But first, the cuteness…
Ghosty, using her adopted brother, Shadow, as a bed. 😁
Today was a wonderfully mild day. Our high this afternoon was supposed to be -8C/18F, but it sure felt warmer! We had more fog last night, which meant more frost on the trees, on top of the frost from yesterday morning, so it was looking pretty gorgeous, too.
I had two places I needed to get to today; a dump run, and then on to the feed store in the town north of us, to pick up 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. This feed store has a section for work wear, too, ranging from socks and boots to all sorts of outerwear. This is where my younger daughter found the high quality gloves and Tough Duck bib overalls she loves so much, so I asked her if she wanted to come along. Which she did.
I did not realize she had a secret purpose to come along!
The dump run was a bit different, in that we had a bin of stuff we weren’t sure were recyclable, or if they needed to go into the pit. I’d mentioned in an earlier post about a new RM council that was so bad it was disbanded and the province had to take over until another election could be held. Along with messing up when it came to getting the roads plowed and not going with the company that had been doing such a great job for years, they also messed up with the landfill caretaker. They fired the guy that had been going the job for years. For a while, I think it was contracted out to a company, because instead of one caretaker, with occasional help brought in, we were seeing a team of four people or more doing all sorts of stuff. Then, they were gone, and the caretaker was an older woman with mobility issues. She did the best she could, but she physically could not do a lot of things, like operate the front end loader, and the state of things got really bad. Someone would be brought in to clear the area in front of the pit, but whoever it was didn’t do a particularly good job. That was when I found myself with a flat tire after a dump run, and we got into the habit of my daughter walking in front of the truck into the pit area, to clear away any broken glass, nails, or other sharp objects scattered about.
Well, things have changed again. Lately, I’ve been seeing a young guy there, and I do hope he is a permanent employee, because he is really awesome! Aside from being diligent in doing the checks when we come in, he clearly knows how to use that front end loader.
Today, as we came in, we had the usual checks. We have a card with a number on it to prove we live in the RM. Other RMs charge a fee, while ours doesn’t, so people were going to the dump in our RM to avoid having to pay at their own, and these cards were the solution to that. We also get asked what we’re bringing which, in our case, is almost always just household garbage, which goes into the pit, and recycling, which goes into various bins around the caretaker’s shed.
This time around, we had some things we weren’t sure about. Mostly electronics. The woman that had been the caretaker before had told us to toss things like power cords into the pit, but this time we had some odds and ends. So when we stopped at the caretaker, I told him we had stuff we weren’t sure of. Then I pulled up to the nearby recycling bins and I started dumping the recycling while he and my daughter went through the bin we’d brought.
Some things, I knew they had special places for, like batteries and aerosol cans, but those have been moved.
The cordless glass kettles that started leaking or got chipped, we found out, cannot be recycled and had to go into the pit. Their bases, however, went into the electronics area – and he even took some of the stuff over for us, while do took items to other areas, so save us some walking! He was so sweet about it, too.
That done, we went into the pit area. Along the way, we could hear the front end loader was running, warming up to be used to clean things up. It wasn’t even that bad, yet, but he was getting ready to do it again!
I have to remember to find somewhere to pass on how great a job he’s doing.
…
Done.
I didn’t want to take a chance of forgetting by waiting until I finished this post!
Anyhow.
That done, we continued on to the feed store. I paid for 4 bags of kibble, then moved the truck around to have it loaded, while my daughter was inside looking around. I later joined her in the outerwear section and started chatting, asking what she was looking for this time. She was looking at some coats, then brought me over to where she’d found her overalls. I joked that I want a pair, too, but I would make sure that they were a different colour, so we wouldn’t get them mixed up. Not that that would be possible, as I would want a larger size. I did try hers on when she bought them and they fit me, but I like more room for layers.
The next thing I knew, when someone came around to ask if we needed help, she asked if they had the size I wanted, in black.
!!!
The lady had to go check their inventory, as they don’t have enough space to have all the sizes on display, and it turned out they did.
My daughter bought me these (not an affiliate link), though the price at the store was better than the price on the website. What an awesome surprise! Hers are tan, and she had to take 7″ off the legs for them to fit, and she’s thrilled with them.
Once we got home, I tried them on and she adjusted the shoulder straps to where I need them. Then she turned them inside out and got me to put them on again, so she could fold the bottoms and measure how much to remove. As I write this, she’s in the process of removing 6 1/2″ from the legs and hemming them, by hand. After that is done, I’ll try them on again and we’ll see if we need to add elastic anywhere, but I suspect it won’t be necessary. They’re oversize, but not in any inconvenient places.
These are going to be so very handy!
She also got herself a vest. No modifications needed!
My daughter tells me that she has decided to use her very modest disability income to get us all high quality, weather appropriate clothing, starting with me, since I’m the one that’s doing most of the outside work.
She is so sweet!
Aside from that, it’s been pretty uneventful. When it was time to do the outside cat feeding, I decided to clear the clumps of snow I’d knocked off the truck’s mud flaps. Then, since I had the shovel out anyway, I decided to clear the light snow out of the cats paths. It was so warm out, I had my jacket wide open, so I wouldn’t overheat while shoveling.
Before I knew it, an hour had gone by, and I’d cleared fresh snow from the entire turnaround area for the truck, plus the paths to the compost pile and litter compost, then started a new path towards the main garden area. Then I had to stop after only about 15 feet, because it was getting too dark. I haven’t been able to get to the sign cam in over a month. We’ve got some very mild weather expected over the next week, so I figured this would be a good time to dig out a path!
Oh, my goodness. I just checked the weather app on my desktop again. The last I looked, we were expecting things to warm up to a high of 0C/32F on Monday, but now it’s saying to expect a high of 2C/36F TOMORROW!!! Monday is now expected to hit 1C/34F, with highs just below freezing, in between.
This would be a good time to find an excuse to get the fire pit going!
[edit: I just had to add this. I looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow again, a few hours after writing this. It now says tomorrow is expected to reach a high of -6C/21F instead of 2C/36F. Good grief. How are we supposed to trust any of these forecasts when they constantly change, and by so much!]
Not tomorrow, though. Tomorrow, I need to go into town to pick up another prescription refill for my husband. It’s his “controlled substance” painkillers, so we weren’t allowed to get it refilled when I was there yesterday. While I’m in town, I’ll swing by the hospital to visit my mother, too.
After that, I think I’ll get the fire pit uncovered and prepped. We might just enjoy a fire, but I’m thinking we may as well break out the Dutch oven and cook supper, too.
We shall see what we come up with!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 