Author: Re-Farmer

Just a quick note (convoy talk)

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I am not going to say a lot right now, because I’m a bit out of the loop at the moment. About all I can say is that, right now, Canada has taken political prisoners, through the Emergency Act.

There are a few videos I’d like to share, but I haven’t found them in a format that I can embed into WordPress. So I will start with this, which was included in an email I will share part of, below it.

Many citizens believe the Emergency Act is already in effect, by the mere use of the word “invoked”.

This is not the case.

The government has 7-days within which to provide details as to which section of the Act is to be invoked and how the measures are to be carried out.

Then the House debates, they vote on it and IF passed then it will go to the Senate.

The Emergency Act (EA) must not and cannot override the Constitution (Charter of Rights & Freedoms) and the rationale to implement the EA must be demonstrably justified by the government.

Many have stated that the Federal Government never invoked the Emergency Act for the Covid-19 calamity because, in order to get this passed, they would have had to produce ALL scientific evidence available to support the narrative and not just cherry pick which science suited their agenda.

And, since Teresa Tam was a no show on February 11th after she had been invited to discuss the science with Dr. Paul Alexander, Dr. Hodkinson and Dr. Byram Bridle, one could assume that just maybe the scientific evidence her department purports to have — either does not exist, is flawed or is not comprehensive enough to support the imposed restrictions and mandates.

For further reading:

Trudeau Does Not Want To End The Protests Peacefully. He Wants Violence

The only way to understand the actions of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the past two weeks is that he wants the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, which so far have been entirely peaceful, to descend into a violent confrontation between protesters and police.

Everything Trudeau has done, from his initial dismissive remarks about the protesters being a “small, fringe minority” with “unacceptable views,” to his ongoing refusal to meet with them, to the unprecedented invocation of the Emergencies Act this week, has served to escalate the situation in Ottawa and increase the likelihood that it ends in some kind of violence.

SHOCK POLICY: Ottawa may euthanize truckers’ pets as punishment

The same day that videos emerged of Ottawa and Quebec police gearing up to go after peaceful Convoy supporters in the capital, the Ottawa government has warned protesters that their pets may be confiscated following their arrest.

Moreover, position statements issued by the Ottawa Humane Society reveal that they may unilaterally euthanize any animal that they deem to be “not suitable for adoption.” Arbitrary behavioral and health tests would be used to make the call. 

These decisions about the life of a trucker’s pet would, thus, be made without their consent or knowledge while they are imprisoned for indefinite periods of time via the Emergency Powers of the Trudeau regime.

I find the above link particularly… coincidental, considering this came out after a popular video started making the rounds, of a trucker and the puppies that were just born in his truck.

There Is a Limit to the Tyrant’s Power: Ottawa Freedom Convoy Tears Down Illusion of Democracy in North America

Mainstream media and political hacks have been working overtime to paint the Freedom convoy that converged on Ottawa on January 29 as an “insurrectionist movement” full of “white supremacists”, “Russian stooges”, and “Nazis” out to “overthrow the government”. Even the Bank of England’s former governor (and World Economic Forum Trustee) Mark Carney chimed in on February 7 stating that “this is sedition” and that “those who are still helping to extend this occupation must be identified and punished to the full force of the law”. Carney, the perennial financial darling of Goldman Sachs and the City of London (and Prime Ministerial hopeful) called for a targeting of all those who donated money to this domestic terror operation.

Faced with an organic civil rights movement of blue-collar truckers, farmers and tens of thousands of supporters who have convened on Canada’s capital to demand a restoration of their basic freedoms, the current Liberal government has failed to show even an ounce of humanity or capacity to negotiate. This shouldn’t be a surprise for those who have seen the hypocrisy of neo-liberal “rules-based” order ideologues in action over the past few years who are quick to celebrate the “liberty” of citizens of Ukraine, Hong Kong, or Xinjiang when the outcome benefits the geopolitical aims of detached technocrats hungry for global hegemony. The moment genuine self-organized labor movements arise demanding basic rights be recognized, then the masks comes off and the rage of tyrants show their true faces.

Wherever you live in the world, don’t think that this won’t happen to you. Even here in Canada, many are in denial over what is happening right now.

There is much more I could share, but things are happening so fast, it’s hard to keep up, and I just don’t have the stomach for it right now.

Be well, my friends. Stay strong. Love, laugh, sing and dance. Our joy is the greatest weapon we have. Tyranny doesn’t know what to do with it.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2022 garden: sprouting onions, and can spring get here already? Please?

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First, to follow up on my previous post, I was able to get my mother’s car started. I left it to run for a bit before moving it to the other part of the garage – and plugging it back in again!

While it was running, I decided to use the time to dig out another cat path.

Because I’m a suck that way.

This is a path to a shed that’s slowly collapsing, and is in view of the security camera live feed. I constantly see the cats struggling through the snow to get through. I got about 3/4s of it dug out before moving the car, then finished it almost the rest of the way.

I left the shovel at the end for scale. There’s probably about 2 inches or so of snow on the ground.

I didn’t dig any further, because I know there are things buried underneath, and the snow level starts to drop there, anyhow. It was actually an easy dig. Once I broke through the harder packed top layer of snow, the snow under it was very loose and crystalline, making it light and easy to shovel.

I had closed up the doors to the garage, and the doors where my mother’s car normally gets parked have a old tire in front, to keep them from opening (I really hope we can replace those doors this summer!). The tire warms up nicely in the sun, so it’s a favourite spot for cats to hang out, out of the snow.

Potato Beetle was sitting on it as I started my way back, so I paused to pet him, immediately noticing what looked like fresh blood in the fur in an ear! It took me a while to find it, but he has what looks like a fresh wound on the side of his neck. All I could really see was a dark patch in his fur. It wasn’t actively bleeding, and I couldn’t look too closely, but I am concerned.

Potato Beetle seems to now be at the bottom of the pecking order, and a target. After talking about it with the family, I turned the power bar back on in the sun room, for the light, heat bulb and heated water bowl. There is still food in there, and I’d been letting cats in while doing my rounds, to nibble on it. Potato Beetle has been the one that tends to go in there the longest. He was born in there, so he’s very comfortable with the sun room.

One of my daughters has brought in a litter pan, and we’ve set the box nests up again. Now, we just have to find him again. We will bring him into the sun room for his own protection, and to hopefully get a better look at the wound.

Spring cannot come soon enough. Potato Beetle is on the adoption list, but the outside cats aren’t going to be done until the inside cats are adopted out.

As I am writing this, I can see cat after cat on the security camera live feed, using the path I dug out!

Let us now think of spring, and green and growing things.

Like onions!

This is the tray that first starting showing sprouts, but only now are they big enough to actually show in a photo. I got mixed up about which onions these were. These are the Red of Florence onions, not the yellow bulb onions I got in my head for some reason. I mean, it’s not like we forgot to label them or anything! LOL

Just this morning, we finally saw sprouts in the other two trays. Here, you can see a little clump of Oneida onions sprouting in the middle, and a couple more little sprouts in the bottom left corner.

It’s really hard to spot the sprouting Tropeana Lunga in this tray. Again, bottom left corner of the tray.

You can even see an Oneida sprout near the edge of the other tray.

I must say, having things sprouting right now is a huge psychological boost!

Having said that, I just got some messages from people I was going to meet at the grocery store this evening, and it’s just been cancelled, due to the blizzard conditions we are supposed to have by then.

So it looks like I’ll either be driving in now, or waiting until Sunday.

Can spring get here already??

The Re-Farmer

Well, I pulled a dumb

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But first, the fun stuff.

Butterscotch and Nosencrantz are still being kept apart in my bedroom/office (which is about twice the size of the sun room they just spent 2 weeks in), but we are allowing some of the more chill cats in and introducing them.

Nosencrantz will sometimes hiss at cats when they come too close, but not always. Lots of tentative sniffing going around. Then I put Nosencrantz next to David, and she lay down beside him, all snuggled up, for a while.

David is a favourite snuggle cat. It’s not unusual to find two or three other cats using him as a pillow, or mashed up against him.

Butterscotch, on the other hand, has discovered the laundry basket bed in the corner of my closet, and moved right in. The few times she’s come out, she’s tucked herself under a chair and snarled at any cat that comes into view. Which seems to confuse the other cats, because they typically didn’t even notice her until she made noise. However, if I am petting her as they go by, she is fine and even allows some sniffing to happen.

The forecast we had for things to slightly warm up turned out to be completely wrong. Early this morning, we hit -40C/-40F, and that was without the wind chill. So I waited until things “warmed up” to -27C/-17F before I headed outside. I hoped the cats would stay in their shelters longer if I did that, but no. They were outside, waiting for me, when I came out! They are made of sturdier stuff than I am!

Nutmeg is tired of winter, too!

I got word back from our mechanic about our van. It’s going to need a new alternator and, after taxes, we’re looking at close to $600. So that’s going to have to wait until the end of the month, and we’ll have to juggle our budget to pay for it. Until then, we will thankfully be able to use my mother’s car.

This morning, I decided to move it from the addition on the garage it gets parked in, and into the main garage area where the van is usually parked. Where her car is, the doors don’t open well, one of them is breaking, and it barely fits. We pull in closer to the inner wall, which means if I have a passenger, they have to get out before hand, because the door can’t open. The outer wall has shelving and a counter against it. I park at a bit of an angle, so that I can open the driver’s door enough to get out comfortably, without the door hitting the edge of the counter. If we have anything to unload in the back seat, it has to be unloaded before doing into the garage.

Which is a distraction that can lead to forgetfulness.

After clearing the snow and opening the doors, I discovered I made a dumb.

I forgot to plug in the car.

No surprise that it wouldn’t start.

I plugged it in, then continued clearing in front of the garage. It’s just light snow, but not something I want to build up.

Because we are now getting blizzard warnings, too!!!

Today is Thursday. Apparently, it’s supposed to start snowing tonight, and keep snowing through Saturday, when it’s supposed to warm up to -12C/10F, and get as much as 10cm/4in of snow.

*sigh*

Before heading inside, I tried starting my mother’s car again. It sounded better, but still wouldn’t start, and I didn’t want to push it. It sounds like the battery is frozen. My mother’s car has a block heater, battery warmer and trickle charger, so it should just need a bit of time. I’ve left the south facing doors open, so that the sun can warm up the black car a bit, and will try again later.

I can’t believe I forgot to plug it in. :-(

This is not a minor thing.

Years ago, while living in BC, my husband and I rented a car to surprise the family with a Christmas visit. The rental car didn’t have a block heater; no rental place we called had cars with block heaters. We stopped for the night in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, when temperatures plummeted to -61F/-78F with the wind chill. Much to our surprise, it started in the morning, but broke down soon after we reached the highway. This was in the days before cell phones, so my husband got out to walk for help. Stupid dangerous, but he got picked up by a tow truck. We spent another 3 days in Swift Current, waiting for the car to thaw out in a garage, before finally taking the train the rest of the way. We eventually learned that the engine block had cracked in the cold.

Thankfully, we haven’t hit temperatures that severe, but it can still do damage. And with the van at the garage in town already, this is our only transportation.

After coming back in and talking about it with my husband, he told me something I hadn’t known. My FIL had forgotten to plug in his car, the night my MIL had a brain aneurism, shortly after New Year’s. They didn’t live far from the hospital, but the car wouldn’t start, and he had to wait for an ambulance. Given the circumstances, it would have made no difference if he’d gotten her to the hospital sooner, but for a long time after that, in the winter my FIL would regularly ask my husband if he remembered to plug in our vehicle.

This is not something to take lightly. Especially when living as relatively isolated as we do, now.

I will give it a bit more time, then try and start it again. I’m supposed to go into town to pick up some things at the grocery store today. Before the blizzard hits! We’re running low on cat food again.

*sigh*

February is always the hardest month of winter. Everyone is so tired of the cold and snow by then. This year, we had those few really warm days that teased us with hints of spring. Looking at the long range forecast, immediately after the blizzard is done, temperatures are supposed to drop again, then slowly get milder through into March.

Which would be nice, if it happens.

The Re-Farmer

Just a bit of snow…

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It snowed through most of yesterday, and through the night. Big, light, fluffy snow.

Lots of it.

The forecast was for 5-10 cm (about 2-5 inches), and I think we did get close to 10 cm. It was so light and fluffy, though, it made for easy shoveling.

In the paths, at least.

It also made it easier for the cats to move around in it, too.

Along the wall and into the old kitchen garden is what I had to dig out yesterday morning, to free the sump pump hose. That also required breaking the diverter free from the ice that had connected it to the downspout, then breaking up enough of the packed snow at the other end, to finally be able to move it out of the way. We’ll have to make sure it goes back before things start to melt, since it’ll be a while before the rain barrel can be put back there.

After clearing all the paths, which went much faster than usual, it took a bit more to clear the wheel barrow!

We had left it leaning against the tree is one more little shelter for the cats to use. And they did use it – until it got mostly filled with snow.

This is next to where the main paths form a T, so there was a taller than usual pile of snow right at the wheelbarrow. A lot of it was pretty hard packed by now, so it took a bit of breaking it apart with the ice chipper, just to be able to use the snow shovel.

That ice chipper has been getting so much use this year!! Mostly for snow, not ice.

This is why we need the wheelbarrow. We need to remove the snow from around the old basement window – which can’t be seen in the photo. It does have a cover over it, plus a drift in front of it. The shallow storage container visible in the photo was in front of where the sump pump hose comes out of the wall, and is now sitting on the drift, right in front of the basement window.

It hasn’t been a problem in previous winters since we’ve moved here, but we have enough snow this year that it will melt and drain right into the basement window, which is below grade. This is a fairly small corner, and there just isn’t room for the snow, so we’ll have to haul it out of the yard.

In the process, I want to dig that path down more to the ground, so that the hose from the sump pump has a downward grade again. Right now, there is a bit of a “hill” of snow it’s running across.

As soon as things are clear enough, we need to run that hose into the old kitchen garden again. I don’t want it draining this close to the well. Not a problem while the ground is still frozen, but if we have a more average summer, the old basement does get quite wet, and the sump pump will go off regularly.

Anyhow.

Getting most of that snow out of the corner is a job we will do, little by little, as weather permits.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2022 garden: first luffa

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Yesterday, we only knew a luffa had germinated because I happened to take a photo from above, while tending to the pots.

This morning, it was big enough to be able to see!

I am so thrilled to see any gourds at all, sprouting already.

Checking the onions in the small aquarium greenhouse, it looks like we have some yellow onions starting to sprout. There’s just a couple of small, white worm-like bits starting to show in the soil.

So very cheering!!

The Re-Farmer

Who is this strange cat?

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So Nosencrantz has adapted pretty much instantly to being inside.

She just could not get enough attention from my daughter!

Butterscotch was a bit harder to get inside. She kept hiding in different places in the old kitchen. We tried luring her with food, catnip, her favourite bed from the sun room… no go. We really needed to get her out of there, though, as this room has no heat source, and who knows if it has any insulation. Back in the day, it was kept warm in winter with the constantly burning wood cookstove.

Eventually, she tucked herself into the corner of a shelf, and my younger daughter was able to reach her. Some pets and ear skritches, and Butterscotch eventually came out. We managed to quickly get her into the cat carrier and brought her in to my room.

Now, we’ve tried to bring Butterscotch in before, which she hated so much. Whether it was in the sun room, when we turned it into a maternity ward, several years ago, or when we turned the new basement into a maternity ward, with the intention of turning both her and Beep Beep into indoor cats, it was a disaster. Tearing through a screen door is one thing. Killing her own kittens was a whole new level.

As an outdoor cat, she had her moods. She did allow attention, and liked to be carried, but she was not a cuddly cat. She was not above suddenly deciding to get mean, either.

So… who is this, then?

Once in my room, she started looking around, and let me pick her up and put her on the bed.

That was several hours ago. She has yet to leave it.

Not only that, but when I sat to pet her, she snuggled her head into my hand, using it as a pillow, while I pet her, purring mightily. She even rolled onto her back, giving me the best view of her surgical scar we’ve had since we got her spayed.

Once we were done petting her, she just curled up and stayed on the red blanket on my bed that is a favourite spot for most of the cats. Not even napping, really. Just lying there, content and purring.

Who is this cat?

Since she’s been inside, we have allowed Fenrir into the room. Fenrir was curious about Nosencrantz, they sniffed each other, and Fenrir growled at her. Which is typical Fenrir.

Butterscotch watched from her spot on the bed, and that was it. I suppose it’s possible they might remember each other, since Fenrir showed up as a kitten and got adopted by Beep Beep and Butterscotch, letting her nurse with their own kittens, but it was more Beep Beep that took care of her than Butterscotch. It’s been a few years since they’ve seen each other.

As I sit and write this, I can hear Nosencrantz checking out the door. She wants to go out and explore.

Butterscotch is now asleep on the red blanket.

It should be interesting to see how they do, during their first night inside. I suspect Nosencrantz will try and get into all sorts of things.

The way things are going, I might wake up to Butterscotch cuddles!

What a change!

The Re-Farmer

Murky waters (convoy talk)

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With the Emergency Measures (formerly War Measures) Act being invoked by our Prime Dictator, it can be expected that the rhetoric, accusations and false information is going to kick into high gear, to try and convince people that these measures are somehow justified.

Early during the protests, trucks were seen dropping off loads of rocks, and piles of bricks were also found. This is something that happened during previous protests that turned violent, so truckers and their supporters would immediately call the police and stand guard until they arrived, to make sure no instigators would start trouble. It would be no surprise if the same would be done with guns. Our media and Prime Dictator have been working very hard to portray the protesters as violent, and failed time after time, as on the ground, independent video showed how much of a lie that was. They are getting desperate.

The backlash over what T2 has done by invoking the Emergency Measures Act is rippling around the world.

In the “breaking news” category, Ottawa’s Chief of Police, Sloly, has resigned.

Something I wanted to clarify about our Prime Dictator invoking the Emergency Measures Act (EMA).

It is not in effect, even though many are acting as if it is, including banks that are freezing people’s accounts.

Once the EMA is invoked, there is a process that needs to be followed. First, T2 has 7 sitting days to table a motion in Parliament. There are specific conditions that must be met that demonstrate the extreme conditions that justify invoking the EMA. It should be noted that, among the extended definitions of what is exempt from the EMA is protests. It’s not in the Act itself, but is linked with a CSIS definition (that’s Canada’s version of the CIA). None of the conditions required are met, so there is zero justification for invoking the act. In tabling the motion, T2 has to try and prove in Parliament that those conditions are somehow being met.

It then has to be voted on by both the House of Commons and the Senate.

Only after both vote in favour of it, can the invocation of the Act be enforced.

There are two problems with this.

The first is that, by simply invoking the Act, it is being treated as if it is in force. Not just by ordinary citizens on the street, who may not have even known the Act existed until now, but by the media, politicians and even law enforcement. Basically, just like all the other illegal measures, the powers that be simply keep on going as if they have the power and authority to do what they are doing, and people complied. As long as people complied, it became harder for anyone to stand up to the illegal measures.

The other problem is, while T2 does not have a strong Liberal majority in government that will vote his way, the NDP have already stated they will support enforcing the Act. Which means, between the two of them, they would have enough votes to push it through, even if the conditions are not met. The Senate isn’t exactly balancds, either, and it’s possible they would vote to enforce it, too. All the fail safes designed to prevent the Act being abused could … well… fail.

Many provinces, meanwhile, have spoken out against it, but that hasn’t made much difference in the past couple of years. After all, some of those provinces spoke out against the lockdowns and other restrictions, too, saying they would never implement them, only to turn around and do exactly that, after the federal government offered “aid” funding to the provinces – on the condition that they locked down. So they already have a history of untrustworthiness.

One of our mainstream media websites has a daily poll. Today’s question is asking of people agree with T2’s invocation of the EMA. I’ve looked at it a few times this morning and, even as the total of votes rises, the percentages have stayed the same. 19% agree with it. Which is really quite disturbing.

Which is why it’s encouraging to see things like this.

Oh, one more note about the “blockades”. I’ve mentioned this before. They have never been complete blockades. Traffic was delayed, but not completely stopped. For example, lanes were always kept open for emergency vehicles and trucks hauling live animals were allowed through at border crossings with as little delay as possible (they still had to get through customs and the police blockades, too). In cities, people could still get to and from their work and homes. Hospitals were very specifically kept clear.

Hhhmm… back to the “breaking news” thing, just minutes ago, it seems our Prime Dictator walked out of Parliament again, refusing to answer questions about the justification for his invoking the EMA.

What a mess.

From the looks of it, things are just going to get messier.

All of which could have been ended long ago, if our Prime Dictator had wanted it to.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2022 garden: seedling surprise!

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This morning, I opened up the large aquarium greenhouse to refill the water tray over the heat mat, and give everything a spritz. This involves moving mini fan off, setting one light fixture on top of the other and pushing them back, then removing the wire mesh covers to access inside.

Once the covers were off, I took the opportunity to take a picture of the sprouts.

Here, you can see that the Sophie’s Choice tomatoes are now sprouting in all three pots, and the Cup of Moldova growing bigger every day. The eggplant is still slower, but the ones that have sprouted are definitely looking bigger.

But wait… What’s that?

Over on the right, near the back corner.

Is that…???

Yes!!! Yes it is!

A luffa has sprouted!

I went back to look again, and I still could not see it from standing next to the tank. I could only see it in the photo taken from above.

I am so thrilled!!!

Last year, it took ages for the various types of squash and gourds to germinate. The luffa did germinate earlier than others – and some never germinated at all – but I absolutely did NOT expect any gourds to germinated this early.

I am crediting the heat mat for most of this. For the luffa, the scarification and pre-soaking probably helped, too.

So exciting!

The Re-Farmer

Let’s back up a bit…

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So, before we discovered issues where happening with the sump pump, our morning was pretty routine! :-D

The piebald deer was back again. Later on, I saw our usual pair coming by, and I think a singleton that’s starting to come by more often.

While puttering around the kitchen and heating up water for the outside cats, I spotted this camouflaged at, watching me through the window!

Inside cats, watching outside cat! :-D

I count fourteen in this photo.

I’m seeing Potato Beetle regularly again, and that wound on his head is looking like it really doesn’t like the cold! He won’t let me look to closely, though. :-(

With Butterscotch and Nosencrantz transitioning indoors, I’ll be able to leave the sun room doors open behind me while doing the morning rounds, again. Agnoos and Tuxedo Mask miss going into there! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Sump pump issues!

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In the 4 summers we have been here, I think our sump pump turned on only a couple of times, in the first two years. Conditions had bee so dry the next two years, the reservoir was pretty much empty. The only times it turned on was when we had to empty the hot water tank completely, to replace it. We partially drain it to shock it hydrogen peroxide every now and then, but not enough drains out to trigger the float.

So when I heard a pump running while in the bathroom during the night – we could hear it nowhere else – I didn’t even recognize it for what it was. When the noise was still going the next time I was in the bathroom, I was flummoxed. At first I thought the sound was actually coming from the space heaters our daughters use upstairs. Sound carries strangely in the house. I thought nothing of it, and went out to do the morning rounds.

Later, I tried to use the hot water in the kitchen, and had issues. I didn’t know my daughter had shocked the tank last night, after I’d gone to bed, so I went to check in the basement.

Which is when I found this.

This is our sump pump set up, which is directly under the bathroom. The pump was running, but there was enough seepage to create that puddle on the floor. The water was not draining out of the reservoir. Thankfully, it wasn’t getting any higher, either, but the pump just kept running.

So back outside I went. The first thing I had to do was dig out the end of the drain hose, which runs into the old kitchen garden.

It was under a drift, of course.

There was no sign water had drained out the end, and it was completely unclogged.

Then I dug out the area in front of where the drain pipe comes through the basement wall. Once that was free, I could pull the hose from where it ran along the side of the house and the sun room, all the way out, then run it down the access path to to the wall.

From the flexibility of the house, I could determine that the first couple of feet from the wall had ice in it. The rest seemed pretty clear. Yes, I could hear the crunching of ice in places, but no blockages. I didn’t want to bend it too much, though, so as not to crack the frozen plastic.

The next thing to do was set up an extension cord and a hair drier.

Since I was going to have a cord running through the doors, this meant Butterscotch and Nosencrantz couldn’t stay in the sun room. I was able to get Nosencrantz into the old kitchen, but one of my daughters had to catch Butterscotch and get her into the old kitchen.

Well, we were talking about bringing them in earlier. My daughter had through Saffron and Turmeric would be going to the vet yesterday, not next week. So we talked about bringing them in tonight.

Nosencrantz is currently isolated with me in my bedroom/office right now. Butterscotch is still hiding somewhere in the old kitchen.

I had to unplug the power bar for the heated water bowl and ceramic heater bulb in the sun room, then run the cord across the outside wall.

The next while was spent warming up the hose, pausing to try and break things up inside very now and then (using the snow shovel to keep the hair dryer off the snow!). Meanwhile, a daughter was in the basement with one of the space heaters, trying to warm up the hose where it came through the wall, as it seemed to be blocked straight through.

Things did start to drip. Which should have melted ice from the inside, so that the water could finally get pumped through, but it never got more than a drip.

After doing as much as I could outside, I joined my daughter in the basement and simply used a bucket to drain the reservoir. It’s not all that deep, but deep enough that I ended up having to attach wire to the handle of the bucket, then used the handle of a broom to push it down and fill it with water until I could pull it up with the wire. Then I could drain it into the old laundry sink. My daughter, meanwhile, was stuck standing there, holding a space heater and aiming it at the pipe.

Once we could be sure the pump wouldn’t turn back on again, we stopped. That the water didn’t drain at all in this time has be concerned that the blockage might not be ice, but some sort of crud. Which shouldn’t happen. The foot of the sump pump has a filter to keep stuff out.

I think the only way to know for sure would be to take the hose off the pipe on the outside and actually look. There should not have ever been water in there to freeze. Not only because the pump hasn’t turned on in ages, but even if it had, water should have drained away from that section of pipe, not sat there to freeze.

It’s not something we can do now. I don’t want to risk cracking hoses or pipes or fittings in this cold. We’ll just have to keep an eye on the reservoir and make sure this doesn’t happen again. The hose end, meanwhile, now runs into the main path, and we can see it from the kitchen window.

Meanwhile, we are now working on Nosencrantz and Butterscotch. Butterscotch could not be lured out even with cat nip, though I have at least seen her skulking around under shelves and whatnot in there.

Nosencrantz, on the other hand, is quite happy in her new surroundings. The girls came in while I was writing this to give her some attention, and she was just luxuriating on the bed, reveling in skritches. We will slowly let other cats in, one or two at a time, to introduce them. Right now, Cheddar is in here, as one of the more laid back cats. Nosencrantz did hiss at him a bit, even though he was just sitting there, looking at her.

So far, so good.

Let’s hope it stays that way!

The Re-Farmer