Month: February 2025

Planning ahead

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We are going to have a lot of running around over the next while! Thankfully, the weather looks like it’s going to be pretty good, even we are expected to have chillier days for the next while.

Clarence does not approve. I’m supposed to be available to cuddle him at all time, after all!

Today, I needed to run into town for several errands. The first was a trip to the pharmacy, to get refills for myself and for my daughter. Thankfully, her Pharmacare was processed, and she only had to pay under $5 for something that would have cost over $150! My pain killers, however, did not have a refill. I’m not out, yet, so they will send a fax to my new doctor, and they will be included win my husband’s prescription delivery, next week.

I need to remember to call the clinic and see if I can book an appointment for myself, piggy backing on my daughter’s appointment next week, to talk about the painkillers. They help, but not quite enough. Especially since I can take them only once a day.

The pharmacy needed time to get our refills together. Enough for me to hit the grocery store while it was being done. The main thing I needed to get was distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. I’d forgotten to pick some up, the last time I was at Walmart. Locally, the price at the grocery store is almost double, so I just got one gallon. The pharmacy has distilled water, too, but it’s even more expensive than at the grocery store. I’ll pick up several more gallons when I’m at Walmart, later this week.

While I was at the grocery store, I spotted a new display with an amazing sale on bagged avocados, so I grabbed a couple of bags. Their sale on whole chicken was still going, so I grabbed another for the freezer. A whole chicken, by weight, cost around $10. Normally, these days, they are around $18.

I also grabbed something I could eat in the truck for breakfast, before going back to the pharmacy. I was early enough to pick up a couple more supplements I was running low on. I had intended to get those at Walmart, but the house brand’s price was very good, plus they also happened to be on sale, so it was actually cheaper to get them now.

Once done at the pharmacy, I went to visit with my mother before she had her lunch delivered. While there, I updated her on the plans we worked out last night, to get things ready in her apartment. My brother and SIL and I will meet at my mother’s apartment, and we’ll go through her fridge and cupboards to get rid of anything that should be. I gave my SIL a typical shopping list and she will be picking up fresh groceries for my mother. As I told her this, it gave me a chance to ask her if there was anything specific she wanted, and was able to pass that on to my SIL.

I told her that they were getting a lock box for her medications that should be in tomorrow morning, so we are meeting in the afternoon. I explained again that the home care aides would be able to get into the lock box but, if they don’t have someone available, they will call me and I will have to come over to give her her medications. She didn’t seem too happy with that, or the idea that she wasn’t going to be able to access her own prescription medications. I had to explain again, why her medications were going into a lock box, adding that she has said herself, that she’s starting to forget things. I could see she wasn’t impressed, but was going to let it go. She started to tell me something else…

… and forgot what she was going to say!

Once she realized what had just happened, we had a good chuckle over it.

My mother had one of her bubble packs with her that was almost full, and I know she has some partial ones at home, too. I took the one she had with her, so that I could take it and the ones she has at home, to the pharmacy, tomorrow. Most of her medications can be repacked into new bubble packs. The Home Care coordinator was going to deal with the pharmacy in regards to my mother’s medication changes, and get her file active again for Monday. Hopefully, they will have her new and up to date bubble packs ready, tomorrow, so I can take those for the lock box.

I explained to her again that she will be getting home care three times a day again, but the first visit of the day will be longer. She will have help with getting dressed and they can empty her commode for her, too. Her troubles with the commode was one of the things we remembered to bring up during the meeting with the doctor and the home care ladies.

I told her again about the Life Line she will be getting. She had forgotten entirely about that. Basically, I assured her that we will get everything at her apartment ready for when she comes home on Monday.

As for Monday, my SIL will be picking me up with one of their cars to get my mother home, which will be much easier for my mother than having her climb into my truck! Discharge time is at 11am, so we plan to be at the hospital for around 10am, so we have plenty of time to get her ready and pack up her things.

We then had time to just visit and chat. It turns out there are two other patients that she knows that are also in the hospital, and she was able to visit with them today. I’m glad she did. First, because it showed up much better she was feeling. Second, because the visits made them happy. An unexpected third is that it made my mother realize just how good she is actually doing. She is more than 10 years older than one of the ladies, and probably another 10 years older than the other. I know for sure that one of them will not be coming home. I don’t know why the other was is in the hospital. Then there’s my mother, who’s in her 90’s, and they’re sending her home, where she lives independently!

I really hope they can find an opening in supportive living for her, soon.

When my mother’s lunch was delivered, that was my cue to go. I just made sure all the lids were off her containers, and set everything up for her, before heading out. There was just one more stop for gas – one gas station was at $1.559/L, while the other two were at $1.579/L – then home.

My daughter was happy to get her medication, as she was almost out. The funny thing was, she had to get me to open the child-proof lids for her! She’s having to wear a wrist brace again, for having the audacity of using her left arm, yesterday. She has issues with ganglions. Something else she wants to talk to her doctor about! They’ve increasingly been a very painful problem. I remember that my sister used to get them, too. She ended up getting surgery, and never had a problem with them again. My daughter would really prefer NOT to have surgery, though! Ah, well. We shall see!

For today, at least, I’m done with running around. I’ll be out again tomorrow, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday is when we take Fluffy back to the vet. That is when her 2 weeks in isolation are up, too. We have not been able to touch her at all while she’s in the isolation shelter. Not even The Grink will let me touch him, though he does sometimes sniff at my fingers.

I have noticed something about them in the mornings, though. After I’ve finished my morning rounds, the last thing I do is pop back outside again with a can of wet cat food for them. I have noticed that after I’ve given them their kibble in the morning, they actually sit and watch me, in open anticipation, waiting for their wet cat food! We can only do this for the cats in the isolation shelter. Not only because there are just too many cats outside to regularly give them wet cat food, but also because anywhere else, the food would freeze. In the isolation shelter, the food area is in front of the heat lamp.

Midnight doesn’t know what he’s missing, by escaping the isolation shelter when he did! I did see him today, but not until this afternoon, after I got home.

I did have an unpleasant surprise in the garage when I got home, though. Thankfully, I did NOT drive over it. When I pull into the garage, there is a a moment when I am blinded, so I did not see the empty paint can and broken glass on the ground. !!!

We now have long wooden crates attached to one of the garage walls to create shelves. On top of one of them was one of our tool kits. That somehow got knocked off, and it hit some things on the way down, before landing upside down on a makeshift shelf we have on the ground. One of those things was a bin with light bulbs in it. That was upside down over the tool box, with light bulbs scattered all over. Some broken on and around the tool kit. Others were on the ground, right near where we give through to park! The empty can of isolation shelter paint was also knocked to the ground, along with odds and ends, like our paint stir sticks.

I was able to message the household about it, and my husband brought over a dustpan and hand broom for me while I picked things up and got rid of the broken bulbs and biggest pieces of glass. I was able to sweep the glass off the makeshift shelf, but the tiny pieces of broken glass in our dirt floor could only be swept aside, under the makeshift shelf.

If it weren’t for my habit of trying to part further to the right, so I have more room to open the driver’s side door all the way, I would have driven right over that paint can, the broken glass and probably at least one light bulb, and never seen it until after I got out of the truck.

I sure would have felt it, though!

There are definite issues with some of the yard cats using the garage as shelter. They go up into the rafters, where I’m sure it’s warmer.

We really need to go through the garage to sort and organize. It’s all pretty overwhelming, though. I’m not sure what half the stuff even is, or what might still be salvageable! Once we build more shelves into the walls, though, we’ll be in a better position to get things organized and cleaned up.

That’s a job for the summer, though!

We’ve got plenty that needs to be done between now and then, though.

It would be a huge help of the gas prices could go back down again. 🫤

The Re-Farmer

Well, I’m going to be busy for the next while

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We had quite a bit of snow come down overnight, so when I headed out for my morning rounds, I did a fair bit of shoveling. Not everything, as I had stuff to get done inside before heading out, but I got the main paths done so that I could at least get to the electricity meter for a reading, the garage and the trail cams. Yes, even the sign came. The snow was getting too deep to just slog through.

Yesterday, I switched the old trail cam there for the spare solar camera. I think it should have enough light, but if not, we can always switch the old camera back again – with fresh batteries. The new cameras have solar charged batteries that are the default, while regular AAs are used only if the solar charged batteries get drained. If all goes well, we won’t need to change batteries again for a very long time.

As I write this, we’re past 5:30pm, and we’re at -13C/7F. I think we hit -11C/12F today, which is warmer than was forecast. The wind chill, however, is at -25C/-13F, and I think it was colder than that while I was outside this morning.

The outside cats seem to be handling it quite well. I think I counted 29 this morning.

After they had their breakfast, I counted 7 of them in the cat cage. They really enjoy going into there! They can only use one side of the second level, though, as the piece of insulation that was a floor on one side got knocked down, even though it had been zip tied into place. The wire frame on there has openings 2″ square, so they can’t walk on it without something there.

Once inside, one of the things I wanted to do before I left was upload the trail cam files. As I was doing that, I started getting messages from my brother. They were already on the way to the hospital to visit with my mother, before the meeting with the doctor.

As for the trail cam files, I found myself uploading over 200 files on the sign cam! Usually, a busy day has only about a dozen. I forgot and set it for one still, then 10 second video, to that doubled the number of files from what I needed on that camera.

The first thing I noticed and appreciated is the difference the wider angle lens made. The entire sign is in the image, not just part of it, and even part of the main road going past us was in frame. As for the files, I found myself looking at lots and lots of files of nothing. I think the sensor may have been triggered by the tips of spruce branches above. That’s all I could see that could have been triggering it. So the next time I’m out there, I’ll have to switch it to stills only, then see if I can either lower the camera a bit, or try and tilt it downwards somehow, so the branches won’t trigger the motion sensor.

If that’s what’s doing it.

While that was going on, the snow started again, so I left more than an hour earlier than I originally planned. Even if I had to drive slower, I would get more time to spend with my brother and SIL.

I most definitely had to drive slower.

I did stop at the post office first to pick up a couple of parcels. I messaged my brother before I left to let them know I was on the way. Visibility wasn’t very good, but I could see a snow plow in the distance, so I knew they were at least getting that done.

The road itself had a lot of packed snow on it, and a lot more blowing snow. I had to slow down even more for oncoming traffic, as visibility dropped to almost nothing from the snow kicked up behind the vehicles.

Still, I got there in good time, and we had a very nice visit with my mother while we waited for the meeting. There was only one time it got very strange with my mother, when she made a comment about my brother and SIL that was a total shock. It’s like she basically just invented something in her mind that she believed they did, but it was completely untrue. We never did figure out where it came from!

As for the meeting, it started late, as they gave my mother a chance to finish her lunch. We had the doctor that’s been treating my mother, plus two people from different areas within the home care department.

One of the things the doctor had brought up with my brother and SIL (I never saw him before today, so I never had a chance to talk to him) was concerns about my mother’s heart. We found this odd, as my mother has complained about her heart for many years, had been seeing a cardiologist until just after we moved out here. I was there for her last appointment with him and, while she did have an irregular heartbeat (as do I), he was not concerned and said her heart was really healthy. We eventually figured out the pains she thought were heart attacks were actually heartburn. She’d also been complaining about her breathing for years, too. Only recently did she say that things were feeling different, but she didn’t have the vocabulary to tell me how.

My brother asked the doctor about my mother’s heart, and he went into an explanation about what a fib is, which we knew, but that was okay. Different doctors have different ways of explaining things. He also brought up about the edema as being related. My mother doesn’t need a pacemaker, though – we made sure to ask before the appointment if she would be okay with one, if the doctor recommended it, and she’d said yes.

Then my brother asked about the results of the ultrasound they’d sent her to the city for. They tested the efficiency of her heart.

It was fine. Well withing acceptable ranges. In fact, her heart is working more efficiently than my SIL and my husbands, but a substantial percentage.

Oh, and as far as the doctor was concerned, my mother could go home today.

We disagreed.

We talked some more about my mother wanting to go into long term care, which she is not unhealthy enough for, or supportive living. This is where the home care people were the ones to talk to.

I brought up that we’d started this process some times ago. I mentioned she’d had an EKG and chest X-rays done as part of that process, and her heart and lungs were fine, just a few months ago. The doctor was surprised to hear that. We were surprised to find out that the the supportive living coordinator had found the paperwork to panel my mother was sitting on someone’s desk…

… since October.

We got the impression someone was going to get chewed over about that!

So they are going to push that process through. However, it could take months before there is an opening.

After much more discussion, we came up with a plan of action.

My mother will be discharged on Monday, which is when everything should be set up and ready for her.

Home care will still come three times a day, but the morning visit will be longer, to assist my mother with getting dressed.

The case coordinator is going to talk to the pharmacy about the changes in my mother’s medications, and get her file active again.

My mother’s medications will go into a lock box, which we have to provide. The home care aids will know the combination, as will my brother and I, but my mother will not. This will mean that, if no one is able to come to my mother’s for a med assist for some reason (which happens sometimes), I will have to go to my mother’s to give her her medications. In explaining to my mother about this, she did say, “sometimes, I forget things…” She definitely recognizes her own decreased cognitive abilities. Which is good; she’s not in any sort of denial about it.

My mother will also be getting a Lifeline to wear around her neck. If she starts to have trouble breathing again, or the swelling returns, she’s to get to a hospital right away. With this, she can just press a button and help will be on the way. Or, if she has a fall, it will automatically trigger a call for assistance.

All of this has to be done over the next few days. Then, on Monday, I will go to the hospital to take her home.

She is also supposed to go to the doctor for bloodwork once a month, to monitor her.

It’s not the best situation for her, but we have no other options right now. She doesn’t need to be in the hospital anymore, and they can’t take her straight to supportive living.

After the doctor and the home care people left, we went over everything with my mother again. She didn’t quite understand all of it. We had to tell her – again – that when an opening in supportive living comes up, to take it, even if it’s not where she wants to be. Once she’s in the system, she is going to have an easier time to get to where she actually wants to be, which is the long term care facility not far from the hospital she’s in. It may take months to get her into supportive living, but it could take years to get her into long term care.

That done, we said our goodbyes to my mother, then the three of us went out for our own lunch (breakfast, for me!) so we could talk things over. My brother is going to get the lock box for our mother’s medications. I’ll be taking her home on Monday. We had lots to talk about in general, though. We’re all really frustrated that she’s going home at all, but there’s nothing we can do about that. My mother is ready to leave the hospital, but she’s worried about being on her own. The Life Line will be a help, but even that might overwhelm her. My father had one before he went to the nursing home, but he kept tucking it under his undershirt to keep it from moving around, which rather defeats the purpose of it being able to trigger a call for help if he fell down! With my mother, I can see her simply taking it off when she goes to bed, or simply because she feels it’s in the way.

Ah, well. We’ll work it out!

After we parted ways, I made a stop at the grocery store. I remembered to bring our empty water jugs for refills, and my daughter sent funds for some extra groceries.

While I was away, my younger daughter finished shoveling the paths, and also shoveled the driveway! She didn’t do the turn around space in the yard (which is more than the driveway needed). Tomorrow, I’ll have to break out little Spewie and do the yard. I actually started to get stuck in the snow, trying to turn and back up to the house!

In other things, I now have a “new” cell phone. My husband upgraded, and now I have his old phone. Mine is a Galaxy S22, and his is an S23. (I forget what his new one is, but it’s also in the S series) The main thing for me is that, while I still can’t add a memory card for extra storage space, it has 500g. My current phone has only 124g. Since I tend to use it a lot for photos and videos, I would run out of space quickly.

My husband transferred my data to my “new” phone. Now I have to set it up the way I want it. I’m already having a hard time of it, as I can’t find where the apps are to add the ones I want to my screen.

Oh, I almost forgot.

Before going to the grocery store, I stopped at the garage to book the truck in. I kept forgetting to text or phone!

I booked an appointment to get the tire with the slow leak’s valve replaced. It wasn’t until I pulled into our driveway when I realized…

I booked for Monday.

I’m taking my mother home on Monday!

So I quickly texted him, and I’m now booked for Wednesday.

While I was talking to him, I brought up about the check engine light and the oil pressure gauge. He had been thinking about how best to address the situation, so he asked me when I needed to get an oil change done next. The truck’s onboard computer has me at 60% or so, so I could go for a while longer, but I want to get it done earlier, and was thinking of next month. He was glad to hear that, and told me what he had in mind, for what that’s done. The issue is that moisture has gotten into the system and is really hard to get rid of. So what he will do is flush the engine out after the old oil is removed, replace the sensor, since it would have moisture in it, too, and then put in the fresh oil. That should finally resolve the issue.

Which means that next week, I’ll be taking my mother home on Monday, getting the truck to the garage on Wednesday to take care of the tire with the slow leak,, then I’m taking Fluffy back to the vet on Thursday for a follow up appointment.

The week after that, my mother has her appointment at the eye clinic on Wednesday, and my daughter has a doctor’s appointment on Thursday.

The following week, the last week of the month, my daughter has an ultrasound in the middle of the week, and we will work our two stock up shopping trips after that.

Finally, on the first week of March, I’ve got the truck going back in for the engine flush and oil change. That, on it’s own, will cost about $350 before taxes.

Meanwhile, somewhere in there, I’ll be doing my mother’s shopping and errands once she is home. I expect to do some grocery shopping for her on the day I bring her home, but probably at least one more before the end of the month. We’ll be sure to start her Meals on Wheels up again, too.

I keep wanting to do as little driving as possible in the winter.

This month, I think I’m going to be doing the most longer-distance driving since we moved out here!

Of course, the gas prices have gone up again. In town, I saw $1.559 and $1.569 when just a few days ago, I saw prices at $1.449 and $1.459

*sigh*

Well, we do what we have to do.

What other choice do we have?

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, things are looking good for our area, weather wise. The snow system seems to mostly be skirting around us. We’ve had some snow, and are expected to get more later today, but nothing like other areas are getting. As I write this, we are at -14C/7F, instead of the high of -18C/1F that had been forecast, the last time I checked the weather, yesterday. The wind chill is -23C/-9F, but it’s coming from a direction we are mostly sheltered from.

After the running around I did yesterday, though, I’m happy to have a day to stay home. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading out again for a meeting with the doctor about my mother.

I do have a bit of cuteness to share with you today!

This is Tin Whistle (named for her distinctive meowing habit). A few weeks ago, she suddenly decided to attach herself to my husband.

Often, literally.

She is all over him. He can’t do anything, without her trying to be on him in some way. I’ve tried to rescue him by taking her away, so he could at least go to the bathroom, but she is soon back in his arms. More than a few times, I’d go past his doorway and find him stuck with her in one or both arms, watching videos on his computer, because he can’t do anything else. He used to try and get her to leave, but has pretty much given up.

Instead, he started putting her into his vest, and they’ve come to a truce! She will curl up in his vest and sleep for hours, and his arms are free to use.

Tin Whistle is one of Decimus’ babies from a couple years ago. We discovered her newborn litter, just hours, at most, from birth, in the shelf shelter. We’d never been able to socialize Decimus, but when we put her kittens into a carrier, she went in with them, and we brought them inside. There, we were finally able to de-matt her (her entire back was one big matt of fur) and socialize her. Along with her four kittens – Tin Whistle, Clarence, Shadow in the Dark and Mitsy – she was willing to become a wetnurse for Ghosty and The Wolfman.

The Cat Lady was able to adopt Decimus out when the babies were weaned, along with one of the outside cats, to be mousers on a farm. They were so friendly, however, they both ended up as indoor cats permanently!

Sadly, we were never able to adopt out the kittens.

With how Tin Whistle has bonded to my husband, I’m not sure we even could adopt her out anymore!

The Re-Farmer

Finally! Costco! This is what $777 looks like

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I did NOT want to go out today.

The temperature of -27C/-17F stayed for most of the morning. Only the wind chill fluctuated. The screen cap above was taken just before I headed outside, so it was still -35C/-31F at the time.

I did short rounds, but I also made sure to get the truck running and check it over. The one tire was still looking low, even though I’d topped it up not all that long ago. The gas station pump I used really sucked, though, so I wasn’t too surprised that it was. I fired up the compressor to top up all the tires. The truck was plugged in and started fine, but the compressor was not enjoying running in these cold temperatures!

Last night I got a call from the gentleman from my mother’s church that had been helping her out the day she went into the ER. He still had her walker. I don’t know where he got my number from, but I’m glad he did. My mother had told me his name, and my brother had tried looking it up in the church director, but couldn’t find him.

It turned out, that wasn’t his name.

My Mom couldn’t pronounce his French name, so she was using an English version!

Yesterday, I’d cleared the end of the driveway from the gate to the road, which is where it tends to drift. The main thing was to clear the old plow ridge that now had more snow drifted over it. Then I cleared in front of the garage. I kept telling myself not to push it, but I do enjoy shoveling a lot, and just kept going!

My daughters took care of all the evening stuff once I got in, because I was really stiffening up! I would have stayed home today to recover, but then we started getting weather warnings. We’re supposed to get snow all day tomorrow, and into the next day. It was either go to the city today, or I probably wouldn’t manage it for at least two days.

I did wait before heading out, as I had a package to pick up at the post office. I called the gentleman with my mother’s walker to let him know I could stop by today, then headed out.

Only to discover that the post office opened a half hour later today.

I was only 15 minutes early, but I wasn’t going to wait around.

So, off I went to get my mother’s walker. The gentleman lives in the building where the Meals on Wheels are prepared, as well as meals for residents.

Wow, did it smell good when I walked in!

I found his apartment and had a nice chat with him and his wife before heading out. There was someone with a hair net in the lobby as I was reaching the door, so I asked if she was one of the Meals on Wheels cooks. She said yes, so I made sure to tell her just how much my mother enjoyed their meals. It turned out she knew my mother, so I updated her a bit on how my mother is doing.

My next stop was my mother’s apartment. I found some mail under her door, and a notification from the public housing department, saying that there would be a fire and safety inspection coming up. I don’t think my mother will be back for that. Hopefully, she won’t be back at all, as she really wants to be in long term care, and I’d hope to at least get her into assisted living, if long term care can’t be managed.

I grabbed a few items for my mother. Her daily devotions book that she has read and re-read so many times, it’s held together with duct tape. I know she likes to have a candle while saying her prayers, and there was an LED candle in an adorable mini bird cage on her table, so I grabbed that. It took me a while, but I found her rosary, too.

Once I was sure everything was good, and her plant was watered, I headed to the town my mother is in. I did stop to get $40 of gas first, though. The price was $1.459 there and the last time I was in the other town, they were still at $1.499. I didn’t fill, though, as I planned to do that at Costco.

When I got to the hospital and my mother’s door with her walker, I found it closed completely, which is unusual. Just in case, I went to the nurse’s desk to make sure my mother hadn’t been moved to another room. She was not, so I headed back.

As I was walking down the hall, I saw a young man walking towards me that was looking very, very familiar. It was my nephew! I haven’t seen him in ages. He does live in this province, but about 2 hours away, and works nights, to it’s rather difficult to connect. We had a nice chat before we had to part ways.

When I got to my mother’s room again and knocked, there was no answer. I went in and found the bathroom door closed, so I set up the stuff I brought for her on her little table. She could hear someone was there, so I let her know it was me. When she came out, she was using the hospital walker, which is too tall for her. She was very happy to see her own walker, and immediately wanted to switch!

Then she saw what I’d brought for her and…

… started lecturing me on how she has too many things. She’s only there temporarily. She only prays the rosary when taking communion, and she’s going home in a few days.

What????

I asked about it, and she told me they were going to be sending her home on Thursday. We have a meeting with the doctor on Thursday, so she said they would probably send her home after that.

Which did not make sense to me at all.

I didn’t ask more about it, though, and we had ourselves a short visit. I explained to her that I had to go into the city next, because we’re expecting more snow tomorrow. It was a good visit, overall. My mother is looking better, but she says she doesn’t have much energy.

For someone that’s 93 years old, though, she is still a dynamo! People far younger than her have a hard time keeping up.

As I was leaving, I did stop at the nurse’s desk again and asked about her being sent home on Thursday. The receptionist looked at her files, and there was nothing about that. Just the meeting with the doctor. We have no idea why she thought otherwise, but she told me she would tell the nurse about it so she could let my mother know she will NOT be going home on Thursday.

From there, it was off to the city, which was about an hour’s drive. Once I got close to the Costco, I stopped at a mall to have lunch at the food court. I’d only had a banana for breakfast, so I was getting pretty hungry! I ended up going to an A&W for a single Mozza burger (it’s been so long since I’ve had one, I forgot I usually ask for a double), onion rings and a medium drink. That cost $17.43! I can’t remember exactly how many years it’s been (4, maybe 5, years), but the last time I ate at A&W and had the double Mozza meal, it was less under $12.

*sigh*

From there, it was off to the Costco, where I first filled the tank. Their prices were $1.379 While I’d already put in $40, which put me at 3/4 of a tank, I’d done enough driving that it cost $56.39 to fill the tank.

Even with the cheaper Costco gas, it cost me a total of $96.39 to fill my tank today!

Then it was time to grab a flat card and to the shopping.

This is what $777.06 looks like.

Some things, like the Monster energy drinks, my older daughter already sent me funds for. A few other things on their shopping list will be paid back later.

This is what I got today.

The top item is granulated garlic powder, which was at least a couple of dollars more expensive than the last time I bought it at Costco! The Goodhost Iced Tea is a better prices that most places, though still higher than it was a couple of years ago.

I got the Kirkland brand mayonnaise, as it’s cheaper than the Hellmans we used to get. The Basmati right is one of the best prices for the size of the bag. Coconut oil (an item from my daughter’s list) is also much cheaper at Costco than elsewhere.

The AA batteries were on sale, at least, though they have a pretty high eco fee on top!

The brown sugar (or, should I say, yellow sugar) is a really good price compared to elsewhere. The Irish Spring soap is a pack of 20 and will last us for months. My daughter buy their own fancier bar soap. My husband are fine with the cheap stuff, and these are the cheapest Costco has that I could see.

The salad kits are each 2 packs. Most places are almost that price for just one.

The tilapia fillets are for the girls. I’m glad I picked up meats when I found good sales earlier, because my budget wasn’t enough for more meats today.

The B100 vitamins are what my new doctor wants me on instead of just B12. The Magnesium, I take for restless legs, and I’d run out of those. I forgot to pick up more Zinc, though. I ran out of that, this morning.

For block cheese, I got mozzarella and old cheddar. I also got 2 panini packs for sandwiches. The 4 pack of Pronamel is the brand my daughters prefer. I got a big box of spaghetti, because it was the cheapest pasta. We normally get a variety pack, but not today. The 4 pack of frozen perogies have been steady in price for a while now, though they used to be under $10 for many years.

The stuff I left on the cart includes a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I. There is also their bulk package of Ramen noodles. I picked up a 9 pack of canned beans; that price has actually gone down again! The oat milk is a 3 pack of 2L cartons for my lactose intolerant daughters. I forget how many cans are in the flat of Monster drinks, but that’s being split three ways. Then there are the puppy pads and toilet paper. Yes, I did get more cat food! Not as many dry kibble bags as I usually would have gotten; the donations are a huge help! While we do still have lots of donated canned cat food, they’re all the same flavour, so I got two variety pack cases of 48 to give them some variety. Last of all in the flat cart was 5 pounds of butter.

Next, we have a 1L carton of whipping cream, which costs more then $7 in other places. The sour cream is a 2 pack of 250ml. They don’t seem to carry the 500ml containers anymore. That and the cream cheese is a very good price compared to elsewhere.

I only got one 2pk of rye bread, a 10 pound bag of potatoes and a double flat of eggs. Normally, I would have gotten more rye bread, plus wraps, but I was pretty much at my budget limit for today, by this time.

So we have $777.06 for the Costco purchases. Add in the gas and my lunch, and my grand total for today was $890.88

Ouch.

And I didn’t even get everything on my list. Aside from not getting wraps at Costco today, other items will require trips to either a Walmart (where I have to go to correct being overcharged, last time) or an international food store.

I’m glad I got this done today, though, even though I really paid for it. On the way home, I stopped at the post office to pick up a parcel. In the hour the drive took, I discovered my entire body had stiffened up, and I was hobbling to get into the building. It got less painful once I limbered up, but it did hit me by surprise when I got out of the truck! I thought I’d been doing pretty good until then.

Once at home, my daughter and I unloaded and got things put away, just in time for a phone call I was expecting from my brother. I’d been keeping them up to date on things with my mother by message. They were on the way to see her, and I was able to give him more details over the phone. They wanted to get a visit in before the snow hit, too!

Looking at the forecast now, the show is supposed to reach us by 10pm tonight, now, and keep snowing until about midnight tomorrow. So the timing of it has sifted earlier by a few hours. Which I’m good with, since the day after tomorrow, I need to get to the hospital for that meeting with the doctor about my mother!

My brother and his wife will be driving home in the dark, but should be home well before the snow hits, and the highways were nice and clear today.

Why does all the medical stuff have to happen in the winter? It never seems to happen in the summer! 😄

In the end, it was a longer day with extra driving, but my mother has her walker, we got a visit in, and we got our Costco stock up shopping finally done.

Which makes it a very good day!

The Re-Farmer

Winter still hanging in there, and this and that (semi-political rant at the end – updated)

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

The forecast just keeps changing, with expected warmer temperatures going down and down.

This is what we were at, this morning.

The -22C/-8F isn’t too bad, really. Not for February. That -32C/-26F is the killer, though. As I write this, coming up on 10:30am, the only thing that’s changed is that the wind chill is now -29C/-20F.

Oh, it just changed. The wind chill is -30C/-22F now. 🫤

I did short rounds, this morning.

The yard babies seem to be handling it well. I counted “only” 26 this morning, though.

The Grink (first image) and Fluffy (second image) are pretty calm about being kept in the isolation shelter. Fluffy still keeps out of reach, while The Grink will sniff at my fingers when I reach out to him, but doesn’t allow pets.

I do wish they would both figure out the litter box, though. I can see it’s been used, but someone – I suspect Fluffy – has been using a corner of the cat bed they cuddle up in! As well as the corner behind the water bowl. And the hammock.

It’s a good thing I built the isolation shelter with access in mind, so we’ll be able to clean it in the spring!

The last image is Patience. What a fluffy boy!!!

Today, he was very accepting – even demanding – of pets, but not as much as Collin. I was trying to get a picture of Patience, but Collin kept pushing himself in front, because I was holding my phone instead of petting him!

Patience was not amused.

Looking at the weather, I’m not sure that I’ll make it to Costco today. The driveway never got done yesterday, plus we are expecting “snow showers” – right now, apparently, but our skies are clear, so I’m not sure what that was supposed to be happening. It’s not showing on the weather radar.

Hopefully, this afternoon will be better and we’ll get at least the plow ridge on the driveway done, and I’ll be able to head out, tomorrow. We’ll see.

I debated whether to talk about this here, since this topic is not what this blog is about. It is something that will affect us at some point, and there is a lot of bad information out there right now, so I’m going for it. TDS suffers be warned.

Starting tomorrow, Canadian exports into the US will be hit with a 25% tariff. Our Prime Dictator plans to “retaliate” with 25% tariffs on US imports.

It’s a stupid situation that is going to hurt Canadians far more than the US. The mistake, however, is that people are blaming Trump and calling him a “bully”. This could not be further from the truth.

Canada currently has the most corrupt government in its history, and T2 has been “undiplomatic”, shall we say, towards the US for his entire time in office. Actually, since before then, now that I think about it. He hates the US almost as much as he hates Canada and Canadians. Oh, sure, he’s saying pretty words to the media, trying to portray himself as this great defender of Canada, and how we’re such a great country. We were, until he devastated us on all fronts. He is, if nothing else, a master at gaslighting and manipulation. This is the same guy who frequently insulted Canada and Canadians since before he was installed in office, saying, among other things, that Canada has no culture (except Quebec) and how he plans to replace “old stock Canadians” (a term referring to multi-generational Canadians of European descent), not to mention the many divisive things he said about Canadians during the illegal lockdowns. He would mouth platitudes to Canadians in English, but in French, to the Quebec media, he would say the opposite. Anyone who doesn’t agree with him is a Nazi, a white supremacist, misogynist, anti-science; all the usual insults that have become meaningless, they’ve been used so often.

His constant comments about “misinformation and disinformation” are particularly hypocritical, since he and his party have been the greatest purveyors of both, but they are using this to justify their attempts to be able to censor and control social media (they already control the legacy media in Canada). They were even trying to push through a bill that would make wrong-think a crime. Seriously. It’s like something straight out of The Minority Report. People would literally be charged for things they *might* do, and for expressing their thoughts in private conversations. No one has been more divisive of Canadians than T2 and his illegitimate NDP/Liberal coalition government. He’s the most hated PM in our history, and the only reason he’s still in power is because the NDP and the Bloc keep supporting him.

The reality is, our Prime Dictator has been busily destroying our economy (plus our military and our few functioning institutions) for the past 10 years. In fact, yet another 20% carbon tax is kicking in on April 1. This is on top of several other carbon taxes that have been implemented, plus high inflation due to his printing more and more money. Him complaining about a 25% tariff on Canadian exports is such hypocrisy. Our current high prices, our housing crisis, our border crisis… all of these can be laid at the feet of our corrupt government.

Here’s the thing.

Trump’s condition was for us to secure our border and start pulling our weight with NATO. Both things we should already be doing. He is not making unrealistic demands, here.

The NATO problem predates T2, but can still be laid at the feet of past Liberal governments. The border problem right now is completely the fault of T2. His actions – or lack of them – has made Canada a threat to US security. T2 claims the border is secure. It’s not. In reality, investigation by other countries has found that Canada is basically involved in human trafficking into the US. And, yes, the fentanyl problem is very real. We make that stuff. It does have legitimate medical uses. Lots of it just somehow ends up being smuggled into the US through our porous border.

When it comes to the border, the only demand Canada should be making is for the US to do the same, because we have plenty of illegals, guns and drugs coming in from the US. This could have been a win-win situation that made both our countries stronger. Instead, our Prime Dictator is playing like he’s some sort of hero, claiming to be standing up to a “bully”, with “retaliatory” measures and engaging in a tariff war.

Now, Canada and the US already have tariffs on things we import from each other. That’s not new. We’ve also had tariff wars before. The softwood lumber tariff war being one I particularly remember. Again. Not new.

What is new is that we have a Prime Dictator that should have been turfed back in 2016, when Elections Canada found that the results of the 2015 election has been influenced by registered third parties (legal) funded by foreign interests (illegal). The last election – the one called early during the illegal lockdowns – was also found to have been influenced by the CCP. He should have been turfed many times over the past decade.

Oh, and for all the talk, no, T2 did NOT resign. He stated his intention to resign once a new Liberal leader is selected, then got the Governor General (who is supposed to be neutral and represent the Crown, but is one of T2’s cronies, just like the House speaker) to shut Parliament down.

In Canada, we don’t vote directly for our Prime Minister. During federal elections, we have elections in 338 ridings across the country, for individual MPs (Members of Parliament). The party with the most MPs elected wins, and the party leader then becomes the Prime Minister. The party with the next highest number of MPs elected becomes the Official Opposition.

The Prime Minister, however, must also be an MP. If they didn’t win their own riding, someone in that party who did win can step down and the leader would move to that riding and become the MP there. So there is no reason for Parliament to be shut down during the Liberal leadership race.

Right now, the Liberals are setting up a guy named Carney to be the next leader. This is someone who holds three passports and hasn’t even lived in Canada for the past decade or so, but has been busy ruining the UK economy. So he’s not an MP and barely a Canadian. Should he be installed, I suppose some legitimately elected MP would just step down so he could have that seat, instead.

With Parliament shut down, T2 has more power than ever, and can rule by the equivalent of executive orders, with zero checks and balances. Shutting down parliament meant avoiding another non-confidence vote which the NDP said they would vote in favour of this time (they kept T2 in power the last couple of times by voting against it, even when the motion used NDP leader Singh’s own words). There’s a court challenge going through now, because the shut down did not meet requirements, but who knows if that will even rule in time to make any difference.

Meanwhile, they are now using the tariff war to try and prevent another election. The NDP are already backtracking and saying they will likely vote to prevent an election, once parliament resumes. Whoever gets installed as the next PM can use the tariff war to not only prevent a vote of non-confidence from succeeding, but could delay the regular election. That would be happening this coming October, but could be delayed to September, 2026, because of the early election called during the illegal lockdowns. Our elections are supposed to happen every 4 years, but can be delayed to a maximum of 5 years from the last election.

So what does this mean?

Well, for people like us, it means prices will go up. Again. Not just because of the retaliatory tariffs T2 will be imposing – those will hurt us far more than it will hurt the US – but because we’re going to be slammed with another 20% carbon tax on top of everything else.

All because our Prime Dictator refuses to do his job and secure the border. Trump is not the “bully” here. Our own government has brought this on us, and is now making it even worse. The real question should be, why is T2 refusing to secure the border?

Being on a fixed income, this is probably going to hurt us a lot. Canada hasn’t been “open for business” for many decades, and is over reliant on the US as a trading partner. The US will be mildly inconvenienced.

There are, of course, increased calls to “buy local” and “buy Canadian”, which we should have already been doing. It’s hilarious to see the side that argued against Canadian self reliance to now play the hero by saying we could support Canadian businesses. We don’t actually make all that much. Most of our manufacturing has moved to other countries because our government makes it almost impossible to do business here in Canada. Canada could be the most productive and prosperous country in the world, but our own governments have prevented that. Instead, we are almost entirely dependent on the US.

As for the whole “51st state” thing, that is actually something a LOT of Canadians have wanted for many decades. More so now that we haven’t been able to get rid of our corrupt government. Canadians who haven’t had their head in the ground for the past 10 years aren’t angry at Trump. They are angry at our own federal government. Our own government brought this on us, and are now making it worse.

The tariffs are supposed to kick in on the 4th. Tomorrow. That shouldn’t affect prices on inventory already in the country; just on newly imported goods. However it’s entirely possible that the next time I get to Costco, the prices will have already increased again. I imagine places like Costco would be absolutely insane with panic buying right now.

What we really need is a new federal government, but the chances of finally having an election are very low.

It should be interesting to see how things look, the next time I go a stock up shopping post.

The Re-Farmer

Update: well, we have a reprieve. Our Prime Dictator has suddenly decided to do his job with the border. He said he will secure the border and designate a “fentanyl czar”, so the tariffs will be postponed for 30 days. Which is wise, since T2 has a habit of making grand promises and not following through with them.

He didn’t have to think hard to come up with a border plan, since it’s almost identical to what Premier Danielle Smith proposed a while ago. That would be the Premier of Alberta, the province T2 and all the other premiers were ready to throw under the bus. The one they insulted repeatedly as being un-Canadian for not being part of “Team Canada” (ha! What a misnomer) and throwing her own province under the bus.

Going back to the “51st state” thing, I found it interesting to learn today that 60% of Canadians polled by a neutral pollster actually said that’s what they wanted. Not because they hate Canada, but because they hate what T2 and his government has done to it.

So, for now, our prices should stay roughly the same. At least until the new 20% carbon tax kicks in, in April.

Unless, by some good fortune, Liberals finally get turfed before then. If we are allowed an election, I fully expect more shenanigans, so who knows.

At times like this, I am so glad we live in the boonies. We’re not as self sufficient as I wanted to be, by this point, but at least we’re not as dependent as we would have been, if we were still in the city.

Digging, and updates

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I’m looking to have a quiet-ish day today.

Relatively speaking!

By the time I headed outside this morning, we had already passed our predicted high of the day, and it will keep getting colder.

The first thing to do, of course, is feed the fur babies. Especially in the isolation shelter.

Fluffy, as you can see, is staying well away from me. No chance of checking her surgical site. Even when I came back later with wet cat food, she would not go anywhere near the food bowl (there’s just one again, as the other was knocked down to the lower level) while I was around. The Grink is more comfortable being nearby, but wouldn’t let me touch him, either.

At least one of them has yet to figure out the litter box in the lower level. 😬

With the ramp door closed, there is no need for the wind shelter box around it, but I did find another use for it. There are some cats that are too shy to come to the food bowls in the kibble house, shelf shelter or sun room, but will eat kibble left on the concrete well cap. Others just prefer to eat kibble there. I used to keep a scrap piece of rigid insulation on the cap, to keep little toe beans protected from the cold concrete, but no large enough pieces seem to have survived to this winter. So I generally just try to keep it clear of snow.

The wind shelter box makes that easier. It keeps the snow off the kibble, the scaredy cats get to have some shelter while they eat, and if they get startled, they have a “back door” to run through.

After the critters got their food and warm water, I went to switch out the memory cards in the trail cams. I found the gate cam like this.

It was completely encased in ice!

On checking the files, later, I found the motion sensor still worked, as there were several files where all I could see was the ice on the camera lens cover! It was surprisingly thick, too, and took some doing to clear. Mostly, it was using my hands to melt the ice off, because it could not be scraped off without a tool, and I didn’t want to do that and risk scratching anything.

The plan for today was to break out little Spewie later on, to clear the driveway. The snow system should be past us completely by now, but we’re also expecting high winds, later on. The main thing would be to clear the plow ridge at the end of the driveway, and we’ll need to use a shovel for that. Little Spewie was not made for jobs like that, and there’s bound to be gravel and rocks mixed in, anyhow.

This morning, though, I took the time to shovel out all the paths before heading back inside, including enough in front of the garage that the side doors can be opened to access Spewie and the extension cord collection. While clearing the paths from the shelters by the house, to the shrine and the catio, I made sure to put more snow around three sides of the catio for extra insulation. I don’t plan to go any higher than where the floating shelves and hammocks are. This way, the cats can sit and look through the plastic wrapped walls, and the sunlight can get in.

I am not taking the snow off the roof. The clear roof would let more light in and add to the passive solar heat, but the snow acts as an insulator that will help keep the heat in when it gets dark. I’m thinking the passive solar heat from the plastic wrapped walls should be enough. It will never get particularly warm in there, but at least it will be better than outside! I’d put snow around the front, too, but the propped open door needs to be kept clear, in case we need to get inside. Like when the cats (or other critters?) push the food bowl too far away from the door. Normally, I can just reach in with the scoop of kibble, and not disturb any cats too much (the more feral ones usually run off before I even reach the catio). Sometimes, though, it’s way too far, or even knocked over. I’ve had to go all the way into the catio at times, to get the food bowl and put it back in reach.

I may be short, but I’m not that short!

I was reminded today, just how much I enjoy shoveling snow! I kept telling myself to not push it, but it was just too much fun. At least the snow was still light and fluffy, and not packed down by the wind. Still, when I finally went back inside, I made sure to take some pain killers, right away! Not my prescription ones, as I want to save those for before bed. I need to talk to my new doctor about that. Painkillers that can be taken only once a day is great for helping me get some sleep, which is when I need them most, but not of much use during the day.

Aside from working on the driveway, we’re going to have to set up the laundry hose out the front door again today. From the gurgles I hear when we’re using the kitchen sink, I don’t think that section of pipe is clear enough to handle the the amount of water that would drain from the washing machine yet. It drains very quickly, and I don’t want to take the chance of it back flooding. I’m more than content to keep running the hose through the storm door until spring or so.

We’re still using the bacteria and enzyme pipe maintenance products every week, plus flushing with straight hot water and detergent every few days, as the plumber recommended, but there still seems to be a bottleneck in there. When the ice in the roof vent was cleared, we might have gotten things like leaves and other debris. Leaves would have a tendency to stick to the inside of the pipes and be harder to flush away with the water.

There’s only so much that the drain auger can clear stuff like that away. Ideally, we’d use something equivalent to a bottle brush that could be pushed through the length of the pipe that could scour the insides. We do actually have something like that, which is great for clearing smaller pipes, but isn’t quite large enough, or long enough, for this one.

It’s not a big deal. We just have to make sure to keep the wash loads going, with no breaks to wait for the dryer in between, and regularly pop outside to make sure the hose is drained, so it doesn’t freeze closed. We’ve even stopped doing cold water washes only, so that there is at least warm water running through to keep it ice free.

So that will get set up next. I don’t know if I’ll be up to doing the driveway with little Spewie as well. We’ll see. Normally, my daughter would do it, but she’s been quite sick for the past few days, and in even more pain than I am.

In other things, I’ll be sure to talk to my mother again today – assuming the hospital staff have left the phone in her room from yesterday. My sister has been contacting more distant family members about my mother, as she’s got their contact information (to be honest, I hadn’t even thought of it; I only thought of my siblings!). While we were chatting last night, she let me know that our vandal is back in a different hospital with an infection related to his recent surgery. I’d like to wish him well; it would be good to reconcile with him, but he’s so far gone, my sister can’t even mention my name around him, because he just loses it. I honestly can’t be angry with him about it; he’s clearly dealing with psychiatric issues. I do have a problem with the people around him that are enabling him and not getting him the help he needs. That, however, is not my problem. I have my mother to be concerned about.

I do wonder if I should be calling the eye clinic in the city. Her appointment is for near the end of February, and they don’t plan to do the injections this time. The will just check to make sure nothing has gotten worse. We won’t know for several more days, whether my mother will be released from hospital and sent home, or if they will be able to get her into assisted living or long term care – which is what she would prefer – instead. She is quite enjoying her time in the hospital, and things like having her meals and meds brought to her, and having all these doctors and nurses tending to her. She says the food is very good, too. She’s not on any dietary restrictions; just fluid restrictions, so she’d be getting “normal” meals. It would be so much better for her to NOT go home from the hospital! We shall see what happens over the next few days. I think, once we have a better idea of where she will be, then I’ll call the clinic and update them.

Well, I’m procrastinating now. Time to get that hose set up and start some laundry!

The Re-Farmer

Snow day

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I’m so glad I don’t need to go anywhere.

As I write this, we’re at -9C/16F, but the wind chill is at -25C/-13F

Around the house, we are sheltered from the wind direction for a change, so we’re not getting quite that wind chill effect in our immediate area. Which I am happy for, since we have to keep the isolation shelter closed, and there was only two cats in it.

These two.

The (Fluffy) Lady, and The Grink.

I’d given them their wet cat food this morning, and Fluffy stayed well away from me. Even when I was about go go inside the house, saw her sharing the food bowl with The Grink and paused to get my phone out to take a picture, she saw me stop and moved away.

Clearly, she has not forgiven us for her trip to the vet! There’s no way I can check her incision, but at least we can tell how she’s feeling by her behaviour, at least somewhat.

The Grink, meanwhile, seems quite happy to stay right where he is! We see them cuddling together in the cat bed pretty regularly now.

I also managed to get a picture of this dude.

At least I think he’s a dude. My daughters tell me he is, but I haven’t been able to see, myself, with all that long fur. He does not allow us near him. I had to zoom in to get this photo. He looks so much like Fluffy! She doesn’t have any white fur, other than inside her ears, so we can at least use that to tell them apart. This fluffer is one of this past summer’s kittens, so there’s almost a year between them. Fluffy is pretty small for her age, though, so there isn’t a lot of size difference between them.

The snow in our area started last night. It started coming down pretty hard at one point, but mostly it was light and constant, so there’s a few inches accumulated already. We’ve got a break in the snow right now, but it’s supposed to start up again tonight and keep snowing until about noon, with only a couple of hours break at about 7am. From what I’m hearing and seeing on the highway conditions group, the roads were getting pretty snow covered. The road between us and town was pretty bad, which is typical when the winds are blowing this way. The east-west roads are almost always the worst.

Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have to break out Spewie and do the driveway.

Needless to say, I did NOT head to town to see my mother. I did phone to ask how she was doing. I’d called shortly after shift change, though, so the nurse had only been there for 15 minutes. She knew my mother was doing well, and was feeling better, but that’s about it.

Then she asked if I wanted to talk to her on the phone. They could bring a phone to her room and she could transfer me over.

Yes, please!

It was good to be able to talk to her directly. Not that she could tell me much; she doesn’t understand much of what they are saying or doing in regards to her treatment, but she could tell me how she felt and we could just chat for a bit. My cousin had visited her today, so she was happy about that.

Little by little, I’ve been remembering different places to call that needed to know about my mother. Home care. Meals on Wheels. Today, I remembered to call her pharmacy. They would normally have delivered her bubble packs for the month, yesterday. Now that they know she is in the hospital, they can suspend her prescriptions until either we let them know she’s home, or a doctor calls to tell them her prescriptions are cancelled with the pharmacy, which they would do if she goes into long term care or assisted living.

I think that’s the last place that needs to know about my mother! Her church would already know, since the guy that took her to her appointment is from the church and has been bringing her communion since she hasn’t been physically up to going to church lately, and the church next to the hospital knows, as the priest has already come to give her communion since she was admitted.

It will probably be a couple of days before I can go and visit her again. While the roads might be clear earlier, it’ll take us some time to get our own driveway clear. In particular, I need to get the end of the driveway done. With what’s already there, once the plows go by, we probably would get stuck trying to get through the plow ridge. It’s going to start getting cold again, though. Today and tomorrow are going to be relatively warm, and then we’re getting highs of -19C/-2F, with overnight lows of -27C/-17F

I worry about the outside cats, but they know how to take care of themselves. The cats that used to hang out in the isolation shelter now hang out in the cat house and the sun room. Usually in big cuddle puddles.

We did get a big stinky kitty visit the sun room last night. I didn’t try to chase it out, after watching it on the camera for a while. The big heated water bowl that stopped working is set to the side, near where the heat lamp is. It’s full of ice, but on less frigid days, the heat lamp is enough for it to start to melt, and the cats seem to really like the melted ice water.

So goes the skunk, apparently. On the camera, I could see it sitting on top of the ice, doing something. It looked almost as if it were chewing on the ice, where a gap forms between the ice and the wall of the bowl. When I headed out this morning, I made sure to look. I could see a deeper spot in the ice, with smooth sides. The skunk had been licking the ice enough to create a hole!

By the middle of the month, I’m hoping we’ll have a new critter cam in the sun room. I’ve just ordered a small security type camera. It can be rotated 360° remotely, while the one in there now is stationary. The cats regularly knock it out of position. The main thing, though, is that it does not require a subscription to record and save files. We can add a micro SD card to record locally. As long as it can connect to our WiFi, that should be good. The last camera I tried simply would not connect to our WiFi, and we could never figure out why. If this one works out, I might try to get a lightbulb camera again, for the basement, to monitor the septic pump.

If I had the funds, I’d be like my brother with their old place. He had cameras everywhere! The buyers actually paid extra to keep his camera system. 😄 In the summer, I expect he will start adding more cameras around the property, since he moved his farm equipment here.

I have no problem with more cameras around!

But that will wait for when things are much warmer, and the snow is all gone.

It’s only February, but I am so done with winter already!

The Re-Farmer