A Day of Rest

Today was a very quiet day; I’ve learned to really appreciate those!

I posted some photos of the outside cats on my new Instagram account when I went out to feed them this morning.  Butterscotch came out, and I tried to see how the wound on the back of her neck was doing.  The fur was no longer matted and damp looking, but quite clean, so some grooming obviously happened.  Though I could feel where the wound was, she wouldn’t stay still enough for me to see anything.  It’s clearly not bothering her, though, which is good.

I’ve yet to see any deer today.  My older daughter thinks it might be too wet.  I’m hoping they come by later on.  The squirrels and birds will eat only so much, and as damp as things are, the seeds might start germinating – or rotting, depending on the conditions.

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Nasty Crime Boy entertained us for a while.  At first, he seemed to be watching something up the tree, though nothing that we could see from our window.  Mostly, though, he was just starting at the tree trunk.  Perhaps a bug had caught his attention?  I was able to get his attention for a photo, though. :-)

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Trüllbus the Crime Eater took over Rolando Moon’s favourite spot.  He had joined me when I was putting their food out this morning, but he would not let me touch him, or even go too near him.

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The redpolls were out in full force, but they were so active, I didn’t even try for a photo of them.  Instead, I managed to quick shot of this little feathery golf ball of a chickadee!

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Only one blue jay visited today.  Looks like it was a day of rest for the critters, too.

It’ll be an early bed time for me tonight.  I’ve got my first turn taking my mother to a doctor tomorrow morning.  One of her eyes had suddenly turned blood red.  Thankfully, my sister was visiting that day and able to take her to see a doctor.  The local clinic was closed, however, so she had to go to a clinic in the next large enough community.  That’s where I need to bring her back to tomorrow morning.  It’ll be about 40 minutes drive, plus the time it’ll take to pick up my mother.  Who knows how long we’ll be in the waiting room; they only told her to come back in the morning.  No appointment made.

I think I’ll bring along a small crochet project.  And maybe some extra yarn and hooks for my mother. :-D

My daughter has already offered me the energy drink she had been saving for another day.  I’m going to need it! :-D

The Re-Farmer

If you wait long enough…

… the deer come back.

Hungry Girl and Barbecue came back, while there was still light enough to get photos. :-)

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Eunice the Sad and Tired Snowman has lost her head.  Mostly.

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Interesting that Hungry Girl – the one that’s shier and gets bullied by Barbecue so much – is the one that’s brave enough to come closer to the house, while Barbecue stays farther away.

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He keeps tabs on us in the window, too!

My day is complete now. :-)

The Re-Farmer

 

Critters – and ID progress

We had a lot of deer activity out our window this morning!  All five of them, at one point. They were all energetic and dashing all over the place, which made getting photos a bit of a challenge!

My younger daughter was watching them and commented that the twins are starting to get less fuzzy and starting to look more sleek, like their mother.  I’ve noticed their faces are starting to get less round and also starting to get that more “adult” look.

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Except when they’re making silly faces! :-D

Despite our repeated vacuuming, the Asian lady beetles are still out in high numbers.

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In the morning, they really like our living room window.  They are upstairs in the highest numbers, but they also really like my office.

Yesterday, I made myself a giant cup of tea, then went into my office to work on the computer.  After a while, I took my empty cup and started to refill it, only to find a lady beetle had landed in my cup and was now swirling around in the tea.

Ew.

So now I’m paranoid about my tea.

This morning, one of my priorities was to look at the public insurance website about was needed to get a driver’s license updated after a move, because all this about needing my proof of address to include my physical address was getting beyond ridiculous.  The website very clearly states,

Rural customers must provide at least one document containing their physical address. If rural customers do not have two supporting documents containing their physical address, the second document can contain their mailing address.

Which is what I gave them.  In fact, both documents had the physical address, because the proof of identification form specifically has “no p.o. box” on it, as we’d considered adding it in, too.

So instead of driving to my bank branch in the town my mom lives in, I printed out copies of last month’s electricity and phone bills (this month’s aren’t up yet, which means they are likely not going to be available online until next week), as well as the puclic insurance company’s webpage.

When we got there, someone else was being served at the counter, so I waited.  Then a woman came out from the back – the one I’d been dealing with the last 3 times I’ve been there and has been trying to help me so much – and went right to helping me.  She knew why I was there!

We talked for a bit and I told her about my calls with the phone and electric companies, and how the electric company simply can’t include the physical address, because their system doesn’t allow for it.  She was able to tell me why the personal identification form was rejected.

It turns out the problem on the form wasn’t with me or my address.

It was the postmaster.

It seems that the identity unit (we have one???) couldn’t confirm her as a postmaster, based on some sort of criteria they had.

Which is weird, since she has a framed certificate up on the wall, identifying her as the postmaster, issued by Canada Post.

Totally bizarre.

In the end, she took my phone bill as proof of address, because the electric bill had a slightly different postal address – it included the term “station main” on there (which is what they normally do).  I mentioned that they had a copy of my marriage certificate, which has my address on it, but Vital Statistics isn’t among their list of acceptable sources.

Well, what I’ve given now had better be good enough.  If this isn’t, I don’t know what’s left!

After that, my daughter and I picked up some prescription refills for my husband.  Unfortunately, it was for painkillers that can’t be filled until the last refill is almost done.  My husband had phoned it in yesterday, but they wouldn’t be ready for pick up until today – and he ran out of the painkillers last night.

It was a rough day for him today.  It’s not like he can take them any time, either, but on a schedule.

After picking up the refills and doing  some other errands (one nice thing about it; almost all the stuff we needed to do was within a block of each other), my daughter and I went to play some Pokemon Go.  Which turned out to be really excellent hunting; we both caught new Pokemon for the Pokedex, and we actually caught a Blissy!  She hasn’t even seen a Chancy, yet (I’ve had much more opportunity to play that she has), so that was pretty exciting.

On the way home, we stopped at the post office.  The postmaster wasn’t there, but I talked to the person that was working the post office to pass on what happened with the form.  I figured she might like to know that the identity unit couldn’t verify her as the postmaster.  Mind you, it could be because this is such a tiny post office, inside a retail outlet, and not a stand-alone office, like in the next town.

After we got home, my daughter was a sweetheart and did some bread baking.

I ended up crashing with the cats for 3 hours.

I’m getting too old for this. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Critters, and ID Update. Yay!

Okay, so let’s end the day with things that don’t involve messy mystery clean up jobs!

Nothing like our critters to make me smile again. :-)

All of them seemed unusually active today.  Maybe spring is in the air?

While walking away from the door to feed the cats, several of the usual friendlier ones already in the area, I caught sight of the Mothman out by the other house, running away hard, in great leaps and bounds though the snow!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Mothman move at anything faster than a barely quick walk before!

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At best, a few of these guys let me pet their backs while they ate, and they didn’t seem to like it that much.  Squishum wouldn’t even allow that.  Even Rolando Moon, who came in later and will usually come right up to me, stayed away.  Only Butterscotch let me touch her, though she was moving around too much to properly pet her.  As I walked out of the yard to go read the electricity meter, she kept running ahead of me a few steps, stopping, running ahead a few more steps, then stopping again.  There was something odd about how she was moving, as if she didn’t like her paws touching the ground.  Then she would stop and chew on the bottom of a paw.  I think she might have had ice and/or snow stuck to her paws or something.  The only other time I’ve seen a cat walk like that was when it accidentally stepped on a piece of tape, and it got stuck. :-D

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Even the blue jays were so active, I could hardly get a photo of them.

Then the deer showed up.

All 5 of them.

Barbecue came first, then Mama and one of the twins, which was very unusual.  The other twin made its way through the spruce grove, instead.  Then they chased Barbecue away from where he was eating.  Hungry Girl made her way in through the trees, too.  Then, for the next while, they kept chasing each other off.  Mama and the twins took over the feeding station for a while, as Hungry Girl and Barbecue hung out in the spruce grove.  Eventually, they would make their way over, and more chasing would happen.  Not the usual short little chases, either, but big leaping chases, out into the garden.

It’s always something else to see a deer at full speed.  They can really move!!

With all that, I did get quite a few pictures.  This one has got to be my favourite!

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What a sassy Mama!

Who know deer could wink? :-D

I also love this one of Hungry Girl.

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Meanwhile, the squirrel is just sitting there, watching all the crazy stuff going on.

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In between all this, I made my trip to the post office and got my marriage certificate (yay!) so after lunch, my younger daughter and I went into town to FINALLY get my driver’s license transferred over, as well as mail off the forms to finally get our health care cards for this province.

I think it still ended up taking an hour to process the driver’s license transfer!  Thankfully, between all the paperwork I had, she was able to get it done.  Because I was able to get my old file number from the last time I had a driver’s license in this province, she was able to look it up – and my old photo came up for her!  She commented on how different I looked.  Especially the glasses. :-D

She did a whole bunch of form filling, taking extra care to make sure all the names and dates were right, I got my photo taken, then she got on the phone to get an override of my old license done.

They put her on hold.

Twice.

That done, she started to input the new information, but had to start over part of it, which meant I had to get my picture taken again.

I commented on how much more difficult all this was from how it used to be. She got a slightly wild look in her eyes as she nodded in agreement.  I added that seemed to get more difficult only recently.  The wild look came back to her eyes as she nodded and said that yes, yes it has!

I feel for the staff that needs to do all this.

Finally, everything was filled out.  My old driver’s license was photocopied, then she blacked out the bar codes.  I got the photocopies along with my original paperwork, after those got copied, too.  I paid for it, which turned out to be $50 ($20 for the license, $30 for a fee!). After that I had to sign something like 5 different forms.  Then, miracle of miracles, I got to sign my new temporary driver’s license!  My permanent one should arrive in the mail within a few weeks.

It’s done!  Finally done!

Then next time I’m back there, it will be after our van is saftied, and I can transfer the insurance and registration.  Which hopefully will be ready to do before the end of this month, so I don’t have to pay cancellation fees.

I’m just to glad it’s all finished now!  The rest of the family still needs to do their IDs, but I’m the primary driver, so it was more of a priority.

What an ordeal!  So glad it’s over!

The Re-Farmer

Daily Deer

Very few photos today; we saw Hungry Girl and Barbecue this morning, but I didn’t see any later.  Even the birds seemed to be fewer today.

However, I did get a good shot of Barbecue to share with you today.

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Gotta love that goofy face!

The Re-Farmer

Animal Happenings

I wanted to start by sharing this photo of the cats this morning.

When I go out to feed them, there are several cats that are now used to me enough that they have become a tripping hazard.

Then there are the others…

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If you look way in the back, you can see Squishum, sitting and waiting for me to leave.

That dark patch in the snow beside him?

That’s The Hand.  Sitting in a boot print, peering above the snow.

I swear, The Hand is getting more nervous around people, instead of less!  It used to be that I could at least walk past the feeding area, and he’d just stop eating to watch me, or back off into the dog house.  Now, I can’t even do that.  I come anywhere near the feeding area, he just takes off.

Sadness.  Woe.

Hopefully, in the summer when we can spend more time outside, we will be able to get him comfortable with us.

When putting out the deer feed, I made sure to put some under Eunice, the scary snowman, again.

Eunice has almost completely lost her face in the warmer temperatures.

It wasn’t long after I’d come back in that I saw Mama and the twins at the feed – with Mama going straight to Eunice!  Not bad, considering she wouldn’t go near it, yesterday.

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After taking some photos, I sat down with my morning tea in my crochet corner, next to the tripod.  After a few minutes, I looked up to see a big, white furry deer butt!

Now, with white tail deer, when they become alarmed, they flash their tails.  The white fur under their tails bristles.  Think of a cat’s tail when it tries to look threatening.

This deer was facing the spruces, with its tail up and the white fur bristling like it was hit with electricity.  Something was there that was really spooking them.  Not enough to leave, but enough to run off towards the garden.

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Next was several minutes of them looking over to that spot in the spruces, stomping their hooves, looking around, staring hard at that spot in the spruces, edging closer, backing off, looking hard at… something.

What was that something?

I had a hunch, and it turned out to be right.

Creeping through the spruces was…

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The Mothman, making another rare appearance!

The deer kept stomping and edging closer, and stomping some more.

The Mothman?

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Mothman gives no f###s.  Not the least bit intimidated by flashing hooves and stomping feet.  She just sauntered through the piles of feed, even as Mama got brave enough to come over and start eating again.

Eventually, the twins joined her.

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They continued to look over at where the Mothman had gone as they ate, and eventually left completely.

A few minutes later – presumably after having visited that cats’ feeding area – the Mothman returned.

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After gracing me with a pose for the camera, she slunk away into the spruces again.

Vanished, until her next appearance.

What a gorgeous cat.

The Re-Farmer

Luring the Deer – and yogurt!

This morning, when putting feed out for the deer, I’d put some at the bottom of Eunice, the scary snowman, that has been making them so nervous.

It had a 2 out of 5 success rate. :-D

Before I saw any of them, though, I took care of the yogurt I had started last night.

I did things differently this time.  First off, I splurged and got some Greek yogurt as the starter.  Not my preferred brand, but there wasn’t any plain Greek yogurt in my preferred brand.  Which is fine.

Then I discovered that I didn’t have enough powdered milk for the quantity of liquid milk (a gallon/4L) that I was using.  I made it anyways.  Then decided to add the last of my whipping cream to see if that would help.

When I took it out of the oven, where it had been left overnight to ferment, it was thick, but it seemed almost as if it hadn’t set.

Other than being runnier, it seemed fine, though, so I filled my 4 containers for yogurt, then used the rest to start a yogurt “cheese”.

That’s when I discovered that my cheese cloth to do the yogurt “cheese” had shrunk, and folding it in quarters was too small.

So I lined my colander with a large clean tea towel, then put the cheesecloth, in a single layer, over that.

After letting it sit for a while to drain, I knotted the corners, laid a plate on it, then weighted it down with a marble mortar I’ve got.  After a fair amount of whey drained out, I transferred the thickened yogurt to a bowl, rinsed out the cheese cloth, folded it into quarters and lined the colander again, stirred up the thickened yogurt so it was consistent in texture, then poured it back into the lined colander to drain some more.  This time, I tied the corners, put the handle of a ladle under the knots, then hung it over the colander.  It was just enough to hold it up, but it was still touching the base of the colander.  I didn’t dare rig it up to hang by its full weight.  It still wanted to drain through the cheesecloth.  After several hours, it didn’t drain much whey at all.  Eventually, I turned it out into a bowl again, scraping and squeezing as much off the cheese cloth as I could.

I’m not happy with the amount of waste.  It’s a shame.

The taste and texture is very different than usual.  When ladling the yogurt into containers, it was almost stringy.  The flavour is incredibly mild – more like fromage frais than yogurt.   Even after being in the fridge for several hours, it was still thin.  After tasting it, my daughter poured herself a cup full, mixed it with vanilla and a touch of honey, and drank it!  It is so good!

The thickened yogurt is also delicious, and I love the smooth texture, even though it’s not at all what it’s supposed to be.  It’s actually a lot like clotted cream, in both texture and flavour.  It would be awesome over fruit!

So that was my culinary adventure of the day.

Meanwhile, outside our window, we were first visited by Hungry Girl and Barbecue.  They gave Eunice the scary snowman a wide berth, though at times they did seem tempted by the feed at its base.  Not enough to actually go near it, though.

I ended up taking so many photos today, but I settled on two goofy pictures of Hungry Girl to start with.

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I can’t help it.  These split second captures just make my day!

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So silly!  I love it!

Okay.  I’m done with the goofy pictures.

For today.

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Later on, Mama and the twins came by.  They, too, gave Eunice the scary snowman a wide berth, though the twins were more curious.  In the end, though, it was something else that spooked them off.

I ended up having to quickly take the camera off the tripod and get right up into the window to be able to get this picture…

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Butterscotch did NOT want her picture taken!

She seemed interested in getting up onto the stairs to the front door we don’t use, but the snow proved too much for her.  She stuck to the path made by our boots.

After she left, the deer still seemed nervous, so I look again and found…

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Trüllbus the Crime Eater had moved in, and was checking the deer out.

I always find it funny how the deer get so skittish around the cats, but the cats are not at all intimidated by those much, much bigger animals with hooves!

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Mama, as always, was on high alert, including checking out the roof.

I wonder what’s up there that they keep looking at?  Birds?  Noise from the branches?  Falling snow from the upper floor?

After much back and forthing, on of the twins finally went for the feed at the bottom of the snowman.  That made the other comfortable enough to come over, to.

And even chase his sibling away a few times, even when he didn’t go for the feed pile himself!

Meany.

Other times, they ate together in peace.

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By the end of the day, between the deer, squirrels and birds (who really enjoyed perching on Eunice’s limbs), that area was picked clean!

I think I’ll add more there again, tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

The Deer Came Back – plus insurance update

First, an update on my medical insurance situation.

I got a call back from the insurance company “about my rejected claim.”  So that’s how the failure to get coverage on my prescriptions showed up at their end.

When I spoke to them before, they were confused to find that, while everything looked as it should in one area, in another, it showed that my file was closed.  They were going to contact the employer’s carrier company to find out what happened, which is what she was calling me back about.

They were told that I had opted out of the plan.

Huh?

Nope.  I have never done anything of the sort.  In fact, the only thing I’ve ever done has been to use my prescription coverage.  My husband has been the one to deal with them, since he’s the employee.

My guess is that when there was a screw up that affected his coverage, mine got messed up, too.

The insurance company told me I’d have to contact the employer to get it fixed.  Well, I can’t, but my husband can, so he has sent an email off to them.

Hopefully, I will have coverage again, soon!

My thoughts yesterday, of putting deer feed out in a trail past Scary Eunice the Snowman, was foiled when my younger daughter went out to feed the cats ahead of me.  As the deer hadn’t made it to the feed yesterday, she didn’t add more.  So I was going to go out later and do it.

I never got a chance to.

Hungry Girl and Barbecue were already out!

They were still nervous around Eunice, and were giving her a wide berth, which also meant they were coming closer to the house.

Interesting.  The deer were less nervous about us moving around on the other side of the window than a snowman!

I imagine they’ll get used to it soon.  Or the warm weather will melt it down.  Whichever comes first. :-D

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Hungry Girl was pretty enthusiastic about burrowing and digging into the snow to get at the feed.

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And making faces at us in the window.  Not so much in this photo.

Gosh, she’s so cute.

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Barbecue was certainly enjoying himself.

What a difference between those two.  Hungry Girl is all scruffy looking, while Barbecue is so sleek and fat, his haunches jiggle when he moves quickly.

In the next while, we’ll find out if he really is a he.  March is usually when the antlers start to grow in.

Later on, Mama and the twins came by.  They, too, kept well away from Scary Eunice!

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This is one of the twins, coming back after being chased off by its sibling, using the boot trail near the house left by my daughters.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them go this close to the house before!

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There was a fair bit of digging into the snow in some of the spots.

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And burrowing of faces.

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A bit of aggressiveness, too.  I wasn’t able to get a photo of one of the twins actually kicking at its sibling, enough that his leg even got hung up over the other one’s body.

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But that didn’t keep either of the twins from coming back.

Look how deep that snow is!  This area doesn’t get as deep as other areas, such as the open garden. It’s definitely making it harder for them to move around.

And now a bonus photo…

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One, adorable, fluffy little chickadee!

The Re-Farmer