Ah, life. The things you throw at us.
While, thankfully, my husband did not injure himself when the kittens tried to kill him, and he ended up falling, it did not leave him entirely unscathed. As time went on, it became clear he did pull some muscles (I guess that should count as an injury?), and now he’s in even more pain than usual. Continue reading
You know, the outside cats make going outside quite entertaining! Check out Beep Beep!
Earlier, when I was walking around the yard, she followed me, insisting on attention, until I finally picked her up and carried her the rest of the way.
Later, as I brought the van into the yard, cats and kits scattered all over the place. Beep Beep went up the tree. When I came near, she started rolling around so much, she almost fell off!
Before I go into today’s events, I wanted to share this photo from a few days back.
I had been watching the birds at the feeder and noticed some much bigger birds under the apple tree. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many robins, all together (there were several more that I was unable to get in a photo) . I also didn’t know robins like to eat crab apples!
Between the birds and the deer, any fallen apples get cleaned up, real quick! Continue reading
I did my rounds around the yard this evening, and it’s really something to see how everything is settling in for the winter.
While I have been fighting those invasive vines all over the place all summer, there is one area where I am keeping them. They are, after all, quite pretty, when under control! They have gone to seed, now, and are all covered with lovely little puffs.
I spent some time going around the yard, picking up the fallen branches, and going through where I cleaned things up in the maple grove.
When talking to my family about what I was finding, I mentioned the rows of trees that were planted too close together, with many dying because of it, and how I wanted to eventually transplant the three poor little tamarack trees. One family member told me to just cut them down to give the other trees space.
Nope! Not going to do that. I really want to save these trees.
This is one of the reasons why.
They turn a most glorious golden yellow in the fall!
In the future, I would really love to plant more of them!
It’s not unusual, when I make my way through the yard, for me to have a cat follow me. That’s typically when Rolando Moon makes an appearance. Otherwise, it’s Beep Beep or Butterscotch.
Today, I had two cats following me!
Beep Beep and her boy!
Later, my younger daughter helped me move some leaf piles onto the flower garden by the Old Kitchen. The girls have been raking the grass, but with the latest drop of leaves, it’s rather yard to tell in some places! :-D We are starting to use the leaves as mulch in different areas as well as adding more to the garden – and that’s without doing any raking at all in between the trees! Those will be left to decompose where they are. We’ll just stay on top of picking up fallen branches in those areas.
Earlier today, we made a trip into town to get some prescription refills. When they were ready, the pharmacist went through the three bottles with me. There was supposed to be four, however. So she went back to check what happened. It turned out that, for some reason, the insurance wasn’t coming up to cover that one at all. They figured it was a glitch in the system.
They ended up giving me the refill, without charging us for it now. When I come back in about a week, for some other refills, they will charge us for it then.
Which kinda blows me away.
When we had issues with insurance, shortly after moving here, the Costco pharmacy my husband had set up with wanted to charge him full price. We didn’t even know there was a problem until they wanted some $400, when we should only have been paying $40 or so. It was a most frustrating experience, and my husband went without some of his medications for a long time before the mess was fixed – and then even longer, because the fix put him at the wrong rate, which meant we still couldn’t afford it.
I’m rather glad we are with this pharmacy, now!
One of the benefits of going with a small town pharmacy, instead of one in the city!
Something to be thankful for, for sure!
The Re-Farmer
How the day was going to go was a bit up in the air, to be decided after we picked up our van. It ended up being a much longer day, but we got the bulk of our monthly shop in, after all.
In order to get the van home, my younger daughter and husband had to come along. Now, my mother’s car isn’t a compact car, by any means, but my husband tops 6 ft. Even with the seat back as far as it could go, he had to fold himself in. He was basically wearing the car!! Continue reading
After all our running around in town today, we decided a pizza night was in order.
This one’s mine.
Alfredo Pizza. One of the best I’ve ever had, with broccoli, chicken and alfredo sauce.
Sooooo good!
Normally, today would have been our day to go into the city for our monthly shop, but that will likely happen the day after tomorrow. I will be out much of tomorrow, as I’ve booked an oil change, and I’m asking them to check the wheel bearings and take it for a spin, to see if the mystery noise will start. We’ll see what they say after their inspection, before we make any trips to the city!
I should be able to visit my mother, as well, since she lives just a couple of blocks from the garage I’m going to. I will have to try to explain to her – again – that when the home care workers come in for a meal assist, they can only heat up prepared food. They don’t have the time to cook food from scratch, which it turns out she’s still expecting them to do. Plus, apparently, she was being very rude to them about it, too. My older brother, who is their contact person, got a phone call about her not having prepared food for them to heat up. Which we all had made sure there was lots of. He was able to get through to our mom (he’s not even in this province right now!) and was able to establish that yes, there is still lots of food in the fridge, and even more in the freezer. It basically just needs to be assembled into meals and heated – and my jars of chili are still there, too, which need nothing extra done. She was just being a pain, demanding of them more than they are supposed to do. :-(
Years ago, my mother worked as a home care worker, but things have changed a great deal since then. She refuses to accept that. Still, you’d think she would at least treat them better! :-(
Well, she is slated for a total of 14 days of home care. She should be recovered enough to be able to do a lot more herself, by the time the two weeks are up. Which should be early next week. She surgical area is healing well, and her mobility is quite good (especially for someone who is 87 and is in need of a knee replacement!). She gets tired easily, which I would expect to continue for some weeks, yet, but she’s getting her 4 daily walks in, as the doctor ordered. It’s basically just down the hall to the lobby area and back, but that’s enough for now. She’s really doing very well, even if she complains about what a difficult time she’s had! :-) She just has nothing in her personal experience to compare it to. She was totally convinced she was going to die, though that was partly due to her racism. She had the best hernia surgeon in the province, but he’s from Nigeria, so… Sadly, it turns out he’s had problems with his own mother, back in Nigeria, who thinks him being a doctor in Canada is wasting his life! Poor guy! At least my brother has made a point of telling him how much he is appreciated, for taking such good care of our mother.
Ah, well. We shall see how it goes, tomorrow!
The Re-Farmer
I had to make a quick trip into town this morning, and came home to DahBoy, waiting for me.
Okay, so maybe he was just watching the action outside, and not really waiting for me, but it’s cute, either way. :-D
Plans have been changed for the day. I’ve learned my mother is going to be released from hospital this afternoon. They were actually going to kick her out this morning, against doctor’s orders and before confirmation for home care, but my brother talked them into making it this afternoon, as was originally being discussed. I am waiting on my brother to let me know when they are leaving, so I can meet them at my mother’s and help out.
Which meant a planned trip into town this afternoon, to drop some stuff off at the lab for my husband, got done this morning, instead.
Home care for my mother won’t start until tomorrow, but thankfully, my older brother will be able to stay overnight with my mother and be available for her until then. If he hadn’t already worked that out, chances are I’d be doing it. Hopefully, if my mother does need help with stuff beyond home care, she’ll call me, at a 20 minute drive away, instead of my brother, who is about an hour and a half away!
I think she is going to be glad to be home, and away from the noise and bustle of the hospital.
The Re-Farmer
While tending the fire pit, burning away the rhizomes I’d pulled up earlier, I got to watch a lovely sunset.
The photo does not do it justice. It was as if the sky on the horizon was on fire!
I went over to the outer fence line (the cow fence. ;-) ) to get this shot, so there would be fewer trees blocking the sunset.
We had another hot and muggy day today, so I didn’t plan on doing any manual labour in the trees today. Which worked to be a good thing, since my husband was able to reschedule a medical appointment from next week to today, so he could get updated prescriptions, and then fill them. He was able to get an updated prescription for a CPAP as well. He’s been without for almost a week, now. Interestingly, after that first night without, he’s actually been breathing quite a bit in his sleep. Granted, the incline of the hospital bed helps, but it’s no where near as bad as it was before he finally got the sleep apnea diagnosis. Back then, he spent more time not breathing, than breathing, and had 0 REM sleep. His case was so extreme, the sleep researcher that had his file, who was also a university professor, asked permission to use the test results and video for his classes, and his data for future text books. In all his years as a sleep researcher, he’d never encountered a case as severe before! So any improvement is a good thing.
This province does things differently when it comes to CPAPs, which is covered by the medicare system with a deductible. We had to explain to the doctor that we were intending to just get a new one from cpap.com In the end, it’s cheaper that way. Even with the dollar difference and before insurance coverage (we have to pay in full ourselves, first, then submit the receipt). It’s amazing how incredibly more expensive the machines and supplies are, when purchasing them from Canadian suppliers! It makes no sense! So by doing it this way, we are not only saving money for ourselves, but for our insurance company, too. Also, since the machine we plan to get is an adjustable type, he doesn’t have to go through new testing to work out the settings, so it’ll probably be faster, too. In the long term, though, it would be good to get him tested again, and see if he would be eligible for a VPAP (variable pressure, rather than continuous pressure) instead. That is still covered by the system 100% here, too. That will be discussed with the doctor another time. The most important thing is getting a new machine quickly. Sleep apnea is not something to take lightly!
The Re-Farmer
Today was very much an outdoors day!
Thanks to the AWESOME riding mower my brother and his wife gave us, I was able to finish mowing the yard yesterday. Which means that one of the goals of the day was to get out the weed trimmer to clear areas the mower can’t get close to.
A loud and messy job, so I waited until after our afternoon appointment with someone from the home care department. This was a follow up on the last visit, with a different person. So while we waited for her to arrive, I started working on cleaning up the flower bed on the west side of the house.
At one end of the flower bed, there is an unusual variety of lilac; it’s bushier, has tiny leaves, and masses of sprays with tiny flower buds right now; it’s blooming period seems quite a bit later than the other lilacs, which are near the end of their blooming period.
One of the problems with it is that there is a maple tree growing out the middle of it.
Plus, lots of dead branches.
So I started cleaning away dead branches and cutting away the many suckers at the base, just to get at the maple. Where I found this.
This is the trunk of the maple tree (which would have been self-sown), bent around a lilac stem.
I had to cut away more of the lilac before I could take out the maple, which had to be done in sections, due to the size.
It was very awkward work. The lilac stems are surprisingly long and bendy, and many were wrapped around each other. So much so, I found myself wondering if someone hadn’t done it deliberately at some point; perhaps they were overhanging the space between the house and the flower bed or something.
Once the maple was out, I could see the damage it did to the lilac.
I’d already had to cut away a branch of that stem, and I’m not sure if I’ll have to cut the rest of it away. Without being regularly pruned, the stems are so long that, without the dead and dying branches (and the maple tree) holding them up, they’re just sort of… flopping.
It was while I was working on this, that the woman from home care arrived.
While she was here, she went over her form questions, double checking my husband’s mobility needs and what we’ve got around the house. She even took a look at our bathroom (higher toilet, bath chair, lots of arm bars in the tub/shower, and we made sure to bring the special hand held shower with us when we moved; you can shut the water off at the handle, rather than at the wall, and it has an extra long hose). She asked about how he finds raising his legs over the side of the tub, and brought up that, if he ever needs it, there is a transfer chair available. Which we already have, as my father needed one, and it’s still quite new.
She checked out the hospital bed as well, confirming that my husband is now able to get in and out of bed without losing his balance. He’s really enjoying that thing, and finding it very comfortable to sleep on, too.
She also went through her list, asking about cooking, shopping, laundry, etc. If the girls and I were not around to take care of this stuff, he would be able to get home care to come in to help. As things stand now, it isn’t needed.
Which brought us to the only thing that we are hoping to be able to get; a ramp, to make it easier for my husband to get in and out of the house with his wheeled walker. One of the things we learned is that, if we were to qualify for a ramp, we would need to get a contractor to give us a quote to pass on to them. Qualifying for funding is another issue. I had found out about the program online and read that there is an income cut off that can change, so they said to contact to find out what it is. I’d sent an email and finally got a response.
Based on that, my husband’s disability payments put him at too high of an income to qualify. :-/
She’s still going to see if there are other programs available, but if we can just get someone to assess the location for us, and give us the information we need, then we will have something to go on to get it done ourselves, at some point.
So that meeting went well.
After she left, I headed back out to work on the yard. I just cleaned up the trimmings I’d cut down earlier, then got out the weed trimmer – and the two 100 ft extension cords we’d been using to get power to the garage. With those, I can reach pretty much anywhere in the yard.
While I worked on that, the girls cleared out the large pile of branches I’d cleared away from the maple grove. The dead stuff went to the piles by the fire pit, but most of it was green. The green wood pile by the fire pit is already getting big, so they decided to add to the pile I’d started outside the yard, when I cleared the back of the garage.
I didn’t think to take photos before I started with the weed trimmer in some areas. After going around the house, I went around the east yard, including clearing a path to the Saskatoon bushes. When I started working on the south west yard, I was finally able to go around parts of the “spare” house in the yard (I have no idea what my mother has in mind for that building; I did ask her, but the only answer I got was that it’s for storage. !! It was originally intended to be moved to one of the other quarter sections, for one of my brothers to use as a home), and the south fence line. There had been a single mowed pathway leading to around the back of the other house. There are several curved rows of spindly trees, planted close together. I’d asked my mom about them, and she told me she planted them to be a “living fence.”
Personally, I’d like to get rid of them, as it’s really not a good place for trees. I don’t think she really thought about what they will be like, at full size.
And that doesn’t even include the two rows of fully grown trees immediately behind the other house.
Very little of the area is mowable, and no one has tried to clear in between the trees, at all. So I started clearing parts of it with the weed trimmer. There isn’t much I can do behind the other house, until we clear away the junk and fallen branches, and random cinder blocks. :-/ It’s a big job, and I wasn’t able to finish it today. Weather willing, I’ll continue tomorrow.
Once done the yard work for the day, I decided we needed to have another cookout. This time, though, I did baked potatoes.
I will post about those, separately. :-D
My husband was even able to come out and join us for a little while. Not long enough for the potatoes of finish, unfortunately, but even a little bit is good. :-)
After the fire was no longer needed to cook food, my younger daughter and I took advantage of it and started adding more from the clean up pile. Unfortunately, we seem to be adding to it much faster than we’ll be able to use it for fire pit fuel! :-D
Since we were tending the fire, anyway, we also took turns cutting down some of the logs to fire pit size lengths.
We’re going to be set for wood for a good, long time!
We’ll just have to find lots of reasons to get the fire pit going, I guess. :-D
The Re-Farmer
We had predictions for a series of thunderstorms throughout the day, starting at noon.
It didn’t quite work out that way. At least not in our area. The first rainfall (I won’t even call it a thunderstorm, though there was some thunder) didn’t start until late afternoon/early evening.
Which worked out well for us, since today was when one of my husband’s medical appointments was rescheduled to. We left early enough to have lunch in town. Ooooohhh… a date! His appointment was for an hour, though, so it did make things a lot longer than was probably good for him. Especially after pushing himself so much for the family dinner in the city on Sunday, which he would not have recovered from quite yet. The specialist he was seeing cut the appointment a bit short, which was a good thing. We still had to stop at the pharmacy, grocery store and post office on the way home, too. My husband stayed in the van, with the AC going, by that point. No sense in dragging the walker out for quick stops.
It’s been a hot and muggy day today; the main floor manages to stay pretty cool, but the upstairs gets really hot. Just like, in the winter, it got really cold! There isn’t even anything we could do about it. Even if we got, say, an air conditioner, there aren’t enough grounded outlets to plug it in.
When the rains did come, it swept through in short bursts, with one big downpour. We even lost our internet for a bit, which is something we can expect any time there’s more severe weather. At least until we can get about 14 feet cut from the tops of the trees in the south yard.
It’s pretty amazing, how different things are looking right now!
This was our west yard, a month ago.
This is what it looks like now.
So much green!
We needed this so much!
After taking the above photo, I had some issues coming back into the house.
Mom and son, with their noses at the bottom of the door, waiting for me to come back! :-D
The good thing is, when I open the door, they aren’t really all the interested in going outside. They just become a tripping hazard. ;-)
At about 10pm, we’re still at 21C, and its expected to cool down only a few degrees as we get more rain overnight. More thunderstorms are expected tomorrow evening.
I do wish I’d been able to mow the lawn before the rains returned.
Ah, well. At least the girls were able to get most of the eaves troughs cleaned.
My mother had mentioned to me that there was a hooked tool somewhere around that allowed for cleaning the eaves from ground level, though she said a hose was still needed to finish the cleaning. She told me where she thought it was, but the only things there are long handled pruning tools (that I look forward to making use of!). I mentioned it to my older brother and he knew exactly what she was talking about. He’d bought it for my parents! He said it was in the sun room.
So that’s what that thing was! I’d seen it, tucked into a corner, and was wondering.
Turns out that it’s a hose attachment. My brother had demonstrated to my parents how to use it, but he didn’t think they ever did. This was before my mom moved to the senior’s centre, so we’re talking quite a few years ago!
It came in very handy.
It couldn’t clean out the eaves troughs on its own, though. My younger daughter got up on the ladder with a stick to clear out some of the eaves troughs out, then got onto the new part roof through the 2nd floor window to clear the others, while my older daughter used the hose attachment to finish clearing everything away with water.
Thankfully, we do have some very long hose.
There’s still one corner on the north side of the house that needs to be done, but that will have to wait until we get another break in the weather.
With how much rain we’ve been having, I am sure the fire bans can finally be lifted, and I hope the fires around the province have been thoroughly rained on!
We’re basically getting the sort of weather we were expecting last month. Which I suppose makes sense, since the winter weather came in about a month behind, too.
As long as the shift keeps matching all year, it should work out for the farmers and gardeners.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 