This morning, once I was done my morning rounds, I headed out to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping.

My list was short. I needed seed starting mix, cat food, and a bit of groceries.

The Walmart did not have any seed starting mix.

This is what $238.76 looks like, which includes a small donation.

I got three 9.1kg bags of dry cat food, and one 32 count case of wet cat food. Last month, the dry cat food in this size cost $29.97 This month, they were back up to $34.97

Well, crud. I was just looking at the receipt and realized I was charged for an extra bag. I went through self checkout, so it’s my own fault. I now realize what happened. I was trying to scan the case of Coke Zero through the bottom of the cart, but it didn’t work. I thought I heard a beep and went scrolling through the items on the screen, but there was no Coke Zero, so I pulled it out from under the cart and got it scanned. I now realize there must have been a bar code on the side of the kibble bag that got scanned instead of the case below. No wonder my mental tally was off the final total by so much!

Well, we got to this location often enough that I can get it fixed.

So… this is NOT was $238 really looks like. 🤣

Anyhow.

On my list was peppercorns and eggs. They did have flats of medium eggs for just over $10, but I wanted large eggs, so I got two 18’s, instead. Those were $7.07 each. The Coke was not on my list, but they had a sale price for the case of 24 that was lower than buying two 12 packs – $11.97 instead of $14.97. The toilet paper was also on sale, so I grabbed a package for our emergency stash. 😉

I still needed to get seed starting mix, so after I loaded the truck, I decided to try the nearby Dollarama, since I was also wanting to see if their summer stock included those 6′ stakes that have been working out so well. They didn’t have the stakes, but I did end up getting three packs of “tomato stakes”. Each pack had three 3′ stakes with rigid connectors that can be popped on and off the stakes. I am actually thinking of using them around my corn, to help hold them up when we get high winds. I’ll slowly get more of these kits over the next few months until I think there is enough to support the corn stalks. I also spotted more of the half-bowls in the pattern I like so much, so I picked up four more of them. In the next couple of months, I’ll pick up four more side places and four more dinner plates, so we’ll have an 8 place setting. We can then pack away some of the dishes we never use, because they’re just too heavy. Plus, some are starting to get chipped. All of this together cost $28 and change, and I didn’t bother getting a photo.

They didn’t have seed starting mix, though.

So I went across the street to the Canadian Tire.

That is a very dangerous place for me to be!

This is what $69.54 looks like.

The seed starting mix was on sale, so I got the larger bags at $14.99 each. There was only one brand choice; Miracle Gro.

Then I started looking around the store.

I same SO close to buying a new compound miter saw that was on clearance! I have enough Canadian Tire dollars saved up that I could have gotten it for free. I’m hanging on to the CT dollars, though, to save up for something big, but it was really, really hard for me to talk away from that! We do have a compound miter saw that I got for $10 at a garage sale. It got a lot of use while I was building the cat isolation shelter. If I’m going to upgrade, it’s going to be a dual bevel sliding miter saw.

Which they also had on clearance. The clearance price was more than the CT dollars I have, but…

Oh, was it hard to walk away from that!

What I did end up finding and getting were a couple of 5 gallon buckets to replace the ones we’re using for doing the litter, so we don’t have to make multiple trips to dump the litter onto the compost pile (for those new to this blog, we use stove pellets for litter, which breaks up into sawdust as it is used). They were under $5 each.

I also got another S shaped cat scratcher. We got one not long ago, and the cats really like it a lot. More than any other set up we’ve tried. This is going to replace the scratching post I have in my bedroom that was donated to us. The post itself is still in great shape, but the shag carpet used to cover it has been shedding bits like crazy.

Last of all was an energy drink for the drive home.

Once home, I set the new cat scratched up in my room. The cats were all over it, immediately. It has a little dangling feather toy under the upward curve. That got ripped off within minutes. 😄 The scratching post it replaced has been set aside for now. I plan to remove the crappy shag carpet and recover it with some hemp craft rope that I have. It’s the same stuff I used on the inside ramp of the isolation shelter, and it holds up really well.

So that is our mid month top up shop, most of which was stuff for the cats!

On top of this, I also put in $50 in gas. The price was $1.479, which is down quite a bit. Likely because our new Prime Dictator has deigned to bring a carbon tax down to 0% in a pathetic bait and switch. Marx Carnage made a big show of it, too. With Trump’s public signings of executive orders being so popular, they basically made a set where he sat at a table in front of the media and signed an ” executive order”, to bring the carbon tax down to 0%. The thing is, Canada doesn’t have executive orders. Our version is something called an Order of Council, like they have in the UK. Because the carbon tax is a law, it can’t be removed, so bringing it down to 0% doesn’t actually get rid of the tax. Like I said, a bait an switch. What he signed was basically a fake document for show. An Order of Council has to go through Parliament, which is still shut down. Not that our new Prime Dictator could even be part of any debates in Parliament. He is not an elected Member of Parliament. At best, he can attend on the sidelines as a guest, and watch the proceedings from the gallery. We continue to be a de facto first world dictatorship, and the new guy is even worse than the old guy.

Canada is so screwed right now. While you probably aren’t hearing about it in the mainstream news, most of use are angry with our own government for starting this mess and making it worse. What started out as a joke about Canada becoming the 51st state is looking more and more like a solution. Since we still aren’t getting the election we should be, and haven’t been able to oust our corrupt government, a lot of people actually want Canada to join the US, and Alberta has even sent a delegation to discuss it. If Alberta leaves Canada, the rest of the country will fall apart, since Alberta basically funds the rest of the country through “equalization payments”. Especially to Quebec and Ontario. They’d go bankrupt in a heartbeat.

We are definitely in for some… interesting… times.

The Re-Farmer