’t get much of my usual morning rounds done. I started digging around the house a bit. Just enough to clear the doors, the space inside the cat shelter set up, and a path to the gate.
We’re going to have to break out little Spewie, but probably not until tomorrow. It’s just too windy out there!
The driveway is blown completely flat, and the winds have packed the snow down. Not a single tire track of shoveled path is visible anymore! We’ll have to dig out the doors just to access where snow blower is stored.
Thankfully, we don’t need to go anywhere, and we are well stocked, so there is no urgency to get things cleared. It does look like the road has been plowed, though, which is good.
As I write this, we’ve already reached our predicted high of -11C/12F. The wind chill brings it down to -27C/-17F. Tomorrow, we’re expecting a high of -13C/9F, but without the winds we’re getting today, so it’s going to feel much nicer. After that, we’re expected to start warming up and, a week from today, we’re supposed to start hitting highs above freezing, and staying above freezing.
As much as I appreciate the mild winter we’ve had, I’m looking forward to it being over!!
What better thing to do when winter is asserting itself, is watch gardening videos?
Gardening in Canada has put out another excellent video for us short-season gardeners. Here, she talks about the seeds we should start now, or can get away with starting now if we do it right, and which she would advise against starting until April.
I believe she lives a bit further North that we do, but her last frost date is earlier than mine, so she can actually start seeds about a week two earlier than me.
I appreciate that she says that no one knows your garden in your area better than you, and to take that into account when deciding what to start. Everyone has their different soil conditions, microclimates and other factors that will affect how things grow – and what will grow at all! I also like that she recommends new gardeners take advantage of the wealth of knowledge among people in the comments section. You’re bound to find someone living in your part of the world that can answer them far better than she can, living where she does.
I suspect I’m going to be sharing her videos here regularly over the next while!
The predictions for today have been off in many ways, but the storm being pushed in from the US is hitting us now – and is it ever blowing!
I took this while doing my morning rounds, when it was just starting to pick up. We were supposed to get a break in the snow right now (it’s just after 11am as I write this), with more snow hitting us this afternoon, but of course, nature does what it does. Now they’re saying the snowfall will continue until 7am tomorrow, without any breaks
The temperatures, at least, are still mild, though with the wind, our -4C/25F is feeling like -20C/-4F right now. The wind direction is ENE, but with the gap in our sheltering trees, what’s hitting us is ESE and blowing right into the yard. Checking on the gate and switching out the gate cam memory card, it was blowing straight down the driveway from the East and feeling pretty vicious! We’re supposed to get about 10cm/4in of snow today, but it looks like most of it is being blown away!
The weather map shows “extreme” weather stretching from Alberta through into Ontario, as well as parts of the North Dakota and Montana, where they are getting a mix of rain. I heard from my SIL this morning, and they got hit with sleet this morning. Dangerous conditions, indeed!
What’s interesting is looking at the prevailing winds map. There is a massive spin in wind direction happening over the northern US states that’s pushing the system up from the south. I sure wouldn’t want to be in North Dakota right now!
Oh, look! The weather app changed again. Now they’re saying we’re having a break in the snow (looking out my window, I can actually confirm that), and it’s supposed to start snowing again from 4pm – 7pm. I bet if I check again in 5 minutes, the forecast will be different again. 😄
While the temperatures may be mild, the yard cats are quite happy to get out of the wind and hunker down in the sun room. The thermometer on the wall in there was reading 0C/32F this morning. The cats, of course, are snuggled in great piles under the heat lamp, over the heat lamp, and on the various beds, blankets and sheets of insulation we have for them.
These temperatures are pretty average for our area. In fact, we’re a bit warmer than average right now. The record high for today was 9C/48F, set in 2000, while the record low was -34C/-29F, set in 2014! I’ll take what we’ve got now, thanks!
Looking at the monthly forecast, we’re expect to get a few chilly days next week, but after that we’re expected to warm up and, in the second half of March, we’re supposed to have highs consistently above freezing. In the last week or so of April, our lows are supposed to remain consistently above freezing, too.
Spring is going to get here, eventually!
For now, I’m going to enjoy being indoors, and not having to go anywhere in these winds!
Sometimes, I tease myself, watching gardening or homesteading videos by people who live in wildly different climates than I do. The things they can grow, when we’re still months away from being able to plant even cold hardy crops leave me pining!
Of course, there is always something to learn, even if much of the other stuff doesn’t apply to us.
Homestead Heart is one of these video channels that I find inspiring and informative. Some things apply, no matter where you live or what your growing season is like! This is one of them.
She makes some awesome points. When things were shutting down and grocery stores were empty, it really shook people up. So many people started talking about growing their own food, or stocking up seeds for the next time something goes wrong, and the stores are empty again. As much as I absolutely support people doing this, it was rather dismaying to see so many people excitedly sharing “how to” videos produced by content mills that were absolutely fake. At best, the information was useless. At worse, it was dangerous.
So if you’re among those looking into growing your own food, now or in the future, this is someone who tells it like it is, flat out, with no holds barred. She’s awesome!
I’m sure glad I finished our stock up shopping yesterday, because winter is not done with us, yet!
Check out this forecast.
Yup… they’re predicting up to 25cm/9-10inches of snow! It’s supposed to start snowing tonight, but the storm that’s coming up from the US is supposed to hit our area by the end of Sunday. We’re under a storm watch, but from everything I’m hearing, it’s the south end of our province that is going to be hit the hardest. How much makes it up to our area is questionable.
We’ve been so spoiled with our mild and mostly snow free winter this year. There’s almost always a blizzard or two in March and/or April. These storms are important in helping get enough moisture in the spring. Even with the flooding we had in April and May a couple of years ago, it wasn’t enough to bring our water table back up after years of dry conditions.
Well, whether the storm hits us or not, we’re well stocked and don’t need to go anywhere. We could hunker down for weeks, if we had to.
I am so glad to have the stock up shopping done, and to be home. While it’s still light out, too!
I took advantage of the gorgeous morning temperatures (-7C/19F at the time; we ended up hitting 3C/37F by the afternoon) and shoveled the last paths to the compost pile, outhouse and back door to the garage while doing my morning rounds. Then I headed out early to go to my mother’s, so I would have time to shovel away the plow ridge at the end of the driveway, plus have time to fill the tank before going to her place. I still ended up earlier than we talked about, so I called her from the gas station to make sure she was ready for me to show up.
She almost was! 😄
She really did not want to go out, and would rather have just given me her list, but she needed to go to the bank – the one thing I can’t do for her.
Because I was there so early, I mentioned that after I was done helping her, I still had time to go to the city. Of course, she immediately tried to guilt trip me, saying things like “can’t you at least give me one day?” Obviously forgetting that I normally do exactly that. She also seemed to completely forget that she was planning to go to Stations of the Cross in church this afternoon, so I wasn’t going to be able to stay long, anyhow. Then I got the spiel about how I go to the city sooooo often! So many trips to the city! Why do I need to go to the city so often? I told her, I go two days a month so I can save money by stocking up. It basically comes down to, she doesn’t need to go to the city to do her shopping, therefore no one else needs to go to the city to do her shopping, and she hasn’t gone to the city in 10 years!
Which isn’t true, of course. I went with her at least once for a medical appointment, and I know my brother took her for other appointments as well, just in the 6 years since we’ve moved here.
I reminded her that when she was still driving, she would spontaneously go exploring all over the place, and no one gave her a hard time, so why is she giving me a hard time now? I think that finally seemed to make sense to her, because she stopped after that.
So we did her errands, and she’s now well stocked up, including her prescription refills – that, at least, I can go in and get for her without her having to get out of the truck! By the time everything was put away, I think she was tired enough to be glad for me to go! 😄 She did really well, though. Considering how sick she said she was feeling yesterday, it was good to see.
As for my city shopping, I hadn’t really had breakfast yet (does a bag of beef jerky eaten while driving count? 😄), even though it was already past noon by the time I was back on the highway, so my first stop was at the international grocery store, where I got myself some dim sum before doing my shopping there.
This store was a smaller shop, but it’s things we don’t find at any of our other usual places we go to. This is what $148.36, after taxes, looks like.
I even remembered to take a picture of the receipt this time.
The Beaver Buzz is for myself and my older daughter, and this store is one of the few places that still carries it. Our local grocery store used to carry it, but stopped a year or two ago. 😔
There’s a gallon jug of soy beverage we don’t see anywhere else, plus some soy milk and oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters. There is a half chunk of caciocavallo cheese my husband requested; no one else seems to carry that cheese, and he loves it as a treat (in spite of the fact that he is also lactose intolerant!). It’s quite expensive, though. The little flavoured goat cheeses are another thing we don’t find anywhere else, plus, they were on sale. My husband also asked for mustard, which is odd, since he doesn’t usually eat mustard. We rarely buy it, so I made sure to get a good one, choosing a more expensive, locally make, herb and white wine mustard. The applewood smokes slab of bacon is also locally made. The coho salmon was on sale; that’s another one for my daughters, but they’ll have to share the shrimp with me. 😁 Another purchase for my husband is a Filipino brand of soy sauce he likes. I even found some sushi seasoning for the girls that was out of stock, the last time I was here. Bananas were the only fruit fruit that I picked up because, even with the sales, everything else was really expensive. The coconut milk was a last moment thing, when I saw the display while waiting in line. My daughters like to use coconut milk in their cooking. I don’t. I was feeling dehydrated, so I got a couple of water bottles for the truck. They were only a dollar each, if bought in pairs. I also remembered to grab some septic tank treatment stuff. We’ve been out for a while, but I keep forgetting to get more.
Almost $150, and it split between one insulated and one non-insulated hard sided grocery bag, with the gallon jug on the side, with room to spare.
*sigh*
My next stop was the Walmart, and whether or not I would go to Canadian Tire depended on whether they were in stock of the stove pellets we use for litter.
I did not have to go to Canadian Tire. The only thing on my list that I couldn’t find was vermiculite, and I didn’t feel like going to Cdn Tire to look for it, when there was nothing else on my list that I needed to get there.
This is what $206.79, after taxes, looks like.
Yup. More cat food! I got four different flavours of kibble, to change things up for the cats. They were all the same price, but two were 7.5kg and two were 7.21kg
I remembered to get a picture of the receipt for this, too, though I forgot to have the cat food on a separate receipt.
With four more bags of kibble, plus another case of wet cat food, we should have enough for the month. With the warmer temperatures, the outside cats aren’t eating as much, so we should be going through less of that now. With the inside cats, we’re trying to increase how much wet cat food they get while reducing the amount of dry cat food. Mostly because of Leyendecker; wet cat food is cheaper than vet bills!
I only got one bag of pellets because, with the cat food, I didn’t have room for two.
I had a request for nacho fixings, and we already have plenty of cheese, so there’s nacho chips plus a big jar of olives in there. My daughters were running low on coffee, so there’s that, plus a couple of flavoured creamers. I grabbed a couple of boxes of cereal that were on sale; with non-dairy milk, the girls actually enjoy eating cereal and not getting sick. There’s a big case of facial tissues under the cart. My last moment spontaneous purchase was the strawberries. The display was near the line for the cashiers, and they were over half off, so I got one clamshell for each of us.
Thinking about the kibble prices, while shopping with my mother, I was stunned to see 11.6kg bags selling for $55.99 each – and that was on special!! Yeah, it’s most definitely worth it to make the trip to the city for kibble.
So that’s it; our second stop up shopping trip, for a grand total of $355.15.
I look forward to not having to do this again for another month!!
Ah, who am I kidding. I’m sure something is going to happen, and I’ll have to make another trip. 😄
Between yesterday and today, we spent $1313.33 in total – and that doesn’t include the cost of gas or meals while I was out.
Ouch.
One positive thing I can say right now is that I’m glad my husband’s disability payments come in monthly. It’s a lot easier to budget that way, and a lot easier to do these monthly stock up trips. His payments – both his private insurance and CPP Disability – do actually go up a little bit every year, but the cost of everything is going up so much more! We are very fortunate, in that my husband’s private insurance is as good as it is. We are making ends meet, even with the new monthly payments on the truck. We have much to be thankful for.
The Re-Farmer 