Medical

Morning in the garden and… *sigh* Not a good start to the day

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My start to the day was way earlier than intended, even with needing to get up earlier because I was going to my mother’s!

I’ve been keeping my bedroom door closed overnight, with just Butterscotch and Ginger, because they get bothered by other cats so much. When I can, I include Tiny, who also gets bullied by other cats. Unfortunately, that results in cats scratching at my door frequently during the night. This not only wakes me up, it’s damaging the door. In the time it takes me to get up and get to the door with a spray bottle, whatever cat is doing it is long gone.

This morning, when I found myself up at about 4:30 am, I decided to leave my door open as I tried going back to bed. As soon as the other cats came in, though, the fighting, growling, scratching (sometimes even on the scratch pad or tower), hairball horking, and jumping all over the place kicked right in!

I finally gave up and got up well before my alarm was due to go off. I topped up the cat food bowls in the dining room, mostly just making noise to get their attention, since they still had plenty of food, and managed to get most of them distracted from destruction in my room.

I headed outside next to feed the yard cats. I didn’t see Zipper anywhere which, after what happened with Kale, has me concerned, but then I didn’t see some of the other kittens, either. I find myself wondering if Caramel is trying to move her babies to the farm across the road from us. Yesterday, I caught her encouraging one of her kittens to follow hear, while heading in that direction. No one lives there permanently, but there is still the house, barn and many outbuildings. I picked up the kitten and brought it back to the sun room, just to be on the safe side. I will know better when I do the evening feeding, if we are missing some kitties.

Once the furballs were fed, I did the rest of my rounds, including checking the garden beds. They did not need watering this morning, which was good, since I didn’t have time to do it before leaving.

The transplants are still looking really rough, but that’s not stopping them from blooming! Especially the winter squash.

These are just one variety in the picture, but all three varieties in this bed have blossoms. Almost all are male flowers, though I did see one female flower bud. I should probably prune all these flowers off right now, which should send more energy to plant growth rather than flower blooming.

I was also very happy to have my first garlic scape harvest!

Just a few were ready for picking, but we will have more, soon! On the way back to the house, I grabbed a few chive blossoms, too. I included some of each in my breakfast. 😊

I headed back out later and harvested some rhubarb and lettuce to bring to my mother, before changing and heading out. Expecting today to be warmer, I decided to wear my new caftan style summer dress. It’s bright red with bold patterns in green, yellow, white and black. My mother has seen me in it before and laughed at me, saying it looked like I was wearing pajamas (she meant night gown, but I think she forgot the word in English). So I knew I’d get some sort of blowback for wearing it. I also wore my new shoes in matching red, and the sparkly gold hat my daughter bought for me, to add to my sparkly hat collection. I always wear a baseball style hat – I feel naked without one! – when I head outside, and have work hats and going out hats. The sparkly ones are my going out hats.

Before I left, I went over to my daughter as she was making herself breakfast, struck a pose and asked, how do I look? I pretty much never wear such bright colours or patterns, and wear dresses even less often. My daughter loved it, then laughed and said my mother would have things to say!

So, I did know at least some of what was coming.

The plan was to take my mother to the lab for her bloodwork when they opened at 9, or after her morning med assist. I seemed to remember that the morning home care worker came just before 9am, but I wasn’t sure. I had told my mother I would be there between 8:30 and 9. After the lab work, I would do her grocery shopping, then had my own errands to run.

I arrived shortly after 8:30 and delivered the rhubarb and lettuce. My mother was quite happy with that.

Then I settled at the table to get her lock box and remove the bloodwork form for this month. That’s when my mother noticed my bright red shoes.

She somehow managed to compliment me on the shoes, while laughing and insulting me for the dress, at the same time.

Then she started in on the hat, which I’ve already worn to her place, quite a few times. That style, she told me, was for men. Because it had a visor. Men’s hats have visors. I pointed out, it’s gold and sparkly, so it’s hardly a “men’s hat” (not that it couldn’t be, but my mother wouldn’t think so).

She then started to tell me, people dress so strangely these days!

😂😂

I told her, it’s just styles. They change.

All of this is pretty typical of my mother and pretty expected.

Meanwhile, I got the form out and she ordered me to give her her pills. I had already confirmed that the home care aide hadn’t arrived yet, so I told her no, the aid will be here soon. It’s not even 9:00 (it was coming up on 8:45 by then, so I’d been there for less than 10 minutes). She then started going on about the times and eventually mentioned that no one had shown up for Saturday morning, so that meant they weren’t going to come today.

????

This was the first I’d heard of this. I told her, if that happens, call me! If they haven’t shown up by 10, then she needs to call me so I can come in.

By 10? They’re supposed to be here at 8.

???

She was recently given a new 2 week schedule, and it was taped to her wall, so I checked it. The schedule includes both the days and dates, then the scheduled med assist times for each day. As I started looking at it, she berated me for looking at the wrong date, so obviously, she could see the schedule, even with her macular degeneration. I found the right date, then pointed out to her that all the scheduled visits for each day are at the same times. Mornings are from 9-9:10. Afternoons, 6:55-7. I forget the last one, but it was also a 5 minute visit. All the times were the same for the two weeks on the schedule, along with the names of who was supposed to do the visits.

My mother’s response was, they changed it?

She thought they were supposed to come at 8, even though she could see the schedule, taped to the wall right in front of where she sits at her dining table.

She still demanded I give her her medications. I said no. They have forms to fill out. I’m not going to mess with their system.

I was berated for wanting to follow the rules.

Once the lock box was set aside, we settled in to just chat while we waited, and I mentioned how hot and humid it was. She thought I meant outside, and I told her it’s hot and humid outside, too, but I had meant inside. My mother doesn’t feel the heat at all, these days.

She didn’t understand the word humid, though, and thought I meant the smoke. I told her there wasn’t any smoke visible when I came in, but that would just be because of the wind direction. The big fire across the lake was still burning out of control.

That’s when things went downhill, fast.

She started talking about how terrible it was that “they” were starting fires. And by “they”, my mother basically means not-white people. Sometimes she seems to mean Muslims, sometimes First Nations, sometimes just any of the recent imports. When I pointed out that not all of these fires are arson, and many are in isolated regions, where there are no roads and no people, she told me that “they” would still go there! If they can burn churches, they would burn forests, too.

Now, as an aside, we do have real problems with this. In past years, the RCMP have uncovered plots from people connected to Islamic terrorist groups that specifically included starting many forest fires. There is also the issue of imports (I will not insult genuine immigrants by calling the imports, immigrants). Canada’s federal government has allowed well over 800,000 imports in just the first 4 months of 2025. That’s roughly equivalent to the population of the city of Winnipeg. This while going on about how they’re going to cut back on how many people they let in because of the housing crisis. These are not people undergoing the requisite checks and balances normally required during the immigration process, and there is a much larger problem if human trafficking involved, but that’s a whole different topic.

There is also the real problem of churches being vandalized and burned. The number is well over 100 now, and this started after the mass graves hoax that our former Prime Dictator, T2, actually condoned, even as he condemned it. He literally did both in the same sentence. Many of these are blatant hate crimes, but they’re not being investigated. What my mother doesn’t understand is that many of these churches that were vandalized and burned because of the mass graves hoax are actually churches on reserves. A lot of Fist Nations people are Christian, and those churches are incredibly important to their communities.

My mother, however, can’t grasp that. In her mind, white people are Christian. Which makes me wonder what she really thinks about the very dark priest from India serving her church right now! Or the Filipino family with their delightful gaggle of children that attends her church.

So that’s a bit of the background on that.

I tried to tell my mother, she’s talking about two different things. Yes, the church burnings are a problem, but that is not connected to the wildfires. It’s fire season. Some fires are started by stupid people throwing their cigarette butts out the window, yes, there is sometimes arson, but mostly these are lightning strikes. There simply aren’t people around to start most of the fires where they are.

She then started to accuse me of “protecting” “them”, saying “I’m not stupid” (meaning, she knows what is REALLY going on, but I don’t) and that I was just like…

At that point she used a word I didn’t understand. It was one of her made up words that she comes up with, like referring to women doctors as “psheepshee”. I had to ask several times, what was she talking about, before she said she meant the home care worker she’d had an incident with before. This home care worker had made a request to not be assigned to my mother anymore because of my mother’s racist comments, so we were all surprised that she was back. My mother had acknowledged she did not behave properly, though I don’t know that she ever apologized directly to this woman. Clearly, based on what my mother was saying now, any apology she might have made was not at all genuine!

So there she was saying I was “protecting” people just like this… whatever the word was… home care worker. (Granted, I would also have a problem with someone who said she supported pro-terrorist protesters, but we don’t know exactly what went down, since they both have told different stories about the incident.) All for pointing out that she was talking about two different things, and not all fires are arson.

Then I guess my mother remembered that my husband is Metis, because she suddenly asked, “is there any white blood left in you?”

…

At that point I told her, flat out, she was being disgusting, and when did she get all this hate in her heart?

She then started crossing herself, and I called her out on that particular behaviour, too. That led to her questioning my faith and making some other inappropriate comments.

Which is when I told her, I was done.

I put the paperwork back in the lock box and left. I was not going to take her for her lab work, nor do her grocery shopping, after that.

While I put the form away, my mother just sat there, silently, with a very familiar smug smile on her face that she puts on when she is utterly convinced of her righteousness.

I was not going to put up with her abuse.

I was there for less than 15 minutes.

At some point, I’ll need to go back and get her to the lab and do her grocery shopping, but not today.

Once in the truck, I updated the family very briefly – both at home and in the group chat with my siblings. I then headed out to do what was supposed to be my afternoon errands, and went to the nearest Walmart.

I just got interrupted by a cat altercation that brings me to one of the things I found at Walmart to try. A “calm & content”, “liquid vet” solution. Chicken flavoured. It’s meant to be fed to a stressed out cat during meal time, with doses based on weight. We have several cats that seriously need to be de-stressed! It has a 100% money back guarantee, so we’ll see how it works. I also picked up a couple of sprayers for the hose; I only need one right now, but with how quickly they seem to break down, I got an extra. I did get what I hope are higher quality ones.

The shopping done and the truck loaded, I just started to leave the parking lot when my phone rang.

It was home care.

I shuddered to think they needed me to do the morning med assist. It well past 10 by then. It turned out that my mother had called them because no one had showed up for her morning med assist. The scheduler had checked and confirmed that the home care aid was running behind, and that she would be going to my mother’s next. I briefly let her know I’d been there earlier and had to leave because of my mother’s behaviour. Fair warning that she might not be at her best when the home care aid arrived. The scheduler appreciated the warning.

I was just glad I wasn’t going to have to go back to my mother’s today.

I could finally head home, which was an uneventful drive except…

Why was my oil pressure gauge on the low side like that?

It hasn’t been that long ago that a leaking gasket was discovered, and that’s why we had been losing oil. Because of where it was leaking, we never saw any oil under the truck, nor have we been seeing any lately. We had also still had issues with the MAF sensor, so we had that replaced, the engine cleaned and an oil change done, all at once. It’s been running fine, ever since.

I did confirm that, based on the mileage on the sticker, we are due for an oil change, though the onboard computer says we’re still good to go.

Once at home and the truck unloaded, I grabbed some paper towel and checked the oil level. Which is incredibly frustrating. I honestly can’t tell where the oil level is. It either looks all wet, or not at all. I do wish the dip stick could be a light colour, rather than basically the same colour as the oil! I eventually concluded it was a bit low and added my last half liter of oil that I had in the truck and checked again. I found it even harder to see the oil level at that point.

*sigh*

So I called the garage and told them what I was seeing. They couldn’t fit me in today, but I now have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. They’ll do an oil change and check for a leak.

Meanwhile I had a message from my daughter. The autobody place called about our insurance claim while I was gone, so I called them back.

The insurance company has agreed to the off-market box cover that would fit our truck, that the shop had managed to find. We would be paying the 30% “betterment” cost, on top of our deductible. The guy at the repair department needed to look over the truck, though. I now have an appointment for Thursday afternoon. He’ll look over the damage, including the broken tail light, so he knows exactly what parts he will need to order. The insurance company says they won’t cover the tail light because they don’t think it was caused by the box cover being ripped off the truck and twisting the frame in the process, and I have no way to prove otherwise. The autobody place might be able to find a cheaper off-market one for us, though. Otherwise, we could go to the garage and ask if they can find one from a scrap yard, instead. These things are pretty expensive, new.

Once the guy has the information he needs, they’ll be able to look it all up and give an exact cost to us, including the deductible. We can then decide whether to go ahead with the repair and replacement or not. Budget is very tight right now, but my older daughter has said she can help out.

All of this, and it was just past noon by the end of the call with the autobody place.

I am so ready to call it a day.

The Re-Farmer

Getting stuff done, and birthday take out

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The cats had me up ridiculously early this morning. I ended up just doing the outside cat feeding and going back to bed, instead of doing my full morning rounds. Thankfully, I did actually get some real sleep the second time around, even if it meant having Butterscotch basically lying on my head. She seems to associate my being in bed as “it’s safe now”, and she’ll come out of hiding from under the armchair and start demanding attention before curling up and sleeping right against my head and neck.

My daughter’s appointment at the hospital wasn’t until 4:40, and we were planning to be on the road by 3:30, so I did have some time in the afternoon to get the weed trimmer out and start clearing around the house. We were way behind on that in some areas, particularly around the portable greenhouse. I had just a bit left to do around the north side when the weed trimmer simply stopped. Usually, when that happens, it means the plug in the handle had come loose, but that was fine. I checked all down the extension cords (I need three 300′ cords to be able to reach everything), but everything was fine. So I messaged my daughters asking if one of them could check the breakers, but none were tripped.

We might be down a weed trimmer.

I’m hoping it was just over worked and will start again when I test it tomorrow. By the time we confirmed it was not the breakers, I had to put everything away, so I could clean up and change before we had to leave.

I did remember to prepare the cat soup variation for the kittens, and had it all ready for my older daughter to take care of while we were gone. The kibble mixed in with the canned cat food and warm water would have had plenty of time to get nice and soft by then.

One of the things I started before the weed trimming was replace the hose end with the pin prick hole in it with one of the new couplings I picked up. It was definitely the quickest and easiest fix I’ve ever had! No screw clamps on these things. It took me a while to understand how the rest worked, though. It just didn’t make sense to me, but the shut off valve is basically just pulling the female coupling part right off. That can be screwed into the end of another hose, or into a nozzle, then popped back in place for the water to start flowing. Which works well enough, except that I was attaching this to a soaker hose. Then, after about an hour, to a different soaker hose in another bed. The hoses are different brands and their mail couplings are designed slightly differently. One is a lot deeper than the other, and both were difficult to screw onto the new coupling’s end properly. It’s really designed to work with the same brand’s matching male couplings, not regular hose ends. I haven’t tried it with a sprayer nozzle, yet. One of the sprinkler hose connections leaked a fair bit, but I just move it so it would lean into the mulch near one of the plant collars in the bed that was being waters.

It might actually be worth replacing the other hose ends with this new type I got. A lot of the ones with screw clamps on them either still leak, or they are hard to attach and detach, because the screw clamps are in the way.

Anyhow. Just the two beds got watered, so I’m going to have to make sure to do a full watering of everything else, tomorrow morning. We’re expected to reach a high of 23C/73F tomorrow, then a high of 26C/79F the day after, so everything is going to need it!

My daughter had a questionnaire they’d sent to her all filled out to bring along for her appointment. It was close enough to her appointment time that I dropped her off at the doors before finding a parking spot. When I caught up with her, there was absolutely no one else in the waiting room, so she got called in right on time.

The first person (a nurse?) took her sheet with the questions, but the only reason they went through them at all was because my daughter hadn’t quite understood some of their questions, and hadn’t answered them. After a little while, she was taken to see the surgeon that will be operating on her wrist.

Most of what they asked was, in a nutshell, are you really sure you want to do this? Is it really so bad you’re willing to go under anesthetic and have someone digging around in your wrist? The surgeon was, at first, careful with how he phrased things but, after hearing how my daughter answered, realized he could go right into gruesome detail without any issue. So my daughter got a very intense description of what the surgery will entail, and was she really sure it was bad enough to go through this?

It makes me wonder just what sort of things they had to deal with in the past, to make them have to asked some of these questions!

My daughter, meanwhile, was more than happy to accept the surgery. Her ganglion happens to be on the small side right now, but when it gets bad, it gets really bad. The pain gets extreme and renders her arm pretty much useless.

She left with a printout with pre-op instructions. We have a date for the surgery, but she’ll get a call in about a week for the exact time she needs to come in. It’s just day surgery, so I’ll be driving her in, then hanging around to take her home.

We’re pretty impressed that she’s getting her surgery so relatively quickly. The referral was sent in April. To get such a quick surgery date for what is classified as elective surgery so quickly is very rare. She’s still waiting on other referrals her doctor had sent out for her.

Once she was done, I asked if there was anything we needed to do, while we were in town. After messaging with her sister for a bit, it was decided that we would go to a Pizza Hut – her choice for her special birthday take out (it’s not her birthday yet, but we split things like this up throughout the birth month, instead) – courtesy of her sister. We ended up getting four large stuffed crust pizzas, plus two 22 count boneless wings with different sauces.

That cost my daughter over $200 – and that was before the tip was added!

It’ll feed us for several days, though!

The ride home sure smelled good, though – and we were both quite hungry by then!

I may not have done my full morning rounds, but I did do my evening rounds. I’m concerned about a lot of my transplants. All of the transplants in the main garden area, and even in the east garden beds, are looking strangely yellow and floppy. The eggplant, peppers and herbs transplanted into the old kitchen garden seem fine, but all the other transplants are looking like they are dying. This doesn’t look like transplant shock, either. I don’t know what to make of it, but at this point, I’m not sure any of the melons or winter squash will survive! I’ve tried looking up the possible causes, and the only thing that seems likely is lack of nitrogen.

I did get some water soluble fertilizer while in town recently, so I think I’ll be making use of that when I do the watering tomorrow!

Other things are looking just fine. Like the raspberries that have spread into the old compost pile.

Turn your volume up for these videos.

You can’t see very many, but the raspberry bushes were absolutely buzzing with mostly bumblebees. There is one huge bumble in the second video. You can even hear the much deeper tone of that one’s buzzing!

These raspberries have had zero tending to, other than my pulling some of the weeds around the edges. No watering or anything. They’re doing fantastic, though!

On a completely note, here is some adorableness for you.

I’m actually not 100% sure which cats these are, but I think it’s Mitsy and Toni all snuggled together. The cats just love this box! It’s a compromise with the cats, to allow them on the dining table; we used to allow only Ginger and Toni up there, as a safe space to get away from the other cats. When we started to find them snuggling with other cats, it just didn’t make sent to chase the 4 legged cats away from the 3 legged ones! Now, we’ll go past the box and sometimes find three large cats mashed into the box, literally hugging each other to fit. They keep moving when we stop to try and get a picture, though.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll be able to make a dump run, and my daughter plans to break out the riding mower. I do hope I can get that weed trimmer going again, as there are still areas that need to be done. Particularly around garden beds I need to work on. If not, I might be able to borrow my brother’s gas powered weed trimmer. I’m hoping they’ll be able to come out this weekend. The last couple of times they came out, I missed them entirely, and I’d love to do some catching up with them, too.

We shall see!

For now, I’m happy with what I managed to get done outside today, in the short time I had available for it, and that we got my daughter’s surgery consultation appointment done. It seems strange to be excited about getting surgery, but that ganglion has been causing her so much pain, it’s going to make a huge difference for her, once it’s gone!

I’m so glad we found this doctor and my daughter is finally getting this stuff done!

The Re-Farmer

Self sabotage

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*sigh*

My mother did it again.

Last night, I had a voice message on my cell phone, letting my know that there was no one to do my mother’s evening med assist.

Early this morning, I got a call from the home care coordinator, and found out what happened.

My mother’s supper and evening med assists are usually done by the same person. When the home care aid came in for the suppertime visit, apparently my mother started making racist comments about “brown people” being “cockroaches”.

(in retrospect, I am second guessing this; that is not a word my mother would use. I don’t think she knows what a cockroach even is.)

The home care aid said that she found this insulting, because she is Metis, and my mother apparently responded by saying she was a cockroach.

The aid now refuses to go back to my mother, and did the paperwork for that. It went up the chain, and that’s why I got the call.

We talked about it for a while, and there is recognition that my mother’s cognitive decline is playing a part on this. The problem is that this can affect her long term care panel. My mother actually wants to be in a nursing home. A very specific one, and we’re trying to accomplish this for her. The staff at long term care and supporting living, however, are of all races, so this could be a problem.

My mother is basically self sabotaging herself.

When I was done with the call, I sent out a group message to my siblings about it. Not long after, messaged to let us know he’d phoned her from work. My mother did admit she shouldn’t have said what she said to the home care worker, and even said she was sorry. My brother told her that he wasn’t the one she should apologize to – she needs to apologize to the home care worker, but she won’t be coming back, because of how my mother treated her.

My mother was dismissive about it, saying there are lots of workers, and there’s always people looking for jobs. He told her, no, there is a shortage of workers, and you just don’t treat people like that.

She did seem to catch on that she had actually done something wrong.

The morning med assist arrived while they were talking, so they got off the phone. I later found out that my mother had told the morning person to extend her apologies.

I had my appointment in town, though, so I was going to call my mother later.

I got to my appointment early, so I popped into the Red Apple (a rural department store) for a bit. A display caught my eye and distracted me from what I planned to look at, and before long, I was walking out with a caftan and what I at first thought was a sleeveless summer dress, except it was pants, not a skirt. Something that is stepped into from the top, with no zippers or buttons. They were both “one size fits all”, but I didn’t have time to try on either of them. I figured if they didn’t fit me, they might fit my daughters. What I was really after was the caftan, though, for the upcoming summer heat.

Yes, this is relevant.

After my appointment, I remembered to pop over to the autobody shop to ask some questions. Since they were going to be working on the truck at some point, I asked about the door handle and the driver’s seatbelt. The handle broke off and I have to open the window to open it from the outside. I’d called our garage and got an estimate for it, but they don’t normally do that sort of work. The driver’s seatbelt buckle has a terrible habit of suddenly coming undone. Once it catches, it catches, but sometimes it feels like it’s buckled, but isn’t quite all the way, so it’ll suddenly come undone while I’m driving.

It turns out that yes, they could do this work for me, but it would be expensive. The door handle, which is snapped off, is expensive and would cost about the same as the garage would charge me. The garage, however, could go to a scrap yard or something, and find a second hand one. Something they can’t do. As for the seatbelt, that would also be really expensive, because they would have to replace the entire thing, not just the buckle, because that’s how it’s sold. Again, the garage could look for a second hand one for us at a better price.

Then we talked about our insurance claim.

Normally, the insurance will cover like for like and, if that can’t be found, they’ll allow an improvement, but the client pays the difference. The problem is, box covers like the one we had fit newer models, which have different sized truck boxes. The only one she could find that would fit our truck was an off market version, and the insurance company normally wouldn’t approve that. After talking to the adjuster, he said he would have to pass it up the line for approval and get back to her.

He hasn’t gotten back to her yet.

If they don’t approve the off market cover, and there are no other options, they might offer us cash, instead. We would still need a box cover, of course. As for cash, the adjuster put the value of the old box cover at a dollar, because he couldn’t find anything to tell him what it actually cost. So who knows what we would get.

The twisted frame is covered, though, as it needs to be fixed before a box cover can be installed. We’d be charged for part of the painting, because of the rust on the fender, around the wheel well. She told me she would ask the repair guys to try do it so only the top of the frame needs to be painted, not the whole panel. That would save us up to $140.

Then there was the broken tail light cover. The insurance company won’t cover that and, since I can’t prove it wasn’t broken before the box cover was ripped off by the wind, I am not going to contest it. She’s going to see if they can find an off market one for us. The entire tail light assembly gets replaced, not just the cover, and a new market value one can cost $250-$300.

So now I know the status of our insurance claim, and to contact our garage to see if they can find the parts we need from the scrap yard or something. Getting the door handle fixed before winter would be good, that’s for sure!

By the time I got home, it was about mid afternoon. I grabbed a quick lunch, then headed outside. I decided to work on the permanent trellis bed, but needed to clear around it, first. In this area, it made more sense to break out my brother’s push mower first, then go back with the weed trimmer.

Of course, since I had the mower going anyhow, I kept mowing further out. I hadn’t refilled the tank before I started, so I basically just kept going until I ran out of gas, then went to get some more.

Which is when I discovered I had a voice mail message.

From home care.

There was no one to do my mother’s suppertime or evening med assists.

Then, while I was listening to this message, a text message came in.

If was from my mother’s LifeLine provider, telling me it looked like the pendant was no longer connected to the based, and saying to test it. If a test didn’t work, it gave a number to call.

I put away the gas can, and the lawn mower.

Once back inside, I called up my mother. The first thing was to explain about the text I got, and get her to press the button on her LifeLine pendant.

There was no response.

I would have to phone the company.

I then told my mother about the call I got from home care, and that there was no one to come for her two evening med assists. She asked if I knew why, and I told her, I just had a phone message. Her response was, “oh, they’re trying to “get” me”, or something like that. My mother thinks the home care aids are deliberately not coming to give her her meds so that she’ll die. I told her, no, you did this to yourself. Because of how you treated the home care aid, they don’t want to work with you anymore.

Oh, you know about that, she said…

I told her I got a call this morning from the home care coordinator about it. My mother said she’d called her, herself, and wanted her to “visit” (have a meeting). By then, the office was closed, so I told her she wouldn’t hear back until Monday. I then told her I needed to call the LifeLine number, and would be coming over to do her med assist.

After being on hold for awhile, I got through to someone and explained the text message I got, and that I got my mother to test her pendent, with no response. He looked up her file and it seemed her pendent was no longer synced with the base. So he gave me step by step instructions on how to reset it and test it again, and told me that if it didn’t work, call back.

That done, I finally got to finish cleaning up and changing. Our predicted high of 22C/72F turned out to be 27C/81F, so I decided to wear my new caftan, which did fit (the other garment did not, so I have it to my daughters to try one). It is a very loud, mostly deep red, with bold colours in the patterns. More importantly, it’s made of a very light, breezy fabric that feels as close to being naked in the heat, without actually being naked.

So, off I went to my mother’s. When I got there, she was fussing in the kitchen and didn’t stop, so I asked for her LifeLine pendent and did the reset, as instructed, ending with a test. When it was done, what should have happened when I pressed the pendant button at the end was an almost instant human voice responding.

There was nothing.

So I called the number on the machine, using my cell phone (the machine is linked through my mother’s land line). I got the guy on speaker as we talked and he walked me through doing the reset again, then doing the test call.

Nothing.

At which point, they simply replace the machine, and he started that request going. If necessary, they know to call me on our land line first, before trying my cell phone.

That done, I went back to my mother, who was at her dining table, so update her and start getting her meds.

Which is when she noticed what I was wearing.

She commented on it and I told her I had picked it up, just today.

She started laughing at me, because of course she would, and told me it looked like something for sleeping in.

*sigh*

I told her no, not at all. It would be terrible to sleep in (it’s ankle length, I’d be tangled in it in a heartbeat!).

She still said it looked like something to sleep in, but that’s okay, she’s got something similar that she uses to sleep in, too.

…

No, she doesn’t have anything like a caftan. She has night gowns.

She was absolutely oblivious to the idea that laughing at me for what I was wearing was not a nice thing to do. It’s something I have come to expect from her, so it doesn’t really bother me, but she does this to everyone.

That did give me the segue to talk about what happened yesterday.

Long story short, it seems my mother did genuinely seem to realize she had done something wrong. She still tried to justify it. Saying things like, she gave her opinion, the home care worker gave her opinion, like it was some normal conversation. Then she started saying, she’s alone at home all day, and she wants to talk.

I told her, when they come to her place, they are there to do their job and leave. They are not there to talk about politic or religion or race or whatever. She needs to treat people nicely, and I stressed that her behaviour could keep her from getting into the nursing home she wants to be in.

As we talked, she mentioned again that she’d called the case coordinator, while bringing out the home care worker list of names and times they’d be coming. The number on there is what she called and left a message.

She called the shift scheduler.

I told her, this number was for someone else. I’d given her the number for the case coordinator, and it was with the schedule, but it was gone. Meanwhile, my mother was angry that the number she wanted wasn’t on there. I told her, this number would have different people answering, depending on the time of day and day of the week. The number she wanted is office hours only.

Meanwhile, I got her supper time meds out, and she took them a bit early. That freed up her little pill counting bowl and I set out her before bed pills, plus her inhaler, for later. I also updated the notebook I keep inside the lock box for the next home care aid to see.

Once all of that was done and everything was put away, I stayed for a while longer, and we talked some more about her behaviour. This time, my mother took out what she’d showed the home care worker. It was a photocopy from a new article, showing a grown of anti-Western, pro-terrorist demonstrators, in Canada, and she had basically asked the woman her opinion. Apparently, she said she agreed with the pro-terrorist demonstrators, which ticked my mother off. The women then told my mother that her ex-husband was black, and her kids were half black.

…

The case coordinator told me she’d said she was Metis.

So we have another discrepancy on the stories, here!

I asked my mother, why do you even have this? (She would have had to get someone to print out or make a photo copy of the image for her) And why would you show it to the home care aid?

My mother started talking about being lonely and wanting to have someone to talk to. (It sounds like her neighbours in the building are avoiding her now.) I said fine. Talk about the weather. Talk about the gardens (the building’s garden plots are visible out her window). Don’t talk about stuff like this.

I also recommended she stop watching TV news, because it’s not good for her!

My mother agreed that she would not talk about things unrelated to her med assist when the home care workers came.

Once I was sure she was set up for the evening, I headed home. By then, it was time for my own supper. My plans to work in the garden after clearing around the bed I was going to work on were out the window, but it was light enough to at least do the watering, including the new trees and bushes.

While I was watering the high raised bed, I picked a couple of things.

One is a Purple Prince turnip. I thought the yellow one should have been a Zlata radish, but it was so big, I thought maybe I somehow had some Gold Ball turnip seeds in there.

Later on, while watering the low raised bed in the east yard, which as the same mix, plus lettuce seeds, I picked a few more of the yellow ones. They really are radishes, not turnips. It just happens that this one is very large for a radish!

While I was still out there, my older daughter came out to talk about a potential visit from my son from another mother, later in the year. It has been a long time since we’ve seen him! She stayed out to help with the watering, too. The girls had already taken care of feeding the outside cats while I was done, but after I was done watering, I stayed out to play with Poirot’s kittens. They REALLY want attention, and love to get under foot!

Some of the bigger kittens have infected eyes, but I was able to wash only Sir Robin’s eye. I tried to get Havarti (the one orange tabby kitten) to wash one of his eyes, but he would not let me get him. I hope I’ll be able to wash it out, tomorrow.

Kitten therapy is good.

This has turned out to be a pretty messed up day. I really hope my mother takes our warnings to heart, and starts behaving better.

In talking about the situation, my brother had a good point, though. As people age, this sort of thing is not at all unusual. This is usually something that would play a part in getting someone IN to long term care, not out of it. My brother remembers an eye doctor we used to go to, many years ago. He was the sweetest man every, but when dementia hit, he suddenly starting saying some incredibly racist things. It was actually a big part of how he ended up in long term care. I supposed it’s different with my mother, since she has always been racist. Her cognitive decline is just bringing it out more, not creating it. The end result is the same, though, and as bad as my mother can be, others in long term care are far worse.

*sigh* again.

Well, whatever happens, happens. We do the best we can.

What other choice is there?

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: corn, bush beans, and another outing, after all

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I had a late start in the garden today.

I woke at my usual time, which is basically when it starts getting light out (about 5-5:30am, these days), but was in massive pain. I did manage to get outside to feed the yard cats, but wasn’t able to do the rest of my morning rounds. Instead, I took some painkillers and headed back to bed.

I didn’t wake up again until about noon!

I did feel a lot better by then, though, which is good, because – as always – the job I needed to do took more than expected!

The bed I need to work on is where I had eggplant and hot peppers growing, last year. These had been mulched first with cardboard, then grass clippings on top of the cardboard. In the fall, I just did a chop and drop, leaving it pretty much as it was for the winter.

What you see in the first photo is what was able to grow through the openings in the cardboard where the peppers and eggplant were growing through, and areas around the edges where rhizomes in particular were able to work their way up the side walls of the bed.

The box frame was secured to hold plastic I’d set around the eggplant and peppers to form a sort of open top greenhouse. The twine wrapped around was there to reduce billowing in the wind. If the wind were not an issue, it would have worked out quite well, but it was a pretty constant battle. Even the cover with the wire that is stored on top of the box frame would get blown off, and it was there to weigh down the tops of the plastic, and didn’t have anything else over it! Which is why it got lashed down with paracord, later on.

Removing the mulch and remaining bits of cardboard did clear a lot of the elm seeds off, but there were so many seeds, the mulch can’t be used again, nor would I want to put it on the compost pile. Instead, I put it around the base of the box on the outside, to hopefully smother any weeds that would come up through the gaps.

Then it was time to fluffify the soil and pull the weeds, including the roots.

Which was absolutely brutal. It was like concrete.

I normally would have gone over it with a garden fork, first, but with the box frame in place, that wasn’t an option. So I was just using my little hand cultivator.

That has got to be my favourite garden tool right now. It really does the job! It was still pretty difficult. In the end, I spent more than an hour, just breaking up that soil. There weren’t a lot of weeds to pull, thanks to that mulch, but getting the roots out was almost impossible. Even after breaking up the soil first, if there were any clumps at all, the roots and rhizomes would just break apart.

I keep water with me while I work but, once the soil was prepped, I had to head inside for a sit down and hydration break. Thank God for cooler temperatures! Unfortunately, I’m out of any amendments that would help reduce this sort of compaction.

For this bed, I wanted to plant the Orchard Baby corn, which has only 65 days to maturity, with some beans. I had some yellow Custard bean seeds left. Which is a bit funny because, a few years back, we grew a different variety of corn in this bed, with beans from this same packet, in between!

Given that the beans are a few years old, I don’t expect a high germination rate, but bean seeds last a lot longer than other things.

Using the end of one of the larger plastic coated plant stakes, I marked off 5 fairly deep lines in the soil – three for corn, two for beans – then filled the resulting little trenches with water. Then I ran the stake over the lines again, and this time used the hose on the jet setting, to drive the water deeper in the planting areas.

In the slide show above, right after the photo of the seeds, the seeds are laid out in the rows. Even the bright pink inoculated bean seeds are hard to see, but they’re there!

The beans were planted pretty far apart; there were enough that I knew there would be plenty left behind. They’re more of a “bonus” crop.

The corn was supposed to be about 50 seeds per packet, and I did hope to get them all in, but there just wasn’t the space, even setting them pretty close together. They will be thinned later, if the germination rate is high.

To actually plant the seeds, I cheated, and used the end of the plant stake I used to make the rows to push the seeds into the soil, which you can see in the next picture. For each one, I’d give the stake a spin to make sure no seeds stuck to the end, before moving to the next one! Then I gently dragged the stake over the rows to cover the seeds before finishing off with a gentle watering, which further ensured the seeds were well covered.

I still had those leftover corn seeds, though. I didn’t want to hang on to such a small amount, but what to do with them?

Well, there was this little bed nearby, with the Arikara squash in it.

Corn and squash are supposed to do well together!

So I opened up the mulch, where there seemed to be the most room, including right in the very middle, and planted the leftover seeds there. These beds are close enough that wind pollination between them should work out fine. For now, though, the mosquito netting cover got put back on until the squash is large enough I won’t have to worry about something getting at them.

Then I went to the tomato bed and, using the plant stake to make holes in the soil, planted more beans down the middle of the bed, plus the gap between the Black Beauty and Chocolate Cherry tomatoes. Bonus beans, plus they will act as a living mulch later on.

That done, I brought out the stove pellets for the corn and beans bed. I scattered them all over the bed, then misted them with water. After the pellets had a chance to expand and start breaking up into sawdust, I sprinkled some more pellets on and misted it again.

As there is nothing in this bed with protective collars or anything like that, it was going to need something to keep the cats out. A few years back, my daughter bought us a large roll of netting. I’ve been reusing pieces of it in other areas but, for the amount I needed, I brought the remaining roll out. You can see it in the second last photo of the corn and beans slideshow. The netting on that roll is actually folded in half. I left it as it was, though. Using ground staples to fasten the netting to the wire above the box cover, I unrolled it all the way around, with a decent amount of overlap, before cutting it. Roughly 25 feet, in total. There is still lots on the roll.

About this time, I got a notification on my phone for a voicemail message. Turns out my Wi-Fi calling had shut itself off. Why I was still able to listen to the voicemail message, but not get the call itself, I have no idea.

It was home care, letting me know that there would be no one available for my mother’s bed time med assist.

It was almost 6pm when I got the message, which means she would have just had her suppertime med assist.

I had time to finish setting up the netting. The top was secured with ground staples to the wire cover at several points. This netting catches on everything, so I was able to make use of that and got it “stuck” at each corner. Then, just to be on the safe side, I used more ground staples to secure the netting between the box frame and the walls of the bed. The box frame is tied down tight enough that it was hard to make the space to slide the ground staples through. Those aren’t going anywhere! The netting would rip, first.

Once that was finished and everything cleaned up and put away, I got a daughter to take over and do the watering of the rest of the garden, while I washed up and changed, before going to my mother’s.

It’s been almost a week since I did my mother’s grocery shopping, and I have an appointment in town tomorrow, so I left early enough to hit the grocery store, first. I knew she’d be running out of milk, at the very least – she is always running out of milk, but refuses to buy more than one 2L carton at a time – so I got that, plus a few other things I thought she might be running out of by now. Since I was there anyhow, I spotted some excellent sales and picked up some stuff for ourselves, too.

When I got to my mother’s she was so very happy when she saw I’d brought her more milk! She had told me, she even considered asking me if I could pick some up on the way, but had decided against it.

I was early for her evening pills but, once everything was put away, I opened up the lock box and got them ready for her. Which gave her time to tell me why the cover was missing on the tiny tagine shaped bowl I gave her to put her pills into, so they could be double checked and counted before she took them.

It turns out that, a couple of times now, someone would open the bowl to put in her dose for the time, only to find one of her half pills from the previous med assist, still sitting in the bowl. It had been counted out, but she missed it when she took them – and clearly, the home care aid didn’t double check to make sure my mother had actually taken all the pills!

So it was decided that she would tuck the lid away so that, if a pill got accidentally left behind again, it could actually be seen and she could take it right away.

Good thinking, but really, part of the home care aid’s job is to make sure my mother takes her pills properly. That’s why they’re there, and the pills are in a lock box, after all!

I did get a bit of a visit in before I headed home, much appreciating the longer daylight hours! I’ve made these trips in the winter, when it was dark by the time my mother was supposed to get her suppertime visit, but this time of year, I was driving home in full light. Much easier to watch for deer!

Tomorrow, I’ve got an appointment in town, but my afternoon is free. I’m waffling between working on the bed at the chain link fence, or the bed that will have a permanent trellis built into it.

I’ll see what I feel up to, after I get home!

For now, it’s time to take some pain killers and get to bed. Maybe even before midnight!

Ha!

The Re-Farmer

Back online

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Well, it got figured out. Sort of. After trying all the usual rebooting and turning things off and on, my husband physically unplugged and re-plugged in all the physical connections. When he was done, we had internet again. How the power being shut off briefly would have caused that, I have no idea.

Speaking of having no idea, at some point yesterday, a cat walked on my keyboard. I have no idea what combinations of buttons got stepped on, but I now have every letter, space and punctuation I type showing up in boxes as the bottom of my screen, along with and “backspace” and “break”. This has happened before, and I figured out how to shut it off, but this time, I just can’t find how again. I’ll have to figure it out later. For now, I’ve got stuff to do!

First up, though, is some cuteness. I puttered around after feeding the outside cats for the evening and discovered two of them on top of the raised bed cover in the old kitchen garden!

One of them is more feral and ran off when I stopped to get my phone out, but Kohl is looking like she’s settling right down for a nap!

It’s a good thing this cover can support their weight, and the netting is secured snug enough that they don’t end up pushing it through the larger openings in the fence wire.

The ornamental apple trees are in full bloom right now, and just buzzing with polinators!

It’s such a gorgeous evening right now, I’m probably going to head out again, after I’m done writing this, even though it’s already past 8:30pm.

This morning was fairly routine, before I headed out to my mother’s. My daughter offered to do weed trimming and mowing for me while I was gone, so we walked about that for a while. She was happy when I suggested using the riding more first, as I knew for sure it had more gas in it. She wasn’t sure we had permission to use it.

I headed out early enough to get a bit of gas before heading to my mother’s, though it turned out to be too early to grab some fried chicken for my lunch, since my mother was getting her Meals on Wheels today. When I got to her place, she had been lying down in bed again, and was really struggling to get up and move around. She says her mobility is getting worse, which I can clearly see. Before she was settled, I offered to apply some of the Voltaren topical painkiller, and she quite happily agreed. Her morning med assist visit is supposed to offer to do that for her, but she doesn’t like the idea of the home care workers touching her like that. Fair enough!

That done, we were starting to settle down to go over her shopping list, when she commented that I was “hiding my beautiful hair”, because I didn’t take my hat off, like I usually do. I told her, yes, I’m hiding my “beautiful hair” because every time she sees my hair, she had something nasty to say about it (even when she compliments my hair, she does it in such a way that it’s actually an insult). Her response was to tell me that it’s because I braid my hair and only little girls wear braids. I reminded her that her mother always kept her very long hair in a braid. Oh, but she wore it rolled up on the back of her head all the time! I said no, not all the time. I remember her braid was so long, it reached her bum.

In the end, she basically said that having short hair is easier (for her), therefore older women should all have short hair like she does. I told her, I find it easier to have a braid. Oh, when you’re in your 90’s like me, you’ll feel different.

*facepalm*

At least she was not being actively nasty about it.

We went over her shopping list and added a few things she hadn’t thought of. She also had a list for things to pick up at the pharmacy, including more Voltaren. Now that she’s using it on her back as well as her knees, she’s going through it a faster, and she doesn’t want to run out. Which is a real switch for her. She usually waits until the last moment before replacing things or getting refills.

Since I was going to the pharmacy anyhow, I decided to go into her lock box and take out those bubble packs that have been driving her nuts. One of them had just a single bubble for her evening meds in it, while another had one bubble of morning meds and one of suppertime meds in it. The equivalent of 1 day’s worth of pills, but each bubble was in a different day of the week. The home care workers refusing to give them to her on the “wrong” day is what’s driving her absolutely bonkers. It’s like she goes into an instant rage. I told her I would take them to the pharmacy. She has about 1 1/2 weeks left in her current bubble packs, so she’ll be getting refills done next week. I told her I would give them to the pharmacist. She started telling me to make sure they knew she had already paid for these (which… of course they do. She wouldn’t have them, otherwise), so they don’t throw them away. I told her, I would explain it to them, and they will take care of things.

One thing I noticed and remembered to ask before I headed out; her Tuesday morning meds are still in their bubble. Today is Friday, and all the other bubbles in between are properly used. What happened on Tuesday?

Apparently, no one showed up to do her med assist on Tuesday morning. I did not get a call, and my mother didn’t call to tell me there was a problem, either.

*sigh*

Today is her day in the common laundry room, so we got that ready, too. My mother, of course, giving me detailed instructions on how to do the laundry, even though I’ve already done her laundry before and know how she likes it done. Then, when her Meals on Wheels arrived, I got her laundry started, then headed out to do her shopping while she enjoyed her lunch. It looked and smelled delicious!

I did remember to grab the bubble packs for the pharmacist and explained the situation. They can’t repackage them, but she did understand why I had to get them out! My mother was getting downright abusive about it.

My mother had only 4 things on her shopping list at the pharmacy, yet it still came out to just over $60. Ouch.

I did her grocery shopping next, and that came out to just under $60! She didn’t need a lot, but it was still quite a few items. On both lists there was an ‘if it’s in the budget’ item that I didn’t get. As it turned out, since I paid the small change myself so she get round numbers back, she had only a dollar left of the cash she gave me for her shopping – and even then, it was because I suggested she might not have enough, after looking at her pharmacy shopping list, so she added a bit more to her envelope of cash she gives me for her shopping.

When I got back, my mother as busily picking up rugs and bashing them with her cane to get the dust off, in preparation for me to sweep her floors. Not something she should have been doing, but she just couldn’t just sit there, waiting for me to come back and do it.

I know that feel.

I did get her to sit down on her comfy chair while I put her groceries away. Then I grabbed her water bottles that needed refilling (there’s a tap in the laundry room that has a water softener on it, that she uses for drinking and cooking water) and switched her laundry to the dryers. She had actually forgotten about her laundry! One machine was still going through its final spin, though, so the timing worked out.

That done, I got the sweeping done for her, then made sure everything was put back properly. I do wish she would get rid of her little rugs. They are such tripping hazards! But, the floor makes her feet cold, so she wants the rugs. 😔

Once everything was settled, I remembered to get out my mother’s blood pressure machine and get a reading. I try to remember to do that every time I’m at her place for any length of time. I got her pulse oximeter set up, too, but it has the hardest time getting a reading. Her fingers are so twisted from arthritis, it doesn’t have proper contact. I had to try three different fingers before we could get a reading!

Then we had a chance to just sit and visit for a bit. She even asked me how things went with my appointment for the truck yesterday. I told her how it went, and now the adjusted was trying to blame things on previous damage, and that I was expecting a call from the autobody shop some time today to get full information. I mentioned the potential issue with painting after they fix the bent box frame, because of the rust.

Mentioning rust turned out to be a distraction. I barely finished talking when she suddenly declared, “now let me tell you something about me!”

She then vaguely indicated towards her stove and was talking about this terrible problem of rust she has. She didn’t have the word for what she was talking about, but seemed to think I could read her mind and know what she meant! Her gestures were so vague that, even though she was verbally saying “stove”, she seemed to be indicating the counter… or the sink? I finally had to ask. That made her instantly furious as she got up and started trying to tear off an element to show me. I was able to get her to stop and before she broke something!

It turned out she was talking about the drip pan under the element.

I had to look up the name of it, just now! 😄

It was completely rusted out, to the point of having holes in it. Which is bizarre, because I know this stove was replaced after she moved here, so it’s less than 10 years old.

My talking about rust on the truck reminded her about her drip pan, and how she had asked the cleaning staff if she was responsible for replacing it, or the public housing department that owns the building. They didn’t know but said they would ask. My mother later got a two page letter explaining the things they did and didn’t cover… but nothing specifically about the drip pan, so she still doesn’t know!

I told her, I’d just replace it myself. I took a picture and passed it on to my siblings so that one of us could pick up a replacement for her, when we have the chance.

After a while, my mother sent me to check on the driers, and told me to take them out if they were dry, even if the machines weren’t done. They were on their cool down cycle, so that’s what I ended up doing.

Once I started folding and putting them away, my mother let me know she was done by sitting in her armchair and turning on her TV, really loud. 😄 When I was done, she barely acknowledged when I gave her a hug and a kiss goodbye. 😄

While all this as going on, I got messages from the family. While my daughter was out using the weed trimmer, which is electric, someone from the electric company came by to say they were going to be shutting off the power for about half an hour. My husband, sweetheart that he is, made sure my computer was shut down, first!

They still had just enough data signal to send text messages, so they could keep me up to date. My daughter saw them working on the main power pole, so she went out to ask about what they were doing. There was just a small part at the top that was getting replaced. She was told they will be increasing the voltage to the power grid, and had to replace parts so they could handle the increase. Which means they are going to every single farm and rural household to do this! That’s going to take a while!

Once the power was back up, the internet was still out. When I got home, I tried contacting the electric company, but they aren’t listed in the phone books we have (yes, we still have phone books!). I even tried calling 411, but only got a busy signal. Eventually, I went outside with my phone and logged into the electric company’s app, dug until I found a number I could call, and got through. After explaining things, he checked, and all was clear at his end. Which meant we had to contact our internet provider. Which is Starlink.

Which would require logging into their app. Which I couldn’t do, because my upgraded phone doesn’t have my husband’s computer generated, unhackable password stored in it – and after fighting with it while I was gone, my husband ended up having to medicate and go to bed for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, the woman from the autobody shop had called, so I had time to call her back.

*sigh*

First, the insurance company will not cover the cost of the tail light. The damage is not consistent with the claim.

They will cover part of the cost of the painting that will be required, but we’ll be responsible for $140 of it.

We will have to pay 30% of the cover, on top of the $500 deductible. A cover could cost up to $2000, so we could be paying up to another $600 on top of everything else.

Part of the problem is, there’s not enough left of the cover for them to know what a similar replacement would be.

She asked me questions about it and said she would look for photos to send me, so I can see which one is most like what we already had. As for the tail light, I would have to talk directly to the adjuster about that.

Once I had the time, I started going back into my old photos to find pictures of the cover (turned out, there are none that show enough of the cover to be useful) and for proof of what I was saying about the tail light.

I might have to eat some crow.

I found the pictures I took of the truck when it was still in the lot. No crack in the tail light.

No dent under the tail light.

I thought that dent was already there, because I’ve never backed into anything that would cause that damage. The only time I’ve accidentally backed into something, it was the kibble house because I had the tailgate down and couldn’t see how close it was. The damage was to the kibble house, not the truck, and the paint is yellow, not white like what’s in the dent.

The only more recent picture I could find was taken the day I met the Cat Lady for the catio they donated to use. In there, you can see a bit of white paint above the tail light, no cracks in the tail light – but I was taking a picture of the load, not the truck, so the very bottom of the tail light is not in the frame. No proof that the dent was there, with an intact tail light.

Meanwhile, I’m now wondering how that dent got there and when. As for the crack itself, it’s large enough that I would have noticed it earlier. At least, I think I would have! Now I’m second guessing myself.

*sigh*

In the end, though, I have no way to prove that the tail light was intact before the cover was blown off, and nothing to show when that dent showed up.

Well, we’re not going to get any further ahead on this until after the weekend.

As much of a pain that it is, the main thing is to get that frame repaired and a new box cover, and my older daughter has said she will help us with paying for the cost above the deductible.

We’ll find out how much that is, once we figure out what type of cover is closest to what was lost.

Who know getting this taken care of would be such a pain???

The Re-Farmer

Take the good where it comes

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Today has not been a good day.

It hasn’t been a completely bad day, though, so I’ll start with the good stuff.

How about some cuteness?

I gave Poirot new digs, and she accepted them.

The first photo is the carrier she insisted in putting her babies into. As you can see, they fit, but she doesn’t really have room to stretch out.

We have a larger carrier that was sitting on the platform supported by the shelf this little carrier is on. When I had a chance this afternoon, with Poirot outside, I made the move. I prepped a puppy pad on the bottom of the big carrier, removed the loose top of the small carrier, then started moving babies.

Hastings (the almost all white one) had one eye stuck shut, so she (pretty sure they’re all female) got an eye wash, first. She wasn’t happy with it, which got Poirot’s attention from outside. I put Hastings into the big carrier, then moved of Miss Lemon (the white and grey), who did not need any eye washing, before picking up Japp (the black with white on her belly). By then, Poirot was jumping up to the small carrier and the platform and looing around, but make no move to stop me when I picked up Japp.

Instead, she went to the bigger carrier on the platform and joined her other babies!

Japp had a sticky eye that got washed before being returned to mama, who was contentedly nursing. You can see them all in the second picture.

This carrier is large enough that, when I set out her personal food bowl, there was room for it inside the carrier. She was quite happy with that!

I took the small carrier out and gave it a wash. Later on, when Poirot was once again outside, I shifted the bitter carrier to where the smaller one was, where there is a sun shield at the window side to keep them from overheating. It was warm enough that I tucked a frozen water bottle under the puppy pad near the front. The kittens were all cuddled at the far end of the carrier and barely noticed being moved.

Another good thing today is that I got the luffa transplanted, but only because I wasn’t up to doing the other stuff I’d intended to work on today. It was something I could do, just so I could get at least something productive done outside! That will get a separate post, though.

The day actually started out pretty good, in that I got sleep! I’d used the Voltaren stuff for the first time, along with my usual prescription painkillers, before going to bed. At first, I thought it wasn’t making any difference. As soon as I lie down, my hips and knees start becoming acutely painful, as did my left shoulder and elbow. My finger joints were hurting, too, as usual.

Yet, I fell asleep before midnight, and didn’t wake up until the cats woke me up at 4am. I distracted them by topping up their kibble and closed most of them out of my bedroom, so Butterscotch could use the litter box without getting bothered, and went back to bed. I fell asleep again almost immediately and slept another two hours, waking only slightly when I heard someone opening my door to let the cats in before they started scratching at it.

It was the closest thing to a pain free sleep I’ve had in …. I can’t remember.

So this stuff works better than the prescription topical painkiller the doctor tried me on, years ago – and my OA wasn’t as painful as it is now!

Just as an experiment, I applied some to my husband’s lower back, where the worst of his injury is, just a little while ago. If this stuff will help him, too, even a little bit, that would be a huge improvement for his quality of life! Lord knows, the drugs are barely keeping things bearable for him.

Then, there’s the not so good stuff.

While my daughter and I had been coming home from the city, yesterday, I’d got a call from home care letting me know they didn’t have anyone for my mother’s suppertime med assist. So we swung by on the way home and I set her meds out for her – only to have the home care person show up, anyhow!

This morning, after I’d done my morning rounds, I had just enough time to grab breakfast before I needed to go to town for the appointment with the insurance company rep about the truck. I was just sitting down with my food when the phone rang.

It was home care.

They didn’t have anyone for my mother’s morning med assist, though I was assured they had someone for supper and before bed.

My mother is supposed to get her meds between 7 and 9. It was about 8:45 when the call came in.

It takes 25-30 minutes to get to my mother’s place.

So I quickly put my food back in the kitchen and left immediately. I didn’t take the time to call my mother, nor did I try to call her using the hands free unit my brother gave me, because I knew my mother would be angry and start going off on me. I did not need the delay, and I certainly didn’t need that while driving.

It was the right decision.

When I got to my mother’s place, I knocked and went in, calling out “Hi, Mom” a few times. There was no response, but she was in the bathroom – with the door open. In her tiny apartment, that meant I had to close up the bathroom door just to get in far enough to close her entry door!

By then, she had made an acknowledging response, so I started to say that I got a call from home care, telling me there was no one for this morning, while getting her lock box and little bowl for counting out her pills ready.

Then my mother comes out of the bathroom, starting to talk, saw me and stopped in her tracks. Oh! It’s you! I thought it was home care!

…

I don’t think they normally come into her apartment calling out “hi, Mom”, so I guess that meant she didn’t hear properly.

Maybe it’s time to get her hearing tested! I don’t know that it’s ever been done for her.

I moved aside so my mother could sit in her chair at her dining table, before working on the combination lock. My mother was still standing just outside the bathroom, leaning on the other chair at her table, and half blocking my way.

She was angry, and wouldn’t move.

After it was clear she wasn’t going to sit down, I went back to opening up the lock box.

My mother was on a rant.

She is obsessed with those pills from missed days in older bubble packs. She wanted me to give them to her. I had already mentioned I didn’t have much time, because of my appointment in town (a 15-20 minute drive from our place, but a 30+ minute drive from my mother’s., which I’d told her about yesterday.

She started saying that, if it was illegal for them to take pills from different days to give to her, then it’s also illegal for them to not show up to give her her pills at all, and having me come out to do it for them.

All I could say is, Mom, I don’t have time for this.

She eventually sat down, but was now accusing me of “being on their side”. Then she started saying how we (my siblings and I) are not taking care of her and leaving her in the hands of strangers. All I could say at the time was, none of us live here. I certainly didn’t have time to go into it beyond that!

I got her pills from the correct bubble for the day out, which got her angry about the pills again. I was “on their side”. I got the pills in her little bowl and made notes about what was doing in the notebook I now keep in the lock box for the home care workers to see, and got her inhaler out.

She did take her inhaler, though that was weird. She’s supposed to take a few deep breaths first, exhale, inhale the puffer, hold for a count of ten, then rinse out her mouth. She even had a cup of water waiting for that.

She started taking the breaths, but had trouble doing the exhale before using the puffer. After a few times of not taking a puff, she started forcing herself to burp. For some time, she’s been going on about how she burps so much, and it’s such a problem, only to eventually say that she’s making herself burp because it helps her chest pains.

…

Whatever.

This was the first time I’ve seen/heard her doing it like this, though. First, I have no idea how she was doing it. Where was she getting all this abdominal air from? Second, it was really really gross – and it takes a lot to gross me out! She managed to keep it up for almost a minute, too, before finally taking her puffer.

That done, I started putting things away into the lock box, and she started railing again – but not taking her pills. She said that she was thinking of taking a hammer to the lock box. I told her, that (her attitude) is why you have a lock box! Then I told her (again) that I had to go to my appointment and was in a hurry. Oh, you’re always in a hurry.

…

So, yeah. She was nasty right from the moment she saw it was me and not the home care worker, right to the moment I left.

I did make it to the appointment location in time (it was just in a parking lot!). There was someone else being finished up, so I had time to send messages to my family about how things went with my mother. I wasn’t quite done when the other vehicle got their paperwork and left, and the insurance rep came to me.

We talked about what happened, and he took pictures.

With the box cover, he started talking about how this was the second one he had this week, and that these Velcro types have a habit of getting caught in the wind. Over time, the Velcro just doesn’t hold as well, getting full of dust or whatever. Basically, making it sound like it was more likely a product fault, which the insurance wouldn’t cover.

I showed him the bent part of the frame and the broken tail light. Under the tail light, there’s a dent from before we had the truck, and the crack in the tail light ends just above it. He tried to say that the impact from whatever caused this dent broke the tail light. I told him, the tail like was not broken before. I did mention that we’ve only had the vehicle for just over a year. While it’s certainly likely that, whatever caused that dent had broken the tail light, it had been fixed before we bought it.

One of the things that was noted and the took pictures of was a crack in the fender. The truck had rusted spots when we bought it. I don’t really care about what are essentially cosmetic issues. Along the edge of the fender, framing the wheel well, there’s a section with more rust. The crack is in that section. It actually is a new crack, but I never bothered mentioning it, since it was clearly cracked because of the older rust damage that was already there. I didn’t bother telling him that the crack was new. I just confirmed that the rust and other little dents and dings were old damage.

After he did his inspection, he went to his own vehicle to process the claim to get an estimate. That gave me time to finish updating the family.

End result with the claim.

He couldn’t even find the replacement value of the box cover, since there was nothing like it in his system. The estimated repair cost he came up with was just over $1000, and we could pay our $500 deductible. A replacement cover would be a new, improved version, so we would also have to pay 30% of the difference for “betterment”.

Once I got the estimate, I went straight to the company we’d be taking it to, which was just a block or two away. I had talked to them on the phone, previously, and our mechanic recommended them to me, as they are authorized to handle insurance claims like this.

Of course, since I literally just got the estimate, it was too early to be in the system for them to download the claim file. She did go out to look at the truck with me.

As she couldn’t look into the claim file to see the details, she couldn’t give me any hard information. She did explain to me that, with when they fix the bend in the frame, so new cover can be installed, they will have to paint the frame. That area of rust, where it was thin enough to crack, would be a problem when it comes to painting. I told her, I really don’t care about the paint, but it’s something they are required to do.

So… we might have to pay extra for rust repair, as that is not at all covered by the insurance, nor would I expect it to be.

As we were talking about the 30% betterment and so on, I told her, we might not be able to cover much. We can do the $500 deductible, but anything beyond that, well… we’re on a fixed income. She understood.

Tomorrow, she will download the file, then talk to the insurance company. When she has some hard numbers and confirmed data, she will give me a call.

I completely forgot, though. Tomorrow, I’m going to be at my mother’s. I’ve got her grocery shopping to do, plus I expect to be doing her laundry (Fridays are her scheduled turn for the shared laundry room) and whatever else she needs doing. She’ll have her Meals on Wheels for lunch, but I would want to make sure she has things she can easily put together for her meals during the weekend.

I’ll just have to make sure someone in the house has the phone with them while I’m gone!

So we may or may not be able to get the truck fixed and get a new box cover. We’ll figure that out, some time tomorrow.

By the time I got home, I was wasted. I’d spent probably less than 5 minutes at my mother’s, and she sucked all the energy out of me in that short time. When I got home, I ended up crashing for a couple of hours. While I certainly needed the rest, I woke up feeling like I’d wasted precious time in my day, plus I didn’t have the physical energy left to do most of the things on my to-do list. I won’t be able to them tomorrow, either, because I won’t be home. I’ll be at home mother’s, and I know that by the time I get home from helping her out, I’ll have zero energy to get anything done outside. Thank God I’ve got the girls taking care of things inside, so I don’t have to worry about that, too!

Then, to top things off, while I was at my computer, getting some stuff done while listening to a YouTube video, my sound suddenly disappeared.

After much checking of the system, everything was fine.

I checked the connections on the speakers, which required moving way too many things to access the back of the tower, that all checked out fine, too.

I tested it using my Bluetooth sleep headphones.

They worked fine.

I eventually gave up in frustration, then headed outside to feed the outside cats and get at least one things accomplished in potting up the luffa.

My husband, sweetheart that he is, unhooked and brought over set of speakers for me. They can be plugged into the tower, or be used with Bluetooth, so when I got back inside, I got my speakers out and hooked his up on Bluetooth.

They didn’t work.

We checked the power bar. It seemed fine. I flicked the switch back and forth, but there was no change.

Eventually, my husband was able to look and see where I’m too short to see, and discovered the power bar’s plug to the wall was half out. I keep that blocked off so that cats can’t mess with the cords, so it took some doing for him to be able to reach and plug it back in.

Still nothing.

I tried the switch on the power bar again.

It turned on.

*sigh*

My husband, meanwhile, took my speakers to test them out on his computer. It turned out that there was a loose connection, even though I’d checked them, and they seemed fine!

*sigh*

I didn’t have the energy to switch them back again, so I now have my husband’s Bluetooth speakers, and he’s got my old ones. These were speakers he kept on his headboard to play basically white noise to help him sleep.

Well, we’ll see how it works out.

My daughter just swung by a little while ago and showed me something else that I can add to the “good” list for the day. She just spent the past couple of hours in the basement, with baking soda, water and a toothbrush, cleaning the smoke damage off the book stand I salvaged form our tiny, historical burned out church after the closing services. I’m still debating going back for the benches or a pew, if someone else hasn’t already taken them. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t, but we just don’t have anywhere to store them until they can be used in the future.

I remember admiring this book stand when I was an altar server. The one that was used regularly was on the altar, and was a rather plain wooden stand. This one was sparkly “gold” with glittering “gems” in the front, and was kept in a tiny room on one side, where the priest got ready for services. Us altar servers would get ready in a tiny room on the opposite side then, just before mass started, cross over to join the priest for the procession. The room where we would get ready is where the back door was located, and that was where the person who broke in, started the fire. That room was completely burnt out, but the other room was surprisingly undamaged, other than smoke. This book stand was completely blackened with smoke, except for where there had been a crochet doily on the adjustable book rest. That left a clearer pattern in the smoke.

My daughter wasn’t able to get the black completely off; she didn’t want to damage the surface by scrubbing more. She did get it looking gold again, and while not as clear and shiny as they used to be, the glass “gems” look like gems again. She did an amazing job! I’ll have to try and get a picture of it in nice, bright light.

My mother was very happy when I told her I’d taken it home, and asked if she could see it again. I should bring it with me, tomorrow, to show it to her.

After showing me her handiwork, my daughter asked me what there was that she could do for me outside, tomorrow, while I’m gone. She’s going to try and finish the lawn mowing for me. I still have to refill the jerry can of fuel for the mowers, but haven’t been able to get done, yet, so she’ll do as much as she can before running out of gas. 😄

As for me, I should probably call my mother about tomorrow. Her evening med assist should be happening around now, so I know she’ll be up and about, at least!

Then I’ll share about how the transplanting went in my next post. 😊😊

The Re-Farmer

Cold, wet and windy, and how we said goodbye.

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Today turned out to be pretty unpleasant, overall. Our high of the day was supposed to be 9C/48F which, according to the hourly forecast, was supposed to happen around 9am, with temperatures slowly dropping since yesterday afternoon. When I headed outside at around 8am, it was 5C/41F and still slowly dropping. As I write this, at past 5:30pm, we are currently at 3C/37F, the wind chill is -10C/14F, and it’s still supposed to drop more.

When doing my rounds this morning, I plugged in and turned on heat lamps in various shelters. The kittens will certainly need them! The bigger, mobile kittens have all been hanging out in the cat house together, instead of the sun room. The heat bulb in there is on a light sensor, so it’ll turn on as it gets darker, when they’ll need it the most.

The forecast for the overnight low has wobbled from -2C/28F to the current 0C/32F, but the coldest temperatures are not supposed to hit until 7am tomorrow. Meanwhile, high winds and rain continue. Yesterday, I’d uncovered some of the garden beds so they could get rained on. I goofed with the high raised bed, by lifting the sides. The plastic was all bunched up on top, so it wouldn’t get hit too hard with driving rain. This morning, I found the weight of water collected in the plastic was enough to bend the hoops all out of shape. I was able to re-cover the beds, but that one took some extra fiddling with. I never did take the plastic off the bed in the old kitchen garden, which turned out to be a good thing in the end. The sump pump is going off pretty regularly now, so that bed is getting watered from below, at least.

As I went out to do the morning rounds, there was only minimal wind damage found so far. The chunk of maple in the West yard, in the first image, was the worst of it.

The second image, which is focused in totally the wrong place, is of the Liberty apple leaves! It has survived its first winter with the coldest of Zone 3 temperatures (last winter was pretty mild). Not too shabby for a Zone 4 tree! This suggests that the micro climate in the location we chose for it is actually helping.

In the next photo, also focused in all the wrong places, you can see the leaves on the new apple tree we planted this spring. Good to see that it has taken.

After that are some leaves on one of the mulberry bushes – they both now have tiny leaf buds unfurling! I had been starting to wonder about those. They both definitely have some cold damage to the tips of some branches, but they have survived their first winter. While these are supposed to be hardy to our zone, they are also tucked in gaps of the lilac hedge, which should act as a protective microclimate, too, until the mulberry get bigger. They were planted where they are, partly to fill the gaps the deer were getting through.

The very last image is of something completely different. That is a sugar snap pea shoot! I found several of them coming up already.

We’re going to have to put something around/over that bed soon, to keep the deer from eating them.

Which confirms to me that any peas that were winter sown in the bed against the chain link fence are toast. The one sprout I did see is simply gone. I thought I saw some bean sprouts, but now I can’t find them. Just some weeds and onions, really. No sign of any of the corn or sunflowers planted in there.

So I will replant that bed, but not quite yet. The Chinese elm seeds are starting to fall and, while the netting is helping keep them off, the seeds are collecting along the edges, which will need to be scooped away. Also, between the cats and the wind, the netting is getting slid up the hoops, allowing the seeds to get under. What I will probably have to do is pull the netting off completely, straighten out the hoops as best I can, then use ground staples along both edges of the netting when they are being replaced. I’ll do that when I resow into the bed. We have quite a few ground staples, but this bed will need a lot, so I’ll be getting more as soon as I can. I still have a packet of Hopi Black Dye sunflower seeds I can sow, and I’ll probably plant pole beans along with them. If they survive and start getting too tall for the netting, we’ll have to find some other way to protect them, because the deer really love both beans and sunflowers.

The kitties, meanwhile, are doing okay in the cold and the wet. I’m not seeing anywhere near as many adult cats these days. I haven’t tried to do a head count lately, but I’m thinking under 20 in total, for the adult cats, for sure. Even Brussel isn’t around as much, leaving her babies to the other creche mothers!

A lot of the fixed cats have lost their collars, so today, several of them got brand new necklaces.

Even Kohl got her first necklace! We’ll have to keep an eye on her, as I don’t think she has reach adult size yet, and I had to make it pretty short to fit her. The Grink and Magda are still way too small.

Poirot, meanwhile, as been spending a lot more time with her babies, now that it’s gotten cooler!

We have chosen names for her babies.

The mostly white one is Miss Lemon. The white and grey is Captain Hastings. The black with white spots on the belly is Inspector Japp.

In other things…

My husband had a medical appointment this morning. This was the appointment we had to reschedule last time, because my husband was in too much pain and walked out before ever seeing the doctor (and where the appointment times were messed up). There must have been some notes added to his file, because they got him into the examination room 5 minutes early, and someone came in to take his BP right away. The doctor came in a bit on the late side, but only by a few minutes. We went over his most recent lab results, and another medication is being applied for (it needs approval for coverage with our province’s pharmacare system) and will be added to all the others he’s already taking. He’s got his first appointment at the new pain clinic next month, so we’ll see if they change up any of his other meds. At some point, they might actually find a pain killer for him that does more than just take the edge off.

My husband felt well enough that we even stopped at the grocery store and picked up a few small things. The next time we go to a city shop, we’ll need to pick up more flour, but that’s not something to buy locally. It costs almost twice as much. I might actually make a trip to the nearest Walmart tomorrow. Tomorrow is Saturday, and I didn’t get to do a dump run last weekend, so I’m hoping to get that done. We’ll just have to get a tarp or something to secure the load, now that we no longer have a box cover, so we don’t end up losing bags of garbage on the highway. I still need to gather the required info together to file a claim with our insurance and see if they’ll cover a replacement. I did notice damage to the truck I hadn’t seen before. Where the remaining piece of the box cover was twisted out of shape, I realized that a section of the box frame itself was twisted, too. It was just partially hidden by the remaining piece of the cover. The amount of force needed twist that is amazing!

One thing about today’s overcast dreariness is that I have been feeling incredibly sleepy. Once we got home, I went straight for a nap. The house has been cold enough that we actually turned the furnace back up. I’m noticing that, while my phone and desktop weather apps are both saying we’re at 3C/37F still, the old tablet I have set up as my clock and weather monitor, is telling me we are at -1C/30F right now, and that our expected low will be -2C/28F! It really makes me wonder where the weather station that app is connected to is! It almost always reads colder than the other apps.

A dreary day for a dreary mood, continuing from yesterday, and our trip to the vet.

Our elderly Freya had been declining for some time. Even before her more obvious physical decline and something going very wrong inside her mouth that we were never able to see, she was at that stage where we would see her peacefully sleeping, thinking, awww… how cute. Then checking to see if she was breathing.

We knew it was time but, lately, between trips to my mother, stuff with the truck, other running around, etc., I just hadn’t gotten around to calling a clinic. The Cat Lady recommended the clinic we’ve been doing the spays and neuters at, as having lower prices.

I actually called them up twice, yesterday. The first time, I was put on hold and, as I was waiting, I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen Freya all morning. Nor all night. The last time I’d seen her, she’d gone to the dining room to eat cat soup, and I found blood in the tray after she was done. She had been spending more of her time sleeping in my room and, at feeding time, I would take a bowl of soft food, just for her, go to where she was curled up (usually in her favourite box bed) and hold it until her chin until she either started eating, or moved away and didn’t eat at all. She hadn’t eaten when I brought her some cat soup, so I was glad to see her leaving the room to eat later, but she never came back to my room after that. She wasn’t around when I did the morning feeding. So when the receptionist got back on the line, I briefly told her why I was calling, but said I would have to call back later… maybe. It was entirely possible Freya had found a quite corner somewhere and passed away. The receptionist was very understanding.

I searched ever spot in my room that she normally went to, and there was no sign of her. I searched various possible hidden corners in the dining room. Nothing. The other areas she might have gone into were closed off. I let the family know to look for her, then went into the basement to check on things there (we’ve got both blower fans going in the old basement, to try and keep the seepage down; today, I added another fan), while my daughter looked for her.

My older daughter finally found Freya, asleep on her sister’s bed. My younger daughter was in the shower and missed all this.

Freya hadn’t gone up those stairs in months, so no one expected to find her up there!

My older daughter then brought Freya down, and she immediately curled up in her favourite box on my bed, while I called the clinic back.

After explaining the situation, they asked how soon we wanted to do this, and I said sooner was probably better, given the pain she was having.

Knowing we were in another town, she asked how long it would take us to get there. They could take us in pretty much right away.

It takes a little under and hour to get there, so we booked the appointment for during the noon hour. I also got the cost (just over $200, after taxes). On informing the family, my younger daughter said she would come along. My husband and older daughter had time to give Freya goodbye cuddles, and then we were off.

Freya was comfortable in her box bed, so we just put her, box and all, into a cat carrier with a side opening door. My daughter was able to open it and pet her as we drove. She never quite settled during the drive, though. It’s amazing how much you notice the bumps on a road, when you know they are causing pain.

We left early enough that I stopped and ran into a store to get some squeeze treats for her. My daughter gave her 2 of them (there were only 4 in a box) as we drove the remaining distance to the clinic, and Freya was quite enthusiastic about the treats!

Once inside, all the paperwork and paying was done at the start. The clinic has a separate room, with its own exit door, used for times like this. It’s larger than the other examination rooms, and has comfortable seating available. Once all the paperwork was done, we were set up in the room, and given a few more minutes alone with Freya. We opened up the carrier, and she quite eagerly went exploring. She did stop to enjoy the last two squeeze treats, though!

The vet came in after a while, along with a second vet that was just starting at the clinic and along as part of her orientation. While I wasn’t in their system until today, we’ve been here many times through the rescue, and the vet recognized us.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do this, so she explained the entire process to us. Things have certainly changed over the years. They were to give two injections; the first was the same used to put animals to sleep before surgeries. Then, after about 10 minutes, she would get a final injection, and not feel a thing.

My daughter got to hold Freya while she got the first injection, then the vets left. Freya was soon asleep with her chin tucked onto her paws on my daughter’s shoulder. We both got to cuddle with as she slept, before the vets came back, gave the final injection, and listened with a stethoscope until she could tell us it was over.

From there, they left us, saying we could spend as much time as we needed. They started to assure us that, as we left through the other door, a chime would go off, and someone would come get Freya right away, so she wouldn’t be left alone, but that was if we were going to do a cremation. We were taking Freya home with us, so that was not an issue.

I have to say, I really appreciate how well the clinic handled all this. The last time we tried to have a cat put down, we were still living in the city. We tried calling the Humane Society. The first issue was how long it would take to get an appointment. Almost a week. The next was that they were going to charge extra if we wanted to stay with our cat while it was done. !!! The cat passed away before we could get her to the vet. We tried to make her as comfortable as possible, but it was pretty hard to watch. My older daughter was pretty traumatized by the whole thing, really. So how things went yesterday was really about as good as things could be, under the circumstances.

Once we got home, my daughter and I went to the space I’d prepared for our incoming plum tree (which, according to the tracking, just got processed in the city today, so it should arrive locally on Monday). We dug the planting space out again, then kept going so we could bury Freya in her favourite box bed, and have room above her to plant the plum tree.

We have ridiculously rocky soil, but I think the physical labour was helpful for my daughter.

When we were done, my daughter picked a bouquet of dandelions to place on top.

The whole thing was a lot more comforting. We’ve lost a few cats since moving out here, both indoor and outdoor, and those circumstances were considerably more difficult. My daughter and I have both comforted cats and kittens as they passed in our arms. I’m glad we were able to give Freya a peaceful end, and she is no longer in pain.

The cold and dreary skies, however do suit our mood right now.

The Re-Farmer

I am so NOT a morning person

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Not that I’ve got much choice. If it isn’t the morning light, it’s the cats suddenly going bonkers at 5am, expecting me to top of their kibble. Even if there is still plenty of food!

Of course, today, I had to get my morning rounds done earlier, since I needed to be at my mother’s before 8am.

After a daughter and I fed the cats (Poirot stayed in the carrier with her kittens all night, and did not leave while we were putting food out!), I did my usual garden bed checks while on my way to the trail cams.

Alas. It begins.

The Chinese elms are starting to drop their seeds.

This is while they’re still green, too.

Over the next while, there were be more and, when they get to their dry stage, they’ll be falling by the millions.

The netting on this bed will protect it, to a certain extent. Unfortunately, the cats keep managing to slide the netting on the wire hoops, bending them flat, getting inside and so on. So seeds are still getting inside. It won’t be so bad as to smother everything planted in there, at least.

No, that cats are busy doing that, instead.

I had spotted one pea sprouting a while back, and it’s gone. There are some possible beans sprouting, and I’ve spotted some onions sprouting. Plus weeds, of course. While the netting has stopped the cats from using the bed as a litter box, or just digging around because they like to dig, they still either lie on top of the netting, get under the netting, and generally just crush everything in that bed. They really, really like this garden bed, and I don’t know why!

Speaking of cats…

That tabby has all sorts of attention – including from a cat that ran off when I paused to see what was going on. The tabby had caught a bird, and the others were looking quite eager to steal its breakfast!

I’m seeing a lot fewer cats these days. This morning, I counted “only” 16 or 17 adult cats, and I may have double counted a couple

Once everything was taken care of outside, I headed to my mother’s early enough to stop for gas first. She was up and about, making herself breakfast when I got there. This included some of the instant oatmeal I’d bought for her a while back. I ended up sitting in an armchair, basically behind where she sits at her dining table in her very tiny apartment (my bedroom is probably bigger than her entire apartment), with just a half-wall between us. Mostly because I needed to close my eyes for a while, but I was also in pain, and needed the more comfortable chair. I didn’t take my T3s this morning, which can cause drowsiness and dizziness, since I was going to be driving, and just took some extra strength Tylenol. I was already tired, so taking a pain killer that could cause drowsiness didn’t seem like a good idea.

I was quickly reminded of something. My mother isn’t very good at following instructions.

I’ve shown her how to make the instant oatmeal, but she skipped over an important part. Letting it sit for about 5 minutes to absorb the liquid. She basically just started eating it right away, like it was some kind of soup.

My mother has never been a quiet eater. Now that she has had a tooth pulled, but refuses to have her dentures adjusted to fill the space, it’s gotten even worse. Thankfully, she was behind me and I couldn’t see what she was doing, because the sounds alone were making feel absolutely ill. I’m not normally bothered too much by stuff like that, but it was really bad today!

Thankfully, she was done rather quickly, and had a chance to chat about the upcoming call from her doctor. I knew it would be about the results of her blood tests, and she could ask related questions, but anything else would require a separate appointment. She started saying that she wanted the doctor to get her into a nursing home. I tried to explain to her that the doctor has already done as much as she could; she got the ball rolling, my mother got the Xrays and EKG readings they required, and then it goes to home care. I told her again about how the case coordinator and I went through all the panel questions again, to update information on how much more difficult things are getting for her. My mother thinks that a doctor can basically just order her into a nursing home, but it’s the home care department that makes the decisions but, even if she’s approved, if there’s no space, she basically has to wait until enough people die to free up beds, and even then, the spaces go to those are are considered in the worst condition. We’ve all explained this to her, many times by now. The problem isn’t that she doesn’t understand it. She simply refuses to accept it. I ended up telling her that this is because she’s doing it through the health care system. There are privately run nursing homes that she could go through, but she’d be paying a lot more (even through the system, nursing home residents are charged “rent”, based on their income, just like where she lives now). Then she started complaining that the home care worker wasn’t there yet, even though it was barely past 8am. I commented that she’d told me they come closer to 9am. Oh, sometimes they come at 8… they come at all times.

At which point I realized that the time the “usually come” is the time she notices it is, and that they should be there is when she wants them to be there. Nothing to do with schedules or having to go to other homes.

Which got her talking again about how there should only be the same two people coming to do her med assist, not so many. I told her again, this is how the system works. It’s how they have to do it. Otherwise, she would have to hire a private home care company and pay for it out of pocket.

Which actually caught her attention.

We didn’t get far into the conversation, though, as the phone rang.

It was the clinic, but the doctor’s assistant, not the doctor. We’ve spoken with him before.

I put it on speaker phone so my mother could hear, but the volume was a bit low, and the guy had a strong accent. My mother’s response was basically to start yelling at him to speak louder. I manage to get her to stop, tried to turn the volume up, and explain to the guy that she couldn’t hear him, all at the same time.

There wasn’t a lot for him to tell use. Her test results hover around the same ranges, with minimal fluctuation. My mother really seems to want to be diagnosed diabetic, though. She keeps asking about her blood sugars, which were on the high side of normal this time – barely. He basically just said, eat less carbs. It’s not an issue. Her kidney function was also fine, which is the monthly test she’s been doing since leaving the hospital, back in March.

Before the call ended, I asked if my mother had any questions, and the launched into saying, she wanted the doctor to put her into a nursing home.

*sigh*

We both responded with basically the same thing; the doctor can’t do anything about that. She’s done as much as she can.

After the call ended, I went over my notes with her and explained things. She’s understandably frustrated in that she couldn’t make out much of what he said, but that’s why I’m there for these calls. Then she said, “so… the doctor didn’t even want to talk to me…”

*sigh*

When it came to explaining about reducing carbs – and what carbs are – it got more difficult. My mother makes a big deal about how she avoids sugar, which she doesn’t really. As she understands it, it’s all about avoiding white table sugar, and “sweet things”. I tried to explain to her that bread is “sugar”. Pasta is “sugar”. etc. He’d said something about eating more vegetables that I brought up, and she perked up saying “and fruit!” I had to tell her, no, fruit is basically just sugar.

I finally started looking up lists of low carb vegetables for her, then wrote out the ones that she knows and likes, dropping off the ones she wouldn’t eat (partly because they were unfamiliar to her, or aren’t available locally, but also because she doesn’t know what a lot of them are) and those she shouldn’t eat, because of her acid reflux.

What the doctor doesn’t know when it comes to my mother’s diet is that she has stopped eating meat almost entirely, because she has decided it’s bad for her (the TV told her so…) and the bulk of her diet is bread and milk. So I looked up and made another list of low carb foods aside from the vegetables list.

She wanted me to write out a list of things she should NOT be eating, and I told her it would be too long. Instead, I looked up a list of high carb foods and read it out to her.

Not that is will make much difference. And really, at her age, there are far bigger things to be concerned about!

While talking about meats, though, she suddenly told me to take the whole chicken I’d bought with her groceries, take it home and cook it for ourselves. That chicken was pretty much the only meat she had.

After a few questions, it came down to, she couldn’t cook it. She doesn’t know how to use the oven on her stove, so she can’t just roast the whole thing, and she can’t physically stand to process and cook it on the stove top.

I offered to butcher it for her, which she agreed to.

I started off by clearing and preparing the space to work in, including doing a few dishes, then cleaning the sink itself to wash the chicken in. Of course, my mother started giving me step by step instructions on what I should be doing. She suggested using a stainless steal bowl I didn’t know she had, for washing the chicken. So that worked out – except I was apparently supposed to wash the bird after it was cut up, not before.

Then I discovered my mother does not have a proper knife.

She directed me to her one larger knife to use, and it was some sort of bread knife with different sizes of serration. I did try to use it, but it was just tearing the bird apart, so I looked around some more. She told me she had this really good knife that she got at the second hand store, and that turned out to be a cheap steak knife.

I ended up using a paring knife.

Apparently, I still wasn’t going it right, so my mother came over to the sink, got the water running – hot water! – and started tearing the chicken still in the bowl apart with her bare hands, splashing chicken juices everywhere. After tossing a chunk of tail and spine into a frying pan, she started saying that the wings are small, so they could be quickly cooked right away, and she then tried to tear the chicken apart more. I tried to tell her to sit down – the whole point of me doing this was because she couldn’t stand at the counter for fear of falling! – but she ignored me.

Thankfully, the home care worker for her morning med assist arrived just then!

I had to remind my mother to wash her hands of raw chicken, with soap, before getting her meds, and once she was with the home care worker and getting her medications, I was able to finish butchering the chicken.

That left me with a carcass I didn’t want to waste, so I found a small pot in her oven (she stores her pots and pans in the oven, since she never uses it) and got a stock going, using up some older vegetables I found in her fridge to clear out. I was a bit perplexed when I asked where her salt was, and found a small lidded bowl with salt that had dark flecks in it. It turns out that any take out packets of salt and pepper she found herself with, she would empty them into her salt bowl. So it was a mix of salt and pepper! I found some dry herbs and she directed me to her very last garlic clove, which was stored in a drawer with her larger knives, and spare envelopes.

…

My mother seemed surprised by what I was doing. I don’t think she’s ever made a chicken stock on its own before.

Once that was going, implements washed and the splashed raw chicken mess all cleaned up, I started frying up the pieces of chicken in batches. When those were done, I set them aside in a container to cool, then deglazed the pan and added that to the stock, which was getting close to done by then. I had enough time to clean up again, then take out her garbage, then clean up again…

When the stock was ready and I fished out the large pieces to remove any of the meat that was left on the bones (there was next to none), my mother gave me a hard time for throwing it out instead of taking it home to the cats. I reminded her that onions are bad for cats, but she said they’d be fine.

…

The stock got drained to a smaller pot and set aside with the cooked chicken to cool and everything got cleaned up again before I could finally sit down for a few minutes. My mother actually seemed eager to use the stock – even just to drink straight!

Which was the closest I got to seeing any sort of appreciation, really, but that’s fine. I don’t expect that from her. I could tell she was happy with it because she wasn’t giving me a hard time for doing everything wrong. 😄😂

Once everything was done, I finally got to sit and rest for a bit (my painkillers had worn off for some time by then!) and we got to chat. I mentioned that the store our post office is in closes at noon, so I’d have to leave in a bit, but I did still have some time to visit.

When it was time for me to do, she was looking at the clock and saying “it’s not noon yet!”

I actually had to explain to her that them closing at noon meant I had to be there BEFORE noon – and I had driving time to consider, too!

😄

It’s a good thing I did, too, as my daughter had a parcel to pick up. I also picked up a few packets of flower seeds, since it looks like none of the flowers we planted in the fall have survived the spring.

I still got home before noon!

It was all I could do not to go straight to bed!

Today has been a much more pleasant day outside – feeling almost cold, after the heat of the past two days. We’re apparently having rain and thunderstorms right now, too.

~ looks out the window at the clear sky ~

I don’t think I’ll be able to get anything done in the garden beds today, though. We’ll see what the evening brings. I’m just glad to be home.

The Re-Farmer

Dealing with the heat… and Mom issues again

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

With an even hotter day expected for today, I was outside early to take care if things while it was still relatively cool.

If 20C/68F at 6am could be considered cool.

After the cats were tended to – and they were a lot happier and more active in the relative cool, that’s for sure! – I started preparing things for the upcoming heat.

The transplants were moved outside so they wouldn’t cook in the portable greenhouse later on. If you click through the above slideshow, you’ll see we have tulips blooming, and the wild plums are in full bloom.

I watered some of the winter sown garden beds, lifted plastic covers up for air flow, and was watering some of the food trees when I got a message from my daughter.

My mother had phoned. My daughter didn’t get to the phone in time, but her my mother leaving a message about not feeling well and going to the doctor.

???

So I shut off the hose, headed inside and listened to the message. Which wasn’t particularly clear in what exactly she was having trouble with, or what she was intending to do, but it was because she’s not getting her medications on time.

I called her back.

She started talking about how she was poorly she was feeling and she has to go to a doctor (she sounded good; voice strong, few issues with finding her works, no breathing issues…), and it was because she wasn’t getting her medications regularly.

Her morning med assist wasn’t expected to arrive for another hour.

After asking a number of questions, and basically, she thinks that the home care workers should arrive at her place at exactly the same time, ever day, no matter what. And there should only be two people visiting, not so many people, and that’s why she’s not getting her medications “properly”.

She’s getting her medications. They have a 2 hour window when she’s supposed to get them.

Then she started going on about the no-show on Saturday. She had asked someone about that and apparently this person had made arrangements with a friend to take over for her (which can’t be accurate; she would have arranged with another home care worker, but that’s not how my mother understood it) because – insert extremely mocking and condescending tone – it was Mother’s Day and she has a little daughter she wanted to spend time with.

Now, I have no idea what was actually said, since this was on Saturday, not Mother’s Day, but she was made at this woman for arranging to spend time with her daughter, rather than the woman who didn’t show up.

Which reminds me of another home care worker she complained about. While my mother was taking her pills the worker was texting her own mother on her phone. My mother was extremely mocking in describing this. While that does seem unprofessional, I suspected there was something else going on. After several different days of my mother complaining about the woman texting her mother while at my mom’s place, she finally mentioned…

Her mother had just had to put her dog down, and was having a hard time about it.

My mother was using her mocking tone again as she told me this, too.

I tried to explain to her that they need to have a lot of people, not just two, because they have a lot of people besides her that they have to visit, and they need to have enough people to cover for each other is someone gets sick or whatever. My mother began to complain about how they only cared about themselves, only themselves, not about her… They should only care about her.

Meanwhile, it’s my own mother who doesn’t care about anyone else, only herself. The home care workers should all not care about their own families. Just her.

The hypocrisy was completely lost on her.

Then she started talking about needing to talk to the doctor and to make an appointment.

One of the things on my to-do list was to call to arrange a phone appointment, because my mother’s doctor had left a message with her to do that. The clinic wasn’t going to open for another hour, though, and I told my mother that.

I kept asking questions, trying to understand what was going on, and telling her that if she really felt she needed help (she mentioned waiting up in so much pain, she can’t move and can only scream, but she doesn’t want to disturb her neighbours…), she had a life line. Push the button. That’s what it’s for.

She didn’t really respond openly, but clearly wasn’t interested in that. She wanted me or my siblings to drop everything and do it for her. Instead, she started talking about how, because she’s not taking her pills regularly (I think we might be having an issue of her rewriting her own memory again), that’s why she’s feeling so poorly. Her pain is getting worse, her vision…

Her vision?

She’s mentioned her vision before, but hadn’t said it was getting worse. That fact that it was NOT getting worse is why we got away with cancelling her last appointment.

I told her, she hasn’t said it was getting worse. None of her pills will help with that. This is where she would need to go to the eye clinic in the city. (The treatment is injections into her eyeball. Which she handled we better than I ever would have!!!) Did she want me to make an appointment at the clinic for her?

…

We’ll talk about that later, she says…

Then she started saying how she needs to be “around people” (meaning, have someone available to help, 24/7, as in assisted living/supportive living/long term care). Which I totally agree on. She asked and I told her again that I’d gone through her entire panel with the home care coordinator again, making changes where things have gotten worse for her, and basically taking her worst days and writing that down, to try and get her in somewhere; preferably long term care. I reminded her that most people go to long term care from the hospital; they fall and break a hip or something, and never go home. Just straight to long term care. Most people don’t actually want to go into long term care, like she does, so hers is a different situation. But we would still have to wait for a bed to come available, and for that, we’re basically waiting for someone to die, because that’s pretty much the only way space becomes available in long term care.

(I didn’t mention it this time, but I had told her about one of her neighbours that I’d run into, while my mother was in the hospital. She told me it had taken 8 months and two hospital transfers for her late father to get into long term care. He wasn’t well enough to go home, but there were no open beds in long term care, so he had to stay in the hospital.)

I remined her that I was already supposed to call the clinic to make a phone appointment for her this morning, but the clinic wasn’t open yet, so I’d have to call her back.

Which meant I lost about the cooler weather to get stuff done outside.

I had time for breakfast before calling the clinic. I made an appointment for tomorrow morning, which means I’ll have to be at my mother’s before 8am. I called my mother to let her know, but it went to her answering machine, so I left a message. Then I headed outside to at least finish what I was half way through before I headed inside.

Once I was back inside, I spent more time on the phone. One was to return a call from the small engine shop I’d left our push mower at, for servicing.

There are a couple of parts I can’t remember the names of, one connected to the choke, that were done. That’s why I couldn’t start it anymore. They simply were no longer there. My guess is, they broke and fell off. Our lawn is very rough on lawnmowers!

The problem is, this is a Canadian Tire, Certified brand. The parts are hard to get at the best of times. With these parts, there aren’t any parts numbers. Which means, they don’t service them. “Fixing” it would mean replacing the entire engine and, at that point, may as well just buy a new mower!

He’s going to try and find the parts for me but I told him, if you can’t, you can’t. Just let me know and I’ll pick it up.

I then told him that I do have another push mower. The prime pump needs replacing, and it’s jerry rigged for starting and stopping. It’s about 20+ years old. He told me that it would probably be easier to find parts for that, and those older machines last a lot longer!

So what I might end up doing is bringing the newer push mower home as basically trash, and bringing my mother’s old push mower in for servicing and repair instead. We shall see.

I also made a number of calls about the truck, trying to find out if the insurance will cover the lost box cover, and it it would be worth making a claim.

Long story short, I would start an insurance claim. They would make an appointment for me to bring it in for inspection. Someone from the insurance company comes to town every other week to do these inspections. If it’s determined that the damage isn’t because of some fault (rust, previous damage, etc), and that they will cover it, it would be worth paying the $500 deductible. A new cover ranges from $1200 to $2800. !!!! The tail light would also be replaced. They don’t just replace the cover, but the whole unit, and that costs about $250-$300. Not worth making a claim for just that, if the inspector decides they won’t cover the loss of the cover, at which point I could cancel the claim entirely.

Eventually, I made my way back outside.

This was the temperature before I headed out, then when I got back in.

Much of what I did was things like watering down the hot concrete, misting the transplants and garden beds, and wetting down the mats in the sun room to help cool through evaporation.

The first picture above was taken when I started my rounds at about 5:30-6am. Poirot stayed with her kittens for quite a long time. The wall thermometer was already reading about 20C/68F, while outside was still around 13C/55F. The frozen water bottles would be thawed by then, but must still have been helping keep things cool. Little by little, as I could reach, I replaced the water bottle in front with a new frozen one, and replaced the ice pack on top of the carrier with another ice pack. Eventually, I was even able to add a small ice pack along the side of the carrier.

Poirot let me do this.

She did growl at me as I did things around her, but I was able to give her a squeeze treat and she was quite happy with that, and with licking the last of it off my fingers, too. When I added the ice pack on the side, she shifted, but let me. Later, I put my hand in to pet one of her kittens and…

… she licked my fingers!!!!

When I later saw that she was gone, I switched out the water bottle in the back of the carrier for a frozen one. The second picture with the babies is after I’d done that.

So while it was still pretty hot in the sun room, things were much better in their nest, with the help of the car windshield heat screen blocking the sun from the windows and judiciously placed ice packs!

The bigger kittens had their own ways to keep cool.

Little Kale, in the first photo, was on the very bottom of a shelf, where temperatures would be cooler. The next photo shows some of the other kittens, chilling with the moms – one ran off before I could take the picture. Last image is of Sir Robin the Brave. When we pick him up, he almost immediately flips over onto his back, so we can pet his neck and chest! This kitten is so socialized, it’s amazing!

Meanwhile, every time I had the chance, I would try and call my mom to confirm about tomorrow.

No answer. Every time.

Then my older daughter offer to buy supper, so we wouldn’t have to heat the house with cooking (the upstairs is insanely hot!), so my younger daughter and I headed out, but not before I tried calling my mother again. Still no answer, so I ended up calling the home care coordinator, because that’s the only home care number I have. I explained that I talked to my mother this morning, but had been trying to get back to her for hours, and there was no answer. She was quite surprised to here this. My mother’s supper med assist was going to be happening soon. She told me she would let the home care worker know and that they’d get back to me.

We were on our way to town when my cell phone rang. It was the home care worker, calling to let me know she’d just left my mother. She had been asleep this whole time!

She was also very groggy.

Otherwise, she seemed all right.

I was very, very thankful for the news.

Our trip to town did not take long. After we got back home, I called my mother, and she answered the phone. She told me she had been sleeping and had a hot water bottle for her back (I can’t even imagine using a hot water bottle in this heat!), and her pain was why she was in bed. She never heard the phone ring.

I confirmed she got my message about tomorrow, so we’re on for that.

As we were talking, there was a knock at the door.

It was her suppertime med assist.

???

Which means the person that called me before had swung by my mother’s place, just to do a wellness check! She was not the evening med assist person!

That was so awesome of them!!!

So that’s all done for today.

For now, I just need to do my evening rounds and do the evening cat feeding. Normally, I would have done it earlier, but it was so hot, the cats don’t have much appetite!

*sigh*

The temperature had dropped to 27C/81F, but has just jumped back up to 31C/88F.

Well, things need to be put away for the night. The low is supposed to be 9C/48F, though not until about 6am. We’re supposed to have some rain for a couple of hours in the morning, and the high is supposed to be “only” 20C/68F Then things drop right down for the next few days!

That’s some wild weather whiplash we’ll be getting!

Anyhow.

Time to get out there, then try and get to bed at a decent hour. I had intended to do a few hours work outside really early, then nap for a couple of hours, but… well… that just didn’t happen!

I am so, so tired, in so many different ways!!

The Re-Farmer

Morning in the garden, and then off the rails!

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It’s just past 5:30pm as I write this, and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open. I am SO tired! Please forgive any odd sentence structure or typos, because I’m sure I’m going to miss many when I got over things before hitting publish!

The cats had me up at about 5am this morning. I got up and fed them – the morning feeding includes kicking all the cats out of my bedroom except Butterscotch and Freya. After the dry kibble is dispensed, I pour some cat milk into a small bowl for our elederly Freya (Butterscotch gets the rest of the little carton), and then I sit beside her on my bed, holding the bowl for her while she eats until she is done. This saves her from having to jump down from the bed to eat, and she can stay all curled up in whatever cat bed she’s in.

Yeah. I’m a suck for the cats.

After a while, I let the other cats back in, then tried going to bed for a couple more hours. I swear, the cats know exactly when I fall asleep for real, and that’s when they start getting into things they shouldn’t, and start making loud noises. Or just going crazy. Tissue got the zoomies this morning. So what sleep I did manage to get was highly interrupted. I can’t even keep the door closed, because then they start scratching at it and that keeps waking me up.

The temperature had dropped to 2C/36F at 5am. By about 8am, it had warmed up to a whole 8C/46F. Which was about when I started heading out. First, the kitties got fed, and I got a daughter to help out. Not with the feeding, though. With kitten catching! Kale and Sir Robin the Brave are incredibly fast about getting into the old kitchen, and haven’t learned to stay away from moving feet, or closing doors! After luring the adult cats away with kibble, I closed the inner door into the sun room and my daughter started handing me bowls of wet cat food to set out for the littles, plus one with both wet and dry cat food for Poirot at her cat carrier nest. Another bowl with part kibble and part wet cat food went into the cat house for Caramel and her babies.

Then I continued my rounds, leaving the sun room closed up, even though all three mamas were out. The white and grey mama has been seen nursing the creche babies more often, now that her third baby is in the sun room again.

Poirot’s grublings are getting more mobile, so I set up a a bit of a shield for them.

I’ve been saving cardboard for the garden in the old kitchen, and there just happened to be a couple of pieces of cardboard that was used as spacers inside a box that were just perfect for this. In the second picture, you can see how they’re set up to cover the gap between the shelf and the wall, and cat carrier and the wall. This should be enough of they accidentally squirm out of the carrier. As they get more mobile, we might just move the carrier to the floor, so they can go in and out as they wish.

Once done with tending the colony, the first thing I do it switch out the memory cards. As I go out to the sign cam, past where the food forest is being built up. That corner gets very sun baked and dry in the summer, but these guys don’t seem to mind at all!

They are absolutely everywhere. It’s impossible to not walk on them, but they don’t seem the least bit bothered by that. I don’t know what they are, but if I had to guess, I’d say they are some type of pansy? Whatever they are, they are pretty indestructible!

The next thing was to check on the garden beds. Especially the one where I just planted peas, yesterday. I thought they were fine until I got to the northernmost end, where I saw the cats had been digging. *sigh* Hopefully, they didn’t actually dig up any seeds, but I really couldn’t tell. I was trying to figure out some way to cover things when I remembered I still have grass clippings saved to use as mulch. There isn’t a lot left, but enough to do the job!

The soil got a gentle watering, first. After the grass was laid down, that got watered down, too. Partly so it wouldn’t blow away too easily.

The plastic covered beds all got watered, too. With the sprouting seedlings, it’s hard to tell which are what I planted and which are weeks. Some that I suspected to be weeds were starting to show their true leaves, and I was correct: they are maple seedlings. So I pulled as many of those as I could, along with identifiable stuff like dandelions – so long as pulling them wouldn’t disturb any other sprouts.

The low raised bed that no longer has plastic on it got watered. I’d tried blocking off one end of the cover and hoped that would be enough protection until I could do the other end. This morning, I discovered, I was wrong.

*sigh*

After repairing the digging damage as best I could, I got creative. This is all temporary.

In the first picture, you can see I just stuck some boards across the opening. The stick holding them in place is secured at the top through the mesh, so those could only go so high, so I used what I could find to add verticals on the inside. Hopefully, the cats won’t try to jump through the gaps.

In the next picture, you can see the twine I wove through the mesh to close up the end. Again, temporary, but this should hold for a while.

After the watering and weeding was done, I headed inside for breakfast, before going back out and continuing what I hoped to get finished today.

It was almost exactly 10am and I just sat down with my food when the phone rang.

It was my mother.

No one showed up to do her med assist this morning.

I should have gotten a call, but I got nothing. My mother had tried calling the case coordinator, but it’s Saturday; her office is closed.

So I told her, I would quickly finish eating, then head out to give her her medications. She wanted me to dispense her other two meds for the day, too, in case her med assist didn’t show up for those times, either, but I refused. Got quite a mocking for following the rules. So what will you do? she asked me. Come out two more times?

I said, yes! I will!

I told her, there’s a reason your medications are in your lock box. You were messing with your medications, forgetting if you took them, etc. Oh, I wasn’t that bad, she said. Yes, you were, Mom. That’s why you have a lock box! She actually seemed to stop and think about that!

One of the things I did was write up a note and leave it in their notebook, stating that I had dispensed that morning’s medications and at what time.

I also told her that, since I was out anyhow, I would make a trip to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping. I had planned to do it later in the weeks, but I could do it now. The Walmart carries 2L plastic milk jugs, which she finds easier to handle, so I told her I was thinking of getting a plastic jug for her. I did just get her a carton, but…

She does still have milk, but it turns out she had dropped the carton while trying to open it and spilled some. So more milk, in a better container, was a big yes from her!

I ended up leaving with a small shopping list and some cash. One of the things she was running low of was the topical pain killer she’s been using on her knees. She’s now using it on her back, too, so she’s going through it faster. I had already been thinking of checking that out, too, as I figured it would be a better price.

Since it was well past 11am by the time I was going to head out, I offered to make a lunch for her, but she said she had leftovers from yesterday’s Meals on Wheels, so she was fine. Once I knew she was settled, I headed out.

My first stop was actually a Dollarama that shares a parking lot with the Walmart. There were a few small things that I wanted to pick up and, of course, I went through the garden supply section. I ended up picking up four 4′ metal posts. Not T posts, but the same idea. They have hooks in the metal to hold trellis netting. They would have been perfect for what I was doing yesterday – and easier to set into the soil! We will be trellising pole beans and more peas, though, so new posts will not go amiss. I probably should have gotten more, but I should be able to get some more next month, if I need to.

After I was done at the Dollarama, it was across the parking lot to Walmart.

I got a few things that were not on my list. 😄

One thing that was on my list was more wet cat food. Since we are giving wet cat food to the kittens, we’re going through it faster. Normally, at Walmart, I pick up cases of 32. Looking at the new prices for the individual cans, though, I realized it would actually be cheaper to buy them loose, than by case lot! I ended up using some of their cardboard flats and got 48 cans of paté for the inside cats (paté works better when making cat soup) and 24 cans of chunks in gravy for the kittens.

They had sales on canned food for humans, too, and I got a flat of 24 cans of tomato soup for the pantry, too.

I also went through the garden centre. I picked up some replacement Yukon potatoes, since I’m sure the ones I’ve been chitting are no longer viable. Their herbs and vegetables were out, so I went hunting and found a few herbs. I got English Thyme, Golden thyme, two containers of oregano, lemon balm and basil. These will go into the tiny raised bed in the old kitchen garden, which has a cat proof cover already.

As for my mother’s list, the topical painkiller she uses was there – and cost $11 less than at her local pharmacy! That’s a huge difference!

The store was very busy, so it took a while for me to get everything I was looking for (and then some), and I was really tired and hungry by the end of it. I had some frozen stuff in my cart, so I stopped to get some take out that I could eat while driving, then headed out, making sure to update my family and let them know I was on my way to my mother’s, then home.

Which is when things went sideways.

Literally.

The last part of my route to my mother’s is a provincial trunk road, from one highway to another, that leads to my mother’s town. This is an east/west route.

The wind was coming from the south.

As I was driving towards an area of wide open fields, I saw the entire horizon was covered with what looked like black smoke. Once clear of some trees, I could see it swirling over the fields – but no flames.

It was dust.

Basically, the topsoil from the south side of the road was being blown to the north side of the road.

As I was being buffeted by the wind, driving through it.

Which is when I heard and felt something behind me and looked in my mirror just in time to see the cover over the box of our truck blow off, into the ditch and keep on going!

I pulled over, but by the time I did, there was no sign of the cover. I’m sure it was still being blown across that field for some time!

I had stuff in the box of the truck, and it was already getting scattered across the box. I gathered it all together and crammed it mostly into the back of the cab, making sure nothing went to the front that could get mixed up with my mother’s stuff.

I made sure that there was no way those metal posts would be able to slide and hit a window!

Once everything was put away, I continued to my mother’s place. Wow, what a difference in how the truck felt while driving! The wind swirling into the box of the truck was very noticeable.

When I was done at my mother’s, I was able to get for damage, which you can see in the second image in the slideshow above. There was enough flex on the box when the cover was torn off that it cracked the tail light cover.

But I didn’t get a chance to see that until later.

As soon as I entered her apartment, my mother, who was lying in bed, started saying, Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! I’m so glad to see you! while getting up to sit on the side of her bed.

I’m doing poorly, she tells me. Maybe I should go to the hospital. What do you think?

I certainly did not voice what I was actually thinking. My mother has cried wolf so many times, and uses having us take her to the hospital as a way of getting attention.

I asked her questions about what was going on. She was pretty vague about it; as if she expected me to already know. She told me she took one of the new pills (the T3s), but it didn’t seem to make a difference.

I told her, these pills aren’t magic. They are just stronger painkillers. As she kept on basically about what her expectations were (take pill: pain ends utterly and completely), I told her that her prescription for these is just a couple a day, morning and evening, as needed. I’m on the same pills, same dosage per tablet, and I can take up to 9 of them in total, per day. So it really depends on the individual.

She was pretty shocked that I could take so many per day, when she had a limit of two per day.

As I was putting things away, she lay back down in bed and suggested that maybe using the topical painkiller would help (confirming, finally, exactly what it was that was causing her problems this time). So that’s what we tried. She asked me to do, not only her hips (the pain is mostly just on one side), but her entire back as well. As I was doing that for her, she said to add lots, so I did it second time. As I was putting away the tube, she started saying she could feel a difference, already!

Hopefully, that will be enough.

My brother and I are planning to be there tomorrow for Mother’s Day, so we’ll be able to check on her more thoroughly, then.

Meanwhile, whenever I had a few moments, I kept my family and my siblings updated on things. I told my mother that I had frozen things in my vehicle and had to get them home, so I was soon back on the road. A daughter was sweet enough to have the gate open for me when I got in.

After everything was unloaded, and the new transplants and bags of seed potatoes secure in the portable greenhouse, it was time to feed the outside cats. I had another daughter on kitten duty, too! Other than doing a quick check to make sure none of the raised bed covers were blown away, I was more than happy to finally settle in at home.

So much for my garden and planting plans for the day! As I write this, we have continued to get warmer. It’s past 7pm now, and the temperature has risen to 24C/75F, though with the wind, it does feel a bit cooler. Not much, though! One of the local weather groups I follow on Facebook has been posting information and the coming heat way, with significant heat warnings to come.

We’re supposedly getting rain right now, though the current systems are skirting right past us. Later this evening, we’re supposed to be getting real rain. One of the things that the weather nerds that run the group noted is what appears to be pyrocumulous clouds forming in some areas! These are thunderstorm clouds that are created by heat; you might typically see them form over volcanoes, but can also form over forest fires, if the conditions are right. Scary stuff!

Tonight, the coolest temperatures are supposed to be at around 5 and 6am, at 14C/57F, and then start heating right up. The heat wave is supposed to hit us the hardest on Monday and Tuesday, but still be very hot on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Friday, the temperature is supposed to drop right down, with overnight lows of 0C/32F, and a mix of rain and snow. Saturday is supposed to be only slightly warmer.

Spring weather is so chaotic.

Well, if we can work around the hottest parts of the day, I should still be able to get at least some of those walnut seeds planted, get more areas prepped in the garden and, if all goes well, even do more direct sowing done. Chances are, though, that very little will get done until after the heat wave passes, and we’re back into cooler temperatures. At which point, we’ll be needing to protect some things from frost! For now, we’ve been able to leave our transplants in the portable greenhouse day and night, but we’ll have to bring them inside on those coldest nights.

As for me, it’s time to pain killer up and get to bed. If the cats are going to be waking me up at 5am anyhow, I may as well take advantage of it and get work done outside, before it gets too hot! I just have to work out what time I’ll be meeting up with my brother at my mother’s place tomorrow.

What a day today has turned out to be!

The Re-Farmer