Author: Re-Farmer

Monthly stocking up: this is what $694 looks like

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With several things going on, today’s trip to the city was supposed to be for a small stock up trip, with the larger one happening when main pay comes in, on the last business day of the month. Our schedule has changed a bit, so I will be able to do that on the Friday, and we will be visiting our friend that’s back in Canada on the weekend, instead.

This really was a small shopping trip. This is the Costco portion.

I had the cat supplies put in a separate bill again.

Last month, I got only the 11.6kg Whiskas kibble, which have gone up in price by 10¢. The Kirkland brand, however, was $27.99 the last time I got it, so it’s actually down by 30¢ per 9kg bag. The puppy pads did not change in price since I last bought them. The case of wet cat food was $37.89 last month, so it’s gone up by $1.10.

Since I only got 4 bags of dry kibble, and 1 case of canned cat food, along with the puppy pads, the grand total for cat supplies at Costco was “only” $218.34

As for stuff for ourselves, there were quite a few things on my list that I skipped for this trip.

Today, we needed both AA and AAA batteries, as well as toilet paper. Other paper products got skipped on this trip. We got a double flat of eggs (5 dozen), 5 pounds of butter, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, frozen pierogi, ground beef (we’re out of ground beef from the quarter beef we got in January), ribs and a pork blade for meats. I was going to get a package of bacon, until I saw the price. We got a case of pasta, as well as a big pack of Raman type noodles. I got two packages of tortilla warps and two double packs of sliced French bread this time, instead of the usual rye, and a bag of Basmati rice. Extras included a box of Sweet and Salty granola bars – something we haven’t bought in a very long time, but it was on sale today – plus a tray of sushi and a lasagna for us to enjoy after we unloaded and put everything away. They had a fundraiser going on for the Children’s Hospital, and I added a donation as well, but only after making sure they weren’t going to do the stupid bell ringing and cheering thing. Good grief, that’s something that would actually stop me from donating! *shudder*

So the non-cat supply total at Costco was $424.04

The store was so busy, I never made it to the pharmacy section, so after I filled the tank (I’ll give the gas total, later), I went to a nearby Walmart. This one is a LOT bigger than the one I usually go to, and is a very different layout, so that took a bit longer than usual. I was in no hurry, though. This was the Walmart portion of the trip.

I’m not counting the stuff I picked up for the girls, since I will be paid back for that. While there, though, I did get more cat supplies.

Yes, I got more puppy pads. The Costco ones are 30″ x 23″ which, for some areas we use them in, is a bit small. The Walmart house brand ones are more expensive, but they are 30″ x 36″

I also got a box of pet odor eliminator powder for the carpet in my room, plus an odor and stain removing spray.

Yes, we have issues. Mostly, it’s Finnegan, spraying. We just can’t get him to stop!! Discovering he was spraying a corner of vintage dresser that was my father’s was the most disturbing. We almost lost a cat, at that point. I’ve actually had to put a barrier around that part of the shelf, on top of a puppy pad, then drape another puppy pad over the barrier, to protect it. Then there is the annoying habit of cats that will go right next to a litter box, instead of in it. Even when it’s freshly cleaned!

Last of all, I got a cold drink for the drive home, plus another donation to the Children’s Hospital, which put my total at Walmart at $51.72

Aside from that, I also got gas. I was under half a tank when I headed out, so I stopped at the town my mother lives in and put in $30. The price there was $1.449/L At Costco, however, it was at $1.299/L Filling cost a total of $57.61 As I was driving out, I passed one gas station where I could see a price, and it was at $1.399/L A considerable difference!

So the total for fuel was $87.61. Everything else was $694.10, for a grand total for the day of $781.71

For cat food, that might last us 2 weeks. The next trip, we’ll have to get a lot more, if we want it to last the month!

Once everything was put away and the lasagna was in the oven, I made Cat Soup, using the new Healthy Poops powder instead of the ground pumpkin seeds. The cats were very happy to be getting their cat soup again! It didn’t take them long to get used to getting it, instead of just straight up canned cat food.

As for whether the additives are helping the cats with their… consistency… in the litter box, I do believe it is helping. Peanut Butter Cup was the main concern, since she was Miss Leaky Butt, but that has stopped. She has still been… loud… in the litter box, but it’s getting better. It’ll be a few more days before we can really tell if it has made a difference for all of them, though.

We’ll have to start doubling up on our lysine orders, though, since we are dosing both the inside and outside cats. Or get that 4 pound box for horses I was looking at. Both are purse lysine, so the only difference should be the texture of the powder.

Ah, the things we do for the cats!

[Update: we did the math, and the savings by ordering bulk was significant enough that we just ordered the 4 pound bucket]

Anyhow.

That was our shopping for today. Smaller than our first shop usually is – at least when it includes Costco – yet it was still almost $700. That’s just over half our budget for the month, and we still need to make sure to keep part of the budget aside for when we need to top up with fresh stuff throughout the month.

It’s getting harder and harder, every month, to do that. We are fortunate that my husband’s private insurance disability income is as good as it is. Today’s pay was CPP Disability, and a lot of people have to somehow survive on just that!

As difficult as it is, I am thankful that we are able to do as well as we are, and especially thankful for when we get donations to help out with the kitties. We are in a much better position than so many others. Who would have thought that my husband being on disability, and moving out here, would actually give us better stability than when he was working full time, and we were in the city?? God sure has a way taking a bad thing, and making some good out of it.

The Re-Farmer

Not working out as planned

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One of the things I wanted to get back to today, was to work on the garden beds again. It’s getting a bit drier out there, though mowing the lawn is still out of the question, but I want to get at least something done.

Well, that doesn’t seem to be working out.

I did get my morning rounds done, as usual.

There were plenty of kitties coming out for breakfast, though I counted “only” twenty. Shop Towel came around, and his face is looking so beat up!! I did manage to let me get a big wood tick off the side of his head, and a few more around a wound on his side that looks like some fur was pulled out in a fight. No major injuries. His presence does make a few of the other cats very nervous, though.

I did get to visit Broccoli’s babies, straighten out their bedding, and leave food for her. They are getting much more active, which is a bit of a concern. There is a lot of stuff in there they can get into, and they’re getting mobile enough to climb out of their bedding. I’d like to set up some sort of box or bin for them to nest in, but I’m afraid if I do that, she’ll move them away completely.

We’ll figure it out.

The cherry tree near the house is in peak bloom now. It looks so pretty, nestled in between the lilacs and their purple flower buds.

Once the morning rounds were done, I came inside for breakfast, and was planning to head outside. Part of the problem is, I’m just not feeling well. I wasn’t able to get to sleep until past 3am – I can only partially blame cats for that! Butterscotch has finally stopped spending her days hiding under the chair, and is back to sleeping on the bed, though any time she sees Susan or Fenrir, she starts snarling. Mostly, though, she has decided that I am her bed! Which is fine, until she starts wriggling and squirming.

Meanwhile, the high humidity we’re having lately has been brutal on my osteo-arthritis. Usually, that’s not been an issue since we moved back to the prairies. When we were living on the West Coats, I could barely walk. Now, it’s all acting up again. The worst is an old elbow injury. Back in… 2010? 2011? I developed the equivalent of tennis elbow. I actually quit my job as a banquet server at the time, because I was afraid I might drop a plate of food or a pot of hot coffee on someone. It got so bad, I couldn’t even turn a door knob, and had to stop crocheting for a year. With physiotherapy, it did improve, but it’s never healed completely, and flares up every now and then, and has developed into OA. It’s my left elbow, and I’m left handed in a lot of things – like turning door knobs! It’s been flaring up a lot since we’ve had the rains, making some of the simplest actions, painful and difficult. At least it doesn’t really stop me from doing big things; it’s the small motions that are affected the most, but I should still be able to handle a garden fork.

But then I started getting messages and had to make phone calls, and then there were other unexpected tasks to get done. To top it off, my younger daughter is feeling even worse than I am right now. For other reasons, but she’s pretty much out of commission for most things.

We are quite the household of gimps!

I’m really fighting the urge to take more painkillers and take a nap right now.

Well. I can at least take the painkillers!

The frustrating thing is, if we don’t get things done today, it won’t get done tomorrow; tomorrow is our first stock up shopping trip in the city. The day after, we’re supposed to get more rain. Then we’re back in the city again, to meet up with a friend that’s back in Canada. Then another trip to the city to do the second stock up shopping trip… on the weekend? After the weekend? Somewhere in there, we’ll be getting contacted about the flat tire I dropped off at the garage, and if all goes well, we’ll be getting that put back on, and the spare stored again. By the time all that is done, we’ll probably be past our last frost date and need to start planting things!

So those beds have got to get done!

At least we do have some spaces ready to plant in.

I just want to sleep.

The Re-Farmer

A very long day, and that’s hilarious!

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Today was my day to take my mother in for her doctor’s appointment, but it was late enough in the day that I could still do my morning rounds.

The double lilac in the old kitchen garden are starting to really open up. With the recent deluge we had, with other areas getting snow, quite a few people on my gardening groups lamented the loss of everything they planted on the May long weekend. Quite a few others responded by saying to not put out any tender transplants or seeds until after the lilacs start to bloom.

We have 5 different kinds of lilacs, and they all bloom at different times. These double lilacs bloom first, and we’re still almost a week away from our last frost date! So that’s a rule of thumb I’m going to ignore! 😄

Speaking of thumbs, we’ve got more Red Thumb and Purple Caribe potatoes coming up. No sign of the German Butterball, but they were planted quite a while later. Of the sugar snap peas, the first ones we planted still have a whole three sprouts growing, but the second planting has quite a few breaking ground now! The carrots are still so tiny, it’s hard to tell how many have actually survived. We’ll need to plant more, anyhow. The spinach seems to be struggling, too. We’ve had both excellent results with spinach, and absolutely awful results. In this bed, though, I would have expected better results. We’ll see how they do as our weather clears.

I also spotted some tiny, distinctive leaves in the wattle weave bed. The chamomile successfully self sowed!

I headed out to go to my mother’s early, first to make sure the truck was prepped for her to be able to climb in, and to be able to get her folded up walker in, behind her seat. The little step stool I got was also handy. Of course, I checked the tires, because I always check the tires! The spare is holding up nicely, but that front driver’s side tire needed a top up again. It’ll be good when we can finally change out those valve stems, but my goodness, our budget has been hit hard these last few months.

Before going to my mother’s, I swung by the post office to get the mail. I’ll get to what was in there in just a little bit! As I was in the truck, updating the family before leaving, who should pull in, but our vandal. At first, he seemed to avoid looking at me, but as he got to the door of the store, he actually waved hello, pleasantly, before heading in. My hands were occupied, so I just smiled and nodded. I have heard that he’s been going to AA and such, as well as struggling with health issues, so maybe he’s improving. I’m not holding my breath, but there was a time when we were very close. One can hope things will get better.

Once at my mother’s, I was early enough that we could go over a few things first. She had two shopping lists; one for the pharmacy, and one for the grocery store. She also had a few little things she needed help with that I could do when we got back, plus some stuff she wanted me to take home with me. This included a church bulletin, which is basically just a newsletter. When we had a church to go to in the city, I really liked their bulletins, as they were basically what the service was for the day, with either responses right in the bulletin, or page numbers for them in service books/hymnals. This was especially appreciated when we first starting going there.

Gosh, I miss that church.

Along with the bulletin, she had a couple of women’s magazines for me. The social workers that visit her building give them to her, then she passes them on to me instead of putting them in recycling. I told her, we don’t read them, so go ahead and recycle them. This was about the only time my mother went on a bit of a rampage. Apparently, she wanted us to read the magazines because we (meaning my daughters) don’t go anywhere (she assumes), and don’t do anything (???), so we need to be exposed to stuff like magazines. I told her, these particular magazines are pretty much all about selling weight loss products. Oh, but they have good recipes! To which I said, Mom. We have the Internet. We have access to everything that’s in this magazine, and more. If fact, we can have access to these magazines, too! She finally stopped pushing after that. I must say, I am getting rather tired of her basically giving us her garbage to get rid of.

Speaking of which, she also had a container of something frozen… for the cats.

*sigh*

At least this time, it wasn’t something full of onions! I mentioned that onions are poisonous to cats, and I think she remembered.

We left fairly early for her appointment, so we had a bit of a wait. That gave me time to show her some photos and videos on my phone that my brother and his wife had sent me, as they are currently out of province. As time passed, I ended up showing her pictures on Pinterest to keep her occupied. I know what to look for, for her, and she seems to really enjoy it. She never got much chance to complain about how long it was taking, which she started to do a whole 3 minutes past her appointment time. 😄

The appointment itself went far more quickly than I expected. When we told the doctor we were there for a long term care assessment, she looked up the file and read the report from the woman that assessed my mother’s cognitive abilities a while back. The one area of note involved memory loss – more short term than long term. There is a medication that can help with that, but I already know my mother wouldn’t want to take another prescription. It turns out to be a moot point. One of the medications my mother is on is for a heart condition, and this medication is dangerous for people with heart conditions. Not that my mother actually has one. When she last saw the coronary specialist, it was shortly after we moved here, and I was there for it, along with my brother. My mother has a very healthy heart, and she was most unhappy to hear that, since she was convinced she was having heart problems and that he must be lying to her (we now know she was feeling really bad heartburn, but it took a few years to figure that out!). This heart medication she’s on is for something else. However, if there’s any sort of contraindication, my mother is not going to get this other prescription.

As for the long term care assessment, I was expecting my mother to get lots of questions, but the doctor basically accepted that, if my mother feels she needs to be in long term care, then she needs to be in long term care! There are just hoops to jump. The first ones, we could take care of right away. My mother got requisitions for lab work, chest X-ray and an EKG. All of that was available right across the waiting room. The only set back there was my mother had to get onto a bed for the EKG. She really struggled to get up there, and there wasn’t any way for us to help her. There was a stool available, but that was actually more difficult. Later on, as she was struggling to get into the truck, she told me it was easier to do that, then get onto that bed for her EKG!

The next things she needs will be done later. She’s got a referral for a home care panel, which will be done in her home, and she has a referral for a brain MRI. Once the doctor gets the last of the results, it all gets sent in for the long term care referral. I’m assuming there is some sort of approval process, then she gets put onto a waiting list.

I had been told we’d be asked to give the names of our top three preferred long term care centres, and I had that ready. However, when it came up, the doctor said there isn’t a choice. You get wherever there’s an opening. Which I found rather strange. Still, even if she doesn’t get in where she wants to be, my mother can be transferred later, when there is an opening. Transfers take precedence over the waiting list.

So the ball is now rolling. My mother is getting increasingly eager to move into a nursing home! I think part of that eagerness is because she feels that, if she ever did need help where she is now, like if she had a fall or something, the people around her couldn’t be relied on to come to her aid. She wants to be somewhere with a staff that has that ability to help, and I think she recognizes her own decline, to a certain extent. Talking about things like memory loss, during the drive back, we talked about things like forgetting the stove on – something she is already extremely cautious about, even if she hasn’t used the stove! When I commented that, if she were having such issues, she wouldn’t even know it, she immediately agreed. I think that was something else she was aware of, but didn’t have the vocabulary to express.

So that was done.

Before taking her home, we made the stops we needed for her shopping. She stayed in the truck! After everything was brought in and put away, I did the few things she needed help with in her apartment. By then, it was time for her to take her evening meds, and she was feeling really tired. So was I!

Once at home and I brought in the mail, I had a package I was told was coming – but the contents were a rather hilarious surprise!

Healthy Poops! 😂😂

Thank you, M, for the donation! 😄😄

The ingredients are pumpkin, flax seed, coconut, chicory root, turmeric, ginger and banana. The dose for under 25 pounds is 1/2 Tbsp per day. The container holds about 28 Tbsp. When we make our cat soup again (we are currently out of wet cat food), this can replace the ground pumpkin seeds we are using now. Until then, it can be dusted onto the kibble.

Not all the cats have … issues… but it certainly won’t hurt! Turmeric is anti-inflammatory, and I’m sure our elderly cats will appreciate that, too. It should be interesting to see how they respond to it! Apparently, cats like it enough that it comes with a warning that this is to be used as if it were a treat, not as a meal, and to start off slow.

So that is something we will start using tomorrow. The lysine we ordered came in early, along with some other cat meds, too.

Yeah. We’re sucks for the cats!

The Re-Farmer

She’s Back! GiC video tour

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Yes!!! I am so thrilled. Ashley, from Gardening in Canada, got her hacked channel back! I’m amazed it happened to so quickly, to be honest, and I think it had a lot to do with the GiC crew making a big stink about it with reporting the channel as hacked.

To mark the event, a very exhausted Ashley made an unedited May garden tour video to mark the occasion.

I am so happy for her! Finally, something went right. 😁😁

For us, I’m skipping a May garden tour video, mostly because there isn’t much of anything to show that isn’t being more effectively shared in the blog posts I’ve been doing. Hopefully, I’ll have a garden tour video with plenty to show, in the middle or June or so.

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, and a bit of cat damage

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I was a bit later heading out this morning, so there were plenty of yard cats to greet me. I didn’t bother trying to do a head count, though. I spotted Broccoli, so as soon as the kibble was doled out, I went around the house to the old garden shed with some food to leave for her, and to check on her babies.

I was able to pick them up and cuddle them for a bit, then set them safe in the kibble bin while I straightened out their “nest”. Then it was another cuddle before putting them back and leaving food for their mama.

I did have a pleasant surprise while putting the food out earlier, too.

I saw Judgement! He hasn’t been around for weeks and, my goodness, he was a hungry boy! Wherever it is he wanders, he isn’t finding much food, and was looking quite skinny. Poor thing.

After I came back from tending Broccoli’s babies, I startled a skunk that was in the kibble house. The direction he wanted to run off was filled by a cat, so he ran in circles for a bit before squeezing under the cat house. It gave me a chance to see that one of his ears was just loaded with wood ticks! Poor thing.

Today has been nice and sunny, with just a few clouds. The rain has stopped, so I put the tray of transplants out. In general, the cats leave the transplants alone. The only time there is an issue is when they sometimes try to go through a tray to get to a window or something.

Usually, that just results in a knocked over pot, but the trays with cardboard and peat pots had been watered. When the pots are damp, they damage easily. It looks like a cat tried to step into one, and it broke. The seedling inside – one of the melons that was not part of the Summer of Melons mix – was undamaged, though. I found a small pot in the sun room and was able to transfer it over. The drainage holes in these pots are quite large, so I put the remains of the cardboard pot on the bottom to keep the soil from washing out. What I could no longer do, however, was read the label for which type of melon it was! Probably Sarah’s Choice, but it might have been a watermelon. Well, we’ll have another mystery melon is all. If it survives being moved to its new home. I had one Pixie melon on this tray and, for some reason, it just withered away. We have two more in the house, though. This morning, I transferred the last seedlings out of the aquarium greenhouse and into the mini greenhouse frame at the window. They’ll be moved to the sun room soon.

Things are still really wet out there, of course. It’ll probably be a few days before the lowest areas drain, but it does make weeding easier! Aside from that, though, we’re not going to try and get more progress on the big stuff. Tomorrow, I’m taking my mother to a medical appointment for long term care assessment, which will take up most of the day, so I won’t be doing any big stuff then, either. My daughter might be able to get some progress with the dead trees she’s processing for the raised beds, but the spruce grove has quite a few low spots that would be filled with water, too, so we’ll see.

This is usually when I say, “little by little, it’ll get done”, but right now, we’re not even getting a little done on these jobs! However, we are warming up and staying dry for the next while, so we’ll get there.

The Re-Farmer

A Gardening in Canada update

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Why do people do stuff like this?

The good thing is, so many people are making a stink about it, she’s actually getting some help. Hopefully, she will be able to recover her account intact. She put so much into it!

Just before I found this update on her other channel, I had tried to see if anything changed on the Gardening in Canada channel, and it was gone. Nothing showed up in searches. I’m hoping that just means YouTube has made it private until the mess can be cleared up!

The Re-Farmer

Water, water, everywhere! Also, I love my phone case

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The rain has slowed down quite a lot, but it’s still coming down. The worst of it has passed us by, and at this point, we’re getting more of a sprinkle than a rain.

Continuous rain for almost 2 days, however, does accumulate!

The area behind the garage is quite the lake. It’s actually larger than it appears in the photo, as much of it is hidden by the grass. The paths between the raised beds are full of water. The area I think someone tried to make into a ditch, along the fence line north of the driveway, is full of water, as is the driveway and the “moat” around the garage. There’s a moat around the storage house, as well, and more water in the space behind it.

The main garden area, where it’s still rough from the last time it was plowed (badly) before we moved here had little pools of water all over, of course. There’s also water in the paths between all the raised beds, and pooling in the area where we tried to grow potatoes, the year it flooded. At the far end of the crab apple trees, where water accumulates every spring, is another area of water that extends almost half way up the rows of silver buffalo berry! There’s even pooling under the crab apple trees.

The old basement is, of course, quite wet. The fans are keeping it down a bit, but some areas don’t just get damp, but pool, so we have go do down and sweep the water into the sump pump reservoir in one area, and into the floor drain in the other half of the basement.

I ended up making an unexpected trip to town. After unlocking the gate and getting into the truck, I reached into my pocket to put my cell phone in the spot I keep it while driving… and it wasn’t there.

Figuring I forgot it in the house, I backed the truck up to the small gate in the chain link fence, so I wouldn’t have to wade through the moat again, then went in to look.

Nothing.

So I tried phoning my cell phone with our land line.

It didn’t even ring, but went immediately to a message saying I was being automatically forwarded to voice mail. So I hung up.

The only thing left was that it somehow fell out of my pocket while I was going to the garage and the gate. So I started back tracking.

I was just reaching the part of the driveway that goes into the yard – which is under the moat surrounding the garage – when I saw a dark rectangle in the grass.

With a muddy tire track running right over it.

Much to my shock, nothing was broken. The case I have for my phone is a very basic wallet type, with a cover over the screen. That case saved my phone! It was quite wet, of course, so there was the warning not to plug in the device. A warning that finally went away, just now!

After wiping off the phone as best I could, I set it over the window vent on the dash and headed into town, did my errand, then headed back. I was able to use the phone to message my family without any problems.

Once inside, I used the toothpick end of a floss pick to clear out any debris that might have been in the port. I also took off the cover, and wiped up the moisture caught in it. Then I used a dual valve balloon pump, kept from our busking days, to dry the port a bit before just setting it on its stand to dry. All seems to be working well, except it’s telling me I can make emergency calls only. So I need to fuss with that for a while.

The main thing is, this thing fell into the edge of a pool of water, got driven over by a truck, and didn’t break!!!

What a relief!

Meanwhile, as I was in town, I got a message from my brother. He has started getting alerts on his phone about overland flooding, telling people not to try to try through flooded areas. It turns out while I was in town, they got flooding alerts, too, though where I was, there didn’t seem to be any issues at all. Where we are, we’re not getting any alerts for flooding at all, so that’s good.

It will probably take several says of no rain for things to dry up enough that we can get back to work on the garden beds and harvesting the dead trees. I am most definitely not complaining, though. This hopefully makes up for the lack of moisture when the snow melted, since we had so little snow this past winter. I definitely want to take a walk beyond the outer yard and see how gravel pit, etc. are. We should have a flowing creek in the municipal drainage ditch right now. When outside, we are hearing cows, but not seeing them, so I’m not sure if the renter’s cows are on this quarter, or if we’re hearing someone else’s cows. The important thing is, the gravel pit and pond should be full of water for them, and the gravel pit, at least, should stay full for the year, since it has so much clay to hold it all in.

It may make some things inconvenient, but I am very thankful for all this rain.

The Re-Farmer

Well, darn. GiC is hacked!

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This is from her other channel.

This is one of the best gardening channels out there, too. I’ve shared quite a few of her videos here on the blog. I hope YouTube gets their s*** in gear and gets it back to her before too much damage is done!

The Re-Farmer

It’s a bit wet out there…

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But it could be worse!

Some places are getting snow! Or a rain/snow mix.

I was able to finish mowing the East yard, which is where the lowest part of the inner yard is. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but through the short grass, you can see the water extending well beyond the little pond in front of the outhouse. The moat around the garage is back, and I’ve been watching the driveway on the garage cam slowly fill with water.

While we have reached 7C/45F out there, we still have a wind chill of -4C/26F It’s gotten cold enough in the house, I turned the furnace back up again!

Amazingly, we still have three fires going in our province! All well to the north of us. Two are under control, and one is “being held” – that one is what’s left of a much larger fire that burned out of control for some time.

The rain, however, is now supposed to continue through to tomorrow evening, instead of ending around noon.

Thankfully, we got those errands done yesterday, don’t need to go anywhere in this. I feel for the people who have to be out there right now!

There is one disconcerting thing, though.

When I’m at my computer, I’m basically right above the septic pump, so I’m basically the only one that can hear it go off. Especially now, when we’ve got both of the new blowers, plus fans, running to try and keep things drier in the old basement. Since we had the pill switch replaced, only once before did we have a situation where it wouldn’t shut off again. It basically fixed itself, though.

Well, as I was working on this post, it happened again. I could hear a change in the sound that immediately got my attention – I’m pretty paranoid about that, these days! I went down to check, and the pump was running, but I could see now water flowing through the filter. It was empty. So I shut off the pump manually, primed the filter, and tried again. The filter emptied, no new water started to flow, and the pump kept running, dry.

So for the last while, I did things like switch out the filter basket (it didn’t seem clogged, but I changed it anyhow). We keep an old hose that’s missing its female connector down there, permanently hooked up to the cold water tap from when the washing machine used to be down there. It makes refilling the filter very handy, but I even sent water running into the inflow opening, at the top of the filter, in case there was something blocking it. It seemed fine. Each time I did something, I tried turning the pump back on again, and it would empty the filter and keep running dry again.

Finally, I opened up the floor drain and sent the hose through, all the way to the tank. That meant fighting to get it through the bottleneck that’s somewhere between the wall and the tank it keeps getting caught on. I suspect that bottleneck is the source of quite a few of our problems. After I got it through, I turned the water on to flush things in the pipe, then ran the hose in the other direction, towards the weeping tile under the new basement, then back to the septic tank again.

Then I turned the power to the pump back on and…

… it stayed off.

After I got back upstairs, my older daughter, who is getting up for her night of working on commissions, checked with me. She could hear that something was going on, and she wanted to know if it was safe to shower! Which is was. Once I heard the septic pump turn on again, I went into the basement and watched the water flowering through the filter. Everything seemed fine, and the pump turned itself off, as it normally would.

This makes me think that there is something the float is getting hung up on every now and then, so it’s not dropping far enough to tell the pump to shut off. Whatever it is, running the hose through seems to have cleared it.

At times like this, I wish we had a gravity system, instead of a pump one! We would just need to make sure the septic field gets insulated every winter. No pumps to worry about, and no electricity needed. I do understand why my dad set up the pump system. There really isn’t anyplace in the inner yard to have a septic field. Too many large trees and their roots to mess things up.

Ah, well. Dealing with this stuff just comes with the territory!

No different than having to deal with moats around the garage and sopping wet driveways! 😄

The Re-Farmer

Wet, wet and more wet – and new growth!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

So the rain started early this morning, and has been pretty constant, so far. The rainfall warnings include possible flooding in places, including our region. Our region is huge, though, and contains quite a few rural municipalities. Where we are is unlikely to have much, if any, where we are. The newly graded roads, however, are probably going to be a real mess!

With the rain, I did short rounds this morning and skipped switching out the trail cams, since I won’t want water getting into the cameras. Short rounds was good, though, because…

… a lovely surprise!!!!

My husband actually came out with me!!!! He caned it rather than drag his walker into the rain, but he did it! I could see he was really struggling near the end, but he did it. I honestly can’t remember the last time he went outside and walked around. It’s probably been at least a year.

As we went around, I checked the beds and we had a lovely surprise in the bed of Purple Caribe potatoes.

The first plants have emerged! Just two, so far that we can see, but this rain is going to be so good for them.

When I was mowing yesterday, I’d put one of the raised bed covers over the German Butterball potatoes, then forgot to take it off, so my husband helped me lift it off to the side, so they could get some rain, too. I had also forgotten to put the extensions on the eavestrough downspouts back after mowing. I’ll have to check the new basement later, and see if that caused any problems. The one corner was already damp and has a fan on it. That was the corner a rain barrel had been left to overflow during a wet summer, and is why we now have weeping tile problems. This basement used to always stay dry, even when the old basement was wet, but not anymore. My brother had found that corner so wet, for so long, there was mold. He cleaned it up with bleach, and when we clear the basement, we also bleached that entire corner, but it still gets wet at times.

So forgetting the extension on the downspout above that corner is not a good thing!

When feeding the outside cats, I didn’t see Broccoli, but we still went around to the garden shed. If I think she might be in there with her babies, I knock on the door, first. Opening the door still startles her, but she doesn’t always run out completely. She gets in and out through the hole in the back wall, and there’s an old chair in that corner. Sometimes, I can just see her butt under the chair, as she waits while I put food out for her. Today, she did actually leave the shed, so I took advantage of that to pick up her kittens and straighten out the self warming mat for them. My husband got to see them, too. If it hadn’t been raining, I would have passed them to him to hold while I straightened out the bedding. More human interaction would be a good thing, but not if they get too chilled in the process!

Speaking of chilled, as I write this, we are at 5C/41F – with a wind chill of -4C/25F! Our expected high for today is supposed to be 8C/46F According to the weather radar, we are under the light rainfall area, with the moderate rainfall passing by to the west of us, with a few places in the south and west of us, getting occasional heavy rainfall. In total, we’re expected to get 50-60mm of rain, which is roughly 2 – 2.5 inches. The rain, with another high of 8C/46F, is expected to continue until about noon tomorrow. Starting Sunday, things are supposed to warm up and we’ll have dry weather for at least a couple of weeks. Hopefully, that will be enough time for us to get those beds reworked and ready for planting! We should probably lay plastic down to help warm the soil up faster, too. Looking at the long range forecast, there are still going to be cooler nights in the second week of June. Not cool enough for frost, but cool enough that I’d want to find ways to protect our more heat loving transplants.

Which won’t even be in the ground for more than a week.

Pretty much everything we do, revolves around the weather.

If the really long range forecasts can be trusted (they can’t), we’ll have only one day of rain in June, and none in July. June is supposed to have a few highs reaching or surpassing 30C/86F, but right now, July is supposed to have highs of 25C/77F, every day. Literally, every day except the first four, which are supposed to have highs of 24C/75F. So you know that’s going to change a lot by the time we get there!

Well, that should be good for all the squash and melons we’re planting this year! Plus the eggplant and peppers. As long as we can keep up with the watering. One of our best gardening years was a drought year with heat waves. I’m still amazed by how many melons we got that year. It was so hard to get them properly watered on the squash tunnel, and the plants were so spindly, and they they produced so well! This year, they will be closer to the house for easier watering, and have better soil conditions. I am hopeful that we will have a much better gardening year, this year, and actually harvest enough to do some canning and preserving of things other than tomatoes and onions!

Time will tell.

The Re-Farmer