The first picture in the slideshow are the tomatoes, hollyhock and fennel. They are doing quite well! I’m very happy with what I’m seeing there.
The next picture is the leggy herbs, the sad little luffa, the celery that should probably be “potted up” and split into two rolls! – the marigold and cosmos.
The last picture has my surprise.
I’d rotated the trays just a couple of nights ago, so with the peppers and eggplant, the eggplant row is now in the foreground, and the California Bell Peppers are in the back.
There are three new seedlings in California Bell Pepper row, that weren’t there yesterday. There’s even at least one new seedling in the Sweet Chocolate pepper row in the middle!
Those poor eggplants are struggling, though. At least two have just withered away.
It’ll still be at least a week before I start the next back of seeds, but I might just re”pot” the eggplant and peppers into snail rolls before then. I’ll just need to sift more potting soil again, first!
We definitely have some things struggling, but over all, they seedlings are doing remarkably well for being in a rather poor environment for them!
Today I had an appointment to take the truck in to the garage, yet again. Before we headed out, of course, we had our morning routine to take care of, including the outside cats. I just have to share this adorable image.
Colby has his face turned up like that because he’s directly under the heat lamp. He’s warming his face!
I shared this photo with the rescue. Blot and Colby would be just weeks apart in age, yet the size difference is amazing. Blot is not thriving and has not really grown at all in months. I wanted to make sure the rescue was aware of this.
As it stands now, we might be bringing in 8 cats on Thursday! We were going to bring in 6 originally, but then they wanted me to bring in Sweetie, a female. As we were messaging, Frank came up, and how Frank is probably pregnant. We tried to get her spayed twice before, after fasting overnight in the isolation shelter. Both times, she escaped while we were trying to get her into a carrier. This time, they are going in for vetting and fostering, not straight for a spay. No overnight in the isolation shelter. We might be able to get her into a carrier, if we can give her food or treats inside. I’ve seen her go in and out of them, where they are stored in the sun room.
We’ll have to dig out the soft sided carriers to be able to fit everyone in the truck. One of them is slightly damaged from a cat almost tearing its way out, so we’d have to make sure only the mildest of cats would go into them. That makes for 7 carriers in total. We’ll try to get Frank first. After that, we’ll get the others – and see if we will still need to double up a couple of cats or not.
My appointment for the truck was at 1pm, but my daughter and I left around 11:30am. My daughter was on deer watching duty and saw quite a few I never did, since I was focusing on the road. She even saw a herd of at least 5 deer in the trees along our first mile of gravel road, loafed in the snow!
While driving along, I was keeping an eye on that oil gauge and, sure enough, the needle kept dropping. We found ourselves behind slow moving traffic that we couldn’t pass, so the drive took a bit longer than usual. By the time we parked at the garage, the needle was just touching the mark on the low end of normal. It doesn’t need to drop much further into the low pressure zone before the onboard computer starts dinging and telling me to turn off the engine.
I did remember to grab the replacement third brake light that we ordered a while back. I brought that in and talked to the mechanic for a while, explaining exactly what I was seeing, and that I’d added 3/4 of a liter of oil the day before yesterday, which was the last time the truck was driven. I also explained about the light. It’s easy to replace the light, but it requires climbing into the box of the truck to reach it. Something none of us are able bodied enough to do anymore.
That done, my daughter and I headed out – with both of us remembering to grab canes from the truck before we left. I’m very glad we did.
Our first stop was for lunch at a Subway right next to the pharmacy. Then we went to the pharmacy for my daughter to pick up her prescription refills. From there we made our way to the far end of town (about 3 more blocks) to a particular store my daughter wanted to go to.
Being as early as we were, we took our time with things. It was getting around 1:30 when we left the store, so we started making our way back. We stopped at one more store along the way. Unfortunately, by this time, my daughter was really starting to struggle. She’s got even worse back and joint pain than I do right now, and we kept having to slow down.
When we got to the garage, the truck was still in the parking lot. My daughter waited beside it while I popped in. There was just one mechanic at the time, and he’d just got in from lunch (a very late lunch!), apologizing that they hadn’t gotten to the truck yet, as they’ve been so swamped.
So we had to find somewhere to wait. There is a hotel right next to the garage and I normally would have gone to the Chinese restaurant inside, but today is Tuesday. They close on Tuesdays. My daughter was in so much pain, though, we went into the hotel anyhow, and into the bar. It was mostly empty, with just a few people at the counter or playing on the VLTs, so we found a table and sat down. I’ve never been to this part of the hotel though, for a brief period, long ago, my husband worked there as a bouncer. It gets very, very lively at night!
After a while of sitting and not being sure what the procedure was, I finally went to the counter and asked what pop they had. They just had Pepsi, 7Up and Ginger Ale – on the fountain, as mix. My daughter had asked for a root beer or water, depending on what they had, so I got myself a Pepsi and a water for her. It cost me a whole $2. 😁
Then we just sat and relaxed, nursing our drinks.
Eventually, I headed outside and went around the building enough to look at the garage parking lot. Our truck had still not been moved, so I rejoined my daughter. Our drinks were done, so I asked my daughter if she wanted something different, then went to the counter for a refill for myself, and a ginger ale for my daughter. While chatting, I mentioned we were waiting for our truck in the garage next door, as a way to explain why we weren’t getting booze. 😄 As the glasses were being filled, I confirmed the cost, only to be told that refills were free. I mentioned my daughter had a water before, and wanted to pay for the ginger ale – but she let me have it for free!
That was very sweet of her!
As we got closer to 4pm – the garage closes at 5 – I went out again to check the garage parking lot. The truck was still there, but one of the bay doors was open, so I went in to ask if they could say how much longer it would be. The owner was back by then, so he was the one I was talking to this time.
Which is when he told me he’d meant to call me several times, but kept getting pulled away by other things – then told me I forgot to leave the key with them.
🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Thankfully, it wasn’t much of a delay because of the keys, so I quickly left them on the desk then headed back to rejoin my daughter.
The next time I went out to check, the truck was gone and the bay doors were closed, so we finished up our drinks then headed to the garage. Walking past the truck in one of the bays, I could see the shiny new third brake light had been installed. They had just finished with the truck, so the owner was able to join me in the office and talk to me about it while the mechanic backed the truck out of the shop.
There’s nothing wrong with the truck.
There is no leak. The oil levels were fine. I told him about adding more oil just the day before yesterday, and it had been down – otherwise, it would have been over filled when they checked it. We went over what I was seeing on the pressure gauge again, and he is completely perplexed. They could find nothing wrong. He told me, however, that I am not the only one with this mystery. Another customer, with a completely different make and model truck, has the exact same issue.
The only thing he can think of is that it’s the oil sensor. It’s been replaced twice – the second time on warranty – but it is not a GM brand sensor. It was the same situation with the other customer, except that truck is a Dodge. They were going to try replacing the sensor with the name brand part instead, and he thought that might make a difference if we did similar with our truck, too. There’s really nothing else that it might be. He’s going to look up the sensor and see what he can find for me.
We did talk a bit about bringing my mother’s car in to be checked over in preparation for selling it. He wanted to know if I was still wanting to do that, and I said yes, but right now, we can’t get it out of the garage because the doors are blocked with snow. So that will wait for a bit. Then we talked about refinancing to replace the truck. I told him, if there was any way we could keep the truck and make a down payment instead, I’d prefer that. We do need two vehicles, and the truck is the perfect vehicle for us here. The problem is, we’ve only had the truck for 2 years. We still owe quite a lot on it, so refinancing might not be easy. Something that needs to be looked into, though the financing company did offer my husband a pre-approved loan a couple of months back!
In the end, all I had to pay for was half an hour of labour, because all they did was install the light I brought, and try to do some diagnostics.
By this time, a weather system we’d been keeping an eye on for much of the day had reached us, and snow was starting to come down pretty hard. My daughter and I popped across the street to the grocery store, next. I had a list of my own, plus my husband gave me his card and a list, and my daughter had a shopping list from her sister. The snow was coming down harder when we were done, but we still had a pair of stops to make. My daughter’s second list from her sister was for the liquor store, while I went to the hardware store across the street. I wanted to get a couple of litres of oil to keep in the truck, since I finished off the last of my stash. I meant to buy some from the garage, but they it only in bulk.
When we were both done and heading home, we drove out of the worst of the snow fairly quickly, and had a nice break from it, though the roads were pretty slick in places.
Meanwhile, my daughter passed on messages she was getting from her sister.
My mother had called.
No one could get to the phone in time, but she didn’t leave a message.
She called again.
Then again.
By the fourth time, my older daughter was waiting at the phone to pick up right away. She could hear noises, including button pushing noises. She was shouting “hello”, but there was nothing. Then my mother hung up.
This time, my daughter kept a handset with her, so she was ready to answer the 5th call. She had to shout hello again before my mother finally answered, asking for me. She told my mother I wasn’t home and would call her back. Then my mother asked who was on the phone, so my daughter said her name.
Who??
Your granddaughter!
My daughter explained again that I was out, and that I would call her as soon as I got home. My mother told her, “I’m waiting!”
???
Then my daughter messaged her sister a detailed transcript of what happened, which was read to me during the drive home. 😄
As near as I can figure, for at least one of the attempted phone calls, my mother didn’t bring the phone to her ear again; she tends to stare at the screen after making the call, instead. What we couldn’t figure out is what was going on that was so important that she’d call 5 times!
So as soon as everything was unloaded and put away, including the truck (I had to feed the cats so I could safely move it out of the yard!), I called my mother.
She had her phone on her and was able to answer rather quickly.
I told her, I was finally home and asked her what was going on.
Oh, nothing.
She mentioned figuring out her phone, and that she just wanted to keep communication going.
She just wanted to talk.
…
Before I’d called, I went through the CID list. The first three calls my mother made were barely a minute apart. The last two, where my daughter had actually answered, though my mother never heard her the first time, were just a couple of minutes apart.
She has never done anything like this before. Usually, if she does make several calls while I’m away, it’s because something had happened. She would sometimes leave angry messages on the machine, about how she knows we’re there, pick up the phone. Even then, the calls were never one right after the other like she did, today.
On the plus side, she’s obviously getting used to her phone and, more importantly, she’s remembering to keep it with her.
Of course, she was wondering when I’ll be visiting next! I mentioned we’ve got rain and snow happening tonight and tomorrow, plus I’ve got a lot of things to catch up on now that we’ve got the truck back. I didn’t tell her I’d taken the truck to the garage again today, as that would have just caused issues. I mentioned possibly Thursday, though it would be while coming back from the city. I did not tell her I was going to be delivering cats! She told me, whenever you can, and just sort of brushed it off. Which is REALLY unusual for her!
Then she cut the call short because there was nothing to talk about.
That had to be one of the strangest calls I’ve had with my mother. So very unlike her! Still, she seemed in a much better mood than she has been of late, so I’ll take it.
Meanwhile…
I’m hoping to finally head in to the tax preparer tomorrow and drop off our files. Normally, we would have done it as soon as my husband’s second T4A came in, but we didn’t have the transportation. Tomorrow is supposed to be steady snow, possibly mixed with rain, for most of the day. At least it’s supposed to clear up when it’s time to take the cats in to the rescue!
While we were bringing stuff into the house, Sir Robin managed to slip through the door three times! I caught him before he could get far, but that boy SO wants to be indoors!
Soon, he will be!
Just a little bit longer.
I am so glad the rescue has been able to find fosters for so many cats!
The only problem is, how will the truck behave? Knowing there is nothing wrong – no leaks, etc. – doesn’t help if that pressure gauge drops far enough to set off alarms and warning lights.
Hopefully, changing out that sensor one more time will stop it from happening.
Not sure when that will happen, though. He’s got to do some searching for one, first, much like he had to do to find a differential for our truck’s year.
The mystery is so incredibly frustrating and perplexing.
Today, my husband and I celebrate our 38th anniversary … sort of. As best we can, anyhow.
A bit of back ground is needed for today’s amusement.
My husband is disabled with a back injury. Anyone who has had a back injury – especially the lower back – understands how impossible the pain can make things. You can’t sit, can’t lie down, can’t stand, in any position for long. Which means my husband is often up most of the nigh, unable to lie down to sleep, until the wee hours. I often don’t see him at all until the afternoon.
As for myself, I was up earlier. Before 6:30am, I gave up and got up to do the morning routine. Fed the inside cats, got dressed to go outside, did the outside cat feeding and the morning cleaning and refilling of water bowls (I can tell when the raccoons have visited during the night; they make such a mess of the heated water bowls!!), switched out the memory card on the trail cam, got the meter reading for the month, and basically just took care of the usual winter outdoor morning routine.
The cat in the first picture above is one of the most feral females. We have had zero success at getting anywhere near her (we haven’t come up with a name for her yet) or Sprout (a calico). The ferals have “nests” somewhere in the outer yard and come close to the house only for food and water.
The other two pictures are of the crowd I found in the isolation shelter, as I was finishing up. I didn’t open the windows to get clearer shots, because they would have split up and some would have run away. I counted thirteen cats, all smashed together in the upper level!!!
The outside stuff done, I had intended to go back to bed. I’m feeling better, but still am dealing with pain. I needed to eat something first, so I made a breakfast, ate it at my computer while going through trail cam files (so many deer!!!), then went for a nap.
During this entire time, I did not see my husband. His bedroom door was closed to keep the cats out. I knew he’d been up for much of the night, so I assumed he had finally been able to fall asleep.
I was outside sometime around 7am. By the time I finished the outside stuff, made and ate breakfast, gone through the trail came files, then tried to lie down, it was about 9:30am. Thankfully, I was able to get some much needed sleep and woke up a couple of hours later.
Yes, the timeline is important.
In the afternoon, I was at my computer when I could hear my husband talking to his father on the phone. I sent a quick “happy anniversary” message so as not to interrupt his call. When he was done, he came over to talk to me, and I said happy anniversary again.
My husband started laughing, because we’d already exchanged anniversary greetings. I thought he meant my message, but no. He meant as I went by his bedroom door this morning.
???
I told him, I hadn’t done that.
He laughed again and “reminded” me that when he said happy anniversary to me as I went by, I started singing the “Happy Anniversary” song to him – a joke of a song and dance we picked up from a classic cartoon, many years ago.
???
I told him, I’d done no such thing.
He insisted I had. At about 7:30 this morning.
I explained that I was still outside at that time.
Maybe it was 9:30?
I told him I’d gone back to bed by then, telling him the other things I’d done before then.
My husband is absolutely convinced that we had this conversation this morning, that we’d wished each other a happy anniversary, and I did the silly song and dance that we’ve done for so many years. It is absolutely clear in his memory.
All at times when I was either outside, in the kitchen making breakfast, or in my own bedroom/office. Times when I never heard or saw him at all.
Which means one of us has had some very, very vivid dreams!
We got to enjoy our basket contents as our traditional Easter brunch, and it was quite lovely.
Not everyone is in a joyful mood, though. I found this in my pending comments today.
No, I am not “approving” it.
Bogna 11h ago
Your pictures say “view on Instagram” so there is nothing to view. This blog is crap
For those who have been following my image heavy blog for a while, you already know this, but for those newer to this blog, I have a bit of an issue.
I have an old WordPress plan that is no longer available. It gives me my domain name and 15G of storage space. I am currently at 98.9% full.
I could upgrade my account to a business plan, which would give me 50G of storage space and a whole lot of bells and whistles I don’t want or need, costing more than twice what I’m paying per year now. Or I could buy – well, rent would be the more accurate term – 50G of storage space and be paying even more than the cost of a business plan, on top off how much my current grandfathered plan costs per year. None of which is in budget.
I’ve looked at a lot of places where I could store image files with the intention of embedding them here, but none of them have worked out for one reason or another. The only one that has worked out consistently is to post things to Instagram, then embed them into my posts, the same way I can embed videos. The problem with that is, sometimes the images/video don’t load and people have to click on the space to go to Instagram to view them. From what I understand, though, if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can’t actually see them. I could be wrong on that. Of course, if someone has blocked me on Instagram or something like that, they won’t be able to see it. Nor would I be able to see anything of theirs.
The thing is, this is a function of Instagram. Something I have no control over. This is something that happens on the viewer’s end. Everything is working just fine at my end, and I have no way of knowing when or if it will work for any particular viewer at any given time. Most people know how these things work well enough to get it.
My angry visitor here doesn’t seem to understand that and has declared my blog “crap”, simply because they apparently can’t click to view on Instagram. I have no idea why they can’t view the images on my blog through whatever device or OS they are using. Apparently, they aren’t capable of clicking or tapping on the “view on Instagram” link that shows, instead.
So they chose to diss my blog, instead.
They have only succeeded in giving me a good laugh.
Happy Easter, Bogna! I hope you have a better rest of your day.
This year’s eggs are straight pickled eggs; soy sauce, turmeric and beet juice brines. The olives stuffed with feta are in a dish of my mother’s from when we packed up her apartment that now lives here. The Royal Albert Lavender Rose patterned China plate under the herb and garlic Boursin cheese is part of a set we inherited from my late MIL. In the pinch pots is butter, salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and horseradish paste. The loaf is artisan flax seed baked at the grocery store in town, and the garlic sausage is from the general store in our little hamlet, made locally.
I’m honestly stunned by how bright yellow the turmeric eggs are. They looked so pale while still in the jar!
We do have some small chocolate eggs to include, but they are “naked” and my daughter didn’t want them picking up moisture and food smells, so they will wait.
This is the first year I was not able to assemble any part of the basket myself, due to not feeling well.
I think the girls put together a very lovely basket! They’ve been a great help to me today.
It’s coming up on evening as I write this, and we still haven’t reached our high of the day – anywhere from 5-7C/41-45F depending on which app I look at.
When I headed out to do the morning cat feeding, I didn’t even bother wearing a coat.
One of things we find in the winter is tunnels dug into the piled up snow. Today, I found two new ones – and evidence to show what has been making them!
The first photo is of the biggest tunnel. It’s hard to see, but to the left of the opening there is the distinctive paw print of a raccoon. Both raccoons and skunks are out now, and I’m seeing them in the sun room, stealing kibble!
The next three photos are of one tunnel with two openings.
I wonder if they nap in them or something?
After doing my morning routine, I was basically knackered. I am feeling both better and worse today. Better in some ways, but worse in a new pain way. I can’t stand for very long. It’s better while I’m moving, for a little while, at least.
So the girls have been taking over for me for the most part. I did go out again to do the evening cat feeding, and even tried to clear more snow away from around the well cap, were the bigger of those snow tunnels was.
This gorgeous tuxedo is a very feral male. He’ll go into the sun room sometimes to eat, or to assert dominance over other males, but will not allow a human to come anywhere near him. Which is the only reason he didn’t run away as soon as I walked back into the sun room. He and Hypotenose where having words.
It was so nice out, I found excuses to stay outside longer. Did a bit more clearing of snow from around the well cap, though I probably shouldn’t have. I hate not being able to do work while the conditions are good.
The fluffy tabby glaring at me on the right is Furriosa. She has been making strange a lot more often of late. Which is unfortunate, as we want her to get used to being handled as much as possible before we take her in to the city for vetting and fostering and eventual adoption. When the time comes, I think we’ll have to close up the isolation shelter with the littles inside for the night, to make it easier to get them into carriers the next day. Sir Robin and Grommet will be easy to get, as will Domino and Blot. Bug has even been more ansty lately, and when I try to pet Furriosa in the isolation shelter, she runs out now. I think the warmer weather has something to do with it. They have more energy to run around!
Tomorrow is Easter, and it’s going to be a quiet one at home. I’m not up to driving to my mother’s to visit her and deliver a basket, as I’d planned, but I will be phoning her instead. All the remaining Easter preparations will be on the girls. Monday is our 38th anniversary, but we won’t be doing anything special this year. Tuesday, I bring the truck in to get checked out to find out why I’m losing oil again. Hopefully, the truck will not have anything major going on, and I will be feeling well enough to make the trip to my mothers – and the city trip to deliver cats! – later in the week.
Right now, I’m torn between wanting to go back outside and enjoying the day, or crawling into bed and curling up into a ball until tomorrow.
It was a pleasant morning so, after the outside routine was done, I took the time to clear the path and set to the electric meter, so I can do a reading later in the week. I knew it would be a warmer day – as I write this, we’ve reached 3C/37F, with a “real feel” of 6C/43F – and I was planning to head out this afternoon to see if I could get more snow hauled away from around the well cap.
It seems my “side effect” theory is not correct. I have not been feeling well today, and have had to ask the girls to take care of things for me, simply because I can’t stand for any useful length of time.
*sigh*
Doctor’s appointment is a month from now. I expect to be sent for tests and referrals, and who knows how long it will take for those to happen.
Hopefully, I’ll be feeling good enough tomorrow to visit my mother. Forecast for Easter is a mix of rain and snow, so there’s another reason to go on Saturday, instead.
I’d rather not go anywhere at all until Tuesday, when the truck is booked to find out why I’m losing oil again.
What I’d really like to be doing is heading outside and getting some work done.
As I was getting my coat to go feed the outside cats, I spotted movement in the distance. I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these shots, so they’re not the best.
Two white tail deer, beyond the outer yard, at the far side of the barn. Soon after, I saw one of them making its way through the outer yard to the driveway, heading for the gate. The deer are very, very active this time of year, and the population looks to be quite high this spring! I haven’t seen so many since we stopped feeding them outside the living room window.
After I did the outside cats’ food and water, I tried for a head count. I think I counted 24 in total. Possibly 25?
Adam was on the cat house roof, where she prefers to eat, and she enthusiastically allowed me to pet her. I was able to feel around her belly. She does not feel pregnant, and I don’t feel any active nips. Given how early I saw she’d gone into heat and the boys going after her, it’s entirely possible she’s had a litter and lost it. I am seeing the other feral females – Slick, Sprout and the white and grey we haven’t named – show up just long enough to eat, and then they disappear.
I managed to get a picture of this beauty, though.
I’m glad we were able to catch her and get her spayed, because she very rarely allows me to touch her. Once I do, she stops and enjoys the pets, but otherwise, she just runs away.
Once the outside stuff was done, I headed out. My first stop was to the post office, then I planned to go to the feed store in my mother’s town, then visit her.
I had asked the owner of the general store if their feed supplier also carried cat food. She looked up their list and they did. That was a while ago, so when I came in to get the mail, I looked through their feed section and saw they had three 18kg (39.68lbs) bags of cat kibble! They were only $45, too. With the other brands we’ve been getting, they are in the $50-$55 range.
We’ve never had this brand before, so I got only one, to try it out. If the cats like it, it would make things much easier to pick them up in our own little hamlet than having to drive to the towns with feed stores. The only thing is that I would have to change how I budget it. Right now, I put the budgeted amount onto a credit card, so that when I buy them I get my cashback or Canadian Tire dollars. The general store doesn’t take credit cards, though. Just cash and debit. So if I’m going to be buying the big bags there more often, I have to make sure NOT to transfer the funds to a credit card.
So after I picked up our mail, I got the one bag of kibble – then picked up a couple of sausages for the Easter baskets. Something else that was on my list for the shopping I planned to do after visiting my mother.
Since I got the test bag of kibble, I skipped the feed store and went straight to my mother’s.
She was in her favourite armchair in the common room when I got there. She was pleasantly surprised to see me, which was nice for a change.
It was a pretty quiet visit. There wasn’t a lot new going on. My mother immediately started complaining, of course, but not as … energetically, shall we say, as usual. Her health isn’t good. She needs sleep. She needs a private room. (I don’t disagree!) Her room mate is terrible. (I’m sure her room mate thinks the same of my mother!) The regular doctor never comes to see her. The other doctors are from the city come in just for a day. I reminded her that she would need to make an appointment for the doctor to actually see her as a patient; otherwise, he’s just doing his rounds before going to his regular patient appointments at the clinic. To which she complained that it’s just about moneymoneymoney. Apparently, doctors shouldn’t get paid? I’m not quite sure what she’s getting at when she says that, but she says it quite often.
Hopefully, she won’t be here for very long, but there’s just no way to know when a bed will open up at the nursing home she wants to be in.
I remembered to ask if our vandal had shown up again, after his big act with his wife pushing him in with a borrowed wheelchair, then storming out when she refused to pay for his funeral. She said no, he hasn’t. I was not surprised. I told her, I knew there was a reason he was visiting so often. He wanted something from her. Now we know what it was. She started going on about how he’s wealthy, he has his farm. I told her, that’s not cash in the bank. He would have to sell it. Her response was, what else is he going to do with it? His wife isn’t going to farm it, and they have no kids. I told her, he doesn’t have to. He’s got so many vehicles and equipment scattered all over his property. Stuff he can’t use anymore. He could sell just a couple of things and more than cover the cost of his own funeral. That reminded her of the thousands of dollars she’d given him for the huge garage he had built to store his equipment in. All I know is, his vehicles and equipment are still all scattered all over his yard, fully visible from the road as I drive by, except for the Bobcat he stole from my mother, so who knows what all he’s got stored in there. My mother got the point, though; there is no reason for him to be going to her for money to pay for his own funeral. Which could be years from now, for all I know, based on how he appears the few times I’ve seen him since his diagnosis.
Overall, it was a good and relaxed visit. I stayed until her lunch tray was brought over – a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and crackers, a pickled blend of legumes I recognize from Costco that is quite good, and canned fruit for desert. Her insulated tea cup was just hot water – at her request – to mix in with the glass of milk. One of her favourite things to drink. I stayed long enough to help her get set up and everything was in reach before saying my goodbyes.
From there, it was off to our regular local grocery store – and extra drive, but the difference in prices between that town and my mother’s made it worth it.
Once there, I got the last few things for the Easter baskets, including an extra flat of eggs. I’d asked my daughters to hard boil some eggs for me to start pickling after I got home. They ended up doing a flat and a half – roughly 45 eggs. The extras and the uglies would be used for egg salad. I got a paska for my mother, though it’s huge for a one person basket. Since she no longer has her own kitchen or utensils, my plan is to have everything for her basket all cut up and ready to eat without needing anything else. Plus, she could share the contents, if she finds it too much. We aren’t fans of paska ourselves, so I got a lovely fresh flax seed loaf for our own basket.
The shopping done, my only planned outing over the next while is to visit my mother and bring her the basket on either Saturday or Sunday.
I’m thinking Saturday.
There’s a reason for that.
The truck.
The truck has been running well. The stock up shopping trips have been fine. I have, of course, still been constantly checking the gauges. With the troubles we’ve been having for the past couple of years, I just can’t help myself.
Which is why I noticed something had changed.
The oil pressure gauge.
When we had the leaking seal replaced again, on warranty, and the oil sensor replaced, I got an oil change done at the same time. According to the mileage, we have a couple thousand kilometers before it needs to be changed again – which is about a month’s worth of driving, in the summer. Two months, in the winter.
After all that, the pressure gauge was right back where it was supposed to be and staying within a typical range.
As we were coming home from the Costco trip, though, it started to read on the low side of normal. Technically still okay, but at one point, it was pretty much on the line for low pressure.
It was reading normal again when I started out today, but when I got to the grocery store from my mother’s, the gauge had dropped down to the line again.
While I was on my way home, I kept checking it, and sure enough, it kept slowly dropping. As I was pulling into our driveway, it was touching the line again.
*sigh*
One thing I can say, though; the warranty differential is working fine. The 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive setting has been on auto, and it has had no problem kicking into 4 wheel drive as needed. Today got so warm, the hard packed snow under the tire tracks in our driveway started to soften and the truck starting to sink as I was driving, but I was able to get through with no problem! No getting stuck in our own driveway again!
We’ve been parking the truck in the yard for the past while, since my brother’s truck was half in our garage (as far as it could go without hitting the top of the door frame). My brother had phoned this morning and he suggested I just back it up into the lane towards the barn and leave it there, so we could park our own truck in the garage. So after the shopping was unloaded and I did an early feeding of the outside cats (they like the new kibble!), I moved his truck out.
His truck was having issues with sinking through the formerly hard packed snow, but it got through fine as well.
Driving our own truck into the garage, the oil gauge didn’t have a chance to drop like it did while driving, but it also never got to where it normally is.
The boxes for our chicken coop are still stored at the far end of the garage, so we can’t pull all the way in. Not a problem, since it means I had space to get out the step stool and check the oil levels.
It was low.
I had one last bottle of oil left, 3/4 full, and used that. The level seemed okay after that, but I’m never confident in what I’m seeing on the dip stick. The colour of the oil and the colour of the dip stick is pretty much the same, and the metal is always shiny, even after wiping it clean.
*sigh*
I made a point of checking, and there is no sign of an oil leak, but then I’ve never seen evidence of an oil leak even when it turned out to be leaking really badly, because of where the leak was. The only times I thought I did, it turned out to be from the differential, not engine oil.
Once I was settled inside, I called the garage. The owner answered. I made sure to first let him know that the warranty differential replacement has been doing fine, then explained about the oil pressure and being low on oil again. I mentioned, I’ve got a lot of driving to do in the next while!
He asked me if I could come in on Tuesday afternoon, so they can check it out. They are closed tomorrow and on Easter Monday, of course, so I was very happy that he could book me in so quickly.
For now, it should be fine for me to drive to my mother’s. I’ll do it on Saturday, when things are open, so I can pick up some extra oil to keep in the truck, now that I’ve just used the last of my stash.
This is getting so insane. I’ve either got another leak somewhere, or the truck is simply burning a lot of oil. Which I would expect to see evidence of in my exhaust, and I haven’t.
I just don’t get it.
I am so tired of vehicle troubles!
I can’t even say it’s been this particular truck, since the last two vehicles we’ve owned have also had weird problems. As my daughter told me during our Costco shop, and I was commenting about my own paranoia about the truck; with all the stuff that’s been going on, I have reason to be!!
Hopefully, it’s something minor that they can find and fix easily and quickly.
Hopefully.
On a completely different note, once I had my appointment made, I got to check out what I got in the mail.
The padded envelope had been opened, and the box it was in was crushed. That would have been customs. At least the thermometer itself was not damaged!
Once things thaw out, I want to use it in various beds to see how different the soil temperature is in, say, the high raised bed compared to the low raised beds. It might help explain why I had issues with my beans, melons, tomatoes and squash last summer.
That all settled, the last goal of the day was to make three different types of brine to pickle eggs in, and start peeling the eggs that were hard boiled last night. I made beet, soy and turmeric brines, using the simplest recipes I could find online, so I had three little pots going at once. Then my younger daughter and I started peeling eggs.
It was a disaster.
The shells just did not want to separate from the eggs!
Now, it we were just making egg salad, I wouldn’t have cared, but I was after the most perfect eggs to brine and use in our Easter baskets, and we just weren’t getting any at all. After about a dozen eggs, I called a stop to trying.
Thankfully, I got a extra flat of eggs at the grocery store today.
The ugly eggs didn’t go to waste, though; they got eaten pretty much immediately. 😄
Meanwhile, I started on another batch to hard boil, using tips I’ve tried in the past, all combined.
It worked.
First, fill the pot with water and generous amount of baking soda, then bring it to a boil. The eggs were brought out of the fridge to warm up. Room temperature would have been ideal, but I at least didn’t want to have cold shells cracking on contact with boiling water.
Once the water was boiling, I used a wire basket type scoop – I don’t know the name of it – to lower the eggs into the boiling water in batched. I got 24 eggs into the pot. One did crack, but nothing leaked out of it.
I set the timer for 10 minutes, but it took a while for the water to go from a simmer to a full boil again, so it was really more like 7 minutes at a boil. When the time went off, I shut off the heat, but didn’t take them out right away, just in case. Then I transferred them to a bowl of cold water and left them there for another 10 minutes.
Every single egg peeled perfectly.
All 24 eggs.
Perfect. Including the one that cracked!
I was hoping to just have 6 eggs per jar or brine, but I was able to do 8 in each!
Gotta make sure to pass on the method to the girls. My younger daughter was pretty upset that the first batch wouldn’t peel and felt she had done something wrong. It’s not a problem, though. We’ll just have lots of eggs ready for snacking!
Tomorrow, we need to dig out a couple of baskets from storage, and I need to figure out how to do my mother’s basket, if I’m going to have everything pre-cut up for her. Normally, the baskets would get blessed on Saturday, then enjoyed on Easter morning, but I have not been able to find any times for basket blessing. I know it’s being done; just not which church or what time. For quite a few years now, we’ve just blessed them ourselves. I’ll take the chance to visit my mother on Saturday with her basket and get a bit of a visit in.
Then not go anywhere again until it’s time to take the truck in to the garage to get checked!
Today ended up being a home day. Yesterday wiped both me and my daughter out completely, so we’ve been in recovery mode. Tomorrow, I will need to go out to do the last of our Easter shopping and errand running, since so many places will be closed.
When I checked on my seed starts last night, I had a lovely surprise. The first Florence Fennel seeds had emerged! I could see at least a couple of Blueberry tomato seedlings, too.
They are hard to see, but in the first photo, there are both Blueberry and Chocolate Stripe seedlings emerged.
The second photo shows an explosion of Orange Currant and Manitoba tomato seedlings.
The third photo, you can see more of the hollyhocks, including a couple lifting up their seed casings. I’ll keep an eye on those and see if the seed leaves need help getting out. The other roll has quite a few Florence Fennel seedlings showing, and I expect I might even see more by the time I check on them again this evening.
I added more water to the trays and realized it was time to “graduate” out of the plastic tray for the mixed stuff, onto a stronger metal tray. Moving the herb seedlings was the most delicate. These were sown into 5 cell trays, but the tarragon had only three cells with seedlings, so I removed two of them. The compostable material was breaking apart, anyhow. The summer savoury looks so long and spindly. I’ll probably end up buying transplants for those, but we’ll see how they do for now. Then there’s the sad little luffa!
The Golden Boy yellow celery, however, is going fantastic! It’s getting too tall to fit under the shop light. The marigold and Cosmos are doing very well up there.
After transferring everything to the metal tray, I could remove the plastic one, then poured the water I’d added earlier into the metal tray. The shelf sags slightly in the middle, unfortunately. I’ve added some sheets of cardboard under the heat mats in the middle, but it isn’t quite enough to make up for the sag. Ah, well. I just have to be careful to make sure that roll with the celery doesn’t dry out too much.
Normally, I would take these off the heat mat completely, but the basement is too cold, which means the soil is even colder. The metal tray will diffuse the heat better than the plastic, and the water on the bottom will also help equalize things – in theory, anyhow! Before, I had tried using a heater and staying in the basement while it was running, but between the heat mats and the shop light I’m running out of places to plug things in. The basement has three outlets in the entire space, and only two of them can be reached from the table. With the third one, though, I’ll be able to plug in a fan to get some air moving to help strengthen the stems. It doesn’t need to be very close to do the job.
So that is our seedling progress today, and I’m very happy to be seeing so many tomatoes. Especially with the ones where I’d used up the entire packet of seeds and have no spares! I was starting to wonder about the Florence Fennel, too.
Pretty happy with how things are going, considering the rather poor set up we’ve got this year.
My younger daughter and I headed to the city after I got a couple more photos and videos of specific cats for the rescue, and after topping up the tires. I’m glad we took the time to check them. They were all low, even taking into account winter temperatures.
We made a stop along with way at a gas station in the town my mother is back in. We meant to get gas and lunch at Costco, but we wanted to get some drinks and snacks to tide us over for the drive in. My daughter paid for it, so that didn’t come out of budget. Gas was $1.729/L for Regular there at the time.
When we got gas at Costco, it was $1.499 for regular (Premium was $1.729). As we were leaving the city, we passed a gas station that was at $1.719 – but when we drove through my mother’s town again, the gas prices had dropped to $1.649! Nice to see the drop. It’s almost unheard of for rural towns to drop before prices in the city drop.
Once at the Costco, the first thing we did was fill the tank and reset the trip counter. At $1.499/L, it cost us just pennies under $80 to fill.
Before we did any shopping, my daughter and I went in to have lunch. There was no way we’d have the energy to stop for food after the shopping, so we made sure to eat first. My daughter got a couple of slices of pizza – not realizing how big they were! – while I had their Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich; something the other locations no longer have available. It’s been years since I’ve had one, and it was absolutely delicious! Those, plus a couple of drinks, cost $16.97 – and over half of the before tax total was just the cost of my sandwich!
It was worth it.
Since we were planning to go to the new Costco this time, my older daughter sent me some funds with a few requests, so this “over budget” total of $862.72 was not actually over budget.
It was, however, still very expensive for what we got.
We didn’t have to buy a lot of cat supplies this time, and I was able to get a fair bit of meat, but still…
This is what we got.
For cat supplies, we only needed to get for the indoor cats, so there is just one 11.6kg bag of kibble, a case of canned cat food and a case of XL puppy pads. In other non-food items, there is a package of toilet paper and a 4 pack of toothpaste.
From the pharmacy area, we got some B100, Adult Gummie multivitamins, plus some extra strength acetaminophen.
In beverages, we got a case of Monster (which my daughter paid for), a case of Oat Milk, Iced Tea mix (only because it was on sale) and some English Breakfast tea in a new Peter Rabbit design tin. Can’t have too much tea, and my younger daughter likes the tins.
In baking supplies, we got a bag of flour and a 2 pack of baking powder.
I just realized I got charged twice for the baking powder 2 pack. Crud. It’s not like we’re going to go back to the city to get it fixed!
In dairy, we got 4 pounds of butter – the price has finally dropped below $5 each here! – a block of mozzarella, a block of Old Cheddar, a shaker of Parmesan cheese, a wheel of brie and a 2 pack of goat cheese.
For bread, we got a 2 pack of rye and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps.
For protein, we got two hot rotisserie chickens, two panini packs for sandwiches, a pork blade roast, frozen salmon for the girls, Gouda and Cranberry sausages, plus mild Italian loose sausage meat, and a double flat of eggs.
In the odds and sots, there’s a 2 pack of butter chicken sauce, mayonnaise, peanut butter, coconut oil, a 9 pack of variety pasta, a case of Ramen noodles, a case of instant oatmeal, soy sauce (we weren’t able to find the brand my husband likes at the international grocery store, during our last shop) and a case of frozen perogies. My husband requested sour candies, so we got two bags of those.
Last of all was some instant eats, because no one was going to be up to doing much cooking by the time we got home! My older daughter had requested a sushi platter, so my younger daughter picked two; one for each of them. For my husband and I, I chose a Steak & Ale, with potatoes dinner. It’s in the oven as I write this!
What we didn’t find were the garlic coil sausages I was after for our Easter basket and general eating. Nor could we find popcorn. According to the receipt, we got 51 items, though with the double charge on the baking powder, it was actually 50 items. We got a total of $16.50 off with at-checkout discounts.
Total damage for the day, with gas, groceries and lunch, was basically $960.
Thank God this is just once a month!
We still need to get to a feed store for 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. I’m thinking to do that tomorrow, after visiting my mother.
While I was writing this, I got messages from someone in the rescue group. They will be taking 6 cats in total from us soon! Fosters already lined up. She was just checking to see if Grommet would be okay being fostered with other cats, like Furriosa. Grommet is really chill, and would probably help Furriosa handle the transition better. Furriosa is the least chill of but bunch. I’m incredibly grateful that they are focusing on getting the tiny females, first. They need the most help. Plus, Sir Robin and Grommet! They would be such perfect indoor cats. We’re looking at having them brought in for vetting and fostering after April 7, if all goes to plan! After that, they’re looking to grab some of the friendliest neutered males.
This means that they have had quite a few cats adopted, which is really awesome. It’s been such a struggle to find people willing to adopt rescues.
Anyhow.
That’s where we are at now – both city stock up shops for April are now done.
I am so, so glad it’s over with. I could happily curl up in a corner and go to sleep.
After taking pain killers.
Oh! That reminds me. I have come up with a possible reason for why this 15+ year post menopausal body suddenly wasn’t anymore. It might be a very rare side effect of the anti-inflammatories I’ve been taking. I am now stopping completely (I was already taking only the minimum dose), and already seem to be seeing a difference, though it is likely way too early to say for sure. Since I wasn’t able to get an appointment with the doctor until May, that gives me time to confirm the theory as right or wrong.
The Re-Farmer 